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Chapter 122: Pulling out the pus 2
Part of the profits from these industries will be used to expand production scale and improve technology, and part will be turned into food and poured into the north of the Ming Empire.

No matter how tragic the natural disaster is, as long as food can be kept flowing in, people will not think of rebellion even if they eat one meal a day. They are industrious, kind-hearted and endure hardships.

Money is now available, but in the early [-]th century there seemed to be no commodity trading market, let alone door-to-door delivery services. How could so much grain be transported to all parts of the country?

The solution given by Hong Tao is just one word, boat!Or two words, sea ship!

In the Ming Dynasty of the seventeenth century, shipping was very underdeveloped, and bulk goods would rather go through canals than by sea.Things are about to change now. We won’t touch the water transportation cake at all, but don’t be jealous of the ocean-going fleet that transports grain.It's useless to be red. We not only have large ships but also a new naval force. We will kill anyone who dares to stretch out our hands. We are not afraid of lawsuits wherever they go. This is the damn royal fleet!
Emperor Wanli sent mine supervisors across the country to make money. All the civil and military officials, apart from cursing and making small moves behind the scenes, could only stare at him for so many years.We are also the emperor, so why can’t we just buy a few small boats to go abroad to buy daily necessities?

There is also the advantage of letting sea ships transport grain to Southeast Asia, which is equivalent to long-distance training.Good captains and sailors are all trained through practice, and you can never graduate from offshore training alone.

As for what to do about the Japanese pirates, Portuguese, and Dutch who are relatively powerful in the southeastern waters, what else can be done? Let’s fight!What Yuan Keli supervised was not a cargo ship, but a standard sailing warship.

It can even be used for actual combat training on grain transport. It teaches pirates a lesson, fights against European careerists, and establishes new trade rules in the southeastern sea. It's all accomplished in one fell swoop. It's hard to find such a good thing even with a lantern. Not to mention relieving the victims, even if all the money is paid. You have to go up and hurry up. If you hesitate for a second longer, you are not worthy of being an emperor.

But if we have money, food, and a big ship, can we sit back and relax?It’s really not possible. Sea-going ships can transport food to coastal ports, but how to transport it to inland disaster-stricken areas in a timely manner is still a big trouble.

Leave it to the local government?Stop talking nonsense, Hong Tao is 100% sure that if you give them [-] shi of grain, the quantity shipped to the disaster area must be minus two zeros at least. They are so anxious that they dare to report it to bandits and say that it was robbed by bandits, and not a single grain will be left!

It was found that arresting and killing each one was equally useless. Back then, Zhu Yuanzhang was more vigorous in cracking down on official corruption, but as a result, none of the problems were solved.As long as the benefits are big enough, officials will go forward without fear of life and death, and they commit crimes in gangs, killing one group after another, and the weeds will grow again if the wind blows.

So let’s put it this way, the root cause of corruption is not only officials, but mostly the decision-making errors of high-level officials.You know clearly that human nature cannot resist temptation, but you still put your interests in front of others. Is this a special test of human nature?The problem is that officials cannot withstand this kind of test!

If we want to eliminate corruption as a whole, we have to fundamentally cut off the connection between power and money.Used separately, these two things may be good things that benefit the people and the country, but as long as they are put together, [-]% will become a disaster, and there is no bottom line.

How can we relatively separate power and money?It's easy to say it's easy, but it's hard to say it's difficult.The simple thing is that as long as the upper beam is straight, the lower beam will not be too crooked.The difficulty is that it is dark under the lamp. Human beings are very impassioned when criticizing others. Once it is their turn, they will immediately make all kinds of exceptions.

Fortunately, Hong Tao can be an exception. Fundamentally speaking, he no longer fully belongs to the category of human beings, so he can partially eliminate human nature.As long as he can manage the royal family and not extend a greedy hand, he has reason to ask officials to do the same.

Of course, this kind of thing is definitely not that easy to implement. In addition to being bold and ruthless, it also requires great wisdom and good luck.Generally speaking, power matters belong to officials, and money matters belong to business. If you want to be an official, don't do business, and if you want to do business, don't get involved in officialdom.If everyone performs their duties, coupled with effective supervision methods, it will be much easier to control.Specific to the matter of disaster relief, the grain arriving at the port is sold to designated merchants at a fair price. The merchants use their own methods to transport the grain to the princes and clan mansions in the north and sell it at a higher price. The profits belong to the merchants. .

After purchasing the grain, the feudal princes and clans did not make porridge sheds and pretend to be benevolent people. Instead, they had to lend grain to the disaster-stricken people according to the local government's household registration.See clearly, it is not a loan but a loan. It has to be repaid later. However, there is no interest and the term is relatively long. It is long enough for most people affected by the disaster to survive the disaster for a few years.

Aren’t the feudal princes and clans immune to corruption?No, they are more greedy than anyone else.However, as the head of the royal family, the emperor has direct jurisdiction and disposal power over all members of the clan.

If you say you are a bad guy, you are a bad guy. If you say you want to rebel, you just want to rebel. The judicial supervision you receive is relatively loose. Just send a few eunuchs over and have a glass of poisonous wine.Or he may be summoned to Beijing, enter the Forbidden City standing, and leave the Donghua Gate lying down.

But it is not so easy to deal with officials. Even if you know that someone is not a charlatan and even stole relief food, if you want to deal with it, you must go through the process, obtain evidence, and then weigh the opinions of all parties before you can handle it.

Who will help the emperor monitor the feudal princes and clans in various places?This is easier to handle. There are tens of thousands of eunuchs and eunuchs in the imperial palaces in Beijing and Nanjing. Don't be idle. Go work as eunuchs in various states and counties.There is no need to collect taxes this time, just keep an eye on the distribution of food and report regularly.

What?There are also eunuchs who practice favoritism, collude with foreign officials, take bribes and bend the law!Yes, there are indeed some, not necessarily less than officials.Hong Tao did not expect to use eunuchs to change the poor governance of the Ming Empire. In fact, no specific group is immune to corruption, unless it is not human.

Corruption will exist in any era. Even if humans immigrate to Mars, this problem will not be eliminated. Anyone who expects to completely eliminate it is just not smart.As long as the degree can be controlled within a certain range, it is completely acceptable. Just like there is no absolute fairness in the world, it can only be relatively close.

At this time, Dongchang and Yumajian came in handy. Eunuchs supervised eunuchs, and it was natural for the emperor to kill eunuchs. Not only did the court have no right to control them, but they also had to applaud them without conscience.

Of course, it is inevitable that several court officials will be accidentally implicated.As long as the evidence is conclusive, whether to arrest or release, demote or protect, the emperor's opinion will be very weighty.

If you want to survive and preserve your reputation for the rest of your life, then obediently agree to the emperor's suggestions for governance, raise your hands and shake your head, otherwise not only will your personal reputation be ruined, but your family will most likely be implicated.

Wait, shouldn't we arrest and kill officials who are more vicious than leech after discovering that they have corrupted the law, or embezzled food for disaster relief? In the end, they have to confiscate their homes and send them to the army, so that future generations will never be hired. Only in this way can they act as a deterrent. How can we do this with them? As for dirty political transactions, it must be a fool!
This is the truth, but if you want to realize it, you must have a prerequisite, which is to have absolute power!Without sufficient power support, the truth will become false, the reasonable will become unreasonable, the honest and faithful people will become moths, and the corrupt criminals will become the pillars of the country.

(End of this chapter)