Da Ming: Father, step aside, I'll be the prime minister!

Chapter 298, "Jia Dao's Memorial"? Zhang Shiyuan, I told you not to be a coward!
Xu Jie's spies were everywhere in the court and among the people, so Zhang Yunxiu couldn't possibly be deaf and blind to them.

In particular, newspapers were the business he had made famous, so it was only natural to plant some spies in the Gyeonggi Ilbo.

As soon as Sun Piyang, the Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, published his almost self-destructive article to the editorial department of the Jingji Daily, Zhang Yunxiu immediately received the news.

The specific content is nothing more than what Sun Piyang saw and heard in Jiangnan during his tenure as the Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture.

This article is quite lengthy and elaborate; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it was written with painstaking effort, clearly imbued with Sun Piyang's deep emotions.

He even learned from Hai Rui's methods of maintaining order.

The story begins with the suffering of the people in Jiangnan and continues with Zhang Yunxiu's perverse actions.

"The people of Jiangnan have long been enslaved by the ways of merchants without realizing it; their hearts are bound by profit."

"The ancient virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, gentleness, kindness, respect, and frugality have all been abandoned."

"The fields are barren, the paths are neglected, farmers have abandoned their plows and hoes and taken up abacuses, and fertile land has become overgrown with weeds."

"Furthermore, the Jiangnan Textile Bureau, relying on the power of its stationed water defense forces, actually engaged in profiteering as merchants. Its ships traveled back and forth not to supply the country or benefit the people, but to smuggle goods to aid the enemy."

"While Japanese pirates ravaged the southeast, the Japanese secretly maintained diplomatic relations, supplying them with provisions and weapons."

"The Portuguese covet the coastal territories, and they are in cahoots with us."

As expected of someone who passed the imperial examination, he convincingly portrayed Zhang Yunxiu as a treacherous official in just a few words.

In his words, it seemed that Zhang Yunxiu was the instigator of all the chaos in Jiangnan.

This information comes from the retelling of informants and is therefore not very comprehensive, but it is enough to roughly discern the intentions of Sun Piyang and the Jiangnan gentry.

“I imagine it’s not just these things,” Zhang Yunxiu said with a smile and a shake of his head. “The gentry of Jiangnan wouldn’t act so simply; they must have kept a lot of evidence. When the time comes, they’ll publish it all in the *Jingji Daily*, letting the whole world know. Then your brother will be infamous and become the target of everyone’s ire!”

Rather than sending an impeachment letter to the cabinet and the emperor, the newspaper has now become a tool in the hands of the upright gentry.

This is almost inevitable; Zhang Yunxiu brought new things to this era, so it's impossible for him to restrict others' use of them.

After listening to Zhang Yunxiu's description, Zhang Sixiu was startled and said in great shock.

"Shiyuan, how dare you act like this? Using naval ships to go to sea for trade is a serious crime of favoritism and bending the law!"

His perspective was clearly completely different.

For Zhang Sixiu, who had been disciplined and guided by traditional Confucianism since childhood, abiding by the law and achieving his goals through legitimate means was the essence of Confucian benevolence and righteousness, and the mark of a true gentleman.

Zhang Yunxiu smiled and shook his head, saying, "Xishan is His Majesty's Xishan, and the Textile Bureau is His Majesty's Textile Bureau. I am earning money for His Majesty, so how can I be accused of favoritism and bending the law?"

Zhang Sixiu became somewhat anxious: "But the other side is insisting on accusing you of treason and colluding with the Japanese, what can you do?"

At this point, he became as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, pacing back and forth in the editing room, speaking in a very frantic manner.

"What should I do?"

"Go quickly and tell Father!"

"Oh dear! Shiyuan, I warned you before that these people are extremely treacherous and cunning, so you must be very careful!"

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Sixiu finally came up with a suggestion.

“This matter is too extreme. We will discuss it with the Gyeonggi Ilbo and perhaps we can mediate.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yunxiu felt rather helpless.

Seeing his second brother's anxious and flustered appearance once again confirmed his suspicions.

After Zhang Juzheng fell from power, none of his brothers stood up for themselves, not only because the emperor intentionally suppressed them, but also because of their personalities.

The second elder brother in front of us, Zhang Sixiu, once served as a tutor to Emperor Guangzong of Ming, Zhu Changluo, and rose to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

However, he ultimately met a fate of exile, his wife committed suicide by drowning, and his ten-year-old son froze to death.

In the end, he went to Leizhou alone to make a living by copying books for others, and missed his father Zhang Juzheng every day.

The Zhang family thought that even if the Wanli Emperor didn't suppress them, they would still be doomed if they relied on these brothers.

"Discuss what?!"

Zhang Yunxiu said irritably.

"Now that we are at odds with the Qingliu gentry, why does Second Brother still harbor thoughts of appeasement?"

"It's better than both sides suffering losses, right?" Zhang Sixiu said with a helpless sigh.

Zhang Yunxiu didn't intend to say much, and simultaneously slammed an article onto the desk as he spoke.

"Without further ado, Second Brother only needs to print this article on the front page and make it known to the world. His Jingji Daily can print it all over the world, but my Wanli Xinbao has a much larger readership."

Zhang Sixiu was startled and quickly picked up the article to take a look, but a look of doubt appeared on his face.

"This is."

He had thought Zhang Yunxiu was about to do something outrageous again, but instead of a vehement condemnation from above, there were one simple and easy-to-understand financial report summary after another.

Zhang Yunxiu even thoughtfully included a diagram showing the income and expenditure trends of industries such as Xishan Workshop and Coal Mine since March.

Specific data is naturally ignored, but once the general data is presented, the entire article seems to be saying one thing – Xishan is awesome.

Zhang Sixiu couldn't help but chuckle. He had thought his younger brother would be very fierce, but he was much gentler than he had imagined.
Even so, Zhang Yunxiu still spoke with great conviction.

"The Jiangnan gentry are unrighteous, so don't blame me for being unjust. I originally intended to save them some face, but they won't give me any. Then let them see what I'm capable of!"

Zhang Sixiu looked at the article from left to right, but couldn't find any clues in it.

What exactly makes it so "amazing"?

"Shiyuan, you actually chickened out?"

Inside the Qianqing Palace, the Wanli Emperor stared at the article with his uneven eyes, feeling an indescribable distress in his heart.

Who was Zhang Shiyuan in the past? He was a man who could debate with the court officials, beat up the censor in front of all the officials, and drive the Minister of Rites and the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet to the brink of despair.

As a result, when faced with Sun Piyang, the Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, writing a memorial on the way of Jia, he showed no emotion whatsoever and simply tried to get away with it by presenting a "Quarterly Financial Report of Xishan".

To be honest, Emperor Wanli wanted to follow his grandfather Jiajing's example and sit back and let Zhang Yunxiu fight it out with the Jiangnan gentry before finally stepping in to dictate the course of events. But now, things have turned out differently. This Zhang Yunxiu has simply given up and stopped resisting.

Although this memorial to the throne, "Jia Dao Shu," was primarily directed at Zhang Yunxiu, ultimately, Xishan was still imperial property.

The majority of Xishan's monthly income was distributed to the imperial palace; otherwise, how could Emperor Wanli have been so generous in bestowing such rewards upon them?
Sun Piyang's accusation that Jia Dao practiced witchcraft was tantamount to cutting off Emperor Wanli's financial resources. How could this be tolerated?

The Wanli Emperor, looking rather sullen, spoke in a tone somewhat like a child.

"No way, no way~ What kind of response is that?"

He raised his small eyebrows.

"Does Shiyuan not know? Yesterday, the Jingji Daily published Jia Dao's memorial. Sun Piyang does not want official position or wealth. He is willing to exchange his official hat for a clear blue sky."

He's forcing me to punish you and force the Jiangnan Textile Bureau to close down.

At this point, Emperor Wanli clearly looked displeased.

The other party bypassed the traditional memorial procedure and published a memorial entitled "Jia Dao's Memorial" to all the people of the world in the newspaper, which appeared to be selfless and to be for the country and the people.

From the emperor's perspective, this was a manifestation of the erosion of imperial power.

Instead of appealing to the emperor, local officials shouted slogans at scholars across the land, attempting to force the emperor to compromise through the voices of the people.

Seeing the young emperor's sullen expression, Zhang Yunxiu couldn't help but chuckle. He picked up a copy of the "Gyeonggi Daily," shook it, and gestured on it as he spoke.

"Your Majesty, this is my way of fighting back; how can it be considered weakness?"

He seemed rather sentimental.

"On the contrary, I feel that this method is too radical. It could cause a huge upheaval and lead to chaos."

"If the Jiangnan gentry hadn't gone to such extremes, I certainly wouldn't have acted so quickly."

These words confused even the Wanli Emperor. He frowned and said, "Shiyuan, are you joking with me? You just released a quarterly financial report. Xishan did make a lot of money, but isn't that just giving people something to talk about?"

In Jia Dao's memorial, Zhang Yunxiu was impeached for three major crimes: colluding with the enemy, interfering in politics, and pursuing profit, which corrupted the morals of the people.

By publishing the financial report, Zhang Yunxiu is essentially telling the world that he is a profit-driven person.
"So what if he pursues profit? So what if he colludes with the enemy? So what if he disrupts the government?"

Zhang Yunxiu said with a sneer.

"If we can't even get enough to eat, what's the point of talking about propriety, morality, and shame? The most important principle in this world is to have enough to eat."

As long as every citizen of the Ming Dynasty can be fed, what does it matter if they have to rob or steal?

Surprisingly, the Wanli Emperor also began to persuade Zhang Yunxiu.

"Shiyuan, I understand this principle, and the poor people understand it, but the scholars and intellectuals below do not. I'm afraid this behavior is inappropriate."

Zhang Yunxiu smiled slightly and said, "It's alright, they won't have time to feel that it's inappropriate after a while."

"What does this mean?" Emperor Wanli once again posed this existential question.

"Does Your Majesty understand the principles of economics?"

"I study every day, and the art of making money is something that naturally requires a special university education!"

Emperor Wanli was not lying. He showed a hundred times more interest in economics than in the Four Books and Five Classics. He even went so far as to visit the futures market incognito to study an economic law, and his notes were so thick that they filled a dozen pages.

“Then Your Majesty should know,” Zhang Yunxiu said, raising an eyebrow. “What is market confidence, right?”

"In my opinion, Xu Zisheng has made a terrible move. The gentry of Jiangnan are unwilling to take the lead themselves, fearing that the investigation will fall on them, so they pushed out this Prefect Sun to act as their pawn. It is truly pathetic and laughable."

Inside a duty shed of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Xueyan, and Zhang Yunxiu, the three Zhangs, gathered together.

Facing a trend chart of the futures market, Zhang Xueyan, then Minister of Revenue, began to speak eloquently.

"Therefore, the essence of economics is nothing more than the study of how to allocate money and grain."

The essence of merchants selling goods is actually the belief that the goods they have can achieve a higher value at another time and place.

This demonstrates the market's confidence in a particular product!

He spoke at length, making Zhang Juzheng, who was sitting below, feel dizzy.

"Ahem~" Zhang Juzheng coughed. "Enough with the idle talk, Ziyu~ just explain the reasoning behind it clearly. Why did Xishan's financial report cause market turmoil? This matter is of great importance and cannot be taken lightly!"

Zhang Juzheng naturally wouldn't ignore Jia Dao's memorial. But just as he gathered his disciples to prepare for a war of words with the Qingliu gentry, he discovered that Zhang Yunxiu had actually adopted a completely unexpected method of confrontation.

Zhang Xueyan was clearly a little nervous as he lectured on economic principles in front of the Grand Secretary. He glanced at Zhang Yunxiu sitting in the back.

Zhang Yunxiu met his gaze and gave him an encouraging look.

Like an apprentice who has been enlightened, Zhang Xueyan immediately became energetic and spirited.

Zhang Juzheng witnessed all of this, but could only sigh helplessly and pretend he hadn't seen it.

"Market confidence is an extremely important thing. Just like the role of the futures market, when the market has confidence, it can allocate resources well and maximize their utilization."
However, all of this can be mismatched. Merchants are always profit-driven and easily blinded by immediate gains.
Just like the recent price increases in goods in Southern and Northern Zhili, one factor was the hoarding and speculation by the Jiangnan gentry, but another was a group of people who dreamed of becoming rich overnight, neglecting the actual value of the goods.

Zhang Xueyan slammed his hand on the table and said, "The reason is very simple. Anyone with eyes can see that the prices of goods on the market today are not in line with their actual value."

This economic bubble, fueled by inflated confidence, certainly seemed unstoppable, and no one believed it would burst.

But eventually, an unexpected event occurred, and the chain of confidence collapsed; that was the end for merchants and gentry.

These theories were not so simple for Zhang Juzheng.

On the contrary, this way of speaking is even somewhat obscure.

After discussing the principles of commercial economics with his young son for several days, and having been exposed to it through what he had heard and seen recently, Zhang Juzheng was able to transform them into principles that he could understand.

He pondered for a moment before speaking.

Therefore, Xu Gong made a bad move. He drove Sun Piyang to attack him, but he did not know that this move would affect confidence in the market's price increases.

The financial report from Xishan published in the Wanli Xinbao further eroded market confidence in rising prices.

“Everything in this world has its value,” Zhang Yunxiu said leisurely from behind. “Father, prices are simply returning to where they should be.”

(End of this chapter)