Di Ming

Chapter 333 She's good at fighting and making money; she's actually my beautiful wife!
The two opened their arms and embraced each other almost simultaneously, feeling each other's familiar presence.

The Vice Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty even picked up the light and beautiful pirate queen and spun her around three times with her in his arms.

"Hehe... Little tiger, put me down quickly." The pirate queen gently pounded the minister's shoulder with her pink fist, her laughter like the tinkling of bells.

She simply clung to the little tiger, like a koala.

"Haha!" the Vice Minister laughed loudly, "She's skilled in riding and archery, adept at scheming, skilled in warfare, and adept at making money! She's the most beautiful woman in my family!"

The boy looked up with a still-childish face, his eyes full of joyful laughter, bright, warm, and friendly, like a stalk of sorghum in the shimmering autumn light.

The young wife's eyes crinkled with laughter, revealing shallow dimples and a slightly childlike face. Even with a more mature hairstyle, she couldn't hide her youthful beauty, like a lotus reflected in water.

"Sigh, little tiger, it's only been three months since we last saw each other, but it feels like a very long time has passed?"

“I had the same feeling, as if I had been in Japan for a long time. When I came to see you just now, I had a momentary sense of disorientation, as if I had really come to see the Pirate Queen.”

After three months of separation, we were worlds apart. My longing for you, like the reeds by the sea, is as vast as the ocean. The couple reunited on the vast sea, yet it felt as if they had been separated by lifetimes.

"Little Tiger." Caiwei touched Zhu Yin's face and pinched it, as if testing its texture. "You've lost a lot of weight."

“You’ve lost weight too.” Zhu Yin used his arm as a scale to weigh his wife. “You’ve been worried about me the whole time. Sigh, I’ve made my wife worry again.”

"You still know? You went on a diplomatic mission to an enemy country and caused such a big mess. How could I not worry? I haven't had a good night's sleep these past few days. It's all your fault. You're not allowed to take such risks again, understand?"

"Alright, alright, I won't take any more risks in the future. I regret teaching my husband to seek fame and fortune. Alas, Qingchen isn't here this time."

"Huh? What do you mean? You miss her? Um... um... #@%#..."

...

Why are you pinching me?

"Who gave you permission to launch a surprise attack?"

"No...this isn't allowed?"

"We're only fifteen."

"You'll be sixteen soon, still young? We're not really fifteen, what are you pretending to be?"

"Pah, the body determines the mind, okay? We are fifteen, that's a fact, but I lost my first kiss."

"I lost my first kiss too, so we're even."

Ning Caiwei: "..."

Is this what you call a draw? But then she thought about it again and realized it really was a draw; she hadn't lost out at all.

Although she was ravaged by the attacker for a while, Ning Caiwei was not angry. Her face was just a little hot and her heart rate had not yet returned to normal.

She gently tidied her slightly disheveled hair, her breath coming in short gasps, and said in a serious tone:

"Clean-up is the right thing to do. A supervisory mechanism is absolutely necessary. No matter the unit, from a small family to a large group, supervision should not be carried out by the self-discipline of the individuals themselves. Therefore, institutional safeguards should cover the micro level..."

After she finished speaking this highly theoretical statement, her heartbeat returned to normal, though her lips still felt a little strange, numb.

Zhu Yin touched his mouth and said seriously, "I think what you said makes a lot of sense. Don't say it again next time."

Ning Caiwei chuckled, placed the heated hand warmer in Zhu Yin's hand, and made him a cup of milk powder. She said, "Let's get down to business. Let's calculate our gains this time."

She took out several notebooks from the bedside table, counting them as if they were precious treasures, "Here you go. I've written them all down in here."

Zhu Yin took a sip of the sweet milk powder, rubbed his hands excitedly, and took the notebook to look through it.

Ning Caiwei was very good at keeping accounts. Her records of earnings were categorized and written in Arabic numerals:

"7.24 taels of gold (including goldware); 402.65 taels of silver (including silverware); and 16.85 strings of Yongle coins."

This is the monetary spoils, including the gold and silver looted by the Ming Dynasty delegation in Kyoto. The gold, silver, and copper coins totaled 500 million taels of silver!

What does 500 million taels mean?
This is currency worth 500 million taels of silver, not land, real estate, jewelry, or calligraphy and paintings.

Last year, in the nineteenth year of the Wanli reign, the total annual tax revenue of the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only 470 million taels! That's 30 taels less than that!

According to Huya's intelligence, last year, the Emperor Baijin's private treasury income was only over 130 million taels, just one-third of this figure!

The Zhu family's silver treasury held only one-fifth of this amount.

It's clear how much money Zhu Yin made this time!

Ning Caiwei said with a smile, "Ding Liyang and I have already discussed it. Of the five million taels of silver, 60% will go to the public treasury of the Jiedushi's mansion. The remaining 40% will go to the Zhu family's private treasury and belong to us privately."

Zhu Yin said, "Two million taels going to us? Isn't that too much?"

Zhu Yin was always a person with a sense of public duty.

Ning Caiwei shook her head: "Not much. They insisted that the public treasury should only take half, while I insisted that the public treasury should take 60%. Little Tiger, Ningyin Trading Company has subsidized the public with a lot of money. In recent years, Jingzhou and Daishan have spent money like water, and the trading company has advanced a lot of supplies."

"Robbing is still the fastest way to make money. In this one move, both the Jinghai Army and the Zhu family have made a fortune."

Zhu Yin then looked at other projects, but they were:
"47,500 koku of rice; 5600 katana; 7300 sets of Japanese armor; and more than 240 Japanese warships."

"We captured more than 18,000 young Japanese men, including more than 6,000 men and 12,000 women; and rescued more than 2,000 Han Chinese slaves."

Zhu Yin said, "The captured Japanese men were sent to Jingzhou to serve as slaves and farm for the Eight Banners soldiers, so that more Han men could be liberated to serve as soldiers. Japanese women could marry Han men and have children who could then be raised to the Han banner."

Ning Caiwei smiled and said, "With this division of accounts, our family will receive two million, and the Zhu family's treasury will have three million taels of silver in storage. The current business doesn't require that much capital, but it's a waste to keep it sitting in the warehouse like dead money."

"Gold and silver are not true wealth; true wealth is resources. Therefore—"

Ning Caiwei picked up Zhu Yin's milk powder cup, took a sip, wiped her mustache, and continued:
"I plan to spend one million taels of silver to buy fine horses from Mongolia and Qinghai-Tibet, raise them on Jeju Island, and establish a private maritime warhorse base."

Upon hearing Ning Caiwei's words, Zhu Yin immediately began to calculate the costs in his mind.

Warhorses are becoming increasingly expensive. An ordinary riding horse, unsuitable for war, costs around twenty taels.

A decent, qualified warhorse generally costs 50 or 60 taels of silver or more. A top-quality warhorse costs around 100 taels of silver. Historically, Korea presented 300 warhorses to the Ming Dynasty as tribute, equivalent to 20,000 taels of silver, which works out to 66 taels per horse.

That's right, horses are much more valuable than human slaves.

The Ming Dynasty had no shortage of horses; there were many horses among the common people, and they weren't too expensive. However, the Ming Dynasty lacked warhorses!

Having no shortage of horses and having no shortage of warhorses are two different things. Of the vast majority of horses in the Ming Dynasty, only one in ten could be used as warhorses. The vast majority were used as riding horses, draft horses, and pack horses.

As for warhorses, well, I'm sorry, most of them need to be imported.

Warhorses are not the same as military horses. Warhorses specifically refer to those used by cavalry, while military horses include warhorses, but are far more than just warhorses.

A single, qualified warhorse cost fifty taels of silver, demonstrating just how expensive it was. No wonder the entire Ming Dynasty had fewer than one hundred thousand warhorses.

Historically, the disastrous defeat at Sarhu resulted in the Ming Dynasty losing over 50,000 warhorses and thus losing the strategic initiative.

Therefore, to buy 20,000 qualified warhorses, one million taels of silver would be needed. If they were mares, one million taels would only buy a little over 10,000.

Warhorses are so important, they certainly cannot be held hostage.

“That’s feasible,” Zhu Yin nodded. “It’s the golden age of smuggling right now. As long as you have money, you won’t have trouble buying a good horse.”

"Jeju Island is the best sea grassland in East Asia. It was once the official horse farm of Goryeo and Yuan Dynasty, raising more than 30,000 horses. Most of the warhorses of Korea came from Jeju Island."

"After Jeju Island was occupied by Japan, all the warhorses on the island were looted and used by the Japanese cavalry. Today, Jeju Island only has grasslands, no warhorses."

Ning Caiwei laughed and said, "That's why we want to take over Jeju Island. Jeju's volcanic grasslands have thousands of square kilometers of high-quality grasslands, which is a resource that money can't buy."

Zhu Yin said, "Even if we take back Jeju from the Japanese army, the court and Korea will not allow pirates to occupy Jeju. Korea, in particular, will definitely try every means to take it back."

"If we offend the imperial court and Korea, it will be difficult for us to cooperate with the imperial court. The imperial court will feel threatened by the pirates and will not dare to hire us again. It will also be difficult for Zheng Guowang to get the imperial court to send us 20,000 young men."

Ning Caiwei frowned. "Then what should we do? Shouldn't we take this opportunity to devour Jeju Island?"

"Of course we'll eat!" Zhu Yin nodded. "But we'll do it differently. After we wipe out the Japanese troops on Jeju Island, we'll take over the island, kill all the Japanese prisoners to silence them, and then fly the Japanese pirate flag. That way, Korea and the Ming Dynasty will still think Jeju is in Japanese hands, and then..."

Ning Caiwei laughed and said, "Then, in the name of Japanese pirates, they occupied Jeju Island."

Zhu Yin clapped his hands, "That's right. It's the Japanese pirates who occupy Jeju Island, what does it have to do with you, Hai Mingyue? Anyway, we've captured the Japanese pirates' armor, weapons, warships, and Japanese prisoners, isn't it perfect to impersonate them?"

"If the Korean navy comes to attack, we will take the opportunity to destroy its main force. Once the Korean navy is destroyed, it will never dare to attack Jeju again."

"Then, Zheng Guowang petitioned the court to hire Hai Mingyue's pirate fleet to attack the Japanese pirates in Jeju Island. The hiring fee, of course, was paid by Joseon."

"Hehe! I'm hitting myself and getting paid while lying down!" Ning Caiwei found it amusing. "So, did I win or lose?"

Zhu Yin thought for a moment, "We didn't win, but we didn't lose either. In short, Jeju Island is still in the hands of the 'Japanese pirates.' Let the court know that Hai Mingyue's fleet is useful, but not that strong."

"There are three major advantages to doing it this way."

"Firstly, if the imperial court does not want to cooperate with Hai Mingyue, the 'Japanese pirates' of Jeju Island will harass the coast of the Ming Dynasty, for example, by robbing the Xu family in Songjiang and robbing wealthy merchants and gentry. Therefore, the imperial court needs Hai Mingyue's fleet to fight against the Japanese pirates of Jeju."

"Secondly, the threat of the Japanese pirates in Jeju would make it easier for the court and Joseon to make the decision to launch a cross-sea expedition against Japan."

"Third, the existence of the Jeju 'Japanese pirates' is like a pair of black gloves. What we can't do, the Jeju 'Japanese pirates' will do. Anyway, on the high seas, with the court's intelligence capabilities, how would they know the truth? Whatever Tiger Fang tells them is the truth they know."

"Let's deceive them for a few years, until there's no need to cooperate with the court anymore. Then we'll 'annihilate' the Japanese pirates in Jeju, and openly occupy Jeju. We won't have to worry about the court's opinion anymore."

"Hahaha!" Ning Caiwei clutched her stomach. "No wonder you're a former spy. Little Tiger, you're so cunning."

"In this way, we took Jeju Island, cleared ourselves of any involvement, received the employment fee, and gained both the advantage of having the upper hand and the initiative."

Zhu Yin smiled nonchalantly, "What's this? There's more to come. We'll use the world as a chessboard, various forces as pieces, and play against history and against the times."

Ning Caiwei said, "Don't be too confident or careless. The court is treacherous and dangerous. History has changed beyond recognition. We can't be bound by outdated ideas and make the mistake of relying on past experience."

“Let me tell you something. When I was fighting Japan this time, I did a test. I secretly instructed a merchant general to deliberately propose attacking the Prince of Heng’s mansion in Shandong during the military council and robbing the famously wealthy Prince of Heng. After all, the Prince of Heng’s mansion is only a little over a hundred miles from the sea, so it is tactically feasible.”

"Of course I didn't really want to seize Prince Heng; that wasn't your plan. I just wanted to test everyone's reaction. Guess what the generals think?"

Zhu Yin asked, "They disagree?"

Ning Caiwei nodded. "They disagreed, saying that the merchant general was audacious. They believed that attacking the Prince of Heng's residence was tantamount to rebellion and a complete offense to the imperial court. This was not only the opinion of the generals but also that of the ordinary soldiers. There were even thoughts of surrender within the army, which I nipped in the bud."

“Little Tiger, the soldiers of the Jinghai Army are unwilling to fight against the imperial court. In their hearts, the Ming Dynasty is still their home and country, and the emperor is still the emperor. They don’t even want to lay a hand on Prince Heng, let alone the emperor. It’s not realistic for us to expect them to rebel against the Ming Dynasty outright. We’ll need at least a few more years of ideological education.”

"Therefore, the management and layout of the imperial court is of particular importance."

"Take this trip back to the capital, do you know how the emperor and the court will reward you?"

Zhu Yin had thought about this problem long ago and said:
"I am already the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, but my seniority is too low. Both Emperor Bai Jin and the Grand Secretary want to suppress me. This time, they will not promote me, nor will they promote me to one of the Three Ministers. I estimate that they will grant one of their sons the position of a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and also reward him with some silver and silk."

"That's it?" Ning Caiwei shook her head. "We don't even have a son yet, and you want to appoint one of them as a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard? What good is that? I don't care."

"Is there no hope of being granted a title?"

Zhu Yin said, "It's not impossible. Even if I can't be ennobled as a marquis, being ennobled as an earl would certainly be enough. But for a civil official like me, being ennobled might not necessarily be a good thing."

"I suspect that someone might flatter me to my detriment and suggest granting me a noble title. If I were granted a title, I would be labeled as a nobleman, which would damage the integrity of a civil official. I might be limited to the positions of Minister and Censor-in-Chief, making it difficult to enter the Grand Secretariat."

"Although being granted a noble title creates obstacles to entering the cabinet, it allows one to become one of the Nine Ministers much faster, saving the time and experience required for that position. Otherwise, it would take several years to reach that rank."

"However, there is no explicit rule that civil officials who are granted titles cannot enter the cabinet. It's just that entering the cabinet will be very difficult and the possibility will be much smaller."

Ning Caiwei smiled and said, "Having a title has its advantages. Even if you are stripped of your official position, you may still have the title. You are a top scholar, a child prodigy, and a Hanlin scholar. You are a civil official among civil officials. Even if you are granted a title, no one can deny your status as a civil official."

Zhu Yin said, "Although I won't be promoted in my current position, I have a great chance of seizing military power in Korea. Which minister in the court knows more about Japan than I do? Who else but me?"

“I’ve already started building momentum, and with Zheng Guowang’s recommendation, I should be able to go to North Korea to replace Hao Jing. However, it will have to wait until February next year at the earliest; I won’t go immediately.”

"Whether or not I'm granted a title is another matter, but I absolutely must get control of the Korean military!"

P.S.: I'm not feeling well today, so I'll stop here. What do you guys think? Should I grant him a noble title? Requesting monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)