Chapter 297: Debate in front of the king

"'Zi said: Rich and can be sought, although the whip is a man, I will also do it. If you can't ask for it, do what I like. Ordinary people often think that saints despise wealth and wealth, but this is not the case. Since the son is said to be rich and can be sought, he needs to do it in the right way. With the great benevolence and righteousness of the saints, how can we sit idly by and watch the hardships of the people? The wealth of the unenlightened, the name of the unenlightened, the saint is not ashamed. However, non-saints are not ashamed of wealth and fame, and they do not despise profit. Now I am rich in the four seas, the world comes to the court, the treasure ship is on the sea and the natives look at the wind and worship, the court is named, and the people take profit, but many people think that this move is a waste of money and money, why not? ……”

Within ten days, he received several books, and Zhu Di read each one very carefully, which was very interesting. Since the establishment of the museum to cultivate Hanlin Shujishi, he must come to the quarterly and annual examinations in person, and he has also found a few talented people, but most of them are virtuous people who follow the rules. Those who are outspoken in the book are good at criticizing current affairs, but when it comes to current affairs, they are often the same.

Strike the treasure ship, abandon Jiaozhi, provincial service, strike the north...... Even the few conscientious and even gray-haired officials in the household department think so. These people all said that it costs money to move the capital to Beijing, to build a canal, to go to the West, and to levy Mengyuan, so the best way is to get rid of these expenses one by one, so as to save people's manpower. This is also very natural, in the early Ming Dynasty, except for Jiangsu and Zhejiang and other places, other provinces were very light taxes, so even if the treasury has been accumulated for many years, it is actually still limited.

Zhu Di is not exactly a martial artist, he was also carefully taught by Emperor Hongwu before he was crowned king, if he hadn't overturned Emperor Jianwen's country with Jingnan later, and hated Confucianism for slander, he would not have been able to promote military ministers to suppress civil officials. Although the ancestors' law is a ditch that cannot be crossed, if he is completely inflexible, how can he sit on this country? At this moment, after reading today's article, he took out a few copies of the previous book and read them carefully, and he finally determined that Zhang Yue was not frivolous for a while.

"This funny boy!"

The eunuchs on both sides heard Zhu Di's words, and even saw the unconcealed smile on his face, all of them felt incredible. Except for seeing the emperor's grandson Zhu Zhanji, or Zhu Ning, the lord of Chenliu County, come to talk with him, Zhu Di rarely laughs, so the court will have a majestic and cold evaluation, but in the past three days, the emperor has read Zhang Yue's book upside down several times, laughing more than ever, and the sentence just exported is even more unprecedented!

The eunuchs who can serve in Renshou Palace are all human spirits, but in the afternoon, the big eunuchs in the palace who have heads and faces have each gotten the news, even Zheng He, the eunuch who is nominally recuperating at home, has heard about such a thing. After many years of drifting at sea, he ate too much fish, shrimp and meat, and now he is naturally a vegetarian when he returns to Beijing, and his life is not luxurious, not at all like a high-ranking four-grade eunuch.

The eunuchs who went out of the town were given a first-class princely suit, and Zheng He, a eunuch who had been ordered to levy five times, naturally also had such a set, but he rarely wore it except for meeting those Fanbang kings. At this time, he lifted the curtain and went out, and saw that the two little eunuchs were drying the crimson silk robe with a large flower plate collar on the right, so he squinted his eyes behind his back and looked at it.

And the young eunuch who reported the news also followed out of the room, and stood beside Zheng He and whispered: "Father-in-law, although the emperor of the book is all stored in the recital box, there are also a few literate people who are waiting on the left and right, and I vaguely see that there are things about the West and treasure ships. That Lord Xiao Zhang is a relative of the British duke, but he is a civil official, and it is difficult to guarantee that he asks the emperor to strike the treasure ship like those civil officials, and the father-in-law must be on guard. ”

"Go back, I know what happened." Zheng He instructed without looking back, "You also said that the emperor blurted out a 'funny boy' that day, if he wants to stop the treasure ship, but it is just a proposal from the crowd, how can the emperor have such a comment?" The emperor is a shrewd person, don't take risks in the future, whether or not to strike the treasure ship is out of the sacred heart, and besides, I don't have time to care about this now. ”

However, when a strange little eunuch came to announce the summons in the afternoon, Zheng He, who had said that he had no time to pay attention, felt his heart skip a beat, but he still hurriedly changed his official uniform and hurriedly went out to get on the horse. When he arrived at Renshou Palace, he realized that he was not the only one who received the summons, in addition to Xia Yuanji, the head of the household department, there was a young official he didn't know on the other side of the palace.

Xia Yuanji, who is over fifty years old, has a good reputation among the people in the DPRK and China - approachable, simple in life, sympathetic to the people, and good at managing money...... All in all, countless praises have gathered on him alone, but even this Shangshu Lord, who has been in charge of the household minister for seventeen years, still has a headache side, that is, stubbornness. Naturally, he is not the kind of person who will admonish the emperor in front of him until he is unable to deal with him because of the details, let alone adopt a non-violent and non-cooperative attitude, but those who he regarded as "traitorous ministers and lucky" who deceived the emperor are not very comfortable.

Zheng He was one of the lucky ones in Xia Yuanji's eyes, so at this time, he was really a little uncomfortable when he saw this old Shangshu looking at him coldly, but he still stepped forward to greet him with courtesy, and then looked at Zhang Yue.

"Xiaguan Zhang Yue, I have seen Gonggong Zheng."

"It turned out to be Lord Xiao Zhang."

confirmed the speculation in his heart, and Zheng He suddenly felt even more uneasy. He went to the West five times, at first purely on orders, but now he is inseparable from the sea, these ten years of experience has become the most important part of his life, and only at sea, only when he receives those Fanbang Tuwang as the envoy of the Great Tomorrow, can he forget that he is just a eunuch. He also knew in his heart that the cost of the treasure ship was huge, and even every time he went to the Western Ocean, he was ready for the last time.

"Xia Shangshu, Gonggong Zheng, Lord Xiao Zhang, summoned by the emperor."

With the little eunuch shouting in the voice of a male duck, the three of them all came back to their senses from their respective thoughts, hurriedly sorted out their robes, and entered the meeting in turn by grade, Zhang Yue naturally fell behind. After entering the hall and getting up in turn, he had just stood up straight when he heard Zhu Di's voice from above.

"Wei Zhe, let me ask you, how much does it cost for the treasure ship to go to the West?"

Xia Yuanji has been in charge of the household department for many years, has been tightly pinching the money bag of the imperial court, has always been extremely careful in doing things, always carrying a small book in his arms, which records in detail the situation of the world's household registration, treasury, and taxes, and updates it from time to time, so as soon as the emperor opened his mouth, he asked this directly, he did not panic at all, and he didn't even need to check the small book, he stepped forward and bowed.

"Your Majesty, a large treasure ship, with a hull plus a pallet mast and other furnishings, will cost 160,000 ingots for the material alone, plus 80,000 ingots for wages, and 240,000 ingots. There are a total of 63 large treasure ships in the Western Ocean, which is equivalent to more than 15 million ingots. Together with other large and small ships, the cost is no less than 40 or 50 million ingots. Although it is not necessary to replace a new ship every time it goes to the West, it takes at least four or five million ingots to repair each loss. The rice, grain, clothing, etc., consumed by the soldiers on the ship totaled 800,000 ingots per year, and the consumption of each time they went to the Western Ocean was 100,000 ingots. ”

Although it is now eighty ingots of banknotes that are only one tael of silver, and Xia Yuanji's words are also clichés, but when he heard such a number, Zhu Di naturally frowned. He glanced at Zheng He, but he didn't ask about this henchman eunuch who was acting on orders, but looked at Zhang Yue.

"Zhang Yue, since Xia Yuanji and Zheng He are here now, you might as well tell them about your Chen."

Zhang Yue knew that Xia Yuanji was suddenly summoned by the emperor this time, and he was not prepared before, but he also admired the other party in his heart for remembering it so clearly-naturally, this also shows how much Lao Shangshu is worried about the treasure ship going to the West. While Xia Yuanji was speaking just now, he had already sorted out his thoughts very well, and naturally he would not have stage fright at this time.

"Your Majesty, although it costs a lot of money for the treasure ship to go to the West, this trip not only promotes the prestige of the country, but also allows me to control the Western countries and make them pay tribute. Every time the treasure ship comes back, it carries a large number of sumac pepper and other things, these goods are extremely cheap in the local value, but they are treasures in my Central Plains, but these spices and so on are too much, and they may not be used up in the treasury for decades and hundreds of years.

Every time the treasure ship goes to the West, it will reward silk, tea, cotton cloth, and ironware, and Fanbang will offer domestic pepper, spices, medicine and other treasures from the Western islands, and send tribute in exchange for China's porcelain and silk. The imperial court treats them favorably, often buying them with generous funds, which is naturally sympathetic to their hearts and hardships. It's just that the imperial court doesn't need so many things they brought, but the people do, and occasionally the poor people who buy Western goods get rich for it, so why not let the commoners buy more in addition to the regular tribute? Moreover, almost all of the official taxes paid by the imperial court every year were taken from the peasants, so if the ban on the sea could be lifted slightly, why not draw commercial taxes from them to fill the treasury? ”

Xia Yuan Jideng's face sank: "The imperial court rewards all the states, and the fanstates contribute treasures, which is the way of the monarchs and ministers of the Heavenly Empire and the subject countries." If you exchange the cheapness of the Central Plains for the treasures of Fanbang, won't these folk profiteers ruin the reputation of my Ming Dynasty? ”

Hearing what Xia Yuanji said, Zhang Yue smiled and said: "What Xia Shangshu said is wrong, you must know that my country's cheap things are treasures of other countries, but what my country regards as treasures, how can it not be cheap things of other countries?" Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the trade between sea ships and other countries has been common, and when the Song Dynasty was at its peak, the annual income of the three major cities of Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and Zhejiang was not less than two million yuan, and the silver was nearly two million taels. We are sympathetic to the hard work of the peasants, and the taxes are very light, so the treasury is often insufficient when collecting or building, so why not take more commercial taxes? ”

Xia Yuanji couldn't help frowning, and only then did he want to open his mouth to say that the ancestral training of Emperor Taizu's ban on the sea was still there, but when he thought that Zheng He had repeatedly gone to the West now, in fact, the imperial court had already broken this article, and he immediately kept silent, but he still didn't think so.

While Xia Yuanji was pondering, Zhang Yue struck while the iron was hot and said: "In the early years of Yongle, the sea was abandoned because of the difficulties and dangers at sea, and the second was because of the chaos along the coast. No matter how strong our Ming army is, if they sail away, they will have no choice but to watch such people wantonly endanger the place. But the Ming treasure ship sailed far to the sea, once repelled pirates and repelled rebels, if such a fleet sailed in the East China Sea, will the Japanese invaders be frightened? That's right, the imperial court spent a lot of money on building treasure ships, so it was naturally impossible to build more such big ships, but if the treasury was sufficient and there were treasure ships guarding the coast, who would dare to spy and who would dare to harass? In the past, the Southern Song Dynasty was a small country in a corner of peace, but it was able to resist the Jin State for more than 100 years. Just like today's Western Ocean, the treasure ship is majestic on the sea Jingning, and the country of Fanbang will never dare to rebel. ”

Since Zhu Di ascended the throne, he has not overhauled the old system in terms of major policies, but he also did not regard the ancestral system as important - but the surface article is always done. However, now that the edict of moving the capital is about to be officially promulgated, the cost of everything from the city wall to the palace is huge, and the military expenditure of Jiaozhi is also a bottomless pit, he does not want to leave the reputation of a heavy tax and harsh peasants, and he still has a faint urge to continue the northern expedition in his heart. At this time, seeing that Xia Yuanji also seemed to be moved, he suddenly pondered. And Zheng He, who was never allowed to speak on the side, was surprised at first, and then his eyes lit up.

That's right, the treasure ship of the Ming Dynasty is on the sea, and it has never met an opponent!

Although he was deeply favored by Zhu Di, Zheng He has never talked about state affairs casually, but at this time, under the agitation of the mood, he actually stood up with one step: "Your Majesty, when the treasure ship went to the Western Ocean, it suppressed the rebellion of Fanguo many times, and the pirates entrenched in the Western Ocean were swept away, and the people everywhere were all convinced. Our Ming army was originally not good at naval warfare, but now that it has gone to the Western Ocean five times, the armies on board have long been proficient in naval warfare, and they are not afraid of any wind and waves. It's not that the ministers boasted, more than 20,000 people were invincible at sea! ”

The four words that are invincible can't help but make Zhang Yue feel a lot of emotion - even in the European Age of Discovery, the fleet is mostly a few small sailing ships, where is it worth the Ming Dynasty's dispatch is hundreds of huge treasure ships? These officers and men went to the Western Ocean five times, and their rich combat and navigation experience is naturally unparalleled, this is simply the Ming version of the Invincible Armada!

After another round of verbal exchange, Zhu Di finally waved his hand and said, "Well, today's matter, the three of you don't want to spread it for the time being, and we will decide after careful consideration." ”

Such a major event is naturally not something that can be decided overnight, so Zhang Yue is not discouraged. However, as soon as he got out of Renshou Palace, Zheng He had something on his mind, so he went down the steps first by himself, and he was about to let Xia Yuanji go first, but he found that this old Shangshu was staring at him, and his heart suddenly chuckled.

Could it be that Lao Xia Yuanji also regarded him as a fallacy to confuse the public?

Xia Yuanji stared at Zhang Yue for a long time, but finally shook his head: "There is a way to open up sources and reduce expenditures, I have always done this throttling, and it is not easy for you to think of open sources at a young age." It's just that this matter is not as easy as you think, and the people who oppose it are afraid that there will even be more people who opposed it than those who opposed the relocation of the capital back then. ”