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Chapter 651 The end of an era
The eleventh year of Jingyang should be the most fruitful year since Hong Tao ascended the throne. After twelve years of unremitting efforts, the Ming Dynasty has undergone major changes from the inside out and has entered a period of harvest.

In the court, Emperor Jingyang's power was absolutely dominant, and no one could influence him. In the words of the Imperial Academy's attendant reader, he was almost on par with Emperor Chengzu, and slightly inferior to Emperor Taizu.

In terms of external situation, it was also at its strongest period in more than a hundred years. Through war and mutual negotiation, the relationship between the northern Mongolian tribes and the Liaodong Jurchens was stabilized. Although it was still far from peaceful coexistence, there was no major threat of war in the short term.

Another big gain came from the sea. Annan and Luzon successively returned to the control of the Ming Dynasty. This not only protected the sea trade routes and increased the trade share, but also deterred Korea and Japan and stabilized the situation in the coastal areas.

The most conspicuous and most closely related to the people of the Ming Dynasty is the economy. Through nearly ten years of promotion, the new policy has taken root in Guangdong, Fujian and southeastern Guangxi, and gradually spread to neighboring counties.

The new policies in Zhili and Shandong were promoted rapidly, and the resistance they encountered was less than one-tenth of the original resistance, and basically no bureaucrats and gentry openly opposed it. On the one hand, they were frightened by the previous failures, and on the other hand, it also diverted the attention of the factories that sprang up.

Whether they support or oppose, it all comes down to one word: interests. Although the interests of the conservative bureaucrats and gentry suffered great losses during the promotion and implementation of the New Deal, they did not gain nothing.

By investing in various factories and reclaiming wasteland to plant new crops, they can also obtain huge income. Just like the bureaucrats and gentry in Guangdong and Fujian, they were the ones who firmly opposed the New Deal at the beginning, and now they are also the ones who desperately support the New Deal.

As a group with a lot of money, they are actually the group most likely to profit from the new policy. As long as they change their mindsets quickly, they will gain more than they lose. Why not do it?

In addition to direct economic benefits, the new policy also brought about several less obvious changes, such as transportation. The canal, which used to connect the north and the south and was the only way to transport bulk goods, now has a cargo capacity of less than 40%, and the rest is all handled by sea transportation.

With the addition of new sailing ships, sea transportation is not only faster and cheaper, but also safer, making it a perfect replacement for canal transportation. The change and improvement in transportation methods has also increased many business opportunities.

Transporting the coal, iron and mechanical products that were abundant in the north to the south by sea, and then loading the ships with grain, fruit, timber and textiles from the south and heading north, became the hottest and most profitable new industry.

It is said that the emperor is planning to set up a new department in the Maritime Transport Office to transport passengers. In the future, if the people of the Ming Dynasty want to travel north and south, they will no longer be limited to inland post roads and rivers, but can choose to take a sea ship.

From Guangzhou to Dagukou, it takes at most ten days and at most twenty days. Compared with the previous months, this speed is so exciting that I can't help but look forward to it. The business opportunities it brings are countless.

Another major change has been implemented and has attracted the most discussion. Emperor Jingyang followed the example of Qin Shihuang and once again made strict regulations on weights and measures and promulgated new units of measurement.

Qin Shi Huang spent a lot of effort to unify the weights and measures, but in the Ming Dynasty, there was a regression, especially in currency. There were all kinds of copper coins, some official and some private, with different weights, fineness and values, which were extremely inconvenient to use.

The addition of silver should have eased this situation, but it actually aggravated it, so that when going out to do business, people had to carry scissors and scales in their luggage and practiced the skill of cutting accurately. The emergence of the Sun and Moon Bank and a series of decrees issued by the emperor are gradually solving these problems that have brought great inconvenience to daily life and economic production.

The concepts of millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, meters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, and tons were clearly defined and spread throughout the north and south of the Yangtze River and the coastal hinterland in the form of official notices.

But the emperor did not use coercive means to implement it, which is similar to the New Deal. The new weights and measures were quietly infiltrated into daily life through institutions such as the navy, army, factories, customs, banks, and new schools.

As long as you have dealings and interests with these institutions, you will be influenced by them without realizing it. At the same time, the old measurement system has not been abolished and can still be used, but it must be converted into new units at certain critical times.

Over time, when some people get used to the new units or have to use them frequently, the new measurement system will spread with them, and over time, the old units will naturally be eliminated.

These are all good changes, or positive ones. Everything has two sides, and the new policy is no exception, and it also has side effects.

For example, some scholars complained that the new policies were too money-oriented and neglected rites, laws, and morality; some officials complained that the laws were too harsh and contrary to Confucian teachings.

Especially for Buddhist disciples, more than 90% of them would secretly add vicious curses on Emperor Jingyang when reciting Buddhist scriptures, hoping that this bad emperor who issued an order to clean up Buddhist temples across the country, required monks to strictly abide by the rules and regulations and not to accept money and property at will, and also cancelled the tax-free benefits for temple land would be drowned quickly!

But their magic power seemed not enough. The eleventh year of Jingyang was about to pass, and the emperor was still alive and well in the Forbidden City. From time to time, he would go to the Nanhaizi Imperial Farm to give lectures in person.

But it was not without effect. Starting from the end of the 1615th year of Jingyang (12), several royalist backbones and important officials in the court had serious problems. The first bad news came from Nanjing. Chen Ju died in bed on December 5 at the age of 76.

Hong Tao was not surprised by the death of the old eunuch. According to the report of the Imperial Household Department, he had been bedridden since the middle of the year, and was more confused than clear-headed. If it were not for the careful care of Wang Guotai, the seal holder of the Nanjing Shrine, who sought out local famous doctors to prolong his life with herbal medicine, he would not have seen the fallen leaves in autumn.

Along with the funeral document, a handwritten letter from Chen Ju was also delivered to the Forbidden City. The handwriting was weak and frail, and it was obvious that it was written on his sickbed.

The old eunuch said in the letter that he knew his life was coming to an end and he could no longer serve the emperor. He felt ashamed of the trust placed in him. He also felt deeply regretful that he could not see the great changes in the new policies sweeping across the country and the prosperity of the century-old era. If there was another life, he would like to enter the palace and serve the emperor again.

"Since I ascended the throne, Chen Ju has worked diligently and without omission. He is a role model for you and deserves a lavish burial. Allow his coffin to be buried in the imperial mausoleum alongside Tian Yi, and have a merit arch built in his hometown to show his loyalty."

(End of this chapter)