Since taking office, Zhou Shangshu will sigh in the yamen from time to time, in fact, Lord Zhou is already in his old age, and he is not the kind of person who can't see it, whether it is a leak detection or not, he has already worshiped Shangshu, even if he enters the cabinet, there may not be no hope. [Full text reading]

However, whenever he saw that his side was deserted, and Zuo Shilang's government office was full of people, he was very depressed, and it was the duty of the Ministry of Rites to educate the people.

On the contrary, the official business of the Ministry of Rites has become useless, when the son is still the prince today, he is not a proprietor, and now no one dares to care about him, he has intensified, and even the rules of the court can be changed, what else can't be changed?

Zhengde changed the rules of the court meeting, so that many ministers are secretly happy, the court meeting was postponed from the time of the hour to the time of the hour, of course, because the emperor himself does not like to get up early, but the ministers are actually the same.

In this winter, when the little north wind blows, how cold it is, who doesn't want to lie in the bed for a while? From this point of view, the emperor and the ministers can reach a consensus.

However, for the ministers, this benefit can only be secretly refreshed in their hearts, and they still have to scold on the surface, the Shang Dynasty is not only the rules of the Ming Dynasty, for thousands of years, it is such a charter, and the result was changed in the Zhengde Dynasty. It's already a dereliction of duty if you can't stop it, and if anyone dares to support it again, they will leave a thousand years of infamy in the future.

Irrelevant people are like this, not to mention how much pressure Zhou Jing has on the Ministry of Rites, and he even regrets serving as the Ministry of Rites.

If there are only such things as court etiquette, then Zhou Jing will endure it with his nose, and all along, isn't this how his predecessor Zhang Sheng survived? The problem was that he couldn't find anything else to do other than ceremonial things.

Diplomacy?

When it comes to diplomacy, Zhou Jing has a headache, and his biggest trouble at present comes from this, the Ryukyu envoy was full of smiles when he entered the palace, and he smiled even brighter when he came out, but when he finally found the Ministry of Rites, he cried this is called a miserable.

The Ryukyu envoy is also a royal family, so he also has the surname Shang, and the single name has the word 'dang', which is called Shang dang when read together.

After seeing Zhengde at the Military Academy, Shang Dang got a note, Zhengde asked him to go to the Ordnance Division to receive some souvenirs, Shang Dang had a feeling of being fooled at that time, the Ming Emperor actually even relied on the reward, it was really not exquisite, the Ming Dynasty was so rich, and he sent this point to Ryukyu?

When he saw it, he was so surprised and delighted! There are boxes that can play their own music, and clocks that can tell the time accurately, where can you find these things in a remote place like Ryukyu? He almost didn't get out of his breath.

So, the feeling of loss was swept away, Shang Dang couldn't close his mouth with a smile, and began to calculate, and finally he planned to sell two pieces in the capital first, and then return with a full load.

Similar to the original Korean envoys, these small countries that came to pay tribute came to the silver, planning to grab enough silver from the Ming court, and then go to Jiangnan to make a lot of purchases, and then go to the Japanese kingdom again, and finally return to China.

Generally speaking, after going around in this way, the silver earned is enough for Ryukyu to have enough food and clothing for two years, and when it is used up, you can consider coming to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute.

Therefore, Shang Dang was of course very disappointed that he didn't get the silver in return, but after getting the treasure, his identity as a merchant awakened again, and he thought that this was a big business opportunity, so he planned to sell two pieces in the capital first, and sell him hundreds of thousands of taels before talking.

As a result, of course, tragedy.

If it was two years ago, the things he got could indeed be sold for a lot of money, but now, this thing is an authentic local product of the capital. It's a bit exaggerated to say that no one picks it up when it is thrown on the ground, but even if it is just from other places, it won't feel how rare these things are, isn't it a handicraft produced by Jumbo Zhai? Who doesn't know?

Shang Dang walked through several antique shops, and every time he opened his mouth, it caused a burst of laughter, and he didn't blame the people of the capital for disrespecting friendly people, who is it, Leng Ding saw a person coming in with a table clock, and asked for 500,000 taels of silver when he opened his mouth, he also had to laugh, if he met someone with a bad temper, maybe he would beat someone.

Shang Dang is confused, why don't the people in this capital know the goods? Such a good baby, no one wants to buy it, and the price is indeed higher, but it shouldn't be this result, and someone has to bargain if you can't afford it, right? But after walking this big circle, let alone the offer, there is no one who even takes a serious look.

He looked around blankly and found that there were many people behind him, but none of them were adults, most of them were little children with pigtails, pointing and smiling at him, no matter how they looked at him, they looked like onlookers were fools.

Finally, a kind person finally appeared, the man pointed out Shang Dang to go to the treasure Zhai, Shang Dang to the store to take a look, immediately from the head to the feet, the store is full of all kinds of handicrafts, one is more magical than the other, but it is not expensive, it can be called good quality and low price.

The things in his hand are quite complete, except for the large table clock, there should be everything, but if it is sold at the price in the store, it will not be sold for a total of 10,000 taels of silver, can he not feel cold in his heart?

In addition to disappointment, his heart was full of horror, Daming is really Daming, it's too terrifying, selling treasures as groceries, and there are several walls at a time, uh, I heard that there are still a lot of stocks, no wonder Emperor Daming said that this thing is a suvenir...... Shang Dang felt that he was really fooled this time, didn't Da Ming always be stupid and have a lot of money? How can you be so stingy? The treasure is very good, but it can't be used as silver, what's more, there are so many places in the store, how can I only get one set? Therefore, he decided to find someone to reason, and then, Zhou Jing had a headache.

"Lord Zhou, my king has always admired the majesty and demeanor of the Celestial Empire, so he sent a small envoy to come across the ocean, and also prepared many rare things, in order to show respect for the Celestial Empire, but ...... However, the Celestial Empire's reward is too ...... to spare."

Shang Dang wiped two handfuls of tears and continued to cry: "The Ryukyu land is small and the people are widowed, and it is difficult to support itself, and it takes a lot to prepare tribute and the journey is quite expensive, if this goes on for a long time, my king may not have the spare time to send envoys to the court, Lord Zhou, can you not watch it!" ”

"Don't be impatient with the ministers, the heart of the Ryukyu yearning for the Heavenly Empire, the headquarters of the hall knows, and naturally it can't chill your hearts, how about this, the headquarters of the hall will invite the Son of Heaven to send a fleet from Tianjin Port to escort the envoy back to China, so that the journey will be free, so good?"

This method was thought about by Zhou Jing for several days before he came up with it, for Shang Dang's words, he actually didn't hear much, the things that Ryukyu paid tribute to were actually native products, pearl tortoiseshell or something was rare in the Central Plains, and it was similar to stone in Ryukyu locally, and local products were good for native products, isn't it just right?

In the past, the rewards were all from the treasury of the Ministry of Rites, and they were not their own anyway, and no one would care about that bit of silver. On the contrary, after giving it back, most of the envoys of the subject countries will have a little color, and the adults will have some filial piety, so the officials of the Ministry of Rites are also happy to show this matter.

But now it is different from the past, now both the inner treasury and the national treasury are tightly controlled by the emperor, and since the Korean tribute, the matter of return has also been changed to the emperor himself, so this matter has been separated from the Ministry of Rites, and it is not his responsibility to manage it, and he can't manage it.

It's just that he can't say this to Shang Dang, not for anything else, shame! The last time Ryukyu paid tribute was during the Hongji period, and the Ministry of Rites was so majestic at that time, but now it has become the Shimizu Yamen of the Three Regards, which is really a big contrast.

If it weren't for Shang Dang's appetite being a little big, Zhou Jing would have been eager to pay for the other party and send it away, wouldn't he have to be quiet? You must know that his Zhou family also has a lot of family business in Shanxi, and there is a trade route that is not inferior to sea trade, so silver is not much of a problem for him.

But no matter how much money there is, it can't be used to play tricks, Shang Dang's appetite has been raised, Zhou Jing is really reluctant to pay for himself, he thought about it for a long time, and finally he came up with such an idea, you said that the road costs a lot, then ask the emperor to send a ship to send you, anyway, there are many ships in the royal fleet.

"But if it ...... in the future" Shang Dang felt that he was fooled again, this Ming atmosphere is really getting weirder and weirder, why is it so difficult to fight an autumn wind?

"Then let's settle down like this, the return journey is far away, your envoy should have a good rest, and then go on the road early, the headquarters still has affairs in the body, so he will be lost first."

Zhou Jing allowed him to say the rebuttal, and when he flicked the sleeves of his robe, he got up and was about to leave. For the threat implied in Shang Dang's words, he doesn't care at all, love doesn't come or not, when the time comes, it may not be that any unlucky guy is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, lose, but also lose the face of the court, and have a penny to do with himself?

"Lord Zhou stays...... "How can Shang Dang be willing to let Zhou Jing go, this is the gold lord, he has not been devastated by the North Korean envoys, and his tough surname is still very good.

"Didn't you say it, there are still important things to do in the main department...... Zhou Jing raised his eyebrows, and his tone became a little more stern.

"But the little envoy has been here for a few years, Lord Zhou, and he hasn't ......" These words happened to poke Zhou Jing's scar, Zhou Jing's expression became even more unfriendly, and his face was as heavy as the bottom of the pot.

Shang Dang also knew that he was in trouble, but he had already made up his mind that he would never come again in the future, so he didn't care a lot, so he continued stubbornly: "Lord Zhou, if this matter spreads, it will not chill the hearts of other subject countries!" ”

"You!" Zhou Jing is completely annoyed, Nima, obviously he is a fighter for the autumn wind, a majestic fart, in my opinion, you have to have a wicked person like Xie Hong to clean you up.

"Zhou Butang, someone who claims to be a Korean envoy said that he came to canonize the new monarch and is waiting to see him outside." Zhou Jing was about to go crazy, when someone suddenly reported outside, and he was immediately stunned when he heard it.

Here you come again, dare to come?

(To be continued)