Although Li Chengnei is the younger brother of Dong Li Niangniang, the officialdom is very practical and realistic, Dong Li Niangniang is dead, who else cares about you, the younger brother of Dong Li Niangniang.

What's more, when Dongli Niangniang was alive, she didn't have any power, although the emperor has always been very grateful to Dongli Niangniang for her kindness and kindness, and he is also very good to Dongli Niangniang, but Dongli Niangniang has a character that does not ask about the world and has no influence in the court.

"Oh, okay, Brother Xian, you don't have to worry about me, greet the adults." Li Chengnei said nervously.

"Adults want to say hello, big brother also greets!" Wei Bao smiled slightly, "There is no big brother, where is my Wei Bao today, come, let's have a drink first." ”

Li Chengnei waved his hand again and again, "Brother Xian really doesn't care about me, there is Lord Shoufu here, and Lord Tian, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, what kind of thing am I." ”

"Big brother, say that again, I'm going to be angry, come, have a drink, I haven't seen you for months, when my brother misses me very much, when I have time, I also have to check the homework of a few nephews." Wei Bao Road.

Li Chengnei couldn't shirk it, so he had to have a drink.

Through the dialogue between Wei Bao and Li Chengnei, a table of high-ranking officials raised Wei Bao's senses a lot!

Everyone is very clear about the relationship between Wei Bao and the Li family, originally thought that an unknown person like Li Chengnei was just a stepping stone for Wei Bao to enter the royal family, and he should be thrown aside after using it, but he didn't expect Wei Bao to really treat the Li family as a relative.

A group of high-ranking officials unconsciously added a righteous comment behind Wei Bao's smart people!

Whether it is in officialdom or in the rivers and lakes, emphasizing righteousness is the primary criterion!

If a person does not attach importance to righteousness, where do friends come from, where do others dare to have deep friendships with him.

"Lord Wei, just now I heard that you and Lord Ding were talking about this year's military salary, if you have the ability to solve the military salary of the border army and the Beijing camp, the Duke and the Governor of Haiphong Yamen are not a problem!" Wei Liangqing said.

Wei Bao and everyone were not surprised that Wei Liangqing would suddenly turn the topic back to the issue of military salaries.

Although Daming does not dare to say that Wei Zhongxian is in charge now, Wei Zhongxian can at least be the emperor's family, and Wei Liangqing, as Wei Zhongxian's nephew, is also a slave, which is equivalent to the heir of the heir, and is the person responsible for inheriting Wei Zhongxian's incense.

Therefore, Wei Liangqing's current voice in the DPRK is also extremely important.

Gu Bingqian nodded and said, "What Lord Wei said is right, Lord Wei, if you can raise nine million taels of silver for the imperial court, the life of the Ming Dynasty will be better than several years, at least within three years, there will not be too much financial pressure." When the time comes, I will be the first to promote Lord Wei to the rank of duke, and the Yamen, the governor of coastal defense, should naturally be under the control of Lord Wei, the governor of Zhengyin. ”

Everyone echoed together, all congratulating Wei Bao.

"Sir, then my old field is going to be stained with the light of the sir." Tian Ergeng said with a smile.

Wei Bao smiled, what is the name of the duke, what is the second grade of the governor of coastal defense.

Although these are all wanted, they are not what Wei Bao values the most, Wei Bao still values the expansion of personal power.

Valuing land, people, economy, these hard powers!

"I have really thought about how to relieve the pressure on the imperial court and get a sum of silver to be used for the long-overdue military salary. Today are all familiar adults, and it is at the wine table, I will say a few words casually, everyone should have fun, if not, please speak up. Wei Bao said.

Everyone was busy saying that the lord was not polite.

This is no ordinary wine table.

This table is all figures at the peak of the Ming Dynasty's power, which is equivalent to the Chang of later generations.

None of them can be compared with provincial-level officials, basically either the state or the vice-country.

So, how can it be fun to listen.

"If you want to get silver, you must increase the scope of opening the sea and strengthen foreign economic and trade in order to collect tax silver." Wei Bao Road.

When everyone heard this, they immediately frowned.

Wei Bao did not give up, although he knew that they were very uninterested in this point, he still decided to test to the end, "I plan to ask Your Majesty to open and relax Jiangfu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan, Chaozhou, Qiongzhou, Hankou, Jiujiang, and Zhenjiang as customs and treaty ports. All of them are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Haiphong, Yamen, so that more taxes can be collected. In addition, the Ming Dynasty has a total of five major water divisions, Denglai Water Division, Nanzhili Water Division, Zhejiang Water Division, Fujian Water Division, Guangdong Water Division, these five water divisions should be led by the Governor of Haiphong, Yamen, so that the defense can be integrated, and most of the soldiers can be eliminated, which can not only improve combat effectiveness, but also save military spending. What do you think? ”

Kaijiangfu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan, Chaozhou, Qiongzhou, Hankou, Jiujiang and Zhenjiang were customs offices, and as treaty ports, all of them were under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Haiphong, Yamen. The five main sailors of the Ming Dynasty, the Denglai Navy, the Nanzhili Navy, the Zhejiang Navy, the Fujian Navy, and the Guangdong Navy, are all under the command of the Governor of Haiphong, Yamen?

Everyone was surprised when they heard this, and they all felt that Wei Bao's ambition was too big, where are you helping the court solve problems, aren't you blatant achievements to seize power?

And you control all the sailors alone, you still have the army in Shandong, and you also control the main border army in Shanhaiguan, how many soldiers and horses do you have in your hands alone?

Will the surname Zhu be in the future, or will it be your surname Wei?

What do you think?

"At present, the annual customs silver collected by the imperial court fluctuates between 20,000 taels and 25,000 taels, what is the use of such a little silver? If you agree to my suggestion, you can save millions of taels of military expenses every year, and I can pay at least 500,000 taels of taxes to the court a year! That's at least twenty times the current tax! And, I can make a lump sum payment for 10 years. With five million taels of silver, the imperial court should have had a better time in the past three years, right? Wei Bao hurriedly added.

Wei Bao himself also knew that it was too taboo to bring up this kind of thing, and it belonged to taking the initiative to seize military power and financial power, so he hurriedly said a time limit.

In fact, Wei Bao is confident that as long as he controls these treaty ports for more than ten years, the garrisons in these places are his own people, and when the time comes, it should be the Chongzhen Dynasty, even if Chongzhen wants to kick himself out, it will be very troublesome.

Sure enough, Wei Bao said a time limit, which made the expressions of everyone present relax a little.

Gu Bingqian shook his head and said: "The impact of opening the sea is too great, only opening Yuegang is a place, and it still has a great impact on the mainland. When the time comes, will the grain be bought from outside? Cloth sold? Where are the people who still farm? Everyone went to do business and do business, wouldn't they not move the Ming Dynasty's agriculture-based national capital? ”

After listening to Gu Bingqian's words, everyone nodded, including Ding Shaoshi.

Whether it is the Donglin Party, or the Eunuch Party, or the neutral ministers, first of all, the people at this table, one is counted as one, they are all super big landlords, and they represent the big landlord class thinking about problems, and first of all, they will think about the impact and impact of the opening of the sea on everyone with the thinking of the landlord class.

You don't have to think about it to know that it's definitely bad for them.

Wei Bao had thought about this question for a long time, and said with a smile: "The profit from the land is less, so you can turn to business." When commerce is prosperous, it does not necessarily change the national capital based on agriculture. ”

"Lord Wei, this is not credible, agriculture is the foundation of my Ming Dynasty, Taizu has attached importance to agriculture from the beginning, agriculture is far more important than commerce, if there are no farmers to work, just rely on profiteers to buy and sell, what can be created? Are you all waiting to be hungry? Huang Liji said to Wei Bao seriously.

Wei Bao smiled, "Valuing agriculture and suppressing business, this is the official's words." Since ancient times, if you are really not allowed to engage in business, how did the Silk Road come about, the scholars control the shopping mall, that is to say, there are people in the family who are officials, of course, the status of officials is relatively high, and some people are in business. To give a few examples, the Silk Road that began in the Tang Dynasty must have encouraged trade, and the Maritime Silk Road in the Song Dynasty has always been very famous, and I went to the West seven times for Zheng He, and the price of pepper was reduced by almost a hundred times

。 Aren't these all good for the economy? It didn't affect agricultural work either. ”

"The problem is that we don't need to buy anything from the outside to come in, we have it in the Ming Dynasty, and commercial development will affect the governance of the imperial court." Huang Li Ji said.

Wei Bao listened to Huang Liji's words, and felt that his thoughts were probably a little naïve, and there was really no need to talk about them with these people.

The status of large merchants was high, and the financial income of industry and commerce in the Song Dynasty exceeded that of agriculture.

First of all, there is no conflict between the high status of big businessmen and the suppression of business, first, because the landlords have a greater influence, and second, because the state looks at macro problems in business, not individual problems, whether the overall power of businessmen is large, whether big businessmen will form a monopoly in a certain field, and if there is a monopoly, whether it can be easily eradicated. To say that the big businessmen of the previous dynasties colluded with the powerful to call for wind and rain is wrong in itself, and it may only apply to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In addition, since it is collusion with the powerful, it means that they are not powerful, and the powerful people everywhere are landlords, which is the embodiment of heavy agriculture.

Second, it is wrong that the industrial and commercial tax of the Song Dynasty exceeded the agricultural tax, because the industrial and commercial tax included the income of government-run enterprises such as salt, iron, tea and wine, as well as the income of equal loss.

The real commercial tax is equivalent to the customs duty, which is lower than the land tax, and after the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, a large amount of land was hidden or the landlords colluded with the temple officials, because the temple officials were exempt from tax on the land, and they could legally avoid taxes.

Therefore, the land tax in the Shenzong period was not high, and there was also a big factor that the tax collection was unfavorable.

The Qin Dynasty was heavy agriculture and suppressed business, from the Warring States period to the fall of the Qin Dynasty, how many big businessmen were produced?

Wenjingzhizhi once had zero tariffs, which was typical to revive industry and commerce, and the slogan did not mention suppressing business.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he said that he wanted to crack down on merchants, that is, he really cracked down on merchants, collected high property taxes, and encouraged the people to report tax evasion.

The Song Dynasty was the most developed dynasty in China's industry and commerce, and there was no such slogan at all, but instead emphasized not competing with the people for profit, which is a Chinese way of saying for the protection of private property.

The Ming and Qing dynasties were indeed heavy on agriculture and suppressed business, and from a macro point of view, the first tariff income was not high, and the second was that urbanization was only a few points, while the Han, Tang and Song dynasties were between 10% ~ 20%.

The reason is that the best way to develop industry and commerce is for the government to build more roads and leave nothing else.

But such a large empire has a strong centrifugal force, and if you don't care about it, it is easy to split.

Like a typical example of Chinese history, the Zhou, Han Wenjing, and Tang dynasties all showed a momentum of division, and the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms after the Chinese Jing was successfully suppressed.

However, the division of Fanzhen after the Spring and Autumn Period and the middle of the Tang Dynasty was irreversible.

Coincidentally, all three periods of central government management saw a boom in industry and commerce.

Therefore, I would rather the government manage it tightly, and you don't want to develop industry and commerce, so the large manor economy in the late Han Dynasty was formed, where everyone enclosed land to build fortresses, and the people did not interact with each other until they were old and dead, as well as the small peasant economy in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

They want to take the lifeblood of the empire into their own hands.

The emergence of heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce was determined by the economic foundation of the time, and China has always been a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy in ancient times.

Agriculture was the most decisive sector of production in ancient times, and the state of agricultural production was directly related to the rise and fall of the country and the livelihood of the people.

The state guarantees fiscal revenue and strengthens its economy by imposing a stable land tax.

Industry and commerce, on the other hand, lead to the separation of labor from the land, which is not convenient for the ruler to govern, and is not conducive to the maintenance of stability as determined by the ruler.

Therefore, there are certain reasons that the level of economic development ultimately depends on the real economy.

Commerce is necessary, but it is necessary to curb the overheating of speculation, and the transactional is to meet the needs of production and life, and if there is no commerce, it can only return to the primitive society, or the era of self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy with men and women weaving.

Lord Wei wanted to open more than a dozen treaty ports, increase the customs revenue of the Ming Dynasty, and further control the commerce of the Ming Dynasty.

And he wants to manage the entire Ming Dynasty's naval divisions, which can not only save a lot of military expenses, but also facilitate his involvement in the Ming Dynasty's military.

The idea is very satisfying, but the reality is very skinny.

Wei Bao himself also knows that this is very difficult, not to mention that he is a foreign minister, even if Wei Zhongxian, who wears the same pants as the emperor, wants to do this, it is estimated that the emperor is unlikely to agree, let alone the ministers.

"The Yamen of the Governor of Haiphong can be directly managed by the imperial court, directly under the household department and the military department, and even directly managed by the cabinet." After Wei Bao realized that today's remarks might cause trouble for him, he had a posture of not being shocking and dying.

Wei Bao felt that when he said this, it seemed that he didn't want to make a profit personally, he really thought about the problem from the perspective of Daming.

This did play a little role, and when everyone heard this, their expressions eased a lot.

"It's not anyone's business, it's a large-scale opening of the sea, which will definitely affect the agriculture of the mainland." Gu Bingqian said to Wei Bao: "If all the sailors of the Ming Dynasty are concentrated, it is very likely that there will be a loss of checks and balances, a monopoly of one family, and a situation of dominance of generals, which is not allowed by the imperial court." ”