When Tianjin Governor Feng Yuanbiao surrendered to Li Xin, the population of Tianjin was only about 7,000, and most of them were accompanied by military families, craftsmen, elderly, weak, sick and disabled, and the troops were less than 2,000. In the city of Tianjin, the roof was troughed, half of which were hauled. Outside the city, merchants were mingled and forced to flee, and about tens of thousands of people were engaged in commercial trade.

Some of them were the original garrison and their families, but more were hawkers from all over the Ming Dynasty and merchants migrated along the Cao area. The goods were mainly cloth, rice, beans, wheat products and fish and shrimp. Some gangs even organized smuggling activities to North Korea and Japan.

Feng Yuanbiao followed Li Xin and didn't dare to be proud. After all, he was the governor of Tianjin, and his main business was to train troops and guard the capital. But now, in Tianjin, the soldiers have not been trained, but have attracted many merchants and a mess.

This was the case when Li Xin came to inspect the last time. A few months have passed, and it is still the case. He felt that his governor was too dereliction of duty.

Li Xin was standing by the sea, and there was already obvious floating ice at his feet, about five centimeters thick and could not leave. However, Juehua Island is located in Liaodong Bay, and the ice layer should be thicker and stronger.

"Do you know the smuggling situation between North Korea and Japan?"

Li Xin suddenly turned around and asked.

Even though the wind was chilly, a layer of fine sweat oozed out of Feng Yuanbiao's forehead and he hurriedly said: "Return to the Regent, I have been fighting smuggling since I was the governor of Tianjin. For example, the smuggling activities in the Tianjin area today are much less than those in the Wanli and Tianqi periods."

Li Xin waved his hand and said, "I'm not asking you to crack down on smuggling, but I'll ask you if you have learned more about the inside story."

"this……"

Feng Yuanbiao was stunned, different from what he thought, and then said, "Why... I'll ask the locals for the Regent to ask?"

"good!"

Li Xin nodded and said.

Feng Yuanbiao immediately gave a few instructions to the two people beside him.

The two of them ran away.

In a moment, he brought back a man in his thirties who was so scared that his face was so scared.

The man knelt down on the ground with a pounce, and kowtowed quickly, "Feng Futai, I, Chen Chuan, have not gone out to sea for a long time. You know, please give me some kindness."

Feng Yuanbiao remembered Li Xin's rule that he was not allowed to kneel down and raised his hand and said, "Stand up and talk."

Chen Chuan stood up uneasy.

Feng Yuanbiao introduced to Li Xin: "Regent, this is the head of the local business group, and has been in Japan and North Korea for a long time." Then he signaled to Chen Chuan: "This is the Regent of the Ming Dynasty. If you have something to ask, I will reply very much."

"The villain greets the Regent!"

Chen Chuan shivered all over, his knees couldn't help but soften, and he was about to kneel down.

Li Xin twisted Chen Chuan's shoulder with one hand and said in a deep voice: "Stand and talk!"

"oh!"

Chen Chuan half-beared and barely stood in front of Li Xin.

Li Xin asked with a smile: "Don't be nervous, I just ask you to find out about the situation in Japan and North Korea. I heard that you haven't gone to sea for a while. Why? I want to listen to the truth."

Chen Chuan also saw the world. Seeing that Li Xin didn't look like he was seeking an offense, he immediately became active and said, "Go back to the Regent, on the one hand, Feng Futai is fighting smuggling Youjia, basically no one dares to go to North Korea or Japan. On the other hand,... Japan doesn't know what's going on, and suddenly it's not allowed to trade with the Ming Dynasty. Last year, someone didn't believe in evil and dragged several ships of cargo over there. As a result, he was confiscated and the person didn't come back. I don't know whether it's dead or alive."

Li Shin-sin knew that since the Tokugawa Shogunate came to power, due to the sharp contradiction between Christianity and shogunate rule, the Shimahara Rebellion broke out. Since then, Japan has closed its doors and left Nagasaki as a trading place to prevent local daimyos from obtaining weapons, funds and technology from the Southern Barbarians, especially the spread of bourgeois thought and culture.

The so-called Southern Barbarians are Western colonies in Southeast Asia, but the Netherlands was exceptional. The Netherlands opened the East India Company to Nagasaki at the cost of promising not to preach.

The Ming Dynasty lost control of the local government and traded with Japan was in chaos. Anyone with money and capital could go to sea to trade. The quality was not only uneven, but many people did not know that the shogunate was closed to the country and went to places outside Nagasaki. As a result, the ship cargo was confiscated, the people were detained, and ransom was demanded.

Li Xin absolutely did not allow Japan to close its country. In the past ten years, due to wars in Europe, the amount of silver imported into the Ming Dynasty dropped sharply, and Japan closed its country again. There was almost no gold and silver imported into the Ming Dynasty, resulting in a trend of deflation and the silver price rose repeatedly.

Seeing that silver is becoming more and more valuable, some rich people simply store silver, which further reduces the silver circulating on the market and intensifies deflation.

In fact, the financial bankruptcy of the Chongzhen Dynasty was related to deflation, because the court could not plunder private wealth through inflation, and instead, the court's financial capital turnover was difficult due to deflation.

If Li Xin wants to get rid of the dilemma of deflation and prepare for the future issuance of silver dollars, cancel the local government's power to mint silver, and then cancel the fire consumption, he must obtain a huge amount of gold and silver from Japan.

The methods of plundering have many disadvantages, which can easily lead to the intensified gap between the rich and the poor, and thus trigger vicious inflation. Relatively speaking, Li Xin still tends to use trade means to obtain gold and silver, so that all sectors of society can participate as much as possible and share the benefits. Therefore, it is necessary to open the doors of Japan and become the dumping place for Ming Dynasty goods.

"What's going on in North Korea?"

Li Xin asked again.

Chen Chuan said: "Return to the Regent, since North Korea surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, North Korea has cut off trade with our Ming Dynasty, and all Ming merchants will be arrested and killed."

"Yeah~~"

Li Xin nodded and said, "If you are allowed to pay taxes normally, you can legally trade with North Korea, Japan, and even the more distant Philippines and Malacca. Are you willing to?"

"Yes, I'm willing!"

Chen Chuan was shocked and said quickly.

Li Xin smiled slightly and turned his head and said, "The establishment of Tianjin Wei in Ming Dynasty was to protect Beijing's security, but Tianjin's coastal riverside was a place of prosperity for commerce. For two hundred years, people have spontaneously gathered to do business, which has been irreversible. In this case, we should adapt to the situation and promote the development of Tianjin's trade. I will solve the trade routes of North Korea and Japan. Your duty is to promote the prosperity of Tianjin and build Tianjin into a commercial city. I will send someone to assist you in the establishment of the Customs Department. If you do this well, you will have a place in the cabinet in the future."

Feng Yuanbiao was overjoyed, but asked: "Thank you, the Regent, for your kindness. I will do my best to plan for the Regent, but... I am not from the Hanlin Academy, so how can I enter the cabinet?"

Li Xin smiled: "The Ming Dynasty never had a system that stipulated that the cabinet ministers must come from the Hanlin Academy. This is just an old habit in the officialdom. Instead, I think that the Tang Dynasty's system of being a general and being a prime minister is good. In the future, the ministry and cabinet will be born in the state department, and Hanlin Shujishi will also take turns to expose the people's sentiments. I do not need ordinary people who speak out and have outstanding political achievements before returning to the court to become an official."

"Regent's Holy Ming!"

Feng Yuanbiao was convinced and bowed deeply.

Don't think he is a governor. Others call him a scoundrel, but he is not as valuable as a governor, let alone the governor who presides over a province, not to mention that he is a governor of Henan, Shaanxi, and other officials who preside over the province.
Chapter completed!