Chapter 2764

Zhu Zian took a sip of hot tea and continued to read the newspaper. Soon he found a follow-up report about his visit to North Korea and Japan on the second page. However, his name was not mentioned in this report. The main content was to explain the visit.

Gains from the visit.

During the visit of Haihan's mission, some agreements were reached with each of the two countries. Among them were not only new cooperation projects, but also some adjustments to trade policies, such as tariff collection standards and methods, all of which were beneficial to Haihan.

Subtle changes.

The most noteworthy thing is that Haihan will build exclusive economic zones at the two trading ports of Busan Port in North Korea and Nagasaki Port in Japan. Haihan merchants who settle in the zones will be able to enjoy more preferential treatment

trade policy.

The nature of this so-called exclusive economic zone is actually the same as the concessions that Haihan obtained in various countries in the South China Sea. It allows Haihan to exercise independent administrative and judicial systems in the area. It is not an exaggeration to call it a small colonial settlement.

The report gave a very high evaluation to this harvest and believed that in the long run, it will greatly help Haihan establish a stronger influence in these areas.

As a party involved in the entire process from planning to negotiation, Zhu Zian knew the inside story very well. Although his name was not mentioned in the report, he could not help but feel a sense of pride.

However, Zhu Zian was a little surprised by the following content, because the newspaper actually broke the news that Haihan and the shogunate were negotiating on arms trade. As far as he knew, although the two sides had reached a cooperation intention, the specific details

There is no consensus on the transaction content, settlement method, delivery period, etc., and follow-up negotiations are still needed to resolve the differences. This is precisely why the shogunate sent envoys to Hangzhou.

Haihan has been selling arms and equipment to foreign countries all year round. For Haihan, this transaction does not matter whether it is kept secret or not, but the Japanese shogunate may not be willing to let the matter be made public prematurely. Because the shogunate wants to buy arms from Haihan.

It is clear that one is to try to maintain the same level of armaments as neighboring Korea, and the other is to deter the restless local vassals in the country. Once the news leaks out, competitors will also take countermeasures, so the shogunate is spending a small amount of money to achieve big things.

It might be a failure.

But then he thought about it, this operation may not be a mistake by the editor of the Times, but it may be intentional. Both Shi Chengwu and Tao Hongfang once said that selling arms to the shogunate was not the ultimate goal, but to create armaments in the East China Sea region.

The atmosphere of competition allows more potential buyers who are still waiting to see the situation to also spend money to participate in this competition. That is the most ideal situation.

The more Zhu Zian thought about it, the more it made sense. If the news was revealed in such a publicly distributed newspaper, both Korea, which had close ties with Haihan, and the Satsuma clan, which secretly maintained trade relations with Haihan, should have quickly noticed this.

News. From their respective standpoints, the shogunate’s arms purchase plan will be a big stimulus, and they probably will not turn a blind eye to it.

Zhu Zian was so curious that he almost wanted to drop the newspaper and go find Tao Hongfang and others to find out the inside story and confirm whether his guess was correct.

However, it was the first day that the new official took office. He had just met with his immediate boss and it was definitely not appropriate to ask for leave immediately. Zhu Zian quickly calmed down, put the newspaper aside, and decided to calm down.

Turn your attention to work.

Zhu Zian looked at the pile of files on the table and picked up the top one.

I opened the file and glanced at it twice. It recorded the conversation between the two people, and also noted some details of the conversation.

The conversation took place two days ago at a teahouse on Hanlin Street in the east of the city. There were only two participants. One was an employee of the Special Liaison Office named Bi Xingsheng. The person he was talking to was named Cao Kun, whose identity was Suzhou Prefecture. A grain manager of .

The identity of grain chief is rare, but Zhu Zian knows a little about it. The so-called grain chief is a position specially appointed during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty in order to solve the manpower needs of private collection and transportation of grain. Generally, it is based on the payment of grain. An area of ​​about 10,000 tons was divided into one area, and then a large local householder was assigned to serve as the grain director, responsible for collecting and distributing grain. Later, even tasks such as urging grain cadres, reporting tax evasion, and declaring disasters were all handed over to the grain director. .

Although the Grain Chief is only a semi-official position, because of its considerable authority and the fact that it can be passed down from generation to generation, it was also a hot pursuit among the people in the early days. As long as the big family took this job, they could use their authority to bully the villagers. , there are many people who line their own pockets and take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the court changed the rules of grain collection. Multiple grain chiefs were appointed in one area, reducing authority, and no longer allowed hereditary inheritance. As a result, the benefits of being a grain chief were not that much. , the big households naturally have no motivation, so they forcibly transfer such positions to the powerless poor households, and control them behind the scenes. All the benefits belong to themselves, and if anything goes wrong, let others take care of it.

In the late Ming Dynasty, internal and external troubles continued, and the Liao, Lian, and Suppression taxes imposed by the court made the taxes and duties borne by the people more and more heavy. Even in many areas that were not affected by war, tax households would have to pay taxes because they could not afford it. They chose to flee in order to pay taxes. As a result, the position of grain chief became a hard job. There were also many grain chiefs who were arrested and imprisoned because they failed to complete the task of tax collection, or who chose to abandon their homes and property to flee.

By the time Chongzhen came to power, the grain collection work in many places was in a mess, and the position of grain director had become a symbol of taking the blame. When Zhu Zian was still in Prince De's Mansion, he often heard that a certain county in a certain prefecture was in trouble because of the grain collection. There was a shortage of grain, so several grain chiefs were arrested to take the blame. However, this method of handling was of no help at all and could not change the predicament that Ming Dynasty found itself in at that time.

Zhu Zian once thought that Jiangsu and Zhejiang were a land of plenty and affluence, and the work of collecting grain and tax would not be as difficult as in the north where natural and man-made disasters were constant. However, after reading this file, he found that the south was actually not much better. The process of collecting food was also very difficult.

Cao Kun, the grain chief, said that although the grain harvest in his area was pretty good, it was also difficult to complete the grain collection task. The reason was also very simple. The imperial court had lost control of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and large households were no longer willing to pay grain taxes to the imperial court. , either to collect the grain and wait for the situation to change, or to simply sell it secretly to grain merchants working for Haihan.

If big households don't take the lead, small households will naturally not be willing to cooperate with the government. As for the grain director, everyone knows that this is a scapegoat job, who will give him face? During the period before Haihan took over Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Cao Kun was able to complete the grain collection One-tenth of the mission is already thankfully done.

But this was not the only difficulty Cao Kun encountered in the process of collecting food. After all, in addition to collecting food, his responsibilities also included transporting luck.
Chapter completed!