(Recommended reading: After the Lantern Festival, the Wanli Emperor, who had been sitting back and watching the officials of the two factions supporting and opposing overseas trade in the court, suddenly made a move, and degraded the seven Zhejiang Party and three Beijing officials of the Donglin Party who were the most ferocious in the camp of opposing officials, and then ended the court dispute caused by overseas trade in one fell swoop.

In this turmoil, the Qi Party is the biggest winner, and the Zhejiang Party is the biggest loser, but even so, the Zhejiang Party is the largest faction in the court.

As for the Donglin Party, although there are also many people, because the last Jingcha was hit hard, so they are now being suppressed by the joint faction of the imperial court headed by the Zhejiang Party and supplemented by the Chu Party and the Qi Party, so they are in a dormant period and have been looking for an opportunity to make a comeback.

It can also be seen from the punishment of the Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party by the Wanli Emperor that although the Donglin Party opposed overseas trade, it did not charge forward like the Zhejiang Party, but hid behind the Zhejiang Party, which made the seven Beijing officials of the Zhejiang Party be demoted, while the Donglin Party only had three.

Moreover, the positions held by the three Beijing officials who were demoted by the Donglin Party were not important, while the positions held by the seven Beijing officials of the Zhejiang Party were much more important, which weakened the power of the Zhejiang Party a lot.

The reason why the Qi Party was a big winner was because the Wanli Emperor promoted five Qi Party members to take the place of the degraded ones, while none of the Chu Party were promoted.

In fact, there are also differences within the Chu Party on whether to support the opening of overseas trade, but in the end they chose to support the opening of overseas trade, after all, Li Hongyu, who was born in Huguang, is the secretary of the Customs Department, so they naturally will not pull Li Hongyu's hind legs, and at the same time want to take the opportunity to grab more commercial benefits from it.

It's also quite interesting to say, which side can gain the upper hand in the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Qichu and Zhejiang parties in the Wanli period depends on which side can preside over Jingcha.

Interestingly, the Donglin Party and the Qichu and Zhejiang Parties took turns to preside over Jingcha, which made it impossible for either side to put the other to death.

Jingcha is to evaluate the performance of Beijing officials to determine their promotion, retention or demotion, and the Ming Dynasty emphasizes the inside and outside, the Beijing officials occupy the leading position in the court, and the local officials are dependent on the Beijing officials.

This can be seen from the Ming Dynasty's patrol press and governor system, once the official of the capital seven products goes down to the locality, then he will have the power to supervise and control the local three division-level high-ranking officials, which shows that the Beijing official is the mainstay of the officialdom, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty all cut their heads and want to stay in the capital.

Therefore, Jingcha, which decided the fate of Jingguan, was regarded by the Donglin Party and the Qichu and Zhejiang parties as a means to squeeze out and attack each other.

In the thirty-third year of Wanli, the Donglin Party was the Imperial Shi Wenchun and Yang Shiqiao, the left attendant of the Ministry of Officials, presided over the Beijing Chacha, preparing to degrade the Zhejiang Party that occupied a dominant position in the court at that time, but Shen Shen, the leader of the Zhejiang Party who was the first assistant to the cabinet at the time, always took action to stop it, although some Chu Party officials were demoted, but finally ensured the advantage of the Chu and Zhejiang Party in the court, and the Donglin Party was defeated.

However, in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, Shen was impeached and resigned, which caused the power of the Zhejiang Party to suffer a lot of losses.

The Jingcha in the 39th year of Wanli is particularly interesting, the Jingcha in Beijing was presided over by the Donglin Party members, who wantonly expelled the officials of the Qichu and Zhejiang Parties, while the Jingcha in Nanjing was presided over by the officials of the Qi, Chu and Zhejiang Parties, so they vigorously belittled the officials of the Donglin Party.

In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, Jingcha, the head of the Zhejiang Party of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, wantonly expelled the officials of the Donglin Party, so that the Donglin Party had to die down and wait for the opportunity to compete with the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang again.

It can be seen that the Donglin Party and the Qi, Chu and Zhejiang parties have the upper hand in the party struggle, which also reflects from the side that the Wanli Emperor is able to control the court situation with ease, and it is really wronged to say that he is negligent.

If Emperor Wanli really neglected government affairs, then there would definitely be a situation of one-party dominance in the court, and it would not be a stalemate between the Donglin Party and the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, and it was obvious that Emperor Wanli was secretly controlling the situation behind the scenes.

The end of the overseas trade turmoil allowed Li Hongyu to return to his home in the capital, and he was not only the training envoy of the new army, but also the compilation of the Hanlin Academy and the horse washing of the Zhan Shifu Department and Economic Bureau, so he naturally had a lot of official affairs to be busy.

At the same time, Li Hongyu also had to set up the Zhangluo Customs Department, which would replace the Ming Dynasty's trade with overseas vassal states and become the official yamen for overseas trade.

According to the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, Li Hongyu decided to open two customs offices in Ningbo and Guangzhou, because Ningbo is very close to Yangzhou and the canal, Yangzhou can be described as the commercial center of the Ming Dynasty, and there is the convenience of canal water transportation, which is suitable for the sale and transportation of goods.

As for the opening of Guangzhou Customs, it is because the port of Guangzhou is the closest to Nanyang, which is convenient for Westerners to exchange and trade.

At this time, the happiest and most excited were naturally the tax collectors in Huaguang Academy, who racked their brains and never imagined that Emperor Wanli would actually open overseas trade, and they would become officials who managed overseas trade instead of just collecting taxes.

This makes those tax officials full of energy, all want to do a great job in the customs department, they have understood the great prospects of overseas trade under Li Hongyu's explanation, and overseas trade will become an important pillar of the Ming economy.

Li Hongyu officially announced to the tax officials that the Customs Department would set up two subordinate agencies, the Commercial Bureau and the Tax Bureau, which would be responsible for managing the commercial affairs of overseas trade, and the Tax Bureau would be responsible for verifying and collecting customs duties.

With the establishment of the Commercial Bureau and the Tax Bureau, the tax officials will naturally be divided into two systems, and after the previous period of training in public business, the next step will be training in professional business.

The so-called professional business and public business are training courses set up by Li Hongyu based on some experience of later generations, teaching the most basic knowledge of modern business and taxation, which is sufficient to deal with the upcoming overseas trade affairs.

For those tax officials who are engaged in commercial business training or tax business training, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin will be divided according to their interests and usual grades, and the number of people will be basically divided in half.

Of course, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin will let Ran Xingrang participate in all the affairs related to the Customs Department, and they will be implemented after obtaining Ran Xingrang's consent.

Although Ran Xingrang knew nothing about the affairs of the Customs Department, and now he was doing his best to study with those tax officials, he was the head of the Customs Department after all, so he naturally wanted to understand the changes in the major affairs of the Customs Department.

Ran Xingrang has self-knowledge, after Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin explained to him the intention and purpose of the relevant decision, it was approved, the Customs Department was established and operated by Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, his purpose is to be optimistic about taxation, to ensure that the inner treasury can get enough taxes, and not to interfere with the daily operation of the Customs Department, which is the order and task given to him by the Wanli Emperor.

Emperor Wanli is still very knowledgeable, and the idea of the Customs Department has exceeded Ran Xingrang's cognition, and if Ran Xingrang intervenes in it, it will disrupt the operation of the Customs Department.

Besides, although Ran Xingrang is a concubine, the Ming concubine has never had a sense of existence, so he naturally can't suppress those tax officials who are also from a prominent background, so it is better to honestly watch the tax revenue of the customs.

According to the holy decree issued by the Wanli Emperor a year ago, in mid-May, Li Hongyu will officially sell a total of 20 quotas for overseas trade in Yangzhou, with a reserve price of 200,000 taels of silver, and no upper limit.

Li Hongyu's most important task at present is to sell the 20 quotas smoothly, so that he can have free funds in his hands to carry out the next plan, whether it is the formation of the new army, the formation of the naval division, and the preparation of the customs department.

Emperor Wanli has already provided tens of thousands of taels of internal funds to the new army in the military camp outside the city, and the Ming Dynasty now needs a lot of silver, and can no longer help Li Hongyu, Li Hongyu can only pin his hopes on the sale of overseas trade quotas.

Although he was busy with official business, Li Hongyu still meticulously entered the palace on time to teach Zhu Youxiao, the imperial grandson, and because Zhu Youzhen was with Zhu Youxiao, Li Hongyu also taught Zhu Youzhen by the way.

Don't underestimate the low-ranking Zhan Shifu Economic Bureau, this is the first position to approach the crown prince, so it is easy to become the crown prince's future confidant and have a far-reaching impact on the crown prince's cognition.

And it is not easy to become a horse washer, first of all, you must have enough qualifications and identity to take on this important responsibility, at least if it is the Hanlin of the Hanlin Academy, this is a threshold, otherwise it is difficult to enter the Zhan Mansion, let alone become a horse washer.

Speaking of which, thanks to Li Hongyu's busy official duties, he was able to stay away from the battles in the court, but the leaders of the Chu Party, Wu Liangsi and Huang Yanshi, already regarded him as the Chu Party, after all, Li Hongyu had the closest relationship with the Chu Party, and the Chu Party fully supported Li Hongyu as the secretary of the Customs Department.

As Li Hongyu's hometown, Yang Lian, a member of the Donglin Party, also valued Li Hongyu and persuaded Li Hongyu to join the Donglin Party, pinpoint the disadvantages of the times, clear the party disputes in the court, and restore peace to the Ming Dynasty.

Li Hongyu has great respect for Wu Liangsi, Huang Yanshi and Yang Lian, and has adopted a strategy of hypocrisy and grievance to deal with it, and he is still shallow in his foundation, so he does not want to get involved in the party struggle in the court too early.

Because Li Hongyu's position did not conflict with the yamen of various ministries and academies, and because he had just stepped into the official career with shallow qualifications, no one expected him to participate in the party struggle and charge into battle.

What is particularly important is that Li Hongyu usually keeps a low profile and can avoid those disputes in the court, which makes him finally avoid the whirlpool of party disputes under the guise of being busy with official business.

In mid-March, a force of more than 15,000 soldiers was stationed in the camp of the new army outside the city, this force rushed from Liaodong, and was a member of the new army selected by Li Hongyu, mainly composed of the surrendered army, the other is the Liaodong iron cavalry, the Shaanxi-Gansu cavalry, and the Mongolian cavalry in the Ming army.

Because it was a surrender of troops, Li Hongyu's transfer of troops from Liaodong this time did not arouse the resistance of the Liaodong generals, but made them breathe a sigh of relief, and no one was willing to command the surrender of troops to fight.

As for the Liaodong Iron Cavalry and the Shaanxi-Gansu Cavalry, since Li Zhizhong and Chai Shixiu were important generals of the New Army, Li Rubai and others naturally gave up their troops to the two of them.

And those Mongolian cavalry are Man Gui's subordinates, all of whom are Mongols who have already attached the Ming Dynasty, and their riding and archery skills are a grade higher than that of the Ming army.

With the arrival of this unit, the new army was officially established, and an intense reorganization was carried out, and the soldiers who had been reorganized in the barracks were accordingly promoted to lieutenants and non-commissioned officers, becoming the branches of the big tree of the new army, and the new soldiers became the branches and leaves.

Of the 18,000 men of the new army, the number of the Western Expeditionary Army was as high as 15,000, and the naval division was only 3,000.

There are two main reasons for this: One is that the number of troops participating in the war in Liaodong is relatively small in the southern coastal areas, and Li Hongyu prefers to recruit sailor soldiers from the coastal areas, which is more suitable for water warfare, after all, the southerners and northerners have different physiques and have their own terrain suitable for combat.

In addition, the Western Expeditionary Army will face a strong enemy force in the future, and war will break out soon once it reaches the northwest, and if the naval division wants to start a war, it will have to wait for the arrival of the naval division's ships and naval guns, as well as training at sea, so it will not fight for a short time, and there will be plenty of time to recruit soldiers from the local area.

Therefore, Li Hongyu naturally wanted to strengthen the strength of the Western Expeditionary Army, and after arriving in the northwest, the Western Expeditionary Army would recruit 5,000 people to reach the quota of 20,000.

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