Suddenly, the old man's eyebrows, eyes, and beard all knitted together, and his eyes were a little unkind.
He is an extremely traditional person. In his mind, anyone who does not cultivate the land and take care of the crops is a second-rate person.
Therefore, although taxes were lightened after the founding of the People's Republic of China, a series of measures were taken to promote commerce. However, merchants in the Ming Dynasty had a low status and could not use slaves or wear silk and satin.
Businessmen are like this, let alone doing business across the ocean.
Doesn't opening up the sea mean allowing people to go to sea to do business? He understands this, but he just ignores it from his heart.
The only bad thing about the vast sea is that there are no whole bodies left. And it lasts for several years. As the old saying goes, parents never travel far. They all have families and relatives, so why go to sea?
Orphan?
Isn't it good to work at home, be filial to your parents, and be honest?
Ling Han saw that the old man had a bad look on his face, and knew that the old man must have had some wrong ideas, so he quickly said.
Our Ming Dynasty has thousands of miles of sea territory, but now only the port of Quanzhou is connected to maritime trade. China is rich and abundant, but it cannot be exchanged for new money.
Not to mention the distance, I checked the archives of the previous dynasty. When the Song Dynasty was relatively peaceful, the Guangzhou Customs Office alone had an annual revenue of two million!
As he said that, he looked at the old man and said seriously, "Cash the money!"
The old man was stroking his beard when his hand suddenly shook.
Two million in cash? The old man thought in his heart, how much tax does this cost the state government? No wonder the old Zhao family has been able to survive for more than a hundred years after being beaten like that!
Ling Han continued to speak. Among them, the tea tax was 750,000 yuan! I heard His Royal Highness the Emperor Taisun said that tea is not valuable here, but it is equivalent to gold in foreign countries thousands of miles away. Because in the whole world, we are the only ones here.
Only tea!
The old man raised his eyebrows and said loudly, "How can we say that we are the kingdom of heaven? All the good things in the world are with us!"
All the ministers expressed their approval.
In fact, their pride is completely justified. Chinese culture has always been the top of the world. In their hearts, the world is all foreign countries except China.
We all know what you said! The old man nodded at first, and then changed the subject, but business cannot prosper in three or two days, nor can it be done just by patting the head and opening the sea.
Besides, when the sea opens, there will be people who want to go to sea. What will happen if they don’t come back? Who will farm when they are all doing business?
The old man's words attracted many conservative ministers to agree. There are only two serious things in the world, farming or studying.
What His Highness meant that day was that the imperial court could first organize a fleet to go to sea and let the navy protect it.
The old man suddenly interrupted the other party, and the imperial court organized a trip to sea?
What His Highness Taisun means is that the imperial court can take the lead when it comes to organizing a large fleet to go to sea. The first is to survey the sea routes, the second is to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, and the third is to eliminate pirates along the way and ensure the safety of the sea routes!
The old man suddenly laughed out loud, oh, the navy is going to sea! Haha! As he said that, his eyes changed, was he going to rob it?
He always remembered what Zhu Yunxi said to his young sons in the university hall that day. Although the coastal countries are foreign countries, they are rich in gold and spices. If they can trade, they can do it, and if they can't, they can rob them.
These bastard words made those little princes' eyes light up, and they were secretly always clamoring about going to sea in the future and so on.
After the old man finished speaking, the hall suddenly became silent, and many ministers had strange expressions on their faces.
The Ming Dynasty was a celestial kingdom, and its virtues were powerful and powerful all over the world. Why did you listen to the emperor's wishes? The emperor's grandson intended to let the navy go out to rob those foreign countries?
This is really unreasonable!
If you want to open a few ports for trade and slowly lift the sea ban, we can still discuss it! The old man thought deeply, but we are going to sea all of a sudden, so we need to consider this matter in the long term!
After hearing this, Ling Han felt very happy.
As expected, the Emperor's grandson is the one who can accurately feel the Emperor's pulse! He couldn't help but think of the letter the Emperor's grandson gave him, asking for a lot of money when discussing things with the old man. Otherwise, the old man would not let up at all!
Although Ling Han is over seventy years old, he is very motivated and a pragmatic and enlightened official. He has his own views on the maritime ban.
There are all kinds of industries in the world. As long as the people can make a living by using them, and it neither violates the king's law nor violates moral ethics, what's wrong with going to sea?
At that moment, he immediately said loudly, Your Majesty is wise, since the matter of going to sea is subject to discussion, it is imperative to open the seaports and ports! It is a great kindness to collect tax money to replenish the national treasury and use it for people's livelihood!
The old man thought about it and seemed to understand. He glared at Ling Han, "How dare you wait for us here?"
He was about to get angry, but then he thought about it. Although Ling Han was stubborn, he didn't dare to plot against him like this. The only one who could come up with this strategy and command the six ministers to file a lawsuit with him was his precious grandson.
The fire in my heart immediately dissipated for the most part. After thinking about it, the emperor's grandson brought up this matter, so you just wait until he returns to Beijing to discuss it with him!
~~~
Zhu Yunxi was afraid that he would not be able to return to Beijing for a while.
Starting from Kaifeng, we followed the direction of the flood bursting and visited Weishi, Fugou, Zhoukou and other places incognito.
What made him a little relieved was that the local officials in these disaster-stricken areas were still fulfilling their duties and could properly handle the disaster and resettle the victims. Especially in Huaiyang, the local officials gathered young people to work for the relief of the victims.
.
However, this journey, like a survey, gave him a deeper understanding of the lives of the people in the north.
The economic center of the Ming Dynasty was in the south of the Yangtze River. Jiangnan accounted for 70% of the world's tax revenue and prospered with outstanding people and prosperous trade. Especially in Suzhou, Hangzhou and the coastal areas, there were already faint sprouts of a free economy. However, the inland provinces remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Agriculture-based.
This left the people with no other choice but to stay on the land and depend on the weather to make ends meet.
In addition to economics and culture, when Zhu Yunxi went to Suzhou and Hangzhou, private schools could be seen everywhere along the road. But when he went to many places in the Central Plains, he did not see a single private school.
I remember that when we were inspecting the properties of monks all over the world, we once said that temple property would be used to support academic studies in various places. How come there are no private schools in these places and no official schools are flourishing?
On the official road leading to Zhoukou, carriages were driving slowly.
Because it was a private visit incognito, it was just an ordinary carriage. Besides him, there were also Xie Jin and Tie Xuan in the carriage, so it seemed a bit crowded.
Three feet of ice is not as cold as a day! Tie Xuan said, I am from the Central Plains and know a little bit about it. Taking the Central Plains as an example, most of the people who study are the children of officials, and there are very few students from poor families!
Since the Song Dynasty moved to the south, the north has become a barbarian land. During the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen Hanization attached great importance to the imperial examination. However, the Jin and Yuan Dynasties fought here for many years, and everything was destroyed! After the Great Yuan Dynasty unified, the imperial examination was almost not held, and no attention was paid to each other.
The official education of the government and the so-called articles of saints are just decorations for the Han people!
After the Ming Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, there were successive wars in the Central Plains and the north. The rich and powerful families who could afford to study were either destroyed in the troubled times or fled south to settle down. The common people could not afford to eat, so who cared about whether they could study?
Now His Highness has been kind enough to order various places to rectify official schools. But restoring the academic style cannot be accomplished overnight!
In my opinion, hundreds of years of chaos will not be restored even in thirty or fifty years!
Yes, the root still lies in the word "poor".
Studying requires money and leisure. There are countless poor people in the world, but only a handful of students from poor families. If a family has farmland and livestock, they are naturally willing to let their children study and become literate.
Another problem is that the burden on the people in the north is too heavy. Taxes in the south of the Yangtze River are used to fill the national treasury, while in the north, soldiers from all nine sides collect grain and tax from the nearest place.
Although the military guards have farms, having said that, those farms are enough for the soldiers to be self-sufficient.
Zhu Yunxi's mind jumped, thinking about one thing and another, but everything was not as expected.
In fact, it is not a treaty in his mind. The country, the country, and the country are one, and nothing is independent of other things.
Xie Jin opened his mouth and said, Your Highness, moral articles are flourishing in this world, and the promotion of official education is urgent!
It’s not a rush! Zhu Yunxi smiled slightly and expressed his feelings along the way. There were no outsiders. We, the emperor and his ministers, could talk freely!
After the words fell, the carriage suddenly stopped. Zhu Yunxi was caught off guard and swayed twice.
Immediately afterwards, I heard the guard outside shouting sternly, "Who is blocking the way? Go away!"
~~~
Adjust your perspective and thinking, huh huh!
I owe a chapter today, I will think about it carefully and I will make up for it.