It’s another year and the third day, and it’s another wedding year.
There are quite a few acquaintances among this batch of Jinshi. Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, Wu Yu, Bao Zheng and others all passed this subject.
Moreover, Han Qi, Wu Yu, and Bao Zheng are among the top three.
Compared with the Tiansheng Second Year Ranking, the importance of Ci Fu has been greatly reduced in the evaluation of this subject, and policy theory is the key to ranking.
Of course, considering the speed of information dissemination, Ci Fu is still a required test. If Ci Fu is written particularly well, it is still possible to pass.
After all, three years is too short for everyone to switch tracks.
According to past practice, this year is the tribute examination year, and the court's main focus should be on the tribute examination.
But that's not the case this year.
There is one thing that is far more important than the imperial examination, or in Li Jie's eyes, this matter is more important than the imperial examination.
The last fleet that set out three years ago, and also the fleet with the longest voyage, is back!
Half a month ago, the ship docked at Guangzhou Port.
Three years ago, the fleet going to sea was divided into three groups, one starting from Mingzhou to Goryeo and the Japanese Kingdom, and the other group starting from Quanzhou to Southeast Asian countries such as Srivijaya, Jiaozhi, Champa, etc.
The last group started from Guangzhou and went to the Arabian region, visiting Tianzhu, Dashi and other Tibetan countries.
This branch is also the riskiest one.
After all, the Song Dynasty was too far away from the Arabian region, and it was an out-and-out ocean trade. With existing navigation technology, it was difficult to ensure the safety of ships.
Three years later, Li Jie was actually ready to destroy the entire fleet.
Who would have thought that this fleet could actually return. Although according to reports, this fleet suffered heavy losses, at least some of its people returned.
He also brought back a group of Tibetan merchants.
Guangzhou Port.
Looking at the bustling street scene in front of him, he listened to the chatter in his ears, although Qian Bingyan didn't understand the local dialect very well.
But this is the territory of the Song Dynasty after all.
During his three years at sea, Qian Bingyan encountered several fatal crises. The most dangerous one was a storm. After the storm subsided, the entire fleet became lost.
Being lost on a lonely sea is an extremely dangerous thing.
Fortunately, they later encountered a group of pirates. With the power of naval guns, they not only successfully captured the pirates, but also found the shipping route.
"well."
After standing by the window of the restaurant for a while, Qian Bingyan returned to the private room again.
Coming back means coming back.
But he didn't know if his success in going to sea could offset the crimes he had committed previously.
Three years ago, Qian Bingyan was abandoned by the Qian family of Wuyue and became a prisoner in custody.
At that time, Qian Bingyan had already made plans to be exiled for three thousand miles. After all, the crimes he committed were not small.
The value of the case involving the Municipal Ship Division was the first in the founding of the People's Republic of China!
The whole country has attracted much attention, and Qian Weiyan, the head of the Qian family in Wuyue, has lost his previous power and has been demoted to the outside world, unable to provide any help at all.
Until Qian Bingyan learned that the imperial court was planning to recruit ocean-going sailing personnel.
Most of these prisoners had been engaged in maritime trade. When he learned about this, Qian Bingyan signed up without hesitation.
Even though he hasn't been to sea for a long time.
Although he knew the dangers of ocean navigation.
But for himself and his family, he chose to sign up without hesitation.
Anyway, it's a life-threatening situation.
Give it a try, what if you have a bright future?
In order to recruit personnel for ocean voyages, the price offered by the imperial court was not low. If they could successfully detect an ocean route, they would not only be exempted from their own culpability, but also become a member of the Municipal Shipping Department.
Although he is just a civil servant, he is not a serious official.
But as the saying goes, under heavy rewards, there must be brave men. Among the criminals, almost all those with experience in maritime trade signed up.
Qian Bingyan clearly remembered that there were a total of thirty-five people who signed up.
Now, only five people came back with him, and the remaining thirty people stayed in the sea forever.
With a death rate of more than 80%, I don't know how many people were frightened.
Even though they were on a mission to open a sea route, the death rate on their next ocean voyage would never be as high as this time.
But such a terrible mortality rate still shocked a large number of people.
Three years later, the huge profits from sea trade have become a consensus among both the government and the opposition.
In the first year, I went to Japan and the Koryo fleet returned. This fleet brought back a large amount of silver (Japanese) and bronze (Korea), as well as jewelry, Korean ginseng and other supplies.
Putting aside jewelry, coral, Korean ginseng and other materials, it was only copperware and silver that made the Song Dynasty realize the benefits of sea trade.
As we all know, the commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was very developed, and the gross national product during the Northern Song Dynasty even accounted for half of the world's total.
But there is no conflict between economic development and money shortage.
The Song Dynasty was short of copper. It was precisely because of the shortage of copper metal that the Song Dynasty officially issued an extremely strict ban on copper.
Anyone who takes copper out of the country without permission can be directly sentenced to death.
Although the issuance of Jiaozi has been very smooth in the past three years, now Jiaozi is basically only used in bulk trade.
The currency in private circulation is still mainly copper coins.
Therefore, after learning that there was a lot of copper in Goryeo, even without Li Jie's urging, officials from the DPRK and China quickly proposed to launch the second voyage from Goryeo to Japan as soon as possible.
In the second year of Zhihe, after the second expedition fleet returned home, the eyes of all the ministers turned red when they saw the cargo of spices.
Because there were so many spices brought back, the spice market in Beijing once had a big price cut.
Although the price of spices quickly adjusted back, many spice merchants still suffered heavy losses.
After two consecutive waves of shock, no one raised any doubts about sea trade.
Because the benefits are real!
In the past three years, the amount of taxes paid by the Shipping Department has nearly tripled!
From the previous 700,000 guan per year, it has been increased to 2 million guan!
And this is just the beginning!
When the scale of maritime trade expands, the tariff revenue of the shipping company will only be higher.
Regardless of ancient or modern times, money is a good thing.
Seeing the white money coming into the account, all the opponents shut their mouths.
In fact, the increase in tariff revenue is only incidental.
The real purpose of Li Jie's promotion of sea trade was to liberate those rich people from the land. Now, three years later, the effect has begun to show.
A number of privately organized ocean-going caravans have already appeared in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangnan.
Li Jie did not prohibit private maritime trade. Even if they committed murder and arson overseas, he would not interfere.
As long as you pay taxes properly after you come back and turn a blind eye, it's not impossible.
In addition to private ocean-going caravans, ocean-going trade also brought vitality to the tea, porcelain, and silk markets.
After all, cross-border trade requires commodities.