The two chatted for a while, and the sunlight outside the window became brighter, and they knew that the hour was early, so they got up.

Because Xia Xun's status is respected, he occupies a complete courtyard in the pavilion, and outsiders cannot enter without permission, so it is equivalent to his own private house, Xia Xun washed and stopped, and only wore a very casual Yanju regular clothes to the living room, at this time Qiaoyun had already prepared a meal, and was talking and laughing with Tang Sai'er in the hall, waiting for him to arrive.

In fact, there are chefs in the pavilion, and because the emperor toured the north, he brought a large number of civil and military officials, most of whom stayed in the pavilion, so the chef also tried his best to hire famous chefs who were good at making various dishes, but Qiaoyun always felt that it was not as meticulous as his own home.

Ming'er has been taught by her since she was a child, and she will naturally be able to learn the skills that her daughter's family must learn such as meals and female redness, but the little county lord's beautiful daughter, the family is as spoiled as a pearl in the palm of her hand, although the food and cooking have been taught by famous teachers, but you can imagine the appearance of the little county lord holding a kitchen knife and carrying a big spoon・・・・・・

The stove here is blazing, the oil is boiling there, and the smoke is everywhere, Ming'er "plays" with relish, and the family is worried, crowded at the kitchen door at any time waiting to rush in to bandage the wound, splash soil to extinguish the fire, ...... is tantamount to a kind of torture.

So later, Ming'er actually learned the same thing, and it was her personal girl Qiaoyun who really learned this cooking skill. Anyway, she has accompanied Miss since she was a child, and she is destined to be a dowry girl in the future, and she will be equivalent to the Ming'er Little County Lord's Association.

Qiaoyun is now Xia Xun's woman, Xia Xun has never made a clear distinction between the ranks of his family, and there are ...... wives, side rooms, concubines, and girls in the room, and the barriers are strict.

Although he is famous to the outside world, he always downplays this at home, and cares for Qiaoyun like him, but Qiaoyun never treats himself as a young grandmother. When she came to Beijing, she followed her wife's instructions to wait for the master, and the master's food, drink, and living were naturally regarded by her as her responsibility.

Now she has been pregnant for a few months, but she can't be idle at all since she was a child, and she still makes this breakfast by herself. Breakfast is relatively simple, a casserole, stewed with steaming and fragrant japonica chicken porridge, blue and white porcelain plate is filled with green and appetizing boiled vegetables, as well as a few small snacks, a few small pickles, plus a plate of Gaoyou salted duck eggs, a plate of peppercorn braised beef.

As soon as Xia Xun arrived, the family sat down to eat, chatting while eating, and suddenly someone reported that it was news from the palace, calling the Fuguo Gongsi to the palace at three o'clock to see the driver, Xia Xun has no permanent position in the court, and has not been on the court for several days.

Xia Xun had a concern, so he didn't dare to delay and hurriedly eat breakfast, and Qiaoyun and Sakura waited for him to wash his face, put on his clothes and boots, tie his waist with a leather belt, comb his hair and trim his crown, and after everything was ready, he hurried out of the pavilion and rode a horse straight to the palace.

Xia Xun rushed to the front of the palace hall, only to see two little eunuchs standing at the entrance of the palace, and when he looked at it, the one on the right was Mu Si's henchman, so he said to the little eunuch on the left: "Yang Xu is ordered to see the driver, and he is tired!" ”

Seeing that it was the Duke of Fuguo who arrived, the little chamberlain didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly turned around and went in, Xia Xun took the opportunity to ask Mu Si's henchman: "Why is the emperor in such a hurry?" ”

The little chamberlain coughed and hurriedly replied: "Father-in-law Zheng He has come from Nanjing, and the emperor wants to go to the West again, and the officials are against it!" ”

"Oh......"

Xia Xun suddenly nodded his head slightly, and at this time, the little eunuch who had gone in to pass the ceremony had already come out, stood in front of the stairs and said loudly: "The emperor has a decree, Yang Xu will see you!" ”

Xia Xun was busy dressed and stepped into the hall.

On the top of the main hall, the civil and military officials gathered together, arguing fiercely, Xia Xun came in, did not interrupt their heated debate, Xia Xun saluted the emperor, and then stood in the class, suddenly felt that someone looked at him, looked at him, it turned out to be Zheng He, Zheng He smiled and nodded to him, Xia Xun also nodded busily, and the two stood still and did not mention it.

Zheng He's last voyage to the West was a great success, not only bringing envoys from many countries to make a pilgrimage to the Son of Heaven, but also buying a large number of exotic goods, one in and one out, the results were amazing, which can be described as fame and fortune, which made Zhu Di very happy, after that, Zheng He has been staying in Nanjing, focusing on managing the construction of ships, and combined with the various problems exposed in the last voyage to the West, improve all aspects of navigation technology.

At that time, the civil and military officials already knew that the emperor still had the intention of going to the West, but at that time, Timur was violent, the Western army had just retreated, Zhu Di himself had a great success in crusading against the Tatars, Arutai surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and the Yongle Emperor had great martial arts, and he was majestic for a while, and the matter of going to the West was not on the agenda for a while, so the civil and military officials did not touch his head.

Now, Zheng He is ready to go to the West again, he is confident that this time he can go further, explore more unknown worlds, understand what countries and races, species, and cultures are in the broader world, and come to Beijing to report excitedly, Zhu Di was overjoyed when he heard this, and wanted to make an order to go to sea again. As a result, as soon as the news spread, the civil and military officials who accompanied the northbound and the officials of the Beijing branch blew up the nest.

Since Beijing has been designated as the national capital, more and more officials have moved to Beijing one after another, and this is also a kind of preparatory work for moving the capital.

Therefore, the six departments of Nanjing and the various departments have successively sent officials to Beijing, and this time Zhu Di's northern tour also brought many officials, and now the total number of officials in Beijing has accounted for more than half of the officials of the imperial court.

Su Qian, the right attendant of the household department, interrupted his speech because Xia Xun went to the palace to see him, and when Xia Xun returned to the class, he picked up the topic again, and said angrily: "I went to the West before, if it was said that it was to appease the countries, it had achieved its goal, and now that a short time has passed, why do you need to go to the West again?" A trip to the West, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and food, due to illness and wind, waves and tsunamis, soldiers and civilians died and tens of thousands, even if they returned with strange treasures, what is the benefit to the country? ”

Zheng He refuted: "Lord Su, there are hundreds of treasure ships in my imperial court, all of which are as huge as a city, and they have traveled thousands of miles, just to purchase some rare treasures?" How many treasures would it take to fill this city-like ship? I returned from a westward trip on the Da Ming Bao ship, and purchased nearly 200 kinds of goods, 29 kinds of spices, 23 kinds of treasures, 22 kinds of medicinal materials, 17 kinds of hardware, 51 kinds of cloth, 21 kinds of animals, 8 kinds of pigments, 3 kinds of food, 3 kinds of wood, 8 kinds of cloth and other miscellaneous goods. ”

Zheng He went to the West, and the import and export of various commodities were purchased by him, and he said clearly, and said: "Among the goods purchased, such as pepper, the purchase price in Sumatra, Kezhi and other countries is always 100 catties, and the market price in my Daming is at least 20 catties and 100 catties, and the profit is more than 20 times." My Da Ming treasure ship is as wide as a city, but to transport a boat of pepper back, only this one is so amazingly profitable? ”

Pepper was a very popular commodity in the Ming Dynasty, up to the court, down to the rich gentry, the diet must put pepper as a condiment, at the same time, it is also a very common spice, "Golden Bottle Plum" Li Bei'er wanted to remarry, when she described how many private rooms she had, she mentioned that there were "forty catties of agarwood, two hundred catties of ash, two jars of mercury, eighty catties of pepper".

Although this book was written in the Song Dynasty, the author was from the Ming Dynasty, and he just substituted the folk customs of the time into this story of the Song Dynasty, reflecting the market customs of the Ming Dynasty at that time, this pepper was a very scarce commodity, but the production in the Central Plains was very small, mainly relying on imports, and the transportation cost of private imports was extremely high, and the price continued to rise, so it became a hard currency to maintain value.

Zheng He said: "There is also Su Mu, the difference between the purchase price in a foreign country and the selling price in my Daming is also more than 20 times, my Daming treasure ship comes back, only the profit from Su Mu is more than 10 million?" ”

At this time, the price of goods is not too high, so the profit is only more than 20 times In the original history, with the rise of prices and the cessation of the imbalance between supply and demand caused by the West, by the Xuande period, the price of a pound of sumu has risen to 50 times the purchase price.

Later, the imperial court used pepper and sumu to pay salaries on behalf of others, and some people who did not know the truth criticized this as deducting officials' salaries, but they did not know that in the early Ming Dynasty, they often used goods instead of salaries, and even later there were people who directly distributed rice and cloth. Therefore, it was a normal practice to use in-kind goods instead of treasure money to pay salaries, and it was cost-effective to use pepper and sumacin as the in-kind goods for paying salaries in kind when the market was in short supply at that time.

At that time, it was not only the civil and military officials who issued the money with pepper and sumu, but also a large number of sergeants, if it was an act of deduction with pepper and sumu, then the emperor offended almost everyone (civil officials, military generals, and sergeants), and all the power groups that were offended could still be implemented, and there was not even a single army mutiny, is it possible?

At that time, these things were in demand, and it was a disguised way to increase everyone's income. Just a few decades later, Magellan returned from sailing, and when the pepper loaded was sold, the price was more than 10,000 times that of the place where it was purchased, so the pepper and sumu that Zheng He bought back were simply a warehouse of treasures that were constantly appreciating.

It is true that when going to the West seven times in a row, the large import of pepper has caused its high market price to drop sharply, which is the inevitability of supply relations, and it is a good or a bad thing for these commodities to enter the homes of ordinary people? Isn't the act of trade that allows for exchanges to keep prices rising, rather than lowering prices?

When the market is saturated and unprofitable, people will naturally reduce the import of this commodity. In the 80s, color TVs were in short supply, and many families begged relatives and friends to get one, and merchants could import as much as they could, ensuring that they would make a lot of money and not worry about sales. Do you run and tell him that in thirty years this thing will be all over the streets, don't go in, lest there be a backlog?

This is a reason to attack the West, how shameless it is to say, and how stupid it is to believe.

Zheng He said: "Besides, when our treasure ship goes to sea, it also carries a large number of goods, taking porcelain as an example, the purchase price is only a few dozens, hundreds of wen, and the best one is only a few, dozens of wen, but what about the selling price?" In foreign lands, blue and white porcelain plates are 500 guan each, bowls are 300 guan each, bottles are 500 guan each, and wine sea is 1,500 guan each. ”。

Zheng He smiled slightly and said, "Master Su, if we sell 10,000 bowls, we will earn at least three or five million yuan, how can this be a loss of money for the people and money?" ”

"This ......"

Zheng He's words were reasonable and well-founded, and they could not be refuted at all, and Su Shilang was speechless for a while. The rest of the officials were helpful, but in the face of the examples cited by Zheng He, they were speechless for a while.

Xia Xun smiled slightly when he heard this, and said out of the class: "Gonggong Zheng's words are fallacious! ”

"Huh?"

When Zheng He saw that it was Xia Xun who came out of class to refute, he couldn't help but be stunned. Zhu Di sat on the top and was also in a daze, he knew that Xia Xun had always supported the West, seeing Zheng He being besieged, and criticizing him in writing, it was actually pointing at himself Zhu Di was annoyed in his heart, Xia Xun was secretly happy when he arrived, hoping that Xia Xun could stand on his side to refute the ministers, but Xia Xun actually expressed his opposition and couldn't react for a while

When the officials saw that the Auxiliary Guogong expressed their opposition, they were overjoyed, and Hu Wenlong, the senator of the Beijing Executive Department, couldn't help but say: "I don't know what the Auxiliary Guogong has high opinions, and the lower officials are willing to hear the details!" ”

Other officials responded one after another, and said in a loud voice: "Yes, yes, please also ask the Auxiliary State Duke to explain the benefits and harms to the emperor!" ”

Xia Xun arched his hand to Zhu Di and said: "What the emperor and Gonggong Zheng just said is only concerned about the interests of goods exchanges, and this end alone is really nothing. ”

All the officials responded: "Yes, yes, I am a kingdom in the heavens, the land is vast, and there are everything, so why do I need to communicate with the barbarians and compete for their interests!" ”

Xia Xun smiled slightly and said: "The minister thinks that if you only care about the pros and cons of going to the West, then you will fall behind, depending on whether it is beneficial or unprofitable, from the following aspects!" ”

Zhu Di's face was elongated, and he was about to turn into a shoehorn face, and he forced his displeasure and said, "You speak!" ”

"Yes!"

Xia Xun didn't see Zhu Di's expression, and said loudly: "First of all, coastal cities, such as Changle, Ningbo, Taicang, Quanzhou and other places, are rich and prosperous, and merchants gather, the reason is because of the sea market, if there is no sea market, how can these coastal cities be prosperous?" Going to the West and promoting the comprehensive development of culture, economy and people's livelihood in coastal cities is an incalculable benefit. ”

"Huh?"

The civil and military officials were stunned, and Zheng He reacted first: "It turns out that the Duke of Fuguo is talking to me!" ”

Zhu Di also reacted, but he didn't show obvious joy like Zheng He, but glared at Xia Xun fiercely, and said with a straight face: "Go on!" ”

"Yes! Again, the treasure ship goes to the West, and needs to purchase a large number of Central Plains items for trade, such as the porcelain that Zheng Gonggong just said, if it is not used for Western trade, how can the sales of the celadon in Jingdezhen and the white porcelain ・・・・・・ in Dehua, Fujian be so large? Foshan was originally just a lonely village, a few foundries, if it were not for the beginning of the Fanbo set, the north and the south lost, Anneng from a few workshops, developed into a huge city? ”

At this time, all the civil and military officials knew that Xia Xun was actually on Zheng He's side, and they were not annoyed, Xia Xun didn't pay attention to it, and continued: "As a result, the porcelain in Jingdezhen, the silk weaving in Suzhou, the cotton weaving in Songjiang, the printing in Wuhu, and the tea industry in Hangzhou... How much has it contributed to the development of the region?

In the process of iron smelting, forging, shipbuilding, navigation, astronomy, ・・・・・・, how much technological development has been bringed? Not to mention how many species will flow in and how many cultures will be exchanged in the West."

"Go to the West, in addition to making my Ming prestige spread far and wide, the four Yi guests, my Ming goods are popular in all countries, and all the people in the four seas are honored to use my Ming things, but also to make their hearts to the Heavenly Empire. Moreover, even if it is a barbarian, it is also long, I went to the West in the Ming Dynasty, and exchanged the length for the short, both Zhang Guowei and the country, fame and fortune, what's not bad? ”

Lin Chengyi, the secretary of Taichang Temple, couldn't help but retorted: "What Fu Guogong said seems to be reasonable.

But the Duke of the Kingdom knows that since Zheng He returned from going to the West, Fanbang paid tribute frequently, and his tribute ships arrived, and whenever they were transported, they were all dispatched by the local government, and the cost of civil power was uncountable. For example, when it is transported from Guangdong to Beijing, because the boat is not passable, it is often necessary to cross the mountains and mountains, and the people are miserable.

In addition, there is no regular time for overseas countries to pay tribute, and if they come at the time of agricultural busyness, it will be more harmful to the local area. The army and civilians delivered one mile, and no less than thirty or forty people were forced to serve as officials, and when they were menstruating, they had already abandoned their agricultural work.

When the Nagong envoy returned to China, he purchased a large number of goods from our country, and all the companies along the road had to go out to carry them on their behalf, ranging from dozens of vehicles to more than 100 vehicles, and there were not enough men, and even women had to serve. Wherever the envoys went, the momentum was like wind and fire, insulting the post officials and whipping the people, which was not uncommon. What is the reason why the imperial court recruits people from afar, but increases the worries of people who are near! ”

When he said this, Hu Wenlong, the senator of the executive department, also came to the momentum and said: "The tributary envoys often have hundreds of people, and those who enter Beijing with the tribute, only a few of the main and deputy tribute envoys, and the rest of the people must stay in the pavilions and posts in the coastal cities, and these hundreds of people must be responsible for food, accommodation, and various offerings, all of which must be taken care of by the local government!" These envoys have been in the local area for a long time, and they often rely on their status to cause trouble.

In the past, there were Ryukyu tribute envoys who robbed sea ships, killed officers and soldiers, beat lieutenant officers, and robbed them of their clothes. Later, there was a Javanese tribute envoy who drank and ran rampant in Puyang, killed several people with a knife and committed suicide, which had a bad impact! Wherever these tribute envoys went, they often got restless, and some Japanese tribute envoys took advantage of the famine in Shandong to steal and buy the children of the homeless people, and they went away with a full load, harming the people and losing the country, which was painful and hateful. ”

Su Qian, the right attendant of the household department, also refuted loudly: "What's more! Most of these tributes come for profit! Regardless of whether you need it or not, the tribute will be shipped in large quantities, and if you don't accept it, you will be entangled endlessly, and you will be a scoundrel in every way! People are under the guise of tribute, how can my Celestial Empire care about the thickness of tribute? So that it has been taken advantage of again and again. ”

Jin Youzi, a cabinet scholar who came with him, said: "There are even some Fanguo, when the tribute envoy arrives, the tribute ship immediately unloads and returns, and then loads another shipload of freight, because the tribute envoy has not returned, all of them are used as tribute, and I want my court to receive it." Its goods are either not needed by the people, or not used by the country, or are shoddy and dilapidated, or are not worth a penny, but they ask for a high price, so that the country and the people are harmed. ”

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