The next day, the Imperial Household Department sent the memorials from various ministries to the Cabinet. The memorial personally approved by Emperor Longqing was placed on top, reminding the cabinet officials to draft it as soon as possible.

In theory, memorials should be drafted by the cabinet before being sent to the Imperial Household Department for approval. However, the emperor would occasionally be so eager to approve a few memorials himself, and the cabinet could not be as rigid as the six ministries and departments to directly accuse the emperor of violating procedures.

After all, the cabinet ministers, although they were actually prime ministers, were nominally the emperor's secretaries. This made them not be too aggressive when dealing with the relationship between themselves and the emperor. There was no other way, if the name was not right, then the words would not flow.

Especially since Li Chunfang was a person who didn't want to offend anyone, he didn't say anything more. After reading it, he handed the memorial to Chen Yiqin, who was in charge of the matter.

"Mr. Songgu, take a look. If there is no problem, approve it as it is."

He didn't even intend to show it to Zhang Juzheng.

Li Chunfang was mild-mannered on the outside, but he was extremely shrewd in his heart, otherwise he would not have been the Prime Minister of a country. He had already seen that Zhang Juzheng was not of the same kind as him, and that the previous proposals to reinstate Gao Gong were all secretly arranged by this good classmate.

Isn't Zhang Juzheng the only one who can attract the attention of others and whose prestige is inviolable? Then Li Chunfang chose to ignore him, because there is probably no better person in the world to establish his prestige than Zhang Juzheng.

So no matter from which angle, Li Chunfang must suppress Zhang Juzheng.

Prime Minister Zhang was also very self-conscious. He just lowered his head and looked at the memorials assigned to him, and did not get involved in the conversation between the Prime Minister and the Second Prime Minister.

After reading the emperor's approval, Chen Yiqin couldn't help but hesitate. "Prime Minister, is this settled?"

"What else can we do?" Li Chunfang said calmly, "The Jiangnan Group has the right timing, location and people. If we delay any further, we will be blamed."

"But, I'm afraid those people from the canal transport industry won't appreciate it." Chen Yiqin was said to have a good impression of Zhao Hao, and his son was Zhao Hao's student.

But the problem was that Chen Yiqin, the Grand Secretary in charge, knew too much about the grain transport sector and how many interest groups were hidden there. If he did this without any prior notice, he would have made countless enemies for nothing.

"Hmm." Li Chunfang was actually more troubled than Chen Yiqin. His family lived in Xinghua, Yangzhou, right by the Grand Canal and next to Huai'an Prefecture. Over the years, the people in the Canal Transport Office had been trying to build a relationship with him. In addition to the three festivals and two respects that all the Grand Secretaries had, they also gave his family members the green light to make a fortune from the Grand Canal.

If we really offend those Cao gangs who value money over life, these will be the leverage they have over us!

Although Li Chunfang himself never asked about family affairs, the tragic end of Xu Ge Lao reminded him that he must not do anything too drastic before knowing how deeply his clansmen were entangled with others.

After all, several prime ministers in the Ming Dynasty had failed because of family issues, and he didn't want to follow in their footsteps.

The two men murmured for a while, and finally decided that the bill must be drafted quickly, but the actual implementation should be delayed a little to give Huai'an time to respond, so as to prevent the millions of canal workers from venting their anger on the cabinet.

Every wrong has its perpetrator, go and settle the score with Ma Sen and Zhao Hao...

Mr. Zhang was drafting quickly while listening with his ears perked up, sneering at it.

He had long guessed that Henghaer would do this.

Zhang Juzheng really despised these two idiots. Isn't it the purpose of scholars to cultivate themselves and bring peace to the country? These two idiots got lucky and became the first and second assistant ministers, why didn't they cherish it and never think about ruling the country and leaving their names in history?

Why is my mind full of thoughts about how long I can stay as Prime Minister?

In fact, with Bu Gu's intelligence, he could naturally figure out why this happened.

The root cause is that there is something wrong with the selection mechanism of the cabinet ministers. The result of the increasing emphasis on "only Hanlin can enter the cabinet" is that a large number of experienced and responsible ministers and governors are blocked from entering and leaving the cabinet. Those who are promoted are all officials who are familiar with the court's rules and regulations but have never been involved in actual government affairs.

This phenomenon reached its peak in the current cabinet. The three grand secretaries... well, including himself, had never left the 'Zhan Han Guo Li' system of poets for a single day before entering the cabinet.

The main reason for this phenomenon is that the Jiajing Emperor selected the Grand Secretary based on who wrote the best Qingci. Those ministers and governors were too busy with government affairs to be a match for the officials who were immersed in this field all day. Although it was now the Longqing Emperor, once a convention was formed, there would naturally be interest groups to defend it.

At least in the short term, the phenomenon of the poets being the only ones in power will not change.

Of course, we can't say that poets are not good. After all, Zhang Juzheng and his beloved Gao Suqing are also poets, but who dares to say that they understand government affairs better than them? But it is obvious that Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin are very guilty in this regard.

In addition, the shadow of Gao Gong's comeback always hung over these two people, so they were even more afraid of making a mistake and giving the emperor an excuse to reinstate Gao Gong.

If you feel guilty and afraid of making mistakes, then you will just make no decision and try to smooth things over.

After all, if you do nothing, you won’t make mistakes!

"But as a prime minister, doing nothing is the greatest crime in itself!"

Zhang Juzheng was secretly resentful, and his pen became more and more sharp. He finally decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity to disintegrate the anti-Gao alliance and try to make Gao Gong come back again!

'Only Bu Gu can save the Ming Dynasty, but before that, only Gao Suqing can clear the obstacles for Bu Gu! ' Bu Gu's body moved automatically without any wind, and once again entered the mode of not recognizing relatives.

~~

After the draft was approved, the memorial was sent to the Six Departments for copying. The copy sent to the responsible office was called the main copy, and the copy sent to other related offices was called the external copy.

The Ministry of Public Administration would also receive a copy to print official bulletins and send them to various government offices at the central and local levels.

As soon as the official bulletin came out, Master Zhao's "Jiangnan Plan" was finally made public, causing an uproar in the court and the public!

What? The imperial court only needs to pay 20% of the freight, and does not need to pay extra for drifting and loss? As long as the Jiangnan Group is allowed to sell goods from the north and south, it will be fine?

And they would guarantee to deliver the same amount of grain as you gave them, and if they failed to deliver, they would be fined? For this, they could even pay a deposit of one million taels first?

The imperial court can reduce their shares at will in the future as long as they are given some breathing space.

This, this, this... this condition is too one-sided, isn't it? The imperial court is bullying merchants too much, isn't it?

What? Jiangnan Group took the initiative to propose it? Oh, that's fine.

This is simply pie in the sky!

The officials were immediately excited, and they were so anxious that they were jumping up and down. With such good conditions, why didn't they implement them quickly? Were they waiting for that guy named Zhao and the Jiangnan Group to go back on their word?

Under Zhao Hao's selfless sentiment of "no self-interest, only benefiting others", the voices of opposition became almost inaudible.

Although some people still insisted that Jiangnan Group would definitely not do a business that would lose money, and that they probably had ulterior motives and some other conspiracy, they could only be regarded as mere noise amidst the eager voices of support.

For a time, the "Jiangnan Plan" seemed to be gaining momentum and was poised to succeed in one fell swoop!

Now someone got angry.

~~

Now all the anxious people have come to Huai'an.

Huai'an Prefecture was born because of the grain transport and prospered because of the transport. Therefore, the prefectural government office could only be located in a corner, leaving the most central position in the prefectural city to the two governors who were in charge of the grain transport.

The Governor's Office and the General's Office of the Canal Transport stood opposite each other across a large square with a circumference of 3,600 feet, implying that civil and military officials jointly governed the 3,600-li canal.

At the east and west ends of Daping, there stand two three-meter-long flagpoles with flagpoles. On one flag is inscribed 'Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Governor-General of the Grain Transport, concurrently Commander-in-Chief of Military Affairs, Governor of Fengyang and other places', and on the other is inscribed 'Marquis Zhenyuan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grain Transport, Guarding Huai'an'!

At the gates of the two yamen, there was a pair of majestic stone lions. The soldiers guarding the gate held their heads high and chests puffed out, looking straight ahead, and let the raindrops from the sky hit their faces without blinking.

The Governor's Mansion of Grand Canal Transport, which was always bustling with people, was now completely silent.

The Grand Canal Governor Zhao Kongzhao was wearing a casual robe, reeking of alcohol, with red eyes, and was drinking alone in a depressed mood.

All the Qingke aides he had kept were driven away. Now he didn't want to see anyone, and didn't want to say a word.

I'm just waiting for the people next door to give me a result...

~~

However, the scene in the Mansion of the General of Grain Transport on the east side of Daping was quite different. The hall was full of people.

In the hall were not only civil and military officials from the two grain transport offices, officials from various offices along the canal, but also big businessmen who made their livings from the canal, and even nobles from Nanjing and eunuchs from Fengyang. It was truly a gathering of heroes and a meeting of all kinds.

Although the Grand Canal Commander-in-Chief Gu Huan was present, the one who spoke at this time was the deputy commander-in-chief, Pingjiang Earl Chen Wangmo.

He looked at everyone with a stern expression and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, don't listen to what that kid surnamed Zhao said. Shipping is just an insurance for water transport, and it won't steal the canal's business. But if Jiangnan Group really succeeds, I'm afraid it will be easier said than done!"

"That's right, you talk a lot of nonsense, but you just want to steal food from us?!" Everyone nodded indignantly. They had an instinctive resistance to the word "sea transportation".

"And does he have good intentions?" Chen Wangmo continued in a cold voice, "Only 20% of the freight, including all the expenses, are they running a charity? Aren't they just trying to pay a few years first and squeeze us to death so that they can monopolize the fat piece of grain?!"

"Yes, that's right!" A big businessman who knew Jiangnan Group very well nodded and said, "They have always been like this. They first spend money to occupy the land, beat down their opponents, and then slowly reap the benefits!"

Everyone gasped when they heard this. They didn't expect the Jiangnan Group to be so evil and have such sinister intentions!

"We all make a living from the canal, and now someone wants to destroy us. Tell me, do you agree or not?!" Chen Wangmo asked loudly upon seeing this.

"I don't agree!" Everyone in the hall started to shout, raising their arms and shouting, "We can't let the wolf into the house. We can't let them transport a single shipload of grain!"

ps. Third update, please give me your monthly vote!