Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1661 Cut Yuan (Fifteen) Add Fire

Gao Wushi's words may be a little cloudy. His youngest brother Gao Wuruo obviously didn't understand, so he couldn't help asking: "Brother, brother is dull, please give me some pointers."

As a family of practical learning sect, respectful brothers and sisters are required by the family tradition, and Gao Wuruo is only 16 years old, Gao Wushi naturally had to be friendly, so he asked kindly: "What don't you understand?"

"I... don't really understand." Gao Wuruo said honestly and politely: "Brother said that it is not difficult to solve the 'millions of waterworkers' clothing and food, but I don't understand. Brother said that there is still a relationship between the Jiangnan chaebol and Shu Yinglong. The younger brother doesn't understand other stories."

"Hehe, it doesn't matter if you don't understand, Brother Yu will clear up your doubts." Gao Wushi nodded and said: "Let's talk about 'millions of waterworkers' clothing and food first'. First of all, the term 'millions of waterworkers' is quite problematic. The number is maintained at 12. Although there are shifts, they all come from various guards.

The guards originally had land. Although the system is now badly broken, these guards are still guards after all. Even if the soldiers in the guards do not go to the Cao army for shifts, they can still make a living in this guard.Of course, it's just enough to make ends meet.They actually earned an extra income by being a cavalry army, but you need to know one thing: their real income when they worked as cavalry troops in shifts did not lie in the salaries for transporting grain, but in the revenue from carrying goods privately.

In other words, if the imperial court stopped the water transportation, what they really lost was the opportunity to privately carry goods under the guise of water transportation.Then we think in reverse, what if the imperial court stopped water transportation, but allowed them to continue to carry goods privately? "

Gao Wuruo was completely dumbfounded, and wondered: "But if the imperial court even stops the water transportation, how can they privately carry goods?"

"It's nothing more than a name. Wouldn't it be enough to give them a name?" Gao Wushi smiled and said, "For example, the Cao Army was changed to the 'Canal Dispatching Department'. Why not collect a corresponding fee in it?"

Gao Wuruo thought for a while, then hesitated and said: "But if this is the case, the imperial court will have nothing to gain from it. If the imperial court has no income, why maintain the canal dredging and other governance?"

"Good question!" Gao Wushi praised the younger brother without hesitation, and then explained: "The tax rate adjustment is going to be carried out here-simply put, it is to set up tax collection. In principle, the imperial court must first The entire canal is traffic controlled to avoid congestion of ships.

This requires the entire canal to be divided into many small sections, and each section must be controlled according to a certain amount of tank boats entering the canal. Ships entering the canal need to declare their destination and approximate arrival date in advance, and the date can be redundant for a certain period of time. to avoid delays on the way.

At the same time, the imperial court levies taxes on each section of the canal, but there must first be an overall tax rate for the canal.In this way, each tax rate can be divided in proportion, so that the total cost of transportation can be controlled, and the excessive tax rate will make the ships unprofitable, which will cause merchants to abandon canal transportation.

In addition to supporting and supervising the tax collectors, the tax collected will be mainly used for the maintenance of the canal.Even in the future, if there is any surplus, it can also be used for river widening.

In this way, the imperial court not only saved hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of river treatment costs each year, but also gradually expanded the canal, and even relied on the canal to feed more people, drive more business exchanges, and strengthen economic exchanges between the north and the south. In particular, the economic exchanges along the canal serve multiple purposes, how beautiful it is! "

Gao Wuruo suddenly realized, but Cao Ke, the business secretary next to him, had some doubts and asked, "Teacher, if canal freight is profitable, what about sea freight?"

"Are you worried that the water transport will grab the sea transport business? You are too worried." Gao Wushi shook his head and said: "Not to mention that the canal only connects the capital to the south of the Yangtze River, and it is difficult to cover Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. Even if the capital goes to the south of the Yangtze River This line, the canal can't completely take care of it - you have to know that the capacity of the canal is limited after all, and the tank boats on the river are much smaller than sea boats, so the more cargo there is, the more suitable it is for sea transportation.

What's more, taxes are collected along the canal, and seaports have berthing fees (because most of them are private ports). These two taxes and fees can be adjusted according to the situation.If the canal is congested and the shipping is insufficient, the canal tax rate can be increased; if the shipping is prosperous but the canal is in distress, the seaport toll can be increased.All in all, we can achieve some balance in river-sea transport with these adjustments. "

When Gao Wushi said this, Cao Ke understood, and bowed to show that he was taught.

If Gao Wu at the side saw that other people had no doubts, he continued: "Then brother just said that the Jiangnan chaebol and Shu Yinglong..."

"Although this matter is my guess, it is not difficult to understand." Gao Wushi said: "Although Shu Yinglong and the Jiangnan chaebol have reached some private agreements, their interests are not completely the same. The purpose is of course different.

What Shu Yinglong wanted was to accumulate political capital.Originally, the accumulation of political capital by the Governor of Water Transport was nothing more than ensuring the safety and order of water transport, but this was too slow.He has been the Governor of Water Transportation for several years, and so far he has not had the opportunity to enter the center of the imperial court. It can be seen that the upper echelon of the Heart School is too fixed, and it is really difficult for the people below to take the lead.

Then he needs two prerequisites if he wants to be the center of the Jin Dynasty: one is that someone above him will step aside, and the other is that he can take advantage of the situation to make up for it.If something as big as the Cao army riot happened, once the emperor wanted to investigate the responsibility, where should the responsibility be in the first place?

You may think that if something happened to the Cao army, the governor of Cao Yun is naturally the first person responsible, right?But alas, no.The Cao army is essentially the soldiers of the guards along the route. The governor of Cao Yun only arranges and uses them, and is not responsible for training and drills. Whether the battle is fought well or not has nothing to do with him.

However, the Cao army's riot in Nanjing was caused by the Japanese pirates' attack, but the number of Japanese pirates was much lower than that of the Cao army. More than a thousand Japanese pirates have been attacked like this, and it is unreasonable to blame him, the governor of water transport.

So who is responsible?Naturally, it is in the Ministry of War, or even because the Ministry of Households has the Customs Administration and the Tax Police Corps, if it goes wrong, it will have some responsibility.From Shu Yinglong's point of view, if things got to this point, Shen Yuanfu and Mr. Wang Ge would definitely put shit on the head of the Ministry of War, there is no doubt about it.

Not long after Zhou Benbing took office, it seems that there is not enough reason to take him into action, but someone must be responsible when something happens, right?Then if the Mind School manipulates the law well, Mr. Liang Ge (Liang Menglong) may be responsible. You may also seize the opportunity to push one of your own into the horse.

At this moment, if Shu Yinglong quelled the Cao army riot in Nanjing again, wouldn't he have a good chance to fill this vacancy, and from then on, he would be promoted from a local high official to the central center and become a senior official? "

Although some local officials have high status and great power, the style of the Ming court is that Beijing officials see the third rank of the National People's Congress, and the third-rank servants are often higher than the second-rank local officials. The Governor of Water Transport is closer to the emperor - closer to the emperor means a higher status.

Moreover, in many cases, it is common for the Minister of the Ministry of Officials to join the cabinet directly (generally only the Minister of the Ministry of Officials will do this), as long as he first obtains the status of Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and if he has the opportunity to be transferred to be the Minister of the Ministry of Officials in the future, he may skip the first level of the Minister and enter the cabinet directly .

Although the above-mentioned things seem to be quite complicated, they are actually linked together. As long as they really develop in this direction, the final result is almost a matter of course.

Gao Wuruo suddenly realized, nodded again and again, and finally asked: "Then the purpose of the Jiangnan chaebol is just to cut off the water transportation and win the business of transporting grain by sea?"

"This is the most direct purpose, but it's not complete." Gao Wushi shook his head slightly, and said in a deep thought: "I think the Jiangnan chaebol...maybe not as firm as they used to be in confronting Jinghua. To a certain extent, it is a kind of temptation for me."

"Testing brother?" Gao Wuruo said in astonishment, "What do they want to test?"

Gao Wushi said: "On a superficial level, it is natural to test whether I can allow them to take a bigger share of the shipping business. But on a deeper level, it may be to test whether I intend to annex them."

Gao Wuruo didn't react for a while, but Cao Ke next to him said "ah", and said in surprise: "They actually started to consider surrendering? It shouldn't be. They are the patrons of the Heart School, and the Mind School now holds the leader. Why are they thinking of surrendering?"

After all, Cao Ke has been with Gao Yushi for a longer time, the chief disciple who accompanied Gao Yushi to Guangxi, and his reaction is indeed faster.However, what he said was a bit exaggerated. Gao Wushi didn't think that the Jiangnan chaebol must be "considering surrender" by doing this. They might just consider signing a "non-aggression pact" with him.

As for why they did this, Cao Ke didn't understand the reason, but Gao Yushi thought it was very simple.

After all, it is a Jiangnan chaebol. What is the essence of a chaebol?Nothing more than capital.Capital only cares about interests, and any other things that conflict with interests can be discarded in the eyes of capital.Etiquette, righteousness and shame are so, so are allies and thugs.

There are two classic dialogues in "Yes, Minister": "I want to have a clean conscience." "When did you have such a luxurious idea?"-It is actually perfect for capital.

The Jiangnan chaebol has been fighting with the Xin School and Gao Yushi for so many years. Although the two sides almost broke their faces several times, in the end, because Shen Shixing and Gao Yushi both have typical politician attributes, they finally maintained the "fight without breaking" decent.

However, what they fight on the political level is not what the Jiangnan chaebols really care about. What the Jiangnan chaebols really care about is only their own interests.After so many years, Jinghua's strength has become stronger and stronger, and Jiangnan's business tax collection has finally been promoted bit by bit.

Seeing that the Heart School is still unable to protect its own interests after fighting back and forth, the Jiangnan chaebol, who is behind the scenes, can only find another way.

Since you can't eliminate your opponent, let's try to see if we can negotiate.Not to mention the Jiangnan chaebols, even those capitalist countries that claim to be gentlemen all day long, who is not this kind of virtue?

Because of this, although Shu Yinglong and the Jiangnan chaebol don't know how they got together, that's not important.

Gao Pragmatism ridicules the "unity" of the Heart School because Shen, Wang, Shu Yinglong and Jiangnan chaebol seem to be one, but in fact they have their own little calculations, which is even more divided than the Real School.

Although the Pragmatic School is divided into two factions, the High Pragmatism faction is obviously stronger.The missing part is mainly that Gao Yushi himself failed to join the cabinet because of his age and seniority, thus creating a political dual core.And as long as the war against Yuan triumphs, Gao Pragmatism will be enough to gain fame and force Xu Guoyi to accept his leadership.

In essence, although the Practical School is divided into the so-called "radicals" and "conservatives", the political goals of the two are basically the same, and what they are fighting for is nothing but leadership.As long as one party clearly has the upper hand politically, it is no big deal if the other side gives in.

The Heart School is now more complicated. The interests of the central high-level officials are inconsistent with those of the local officials, and the interests of the courtiers are also inconsistent with those of the benefactors behind them. It seems that as long as someone adds a little bit of fire, it is worth looking forward to their internal quarrel.

The highly pragmatic person who has always been anxious about such things as "adding fire" naturally did his part.

"The Emperor has entrusted Wei Guogong with the matter of quelling the Cao Army's Nanjing riots, and I will support this matter." Gao Wushi ordered: "Let the Jinghua South Zhili side take action and provide convenience to Wei Guogong as much as possible.

At the same time, let them find a way to release rumors, saying that I am considering changing the Cao Army into an organization similar to the "Beijing Production and Construction Corps" in the next reform - roughly what I just said that the Cao Army is responsible for its own profits and losses, For commercial freight to develop and the like. "

Cao Ke, as the secretary of trade and commerce, immediately took down the high-level pragmatic words.Not to mention the intelligence secretary Gao Qi, he silently memorized every word of Gao Pragmatic in his heart.

However, if it only stops here, the fire is obviously not enough, and Gao Pragmatism must take other actions.

He first ordered to Cao Ke: "Draft a memorial for me, saying that the capital has enough food and grass, and the incident in Nanjing will not affect Fa Yuan, so please don't worry, Your Majesty." Then he paused, then turned to Gao Qi and said : "Give Secretary-General Liu a briefing on today's situation, and ask her to arrange for Jinghua South Zhili... No, arrange for Wu Xun from Ningbo to negotiate a deal with the Jiangnan chaebol on my behalf.

That is to say, in addition to handing over the grain transportation quota currently held by Water Transport to them for operation, I also plan to greatly increase the sales quota for grain transportation from southern Xinjiang to Japan.The transportation of these rice can be entrusted to them, and I, Jinghua, are willing to pay for the transportation. "

Both Cao Ke and Gao Qi responded first, and then Cao Ke asked again: "Teacher, regarding Japan's massive sale of southern Xinjiang rice, will it cause the Toyotomi family to hoard grain as..."

"It's okay, this is exactly my purpose, just do it."
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(End of this chapter)