When Wu Zhong heard this, he immediately said, "Don't worry, my lord, this matter will be handed over to your subordinates!" In order to facilitate the transaction with the merchants in Jiangnan as soon as possible, the slave chief gave his subordinates a lot of power, as long as those salt merchants were more courageous, they would definitely not be able to withstand the temptation of heavy profits! ”

"Hehe, which big salt merchant didn't break the law of the country to have them now!" Li Ruolian listened to it and sneered, "But this matter is more urgent, in order to save you time, I will send you all the news of those big salt merchants when I get back." ”

Speaking of this, he added another sentence: "I came all the way at the emperor's behest to come in a hurry, and I only arrived one day before you." The first thing is to contact you first, and other things must also be carried out secretly, and there are comrades of those big salt merchants in the officialdom, so it still takes a little time to collect the news of those big salt merchants. ”

Hearing this, Wu Zhong immediately noticed that the commander seemed to be a little tired, but he was too excited to see the commander before, and he ignored it. Thinking of rushing like this for himself, Wu Zhong suddenly had a lot of confidence, with the emperor watching behind his back, and the entire Jinyi Guard as the backing, what would be difficult to do?

Thinking so, he hurriedly said: "My lord has worked hard, my subordinates' original plan here was to stay here for a few more days, just take your time!" ”

"You can't take your time!" Who knew that Li Ruolian heard this, shook his head again and replied, "Your matter also involves the emperor's layout of Liaodong." The emperor's meaning, you should report to Liaodong as soon as possible, so that the slave chief believes that as long as he keeps the sea route open, there will be a steady stream of materials to Liaodong, prompting the Jianyu to tilt the limited materials in their hands towards the water division, and consume some of them and consume some of them. ”

Speaking of this, he sneered again: "Hehe, just rely on the bitter cold land in Liaodong to see how many supplies they can consume!" ”

As soon as he heard this, he even had something to do with the situation in Liaodong, Wu Zhong immediately felt in his heart that his thoughts were not as far-sighted as the emperor at all, and he considered it holistically, so he immediately turned serious, nodded and replied firmly: "Don't worry, my lord, my subordinates understand now!" ”

So, after making an appointment with the contact information, Wu Zhong quietly returned. There were Jinyi guards staring secretly, and they didn't find anything abnormal, so Wu Zhong drank some more wine and slept well. After all, he has also been at sea for so long, so it's no wonder that he is not tired.

Emperor Chongzhen could naturally grasp the affairs on their side in real time, and after seeing the conversation between Li Ruolian and Wu Zhong, he felt a lot more relieved.

This dark line is aimed at the layout of salt merchants, as well as Jiangnan officialdom and the situation in Liaodong, killing three birds with one stone, even if some birds are cunning and can't be beaten, but if you can shoot down one or two birds, you will make money.

As he was thinking this, he heard that the celebrant had brought another pile of concerts.

The most important job of the emperor was to review the cantata endlessly.

In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen naturally let his eight personal attendants go through the training. After more than a year of exercise, the review of some things has been able to satisfy him.

This time, as usual, Lan Tianbao, Chen Baoting and others each divided a bunch of notes and began to write their approvals and reasons on slips of paper, and classified them according to their respective degrees of grasp. After one of them has finished replying, they will exchange approvals with each other, and after each piece has passed through their own hands, they will eventually be divided into many categories. Or sort them according to the order that everyone is not sure about to everyone is sure of it.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen unexpectedly found that there was a book of musicals, which the eight of them were not sure of. This situation is relatively rare, so I asked for it to come and see.

This recital was written by Huang Yinsi, deputy commander-in-chief of the Linqing Dynasty, and it turned out to be about the opening of the sea, and it was accompanied by the "Maritime Map".

In his recital, he said: The difficulties of the north-south transportation must not be ignored, the dangers must not be unknown, and the cost must be saved. The danger of the sea is not one, and everyone knows that it is a mountain. On top of the mountain, there are Shihuang Bridge and Bailang Reef. In the past, there were winding paths in the mountains that could be passed, and there was more oceans outside the mountains. Although the mountain is dangerous, the Huaisha boat goes straight to the ocean by the wind, and turns Liugong Island to Dengzhou, which is easy to see. Deng, Lai land transport per stone to three taels of five dollars, sea transport per stone two dollars seven cents, Tianjin in addition to drifting, each stone province or two gold and one gold.

The general meaning of what he said was actually that Cao Yun was too expensive, and the reason why the imperial court changed it to Cao Yun before was that he was afraid of the danger of the sea. However, he had traveled by sea before, and knew that when he went north around the coastline, when he arrived in Tianjin, even if there was drifting on the sea, the sea would save about one or two silver per stone compared with Cao Yun.

Emperor Chongzhen naturally didn't know that Huang Yinsi, the deputy chief soldier of Linqing, in the original history, was Emperor Chongzhen at the suggestion of Yang Sichang, and he levied more training salaries, and there was more grain in the north. So, on the 15th day of the seventh month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, he took this recital on shipping. At the end of the chapter, as an example, it is said that the Liao salary is more than 3.4 million stones, and the province is more than 4 million gold.

The original Emperor Chongzhen was also forced to be anxious by the lack of money, and he was overjoyed after seeing this concerto. But the danger of the sea that has been handed down since ancient times made him a little hesitant, so he opened a court to discuss the matter.

For this recital, Emperor Chongzhen's eight chamberlains are all small into the palace, for this kind of recital that requires experience, naturally I don't know the quality of this shipping idea, all of them are not sure, and they can be understood.

But Emperor Chongzhen at this time is different, he is from later generations, and he naturally knows the good and the bad. After seeing this recital, I couldn't help but be overjoyed. Because he's been pondering reopening the sea lately.

If you have this piece as an introduction, whether it is to open the sea, or to let the Ming Dynasty overcome the fear of the sea, it will also go with the flow.

However, the cabinet's vote for this recital was written by Xue Guoguan himself, saying that if it is really as written in the recital, it is inevitable for the imperial court to change to sea transportation, but it involves millions of soldiers and civilians, and this matter needs to be cautious and discussed by the court.

Emperor Chongzhen saw it, and after thinking for a while, he immediately convened a court meeting. Although he knows the benefits of sea transportation, he is really not very familiar with it. After all, in later generations, there was no luck, and in the memory of Emperor Chongzhen, there were only relevant descriptions of the words on the previous chapters.

In the Wenhua Palace, after Emperor Chongzhen first let the ministers see this recital, he first said: "The benefits of cheap shipping are not only what Huang Zongbing said, but I also know it. However, I feel that Shoufu is also old-fashioned, so I want to hear your opinion. If I decided to change to Cao Yun, what would be the impact, what difficulties would there be, and how would I solve them? ”

This sets the tone and allows the ministers to deliberate within this framework.

The ministers looked at each other, and in the end, it was Xue Guoguan who came out first and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers are not alarmist. In general, the grain in the north of the Ming Dynasty only said that the Beijing division needed, as well as the military grain at the border pass, which was mainly levied from Nanzhili and Zhejiang, accounting for about sixty percent of the country's grain. In addition to the grain, there is also white grain, which is supplied by the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, with an annual amount of 214,000 stones, all of which are locally produced white ripe japonica glutinous rice. So much food, all transported through the canal. ”

Speaking of this, after a slight pause, he continued: "For this reason, the imperial court has set up a governor of Caoyun, leading the twelve guards with a total of 127,600 people, transporting 11,700 ships, and carrying the southern grain. With such a large scale, once there is a change, it must be properly disposed of. ”

Hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen didn't know why, and suddenly an idea popped up: at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the post station was abolished across the board, and the result was that there was a king Li Zicheng; If Cao Yun is withdrawn across the board, will there be another king Liu Zicheng? It seems that some of the famous gangs in later generations originally came from the Cao Gang!

He was worried about this, and immediately saw that some courtiers came out to oppose it, saying that Caoyun was related to the food and clothing of millions of ordinary people and military households in the Ming Dynasty, and if he moved this, it would be equivalent to waiting for their food and clothing sources, and if he didn't do it well, it would cause chaos in the world. You can't do anything about changing water transportation to sea transportation!

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately frowned, didn't he hear that he said that he wanted to change to sea transportation, there is no problem if there are difficulties, you can mention it, but more importantly, propose a solution, instead of killing him with a stick!

When he was about to be reprimanded, Zuo Maodi suddenly coughed loudly, and then immediately came out of the queue and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that this is alarmist. Living in the high temple hall, I don't know the truth of the people, take it for granted! ”

As soon as he heard this, the few courtiers who spoke against him just now suddenly turned red, and when they really wanted to refute him, they heard Emperor Chongzhen say to him first: "Oh, Qing has a different opinion, let's listen to it!" ”

In the original history, Zuo Maodi, who was in the middle of this household department, gave Emperor Chongzhen four disadvantages on March 14, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen: the people's poverty, the weakness of the army, the ministers' work committee, and the waste of the national economy. Please also strictly prohibit the soldiers from plundering, please scatter rice money, and give relief to the hungry. The original Emperor Chongzhen adopted his words and ordered the old training of the 75 prefectures and counties in the disaster to be stopped, the 68 prefectures and counties in the middle disaster to stop the levy of salaries, and the 28 prefectures and counties in the disaster to wait until the autumn to collect salaries, and ordered the prison to be cleaned up.

In this plane, because Emperor Chongzhen drove the expedition in person, he pacified the rebellion of the thieves, and did not levy additional salaries, and usually paid attention to the disasters in various places. Therefore, Zuo Maodi's recital is naturally gone, but similar recitals that focus on people's livelihood are available from time to time, which makes Emperor Chongzhen have a very good impression of him.

Speaking of which, this Zuo Maodi and Zhang Pu are still in the same year, and they are both Jinshi of Chongzhen for four years. After that, he let the local experience go and went to Hancheng as a county magistrate, knowing the suffering of the people's livelihood, loving the people and caring for the people, leading the people to repel the thieves many times and keep Hancheng safe.

In October of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Maodi used the prestige he had established to negotiate repeatedly with the gentry in the county, and resolutely decided to re-measure the land and average the land throughout the county, completely changing the status quo of the people of Hancheng who lost money and grain. The original Emperor Chongzhen was after hearing about Zuo Maodi's political achievements in Hancheng, and felt that this person was available, so he was transferred to Jingshi to serve as the household department.

However, Zuo Maodi's approach, if the original Emperor Chongzhen wants to promote it, with his ability, it is obviously impossible. As a result, Zuo Maodi is basically useless.

After Emperor Chongzhen crossed, he had to deal with major matters first, that is, to expel the Manchu army in the pass, lay out the captives, and then the thieves rose again, and he had to immediately lead the troops to drive out of Beijing. When he came back, he found that the influence of the Restoration Society was so great that it had already affected the Inner Palace, so he was busy drawing salaries from the bottom of the kettle, laying out Jiangnan, killing two birds with one stone, and dismantling the Restoration Society and cracking down on official corruption at the same time.

Then, he took a breath and continued to use this left-sided maodi by the way. On the south side of the Yangtze River, there is Zhang Pu charging over there, and the first fire has been burned, which can be regarded as a severe shock to those corrupt officials in the officialdom.

Next, whether it is to verify the preferential exemption limit of officials or to collect arrears, it will be the key work of the imperial court in the next few years. In order to do this, it is imperative to measure the land nationwide and re-verify the land situation. At this time, Zuo Maodi's experience in Hancheng can be used.

In fact, in the previous time, when Emperor Chongzhen had a plan in his heart, he summoned Zuo Maodi again and learned about his experience in Hancheng in detail again.

In this regard, Zuo Maodi naturally knows everything.

At the beginning, he promulgated the "Uniform Land Law" in Hancheng and formulated the rigorous "Sanban Qingzhang Law".

That is, each mile clears the number of acres of land by himself, and makes a "fish scale book" and reports it to the county.

Then Zuo Maodi led people to draw zhang by li, and finally the county twenty-eight miles were reinstated with each other.

After the resumption, they were allowed to report to each other, and if there was a report, Zuo Maodi would personally take someone to measure. Those who deliberately "conceal and conceal", "accept bribes" and "force the beam to be unfair" will be convicted according to the law and will never break their word.

Even in order to prevent people from offering bribes, Zuo Maodi ordered all officials and officials to "bring rations, buy food at will in villages and towns, and do not allow places to build sheds and tie colors, and do not prepare meals and tea." ”

It is under this kind of measure that Zuo Maodi accurately grasped the amount of land in the county, and achieved that "if there is land, there will be grain, and if there is no land, there will be no grain." There is no longer an unfair phenomenon in which the real landlords do not pay taxes, while the landless peasant households have to bear the taxes of the whole county.

Even the "Fish Scale Book" compiled by Zuo Maodi was used to manage the riverbank and beach, which solved the problem that the land flooded by the river had no land to cultivate and that the land had not been cultivated after the river receded and that the land still had to pay taxes if it was not cultivated.

Of course, all of this is based on the prestige he has established after he arrived in Hancheng to serve the people, fight against thieves, and defend Hancheng.

In the original history, Hancheng has built ten outstanding celebrity shrines, and Zuo Maodi occupies two, namely Zuo Gong Ancestral Hall and Luoshi Ancestral Hall; Ten sages are enshrined in the famous eunuch temple in Hancheng, and Zuo Maodi is one of them, which shows the lofty status of Zuo Maodi in the minds of Hancheng people.

In fact, not only in Hancheng, Zuo Maodi was known as Wen Tianxiang in the late Ming Dynasty in the original history, and he was one of the real promising and virtuous officials in the late Ming Dynasty, which is very rare.

Although Emperor Chongzhen didn't know so many details, he stood up and spoke, so he naturally attached great importance to it, and listened to what he said.