Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 205, Sang Hongyang's Question, published in "On Sea Power"!
While the others were still somewhat bewildered, Wang Cheng, as Lu Yunchen's trusted subordinate, had already stood up and bowed deeply to him.
"This humble official, Wang Fugui, of Baoshan Thousand-Household Garrison, pays his respects to Commander!"

Regardless of personal relationships, one must use official titles in such situations.

The Lu family's background was too strong, so they didn't need his help, but they spared no effort in cheering and took the lead in establishing their official status.

No, actually I've been a big help too.

"I killed this superior's superior. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have relinquished the commander's position. I deserve at least half the credit."

The others reacted a beat slower, then scrambled to their feet and showered him with compliments:

"Greetings, Commander."

"Congratulations, Commander Lu! Congratulations, Commander Lu!"

"The roc rises with the wind, soaring ninety thousand miles high! From this day forward, you will have a place in the vast seas of the Great Zhao Kingdom."

A group of people had long forgotten about Xing Yulang, the true hereditary commander.

Hmm? You're saying you're actually capable of being a third-rank guard commander? Go tell that to the Emperor!
Moreover, no one wanted to test the "Ghostly Jealousy" ability of the fellow practitioners in Class Three. Look at the blood they vomited; how could the "Ghostly Selection" be wrong?
The Minzhou Military Commandery had five subordinate guards.

In addition to Zhenhaiwei, there was also Funingwei of Funing Prefecture, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Naval Office, as well as three others: Zhendongwei, Pinghaiwei, and Yongningwei.

Zhenhaiwei, one of the four major coastal guard posts, is the highest-ranking.

It controls the junction of the Fujian and Guangdong sea routes and faces Taiwan and Ryukyu across the sea, making it a veritable "key to the sea frontier".

About 70% of the naval battles in the Minzhou region took place in the Zhenhaiwei defense zone, which had the largest number of personnel, the most power, and the most abundant supplies.

With Xing Baichuan down today, Lu Yunchen has had his fill!

If he could unite the Zhenhai Guard into a cohesive force, he would have absolutely no problem becoming the top mountain bandit under the command of Yu Zhifu, the commander-in-chief in charge of defending against Japanese pirates.

Of course, if the conscription system reform hadn't destroyed the deep-rooted kinship and friendship between Zhenhaiwei and the four thousand-household garrisons, even the strong intervention of the imperial power would have been a thankless task.

With the conscription system in place, the ruler of the state could just send a trusted member of the Lu family to firmly control this force.

"Serve the food and the drinks!"

After the congratulations, everyone sat down again, and even the Xing family's butler tactfully instructed the servants to quickly serve the dishes.

Combining a promotion banquet with a funeral banquet might be a bit off-putting, but since the deceased is a former leader whom everyone dislikes, the food and drinks actually taste even better.

Especially for the successor, no matter how deep the grief on their face, it is hard to hide the joy in their heart.

Ding!
Lu Yunchen clinked his glass with Wang Cheng's, accepted his congratulations, and smiled as he congratulated him in return.

"Congratulations! Congratulations! Lord Wang, Commander of Baoshan Thousand-Household Office!"

When this young master of the Lu family was parachuted into Minzhou, the core of his team consisted only of Wang Cheng, a local, and Gou Qianhu, who was also from the capital.

Wang Cheng, who was already famous in front of the emperor, naturally followed him and became a member of the emperor's faction.

Both men were renowned for their genius; one was a fifth-rank official in charge of waterways and concurrently a commander of a thousand men, with connections to the General's Office, the Zhenhai Guard, and the pirates who had been recruited; the other was the commander of the Zhenhai Guard, the head of the household.

This naturally formed the new core leadership of Zhenhaiwei, with the leaders occupying the second and first positions respectively.

As the people of Weizhong accepted reality and their hearts turned to him, the two men, after being enlightened by the Qilin and Flying Fish robes, had their official aura surge above their heads, transforming into the shapes of a Qilin and a Flying Fish respectively.

If one completely unleashes their official authority, others can see it clearly from miles away.

Wang Cheng withdrew his gaze from Xing Yulang, who had walked into the Xing family mansion in a daze, and began to plan in his mind when to send him down to pay his respects to his old superior.

He asked Lu Yunchen verbally:

"Old Lu, yesterday you only told me there was a surprise, but you didn't mention that His Majesty's support was so strong."

Xing Yulang wasn't even given a chance to prove himself. Now, anyone in the entire Minzhou region who wants to cause trouble or provoke him will have to think twice.

What exactly happened? Besides the imperial edict bestowing additional titles, shouldn't His Majesty have given some other instructions?

His Majesty is known for his harshness. It's a bit unreasonable that he rewarded Lu Yunchen so generously just because of his brotherly relationship with Lu Wenfu. There must be something else going on behind the scenes.

Lu Yunchen nodded with satisfaction:
“Fugui, I have learned how to command sailing warships these days, and you have also made great progress, becoming more and more perceptive of politics.”

I won't lie to you, in the two months you were away, a 'heart flower' blossomed on the USS Consepson.

Wang Cheng immediately understood.

The official reward was because Old Lu's grandfather was the emperor's maternal uncle, but the real reason was the possibility of immortality.

With the addition of this "Heart Flower" and the "Liver Flower" and "Kidney Flower" given by Wang Cheng, the Lord of the State has collected more than half of the Five Temples Divine Treasure Flowers. Only the last two are missing, and it may be possible to refine an immortal elixir, the "Five Organs Returning to Truth Pill"!
A generous reward is entirely reasonable.

Immediately, Lu Yunchen's voice resounded directly in Wang Cheng's mind:

"His Majesty has another secret decree."

He then recounted in detail the task that Emperor Shaozhi had entrusted to him.

That day, the ruler of the state was furious. He realized that there was something wrong with Jiang Wenyuan and the Qingliu faction behind him. Upon further investigation of Wang Bengu's resume, he discovered more hidden secrets.

The political creature, pure and unadulterated, sensed that its imperial power was threatened and immediately reacted by issuing a secret order to the Lu family, whose trusted confidants were in charge of the White Scale Guard.

They were ordered to secretly investigate the secret organization hidden among the civil and military officials, which was highly likely to have orchestrated a series of accidents that led to the emperor's unexpected death.

Commander Lu Yi was in charge of the capital, while Commander Lu Yunchen of Zhenhai Guard was in charge of the southeastern coast where the gentry forces were most powerful.

Wang Cheng was overjoyed upon hearing this:
"The ruler of the state has finally noticed those bastards from Guishan Bookstore."

Although he had considered that even if he failed to get into Yujing City, he would eventually fight his way into Yujing City, at least for now they had a common enemy, and Wang Cheng was quite willing to stab Guishan Bookstore in the back.

An impulse arose within him, a desire to immediately send the letter of complaint directly to Emperor Shaozhi through the White Scale Guard's channels, so that they too could experience the devastating power of imperial authority.

Unfortunately, he had only gleaned some secrets about the organization from Fengzhou Shanren, a relative by marriage of Grand Secretary Xu, by using the guise of a rare commodity. He couldn't produce any witness testimonies or physical evidence.

With only a few hundred boxes of Zheng He's treasure maps that Liu Daxia had secretly hidden, he only needed to produce the least important small part to prove that state secrets had been stolen, thus implicating a large number of people who were involved back then.

Let's also take this opportunity to unveil the mystery of Guishan Publishing House.

"We can release the blueprints for the Heavenly Treasure Ship [Nine-Bend Turbid River Ship]. It was designed to be compatible with the national treasure [One-Eyed Stone Man]. Even if we decipher it, it won't make a difference."

Using it to criticize Guishan Bookstore wouldn't be considered a waste.

I just need to choose a suitable time to include information about Kameyama Publishing House to increase credibility.

At this moment, Lu Yunchen provided an assist:

"Your Majesty's discerning eyes are like torches, illuminating thousands of miles, and you have determined that such a secret organization must possess some kind of powerful talisman or protective object to conceal itself."

Catching them by the tail is by no means easy.

Therefore, His Majesty bestowed upon us a treasure.

Wang Cheng nodded. "An army marches on its stomach," he said, "that's a very comforting idea."

He had personally seen the golden statue "Three Silences" that was moved from the Zhou Dynasty ancestral temple, and the "Edict to Execute Fang Xiaoru's Ten Clans" that was artificially created in recent years. There must be many more that he didn't know.

Just as he was struggling to explain the source of the information, he immediately perked up upon hearing that there was a treasure with a restraining effect.

Lu Yunchen patted the Qiankun bag at his waist, but instead of taking the contents out in public, he simply gave a hint:
"Wealth and honor, have you ever heard of Sang Hongyang's question?"

Who among the educated wouldn't know these three questions?
The first question: "The operation of a country requires huge fiscal expenditures, and agricultural taxes alone are simply not enough to support the normal operation of the country."

If the economic system of salt and iron monopolies is not implemented, and the state is not allowed to form monopolies in certain major economic sectors, where will the money come from?

The second question is: "If a country encounters an emergency such as war or famine, but its treasury is empty, how will it cope with these sudden emergencies?"

The third question: "If the central government does not establish an overwhelming centralized advantage over local governments in various aspects such as finance, how should it respond if local forces expand and rebel, leading to war and chaos in the country?"

Seeing the understanding look in Wang Cheng's eyes, Lu Yunchen continued:
"The meeting of the Great Han Empire that determined the fate of the nation and the power struggle between the central and local governments for the next two thousand years was recorded on a bamboo scroll, which became a treasure of the province [Sang Hongyang's Question]."

If someone can write down the answers on it and answer the three questions correctly, this treasure could very well become a national treasure!
Dealing with the gentry and powerful clans will certainly be ruthless.

Wang Cheng had already roughly guessed the power of this treasure, and continued:
"From Sang Hongyang's question about the salt and iron monopoly to today's enormous maritime trade interests, it is essentially a game of 'who collects taxes,' 'to whom taxes are collected,' and 'how taxes are collected' within a unified country."

Both direct and indirect taxes are included.

These three questions were raised by Sang Hongyang on behalf of the state to Confucian scholars who advocated that the imperial court should not compete with the people for profit.

As members of the ruling class, the gentry and powerful families naturally could not answer these three questions.

Even if the government were to loosen its monopoly on salt and iron or other monopolistic industries, ordinary people would still be unable to participate.

Ultimately, it was only the powerful and wealthy who devoured the share that the imperial court had relinquished, and incidentally, they also abandoned even the most basic social responsibilities.

They are the ones who hoard wealth beyond the people's means.

He turned his head to look towards the thriving Yuegang area.

"The most obvious example is right before our eyes."

For various reasons, the imperial court took advantage of the maritime trade bureaus of the previous two dynasties, giving up huge profits from maritime trade. Did maritime trade just disappear like that?
No! All the profits ended up in the pockets of the wealthy and powerful gentry who had the money and connections to get a share.

Consider this: nowadays, one-third of the world's silver is continuously flowing into China during the Age of Exploration, yet the national treasury's annual revenue from the Taicang silver reserves is only 400 million taels. Is this reasonable?
Even with the land tax, which accounts for 80%, it's only twenty to thirty million.

The amount of money was the same before the Age of Exploration and it remains the same afterward. This is pure deception.

By bringing out Sang Hongyang's three questions, the central government and the people launched a special attack on those gentry and powerful families!

The ruler's counterattack struck right at the heart of the gentry.

He looked up and found Lu Yunchen staring intently at him.

Wang Cheng touched his face and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Wang Fugui's appearance hadn't changed.

"what happened?"

Then Lu Yunchen said quietly:

"Your insight and vision are unlike those of a scholar from a military family; you see things more clearly than many high-ranking officials in the imperial court."

I think he should at least be a king who wields real power and is well-versed in military strategy, government affairs, current affairs, and economics!

puff!
He said it directly, and Shen Yueye, who was eating at the banquet next to him, immediately spat out the mouthful of red wine she had just drunk, which sprayed right onto Wang Cheng's face.

The latter accidentally drank a sip of her senior's "imported wine".

While wiping his face, he patted the girl's hand to stop her impulse to kill him and silence her, knowing that Lu Yunchen was actually joking.

The White Scale Guards are a secret service agency; if they truly suspected me, they wouldn't have said it outright.

It was said that he heard it from the second-generation Prince Jinghai when he went to Yingzhou.

Although Prince Jinghai was younger than the two of them, the word "genius" was enough to explain everything.

Lu Yunchen, who learned ten years' worth of sailing lessons in just two months, is also the person in the world who understands the true value of genius.

Immediately, Wang Cheng took several ancient bamboo slips strung together from Lu Yunchen, which recorded Sang Hongyang's first question.

Stroking the marks etched across two thousand years, I thought to myself:
"I probably can't answer the social wealth redistribution issues involved in Sang Hongyang's three questions either, since the debate continues even in later generations, and some people are always looking to make a comeback."

But I might be able to solve this problem to some extent.

Because today, the book "On Sea Power," which calls on the people of Dazhao to embrace the sea and increase the output and make the pie bigger from the source, was officially published!
(End of this chapter)