"Hold on!" Yunxi interrupted quickly: "Uncle Eighteen, forget about other things, 200,000 exiled prisoners. There are only so many exiled prisoners in the Ming Dynasty every year, so you want 200,000 from me!"
"Where is the need for people in the northwest, northeast, and Southeast Asia?" Yunxi thought for a while, and finally said: "At most, I will give you two to three thousand people a year, and they will all be men without women."
"Okay, just two or three thousand people." Zhu Xi said immediately, as if he was afraid that Yun Xi would regret it.
Although Zhu Zhen was not well informed in Yunnan, he also knew how many prisoners could be exiled in the Ming Dynasty in a year, and he also knew that people from all directions were needed to fill the vacancies, so the number of 200,000 quoted was a huge bid to allow Yunxi to have more prisoners. Give him a few people. For him, two to three thousand people is actually quite a lot.
At this time, Yunxi also realized Zhu Chen's purpose, but since he had already agreed, he would not go back on his words and just teased Zhu Chen a few words with a smile.
"But I won't go to Yunnan to give these prisoners to you." Yunxi added: "The land route from Yunnan is thousands of miles away. If a thousand people go out, it would be good if 500 people arrive at the place."
"But Yunnan, where to go?" Zhu Zhen asked.
"Here," Yunxi pointed to the place on the map that was approximately Arakan and said, "take the sea route and send it to you from Arakan."
"Take the sea route?" Zhu Zhen murmured to himself: "Is this possible?"
"Why not?" Yunxi smiled and said: "In the second year of Jianye, two countries, Zoli and Xiyang Zoli, came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. I sent a navy to escort them back. On the way, I explored the sea conditions in the Western Ocean west of Sumatra, and also visited Bangladesh. Anchorage. Isn’t Rakhine not far east of Bangladesh? You can definitely find it.”
"And the risk of sea transportation is far less than that of land transportation, and the cost is much lower. It's just that most people are afraid of the ocean, and the exiled prisoners sent to you in the future can only be people from south of Wuling."
"And here," Yunxi suddenly thought of something again, pointed to the vicinity of Ren'an Qiang and said to Zhu Zhen: "In the future, you can build a canal from here to the west to the seaside to connect Ava and the West." Yunxi said as he spoke. , the finger moves westward, all the way to the coastline.
"The Great Jinsha River (Irrawaddy River) originally originates in Yunnan, and can go straight down to Ava City or even Bagan City. You can build a canal to link the Great Jinsha River with the West Ocean, and places like Mengyang in West Yunnan It will be more convenient to communicate with the outside world, and Ming Dynasty's rule over these places will be further strengthened."
"At that time, if the chieftains in Mengyang and other places rebel, the army can start from Guangzhou and other places, be transported by sea to Arakan, and then be transported by river to the south of these chieftains to deal with them. It is more convenient than traveling thousands of miles or even thousands of miles to Yunnan by land. "
Historically, the price of goods shipped from China or India, around the Cape of Good Hope, the entire South Atlantic, and from Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey was much cheaper than the price of goods shipped from India to Basra and other places by land. , but the distance is more than twice as long, which is enough to illustrate the huge cost advantage of sea transportation, whether it is transporting troops or cargo.
Zhu Chu was speechless for a long time. This was beyond his imagination. Not even the Mongols had ever done this to transport soldiers in such a large circle from Guangdong, Guangxi and other places.
"Why, Uncle Eighteen can't accept sea transportation? This is not possible! Uncle Eighteen, your feudal country is close to the West, so it must accept sea transportation. Whether the people in a place are rich or not depends on two points. The first is the local products, and the second is It’s about the convenience of transportation. Properties are innate and cannot be changed, but transportation conditions can be changed.”
Yunxi used his own language to talk to Zhu Zhen about the words "If you want to get rich, you must first build roads", and finally said: "There are still many people who are admonishing me to stop shipping, saying that the sea is very rough and the waves are not drifting." Huh! If sea transportation is changed to river transportation, the wind and waves will indeed disappear, but the things that will be misappropriated by the government, wealthy families, local bullies and others along the way will be ten times as much as what is lost on the sea."
Only then did Zhu Zhen come to his senses and said to Yunxi: "I understand, Your Majesty."
"I knew that Uncle Eighteen would not be as incomprehensible as those elm-headed ones. It is difficult to change the current situation of land transportation. Railroad carriages can only be laid in very flat places. Most places are difficult to use due to conditions. I think The only way to change the transportation conditions is river and sea transportation.”
"By the way, speaking of rail carriages, you can also build rail carriages in plain areas. However, there are many rivers in the plains of Myanmar, so rail carriages are of little use." Yunxi added.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Zhu Xi could only reply.
Then the two chatted. Yunxi was less than a year older than Zhu Zhen, so they were exactly the same age. Zhu Zhen went to Yunnan to become a prince in the 28th year of Hongwu. The uncle and nephew spent a lot of time together in Beijing. We got along very well. At this time, Zhu Xi talked about the peculiar customs of the southwest people, and Yun Xi talked about the strange things he got from the reports of Jinyiwei and Zhensi, and they had a great time chatting. In this way, time passed quickly, and soon It was soon getting dark.
However, Yunxi and Zhu Zhen were completely unaware until Wang Xi came over and said while they were chatting: "Your Majesty, Your Highness King Min, it is already dark. Do you want to light the lamp?"
"Oh, it's already dark." Zhu Xi looked out the window where he could no longer see anything clearly, and said, "I originally said that I would go back home at the beginning of the Youshi period, but it turns out that it's already the middle of the Xu period."
"Go back and meet Dao Mudan's daughter?" Yunxi said with a smile: "It's so late. Since she hasn't been accepted into the palace by you, she won't be waiting for you in the palace. A woman's reputation is more important."
"And since it's already so late, I'll let you have a meal in the palace. My nephew tells you, it's been a long time since I've had a family member have a meal in the palace. This is a great favor to you, and it's not Immediately act like you are grateful!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, I am very frightened. Thank you very much for the gift, Your Majesty." Zhu Zhen half-knelt on the ground in response to Yun Xi's joke.
The two laughed for a while, and Yunxi ordered someone to tell the imperial chef in the imperial dining room to cook for one more person, and then took Zhu Qi to Kunning Palace.
Arriving at the gate of Qianqing Palace, Xiyao immediately came out and saluted Yunxi: "Your Majesty." Then he smiled slightly at Zhu Xi and saluted: "I have met the emperor uncle."
"It can't be done," Zhu Zhen said. He subconsciously stretched out his hand to help the queen, but he immediately reacted and retracted his hand.
Xiyao was also startled. It was common for her to see the vassal king, and the salute was just for show, but she didn't expect someone to actually stretch out his hand to help her.
The atmosphere at the scene was a little awkward for a while.
However, this embarrassment was immediately broken. Siqi, Xianqin and others walked into Kunning Palace with bags containing books in their hands. When they saw Yunxi, Xiyao and others at the door, they immediately saluted and said, "I've seen you, uncle." (Emperor brother), I met my aunt (Emperor sister-in-law)."
They looked at Zhu Ming again, and Xian Qin asked softly: "Sister-in-law, who is this, which uncle or brother?"
Xiyao immediately came over, touched her head, and said with a smile: "This is your eighteenth uncle."
"I've met Uncle Eighteen (His Royal Highness King Min)." The two of them said immediately.
Zhu Zhu immediately guessed that these were Xianqin and Siqi. He had already found out before that there were only four little girls in Kunning Palace, and they all had different relationships with him. He could tell who was who by their names.
"Hello, sister Xianqin, and hello, little girl from the Lan family." Zhu Chu also said with a smile.
"Where's Aunt Baoqing?" Yunxi asked.
"Uncle, Baoqing's mother-in-law asked her to go back, and she has been with her mother-in-law these days." Siqi said.
Yunxi said "hmm", said a few more words, and walked into the hall holding Siqi in one hand and Xianqin in the other.
As he walked, he asked: "Have you given me a happy birthday to the gentlemen today? Have you thanked the gentlemen for their hard work over the past year?"
"We are grateful." Xianqin said: "At the end of each class today, Aunt Baoqing led us to stand up and pray to our husband in his early years, thanking him for his hard teaching."
"Well, that's good. Respecting teachers is our traditional Chinese virtue. You must respect your teacher."
"You should consider giving these female gentlemen some New Year rewards, according to what they like." Yunxi said to Xiyao again, and she hurriedly agreed.
They came to the dining hall, and the imperial chef in the imperial dining room quickly sent the food to Kunning Palace. Yunxi asked Zhu Zhen to sit next to him and chatted with him while eating.
But Zhu Ming always felt fuzzy, as if someone was staring at him. At first he didn't care, thinking it was his illusion, but he felt more and more something was wrong. He couldn't help but look around and saw
Xianqin's eyes full of complicated emotions were staring at him, as if she wanted to ask him something, but she didn't dare.
"What's wrong?" Yunxi asked, while following Zhu Xi's gaze, he also saw Xianqin's unusual gaze.
"Xianqin, do you have anything to ask Uncle Eighteen?" Yunxi asked.
"I," Xianqin said one word, but remained silent.
"Xianqin, what's wrong? We're all a family, what's wrong to ask?" Yunxi asked again; Xiyao also offered words of comfort.
After hesitating for a while, Xianqin plucked up the courage and said, "Uncle Eighteen, how is my fourth sister doing in Yunnan now?"
"Xiancai? Xiancai is very powerful now. She now lives in Lin'an Prefecture, a place where Han Chinese and southwest barbarians live together. She has become a well-known local doctor. Many barbarians come to her for medical treatment, and she has a high reputation in many villages.
"Zhu Chu said with a smile.
"Well." Xianqin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Sister Xiancai, it's okay. I heard that Yunnan is full of barbarians, and there are also cannibals. Even if there are people to look after you, they may not be able to protect you. It's okay, it's okay."
"With me and Mu Sheng in Yunnan, we will definitely be able to protect Xiancai. How can we let anything happen to her? Besides, she is now very popular among the local barbarians, and nothing will happen to her even without us," Zhu Ming said.
