Zheng He took out a token from his sleeve and handed it to Zhu Zhanzhen: "Your Majesty has an order. Regarding maritime affairs, Your Highness, if you have any needs, requests or questions, I will tell you everything I know."
This is the badge of my house. If your highness wants to find me, you can ask someone to call me, or you can come to my house at any time."
"Thank you Master Zheng."
"I am terrified."
Zheng He had a fair complexion and no beard. After all, he was a eunuch, but his adventurous spirit, diplomatic ability and military leadership were all deeply appreciated by Zhu Di.
"Master Zheng, this is your first voyage to the West."
"The fourth time."
In history, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, the first six of which were during the Yongle Dynasty, and the last one was when Zhu Zhanji was in power, and finally died at sea. Since then, no one has been able to sail to the West like him to conquer the Ming Dynasty.
National prestige and overseas.
The voyages to the Western Ocean and the Northern Expedition to the Desert were both very financially consuming activities, and could be said to be the two biggest financial burdens of the Yongle Dynasty.
After all, Zheng He's voyages were different from Columbus's. Columbus's voyage was for colonial plunder, while Zheng He's was for exploration and prestige. The former brought huge rewards, while the latter consumed huge financial, material, and manpower.
But after all, we ourselves have been deeply persecuted by the colonists. Even if he knew that ocean colonization could bring huge returns to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanyi would not have chosen this path. This is our Chinese national custom.
There is no shame in bullying the weak.
But the European countries are not weak. Colonizing them can be regarded as eradicating violence and peace in the world, eliminating evil people in the cradle in advance, and justice is one step ahead of evil.
Another reason why Zheng He was willing to get close to Zhu Zhanzhen was because of his fat father. Zhu Gaochi had been supervising the country for many years, and Zhu Di was busy fighting wars. In fact, most of the government affairs and financial affairs were left to him, and he also did a very good job.
, the ruling and opposition parties sincerely obeyed the prince's benevolent government.
A smart man like Zheng He naturally knew that although his voyage to the West was to promote Emperor Yongle's prestige overseas, the real money was allocated by the prince, so he had always attached great importance to his relationship with Zhu Gaochi.
"Master Zheng, are there any interesting anecdotes from the Western countries?"
It was rare to meet someone who was interested in listening to what he had to say. Zheng He recounted his treasures: "It's like summer all year round in Java, Siam, Ceylon and other countries. They all have fruits that we don't have here. It's a pity that they are difficult to preserve. Otherwise, we can bring them back to your highnesses."
Have a taste.”
"Fruit, fruit." Zhu Zhanzhen muttered, and suddenly he was enlightened. He thought of a way to get rich returns besides colonial rule.
That is trade, exchanging what is needed.
Seeing Zhu Zhanzhen talking to himself, Zheng He asked in confusion: "Your Highness, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, Mr. Zheng, when will you go to sea next time?"
Zheng He had a confident smile on his face: "This voyage to the West has yielded a lot, especially the exotic beast Qilin. Your Majesty has decided today that I will go to sea again, but it will cost a lot of money. I found that there is something ready to move in the desert to the north. I guess I can get it."
Wait two years.”
"Take me with you next time."
Zheng He was shocked: "Your Highness..."
"It's okay, you don't have to be embarrassed, I will tell Grandpa Huang and father myself."
"Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness."
The two chatted a lot, and the more Zheng He talked, the more he felt that this nine-year-old grandson of the emperor was like his best friend. There was never any opposition to his plan to go to the sea, and it was almost entirely due to Zhu Di's insistence on doing it.
.
The child in front of him, who is less than ten years old, shows a strong interest in exploring the sea and has ideas far beyond his age.
For example, he thought that going to sea was not only to explore and show off, but also to launch trade voyages. Zheng He also thought about this, but he also felt that maintaining such a trade route on the sea would require a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources, and even
can exceed trade income.
"Your Highness, it's getting late. Zheng He will take leave first and come back to visit you the next day."
"Master Zheng, conquering the sea is conquering the future."
Zhu Zhanzhen's last words seemed to ignite all the passion in Zheng He's heart. His hands trembled slightly and he shouted: "Yes, Your Highness."
This feeling of meeting a soulmate in the world made Zheng He extremely excited.
Zhu Zhanzhen returned to his room, and what greeted him was the angry face of his mother, Mrs. Zhang. There was no doubt that it was a scolding because he skipped class.
Of the three legitimate sons of the Zhang family, the eldest Zhu Zhanji, the third son Zhu Zhanyong, and the fifth son Zhu Zhanyong, it seems that the eldest son has taken all his luck. His other two sons are simply not up to par with Zhu Zhanji.
.
As his name suggests, Zhu Zhanyong had mediocre qualifications and was very diligent, but his brain could not keep up. Although Zhang had no choice but to criticize him too much, Zhu Zhanyong was smart, but very naughty and mischievous.
Of the three legitimate sons, Zhang was naturally the most attentive. He severely punished Zhu Zhanchang for skipping classes. He put down the harsh words and if he skipped classes again, he would be whipped with thorns and sticks.
After Mrs. Zhang left, Chu'er said with a bitter face: "My Lord, you must not make the Crown Princess angry again. What will happen if you really hit her with thorns and sticks next time?"
"It's okay. In the deep palace compound, it's much harder to find thorn strips than gold." Zhu Zhanyi didn't care.
Chu'er said with a bitter face: "Master, please be merciful, if something happens to you again, Xiaosheng and I will be kicked out of the palace."
Mrs. Zhang only scolded Zhu Zhanzhen, but the servants were in a miserable situation. The servants must be kind and powerful, and must be strict when they do something wrong.
Seeing the two people's sad faces, Zhu Zhanchen said hurriedly: "Okay, okay, I understand, I will go to school to sleep tomorrow, I can't blame you two."
Chu'er wiped her tears and started to do her errands. She saw the coal in the corner of the room and asked curiously: "Why did Xiaosheng give out coal so early this year?"
The winter in Yingtianfu is very cold, so coal is needed for heating. But it's only August, so why did Xiaosheng bring back a pile of coal.
Xiaosheng smiled and said: "Last year, for some reason, coal was out of stock, and we didn't have enough of the best anthracite in the palace. This year, I saw that coal had arrived early in the warehouse. The eunuch in the warehouse and I were friends, so we picked some good ones early.
Keep some in case our young master doesn’t have enough when the time comes.”
This guy was thinking ahead to prepare for a rainy day. Zhu Zhanzhen had an idea while staring at the coal.
"By the way, coal is coal." Zhu Zhanzhen jumped up happily.
"What's wrong with our young master?"
"It doesn't matter if you don't climb a tree."
How could the two of them guess what was going on in Zhu Zhanzhen's mind?
Europe started the Age of Discovery and plundered huge amounts of wealth. Then came the Industrial Revolution, completely leading the way. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution was closely related to coal.
The coal-burning steam engine was the first shot of the industrial revolution, and Zhu Zhanzhen set his first target on the steam engine.
I want to promote the industrial revolution to happen in the Ming Dynasty ahead of schedule and install a powerful engine for our age of navigation.
Let the big ship of the Ming Empire set sail with vigorous steam.
