Although Yunxi did not hear the conversation between Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and his eldest son Ashikaga Yoshimochi, he could think with his toes that someone would have the idea of entering the Kinning (Kamchatka Peninsula) gold mine. A completely open-pit gold mine, the mining cost
Extremely low, who doesn’t want it?
Moreover, the large amount of gold entering the capital cannot be concealed at all. The foreign envoys in Beijing all know that they will definitely tell their monarchs when they return.
Just the other countries, Fuso and North Korea are in the east of the Ming Dynasty, and they also have the strength to send fleets to the north. How could they let go of such an open-air gold mine? There are also some powerful 'maritime merchants' who may also go to the north to explore.
.
On the second day of February, Yunxi also asked Fang Mingqian to take the fleet and set off again. One was to explore the road, and the other was to transport gold back.
According to Fang Mingqian, this gold mine is very large. Although Yunxi sent three naval guards this time, it may not be possible to transport all the gold there, and the fleet cannot always guard there.
It is possible that some of the gold will fall into the hands of others.
Yunxi would be lying if he said he didn't feel bad, but there was nothing he could do about it. There were four guards in the Su Fan Kingdom, and navy guards were stationed along the coast. Three guards was already the largest number. Yunxi held the capital in his hands.
The guard had two naval guards, the left naval guard and the right naval guard, but Yunxi only dared to send out one guard, and always had to leave one guard as a mobile force.
But if this gold falls into the hands of maritime merchants, it may not be a good thing if it falls into the hands of North Korea or Fuso.
Inflation does not only occur in the era of paper money. Historically, before 1644, the Manchus entered the country several times and looted countless gold, silver and jewelry. However, because the productivity of the Northeast region was very backward at that time, serious inflation occurred.
In the north of the pass, the grain that cost almost one tael of silver and one stone was sold in the northeast for twenty taels and one stone. Many ordinary bannermen had to do the work of wrapping.
The Ming Dynasty had a large economy, so the impact of hundreds of thousands of taels of gold entering the market was relatively small. However, Yunxi was still very cautious for fear of causing price increases, so he kept more than 400,000 taels of gold in his warehouse.
With the economic scale of North Korea and Fuso, gold cannot be distributed equally to all citizens but will be controlled by a very small number of people. This is likely to cause prices to skyrocket, and a large number of ordinary people, even middle- and lower-level bureaucrats, and samurai to live in poverty or even go bankrupt.
Therefore, Yunxi sometimes hoped that a certain country such as North Korea or Fusang would obtain a lot of gold to verify the economic theory he had learned in his previous life.
As for exploring roads and establishing settlements, they are mainly to prepare for the next discovery of America. The last time Fang Mingqian led the fleet to the Bering Strait was at the end of August or early September in the lunar calendar, and it was already very cold. Yunxi planned to let him go there this time
It is the hottest time in the Northern Hemisphere, which is the sixth month of the lunar calendar. We will go to the Bering Strait to explore and prepare for the next step of traveling along the continental shelf to the Americas.
Indeed, even if you don’t take the continental shelf route, you can definitely reach the American continent by sailing directly eastward after departing from the capital city and replenishing supplies in Yokohama. Although there is no means to accurately measure longitude at this time, the latitude can be accurately measured, and you don’t have to worry about going astray when sailing east-west.
.
(See the first chapter of Volume 48 of "History of the Yuan Dynasty". During Kublai Khan's time, he measured the latitudes of a series of places from Qiongzhou to Lake Baikal)
The problem is that Yunxi knows that there must be a mainland 20,000 miles east from Yokohama, but others don't know. Soldiers are not NPCs. They will do whatever you ask them to do; there are too few islands in the North Pacific to serve as a transit station. Yunxi
Even if the fleet is forced to go to sea, they will never obey Yunxi's order and sail directly eastward.
So we can only stick to the continental shelf route.
After Yunxi formally issued the order for Fang Mingqian to take the fleet to sea, he looked at the map of the North Sea (Okhotsk Sea) and further north that he drew based on his memory and Fang Mingqian's exploration last year, and said softly: "Next time,
Next time, send a fleet to discover America."
…
…
At this time, the Daming Navy garrison in Huating County was abuzz with people. The officers and soldiers of the three guard stations were lining up to board the ship under the command of Qianhu and Baihu. The commanders of each guard and the generals and generals of Zhejiang Dusi who came to see them off were
The generals in the Right Army Governor's Mansion were chatting and laughing.
Zhang Yi, the left governor of the Right Army Governor's Mansion, smiled at Fang Mingqian and said, "Brother Fang, you are leading troops to Jinning this time. How much gold do you plan to bring back to His Majesty?"
Fang Mingqian also smiled and said: "Mr. Zhang, there are a lot more ships this time than last time. It is estimated that we can bring back 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms of gold."
Xu Zengshou said sarcastically: "Last time I brought back 30,000 kilograms of gold, Lord Fang made me a Marquis. This time I brought back more gold, and I think I can make him a Duke."
Xu Zengshou was a little disdainful of Fang Mingqian, thinking that he was just lucky enough to be granted the title of Marquis, and was very unconvinced.
Of course Fang Mingqian understood what Xu Zengshou meant, and he also knew that there were many people in the entire Fifth Army Governor's Mansion who thought this way, so he just smiled lightly and said: "Brother Xu, I am indeed lucky enough to be granted the title of Marquis by His Majesty.
I feel very ashamed to receive salary without merit."
Xu Zengshou was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Xu Huizu: "Okay, the auspicious time has arrived. Brother Fang, please quickly invite the host of the City God's Temple to come over and hold a sea sacrifice ceremony."
"I heard that in recent years, more and more people are worshiping the Heavenly Concubine (Mazu) in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. A Mazu temple has been erected outside the Shanghai Port Department Store. I also asked the abbot of the Mazu temple to come and worship the sea for peace of mind."
Fang Mingqian saw that it was indeed time, and hurriedly called the city god to come and offer sacrifices to the sea, and prepared to go out to sea.
After everyone had dispersed, Xu Huizu said to Xu Zengshou, "What did you do to ridicule Fang Mingqian just now and bring enemies to our Xu family?"
Xu Zengshou immediately said: "Brother, I have absolutely no intention of doing this. I just feel that he was granted the title of Marquis just because he discovered a gold mine. I feel unbalanced."
"Even if it's unbalanced, you have to endure it! Although the Fang family is not powerful, they can't offend them at will. What's more, Fang Mingqian has already made fun of himself just now, and you still want to be stubborn? You have not only offended Fang Mingqian.
, it has offended all the officers and soldiers of the three guards who went to sea this time, and will also make His Majesty feel uncomfortable. No matter how powerful our Xu family is, we cannot help but provoke our enemies like this." Xu Huizu lectured.
Xu Zengshou knew that what Xu Huizu said was reasonable, and he did not dare to refute, but still muttered.
Seeing him like this, Xu Huizu said: "I also know what you are thinking. Isn't it just that I have never been knighted and I feel unwilling to do so?"
"If you really want to be knighted, apply to become the left prime minister in the Yongfan Kingdom or Pufan Kingdom in the northeast. Big brother will watch, and your Majesty will knight the left prime minister there sooner or later."
Xu Zengshou said: "Go as soon as you go. When I return to Beijing in two days, I will apply to be the left prime minister of Yongfan Kingdom."