My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

Chapter 62 Abandoning the Health and Building a Government in Tianjin
"Your Majesty's wisdom."

After hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Yuan Keli bowed.

It is not terrible to suffer defeat once, but it is not terrible to suffer defeat twice.

What he was afraid of was that the emperor would kill his generals every time he saw a defeat on the front line.

Then things will get out of hand, causing you to not dare to fight.

"As for transporting food, I have another idea. Since transporting food by road is too expensive, then we can transport it by sea."

Pointing to the location of the sea on the sand, Zhu Youxiao said.

“Southern Zhili transports grain to Beijing every year through the canal.”

"The grain and wages shipped to Liaodong can be boarded from Tianjinwei or Denglai and take the Bohai Sea."

"The minister agrees."

Looking at the position marks made on the sand table, Yuan Keli nodded.

"Transporting grain and grass by sea not only reduces the number of civilian laborers, does not affect the farming season, but also saves the cost of horses and mules."

"I remember that our Ming Dynasty had naval forces stationed in Denglai and Tianjin Guards, right?"

"Back to the Emperor, I have left a file with the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Tianjin Wei and Denglai have naval divisions. Tianjin Wei's naval division is currently lacking a commander. There is only Li Xiong, a staff general. Denglai Navy has no commander for the time being."

"If I set up a naval army, who does Master Yuan think will be the chief general?"

"In May last year, pirate Yuan Balao led his party of more than [-] people to rob the coast of Fujian. In July, they fled to Guangdong. Shen Yourong, the commander of Fujian Navy, appeased him and Guangdong was settled. I recommended Shen Yourong, commander of Fujian Navy. "

"Okay, let's make Shen Yourong the commander in chief."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded. Zhu Youxiao had heard of this naval general in the late Ming Dynasty.

Tianjin was named after the Emperor Jingzhi.

In later generations, the importance of Tianjin to Beijing is self-evident.

Today, Tianjin Wei is also very important to Beijing.

After Longqing opened the sea and Wanli conquered Korea, Tianjin has become part of the capital's coastal defense.

"I plan to destroy the Tianjin Guards and build a mansion. I wonder if Master Yuan would be willing to do it for me."

"If your Majesty has any mission, I will do my best."

Ever since the emperor announced the establishment of a navy, Yuan Keli had vaguely guessed that he might be asked to raise the navy.

"There is not much money left in the internal funds. I can only give you 10 taels of silver in cash."

After taking out the account book and looking through it, Zhu Youxiao said to Yuan Keli.

"I'm afraid this money won't even be enough for a warship."

Hearing the emperor's words, Yuan Keli frowned.

Why is the emperor so stingy today? Isn't he usually quite generous?

"Listen to me."

He waved his hand and signaled a middle-aged eunuch recruited from Fujian to come over.

"His name is Wang Li, and he is from Fujian. I heard from him a few days ago that there are people in Fujian who turn the sea into salt, which is very labor-saving and does not waste carbon dioxide."

"I will give him another 5 taels of silver as cost money, as well as some accounting eunuchs from the inner court, and ask him to go to Tianjin with you to try to see if it is possible to realize salt drying in Tianjin. I want to build a large-scale Salt Works.”

"Thirty percent of the profits from selling salt will go to the internal funds, [-] percent will go to Master Yuan, and the remaining [-] percent will be used to expand the scale. How about that?"

"This?"

He knew that salt was a huge profit, but Yuan Keli didn't have a true feeling about how huge it was, and he hesitated when he heard this.

"Oh, Master Yuan, don't worry. If this doesn't work out, I will give you some money from my own funds."

Knowing why Yuan Keli hesitated, Zhu Youxiao comforted him.

In fact, he wasn't worried about failure at all.

At this time, many places in the south of the Ming Dynasty had used the sun salt method.

He waved his hand and signaled the eunuch to start drafting, Zhu Youxiao said.

"The imperial edict was passed, and Shen Yourong was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Tianjin Guard Navy. The Tianjin Guard was abolished and Tianjin Prefecture was established. Yuan Ke, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was immediately moved to the Tianjin Prefecture. He was appointed Fang Baojian, the governor of the Tianjin Guard Navy, and also carried out Liao's pay."

"The minister leads the decree to thank you."

Hearing this, Yuan Keli quickly cupped his hands and said.

"Yes." Nodding, Zhu Youxiao still felt a little uneasy. For this reason, someone called the British prince Zhang Zhiji over.

"I respectfully invite Sheng An."

Zhang Zhiji bowed after entering the lobby.

He was in charge of logistics in Nanhaizi. As long as his father, Zhang Weixian, was still alive, it would be difficult for him to get ahead, and he would not be as good as his tough-headed son.

And I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but Zhang Zhiji always feels like he’s gained weight these days.

"I leave it to you to go to Cao Wenzhao's Huben Guards and select two hundred elite soldiers to form an imperial guard to guard Yuan Keli."

"Your Majesty, this, this is impossible."

Yuan Keli felt a little numb when he heard about the manpower assigned to him by the emperor.

He asked the British prince to be the captain of the imperial guard for him. If others knew about it, they would not impeach him to death.

"It doesn't matter. I will be of great use to it in the future, so I will treat it as a preliminary exercise."

After waving his hand, Zhu Youxiao reached out and patted Zhang Zhiji's protruding general's belly.

"As the saying goes, if a jade is not polished, it will become useless. Look at how fat this person has become."

Although it was normal for ancient generals to have general belly. After all, it is difficult to build muscles, but it is still very easy to gain weight.

Moreover, the more fat you accumulate, the easier it will be to exert force on the battlefield.

But Zhang Zhiji just gained weight and no muscles.

"I thank your Majesty for your love."

Zhang Zhiji blushed a little at Zhu Youxiao's actions and quickly held his hands.

"Let's go select soldiers."

Waving his hand to Zhang Zhiji to select troops, Zhu Youxiao asked the young eunuch to send the draft imperial edict to the cabinet for drafting, and then sent Yuan Keri out.

"Xiong Tingbi wants to farm, and I agree."

"But I won't agree to his request for money. Liaodong can no longer send money."

"I replied to him with a letter and asked him to make a specific memorial with Sun Chengzong, make a list of the things he will use, and then buy them from the capital and transport them to Liaodong."

"Your Majesty's wisdom."

After putting Yuan Keli on the carriage, Zhu Youxiao squinted his eyes and looked in the direction he left.

"Xu Xianchun."

"The minister is here."

Hearing the emperor greeting him, Xu Xianchun, who was on duty beside the emperor today, quickly spoke out.

"Send the Jin Yiwei to secretly check out the families of a few salt class officials to see if they are wealthy enough."

"The minister takes orders."

Hearing this, Xu Xianchun quickly cupped his hands and said.

With his hands tapping behind his back, Zhu Youxiao wondered how much money he could get from the Salt Class Tiju Division.

Tea, horse, salt and iron are among the four major profit-making industries. Although salt ranks third, the profit is definitely not inferior to the other three because it is a necessity.

But the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty cannot be said to be well-designed, it can only be said to be a complete mess.

Salt production relies on salt households, which is passed down from generation to generation, which is extremely inhumane, and the output is still low.

The court would never know how much money merchants could make from selling salt in a year.

The court's salt tax is still decreasing year by year.

And they also raised a group of special traitors such as Shanxi merchants.

Regarding the salt issue, Zhu Youxiao plans to separate production and sales.

Production is managed by the Household Department and supervised by the inner court.

Sales are under a provincial contracting system. Each province selects a company to be responsible for the salt sales in the province and is managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

If something goes wrong with the salt sales, just choose another one.

This is real pig farming.

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(End of this chapter)