Chapter 724: In Short, Everything Is for Free Trade!

"Perhaps the Great Ming people really find it difficult to understand my current predicament. For the Great Ming, a similar situation was also thousands of years ago." Oda Nobunaga said to Kuroda Yoshitaka with some helplessness.

Kuroda Yoshitaka said helplessly: "The factional politics born from the enfeoffment system is very strange to the Great Ming. In the long history of the Great Ming, only the Zhou Emperor was somewhat similar, perhaps even more distant. Today, I have to admit that 'Tenka Fubu' (Unifying the World by Force) has failed. If explained according to the theory of contradictions, we have not completed the redistribution of the means of production."

Oda Nobunaga's goal of "Tenka Fubu" was to eliminate separatist forces through military means. On the surface, he was the Shogun of the Azuchi Shogunate. He possessed the title of the Japanese Emperor and the title of the Great Ming, and all the daimyo recognized his status as the Shogun. He was not under house arrest, and his political orders could be quickly transmitted to the daimyo of Japan.

If understood according to the Great Ming, any palace coup must meet three conditions: block the palace gate so the Emperor's orders cannot be transmitted out of the palace; block the armory so the imperial guards loyal to the Emperor cannot obtain weapons; block the Wenyuan Pavilion, the Cabinet, or the court so that officials in the world only accept the orders of the powerful minister.

Sima Yi had already made a template more than 1,400 years ago. Powerful ministers all played this set of games, and all roads led to the same destination.

But Oda Nobunaga's situation was that he was not under house arrest, his samurai could still obtain weapons, and officials in the world could receive his orders, but the orders could not be executed. In essence, Oda Nobunaga was also "gekokujo" (the lower overthrowing the higher) and was hollowed out layer by layer. To put it clearly, his political orders were useless.

The replacement of the Japanese shogunate did not conform to the dynastic cycle because not once had the replacement of the Japanese shogunate completed the redistribution of the means of production. This resulted in a substantial result: the daimyo in various places were not "four generations and three dukes," but eighteen generations of ancestors were all actual daimyo. The terrible factional politics was very deformed because there was no power above all classes to regulate the contradictions between classes.

To be more precise, the current Japan had not completed national construction at all and was an incomplete country.

"So it was extremely wise for the Shogun to send his family to the Great Ming." Kuroda Yoshitaka said quite solemnly.

Oda Nobunaga sending his family to the Great Ming was a compromise for the invasion of Korea to solve internal contradictions, and it was also based on the status quo of being hollowed out. The Great Ming Emperor should have guessed some of the situation and accepted these people.

"Everything they possess is what I gave them. Akechi Mitsuhide and Toyotomi Hideyoshi are both like this, but they already have their own ideas. For Japan, this terrible and deformed political system might as well be completely eliminated by the Great Ming and started over." Oda Nobunaga's face was extremely calm, and he said with a hint of sigh: "I can't do it. Only after reading the theory of contradictions did I understand that the root of the problem is the redistribution of the means of production. Without completing the redistribution, all political orders are just flowers in the mirror and moon in the water."

"I ultimately failed to become the person of the world."

The Great Ming fully implemented the "Return Land Decree" in Songjiang Prefecture and Zhejiang. Oda Nobunaga envied this news very much because he knew very well that once this thing started, it would be impossible to stop. It would definitely blow across the entire Great Ming territory. Either it would succeed, or His Majesty the Emperor would fail in the cruel political struggle.

Because people are like this: they don't worry about scarcity but about inequality. The people who occupy the majority will definitely think, why is there a Return Land Decree only in Zhejiang?

Although the Emperor still maintained sufficient restraint, the redistribution of the Great Ming's means of production had already begun, and the land war had already started.

"Great Ming, it is breaking and then standing, reborn from the ashes." Kuroda Yoshitaka looked to the east. The Great Ming's originally decayed political system was recovering its vitality rapidly, but Japan was sliding into the abyss, and there was no hope in sight.

He didn't think this was a problem of Oda Nobunaga's ability. As Oda Nobunaga's mastermind, Kuroda Yoshitaka actually had a vague idea that this deformed political system in Japan could only be thoroughly corrected by relying on external forces.

Stretching the timeline to a hundred years, Japan did not have the self-correction ability of China.

Oda Nobunaga looked at the calendar sent by the Great Ming. April had arrived. April was the day when the monsoon changed. Every time April arrived, it was the time when all ports in Japan became busy. The Great Ming merchant ships would come with the wind, full of goods, and leave full of silver, sulfur, and Japanese slaves. As the temperature warmed up, trade became busy, which made Japan's coast, especially the ports, look incomparably prosperous, but all this was not without a price.

"Shogun, we seem to have more trouble." Kuroda Yoshitaka said with a very strange face: "The Great Ming Emperor often boasts that he is a farmer. At present, it is indeed the case. His Majesty the Emperor has turned our Japan into an experimental field. We have encountered a problem, that is, all the ports—Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Osaka Bay, and other places—have no children."

"People will choose to drown infants, regardless of gender."

Like the Great Ming, because of low productivity, drowning female infants was very common, but because of frequent wars, the problem of childbirth was not a problem, because what you grabbed was your own. But now, the prosperity of the ports had made the ports stable, and more stable marital relationships were being established, but new problems had emerged.

People no longer drowned female infants, but drowned both male and female infants together.

"Why?" Oda Nobunaga frowned.

Kuroda Yoshitaka said helplessly: "Because in these densely populated ports, the costs of food, clothing, learning, housing, etc., for raising a child have become higher. This is a brand new problem. The reason why this problem did not appear in Songjiang Prefecture but appeared in our ports is because Songjiang Prefecture is large enough, and goods from the nine provinces of the Great Ming are gathered in Songjiang Prefecture."

"If you go to these ports, you won't see children, and those 'meat-eaters' don't need the poor to have children, because the prosperous and stable ports will have many adults pouring in to supplement the labor force."

Kuroda Yoshitaka discovered the problem. The Great Ming turned Japan into an experimental field. The Great Ming watched the various problems in Japan, summarized experience, and solved its own problems. This might be intentional by the Great Ming, or it might be unintentional, but these were not important. What was important was that the problem had appeared.

Raising a child was too expensive, and population siphon could make up for the lack of labor, eventually forming a terrible phenomenon: in several ports, children could basically not be seen.

This problem didn't seem very serious. Ports didn't give birth, but Japan wasn't all port cities. The vast countryside would naturally give birth, but the war made the countryside in turmoil and anxiety. The problem of childbirth had actually become serious.

Kuroda Yoshitaka moved his body and said: "Moreover, the labor remuneration of a craftsman in Songjiang Prefecture can support the food, clothing, housing, and transportation of five people, but our Japanese ports lack workshops. Working like an ox or a horse, one person cannot rest regardless of wind, rain, or illness, and can only support himself. For the people of Japan, living is already difficult, and children have become a burden."

"Obviously, Songjiang Governor Shen Shixing is a very powerful person. The labor remuneration guarantee system implemented by the Great Ming Emperor well balances the impact of population concentration on the population, and the official factories have official dormitories, three-level schools, and Huimin Medicine Bureaus. The craftsmen in the official factories are even the nobles among the craftsmen. They only need to devote all their energy to production."

Kuroda Yoshitaka keenly discovered that in densely populated ports and towns, people's desire to reproduce and labor remuneration were strongly correlated, and some Great Ming political orders that Kuroda Yoshitaka didn't understand before were solved. Only when a craftsman's labor remuneration could satisfy four or more people could there be positive population growth.

Even in Songjiang Prefecture, the decent trades for women to be employed were still limited to weavers. If a craftsman's labor remuneration couldn't even support himself and his wife, he couldn't get married. If a craftsman's labor remuneration couldn't support four people, the population would inevitably have negative growth. Giving birth to one was already the limit.

Kuroda Yoshitaka felt that the Great Ming Emperor was incomparably wise, even thinking of such problems in advance.

The Great Ming wanted labor guarantees, wanted to sign labor contracts, wanted to audit taxes, and the court supported the poor to ask for their own labor remuneration, etc. This series of political orders to guarantee labor remuneration was complicated and all to prevent the population from sliding downward.

If the Great Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun knew Kuroda Yoshitaka's thoughts, he would probably laugh out loud. He, Zhu Yijun, didn't have such foresight at all. Political activities were often one step at a time. Zhu Yijun just felt that if a person worked, he should get labor remuneration. This was a matter of course.

"Is there any way to solve it?" Oda Nobunaga sighed and asked.

"No, because of the precious banknotes, we took all the silver and gave it to the Great Ming. The precious banknotes issued by the Great Ming are more recognized. In addition, the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office is very cautious about printing precious banknotes. The issuance of precious banknotes cannot even meet the growth demand of port cities, leading to the extra strength of precious banknotes. We lack effective means." Kuroda Yoshitaka shook his head. Only after physically eliminating the daimyo and redistributing the land could the political orders of the Great Ming's new policy have reference significance.

"Sigh." Oda Nobunaga just sighed. He missed Kanda Shinichi very much. That was a talent. At the beginning, Kanda Shinichi wanted to print his own precious banknotes to compete with the Great Ming's precious banknotes. This policy looked very beautiful, but later Oda Nobunaga felt that Kanda Shinichi's plan could not be realized.

Because the essence of the banknote method is credibility. The Great Ming's precious banknotes are strong and accepted by the Japanese because of the Great Ming court's strong credibility. Even if a war was launched, the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office did not receive an imperial edict requiring the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office to issue a large number of precious banknotes to destroy Japan's fragile economy.

They were already at war, but the Great Ming court was still very concerned about the safety of the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office and did not intend to let the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office fall into danger.

Seeing the leopard, the Great Ming Emperor was also dragging it out, not ending the war so quickly, but using the Korean battlefield to eliminate the Japanese pirates' effective strength, just like the Battle of Pyongyang, the Great Ming did not choose to attack halfway across the river.

After the Great Ming army achieved a great victory in Pyongyang, it seemed that it did not intend to advance further, but was engaged in fighting with the Japanese pirates between Pyongyang and Kaesong. The Great Ming Beijing Garrison's thirty thousand troops were mainly concentrated in Pyongyang, while on the long battle line, it was the cavalry battalion that was acting. The Great Ming army was verifying new tactics and also resolutely executing the strategy of "taking an inch for every foot."

In April, the trade winds had changed. The Great Ming sea merchants were waiting for the court's ban. Not only were the sea merchants waiting, but even the court officials were waiting. The Great Ming opened the pass in the Longqing era and strictly prohibited sailing to Japan for trade until the third year of Wanli when it was lifted. Up to now, in the 14th year of Wanli, it had only been ten years since merchant ships legally entered Japan.

When everyone thought there would be a ban, an imperial edict from the Emperor made everyone extra surprised. The imperial edict was clear: "Opening the seas is approved for entering Japan, the ban remains the same, and it is forbidden to transport firearms, gunpowder, and other items into Japan."

It meant that at the moment when the Great Ming and the Japanese pirates had a direct conflict in Korea, the Great Ming still did not ban merchant ships from going to Japan.

"Governor Shen, what exactly does this imperial edict mean?" Sun Kehong, the merchant leader of the Songjiang Ocean Trading Company, couldn't sit still after hearing the news and ran to the Yamen to ask Shen Shixing, trying to understand the policy, fearing that he would misunderstand and turn a profitable business into a beheading business.

Shen Shixing said very clearly: "It is the literal meaning. It is the same as last year, without too many changes."

"Why is this?" Sun Kehong said in a low voice: "Isn't this trade helping the enemy? When the time comes, the scholars in the court will shout that every ship of goods transported by the Great Ming merchants will eventually become lead bullets fired at the Great Ming soldiers."

"If the ban is too strict, the treacherous people will be poor and will inevitably become bandits. My meaning is that the Great Ming's shipping route to Japan is very mature. If you strictly forbid going, it will instead breed sea bandits. It is better to keep it as it is, which can instead restrain gunpowder from entering Japan." Shen Shixing said with emotion: "In fact, the reason why the ban was not issued in the end is because the Great Ming occupies an absolute commodity advantage."

"We occupy a commodity advantage. It is not a wise decision for us to issue a ban ourselves to prohibit Great Ming merchant ships from trading."

Prohibiting sailing to Japan did not do much harm to Japan, but it did great harm to the Great Ming. The Great Ming was actively opening up shipping routes to the New World, but ocean trade had to face more challenges. The Great Ming sea merchants' ships actually only had two roads so far: one road to Japan, and one road to the South Seas. Dividing the market into east and west routes, the prosperity of the five-party merchants is the status quo.

Issuing a ban would not only cut off the inflow of silver but also hurt the maritime trade with Japan as the destination, and also strike at the burgeoning handicraft industry and commerce. This was a very severe blow to the Great Ming's opening of the seas.

If the Great Ming fell into a commodity disadvantage, it would naturally try every means to limit maritime trade and protect its own industries, but now the Great Ming had an absolute commodity advantage. This was a war on another level—an economic and trade war.

Shen Shixing said very clearly: "Since the first year of Wanli, the silver flowing into the Great Ming has increased from 4.9 million silver at the beginning to 6.5 million silver in the sixth year of Wanli, and then to 10.6 million silver last year. The Great Ming cannot interrupt this process because of the war in Korea. Only the continuous increase in silver inflow can effectively promote the development of the commodity economy in the hinterland and improve people's livelihood."

The inflow of silver changed from passive to active. In addition to the inflow of silver, the opening of the seas brought countless raw materials. The Great Ming's handicraft industry and commerce flourished because of the opening of the seas. If this process was hindered or even interrupted because of this battle in Korea, it would be a loss for the Great Ming Dynasty even if it won.

In short, everything is for free trade!

"That is indeed the case." Sun Kehong was relieved.

Shen Shixing turned the teacup in his hand and asked: "Merchant Leader Sun, look, silver is still damming up. There is a dam in the middle, and the silver is blocked here and cannot flow down. And the people, they are thirsty and waiting for silver, but there is no water to drink. This problem, His Majesty came and solved a part of it, built the Zhedong Yunhe, built the Nanhang and Suhang roads, but this silver is actually still blocked."

"Merchant Leader Sun is a businessman. Do you have any good ideas?"

Sun Kehong fell into thought. Shen Shixing had already returned to his original position and was now the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Governor of Songjiang Prefecture and Zhejiang. He would definitely enter the Cabinet in a few years. Therefore, if this question was answered carelessly, the impact would be very far-reaching.

Sun Kehong turned his body sideways and said: "This blockage of the dam cannot be blown up all at once. Without ditches, this flood irrigation will not let the people drink water, but will cause floods. And the people further downstream will still have no water to drink; nor can it be left to disintegrate on its own under erosion. That will take too long, and the people will all die of thirst."

"How to irrigate the water to the fields that need it is a job that requires patience."

"The prescription given by the Second Assistant is the official factory, mainly investing in the inner treasury and national treasury, building official factories one by one, and condensing industrial clusters through official factories, so that the people have work to do and get what they work for. This is one way."

"The prescription given by the First Assistant is to clear the fields and return them. Everything is based on agriculture, and the people take food as their heaven. Under the closed economy of small-scale peasant economy, a large amount of land is abandoned, and there is no food, and there is nothing. Letting the people have fields to plant is the foundation. This is one way."

"The method given by His Majesty is to build roads, the Five Dragon Road, the Jingsui, Jingkai, Jingmi roads, the Jiabian Road, Nanhang, Suhang, the Grand Canal, investing heavily in opening the seas, building various official factories and plantations, which is also to let the people have work to do, get what they work for, be able to eat, be able to afford to have children, and use work for relief. This is also one way."

"Three-pronged approach, three carriages, our Great Ming will be great again, just around the corner!"

"But let me say, our Great Ming is still missing one thing."

"Oh?" Shen Shixing said with a smile: "Then which one is missing?"

Sun Kehong said very solemnly: "The three carriages led by His Majesty are the main force of the Great Ming's development. This main force is grand enough, but not fine enough. To be precise, the court is also composed of a collective of individuals. In order to avoid bloat and rigidity, the court cannot expand indefinitely. The power of the court is ultimately too broad. At this time, the private sector has its own flexible advantages."

"Governor Shen, I am just a businessman. I don't know how to write a prescription, and I don't have that ability. I just vaguely feel that this is a path."

Sun Kehong stated a fact: the Great Ming court is not omnipotent. In the process of making the Great Ming great again, the main force is still the court's three carriages, but more precise ditches need to be completed by all the people. In this process, how to give full play to the positive role of the emerging bourgeoisie and suppress its negative role has become an extremely important issue, and even the main contradiction after Shen Shixing enters the capital.

"Good." Shen Shixing nodded. He agreed with Sun Kehong's statement. To make the Great Ming great again, everyone in the Great Ming needs to do it together.

"What does Governor Shen think?" Sun Kehong wanted to probe Shen Shixing's thoughts.

Shen Shixing said concisely: "People."

In Shen Shixing's view, the economy is not complicated. In the short term, look at policies; in the medium term, look at land; in the long term, look at population.

The prosperity of Songjiang Prefecture is naturally policy, but now it has gradually reached the point of looking at land, but in the long run, it must be looking at population growth. This is also true for the Great Ming. Shen Shixing only said one word, which can be said to be sparing of words, but his attitude was already very clear.

"Governor Shen is still wise." Sun Kehong bowed again. He asked clearly what he wanted to know and chose to leave. What Sun Kehong saw was the appearance, while Shen Shixing saw the root.

Shen Shixing opened a memorial. He had written this memorial for a long, long time. It contained his summary after arriving in Songjiang Prefecture, and the content had been changed many times, but on the day he returned to the capital, he would complete his memorial.

Before the first year of Wanli, the Great Ming already had signs of systemic collapse. This is not alarmist. Behind the "civil officials being greedy and military officials being playful" was the complete collapse of the Great Ming's tax system and the collapse of the physical tax that had been implemented for nearly two thousand years.

The complete collapse of the physical tax and the transition to a monetary tax is an inevitable process of development. This is the result of the continuous development of productive forces;

The Great Ming lacked silver and copper, had no perfect coinage, and seriously hindered the Great Ming's transition from a small-scale peasant economy to a commodity economy;

The scarcity of commodity supply led to the excessive concentration and damming of silver, which could not be dredged.

These three problems are an unsolvable triangle, and they are a vicious cycle that exacerbates each other. The fourteen years of the Wanli Reform are actually giving a prescription and answer to this historical turning period. At present, it is effective. A dead cycle has been broken by the Great Ming monarch and ministers. This historical turning point is a crisis, but naturally it is also an opportunity. The Great Ming seized this opportunity to be reborn from the ashes.

However, in Shen Shixing's view, the Wanli Reform is not perfect and needs patching, and his memorial is a summary to patch the crises he saw and the dangers that the ministers in the court did not discover.

"This Sun Kehong is a smart man. Whatever His Majesty invests in, he follows." Shen Shixing closed the memorial. Sun Kehong always followed the court's pace closely.

When someone persuaded Sun Kehong, Sun Kehong would curse: "You poor ghosts, do you understand how to spend money better than His Majesty!"

His Majesty is the richest person in the Great Ming. No one will question this, but His Majesty's silver is also publicly owned by the Great Ming collective.

The Great Ming Emperor invested 15 million silver in the Southern Yamen. These silver were mainly raised from military pay. In order to digest these silver, dozens of official factories were built near the Longjiang Shipyard in the Southern Yamen, and these official factories were gathering various industries. One of the industries took away nearly 1 million silver in investment, which was the Nanjing Coinage Bureau.

Sun Kehong invested a large sum of money with the Coinage Bureau, about 500,000 silver, to support the Coinage Bureau. The Coinage Bureau wanted red copper, but most of the materials from overseas were copper materials. Processing copper materials into red copper and selling them to the Coinage Bureau, the Southern Yamen generally thought this trade was not profitable, but Sun Kehong insisted on investing.

The Nanjing Coinage Bureau had 120 copper furnaces and recruited 6,000 coinage craftsmen. There were 50 craftsmen on one furnace. In order to prevent various problems of blind expansion, red copper processing could only rely on the private sector. The reason why the merchants in the Southern Yamen felt it was not profitable was that copper furnace coinage required profit, and the price of red copper collected by the official factory was definitely not high.

But Sun Kehong believed that low price and thin profit were not a problem, as long as the quantity was large enough. As the largest coinage bureau in the entire Jiangzuo and Jiang You, its scale would definitely expand. As long as the quantity was large enough, the profit would be extremely rich.

And the information in Shen Shixing's hands showed that Sun Kehong was right again. He was going to make a lot of money this time because 120 copper furnaces could only digest 6 million catties of red copper a year, while the copper materials flowing in from overseas exceeded 11 million catties every year and were increasing rapidly. And the Great Ming's demand for copper coins was endless. Processing with supplied materials was a long-term business. People leave, but the factory remains.

The expansion of the Coinage Bureau injected new vitality into the southern economy.

Shen Shixing was a bit busy. He concurrently served as the Governor of Zhejiang, mainly because there were thousands of things in Zhejiang. Recently, the Zhedong Yunhe had another corruption case. This river had just started, and it had already caused such a farce. This case was a bit complicated. The problem was not in corruption, which made Shen Shixing feel a bit tricky.

Zhang Ang, the main official of the Hangzhou Prefecture Workshop, didn't take much, only two hundred taels of silver in total, but the problem was that he used Japanese slaves.

The book clerk Zhang Ang ordered various workshops to recruit people, giving two cents and five li of food silver per day, and another five li to buy tools. That is to say, a local Great Ming laborer had to be given at least three cents of silver per day, two and a half cents for food, and five li for renting various tools for work.

Zhang Ang calculated that it was a bit expensive, so he asked the sea merchants how much a Japanese slave was given per day. The sea merchants took it all on, saying that one and a half cents of silver per day for a Japanese slave was enough, which was half cheaper!

Zhang Ang felt it was very cheap, so he hired one thousand Japanese slaves to enter the construction site, and the sea merchants gave Zhang Ang two bank notes of one hundred silver. That was how the work started.

For every thousand Japanese slaves used, a thousand local corvée laborers were spared. The locals in Hangzhou naturally refused to accept this and kicked up a fuss at the yamen, which eventually escalated all the way to Shen Shixing.

Really speaking of corruption, Zhang Ang didn't take much, which belonged to the scope of "reasonable engineering loss," but the matter of using Japanese slaves was a bit over the line. To put it bigger, it was colluding with the Japanese.

Zhang Ang also felt bitter in his heart. He wrote a memorial of several thousand words to explain the situation. He admitted that he was corrupt, but the problem was that he could also take money from the local big heads in the Great Ming! The reason why he had to use Japanese slaves was that the local people could not be beaten, scolded, or urged, and he was afraid that it would delay the major event of digging the canal, so he used Japanese slaves.

This was really not Zhang Ang's sophistry. In the past, it was corvee labor, which was an obligation, so beating and scolding were very normal. Now it was recruitment, which was an employment relationship. The public money and public work were slow, and they could get more money if they were slow. This kind of atmosphere became prevalent after some big heads secretly colluded.

Zhang Ang introduced Japanese slaves to improve efficiency and dig through earlier.

Shen Shixing pondered for a long time, but finally chose to report to the court. If it were before, Shen Shixing would have handled such a small matter himself, but now the Great Ming and Japan were fighting a bloody battle on the Korean battlefield, so he had to be cautious about matters involving Japan.

On the third day of the fourth month, Zhu Yijun received Shen Shixing's memorial and immediately asked Feng Bao: "Have the Japanese slaves used by Zhang Ang been castrated?" ===== CHAPTER 725 =====