Da Ming started to ascend the throne

Chapter 773
On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, the palace became even more busy.

"Peach charm boards, general charcoal, and door gods are planted beside the door", "paintings of the gods of fortune, ghost judgment, and Zhong Kui are hung indoors", "eight treasures of gold and silver, scripture wheels of Western Fan are hung on the bed, or yellow coins are braided like dragons", "eaves Sesame stalks are inserted in the couplets, and cypress branches are burned in the courtyard, which is called "Sui".

On this day, Zhu Youjian ordered the prince to go to various imperial tombs in Changping to offer sacrifices.

At the same time, the emperor will also hold a grand "祫祭" ceremony in Taimiao and Shimiao.

The so-called "祫祭" is to enshrine the tablets of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty in the Taimiao and hold a joint sacrifice.

At five o'clock on the first day of the first lunar month, the palace would get up early, burn incense and firecrackers, drink pepper wine, and eat dumplings.

They will also secretly wrap silver money in the dumplings, "the one who gets it will be lucky for a year."

After these activities are over, the emperor will also issue an order for the princes to pay homage to the various imperial tombs in Changping again.

Next, the emperor will come to the Huangji Hall to hold a grand court meeting.

At this time, civil and military officials and the envoys of the four barbarians gave congratulatory gifts to the emperor.

The Grand Court Meeting in Fengtian Temple is very spectacular. Both civil and military officials and foreign envoys will participate, which highlights the majesty of the emperor and the status of the Ming Dynasty as the "kingdom of heaven".

Then Zhu Youjian gave a banquet and directly rewarded festival money.

Civil and military officials will also go to Wenhua Hall to congratulate the crown prince.

The next day, I will enter the palace to congratulate my relatives in Beijing.

After that, there is a "New Year's greeting" among officials.

In fact, the way the emperors of the Ming Dynasty celebrate the New Year is almost the same as that of the previous dynasties. They all embody the spirit of respecting the heaven and the ancestors and the majesty of the royal family.

Today is very different from the past. During the Chinese New Year, Zhu Cihong also got married according to the order, and married Zhang Min, the daughter of the British Duke, into the James Mansion.

During the Spring Festival, Zhu Youjian was very busy.

Ten days passed quickly, and all the yamen of Ming Dynasty had to officially start the new year's work.

Don't look at the fact that the envoys of the four countries almost died in a short period of ten days' holiday. They are all living like a year, and they are afraid that something will happen to the Emperor of Ming Dynasty after the new year.

On the 20th day of the first lunar month in the [-]th year of Chongzhen, this day was the first day of work at Honglu Temple.

But before dawn, envoys from the four countries came to wait in front of the gate of Honglu Temple.

The four of them were almost captured by the patrol team as thieves.

They managed to stay up until dawn, and two hours later, they saw Zhou Lishun, the minister of Honglu Temple, whose face was full of red.

Zhou Lishun took out eight contracts written in Chinese characters:
"This is the contract between Daming and you guys. Check it out. If you feel it's not suitable, the signing will end in failure."

All of them are proficient in Chinese, so they hurriedly grabbed the contract and looked it over carefully.

The general content of the contract is similar to what Zhou Lishun said last time.

The cities in the four countries that are free to trade in goods from the Ming Dynasty are all large coastal cities.

England open Southampton, Netherlands open Amsterdam, Spain open Barcelona and Portugal open Lisbon.

These four are their largest port cities, and now they have become Daming Free Trade City.

As for what products Daming operates in the Free Trade City, as long as it does not violate the constitution of the four countries, the four countries must not interfere.

During this period, the Four Kingdoms must do their best to ensure the safety of Ming merchants.

Once some Ming products receive unfair treatment, the governments of the four countries can do nothing about it, and Daming will send troops to protect the safety of its merchants.

Next is the issue of import and export tariffs, and the withdrawal of their forces from Myanmar and Annan.

These are not big problems. In order to do business with Daming, they are willing to give up the two small islands of Myanmar and Annan.

Looking at the damages for breach of contract, the four of them were taken aback. The liquidated damages actually reached an astonishing 8000 million taels of silver.

For the four countries, no one has the ability to come up with it, so they can buy their country.

However, they believed that their country could not default on the contract, and they couldn't do without Daming's goods and sea routes.

The area currently occupied by Ming Dynasty is too large, and it is impossible for their ships to bypass it.

Their only requirement for Ming is that warships can pass through the South China Sea and Malacca.

But it was rejected by Daming Honglu Temple, and the warship could not enter any sea area of ​​Daming.

But merchant ships and civilian ships are exceptions, they must apply in advance before they can enter Daming waters.

There is no way, the arms are not as strong as the thighs. In order to do business with Daming and their interests in India, the envoys of the four countries can only reluctantly agree.

After almost a month, the trade negotiations between Ming Dynasty and the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal finally came to an end.

The envoys of the four countries immediately sent people to send the contract back to China, and Daming was also preparing personnel and business groups to go to Europe.

Zhu Youjian is planning to set up a large state-owned business group, and business groups from all over the world can join.

Non-government and private groups can also come to the four countries to do business, but they must abide by local laws. Of course, the royal group will also go to the four European countries.

In the end, Zhu Youjian decided that Wang Chengen would withdraw from the royal group and join the newly established Daming Ocean Group, with Xuanwu and two thousand navies as his guards.

This is just a normal business practice, and Zhu Youjian's core plan is not included.

In order to allow the opium in Nanhai Province to completely enter the European market, Zhu Youjian summoned Baihu and more than a dozen heads of the West Factory and the East Factory in the Qianqing Palace.

Except for Baihu, these people had never been summoned by the emperor, and all of them came to see the emperor in high spirits.

"Meet Your Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian looked at his summoners, he waved his hand:

"Free Gift"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, long live my emperor!"

"I summoned you today to have a very important task, and you must do your best to complete it."

White Tiger clasped his fists and replied:

"Your Majesty, please give orders if you have something to do, and this subordinate will definitely live up to your high expectations."

Zhu Youjian nodded:
"There are several big tobacco production bases in Nanhai Province, and your task is to let these big cigarettes enter the European market.

Within two years, I want people from the high-level and military of most European countries to smoke the opium you shipped, but no one among you can touch it, or come to see me with your head up, can it be done? "

Everyone immediately bowed and saluted:

"Yes, Your Majesty can rest assured that the mission will be completed."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly:

"In order to make things go smoothly, you selected two thousand beauties from Japan to take to Europe during this trip, and asked them to serve Europeans to smoke opium..."

I have to say that Zhu Youjian is really thoughtful.With Japanese beauties in the opium hall, it is estimated that the European barbarians really cannot resist the temptation.

In order to ensure safety on the road, Zhu Youjian gave Baihu five hundred soldiers and one thousand navy, plus one armored warship and five sailing warships.

In this way, Baihu and a dozen or so hundreds of households from the East Factory and the West Factory set foot on the armored warship to go to Japan to pick out beauties.

Things were going smoothly, Dongpu had already been conquered by Ming Dynasty, what are two thousand beauties, in a word, Ming Xiejun was ready for them.

Too many Japanese men have been killed, and now single beauties are everywhere, although tens of thousands were brought back to Daming, that is only a very small number.

A fleet of six warships quietly arrived at Huangming Island in the South China Sea two days later.

Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong had already arranged for people to prepare the opium, which was as much as [-] tons.

After replenishing at Huangming Island, the fleet headed for Europe.

(End of this chapter)