Wang Yuan left the Hanlin Academy in the middle of the morning and went out to dinner with Li Tingxiang, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and also called Yu Ben, a scholar of Jinke, to accompany him.
After eating and drinking, I returned to the office. A eunuch had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Wang Yuan, he said anxiously: "Scholar Wang, you are back. The emperor summoned you urgently!"
Wang Yuan immediately set out for the Leopard Room, thinking something big had happened.
Zhu Houzhao was scratching his head and was so angry that he dropped his pen. As soon as Wang Yuan appeared, he grabbed Wang Yuan's clothes and asked: "Erlang, please tell me how to prove this question."
"Is this what your Majesty is doing?" Wang Yuan couldn't laugh or cry.
Zhu Houzhao said depressedly: "What else can be done? From last night to now, I have been unable to solve the problem. The more I think about it, the more confused my mind becomes!"
Wang Yuan smiled and picked up the wooden ruler, drew an auxiliary line, and explained: "Extend the A-D line to point E, so that A-D = D-W, and then connect B-W. Between △A, B, D and △W, B, D...
…”
"Wait a minute," Zhu Houzhao had a flash of inspiration and quickly interrupted, "Stop talking, I probably know how to do it. Oh, why didn't I think of making the auxiliary line from here!"
Wang Yuan stepped aside and silently watched Zhu Houzhao solve the problem.
This emperor is interested in everything. He was tired of playing military chess before, and now he is obsessed with understanding geometry problems.
After a while, the work was done. Zhu Houzhao felt refreshed, and the sense of accomplishment of solving a difficult problem ran through his body. He laughed and said: "The joys in the world are nothing more than this. Wang Erlang gave a good question!"
Wang Yuan quickly flattered him: "Your Majesty is talented and intelligent, and his progress has been rapid in Geometry."
Zhu Houzhao laughed loudly. He admired Wang Yuan more and more. He was not only able to lead troops to fight, but also to play military chess. Interesting things like geometry made him feel fresh almost every day.
If the emperor is happy, he will naturally reward you.
Wang Yuan received an ivory cup as a reward. He didn't take it seriously at first, but he found a few Latin letters on the bottom of the cup. Wang Yuan couldn't help but asked: "Your Majesty, does this thing come from overseas?"
Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "Two years ago, the governor of Guangdong presented it. It is said that it came from Siamese maritime merchants."
That shit Siamese maritime merchant must be a European merchant!
After careful inquiry, Wang Yuan finally found out that the sea ban had been abolished during the Zhengde period, and customs duties had begun to be collected in a serious manner.
"Dividing points" was a method of tax collection by the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang began to point out points for sea goods at that time, but he often gave enough silver taels above the market price, which made foreign countries eager to pay tribute.
During the Hongzhi period, the imperial court planned to turn the original premium into a real tax. And it would directly take half of it, that is, the tariff would be as high as 50%. However, in order to show the style of a great country, tributes from various countries and incidental private goods were exempted from tax, which was also equivalent to no tax.
But Emperor Zhengde didn't care so much. Starting from the third year of Zhengde, he began to collect tariffs seriously. At the beginning, he collected 50% according to his father's regulations.
Prohibition is one thing, actual implementation is another.
In the fourth year of Zhengde's reign, a sea-going ship encountered a storm and drifted to Guangdong. Logically speaking, trading activities were not allowed. However, the Guangdong town inspector allowed it to trade and imposed a 50% tariff for military supplies. Moreover, officials from the Ministry of Rites actually
Affirm this approach.
It was also in this year that Chen Jincoo, the censor of the capital, requested a reduction in tariffs, and was approved by the court. In this regard, the tariffs were reduced from 50% to 30%, and a special note was made: the fine ones will be released from Beijing, the heavy ones will be sold, and the heavy ones will be sold to reserve military pay.
.
If the imperial court had not tasted the benefits of collecting sea tax, how could it take the initiative to reduce tariffs?
Since then, more and more merchant ships have been "floating in distress". This kind of abnormal trade is no longer under the control of the municipal shipping department, but is instead managed by local governors, guards and officials from the third department.
It is a pity that the central government still did not generate any revenue, and all the customs and taxes were left to the local governments. They only donated precious gadgets for the emperor's amusement.
After understanding this, Wang Yuan asked: "Why don't Your Majesty set up a special agency in the Municipal Shipping Department to allocate the proceeds from the maritime cargo to the central government for deployment. Some of it will be kept in the local area to encourage them to expand trade; some of it will be returned to the national treasury to relieve the embarrassment of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
promote."
Zhu Houzhao didn't take this to heart at all, and asked with a smile: "How much money can a mere sea trade charge? Why compete with the local government for such a small profit."
Wang Yuan reminded: "Three out of ten expeditions, there are still many ships coming, so you can imagine the benefits will be huge."
"Let's not mention this matter. Erlang, please give me a test question again. The harder the better, not too simple." Zhu Houzhao still didn't bother to care about sea trade.
Wang Yuan no longer bothered him. He would not be able to leave the Hanlin Academy for three years. He would wait until he had the opportunity to do it himself.
The Zhengde period was the best period for the establishment of the sea ban. He blatantly violated the ancestral system of the sea ban and was able to obtain official permission from the Ministry of Rites. This shows that a large gap in the sea ban has been torn open.
Historically, the "Battle for Tribute" in the second year of Jiajing led to the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade policy regressing for a hundred years, smuggling became rampant, and Japanese pirates became popular. By the end of Jiajing, it was actually relaxed again, and it became more open during the Longqing period, which is the so-called
"Longqing Switch".
However, the Ming Dynasty under the Longqing Dynasty had gone into decline and missed the golden period of developing maritime trade. Moreover, the disadvantages were too deep and it was unable to obtain sufficient benefits from maritime trade. Most of the profits were misappropriated by officials, eunuchs and maritime trading groups.
Glancing at Zhu Houzhao who was doing the question, Wang Yuan had already made up his mind. In the future, he would ask for the release of the chief envoy to Guangdong. He happened to have the right to manage merchant ships that were "floating in distress". When the time came, he would give huge profits to the emperor.
Let go, with Zhu Houzhao’s character, he will definitely spare no effort to support the switch.
It is a real switch, not the current fake switch.
Zhu Houzhao happily practiced geometry problems, while Wang Yuan continued to write manuscripts beside him. He had forgotten some formulas and theorems and needed to recall them slowly. If he couldn't remember, he could simply derive the proofs by himself.
I don't know how long it took, but the eunuch Zhang Yong suddenly came to see him: "Your Majesty, I was ordered to select the officers and soldiers of the regiment and battalion. I got 123,740 rare soldiers. Please select 6,000 from them to be regular soldiers, and another 123,740."
Each battalion selects 3,000 troops as special troops, and a total of 42,000 troops are trained to prepare for internal and external military conflicts!"
Tuanying is today's Twelve Capital Camps. Since Qian founded it, there are some differences. Usually, the old camp is also included in it.
Anyway, Zhang Yong cleared out more than 120,000 registered officers and soldiers from the capital, but they were all the kind of losers who couldn't fight. Now he requests that 6,000 be selected for hard training, and the other 36,000 can be trained casually to make up the number.
Who makes the consecutive horoscopes abnormal, and Venus is in the constellation Dou, which indicates a military disaster. There are rebellions across the country, and recently there has been a small-scale border invasion in the northwest. The court must increase its standing military strength.
For such a major military and national event, Zhu Houzhao did not even raise his head and continued to write: "Accurate!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhang Yong kowtowed and thanked him with a smile on his face.
A while ago, it was Gu Dayong who was in the limelight, but now that Zhang Yong can finally take charge of the army, he is also thinking about how to train troops and quell rebellions to gain military merit.
The moment Zhang Yong received the order and stepped back, Zhu Houzhao, who was not doing his job properly, said again: "Wang Erlang!"
"I'm here." Wang Yuan stood up and held his hands.
Zhu Houzhao gave me an errand out of nowhere: "You also go and select 6,000 people and train me well. I hope you can train me an elite army."
What a hell to train, the officers and soldiers of these regiments and camps are all trash, how can you train the sneaky Jing Youzi?
Wang Yuan immediately bargained: "Your Majesty, you can let me train the Beijing camp, but I have two requirements."
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said: "In the future."
Wang Yuan said: "First, military pay must be sufficient and must not be deducted; second, please give me a quota for killing people."
Zhu Houzhao asked strangely: "Those who disobey orders can be killed. What quota of killings do you want?"
Wang Yuan said: "The number of killings I want is a bit too much."
Zhu Houzhao asked: "How many are there?"
Wang Yuan said: "I have the right to kill half of the six thousand regimental officers and soldiers. Moreover, all the family members of the deceased will be relegated to a lowly status!"
As soon as these words came out, Zhu Houzhao and Zhang Yong opened their eyes wide at the same time and looked at Wang Yuan in great surprise.
He wanted to kill three thousand people as soon as he opened his mouth, and not only did he kill them, but he even wanted to convict their family members into a lowly status.
It was too cruel. Zhang Yong thought he was cruel, but he didn't expect that the top pick was more cruel than him.
Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "Why kill so many people?"
Wang Yuandao: "Not killing is not enough to establish prestige, but killing alone is not enough to establish prestige, so we must supplement it with punishment of low status. Of course, I hope that no one will be killed, as long as they are obedient."
Zhu Houzhao remained silent and seemed to get to know Wang Yuan again.
But if you think about it carefully, this beloved minister is a god of death on the battlefield. Countless rebels have died in his hands, and his hands are already stained with blood.
"allow!"
Zhu Houzhao suddenly laughed and said: "Don't worry, go and train the troops. Anyone who disobeys will be killed, even the children of the honorable ministers can be killed!"