Chapter 324 Ming Dynasty version of Fushou Ointment
The Ming Empire was still preparing for the war in Jiaozhi, and the imperial court was still making a series of measures for this strategic purpose in an orderly manner.
In the spring of the 31st year of Zhengde's reign, in response to Liang Shigu's suggestion, Zhu Hou followed the cabinet and issued an order to the Ministry of Rites to change Zhu Di's posthumous title from Emperor Taizongwen to Emperor Chengzuwen, thus once again expressing the court's determination to restore the prosperous age of Yongle. To recreate the prosperous age of Yongle, Jiaozhi naturally cannot be allowed to be independent from the outside world.
Because of this, people began to talk about the territory of the Ming Dynasty during the Yongle period, and mentioned the old story of the Ming Dynasty abandoning Jiaozhi.
By the summer of this year, Gui E, Minister of the Ministry of War, publicly issued a statement stating that Jiaozhi was an integral part of the Ming Dynasty.
Naturally, the Ming court took these measures to pave the way for the subsequent conquest of Jiaozhi.
Immediately afterwards, Lin Tingxuan, the Privy Councilor of the Guards, proposed to Shu to recover Jiaozhi and protect the Han people. Zhu Houzhao agreed to Lin Tingxuan's request, and Mao Bowen took command to lead the expedition.
At this point, it was a foregone conclusion that the Ming Dynasty would regain Jiaozhi.
At this time, Jiaozhi was still in a state of civil strife, and was not yet alert to Ming's actions.
Not only did Jiaozhi itself not have any vigilance, but the Westerners who were trading or smuggling in the southern Minghai area at this time also did not realize that this was a sign that the strategic center of gravity of the Ming Dynasty was moving south.
At this time, Wan Lid, a Western fan, was not too concerned about the fact that the Ming Empire was about to regain Jiaozhi. At this time, he was still concerned about how much more longevity medicine he could sell in the Ming Dynasty.
Whether it is Spain or Portugal, these two rising Western European powers completely lost their dominant position in the global trade market after the Ming Dynasty joined the Great Navigation Movement.
Ming Dynasty's raw silk and other high-quality and cheap products were dumped on the global market, causing widespread bankruptcy in the textile industry of Spain, Portugal and the colonies they controlled.
At the same time, because the Ming Dynasty has started the steam industrial revolution, is a provider of industrial products, and controls many major routes, Spain and Portugal have no advantage at all in global trade with the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty has always been in a trade surplus position, and a large amount of silver flows into the Ming Dynasty like running water.
This means that almost most of the gold and silver that Spain and Portugal worked so hard to plunder around the world were stolen by the Ming Dynasty.
Spain and Portugal naturally do not want this phenomenon to exist, and they cannot sit back and watch the loss of their silver.
then.
Spain and Portugal began to ban the sale of Chinese textiles in order to limit the flow of silver into the Ming Dynasty.
Not only Spain and Portugal, but Japan was also restricting the flow of silver into the Ming Dynasty.
However, due to the Ming Empire's own raw silk production advantages and the highly developed textile industry brought about by the steam industry, the bans of Spain, Portugal and Japan were ineffective, and countless people still bought Ming products.
In order to break their trade deficit situation, Spain and Portugal thought of selling Fushou pills.
then.
The Ming Dynasty’s opening policy and huge trade surplus led to the early emergence of this drug trade in the Ming Dynasty, which only appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Wan Lid is one of the pioneers of this type of trade.
He had to admit that the profit from this kind of opium trade was more lucrative than selling musk rosewood ore in China, because he only needed to force captured slaves to plant it in his own colony, and he could easily obtain low-cost Fushou Ointment, which was sold until the Ming Dynasty, was obviously loved by everyone in the empire. As long as one smokes Fushou Ointment, one cannot stop smoking this substance.
Moreover, Wan Lide also discovered that the profits from the Fu Shou drug trade could continue to increase because of its addictive nature.
After all, apart from relying on the drug trade, Western countries no longer have any advantage in competing with the Ming Dynasty in global trade.
However, the trade in goods such as Fushou Ointment was actually banned in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Wan Li basically relied on smuggling when he came to Daming to sell Fu Shou pills.
Moreover, many coastal officials and gentry would relax their vigilance against them because of their own corruption and bribery, and even help them. Wan Lid even had a Ming vassal king, King Hui, to support him. Therefore, this made his longevity The paste trade was carried out more smoothly in the Ming Dynasty.
Wan Lid is a typical white leftist. Looking at the prosperous markets of the Ming Dynasty, the wide cement roads and high-rise buildings, as well as the silk and satin all over the streets and the roar of machines that tirelessly can provide more power than four or five strong men, he is attracted by it. All he thought about was that all the silver his empire obtained from the Americas fell into the pockets of these yellow people, so that the empire still lived an extremely wealthy life, and even developed more powerful guns and cannons to divert their routes. The control space is getting smaller and smaller.
"Master Lang, please try it. This is a newly arrived product, one or two and five hundred silver dollars!"
Wan Lid spoke in broken Chinese to a wealthy gentleman from Huizhou, who was smoking heavily at this time without blinking his eyelids, and said: "Ten pounds first, take him to the accounting room to settle the bill."
Wan Lid was very happy after hearing this, thinking that this longevity ointment was indeed a huge profit. It cost less than 100 silver dollars and could earn nearly 80,000 silver dollars.
Of course, what makes him even more happy is that in the past few years, he has watched the old patron Lang Yuan gradually lose weight from a pot-bellied person to a skinny man after taking the goods in his hands and taking the Fushou Ointment. He very much hopes to expand his empire. This kind of trade in the Ming Dynasty made the army and nobles of the empire addicted to this addiction. In this way, the empire would become weak, and its own empire could plunder this huge empire.
Wan Lid thought very far, and he had even written such a letter to the King of Spain. However, what he did not expect was that just when he left the Lang Mansion with a note of 80,000 silver dollars, two royal guards appeared in front of him. In front of me: "Wan Reid, come with us!"
……
Although the war to regain Jiaozhi was getting closer and closer, the closer it got, the less trouble Emperor Zhu Houzhao had. The longevity ointment presented by King Hui still left a deep impression on him.
Zhu Houzhao has still not been able to alleviate the slightest concern that things like Fushou Ointment may flow into the Ming Dynasty in advance due to the opening of the sea in the Ming Dynasty and poison the people of the world.
Although Zhu Houzhao had already banned the trade of Fu Shou drugs in the Ming Dynasty through administrative means, Zhu Houzhao believed that the ban would be difficult to ban. He could also guess that Westerners would become more and more active in the smuggling trade of Fu Shou drugs.
After all, history has proven that doing this is indeed very profitable and is the only way to open up the Chinese market. Even in the 21st century, it is one of the three most profitable trades along with oil and arms.
Zhu Houzhao felt that if the trade in Fushou Ointment could not be completely banned, then Ming Dynasty would not be the only one to suffer from it. He would have to let Westerners suffer such harm as well, and he would also have to rely on this kind of trade to continue to maintain Ming Dynasty's dominant trade position. .
Of course, if Ming Dynasty wanted to engage in this kind of drug trade, the drugs it produced would naturally not be simple drugs.
After all, Daming is an industrialized country and already has scientific research capabilities. Therefore, the Fushou ointment that Daming wants to produce cannot be a simple natural poison. It must be an industrial product and must be irreplaceable.
Moreover, before Zhu Houzhao obtained Fushou Ointment from King Hui, Zhu Houzhao had already asked the chemical engineering talents of Qiu Ju School to engage in experiments on the purification and synthesis of compounds in poppies and other crops.
Zhu Houzhao's original purpose was naturally just to make analgesics and use them in Jinyiwei's internal interrogations and intelligence investigations, but now, Zhu Houzhao had the idea of trading such products.
"Your Majesty, this is the analgesic spirit developed by the academicians of Chenhe Chemical Engineering Department. It is currently only used for critically ill patients at the end of their lives." After Qiu Ju said, Zhu Houzhao nodded, and then asked Qiu Ju about this. Other information about the analgesic-like spirit was finally confirmed to be the morphine of later generations.
Shortly after Zhu Houzhao met Qiu Ju, Jin Yiwei came to report to King Hui that the Western fan Wan Lid, who was selling Fushou ointment, had been caught.
Zhu Houzhao simply ordered Jin Yiwei to take Wan De to Qiu Ju's laboratory.
Zhu Houzhao himself also met Wan Lid here and asked: "Tell me, why did you sell Fushou Ointment to the Ming Dynasty? How much did you sell, how many goods were left, who did you sell to, and through what channels?" .”
Wan Lid did not expect that one day he would be caught by the Imperial Guards of this empire, and he would also be escorted in front of His Majesty the Emperor of this Empire. For a moment, he could only shake his head: "I don't know, I don't know anything!"
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile, and was too lazy to talk nonsense with this Xiyi, so he ordered: "Qiu Ju, give him a subcutaneous injection of the analgesic spirit! See if he can recruit him at that time, let these poison-selling Fanyi The profiteers have a taste of the power of my Ming Dynasty’s premium longevity ointment!”
Analgesic is a compound extracted from opium poppies by Qiu Ju and his chemical engineering team. One of its properties is that it is soluble in water and can naturally be injected subcutaneously.
Medical science in Ming Dynasty is also developing rapidly. Qiu Ju is no stranger to subcutaneous injections, but the syringes are made of glass instead of plastic. Qiu Ju walked out in a white coat, holding a glass syringe in his right hand, like a weird old man giving vaccinations to children, walked towards Wan Ride, and ordered people to reveal Wan Ride's shoulders
Before being injected, the Western fan Wan Reid was already frightened when he looked at the slender needle. He didn't know what this strange old man was going to do, so he couldn't help but tremble, and a smell of urine came out from under his skirt. came out.
ah!
Wan Lid screamed!
At the same time, Qiu Ju had injected a whole tube of morphine, the analgesic spirit, into Wan De's body.
At first, Wan Lid just felt a sense of new pleasure and couldn't help but laugh. Soon he felt extremely uncomfortable and eagerly wanted another shot: "Please, give me one more shot, give me one more shot! This liquid is so magical." , It’s simply the liquid of God, even better than having a woman!”
Zhu Houzhao could see that the drugs produced in Daming were obviously more effective and more addictive.
Next.
Because Zhu Houzhao didn't let Qiu Ju continue to inject Wan Rid, Wan Rid became anxious and furious: "Give me another shot! Give me another shot quickly!"
Wan Lid did not expect that he would be trapped in a cocoon. He was involved in the drug trade and would be forced to become addicted to drugs in the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, he was unable to restrain his drug addiction and soon lost all the information he knew. Confessed.
"Jinyiwei has set up an anti-narcotics department. Anyone who trades drugs will be executed! No interrogation is required! From now on, based on the clues provided by Wan Rid, drug traffickers, drug makers and even drug growers in the Ming Dynasty and abroad will be immediately arrested. Police from all over the country will The forces and the army must cooperate fully! No matter who the people of the Ming Dynasty have begun to take Fushou Ointment, they will be escorted to the Jinyiwei Anti-Narcotics Department Prison and will not be released until they have completely quit!”
Zhu Houzhao did not expect that even though he issued an administrative order to ban the trade of drug substances, he still learned through Wan Lid that many smuggling trades were still frantically dumping Fushou drugs into the Ming Dynasty, which forced him to directly involve Jin Yiwei in the matter.
besides.
Zhu Houzhao also decided to retaliate against the Western countries immediately. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao immediately summoned Gao Feng and ordered: "You should immediately organize a trading company, tentatively named Fushou Trading Company, to be responsible for selling Fushou ointments to the Western countries. The Fushou ointment product is mainly analgesic extracted by Qiu Ju and others. They sell it as Fushou ointment and call it high-quality Fushou ointment! For the specific production, you can go to Qiu Ju. ”
"I obey the decree!"
Gao Feng is now the censor of the Royal Horse, responsible for the management of Zhu Houzhao's property. Zhu Houzhao now asks him to establish the Fushou Trading Company, so naturally he wants him to carry out the opium trade with the Western Yi tribes.
Zhu Houzhao knew that once the opium trade developed, the West would completely lose the opportunity to catch up with the Ming Dynasty in global trade, and the Ming Dynasty took this opportunity to destroy the minds of Westerners, destroy their bodies, and even change their genes.
Gao Feng started the establishment of Fushou Trading Company.
There are three main types of trade in the Ming Dynasty. One is to plunder raw materials directly from overseas colonies, the other is to export various processed products, which are transported back to the country by Westerners or other barbarians for sale, and the other is to directly travel across the ocean to other countries. sell.
Because the goods exported by the Ming Dynasty had large profit margins and its own demand for other commodities except raw materials was low, trading activities across the ocean were still rarely operated by the Ming Dynasty trading houses.
Today, the Fushou Trading Company established by Gao Feng can be regarded as opening up a new growth pole for Ming Dynasty's commercial activities in selling goods to other countries overseas.
In the spring of the 32nd year of Zhengde, the merchant ship of the Fushou Trading Company officially left Haojing and headed to the West with one hundred thousand kilograms of fine Fushou ointment produced by the Ming Dynasty Royal Industrial Company.
In this era, the Suez Canal had not yet been opened, so the ships of Fushou Trading Company had to pass through Cape Verde first. Fortunately, Cape Verde and Ceuta are now Ming Dynasty colonial strongholds.
Therefore, it is not very difficult for the merchant ships of the Fushou Trading Company to complete the first foreign opium trade. The problem is how to successfully obtain trading rights in the Western barbarian countries, including the Ottoman Empire, and successfully sell the opium trade.
Zhu Houzhao hoped that the Western countries would understand the situation and take the initiative to allow Fushou Trading Company to sell Fushou ointments.
If you are unaware, he has also prepared for this in advance. He has specifically asked some of the navy's armed forces to be the supporters behind the Fushou Trading Company. After all, this is a royal enterprise, similar to the East India Company of the Western powers in history. It is really not feasible. It can directly represent the will of the royal family to force its trade.
Shao Yuanwai was arrested and sent to Jinyiwei's anti-drug prison and was forced to detoxify. At the same time, the first batch of drug addicts in Ming Dynasty, like Shao Yuanwai, were also controlled one after another.
The first batch of Panyi merchants who began to sell Fushou ointments to the Ming Dynasty were escorted and gathered in Haojing. All the Fushou ointments they brought were confiscated, and all the property they earned was confiscated. Then all their heads were chopped off and hung in the Ming Dynasty. Hao Jing dominates the city gate to intimidate traders coming to the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty is different from the late Qing Dynasty in history. Although more than a hundred years have passed since the Ming Dynasty, it has achieved great victories in many wars with the Western colonists. Cruel, but no Western country dared to launch an Opium War with the Ming Dynasty.
Even the so-called great powers Portugal and Spain, mentioned in a documentary, did not dare to declare war on the Ming Dynasty again.
And even though the Ming Dynasty built a Jingguan Tower with the heads of Folangji people in Goa, these Folangji merchants still came to the Ming Dynasty to trade.
Because the Ming Dynasty had achieved complete victory in several wars against the Western colonists, its status as a great power was recognized by the whole world.
The Ming Dynasty is now considered the only superpower in the entire world. There is no such thing as how powerful it is!
Because Ming has the world's largest market and the only industrial production base, he does not need to consider the feelings of any country, but other countries have to consider Ming's feelings, and other countries must rely on Ming's gifts if they want to be rich.
As the only superpower in the world, other countries feel that Ming hates it but dare not hate it, and loves it but cannot love it. Sometimes it does not want Ming to interfere in its internal affairs, and sometimes it begs Ming to be the world's policeman to uphold justice for it.
Today, it is certain that the Ming Dynasty will regain Jiaozhi.
Anyone who understands the Jiaozhi people should also realize that the Ming Dynasty should be regarded as his enemy now, and even the enemy that needs to be guarded most at present. But what is dramatic is that the Li Zhuang Zong established by the powerful minister Ruan Gan of the Jiaozhi Kingdom suddenly sent envoys to the capital. , reported to the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao that Mo Dengyong usurped the throne and seized power, and took the initiative to request the Ming Dynasty to send troops to Jiaozhi to attack the Mo family.
To be precise, the current Jiaozhi should be called Annan. It was a vassal state established by Li Li during the Xuande period after forcing Wang Tong to negotiate a peace and asking the Ming Dynasty to abandon Jiaozhi and ennoble himself.
Nowadays, Mo Dengyong, a powerful minister of the Li Dynasty, forced Emperor Le Gong to abdicate and established the Mo Dynasty himself. However, another powerful minister, Ruan Gan, was unwilling to subordinate himself to the Mo family and established Li Weining as the emperor, namely Li Zhuangzong. As a result, the current Annan, namely Cochin, was divided between the north and the south.
Ruan Gan obviously knew that his troops could not destroy the Mo family, so he asked the Ming Dynasty for help, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would send troops to help him unify Annan.
"Your Majesty, the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty! Our emperor's ancestor was the legitimate lord of Annan who was enthroned by Xuanzong of the Celestial Dynasty. The traitor Mo Shi usurped the throne and established himself. This is really an unforgivable crime. I hope that the Celestial Empire will send its heavenly troops to save the people of Annan from fire and water and maintain the legitimacy of Annan!"
The envoy sent by Ruan Gan cried heartbrokenly and denounced Mo's crimes.
Many ministers in the court who were deeply educated in Confucianism also expressed deep sympathy for the Li family's plight. Of course, there were also sensible ministers who knew that the Li dynasty was not worthy of pity now, because it was Li Li, the ancestor of the Li family, who gathered troops to betray the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the Ming Dynasty lost Jiaozhi Province, and its prestige among the southwestern chieftains plummeted. From the Xuande Dynasty onwards, it became difficult for the Ming Dynasty to control the southwestern chieftains, and eventually led to a great war during the Wanli period.
Although this matter is related to the fact that Emperor Xuande himself was deeply educated in Confucianism and could not see the strategic significance of losing control of the Southwest and even the West if he lost Cochin, Li could not escape his responsibility.
Zhu Houzhao was not an emperor trained by Confucianism. What he saw was not to maintain orthodox Confucian ethics, but how to maximize the national interests of the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Ming Dynasty originally wanted to raise troops in Jiaozhi, now that Ruan Gan had taken the initiative to request the Ming Dynasty to send troops, Zhu Houzhao felt that the Ming Dynasty could benefit from the domestic conflicts and make the Ming Dynasty pay the minimum price for the purpose of regaining Jiaozhi.
Zhu Houzhao convened a temporary court meeting with the important ministers of the Guards system to discuss how to respond to Annan King Li Zhuangzong's request for Ming Dynasty to send troops.
Because the intelligence work of the Jinyi Guards of the Ming Dynasty has been greatly strengthened, the imperial military leaders at this time already knew the true situation of Annan Kingdom and knew that the so-called Li Zhuangzong was just a puppet controlled by Ruan Gan. Therefore, whether it was Zhu Houzhao, Wang Shouren or It is Lin Tingxuan, Gui E and others who do not have much sympathy for the northern and southern forces of Annan Kingdom.
At this time, Wang Shouren said: "Your Majesty, I think that the Ming Dynasty can first respond to Li Zhuangzong's request for help and send troops to conquer Mo Dengyong. I think that as long as Mo Dengyong is not stupid, he will face the dual confrontation between Ruan Gan's troops in the south and our imperial army." In the case of a flanking attack, they will definitely choose to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, take the initiative to surrender, and even offer land and household registration records. ”
Zhu Houzhao admitted that Wang Shouren's analysis was very accurate. Historically, after the Ming Dynasty sent troops to Annan at the request of King Li Zhuangzong of Annan, Mo Dengyong immediately asked the Ming Dynasty to surrender, because the domestic opposition to the Ming Dynasty sending troops to Annan was already loud, and Mo Dengyong's request for annexation could be regarded as completing the Ming Dynasty's nominal recovery of Annan. Therefore, the Ming court agreed to Mo Dengyong's annexation and did not engage in a de facto war against Annan.
However, this nominal attachment to Annan has no practical significance except for good looks. The Ming Dynasty did not gain actual control over the Annan region. Although it would be more beneficial to the Ming Dynasty to keep Annan in a state of north-south division for a short period of time. , but Annan will be unified sooner or later, and once unified, it will still become an independent kingdom.
Moreover, this nominal affiliation was not a de facto war leader. It still did not allow the Ming Dynasty to regain its prestige among the southwest chieftains. It still allowed Annan and other countries to wantonly burn, kill and loot on the borders of the Ming Dynasty. Even the southwestern chieftains also wantonly plundered and enslaved Han people. The Han people, and even these southwestern chieftains, were finally bold enough to rebel directly.
Zhu Houzhao still wants to directly occupy Annan. After all, what the court really needs now is not superficial glory, but real benefits, food, ore, and cheap labor...
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(End of chapter)