Chapter 254 Bringing so much gold and silver back!
It is now mid-spring of the twelfth year of Zhengde. Everything is sprouting. The capital has been dry for a winter and a touch of warm moisture has been added. Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty also got up earlier than usual and went to the Hanbitang Hall in the Royal West Garden to consult on politics. .
After all, the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City is not a place suitable for an emperor to work.
After all, when Emperor Yongle built the Forbidden City in Beijing, it was just for the purpose of building it. It is no wonder that the Zhengde, Jiajing and other emperors in history also moved out of the palace, and even the Manchu emperors built the Old Summer Palace to live outside, instead of living there permanently. Qianqing Palace.
Zhu Houzhao also had to admit that the front hall of the Forbidden City was magnificent, but the inner court was indeed a bit narrow compared to an emperor.
What's more, the current Ming Dynasty's political system has changed.
It is no longer the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies who decide all major military and political affairs.
Naturally, there was no need for Zhu Houzhao to discuss matters with a group of ministers in the narrow cabinet and ceremonial supervisory rooms every day.
Zhu Houzhao basically handed over all the daily administrative power to the cabinet, and in order to facilitate the cabinet ministers to handle daily government affairs, he specifically asked them to use Wenhua Palace as their office space.
The Chief of Ceremonies basically existed in name only, because Zhu Houzhao was not an emperor who wanted to be a hands-off boss. As long as he kept interfering in the affairs of the government, the eunuchs of the Chief of Ceremonies could only be senior secretaries who could only approve the memorials.
Naturally, the Fifth Army Governor's Office has long existed in name only, and now the Fourth Department of the Guards is now temporarily using the office of the Fifth Army Governor's Office, and has become the highest military command authority for foreign operations, almost sharing the military administration with the cabinet.
Zhu Houzhao now only reviews memorials in Hanbitang, which can be regarded as one of the emperor's daily office locations.
Hanbitang not only had eunuchs who were in charge of rituals, but also some of Zhu Houzhao's civil servants.
Zhu Houzhao now has two attendant rooms.
One is the attendant's office responsible for financial work, headed by Xu Jing, who maintains a group of literati who understand money, law and economics. As Zhu Houzhao's think tank for economic control, some even directly manage the royal investment business.
One is the attendant room responsible for cultural propaganda, headed by Tang Bohu, who maintains a group of literati responsible for media propaganda and public opinion control, serving as Zhu Houzhao's think tank in ideological and cultural control.
In terms of military power, there are checks and balances between the Guards and the Ministry of War. Naturally, Zhu Houzhao will not worry about the emergence of warlords.
thus.
As long as the current emperor controls the economy, ideology and culture of the empire, it means that he can control the entire Ming Empire.
As soon as Zhu Houzhao arrived at Hanbitang, the eunuch in charge of rites had already divided the matters that the emperor had to deal with today into three categories: military, administrative, and judicial. At the same time, he had arranged Emperor Zhu Houzhao's schedule and plans for today.
Zhu Houzhao first picked up the military memorials and read them, and then the administrative and judicial ones.
These memorials were drafted early by the heads of the various ministries of the Guards, the cabinet, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Zhu Houzhao basically just took a look at it, and then asked the eunuch of the Supervisor of Ceremonies to approve it for him, but As long as Zhu Houzhao had any doubts, he would dismiss them.
This is equivalent to distinguishing military power, administrative power, judicial power, and supervisory power to avoid the phenomenon of centralization of power in the cabinet or the ceremonial supervisor.
At the same time, in Zhu Houzhao's view, this could also improve the efficiency of the Ming Dynasty's governance and make the government's governance more professional.
Zhu Houzhao basically does not need to spend too much time dealing with daily tedious military and political affairs now. It only takes more than an hour for him to handle all the affairs, and he can have more time to do other meaningful things. But at this time, Zhu Houzhao saw from the cabinet memorial that Xia Yan had returned from visiting the West.
This made Zhu Houzhao a little interested, and he hurriedly told Liu Jin: "Arrange a time for Xia Yan to enter the palace!"
After Liu Jin received the order and said yes, he turned around and went to Lancuixuan's room where he was currently on duty. After re-arranging Zhu Houzhao's itinerary, he came back and said: "Your Majesty, you will not have time to see Xia Xia until the end of the day." Minister.”
Zhu Houzhao didn't expect that his schedule had been scheduled to the day after tomorrow, so he didn't say anything more and just nodded: "Then the day after tomorrow!"
The day after tomorrow is not long, the spring will be gorgeous.
Zhu Houzhao summoned Xia Yan in Hanbitang.
Xia Yan wore a black gauze hat with long wings and a scarlet official robe. When he saw Zhu Houzhao appearing, he bowed down and worshiped.
Zhu Houzhao said no courtesy, found a chair and sat down. Looking at Xia Yan with a long goatee, he only smiled slightly: "Sure enough, I have lost some weight. I don't know whether it is due to traveling across the ocean, or because the Western Yi women are too Due to passion and unrestrained spirit.”
Zhu Houzhao naturally knew from Xichang what happened to Xia Yan along the way. Therefore, when he saw Xia Yan, Zhu Houzhao did not directly ask him about serious matters, but only told some jokes first.
Xia Yan's face turned red. He didn't expect His Majesty the Emperor to know about the Xiyi woman he had brought back so soon. He didn't know how to answer the question.
Zhu Houzhao continued to joke and asked: "My dear, how does it feel to ride this white horse?"
At first, Xia Yan didn't understand what Zhu Houzhao meant, but when he looked up at Zhu Houzhao's evil smile, he suddenly understood and hurriedly stood up:
"Your Majesty! Are you just asking about this matter when you summon me to the palace? As a king and father, your Majesty should be solemn and majestic. Why are you teasing me for no reason!"
Zhu Houzhao knew that Xia Yan was outspoken. Seeing him in such a hurry made him laugh even more: "How come you can't bear to joke? Do you dare to say that you didn't accept a Xiyi woman in the house?"
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"Your Majesty, I dare not deceive you. I am, I am, but Your Majesty, you should ask me about business, so you don't have to ask." Xia Yan didn't know how to answer at first, but in the end he could only force himself. Said a few words incoherently.
Zhu Houzhao saw that Xia Yan was really not good at joking, so he couldn't joke with Xia Yan anymore. He just continued to ask Xia Yan: "When you went to Xiyi, what did you see, what did you do, and what can you bring back to the Ming Dynasty?" ?”
"Reporting to your majesty, this time I went to the Western Barbarians mainly to Rome and Florence. I met their pope and the lords of Florence. I beheaded their pope and forced them to admit that the papal succession must be approved by His Majesty the Ming Emperor. The bill also brought back a group of painters whom Your Majesty likes, such as Leonardo da Vinci, and more than two thousand kilograms of gold and more than sixty thousand kilograms of silver, all of which were delivered to the Royal Taxation Bureau!"
After Xia Yan finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao didn't come back to his senses for a long time. The first thing he didn't expect was that Xia Yan killed the Pope.
Secondly, Zhu Houzhao did not expect that Xia Yan would directly bring back more than 2,000 kilograms of gold and more than 60,000 kilograms of silver when he went to Xiyi this time.
"You, are you telling the truth?"
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but stood up and asked.
In the Ming Dynasty, ten thousand taels of silver was considered a huge sum of money, but Zhu Houzhao did not expect that Xia Yan would bring back so much gold and silver in one voyage to the West. This was equivalent to giving the Royal Taxation Bureau millions of taels of silver at once!
1. To answer the book friend’s doubts, will Xia Yan go to the West to kill the Pope to cause the entire West to unite for revenge? There is no need to worry about this, because the Pope no longer has much authority during this period. In the fourteenth century, France It occupied the Papal States and imprisoned the Pope, which seemed to be called the Prison of Alvernon. Despite this, France was not attacked by other countries in the West. God The Holy Roman Empire even burned Rome. In the novel, Xia Yan went to the Papal States in 1515, so if he dealt with the pope, other Western countries would not make enemies of the Ming Dynasty over a pope, because Xia Yan did not want to eliminate Catholicism. Meaning, he just killed a pope, which is different from Persia; book friends can only understand that the Pope of Rome is the monarch of an ordinary small Western country. Even if several powerful Western countries united to seek revenge against the Ming Dynasty, it would be okay. Xia Yan brought a naval fleet. By the time the Western countries knew about it, he had already left the West and there would be no time to seek revenge from Xia Yan; it was even less likely that they would travel across the ocean to come. Make trouble for Daming.
2. In this chapter, the amount of gold and silver brought back by Xia Yan is not an exaggeration. After checking the information, we found that Spain in the first half of the 16th century was the era in the novel at this moment. It plundered 2,292 kilograms of gold and silver from the Americas every year. More than 30,000 kilograms, so it should be reasonable for me to write that Xia Yan brought back more than 2,000 kilograms of gold and more than 60,000 kilograms of silver. After all, Xia Yan's fleet followed Portugal's route to rob it, and also robbed the gold that Portugal had hoarded in Ceuta. The gold they brought back was only a little more than two thousand kilograms.
(End of chapter)