Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 409 Capital Road
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

On the ninth day of April in the 10th year of Yongle, as Zhu Gaoxu expected, Zheng He's fleet successfully returned to Nanjing, and the imperial court also arranged for the army to salute them at Jiangdong Gate to show their respect.

On the pier, tens of thousands of officials in the capital, more than 30,000 officials, more than 20,000 troops, and tens of thousands of people who came to join in the fun were waiting eagerly.

If you look down from the sky, hundreds of thousands of people from the Ming Dynasty lined up from the pier to the city to greet them.

The news of Zheng He's voyages to the West was deliberately spread by Zhu Gaoxu's orders, Jinyiwei and Xichang, and gradually became an image of the imperial court constantly expending energy and dispatching many times to find excellent grain overseas.

This is indeed the case. The cold-resistant rice introduced by Zheng He from Japan twice before, as well as various fruits and vegetables introduced from Southeast Asia, have been planted in the north of the Ming Dynasty and throughout the world.

However, in this era, farmers are not as receptive as in the Internet era, so they are very wary of unfamiliar crops.

Zhu Gaoxu also knew very well, so he asked officials in the New Deal areas to take the lead in cultivating new crops. Once farmers saw that these crops were indeed good, they would naturally follow suit.

Using this method, the promotion of new crops in New Deal areas was relatively smooth.

However, the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa are connected together, and after thousands of years of commercial exchange, most crops are very similar.

As Zheng He said this, he watched each of the rare and exotic beasts for the Ming emperors and ministers step off the warship.

But really speaking, peanuts are what Zhu Gaoxu cares about because their oil yield is indeed too high.

The spices he brought back this time, based on the current market, have a profit of nearly 10 million yuan.

"Your Majesty, this is called the Kirin Beast in Kunlun Continent. It is very similar to the Qilin in our ancient books, so I call it Qilin."

Although Zhu Di didn't like fighting beasts like the mighty generals, when he saw these beasts, he couldn't help but look at Zhu Gaoxu: "Second brother, do you think you can defeat these beasts?"

Although he was mentally prepared, when he saw the giraffe, he still couldn't hide his joy.

"I heard about your voyage to the West this time from Ji Gang. It's very good... very good... it will enhance the prestige of our country!"

Zhu Di couldn't wait for Zheng He, so he took Zhu Gaoxu and the six officials to get off the boat first and walked to Zheng He and others.

"It's not much different from our buffalo, it just looks bigger and heavier."

Zhu Di said while looking behind Zheng He and others.

He enthusiastically introduced the large number of rare and exotic animals he brought back to the Ming emperors and ministers. Zhu Gaoxu wandered among them and saw African lions, leopards, African buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests and other large herbivores and carnivores.

I saw several strange beasts nearly two feet tall, with horns on their heads and scaly markings on their bodies walking down the deck on a boat brought back by Zheng He.

As the treasure ship was pulled into the ship's position and stopped, the sound of the ship's ladder being placed on the Jiangdongmen Pier rang out.

"Okay, okay!" After hearing Zheng He's answer, Zhu Di knew that his military expenses for the Northern Expedition next year would be secured.

"The eunuch Zheng He (Pingjiang Marquis Chen Xuan) who went to the Western Seas to see your majesty, may your majesty be blessed and safe!"

"In addition, there are many gems, rare treasures, exotic animals, and spices, totaling nearly 26 million yuan..."

"what is that?!"

"I and Pingjiang Bo are fortunate to have fulfilled their mission. During this voyage to the West, we obtained 237,426 taels of gold, 4,375,655 taels of silver, and 4,375,655 taels of copper coins. There are about 3,246,000 pieces of color..."

Zheng He understood the current spice market. Although the spices from Nanyang shocked the Ming Dynasty's spice market last time, after Zhu Gaoxu's operation, the last spices were sold in batches. Therefore, although the prices of spices have increased There is a decline, but it has not reached the level of being cut in half.

After nearly a year of domestication, they have become much more honest, and Zhu Gaoxu smiled when he saw them.

"boom!"

But despite his disappointment, he also saw lions, leopards, hyenas and other beasts in iron cages.

When Zheng He saw this, he hurriedly walked over and knelt down to bow when Zhu Di was about to arrive:

At this moment, tens of thousands of soldiers who returned to Jiangdong Gate were all dressed in plain clothes and disembarked one after another.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but get excited while standing under the canopy umbrella at the pier.

"In addition, I also brought back many strange beasts, and just as His Highness ordered during the voyage, I brought back a group of people to see if they can reproduce in the Ming Dynasty."

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty was also able to establish the Xuanwei Division on the west coast and use Japan as a springboard to take the Pacific trade route.

"I haven't heard of it in Kunlun Continent." Zheng He shook his head, which made Zhu Di a little disappointed.

Zhu Gaoxu did not have high expectations for the results of this voyage to the West. What he cared about most was the third voyage to the West next year.

For a time, countless people looked forward to it, and figures in plain clothes also walked off the deck and down the pier.

"If you are wearing armor and carrying a sharp edge, it won't be a problem." Zhu Gaoxu answered without thinking, and the ministers did not think he was exaggerating.

The oil yield of peanuts is more than twice that of soybeans. As long as people's oil problem can be solved, the intake of grains and vegetables will be reduced a lot.

As long as you go to Beizhou and Dongzhou, crops such as pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, strawberries, pineapples, peanuts, etc. can be introduced.

Not only that, Jiangnan’s promotion of the New Deal will also be unstoppable.

"Ping Shen! Ping Shen!" Hearing Zheng He's words, Zhu Di happily helped him and Chen Xuan up, laughing and saying:

Suddenly, a sound of surprise rang out, and everyone heard the sound and looked around.

"Can this buffalo be domesticated?" Zhu Di asked Zheng He. After all, in the agricultural-oriented Ming Dynasty, African buffaloes could attract many people just because of their appearance.

How could Zheng He not know Zhu Di's character, so he smiled and took out a booklet from his arms and presented it with both hands.

As long as American crops were available, much of the mountainous terrain of the Southwest could be exploited.

As far as he could see, boxes and carts of supplies were being transported from the ship, which made his eyes light up.

As early as when they arrived at the Malacca Strait, Zheng He and the others received news of the death of Queen Xu. Therefore, after arriving in Guangzhou, Zheng He ordered people to buy enough plain clothes.

"Okay, haha..." Zhu Di nodded with a smile, and then led the ministers past these strange beasts and came to the boxes of gold and silver.

Looking at the boxes of gold and silver, Zhu Di also waved his hand generously and said: "Every soldier who participated in the Western voyages will receive an additional reward of fifty guan. The soldiers who died in battle will receive three times the normal pension!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, long live your Majesty..." Hearing that millions of dollars were squandered by Zhu Di with a wave of his hand, Guo Zi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, trembled in his heart, Zhu Gaoxu just smiled bitterly, and Xia Yuanji was speechless.

Compared to them, Xie Jin and others felt it was a waste.

After all, the navy had already plundered a lot of things in the battle at Horumus, and the army had the habit of leaving half of what they captured. This group of navy had already made a lot of profits, and now they were rewarded. It was really...

Before Jie Jin and others had even thought about it, Zhu Di said: "Okay, the soldiers will have a banquet in Chang'an Square outside Chang'an Gate, and we will have a banquet on Chang'an Gate!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards Nanjing City, followed by officials from the six ministers and the governor's office.

While they were leaving, Yi Shiha also found Zheng He and Chen Xuan: "Your Highness, please take a seat in the golden chariot and talk to you about the voyage to the West."

"Yes..." Zheng He bowed to Chen Xuan, and then followed Zhu Gaoxu.

Not long after, they stepped onto the golden chariots, and the procession of chariots and horses began to walk towards the Chang'an Gate in the city. One by one, rare and exotic animals were either led or imprisoned in cages, and entered the city of Nanjing on display.

"Look, look, that beast is so tall!"

"What is that? It has such thick hair. Is it a big insect?"

"There is a rhinoceros. If this rhinoceros horn is made into medicine, I don't know how much it would be worth..."

On the road in Nanjing City, going from Jiangdong Gate to Qingliang Gate, there were many people standing on the road. After entering Qingliang Gate in the inner city, the road that was originally more than 20 feet wide became crowded.

There were many people standing on the road... on the gatehouse... and even on the roof, all looking at the rare and exotic beasts.

Feeling the excitement of Nanjing, Zheng He and Chen Xuan both had smiles on their faces.

Sitting in front of them, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "You two have made great contributions to this voyage to the West."

"Your Majesty will reward you for these achievements, and what I want to talk to you about is going to Dongzhou and Beizhou."

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu had indeed mentioned this matter, Zheng He and Zheng He sat upright, ready to listen to his words carefully.

Compared to Zheng He, Chen Xuan was ecstatic in his heart. He originally thought that he had no chance to sail to the West again, but now that Zhu Gaoxu summoned him, doesn't that mean that he has a chance to sail to the West for the third time?

"Next time, I plan to sail to the West and the East at the same time."

Zhu Gaoxu stated his ambitions and said in detail: "Based on the situation of our voyage this time, I am planning to carry out a third voyage to the Western Ocean at the end of the year. This time, Zheng He will still be the envoy, but this time The person who will command the navy for the first time, I am going to replace him with Yang Zhan.”

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Chen Xuan feel cold, but before he could feel uncomfortable, Zhu Gaoxu looked at him:
"Chen Xuan, you have ocean-going experience, so this time I am going to let you be responsible for following the ocean current from Japan to the west coast of Beizhou, and all the way south."

"Your departure time will be one year later than Zheng He's, because I have calculated the time. One year after the voyage of the Pacific Fleet, Zheng He will just arrive at Cape Kunlun."

"You set off now. By the time you arrive at Mutsu, a city in northern Japan, Zheng He will have almost arrived in the central areas of Dongzhou and Hokkaido and will join the advance team."

"As long as the advance team does not encounter any major problems, Zheng He should be able to lead his officers and soldiers across the central region within two months and arrive at the west coast to await your arrival."

"When you go south, you should just meet Zheng He who is building the Xuanwei Division on the central and western coast. Let Zheng He communicate with the local natives and provide you with supplies."

"General, take your orders!" When Chen Xuan heard that he was leading a fleet alone this time, the smile on Chen Xuan's face returned.

After he agreed, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the two of them and said: "I have read the content you passed through Dagu La Shang Shu before, and I also think that the current navy is not enough to deal with the problems that may be encountered in the future."

"Originally, I was planning to set up the Twelve Guards of the Navy, but I didn't expect that you would destroy the country of Ceylon, and Ceylon happens to be on the waterway of the East-West Little West Ocean."

"So what I mean now is to set up Luzon Guards in Luzon, set up Old Harbor Guards in Old Port, and set up Whale and Sea Guards in Yinqi."

"The Ryukyu Guards are set up in Ryukyu Prefecture, the Okura Guards are set up in Ogura, and the Ceylon Guards are set up in Ceylon."

"Persian guards were set up in Khrumos, and Mugudushu Qianhu Station, Banggara Thousand Household Station, and Kunlun Cape Thousand Household Station were set up in Mugudushu, Banggara, and Kunlun Cape." "The rest are more. Set up Beizhou Guard on the eastern islands of Dongzhou (Cuba and other islands), and set up Dongzhou Guard on the western land.”

"The above nine guard posts are permanent land-based guard posts but are affiliated with the navy."

"As for the sea, there are eight stations including East China Sea, Dongyang, South China Sea, Nanyang, West China Sea, West Ocean, Beihai and Beiyang, totaling seventeen stations and three stations."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, Zheng He and Chen Xuan looked at each other.

"What? What do you think is lacking?"

"If there is, please tell me. After all, I have not personally gone overseas, and I don't know if there is any problem with this setting."

Because he was smiling, Zheng He and Chen Xuan did not feel too much pressure.

After the two looked at each other, Zheng He bowed and said, "Other places are fine, but Dagu La and Mu Gu Du Shu really cannot afford such a huge supply pressure."

"Because of this, after our army arrived at Mugudu, we reduced the local garrison to five hundred people. In Dagu La, the limit is to leave a thousand people behind."

"Therefore, in my opinion, there is no need for the Great Gula to set up a garrison. It only needs to have the West Sea Guard stationed there permanently, and at the same time, when patrolling the East Small West Ocean, it can obtain supplies from Bangkala, Alisha and other countries."

Zheng He explained the details of these places to Zhu Gaoxu. After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and said:
"If this is the case, then we will abolish the Dagu La Guard, but the Mugu Dushu Department will still be retained, but there are not enough people."

"In this case, there are three schools of the Sixteenth Guards, with a total of 97,700 people."

After he finished speaking, Chen Xuan, who was very calculating, hesitated and said: "If this is the case, then the Navy will probably spend no less than four million dollars each year on military pay and overseas supplies. Can the group of civil servants in the temple agree?"

Chen Xuan consciously joined the ranks of Zhu Gaoxu's cronies, so she raised such a question.

Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "I'm afraid you still don't know that the situation in the temple has changed."

"The reason why I dare to set up Qianhu Station in Kunlun Cape and Mugudushu, and set up a guard station in Horumos is because the current situation has changed."

"This change was caused by the business gangs who accompanied the army to the West, or it was promoted by them."

Coastal merchant gangs rarely set foot in the Little Western Sea in the past. Ultimately, it was because they were worried about pirates. Now the pirates have been dealt with by Zheng He and Chen Xuan. The merchant gangs' merchant ships also have stone-shooting cannons such as the Hongwu Iron Cannon.

As long as they didn't meet the elites of big countries like Timur and the Mamluks, they could almost walk sideways in the Little Western Ocean.

"They should have discovered the gold mine in Kunlun, right?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Zheng He, and Zheng He nodded and said, "Although no mine has been found, there is a lot of gold sand in the river."

"The merchant gangs from the six countries of Siam, Korea, Japan, Champa, Zhenla, and Malacca that accompanied the fleet to Malindi, as well as the merchant gangs under the command of the Qian, Xu, Wang, Qin, Gu, Wen, and Zheng families along the coast, all left dozens or even hundreds of people behind when the fleet returned."

"I'll let you do the math. The thirteen families of these six countries, seven surnames, at least left more than a thousand people in Ma Lindi, and the remaining more than a thousand people returned with us."

"I estimate that they have already brought the news about the gold mines and sands of Kunlun Continent to various countries."

"If all the coastal merchant gangs get this news, then many people closely related to them under the temple should set their sights on Kunlun Continent instead of continuing to attack the trade issues between Nanyang and the East..."

Zheng He tentatively asked Zhu Gaoxu, but he shook his head and said: "In today's world, if there is a profit in sea trade, the seven battles will be in Nanyang and the East."

"The remaining three buckets are in the Little Western and Atlantic Oceans."

"However, although there are only three buckets here, they can be grown into one stone. The key is to see whether these private business gangs and government officials and merchants from various countries can get involved."

It is true that capital is a scourge, but as long as it is guided appropriately and the scourge is directed outward, many internal contradictions will transform into external contradictions.

As long as it is profitable, Zhu Gaoxu believes that the power of private business gangs can make the Kunlun continent cake bigger.

After all, according to Western standards, the Song and Ming dynasties were not capitalist sprouts at all, but capitalist empires.

The word capitalism itself refers to the emergence of capital-style personal dependence relationships and production relations, while the bud refers to the climate that has not yet been finalized in nature, and its emergence reflects normativeness and scale in a sense.

According to the European standards for European capitalism in the seventeenth century, to meet this standard, one must have: centralized manual factories, centralized capital operations, and long-term stable personal employment relationships. It must also have financial means and issue credit belonging to the country. currency.

According to this standard, capitalism actually sprouted in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, but by the Song and Ming dynasties, the Central Plains dynasty had become a capitalist empire under Western standards.

In the Song Dynasty, marriages between the royal family and large private capital families had already occurred, and many private products had shares from the Song royal family.

For example, "Lanqiao Fengyue" in the Song Dynasty was the largest brand and the most famous brand wine in the Song Dynasty, and the reason why it became famous was that the royal family of the Song Dynasty added fuel to the flames.

Most of the concubines of the royal families of the Song Dynasty came from large private merchants. As long as they became large merchants, they could cultivate high-ranking officials under them.

Because of this, starting from the Song Dynasty, the entire bureaucracy of the Central Plains Dynasty began to integrate with private capital, and even developed industrial capitalization.

The iron production in the Song Dynasty is an obvious example. The reason why the iron production in the Song Dynasty was so high compared with the Tang Dynasty is that iron products had begun to be commercialized at that time, and this large-scale industrial production was the first thing in the West in the 17th century. Nothing.

Whether it is production tools or products from various industries, they are all commodifying capital.

The only thing lacking in the Song Dynasty was the expansion of capitalism by Western standards.

In terms of territory alone, the two Song dynasties did not show this kind of capitalist expansion. But if we look at the economic market alone, the capitalist expansion in the two Song dynasties was no weaker than that of any capitalist country.

Starting from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and then gradually developing during the Two Song Dynasties, during this period the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Indochina Peninsula and the entire Southeast Asia region, and even the Liao, Jin, Xixia and other countries, all suffered from the invasion of economic commodities from the Song Dynasty.

This is also the main reason why the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty generally did not need to promote their products too much when trading to the ocean. After all, starting from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Central Plains dynasties had been promoting Central Plains products to the ocean.

Although they both followed the path of capitalism, the Ming Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were different.

After Zhu Gaoxu began to take control of the Ming Dynasty, he began to slowly feel that the capital operation methods of the historical Yongle Dynasty were significantly different from those of the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was a marriage between the royal family and private capital. The royal family directly intervened in the operation of capital goods, but Zhu Di was not.

Historically, Zhu Di was more inclined to engage in state monopoly, prohibit smuggling, prohibit the development of private capital, and go all out to develop state capital.

To put it simply, it is engaging in state capitalist imperialization under Western standards.

The reason why Zhu Gaoxu did not take this path is because although Zhu Di succeeded for a time in history, he ultimately failed.

Although Zhengde, Jiajing, and Longqing all thought about this path, or the ministers under their rule thought about continuing to follow this path, they finally found that it didn't work.

Because there was no way, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng began to dominate the Longqing Switch, and the purpose of the Switch was to gain certain profits from private smuggling capital to strengthen the country.

As a result, after the private sector was opened up, the cooperation between the private sector and officials deepened, but the emperor was too far away to intervene, resulting in the imperial power being reduced step by step.

Although during the Chongzhen period, the emperor could still kill ministers at will, the scope of imperial power was constantly shrinking.

Faced with such lessons learned from the past, Zhu Gaoxu himself did not think he could succeed in a state-owned franchise.

After all, in the current era, whether it is productivity or resource allocation, overall efficiency is still too slow.

This kind of efficiency is doomed to a dead end if it takes the state-owned capital route.

Therefore, he is ready to try the current model, which is that the fully developed cakes will be accepted by the imperial court, and the undeveloped Kunlun Island, Europe and other cakes will be taken over by several countries under the Ming Dynasty vassal system, as well as most private business groups in the country. Develop and eat.

If you want them to develop, you must give them visible benefits, so that they can be driven to develop, and the gold mine is Zhu Gaoxu's method of driving them.

At present, the main mining areas in Africa are mainly in East Africa and South Africa. Although Zhu Gaoxu cannot remember all the mining areas, the world-famous mining areas are a required course for Zhu Gaoxu.

The mining maps he drew this time were mainly of mining areas in Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Congo.

The reason why we chose this place is because there are many rivers on the way from Ma Lindi to the mining area, and their gold content is not low.

In this way, even if they dare not go deep to search for gold mines, they can still judge from the gold sands that there are gold mining areas with high reserves upstream.

Facts have proved that Zhu Gaoxu was right in his bet. At least according to Zheng He's description, the seven surnames from the six countries were all interested in the Kunlun continent gold mine.

But even so, it is still too reluctant to drive all private capital into Kunlun Continent.

The African rainforest is much scarier than the Southeast Asian region. Without one key thing, private capital will not be able to penetrate deep and discover clusters of gold mining areas.

This key thing is the bark of the cinchona tree produced in South America, and its emergence not only allows private capital to enter the depths of Africa, but also allows the Ming army to no longer fear malaria in Indochina and Southeast Asia.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zheng He: "Is there any news from Wang Ren?"

"Not yet." Zheng He and Chen Xuan felt nervous. They had never told Zhu Gaoxu about Wang Ren, but Zhu Gaoxu could tell his name.

Obviously, Zhu Gaoxu had many spies installed in the Pacific Fleet, and this also made Chen Xuan wipe his hands in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, Zheng He reminded him when he was in Horumus, otherwise he might have an extra excuse in the Xichang Yamen.

Even if Zhu Gaoxu doesn't care, this handle is always a thorn that can hurt him at any time.

Chen Xuan looked at Zheng He gratefully, but Zheng He had no intention of looking at him, but waited for Zhu Gaoxu to speak.

"Did you follow my instructions and tell Wang Ren that once you obtain the crops, you must send someone back to Cape Kunlun?"

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, I have already given my account!"

Zheng He bowed to Wang Ren. When he parted with Wang Ren, he handed Wang Ren the drawings painted by Zhu Gaoxu and ordered Wang Ren to send people to Kunlun Cape as soon as he found these things.

As long as Wang Ren makes no mistakes, counting the time, he should have been searching for map species in Dongzhou or Beizhou for several months.

"Pay attention to the news at sea at any time. Once Wang Ren returns news, tell me immediately."

"Yes!"

As a result of Zhu Gaoxu's conversation with Zheng He, the golden train slowly entered the scope of the imperial city, and many returning merchant gang shipowners also brought back to their families the news collected during this voyage.

(End of this chapter)