In the first year of the Apocalypse, during Xu Guangqi's military training, Xu Guangqi's friends asked the Portuguese in Macao to buy Portuguese artillery weighing 4,000 pounds.

The price is claimed to be 1,000 taels per door. Here, in order to falsely report the merits, the price is exaggerated, and the actual price should be less than 1,000 taels. If the cannon was made by those foreigners themselves, the cost of each gun would be more than 200 taels of silver.

"The price difference is so big......" Zhu Cihong was taken aback.

Master Wen said with a smile: "But the so-called four-pounder cannon is just a small-caliber artillery, which is easy to make. Naturally, the price is lower. If it's a red-coated cannon, it still costs a few thousand taels of silver......"

He smiled again: "Such a ship is usually equipped with 24-pounder guns on the ground floor, 12-pounder guns on the middle level, and 6-pounder guns on the upper deck. The kind of 4-pounder gun, but not used. However, this kind of 4-pounder cannon also weighs more than 1,000 pounds!"

"Shhhhh

At this time, Zhu Cihong gasped even more. After thinking about it, don't say anything else. The more than 100 guns on this ship alone cost millions of taels of silver.

It is said that the Ming Dynasty is the Central Celestial Empire, and everything is included. However, the amount of money that the imperial court could receive in a year was only about five or six million taels.

If you add the cost of shipbuilding, such a ship will almost cost half of the taxes paid by the imperial court......

But how could that be possible? The imperial court's taxes were already insufficient, and they were stretched thin. Zhu Cihong didn't know how many times he had seen it since he was a child, his father was worried about the silver, and his treatment in the palace was reduced again and again......

"Yangyi is so rich, and the country is so powerful!" Zhu Cihong muttered to himself. Somewhat unexpected.

Wen Da Heavenly Master said lightly: "The cost of such a ship is about ten tons of silver. One ton and two thousand catties ......"

"That's 1,780,000 taels ......."

Although it was a little less than he imagined, it was enough to make Zhu Cihong a little breathless.

The imperial court has never looked down on these foreigners, but it has never thought about it. These small foreign countries have such great power! If it takes time...... Will it be more powerful than Dongyu?

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has thought of it, has it been said that the Three Treasures Eunuch once said that wealth comes from the sea, but danger also comes from the sea. Since ancient times, the imperial court thought that the sea was a natural barrier, and it was impossible for foreign enemies to exist.

But now that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has seen it, what about ten or twenty ships like this?"

If I didn't know before, but now it's been almost half a year since I arrived in Jiangnan. I stayed in Hangzhou for a long time, and slowly experienced it myself.

Now the Ming Dynasty is a real prosperous place to pay taxes. It's all on the edge of the sea. Forced by these strong ships and artillery, all the coastal cities will be in ruins......

But he didn't realize that Master Wen Da Heavenly Master was mixed with private goods in it. By the sum of all the countries of Europe in this era. None of them could send ten of these first-class battleships.

But what about in the future? In another two hundred years?

With the accumulation of European colonial wealth and the invention of the steam engine, the first industrial revolution was coming. Technology has been advancing ever since. What will happen when that time comes?

This is the first lesson that Master Wen taught to Zhu Cihong!

"The sea ban is an ancestral ....... Maybe after the sea ban. If it's not profitable, these Yangyi won't come, right?" Zhu Cihong hesitated.

"How is it possible?" Wen Fei scoffed: "Does His Royal Highness the Crown Prince know why so many ancestral systems of Taizu have been overthrown, and the ancestral system of this sea ban has persisted until now?"

"This is about ......" Zhu Cihong was at a loss. This kind of thing, don't say it's him, he won't know until he dies.

Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di was really clear! After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was a small peasant and his consciousness was too heavy, which was the same as that of Taizu.

"Eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in politics. Merchants are not allowed to wear silk, this is the ancestral system...... Take it out casually. Look at how many ancestral systems still can't be changed, haven't changed?"

Zhu Cihong blushed, and after thinking about it carefully, it was really like this. He gave a salute and said respectfully, "Please ask the Heavenly Master for advice!"

Wen Fei sat still, and he took it in a big way. Just said: "I can afford this gift." There is no other person in the world who will tell you this truth except me. ”

"Then the father ......," Zhu Cihong asked.

"Your father, like you, is the ancestor of your family, and it is estimated that only Emperor Chengzu can understand this truth!"

"Huh?"

"Let me ask you, what kind of emperor is Chengzu?"

"This ......" evaluates his ancestors, but this kind of pressure is not ordinary.

"If you want me to say, it is really a first-class emperor of the Qin Emperor and Han Dynasty. Don't get me wrong, I'm not derogatory. Let me ask you, Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing and built Wudang. They all used hundreds of thousands of people. Needless to say, you grew up in Beijing.

It took 12 years to build a large-scale Taoist complex of 9 palaces, 9 temples, 36 nunnery halls and 72 rock temples in Wudang Mountain.

Then there were five expeditions to conquer the Mongols......

Such an abuse of people's power is no worse than Emperor Yang of Sui, right?"

"This ......" Zhu Cihong's face turned red.

"It was Emperor Qin who played the world away back then, if it weren't for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who changed his course in his later years and let the world recuperate. You know what will happen to this big man......

But why is it that at this time of Chengzu, he is already so tired and resting. At the time of Emperor Xuanzong, there was still the strength to expedition to Annam......"

After being surrounded by the clouds and mountains of Wenda Heavenly Master, Zhu Cihong was already dizzy.

Master Wen smiled and stopped selling Guanzi, and said bluntly: "No longer anywhere else, in fact, it is ...... in the Western Ocean under the Three Treasure Eunuchs."

"Huh?"

This answer was really unexpected by Zhu Cihong, and he opened his mouth, but he never thought of it.

"If there were no eunuchs of the Three Treasures, they would have gone to the West several times and earned ten million taels of silver for Chengzu. How do you think the world will support Cheng Zu's method?"

"Let me ask you, have you heard of Spain and the Netherlands, these small foreign countries? Do you know how big they are, but a Spain is not as big as Sichuan, that is, the scope of a province in Daming. The Netherlands is only one-tenth the size of Spain......"

"Yes?"

Zhu Cihong was shocked again, he had already regarded these Yangyi as strong just now, but he didn't expect that it was just such a small country.

"But do you know why they are so rich enough to build such a huge battleship?"

"Is it still related to the sea?"

"Yes, the Spaniards made one step to Fuso. A hundred years ago, they shipped an average of 2,900 kilograms of gold and 30,700 kilograms of silver from the Americas each year. Later, gold increased to 5,500 kilograms and silver to 246,000 kilograms. By the end of the day, there were almost five million catties of gold and two hundred million catties of silver......"

"There are so many ......"

Zhu Cihong rushed out of his mouth, which was his position. When I heard this number, I felt dizzy. A strong stimulus and jealousy came over me at once.

In these years, the emperor's family has no money!

Wen Da Tianshi nodded, of course he didn't tell him, this is three hundred years the Spaniards have plundered so much, and now it is only the seventeenth century, at this time, of course, there are not so many.

"Do you know where the silver I use now comes from?"

Zhu Cihong's heart moved, but he couldn't believe it. didn't speak, and listened to the Great Heavenly Master Wen say.

"Originally, there were not many silver and copper mines in my Middle Earth, and all dynasties were in a shortage of money. If you look at the old files in the palace, you will know that at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, where was this silver so common? Taizu didn't need to issue treasure notes......

"Is this really silver flowing into Middle-earth from the America......s?

"It's just a lie!"

Great Celestial Master Wen smiled coldly: "Do you know how much profit there is in such a year, if the royal family intervenes, how can they be willing to ......?"

"You mean......" Zhu Cihong was really scared this time.

"That's right, the high-sounding ministers and gentry of the imperial court. Especially the gentry of Jiangnan...... That is, they don't have a direct maritime business, and they are all supporting industries......

"Let me think, let me think!" the young prince was stimulated so strongly at once. The worldview erected by Confucian education since childhood, under the naked language of the Heavenly Master of Wenda, collapsed like this!

I would never have thought that my masters, as well as those high-sounding court ministers, would join forces to hide such a big secret behind their backs.

No wonder those Jiangnan giants are so rich. The cost of a meal is hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

And his father, his mother, his concubines, and even the princes, can only live more and more ...... in the case of cutting the amount of money in the palace again and again The dragon robe worn by my father is patched!

At this time, Zhu Cihong finally understood why his father would say that the minister of civil and military affairs should be damned.

A gentleman does not speak for himself...... I don't know how much filth is hidden in this lie!

"Thank you Heavenly Master for solving your doubts!" Zhu Cihong's face turned pale, and he saluted the Heavenly Master Wen again. This kind of thing, if it weren't for Master Wen Tian telling him, he would probably never know.

Wen Fei nodded with a smile, he let a beast out this time. How the world will develop is really worth looking forward to!

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doesn't need to be extreme," Master Wen said lightly: "Your father is so angry, but he just trusts these scholars too much. Speaking of which, this section is already bad. Your Zhu family's education ......"

Speaking of this, even Great Heavenly Master Wen couldn't help but shake his head. This Zhu family's education can be regarded as the most failed in all dynasties!

Without the royal education of that dynasty, so many nerds would have been taught......

Thank you to the Lonely Night Shadow brothers for the tip...... (To be continued......)