Chapter 1008

Xu Xu Chengchu was no longer the man who had just passed the imperial examination. Back then, when Hai Rui showed him Wang Wang Chonggu's book, Xu Xu Chengchu didn't even want to look at it, believing that the "pure stream" officials shouldn't listen to the slander of the "turbid stream" and treacherous officials. Now, he was a capable official of the Anti-Corruption Office; with Lu Lu Guangzu away, he was the presiding official of the Anti-Corruption Office.

He had gone through complex struggles and supervised several major anti-corruption cases to achieve his current status.

He was a subject, and His Majesty was the monarch; their different statuses determined their different perspectives on problems. The Emperor would naturally think this was a subversive act intended to destroy the Anti-Corruption Office, but Xu Xu Chengchu believed this was more about placing a bet.

Fan Yuanshan had experienced such a thing once before; his father-in-law had bet on him and supported his studies, but back then, he had no choice. Now, he had a choice.

Xu Xu Chengchu thought carefully and told His Majesty his reasons. He had three reasons for this judgment.

First, if it were just a hunt, there would be no need to make such a heavy bet as Miss Lin. People like Miss Lin are not easy to cultivate; investing such a person in a seventh-rank censor like Fan Yuanshan is not worth it.

The essence of a hunt is an exchange—using the chips in one's hand to eliminate or corrupt someone in a certain position to facilitate one's actions.

If Miss Lin were really a chip for an exchange, she would at least be for someone of the fifth rank or higher.

Second, in the contacts with Fan Yuanshan, the people behind Miss Lin were always cautious, fearing they might offend Fan Yuanshan. They brought the beauty trap directly to him without any stage of coercion or inducement.

An anti-corruption censor was just taken away from the Anti-Corruption Office—he had been hunted, but it didn't reach the beauty trap stage; it was just inducement, a little bit of corruption, plus some predicaments, and it was completely successful.

Third, Fan Yuanshan is worth it. His talent had long been noticed by His Majesty, Lu Lu Guangzu, and other ministers. This attention was due to the implementation of the Merit Evaluation Law. Fan Yuanshan's evaluation was far ahead; he was a well-deserved "king of the grind," and he was completely worth such a heavy bet.

There is an idiom: "A sharp awl in a bag will eventually pierce through."

Fan Yuanshan was an outstanding student of the Imperial University, favored by His Majesty. He never practiced favoritism or broke the law in the Tax Audit Office, conforming to the conclusion that "publicity leads to clarity, and integrity leads to prestige." Such a person might have been too rigid and easily broken in the officialdom of the past, but under the grand situation of the Emperor Wanli Reform, he would certainly rise quickly.

"Your Majesty, ever since the Merit Selection Law, our Ming officialdom has been divided into two factions based on their background. One faction can be seen as the old Confucian scholars—these people come from the provincial and metropolitan examinations and were the talents selected in the past. The other faction comes from the Merit Selection Law—the new scholars cultivated by the Imperial University. And Fan Yuanshan is a dragon among men from the Imperial University." Xu Xu Chengchu thought for a moment and added another reason.

Fan Yuanshan also had an identity that perhaps even His Majesty hadn't noticed: he was a hero of the Merit Selection Law, or rather, of the new selection method, and a representative of the new scholars. Placing a heavy bet is gambling on Fan Yuanshan's future success and bright prospects, and the possibility of winning the bet is...

... very, very high.

Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "What Censor Xu says is reasonable."

"This is actually also a hunt." Xu Xu Chengchu didn't think there was any essential difference between placing a bet and hunting. He was a loyal and upright official, and in his view, these were all acts of seeking private gain through power, just slightly milder. He shook his head and said, "And these people never asked Fan Yuanshan if he was willing."

Admittedly, Fan Yuanshan's wife was a woman of little experience, while Miss Lin had a widespread reputation for talent. No matter how you looked at it, for the current Fan Yuanshan, Miss Lin was the better match.

It didn't matter if Fan Yuanshan didn't want to be a "Chen Shimei." As long as his progress with Miss Lin was good, there were plenty of people who could help him do some shady things—for example, his father-in-law falling seriously ill, or his wife having an accident on her way home, and so on.

In this way, Fan Yuanshan could have a clear conscience and marry Miss Lin openly as his second wife, without worrying about any criticism of being a modern-day Chen Shimei.

This is power. If you want something, you don't even need to express it; as long as you have a need, someone will help you do it. And the price to pay is merely using your power selectively, or even just turning a blind eye within a reasonable, negotiable range.

Everyone is breaking their heads trying to squeeze in for this very reason.

But throughout the whole process, no one asked if Fan Yuanshan was willing, or if Fan Yuanshan wanted to live like that. If it were an ordinary person, they might not have noticed, or they might have just gone with the flow. But clearly, Fan Yuanshan was not willing. If he had been willing, he wouldn't have told Xu Xu Chengchu.

A hunt is knocking someone down or corrupting them to use their power; this advance heavy bet is also a hunt, just hidden deeper and with more capital invested. In essence, both are about making officials use the power in their hands to seek private gain.

Giving Fan Yuanshan an Emperor's Party waist token solved the problem. Fan Yuanshan had no backing, which made him walk on thin ice. With the waist token, hunting him again would mean a direct conflict with the Emperor.

Xu Xu Chengchu thought about the process for a moment and found that it was mainly because Fan Yuanshan himself was capable. From the very beginning, Fan Yuanshan had enough vigilance and never treated Miss Lin as a chance encounter. Secondly, Fan Yuanshan found the key to the problem, which was that his wife's change came from her new "sister."

If Fan Yuanshan had been even a little bit stupider, he would have fallen for the trap.

Zhu Zhu Yijun chatted with Xu Xu Chengchu in detail about several cases in the Anti-Corruption Office before Xu Xu Chengchu chose to take his leave.

After Xu Xu Chengchu left, Zhu Zhu Yijun said to Feng Bao, "Have the Embroidered Uniform Guards investigate and see if the Wu Ding Hou Fu is behind this Miss Lin. I will tell the Wu Ding Marquis to his face not to make things difficult for Fan Yuanshan."

If Wu Ding Marquis Guo Dacheng treated the Emperor's words as a breeze past his ears, then the Wu Ding Hou Fu would have to bear the cost of disobedience.

Xu Xu Chengchu walked out of the Tonghe Palace Imperial Study. He stood in front of the Tonghe Palace gate, took another look at this supreme hall of Ming power, and got into his carriage. The carriage moved slowly, passing...

... the golden tiles and red walls of the Imperial City, the hardened roads shaded by trees, the markets, and the Left Changan Gate, before stopping at the gate of the Anti-Corruption Office.

Along the way, almost all vehicles would subconsciously avoid it, even if there were no markings on the carriage. But the coachmen all knew each other; the Anti-Corruption Office was in its prime, and no one dared to block it.

Xu Xu Chengchu asked the office clerk to call Fan Yuanshan over, handed the vermilion Emperor's Party waist token to Fan Yuanshan, and then said, "This was given by His Majesty. If you encounter trouble in the future, go directly to Tonghe Palace. The imperial guards will let you in."

Fan Yuanshan put the waist token away solemnly; this was his greatest protection.

"His Majesty said that whether you eat this bait of Miss Lin is entirely up to your own heart, but you must not delay the great cause of anti-corruption." Xu Xu Chengchu looked at Fan Yuanshan and explained, "His Majesty cannot attend to everything personally and manage everything. It was only because the Chen Sugar Workshop case involved the Wu Ding Hou Fu that His Majesty personally inquired."

"This is just a screening process. If you pass, you pass; if you don't, you don't."

"Your subordinate understands." Fan Yuanshan carefully pondered Xu Xu Chengchu's words. They were very straightforward and easy to understand. His Majesty intervened this time because the Chen Sugar Workshop case had the shadow of the Wu Ding Hou Fu behind it, and the forty-four tax evasion cases he was supervising were all cases where the law showed no mercy.

In fact, Fan Yuanshan also suspected the Wu Ding Hou Fu; the scale of this move was truly a bit too large. He didn't dare to counterattack on his own; after all, this involved a hereditary official, so it had to be handled by His Majesty.

Fan Yuanshan returned home, saw his wife who was somewhat uneasy, smiled, and said, "You don't have to be so anxious; it's all in the past."

"I'll go serve you dinner." Seeing that Fan Yuanshan didn't blame her for being stupid, his wife happily went to serve dinner.

The theory of contradiction is a methodology—a methodology for seeing the essence through phenomena.

Fan Yuanshan was actually a bit scared in retrospect. If he were just a traditional Confucian scholar who firmly believed in the husband's authority, the conflict with his wife would have escalated with trivial matters, and finally, in a state of extreme frustration, he would have fallen for the trap.

Yesterday, his wife's nagging made him constantly see Miss Lin's gentle smile and expressive eyes.

Through the phenomenon of his wife's dramatic change, Fan Yuanshan saw the key point that someone was whispering in her ear. Through Miss Lin's disguise, he saw the danger behind it and the essence of him being hunted.

One must read the theory of contradiction.

The investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guards was fast. The next afternoon, the Commander of the Guards, Zhao Zhao Mengyou, informed the Emperor of the complete process: it had nothing to do with the Wu Ding Hou Fu.

The cultural aristocracy controlled the selection of old officials through academies, private schools, and mentors, or rather, the cultural aristocracy were the old officials and old Confucian scholars themselves, thereby controlling most of the power.

Because of the opening of the seas, an emerging bourgeoisie was formed in the coastal areas. It was difficult for this emerging bourgeoisie to...

... wrest power from the old cultural aristocrats, so they turned their attention to the new officials and new scholars, who were mainly from the Imperial University.

Miss Lin came from the Lin clan of Xinhui, Guangzhou. The Lin clan itself was a local powerhouse and moved into the capital as wealthy households in the sixth year of Emperor Wanli.

After the opening of the seas in Emperor Wanli, the wealth of the Xinhui Lin clan expanded rapidly, making them members of the new nobility. But they suffered from not being able to reach the core of power; the larger their business scale, the more people watched them, making them equivalent to lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

"I didn't expect Fan Yuanshan to be so popular." Zhu Zhu Yijun finished reading all the files.

Miss Lin had also gone through several competitions before she got the exclusive right to approach Fan Yuanshan. And Miss Lin was only given six months; if Miss Lin failed within these six months, it would be someone else's turn, and there was a sequence. Each of them could be called a daughter of a noble family, and there was always one suitable for Fan Yuanshan.

Wang Qian repeatedly told His Majesty that good things are not in circulation. Without a doubt, Fan Yuanshan was a similar high-quality resource.

Interestingly, the investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guards found that Miss Lin truly wanted to marry Fan Yuanshan, not just for fun.

Fan Yuanshan only passed the provincial examination but not the metropolitan examination—not because Fan Yuanshan lacked talent, but because educational resources were severely insufficient.

Fan Yuanshan's background was actually even worse than Xu Xu Chengchu's; he was almost equivalent to a live-in son-in-law. His father-in-law was just a rural landlord. Fan Yuanshan had no famous teachers, and even less of a way to study hard in the cold window, as he couldn't afford to waste so much time.

But Fan Yuanshan's talent was not a problem. He was full of learning, had a chest full of righteous energy, and had a bright future. After meeting Fan Yuanshan, Miss Lin was even more infatuated with him. Someone like him was truly very attractive to women who had read books.

At twenty-seven, Fan Yuanshan was already a seventh-rank official in the capital.

But in the end, the falling flowers had the intention, but the flowing water had no heart. Fan Yuanshan had clearly told Miss Lin that their fate ended there.

"Why didn't Fan Yuanshan choose Miss Lin, who was more suitable for him, but instead chose his wife of humble origins?" Zhu Zhu Yijun clicked his tongue in wonder. He had issued an edict that Fan Yuanshan could take the bait, but Fan Yuanshan had completely avoided it.

Feng Bao thought about it seriously before saying, "Your Majesty, isn't this his wife of humble origins? They ate chaff and drank thin porridge together, and suffered so much. No matter how good Miss Lin is, she doesn't belong to Fan Yuanshan."

"It is hard to abandon those who have shared the bitterness of life; those who have weathered the storm together can grow old together."

The reason Feng Bao could understand Fan Yuanshan's choice was that he saw it very clearly. The relationship between the Emperor and the Empress—when the Emperor was still young and a bit stubborn, he would go to the side hall to listen to Empress Wang play the zither.

"Attendant Feng is still very learned." Zhu Zhu Yijun affirmed Feng Bao's literary cultivation. After all, he was the one who had once stunned the scholars in the court with the Analects. Feng Bao liked to defeat the scholars in the fields they were best at, which made these scholars look even uglier.

The investigation by the Embroidered Uniform Guards also uncovered a list. This list was very interesting, called the "List of Worthy Sons-in-Law," which was a roster of officials that the new...

... nobility were trying to approach. Most of them were from the Imperial University; the scholars from the old selection mechanism were not even on their radar.

The problem was that many people on this "Worthy Sons-in-Law List" were already married.

Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at this list for a long time and finally decided not to intervene. This was also a kind of filter, to filter out true talents.

A hunt is also a screening mechanism.

Moreover, the emerging bourgeoisie was still at a disadvantage compared to the old cultural aristocrats, especially in the struggle for power, where they were at an absolute disadvantage.

The strength of the spear and the shield must be matched; otherwise, it would not be a mutual struggle, but a one-sided crushing.

Ceng Ceng Shengwu of the Ministry of War submitted a report. This was the border situation in Liaodong that the Emperor had personally inquired about, or more specifically, the situation of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

The Emperor inquired about Liaodong and specifically asked about the Jianzhou Jurchens. The Ministry of War didn't quite understand the Emperor's purpose. What was there to pay attention to regarding a small Jianzhou Jurchen tribe? The Emperor seemed a bit too concerned about the development of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

But since the Emperor asked, the Ministry of War naturally reported in detail. In addition to the Ministry of War, the Regional Commander of Liaodong, Wang Wang Rulong, also replied to the imperial order.

Since the ninth year of Emperor Wanli, the Jianzhou Jurchens had begun to organize their households. Now, the Jianzhou region had become a land of cultivation for the Great Ming. The Jianzhou Jurchens the Emperor asked about were already a thing of the past; now, they were all Ming people.

To be Ming people, they had to grow their hair and could no longer keep that somewhat ugly "money-rat tail" braid—mainly because it was truly too ugly. The vast majority of Jianzhou Jurchens had cut off the braids on the back of their heads and let their hair grow out.

By the twelfth year of Emperor Wanli, the county-level administration of Jianzhou had been completed. Now, Jianzhou had a prefecture Southern Yamen, was garrisoned by 3,000 Liaodong troops, and Jianzhou governed three counties, divided into seven townships and twenty-nine villages, all using the camp-farm system.

Counting the time, in the original historical timeline, by the twentieth year of Emperor Wanli, Nurhaci would have already started unifying the Jurchens with thirteen suits of armor.

Zhu Zhu Yijun had sent Nurhaci to the dissection institute to be made into a specimen on the grounds of disrespect, and now Jianzhou had all been turned into real counties.

However, the Emperor's inquiry was also very reasonable. The celestial changes were still ongoing. If more time passed, and if the Great Ming hadn't had the Emperor Wanli Reform, Liaodong would have become the "land of dragon's rise." This was a conclusion jointly recognized by the military generals of the Five Chief Military Commissions.

Jia Shanhai Pass was the fulcrum. Inside and outside the pass, because of the celestial changes, the gap in strength would shrink rapidly.

The Ministry of Revenue submitted a memorial: the implementation of the camp-farm system in Henan, Shandong, and other places was not as successful as in Jiangxi.

And the reason for the failure was not that the common people in Henan and Shandong were cunning or lazy, or that they were destroying the collective production of the camp-farms, but that these places had always valued agriculture and slighted commerce, and lacked enough accountants.

The camp-farms had no accountants, so they couldn't calculate the work points, the distribution of agricultural output, agricultural surplus, etc., making the camp-farm system a mess.

"

The Ministry of Revenue plans to allocate 1.5 million silver this year to select people from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Henan, Shandong, and other places who are quick-witted, good at abacus, and skilled in calligraphy to enter the newly built Imperial Universities and Normal Schools in various places to be trained as accountants, so as to promote the implementation of the camp-farm system."

"Attendant Feng, allocate 500,000 silver from the inner treasury. The national treasury has already reduced the land tax by 1.5 million silver this year, so my 500,000 silver can be considered my heart. Allocate another 200,000 silver and include Beizhili as well." Zhu Zhu Yijun gave an extra 700,000 silver and added Beizhili to this policy.

As the moat of the capital, the prefectures of Beizhili suffered more losses than they enjoyed benefits. If there was good news, it was only natural to include Beizhili.

Zhu Zhu Yijun gave this 700,000 silver indeed because of his heart to reduce the land tax, but it was also a knife. The powerful families and local gentry had made promises to reduce rent in disaster years in the official gazette, taking the opportunity of the congratulatory memorials for the Longevity Festival.

The Emperor took the lead in making concessions, letting the imperial court make concessions downward. If the powerful families didn't keep their promises and forced the common people into rebellion, then it would be very reasonable for the Emperor to execute their nine clans.

Daring to openly play the Emperor for a fool and treating their own words as farts—did they really think the Emperor was made of mud? Just last year, he had sent troops to Rongcheng!

"Your subordinate obeys the edict." Feng Bao bowed and accepted the order. The inner treasury was indeed short of money, but there was still money for education.

These accountants were trained from the fields. After finishing their studies and returning to the countryside, besides calculating accounts, they also had to undertake three responsibilities: preaching imperial decrees and edicts, cultural literacy, and medical work.

Preaching imperial decrees to prevent local gentry from bullying the common people who didn't know the imperial decrees;

Cultural literacy, educating rural people to read and write, and selecting clever and wise students from among them—mainly to select talents and geniuses, as geniuses cannot be cultivated, only screened;

Medical work, responsible for rural hygiene and prevention, such as midwives in the women's quarters having to wash their hands clean before delivering babies, and lying in bed for seven to fourteen days after childbirth, etc. Don't look down on these inconspicuous little rules; they are all life-saving rules.

In fact, this was cultivating grassroots village and township officials. When they returned to their hometowns, because they had the status recognized by the imperial court, people would come to them for all sorts of matters, which was extending imperial power indirectly to the countryside, rather than limiting it to the prefectural and county cities.

"Every time a memorial comes from Luzon, it's asking for people. Where would I get so many ruffians for the National Hero, and this year they are asking for double? Am I a Buddha statue in a temple? Are they making wishes here with me!" Zhu Zhu Yijun processed a new memorial.

Yin Yin Zhengmao lacked people, but not scholars. The scholars who flowed freely to Luzon or were exiled were enough to support the scholar class in Luzon and satisfy the educational needs of various Han townships.

Yin Yin Zhengmao lacked ruffians who could crack whips. Zhu Zhu Yijun didn't understand at first why Yin Yin Zhengmao asked for such people several times—these were people who created social unrest. It was only after Zhu Zhu Yijun inquired that he understood the reason.

Yin Yin Zhengmao wasn't asking for himself, but for...

... the entire Nanyang region.

The expansion of plantations in Nanyang had been extremely fast in recent years. Nanyang hadn't been fully developed yet, and the Elder Jinchi Governor's Office was grabbing people, leading to a constant shortage of ruffians who could crack whips.

And those who cracked whips had a high consumption rate.

Because the slave managers who cracked whips were the buffer zone for conflicts between plantation owners and slaves.

Plantation owners rarely caused trouble for slaves themselves; they always pressured the managers. And slaves generally didn't see the plantation owners, as most of them lived in Han townships, not on the plantations.

Therefore, when slaves rioted, the first people they killed were these slave managers.

After the riot continued for a period of time, the plantation owners would stand out to play the good guy, promising to give them more food, and naturally, they wouldn't make trouble anymore.

This led to Yin Yin Zhengmao asking the Emperor for these ruffians every year. In short, they were all consumables.

"Even if they are ruffians, they are still living people. Can I conjure them up? Last year he asked for two thousand, this year he actually wants four thousand. This isn't a crop in the field that can grow in a year!" Zhu Zhu Yijun wasn't stingy.

It was just that Yin Yin Zhengmao asked for them every year, and the imperial court had only prepared two thousand this year, so Luzon wanting four thousand was a bit too much.

"Isn't it because the plantations have increased? Your Majesty, Nanyang is an important granary. If it really doesn't work, we can gather some from Fujian and Guangdong." Feng Bao also felt that Yin Yin Zhengmao asking for double like this disrupted the imperial court's arrangements, but plans couldn't keep up with changes, so they could only find them from prisons in Fujian and Guangdong.

"That's the only way." Zhu Zhu Yijun gave his vermilion approval to this memorial.

The number of plantations in Nanyang was indeed increasing rapidly. Any economic phenomenon, in a stage of rapid expansion, is full of chaos, and plantations were no exception. The Great Ming didn't have the ability to manage Nanyang directly, so it could only rely on the Governor's Office to manage it on its behalf, leading to even more of this chaos.

The chaos in public security prompted almost all plantation owners and their families to live in Han townships. These plantation owners took away most of the profits from the plantations and consumed them in the Han townships, promoting further prosperity in the Han townships.

Some Han townships could no longer be called towns; for example, Tongxiang Town had over 100,000 people and was qualified to be established as Tongxiang County.

Only those living in Han townships were considered people.

Li Le, the Governor of Songjiang, and Wang Qian, the Prefect of Songjiang, reported on the construction of the Huangpu Imperial Palace in Songjiang Prefecture. The palace had been completely built, and the rest was mainly landscaping, flowers, and the creation of garden scenery.

Wang Qian submitted an extra memorial regarding the development of the cotton textile industry in Songjiang Prefecture.

To reduce costs, the cotton textile industry in Songjiang Prefecture had begun to use steam engines in large numbers. But because the Songjiang Machinery Factory had moved to Xuzhou, Songjiang Prefecture now presented a scene where it was hard to find a single "iron horse."

An iron horse was often sold at a 20% premium, and the iron horse, which was in short supply, had become the new favorite of the cotton textile industry.

The large-scale application of iron horses also brought new conflicts, namely, the massive dismissal of weavers. Besides the dismissal of industrial craftsmen, family-style workshops were going bankrupt.

The application of iron horses accelerated the concentration of production and capital in the cotton textile industry, plus the already serious market concentration, all of which were accelerating the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized cotton textile workshops.

If you couldn't afford an iron horse, your product costs would be high, and even the quality would be poor, eventually leading to being eliminated by the cruel market.

After the bankruptcy of family-style workshops, it was the turn of small and medium-sized cotton textile workshops with thirty to fifty people to go bankrupt and exit the competition.

This made Wang Qian deeply worried. Once production concentration, capital concentration, and market concentration were completed, a monopolistic giant would appear in the cotton textile industry. Wang Qian hoped that the Ministry of Works would take the lead and the national treasury would invest in building a Songjiang Cotton Textile Factory to deal with this situation.

Wang Qian had considered many ways to break up this behemoth, but he felt that such a breakup would just be a superficial gesture.

There were many, many ways to circumvent such a breakup. Wang Qian, who came from a family of powerful and influential people, thought of three ways to perfectly avoid the breakup and continue to monopolize cotton textiles from behind the scenes.

The way to deal with monopoly capital is to make it unable to produce a monopoly, and a state-run cotton textile factory became an inevitable choice.

This involved another question that needed to be discussed: is the efficiency of state-run factories really lower than that of private workshops?

According to the argument of the leader of the Industrial Party, Wang Wang Chonggu, state-run factories must face two dilemmas: bloatedness and rigidity, from which almost all problems are derived. Wang Wang Chonggu also spent the second half of his life avoiding the bloatedness and rigidity of state-run factories.

Both dilemmas pointed to one thing: low efficiency.

According to Wang Wang Chonggu's argument, the Songjiang Cotton Textile Factory would inevitably lose in the competition. Because workshops need to be efficient to flourish.

But Wang Qian didn't think so. He felt that his father, Duke Wencheng, was wrong. Wang Qian was a rebellious son; his father had already passed away, yet he was still rebellious.

In fact, as far as the private workshops Wang Qian observed were concerned, private workshops were indeed more efficient during the start-up and continuous expansion periods, but after their industrial scale reached a certain level, the bloatedness and rigidity of private workshops were no less than those of state-run factories.

They were all organizations composed of people. The larger the organization, the easier it was to become bloated and rigid. This had no essential difference whether it belonged to the imperial court or the private sector.

And private workshops couldn't correct errors as powerfully as state-run factories.

The problem of Duke Wencheng's excessive human sentiment was quickly corrected after his death, and the chain of problems caused by excessive human sentiment before was also corrected to varying degrees.

Wang Qian's point of view was quite novel. In summary: the imperial court will cut off heads, but private workshops won't.

Private workshops would also breed pests, but they couldn't effectively clean them out.

Therefore, Wang Qian didn't think the state-run cotton textile factory would lose in the market...

... competition. Everyone was a behemoth, and everyone had problems of bloatedness, rigidity, low efficiency, and corruption. State-run factories wouldn't necessarily lose.

Of course, if some people with ulterior motives deliberately made the state-run factory fall into operational difficulties in order to seize state assets, that would be another matter that deserved the execution of their nine clans.

Daring to steal the Emperor's assets!

A state-run factory with a share-holding system could better stimulate the production enthusiasm of craftsmen and better improve production tools.

"State-run factories and private workshops—isn't this our Great Ming hitting its left hand with its right?" Zhu Zhu Yijun was slightly hesitant about this memorial. The imperial court's gathering of wealth was too excessive; a catty of coal was already selling for two hundred wen.