My Daming New Empire

Page 582

Ma Dezhong knew that it was his brothers who cared about him, but he didn't want them to worry too much. He pretended to be nothing, pushed Duan Renzhi's hand away in disdain, and turned to mount his horse. "With your drinking capacity, you collapsed before I warmed up. See you later!"

Sunan watched Ma Dezhong leave with the four servants, and then said to Duan Renzhi: "I don't know how long Your Highness will see him, so I will cancel the banquet. Let's buy some wine and meat, and go home and wait."

"Second brother..."

"Don't worry, Your Highness will decide for us."

He is not heartless like Duan Renzhi, the incident spread from Shandong to Beijing in less than half a month.In less than a few days, the city was full of wind and rain. Sunan would not believe that there was no one behind it.

Who is behind it?Who is going to deal with the Kong family?Sunan didn't dare to think about it.

In short, just know that someone else will call the shots for them.

When Ma Dezhong arrived at the palace, he was not received immediately, because Zhu Zhanji was accompanying Zhu Di to meet North Korean Taizong Li Fangyuan at this time.

Li Fangyuan was the first king of Joseon to be officially canonized by the Ming Emperor. In today's Joseon, the seal and imperial seal are all bestowed by the Ming Dynasty.

The North Koreans pay annual tribute to native products such as ginseng, lacquerware, and leopard and seal skins.In return, the emperor bestowed generous gifts on the king of Joseon and his envoys—silk, fine clothing, medicinal herbs, books, and musical instruments.

Nowadays, all countries are short of precious metals. They need to hand over 150 taels of gold and 700 taels of silver every year. For this, they often cannot get it out.

In the 16th year of Yongle, there was a mutiny in the Korean palace.

Zhongning Maharaja Li Xuan is the third son of Li Fangyuan, who is very talented and loved by Emperor Taizong.On the contrary, Li Xuan's two elder brothers had no kingly demeanor, and rudely obstructed Taizong from passing the throne to Li Xuan.

Because of rebellion against the throne, the two were controlled by Li Fangyuan and expelled from the palace.Li Fangyuan's eldest son wandered in the mountains, and his second son became a monk.The prince was abolished, and Li Yi, the great monarch of Zhongning, was canonized by Taizong as the son of the prince.

But then, Li Fangyuan himself was heartbroken, and he had no intention of governing, so he simply abdicated the throne to Li Xuan, and became the Supreme Emperor himself.

Just after the Spring Festival this year, he came to Daming from North Korea as the Supreme Emperor, arrived at Yingtian Mansion yesterday, and was summoned by Zhu Di today.

During the interview, Zhu Di asked in detail about the process of his abdication and the distribution of power after the abdication.

Although Li Fangyuan became the Supreme Emperor and no longer dealt with political affairs, it did not mean that he completely delegated power.

In North Korea today, most of the power is still in his hands.

Zhu Di felt very fresh about this way of abdication. In Daming, in all dynasties since Yao, Shun and Yu, even between father and son, there was no habit of abdication.

Zhu Zhanji wished that the more he knew, the better. It would be best to wait for him to come back from the Western Expedition, and then give way to himself.

Because he was very afraid that some policies that required continuity would be abolished after Zhu Di came back.

Although he won't live long, if some policies are repeated, the troubles caused will not be small.

Li Fangyuan is 54 years old this year. Although he is seven years younger than Zhu Di, his body is weaker.

Facing Zhu Zhanji, who was appointed to supervise the country, his first request was to import copper coins from Daming.

Today's East Asian countries, except for some countries in Southeast Asia, most countries lack gold, silver and copper.

Like Ming Dynasty, they use gold, silver and copper as currency, but they don't have enough metal to mint coins.

And those countries in Nanyang don't even have smelting technology, so basically every country except Japan has to import copper coins from Daming.

In the past, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to meet these requirements. However, since the Beimingshan Copper Mine entered a period of vigorous development, the Iwami Silver Mine, and the Zuodu Island Gold Mine also continuously supplied gold and silver. The shortage has been greatly alleviated.

Zhu Zhan basically wants to control the economies of the entire Asian countries, so how could he disagree?

In today's era, gold, silver and copper do not have much industrial value, and are mainly used as currency.

During the three years when Zhu Zhanji went to sea, Daming now forged half a tael of silver coins, which became five hundred copper coins, and added fifty copper coins to form a complete set of currency.

However, due to the difference in gold and silver prices in various countries in recent years, many people have joined the business of selling gold and silver, and they are the first batch of speculators in foreign exchange.

But overall, because of the establishment of the two banks, the current exchange has gradually stabilized.

Li Fangyuan also proposed to invite Daming Development Bank to open a branch in North Korea, but this request was temporarily declined.

Because North Korea's economic order is very backward, to bring their economy into the territory first, Ming needs to pay a lot of gold, silver and copper coins.

But Daming is also struggling now. It is okay to sell some of their currency first, but it is not yet possible to incorporate North Korea’s economy as a whole.

Banks were opened in North Korea, and they exchanged a large number of agricultural products for currency circulation, which the banks really couldn't bear.

But even so, Zhu Zhanji agreed to let them exchange agricultural products and local specialties with Daming for 1000 million copper coins to go back, which already made Li Fangyuan very satisfied.

The interview process lasted until noon, when Zhu Di hosted a banquet in honor of Li Fangyuan and his party in the Hall of Martial Arts, and then sent them to the post house in North Korea.

Regarding the contact between Zhu Zhanji and Li Fangyuan, Zhu Di did not express too many opinions.Because he found that although Zhu Zhanji was easy to get confused about small things, he was more thorough than himself when it came to major issues of right and wrong.

Take North Korea’s opening of a bank as an example, if it were Zhu Di, he would agree immediately.

But Zhu Zhanji would rather support them with 1000 million copper coins than go to North Korea to open a bank.When Zhu Zhanji analyzed the amount of copper and silver coins that needed to be paid for opening a bank, Zhu Di realized that he had not considered carefully.

The whole of North Korea is short of money. If he wants to fill it, Daming does not know how much money he will have to spend.

And this matter was not reminded by anyone, it was completely thought of by himself.

Through this incident, Zhu Di was more assured of Zhu Zhanji's ability to handle politics.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji returned to the Counseling Department at Donghua Gate and met Ma Dezhong who had been waiting for more than two hours.

Although he had waited for more than two hours, the Counseling Department did not treat Ma Dezhong as an outsider. At noon, he specially brought a food box for Ma Dezhong, which contained four dishes and one soup.

Although Ma Dezhong didn't dare to wander around in the palace, but just looking at the scenery of the palace at the gate of the Counseling Department, he felt that the trip was worthwhile.

Facing Ma Dezhong, Zhu Zhanji didn't need to be hypocritical. After he finished seeing the ceremony, he let him sit under his hands and said: "I already know about you, but I don't want to use this as an individual case to target Confucius. So I hope you wait a month, then I will arrange someone to send you to Shandong."

Ma Dezhong clasped his fists and said: "Of course I obey His Highness's orders, not to mention that even the county magistrate of Qufu has been arrested, and now the county government has no one to accept my case."

Zhu Zhanji shook his head and said with a smile: "A county magistrate is not qualified. Since this case has been pushed to the Chief Secretary of Shandong, then you will naturally go to Jinan to file a complaint."

Ma Dezhong asked again: "Since Your Highness has delayed my minister by one month, I don't know why. I am afraid that acting recklessly will spoil His Highness's important affairs."

Sun Lin coughed and warned Ma Dezhong not to talk nonsense. He would do as His Highness ordered, and there was no need to ask so many questions.

Seeing that Ma Dezhong was a little panicked, Zhu Zhanji laughed.He can think of this, which shows that he is not a reckless person.

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "It just takes a while for the household department, the local chief secretary, and the state government to form a new field inspection team. With the help of the case between you and the Kong family, we must take a good crackdown on the current forcible occupation." Families in good fields restrict land distribution and check out hidden households."

Although Ma Dezhong knew that these matters were very important and that His Highness was the one who made decisions for the people, he did not understand the link in it.

But when he returned home and mentioned the matter to Sunan, Sunan understood it all at once. "The Kong family is going to be the target of public criticism this time!"

Sunan guessed right.

Zhu Zhanji wanted to take advantage of this case to directly lift the cover of the gentry and clan occupying the land. At this moment, people all over the world will hate the Kong family who ignited this fire.