Li Xuan adopted a very cautious attitude towards the special enterprise of Datang Western Trading Company. First of all, he would never directly cancel the company's trade monopoly without taking any preparatory measures. Doing so would cause
The fluctuations are too great.
It has a market value of 200 million!
Datang’s current annual financial revenue is not as much as this company’s market capitalization!
Therefore, Li Xuan would make a lot of preparations. For this reason, after meeting Chen Lifu, he summoned many officials that afternoon, including the Ministry of Commerce and the Immigration and Reclamation Department, as well as those from the navy and army.
Although the people I meet are from different departments and the topics we talk about are different, the word India is inseparable from them.
Of course, in order to avoid turmoil, Li Xuan did not mention anything about the Datang Western Trading Company. He only made indirect remarks about the affairs in India.
When Li Xuan was preparing to make changes to overseas trade in the Indian Ocean, he also met Jia Wenbo, who, like Chen Lifu, had returned to Beijing to report on his work.
Jia Wenbo is also a new generation of senior officials that Li Xuan values very much. To a certain extent, this person is actually more attractive to a group of military and political bigwigs in the Tang Empire than Chen Lifu, because no matter how capable Chen Lifu is, after becoming an official
No matter how much he showed his support for the Tang Dynasty, there was always a label on him that was difficult to tear off, that is, he was a former Ming official.
Chen Lifu was a serious Jinshi in the pre-Ming Dynasty and became an official in the Ming Dynasty. Although Chen Lifu did not get along well in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty and was dismissed every month after he became an official, Chen Lifu was still an official in the pre-Ming Dynasty.
officials.
However, Jia Wenbo was different. This man was not an official of the Ming Dynasty, but a member of the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty. The first time he became an official in his life was as an official of the Tang Dynasty.
In other words, this is his own person.
And his ability is also quite outstanding. Otherwise, when Shanghai was changed to a special county, he would not have been transferred to serve as the first Shanghai special county magistrate. He could have been allowed to serve in an important place like Shanghai's special county.
The county magistrate shows the trust and appreciation that the high-level bosses of the Tang Dynasty have for him.
Later, he served as the second magistrate of Songjiang Prefecture after the restructuring.
Speaking of which, Chen Lifu was his subordinate back then.
Later, he held important positions in many provinces, and now he has become the governor of Shanxi.
After Jia Wenbo returned to Jinling City, he went to the palace to meet the saint the next day, regardless of the fatigue from the journey.
This was because he sensed a crisis. When he first arrived in Jinling City, he told him through his own information channels that when Chen Lifu met the Holy Emperor a few days ago, the Holy Emperor seemed to be very satisfied with his report.
If you delay it for one more day, it will be even more dangerous.
He and Chen Lifu used to be colleagues, and because they both worked in Shanghai, they had a good relationship with each other, but at this time, they were direct competitors.
Chen Lifu wanted to become the governor of this important province in Guangdong, and Jia Wenbo also had the same hope.
He is five years older than Chen Lifu. Although he became the governor of Shanxi two years ago, the importance of the governor of Shanxi today is obviously compared to that of the governor of Guangdong.
In the early years of Shanxi, because it was close to the Hetao area and was a border province, its strategic position was very important. Although the governor did not care about the military, he still needed to support the military in operations, such as providing logistical supplies. Therefore, the governor of Shanxi in the early years was in
It was a relatively important position in the Tang Empire.
But this situation changed after the Tang Empire regained the Hetao area, because after the Tang Empire established the Hefeng Province in the Hetao and Fengzhouchuan areas, Shanxi became a typical inland province, instead of the previous one.
of border provinces.
There are no external threats, but internal transportation is not convenient due to the large number of people and limited land. Although there are coal mines and other mineral resources, the Shanxi railway has not yet been repaired, and large amounts of coal cannot be transported out of the country, so the economy has always been poor.
It is difficult to develop.
Without a strategic position and poor economy, such provinces would naturally gradually become marginalized within the empire.
But Guangdong is different. This province ranks second among the empire's provinces in total economic volume, and is also the most important province in the empire's foreign trade.
For the same governor, the governor of Guangdong is much more important than the governor of Shanxi.
Didn’t you see that Zhou Yiran, the former governor of Guangdong, made his way to the capital city by virtue of his achievements in governing Guangdong, and also became the minister on duty in the imperial study?
Although it is said that Zhou Yiran entered the imperial study room, it is more related to the fact that he has been serving in the local area for more than ten years and has served as governor of many provinces. He has accumulated rich qualifications and extraordinary abilities, but it also proves that the governor of Guangdong
importance of this location.
If Jia Wenbo can be transferred to Guangdong as governor, in two or three years, he can plan to return to Gyeonggi and serve as a minister of a certain ministry.
So although it seems that the governor of Shanxi became the governor of Guangdong, it is just a smooth adjustment, but the political implications are huge. From the actual situation, this is almost the same as being promoted by half a level.
However, although Jia Wenbo performed very well during his work report, which made Li Xuan take a serious look, to his disappointment, he failed in the end.
On the fifth day of February in the twenty-third year of Xuanping, Li Xuan officially issued an order to appoint Chen Lifu as governor of Guangdong.
As for Jia Wenbo, he naturally went back to Shanxi to be his governor. This trip back to Beijing became an ordinary work report.
Although he was quite disappointed with this, Jia Wenbo still cheered up and returned to Shanxi.
Anyone who is involved in the officialdom has not experienced several setbacks. Although Chen Lifu was ahead of him this time, he was not without gains. At least this time when he returned to Beijing to face the Holy Emperor, he could detect that the Holy Emperor was against
I am still satisfied with my work over the years. As for my failure to compete for the position of governor of Guangdong, it is not due to trust or ability. I am afraid that Chen Lifu has proposed a policy plan that is more in line with the Shengtianzi's ideas.
There was nothing he could do about this difference in governance philosophy. After all, Chen Lifu had his own ideas, and he, Jia Wenbo, also had his own ideas, and their ideas might be in line with the situation in a certain province, or they might not be.
The important thing is that this time when Jia Wenbo returned to Beijing, he confirmed that he still has weight in the heart of the Holy Emperor, and that Jian is still in the emperor's heart.
It doesn't matter if you fail this time, just try for the next chance.
Jia Wenbo returned to Shanxi with disappointment, unwillingness and hope for the future, while Chen Lifu was also preparing to return to Suzhou, hand over to his successor, and then take a ship directly to Guangzhou by sea to take office.
He was very excited to become the governor of Guangdong.
This means that the Holy Emperor agrees with his governance philosophy, and this is very important.
After all, when you reach the level of governor, ability and trust are no longer important. Without ability, you will not be able to climb to the high position of governor. Without your majesty's trust, you will not be able to sit in such a high position.
.
As for whether he can continue to rise in the future, ability and trust are actually less important. What is more important is whether his political philosophy is consistent with that of the Holy Emperor.
However, it is not possible to blindly cater to the political ideas of the Holy Emperor.
It’s not that there are people who do this, but they are destined not to have much success. We are not fools, we are all human beings. You deliberately cater to the appetite of the Holy Emperor. Everyone can see it. You don’t say anything on the surface, but behind your back.
He must be extremely contemptuous, and even the Holy Emperor can see it. With the character of the Holy Emperor, he will definitely use him, but don't expect to be reused.
If Chen Lifu didn't have his own opinions and catered to the Holy Emperor's ideas in everything, he would never have been able to enter the Imperial Study Room in this life.
Among the most favored ministers of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wenhua was enough, and there was no need for a second one.
In addition, he also knew that Emperor Sheng asked him to be the governor of Guangdong, probably to develop Guangdong's economy, especially its foreign trade economy.
In order to develop overseas trade, and when the Southeast Asian market has gradually become saturated and the American market has high risks and low returns, it is very important to develop markets such as India, West Asia, and North Africa on a larger scale, and this cannot be avoided.
In the past, Datang Western Trading Company.
Chen Lifu didn't know how Emperor Sheng planned to solve this problem, but he could guess that Emperor Sheng was planning to restructure Datang Western Trading Company.
But he no longer cares about this kind of thing. Even if he wanted to care, he didn't have the energy.
Datang Western Trading Company is too special. Let alone Chen Lifu, even if the ministers on duty in the imperial study want to target the Datang Western Trading Company, it would be extremely difficult.
After all, the company has a market value of 200 million, and it is also related to the empire's colonial situation in India, West Asia and Africa. If you want to make changes, no one except Shengtianzi has this ability.
So Chen Lifu didn't bother with the follow-up matters. He quickly got on the train and headed to Suzhou, preparing to go to Suzhou for the handover of work.
However, when he left, there was one more person in his entourage, and that was Miss Wanjun, the most popular courtesan in Jinling City in the past two or three years.
Of course, Chen Lifu did not marry Miss Wanjun directly. Chen Lifu had a wife, and he did not take Miss Wanjun as a concubine. Chen Lifu also wanted to have face. Even if he took a concubine, he had to be a girl from a good family.
, how is it possible to openly marry a brothel girl into the family, even if it is to take a concubine?
The Chen family has been a scholarly family for hundreds of years, so they still need to maintain their dignity in such matters.
It's just that Miss Wanjun is infatuated, and Chen Lifu also takes her to Guangdong, so he takes her to Guangzhou. Under what name does he take her to Guangzhou?
Travel together!
It’s called ‘escort’ for short.
Scholars invited oirans to travel with them. This kind of thing happened a lot in this era, and the world was not surprised. On the contrary, they thought it was an elegant thing. Chen Lifu was self-controlled and an elegant person, so naturally he did elegant things.
, and will definitely not do anything disgraceful or embarrassing.