It is said that China has sold porcelain for one or two thousand years, and porcelain and silk have almost monopolized the trade of the entire world, earning countless wealth, and it can be said that there is no other branch in this one.

Think foreigners are not fools and will let go of such a lucrative business? Therefore, after the foreign exchanges of the Yuan Dynasty, just like the outflow of paper printing techniques in the Tang Dynasty, Arab craftsmen who had long coveted porcelain gradually imitated blue and white porcelain, and the Ottoman Empire appeared a center of back-flower porcelain.

This doesn't matter in Zhu Yuanzhang's time, the official kilns and private kilns that are waiting to be built do not need to rely on exports, but after a long time, there is no end and discipline for businessmen to chase profits, as the most lucrative foreign trade, will the rich businessmen and relevant officials let the gradually rising cost of porcelain rot in their hands?

In this regard, the ancients were very wise, and kept improving the development of the famous enamel porcelain and Xuande furnace in the Ming Dynasty, and the world-famous Doucai chicken bowl cup in the Chenghua period. In short, Jingdezhen's improvement of porcelain skills has never stopped, in order to cope with international competition and its own needs, the development of colored porcelain has made a new leap, various colors such as red comparable to the cockscomb, and purple grapes are no different from purple.

Of course, the most famous and best sold porcelain has to be blue and white porcelain, but the Western world is very fond of the Ming Dynasty's doucai colorful and even monochrome glazed porcelain, these crafts have reached the peak of the world, and continue to maintain a far leading technical advantage.

Anti-counterfeiting techniques also began to be used, and in order to maintain the monopoly of porcelain in overseas markets, the government kept the minerals required for special kaolin and pigments the strictest secrecy.

This cannot be recorded in detail in any book, and if it is discovered, it is immediately listed as a banned book and destroyed and the author is severely punished. Therefore, there is no relevant record of the large number of ores and materials brought back by Zheng He from his voyage to the West.

Among them, there is a kind of blue ore called Su Mali, which is produced in the region called Somala in Iraq in later generations, and is a bright color pigment used in blue and white porcelain, that is, cobalt blue material. The blue and white porcelain of Jingdezhen at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty used this kind of green material.

The porcelain fired out is characterized by a dignified and strong color, and faintly some black color, like rust spots, after testing in later generations, it turns out that this is low manganese content. Reasons for the high iron content. This is obviously different from domestic green material. The reason why blue and white porcelain flourished for a while is that most Arab countries worship this kind of blue, and buildings are honored with blue tiles, and for a long time only China was rich in blue and white porcelain. The production is also amazing. The natural profit is also staggering. It can be seen that blue and white porcelain is a product born in demand.

In addition to porcelain, the Ming Dynasty imported a large amount of sumac wood every year, which was an important dye for extracting and refining colored silk. In addition, hematula is also an antidote. Since the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the two sides have practiced evil biochemical warfare on the battlefield, and the demand for antidote is very large.

Since ancient times, Nanyang has produced many luxury goods such as precious stones, gold and silver, rare animals and plants, which have eternal attraction for the Ming royal family and even the wealthy, which is one of the reasons why the official or private smuggling trade will never be truly cut off.

The traditional spices are one of the necessities of the people, and now the current price per catty of pepper is 20 times that of the place of origin, and the Yongle Dynasty in history has been able to maintain about 10 times because of Zheng He's voyage to the West, and so on during the Renzong period, the Zheng He fleet was canceled, and the price soon recovered to 20 times.

Spices are not only to satisfy the luxury enjoyment of the ruling class, but also to be introduced in large quantities as medicinal materials, and their rich medicinal value is precisely related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

The ladies of Xu Hao's family need Su Hexiang, which smells very good, all year round, and at the same time smears the whole body as a similar effect of flower water.

There is a strong-smelling spice called myrrh, which is imported from China and used as medicine. There is also a well-known medical medicine benzoin, which is mainly used to treat stroke faintness and postpartum blood dizziness, and it is also the favorite incense cake used by wealthy families. There is also the frankincense recorded in the Tang Dynasty Materia Medica, which can treat deafness, stroke, silence, women's blood, intestinal diseases and so on.

Pepper, peony, cloves, cardamom, agarwood, wood, dragon's birthday, Dafengzi, sincheng eggplant, blood exhaustion, sulfur, rhino horn and antelope horn and other as many as 164 kinds of spices, are rare and scarce Chinese medicinal materials in the Ming Dynasty, all need to be imported in large quantities, is that if there is no porcelain, silk, tea, white paper and other commodities to balance overseas trade, the consequences are unimaginable.

Of course, it is not very suitable to use official merchant ships for ocean trade, there are no reasonable statistical statements, there is no modern financial concept, and the civil and military officials will only think that the tributary trade pursues an economic and foreign policy of thick exchanges and thin futures, which only satisfies the emperor's face, and they deeply hate it.

The size of the huge fleet of tens of thousands of men needed to be maintained, and there was often no cash to pay the officials, and sometimes they had to pay the officials' salaries in the form of 100 yuan per pound of pepper.

As a result, a large number of officials believed that Zheng He's trip to the West caused the treasury to be unable to get out, and from this came to the conclusion that this was a waste of money and labor.

Xu Hao vaguely remembered that he had read a lot of articles when visiting the forum to prove that the Yongle Dynasty brought back rich returns through Zheng He's trip to the West, according to the preliminary calculation of the book Jinghai Vicissitudes, the opening policy of overseas trade, in the past 22 years, a total of more than 10,000 taels of silver and 300,000 taels of gold have flowed into the huge wealth, which made gold and silver in the middle of the Ming Dynasty replace paper money again and become the currency in circulation.

When Xu Hao returned home at night, he walked and chatted with his pregnant wife, and said: "There will be a fleet going to the South Seas in the coming year, neither our family nor the Mu family should meddle in merchant ships, especially don't let red leaves get involved, the so-called tree is a big wind, there is no need to participate in it personally." ”

The uncertainty of the route to North and South America made Xu Hao have no intention of immigrating immediately for the time being, and he can only make the trip when the conditions are right.

Mu Ningxue said: "I will tell Momiji." By the way, the third aunt proposed to the eldest mother yesterday and wanted to marry Cuiyun to Liu Zhi, who was talking nonsense, and the eldest aunt agreed. ”

Xu Hao frowned and said: "Let's go, after all, Cuiyun has been a nameless concubine for Zhu Yunwen, and the official eunuchs have no hope." ”

Early the next morning, Zhang Fu hurriedly came over and said: "Wang Tong had an accident and was arrested and put in prison by the Criminal Department. ”

This Wang Tong is the son of Wang Zhen who died in battle. He was named the commander of the capital. Xu Hao asked, "What's going on?" ”

Zhang Fu said: "There is a book seller near his house Wei stammered, so poor that he couldn't live, so he sold his beautiful daughter-in-law to Wang Tong as a concubine, and Wang Tong coveted the beauty of others, and I didn't know the depth of this capital, just slept for two nights, Wei stammered and ran to the door to scold, saying that the Wang family was bullying, and at that time my brothers persuaded Wang Tong to simply return his wife to him, and the dozens of taels of dowry were not wanted. I just want to eliminate the trouble. Behold! Alas. ”

Xu Hao knows too well that the capital is similar to the tricks of pit people, regardless of whether you are a noble general or not, in this place where there are many relatives like dogs, there are people you can't afford to offend.

Xu Hao said: "Is it a group of people who come out of nowhere, and deliberately make peace?" and again for a sum of silver. Then he turned around and ran to the criminal department to file a complaint? Said that Wang Tong occupied his beloved's wife? ”

"Yes." Zhang Fu smiled bitterly: "There have been many similar things recently. It was also the brothers who were dazzled by the prosperity of the capital. Seeing that the wealth was in hand, he began to indulge in lust, looking for beauties everywhere, and some of them were indeed bullies. Many people have been pitted in a daze, and now the big guys are holding back a belly of fire, shouting and preparing to retaliate. ”

Xu Hao sighed secretly, in the end, he had to be mixed into the muddy waters of intrigue, and Wenchen would never let go of such an opportunity to attack the heroes of Jingjing, or it was to test him and Yao Guangxiao and other heroes.

If you don't do anything, then your prestige in the hearts of the officials of the Beiping department will plummet, but if you take care of it, then it will make the people of the capital think that the officials and officials protect each other, and the people will sympathize with the Wei who sold his wife.

Xu Hao sneered: "I'll take you to find someone." ”

The official office of the criminal department, the person in charge of questioning the case is a juvenile A department, the criminal department gave the matter, born in poverty is a fiery temperament, seeing Wang Tong, who was dressed in an official uniform and wearing purple jade, he immediately became angry, and directly asked the official to step forward and tear off his clothes and take off his boots and hat.

In just a few words, Wang Tong was sentenced to commit adultery first and then married, returned his wife to compensate for 30 taels of silver, and wanted to remove Wang Tong's official position and take 40 heavy responsibilities, which turned out to be to ruin Wang Tong's reputation.

Seeing the lively people, they immediately cheered and shouted, and the people of the capital naturally did not want to see the northern nobles who occupied the capital.

And Wang Tong's brothers of the same generation were angry, and Zhu Neng's eldest son Zhu Yong said angrily: "I have worked hard to help His Majesty conquer the country, and I have to be framed like this? It's better to abandon the official and go home to farm, and the province will be popular with this literati. ”

Meng Ying immediately scolded: "Don't talk nonsense, Brother Zhang has gone to find the Metropolitan Governor, and he will definitely seek justice for Wang Tong." ”

"Really?" Zhu Neng, who was still underage, was overjoyed, and then hated: "The master doesn't care about this matter, it's too disappointing." ”

Suddenly, Liu Jing, the second son of Liu Bowen, the waiter of the Criminal Department, strode out of it with a sweaty face, and scolded the young Jiake angrily: "How can you try the case so indiscriminately? Someone came and dismissed him from his office. ”

Without waiting for the onlookers to react, Liu Jing ordered to bring Wei Jieba and his wife and a few witnesses, and immediately ordered the punishment to be served, and several new witnesses were summoned.

Soon, Wei's stammering comrades could not bear the pain and confessed, and the testimony of new witnesses proved that these people were habitual offenders, and that they had been defrauding large families of money by such means for many years.

Wei's stammering wife also shouted: "I recruited, I recruited, the slave family received the money before passing the door." ”

In this way, Wei Jieba and his wife and their accomplices were beaten up severely, and all of them were assigned to Daning Mansion to reclaim the border, and the fields cultivated within five years belonged to him, and when he had saved enough money to redeem his status as criminals, he could return to his hometown when he could.

And Wang Tong knew that Wei's stammering wife was the wife of a commoner, but he insisted on being a concubine, and he was beaten on the spot with 20 boards, and all the money involved was confiscated, and then he was thrown out of the criminal department.

In any case, Wang Tong's future is preserved, Meng Ying, Zhu Yong and others are very happy, accompany him to return home, and in the future, they will actively look for people in the market to testify, and some of the heroes who really bullied men and women have been punished by the criminal law because of the conclusive evidence, and their colleagues have nothing to say.

In the wing room at the back of the Criminal Department, Chen Ying arched his hand expressionlessly: "Lord Liu, since you are interested, then the official will not be impeached for the time being." ”

Liu Jing breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, politely sent Chen Ying into the sedan chair and walked away, sighing: "It's really dangerous, the adults are really too reckless this time, Your Majesty is benevolent, righteous and kind, but how can Xu Hao really be harmless to humans and animals?" ”

At the same time, Xu Hao stood in front of Xiao Wei, the commander of Jinyiwei, and muttered, "The people behind the scenes are actually the three Geng Xuan brothers? I don't know if General Geng knows? Alas, isn't this looking for death. (To be continued......)