The first meeting of the Association did not end perfectly, and Zheng Cai had to exercise the power of the rotating presidency to postpone the trade dispute between the Dutch and the British and Portuguese until the next meeting.

After the meeting, Zheng Cai hurriedly entered the palace to report the content of the meeting to Chongzhen. After listening to Zheng Cai's report, Zhu Youzhen didn't care much, he said a little casually: "I didn't expect that the Dutch and the Spaniards would fight to the death when they met before, but now they can still tacitly understand for the sake of common interests."

The Kingdom of Korea, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Sultanate of Bo Ni, and the Kingdom of Siam have only half a vote. In this case, Portugal's vote has become the key. These Europeans seem to have other thoughts in mind. However, if you don't have enough power, even if you have the right to vote, it doesn't make much sense.

As for the question of trade in raw silk and porcelain raised by the Dutch, British, and Portuguese, since the raw silk and porcelain are all produced by our country, the number of raw silk and porcelain exported to them last year will be divided into 10 parts for the Dutch, British, Portuguese, and Spaniards to bid. In the future, the export volume will be adjusted every three years and the tender will be re-tendered. In this way, presumably the Dutch will no longer say that I am biased by anyone.

In addition, another motion will be voted on at the next meeting. From the Strait of Malacca to the Tsushima Strait, from the coast of China to the west coast of the Americas, security in this area is managed by ASEAN. Any attack on the ships of the ASEAN member states in this region will be considered a war against all the ASEAN member states..."

After sending Zheng Cai away, Zhu Youzhen turned to Lu Qi and asked, "Have Shen Tingyang and Zhang Xianzhong been notified by the side?" ”

Lu Qi stepped forward and said, "I have already ordered them to wait in the middle study room inside Dong'anmen." ”

Zhu Youzhen got up and asked Lu Qi to take out civilian clothes to change, and asked Wang Chengen: "After counting the two warships brought by Shen Tingyang this time, how many Mingzi-class warships have been built?" ”

Wang Chengen immediately folded his fingers and calculated, and said: "Zheng He, Mingyuan, Mingwei, Mingyong, Mingyong, Mingwu, Mingzhong, Mingcheng, a total of eight. Among them, Zheng He went to Europe, Mingwei and Mingyong were in Tanegashima, and the other five ships were in the Dagukou Military Port in Tianjin. But..."

Zhu Youzhen stopped his movements, looked at Wang Chengen and asked, "But what?" ”

Wang Chengen said with some concern: "However, now the Navy Staff Headquarters has reported that it is best to stop the construction of warships first, because even if they are built, they do not have so many sailors to control the ships, so they can only bask in the sun in the harbor." They are now expanding their enrollment at the seamen's school, but they will not be able to produce a large number of skilled sailors in the soft sails in a short period of time. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then said: "It is impossible to completely stop the construction of warships, but the Mingzi-class warships can stop first, and let the North and South Shipyards build whaling ships first." Aren't whaling ships soft-sailed? Ordinary sailors can get them on a warship for a few years on a whaling ship.

In addition, let the Tianjin shipyard try to make thousand-ton ships, and the Vladivostok and Temple Street have already found suitable wood. Wouldn't it be easier for them to find a suitable place to build a shipyard in Vladivostok or Temple Street than to ship the wood back to Tianjin, and drive it back there..."

When Zhu Youzhen, who was wearing civilian clothes, walked into the middle study in Dong'anmen, the first thing he saw was Zhang Xianzhong with a big beard, and then Shen Tingyang. Although Shen Tingyang is also quite heroic on weekdays, he can be regarded as a rare heroic man among southerners. But in front of Zhang Xianzhong, he was still in the limelight. Others were attracted by Zhang Xianzhong's momentum at the first glance, and it is no wonder that several commanders of Jinyiwei praised Zhang Xianzhong, saying that he was strange in appearance and not an ordinary person.

Seeing Lu Qi escorting the emperor in, Shen Tingyang, who was chatting with Zhang Xianzhong, hurriedly stepped forward and curtsied, and after Zhu Youzhen let the two of them exempt from courtesy, he walked to the top and sat down.

He waved his hand at the two of them and said, "Sit down too, I have summoned you two because I want you to do something." But before that, Shen Tingyang, let's talk about the troubles encountered in the river transportation of grain transportation to sea transportation. ”

Shen Tingyang, who had just sat down, immediately stood up again, and after bowing his hand to Chongzhen, he slowly repeated the previous recital to the emperor, and added some details.

Zhu Youzhen listened carefully for more than half an hour before he spoke: "That is to say, except for the Yamen, the governor of the river, who supports the change to sea transportation, the local officials who pass through the canal, the canal transportation company in charge of Cao Yun, and the Cao Yun Yamen are not willing to change to sea transportation. What did Cui Wensheng, the governor of Caoyun who is also in charge of the river, say? ”

Shen Tingyang hesitated for a moment and said, "Eunuch Cui said that the river yamen supports shipping in order to reduce the burden of maintaining canal shipping. However, after all, the river yamen is small and weak, and as long as there are no major floods around the canal, no one wants to listen to the river yamen.

The Caoyun Yamen, the former transportation company, and the local government where the Grand Canal passed by, they all relied on the canal to eat, and the grain was the bulk of their income, so they naturally wanted to oppose the change to sea transportation. Even if he was the governor of Caoyun, he did not dare to speak out in favor of shipping.

Otherwise, it would be a trivial matter for these people to do tricks and feet in the transportation of water, and if they instigated the 100,000 workers on the Grand Canal to make trouble, the land of Jianghuai would become a troubled place. Therefore, Eunuch Cui said that if there is no complete strategy, it is better to slowly figure it out. ”

Zhu Youzhen pursed his lips and said, "Slowly Tuzhi? I'm afraid he had the status quo in mind. The section of the canal south of Huaiyin is not enough, and the section of the canal from Huaiyin to Tianjin, in order to maintain the water level of the boats, is not allowed to discharge water to the canal when it is waterlogged, and it is not allowed to release water when it is dry, which has simply become a scourge for the people along the canal.

The eastern part of the canal is higher than the south, and there are dozens of locks on this section of the canal, and ships need to be towed by manpower to get there. I've heard that if the boatman can't get the money he pays for the gatekeeper, or if he doesn't pay enough, someone will deliberately break it up and capsize the boat in the river, right?

It is imperative to change the water transportation to sea transportation, but before changing the water transportation mode, it is also necessary to appease the water workers and divide the community of interests in the process of water transportation. I asked you to come here, that is, to let you do this. ”

Shen Tingyang and Zhang Xianzhong got up together and agreed, and listened carefully to the emperor's request. Zhu Youzhen thought for a while before continuing: "The most troublesome thing for the imperial court is these lowest-level workers. After all, such a reform will ruin their jobs.

Although all the white grain, which has lost the most at present, has been changed to sea transportation, the 4 million stone grain that is transported to the capital every year and the 8 million stone military grain that is transported to Jiubian, a total of 12 million stone, are indispensable for transporting grain to the north. Last year, in order to transport the 12 million stone grain, the imperial court spent 4.8 million stone grain transportation costs, which was the least spent in recent years.

Based on the price of rice in Jiangnan, the transportation cost cost was 2.4 million taels of silver. However, the income of the cao workers was only seven or eight taels, that is to say, after deducting the expenses of repairing the ships, the transportation yamen, and the canal lockmen, at least one-third of the expenses fell into the pockets of officials at all levels and the bows of the ships.

The first thing we have to do now is not to rush to shout that the water transport should be changed to sea transportation, but to do justice for those workers, and to fight for them for the benefits that have been exploited by the officials and the bow of the ship..."

Shen Tingyang finally understood why the emperor had asked him to set up trade unions at the wharves of the canal and recruit those wharf coolies and boatmen into the union. Although he knew in his heart that the emperor used the trade union to organize shipwrights and coolies to deal with the local officials, so as to disintegrate the community of interests in Caoyun, it was not a good way.

But as an official, he was naturally disgusted by this difficult workers' movement, and the rise of the people at the bottom to attack the officials, even if they were corrupt officials, was a kind of destruction of the existing order. If the emperor hadn't come up with such an idea, it is estimated that Shen Tingyang would have directly reprimanded him.

However, Zhang Xianzhong, who was standing behind him, was eager to try, after experiencing so many things, although Zhang Xianzhong abided by many rules, he still yearned for this kind of thing that could break the authority and break the authority. As a Jinyi official who climbed up from the bottom, he was still not very interested in those stupid and greedy officials, and at some times he preferred to agree with the position of the people rather than the position of the officials.

After listening patiently to the emperor's explanation of how to organize the workers to oppose the bows and officials who embezzled and oppressed the workers, Shen Tingyang finally couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, even if you really do what you say, you will succeed." Could it be that those cao workers would support the imperial court and agree to change the cao transport to sea transportation? ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "Of course not, anyone will naturally protect their own interests, and changing the transportation to sea means that many of them will be unemployed, how can they support the imperial court?" ”

Shen Tingyang was suddenly a little stunned, and he couldn't help but subconsciously ask, "Since this is the case, then why does Your Majesty still do this?" Isn't that the opposite? ”

Zhu Youzhen replied: "If the officials and local gentry who support the river transport will not be able to continue to benefit from it, then there will be much less opposition to the switch to maritime transport between the DPRK and China."

Who is most worried about the large number of workers and then linked through the unions? Naturally, it was those officials and gentry along the canal, because this would threaten their safety in the first place.

They are unable to benefit from Caoyun, but they have to bear the potential threat posed by Caogong. I believe that a large part of the officials and gentry will turn to the idea of reducing the size of the Cao Yun. With the support of these local officials and gentry, we can continue to dismiss the workers and reduce the scale of the Cao Movement.

A railway line from Tianjin to Xuzhou is already in preparation, and as long as this railway starts, we will be able to absorb some of the workers. After the completion of the railway line, the Zaozhuang-Tianjin section can be converted to railway transportation, so as to alleviate the lack of capacity in the northern section of the canal and carry out river maintenance.

In addition, the two phases of the project have been successfully completed, and now it seems that the results are not bad, and a lot of fertile land has been developed in some places. The imperial court will continue to promote the completion of the entire project, in addition to absorbing a large number of laborers when the project is carried out, after the completion of the project, it can also recruit a lot of workers to become farmers...

All in all, first organize the workers to crack down on those who have vested interests in the transportation of the water. If we unite with the local officials and gentry to divide the workers, first from the north and then from the south, and give the cutters a way out, then even if a small number of people are still dissatisfied, there is nothing to fear..."