jdhmnovel Chapter 848 The word "tribute" was thoroughly understood by Old Deng.
Chapter 848 The word "tribute" was thoroughly understood by Old Deng.
As Zhu Biao finished speaking, Li Shanchang fell silent.
Strictly speaking, the Koreans are not weaklings.
One hundred thousand fine warhorses allowed the Koreans to maneuver between the Ming Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty.
But who would have thought that the officials of the Koreans would sell off all 100,000 warhorses, which were the foundation of their livelihood, for a mere amount of paper money?
Just as Li Shanchang was pondering this, Zhu Biao said with a smile, "The warhorses that the Koreans sent before..."
"What the Koreans ruined wasn't just their warhorses."
Li Shanchang was slightly taken aback and asked, "Not just warhorses? What else?"
Zhu Biao said with a smile, "And their iron smelting and steelmaking are basically ruined too."
Li Shanchang was stunned again.
The warhorse is ruined.
Iron smelting and steelmaking were also abandoned.
Is the Koreans not planning to stay?
Seeing Li Shanchang's bewildered expression, Yang Shaofeng laughed: "Prime Minister Li, do you remember the essay 'On Gentry' that I once wrote?"
Li Shanchang nodded slightly, and Yang Shaofeng continued, "There are not many good people among the gentry of the Ming Dynasty, and the gentry of the Koreans are not necessarily much better."
"For them, why spend so much effort and money researching and manufacturing it when it's easier to just buy it directly?"
"So, it's not that nobody in the Korean country knows that glass is made by firing sand, but they're unwilling to spend money to research how to fire sand into glass, so they end up having to buy it from the market."
"Whenever a new style appeared in the market, they would excitedly buy it and shout that the Koreans were the first vassal state to buy the new glassware, and they were proud of it."
I won't name any particular Booth here.
Yang Shaofeng then said with a smile, "A few days ago, I told them that the Ming Dynasty was going to loosen the control over swords and armor, including the control over farm tools made of iron."
"The Koreans have long been happily preparing their banknotes, ready to go on a buying spree."
"Their steel business will probably be completely ruined in less than two years."
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Li Shanchang fell silent once again.
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen knew about the plan to loosen controls on swords and armor at the border markets, as did the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Grand Military Commission.
The reason why Emperor Zhu and many civil and military officials in the court agreed was that the role of swords on the battlefield was becoming less and less important, and the role of military formations was also becoming less and less important.
To put it simply, with the drilling machine developed by the Mechanical Engineering Department of Dengzhou University now in operation, the problem of the gun barrel, the only thing that had been hindering the development of firearms, has been solved.
With fixed-ammunition muskets and artillery using exploding shells, the way wars are fought has undergone a substantial change.
Even the finest armor cannot stop cannonballs, nor can it stop hand-held mines and landmines.
First, they would bombard the enemy with artillery fire from a distance, and then the cavalry would annihilate them once they were out of range. Even if someone managed to survive, they would then have to face musket bullets.
Swords and spears are weapons of war destined to be phased out.
Li Shanchang never expected that the Koreans would be so audacious as to completely rely on the border market and abandon their own steel industry.
As Li Shanchang pondered this haphazardly, he sighed softly and said, "I never expected the Koreans to be so audacious."
Yang Shaofeng nodded and agreed, "Indeed, those Koreans are really bold enough to establish a country and become vassals on our Ming territory."
Li Shanchang glanced at Yang Shaofeng sideways and strode forward.
After taking only a few steps, Li Shanchang stopped and turned to look at Yang Shaofeng, saying, "Both Java and Srivijaya have sent people to pay tribute."
"Among them, Java presented 75,000 catties of pepper, eight large pearls, and also 100 black male and female slaves, 300 black slaves, and other goods."
"King Maharajabalab of Srivijaya sent an envoy with a gold leaf as tribute, along with black bears, turkeys, peacocks, five-colored parrots, and various incense."
"Malacca is filled with agate, pearls, rhinoceros horn, ivory and a whole bunch of other random stuff."
"And Brunei also offers tributes of crane crests, raw hawksbill turtle shells, peacocks, large pieces of camphor, rice camphor, Western cloth, and various incense."
At this point, Li Shanchang's expression became somewhat strange: "Not only did Brunei send envoys to pay tribute, but their king also came along and is currently staying in the capital."
“Damn it, this bastard even said he wanted to pay 40 catties of Javanese natto as an annual tribute. I beg you to order Javanese to stop paying the tribute.”
"This is absolutely outrageous!"
Li Shanchang was so angry that he cursed, leaving Yang Shaofeng and Zhu Biao completely stunned.
The king of Brunei has gone a bit too far.
You're just supplying an extra 40 kilograms of Javanese brains every year, and you think you can compete with Javanese for favor?
Yang Shaofeng asked, "What about the return gift? What did His Majesty give them in return?"
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and said with a dark face, "The gilded silver seal and the 'Datong Calendar' were also given to each family, along with several hundred ingots of paper money."
"Oh, and also, the higher-ups allowed them to send envoys to trade at the border."
"Damn it, the national treasury was already empty, and this time the barbarians have really taken advantage of us!"
Li Shanchang directly expressed his dissatisfaction by cursing and swearing.
Yang Shaofeng simply rolled his eyes.
Seventy-five thousand catties of pepper were exchanged for a gilded silver seal, a calendar, and several hundred ingots of worthless paper money.
Old Deng really got the hang of the term "tribute" perfectly.
While mentally ranting, Yang Shaofeng asked, "What about the tribute from Java? How did Father-in-law arrange it?"
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Zhu Biao and Li Shanchang immediately became wary.
As everyone knows, Yang the Madman usually addresses Emperor Zhu as "Your Majesty," but when he's plotting against Emperor Zhu, he changes his address to "Father-in-law."
He's referring to his father-in-law again right now; who knows what wicked ideas he might be plotting?
Li Shanchang carefully considered his words before saying, "The pepper from Java will probably be used to pay the salaries of the court officials. Your Highness, you should have about a thousand or eight hundred catties of it."
"As for the large pearl, it's most likely that it went into the imperial treasury. Anyway, the national treasury has no use for that stuff."
"As for those male and female slaves, I suppose they are..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Li Shanchang realized what he meant and looked at Yang Shaofeng, asking, "Does the Prince Consort intend to take those male and female black slaves?"
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes and said, "Who said that?"
"This is a construction site. If we were to need anything, we'd need the male chimpanzees. What would we do with the females?"
"Please trouble Prime Minister Li to tell that dead eunuch Chen Zhong when you get back that he should castrate all those chimpanzees before sending them over."
You still say you don't want a chimpanzee!
Yang Shaofeng continued, "And those peppercorns, the market will buy them with money. Don't let my father-in-law use them to pay the officials' salaries."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng looked at Li Shanchang with great curiosity and asked, "Where are those envoys? Why didn't they come to Dengzhou with Prime Minister Li?"
Li Shanchang rolled his eyes and snorted coldly, "A bunch of stinking, muttony barbarians, how dare they travel with me?"