Chapter 617 616 Yuegang

The decree of Jiaen was not a sudden act of Emperor Longqing, but was made after communicating with the cabinet ministers and the six ministers.

For the original officials of Prince Yu's Mansion, they should have been promoted after Prince Yu ascended the throne, which is why so many officials are obsessed with the merit of following the dragon.

Not only is there an opportunity to get closer to the new emperor, but there are also real benefits.

However, for Wei Guangde, before the copy of the "Yongle Encyclopedia" was completed, his office was still in the Proofreading Hall. He only went to pay a visit to Yang Bo, looked at his duty room in the Ministry of Personnel and left.

The transcription work must be completed before the end of March. Using the statistical method of later generations, Wei Guangde has directly assigned the task to each writing scholar.

Correspondingly, each sub-division official also assigned the number of manuscripts to be proofread according to the previous proofreading speed.

The entire proofreading hall is like a precision machine that is running continuously, and the operator is Wei Guangde.

If nothing unexpected happened, Wei Guangde was still confident that he could complete the project at the last minute. However, after being directly assigned the task and the specific number was determined, the workload of the Confucian scholars who wrote the work became larger.

In fact, Wei Guangde did not increase their workload. He felt the pressure mainly because he was under great pressure.

If anyone thought about how many words they had to copy today when they woke up in the morning, they would not feel the pressure.

Perhaps it was also because of the important matter of copying the grand ceremony. Since the day when Emperor Longqing sent Li Fang to his house to ask about it, he never sent anyone to come again.

At least he had to ensure that Emperor Jiajing was buried in Yongling by the end of March. This was also the top priority of the court at the moment.

The Ministry of Rites was the busiest. The day before, it submitted the ceremony of enthroning the empress. Two days later, it submitted three more ceremony notes, including the ceremony of sending the coffin of Emperor Shizong Su to the funeral, the ceremony of moving Empress Xiaojie Su to the funeral, and the ceremony of moving Empress Dowager Xiaoke to the funeral and the return of the spirit tablet to Beijing.

Emperor Jiajing conferred three empresses in his lifetime, but Empress Zhang was later deposed and died in the cold palace, so she cannot be counted.

The last empress conferred by Emperor Jiajing, Empress Xiaolie, was already buried in Yongling, so there was no need to relocate her burial. She only had to pay tribute to the original wife, Empress Xiaojiesusu. As for Empress Dowager Xiaoke, she was conferred by Emperor Longqing because she was the biological mother of the emperor.

The mother is honored by her son. Since her son became the emperor, the mother must naturally be the empress dowager and must be buried in Yongling.

The officials in the court were busy again, and Wei Guangde's normal plan was also disrupted.

Just kidding, the enthronement of the empress is only a royal affair, but it is also a national affair.

When enthroning, the empress had to receive the five kneelings and three kowtows of all officials, and Wei Guangde certainly couldn't hide behind it.

These etiquettes, no one can escape, must go.

The ceremony of enthroning the empress began on February 9th, and the edict was issued on February 13th. It was also on this day that Chen from Prince Yu's Mansion entered the palace through the Daming Gate and became the empress, the mother of the country.

Five days later, it was the ceremony for Zhu Yijun to give the prince a name.

After the Emperor Longqing personally informed the Fengxian Hall and the late Emperor of the banquet, the Emperor Longqing wore a Yishan crown and robes and ascended the throne in the inner hall. The imperial concubine dressed in court and bowed four times. The imperial concubine stood on the east side. The concubine took the prince out of the bedroom and knelt in front of the emperor. The emperor held the prince's right hand and gave him a name, and ordered him to say goodbye. The imperial concubine accepted the order and the concubine took the prince back to the bedroom. After the concubine bowed four times, she returned to the palace.

At noon on that day, the Emperor Longqing handed down a handwritten edict at the Xuanzhi Gate to pass the prince's Rui name to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Clan People to register it in the Jade Book.

Two days later, the wet nurse Chai was named Fengsheng Madam, and her husband Yu Bao was appointed as the commander of the Jinyiwei. Later, the Ministry of Rites was ordered to announce that the prince's two daughters, born to Li, could be canonized as Imperial Noble Consorts, and Jiang could be canonized as Xianfei, with the edict to perform the ceremony on the 27th.

It can be said that Emperor Longqing was in mourning in January, and in February he began to lavishly reward people in the former Prince Yu's mansion.

However, Wei Guangde only attended a few ceremonies. Although he had to work overtime for nothing, there was nothing he could do. Many activities were inevitable for officials in the court.

As a vested interest, he could only feel pain and happiness.

At this time, Wei Guangde finally felt lucky that Emperor Longqing had appointed him to the Ministry of Personnel. Look at Yin Shizeng, who went to the Ministry of Rites, who was busy like a grandson these days.

After conferring titles on people in the palace, Emperor Longqing issued another decree, following the old system to posthumously confer the title of Empress Yuan Li as Empress Xiaoyi, the title of Prince Yu as Prince Xianhuai, the title of Prince Lantian as Prince Jingdao, the title of Princess Penglai for the eldest daughter, and the title of Princess Taihe for the second daughter.

These activities were naturally the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, and most of them fell on Yin Shizeng in the end.

Empress Yuan Li was the princess selected by Emperor Jiajing for Prince Yu, and died after giving birth to Prince Xianhuai.

Although she is gone, she is still the principal wife of Emperor Longqing, so she should be called the empress, and the current empress Chen is only the successor.

Time passed day by day while Wei Guangde was busy, and he seemed to be unaware of the return of spring.

"Master, Governor Tu has replied."

That day, Wei Guangde dragged his tired body back to the mansion, and took the letter from Fujian Governor Tu Zemin from Zhang Ji as soon as he entered the door.

For no reason, Wei Guangde felt uneasy.

In the previous correspondence with several governors, Wei Guangde gradually valued this person and felt that his ability and knowledge were okay. At least he did not discriminate against maritime trade.

In several letters with Wei Guangde, Wei Guangde only intentionally or unintentionally proposed in the first two letters that opening maritime trade might allow coastal people to do business instead of joining the Japanese pirates.

In Tu Zemin's reply, he got his affirmation. After all, he was in Fujian and saw the real situation of the so-called Japanese pirates.

Who are they?

Except for a few people who were wanted by the government and were extremely vicious, most of them were boat people who were just trying to make a living.

The government banned the sea, and these boat people had no way to survive, so they could only collude with the Japanese pirates to survive.

If they were really given a name and allowed to go out to sea for trade, naturally no one would do anything illegal like the Japanese pirates.

In the previous letter, Wei Guangde had already proposed to conduct a pilot in Fujian Province, allowing it to open the sea ban and allow the people to load the goods on ships and sail overseas after the trade.

I just don't know how Tu Zemin will choose this proposal.

For officials of this era, for things that they are not sure about, most of them will follow the concept of "the more you do, the more mistakes you make, the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make". In the absence of orders from their superiors, most of them will take the initiative to push things out instead of taking on things for themselves.

What will Tu Zemin choose?

Wei Guangde was not sure in his heart. He was worried that in the letter, Tu Zemin would push the matter to Zhejiang or Guangdong. After all, the two places still have the foundation of the Maritime Customs, so it is naturally much more convenient to do this.

Instead of opening the letter immediately to reveal his doubts, Wei Guangde just put the letter in his arms and went back to the backyard to visit his mother, wife and children as usual. After changing into his regular clothes, he went to the study.

In a nervous mood, Wei Guangde opened the letter, and the two paragraphs he saw made him feel relieved immediately.

At the beginning of the letter, Tu Zemin expressed his support for Wei Guangde's idea, that is, "If the market is open, the bandits will turn into merchants, and if the market is closed, the merchants will turn into bandits."

With this idea as a foundation, Wei Guangde certainly didn't worry.

Afterwards, Tu Zemin analyzed the situation in Fujian in detail, quoting the views of Tan Lun, the former governor of Fujian, "The people of Fujian who live by the sea... generally do not have food if they live on the sea", if "all bans are lifted... where will the food and clothing come from... why don't they all become bandits."

It seems that Tu Zemin is not a pedantic person, and he understands the principle of flexibility.

In fact, most people who can serve as officials in the court know how to adapt, but many people put their minds elsewhere, such as how to make money blatantly, and rarely use their hearts to handle government affairs.

Faced with various situations in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, most people choose to look for precedents to deal with them, thinking that they are stable and will not make mistakes if they do so.

Little do they know that the times are changing, and policies that are suitable for the past may not work today, or the effect will be greatly reduced until it will be completely ineffective in the future.

However, Wei Guangde is most concerned about the major issue he mentioned last time, that is, to choose a good port in Fujian to try to open sea trade, but the reply in Tu Zemin's letter made Wei Guangde frown.

Tu Zemin does not object to choosing a port for trial, but does not think that a good port should be chosen for development pilot projects, and almost directly rejected Wei Guangde's idea of ​​opening the sea in Quanzhou.

As we all know, if a country or group wants to develop, it cannot work behind closed doors.

Contacting the outside world and exchanging technical experience with others is the best way to learn, and it is also a necessary factor for a country to always be strong.

In fact, most dynasties in ancient times knew how to interact with foreign countries.

The Silk Road formed during the Western Han Dynasty, the multi-national envoys to the Tang Dynasty during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the establishment of the Maritime Customs Office in the Song Dynasty to develop overseas trade, and Zheng He's voyages to the West during the Ming Dynasty have all proved this truth again and again.

According to the Huainanzi, after Emperor Qin Shihuang unified the world, he sent people to the Lingnan area many times, because the local "rhinoceros horns, horn teeth, jade, and pearls" were all what he needed.

According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, "The old Jiaozhi land has many precious products, including pearls, emeralds, emerald feathers, rhinoceros and elephants, Qi hats, exotic fragrances, and beautiful woods. Most of the former and later governors were not honest, and they accepted the power and wealth from above, accumulated private compensation from below, and asked for an audience and transfer to another place when the financial plan was surplus."

It is not difficult to find that one of the main reasons for the prosperity of overseas trade is that the unique goods imported from overseas have been favored by wealthy families.

It is precisely because of their pursuit that these "imported goods" have become rare items that symbolize the status of the aristocracy.

In the Three Kingdoms period, China's shipping industry has developed rapidly.

Although the Yellow River Basin is still very important and still the heart of the country, the strategic position of the Yangtze River has become more important.

Sun Quan formulated the strategy of "protecting Jiangdong from the Yangtze River" and spared no expense to vigorously develop the shipbuilding industry of Dongwu.

Dongwu's powerful shipbuilding technology was also used by Sun Quan in the shipping industry.

After recovering Jiaozhou, Sun Quan sent people south many times, and the scale of his fleet even reached more than 10,000 people. The form was similar to Zheng He's fleet and both had national attributes.

The records about Taiwan actually appeared in Dongwu's books at the earliest.

Dongwu's shipping industry was very prosperous. It had arrived in Rome, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia and other places, and had trade relations with these regions. Silk fabrics, ceramics and other items produced in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were even better sold overseas and once became synonymous with China.

In the Tang Dynasty, maritime trade dominated by private vendors gradually flourished, replacing the original state-led maritime trade.

As merchants made profits, their taxes also increased.

For this reason, the Tang Dynasty court specially established the Shibosi system.

However, the dynasty that really made the Shibosi flourish was the Northern Song Dynasty, and the system was relatively complete, which continued to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty established by the remnant forces paid more attention to the benefits of maritime trade.

Due to geographical reasons, Quanzhou's status gradually became prominent, and gradually formed the world's maritime trade center in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, becoming the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road.

The reason why history chose Quanzhou is that Quanzhou is located on the southeast coast, facing the sea and backed by mountains. The land is barren, but the population is large. The natural conditions severely restrict the development of agriculture, but it is suitable for the development of handicrafts and commodity economy, providing a material basis for Quanzhou's trade.

It is also because of these records that when Emperor Longqing wanted to open the sea, Wei Guangde first thought of Quanzhou. He really couldn't find a better seaport than here.

Of course, according to the knowledge of later generations, Wei Guangde also considered Songjiang Prefecture, that is, Shanghai, to develop maritime trade based on the strong transportation capacity of the Yangtze River waterway.

However, all this can only stay on paper for the time being. After all, no one knows the result after opening the sea. Wei Guangde knows that he can't argue with his colleagues, especially with the stick of the ancestral system.

Prince Yu supported him, in fact, he also hoped that opening the sea could eradicate the soil for the survival of Japanese pirates.

In the past 20 years of the Ming Dynasty, it was really exhausted by the Japanese pirates. Otherwise, how could Fujian and Guangdong rebel so fiercely, one wave after another.

Of the two famous generals in Jiangnan, Qi Jiguang was okay, mainly fighting against the Japanese, and occasionally taught the rebels a lesson, while Yu Dayou kept running back and forth on the battlefields of fighting against the Japanese and the bandits.

Having denied Wei Guangde's intention to use Quanzhou to open the sea, Tu Zemin certainly did not say that there was no alternative target, that is Yuegang.

Yuegang belongs to Zhangzhou Prefecture in Fujian. During the Jingtai Dynasty, Zhangzhou Prefect Xie Qian, in view of the fact that "many people and foreigners are thieves" in Yuegang, Haicang, and Haicheng, ordered the implementation of the Baojia system, but the effect was basically ineffective.

Reasons for Difficult Management First, these three places are more than 40 miles away from the prefecture city of Zhangcheng, which meant more than a day's journey at the time, and it was difficult for the prefecture to effectively govern directly.

Secondly, the "inland migration" made Zhangzhou Prefecture have no administrative system in these three places. They are under the jurisdiction of Longxi County of Zhangzhou Prefecture on a daily basis, but the dozens of people in the county government have no spare energy to supervise these three places. Therefore, the implementation of Baojia can only rely on local nobles and village elders.

On the one hand, there is a lack of supervision by the local government, and on the other hand, many of these wealthy families and village elders are also involved in smuggling for profit. In addition, they are unwilling to block other people's money and offend their neighbors, so it is understandable that they are passive and perfunctory about the Baojia system.

Of course, Zhangzhou is not completely without ideas. It has proposed to move the patrol office to Haicang, Zhangzhou, and even set up a county in Haicheng, but they were all rejected because the court felt that it would lose money.

So the pilot area for opening the sea that Tu Zemin proposed to Wei Guangde was actually an area where smuggling was prevalent and the government almost controlled it.

However, Tu Zemin did not want to dump the burden on Wei Guangde, but he felt that since this place had already become a place for maritime smuggling, wouldn't it be an ideal area for opening the sea if it was directly used and managed a little bit?