My life skills in Daming Liver

Su Ze returned to the cabinet. While riding a carriage back to the cabinet, he read the latest intelligence sent by Wang Shizhen from the capital intelligence station.

When Su Ze returned to the cabinet, Xu Wei and other ministers were anxiously waiting for him.

"Grand Governor! This reform by Ming Ting Zhang Juzheng seems to be serious!"

Even Xu Wei, who had always been confident, was worried because of the intelligence sent by Wang Shizhen.

The Ming court's various reforms before had never made Xu Wei lose his composure, but this time he saw the information sent by Wang Shizhen and actually felt that Zhang Juzheng's plan was feasible.

The reason is that the two foundations of Zhang Juzheng's reform are indeed correct.

The first is to make every effort to prepare a larger-scale workshop. A larger-scale workshop is naturally more efficient than a smaller-scale workshop.

The second is that the price of Southeast products is high due to the high labor price, and they rely on technological advantages to maintain their price advantage. If Zhang Juzheng can really use lower-cost labor to manufacture goods within the control of the Ming court in the north, then Southeast's price advantage will be No more.

If Zhang Juzheng is really successful, the Ming court will become the most difficult enemy in the southeast due to its population advantage.

Su Ze smiled and said: "Chang Wen, don't worry, Zhang Juzheng's trick looks good, but it's actually impossible to do it."

Everyone in the cabinet looked at Su Ze.

Su Ze said: "The reason is very simple. The core of Zhang Juzheng's set of reforms must be to maintain the stability of the Ming court in the north. Zhang Juzheng cannot do this alone."

"Zhang Juzheng is a tyrant, not the true ruler of the Ming Dynasty."

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

The word tyrant can be regarded as a recently introduced word.

He Xinyin said: "The tyrant mentioned by the Grand Governor was the name used by the ancient Greek scholar Herodotus to refer to the rulers of Lydia and other countries?"

Su Ze nodded. Herodotus was a famous historian in ancient Greece. His book is called "History". This is a book that records the history of ancient Greece.

He Xinyin thought for a while and said: "What the Governor said is absolutely true. Zhang Juzheng's biggest shortcoming is that he supported the Ming Emperor for the sake of the legitimacy of his rule. Therefore, he is just a tyrant, not the Ming Emperor."

"Tyrants are extremely unstable."

Others in the cabinet are not as well-read as He Xinyin. He Xinyin explained to his colleagues:

"None of the tyrants in Greece called themselves kings. They were de facto absolute monarchs, and they all used some modest titles, such as 'consul for life', 'general with power', etc." "

"However, although the tyrants were de facto kings, they could never completely replace the real 'king' with legitimacy and legitimacy, because the Greek royal power had religious characteristics and was sacred in the eyes of the people at the time. Therefore. The tyrant is always regarded as a usurper of political power and an illegitimate king."

Xu Wei and others immediately listened to He Xinyin's explanation and immediately understood what Su Ze meant.

Su Ze said: "The characteristic of the tyrant system is the lack of legitimacy, which is very fatal."

"So even if the tyrant is very skillful, he still needs to sacrifice part of his interests to bribe the entire middle and high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty so that people can recognize his rule."

"Tyrants often wield great power, but they must rely on compromise to maintain their rule, so they cannot strictly implement all policies."

"The tyrant must establish himself as more moral than the imperial power, so he must constantly strengthen his personal character and abilities. This kind of formalistic moral worship will lead to internal strife within the Ming court."

"Finally, due to the instability of the tyrant, all those who have taken refuge in Zhang Juzheng will also worry about his retreat if he loses his right to govern. Therefore, those who support him now may be in two boats and be ready to jump at any time."

"It's also possible that you support Zhang Juzheng just because of temporary interests and are ready to betray him at any time."

"Zhang Juzheng seems to be in control of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it is a mess internally and cannot guarantee efficient implementation of policies, not to mention that his set of reforms involves changes at multiple levels of society."

"If these problems cannot be solved, Zhang Juzheng's reforms will only remain at the institutional level."

"Those who enforce the law in the Ming Dynasty will only implement the part that is beneficial to themselves. Even good laws will become evil laws, and the government will become even more degenerate."

Su Ze used the example of tyrants in ancient Greece, but tyrants in our land also have a more common name - powerful ministers.

Xu Wei was thinking of the story of Huo Guang in the Han Dynasty.

Even Huo Guang's rule is much more stable than Zhang Juzheng's!

After all, Huo Guang was the auxiliary minister appointed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and he even deposed and established the emperor.

You, Zhang Juzheng, have never even dethroned the emperor, how can you be considered a powerful minister and tyrant!

And if the emperor is really deposed, then the stability required by Zhang Juzheng's reform this time will be out of the question, and just one political turmoil will be enough to destroy all his previous efforts.

And as Su Ze said, Zhang Juzheng's own ruling foundation is not as solid as he thinks.

The local governors of the Ming Dynasty could support him for their own interests, or they could betray him for their own interests.

Everyone now calmed down and discussed other matters in the southeast.

Xu Wei asked:

"Grand Governor, will the war in Xuzhou continue?"

Su Ze nodded and said: "Yes, of course, we must hold Li Chengliang in Xuzhou and bleed Mingting continuously."

"But the First Brigade can be withdrawn. It only needs to maintain the confrontation in Xuzhou. When winter comes, supplies will be more difficult in the north. At that time, Li Chengliang will become the debt collector of the Ming court."

Everyone laughed.

As expected, the Ming court quickly introduced Zhang Juzheng's new reform regulations.

Encourage various localities to set up large-scale workshops and vigorously develop industry and commerce.

To maintain the stability of grain prices, in order to crack down on speculative grain merchants in the capital, Zhang Juzheng personally ordered Shuntian Prefecture to arrest several large grain merchants and collect all the grain near the capital to the official camp.

The purchase of cotton in Henan and Hebei was restricted, and the government purchased it at a unified price. All the purchased cotton was sent to the textile workshops of the Ming Dynasty. It was prohibited to buy and sell cotton privately, and it was also prohibited to sell cotton raw materials directly.

In the promotion assessment of officials in various places, the assessment of industrial and commercial establishments has been increased, and even the indicator of land tax has been replaced as the most important assessment basis for promotion of officials.

Under Zhang Juzheng's combination of punches, in the last few months of the third year of Longqing, the Ming court vigorously launched a movement to establish workshops.

Especially near the capital, several large workshops were built on the foundations left by the high arches.

Under the call of the officials of Shuntian Prefecture, the people of the capital began to work in these workshops in the capital.

The cotton textile workshops in the capital had a low supply of raw materials, using cotton raw materials forcibly collected from the people of Henan and Hebei at low prices.

The Jingshi workshop also has low labor costs, with almost the same number of employees. The salary in the Jingshi workshop is only one-fifth or even one-tenth of that in the Southeast. Although the textile machines are much behind those in the Southeast, the low labor cost of the employees is also It does make the cotton cloth woven by the Jingshi workshop somewhat competitive.

Although the weaving of the Jingshi workshop is not as smooth as that of the southeast, and it is far inferior to the high-end weaving, there is still a lot of low-end demand for cotton.

The merchants in the capital, who were originally hesitant and unwilling to invest assets, also saw Zhang Juzheng's determination to develop industry and commerce.

After these people saw the profits from running workshops, they also took their own money to join industry and commerce.

In this feast, the one who benefited the most was the border trade merchant represented by Qingyuan Bo Li Wei.

The cotton cloth produced needs a market, but the people of the Ming Dynasty are all poor. Except for the people in the capital and other cities who can consume these cotton cloths, the remaining cotton cloths are difficult to consume within the boundaries of the Ming court.

The high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty preferred to use the more exquisite and gorgeous Southeast Asian cloth, but ordinary people could not afford it, so these cotton cloths could only be exported.

Through Datong's border trade, a large amount of cotton cloth was sold to the grasslands.

The Ming Dynasty obtained a large number of war horses and furs through grassland trade.

Another trade partner is North Korea.

As a loyal vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, a big country, was bound to become the dumping ground for Ming Dynasty cotton cloth.

Zhang Juzheng took a tough stance and wrote a letter of credence to the North Korean leader, demanding that North Korea cut off trade with the southeast and purchase cotton from the Ming Dynasty.

Because Shandong is now blocked from maritime trade, Zhang Juzheng deliberately opened a land channel and encouraged northern merchants to sell cotton cloth to North Korea through Liaodong.

Liaodong's Nine-Border Army also deployed troops on the banks of the Yajiang River, which frightened the Korean monarchs and ministers and immediately accepted it and purchased cotton produced by the Ming Dynasty.

However, the populations of North Korea and the grasslands are not large, and their consumption power is not strong. Zhang Juzheng also knows that these two places alone cannot meet the needs of the Ming court.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng once again asked the North Korean leader to open a port in Busan, and the Ming court sent officials to set up a shipping department in Busan to specialize in Japanese trade in Busan.

Under Zhang Juzheng's strong promotion, the leader of North Korea had to accept the Ming Dynasty's request and "leased" Busan to the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhang Juzheng's hard work, Ming Dynasty actually recovered a bit.

In the third year of Longqing's reign, on the eighth day of December, several large pots were set up in the capital. Qingyuan Bo Li Wei took the lead in setting up a porridge shed in the capital to distribute Laba porridge to the people for free.

Although the Laba porridge was as thin as water, there was still a long queue.

When Tong An came out of the Imperial College, he rubbed his hands and looked at the busy streets of the capital.

It has been two months since Mingting officially implemented the New Deal in October.

In the Imperial College, there were more and more praises for Zhang Juzheng.

In the latest "Huangming New Newspaper", Zhang Juzheng, the Secretary of the Central Committee, announced the situation of the Ministry of Household Affairs to the people for the first time.

After cutting a large amount of royal expenditures, promoting industry and promoting industry, and coupled with the one-step tax reform, the Ming Dynasty supported the Shaanxi counter-insurgency war, the Shandong counter-insurgency war, and the long-term confrontation war on the Shandong front line. After the military expenditures of the three wars , still achieved a treasury surplus.

The students of the Imperial College who were once very dissatisfied with the Ming court began to praise Zhang Juzheng, the "famous prime minister through the ages", believing that he was the one who could save the Ming Dynasty.

The newspapers in the capital were full of praises for Zhang Juzheng, which made Tong An feel that the Ming Dynasty had really revived.

Today is Laba Festival. Zhang Juzheng ordered the Imperial College to provide Laba porridge to all the prison students. After Tong An ate Laba porridge, he was ready to walk around the streets.

At this time, Tong An heard a voice.

"Tong Ziyuan?"

Tong An raised his head and saw a middle-aged man sitting in a green chartered car. He quickly saluted, "Mr. Wang!"

Sitting on the green car was none other than Wang Shizhen, a literary master who was well-known in the capital.

After the last gathering at the Zhang Mansion, Zhang Jingxiu organized several more cultural gatherings, including both Tong An and Wang Shizhen.

After going back and forth, the two gradually became familiar with each other.

The Imperial College of the Capital also invited Wang Shizhen to give several lectures at the Imperial College. Tong An respected Wang Shizhen very much and addressed him as "Sir".

Wang Shizhen patted the green chartered car and said:

"Where are Tong Ziyuan going? Can I give you a ride?"

Tong An originally wanted to refuse, but looking at the snow on the pedestrian paths on both sides of the road, he agreed:

"Then I won't disturb Mr. Wang."

Xiangzi put the car down and Tong An climbed into the green chartered car.

There was one more person in the car, so it became more difficult for Xiangzi to pull the car.

Wang Shizhen asked:

"Where are Tong Ziyuan going?"

Tong An said: "Today the classmates will organize a gathering. I will just go to the Songhe Tower in front of Gongyuan."

Wang Shizhen said with a smile: "That's really fate. I'm going to Gongyuan too, so there's Lao Xiangzi. I'll give you some extra wages."

Xiangzi grinned and said, "No trouble, no trouble. If Mr. Wang hadn't taken care of my business, I wouldn't have lasted through the winter, so I wouldn't have had to pay for processing."

Looking at the patches on Xiangzi's coarse cotton coat, Tong An couldn't help but ask:

"Is life so difficult for a coachman?"