After Han Yiliang and the three of them left with a thick stack of documents, Zhu Youzhen beckoned to Lu Qi and asked him to step forward and walk in front of him, and then said to him: "Let Xu Yingyuan take an accounting team from the Internal Affairs Office, and take this opportunity to transfer the property of those involved in the case to the accounts of the Internal Affairs Office, let him do it, and I will hold it for him if something happens." ”

Lu Qi answered, and hurried down to carry out the emperor's orders. When he was left alone in the room again, Zhu Youzhen walked to the balcony again and watched the smoke on Taiye Lake. Although he knew very well in his heart that his order was enough to ruin many families in Jiangnan, he still did not hesitate.

Because the capital chain of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is about to be unable to sustain itself, although the Ministry of Internal Affairs has mastered many industries that make money, these industries are still in the period of expanding production, and they cannot withdraw much funds. However, the rapid expansion of the new army has placed a heavy burden on the internal affairs office.

The 200,000-strong new army will have no less than 8 million yuan a year for food and clothing, and if we add a part of the subsidy to the frontier garrison troops, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will subsidize the army with 15 million yuan a year. At present, the annual income of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is about 2,000 yuan, and the remaining money is used to subsidize disaster relief, water conservancy projects and bear the consumption of the palace, and there is almost no surplus left.

The wealth previously looted from Yangzhou salt merchants, Japan, Quang Nam, and Malacca cities has basically filled the gap in education and medical care. But only in this way can Daming's finances improve rapidly in recent years, and it has spare time to invest in local transportation construction and the development of new fields in the border areas.

In other words, now the machine of Daming can run without obstacles, in the final analysis, it is still lubricated by a steady stream of money investment. Once the capital starts to dwindle, the machine may revert to its old ways. Without the many transportation and water conservancy projects in the northwest maintained by the imperial court and the internal affairs government, the people of Shaanxi would still return to the original road of history in desperation.

Industrialization is also a double-edged sword, as it is also an irreversible social change as industry creates greater wealth and feeds more people than agriculture. After the surplus population liberated from agriculture enjoyed the wealth and social convenience brought by industry, it was difficult for them to return to the countryside to work as cattle and sheep.

And the industrial workers who have been trained in organizing and co-operating in industry can burst out with much more destructive power than the so-called degraded and peasant rebels.

Therefore, now the entire Ming Dynasty is actually racing against time, or the Ming Dynasty has entered the era of the Industrial Revolution, and the huge wealth brought by the explosion of technology can easily support the losses caused by natural disasters to agriculture, so as to absorb and feed the surplus agricultural population.

Either because of the outbreak of natural disasters, which led to a great decline in agriculture, the unaffordable agricultural population crushed the economy of the Ming Dynasty, thus setting off a war to change the dynasty and interrupt the industrialization process of the Ming Dynasty.

In the entire empire, perhaps only Zhu Youzhen himself could see this huge risk, so he has been actively promoting the plan of emigration overseas despite the opposition of many ministers. In the current state, migrating abroad can not only alleviate the economic pressure at home, but also gain wealth for the country abroad.

To put it mildly, even if these immigrants do not survive and rebel, it will not affect the development of the country. This is why, even if the workshops in the Gyeonggi area are crying out for a shortage of workers, he still insists on relocating a large number of prisoners and the families involved in Houjin overseas.

After he divided the administrative divisions of Jiangnan several times, and suppressed the power of the Jiangnan gentry through the Yangzhou salt introduction case and the Nanjing scientific research case, this time he finally wanted to dig a piece of meat from the Jiangnan gentry to make up for the financial gap in the Ming Dynasty. The area around Taihu Lake is also the richest area in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Taihu Lake Merchant Gang, which is second only to the Jin Merchants and the Hui Merchants in strength, originates from the east and west mountains in the lake.

Zhu Youzhen pondered that if he could dig a piece of meat from these people, he should always be able to make the Ming Finance hold on for another year or two.

No matter how worried Zhu Youzhen was about the future of the Ming Dynasty, in the eyes of others, the Ming Dynasty was thriving, especially those foreigners who came to the Beijing-Tianjin area for the first time.

Abundance, freedom and peace, there is no better paradise in the world. Jin Shangxian, who followed Shen Qiyuan to the Tianjin wharf, was soon stunned by the mountains of materials on the wharf and the rows of ships on the wharf. He really couldn't imagine that there would be such a busy wharf in this world, and the materials piled up on this wharf alone could probably supply the needs of the people of Hanyang City for a month.

It wasn't until he got into the carriage that came to pick them up that Jin Shangxian withdrew his surprised gaze and said with emotion: "In the future of Shangguo for more than ten years, I didn't expect that Jinmen would have been prosperous to this point. ”

Shen Qiyuan, who has been in Daming for more than two years, has become accustomed to this kind of prosperity, and he said to Jin Shangxian at this time: "Kim Jushu, I told you when I was on the ship that North Korea has reached the point where it is impossible to carry out reforms and change the law.

When I first arrived in Shangguo, the wharf in Tianjin was just a small wooden trestle bridge, but today it has become a stone wharf made of ashlar masonry, and even sea ships can go directly to the wharf to unload their cargo. The area around the wharf was originally just a paddy field village, but now it has become a town full of warehouses.

The wealth of the above countries is still necessary to reform and strive to become strong, and our DPRK is just a small country in the east of the Strait, so what qualifications do we have to be complacent and hold on to the defects? ”

Jin Shangxian's heart finally shook a little, the king of Joseon sent the two of them to Daming to explain to Daming that the signing of the alliance between Korea and Houjin was not sincere, but just an expedient measure, hoping that the Ming Emperor would not condemn North Korea for this.

And Shen Qiyuan doesn't seem to think so, after being the ambassador of North Korea in Daming for more than two years, out of dissatisfaction with the internal party disputes and officials in North Korea, and listening to too many reformist remarks in the capital in the past two years, it is up to the fate that only by reforming North Korea can the fate of North Korea being slaughtered by the Hu people.

However, in the past, it was an extremely slim hope to reform Korea, after all, it was a difficult task to convince the Joseon king and the old-fashioned ministers who regarded party strife as their lives. Therefore, Shen Qiyuan chose to move closer to the abolished Guanghai Jun, and co-opted Lin Qingye and other military generals, trying to persuade the Joseon king to fail in reform.

However, he had clearly encountered a better opportunity now, and the re-invasion of Houjin not only greatly weakened the internal strife in Joseon, but also greatly reduced the prestige of the Joseon king. And the Ming official army once again restored the country for North Korea, which also made the Korean people's favor of the Ming Dynasty rise to the highest.

At this moment, Shen Qiyuan undoubtedly saw an opportunity to reform North Korea, as long as the Ming Dynasty could support North Korea to carry out internal reforms, then it was possible to overwhelm the opposition of the Joseon king and the old ministers, and let himself gain the power to lead the reform of North Korea. And Kim Sang-heon, who was also dissatisfied with the status quo in North Korea, and the previous main battle faction were regarded by Shen Jiyuan as the best allies.

From the beginning of leaving North Korea to the arrival in Tianjin, Shen Qiyuan has been lobbying Kim Sang-heon, and it is only today that he has some eyebrows. Seeing Jin Shangxian's thoughtful expression, Shen Qiyuan couldn't help but close his mouth, waiting for Jin Shangxian to slowly wake up.

Just as the North Korean envoy was on his way to the capital, Zhu Youzhen had already received the news. He didn't really take North Korea's so-called explanation to heart. What he values more is what the Ming can get from North Korea.

He summoned Wang Fengyuan of the Central Bank and Feng Quan of the Prime Minister's Yamen, and said to the two: "I hope that you will take over the affairs of North Korea, so that you don't have to trouble those officials of the Ministry of Rites."

I believe that what matters now is not what kind of compromise North Korea has made with Houjin, but what actions North Korea intends to take to make up for its mistakes.

I have heard the saying that the rise of a nation and the demise of a nation are the periods when wealth accumulates the fastest. Although North Korea is not on the verge of extinction now, it is undoubtedly the best time to rebuild such a ruined country and acquire wealth.

Because of the invasion of the Later Jin, the old social order has been broken, and the new social order has not been fully established. As long as we give a little guidance, then the DPRK will build according to our needs and eventually become a member of the East Asian economic and trade system.

I am sure you are well aware that even if North Korea is easily defeated by the Houjin, it is still a regional power with a population of more than 6 million. North Korea's agricultural technology is not lagging behind that of the Ming Dynasty, so for the time being, it can still export some of its grain. What we have to do is not to let it send the grain surplus to Houjin.

In addition, North Korea is mountainous and rich in mineral resources, but most of them are concentrated in the north and have not been effectively developed. Now that all parts of Korea have been ravaged by the Houjin, the Joseon king's control over the region is even weaker.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, we will find partners within North Korea, reform North Korea's politics, invest in transportation construction, and develop North Korea's minerals. It can not only expand the market for China's steel, but also penetrate the Ming Yuan into North Korea, which is the most important content of contact with North Korean envoys..."

At the same time, in the foreigner neighborhood of the Chaoyang Gate in the capital, Yoshikawa Kosuke is saying goodbye to a group of Japanese feudal lords. As the nephew of Shigegen Matsuno, he narrowly escaped the battle of returning to Japan to fight the shogunate, and completed his studies at the Beijing Industrial and Commercial School.

Although he is a samurai, there is no trace of a samurai on his body. During the last year of his studies in the capital, the feudal clans of Eastern and Western Japan, including the Edo shogunate, sent feudal priests and flagships to study, but most of them applied for army and naval schools, and very few of them, like Yoshikawa Kosuke, went to the business school.

However, as the first to study in Beijing, Yoshikawa Kosuke took good care of the samurai of each domain and the Edo shogunate. This, coupled with his profound knowledge, made him very famous among the Japanese in the capital.

In the autumn of Chongzhen's sixth year, Yoshikawa Kosuke received a letter of appointment from the Governor of Osaka, Ye Yuxuan, inviting him to enter the Governor's Mansion as an economic commissioner. In the spring of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Yoshikawa Kosuke was about to leave for Japan, and Sanada Yukimasa, Mori Katsuie, Takano Heita, and others, who accompanied Toyotomi Chiyo to Ming Province and study, bid farewell to them in a Japanese restaurant in the foreigner neighborhood.

At the end of the feast, when everyone was red-faced, the drunken Yoshikawa Kosuke raised his glass and shouted to everyone: "When I go to Osaka, Yu will lay a good foundation for the kings, and when the kings return to the country, there will be no difference between things and things, and there will be no difference between the shogunate of the feudal kingdom." May Japan be like the Ming Dynasty, and the country will flourish day by day, and eventually become unified..."

The room was silent for a while, and Sanada Yukimasa and Maori Katsuya took the lead in raising their glasses and said, "No, a toast to the unification of Japan..."