The horses and the belongings they brought back were worth millions of taels just by a rough estimate, which was an unimaginable profit.

Zhu Di was overjoyed and rewarded Ma He. After that, he had the mind to ask about the horses and other tasks.

After all, sending so many people to "make money" is not good, Ma He has a serious task.

"Your Majesty, the canonization edict of the king of Guli has been served, and King Guli has asked me to present the thanksgiving excerpt on my behalf." He took out a letter and presented it.

"Also." Ma He paused: "The governor of Luzon you mentioned a few days ago has also been canonized. ”

A few years ago, the wealthy families of Luzon jointly sent an envoy to the Ming court to ask for inclusion in the Ming Dynasty, and it was from this that Zhu Di germinated the idea of bringing Luzon under his rule.

"There is no state in the local area, and it relies on rich businessmen to maintain order. There were two of the most wealthy merchants in Luzon, one was Xu Chai Lao and the other was Chen Su, both of whom had great business in the local area. ”

"Among them, Xu Chai Lao is very old, and has been living abroad for several generations, and has little to do with my ceremonial state, and is more barbaric and habitual, and when the merchants mention him, they are afraid but disrespectful. The other person, Chen Su, is young and quite polite, and all the vendors praised him when they mentioned him, saying that this person was kind and generous. After a long period of deliberation, Chen Su was appointed governor of Luzon, and his reputation in the local area was very good, and he must have been able to maintain peace and tranquility. ”

"Chen?" Zhu Di narrowed his eyes: "What is the relationship with Chen Youliang in the past?" ”

It would be a big joke to make a descendant of a former adversary the governor of Luzon.

Ma He shook his head: "It's the Min Di Chen family." The minister asked him about his origin, he was a native of Fuzhou, and his father went to Nanyang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and only settled in Luzon in recent years. ”

Zhu Di nodded, since this is the case, there is no problem. He was also not interested in ruling the island, and since the other party was already nominally obedient, then he didn't care.

He turned to Ma He and said, "Aiqing is hard. It's just that now that the imperial court's finances are in short supply, you can't rest. You are ready to prepare, and I plan to start my second voyage to the West in December. ”

"Yes!" Ma He said loudly.

——

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is about to set sail again.

"I'm going to go again." On the eve of the voyage, Ma He strolled in the street market of Daming for the last time, feeling the atmosphere of folk fireworks.

The sound of books coming from the teahouse next to him inadvertently came to his ears, and "Kong Ming" aroused his interest.

He walked into the teahouse, only to see that the small hall was already full of people, there were hundreds, although there were many people, but they were silent, everyone pricked up their ears and listened to the storyteller sitting at the top talking about the Three Kingdoms.

The story of the Three Kingdoms was originally widely circulated among the people, most of them appeared in the form of operas, and there were many scripts, but they were often far-fetched, adding a large number of wild histories, making the whole story nondescript and even bizarre, and the writing was vulgar.

But this time, the adaptation is excellent, although the story has a romantic color, it is in line with history as a whole, and the characters are also very distinct. The storyteller's eloquence is also very good, and when he gets the sentence "Let's listen to the next decomposition", Ma He is still a little unsatisfied, and has the urge to rush up and ask the content to understand.

He heard the people in front of him talking.

"In these three kingdoms, the front end is full of heroism, but in the back, the more you listen to it, the more uncomfortable it becomes! After listening to some of it, I can't listen to it anymore! ”

"Oh? Where did you hear it? Ma He accosted with great interest, thinking to himself, this person actually has his own opinions on the Three Kingdoms?

"When I heard that General Tiangong was killed, I didn't listen!" The man replied with confidence.

"You're a little better." Someone came over, "When I heard the green snake circling the beam, I couldn't listen to it anymore......"

Ma He: ......

Are you kidding me?

You must be kidding me, aren't you?

"Don't pay attention to them, they're playing tricks on you!" An old man came over and drove the two smiling people away.

Ma He took the opportunity to ask:

"Uncle, what are you talking about? I've heard a lot of plain talk about the Three Kingdoms, but it's the first time I've seen it like this. ”

"This is "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which is indeed the best Three Kingdoms in recent years." The old man replied with a smile: "I think you look like a scholar, well, there is a sale in the past." ”

Ma He immediately walked to the front, and sure enough, he saw a bookstore, which was already full of people.

Among them, there are two kinds of "Three Kingdoms", one is exquisitely packaged, but the price is expensive, and the other is a little tattered, but it is much cheaper in comparison.

There are still a lot of people who read in Beijing, and the people are generally wealthy, this kind of story-rich reading has won the favor of many rich people, and the people in the market, sometimes impatient, will also buy a copy together, and ask the reader to help talk about it.

Ma He also bought a copy, which was beautifully packaged, and although five taels of silver was expensive, it was nothing to him.

When I opened the book, there was a poem at the beginning:

"The rolling Yangtze River is passing away, and the waves are sweeping away the heroes. Success or failure turns empty. The green mountains are still there, and the sunset is red several times. ”

"On the white-haired fisherman Jiangzhu, I am used to watching the autumn moon and spring breeze. A pot of turbid wine is happy to meet. How many things in ancient and modern times are laughing and talking. ”

Just this one word made Ma He's eyes widen, and he only felt that Tianlinggai was hot for a while.

"Good words, good words!" He couldn't help but high-five and shouted in the street, attracting a burst of sideways glances from passers-by, and when he saw the name of the book in his hand, he was a little surprised.

And Ma He was still in shock.

With this poem, he felt that the five taels of silver were not spent.

He immediately looked down to see which master had done it.

There is no writer under the word, only a line of small words "Yanshi, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang Province, Changle Bookstore." ”

The two words of the Yan family immediately attracted Ma He's attention.

Such a good word, if it was written by someone else, would have spread a long time ago, and it has not been there, but the author is low-key and deliberately concealed.

And this heroic and desolate spirit can only be written by people who have really experienced the world, seen through life and death, and experienced ups and downs.

There is only one person in the Yan family who meets this condition-

It must have been made by King Jingping during his lifetime!

I have long heard that Yan Ling, the king of Jingping, can be literary and martial, but there are no good poems and articles handed down, which makes many admirers regret in vain, and now I finally see it!

Suddenly, Ma He's heart rose with a kind of joy that "everyone in the world is drunk and I am awake", and there is a strange feeling of reading a book with his predecessors.

It's like, knowing that the famous people in the textbooks are still alive, that feeling.

He was so excited that he walked to his house with it, and he couldn't wait to read it.

It is conceivable that this book will accompany him in the rest of his sailing life.

At this time, in the distant Ningbo Mansion, Yan Ling looked at the income in the account book, and a happy smile appeared on his face.

Just by expanding the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to several southeastern provinces and adding storytellers, in two months, it swept the entire southeast, and brought them a huge profit of 40,000 taels of silver.

Yes, this Romance of the Three Kingdoms was created by Yan Ling.

He found Luo Guanzhong's descendants, and with a mere one hundred taels of silver, he got the manuscript of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

With the family's financial resources, he easily built a printing workshop and a bookstore, printing a large number of books.

The publication that Luo Guanzhong had never been able to do in his life was so easily realized in Yan Ling's hands.

Since there was no awareness of copyright at that time, it was easy to be imitated, so Yan Ling simply divided the book into two types.

One is printed with fine paper and ink, with gorgeous patterns on the cover, and there are illustrations in it, and if you smell it carefully, there is even a faint fragrance. This is a hardcover version, which sells for five taels of silver a piece, and takes the upper route.

One is printed on extremely thin paper with inferior ink, without illustrations, and even the handwriting on the back can be seen, which is extremely sensory, but the price is also cheap, and you can buy one for a few copper coins.

In this way, piracy is not even as cheap as buying genuine copies, and who would buy pirated copies? Yan Ling's abacus was very fine.

At the same time, he also trained a group of storytellers who were familiar with the Three Kingdoms to be released, and the teahouse could rent storytellers to tell the story, but they had to pay rent.

This brought him great benefits.

(End of chapter)