The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Chapter 506 505 Canal Transport Is Really Untouchable

Zhang Juzheng had an impression of the housekeeper in Wei Guangde's house, after all, he went to his house to drink from time to time.

However, Zhang Juzheng would not be so foolish to believe Wei Guangde's words that Zhang Ji was involved in the business.

When Wei Guangde asked about this, Zhang Juzheng just thought about it for a while and said, "Teacher does not oppose Liaodong shipping, and believes that this move can strengthen the connection with Liaodong."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly when he heard this.

After all, when Jia Yingchun was operating this matter, Xu Jie also made great efforts.

Emperor Jiajing did not like sea transportation, so Jia Yingchun started with the cost, and Xu Jie assisted from the side, and finally let Emperor Jiajing give in.

Although it was only a few years, it really saved a lot of money for the court.

It can be imagined that a cart of grain and grass was transported from the interior to the outside of the pass, and half of the cart of grain and grass would not be left when it arrived at the place.

But sea transportation is different. It costs very little on the way, and the time is even saved by more than half of the land transportation. Naturally, it is a great good policy.

The Ministry of War was not unaware of this, but since there were so many garrisons in Liaodong, it was natural that it did not want the Liaodong garrisons to become lazy and give up farming just because of the aid from the inland areas, and just ask for food and fodder from the capital.

At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang stopped the sea transportation to Liaodong, and the purpose was naturally to make the garrisons in Liaodong as self-sufficient as possible, so that they could really take root there.

Once the sea route was kept open, and they asked for food and fodder from the court from time to time, with the temperament of those arrogant soldiers and generals, they would have stopped farming long ago, clamoring for aid from the court every day, or simply gave up that place.

Who would be willing to live in that bitter and cold place when there is a warm Guannei instead of staying.

"However, he can temporarily suppress this matter before it triggers a discussion in the court, but once this matter is exposed, His Majesty will know the details and may abolish the sea transportation."

Zhang Juzheng analyzed.

Wei Guangde also understood that Xu Jie was not opposed to sea transportation, but he would not reason with the emperor.

Before the emperor knew about this, he could speak for Liaodong shipping during private discussions in the court, but once the emperor knew about this, he would stand aside and watch.

Everything depends on your majesty's thoughts.

Wei Guangde was still thinking about how to suppress this matter, avoid it from spreading among the officials in the capital, and control the situation before a consensus is formed, but Zhang Juzheng whispered again: "Shandai, let me tell you, if this matter can be suppressed, my teacher would have taken action long ago."

"What do you mean?"

Wei Guangde hesitated and looked up at him and asked.

"This matter is not only promoted by the Shandong local government, but also secretly fueled by the grain transport office. It is impossible to suppress it. At most, it can only delay for some time."

Zhang Juzheng whispered, "The only beneficiaries of this matter are those merchants and Liaodong military leaders. The court will not let them profit from it."

Zhang Juzheng's words were like a revelation, and Wei Guangde understood it all at once.

In fact, before making this decision, it was not about whether sea or land transportation was more cost-effective, but how to effectively control Liaodong.

How to reassure the court?

It seems that the only way is to let the court change Liaodong into other provinces in the country, and set up Liaodong Provincial Administration and Provincial Inspection Office in addition to the existing Liaodong Dusi, and change the management of the military town to the management of the three offices.

However, Liaodong is a place with vast land and sparse population, which is why the three offices were not established at the beginning. Most of the locals came from the guards, and there were few civilians.

In fact, one of the reasons why Shandong wanted to ban the sea again was that along with these sea ships, there were not only mountain products from Liaodong, but also people who fled south.

Liaodong was bitter and cold, and it was difficult for Han people to survive there.

In the past, it was difficult to get back to the interior of the country by foot, and the hurdle of Shanhaiguan was definitely impossible to get through.

Now it is different. As long as you can get on the ship, you can reach Shandong when you get off the ship. Not only can you perfectly avoid the checkpoints along the way, but you can also reach places like Shandong.

At first, Shandong did not care about the arrival of Liao ships. The court agreed to buy grain in Shandong, and the grain transported by the Grand Canal was directly transferred to Denglai and sent to Liaodong.

But over time, the number of refugees in Denglai and other places increased sharply. Once they carefully checked, they found their origins, even if they tried their best to conceal it.

In fact, not only civilians could not escape, but many of them were military households.

There were hundreds of households and hundreds of people who were discovered, and there were even more who had been hidden by the big households.

Cheap labor, as long as they were given food, they would work.

As for the dissatisfaction with the canal transportation, Zhang Juzheng was too lazy to explain.

Others are also smart. If the sea ships from Liaodong to Shandong run well, it is impossible not to affect the unsafe sea ships they advocated before.

Goods from Jiangnan can be directly shipped to Shanghai, and go north along the coastline all the way to Tianjin.

Going by sea, there will be no congestion of the canal fleet, nor will it be affected by the dry season or flood season.

Only by completely eliminating sea transportation can they continue to make money around the canal.

"We know that opening up the sea transportation is a good policy and beneficial to the court. Are we going to give it up just because of these obstacles?"

At the end of the two people's conversation, Wei Guangde said unwillingly.

"Teacher means that with your majesty in power, the sea transportation may not be able to be maintained. With the power of the people behind the grain transport, my teacher can only retreat behind the scenes."

Zhang Juzheng sighed in a low voice, "All he can do is try to delay for some time."

"Thank you."

Wei Guangde said with a bow.

"Originally, my teacher would have communicated with Prince Yu's Mansion after the grain transport was launched. Now they are just connecting from below.

But since you asked about this today, I will tell you first that it is time to let go of the matter over there.

Although the income from the land route is less, it is much safer."

Zhang Juzheng finally said to Wei Guangde earnestly.

Wei Guangde was in a bad mood for the whole day.

It is impossible to recover when the financial path is cut off.

The good life he is living in the capital now depends on the dividends from the Liaodong line. Thinking that if he loses this financial path, his family will seem to be reduced to mediocrity in the future, Wei Guangde is unwilling to give up.

In the end, Wei Guangde could only sigh in his heart. No wonder when he read books before, those pig feet had to be worn by the emperor, and then they dared to change the world and create an empire on which the sun never sets.

If you become a commoner, even if you have passed the imperial examination, it seems that it is difficult to accomplish anything except being corrupt with your colleagues.

As for those who climbed up from the bottom and wanted to rebel and become emperor, it was just nonsense.

Of course, if it was in the Chongzhen era, it seemed possible. With the help of that pig teammate, the probability of success was indeed very high.

However, in this era, perhaps it should be regarded as the middle period of the Ming Dynasty. Everyone's thoughts are loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. In their minds, the Ming Dynasty is the orthodoxy.

You think that by giving people certain favors, they will give up the court in their hearts, that's too much, unless you are allying with mountain bandits.

Only these people have no court in their hearts, because the court is their death warrant.

Wei Guangde, who returned home, was still thinking about this matter, because it was related to his family's future life.

Wei Guangde did not plan to go over to the Prince Yu's Mansion so early to inform, because Prince Yu had no say in this matter at all.

Thinking of the data that he had asked Lu Bu to copy before, it involved data on grain transport from the pre-Yuan Dynasty to the Zhengde Dynasty.

If one million dan of grain was transported from the south to the north by grain transport, it would take about 3 million dan of grain in the Yongle period, and about 3.3 million dan in the Chenghua period, and now, this number is only higher.

In other words, it takes more than three times the transportation cost to transport grain from the south to the north, not to mention the time consumed during the period.

But what if it is transported by sea?

Then the cost is about 1 million dan.

In other words, under the premise that nothing changes, just changing the grain transport to sea transport, the grain sent to the capital can be doubled directly.

Although it only doubles, it can make the soldiers in the nine borders no longer worry about food, or the salary rice of the officials in the capital can be guaranteed, and they don’t have to be reduced by the Ministry of Households.

Of course, Wei Guangde can only think about these.

If Emperor Jiajing adopts it and all this becomes a reality, it is hard to guarantee that there will be countless construction sites in the capital and new temples will be born.

In fact, when Wei Guangde saw these data, he keenly discovered that it seemed that he could make a lot of money by doing sea transportation.

As for the method, of course, it is to do sea transportation at the expense of grain transportation.

The grain ships do not enter the Grand Canal, but go down the river into the sea, go north along the coastline to Tianjin, and then transport to Tongzhou through tributaries such as the Haihe River.

This is a huge profit.

It is equivalent to sending one ship of grain to earn two ships of grain back. Even considering shipbuilding and maintenance, it is a very profitable business.

However, this is only for sea transportation merchants. For those who eat grain transportation, it is naturally a disaster.

Think about the prefectures and counties through which the Grand Canal flows, how many people rely on it for their livelihood, let alone other things, but the grain transport army is a force that cannot be underestimated.

It’s not about how powerful their combat power is, but their terrible destructive power after being released.

If the grain transport is changed to sea, how many of the grain transport troops will be eliminated?

Wei Guangde didn't know, but at least tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs passed down from generation to generation.

Of course, they could also be used by the Ministry of War to supplement other garrisons, but what about the countless people on both sides of the river who depended on the canal for their livelihood?

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde scratched his head for a while. The canal transportation really couldn't be touched.

The canal transportation has been implemented for hundreds of years. The livelihoods of countless people along the canal depend on the canal transportation, including peddlers, boatmen, and even singing girls. Moreover, the middle and lower-level managers along the river can also take the opportunity to make money. Everyone works together to maintain this system.

On a narrow river, from the court to the officials of the canal transportation, from the canal workers to the ordinary people, too many people's livelihoods are kidnapped on this river.

The existence of the canal transportation has actually transcended the constraints of the economy, but is a major policy related to the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty and the long-term stability of the country.

At this moment, Wei Guangde was enlightened.

As long as the Ming Dynasty did not lift the ban on sea transportation, the status of the canal transportation would be unchallenged.

The interest groups surrounding the countless towns along the canal and the countless ordinary people who made a living from it were such a huge force that Emperor Jiajing could make a wise choice.

What Wei Guangde did not know was that the end of the canal transportation in the future was actually a peasant uprising that affected the starting point of the canal - the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.

After 1853, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Nanjing and Anhui, and the major cities along the canal were severely damaged or even burned down. The Qing court had to choose to transport grain to Beijing by sea, and the canal transportation that had been popular for hundreds of years in the Ming and Qing dynasties completely withdrew from the stage of history.

If he knew that the force that would end water transport in the future would be this, Wei Guangde might consider assisting and letting Zhang Lian's troops simply sweep the southern Zhili area, so that the Ming court could fully see the fragility of water transport.

Of course, this is impossible.

Not to mention other things, but right now Qi Long and Yu Hu in Jiangnan are enough for Zhang Lian to drink. With these two people in charge, it is really difficult for ordinary rebels to become big.

As for what Wei Guangde saw, the gradual replacement of water transportation by sea transportation through the establishment of sea bans was also based on the development of coastal ports.

As long as the North and South seaports were established, they would of course be mainly engaged in maritime trade at the beginning. However, when merchants discovered the low cost of sea transportation, they would inevitably switch goods that were previously transported by water to the sea route.

Even if the vested interests in the imperial court continue to insist on transporting grain, they will have no choice but to make constant compromises as the general trend goes. In the end, they will have to accept the plan of giving priority to sea transportation and supplementing by water transportation.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel that he was so great.

I just wanted to make some money, but I actually thought of serving the country and the people.

After retracting his thoughts, Wei Guangde called Zhang Ji and told him the news that Liaodong Shipping might be banned in the coming year. He also asked the Chamber of Commerce to make plans in advance, otherwise they would be caught off guard when the decree was issued.

Make preparations in advance, transport the goods as soon as possible, and don't think about suppressing the goods.

Hearing that Liao ships might be banned, Zhang Ji immediately became anxious.

As the steward of the Wei Mansion, Zhang Ji can be said to be very familiar with the money receipts and expenditures in the mansion.

"Sir, if the waterway from Liaodong to Shandong is stopped, the dividends of our house will be at least halved."

Zhang Ji reminded carefully.

"I know."

Wei Guangde reluctantly replied: "I know everything you said. I asked someone about it before I heard the news. This matter is very involved. I estimate that there will definitely be a clear decree issued by the court by the end of next year at the latest."

When Zhang Ji heard what Wei Guangde said, he lowered his head and thought for a while before looking up at Wei Guangde and whispered: "Master, when the time comes, should we prepare our own ships to transport goods quietly and pass through some small fishing villages?"

"Can you avoid the patrol of naval warships?"

Wei Guangde interrupted Zhang Ji angrily.

In fact, Wei Guangde had heard from Zhang Ji before that before there was no sea transportation to Liao, there were businessmen doing this secretly.

It's okay if you don't get caught. Once you get caught, it will be very troublesome, but it won't just be as simple as losing a batch of goods.

As for the current governors of Liaodong and Shandong, one is Jicheng and the other is Xie Dongshan. Wei Guangde is not familiar with these two people.

If something really happened, it would be difficult to suppress it.

The opponent's power was too strong, so Wei Guangde decided to give in and not engage in shipping.

However, his influence on King Yu was obviously effective. King Yu was very enthusiastic about the pilot project. Wei Guangde had already submitted two plans, but King Yu seemed to be dissatisfied and asked him to continue improving.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde glanced at Zhang Ji and said: "Although the sea transportation is not allowed, don't be idle over there and find out more about what your favorite overseas products are."

Chapter 517/1224
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The Prosperous Era of LongwanCh.517/1224 [42.24%]