jdhmnovel Chapter 821 Their thoughts are all filthy!
Chapter 821 Their thoughts are all filthy!
It's common knowledge that those who play politics have dirty minds.
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen, who rose to the top of the Ming Dynasty court, had reached a level where there was no limit to how corrupt they could be.
After all, Li Shanchang was only concerned with signing more treaties, while Liu Bowen had already seen the essence of the problem.
"Treaties and non-treaties are all negotiable, the only serious matter is to acquire more minerals."
Liu Bowen stroked his beard and said, "Treaty of 1893, for example, has a reparation of 200 million taels of silver and an annual interest of 70 million taels. How many years can Japan withstand it?"
"Japan might be able to hold out for three to five years, but after ten or eight years, or even twenty or thirty years, Japan will probably not be able to pay the interest, let alone settle the indemnity."
"If that time really comes, will Japan still be allowed to exist?"
Li Shanchang hummed in agreement and was about to speak when Emperor Zhu coughed and said, "Well, Japan probably won't be able to wait another thirty years."
“Our Biao’er sent us a letter saying that he plans to transfer all the fiefdoms of the nobles to Japan.”
"Mr. Shanchang's son Qige and Mr. Qingtian's son Liange will both have to go to Japan to develop their fiefdoms in a few years."
"As for the Ming Dynasty, you will retain a portion of your fiefdom, but it will only be a very small part."
As Emperor Zhu finished speaking, Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen breathed a sigh of relief, and even seemed more energetic.
Changing the fiefdom is good.
It would be better to move the fiefdom overseas.
If our fiefdoms remain in the Ming Dynasty, even if we old brothers retire and return to our hometowns, Zhu Chongba and that black sesame dumpling will still worry about us exploiting the local people.
Since our fiefdoms are not in the Ming Dynasty, we old brothers can retire and live a peaceful and comfortable life in our fiefdoms. No matter how much we bully the local people, Zhu Chongba and that black sesame dumpling will just pretend not to see it.
Moreover, Japan was not too far from the Ming Dynasty, and it was very convenient to travel to and from Japan by boat from Dengzhou Prefecture.
Most importantly, a large number of nobles are crammed into the tiny country of Japan, and there are often conflicts between the noble families. Therefore, Emperor Zhu and His Highness the Crown Prince do not need to worry about the nobles forming cliques.
In short, exchanging fiefdoms overseas may seem like a loss, but it can actually save your life and even allow your descendants to benefit more.
With confidence in his heart, Liu Bowen no longer concealed his abilities, but stroked his beard and said, "Since Your Majesty and His Highness have already made arrangements for Japan, then I will not say more about Japan, but only about the Timurid Khanate and the land of Europe."
"Your Majesty and Your Highness are not quite clear about what plans they have for the Timurid Khanate and the lands of Europe."
"I have only one concern."
"That means there will be more and more workshops in our Great Ming Dynasty, and they will produce more and more things."
"If we only treat the Timurid Khanate and Europe as a sales channel, I'm afraid they won't have enough money to buy our Ming Dynasty's products."
"The only way is to target their various mineral deposits."
Li Shanchang glanced at Liu Bowen and asked, "If you target their mineral resources, won't that make the already poor Timurid Khanate and Europe even poorer?"
Liu Bowen chuckled and said, "Brother Shanchang, you are mistaken."
"No matter how poor the Timurid Khanate and Europe are, their mineral resources are there and will not change."
"And to mine their mineral deposits, it is necessary to hire their local people."
"Anyway, you can't expect the people of our Great Ming to go overseas to mine."
In the Ming Dynasty, ordinary people could earn sixty coins a day for their work, a rule personally set by Emperor Zhu.
If it were laborers from Korea, Timur's Khanate, or Europe, ten coins a day would be enough to satisfy them.
The difference between the inside and outside here is a full fifty coins.
If one laborer is short fifty coins, twenty laborers will be short one string of cash.
A small workshop may only have a few dozen people, but a mine may require thousands or even tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of workers.
How much money will be missing from this?
Even if 80% of the price difference were used for road construction and tree planting, and the remaining 20% were put into the national treasury, it would still be a huge fortune for the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Bowen continued, "Their people can earn money through the mines, and their ruler can naturally collect taxes from the people."
"Once those barbarians have money, they can afford to buy the products produced by our many workshops in the Great Ming Dynasty."
"If the barbarians can barely survive, they won't think about taking back the mines or any other messy things."
Even if a few ambitious individuals emerge from among them...
Liu Bowen smiled meaningfully: "I've heard that there are many small countries in Europe, and almost every prefecture or county dares to call itself a country. I suppose they can't all work together towards the same goal, can they?"
Li Shanchang simply hummed in agreement, but after pondering for a while, he sighed and said, "It's still quite troublesome."
Liu Bowen was slightly taken aback and asked, "What's the trouble?"
Li Shanchang shook his head, stroked his beard, and said, "Although the mineral deposits of the Timurid Khanate and the European countries are right there, if you want to take advantage of them, you must first subdue the Timurid Khanate and the European countries, make them obedient like a stick, a monkey, and a shorty."
"With the Dengzhou fleet here, our Great Ming is certainly not afraid of long-distance expeditions across the sea. However, the territories we have conquered need to be protected, and many key maritime locations also need to be guarded and patrolled to collect taxes. All of this adds up to a shortage of tens of thousands of people."
"Given the current situation of our Great Ming Dynasty, where are you going to get tens of thousands of people?"
As Li Shanchang finished speaking, Emperor Zhu and Liu Bowen couldn't help but sigh in unison.
In the end, we've come full circle.
Shortage of people.
Hu Weiyong, the provincial governor of Liaodong, complained every day about the lack of manpower.
Wang Guangyang, the Shandong Provincial Governor, complained every day about the lack of personnel.
Even some shameless county magistrates are constantly complaining about a shortage of personnel.
Not to mention Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture, which are like bottomless pits.
Thinking of Ningyang County, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but rub his forehead, then looked at Li Shanchang and asked, "Brother Shanchang, how many people have we relocated to Ningyang County in the past few years?"
Li Shanchang pondered for a moment before replying, "In just these two years, about 7,000 households, or more than 30,000 people, have been relocated. If we add those who migrated in the second and third years of the Hongwu reign, the total number would be close to 40,000."
Forty thousand people, that's comparable to some large counties in Jiangnan!
But to make matters worse, that scoundrel is still complaining every day about a shortage of people, even female workers are in extremely short supply, as if giving him another 40,000 people wouldn't be enough!
The more Emperor Zhu thought about it, the angrier he became.
Isn't this just making things difficult for Old Zhu?
You complained about a manpower shortage when more than 40,000 people were relocated to Ningyang County, and you still complained about a manpower shortage when 120,000 to 130,000 people were relocated to Dengzhou Prefecture.
What, do we have to relocate all the people of the Ming Dynasty to satisfy your appetite?
That bastard!