"Hahahaha!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled and leaned back and forth, he deliberately let the ministers come closer to see, and then waited to be sprayed with saliva.

As for why does the emperor know?

Because Zhu Houzhao has also been sprayed, it is better to be happy alone than to be happy with everyone, and it is fair to have a few more people who are sprayed.

Yang Shen thought it was quite interesting and wanted to come forward to take a look. As soon as he took a few steps, he heard his father cough, and he could only return to his shift in a huff.

A group of conservative ministers led by Yang Tinghe felt that it was too unreasonable at the moment, and a good court meeting had really turned into a vegetable market.

Lin Jun was originally standing, but when he heard Yang Tinghe's cough, he probably stood up and looked at the grass and mud horse with his sleeves folded: "I'm afraid this beast can't grind, right?" ”

Zhu Hai said: "There is no stone mill in Tawanting Sulong Kingdom, so I don't know if this beast can grind. But its land is mountainous, and this thing can carry goods, just like the people of the Ming Dynasty use donkeys and mules to carry goods. ”

Lin Jun praised: "If you can carry goods, you are a good animal." It's a pity that there is only one left, and next time you can transport a few more back, if you can breed and promote among the people, the people of Li can have one more useful livestock. ”

Yang Tinghe finally couldn't help it, and said: "Your Majesty, the Admiral of Tanhai has indeed gained a lot from his eastward trip, which is beneficial to the people. But now that many new crops have been brought back, there is no need to waste money and travel thousands of miles to the sea for the sake of this beast. This tower...... Tower ......"

Zhu Hai said: "Tawanting Sulong Kingdom. ”

Yang Tinghe said: "This Tawanting Sulong Kingdom, if you can think of offering new crops, its king can be regarded as having a heart. You can give a golden seal, seal the vassal king, and send him out of the country. If they don't have a big ship, they should be carried back by a sealed boat. Only run this one more trip, as many things as the boat can bring back, how many things will be brought back, and you can't work hard to move the people in the future. ”

Zhu Houzhao said: "According to what Yang Ge Lao said, I ordered the Ministry of Rites to cast a gold seal for King Sulong of Tawanting. He also gave 100,000 pieces of money, 3,000 pieces of silk, and 5,000 pieces of cotton cloth to show his loyalty. ”

Yang Tinghe said: "Your Majesty Shengming! ”

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "However, this extreme eastern land, I still have to go in the future." ”

Yang Tinghe frowned, knowing that he couldn't give direct advice, so he could only retreat: "Your Majesty, if there are maritime merchants in the people and are willing to travel thousands of miles to the sea, it is naturally inconvenient to stop it." But the imperial court did not need to send ships over, and a trip would inevitably be expensive, but it would only empty the treasury. ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled even brighter, and suddenly said, "Admiral Tanhai, I brought back one thing this time." Everyone, move in! ”

This time, more guards were used, carrying a sack in pairs, and the mouth of the bag was also tied with a seal of the carrier warehouse. Although those sacks were not big, they were dead and heavy, and those with little strength were directly bent over.

Eighty sacks were arranged, and as for the odds, Zhu Hai took them and shared them with the crew.

On average, each person received forty taels of gold, and those who died in the middle of the voyage still had a few taels of gold at home as a pension.

Zhu Hai didn't take a penny himself, but this time he returned to Beijing to face the saint, transported spices from Nanyang to Hangzhou, and brought goods from Hangzhou to Lushunkou for trading, and most of the silver earned from the trade went into Zhu Hai's personal pocket.

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "Zhongqing, you can guess what is in these bags." ”

Huang Ke, the head of the household, walked over and tried to pick up the sack. He is also considered powerful, but he didn't know that he couldn't hold it, and suddenly exclaimed: "These sacks are not full, if it is silver, a bag is at most a hundred catties, and the minister can still move it with his own conceit." I tried it just now, I'm afraid that a bag is more than 200 catties, right? It can only be gold! ”

Gold?

The civil and military officials are unbelievable, how many taels do you get for eighty bags of gold!

Zhu Houzhao felt very bored, and he was guessed at once, and he ordered: "Tear down the seal, and all the secretaries will see it with their own eyes." ”

A sack opened, revealing the golden sand inside. Another sack opened, and there was still golden sand inside...... After opening more than ten bags, all the ministers were numb and no longer questioned the harvest of going to sea this time.

Zhu Hai knelt down and said: "This time I went to sea, and I brought back a total of more than 260,000 taels of gold. There are still some odds, and the ministers make their own decisions, take them and distribute them to the crew, and also give some bereavement benefits to the families of the dead crew members. Please punish Your Majesty! ”

Zhu Houzhao said happily: "Then punish you for running a few more times." The gold should be divided, and the pension should be paid. I heard that more than forty percent of the crew members died on this voyage, and all of them were sick and injured. As the saying goes, the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, so such casualties should be rewarded. Remember, next time you can't give a reward, I will order it myself. Now that you have appreciated it, I have to express it. All the dead crew members will be given 30 acres of land each, and the escaped households can return to their hometowns to settle down, and the military households, artisan households, and stove households can all be converted into private households! ”

Zhu Hai hurriedly thanked him: "The ministers and crew have thanked Your Majesty!" ”

The conversation between Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Hai was ignored at all, because the civil and military officials were already stupid, and they were stupid by the number of 260,000 taels!

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the official gold-silver ratio was 1:4, and in the early years of Zhengde, it had become 1:5. In recent years, with the increase of open sea ports, foreign silver has continued to pour in, and the private gold-silver ratio has become 1:6.

More than 260,000 taels of gold, converted into silver, is nearly 1.6 million taels of silver!

It was Lin Jun, who was light and breezy, who was dumbfounded at the moment, and after a while, he asked, "Admiral Zhu, how did you get so much gold on a trip to the sea?" ”

Yang Yiqing also asked: "Could it be that the Tawanting Sulong Kingdom doesn't take gold as a treasure, so it gives away so much?" ”

Zhu Hai replied: "Tawanting Sulong Kingdom also likes gold and silver, and these golden sands have nothing to do with them. As I said before, the place where the fleet landed was named Fukuyama. There is no country near Fukuyama, only the blood-drinking tribes of Rumao. To the northwest of Fukuyama, there are two rivers, and there is a lot of gold in the rivers. The natives by the river, who did not understand the preciousness of gold and silver, let them pan for gold and then exchange them with axes. When the axes were almost exchanged, they traded iron knives, cloth, silk, and other things. ”

The ministers were desperate, and a bunch of ordinary items were exchanged for 1.6 million taels of silver, and they were all brainless savages.

Yang Tinghe was puzzled: "Two rivers, and more than 200,000 taels of golden sand?" ”

Zhu Hai said: "Yang Ge doesn't know that there is really a lot of golden sand there, and the sun is shining brightly. Therefore, the two rivers, one was called the Liujin River by the crew, and the other was called the Shining Gold River by the crew. It took thousands of indigenous people to dig for gold for several months to get so much sand. If I go again next time, I'm afraid it won't be so convenient, because there is not much golden sand left in the nearby river section. However, I sent someone to explore upstream, and there were golden sands for dozens of miles upstream! ”

The hall was shocked, the ministers were shocked, and there were dozens of miles of golden sand waiting to be found!

The historical gold rush in the United States attracted about 300,000 people to dig for gold, and the annual output of California's gold mines was close to 40 tons. This is only a 10-year average, and the first two years of gold mining were easy, with a very low annual production of 50 or 60 tonnes – these figures are official, and there is a myriad of gold, which is not counted in direct private transactions.

And fifty tons, converted into the Ming system, is about 1.34 million taels!

(Note: Of the 300,000 American gold diggers, the 10,000 who really got rich at the beginning, panning for gold is like going down to the river to pick up gold.) Later gold diggers, although they were able to find gold and earn several times as much as their part-time jobs, the prices there had increased more than tenfold, and in the end it was better to work as a part-time job. What's even more nonsense is that unscrupulous profiteers sit on the ground and raise prices, such as drinking in taverns, and the boss only collects gold and does not charge money. ）

Zhu Houzhao was proud: "One trip to the sea, more than 260,000 taels of gold were transported back." Elder Yang Ge, are you still afraid of the empty treasury? ”

Yang Tinghe wanted to object, but he wanted to stop talking. If he objected again, the household officials estimated that they would strangle him, so they could only bite the bullet and say: "As Your Majesty said just now, more than forty percent of the crew members who went to sea died, and all the living ones were injured and sick. Although gold is valuable, human life is also priceless, so it is necessary to reduce the number of times you go to sea and bring more gold and gold every trip. ”

Wang Yuan suddenly spoke: "Many of the crew members died because of freshwater corruption. The disciples of the physics school are studying the art of water storage, which may be able to reduce casualties at sea. ”

Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang has a heart, if your students can get something, I will definitely reward you at that time." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Wang Yuan said.

Many of the taxes of the Ming Dynasty were in kind, and in addition to the grain that had to enter Beijing, many of them became local government revenues. And it is also divided into categories, how many stones are in rice, how many stones are in wheat, how many stones are in millet, how many bundles of grass, how many catties of silk brocade, how many horses of silk, and how many horses of cloth......

The tax silver that the central government can receive mainly includes household notes, miscellaneous classes, salt classes, tea classes, gold and silver classes, etc.

All in all, the taxes received by the central government last year (excluding in-kind) totaled more than 7 million taels of silver. Moreover, there are more than 2 million taels of them, which are obtained by successively opening the sea and rectifying Beiguan in Zhejiang, otherwise the central tax revenue is only more than 4 million taels of silver - Zhu Houzhao wonders very much, why there are so many taxes in Hangzhou, and the taxes of other cities that open the sea are far inferior.

A trip to the Americas can bring back 1.6 million taels of gold worth of silver, which is more than one-fifth of the Ming (currency) income!

Who would dare to object to going to the Americas?

In addition, if this gold is also counted, it is likely that this year's monetary income will exceed 9 million taels of silver. Nearly half of them are brought by Wang Yuan in disguise.

It is said that Wang Yuan is a minister, if you are replaced as the emperor, and no matter what great achievements you have made on the battlefield, you will only make the central monetary tax almost double, and you don't rely on trust for such a minister?

The central authorities are no longer short of money, but they are only short of grain, and the food consumption caused by the catastrophe in various localities is too serious.

Zhu Houzhao is slowly stockpiling grain, and he plans to regain Daning City for another year, and next autumn.

Wang Yuan wants to be trusted, and Zhu Hai also wants to be rewarded!

Zhu Houzhao suddenly said: "Zhu Hai, the imperial horse supervisor, has made meritorious contributions to exploring the sea, and has been promoted to the junior eunuch of the imperial horse supervisor, and he is still supervising the sea exploration fleet. Special gift to explore Haibo! ”

Eunuch knighted?

The civil and military officials were all stunned, and then collectively advised: "Your Majesty think twice!" ”

Zhu Houzhao added: "From now on, Zhu Hai will not be allowed to serve in the capital and localities, but will have to supervise overseas affairs. Successive admirals of the sea are like this, and they should be customized for the Ming Dynasty. ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!" This time, no one objected, as long as you don't mess around at home, it is acceptable for a eunuch to be an earl overseas.