Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2433: The public is not an assistant, but a supervisor (XXIV) The public and private sides

In the twelfth month of the first year of Taichang, the charcoal fire was burning brightly in the east warm room of the Qianqing Palace, but it could not dispel the howling north wind outside the window. Gao Fusi, dressed in plain casual clothes, leaned against the imperial desk, and the Persian secret letter in his hand shone with the unique luster of sheepskin under the candlelight. Not far away, the little emperor was copying today's homework, which was an article in "Dragon Whip Shadow" written by his uncle Gao Fusi in his early years. At this moment, he had written about half of it.

Gao Youshi did not stare at the little emperor doing his homework all the time, but read the contents of the letter twice. At the end of the letter, next to the monogram of "Grand Vizier Alawerdi Khan", he wrote an additional line of small characters in cinnabar: "The Shah has reached a trade agreement with your country with great sincerity, but this agreement is not a military alliance after all, so please do not let your army, infantry and cavalry enter the Persian border, and do not let your navy ships enter the Persian seaports. Our country also abides by this agreement and will never invade the territory of our friendly neighbors."

Haha, invading the territory of a friendly neighbor? If your Persian Army wants to send troops to Central Asia, it can still barely fight the Anxi Army, but the Persian Navy... Where can those small sampans invade?

It's not that Gao Youshi underestimated the Persians. They faced a powerful enemy, the Ottoman Empire, on land. They had been fighting with the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years and were at a disadvantage most of the time. How could they have the strength to build a navy? They would be lucky if they could barely block the Strait of Hormuz - in fact, even this was difficult. After all, although the Portuguese did not dare to fight against the Jinghua Nanyang Fleet, as long as they did not underestimate the enemy, it would not be difficult to bully the small sampans of the Arab countries.

Because of this, Gao Youshi even had an idea, hoping to let the shipyards in southern Xinjiang take some shipbuilding orders from Persia and Arabia - of course, mainly selling merchant ships, and as for warships, at most first- and second-class cruisers would be sold, and battleships were definitely not for sale.

On the one hand, Gao Youshi naturally had to ensure the maritime hegemony of the Jinghua Two Oceans Fleet; on the other hand, he also took into account that Jinghua's ships were not cheap to sell, and the Arab tribes certainly could not afford them, and most of them were even nominally vassals of the Ottoman Empire - if they wanted to become rich, they would have to wait for the arrival of the oil age.

Now the target buyer is only Persia, and Persia is obviously not rich enough to allocate much funds for the navy to buy ships. According to Gao Youshi's prediction, only when Persia takes over the Mesopotamian region and begins to extend its hand to the Arabian Peninsula will it consider buying warships from Jinghua - at that time, it will be to expel the Portuguese, especially to recapture the Portuguese fortress on Hormuz Island.

As for whether the sale of cruisers by Jinghua to Persia would be protested by the Portuguese, it would definitely be. However, Gao Youshi had even thought of how to answer: if the Portuguese side was willing, Jinghua could also sell similar warships to Persia to show fairness and neutrality.

"Prime Minister, all the ministers and officials have been ordered to come to see you." The eunuch's announcement interrupted Gao Youshi's contemplation. He put the letter into the sandalwood box and ran his fingertips over the "Book and Sword" emblem on the box cover.

Soon, in the side hall of the East Warm Pavilion, all the ministers sat in a circle: Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace Yu Shenxing, Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace Song Yingchang, Grand Secretary of Dongge Xiao Liangyou, as well as the Ministers of Personnel, War, and Works Ye Xianggao, Wang Tingzhuan, and Shen Yongmao.

Gao Youshi sat alone, tapping gently on the "Map of the Western Regions" in front of him with his fingers. The trade route from Samarkand to Isfahan on the map was outlined in cinnabar and was particularly eye-catching.

"The Persians have agreed to open the Khorasan trade route," he said, his finger pausing at the Yaosha River ferry crossing. "So the imperial court needs to set up the 'Anxi Taxation Office' in Samarkand. In addition to the porcelain, tea and other goods sold to the local area by the inland provinces, the wheat and cotton produced by the military farms - preferably woven into cotton cloth first - should be used as hard currency."

Since Gao Youshi still serves as the Minister of Revenue, there is almost no room for people to interrupt, so he did not pretend and continued, "Last year, there was a drought in Shaanxi, but Anxi resumed production and increased its income by 200,000 shi through military farming. The Ministry of Revenue has estimated that these grains can be used in two ways. One is to support the immigrants who moved from the inland to Anxi this year. This does not need much introduction;

The second option is to sell directly to Persia. Persia is fighting the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus, and domestic food production has been affected. The cost of supplying military supplies is huge, so food is in short supply. In addition, Persian agricultural technology is not advanced, and geographically it is divided into several fragmented blocks due to mountains. Therefore, the shortage of food is predictable. If Anxi has excess food to sell to Persia, it can even exchange for three times the profit of Jiangnan. "

"Prime Minister," Yu Shenxing frowned, "although according to the pre-war forecast, once Anxi's production is restored and various systems are improved, it will be completely self-sufficient in the future, but after all, the current Anxi garrison consumes more than one million taels of silver per year... From this point of view, if commercial taxes can offset part of the military expenses, it can indeed alleviate the pressure on the court to a certain extent.

However, the Persians asked for the drawings of the No. 3 gun. This may increase the defensive pressure on our Anxi garrison. What if the Persians betray us in the future..."

"We will only provide the bronze barrel casting process," Gao Youshi sneered, "The core rifling processing method, stress control and testing and other core technologies will still be controlled by Jinghua Ordnance."

As he spoke, he pulled out a list and said, "The windproof mechanism for the matchlock gun that Gholam Ali Khan (the commander of the Persian imperial guards) wants is just an early technology that was eliminated in Beijing - but it is enough to increase the firing rate of Persian muskets by 30% during the rainy season in Mesopotamia. Therefore, such a technology transfer is enough. As for the others... Haha, the metallurgical technology is not up to standard. Even if I really send people to teach them, they won't be able to learn it."

Since we are talking about firearms, Song Yingchang suddenly interrupted: "I heard that the Persian 'Tufanqi' musketeers want to learn our army's 'three-stage attack' tactics. I wonder if the prime minister needs to send a military instructor to go there?"

"Send them, but only teach them how to change formations," Gao Youshi's finger slid across the icon of the Persian Imperial Guards. "The real infantry-artillery coordinated tactics have to wait until they learn to use spring carriages to transport ammunition. You can tell them clearly that for a large-scale battle with 50,000 troops, at least 2,000 spring carriages are needed to transport ammunition. Only then can they use infantry-artillery coordinated tactics. Otherwise, it's useless to learn."

Everyone was shocked. You know, even these high-ranking officials didn't know the cost of the spring carriage, because it was Jinghua's commercial secret, but they knew the price of its sale - each spring carriage was sold for as much as 60 taels of silver, equivalent to three good war horses.

That is to say, two thousand spring carriages would cost 120,000 taels of silver. And don't think that you're done once you buy this thing. Its maintenance is also very troublesome, and parts need to be replaced regularly - even if you remove the relatively simple wooden parts (because the other party can produce them locally), the maintenance and replacement of core parts such as spring steel, bearings, and steel wheels alone is a continuous bleeding investment.

How should I put it? When there is no war, about 120,000 taels are spent on maintenance every three years. If there is a war, it is even more uncertain, it all depends on the intensity of use. For a continuous large-scale war like the Persian and Ottoman wars, it is estimated that spending 120,000 taels every year should be considered relatively restrained...

Gao Youshi saw that everyone was watching their noses and their noses were watching their hearts, so he couldn't help but smile and turned to Xiao Liangyou, "The Ministry of Industry needs to speed up the construction of the Anxi Arsenal and strive to put 5,000 Wanli Type 3 short muskets into production next year, and give priority to supplying them to the Second Regiment of the First Naturalized Cavalry Army on the Western Expedition to the Ural Mountains."

Talking about the First Naturalized Cavalry Army, Wang Tingzhuan, the Minister of War, immediately thought of horse administration and asked Gao Youshi what to do with the good horses sent by the Persian Grand Vizier.

The green smoke rising from the charcoal stove entangled the mark of the Mobei grassland on the map. Gao Youshi's fingers tapped heavily on the cinnabar red stamp of "Yuanma Temple Pasture". His eyes swept across the Arabian horse book presented by the royal court. The pedigree of each stallion exuded the breath of the Persian royal family under the candlelight, and the breath of the Shiraz Royal Horse Farm seemed to spread.

"Four hundred 'Caspian Flames' are enough to bring a new pattern to the Ming Dynasty's horse policy." He suddenly looked up and ran his fingertips across the vast grassland north of the Great Wall, where the names of more than a dozen new and old horse farms were marked with dense lines, such as "Monan Daning Grassland", "Mobei Helin Grassland" and "Zhenbeibao Grassland".

"Tell the Yuanma Temple to release the stallions in three batches: 100 will go to the southern desert to be interbred with Ujumchin horses; 80 will go to the Yili River Valley in the western regions to improve Hexi horses, and 30% of Kazakh horse bloodline can be mixed in during breeding; the remaining 20 stallions will be sent to Zhenbeibao in Siberia to see if the local cold-resistant load-bearing horses can be improved to produce faster cold-resistant horses."

Wang Tingzhuan's fingers subconsciously stroked the entry for "Hexi Horse" in the account book: "Yuan Fu, although the Hexi horse can endure the Gobi Desert, its body size is similar to that of the Mongolian horse, and it is generally smaller. If it is mixed with the Arabian horse, will it affect its endurance?"

"You don't know," Gao Youshi pointed at the "Monan Daning Grassland" with his finger, "In addition to alfalfa, the Monan grassland also has wolfsbane and needlegrass, which can bring out the wildness of Arabian horses. But you must remember to remind the Yuanma Temple to ask the herdsmen who are ordered to raise horses to add half a spoonful of Liaonan sea salt produced in Jinghua to each bucket of drinking water for the ponies - this method has been tried in Liaodong a few years ago and can increase the bone density of horses by 10%."

"What advice does Yuanfu have on horse breeding in Zhenbeibao?" Wang Tingzhuan asked again.

Gao Fusi shook his head and said, "I don't know how to raise horses in extremely cold places, so let the people at the horse farm exchange experiences with the local herdsmen."

When he said this, everyone was actually quite surprised - perhaps it was because Gao Youshi's image of "knowing everything" over the years had made people who were familiar with him accustomed to it, and suddenly when they heard him say "I don't understand either", they were even stunned for a moment, and then they remembered that the prime minister in front of them was not a god or saint after all.

Snow flakes outside the window hit the glass. Gao Youshi's voice suddenly became low as he made a final statement about the horse breed: "The most important thing about this matter is bloodline control. The left ear of each mixed-blood horse must be branded with a three-color fire seal: red represents the grasslands of the southern desert, green represents the oasis of the western regions, and black represents Siberia - in the future, if a horse farm produces a good horse, we will be able to trace its source at a glance."

Wang Tingzhuan bowed and said yes, and agreed without further comment.

The meeting lasted until 11:30 pm. The little emperor had finished his homework and was allowed to rest by Gao Youshi. He happily went to Beihai to enjoy the snow with a group of eunuchs who served him. The ministers finally left, and Gao Youshi stayed alone in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, unfolding another secret map - the South Xinjiang Peninsula (Indochina Peninsula), the South Pacific Islands and the Bengal region in eastern India outlined with ink lines, with various cities and strongholds densely marked on it.

He watched silently for a while, and a voice sounded beside him, "Uncle, the Third Squadron of the South China Sea Fleet has arrived at Hormuz."

Gao Qi's voice came from behind the screen, "The Portuguese sent three carracks to 'greet' them, but our battleship flagship rammed and broke some kind of statue on the bow of one of the warships."

Gao Fusi chuckled, his fingertips pausing at Bandar Abbas. "Tell the Third Squadron that unless the Portuguese dare to open fire, we should show them some mercy and not sink them. However, we can show the Portuguese the new No. 1 cannon on our battleships. Once they realize the reality, we can tell them that Jinghua's porcelain, spices, and refined sugar will only be sold to those who know the rules."

"Yes, uncle. I'll take note of it." Gao Qi nodded and asked, "Uncle, in addition to the booming sugar industry in southern Xinjiang, the palm oil industry has also been greatly improved. Why don't you sell palm oil to the Portuguese?"

"Palm oil is indeed a good thing, but the Portuguese have limited shipping capacity. Relatively speaking, the profit of palm oil is not as great as that of porcelain, spices and refined sugar. Therefore, even if it is promoted, it will not have much sales."

Gao pointed to the Persian Gulf region on the map and added, "But if we sell palm oil to Persia and Arabia, it will be more competitive... In these places, fertile land is far less than barren land, and the output of edible oil is relatively limited. We can increase exports, whether in exchange for gold, silver or horses, it is good."

At this point, he suddenly remembered the horse farm affairs he had just discussed with the ministers, and asked, "The Southern Border War Horse Breeding Program has been going on for a while now. How is the progress now?"

"Speaking of this, the Portuguese did make great efforts in the past few years - of course, their charges were not very fair," Gao Qi said, not knowing whether to praise or criticize. "The Portuguese have brought hundreds of Arabian horses to southern Xinjiang over the years. Although their quality may not be as good as the 'Flame of the Caspian Sea' that the Persian Grand Vizier gave to the court, they are still pretty good and have created conditions for us to breed good horses."

Gao Youshi just nodded without commenting, so Gao Qi continued: "Although Arabian horses are very heat-resistant, they couldn't get used to the humidity in southern Xinjiang at first, and they were also extremely uncomfortable with some mosquitoes, ants and poisonous insects, so many of them died in vain. But fortunately, after years of hard work, we have managed to breed them with local ponies and produce war horses suitable for local use."

"What's the matter?" Gao Youshi asked.

"It is shorter than the original Arabian horse, but roughly the same size as the Mongolian horse. It is also slightly stronger than the Mongolian horse and can walk on mountain roads... However, its biggest advantage is that it can travel a hundred miles a day in a temperature of 40 degrees. It can be said to be tailor-made for southern Xinjiang and Southeast Asia, and can even be used in Bangladesh."

"Good, good, good!" Gao Youshi was overjoyed. After more than ten years of work, this matter finally paid off. There have been no good horses in Southeast Asia since ancient times. Unexpectedly, he was able to force one out. Although it sounds that the overall quality is not as good as the Arabian horse, its strong regional applicability makes up for this.

"Do you have a name?" he asked.

"It has just been bred not long ago. According to the habits of horse farms around Beijing, we have to wait one or two generations to determine whether it has been completely successfully bred. Therefore, it has not been named yet." Gao Qi replied.

Gao Youshi waved his hand and said, "The system remains unchanged, but I will make an exception and give it a name - let's call it 'Fire Dragon Colt'."

Gao Qi smiled and said, "If the horse farm knew about my uncle's gift, they would be grateful." This is true, but the reason is not just that Gao Youshi gave this breed of horse a name, but the interests behind the name.

The breed of horses was given a name, and the farm owners and horse owners were all rewarded generously - they were given a ten-year salary on the spot, and their children were given free education. After the children finished their studies, they were assigned by the national policy advisory group of each kingdom, usually at the level of county chief clerk or county magistrate.

Even though they didn't even get the title of county magistrate, they were actually equivalent to "executive deputy county magistrate" or "county public security chief"! It was a complete class leap for them.

After chatting for a while, it was almost midnight. Gao Fusi looked at the two documents placed side by side on the desk: on the left was the "Anxi Development Edict" of the court, and on the right was the "Nanyang Trade Regulations" of Beijing. The two documents complemented each other under the candlelight, just like his dual identity - he was both the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty and the uncrowned king who controlled Nanyang.
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PS: Speaking of which, I am not as familiar with the history of the Middle East as I am with the history of Europe (I think most people are the same, right?), so it took me a lot of time to look up information before writing. Thank you readers for your understanding.

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