Steam Daming: Stop calling me to supervise the country

Chapter 3 Zheng He
"You waited for me?"

Zheng He took out a token from his sleeve and handed it to Zhu Zhanqian: "Your Majesty has an order. Regarding maritime affairs, Your Majesty, you have needs, requests, and questions. I know everything you can say. This is the badge of my residence, if your highness wants to find me, you can order someone to call me, or come to my residence at any time."

"Thank you, Master Zheng."

"I am frightened."

Zheng He's complexion was fair and beardless, after all he was an eunuch, but Zhu Di appreciated his spirit of exploration, diplomatic ability and military leadership ability.

"Master Zheng, this is your first voyage to the West."

"For the fourth time."

In history, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, the first six of which were in the Yongle Dynasty, and the last time was when Zhu Zhanji was in power, and finally died at sea. Since then, no one has been able to sail to the West like him to conquer the Ming Dynasty. National prestige and overseas.

The voyages to the west and the northern expedition to the desert are both extremely financially consuming activities, and can be said to be the two biggest financial burdens of the Yongle Dynasty.

After all, Zheng He’s voyages are different from Columbus’s. Columbus’s was colonial plunder, and Zheng He’s was to explore and show off. The former brought rich returns, while the latter consumed huge financial, material and manpower.

But after all, we ourselves were persecuted by the colonists. Even if we knew that ocean colonization could bring great rewards to Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanqian would not have chosen this path. This is the national style of my great China.

But voyages without plunder are hardly rewarding.

It's a paradoxical relationship.

Another reason why Zheng He is willing to approach Zhu Zhanqin is his fat father. Zhu Gaochi has supervised the country for many years, and Zhu Di is busy fighting. In fact, most of the government affairs and finances are done by him, and he has done it very well. , the ruling and opposition parties sincerely admire the benevolent government of the prince.

A smart person like Zheng He naturally knew that although the feat of sailing to the West was for Emperor Yongle to show off overseas, the real money was allocated by the crown prince, so he has always attached great importance to his relationship with Zhu Gaochi.

"Master Zheng, do you have any anecdotes from the Western countries?"

It is rare to meet someone who is interested in listening to him. Zheng He is very familiar with it: "Java, Siam, Ceylon and other countries are like summer all year round, and they are all fruits that we don't have. Unfortunately, it is difficult to preserve them, otherwise I can bring them back to your highness. Try it."

"Fruit, fruit." Zhu Zhanqian muttered, and suddenly he was enlightened. He thought of a way to get rich rewards besides colonial rule.

That is trade, exchange what is needed.

Seeing Zhu Zhanqian talking to himself, Zheng He asked in puzzlement, "Your Highness, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Mr. Zheng, when will you go to sea next time?"

Zheng He had a confident smile on his face: "This voyage to the West has yielded a lot, especially the exotic beast Qilin. His Majesty made a decision today that I will go to sea again, but it will cost a lot of money. Now that the northern desert is about to move, I guess it will be worth it." Wait two years."

"Take me with you next time."

Zheng He was shocked: "Your Highness..."

"It's nothing, you don't have to make things difficult, I will tell Grandpa Huang and Father myself."

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your understanding."

The two chatted a lot, and the more Zheng He talked, the more he felt that the nine-year-old grandson seemed to be his confidant and forgot his old friend. His objection to sailing to the west has never stopped in the court, and it almost all depends on Zhu Di's insistence on doing it. .

And the child who was less than ten years old in front of him showed a strong interest in exploring the sea and ideas far beyond his age.

For example, he thought that going out to sea was not just to explore and show off his prestige, but to open a trade voyage. Zheng He had also thought about this, but he also felt that maintaining such a trade route on the sea required a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources, and even can exceed trade income.

"Your Highness, it's getting late, Zheng He will take his leave first, and come to visit again in the future."

"Master Zheng, to conquer the sea is to conquer the future."

Zhu Zhanqian's last words seemed to have ignited all the passion in Zheng He's heart, and he shouted with trembling hands, "Yes, Your Highness."

This feeling of meeting a bosom friend in the world made Zheng He very excited.

Zhu Zhanqian returned to his room, and his mother Zhang's angry face met him. There was no doubt that it was a reprimand because he skipped class.

The three eldest sons of the Zhang family, Zhu Zhanji, the eldest, Zhu Zhanyong, the third, and Zhu Zhanyi, the fifth, seem to have taken all the luck. Compared with Zhu Zhanji, his other two sons are simply not up to the mark. .

As his name suggests, Zhu Zhanyong has mediocre qualifications and is very diligent, but his brain can't keep up. Although Zhang was helpless, he didn't criticize him too much, while Zhu Zhanyong was smart, but very mischievous.

Of the three sons born on the same day, Mrs. Zhang was naturally the most caring. He gave Zhu Zhanqian a lesson for skipping class, and if he put down his harsh words, if he skipped class again, he would be slapped with thorns.

After Mrs. Zhang left, Chu'er said with a bitter face: "My lord, you must never make the princess angry again. What will you do next time if you really take a thorn stick?"

"It's okay, in the deep palace compound, finding thorns is much more difficult than finding gold." Zhu Zhanqian didn't care.

Chu'er said with a bitter face: "Master, thank you for your kindness, if something happens to you again, Xiaosheng and I will be kicked out of the palace."

Mrs. Zhang just reprimanded Zhu Zhanqian, but the subordinates will be miserable. They must be kind and powerful, and they must be strict when they do something wrong.

Seeing the mournful faces of the two, Zhu Zhanqian hurriedly said, "Okay, okay, I see, I'm going to sleep in the school tomorrow, I can't blame you two."

Chu'er wiped away her tears, started to do her own errands, saw the coal in the corner of the room and asked curiously: "Why did Xiaosheng send out coal so early this year?"

Yingtianfu's winter is very cold, so coal is needed for heating, but it's only August and Xiaosheng brought back a pile of coal.

Xiaosheng smiled and said: "I don't know why the coal was out of stock last year. We didn't have enough good anthracite coal in the palace. This year, I saw that the coal came early in the warehouse. The eunuch and I in the warehouse were small, so we picked some good ones earlier. Prepare it, in case our son is not enough at that time."

Taking precautions, this kid still has some ideas, but Zhu Zhanqian stared at the coal but came up with an idea.

"By the way, coal is coal." Zhu Zhanqian jumped up happily.

"What's wrong with our son?"

"It's okay if you don't climb the tree."

How could the two of them figure out what was going on in Zhu Zhanqian's mind.

Europe started the era of great voyages and plundered a huge amount of wealth, and then the industrial revolution appeared, completely leading the way, and the beginning of the industrial revolution has a great relationship with coal.

The coal-burning steam engine was the first shot of the industrial revolution, and Zhu Zhanqian set his first goal on the steam engine.

I want to promote the industrial revolution to take place in the Ming Dynasty ahead of schedule, and install a powerful engine for our great age of exploration.

Let the big ship of the Ming Empire set sail amidst the steam.

　Ask for recommendation and collection

　　Brothers who are not losing money
　　


(End of this chapter)