My father is Jiajing

Chapter 460 Suddenly I heard there was a fairy mountain on the sea

Xiyuan.

After three years of construction, the new Wanshou Palace was finally rebuilt.

The mood of Emperor Jiajing suddenly became much brighter. In the evening, when the palace lanterns were just being lit, Emperor Jiajing changed into a black Taoist robe and a sable cloak with gold thread outlines. He quietly walked alone with Huang Jin on the garden path outside the Wanshou Palace, admiring the new palace that Yan Shifan had spent nearly three million taels to rebuild.

This rebuilt Wanshou Palace is even more magnificent and majestic than the original one. The main pillars are thousand-year-old giant trees cut down from the deep mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou. It took two years to transport them from Yunnan and Guizhou to the capital, which was extremely difficult.

"Yan Shifan is thoughtful."

Emperor Jiajing looked at the new Wanshou Palace, which was even more magnificent than the original one, and did not hesitate to praise Yan Shifan. It can be seen that Yan Shifan's work really caught Emperor Jiajing's eyes this time.

Huang Jin also followed Emperor Jiajing, carefully holding a lantern for him to light the way.

Huang Jin smiled and replied, "This is the filial piety that Yan Shifan should show. The emperor has lived in Yuxi Palace for several years, and he always does a good thing for the emperor."

Emperor Jiajing laughed, "That's true. Thinking about it carefully, it seems that he has done this well in the past few years. What has Yan Maoqing, who he ordered around, been doing during this period?"

Huang Jin said: "Yan Maoqing is now the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Justice. He has been running to Prince Jing's house recently and seems very attentive."

Emperor Jiajing chuckled and said, "He has nothing to do?"

In fact, Emperor Jiajing had already known about Yan Maoqing's trip to Prince Jing's Mansion, and he had tacitly condoned it. However, when he heard Huang Jin say again that Yan Maoqing was still persisting, he felt a little unhappy.

After all, Yan Maoqing is now a third-rank official in the imperial court. He has nothing to do all day long and is only thinking about scheming and opportunism. It is still disgusting.

You must know that since Yan Maoqing's ability in the salt administration became prominent, Emperor Jiajing also developed a certain love for him, so he promoted him to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, hoping that he would be able to clearly understand who gave him his position.

As a result, Yan Maoqing seemed to have misunderstood the Emperor Jiajing's intention, thinking that everything he had now was given by Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan. Moreover, this time he even degenerated himself to the point of being Yan Shifan's stepping stone, and kept trying to pry open Prince Jing's door every day. Isn't this just seeking death?
Huang Jin also heard the dissatisfaction of Emperor Jiajing, but he had no feelings for Yan Maoqing, so when Emperor Jiajing talked about Yan Maoqing, Huang Jin spoke the truth with great language skills.

Huang Jin said: "Recently, Yan Maoqing has been going to Prince Jing's house more frequently. He has also been urging the East Factory to hand over a prisoner who is under the special care of Prince Yu as soon as possible."

When Emperor Jiajing heard this, he immediately became interested.

Emperor Jiajing asked, "What kind of criminal could deserve San'er's special attention?"

Huang Jin said, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? It was the great pirate Wang Zhi who declared himself king on the sea. Didn't you specifically instruct Prince Yu to handle this case personally?"

When Emperor Jiajing heard Huang Jin's words, he immediately remembered what Huang Jin had said.

Emperor Jiajing said, "I remember now. It's Wang Zhi that Hu Zongxian granted amnesty to. How come he has become a criminal again?"

Huang Jin said: "I heard that Wang Zhi had been persuaded by Hu Zongxian to go ashore and surrender and accept the imperial edict. But his luck was not good. When he went to Hangzhou to visit Wang Bengu, he was lured and captured by Wang Bengu."

"Moreover, Wang Bengu listed Wang Zhi's crimes and tried to deny Wang Zhi's surrender. But after Prince Yu learned about this, he thought there might be other hidden secrets, so he asked Hu Zongxian to personally escort Wang Zhi to the imperial prison for interrogation."

"Now Wang Zhi is in prison, and the Ministry of Justice is not happy about it. They send people to Chen Hong every day to try to get Wang Zhi taken away. But Chen Hong can't make the decision on this matter, so the situation is at a stalemate."

After hearing Huang Jin's words, Emperor Jiajing also said "oh", and then asked: "Do you know the secret that San'er thought of?"

Huang Jin replied, "Prince Yu told me once that it was because of the smuggling interests at sea. Prince Yu said that Wang Zhi's previous location at sea was Shuangyu Port off the coast of Ningbo, which controlled the trade between dozens of foreign countries and small nations overseas, and also monopolized the red-haired foreign business from the West, generating millions of dollars in profits each year."

"So Prince Yu thought that those people wanted Wang Zhi dead just to divide up the huge profits at sea again. That's why Prince Yu put him in the imperial prison and will make a decision after verifying the real intelligence at sea."

When Emperor Jiajing heard that there were millions of profits a year at sea, he turned around and looked at Huang Jin in surprise. You know, the Guangzhou Maritime Customs is the only Maritime Customs office in the Ming Dynasty that is open to the outside world, and the customs tax they pay a year is only tens of thousands of taels, sometimes not even a penny.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing never had an accurate understanding of maritime interests, and like previous emperors, he ignored matters at sea. Even though he always wanted to compare himself to Emperor Chengzu, he had never had any interest in Zheng He's voyages to the West during the Yongle period.

After all, these materials and documents are hundreds of years old. Apart from those fragmentary records of the tributes from various nations and the auspicious signs, spices and fragrant woods that Zheng He brought back from overseas, there seems to be nothing special about them.

But now Huang Jin actually said that Wang Zhi monopolized the huge profitable business at sea with millions of taels of silver a year. At this moment, Emperor Jiajing's eyes also changed.

Emperor Jiajing asked, "Is there really such huge profit on the sea?"

Huang Jin was not sure. What he said was what Zhu Zaigui told him. So at this time, Huang Jin was a little unsure and said, "It should be possible. Otherwise, why would those red-haired foreigners travel thousands of miles and drift on the sea for several years to come to our Ming Dynasty to do business?"

"And I also heard from Prince Yu that those red-haired foreigners seem to have discovered an unowned land on the sea that is several times larger than our Ming Dynasty. The silver and gold they spend on Ming Dynasty are all dug from there. I felt incredible when I heard that. Could it be that those red-haired foreigners discovered a fairyland overseas?"

Emperor Jiajing was already very interested in the huge profits of millions, and then he heard Huang Jin say that the red-haired foreigners had actually discovered an unowned land on the sea that was several times larger than the territory of the Ming Dynasty and was rich in gold and silver. Isn't this an overseas fairyland?
You have to know that Emperor Jiajing spent his entire life cultivating immortality just for those illusory legends about gods and immortals, right?
Now he heard that someone had actually discovered an unowned land overseas that was rich in gold and silver. In the eyes of Emperor Jiajing, wasn't that the legendary Taoist temple of immortals?
Emperor Jiajing was immediately excited. He quickly said, "You need to confirm this with San'er. If it is true, then Wang Zhi can be kept."

"When the time comes, I might as well reward Wang Zhi with a mission to the West, and let him follow those red-haired foreigners to find that unowned overseas land! If he can really find it, then I will not be stingy with any reward!"

It is obvious that Emperor Jiajing's thinking process was very strange at this moment. He cared about the term "overseas fairy mountain" far more than "huge profits of millions"!
After the excitement, Emperor Jiajing felt better when looking at the newly built Wanshou Palace.

Emperor Jiajing said to Huang Jin again: "Tomorrow you will send an order to the cabinet, asking them to gather all the officials in the capital to write a congratulatory letter for me to move to my new home. Remember, no one can be left out!"

Huang Jin quickly replied, "Yes, I will obey your order." After accompanying Emperor Jiajing for a walk outside the Wanshou Palace, Emperor Jiajing finally felt a little tired and couldn't help wanting to go back and rest.

The next day, Huang Jinxian went to the cabinet to announce the good news that Emperor Jiajing was moving to a new home, and asked the cabinet to notify all officials in the capital to prepare congratulatory messages to celebrate Emperor Jiajing's move.

Then Huang Jin went to Prince Yu's mansion again.

Zhu Zaigui was happy when he saw the eunuch who came to his house every now and then. After all, the relationship between the two of them had been very harmonious over the years.

Moreover, during the Battle of the Capital, they were comrades-in-arms who fought together, so this kind of friendship is also very important.

"My servant pays homage to the prince."

When Huang Jin saw Zhu Zaigui, he bowed with a smile.

Zhu Zaigui also replied cheerfully: "Please take a seat, sir. This is Pu'er tea brought over by the caravan from Yunnan. It is rarely seen in the capital!"

Huang Jin was slightly surprised when he heard the name of Pu'er tea. With the establishment of the Ming Federal Reserve and the emergence of banks in various places in recent years, many local gadgets that were never seen before began to appear in the capital.

For example, the Fujian mangoes that were popular a few years ago came into being in this way. It is said that the caravan that sent the mangoes to the capital was supported by the Fujian Mazu Bank.

When Zhu Zaigui first heard that the new bank jointly established in Fujian was called "Mazu Bank", he was stunned for a few seconds.

Although Zhu Zaigui was not a Fujian native in his past or present life, he had heard some of the legend of Mazu.

Later, Zhu Zaigui learned more about it and found out that this new bank founded by Fujianese was actually jointly founded by several local big businessmen in Fujian.

After knowing this background, Zhu Zaigui seemed to suddenly understand something.

Although the Ming Dynasty had always implemented a maritime ban policy, its constraints on remote places such as Fujian and Guangdong were still very small.

Anyone with a bit of ability there likes to sail out to sea to do business, so the people there believe in Mazu very much and think that Mazu can bless them with all their safety.

Therefore, it seems reasonable that they named the new bank "Mazu Bank". After all, the belief in Mazu is deeply rooted in the people there. With the name of Mazu, who would worry about problems with their money deposited in Mazu Bank?

Therefore, after only a few years of development, Fujian's Mazu Bank broke through the barriers of Fujian and not only opened branches in neighboring Zhejiang and Guangdong, but also had its branch headquarters in the capital.

Now many officials from Fujian are surprisingly united and even ask the Ministry of Personnel to pay the salaries of officials from Fujian to them through Mazu Bank.

However, the Ministry of Personnel certainly did not agree to such a ridiculous request, and even mocked them for making more demands even though their salaries were paid on time.

You have to know that before the emergence of the Ming Federal Reserve, the imperial court was so poor that it could hardly make ends meet, especially for the officials in Beijing. It was common for their salaries to be in arrears for three months or half a year.

Now that the imperial treasury is slightly fuller and salaries are paid on time, these people are still doing such evil things? How can the Ministry of Personnel control them?
You know, if we agree to the demands of these Fujianese, officials from other provinces will do the same in the future, and that will cause chaos.
So no matter how much these Fujianese worship Mazu, their salaries can only be paid by the Ming Bank. As for where to deposit them after payment, that is their freedom.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I have heard of Pu'er tea, but I have never tasted it. This time I am in for a treat."

Huang Jin thanked Zhu Zaigui, then lifted up the teacup and took a sip of the red Pu'er tea. He then praised, "Good tea, good tea!"

Zhu Zaigui chuckled, "If you like it, take a few pieces back to help me honor His Majesty, and keep some for yourself."

Huang Jin said: "How can this be so embarrassing? Your Majesty should just show respect to the Emperor, and there is no need to reward me."

Zhu Zaigui said, "How can this be possible? You have served His Majesty with great hard work and merit. I have nothing else to offer you except these little things. Please do not refuse."

Huang Jin said: "That's fine, then I would like to thank the prince for his grace."

After Zhu Zaigui accompanied Huang Jin to drink a cup of Pu'er tea, Huang Jin also talked about business.

Huang Jin said, "Your Majesty, the Emperor is interested in overseas affairs. He wants me to ask you, Your Majesty, have the red-haired barbarians really discovered the unowned land overseas?"

Zhu Zaigui certainly knew more about the so-called overseas unowned territories than anyone else. However, in this era, even if Zhu Zaigui knew where the land was, he could not say it directly. He could only attribute it to the Europeans who were in the Age of Exploration.

Zhu Zaigui said: "This matter has yet to be confirmed, but I feel it is almost certain. You should know that whether it was the Tang and Song Dynasties or the Yuan Dynasty, or Zheng He's voyages during the Chengzu period, the news they learned was that overseas was barren, and only the land of China was the essence of heaven and earth."

"But according to Wang Zhi's confession and the information feedback from the red-haired barbarians in Fujian and Macau, I have realized that these red-haired barbarians are richer than in the previous dynasty. The gold and silver in their hands are like an endless gold mountain."

"So the clues that I have pieced together from various sources of information show that these red-haired foreigners may have made a fortune somewhere overseas and obtained a huge amount of gold and silver. Moreover, from the information they sent and received, we can also judge that their gold and silver are definitely not produced in their hometown."

"Therefore, I have concluded that these red-haired foreigners may have really had great luck and discovered the legendary overseas fairy mountain! And this Wang Zhi also has some skills and abilities at sea. If we can tame him, maybe we can use him as the second Zheng He!"

Zhu Zaigui was also a braggart who was not easily paid. He simply exaggerated places that had never been seen overseas as fairy mountains in order to seduce Emperor Jiajing's desire to cultivate immortality and let him do what Emperor Taizong did and sail to the West!

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(End of this chapter)