prosperous age

The capital is only forty miles away from Tongzhou. According to Wei Guangde's plan, he will reach Tongzhou today.

After passing Tongzhou, well, even after leaving the capital, we can slow down and let the little emperor look around.

The itinerary was well arranged. The delegation led by Yin Zhengmao would arrive in Tianjin in four days, and they would arrive there on the fifth or sixth day.

In the Tianjin City Wall, the inner court has prepared a temporary palace for His Majesty to rest, and it will also be there that he will receive envoys from various countries for the first time.

"We can be transferred out for a walk, as long as we don't leave Northern Zhili, but Your Majesty has always been in the capital. Apart from the previous trip to Zhaoling, he has not been to other places."

Wei Guangde waved the whip gently and spoke casually.

"Shan Dai, for the sake of your majesty's safety, I have no choice but to do this."

Xu Wenbi should have heard about the dispute between Wei Guangde and the Ministry of Rites over this trip. In fact, Liu Shouyou also knew about it. It was no secret among senior officials in the capital.

The reason for this was naturally that the little emperor had asked him for help once a few days ago, and he wanted to relax after leaving the capital.

Even if the Ministry of Rites keeps asking for it, I hope Master Wei can come up with a solution on the way.

In the Forbidden City, the little emperor lived a very depressing life.

Until now, he still remembers the scene of him kneeling in front of his mother and begging for mercy, which made him feel very uncomfortable even though he was the emperor.

Of course, the young emperor also believed that if his mother and the prime minister reached an agreement, he might really be replaced.

Because he did not rule the country personally, he did not have many confidants in the court.

Even Master Zhang could abandon him, so what about Master Wei?

Therefore, he had to keep many things in his heart and did not tell others.

In the past, the requests he made to Wei Guangde were all childish things. Thinking about it now, they were really not worthy of being discussed, and the little emperor wanted to cover his face.

After that, he would make more requests to Wei Guangde to test whether Master Wei really has his heart set on him.

He is considered a confidant.

Although Master Zhang also spoke well of him in front of his mother that day, the little emperor always felt that the relationship between Master Zhang and his mother was closer, as if they were the ones who could trust each other.

And he, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became an outsider.

Puppet or marionette, his words seemed to have no influence on either of them.

"By the way, did the Aelians catch up with the delegation?"

Wei Guangde had seen the expedited documents sent from Fujian a few days ago and knew that the Queen of England had also sent an envoy to Ming Dynasty to attend the Emperor's wedding.

In fact, Britain was not a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, although the imperial court regarded it as a barbarian and felt that the Ming Dynasty was honoring them by recognizing their status as a vassal state.

However, Wei Guangde was still clear that Europeans were actually not willing to surrender to other countries at will unless you crush them with an absolute victory on the battlefield.

For this purpose, two days ago, Wei Guangde discussed with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Rites Pan Sheng the issue of what identity should be used to receive European countries such as Britain and Portugal.

In Pan Sheng's eyes, the Western countries had actually already submitted to the Ming Dynasty during the Yongle period and were considered vassal states.

However, Zheng He's fleet did not reach the western regions, so they did not surrender.

Now that Britain, Portugal and Spain have all sent delegations to the capital, it is a good opportunity to recover the European countries.

Well, the Ming court could never understand that the most authoritative person in Europe at that time was not the royal families of various countries, but the Catholic Pope, who possessed power beyond the secular world.

In the Ming Dynasty, religious leaders did not dare to confront the imperial court. Anyone who wanted to interfere with the imperial court was a heretic and a cult.

To this end, the final tone was to receive them with etiquette that surpassed that of a vassal state, and treat them as princes.

Their status was higher than that of the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, but lower than that of the direct vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

It is absolutely unimaginable to want to communicate with the Ming Dynasty on an equal footing.

Maybe Spain is qualified, but Portugal and the UK are not worthy at the moment.

"According to the itinerary, the delegation should have already reached Dengzhou. The An'eliya delegation should arrive there in the next two days."

Liu Shouyou immediately reported.

Yin Zhengmao's delegation stopped and walked along the way, sightseeing and traveling on their way to Tianjin, while the British delegation was desperately chasing them.

While in Guangzhou, the Portuguese and Spanish delegations also came to Guangzhou from Haojing and joined the delegation.

"I heard that the Spanish representative is very active in the Stone Group team, haha."

Wei Guangde suddenly asked with a smile.

“Yes, we now know that they followed the orders of some pope and used the sea as the boundary.

Luzon was the farthest area the Spaniards could reach, and they could not continue sailing westward to do business.

The same is true for the Portuguese. They cannot do business eastwards. The intersection is in our Ming Dynasty."

Liu Shouyou's intelligence system finally figured out why Spain and Portugal, which were in the same place, came to Ming Dynasty from the east and west respectively. It was because someone gave them directions and they could not disobey.

"The Spanish probably wanted merchants from Western countries to send their goods to Manila to trade with them, and avoid trade with the Portuguese."

Wei Guangde smiled.

Although Spanish merchants could not go to the Indian Ocean, if the merchants there took the initiative to send goods to Manila, the Portuguese would have no choice.

“I plan to have the South China Sea Navy maintain the security of the Mancijia Strait and allow Western merchants to trade in Old Port or Tortoise City.

If they are not afraid of risks and are willing to come to Southeast Asia. "

Wei Guangde said.

The city of Manila was left to the Spaniards by Wei Guangde in order to retain Spanish silver coins, but it was not prepared for them to conduct extensive trade with the East.

As a vassal state, you should have the awareness of a vassal state, which is to trade with the barbarians in the ports of Ming Dynasty.

Only when the Ming Dynasty had interests could it protect the interests of the barbarians when dealing with them.

This is also the intention of the Ming Dynasty court that the Ministry of Rites will pay attention to convey to the representatives of the Western delegation when they come into contact this time.

The countries in the Indian Ocean already have relatively close trade with Portugal, and this is probably difficult to change.

But facing the new trading partner, Spain, since the transaction takes place in Southeast Asia, the Ming Dynasty has a say.

Of course, it would be even better if Ming merchants were responsible for the trade.

In fact, as more news came from the South China Sea Navy, Wei Guangde had gradually realized that controlling Japan was actually the key to controlling Spain's Pacific trade.

The Spanish treasure ships, returning to Mexico from the South Seas with purchased goods, had to pass through Japanese waters to return to America.

Cutting off that place is equivalent to cutting off the Pacific route.

Wei Guangde has plans to arrange for the East China Sea Navy to try the Pacific route in the next two years. He has not yet made up his mind to expand the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but he also wants to see what America looks like.

I think all Chinese people know the name San Francisco. There should be gold mines nearby, and it seems that they were discovered relatively late, probably not during the Spanish period.

It seems feasible to buy some black slaves from the Portuguese and send them there to mine.

To be honest, Wei Guangde wants to monopolize this business.

The Ming Dynasty really did not have the power to expand overseas, and it had a lot of internal troubles. It would have been good enough if it could sort out East Asian affairs.

At this time, several governors of the Military Governor's Office, led by Xu Wenbi, were also heatedly discussing what Wei Guangde had just said.

"We should be responsible for the shipping routes, and they can just be responsible for production. Our merchant ships can transport their goods to the city of 玳紀 for trading."

Wei Guangde's words made Xu Wenbi see the opportunity to monopolize the shipping route and obtain monopoly profits. It was not enough to sell Ming's goods to Spain and Portugal. He wanted to use his status as Duke Dingguo to trade with Western countries and then resell them to the Spaniards.

As for Portugal, Xu Wenbi will not turn against them until he figures out the truth.

After all, the Portuguese have been doing this kind of business for a longer time.

In the past, they only had their eyes on salt permits, pawnshops and military farms, but now they have begun to look for all business opportunities.

Wei Guangde didn't bother to care about Wu Xun's thoughts. The Ministry of Rites would watch over them when the time came.

Only by seeing the so-called Western countries can they correctly understand their own identity.

Wei Guangde did not think that those small Western countries would lose their own interests because of their noble status. He thought it was too simple.

The team rested for an hour at noon, and the little emperor and his accompanying ministers all had to eat.

In the meantime, several groups of messengers came from outside. They were naturally the guards sent by the more peripheral Jizhen and Baoding military towns to deliver messages.

In fact, they were just trying to keep each other safe, and nothing unusual was found around them.

For the young emperor's trip, nominally 20,000 men were mobilized from the capital, but in fact, if the troops from Jizhen and Baoding Prefecture were included, there were still 50,000 to 60,000 men.

It is no wonder that historical records show that the emperor often traveled with tens of thousands of people. In fact, these were not only his entourage, but also guards sent by military towns along the way.

The emperors of the Qing Dynasty loved to visit the south of the Yangtze River, but they only saw the official ships on the canal, not knowing that there were troops and horses on both sides of the canal.

More than ten miles away from the canal, there were Eight Banners soldiers and Green Camp soldiers stationed locally on guard along the way.

It's no small matter.

By the afternoon's trip, the little emperor had lost the novelty of the morning.

Probably because when I lifted the curtain of the sedan chair, all I saw were eunuchs and guards, and it felt no different from being in the palace.

"Zhang Cheng."

The little emperor lifted the curtain of the sedan chair again and shouted to the eunuch who was accompanying him.

"Your Majesty, what's the matter?"

Zhang Cheng was riding a horse nearby, and when he heard the emperor's shout, he immediately reined in his horse and moved over.

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and asked, "How far is it from here to Tongzhou? When can we get there?"

He knew the general itinerary. Today they would arrive in Tongzhou, which he heard was more than 40 miles away from the capital.

He rode on a dragon sedan in the morning, and on a walking sedan in the afternoon. Now, he was being carried by more than thirty eunuchs.

This is the official road, which is wide enough. The emperor's sedan chair is not fixed and the number of sedan chair ladies will be flexibly adjusted according to the environment.

"It's less than twenty miles away. We can reach Tongzhou and enter the camp before dark."

The Ministry of War had already made preparations for the place where the emperor would rest, and had set up a large camp there.

Although this team seems large in scale, when they arrive at the place, they don't need to set up camp at all, as someone has already prepared it.

"Ah That's good."

The little emperor said, and then he said, "Then please ask Master Wei to come over. I have something to ask you."

Zhu Yijun gave the order again, okay, Emperor, you are the one who speaks the law, what you say is not just words but orders.

"I haven't been out of the capital for some time, so this is very rare."

At this moment, Wei Guangde was chatting and laughing with several nobles, Liu Shouyou was busy checking the safety in front and behind the imperial carriage, and Xu Wenbi and several nobles from the Beijing camp gathered together, chatting as they walked.

Songjiang Prefecture has opened to the sea and their ships have set sail, but there is no other news yet.

Therefore, during this period of time, the most favorite topic for the nobles to discuss when they got together was how much silver they could get from this business trip at the end of the year.

In this world, nothing is more attractive to them than money.

What are the salt permits and land? In the final analysis, they are all for the purpose of earning money to spend.

All the noble families in the capital are wealthy and powerful. The meager inheritance bestowed by their ancestors is not enough for them to live on.

Before, when Wei Guangde brought them into the Chamber of Commerce, he had already seen the weak nature of this group of nobles.

Not to mention those top nobles and relatives in the palace, those other marquises and earls are just glamorous on the surface.

The benefits they earned in the military camp were not enough to cover their expenses.

Many of the so-called wealthy families are barely able to maintain their mansions.

A large group of marquises and earls could only come up with 20,000 or 30,000 taels.

My God, when Wei Guangde went to the capital, his father prepared 30,000 taels of silver for him.

Wei Guangde listened to those people, who would have bowed and scraped even if his father had come, and were bragging there, and he felt indescribably happy.

The thousands and tens of thousands of taels of silver they were talking about were nothing more than the dust gathered in a corner of the Wei Mansion's treasury.

A few days ago, when the lady was cleaning the treasury, she found thousands of li worth of silver ingots from a corner. Wei Guangde couldn't even remember when he put them there.

However, these silver ingots have now been sent to the mint to mint Ming Tong Bao coins.

Not only the tax silver received by the government, but also the loose silver had to be sent to the mint to be minted into various coins. They also accepted commissions from powerful merchants and only charged a 10% labor fee after removing impurities and minting coins.

Don't feel like you're at a disadvantage. In fact, you're not. Silver coins are in circulation now. Even if you take out the original broken silver and silver ingots, they are not counted by weighing, but the fineness must be checked. It seems that you're at a greater loss after the discount.

At this time, a young eunuch came over and whispered to Wei Guangde: "Lord Wei, the emperor wants you to come over and talk."

The sound was not loud, but several people around heard it and immediately shut up.

Wei Guangde bowed to Xu Wenbi and said with a smile, "Your Majesty has summoned me, I will go over to take a look."

Xu Wenbi hurriedly returned the greeting, "Go away, your Majesty's business is more important."

Wei Guangde rode his horse forward and soon came within the range of the imperial carriage, appearing beside Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng saw Wei Guangde and hurriedly shouted to the sedan chair, "Your Majesty, Lord Wei is here."

"Master Wei."

The curtain of the sedan chair was lifted, revealing the little emperor's face.

"Master Wei, I want to ride a horse, is it possible?"

When they met, the young emperor said to Wei Guangde

"Your Majesty, would you like to ride a horse?"

Wei Guangde frowned. The little emperor hadn't ridden a horse for many years. Ever since he fell off a horse and got injured in the Imperial Stables, he rarely rode a horse.

"The sedan is too stuffy. I want to get some fresh air. I can't see anything from inside the sedan."

The little emperor spoke.

"Your Majesty, do you want to ride a horse to see the beautiful mountains and rivers of our Ming Dynasty?"

Wei Guangde hesitated and said, "It would be very troublesome if the little emperor fell and got injured again while riding a horse."

For a moment, Wei Guangde was at a loss. (End of this chapter)