prosperous age

At the Tianjin inland river dock, a shipyard belonging to the navy, a large Fujian-style ship is quietly moored.

Zheng Qianhu, dressed in the robes of a fifth-rank commander, stood on the dock, looking up at the tall Fujian ship.

"Officer Lin, this isn't our previous boat, is it?"

Zheng Jun spoke to the person next to him, who was the captain of the large ship they had previously boarded.

However, the Fujian ship that Lin Qiguan brought them to see this time was obviously not the same one as before; it was newer and should be a good ship that had been launched less than two years ago.

"The ship was being maintained in that dock over there. The hull was covered in barnacles, and it needed to be cleaned and repainted."

Lin Qiguan explained that one thing that needs to be done every time a ship returns to port after a voyage is to clean the underwater parts of the ship, which is not just about repairing the damaged parts.

In fact, boat people noticed long ago that after a boat sets sail, a large amount of aquatic plants would often quickly attach to the bottom of the boat.

These aquatic plants can damage the hull and also affect the speed of the ship.

Therefore, the first thing all ocean-going ships do after unloading their cargo upon returning from the sea is to take them to the shipyard for cleaning and maintenance of the hull.

This problem remains unsolved, not only in ancient times but also in later generations.

The problem is that barnacles and other aquatic plants are too dependent and reproduce too quickly. No matter what method you use, you can't prevent them from parasitizing the ship's hull.

Sea turtles, whales, and dolphins in the ocean are also victims of barnacles.

Those images would be extremely disturbing for someone with trypophobia.

"How much longer will this ship remain docked here?"

Zheng Jun suddenly pointed to the large sailing ship next to him, which was completely different from the Ming Dynasty ships, and asked.

"I don't know. The Anelians are still in the capital. I heard they might stay for a month, and then they'll go to Songjiang Prefecture and stay there for a long time."

Lin, the flag officer, spoke up.

These messages were naturally relayed by the sailors on board.

The mission members went to the capital, but the sailors remained here.

As a nation known for its etiquette, their ships were given priority for maintenance on the slipway.

As for the navy, it was decided that Officer Lin would continue to lead his men on long-distance voyages.

They've already made one trip, and the entire crew is experienced. They've also had contact with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, so mutual trust is better.

So, the people haven't changed, but the ship has—a brand new, large Fujian ship.

"Have all the goods been loaded onto the ship?"

Zheng Jun suddenly lowered his voice and asked.

Although he was surrounded by his own people, Zheng Jun unconsciously lowered his voice considerably when it came to private matters.

"The goods were mixed in with that batch of firearms and were all loaded onto the ship."

Three thousand muskets, and several cannons.

"Didn't they say the Persians didn't like breech-loading cannons? But two of those cannons were still large breech-loading cannons."

Lin Qiguan asked suspiciously.

"They can't make it themselves, they should be grateful to be able to buy it, they have no right to complain."

Zheng Jun said dismissively.

Immediately, Zheng Jun's gaze fell on Qin Degong.

Qin Degong nodded knowingly, which meant that the goods had been safely loaded onto the ship without any problems.

Okay, this isn't the first time I've done something like this.

Although this mission is not just to Persia, the ships will also be going to the Western Red Sea for reconnaissance, so what?
Their previous profits made them incredibly wealthy, with returns several times their initial investment.

It can be said that this time, it's just a small portion of the profits being invested.

Even if they fail, it will only be Zheng Jun and Qin Degong who are unlucky, and they may very well lose their lives.

But once they return, the profits will be several times greater.

Everyone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard will calculate this score.

Of course, anyone would be willing to invest in a deal that guarantees a profit.

Zheng Jun, Qin Degong, Zhao Dezhu, and their subordinates had no choice but to accept it.

They were just unlucky to be assigned this job.

So, on this voyage, in addition to the food and water we brought, the cargo hold was packed full.

Of course, since goods were transported, the smuggled goods this time were similar to those last time, and everyone invested again proportionally.

"Go and take stock of the manpower. When the official from the Ministry of Works arrives, we will board the ship and set sail."

Although Zheng Jun was the leader of this trip, the Ministry of Works also sent a fifth-rank official with several people to accompany him.

With this group of people around, Zheng Jun became the nominal leader.

Without the official badges of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, they really couldn't intimidate the officials in Beijing.

In Zheng Jun's heart, he only hoped that the wealthy man Li who was going with him would behave as he had before.

Half an hour later, a caravan of carriages came from the direction of Tianjin.

"Sir, are people from the Ministry of Works here? Look at the scale of their arrival."

On the deck of the ship, Zheng Jun boarded first. After the heads of the Imperial Guards and the navy were counted, everyone else boarded the ship to await orders.

However, the convoy that came from the city was indeed quite large.

The first two or three black-awning carriages were fine; they probably carried an official and a clerk from the Ministry of Works, as well as craftsmen.

But what are those seven or eight horse-drawn carriages behind them? They're obviously loaded with cargo.

Are there any seats left in the cabin?

Seeing this, Zheng Jun immediately asked Lin Qiguandao.

Lin Qiguan was in the navy, and the navy's involvement in smuggling goods was not exactly a secret.

They were often asked by merchants to transport goods from the Ming Dynasty to the old port. They earned a little money for the journey and the merchants earned money from customs duties.

However, the quantity of goods is still limited.

Otherwise, if customs revenue cannot be collected, the capital will be outraged, and then the navy will suffer losses.

It's really about finding a balance; it's okay to make some money from below, but you can't go too far.

Otherwise, if the capital is unhappy, it won't let the navy have an easy time.

They made money from smuggling goods from the Ming Dynasty and Persia last time, and they also shared a portion with the Linqi official.

This is also why the higher-ups thought they would cooperate well with the Linqi official; once they had dealt with him once, subsequent cooperation would often go smoothly.

And clearly, these people from the Ministry of Works seemed to have the same idea, and they sent several cartloads of Ming Dynasty goods out.

"It should be able to fit. If not, we can move some of the goods to the lower warehouse, where there is still some space to store goods."

Lin, the flag officer, frowned and replied.

"Won't this affect the safety of navigation?"

Zheng Jun was no novice when it came to sea, and he immediately asked whether it was safe to store the cargo this way.

"It won't have any impact."

Lin Qiguan immediately replied.

For the next hour or so, Zheng Jun, along with the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Banner Officer, accompanied Minister Li of the Ministry of Works, a chief clerk, and several craftsmen who had worked on the city walls on the deck.

They had participated in the construction of several fortified towns along the border. Although they had not participated in the construction of the Great City, the fortified towns were not much different from the Great City.

On and off the ship, a group of laborers carried the cartloads of goods onto the ship and into the hold.

When the large ship left the dock, it was already two hours later than expected. However, it still managed to successfully enter the sea along the river that same day, beginning their second voyage to the Western Ocean.

The events at Tianjin Port were delivered to the Imperial Guard headquarters later that day and placed on Liu Shouyou's desk.

His men, along with those from the Ministry of Works, smuggled goods worth tens of thousands of taels of silver and evaded thousands of taels of taxes. Liu Shouyou merely shrugged it off, then folded up the documents and stored them separately.

No one would expose this to higher authorities, especially since he also owns shares in the company.

Even if he didn't have it, he couldn't.

If he were to report this, he would offend not only his subordinates but also people from the Ministry of Works.

The Ministry of Works was a government office that the Jiangxi clique had controlled for many years, starting from the time of the Junior Grand Secretary, and it had been more than thirty years since then.

The Ministry of Works officials changed batch after batch, and the downfall of the Yan family only affected the Yan family; it had no impact on the others in the government.

The people in the Ministry of Works all make their living from this.

Meanwhile, at the meeting place in the capital, an arms sales agreement was also reached between the Ming Dynasty and Anelia.

The 10,000 arquebuses were mainly manufactured and allocated from the capital, while the cannons were cast in Nanjing workshops and transferred to Songjiang Prefecture for handover.

In reality, the workshops in the capital city had no problem casting small batches of general cannons, but large-scale production was still difficult.

The key point is that the Ming Dynasty's Northern Army had a much greater need for firearms than the Southern Army.

The Southern Military Industry Department was the first to come into contact with artillery and also had the strongest capabilities in it.

The Tangshan Ironworks could guarantee the materials needed for arquebuses and breech-loading cannons, but for casting general cannons, the small ones were made of iron, while the large and medium-sized general cannons were actually made of bronze.

This is also why artillery is so expensive.

The price difference between iron and copper is simply too great.

This method of material selection is also used in Europe.

For small artillery, Europe mostly chose iron cannons.

If it is a small bronze cannon, it is usually an old firearm and definitely not cast in recent years.

However, while gunsmiths dared to use iron to cast large cannons, gunners dared not.

After Earl Robert and Zhang Ke signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments, the two sides exchanged the agreements, and the formal transaction was officially launched.

After the agreement was signed, the official from the Ministry of Rites reached into his collar and pulled out a pocket watch. He checked the time and smiled, saying, "It's already noon. The restaurant has prepared a sumptuous feast. Please, gentlemen, move to the dining room for your meal."

A pocket watch would have been an absolute rarity in the Ming Dynasty more than a decade ago.

However, with the lifting of the maritime ban by the Ming Dynasty, a large number of European products entered China, and at this time they were no longer rare in places like Guangzhou and Songjiang.

And in the capital, it naturally became popular very quickly.

Nowadays, in the Ming Dynasty, officials of even a slight rank often have one of their own.

Officials in the capital, especially those of lower rank, certainly couldn't afford it with their meager salaries.

However, they couldn't resist the power they held, so officials from the southern provinces would often bring a batch of imported goods as gifts when they came to the capital on business.

The result was that pocket watches, small and expensive items, became rampant in the officialdom of the capital.

Even in a relatively insignificant department like the Ministry of Rites, almost everyone held an official rank of fifth grade or higher.

Officials below the fifth rank who had even a little power also possessed at least one.

Of course, pocket watches were common in the Ming Dynasty, but clocks were not necessarily so.

Although pocket watches may seem more sophisticated, clocks could actually be made by the Imperial Workshop, but in smaller quantities and at a higher price.

In addition, there were floor mirrors, which in later generations would consider to have little technological sophistication, but in this era they were commodities that could fetch high prices in the Ming Dynasty.

Even the Persians couldn't make this; only countries along the Mediterranean coast could.

The British brought very little.

More importantly, large mirrors are difficult to transport, and 20-30% of them are often damaged during transport, which makes them extremely expensive.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty couldn't make this.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the mirror market in the Ming Dynasty was monopolized by imported products.

During this period, glass mirrors had a clear advantage over traditional bronze mirrors in every aspect.

Therefore, bronze mirrors from the Ming Dynasty were gradually shifting from being sold to wealthy households to being sold to ordinary households, as they could no longer fetch a high price.

It can only be said that the emergence of glass mirrors caused the market for Ming Dynasty brass mirrors to shrink suddenly.

Even with the craftsman's exquisite skills, the mirrors produced were finely polished to a clear reflection, and the backs were decorated with auspicious patterns such as lotus scrolls, dragons and phoenixes, Sanskrit, and the Eight Treasures, yet they still could not win the hearts of the noble.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had already undergone many changes imperceptibly.

Traditional handicrafts are also being impacted by imported Western goods; it's not just Ming Dynasty products that are sweeping the world.

"Master, we just received news that the arms deal has been signed at the meeting place, and they are having lunch there."

In the cabinet, Wei Guangde was also having lunch in his duty room. When he heard Lu Bu's report, he simply nodded slightly.

"There's another piece of news. I heard earlier that Eunuch Zhang went to the Ministry of War and retrieved a list of military officers."

Lu Bu said in a low voice.

This message came from the Ministry of War. Zhang Jing was ordered to directly transfer a batch of military officer files from the Military Selection Department.

"Understood. Tell them to do their jobs well."

"Whatever the Qianqing Palace wants, we'll give it to them."

Wei Guangde had actually anticipated this, so he spoke in a calm tone, revealing nothing about it.

The Ministry of War was planning military reforms, and Emperor Wanli could not possibly be as indifferent as he appeared.

At the very least, the Beijing Garrison should be established as a separate unit, and all officers in this unit, from top to bottom, will definitely be from the nobility faction.

Imperial power was maintained by the manpower of the meritorious nobles.

What they relied on was actually the Beijing Garrison.

The Ministry of War wanted to reform the military system, although it was only a minor change. The garrisons would still be the main force of the Ming Dynasty's official army, but the emperor was well aware of this.

From now on, the most important fighting force of the government army should be the newly formed eleven garrisons.

Yes, the Ministry of War would directly govern ten garrisons, and the Beijing Garrison would also be organized into a separate garrison, with the emperor directly appointing its commander.

This review of the Military Selection Office's archives likely indicates that a group of personnel will be selected for direct promotion and appointment by the emperor.

Wei Guangde had no intention of interfering with the Beijing Garrison becoming a self-contained force, unless he was tired of living.

Unless a great famine immediately occurs in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, causing people to rebel due to hunger and plunging the country into chaos.

The imperial court's authority remained supreme in the hearts of the people.

Moreover, Wei Guangde didn't actually want to cause those kinds of trouble.

In the end, it's all about the suffering of ordinary people.

As long as the emperor's appointments weren't outrageous, Wei Guangde would have the Ministry of War comply.

Even if the power to command troops were handed over to someone whom the Wanli Emperor trusted, the most important logistics for the army were still controlled by the Ministry of War.

The emperor could control the production and distribution of gunpowder, but the most important supplies, such as military pay and rations, were still under the jurisdiction of the military affairs commissioner.

These are actually the most important means of managing an army.

The Governor-General's Office had become virtually a shell, while the Ministry of War, which controlled the army's finances and provisions, wielded far more real power than the others.

After Lu Bu left, Wei Guangde also began to think about what he should do in the future.

In fact, what he really wanted to do was to emulate Britain and establish a constitutional monarchy.

A constitutional monarchy is a state system based on a constitution that retains the monarch as the head of state but limits his power.

This system is divided into two types: dualistic and parliamentary. In a dualistic system, the monarch can exercise veto power in parliament and appoint the cabinet, while in a parliamentary system, the monarch only performs ceremonial duties. (End of Chapter)