Chapter 446: Spring Ice Seeds, Autumn Fire Returns; This is Called the Wild Goose Formation

Qi Jiguang never blamed the beacon tower marquises for handing over the "sleeping horse gold" and causing such trouble. This was indeed an accidental event, but after the Great Ming recovered the Ordos Loop, they would certainly conduct extensive reconnaissance of the Mobei. The Great Ming heartland had never reached the grasslands, and their imagination of the Mobei seemed as if it were at the edge of the sky, but in reality, the Mobei was much closer than scholars imagined—it was only 400 *li* from the Yin Mountains, and the imperial road from the capital to Shanhai Pass was only 660 *li* long.

As long as the beacon tower marquises conducted detailed reconnaissance of the various Oirat tribes in the Mobei, open-pit mines like Sleeping Horse Ridge would certainly be discovered during long-term scouting. An accident after multiple reconnaissance missions would turn into an inevitability, just like Peach Spit Mountain in Danning Guard; when the imperial court needed white clay, the beacon tower marquises' chaotic intelligence, once organized, immediately located it.

Gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal—the minerals the Great Ming needed were all present in the Mobei.

For Qi Jiguang, the main pressure in making this plan did not come from the enemy's strength.

Strength? The wolves on the grasslands, if given a bite to eat and raised for two days, would learn to wag their tails and beg for pity.

The Oirats of the Mobei were actually very weak. From the intelligence gathered by the beacon tower marquises, one could discern that these Oirats entrenched in Karakorum mostly lived in clusters of ten or so people per tribe.

During the Zhengtong era, when the Oirats were still powerful, they could graze in the Southern Desert region, and there were several lakes that served as their "summer camps"—summer grazing grounds.

Following Esen's death in an internal feud, his head sent to the Great Ming to claim a reward, and after Esen's two sons went on a western expedition, the Oirat strength in Karakorum was far inferior to before. Coupled with Altan Khan occupying all the summer camps, the Oirats in Karakorum had completely turned into a scattered mess.

After the internal feuds of the Jingtai era, the Oirats gradually evolved into four tribes: the Dzungar, the Dörbet, the Khoshut, and the Torgut, along with two smaller tribes attached to the Dörbet—the Khoid and the Buryat—and a pile of tribes with fewer than a hundred people, such as the Tumat and the Khori.

The four major tribes had all completely finished their westward advance during the Chenghua era; only the Buryat tribe still grazed near Karakorum. "Buryat" means "people of the forest." Of course, the Tatars of the Southern Desert collectively referred to the Oirats as "horse-raising slaves."

The ones currently preparing to move west were the Buryat tribe; their grazing range was roughly near the Northern Sea. The reason for the Buryat tribe's westward advance also included the oppression by the seven Khalkha tribes, whose chieftain was Abadai Khan.

The enemy was not strong; they were, in fact, extremely weak.

The resistance mainly originated from within the imperial court.

The Great Ming's spirit of "meticulous calculation" had blown from the Renzong era to the early Wanli era. During the Jiajing era, recovering the Ordos Loop and restoring the rule of Danning Guard would have been met with shouts of "kill," a topic that could not even be touched. When Tan Lun spoke again of recovering the Ordos Loop during the Longqing era, he took a huge risk, but Tan Lun had been campaigning for it ever since.

In the struggle to recover the Ordos Loop from the 25th to the 27th year of Jiajing, Grand Secretary Xia Yan and the Viceroy of the Three Borders of Shaanxi and Vice Minister of War Zeng Xian were beheaded and displayed in public during court infighting, making the issue of recovering the Ordos Loop a forbidden zone.

Combining the current political environment of the Great Ming, Qi Jiguang began to write. He formulated a plan of "small steps and quick movements," using mines and official factory group manufacturing as the foundation to continuously expand in small increments. Mining—prospecting for veins—building roads—mining; this cyclical expansion was undoubtedly a better method.

The reason this could be done was entirely because the craftsmen of the official factory group manufacturing, once they picked up weapons, were extremely excellent soldiers. Even if the four major Oirat tribes moving west intended to return to their ancestral lands in Karakorum, the Great Ming troops in the Yin Mountains could provide reinforcements at any time.

This was a very stingy method, but it was a practice that could be widely accepted by the Great Ming. After all, the Great Ming only wanted gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal.

"His Majesty's letter." Liaoshan walked into the main military tent and handed a sealed letter cylinder to Qi Jiguang.

In the military campaigns of the Wanli era, there was a very significant change: the Great Ming Emperor always wrote to Qi Jiguang using the "Zhu Zhongxing" cipher, one letter every month, never interrupted. This represented that the frontline commander could communicate with the Great Ming Emperor without any obstacles.

This was a treatment that one wouldn't even dare to imagine before the Wanli era.

This meant that certain base people could not stand in the middle to sow discord.

The content of the letter mainly consisted of the Great Ming Emperor mocking the base scholars for their flip-flopping, treating their own words like farts, swarming like bees the moment they heard of a gold mountain, possessing all five poisons of greed, anger, ignorance, doubt, and arrogance, and having incredibly ugly faces of greed. It also mentioned Wang Chonggu retiring and being retained by Zhang Juzheng, the daily uninterrupted training of the 20,000 elite troops left behind in the capital, Prince Lu being beaten up by Xiong Tingbi, the expansion of the capital's trading houses, the Empress giving birth to a daughter, mother and child being safe, and other such major and minor affairs of the capital.

It is worth noting that Zhu Zhongxing solemnly reminded Qi Jiguang to guard against the Jin Party.

This was a warning that hadn't existed before. The reason for the warning was very clear: with the successive discovery of mines, these profit-seeking Jin people might cause some trouble. With Qi Jiguang in the Ordos Loop, it would be even easier for the Jin people to do something.

For example, assassination.

Qi Jiguang looked at the 50,000 elite soldiers stretching endlessly outside the main military tent, then looked at Liaoshan, who was specifically responsible for intelligence by his side, then looked at the 200 Iron Forest troops bestowed upon him, the Marquis of Qian'an, by His Majesty, then looked at the three "luxury officials" (eunuchs who tasted poison) equipped by the Emperor for his campaign, then looked at the three grand physicians and six imperial physicians specifically equipped by the Emperor for his campaign, and then looked at his own body, which was more robust than most people wearing armor even without wearing armor himself.

"For the Jin people to deal with me, it is slightly difficult," Qi Jiguang said as such.

He had always been one to overestimate the enemy and consider defeat before victory, but never had a Great Ming general had such treatment while campaigning.

"The Jin people want to deal with you?" Liang Menglong walked in from outside and, hearing Qi Jiguang speak to Chen Dacheng like this, said with extreme surprise.

Qi Jiguang smiled and said, "His Majesty thinks I am in great danger."

"In great danger?" Liang Menglong was stunned for a moment and said, "Isn't the most dangerous person General Qi? Especially General Qi who has gone beyond the frontier."

In Jining Hai Zi, Qi Jiguang had killed more than a dozen merchants accompanying the army who were driving up prices; this was turning the blade inward. Once beyond the frontier, Qi Jiguang was never soft-hearted; his blade would be aimed at all enemies. Once inside the pass, he would lie dormant, appearing as if he were easy to bully.

Liang Menglong had a deep understanding of this change.

"Since Altan Khan built the city of Bansheng, life has become increasingly extravagant. In the various places of the Ordos Loop, the livelihoods of the Han and the barbarians have all been exhausted by exploitation, suffering greatly from the inability to survive, and there are often people fleeing back inside the pass." Liang Menglong sat down, drank some water, and spoke about the situation in the entire Ordos Loop region.

Altan Khan's exploitation of the Ordos Loop region was extremely cruel. During the Jiajing era, the entire Suiyuan Province had about 400,000 people. After Altan Khan built the city of Bansheng, it gradually increased to over 500,000, and then, in the late Jiajing era, it began to decline. By the ninth year of Wanli, the entire Suiyuan had less than 300,000 people left.

Jine and Qiejin Taiji ran away directly and changed to Han surnames entirely because the situation in the Ordos Loop had rotted to a point they could no longer manage.

The commoners who had originally been unable to live due to land annexation inside the pass and had fled outside the pass only discovered that outside the frontier was hell, and they could only flee back again.

Currently, no administrative division had been carried out, mainly because it was in a state of military control. This year of bandit suppression was also divided according to folk customs.

The main contradiction in the Ordos Loop region now was the contradiction of survival.

Liang Menglong said with worry, "In the Ordos Loop region, the existing cultivated land is about 100,000 *qing*. These are all barren fields. The reason for the barrenness is flood irrigation, but the water goes away and the salt remains, making the land saline-alkali. The people are very miserable, with a yield per *mu* of less than 100 catties, and annual rainfall of less than eight inches. Moreover, they can only sow after the Awakening of Insects, with one harvest a year. That is to say, every year they have to plant beans to nourish the soil, but bean seedlings cannot tolerate saline-alkali, so they are mostly abandoned and left barren."

"Everyone says the Yellow River has a hundred harms, but only the Ordos Loop is rich. This is not false, but the richness is only relative to the barren output of the grasslands."

Liang Menglong's expression could be described as a mixture of emotions. In the past few days, he had personally gone to various places to see, and even felt that the spirit of meticulous calculation in the court at the beginning had its merits. This Ordos Loop was indeed very difficult to govern.

"This is not the most difficult part," Liang Menglong continued. "The biggest problem is soil erosion. Why does the Yellow River have so much silt? Those gullies on the loess hills are the reason. The Yellow River water is salty for the same reason. Firewood, rice, oil, and salt—firewood comes first. People living in the Ordos Loop have cut down trees for firewood for generations. Trees are felled, grass cannot survive, and every time it rains, the muddy dragon rolls; this land becomes increasingly barren."

"But even on such barren land, the commoners still strive to farm. In the second year of Tianshun, the Censor-in-Chief of Yansui, Yu Zijun, memorialized to build Yulin Town. In the ninth year of Chenghua, the various guards of the Ordos Loop were withdrawn to Yulin, and everything outside the pass returned to the Northern Barbarians. The commoners from Yulin, 'spring ice seeds, autumn fire returns; this is called the wild goose formation.'"

When the ice and snow had not yet melted in the spring, the commoners living inside the pass would go outside the frontier to farm, and after harvesting in the autumn, they would burn the straw and return inside the pass. Year after year, they were all "wild goose people." This migratory life had already lasted for a hundred years.

The loess hills were suffering from land degradation due to land degradation, climate change, human activities, and many other factors, causing arid and semi-arid land degradation.

"Indeed difficult." Qi Jiguang, hearing Liang Menglong's complaints, said quite affirmatively that it was indeed full of difficulties.

Liang Menglong's expression changed from dejected to spirited. With bright eyes, he said, "With a thousand threads and ten thousand strands, this year, we must plant pasture, open coal mines, and build official roads and post stations. Only by cultivating pasture can we lock the land and not let it continue to erode. By opening coal mines, the commoners will not continue to cut down trees for firewood. Only by building official roads and post stations can we be accessible in all directions."

"The roads in the Ordos Loop are actually very easy to build. From Guihua City to the west, it is all plains. Although the loess hills east of Dongsheng Guard are somewhat difficult, they are much simpler than Juyong Pass."

Liang Menglong also formulated his own development plan for the Ordos Loop. He was not afraid of difficulties; if there were no difficulties, there would be no opportunities. He was currently the Minister of Personnel, but the head official of the Ministry of Personnel had always been Zhang Juzheng. To become a true "Great Duke," governing the Ordos Loop was an opportunity.

For example, for pasture, Liang Menglong found a very suitable grass seed from the Emperor's Baoqi Division, called "ice grass," which lived near the Luo Jing Zheng Peak in the southernmost part of Africa. Luo Jing Zheng Peak was also the furthest place Zheng He reached during his voyages to the Western Oceans. Because the compass pointed due south and due north when passing there, it was named as such. One only needed to take one more step forward to see the turbulent Atlantic Ocean.

And this ice grass, with its characteristics of drought tolerance, cold tolerance, and drought resistance, coupled with various pastures such as corn grass, blue grass, and yellow bamboo grass, gave Liang Menglong great confidence in solving some of the commoners' livelihood problems.

For example, irrigation by diverting the Yellow River—diverting the tributaries of the Yellow River to open canals for irrigation and expanding the scale of reclamation. The eight major trunk canals, such as Yongji, Gangmu, Zhonghe, Yonghe, Tongji, Changsheng, Tabu, and Yihe, were all the most suitable irrigation canals obtained by the Doctor of Investigation of Things after triangular surveying. Preventing the land from continuing to be saline-alkali was also the key to preventing land degradation.

Liang Menglong and Qi Jiguang communicated for a long time. Some things required the cooperation of the troops, especially the damn horse bandits. These guys who took the opportunity to plunder should all be caught and sent to build roads. Only after Qi Jiguang agreed to the bandit suppression did Liang Menglong leave with satisfaction.

"Conforming to the appropriateness of heaven's time, earth's veins, and the nature of things, strength is sufficient to overcome heaven"—this was the imperial instruction personally inscribed by His Majesty on the shadow wall of the Baoqi Division.

That afternoon, the Great Ming Capital Battalion began to disperse from Wuyuan Prefecture by battalion. Rather than a prefecture city, it was more like a ruin. Qi Jiguang sat quietly in the main tent, watching the Great Ming Capital Battalion disperse to suppress bandits. He sat like this for more than half a day, sitting until the sun slanted to the west. The sunset glow spilled over the Yin Mountains, swept across the ancient land, swept across the Capital Battalion that was attacking, and swept across the commoners who were kneeling on both sides of the road.

The commoners feared the neat military appearance of the Great Ming army, so they knelt down the moment they saw them, fearing that if they looked one more time, they would be killed on the roadside. This habit of fear was clearly left behind when Altan Khan's army passed through.

But soon the commoners would understand that the place where this army was completely different from other armies was that "reporting to the Son of Heaven above, saving the common people below" was never a slogan, but a practice of reality.

Qi Jiguang finally revealed a smile, said two words to Chen Dacheng, and went to rest with peace of mind. Even if the Jin people really wanted his life at this moment, he would die without regrets.

In his life, he had pacified the Japanese pirates and also swept away the Northern Barbarians. The sea waves were gradually calming, and the barbarian scourge was gradually stopping.

If he died, there were still Li Rusong, Ma Gui, Chen Dacheng, Yang Wen, Wang Rulong, Ma Lin, and others who could lead the Capital Battalion to continue to guard the Ordos Loop. It would not affect the overall situation.

Qi Jiguang could fully understand the Emperor's distrust and fear of the Jin people that was carved into his bones.

The late Emperor passed away, and His Majesty ascended the throne while young. Gao Gong was the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Wang Chonggu was the Viceroy of Military Affairs of the Capital Battalion, Wang Guoguang was the Minister of Revenue, Ge Shouli was the Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Yang Bo was the Minister of Personnel, and Tan Lun was the Minister of War. Gao Gong wanted to knock out the Directorate of Ceremonial and completely pull out the Emperor's claws and teeth. Wang Chonggu wanted his family's dogs to eat imperial grain in the Capital Battalion. Zhang Siwei was rebellious, stabbing the King and killing the driver, burning the palace with a great fire. The cruel palace struggle made His Majesty always hold an attitude of suspicion and fear toward the Jin people, which was a good thing.

This was also a kind of "overestimating the enemy." In fact, the Jin Party didn't have that much courage at all. Not to mention anything else, the Jin Party had absolutely no means to contend with the 20,000 elite Capital Battalion troops left behind in the capital.

After Qi Jiguang woke up, he replied to His Majesty with a letter, and then ordered Wang Rulong to take a foot battalion to Sleeping Horse Ridge to protect the Doctor of Investigation of Things and conduct a comprehensive survey of the entire Sleeping Horse Ridge mineral deposit.

On the 17th day of the seventh month of the ninth year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun received Qi Jiguang's reply. It mainly reported the situation at the front, as well as the fact that the Great Ming Capital Battalion would be stationed for one year to clear out banditry. Qi Jiguang simply stated a plan for the development of the Mobei grasslands, and this plan was to advance step by step.

Zhu Yijun handed the letter to Zhang Hong and asked Zhang Hong to use pine resin to pour and build it. In the future, these would all be things he would take to his tomb.

"What's going on with the National Cellar? From July last year to July this year, the profit was 1.24 million silver?" Zhu Yijun looked at Feng Bao and asked about the National Cellar business. It wasn't that it was too little, but that it was too much.

The small National Cellar business actually exceeded the gold flower silver that supported the imperial palace every year. The Imperial Manor had more than just the National Cellar business.

Feng Bao hurriedly said, "Thanks to the clearing of fields and returning them, the Imperial Manor has more than 70,000 *qing* of fields, all planted with sweet potatoes. Only with food can we brew wine. This National Cellar is priced at four silver per bottle. We only sold 470,000 bottles in a year, which is not much. Your Majesty, this is because we have to supply the navy, so we couldn't make more profit. Supplying the navy is the big part."

One bottle is only one catty, and the Great Ming's strong liquor only sells for four *qian* of silver per catty. The price of the National Cellar is 160 times that of ordinary strong liquor. Calculating four catties of dry grain per catty of National Cellar, it is only 15,000 *shi* of grain.

"Can this thing sell even if it's so expensive?" Zhu Yijun frowned. When Feng Bao set the price, Zhu Yijun just took a simple look. That this thing could sell so expensively and sell so well was beyond expectation.

Feng Bao whispered, "Demand exceeds supply. The money was all earned by the middlemen. Every time they buy a bottle of National Cellar from the Imperial Manor, they can earn half a tael of silver by reselling it. Your Majesty doesn't allow it to be sold openly, giving priority to supplying the navy."

From the perspective of use value, the National Cellar is naturally not worth this price, but there is also exchange value, which supports this price. White liquor is already profitable; otherwise, the two Song dynasties would not have monopolized it.

"I know." Zhu Yijun thought for a moment. The Imperial Manor specializes in high-end products, and it is not surprising that it is widely recognized.

Zhu Yijun held a memorial in his hand and asked, "Have the Grand Minister of Revenue and the Junior Minister of Revenue arrived?"

"They are waiting in the West Flower Hall." Zhu Yijun took the memorial in his hand, came to the West Flower Hall, and met Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan.

"No need for formalities. The Grand Minister of Revenue said he wants to collect a profit tax. Tell me specifically." Zhu Yijun sat down. He summoned Wang Guoguang to discuss the profit tax.

This is the most important waste to solve the waste of silver.

Where is the logic of the profit tax?

The wealthy households of the Great Ming enjoyed the convenience of the overall environment of the Great Ming, rich and sufficient labor, a perfect industrial chain, a relaxed business environment, and, most importantly, safety. The Great Ming's Seven-Star Flag at sea, within the Strait of Malacca, was more useful than cannons. These conveniences were conducive to the acquisition of silver, asset appreciation, and interest acquisition.

After enjoying the convenience, they converted all their assets into silver, a general equivalent, and decisively went to sea, taking away the hard-earned money of the Great Ming commoners while avoiding the Great Ming's taxes. They even turned their guns around and used this silver to raise desperate people, Japanese pirates, and Red-Haired Barbarians to plunder the Great Ming's merchant ships, and even directly attacked the Great Ming's coastal areas.

This is not Wang Guoguang alarmist. The Japanese pirate scourge in the southeast during the Jiajing era is a bloody example.

To put it more bluntly, it is "putting down the bowl and smashing the pot."

Wang Guoguang proposed the profit tax based on this logic, to prevent trouble before it happens. Standing on the side of the Great Ming imperial court and the Great Ming Emperor, he doesn't even act like a Great Ming person, so we should collect half of his assets!

"The collection of the profit tax will certainly cause widespread opposition, and even stir up a wind that there are treacherous officials in the court," Wang Guoguang said with great certainty. The Japanese pirate scourge in the southeast is very likely to appear again.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "No, no, no. We cannot give up eating for fear of choking. Tax auditing is a war from beginning to end, just with different levels of intensity. The profit tax can effectively avoid the concerns mentioned by the Minister, and it should be implemented. We should discuss how to achieve it."

"For any silver leaving the Great Ming heartland, a unified tax of 50% will be levied, only targeting silver." Zhang Xueyan explained his train of thought. Taxing all silver that leaves is the method given by the Ministry of Revenue. In this day and age, an asset registration system and evaluation are fundamentally impossible to achieve, and silver, as a general equivalent, is simple and direct.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "Then if I were a wealthy household, I would definitely convert silver into goods and take them abroad. Whether it is silk, porcelain, or tea, they are all best-selling goods. I am not afraid of being unable to cash them out. This runs counter to our original intention."

"This is our goal," Wang Guoguang immediately replied.

"Let me think slowly." Zhu Yijun was stunned for a moment, and then fully understood Wang Guoguang's meaning. The wealthy households who want to flee overseas and enjoy unlimited freedom sell their assets for silver, and then use silver to buy Great Ming goods, which in disguise promotes the Great Ming's asset appreciation and promotes industrial development and the growth of the industrial and agricultural population.

The imperial court is not omnipotent. To register assets, to evaluate, to trace the source of every piece of goods—this era fundamentally cannot do it. No matter how much administrative cost is paid, it is something that cannot be done.

The core method to solve the waste of silver is asset appreciation, and the profit tax is just one of the means.

There is also a crucial problem here. The Great Ming must have an absolute commodity advantage. Then, after the wealthy households take the goods to sea and exchange them for silver, they must bring the silver back to the Great Ming for circulation, because in the current world, only the Great Ming can provide sufficient goods with sufficient additional benefits.

Only then can a closed loop be formed.

"Add another red copper." Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and decided to add one more item. In addition to silver, there is also red copper. The Great Ming is really too short of copper.

Zhu Yijun looked at the two Ministers and said, "Xu Jiugao saw a strange phenomenon in Lima, the Viceroyalty of Peru. The Spanish real silver coins that were clearly stamped were often cut into 2, 4, or 8 pieces to make change. Moreover, the currency in that place is a hodgepodge: scattered silver, real silver coins, treasure notes issued by the colonial government, and even receipts from tobacco companies are all currency."

"So, there is a widespread demand for small-denomination currency overseas. If they take the two-*qian* copper coins out, they can also exchange them for sufficient wealth."

"If the wealthy households are willing to carry treasure notes to sea, they can have as many as they want, and I can print as many as they want."

Zhu Yijun explained in detail why he wanted to add red copper as well. The Yongle Tongbao minted during the Yongle era, and even the family crest of Oda Nobunaga—if treasure notes could be widely accepted overseas, Zhu Yijun would also be happy to print them.

"What Your Majesty said is very good." After hearing this, Wang Guoguang immediately agreed with His Majesty's resolution. The Baoyuan Bureau that mints Tongbao is under the Ministry of Works, and the Baocha Bureau that prints treasure notes is under the Ministry of Revenue. Matters of money and grain should have been managed by the Ministry of Revenue, but the Great Ming treasure notes had long lost trust, so matters of money went to the Ministry of Works.

This is the loss of power of the Ministry of Revenue, which the Ministry of Revenue cannot tolerate in any way. But the current situation of the Great Ming is that it can only use the "money method" and cannot use the "note method," so it can only endure. If the overseas Viceroyalty can accept treasure notes, it can tear a hole.

The struggle between the money method and the note method is the contradiction between the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "Although the Great Ming's tax system is equivalent to non-existent, will the collection of the profit tax conflict with the Great Ming's current tax system? I mean, the conflict between the Great Ming's 'supplying the army' and the profit tax."

"It is a punishment in itself," Wang Guoguang answered His Majesty's question concisely. This is a punitive tax, a punishment for betraying the Great Ming. Not having their homes confiscated is already something to be grateful for.

Zhu Yijun said with worry, "Then, will such a high profit tax breed more smuggling? This is a problem we must consider. I still remember the private market in Guiyan Bay, which almost tore apart the intimate relationship between the Great Ming imperial court and the Luzon Viceroyalty."

Zhang Xueyan thought for a while, shook his head, and said, "Your Majesty, the imperial court's profit tax only wants money, but the snakeheads are all desperate people. They not only want money, but also lives. Once on the sea, looking around, it is all waves. What rules are there to speak of? If you really entrust it to the snakeheads, isn't it like a meat bun hitting a dog, never to return?"

"This is also one of the reasons why the Great Ming's maritime trade has never been able to develop rapidly since the Great Ming stopped official ships and official trade after Yongle. Desperate people are all over the ocean, and pirates block the sea routes, making merchant ships step by step in crisis."

Since the last voyage to the Western Oceans in the ninth year of Xuande, the ships of the Great Ming's huge navy slowly rotted on the piers. Along with the rotting of the ships was the order of the ocean. Since then, the scale and trade volume of maritime merchants have been far less than the transaction volume of a single shipping office in the Great Ming's current open sea.

"Since this is the case, why not collect more? How about 70%?" Zhu Yijun's fingers tapped on the table. The Great Ming Emperor's passive skill, "stingy and greedy," was activated!

"50% is better," Wang Guoguang whispered. "The reason why we don't kill them with one stick and are willing to let them carry some goods is to let them go to sea, to expand, to plunder, to open plantations, to capture slaves and sell slaves. 70% would directly drain them dry. These guys with ghosts in their hearts would probably be willing to take the risk and choose snakeheads."

"Hmm, makes sense." Zhu Yijun said with great regret that not being able to collect 20% more tax was really a great pity.

"Then, Grand Minister, Junior Minister, I have an idea. Can we make a kind of treasure note that is difficult to forge but cannot be cashed? Specifically for overseas trade. The Great Ming lacks money, and overseas is the same." Zhu Yijun said to Wang Guoguang.

Treasure notes that cannot be cashed, paper money that cannot be exchanged for gold and silver—reaping the world with paper money.

"Your Majesty's idea is truly brilliant!" Wang Guoguang's eyes flashed with the light of money.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 447 =====