Chapter 315 314 Merchants and Traffickers

The Jinshi of Bingchen in Beijing all came out and participated in this seemingly irrelevant debate. The news spread to all the major government offices in Beijing in an instant.

Those who reacted quickly understood immediately that it must be the one who summoned them from behind. Those who reacted slowly also understood it gradually.

Wei Guangde was an outstanding person among the Jinshi of that year. This outstanding person naturally did not mean how good his articles were or how talented he was, but that he was too good at dealing with things.

On the day when the ceremony of the ceremony of the ceremony of the ceremony of the Jinshi ended, Wei Guangde led his peers to block the Ministry of Rites to plead for the victims of the Shanxi and Shaanxi earthquake. After that, he went out to patrol the border with others and got another military merit. He impeached the general commander and ended up losing his job.

As for the impeachment of Prince Hui later, it was nothing. After all, he was just a hollow prince.

This time, for the victims of the Liaodong earthquake, Wei Guangde asked for sea transportation as soon as possible.

Well, to be honest, many officials first knew that Wei Guangde had written a petition to open sea transportation, and only the next day did they know that the Minister of Revenue had also proposed the idea of ​​sea transportation to Liaodong during the imperial court meeting held in Xiyuan yesterday afternoon.

Damn, this Wei Guangde and Jia Yingchun actually thought of the same thing, which is also weird.

As for the later, Wei Guangde simply took leave and hid at home. In the eyes of others, he didn't want to be involved in the fight between Prince Yu's Mansion and Yan's Mansion, so after seeing someone impeaching him, he simply avoided it.

Such people are also smart.

Now, the most petitions, anyone with a discerning eye can see that most of them are officials who are biased towards Prince Yu's Mansion, and those who oppose are also frequent visitors to Yan's Mansion.

As for Prince Jing's Mansion, it has been automatically ignored.

In this year, although the Jingwang Mansion is very popular in the capital, it is more dependent on the power of the Yan Mansion. It has little influence on its own. Therefore, many people regard the Yan Mansion and the Jingwang Mansion as equals, and do not think that the Yan Mansion is a vassal of the Jingwang Mansion, and naturally do not think that this is a struggle between the Yuwang Mansion and the Jingwang Mansion.

Although in essence, this is actually the case.

Many officials are still applauding Wei Guangde's retreat, and when they praised it, they did not expect that his peers also ended up.

The news spread, and soon someone found out that Wei Guangde had summoned his peers to a banquet the night before these new officials submitted their petitions.

The timing was too coincidental. Obviously, this collective petition action was planned by Wei Guangde.

"Dad, I've said that kid a long time ago, I'm afraid he's an ungrateful person. We've been so good to him, but he's always against us."

At this time, in the cabinet duty room, looking at the pile of memorials sent by the Tongzhengshisi, the eldest son Yan Shifan was angry, "Others have seen what's going on. At first, he hid back home and I said he was a sensible kid, but I didn't expect him to stab me in the back."

"Donglou, how deeply are you involved in the grain transport?"

Sitting in his seat and looking at the memorials in his hand, Yan Song looked helpless and had to sigh and ask.

"I have nothing to do with the grain transport, dad, you can't wrongly accuse a good person, is there someone gossiping in front of you, see how I deal with him."

Yan Shifan replied disapprovingly.

"Although I don't know all of your things, I have heard about them more or less."

Yan Song said this, put down the memorial in his hand, rubbed his eyebrows and continued: "Today is different from the past. You can see the memorial and know the situation of the victims in Liaodong. Disaster relief is like putting out a fire.

Just like these people said, at least these 50,000 stones of Taicang rice should be transported to Liaodong by sea to control the critical situation there first.

It is not easy to immigrate to the border town. The loss there cannot be too great, otherwise the emperor will blame it, and your father can't bear it."

"Dad, this mouth can't be opened."

Yan Shifan heard his father say this again, and his heart was immediately anxious. He continued to persuade Yan Song like he did two days ago.

Yan Shifan can get a lot of money every year through the maintenance of the canal section, and even if it is the dry season of the canal now, other merchant ships are restricted from passing through the locks, but merchant ships hanging Yanfu lanterns still have priority over canal ships to pass through various sections of the river locks. The interests behind this are also huge.

However, Yan Shifan could not argue with Yan Song about these things.

In Yan Song's eyes, those yellow and white things were useless, and he only liked famous calligraphy and paintings.

Yan Shifan did not reject this kind of calligraphy and paintings. After all, they were all silver, and they were worth a lot of silver, but he also attached great importance to those long-term big businesses.

Now they and Jia Yingchun have changed from arguing about opening sea transportation to sea transportation to Liaodong. It seems that the other party has taken a step back, but Yan Shifan is still alert. He feels that this is a means for the other party to retreat and advance, and the purpose is to open a gap in the forbidden sea.

After the first time, there will naturally be a second time, a third time, and finally sea transportation will completely replace water transportation. Will he still have the money he earned from water transportation?

The court is unlikely to continue to spend money to repair the river. The sea is vast and there is no need to repair it. As long as you find a waterway, you can run a ship. How much money will this save.

The two talked for a long time in the duty room. In the end, Yan Song still did not stand up to his son's persuasion. He just voted on these memorials as "violating the ancestral system".

"By the way, Dad, how about letting Han Zhang take the position of Tongzhengshi? He is also the Zhongshu Sheren now. Anyway, nothing will happen to Tongzhengshisi. Even if it is sending and receiving memorials, we still need someone reliable to keep an eye on it for us."

Yan Shifan suddenly remembered his good friend Luo Longwen's request a few days ago.

Yes, Luo Longwen's promiscuity with Yan Shifan was not without gain. The money he spent bought him a set of official clothes. However, he was not satisfied with the empty title of Zhongshu Sheren now, and wanted to be a real official.

Tongzhengshisi Tongzhengshi, a high official position but with nothing to do. Speaking of it, he was one of the Nine Ministers in the past, and now he has no status, but it is still quite intimidating to say it out.

"He wants to be Tongzhengshi?"

Yan Song turned his head and looked at his son, and asked.

"Yes, Dad, you see Hanzhang used to be as filial to you and mother as a child, and he is a trustworthy person, you see."

Yan Shifan hurriedly said with a smile, his father was convinced by him, and he was in a good mood at the moment.

"I know, let's take a look."

Yan Song replied.

Yan Song likes calligraphy and paintings by celebrities, but there is actually another one that he loves the most, which is the four treasures of the study that all literati need.

Well, Luo Longwen happened to be a famous ink maker in the Ming Dynasty at that time. He made the ink himself, not by his subordinates.

Such things are naturally Yan Song's favorite.

As the saying goes, you are soft-hearted when you take someone's money, and you are grateful when you eat someone's money. When Yan Song heard that Luo Longwen wanted to work as a Tongzhengshi in the Tongzhengshi, he really couldn't bear to refuse him.

As Yan Shifan said, the Tongzhengshishi was not a critical government office, because their job was to collect officials' memorials, copy them for filing, and then send them to the cabinet. They didn't want to make it too easy, even if they were given the opportunity, it would be difficult for him to make mistakes.

The debate on whether to open sea transportation to transport grain to Liaodong continued to expand. Jia Yingchun of the Ministry of Revenue submitted two memorials in three days to request sea transportation, claiming that 50,000 stones of Taicang rice had been collected and could be shipped to Tianjin at any time.

After a lot of noise, the Censorate finally settled and selected officials to go south to purchase disaster relief grain.

Now that all parties have completed their preparations, they are just waiting to see which side the court will choose in the end. Will Xiyuan choose to transport relief money and grain by land as usual or go directly to Liaodong by sea as Jia Yingchun said?

The debate continues. With the participation of Wei Guangde's peers, the number of memorials supporting the opening of sea transportation has surpassed the opposition in a short period of time, but Xiyuan has not heard any news.

Wei Guangde did send people to contact Chen Ju, but all of them fell on deaf ears. Chen Ju did not reply to him.

Over the past six months, Wei Guangde and Chen Ju have had less and less contact. Even though Wei Guangde sent him meeting tickets twice, Chen Ju's attitude did not change at all, which made Wei Guangde very flustered.

In fact, Chen Ju's attitude towards Wei Guangde is similar now.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, Chen Ju followed the Jiajing Emperor with a lantern to light the way. The sudden question from the Jiajing Emperor, "Wei Guangde is very close to Prince Yu's Mansion," shocked Chen Ju.

In this era, all the eunuchs knew that Emperor Jiajing seemed to favor Prince Jing more, and the rewards he gave were more and better than those given to Prince Yu.

As for going up to the city tower to see Prince Yu during the Lantern Festival, in fact, such actions were also done to Prince Jing in the past, so they, the eunuchs, could not tell who the emperor was thinking of?

In fact, not to mention them, even Huang Jin was a little confused.

It is said that the emperor favors Prince Yu, but it seems that it is not the case in the past.

In any case, in Huang Jin's opinion, Emperor Jiajing seems to be similar to both sides, just a little bit biased towards Prince Jing, and Prince Yu's mother is still a concubine who has fallen out of favor.

They have not yet skipped the prince and thought of the emperor's grandson like Wei Guangde. After all, whether it is Prince Yu or Prince Jing, they are only in their twenties, and they are both energetic. No one will think about whether they have descendants or not.

So after hearing Emperor Jiajing talk about the relationship between Prince Yu's Mansion and Wei Guangde, according to Gao Zhong's intention, he began to distance himself from Wei Guangde, worried that he would make a wrong bet in the end.

For eunuchs like Gao Zhong, it doesn't matter if they bet on the wrong treasure, after all, he is not young anymore, but for Chen Ju, it is impossible to make a mistake.

At this time, in the officialdom of Beijing, officials from both sides of the dispute not only kept writing memorials to accuse each other, but also kept lobbying their colleagues and friends to support their opinions. There were officials who couldn't stand it and were dragged into the debate.

It was in such a political environment that at night, a sedan chair quietly appeared at the back door of Xu Jie, a cabinet minister of the current dynasty. A servant went over and knocked on the door knocker. After opening the door, a man in a cloak in the sedan chair walked out of the sedan chair slowly, looked around, and then walked into Xu's house.

Knowing that there was a guest visiting, Xu Jie just smiled and shook his head. Xu Jie had naturally guessed his intention long ago, and he also knew that there would be such a day.

Like the Yan family's attitude towards the Jingwang Mansion, Xu Jie was relatively independent and did not rely entirely on the Yuwang Mansion, although he had never refused a request from the Yuwang Mansion.

In official duties, Xu Jie chose to fully support Yan Song's political views most of the time. Although many ministers in the court were dissatisfied with him, Xu Jie also had his own difficulties.

Up to now, he has not seen that Emperor Jiajing is too dissatisfied with Yan Song. Yan Song's favor is still there and cannot be touched. Therefore, as the second assistant of the current dynasty, he can only choose to compromise.

However, the premise of grievance is that Yan Song has not seriously violated his interests. When his interests are damaged, he will fight with Yan Song, otherwise it will be too fake.

In fact, Yan Shifan has tested Xu Jie's bottom line many times, constantly touching Xu Jie's interests, and gradually let down his guard until he confirmed it.

Therefore, Xu Jie did not know about many matters discussed by Prince Yu's Mansion, as long as he was not required to do so, and he did not want to know.

Like Huang Jin and others, Xu Jie has not yet felt the pulse of Emperor Jiajing.

Perhaps, in this world, only Yan Song and Yan Shifan knew what Emperor Jiajing was thinking.

Starting from the second day, more officials who had not participated in the debate before began to leave, but this was not surprising to the officials and nobles who had been watching the fight.

In the past, Xu Jie would choose to support King Yu's faction. In fact, it has been rooted in everyone's hearts for a long time.

Perhaps, this is also a kind of balance, although it is very fragile.

Prince Yu's Mansion has the support of Xu Jie, the second assistant of the dynasty, and Prince Jing's Mansion has the support of Yan Song, the first auxiliary of the dynasty. When Xu Jie fully supports Yan Song in power, Xu Jie will be cautious when encountering matters involving Prince Yu's Mansion. He will even openly oppose it, although his influence is far less than that of Yan Song's group.

By this time, everyone in this fight has come to an end, and all we can do is wait for the final decision from Xiyuan.

At this time, in the Yongshou Palace, on the huge imperial desk in front of Emperor Jiajing, there were stacks of memorials on one side and one on the right, which made one's head feel heavy just looking at them.

There are several more piles on the left than on the right. There is strength in numbers.

Why did Emperor Jiajing's Ministry of War value the so-called ancestral system? In fact, almost all Ming emperors did not value this. They weighed the pros and cons more.

Regarding the Liaodong matter, they naturally have their own weighings.

Time can't be delayed.

"As Wei Guangde's memorial said, it is less than 200 miles from Haikou to Youtun River and Tongbao. Among them, Caobodian, Yuetuo, Sangtuo, Jiangnufen, and Taohua Island can all be anchored, and they are only four or five miles apart. Ten miles away, you can avoid troubles and thieves."

Hearing Lu Bing's answer, Emperor Jiajing nodded slightly, but then he heard Lu Bing continue: "It's just that according to the investigation, the remaining ships of Shandong Denglai Navy are insufficient and many are old and unusable."

After Lu Bing finished speaking, he lowered his head slightly.

"Is there any solution?"

Emperor Jiajing on the throne frowned slightly when he heard this, and then asked.

"There are not enough sea-going ships, but the disaster is urgent. We can only use disaster relief money to spend some money to build sea-going ships first. The most urgent task is to send the 50,000 shi Taicang rice to the Tonghe River in Tianjin and other places to attract merchants and traffickers, and to supervise each other and not to bring in private goods." goods."

These were all discussed by the clerk and others in Jinyiwei, so Lu Bing answered immediately.

Emperor Jiajing nodded when he heard this, and his brows relaxed.

Although he did not express his position on the spot, he did not directly shake his head and refuse. After all, it was a matter of life and death for the people of the town. He was the emperor, so he naturally had to shoulder this responsibility.