Chapter XXIII Ballot Papers

Jiang Yueguang first expressed his doubts about Li Wenzhang, and then expressed his approval of Fan Fucui, an official of the Junzuo Party. This person is very discerning, in fact, this time, the officials of the Donglin Party also signed up, but unfortunately the proposal was not well written, and it was taken down by the cabinet during the preliminary review.

At the moment, there is no one of his own people to support, Jiang Yueguang can only support others, but no matter who he supports, he must fight against Yue Su. Seeing that among the ten candidate officials, only Fan Fucui had some chances, so he simply hugged the thigh of the Junzuo Party and fought with the Junyi Party.

After he finished speaking, Li Wenzhang had already sat back in his chair at this moment, but immediately one person stood up. "Lord Jiang's statement is really good, if you want to be safe, it should be Lord Fan's proposal. However, the most important thing that the new governor of Songjiang did after taking office was to open the port and open it for trade, which involved people, mainly merchants. Therefore, Benjue believes that the advice of businessmen must be heeded. When a merchant goes to sea to do business, he has to bring workers and sailors, and he has to bring enough food and fresh water, and more importantly, goods, there will be no shortage at all. There are so many people and so many things, but the area of the ship is limited after all. The merchant cargo ships were far smaller than the large warships of the imperial court, and if the imperial army were hired on board, it would have to increase a lot of fresh water and food, and the goods that could be carried would be relatively reduced. Merchants go to sea to do business, the purpose is to make money, the imperial court opened the port, the purpose is to let the merchants make more money, in order to increase the imperial court's taxes. If there are fewer goods to carry, there will be a lot of taxes, and in this way, there will be less money to be made, and in this way, it will not discourage the enthusiasm of merchants to go to sea to do business. As soon as there are fewer merchants going to sea, the country's tax revenue will also decrease. Since we are members of the imperial court, we naturally consider the imperial court first, and on the basis of ensuring the imperial court, we should also consider it for them, and strive to achieve a win-win situation, so that everyone can benefit. After all, there is only one party in this world that benefits from it, and it cannot be long-term. Lord Wang's proposal, although slightly risky, is that he is worried that the weapons that the merchants have lent from here will work against the imperial court. On the surface, there is indeed such a possibility, but just now Uncle Li also said that the five businessmen and parliamentarians here decided to set up a chamber of commerce to ensure that the risk is minimized. Whether it can be done or not, Ben Jue is not very clear, but it is very good that Uncle Li can have this idea, and he is willing to make a bold statement in the parliament, and he will not be a little uncertain, after all, this is already a military order. As long as something happens, you can go to their chamber of commerce. In this case, why don't you believe Uncle Li, Uncle Li has done a lot for the imperial court, and his status in the business world is also recognized. To put it mildly, even if the imperial court does not lend weapons to merchants, there are still merchants who smuggle them from other places, and if they do not borrow weapons from the imperial court, they can still go to foreigners to buy them. At the moment, Lord Li is willing to vouch, I think it's a good thing, even if those merchants who are not renting firearms here in the imperial court, once they make a move with the official army and sink the warships of the official army, such things, if the source of the firearms cannot be determined, can they still go to their chamber of commerce. Uncle Li is willing to take the initiative to solve so many things for the imperial court, why don't we support him? Also, in the absence of unstable factors, Lord Wang's proposal is undoubtedly the most suitable, which not only ensures the interests of the imperial court, but also allows businessmen to make more money. That's all I said. ”

The person who said this naturally called himself Benjue, and as you can imagine, he was naturally a noble member of the council. Yes, this person is the British public who has business dealings with Li Wenzhang.

Li Wenzhang has just proposed the establishment of a chamber of commerce, which guarantees the lease of weapons to the imperial court, and no matter what happens, he is willing to bear it, as long as a businessman dares to use weapons and the imperial court's warships against him, he is responsible for finding out the people. This proposal is very risky, but it is the result of discussions with Zhang Zhiji, as well as other businessmen, parliamentarians, and councilors who have close friendships with Zhang Zhiji. In this world, the greater the risk, the greater the accompanying benefits. If a chamber of commerce is established, these people present here will undoubtedly become the leading figures in the chamber of commerce, and other businessmen who join the chamber must join their doors, because Li Wenzhang said it well, and use the chamber of commerce as a guarantee for them to borrow weapons from the imperial court.

Wang Qiaonian also said that only a person with an identity can do this guarantee, once something happens, he will sit together, just ask the world, how many people dare to do this guarantee. Although you don't have a guarantor, you can also lease weapons, but you have to hire at least 50 instructors, and if you hire so many people, how can you do a business at sea that has no money. Even if you don't rob the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty, you can rob the merchant ships of foreigners, won't it also get in the way? Therefore, Li Wenzhang is sure that basically most businessmen will join the Chamber of Commerce, and at that time, the status of the Chamber of Commerce will definitely be greatly improved, and the benefits contained in it will become bigger and bigger.

The risks of the things they guarantee are indeed a little bigger, but Li Wenzhang is also sure of this, otherwise he would not dare to boast about Haikou. In this world, soldiers catch thieves, and they may not be caught, but thieves catch thieves, basically looking for a quasi-person, who doesn't know whom. Li Wenzhang's business is all over the world, and the four businessmen and parliamentarians who sat down with him are also extremely powerful, plus the nobles of the British Duke and the Chengguo Prince, how powerful they are, which can be seen. When these people's buying and selling are added together, I dare not say that there are their trades in all places in the world, but at least it can be said that as long as there are slightly larger places, there are their shops. With so many people joining forces, unless you don't go ashore to sell goods, as long as you go ashore, you can find a little bit of cattiness, and it is not necessarily difficult to find it. Cracking down on a smuggling businessman will definitely get a lot of income, and the imperial court will not be able to share the points they contribute, and if they crack down on two more such people, the smuggling businessman must not take the initiative to his subordinates. For businessmen, it is not difficult to secretly buy some artillery and muskets, even if they don't buy them from the local prison army, they can also buy them from foreigners, the only difference is whether it is legal or not. If you borrow guns and artillery from the imperial court to legalize it, who would want to do it secretly.

Li Wenzhang set up a chamber of commerce for many purposes, for example, the Anmin Bank, the bank that the Li family is now a joint venture with the imperial court, has seen profits, and if the bank wants to make more money for itself, this chamber of commerce will definitely play a greater role.

"Grandpa, what do you say......" Jiang Yueguang saw Zhang Zhiji speaking to Li Wenzhang, and was about to refute it, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he heard Li Wenzhang say lightly: "This Lord Jiang, just now Lord Yue has spoken first, and the rule here is that each person can only express his opinion once, and then he can't say it again." If you are like this, you will say everything I say, and there will be no end, and when will this council be held before it can elect people? ”

"You ......" Jiang Yueguang was angry in his heart, but he knew the rules, the rules of the parliament had already been issued, and Yue Su was just retrial. Now that Li Wenzhang pouted him, Jiang Yueguang was also helpless, so he could only grit his teeth and sit back.

In the council hall, it was quiet, and Yue Su saw that no one spoke anymore, so he said, "Is there anyone else who wants to say anything?" ”

No one in the hall made a sound, and thinking that it was also a tacit acquiescence, Yue Su said: "Okay, let's start voting now." ”

With that, he stepped down from the stage and sat down in his place.

The parliamentarians are now starting to write down the ballots, which are very simple, one is the name of the person to be elected, and the other is their own name, and the ballot is quickly written, and then the cabinet staff comes and collects it.

After all the selections were completed, Yue Su stood up again, but did not go to the wooden platform, but directly turned around and said loudly to the councillors present: "Now read out the results of the ballot, in order to ensure fairness and justice, when the ballot is read, not only the name of the elector, but also the name of the elector, if there is any discrepancy, you can immediately put it forward." Okay, let's start now, declare, count! ”

In the hall of the parliament, the election board has been prepared in advance, and on the wooden board, there is a white paper pasted on which the names of the ten candidates are written.

A cabinet member stands in front of the palette with a pen, and one picks up the ballot paper and begins to read it. Because it is a real-name system, there is no need for someone to scrutinize the votes, if you dare to make it up, the parliamentarians in the hall are actually vegetarians. It can be said that a secret ballot is much fairer and more just than a secret ballot. The so-called secret ballot, said to be worried about what will be retaliated against in the future, causing a bad impact on people or something, this is the idea of later generations, in the Ming Dynasty, every day there are excerpts of people, and they are all real-name system, who is afraid of whom. The first assistant, the second assistant, the cabinet scholar, the six books and other high-ranking officials, which have not been involved, in a year, it is normal to be scolded three or five times.

Therefore, this voting election is also very clean.

I only listened to the staff, took the first ballot, and read aloud: "Wang Qiaonian has one vote, and the voter Yue Su!" ”

After shouting, he paused, and the staff holding the pen immediately drew a horizontal on Wang Qiaonian's name. Seeing that he finished drawing, the person who read the vote picked up the second ballot and read it aloud: "Wang Qiaonian has two votes, and the voter is Zhang Zhenggang!" ”

The pen holder drew a vertical again. The vote reader read one by one, and the writer wrote one by one, and the votes in front were all from the Yue Party officials, so all the twenty-nine votes were given to Wang Qiaonian.

"Wang Qiao's Chinese New Year's Eve 30 votes, voter Qi Shijiao!"

When the ballot paper was read out by the tellers, many of the parliamentarians present were stunned, wondering why Qi Shijiao did not choose officials from his own party, but instead chose officials from the Monarchy Party. Qi Shijiao has the idea of Qi Shijiao, he can see that Wang Qiaonian's election can be said to be the overall situation, the five votes of businessmen are bound to vote for Wang Qiaonian, and the same is true of the ten votes of the nobles, because these people, out of consideration of interests, will definitely stand on Wang Qiaonian's side. On the side of the generals, there will also be people who stand in Wang Qiaonian's place, although it is difficult to say on the eunuch's side, but Liu Mingguo and Cao Huachun have a lot of friendship with Yue Su, and there are also many people who do business with the eunuchs' families, and they are in their own interests, plus Yue Su, it is normal to vote for Wang Qiaonian.

In addition to these votes, all that remained were the votes of the Ilo Party, as well as the non-party officials and the three families of the Scholars, Peasants and Workers. The Yiluo Party is obviously studying with the prince, and this time it should be ready to play soy sauce, and it will not offend Yue Su if it comes to mind, even if it does not vote for Wang Qiaonian, it will not vote for Fan Fucui. The votes of non-party officials and scholars, peasants and workers, that is not accurate, even if there are ten votes and eight votes for Fan Fucui, it is useless, after all, the Junzuo Party only has twenty-three votes, and it can't make up fifty when added together, so why bother to compete directly with Yue Su. This time it's all about going through the motions and getting a glimpse of the council's situation.

Besides, voting for Wang Qiaonian can also show that he is selfless. After all, his own actions can be understood by the people under him.

But the old rivers and lakes are the old rivers and lakes, and he can't let the people of his party not have a single vote, because then it will definitely chill the people under him. Therefore, when he was discussing just now, he had already arranged that he and five officials would vote for Wang Qiaonian, and the remaining seventeen people would vote for Wang Qiaonian and other officials who thought they were running for the election, but Wang Qiaonian had more votes, with eleven votes.

One vote by vote was read, and soon, the ballots of the Junzuo Party officials were also read. The voter picked up another ballot paper and read it aloud: "Wang Qiao's thirty-six votes in the Chinese New Year's Eve, voter Lu Weiqi." ”

is also an old Jianghu, Lu Weiqi is not confused, he also gave his ticket to Wang Qiaonian. Because his thoughts are the same as those of Qi Shijiao. It is impossible for officials from their own party to be elected if they want to be elected, so it is better to vote impartially, which can be regarded as selling Yue Su's friendship. Their party had a total of ten votes, and he led two people to vote for Wang Qiaonian, and the other seven votes were given to two officials from his own party who ran for election.

Next, it was the votes cast by the nobles, and as expected by Qi Shijiao, the ten noble parliamentarians all voted for Wang Qiaonian, and at this time, Wang Qiaonian had forty-eight votes. With two more votes, you will be shortlisted. The businessman's five votes must be on him, and Wang Qiaonian has already been elected.

Of the 16 votes, only three votes were cast for Wang Qiaonian, one of which was cast by Hong Chengchou, the secretary of the Ministry of War. There were two votes for Fan Fucui, one of which was voted by Jiang Yueguang. The other 11 votes were cast for the five non-partisan officials who ran for election. Everyone has no party affiliation, so you can't have a choice, you can't have no vote.

Shilin's ten votes, it can be said, greatly exceeded Qi Shijiao's expectations, because these ten votes were all voted for Fan Fucui. The children of Shilin in this year, no matter what, pay attention to a high face and do not look down on businessmen. Therefore, compared with Wang Qiaonian's suggestion, they think that Fan Fucui's is more appropriate. However, the votes of the Junzuo Party were scattered, and with their ten votes, Han Fucui only had twenty-three votes.

The votes cast by the generals were not unexpected at all, and they were all given to Wang Qiaonian. It is natural for Zhang Xianzhong to vote for Wang Qiaonian, and other generals, because they also have business at home, they also think that Wang Qiaonian's suggestion is better. There are already guards in your own business, and it is not bad to stretch out your hand, it must be stronger than those ruffians, what is the use of asking you to get in the way of getting on the ship, and it will also affect the loading of the ship.

Although the votes cast by the three circles of agriculture and industry have nothing to do with the agriculture and industry of Beizhili, they have been able to sit here and have a meeting with the bigwigs of the DPRK and China over the years, so they have to show some level, and the vote cannot be hasty or blind. Considering that he was able to sit here, it was all thanks to Lord Yue, and Lord Yue was very good to the people, and when the price of grain in Nanzhili rose sharply, he fully helped everyone, so all the votes were cast on Wang Qiaonian. There were a total of 18 votes for agriculture and industry.

Now Wang Qiaonian has 76 votes, far more than the other candidates. Finally, there were the votes of the eunuch councillors, and they also had a total of eighteen votes, but they did not concentrate on one person, but voted for three people separately, and even exactly, six votes per person. These three people are Wang Qiaonian, Fan Fucui, and an official of the Yiluo Party.

This method of casting is very confusing, but it is quickly seen to be clues. In this way, the ten are instructed by the Queen Mother, three parties and one family with six votes, not biased or biased, who can be selected in the end, you all rely on your ability.

With these six votes, Wang Qiaonian has a total of eighty-two votes, and the rest of the people, each over fifty, according to the rules, Wang Qiaonian was successfully elected, reported to the emperor, and directly ordered to appoint.

At the end of the parliament, before the imperial court could make a decree, Wang Qiaonian was appointed as the governor of Songjiang, and Li Wenzhang and other five businessmen and parliamentarians took action and established a chamber of commerce. Immediately, the nobles in Beijing, some military generals, eunuchs, and officials who knew about the matter also sent people from their families to invest their own business in the Chamber of Commerce. In this, Zhang Xianzhong is very active, it can be said that after Zhang Xianzhong established a bank in Yuesu, he began to let his henchmen open a trading shop, and this time it was a big investment. Ocean trading to make money, there is still a group of people under his hand who can fight, rented weapons from the imperial court, and when they go to sea, whether they have capital or no capital, they do some, and the silver is not rolling in.

The news of the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce soon spread throughout Beizhili. This time, there was an old man in Yanghe who couldn't sit still.

This old man is none other than Wu Sinan, the governor of Xuanda. Wu Sinan has always had to inquire about the movements of the imperial court, and the last time the sun opened the sea, he heard that many businessmen had made a lot of money, and his mind was a little moved. In the past, I was a governor in Fujian, and I had nothing to do to make a little fire consumption, but now, the imperial court has opened a bank, so don't think about fire consumption. Military salaries or anything can't be deducted, and when people come to send silver, he doesn't accept it, at most he collects some words and paintings.

Wu Sinan, the governor of Xuanda, is a member of the second rank of the military department, to tell the truth, Yu Lu is okay. But there are a lot of people in the family, and they have to go out to have a good time, where is the silver enough to spend. Overseas trade is so prosperous, it is obviously an opportunity, this time, the imperial court opened a port in Songjiang again, and a chamber of commerce was established in the capital, so it is a pity not to get a piece of the pie.

It is not uncommon for relatives of officials to do business, but the difference is that the capital is not enough. To go to sea for trade, you need a ship, and the governor of Xuanda doesn't care about the ship, which is really a headache. I had the heart to ask Lord Yue to borrow one, but I was embarrassed to speak.

However, in this world, people come up with methods, and Wu Sinan quickly came up with a method. When he was the governor of Fujian, he not only had some relationship with Mao Youjian, who was the chief soldier of the navy, but also had some friendship with Shi Daxuan, who pretended to be a pirate, after all, Shi Daxuan's military salary was issued by the imperial court. Shi Daxuan is righteous, and the ships in his hands are not accurate, so there should be no problem in borrowing one and a half ships. Therefore, Wu Sinan sent his henchmen to Fujian to borrow a ship from Shi Daxuan.

As a result, this Shi Daxuan was not an ordinary righteousness, and he was afraid that one ship would not be enough for Wu Sinan, so he borrowed three of them. Not only that, but also asked people to tell Wu Sinan, if you need guns or something, if it is inconvenient for you to transfer them, just ask me.

Wu Sinan didn't dare to mess around, and after getting three ships, he was already very satisfied. As for firearms and other things, try to go through the regular route.

It's not enough to have a ship, you have to have money to buy goods and open a storefront. However, even if Lord Wu is not a moonlight clan, he is not much worse, and after thinking about it, he decided to go to the bank for a mortgage. Of course, he can't borrow in his own name, his eldest wife Jiang Xuanna has a younger brother, and he is quite clever, so Wu Sinan asked him to go. The bank loans are all mortgages, generally with real estate and land as collateral, and Lord Wu's hometown has a few acres of thin fields, but where is it enough, he can't put the Xuanda Governor's Mansion into custody.

Wu Sinan thought about it, and simply put all the calligraphy and paintings he had collected. There is Anmin Bank in Taiyuan, and the Li family's faction is that they can bet anything, but it is not comparable to the actual price of the land, but it is also more than the pawnshop. Wu Sinan turned out all the family funds, asked his brother-in-law Jiang Xuantang to take him to Taiyuan Anmin Bank, and pledged 20,000 taels of silver, on the one hand, he asked someone to do the goods, and on the other hand, he asked Jiang Xuantang to go to Beijing, join the Chamber of Commerce, and then go to Rizhao to find Li Yuanchen, just say that it is my brother-in-law, I want to learn to do some business, you can help, get a shop, the rent is best owed first, and then repaid.

Why didn't you choose to go to Songjiang, Wu Sinan understood that since the system was restructured over there, Rizhao would definitely follow suit, even earlier than Rizhao. After all, the imperial court's warships are now limited, and now that ocean-going trade is prevalent, more and more merchants are joining the ranks, and it is impossible to have enough warships to escort merchant ships to sea repeatedly on the Rizhao side. Where is not dry.

Don't say it, Li Yuanchen is really giving face, as soon as he heard that it was Wu Sinan's brother-in-law, he didn't say a word, and immediately dialed the store. As for the rent, I will help you pay it in advance, and if you have money, you will pay it back, and if you don't have money, you will owe it.

Wu Sinan has been busy with these things these days, and he was working in the back hall this day, when suddenly Jian Xiu came running angrily.

As soon as he pushed the door, he shouted loudly: "Wu Sinan! You've done a great job! ”

Wu Sinan was taken aback, usually the sword embroidery is knowledgeable and very quiet, he has never spoken so loudly in his life, but he didn't expect that this time he would be so loud. At this moment, the two are husband and wife, but usually, they are all raising their eyebrows, what is going on today.

Wu Sinan asked cautiously, "Madam, are you looking for me...... What good have I done......"

"What you've done, you know in your heart." After Jian Xiu finished speaking, his starry eyes widened and he shouted, "You two, give me out!" ”

Wu Ping and Wu An stood by Wu Sinan's side, and when they heard this, they immediately rushed out, and after going out, they didn't forget to close the door, and by the way, they sent all the guards at the door away, so as not to hear anything that should not be heard, and chew their tongues outside. Only the two of them, guarding outside. wW