Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1748 Aiding Korea and Fighting the Japanese ([-]) People from the Gao Family
After talking about the matters in Japan, Liu Xin arranged for Jia Feiji to look at the intelligence file, but Liu Xin didn't take her there, but arranged for Intelligence Secretary Gao Qi to lead Jia Feiji to the Secretariat archives.

Gao Qi was born in the fifth house of the Gao family. His father, Gao Wuben, was Gao Yushi's cousin.Gao Qi was only four years younger than Gao Yushi, but he was a nephew, so he kept his head down when leading the way for Narita Kai, for fear of being impolite.

He had made several speeches in the pre-war military conference during the previous war against Yuan, and his performance was not bad. His cousin Gao Shishi admired him quite a lot, and he gave him more work in the area of ​​intelligence.

Gao Qi is very concerned about Gao Yushi's perception of him, so he is also very concerned about his image in his cousin's mind. Even though Narita Kai is just like a wife and not a wife, he still behaves well and behaves well as a junior.

In fact, Gao Qi doesn't quite understand Gao Wushi's reliance on his wives and concubines to handle Jinghua's internal affairs. According to his thinking, even if the Jinghua family has a big business, some affairs with wide-ranging influence are not suitable for the family to handle, so let Gao Family relatives are fine, why do you have to give it to wives and concubines?The Gao family is not a small family, it has as many as six rooms!

From Gao Qi’s standpoint of cousin Gao’s pragmatism, even though most of his uncles (Gao Gong’s generation) are old, he has five brothers, five cousins, and more than ten nephews and cousins. There are already seven adult children and nephews—with so many people, is it afraid that no one is available?

But Gao Pragmatic doesn’t seem to think so. Although most of his brothers are also reused by him, even Gao Mengnan, who is the most valued among them, is only the chief assistant of Siam. , Sukhothai Chao Phraya", where "Chao Phraya" is roughly equivalent to a duke], and is not in charge of military duties.

Gao Wushi's power in southern Xinjiang is quite scattered on the whole, and the only person with centralized power is his wife Huang Zhiting.Although Huang Zhiting's power itself has limitations, after all she is the only one who can detach herself from exercising power at the level of "countries", which shows her highly pragmatic "preference".

For Jinghua, although southern Xinjiang is the most important direct control area, it is still considered a "local" after all. However, in the "center" of Jinghua, the power structure is also very "abnormal".

If Gao Mo's status in Jinghua's "center" is equivalent to "inner minister", then who is Jinghua's "chief assistant"?That's right, it's Liu Xin, the Secretary-General.In Gao Qi's view, although Liu Xin is not the uncle's wife and concubine, the relationship between her and the uncle has always been close and delicate... Maybe except that they never share the same bed, there is no difference at all in other aspects.

In this way, Jinghua has the three most important positions besides Tang Shu himself, one is his woman, the other is basically "his woman", and the remaining one is Gao Mo who is older.

Gao Qi always felt that once Gao Mo was unable to do anything, who would take over the Ministry of Internal Affairs would greatly affect the future power structure of Jinghua.As a member of the Gao family, and also happens to be the intelligence secretary, he must fight for this position, lest the status of the Gao family member be inferior to that of the servant of the Sixth House in the future.

Narita Kai also noticed that the nephew in front of her was extremely cautious towards her, but at the moment she was concentrating on completing the task assigned by her husband, and she didn't know much about the internal situation in Jinghua, so although she felt a little weird, she also Didn't pay much attention.

Gao Qi carefully found the corresponding files in the archives of the secretariat, and ordered someone to prepare pens, ink, papers and inkstones, and then withdrew, leaving Narita Kai to study quietly in the archives and make the necessary records as she thought.Kaiji expressed her gratitude in Japanese style, and then stayed in the room to study carefully.

Two flowers bloom, each representing a branch.After Jia Feiji left, only Gao Wushi, Liu Xin, Meng Gu Zhezhe and Gao Mo, who had remained silent, were left in the small restaurant.Needless to say, Gao Mo's habits, as long as Gao Yushi didn't speak, he almost never took the initiative to speak, and stood aside like a wooden man.

Liu Xin asked: "Let's stop talking about the affairs of Japan today. Shall I report some recent important affairs of Jinghua?"

Gao Wushi pinched his eyebrows and said, "Don't be busy with other internal affairs. I just heard from Meng Gu that Nurhachi sent someone to contact Jinghua. Is there such a thing?"

"It is true." Liu Xin said: "And this matter was just received yesterday - Nurhachi contacted Jinghua Liaoyang a few days ago, and proposed that he is willing to lead his troops to participate in the battle against the Japanese army in North Korea."

Gao Wushi pondered for a moment and asked, "What request does he have?"

"He seems to have a Han Chinese staff officer under him. His words are very obscure, but the meaning is quite clear: he hopes to get the agency right to trade North Korean ginseng after the end of the war."

Gao Wushi was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help laughing: "Aha, he has some ideas, and he wants to monopolize ginseng?" Then he shook his head and said, "My previous layout was to prevent him from monopolizing ginseng." Trade, but this guy has not given up until now, he is not even satisfied with Manchuria, and even wants to get involved in Korean ginseng, it is really unsatisfactory."

Regarding this matter, Meng Gu Zhezhe, who had been quiet until now, actually had something to say. She said cautiously: "My lord, speaking of this matter, my brother also sent news that Nurhachi has won the second division of Changbai Mountain (a total of three divisions, Nurhachi took over the Yalujiang and Zhusheli tribes, and the remaining Nayin tribes took refuge in Yehe, remained independent but accepted Yehe's protection), and probably have mastered about [-]% of the output of Manchurian ginseng."

The "about [-]%" mentioned by Meng Gu Zhezhe is basically in the highly pragmatic estimation range, because Changbai Mountain was originally one of the main production areas of Liaodong ginseng. Most of the remaining half.

Now he occupies two of the three Changbai Mountain tribes, and the remaining Nayin tribe is the smallest of the three tribes, and the output is of course lower. In this way, it is not surprising that Nurhachi accounts for [-]% of the output of Liaodong ginseng. .

However, accounting for [-]% of the output is not what Meng Gu Zhezhe is most eager to tell Gao Yushi at this time. She then mentioned a more important issue: "After Ye He followed her husband to conquer the Yuan, Nurhachi greatly reduced the sales of ginseng. My brother It is said that the ginseng received by Ye He has been reduced by at least half compared to previous years."

When Gao Wushi heard this, he immediately knew that the situation had changed.It seems that Nurhachi has already worked out the method of cooking and sunning, and one of the most important methods used to suppress him has been lost.

There are many ways to suppress Nurhachi in the past, and the most simple and effective economic method is to fight a time war in the ginseng trade. This starts with the preservation method of ginseng.

The excavation procedure and technology of ginseng are very complicated, and after being dug out, it must be washed with water, so it is very easy to mold and deteriorate in humid climate conditions.Previously, most of the Jurchens did not master a method of storing ginseng that could be stored for a long time without decomposing, so it took a long time to dig out ginseng, and it was inevitable that it would become moldy and deteriorate.

Naturally, this washed and damp ginseng is very heavy when weighed. If it can be sold in time, it will naturally be more profitable.But the businessmen of Ming Dynasty were not fools either. They took advantage of the fact that wet ginseng was prone to mold, and tried their best to lower the price when purchasing.

Especially under the hint of Jinghua, the commercial overlord, they either "pretend not to want to market", or "delay due to wetness".As a result, the ginseng nestled in the hands of Nurhachi Jianzhou Zuowei may rot and deteriorate in large quantities at any time. The worst case was that more than 2 catties were rotten at once—that is, Nurhachi won the Yalu River and Zhusheli. Later, when it was sanctioned by Ming Dynasty.

However, once Nurhachi mastered the method of boiling and drying, this best routine in the past will be invalid, because ginseng can be stored for a long time from then on.

However, Gao Wushi also had predictions about this matter. After all, this matter is recorded in Volume [-] of "Records of Emperor Wu of the Qing Dynasty": In the past (nǎng) time, he was sold to participate in the Ming Dynasty and soaked with water.Daming people feel wet and postpone it.Chinese people are afraid that the water ginseng will not last long, so they sell it urgently, and the price is cheap.Taizu wanted to cook it and dry it in the sun, but the kings and ministers refused.Taizu didn't take advantage of the public opinion, so he boiled and dried it, and sold it slowly, and the price was doubled.

It is not difficult to see that Nurhachi's method is actually not difficult. There are two points: one is to blanch in boiling water first, which may have a bactericidal effect and prevent mold growth; It is longer and can be "sold slowly", so in history, Daming's suppression of Nurhachi in the ginseng trade has lost its effect.

But there is a problem here. In the original history, Nurhachi seems to have come up with this method around 1605. If he has mastered it now, it means that this technology has been advanced by about 13 years, but I don’t know why—maybe it is It is because Gao Pragmatic's suppression is more ruthless than in the original history, which in turn forced Nurhachi to study in advance and succeeded.

Gao Wushi explained his deduction, and Liu Xin said after hearing it: "In this way, the agency right of Korean ginseng cannot be handed over to Nurhachi, otherwise we are equivalent to enemies."

Gao Wushi nodded lightly, but couldn't help frowning, saying: "But now that North Korea is fighting hard, the supply of Korean ginseng will definitely have a big problem, and the output of ginseng will drop. If Nurhachi does this again, The price of Liao ginseng must rise sharply—the increase in his profit is already a certainty.”

Nurhachi was identified as the father-killing enemy by Yehe and Baylor, and Meng Gu Zhezhe also hated him deeply. When he heard this, he was very unhappy and kept silent.

Liu Xin glanced at her, pondered for a while, and said to Gao Wushi, "You said...can you restrict the purchase of ginseng?"

"It can be restricted, but it won't have any good effect. It will only encourage smuggling." Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "You have to know that this is not the era of the rule of law, and there are many ways to smuggle. Once the imperial court orders restrictions, the entire Liaodong will become a gathering place for smugglers, and the imperial court can't catch them at all."

When he said that, Liu Xin also understood.It is indeed incomparable with the future generations. The border is so long, and the imperial court is amazing to block a few important roads, but there are countless small roads for smugglers to take, and they can smuggle in pieces.

Moreover, the imperial court restricts the purchase of ginseng, but the demand for ginseng will not decrease, which means that the price of ginseng will increase because it is more rare.This in turn increases the profit of smuggling and stimulates more unscrupulous businessmen to smuggle—a vicious circle.

Gao Wushi said: "In theory, if you want to suppress the price of ginseng at this time, you must either promote the uselessness of ginseng, or increase the supply of ginseng. Even if the former is implemented, it will not be effective overnight. The latter...at least It will only be possible after the recovery of northern North Korea.”

In this case, Liu Xin had no choice but to think of another way, so she said: "Nurhachi wants to send troops to North Korea... Is it possible to take advantage of it?"

Gao Wushi heard the string song and knew the elegance, raised his eyebrows and said: "You mean that the imperial court agreed to him first, but refused to admit it after the battle? But this is impossible. After all, the imperial court is the imperial court, and reputation is always important."

"Then what if he ignores his proposal?" Liu Xin said: "Fight hard on the battlefield, try to recover the ginseng production area in northern North Korea earlier, and then fight a price war with him?"

Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "It's not that easy. The imperial court has decided to deal with Cao Jun and Yang Yinglong first. The Korean affairs can only be left to Li Rusong for the time being. The large-scale dispatch of troops will be at least after the spring of next year."

Meng Gu Zhezhe couldn't help asking: "Why don't you just send troops to destroy Nurhachi?"

Uh... Gao Yushi was a little speechless, and thought to himself: I can't tell you that Nurhachi is kept so that Jurchen will never have an overlord, right?If Nurhachi is gone now, Ye He will have no constraints in Manchuria. Wouldn't I be aiming at your two elder brothers?

At this time, Liu Xin smiled and said, "There is always a priority in everything. Now that North Korea is in dire straits, and Ming Dynasty has just fought a big battle, how can we move Jianzhou Zuowei at this time?

Besides, the imperial court is the imperial court after all, and it cannot be punished without teaching—although Nurhachi is not a good person, what he has done so far has not yet reached the point where he must be punished.

In addition, he took the initiative to ask to play this time, and to a certain extent, he was also showing favor to the court.At this time, no matter whether the imperial court accepts it or rejects it, at least they can't attack him in reverse, right? "

What she said made the truth open and above board, and Meng Gu Zhezhe could only keep silent after hearing it.Gao Wushi thought for a while, and suddenly said: "It is indeed unrealistic to conquer Nurhachi now, but if it is just to make Nurhachi unlucky, then we can think of a way."

Sure enough, Meng Gu Zhezhe's eyes lit up, while Liu Xin laughed and said, "I knew that our Hou Ye would not see 'people from my Gao family' being wronged...how, what kind of magic tricks does Hou Ye plan to use to deceive Nurhachi?" Send troops, and fight head-on with the main force of the Japanese army?"

Meng Gu Zhezhe heard her say "people from my Gao family" very seriously, he couldn't help but think of what happened before the meal, his face turned red immediately, he lowered his head and dared not speak.
-
Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Old West of Altay", "Cao Mianzi", "Lu Senah", "Kseelek" for their monthly support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)