Chapter 1166 1257 Letter From Siam

"Who did the chief envoy ask to go?"

Wei Guangde raised another question. It is actually not easy to find someone who can clean up the mess.

However, in response to the question raised by Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng just smiled slightly and said: "There is no need to worry about Shandai at this time. Just let the officials choose. The final candidate still has to be reported to the cabinet for discussion."

What's more, we are just making plans now, it is too early to actually select and rank officials. ’

When Wei Guangde heard this, he also reacted.

Although the king of Burma was captured, Burma is definitely still in chaos. It is hard to say that after the big boss was captured by Li Chengliang, many little shrimps will have sweet dreams of replacing him.

Behind the scenes, Li Chengliang was still busy.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded: "I'm overthinking it, so let's let the Ministry of Personnel choose. Anyway, it's still a long time, so you can choose officials slowly."

"It's another matter. I'll also talk to Shandai by the way."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and nodded and continued: "Lao Kan has resigned from the post of Chief Envoy to the Left of Fujian. I intend to let the Chief Envoy to the Right take over. He will only be responsible for the affairs of the Qingzhang. I have exchanged letters with the current Governor of Fujian Pang Shangpeng, and Governor Pang is also very fond of it." It's support.

This time, the Chief Envoy will take the lead in clearing the land, and the Chief Envoy will assist. I prefer that Tan Qi be transferred to the Fujian Envoy, and Zhang Mao will be the deputy. They will be mainly responsible for clearing the land. "

"Tan Qi, Zhang Mao."

Wei Guangde murmured in his mouth.

He knew of these two people. One was from Sichuan and was currently the censor of Zhejiang Province. He had just investigated and dealt with the corruption cases of Wei Dongchu, the prefect of Yangzhou, and Xie Shiyan, the magistrate of Wujin County.

As for Zhang Mao, the situation is similar. Although I don't know why Zhang Juzheng would prefer them to take on such a major errand, it must be a decision made after careful consideration.

Wei Guangde originally planned to make a slight opposition gesture when the land was cleared, so naturally he would not take the initiative to get involved.

Immediately, Wei Guangde nodded and said, "Uncle, you can make the decision on this matter."

Although he said this lightly, Wei Guangde still remembered Pang Shangpeng in his heart.

This man had tried every means to please him before, saying that he would fully support Yuegang and the opening of the sea in Fujian, so Wei Guangde let him take over the post of governor of Fujian. Unexpectedly, he and Zhang Juzheng were also in cahoots behind the scenes.

Although Wei Guangde would not cause trouble in the Fujian Qingzhang land issue, he would never allow Pang Shangpeng to be sentenced without any penalty.

When the matter of clearing the father-in-law of Fujian is completed, Wei Guangde plans to find someone to replace him, and then arrange for Pang Shangpeng to go to Nanjing for retirement.

Don't think that Wei Guangde is a small-minded person. Pang Shangpeng can become the governor of Fujian because Wei Guangde recommended him.

If no measures were taken against him, his subordinates would follow suit and contact other ministers in the cabinet and sell him privately without knowing it.

Wei Guangde did not mention Pang Shangpeng at all, but the smile on Zhang Juzheng's face did not change.

On the other side, Zhang Siwei blinked, somewhat re-recognizing the relationship between Zhang and Wei.

Then the topic changed and it was the Ministry of Industry again.

However, the Ministry of Works didn't have much to say. Now Pan Jixun is still stranded in the capital, studying how to control the Yellow River at the Ministry of Works. When the results are available, a memorial will naturally be sent.

As for the Ministry of Household Affairs, Zhang Juzheng has always paid attention to the Ministry of Household Affairs, which was also the basis for maintaining the operation of the Ming Dynasty.

“Currently, the support is already exhausted, and we will not be able to survive the disasters of floods and droughts in all directions.

Moreover, the imperial court still needs to pay more for the southwest affairs, and now the Ministry of Revenue is also worried about money. "

When Zhang Juzheng mentioned the Ministry of Household Affairs, the smile on his face immediately disappeared.

"It doesn't matter. There must be a road from the car to the mountain, and the bridge must be straight from the bow of the ship. Although the war in Burma consumes a lot of money for the imperial court, if it is won, there will always be a way to settle the account."

Wei Guangde already has an idea, but it's just immature, so naturally he won't take the initiative to talk about it.

At this time, he was also rapidly weighing and thinking about whether it was feasible.

However, Zhang Juzheng misunderstood the meaning and thought that Wei Guangde was talking about the gold and silver treasures that Li Chengliang and Yu Dayou could obtain from the royal capital of Myanmar in their battle to destroy the country.

"Shaloan, although I have great faith in Dayou's moral character, but there are so many people under the supervision, there will be no fish in the Qing Dynasty, and the property that can be handed over to the court will be limited.

After all, Myanmar is a barbaric country, the country is poor, and the people are poor. They raised an army of 300,000, and I am afraid they also want to plunder property from our Ming Dynasty. There is not much treasure house. "

The cost of fighting an army of hundreds of thousands is huge. After the battle, each person will be rewarded with several taels of silver, which is definitely not a small amount of money.

Even if dozens of carts of property were stolen from the royal capital of Myanmar, nothing could compare with Ming's contribution. This is also the reason why Ming has not easily mobilized troops in recent years.

Think about the 30th year of Jiajing, when Zhang Juzheng was still in the capital. Emperor Jiajing wanted to send troops north to Mongolia to take revenge. However, he was still trapped in financial difficulties and had to put the Northern Expedition on hold.

Of course, it actually involved a lot, but Emperor Jiajing finally gave up anyway.

The hundreds of thousands of taels of silver raised in advance eventually became the outer city wall of Beijing.

"hehe."

Upon hearing Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde knew that he had misunderstood.

"Why is Shandai laughing?"

Zhang Juzheng asked in surprise.

"Uncle, brother, has forgotten what Myanmar will be like in the future."

Wei Guangde reminded him.

"Well, so what?"

Zhang Juzheng was startled and suddenly had an idea in his mind.

“Rewards for soldiers do not necessarily have to be gold and silver.

The land owned by Burmese princes, ministers and chieftains can be distributed to meritorious soldiers according to their prices.

The imperial court intended to station troops in Myanmar and directly distributed ten or twenty acres of land to the sergeants.

In order to protect their own land, they will never be merciful to those who dare to oppose the Ming Dynasty. "

Wei Guangde said, "Besides, I heard that the imperial court will send angels to Burma to purchase gems in a few years. I think there should be a lot of gem mines there.

In the past, these mineral deposits should belong to the Burmese king or chieftain. Now they are sold directly to businessmen and they can pay for the redemption and operation.

Taking up such a big place, there is always a way to make money.

Luo Rufang has a good official character, which can be seen from the fact that Yunnan officials do not like to see him. From this, I think this person is a rare upright minister in the court.

If we leave this matter to him, we will definitely be able to make up for the expenses incurred by the DPRK and China. "

For Wei Guangde, as long as he has a territory, is he afraid that he will not be able to make money?

Myanmar's resources should be good. Taking this opportunity, Myanmar's mineral deposits can be directly liquidated to supplement the finances of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the extravagant expenses of the garrison in the future, the royal court's taxes will be used to make up for it.

I think it’s okay for Myanmar’s grain to be harvested twice a year, which is equivalent to having an extra Huguang.

With the sea route, it is easy to transport this food back. There is no possibility of losing money in war as Zhang Juzheng thought.

Western countries are more realistic. People fight for their own interests, and they know when and what they want before going to war.

The result is that the national power of a small country becomes stronger due to war.

On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty always faced the challenge passively, and then naturally suffered losses, which made the household department even worse.

No matter whether they occupied Xiaoliuqiu or Luzon before, they did not bring substantial benefits to Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Daming has to invest there first, and there will be no report in a short time.

In fact, there are rewards, such as the wood from Xiaoliuqiu, but Ming officials generally don't pay much attention to these resources.

If you need wood, just buy it.

Once the Navy has found the source of wood and no longer purchases it, they will not remember that this is actually income.

Maybe you know, but you're just too lazy to say it. After all, without purchasing, there will be less money.

Therefore, in their view, the Ming army was stationed in Xiaoliuqiu, and Zhejiang and Fujian were still responsible for transporting grain and grass, which was a huge loss.

However, the officials of the Ming Dynasty never paid attention to the fact that food matures faster as you go south.

Many officials are still talking about the fact that rice is harvested twice a year in Guangdong, Qiongzhou and other places. They think it is a great wonder in the world. However, they do not know that outside Nanyang, it is not surprising that rice is harvested three times a year.

That is to say, the local indigenous people are lazy, so the output is not large.

In later generations, rice production in many places in Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and India, was very high.

These places are also the main producing countries of rice. China needs to import a part of rice every year to make up for the shortage of domestic grain production.

It can be said that the Mingren of this era were poorly informed.

Wei Guangde believed that once the news that Burmese rice was harvested three times a year spread back to China, it would definitely shock the Ming Dynasty, and the court's attention would inevitably turn there.

Because as long as you have enough food in your hands, everything in the world will be easy to solve.

The Chinese are too hard-working, so they stubbornly believe that the output of the fields is the source of wealth.

When you know about the fertile land in the south, you can imagine the consequences.

Even if you don't have to leave your hometown to go there, you can always build a manor there, especially for the grain merchants in the country.

Wei Guangde also hoped that Ming Dynasty could obtain more high-yield fields to alleviate the disaster caused by the "Little Ice River" period that would inevitably occur on this land in the next hundred years.

Although, Wei Guangde was not sure whether the officials and businessmen at that time would allow the victims to obtain this food.

But it is still a hope.

Wei Guangde thought so, but at this time Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei were considering what he said.

"Reward those soldiers with fields and sell off the mineral deposits to make up for the financial deficit."

Zhang Juzheng suddenly felt that it seemed to make sense.

He didn't think about the land of Myanmar at first, because in his inherent impression, Myanmar was a remote country, and few people wanted to go there.

When officials go to Yunnan, most of them are assigned, or in order to be promoted faster, they go there to improve their level, and then they are quickly transferred back.

Even in later generations, supporting frontier construction is an important condition for rapid promotion.

At this time, Ming Dynasty actually followed a similar approach.

Otherwise, everyone will only choose to be an official in the rich places in the south of the Yangtze River, and who will go to the poor places.

If you go to a lower-level county, you can often get promoted as long as your political performance is good.

As for whether those fields have owners, it is not within Zhang Juzheng's consideration.

"Ziwei, what do you think?"

Zhang Juzheng turned to look at Zhang Siwei and asked.

"The second assistant's opinion is that the Ministry of Revenue cannot allocate enough money to recruit meritorious officers. If we can allocate land to them based on their military merit, they will definitely be very popular.

However, when it is necessary to ask Mr. Wei Ge's attention, the choice of staying in Burma and dividing the land must be made by the sergeants themselves, and they cannot be ordered by force.

After all, they are all meritorious members of our Ming Dynasty, and we cannot let their hearts be chilled at this time. "

Zhang Siwei said.

"Ziwei is right, I will let the Ministry of War write up this matter.

However, the army should not be reorganized in the short term. The 100,000-strong army will be stationed in Myanmar for at least a few years and will be withdrawn after the situation stabilizes.

Therefore, the land can be allocated to them.

If the sergeants were still willing to return to the country at that time, they could sell their fields and come back with the silver. "

Wei Guangde smiled.

"They have been stationed for so long. This is an army of 100,000 people. How much food and grass will the imperial court need to transfer to support them?"

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Siwei immediately lost his composure and turned to look at Zhang Juzheng.

"In order to avoid the recurrence of the old incident in Annan, it is feasible for the army to be permanently stationed in Myanmar."

However, Zhang Juzheng did not show the expression that Zhang Siwei wanted to see, and answered very calmly.

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Siwei and said with a smile: "Ziwei, please be patient and listen to me.

Since Myanmar can mobilize 300,000 troops, it can be seen that its country is supported by enough food. There is no need for the court to transport food from the country, and it can be directly collected on the spot.

I expect that all forces in Myanmar will be wiped out in half a year. During this six months, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will complete the selection of officials and establish government offices at all levels throughout Myanmar.

With a large army stationed in Myanmar, I don't think there will be any worries about trouble.

After that, Myanmar’s yamen at all levels can begin to collect money and food at the local level.

Even after the war, not much food and tax money could be collected in a short period of time, and the balance could be temporarily paid from Yunnan and other places.

In other words, the imperial court will continue to be short of money and food from the southwest. If the imperial court saves a little, it should be able to survive.

If there are still difficulties, just ask the Nanyang vassals to provide supplies.

I heard that the Burmese king Mang Yinglong was attacking everywhere, and the countries in Southeast Asia were complaining. I, the Ming Dynasty, punished such rebels and spared them from the pain of swordsmanship. Shouldn't they be rewarded? "

Just as Wei Guangde finished speaking, someone outside informed him that Fang, the Minister of Rites, wanted to see him at the right time.

"Invite him in."

Upon hearing that people from the Ministry of Rites had arrived, Zhang Juzheng said immediately.

Soon, Fang entered the check-in room at the right time.

After greeting each other, before Zhang Juzheng could say anything, Fang Fengshi took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng, saying, "Sir, Chief Minister, this is the credentials sent by Guangzhou Kuaima."

"What credentials?"

Zhang Juzheng asked strangely, reaching out to take what Fang Fengshi handed over.

"It was given by Maha Tamaraja, King of Siam in Southeast Asia. The credential states that decades ago, hundreds of thousands of Burmese troops attacked Siam and captured the Siamese royal family, civil and military officials, and tens of thousands of people in the city. , was also captured as a slave in Burma, and all the wealth accumulated over two hundred years in the royal capital of Siam was robbed.

Today, I, the Ming Dynasty, have defeated the King of Burma and restored peace in Nanyang. I request our country to return the Siamese people and property that fell to Burma."

As soon as Fang Fengshi briefly explained the situation, a sneer appeared on Wei Guangde's lips.

Zhang Juzheng had already opened the document at this time. There were Siamese characters on it, followed by the translated characters of Siyi Pavilion.

The general meaning is similar to what Fang Fengshi said.

Zhang Juzheng glanced at Wei Guangde, then handed the document over and said, "Shandai, you should also take a look."

While Wei Guangde reached out to take the document, he asked the other party at the right time: "Did the Ministry of Rites receive the Siamese Credentials ten years ago?"

"No."

Fang Fengshi immediately said, "After receiving the news, I asked someone to check it. In the past ten years, there is absolutely nothing else in Siam except documents for exploration and cooperation."