Iron Dynasty

In the crowded casino, Korean merchants and dignitaries shuttled back and forth, cursing, laughter, and exclamations intertwined, making it extraordinarily noisy.

Li Cheng appeared next to Li Kaiyuan at this time, he looked at Huang Bingan and said: President Li, this person is Huang Bingan, the eldest son of Goryeo's government, his father is a high-ranking official in Goryeo, and he is the most trusted minister of Goryeo King. one.

Really? This is a big fish. Li Kaiyuan narrowed his eyes. Although Goryeo was defeated, the Great Yu Kingdom currently controls only Haicheng City and Beisha City.

The real controller of this land is the King of Goryeo, and they still need the King of Goryeo to assist them in some things.

For example, in the matter of doing business, the merchants in the ancient city of Haicheng seem to be busy, but they have not touched the core of the real trade.

Like the Great Yu Kingdom, Goryeo was also a feudal dynasty, and many trades required the consent of the court.

Because of this, he is not in a hurry, and in his opinion, it would be easier to take part in Goryeo's trade as an official and participate in Goryeo's trade.

During this time, Li Cheng basically figured out the purpose of the Great Yu Kingdom, which is to do business. Now Li Kaiyuan is so interested in this Huang Bing'an, it must be for business.

So he said: Koryo maritime trade all needs the approval of this man's father. As long as President Li bribes him, this Korean trade President Li can do whatever he wants.

Li Kaiyuan asked Li Cheng to come here just to confirm the identity of this Huang Bingan. In fact, when this Huang Bingan entered the ancient city of Haicheng, he was targeted by the secret guard.

While the two were talking, Wang Xuan got up from a gaming table and walked towards them.

Seeing this, Li Kaiyuan asked Li Chengzai to leave, and turned to Wang Xuan with a smile: This time the information provided by your secret guards is good. This Huang Bingan is indeed the son of Goryeo.

Wang Xuan arrived here after the capture of the ancient city of Hai, and his purpose was to establish a faction of officials of the Great Yu Kingdom in the Goryeo court.

Before the fall of the Golden Horde, Goryeo was not a vassal state of the Great Yu Kingdom, and the Great Yu Kingdom could not directly order the King of Goryeo.

However, the business cannot be delayed because of the hard work to build Gaoli, so Xiao Ming ordered him and Li Kaiyuan to take the lead, and Ye Qingyun cooperated to buy Gaoli Chaotang, so as to maximize the business interests of the Great Yu Kingdom.

Wang Xuan had a smile on his face, My subordinates have always been meticulous, and most of them will not make mistakes. Now, how are you going to deal with this Huang Bing'an.

Our real purpose is to control Huang Bing'an's father, Huang Zixuan, but this Huang Zixuan is neither addicted to women's lust nor greedy for money, so it is difficult to deal with. The only weakness is this son. Li Kaiyuan said.

Wang Xuan nodded. He provided all these information to Li Kaiyuan, and even the businessman who seduced Huang Bing'an was arranged by him.

Sometimes I have to say that there will always be merchants who will take risks under the huge profits. During this time, the secret guard has bought a lot of Korean merchants.

The price was a promise to support these businessmen to become Korea's foremost wealth, and to provide them with security.

Now these merchants who have been dazzled by silver have moved to live in the ancient city of Hai, and they are just waiting for the arrival of the trade ships from the Great Yu Kingdom, so that they can sell these goods to all parts of Korea.

In that case, let him play here for a few days, and then let him lose all his fortune. Wang Xuanxiao was a little bad.

Secret guards are institutions that walk in the dark, and sometimes they have to use some dark means in order to bribe officials.

Then he showed a playful look and said, This casino game is indeed novel enough, but I always feel that something is missing. It's probably not enough to make the nobles and businessmen of Korea think about it.

Li Kaiyuan showed a displeased look, You, the commander of the secret guard, have detected me, you are right, there are not many novelties in this casino, and they are all given to me by the emperor. .

Wang Xuan is now addicted to gossip as a secret guard and asks excitedly, What is it?

Li Kaiyuan recalled that he had to admire the emperor's whimsy, so he said: The emperor said, let me choose some beautiful women in Goryeo, and let these women wear sultry clothes to accompany these gamblers. , I will also build a pantry in the casino, and bring the stir-fried vegetables from the Great Yu Kingdom, in addition to the most important one, that is, tobacco and opium.

I have heard of tobacco, what is this opium. Wang Xuan also heard it for the first time.

I have never heard of this before, but the emperor told me when he came. He said that there are tobacco leaves brought by the Dutch from North America on the current Ryukyu Island, and there are also Indian pipes...

While the two were discussing this interesting thing about the casino, Xiao Ming was playing with a pipe and a pack of tobacco leaves in the study of Qingzhou Xingyuan.

These two things were one of the gifts from the Dutch embassy last time.

At that time, after Qian Dafu put these things away, he didn't ask any more questions. He didn't think about it until a few days ago. He never thought of finding this thing, which shocked him for a while.

And then he remembered the origin of tobacco and opium.

This tobacco, like potatoes and sweet potatoes, has never been native to Asia.

During the contemporary Ming Dynasty, the Dutch first introduced the North American Indians' pipes and tobacco leaves to the Ming Dynasty through the Ryukyu.

Since then, the first batch of smokers have been found in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the speed and extent of the spread of this kind of tobacco scared the Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so he ordered a ban on smoking.

Because there was no distinction between tobacco and opium at that time, opium was mixed with tobacco, causing symptoms of addiction.

However, what Emperor Chongzhen did not expect was that the ban on tobacco allowed opium to spread in the Ming Dynasty, resulting in a large-scale spread of opium.

Officials at the time had pointed out the dangers of opium, and it was impossible to get rid of it unless the user was killed.

The Da Ming Hui Dian also records that the Asian vassal states paid opium as tribute to the Ming royal family.

At that time, the kings of Siam, Java and Bangladesh regularly sent tributary missions to the Ming Dynasty, and there was opium in the tribute, but the opium at that time was called Wuxiang.

Each time Siam paid 200 catties to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and 100 catties to the queen, but this amount could not meet the needs of the royal family. The emperor even sent eunuchs to look for opium everywhere.

At that time, the price of opium was basically equal to that of gold, and one tael of gold was exchanged for one tael of opium.

It can be seen that the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was already suspected of smoking opium at that time. Emperor Wanli, the most famous emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was said to have opium in the ingredients of alchemy.

However, at this time, because opium was expensive, it was basically the powerful and wealthy businessmen smoked it, and the spread of opium among the people was minimal. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that opium became cheap, which caused large-scale smoking.