Chapter 16 Hai Cao

This can also be regarded as an issue left over from history.

When the sea opened, no one focused on who was in charge of the customs. But after getting rich, the household department was jealous, but Ouchi was also jealous.

Wang Zhen has already fought several lawsuits with Liu Zhongfu.

The dispute is over the ownership of customs.

In the end, it was the Empress Dowager who made the decision, which was to transfer the customs silver to the internal treasury and send eunuchs to promote it.

Of course, Li Shimian was senior and had great authority, so even if he sent a eunuch, he would be nothing more than a henchman.

To be honest, without Li Shimian, Xin'an Customs may not have so much customs silver. Because the amount of customs silver was not fixed before, there was too much room for manipulation.

As long as you reduce it a little and line your own pockets, it will be enough to satisfy your needs.

But Li Shimian was very clean and honest. He didn't take any extra money. Unless he spent a little on things like renovating docks and building warehouses, the rest was accounted for, and this was how he achieved miraculous growth.

The Empress Dowager even left Zhu Qizhen more than 30 million taels of silver, including one to two million taels of customs silver.

However, there was more and more customs silver. As a scholar-bureaucrat, Li Shimian naturally wanted to transfer this wealth to the Ministry of Household Affairs. However, Zhu Qizhen refused to let go.

It’s not just Zhu Qizhen who needs money.

As the Empress Dowager said, how much money is in the internal treasury is directly related to the emperor's authority. Similarly, Zhu Qizhen has greater expectations for the customs.

At least Zhu Qizhen didn't want to just have an emperor's southern treasury instead of pushing the Ming Dynasty into the maritime age.

Therefore, this matter cannot be discussed here in Zhu Qizhen. Zhu Qizhen used the most convenient method, which is that Wang Gu talked about him and said: "Realistically, I have something to ask you. Relationship

In North Zhili, the lives of hundreds of millions of people are at stake."

When Li Shimian heard this, he could no longer care about anything else and said, "Your Majesty, please speak."

Zhu Qizhen told Li Shimian all about the financial crisis that Wang Zhi told him, but did not tell Wang Zhi's solution.

After Li Shimian heard this, he immediately began to think.

People like Li Shimian were traditional scholar-bureaucrats, who claimed to be generous and took the world as their own responsibility. He was the kind of person who would commit suicide without batting an eyelid if he could save the world by killing me.

He may not know that Zhu Qizhen is changing the subject.

But a gentleman can be deceived. The question raised by Zhu Qizhen is obviously much more important than whether the customs bank should be returned to the Household Department or to the Imperial Household.

Even though Li Shimian knew that Zhu Qizhen didn't want to talk, he pretended not to know. He asked, "Your Majesty, how do you want me to do?"

Zhu Qizhen asked: "I know that Champa rice comes from the south. It is said that in many places, it is harvested three times a year. I would like to know if it is feasible to purchase grain from overseas and ship it directly to Tianjin by sea?"

Li Shimian pondered for a while and said: "I don't dare to speak nonsense, because there are not many people trading grain in Xin'an, no, it should be said that there are very few. No one is willing to trade grain in Xin'an, at most it is only used on the ship."

Zhu Qizhen naturally knew that going to sea meant making money.

If it is a peaceful season, Guangdong will naturally not need food, and transporting food will simply be a loss-making business.

"As for direct transportation from overseas to Tianjin, I don't know whether it is feasible or not."

"But the world has been at peace for a long time, and the price of food is at its lowest at three hundred coppers and one stone. The people are definitely not without food, and this is especially true in the south. Your Majesty's intention is known, and I want to use overseas food to help Hebei."

"But in my opinion, overseas food may not be available, but Guangdong food is enough to rely on."

"It's only the first month of the year, and there's still some time left before we start in the south. I'm willing to go south under starry night and arrive in Guangzhou within a dozen days to buy grain on the spot with the money deposited at the customs. Although Guangxi's troops are used, Guangdong's grain has increased somewhat, but I am determined to do so.

It won’t exceed five hundred penny per stone. It’s only one tael of silver and two stones of rice.”

"One million taels is enough to buy two million shi of grain, which is an urgent need for the imperial court."

"As long as your majesty trusts me and I am willing to guarantee my wealth and life, the time when the south will prosper will be when I transport grain from Tianjin."

Zhu Qizhen was deeply moved after hearing this.

Li Shimian was actually not sure about this matter.

He had only stayed in Xin'an for a few years. From what he said, he had never actually gone to sea, and there were no ready-made ships in Xin'an. In the past, he had to find a ship.

And the time to come from the south is either early or late.

Li Shimian rushed from Beijing to Guangzhou. Normally he would not arrive in two months, but now he had to rush back within ten days. This was really a desperate effort.

For the sake of a possibility, he would sacrifice his life for it without hesitation.

How many such ministers could there be? Zhu Qizhen dared to say that Li Shimian had never thought about his future at this moment. He also had not thought about what kind of responsibility he would have to bear if something went wrong.

It's just that he is the most suitable person for this matter.

Then do your part.

The Empress Dowager selected Li Shimian from almost all officials to be Zhu Qizhen's first teacher. Naturally, she made the right choice.

Zhu Qizhen felt a little unbearable for a moment, for a sixty-six-year-old man to be like this. Because after all, this was only a possibility, although the orthodox four-year rain seemed to have ended in summer and autumn, and there was no rain at all for more than three months throughout the winter.

But maybe when spring comes, there will be rain.

What Wang Zhi said is only a possibility.

Zhu Qizhen couldn't bear to ask Li Shimian to risk his life to suppress such a possibility.

But for a moment, Zhu Qizhen thought of one thing, and that was shipping.

Zhu Qizhen thought about transporting grain by sea more than once. He couldn't let Beijing's grain be tied to a canal. What he did was more of a step-by-step approach.

For example, change golden nanmu to Liaodong big wood.

Most of the large wood in Liaodong is discharged into the sea, and then transported to Beijing. The wood is tied together to make rafts, and then flows along the Yalu River or Liao River into the sea. After entering the sea, it is towed by ships to Tianjin.

This road saves work and effort. After arriving in Tianjin, you can also take the canal. When you reach Tongzhou, it will not be far from Beijing.

This stretch of sea journey was enough for Zhu Qizhen to increase his navy.

For this reason, I think the connection between Beijing and Liaodong can be more via water. First develop the navy in the bathtub of the Bohai Sea, and then develop it step by step in the future.

In short, although shipping is important, it is still relatively low on Zhu Qizhen's list of things to do.

After all, there are priorities.

But now, he found a perfect opportunity.

The current food crisis in the core areas of the Ming Dynasty is not that the court has no money, but that the court has no food. Even the court may not be short of food, it is just nervous.

The more important problem is that it cannot be transported.

The canal's transportation capacity has a bottleneck, especially after it was rated at four million shi during the Xuande period. It has long been conservative. It is simply impossible to transport millions of shi of grain within half a year.

Because this is a systematic project that affects the whole body at one moment, it is not something that can be added immediately just by adding how much you say.

At this time, if Li Shimian can transport grain from Guangdong to Tianjin by sea, then Zhu Qizhen can legitimately retain a sea transport channel in case of emergencies.

It is easy to establish this channel now, because although Zheng He, Wang Jinghong and others are all dead, the 30,000 people who followed Zheng He on his voyages to the West are not dead. Let them form a fleet, or

Yes. The boats are all ready-made. Although these boats have been allocated to the Coastal Guard Station, the things are still there and they just need to be organized.

Why choose Li Shimian?

Because the biggest problem in this matter is not ability, but thinking.

The grain in Nanjing is in the warehouses of various government officials. If he wanted to transfer grain, Zhu Qizhen would not persuade the six cabinet ministries first, and even the officials could not do it. Because such news could not be hidden from anyone even in Nanjing.

But Guangdong is different.

After all, Guangdong is remote.

Zhu Qizhen thought about it and felt that even if there was no drought, there was nothing wrong with asking Li Shimian to transport grain once. Even if the government and the public did not allow it this time, it would be considered a precedent.

It will be easier if there is a second time in the future. After the second and third time, everyone will get used to it.

When Zhu Qizhen thought of this, even if he couldn't bear it, he still had to do it. He saluted Li Shimian and said: "I will entrust millions of people in Beizhili to your husband."
Chapter completed!