Chapter 613: If You Use

The Great Ming killed an envoy again, killing Suolun, the special envoy sent by Felipe II to the Great Ming. The court officials did not overly oppose it.

Even the Ministry of Rites did not have anyone jump out to oppose it on the grounds of "comforting the distant people." Li Yashi also remained silent and did not plead for Suolun through the Ministry of Rites, because the example of Fan Yingqi was bloody, making all court officials and scholar-officials feel lingering fear.

According to the classification of the official-selected official class by the former Shanghai Magistrate Yan Shixuan, Fan Yingqi had the Jin Party as his background in the court and the legacy of Ge Shouli as his teacher. Fan Yingqi was absolutely a "person in the sky" in the official-selected official class. His future was bright, and his official career was like a spring outing in a garden, rising steadily.

But now Fan Yingqi can only hide in the Dissection Institute and not come out, because Fan Yingqi looks at donkey dung as if it were opium balls.

The Emperor's decision to kill made the Great Ming and Luzon become closer. From the perspective of Luzon, it was: "The Emperor has me in his heart."

For all Luzon people, this decision was that the Emperor had them in his heart, which was why he ignored the Great Ming's urgent need for silver inflow and beheaded Suolun, allowing the anti-drug war on the Luzon ground to receive strong support from the imperial court.

If the Emperor decided not to kill Suolun, Yin Zhengmao, in order to carry out the anti-drug war, would inevitably have to kill Suolun, because there were really many poisonous insects in Luzon. By that time, the imperial court and Luzon would go further and further apart. The lowly Confucians in the court would take the opportunity to stand up and shout, saying that the nobility divided overseas were violating the Emperor's imperial decree, which was unfaithful and unfilial, and everyone should be killed!

And the local area of Luzon also had to consider a problem: did the Great Ming Emperor really treat the Great Ming people in Luzon as nationals?

"If the monarch treats his ministers like dogs and horses, then the ministers treat the monarch like nationals;

If the monarch treats his ministers like dirt and mustard, then the ministers treat the monarch like a bitter enemy."

The estrangement and cultural differences formed by the ocean would be like a wound that could not be healed, getting bigger and bigger, and finally drifting further and further apart. This was also the reason why the Central Plains dynasties throughout history did not carry out overseas expansion; it was too easy to break away from rule.

Li Yashi brought good wine and food to the prison of the Northern Town Fusi, preparing to send Suolun off. After all, they were old acquaintances. Li Yashi, as a two-faced person who received two salaries as a Western special envoy, was Suolun's colleague.

"Thank the Holy Monarch for being a generous person, allowing me to see you for the last time without any psychological burden. Thank the Emperor for his benevolence." Li Yashi's visit to Suolun was reported. Chen Mo, as the Tixing Thousand-Household, stood quietly on the side. Visiting a prison was naturally not a private meeting.

Wang Jiaping also went to visit Fan Yingqi after returning to the capital, because of the Emperor's generosity, sending a friend off for the last time was no longer a taboo.

"You have already become a bureaucrat of the Great Ming. You betrayed the West, betrayed Spain, betrayed King Felipe!" Suolun looked at Li Yashi and said very angrily: "Wasn't I also worried about the constant outflow of silver? The Great Ming doesn't want any Western goods, only silver!"

"You are talking nonsense." Li Yashi said calmly: "The West is not at a comprehensive commodity disadvantage. There are also advantages, such as the red sandalwood dragon blood tree from Brazil, this high-grade dye that is pure red and can dye silk, which is extremely expensive. The Great Ming Emperor tried to plant it many times with little effect; such as the high-grade saltpeter from Peru; palm oil from West Africa, cotton from India, these are all urgently needed by the Great Ming."

"And at the beginning, we Spaniards also had advantages in shipbuilding. Now the Great Ming's fast sailing ships have been mass-produced. Where are our Spanish five-masted ocean-going ships? Have they been imitated?"

In the early Wanli years, when the Great Ming just opened its doors to the sea, the Great Ming actually did not have a wide commodity advantage. Shipbuilding was one, wool was one, and the West's exquisite glass technology was also one.

"The Great Ming's commodity advantage was also built up bit by bit. It can even be said that it was exchanged by the Emperor with his life bit by bit." Li Yashi saw how the Great Ming established its commodity advantage. The Great Ming was reborn from the fire. In the early years, the situation was very bad. Even the biggest noble in the world, the Emperor, was in danger. The Great Ming was big, but not strong enough.

"Suolun, you are Felipe's secretary, the King's close minister. I ask you, when Antonio just stood firm, the King negotiated with Portugal and killed a group of nobles, just to concentrate power. Why didn't he continue to do it?" Li Yashi asked a question. This question was not easy to answer.

Felipe II envied the Great Ming Emperor's near-infinite power. When the war was defeated and the opposition was clamoring, he launched a night of slaughter and killed many nobles. Li Yashi had been waiting for news, but he didn't wait for it. It seemed that this matter ended here.

Centralized power only halfway, is that centralized power?

"The resistance was too great." Suolun muttered to himself. Felipe II not only envied the Great Ming Emperor's infinite power, but also envied the Great Ming's ability to concentrate power to do things. This was a way to solve social contradictions, but Felipe II finally didn't succeed.

"You don't think the Great Ming Wanli Revival has resistance? On the contrary, the resistance is huge. The 22-year-old Emperor experienced four life-and-death crises, all for the sake of the Great Ming's greatness again. So, how many times did our King Felipe experience? Once? Twice?" Li Yashi sighed and asked.

"None." Suolun closed his eyes and said with some pain.

Under the feudal system, the rise and fall of a country are closely related to the individual monarch. The rise and fall depend on one person, which is naturally an extremely dangerous political pattern.

And as a great Eastern country, the Great Ming, and as the first sun-never-setting empire in the West, Spain, the monarchs of the two countries have many similarities. They are very diligent and have great ambitions, and they also have great perseverance, day after day, but Felipe II is ultimately slightly inferior.

"Just because of a few words of nagging from a mistress in his ear, some complaints from governors in official documents, and some opposition from nobles, he stopped his actions. There is an old Chinese saying, 'consistent from beginning to end.' Either don't do it, or do it to the end. Giving up halfway is not perseverance, it is cowardice." Li Yashi looked at Suolun and spread his hands: "So, it is not strange that the Great Ming is in a competitive advantage in the country."

"You don't want to think of ways to persuade the King, but instead use some conspiracy tricks, trying to gain a competitive advantage in a short time. I ask you, even if those three maritime defense inspectors really let it go, you established the channel, and sent those 120 boxes of opium to the Great Ming, what can you do?"

"If the quantity is small, it won't work. If the quantity is large, it will be checked. More than 10,000 jin at a time, it only affects more than 10,000 people, and they are all powerful and wealthy. Does it really have an impact on the Great Ming's national strength?"

Suolun waved his hands repeatedly and said: "You look too shallow, too close. The competition between the two countries is not ten or twenty years, but a long-term competition of fifty or one hundred years. This is not a short-term advantage, but a long-term advantage. You haven't seen the poisonous insects in Davao, Cebu, and Luzon. They are everywhere. This is a Pandora's box. As long as it is opened, it will release demons."

Li Yashi sneered and laughed loudly. As he laughed, his face became a little sad and said: "I look shallow? It is you who don't understand the Great Ming, don't understand China."

"If opium really becomes the heart-pain of the Great Ming, it will correct its mistakes. This kind of correction may come from the imperial court. The imperial court will strictly punish it. If the imperial court cannot do it, just change the imperial court. Every cycle of the Central Plains dynasty must effectively solve some crises that endanger the world before it can sit firmly on the throne."

"This land has never been the world of one family or one surname. You don't understand the Great Ming, not that I am shallow."

"The poisonous insect problem you mentioned, Marquis of Zhengmao has already ordered that wherever you see poisonous insects, shoot them to death, and wherever you catch poisonous insects, behead them. How long do you think the Luzon Governor's Office needs to govern these problems?"

Li Yashi laughed at Suolun for not understanding the Great Ming. It was also laughing at cultural differences. The Great Ming has a deep-rooted world sentiment. This is a by-product of high morality. The Great Ming's terrible correction power determines that this land will always stand in the forest of the world and occupy a pivotal position.

Li Yashi, who is in the era of the Wanli Revival, will naturally come to this conclusion, but if Li Yashi came earlier, such as the end of the Jiajing period, I am afraid there would be another completely different conclusion, that is, the Great Ming is a broken house, and it will collapse if you kick it.

"The problem of poisonous insects cannot be governed well at all!" Suolun shouted loudly.

Li Yashi said sharply: "The Emperor is using your head to sacrifice the flag, Suolun. You are the King's advisor. With such wisdom, how can you assist the King? The Emperor took your head to sacrifice the flag of the anti-drug war. Didn't you see it?"

"The Emperor took your head to the capital to be beheaded and displayed, which is to announce to the world, which is to tell Luzon that the anti-drug war must be won, and it must be won. Using your head as a lead, set off the anti-drug war, and by the way, catch all the people in Luzon who do not submit to the King's transformation."

"This..." Suolun looked at Li Yashi sluggishly. He finally understood the meaning of the last words Yin Zhengmao said to him.

"Let's talk about business. You, just go safely. If the Emperor is benevolent, I will bring your ashes back to the West. Of course, as a criminal, you may not have the power to be collected. It is very likely that a monument will be specially set up for you, and your corpse will be suppressed under the monument to tell the world why you were executed." Li Yashi looked at Suolun with some sadness: "Go in peace."

"Can't you save me?" Suolun grabbed the last straw like a drowning man, hoping Li Yashi would save him.

Li Yashi smiled and didn't answer. Self-inflicted, cannot live. He turned and left. This was the last farewell.

Li Yashi did not return to the Hui Tong Hall. Instead, he went to the Tonghe Palace. Walking on the streets of the Great Ming, Li Yashi looked at everything familiar around him: shops lined up in rows, shouts one after another, all kinds of commercial goods, endless quarrels between neighbors, everything was so familiar. Li Yashi looked down at his official robe. He had already become accustomed to the comfortable life of the Great Ming.

The Great Ming Emperor was indeed in the Imperial Study

Li Yashi walked into the Imperial Study very smoothly. Zhu Yijun thought Li Yashi had come to plead for mercy. The Great Ming Emperor felt it was necessary to meet him and explain clearly the reason why Great Ming killed people. Solon was indeed an envoy, but first and foremost, he was a criminal.

"I pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live, long live, long live Your Majesty." Li Yashi performed the grand ceremony to meet the Emperor.

"Sit down and speak. If it is to plead for Solon, then forget it. You know what he did. I cannot privately pardon him, otherwise the poison will spread endlessly. Great Ming has its own national conditions." Zhu Yijun signaled for Li Yashi to sit down and speak.

Li Yashi had long ago learned that set of tricks from the base scholars—crying, making a scene, and threatening to hang oneself—it was too ugly. If Li Yashi truly requested mercy, he could only let him die with Solon.

"I am not pleading for him; he deserves to die." Li Yashi shook his head. In this matter, Li Yashi had a position but no reason to plead for mercy.

Li Yashi said with hesitation: "Your Majesty, I have come to say goodbye. I intend to return to the West."

"Hmm?" Zhu Yijun frowned and said: "You made a solemn vow before God to serve God for life without marrying, but later you broke your vow and returned to the West. You have only one path to death. The Inquisition will put you on the stake and burn you alive."

"Do not think that Philip II will protect you. You know better than I do that religion, as one of the elements of Spain's national construction, is an extremely important centripetal force and cohesive force. Why would you think Philip II would offend the Holy See for your sake?"

Li Yashi said helplessly: "Your Majesty, Solon committed such an unforgivable crime. If I don't go back, Great Ming will break off diplomatic relations with Spain. In the Manila Galleon trade, it is Spain that cannot do without Great Ming, not Great Ming that cannot do without Spain."

"Once diplomatic relations are broken, Great Ming can still obtain massive amounts of silver from Japan, from the West, from the Western Ocean, from ocean trade, and from Spanish smuggling merchants. But if Spain loses the Manila Galleon trade, it loses one of the cornerstones of national construction—the circulation of silver."

"I am His Majesty's subject, but also Philip's subject, and even more so, a Spaniard. I must go back."

Zhu Yijun frowned, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table. He looked at Li Yashi and said: "I am assessing the risk, thinking about whether to kill you. I will just say that Solon planned it with you. There are no officials in Great Ming who come from the Red-Haired Barbarians, so no one will plead for you."

"You have been in Great Ming for twelve years and know too much. Moreover, your annual performance reviews are always top-notch. You are a very capable person."

Li Yashi could not be promoted in Great Ming because he was a Red-Haired Barbarian, a barbarian official. Therefore, Li Yashi and Gao Qiyu became the "difficult brothers" of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. Every year, their performance reviews were top-notch, and their names were on the list, but their names would disappear when it came to the official register. Gao Qiyu and Li Yashi were both personally crossed out by Zhang Juzheng.

"Your Majesty would not do that. Your Majesty is a good person and has always been upright and open." Li Yashi was the least worried about this problem because His Majesty was upright and open.

Li Yashi truly understood the Great Ming Emperor because he could look at problems from the perspective of an outsider and often had more different understandings. He knew very well that His Majesty actually did not have much discrimination against barbarians, unlike the Confucian scholars who distinguished between Chinese and barbarians. His Majesty liked Western works very much, especially mathematics, while Confucian scholars believed that barbarians were useless and their knowledge was garbage.

His Majesty is an upright and open person. His Majesty never wrongs anyone.

"If you want to go back, then go back. I'm just afraid that you will be killed before you have done anything." Zhu Yijun cherished talent and felt a bit sorry for Li Yashi. Knowing it was a fire pit, he still wanted to jump into it. If you say he is stupid, he is doing it for Spain's public interest, not for private desire.

"So I want to ask for an imperial decree to appoint me as a special envoy to the West. That way, I will be safe. Philip cannot protect me, but Your Majesty can." Li Yashi said with a smile: "This way, I also have an identity to explain the reason, so that the two countries will not completely break off diplomatic relations. My family will stay in Great Ming."

As an envoy of Great Ming going to the West, there would be no problem. Killing an envoy of Great Ming would invite the wrath of heaven. Even if the Inquisition were crazy, Spain could not bear the consequences of completely offending Great Ming, so his safety would be absolutely guaranteed.

"Are you joking? You, a special envoy from the West to Great Ming, are turning into a special envoy from Great Ming to the West?" Zhu Yijun looked at Li Yashi, stunned. Sure enough, Li Yashi had learned all those tricks from the base scholars! He played the game of "using power to bully others" to perfection.

"I am originally an official of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. Interpreters are also officials and have official status." Li Yashi said as a matter of course: "In the pre-Qin period, there was a type of person called the School of Diplomacy, a school mainly engaged in political and diplomatic activities. Some people scolded them for being fickle, having no fixed master, and being capricious—villains. Here, 'villain' refers to corrupted morality."

"After Qin unified the country, although the School of Diplomacy declined, they still existed. For example, Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, Ban Chao, and our Great Ming also had Fu An, Zheng He, and others. They were all mainly engaged in political and diplomatic activities and cannot be considered lost."

"There is always a need for such people to act as envoys to conduct state-to-state communication and prevent conflicts from further intensifying due to misunderstandings. Great Ming always has to do business with Spain. After all, the rich silver mines are in the hands of the Prince."

Rich silver mines, silver mines with a grade of over 60%—in the era before electrolytic aluminum, rich silver mines were the largest source of silver.

Electrolytic aluminum, after adjusting voltage and current, can electrolyze silver. In the era of later generations, the silver production of the Eastern Great Power was 24,800 tons a year, about 710 million taels. In the era without electrolytic aluminum, silver was a monetary standard precious metal more important than gold. Many Great Ming merchants didn't even want gold; they only wanted silver.

Indeed, Great Ming still has to do business with Philip II. Great Ming's navy did not have the ability to cross the Pacific to attack the rich silver mines. Great Ming did not have the ability to deploy on the high seas, or rather, Great Ming's navy was still not strong enough and needed to continue to strengthen its martial power.

"Fine, then issue an order to the Ministry of Rites for discussion and draft the decree." Zhu Yijun did not object. It would be better for Li Yashi, a Westerner, to go back and say this than to send a Great Ming person to take the risk.

Zhu Yijun granted Li Yashi's request and continued to handle the memorials he hadn't finished approving. As he read, Zhu Yijun laughed.

"Haha, this Confucian scholar is a bit confused." The memorial in Zhu Yijun's hand was written by Sun Zhanwu, a new jinshi of the eleventh year of Wanli.

Sun Zhanwu believed that when going out for spring outings in the third month, every family brought women, many of whom were prostitutes, which was truly harmful to public morals. Licentious and competitive behavior occurred repeatedly, and now the places for gathering and talking were mostly at the Taibai Building, not the academy, which was extremely undignified.

The Taibai Building is a brothel. There are reasons for choosing to gather and talk there. Many gatherings are held in the name of gathering and talking, but the purpose is to visit the brothel!

Sun Zhanwu meant that bringing female companions on spring outings should be prohibited to prevent the further deterioration of public morals, and the places for gathering and talking should be in the academy.

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and approved: 【You imitate the fox's cry, he goes to buy a fish. My heart and my actions are as clear as a mirror; all that I do is justice.】

The fox's cry and buying a fish refer to the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising. If you don't bring women on spring outings, I'm afraid it will attract the attention of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If these big men gather together and some "idea king" among them says, "The people are suffering, and everyone's family is the same!",

Wouldn't that cause a big mess?

Zhu Yijun sees many strange remarks every day. Sun Zhanwu's remarks are not even considered excessive.

"Is the Second Grand Secretary not sitting in the Cabinet again?" Zhu Yijun asked, frowning, while holding a memorial.

Feng Bao thought for a moment and said: "The Second Grand Secretary has never sat in the Cabinet. He really doesn't want to see the Sir. He can't afford to offend him, so he hides."

This was Wang Chonggu's original words. He couldn't afford to offend Zhang Juzheng, so he had to hide. He didn't wander around in front of Zhang Juzheng. Otherwise, Zhang Juzheng would be annoyed seeing him every day and would want to beat him up, and he couldn't win the fight. Who could he go to for justice?

"Send this memorial to the Cabinet and hand it to the Second Grand Secretary for disposal." Zhu Yijun handed a memorial with vermilion approval to Feng Bao.

The content of the memorial was about the Western Hills Coal Bureau.

Wang Qian reminded the Great Ming Emperor at the Yanxing Building that someone had set their sights on the shipyard. What surprised Zhu Yijun was that this first wave of offensive did not hit the shipyard, but hit the Western Hills Coal Bureau.

As a government factory, the Western Hills Coal Bureau recently got the Coal Market into its hands. This is indeed competing with the people for profit. After all, Great Ming's government factory really couldn't produce honeycomb coal with 30% yellow soil.

This immediately poked a hornet's nest. The voices criticizing Wang Chonggu for gathering wealth rose again, and along the way, Zhu Yijun was scolded as well.

In Great Ming, there are truly too many people scolding the Emperor.

"The loss of the people's hearts by the ruler often begins with gathering wealth. If the superior likes to gather wealth, then the officials who promote profit will surely cater to the superior's will to exploit the people's wealth. This is why the people's hearts are resentful and the world is in poverty. This is the inevitable logic of the superior exploiting the inferior, and the inferior inevitably viewing the superior with hatred."

"Only by using officials who are greedy and gather wealth, making them damage the inferior to benefit the superior, harming the government and the people. As for the greedy officials, they cater to the superior's wishes, share the same evil, and act as one. Therefore, the people cannot make a living, there are many starving corpses, and they are exhausted with nowhere to complain."

Zhu Yijun learned another term from the Confucian scholars: "greedy officials."

It means people who use unscrupulous means to gather wealth, people without virtue, benevolence, wisdom, or goodness.

This term comes from the "Book of Songs," and Mencius's "Gaozi Part II" also says: "If the old are lost and the wise are gone, and greedy officials are in power, then there will be rebellion."

It means that if virtuous people cannot hold high positions and greedy, flattering officials are in the court, the ruler of the country may lose the country.

If Wang Chonggu is used again, Great Ming will perish. That's about what it means.

It was the Jin Party that attacked Wang Chonggu. Zhu Yijun sent it to the Cabinet and handed it to Wang Chonggu to handle, which was to let Wang Chonggu clean up his own house.

"These base scholars, these principles are all correct, but they just cast aside the facts. The Sir and the Second Grand Secretary are desperately blocking it, not giving the government factory more power. The Coal Market matter is a helpless move. After all, among firewood, rice, oil, and salt, firewood comes first. After the Second Grand Secretary managed the Xizhimen Coal Market, the price stabilized, and all the 30% yellow coal that was used to make up the numbers and was of inferior quality was eliminated."

"Who exactly is oppressing the common people by sucking the marrow from their bones?" Zhu Yijun did not approve of this memorial at all.

The principles are correct, and Zhu Yijun fully agrees with these principles. After the Northern Song Dynasty monopolized coal, one jin of coal cost two hundred wen. This is indeed sucking the marrow from the bones. But is Wang Chonggu a greedy official? The coal in the capital of Great Ming has been six wen per jin and hasn't risen in price for twelve years. Compared to the past, when it would rise ten or twenty times in rainy and snowy weather, the Western Hills Coal Bureau did not gather wealth.

But the base scholars always cast aside the facts. Reading the memorial from beginning to end, it is very reasonable, but it lacks facts.

Zhu Yijun continued: "Is this Western Hills Coal Bureau Wang Chonggu's private property? In the past, the wool government factory still had 10% profit for the Wang family. Later, the dividends were really too much, and the Second Grand Secretary didn't dare to take them anymore. Too much silver is also a hot potato. Originally, the Second Grand Secretary's dividends were all given to the craftsmen."

"If the wool government factory and the Western Hills Coal Bureau were both Wang Chonggu's private property, I would have to go and offer congratulations personally when his son took a concubine!"

"Even this Western Hills Coal Bureau is not My private property, but the public property of the country."

The Western Hills Coal Bureau originally only managed the Western Hills coal kilns, but now the coal government factories in Shengzhou, Womagang, Liuzhi in Yunnan, Ma'anshan in Nanya, Jianghuai, and other places are all managed by the Western Hills Coal Bureau. If the coal bureau were truly Wang Chonggu's private property, when his son Wang Qian took a concubine, the Emperor would have to visit personally, and all the sages would gather.

This huge wealth, belonging to an individual, is truly rich enough to rival a country.

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said: "Now the government factory's setup is too big. In the future, let the Second Grand Secretary sit in the Cabinet. It is because he doesn't put floating notes on the memorials that these base scholars dare to look down on him."

"I estimate the Second Grand Secretary won't be willing." Feng Bao shook his head and said: "The Second Grand Secretary not sitting in the Cabinet is an attitude."

Not sitting in the Cabinet is Wang Chonggu's attitude and action of no longer being a rebel. Since he doesn't sit in the Cabinet, he naturally cannot interfere with the general direction of His Majesty's Wanli Reform.

The next morning, Zhu Yijun came to the Zhao Wenhua Hall again to preside over the court meeting. For twelve years, he had been the same. Except for being sick, Zhu Yijun had never missed a court meeting, so much so that the court officials of the Wanli period naturally believed that the Emperor should appear in the Zhao Wenhua Hall at this time.

But since the twenty-first year of Jiajing, let alone court officials, even the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet found it quite difficult to see the Emperor.

"I believe that the opening of the Coal Market cannot be opened." As the Second Grand Secretary, Wang Chonggu first spoke about the memorial His Majesty sent to the Cabinet yesterday. He said very solemnly: "Even if it is to be government-run, it cannot belong to the Ministry of Works; it must belong to the Ministry of Revenue."

As the Emperor, Zhu Yijun can only let the base scholars die, but Wang Chonggu can make people's lives worse than death. As a powerful and wealthy person, Wang Chonggu has at least nine ways to make people mentally ill, but Wang Chonggu did not do so. Instead, he agreed with the accusations in the memorial and chose to spit out what he had eaten, stripping the Coal Market from the government factory. Even if it is government-run, it must be handed over to the Ministry of Revenue to do.

Although the hydra-like government offices are rigid, they are stable and will not pose a threat to imperial power.