Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 123 Pirates and Treacherous Officials Collude (Part 12)
The powerful merchant families of Zhejiang are preparing to have the warships of the Zhejiang and Fujian navies smuggle their own goods.

Zhu Jue knew perfectly well what was going on, and he even deliberately ordered Yu Zigao to investigate carefully.

This means pretending not to know, so that people would mistakenly believe that he had unintentionally done Yu Zigao a favor.

In fact, he was misleading Yu Zigao, encouraging him to boldly smuggle his own goods into the delivery!
At this point, he ordered people to start mass-producing large spinning machines and looms. A few hundred dan of raw silk at a time wouldn't be enough to fill a tooth gap, and even several thousand or tens of thousands of dan wouldn't be enough.

He needs to acquire at least several hundred thousand dan of raw silk each year just to barely make enough for weaving.

This cannot be achieved solely by robbing the wealthy merchants and businessmen of Zhejiang; the majority of raw silk from the common people must also be seized. The fact that the navy smuggled raw silk was precisely the pretext for him to issue an order to forcibly seize raw silk from the common people. Naturally, he wanted Yu Zigao to boldly smuggle his own goods and deliver them as soon as possible.

He was waiting for Yu Zigao to deliver the raw silk, but unexpectedly, the large spinning machine and loom ran into production problems.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., while he was reviewing memorials, Song Yingxing suddenly walked in with a worried look on his face, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

What's with that expression?

Seeing this, Zhu Jue asked with concern, "Chang Geng, what's wrong? What happened?"

Song Yingxing couldn't help but sigh, "Your Majesty, we can't build large spinning machines anymore, and we can't get the looms we need. We've run out of copper, and we can't even supply the looms for making cannons for Marquis Meng."

what?
No more copper!
This is a big problem.

The Spanish can't be relied upon for the time being; they can only wait for Zheng Hongkui to buy some copper from Japan to tide them over.

Zhu Jue frowned and pondered for a while, then asked, "Chang Geng, how much copper do we need in a month right now?"

There are many more.

Song Yingxing estimated, "Your Majesty, if we were to allow the manufacture of steam engines and machine tools to proceed at any time, even 500,000 catties of copper a month wouldn't be enough, and that's just for making small steam engines that are only a foot in size."

"Your humble servant is currently developing a large steam engine, a steam engine two or even three feet in size. If this large steam engine is successfully developed, even a million catties of copper per month wouldn't be enough."

Building a steam engine now would be too wasteful of copper.

The problem is that copper is not an option; later cylinders were mostly made of aluminum and copper because steel was too inefficient to process.

If he were to have Song Yingxing replace the steam engine with a steel one, the steam engine's production capacity would not be able to keep up.

At that time, there was no electricity, and aluminum could not be smelted on a large scale. They could only use copper to make steam engines.

Judging by this, even if the Spanish send ten million catties of copper a year, it doesn't seem to be enough. I wonder how much copper Japan can actually buy in a year.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully and then comforted him, "Chang Geng, don't worry. Hong Kui has already gone to Japan to buy copper. He should be back by now. Just wait a bit. You can rest for a few days. When the copper arrives, you'll have the energy to develop the large steam engine."

There's nothing we can do, we're out of copper, we can only wait.

Song Yingxing could only nod helplessly and say, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, you should go and rest. The bronze finger might arrive today."

His words actually came true.

That afternoon, around dusk, he had just returned to Kunning Palace and was about to have dinner with Empress Zhang and Empress Zhou when a loud announcement suddenly came from outside: "Marquis of Nan'an, Zheng Zhilong, and his family request an audience."

family?

Could it be Zheng Chenggong?
Zhu Jue glanced at Empress Zhang furtively, then announced loudly, "Summon her."

Soon, Zheng Zhilong arrived quickly with Zheng Hongkui and a little girl holding a child. He bowed and said, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty and the two empresses."

The reason she looked like a young girl was because at that time, Japanese people didn't have much meat to eat, and they were generally petite.

This Tagawa Matsu is quite pretty, but judging from her figure, she's only about fourteen or fifteen years old, like a young girl in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, that's not the point. The point is that Zheng Chenggong has arrived.

Zhu Jue asked with some surprise, "Zhilong, this must be your son. How old is he?"

Upon hearing this, Empress Zhang looked at the little one in the girl's arms with even greater eagerness.

Zheng Zhilong quickly introduced, "Your Majesty, yes, this is my eldest son, Zheng Sen, whose childhood name is Fusong. He is only three years old, not yet four."

well.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Sister-in-law, what do you think?"

OK!

Very good!
Upon hearing this, Empress Zhang immediately stood up and said, "Oh, Fusong, right? Come here, let your godmother give you a hug."

The man took a liking to him immediately and adopted him as his godson.

In reality, there aren't that many rules in folk customs. When people recognize godparents, all they need to do is agree on it between the two families, and often there isn't even a banquet.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong immediately waved his hand and said, "A Song, hurry up and give Sen'er to the Empress to hold." Tian Chuansong was reluctant to part with him. His youngest son had just been given to his father as an heir, and now his eldest son was going to be given to the Empress as her godson.

She hesitated for a moment, but quickly stepped forward and handed her precious son over.

Empress Zhang hugged him tightly and said happily, "Oh my, Fusong is so cute, just as cute as Your Majesty was when you were a child."

Upon hearing this, Empress Zhou couldn't help but lean closer and ask, "Really? Does Fusong resemble His Majesty when he was a child?"

Uh, what are you guys talking about?

Zhu Jue awkwardly raised his hand and said, "Come, all of you sit down and eat together. From now on, we are family. Don't be shy. Cheng'en, bring a pot of wine and order the imperial kitchen to prepare a few more dishes."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but wink at his wife and third brother, signaling them to sit down quickly.

He came here to curry favor with the current emperor and his family, and now he's really succeeded in doing so.

When Empress Zhang saw Wang Chengen bring out the wine, she asked with concern, "Fusong, what would you like to eat? Your godmother will have them make it right away."

I'm a little scared.

Xiao Zhengsen quickly looked at his mother.

Tagawa Matsu said gently, "Fukumatsu likes to eat small fish and shrimp, both from rivers and seas, dried, smoked, and fresh."

This one is simple.

Zhu Jue waved his hand slightly, and Wang Chengen immediately ran off to give instructions.

Actually, there are fish and shrimp on this table, but they are all large.

Braised shrimp with pepper and vinegar and steamed shad were also dishes that Empress Zhang and Empress Zhou both enjoyed.

Empress Zhang couldn't wait to pick up her chopsticks, take a piece of steamed shad, carefully remove the bones, and then said kindly, "Fusong, come and try this fish, see if it's delicious."

Perhaps because he was hungry, Xiao Zhengsen actually reached out and grabbed a piece of fish, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it, and then swallowed it in one gulp.

Shad is a famous imperial delicacy; both the Hongwu Emperor and the Yongle Emperor enjoyed it.

Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Shad comes from Jiangdong and is available in April. It is plump, tender, strong, nourishing, warms the middle and benefits qi, warms the middle and replenishes deficiency, and stimulates the appetite and invigorates the spleen. It is a rare delicacy, so Yingtian Prefecture used it as imperial tribute."

After taking a bite, Xiao Zhengsen couldn't help but exclaim, "It's delicious!"

Upon hearing this, Empress Zhang immediately picked up another piece and carefully removed the thorns from it for him.

It's inevitable that this little kid has a sweet tooth; once he's given something delicious, little Zheng Sen seems to have stopped being shy around strangers.

Empress Zhang was overjoyed and kept putting shad on his plate, almost finishing the whole fish.

She genuinely loves children. When Chongzhen was still a child, she played with him every day. Now that she has an even younger godson, she is naturally overjoyed.

Seeing that Xiao Zhengsen was no longer afraid of strangers, Zhu Jue pretended to ponder and said, "Gold, wood, water, fire, earth, and my brother and I are both named after wood, so the generational order is a bit messy. How about we name Fusong Chenggong from now on?"

He took the opportunity to correct his name.

It is a great thing for the current emperor to bestow a name upon us.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but say with delight, "Thank you for bestowing this name upon me, Your Majesty."

The name has been chosen, and the godson has been accepted. The rest can be left to Empress Zhang. Judging from her joy, little Zheng Chenggong is definitely not going to escape. It's time to get down to business.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Hongkui, how much copper did you buy this time? How much copper does Japan produce in a year, and how much of it can be sold?"

Zheng Hongkui quickly explained in detail: "Your Majesty, this general has purchased one million catties of copper this time. Japan produces about ten million catties of copper a year, and they use up six or seven tenths of it themselves, so they can only sell three or four million catties."

This is too little.

Zhu Jue frowned slightly, then asked, "Do you have any way to get them to increase production, or sell more to us?"

This one.

Zheng Hongkui could only look at Zheng Zhilong.

He wasn't very familiar with Japan.

Zheng Zhilong thought for a moment, then solemnly said, "Your Majesty, the Shoguns of the Eastern Shogunate are all fond of tea ceremony. If we can regularly send them some fine tea leaves and precious tea sets, this matter should not be a big problem. After all, they can also make more money."

This is a small thing.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then instructed, "Cheng'en, have someone tell Zhongxian to ask Zhou Guozhang to find some fine tea and precious tea sets for them when they deliver goods to Jinling next time."

(End of this chapter)