The Prosperous Era of Longwan

The memorial was delivered, and Wei Guangde's errand was finally over.

But when the memorial went up to Emperor Jiajing, they would normally be called to Xiyuan for questioning. By then, the hidden figures might not be able to be covered up.

But by now, Wei Guangde had already figured out that he was the one who uncovered the cover, and had nothing to do with the group of people who covered it up.

He watched leisurely as Tang Shunzhi hurriedly said goodbye to him and went back to the Ministry of War Yamen. Obviously, they wanted to discuss a countermeasure in advance. It would be fatal if he didn't know all the answers when Emperor Jiajing asked him.

After Tang Shunzhi left, Wei Guangde's relaxed expression quickly faded, and he looked north towards the Forbidden City with a solemn expression.

On his way back to the capital, he discovered that the memorial he sent back to Xuanfu did not seem to be spread among the government and the public. From this, Wei Guangde guessed that there were not many people in the official circles who knew that he had been to Xuanfu.

However, such a major personnel change, with Dongjiang, the Minister of War, directly taking over the power of Governor-General of Xuanda, would inevitably cause a turmoil in the government and the public, not to mention that the godson of Yan Song, the chief minister of Yan, would be affected.

The Yan family must have known about it, and Wei Guangde knew in his heart that it was impossible for Emperor Jiajing to make such personnel adjustments without consulting Yan Song. He had actually offended the Yan family.

What Wei Guangde is struggling with now is whether he should go to Yan's Mansion in the next two days.

Although he was offended, he was not offended openly. If it could be eased, even just a little bit would be good.

At this stage, no one is more powerful than Yan Song in the court.

Wei Guangde was tangled in his heart, but he still made up his mind and took the time to bring gifts to the Yan Mansion. If it was really irreversible, he had better make plans in advance.

Wei Guangde first went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to hand over his mission. He was patrolling the border as the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so naturally he had to hand back the official documents he had prepared.

Wei Guangde didn't know anyone well in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After everyone greeted each other according to official etiquette, Wei Guangde was of low rank and inevitably had to take the initiative to salute.

Just accept Wei Guangde's documents and files and that's it. All the procedures were done by the officials below. Wei Guangde didn't even see Zhou Yan, the censor of Zuodu.

Wei Guangde did not continue to run around in the Yamen, let alone return to the Hanlin Academy. According to Tang Shunzhi, he could stay at home and wait for news in the past two days. Whether it was a summons in the palace or something else, there would eventually be news.

After traveling for nearly three months, Wei Guangde was very happy to finally return home.

When entering the city, there were already guards who had gone back to report the news, so when Wei Guangde entered the gate, he saw Xu Jianglan already welcoming him out.

Wei Guangde went directly to the backyard to wash it off. There have been a lot of inconveniences outside in the past few months, so it would be better to be at home.

Wei Guangde had only been home for half a day when a servant from Prince Yu's Mansion sent a message, inviting Wei Guangde to that restaurant for dinner, which was regarded as a welcome feast for him from Prince Yu's Mansion.

Prince Yu's Mansion wants to go, even if Wei Guangde doesn't want to go.

At the appointed time, Wei Guangde took a carriage to the restaurant near Prince Yu's Mansion.

Wei Guangde was not sure of their purpose when it came to Prince Yu's Mansion.

He already knew about the major personnel changes in the capital last month, which not only involved Xuanda, but also the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Husbandry and the Ministry of Punishment. What surprised Wei Guangde was the fact that the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment was changed to the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu.

Just a short time after Jia Yingchun came to the capital to take up the post of Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice, he changed his title to Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The Ministry of Revenue, which was the place that caused Prince Yu's Mansion to lose face at first, is now under the control of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Therefore, Wei Guangde already has some guesses about the people attending tonight's banquet, that is, Jia Yingchun may also be among them.

Even though he is currently ranked among the top seven ministers, for someone like him, it means nothing without the support of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Sure enough, the banquet was hosted by Gao Gong, and Wei Guangde actually met Jia Yingchun here.

From Nanjing to Beijing, and now to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Finance, Jia Yingchun felt like he was in a dream. The change took only one year.

"I heard that your servant had been to Xiyuan before, when you were on patrol?"

After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Gao Gong suddenly asked.

Wei Guangde knew that this was the reason why they were so anxious to summon him. The fact that he had gone to the Xuan Mansion had not been spread in the court, and not many people knew about it.

But after all, because it was so sudden, all parties in the capital would naturally inquire about the news afterwards, trying to figure out the cause of the turmoil in the officialdom of Xuanda University and the capital.

After all, Prince Yu's Mansion came from the palace, so he still had some spies in the palace. They soon discovered that a servant who had accompanied Wei Guangde out of the capital had visited Xiyuan and met Chen Ju.

In this reshuffle of the court, Prince Yu's Mansion undoubtedly took advantage. Although Jia Yingchun's two positions were ministers, the responsibilities of the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu were much greater than that of the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, and his ranking in the court was much higher. If it is less, the corresponding right to speak is also heavier.

But now that the Yan family was the dominant one, Jia Yingchun could only choose to keep a low profile, at least at the beginning, without a purge of the officials below.

Prince Yu's Mansion also holds grudges.

Gao Gong, Yin Shizhen and others were fed up with the humiliation in the Ministry of Revenue. Now that the people they supported have ascended to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, they naturally have to teach those snobs a lesson.

This is especially true for Gao Gong. Although he is a Jinshi, he has a bad temper and is a vindictive person like the tall Yin Shizhen.

Wei Guangde thought for a moment and decided not to tell all the details. It was really unnecessary.

Emperor Jiajing has not been seen in person, and his memorandum has not been made public to the government and the public, which already represents some kind of hint from Emperor Jiajing.

"The day before I went on this tour, Eunuch Chen came to my house and delivered a secret order, asking me to inquire about the current situation of Xuan Mansion."

Wei Guangde said: "I wrote a letter to the generals who fought together in Baoan Prefecture to find out what the situation was in Xuanfu in the past two years. The reply I received surprised me. A large number of border forts were destroyed and civilians and military households were displaced. The most abominable thing is that some people take the opportunity to kill good people and take credit for their crimes, exchanging their heads for the capital's silver reward."

The more Wei Guangde talked about it, the more depressed he became. He kept shaking his head, "After learning this, I naturally wrote a memorial and sent it to the capital to deliver it to Eunuch Chen. The changes in Xuanda University should be said to be related to my memorial. Relationship, as for the rest, I don’t understand either.”

"That's right, no wonder."

At this moment, Gao Gong and others all showed clear expressions. Sure enough, something happened here with Wei Guangde.

The changes in Xuanda have been explained, and as we continue to push forward, everyone can roughly guess what they are.

Yang Shun, the governor of Xuanda, killed good people and took credit for his deeds, and deceived the emperor. Among them, the Minister of the Ministry of War was guilty of lax supervision. Although the Ministry of Household Affairs only allocated silver rewards, he was probably resented by Emperor Jiajing and thought it was due to poor supervision. Let Xuanda take away three hundred thousand taels of silver in one year.

The topic of the official turmoil is over this time. We already know the ins and outs and there is no need to worry about anything else.

"By the way, you know about the shortage of national funds. Dongyang came from Nanjing and felt the disadvantages of water transportation. He used to be in charge of the Ministry of Punishment and naturally couldn't control it, but now he has been transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs, so he wants to go to Shu , please open the sea in Tianjin and use sea transportation to make up for the lack of water transportation capacity. What do you think about this?"

Naturally, Shandai was called Wei Guangde, while Dongyang was named Jia Yingchun. Jia Yingchun's courtesy name was Dongyang and his name was Qiao Village.

"Water transport? Sea transport?"

Wei Guangde looked at Jia Yingchun with wide eyes. Perhaps because of the spring breeze, Jia Yingchun looked at Wei Guangde with a smile on his face. He did not have the official airs of a second-rank official in the imperial court and looked very humble.

Although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has solved the problem of cargo transportation between the north and the south, it actually has many disadvantages. But now, it has a bit of a long history that is hard to get rid of. At least that's how Wei Guangde sees it.

Nowadays, too many people in the Ming Dynasty are counting on the Grand Canal for food, not only the canal soldiers, but also the workers on both sides of the strait, which can be hundreds of thousands of people.

During the Song Dynasty, commerce was prosperous and maritime transportation was developed. A large number of Song Dynasty commodities were shipped overseas for sale one by one, in exchange for a large amount of wealth. However, the Southern Song Dynasty was able to persist in a corner of peace, which was related to its huge financial resources.

But by the Ming Dynasty, shipping did gradually begin to decline, and the once glorious voyages to the West had become a thing of the past.

In the current Ming Dynasty, transportation work still relies more on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

People were initially opposed to sea transportation, mostly due to the risk of high winds and waves. Although the cost of sea transport is indeed lower than that of water transport, it requires long-term practice and accumulation of a lot of sea transport experience. Long-distance sea transport is still considered very dangerous.

Although water transportation is safer than sea transportation, the construction and use of canals also have many disadvantages. The cost of repairing canals is huge, and canals are silted up every year, and construction is a waste of money.

Although the distribution of the water system was fully considered during the construction of the canal, and the original waterways were used for communication to the maximum extent, it violated the laws of the natural environment. In fact, the court would be extremely nervous during the flood season, fearing that the river would burst and the river would flow into the sea through a new channel, causing the canal to be damaged. Shut down due to lack of water.

Once something like this happens, the people along the river will need to bear heavy labor and dig new canals. At the same time, more and more sections of the canal will collect water fees, which will directly drive up the cost of water transportation.

However, this high cost was not borne by the imperial court, but relied on taxpayers to pay for the freight, which increased the pressure on the people in the Jiangnan region to pay taxes.

Water transportation also allocates the cost of its infrastructure, especially the cost of repairing the Grand Canal and shipbuilding, to the civilian governments and military units where the canal flows, and will eventually be passed on to the people along the river.

To put it bluntly, although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has solved the north-south transportation problem, it has left a heavy burden on the people. Many supporters of shipping have also concluded based on economic accounts that maintaining canal shipping is actually a huge loss.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain military supplies for the Ming army in Liaodong, the Ming Dynasty maintained a powerful naval fleet to transport supplies by sea.

It was only after the Liaodong Ming Army's farming became profitable and they were basically self-sufficient that Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a halt to shipping. This was also the first time that the Ming Dynasty banned shipping.

However, in the Yongle Dynasty, Zhu Di needed to send troops to the north on a large scale and transport a large amount of supplies. Therefore, sea transportation was not cut off but was strengthened during the Yongle period.

It was also at this time that the Grand Canal gradually took shape, and the Ming Dynasty gradually began to abandon sea transportation and specialize in river transportation.

However, the seemingly safe river transportation has been plagued by problems such as Yellow River intrusion and river channel obstruction for decades after the passage. The interest groups that seek blood from water transportation have also become stronger and stronger. Every time ministers in the past proposed to resume maritime transportation, they were met with opposition from these interest groups. opposition, leading to giving up.

In fact, the current transport capacity of the canal has begun to decline. The main reason is the blockage of the canal, and the annual desilting pressure on the river section is huge.

"What Da Situ means is to increase the total transportation capacity of Zheyang?"

In the past, Wei Guangde would have thought that Jia Yingchun meant opening up the sea, and that the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban was very thorough.

However, after becoming an official in the court, Wei Guangde discovered that in fact, now, Zheyang General under the control of the Governor of Water Transport is still performing this maritime transportation task, but the annual quota is very small, only tens of thousands of stones.

However, Jia Yingchun shook his head, "The canal has gradually become a burden for the counties along the river. Dredging every year costs a lot of money. I plan to dredge half of the grain from the canal to Tianjin by sea, which will reduce the number of ships on the canal." Due to the quantity and link congestion, it will be beneficial for those merchant ships to switch to sea routes.”

After listening to Jia Yingchun's words, Wei Guangde knew that there were many benefits to changing water transportation to sea transportation. Even if it was affected by the shipbuilding technology of this era, it was not technically difficult to build a usable ocean-covering ship.

Although I don’t know what the current state of the Ming Dynasty’s shipbuilding technology was compared to that of Western countries, people are doing business all over the world with those sea-going ships.

Thinking of sailing to the Western Ocean, Wei Guangde felt that it would not be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to quickly build a large number of ocean-covering ships, but the resistance was also obvious. The commercial interests along the canal and the civil servant groups had long been deeply connected. Maritime transportation The impact on them is not small.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, but looked at Gao Gong. He was the one who made the decision in Prince Yu's Mansion. Since it was mentioned that Jia Yingchun wanted to go to court, they must have communicated beforehand. Wei Guangde didn't understand why he told this matter to himself.

"Da Situ has this intention, and we have discussed it for many days, but in the end we still can't come to a conclusion. Just because you are back in the capital, you can also give us some reference opinions. We can chat casually, but you have to feel pressure."

Gao Gong looked at Wei Guangde and said with a smile.

"Who supports? Who opposes?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"I support Dongyang's intention, but they are not optimistic about it."

Gao Gong smiled and replied that he also wanted to hear Wei Guangde's opinion. They had been arguing about this matter in Prince Yu's Mansion for a long time.

The reason why he wanted to take this position was naturally the reason why the new official took office. Jia Yingchun wanted to do something to express his presence.

"There have been people throughout the ages who have proposed this, but they have always been rejected."

Wei Guangde shook his head and looked at Jia Yingchun, speaking word by word.

The disadvantages of water transportation can be understood by taking a boat trip on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Later generations only marveled at the vastness of the Grand Canal project, but they did not realize that the cost of maintaining the Grand Canal was huge. In fact, the gains outweighed the losses.

“Most of them say that the sea is dangerous and unpredictable, but in fact, aren’t there cases of boats capsizing and people drowning in river transportation?

The reason for their opposition is that they may have commercial interests in the counties along the river, as well as river officials. What will they do if they change to the sea route? "