My Daming New Empire

However, there are a lot of people from the mission today, so it is not a good time to propose adding private goods, so Zhu Zhanji said to Chen Cheng: "I will send someone to pick you up tomorrow afternoon and show you something. Let me tell you something. Today, I will welcome the wind for you, so I should drink and talk happily."

Everyone was very envious, to be invited by the grandson in private, it was tantamount to being in the eyes of the grandson.Seeing that Chen Cheng is already 50 years old, this time, he is finally in his early years.

However, Chen Cheng said in a bad manner: "Your Highness has an order, and I must obey it. It's just that I can't drink with everyone today, Master Jin passed away, and his bones are still cold..."

Zhu Zhanji interrupted him and said: "I understand, I don't think it's strange. You, let's drink together..."

Although Chen Cheng said this, Zhu Zhanji admired him even more. Such a loving and righteous minister is rare!

He also consulted some information about Chen Cheng.He is a native of Jiangxi. In the 26th year of Hongwu, he was a candidate. In the 27th year, he was a tribute.

In the 29th year of Hongwu, he sent an envoy to the Uighurs in the Western Regions (the northwestern region of the Qaidam Basin in later generations), where he built Andingwei, Quxianwei, and Aduanwei to defend the frontier.

In the 30th year of Hongwu, he was ordered to go to Annan as an envoy, and he was promoted to the Imperial Academy for review, and he was ranked as Qipin.In the third year of Jianwen's reign, he was promoted to the chief secretary of Guangdong Province as a left councilor.

From the fourth year of Yongle to the ninth year of Yongle, he entered Wenyuan Pavilion to revise "Yongle Dadian".In the tenth year of Yongle, he was promoted to Wailang, a member of the Department of Inspection and Sealing of the Ministry of Officials.

From the perspective of qualifications, he doesn't seem to have much talent, he follows the steps step by step, and has never been promoted to a few levels.

But this trip to the Western Regions allowed Zhu Zhanji to see the talent of this person.The two books he wrote can be said to be the most transparent introduction of Ming Dynasty to the Western Regions. With this ability alone, he can be placed in a more important position.

What Zhu Zhanji didn't know was that Chen Cheng had made five missions to the Timurid Empire and Tatars in the Western Regions in history, and his contributions were as famous as the navigator Zheng He.

And he also has the advantage of living long enough.Although he is 50 years old this year, in history, he lived to be 93 years old, which means that he still has 43 years to live.

No matter how talented a person is, he can't live long.Only by being alive can we do more things and make more contributions.

In the afternoon of the second day, Chen Cheng was invited to Xingqing Palace, and was immediately brought in front of the huge world map by Zhu Zhanji.

He was worse than Zheng He. He saw the huge map, compared it with the territory of Ming Dynasty, and compared it with the huge globe. Although it didn't collapse, he was stunned for a quarter of an hour.

Zhu Zhanji waited for him to recover before asking with a smile: "Yuanwailang saw this picture, what emotion do you have?"

Hearing Zhu Zhanji's voice, Chen Cheng came back to his senses and said, "Please forgive me for being rude."

"You don't need to be too polite, I am not a person who values ​​courtesy." Zhu Zhanji sighed secretly. In this era, the concept of hierarchy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is really difficult to correct.But he himself has vested interests, so even though he slanders him, he doesn't want to change.

"After reading this map, what do Yuanwailang think?"

"The size of the world is not infinite, but it is not the world of Great Ming."

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "Da Ming has no ambition to occupy the world, but Chinese culture must occupy the world. Gu Guaner wrote "The History of the Western Regions" and "Journey to the Western Regions", and I feel that my Chinese culture is in the world. It is a great pity that the Western Regions are unpopular."

Chen Cheng hesitated for a moment, then said with a long bow, "I would like to be an envoy of Ming culture, and go to the Western Regions to spread our Ming culture."

Zhu Zhanji knew that he misunderstood himself, smiled and said: "You misunderstood me, and your talent is not limited to this. Spreading Chinese culture, a Confucian scholar can do it, and you should have more great effect."

Chen Cheng originally thought that he was going to be dispatched to the Western Regions, but he didn't expect to misunderstand the grandson's meaning.At this moment, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, but he didn't dare to guess at will.

Zhu Zhanji took out a statement on cotton growth conditions written by himself and handed it to Chen Cheng.

This statement was copied from the agricultural book by him, and then added a step of raising seedlings for later generations.At the same time, he added the influence of sunlight on the growth of cotton.

When Chen Cheng read this statement, he couldn't figure out what Zhu Zhanji was thinking. He has nothing to do with agriculture!

At this time, Zhu Zhanji smiled and said: "Lonely, you recorded the soil quality and climate of the Western Regions, and found that it is suitable for planting cotton. So I want to borrow your pen to add this section to your "Journey to the Western Regions", and will be written by I printed [-] volumes, distributed [-] volumes to government offices at all levels, and sold the other [-] volumes in the book market. I will not only give you a pen fee, but also let your name be known to the world."

Chen Cheng's eyes widened and he looked at Zhu Zhanji, his lips trembled, but he couldn't say a word.

As a literati, Liyan is the ultimate dream of all scholars.Although these two books of his are just miscellaneous books, if these two books can be appreciated by the court and published all over the world, Chen Cheng will die without regret!

Thanks to the little lunatic, the lights see others, A663487 for the reward, thank you for your support

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Envoys from seventeen countries in the Western Regions came to Beijing, and there was another wave of purchases in the capital. Spices from Maluku increased the price by [-]%.

This is thanks to the fact that Zheng He's fleet has just returned, otherwise, according to the purchasing power of each country, the price of spices would have risen even more.

This is mainly because Timur and other countries have robbed too much gold and silver in the West, and these gold and silver have no consumer market in their own country, so they can only come to Daming to shop except for building temples.

Spices are simply priceless treasures for nomads.They like to eat grilled meat, and putting a little spice when grilling meat can make the taste of grilled meat more fragrant.

Although it is hot in July in Yingtianfu, the few barbecue restaurants in the city are contracted by these Western Regions people every day.

Of course, the inner eunuch is very happy because of this. Although some nobles have brought back some spices with the fleet, the inner eunuch's trade is the big one.

Since the summer of Yongle 13 years ago, spices have unknowingly become the fourth largest trade product between Daming and Western Regions.

The first one is of course silk and cloth, whether it is the poor or the rich in the Western Regions, they all need to wear clothes.

And the second largest is tea. Tea is an indispensable drink for people in the Western Regions, and it is also their medicine.

The third largest trade item was originally ironware, but now it has become porcelain.The Mongols spread the technology of making ironware to the Western Regions, and now most countries in the Western Regions have been able to make ironware by themselves, so porcelain has now become a major trade item.

However, it is inconvenient to transport to the Western Regions by land, so most of the porcelain purchased by the Western Regions is high-quality porcelain, not daily necessities.

On the contrary, the envoys of the Timurid Kingdom were not very interested in this item, because Zheng He had already arrived at Hulumos in the fleet and brought them a boat full of porcelain.

Only those countries like Turpan would transport porcelain by land.

Spices are one of the goods that Zhu Zhanji asked Zheng He's fleet to trade this time. Originally, Zheng He and the internal supervisor still had some trouble figuring it out.Because spices are almost everywhere in the Maluku country, and the value is not high.

Although Daming people like the strong fragrance of spices, Daming almost has substitutes for these condiments, whether it is pepper, star anise, cinnamon, Daming itself has them, and the taste of cloves and nutmeg, Daming people are not too used to it.

After these spices arrived in Daming, Zhu Zhanji had the internal treasury sealed up, and prepared to take them there when he went on a mission to the West next time.

In this era, the price of spices in Europe was almost equal to that of gold.Europeans are crazy looking for all kinds of spices, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, they are crazy looking for the source of spices.

To a certain extent, the driving force of Europeans in their frantic search for the New World was mainly for spices.

Moreover, Zhu Zhanji also interfered in the trade of the inner treasury for the first time, directly marking the price of worthless spices by a hundred times.

In Maluku, an iron pot can be exchanged for a stone of spices.Because the kilogram has not been popularized yet, the Ming Dynasty mainly used stones as weights and measures.

In other words, an iron pot can be exchanged for 120 catties of dry spices.

However, under Zhu Zhanji's price tag, a catty of spices was sold in Daming for one penny per catty.

Because of such a high price, one catty of spices can buy nearly fifty catties of rice. At present, Ying Tianfu has bought a small amount except for a few big restaurants, which cannot be sold at all.

But these people from the Western Regions didn't care about the price at all. They heard that there was only one shipment of such spices in Ming Dynasty, so they took out gold and wrapped up all the spices.

This also made Xie Kun, the housekeeper in charge of spice management (not a typo, but an official position) who was in charge of the internal supervisor, dumbfounded.If it weren't for Zhu Zhanji's persuasion, he even wanted to take back all the spices that flowed out and sell them to these Western Regions people.

But Zhu Zhanji is very clear that only relying on official trade, although there are profits and complementarities, can earn money, but the economic promotion of Ming Dynasty is very small.

Just like this spice, no matter how much money the eunuchs make, it will not improve the people's livelihood at all. Only the royal family makes money.