In addition to the merchant fleet, Yang Wu felt that the state could also directly establish some large-scale workshops to produce goods suitable for export, such as porcelain, silk, etc., which could greatly increase the prosperity of the country's commerce and increase the country's income in the short term.

After a certain period of time, it is possible to avoid all kinds of corruption and inefficiencies by selling these workshops, which can be said to be the best of both worlds.

"The ministers think that it is very feasible for the imperial court to come forward to conduct overseas trade, and it should be implemented immediately!" To Yang Wu's surprise, all the ministers present strongly agreed with this law.

The importance of trade was well known to all the courtiers present, and the huge profits were equally well known.

In the later Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West, to a certain extent, it played the role of the national merchant fleet, but the trade between Zheng He's fleet and overseas countries at that time was more tributary.

For the sake of the face of the Celestial Empire, the Ming Dynasty naturally suffered a lot of losses in this tributary trade.

As a result, this kind of maritime trade, which gained face but lost its lizi, was finally permanently halted due to the huge burden it placed on the imperial court.

Now the merchant fleet that Wu is preparing to form is not for the purpose of promoting national strength or encircling barbarians from all directions, let alone for any political purpose, but for trade and making money.

Although some ministers feared that this would lead to the suspicion of competing with the people, they readily agreed, lured by huge profits.

There are even those who believe that a ban should be enacted after the gradual development of the country's merchant fleet, so as to prohibit ordinary people from trading abroad and guarantee the country's revenue.

Of course, Yang Wu is strongly opposed to this complete ban on non-governmental trade.

He established the national merchant fleet in order to facilitate it by state means before private maritime trade developed, and when the private trade had developed to a certain extent, the national merchant fleet would be completely privatized.

Therefore, the so-called ban on private trade is naturally contrary to his purpose.

"Since you have all agreed to the establishment of a merchant fleet, the matter is settled. However, now that the imperial court is in financial difficulties, there is not enough money and food to invest in the merchant fleet, and I hope that everyone present can also take out some of the money to jointly form a merchant fleet, what is everyone's objection to this? ”

To build a merchant fleet, it was necessary not only to build ships and recruit sailors, but also to purchase supplies for trade, as well as various other expenses, which was obviously a huge expense, and even the Wu court could not come up with it all at once.

"This ......" heard that they needed to pay together, and the ministers hesitated.

While it is logically lucrative to trade overseas, people in this era are still concerned about the enormous risks at sea.

If it is entirely up to the state to take the initiative, they can consider the problem more objectively, but if they really want to let them pay for it themselves, they are a little hesitant.

"Such a good opportunity to make a profit, the king is willing to reward the minister, and the minister is naturally grateful!" Just when everyone was still hesitating, Chen Yanqian stood up first and said.

Hearing Chen Yanqian say this, everyone immediately reacted and thanked Yang Wu one after another.

Indeed, if they invest in the merchant fleet, they do have to take a certain amount of risk in the short term; But if it succeeds, the future income is definitely not small, it can be said that this is a real investment of great profits, Yang Wuken handed over such a good opportunity to everyone present, this is definitely an opportunity they can't ask for.

For Yang Wu, it is his purpose to shift the attention of these important ministers overseas, so that their eyes are no longer only focused on those meager land revenues.

Not only these important ministers present, but also other old families will also be drawn into this plan by Yang Wu, and when they see the huge profits of overseas trade in the future, these people will naturally become champions of foreign trade, thus transforming from a landed aristocrat to a commercial aristocracy.

Only then will the idea of mercantilism take root in the state of Wu completely.

At this time, everyone present naturally couldn't think of Yang Wu's far-reaching purpose, they only thought that Yang Wu had this proposal in order to further win them over, and they were naturally deeply grateful.

The merchant fleet cannot be built in a short period of time, but the city ship division needs to be established as soon as possible.

In addition to setting up the Quanzhou City Shipping Division, Yang Wu finally decided to accept Xu Zhihe's suggestion to set up a Municipal Shipping Division in Suzhou.

As for the responsibility of the two city divisions, Yang Wu decided to make Jiang Yanhui, who had just been named the champion of this imperial examination, the responsibility of the Suzhou City Division, and as for the Fuzhou City Division, it was Yang Wu's concubine Xu Shanlai's brother Xu Shanlai who was in charge of the concubine last year.

As for Xu Zhihe, just as Yang Wu was about to decide on his first official position, there was news from Fujian that Xu Wen's mother Zhou had passed away, and Xu Wen asked to go home to worry about it.

According to the funeral rites of this era, after the death of his parents, he should mourn for three years as a courtier, and he could not continue to be an official during this period.

During this period, Xu Wen had just served as the governor of Fujian, and many things had just been on the right track.

At this time, it was difficult for Yang Wu to find a suitable candidate, so he had to issue an order and order Xu Wen to continue to be retained with filial piety.

Although Xu Wen continued to be retained, in order to show his intentions, he finally ordered Xu Zhihe to go home to keep filial piety instead of his father.

So this year's imperial examination, in the end, most of the jinshi still went to the local government as usual to serve as some eight- and nine-grade petty officials, but Xu Zhihe, who was the eye of the example, was not awarded an official position in the end.

While Yang Wu was busy dealing with internal affairs and expanding financial revenues, in Jiangling City, Gao Jichang was extremely worried about the growing strength of the Wu State.

At the beginning, there were eight states under the envoy of Jingnan Jiedu, but after the gradual encroachment of the surrounding forces, by the time Gao Jichang took office, only Jiangling was in his hands.

Later, after his efforts, he recovered the two states of Guizhou and Xiazhou, but its power was still far behind that year, and it was at the bottom of many forces in the south.

Although his adviser Liang Zhen told him that Jingnan's future lies in choosing the strong and serving and surviving in the cracks of many forces.

However, the premise of all this must be the mutual balance of the major surrounding forces.

Just like in history, whether it is Wu or Ma Yin's Chu, Qian Biao's Wu Yue, Fujian's Wang Zhenzhi, etc., they each have a certain strength, and under mutual control, although Jingnan's strength is weak, it can also be left and right to gain living space.

However, the current situation is that Wu is the dominant state in the south, and no force can confront it.

Qian Biao had been wiped out many years earlier, and Ma Yin, who had been defeated in that battle two years earlier, now knew that he could not compete with Wu, so he turned to the southwest to avoid Wu's edge.

Wang Xianzhi's Fujian had just been wiped out by Wu last year, and Liu Yin's Lingnan was already remote, making it difficult to contain Wu, not to mention that Liu Yin also surrendered Wu in name.

As for those smaller forces, such as Qianzhou Lu Guangchou and others, they were even more powerless to confront the Wu State.

Looking at the many forces in the south, all of them are seeking a way to survive under the aggressive offensive of the Wu State, and no one side can confront them.

Therefore, Jing Nan wants to come to the source left and right, but there is no basis for that reality.

For Gao Jichang, his best choice now is to stay under Zhu Wen, continue to be his envoy to Jingnan, and obediently guard Jingnan for Zhu Wen; In this way, perhaps when Wu attacks in the future, Zhu Wen will send troops to rescue him for the sake of being more deferential.

Compared with other forces in the south, Jingnan's biggest advantage is that it is closer to the territory of Liang, and the importance of its location is also more prominent.

As for the choice of taking refuge in Wu State, he never thought about it.

Wu's policies had long been known to the world, and Yang Wu only needed the territories that he really controlled, not a feudal town that was nominally subservient to him.

Now that Lingnan, Qianzhou and other places are subjugating to Yang Wu, these are not temporary expedient measures, and Yang Wu will definitely gradually clean up these forces in the future, which is almost a well-known thing.

Therefore, Gao Jichang never thought of going to Wu to join the country, which would have no effect on protecting Jingnan at all, but would offend Zhu Wen because of this, which obviously outweighed the loss.

"Senior, last year Wu eliminated Fujian's Wang Zhenzhi, this step to unify the south is one step closer, although the commander is now backed by Liang State, but if the Wu army is really attacked, and the main force of the Liang army was dragged by the King of Jin, then I Jingnan will be in danger. I wonder if my predecessors have any good plans? In the Jiedu Envoy's Mansion, Gao Jichang respectfully asked his chief mastermind Liang Zhen for advice.

In the past few years, he has been completely impressed by Liang Zhen's talent, so although Liang Zhen insists on not being a leader, he only works for him as a cloth cloth, and he does not blame him at all, but attaches more importance to him, and usually commensurates him with his predecessors.

"What the marshal is worried about is indeed a little difficult to do, the strength of Wu is not only its own strength, but also because it has formed a general trend, a general trend that has swept the south. Not only was there confidence in the same south within the state of Wu, but other forces outside also thought so. Therefore, this makes the state of Wu stronger and stronger the more it fights, and the more smoothly it fights, and its internal cohesion is getting stronger and stronger. ”

"Therefore, if the commander wants to seek self-protection, he must first interrupt the general trend of the Wu State that is sweeping the south!" Liang Zhen said in a deep voice.