"Hahaha, although these reasons are a bit nonsense, but in terms of explaining their origins, they are always more reliable than those who say that they are cultivating immortals in the mountains and don't know the years in the world."

Shi Wenbo saw that Huang Shi was involved in this, so he asked, "Old Huang, are you going to talk to them about this too?" ”

Huang Shi laughed and shook his head, "Old Shi, I want to make an upgraded version of returning to my hometown to visit relatives." ”

"Upgraded?" Shi Wenbo and Bai Xiaohei were a little puzzled, what is an upgraded version of returning to their hometowns to visit relatives.

"Originally, these of them crossed the protagonist's hometown to visit relatives are individual behaviors, we are not, I am going to make it a 'country' behavior, my idea is to pretend to be thousands of miles away from the Fanbang mission, in fact, it is not a Fanbang, after all, our citizens are all Chinese relics, and then from thousands of miles away from the outside of the country, thousands of miles away to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to give a 'tribute', this will definitely make the favor of the emperor of the current dynasty burst, do you believe it?"

From the 15th century onwards, the "tributary" system was the prevailing system of international relations in the Eastern world, in which the Central Plains regime of China was the center of the unitary state, and the "tributary" states recognized the central position of China and constituted the outer vassals of the central power.

The Ming Dynasty was completely forbidden from non-governmental foreign trade activities with other countries, and this "tribute" became the only way for the Ming Dynasty to communicate overseas. This kind of "tribute" is actually equivalent to a kind of "official trade", because merchants from many countries need Chinese goods, and after the non-governmental trade channels are completely cut off, they have to come to China to "do business" in the name of "tribute".

Therefore, if the territory of Huangshi is to be officially recognized by the Ming Dynasty and to be able to conduct normal trade with the Ming Dynasty, then it must act in accordance with this set of international practices.

"Ah, Lao Huang, you also want to engage in this 'All Nations Come to Dynasty'!" Shi Wenbo likes military affairs and weapons, so naturally he will not be unfamiliar with history, and he is no stranger to what Lao Huang said.

Because in the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, that is, at the beginning of 1405 AD, Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, sent the eunuch Zheng He as the main envoy and Wang Jinghong as the deputy envoy, leading more than 27,800 sailors and officers and soldiers to sail to the West by 62 "treasure ships".

The Ming fleet set out from Liujiagang in Suzhou and returned to China via the west coast of India.

In the following 20 years, from 1407 to 1433, he made seven voyages, passing through more than 30 countries, reaching as far as the east coast of Africa, the Red Sea, and Mecca, the holiest land of Islam. This is the great Zheng He's voyage to the West. It can be said that during the reign of Emperor Yongle, he was "a man of great virtue, a guest from all directions, and a tribute to the 30 countries ordered by the court, with a wide territory, and as far as the Han and Tang Dynasties".

However, Shi Wenbo knew that among these 36 countries, there are not many truly civilized countries, most of them are chiefs or tribal leaders on the small islands of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

So could it be that Lao Huang also imagined that they were the same, pretending to be the lord of a small country, and then defrauding the Ming emperor of the Ming Dynasty by going to the Ming Dynasty to "pay tribute"?

Because one of the "tributary" ancestral systems of the Ming Dynasty is to determine the principle of "thick and thin", to pay attention to the return of gifts, to pay attention to the dignity of the Celestial Empire, so defrauding the "tribute" has also become an industry, every year there are foreign businessmen pretending to be "tribute" messengers to come to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, in order to avoid foreign merchants pretending to be missions, the Ming Dynasty also made strict regulations on the time limit, number of ships, number of people, and number of tributes for "tribute", for example, for Japan, he was only allowed to pay a "tribute" every ten years, and the entourage and goods of each "tribute" should not exceed three ships.

Since 1467, Japan has been mired in the "Sengoku Period" of long-term turmoil and warlord warfare, and it has not been able to send a unified mission as usual. The major lords of each vassal kingdom also often fought in order to obtain the opportunity to "pay tribute".

In the original historical time and space, in the second year of Jiajing, that is, in 1523 AD, that is, the year after Magellan completed his first voyage around the world, two Japanese lords sent people to China one after another, and both of them came to Ningbo City under the guise of Japanese trade envoys, asking for business with the Ming Dynasty government. There were two groups of emissaries, among whom were Chinese, who first fought each other for authenticity, then beat each other and took the opportunity to burn and plunder.

Regarding this incident, Xia Yan said to Emperor Jiajing: "The trouble started in the city. "I think that if there was no Ichiboji, the Japanese would not have come to make trouble. Emperor Jiajing thought that Xia Yan was very reasonable, so he dismissed the city divisions in Zhejiang and Fujian that year, and the only remaining Guangdong Division was soon abolished.

However, not only do China and Japan have a huge demand for trade, but both countries have a group of people who rely exclusively on maritime trade to make a living. As the "sea ban" has become more and more severe, smuggling activities between the two countries have also intensified.

And in this time and space, although in 1523 AD, Emperor Zhengde did not die, but because the general trend of history at that time did not change, the same thing happened in the 22nd year of Zhengde, and the ending was naturally the same, "sea ban", "sea ban", and then "sea ban", these 30 years, in addition to "tribute", there is only one way to smuggle.

For Huangshi, "tribute" and smuggling are not either/or things, and they can walk on two feet, but it is always a good thing to have an additional official status, so they planned how to use "tribute" to get into a relationship with the Ming Emperor.

"Lao Huang, this method is successful, what if Emperor Daming gives you a bunch of tea and porcelain as a gift in return?" Shi Wenbo thought for a moment and then asked Huangshi.

"Hmm." Huang Shi pondered for a moment, "If it's tea, this is really of little value to us, so we can only resell it locally, but if it's official kiln porcelain for us, then it's worth a lot." ”

"Also, the purpose of our 'tribute' is not just for these 'small businesses', what we want to do is 'big business', it is the business of territory and population, with the endorsement of the Ming Emperor, it is much more convenient for us to do a lot of things."

Shi Wenbo touched his chin with his hand, "If that's the case, then the matter of 'tribute' has to be planned carefully, I think it should be like this." ”

"Let's prepare a national letter first, and then get a foreign language to knock on a big seal! Also, the king's letters should be in both a fan version and a translated version! Then you have to get a big boat, but don't get a Chinese style! Then there is no sense of mystery. ”

"There must be at least fifty servants and sailor sergeants, and this tribute must show that we are a civilized country and a country of etiquette! If, as you just said, only one pair of Rui Beast Giraffes is given, it may make the Ministry of Rites misunderstand that we are a wild tribe! That's a big loss that outweighs the loss. ”

Shi Wenbo pointed out this because according to the records in the "Wanli Ming Huidian", the 'tributary' states of the Ming Dynasty were divided into several types.

The first is the first-level "Southeast Yi", which includes 18 countries including Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, Annam, Chenla, Siam, Champong, and Java.

This is followed by the second-level "Southeast Yi", which includes 44 countries such as Sulu, Manraka and Ceylon.

Then there is the "Beidi" which includes 8 parts of the Tatar department, and the "Northeast Yi" which includes 2 parts of the Jurchen department,

The most popular "Xirong" was also divided into two categories, one was the first category of 58 countries, including the 38 countries of the Western Regions, and the other was the second category, including the 14 countries of the Tibetan Regions.

The treatment of this savage tribe is naturally different from that of civilized countries, which can enjoy a number of special contents of "most-favored-nation treatment", such as the number of tributes granted is much higher than that of other countries, or the embassy personnel can often enter and leave the station. And the treatment of the savage tribe will naturally be very different.

"Hmm." Huang Shi nodded, feeling that although the general direction of the old history was wrongly considered, the consideration of other details was still good.

Seeing that Huang Shi nodded in agreement, Shi Wenbo grinned and said with a smile, "We can refer to the English Margoni to see the Qing Emperor Qianlong, and pay him two telescopes, five rifled guns, a color illustrated book of animals, five high-brightness gas lamps, and a glass fitting mirror!" One music box, five bicycles, three mechanical watches or small alarm clocks! The last is twenty toothbrushes that are not gold and jade! ”

"Hahaha, Lao Huang, what do you think of my gift list?"

Although Huang Shi disagreed, he didn't want to discourage Shi Wenbo's enthusiasm too much, so he said, "Very good, but I won't consider offering him a rifled gun, this is a weapon of the country, because this Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty, and the imitation of these militaristic weapons is still very attentive, in case they give a wake-up call to the capable people, it will be more trouble for our future career, we should change to something else, such as starting with the direction of this Jiaqing Emperor's personal preferences." ”

"Alas, Lao Huang, what are you afraid of, you just give them a hundred shots, with their skills and management level, it is already the top of the sky to be able to imitate one shot a day, this year three hundred and sixty-five days, there are 365 rifled guns, 56 and a half of our tens of thousands, or you want to make your own fire cap guns in front of the ball!"

"Well, if you're not afraid of 10,000, you're afraid of what happens, anyway, it's better to be careful, and it's best to send more things with strange lewd skills. First, these potential risks are missing. Second, it can also make those scholars and doctors of the Ming Dynasty feel relieved, so that they think that we are those African turtles. ”

Seeing that his opinion was not completely passed, Shi Wenbo could only mumble, "Okay Lao Huang, then you can pat it yourself, let's just listen." ”

Bai Xiaohei, who had been listening to Shi Wenbo just now, also interjected at this time, "Brother Huang, Brother Shi, what if the Ming Dynasty doesn't agree to our 'tribute'?" ”