Qin Lin and Xu Xinyi sent Zhu Yaoyuan back to the palace, and on the way back, the two discussed, I don't know if this white elephant murder case is a personal vendetta of elephant slaves killing each other, is it to see through Zhu Yaoyao's identity, intentions are unfavorable to her, or there is another plan?

Seeing Xu Wenchang, Qin Lin asked him for advice and asked him all about the Burmese tribute to the white elephant.

The Ming Dynasty set up the Jinyi Guard Elephant Taming Institute, which was responsible for training elephants for the honor guard of the court, but the Jingshi was located in the north and was not suitable for elephants to live and breed, so the elephants had to be born, old, sick and died, and they needed Yunnan Tusi and Siam (Thailand), Burma, Annam (Vietnam) and other vassal states to pay tribute.

Wasn't Mang Yinglong, the king of the Taungoo Dynasty in Burma, at war with the Ming Dynasty, how could he pay tribute to the white elephants?

After unifying Burma, he conquered Siam and Laos, and had the potential to dominate the Indochina Peninsula.

He saw the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty in the north, and got the heart of Longwang Shu, four times in more than ten years to invade China, loyal to the Ming Dynasty's Longchuan (now Ruili Longchuan in Yunnan) Xuanfu made Duo Shining was killed by the Han Dynasty Yue Feng, Meng Yang Xuanfu made Si a bloody battle captured after the heroic righteousness, Ganya (southwest of Tengchong, Yunnan) Xuanfu made the sword afraid of the defeat of the Wen army and fled to Yunchang Mansion...... Mang Yinglong was in the dust for a while, and a large area of southwestern Yunnan was annexed by the Burmese side.

It is a pity that the local officials in Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty did not recognize the seriousness of the problem, but instead equated Mang Yinglong's aggression and expansion with common local tribal conflicts, and responded with the tolerant mentality of the Celestial Empire.

As everyone knows, in the eyes of the rampant reckless Yinglong, China's tolerance and generosity have turned into cowardice and incompetence, becoming more and more unscrupulous, and not taking the Ming Dynasty in their eyes.

However, the attitude of the Burmese side towards the matter of tribute is different.

The Central Celestial Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, the mouth is talking about "the king does not govern Yidi, those who come do not refuse, and those who go do not chase", in essence, they hope that "the Holy Son of Heaven is on the throne, and the four Yi come to the dynasty", and when Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty was in power, he also sent Zheng He to the West to get the kings of thousands of islands and countries along the way to pay tribute.

For the kings of these small countries, a few kowtows and tribute some local products can be exchanged for gold, silver, silk and porcelain given back by the emperor of the Celestial Empire, why not?

In addition, the tribute also had an obvious political significance: it was recognized as a vassal of the Central Celestial Empire. Including the Ben, Korea, Siam, Burma, Luzon, Malay, and Sri Lanka, and even the Timurid Empire, which had a territory as far away as Turkey, were nominally subject to the rule of the Ming Dynasty and to the arbitration of the Ming court.

Once the tributary is stopped, that is, the "no tribute", it means that the country is separated from the eastern tributary system established by the Ming Dynasty and becomes a foreign country, in addition to losing the economic benefits of tributary trade, it also loses the protection of the Celestial Empire politically, and other vassal states can attack it at will, and the Ming Dynasty will no longer provide arbitration and protection, and the country will become an orphan who is abandoned from the eastern tributary system.

The punishment of extermination was quite severe, roughly the same as the excommunication of the Western Holy See in the same era, and if countries such as Korea and the Ryukyus were to be declared to pay tribute, the king would probably have hanged himself that night, or his head would have been cut off by the ministers of the domestic opposition.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty itself is also very reluctant to pay tribute, because the reduction of tributary countries is a damage to the majesty of the Celestial Empire, and there are many tributary countries, which shows that the Celestial Dynasty is a holy monarch and a virtuous minister, and the tributary country is less, that is, the faint monarch destroys the ministers, and even the "Romance of the Gods" says that the princes of the world are in the Zhou Dynasty but not the Shang, and the Shang Dynasty is about to perish.

Burma's aggression and expansion were interpreted by the arrogant and pedantic Yunnan governors Wang Ning, Rao Renkan and other officials as ordinary tribal conflicts, and they had to go to appease and comfort them repeatedly, how could the Ming Dynasty take the initiative to pay tribute?

The Burmese side was also cunning and cunning, fulfilling his tributary obligations to paralyze the Ming Dynasty and cover up his aggressive and expansionist behavior of annexing small countries in the Indochina Peninsula and encroaching on Chinese land in the north.

After saying this, Xu Wenchang stroked his gray beard and sneered: "The reckless dragon line's annihilation plan is really hateful!" With a mere white elephant, in exchange for the jurisdiction of the three Xuanfu envoys in Yunnan of the Ming Dynasty, it is good to calculate, good thief! ”

Qin Lin is in charge of the Nanzhen Fu Division, in charge of the internal inspection of Jinyiwei, and the external intelligence is the responsibility of the Beizhen Fu Division, so he doesn't know much about the situation in Yunnan and Myanmar. This white elephant kills people, maybe they instigated it! ”

Ahem, Xu Wenchang coughed dryly, the white elephant was paid tribute by Myanmar last year, judging from the behavior of the Burmese side, the motive of using the tribute to paralyze the imperial court should account for most of them, and they don't seem to need to let the white elephant go crazy and hurt people?

Early the next morning, Qin Lin asked Hong Yangshan to sit in the south of the town of Fusi, and he took his own military captain to find the Burmese tribute envoy, and Xu Xinyi also followed behind like a little tail.

"Hey, what are you doing with your husband? Eldest sister! Qin Lin touched his nose with a helpless expression.

"Che, who's following you?" Xu Xinyi's apricot eyes rolled slightly, and she pouted with plump lips: "Miss Ben is going to Wuman City to go shopping, and I'm just going to go with you." ”

Bear two faces under one hood! Qin Lin pursed his lips.

The Ming Dynasty allowed the tributary envoys of the vassal states and the Tusi to carry a part of the duty-free goods in addition to the tribute, and set up a "Wuman City" in front of the Jingshi Huiguan, allowing the tribute envoys to sell these local products, so that the officials and people of the Jingshi could buy imported goods, and the tribute envoys also made some extra money, which was equivalent to the "Canton Fair" and "World Expo" in later generations.

Xu Xinyi said that if you go to Wuman City, then you should go to the Huitong Pavilion!

There are two Huitong Halls in the north and south of the Beijing Division, the one in the north is not far from the Foreign Minister's Mansion of Donghua Gate, roughly in the area of Wangfujing in the later generations, and the Burmese Gonggong Envoy lives in the Nanhuitong Pavilion at the west end of Jiangmi Lane, not far from the Jinyi Wei Yamen and Qin Lin's mansion.

Wuman City is crowded with people, a lot of strangely dressed Fanbang visitors and local Tusi are selling goods, among which Mongolia and Wusi Zang (Tibetan Province) people are the most, Mongolians wear robes, Wusi Tibetans are "hiding one hand, revealing one hand", stretching out a smooth arm outside, selling safflower, snow lotus, Tibetan antelope skin and other local specialties.

There are also many Tusi tribute envoys of the ethnic minorities in the southwest, who wear a variety of clothes, red and willow green, which make people look dazzled, and all kinds of clothes, which they can't recognize clearly.

Only the North Korean Qin Lin recognized it, and several guys with big pie faces and clothes similar to those of Ming Dynasty officials were shouting and selling Korean ginseng, Dongzhu and mink, talking to each other and talking to each other Smecta and Smecta.

The wealthy tribute envoys rented stores, and those who did not come often, those with poor families, and the low-ranking servants in the mission, set up stalls on the ground, shouting and buying and selling in strange Chinese dialects.

The customers are all officials and ordinary people in Beijing, and they have long been accustomed to these customers, and they bargain calmly and buy the goods they want.

Xu Xinyi looked at the east and looked at the west and felt very interesting, Qin Lin was also very interested, and couldn't help but slow down his pace a little.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in front of them, and a group of guys wearing round helmets, black dresses, and Buddhist beads around their necks were roaring and arguing with someone, looking very arrogant and domineering.

(To be continued)