"More than a hundred boats capsized? Then... how much compensation do you have to pay!"
Zhu Lian was anxious!
Although the Jinling court is quite wealthy, it cannot waste its fortune like this!
The money of the imperial court does not come from strong winds, and the imperial court collects a lot of money and spends a lot of money. We have to build a new army, we have to build a navy, we have to build Jinling City and Jiangdu City, and we have to fight against gold thieves... There is also Zhao Kai, the emperor of Luoyang and the emperor's younger brother, who is always coming to ask for money. .
Therefore, the Jinling court's surplus in the past two years is not too much. Last year, it only saved less than 5 million guan in the sealing warehouse... Now the Koreans don't know how much compensation they have to pay?
"The compensation was not much, only two thousand taels of gold, ten thousand taels of silver, fifty thousand guan of copper coins, one thousand kilograms of Korean ginseng, five thousand pieces of various animal skins..."
"Wait!" Zhu Lian heard something was wrong and quickly interrupted Zhao Shu, "Why is there still a thousand kilograms of Korean ginseng? The court can also get some gold, silver, and copper coins. Where can I find this thousand kilograms of Korean ginseng? Huh? And isn’t Korea rich in Korean ginseng?”
"Sister-in-law, you misunderstood..." Zhao Shu's face suddenly turned red, his head lowered, and he could not speak fluently.
He is an honest prince and has not been able to tell lies since he was a child. But now he has to say that black is white...otherwise, how else can he say it?
He said that he, a prince of the Song Dynasty, had a hot head because he was fed several cups of yellow soup by his subordinates (he inherited it from Zhao Ji, and he became a martial arts madman after drinking too much), so he was instigated by someone (Zhao Buqiu), and became a leader in Goryeo. After returning to the pirates, he stupidly took ten warships and rushed into the Korean Haeju Commercial Port, killing people, setting fire to and looting... before leaving, he even extorted a sum of money from them!
It’s impossible to say that! How could the Song Dynasty, a country of great etiquette, do such a thing? And when the Song Dynasty went to Korea to get something, could it be called robbery?
"Misunderstanding?" Through the curtain, Zhu Lian saw Zhao Shu blushing and lowering his head. He was speechless and felt something was wrong. What happened to this brother-in-law? Why is it so weird?
"Prince Su, you... if you have something to say, please tell me!" Zhu Lian was also a little panicked. Although it could not be said that a man and a woman were alone in the same room, there seemed to be no foreign ministers in the palace. Apart from her, the queen, there are only a few chamberlains and a few female officials.
"Sister-in-law," Zhao Shu said in a voice so low that it was almost inaudible, "these gold, silver, Korean ginseng and animal skins were not compensated by us to Korea, they were compensated by Korea."
"What did you say?"
Zhao Shu gritted his teeth and opened his throat and said: "Sister-in-law, these gold, silver, Korean ginseng and animal skins were compensated by the King of Korea to our Song Dynasty!"
"Compensation to the Song Dynasty?" Zhu Lian was even more panicked now, "How many ships did we lose? How many people died?"
"The ships are all here," Zhao Shu replied truthfully, "five people died. They were killed when they captured Goryeo Haeju."
"Capture Goryeo Haizhou?" Zhu Lian was surprised again, "Why is there still a matter of capturing Goryeo Haizhou? What did you do? Aren't you on an envoy? Why did you capture someone else's city? ?”
Zhao Shu spread his hands and looked aggrieved, "Sister-in-law, you really can't blame us for this! Didn't we sink or overturn more than a hundred Korean warships at sea? There were two to three thousand sailors on these ships. Some died, some swam back to shore, and we caught hundreds of them. These people have to be returned to Korea, right? They all have wives, children, and parents, so it’s not appropriate to capture them back!"
"Yes!" Zhu Lian nodded, "What's the point of catching him back?"
"So I ordered Zhao Buqiu to escort these prisoners ashore..." Zhao Shu sighed and said, "But those Koreans didn't appreciate it and shot us with bows and arrows, killing several of us. sailor!"
Zhu Lian snorted softly and nodded: "These Koreans are so ignorant!"
"That's right!" Zhao Shu nodded in agreement, "We have no choice but to take the cannon off the ship and set it up outside Haizhou City to fire the explosive canisters..."
"Then what?" Seeing that Zhao Shu was silent again, Zhu Lian quickly asked.
Zhao Shu said: "We threw more than two hundred explosive pots, and the Korean defenders in Haizhou City couldn't stand it anymore and had to surrender. So we captured Haizhou and captured the prefect of Haizhou."
"This governor is ignorant and needs to be taught a lesson!" Zhu Lian was also a little angry.
"After the lesson has been taught, my brother asked him to take his credentials to the capital to meet Wang Kai, the king of Goryeo, and asked Wang Kai to quickly return to the Song Dynasty with all the money." Zhao Shu said, "My brother also asked this prefect to go I told Wang Kai about changing his name to avoid being taboo...so that he could avoid being tabooed by the emperor's younger brother."
"Then Wang Kai agreed?" Zhu Lian didn't know what he was thinking. He didn't feel anything was wrong at all, and followed Zhao Shu's words.
"He didn't agree. He said he wanted to consider it and asked us to go hear the news next year." Zhao Shu said, "But we were compensated with two thousand taels of gold, ten thousand taels of silver, fifty thousand guan of copper coins, and one thousand catties of Korean ginseng. Five thousand animal skins...Sister-in-law, what do you think should be done with these belongings?"
Zhu Lian thought for a while and said, "Should we give some to the soldiers? It's not easy for the soldiers to go to Goryeo. We can't let them come back empty-handed, right?"
This Empress Zhu is really a bit brainless. What she is thinking about at this time is how to divide the spoils?
"The soldiers have another share, so there is no need to give it anymore." Zhao Shu's voice was very soft, as if he was saying something shameful.
In fact, this matter is indeed a bit hard to explain - the middle and lower-level naval officers that Zhao Shu brought to Goryeo were not good people!
These days, most of the people who can lead fleets to distant seas are pirates who have been recruited, and many of the Wu Jinshi who serve in the navy are from maritime merchant (pirate) families on the southeast coast. This group of people is much worse than the rustic army officers... They looted the Haeju Commercial Port of Korea. Not only did they steal goods and money, they even robbed many merchant ships and Korea. The official ship of the country.
These ships and goods were now taken to Mingzhou by Zhao Buqiu to be sold for money. After the sales, they were divided up according to the size of the official position and the amount of credit. Of course, Zhao Shu also had a share.
However, the goods compensated by the Kingdom of Goryeo to the Song Dynasty cannot be used for private distribution.
On the one hand, it is because the matter involves the diplomacy between the two countries. As long as the Song Dynasty and Goryeo continue to communicate in the future, this matter cannot be dealt with.
On the other hand, the court and the royal family must also share a little profit, so that there will be a second, third, or even countless "ships and barrels" diplomacy!
In addition, Zhao Shu and Zhao Buqiu also knew that their actions were not very "correct" and needed to find someone to endorse them. However, the official Zhao Huan who was in charge of Yangzhou and the two privy councilors Zhao Mingcheng and Li Gang were not so easy to fool, so they came to Jinling to deceive Empress Zhu.
"Just give all the copper coins to the Ministry of Household Affairs," Zhu Lian happily began to "divide the spoils". "The gold and silver will be put into the sealed pile warehouse. Ginseng... Let the Imperial Medicine Academy pick some good ones later. They were all given to Taifu Temple for sale. Some of the animal skins were selected by the Shaofu Supervisor, and the rest were also sold by Taifu Temple.
By the way, if these properties are collected by the royal family and the court, do they need to give something back to the Koreans? "
The Song Dynasty has always treated foreign countries that paid tribute to it relatively favorably, and paid attention to the exchange of favors. This time the "come" is not cheap. If you want to go thick, you will lose money.
"Of course it's not necessary," Zhao Shu said with a smile, "This is what the Korean people compensate us... This is not a courtesy! I have never heard of repayment since ancient times."
"That's right!" Zhu Lian laughed, "That's a lot of money! By the way, are you going again next year?"
"We have to go!" Zhao Shu said, "We have to listen to the Korean people's answer...and we have to go to some more warships!"
"More warships?" Zhu Lian was stunned, "Why?"
Zhao Shu said: "These Korean people are not very reasonable. Let's go to more warships and be tough when it comes to reasoning! And if we can't be reasonable, we can start a war right away!"
Listen, are you trying to reason?
"Start a war immediately?" Zhu Lian felt something was wrong again, "Isn't it appropriate?"
"It's appropriate!" Zhao Shu said, "It is impossible for Goryeo to be neutral between the Song Dynasty and the Golden Thieves... Goryeo must either annex the Jin Dynasty or surrender to the Song Dynasty! If it is not willing to lie, it must be Being a lackey of a gold thief means you are attached to the thief, so of course you should attack him immediately!"
"I see..." Zhu Lian nodded, "That means we need to go to more warships."
Zhao Shu added: "It's best to get some more Luoyang gunpowder...it's better to use Luoyang gunpowder to make hot pot cannons. Sister-in-law, you are so proud. How about you write to Third Brother and ask for some?"
Zhu Lian nodded, "Okay, let's give it a try."
...
"Your Majesty, do we, do we really want to go to Goryeo?"
"Of course you have to go! If the emperor asks you to go, who dares not to go?"
"Are we going to start a naval army?"
"If it's hot... how can we get to Goryeo without the navy? It's not our turn to go by land!"
"But the brothers suffered heavy losses this time and gained nothing..."
"Then you have to go to Goryeo! Go to Goryeo to fish! If you can't defeat the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, can you still beat Goryeo?"
"Fighting Korea?"
"Your Majesty, aren't we going to aid Goryeo?"
"Humph, it's all the same thing!"
In the territory of Nanjing Road in Dajin, a dejected army, which could tell at a glance that it had suffered a defeat and suffered heavy losses, was marching on the official road.
In the middle of this team, several generals were surrounding this rickety carriage, and they were busy discussing with Wanyan Zonggou who was sitting in the carriage about sending troops to Goryeo and setting up a naval army.
Both of them are hard work, but Wanyan Zonggou, who wants to go to Goryeo to hunt tigers, seems to be in a good mood, and he has a strong desire to fish into the sea and birds to fly in the sky.
Of course, his current good mood is not entirely because of "Tiger Whip", but also because when he passed by Yanjing Mansion, he stopped by to visit the seriously ill Wanyan Xieye... Xieye was really about to die. , Daikin will soon start a power struggle. Is there anything more pleasant than leaving the center of power at this time and hiding away in Goryeo to make a fortune and hunt tigers?
