Chapter 392 Ask him what Ande is thinking about

Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

Chapter 392 Ask him what Ande is thinking about

After learning the news that no documents had been found, Xia Yuan could not sit still and hurriedly entered the palace to meet him. After the announcement, he entered the Nuange of Qianqing Palace and saw Ma Wensheng, the Minister of War, kneeling on the ground and performing a duel.

Seeing him come in, Emperor Hongzhi just raised his eyes for a glance, then looked back, and then looked at Ma Wensheng, listening to his reply.

"His Majesty asked the Ministry of War to conduct a detailed search. After receiving the order, he ordered the Ministry of War to search many times, but they still could not find it. Later, I learned about it from an experienced official."

Having said this, Ma Wensheng pursed his lips, and a bitter taste spread in his mouth. He hung his head deeply and continued:

"In the third year of Chenghua, the late Emperor wanted to open the sea and restart his voyages to the West. He issued an edict to obtain relevant documents about Zheng He's voyages to the West.

Xiang Zhong, who was the Minister of the Ministry of War, ordered people to search in the archives, but could not find it. At that time, the archives storing charts and documents were empty.

Xiang Shangshu went to check it in person. At that time, Liu Daxia was appointed as the head of the Military Department, and his responsibility was to be in charge of the maps and illustrations of the various states. Liu Daxia claimed that he had burned the sea map materials."

It was extremely difficult for Ma Wensheng to say these last few words, especially when he said the word "burn", it was like a stone stuck in his throat. He wanted to swallow, but couldn't, and wanted to vomit, but couldn't spit it out.

"."

After hearing such bad news, Emperor Hongzhi felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He wanted to supervise the construction of a treasure ship, so he went to the archives to look for the shipbuilding plans. When he went to look for them, the entire archives was not found.

He just thought that he had been moved. After all, no one had mentioned the voyage to the West in these years, and the caretakers no longer paid attention to it. This was what would happen.

As long as he searched carefully, he should be able to find it, but it would take some time. Although he was angry and thought that the people from the Ministry of War were neglecting their duties, he never expected that he ordered the people from the Ministry of War to conduct a detailed search. After Shangshu entered the palace, he gave him such bad news.

Burned

He was so lost for a moment that he couldn't even make an angry expression.

Yesterday, the matter of going to the Western Sea was decided, both by him as the emperor and by the emperor and ministers in the court.

Take your time and save up slowly.

At the end of last year, Xia Yuan said that the 16th year of Hongzhi was a year of peace.

This is indeed the case. From the beginning of this year until the current month of August, everything has been uneventful, and there has been no major turmoil in the country.

So far, no provinces, prefectures or counties have reported that a disaster has occurred, and the border areas have always been considered stable, with only sporadic small groups of intrusions and frictions.

A rare year of peace.

Today's tax bank is only making up for last year's deficit. After the autumn tax bank is collected, these holes will have to be filled. But after the summer tax bank has been filled, the autumn tax bank only needs to add some to completely fill the gap.

Then the extra money will be left for use, whether it is the treasury or internal funds, and will be invested in navigation and shipbuilding.

If nothing happens in Juheng next year, the Xia Yin next year will be collected, leaving as usual the expenses needed by the court and the expenses of the palace, and the excess will be used to build ships.

The same goes for the autumn tax, and it goes back and forth.

In this world, there are ways to live rich and poor, and there are ways to live poor. The poor Ming Dynasty wanted to launch a big voyage. Of course, it couldn't get millions of taels of silver at once. It could only use this method to slowly and gradually Take your time.

The treasury and internal funds worked together to slowly build ships in this miserable and pitiful way. When one day, the size of the fleet was almost saved, they began to go to the Western Ocean, train soldiers, and lead everyone in the Ming Dynasty

Hope sets sail.

But now, everything is empty.

Shipbuilding plans and navigation charts were burned to the ground. Not to mention navigation, even this treasure ship could not be built.

How to make it?

During Zheng He's seven voyages to the Western Ocean, he did not arrive at the same place each time, but sailed farther and farther each time. After each voyage to the Western Ocean, he would summarize the data obtained and draw new charts.

Not only that, but based on the experience of sailing at sea this time, the ship will be improved, either widened, narrowed, or equipped with masts, just to be able to cope with bigger waves on the sea, and then move towards

Heading deeper into the ocean.

After so many years of maritime ban, the entire Ming Dynasty's sea-going shipbuilding technology had stagnated, and the built sea-going ships were simply unable to undertake long-distance voyages.

If you want to build a qualified sea-going ship, you can only rely on the shipbuilding plans left by Zheng He.

But Liu Daxia's fire forty years ago burned everything completely, destroying the efforts of the predecessors and the hopes of today's people.

"Liu Daxia was burned."

After a long while, Zhu Youtang finally spoke out, his voice so soft that it was almost inaudible.

Ma Wensheng raised his head and looked at Emperor Hongzhi cautiously, then lowered his head, "This is what I learned from the old official. Back then, Liu Daxia had a dispute with Xiang Shangshu.

Liu Daxia said that his voyages to the West were a waste of money and people, and were of no benefit to the country or the people. In the past, Zheng He's seven voyages to the West cost tens of millions of taels of silver. Now that your Majesty wants to restart this matter, he is ignoring the people of the country.

Even if we can return home with rare treasures, what good will it do to the country? This is a bad government that the minister must rebuke! Now I have set it on fire. If you want to punish the sins of the lower officials, please do so!

Xiang Shangshu was made red-faced by the remarks. After some officials from the Ministry of War learned about the incident, they even applauded the remarks. After that, Xiang Shangshu and some officials tried their best to protect Liu Daxia, and the matter was settled."

"."

Emperor Hongzhi fell into silence again. After a long time, he shouted, "Ha, your generous speech is really admirable."

"But now the outer court and the inner court are preparing silver coins, and want to go to the West to search for grain, but he has burned the nautical charts for me! He has burned the shipbuilding charts for me! Everything is reduced to nothing in a fire! You tell me, this

How will the ship be built? How will the sea come out!"

"."

Ma Wensheng did not answer, and he could not answer.

He only became the Minister of the Ministry of War during the Hongzhi period. Before that, he had no connection with the Ministry of War and was basically not in the court.

It has been fifty years since he entered the officialdom. Ma Wensheng himself has lost count of the number of positions he has held, including censor, inspector of Shanxi, inspector of Huguang, deputy chief censor of the left capital and governor of Liaodong, and governor of water transportation.

It was in the third year of Chenghua that Liu Daxia burned the sea map. He remembered that he was an inspector in Fujian at that time.

I don't know anything about this matter, and I don't even have anything to do with it.

But His Majesty asked him how to build this ship and how to get out of the sea.

How did he answer?

In fact, Emperor Hongzhi just couldn't vent his anger. He turned around and looked at Xia Yuan who was standing in the palace, "What did you do in the palace?"

"."

Xia Yuan's cheeks twitched. He came to the palace because he learned that no relevant documents could be found. Then he suddenly remembered the historical record of Liu Daxia's burning of sea charts.

"I came to the palace just because I learned that no navigation documents were found, and became worried."

"You don't need to be anxious now, I don't need to be anxious, and no one needs to be anxious. The nautical charts are burned! The shipbuilding plans are also burned! The hard work of several generations has been ruined. If you want to go to sea again, you don't know how to add more.

There are so many obstacles, I don’t know how much food will be spent, and I don’t know how many more years we have to wait! It’s even impossible to even talk about it!”

The more he went on, the angrier Zhu Youtang became. At the end of the sentence, his eyes were red, and the anger on his face was ready to burst out, "Go! Send the Jinyi Guards, send Dongchang, and take Liu Daxia to prison for me.

, ask me! Ask him what he meant when he burned the nautical charts and the shipbuilding charts back then!"
Chapter completed!