Chapter 729: Resolute

The twenty-first year of the Yongle Dynasty is the twenty-first year of the most changes in the Ming Dynasty. The envoys went out to the Western Ocean on the treasure ship of the Western Regions, and held a meeting to move the capital to Beijing...... Zhu Di has done many major things, and he is almost not inferior to the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. However, in the final analysis, the biggest reason for this is because Yongle Emperor Zhu Di himself is a vassal king, and there is always an enterprising factor in his character. It's just that he reopened the three major cities to welcome the envoys of all nations, but it was mainly to meet the wishes of all nations to come to the court and serve the four people, so he didn't care whether the comers were merchant ships or envoys, but all those who came to the court were given generous gifts.

This kind of face-saving behavior caused the Guangzhou City Bosi, which had not yet opened the port, to have little input during the Yongle period, and the ivory, ambergris and other goods obtained from the lottery were sent to the palace, and the silk porcelain and other rewards from the south of the Yangtze River were continuously sent out from here, and the two sides were more rewarded. As for the transactions in Fangshi Street, they are only taxed at the rate of 30 tax and 1.

The city ship division has no real power and is not allowed to collect taxes and draw points, the city ship mansion nominally collects and sends it to the palace, but in fact it is desperate to rub oil in the major merchants, for those merchant ships, two out of ten points are often sent to the imperial court only four or five out of a hundred, on the contrary, it falls into the hands of the city ship eunuchs but at least one-tenth, and even sometimes directly reports the merchant ships as envoys, so the ships full of worthless spices in Western countries become full of silk and carried back.

Coveting the reward of the imperial court, but all the ships from Fanbang dare to call themselves merchant ships, during the Yongle period, when the trade winds rise in May, June, July and August, the wharves of the three major cities are full of merchant ships from all countries moored, and there is a scene of all countries coming to court.

This time, due to the news received in advance, the owners of the three Ceylon ships arrived here from Huaiyuanyi early. The three of them were very strange about the sudden commotion on the dock, and hurriedly asked the Han people who accompanied them. After learning what was going on, when they saw Zhang Qian and Zhang Yue walking forward together, they immediately showed their brightest smiles and bent down deeply.

Zhang Yue looked at the three of them, and saw that they were all dressed in gorgeous robes, wearing silk buns, and their complexions were dark brown, which was exactly the dress of typical South Asians. Hearing them muttering a big talk, he was about to order an interpreter who didn't understand a word, but at this time, Zhang Qian spit out a series of foreign languages from his mouth. Immediately afterwards, he saw that the three strangers on the other side were all amazed, one pointing as if to justify, and the other two looking at each other. When it came to urgency, the person who pointed at the finger suddenly burst out of stiff but still quite fluent Chinese.

"They are not Ceylonese envoys." Zhang Qian didn't even need an interpreter to understand the whole story, and then turned to Zhang Yue and said, "You also heard, his Chinese is very good, only people who come to Daming frequently can speak so fluently." As far as I know, there has always been a war between the north and the south of Ceylon, and now these two kings have not even had time to fight, and only the big merchants of the south will come down again and again. Therefore, the silk porcelain that the imperial court gave out in Guangdong every year was given to the wrong person. ”

Zhang Yue saw a bewildered expression on the face of the tall man in the center, and was about to speak, but who knew that the other party quickly changed to a smiling face, and presented a bag with both hands. At this time, Zhang Qian next to him took the bag casually, opened the leather rope and took out a sapphire the size of a pigeon's egg, and then laughed: "When I went to Ceylon, your king once gave me a bag of gems in order to get a hundred more pieces of porcelain, including ten sapphires of this size, twenty lilac rubies, and many other pearl gemstones. Don't think of me as one of those people who have never seen the world before, I have been to the West, and these things are enough to collect several large boxes, all of which are toys that are thrown on the ground for children to play with. ”

Seeing the frustrated expressions of the three Ceylonese people, Zhang Yue couldn't help but be glad that the palace finally sent such a well-informed eunuch as Zhang Qian. At that moment, he nodded and said, "Since this is the case, we will draw points according to the merchant shipping regulations." Two out of ten for spices, five out of ten for dyed wood, elephant ivory for size, and the rest such as precious stones and other things are all counted for one out of ten, and each ship is taxed at 300 yuan. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, eight middle-aged men in green cloth robes came forward, bowed and saluted, and then boarded the boat under the guidance of the interpreter. Although only one of them knew Chinese, the other two also learned the meaning of these words from the Chinese translator, so they couldn't help but shout. Zhang Yue only vaguely heard a few Chinese words, but Zhang Qian frowned, stood for a while, pulled Zhang Yue aside, and made a gesture to call the interpreter over.

"Did they just say that there are pirates at sea again?"

The translator used to be the translator of the Admiral Siyi Pavilion, and he had followed Zhang Qian to the Western Ocean in the past, and he was stunned for a moment and quickly nodded: "What Zhang Gonggong said is that they said that since the imperial court no longer has treasure ships to go to the sea, there have been more pirates in the Western islands, and they also had a merchant ship that was robbed before. They can accept the government's points, but hope that the Celestial Empire can guarantee their safety at sea, and if they can, even if the court still draws points like this, they will come. ”

Zheng He's sixth trip to the West was the nineteenth year of Yongle, because of the fire in the three halls and ended early, Yongle returned to Liujiagang in the twentieth year, and the imperial court has not been to the West for three years. So, Zhang Qian glanced at Zhang Yue and said in a low voice: "If the West is really such a mess, the smooth sea route will become a problem." Fortunately, Zheng Gonggong left for Oriental Japan last year, and he was originally able to return in December of that year, but the trip was delayed due to the weather, trade winds, and domestic instability, but he will definitely be able to return after the winter this year. The emperor once mentioned that as soon as Gonggong Zheng came back, he would let him rest in Liujiagang for a while, and then change into those ships that had been repaired before, and immediately go to the West to cruise, and then dock at the Guangzhou wharf. ”

Zhang Yue, who had a good idea in his heart, thought for a moment, then nodded, and walked to the three Ceylon merchants with the interpreter, and made a gesture for the interpreter to translate sentence by sentence: "The treasure ship of the Celestial Empire will soon go to the Western Ocean again, and when the time comes, it will inevitably wipe out those pirates, you can wait here for the trade wind to go back, and the treasure ship will escort you back when the time comes." ”

Hearing this, the three merchants were all overjoyed, and the painful expressions that had just been drawn were all gone, and they all bent down deeply to thank them, and then ran back to the ship with a smoke. They probably wanted to entangle with the eight people about the value of the goods and the amount of points, but Zhang Yue didn't pay attention to them, and looked at the dock in all directions.

"If it was only the ships entering the port, this wharf would be enough now, but if you add the ships of merchants from all over the world leaving the port after the opening of the sea, I am afraid that this place is far from enough. Now that Sixiang has been hit by a disaster, many people's fields have been flooded and their livelihoods have been lost, so they are just recruited here to repair the port. It is better to work for relief than to feed them with gruel and rotten rice every day. Since Gonggong Zhang said that he could let the city department be under the control of the political secretary, I am not polite. Qin Huaijin's five thousand taels of gold can only be used for a while, and the rest will be ...... from the city."

He paused, and when he saw that Zhang Qian was muttering, he smiled and said, "Of course, I will do it more skillfully." Pepper is two out of ten, and dyed wood like Sumu is five out of ten, and these things will inevitably fill the warehouse. Nowadays, there are so many things such as sumu pepper in the imperial treasury that they can be discounted for officials, so naturally they don't need these, but these things are still rare among the people. The chief priest bought it at a corresponding price and sold it to the merchants, and the difference could be covered for several months. When the merchant ships leave the port in November and February, they forget that once they are taxed, the remaining construction period will not be a problem. ”

"In addition, among the three major cities, Ningbo is backed by the south of the Yangtze River, and silk has everything; Quanzhou was the largest port from the Song and Yuan dynasties, and it was also famous overseas; Porcelain and so on are all in the north, transported over, with Guangzhou being the farthest away. Silk porcelain has congenital deficiencies, tea has a ban from the imperial court, and it is not as convenient as Jiangnan and other places. After thinking about it, I thought it would be more appropriate to think about weaving, dyeing and embroidery. As long as the sea market opens, there will be as many dyes as there are sumu and so on, and as for embroiderers, they can go to Suzhou and Hangzhou at a high price, and apprentices can also be trained locally, so that the silk sent overseas can be sold at a higher price. Moreover, the water near Guangzhou is wide and the sea is deep, and it is the closest to the Western countries, and it only takes four days and nights to sail to the city of Zhancheng with the wind. If Gonggong Zheng really led the treasure ship south this time, he could just sell a batch of things to the Western countries......"

Knowing that the prosperity of Guangzhou recorded by later generations is because it is the only remaining city in the world, which was able to flourish in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhang Yue naturally understands that today's Guangzhou does not have much advantage compared with Ningbo and Quanzhou, so he has already thought carefully for a long time, which is endless. At the end, he smiled at Zhang Qian: "Guangdong is only the middle and lower in the world, if it can be in my hands, it will be my greatest wish." Since Grandpa Zhang is here, don't blame me for using your big umbrella to shelter from the wind and rain. ”

"Look at what you said, don't I want to have a good reputation, if I can be praised by the people, I will be content!"

The two looked at each other and smiled, and Zhang Yue came to the row of straight houses on the dock. Because Zhang Qian took the lead in dismissing all the deacons on the dock, this place is now empty. With a gesture from Zhang Yue, five or six people in brown shirts hurried over, knelt down and kowtowed in unison, and then knelt silently on the ground, one of them peeked at Zhang Qian with his eyes.

Although he was a serious official of the city, since he had a eunuch, they could no longer get close to this dock. But now, although he has come in for the first time, he is still uneasy in his heart. Someone said before that Zhang Qian went to sea from Guangzhou to send envoys, how gentle and elegant his demeanor was, he still believed it, but this newcomer, Qin Huaijin died, and then closed the door and saw no one, this time Zhang Qian came to the dock for the first time and dismissed these old officials at the dock, he was a ruthless character at all! However, this new eunuch of the city took the political envoy to witness Liwei, what did he call him for?

"The city secretary is in charge."

At this moment, he suddenly heard a cold voice, and he was stunned for a moment before he hurriedly replied, "Humble duty." ”

"From today onwards, this pier is under the joint jurisdiction of the Municipal Shipping Division and the Municipal Shipping Mansion. Among them, it is the duty of your city to identify the authenticity of the messenger's expression. All in all, from now on, if there are any more counterfeit ships at the docks, or if they trade privately without waiting for the tax to be levied, then you are the only ones who ask! ”

Looking up at Zhang Yue, who was talking fiercely, the official was suddenly a little dazed, and it took a while before he hurriedly responded. However, he answered, but someone next to him asked, "This is not in accordance with the rules!" This dock has always been under the jurisdiction of the City Ship Mansion, when will it be the turn of the City Ship Division? Even if Lord Zhang is a political envoy, he can't overstep his authority to manage the affairs on this dock, and this matter should be decided by Gonggong Zhang. ”

"Unruly?" Zhang Yue turned his head suddenly, and when he saw that the person did not avoid his gaze, he asked Guan Jin, "This person is from the City Division?" ”

Guan Jin was startled, turned his head to look at the man, and hurriedly lowered his head and said: "Lord Hui, he is not from the city shipping department, he is the head of the dock, and he has been in charge of all matters concerning the entry and exit of the dock. ”

"The Municipal Department is under the jurisdiction of the Political Department, so what is the overstepping authority of this Division? Which article and paragraph of the Ming Dynasty statute says that the political secretary cannot control the city shipping department, and the municipal shipping department cannot control the local foreign wharf? But you, the so-called manager, can be appointed by the imperial court, but can you have official documents? ”

Seeing that the manager was stunned all of a sudden, Guan Jin was a little gloating in his heart, and hurriedly answered on the side: "Lord Hui, this is just the practice of the wharf in Huangpu Town for more than ten years, in fact, he has no appointment. It's just that he is familiar with a group of people and can say a few words, so he can't be separated from the dock......"

"Can't leave? There is a big deficit on the dock every year, what have you done? Come on, fork him out!

Under Zhang Yue's order, the messenger accompanying the political secretary and the yamen was slightly stunned, and then became excited, and immediately separated two people to step forward and drag the man out. And the man was still shouting at Grandpa Zhang at first, but later he didn't know if his mouth was blocked or he was directly knocked unconscious, and there was no sound at all. At this time, Zhang Yue casually instructed Guan Jin and others to get up and go to work, and then looked to the other side. I saw that on the other side of the dock, I don't know when a group of brightly dressed merchants appeared. There they were standing right now, their faces shining in the blazing sun.

Zhang Qian made a casual move, and immediately a little eunuch stepped forward and bowed down. He pondered for a moment, then lightly ordered, "Go and tell them, don't bother to knock on the door of the Shibo Mansion again." Ten days later, whether it was a maritime merchant or a sitting businessman, our family and Lord Zhang were waiting for them in Caiyun Tower in the town. If they're going to do it, don't forget to come. We know that the merchants here are not only Cantonese merchants, but also Hui merchants and Fujian merchants, but no matter what kind of businessmen they are, they must abide by the constitution of the government! Don't think that there is this backer and that backer behind you, in this world, no backer is as hard as the emperor! ”

Hearing Zhang Qian's tough tone, Zhang Yue couldn't help but smile slightly. There is a way that the emperor is far away, if such a person is judged according to Zhang Qian's previous actions, those people will suffer a big loss. It must be known that when Zhang Fu was seriously ill, he dealt with Zhang Qian for the first time, and his biggest impression was that he had a responsibility, and such a person was definitely not a corpse vegetarian.