Zhu Houzhao laughed so hard that he rolled forward and back. He deliberately asked the officials to come closer and take a look, and then waited to be sprayed with saliva.
As for why the emperor knew?
Because Zhu Houzhao has also been trolled, and having fun alone is not as good as having fun with everyone. It would be fair if more people were trolled.
Yang Shen found it quite interesting and wanted to step forward to take a look. As soon as he took a few steps, he heard his father cough, and he could only return to his shift in frustration.
A group of conservative ministers headed by Yang Tinghe felt that it was outrageous that a good court meeting had turned into a vegetable market.
Lin Jun was standing attentively. When he heard Yang Tinghe coughing, he probably stood up, rolled up his sleeves and watched the grass-mud horse: "I'm afraid this beast can't be pulled, right?"
Zhu Hai said: "There are no stone mills in Tawanting Sulong Kingdom, so I don't know if this beast can grind mills. But the land is very mountainous, and this thing can carry goods, just like the people of the Ming Dynasty used donkeys and mules to carry goods."
Lin Jun praised: "If it can carry goods, it is a good animal. It's a pity that only one died. I can bring more animals back next time. If it can be multiplied and promoted among the people, the people of Li will have more useful animals."
"
Yang Tinghe finally couldn't bear it anymore and went out of the queue and said: "Your Majesty, the Admiral's eastward trip has indeed yielded a fruitful harvest, which is beneficial to all people. But since he has brought back many new crops, there is no need to waste money on this beast.
Money has to travel thousands of miles across the sea. This tower... the tower..."
Zhu Hai said: "Tawanting Sulong Kingdom."
Yang Tinghe said: "The Tawanting Sulong Kingdom can think of offering new crops, and its king is considered to be interested. They can give him a gold seal, make him a vassal king, and send him out of the country as a gift. If they don't have a big ship, they can use a sealing boat to carry them out."
Return to the country. Just make this trip again. Feng Zhou can bring back as many things as he can. From now on, you can't use your troops and people again."
Zhu Houzhao said: "According to what Mr. Yang Ge said, he ordered the Mining and Seal Bureau of the Ministry of Rites to cast a gold seal for King Sulong of Tawanting. He also gave 100,000 pieces of treasure banknotes, 3,000 pieces of silk, and 5,000 pieces of cotton cloth.
Show his loyalty."
Yang Tinghe said: "Your Majesty is wise!"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said: "But, I will still go to this far east place in the future."
Yang Tinghe frowned, knowing that he could not directly remonstrate, so he could only do the next best thing: "Your Majesty, if there are maritime merchants among the people who are willing to cross the sea, it will naturally be inconvenient to stop them. But the imperial court does not need to send another ship, and a trip will be wasteful.
It’s not cheap, but it’s just a drain on the national treasury.”
Zhu Houzhao smiled even brighter and suddenly said: "Admiral Tanhai, I brought something back this time. Everyone who comes, please move in!"
This time more guards were used, carrying a sack in pairs, with a shipping warehouse seal tied to the mouth of the sack. Although the sacks were not big, they were so heavy that the weak ones were bent over by them.
Eighty sacks were packed, and as for the fraction, Zhu Hai took it and divided it with the crew.
On average, each person only received forty taels of gold, and the families of those crew members who died on the way had a few taels of gold as pensions.
Zhu Hai didn't get a penny for himself, but this time he returned to Beijing to meet the emperor. He transported spices from Nanyang to Hangzhou, and took goods from Hangzhou to Lushun for trade. Most of the money earned from trade went into Zhu Hai's personal pocket.
.
Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "Everyone, please take a guess as to what is in these bags."
Huang Ke, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, walked over and tried to pick up the sacks. He was quite strong, but he couldn't pick them up. He was shocked and said: "These sacks are not full. If they are silver, one bag can weigh more than a hundred kilograms at most."
, I am proud that I can still move it. I tried it just now, I am afraid that one bag weighs more than two hundred kilograms, right? It can only be gold!"
Gold?
All the civil and military officials couldn't believe it. How many taels were there for eighty bags of gold?
Zhu Houzhao felt very bored, and he was guessed at once. He ordered: "Tear down the seal and let all the ministers see it with their own eyes."
One sack was opened, revealing the gold sand inside. Another sack was opened, and there was still gold sand inside... After opening more than ten sacks, all the ministers became numb and no longer questioned the harvest of this trip to sea.
Zhu Hai knelt down and said: "This time I went to sea and brought back a total of more than 260,000 taels of gold. There are still some fractions. I took it upon myself to distribute them to the crew members and give some pensions to the families of the dead crew members. Please punish me!"
Zhu Houzhao said happily: "Then I'll fine you to make more trips. The gold should be divided, and the pension should be paid even more. I heard that this time I narrowly escaped death at sea, more than 40% of the crew members died, and everyone who survived was sick and injured.
As the saying goes, the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. Such casualties should be generously rewarded. Remember, next time you cannot reward privately, I will personally order the reward. Since you have rewarded me this time, I must also express my gratitude. All the dead crew members
, each person will be given thirty acres of land, and the fleeing households can return to their place of origin to settle down, and military households, craftsmen households, and kitchen households can all be converted into civilian households!"
Zhu Hai quickly thanked him: "On behalf of the crew, I would like to thank Your Majesty!"
No one paid any attention to the conversation between Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Hai, because all the civil and military officials were dumbfounded by the number 260,000 taels!
In the early Ming Dynasty, the official gold and silver ratio was 1:4, and in the early years of Zhengde it had become 1:5. In recent years, with the opening of more seaports and the continuous influx of foreign silver, the private gold and silver ratio has become 1:6.
More than 260,000 taels of gold, converted into silver, is nearly 1.6 million taels of silver!
Even the calm Lin Jun was dumbfounded at this moment. After a while, he asked: "Admiral Zhu, how did you get so much gold in one trip to sea?"
Yang Yiqing also asked: "Does Tawanting Sulong Kingdom not regard gold as a treasure, so it gave away so much?"
Zhu Hai replied: "Tawanting Sulong Kingdom also likes gold and silver, and these gold sands have nothing to do with them. As I said before, the place where the fleet landed is named Fushan. There are no countries near Fushan, only tribes that drink blood like hair.
To the northwest of Fushan, there are two rivers with a lot of gold in them. The natives on the riverside do not understand the value of gold and silver, so I let them pan for gold and then exchange them with axes. When the axes are almost exchanged, I use iron knives, cloth, and silk
Trading in equal goods."
The ministers were completely defeated. A bunch of ordinary items were exchanged for 1.6 million taels of silver. Sure enough, they were all brainless savages.
Yang Tinghe asked doubtfully: "With two rivers, more than 200,000 taels of gold sand can be found?"
Zhu Hai said: "Mr. Yangge doesn't know that there are so many golden sands there, and they are all golden when the sun shines on them. Therefore, those two rivers, one is called Liujin River by the crew, and the other is called Shanjin River by the crew.
Thousands of natives have been panning for gold for several months to get so much gold sand. If we go there next time, I'm afraid it won't be so convenient because there is not much gold sand left in the nearby river section. However, I sent people to explore upstream.
There are golden sands dozens of miles upstream!”
There was a roar in the main hall, and the officials were shocked. There were still dozens of miles of gold sand waiting to be mined!
The historical gold rush in the United States attracted about 300,000 people to pan for gold, and the annual output of gold mines in California was close to forty tons. This is only a ten-year average. Gold panning was easy in the first two years, and the annual output was likely to be five
Sixty tons - these data are from the official, and there are countless gold, direct private transactions, which are not included in it.
And fifty tons, converted into Ming system, is about 1.34 million taels!
(Note: Of the 300,000 American gold diggers, it was the first 10,000 who really got rich. Gold panning was like going down a river to pick up gold. Although later gold diggers could also pan for gold, their income was several times that of working.
, but the prices there have increased more than ten times, and in the end, it’s better to work. What’s even more ridiculous is that unscrupulous and profiteers raise prices on the ground, for example, when drinking in a pub, the boss only charges gold but not money.)
Zhu Houzhao was very proud: "On a trip to the sea, I brought back more than 260,000 taels of gold. Mr. Yang Ge, are you still worried about the emptiness of the treasury?"
Yang Tinghe wanted to object, but he hesitated. If he objected again, the Ministry of Revenue officials would probably strangle him to death, so he could only bite the bullet and said: "Your Majesty just said that more than 40% of the crew members who went to sea died, and only 40% of the remaining ones were alive."
People are injured and sick. Although gold is valuable, human life is also priceless. We need to reduce the number of times we go to sea. We can just bring back some more gold sand from each trip."
Wang Yuan suddenly said: "Many crew members died because of fresh water pollution. Disciples of the Physics School are studying water storage techniques, which may be able to reduce casualties at sea."
Zhu Houzhao said: "Erlang is determined. If your students can achieve something, I will definitely reward you."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Wang Yuan said.
In the Ming Dynasty, many of the taxes were in kind. Except for the grain that had to be sent to Beijing, many of them became revenue for local officials. They were also divided into categories, such as how many stones of rice, how many stones of wheat, how many stones of millet, how many bundles of grass, and how many kilograms of silk brocade.
How many pieces of silk, how many pieces of cloth...
The tax money that the central government can receive mainly includes household registration notes, miscellaneous classes, salt classes, tea classes, gold and silver classes, etc. - Although the salt tax and tea tax are considered money, some of them are converted into Bumi statistics.
All added up, the taxes (excluding physical goods) received by the central government last year totaled more than 7 million taels of silver. And more than 2 million taels of them were obtained from the successive opening of seas and the rectification of Beiguan, Zhejiang. Otherwise, the central tax revenue would only be
More than 4 million taels of silver - Zhu Houzhao was wondering why the Hangzhou shipping company's tax revenue was so high, while the tax revenue of other maritime shipping companies was far lower.
A trip to the Americas would bring back gold worth 1.6 million taels of silver, which is more than one-fifth of the Ming Dynasty's (currency) annual income!
Who dares to object to going to America?
In addition, if this gold is also included, this year's annual monetary income is likely to exceed nine million taels of silver. Nearly half of it is attributed to Wang Yuan in disguise.
They all say that Wang Yuan is a sycophant. If you were the emperor, and regardless of the great achievements on the battlefield, the central currency tax revenue would almost double, wouldn't you rely on such a minister to trust you?
The central government is no longer short of money, it is just short of food. Disasters in various places have severely depleted food.
Zhu Houzhao is slowly stocking up on grain. He plans to stock up for another year and then go to recapture Daning City next autumn.
Wang Yuan wants to trust him, and Zhu Hai wants to reward him!
Zhu Houzhao suddenly said: "Zhu Hai, the Royal Horse Inspector, has made great achievements in sea exploration. He was promoted to the Royal Horse Inspector, Young Supervisor, and he still supervises the sea exploration fleet. Special gift to Detective Haibo!"
Eunuch knighted?
All civil and military officials were stunned, and then collectively advised: "Your Majesty, think twice!"
Zhu Houzhao added: "From now on, Tanhaibo Zhuhai will not be allowed to hold office in the capital or local areas, but can only supervise overseas affairs. This is the case for all previous Tanhai admirals, and they should be customized for the Ming Dynasty."
"Your Majesty, you are wise!" No one objected this time. As long as you don't mess around at home, it is acceptable for the eunuch to become a count overseas.