"That is to say, what the Emperor wants is not the Ming Dynasty Navy, but the Royal Fleet." Gao Pingshi leaned his head gently on the back of the chair behind him, closed his eyes slightly and asked, "The Emperor plans to invest this money from his own funds." As for the money, I still hope that the Ministry of Revenue will provide the money, or that the Ministry of Revenue will provide part of it?"
"Your Majesty has said that if such a large amount of money is all paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs, even if you, the Marquis, are loyal to the country and don't mind, you will definitely face huge pressure from public opinion from both the government and the public. Naturally, your Majesty will not be happy about this. Yes, so the emperor wants to ask you..."
Liu Ping carefully paid attention to Gao's pragmatic expression and whispered: "What is the maximum percentage that the Ministry of Finance can give?"
Gao pragmatic did not open his eyes, just smiled, shook his head slightly and said: "Liu Ping, let me tell you this: if the emperor wants to rely entirely on the inner court to build a royal fleet, even if the Ministry of Revenue only provides I'm afraid I can't come up with a tael of silver.
Or, the cabinet department can take it out, but from then on, they can only resign resolutely, or even hang up their hats and leave, just wandering in the forest, and no longer ask a single word about the affairs of the DPRK. "
Liu Ping's expression changed drastically, and he asked in disbelief: "Isn't Mr. Ge just joking? With your unparalleled achievements..."
"Meritors or honors are not a gold medal for immunity from death. What's more, even if it is a gold medal for immunity from death, Taizu did not say that the gold medal for immunity from death does not require you to take the blame for major mistakes. Those who should resign must resign."
Gao pragmatic finally opened his eyes, stretched out his hand to stop Liu Ping who was about to speak, and said calmly: "About this matter, just tell the emperor the exact words you said, and convey another sentence, saying that I never joke about such things. These words have no other meaning, they are simply statements of facts.
Of course, please don’t misunderstand the emperor. If the emperor decides to do it, I will still fully support him. This kind of support is not only willing to do everything in the power of the Ministry of Household Affairs to approve the appropriation, but also including personally funding some funds after resigning...
If the emperor needs Jinghua Shipyard to also contribute to the construction of the fleet, I will also arrange the orders for the royal fleet at the forefront and let them complete them first. The above is my attitude, every word and every word comes from the bottom of my heart. "
Gao Pragmatic's words exceeded the emperor's expectations at all levels. Liu Ping roughly knew the emperor's attitude, and of course he was very shocked and incomprehensible.
He neither understood why because of "this matter", Gao Jingshi thought that as long as he helped the emperor, he must resign at the cost of his resignation; nor did he understand why Gao Jingshi didn't seem to mind resigning, and was even willing to resign. After that, he personally helped the emperor build this fleet.
"Mr. Pavilion, I am stupid. I really don't understand the reason for this. I wonder if I can give you some advice to clear up my doubts, so that I can explain things to the emperor after I return to the capital?" Liu Ping After all, he is Huang Mengyu's nephew, so he is confident and pragmatic and will not reveal any inside information.
"Actually, there is no need for you to explain to the Emperor. Tell him what I have said, and the Emperor will naturally be able to guess the reason with his wisdom."
Gao pragmatically said, glanced at Liu Ping, and sighed softly: "But if you really can't understand, then... look back and think about why the overseas voyages were resolutely stopped by the foreign court, and why Liu Zhongxuan would rather risk For the crime of deceiving the emperor, the documents related to the voyages to the West will also be burned. When you understand this, you will naturally understand what I mean."
Liu Zhongxuan was Liu Daxia, the Minister of War during the Hongzhi period. He was favored by Emperor Xiaozong and assisted him in realizing the "Resurgence of Hongzhi". Together with Wang Shu and Ma Wensheng, he was known as the "Three Gentlemen of Hongzhi", and together with Li Dongyang and Yang Yiqing, he was known as "Chu" "Three Heroes of the Earth".
After Wu Zong ascended the throne, Liu Daxia resigned repeatedly and returned to his hometown with the title of Crown Prince and Taibao. When Liu Jin took power, he was punished to garrison Suzhou. In the fifth year of Zhengde's reign, he was pardoned and returned to his hometown. He was immediately reinstated and became an official. In the eleventh year of Zhengde, Liu Daxia passed away at the age of eighty-one. He was posthumously given the title of Taibao by the imperial court, and was given the posthumous title "Zhongxuan" - starting with the word "loyalty", it was considered a very high posthumous title in the Ming Dynasty.
"Sail to the West?" Liu Ping's heart moved and his eyes began to move. Gao pragmatic glanced at him and sighed secretly in his heart. He didn't know if Liu Ping could understand the reason, but Zhu Yijun must be able to understand it, right?
When later generations mention Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas, they are often associated with "customer service from all over the world" and "those who go thick and thin come back". The feat of this ocean voyage, which lasted for more than thirty years, is the largest, longest and longest in the history of navigation in the ancient world. With the largest number of ships and crews, the Great Ocean Navigation radiated the political prestige and influence of the Ming Dynasty to the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and even eastern Asia. It is indeed worthy of praise from future generations.
However, the opposition, represented by many court officials, always insisted that the overseas voyages "wasted people and money" and was a performance and interview process that could not make ends meet. After many twists and turns, the voyages to the West finally came to an end during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty.
However, Zheng He's voyages to the West were really an act that only focused on political interests and not economic interests. Was it really terminated because he failed to make ends meet and caused huge economic losses?
Of course not. If you carefully examine the political and economic situation in the Ming Dynasty before and after Zheng He's voyages to the West, it will not be difficult to find that the economic benefits brought by Zheng He's voyages - especially the economic spillover effects are actually far greater than the economic expenditures. Not only are they not Loss, but huge profit.
So why was it still firmly stopped? Quite simply, although the voyages to the West brought huge benefits, the distribution of these benefits by interest groups in the Ming Dynasty was seriously unbalanced. In addition, the trade model of the voyages deviated from economic laws, which made the voyages themselves difficult to do. The "bad government" continued and was eventually abandoned completely.
Saying "huge profits" while saying "unsustainable" is not pragmatic anymore, but the actual situation at the time.
At the beginning of his accession to the throne, Zhu Di ordered the confidant eunuch Zheng He to lead a fleet to the Western Ocean. The purpose was obvious. This point is clearly reflected in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Chengzu suspected that Emperor Hui had perished overseas, and wanted to There are traces of them, and they want to show off their troops in foreign lands and show China's prosperity."
From the analysis of "History of the Ming Dynasty", Zheng He was ordered to form a fleet to sail to the Western Ocean for two main reasons:
Because of his improper access to the throne, Emperor Jianwen was nowhere to be found after he took the risk to capture Nanjing and seize the throne. Zhu Di was not at ease and sent people all over the country to conduct overt inspections and secret visits, fearing that Emperor Jianwen would be exiled overseas. After all, there were many Chinese doing business and living in Southeast Asia at that time. Therefore, he planned to send Zheng He to the Western Seas to find traces of Emperor Jianwen.
However, after Zhu Di ascended the throne, in order to demonstrate his legitimacy, he planned to establish diplomatic relations with overseas countries and include them in the tribute system. The dispatched fleet not only carried a large amount of hard currency such as porcelain and silk, but also had a large number of armed troops stationed on board, showing that the Ming Dynasty had an elite army and a strong country.
According to numerous historical materials, the main purpose of Zhu Di's sending Zheng He to the Western Seas seems to be to promote the country's prestige and to show his status as the "Celestial Kingdom".
Gong Zhen, who followed Zheng He on his voyages to the West, recorded in the "History of Western Countries": "At the beginning of Yongle, he ordered the Chinese and foreign countries to follow the Western Sea countries to show their kindness and power, and to expand to the Holy Rules."
Obviously, Emperor Yongle hoped to use a huge fleet to show the strength of the Ming Dynasty and achieve the scene of "recruiting people from far away" and "all nations coming to court" - this is not surprising, ancient China always regarded itself as "the heaven above" They regard other countries and nations as "barbarians" and believe that all "barbarians" in the world should submit to the "Celestial Dynasty" and pay tribute to the "Celestial Dynasty".
This point is well-documented. For example, when Zheng He made his seventh voyage to the Western Seas, he once recorded on a stele his purpose for his seven voyages to the Western Seas: “If all the overseas expeditions are actually distant lands, they will all praise them. Cong Zhi came to the court from across the sea. The emperor commended him for his loyalty and ordered He and others to command tens of thousands of officers and soldiers. They took more than a hundred huge ships and sent money to him, so Xuande was transformed into a Rouyuan man."
But obviously, this statement is only superficial. To truly understand the deep-seated reasons behind Zheng He's voyages to the West, we have to start from the domestic and international situation during the Yongle Dynasty.
First of all, let’s talk about the expenditures required for several major events during the Yongle period.
At the beginning of Zhu Di's succession to the throne, in addition to stabilizing the domestic population and solidifying the foundation of rule, he also faced thorny issues on the border. The remnant forces of the Northern Yuan Mongolia in the north were still strong and invaded the border from time to time. Jiaozhi County in the south also broke away from the Ming Dynasty. The idea of domination.
Therefore, in order to further demonstrate his legitimacy, in the third year of Yongle and the third year of Yongle, Zhu Di personally conquered Mongolia five times, each time dispatching more than 10,000 troops.
In addition, he sent the Duke Zhu Neng and the British Duke Zhang Fu to the South four times to conquer Annan. He also moved the capital to Beijing, recruited millions of craftsmen and civilians to expand and build the Forbidden City, overhauled the Wudang Palace, respected Emperor Zhenwu, and so on.
All of this requires a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. On the one hand, this money and food comes from the national treasury, and on the other hand, it comes from the emperor's inner treasury. There are not enough sources of revenue to effectively support these political achievements.
Secondly, the construction and maintenance of Zheng He's huge fleet also required huge financial support and consumption. In order to complete this voyage to the West, the imperial court had to spend huge amounts of financial resources, which is reflected in the following points:
This is in terms of shipbuilding expenditures. The ocean-going ships chosen by Zheng He for his voyages to the West had a carrying capacity of "five thousand charges" - good guy, Jinghua's second-level battleships such as the "Dongchang" only had a carrying capacity of 4,000 charges, but they were already giants on the East Asian seas. Okay, so what is the concept of five thousand materials? That is the estimated tonnage of the first-class battleship that Jinghua is still in the finalization stage of research.
Zheng He's fleet often consisted of six or seven ships of the same type at a time. Coupled with the expenses of craftsmen and material transportation costs, the cost of building an ocean-going fleet was astronomical.
Of course, because the cost of Jinghua pure warships is actually much higher than that of civilian ships, the cost of a single treasure ship is still much lower than that of Jinghua warships. One of the biggest reasons for the cost difference here is that there are many expensive artillery pieces on Jinghua warships, so it is mainly the artillery that greatly increases the cost.
In addition, most of the laborers used to build treasure ships are military craftsmen, and the wages are naturally lower than those from commercial shipyards under the name of Gao Jingshi. Many of the timber used to build treasure ships are directly cut down in military camps, and the cost is about the same as the freight, which is also higher than what Gao Jingshi can get. much lower.
But even so, Luo Dengmao still wrote in "The Romance of the Three Treasure Eunuchs in the West": "There are so many ships, the production is so detailed, and the praises are so great. It is necessary to mobilize the world to save money and food, and it will be enough."
Therefore, Gaowu Shi's current ships are so expensive. Firstly, the cost is indeed much higher than that of Zhu Di. Secondly, the benefits of maritime trade are indeed too great. The powerful and wealthy people involved in maritime trade are not afraid of high costs.
?Is the cost of purchasing materials. Although Zheng He's voyages to the West had the important mission of "Xuanwei overseas", it was also an important task to make intentional purchases of goods from overseas countries. To this end, before the fleet set off, the court had to purchase large quantities of porcelain, silk and other goods.
Although the imperial court did not purchase goods through market negotiation, it often exploited various craftsmen by purchasing at low prices - this also became an important reason why the overseas voyages were criticized in the future. However, just purchasing a huge amount of goods is already a huge expense.
The third is the rewards given to overseas countries and the officers and soldiers accompanying the ship. During the ocean voyage, Zheng He followed the imperial court's orders and awarded rewards to vassal states that recognized tributary relations. For example, "Ben'tang Collection" records the rewards given by the imperial court to the king of Champa in the third year of Yongle:
"The king of Champa was rewarded with one hundred taels of gold, five hundred taels of gold. In six years, he was rewarded with one hundred taels of gold, five hundred taels of gold, five pieces of brocade gauze, and one hundred pieces of colorful silk."
In addition, due to the arduous tasks of maritime navigation, which always last for several years, the loss of officers and soldiers on board the ship is large. In order to encourage the generals to work hard, the emperor would also give large-scale rewards to the fleet officers and soldiers after returning from each voyage. For example, in the ninth year of Yongle's reign, he was given "~10,000 ingots of banknotes and colorful coins, etc."
According to research in the book "On Zheng He's Voyages to the West", only low-level crew members were rewarded with 10 silver coins each. Considering the scale of tens of thousands of fleets each time, the reward of silver coins alone was at least as high as possible. More than 300,000 tablets (one tablet is not just one or two).
It can be seen from the above two aspects that during the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty conquered Mongolia five times and Jiaozhi four times, dredged canals and overhauled the city of Beijing. This cost is unimaginable for a country that has just experienced the "Jingyuan" civil war.
The cost of going to the Western Seas was even greater. If Zhu Di was just a simple emperor who loved great achievements, then he might indeed have made such a show of wealth as the Western Seas voyages.
However, considering the huge manpower and material resources consumed by the next voyage to the West, spending money to buy food like this would only happen twice at most, not as many as six consecutive voyages to the West during the Yongle Dynasty - this is no longer the case. Great explanation of the function, I can only say that unless Zhu Di is a psychopath.
However, something magical happened. According to historical records, despite facing huge expenses and considering that the trauma of the domestic war caused by the "Battle of Jingnan" when Zheng He went to the West has not been completely eliminated, in the end of the Yongle Dynasty, the Ming court's financial situation The situation actually didn't get worse.
"In Yongle period, although Beijing was built, Jiaozhi was conquered in the south, and the desert was conquered in the north, there was no shortage of resources." - "History of the Ming Dynasty·Huang Fujian"
Is this strange? When domestic financial resources have not been effectively expanded, Ming Dynasty spent money without any financial crisis?
Obviously, the only reasonable and credible explanation is that Zheng He's trading activities on his voyages to the West brought huge economic benefits to the Ming Dynasty. It was this kind of economic interest that maintained Zhu Di's huge expenditures during his reign.
?And according to preliminary calculations in the book "The Vicissitudes of Jinghai" edited by Lu Congdong, the overseas trade opening policy of the early Ming Dynasty, characterized by Zheng He's voyages to the West, brought huge wealth to the Ming Dynasty, at least "more than a thousand taels of silver and thirty thousand taels of gold." two".
This is what Gao Pragmatic believes is "huge profit".
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