Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 324: Ming Dynasty Version of Longevity Cream
The Ming Empire was still preparing for the war against Jiaozhi, and the imperial court was still making a series of measures in an orderly manner to achieve this strategic goal.

In the spring of the 31st year of the Zhengde reign, at the suggestion of Liang Shiqi, the Chief Censor of the Ministry of Rites, Zhu Houzhao, under the instruction of the cabinet, issued an edict to the Ministry of Rites to change Zhu Di's posthumous title of Emperor Taizong Wen to Emperor Chengzu Wen, thereby once again demonstrating the court's determination to recreate the Yongle era of prosperity. If the Yongle era of prosperity was to be recreated, Jiaozhi naturally could not be allowed to remain independent.

Because of this, people began to discuss the territory of the Ming Dynasty during the Yongle period, and mentioned the old story of the Ming Dynasty giving up Jiaozhi.

In the summer of that year, the Minister of War Gui E made a public statement stating that Jiaozhi was an integral part of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming court naturally took these actions to pave the way for the conquest of Jiaozhi.

Soon after, Lin Tingxuan, the Privy Councilor of the Imperial Guard, submitted a memorial proposing to recapture Jiaozhi and protect the Han people. Zhu Houzhao approved Lin Tingxuan's request and ordered Mao Bowen to lead the troops to the expedition.

At this point, it was a foregone conclusion that the Ming Dynasty would recover Jiaozhi.

At this time, Jiaozhi was still in a state of civil strife and had no awareness of the Ming Dynasty's actions.

Not only was Jiaozhi itself unaware of the situation, but the Western foreigners who were trading or smuggling in the southern Ming Sea area also did not realize that this was a sign that the Ming Dynasty's strategic focus was shifting southward.

The Westerner Wan Lide was not too concerned about the Ming Empire's upcoming recovery of Jiaozhi at this time. He was still focusing on how much longevity cream he could sell during this visit to the Ming Empire.

Whether it was Spain or Portugal, these two rising Western European powers completely lost their dominant position in the global trade market after the Ming Dynasty joined the Great Movement of Discovery.

The Ming Dynasty's raw silk and other high-quality and low-cost products were dumped into the global market, causing large-scale bankruptcy of the textile industries of Spain, Portugal and the colonies they controlled.

At the same time, because the Ming Dynasty had already started the steam industrial revolution, was a provider of industrial products, and controlled many major shipping routes, Spain and Portugal had no advantages at all in global trade with the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty has always been in a trade surplus position, and a large amount of silver has flowed into the Ming Dynasty like water.

This means that almost all of the gold and silver that Spain and Portugal had plundered so hard from all over the world was earned by the Ming Dynasty.

Spain and Portugal naturally do not want this phenomenon to exist, nor can they sit idly by and watch their silver be lost.

then.

Spain and Portugal began to ban the sale of Chinese textiles in order to limit the flow of silver into the Ming Dynasty.

Not only Spain and Portugal, Japan was also restricting the flow of silver into the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to the Ming Empire's own advantages in raw silk production and the highly developed textile industry brought about by the steam industry, the bans imposed by Spain, Portugal and Japan were ineffective, and countless people still bought Ming products.

In order to break the trade deficit situation, Spain and Portugal thought of selling elixirs.

then.

The Ming Dynasty's open policy and huge trade surplus advantage led to the emergence of the longevity cream trade in the Ming Dynasty, which originally appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Wanlide is one of the pioneers of this kind of trade.

He had to admit that the profits from the longevity cream trade were more lucrative than selling musk mahogany ore to China, because he could easily obtain low-cost longevity cream by forcing captured slaves to plant it in his colonies. And when it was sold to the Ming Dynasty, it was obviously loved by everyone in the empire. Once they had taken the longevity cream, they could not stop taking it.

Moreover, Wanlide also discovered that due to the addictive nature of the longevity cream, the profits from the longevity cream trade could continue to increase.

After all, now the Westerners have no advantages other than the trade in balm to compete with the Ming Dynasty in global trade.

However, the trade of goods such as Fu Shou Gao had actually been banned in the Ming Dynasty a long time ago.

Therefore, Wan Lide came to Ming Dynasty to sell the longevity cream basically through smuggling.

Moreover, many officials and gentry along the coast would relax their vigilance against them and even help them because of their own corruption and bribery. Wan Lide even had a vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, King Hui, to support him. Therefore, this made his trade in Fu Shou cream more smoothly carried out within the Ming Dynasty.

Wan Lide was a typical white leftist. Looking at the prosperous markets of the Ming Dynasty, the wide concrete roads and tall buildings, the silks and satins all over the streets, and the roar of tireless machines that could provide more power than four or five strong men, all he thought of was that all the silver his empire obtained from the Americas fell into the pockets of these yellow people, so that the empire still lived an extremely prosperous life, and even developed more powerful guns and cannons, squeezing their flight route control space smaller and smaller.

"Mr. Lang, please try it. This is new merchandise. One tael and five hundred silver dollars!"

Wan Lide was speaking in broken Chinese to a wealthy man from Huizhou named Lang Yuanwai, who was sipping the liquor without blinking, and he said, "Ten pounds first, take him to the accounting office to settle the bill."

Wan Lide was overjoyed after hearing this, thinking that this longevity cream was indeed very profitable, with a cost of less than one hundred silver dollars and a profit of nearly eighty thousand silver dollars.

Of course, what made him even happier was that when he saw his old customer, Lang Yuanwai, gradually losing weight from a fat man to a skinny man by taking the longevity cream from him in the past few years, he hoped to expand this kind of trade in Ming Dynasty in his own empire, so that the army and nobles of this empire would become addicted to it. In this way, this empire would become weak, and his own empire could plunder this huge empire.

Wan Lide had thought far ahead, and he had even written such a letter to the King of Spain. However, he did not expect that just as he was leaving Lang Mansion with the bill for 80,000 silver dollars, two Jinyiwei appeared in front of him: "Wan Lide, right? Come with us!"

……

Although the war to recover Jiaozhi was getting closer, the closer it got, the less Emperor Zhu Houzhao had to do with it. He was still deeply impressed by the longevity cream presented by Prince Hui.

Zhu Houzhao still has not been able to alleviate his worries that things like Fu Shou Gao might flow into the Ming Dynasty prematurely because of the opening of the sea and poison the people of the world.

Although Zhu Houzhao had issued an administrative decree to ban the trade of Fushou Cream in the Ming Dynasty, he believed that it would be difficult to completely ban it. He also guessed that Westerners would become more and more active in the smuggling trade of Fushou Cream.

After all, history has proven that this is indeed a lucrative business and the only way to open up the Chinese market. Even in the 21st century, it is one of the three most profitable trades along with oil and arms.

Zhu Houzhao felt that if the trade of Fu Shou Cream could not be completely banned, then it would not be enough for the Ming Dynasty to suffer alone. He must also let Westerners suffer such harm, and he must rely on this kind of trade to continue to maintain the Ming Dynasty's trade advantage.

Of course, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to engage in this kind of drug trade, the drugs it produced naturally could not be simple drugs.

After all, Ming Dynasty is an industrialized country with scientific research capabilities. Therefore, the longevity cream that Ming Dynasty wants to produce cannot be a simple natural poison. It must be an industrial product and must be irreplaceable.

Moreover, before Zhu Houzhao obtained the longevity cream from Prince Hui, he had already asked Qiu Ju to send chemical talents from the Ming Dynasty to conduct experiments on the purification and synthesis of compounds from crops such as opium poppy.

Zhu Houzhao's original purpose was naturally just to make painkillers and use them for internal interrogations and intelligence detection in the Jinyiwei, but now, Zhu Houzhao had an idea to trade this kind of product as well.

"Your Majesty, this is the analgesic developed by me and the academicians of the Chemical Engineering Department. It is currently only used for critically ill patients on their deathbed," Qiu Ju said. Zhu Houzhao nodded and then asked Qiu Ju for other information about this type of analgesic. In the end, he basically confirmed that this analgesic was the morphine of later generations.

Shortly after Zhu Houzhao met Qiu Ju, the Embroidered Uniform Guard came to report that Wan Lide, the Western foreigner who sold the longevity cream to Prince Hui, had been captured.

Zhu Houzhao simply ordered the Jinyiwei to take Wan Lide to Qiu Ju's laboratory.

Zhu Houzhao also met Wan Lide here and asked, "Tell me, why did you sell Fu Shou Gao to the Ming Dynasty? How much did you sell? How much is left? Who did you sell it to? Through what channels did you sell it?"

Wan Lide never thought that he would be caught by the Jinyiwei of this empire one day, and even brought before the emperor of this empire. For a moment, he could only shake his head: "I don't know, I don't know anything!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile, and he didn't bother to talk nonsense with this Western barbarian, so he ordered: "Qiu Ju, give him a subcutaneous injection of the painkiller! Let's see if he will confess at that time, and let these foreign profiteers who sell poisons have a taste of the power of our Ming Dynasty's domestic fine longevity cream!"

Painkillers are compounds extracted from poppies by Qiu Ju and the chemical engineering team he leads. One of its properties is that it is soluble in water and can be injected subcutaneously.

The medical science of the Ming Dynasty is developing very fast. For Qiu Ju, subcutaneous injection is no stranger, but the syringe used is made of glass, not plastic. Qiu Ju came out in a white coat, holding a glass syringe in his right hand, like a weird old man giving vaccinations to children, and walked towards Wan Lide, and told people to show Wan Lide's shoulder.
Western fan Wanlide felt scared when he saw the thin needle before being injected. He didn't know what the strange old man was going to do, so he couldn't help but tremble, and a strong smell of urine came out from under his skirt.

Ah!
Wan Lide screamed!
At the same time, Qiu Ju had already injected a whole tube of painkiller, morphine, into Wan Lide's body.

At first, Wan Lide just felt a burst of pleasure and couldn't help laughing. Then he felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted another shot urgently: "Please, give me another shot, give me another shot! This liquid is so magical, it's simply God's liquid, it feels better than having sex with a woman!"

Zhu Houzhao could see that this type of medicine produced by the Ming Dynasty was obviously more effective and more addictive.

Next.

Because Zhu Houzhao did not allow Qiu Ju to continue injecting Wan Lide, Wan Lide became anxious and furious: "Give me another shot! Give me another shot!"

Wan Lide did not expect that he would be trapped in his own web. As a drug trader, he would be forced to become addicted to drugs in the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, he could not control his drug addiction and soon revealed all the information he knew.

"The Jinyiwei has established a drug enforcement department. Anyone who trades in Fushou Cream will be put to death! No need for interrogation! From now on, based on the clues provided by Wan Lide, we will immediately arrest drug traffickers, drug manufacturers, and even drug growers in and outside the Ming Dynasty. The police forces and the army in all places must fully cooperate! All the people in the Ming Dynasty who have begun to smoke Fushou Cream, no matter who they are, will be escorted to the Jinyiwei Drug Enforcement Department Prison and will not be released until they are completely free of the habit!"

Zhu Houzhao did not expect that even though he had issued an administrative order to ban the trade in drugs, he still learned through Wan Lide that many smugglers were still frantically dumping elixirs into the Ming Dynasty, which forced him to directly let the Jinyiwei participate in the matter.

Besides.

Zhu Houzhao also decided to retaliate against the Western barbarians immediately, so he summoned Gao Feng and ordered him to "organize a business immediately, temporarily named Fushou Business, which is responsible for selling Fushou cream to the Western countries. The Fushou cream sold is mainly the painkiller extracted by Qiu Ju and others. Sell this thing as Fushou cream, and call it fine Fushou cream! You can ask Qiu Ju for the specific production."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Gao Feng is now the seal holder of the Imperial Stables and is responsible for the management of Zhu Houzhao's property. Zhu Houzhao now asks him to set up the Fushou Trading Company, naturally wanting him to start the opium trade with the Western barbarians.

Zhu Houzhao knew that once the opium trade started, the West would completely lose the opportunity to surpass the Ming Dynasty in global trade, and the Ming Dynasty would take this opportunity to destroy the spirits and bodies of Westerners, and even change their genes.

Gao Feng started the work of setting up Fu Shou Commercial Bank.

The Ming Dynasty's current trade is mainly divided into three types: one is to directly plunder raw materials from overseas colonies, one is to export various processed products, which are then transported back to the country by Westerners or other foreigners for sale, and the other is to directly cross the ocean to other countries for sale.

Because the Ming Dynasty's exports had large profit margins and its own demand for goods other than raw materials was relatively low, cross-ocean trade activities were rarely carried out by Ming Dynasty's trading companies.

Today, the Fushou Commercial Bank established by Gao Feng under the imperial order has opened up a new growth pole for Ming Dynasty's commercial activities in selling goods to other countries abroad.

In the spring of the 32nd year of the Zhengde reign, the merchant ship of the Fu Shou Trading Company officially left Haojing and headed for the Western Ocean, carrying 100,000 kilograms of fine Fu Shou cream produced by the Ming Royal Industrial Company.

The Suez Canal had not yet been opened in this era, so the ships of Fu Shou Trading Company had to pass through Cape Verde first. Fortunately, Cape Verde and Ceuta are now colonial outposts of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it was not very difficult for Fu Shou Trading Company's merchant ships to complete the first foreign opium trade. The problem was how to successfully obtain trading rights in Western countries including the Ottoman Empire and sell opium smoothly.

Zhu Houzhao hoped that Western countries would be more sensible and take the initiative to allow Fu Shou Trading Company to sell Fu Shou Cream.

If they don't know what's best for them, he has prepared for this in advance. He has specifically asked part of the navy's armed forces to be the supporters behind the Fu Shou Trading Company. After all, this is a royal enterprise, similar to the East India Company of Western powers in history. If it doesn't work, he can directly force it to trade on behalf of the royal will.

Mr. Shao was arrested and taken to the Jinyiwei's anti-drug prison for forced drug rehabilitation. At the same time, the first batch of drug addicts in the Ming Dynasty like Mr. Shao were also controlled one after another.

The first batch of foreign merchants who began to sell fushou cream to the Ming Dynasty were escorted and concentrated in Haojing. All the fushou cream they brought was confiscated, and all their earned property was also confiscated. Then their heads were chopped off and hung on the main city gate of Haojing to deter traders coming to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was different from the late Qing Dynasty in history. Although the current Ming Dynasty had also been around for more than a hundred years, it had won great victories in many wars with Western colonists. Therefore, although the Ming Dynasty dealt with those Westerners who sold the opium more cruelly, no Western country dared to start the Opium War with the Ming Dynasty.

Even the so-called great powers Portugal and Spain mentioned in a certain documentary did not dare to declare war on the Ming Dynasty again.

Moreover, even though the Ming Dynasty built a Jingguan Tower in Goa using the heads of Portuguese people, these Portuguese merchants still came to the Ming Dynasty to trade.

Because the Ming Dynasty had achieved complete victory in several wars against Western colonists, its status as a great power was recognized by the whole world.

The current Ming Dynasty is the only superpower in the world, there is no such thing as how strong it is!

Because Ming Dynasty has the world's largest market and the only industrial production base, it does not have to consider the feelings of any country. However, other countries have to consider the feelings of Ming Dynasty, and other countries have to rely on the grace of Ming Dynasty if they want to become rich.

As the world's only superpower, other countries feel that the Ming Dynasty is hated but not dared to be hated, and cannot be loved. Sometimes other countries do not want the Ming Dynasty to interfere in their internal affairs, and sometimes they beg the Ming Dynasty to be the world's police and uphold justice for them.

Now, it is a foregone conclusion that the Ming Dynasty will recover Jiaozhi.

Any sensible Jiaozhi person should realize that the Ming Dynasty is now his enemy, and even the enemy that he needs to guard against the most. But what is dramatic is that Le Trang Tong, who was established by the powerful Jiaozhi minister Nguyen Gan, suddenly sent envoys to the capital to report to the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao that the Mo family, namely Mo Dengyong, had usurped the throne and seized power, and took the initiative to request the Ming Dynasty to send troops to Jiaozhi to attack the Mo family.

To be precise, the current Jiaozhi should be called Annan, which was a vassal state established by Le Loi during the Xuande period after he forced Wang Tong to negotiate peace and asked the Ming Dynasty to give up Jiaozhi and enthronize himself.

Now, the powerful minister of the Le Dynasty, Mac Dang Dung, forced Emperor Le Cong to abdicate and established the Mac Dynasty himself. However, another powerful minister, Nguyen Gan, was unwilling to be subordinate to the Mac Dynasty and established Le Vai Ninh as emperor, namely Le Trang Tong, which led to the division of present-day Annan, namely Jiaozhi, into north and south.

Nguyen Gan obviously knew that his troops were unable to destroy the Mo clan, so he asked the Ming Dynasty for help, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would send troops to help him unify Annan.

"Your Majesty the Emperor of the Celestial Empire! My ancestor was the legitimate ruler of Annan, canonized by Emperor Xuanzong of the Celestial Empire. The traitor Mo family usurped the throne and established himself as the ruler of Annan. This is truly an unforgivable crime. I beg the Celestial Empire to send its soldiers to save the people of Annan from the water and maintain the orthodoxy of Annan!"

The envoy sent by Nguyen Gan cried heartbrokenly and denounced Mo's crimes.

Many ministers in the court who were deeply educated in Confucianism also expressed deep sympathy for the experience of the Le family. Of course, there were also ministers who understood the situation and knew that the Le Dynasty was not worthy of sympathy now, because it was Le Loi, the ancestor of the Le family, who gathered troops to betray the Ming Dynasty, which caused the Ming Dynasty to lose Jiaozhi Province and also caused the Ming Dynasty's prestige among the southwestern chieftains to plummet. As a result, it was difficult for the Ming Dynasty to control the southwestern chieftains after the Xuande Dynasty, and eventually caused a war during the Wanli period.

Although this matter was related to the fact that Emperor Xuande himself was deeply influenced by Confucianism and could not see the strategic significance of losing Jiaozhi, which would lead to the loss of control over the southwest and even the control of the West, the Li family could not escape its responsibility.

Zhu Houzhao was not an emperor trained by Confucianism. What he saw was not how to maintain the orthodox Confucian ethics, but how to maximize the national interests of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty originally wanted to send troops to Jiaozhi, now that Nguyen Gan took the initiative to request the Ming Dynasty to send troops, Zhu Houzhao felt that the Ming Dynasty could take advantage of domestic conflicts and make the Ming Dynasty pay the least price in its goal of regaining Jiaozhi.

Zhu Houzhao convened important officials of the Imperial Guard system for an emergency court meeting to discuss how to respond to the request from King Le Trang Tong of Annan for the Ming Dynasty to send troops.

Because the intelligence work of the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei had been strengthened a lot, the imperial military high-ranking officials at this time already knew the true situation in Annan and knew that the so-called Le Trang Tong was just a puppet controlled by Nguyen Gan. Therefore, neither Zhu Houzhao, Wang Shouren, Lin Tingxuan, Gui E and others had much sympathy for the northern and southern forces of Annan.

At this time, Wang Shouren said: "Your Majesty, I think the Ming Dynasty can first respond to Le Zhuangzong's request for help and send troops to attack Mo Dengyong. I think that as long as Mo Dengyong is not stupid, facing the double-sided attack of Nguyen Gan's troops in the south and our imperial army, he will definitely choose to submit to the Ming Dynasty and surrender voluntarily, and even offer land and household registration books."

Zhu Houzhao admitted that Wang Shouren's analysis was very accurate. Historically, after the Ming Dynasty responded to the request of Annan King Le Trang Tong to send troops to Annan, Mo Dengyong immediately surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. There was already strong opposition to the Ming Dynasty sending troops to Annan in the country, and Mo Dengyong's request for surrender could be regarded as the completion of the Ming Dynasty's nominal recovery of Annan. Therefore, the Ming court agreed to Mo Dengyong's surrender at that time and did not actually wage war against Annan.

However, this nominal submission of Annan had no practical significance except for the sake of face. The Ming Dynasty did not gain actual rule over the Annan region. Although it was more beneficial to the Ming Dynasty in the short term to keep Annan in a state of division between the north and the south, Annan would be unified sooner or later, and once unified it would still become an independent kingdom.

Moreover, this nominal submission was not an actual military leadership and still did not allow the Ming Dynasty to regain its prestige among the southwestern chieftains. Countries such as Annan still allowed them to burn, kill and loot at will on the Ming border. Even the southwestern chieftains looted and enslaved the Han people at will. These southwestern chieftains were even bold enough to rebel directly.

Zhu Houzhao still wanted to occupy Annan directly. After all, what the court really needed now was not superficial glory, but real benefits, such as food, minerals, and cheap labor...

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(End of this chapter)