Chapter 1227 Three questions!

June 29, Jiangnan, Lin'an
Greeted by thousands of people including Zhu Chen, the governor of Jiangnan, Zhang Meng, the commander of the Fourth Army, Ma Zhongjun, the general of the First Division, and others, Ye Mingsheng, the Grand Marshal of the Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, arrived in his loyal city of Lin'an.

Because he had heard that Jiangnan was the most prosperous place in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and Lin'an City was the most prosperous city in the Great Zhou Dynasty, so Ye Mingsheng also had great expectations for Lin'an City.
But unfortunately, due to security and other reasons, the Jiangnan Censorate and the First Army imposed temporary control on the city of Lin'an. As a result, there were not many pedestrians on the road. There were only the Censorate's servants and the soldiers of the First Army. The streets that were expected to be bustling now seemed a bit empty!
Seeing this situation, Ye Mingsheng didn't say much, but quickly completed the welcoming ceremony, and then ordered the Censorate and the First Army to end the control in Lin'an City and allow the people of Lin'an to resume normal production and life.

Ye Mingsheng was also an ordinary citizen, so he knew very well what ordinary people were thinking. Therefore, he hoped that his arrival would be able to help everyone and solve some problems. Ye Mingsheng did not want to see his arrival become a problem or even disturb everyone's lives.

A few months ago, when Zhu Chen, who was promoted by Ye Mingsheng to be the governor of Jiangnan, learned that Ye Mingsheng was about to come to Jiangnan, he wanted to build a magnificent palace for Ye Mingsheng in the prosperous area of ​​Lin'an.

However, when the palace was still in the preparation stage, Ye Mingsheng, who got the news, stopped the construction with an order. Compared with the magnificent palace, Ye Mingsheng hoped that Zhu Chen could use the limited money to promote the development of Jiangnan and improve the living standards of the people in Jiangnan...
Although he did not live in a magnificent palace, Ye Mingsheng's residence in Lin'an was not bad at all. It was a villa called Plum Blossom Villa, which belonged to Lu Houde, the eldest son of Lu Jianchao, the former governor of Jiangnan.

After Lu Jianchao surrendered, Ye Mingsheng did not blame Lu Jianchao and the Lu family too much. Ye Mingsheng allowed the Lu family to keep part of the family property and let Lu Jianchao choose a place he liked to live in among the three regions of Liaoyang, Jiyu, and Youyan.

Finally, Lu Jianchao chose Yujing in Hebei and Henan, and his whole family moved there. He lived a life of a wealthy man without caring about worldly affairs in Yujing, the ancient capital of several dynasties!
After the Lu family left Jiangnan, most of their properties in Jiangnan were confiscated, including this Plum Blossom Villa!
Although the Plum Blossom Villa does not cover a large area, the interior structure is very unique and quiet, making it a good place for self-cultivation. Before Ye Mingsheng's arrival, the Coordination Office had already conducted a security inspection of the Plum Blossom Villa.

After confirming that there were no safety issues, in order to ensure that Ye Mingsheng could live comfortably in the cottage, Song Haibo from the attendant department also moved into the cottage with his men and made some modifications to the courtyard based on Ye Mingsheng's living habits!
So when Ye Mingsheng came to Plum Blossom Cottage, he was very satisfied with the environment and interior furnishings of this house. Because he had been traveling for several days in a row and was a little tired, Ye Mingsheng arranged the welcoming banquet arranged by Zhu Chen for the next day, and he had a good sleep in the bedroom...

Ye Mingsheng slept from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the evening. After realizing that he had slept for three hours, Ye Mingsheng knew that he might not be able to sleep tonight, so he asked the guards to prepare a table of food for him and called Song Haibo over.

"Marshal, what do you want?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng asked in a deep voice:

"How have you been communicating with these businesses in Jiangnan these days?"

As the deputy director of the Attendant's Department, Song Haibo came to Lin'an a few days in advance not only to help Ye Mingsheng arrange food and accommodation, but also to pave the way for Ye Mingsheng to coordinate the development of Jiangnan. At Ye Mingsheng's instruction, he also had some contact with the owners and managers of Jiangnan businesses such as Hu Wenjie, Cao Genwei, and Fu Yixiang.

In response to Ye Mingsheng's question, Song Haibo also said:
"General, from my interactions with these owners, they are very positive about your arrival!"

"According to what I have learned, when these businesses first learned that you were coming to the southern tour, they were prepared to unite and offer 500,000 taels of silver. However, after you delivered your speech in Licheng, they decided to subscribe to another 300,000 taels of Dadongsheng bonds in addition to the original 500,000 taels!"

"In addition, Guangfuyuan, the largest bank in Jiangnan, is planning to donate 200,000 taels of silver in order to obtain a bank license issued by the Ministry of Revenue!"

After listening to Song Haibo's story, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly to signal Song Haibo to continue.

“Although the attitudes of these Jiangnan businesses are generally positive, in some specific aspects, they have some concerns and are taking a wait-and-see attitude…”

As soon as these words came out, Ye Mingsheng immediately became interested and asked:

"What are they worried about? Are they on the sidelines?"

Song Haibo organized his words and said:

"Sir, these businesses have three main concerns!"

"The first aspect is the administration of officials. Jiangnan's administration has been a chronic problem for decades. Although Jiangnan's administration was temporarily improved during Lu Jianchao's reign, because Lu Jianchao himself failed to keep himself clean, Jiangnan's FB problem is also very serious!"

"In my communication with them, although the owners of these businesses did not say it explicitly, I can sense that they have some concerns about your determination and ability to rectify the situation, Marshal!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded when he heard this. He, Ye Mingsheng, was not the first person to call for the rectification of the administration in Jiangnan. In fact, as early as sixty years ago, Murong Yuliang's grandfather, Murong Qingwu's great-grandfather, Murong Yu, the then Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Cabinet, had proposed the idea of ​​rectifying the administration in Jiangnan in order to improve the financial situation of the Great Zhou and increase its fiscal revenue.

But unfortunately, as the financial pillar of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Jiangnan was deeply intertwined with various forces, so the rectification implemented by Murong Yu had just been halfway through when various problems broke out. In the end, Murong Yu had to resign from the post of Prime Minister and retire!
With the lesson of Murong Yu, the subsequent prime ministers of the Great Zhou Dynasty like Lin Shize and Shangguan Hongyuan all thought about rectifying the administration of Jiangnan in order to increase financial revenue. For this reason, the two former governors of Jiangnan and three former provincial judges of Jiangnan were all imprisoned, and a group of people followed suit... But even so, this unhealthy trend was not stopped, and the next people who came up still did the same thing. What's most frustrating is that, because everyone knows that Jiangnan is rich, the governors of Jiangnan and provincial judges of Jiangnan can be said to be lucrative positions in the court!

Therefore, those who want to get to the top will have to pay a hefty price, and after paying the price they must get it back with interest, which forms a vicious cycle!
This situation has improved to a certain extent since Lu Jianchao came to power more than ten years ago. Although Lu Jianchao is not an honest official, it has to be admitted that he is an efficient official. Although he is not good at military affairs, he is good at economics!
During his early years as the governor of Jiangnan, he also reorganized the administration of Jiangnan, making the Jiangnan Provincial Government, as well as the various prefecture and county offices, more efficient. This move also pushed Jiangnan's trade to a peak, contributing more than 500,000 taels of fiscal revenue to the Luoan court every year!
Such political achievements also won Lu Jianchao the favor of Shangguan Hongyuan, the then Prime Minister of Da Zhou. So with Murong Lun's strong recommendation, Shangguan Hongyuan promoted Lu Jianchao to the Governor-General of Jiangnan. In this way, Lu Jianchao became the first governor of Jiangnan who came from a humble family in a hundred years, and wrote his name into the history of Jiangnan and even Da Zhou!
Unfortunately, although Lu Jianchao was very wise in his early years and was praised by the people of Jiangnan, he still could not resist the offensive of money bullets and succumbed to the temptations of wealth and beauty. As the saying goes, what goes up must come down, and the administrative rectification in Jiangnan, which had just started to improve, gradually returned to the past...

Therefore, in Ye Mingsheng's opinion, after experiencing such a few decades of history, it is understandable that the major businesses in Jiangnan have concerns about his idea of ​​rectifying the administration in Jiangnan!

What's more, these businesses have been one of the main culprits for the corruption of Jiangnan's civil service over the past few decades. They may not be willing to see themselves rectify the civil service in Jiangnan!

Seeing Ye Mingsheng nod, Song Haibo continued to introduce:

"As for the second aspect, it is the issue of developing overseas trade!"

"Marshal, from what I have observed, some Jiangnan businesses are very willing to expand overseas, but the problem now is that the risks overseas are too great, especially now that the situation in Southeast Asia is very chaotic. Some local tribes and pirates have no rules or morals. They will not only rob your goods, but also kill your people!"

"So the current situation is that the risk of going to sea is getting higher and higher. Some sailors are unwilling to go to sea, and some have even been forced to change their careers!"

"Although you have proposed strengthening the navy's combat power, these companies believe that the navy is different from the infantry. It is difficult for the navy to be trained as quickly as the infantry. Although the Fengwu Army is invincible on land, it is completely different on water!"

"The current navy of Jiangnan is good at fighting on the Nanjiang River, but it is difficult for it to go out to sea to protect the merchant ships of the Great Zhou from the invasion of pirates and native tribes."

“So even if you, Marshal, advocate strengthening the navy’s combat effectiveness and are willing to invest manpower and material resources in the development of the navy, the construction of ships and the training of sailors and captains all take time…”

At this point, Song Haibo seemed to be hesitant to speak, as if he wanted to say something but didn't dare to. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng said in a deep voice:
"You can say whatever you want!"

After getting Ye Mingsheng's permission, Song Haibo said without hesitation:

“So those merchants think that even if you, Marshal, are interested in building a powerful ocean-going navy now, that is a matter for the future and cannot be realized in the short term. This also means that the problem of increased risk for merchant ships of the Great Zhou Dynasty going out to sea for trade cannot be effectively solved in at least the next two or three years!”

"So in order to avoid risks and reduce losses, some businesses are planning to reduce overseas trade!"

Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but shook his head after hearing this. Although he was somewhat reluctant in his heart, in the face of facts, he had to admit that he really couldn't build a strong navy in a short period of time to protect the merchant ships of the Great Zhou from being invaded overseas. The views of these merchants were very objective and correct!
Although such an embarrassing fact is before him, it does not mean that Ye Mingsheng can do nothing. In addition to speeding up the construction of the Great Zhou Navy, Ye Mingsheng is also actively seeking other solutions. At present, the Coordination Office has already had some directions to solve the problem!

If everything goes well, the increased overseas trade risks for Da Zhou merchant ships will be improved to a certain extent in the next two to three months.

Looking at the silent Ye Mingsheng, Song Haibo also talked about the third point.

“Marshal, if these businesses in Jiangnan are positive about your proposals to rectify the administration and encourage the development of overseas trade, then they are completely negative about your proposals to increase workers’ wages, set a minimum wage standard, and increase rest time…”

"Many owners and shopkeepers have told me that if this measure is implemented, it will increase the production costs of their businesses and factories, so they don't want to do this!"

"Some shopkeepers even said that if you, Marshal, can take back your decision, they are willing to pay more taxes to the court!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng sneered, he knew that this group of people would try their best to stop him, but he had made up his mind and there was no possibility of turning back. This was only the first step. Next, he would have to introduce a tiered tax system to make those who earn more pay more taxes, while those who earn less pay less taxes, or even no taxes!

But these are all things to come. After all, one has to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. If one takes too big a step, one may easily get hurt. For now, one still has to safeguard the interests of these workers and farmers and win their support. Only then will the situation in the future New Dynasty be stable!
In this way, his subsequent reform measures can be gradually promoted, and the comprehensive national strength of the Great Zhou will reach an unprecedented peak, realizing his dream of a great prosperous era with all nations coming to pay tribute and peace reigning throughout the world!
Ye Mingsheng has made preparations to clear all obstacles for the arrival of the prosperous era, and now is the beginning of the first step...

(End of this chapter)