Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 292: British and French orphans, five-corner trade!
Chen Yiqin took the letter and found the eight elders, all of whom were silent.

The reason why the Chen Family Nautical Atlas appeared in front of people is simple. The elders have been elders for many years, and most of the "humanities" books were read when they were young or just became elders.

As time went by, the Chen family had long forgotten about this matter, and even more so about the romantic affairs of their ancestors.

Therefore, when the message was sent back to the family, asking the elders of the remaining clan to retrieve the treasure ship map and the navigation chart, there was no extra instruction and these contents were taken out.

The elders who stayed behind in the tribe were serious people, so they must have never seen these atlases and pictures. It was a collective decision of the clan leader and elders to let the tribe members move them out directly without reviewing them. In this way, they were presented directly to Yuxi Palace and used by "interested people".

No one spoke, but Chen Ping, the elder of the Chen family, had to speak up. He said, "We, as descendants, cannot comment on the mistakes of our ancestors, but we cannot tolerate someone deliberately throwing ink on the face of our Chen family. Our Chen family is destined to be the number one family in the Ming Dynasty, and our reputation must not be damaged!"

Every word is sonorous.

Becoming a prominent family is the common ideal of all Chen clan members. To this end, the Chen family has struggled for forty generations, a total of seven hundred years.

In times of peace, he served the people without shying away from hardship. In times of chaos, he sold his ancestral property to make a living. In times of poverty, he could only eat abalone and bird's nests.

The Chen family has lived like this for forty generations, seven hundred years in total. The elders of the family all shed tears when they think about it.

The one who exposed the dark history of the Chen family in front of the emperor was Chen Yiqin's peer and old friend. Chen Yiqin felt very ashamed and said, "I will write back to rebuke Zishi and ask for the ancestral atlas back..."

Before Chen Yiqin finished speaking, the elder of the clan waved his hand righteously. Chen Ping said, "Xiao Yifu, I have said so much about the past, the future and the future of my Chen family, not for that little bit of empty reputation."

"Huh?" Chen Yiqin stood there in a daze.

Seeing that the clan leader still didn't understand, Chen Ping said angrily, "You have to pay more!"

"Ah?" Chen Yiqin was completely confused.

"For aristocratic families, reputation is more important than anything else. As the saying goes, calligraphy and paintings have a price, but reputation is priceless."

Chen Ping was very excited and said fiercely: "Let all the civil and military officials in the court write a piece of calligraphy and send it to my Chen family. In the cabinet, each person should write two pieces!"

There are many honest and upright ministers in the current court. Not all of them will be famous throughout the ages, but at least five or six out of ten are.

The "Eight Arts" include 'music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, flowers and tea'. Although he may not have much knowledge of music, chess, painting, poetry, flowers and tea, or be very good at them, as for 'calligraphy', all of them are absolutely of top quality.

As the Chinese saying goes, one can tell a person’s character by his handwriting. All the officials had worked very hard for the imperial examinations. After entering officialdom, they had to deal with countless government affairs every day. Not only would their handwriting not fall behind, but it would improve day by day.

There are at least three thousand officials in the imperial court. If they were left for hundreds or even thousands of years, even Chen Ping would not be able to calculate how much they would be worth.

The cabinet is a "key place", and Chen Ping, the elder of the Chen family, was even more rude. He asked for a huge sum of money, and each person wanted two pieces of calligraphy.

The only regret is that the former chief minister of the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng, returned to his hometown to end his career. Otherwise, the two generations of cabinets, Zhang Juzheng’s cabinet and Gao Gong’s cabinet, were all written by the Chen family. How much more blessed would the Chen family be?

However, years ago in the capital, the Chen family's Jianzhen handed down the imperial seal and "knocked" ten words on Zhang Juzheng, which could barely be considered as such.

For the officials of a country, eternal peace is what they wish for.

For the elders of a family, long-lasting health and happiness is what they wish for.

This generation of the Chen family wants to earn a living of great happiness!
If you sell one piece of calligraphy a year, you can sell it forever!
"what?"

This sound.

From the brothers Chen Yubei and Chen Yujie who came in a hurry.

They never imagined that the respected elders of the clan would exchange the family reputation for money.

It's really, insulting...

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

The six and seven elders of the Chen family looked at the young man's broken state of mind and slapped him twice in tacit understanding. The six elders said, "What?

If the family didn't do this, you two bastards would have starved to death long ago."

Forty generations of wealth.

Seven hundred years of peace and happiness.

Don't even think about how the family did it.

"Great clan elder, no one in the clan is advocating for Jin Yuan..." Chen Yubi asked, feeling a sudden chill in his heart.

Before he could finish his words, he was slapped on the head again. The Sixth Elder of the Chen Family was obviously a hot-tempered person. He cursed: "Little bastard, even if my Chen Family is so poor that we can only eat abalone and bird's nest, we will never serve as dogs for the barbarians."

"Cough cough."

Chen Ping coughed to remind the six elders to be careful with their words. It was true that during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the Chen family was indeed at its poorest. They could only eat abalone and bird's nests every day, but they never begged for mercy from the Jin Yuan. However, they could be more tactful in their words.

The six elders of the clan curled their lips, very dissatisfied with the trend of sweet words everywhere in the clan, and slapped Chen Yujie on the head again.

Chen Yujie covered his head, completely unaware of the reason for the slap. The six clan elders then uttered two words, "fairness".

Brothers share hardships, and two slaps from each of them are neither too much nor too little.

The corner of Chen Yiqin's mouth twitched slightly. Since he was a child, he felt that there was something wrong with the family atmosphere. They were neither old nor young. The old could act young and the young could pretend to be old. There was no proper manner in it.

This made him, a typical good boy, hardworking, diligent, honest and kind, always out of place.

Chen Ping looked at Chen Yiqin, spread his hands, and said, "It's just asking for a living, I'm not afraid."

The Chen family’s countless treasures give them the right to interpret many things.

Just as "to quote out of context" is an excerpt from "not to quote out of context", the Chen family used the letters of sages and ancient books of their ancestors to "vindicate" many people and events.

But it definitely does not include selling out one's country for personal gain or justifying the reputation of barbarians. When Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, wanted to change the name of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, to "the descendant of Liu Bang" and made a great promise to the Chen family, but the Chen family did not agree.

Now, it is the imperial court that wants to give the Chen family a "mixed-blood child". The Chen family has a complete set of methods to make the fake look real and can help the imperial court handle all matters.

The asking price is over 3,000 yuan for a piece of calligraphy, which is indeed a high price, but it is not a small price.

Chen Yiqin was speechless for a long time before saying, "I will write back to the court and discuss it with the cabinet?"

Since it involves the six ministries and nine departments of the cabinet, Chen Yiqin doesn't know whether it can be accomplished.

The elders of the Chen family nodded one after another. Chen Yiqin returned to the court with a handwritten letter.

The cabinet was speechless at the request of the Chen family, who did not want money or food, but only wanted each minister to write a piece of calligraphy.

There were so many people involved that Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang were unable to make a decision, so they reported to the Yuxi Palace.

The imperial approval was written in red ink, with the words "approved".

In the shape of a book, this is a gift of words.

In addition to the three thousand civil and military officials, the emperor bestowed an imperial edict, which was a pure surprise. The Chen family was overjoyed. The elderly patriarch of the Chen family, Chen Ping, decided to personally handle the matter of "English and French orphans".

at the same time.

The Portuguese Governor-General's Office in India finally responded to the massacre of all Portuguese people on the Wangxia Peninsula and sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Geng, the governor of Guangdong, accepted the letter of credence from the Portuguese delegation on behalf of the imperial court. Despite the protest of the Portuguese delegation, he insisted on inspecting the Portuguese delegation's ship. Only after no dangerous items were found did he allow the Portuguese delegation to go north.

After passing Dagukou, they landed in Tianjin and entered the capital. The Portuguese delegation was housed in the Siyi Hall. The first thing they did after settling down was to protest against the Ming Dynasty's massacre of Portuguese merchants in the Wangxia Peninsula.

But unfortunately, the Ming court, which had maintained unbroken victories in four major wars, paid no attention to such verbal protests.

After being left out for three days, the Portuguese delegation gradually came to their senses, regained their composure, and formally proposed to the Ming court that they wish to meet the most honorable emperor in the East, but were rejected.

In the half century since becoming the maritime hegemon, the Portuguese delegation had never suffered such humiliation and neglect.

But the West also has its own definitions of "truth" and "dignity". If the army fails, the envoys will never be able to regain their position at the negotiating table.

The Portuguese delegation had no choice but to swallow their anger and report the true purpose of their mission to the Ming court.

Trade!

War, it is impossible to continue the war.

The four naval battles had already made Portugal realize the reality that the Ming Dynasty could not be offended at will.

The Ming Dynasty was not a weak country like India and Diu, which could use force to colonize and then plunder all the manpower, material resources and resources in the colonies.

However, Portugal had always coveted the prosperity of the Eastern world and was eager to gain wealth from it. Since military action was not an option, the only option was trade.

The cabinet soon saw the six-point trade request drafted by Portugal:

1. Please allow Portugal to send an ambassador to the capital to oversee Portuguese merchants' trade with Ming.

2. Please open the ports of Ningbo, Zhushan (i.e. Zhoushan Islands), Tianjin, Guangdong, etc., and allow Portuguese merchant ships to dock and trade.

3. Please allow Portuguese merchants to set up trading companies in the capital to collect and store commercial goods.

4. Please approve Portuguese merchants to rent a small island in Zhoushan to live and store goods.

5. Please allow a place to be selected near Guangzhou City as the residence of Portuguese merchants, and allow Portuguese merchants in the residence to enter and leave Ming Dynasty freely.

6. Please allow Portuguese merchant ships to pass through the inland rivers of the Ming Dynasty, including the Grand Canal, and reduce or exempt tariffs.

After seeing Portugal's six requests for trade, Gao Gong, the chief minister of the cabinet, even thought that the translator had made a mistake. After asking, he learned that these were written by the translator carried by the Portuguese delegation and there could be no mistake.

Gao Gong was silent.

If he only looked at these six trade requests, he would have thought that the defeated country in the four naval battles was the Ming Dynasty and that the Portuguese had invaded the capital.

If he agreed to such a humiliating trade request, he would be denounced as a traitor for generations to come, and the Gao family's descendants would never be able to hold their heads up.

Just like Qin Hui's Qin family, his Gao family will be like that too.

Opening ports, allowing leasing, free trade, and reducing tariffs, let alone Portugal's unilateral request to the Ming Dynasty, even if Portugal and its colonies allowed the Ming Dynasty to do so, the Ming court would not agree.

The Ming Dynasty was rich in resources. It did not have everything, but it was definitely not comparable to the small foreign countries.

Even if we take a step back, the Portuguese had what the Ming Dynasty did not have, and the Ming Dynasty could also get what it needed through its own strength.

How dare you talk about business when you are a defeated general?
Seeing such a request, Gao Gong couldn't help but look at it a little more, fearing that it would reveal Portugal's goodwill towards the Ming Dynasty.

But after flipping through the book several times, Gao Gong saw Portugal's trade plan.

In short, it was a five-corner trade: Portugal - India - Europe - Africa - Ming Dynasty.

"Opium" is a high-value crop grown by Portugal in its colony of India. Although it could no longer be sold to the Ming Dynasty, Portugal did not intend to give up. It planned to ship it back to continental Europe for sale. After getting the money, it would hire people to capture Kunlun slaves in Africa and sell them to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for tea, silk, porcelain and other items that would be shipped back to Portugal and Europe for sale.

Each link makes huge profits.

Just as Gao Gong thought, there were no items in Portugal that could impress the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty had many items that attracted Portugal, Europe, and especially the nobles.

Portugal had no choice but to find another way. If items couldn’t impress people, then what about the most primitive slaves?

Obviously, there were people in the Portuguese delegation who were familiar with Eastern history. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Arab merchants sold Kunlun slaves captured in East Africa to the East.

One of the reasons for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was its tolerance of all. These Kunlun slaves, who were "strong and healthy, able to carry hundreds of pounds... as black as ink, with red lips and white teeth, and curly yellow hair", were very popular among the nobles and wealthy families of the Tang Dynasty.

However, in order to prevent the Kunlun slaves from reproducing in the Tang Dynasty and affecting their business, Arab merchants would castrate the Kunlun slaves when selling them, which prevented the Kunlun slaves from spreading across the eastern part of the world.

The Portuguese delegation assured that they would be able to do what the Arab merchants could do, and they would also be able to do what the Arab merchants could not do. If the trade went smoothly, Portugal would be able to bring even those white-skinned slaves to the Ming Dynasty.

Portugal planted opium in India and sold it to Europe, captured Kunlun slaves in Africa and sold them to the Ming Dynasty, and then shipped the Ming Dynasty's tea, silk and porcelain back to Portugal.

Portugal, India and Europe form a triangular trade, Portugal, Africa and the Ming Dynasty form another triangular trade, and the two triangular trades merge into a pentagonal trade. This is Portugal's trade concept.

However, the Portuguese delegation overlooked one thing, that is, many high-ranking officials and nobles in the East hated "ghost slaves". Although Gao Gong had never seen ghost slaves with his own eyes, he had seen them in books and had an almost instinctive aversion to them.

The "items" that Portugal was proud of were exactly what Gao Gong hated. Coupled with the humiliating trade request, Gao Gong believed that the various actions of the Portuguese delegation were undoubtedly a provocation to the Ming Dynasty.

Gao Gong, who had been very opposed to the wastefulness of war, believed for the first time that war was necessary and appropriate waste was acceptable at certain times.

It is ridiculous and shameful to allow such a country to become the overlord of the sea.

Gao Gong handed the Portuguese trade request to Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang to read, and picked up the wolf-hair brush on the table, "Please report to His Majesty that Portugal has declared war!"

(End of this chapter)