Lin Gao Qiming

Now Anping has been reduced to an abandoned port after the Kinmen War, and the remaining Guangzhou port fell due to the invasion of bandits. Therefore, the imperial court could not receive a penny from sea trade.

The ministers of the imperial court did not think that the loss of overseas trade ports was a big deal. Because in most years of the Ming Dynasty, the ocean only brought threats, not income. In order to guard against "Japanese pirates" and "foreign pirates" coming from the East and the West, a lot of money was spent on coastal defenses.

The opening of the sea in Longqing has special significance in being written down in the history books. In fact, if we delve into the policy content and the background of its adoption, we will know that the so-called "opening up the sea" is more of a helpless measure that contains prohibition and levy. When the official government cannot prohibit private overseas trade, it has opened up a crack to a limited extent and transferred part of the underground trade to the ground, so that taxes can be collected from it. This does not mean that the Ming Dynasty has realized the importance of maritime trade, nor does it mean that the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards trade has changed.

Choosing Yuegang as an open port itself reflects that opening up the sea is an expedient measure. There are many mountains near Yuegang, making this place a relatively closed and independent space. The land is sparse and barren, and transportation is inconvenient, making it difficult for the agriculture encouraged by the Ming Dynasty to develop here. Having to rely on the sea to eat, they started smuggling trade. In other words, this is a "last resort" approach. The geographical environment of Yuegang itself is not suitable for being an open port.

This half-hearted on-off policy caused the imperial court to pay little attention to the development of maritime trade, and even intentionally restricted it. Even in 1594, the most prosperous year, all tax revenue in Yuegang was less than taels. It is only a drop in the bucket for Ming Dynasty's finances.

Wen Tiren is from Huzhou, Zhejiang, and has personal experience of the "making money" of sea trade. Most of the silk fabrics exported overseas in large quantities come from here. As a local gentry, the income from the sales of raw silk and cocoons alone is a huge amount of income every year. As for others, they were not too impressed.

Liu Yuliang said: "Your Majesty, this dynasty opened a port. According to the old practice of Yuegang, the annual tax, water rate, land rate, and increase in rate are only 20,000 taels. Today, it is said that we can get 200,000 taels of silver. This is actually a lie."

Other cabinet ministers also expressed doubts. Two hundred thousand taels is not a small number. In many places, a county's annual commercial tax is only a few taels of silver. Even though Shanghai County is rich, it is not possible to turn stone into gold.

Wen Tiren knew that this was not a false statement. He had heard about the high profits of sea trade. Especially in recent years, the China Merchants Shipping Company has been based in Shanghai and has been quietly doing business with Japan and North Korea, and all the Jiangnan gentry who have invested in it have made a lot of money. Although the Wen family did not directly own shares, their family was one of the main suppliers of raw silk to China Merchants Shipping Company, earning thousands of taels of raw silk every year just from selling raw silk. If the imperial court opens a port in Shanghai, it will issue ship pilots according to the system of 110 taels per year in the Yuegang case, and based on the "rate" Zheng Zhilong collected in Anping, 2,000 taels per ship, 200,000 taels will be easily available. .

I wonder who the person who wrote this letter is? Wen Tiren was secretly surprised. He has read all the memorials sent by the Secretary of General Affairs regarding diversion of pornography, and probably knows the contents. In the past year or so, no one has written a letter to discuss the opening of ports and the establishment of customs.

The emperor has lived in the palace for a long time and has never even been out of the capital. It is obviously not his own idea, so who wrote the letter? Wen Tiren immediately thought of the eunuch.

The greed of the eunuchs was unusual, and during the Wanli period, eunuchs were sent to various tax offices to serve as tax supervisors. Could it be that the emperor was bewitched by the eunuchs and remembered this?

However, most of the current Jiangnan maritime trade interests are in the hands of the Jiangnan gentry. The imperial court wanted to open a port and set up a customs in Shanghai and invade their expediency, which was like seizing food from the mouth of a tiger.

Although he has already determined to renovate the society, setting up a border in Shanghai can cut off their financial resources. But he did not want to be an enemy of the Jiangnan Jin gentry. What's more, the eunuchs who planned this matter did not communicate with him - he was not opposed to the eunuchs making money through this, but he was not interested in giving them a free benefit.

Immediately, he coughed slightly and said: "Opening a port can certainly increase the country's harvest. But Shanghai County is not very appropriate." He reminded, "Shanghai is a large county in Nanzhi, only a few hundred miles away from Nanjing. It's going to be fast. It also strangles the main channel of the Yangtze River into the sea, making it an important coastal defense town. There are many ports along the river and few warships, so it is the most difficult to defend and is not suitable for opening ports for trade. "

The various advantages of Shanghai's maritime trade were considered by officials in the 17th century to be its greatest disadvantages. When Wen Tiren said this, the cabinet ministers expressed their agreement.

What Wen Tiren said was so reasonable that the emperor could not refute it for a while. After all, this was just the advice of a nobody like Qian Taichong.

Seeing that there was nothing more to say about the matter, Wen Tiren said again: "Although Shanghai is not suitable, the opening of the port mentioned by the emperor will also be of great benefit to national affairs. I would like to ask you to open another place in other coastal provinces where it is not critical." Choose a place to open a port and set up a border."

This was said very appropriately and took care of the emperor's face. Chongzhen also felt very satisfied. In fact, whether it was Yuegang, Guangzhou or Shanghai, he had no special impression. After all, I was impressed by the income of 200,000 taels.

As long as he can receive money, he doesn't care where he chooses to open the port. He immediately praised him and said, "Wen Qingguo is a mature and prudent person."

"Long live thanks." Wen Tiren took the opportunity to report again that this matter involves foreigners and is of great importance. He might as well issue an edict and order the six ministries and nine ministers and the envoys from all along the coast to report it. "What Wen Qing said is very true. This matter must be done with caution." The emperor nodded, "I will issue an edict clearly according to what you said."

Wen Tiren returned to the mansion and thought about today's call. Originally, there was nothing special about the call. The strangest thing was this "Shangzou" that came from nowhere.

Although he speculated that the eunuch was responsible for the incident, he came back and thought about it carefully. Things don't seem that simple.

Although Wen Tiren did not collude with the eunuchs, he still had considerable connections in the palace so that he could keep abreast of the inner court news. If someone really intends to seek the position of prisoner, there will definitely be no news at all.

Could it be that it's not the eunuch, but someone else who secretly reported it? Thinking of this, Wen Tiren called a close confidant to accompany him, and whispered a few words, asking him to go see a eunuch immediately to inquire about the news.

However, this is not his most important thing right now. Wen Tiren's political sense is very sensitive. Since he joined the cabinet, he has made many enemies. These political enemies are now converging and plotting to expel him from the cabinet. The emperor also vaguely reveals his dissatisfaction with him.

If the holy family members decline, not only will their careers be difficult to protect, but their lives may also be in danger. Ever since Wen Tiren knew that Donglin-Fushe was planning to resurrect Zhou Yanru, he had a premonition that his feet were beginning to falter.

If he wanted to get rid of Zhou Yanru, he could only raise a major case, just like the case of Zheng Huan, a common man who was framed by Wen Zhen and Meng Gou. However, although Zhou Yanru has a lot of misdeeds, he has no serious reasons to arrest him, and he has resigned and returned home. Unless he is framed for treason, and the major treason case will inevitably involve the factory guards, he is not sure that he can be punished. Cao Huachun and Wu Mengming acted according to their own wishes.

How to do it? After thinking about it, since it was Donglin Fushe who pushed Zhou Yanru to come back, cutting off his wings is also a way. Under his operation in the past few years, Donglin's power in the court has been greatly reduced. The one who is really capable of making trouble is the rising star Fushe.

Fushe is known as Xiao Donglin. There are many overlaps in political opinions and members, but there are also differences between them: First, Fushe pays more attention to controlling the academic field and supporting disciples; while Donglin only focuses on the internal struggles of the court and has no influence on the science and technology. The market is not interested; secondly, Fushe pays more attention to controlling local areas, while Donglin's focus is on the central government.

Because Fushe "spared no effort" in recruiting disciples, it had great control over the academic field, and there was a phenomenon that "all Chinese-style people are Fushe people".

The existence of such a group, even if it does nothing, would still thorn in the back of a powerful official like Wen Tiren, not to mention that it is still its own enemy!

Because of Donglin's relationship, Wen Tiren and Fushe had already been at odds with each other for a long time. In June of the sixth year of Chongzhen, shortly after Wen Tiren became the first minister, his younger brother Wen Yuren instructed Wu Bing, a native of Yixing, to write a book called "The Legend of Green Peony". Alluding to the various ugly phenomena of Fushe, Wen Yuren also ordered people to adapt the book into a script and put it on the stage and perform it everywhere.

This incident made a big fuss and alarmed Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai. Er Zhang made a special trip to Zhejiang for this purpose and met with Li Yuankuan, the academic governor. Li Yuankuan immediately ordered the book to be destroyed and banned, and held the author accountable. Wen Yuren's family was arrested and imprisoned. After this incident, Wen Tiren realized for the first time Zhang Pu's strength. Although he had been out of office, he could still control the government affairs. Then he made up his mind to eradicate Fushe.

In the autumn of this year, Taicang's harvest failed, and Er Zhang wrote an article "Military Reserve Theory" to discuss the famine relief policy. Zhou Zhikui, the official of Suzhou Prefecture, accused Er Zhang of "violating the ancestral system and disrupting the canal regulations." Zhou Zhikui was a native of Fuzhou. He had also joined Fushe, was friendly with Qian Qianyi and Qu Shichu of Donglin, and had lectured at Longce Academy. He was arrogant because of his high reputation and was not accepted by other members of Fushe. Later he had a grudge against Zhang Pu.

However, his impeachment had no effect, and Zhou Zhikui was dismissed in July of the eighth year of Chongzhen. Zhou Zhikui believed that his resignation was the result of Fushe's operation and was very angry, so he wrote an article "Fushe or Question" to accuse Fushe and Erzhang. In May 1999, Lu Wensheng, a Taicang native, accused Er Zhang of "advocating for the restoration of society and causing chaos in the world." Wen Tiren took the opportunity to send Zhou Zhikui and Lu Wensheng's accusations to the relevant departments for review, hoping to use the opportunity to raise a large prison.

But Wen Tiren obviously miscalculated the power of "Tongtian Cult Master". Wen Tiren's plan encountered setbacks when Ni Yuangong, the imperial censor of Tixue, Feng Yuanyang, the deputy envoy to Haidao, and Zhou Zhonglian, the magistrate of Taicang, refused to carry out the order and even demoted him to protect him.

This incident made him fully aware of Fushe's energy, and therefore determined to eradicate Fushe.