The horses and the property they brought back were, according to a rough estimate, worth millions of taels. This was an unimaginable huge profit.
Zhu Di was overjoyed and rewarded Ma He heavily. After that, he thought about it and asked about Ma He's other tasks.
After all, it would be unpleasant to send so many people to "make money". Ma He has a serious mission.
"Your Majesty, the canonization edict of the King of Guli Kingdom has been delivered. King Guli asked me to submit a letter of thanks on my behalf." He took out a letter and presented it.
"In addition." Ma He paused: "The Governor of Luzon you mentioned a few days ago has also been canonized."
A few years ago, the wealthy households in Luzon jointly sent an envoy to the Ming court to request that they be included in the Ming Dynasty. It was from this that Zhu Di came up with the idea of bringing Luzon under his rule.
"There is no country in the area, and it relies on wealthy businessmen to maintain order. There are two largest wealthy businessmen in Luzon, one is Xu Chailao and the other is Chen Su, both of whom have huge businesses in the local area."
"One of them, Xu Chai Lao, is very old and has been living overseas for several generations. He has little connection with our country of etiquette and has many barbarian habits. When traders mention him, they are afraid but disrespectful. The other one, Chen Su, is young and quite handsome. He was well versed in etiquette, and when all the traders mentioned him, they all praised him, saying that he was good at charity and generous in behavior. After thinking for a long time, I finally appointed Chen Su as the governor of Luzon. He had a good reputation in the local area, and he would surely be able to maintain peace. .”
"Chen?" Zhu Di narrowed his eyes: "What is the relationship with Chen Youliang in the past?"
It would be a big joke to appoint a descendant of his former rival as the governor of Luzon.
Ma He shook his head: "He is the Chen family from Fujian. I asked him about his origin. He is from Fuzhou. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, his father went to Nanyang and settled in Luzon in recent years."
Zhu Di nodded. In this case, there is no problem. He has no interest in ruling the island. Since the other party has nominally obeyed, he doesn't care.
He turned to Ma He and said, "I love you for your hard work. But now that the imperial court is short of finances, you can't take a break. Get ready. I plan to start my second voyage to the West in December."
"According to the order!" Ma He said loudly.
——
Time flies so fast, and we are about to set sail again in the blink of an eye.
"We're leaving again." On the eve of the voyage, Ma He strolled through the streets of Ming Dynasty for the last time, feeling the atmosphere of folk fireworks.
The sound of reading came from the teahouse next to him, and the words "Xuande" and "Kongming" accidentally reached his ears, which aroused his interest.
He strolled into the teahouse and saw that the small restaurant was full of people sitting and standing, hundreds of them in total. Although there were many people, there was no sound. Everyone pricked up their ears and listened. The storyteller at the top talks about the Three Kingdoms.
The stories of the Three Kingdoms have been widely circulated among the people. Most of them appear in the form of operas and there are many scripts. However, they are often far-fetched and add a lot of unofficial history, making the whole story nondescript or even bizarre. The writing is also vulgar. Although Ma He is the story of the Three Kingdoms I am a loyal fan, but I can't stand the content of those scripts.
But this time, the adaptation is excellent. Although the story has a romantic feel, it is generally consistent with history, and the characters are very distinct. The storyteller was also very eloquent. After he said "Let's listen to the explanation next time", Ma He was still a little unfinished and had the urge to rush forward and ask for more information.
He heard the people in front of him talking.
"The front part of these Three Kingdoms is full of heroism, but the more you listen to it later, the more uncomfortable it becomes! After listening to part of it, I can't listen to it anymore!"
"Oh? May I ask what you heard?" Ma He chatted with interest, thinking to himself, this man actually has his own opinions on the Three Kingdoms?
"When I heard that General Tiangong was killed in battle, I stopped listening!" the man replied confidently.
"It's better for you." Someone came over and said, "When I heard the green snake circling the beam, I couldn't listen anymore..."
Ma He:……
Are you kidding me?
You must be kidding me, right?
"My husband, don't pay attention to them, they are playing tricks on you!" An old father-in-law came over and drove the smiling two people away.
Ma He took the opportunity to ask:
"Old man, are you talking about Pinghua? I have heard many Pinghua of the Three Kingdoms, but this is the first time I have seen such a wonderful one."
"This is "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It is indeed the best "Three Kingdoms" in recent years." The old man replied with a smile: "I think you look like a scholar. Well, there is something for sale in front of you."
Ma He immediately walked to the front and saw a bookstore, which was already full of people.
There are two kinds of "Three Kingdoms", one is exquisitely packaged but expensive, and the other is a bit tattered, but much cheaper in comparison.
There are still many scholars in the capital, and the people are generally affluent. This kind of story-telling reading book has won the favor of many rich people. Sometimes the people in the market are impatient and will buy a copy together. Please Scholars help explain.
Ma He also bought a copy, which was beautifully packaged. Although five taels of silver was expensive, it was nothing to him.
Opening the book, there is a poem at the beginning:
"The rolling waters of the Yangtze River pass eastward, and the waves wash away the heroes. Right and wrong, success or failure, are all gone. The green mountains are still there, and the sunsets are red several times."
"White-haired fishermen and woodcutters on the river bank are used to looking at the autumn moon and the spring breeze. We are happy to meet each other over a pot of wine. Many things in ancient and modern times are all talked about with laughter."
Just this word made Ma He's eyes widen, and he felt his Tianling Gai getting hot.
"Good words, good words!" He couldn't help but shout high-fives in the street, which attracted passersby's side glances. When they saw the name of the book in his hand, they were a little surprised.
Ma He, on the other hand, was still in shock.
Just based on this poem, he felt that the five taels of silver were well spent.
He immediately looked down, wanting to see which famous artist it was.
There is no author below the words, only a line of small characters "Yan Family, Changle Bookstore, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang Province."
The word "Yan family" immediately attracted Ma He's attention.
Such a good word, if it had been written by someone else, would have been circulated long ago, but it has never happened. It can only be that the author kept a low profile and deliberately concealed it.
And this heroic and desolate spirit can only be written by those who have truly experienced all kinds of things in the world, seen through life and death, and experienced ups and downs.
There is only one person in the Yan family who meets this condition——
It must have been done by King Jingping during his lifetime!
I have long heard that King Yan Ling of Jingping was capable of both literary and martial arts, but there were no good poems or articles handed down from generation to generation, which left many admirers with regrets. Now I can finally see him!
Suddenly, Ma He felt a secret joy that "everyone in the world is drunk and I am sober alone", and he also had a strange feeling of reading a book with his predecessors.
It's like knowing that the famous person in the textbook is still alive.
He was very interested and took this book with him to his house, eager to read it.
It is conceivable that this book will accompany him in his subsequent sailing life.
At this time, in the distant Ningbo Mansion, Yan Ling looked at the income on the account book with a hearty smile on his face.
Just by expanding the sales of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to several provinces in the southeast, and adding storytellers, it became popular throughout the southeast in two months, and brought them a huge profit of 40,000 taels of silver.
Yes, this Romance of the Three Kingdoms was created by Yan Ling.
He found Luo Guanzhong's descendants and got the manuscript of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with a mere one hundred taels of silver.
With his family's financial resources, he easily built a printing workshop and a bookstore, and printed a large number of books.
Publishing, which Luo Guanzhong had never been able to achieve in his life, was achieved so easily in Yan Ling's hands.
Since there was no copyright awareness at that time, it was easy to be copied, so Yan Ling simply divided the book into two types.
One is printed on fine paper and ink, with gorgeous patterns on the cover and illustrations. If you smell it carefully, there is even a faint fragrance. This is a hardcover edition. It sells for five taels of silver a copy, and it takes the upper-class route.
One is printed on extremely thin paper and low-quality ink. There are no illustrations, and the writing on the back can even be seen. It is extremely disturbing to the senses, but the price is also cheap. You can buy one for a few copper coins.
In this way, pirated copies are even cheaper than buying genuine ones, so who would buy pirated copies? Yan Ling's calculations were very precise.
At the same time, he also trained a group of storytellers who were familiar with the Three Kingdoms and released them. Teahouses can rent storytellers to tell stories, but they have to pay rent.
This brought him great benefits.
(End of chapter)
