More than a month later, in June of the 24th year of Shaoxing, a government decree came out of Lin'an City and flew to the military prefectures.

The decree made it clear that all products except rice, wheat, copper coins, and iron could be traded with foreign countries after paying taxes in full.

Along with this decree, there were two pieces of gossip that spread from Lin'an to various places.

The first news was that the Privy Councillor and Governor of the Privy Council was dismissed from his post and replaced by Wei Shixun in the Imperial History. The second news is that the ocean-going Huiyi fleet that went to sea the year before last has returned, and the former fleet has arrived in Qiongzhou and will arrive in Guangzhou in a few days.

By the time these news reached Putian County, a thousand miles away, it was already July.

Yang Congyi doesn't care much about the changes in the Lin'an Dynasty, he is just a small military state general judgment, no matter how it changes, it will not have much impact on him who is far away from the coast, because he has long been far away from Lin'an City, the center of political disputes, and if he is not in the way, he will not attract envy.

He was glad that the Imperial Court had lifted the restrictions on foreign trade in some items, and although it was several months later than he had written, and although there was no separate division, at least the Emperor had taken his advice into account.

Through this little thing, he also understood that the general trend is irreversible, so don't face the hard resistance, you have to start from the side, start from a little thing, can change a little is a little, accumulate a lot, and one day you can quietly shake the overall situation.

Since the imperial court has ordered the relaxation of foreign trade restrictions, allowing merchants to trade abroad, the Xinghua Army is located between Quanzhou and Fuzhou, the coastline is not short, and there are many harbors, then there are conditions to develop shipping and overseas trade.

Therefore, the Yamen issued three decrees, one was to repair and widen the official roads under the jurisdiction of the Xinghua Army, the second was to build a large port with warehouses attached, and the third was to severely crack down on bandits entrenched in the mountains within its jurisdiction.

The repair of official roads and the crackdown on bandits are routine matters, and they are all necessary things for all states and governments, and there are laws to follow for the conscription of civil servants and servants, but it is difficult to implement the construction of ports alone.

Because the construction of the port is not the responsibility of local officials such as the Xinghua Army, without the support of the imperial court's decrees and laws, not to mention the requisition of the people, even a group of local officials are unwilling to contribute, in their opinion, the general sentence is a blind toss, and the general sentence is three years, a new official, the government order changes, all the effort spent is in vain, it is because they can push it, not to say that there is no one, that is, it will not be.

Yang Congyi has no good way to take a group of small officials, and if he can't persecute them, can he still kill them?

After all, he lacked experience in governing the local government, and he didn't have the heart to fight with a group of small officials, nor did he want to fight with them, which only added to his annoyance.

Fortunately, he has been in frequent contact with Master Meng who is idle at home in recent months, and whenever it is difficult to come up with a good solution, he will go to ask Master Meng for advice.

However, as for the construction of the port, Master Meng said that he could not help, because he had no such experience, and he had never done such things that only benefited merchants and the people.

"Only good for businessmen is not good for the people", a sentence woke up Yang Congyi.

The construction of the port is indeed to provide convenience for the merchants, and for the ordinary people, they do not see any benefit to themselves, since it is not good for them, and the imperial court does not explicitly stipulate that the port must be built, they naturally do not want to contribute, once the forced expropriation, the brave people in the landlord and squire instigation, is likely to make trouble, in the end it is inevitable that the trouble will not be over.

Since the construction of the port is for the benefit of the merchants, then the port should be jointly built by the government and the merchants, but why should the merchants contribute or pay? Can't they go to sea from Fuzhou and Quanzhou?

After Yang Congyi thought about it for a while, he asked Master Meng to tell the businessmen who pulled him to do business with him, if there are businessmen who are willing to contribute money to assist the Xinghua government to build a port, after the port is completed, let them use the port warehouse for free within ten years, use a berth for free, invest 5,000 guan to use one berth for free, contribute 10,000 guan can use two for free, and so on, the more money you pay, the more berths you can use for free.

Mr. Meng did not personally participate in business and trade, and did not understand the significance of port warehouses and berths to foreign trade.

Yang Congyi told him that the objects of foreign trade in the Great Song Dynasty are nothing more than the Jin Kingdom and Goryeo in the north, the Wa Kingdom in the east, and the countries in the South Seas.

And the big ship must be anchored in a good deep port, otherwise the big ship can only be parked at the sea more than ten zhang away from the coast, it is very inconvenient to load and unload, and the sea rises and falls, the tide is unpredictable, the ship will either drift away, or will run aground, very dangerous.

Master Meng barely understood, but almost none of the merchants who had contact with him had any experience and intention to do overseas trade, almost all of them handed over the goods directly to foreign merchants at the seaside, they did not have merchant ships, and they did not seem to need to go to sea, and he had no confidence in whether the merchants would pay, so he did not make any guarantees to Yang Congyi, only said that he was looking for someone to try.

In this regard, Yang Congyi actually didn't have much hope, although going to sea is very profitable, but it is also very dangerous, and if you can make money safely and steadily, not many people are willing to go to sea.

But the port must be built, this is an excellent opportunity for him to achieve political achievements as a general judge of Xinghua, after all, this place is too small, and sandwiched between Fuzhou and Quanzhou, if you don't fight, you can't turn the big waves at all, if the term of office of the general judgment ends next year, Xinghua does not have the political achievements to get your hands on, maybe he will have to stay at home.

Therefore, Yang Congyi made two preparations, on the one hand, he asked Master Meng to come forward to help and use his connections to win over the businessmen to pay money, and on the other hand, he sent a letter to Uncle Tang who was in Jianpu, inviting him to come to Putian to discuss a big business.

I haven't been in touch for a few years, the Tang family's current medicinal herb business should have been very big, some of their shopkeepers and buddies have participated in the ocean trade, and they know how lucrative the overseas trade is, as the big shopkeeper behind the scenes, Father Tang must know better, and he will not be impressed, as long as there is a chance, for businessmen, who will be afraid of more money?

Half a month later, Yang Congyi came to Meng's mansion again, and Lord Meng helplessly told him that no one was willing to pay such a big price to help the government build a port, and some businessmen's words, he truthfully told them, almost all businessmen said that they didn't go to sea, and they didn't need merchant ships, even if there were merchant ships, the seaside was vast and boundless, and there was no need to spend money to buy a place to park ships.

Lord Meng tried his best, the vision of the businessmen who had never been to the sea was too small, and Yang Congyi couldn't blame them, he could only pin his hopes on Tang Xun's father, hoping that he could come up with a sum of money, otherwise the plan to build a port would be yellow, and the court's favorable policies would not be able to grasp Xinghua, and he would not be able to keep up.

At the dinner table, Yang Congyi was still worried.

"Husband, what's wrong with you lately, you're sad, the Yang family has a queen, can't you be happy?"

Qingchen gave her husband a dish, and couldn't help but complain.

As soon as he heard this, Yang Congyi hurriedly stretched his brows, turned his gaze, and then asked, "Where is Lian'er, why didn't she come to eat?" ”

"When I went out, were I seduced by a beautiful little lady? Didn't I just tell you that Lian'er has been moving badly recently, so I asked her to go back to the house and lie down. ”

Qingchen looked at her husband more and more suspiciously, in recent months, he has been to the Meng Mansion more and more times, Yun Niang also runs here from time to time, an unmarried woman is not ashamed in front of her husband at all, they may really be the same as the sisters guessed, there is something inexplicable.

"Well, it's time to let her rest properly, but when it's time to move, let her walk around the yard and take a walk. In addition, buy the supplements that you should buy, don't save too much. ”

Yang Congyi lowered his head to eat, his eyes dodging.

"I want you to say it, I've been giving Lian'er a long time ago, and I've been eating it."

When Qingchen saw her husband's dodging appearance, she felt more and more that he had a ghost in his heart, and he must have an unusual relationship with Yun Niang. But now that Lian'er is pregnant, her position in the family is becoming more and more stable, and if Lian'er is a son, she won't have to worry about it.

Besides, Yun Niang is still the daughter of an official eunuch, even if she doesn't dislike being a child in the Yang family, will Master Meng let her marry?

Apparently impossible. Although Lord Meng is idle at home, he has not yet reached the point where he wants to marry his baby daughter to a lower official.

Although Qingchen will have a little suspicion and jealousy in her heart and mouth, she will always have Yun Niang without the slightest worry and vigilance, because she knows that Yun Niang will not be able to come in and be small, and as long as she abides by the woman's way and does not do anything out of line, her husband will definitely not divorce her, and she will always be a wife, even if she has no good background and no good background.

As long as the law and the regular order remain unchanged, the wife is there, and the concubine in the side room can never be corrected, otherwise there will be legal sanctions, and the punishment will be heavier, and the punishment for officials will be heavier.

Historically, the bottom of the students, through the imperial examination to embark on the official career, as long as they have not married, the wives they marry are people with good identity and family background, the power of the father-in-law Taishan is much higher than they don't know, and many sons-in-law can not reach the height of the father-in-law in their lifetime, but those high-ranking officials and dignitaries are willing to marry their daughters to young and powerless Jinshi, only the formation of status gaps and suppression, daughters marry in the husband's family to have confidence, sons-in-law do not dare to take concubines and divorce their wives casually.

Because of this, many officials who have married the daughters of big officials do not dare to take concubines or marry another person in their lives, and even some people do not dare to continue after losing their wives, so there are many big officials because they have few wives and concubines, and in the end they have no heirs, and there are not a few daughters who have no sons.

It is rumored that this was the case when the prime minister Qin Hui was the prime minister, because he married the daughter of the Wang family whose family was far beyond him when he had not yet developed in his early years, because the Wang family was jealous, Qin Hui did not dare to marry any more wives and concubines, and the Wang family could not have children, so he could only adopt a son, which was Qin Xi.