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Chapter 358 Roadblock

At the end of March, Zhu Yunchang, the envoy to the left of Fujian Province, sent for the remains. The emperor granted permission in recognition of his diligence, granted him the title of Crown Prince, and returned him to his hometown with honor.

In early April, the emperor decreed that Ding Jisi, the former governor of Fujian, moved to the left as the chief envoy, Jin Shijun, the left counselor, moved to the right chief envoy, Zuo Guangdou, the left counselor, moved to the left counselor, and Guo Zhenming, the former commander of the Guangdong capital, moved to the Fujian capital. Commander.

So far, at least two of the highest power agencies in Fujian and Guangdong provinces have been replaced by royalist officials, and there is no governor position. Only the Inspectorate remains in its original state, but it basically does not pose any obstacle to the implementation of the New Deal. It is not that the emperor cannot move it but that it is unnecessary.

As the saying goes, there are three things to do when a new official takes office. Fujian officialdom has changed so many high-level positions at once. Even if most of them are promoted in place, it is still a happy event, so the fire that needs to be burned must be burned.

To say that the fire was lit quite well, almost one-third of the Fujian people were ignited. On the second day after taking office, the Fantai Yamen posted a notice, announcing in a high-profile manner that they would compensate the victims of Manila Port. Each ship would be based on the price of a new ship plus the value of a full cargo of raw silk multiplied by two!

At the same time, the source of the compensation was stated in the notice. At least half of the money came from the Chief Envoy, and more than half came from the emperor's internal funds. Although the emperor did not say a word, the entire Fujian and Guangdong businessmen understood one thing:

The emperor is really going to abolish the sea ban policy and spend real money to encourage everyone to do more business at sea. The New Deal is really going to be implemented, at least it will be difficult to change it while Emperor Jingyang is in office.

Don’t underestimate a change of concept. It takes a long time and requires a lot of effort to form. In the same way, it takes a lot of effort to change. The New Deal has been promoted in Guangdong for several years. The most responsive people are speculators. Not many people in the middle and lower classes believe in it. Most people have been cautious and wait-and-see, fearing that the court's will may change.

But the emperor played this trick very cleverly and carefully. With only a few hundred thousand taels of silver, he managed to seduce the people of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. From being dubious at the beginning, he instantly became an experimenter of the New Deal. How? It's a big profit.

Of course, most people are not involved in this kind of in-depth thinking. They are more concerned about their own short-term gains and losses. Now that the imperial court is determined to open the sea, don't be cautious. Those who need to buy ships, those who need wholesale goods, and those who need more manpower in workshops, hurry up and find them. If they are slow, the factories will run away.

Youdao affects the whole body. Economic development is sometimes like a train starting uphill. It will be slow and laborious at the beginning, and may even slip and retreat. But as long as the power can be continuously transmitted to the wheels, and supplemented by appropriate operations, once you move forward, you will go faster and faster.

If the efforts of Li Zhi, Yuan Yingtai, Li Rumei, Yuan Keli and others in the past few years are compared to a steady stream of motivation, then the actions of Jin Shijun, Zuo Guangdou, and Guo Zhenming are like a handful of sand sprinkled on the railway tracks. It seemed insignificant, but in fact it broke through the critical point, allowing the heavy-duty train of the New Deal to completely get rid of its fetters and roll forward.

However, we should not take it lightly at this time, because there is a log lying in front of the railway track which is very obstructive. If it is not moved away, the New Deal train will not only be unable to move forward quickly, but may also derail and overturn. It is the Port of Manila.

The core of the New Deal is actually one word, money! Through large-scale industrial production, the number of local products in Ming Dynasty was greatly increased. However, no matter how rich the product types are and how popular they are with foreign businessmen, they must be sold in order to obtain the materials and profits needed for development. Otherwise, the more products are produced, the poorer they will be. In later generations, there was a saying called the Silk Road, which was more of an economic corridor than a geographical landmark. Whenever the Silk Road was open, the Chinese dynasty at the starting point would develop relatively quickly, and otherwise it would be relatively closed and backward.

Since the Mongolian and Yuan regime retreated to Mobei, the overland Silk Road has been completely cut off. The Maritime Silk Road has been under the maritime ban policy of the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years. Although it was not completely interrupted, control has completely fallen into the hands of European countries.

What's even more troublesome is that the sea ban has caused a major regression in navigation technology and a shortage of sailing talents. It will take a long time to slowly recover. In the short term, even if you want to change, you can only defend the offshore sea and cannot expand to farther seas. Failure to gain navigation control in Southeast Asian waters means losing the initiative in maritime trade.

What they want to sell and how much they want to sell for is not up to the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, nor to the countries in Southeast Asia. It is up to the European countries to decide. You can disagree, but you have no right to change it. Either you do business according to their rules, or you don't want to ship anything out.

If they insist on breaking this rule, they can drive armed merchant ships to rob them halfway, or even gather a fleet to harass them. By then, the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty will fall into a situation similar to the proliferation of Japanese pirates, and they will have to continue to ban the sea and send troops to strictly guard against it, wasting all limited resources in a war of attrition.

If you can't go north or south, can you go east? Indeed, the waters of Korea and Japan have not yet fallen into the hands of European countries, there is no phenomenon of passive trading, and there is a great need for Ming Dynasty products. However, the purchasing power of these two countries is not very sufficient, and the market is not very large, so they cannot meet the needs of the full rollout of the New Deal.

There are only two ways to change all this, either to open up the land Silk Road or to open up the maritime Silk Road. Anyway, there must be control over one of the two paths, at least not completely passive.

But since Hong Tao ascended the throne of emperor and became slightly familiar with the situation of Ming Dynasty itself and surrounding countries, he immediately overturned the previous plan. The current military strength of the Ming Dynasty is not enough to wipe out the Mongols and Jurchens and open up the Silk Road in one fell swoop.

Note that I'm talking about sweeping, not defeating. If you want to maintain a relatively safe trade route that stretches from East Asia through Central Asia to Persia and even Eastern Europe, there must be no hostile forces along the way.

Otherwise, if they come here every three days to cause trouble, and then send troops to attack every now and then, the profits gained will soon be offset by the high maintenance fees. Not only will they not be able to obtain enough profits, they may also have to pay back.

There is no way to get through on land, and there is no way to get through on the sea. The current position of the Ming Dynasty is not optimistic. In the north, there is long-term pressure from Mongolia and the Jurchens. In the south, it is faced with the siege of the Two Teeth and the rising stars of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. However, it does not have the ability to cope with two large-scale wars at the same time. .

If you rashly start a war in any direction, you may be taken advantage of by the other direction and be attacked from the north and the south. This will then trigger a chain reaction of internal instability factors. Not only will the New Deal fail to be carried out, but the throne and life will also be lost.

(End of this chapter)