Jingming

Chapter 425 Everyone loves Yan Shifan

To build the Great Wall on the sea, you must have a powerful navy.

The admiral of the Navy, Jing Haibo Zhao Jun, and the Minister of Industry and Commerce presented Zhu Houcong with more specific difficulties.

Louis hasn't left the capital yet, and he doesn't know how serious the face of the Emperor of Heaven in the imperial study room is now.

"Is the gap in good wood to this extent?"

Zhu Houcong felt unbelievable.

Liu Tianhe is a pragmatic person who can innovate by himself.In order to regulate the river, he developed special equipment to measure the sand content of the Yellow River.Now it was time to systematically start the management of the Huanghuai floods. He came to the central government to coordinate, and the specific affairs were handed over to Tang Shu.

But when he came to the center, he couldn't just deal with river management.

"Imperial city rest, Huguang Straight Road, Hetao and Xuanning Chi Road, Huanghuai floods, grand theater, heavy industry park..." Liu Tianhe listed these first, then looked at Zhao Jun, "allowing people's ships to launch into the sea, plus Shanghai Master, there are too many places where wood is used nowadays. Among the people, people also have to burn fires and charcoal. Not only giant trees, but also ordinary wood is in short supply nowadays."

The two came together, and the reason they said was that the naval division's expansion ship lacked huge wood, but Liu Tianhe wanted to say more than that.

He seriously submitted a memorial: "I have been paying attention to this matter since I arrived in the capital. Your Majesty, after hundreds of years, the Central Plains has been withered and dusty. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Yellow River changed its course, and the Huanghuai floods have become more and more serious. All for this reason. After the reunification, His Majesty ordered Sun to participate in politics and go to Shaanxi to plant trees. His foresight and far-sightedness impressed the ministers. However, it is a drop in the bucket, and the court and the people cannot be short of wood. Now, it is cutting down faster than it grows."

Zhu Houcong read his report seriously.This was Liu Tianhe's research that he started to control the Huanghuai floods, but gradually it became more than limited to this.

Looking at the contents, Zhu Houcong came into contact with the shocking facts.

To be precise, it should be that the vegetation in the northern Central Plains has been severely damaged since the past thousand years.

Throughout history, wood has been both a source of energy and a building material.

Liu Tianhe gave an example. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, officials already reported "Shandong Shaolin trees".The Shandong here is not Shandong Province, but the entire Central Plains region east of Mount Wei.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Wen, the usurper of the Tang Dynasty, did one more thing: he destroyed the palaces, offices, and folk houses in Chang'an, and used their materials to float down the Wei River. Chang'an has since been ruined.

Because he wanted to build his new palace in Luoyang, he could not find enough tall trees in the Central Plains area, nor could he find them in Guanzhong, so he demolished the existing Chang'an palace and private houses.

Similarly, the wood needed to build a large palace in Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty came from "Qinzhou".Qinzhou in the Song Dynasty was already in Gansu: "The city was built in Qinlong, and the giant rafts came from the Weida River, and the mainstays were gathered in the capital."

When the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty and wanted to rebuild Bianjing, all the giant trees in Gansu were used up, so they found more remote places: building cliffs and ravines, building long bridges for more than ten miles, transporting wood by cart, and driving six mountains and rivers. The road to Luo leads to Bianliang.

In the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Di intended to move the capital to Chang'an, but he could not find wood.During the Yongle period, the capital was moved to Beijing, and to obtain timber, one had to go thousands of miles away to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Nowadays, it is difficult to obtain single timber, and giant timber was produced in Huguang and Sichuan, in remote and remote places.Cut it with an ax and a catty, and you can reach the water level after several turns.He also traveled thousands of miles up the river, and then reached the capital. He was transported by water and land, and the years were unpredictable.

"Su Zizhan, who was in Guanzhong, wrote "Eight Views of Fengxiang". The poem goes: Kuangdang Qishan, the scenery is still shameful. Some mountains are as bald as ocher, and some water is as turbid as swill. Shen Cunzhong's "Mengxi Bi Tan" also said: Between Qi and Lu The mountains and forests are all gone, and gradually Taihang, Jingxi, Jiangnan, and Songshan are all covered with water. Zhangshui, turbid water, mulberry trees, and the like are all turbid currents."

Liu Tianhe continued: "I and Jing Haibo are here today to present their affairs directly and ask your majesty to take charge of the overall situation. Now that shipping is booming, it is better to get wood from Huguang and Sichuan than from Fujian and Fujian." Jiaozhi, from Nanyang, from Korea, from Liaodong!"

Zhu Houcong listened and finally understood more deeply the financial pressure brought about by Jiajing's overhaul of palaces and temples.

Although he is not overhauling the palace now, the Ming Dynasty's projects will only use more wood.

"Not even in Huguang or Sichuan?" Zhu Houcong asked.

"Absolutely not!" Liu Tianhe replied resolutely, "Learning from the Huanghuai experience, if the Yangtze River follows the same path, there will never be peace in Huguang and Jiangnan! In fact, if it is just timber, it will not be a problem. However, now that the world is stable, Yunnan and Shaanxi The city is booming, and the people in the fertile land of Huguang and Sichuan are bound to be prosperous. With the harvesting of wood and the cutting of firewood by the people to burn charcoal, even if there is abundant rain in the south, there is no guarantee that it will not be thousands of miles of bald mountains and thousands of miles of turbid currents!"

Zhu Houcong understood what he meant.

The destructiveness of engineering wood is not bad, mainly due to the energy needs of a large population and the needs of private construction.When ordinary people cut down trees, they plant trees and shrubs together.

As this continues over the years, the mountains have become bald, water and soil have naturally been lost, and flood pressure has naturally increased.

Zhu Houcong couldn't help but take a deep look at Liu Tianhe: From the time when Jiajing's southern tour in three years put him in charge of related matters, almost ten years now, Liu Tianhe has indeed become an expert in this field, and his understanding is quite good.

He knew that the problems in Shaanxi and Shanxi were serious, but he had so many things to do on weekdays that he did not consider the relevant issues comprehensively and deeply.

Asking Sun Yuan to plant trees can only show that he is aware and pays attention, but it ignores the impact of the court's decisions on the people in this era: so many projects must have a stable supply of wood.

Once a place becomes a timber supplier, it will naturally form the basis for the prosperity of related industries.There is also demand for useful wood among the private sector. Whether it is for cost considerations or for convenience on the line, when private individuals are looking for these large timbers, they will also choose those supply areas, thereby exacerbating the consumption of timber in the source area, and ultimately causing faster vegetation destruction and Soil erosion.

This rule has been verified by the continuous transfer of timber supply locations in history.First Guanzhong, then Longxi, and then Huguang and Sichuan.

"Sea freight..."

Among the places Liu Tianhe suggested, the only one with real soil in the Ming Dynasty was Fujian, probably because...if it didn't spread to Jiangxi, Fujian would be bald, and it wouldn't affect the Yangtze River system?
No... He only mentioned one place, so it was actually a suggestion to only transport wood back from overseas.

Huguang and Sichuan are not available. Yunnan and Guizhou have to go by land first, and the cost is also not low. It is not as large-scale and low-cost as sea transportation.

And if it's shipping... he wants to get a little more of the 1000 million taels of silver that Portugal is about to lose.

Since the silver was transported from the west, it was better to come back from Nanyang in exchange for some goods that Ming Dynasty needed.The wood from Nanyang is used for shipbuilding in the south, and the wood from North Korea and Liaodong is used for projects in Hetao, Xuanning and Jingcheng in the north?
Zhu Houcong looked at Liu Tianhe: "The Ministry of Accounts, Daming Bank, and Baoyuan Bureau all need a large amount of silver. It is not only needed for salary silver, but also for new money."

"I just tell you what's going on. Your Majesty has decreed it!"

Liu Tianhe didn't talk nonsense either.

Everyone has their own needs.

Zhu Houcong sighed, even if he had a large amount of extra money, it would still be insufficient.

There is no way, there are indeed too many things he wants to do, and money is needed everywhere.

Silver, silver...

Zhu Houcong glanced at Zhao Jun.

After pondering for a long time, he said to Huang Jin: "Announce Liu Long and Yu Chengye."

One was outside Chengtian Gate, and the other was in the palace. The two arrived soon.

Zhu Houcong first asked Liu Long: "There is still no news from Japan this time. Has anyone sent chess players to compete?"

Liu Long replied cautiously: "Your Majesty, I haven't received any news yet. After the tribute was cut off, all exchanges were cut off. Gong Yongqing in North Korea and maritime merchants in Zhejiang who have dealings with Japan all said that there will be more chaos in Japan this year. I'm afraid it's... Don’t care about that.”

"Oh? What's new over there this year?" Zhu Houcong became interested.

"There are some rumors only recently. It happened at the end of last year and the first month of this year."

Liu Long then reported to the emperor.

The country of Japan is now divided into 66 large and small countries. In addition to the five Kinki countries, there are fifteen countries on the Tokaido Road, six countries on the Nankaido Road, ten countries on the Saikaido Road, and seven countries on the Hokuriku Road. In addition to the Higashiyama Road and Mt. There are eight countries each in the vagina and Shanyang Road.

In the future history, it will be called the so-called Warring States Period because they called the country based on the division of administrative regions. This was their divided feudal system.

Closer to the Ming dynasty are the Saikaidō, Sanyodō and Sanyodō to the west of Kinki.The one who had more dealings with the Ming Dynasty was the Ouchi clan, which had previously been powerful in this area. They used the name of the Ashikaga clan of the Muromachi shogunate in Japan, which was already weak, to pay tribute.

"...As I reported, the Nanizi clan has occupied the eleven kingdoms of Shanyin and Shanyang. However, for some unknown reason, the third son of the Nanizi clan rebelled and was seriously injured. The Ouchi clan, which already occupied the seven kingdoms, He was refused tribute by the Ming Dynasty. The leader at that time had passed away five years ago. His son was now ambitious. He not only opened up the West Sea Road, but also took advantage of the internal and external troubles of the Nizi clan to instigate the Mao Li clan, a member of the Nizi clan, to rebel. In the first month of this year, Na The Maoli clan has joined forces with several other generals from the Nizi clan to establish their own clan, so there is a lot of trouble there now." Zhu Houcong nodded.

Mori's?Is it just gross profit?

He didn't know much at first, but after so many years of careful contact and a little bit of information collected through private contacts with private merchants, he still knew a little.

In the southwestern part of Japan closer to the Ming Dynasty, the two major forces have been confronting each other for a long time, and now a third force is finally beginning to rise.Since he had heard the name Mourimoto and had a vague impression of it, he must be a more outstanding figure in Japan during this period.But the two figures that Zhu Houcong had a direct impression of were Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu.I haven't heard of these two people yet. Are they not born yet, or are they too young?

Zhu Houcong didn't care about this. Anyway, he only knew that Shi Jian Yinshan was there.

If you are short of money, just look for it.

"It's better to make a fuss." Zhu Houcong looked at Zhao Jun, "The Great Wall Company of the Sea has been set up, and you can also send some generals with experience in naval warfare to go there. This first mission is with Jiangxi Xu Dong's ship Let's go to Japan to explore. Japan is close to North Korea, that Tsushima Island. First find a port, and then do business with them. It only costs money."

Zhao Jun still has not been granted the title of marquis.Although the record of defeating Portugal was very good, in the Ming Dynasty's impression, Portugal was not even as valuable as the heads of the southwestern barbarians, but the benefits of expansion were large enough, so he was still an earl.

But Zhao Jun doesn't care that much, as long as there is always credit to be gained.

Liu Long was shocked: "Your Majesty, Japan is alone overseas. Tsushima Island is very close to Japan. Now it is more related to the sea trade between Japan and North Korea..."

Zhu Houcong waved his hand: "It's not like the King of Ming Dynasty is here in person, it's just private merchants doing business and bringing some guards. I have long said that I won't go to war in these years, but I think they can now distinguish the pros and cons. Here. Wouldn’t it be nice if the civilian maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty had a place to establish themselves, and there would be a steady stream of swords, guns, swords and halberds behind them to help them compete for supremacy?”

It seems that it is the Ouchi family who is starting to dig up money in Iwamiyama now?
Once the silver is dug out, it must be used. Ming Dynasty only recognizes silver.

Liu Long had no choice but to explain: "Your Majesty, the island of Tsushima has always been self-unified and had both sides. Now the island is also experiencing constant civil strife..."

"Oh?" Zhu Houcong was very interested, "There is also civil strife on Tsushima Island. What's going on?"

"...I heard that the last Yi chieftain was forced to commit suicide by his retainers, and then there was an endless struggle for power between brothers, uncles and nephews."

"Civil strife is good!" Zhu Houcong laughed, "This island is a great benevolent place. Since it is like this, it will be easier to establish a foothold. Didn't Li Yi say it in his thank you letter? Most of the Japanese goods are from Tsushima Island's clan. The clan relies on the sea and is transported from Japan. It is not directly related to the Japanese monarch or the Ashikaga clan, which violates my taboo. It can be seen that this clan is a person who is willing to do business. Who would seize this opportunity to unify the country? Ma Dao, I... No, the Xu family will help whoever it is."

As a test of the waters, this was the first step, and it was not the only thing Zhu Houcong called Liu Long and Yu Chengye.

Then, there was discussion about the Border Trade Department expanding the external procurement of bulk timber commodities, thereby strengthening economic ties with the subservient vassals, and coal mining.

The private demand for firewood and the heavy industry to be cultivated for coal both required the Ming Dynasty to intensify its efforts in coal mining.

At present, Zhu Houcong's most reasonable choice is naturally Datong, and...

"You can go to the north of Yinshan Mountain for exploration." Zhu Houcong looked at Yu Chengye and asked him to make arrangements, "Let the Mongolian people in the border area collect the coal in the north of Yinshan Mountain, and let the small tribes in the north of the border area collect it. The Ming Dynasty will collect the coal there. Let’s see if I will plunder those small tribes that are just trying to survive, or let them turn more and more towards the Ming Dynasty!”

Ming Dynasty provided goods and wealth.

When the offensive and defensive momentum changes, the alien forces in the fringe areas are the easiest to break through.

Tsushima Island is an important strategic point. The area north of Yinshan and the southernmost area of ​​Anda's power, and even Khalkha, which was entrenched in Outer Mongolia where coal mines were rich in the future, may also choose another way of living.

Things were arranged, and after some time, Zhao Jun told Zhu Houcong something a little weird.

"Yan Shifan?"

"...Yes. The head of the Xu family implores your majesty to do this important thing. His most capable man is Wang Zhi. However, Wang Zhi is now in charge of the Nan'ao Maritime Trading Company in Malacca and has no time to spare. But in the past, Wang Zhi was on Cat Ba Island. On the contrary, I admire Mr. Yan very much, so I reminded the head of the Xu family what Wang Zhi said before, and sent a petition to ask Mr. Yan to come to the Maritime Great Wall Company to help the Xu family develop a port city on Tsushima Island."

Zhu Houcong looked at him speechlessly: "You mean that your subordinates only know how to fight and kill, and Xu Dong's subordinates don't have enough talents to do this alone?"

"...The Xu family leader is always in Ningbo, but he is also very busy. This matter is related to His Majesty's grand plan, and the Xu family leader does not dare to neglect it, for fear that it will be difficult to achieve the goal after he promises it, and will offend His Majesty."

"That guy Yan Shifan..."

After returning from Jiaozhi, he, as the military attaché of the Jiaozhi Propaganda Embassy, ​​had made some merits and was promoted to the fifth rank, Qianhu, and now he was put back under Lu Bing's command by Zhu Houcong.

With this guy's character, Zhu Houcong never dared to entrust him with such a big responsibility.

He seemed to have extraordinary talent when it came to misfortune, and he had an indulgent temperament and did not hide it very much.

Did Wang Zhi hit it off with him?It seems that there are many aspects between the big pirate and the little elder who are really similar.

Now that this happened, Xu Dong actually wanted Yan Shifan to help him... no, help the emperor.

How come Yan Shifan is still loved by everyone?

Zhu Houcong was very weird, asking Yan Shifan to harm Japan?
Seems pretty good too...

But in this case, Yan Song will definitely feel bitter.

He was such a son. Even if he was blind in one eye, the emperor didn't have to send him so far away to Jiaozhi first, and then to Japan, which was equally far away, right?

Moreover, this time was different from going to Jiaozhi. Over there, Mo Dengyong requested the Ming Dynasty to be canonized, so he did not dare to disrespect the Ming Dynasty.But Japan is bold and dares to cause chaos in Ningbo.

Now it is clear that they want to intervene in the war-torn Japan, where fighting and killing are the norm.If you are not careful, Lao Yan's family will be wiped out.

"This matter... I need to discuss it with Yan Song first."

That night, the Yan family and his son gathered in the Yangxin Hall after their shift.

Yan Shifan was just excited, but Yan Song was uneasy.

This private banquet only consisted of father and son, which was very unusual!
Heaven's grace is very heavy, I'm afraid it will be hard to bear.

Sure enough, he was polite to the end, and when the meal was almost finished, the emperor was shocked.

"Yan Shifan, I know that you also have the ambition to make great achievements. Now there is a great achievement, I wonder if you have the courage to do it?"

Yan Shifan's eyes shone brightly, and he said obligingly: "Your Majesty, I have never been timid!"

Zhu Houcong thought to himself that you have never been timid.

"Your Majesty..." Yan Song said euphemistically, "I, my father and my son, only obey your Majesty's orders. I don't know what great achievements your Majesty mentioned..."

Zhu Houcong said with a smile: "In Japan, Wei Zhong, the reason why you, as the chief of the imperial study room, suddenly transferred the governor and then changed the governorship was because of Ningbo's competition for tribute. If Yan Shifan makes great contributions to Japan again, there will be a good story in the history books in the future."

Yan Song was gagged in advance and could not express his pain.

Your Majesty, Japan is a country without conquests!It’s not because they like it, but because the Meng Yuan and even Taizu of the Ming Dynasty suffered from Japan, and the gains outweigh the losses!

But Zhu Houcong's next words made Yan Shifan tremble all over: "For this merit, you can be crowned king."

(End of this chapter)