met free Chapter 1148 The Mysterious Disappearance of the Next Sea Ship
Chapter 1148 The Mysterious Disappearance of the Next Sea Ship
Upon hearing the word "sir" from Yang Shaofeng once again, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but click his tongue in regret.
Just from hearing a few words occasionally relayed by this scoundrel, one can tell how astonishing that gentleman's talent is.
What's even more regrettable is that the gentleman, with his profound and extensive knowledge, produced such a worthless scoundrel.
If we had studied under that teacher, the Ming Dynasty would probably be much richer than it is now.
The Emperor Zhu was filled with regret, while Yang Shaofeng continued, "What I want to say is, where exactly does the main contradiction of our Great Ming Dynasty lie?"
Yang Shaofeng smacked his lips, and Emperor Zhu immediately turned to Chen Zhong and ordered, "Quickly brew a pot of Xiaolongtuan tea."
Chen Zhong quickly agreed, and Yang Shaofeng continued, "In my opinion, the most important contradiction in our Great Ming Dynasty is not between the power of the king and the power of the patriarch, nor even between the court and the local authorities, or between tenant farmers and landlords, but between sea power and land power after the economic center shifted south."
"Almost all other contradictions stem from this."
"The reasons for the southward shift of the economic center are: first, during the Five Barbarian Invasions, a large number of the traditional Central Plains gentry migrated south to avoid disaster; second, the land in the traditional northern regions such as Guanzhong and Guandong was depleted due to over-cultivation and logging; and third, after the Silk Road was cut off, the Tang and Song dynasties began to continuously search for a new maritime Silk Road."
"The large-scale southward migration of gentry families transformed the Jiangnan region, which was originally a wild and undeveloped area, especially the southeast, into a place with a flourishing literary culture, and it began to assume some of the functions of a cultural center."
"The barren land in the north forced a large number of people to migrate south, thus beginning the historical process of the development of the Jiangnan region."
"During the Tang and Song dynasties, especially in the late Northern Song dynasty and beyond, the increasingly prosperous maritime trade began to give rise to a new vested interest group, namely the combination of traditional gentry and maritime merchants."
“The gentry advocated for maritime trade in the imperial court, and maritime merchants transferred profits to the gentry.”
"As a result, the Southern Song court refused to advocate a northern expedition, and Zhao Jiumei kept a knife in her boot every day."
Yang Shaofeng suddenly chuckled and said, "Those idiots, Hu Yuan and his gang, can they possibly collect any money with their tax farming system?"
"Moreover, the Hu Yuan dynasty itself was a small, land-based regime in the traditional sense. Their main sources of taxation were land tax, poll tax, and other such things. At most, they would add a commercial tax, thus avoiding the most profitable maritime trade."
"Of course, the maritime trade that my son-in-law is talking about does not refer to the traditional trade of the Maritime Trade Office, but rather to the maritime smuggling carried out by the gentry and merchants along the coast."
"This is also the fundamental reason why when my father-in-law was leading the Northern Expedition against the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Mongols followed him, while many Han Chinese wanted to restore the Yuan Dynasty."
"..."
Yang Shaofeng spoke eloquently, but the faces of Emperor Zhu, Li Shanchang, and Liu Bowen grew increasingly dark.
As a weightlifting champion once said, some things are nothing on the scale, but once you put them on, they weigh a ton.
Once the bloody facts were revealed, all the questions, whether they matched or not, finally had a self-consistent answer.
Why did the reform of Chongning fail?
Why did the Mongols follow the Ming Dynasty in fighting against the Yuan Dynasty?
Why did the people still suffer even though Emperor Zhu had already issued a decree to abolish poll tax, land tax, and corvée labor?
Why were there so few scholars willing to become officials from the first year of the Hongwu reign until the fourth year, but in the last two years they were willing to participate in the special imperial examination?
Why did cases like the plow case, the illegal laborer case, the ironware case, and even the blank seal case and the tax collector case occur?
The theory that the gentry of Jiangnan were loyal to the Yuan Dynasty is not enough to explain this, but it becomes clear when the theories of aristocratic families and maritime merchants are applied.
Chen Zhong, accompanied by several eunuchs, brought over a stove, kettle, tea leaves, teacups, and other items to brew tea for Emperor Zhu, Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, and Yang Shaofeng.
The moment the aroma of jasmine tea wafted out, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but glare at Yang Shaofeng again.
Damn it, how can we, the mighty emperor of the Ming Dynasty, not even be able to afford a small bowl of rice dumplings?
The more Emperor Zhu thought about it, the angrier he became. He couldn't help but snort and said, "You've pointed out the problem to us, but what's the solution? We can't just stand by and watch them grow stronger again and cause another Jingkang Incident, can we?"
Yang Shaofeng almost laughed out loud—history has indeed allowed them to grow powerful again, and then they caused you another big wave.
The epitaph of Guo Yan, the prefect of Fuzhou, records: "Yan was the name of the prefect. His courtesy name was Guibao. In the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign, he was appointed as the assistant prefect of Fuzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province. In the eighth year, the emperor ordered Jiao Hong, the vice minister of the Ministry of Works, to supervise the construction of 120 ships for the Western Seas. The prefect was appointed as the chief supervisor of the eight prefectures. His supervision was effective and the military and civilians benefited from it."
and then?
Just as the ship was completed, "more than 20,000 bandits in Yanping rebelled, and the river was blocked." Then came the great rebellion of miners in the southeast, followed by the Tumu Crisis in the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign. Zhu Qizhen became known as "Pig Riding the Emperor," and successfully obtained the titles of "Student of the Oirat Mongols" and "Knocking on the Gate Emperor."
The question is, what about these 120 ships?
One hundred and twenty "ships going down to sea" could not possibly be small sampans that could be driven by three or five people.
The History of Ming makes no mention of these 120 "ships that went to the Western Regions".
The Ming Shilu (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) also makes no mention of Jiao Hong, and Guo Yan's epitaph records Jiao Hong as the Vice Minister of Works, while the Ming Shilu records Jiao Hong as the Vice Minister of Revenue.
However, if you look at it from another angle, this can be fully explained:
The ships were built, but then the Tumu Crisis occurred. The emperor was captured, the court was in chaos, and officials were replaced one after another. At that time, who cared about these 120 large ships?
However, ships don't just disappear into thin air. Even if they rot in a shipyard, ruins will remain, and the craftsmen will keep corresponding records.
What if someone could take over these 120 large ships at this time?
To put it bluntly, the Tumu Crisis provided a perfect window of opportunity.
Because ordinary people don't need such large ships.
Therefore, the powerful families, officials, and maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty were truly capable of creating a Ming Dynasty version of the Jingkang Incident.
What's most impressive is that even in later generations, these people still dared to think and act – for example, a certain financial institution, and Tencent Coin.
The former involves directly using a small investment to achieve a large return, thus transferring risk.
The latter is even more impressive; it aims to give Tencent Coin monetary attributes.
The tactics are not exactly the same as those of the people in the Ming Dynasty, but they are certainly not original.
First they test the waters, then they push their luck, and then they present themselves as innocent and harmless while secretly raking in the profits.
If they hadn't been forced to behave themselves after being subjected to the iron fist, these people might have dared to stage another "Jingkang Incident" or "Tumu Crisis".
Yang Shaofeng shook his head, clearing his mind of these chaotic thoughts, and said, "I don't have any good solutions either. After all, the system is rigid, but people are flexible. Those powerful families, maritime merchants, and even officials will try to find loopholes. We can only rely on the Censorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to strictly monitor the situation, and the court must constantly update the system to patch up the loopholes."
Emperor Zhu's face darkened further. "So, according to you, this matter is unsolvable?"
"After all, there's a saying among the people that you can only be a thief for a thousand days, but you can't guard against thieves for a thousand days."
"Even if the Censorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard are made of iron, how many nails can they hammer?"
"Even if we wipe out all the powerful families and maritime merchants, won't new powerful families and maritime merchants just emerge in a few years?"
At this point, Emperor Zhu actually resorted to shamelessness: "I don't care about anything else, but you're the one who threw these problems of aristocratic families and maritime merchants at us, so you have to come up with a solution for us. And the reform of the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate, you were the one who started these things, so you have to give us a proper explanation as well."
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and smiled, while Liu Bowen looked at Emperor Zhu with deep gratitude.
Finally, the rise to power has been reliable for once!
Yang Shaofeng picked up his teacup, took a sip, then shook his head and said, "I really don't have any good ideas. I can only share my thoughts, which may or may not be right."