unclear

Chapter 67
"I once served as a promotion official in Suzhou Prefecture. I know a little bit about the canal. I have thought about it all the way, and now I submit this article." Yuan Keli didn't give in. He didn't talk much and held it up with both hands.

"The shortcomings mentioned in the article do need to be corrected, but they are not the key point. If you want to make a complete change, you need to prescribe the right medicine. Treating the symptoms alone will not work."

The memorial was very thick, more than ten pages, but Hong Tao read it very quickly, almost reading ten lines at a glance.After putting it down, he picked up another memorial and compared it with each other before speaking.It sounds like he is praising the words for being meaningful and appreciating them carefully, but it also sounds like he is criticizing the formality.

"...Please make it clear, Your Majesty!" Yuan Keli obviously heard the overtones of the words and was a little unconvinced. He held his neck and planned to argue in person.

“The cost of water transportation is shocking. One stone of rice is transported from the south of the Yangtze River to Taicang, Tongzhou, and more than three or four stones are lost along the way. If things go on like this, the country will be ruined.

Governor Yuan wanted to dredge the river, quell the bandits along the river, rectify the stalls, and revitalize the shipyard. These were all top priorities, and they were all right.But I thought it was all just the moon in the mirror, visible but not tangible.

Don’t rush to judge, answer a few of my questions first!Dredging rivers, quelling bandits, rectifying tankers, and revitalizing shipyards. As a governor of water transportation, does he have the power to act arbitrarily? "

The memorial that Hong Tao compared and reviewed is an introduction to water transportation. Five cabinet bachelors worked together to elaborate on the current status and prospects of water transportation from all aspects. Among them, the issues that need to be solved urgently coincide with several points raised in Yuan Keli's memorial.

The bachelors did not propose a solution, but Yuan Keli did, but Hong Tao was very dissatisfied.The reason is very simple. It is all talk on paper. The theory is seriously wrong, but the practical feasibility is very worrying.In layman's terms, what is said is true, but in actual operation, it is just a waste of time and wasted effort.

Water transport in the Ming Dynasty is not well-known in history. When it comes to the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty, party strife, clans, border troubles and even the weather are at the top of the list. Few people will look at water transport.

Before Hong Tao traveled to the Ming Dynasty, he probably followed the same path when he was sitting at home reading. It was not until after he was crowned crown prince that he formally came into contact with the cabinet bachelors, and only then did he hear a new big problem from their mouths, water transportation!

The so-called water transport, as the name suggests, is the use of water vessels for transportation.The transportation of bulk goods by water has existed since ancient times, but water transportation can only be counted after Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty.Without the Grand Canal that Yang Guang spent all his national resources to dig, no matter how much goods were transported, it could only be called water transportation, not water transportation.

The canal here is a specially-made artificially excavated water channel, which is what later generations called the Grand Canal.After hundreds of years of tinkering, by the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Canal had extended north to Tongzhou.Theoretically, goods can be loaded from Hangzhou and transported to Beijing in one go.

As we all know, the founding capital of the Ming Dynasty was not in Beijing, but in Nanjing.Nanjing cannot be said to be a land of plenty, but it is not far behind. There is no need to transport a large amount of grain from the south, and even if it needs to be transported, there is no need to use the Grand Canal.

Then was there no water transportation in the early Ming Dynasty?The answer is no, not only yes, but also very important.In addition to using the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, there is also a lot of sea transportation, which is a two-pronged approach. The main transportation is military rations.

It was not until Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, established his capital in Beijing that water transport was given more content. In addition to military rations, it also had to take on the task of supporting millions of soldiers and civilians in and around the capital. Its status did not decline but rose.

In future generations, whichever industry is important to national development will receive a large amount of investment, and it will be easier for practitioners to make money accordingly.It was the same in ancient times. As the capital moved north, water transportation became an indispensable industry, and its importance became visible to the naked eye.As a result, practitioners began to think, not about how to improve productivity, but about how to gain more benefits for themselves and their families from this industry.It is best to achieve a monopoly level, so that generations of people can eat and drink without worries.

It was still a bit difficult for water transport practitioners at that time to monopolize the water transport industry.Because during the Yongle period, water transportation not only relied on the canal line, but also had a line of sea transportation. It was walking on two legs, and the ratio was basically half and half.

Moreover, those who engage in river transport and those who engage in sea transport are not the same group of people, and neither party can completely replace the other.This is a bit troublesome. If you want to dominate the water transport industry, you must break one of its legs.

It was Yu Xin, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who first proposed using river transportation instead of sea transportation. The reason was that sea transportation was not safe and ship capsizing would occur from time to time, which would pose a great risk to the food security of the capital.

Emperor Yongle did not listen to partial beliefs, and asked the Ministry of Industry and the General Water Transport Corps. He learned that the canal at this time was in disrepair, the water was shallow, and the water was too shallow to bear the heavy responsibility of transporting grain, so he rejected the suggestion.

However, as an emperor, he must consider all the gains and losses. It is true that shipping is unstable due to the influence of climate and hydrology. It would not be a bad thing if the canal could be chosen as the main route, so he ordered the canal to be repaired.

Hundreds of thousands of laborers were used and it took a little less than a year before the canal was finally repaired.In order to satisfy the emperor, the officials who advocated river transportation united as one and cooperated from top to bottom. They assembled thousands of inland river boats in one go and safely transported 400 million tons of grain to Tongzhou.

Then everyone took turns to clear the river, expounding the benefits of river transportation from different angles, and further exaggerating the risks of sea transportation, and finally persuaded Emperor Wanli to cancel sea transportation and put all the burden of transporting bulk goods to the capital on the Grand Canal.

I want to ask why these officials like river transportation so much. Does river transportation really have advantages over sea transportation and can save the country transportation costs?Bullshit, this matter seems to be an academic debate between two different concepts, but there are many ulterior motives hidden behind it. To put it bluntly, it is a battle of interests.

As for whether it can save transportation costs for the country, who cares? No one can get the money saved. On the contrary, if we waste more, everyone can get some benefits from it, and everyone will be happy!

Of the officials who support river transportation, more than half have their homes along the canal, or their families may be involved in river transportation, while the remaining half have accepted lobbying and may benefit from it in the future.

On the contrary, officials who support maritime transport have the same idea. They are basically connected with the maritime transport link and belong to a community of interests.The only difference is that they failed and lost to another community of interests.

The prototype of the factional struggle in the imperial court can also be seen from the interest communities that support river transportation and maritime transportation. The Donglin Party, the Zhejiang Party, the Qi Party, and the Eunuch Party, to put it bluntly, are all interest communities with different demands. They compete for their own interests. There will be fierce battles over every policy.

Those who win benefit, those who lose suffer, that's all.In their eyes, the country, the nation, the people, and the country are just tools and weapons of struggle. They love them when they are useful, and throw them aside immediately after use, without even bothering to provide necessary maintenance.

(End of this chapter)