I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 524 Alchemy?
Everyone turned around and saw that the only son of Marquis Deping, the emperor's uncle, immediately bowed and said, "Young Marquis!"

"Everyone, I just heard this gentleman talking about Japan. I was curious and came over to listen. Excuse me."

"You are too polite, young Lord."

The man who was talking about Japan introduced himself: "Young Marquis, I am the chief manager of Fengshenglong Commercial Bank, Shen Jialiang."

"Hello, Mr. Shen."

Li Xuan knew that Fengshenglong was the number one grain merchant in the Ming Dynasty.

There are rumors that half of the military rations for the nine borders, especially two-thirds of the military rations for the border troops in Jilin, Liaoning and Luanhe, were supplied by Fengshenglong.

"Please tell me, Mr. Shen, what happened in Japan?"

"They are a bunch of bastards. We ignored them before, but the navy patrolled and bombarded them twice a year. We also blockaded them and cut off the sea routes. They cried and begged for peace with the Ming Dynasty.

Well, last year the emperor showed mercy and was willing to put aside his blood feud and negotiate peace with them. When their envoys returned, another evil wind blew. "

A shopkeeper asked, "What evil wind?"

Shen Jialiang said: "There is a group of people in Japan who think that negotiating peace with the Ming Dynasty is a loss of face and a humiliation for them. They say that they have the divine wind to protect their country, and the Mongols could not defeat them, let alone the Han people who were defeated by the Mongols."

One shopkeeper was unhappy: "Hey, I don't like to hear that! The Mongols were our defeated enemies!
Emperor Taizu drove the Tartars north and recovered China. We drove the Mongols to the northern desert. In the battle of Moyuerhai, the Northern Yuan Dynasty was directly defeated by the various Mongolian tribes. Now the emperor is powerful and has first destroyed the Chahar tribe, recovered the left wing of Mongolia, and is eyeing the right wing of Mongolia.

In a few years, the Mongols will become the minions of our Ming Dynasty. Why don't those shorty idiots in the East Japan accept this? How about we report to the emperor and ask him to mobilize the troops of the left and right wings of Mongolia and have the navy send them to the Japanese islands?

Didn't they shout that the kamikaze protected their country? Didn't they shout that the Mongols couldn't conquer them?
We will send the Mongols, let them conquer them, and let them fulfill their long-cherished wish!
We are actively donating to military expenses!"

"Great! Lao Zhou's suggestion is great! We will donate enthusiastically!"

The shopkeepers and employers around cheered in unison.

Li Xuan looked at the angry crowd and knew that most of these merchants from the southeast had a blood feud with the Japanese pirates.

When their emotions calmed down a little, Li Xuan continued to ask: "Mr. Shen, please continue."

Shen Jialiang said: "Okay, I will continue to tell the young marquis and everyone else.

These Eastern Japanese dwarfs jumped up and down, shouting to tear up the peace treaty. Some ran to the gates of the royal palace and the shogunate and committed seppuku, while others killed ministers and lords who agreed to negotiate peace on the way.

It is said that local Japanese lords were behind this, instigating and bribing some wandering samurai to cause trouble, and then inciting public opinion. Many Japanese samurai and small lords jumped out and said that they wanted to respect the king and suppress the Ming, and to restore the kingly way.

Anyway, he just doesn't want to negotiate peace with our Ming Dynasty."

"If you don't want to negotiate peace, then we'll have to deal with them. These bastards, I think, are so arrogant because we only used our navy to bombard them and didn't send a large army ashore. These dwarfs thought they were safe hiding on the shore!"

"Yes, we must deal with it. According to the news from the Honglu Temple, all peace talks with Japan have been terminated and we are back to war.

According to the news from the Right Military Governor's Office, the navy resumed its twice-a-year bombardment. It was said that the General Staff had formulated a new military strategy to strike deeper into Japan and completely destroy their economic lifeline.

I don’t really understand anything about war.”

"That's how it should be. Just wait and see. I think once the affairs with North Korea and Tumed are settled, the imperial court will be able to free up its hands to deal with those Japanese bastards."

"That should be the case. Anyway, they have an island hanging outside and can't run away. They can't escape if they want to come back to cause trouble to us. Even if a pot of rotten meat is rotten, it is rotten in our pot."

"By the way, Brother Shen, is your business with Japan affected?"

"We were not affected by anything! We occupied the ports of Hirado and Hakata, as well as Awaji Island outside of Kaiko. We had navy troops stationed there, as well as a marine battalion. We did business with Japanese merchants in these places. The Japanese merchants then did business with the lords of various places.

Japanese merchants take our ships to transport goods between various parts of Japan and our territory. While patrolling, the navy's armed merchant ships can also earn extra freight money! "

Everyone chuckled a few times.

Shen Jialiang continued, "After they tore up the peace treaty, we immediately raised the prices of all our goods, from half the price to three or four times the price. You can buy if you want or not."

One of the owners asked, "Manager Shen, our Ming goods are easy to sell in Japan, so what can they sell back to us? Can't we exchange them for the silver they dig out from the land?"
That’s too cheap for them.”

Shen Jialiang chuckled and said, "How can it be a bargain for them? Silver is valuable, but it's not enough to just have it. According to the instructions of the Shaofujian, there is a quota for doing business with Japan.

Only half of the money will be taken, and the rest can be exchanged for goods."

"What goods can Japan have?"

Shen Jialiang looked around and said softly, "The largest item of goods exported by Japan to us is rice. Half of the military rations for the Korean Eastern Expedition Army were purchased and shipped over from Japan.

We have received the latest instructions that we will have to increase the amount of purchases this year and next year. North Korea needs a lot of food to quell the rebellion and restore people's livelihood."

Li Xuan asked curiously, "Mr. Shen, I heard that although Japan produces rice, the output is not much, not enough for its own consumption. How can it export a large amount?"

"Young Marquis, you don't know. If they don't agree at first, then we have to find a way to make them agree. For example, there is a place in Guandong, a tiny place with seven or eight lords, and their strengths are similar.

Two lords were farsighted and refused to sell their food, storing it in their warehouses. Two other lords sold most of their food through Japanese merchants and exchanged it for our discarded weapons and armor.

Then they quickly attacked and destroyed the nearby lords. The two lords who stored grain were defeated, and all the grain in the warehouses was sold to others. "

Good man, those who stockpile weapons and armor don’t need to stockpile food, because other people’s homes are their granaries!

Shen Jialiang said: "This happened too often, and many lords had no choice but to sell most of their food to exchange for weapons. In the past two years, Japan has become increasingly chaotic and famine has become more and more serious."

One shopkeeper asked curiously, "Japanese swords are also very famous, why do they want to buy weapons from us? What if we sell our weapons to them and they use them to attack us in the future?"

Li Xuan took a quick glance and answered, "It is true that Japanese swords are well-forged and very sharp. But weapons are consumables, just like firewood.

Japanese swords are good, but they are very fragile. No matter how good a sword is, it will break after one or two battles on the battlefield. That’s why Japanese pirates like to carry several swords.

Moreover, the weapons and armor do not need to be very sophisticated, as long as they can last for one or two battles and kill people. The most important thing is to have a large quantity. In the past, the border troops were corrupt and always lost to the northern barbarians. Why? Just look at their previous weapons and armor and you will understand.

In the 41st year of Jiajing, the frontier troops were still using swords and spears from the Zhengde and Chenghua periods. The blades were sharpened back and forth, and the palm-width blades were sharpened to the width of a thumb.

How can we win a battle with such weapons and swords?"

"What the young marquis said makes a lot of sense. I have a relative who is a lieutenant general in the frontier army, and I have personal experience. In the past, if the frontier army wanted to replace their weapons and armor, they had to pay out silver to bribe the eunuchs and officials of the Military Equipment Bureau. You risk your life to guard the border for the court, but you still have to pay for the weapons and armor yourself. What do you think of this?

Now that coal and iron are flourishing in Luanzhou and Taiyuan, the weapons and armor forged are good and cheap, not to mention that you have to pay for them yourself. Six sets of swords and guns are made every year, and the scrapped ones are recycled.

If you don't use it up on time, it means you don't practice enough on a daily basis and you will be scolded.

You say, if the frontier troops are trained in this way and given adequate food and wages, not to mention the Mongols, even the heavenly soldiers and gods can cripple their legs."

Zhou Muxian, the shopkeeper of Lianshengxiang, was in his early 40s. He looked like an owl, with a pair of eyes that looked particularly shrewd. As soon as the other person finished speaking, he nodded repeatedly: "Ah, right, right!"

Shen Jialiang continued, "In addition to silver and grain, Japan also exported silk, candles, lacquer, sulfur and other goods to our Ming Dynasty, but the output was not high, and it was far behind the goods we exported.

So their other biggest export is women.”

"woman?"

"Yes. The Japanese lords broke into the castles of other lords, occupied the territory, and sold all the looted women, ranging from seven or eight years old to those in their twenties, to us through Japanese merchants.

According to a rough estimate, at least 50,000 Japanese women have entered our Ming Dynasty in the past few years."

"so much?"

"Yes. In the past two years, Korea has been in turmoil and Japan has been at war. Both are in dire straits. Then, Silla maids and East Japanese women have become popular in the southeast, and the price is extremely cheap. Every family that makes a little money wants to buy a Silla maid or East Japanese woman."

Everyone was amazed. Some people who had read books said, "Before that, Silla maids and Eastern Japanese women were popular during the Tang Dynasty. It seems that our Ming Dynasty has the potential to surpass the Han and Tang dynasties."

Zhou Muxian nodded repeatedly: "Ah, yes, yes, yes!"

Someone on the other side raised his voice and said, "Everyone, please gather here. We would like to ask Eunuch Yang to say a few words to everyone."

Shen Jialiang, Zhou Muxian and others' eyes lit up. Yang the God of Wealth had spoken. This meant they were going to make a fortune!

Suddenly, a group of people gathered around.

Yang Jinshui looked around at everyone, cleared his throat and said loudly: "You are all my friends, so I will speak frankly and openly.

Today we have gathered together to discuss the establishment of the Ming Federation of Industry and Commerce. This is a big deal, a big deal that concerns everyone's future. But it is only the first step."

"All of you who are enthusiastic about the Federation of Industry and Commerce, in addition to banding together for warmth, what you are most concerned about is actually preserving your current wealth and passing it on to future generations, right?"

There was a brief silence among the crowd, and Zhou Muxian spoke first: "Ah, right, right!"

Shen Jialiang and others followed suit, and everyone else also spoke in agreement.

"Then how can we keep our wealth?" Yang Jinshui asked with a smile, "We all came from the business world, and we have seen and heard a lot. We don't need to say anything about abiding by the law and serving the country."

Everyone chuckled.

"What can we do?"

Everyone couldn't help but look at Song Yingqing.

Yang Jinshui added fuel to the fire, "The Queen Mother sent an edict to the Imperial Household Department, saying that according to the rules, the father of the Imperial Concubine should be granted an official title. The Imperial Household Department asked for the Emperor's edict and he should be granted the title of Earl."

Everyone exclaimed in amazement, looking at each other with great joy and thoughtfulness.

"But how many Dukes of Song can there be? You can't send all your daughters and sisters to the palace, right? The emperor won't accept them!" Yang Jinshui's words poured cold water on everyone, "Then how can everyone keep their wealth and honor?"

Shen Jialiang said: "Learn from them!"

Yang Jinshui immediately asked: "Learn from them? From whom? How to learn?"

"The Jiangnan family should learn from them to help students and educate people, and cultivate more talents."

Everyone understood what Shen Jialiang said.

To put it in terms that people can understand, everyone learned from the Jiangnan families, set up academies, promoted famous scholars, and then cultivated batches of Jinshi and Juren who passed the imperial examinations, pushed them into official careers, formed a party, advanced and retreated together, and occupied half of the civil servants in the Ming Dynasty.

In the imperial court, there are officials of all ranks who are connected with each other, and in the martial arts world, there are famous scholars and great Confucian scholars who support them. That is why the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River have been able to maintain their wealth and prosperity for hundreds or even thousands of years, and they are not afraid even if the emperor changes.

"Shopkeeper Shen is right." Yang Jinshui added, "We are all business experts who know how to follow others. If you follow behind others, you can only get some leftovers at best."

His tone became meaningful. "They have been studying the Four Books and Five Classics, studying the classics of the sages, and passing them down from generation to generation for hundreds and thousands of years. Even if we want to learn from them, can we compete with them?"

Zhou Muxian immediately responded: "We definitely can't win. They have such a deep background, and we are just laymen. How can we fight?"

Shen Jialiang asked on behalf of the shopkeepers present: "Eunuch Yang, what do you think we should do?"

"You all made your first fortune by opening sea merchants during the Jiajing period. According to the emperor, you made your first pot of gold. But what did you rely on to make the industry flourish later?"

Everyone looked at each other, this was a bit too much.

Yang Jinshui saw what everyone was thinking and said with a smile, "We also know a lot, but we are talking about the most important and crucial things."

"The Emperor's favor!"

"Eunuch Yang's guidance."

"Talent!"

“The courage to take risks!”

"Located in the southeast, it is connected to the rivers and the sea."

There are different opinions.

Yang Jinshui then said, "Everyone, the most important thing is the alchemy that the emperor taught us!"

Alchemy?
What do you mean?
(End of this chapter)