In March, the Emperor proclaimed to the realm that the scope of the maritime ban would be relaxed. He ordered Lingshan Guard, Suzhou, and Guangzhou to build seaports for merchant ships to dock at.
As soon as the Imperial Decree was issued, Zhejiang voiced considerable dissatisfaction. The Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commissioner immediately submitted a memorial, requesting that another seaport be opened in Hangzhou Prefecture.
In his memorial, he listed ten major reasons why Hangzhou Prefecture absolutely had to open a seaport.
One reason was that, affected by last year's wind disaster, Zhejiang had a great number of displaced refugees but too little land to settle them. Building a seaport could keep the refugees rooted in place and prevent them from roaming everywhere and stirring up trouble.
The court argued over the matter until it was utterly deadlocked.
Most court officials believed that Zhejiang already had Suzhou Port to the north and Quanzhou Port to the south. There was simply no need to open another seaport.
Even Yu Qian questioned, "Your Majesty, does the Ming Dynasty truly have that many merchant ships needing to dock now?"
Cao Nai also said, "You cannot grow fat with one bite. We understand that Your Majesty is eager to collect Commercial Tax, but this matter cannot be rushed. Otherwise, not only will we fail to collect tariffs and Commercial Tax, we will instead exhaust the people and waste wealth."
The Emperor felt that they had a point, yet he could not shake the feeling that this was not the best solution. That evening, accompanied by Empress Wang, he wrote a letter to Pan Yun.
Before long, words began appearing on their yellow talisman booklet. Husband and wife immediately leaned in to read.
Pan Yun: "Ask Sun Yuanzhen: before the disaster, the people could all live