Chapter 429: Volume C instillation, subtle influence
“They’ll talk about it, but I definitely have my own attitude and won’t be easily swayed by them.” Feng Ziying said with a calm smile.
"Oh?" Xu Xie suddenly became interested, "How do you say it?"
"It's very simple. Let's see who has done better, more comprehensive and safer preparations in advance." Feng Ziying said with a smile: "Needless to say, Guangzhou is the most convenient and currently most complete hub for Nanyang, but Ningbo, Quanzhou and What about Zhangzhou? These places are highly competitive and substitutable. So who should go first and who should go last? It cannot be just who has the loudest voice in the court. That would be too utilitarian. So we should Let’s see what preparations the local gentry, merchants, and government officials have made for this matter.”
Xu Xie’s eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly, signaling Feng Ziying to continue speaking.
"To fully open the sea, the first thing involved is shipbuilding. There must be some foundation for shipbuilding in these places, but as far as I know, most of the shipbuilding in these places is mainly fishing boats, or ships sailing offshore. Mainly, but when it comes to facing the open sea after opening the sea, are these shipbuilding workshops competent? The imperial court has given such good conditions, but you have been unable to translate the policies given by the imperial court into practical use. Isn't that a waste? It’s better to give others a more well-prepared place.”
"That's right." Xu Xie suddenly understood and gave a high-five, "Ziying, are there any more?"
"Shipbuilding is not a simple matter. There is still a big lack of sea-going shipbuilding in Dazhou, especially if you want to develop trade with Japan, Korea, Annan, Sulu, Luzon, Manchuria and even further places. , it is essential to build ocean-going ships, and even the ships for the naval fleet planned for the next step by the imperial court are extremely important. This involves a large number of craftsmen and craftsmen, as well as large wood, glue paint, ropes, and sails. Cloth and other materials are a quite complex industrial system..."
“Industrial system?” Xu Xie didn’t quite understand what this word meant.
"Well, the industrial system means this very complex set of equipment. Shipbuilding requires wood, including large wood such as keels and masts, as well as other wood such as decks, as well as sail ropes, canvas and cotton ropes for mast ropes. These are not what ordinary workshops can provide. They involve erosion and corrosion from sea water vapor and salt spray. In addition, in order to avoid rapid decay and bonding paint and glue, these need to be provided in large quantities. This is also very complicated. How to related these? All supporting businesses are integrated to form a set of smooth operation specifications, which is the system..."
Xu Xie was surprised at how Feng Ziying, a northerner who had lived in Shanxi and the capital for a long time, could be familiar with shipbuilding. However, he did not care to study this at this time and asked hurriedly: "Brother Yu, I roughly understand. What do you mean?"
"Of course, the ship has been built, but what about the boatmen and sailors? The sailors on offshore fishing boats, ocean voyages and even naval fleets are all different. The demand is not only large, but also requires more professionalism. Many of them are not more than one or two years old. It can be cultivated. You can't wait until the ship is built and there is no one to operate it, right? This also needs to be considered and prepared in advance..."
Xu Xie nodded repeatedly and kept it in mind.
"Another example is the wharves, such as Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Ningbo, which originally had a certain foundation, but when it comes to large-scale opening of the sea, especially in the face of ships coming from overseas, are the wharves sufficient and suitable for ships coming from overseas? Also, If the Japanese, Koreans, or even the Westerners come, will there be enough interpreters and relevant agents to help them reach a deal as soon as possible?"
Feng Ziying's words made Xu Xie a little confused, "Ziying, I'm afraid this shouldn't be something that our court officials should worry about, right?"
Officials in this era naturally cannot have any concept of "serving the people", so Feng Ziying's words puzzled Xuexie.
“Brother Zixun, this is really not something that the government should be concerned about, but what is the purpose of opening the sea?” Feng Ziying asked in return.
“Of course it will allow more people in coastal areas to have a way to make a living, and it will also increase the wealth and income for the court.” Xu Xie replied.
"In this case, Brother Zixun, think about it. If a foreign merchant ship wants to complete a transaction, it will definitely need some interpreters, people from the home or the guild to help complete the transaction. However, these channels have insufficient or no personnel. The transaction can be completed in three to five days. It may take a month or two. Not to mention some goods are damaged and deteriorated, transaction costs increase, and transaction efficiency is low. Maybe people could come to you for transactions three or five times a year, but in the end they can only do it once or twice. We could have bought and sold more goods, but found it inconvenient and stopped coming. Then we could have sold more tea, porcelain or silk and cotton here, allowing more people to make a living in this industry. Isn't that right? Affected,…”
“So Ziying, do you think local governments should take responsibility in these aspects?” Although Xu Xie felt that Feng Ziying’s words made sense, it still subverted the mindset of officials and the government.
Xu Xie was greatly moved by Feng Ziying's "bright thinking". These concepts overturned his previous understanding. However, opening up the sea and borrowing money was unprecedented, and some new ideas were needed to implement it, which was acceptable.
At this time, he had to admit that it was reasonable for Feng Ziying to be valued by the princes of the court, and even the emperor.
At least he couldn't think of this truth even if he thought about it, and he couldn't think it through at all.
It’s just that he was also very surprised as to why Feng Ziying thought so carefully about the sea-opening strategy. You said some general frameworks are reasonable, but it is incredible to be so detailed and thoughtful.
You must know that people who have never been exposed to this aspect of affairs will simply not be able to imagine this.
Maybe this guy is a genius or a monster.
The reason why Feng Ziying spared no effort to instill in Xu Xie is because it is true that the strategy of opening up the sea involves too many specific details, and it cannot be done by just one person or even a few people. On the other hand, it is because Xu Xie has been identified as a key training target among Fujian scholars such as Ye Xianggao and Huang Ruliang. This means that maybe ten or twenty years later, Xu Xie will become a representative figure of Fujian scholars in the imperial court.
From the perspective of the interests and concepts of this group, Feng Ziying believes that they can cooperate. It is undoubtedly much easier to influence and instill ideas into them now than to influence them later after their ideas have been formed.
“Ziying, where did you get these ideas?” Xu Xie couldn’t help but ask.
"Brother Zixun, people's energy is limited. The first is reading. I may not focus on classics and historical collections like you do, and I am not very interested in poetry and poetry. I prefer to read some miscellaneous books. In addition, I also like I talked with all kinds of people, such as the Shanxi-Shaanxi Chamber of Commerce and the Fujian Chamber of Commerce. I would sit down regularly and talk with some of their businessmen. I was even willing to let them write down some of their experiences. I thought about it. Well, like "Stories from Outside the Territory" in "Internal Reference", many of them are actually accumulated over time from the knowledge of many businessmen from the Guangdong and Guangxi Chamber of Commerce and your Fujian Chamber of Commerce. Otherwise, I have never been to sea, how would I know those situations?"
Xu Xie could only accept such an explanation, otherwise it would be difficult to explain how the other party could know so much and think so broadly.
"Brother Zixun, in fact, I still have an idea. When the time comes, we might as well set up a printing press to publish and print some books related to sea trade and the production of new things, so that businessmen from all over the world can learn more. , maybe you can find more livelihoods from it, so that more people can have more channels to make a living, instead of always staring at the one-third of an acre of land and the silent things in the city. People can also find some livelihood..."
Xu Xie was overwhelmed by Feng Ziying's "big ideas" one after another. He needed some time to slowly digest Feng Ziying's views.
But he has a feeling that these ideas of Feng Ziying may bring about many unexpected changes, not only to himself, but even to many things in the future.
Feng Ziying also takes the opportunity to instill these same views into Qi Yongtai and Qiao Yingjia. Of course, the "influence and penetration" of these two people cannot be as straightforward as Xu Xie's, but needs to be done slowly based on many existing affairs. Pass it on.
But this kind of perseverance but inadvertent subtlety often has amazing results.
Especially for some seemingly unsolvable problems, if you can use original ideas to come up with solutions, the results will often be better. The next time a similar problem arises, everyone will be more likely to accept this kind of solution that originally seemed a bit confusing. Unconventional approach.
Of course, he will not abandon Qingtan Academy. He sees that next year will be the Autumn Festival. Xu Qixun, Song Shixiang, Fu Zonglong and other Dongyuan children will begin to grow up. At this time, he will give them classes and feed them chicken soup. ,necessary.
Even so, Feng Ziying feels that she still hasn't done enough. She just regrets that her current background is too shallow, and her age, qualifications and status are difficult to reach the level of being able to respond to everything. It takes time to accumulate slowly.
That’s why he set up a publishing and printing book company, and he can write some things he wants to publish. In this way, he can convey the things he wants to spread better and faster.
(End of this chapter)