Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Something did happen to Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, and it was a big deal.

It is certainly not an easy matter to be able to send a top official like a minister to the imperial edict.

Xia Yuanji explained the ins and outs of the whole matter in detail to Jiang Xinghuo. The intricate entanglements of interests made Jiang Xinghuo look sideways. The most important thing is that the root cause of this matter is actually inseparable from Jiang Xinghuo. Relevant.

Li Zhigang was originally very prosperous in the first half of the year, because as mentioned before, he took on a big job - organizing the anniversary of the death of Emperor Gao, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.

This is one of the most important temple activities in the first year of Yongle.

If Li Zhigang could handle this matter with peace of mind, no one would dare to touch him, but everyone knows that Li Shangshu is a person who is not very idle. He has to express his opinions on other matters, even if they have nothing to do with his job. Comment.

Big bosses are human beings too. To put it simply, Li Shangshu prefers to use the popularity to show off himself.

Obviously, Li Shangshu did not learn from the experience and lessons of being imprisoned twice in the Hongwu Dynasty and Jianwen Dynasty. After tasting the benefits of proposing to change Peking Prefecture to Beijing Shuntian Prefecture, he began to speculate again.

The cause of this incident was the follow-up to Jiang Xinghuo's original "Three Strategies for Public Warfare", which was Emperor Yongle's attempt to use censors to control the flow of public opinion and create a good public opinion environment for reform and innovation.

Emperor Yongle had an eagle and a dog under his throne. The "eagle" among them was Chen Ying, the left deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Naturally, he was the best tool for doing this.

Chen Yinggang mentioned that Zuo Fu was the censor of the capital, and he was short of major generals. It just so happened that after the Imperial Preceptor prayed for rain recently, the public opinion in the Imperial College was divided into several different factions, and the quarrel was quite fierce. So he asked Emperor Yongle for orders from the Imperial College. Pick some people to be censors and serve as pawns.

For this kind of thing, Emperor Yongle is perfectly capable.

Chen Ying selected eight supervisors, including Kong Fu, Yang Dun, Zhang Wenming, Li Shixiu, Jiang Yanlu, Ou Yangui, He Qi, and Liu Xian, and directly promoted them to supervisory censors, and then added the original eight censors to the two capitals. The four chief envoys (the Huanghuai chief envoys were split in the fourth year of Jianwen) had enough manpower, and they ordered their supervisory censors to go on inspection tours, focusing on monitoring public opinion.

Emperor Yongle attached great importance to this matter, because since he found a bunch of Confucians to compile the "Yongle Dadian"/"Encyclopedia of Ming Dynasty", there were obviously fewer people scolding him, so in order to shut up all the trolls, Zhu Di I personally met these censors who were about to be sent out to monitor public opinion.

When his Majesty gave his speech, Zhu Di said very sincerely: "I am the father of the king, and all the people are innocent children. Parents are like innocent children. They prepare clothes before they are cold, prepare food before they are hungry, and prepare food and clothing suitable for them. Treat the dryness with warmth, and do everything to the best of my heart. The master is the people, and the parents are the same. I live in the deep palace, and I never think about the soldiers and the people when I drink or eat. However, I cannot know the feelings of the people below. What are you doing? The ears and eyes of the imperial court, when they go to consult carefully, but there are officials who do not say anything, they are all informed, and between the army and the people, they are informed of the advantages and disadvantages of the revolution."

So far, things have not gotten out of control. At most, the supervisors of the Imperial College are a little angry when they see that Chen Ying promotes students who support the reform. They just say some weird things, but it doesn't matter. It is very jealous and jealous of the rise of others. It's normal, especially since we were all classmates at first. Why did you soar into the sky and go straight to the Metropolitan Procuratorate as an official? From then on, you can enjoy yourself as a spoiled wife and concubine at home, and you can lead the way with dignity when patrolling?

But at this time Li Shangshu could not sit still.

He didn't come home until midnight every day, but one night he still didn't forget to drink some wine, and then stayed up all night to write a short essay of 255 words to gain popularity.

"When it comes to Taoism and the state, we must seek talented people, create benefits and eliminate harms, and open up the way for speech. The Emperor Gao worked hard to govern and listened to everything. In the past thirty years, he transformed the customs into beautiful things. Since the emperor came to the throne, he has followed the constitution and opened up the way for speech. Collect ideas from the crowd and listen to whatever is feasible.

However, ignorant villains often use this as a name, either to search for details and control officials, or to use personal stories to frame good people, or to falsely claim to complain, to avoid being shaken, or to ride on small talents in the hope of being used, or even Those who make baseless and general remarks are blasphemous to the holy virtues. Although they claim to promote benefits and eliminate harm, they are actually pretending to be public and private.

Sincerely, it is appropriate to list it to the world. If it is beneficial to the country and convenient for the people, even if there are people with various skills, they can report it with concrete results. If officials and others corrupt, distort the truth, abuse good people, and deal with matters such as marriage, land, military service, etc., He must be ordered to report from bottom to top. If there is any falsehood and the truth of feudalism is revealed, and those who surpass their superiors in the evening and go to the court to commit fraud will be punished with a serious crime. "

——This is broken! The public is angry!

Li Shangshu originally wanted to take advantage of the heat, but ended up charging too hard into the group and got himself trapped. When he looked back, none of his teammates dared to follow.

Even Chen Ying, a figure like Zhang Tang and Zhu Fuyan, who was a cruel official in ancient times, dare not openly say that he will punish those who "make public and private suggestions"!

This is a customary rule of the game in ancient eunuch circles, because there is no clear boundary between "advice for the country and the people" and "advice that is fake for the public and private interests". Li Zhigang thought very well when he was drunk, but in fact it was not at all Impossible. It will easily lead to the fact that once a political dispute occurs, everyone will be labeled as "phony public and private advice."

In this case, who would dare to give advice? But if you don’t allow officials to give advice, you deprive them of their right to speak!

Thinking of the current wave of ferocious reforms being carried out by Jiang Xinghuo in Jiangnan, and combined with Emperor Yongle's move of sending a censor to inspect the fourteenth chief envoys of the two capitals, officials would naturally consider whether this was Emperor Yongle's instruction to Li Zhigang to submit a letter. of? Does it mean that we will no longer be able to express any opinions normally in the future?

This memorial written by Li Zhigang while drunk was undoubtedly a reckless move that broke the rules of the temple game, and it immediately had a very bad impact, both on himself and on the reform.

The conservative pushback was swift.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate is not dominated by Chen Ying, the left deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. On the contrary, there is another force that can compete with him in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The leader is Huang Xin, the right deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Huang Xin, a native of Pengze, Jiangxi Province. During the Hongwu Dynasty, a student from Imperial College was appointed as the censor, and then he worked hard in the imperial procuratorate system for many years. In the Jianwen Dynasty, he was promoted to the right deputy censor of the capital. If Chen Ying had not airborne, Huang Xin would have been promoted to the left. The deputy capital censor.

In fact, if you look at your resume, you will know that he is a native of Jiangxi and the right deputy censor, who does not deal with Chen Ying and opposes the reform.

This is the early Ming Dynasty, and the ten words "Hanlin has many good waters, and court officials are half Jiangxi" are all said.

When these elements are put together, it is clear at a glance which class he represents. Naturally, after the Jiangnan gentry was severely attacked by Jiang Xinghuo, immediately after the scale of the reform expanded, they would face the interests of the Jiangxi native landlord class who had suffered losses, as well as Most of the Jiangnan gentry joined forces to stage a rebound.

Of course, Huang Xin is not a fool. Since he thinks that it is possible that Emperor Yongle ordered Li Zhigang to do this, he certainly cannot directly write a letter to criticize him. That would be equivalent to going to Zhu Di with a strangled neck. He still needs to pay attention to some fighting strategies. .

Therefore, Huang Xin asked his censor from Henan to mention a trivial matter. The tomb and ancestral hall of the Yin Shang Taishi Bigan in the Henan Chief Envoy Department were partially collapsed, but the local government had not repaired it for a long time. He asked the court to urge them and let them follow the instructions. According to the regulations of "sharing the labor within the acres", you need to pay some money to hire someone to repair it.

When you encounter difficulties that cannot be solved, you will ask someone to find connections, and ask fellow people in Beijing to help speak up and get the court to pay attention and supervise you. This kind of thing was very common in the temples of the Ming Dynasty, and no one would care at all.

And if you think about it for a moment, the local government has its own reasons for not repairing it. As I said before, the hinterland of the Central Plains has just suffered the devastation of the four-year Jingnan War, and is now busy with reconstruction. The places where living people live cannot be repaired. How can there be manpower and material resources to repair the tomb and ancestral hall of Grand Master Bigan who has been dead for thousands of years?

And from another small incident, we can also see the tight financial situation of the Chief Envoy of Henan. In front of Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb, Zhu Di had a conversation with the King of Zhou, which actually reflected that even if the King of Zhou restored the kingdom and rebuilt the palace in Kaifeng, such a big event , the emperor had to ask in person before the Chief Envoy of Henan could allocate 20,000 shi as an additional subsidy. What is the concept of 20,000 shi? When Jiang Xinghuo pretended to be a grain merchant in Changzhou to make an unannounced visit, the inventory of his rice shop was more than 20,000 shi!

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the current Henan Chief Envoy's money bag is already stretched thin.

Yang Shiqi, Huang Huai and others who handled this memorial in the cabinet did not notice anything unusual. The eldest prince Zhu Gaochi did not notice anything unusual when he was reviewing it. When he arrived at Emperor Yongle's place, Zhu Di naturally glanced at it and passed by.

"It's such a big deal, don't waste my time, leave it to the Chief Envoy of Henan to find someone to repair it." That's what Zhu Di thought at the time.

At this point, Huang Xin has completed all the procedures for the Henan-born censor, and the next step is to wait for the result.

The results soon came out. The Chief Envoy of Henan Province cried out that he was poor and could not repair it.

On non-principled matters, the chief envoys in the Ming Dynasty did not do whatever the court asked them to do. On the contrary, it was normal to kick each other in Cuju. Of course, if Emperor Long Yan was angry, he would definitely have to Be good and do it.

But the emperor was not that easy to get angry. In most cases, the emperor did not have to ask the chief envoy Si Gan. The emperor only acted as a relay, relaying requests from other ministries, temples or places to the chief envoy through imperial edicts and other forms. Things often happened It has nothing to do with the emperor's copper penny.

At first glance, things like Xubigan's tomb were not authorized by the emperor. Of course, the officials of the Henan Chief Envoy Department could deduce it.

But the moment the news spread back to Nanjing, it meant that the time for Huang Xin's general attack had arrived.

This was a standard use of the topic. Dozens of censors and six subjects wrote memorials about the matter, flooding the cabinet like snowflakes. Moreover, the cabinet’s actions this time are also worth pondering. Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Shiqi, and Hu Yan, Even including Jin Youzi, these five Jiangxi people didn't say a word and handed over all the memorials directly to Emperor Yongle. However, Emperor Yongle did not see it in time.

Huang Xin showed unprecedented aggression this time with his determination to die. This is what he wrote in his memorial.

“A gentleman serves his country but not his body, so he violates Yan’s admonition and does not avoid it even to death.

A villain only cares about his body and not his country, but only seeks to gain wealth and honor by slandering others.

A wise king is happy to remonstrate and the country will prosper; a faint king is happy to have talents and the country will be destroyed.

Jie and Zhou killed the dragon and met Bigan, and the effect was obvious.

And the rulers of later generations, like those at the end of the Qin and Sui Dynasties, did not follow the same mistakes. Is the national security going to be destroyed?

Your Majesty should take this as a warning, your ministers and workers should encourage themselves in the way of a gentleman, and together we can safeguard the great cause of the Ming Dynasty. "

Subsequently, Chen Ying and the censors he had just promoted were also impeached in the name of "harassing the local area."

At this point, the picture is clear.

The tomb of Bigan is fake. They used "Bigan", the earliest famous remonstrator in history, to refute Li Zhigang's memorial. Criticism is their ultimate goal.

This is the cleverness of the methods of the temple bosses. The whole offensive contains hidden murderous intentions, but they cannot be seen by Tu Qiong Dagger. There is no clue. By the time the blade flashes, it is already too late to stop it.

But do you think this is all their counterattack means? Wrong, the most exciting serial plan has not yet arrived. I can only say that Li Zhigang did not complain after being imprisoned.

It just so happened that Zhu Di went to Fengyang Remaining Department in Jiangbei to inspect military affairs in the past few days. Well, it was not a coincidence at all. He just took this opportunity to come.

After all, Chen Ying, who was impeached, had suddenly risen to a high position, and she was ruthless enough. Unfortunately, she still lacked a bit of experience, and she suddenly became as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

The more anxious you are, the easier it is to make mistakes. Chen Ying has no friends to begin with, so the only one she can call to discuss things at this time is Ji Gang.

What good advice can the spy chief give him? That naturally shuts people up directly from the physical level.

So the two of them thought about it and tried to use the old method of intimidating these Jiangnan good ministers last year. They arrested the leader directly, and the rest naturally did not dare to say anything. This method was used last year when dealing with Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru and others. , has fully demonstrated its power, and is path dependent.

Of course, they are not that stupid. The excuse they used is still very reliable, and they are still using it to investigate whether it involves the remnants of Jianwen.

But this time Ji Gang and Chen Ying miscalculated because Huang Xin had already predicted their prediction.

Huang Xin not only sat in the mansion and waited for Ji Gang to come to arrest people, but also prepared his "evidence" himself.

Huang Xin's corruption and bribery led to a small and medium-sized case, which also involved many brokers among officials and nobles in Nanjing.

Among them was Li Zhigang's father-in-law.

Yes, Li Zhigang's father-in-law is not clean. This is not news. He started from the Hongwu Dynasty, and of course there is the shadow of Li Zhigang behind him. This is an open "secret" known to many people in Nanjing.

When Zhu Di came back and realized that his eagle and dog had done something stupid, it was already done. The whole court knew about it, and it was too late.

The Criminal Division found out that Zhong Zhou and others had irrefutable evidence and wrote a letter to impeach Li Zhigang for not being strict with his family and suspected of using public weapons for private purposes. Zhu Di had no choice but to jail Li Zhigang and suspend Ji Gang to reflect on his mistakes.

Ironically, Li Zhigang and Huang Xin were across from each other, and they lived in the same cell where Jiang Xinghuo and Zhuo Jing were.

When things got here, Huang Xin and others' counterattack could be described as a complete victory.

As a heavyweight supporter of reform in the court, well, Li Zhigang supported the reform, of course not because he agreed with Jiang Xinghuo's ideas, but because he could gain power from it and get closer to Emperor Yongle.

But in any case, Li Zhigang was imprisoned. When the conflict between reform and conservatism in Beijing became more and more intense, it obviously had the effect of setting off a thousand waves with one stone.

In order to protect their own interests from the impact of the reform, the conservatives who shouted that "the laws of the ancestors are immutable" took advantage of the upcoming anniversary of the death of Emperor Gao to plan a larger-scale counterattack, and Yao Guangxiao, Zhuo Jing and others also Due to their own difficulties, the two of them supported the president's reform affairs. Although the yamen was steadily advancing the reform measures such as the examination into law during this period, because Jiang Xinghuo, the backbone, was busy controlling water and building factories in the south of the Yangtze River, they could only accumulate strength and were temporarily unable to set off a revolution. A new round of offensive.

The entire city of Nanjing looked like a storm was coming, and even ordinary people in the city had sensed this dangerous signal.

——————

After Jiang Xinghuo listened to Xia Yuanji's narration, he was silent for a few breaths and said affirmatively.

"Li Zhigang is not their ultimate goal. They are here for the reform, or in other words, for me, Jiang Xinghuo."

Jiang Xinghuo's face was as solemn as the sky before a storm. It could be seen that he was mentally prepared to deal with the violent wind and waves that were coming in the temple.

Xia Yuanji said helplessly: "Li Zhigang is a speculator, and this is actually a disaster he will experience sooner or later."

"I know."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said: "But we have no choice. The power of the reform is too weak. As long as the vast majority of supporters stand on the side of the reform, no matter what their character is or what purpose they have, we cannot refuse .”

"Master Jiang, the reform cannot be without you. You have made a good start with the Jiangnan matter. I can continue with Xiao Guicao, as long as you explain these things to me in detail later. But this situation in Beijing This storm was so dangerous that Huang Xin's actions could be shattered into pieces if he wasn't careful, and someone must have been instructing him behind the scenes."

Xia Yuanji's brows were no longer so frowning, but his tone still revealed strong concern.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't answer, just raised his hand and rubbed his eyebrows.

The tanned face was filled with deep fatigue and pain, showing that he was in a very bad mood.

"I know...the reform is like pressing a newly tempered knife with your bare hands. The lower you press it, the harder the blade will bounce, and the easier it will be to cut people bloody or even to death." After a long time, he whispered. Whisper.

Hearing this, Xia Yuanji sighed and asked: "Are we still insisting on reform? Or are we giving up halfway like the Qingli New Deal? Maybe we can handle it this time, but what about next time? What about next time? Crisis will only happen As it gets bigger and bigger, more and more people will be offended by the reform."

Jiang Xinghuo was silent again. His eyes were flashing with a complicated and inexplicable light, making it unclear what his true thoughts were.

"Reform means contradiction, confrontation, and sacrifice..." Xia Yuanji continued.

"I understand." Jiang Xinghuo nodded gently.

Of course he understands and is very clear about the cost such a decision will have on the leaders of the reform.

Nothing comes without a price. In terms of direct causality, it is precisely because Jiang Xinghuo carried out drastic reforms in Jiangnan, knocking off the white gloves of the Bailian sect, the Jiangnan gentry, and also requisitioning grain, withdrawing land, and controlling tenant interest. On a series of issues such as Jiangnan, it greatly damaged the interests of the Jiangnan gentry. This not only aroused the disgust and backlash of the Jiangnan gentry, but also aroused the vigilance of relevant forces in the surrounding areas of Jiangnan, which is the target area for the next reform.

However, in this world, every road is lonely.

If you want to go a long way, you must pay a corresponding price. If you don't even have the spirit of "even if there are thousands of people, I will go there", even if you are lucky enough to reach the top, you will eventually be eliminated by the wheel of history.

The wave of the times is like a hot hammer. When the hammer hits it, whoever can withstand it will survive.

The so-called change itself is a path poured out with blood, a millstone of flesh and blood piled up from the corpses of countless victims. If you are not careful, you will be irreversible.

But he still chose to reform.

"In these years, I have seen too much tragedy and too much pain..."

Jiang Xinghuo breathed out slowly. He had just spoken too much and his voice was slightly hoarse. He said slowly and clearly in a hoarse voice: "I don't want these tragedies to happen in my hands, and I don't want to see them anymore. I want to make the same mistakes again in this world, so I want to initiate change, even if I am faced with a total death from body to reputation, it is still worth it.”

His tone was very soft, and his expression was calm and peaceful, as casually as if he was talking about what to eat tonight, but the meaning behind his words was extremely firm and irreversible.

Xia Yuanji's expression remained unmoved and he just confirmed again.

"Master Jiang, have you thought clearly?"

This time, his tone was more serious than before.

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and stated at a leisurely pace: "This world cannot stay in the past forever."

Xia Yuanji took a deep breath, straightened his chest, clenched his fists, and his eyes shone brightly, as if the flames were about to burst out with fiery magma.

Xia Yuanji quietly stared at the young man in front of him, and after a while, he slowly uttered four words.

"I support you."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded. There was no exciting scene, everything was kept silent.

In other words, when "Mr. Qiu" in prison was enlightened by him on the meaning of "taking from the people and using it for the people", they were already on the same journey.

"Yao Guangxiao, Zhuo Jing and others are also waiting for you to return."

"We'll fight back when we get back."

Jiang Xinghuo said simply: "Has the old monk figured out who is behind this?"

"They are still investigating. They are doing it very covertly. Moreover, during Master Jiang's trip to the south of the Yangtze River, they did it so vigorously that those people can't sit still. They are afraid that if they don't unite to counterattack, the next reform will be extended to Zhejiang, Zhejiang, and other places. If Jiangxi goes further, their interests will be greatly harmed."

"The promotion of Xunzi's return to the status of a saint has caused a lot of backlash. Master Jiang, you should know that this is a school of poetry and calligraphy. What they master is Zhu Xi's interpretation of the Four Books, which is basically based on Those who came from Confucius and Mencius are thousands of miles apart from Xunzi."

"However." Xia Yuanji said with certainty: "Who are the people behind the scenes? They will definitely be found out soon."

Jiang Xinghuo breathed a sigh of relief: "If you think about it from another angle, it's also a good opportunity. If we fight this time, we won't have to face their obstruction when the breadth of the reform is expanded."

Xia Yuanji nodded and brought up another matter, saying: "Treasury bonds have been issued for six issues. In several prefectures around Nanjing, the currency value and credit of Ming Dynasty banknotes have been basically stable. The currency reform has completely eliminated private copper coins. Should the circulation pilot be pushed forward as originally planned?”

What this means here is that currency reform has a high probability of failure. It stands to reason that maintaining the status quo is the best choice, but in fact, in Jiang Xinghuo's plan, currency reform is one of the most important steps next to the reform.

Because currency reform is a necessary condition for the formation of a unified commodity market, of course, other conditions include the unified elimination or reduction of commercial taxes such as tariffs/lijin, the lifting of restrictions on the personal freedom of the working population, the construction of a complete waterway transportation network, etc.

The following few things are things that Jiang Xinghuo has already begun to implement in Jiangnan.

With the progress of the work-for-relief water control process, a new waterway transportation network centered around the Taihu Lake circle and flowing from different rivers into the sea is about to be completed.

In addition to farmland irrigation, the greater significance is that people, goods and other elements can circulate unimpeded in Jiangnan.

The significance of annihilating the White Lotus Sect rebels and building large-scale handicraft factories was to lift the restrictions on the personal freedom of the working population by the Jiangnan gentry.

In fact, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the main reason why the textile industry in Jiangnan experienced great development and then sprouted was because of the whip law in Zhang Juzheng's reform, which changed the expropriation of physical goods into the expropriation of currency. This greatly promoted the development of Jiangnan. The development of commodity economy.

"The currency reform must be pushed forward, and the time node is at the same time as the conquest of Annan."

Jiang Xinghuo gave Xia Yuanji a positive answer and said at the same time: "Let me explain to you what I have been doing recently. The Jiangnan Reform still needs to be implemented non-stop. I can trust you to preside over these things."

Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji walked back to the courtyard. At this time, the scholars were also discerning and knew that something had happened. What they wanted to say to Jiang Xinghuo on behalf of the local people was also put on hold. Several people.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't hesitate and kept talking.

"The first thing is water conservancy. Song Shilang also knows water conservancy. The person who is mainly responsible for the specific water control projects is Sun Kunsun, the director of the River Defense Department of the Ministry of Industry."

Song Li and Sun Kun were both imperial officials, so they naturally knew Xia Yuanji, the Ming Dynasty God of Wealth, and they all came over to pay their respects.

"This is Ye Zongxing, whose courtesy name is Zhixing."

Jiang Xinghuo took Ye Xiucai's hand and introduced to Xia Yuanji: "He is a rare water conservancy talent. He recently learned blasting from me. He is very familiar with the local hydrology and geography. If there are any special circumstances where we are not sure about water conservancy, we can Listen to his opinion.”

"Student has met Xia Shangshu." Ye Zongxing bowed quickly.

Xia Yuanji nodded slightly in return: "The talents Master Jiang likes are those who really have a lot of skills and do their jobs well."

In the history of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, Xia Yuanji was the person in charge of this far-reaching flood control operation. Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo was not worried that the other party would do things badly. He had already made a good start, and the water control operation would only get worse. The better come.

Therefore, he simply explained it to Xia Yuanji, and Song Li would naturally tell him the rest.

"The core of water control in the south of the Yangtze River lies in three points. One is river construction, which means digging or dredging tributaries such as the Huangpu River, Fanjiabin, and Liujiagang. The second is polders. Due to the fertile silt, the gentry will build dams and polders along the rivers and even on the river channels. Reclaiming fertile farmland, which is why there is so much opposition now. Clearing out the polders will really affect people’s wealth and jobs, but no matter what, we have to persevere. The third is seawalls. Seawalls must be repaired. If we don’t repair seawalls, we will dredge them. The river will eventually be silted up and scrapped at the mouth of the sea as before, so earth and stone ponds are built using the method of storing stones and wooden cabinets. The mouth of the river must be repaired, and the ponds must be cleared every year. This is a century-old plan."

Xia Yuanji silently wrote it down and nodded.

"I understand, what else is there?"

"The second thing is to set up a factory. In Huangpu New Town, I have established a large number of cotton textile industry manual workshops. The large water-powered spinning wheels used to produce cotton textiles are being manufactured in batches by the craftsmen. A lot of them have been made now. The supporting water conservancy projects of the Huangpu River have been basically completed during this period. The factory area is full of women and children. There are people who are coerced by the White Lotus Sect, and there are also women and children from Songjiang Prefecture who come to work. There are conflicts and problems that may arise here. It’s a lot, so you have to be careful.”

Jiang Xinghuo seriously warned: "Women and children are naturally at a disadvantage. Local rogues and even soldiers in the army may cause trouble. In addition, women and children themselves may not be at ease. After all, this is a new manufacturing method, not Everyone can get used to this kind of collective work and regular life."

"Furthermore, the gentry in Jiangnan, especially those engaged in the textile industry, as well as individual textile households, will be affected by the handicraft workshops in Huangpu New City. This is inevitable. Once someone wants to attack the new manufacturing method, we must be considerate. Despite the difficulties of some people who have been affected, we must resolutely safeguard and preserve the most important achievements of this reform, can you understand what I mean?"

Of course Jiang Xinghuo was not innocent, and Xia Yuanji heard what he meant.

Next, the Ming Dynasty's army will go on an expedition to Annan. Can Jiang Xinghuo's model of "changing manufacturing methods - opening up overseas commodity markets - dumping goods produced by the new manufacturing methods - Ming Dynasty gaining profits and continuing the next cycle" proceed smoothly? , directly determined the strength of Emperor Yongle's support for the reform.

Zhu Di never supported the reform unconditionally. He was the emperor and the embodiment of imperial power in the world. If the reform could not help him achieve his goal of "ruling the Tang and Song Dynasties and reaching the Han and Tang Dynasties", or in other words, for a long time If the benefits brought by the reform are less than the temple risks and actual damage caused, then Zhu Di's attitude is likely to change.

Tear open all the tenderness, this is the cold fact.

"I understand." Xia Yuanji responded.

"Oh, right."

Jiang Xinghuo suddenly paused and waved to the tree.

A shadow emerged from the tree canopy and jumped down. It was Zhao Haichuan who was on sentry duty. The stab wound on his abdomen had healed.

However, he was extremely jealous when he met his enemy Cao Song, but he couldn't really pee in the same pot, so he took this opportunity to separate the two of them.

"If there is really unresolvable trouble regarding the second matter, let Zhao Haichuan help you solve it."

Jiang Xinghuo warned: "For issues involving women and children, if there is civil strife, just ask Zhao Haichuan to find a woman named Tang Yin, who is the head of the female textile workers; for local issues, if someone is causing trouble outside, then you can ask Zhao Haichuan to find her." Haichuan went to find a man named Niu Zhen. He had a group of thugs who did dirty work. The scale was not large, but it might be miraculous to deal with some things that were inconvenient for you to send out the army, government officials, and Jin Yiwei. Neither of these two people had it. It’s convenient for people who want to retreat.”

"Other matters such as opening up mines, suppressing tenant farming, thoroughly investigating the 'new type of corvee', improving Xunzi's status, etc. are all trivial matters."

Jiang Xinghuo breathed a long sigh of relief: "In short, the first is to control the flood, and the second is to manage the situation. If these two things are done well, our reform will no longer be a rootless tree or a tree without roots, but a down-to-earth Once it reaches the ground, cheap cotton textiles can be mass-produced and then shipped out at low cost. Along the sea, Ming products can be transported to every corner of the world."

Xia Yuanji said solemnly: "Master Jiang, don't worry and leave it to me to change the manufacturing capacity in Jiangnan. The reform in Beijing still requires you to take charge of the overall situation. The situation is going to be turbulent, so please be careful."

"I will go back with Master. As long as I am here, no one can hurt Master."

Zhu Gaoxu, who had been silently listening to Jiang Xinghuo's lecture on "Unity of Knowledge and Action", seemed to have figured out something at this time, stood firmly behind Jiang Xinghuo, and said in a loud voice.

Criticism of temples, reform of Confucianism, scientific enlightenment, liberation of ideas, currency reform, establishment of schools.

"There's so much to do."

——————

"Nothing to do today, let's listen to some music in Seding."

In Kyoto, Japan, Li Jinglong was waving his folding fan, sitting calmly in a colorful town, listening to kabuki performers playing gagaku.

Gagaku is the general name for ancient Japanese singing and dancing music. It originated from the Tang music brought back from the Tang Dynasty by envoys sent to the Tang Dynasty. Later, some unique Korean music was also incorporated into it.

Of course, there is no separation between singing and dancing. The Gagaku package also includes ancient Japanese traditional singing and dancing, such as Journey to the East, Renchang Dance, Kume Dance, Five Festival Dance, etc.

As for Seimachi, it is naturally the place of romance in Chinese. In a hundred years, it will evolve into a "veranda" protected by the shogunate. After Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, the Meiji Restoration, it will become a famous custom street.

Sitting opposite Li Jinglong, Imagawa Ryotoshi, a charming old man, smiled and invited a geisha who made tea soup for him to say a few words.

Immediately, the madam's exaggerated shouts came from outside the separate private room separated by a screen.

"Today's consumption will be all taken care of by Mr. Imagawa!"

The men's shouts of surprise and compliments for Imagawa Ryotoshi came flooding in.

Li Jinglong took a sip of matcha and said, "Brother Imagawa, you seem to be in a good mood."

"Your Excellency, the General, is about to return to the country, so Quan should have a small celebration for this."

Imagawa Ryoujun clapped his hands, and the kabuki dancers who were playing Gagaku bowed and stepped back in small steps without making any sound.

After retreating from the rest of the crowd, Imagawa Ryojun leaned forward and whispered to Li Jinglong: "I heard a piece of news from the Flower Palace."

"oh?"

Li Jinglong calmly covered the lower part of their faces with a folding fan.

Obviously, Jin Yiwei was afraid of him because of his mouth shape.

"A few warriors participated in a small-scale rebellion initiated by the White Lotus Sect in the south of the Ming Dynasty. Behind these warriors were the daimyo from the southwest coast who supported the pirates. The Flower Palace felt that this matter was very sensitive and forced them to hand over some The pirate leader plans to cook in front of you before you return home, so as not to give the Ming Dynasty an excuse for war."

Imagawa Liaojun looked at Li Jinglong with ardent eyes and asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, General, what do you think of this matter?"

"I don't think it's anything important."

Li Jinglong revealed the matter lightly. Of course he knew the intentions of Imagawa Ryotoshi, the former "King of Kyushu". The opposition forces within Japan wished that the shogunate and the Ming Dynasty would be at odds with each other, and the Ming Dynasty would send troops to fight with the shogunate. When there is chaos, there is an opportunity to reshuffle and distribute power.

As for the fate of Japan, I'm sorry, but there is no concept of a nation-state in Japan now. In such a large place, Japan has the Northern and Southern Dynasties and dozens of vassal states. How do you think they can have a unified consciousness?

Of course, Li Jinglong will not disappoint Imagawa Ryotoshi. After all, the other party is not only one of the most important opponents of the shogunate, but will also represent Japan's Emperor Komatsu as an envoy to the Ming Dynasty and return with him.

"Afu."

Li Jinglong clapped his hands with a folding fan, and Cao Afu ran in.

"Master, please give your orders."

"Bring over what Mr. Jiang sent me before."

Cao Afu quickly took out a piece of cotton cloth. It was obviously the cut type.

"Guess how much this thing sells for?"

Imagawa Ryotoshi looked at the very good quality cotton in front of him. After thinking for a moment, he replied uncertainly, "Maybe 2-3 silver?"

Japan has a high latitude and is very cold in winter. They also wear cotton fabrics. However, because Japanese cotton textile technology is relatively low-tech, their manufacturing costs cannot be compared with those of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, a piece of cloth usually costs more than 3 qian silver (0.3 taels). , Imagawa Ryotoshi is one of the few Japanese executives who knows about Ming Dynasty. He knows that the price of Ming Dynasty products will be lower, so he gave a relatively reasonable guess.

In fact, even in Songjiang Prefecture in the past, the price of a piece of cotton cloth was basically between 1.5 to 1.6 yuan of silver per piece. Even the most exquisite cotton cloth was only worth between 1.7 to 2 yuan of silver per piece. between.

However, Imakawa Ryojun guessed wrong.

The answer Li Jinglong gave was far beyond his expectation.

"One penny."

"How can it be?!"

Imakawa Ryotoshi said in surprise.

"Why is it impossible?"

Li Jinglong put down the cotton cloth in his hand and said with a smile: "This is the magic of the national master I mentioned to you, Jiang Xinghuo."

"How about we make a deal?"

The two started whispering, and after a while, Imagawa Ryojun patted his chest and said.

"Your Excellency, General, the affairs of the Imperial Guard are my business. You can rest assured and leave them to me. They must be settled before you leave Japan!"