The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

"I also ask Your Majesty to agree that when the merchants go to sea next time, we will send imperial warships to protect their safety along the way, in case of accidents," Zhang Fan said.

"This..." Faced with Zhang Fan's request, Long Qing became silent. It's not that Long Qing disagreed, or that the request was too difficult to realize. It is normal to send troops to protect the caravans of his country. Even in Daming, when those merchants went to Mobei to do business, the imperial court would send troops to escort them. Now Zhang Fan just asked the imperial court to send a few warships to go out to sea with those merchant ships. This is not a big deal .

"It's not a problem, it's just that..." Long Qing was suspicious. Just now he and Zhang Fan were discussing how to make money from foreigners, but Zhang Fan suddenly brought up such a matter. They are all related, but Long Qing doesn't think there is any direct connection.

Zhang Fan didn't need Long Qing to say what he was thinking about, so he said directly: "Your Majesty, please listen to Wei Chen's detailed explanation. During this trip to the south of the Yangtze River, Wei Chen also met many merchants who returned from overseas. Talked to them and learned some things.

"It has been three years since His Majesty switched, and with the rich rewards brought back by the first few people who dared to go to sea to do business, many people think it is profitable, and they are ready to join, but even so, this person who really dared to go to sea In the final analysis, there are still only a small number of people in business.

"We asked them why, and they returned to Weichen for various reasons. Some felt that the journey was too long, some were afraid of suffering, and some were afraid of encountering storms. However, Weichen felt that, These are basically excuses, let’s look at those merchants who returned successfully, which one didn’t come back with gold and silver worth nearly a hundred times the value of the goods they brought before they left. With so much money, no matter what, many people will desperately want to earn it. However, the situations that Weichen mentioned earlier have become irrelevant in front of people's hearts.

"However, even so, there are still many people who have the idea of ​​doing business at sea and did not go in the end. After all, what they fear is man-made disasters. This ship is sailing on the sea, and there is not a piece of land for thousands of miles. If it encounters pirates and flees There is no way to escape, and those pirates know that there are no weapons on the merchant ships of our Ming Dynasty. Even if a certain ship in a fleet is robbed, other ships will not be able to come to rescue even if they know about it. The merchant ships of our Ming Dynasty carried much more money than merchant ships of other countries.

"A place with a lot of money and no defense, how can it not attract the murderous hands of villains?"

"Ai Qing means that although those people want to go to sea to do business and make money, but because no one is protecting them on the road, they are afraid of being robbed by pirates, so they gave up." After hearing Zhang Fan's words, Long Qing actually thought The face already understood, but he still couldn't help asking this question.

"That's right," Zhang Fan said, "Actually, if these pirates just boarded a ship to rob, no one would be afraid. After all, they all understand the so-called principle of destroying money and eliminating disasters, and they just let those pirates If the pirates take it, they probably won't be able to take much money with them, but they are afraid that these pirates will suddenly explode and hurt people's lives. I am willing,"

"Well, what Ai Qing said makes sense," Long Qing nodded and said after hearing Zhang Fan's explanation.

Seeing that Long Qing agreed with his point of view, Zhang Fan continued: "Your Majesty, as long as the imperial court releases the news that it plans to send warships to sea to protect those merchant ships, it is conceivable that those who originally wanted to go to sea , after knowing that your safety at sea is guaranteed, there is no reason not to go, "

"Aiqing is right," Long Qing said, "and it's not a big deal for the imperial court to send warships to protect the merchant ships. It is said that the Sanbao eunuch made seven voyages to the West, and the ships were strong and powerful. Didn't he also do a lot of things along the way?" business,"

"Your Majesty said so," Zhang Fan echoed, but he always felt that there was something wrong with comparing Long Qingna's incident with Zheng He's seven voyages to the West.

"But Aiqing, you still haven't answered my previous doubts for me. Not only have you not answered, but you have made the problem worse." Long Qing suddenly changed his appearance, looked at Zhang Fan and said, "If the court takes it seriously We have sent warships to guard those merchant ships, so there will be more people who plan to go to sea to do business. The more people there are, the more money they will earn. Although Aiqing, you just found out about Liu Shan. Such a huge greed, but in the face of so much money, it is hard to guarantee that no one will be malicious again, after all, there are quite a few people in this world who want money without their lives, "

Long Qing mentioned his most greedy thing. This thing is indeed very difficult. After all, how much ambition and courage can arouse people with money, although Zhang Fan doesn't have a specific standard in mind. But he already understood this problem very well. As the saying goes, money can make ghosts turn mills, which is true at all.

"Your Majesty, I have already considered this matter," Zhang Fan said, "This time, there will be such a large-scale corruption case in the south of the Yangtze River. After much deliberation, this matter still has nothing to do with the local government. All merchant ships in various places are under the unified management of the local shipping department. Whether they go to sea, return to the sea, or do business, they must be approved by the shipping department. Not to mention that after those merchant ships come back, whether it is loading and unloading goods or paying taxes to the court, they are all under the management of the Shipping Department. What kind of hands and feet are really convenient, "

"Well, what Aiqing said is indeed true," Long Qing nodded and said, "When I ordered the switch, I didn't consider it so comprehensively, especially I didn't consider that these merchant ships would bring back so much money when they went to sea to do business, so I decided to I handed over all the management of merchant ships to the local shipping department, and now it seems that my decision at that time was a big mistake, "

"Your Majesty, you don't need to be like this," Zhang Fan said. "After all, this is the first time the switch has happened. Who would have expected such a thing to happen? We still have to find a solution now."

"Oh, so, Aiqing, you already have a solution." Hearing what Zhang Fan said, Long Qing hurriedly asked, "Quickly tell me."

"Wei Chen does have an idea in mind, but it's not complete yet, and I hope His Majesty will point it out," Zhang Fan said, "Wei Chen feels that in the future, the ship divisions of various places should be allowed to manage the local merchant ships, but the ship division The yamen above must be changed, "

"Aiqing means..." Long Qing already knew what Zhang Fan meant.

"That's right, let the people from the household department directly accept the shipping department," Zhang Fan said. "In this way, the appointment of officials from the shipping department in various places will also be carried out by the household department. This way, it will also make people feel at ease. Of course , I also understand that the officials of the household department are also human beings, and there must be people who love money as much as their lives. It is inevitable to guard and steal, but at least the household department supervision is much more convenient than before. If your majesty is still not at ease, your majesty You can let Weichen or Eunuch Feng's subordinates follow them, so that if there is any movement from them, His Majesty will know immediately."

The Department of Shipping is under the management of the Ministry of Households, so in the future, no matter whether it is tax collection or other things, the money will no longer pass through the hands of local officials, but will be handed over directly to the court. solved.

Send people from Jinyiwei or Dongchang to monitor them. No matter whether it is overt or not, as long as someone dares to embezzle, it will be a terrible thing to be caught by the factory guards.

Maybe these people will still think of a way to use money to lure these factory guards to help them embezzle together, but Zhang Fan has already prepared countermeasures for this, and the factory guards sent there will definitely not stay there for a long time, maybe not for a while A new group of people will be replaced. If this is the case, those people who have worked so hard to get through the relationship just want to make a move, but find that a new group of people who monitor themselves have been replaced. There are no tricks.

Although Zhang Fan also understands the power of money, if he doesn't know it, someone will definitely find a loophole and risk being beheaded to get money, but that will definitely only be a very small number, and it is impossible for someone like him to appear again. Liu Shan had embezzled so blatantly, Zhang Fan comforted himself by calling this situation "mistakes". After all, mistakes can be avoided, but mistakes are inevitable.

"Aiqing's method is good. Although I haven't tried it before, it seems that there are no omissions." Long Qing thought for a while and said, "Although it is not very detailed, it can be regarded as a general solution to this problem, but Aiqing, I still have something I want to ask you, if all of this is feasible, you really plan to only do serious business, "

"Returning to Your Majesty, the land of China is a land of etiquette, how could we do such nasty acts of enslaving others," Zhang Fan said, "We don't need to do that at all, our things, porcelain, tea, silk, It's all what they need, and they can't do it themselves at all. Besides weapons, we Daming probably don't want anything else from them. What else are you thinking about?"