After learning the news that he had not found the material, Xia Yuan couldn't sit still, and hurriedly entered the palace to meet him, and after the report, he entered the warm pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, and saw Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the military department, kneeling on the ground and playing a pair.

Seeing him come in, Emperor Hongzhi just raised his eyes and glanced at it, then withdrew his gaze, and then looked at Ma Wensheng and listened to his reply.

"His Majesty asked the military department to search in detail, and after the minister received the order, he ordered the military department to search many times, but it still did not find, and then learned from an old official"

Speaking of this, Ma Wensheng pursed his lips, a bitterness spread in his mouth, he lowered his head deeply, and continued:

"In the third year of Chenghua, the first emperor intended to open the sea, and wanted to restart the matter of going to the West, and issued an edict to ask for the relevant materials of Zheng He's trip to the West.

Xiang Zhong, who was the secretary of the military department, ordered people to go to the archives to search, but they did not find it, and the archives that stored the sea charts and literature were empty at that time.

Xiang Shangshu personally went to check, when it was, Liu Daxia was the head of the Ministry of War, and his duty was to be in charge of the map of Zhuzhou and the scriptures, Liu Daxia claimed that he burned the sea map and literature. ”

The last few words, Ma Wensheng said extremely difficult, especially when talking about the two words that were burned, it was like a stone blocked in his throat, he wanted to swallow, he couldn't swallow, he wanted to vomit, he couldn't spit it out.

“.”

Hearing such bad news, Emperor Hongzhi was struck by lightning and wanted to supervise the construction of treasure ships, so he had to go to the archives to find shipbuilding drawings, but when he went to look for them, the entire archives were not found.

He only thought that he had been transferred, after all, no one had mentioned the matter of going to the West for all these years, and the caretakers no longer cared about it, this was something that would happen.

Although he was angry and thought that this was the negligence of the people of the Ministry of War, he never thought that he ordered the people of the Ministry of War to find out in detail, and after the Shangshu of the Ministry of War entered the palace, he gave him such a big bad news.

Go up in flames

He was so depressed for a moment that he couldn't even make an angry expression.

Yesterday, the matter of going to the West was decided, whether it was him, the emperor, or the monarchs and ministers in the court.

Take your time, save slowly.

At the end of last year, Xia Yuan once said that the sixteenth year of Hongzhi was a peaceful year.

Indeed, from the beginning of this year to the present August, there has been no major turmoil in the country.

So far, there has been no report in any provincial capital, prefecture or county, saying that there has been a disaster, and the frontier has always been stable, with only sporadic small intrusions and frictions.

A rare year of peace.

Today's tax money is only to make up for the deficit of the year, and after the autumn tax bank is collected, these holes will have to be filled, but after the summer tax is filled, the autumn tax only needs to add some to completely fill the gap.

Then the extra silver that was left to be used, whether it was the treasury or the treasury, would be put into the seafaring business, and then the ships would be built.

If there is nothing to do next year, the summer silver of the next year will be levied, and the expenses of the court will be left as usual, and the expenses of the palace will be left, and the excess will be used to build ships.

The autumn tax is the same, and so on.

In this world, the rich and the rich have the law, the poor have the poor and the poor want to carry out a great voyage, of course, they can't take out millions of taels of silver at once, so they can only take their time little by little in this way.

The treasury and the treasury worked hand in hand, and slowly built the ship in this miserable and pitiful way, and one day, when the size of the fleet was almost saved, they began to work on the affairs of the Western Ocean, train the soldiers, and set sail with the hope of all the people of the Ming Dynasty.

But now, it's all empty.

Shipbuilding charts, nautical charts were burned by a fire, let alone navigation, even this treasure ship could not be built.

How to build?

Zheng He's seven voyages to the Western Ocean did not arrive at the same place every time, but sailed farther and farther each time, and after each voyage to the Western Ocean, he would summarize the information obtained this time and draw a new chart.

Not only that, but with the experience of this voyage at sea, the ship will be improved, either widened, narrowed, or equipped with masts, just to cope with the greater wind and waves at sea, and then head deeper into the ocean.

The sea ban has been implemented for so many years, and the construction technology of sea ships in the entire Ming Dynasty has long been stagnant, and the sea ships built cannot undertake the task of long-distance voyages.

If you want to build a qualified sea ship, you can only go through those shipbuilding drawings left by Zheng He.

But Liu Daxia's fire forty years ago burned everything cleanly, burned the hard work of the predecessors, and burned the hopes of the present.

"Liu Daxia burned it."

After a long time, Zhu Youzhu finally spoke, and his voice was almost inaudible.

Ma Wensheng raised his head and looked at Emperor Hongzhi cautiously, then lowered his head again, "That's what the minister learned from that old official, Liu Daxia also had an argument with Xiang Shangshu back then.

In the past, Zheng He went to the West seven times, tens of millions of taels of silver, and now His Majesty wants to restart this matter, ignoring the people of the country, even if he can get the treasure and return, what is the benefit to the country? This maladministration is also the one who should be admonished by the minister! Now that I have burned it, if you want to cure the sins of the officials, please do it!

Xiang Shangshu was said to be red-faced, and after some officials of the Ministry of War learned about it, they applauded this remark, and Xiang Shangshu and some officials tried their best to protect Liu Daxia after that, and then the matter was closed."

“.”

Emperor Hongzhi fell silent again, and for a long time, he said, "Ha, the generous statement is really admirable." ”

"But now the outer court and the inner court are preparing silver taels, and they want to go to the West to find grain, but he burned the charts! I've burned the shipbuilding diagrams! A handful of fire has come to naught! You tell me how this ship is going to be built! How to get out of this sea! ”

“.”

Ma Wensheng did not answer, and he could not answer either.

He was only able to become the secretary of the military department during the Hongzhi period, and this first had nothing to do with the military department, and he was basically not in the court.

He has been in the officialdom for 50 years, and Ma Wensheng himself can't remember how many positions he has held, Yushi, Shanxi according to the inspector, Huguang according to the inspector, the left deputy capital of the imperial history and the governor of Liaodong, and the governor of Caoyun

At that time, Liu Daxia burned the charts in the third year of Chenghua, and in the third year of Chenghua, he remembered that he was an envoy in Fujian at that time.

I don't know anything about this matter, and I don't have anything to do with it.

But His Majesty asked him how the ship was built and how the sea came out.

And how did he answer.

In fact, Emperor Hongzhi just couldn't vent his anger, he turned his head and looked around at Xia Yuan who was standing in the hall, "What are you doing in the palace?" ”

“.”

Xia Yuan's cheeks twitched, he entered the palace because he learned that he had not found relevant materials, and then suddenly remembered the record of Liu Daxia's burning of sea charts in history.

"The minister just learned that he didn't find the navigation materials, and he was in a hurry, so he entered the palace."

"You don't have to be in a hurry now, I don't have to be in a hurry, no one needs to be in a hurry, the charts are burning! The shipbuilding drawings are also burned! The hard work of several generations has been ruined, and if you want to go to sea again, you don't know how many obstacles you have to add, how much food you will have to spend, and how many more years you will have to wait! It's not even possible to talk about it! ”

The more he said, the more angry Zhu Youzhu became, and in the end, his eyes were red, and the anger on his face was about to erupt, "Go!" Send Jinyi Wei, send Dongchang, arrest Liu Daxia into the edict prison for me, and ask me! Ask him what he thought about burning the nautical charts and shipbuilding charts back then! ”

(End of chapter)