Qian Zuili and the others guessed Li Xuan's thoughts, and they were half right and half wrong at the same time.
Li Xuan felt that Chen Lifu was a talented person, but that was all!
As for reusing him and then promoting him to serve as a minister or even a minister, Li Xuan has never thought about this kind of thing, and even if he has thought about it, he doesn't care.
The Tang Empire was not a small empire. In a huge empire, everything was actually lacking, except for people, especially officials!
The idea of official position formed over thousands of years has a profound influence on people in this era. In this era, the most talented people regard becoming an official as the only way out.
The biggest motivation for people these days to study is actually to become an official.
If it weren't for becoming an official, why would I study hard for more than ten years?
Such a social background also determines that the most elite groups in the entire society will be continuously attracted and then become part of the ruling class.
Whether you join the military or politics, it's all for the same reason.
And what’s more interesting is that in the current environment of the Tang Dynasty, a considerable number of the most outstanding young people have the goal of applying for martial arts school and Hai Xuetang as their life goals, not just applying for the Imperial Academy and Jinling University and then attending
Participate in the examination.
This involves the aristocratic system of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty clearly stipulated that no knighthood is allowed except for military merit!
The only exceptions here are the relatives of the clan and a few civil servants in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, such as Liu Bagou and others.
But apart from them, if anyone else wants to be knighted, they must use it for military merit!
At the same time, the military noble class of the Tang Dynasty was very different from that of previous dynasties.
First of all, after the unification, the Tang Dynasty did not let the horses go to Nanshan and let the rabbits die and the dogs were cooked. On the contrary, the role of the army was still very obvious.
In addition, in addition to honorary treatment such as knighthood, the military's treatment is also related to the fact that the military's treatment is inherently high.
The income from joining the army in the Tang Dynasty was not low!
Even an ordinary soldier can earn more than one tael of silver a month after having enough food and drink.
And officers are even higher. A captain, not counting trophies and other additional income, can earn several hundred taels of silver in a year just from salary and subsidies.
As for school officials, it's even higher, basically already over a thousand taels of silver.
By the time you reach the rank of general, you will earn several thousand taels of silver a year!
Even with this salary alone, they can live a life of excellence!
Not to mention, the military has always been at war, and there are spoils of war. Even if most of the spoils are turned over, no one will believe it if they say they will not make some war fortune from the war.
It is said that in the 8th year of Xuanping Dynasty, the 15th Infantry Division that entered the Korean Peninsula, from ordinary soldiers to senior generals, everyone made a huge fortune.
You can make a fortune by joining the army!
In addition to these salary benefits, there are also extremely high political benefits!
This has something to do with the transition of veterans to other jobs. The military retires a large number of soldiers every year, and the military does not ignore retired soldiers and often makes arrangements for them.
For ordinary soldiers, it depends on the situation. Soldiers who have not performed well during their service will generally be arranged to work in enterprises affiliated to the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. If they are unwilling to go, they will be given a subsidy.
Soldiers and non-commissioned officers who perform well are often assigned to local positions as patrol police, tax inspection teams and other grassroots positions.
As for officers, the arrangements are not so unified, but there is basically a principle, which is to compare grades according to military rank. It is hard to say where to go, it depends on the specific situation, but after a major retires, he can often be arranged to...
Grade six.
As for Wei Guan, it would be seventh rank, eighth rank or something like that.
In other words, if you join the army now, even if you fail to survive in the army and become a general, you can still become a local official after you retire!
This also greatly alleviated the concerns of elite scholars about applying for martial arts schools and abandoning their studies to join the army!
After all, these students apply for martial arts school to become officials!
Being an army officer is also being an official. After retiring and transferring to another place, that is also being an official!
The essence has not changed much.
Under this background, China has been lacking everything for thousands of years, except for officials.
There is no way, all the elites in the entire society are rushing to become officials, so there is really no shortage of talents.
All that is missing is the political environment to make good use of these talents!
Chen Lifu's ability is indeed good, but there are many talented officials in the Tang Empire. In the early days of the founding of the country, corruption was still relatively small. People were all motivated by meritorious service and dared to do big things.
So without Chen Lifu, there will still be Zhang Lifu, Qian Lifu and the like...
Li Xuan did not pay much attention to Chen Lifu's affairs in the future. As the emperor of the empire, he had many things to do.
Domestic affairs occur every day and are almost endless, and there are also many external affairs.
For example, we had another conflict with the Portuguese recently. This time the conflict was not with someone else, but with the Spanish!
Why, because after Datang occupied Luzon Prefecture in the past two years, it began to vigorously develop Luzon.
Needless to say, immigration and land reclamation were done every day, and the Portuguese didn't care much about it. Well, they couldn't control it either.
What really made the Portuguese jump is that since last year, Spain has begun to organize a large number of fleets to travel thousands of miles across the entire Pacific Ocean, from the Americas to Luzon Island in East Asia, and then do business with the Tang Empire here, and then again
Set sail back to Europe!
what does that mean?
This means that the Spanish have broken through the Portuguese blockade, and then got involved in East Asian trade, and brought back a large amount of spices, silk and other East Asian specialties to Europe.
And this is something that the Portuguese cannot bear!
In recent years, the Tang Empire has been trying to bypass the Portuguese and start trade directly with Europe!
It was against this background that the Datang Western Company was established and began to explore European routes. The fleet led by Ying Zihua also arrived in Spain successfully. However, it has to be said that cross-ocean trade was still too difficult for the Tang Empire.
, although Datang Western Company reluctantly opened up a sea route, this sea route was immature and very fragile.
Therefore, after trying to go to Europe once, Datang Western Company also gave up the unrealistic idea of going directly to Europe for trade, and instead planned to concentrate on trade in India, West Asia, East Africa and other regions.
Speaking of money, money is better earned in India!
But the European routes cannot be cut off. At this time, Spain, which has been pursuing the establishment of a global trade system, hooked up with the Tang Empire.
The Spaniards and Datang Western Company, represented by Ying Zihua, reached a cooperation agreement. The agreement stipulates that both parties can use each other's supply ports, and this range includes the west and east coasts of Africa, as well as the coasts of India and Southeast Asia.
There is no way, both of them have very few supply ports in the above-mentioned areas. If they rely on one alone, they will not be able to complete the long voyage across East Asia to Europe. If the two parties cooperate, then a stable route will be established.
Got the basics.
Datang Western Company has currently established many supply ports in Southeast Asia and India, and the Spanish also have many supply ports on the west coast of Africa. If the two parties combine with each other, they will be a great complement.
The Spanish Datang Empire, no, it cooperated with the Datang Western Company, so whose interests were harmed?
Portuguese!
In recent decades, the Portuguese have made almost a lot of money by monopolizing the routes from East Asia to Europe. Now the Tang Empire is cooperating with the Spanish and jointly opening up European routes. Their interests will naturally be
suffered great losses.
At this time, the Portuguese naturally took action!
They intensified the blockade on the east and west coasts of Africa, and also intensified the blockade on the Indian Ocean, and launched targeted attacks on Datang Western Company and Spanish merchant ships in the above-mentioned waters.
Of course, no one would talk about launching an attack, but the increase in pirates in the above-mentioned waters is the most obvious evidence.
Not to mention, they have also repeatedly supported pirates in Southeast Asia to attack merchant ships traveling between Luzon, Banten and other routes!
Although ordinary people never appeared in public from beginning to end, everyone can guess that there must be Portuguese influence behind these pirate attacks.
"Regarding the Nanyang issue, the purpose of our cabinet is the same as before, which is to establish a peaceful, orderly, and empire-led new pattern of maritime trade!" Liu Bago expressed his opinions on behalf of the cabinet at the imperial meeting.
When Liu Bagou said this, he paused for a while and then said: "Our Tang Empire has swept across thousands of miles, and we definitely cannot let clowns like Fo Lang Ji Ren ride on the head of the empire!"
But just after saying this, he followed up with another sentence: "However, Nanyang trade is related to the overall export situation of the empire. Colleagues from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Commerce have seriously established that they must maintain the current overall situation of maritime trade and cannot
Maritime trade is disrupted because of disputes!”
Hearing Liu Bagou's words, Admiral Lei Wan on the side was a little speechless. I wonder if your cabinet wants to eat meat rather than kill pigs... to eat them raw?
On the one hand, it wants to establish a new order in Nanyang, and on the other hand, it wants to maintain the overall trade situation.
What should the navy do in this way? Fight or not?
If we don't fight, those pirates disguised by the Portuguese will not stop. They are not stupid. They clearly know that the Empire and Spain are colluding to try to circumvent them. It would be strange if they don't resist.
If they fight, the trade with the Portuguese will be completely cut off at once, and the loss will not be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, but millions or even tens of millions of taels of silver in maritime trade profits.
Faced with this situation, Lei Wan was helpless!
Even the Holy Emperor Li Xuan felt a little headache about this situation. This Portugal was like a crazy hedgehog running around. It would not matter whether it was bitten by the tiger of the empire or not bitten.
If you don’t bite, he will disgust you!
If you bite it, it will sting!!
At this time, Army General Hao Bainian, who had always acted as if the matter had nothing to do with him, well, in fact had nothing to do with them, spoke:
"If trade with the Portuguese is cut off, the European trade will be affected for sure, but the impact on the trade between East Asia and India should not be big, especially after taking Malacca, we can go to the Indian Ocean whenever we want!"