Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 648 Xia Mincan
Li Shimin sometimes felt very poor.

Why could Zhinu's offering of sacrifices to the gods at Mount Tai cause the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people, and why should he waste money on the country and compete with the people for profits to make up for the deficit?

On the other hand, although Emperor Zhenzong of Song was criticized by later generations, the money he spent on his embarrassing trip to Mount Tai came from his private treasury.

Thinking back further, Jiaozi was first tried out in Sichuan by Empress Liu E after the death of Emperor Zhenzong of Song.

So in other words, during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the emperor was first driven to the capital and forced to sign a peace treaty, then he was given annual tribute, and then he performed Fengshan, and even with all this, he still didn't hurt the country's finances...

In comparison, it can be seen from later records that the financial problem of the Tang Dynasty had already begun to emerge when it was recruiting soldiers for the conquest of Goguryeo.

In the end, Chi Nu Shi's army collapsed and his undefeated record was shattered. After discussing with the prime ministers, he came to a conclusion:
To put it bluntly, without rewarding soldiers for their merits and without rewarding them with money, there will be no soldiers willing to fight to the death.

Therefore, the previous review and the discussions among the prime ministers in the past six months have mostly revolved around the financial system, and Li Shimin has also paid much attention to it.

At this moment, listening to the later generations listing the products of the Japanese island in an orderly manner, and trying to calculate in my mind how many years of tax revenue this would equate to, after failing, I couldn't help but sigh:
"This is truly an island made of gold and silver."

Fang Xuanling was a steady person by nature, and was a little hesitant when he heard His Majesty's order:
"I still don't know how the battle will go after Duke Cao leads his army into Japan, and the law regarding gold, silver and financial taxes has not yet been perfected..."

Before he could finish his words, Wei Zheng jumped out and fiercely objected:
"We, the Tang Dynasty, were here to comfort the people and punish the criminals, to eliminate the treacherous officials of the Japanese court, to punish the great thieves who bullied the Japanese, and to speak up for the Silla Kingdom. How could we be defeated?"

Du Ruhui was surprised. He did not expect that Secretary Wei, who was used to opposing His Majesty, would stand on His Majesty's side. However, what Wei Zheng said was not wrong, so he agreed immediately:

"Look at the comments on the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty in later generations, which repeatedly mentioned the importance of the right to mint coins; if you want to mint coins, it is always right to hoard more gold and silver."

This is the truth. Think about Emperor Wu of Han. If he had such a mountain of gold in his hands, why would he use the White Deer Coin to make money and be criticized?

Moreover, considering the long sea distance from Japan to Shandong, everything needed to be planned in advance, so Fang Xuanling nodded in agreement, but also smiled and sighed:
“No wonder later generations are so obsessed with territory.”

"As we see Japan as a narrow and mountainous country, who could have imagined that there is an island made of gold and silver?"

"It's just like the island in the South Sea, which is full of poisonous insects, but no one would have thought that the vast island was made of iron ore."

"Compared with them, the resources of our ancient land of China are so meagre."

Fang Xuanling's tone was relaxed and he was obviously joking, but think about what later generations said about making glass requiring products from salt lakes, all of which are in Central and West Asia; Treasure Island is in Japan; Champa rice is in Jiaozhou; there is iron ore in Juedao; volcanic ash in Zhuya, and so on.

Not to mention America, which cannot be seen on the map. It is said that the corn and potatoes there are even more effective tools for the people.

Li Shimin laughed:
“The world is vast, so why fear the long road of exploration?”

"We will do our best, just to wish the people of Xia a prosperous thousand years."

……

In the Kunning Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang had not yet recovered from the words "the end of the Ming Dynasty" before he was quickly knocked down by those simple numbers.

Before today, he was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the commander-in-chief who drove out the Mongols and marched north to destroy the Yuan Dynasty, the only person in history who rose from a humble background to become the supreme ruler, and the person who successfully restored China a hundred years after the Hu rule.

Looking forward, although we can see the end of the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, we cannot help but desire a foundation that will last forever.

But now, the country has only been founded for thirteen years, and today is its birthday, but I learn here that the Ming Dynasty also perished after hundreds of years, no different from the Han and Tang dynasties.

It’s just like when I was a teenager and entered Huangjue Temple, I thought my life was finally settled and I didn’t have to endure hunger anymore.

As a result, he was still imagining how to be grateful to Buddha for his lifelong practice of Buddhism, but the old abbot suddenly locked the door of the temple and told everyone that they could no longer rely on Buddha for food and that it was time to go out into the world and gain experience.

So since I heard the news, I could only comfort myself in my heart that what the screen said might not be true.

On the other hand, I persuaded myself from another perspective: The rise and fall of a country depends on who can take over.
But even so, as soon as I think of the name Nurhaci and what Huanhou told me, another nagging thought becomes hard to suppress: It's a new dynasty, so why has it to be the barbarians again?

It would be fine if it happened within a hundred years, but what is before us now is whether Japan is really so prosperous?

"This young man said that the 40,000 taels of Ming Dynasty gold is one and a half tons, so the gold produced in the Japanese Gold Island must be..."

While Emperor Ming was still pondering the numbers on the paper, Empress Ma breathed a sigh of relief and said:
"There are about two million taels of gold. If the ton mentioned is equal to gold and silver, then the silver is more than 62 million taels."

"And the young man's implication is that Japan seems to have three silver mountains."

What does two million taels of gold mean? The Ming emperor would still convert it, according to what he decided in the edict of the eighth year...

One thousand wen equals one liang of silver, and four guan equals one liang of gold, so...

Queen Ma said slowly and with a smile in her voice:

"The gold is worth 8 million strings of cash, and the silver is worth 248 million strings of cash."

"We can count!"

Ming Tianzi, who was almost done with the calculation, suddenly felt a little unhappy.

I was immediately shocked by this number:
"Twenty-five million strings of cash... Now, the total amount of our Ming Dynasty's treasury and tax revenue is probably only one-tenth or two-tenths of this mountain of gold."

"This country of Japan... is obviously rich in gold. They could have waited for sea merchants to pass through and trade gold and silver. But why did they turn into bandits and plunder the coast of our Ming Dynasty?"

It was not that the Emperor of Ming Dynasty could not understand. After all, when the world was in chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he personally traveled to various places in Henan and Huaixi, and saw countless bandits.

Although many of them were forced into desperation by the Hu Yuan and became bandits, there were also many who relied on their large numbers to commit crimes and loot.

And the uncivilized Japan undoubtedly belongs to the latter.

Therefore, an idea almost naturally popped up in Emperor Ming's mind:
Since one of the golden islands is equivalent to the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty for ten years, if it can be adopted by the Ming Dynasty...

However, this idea can only remain in my mind for now.

Let’s not talk about the fact that the Northern Yuan Dynasty has not been destroyed and the remaining Hu people in Yunnan have not been eliminated.

The fact that Hu Yuan was defeated in his expedition against Japan was enough to serve as a warning to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Moreover, he had vaguely heard that there was a great chaos on the Japanese island, with the North and the South confronting each other and fighting endlessly. This was probably because we had heard little about the Japanese pirates in recent years - they couldn't even defeat them on their own island.

Therefore, what attitude to take towards the Japanese island is something that needs to be considered. If one fails to do so and allows the Japanese to quarrel within the wall while defending against the Ming Dynasty from outside, it would be a case of self-defeating.

But... Zhu Yuanzhang felt like a stone had fallen from his heart.

Since Japan is so prosperous, there is a lot of room for maneuver in terms of strategy.

In this way, even though he was busy pacifying the desert in the north and pacifying Yunnan in the Hongwu period, he had no time to take care of other things.

But when Emperor Yongle takes over, I believe that the Japanese islands can be pacified, and the gold and silver can create a prosperous era that far surpasses the Kaiyuan period.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang also boasted happily:
"We did nothing wrong in not accepting tribute from the Japanese!"

(End of this chapter)