"Your Majesty, you must not do it. The voyage to the West costs a lot of money. In the past two years, the national treasury has been gradually increasing, but it cannot afford such expenses!"
As soon as Li Jie arrived outside the Wenhua Hall, he heard the somewhat high-pitched argument from Li Min, the Minister of Household Affairs.
Liu Ji's face was gloomy and uncertain. Li Min did not give him any face to refute what he just said. How could he not know that the original person who proposed this matter was Li Jie, but now his status is in jeopardy. The emperor is obviously interested in this matter. If he does it again
Opposing will only make the situation worse, and you have to agree with it against your will.
"Li Shangshu, I wonder if you have ever seen the account books of the Yongle period? The profits from overseas trade are much higher than the investment. How can you turn a blind eye? We only talk about consumption, not income?"
It was rare for the emperor to see Liu Ji standing on the same front as him, looking at him with a smile. Liu Ji noticed the emperor's expression and became refreshed. He instantly felt that everything before was worth it. Of course, he didn't hate Li Jie as much as the emperor did.
Appreciation is important. If kneeling down and licking Li Jie can help him regain the emperor's heart, then he will do it without hesitation.
Li Min refused to give in and refuted: "The weather at sea is changing. Liu Shoufu, you only saw the ships returning, but do you know how many ships never returned and were buried in the sea? The dangers are far more dangerous than people think."
Liu Ji was startled when he heard this. He didn't agree with this matter. He just argued with Li Min just to flatter the emperor. When his subordinates repeated it to him before, he didn't pay much attention to it. He didn't pay much attention to how many ships went to sea.
It is indeed unclear how many returns there were, and it is impossible to answer at all, but his many years as an official were not in vain.
"Li Shangshu, is there any business in the world that is sure to make a profit without losing money? Risks and returns often coexist. Isn't the risk of making a successful move not big? Isn't it risky to go overseas privately? Aren't merchants flocking to it?"
Li Jie didn't expect that Liu Ji, who had always been against them, would actually support them this time. It seemed that he was aware of the crisis. All this must be for self-protection. Seeing him setting up Zhulou, seeing him entertaining guests,
Seeing his building collapse, the ancients would not deceive me.
Everyone was not surprised to see Li Jie nodded slightly. Although Li Jie had a low position in the past two years, everyone was already used to it that he had participated in many important meetings of the court.
Li Min glanced at Liu Ji bitterly. Some time ago, the two of them were still on the same side. Unexpectedly, the chief assistant would backtrack again today and support his rival's suggestion. Could it be that Liu and Xu are getting back together?
Really? After thinking about it carefully, it was wrong. If the two important ministers of the cabinet put aside their previous differences and worked together, such a major event would definitely not go quietly. After thinking about it, it was still puzzling, but this did not affect his determination to oppose it at all.
Liu Ji and Li Min had a heated debate in the court for several rounds. The public was talking about public opinion, and the mother-in-law was talking about the rights of mother-in-law. Neither could convince the other. As a senior official in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Li Min had such a reaction.
Normally, he is really scared of poverty. The situation has just improved in the past two years and he really doesn't dare to take such a big risk.
The emperor saw the two of them arguing and was about to take action, so he started to mediate.
"Xu Aiqing, please tell me too."
Xu Pu took a step forward and said: "Your Majesty, I used to sit in a well and look at the sky. In vain, I thought that I, the Ming Dynasty, was the only big one in the world, and the other four barbarians were just barbarians. However, there is heaven outside the sky, and there are people outside the world, even thousands of miles away.
The splendid civilization, its numerous people, its prosperous military, and the sharpness of its weapons are not inferior to those of our Ming Dynasty."
"What?"
The emperor was shocked when he heard what the old minister said, and looked at Xu Pu dumbfounded. Other important ministers who didn't know about it were also shocked when they heard the words. The weight of these words coming from Xu Ge's mouth was far greater than that of others.
When Xu Pu saw everyone looking surprised and uncertain, he glanced at Li Jie and said, "I also heard what Lin Zhongyun said about this. He happens to be here today, so let him repeat it for everyone."
Yesterday Xu Pu sent a letter to Li Jie to tell him that he planned to make the matter public at the court meeting today, so Li Jie was already prepared and took out a simple hand-drawn map from his sleeve, and then called two eunuchs to bring it to the public.
The map is spread out.
Li Jie pointed at the map and said: "Look, Your Majesty, here in the northwest of our Ming Dynasty are Tatar, Oasi, and further north, Rus, Korea, and Japan are all to the east of our Ming Dynasty."
Then he pointed to Southeast Asia: "Here are Luzon, Manchuria, Ryukyu, Siam, Champa and other foreign countries. These are the overseas foreign countries that have the most contacts with the Ming Dynasty. Ryukyu's tribute
Most of them come from here.”
After Li Jie finished speaking, he paused and pointed to Europe: "Your Majesty, this is the Byzantine Empire, which is the country that Mr. Xu Ge just mentioned. It has been inherited for thousands of years and has experienced more than 90 emperors. It is longer than the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. However, as far as I know,
, it has been destroyed, and it was the Ottoman Empire that conquered it."
They clicked heavily on the location of the Ottoman Empire on the map. Everyone was shocked when they saw the map. Until they heard Li Jie's words about the thousand-year empire, they were all shocked. When Li Jie explained that it had been destroyed,
They were shocked again, what they said today really overturned their previous understanding.
The emperor was silent for a long time, until he came back to his senses and asked in a slightly hoarse tone.
"Lin Aiqing, where did your picture come from? And how did the thousand-year empire you mentioned fall down?"
When everyone heard the emperor's words, they all came to their senses and looked at Li Jie with burning eyes.
Li Jie also knew the importance of it. If the important ministers in the court could open their eyes to the world and know that foreign countries are not a barren land, it would be crucial to opening up the sea ban in the future, so he would not talk about it now.
"Your Majesty, this picture was obtained by searching Hanlin's collection of books and searching for Fan merchants in the past two years. I had more contact with Fan merchants before offering a reward of a thousand gold, and I also learned a lot of overseas news from their mouths. Its prosperity may not be as prosperous as that of the Ming Dynasty.
, but it is not inferior in terms of weapons."
"For example, in terms of firearms, the Ottoman Empire relied on firearms to overthrow the Thousand Years Empire. The cannons were several times larger than our Ming Dynasty artillery, and their power was far greater. Before attacking a city, they used artillery to clear the way and fire shells to destroy the city wall.
After that, the finger of the army was invincible."
Everyone is no stranger to firearms, but they don't pay enough attention to them. Most of the wars in the imperial court were fought against the Tatars. The Tatars rarely attacked cities. The artillery was too heavy for field battles. In addition, with the collapse of the maritime tribute system,
Fleets are rarely sent to sea, so the demand for artillery is not high, so naturally they will not spend a lot of effort to develop such impractical things.
At this time, what the emperor was thinking about was not paying tribute, but thinking about how he would resist if someone brought such firearms to attack the Ming Dynasty. He did not doubt that Li Jie was setting him up. Li Jie had given him all these years.
His impression is that he will never make a mistake, and he will never just talk about such a big thing, and he will also prove it afterwards.