Sun Guanglong put forward his future work plan above the parliament, which was generally not bad, but after he finished speaking, Li Wenzhang immediately raised a question: If you encourage both farming and local fishing, is there a policy to encourage businessmen to go to sea?

This question was very important to the businessman, and as soon as his question was raised, the other businessmen immediately nodded and stared at Sun Guanglong together to see how he answered. Mo said that it was a businessman, even those nobles and officials who had business with their families also pricked up their ears.

However, this problem stumped Sun Guanglong, and the policy of encouraging going to sea should be encouraged. After thinking for a while, he said: "Regarding the policy of encouraging merchants to go to sea, this official has also thought about it, that is, to discuss with the cabinet to reduce the tax rate for customs entry and entry. ”

For him, he didn't think about how to encourage him, but now when the councillor asks him, he has to answer, because he knows that if he doesn't answer well, he is likely to lose five votes from the businessman. It is even possible that even some nobles will not buy his account.

"Negotiate with the cabinet to reduce the tax rate for entry and exit? Can the Cabinet agree? Li Wenzhang couldn't help laughing and said: "Yue Shoufu of the cabinet is here, it is usually difficult for us to meet Lord Yue, but today's council, we are fortunate to be able to meet, so we might as well ask Lord Yue by the way, can the matter of reducing the customs and entry tariff rates be realized?" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, more than a hundred pairs of eyes in the council hall immediately threw themselves in the direction of Yue Su.

"Overseas trade, the profit is extremely high, this tax rate, is not high. Now is the time for the imperial court to use silver. How can taxes be easily reduced. This is not possible now, but it may be possible in the future. Yue Su replied bluntly.

"It's impossible now, Lord Sun. You also heard what Lord Yue said. Li Wenzhang really dares to say anything, of course, the parliamentary system only stipulates, and he can say anything. Immediately after, Li Wenzhang smiled slightly, and said: "Master Sun, what you said is about the port system. Basically the same system as Rizhao Port, a naval division was established, and the naval warships escorted everyone to sea. and charge a fee for protection. But here, Li wanted to ask, the current naval warships were all transferred to Liaodong by Lord Yue to fight, this battle. It can be said that it is protracted, and it is normal to fight for three or five years, how can there be any ships transferred to the newly established sailors, even if they are freshly built. I'm afraid it's too late. It is said that it is known that the shipyard in Fujian. Although some warships have been built in the past two years, they only need to get out of the water. Either sent to Tianjin Wei, or transferred to Fujian and Zhejiang Naval Divisions, busy maintaining order at sea and preventing people from going to sea without permission. I am afraid that there will not be enough warships to protect the safety of our merchants for a while, you know, the sea is vast, there are countless seas, and without enough warships to protect us, our merchant ships are very dangerous. ”

"This ......" Li Wenzhang's next question really stopped Sun Guanglong, and after thinking for a long time, he just said in a hesitant manner: "This official will be with ...... Cabinet Deliberation...... From elsewhere the water master ...... Secondment of warships ......"

As soon as he finished answering, Li Wenzhang immediately looked in the direction where Yue Su was sitting, and said: "Lord Yue, Lord Sun said that he will discuss with the cabinet and seconded the naval warships elsewhere, I don't know if the cabinet can agree, and how much is he willing to second?" ”

"Uncle Li, you also know the situation in the imperial court, and you know that the current warships of the imperial court are also very tight. However, Songjiang Prefecture needs to open up the sea, and after the establishment of a naval division, the cabinet will definitely strive to transfer some warships from Fujian and Zhejiang to maintain law and order in the waters of Songjiang Prefecture. As for how many, it is estimated that it is only enough to maintain law and order in the sea area. Yue Su didn't hide it and answered truthfully. The warships on the Liaodong side must not be moved, and now they must be harassed, and in the future, they will have to advance by land and water, and how to fight without warships.

But as soon as Sun Guanglong heard Yue Su's answer, before Li Wenzhang could speak, he hurriedly said: "Lord Yue, your cabinet doesn't allocate enough warships to come, let me wait for how to act as a governor." But I don't know, if it were your monarch party official Governor Matsue, would you do the same? ”

"This official has always treated everyone equally." Yue Su replied categorically.

"Okay, then the lower officials have nothing to say, just wait for your Monarch Party officials to come to the election, and answer their questions." Sun Guanglong said very dissatisfied. Many of the officials of the Ming Dynasty had tempers, and there were many people who dared to scold the emperor and the first assistant.

Then, Sun Guanglong arched his hand at everyone and said, "Sun has nothing to say, retire now and let the next one come." With that, he turned and exited the council hall.

At this moment, everyone in the council hall looked at Yue Su, not knowing what Lord Yue thought, and at the same time, he thought the same as Sun Guanglong, wanting to see what kind of rhetoric the officials of the Monarch Wing Party were saying when they ran for election.

After a while, another official running for election entered the party, and this official was also a person without party affiliation, and his proposal, which was similar to Sun Guanglong's, could not be answered to Li Wenzhang's question. In the end, he left the scene in a huff.

Soon, three more officials entered, including officials from the Ilo Party, but the answer was the same as the first two.

Next, the official who entered the entrance was called Fan Fucui, a native of Huangxian County, Dengzhou, a Jinshi in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, and a Kaifeng pusher, because he made a contribution when guarding Kaifeng, and he was proudly promoted. Because of the Shandong people, they naturally joined the Qi Party, that is, a member of the Junzuo Party later.

Fan Fucui's inauguration proposal, but the first five are all different, which can be described as unsightly and eye-catching. Among his proposals, there are not only ordinary issues such as dedication to people's livelihood and management of litigation, but the focus is on the issue of opening ports. As for how to encourage businessmen to go to sea, he said in his proposal that after he took office, he would imitate the Fujian shipyard and manufacture warships, and the warships produced would be sold to businessmen in addition to being used for local security, and the prices would be guaranteed to be low, and the quality would definitely be better than those built by the people themselves, and the prices would definitely be cheaper. After the opening of the port, the merchants went to sea and needed to be protected, what he said was also very pertinent, the imperial court did not have extra warships to protect the merchants in a short time, and it is estimated that only a small number of warships could be allocated to maintain the law and order in the waters around Songjiang Prefecture, how to protect the merchants. Here's what he said. Although there were no warships in the imperial court, there were still troops in the local area, and there were still artillery and muskets, and merchants could pay protection money. Hire the troops of the imperial court, and the troops of the imperial court carry artillery, muskets and other weapons on board to ensure your safety.

After he finished the proposal, the merchants looked at each other and nodded, thinking that this method was good, and there must be danger for the caravan to go to sea. If there were troops from the imperial court to protect it, it would be much safer.

Fan Fucui's proposal was affirmed in the hearts of businessmen and some nobles. They believe that this method will work. But I am also curious about what kind of proposal the officials of the Monarch Wing Party will have, and whether it will be better than Fan Fucui's proposal.

Soon. The answer is revealed. After Fan Fucui withdrew, two officials came in to speak, one of them was the Ilo Party. One is still the Junzuo Party, after they finished speaking. Walking in was an official of the Monarch Wing Party. This person's name is Wang Qiaonian, and he is a jinshi in the second year of the Apocalypse. Zhejiang Sui'an, although he is from Zhejiang, did not join the Zhejiang Party, who called him a protégé of Lord Yue, and naturally joined the Yue Party at that time.

Wang Qiaonian first served as an official in the Criminal Department, and was later promoted to the prefect of Qingzhou, the deputy envoy of Denglai Armament, and finally succeeded Sun Chuanting as a squire in the Ministry of War. Wang Qiaonian is an official and self-motivated, evil clothes and food, no matter where he goes, he only carries two servants, and does not follow his own family. When he was the prefect of Qingzhou, he was able to do it, and more than ten soil files were placed in the corridor, and the litigants were self-cooked, and the officials did not dare to ask for a penny. When he was the deputy envoy of Denglai's military reserves, he could also do rest and gallop and ride, practice bow and knife stabbing, and sleep in the wind and dew.

It can be said that in Shandong, Wang Qiaonian's reputation is very loud.

Among the officials of the Yue Party who ran for governor of Songjiang this time, there were naturally many people who signed up, but when the candidate was finally finalized, Yue Su only finalized one Wang Qiaonian. When it was presented to Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan was very puzzled, and didn't understand why the Junzuo Party and the Yiluo Party both sent two people, but the Junyi Party only chose one.

This is called Guijing is not expensive, unless ten people are from one party, otherwise, it is useless to have more, after all, there is only one who is elected, if there are many people, the number of votes will be shared. Of course, Wang Qiaonian did not give it in vain, not to mention the official righteousness, so that the Yue Party officials were very convinced, and their abilities were also outstanding.

His proposals, whether it is for the people's livelihood or the opening of the port, are very clear, but his method is similar to that of Fan Fucui, which is to open a shipyard and sell ships to merchants at low prices. However, in terms of the protection of merchant ships, different plans have been proposed. What is the plan, Fan Fucui is to lend the troops to businessmen and collect protection fees, but Wang Qiaonian does not give troops to the troops, only leases weapons and collects lease fees. When going to sea, pay a deposit and guarantee to the imperial court, pay the lease fee, return to the port, return the weapon, take back the charge, and if a cannonball or bullet is used, pay as much as it is used.

This proposal, for the businessman, is better than Fan Fucui's, after all, the troops of the imperial court are rented, and when they arrive on the ship, they have to be offered like their ancestors, greeted with good food and drink, and it is difficult to say what the quality of this army is. But if you can rent weapons and take people to sea yourself, then it is a different matter, which big businessman does not have some guards at home, and their guards are all well-trained, and their abilities are even above the army. To put it mildly, if you want to get some weapons, it's not that you can't, it's just that when you go out of customs, the inspection is strict, who dares to carry it. If the imperial court is willing to rent, in this way, going to sea with weapons is equivalent to legalization, and with its own weapons at sea, it is not restricted, and it can not only do business openly, but also do some business without capital, why not do it.

Businessmen who can become business representatives belong to big businessmen, and they have money at home, and for them, they naturally like it. Not only the five merchant councilors, but also those nobles were also very happy, their thoughts were actually the same as those of the merchants, although they said that the troops of the imperial court were hired to go to sea, and the soldiers of the imperial court did not dare to make a mistake on their ships, but if they wanted to do something without capital, it would be too taboo, after all, the troops of the imperial court were also outsiders, and there were many people, and God knows if they would say it.

But at this time, a man stood up, this person was less than twenty, handsome and dashing. Zhuge Xiang, a student of Guozijian, the prisoner is also divided into 369 and so on, he is a Xiucai prisoner, and he is called a tribute student in Guozijian. However, Zhuge Xiangwen is very popular, and he is quite famous in Beizhili, and some people even call him the first genius in Beizhili, and his future is limitless. Because of this, Zhuge Xiangwei was elected as a member of Shilin and participated in the parliament.

"Lord Wang, student Zhuge Xiang, is a tribute student of Guozijian, a councilor launched by Shilin, and I have a question I want to ask here." Zhuge Xiang said.

"It turns out that you are Zhuge Xiang. Your reputation is also well known to the official. I don't know if you have any questions for you. Wang Qiaonian said politely.

"What the students want to ask is that if artillery and muskets are rented to merchants, then if there are unscrupulous merchants. What about using these weapons to do evil at sea? Everyone knows that now there is only one port in Rizhao, plus Songjiang, there are only two ports, overseas trade, very profitable, merchants who secretly go to the shore from other places. There will definitely be. Now they have no weapons in their hands, and if they want to smuggle, once they encounter the patrol warships of the imperial court, they can only obediently tie their hands. But if you have weapons, when you return home, you will not land from Songjiang, but secretly land from other places, if you encounter officers and soldiers. If you have the power to resist, it will inevitably bring casualties to the imperial court, so what? Businessmen have always profited, I can assure you. There are not a few people who dare to take risks. Zhuge Xiang said vigorously.

His rhetoric. What makes Li Wenzhang and other businessmen hate is the itching of their teeth, aren't you looking for trouble.

Wang Qiaonian did not hesitate at all. He replied directly: "There are pros and cons to everything." I have been an official in Dengzhou for a long time, and there are many foreign missionaries there, and I have talked to them, and I have heard them say that in Western countries, overseas trade is very prevalent, and their countries are also very encouraging, selling weapons to merchants and letting them go to sea to do business, the purpose is also to worry about encountering thieves at sea. When a merchant goes to sea, he has a weapon and can protect himself. I also thought about sending troops to go to sea with merchants to be responsible for protection, but in this way, there must be too many people on board, and if there are more people, there will be more provisions, which is also very disadvantageous at sea. And when weapons are leased to merchants, such a problem does not arise. In addition, the problem you mentioned does happen, there are profit-seeking merchants, in order to evade customs duties, take risks, go ashore from other places, meet the imperial court sailors, and fight back with weapons rented from the imperial court. Therefore, the official has formulated a rule, to rent weapons from the imperial court, you need to protect people, and the guarantor must have a certain identity, if there is a similar accident, not only the merchants who rent weapons from the imperial court, but also according to the theory of rebellion, all over the door will be beheaded, even the guarantor will be affected by the strain and destroy the whole door. In addition, I also intend that when the merchants lease weapons, there is a condition that they must hire at least eight teachers of the imperial court, and these eight people will supervise them. If there is an accident with these eight people, and the merchant ship is still there, then the imperial court must investigate the merchant ship. Moreover, the lease of weapons to merchants is only a trial and see how it works? If there are many people who violate the ban, after the imperial court pacifies Liaodong, the naval warships do not have to fight, and they can take Rizhao Port as an example to carry out ship escort business and stop the weapon leasing business. If no one violates the ban, the arms lending business can still continue. ”

After his answer, Li Wenzhang, Zhang Zhiji and other businessmen and parliamentarians, as well as Xungui parliamentarians, all nodded their heads again and again. In their hearts, they have already decided that the imperial court rents weapons, and they lease weapons not for smuggling or confrontation with the imperial court, but just to protect themselves at sea and do some business without capital.

However, Zhuge Xiang spoke again, "Lord Wang, your method is also feasible, and the students agree." However, the student has another concern here, and wants to consult Master Wang. Merchants have weapons, to the sea, naturally will no longer obey the laws of the court, the sea is vast, and there is no one to supervise, if I Ming merchants, in order to pursue profits, kill each other at sea, compete for goods, then what should I do? Also, the lord said that to lease the weapons of the imperial court, you need to find a reputable guarantor, if you can't find such a guarantor, what should you do? ”

"As I said before, anyone who rents the guns of the Imperial Court must employ the teachers of the Imperial Court, and in order to avoid being bought, at least eight of them per ship. The court will select honest people to supervise the hired teachers. After returning to the sea, he wrote down everything that happened at sea, and if it was found to be false, he was guilty of the same crime as the merchant who committed the crime. If the Ming merchants who went to sea attacked each other, they would be held accountable and punished as killing people and overselling goods. If there are merchants who can't find a guarantor and want to rent court weapons, it is also simple, and at least fifty court instructors are hired per ship. Wang Qiaonian said.

Lord Wang's answer is very good, but I don't know if the businessmen will be able to do it at that time. The student has reservations here, and I don't have a problem with that. After speaking, Zhuge Xiang sat back.

Zhuge Xiang's mention of these issues only involves disputes between natives, and does not mention wars with foreigners. In fact, the answer to this question is very simple, if there is a dispute between a native and a foreigner, then beat, and if you die, you will be killed. Even if the merchants of the Ming Dynasty made the first move, they wanted to rob the merchant ships of foreigners. There's nothing to say, everyone has their own abilities, and they can't just allow foreigners to rob Ming merchants.

Inside the council hall, there was silence. Wang Qiaonian waited for a while, and saw that no one asked any more questions, before he said: "If you don't have any other questions, this official will retreat first." ”

The congressman nodded, and without anyone asking, Wang Qiaonian turned around and retreated.

Immediately after that, the remaining officials who are running for election enter in turn and say their proposals. But compared with Wang Qiaonian and Fan Fucui's, their proposal is not a little bit worse, and it is simply not new.

When the last official to run for election withdrew, Yue Su stood up. Walking to the wooden platform, he shouted to everyone: "Now that the ten candidate officials have finished speaking, in the next time, you can study for yourself who to choose." Wait until a stick of incense is over. Start voting. Now light incense and do your own research. ”

After Yue Su finished speaking, a forbidden soldier lit a stick of incense and put it on the table on the wooden platform. Yue Su returned to his place. In the parliament, discussions also began.

This gang discusses. It's also gangs, who has a relationship with whom. Just get together and talk to each other. Although they are all people with status, here, in order to prevent being heard by them, it can only be so.

The time of a stick of incense passed quickly. Yue Su walked up to the wooden platform again and said loudly: "The hour has come, and the voting has begun." On your desk, you have pen and paper to write the name of the person you want to vote for and sign your name. The official reminded again that if you do not write your name, you should abstain from it. ”

"Lord Yue, can you wait a minute, the old man has something to say." As soon as Yue Su's words were finished, Li Wenzhang suddenly stood up. Although he is the father-in-law of Lord Yue, in front of business, he also has to do business.

"Members of Parliament have the right to express their views before voting, but each member has only one opportunity to speak. Uncle Li, if you have anything to say, just say it. Yue Su said.

"Ahem......" Li Wenzhang cleared his throat, glanced around, and said loudly: "The five of us in the merchant council have discussed with each other and decided to support Lord Wang Qiaonian. Because I think that Lord Wang's words are very reasonable, at present, trade at sea is prevalent, and foreign merchants have weapons, but my Ming businessmen go to sea to do business, and there are no weapons, and sometimes, they suffer a lot. Although it was also a way to hire the troops of the imperial court, the size of the ships was limited, and the large number of troops hired by the imperial court could not carry enough sailors and workers. Therefore, it is more suitable for us merchants to borrow weapons and teach from the imperial court. Of course, Zhuge Gongzi's words just now are also very reasonable, the imperial court provides us with convenience, but among our businessmen, it is inevitable that there will be mercenary scum. So, the five of us merchant councilors came up with a way to help the court solve this trouble. Our method is that the five of us take the lead in setting up a chamber of commerce organization, but if the businessman who joins our chamber of commerce, our chamber of commerce is willing to vouch for him, and after renting weapons from the imperial court, he will never break the law and commit a taboo, if the businessmen in the chamber of commerce do not respect the king's law, and do not need the imperial court to do it, our chamber of commerce will hand over the person to the imperial court for disposal at the first time, if it is the person who the imperial court gets first, it proves that it is a person in our chamber of commerce, and we are willing to be sitting. Not only that, but our chamber of commerce will also make a promise that if there are businessmen who are not in our chamber of commerce, smuggling and officials and soldiers, we can guarantee that within a year, we will find out the people and hand them over to the imperial court. ”

"What a big breath!"

As soon as Li Wenzhang finished speaking, before he could sit down, he stood up. This person's name is Jiang Yueguang, he is the hardcore of the Donglin Party, he is very talented, when Yue Su asked the parties to report the list, he once suggested that Han Yi report the list of the Donglin Party, but unfortunately was opposed by Han Yi and a large number of Donglin Party members, and finally hated it, and could no longer go to the stage. After Han Yi stepped down, the situation of the three parties in the cabinet was born, and the Donglin Party members were full of remorse, and some of them had already quit the Donglin Party and switched to other parties. In this election of parliamentarians, the Donglin Party members headed by Jiang Yueguang finally pushed him into the parliament.

Jiang Yueguang stood up and said loudly: "Shinong industry and commerce, merchants are at the end of the four people, once a businessman rents the weapons of the imperial court, breaks the law and prohibits, goes ashore in the unopened port, encounters the official army, shoots the sinking division warship, kills the teachings, the imperial court may not be able to find people in a short time, you merchants, why do you have such a big mouth?" I don't support Mr. Wang's proposal, relatively speaking, I still agree with Mr. Fan's proposal. Decent, very secure. (To be continued......)