prosperous age

"This"

Soon, Zhang Juzheng finished reading the memorial handed over by Feng Bao and frowned.

"This matter has already reached the point of post-election. Why is Shandai talking about this matter now?"

Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but think about it. In recent times, he had become accustomed to the fickleness of the world and was very sensitive to everything.

The selection of a queen and her wedding for Emperor Wanli were the most important events of the court in the following year.

But everything was progressing rapidly, and when it came to the last step, Wei Guangde said that the emperor was too young and not suitable for a grand wedding. This was obviously an attempt to flatter him, the prime minister, and said that he was inconsiderate.

"Uncle, don't worry."

Feng Bao had the same thought when he first saw the memorial, but after listening to Wei Guangde, he realized that he had not realized this problem at first.

"I sent this memorial to the palace, and the two queen dowagers summoned Shandai immediately."

"How did he say?"

After hearing Feng Bao's words, Zhang Juzheng immediately asked.

"Shandai didn't think of this at first, and only discovered it yesterday.

His son is a little younger than the emperor, and he was considering arranging a marriage for his own son, but he suddenly discovered this."

Feng Bao smiled bitterly, then looked at Zhang Juzheng, "My family has no sons, so there is no need to consider marriage. How come you forgot about this?"

Zhang Juzheng lowered his head and listed the emperors of previous generations in his memorial, and all of them got married after the age of sixteen.

As for the wedding of Emperor Wanli that they were planning, even if it was postponed to the end of next year, the emperor would only be fifteen years old, while the empress was of age.

"Your Majesty has made your choice?"

Zhang Juzheng did not respond to this. He was still thinking about Wei Guangde's intention and the current solution in his mind, so he just replied casually.

"Sister Wang Xi, both ladies have approved it."

Feng Bao said, then he remembered something and added: "She is the daughter of Wang Wei, the deputy envoy of Wensi Academy."

"Wang Wei from Wensiyuan?"

Zhang Juzheng only frowned slightly when he heard this. He had no impression of this ninth-rank official.

After all, their ranks were too different. One was a first-rank official, while the other was a ninth-rank official of the lowest rank.

Wensiyuan was a production institution established in the late Tang Dynasty and was retained during the Five Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties.

In the long course of historical evolution, the nature, functions and official positions of Wensiyuan have undergone great changes, but due to very few documentary records, few people have conducted in-depth research on it.

Wensiyuan was first noticed because of the "Famen Temple Underground Palace" incident which caused a great sensation in later generations. Many gold and silver utensils unearthed from the Tang Dynasty were engraved with the inscriptions of "Wensiyuan", which attracted the attention of the academic community. After that, some small research results appeared one after another.

The historical records clearly state when Wensiyuan was first established. It is said that "Emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty was fond of the art of longevity and built the Wangxian Terrace in the Daming Palace. Its power was so great that it threatened the Milky Way. When he first ascended the throne, he dismissed the Taoist priest Zhao Guizhen and beat him to death, and abolished the Wangxian Terrace. In the eighth year of Dazhong, he ordered it to be renovated. The Right Assistant Official Chen Gu submitted a petition to discuss the matter, and the construction was immediately stopped, and the courtyard was renamed Wensiyuan."

There are similar records in books such as "Tang Huiyao" and "Chang'an Zhi", which shows that there is no doubt that Wensiyuan was first built in the eighth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty.

The Wensiyuan in the Tang Dynasty was an institution located in the inner court of the imperial palace that manufactured gold and silver wares. All the gold and silver wares it manufactured were used by the inner court. In the Song Dynasty, the Wensiyuan also manufactured weights and measures.

Before the Song Dynasty, Wensiyuan was a department of the inner court located in the Daming Palace, and its staff were mainly eunuchs.

Afterwards, Wensiyuan was briefly renamed "Qianwenyuan".

After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong hastily fled south and established the institution. In the third year of Shaoxing, the Wensi Academy was transferred from the Shaofujian to the Ministry of Works. In the fourth year of Xining of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty, the measurement and weight manufacturing that was originally under the jurisdiction of the Taifu Temple was incorporated into the Wensi Academy.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Wensiyuan was extremely large, but it was very different in the Ming Dynasty.

The ambassador and deputy ambassador of the Wensiyuan in the Ming Dynasty had a lower status, which were the ninth rank and the ninth rank respectively. Their status was not comparable to that of the Wensiyuan in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, this position was used as a place to store talents. Its rank was determined by the official salary it held. After completing its term of office, it could be appointed as a prefect or a miscellaneous supervisor. If it was appointed internally, it could be appointed as a temple supervisor or an official in the Secretariat.

In the Ming Dynasty, the status of the Wensiyuan envoys was low, and at one point, craftsmen were even used as deputy ambassadors.

In addition, it should be pointed out that in the Ming Dynasty, due to the abuse of power and corruption by eunuchs, they extended their hands to the Wensiyuan and interfered in its affairs, resulting in a large number of redundant staff in the Wensiyuan, waste of funds, and rampant corruption and theft, which caused great dissatisfaction among the court.

This forced the emperor to issue several orders to cut redundant staff and rectify the affairs of the court, but it failed to solve the problem fundamentally.

Therefore, after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, many systems were imitated from the Ming Dynasty, but the Wensiyuan was no longer set up.

Therefore, in later generations, many people did not know that there was such a department in the imperial court.

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng just nodded slightly, and had already made up his mind, "This woman is similar to Empress Dowager Li, both of them are from a family of craftsmen."

Of course, Zhang Juzheng didn't dare say this.

"Since Shandai has discovered the problem, and what did he say to the two madams when he entered the palace today, he should be able to find a way to turn things around."

Zhang Juzheng thought that Wei Guangde was a man of quick wit. He could often come up with some solutions, and his solutions were often very effective.

During this period of time, Zhang Juzheng had not thought of any good solution.

In his opinion, although Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang had set the appropriate age for marriage for men and women, it was after all aimed at subjects and did not involve the royal family. He could use this as an excuse when the time came.

However, after the wedding of Emperor Wanli, the two concubines in the harem had to restrain themselves a little when it came to sleeping together between the emperor and the empress.

Now that I think about it, the little emperor was indeed a little young.

It would actually be more appropriate to wait another two years.

"Shandai's suggestion is that the Naji and Nazhi ceremonies can continue, but the deadline will be slightly delayed, preferably until the emperor turns sixteen."

"No, if we delay too long, we may face criticism from both the government and the public."

As soon as Feng Bao started, Zhang Juzheng hurriedly called for him to stop.

"Uncle, listen to me. There are bigger things to do in the next two years."

Feng Bao just glanced at Zhang Juzheng and then spoke seriously.

After Zhang Juzheng frowned and remained silent, Feng Bao continued slowly: "Shandai's proposal is to send the South China Sea Navy to the West Ocean and invite the rulers of the vassal states to the capital to attend the emperor's wedding.

Since Emperor Yongle, it has been a long time since the Ming Dynasty had a grand event where all nations came to pay tribute to the emperor."

"All nations are coming to pay tribute?"

Zhang Juzheng opened his mouth in surprise. He had already understood that the reason for postponing the emperor's wedding was to make it known.

For the Ming Dynasty court, no matter whether the Western countries are still subservient to the Ming Dynasty, at least they have come to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage, so they can be regarded as vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the Ming Emperor is getting married, it would be appropriate to extend an invitation.

However, what Zhang Juzheng needed to consider more was whether the vassal states would come as promised. You know, the Ming Dynasty is not as strong as it used to be. Although his new policy is to restore the prosperity of the Yongle era, he also knows that the national strength is still much weaker than before.

Feng Bao seemed to see Zhang Juzheng's hesitation and continued, "At the very least, our Ming Dynasty has just destroyed Burma, and the countries in Southeast Asia should know what to do."

On the way, Feng Bao also thought about this issue. Not to mention the Western countries, at least the South Asian countries will not be absent.

The army is still in Myanmar. If you don’t want to become the second King of Burma, then the right thing to do is to come to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage in an orderly manner.

In this way, with Nanyang and other vassal states, although the momentum is not as grand as the gathering of rulers and envoys from Western and Nanyang countries during the Yongle period, it at least does not look much shabby.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, the Nanyang Navy of the Ming Dynasty is also a well-deserved powerful force at sea.

If the elite navy of the South China Sea were to patrol the Western Ocean, the powerful armaments would allow the Western countries to see that the Ming Dynasty is no less powerful than it was in the past. I think they should all know what to do.

Thinking of this, Feng Bao immediately expressed his judgment: "If my guess is correct, Shandai will send the strongest sea bear of our Ming Dynasty to inspect the Western countries, whether by invitation or by military deterrence. I believe those rulers should know the benefits of befriending our Ming Dynasty."

“Brother Shuanglin, I’m not worried that the Western countries won’t come, but it will be troublesome if they all come.”

Unexpectedly, Zhang Juzheng responded like this.

"The Ming court is short of financial resources and cannot cope with so many tributes.

I think back then, Xia Yuanji and Xia Gong opposed the voyage to the West because they saw the huge pressure that the tribute trade put on the court’s finances and had no choice but to do so.”

At this time, Zhang Juzheng began to complain.

Given the current financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng was really unwilling to make this move.

The idea is good, but it costs too much.

unless

This was what Zhang Juzheng really thought, but he planned to write a note to Wei Guangde after Feng Bao left to explain the most important point.

"Shandai has an idea for this matter. His plan is to transport the accumulated goods in the Jiangnan treasury to the West to sell them, and use the money to pay for the expenses of this tribute."

But before Zhang Juzheng could take action, Feng Bao told him Wei Guangde's idea.

"If so, it's a good thing."

Zhang Juzheng immediately became happy and had no worries at all.

In fact, there was a reason why the court of the early Ming Dynasty worked together to oppose the voyages to the West, and that was because the court was losing money, and the losses were huge.

But please note that it was the "imperial court" that lost money, not the "Ming Dynasty".

In fact, according to calculations of later generations, Zheng He's fleet brought back a total of more than 727,400 taels of gold and more than 12,764,000 taels of silver during his seven voyages.

This number is not made up, but a number clearly recorded in the "Veritable Records of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty".

"The eunuch Lin Xiu from the Internal Transport Department reported that since the Yongle period, this department has collected and stored more than 727,400 taels of gold and more than 2,764,000 taels of silver. Due to rewards, the gold has been used up, and only more than 2,444,900 taels of silver remain."

This memorial was actually a statement made by Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen, who was running out of money, and asked the inner court to collect the figures gained from voyages to the West and calculate them.

This is only the gold and silver income of the inner treasury, and does not include the value of precious items such as rare treasures, spices, and soda.

This is also the reason why Zhu Jianshen, as a son, always wondered why his father, Emperor Yingzong, was so persistent in wanting to go to the West.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty court also needed to spend huge amounts of money to build ships for the fleet's long voyages, and this expenditure amounted to millions of taels.

Some people in later generations believed that the purpose of sailing to the West was to publicize the power of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty rewarded Western countries with a lot of money and jewelry, and allowed Western envoys to follow the fleet to China to pay tribute. The court also had to reward the tribute delegation with a large amount of money and property.

Not only that, the court had to spend a lot of money to maintain Zheng He's fleet, so Zheng He's voyages to the West were purely a loss-making business to gain fame, which of course the ministers were not happy about.

However, this statement is only half correct. In fact, Zheng He made money from his voyages to the West.

During the Yongle period, there were five expeditions to the northern desert, the capital was moved to Beijing, the Forbidden City was built, the "Yongle Encyclopedia" was compiled, Zheng He was sent to the West six times, the North-South Canal was dredged, Annan was conquered in the south, Hami was managed, and Guizhou Province was established. All these things cost money, but Zhu Di accomplished all these things in the 22 years that he was emperor, which shows that he had enough money.

As for where the money came from, it was naturally the huge profits earned by Zheng He's fleet every time it went out to sea.

However, this income did not go into the imperial court, but went directly into the emperor’s private treasury.

After all, Zheng He was a eunuch. He worked for his master, so the profits naturally belonged to the emperor.

So the following situation occurred: the imperial court spent a huge amount of money on Zheng He's fleet, but did not earn much income. Instead, it suffered huge losses in the tribute trade because of the foreigners he brought back, and only earned enough face.

However, the profits went into the inner treasury and the court officials could not see them at all, let alone replenish their blood.

This is why the officials of the Ming Dynasty unanimously opposed the voyage to the West. The tribute trade was a huge loss.

Before, eunuchs represented the Ming Dynasty on diplomatic missions, and all their income went into the inner court.

This time, Wei Guangde seems to be planning to use the South China Sea Navy as the main force, and all the income will go to the court. There are huge interests involved.

Although the bulk of the revenue from this mission will most likely go to the Ministry of War, the six ministries will all get their share to some extent, the only difference is the amount.

At the very least, the Ministry of Revenue should not lose money, but make a lot of money.

At the same time, there was sufficient reason to postpone the emperor's wedding, which was a situation that couldn't be better.

“Brother Shuanglin, I am still in mourning, so I will not submit a memorial. Please return to the palace to report to the two Queen Mothers and Your Majesty. I fully support this matter.

With Shandai in charge, there shouldn't be any major problems, so you can proceed without any worries."

Zhang Juzheng immediately expressed his opinion.

"So there's no problem?"

Feng Bao had also received some education, but that was more than a hundred years ago, so he had no idea of ​​the huge economic benefits involved.

It was just that Feng Bao instinctively sensed that there was a change in Zhang Juzheng's attitude, but he couldn't figure it out.

But no matter what, Wei Guangde's method has been supported by Zhang Juzheng, so he can return to the palace to report.

After seeing Feng Bao off, Zhang Juzheng also received a note from the Ministry of Revenue, which was written by Assistant Minister Li Youzi.

His performance in this "love-stealing" incident has won Zhang Juzheng's trust, and he is planning to give him a position as a minister.

As for the content of the note, Zhang Juzheng would have been puzzled before.

But now, after Feng Bao's explanation, Zhang Juzheng understood what it meant to ask the Ministry of Revenue to check the account books, which was to prepare goods for the voyage to the West.

There is no doubt that Zhang Juzheng's reply to Li Youzi asked him to fully support Wei Guangde's resolution and to inform Wang Guoguang and others.

On the way back, Feng Bao was still frowning, wondering why Zhang and Wei had reached a consensus again. It was really strange.

These two people appear to have different political views to the outside world, but they often have the same opinions deep down.

Their performances may fool others, but they cannot fool Feng Bao. (End of this chapter)