Chapter 648 The sensation of the return of the fleet
"Your Majesty, now we have recruited a total of more than 30,000 young people, completing nearly half of the main body of the altar..."
Zhu Houzhao, who was dressed in regular clothes, slowly turned around, his eyes fell on Chen Ding, and he said slowly: "Chen Aiqing, I just want to know how long it will take to complete the altar!"
Chen Ding coughed for a while, and an official nearby quickly supported the swaying Chen Ding. It was obvious that Chen Ding's physical condition was not good.
From the early years of Zhengde to the present, if we also consider the Xiaozong period, Chen Ding has been sitting in the position of Minister of the Ministry of Finance for almost twenty years.
It is very rare to be able to sit in the same position for ten or twenty years. Looking at the government and the public, it is very rare. With Chen Ding's temperament, it is obvious that he has devoted himself to this position, and of course his body has been affected to a certain extent.
Seeing Chen Ding's weak appearance, Zhu Houzhao sighed softly and said to Chen Ding: "My dear, please sit down and have a rest. Didn't I send an imperial doctor to take care of your health?"
After taking a breath, Chen Ding sat down and shook his head towards Zhu Houzhao and said: "I thank you for your concern, I know very well how my health is. The imperial doctor just asked me to put down everything to take care of my body, but this is so
If I don't keep an eye on this big project, I won't be able to sleep peacefully!"
Given Chen Ding's temperament, as he said, if Chen Ding doesn't keep an eye on such a big project, he will definitely not be able to sleep well.
Zhu Hou looked at Chen Ding and said: "Your health is more important. I will send others to supervise this project..."
Although Zhu Houzhao didn't like Chen Ding's temperament very much, there was one thing Zhu Houzhao knew very well, that is, he had searched all over the civil and military dynasties, but no one was more suitable to sit in the position of Minister of Household Affairs than Chen Ding.
Who can be like Chen Ding and sit in such an important position as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue for more than ten or twenty years without being greedy for ink?
You must know that in the national treasury, not to mention other things, the gold and silver that can be mobilized alone is no less than hundreds of millions of taels.
If Chen Ding, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, is willing, he may be able to acquire countless properties with just a little manipulation. However, everyone knows that apart from the property rewarded by the emperor, Chen Ding's family only has that meager amount.
of salary.
Regardless of whether it is Jinyiwei, Dongchang, or Xichang, other officials probably don't need Jinyiwei. If Dongchang fabricates some evidence of corruption and picks out a few officials at random, most of them can find out the problem. But Chen Ding
He is pure and white, with a breeze on his sleeves. He can truly be said to be as clean as water.
Therefore, although the emperor was not happy with Chen Ding, he respected him from the bottom of his heart. After all, there was really no other official like Chen Ding among the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty.
However, before the emperor finished speaking, Chen Ding, who was sitting there, suddenly stood up as if he had been given a shot of blood. This shocked a few people and heard Chen Ding say to the emperor: "
Your Majesty, you promised me that before I take up my official position, I would supervise the repair of the Temple of Heaven for Your Majesty!"
Zhu Houzhao frowned, looked at Chen Ding and couldn't help but hesitated: "But Aiqing, your body..."
Chen Ding couldn't help but stretched out his hand and patted his chest, and said to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, I can still bear it. Besides, although I don't know the purpose of your majesty's repair of this altar, I know that this altar must be of great significance to your majesty."
It is very important. If someone else is to supervise it halfway, I am really afraid that someone will do something in it. If this ruins your majesty's important affairs, I will definitely be responsible for my death!"
Zhu Houzhao narrowed his eyes and looked at Chen Ding who was bowing. To be honest, if this matter is really left to others to handle, even if the people from Dongchang and Jinyiwei are watching, Zhu Houzhao won't be too relieved.
After all, if the officials below want to take bribes and take bribes, and even if there are Dongchang and Jinyiwei watching over them, they may not be able to avoid those who are interested.
But Chen Ding is different. With Chen Ding's decades of experience in running the Household Department, anyone who wants to do anything to build the altar will never escape Chen Ding's eyes.
After pondering for a long time, Zhu Houzhao couldn't resist Chen Ding's request. In addition, he attached great importance to the altar. Zhu Houzhao nodded towards Chen Ding and said: "I can promise Aiqing, and still let Aiqing be responsible for everything about the altar, but Aiqing must also promise me."
A request."
Chen Ding nodded and said, "Whatever your Majesty requires, I must comply with it."
Zhu Houzhao said slowly: "I have no other requirements, but my beloved must agree to me, follow the advice of the imperial doctor, and rest as much as possible."
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao turned to Wang Zhengdao beside him: "Prince Wang, take note of this, and remember to pass on my oral instructions to the imperial physician later, asking him to send the best imperial physician to take personal care of Chen Aiqing."
Upon hearing this, Chen Ding couldn't help but said anxiously: "Your Majesty, minister..."
Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and said to Chen Ding: "If Aiqing still wants to be responsible for the altar affairs, then you can follow my arrangements. Otherwise, Aiqing should take off her burden first and take care of herself."
Under Zhu Houzhao's threat, Chen Ding had no choice but to comply even though he was reluctant.
Nodding slightly, Zhu Houzhao looked at Chen Ding and said, "Chen Aiqing, according to your estimate, how long will it take to repair this altar?"
Chen Ding raised his eyebrows, lowered his head and pondered. It could be seen that Chen Ding was probably calculating the time in his mind. When Chen Ding raised his head, several people's eyes naturally fell on Chen Ding.
"Your Majesty, according to my estimate, if you want to completely complete the altar, I'm afraid it will take more than half a year."
If we count the time that has been spent, then it took almost a year to complete this altar.
In one year, tens of thousands of young and strong laborers were used to repair an altar. You can imagine how majestic this altar must be.
Just looking at it now, although the altar that is dozens of feet high cannot be said to be towering into the clouds, it is still very eye-catching. Every day, many people come here to watch it from a distance.
Fortunately, in order to prevent any trouble, the imperial court specially dispatched a group of guards to guard the place. Under the surrounding blockade, they managed to stop some people who were trying to approach the altar. Otherwise, I don't know how many people would have gone there.
People were watching in front of the towering altar.
Zhu Houzhao nodded slightly. To be honest, Zhu Houzhao didn't think the time it would take was too long. He could afford to wait for a year, and besides, he still needed to wait for news about a fleet that was going on an expedition.
With the help of the small altar of luck, Zhu Houzhao could detect changes in the luck he gathered at any time.
With Zhu Houzhao's intelligence, he could naturally figure out which way to gather luck the fastest.
He enfeoffed kings overseas and destroyed countless countries. Each of these actions brought him a huge amount of luck, and the number continued to increase.
In order to gather enough luck to achieve his purpose, even if the altar was successfully repaired, Zhu Houzhao would not act rashly if the amount of luck was not achieved.
Under this situation, Zhu Houzhao was not really too anxious about the speed of the altar's repair. To be honest, what Zhu Houzhao was most concerned about was not the speed of the altar, but the speed of expansion by Yu Dayou, Xu Tianzuo and others who were on an expedition.
While Zhu Houzhao was talking with several important ministers in the pavilion, a burst of fast horses came and a messenger came in a hurry.
"Your Majesty, the navy is reporting urgently!"
Wang Zheng stepped forward, took the urgent report from the courier, and then handed it to Zhu Houzhao carefully.
Zhu Houzhao glanced over, with a bit of curiosity on his face, because this letter was jointly signed by Yu Dayou, Qi Jingtong, Yue Buqun and others.
Zhu Houzhao was naturally deeply impressed by Yu Dayou, Qi Jingtong, Yue Buqun and others. It can be said that all of these people were discovered by Chu Yi, and they were deeply imprinted by Chu Yi.
Otherwise, Zhu Houzhao would not have thought so highly of Yu Dayou and Yue Buqun.
With the reform of the military system, although not many generals with great general talents emerged in the army, there were still many generals. Even if there were generals who were more capable of commanding troops than Qi Jingtong, Zhu Houzhao didn't care much.
After all, there are too many generals in the army, but not many can really get into Zhu Houzhao's sight. Obviously Qi Jingtong, Yu Dayou and others all have the imprint of Chu Yi, so Zhu Houzhao looks at these people differently.
For a long time, news about Yu Dayou's fleet has been intermittent. The intermittent news made the civil and military officials of the entire court couldn't help but worry that one day, there would be no more news about this fleet.
Opening the letter, Zhu Houzhao scanned the contents of the letter, his expression changed greatly, and he even couldn't help but exclaimed.
With Zhu Houzhao's determination, it would be difficult for him to be moved even by big things, but now that Zhu Houzhao was so rude, it naturally attracted the attention of Wang Yangming and other important ministers who were standing aside.
Everyone's eyes naturally fell on the letter. Even fools knew that the reason why the emperor was so rude must be because of the content in the letter.
I don’t know what the content of this is that makes Zhu Houzhao lose his composure.
He slowly handed the letter to Wang Yangming, who was full of curiosity. Wang Yangming just took a look at it and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Okay, okay, that's great."
The content of the letter is the great news that Yu Dayou, Qi Jingtong and others have reported victory.
Of course, if it was just news of victory, it would be impossible for Zhu Houzhao, Wang Yangming and others to react like this. After all, there were several fleets of the Ming Dynasty outside. I dare not say that news of victory came every day, at least every month.
In this case, the mere report of victory was not enough to attract the attention of the court. As for the emperor and Wang Yangming, it was obviously impossible to be moved by these.
Needless to say, what really shocked them was the massive wealth that Yu Dayou and the others collected after conquering the Kingdom of Spain.
No matter how determined the emperor and Wang Yangming were, they couldn't help but be moved when they saw the gold and silver property mentioned in the letter, which exceeded 300 million taels.
Wang Yangming was the most cautious person. Looking at the contents of the letter, he couldn't help but said to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, this...is this a bit too exaggerated? Will Yu Dayou and the others falsely report their military exploits?"
It was out of caution that Wang Yangming had such suspicion. As Minister of the Ministry of War, Wang Yangming admired Yu Dayou and Qi Jingtong quite a lot. The more so, the more Wang Yangming did not want anything to happen to Yu Dayou and the others, so he was watching
When it came to that scary figure, Wang Yangming took the initiative to clarify his suspicions. It seemed that he was targeting a few people, but in fact he was protecting a few people.
Zhu Houzhao was actually a little skeptical, but after listening to Wang Yangming's words, Zhu Houzhao slowly shook his head and said: "I believe in Yu Dayou, Qi Jingtong and the others!"
While speaking, Zhu Houzhao said: "The letter has already mentioned the loot they captured and that the King of Spain has boarded the ship. Now that the letter has arrived in the capital, even if the fleet returning with the loot is slower, I think there will be another period.
It’s time to arrive.”
After reading the letter, Wang Yangming forwarded it to Chen Ding who was standing aside.
Chen Ding was old, but his eyes were bright. When he saw the letter, Chen Ding couldn't help shaking his hands and said in a trembling voice: "How is this possible? There are more than 300 million taels of gold and silver. Yu Dayou and the others
Is this a gold mine?"
Chen Ding's hands were trembling, and he couldn't help crying when he saw the letter.
Seeing Chen Ding crying, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but said: "Why is Aiqing like this?"
While crying, Chen Ding said to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, I am very excited. If we can get these hundreds of millions of gold and silver, then the increasingly serious silver shortage in our Ming Dynasty will be greatly alleviated."
The Ming Dynasty was a land of vast resources and had a large population. The more prosperous the business, the more massive amounts of gold and silver were needed to circulate in the market. Otherwise, if there was not enough gold and silver circulating in the market, the normal and stable development of the Ming Dynasty's economy would be greatly affected.
The Ming Dynasty lacked gold and silver, especially silver as a currency in circulation. It was really extremely scarce. Other officials may not be able to feel this, but Chen Ding, who was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, felt the deepest.
So when Chen Ding saw the letter mentioning that hundreds of millions of silver and gold would be brought back to the Ming Dynasty, how could he not be delighted?
Nodding slightly, Zhu Houzhao nodded towards Chen Ding, with some expectation in his heart.
Half a month later, a huge fleet appeared in Tianjin Wei Port. Needless to say, this fleet was the same fleet that had returned from the Kingdom of Spain and had been floating on the sea for half a year, escorting the spoils of war.
.
There are hundreds of ships, and most of them are of the Western style. Needless to say, these ships are the ships that Yu Dayou and the others captured after they occupied Spain.
Even though Yu Dayou and the others have hundreds of ships under their command, excluding the battleships, there are hundreds of ships in the auxiliary logistics fleet.
But if we really want to transport so much loot back to the Ming Dynasty, we will probably have to dispatch hundreds of ships responsible for logistics supplies.
If you really want to do this, I am afraid that Yu Dayou will not be able to pass the test first. Without the support of the logistics fleet, the Ming Dynasty fleet alone has hundreds of battleships, but a fleet without logistics is simply a moving target.
Normally, if you encounter a fleet at any time, it will be completely wiped out.
But this is not a problem for Yu Dayou and the others. Don't forget that the Kingdom of Spain is a maritime power. What Yu Dayou and the others plundered were not just gold, silver, jade and jewelry, but also ships.
Not to mention the hundreds of merchant ships, large and small, captured in the ports of the Strait of Gibraltar, the number of ships captured by the nobles reached thousands.
Fortunately, there were such a group of captured ships. Otherwise, if they really wanted to transport so much gold and silver property back to the Ming Dynasty, Yu Dayou and the others would really have to use all the logistics fleets.
The Ming court and the emperor, who had already received the news in advance, attached great importance to the fleet coming from overseas. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao sent Wang Yangming, known as the second assistant of the Ming Dynasty, to come to Tianjin in person to welcome the fleet back.
