Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 328 The Roots Are in the Present

The key is still smuggling, and the interests involved are too huge.

At this stage, foreign trade is basically in a crushing state. Western countries cannot produce competitive products in trade with China and can only use large amounts of precious metals to purchase goods.

This situation did not just occur now, but has spanned thousands of years.

The main products of foreign trade in the early days were silk and rhubarb. Through the Silk Road, large amounts of gold, war horses and wine entered the Central Plains dynasty.

Later, the silk technology leaked out, which had a minor impact but still had an impact. Soon, porcelain became the new flagship product, and after a while, the porcelain technology also leaked out.

After the West entered the capitalist stage, tea became the flagship product of foreign trade, followed by fine porcelain and fine silk.

China is not a big country that produces silver, but it can use silver as currency, which shows how much silver it earned from foreign trade. The time of using silver as currency can be counted from the official certification of the Wanli period to Roosevelt's raising of silver prices in 33, which eventually gave rise to legal tender. Even so, the circulation of silver dollars has always existed, and even the strongest.

Faced with a long-term trade deficit, the unwilling Jews came up with a vicious idea: smuggling opium.

Since it is smuggling, it cannot be something that can be done unilaterally. It must have the cooperation of local people. Otherwise, if you transport the goods here, how are you going to sell them after they are landed, and how are you going to get the money?

This kind of thing doesn't take too long. Within two or three years, driven by huge interests, a huge interest group will be born.

So the question is, could the former governors-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, provincial governors, provincial governors and other officials at all levels be unaware of the existence of this phenomenon?

How could they not know? They were simply fed with silver, pretending not to see it, and even providing convenience for smugglers.

This situation was not so bad before, after all, the Central Plains dynasty did not have enough knowledge about the harm caused by opium. In the history of the Qing Dynasty, smuggling began to appear on a certain scale during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, and it was not until the reign of Emperor Daoguang that Lin Zexu made a comprehensive explanation of its harmfulness. These two points hit the emperor hard, because they really shook his rule.

After Jia Lian persuaded Emperor Chenghui, the court issued two laws to prohibit it. It seemed that there were laws, but the actual implementation was another matter.

Smugglers who colluded with foreigners were local tyrants, and the most typical representative in real history was the Thirteen Hongs. (It was also made into a TV series, I really don’t know how it passed the review. The traitors who are punishable by everyone dared to clean up!)
The Great Zhou was not the Great Qing, and it did not open up the seas everywhere, nor did it set up monopoly-type businesses. This did not prevent some profit-seeking people from colluding with Western smugglers and making the most of their talents.

Because of the system of officials on the move, it is common for an official to work in one place for two terms of six years and then be transferred. In the case of corruption, officials care about how much they can make. Smuggling or not, what does it have to do with the official? Anyway, when the time comes, they can just pat their butts and move to another place to make more money.

This was the situation when Li Chi was in office. If someone below him gave him money, he would make it easy for him. Once the money was in place, you could do anything. If something went wrong, the Governor's Office would have to rescue the person.

Li Chi has worked in Guangdong and Guangxi for six years. He knows the local conditions very well, if not completely.

If there is no one to enforce the imperial decree, it is just a decoration. It is better not to enforce it. There are even cases where the execution is deliberately distorted, and legitimate merchants are labeled as smugglers, and many families are drained of their wealth.

It can only be said that Wang Ziteng was an exception. He really cracked down on smuggling, although his starting point was not for the public interest, but for his own money and political achievements. More importantly, for the so-called Annan Hou, Wang Ziteng was determined to build Guangdong and Guangxi into a forward base leading to Annan. Building warships and training troops all require a lot of silver. As for whether it is possible to change a port to continue smuggling, it is not impossible, but smugglers need to spend time and energy to open up new channels. It is easier to find a way to bribe Wang Ziteng, which will not delay the time of making money.

The reason why Li Chi made things difficult for Wang Ziteng was very simple. He was waiting for news from Guangdong and Guangxi. If he could successfully bribe Wang Ziteng, everything would be fine. He was one of them. If he couldn't bribe him, he would have to think of other ways. He could get rid of or overthrow Wang Ziteng, and create all kinds of troubles for him. In short, he would use whatever means he could. It was related to the huge amount of silver income every year, so he didn't care about these things.

When Jia Lian impeached Wang Ziteng some time ago, Li Chi did not think that the two families had really fallen out. After all, they had been married twice, and their relationship was very deep. At most, there were some minor conflicts and estrangements.

This is normal. After all, they are two different families. It is normal to have some conflicts of interest and small contradictions. As long as they don't tear each other apart, we can continue to cooperate next time.

Li Chi had planned very well in advance. The people in Guangdong and Guangxi were working hard, so he had to make things difficult in Beijing first. When the Wang family came to him, he would do a favor and then get closer to them. Isn't it just money? It's a profit sharing.

But he never expected that after going around in circles, the Wang family did not come to his house, but went directly to Jia Lian.

Putting aside the Jia family, just looking at Jia Lian himself, he is such a fucking monster.

He was born as the top scholar in the imperial examination, married a woman named Wang, had Zhang Ting'en as his mentor and Li Qing as his tutor. He ignored the imperial concubines in the palace and was a favorite of the emperor.

This thing, with the label of disaster on its head, has killed many of its superiors, including the imperial teacher Han Zong.

If he were an ordinary official, he would have been killed long ago, with grass growing all over his grave. However, Jia Lian was not only alive and well, but he also made great contributions in the Yunyang Rebellion, Jining Rebellion, and Li Ni Case.

Let me put it this way, if Jia Lian came from a poor family, age and other things would not be a problem at all, and he should not be a fourth-rank official now. He should at least be given the third-rank to match his achievements.

Unfortunately, Jia Lian was born into a noble family, was a half-relative of the emperor, was a civil servant, could lead troops to fight, and even fight against the noble group. These factors combined led to Jia Lian being only a fourth-rank official.

The official position was neither high nor low, and there was a huge gap between him and Li Chi. However, Li Chi, who had seen Jia Lian stir up trouble in the cabinet meeting, did not dare to neglect Jia Lian, who was full of weirdness.

If Jia Lian had not repeatedly reported to the emperor the dangers of opium, Li Chi would have wanted to bribe Jia Lian directly.

The official document that Wang Ziteng wanted was quickly prepared and issued. The person Wang Ziteng sent to handle the matter was a clan member named Wang Li, who held the title of counselor in the governor's office and was stationed in the capital to be in charge of the affairs here.

From repeatedly hitting a wall at the Ministry of War to having the official documents processed and delivered to his door in person, after Wang Li got the document, he slipped a silver note to the official who came to deliver it.

After careful inquiries, he learned that Jia Lian had gone to the Ministry of War, and the matter was handled urgently. Wang Li then stayed alone in the study for an hour.

After staying with Wang Ziteng for a long time, he went from the capital to the Western Regions, back to the capital, to Guangdong and Guangxi, and back to the capital. Whenever he went out to do business, no matter which government office it was, he would always be successful under the banner of Wang Ziteng.

This incident gave Wang Li a big shock. Wang Ziteng's banner was no longer effective. Jia Lian's banner was effective, but it was impossible to order him around for no reason, right? Wang Li did not rush to take the official document to the Ministry of Works to pick up the goods. Instead, he wrote a letter and asked someone to send it to Wang Ziteng as soon as possible before going out to the Ministry of Works.

When the man arrived at the Ministry of Works and took out the official document, the official who received him looked at the content and the smile on his face disappeared. He did not get angry, but just said in a lukewarm tone: "The Jia surname bullied us, and the Wang surname also bullied us. Do you really think that people from the Ministry of Works are easy to bully? Take your official document and go wherever you need to go."

What he said was unpleasant, but he kept suppressing his anger, which showed that he was afraid.

Wang Li was a little confused, but he was experienced and immediately handed over a banknote: "My dear, please don't get angry. If you have something to say, please tell me in detail."

The official took a look at the amount, stuffed it into his sleeve with satisfaction, and then spoke: "Brother Wang, the production and storage of the new muskets are now under the R&D Department. You should go directly to Jia Lian."

They took money to do the work, and as for how they were bullied by Jia Lian, the officials of the Ministry of Works were too embarrassed to say it, as it was not a glorious thing.

When Wang Li left the Ministry of Industry, he felt very heavy-hearted. Wang Ziteng was still the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, but now he had to face the humiliation when he was doing business in Beijing. It can only be said that the changes in Beijing were so fast that Wang Li could not adapt to it. This revealed the major changes in the power structure of Beijing. Wang Ziteng, who was far away in Guangdong and Guangxi, did escape the Li Ni case on the eve of the New Year, but there was also the objective fact that his influence declined.

Everything pointed to the Wang family fading from the power center of the capital. I really don't know if Wang Ziteng can accept this.

After arriving at the R&D Department and reporting his name, he was quickly led to Jia Lian's office.

Jia Lian was completely businesslike, and after receiving the document, he immediately arranged for Ma San to handle it. Facing Wang Li, he only said a few polite words and then left first, making an excuse that he had something to do.

The smoothness of the matter was far beyond Wang Li's imagination. The R&D Department had its own workshops and warehouses, and everything from picking up the goods to escorting them was arranged in advance. Two thousand new rifles and matching ammunition, two new bronze muzzle-loading field guns and matching ammunition. When going through the procedures, no one blocked them, and the goods were delivered to the designated Tongzhou wharf. Then Wang Li had to find a way to solve the transportation problem himself.

The transportation problem is actually very easy. We just need to rent a boat and then send someone to escort it to Tianjin and head south by sea.

Jia Lian was not deliberately neglecting Wang Li, he really had something to do.

What happened? Zhang Ru, the governor of the grain transport, wrote a letter saying that the grain transport had been fully restored and the remnants of the Jining Incident had fled and could not pose a threat to the grain transport. Now that the grain transport was reorganized, it was able to complete the important task of protecting the safety of the grain transport, and asked the cabinet to resume the transportation of grain. The reality was that Sun Huazhen had always insisted on transporting grain by sea, going out to sea at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and then turning north.

The technical problems of transporting grain by sea had been solved long ago. The relevant technology existed during the Yuan Dynasty. The problem of seagoing ships was also solved by Sun Huazhen. Although it was impossible to build warships like Westerners, it was not difficult to build ships to transport grain.

The reality is that two forces were fighting in the court: one was the conservative canal transportation faction, and the other was the maritime transportation reform faction.

As the autumn harvest approached, the dispute over this matter became the focus of public opinion at the court, and the debate over whether to transport by sea or by canal became increasingly fierce.

Generally speaking, the water transport faction is very powerful in the cabinet, while the leaders of the maritime transport faction are the three cabinet ministers who were previously sent out.

The argument between the two sides has actually always existed, but the heat has been suppressed because of other things, but the problem has not been solved, so the quarrel will continue.

Recently, the debate about sea and grain transport in the capital has spread from the court to the common people in the capital.

Both sides are using private newspapers to advocate for their respective positions.

One side advocated that grain transport was safe, while sea transport was dangerous. Once there was a storm, it was common for the fleet to be wiped out. More importantly, the livelihood of the millions of grain workers on both sides of the canal was a problem. They also emphasized that the previous Jining Incident was caused by the severance of the grain workers' livelihoods. The sea transport of grain was likely to lead to the next large-scale civil uprising. By then, the money invested would be much greater than what could be saved by sea transport.

The maritime transport faction directly calculated the economic account. Although maritime transport has risks, the overall cost of transporting the same amount of grain to the capital is 30% lower by sea. As for the losses caused by risks, grain transport will also encounter the loss of grain by pirates, and the grain consumed by the canal workers is far greater than that consumed by sea transport. Finally, it is emphasized that since the sea transport, the price of grain in the capital has dropped by 20%.

Another thing is that on the cabinet side, the first minister Kong Zhao and the second minister Liang Daoyuan have not made a clear public statement on whether to use sea transportation or canal transportation, and they are just watching the people below rack their brains.

This matter has been hot for half a month, and Jia Lian has been watching from the sidelines.

After dealing with Wang Ziteng's affairs, Jia Lian received a call from Lin Ruhai and had to hurry to the meeting.

Lin Ruhai had been busy with the inspection team's work recently and had a rare short period of free time. Before he could take a break, he read the newspaper and realized the dispute between sea transportation and canal transportation and the seriousness of the problem.

Under the pretext of official business, Jia Lian came to the Inspectorate, and Lin Ruhai met with him alone in the office.

"Uncle, can't we wait until after get off work to talk at home? Why do you have to be so anxious?" Jia Lian was a little surprised. Lin Ruhai was not such an impetuous person.

Lin Ruhai smiled and waved his hands: "It's okay, I just want to let those who spread rumors see that the so-called disaster star is nonsense."

Oh, so it was to whitewash himself. Jia Lian nodded: "Thank you, uncle. Actually, I don't really care about this nickname."

"You can actually remain calm in the dispute between sea transportation and grain transport. I really don't understand. You were the hero who hit the prime minister with an inkstone back then." Lin Ruhai seemed to be joking, but he was actually giving a reminder.

What is the reminder? What Jia Lian did at the beginning greatly frightened the so-called canal transportation faction. Now there are still people who bring up the past, which shows that this force is extremely powerful.

Jia Lian had a unique view on this statement. He did not hide anything from Lin Ruhai and said directly: "In my opinion, bringing up the past is not just for economic interests."

Lin Ruhai's heart moved slightly. He also had some ideas and wanted to see if they could come up with a coincidence, so he smiled and said, "Tell me more!"

Jia Lian said: "The root of the matter lies with the present emperor!"

(End of this chapter)