Two flat-bottomed boats flying the flag of the internal supervisor stopped at the Stone Town Wharf, and a group of coolies begging for a living at the wharf recognized at a glance that they were ships carrying tribute from Ningbo City.

This kind of ship is not something they can expect to earn some coolie money, and the things in it are all to be transported directly into the palace, so they dare not let them take over.

They don't dare to make such money, and if they accidentally drop a box, they can't afford to lose their money.

When the sea ship arrives here, it can't enter the Qinhuai River, so they either load these things directly into the inner warehouse, or transfer them directly into the palace by boat.

While they were guessing what was on board, a team of Yulin guards had blocked the entire dock.

The boxes and silk loaded on the big ship were transferred to more than a dozen small ships by a group of small eunuchs. Small boats were rowed in the river, and on both sides of the bank were escorted by large groups of men and horses along the way.

"This must be a treasure from which country is going to be sent directly to the palace."

"What treasures do those little kingdoms have? I'm a big tomorrow treasure earth spirit, what treasure doesn't have it? Sometimes it's just a novelty. ”

The Ming Dynasty in this era is the upper kingdom of the Celestial Empire, and dozens of small countries are proud to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. Even the coolies who work on the docks look down on the small countries that don't know where to go.

Another person retorted: "I can't say that, the dozens of horses that Kurumus contributed to the Taisun are not very good, and the Taisun loves them like treasures, and he also wants to improve my Daming's horse breed." ”

"The mountains are far away, and there is no good thing anywhere. Like that slave Gandusi, I heard that my nose can freeze when it's cold, but I can produce that kind of life-saving ginseng. ”

The fleet traveled along the Qinhuai River to a river south of the Imperial City, where a lock and wall had been built.

After reviewing the customs clearance certificates, the fleet was cleared, and after walking a short distance, it came across a second lock, which was completely enclosed by the walls of the palace, and the fleet could only enter through the river below the walls.

There is a river in the imperial palace of Yingtianfu, which is called the imperial river.

The southeast of the Yuhe River is connected with the Qinhuai River, and the north is connected to Lake Biwa, and the flowing water is continuous.

Inside the Imperial Palace, the Imperial River is in a T-shape, with the Imperial Garden in the north, and then passing through the West Palace to the Wuying Hall on the south side of the Imperial Palace.

The river becomes an east-west direction from the Wuying Palace, flows between the Wumen Gate and the Fengtian Gate, arrives at the Wenhua Palace, and flows through the scripture library, out of the palace.

The ministers went to the court, entered the noon gate, and had to cross the Jinshui Bridge before they could enter the Fengtian Palace.

The fleet crossed the Jinshui Bridge, and Zhu Zhanji was already waiting on the shore.

Jin Kuo jumped ashore and bowed down in front of Zhu Zhanji. "His Royal Highness Taisun is auspicious, the old slave wants to kill you."

Zhu Zhanji said with a disgusting face: "Just your ugly face, you talk to me every day, I don't want to have nightmares yet!" ”

Having said that, Zhu Zhanji's movements were very intimate and he personally helped him up. "You did a good job in Ningbo, I am very satisfied."

Jin Kuo bowed down and said, "The old slave is just acting according to His Highness's strategy, and he doesn't dare to take credit. ”

"I'm very satisfied with being able to keep my duty and do my duty."

In the seventh year of Yongle, Zheng Hexia returned from his second trip to the West, and Zhu Zhanji sent Jin Kuo to Ningbo to serve as the eunuch of the city boss.

On the one hand, he helped the imperial court collect the sea taxes of Japan and Korea, and on the other hand, he helped Zhu Zhanji to lay a nail in Ningbo, the treaty port of the imperial court, to earn a little extra money.

The bulk commodities brought back by Zheng He from the West were directly handled in Ningbo, and luxury goods and valuables were shipped back to Tianfu.

Moreover, Zhu Zhanji also set up a fleet of his own, running to the sun in the north and the South Ocean in the south, running back and forth twice a year, and he could make a lot of money.

Even Zhu Di knew that Zhu Zhanji had made a lot of money, and asked Zhu Zhanji for one million taels for military expenses a few years ago.

However, he thought that he had squeezed Zhu Zhanji dry, but he didn't expect that Zhu Zhanji didn't make the most money from commodities.

Japan is rich in gold and silver, and today's Japanese warlords are fighting each other, and they are vigorously arming themselves in all aspects.

Zhu Zhanji could earn a large amount of gold and silver just by transporting the ponies from Jeju Island to Japan.

Jeju Island belonged to China during the Yuan Dynasty, and during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, it still belonged to the Mongolian people who withdrew from the Central Plains.

They had been herding horses on the island for decades, and after the Mongols withdrew from the Central Plains, it became an unattended area.

At that time, in order to encircle Goryeo, Zhu Yuanzhang acquiesced to Goryeo's recovery of Jeju Island in the 27th year of Hongwu, but he had to supply horses to the Ming Dynasty.

However, the country horses produced on Jeju Island are small in size and have short legs, so they can walk on mountain roads, but they are a little reluctant to go to the battlefield.

Later, Da Ming didn't care about this place.

Zhu Zhanji only let Jin Kuo go to Goryeo once, and he picked up this contract, and he could get 2,000 dwarf horses from Jeju Island every year.

These horses Daming can't look down on them, but Japan with many mountains and few horses can be regarded as very fond of it, so all these horses were sold directly to Japan.

Zhu Di only calculated Zhu Zhanji's approximate annual profits, and knew that Zhu Zhanji earned hundreds of thousands of taels every year. However, in the past four years, it has been calculated that relying on the difference between gold and silver alone has made more money than the difference in the price of commodities.

The Ming Dynasty closed the country and only opened five treaty ports, and only the state could do import and export business.

Zhu Zhanji took advantage of this loophole, of course no one dared to take care of his business, not to mention that the current Ningbo City Bosi is controlled by him.

Jin Kuo's business acumen is not good, but he is steady and honest. In accordance with Zhu Zhanji's instructions, he selected five or six companies in Ningbo and Yingtianfu to do silver building business, grain business, wine-making business, and shipping business for support.

Nowadays, every family makes money with Zhu Zhanji's share, and Zhu Zhanji still accounts for the majority of the silver building business.

The gold and silver shipped back from Japan were sold directly to the private sector in this way.

Today's Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including Ying Tianfu, has the largest silver building business, and it is almost a businessless business.

The fleet stopped on the east side of the Wenhua Palace, occupying most of the Donggong River, and the eunuchs accompanying the ship moved all the things on the ship into the Xingqing Palace under the arrangement of Yu Xian and Li Liang.

Zhu Zhanyong and their group of children were the happiest, seeing so many things moved down from the ship, they pestered Zhu Zhanji one by one to ask for gifts.

Jin Kuo had also prepared it a long time ago, and the various pearls he brought back, the rare and valuable specialties of the Ming Dynasty, according to everyone's different preferences, one person prepared a small box.

They got the gifts, and one by one they went back to show off happily.

After a while, the concubines of the harem, who had a good relationship with Zhu Zhanji, also came to watch the excitement, and his cheap mother, the crown princess, helped him deal with them one by one.

At noon, they dispersed one by one, because they all knew that Zhu Di was coming.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji made a look with Jin Kuo and Yu Xian, and the two of them each held a big box and followed Zhu Zhanji to the second floor.

Li Liang was also ready, put the two low tables in a brightly lit window, and then went to guard the staircase.

The faces of several people were very heavy, and they felt a little relieved when they looked at Zhu Zhanji's still calm face.

Yu Xian's list was the smallest, and he couldn't help but say in a trembling voice: "Your Highness, this is the crime of bullying the king......

Zhu Zhanji glared at him and said, "What is a bully? And that's true. Calm me down and don't show me anything. ”

After thinking about it, he felt that Yu Xian and Li Liang had experienced few things, and they were really a little unsightly in front of Zhu Di.

So he said again: "You two go downstairs and keep watch, and when the emperor comes, you don't have to stay here." ”

Yu Xianru was pardoned, and immediately said, "The slave went to see if lunch was ready." ”

After they went downstairs, Zhu Zhanji took Jin Kuo and opened the two boxes. One box contains one large ball, while the other contains three small balls of different sizes.

At the same time, there is a stack of raw-edged parchments, which are full of twists and turns of text.

Zhu Zhanji skillfully took out the big ball in the big box first, and then installed it on a slightly inclined bracket.

This sphere is carved from South Sea mahogany, which is heavy, and this sphere, which is almost 50 centimeters in diameter, is also extraordinarily heavy.

In appearance, the sphere is painted in a variety of colors, and most of the earth's topographic maps and oceans have been carved out.

Yes, this is a globe.

Moreover, this globe is a globe that includes the general topography of the world, the plains are light green, the forests are dark green, the mountains are white, the plateaus and deserts are yellow, and the rivers and oceans are blue.

It took Zhu Zhanji almost a year to carve the globe in the Xiamaqiao Farm.

In modern times, he has launched his own satellites and traveled to most parts of the world, so it is not difficult for him to just carve a rough topographic map, and of course, it is impossible to be as accurate as possible.

Moreover, he also deliberately neglected the topography of the Ming Dynasty, and only marked Europe and the Americas, Oceania, and Africa very clearly.

For later generations, a globe is not an uncommon thing, but in this era, this globe can only be viewed as a priceless treasure.

Nowadays, most people still think that they live on a flat surface, and it was not until a hundred years later, after the beginning of the Age of Discovery, that they gradually learned that the place where human beings live is a sphere.

And in order to let Zhu Di see this globe "reasonably", Zhu Zhanji also spent a lot of thought, until he caught a foreigner who didn't know where in the summer, and the conditions were ripe.

A month ago, Zhu Zhanji asked Jin Kuo to lock up the foreign devil for two months, and then directly executed him, and then pretended to translate a little "travel diary." ”

The parchment was written by Zhou Nan in Spanish, and the translated text was copied by him first in Chinese and then copied by Jin Kuo.

The reason why he went to great lengths was to convince Zhu Di that there were countless places on this earth waiting for him to conquer.