"The agreement between you and me, I am almost finished."

Zhu Gaosui twisted his eyebrows, and under his eyebrow bones were deep eyes, almost narrowing into a slit, exactly the same as the moment when the tiger and leopard pounced forward.

Just now, Zhu Gaosui told Jiang Xinghuo about the cause and effect of the monk's incident.

And at the moment, it is obvious that Zhu Gaosui's attitude has been made clear.

"Zheng He's fleet is heading towards Manraga (Malacca), and the fleet of local merchants in Manila has now come to the Ming Dynasty for formal trade, and it is believed that it will not be long before the Ming Dynasty's control over Manila will gradually deepen with the progress of trade. When the time comes, by next summer at the latest, you'll be able to get what you want. ”

Zhu Gaosui nodded and said, "The third secret, I hope the national teacher will not use it." ”

"I want to, too."

Jiang Xinghuo sent Zhu Gaosui out of the door and barely sent him away.

Zhu Gaosui is a person who can see the long-term, or see his future more thoroughly.

But in fact, if Zhu Gaosui successfully withdraws out, then Jiang Xinghuo's intelligence sources will undoubtedly be further reduced. With the reduction and slashing of other intelligence agencies, there is no doubt that the Jinyiwei will begin to expand dramatically, just like the Yongle Dynasty in his previous life, and the expansion of Jinyiwei's power will eventually threaten the imperial power.

Ji Gang, who has already had some signs of expansion, doesn't know if he can detect it.

From the beginning of Shandong scholars from the Longjing difficulty, to later become a member of the loyal and righteous guard to fight, and then to one step to the sky to become the commander of the Jinyi Guard, last year, Ji Gang may still have some scruples in the face of the three-legged situation of the intelligence agency, and some cautious looks, but now, his actions have indeed begun to gradually let go.

But Ji Gang is Zhu Di's knife, even if he sees it, he has no blood relationship with Zhu Di, and if he wants to get out like Zhu Gaosui, how difficult is it to climb to the sky? You don't see the commander of the Jinyi Guard of the Hongwu Dynasty, what is the fate of all of them.

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head, leaving these thoughts behind.

Sitting in the room, looking at the simple furnishings in his office, Jiang Xinghuo fell into deep thought.

Still worried about what other people are doing? If you have this time, you might as well worry about yourself first.

Now he was pushed to the cusp by Zhu Di, like an actor hiding behind the curtain, and suddenly the curtain suddenly opened, the dazzling spotlights, and the staring eyes of the audience will make people feel more pressure.

And most importantly, it's a one-man show.

No partners, no hints, it's all on your own.

This is the first time Jiang Xinghuo has faced such a scene, if there is no tension in his heart, it must be a lie.

But fortunately, nothing went in too bad a direction, and the trajectory of things was basically under control.

"I'm not a photograph."

Jiang Xinghuo chewed on this sentence, blew lightly, blew out the candle flame in one go, and walked out of the yamen, which was basically empty.

Guarded by vigilant armorers, Jiang Xinghuo returned home.

These attendants, who used to be used as personal guards and fought with Zhu Gaoxu in the south and north, Jiang Xinghuo has been very relieved to use them for more than a year, even if they are in a peaceful environment, but as long as they go out to escort the mission, these armor soldiers are almost always vigilant.

Jiang Xinghuo got out of the carriage, the doors of the three rooms and five frames in front of him were closed, and the ice ballast was hung on the gold-lacquered beast-faced tin ring, and when he looked up, the mansion was covered with blackboard tiles, and the snow fell on the roof ridge.

Well, it would be more appropriate to say that it is his home, but it is actually the home of an old monk.

Although this kind of top-level mansion cannot encroach on the exclusive style of palaces such as heavy eaves or the top of the palace and the top of the mountain, even if it is the top of the hanging mountain and the top of the hard mountain, it is enough for ordinary people to feel the huge class gap.

A group of armor soldiers hugged Jiang Xinghuo and walked through the front hall before they saw the figure.

In fact, there is a saying in this, that is, like the local yamen, the mansion of the prince and uncle, the front, middle and back three halls or three halls, in principle, are all for office use, and the three halls are private residences after the three halls, just like the county order in front of the county government office, back to the back of the residence.

But in real life, there is basically no such use according to the rules, at most the front hall is responsible for receiving guests, and the middle hall is officially used to hold some gatherings and ceremonies, and when it comes to the back hall, it is the same as a private house.

The Rongguo Mansion is even more humble. No, it's simpler, so the armor soldiers dispersed when they arrived in the middle hall, and there was a place where they lived around, and the people on duty in the back house had their own schedules.

"What about the old monk?"

"Rong Guogong burns incense in the temple."

Hearing this, Jiang Xinghuo was slightly stunned.

The old monk has not burned incense for a long time since he returned to the world.

According to the mansion system stipulated by Lao Zhu, there are seven halls, two buildings, and nine frames in the antechamber of the duke's mansion; seven atriums, nine frames; seven rooms in the back hall, seven frames; There are three family temples, and the so-called incense is burned in the five so-called temples, of course, in the family temple, where Yao Guangxiao's ancestors are enshrined.

Jiang Xinghuo came to the family temple, and there was really smoke inside, and the smoke inhaled into the nose was different from inhaling second-hand smoke, not feeling choking at all, but there was a feeling that could make people feel peaceful.

He pushed open the door, and the furnishings inside were extremely simple, except for the necessary things for the family temple, only a small wooden table and a few futons were placed.

Yao Guangxiao's immediate family, except for a sister who cut off contact with him, is no more, he is not a person who values the clan, as for his father and ancestor, the memory left to him is even more distant.

Therefore, seeing the Buddha shrine in the family temple, Jiang Xinghuo was not surprised at all.

Returning to the laity is just what the old monk must do in order to participate in the government, because the monk cannot hold an administrative position in the court except for the management of the monks, but even if the old monk has a new faith, the habits developed in the past few decades are still difficult to change.

The old monk was thin, dressed in a black robe, with his hands folded, and was chanting the Buddha's name with his eyes closed.

Hearing the sound, Yao Guangxiao slowly opened his eyes and looked at him: "Jiang Sheng." ”

"Have you heard everything about today?" Jiang Xinghuo asked.

"I heard."

Yao Guangxiao got up, stretched out his hand and said, "Sit down first." ”

There are three family temples, and when the two of them came to the side room outside, Jiang Xinghuo found a seat at random and sat down.

"What's wrong?"

Facing the old monk, Jiang Xinghuo said frankly: "I am unstable in my heart. ”

Jiang Xinghuo picked up the teapot, and in the pot was the hot water poured by the old monk before, but now it is cold.

He poured himself water, poured another cup for the old monk, and said, "I can only tell you." ”

The shadow of the moon was hazy, reflecting on the snow outside the house, with a faint white light, and in an instant it looked like a cloud in the sky.

"Let's talk about it, it's not good to hold it in my heart."

Yao Guangxiao smiled lightly, picked up the cup and took a sip of cold water, then gently rested the cup on the table, and looked at him with his eyes: "Scared? ”

Jiang Xinghuo was silent for a moment and said, "No." ”

Yao Guangxiao raised his eyebrows and motioned for him to continue.

After Jiang Xinghuo hesitated for a long time, he finally couldn't help it and said, "Old monk, you say, did I really become a pawn this time?" ”

"What do you think?" Yao Guangxiao asked rhetorically.

Jiang Xinghuo was speechless for a moment, if he had a choice, he would definitely hope not to come to the stage so quickly, because his strength was too thin compared to the entire temple, but he knew better that this was not realistic, if even he couldn't do it, who else would he expect to do it? Moreover, after all, this is an order of the emperor, and if he shirks the blame, he will not only harm the people who follow him, but may even destroy the entire change.

After thinking for a long time, Jiang Xinghuo took a deep breath, stared at Yao Guangxiao seriously, and said, "If you cross the river, you won't look back, but how to go this way forward?" ”

In fact, the emperor can live in seclusion in the deep palace, and the prince can think about it behind closed doors, but no matter what, it is impossible for him to hide at home.

Yao Guangxiao shook his head and only said, "I don't know either." ”

"You're just not mentally prepared, but fate is like this, the opportunity comes, you have to seize it no matter what." Yao Guangxiao said calmly, his eyes revealing a taste of wisdom and calmness, even if his face was full of tiredness at the moment.

"Let's take one step at a time, Zhu Gaochi is also my disciple, and he worked together for four years when he was in Jingjing, but now he is drifting apart, what can he do? You can't see through the future, I can't see through it, or Jiang Sheng, you can see the future far away, but right now, for you and me, it's a fog, you can only stretch out your hand and walk alone. The entanglement of all threads has long become a mess of dead ends, which cannot be solved, in this case, why should you be obsessed with it. ”

Jiang Xinghuo frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Do you also think this is a dead end?" ”

Yao Guangxiao nodded.

Jiang Xinghuo sighed and said, "I understand. But you also know my character, since I have decided, I will do it to the end, and I will not back down from this matter. ”

"No matter what, you can't avoid it, it's hard to pass the pass, you have to pass the pass, right?"

The two talked secretly for a long time, and only then did they go back to the house to rest in the middle of the moon.

The next day, the Cabinet.

Because he was afraid of people gossiping and saying that he was engaged in an independent kingdom or something, Jiang Xinghuo directly chose the meeting place in the cabinet's duty room, rather than the president's law change affairs yamen.

The narrow duty room was crowded with high-ranking officials attending the meeting.

Among the six books, even if they couldn't come, they sent a squire to represent the headquarters.

"All of them?"

Chai Che looked at the tick drawn on the roster and replied, "It's all ready." ”

Looking at the high-ranking officials, Jiang Xinghuo cleared his throat and said: "I can't hide it, let you come today, in addition to announcing the list of the final results of the examination method, I also want to make a summary of the results of the law change in the first year of Yongle, which is also what Your Majesty meant." ”

In fact, at this juncture of the law change, it is indeed necessary to read out and characterize what they have done in the past year, just like the year-end summary, which can be regarded as the result of the president's own examination of the law change affairs yamen.

Theoretically speaking, Jiang Xinghuo is of course not obliged to report to these officials, but from a practical point of view, this kind of work report-style report is not only a year-end summary of the work of changing the law, but also an invisible demonstration at the temple level, somewhat similar to a military parade.

When reading the report, Jiang Xinghuo directly skipped a lot of nonsense in front of him.

"The main results of this year's changes."

"1. Agriculture."

"After the design and construction of water conservancy infrastructure, dredging of river channels, and the application of chemical fertilizers, the main grain-producing areas in the south of the Yangtze River have still achieved the result of increasing production and income by about 30% under the condition of a general poor harvest this year, and successfully completed the task of paying taxes. In other areas except the south of the Yangtze River, according to the corresponding agricultural production situation of different prefectures and counties, the rotation intercropping method is being gradually piloted, and the pilot results are gratifying, which effectively proves that the rotation intercropping can effectively improve the land use efficiency, and at the same time does not cause observable damage to land fertility, and improves the overall yield of land crops. In addition, at the same time as the compilation of the "Yongle Canon", the collection of agricultural books of the past dynasties and the compilation of the standard agricultural books of the foreign dynasties are also going smoothly, and it is expected to be completed in three years of Yongle, when it will be printed and popularized nationwide to guide agricultural production. ”

The conservative high-ranking officials were very calm, not that they didn't want to say anything, but that there was nothing to say, grain production and tax revenues were all here, what to say? Although the apportionment of labor into the mu objectively increases the tax revenue of the peasants, in fact, the value that can be created by the liberated agricultural labor time far exceeds this tax In the agricultural society, most of the time the money is not useful for grain, when the grain in one warehouse after another appears on the books, what can they say?

The people take food as the sky, and the national stability of the agricultural country in the feudal era all depends on whether the grain production is sufficient, which is why Jiang Xinghuo is the first to mention agriculture, although he did not put a lot of energy into agriculture, well, this thing is not transferred by people's willpower, it is useless for him to invest, he can't learn from Su Suizong to forcibly promote a certain crop, right? This is impossible for Jiang Xinghuo, even if Zheng He's fleet sailed through the Manraka Strait, arrived in Tianzhu, and even bypassed the Cape of Good Hope to the New World, and then brought back corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes, Jiang Xinghuo would not promote these things to the whole country at once, the three-piece set is a traverser artifact Yes, but these things cannot be eaten as staple food, nor can they take away the agricultural status of wheat and rice.

Therefore, what Jiang Xinghuo can do now is to experiment with crop rotation and intercropping, and order the compilation team of the "Yongle Canon" to give priority to the collection, sorting, and compilation of agricultural books.

Other than that, it's really nothing.

However, to be honest, the Yongle Dynasty is still a smooth wind and rain, and now it is in a small warming period in the Xiaoice River period, as long as it is not tossed around, then agriculture will definitely only develop in a good direction, not in a bad direction, in short, the main thing is to look at the sky and eat, which cannot be changed under the current level of productivity, after all, if you take the opposite side as an example, such as the climate and weather conditions at the end of the Ming Dynasty, any agricultural experts come in vain.

"II. Industry."

The cabinet in charge of the minutes shook their heads, this order was something they did not expect.

Yang Shiqi, who was sitting in the corner, looked at Jiang Xinghuo from all the high-ranking officials, and didn't understand what he thought, there are so many major events in the country, which thing is not important? If you want to be pragmatic, then agriculture is indeed the most important, but what is the word for industry?

Jiang Xinghuo didn't care what they thought, as long as no one interrupted him without knowing the times, then he would continue to read according to the script.

"Light industry, especially the cotton textile industry as the representative of the new industry, is at a very rapid speed, in the Jiangnan handicraft workshop area is booming, Hongwu 35 years and the first year of Yongle, a total of 15 million cotton textiles of all kinds of production, as of November, has sold 9.8 million horses, each horse profit equivalent to about 0.05 taels of silver, the total profit of about 490,000 taels of silver, repayment of the Ministry of Tai warehouse expenses of the factory, the purchase of equipment, workers' remuneration and other expenses after the remaining 370,000 taels of silver, of which 150,000 taels for dividends, 60,000 taels will be put into reproduction and next year's salary reserves, and the remaining 160,000 taels will be handed over to the internal treasury. ”

Several of the lords of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies who came to the meeting as representatives were happy to smile when they heard this.

There is no other reason, it is true that there is money advanced by the household department in the handicraft workshop area, but nearly one-third of it is the money raised by the lords and the clan at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in the 35th year of Hongwu.

This money was used as the start-up capital for the royal trade in the West, part of it was used to form a fleet, part of it was used to build ships, and the last part was used to fill the hole in the artisanal factory area.

At the beginning, many lords and clans actually didn't understand why they did this, after all, even if the Ming Dynasty only sold silk, tea, porcelain, and other fist products, it was enough to make a lot of money.

But this year, when Xu Jingchang, the Duke of Dingguo, was responsible for giving them dividends at the end of the year, they understood.

That's great!

The money of the clan and the nobles is not only recouped, but also increasing, Zheng He's fleet every time a country is opened, it means that the goods of the Ming Dynasty will pour in, and the most universal and popular product is undoubtedly cotton textiles, which is what the civilian class of various countries can really afford, and the demand for clothing will always exist, and new follow-up needs will be born over time.

No way, you can not drink tea, do not wear silk clothes, do not use porcelain, but who can refuse high-quality and inexpensive cotton textiles? Food, clothing, housing and transportation, these are all rigid needs.

Because of this, in the recent period, the support of the Xungui Wuchen Group for the change of the law has begun to rise visibly with the naked eye, and even the attitude towards Jiang Xinghuo has changed from politeness to respect.

There is no eternal friendship in this world, but there are eternal interests.

As long as Jiang Xinghuo's changes can bring them a steady stream of wealth, then the noble and military ministers will obviously always stand on his side without hesitation.

And it is worth mentioning that the military exploits of Luzon have also made many military ministers begin to realize that there are also opportunities to make contributions overseas. The veteran military ministers who did not have the title of knighthood also looked forward to the function of destroying the country and squeezed into the queue of honors.

Once this positive cycle is established in the noble and military elite class, in fact, it will be difficult for them to separate themselves from the reform, after all, the dual interests of politics and economy are tied together, and supporting overseas expansion and trade is supporting the reform.

"With the improvement of production efficiency and the increase of output, new production methods are also emerging, among the cotton textile workers, for the existing water-powered spinning machine, some people spontaneously improve and invent new water-powered spinning machines and various production equipment, mechanized production gradually began to break through the natural geographical conditions, at the same time, the new form of production organization and lifestyle, but also brought a greater impact to the Jiangnan folk."

At this time, the right attendant of the military department, Lang Shikui, said: "National teacher, I heard that the workers eat and live together, how many times a month can they eat meat, and they will take a bath together?" ”

"Yes."

Shi Kui is an old-fashioned and upright official, and Jiang Xinghuo has a headache when he sees him.

Sure enough, Shi Kui frowned slightly and said, "In this way, wouldn't the three outlines and five constants be completely messed up?" ”

In fact, the workers in the handicraft factory area in the south of the Yangtze River, because of the higher income than the peasants, when they returned to their hometowns to visit relatives, they aroused the envy, jealousy, and yearning of the villagers, and all kinds of new ways of life also brought a great ideological impact to the people, which is unavoidable, and because Jiangnan is the main territory of the gentry class in the traditional sense, this kind of controversy has never been broken, but it has not caused a big or too typical case, so it has not caused a nationwide discussion in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Jiang Xinghuo believes that this kind of thing caused by changes in the overall economic structure is unavoidable, so even if it is a report that cherishes words like gold, he still deliberately points out that it is better to be early and early, pretending not to see that it is meaningless, and if it really triggers confrontation and public opinion conflicts in the future, it is good to take a preventive shot first.

At this time, Xia Yuanji, the head of the household, stood up to help Jiang Xinghuo and said: "The three outlines and five constants are important, but the inside of this workshop is like an army, but most of them are female soldiers, and they still live with civilian couples, so they can't be the same." ”

Seeing that it was the God of Wealth who spoke, everyone tacitly stopped talking.

Who should say what to say, in fact, it is very interesting, why is Zhuo Jing, the head of the Ministry of Rites who is nominally the head of the six Shangshu, not speak, but Xia Yuanji, the head of the Hubu Shangshu? The reason is naturally that the cotton textile industry has brought new financial resources to Daming, and the profitability is extremely strong, which is one of the important components of Daming's financial future.

If you don't know the price of firewood and rice, these Ming family members all understand this truth, of course they can grasp the Gangchang Rite Sect and fight with Jiang Xinghuo, but is it meaningful? It doesn't make sense.

At present, it is not a court debate or a quarrel between the courts, but a high-ranking meeting of various ministries and temples to participate in a high-level meeting, which is to solve problems, which is different from academic debates.

The Confucians can see the impact of the new way of production and life on the traditional moral order as the first thing, but they cannot.

Moreover, in the face of money, many things have to be compromised.

Without money, relying only on benevolence, righteousness and morality, the temples will not be able to live, and everyone understands this.

Seeing that Shi Kui was no longer entangled, Jiang Xinghuo bowed slightly, and then continued: "Heavy industry is represented by coal and iron. ”

"In terms of coal, the Tangshan coal mine near Nanjing has begun to be mined, the coal mines in the territory of the Huanghuai Bu Political Envoy have also been restarted, and in the north, the Shanxi Bu Political Envoy has surveyed a large number of open-pit coal mines, and the Liaodong Command Envoy has also surveyed high-quality large-scale coal mines."

The reason why it is mentioned here that other regions are political envoys, and Liaodong has become the commander of the embassy, is because the Ming Dynasty set up three political envoys, all command envoys, and according to the judges, respectively, to manage local civil affairs, military and justice, but in Liaodong it is relatively special. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the population of Liaodong was too small, so there was only a military commander and envoy, this is because the geographical location of Liaodong is too important, there are remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty and the Jurchen departments that are not very obedient, and enough attention must be paid to it, and it is necessary to set up the command envoy.

However, Liaodong does not have a political envoy and a judicial department, and the civil affairs and justice of Liaodong are, in principle, under the jurisdiction of Shandong on the other side of the Bohai Sea, but in fact, Liaodong is basically composed of soldiers and military dependents, and the political envoys of Shandong and the Shandong judicial envoy basically do not exercise any power in Liaodong.

Of course, everyone knows that this situation will not last long, with the passage of time and the development of Liaodong, the population of Liaodong will become more and more, and various civil affairs will also become more, and it will be somewhat inconvenient for Shandong to manage Liaodong.

In the history of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, when Ming Baozong succeeded to the throne, the Ming Dynasty set up a governor of Liaodong to manage the affairs of Liaodong region, and gradually transferred the power of Shandong's relevant yamen in Liaodong, so that various administrative powers and resources in Liaodong could be used centrally, rather than acting independently. However, at the beginning, the governor of Liaodong did not have military power, and he was still in the hands of the Liaodong General Army (the first Liaodong General Army was Baoding Hou Mengshan, who is now in charge of Liaodong), and it was only later that he gradually integrated military and civil affairs.

The area now managed by Meng Shan is mainly the Liaohe Plain, that is, Shenyang, Tieling, Fushun, Anshan, and Benxi in later generations, and these places are precisely the rich areas of coal and iron resources in Northeast China.

After Jiang Xinghuo asked Liaodong to explore coal and iron resources, the health office in Liaodong was idle when he was not farming, and he was also very active in going out for a walk, and he really explored a lot of resources.

In the next ten years, it is possible for Daming to make a steam engine, but it is definitely not necessary to think about it, so it is difficult to use Shanxi's coal mine resources, after all, there are not many coal mines in Shanxi near the Yellow River, and most of them are near mountains such as Taihang Mountain, so it is basically impossible to rely on water transportation. Take the Jingcheng Road to Zhending Mansion (Shijiazhuang), not only the transportation is difficult, but also the cost is very high, and some of the gains outweigh the losses.

Since the amount of coal and iron resources required in the initial stage of the first industrial revolution was not so exaggerated, after some research, Jiang Xinghuo decided that in terms of coal, the north was mainly based on Liaodong, while the south was mainly based on Lianghuai.

It's enough for now, and the future will be talked about when the technology develops later.

"In terms of steel, the Ministry of Industry has developed a new type of steelmaking method, through coking coal to effectively increase the temperature of the furnace, the past steel filling method and frying steel method, has been replaced by a simpler, more efficient and direct method, the dynasty has achieved a large number of low-cost steel methods, which means that weapons, armor, firearms, will make all-round progress, the army's armor rate and firearms penetration rate, with the rise of steel production, there will be leapfrog progress, which will also further open the gap between the Ming Dynasty and the surrounding countries in terms of military strength."

(End of chapter)