[Ming] Wuzong's Chronicle of Rebirth

There are always countless ways to spend money, but if you want to spend it well, it depends on the skill of Zhu Houzhao and the officials behind him.Zhu Houzhao has many things to do, but he always has money.If Du Ruo came back, he could also have a helper. "Not only education and imperial examination reforms, officials' salaries should also be increased. But high salaries to support honesty, how to do this high salary is also a question."

Du Ruo saw that Zhu Houzhao was drawing a map on a large desk with an ink pen and a self-made ruler. In order not to let others misunderstand, the American continent was deliberately drawn thin and long by Zhu Houzhao, which completely changed its appearance.Comparing another map, Du Ruo suddenly found a very serious question, "Is there supposed to be a big silver mine here?" A big silver mine, and in his memory, this silver mine is definitely not small.

Now Zhu Houzhao is not in the mood to draw a map there, and the forgotten memories come flooding out again. It is a serious problem for them to forget. "It seems that we have another difficult matter to deal with." Zhu Houzhao gently traced on the map with the back of his pen, starting from Nevada in his memory and crossing the Panama Canal to Peru. "This is not a big silver mine, but a silver mine belt. If I remember correctly, the silver content is more than one billion taels."

They have been selectively ignoring the problems in the Americas. The biggest reason is that the current technology is not the best time to develop the Americas.In addition, the age of great voyages was too bloody, and they didn't want to transport Daming's father and sons to die for a country that was destined to fall apart.But now, they found that they had forgotten one of the most important things, and this thing forced them to act first now.

Ming Dynasty was not a country that used silver as its basic currency. At the beginning, their currency was paper money.When the government began to issue banknotes indiscriminately, and the banknotes did not have any credibility, everyone had to use copper coins as the base currency.But the greed of the rulers caused another problem in such a system.After the death of each emperor, the copper coins minted by him will be invalidated, and the new emperor will mint his own copper coins to complete the exploitation of the people.This is an ironclad proof of the taint of the Ming Dynasty oppressing the common people in addition to the huge taint of the eunuch dynasty.

There are policies on the top and countermeasures on the bottom. The people began to spontaneously use silver as a currency for trade.However, the land of Daming does not produce silver, and most of the current silver in Ming Dynasty is imported from Japan and other trading countries.Knowing this, Zhu Houzhao has been making his own efforts.For example, it took the lead in promoting the use of silver in the government many years in advance, so that copper coins will slowly withdraw from the stage of history.For example, he is very tolerant of Japan, even though he knew that they were colluding with coastal pirates to operate on the coastline of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao never broke his face with them.One of the most important reasons is the silver produced in Japan.

With the progress of trade and Zhu Houzhao's efforts to revitalize the entire market, silver began to flow into the people and hide wealth among the people.Through the reform of the tax system, including the reform of customs and daily industrial and commercial tax rates, the money began to flow to the court in a legitimate way.Then through the construction of various projects by the imperial court and the salaries of officials, the money flows into the people again, and the cycle is endless.As a science student, Zhu Houzhao was able to do this without any major mistakes. It is indeed because the golden finger is too wide, God bless.A healthy economy is the basis for all prosperous societies. Under a virtuous cycle, a new prosperous world is about to start, but at this moment, God poured cold water on the two of them.

Now, neither of them had the relaxed atmosphere they had before, and they had already put aside any spending money. "Is there really one billion taels?" This number is too appalling. Du Ruo just suddenly thought that America actually produced silver. He didn't expect to know such a big news all of a sudden, and he was shocked speechless in an instant.

What is the concept of one billion taels? The annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty can be converted into about 500 million taels of silver, but the tax that is actually received is basically from the customs, which is only 500 million taels a year. .This is the silver of a country. If the silver is mined by Europeans and poured into Daming, then everything that Zhu Houzhao worked so hard to create will be wiped out.Dozens of times of inflation, they do not have the confidence to solve this matter.

"There is only more, not less. I remember that there is a large silver mine in South America with proven reserves of hundreds of thousands of tons, not to mention that the entire line is full of silver mines." Zhu Houzhao used a red pen to draw all the way from North America In South America, the thin line is not only the silver mine line in the Americas, but also a reminder for the Ming Dynasty. "It's all over now. Fortunately, Wei Jia mentioned this, otherwise I would have completely forgotten about it."

The existence of silver mines in America is only a very vague thing in Zhu Houzhao's memory. Except for a trip to the United States and Mexico, where he knew that there were silver mines, Zhu Houzhao has never been exposed to such information.So he happily started to promote the use of silver in Daming, and now he has dug a hole for himself. "From here to here, I'm sure I can solve it in ten years." Du Ruo pointed to the red line drawn by Zhu Houzhao.

"It's only been ten or so years now. As long as we seize the opportunity, this area can become our territory legally." There are only tens of millions of Indians. Du Ruo is sure that he can gain their trust and buy from them. This area.He can provide them with healthy vaccinia vaccines, help them develop drugs to prevent malaria, and more importantly, help them resist the invasion of Europeans.

"It's not cost-effective." The only way to deal with this matter is to replace silver with banknotes. Just for the silver, he has to deal with such a large area of ​​land and have so many Ming soldiers leave their homes. He knows the high death rate in the early days of the great voyage.These soldiers with families, they may have to bury their bones in a foreign land.

"Don't forget, there is still rubber and a large piece of land here." Du Ruo, who started from printing presses, still has a deep memory of ink printing.Ink printing has not been realized because of the lack of ink rollers made of rubber.The three elements that started the industrial revolution, steel, rubber, coal, rubber is one of them. "As long as we bring back the rubber, we can fully utilize Southeast Asia."

Most of Southeast Asia is still anarchic, and the best place in the world to grow rubber is Southeast Asia.Then Southeast Asia, which was not so attractive before, has become a sweet pastry, and the imperial court can maintain its current military strength in Southeast Asia without spending so much money.Once there are people, the whole set of institutions can be put into operation, and a lot of money can be saved.

Zhu Houzhao lay there and thought about it for a while, and felt panicked, so he had to sit up again. "Now it's all right, we're busy again." In Zhu Houzhao's view, it was unwise for the Ming Dynasty to join the war to discover America.Ming Dynasty is not Europe that doesn't even have national concept.It is not worth the loss to join this not-so-bright robbery with the huge death rate and the danger of disintegration, but now they have to change their strategy and join this blood and fire for a small amount of money. feast.It's just that no one is sure about the outcome.

More than ten years have passed, and Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo have almost forgotten the little knowledge about America in their minds.There was really no other way, Zhu Houzhao could only keep Du Ruo in the palace under the pressure of his mother, and the two of them recalled everything about America together.

The news that An Guogong was kept in the palace by the emperor to discuss state affairs as soon as he returned to court quickly spread throughout the court and the public.Just as many people in the palace knew the true relationship between Du Ruozhao and Zhu Houzhao, many officials in the court also knew a little bit about the relationship between Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo through their eyeliner in the palace.Some believed and some did not believe, but after Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo came, a very delicate atmosphere began to ferment among everyone.

Unlike Zhu Houzhao's young age, there are two elders shaking on it, and it is impossible for everyone to do something about his marriage.But Du Ruo is different, he is now ready to get married.He doesn't have any real job right now, but everyone knows that according to his current status, he has no future.Not to mention that his ability has been proven time and time again.Now who doesn't know that he is actually the emperor's money jar.No matter whether it is the sea trade that is becoming more and more profitable now, or the legendary potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn, which one does not have his shadow.

In addition, people are good-looking and dignified, and those who have daughters of the right age in Beijing don't want to marry their daughters to Du Ruo.Now it's all right, it turns out that the golden tortoise son-in-law I fancy actually has an affair with the emperor, and those who want to marry their daughters have to weigh it up.There are also those who are very contemptuous of Du Ruo, but no one is a fool, and the palace keeps the news to death, of course, he must not know, otherwise he will die.

This led to a very strange phenomenon, the people who were keen to support Du Ruobao's media suddenly became silent.Du Lin was very worried about his little master, but Du Ruo probably guessed what was going on.He was happy that no one would bother him, even if someone looked at him with weird eyes, but he was used to it more than [-] years ago, right? Now it is just a trivial matter.

When Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo were very busy, and the court kept arguing over the millions of taels of silver, it was Wei Jia who was the happiest.Back then, Du Ruo gave Wei Jia 50 taels of silver to buy a boat and hire people to build the fleet.At that time, Du Ruo and Wei Jia made it very clear that he wanted Wei Jia to build the fleet just to go outside and find out news for Zhu Houzhao and understand the world.In the first year, Wei Jia cleverly found an Arab fleet that had sunk several ships, and transported the porcelain to the Red Sea for them.

This trip allowed Wei Jia to buy many Arab slaves who were good at sailing in Arabia.This three-month voyage benefited Wei Jia a lot, and the entire fleet began to take shape.In order to go to sea conveniently, Wei Jia simply brought his family to Quanzhou.After the family was resettled, after the Spring Festival, Wei Jia packed a large amount of silk and porcelain and embarked on a journey to the Mediterranean Sea with a few Portuguese captives who were entrusted to him by Du Ruo.

This time, besides the goods he carried, Wei Jia also brought gifts for the King of Portugal and the King of Spain.Zhu Houzhao knew clearly that when he suppressed these colonists by force, he must show goodwill, so that they would not dare to offend the border but come to trade obediently and bring new ideas and new atmosphere to the Ming Dynasty.So, with the most outstanding members of the first batch of students in the Siyi Hall and the letter of credence written by Zhu Houzhao himself, Wei Jia crossed the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean to reach Portugal and Spain on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

It has only been a few years since the route to the far east was found, and no one thought that the far east would send people here.After selling his own goods, Wei Jia was warmly received by the local nobles and met the King of Portugal in Lisbon.All the way to Spain, Wei Jia successfully met the two kings of Spain.Of course, Wei Jia's arrival also exposed Columbus's lie that he had found the East.

Even for such a barren and backward country, such a weak king, everyone still looks down on it.However, limited by Zhu Houzhao's strict order, the first batch of overseas diplomats from the Siyi Pavilion also presented their credentials and gifts to the kings of the two countries with a very equal attitude.

In order to find the fabled East, the fabled silk, porcelain, and tea, these Europeans have spent nearly a hundred years of hard work.When the real East was in front of them, everyone expressed their greatest goodwill and desire to trade with the East.Especially when they knew that Daming was not included in the "Treaty of Tordesirias" that they signed, the Spaniards almost didn't regret it.This Ming Dynasty had official contact with the West for the first time since there were historical records.

When summer came and the Indian Ocean began to blow the southeast monsoon again, Wei Jiaman returned to Quanzhou Port with all kinds of glassware and exotic blankets.Du Ruo was very optimistic about Wei Jia at first, but he didn't expect Wei Jia to be able to do this.He thought that such a voyage must not make money, but Wei Jia made a profit of several thousand taels of silver in the first year.Although the cost of the ship was not included in this, the fact that a new ship is launched and no one has experience can make a profit. This also makes Du Ruo very satisfied with Wei Jia.

Then in the second year, Wei Jia brought Du Ruo the information that he wanted to find various New World crop seeds.After unloading his entire ship of porcelain and silk in exchange in Spain, Wei Jia continued to sail north, passing through France, England, and Scotland along the way.At the same time, they also distributed all kinds of printed sea charts to Daming.With the help of a Spanish middleman, Wei Jia made another fortune by using the chart that was originally intended to be distributed for free.

Back and forth again and again, Wei Jia not only brought the latest information about Europe to Zhu Houzhao, but also brought foreigners from various countries to the Siyi Pavilion.For a while, the Siyi Pavilion became extremely lively, and officials learning English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German began to arrive slowly.In order to make it easier for citizens of various countries to come to the capital, the Ministry of Rites specially allocated funds to build many houses. This is the original form of embassies of various countries in the future.

After getting in touch with new people and new things, Wei Jia learned more and more about the joy of adventure in sailing.After learning about the theory of the circle of the earth and the great voyages of Columbus, Wei Jia anxiously submitted to Du Ruo a plan to find a new continent from the South China Sea or the East China Sea.Unfortunately, when he was in the capital, Du Ruo happened to go to the northwest.

Originally thinking that the plan would run aground, Wei Jia did not expect to be summoned by Zhu Houzhao, who had become the prince.Wei Jia has always known Zhu Houzhao, especially after Zhu Houzhao went south and returned to Beijing, Xu Beiniang was basically doing business under the name of an imperial merchant.As someone who treats Xu Beiniang as a sibling, Wei Jia will basically hear about Zhu Houzhao whenever he is at home.But after seeing Zhu Houzhao for real, Wei Jia sketched out a real image of Zhu Houzhao.

I originally thought that Zhu Houzhao was aloof, the weak and very powerful emperor I had seen.Unexpectedly, what Wei Jia saw this time was a young man who was full of curiosity and would ask himself such questions as European male nobles really wearing high heels.Moreover, this young man's understanding of Europe was far greater than he expected. After learning about Zhu Houzhao's vision, Wei Jia was really convinced.In the past, the idea that people like Zhu Houzhao only knew pleasure was thrown aside by France.

The most unexpected thing was that when Du Ruo came back, Wei Jia suddenly knew that he had the support of the Ming Navy.None of the merchants active on the coast knew what kind of army the Ming Navy was.Who doesn't know the port of Guangzhou and the Portuguese with strong ships and guns.There are also pirates, which are one-on-one.Such a brave army actually wanted to go sailing with him, Wei Jia felt that he was about to faint from happiness.

Since it is to develop the Americas, it is impossible for Zhu Houzhao to let Wei Jia dance there slowly, wasting precious time.Simply transfer the big ship from the south and try to hit it with one hit.Choosing between his own people and Native Americans, Zhu Houzhao would still choose his own people.Although he is soft-hearted sometimes, he is not a saint. He still knows what to do if he chooses one of the two.

Now that he decided to do it, in order to minimize the damage, Zhu Houzhao still made a lot of preparations.Biscuits that are easy to store have been invented, with a lot of sweet and salty flavors.Fat pigs turned into bacon one after another, and a large number of wooden barrels contained the fresh water that the fleet depended on for a living.And Xue Ji, who had been engrossed in research by Zhu Houzhao, finally came in handy. The vaccinia vaccine and various pills came in handy one after another.

A total of 600 large ships will carry more than 30 people and will land in America. After establishing a living base, these [-] ships will return to Daming with half of the people, and more than [-] large ships will be prepared later. Continue to bring food, various farm tools, and animals to North America to start your initial expansion plan.

Of course, this is just a plan. The first thing Du Ruo and Zhu Houzhao have to do is to solve the problem of these dozens of large ships first.The navy's large ships are too large to be suitable for ocean voyages, and many ships suitable for ocean voyages must be produced.The shipyard in Fuzhou must be hopeless. I don’t know when the order has been scheduled. Finally, I remembered the Nanjing Longmen Shipyard that has declined.Thirty small ships suitable for ocean-going can be produced within three years.

The first batch of merchant ships were internally digested by Du Ruo's existing merchant ships. He transferred eight ships and bought a few more suitable ships from the world.Zhu Houzhao calculated the money he had to pay, and found that he had returned to before liberation.Seeing him staring at his account books, Du Ruo smiled helplessly, and said, "Forget it this time, don't you still want to build the library, keep your money. I'll pay the money first. "

The lessons learned from Zheng He's voyages that almost emptied most of the imperial court was only a hundred years ago, so Zhu Houzhao did not want to use the money from the treasury this time.Of course, this is also for myself to have an absolute right to speak in this plan.But from his own treasury, his own money plus the money left by Zhu Youtang is actually only a few million taels, and most of them are all kinds of rare treasures that can neither be sold nor used.

In fact, it would be very difficult for Du Ruo to pay this sum of money alone. He is not a wealthy person, and 800 million taels is also the property of the entire Duke's family.Fortunately, this is a gradual process, and money can be invested not all at once.It is estimated that it will cost nearly 300 million taels in total in the early stage. Du Ruo believes that as long as he starts to build the base, and then spends a million taels to buy the land, people who see the benefits will naturally come forward. Investment in development will be able to produce output at that time, and the pressure on oneself will not be so great.

It took two months to plan everything before Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo started to do it.At this time, the booklet of the Ministry of Rites about this library was finally submitted for approval by the Rites Supervisor.The imperial court will build libraries in 42 prefectures. The cost of each house ranges from 5000 taels to 2000 taels. They are all stone fireproof buildings.Rare books were uniformly printed by the imperial court and escorted to various places through post stations.And some ordinary books are directly provided by Du Ruo's bookstores all over the place.

The money will be allocated in June, and the built library only allows copying books and does not allow books to be taken out.These libraries will also accept local donations.How every copper coin allocated by the imperial court is spent must be announced to the local students. Any corruption behavior will be dismissed immediately after verification and will never be hired.

After these things were dealt with one by one, Zhu Houzhao began to be busy with his imperial examination reform and transfer to the navy.Du Ruo began to focus on the cultivation of new crops again, but this time he had a new assistant.

The author has something to say: Xuan Ning MM, it's not a matter of how old they are, the main reason is that they have been severely cracked down recently, and they can't even have Momo. /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ Wait for the stupid and cute author to start school, there are still ten days left.When there is a computer, Penguin or Tieba will be easy to discuss.