Destiny Only Han

After hearing Shen Tujia's words, Jia Yi looked thoughtful.

After all, everyone knows who the real owner of Shangxian Tang is.

So it is self-evident who the so-called Shangxian Tang monopoly refers to.

But the crux of the question is, why did Shen Tujia say this?
Logically speaking, as the emperor's former retainer, he should be the emperor's loyal dog, but now he seems to have a lot of dissatisfaction in his words.

Jia Yi was silent.

Shen Tujia didn't speak any more. He just took out a pipe from his waist bag, stuffed it with shredded tobacco, lit it, and started puffing away.

Jia Yi didn't like the smell, but now he had a bit of a pleaser personality, so he didn't stay away, but just stared at the busy port in the distance.

Gradually, his brows knitted together.

On weekdays, when he passes through the port, he is always in a hurry, wanting to go outside as soon as possible to see more of the local customs and customs, so that he ignores the situation under his nose.

The docks here are all operated manually.

Whether it is loading, unloading or transporting, there are only a few pulley cranes, and they are also dragged by human power instead of steam power.

It shouldn't be... Jia Yi frowned, looked at Shen Tujia and asked, "Why don't you use machinery to load and unload goods, such as those rattling steam cranes... It's all manual labor, it's so inefficient!"

Shen Tujia laughed, with some helplessness on his face: "Although it is inefficient, it saves costs..."

Jia Yi tilted his head, a little confused.

Shen Tujia sighed softly and explained: "Although the steam boom is very efficient, the purchase cost is also very high, and the subsequent maintenance costs are also not low. The important thing is that coal needs to be burned during use."

"These are all costs."

"But if all local natives are used to complete the loading, unloading and transportation, then they only need to be paid a negligible amount of money. Their life, old age, illness and death have nothing to do with the dock."

"Anyway, after the sun rises every day, there will be a dark crowd of natives outside the port waiting to do work."

"Therefore, compared to machines, manual labor only takes a little more time!"

"In Anhai Protectorate, time is the least valuable thing."

Jia Yi was stunned.

After a while, he looked at Shen Tujia and asked, "Then, what is valuable?"

After all, my son passed away on the river, and he died like this!Don’t give up day and night!
Shen Tujia said with a facial expression: "Rubber, ebony, sandalwood, palm, pepper, coconut, sisal, copper mine, lead mine, gold mine..."

He talked a lot.

Jia Yi always maintained a dumbfounded expression.

Now, he was shocked by the wealth of this island. Even though he had seen locals planting borneol camphor trees on the roadside as street trees before, he still couldn't hide his shock at this moment.

Shen Tujia said with a sad expression on his face: "I've talked about the valuable ones, and then I'll talk about a few worthless ones. For example, the farmland here, and those places that keep giving birth to nests like rabbits. native."

Jia Yi was silent.

Shen Tujia asked with a wry smile: "Do you know who owns the valuable ones, and whose are the worthless ones?"

Although Jia Yi had some guesses, he still shook his head.

Seeing this, Shen Tujia asked and answered:

"All valuables overseas belong to Shangxian Tang!"

"Every mine you can see, whether it is gold, copper, iron ore, as well as plantations such as pepper or rubber plantations, as well as all ports and commercial ports that will not be destroyed by strong winds and waves..."

"And those who are worthless, such as the natives here, and those who grow food that cannot be sold at a high price, but have to plant farmland, are under the jurisdiction of me, the Great Protector..."

"Well, in fact, those privileges of life and death for those natives are not exclusive to my family, the Anhai Protectorate!"

“When Shangxian Tang completely withdrew from the country and handed over all its controlled forest farms, mines and other assets to the state, it was granted a series of privileges overseas.”

"For example, I, the Anhai Protectorate, cannot possess firearms, as well as the privilege of making and selling weapons and armor..."

"Furthermore, Shangxian Tang has unlimited recruiting power. That is to say, as long as they can afford to pay the soldiers' wages, they can have any number of troops and warships overseas."

"The important thing is that this is not difficult for Shangxian Tang at all!"

"Without him, Shangxian Tang has the legal right to mint coins."

"Shangxian Tang has a mint machine at its overseas headquarters that is exactly the same as the Shuiheng Duwei Mansion. When minting coins, you only need to report it to the Prime Minister's Mansion and repatriate the seigniorage tax back to the mainland of the Han Dynasty..."

"Therefore, the large ships you see along the way loaded with gold and silver mines are not necessarily going to the mainland of the Han Dynasty..."

While Jia Yi was stunned, Shen Tujia continued:
"But these are nothing. There are two greatest privileges that Shangxiantang has. One is extrajudicial immunity. In this way, even if they break the law in overseas colonies, they will not accept my and other governors and governors. Sanctions!”

"The arbiter is the imperial censor, and..."

"As for the second one, if you go deeper into the countries of Nanyang, you will understand something."

"That's the power to decide who to go to war with!"

"To put it simply, Shangxiantang can invade an indigenous country at will, even if the country is a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, and its monarch is personally canonized by His Majesty!" "Therefore, all overseas affairs are actually decided by Shangxiantang. …”

"So, you asked me to raise the salary standards of those natives and ease the possible conflicts between Han (Han people) and Tu (Tu people). Forgive me, I can't do this..."

After Shen Tujia finished speaking, his face suddenly became filled with sadness.

Jia Yi gradually understood.

After all, whether it is an overseas Governor's Palace or a Protector's Palace, there must always be a supreme consul.

In this place where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, although the highest consul is called Liu Guan, he is actually no different from the earth emperor.

Kill whoever you say you want to kill, and do whatever you want!
And now, these local emperors have more than one great god on their heads!
Who can bear this?

But Jia Yi thinks this is a good thing.

After all, he is a royalist through and through.

In history, Jia Yi wrote "Public Security Policy", which was praised by teachers as "the most heroic article of the Western Han Dynasty". He talked about the harm of not adopting centralized power and enfeoffing kings, and basically predicted the subsequent chaos of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu.

He said that Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty divided the feudal lords into feudal states, but "in ten years, there were nine rebels." Liu Bang did not even have a good year to live.

Therefore, 'His Majesty (Emperor Hanwen) is not a close minister to the princes, nor is he a king. The emperor cannot be content with being one year old since he was high, so I know that your majesty cannot do it'...

Importantly, Jia Yi wrote in "Public Security Policy" that the rebellion of princes and kings does not depend on whether they are close or distant from the emperor, but on the situation of the world and the strength of the power controlled by princes and kings.

And in today's big man.

The princes and kings all lived peacefully in Chang'an, under the personal supervision of the emperor at all times, and had 10,000+ elite troops loyal to the emperor, so there was no possibility of the country fighting against each other.

Without him, Liu Ying has been creating her own setting of a benevolent gentleman who loves others...

Therefore, the only ones who can cause chaos in the country are these overseas "Tu emperors". Although these people do not have many elite Han troops, they have millions or even tens of millions of natives.

Even if the indigenous army is vulnerable to the Han regular army, a rebellion of this scale will inevitably severely damage the vitality of the empire.

Therefore, in Jia Yi's view, there is nothing wrong with border officials such as Shen Tujia being subject to some restrictions...

But he immediately frowned and asked: "I heard someone mention it when I was in Chang'an, so Anhou was one of the first followers to follow Jin Shang. Is this possible?"

Shen Tujia had a bit of nostalgia on his face: "At that time, the violent Qin Dynasty was still there. Together with Zhao Yao, the censor Zhongchengmi (Xinmi) Hou Zhaoyao, we joined the army led by Liuhou and fought guerrillas back and forth in the mountains..."

"It wasn't until I met the Supreme Emperor that I moved to Yangzhai."

"At that time, His Majesty made a bet with Qu Chenghou (Chongda), saying that if he randomly gave him 100 people, he could capture Qu Chenghou alive in the school field in ten days. It was at that time that I was selected by His Majesty, and became a prince with Zhao Yao. One of those 100 people!”

"Ten days later, we and the mob captured Qu Chenghou, the best swordsman in the world, alive!"

After he finished speaking, a proud look appeared on his face.

"Qu Chenghou's swordsmanship is unparalleled in the world. Your Majesty's ability to capture him with a hundred people is truly extraordinary!" Jia Yi nodded and asked, "So, does Anhou definitely have a top position in the Shangxian Hall?"

Shen Tujia said bluntly: "Of course."

Jia Yi asked again: "In that case, why was Marquis An so dissatisfied when he mentioned Shangxian Tang?"

"I have nothing else but to worry about whether Shangxian Hall will become too big and become a scourge to the country!" Shen Tujia sighed and added: "When Your Majesty is here, I have nothing to worry about. But what if the prince succeeds to the throne?"

"How can a conservative king control such a huge gathering that is thousands of miles away from the empire?"

Jia Yi smiled and said nothing.

A figure appeared in his mind.

Yingchuan Chao Cuo.

That was his lifelong enemy and his best friend who took a completely different path from him.

The path Chao Cuo took was called Legalist cruelty.

Therefore, Jia Yi comforted and said: "As the saying goes, there must be a road before the car reaches the mountain. There are loyal people like Junhou who forget themselves outside, and there are also people such as Wuyanghou's heir (Fan's wife) and Jianghou's second son (Zhou Yafu). The kind of bodyguards who work tirelessly at home..."

"Prince, you can rest easy!"

Shen Tujia shook his head noncommittally and started the business exchange mode: "There are also imperial twins like Jia Shizhong...

"Your Majesty, you are so complimentary..." Jia Yi leaned over and held his hands.

"Since they are twins, why can I only see one of them?" Shen Tujia asked: "I have been away from Guanzhong for these years, and I still don't know who the other one is?"

"Yingchuan Chaocuo." Jia Yi simply replied, then shook his head: "I went to Nanyang, and he went to the Western Regions... And that was seven years ago of the Great Sage. Now that the ten-year period has not come, I'm afraid Even if Junhou resigned and returned to Chang'an, he would not be able to see Chao Cuo himself."

"It's a pity!" Shen Tujia sighed, and then said: "Go back. I recently got a can of good coffee, which I can brew to relieve our fatigue..."

Jia Yi shook his head: "There's no need for coffee. I have this. Would you like to give it a try?"

As he spoke, he took out a paper bag from his sleeve and opened it, revealing a dozen dark fruits.

Shen Tujia frowned: "Where did Jia Shizhong get this thing?"