Chapter 438: Knowledge is Inherently Expensive

Shen Shixing felt quite heartbroken that the seven navigators trained by the Ming imperial court finally went in the opposite direction to the imperial court. Wang Daokun's nine years of hard work had not been completely wasted; at least Shen Shixing could still mobilize the navigators in the navy to maintain the normal operation of the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade.

Shen Shixing looked at Shi Peng and the others, his face solemn as he said: "I know that you have gradually forgotten the pain of the past. Those unbearable memories have even become your shame, the ugliness that your current bright and beautiful life cannot uncover."

"In the past, with a shoulder pole on your back, you carried 120 catties of goods. You carried them to the ship, and one trip was only six *wen*, and you could only do ten or so trips a day, so you would be exhausted with back pain. But every time you put down the goods, you had to run back to pick up more, just to do one more trip that day."

"No matter how tired you were, you had to wake up at the cock's crow the next day and run to continue working. Even with such hardship, whether it was strong wind or heavy rain, you didn't dare to rest, and you were afraid that you wouldn't be able to work at the wharf that day. A month was only 1,800 *wen* of flying money, which could barely be exchanged for one tael of silver."

"Now, you are highly respected on the ship. All the sailors will greet you, and even the captain needs to listen to your opinions. When you go ashore, you are chased and praised. Countless people invite you to banquets. They never skimp on their praise for you. Yes, if it were me, I would also praise you. Your one long voyage can bring them thousands to tens of thousands of taels of silver in profit."

Shen Shixing understood the life of the poor laborers of the Ming Dynasty very well. When Wang Daokun hadn't left, Shen Shixing spent a month at the Songjiang Xingang and the shipyard. He truly understood the life of the poor laborers of the Ming Dynasty. This was Zhang Juzheng's instruction before he left. When Shen Shixing left, Zhang Juzheng told him: "Only by keeping your feet on the ground can you reach far."

Shi Peng and the others looked embarrassed. Shi Peng clenched his fists and said loudly: "That was the past, not the us of now!"

Shen Shixing's face looked slightly painful. He spread his hands, then put them down and continued patiently: "If you don't return to work in three days, you will turn back into what you were before. Don't believe what those powerful and wealthy people say; they have been deceiving you all along."

"Have you ever thought about a problem? They support absolute freedom because these shipowners are all rich as oil. They have many ships under their hands, and every ship returning from a long voyage can bring wealth of thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver. They don't even know how much money they have. No matter how extravagant their life is, the speed of spending money is far inferior to the speed of making money."

"The absolute freedom they preach to you—that the imperial court's interference is hindering the vigorous development of maritime trade—they support this kind of completely free maritime trade in order to earn more. And you? Acting as the death squad leading the charge, even not hesitating to defy the imperial court's decree, what can you get?"

"Two taels of silver a month—what are you risking your lives for?"

"Two taels of silver a month—what are you risking your lives for?" This was Shen Shixing's soul-searching question.

Recently, a "Songjiang School" emerged in Songjiang Prefecture. The arguments of this Songjiang School advocated absolute freedom in maritime trade.

They advocated that the imperial court should open up the purchase qualifications for five-masted ocean-crossing ships instead of through the trading firm's subscription; advocated that the imperial court dismiss the military supply office and oppose the imperial court's tax extraction; advocated opening up the ship-license system for free navigation and free trade; advocated completely canceling trade bans so that any commodity could be transported out to sea; advocated that the imperial court completely abandon overseas plantations and change to merchant ship exchanges...

The logic of these propositions was all established on the basis of great free trade.

In the eyes of this school, being willing to give up freedom in exchange for security would result in losing both freedom and security.

The imperial court's deep interference in maritime trade hindered the development of maritime trade, which in turn caused the people of the world to suffer. Accepting the imperial court's interference in maritime trade was using freedom to exchange for security, but the imperial court's rope would gradually tighten, finally suffocating them to death.

The Ming Emperor's promises were worthless. The stingy and greedy dragon would eventually devour everyone, just like when the Yongle Emperor opened the seas, the official ships and official trade completely monopolized maritime trade, and all the profits from maritime trade belonged to the Emperor's inner treasury alone.

When this school gathered disciples to lecture, they never talked about a key problem: to this day, apart from going to the Mughal Empire to pull warhorses, the Ming Dynasty did not have any official ships or official trade. Nor would they discuss another problem: what did the Yongle Emperor use the silver earned from maritime trade for? Five northern expeditions, moving the capital, sailing to the Western Ocean, compiling the *Yongle Encyclopedia*, building official post roads, etc.

"I can earn three taels of silver a month!" Shi Peng finally seemed to find a breakthrough and a reason to convince himself under Shen Shixing's powerful suppression.

Shen Shixing smiled and said: "You know very well how much a ship's cargo can earn."

"Recently, the Songjiang School has been telling everyone that money is the greatest tool of freedom invented by mankind. Only money will open up to the poor, while power will never, because money will not exploit, but power will, because money is free."

"This logic is very, very strange. Money opens up to the poor—doesn't that mean the poorer a person is, the more money they have? Moreover, money is free—then why didn't the profit of tens of thousands of silver from a ship flow into your hands? It only flowed into your hands a little bit—is that worth your gratitude?"

"Money will not exploit, but power will? *History of the Han* says: 'Farmers, father and son, are exposed in the fields, not avoiding cold or heat, scratching the grass and digging the soil, hands and feet calloused. Already offering grain rent, they must also pay straw tax. The local departments privately demand, and it is impossible to supply. Therefore, the people abandon the root and pursue the end, and the tillers cannot even get half.'"

"The imperial court demands straw tax, the local departments demand private requests. At least when the imperial court takes the straw tax, it is used for the border regions and official post roads. But what about the local departments and the landlords? Does money really not exploit?"

"The reason I am willing to call it a school, rather than an evil spirit, is because the freedom it advocates has merits, but they are distorting freedom."

Shen Shixing's understanding of freedom was completely different from the Songjiang School. If it really had to be applied, it would be that money would not open up to the poor, but power would open a small window.

Zhang Juzheng was born into a military household. Zhang Juzheng definitely could not be counted as wealthy. He had been mocked by Wang Shizhen, saying that the mud on the legs of the "mud-legged one" hadn't been washed clean. In turn, Wang Shizhen sent Zhang Juzheng a *Bamboo and Birds* painting by Song Huizong. This painting was painted by Song Huizong himself. At that time, the Northern Song court raised many painters, and excellent works would all be signed with Song Huizong's flower-shaped seal, "The Only One Under Heaven."

*Bamboo and Birds* is one of the few that can be determined to have been painted by Song Huizong himself.

This is not strange. In his later years, the Daoist master raised a bunch of people to write *qingci* (sacrificial odes). The Daoist master liked mysterious cultivation, was keen on alchemy, prayed for longevity, and in the god-worshipping ceremonies, needed to write some *qingci*—that is, chapters and memorials offered to the gods of the heavenly realm—which required the use of extremely gorgeous rhetoric and the accumulation of words to express the Emperor's respect for the Heavenly Emperor and his sincerity in seeking immortality.

Zhang Juzheng criticized the Daoist master's "burning and cultivation," referring to the political monstrosity of the "Qingci Grand Secretary" and the Daoist master's own obsession with mysterious cultivation.

Shi Peng was completely unable to argue with Shen Shixing. Shen Shixing had already ground his way to this position. When he returned to the capital, he would directly enter the cabinet, only one step away from the top-tier architecture of official selection, while Shi Peng had only crossed the class of his own poor laborer status.

"As navigators, you actually don't have to worry at all that this expansion will have an impact on you. The Ming Dynasty's gap for navigators is too large. The Ming Dynasty has already explored the routes to Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and the West, and the war in the Strait of Malacca has come to an end. Besides Nanyang, the Ming Dynasty also has the Western Ocean to explore. The Ming Dynasty's gap for navigators will only grow larger and larger."

"Three days." Shen Shixing looked at Shi Peng and the others after they had nothing to say, and held up three fingers. This was the maximum time he could fight for.

If he really let Wang Chonggu reach his hand into Songjiang Prefecture, it would be Shen Shixing's dereliction of duty. That this problem could not be solved for a long time was also Shen Shixing's dereliction of duty.

Half a percent of careerists can coerce nine and a half percent of the rabble. This was what Zhang Juzheng told the Emperor; one needs to be vigilant against these careerists stirring up trouble.

"Thank you, Governor, for your instruction." Shi Peng heard this and suddenly his eyes lit up! What he cared about most was still himself, or whether the interests of the navigator group would be damaged after expansion, and this was a profession that could protect descendants.

Shi Peng was confused by those big principles, but he understood this last sentence completely. The ocean was truly very large.

"One does not recognize the true face of Mount Lu, only because one is in the mountain."

Shi Peng and the other navigators, who were confused by the authorities, were stirred up by people whispering in their ears, making them anxious and unable to sleep or eat. Instead, it was Shen Shixing's last words that made him suddenly realize, understanding a point he had always ignored: the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade was not stagnant.

"Does free trade really exist?" Shen Shixing looked at the backs of these seven navigators and asked himself, then laughed at himself. Confucianism has always said that as long as everyone cultivates virtue, the world will be in great harmony. This set of words has been shouted for 1,500 years, and I haven't seen a world where everyone cultivates virtue.

The era before the Three Dynasties was, after all, just an ideal country constantly depicted by scholars.

Soon, the Ming navigators, under the pressure of the imperial court, began to return to their posts. The imperial court was urging them. Under the feudal imperial system, the navigators were not willing to risk their lives to maintain so-called freedom. Just as the Songjiang School criticized, the navigators used freedom to exchange for security.

Because the imperial court was not an invisible big hand. The Ming navy ships coming in and out of the Songjiang Xingang wharf were a visible big hand, a real physical threat.

However, from then on, the Maritime Academy began to collect tuition. If you have no money, you can owe it, but you must repay it, and the price is not cheap. Studying for three years at the Maritime Academy requires 60 silver, which is to say, after boarding the ship, a navigator would have to work for three to five years without eating or drinking to pay it off.

Even though the navigators defied the imperial court's decree and hoped the imperial court would withdraw its order, the Ming Emperor still didn't want to collect this money. The tuition calculated by the Ministry of Revenue was too expensive—120 silver per person. Excessively expensive tuition would hinder the Ming Dynasty's pace of opening the seas.

Finally, under the Emperor's insistence, the imperial treasury and the inner treasury each paid 30 silver, reducing the Maritime Academy's tuition to 60 silver borne by the individual. If one is willing to serve in the navy and serve for three years, one does not need to repay the tuition, and during these three years, one can also receive a salary.

Moreover, Zhu Yijun required that there be no interest, which is to say, this 60 silver tuition was an interest-free student loan.

Zhu Yijun still felt it was too expensive, but Wan Shihe told His Majesty that knowledge is inherently expensive, whether in the Ming Dynasty or in the West.

Shen Shixing handled the affairs of Songjiang Prefecture. The Songjiang Prefecture Tax Inspection Room communicated with the Songjiang Dai Fuya to carry out penetrating law enforcement on some tax inspection matters.

That is, some powerful and wealthy people, when evading taxes on maritime trade, did not come forward personally, but set up a broker to act. When the Tax Inspection Room inspected and urged payment, they found that this broker had no ability to repay, so they needed to find out who was behind this broker who was truly in arrears, and send the urge-payment ticket and death-urge talisman to the person who truly owed the tax.

This is penetration—penetrating the blindfold to find the person behind the scenes.

The Tax Inspection Room only does one thing, and that is tax inspection. The taxes that should be paid cannot be less by a single cent, and the taxes that should not be paid will not be demanded by a single cent, because the local Tax Inspection Rooms will retain 30% of the tax inspection income, and the imperial court gives generous rewards.

In the Ming Dynasty, only death and taxes are unavoidable.

The Tax Inspection Room's penetrating law enforcement required the cooperation of the Songjiang Dai Fuya. Shen Shixing was a bit troubled by this matter, but finally agreed, because if he didn't agree, the Tax Inspection Room would use its own law enforcement power to enforce the law itself, and it would be even harder to clean up at that time.

The Tax Inspection Room is affiliated with the Tax Inspection Court, and the Tax Inspection Court is affiliated with the Northern and Southern Divisions of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, affiliated with the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The Northern and Southern Divisions are legal divisions, possessing independent investigative and arrest powers outside the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review.

Shen Shixing could not but agree. If the Tax Inspection Room's Tax Inspection Commander enforced the law himself, the Tax Inspection Room's power would soon deviate from the scope of tax inspection and expand rapidly.

On the 24th day of the sixth month of the ninth year of Wanli, Shen Shixing arrived at the Songjiang Wan Guo City. This was a seaside city with a circumference of less than ten li, where all the barbarians gathered. It was also the residence of the Shipping Office. Shen Shixing came here mainly to communicate with the Western special envoy about the number of five-masted ocean-crossing ships to be purchased this year, so as to confirm delivery.

The English navigator Francis Drake's circumnavigation journey needed to avoid the colonies and ports of Portugal and Spain, which made Drake's circumnavigation full of crises, taking nearly three years to complete.

And the Ming Dynasty's Xu Jiugao, Liu Ji, and others' circumnavigation took one year and one month to complete, because along the way, the Ming Dynasty's exploration fleet did not need to avoid the jurisdiction of the red-haired barbarians and could resupply at mature ports.

Ming merchant ships could go to Peru, Brazil, and even trade in Seville, the House of Trade of the New World of Spain, while English merchant ships would be treated as pirates if they appeared.

Philip II had to open these permissions because he needed to buy the Ming Dynasty's five-masted ocean-crossing ships to maintain his status as the hegemon of the West, and also needed the Ming Dynasty's silk, keeping the silver in his own hands. Religion and gold and silver were the two most important ties for Spain to maintain its status as a sun-never-setting empire.

The Ming Emperor was really not "giving to foreign states rather than to his own slaves." The price of the five-masted ocean-crossing ships was extremely expensive. Opening up the purchase permissions would only become a carnival for a very few people.

"Seen the Governor." Marcus bowed in a non-standard way. The Portuguese King Antonio was a king conferred by the Ming Dynasty, so Marcus used the Eastern etiquette when paying respects.

"Captain Marcus, we meet again." Shen Shixing had seen Marcus for the sixth time. This first mate of Antonio had now become the new special envoy of the red-haired barbarians.

Marcus introduced the young man beside him: "This is Matteo Ricci, from Italy, a missionary of the Church, who came to the Ming Dynasty this time as the envoy of Philip II, hoping to live here for a long time."

"The Ming Dynasty does not allow the Nestorian Church to preach; he may not be able to live here for a long time." Shen Shixing looked at this handsome man with a high nose bridge and shook his head.

"Special Envoy Li Yashi is also a believer, and also a missionary, but he stayed in the Ming Dynasty, didn't he?" Marcus smiled and said: "I will clearly tell him the rules. If the Ming Dynasty finds out he wants to preach, throw him into the sea and sink him. Anyway, he is Philip II's person."

Spain, as the protector of the new Crusades, had an overly intimate relationship with the Church. Marcus was a pirate on the sea in the past and was born to have nothing to do with order.

"This time we intend to repay 500,000 silver of the debt to His Majesty. The excessively heavy debt truly makes His Highness uneasy." Marcus had been communicating with Shen Shixing in Han language. The carriage slowly drove out of the Wan Guo City. Marcus had to arrange for people to trade, buying silk, porcelain, tea, cotton cloth, and wool.

This time wool was also on the purchase list. Antonio was not a qualified king, but he was very keen on business. England and Spain were competing for the profit of the wool business, and Antonio also wanted to use the sufficient and cheap goods from the East to do some proper business.

Matteo Ricci couldn't understand what they were saying. He was just looking around, his eyes full of shock.

Even though the sailors had been using extremely exaggerated language along the way to describe the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, this was the first time Matteo Ricci had walked out of the Wan Guo City and seen this prosperity with his own eyes.

Even Seville, the House of Trade of the New World, was only a city of 150,000 people. The Jimo County of the Ming Dynasty's Mizhou Shipping Office (today's Qingdao) alone exceeded 150,000 people.

Whether in terms of scale or population, the Ming Dynasty in this era was worthy of the four words "Heavenly Dynasty and Upper Kingdom."

The endless residential houses, the horse teams of merchant firms with heavy traffic, the factory workshops that couldn't be seen to the end, the endless stream of people, the shops lined up like scales, and the clean and tidy streets all made the twenty-four-year-old Matteo Ricci unable to take it all in.

In Songjiang Prefecture city, the population had already exceeded one million. It took nine years to grow from a fishing village by the sea to a million-level large city.

"These street cleaners only get three *wen* a day, less than 900 *wen* of flying money a month, less than half a tael of silver, and only six taels of silver a year. But there are still many people willing to do it. There are about six thousand street cleaners in the entire Songjiang Prefecture. Just for cleaning the streets, the Songjiang Dai Fuya gives the merchant faction 50,000 silver annually, while the merchant faction only needs to pay 36,000 silver to the street cleaners." Shen Shixing looked at the street cleaners on the street and said to Marcus with great emotion.

The money was all earned by the merchant faction. The reason Shen Shixing mentioned this was because Marcus had used an extremely exaggerated tone to praise Xu Fan's management of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The stench had disappeared, and now Lisbon was called the "City of Flowers" by the West, and Xu Fan's management model was being promoted to the whole of Portugal.

And Xu Fan had also become a big tycoon, because urban garbage cleaning was a very profitable business.

"I was very curious in Lisbon, why not do it yourself? I mean, why doesn't the Songjiang Dai Fuya directly hire street cleaners to clean? Instead, this money is earned by the merchant faction. Xu Fan, besides building a Street Department in Lisbon, also handed it over to merchants to do when he arrived in other places." Marcus asked curiously.

"Because if the imperial court does this, it won't be 50,000 silver. Corruption, encroachment, redundant personnel, and empty pay will all become nests of cases." Shen Shixing said concisely. The imperial court has the rigidity and bloatedness of the imperial court. This is also why Shen Shixing allowed the Songjiang School of Freedom to exist.

The imperial court is indeed rigid and bloated in some places, and it is easy to be sick without knowing it, needing someone to remind and urge it. For example, the complexity of the ship-license system, coupled with the low efficiency of the handling personnel, indeed affected the smoothness of ships going to sea; for example, the corruption and bribery of the Shipping Office's military supply office; for example, the bloated personnel and empty pay of the shipyard that Shen Shixing discovered.

The appearance of the Songjiang School of Freedom was not without reason or foundation.

Contradiction is the existence of the opposition and unity of spear and shield, not existing alone.

Marcus still had to go to the capital to have an audience with the Emperor this year. He had to present the credentials, return part of the debt, and obtain the approval document for the Ming Dynasty to sell him five-masted ocean-crossing ships. Philip II was constantly purchasing five-masted ocean-crossing ships, so Antonio had to expand the scale of the Free Fleet. This kind of confrontation, the one that benefited the most, was the Ming Dynasty, which sold ships thousands of miles away.

"What is this?" Marcus arrived at the shipyard. He was originally going to see the stock of the Ming Dynasty's five-masted ocean-crossing ships to determine the purchase quantity for this year, but he saw the keels of the *Youlong* and *Feiyun*.

"Fast sailing ships under construction." Shen Shixing did not intend to let them visit. The *Youlong* and *Feiyun* were top-level ships that would not be sold to the outside world. Letting them take a look from afar was to show off the national prestige, just like in the 19th year of Yongle, when the Chengzu Wen Emperor invited envoys from various countries to jointly review the military horses.

Marcus said sluggishly: "This is truly incredible."

Marcus had been running on the sea for more than ten years. He knew maritime trade too well. The appearance of this kind of ship would completely change the pattern of maritime trade. However, except for a name, Marcus knew nothing about this kind of ship.

Shen Shixing smiled without saying a word and took Marcus to the dock of the five-masted ocean-crossing ships. Marcus looked back and watched with reluctance. The Songjiang Provincial Governor did not introduce much, and the meaning was already very clear: this kind of ship would not be sold to the outside world. But Marcus's glimpse was already unforgettable for the fast sailing ship.

Three days later, Marcus set off for Tianjin Guard. Accompanying him, besides Matteo Ricci, was a Ming person heading to the capital's central offices. This person was named Chen Chengyi, the general manager of the Tongxiang Town in Manila, Luzon. This time he was entering the capital, and Chen Chengyi escorted 5,000 taels of gold.

This 5,000 taels of gold was a birthday gift for the Emperor from His Majesty's daughter, Princess Yingjia, Zhu Xuanchang.

August 17th is the father's birthday. As a daughter married out, she must send a birthday gift to her father. This is filial piety.

Zhu Yijun advocated frugality and never celebrated the "Wan Shoujie." The Wan Shoujie is the Emperor's birthday, taking the meaning of "ten thousand years of longevity without boundaries." It requires three days of vacation, and also requires rewarding the officials of the capital according to their ranks.

According to the system, after the late Emperor passed away, the Emperor would not celebrate the Wan Shoujie for three years. In the third year of Wanli, the Ministry of Rites memorialized about the Wan Shoujie, but it was finally canceled by the Emperor on the grounds of "excessive waste and laboring the people and wasting money."

This was also the fact. In order to celebrate this festival, the palace needed to prepare intensively for a month. During the Jiajing and Longqing periods, one birthday celebration cost over 100,000 silver, and the capital's nine gates inside and outside had to be decorated with colors and lanterns, building colorful pavilions, multi-story buildings, and precious pavilions, with flowers of fire and silver flowers, and singing and dancing. These were all the labor of the people.

The Ming Dynasty's Wan Shoujie was not large in scale. During the Northern Song Dynasty, various places had to offer "Birthday Gifts," which were the real big troubles that made the people complain.

Zhu Yijun finally stopped the Wan Shoujie.

At that time, the inner treasury and the imperial treasury were begging for food from each other, and the border soldiers were in arrears. Zhu Yijun really didn't have the mood. By the sixth year of Wanli, the national treasury was becoming more prosperous, and the Ministry of Rites wanted to restore this festival again, but every time it was rejected by the Emperor on the grounds of "following the old example, no need to labor and spend."

Princess Yingjia, Zhu Xuanchang, was indeed not His Majesty's biological daughter, but since His Majesty recognized this daughter, she should express her filial piety.

Princess Yingjia's one-time shot was 5,000 taels of gold. In fact, it was also telling the Emperor that his daughter was living very well in Luzon and hadn't suffered any grievances, and could even take out 5,000 taels of gold to honor her father.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the Emperor would reward her back.

After the general manager of the Luzon Copper Factory, Chen Chengyi, entered the capital, this batch of gold entered the palace. Zhu Yijun issued a decree, ordering the Military Equipment Bureau to forge gold utensils, and Zhu Yijun was rarely generous once, adding 5,000 taels of silver to forge a batch of ritual utensils, letting Chen Chengyi take the gold jewelry and ritual utensils back.

5,000 taels of gold, 312.5 catties, was just a birthday gift. This was a generous gift, but Zhu Yijun didn't want it, mainly to return the courtesy and strengthen the connection between the Ming Dynasty and Luzon.

Zhu Yijun had heard of Chen Chengyi's name. He was one of the first *juren* to arrive in Luzon, from Dianbai, Guangzhou. In order to obtain the special imperial examination *jinshi* status after nine years and obtain an official position, he went to Luzon. Chen Chengyi took the errand of the Luzon Copper Factory, and Tongxiang Town also grew from nothing to strength under Chen Chengyi's leadership.

Zhu Yijun hadn't summoned Chen Chengyi yet, but the Minister of Works, Wang Daokun, went to the Huitong Guild Hall to see him first.

Wang Daokun was inquiring about Chen Chengyi's copper mining experience. The annual production of red copper in the Luzon Copper Factory had reached 12 million catties, while Dian copper was only 6.5 million catties.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 439 =====

Before Zhu Yijun had even summoned Chen Chengyi, the Minister of Works, Wang Daokun, had instead gone to the Huitong Hostel to meet with him first.

Wang Daokun was inquiring about Chen Chengyi's experience in copper mining; the annual production of red copper in the Luzon region had already reached 12 million catties, while Yunnan copper was only 6.5 million catties.

(End of chapter)