Chapter 146 Expedition against Japanese slaves! 20 pieces of cotton clothing in exchange for 200 kilograms of grain!
The two of them drank and talked about their ideals in front of Shen Liqian's grave, and the two became more and more speculative.
When it was time to have lunch and go down the mountain, Chen Han stood up, bowed respectfully to Shen Liqian's tombstone, and said in a loud voice: "Brother Meng Li, you have been working for the welfare of the people all your life, and now you have walked an upright path. Brother, I will remember your ambition and take the road of reform further.
Now whether our reform can be completely successful depends on whether this battle can be started and whether gold and silver can be moved from the Japanese Nu Island to the Ming Dynasty's treasury.
I must witness this scene with my own eyes, otherwise I will be really sorry for your sacrifice.
The heroic spirit in heaven is not far away, wishing this Eastern Expedition a smooth success and the reform of the Ming Dynasty.
Brother, I would like to thank you! "
Xia Yuanji was also full of confidence after hearing this: "Brother Meng Li, our reform has initially seen results. The reform of the shareholding tax system has achieved results in the first year, and the first step of your and my wishes has been achieved.
Next, I will assist Zhi Nian to continue on the path of reform. I will definitely clear away all the filth and restore peace to the world. By then, even if I am dead, I will have an explanation for you. "
The two like-minded friends are also of the same age. They are close friends and do not need blood alliances and sworn brothers with different surnames like friends in the world.
They have similar interests and want to help the world and save the people, so they cherish each other and don't need too many words.
"Brother Wei Zhe, this time my dear brother goes to the Japanese slaves, the work of maintaining the pace of reform will be left to you."
Xia Yuanji laughed loudly: "This is my job. Zhi Nian, you can rest assured that tens of thousands of Japanese slaves will march eastward, and give me all the money and gold to move to the Ming Dynasty."
"Okay, okay!!" Chen Han replied with three good words in a row.
The two returned to Shen's house, had a light meal and then went down the mountain.
……
November of the 24th year of Hongwu.
The workshop owners in Songjiang completed an order for 20 pieces of cotton clothing for North Korea, just in time to be escorted directly to Hepo Port in North Korea by warships.
A total of two 44-meter-long Daifuku ships were dispatched for this expedition.
There were a hundred small warships. Later, Chen Hang discovered that many of the warships were not, but were newly built.
On the contrary, they gathered together during the battle with Chen Youliang at Poyang Lake.
Many ships cannot carry out combat missions, but they can still be used directly as transport ships after modification.
Therefore, among the hundred warships of various sizes, at least fifty are used for transportation.
In this way, there are fifty or sixty warships for transportation alone.
It can be seen that the old man is actually working hard this time, because he wants to transport countless gold and silver from the Japanese slaves to the Ming Dynasty.
So even if you follow with an empty ship, you have to do everything possible.
This time I dared to go to sea in Ningbo, not far from Songjiang Prefecture. In addition to completing the order of 30 pieces, Songjiang Prefecture had to complete the order.
The imperial court became rich and generous, and immediately placed an order for another 100 million cotton-padded clothes.
This time, the order was placed in the name of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce, in order to make 50 pieces of cotton clothing for foreign trade.
The remaining 50 pieces are promoted at quite cheap prices.
Although people now know that new technologies have been introduced into the workshops in Songjiang Prefecture, which has increased efficiency.
But after all, there is no information, and what we know is only a few state capitals around Songjiang.
The imperial court will take advantage of this time to start promoting it on a large scale.
At the same time, due to the large-scale withdrawal of old banknotes this time, the price of the banknotes has increased by fifty cents. People's confidence in the banknotes has increased, and their desire to consume has also increased.
Although the amount of gold and silver offered by the imperial court this time was really small.
But as Zhu Biao said, the court did not shy away and gave some plans and also made promises, making the people feel more at ease.
This means that we can transport the gold and silver there to the imperial court, and then we can begin to collect treasure banknotes on a large scale to exchange gold and silver.
This is a series of reform measures, and it is also the most critical part of the reform measures.
So this is the reason why Chen Han wanted to go in person this time.
This time Chen Han went to sea and Princess Jiangdu came to see him off in person. The two were reluctant to leave, but reason still prevailed over their feelings.
Chen Han promised to come back within half a year.
Zhu Youwei was relieved.
The first stop this time is to the Hepo port in North Korea. It is estimated that it will take 20 days of continuous sailing to reach it.
Setting off in November of the lunar calendar is really not a good day.
But it was able to avoid many strong winds and waves.
Although it is difficult to avoid the usual strong winds, the main thing is to avoid the hurricane, which is already quite good.
This voyage was quite smooth. Under the leadership of ministers who had gone to North Korea to issue various credentials, they arrived at Hepu port smoothly 21 days later.
Mu Ying had already gone through almost half a year of training on the sea, so he showed no signs of seasickness at all.
He even held the row with great interest and once again passed the improved telescope that the students thought of and kept looking around on the deck.
Otherwise, it would be said that a man is a boy until he dies.
Even though he is almost 50 years old, he still couldn't put it down after getting this telescope that can see objects 2000 meters away. Ostensibly it was to check whether there were pirates on the sea.
In fact, it is just to use the telescope more and see new things on the sea.
To be honest, in today's Eastern Expedition, the number of ships dispatched by the Ming Dynasty and their strength are very close to the fleets that sailed to the South Seas during the reign of Emperor Yongle.
Zheng He sent many teams to Nanyang, but they were mainly for communication between the two countries and did not intend to say that a war would definitely break out, so there were relatively few warships.
There are many ships carrying various goods.
But this Eastern Expedition was just the opposite. Except for the two large Fu ships, each of the remaining warships was equipped with a large number of artillery.
It can be said that the combat effectiveness is already quite powerful.
Not to mention ordinary pirates and Japanese pirates who would turn into cannon fodder when they meet them, even the pirate king Chen Zuyi, who claims to have a pirate army of [-] pirates under his command.
Facing this team sent by the Ming Dynasty, they would be frightened and run away in despair, otherwise they would be annihilated.
Chen Han was a little dizzy on the boat. Fortunately, he only came here to provide advice and witness this time, otherwise he would really have a big problem.
At first, Chen Han thought that he had at least taken a boat out to sea several times in modern times.
Although they have never gone to sea, they have wandered offshore for dozens of days.
But once I went out to the ocean, I realized that the ocean currents are much larger than the so-called wind waves in the offshore.
The ocean currents and wind waves in the offshore are nothing compared to those in the ocean.
No wonder ocean sailing requires so much attention.
Even Chen Xing finally saw that in the Ming Dynasty, or even further back in the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese relied on the art of guiding the stars to cross the ocean.
It is a device in the shape of a baby tower that is made by digging a hole in the middle of a square piece of wood, and then stacking it one on top of the other from large to small, up to seven layers.
Chen Xing didn't know how they operated, but the Qintianjian officials on the ship could quickly identify the direction by relying on this kind of thing.
Chen Han has seen many times on the map, the islands between China and North Korea and their surrounding locations.
But once I got to the sea, I found that I had completely lost my sense of direction.
In the vast sea, sometimes you can only see the curved sea level without any reference.
It was a feeling like being abandoned in a vast desert.
It's nothing more than the vast yellow sand seen in the desert.
But above the ocean, what you see is the endless kind of emptiness and immensity makes people unable to face it correctly.
So how to sail on the sea?
How to identify the direction? That all depends on the officials like Qin Tianjian using the technique of guiding the stars across the ocean, that is, the pagoda-like device and the compass to locate the place. It is really magical.
This made Chen Xing further want to develop the sextant, a powerful tool for navigation.
In this case, further ocean voyages will be possible.
Arriving at Hepu Port in North Korea, the envoy sent by the King of North Korea was stunned when he saw that the Ming Dynasty's fleet actually had fifty ships.
I didn't expect there were so many.
Of course, they did not expect that the warship led by Mu Ying was docked on the sea about fifty nautical miles away and did not come close.
Muying is still worried that if the purpose of the Ming Dynasty is not just to carry out this trade, someone will inevitably leak the news.
They have already figured out the Tsushima Island area after various inquiries in the past six months.
It was not an empty island, but a gathering point for pirates.
In fact, it is better to say that they are Japanese pirates, and they are Japanese slaves raised by the Ouchi family of the Northern Dynasties who have been conducting overseas trade.
The reason why they did this was simply to use these pirates and Japanese pirates to rob.
The Ouchi clan monopolized the entire Northern Dynasty's foreign trade and made huge profits. It can be said that it is as rich as the enemy.
Even their Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu coveted the dividends in this area.
But this Ouchi Yoshihiro, who is now the head of the Ouchi clan, is a penniless guy.
He originally belonged to the daimyo of the Southern Dynasties, and claimed to be a descendant of the King of Baekje of Korea.
Therefore, they are actually not close to the snails Northern and Southern Dynasties. On the contrary, they have always been on the fence.
According to the original history books, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was able to annex the Southern Dynasty thanks to Ouchi Yoshihiro acting as an intermediary and brokering peace talks between the two families.
Three conditions were met. The first condition was that the Southern Dynasty needed to hand over the three artifacts to the Emperor of the Northern Dynasty.
The second one is the subsequent emperor, who will take turns to be the descendants of Emperor Gokomatsu of the Northern Dynasty and Emperor Gogameyama of the Southern Dynasty.
The third condition was that most of Snail's territory be allocated to the Southern Dynasty court.
These three conditions seemed to be a disadvantage for the Northern Dynasty. They only got three major artifacts.
But you must know that the Northern Dynasty at that time was actually a court, but the power was controlled by the Muromachi Shogunate, that is, the Ashikaga Yoshimitsu family, and the emperor was just a puppet.
He promised the Southern Emperor on behalf of the Emperor, but he himself did not want to do so.
So when the Southern Dynasty handed over the three artifacts, the two emperors immediately became puppets.
It's just his unpopular approach that caused the internal warlords to be very disdainful of them.
As a result, within a few years after the merger of the northern and southern imperial courts, Ouchi Yoshihiro began to rebel.
Then it quickly entered the so-called Warring States Period on the Japanese slave side.
That's when hundreds of warlords, big and small, started fighting.
It can be seen from this that even the North and the South are in confrontation now.
Even though the so-called Muromachi Shogunate controlled the entire Northern Dynasties.
In fact, they are just superficial and superficial.
The reason why Chen Han said that now is the best opportunity is because there are currently huge internal disputes in the northern and southern dynasties of Snail.
They merge with each other for their own benefit and compete with each other.
This is the best opportunity for Daming.
After Chen Hang and the others arrived at Hepu Port, they got off the ship and finally felt the refreshing feeling of being down to earth.
On the deck of the ship, you always feel that the bed board your feet are stepping on is not strong, and it always feels like a soft sponge.
Only when you actually set foot on the land, no matter which country it is, you will feel more at ease.
Of course, Chen Xing didn't just enjoy it. After arriving, he realized that this place was actually quite deserted.
A large number of wooden houses have been newly built in the past six months.
No wonder, when the Ming Dynasty proposed to conduct overseas trade with them.
When it came time to use Hepo Port, even the whole country of North Korea was speculating on why it was necessary to use such a far away port.
But there was unanimous agreement from top to bottom.
No matter what, Ming Dynasty is the suzerain country, and the relationship between the two countries is so good, they will definitely not treat us badly.
So when their conditions were allowed and 20 quilts were purchased at a [-]% discount, they were very happy.
I also heard that the Ming Dynasty was short of food, so they set up shops in Hepu Port to purchase food.
At this time, the entire North Korean country began to become restless.
Before, it was because North Korea, that is, the former Wang family, Korea, had always followed the Yuan Dynasty and opposed the Ming Dynasty.
But now it has become Lee's North Korea, and the people are still connected by the Ming Dynasty.
Further easing such trade between the two countries is a great good thing for them.
So when Chen Han and others arrived at the port, they found that there was a large amount of food stored here.
Just to be able to make a fortune in this trade.
It is rare for these people to have such awareness.
Chen Han's twenty pieces of 20 cotton-padded clothes have just been delivered to North Korea.
After receiving a large sum of copper coins from North Korea, Chen Xing immediately arranged for people to purchase grain.
Basically, within a dozen days, the grain that Hepu Port had hoarded near Hepu Port this time was purchased.
People from North Korea still feel very embarrassed.
After all, they just sold a mere 200 million kilograms of grain.
But in exchange, there were actually 20 cotton clothes.
These cotton clothes are of good quality and cheap, and this bit of food is worth a few bucks.
So the deal was concluded quickly.
And it was enjoyable for both parties.
Before Chen Han and the others left, they said that they not only needed food, but also needed other products.
Korean ginseng, mink fur, etc. can be sold here.
At that time, Daming will come to purchase a batch every once in a while.
But it may have been in silver, after all, there were too many copper coins and it was difficult to carry.
As soon as this news came out, the whole country of North Korea was extremely happy.
It was probably hard for them to imagine that Chen Xing and the others were about to move a mountain of silver.
At that time, silver will be no different from stones to Ming Dynasty.
It's just this kind of information gap that makes the entire country of North Korea confused...
(End of this chapter)