At the court meeting that day, the officials delivered an interesting report.
In Nan'an County, Jian'an County, there was a sea master named He Man. Every spring and autumn, when the sky was calm and the wind was light, he would look across the sea and find smoke stretching for thousands of miles. He thought there should be people living on the other side of the sea.
So he told the county magistrate, the county magistrate told the county guard, and the county guard reported it to the court.
A seaman is a person who is familiar with sea lanes and drives sea ships.
There are many knowledgeable people among the officials in the DPRK. Even though some of them have not been to many places at all, they have books, and they can know many things from books.
Su Wei said: "What this fisherman said is probably Yizhou. "Linhai Tuochi" written by Shen Ying of the Eastern Wu Dynasty records that Sun Quan, the king of Wu, sent Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to land on Yizhou. There are indeed barbarians.”
Jian'an County belongs to Fujian, and Nan'an County is Quanzhou, Fujian. Who else is separated from Fujian by a sea?
However, there is no navy in Jian'an County. The navy is in Jiangdu. If you want to cross the sea, Jiangdu needs to deploy large sea ships.
Yang Ming smiled at Su Wei and said, "Where has Mr. Fang Guo seen "Linhai Land Chronicles"?"
The corner of Su Wei's mouth twitched and he said honestly: "What I have hidden in my home is just a transcript."
Yang Ming looked at Secretary Superintendent Liu Pian again and said, "Is there anyone in the Secretary Supervisory Department?"
"No," Liu Pian shook his head.
Su Wei quickly took the initiative and said: "I will send someone to the Secretary's Office for copying."
Yang Ming, who was discerning, smiled and said: "Since Sun Quan has been there, I, the Sui Dynasty, have no reason not to go. I ordered Jiangdu Navy to send fifty ships to search and hand them over to Xiangyang Hussar General Zhou Zhongmu, and leave from Nan'an County. The sea master He Man was my guide, and he traveled across the sea to visit foreign customs."
Duan Wenzhen, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, said: "It is not yet known whether there is Yi Island on the other side of the sea. Wu State is so far away that it seems insufficient to rely on some ancient books to determine it. I think it is appropriate to send three or five ships out to sea to explore first."
You're not sure, I'm sure, Yang Ming raised his hand and said: "There are Japanese countries in the east of the sea, and of course there will be Yi people living in Hainan. The ancient land of Yizhou has been recorded in Han Dynasty documents. It can't be wrong, that's it. "
All knowledge in ancient times came from books, but books were monopolized by aristocratic families. Almost every family collected a large number of unique copies, which was of great significance for the study of history.
How much you can know about the Sui Dynasty today depends entirely on how many books you have at home, because you can't see other people's books, and you can't see the secretary's books.
So what people know and think is very limited.
If Su Wei hadn't read "Linhai Land Chronicles", he wouldn't know about it.
The knowledge that Yang Ming knows is a comprehensive and detailed explanation of all ancient documents and ancient books compiled by later generations. Therefore, his understanding of the world far exceeds everyone here. However, when it comes to scheming and machinations, he may not be able to win. These people are gone.
Taiwan is currently called Liuqiu Country. The barbarians living here have migrated across the sea from the mainland for thousands of years. Their genetic alleles are exactly the same as those in South China.
It was impossible for Yang Ming not to take down Liuqiu, no matter how high the price was, of course, it didn't need to be high price either.
Zhou Zhongmo has been in Xiangyang, helping Yang Ming run the Xiangyang Navy. Yang Ming is relieved to entrust this task to him. Zhou Zhongmo's father, Zhou Luohu, also passed away a few years ago and was sent back to his hometown in Jiujiang. After being buried, Zhou Zhongmo was in an important position in the army, so his love was naturally taken away from him.
With fifty ships, or about two thousand people, it was impossible to destroy Liuqiu, but the preliminary test was completely sufficient.
Comrade Yang Guang's investment promotion in Zhangye has achieved great results. Countless caravans from the Western Regions have entered Daxing, and some have gone directly to Luoyang.
The goods sold to the West during the Sui Dynasty were mainly grain, textiles and handicrafts.
Among them, silk, linen, tea, and porcelain are the bulk. At present, the Sui Dynasty is short of food, and food is a strategic resource, so it will not be sold this time.
So what did the Sui Dynasty buy from the West? Cattle, horses, sheep, skins, wool, meat, milk and other livestock products are basically complementary to each other, because the Sui Dynasty was a farming civilization, and the most lacking thing in farming was livestock that could replace labor.
Honglu Temple is the busiest during this period, because they have to process customs clearance documents for the Hu people entering the country, so that they can go to various places in the Sui Dynasty to purchase goods.
The main currency of the Hu people was gold and silver, so a large amount of gold and silver flowed into the Sui Dynasty, and the Sui Dynasty used this gold and silver to buy their things.
Because China has a vast territory and rich resources, the Sui Dynasty had a complete trade surplus, which was a huge profit.
Therefore, Yang Ming did not persuade Yang Guang to make this western tour at all, because he knew the significance of the western tour, which was different from building the canal. One was to spend money, and the other was to make money.
The two most outstanding porcelains of the Sui Dynasty were white glazed porcelain and green porcelain.
Green porcelain is actually celadon. The celadon craftsmanship of the Sui Dynasty was not as advanced as that of the Tang Dynasty, but white glazed porcelain was already at its peak.
Yang Ming has a lot of this stuff. It is no exaggeration to say that the fine white glazes produced in later generations are at this level and not much higher.
Porcelain is a very strange thing. Many fine works of ancient times cannot be produced by later generations relying on advanced technology.
After the court meeting, Yang Ming summoned someone in the East Palace.
He Chou, the Prime Minister of Taifu Temple, was the most powerful porcelain expert in the Sui Dynasty.
"Where is the largest white kiln?" Yang Ming asked the other party after asking him to sit down.
He Chou said: "Back to the prince, there are more than ten kilns between Neiqiu County in Xiangguo County and Fangfang County in Zhao County. Because there are a large amount of clay, alumina, jade (quartz) and other mineral soils in the area, So it’s suitable for firing.”
That was the area in Wei Zheng's hometown. Yang Ming nodded and said, "You are a master of porcelain firing. Now the white glaze craft has reached its limit. Have you ever thought about how to add color?"
White glazed porcelain is plain porcelain, with no pattern or color. However, the maturity of white glazed porcelain technology is the most basic condition for painted porcelain.
In fact, colored porcelain was produced in the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period. It is the earliest colored porcelain. However, this porcelain is fired with dark brown pigments. The color is dim and simple, and the pattern is messy and unsightly. .
So Yang Ming hopes that He Chou can make pottery like Tang Sancai, or even blue and white porcelain.
He Chou also wondered why the prince was so curious about this kind of thing? I've never heard that you like porcelain?
He Chou said: "The craftsman probably knows about adding color under the glaze, but the pigment is hard to find."
It's not difficult. Tang Sancai is made of copper, iron, and cobalt. The green materials of blue and white porcelain are all in Jiangxi.
The raw materials are easy to find, but the firing process requires countless failures before it can be successful once, so Yang Ming probably pointed him in a direction and asked him to find these pigments. The rest is up to him, after all. Yang Ming didn't know how to make pottery at all.
If painted pottery and blue and white porcelain can come out, these two items will undoubtedly be top-notch luxuries and will have a boosting effect on the entire economy.
Because the economy has always been afraid of money not circulating, and all the aristocratic families in the Sui Dynasty had a problem, they didn't spend much money.
To be more precise, there was a serious mismatch between the money that should be spent and the money he had saved.
You have a million dollars in savings, but your monthly expenses are only 2,000 yuan. No, you are hindering the circulation of money.
The Sui Dynasty paid great attention to burial objects. The top luxury jewelry was also the top burial object.
The place where most Tang Sancai paintings were unearthed in later generations was in Beimang Mountain in Luoyang. Why? Because there are the graves of awesome people there.
The largest celadon kiln in the Sui Dynasty was in Kuaiji County in the south of the Yangtze River.
Xiangguo County in the north originally belonged to Xingzhou, so it was historically called Xing Kiln. Kuaiji County was originally from Yuezhou, and was called Yue Kiln, hence the term "Southern Qing Dynasty and Northern Bai Bai".
When social, political and economic development reaches a bottleneck, there are only two ways to solve the problem.
One is called war, and the other is called technological innovation.
If the current Sui Dynasty can successfully fire painted porcelain, it can be regarded as a technological innovation. It will inject a strong impetus into the market, thereby driving economic development and avoiding the use of war to solve problems.
Therefore, this kind of thing must be in the hands of the state, and the aristocratic family should not get involved in it at all.
So Yang Ming directly ennobled He Chou as the minister of the Taifu Temple, responsible for collecting raw materials and firing porcelain.
This method can only delay social conflicts, but cannot cure them. If you want to cure them, you have to clean up the aristocratic families, but cleaning up the aristocratic families requires a long process, and this process requires technological innovation to provide enough time.
So Yang Ming focused on woodblock printing and papermaking, but he had to take his time with these two projects.
At present, books are a monopoly for the royal family and aristocratic families. If you dare to popularize them, the prince will not even think about it.
This thing can only wait until the family is weakened, and an absolutely totalitarian emperor can be the last straw to break the camel's back.
At present, it is impossible to popularize schools, let alone print books.
Yang Rui and Yang Jin didn't even think about studying for a month, because they had to sit down to study, and they couldn't sit down.
Naturally, Li Shimin and Changsun Wuji couldn't read, so they took care of Yang Rui and Yang Jin honestly.
And Yang Yinjiang was pregnant again, and Pei Shuying also hoped that she would give Yang Ming another child, so in the following days, Yang Ming spent most of his time with Pei Shuying.
In November, Yang Guang returned to Beijing from Zhangye.
And several big bosses in charge of Dasuo Maungyue in various places are also returning to Beijing one after another.
This time, the imperial court brought back a huge amount of funds from the local area, plus taxes from the trade carried out by the barbarians from the Western Regions after they entered the Sui Dynasty, and the national treasury was full in an instant.
Now no one mentions that the money collected will be used to pay off Hebei's debts, because Hebei has no debts.
The first time Gao Xi came back, he met Yang Ming.
"There must be another general manager in Bashu. This place is rich in products and food, but most of it is in the hands of local wealthy families. My inspection this time was extremely difficult. It was blocked at every turn and the result was not ideal."
Faced with Gao Xi's helpless sigh, Yang Ming agreed:
"Improving Bashu is not something that can be accomplished in a day. In the final analysis, we still need to eliminate avoidance and allow local wealthy families to become officials, so that the root cause of the problem can be solved."
Gao Xi nodded and said: "Avoiding Bashu is an ancient tradition. It is not easy to abolish it all at once. However, I agree with His Highness's point of view. In the short term, we need to rely on the general manager to take charge. In the long term, we still need Bashu to return to its heart."
"We will discuss this matter at the court meeting tomorrow," Yang Ming said.
Gao Xi nodded and said, "Yes! I'll lead him out."
(End of chapter)
