At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

chapter 1390 one thousand three hundred make them all greedy

The failure experience of the Ming Dynasty made Guo Peng deeply understand that such matters as foreign trade must not only be led by the government, but must also allow non-government forces to participate.

A sea ban is absolutely not feasible.

Going out should not only be done by the government, but also by the people.

The scale of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West was much larger than his, and the benefits he brought back were definitely a lot, and there were even more times than him.

But there was no Zheng He after Zheng He, and this kind of thing became a swan song.

The reason is very simple. The Ming Dynasty implemented a sea ban, and was highly vigilant about private going to sea. It was strictly guarded against death, and only officials were allowed to go to sea to make money.

In this way, the interests of voyages to the West cannot infiltrate the people after all, and it is impossible for the people to form such an attitude and social consensus.

Doing so can lead to several serious consequences.

The first is Zhu Di's death and political resignation, and such things as sailing to the West have never happened again.

The second is that smuggling in the southeast coastal area was serious, and the disturbance in the second half of the Ming Dynasty was almost miserable.

You are indeed dominated by the government, and it is true that there is no large-scale net profit for the people, but it is still infiltrated in a corner of the southeast, and the people of the southeast know about it.

People in the southeast know that going out can make money.

There are many hills in the southeast and few flat lands. Many places are not suitable for large-scale agricultural development. The agricultural potential and plain areas must be limited in themselves.

During Zhu Yuanzhang's period, the war had just stopped, and the population loss in the southeast coast was serious. At that time, labor was urgently needed to resume production and support people.

At this time, the sea ban is to prevent the necessary labor force from flowing out, to help restore order and develop agricultural production, and to stabilize the rule of the Ming government more quickly. For the people, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

But one hundred and eighty years have passed, the rule of the Ming Dynasty has long been stabilized, the population in the southeast coast has surged, and production has already resumed. At this time, the land cannot support so many people.

According to the agricultural technology at that time, there was a limit to the output of the land. When the limit was exceeded by the population, people would go hungry. When people were hungry, they would inevitably go out to find something to eat. This was a natural need for survival.

If you don't let him go out, especially if he knows that doing business overseas can make a lot of money, then he will definitely fight against you.

So smuggling appeared.

Not to mention to survive, even a well-fed person would dare to smuggle in order to make money, let alone a hungry person who wants to eat, there is nothing they dare not do.

But the Ming Dynasty government must crack down on smuggling, otherwise it will disturb the national tax revenue, make the government unable to make money, interfere with the normal economic order, and lose face.

The more serious situation is that this matter is widely advertised, and everyone finds that it is more profitable to do this than farming, so they all go out and stop farming. The land is barren, and the government has no money, so what? Can it work?

Therefore, it is necessary to crack down on coastal smuggling and implement stricter sea bans.

Zhu Yuanzhang's simple agricultural thinking dominated the thinking of the Ming government, making the Ming government feel that private business going to sea is a sinful and boundless crime that shakes the country's foundation.

But cutting people's fortunes is like killing their parents. If you don't let me live, how can I still give you a good face?

So it was done right.

The revolt began.

The scale and scope of this kind of smuggling, the fierce resistance of the people in the southeast coast, and the long duration are unimaginable.

In the end, the Ming government had no choice but to call this incident the "Japanese Bandit Rebellion" in order to cover up its policy mistakes.

Really want to fight, for so many years, the southeast officials and the southeast smuggling gangs have me and I have you.

If you don't fight, the taxation of the southeast region, which is an important place for wealth, will have a big problem, and the Ming government will die slowly.

Moreover, those smuggling gangs in the southeast didn't want to fight directly with the imperial court. In that case, the casualties would be too great.

In order to resolve this matter decently, both parties need a backer that everyone can accept.

Who is the backer?

Japanese pirates.

The Japanese pirates became the biggest common denominator for the two sides to not completely tear each other's faces and lead to a full-scale uprising in the southeast.

This is also the concession and compromise that the Ming government had to make when facing the great danger of the northern nomads knocking on the border.

The situation of the southern Japanese and the northern captives made the rulers of the Ming Dynasty panic all day long.

On the one hand, there are external conflicts and on the other hand, internal conflicts. Jiangbei and Jiangnan are in crisis.

A small spark ignites the powder keg in the southeast, detonates the southeast uprising, cuts off the Grand Canal to provide blood transfusion to the north, and the Ming government, struggling to cope with the border troubles in the north, may end nearly 100 years earlier.

After the Ming government moved its capital to Beijing, it relied heavily on blood transfusions from the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The late Ming Dynasty entered the Little Ice Age, and the grain production in the north decreased. Without the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to send grain to the north, the entire city of Beijing would fall into a food shortage and have nothing to eat.

And if there is chaos in the southeast, the Grand Canal will inevitably be affected.

This is unacceptable to them.

At that time, Japan happened to be in the Warring States Period, and some samurai who failed in the war were desperate and had to take risks and come to the coastal areas of China to make a living.

They often have good martial arts, which happens to be the excellent talents needed by those smuggling gangs, and the two hit it off.

These battle-hardened elite warriors sold themselves as thugs of the big smuggling gangs, served them, confronted the Ming Dynasty officials and soldiers, and contributed their own force and combat experience.

The battle-hardened warriors and the desperadoes who wanted to eat easily defeated the extremely rotten Ming army of the Southeast Guards.

During the whole process, the official and the smuggling gangs have me and you, and the negotiations and compromises have broken down, and then the negotiations and compromises have broken down.

The officials, generals, and officers and soldiers in charge of Pingwa in the Ming Dynasty died one after another.

The smuggling gangs are also constantly surviving the fittest, one crop after another dies.

Both sides are restraining and playing games with each other.

Winning a battle cannot be won casually, and neither can losing a battle casually. Sometimes winning a battle cannot be regarded as credit, and sometimes losing a battle cannot be regarded as a crime.

Large-scale magical realism incidents frequently occurred in the southeast corner, disturbing people with lofty ideals all over the world.

What is the court going to do?

How can you die if you lose a battle, and die if you win a battle?

Very simple.

The Ming government needs to announce to the world, need to divert conflicts, and need to let people know that we are not fighting smuggling gangs or our own people, but Japanese pirates.

Transfer the internal class conflicts to the outside, and lead everyone to hate the Japanese pirates, not the Ming government itself.

Smuggling gangs also have needs.

The smuggling gangs gradually realized that the court would not allow them to continue to exist, and the court must ensure the safety of the tax-heavy southeast.

For them, they must either be recruited, or they will be killed in the name of Japanese pirates.

After the public opinion for the unanimous elimination of Japanese pirates has been formed in the whole country, if they do not accept recruitment, they will really be Japanese pirates from Japan.

No matter how many seven aunts and eight aunts say that they are citizens of Ming Dynasty and not Japanese pirates, it is useless. If the court says they are Japanese pirates, they are Japanese pirates and they will definitely be killed.

After all, they cannot compete with a unified regime.

The temporary advantage could not hold back the Ming government's continuous investment of troops and the more experienced Ming army who became more and more courageous in the Vietnam War.

Famous generals who have experienced both the flames of war and the court's black hands already know how to deal with them while avoiding the court's black hands.

So the smart people chose to accept the recruitment, and suddenly became a figure in the system.

And those who are not clear about the current situation are really killed by the elite Ming army trained in the war.

This matter finally ended with the Longqing switch.

After nearly a hundred years of struggle, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty still realized the truth of "one day without the switch, the Japanese pirates will continue".

Therefore, Emperor Longqing decided to open Yuegang as a commercial and trade port, allowing legal private ocean-going trade.

Since then, [Japanese pirates] have never done harm to the southeast coast again.

The opening of Yuegang led to a large amount of American silver flowing into China, which also laid the foundation for Zhang Juzheng's reform and the final establishment of China's silver standard system.

After going around for countless years, many lives were lost, and it finally ended with the compromise of the Ming government.

Of course, there are also those tool people who are not human inside and out-the real Japanese pirates.

Everyone lost badly.

It seemed like it was just a mind-boggling thing, but after going around for countless years, it was finally confirmed.

The interests of all parties are too deeply involved.

In the end, those smuggling gangs who rely on sea bans to make a living and the political forces behind them are the last ones who are unwilling to be switched by the court.

When the imperial court is switched on, there is no need for them to smuggle, and there is no money to make.

After the development of ancient dynasties for more than 100 years, there will always be problems of one kind or another, and there will always be signs of doom that are hard to return.

It's just that the Longqing switch laid some foundations for the Ming government to implement the life extension method, otherwise Zhang Ju would have no way to create a whip to implement the silver standard and finally succeed in extending the life of the Ming government.

Having learned the experience and lessons in this area, Guo decided that he could not refuse the participation of the people from the very beginning of his sea opening policy and trade policy.

Not only do not refuse, but actively guide private business forces to join.

Share this profitable way with the whole people from the very beginning.

Those with courage, capital, and even strength should go to sea.

Strive for wealth and honor at sea, use your life, and use everything you have to fight for what you want.

In short, let the desperate people have one more way, let them have a way to go, and open their eyes to see the world more than 1000 years in advance, to understand what the world they live in is like, and what treasures have not been discovered yet.

Make them all greedy.

This is one of the few things Guo can do.

Of course, there is another very important point, which is to improve the construction of the Shibo Department.

Firmly grasp the checkpoints of going out to sea and ocean trade. There are regulations on who can go out and who cannot go out.

Let them go out, not let them go out endlessly. When it comes to commerce and agriculture competing for population, Mr. Guo's butcher knife will not slack off.

The population of the Wei Empire is less than 8000 million, which has not reached the population of over [-] million in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its territory is vast, far from saturation.

Even if Mr. Guo's policy of abolishing the population tax to encourage births continues, the population will exceed 20 million, and it is estimated that it will take ten or twenty years.

The purpose of developing overseas trade now is to give people another way of life, one more strategy to deal with the Little Ice Age, and to open people's horizons. It does not really encourage business behavior.

Commercial activities need agricultural production as a basis. Without agricultural production to provide raw materials, business is impossible to talk about.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty government, it would be more reasonable for someone Guo to impose a sea ban.

Therefore, someone Guo fundamentally will not allow business and agriculture to compete for labor.

Therefore, it is very necessary to stipulate things like treaty ports, construction of a shipping department to manage the fleet for sea trade, and responsible for tax collection. It is also very necessary to write these rules into the law.

The people who can go to sea for trade must be limited, those who need to be recognized by the court, and the employees of maritime merchants are also limited.

Ocean trade in this era is also saturated.

While developing ocean trade, it is of great significance to the Wei Empire to pay close attention to the Shibo Department and turn the Shibo Department into another important source of wealth.

Therefore, after the welcome banquet, Guo Peng asked the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take the Roman envoys to the embassy to rest, and he called the senior officials and dignitaries from various ministries to the South Study Room for a meeting.

The crown prince Guo Jin, the chief minister of the cabinet Qunfu, the servants of the Nanshufang and all the high-ranking officials and dignitaries, including the bureaucrats of the Nine Ministries, and the entire core decision-making team were summoned to the Nanshufang by Guo Peng.

Meeting.

Chapter 1391 One thousand three hundred and one Do you want to go to sea with me?

The ministers have long been used to being called by Guo Peng to hold meetings collectively, and they also know that the purpose of each meeting is different.

Some are good and some are bad.

The good thing is of course happy, the bad thing is that everyone is shivering when they are scolded together, for fear that the emperor will do something terrible.

They have no power to resist now.

Fortunately, it is definitely a good thing that Guo Peng called them here this time, and it is still a very good thing.