Chapter 71 Reform

Over the past ten days or so, Mu Qi always had a vague illusion that his work seemed to be going very smoothly recently, beyond his imagination.

First of all, it’s a question of money. His original plan was to try to raise the huge sum of 50,000 taels within a month, and then send it to Hai Gangfeng along with the drawings and craftsmen. But before he had sent a few fundraising letters, Li Zaifang, the chief eunuch of the inner court, came to him in person and advised him not to borrow money from the nobles outside the province:

"With such a small amount of capital, why do we need to borrow from others? If those outsiders see this, they will think that the capital is so poor that it can't even raise these few taels of silver. My family and Eunuch Huang still have tens of thousands of taels of silver in our hands. If the prince really needs it, we can just pool our money together."

This can also be considered as one of Li Zaifang's quick wits. Why did the emperor reward the prince of Duke Mu with 50,000 taels of silver for no reason and not during any festival? Once such an incredible reward was announced, it would definitely trigger unpredictable political trends, so Li Zaifang thought about it and decided to petition the emperor to transfer the money to his own and Huang Shanggang's names so as not to attract attention.

However, the amount of fifty thousand taels was too large after all. Even though he and Huang Shanggang jointly guaranteed it, the prince couldn't help but show a look of surprise and confusion on his face - it's not that the top eunuchs couldn't afford the money, but tens of thousands of taels were probably most of the mansion's working capital. Of course, it would be overwhelming to casually take out such a large sum of money.

Li Zaifang added: "This is all approved by His Majesty. The prince has used the money well, so he should thank His Majesty for his grace."

Mu Qi:?

Just go ahead. Now that we have gotten a clear pass from the emperor, we can finally get rid of the suspicion of private transactions. Otherwise, if a eunuch inexplicably gave money privately to a cabinet member, it would always be easy to associate it with some political phenomenon that was not quite right. But why would the old Taoist priest be so kind as to send a eunuch to solve his problem?

After much thought, he could only conclude that it was because of their previous contributions in saving the emperor that Lao Deng gave them a break; as for Li Zaifang and Huang Shanggang, they probably had too much spare money to invest, and seeing that their previous printing and papermaking business was indeed profitable, they were willing to take the risk.

But no matter what, it is always a great favor when people are willing to give money. So Mu Qi thanked him profusely and promised to pay the interest on time. But Li Zaifang didn't seem to care about the interest on this huge sum of money. He never asked about the specific direction of his investment. He just said suddenly when he was leaving:

"If you have any other difficulties, just tell us. We will help in any way we can."

·

The phrase “I’ll help in any way I can” was probably just a casual remark from the boss, and Mu Qi didn’t take it seriously. After getting the money, he went to the Ministry of Revenue again, intending to check the regulations for recruiting refugees from the records in the Ministry of Revenue - Emperor Gaozu's regulations had extremely strict restrictions on population mobility, and officials from other provinces were not allowed to resettle refugees at will, and had to go through an extremely complicated and tedious set of procedures; of course, this set of regulations had been in name only for two hundred years, but once things were on the table, they had to be perfect without any handles, so he had no choice but to go through these bureaucratic procedures, going through the motions of each government office one by one.

But that afternoon, Li Zaifang, who was rarely seen before, actually visited the Duke's Mansion again and personally handed him an approval from the Imperial Household Department, simplifying all the procedures in the name of discretion.

Not only that, Li Zaifang actually asked another question:

"Is there anything else that the prince needs? It just so happens that the Imperial Household Department is on duty these days, so all matters can be handled conveniently. Let's handle it as soon as possible."

Mu Qi: …………

No, is this going too smoothly?

This strange success simply surpassed all his experiences since he traveled through time. Mu Qi was stunned for a moment, and almost instinctively felt a little fear.

·

Of course, fear is fear and confusion is confusion, but we still have to seize the opportunity. The prince tried to make several requests that he had thought about for a long time but was not sure about, and sure enough, Li Zaifang agreed to them all without hesitation. Even if the matters were beyond the authority of the Imperial Household Department, he promised to do his best to submit them to the emperor - judging from his expression, the success rate of this request was probably quite high.

After talking for half a day, both sides returned satisfied. Li Zaifang felt that he had accomplished the mission entrusted by Feixuan Zhenjun and Wanshou Emperor excellently. After this return, he should no longer have to look at the emperor's sour face and his life would be much easier. Mu Qi was even more excited, knowing that the plan he had been planning had finally moved forward a big step - Chief Steward Li had directly promised on behalf of the palace to allocate land in the suburbs of Beijing and Hebei to set up workshops for large-scale production of the so-called ascension "pills" developed by the prince; and to open ports and level roads in the Tianjin area to facilitate the docking and rest of subsequent ships.

Both of these are essential backstops for promoting maritime trade and stimulating the industry. He originally planned to make a long speech citing classics and even throw a tantrum, trying his best to ensure that he passed. But now it seemed like someone really had given him a speed-up cheat, and Li Zaifang just asked a few questions and he actually agreed directly.

...This, this, isn’t this efficiency too magical?

Is this still the old Deng he is familiar with, who never has enough to eat, never gets anything done, spends two and a half years on the beach and doesn't take anything to heart?

Could a hit on the back of the head really change a person's personality to this extent? Should he pass this secret to Zhang Taiyue so that he can do the same to Bai Zong in the future?

Mu Qi carried a few precious red papers back home. His mind was still dizzy all the way and he almost suspected that he was still dreaming. Only after all the orders had been sent out and everything was done, the system dinged in his ear and finally drew his attention back.

Obviously, such rapid and intense efficiency has stimulated the changes in history. The deviation value has risen wildly, and it has brought about a new historical echo, and it is still a continuation of the previous "invisible big hand" outrage:

[…The income of 30 million taels of silver was only a prelude to the brilliant success of the reform. With the mining of super silver mines in Japan and Yindi (also called America in some documents) and the advancement of new refining technology, the Da'an treasury is expanding rapidly at an almost unimaginable speed. After the successful construction of the ports of Tianjin, Qingdao and Qinhuangdao, the last excuse used by the conservatives to attack the reform disappeared. In the eighth year after the Jiayin Reform, the amount of grain imported into the capital through sea trade alone reached 3.9 million shi, a quantity that completely exceeded expectations. The warehouses in the capital were so overwhelmed that they had to urgently use the treasury in Tianjin.

As the warehouses in Tianjin Wei had been abandoned and poorly maintained for many years, the accumulated grain rotted and sprouted due to the high temperature after being stored for several months, leaving a very deep impression on the people along the way. The pedantic literati in Tianjin at that time were fawning on him and even quoted the record in the Records of the Grand Historian that "the grain in Taicang was overflowing and exposed to the outside, and it was so rotten that it was inedible", praising this as a prosperous era comparable to the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing.

But soon, the stench of rotten food spread with the sea breeze, making everyone who passed by feel nauseous, and of course they couldn't lick it anymore. The local officials of Tianjin were quite dissatisfied and called the cabinet at that time "Bean Juice Elders". It was said that this was because there were a lot of mung beans in the stored grains at that time, which tasted almost the same as the snack bean juice in Beijing after they spoiled; and also that a certain cabinet minister who was in charge of Yin and Yang at that time liked to drink soy milk, and it was probably because he was crazy and didn't know why, so he came up with such a bad idea...】

Mu Qi: …………

No, you've already written it down clearly, why do you have to hide it anymore? What is a certain important official who “loves to drink soy milk”? Besides me, is there anyone else in the cabinet who drinks soy milk every day to eliminate heavy metals? !

Besides, all the other slanders are fine, but what does “temporary madness” mean?

So this is the bad thing about historical footage: while it satisfies curiosity, it can also often break people's defenses. For example, in Mu Qi's heart, the title of "Douzi Ge Lao" was extremely unfair and he could not tolerate it at all - God have mercy on him, even if he could really have a say in the cabinet, how could he command Tianjin?

Jiuhexiashao in Tianjin Wei is considered the most important gateway to protect the capital. Given the suspicious, cold, and unpredictable nature of the current emperor, how could he entrust such an important place to an outsider? All important matters concerning Tianjin must be decided by Lao Deng himself. Is it the turn of a small foreign official like him to speak?

What is this "Douzi Ge Lao"? He is nothing but a bunch of cowards who dare not challenge Master Feixuan, so they have to put the blame on the poor, helpless and timid Prince Mu. It would be fine if they just passed the buck, but these people, in order to slander him, even accused him of being "crazy"!

Do I look like someone who might go crazy at any moment? The Prince of Duke Mu just felt indignant!

However, even framed nonsense has its uses. From this extremely unreasonable "Douzi Ge Lao", Mu Qi could still glimpse some signs of the future - the bureaucrats would certainly not sit idle and criticize an influenceless empty shell; whether it was shifting the blame or slandering, being criticized in private at least showed that in the eighth year of the so-called "Jiayin Reform", he could still firmly grasp the situation. The pace of reform is still within expectations...

Of course, this does not mean that he intended to transport tens of thousands of kilograms of mung beans to smoke Tianjin into bean juice (besides, shouldn’t it be blamed on the local officials for their poor storage? Why should they put the blame on the cabinet!), but the significance of being able to transport 3.9 million dan of grain from overseas to the capital is probably even greater than the annual income of more than 31 million taels of silver.

The density of grain is much lower than that of silver. Being able to transport such a huge amount of grain safely means that there has been a huge breakthrough in navigation technology, a breakthrough that is enough to change the entire shipping pattern. As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people. The changes caused by the transportation of grain at this level by sea must be unimaginable.

Mu Qi thought for a moment and swiped downwards again.

[Three million nine hundred thousand shi.] If you have no impression of this number, you can review the crucial water transport during the Da'an period. In order to meet the food needs of the capital and the northern border troops, starting from the 16th year of Emperor Taizong's Yongle reign, the court ordered nine prefectures including Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Suzhou to transport 3 million shi of grain to the capital every year. During the Chenghua period, the number increased further, and the court established regulations to fix the amount of grain transported at 4.5 million shi per year, which has never been changed since then.

If calculated in this way, the amount of grain imported into the capital through sea transportation alone is almost comparable to the total amount of grain transported by water; the capital's grain reserves suddenly doubled, so it is no wonder that there would be big problems with the reserves. 】

That’s what I said! This is clearly the fault of the previous emperor who did not plan ahead and prepared land in the capital to expand the granary. How can you blame us ministers?

...However, this number is indeed astonishing. Since Da'an moved the capital to the north, the water transport from south to north has become the absolute lifeline of the imperial court and the major artery that determines the survival of the entire North China. Fundamentally, after the rapid deterioration of natural conditions, the capital city, which was filled with a large number of dignitaries and troops, was simply unable to be self-sufficient and had to rely on the continuous supply of food from the south of the Yangtze River. Inland water transportation is the only option for transporting food on a large scale, there is absolutely no other alternative. Therefore, no matter how great the cost or how much the people's power is exploited, the court must maintain this route.

However, if the same amount of food could be transported by sea, the political significance would be very different.

Mu Qi hesitated for a moment, then scrolled down again, and saw what he expected:

[The huge amount of grain had a huge impact on the conservative Da'an court. And this impact is far from stopping - in fact, these 3.9 million shi of grain are just the tip of the iceberg of the power of maritime trade. At that time, the production of cotton cloth, pottery and silk in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Songhu and other areas was extremely prosperous, and there were even signs of overproduction due to technological innovation.

In order to solve the problem of excessive cloth, pottery and ironware, the then Zhejiang Governor Hai Gangfeng, following the instructions of cabinet member Mu Qi, signed a large supply and marketing contract with Southeast Asian countries such as Siam, Burma, Luzon and British-occupied India, agreeing to exchange industrial products for grain, which would be transported to the port of Tianjin by sea merchants. This is known in history as the Mu-Hai Agreement. 】

...To be honest, it is quite embarrassing to see my name in later documents, especially the "Mu-Hai Agreement", which sounds very informal. Even with Mu Qi's thick skin, he couldn't help but blush slightly for a moment.

But he thought about it and calmed down quickly:

——So what if the name is weird? It’s not my fault anyway!

[However, because neither side had international trade, the signed treaty was actually quite rough. In the words of later generations, there was no bottom-line clause - if the treaty was understood literally, then there was no upper limit on the amount of trade between the two sides. No matter how much industrial products Jiangsu and Zhejiang supplied, the maritime merchants had to buy them; similarly, no matter how much food the maritime merchants supplied, Da'an had to buy it. The compensation for breach of contract is extremely harsh and difficult for both parties to bear.

If you look at it from a normal perspective, there is actually nothing wrong with this unlimited contract. Da'an is an agricultural country. How could an agricultural country complain about having too much food? At that time, Southeast Asia was a maritime trade hub where many countries gathered. No matter how many industrial products the maritime merchants obtained, they could sell them off and make huge profits. At that time, England, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries were fighting fiercely, and China's cheap industrial products were just the right time to dump them on these old enemies.

But the result of the execution was completely beyond the expectations of both parties. The sea merchants had not anticipated the rapid pace of technological progress in coastal industries. In fact, after Hai Gangfeng vigorously introduced new technologies and fully organized the labor force, the output in Jiangsu and Zhejiang alone surpassed the national total ten years ago. The potential for increased production was almost endless and completely at their disposal. But Da'an also did not anticipate the extreme prosperity of Southeast Asia, the advancement of agricultural technology, and England's continued inhumanity. In his official document to the cabinet, Hai Gangfeng quoted the sea merchants' original words, believing that the amount of grain they would get in return would be around 500,000 dan. Mu Qi, who endorsed him, believed that the income would be at least 1 million dan. But none of them had expected that the English could squeeze out every last grain of food from India and the surrounding small countries to fill the never-ending mouth of capital. 】

Mu Qi pinched his nose bridge without any surprise, feeling a little emotional.

It was no surprise to him that Britain had always been so lacking in virtue. This was simply a Nikkei operation in the history of world trade. The only thing that was a bit surprising was the speed of Hai Gangfeng's promotion - within eight or nine years, he climbed from a county magistrate to a ministerial-level governor, and was even qualified to negotiate with maritime merchants on behalf of the court - this speed of ascension was even more incredible than the original history, enough to shatter the hearts of officials who were born as Jinshi.

Is this the holy body of the innate famous minister?

...Besides, judging from this historical discourse, Hai Gangfeng was able to quickly climb to this position not by relying on his connections or influence. As the saying goes, the truth is revealed in the ordinary. Without mentioning the rest, just the small line of words "Industrial production of Songhu" conceals a great achievement that will be remembered for thousands of years - the present Songjiang Prefecture is not the Shanghai of later generations, because of the dense waterways and flooding rivers, all economic activities are difficult to carry out; if it were not for Hai Gangfeng's painstaking efforts to dredge waterways and build water conservancy projects, there would absolutely be no "industrial production", let alone the later "Greater Shanghai"!

Building water conservancy projects to create an economic center that lasted for hundreds of years was such a great achievement, so what was wrong with him being a governor? This is still considered unfair!

SSR is SSR. Given a stage, they can shine brightly and dazzlingly, and their charm can be seen from the cracks in history. It is something that ordinary people cannot even envy.

Mu·Ordinary People·Qi sighed.

[Therefore, the results of the implementation of this treaty are quite incredible. The 3.9 million shi of grain transported in the first year of the implementation of the agreement was just a test. If the transport capacity is truly fully utilized, the amount of grain transported each year thereafter should be more than 5 million shi - more than 5 million shi, which is no longer something that can be solved by any technical means. Not to mention the warehouse issue, even if they really squeezed out land from the capital city where every inch of land is valuable to build a warehouse, the primitive preservation technology at that time would not be able to store such a large amount of grain. If they are stored for a few years, the warehouses in the capital will surely rot and become infested with insects.

Judging from the wind direction, when the stench spreads all over the sky, the first place it will go is the imperial palace and the cabinet - the Western Garden has good feng shui and is a particularly good place to gather energy.

At this point, the court had no other choice. Under the threat of the stench, the bureaucrats worked very quickly. In the autumn of that year, the cabinet drew up an outline for the reform of the grain transport system, drastically reducing the quota of grain that the northern provinces had to hand over to the capital, reducing the amount of grain to one million shi per year (reduced to 500,000 shi in the second year), and made arrangements based on the situation of sea transportation. Rice is harvested three times a year in Southeast Asia, so sea transportation is done three times a year. The cabinet will make adjustments based on the grain reserves and decide in real time the amount of grain to be transported next year, which is the famous principle of "combining sea and sea transportation."

The effect of this reform was almost immediate. The cost of grain transportation was quite staggering. In order to transport 4.5 million shi of grain every year, the consumption along the way was about 16 million shi. Every time one shi of rice was transported to the capital, the cost was more than four shi of rice. Therefore, the measure of reducing grain tax alone saved tens of millions of dan of grain in the south of the Yangtze River. As for the reduction in harassment, levies, and extortion along the way, it was countless.

In the year after the edict was issued, the morale of the people in the south of the Yangtze River was relieved, and people at that time said it was "unprecedented since Emperor Gaozu" - since Emperor Gaozu, there has never been such a relaxed and peaceful time in the south.

In fact, even the vested interest groups that conservatives worry about have not shown much resistance. At that time, there was a general view that the canal transportation was "the basis for the livelihood of millions of canal workers" and once the canal transportation was reduced, the workers would have nothing to do, which would inevitably lead to severe social unrest. But it turns out that the extra manpower was not wasted. The gunpowder factories and iron smelting plants that had been opened in Tianjin, Qingdao and Jinan quickly absorbed the surplus labor force and further optimized the industrial structure, providing more, newer and better products for the vast overseas markets.

Thus, a wonderful positive cycle was formed - food from overseas markets saved manpower, and the saved manpower was invested in industrial upgrading, supplying huge quantities of goods to overseas markets and earning more abundant food.

In the great cycle, the emperor got silver, the court got grain, Jiangnan saved manpower, and even the trough workers, who theoretically suffered the most, earned more wages in the new factories and enjoyed cheaper and more abundant rice. Everyone is making a profit, everyone is winning, everyone is winning.

It was for this reason that the missionaries living in China at the time were inspired and put forward the concept of the so-called "perfect reform."

At that time, Europe was on the eve of a multinational war. Violent conflicts and struggles occurred one after another, and the situation was chaotic and uncontrollable, which undoubtedly formed a sharp contrast with the tranquility and stability of Da'an. In this contrast, the missionaries severely criticized the chaos in their hometown and praised Da'an's reforms with incredible enthusiasm - they firmly believed that the reforms presided over by Mu Qi, Zhang Taiyue and others were the most perfect reforms in theory. There is no conflict, no struggle, everyone can benefit from the reform, so no one will oppose the court's policies; "the aroma of food drowns all the petty calculations."

They also declared that this great reform does not require everyone to be a saint, but in the face of interests, everyone will act like a saint!

As for where this perfect reform came from, after observing the politics of the capital for several years, missionary Smith put forward a concept that the success of the Da'an court was due to its adherence to the so-called "Tao follows nature" principle, believing in the wisdom of nature rather than human creation, and naturally achieving the optimal allocation of resources in the free market. Emperor Da'an and his cabinet were unique pioneers of liberalism in the world, with unwavering beliefs in the free market and the "invisible hand." 】

Mu Qi:? ! ! !

This shock was much more severe than the mere silver and food. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly, almost suspecting that he had been stimulated and had some kind of nerve problem; although he knew that history would change after his tinkering, and although he knew that after the prosperity of maritime trade, there might be great scholars from foreign countries who would chant scriptures for him. But in any case, isn’t this scripture being read a little too distorted?

Does Lao Deng know that he is actually a great mentor of liberalism?

Would you like me to make a copy of the Qingci works of Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor so that you can experience the spirit of liberalism? !

You can brag all you want, but isn’t this a bit too outrageous? !

But it turns out that Mu Qi’s imagination is not rich enough, because there are even more outrageous things below:

[Smith compiled and published his diaries in China, naming it "Observations on China: On the Spirit of Liberty". In this book, he claimed that the emperors of the East possessed "noble restraint" and that although the power they wielded far exceeded the sum of all the kings of Europe, they never abused this power (Mu Qi: Ah?!). European kings often held court balls and hosted hunting parties, and frequently interfered in local politics at banquets; but the Chinese emperor often lived alone in the royal gardens and seldom disturbed his court.

This kind of solitude is not laziness (Mu Qi: It is laziness!), but a more noble character. Chinese emperors understood deeply that the less intervention a government has, the better it is, and that reducing the involvement of power can allow the market to operate freely. To this end, he restrained his desire for power and respected the logic of nature. This kind of thought is called "Wuwei" or "ruling by doing nothing". In order to engrave this great truth, the emperor even hung it in his bedroom...】

Mu Qi: …………

Well, there is indeed a plaque inscribed with the Tao Te Ching in the Lao Deng Palace, which says something like "Do nothing and there is nothing that cannot be done." But isn’t there something seriously wrong with the understanding of you foreigners?

Can this thing be sewn like this? Even though Taoist thought has always been complex and complicated, your approach is too unorthodox, don't you know?

He took a deep breath, then another, and finally another. After taking three gulps of cold air, he finally regained consciousness. He resisted the overwhelming urge to complain and continued reading.

At this moment - at this moment, Mu Qi's heart was filled with millions of "WTF"s, and his original intention was probably no longer to peek into the future and learn from history, but a more pure and direct sense of horror and curiosity - I want to see what tricks these foreigners can come up with!

Facts have proved that people can still make a living:

[For this purpose, Smith specially translated the Chinese classic "Tao Te Ching", interpreted the "Wuwei" therein as "laissez-faire", and summed up a set of "Eastern laissez-faire", intending to use the wisdom of the Eastern Emperor Feixuan Zhenjun to save the troubled Europe. After completing the careful revision, he made a special trip to the capital to visit Mu Qi, a senior cabinet official who was already very popular at the time. Mu Qi read the whole book and said only one inexplicable sentence:

"Do you also read Yilin over there?"

】