Chapter 645: There is no contradiction that the Great Construction cannot solve

"What happened?" Yan Shiyuan asked with great surprise.

"A small matter. A ship capsized, and the fast sailing ship cannot be delivered smoothly." Although Shen Shixing's face was calm, his heart was churning, and he wished he could kick Yan Shiyuan to the execution ground to be executed.

Something happened at the Songjiang Shipyard, a small matter. The seven fast sailing ships that should have been completed this year could not be completed smoothly because a batch of teak transported from Annam, Siam, and other places capsized on the road and could not arrive smoothly.

The decks of the fast sailing ships were all made of teak, which was the hardest. If they used secondary oak, they could deliver the goods on time, but Shen Shixing didn't want to make progress by using inferior goods to pass for good ones.

Teak is a very precious and rare wood. The Ming does not have teak, and all teak relies on maritime trade.

This meant that the original merit became a crime, meant that the punishment of demotion by three grades this year would accompany Shen Shixing through the New Year, and meant that Shen Shixing would be laughed at for another year!

Just a little bit of teak, missing one hundred cubic meters of teak, and Shen Shixing could have been restored to his original position. Not to mention promotion, at least he wouldn't be a fifth-rank official governing both Songjiang and Zhejiang.

Shen Shixing was so angry! He looked at Yan Shiyuan. This guy really had something.

"The ship capsized, it has nothing to do with me," Yan Shiyuan whispered, "How can a gentleman vent his anger on others?"

"This ship should have docked at Shuangyu Port. Because Zhejiang was in chaos, this ship could only go directly to Songjiang Prefecture." Shen Shixing said helplessly, "This detour encountered strange waves, sigh."

Does it have anything to do with Yan Shiyuan? It seems to have nothing to do with it, but it seems to have something to do with it.

"Ah, this, I..." Yan Shiyuan couldn't say anything, so he had to be silent. This was simply Shen Shixing's bad luck. What did it have to do with him, Yan Shiyuan? The Master did not speak of strange forces and chaotic gods!

Shen Shixing still had many things to do, and he had no way to go to Songjiang Prefecture to deal with this matter.

Sun Kehong, the manager of the Songjiang Ocean Trading Company, learned of this situation and sent one hundred cubic meters of teak, solving Shen Shixing's urgent need. This was the teak at the bottom of the box of the Songjiang Ocean Trading Company.

Guaranteeing the production of the fast sailing ships meant that the production of the pleasure boats could not be guaranteed. The decks of the pleasure boats were replaced with oak.

Anyway, when these powerful families were enjoying themselves on the boat, they wouldn't notice what material the deck under their feet was, and most of the powerful families couldn't distinguish the difference between teak and oak at all.

Of course, this batch of wood from the Songjiang Ocean Trading Company was sold at market price. This was a business, and of course, there was also the idea of political bribery, hoping more or less that Shen Shixing could take care of them.

In the midst of his busyness, Shen Shixing finally figured out the Great Construction that the Zhejiang bureaucrats wanted to use to "flood discharge."

Government offices at all levels in Zhejiang had huge hidden incomes that needed to be distributed before the Great Audit. This was very difficult, so under Wu Shanyan's leadership, a project appeared: repair the canal!

The starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is in Hangzhou. The Grand Canal connects to the Qian Tangjiang. Repairing the Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo was this flood discharge project.

"Wu Shanyan wanted to start a major construction project to repair the canal to Ningbo, but he didn't think about repairing it at all. He just wanted to set up such a Great Construction project here to distribute the huge income gathered by miscellaneous officials every year under a reasonable name. If he really wanted to repair it, he wouldn't make things difficult for the Nine Battalions soldiers."

"You must know that the Nine Battalions soldiers patrol and resist floods, and the work they do most is repairing embankments and dredging ditches." Yan Shiyuan said quite affirmatively.

The time for repairing the canal is calculated in decades, especially this waterway that runs through the Qian Tangjiang, Cao'e River, and Yong River, with a total length of more than 480 li.

Forcing the Zhejiang Nine Battalions away and launching the Ningbo-to-Hangzhou canal, and then progressing slowly, they could plan slowly. Officials at all levels, local squires, etc., would hollow out the silver of government offices at all levels bit by bit, leaving behind a disastrous mess, an inescapable mess.

The mess could not be cleaned up, and Wu Shanyan would definitely not care. Anyway, by that time, he would definitely have been transferred away.

"Wu Shanyan has already been beheaded and displayed, and poured under the Loyalty Shrine. The key is, is it necessary to repair this Ningbo-to-Hangzhou waterway?" Shen Shixing agreed with this very much. If Wu Shanyan had a little conscience, he wouldn't have ended up like this.

Shen Shixing was asking about this project, whether there was a need to continue to promote it.

The Great Construction has many, many advantages.

For example, it can provide relief through work. Launching such a project gives refugees a place to go. If refugees are not left idle, they will not cause trouble;

It can be distributed downwards; how to let silver flow into the hands of the poor and the laborers is the main difficulty of the silver bottleneck.

It can increase official factories. Repairing the canal can create countless official factories to support the people. This is also a concrete manifestation of the influence of the yamen;

It can create a batch of meat-eaters, meat-eaters who support the imperial court, to fight against the old landlords;

It can establish customs barriers to increase local tax revenue.

If you are an official in one place and don't know how to start, start from repairing bridges and roads, and from dredging waterways. This is the distribution of benefits, and it is also the process of holding power.

For example, when Hence Hai Rui went to the Southern Yamen as Governor, the first thing he did was to renovate the Wu Song River and Baimao River, dredging them into the sea, which led to the current Huangpu River and the prosperous Shanghai Port.

Hence Hai Rui was never a person who only knew how to talk about mind and nature. On the contrary, he did a very good job as the Governor of Yingtian. It was because he did too well that he was forced to be promoted and retire.

"A great plan of the country, a golden waterway." Yan Shiyuan described the significance of this canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo in a nutshell.

The entire canal passes through Shaoxing to Ningbo. Ningbo is Shuangyu Port, one of the natural good ports of the entire Ming. Repairing this waterway means completely opening up sea transport and river transport. Northern coal going south, southern silver and goods going north, completely becomes a thoroughfare.

Yan Shixuan said with great emotion: "It is said that the Sui dynasty perished because of this river, yet to this day, a thousand miles rely on its flowing waves. His Majesty calling the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal the lifeline of the Great Ming economy is by no means an empty statement. If one truly goes to look at the canal, one will know what is meant by 'ships stretching for a thousand miles, an endless stream.' The grain transport ships sail on the right, connected head to tail, and one cannot see the end at a single glance."

"The price of inland river transport is one-sixth of land transport, and its price is extremely low."

Emperor Yang of Sui perished the Great Sui, not because of the Great Construction of repairing the canal, but because he suffered three defeats when attacking Goguryeo, which made people's hearts move.

At this time, Yang Guang, who had suffered a defeat, returned to Luoyang in the seventh month of the twelfth year of Daye.

At that time, Yang Guang had two choices: one was to return from Luoyang to the capital of Chang'an, stabilize the hearts of the people, strive for prosperity, allow the people to rest and recuperate, and plot against the hatred of Goguryeo slowly; the other was to continue staying in the eastern capital of Luoyang, mobilize the loyalist armies, and pacify all the civil unrest in Shandong.

Whichever of these two choices he chose, the Sui Dynasty would not have perished.

But Yang Guang chose neither. He chose to go south to Jiangdu, which is Yangzhou. He ran away. Once he ran, he directly cut off the national fortune of the Sui Dynasty.

Therefore, Emperor Yang of Sui's destruction of the country was entirely due to the mismatch between his personal ability and ambition.

The Ming's Grand Canal was repaired by the Ming itself. From the Hongwu years to the nineteenth year of Yongle, it stopped large-scale construction. But since the Xuande years, the dredging of the Grand Canal has been carried out every year. All water conservancy facilities need maintenance. If they are not maintained for more than twenty years, they will be completely unusable.

"Repair it quickly while you can." Yan Shiyuan gave his final opinion.

The theory of contradictions speaks of the cycle of all things. When the national strength is rising, it is best to launch such large projects quickly. Once repaired, it will benefit the future indefinitely. When the national strength is declining, you can't repair it even if you want to. Although the cycle says ups and downs, most of the time, it is ups and downs, downs, downs.

"Reasonable, report to the imperial court." Shen Shixing finally agreed with Yan Shiyuan's opinion and reported to the imperial court in the capacity of Zhejiang Governor.

Shen Shixing would not be the Zhejiang Governor for too long, but in this short period of acting, he brought post roads to Zhejiang, brought the canal from Ningbo to Hangzhou, and opened up the river channels and sea transport of the Ming.

When Shen Shixing reported to the imperial court that he wanted to repair the canal, the first reaction of the court officials was opposition. The reason for the opposition was very simple: it was too expensive.

7,500 silver per li for a post road was already an sky-high price, and 15,000 silver per li for a canal was twice that of a post road! The total investment would exceed 5 million silver. The extremely conservative Ming imperial court was very opposed to repairing this canal.

"The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Works all oppose it." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorials on the table and felt somewhat helpless.

Among the Six Ministries, four opposed it. The Censorate and the Six Secretaries of Scrutiny were even more opposed, one wave higher than another. Each had their own reasons. They even brought up Emperor Yang of Sui repairing the canal and losing the country, as if Zhu Yijun repairing this canal would make him a monarch who lost the country.

The expressions of all parties were slightly different, but they could be summarized in one sentence: wait until the Suiyuan Post Road, Jing-Kai, and Jing-Mi Post Roads are repaired before making plans.

They were really scared of being poor. The imperial court had just become a little more generous, so starting such a major construction project was really not a long-term plan. Not wanting to be in debt was the fundamental reason for the overall opposition of the Ming imperial court.

The Suiyuan Post Road was still two years away from completion, but the Jing-Kai and Jing-Mi Post Roads were fast. They could be completed in the spring of next year. The mileage of the Suiyuan Post Road was really too long.

"Shen Shixing said in the memorial that Zhejiang can repair it itself. Zhejiang is not without money, but they still don't agree." Zhu Yijun knocked on all the opposing memorials. His inclination was that this canal from Ningbo to Hangzhou must be repaired, and it must be repaired as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, the matter of localities creating a mess and asking the imperial court to help clean it up has happened more than once in Ming history. Everyone does this. This says one li of silver is enough, but after the actual construction starts, who knows if it's a bottomless pit? By then, Zhejiang will run to the imperial court to cry poor. Will the imperial court help or not?" Feng Bao bowed and said.

Zhejiang is the Ming's Zhejiang. If the locality creates a tail-end project, the imperial court will still have to clean it up in the end.

"That makes sense." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and said, "Issue an edict to the Ministry of Works and the Royal Academy of Sciences. Let the Royal Academy of Sciences send three Five Classics Doctors to conduct on-site surveys and then conduct a demonstration. Give a conclusion. If there are no too many difficulties, prepare to launch it. My southern tour is imminent. Wait until I go there to see it on the spot. If it is really necessary, we must overcome the difficulties."

There are three urgent matters to be solved in the southern tour: splitting the Southern Yamen, dredging the silver damming, and repairing the canal.

"Your Majesty, there is another problem here. In fact, the officials in the capital have never seen river transport at all. In their impression, river transport is a place for pleasure boats and cruise ships. Repairing it is useless." Zhang Hong elaborated on the opposition of the officials in the capital from another angle.

The canal from the Northern Yamen and Tianjin to Jining actually has very low transport capacity. Because of the water flow, this section of the canal is more of an ornamental canal. How many of the officials in the capital have really seen a busy wharf with their own eyes?

"The canal south of Jining is busy day and night, and the food and accommodation on both sides are non-stop day and night. Some time ago, the Governor of Grain Transport reported that the ships were blocked." Zhang Hong mentioned a detail he noticed: the blocked Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

"What you said makes sense." Zhu Yijun was stunned and found that it seemed to be the truth. Without going to the south, how could one know the development of shipping? How could the landlubbers in the north imagine it without that concrete concept?

"Shandong Governor Wang Yie reported that coal from Lincheng, Hancheng, Zaozhuang, and other places goes through Weishan Lake and enters the canal, going directly south. It sells fast and sells expensive. It can move 300 million catties of coal a year." After Zhang Hong's reminder, Feng Bao reacted immediately. He reported the main growth point of the Shandong land economy in this year's Great Audit: northern coal going south.

The main sales of the Lunan coal mines were Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places. Relying on the Grand Canal, they lived very comfortably.

"Therefore, the southern tour is imperative. As the old saying goes, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Saying a thousand words is not as good as seeing it with your own eyes." Zhu Yijun approved of the statements of the two Inner Ministers.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu did not express their views on this matter. Zhang Juzheng was mainly because the canal construction was proposed by his own disciple, so it was not convenient for him to explicitly support it. Wang Chonggu was too busy to care; he was busy with this year's official factory celebration.

Since Wang Zhi, the Minister of Justice, retired in the second year of Wanli, and Wang Chonggu returned to the capital to establish official factories, the official factories have gone through ten full years. For this reason, he wanted to hold a grand celebration before the end of the year to celebrate the storms and rains of the past ten years.

And all the expenditures for the entire celebration were paid by Young Master Wang. Young Master Wang's income from the Suiyuan Post Road had exceeded the Wang family's industry. Wang Qian expressed that this was just a splash of water. Throwing silver on the flower baskets of women was not as good as throwing it on the official factory celebration.

In order to manage this grand celebration well, Wang Chonggu was again not sitting in the Wenyuange. Of course, in his busy schedule, Wang Chonggu still found time to perfunctorily deal with the Emperor. Regarding the canal matter, Wang Chonggu gave three words: repair, repair, repair.

As the leader of the Labor Party, Wang Chonggu had only one attitude toward all Great Construction projects: support.

According to the consensus within the Labor Party, there is no contradiction that Great Construction cannot solve. If it is not solved, it is because there is not enough Great Construction. Just repair it.

In the capacity of General Manager, Wang Chonggu invited the Emperor to attend the official factory's ten-year celebration on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, and Zhu Yijun readily agreed.

Perhaps Great Construction cannot solve all problems, but as one of the important means of imperial court rule, it can solve many problems.

Zhu Yijun certainly had to go to the key node of the ten-year celebration. Of course, he might have to give rewards. The silver in the Inner Treasury was almost overflowing, and rewards were not a problem.

Save where you should save, spend where you should spend.

While the Ming was busy dealing with various internal contradictions brought about by the inflow of silver, the Ming special envoy to the West, the Left Envoy of Light of the Ming Sect, Li Yashi, successfully arrived in Lisbon.

"For a long time, I have stayed in the four-square city of the capital and have forgotten all the sailing skills. Fortunately, the smart captain and the strong sailors successfully allowed me to return to this land, the West." Li Yashi got off the ship and stepped on the ground, only then feeling somewhat at ease.

"Thanks to wisdom for guiding the lost lamb."

Sounds of prayer sounded around Li Yashi. All the sailors who got off the ship would take out a Bagua card, place it on their eyebrows, and pray while chanting before leaving. Li Yashi, this Left Envoy of Light, appeared out of place.

Li Yashi was somewhat at a loss. He had not expected this situation at all. He had become the most special one in the crowd!

"In fact, this is a spontaneous behavior. You don't have to care. The doctrine of the Ming Sect never forces any believer to do things they don't want to do." Marcus smiled softly and explained, took out his tooth card, pressed it against his eyebrows, and whispered, "Thanks to wisdom for guiding the lost lamb."

Li Yashi, this Left Envoy of Light, was not a believer. It was only because he was the embodiment of wisdom, that is, dispatched by the Emperor, that he obtained this status. Without the Emperor's dispatch, Li Yashi was nothing in the Great Bright Sect.

"Thanks to wisdom for guiding the lost lamb." Li Yashi took out his tooth card, placed it on his eyebrows to pray, and walked away with great momentum.

His tooth card was the embodiment of wisdom, a magic weapon bestowed by the Emperor! There were not many in the entire West!

The port of Lisbon was very busy. This was the distribution center for Ming goods. Here, Li Yashi actually felt the feeling of prosperity in the Ming. Everything was so full of vitality, and everyone he met had hope in their eyes.

This was extremely rare in the West.

In the words of the Ming, it was that the common people in the West were generally numb.

Antonio was not good at being a king and didn't have that ability, but he relied on himself to become a vassal state of the Ming, successfully getting rid of Philip II's plot against Portugal. At the same time, he used the Ming Sect to get rid of the Roman Curia's shackles on the people, completely getting rid of the Roman Curia more thoroughly than the Holy Roman Empire, which did not go to the Curia to accept the canonization, and France and England, which were making various sects of Protestantism.

It was like a person getting out of a quagmire. The vibrant scene of Lisbon, with the distribution of Ming goods and Xu Fan's constant expansion of workshops, was no longer an accident.

Li Yashi sat in a carriage, along the slightly muddy land, towards the Sintra Palace. Li Yashi, who was accustomed to the hardened road surface of the Ming, complained about this bumpy road.

On the way, Li Yashi intuitively saw the rampant spread of the Ming Sect in Portugal, because every thirty li or so, in any gathering place, one could see a House of the Wise, and these Houses of the Wise were full of incense. Let's call it incense.

"The safety of Lisbon and Portugal is on the waves! Your Highness Antonio, have you forgotten? If it weren't for the suicide attack of the Freedom Fleet on Philip's lair, how could Philip II have given up annexing Portugal! Today you want to disband the Left Protection Army, I disagree!"

Before walking into the palace, Li Yashi and Marcus heard a fierce argument, and the content of the argument was about the disbandment of the Ming Sect's Protection Army.

Marcus's face changed greatly!

The Left and Right Protection Armies were the navy and army of Portugal, and the predecessor of the Left Protection Army was the Freedom Fleet. When Philip II attacked Portugal, the Freedom Fleet entered the Mediterranean with a suicide attack, attacking the enemy's must-save, which made Philip II have to withdraw his troops. Now, Antonio actually wanted to disband the Protection Army!

Even if Marcus knew that Antonio was not suitable to be a king, he had never thought that during his absence, Antonio would actually issue such an absurd order!

"Listen, friend, the Left Protection Army is the navy. That is simply too expensive. We are raising such a huge navy, and it is already somewhat beyond our means." Antonio stated his reasons. The navy is full of advantages, and the only disadvantage is that it is expensive. Of course, expensive might just be Portugal's disadvantage.

Raising the army is enough to ensure safety.

Marcus walked in quickly, knelt down and performed a half-kneeling ceremony, "Your Highness, I have returned from the distant East, bringing news from afar and greetings from His Majesty."

"Before I walked in, I heard that you wanted to disband the Protection Army. I really find it hard to understand, and I don't understand, is it because the Protection Army is the Ming Sect's Protection Army and not Portugal's navy? If so, I don't think the Minister of State minds changing a name."

"You know, the Left Protection Army, that is, the navy, has always been under my control. My loyalty to you started from the Lisbon wharf. At that time, you said to me, Portugal is the Portugal of the Portuguese. For this sentence, I gave up my noble status and followed you to die on the waves."

"If you want to disband the navy, then Portugal will not be the country of the Portuguese. Those sea pirates in England and this robber in Spain will swallow this place."

Marcus was expressing his opposition and expounding his loyalty.

"No, it's just that someone told me that Philip II is no longer obsessed with annexing Portugal, and the expensive navy is too heavy a burden, causing a lot of complaints in the country, so I wanted to reduce the scale." Antonio said somewhat embarrassedly.

"The slander of jackals and tigers cannot be easily believed. Who is whispering these slanders in your ear? My sword is still sharp!" Marcus gripped the hilt of his sword.

Taking advantage of his absence, someone fooled the not-so-smart Antonio into disbanding the navy. Marcus wanted to use his sword to kill the treacherous officials.

Marcus narrowed his eyes. He saw the evasive eyes of a palace secretary and immediately knew it was this secretary. He stood up, walked over step by step, drew his sword, took off his gloves, threw them in front of the other party, and said calmly, "It's you, right? I'll give you a chance for a fair duel."

"It seems you don't want a fair duel." Marcus dodged the secretary's sneak attack with a sideways movement.

The secretary took out a small sword only a foot long and stabbed at Marcus. Marcus had the reputation of a sword saint in the West. He couldn't beat Ming fierce generals like Chen Lin and Li Rusong, but dealing with a secretary was more than enough.

Marcus dodged the sneak attack very gracefully, looked at Xu Fan and asked, "Minister of State, is he the one whispering nonsense in His Highness's ear?"

Xu Fan nodded and said, "You just catch him."

"Puff!" Marcus shook a sword flower, cold light flashed, the blade crossed the secretary's neck, the secretary's dagger fell to the ground, covering his neck, squatting on the ground, blood began to splash, the secretary's eyes fell to the ground in disbelief.

"Catching him and interrogating him is too troublesome." Marcus picked up his gloves, wiped the blade clean, did not put the sword back into the scabbard, but returned to Antonio's side, handed over the sword, knelt down again and said, "Your Highness, if you think I did something wrong, you can kill me now."

Antonio was helpless, picked up the sword, pointed it at Marcus's shoulder three times, put the sword back into the scabbard, and pulled the sword saint up from the ground.

"In fact, what he said is also reasonable. You shouldn't have killed him directly. You should have listened to what he said. Forget it, he's dead." Antonio said with a smile on his face, "Welcome back!"

"Wisdom guided me back to Lisbon." Marcus hugged Antonio with a smile on his face.

"Uh..." Xu Fan felt his brain buzzing. He actually couldn't understand this scene at all. Marcus killed the secretary in front of him, and Antonio just pointed his shoulder three times with a sword and it was fine? The atmosphere was still so harmonious?

"We in the West are like this. Nobles are nobles. The Shah special envoy once said that the Ming has no nobles at all." Li Yashi looked at Xu Fan's stunned look and explained with a smile. This is cultural difference.

The Ming has no nobles at all. This was the conclusion of Shah Mahomet after staying in the Ming for a year before he walked through the process to meet the Emperor.

The Ming censors would rather look at the Ming military nobles with a microscope. If there was any problem, they would impeach them. The matter of the Qian Wei Wei Guo Gong's family annexing land in the border area was not a problem in any other country, but in the Ming, it had to be put on the table, and the Qian Wei Wei Guo Gong had to report his guilt, while the British Duke Zhang Fu was impeached for opening mines in the Western Hills and competing with the people for profit, and had to stop the mines.

Yang Shiqi took advantage of the young master and the country's suspicion to control the government. His son did many illegal things in his hometown, injuring and killing people. Yang Shiqi was immediately impeached, his son was convicted, and Yang Shiqi rolled home.

The Ming has no nobles.

If someone whispered slander against Qi Jiguang in the Emperor's ear, Qi Jiguang would have to report his guilt, and he would never kill this censor in front of the Emperor.

Of course, the Emperor would do it himself.

Qi Jiguang couldn't do this, but Marcus could, because Marcus was a noble and a real insider with Antonio, while that secretary was just a servant. Killing him was just killing him.

Only in the West can you feel what is called strict hierarchy.

"Is this called clearing the monarch's side in the Ming?" Marcus put away his sword and asked with a smile.

"Don't talk nonsense." Li Yashi waved his hands quickly. Clearing the monarch's side is a slogan for rebellion. To thoroughly clear the monarch's side, you have to clear the monarch together. Marcus knows the Ming, but not so thoroughly. ===== CHAPTER 646 =====