The sky is sunny in the early morning. Zhu Gaoxu neither went to the north of the imperial city nor went to the court, he went straight to the Rouyi Hall to work. During the Northern Expedition, there were many government affairs that Zhu Gaoxu did not ask; At this point, he had to go through the file and get a sense of what the cabinet had recorded over the past few months.

The eunuch on duty who is responsible for serving Zhu Gaoxu today is Hou Xian, the young eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch. He is a caster with a well-defined facial contour and a square appearance.

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu walked into the Rouyi Palace, he glanced into the courtyard at the back door. But Hou Xian is not Cao Fu, and he doesn't seem to know much about some things. Hou Xian took a few eunuchs and sent the latest recitals over.

Now that a stack of pieces of music has been placed on the table, Zhu Gaoxu is ready to take a casual look, and then send it to the Wuying Hall in the north, and let the cabinet and the treasure office deal with it first.

He opened the top book, and at a cursory glance, he didn't understand the first two sentences; And the writing is very poor, and every stroke reminds Zhu Gaoxu of a child who has just learned to write!

But this aroused Zhu Gaoxu's interest, because it was impossible for court officials to be so uneducated. He immediately flipped through the place where the payment was made, and saw whose piece it was. A strange line of letters came into view, which made Zhu Gaoxu suddenly know in his heart: this is the music of a foreign envoy.

Chinese characters are also added next to the letters, and the envoys of the king of Ma Ba Xied.

After Zhu Gaoxu ascended the throne, he had seen the sea charts left by Zheng He and some records of Yongle Chu, and had a general understanding.

Zhu Gaoxu continued to read the recital, and finally understood the content. The Javanese envoy sent a letter, hoping that the imperial court would agree that the country of Ma Pacher (Java Island) would be incorporated into the Ming Dynasty and become a province!

"Hah!" Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help laughing out loud after reading it, and subconsciously felt that this envoy was simply wonderful.

Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his forehead and glanced up at Hou Xian. A question suddenly came to mind: why is this piece at the top?

When Zheng He went to sea that year, Hou Xian did not follow, but Wang Jinghong went as a deputy envoy; And Hou Xian and Wang Jinghong are eunuchs with nostrils. Zhu Gaoxu suddenly guessed that Hou Xian, Wang Jinghong and other eunuchs also had political demands.

Zhu Gaoxu handed the piece to Hou Xian.

Hou Xian bowed down to take it, looked at it and hugged his fists and said: "The slave and maid play the emperor, the east and west kings of the country of Ma Baxie, there was internal strife before. The king of the East mentioned in the chapter has been defeated and lost all his territory, and his envoys probably want the imperial court to send troops to help them regain their territory. ”

"I see...... Come to think of it, I seem to have read the dossier and there is such a thing. That King of the West, it seems that he killed our admirals by mistake? Zhu Gaoxu said.

Hou Xian hurriedly said: "What the emperor said is extremely true. At that time, the officers and soldiers on the ship went ashore to do business, and were mistaken by the king of the west of Java for reinforcements hired by the king of the east, and their speech was not very smooth, and more than 100 of our men were killed. Later, the king of the West wrote a letter to ask for guilt and wanted to pay 60,000 taels of gold, but when the chapter was sent to Beijing, the first emperor had died. Later, the crown prince was deposed and no more fleets were sent south, so the matter has been shelved to this day. ”

"Sixty thousand taels of gold?" Zhu Gaoxu was taken aback, he didn't know that there was such a thing, "The king of Java Island is so rich? ”

Hou Xian said: "In the northwest of the country of Machabacher, the kingdom of Sriwijaya (near Malaysia and Sumatra) produces gold; The country of Ma Na Pacher and the Western Muslim countries, perennial business, accumulated a lot of family funds, is really rich.

At that time, my Ming giant ship Chen Bing was at sea, and after the king of the West found out, he was very afraid of the destruction of the country, so he promised a lot of gold! The king of the east took the opportunity to send an envoy to Beijing with the fleet, and promised to cover the entire territory of the country with Macha Pacher, but it was an empty promise. The Emperor Mingjian. ”

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Hou Xian again, and Hou Xian immediately bent his waist lower. This eunuch is luring Zhu Gaoxu and restarting the fleet to go to sea! Hou Xian should know that the emperor is very short of money now.

Sixty thousand taels of gold! Zhu Gaoxu "crackled" in his heart, the currency of the Ming Dynasty was not the gold standard and the silver standard, except for the treasure banknotes, which are still dominated by copper coins. 60,000 gold, which is equivalent to about 300,000 copper coins!

At the beginning, in order to support the Southern Bureau Iron Works, Zhu Gaoxu allocated 200,000 yuan from the inner government and the household department, which simply made tens of thousands of people in the imperial city cut down on food and clothing, and also arrested Xia Yuanji, the secretary of the household department, and also arrested Xia Yuanji, the secretary of the household department, and also went to the imperial prison. 300,000 yuan of real money and silver is also a huge amount of money for the huge Ming court.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't even look at the chapter and the dossier, got up from his chair, and paced around thoughtfully.

Hou Xian's voice said: "Emperor, the envoys of Champang, Boni, Siam, Chenla, and Java have lived in Beijing for several years, and they have not been able to return to China so far. Hu Butang, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, complained many times that he wanted to provide them with food and drink......"

"I see." Zhu Gaoxu said.

Hou Xian hurriedly stopped, bowed down and said, "Yes, Emperor." ”

Zhu Gaoxu thought about it for a while and decided that after learning more about the situation in Nanyang and planning a reasonable and effective long-term strategy, it was best to get the support of the ministers before making a decision. Anyway, those envoys from Nanyang countries have been living for a few years, and it doesn't matter if they stay for a month or two more.

Thinking of this, he sat back in his chair.

After obtaining various information one after another since ascending the throne, Zhu Gaoxu made some speculations and judgments in his heart. The Confucian cultural circle is mainly in East Asia, and in addition to the Ming Dynasty, the influence of the Han Dynasty, Japan, and Annam is relatively large. The Nanyang countries, including Myanmar and Siam (Thailand), which had contact with the Tusi on the border of Yunnan, are most likely to be influenced by Indian religion and Muslimism.

Moreover, before the rise of Portugal and Spain, European religious civilization seemed to be relatively backward; On the contrary, the Muslim sect is very strong, with strong armed forces, rich and wealthy, and many believers.

What made Zhu Gaoxu feel the most was that the Tatars and Tile Thorns, who were far away in Mongolia, actually believed in Islam. The woman, Roche, who had been rescued safely, had said that the Tatar nobles had hammered horseshoes into the heads of the pagans (Tatars who did not want to convert to Islam).

Because Europe dominated the world after modern times, Zhu Gaoxu had to forcibly reverse his concept: in this era, in fact, compared with Western European religion and Islam, it is more powerful and wealthy.

Zhu Gaoxu put aside his affairs in Nanyang for the time being, and continued to look through the recent recitals. Xia Yuanji's recital was turned out by him.

Tobe Shangshu Xia Yuanji played, about the content of salt citation. Xia Yuanji suggested that he stop giving salt to vassal kings and nobles, emphasizing that it should not be given to the merchant Shen family.

Xia Butang expounded on the shortcomings at great length.

(Presumably this means that the imperial court could have received great benefits through the salt and iron official camp.) Not only can it increase the income of the households, but also the yamen such as the governor's office of the five armies can also use salt to exchange with merchants, so that merchants can transport grain, or call displaced people to directly farm land at the border pass to supply the needs of the border army; It greatly saves the expenses of the military department and the household department. ）

However, the royal family's indiscriminate distribution of salt to vassal kings, imperial relatives, and nobles disrupted the rules and caused huge losses to the imperial court.

Zhu Gaoxu felt that Xia Yuanji was very reasonable, but these shortcomings were not caused by Zhu Gaoxu, they had already existed before. And it is quite complicated, which is an important means of royal balance to compensate the magnates of all parties. Once it is canceled, I am afraid that the contradiction will be exacerbated!

Xia Yuanji may have thought that Zhu Gaoxu captured the acting king last year, weakened the military power of the kings, and led a large army to the north to deter the north...... So you can start to recover the interests of the central government?

Zhu Gaoxu felt that this Xia Butang was doing a good job in the household department, but he couldn't consider the overall interests. Of course, Xia Butang may just be advocating, and he did not force it to be implemented immediately.

But as mentioned in the chapter, what happened to the salt introduction to the merchant Shen family?

Zhu Gaoxu flipped through the government records from a long time ago, and found that a few months ago, he had issued an order to ask Yousi to arrange and canonize Shen Xu's daughter Shen Baoyan as a "Zhuang Concubine".

And the eunuchs of the celebrant added salt to the dowry, perhaps because Shen Xu was a businessman; The salt of the Ming Dynasty was a monopoly, and as long as there was salt, it was a huge profit, so all merchants wanted to get involved in the salt trade.

After understanding the intermediate process, Zhu Gaoxu immediately guessed that most of this matter was done by Wang Gui, and then somehow passed the approval of the cabinet and the treasure office. Because Wang Gui has contacts with the Shen family, most of them are the favors entrusted to him by the Shen Xu family.

Because for a long time before, Zhu Gaoxu did not directly manage the government, so that some things were not decided by him.

Zhu Gaoxu also remembered the matter of the Luo family, and the eunuch Cao Fu had asked the Luo family about the whereabouts of Huang Yan...... Is this to curry favor with Huang Yan's enemy? Wang Gui and others have signs of wanting to form an alliance with Hou Xian and Wang Jinghong!

Zhu Gaoxu's heart was suddenly unhappy, he picked up the Zhu pen, and wrote it on Xia Yuanji's recital: In the Shen family's dowry, the salt quotation was changed to other property.

After he finished writing, he threw the piece on the table with a "snap", and said to Hou Xian: "You look at my approval, and then tell the person who is the celebrant supervisor." ”

Hou Xian cautiously picked up the concerto, and kept nodding and said: "The slave obeys the order, the slave obeys the order!" He glanced at the recital, his face turned pale, and he quietly rubbed his forehead with his sleeve.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "Huang Yan, the eunuch who escaped from the Zhao Palace, is indeed on the Tatar side. I can ask the three law divisions to issue a disparity list, and there must be Tatars who make profits and arrest Huang Yan back. ”

Hou Xian knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and said: "That Huang Yan is involved in the rebellion case of the prince's mansion, and the life and death of this thief are all up to the emperor's will." After the emperor succeeded to the throne, he still trusted the reuse of slaves and maids, etc., and the great grace was like regenerating parents, and the slaves and maids were all over the place, and they could not repay the emperor's favor in case of emergency! Slaves and maids will never dare to be selfish, and they will be loyal to the emperor in this life! ”

Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and said, "I also believe that you can understand the severity. Get up. ”

"Thank you for your grace." Hou Xiandao.

Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief and said kindly: "Hundreds of seagoing ships have been built before, and shipbuilding and training cost a lot, and the matter of going to sea must not be abandoned halfway. However, I will change some of my strategy, and I will definitely choose a truly loyal eunuch as an envoy to continue this matter. ”

Hou Xian said: "The emperor is wise! ”