When the great road is lost, there is benevolence and righteousness. When wisdom arises, there is great hypocrisy.
When the six relatives are at odds, there are filial piety and kindness. When the country is in chaos, there are loyal ministers.
Saints come from troubled times!
Everyone in Dengzhou City who came to attend the Zhengdan Dynasty had such a feeling.
A saint came out of Ming Dynasty.
If the Ming Dynasty had not been in ruins, how could this saint have emerged? And if Zhu Yihai had not been a saint, how could he have brought the collapsed Ming Dynasty back to life within two years and wiped out the Tatars so quickly? Are you losing ground every time?
Must be a saint.
A saint is born, and the Ming Dynasty is in sight.
No matter who came to Dengzhou in person and looked at the young Tomorrow Son, they all expressed such emotion.
I even couldn't help but think of some folk rumors. For example, when the Qing army went south a few years ago, the Holy Emperor was slashed three times by the Tatars who invaded the Lu Fan King's City. The scar on his body happened to be a golden dragon.
The Crown Prince of Joseon also publicly identified himself in the Golden Palace and read the Creed of Joseon to the emperor in person.
Which is blunt.
"Our country has served the dynasty for more than two hundred years, and its status has been determined long ago without any objections. The Tartars invaded Korea twice and oppressed our country. Although our country is weak and famous for its etiquette, we dare not let down the dynasty in the slightest. Although we were The Tartars captured my capital and threatened my king, but they endured the humiliation and did not dare to betray the dynasty for a moment.
Will our country and the Celestial Dynasty, the country of father and son, survive in a critical situation and change the relationship between our ministers?
The way of heaven is far away, but it has its ups and downs.
From now on, our country will send troops to the Northern Expedition to avenge the captives and protect the Ming Dynasty forever!"
Zhu Yihai certainly did not expose the obviously self-glorifying words of the Crown Prince of Joseon. After all, although it was true that North Korea surrendered to the Tatars, they did resist twice, but in the end even the Crown Prince was captured, and the king's ministers were all The people around us are going to starve to death, and there is no other way to surrender.
However, the resentment of the Korean King Li Zhu and the crown prince Li Hao towards the Tatars and their loyalty to the Ming Dynasty are also facts.
In particular, they had proved it with actual actions before. Not only did they kill the crown prince who was devoted to the Tatars, but they also sent food to the Ming Dynasty and assisted in the capture of Dengzhou. These are all clear proofs.
Now Geng Zhongming reopened Dongjiang Town, stationed in Pidao, and opened up farmland in nearby North Korea. The Imperial Camp of the Ming Dynasty also captured Zhenjiang and other places on the other side of the Yalu River and garrisoned troops.
At this time, North Korea had the two major military groups of the Ming Dynasty guarding the mouth of the Yalu River, and the Ming army controlled the Liaonan Peninsula. The entire Liaodong Sea, including the Yalu River, was basically taken over by the Ming army.
Under such circumstances, North Korea can be said to have no worries at all.
Before the Crown Prince and his entourage came to the Ming Dynasty, North Korea had already launched a military operation. They launched a surprise attack on the Tatar envoys and Manchu soldiers stationed in North Korea, surrounded them, and hacked them all to death. This time the Crown Prince came, So he even brought the heads of these soldiers to ask for credit and reward.
In addition to the heads of the Tatars, the prince also transferred the old coins from Korea that were supposed to be handed over to the Qing court as tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
In addition to the old coins originally given to the Qing Dynasty, this time the North Korean mission was very large and brought a large amount of North Korean goods. They came for trade. There were not only official trade delegations, but also many private traders, because the Ming Dynasty had already given the money to the Qing Dynasty. North Korea has said that it will allow liberalization of trade and will no longer restrict trade between North Korean officials and citizens, so this time North Korea took the opportunity to form a large group.
When the Qing army invaded North Korea and forced North Korea to pay tribute, they first formed an alliance of brothers, and later made them vassals. The list of annual coins was also changed repeatedly.
North Korea is also miserable. This is not a tribute trade, but a yearly coin. It is a unilateral tribute and there is no reward in return.
Every year, Korea must pay tribute to the Qing court, including one hundred taels of gold, one thousand taels of silver, one thousand bolts of cotton, one thousand bolts of linen, ten thousand bolts of fine cloth, one hundred mink skins, fifty leopard skins, four hundred otter skins, and one hundred buffalo horns.
Deputy, two hundred catties of hematoxylin, a thousand rolls of large paper, a thousand rolls of secondary paper, five hundred rolls of frosty paper, a thousand rolls of white tissue paper, one fine mat with dragon pattern, one hundred flower mats, one stone of pepper, and two hundred pieces of green leather.
, twenty waist knives, twenty sharp knives, one hundred horn bows, one thousand bags of usnea tea, ten bushels each of yellow millet, jujube, ginkgo, etc., fifty sticks of dried persimmons, ten thousand bags of rice...
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North Korea began to pay Sui coins to the Qing court in the first year of Tiancong. Until last year, it had paid Sui coins for many years. Although North Korea often found various reasons to pay less, but in general, it did not give less.
.
After the Tatars became more powerful, they also began to reduce the annual currency of North Korea, but they changed from plundering at the beginning to being lenient.
But no matter how you reduce it, this is a unilateral tribute after all. Compared with the previous tribute trade with the Ming Dynasty, you can still earn a little, so it is a net payment.
So now that North Korea has the opportunity to get rid of the Tatars, of course it will not hesitate.
This time the prince came to pay tribute, and it was also the first time that tribute was officially resumed.
The tribute sent was more than what the Tatars asked for.
The prince read the list of tributes loudly in the palace, feeling very proud.
"Our country, Korea, pays a tribute of one thousand taels of gold and ten thousand taels of silver to the Heavenly Kingdom.
Three thousand pieces of cotton, five thousand pieces of linen, and ten thousand pieces of fine cloth.
Thirty tiger skins, a hundred leopard skins, three hundred mink skins, a thousand otter skins, and three hundred buffalo horns.
Five hundred catties of sappan wood and ten stones of pepper.
One thousand rolls of frosty paper, three thousand rolls of white tissue paper, ten fine mats with dragon patterns, and three hundred flower mats.
A thousand waist knives, a thousand horn bows, two thousand bags of usnea tea, etc.
Another 30,000 bags of rice and 8,000 catties of Korean ginseng..."
The tribute list is very long and the items are very good.
Real money and silver, all good stuff.
Of course, Zhu Yihai was not too happy, because he knew very well that North Korea did give him face, but not all of these things were gifts. North Korea had been trading privately with Ming Dynasty for half a year, and the trade between Ming Dynasty and North Korea was very prosperous.
North Korea has benefited a lot, so they have already tasted the benefits.
Ming Dynasty also specifically told North Korea in advance that the court would give rewards in return for this tribute. This means that it is still a tribute trade and will not make you lose money. You can exchange what you have, and even reduce some tariffs, etc. than usual.
Don’t give away more benefits in trade.
So North Korea actually came here to harvest wool, and took advantage of this rare opportunity to organize a large fleet of goods, which were actually all for sale.
Zhu Yihai actually welcomes it. Trade, after all, is international trade. Many things are scarce and you don't have to worry about selling them once they are shipped.
On the imperial side, if the Ministry of Internal Affairs eats the goods from North Korea and then sells them on the market, they can still make a lot of money.
The imperial court had already received North Korea's tribute, and had already planned what it would give in return.
So in the main hall, the chamberlain took the credentials of North Korea and their tribute list, and then the minister of Guanglu Temple came out and read out the imperial court's reward to North Korea in the hall.
It is also very rich.
From merchant ships, gunboats to muskets, from armor to ammunition, there are also tea, porcelain, silk, cotton, cane sugar, medicine, rice paper, etc.
There are even dragon-patterned silver coins, copper coins, Shaotian Tongbao copper coins, gold, silver and jade articles, jewelry, etc.
The list of items given back by the emperor is equally rich, and even the corresponding market value price is specially marked at the end of each item.
There is absolutely no false mark, the real market price.
North Korea's tribute items are worth nearly 200,000 taels of silver, of which the eight thousand jins of Korean ginseng is now worth 80,000 taels in the market. This stuff was rarely sold to the Ming Dynasty before, because the Japanese country basically underwrote it.
Japanese people like Korean ginseng the most and are very superstitious. They think it can cure all diseases, so they buy as much as they can.
A pound of ginseng sells for ten taels of silver, which is not usually available. This is an ordinary ginseng.
This time, the King of Joseon also spent a lot of money to acquire a lot of Korean ginseng in the country. He formed a Korean ginseng group with two groups of nobles in the country to wrap up the business.
Even gold and silver were procured in large quantities.
Zhu Yihai's gift in return far exceeded 200,000 taels of silver.
Of course, Zhu Yihai is not at a loss.
Because most of what North Korea got were raw materials or preliminary processed items, but what Zhu Yihai gave in return were mostly processed goods with high added value.
For example, North Korea sent gold and silver, and Zhu Yihai gave back gold and silver jewelry, as well as minted silver coins, copper coins, copper coins, etc. After being processed by the Mint, these items were very profitable.
Just like the dragon-patterned silver coins that are currently circulating in large quantities, one piece has a face value of one or two grained silver. The grained silver is the unit of account, and the specified fineness is more than 93.5. The fineness of other colors of silver is different, and they are all converted according to the grained silver fineness standard, or the water premium or precipitation
.
Theoretically, one hundred silver dollars should be equal to ninety-three taels and five cents of silver, and six and a half cents per hundred silver dollars equals one hundred taels of silver. However, in fact, the fineness of the Shaotian dragon-patterned silver dollar is eighty-nine, which is lower than the nine-three-five-pattern silver.
This is actually a coin sharpening. Silver is added to copper to make a silver dollar of eight or nine fineness. The result is that it is circulated at one tael of face value without any further premium.
The 10,000 taels of silver that North Korea paid as tribute were calculated based on the premium of the silver pattern, but Zhu Yihai's gift of silver coins with the dragon pattern in return was calculated based on the face value. This was a real profit.
He also gave back copper dollars and coins. These minted coins were more profitable.
As for other merchant ships, gunboats, muskets, and ammunition, not to mention, for example, cotton armor made in Zhejiang costs about eight taels of silver, but it is definitely impossible to sell it for only eight taels, so the friendly price is twelve taels.
You only earn four taels per set, but the price is increased by 50%. The more you sell, the more you earn.
Or merchant ships or gunboats, the profits will be even greater.
Zhu Yihai also gave North Korea a lot of silk in return, but did not give them raw silk, because processed silk fabrics have higher added value and greater profits.
If you sell raw silk or cooked silk directly, you will make a lot less.
In addition, Zhu Yihai sells processed medicines or prepared medicinal materials, not raw materials.
We sell books, not paper, but only the highest-grade rice paper.
Others, such as porcelain and tea, are all high-end goods. The cheap ones are not up to the grade and will not be rewarded.
A pound of high-grade tea from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty costs two to three taels per pound, and the top-grade tea leaves cost two to three taels a pound. This is a top-grade luxury tea.
Zhu Yihai gave back tea to North Korea, so he got a lot of tea worth two or three liang per catty, and the rest were mostly twenty or three cents per catty, and he didn't get the kind that cost a few cents per catty at all.
The usnea tea that the Koreans paid tribute to was actually exported by the Ming Dynasty and originated from Xiuning in Huangshan Mountain.
This batch of reciprocal gifts planned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is still very high-end, with a total value of more than 200,000 taels, which directly makes the North Koreans earn tens of thousands of taels.
But the Ming Dynasty definitely won't lose. Eight thousand kilograms of ginseng and 30,000 bags of rice are worth 120,000 to 30,000 taels of silver. There are also real gold and silver, etc. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has estimated that this batch of goods can be sold quickly.
It can also be processed more carefully and sold at a higher price.
In short, if you only get this batch of goods from North Korea, you can make a small profit of 100,000 taels by reselling or processing them.
The goods from Daming were said to be worth more than 200,000 taels. In fact, the actual cost was only around 100,000 taels. The quoted market price had actually doubled.
So on the surface, it seems that the Ming Dynasty used good things worth more than 200,000 taels in return for the tribute of more than 100,000 taels paid by North Korea. In fact, the real situation is exactly the opposite.
It is possible to resell goods worth more than 200,000 yuan or even nearly 300,000 yuan.
On the other hand, these return goods can also promote the business of processors of silk, porcelain, books, medicinal materials, gold and silver, and expand demand.
It can even be exchanged for now precious food, cloth, etc.
Anyway, it was a very cost-effective deal, and envoys from various countries watched the father and son of Ming Dynasty and North Korea singing harmony, who would not be envious or jealous.
They don't know that there are so many secrets here, and they don't know how to calculate so accurately. They just know that North Korea's tributes in exchange for rewards are always profitable.
Each one of them even began to regret that the tributes they brought this time were too small.
If you pay little tribute, you will receive little reward.
If this is as harsh a tribute as North Korea, then the rewards in return will be quite astonishing.
pity.
Pity.
regret.
Countless people looked at Emperor Shaotian on the throne. At this time, they felt even more that this was a great saint. Not only was he a great saint, they even had the urge to write a letter to the country right away.
The content has been thought out.
You are stupid, you have a lot of money, come quickly!