Li Jirong blushed and lowered her head, a little afraid to look at Zhu Gaoxu.

"How old are you?" Zhu Gaoxu asked suddenly, and stood up at the same time.

Only then did Li Jirong dare to look at Zhu Gaoxu, and said softly: "The concubine is 18 this year." ”

Eighteen? Is this a big girl in Goryeo?

Li Jirong seemed to guess his intentions, and hurriedly said, "The concubine is still complete." With that, his face turned even redder.

She tried every means to see Emperor Daming, she must have to be fully prepared, Li Jirong is so old and there is no man, in order to wait for this day.

Because she had been trying to escape from Goryeo before and was unsuccessful, if she couldn't escape for another two years, she probably wouldn't dare to come.

"I don't care about that." Zhu Gaoxu laughed.

Li Jirong immediately blushed again and said, "The concubine has learned everything." ”

“。。” Zhu Gaoxu walked over seriously.

Li Jirong's body suddenly trembled slightly, she said that she had learned, but she was actually very scared, after all, she had never experienced these things.

"Yes, who did the county lord learn from?" Zhu Gaoxu walked up to her and found that she was indeed tall and looked really good.

A hint of shame flashed in Li Jirong's eyes, and she whispered: "The concubine learned from Sister-in-law Wang. ”

But I heard Zhu Gaoxu say: "Let's go, go to the window." ”

Li Jirong was stunned, but did not hesitate, and immediately turned around and left, feeling that her mind was blank, and her heart was beating fast.

The whole person is like a robot, and will only follow Zhu Gaoxu's voice.

"You hold your hands on the window edge, facing the outside."

"Yes—Your Majesty." Li Jirong said in a trembling voice, and at this time, she clearly felt that there was Zhu Gaoxu's deep voice behind her.

"Don't be afraid, bend over." Zhu Gaoxu's voice was getting closer and closer.

In the afternoon of the next day, Zhu Gaoxu was still in the Huagai Hall and the secretaries were on official business, and Song Li took Min Wuxian to meet the emperor.

The emperor decided to meet him in the Wuying Palace.

When Zhu Gaoxu arrived at the Wuying Palace, he found that Min Wuxian was staring at the huge world map sand table on the ground.

This sand table is a feature of the Wuying Palace, and people who come for the first time will be shocked and attracted.

Min Wuxian looked at the territory of the standard Da Ming on the map, far more than he knew before, with a shocked and thoughtful expression.

It's only been a few years, and Daming's territory is getting bigger and bigger, and it looks stronger, which is not a good thing for the neighbor Goryeo.

"Min Wuxian, the minister of the lower country, meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Heavenly Empire, long live Your Majesty, long live long live." Min Wuxian's attitude was very upright, kneeling heavily and kowtowing.

In fact, after Zhu Gaoxu became the emperor, he found that at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was relatively rare for ministers to see the emperor kneeling and kowtowing.

Usually the ministers will kneel once when they go to court, and once when they go to court, most officials may not kneel when they meet in private, but only bow.

Some people who want to pat the emperor's ass, or want to show that they respect the emperor more, will kneel.

In later generations, kneeling was not on TV at every turn, and kneeling when you saw the emperor was not popular until the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

When Zhu Gaoxu first entered the Beijing Division, many ministers would kneel when they saw him in private, but later found that the emperor didn't seem to care about these things, and slowly everyone got used to not kneeling.

"Get up, sit." At this time, Song Lixin learned Zhu Gaoxu.

Sure enough, that's what Zhu Gaoxu said on the other side.

Song Li was secretly amused, the emperor always said this.

Min Wuxian was a little unaccustomed to it, and he didn't dare to sit until Song Li sat down.

Then he first reported to the emperor some things in Goryeo, probably that Li Chenggui died, and King Li Fangyuan paid tribute to the emperor with beautiful women and tribute, including war horses.

Goryeo has always had the habit of paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty because Goryeo has a horse breeding resort, Jeju Island.

This island was originally from the Yuan Dynasty, and after the Ming Dynasty took the Yuan Dynasty, it was returned to the Ming Dynasty, but the old Zhu Jue was too far away, so he didn't want it, and gave it to Goryeo, just asking Goryeo to pay tribute to some war horses every year and trade some war horses.

After Zhu Gaoxu listened quietly, he took the gift list and looked at it, and put it aside casually.

"King Kang Xian (Li Chenggui) is a good friend of our Ming Dynasty, and when I heard about it, I was very sad--"

Min Wuxian didn't even dare to say it.

Zhu Gaochu said that he would send people to mourn, and at the same time he would also mourn Ashikaga Yoshimitsu of Tomoto, because the ambassador of Toshimito had just arrived in Daming recently and said that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had also died.

Min Wuxian's expression immediately became nervous, in the past few years, Goryeo and Dongben have repeatedly clashed and caused diplomatic incidents because of the Tsushima incident.

Tsushima Island is located in the middle of the Goryeo Strait between Higashimoto and Goryeo, and was later under the jurisdiction of Higashihon-Nagasaki Prefecture.

Now there are a lot of Japanese pirates on it, and they often harass Goryeo.

After the third year of Yongle (1405), the shogun of Higashimoto Muromachi, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, sent the monk Zhou Tang to Goryeo many times, and Li Fangyuan personally received and entertained him.

It can be said that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is still inclined to show goodwill with Goryeo in this regard and settle the dispute between the two countries, and now that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is dead and King Higashimoto is replaced, the future will not be certain.

Moreover, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's son, Ashikaga Yoshimori, was an iron-blooded hawk when his father was alive, and the Ming Emperor did not understand, and Min Wuxian was clear.

He immediately said: "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's son, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, is conceited and eloquent, advocating force, I am afraid that in the future, there will be trouble near Tsushima Island, and I also ask the Ming Emperor to support the small country." ”

"You are all my Ming Domain, and I will not sit idly by." Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile: "Governor Min, please rest assured. ”

Then the two chatted again, and finally talked about official state affairs.

In the original history, Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, asked Goryeo to pay tribute to beautiful unmarried girls every year starting this year, just like the requirements of the Yuan Dynasty for Goryeo in the past. After receiving this order, Li Fangyuan sent officials down to the provinces to select women between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. Among the three hundred girls selected, Huang Yanzai, the envoy of the Ming Dynasty, personally selected five of them. This requirement lasted until the Orthodox period.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "I heard that when the Yuan Dynasty was heard, you paid tribute to hundreds of beauties to the Yuan Dynasty every year? ”

I don't ask for much, just pay fifty tributes a year.

Zhu Gaoxu lowered Zhu Di's 300 to 50.

Min Wuxian was overjoyed, and quickly got up and knelt on the ground to show his obedience.

The beauty didn't care about Zhu Gaoxu, he asked for a tribute to the beauty, mainly to reward the meritorious soldiers and officials, and he didn't plan to use it himself.

The rest of the story is the main event.

In order to ease the relationship with the Jurchens, Li Fangyuan gave the Jurchen leader the title, encouraged him to enter the capital as a guard, and allowed intermarriage with the Goryeo. In addition, Goryeo provided them with horses, servants, clothing, saddles, and food.

In the fourth year of Yongle (1406), the mutual city centers of Goryeo and Jurchen were established in Gyeongseong and Gyeongwon, and Goryeo exchanged salt and iron for Jurchen cattle and horses.

In the 8th year of Yongle (1410), the Udiha tribe, together with the Uliangha tribe and the Uduoli tribe, plundered Gyeongwon with 200 cavalry, and the local officers of Goryeo were also killed in this attack. Jizhou Chali sent Zhao Juan to cross the Tumen River, defeated the Wuliang Habu, and killed Mao Lianwei's commander Erxun and others. After that, the Jurchens carried out frequent retaliatory attacks on Goryeo, and the defense situation in the area became increasingly severe.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "I heard that in the fourth year of the rebellion against the king (1406), you and the Jurchens established a mutual city center in Jingcheng and Qingyuan, and used salt and iron to exchange iron Jurchen cattle and horses? Is there such a thing? ”

Min Wuxian said blankly: "Is this indeed the case? "What does this have to do with Daming?

"You go back and tell Li Fangyuan that you can't trade with the Jurchens, and I will set up a new Nuer Gandu Division, and make every effort to drive and surrender the Jurchen tribe."

"You Goryeo can help attack from the east road, and every time you capture a Jurchen tribe alive, young and strong men and women can replace the tribute silver, and the head is also the same."

"Ah" Min Wuxian was shocked at first, and then shouted: "Can it be exchanged for tribute silver?" "Overjoyed.

The last thing the Koreans wanted was to pay tribute to gold and silver, because they had a lot of iron and copper mines, but very little gold and silver mines.

In general, Goryeo's offerings include ginseng, straw mats, lacquerware, fox tails, leopard skins, and otter skins, among others; The "rewards" of the Ming emperors included silk, porcelain, medicine, books, musical instruments, and writing materials.

Before the fourth year of Seondeok (1429), the heaviest burden of the tribute in the Goryeo calendar was 150 taels of gold and 700 taels of silver.

Just such a little gold and silver, it really doesn't matter in the East country.

However, in order to meet this demand, Goryeo encouraged mining on the one hand, and strictly restricted the use of gold and silver by the private sector on the other. In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), Li Fangyuan sent an envoy to request that the gold and silver be replaced with other items, but Zhu Di insisted on the old practice and did not allow it. It was not until the fourth year of Seondeok (1429) that Emperor Seonjong of the Ming Dynasty allowed Goryeo to pay tribute to cattle, horses, and cotton in lieu of gold and silver. In addition, Zhu Di sometimes asked Goryeo to pay tribute to the bronze statue, and sometimes asked for tribute to eunuchs or boys who might become eunuchs.

Zhu Di is really a special mother with a sick brain, the Ming Dynasty is not short of gold and silver, he prefers to pay tribute to Goryeo for gold and silver, and Li Fangyuan does not dare to say anything about the Ming Dynasty.

These 150 taels of gold and 700 taels of silver are really not a big deal for the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Gaoxu grabbed 100,000 gold in Nanyang at will.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu said that Jurchen heads and Jurchen living people can be exchanged for tribute silver.

This is to force Goryeo to start a war against the Jurchens.

Zhu Gaoxu wanted to join forces with Goryeo and force the Jurchens to move further north and move in a certain direction.

At this time, the Jurchen tribe moved to the direction of Goryeo when they could not defeat the Ming Dynasty, and when they could not defeat Goryeo, they moved to the direction of the Ming Dynasty.

In history, when Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne and gave up the slave Gandusi, all the Jurchens came here.

So now Zhu Gaoxu is strengthening the construction of the Nuer Gandu Division, and constantly immigrating to the Nuer Gandu Division, and at the same time asking Goryeo to attack from the east, so as to compress the living space of the Jurchen people and force them to move north and confront Mao.

Speaking of this, Zhu Gaoxu stretched out his hand, and Zhong Xian handed over a piece of parchment from behind.

Min Wuxian took it in his hand and looked at it, it turned out to be the conversion of the living people and heads of the Jurchen tribe.

An adult Jurchen man can be exchanged for one tael of gold tribute silver, and two adult Jurchen women can be exchanged for one tael of gold tribute silver.

Three taels of tribute silver for an adult Jurchen man, one or two tribute silver for an adult Jurchen woman, children are counted separately, and the elderly do not want it.

Don't do this, Min Wuxian can be understood as killing, because the old people don't want it either.

Judging from this setting, Goryeo wanted to use the Jurchens to replace the tribute silver, and at least a few hundred of them had to be captured alive, or thousands of them killed.

But compared with the domestic ban on the circulation of gold and silver, it is definitely a cost-effective way to increase mining.

And Zhu Gaoxu also wrote it later.

On the premise of completing the tribute silver, for every Jurchen captured alive, the Ming Dynasty gave one tael of silver, and for every five killed, one tael of silver.

It is also marked that if Goryeo does not want silver, it can specify anything except firearms.

The suzerainty still has silver and gold for us? Min Wuxian was very satisfied, took the note, and knelt down again: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I, Goryeo and the Jurchen Ministry, swear not to stand apart." ”

But seeing Zhu Gaoxu's face sank, he suddenly became stern: "I hope you will keep your word and cancel the transaction with the Jurchen immediately, if I find out that you are disobedient and privately trade with the Jurchen, I will definitely teach you a lesson." ”

"The minister understands, the minister doesn't dare." Min Wuxian knelt on the ground, shivering.

Zhong Xian didn't make a sound in the back, but His Majesty played Li Jirong and reused Goryeo Li Fangyuan, which is really incomprehensible.

(End of chapter)