Chongzhen's open life

Chapter 421 Zhengdan court meeting - the trade request of the Westerners.

There are three big court meetings a year, Zhengdan, Dongzhi, and Wanshou Festival, which is the emperor's birthday, so each big court meeting is extremely grand.

However, since the late Ming Dynasty, apart from Zhang Juzheng’s reforms in the Wanli period, which led to the improvement of the country’s finances, which made the Wanli Dynasty Conference prosperous and grand enough, since then, the three annual Great Court Conferences in the Ming Dynasty have been like the Ming’s finances.

This year, with the financial resources of the Wa Kingdom, it is finally affluent. Not only is the high-end decoration of the palace upscale, but even the banquet that the dog that fed the ministers to feed the ministers in the past is not willing to eat more is finally good. eat up.

The old ministers who had never eaten such a delicious banquet here since they entered this hall as officials couldn't help crying.

Finally, the bitter daughter-in-law has become a mother-in-law, and she can finally have a decent banquet here.

After a sumptuous banquet, the rounds of procedures proceeded in an orderly manner according to the previous rules, until the foreign envoys paid tribute, but an accident occurred.

As the national power of the Ming Dynasty has declined year by year, and after he ascended the throne, Zhu Youjian ordered Xichang to vigorously investigate those profiteers from foreign countries who pretended to be the season to cheat the tribute.

The link of paying tribute by foreign envoys was gradually ignored in the Great Court Assembly.

Everyone will also tacitly skip this link quickly and move on to the next procedure.

But this year seems to have something unexpectedly different.

The official of Honglu Temple standing under the imperial steps ate his stomach full from the banquet just now, and was planning to go through the motions as usual, so he skipped this link, so he sang slowly in a low voice: "Everyone Congratulations from foreign envoys!"

Normally speaking, at this time, when Da Ming's status in front of many younger brothers around him is officially displayed, he should sing loudly, but according to the experience of this Honglu Temple official, there have been no envoys' congratulations at all in these years, so it's just a formality Therefore, the voice is deliberately lowered to make this link less important.

But when he never expected, at this time, there should be an accident in the link that should be skipped after some small tribes on the grassland send people out to pay tribute.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a yell in the hall, all kinds of messy languages ​​suddenly rang out in the hall, and all kinds of "strange-looking" fans rushed to the front, and the official of Honglu Temple was completely confused. up.

Where do all these people come from! ! !
At a time when the Great Court Meeting is so serious, it is natural that such a messy situation cannot be allowed to happen. The Honglu Temple official who sang the ceremony was stunned, but Wang Chengen was not stunned. Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, his face immediately darkened , Shen Dantian said: "Bold! The land in front of the imperial court, how can you be presumptuous!"

Whoa!
Wang Chengen's voice instantly stunned those Fanbang people who were chattering wildly, and the noisy Huangji Hall fell silent in an instant.

Seeing that they were being honest, Wang Chengen snorted and looked away, but then he glanced lightly at Honglu Siqing among the courtiers.

At this time, Honglu Siqing was so frightened that he almost didn't pee out. It's over, but on such an important occasion, his own person stretched his hips. Afterwards, he must suffer. That subordinate.

The Honglu Temple official, who was stunned just now, felt the scorching gaze from his immediate boss and immediately woke up, ignoring the implication behind the gaze of his boss that he must be having a hard time.

He hurriedly turned around and followed the procedure.

This time, according to the previous procedures when they were strong and prosperous, many Fan kingdoms began to pay tribute in turn according to their national strength.

There were quite a few people paying tribute this time, which was the most common in the past, but North Korea, which had not been here for a long time since the rise of Jiannu and captured North Korea, came.

In the south, Laos, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Jiaozhi, and Xiyi with various hair and eyes of various colors from the sea began to pay tribute one by one.

The purpose of these people's tribute this time is also very simple. These countries in the original Chinese cultural circle are because the Ming Dynasty became powerful, and they even wiped out the Wa country. They were frightened, and hurried to the boss to express their loyalty and restore the tribute, and to show the elder brother You are still our big brother!
We are brothers, we are not like the Japanese, so don't hit us.

The Westerners are for trade.

Since the development of the Age of Discovery, after Westerners came to the East, a Maritime Silk Road flowing with gold and silver has emerged. Countless Western businessmen have embarked on the route to the East to make money like moths to a flame.

The original Ming Dynasty was almost in a state of semi-closed sea ban, so they could only secretly trade with some aristocratic families along the coast, and their other source of income in the Far East was the Wa Kingdom.

Although the Tokugawa shogunate did not have a good face towards the Westerners, they opened at least a few port transactions, and the Westerners who came to the Wa country every year made a lot of money.

But everything has changed since last year!

First of all, Daming's original trading partners are gone!
Moreover, there is actually some kind of navy patrolling the coastline of Ming Dynasty. When encountering their merchant ships, they will not be allowed to approach them. If they don’t listen, they will be sunk directly. Some armed merchant ships do not believe in evil, and they are unwilling to give up their original interests. They want to forcibly approach On the coast of Daming, as a result, together with a large number of entangled people, they were directly wiped out by this fleet that claimed to be the Ming Navy.

It's as easy as hitting your son.

The iron-clad warships that were densely emitting black smoke on the sea made them feel desperate.

In desperation, they diverted to the country of Wa, they have come here, so they can't go back empty-handed, right?

Since the Ming country can no longer trade, then go to the Wa country. Although the trading volume is a little smaller, it can still make some money.

However, what made them want to cry without tears was that just when they had just transferred to the Wa Kingdom and were about to do a big battle, the iron-clad fleet of the Ming Kingdom came in mighty force!

They came to the port of Nagasaki, they used artillery to almost level the port of Nagasaki, and their army began to land on a large scale.

And the merchants who had just come ashore became their captives. After confirming their identities, they were released after these Ming soldiers captured the first Japanese city. It can also be said that the air route is temporarily gone.

Because the Ming Dynasty started to attack them, they could hardly keep their home, so they didn't have the heart to do business.

After wandering in the Far East for more than a year, these Westerners didn't earn a penny. As long as they go back, they can be said to be paupers in no time.

So they can't make money and they can't go back.

But now there are problems in the two most important trading places, what should they do?
Until the end of last year, a turning point appeared.

The country of Wa was completely defeated by the country of Ming, and the whole country of Wa became the territory of the country of Ming. The country of Wa gradually returned to normal under the jurisdiction of the country of Ming. Due to the reason of the war, the two countries that have been on alert and do not allow anyone else to approach Oh no, it is now The coastline of a country is finally lifted, but only missions from other countries are allowed to enter.

Therefore, for the sake of business, these merchants who were about to lose money without even their underpants united together and approached the spokespersons of their respective governments in the Far East, asking them to request trade from the Ming Dynasty in the name of their own governments.

And this is the reason why so many missions from Western countries will come to this court meeting.

After these Western envoys paid tribute and told their request, Zhu Youjian was still thinking, but the officials below him had already exploded!

"Your Majesty! No way!"

(End of this chapter)