The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Yun Ji presented his and Min Xi's memorials and travel notes: "Your Majesty, this is the memorial submitted by Lord Min and I during our mission to Southeast Asia. Please have a look at it."

The eunuch in charge of ceremonies came over, took the memorial and travel notes presented by Yun Ji, and handed them to Wanli.

Wanli picked it up and flipped through it. The thin one was a routine memorial, and the thick one was a travelogue from the beginning. Wanli was so happy that he couldn't help smiling. He suppressed the urge to read the travelogue on the spot and closed the book: "I will read it carefully. Where is the map of the four gold mines you mentioned?"

"Your Majesty, I have already drawn the map of the gold mines and placed it together with the tribute." After saying this, Min Xi waved his hand to signal the two eunuchs on duty to bring over the boxes they brought.

The box was brought over and placed in front of Min Xi and Yun Ji. Min Xi opened the box and took out the gift list and the map: "Your Majesty, this box contains the tribute presented to Your Majesty by the King of Luzon. The remaining boxes contain the treasures that Lord Yun and I found for Your Majesty during our trip to Southeast Asia. The map is also here."

Wanli's childish nature was offended: "Present it quickly, let me see what treasures you brought for me."

The eunuch in charge of ceremonies came over to take away the gift list and the map, and presented them to Wanli. Wanli opened the map to look at it, then closed it again. Then he opened the gift list and looked at it. He was amazed: "What kind of dog-head gold weighs 66 kilograms? Bring it here for me to see."

As soon as these words came out, all the civil and military officials in the court became interested. Dozens of kilograms of gold nuggets! Everyone stretched their necks to look at the boxes, wanting to know what the gold nuggets looked like.

Yun Ji took the nugget of gold he had picked up from the box and removed the impurities. The nugget of gold still weighed more than 60 kilograms. Everyone looked eagerly at the irregularly shaped piece of gold, which looked almost the size of a human head. How could it weigh more than 60 kilograms with such a small size?

Wanli waved his hand: "Yunqing, bring it up for me to see."

Yun Ji walked up the steps holding the gold nugget and placed it on the footstool of the dragon throne. When the gold was placed on the nanmu footstool, it made a dull sound.

Wanli put down the gift list and tried to bend down to pick up the gold nugget, but of course he failed. The gold nugget didn't look big, but due to the extremely high density of gold, its weight was far beyond his expectation, so he couldn't pick it up in that posture.

Wanli laughed: "It's quite heavy."

"Your Majesty, the gold is too heavy. Be careful not to hurt your waist." Yun Ji reminded.

Wanli patted the gold nugget and sat back on the throne: "Put it here. Where did this gold nugget come from?"

Min Xi explained: "Your Majesty, this was found by Lord Yun on the riverbank when we were looking for gold."

"That place is indeed covered with gold! Very good, very good!" Wanli smiled, "You two have made great contributions this time, I will reward you handsomely."

Wanli looked at the other items on the gift list again, and when he saw the last line, he became interested: "Are these two words pronounced as emu? Emu eggshell?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the emu is a bird unique to the New World of Southeast Asia. It is four or five feet tall and huge in size. Its eggs are also very large. One egg can weigh one kilogram." Min Xi answered as he took out two emu egg shells from the box.

Due to the dim light, Wanli and the officials could only see two black eggshells. They all felt incredible. Wanli asked: "Why are they black? Are they broken?"

"No, Your Majesty, this egg is born dark green. We originally planned to bring back live emus, but there are few domesticated emus, all of them are wild, so it is not convenient to bring them back for the time being. When there are more domesticated emus in the future, we will let them bring them back to Ming to raise. An emu weighs 70 to 80 kilograms, and may become a delicacy on the tables of the people of our Ming Dynasty in the future."

"Bring it here for me to see." Wanli waved towards Min Xi.

Min Xi went up with two eggshells and placed them in Wanli's hands. Wanli looked at them curiously and finally saw two small holes on the eggshells: "Why did you only give me the eggshells and not the eggs?"

"Because eggs cannot be stored for a long time, they will go bad after a long time," Min Xi explained.

“Can this egg be eaten?”

"Yes, the taste is not much different from that of chicken."

"Interesting. Bring back more in the future so that my people can also eat the meat and eggs of big birds." Wanli admired it for a while and handed the eggshell to the eunuch in charge of ceremonies.

Wanli took the gift list and looked through it again. He only saw the tribute from Luzon. "My dear ministers, your mission this time is not short. Why is there only tribute from Luzon? Other vassal states no longer take our Ming Dynasty seriously?"

Yun Ji said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, the islands east of the South Sea that we went to this time are all tiny islands. Most of them have not established a country, and the natives are barbaric. They don't know the Ming Dynasty, so they have never paid tribute to our Ming Dynasty."

"The continent that our ministers have arrived at has few and ignorant natives, but is rich in minerals. I think that in addition to sending people to mine for minerals, we can also encourage the people to civilize this place and educate the local natives, so that they can understand the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty and learn the education of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, it may be developed into an overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty." Min Xi expressed his thoughts. If the court encouraged immigration to Australia, it would be just a matter of time before Australia became an overseas enclave of the Ming Dynasty.

When Wanli heard this, he turned to the civil and military officials who were whispering to each other below and said, "What do you think, my dear ministers?"

"Lord Min has a good idea, but I wonder how far that continent is from Ming Dynasty?"

Min Xi said: "If everything goes smoothly, it will take about two months."

"The time is too long, I'm afraid it's beyond our reach." The minister who asked the question sighed.

Min Xi added: "The island is extremely rich in minerals. In addition to gold mines, there are also large amounts of iron ore, copper ore and coal. And they are all high-quality minerals. If they can be incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it will be a great help to the court."

Wanli tapped his finger on the armrest and said, "My dear ministers, you can all think about this matter and come back to discuss the countermeasures. If there is nothing else to do today, let's adjourn the court. Yun Qing and Min Qing will stay and talk with me."

Everyone shouted "Long live the emperor" again, and Wanli left first, and then all the ministers left the court. Tao Lizhi looked at his two nephews, came over and patted their shoulders: "I'm leaving first, you go and talk to the emperor. When you have time, come to my house more often and accompany your grandmother."

"Okay, uncle!" Yun Ji and Min Xi bowed to Tao Lizhi and saw him off.

Soon, a young eunuch came and led them to the warm room to meet Wanli, and moved all the things they brought back there.

The warm room was much warmer than the main hall. Wanli had taken off the cloak he had been wearing and was being helped to wash by palace servants. It seemed that the emperor got up and went to court without even washing his face.

Wanli finished washing up and drank a sip of hot tea, then said to Min Xi and Yun Ji: "My dear ministers, please sit down. How long have you been away?"

"A little more than a year and a half." Yun Ji replied.

"Why do I feel like I've been gone for at least a few years? I'm almost suffocated to death when you're not in the capital. I'm locked up in the palace every day to handle state affairs. I want to leave the palace, but there's nowhere to go. It's really boring!" Wanli said this, curling his lips unhappily.

Min Xi quickly complimented: "Your Majesty is busy with all kinds of affairs and works hard to govern the country, which is a blessing for all the people."

Wanli waved his hand and said, "Bring the gold nugget here for me to have another look."

Yun Ji then moved the nugget of gold onto the table. Wan Li did not believe in evil and tried to lift it again, but he only moved it slightly. "It's really heavy. Is such a big nugget of gold natural or melted?"

"It's natural." Min Xi told the emperor how he discovered the nugget of gold.

Wanli listened with great interest: "Is that place full of gold?"

"Of course not. Gold can only be found where there are gold mines. Even if there are gold mines, there is no guarantee that gold will be found every day."

"You come and explain this map to me." Wanli began to study the map drawn by Min Xi again.

This map is almost the entire picture of Australia. It was drawn by Min Xi based on his navigation and memory. The locations of various minerals are also marked clearly.

Wanli listened to his explanation with great interest. He looked at the location of Ming Dynasty and Australia from the entire map and said, "From the map, it seems that they are not far away. That place is so rich in minerals, of course we can't give it up easily. In your opinion, how many troops are needed to take it?"

Min Xi and Yun Ji both laughed when they heard this.

Min Xi said: "Your Majesty, it is not a question of military strength. Those natives don't even have iron tools. They use stones, shells, and wood as tools. Their combat effectiveness is extremely low. Moreover, the natives are extremely scattered and live in tribes. They have never formed alliances. They are not much of a threat to our Ming Dynasty's military strength. The art of war says 'attack their plans, their alliances, and their troops.' What I mean is that if we can conquer the entire continent without fighting, this is the best strategy. Make them sincerely convinced and loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and this land will become the treasury of the Ming Dynasty in the future."