Chapter 886 975 Make Your Attitude Clear

"After this battle, Li Chengliang has to move to another place and can no longer stay in Liaodong.

Wei Guangde stopped talking about the servants at this time and told Tan Lun.

"Thousands of servants, a month's military pay is at least a thousand taels of silver, where does the money come from?

If people are not transferred away from Liaodong in time, it is unclear what the surnames there will be in the future. "

Seeing the dazed Tan Lun, Wei Guangde explained.

Although Wei Guangde didn't know how much silver Li Chengliang gave to his servants every month, he had to make people work hard, so the money must be enough.

Where can the money of generals come from?

There are two channels, one is embezzlement, and the other is bribery.

Embezzlement means taking the silver from the military town, intercepting the silver that should have been given to the soldiers of the garrison and giving it to their own private soldiers, or even directly taking the military farmland and turning the imperial garrison soldiers into their own tenants.

As for bribery, it is more complicated. It may be to take money to help others do things. For example, the border general in Jiangxi Town took the silver from Shanxi merchants, opened the door at the border, and tacitly allowed Shanxi merchants to smuggle outside the customs.

It may also extort local wealthy households and occupy Its industry, etc.

You should know that Liaodong is a very special place in the Ming Dynasty. It is nominally under the jurisdiction of Shandong Provincial Administration, but in fact it is a military town.

There is no government in the local area, only military institutions exist, and it is a place where military and political affairs are in charge.

Although Liaodong has set up a Liaodong governor, it has three road-level administrative units under it, namely Ningqian Road, Guangning Road, and Liaohai Fenxun Road.

But there is no more below, all of which are managed by the military settlements of the garrisons. It can be said that except for a few large cities in Liaodong, which are managed by civil officials appointed by the Liaodong Dusi, the others are controlled by military generals.

As for Shandong, which is nominally in charge, it has actually been unable to manage Liaodong affairs since the early Ming Dynasty, and all reports are directly sent to the court by the Liaodong governor.

"Shandai, you don't want to transform Liaodong into a provincial administration, do you? ”

Although they were talking about military affairs before, Tan Lun heard that Wei Guangde was dissatisfied with the current situation in Liaodong and wanted to transfer Li Chengliang after the war. Wei Guangde seemed to have other ideas about Liaodong.

"Besides Li Chengliang in Liaodong, are there any generals with thousands of private soldiers in the court?"

Wei Guangde just asked in return, "If so, move them all together."

For Liaodong, Wei Guangde has made many calculations since the last fort in Kuandian.

An important reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was the rise of the Jurchen tribe in Liaodong, which cost the Ming court tens of millions of taels of silver.

Not to mention the increased military pay due to the war, the construction of the so-called Ningjin Defense Line later cost a lot of money. If this part of the consumption was left in the court, even if only a small part of it fell on disaster relief, the disaster in Shanxi and Shaanxi would not be so huge.

Without the bandits who were too big to be eliminated, the Ming court would not have collapsed under the attack of two fronts.

This time is an opportunity.

After Li Chengliang defeated the Jurchen tribe, Wei Guangde would not let him play any tricks of nurturing the enemy for his own benefit. Wei Guangde planned to achieve his goal in one battle and restore Liaodong to a hundred years of peace.

As for how to fight, Qi Jiguang would naturally take action.

Since the battle was fought, it was necessary to eradicate all evil, directly eliminate the main force of the Jurchen tribe, and drive the remnants to the farther north.

The Liaodong soldiers would not do such a thing, so Qi Jiguang's Jizhen Army must participate.

After Liaodong had a hundred years of stability, it was natural to consider changing Liaodong from a military state to a provincial government and becoming the fourteenth province of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the other force that threatened the stability of Liaodong, it was also It's the Tuman tribe. Actually, it's simple. Just fight.

The strength of the Mongols is obviously declining now, which can be seen from Altan Khan's choice to accept the Ming Dynasty's canonization and become the King of Shunyi.

Altan Khan is the most powerful in Mongolia, and he can't continue to be an enemy of the Ming Dynasty. What about other tribes?

If the military is really strong enough to fight against the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to submit to Altan Khan.

Just with this speculation, Wei Guangde no longer regards the Mongols as a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

After Tan Lun left, Wei Guangde put the matter aside.

He will not go to Zhang Juzheng to discuss this matter. Anyway, there is no rush.

Next At noon, about an hour before the court was dismissed, someone came to the Prime Minister's duty room to invite him.

The Ming Dynasty's cabinet always handled official business in this way. If there was an emergency, the cabinet ministers could be summoned at any time to discuss and deal with it. If it was just a difficult matter, it would usually be discussed at this time.

Regardless of whether there was such a matter, Zhang Juzheng would invite the cabinet ministers to sit for a while, even if it was just to drink tea and chat there.

After a round of greetings at Zhang Juzheng's place, Lu Diaoyang also entered the duty room.

"You two, do you have any matters that need to be discussed today? Please tell us and let's discuss it together."

After the clerk brought tea to Lu Diaoyang, Zhang Juzheng spoke.

Lu Diaoyang smiled and said, "The difficult matters have been dealt with a few days ago. In recent days, I have received ordinary official business. There is nothing worth talking about with you two gentlemen."

"Haha, it's a good thing that the court is free of trouble. "

Zhang Juzheng just smiled and looked at Wei Guangde to see what was going on over there.

Wei Guangde took out the war report from the Ministry of War from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng, saying, "There is nothing important today, but the Ministry of War sent a war report. A few days ago, Dong Changtu, the brother of the chief of the Duoyan tribe, led an army to attack the border, but was beaten back by Qi Jiguang and captured alive."

As soon as Wei Guangde finished speaking, Lu Tiaoyang put his hands on his hands and laughed and said: "This is a victory, and we still captured the enemy chief alive. We should ask Jizhen to hand over the merit book as soon as possible and let the Ministry of War set a reward."

Zhang Juzheng took the battle report from Wei Guangde and unfolded it. He soon smiled. When he looked away, he looked at Wei Guangde and asked, "Shandai, what do you think of this matter?"

"Dong Changtu stayed in Jizhen first. According to the battle report, the Duoyan tribe sent someone to make peace, hoping to release him.

Now that King Xuanda Shunyi has surrendered, only Mongolian tribes like the Duoyan tribe who are dissatisfied with the peace agreement are still enemies of the Ming Dynasty.

This time, we captured Dong Hu's younger brother, hoping to recreate the events of that day and make the Duoyan tribe surrender.

In this way, the only remaining Mongolian tribes were the Liaoxi Tuman tribe. King Shunyi also said that he did not have strong binding force on this tribe, and he did not want to raise troops to attack the rebels, so we had to take action ourselves, maim the people, and force them Surrender is. "

Wei Guangde said, "If the various Mongolian tribes unite, it should not be difficult to gather 200,000 people, but they themselves are divided, and our government just takes the opportunity to weaken them."

"This matter can be tried by the Ministry of War. Is there anything else?"

The war in Jizhen was not a big deal in Zhang Juzheng's eyes, so he quickly forwarded the battle report to Lu Tiaoyang and spoke again himself.

"The rest is fine."

Wei Guangde shook his head slightly and said.

"Shandai, He Qing, if there is nothing else to do today, let's discuss the Jiaolai Canal again.

I mentioned this to Shandai before, but I wonder if I have any ideas now. "

Zhang Juzheng saw that there was nothing going on in the court, so he brought the matter of digging the Jiaolai Canal, which he had discussed with Wei Guangde earlier, to the cabinet for discussion.

“The Jiaolai Canal was dug in the Yuan Dynasty, but nothing was done about it in the end. The Yuan Dynasty switched to shipping and no longer maintained the canal.

I have also thought about this matter. We have discussed it repeatedly before. It is difficult to dig the Jiaolai Canal. Even if it is completed, it may not be able to sail due to insufficient water. I think the Ministry of Industry is right in this proposal and does not support excavation. "

Wei Guangde had discussed it with Zhu Heng a long time ago, so he directly expressed his attitude, which was opposition.

At this time, Lu Tiaoyang did not speak, but looked at Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde.

He also knew something about the Jiaolai Canal. Although he had not directly participated in the discussion, he also knew that it was rejected in the final on-site investigation by the Ministry of Industry.

When did Zhang Juzheng have the idea to restart the Jiaolai Canal?

Lu Tiaoyang was curious, but he could also guess that Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng should have talked about this before, but he didn't know.

"Good loans and reconsideration of the Jiaolai Canal are also preparations for the safe transportation of grain to the capital.

You are also aware of the damage to the Fushan Island tanker, which shows that the risks of shipping are unpredictable. I think it is safer to go through the inland river.

The whole journey is only from Huai'an to the mouth of the river. It only takes half a day to reach it by water boat. It is also close to the coast and is considered safe. "

Zhang Juzheng said.

“The Ministry of Industry conducted an on-site survey and calculated that at least millions of dollars would have to be invested in order to restore shipping on this canal. Where could the imperial court have the money to do this?

Moreover, Qian Yuan had already used this road in the past, but in the end due to insufficient water, it was not possible to carry a fully loaded canoe. "

Wei Guangde also immediately refuted the unrealistic idea of ​​​​joining the Jiaolai Canal.

“Introducing water from several surrounding rivers into the canal.”

Zhang Juzheng came up with his own solution and said bluntly.

"The cost is too high and the court cannot afford it."

Wei Guangde still shook his head.

Seeing that the two of them had their own opinions, Lu Tiaoyang spoke at the right time and said: "Master Shou Fu, I think what Shou Fu said is reasonable.

The previous government tried to dig the Jiaolai Canal, but it was finally abandoned. I also think it is not feasible. "

“Instead of digging a new canal, we should invest in building bigger ships.

The ship is large and has strong ability to withstand wind and waves. "

Wei Guangde immediately answered.

Since Zhang Juzheng did not consider finances, it means that Zhang Juzheng already had a plan for the coming year's finances. Wei Guangde decisively brought the topic to the construction of large-scale ships.

"I heard that during the Yongle Dynasty, the Nanjing Bao Shipyard could build five thousand large ships. Each ship could carry five or six thousand stones of grain and a thousand people.

Rather than excavating and abandoning the canal before the Yuan Dynasty, it would be safer to build such a large ship to transport grain from Huai'an to Beijing. "

Wei Guangde also had many considerations in his efforts to rebuild large ships at Nanjing Bao Shipyard.

There is no doubt about the convenience of sea-going ships for transportation, and transportation between the north and south of the Ming Dynasty is now carried by water. However, the navigation volume of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is really hard to describe, and it is by no means as smooth as later generations thought.

Even in a disaster-free year, ships on the canal can only be released in batches, and they are definitely not just going along the current.

Every time Wei Guangde crossed the canal, he would wait for some time at various locks. Even if the ship he took had priority over the canal boats and private merchant ships, he still had to wait because of conditions such as the need to wait for the water channel to fill up and the upstream ships to arrive at the locks.

In other words, many sections of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are actually one-way traffic, which also causes congestion in many waterways and requires sluice officials to divert them.

"Marine transportation can only be a supplement, but it is not a once and for all solution."

Zhang Juzheng saw that Wei Guangde admired sea transportation so much, so he had to advise, "River transportation is the safest method, and good loans must not be taken away from food due to choking."

Moreover, the areas through which the canal passes are prosperous in commerce and provide food and clothing for the people on both sides of the strait. This is also beneficial to stabilizing the place, and shipping cannot compare. "

“So Shandai never believes that water transportation should be abandoned, but it is not necessary to transport grain through canals.

Every time a ship passes through the border, merchant ships will be blocked in the sluice.

If water transport is carried out by sea, merchant ships can pass through the locks smoothly, which is actually good for commerce.

Dangerous maritime transport is borne by the imperial court, while safe river transport is carried by civilian ships. This is also the responsibilities of the imperial court for the sake of the people and not competing with the people for profit. "

Wei Guangde smiled.

Anyway, many officials like to talk about not competing with the people for profit. Wei Guangde is now learning and selling.

Zhang Juzheng saw that Wei Guangde was not getting enough oil and salt, but he was still optimistic about shipping, and felt a little exhausted for a while.

I have already mentioned all the concessions that will benefit the people, so what else can I say?

Seeing Zhang Juzheng's ugly expression, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of what Zhu Heng had said about what the Ministry of Industry had discussed earlier, which was a project to avoid the Yellow River.

The biggest problem with this strategy is that it costs a lot, because it needs to dig hundreds of miles of new canals, avoiding the Xuzhou section of the Yellow River and going through Taierzhuang, Hanzhuang and other places.

This proposal was aborted due to the huge cost. Considering that Zhang Juzheng was willing to spend millions of taels of silver to build the Jiaolai Canal, it would be better to divert his attention here.

After thinking about it, Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and said again: "Brother, in fact, the Jiaolai Canal is not the only way to make a smooth canal. In the early years, the Ministry of Industry had intentionally dug a canal from Pizhou to Nanyang Xinhe to avoid Xuzhou and avoid Yellow River.

It's just a huge project, but it can indeed solve the difficulty of sailing near Xuzhou and the problem of the Yellow River bursting. "

Wei Guangde still reminded Zhang Juzheng.

"That one requires millions of taels of silver, which is more than twice as big as digging the Jiaolai Canal, and it also takes longer."

Zhang Juzheng shook his head. Obviously he knew about this and had probably considered it, but was frightened by the huge cost.

Seeing that Zhang Juzheng knew about this, Wei Guangde continued: "But digging the Jia Canal can directly avoid the most dangerous section of water transportation, which is very beneficial to ensuring the smooth flow of water transportation."

"Not to mention that the imperial court has no money, even if the imperial court can pay for this expenditure, what will Xuzhou do?"

Zhang Juzheng said without thinking.

Hearing what Zhang Juzheng said, Wei Guangde immediately realized that Zhang Juzheng should have a deep relationship with the water transport interest group, so he has always supported the water transport faction in matters of water transport.

It is no wonder that he has always opposed shipping and insisted on a phalanx in which shipping is supplemented.

Thinking that many people wanted to cancel the plan to transport grain by sea because of the Fushan Island shipwreck, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel nervous.

If there had not been a private deal with Zhang Juzheng that time, I am afraid that Zhang Juzheng would have stood up clearly to support them in canceling the shipping of grain, even though this policy had been made a permanent rule not long ago.

"My opinion on the canal is this. Either build the Jia Canal or build a sea route. The Jiaolai Canal is definitely not feasible."

Wei Guangde made his attitude clear directly and did not want to compromise.

I was almost sold by Zhang Juzheng. If I don't be tougher now, I don't know how Zhang Juzheng will handle him in the future.

Thinking about what he and Feng Bao had done, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel angry.

Pretending that I don’t know, it’s so uncomfortable to hold it in. (End of chapter)