However, Yang Ren's expectations were disappointed, and when his performance was sent to the Qianqing Palace, Yun Xi's mood was not very good.

On the thirtieth day of the first lunar month, Yun Xi met with Xia Yuanji, who had returned to the capital from Hangzhou. Xia Yuanji had been appointed as the prefect of Xi'an by Yunxi, because Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the size of a province was too large and weakened the power of the administrative units at the provincial level, so officials at the level of the prefect were very important in the early Ming Dynasty, and they had to go to Beijing to meet the emperor before going to work.

Wang Xitong said that when Xia Yuanji came to Qianqingmen, because it was already noon, Yun Xi instructed Wang Xi: "Let Xia Yuanji go to the dining hall and wait, I will eat and chat with him at lunch." Then let Guo Zhen and other four auxiliary officials and Zhongshu people who were preparing to play the ticket also rest for a while at noon, and continued to play the ticket at the end of the afternoon, and got up and went to the dining hall.

When he arrived at the dining hall, Xia Yuanji had already arrived and stood without sitting down, and when he saw Yun Xi coming in, he immediately saluted and said, "Minister Xia Yuanji has seen Your Majesty." ”

Yun Xi helped him up and smiled: "Xia Qing, get up." I haven't had lunch yet, so I'll have dinner with me. ”

Xia Yuanji said a few words humbly, and sat down to eat with Yun Xi.

Yun Xi asked what had happened in Hangzhou in the past few months. Xia Yuanji first talked about the situation in Hangzhou Industrial Park, and then said: "Your Majesty, the Zhou family, who was engaged in embroidery at the beginning of the year, came to the capital to pay tribute to Your Majesty, and Your Majesty also accepted one of the screens, and now the Zhou family has accepted a screen by relying on Your Majesty, although they do not dare to bully others, but it has affected the order of the embroidery industry." This caused the merchants of the Zhejiang Prefecture to be ready to move, and many merchants privately linked up to come to the capital to pay tribute to His Majesty during the Chinese New Year next year. ”

"Brother Zining and Brother Guang specially told the minister to ask His Majesty before the minister left, and not to accept the tribute of merchants without authorization in the future. If His Majesty pleases, he can recruit tribute households through the Zhejiang Envoy Department or the Hangzhou Mansion. ”

"I will never accept tribute from merchants without permission." Yun Xi said. He was reluctant to accept the merchant's tribute directly, but the screen was too suitable for the occasion, and he was really reluctant to accept it.

Xia Yuanji was actually a little skeptical about Yun Xi's promise, but he didn't dare to question it in person, so he could only write down in his heart and ask Lian Zining to write a letter to Yun Xi, and now he talked about something else.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember Yan Zhenzhi and other criminals who were executed in the first year of Jianye because of the rebellion case?" Xia Yuanji suddenly asked.

"Of course I remember. What's wrong? Although Yun Xi was a little puzzled, he felt that Xia Yuanji would not mention their group of people for no reason, so he said quietly.

"Your Majesty, Yan Zhenzhi's immediate relatives have all been exiled to the northwest and northeast, but there are still many clansmen who remain in Huzhou. Among them, those who are close to Yan Zhenzhi will not be allowed to participate in the imperial examination by His Majesty for 30 years, so that now the Yan clan has been divided, and the clansmen who are still allowed to participate in the imperial examination will be expelled from the clan who are not allowed to participate in the imperial examination, so that they can stand on their own. ”

"These people have also lost most of their fields and are living in dire straits. They had to do small business, and some ventured out to sea, mixing up the business at sea. Not only the Yan family, but also many such families in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. ”

"Your Majesty, recently many such people want to change their hukou into merchants to do business in Shanghai, Brother Zining and Brother Guang hope that Your Majesty can give instructions on whether to agree. Previously, Brother Zining had also reported this matter to His Majesty in the name of the political envoy of Zhejiang. Natsuhara said.

"It's probably still on the way, I haven't seen it yet. However, whether it is now or after receiving Lian Qing's recital, my attitude is the same, allowing them to change their household registration to merchants and go to Shanghai to do business. Yun Xi said.

He understood what Xia Yuanji and Lian Zining meant, they wanted to ask Yun Xi if he wanted to kill these people. At that time, although Yun Xi did not behead those people out of consideration of influence, they didn't know what Yun Xi actually thought, so Xia Yuanji asked implicitly.

Of course, Yun Xi hated Yan Zhenzhi and the others, these people were secretly making small moves behind their backs, although they didn't cause any big losses, but they also made Yun Xi very disgusting, how could he forget them so easily?

But this doesn't mean that Yun Xi is going to force their people to die. Their immediate relatives have all been exiled, and even those who are still in the local area are forbidden to participate in the imperial examination, they are not close to Yan Zhenzhi and others, and they did not get too many benefits when Yan Zhenzhi was an official, so there is no need to force them to die.

In addition, Yoon-hee also hoped that more people would be able to participate in overseas trade, and even took the initiative to move to the vassal kingdom to live.

Xia Yuanji didn't know what Yun Xi was thinking, but Yun Xi was relieved that he allowed them to change their nationality. Although he is no longer the deputy envoy of the sub-patrol of Zhejiang West Road, as a responsible official, he still hopes to see the unstable factors resolved.

When Xia Yuanji finished talking about Hangzhou, the meal was almost finished. Yun Xi put down the dishes and chopsticks in his hand, Xia Yuanji also immediately sat next to Yun Xi with his hands down, and the eunuchs standing on the side cleaned up cleanly, and in the blink of an eye, the table was as clean as ever.

Yun Xi said to Xia Yuanji at this time: "Do you know anything about Xi'an Mansion before?" ”

Xia Yuanji was shocked: Yun Xi finally wanted to say that he had summoned him this time.

Xia Yuanji is not stupid, Yun Xi suddenly transferred him from Hangzhou Mansion in Heaven on Earth to Xi'an as the prefect, there must be some purpose, maybe there is a very important task entrusted to him. He straightened up in his chair immediately after the earthquake, and after a while of silence, he said: "Your Majesty, the minister only knows that Xi'an is the ancient capital of the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang and other dynasties, and now it seems that the population is not large, and there are not many fields, and the local people do not live as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang. ”

"Indeed, although Xi'an Mansion is considered a rich place in Sanqin, it is far worse than Jiangnan, that is, the most barren places in Jiangnan are richer than Xi'an." Yun Xi said.

"Although I have never been to the northwest, I talked to the people of Sanqin with King Qin and others, and King Qin repeatedly told me about the difficulties of the people of Sanqin."

"No matter where the people are, they are all my people, and I can't bear to hear that the life of the local people is difficult. Let you go to Xi'an to change this situation. ”

"What does Your Majesty command?" Natsuhara asked.

"The land in the northwest is barren, just let the people dig in the ground, it is easy to say that the population of Sanqin is small now, but in the future, when there are more and more people in Sanqin, they will be poor. If we want them to live a better life for a long time, we must reopen the Silk Road. ”

"The Silk Road?" Xia Yuanji thought for a moment and asked, "Your Majesty is referring to the trade route that stretched from Chang'an to the Western Regions to Dashi and even further in the Sui and Tang dynasties?" ”

"Yes, that's the trade route. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chang'an was such a rich and prosperous place! In the Tang Dynasty, the Guanzhong Plain was already barren, and Tang Taizong, Tang Gaozong and Empress Zetian went to the Central Plains to eat in Luoyang many times, but Chang'an was still rich and prosperous. I thought that was the role of this trade route. Yun Xi said.

"That's why I decided to reopen the Silk Road. Now that Timur is not convinced by the king, and even detains the envoys sent to Samarkand by the first emperor, the road west of Yili is impassable, but there is a lot of business to be done in Yili alone, and the king of Qin now controls the Hami trade route more smoothly."

"After you take office, the first thing you will naturally do is to promote education and education, but you must also promote the merchants of Xi'an Prefecture and even other prefectures in Sanqin to do business along the Silk Road." Yun Xi said.

Although the Age of Discovery was coming, Yunxi did not think that the Silk Road was useless. The goods of the big cannibals are now generally taken by sea to Daming, and the goods of the Ming Dynasty are mostly taken by sea to Dashi and other places; However, there are still many places that are not close to the sea, such as Central Asia, Afghanistan, Western Simperia, Eastern Europe and other places in later generations, these places are not close to the sea, which is also the reason why Central Asia and other originally rich places gradually declined after the arrival of the Age of Discovery. But this also means that once the Ming Dynasty opened up the Silk Road, merchants from these places would still come to the Ming Dynasty along the Silk Road in order to make money.

When there were merchants to do business, the people along the road could make money by providing shelter, food and drink to the merchants, and even ordinary people could benefit. Sanqin was the birthplace of most anti-thief gangs in the late Ming Dynasty, isn't it because the people have no way to live, and they will naturally not rebel if they are given a way to live.

As for the arrival of a large number of merchants, the demand for food was also easily solved. The reason why the Sanqin people in the late Ming Dynasty were hungry in history was because they had no money, not because of a lack of food. At that time, there was grain in the mountains that could be exported to Houjin, and naturally it could also be supplied to Sanqin. As long as the local people make money and it is profitable to sell grain, there will naturally be people who transport grain to Sanqin to sell.

At the same time, it is also an opportunity for the big businessmen in the Shanxi area to find an opportunity to make money to appease them. The most important reason why there were 'Eight Great Imperial Merchants' at the end of the Ming Dynasty in history was that the merchants of Shanxi, unlike the merchants of the southeast coast who could do overseas business, and the merchants of Northern Zhili who could do business in the capital, in order to make money, they could only do business with Mongolia, and Mongolia did business with the Houjin after it was controlled by the Houjin.

Of course, Yun Xi didn't like 'no capital from the motherland', so even if he had to encourage commercial development, he didn't want commerce to develop like the West, and wanted to invent a capitalist road with Chinese characteristics. But it also meant that he had to find opportunities for businessmen to make money. Although the merchants in Shanxi are not yet in the climate, they also need to take precautions.

Xia Yuanji is a native of Xiangyin, Huguang, and the local business atmosphere is not strong, and he does not fully understand Yunxi's list of behaviors to encourage business, although he has personally explained Yunxi when he was in Hangzhou. However, he will definitely carry out Yun Xi's order seriously, and after listening to Yun Xi's words, he said, "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

Yun Xi gave a few more instructions on this matter and said, "There is one more thing that you need to do in Sanqin. ”