Chapter 945 1034 Gold Standard

"You are Wang Gao.

Only one of the prisoners raised his head, so the little emperor easily knew who he was, and immediately asked: "You are the one who keeps sending troops to invade my Liaodong border town and slaughter the people of the Ming Dynasty. Why?

Back then, my Ming Dynasty kindly accepted you and others to live outside the customs, but I didn't expect that they were all a bunch of ambitious people.

Don't say that I, the Ming Dynasty, treat you poorly. If you don't accept Wang Hua, you can go back to your hometown in the north. I think you are a bunch of people who don't know etiquette. "

As if he was not interested, the little emperor Zhu Yijun sat up straight again and said to the people below: "Master Zhang, Master Wei."

"I'm here."

"I'm here."

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde took half a step forward and agreed at the same time.

"The cabinet is going to discuss it. The Jurchen tribes don't know the rituals. The officials should choose the teachings and go north to the Jurchen tribes to educate the rough people and let them understand our Han culture and learn the rules of etiquette, justice, integrity, and respect for superiors and subordinates. Is this okay?"

The little emperor Zhu Yijun said loudly to the people below.

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde below looked at each other and knew that these words were not taught by the other party. They were either taught by the palace or

"I obey the order."

The two of them didn't have time to think, so they subconsciously answered.

After Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde returned to the court, the prisoner presentation ceremony continued.

At this time, the prisoners were all kneeling in front of the Meridian Gate, facing north, waiting for the imperial court to deal with them.

Throughout the entire procedure, Wang Gao was not given a chance to speak.

In fact, in order to prevent them from saying something they shouldn't say in front of the emperor, all the prisoners were given a medicine to numb their throats when they entered the palace. Even if they wanted to speak, they could not speak.

Even if he makes a sound, it's just humming and humming.

Wei Guangde knew these things, but the little emperor Wanli on the tower did not know.

After he preached to Wang Gao, he saw that he did not dare to answer. He thought he was intimidated by his momentum, and he felt happy in his heart.

The court was quiet for only a moment before Wang Zhigao, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, left his duties, walked under the Meridian Gate, saluted the emperor, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Punishment is investigating the crimes committed by Ni Chief Gao and his troops. Since the Jiajing year, Wang Gao has been constantly harassing our border towns in the Ming Dynasty, killing many people.

The Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Wang Zhigao, requested that the rebellious chief and his gang be beheaded, and that they all go to the city Cao for execution. Please ask for the order! "

Wang Zhigao complained about Wang Gao's crimes and finally stated the Ministry of Punishment's opinion on requesting execution.

After speaking, Wang Zhigao took out the memorial from his sleeve and raised his hands above his head.

A young chamberlain came forward, took the memorial from his hand, and quickly sent it to the tower.

At this time, the entire Meridian Gate was extremely quiet, as everyone was waiting for the emperor who was talking about the Tianxian to deal with Gao Ji, the rebellious chieftain.

Although most people had received the news in advance, they knew that because these people had participated in the war against Ming Dynasty and had Han people's lives on their hands, they would all be executed to shock Xiao Xiao.

However, everything must be said from the mouth of the little emperor.

He took the memorial, opened it, and after flipping through it quickly, the little emperor Zhu Yijun finally moved. He stood up, stepped off the throne, walked to the city wall, looked at the people below and said loudly to Wang Zhigao: "Take it."

"Take it. Take it."

As the emperor's words fell, first the eight General Jinwu shouted, then the sixteen, and then the thirty-two shouted in unison. This was passed down step by step, and finally the three hundred and sixty General Jinwu shouted in the highest voice. Say "take it".

The unique design of the square outside the Meridian Gate, surrounded on three sides, formed a very good sound concentration effect. The sound of "take it" echoed in the square, and gradually infected the emotions of the dignitaries and officials present.

I don’t know who took the lead in shouting, and then the Minister Xunqi shouted, "Take it."

The sound is as loud as thunder, and the sky is majestic.

The prisoners were already frightened out of their wits and collapsed on the ground.

Amidst the constant shouting around him, Wang Zhigao waved his hand back, and the hundreds of criminal officers who had been at the end of the queue swarmed forward, took over the prisoners from the hands of the prison captain, and escorted them out.

Executions were naturally handed over to the Ministry of Punishment, not to the palace guards. This is why Emperor Wanli said "take it" and not "accurately execute". This was to hand them over to the Ministry of Punishment for execution.

According to the general procedure of the Ming Dynasty's prisoner presentation ceremony, the prisoners who were tortured according to the law stood facing east in the west chamber, waiting to be handed over to the executioner for execution.

If the emperor is gracious and intends to acquit the prisoner, the governor will go to the royal road and kneel down to ask for a solution. Then he will escort the prisoner from the east chamber to the south and stand to the west of the official.

But this time, apparently no one interceded for Wang Gao and others, so they stood facing the east in the west chamber from beginning to end.

For officials who are proficient in the "Da Ming Huidian", they have already noticed this.

Although the emperors of the Ming Dynasty often condoned and pardoned prisoners to show the benevolence and tolerance of the heavenly dynasty, that was all during the Yongle period.

Emperor Yongle's main force of the Three Thousand Battalion was not composed of surrendered Mongols, although they may not have gone through such a ceremony of offering prisoners.

As all the prisoners of war were taken away by the Ministry of Punishment and prepared for execution, Emperor Wanli also went to the Meridian Gate.

The prisoner presentation ceremony was not just a show of presenting and disposing of prisoners at the Meridian Gate. Next, the young emperor Zhu Yijun had to return to Huangji Gate to receive congratulations from hundreds of officials, and then to offer sacrifices to the suburban temple and send Duke Xu Wenbi and Hou Chen Liangbi to the temple. , Prince Consort Xu Congcheng each saluted, and after taking back the wine, he also gave it to his assistant ministers.

These are all established procedures.

If the emperor comes of age, a banquet will be held in the palace tonight to celebrate.

However, since the emperor was young, these were naturally cancelled.

Throughout the whole day, everywhere in the capital was busy, but the busiest one was the Xisi Archway.

Xisi Archway is the full name of Xisi. It is symmetrical to Dongsi Archway to the east of the Imperial City. It is two important traffic arteries and bustling commercial streets in Beijing.

Archway, also known as archway, is a decoration of the city.

According to historical records, when the city of Beijing was built in the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, archways were built on Dongsi, Xisi, Dongdan, Xidan, East and West Chang'an Streets. This layout made Beijing more majestic.

For ordinary people, urban archways are signs of direction when traveling.

At the West Fourth Archway, there are the same crossroads in the east, west, south and north. At each intersection, there is a four-column, three-story archway with gold, painted and wooden structure, and a Ruyi bracket under the eaves.

According to the "Jingshifang Alley Chronicles", the archway at the south and north intersections was written "Da Shi Jie", the archway at the east intersection was written "Xing Yi", and the archway at the west intersection was written "Lü Ren".

The "Xi Shi", the execution ground of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, is also known as Xisi in Xicheng today.

There is no doubt that this is a big market street with a lot of people coming and going. In addition, today the Ministry of Punishment is executing the rebel chief here. The people of the capital who are watching the excitement have to surround the place on three floors inside and three floors outside.

However, these have little to do with the adults in the court, that is, the Ministry of Punishment is busy with this matter.

But I was prepared in advance, so nothing would go wrong.

After the ceremony, Wei Guangde returned to the cabinet and continued to handle official duties until the afternoon. Then he returned to the mansion in a sedan chair to rest.

After dinner and taking the exam on Dalang's knowledge, Wei Guangde went back to the study to read and pass the time.

"Dong dong dong."

There was a knock on the study door, and Wei Guangde said casually: "Come in."

The door was pushed open and Zhang Ji walked in quickly.

"Is something wrong?"

Wei Guangde saw it was Zhang Ji and asked casually.

"Sir, Commander Liu is outside asking to see you."

Zhang Ji whispered.

"who?"

Hearing Zhang Ji say Commander Liu, Wei Guangde didn't react for a moment, put down his book and looked at him.

"Commander Liu Shou of Jin Yiwei, Commander Liu, said he had something important to report."

Zhang Ji whispered.

"Is there anything you can't say directly to the cabinet? Why do you have to come to the government so late?"

Wei Guangde murmured, then nodded and said, "Bring him in."

"yes."

Zhang Ji agreed, turned around and left the study.

Not long after, Liu Shouyou, dressed in casual clothes, was brought in.

"See Mr. Wei Ge."

Entering the house, Liu Shouyou saluted Wei Guangde first.

"Get up and talk."

Wei Guangde said, "It's so late, but what's important?"

In any case, Liu Shou had a special official position, and he controlled the Jinyiwei. This was not a department that a minister could get involved in.

Although Liu Shou came over and Wei Guangde agreed to help him, he usually didn't dare to have too much contact with him.

Even if Liu Shou was asked to do something, it was still a state matter. After thinking about it, he took the initiative to report it to the palace.

Why I do this is because I am worried about being criticized in the future, which is difficult to explain.

"Previously, I received a secret report from Japan."

While talking, Liu Shouyou took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it over with both hands.

Wei Guangde knew that this should be a transcribed text. After all, the original text must be kept in the Jinyiwei Document Library.

Regardless of whether it is submitted to the palace or otherwise, only one copy can be sent.

Out of curiosity, Wei Guangde took the note from Liu Shouyou, but still waved him to sit aside and talk.

After he quickly read the text on the note, he asked in surprise: "Siyun, what's wrong with this?"

The so-called intelligence above, in Wei Guangde's opinion, does not seem to be important information. It just mentioned that after the Jinyiwei spies entered the Japanese country, they discovered that Ming products had flowed into the Japanese country. After secretly tracing, they found that they were brought by Folangji people who came to trade with the Ming Dynasty. Come.

"Siyun, the Folangji people purchase goods from our Ming Dynasty. As for whether these goods are finally sold to Japan or brought back to Western countries for sale, once we sell the goods, it will be difficult to supervise them.

As long as there were no Ming Dynasty merchants who secretly ran away to Japan, it would be nothing. "

Wei Guangde actually just glanced at it briefly and didn't look at it carefully, so what he said didn't seem to go beyond Liu Shouyou's expectations.

However, Liu Shouyou, who had just sat down, had already stood up and was about to speak to him when the maid outside the door brought tea.

So Liu Shouyou sat down again, and after the others put down the tea and went out, he stood up and clasped his fists at Wei Guangde and said, "Mr. Ge, I didn't notice anything at first, but look at the last few paragraphs.

Although the subordinate didn't know what was going on, he still felt that something was wrong, so he had the courage to come to see Mr. Ge at this time.

The lower official is not very talented and has little knowledge, so he cannot understand the mystery. I hope that the elder of the cabinet will know and maybe he can understand the reason. "

"Finally, let me see."

Wei Guangde let his slaves secretly start sea trade to Japan, so the last thing he wanted to see was for the court to find out about the business there.

"By the way, where did this information come from? I remember that Jin Yiwei was not arranged to investigate the Japanese country."

Wei Guangde asked seemingly casually.

"It was the spy sent to North Korea by the lower official. He discovered that there were merchants in North Korea doing business with the Japanese country, so he followed the ship and found out."

Liu Shouyou hurriedly explained.

"oh."

Wei Guangde just responded casually and shifted his attention to the last few paragraphs, but then he frowned.

Actually, he knew everything mentioned in the note.

However, the situation was slightly different when Liu Shouyou took it out.

Because some of the contents described in the note were not mentioned by anyone.

That is, the Portuguese, or more accurately, the barbarians, traded with the Japanese pirates, and their trading currency was not the silver he was familiar with, but gold.

In the past, Wei Guangde thought that silver should be the most important trading currency in international trade in this era, and he had silver coins made by Westerners in his hand.

Therefore, he also thought that this should be the case.

Because of the silver coins in his hand, he once considered reorganizing the Mint Bureau of the inner and outer courts, and in addition to making copper coins, he also had to make silver coins.

Think about it, 70% to 80% of silver is equivalent to one tael, and the court makes a net profit of 20% to 30%. After deducting the cost, there is at least more than 10% profit.

The court's annual cash income is about 2 million taels. If all this cash is made into silver coins and then released, it is equivalent to an additional 200,000 taels of silver in the court every year.

This is not a small number for the Ming Dynasty court.

It was only after seeing the note that Wei Guangde realized that the barbarians sent silver to Daming, and the goods they took away were not only exchanged for silver, but more of them were gold.

Yes, the barbarian ships sold goods from Daming and other places in Japan, and required that gold be traded first.

Although Japan has a lot of gold, traders certainly do not have enough, so they usually have part gold and part silver.

This trading method has been going on for a long time, resulting in the current gold-silver exchange rate in Japan from one tael of gold to six or seven taels of silver many years ago to ten taels of silver now.

Silver has depreciated so much, but the barbarians still choose to transport gold from Japan.

In fact, most of the silver they took away from Japan was also transported to Daming to buy various goods, among which it is said that there was a lot of gold.

Seeing this, Wei Guangde was shocked.

It's very simple. Wei Guangde knew that there was a problem with the exchange of gold and silver between Daming and Japan, but he only regarded this as an arbitrage space, but did not realize that the barbarians regarded both Daming and Japan as arbitrage spaces.

What does this mean?

Naturally, the gold price of Western countries is higher. They not only want the gold of Ming Dynasty at a ratio of 1:7, but also the gold of Japan at a ratio of 1:10.

Thinking of the fact that the world trade in the future has been based on gold standard instead of silver standard for a long time, Wei Guangde seems to have smelled the smell.

A large amount of silver was left in East Asia, and they collected a lot of gold.

In the future, as long as the price of gold and silver changes slightly.

Isn't this a currency war of the Ming Dynasty?

Now there is still a lot of gold in Ming Dynasty and Japan. When the gold in East Asia is sucked dry, the global silver is shipped to Ming Dynasty. As long as the gold price changes slightly to 1:15, it is equivalent to directly devaluing Ming Dynasty's assets by half. If it continues to depreciate to 1:30.

"Pah."

Wei Guangde subconsciously slapped the desk, and the sound was so loud that Zhang Ji, who was waiting outside, looked inside.

Waving to Zhang Ji, Wei Guangde calmed down for a moment before looking at Liu Shouyou and asked, "Have there been any news from spies in other places?"