Chapter 129 Establishment
No matter how much concern Lord Li expressed in private, the cabinet's pace of expanding power will never stop. After receiving the emperor's order, several cabinet ministers worked hard and finally came up with the charter before the end of December when the government sealed it. They established the Foreign Affairs Office in accordance with the emperor's order, which was temporarily responsible for diplomatic affairs with Western and Japanese countries. They also transferred Yan Donglou, Gao Suqing, Zhang Taiyue and others to work in the Foreign Affairs Office to handle the affairs entrusted by the cabinet nearby. They were called "Foreign Affairs Ministers" - of course, because the Foreign Affairs Office had no official status, the title of minister was just empty talk. Not only did they not receive a penny of salary, but they also had to pay for the travel expenses of the cabinet office; they were working for a loss.
However, for the literati in modern times who were loyal to the emperor and patriotic, as long as they could work in the important position of the cabinet and listen to the emperor's edicts from time to time, it would be a great honor and a great blessing, enough to make them willing to give everything and feel that the emperor's kindness was not enough - for the cabinet, setting up an office was just a beast of burden for them to take power; but for the countless officials in the pits and valleys, being able to serve the cabinet as a beast of burden was the greatest honor in their life, and others wanted to kneel but had no such opportunity - even for Gao, Yan, Zhang and other noble and prominent people, who were fortunate enough to be promoted by the emperor to such a confidential government office, they were also extremely honored and grateful beyond words.
Just out of this gratitude, people are willing to work hard and make a career in front of the cabinet.
Of course, the waters of the cabinet are very deep. Even if the three people each have their own backers, they still have to be careful and prudent in doing things. They must not give others any chance to criticize them and embarrass the benefactor who recommended them.
Therefore, after the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Office, the first major thing was not to seize power and sideline the six ministers, but to plan and do a great benevolent thing - Zhang Taiyue got the inside information from the prince, and knew that among the wood transported by Ruwang, there were a lot of rotten and unusable defective products, which were piled on the dock exposed to wind and sun, and had long been dried and deformed; so several people managed to mobilize carriages and horses from the Ministry of Works, and transported the rotten wood back to the capital one by one, and sold it to the poor along the way at a very low price. It was also a good thing to help the people's livelihood in the dead of winter, and it was a decent and thoughtful ending to Zhenjun's fruitful year.
Perhaps it was because everyone from top to bottom worked together that there was always a brand new atmosphere; at the end of the year, before the government offices were sealed and work stopped, the Jingzhao Yin who was in charge of pacifying the capital made a special report, saying that after careful investigation by officials from all over the place, although it was now winter, there was not a single starving person on the streets of the capital; everyone from top to bottom could live and sleep in peace, and this great scene of a well-governed country that had not been seen in more than a hundred years was truly due to the grace of the current holy emperor.
This memorial certainly had the suspicion of flattery, but the content was basically the same; and precisely because the content was basically the same, the effect was quite shocking - the Central Plains today has not fallen into the situation of the Malthusian trap that broke out in the late Qing Dynasty, and the capital was also "poor and penniless, with beggars everywhere"; but every year there are always refugees from other places who take advantage of the opportunity to sneak into the capital to beg, and they are often frozen to death in the cold wind. This was a shortcoming that could not be avoided despite the efforts of successive emperors to provide relief since Emperor Taizong established the capital in the north.
Therefore, if we can really achieve a situation where there are no starving people on the streets, then the so-called "wonderful scene of a well-governed world" is a bit exaggerated, but not too excessive. Based on this achievement alone, the emperor's so-called "deep grace and virtue" should be worthy of it... right?
Of course, this unrealistic delusion about the emperor's kindness was probably only retained by the lower-level officials; the important officials above, with a bird's-eye view of the situation, actually understood the true details of this magnificent scene, and knew that this was definitely not something that could be achieved by selling firewood and providing porridge (if it were that simple, wouldn't our ancestors have already taken care of it?); if we really wanted to get to the bottom of it, it should probably be attributed to the numerous firearms workshops that the emperor specially ordered to expand in the suburbs of Beijing after the victory in the war against Japan.
The expanding firearms workshops and iron smelters recruited a large number of workers, absorbing almost all the refugees entering Beijing. In addition, after the merchants' grain was transported to the capital, the surrounding grain prices plummeted. These series of factors combined to patch up the huge loophole that had been unsolved in previous years, and saved the True Lord's face.
From this level alone, the route of outward advancement after the development of firearms is truly effective, and it is easy to accomplish things that were previously unimaginable. Even a conservative with a keen intuition like Li Jurong could not honestly admit such a clear effect and was greatly impressed. He even had uncontrollable doubts in private - although he instinctively felt that preparing for war and taking large-scale military action was not a good thing, the results in practice seemed to be no bad thing; could it be that his thoughts were just groundless worries?
This is the charm and allure of the new productivity. When you first come into contact with it, it always allows you to taste unexpected sweetness, enjoy unprecedented benefits, and make up for all previous negligence. Even the most strict and conservative scholars find it difficult to find any flaws in pure technological progress. However, the sweet and mellow new productivity will often release some incredible things in the end - this is often something that conservatives could never dream of.
But at least for now, the conservatives who make decisions based on instinct have not yet realized the iron law that productivity affects the superstructure; in the face of such an unprecedented number of starving people on the road, even the extremely smart Li Ge Lao would have to give in after swallowing this delicious bait. He may still have doubts about the war, but at least he would never oppose expanding the factory to purchase food and continue to absorb refugees.
Therefore, the second fire of the Foreign Affairs Office also burned smoothly. They embezzled 1.8 million taels from the Japanese indemnity guaranteed by British banks, planning to build a shipyard on the spot in Tianjin Port, and use foreign technology to make further innovations (the technical assistance in this regard came from the prince of Duke Mu), to set up a few cement and brick factories to level the road, repair dams, and build a small reinforced concrete Taoist temple for the emperor, so that Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor could enjoy the progress of modern construction technology in advance - the latter thing was more important, otherwise the project would not be approved.
Around December 26, all government offices were closed and no longer operated. Palace affairs were also largely settled, with the exception of the palace where important officials were summoned in order of rank to feast and entertain. Probably to highlight the great achievements in pacifying the Japanese pirates, although time was short and there was no time to reward them (in fact, it was mainly because Zhenjun wasted too much time on self-satisfied sacrifices, which made it impossible for the Ministry of War to follow the schedule), the emperor still bestowed his grace and ordered Qi Yuanjing, Yu Zhifu and others of humble status to come with the group to congratulate and attend the imperial banquet; and specially rewarded them with seats close to the imperial couch. According to past practice, military generals who were qualified to serve the emperor had to at least have a title; the emperor rewarded Qi and Yu in this way, and his intention was self-evident.
After the court bestowed the rewards, the nobles in the capital invited each other to gather together and hold banquets to thank their relatives and friends. Because the court had won a series of great victories in Shangyu and Japan, the morale of the people was boosted; even if there were hundreds of heads hanging in the imperial prison, it would not stop the dignitaries from seeking pleasure and enjoying peace. As a result, the capital, both inside and outside, was happy and there was a scene of prosperity. The quiet and decadent atmosphere that had existed for the past decade or so due to Lao Deng's inaction in government affairs seemed to have been swept away overnight.
In such a joyful and happy atmosphere, an outstanding businessman must of course know how to adapt to local customs and add icing on the cake; therefore, Ruwang chose the right time to visit Duke Mu's mansion to pay New Year's greetings and congratulations, specially presented extremely generous gifts, flattered the prince greatly, and tried his best to express his desire to deepen cooperation.
The prince did not disappoint his expectations. He generously ordered the butler to accept the generous gift, and then invited Ru Wang to sit down and have tea and chat with each other. The conversation started with some casual greetings and then went on to discuss various matters, and naturally, the situation in Southeast Asia was mentioned.
"In the past few days, some people in the court have been paying attention to the Spanish country entrenched in Luzon." The prince spoke earnestly and took the initiative to invite him to taste the fine wines collected by the Duke's Mansion to relax and ask: "I wonder how much you know about Spain?"
"We are overseas merchants, so of course we need to know the details of Spain, otherwise even the ships in the South China Sea might not be able to escape." Ru Wang replied naturally, but suddenly realized: "- Are you going to take action against Spain?"
"How can you say it's an action?" The prince said, "It's just fulfilling the responsibilities of the suzerain state and protecting the order in Nanyang..."
Ru Wang was horrified: "You really want to attack the Spaniards!"
Prince: …………
"Mr. Ruwang, first of all, you have to understand that just because I mention a country, it doesn't mean I will take action against it." The prince said helplessly: "Secondly... okay, this time it is indeed possible to take action against Spain, but that is only because it is against the will of heaven and cruel to the people, and colludes with Japanese pirates, so our country has to fight - this is helpless, it is not normal. We definitely love peace and do not welcome war..."
Ru Wang still stared at him in amazement. After a long pause, he reluctantly spoke:
"…So these are the two excuses this time, right?"
·
Obviously, due to his poor Chinese proficiency, Ruwang's understanding of "excuse" and "reason" was quite flawed, so his inappropriate analogy was bound to make him a laughing stock; but the prince had no intention of correcting this Westerner's misunderstanding. The reason why he revealed his true colors to Ru Wang was simple. He just wanted to know whether the Bank of England could make use of their traditional expertise as financiers to help the Da'an court issue a batch of government bonds and raise funds for future wars?
If in the past, the authority to issue national bonds and raise funds belonged to the Ministry of Revenue, then things would have been quite difficult; not to mention that the officials in the Ministry of Revenue knew nothing about finance, the fact that a great country actually had to borrow money from abroad to support military expenses would certainly have aroused great dissatisfaction among conservative scholars and would have been quite unfavorable in public opinion. But with the vest of the Foreign Affairs Office, everything is different - the old stubborn people in the regular government offices can fight to the death to resist the court's orders, and the newbies who are specially recommended by the cabinet to the core will never be able to resist their sponsors; the best white gloves are reliable and useful, and they work hard and never complain... Alas, they can finally experience the happiness of the inner court formed by Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, Sang Hongyang and others after Emperor Wu neglected the prime minister.
With this institutional guarantee, Mu Qi could solemnly guarantee to Ru Wang that there would be no problems with the process of issuing treasury bonds and that the interest would be negotiable. Of course, capitalists have no way to refuse profits, not to mention that the relationship between England and Spain is quite delicate; Ruwang's expression was obviously quite tempted, but he still made a tactful reminder - Spain is definitely not a soft persimmon that can be easily squeezed now, and if it really uses this reason to issue government bonds, the risk will be quite high.
"The risk is quite great?" The prince said, "Am I being too cautious... Oh, that's right. After all, Spain is the first empire in history on which the sun never sets. There must be three pounds of iron nails."
Ruwang:? ? ?
What is the “first empire on which the sun never sets”? Could there be a second one?
However, the three words "sun never sets" are still very appropriate. After Spain became strong, it expanded in all directions, and its colonies were all over the world. No matter how the earth rotated, the Spanish colonies were always shrouded by the never-setting sun... Such national strength, such power, and such incredible achievements, of course, made later generations look up to them and arouse irresistible jealousy and fear. As a latecomer among the colonial powers, Britain was not without concerns about Spain's status, but at least for now, no one dared to challenge such a behemoth.
It is a simple truth that those who stick their heads out will be shot. Everyone knows this.
"I understand your concerns, sir." The prince said, "That's why I have to explain to you again and again. First of all, we don't intend to be hostile to Spain..."
Ruwang: …………
This again, huh?
"Secondly, we will do our best to keep our cooperation with the Bank of England secret and will not let you be affected inappropriately. If the bonds are sold anonymously, it should be possible to fool people for a while."
Ru Wang was stunned for a moment, and then fell silent.
To be honest, the "confidentiality" guaranteed by the officials of the Da'an Central Government has a sense of humor like a hellish joke. Judging from the experience of maritime merchants lingering in the capital for many years, the confidentiality system of the Da'an court is like the golden medal of immunity from death of their Emperor Gaozu. It can be of some use at least, but it is not completely useless. It is a piece of waste that is truly exquisite, sophisticated, and useless. There is no hope for it at all. But then again, judging from the few times that Ruwang has dealt with the prince, things seem to be subtly different. Although the purposes of the cooperation were different, the confidentiality seemed to be... pretty good?
Needless to say, the Battle of Shangyu was small in scale and had little information. Apart from the blow that shocked the colonial powers everywhere, I'm afraid no one knows the details of the war. As for the Sino-Japanese Battle... The Sino-Japanese Battle, the number of people who witnessed and experienced it firsthand has increased by an order of magnitude. But I heard that the Edo side was terrified by the burning of the city by heavenly fire, and the monk Sakai who participated in the negotiations was inexplicably excluded and suppressed. He was disheartened and went to a foreign land and ignored government affairs. Only a bunch of weird and strange stories about the devil destroying the world were left in the local area. After that, the two sides clashed in the Jinling negotiations. The shogunate Mito clan did witness the fierce and ferocious face of the prince, but he was exhausted during the negotiations and his hair turned white overnight. He was already seriously ill and dying on the ship returning home. I'm afraid he won't live long...
——As a result, all first-hand information from Japan was cut off, and only absurd and bizarre rumors remained in the world, which were of insignificant historical value; the entire description of this war could basically only rely on Chinese historical materials. As for the Chinese historical materials...
According to the memorials submitted to the emperor for credit and the most authoritative summary reports obtained by Ruwang, "Qi Yuanjing" was mentioned twelve times, "Yu Zhifu" eight times, "Hai Gangfeng" five times, and officials along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, while the name of the prince of Duke Mu was mentioned only three times.
Those who write history also write the future. This way of writing...
Of course, this is not an advanced confidentiality measure, nor can it prevent the central government from continuously spreading information like a showerhead. But if you examine the reality carefully, the big nozzle has been spraying for so long, but it actually hasn't produced much useful information.
If this is the effect...
Ruwang hesitated.
"May I ask you, Your Highness?" He asked tentatively, "If the funds are raised after issuing bonds, how do you plan to use them? This amount of money is not small, and the bank must explain it clearly to its customers."
"Don't worry, how can we make it difficult for our friends?" Mu Qi said with a smile, "This money will not be used for armaments, otherwise it would be too aggressive. I still hope to use this money to promote the exchange of Chinese and Western cultures. The Da'an court can invite Western scholars to visit the Central Plains, exchange technologies with each other, and improve together."
There were so many new concepts and new words in this episode that Ru Wang was stunned for a moment. According to the current Western custom, prominent nobles will indeed keep one or two famous naturalists as a sign to enhance the family's status and aesthetic taste; but in the final analysis, whether it is "mathematics" or "physics", at this time they are just playthings that the top nobles support with scraps and debris, and to be honest, they are not very presentable. It is not surprising that a noble is obsessed with this kind of thing, but to be honest, it is a bit too much to be obsessed to the point of mobilizing national resources and large sums of money to invite those "scholars".
Perhaps seeing his hesitation, the prince added:
"If necessary, sir, you can invite us in the name of our emperor——□□'s crown as a guarantee. This invitation should be strong enough, right?"
"Does His Majesty the Emperor of your country agree?"
"……certainly."
——True Lord Feixuan and Emperor Wanshou don’t know about this plan yet, but they will definitely not object if they know. First, the favor and trust of Duke Mu's Mansion is here; second, Lao Deng is, after all, a remnant of the old era, and he is not aware of the consequences of large-scale exchanges of ideas and culture. With Zhenjun's shrewdness and stinginess, if he wanted to take out one million taels from the inner treasury to invite scholars from foreign vassal states, he might have hesitated and considered it carefully; but modern financial technology is complex and ingenious, and the money squeezed out seems to fall from the air. Since it was money that fell from thin air, the True Lord certainly didn't care.
"Besides, if we can recruit scholars from foreign vassal states, we can also find a job for the virtuous royal family." The prince's voice gradually became lower and lower, almost talking to himself: "Best of both worlds, right?"
·
On January 20th, Feixuan Zhenjun accepted the advice of the cabinet, pardoned the charges against the former Prince Zheng's Mansion, summoned the Crown Prince Zhu Zaiyu to the capital, and also trained him in the Foreign Affairs Office, responsible for entertaining guests from the West. This position was prominent but had no real power, with generous remuneration but no involvement in state affairs. It was generally seen as the emperor's way of appeasing the royal family, in order to quell the fears of relatives after several major cases of treason.
On January 25, Ruwang submitted the "Draft of Sino-Western Cultural Exchange" to the Bank of England and the East India Company, proposing to use the one million taels of national debt issued by the Da'an court as funds to raise funds for the invitation of European scholars listed by the Foreign Affairs Office and to provide them with travel and living expenses; high-end personnel who were specifically selected could also receive an invitation letter stamped by the Chinese Emperor - relative to their status, this was an unexpected honor, even enough to be recorded in the family's history.
The draft was passed two months later, and the subsequent establishment of the fund was regarded as one of the milestones in the exchange of talents and knowledge between China and the West. The massive influx of knowledge and experience from foreign civilizations has greatly broadened the horizons of the Central Plains. Widespread communication has had a strong impact on traditional monopolies. Some unorthodox ideas have emerged and have rapidly expanded with the help of cheap printing technology, eventually growing into a torrent that can shake the entire world...
——Of course, that is information that should not be made public.
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