"brush."
In the imperial study, Zhu Qizhen turned over a page of memorials and rubbed his brows tiredly.
After all these years, he is no longer the young boy he once was.
Now he is a twenty-six-year-old adult, wearing a dragon robe, with a majestic appearance, and showing the dignity of an emperor in his movements.
Government affairs and the like have also been handled very skillfully, but such a heavy workload is somewhat difficult to bear.
Thanks to the cabinet, otherwise I would be exhausted.
He sighed softly and secretly thought of the wisdom of his ancestors in setting up the cabinet.
He took the reviewed memorial and put it aside, then looked at the next one.
This was a memorial from the Ministry of Rites. The bright seven characters "Chen Wala's Tributary Statement" were written on the cover, which gave Zhu Qizhen an unknown premonition.
When I opened the memorial, I was greeted by a strong aura of hostility from the Minister of Rites.
"Wala Ye first paid tribute each time, with two thousand horses, tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, and more than three thousand people in the envoy."
"The reception requires wine, meat and food, a comfortable residence, and rewards of gold, silver and jewelry, which costs countless money."
"Nowadays, the mission pays tribute as many as five times a year. The gifts are so huge that the treasury is almost empty!"
"I ask your Majesty to issue an order to reprimand, or to cut off the title of the former king as a punishment!"
The only ones who could make the Minister of Rites, who was well-read in poetry and literature, be so angry were the brothers from Oara.
Without him, because Ye Xian is really unauthentic.
The tributary trade system has been the main trade system since the voyage to the West was stopped. Jisi prefectures have opened mutual markets and can travel freely, but Wala does not have it. Although they can fight, they are still really poor if they are poor.
In order to save money, he first continued to pay tribute.
When the tribute was paid for the first time, there were only about 200 people in the mission, bringing thousands of horses, cattle and sheep, and they only came once a year. This was a normal tribute process.
In order to show its wealth, the Ming Dynasty naturally could not let them hand over the tribute in vain, so it gave back gold, silver and jewelry of corresponding value. At the same time, the corresponding personnel also received rewards, and the overall value of the tribute was far away.
In the eyes of future generations, wouldn’t this be taken advantage of? It’s good if I don’t rob you. However, in the eyes of ancient emperors and civil servants, giving large amounts of rewards to the so-called "barbarians" around them was a sign of China's wealth and a shameless behavior.
Anyway, once a year, I can afford it.
But who should come first? They have repeatedly plundered the Ming Dynasty's border areas, and they are poor, so they will naturally not be polite.
After tasting the sweetness, he paid tribute more and more frequently.
By the 17th year of Zhengtong, the number of tributes had developed to several tributes a year, and each tribute brought a large number of cattle and sheep as well as thousands of envoys.
And because it is a tribute, you can't accept it, and you have to give gold and silver in exchange for the value, which is equivalent to forceful buying and selling.
The number of missionaries is as many as two thousand.
Yes, two thousand people, also called three thousand people at first, just want to defraud the reward money.
Two thousand people are enough to fight a small battle. These guys are not honest and do a lot of sneaking, blocking and robbing.
The Ming Dynasty not only had to buy cattle, sheep, and horses, but was also responsible for the food, clothing, housing, and transportation of two thousand people. When the people left, they were given rewards to thank them for taking the trouble to come to the Ming Dynasty to cheat people with food, drink, and harass the people.
Over time, although other courtiers were indulged in the illusion of "customers from all over the world", the Ministry of Etiquette, which was responsible for the reception, and the Ministry of Household, which gave the money, complained endlessly, and the knowledgeable people in the court were also strongly dissatisfied with this.
Zhu Qizhen was not a fool, so he naturally saw what Ye Xian was thinking. He was treating Ming Dynasty as a cash machine!
"Didn't I stipulate before that the number of tributes from Wala should not exceed three hundred people!"
His voice rose a bit, and he was obviously a little angry at this time.
"Your Majesty, Wala did not listen to the order first, but still ordered more than 3,000 people to pay tribute to the mission..." Jin Ying on the side said with a bitter smile.
"What does he think of the Ming Dynasty? Is he here to pay tribute or to get free money? Did I sign the Chanyuan Alliance with Wala!"
Zhu Qizhen became even more angry when he heard this.
He is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and yet a subject country dares to ignore his orders.
At this time, Yuan Masi, who was responsible for the horse administration of the Ming Dynasty, also came to report.
"Your Majesty, the horses sent as tribute from Wala are all of poor quality. There are even sick horses and old horses among them. Except for the horses in the front row, none of them are good horses."
Yuan Masiqing looked bitter.
The horses that come out of the grassland are generally of the best quality, and they are all destined to serve in the army.
If it were the Ming Dynasty in the original history, bad horses would be used. After all, there were few horses, so it would be nice to have a good horse to ride. But in the Ming Dynasty in this time and space, because Jisi Prefecture continuously provided horses to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not lack war horses at all, and the Ming army looked down upon those inferior horses at all.
If he joins the army first...he will definitely be beaten to death by the military!
"What did you say!"
After hearing this, Zhu Qizhen clenched his fists angrily.
If this were normal trading, the only way these horses could be sold was to become pieces.
But Ming Dynasty now bought a large number of bad horses at the price of good horses!
First of all, this is treating Zhu Qizhen as the enemy!
Thinking of this, the veins on Zhu Qizhen's head popped out, his teeth were clenched, and his eyes were eager to devour anyone!
"Get out!"
"Kick them all out!"
"All the tribute items will be withheld, and I will tell you first when the gold and silver from previous tributes will be replenished, and when I, the Ming Dynasty, will allow him to pay tribute again."
"Otherwise, I, the Ming Dynasty, will no longer recognize its King Shunning, no longer recognize Oara's vassal status, and will cancel his qualifications to pay tribute!"
Zhu Qizhen's furious voice came from the hall.
"According to the order!"
…
All the tribute products of Oara this time were withheld by the Ming Dynasty without any payment. All the more than 2,000 Oara envoys were driven out of the Great Wall.
They found Ye Xian and reported the matter.
Those who learned about this were also furious.
As Wala's strength grew stronger, he had already lost the respect he once had for the Ming Dynasty.
He has long been greedy for the wealth in the Central Plains.
Why can people in the Ming Dynasty steal the colorful world, but I can only graze outside this bitter cold wall!
At this time, with the peace on the border, the Ming army at the border had become somewhat lax, their combat effectiveness declined, and the generals began to engage in corruption and empty pay. The Ming army was no longer what it once was, and was not even as good as the guards soldiers in the south who participated in many counter-insurgency campaigns. .
Ye Xian naturally looked down upon them.
This incident directly became the trigger, and he decided not to endure it anymore.
In May of the 17th year of Zhengtong, he also formally ordered all the tribes in Wala to gather together and adopted the method of "drawing one from three households". At that time, a large army was drawn from the population of nearly 300,000 households in Wala.
Countless cavalry gathered from all over the Western Grassland, and Wala began a full-scale mobilization!
(End of chapter)
