Chapter 194, For the country and the people to open the sea ban
"Yes, even if fishing is allowed."
Li Dongyang nodded. Only in times of famine can one understand the preciousness of food. Now that there is endless food in the ocean, it is natural that we cannot stick to the old rules and cling to the ancestral system.
"It's just not easy to lift the sea ban. The Shilins in Jiangnan will definitely oppose it."
After thinking about it, Li Dongyang felt that this matter was not easy to facilitate. He naturally knew some of the situations in Jiangnan. It was not that no one had proposed lifting the sea ban before, but almost all of them were unanimously opposed by Jiangnan Shilin.
be opposed to.
The interests involved were very huge, and the opposition forces involved were beyond imagination. In the Ming Dynasty, the power of Jiangnan Shilin was a force that could not be ignored. Especially in the middle and late periods, it almost controlled the entire government and everything.
It's all them who have the final say.
"It is indeed not an easy task, but you and I should share the emperor's salary and share his worries. Even if it is a matter of benefit to the country and the people, we should work hard to achieve it regardless of our own lives."
Zhou Jing nodded, but said in an upright manner.
Although he is known as a pig-skinned person, often staring at Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds, and often spitting in Emperor Hongzhi's face to give advice, in the final analysis he is actually an upright person who dares to offend his opponents.
Zeng Shang said: "My relatives seek promotion without any merit, and seek rewards without any efforts. In addition, they organize fasts, feasts, entertainment and banquets that are wasteful, resulting in an empty national treasury, which should be vigorously curbed."
This advice alone offended those relatives of the emperor. You must know that Emperor Hongzhi was a good old man, so those relatives, the princes of Lao Zhu's family, etc. often asked for rewards from him.
For example, when King Yong Zhu Yousong requested to collect taxes from the Hengzhou Tax Department and Hengyang County Hebo Office, Zhou Jing said he could not agree. Xiaozong accepted Zhou Jing's opinion and ordered that from now on, the palace should not make requests for tax collection from various places.
.
Zhu Jianze, the king of Chong, asked for more than 20 hectares of beach land in Henan, but Zhou Jing said it was not suitable to give it; Zhu Youqi, the king of Xing, asked for more than 1,300 hectares of Chima river moorings and land near the lake, and Zhou Jing wrote three essays to persuade him.
There were also two brothers-in-law of Emperor Hongzhi, Shouning Hou Zhang Yanling and Jianchang Bo Zhang Heling. These two brothers came to Emperor Hongzhi every now and then to ask for land, salt, mines, etc.
Emperor Hongzhi was a strict henkeeper and a soft-hearted good man. Almost all the requests of these two brothers were agreed to, and Zhou Jing also wrote letters of advice again and again.
This almost offended the two Zhang brothers to death, and made the Zhang brothers hate him to the core.
From these examples, we can know that Zhou Jing was actually a minister comparable to Wei Zheng. Zhang Tingyu commented on him: Jing was just and upright, he liked to give strong advice, and he never provoked even though he disobeyed the decree.
Of course, we can also see from the other side that many systems in the Ming Dynasty were actually very good, and some of the systems left by Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang were still very good, such as the salt introduction system.
But often the first person to destroy the system is the emperor himself, so that the good system cannot be effectively implemented all the time.
Although Emperor Hongzhi is highly praised in history books, he is really a good man. The descendants of the old Zhu family, relatives of the emperor, etc. often find themselves asking for all kinds of things, such as salt, land, taxes, etc., and he almost does everything.
promise.
Let’s not talk about anything else. Just for the salt bait, he has awarded hundreds of thousands of salt coins to the Zhang brothers. This salt bait can be directly collected from the salt field and then sold.
Other merchants had to work hard to transport grain to border towns in exchange for salt, but these relatives of the emperor could easily ask Emperor Hongzhi to reward him with salt.
This situation is extremely serious. The output of the salt field is limited. Naturally, the salt imports of these royal relatives cannot be neglected. The salt imports obtained by the merchants who worked hard to transport grain cannot produce salt. This is a big deal.
This dampened the enthusiasm of salt merchants to transport grain.
This is also the reason why the salt introduction system could no longer be implemented by the Hongzhi Dynasty. The occupation of the palace by royal relatives was so serious that some salt merchants had to wait in line for salt introduction for decades before they could extract salt from the salt field.
Naturally, no businessmen would foolishly transport grain in exchange for salt. This system of receiving grains on an open basis could no longer be implemented, and the expenses of border troops were no longer guaranteed.
Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi submitted a letter that the payment of grain should be opened for payment of silver. The salt merchants did not need to transport grain to the border town, but only needed to pay silver to obtain salt.
A good Yanyin system of collecting grain and opening it up could no longer be implemented and had to be changed.
Although this change allowed the court to earn an additional million taels of silver per year in a short period of time, the amount of silver received later became less and less, and military expenditures in border towns became larger and larger, and military needs could not be met.
, the combat effectiveness became lower and lower, eventually forming a vicious cycle, which directly dragged the Ming Dynasty to death in the late Ming Dynasty.
To put it bluntly, in many cases, the people below are not to blame. If we are to blame, we can only blame the emperor, because they themselves were the first to not abide by the rules of the game and break the rules of the game.
(It’s a bit far-fetched, just take a look)
Zhou Jing was an upright man, and he held the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He was well aware of the difficulties of the court and the sufferings of the people. So when he saw the huge harvest of fishing in the ocean, he naturally wanted to work hard to open a sea ban and let the coastal areas
You can go fishing in the sea, get more food, and feed more people.
This is something that is of great benefit to the country and the people. It was okay to say that he did not know about it before. But now that he has seen it with his own eyes, he cannot ignore it. This is due to his consistent character.
It was precisely because of his integrity and his courage to give direct advice that Emperor Hongzhi reused him and placed him in the position of Minister of Household Affairs. Even though he stared at Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds every day, sometimes Emperor Hongzhi was very angry.
But I never thought about replacing him.
"What Duke Zhou said is true, I am really ashamed!"
Hearing Zhou Jing's righteous words, Li Dongyang quickly said with admiration, Li Dongyang is a person who is more tactful in doing things, considers things more comprehensively, and is thoughtful, but he can be reused by Emperor Hongzhi, and he is obviously a good minister.
"How about we submit a letter together after we return to Beijing?"
"That is why we should open a maritime ban for the sake of our country and our people."
Zhou Jing showed a smile on his face, looked forward, looked at the spacious road and said: "There is also this cement. I will definitely ask Liu Jin for the production method. Such a magical tool should be vigorously promoted to the whole world and spread throughout the country.
A series of broad roads have been built within the area."
