The Tang Dynasty made a good start. The emperors of the Central Plains Dynasty were basically very concerned about the coming of all nations to the court.
This has a huge impact on their posthumous reputation evaluation.
The current emperor of the Daqian Dynasty is naturally no exception.
As a Central Plains dynasty, the number of vassal states in Daqian seems to be much less than that of the previous Ming Dynasty.
I didn’t feel much about it before, but now that I’ve reacted, I naturally feel that nothing is right.
Indeed, there has been no official communication between the island kingdom in the South China Sea and Daqian for a long time.
If things went as expected, he would never agree.
In addition, the many islands in the South China Sea described in the novel are rich in resources, which has also aroused great interest today.
It’s all because of lack of money!
Although the income of both the private treasury and the household department has increased a lot due to the drying of sea salt, there are more places where money is needed.
Especially this year, natural disasters occurred simultaneously in the north and the south, and the imperial court's money consumption was even greater. Now, for the second time, money has been allocated from private treasury to help the Ministry of Revenue alleviate the plight of lack of money.
It would be a great thing if we could obtain huge profits from the many island countries in the South China Sea.
It's just that this matter is a plot in a novel. Whether it is true or not still needs to be investigated.
Well, the royal spies sent to the southeast coast have sent back some news one after another.
The content is that the current mood is very unhappy. The strength of the big families on the southeast coast is much more powerful than expected.
Although the royal spies have just begun to conduct in-depth investigations, some of the news that came back is enough to make me feel unhappy today.
The wealthy families on the southeastern coast are out-and-out local emperors, and their influence is astonishingly great.
From the government to the rural clans, they are almost monolithic to outsiders.
With such news, it can now be determined that the wealth held by the wealthy families on the southeast coast is absolutely astronomical.
Now we know that if we want to build our hometown into a piece of iron, we need a huge amount of money to maintain it, and we still have to spend huge amounts of money every year to consolidate it.
The land in the hands of the big families in Southeast Asia is far inferior to that of the big families in the Central Plains. So where do they get the huge amount of money to maintain the monolithic place?
It can only be earned through overseas trade!
Whether it is the desire to spread Daqian's greatness to the many island countries in the South China Sea, or the actual pursuit of interests, people are now thinking about participating in overseas trade.
As for the big families on the southeastern coast, it would be fine if they were sensible. After all, they don't want to cause turmoil in the south and affect the stability of Daqian.
But if these guys are ignorant, then there is no need to be polite now.
How can you, a small group of maritime merchant families, monopolize the astonishing profits from overseas trade?
These thoughts only appeared in a flash and were quickly perfected.
When he came to his senses, his face was as dark as water, but in his heart he felt a little bit afraid of Jia Rong, the head of the Ning Mansion.
It's really amazing. Just one novel has stirred up troubles all over the world.
Now that he knew it well, even he, the emperor, was thinking about it. How could the dignitaries in the capital remain indifferent?
These guys are all very greedy and act quite unscrupulously without caring about the consequences.
I just don’t know what the real purpose of Jia Rong, the head of the Ning Mansion, is?
This guy hides behind the scenes, he is really like a poisonous snake. Although he is scary, he does not dare to neglect him at all.
Also, does the title of the novel "Overseas Founding" have any other meaning?
Little does Jia Rong know that the powerful people in Beijing and today have been affected by the plot of the new novel and have become very interested in many island countries in the South China Sea.
He could only know that Xiang Dai Quan in the Daming Palace was also listening to novels for entertainment. How did he know that Jin Dynasty had sent several waves of spies to the southeastern coastal areas?
As for the so-called purpose, he is just lifting the lid.
As long as Jinmen Port and many coastal areas in the north develop ports, sooner or later a fierce conflict of interest will break out with the wealthy families on the southeast coast.
With the way the other party behaves, it's hard to say it won't go to extremes.
We had plundered ten watercrafts before. If the interests of being touched were greater, we might just send assassins over.
Ahem, before, Jia Rong pointed out the group of founding noble families who were dazzled by money and were full of drive. He also gave them vague sea maps and asked them to go directly to the Japanese pirates' lair to do business.
I don’t know if Iwami Ginzan has been developed yet?
If the fleet of the Founding Honor Group officially started trade with Japan, it would be a lot of fun.
Even though the South China Sea island countries are rich in resources, they are not as advanced as the civilizations of Goryeo and Japan. Naturally, they are far inferior to the production and accumulation of social wealth.
This is also the reason why Central Plains maritime merchants paid special attention to Korea and Japan.
After all, Goryeo was connected to Liaodong by land. Land trade took away a lot of trade share, and the profit space of sea trade was also restricted.
Different from the Japanese country, it has no land connection with the Central Plains. If the maritime trade channel of the Japanese country is opened, the profits will be quite astonishing, and they will be continuous profits.
In addition, because Goryeo was located too far north, maritime trade with the southeast coast was not very convenient. The wealthy people on the southeast coast did not regard Goryeo as a trade partner.
However, the situation in Japan was different. It was not far from the hometown of the big families on the southeast coast, and communication by sea was very convenient, so it was naturally regarded as a forbidden country.
Once contacted by the Founding Group, the reaction will definitely be quite violent.
Maybe, just like the Southern Ming Dynasty, bankrupt samurai from the Japanese country, the so-called Japanese pirates, will be introduced to disrupt coastal order.
Don't think that they can't do such a thing. Which maritime merchant can develop maritime trade to a certain extent without supporting one or several pirate gangs?
Jia Rong had no intention of playing these tricks with them, so he simply revealed all the secrets of maritime trade.
I believe that before long, the wealthy families along the southeast coast will have countless competitors.
The aristocratic families and gentry in the south, the dignitaries in the north, as well as the royal relatives and businessmen, are enough for them to have a good drink.
In terms of their background, they may not be afraid of any of the big families along the southeast coast, but in terms of power and voice in the local area and court, they are still not as powerful as the traditional local tycoons.
Once many tyrannical forces set their sights on maritime trade, it is not possible to block it just by trying to block it.
Of course, Jia Rong is not serving the powerful. He wants to remind the current and court officials not to always focus on the Central Plains.
The interests here have been completely divided, and there will be natural and man-made disasters that will last for decades in the future, always squeezing the bottom class, and the people will not be able to withstand it.
It would be better to open our mouths and let the people who can't survive go to the outer seas to make a living.
Just as Pig's Feet conjectured in the novel "Overseas Founding of the Kingdom", if millions or even tens of millions of people could go to sea to make a living, the help to the Daqian court would be immeasurable.
Of course, the premise is that the court must be responsible, otherwise if the people are allowed to go to sea on their own, the casualty rate will be too high.
The meaning is not obvious, and it is estimated that those in power would not think of it.
However, when the situation worsens, the big shots in the court will naturally be tempted.
At the end of summer, the drought in the north became more and more serious. The food harvest in some areas was determined to be extinct, and the number of refugees once reached one million.
Especially in the Guanzhong area, due to over-development for thousands of years, water and soil erosion have been serious, making the situation even worse.
There have even been several cases of refugees attacking villages outside the city and landlords' estates.
That is to say, there is a lack of ambitious people who can raise their arms and have great appeal, otherwise there will be great chaos in Guanzhong at this time.
It's not that there is no food in the Guanzhong area, but that the food is tightly controlled by the big landowners, big businessmen and local yamen, and cannot fall into the hands of ordinary people at all, which is why the situation is so bad.
Otherwise, the hundred years of peace and prosperity are not in vain, and the accumulation is quite rich.
Even though the imperial court had ordered the opening of warehouses for relief, the local government offices colluded with large landowners and businessmen to raise the price of food extremely high, and then slowly released relief food bit by bit.
They want to drain the last bit of money out of the people's pockets, and at the same time wantonly expand the number of fields owned by the family, and they are very rampant.
In comparison, neighboring Jin Province also suffered from drought, but the situation was much better.
As the chief envoy of Jin Province, Lin Ruhai would not collude with local powerful people and businessmen.
Besides, there are no powerful and powerful forces with huge influence in Jin Province anymore, and Lin Ruhai has been operating for many years and can still control the government situation.
As for the local area, the large and medium-sized coal mines did not take advantage of the situation and instead paid normal wages when the disaster was severe.
The large coal mines controlled by the Ning government simply turned their salaries into food for distribution, which easily stabilized people's hearts and even recruited more absentees.
To be honest, as long as there is enough young and strong labor force, the income of coal mines will be greatly increased, and there is no need to use unscrupulous means to exploit the people at the bottom.
Other large and medium-sized coal mines followed suit and recruited millions of young workers at once, so their families could naturally survive.
When other beings saw this, they naturally didn't have the guts to make a mistake, which resulted in the same severe drought. However, there were not many refugees in Jin Province.
Under the supervision of Lin Ruhai, the local government launched a work-for-relief program and built official roads and various farmland water conservancy ditches.
It even accepted requests from many coal mines, organized a large amount of labor to build horse-drawn tracks, and connected the horse-drawn tracks in some coal mines.
By the time the government reacts, all coal mines connected by horse-drawn tracks have already started internal connectivity.
Horse-drawn carriages can not only pull coal, but also people and other goods, making coal mining areas that were originally inaccessible suddenly become very convenient.
Relying on the newly built villages and towns in the coal mining areas, external exchanges have become much more convenient, and the situation in the entire region seems to be revitalized.
Such changes have frightened local officials and they don't know how to respond.
They don't have the guts to fight against the coal mines, and they don't have the energy to continue tormenting the refugees. The horse-drawn tracks connecting many coal mines were also built by their organization. Now it's impossible to go back on their word.
Anyway, it was done through work-for-relief, so no matter how uneasy I felt, I could only hold my nose and admit it.
Even Lin Ruhai was a little frightened, but he was not panicked.
After all, he, who has been in frequent contact with Jia Rong, knows that at least Jia Rong has no objections at the moment, and knowing this is enough.
As for more, there is no need to worry too much, just watch.
To be honest, the horse-drawn track is quite convenient, but it is not in the hands of the government, which somewhat makes the local officials feel inappropriate.
But the powerful people who own the coal mines are all their own people.
If the people developing the coal mines were all businessmen, it is estimated that the officials in Jin Province would not let it go so easily.
Even the government granaries of Jin Province have more or less problems, which have little impact on the overall situation of Jin Province.
It's not that food is suddenly unimportant, but that large and medium-sized coal mines have their own food input channels, and the quantities are absolutely disappointing to the young people in Shanxi Province.
With so much grain imported, even if very little grain flows out of the coal mines, it will still suppress the potential take-off of grain prices.
So a strange scene occurred. It was clear that both neighboring provinces were suffering from severe drought, but the specific conditions in the two provinces were very different.
Naturally, there is no politeness today, because the disaster has caused a lot of distress, so I will reward and punish what is deserved, without mercy at all.
Lin Ruhai was not promoted, but he had an extra spot on his hands.
In other words, if he is willing to recommend it, even Bai Ding can directly become a member of the officialdom.
Not only that, there is also an additional quota for direct recommendation to enter the Imperial College as a supervisor.
For Lin Ruhai, such rewards are dispensable.
When the time came for Jia Rong's "Surprise" to be published, there were already a few sporadic light rains in the north.
Although the rainfall is not large, it is as precious as nectar to the north, which has been suffering from drought for a long time.
Apart from anything else, there is still some hope of saving some replanted grain.
But the situation in the south is getting worse.
After all, summer is the flood season for various rivers in the south. Although the continuous rain is not so fierce, it cannot last for a long time.
Coupled with the frequent occurrence of various problems with local water conservancy facilities, the number of embankments is no longer one or two, and the great losses suffered by local people can be imagined.
It can only be said that the officialdom in the south is very abnormal. Once trouble occurs, all its shortcomings are exposed.
Even if several imperial ministers were sent from the capital, armed with Shang Fang's sword and killing heads, they could not stop the flooding.
Yes, now that the government is ruthless, the officialdom in the south has been purged so tragically.
The key is that, after all of them have reached this level, there are still a lot of unscrupulous businessmen who collude with local officials to hoard goods and drive up prices.
At the local level, land annexation has become more and more intense, and in some places there have even been appalling incidents such as open robberies.
The originally prosperous South was hit by successive floods, and a large number of refugees appeared, and local order was seriously affected.
There have even been major incidents of killing officials and rebelling in some places.
It is no exaggeration at all. The richer the place, the more moths there are.
It would be okay if the government had effective control, but many officials turned a blind eye and turned a blind eye to the suffering of the people.
On the contrary, he actively participated in the action of carving up people's wealth. The situation will only get worse. The official leaders in the south don't know how to end it.
To be honest, at this time, the people in the south were living a more miserable life than the victims in the north.
In the north, Jia Rong led the Founding Group and did a lot of serious things, helping the court alleviate too many troubles, and the victims also received good arrangements.
The main reason is that the government is running effectively. Although there have been various cases of making money from disasters, at least there has not been a big scene where millions of refugees gathered...