Hearing Emperor Hongzhi's words, and also feeling the eyes of many of his colleagues in the future, Liu Jian slowly stood up and said: "The sea is a national policy formulated during the period of Emperor Taizu, and the original purpose was only to prevent the Japanese invaders, but it did not restrict the people from going to sea to fish, nor did it restrict merchants from going to sea to do business. ”

"In the period of the ancestors, my Ming Dynasty is seven to the West, the prestige spreads, this is the subsequent Quartet to the prosperous scene, but also increased the burden of my Ming Dynasty, at the same time in the southeast coastal area, businessmen only know the interests and forget the law of the country, in order to evade taxes, repeatedly pretended to be a wolf, resulting in the successive kings gradually tightening the sea, which is now a strict policy that the sails are not allowed to go to sea."

There is no doubt that Liu Jian is still on the side of Zhou Jing, first, he is a native of Henan, a northerner, and has nothing to do with the clans, gentry and merchants in the south.

Second, Liu Jian is also a well-known virtuous minister, dedicated to the country, which is also the reason why he is deeply appreciated by Emperor Hongzhi, yesterday he saw the sea fish from Tianjin, but also heard Li Dongyang and Zhou Jing report to Emperor Hongzhi.

For Liu Jian, as long as it is for the benefit of the country and the people, he supports it, not to mention that the famine is raging in the three northern provinces, even if there is no famine, this marine fishing can harvest so much food, and can make the coastal people eat more, he also wants to support.

Moreover, he is also very clear about the fact that the merchants in the south go to the sea privately to make profits, and on the other hand, they support the southern Shilin to implement strict seas.

The reason why the sea is implemented while going to sea without permission is nothing more than to evade taxes, and the taxes of the Ming Dynasty are already very low, thirty taxes one, but businessmen still have to evade taxes.

Salt merchants, grain merchants, maritime merchants, cloth merchants, etc., although the merchants did not have any status on the surface of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact, because the tax rate was extremely low, plus they all evaded taxes, so the merchants basically did not need to pay taxes.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the annual commercial tax silver in the Jiangnan area was only a pitiful few thousand taels, and no one believed that there was a huge rich Jiangnan region, and the annual commercial tax silver was only a few thousand taels, and it can be seen from here how serious the tax evasion of merchants in the Ming Dynasty was, and in their eyes it is estimated that there was never a sense of paying taxes at all.

Whenever someone in the court proposed to levy a commercial tax, it was even worse than the current situation, and Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the military department, proposed that the Datong border police were not paying enough money, and asked for an increase in the number of two taxes in the south to be converted into silver.

Xie Qiandu, one of the elders of the three cabinets, stood up to express his opposition, saying: Because the taxes in the south were heavier, the first dynasty used the method of converting silver taels to reduce them. If it is proposed to increase it again, I am afraid that the people will not be able to bear the burden, and as a result, the bill proposed by Ma Wensheng was not passed.

In addition to tax evasion, another role is to monopolize the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty.

The silk, porcelain, tea, etc. of the Ming Dynasty have been exported overseas since ancient times, and there is no need to say that they are shipped to Europe, even if they are shipped to Korea, Waguo, Nanyang and other regions, the profits are already extremely considerable.

With the implementation of strict sea, it is impossible for ordinary merchants to go to sea at all, and only those real Dashi clans and big businessmen can go to sea, thus forming a monopoly, and monopoly means huge profits.

Although the Ming court and the emperor were poor, the gentry in the Jiangnan area, salt merchants, maritime merchants, etc., which one was not a rich rival country, Yangzhou area, when the rich merchants were fighting for the oiran, tens of thousands of taels or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were thrown out without even blinking an eye, and they were the ones who threw a lot of money.

For this situation, Liu Jian also wants to change it, the court has no money, nothing can be done, and the emperor has no money and can do anything.

The current Emperor Hongzhi is okay, he only has one wife, and he has always been diligent and thrifty, and he is light and thin, so it doesn't matter if he has lived a hard time, but who can guarantee that the next emperor will be like Emperor Hongzhi?

Moreover, the practice of the sea is beneficial to the big families and merchants in the south, but it is not beneficial to the gentry and families in the north.

Beizhili, Shandong, and Liaodong are obviously also close to the sea, but they can't go to the sea without a piece of sail, and they can only watch the sea and sigh, and they can't get any benefits.

"The minister thinks that what Zhou Gong said is very true, it is better to block it than to sparse, since the sea cannot prevent merchants from going to sea privately, it is better to open the sea in an all-round way."

"What's more, in the past, we didn't know that the ocean was rich and there were thousands of miles of sea frontier, but we could only guard one acre and three points of land, and we were embarrassed, just like guarding the gold and silver mountains and not knowing, taking the golden rice bowl to ask for food."

"If I open the sea in the Ming Dynasty, thousands of miles of sea frontiers, hundreds of millions of Li people can benefit, according to the time, thousands of fishing boats go to sea, and the people have endless cheap food, then I can expect the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty."

Liu Jian's voice is very loud, the words are very clear, and the voice is back dàng) in every corner of Jinluan.

"The minister impeached Liu Jian..."

Liu Jian's words had just been finished, and Emperor Hongzhi had not yet expressed his opinion, and immediately several people came out one after another to impeach Liu Jian.

There is no doubt that in the matter of opening the sea, the interests of Jiangnan Shilin are almost the same, as long as someone supports the opening of the sea or supports the collection of commercial taxes, they will immediately stand up against it, as for the other party is the cabinet chief assistant or the six Shangshu It doesn't matter, anyway, the Ming Dynasty has always had a tradition of making big with small.

The imperial history and Hanlin are not of high grade, but they can also impeach those six Shangshu and cabinet elders, and often once someone impeaches, these Shangshu and cabinet elders will generally write to the emperor to ask for resignation in order to show their innocence, after all, they are all people who want to save face.

"Enough~"

Emperor Hongzhi had a calm face, looked at Xie Qian again and said, "Xie Qing, what do you think?" ”

Seeing that Emperor Hongzhi asked Xie Qian's opinion, the officials from the Jiangnan region immediately stood back one by one, and at the same time looked at Xie Qian with a keen gaze.

Xie Qian is a native of Zhejiang, a serious Jiangnan person, although Li Dongyang is also a southerner, but out of Hunan, in fact, strictly speaking, he is not a Jiangnan person, Jiangnan Shilin is now headed by Xie Qian above the court, and when needed, he also pulls Li Dongyang.

Xie Qian's family is also a big family in Shaoxing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and a very influential family in the Jiangnan region, and it also has huge interests in all aspects.

Therefore, when Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the Ministry of War, wrote that he wanted to levy commercial taxes, he would stand up and oppose it, because this also violated the interests of Xie Qianzi, unless the interests of the family behind him touched the interests of the gentry, businessmen, and big families in Jiangnan.

"The sea is the ancestral system and the foundation of the country, which cannot be easily shaken, but what Zhou Gong and Liu Gong said is also very reasonable.

"Famine was raging in the three northern provinces, and since marine fishing can harvest a large amount of food and use it to help the victims, such a thing that benefits the country and the people should be supported."

"But after all, the sea is the ancestral system and the country, which is related to the long-term peace and stability of my Ming Dynasty, and in terms of the ancestral system and the country, the minister thinks that we should not be in a hurry, and if the sea is fully opened all at once, it may cause the Ming Dynasty to move uneasy, as the princes of the court and the central government said."

"Therefore, the minister thinks that we should not fully unravel the sea at once, we can unravel the fishing at the moment, allow the coastal areas to go to the sea to fish, and at the same time we can open the sea in a few areas first, if the unraveling of the sea is indeed beneficial to the country and the people, it is not too late to fully unravel the sea in the future."

"If unraveling the sea will cause chaos in the world and shake the country's foundation, it doesn't hurt if we stop it completely, because just unraveling the sea in a few areas can also control the impact on our Ming Dynasty."

Xie Qian's words can be regarded as taking the middle route, which can be regarded as a very helpless move, because Emperor Hongzhi had already discussed the matter with him yesterday and reached a unified opinion, and it was impossible for him to stand up and express his opposition.

But he is a native of Jiangnan and a representative of Jiangnan Shilin, and it is impossible for him not to speak for Jiangnan Shilin.

On the one hand, he also took care of Jiangnan Shilin's face, so that he would not be unable to gain a foothold in Jiangnan Shilin in the future, and on the other hand, he also followed the opinions reached by them yesterday and Emperor Hongzhi, so as not to become the enemy of Emperor Hongzhi.

Hearing Xie Qian's words, the officials from the Jiangnan region suddenly became like deflated balloons, and they immediately deflated, and even Xie Qian, the head of Jiangnan Shilin, couldn't clearly stand on his side, even if everyone continued to talk about it, what was the use.

What's more, Xie Qian's method is actually acceptable if you think about it, but it is just to untie the fishing and let people in the coastal areas go out to sea to fish, which does not have much impact on the interests of businessmen, and ordinary people have no way to form a boat to go to sea to do business.

As for the trial unraveling of the sea in a small number of areas, they can also think of ways to mess up this pilot area, so that they can retreat into advance, and when they go to the book to implement the sea in the future, they will have nothing to say about the opponents.