OBS Chapter 348 The Ming Dynasty Makes Money and Spends It All, 1. Each Wants to Take Them Home
Chapter 348 The Ming Dynasty Makes Money and Spends It All, 1. Each Wants to Take Them Home
After arranging accommodations for Park Deok-hwan and Park Sung-sung, Yang Shaofeng began to think about how to get the border market up and running.
The famous decadent writer Mr. Huang Kaiyin once said: "If you don't follow the rules when you work, you'll work yourself to death and achieve nothing."
Another, more famous, decadent writer, Mr. Wei Shiyao, once said: One must learn to use the opportunity of doing errands for the imperial court to achieve one's own goals.
To put it bluntly, what Emperor Zhu wanted was to control the surrounding vassal states through tribute and border markets. The problem Yang Shaofeng needed to consider now was how to use the border markets to help Emperor Zhu achieve his goal while also getting Ningyang County and the entire Dengzhou Prefecture to get on board with the border markets.
So here's the question: to some extent, Dengzhou Prefecture and South Korea actually have a lot in common.
For example, Dengzhou is located along the coast, as is the Korean coast. Many people in Dengzhou farm and herd livestock, and many people in the Korean coast also make a living by fishing.
So, what things in Penglai, or rather the whole of Dengzhou, are suitable to sell to the Koreans?
As for Ningyang County, Yang Shaofeng is not worried at all now.
If a glass workshop in Ningyang County can produce a set of teaware for itself, it means that it can produce more teaware in the future. These things don't cost much to make, but once they are given the reputation of "even the Emperor Zhu used them and said they were good", their value can increase directly.
In addition, Ningyang County also has a luncheon meat workshop.
The luncheon meat sold to Xu Da's army and the people of the Ming Dynasty certainly couldn't be made with pure starch, but the luncheon meat sold to the Koreans only needed to be mixed with a little bit of flavor enhancer made from small shrimp and mushroom powder.
After all, Koreans can classify seaweed as seafood, and then as meat, so luncheon meat with small shrimp added as a flavor enhancer can almost be considered pure meat!
Besides glass and luncheon meat from Ningyang County, Yang Shaofeng thought he could also bring over things like soap, tea, and silk from Jiangnan.
Aside from excluding machinery like harvesters and books related to science and engineering, we should try to enrich the variety of goods that can be sold to the Koreans at the market.
The goal is to achieve the effect of making money in the Ming Dynasty and spending it all in the Ming Dynasty, without ever wanting to bring any money home.
As for what exactly the Ming Dynasty wanted to buy from the Koreans?
Yang Shaofeng thought it best to buy grain, after all, the Ming Dynasty had tens of millions of people, and Zhu Chongba, that old tyrant, especially liked to send Xu Da to lead troops out to cause trouble, so stockpiling more grain would definitely not be a bad idea.
……
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering how to scheme against the Koreans, Park Deok-hwan and Park Sung-sung were also discussing what to buy and sell.
"books."
Park Sung-sung was the first to offer his opinion: "Everything else can wait, but books will always come first."
Park Deok-hwan, however, objected: "Books can't be eaten or drunk. Right now, it's more important to find a way to buy some seeds and farming tools to solve the people's farming problems first, and then we can consider the books."
Park Sung-sung scoffed at Park Deok-hwan's opinion: "Books may not fill your stomach or your mouth, but they can make Tibet stronger, just as they can make Goryeo stronger."
"As for the seeds and farming tools you mentioned... Although the Ming Dynasty was the suzerain state of Goryeo, the land conditions in the Ming Dynasty and Goryeo were not the same. Seeds that could produce high yields in the Ming Dynasty might not be able to produce high yields in Goryeo."
"If we're just thinking about the people, Goryeo should be considering buying some edible things, like rice, noodles, and beans."
"However, for the sake of Goryeo's future, Goryeo should now focus on purchasing books, even if it means the people suffer a bit first."
Park Sung-sung's expression gradually turned serious: "Which is more important, the suffering of one generation, or the immense benefits of the next hundred years?"
After another moment of silence, Park Sung-sung continued, "Also, we should send more scholars to the Ming Dynasty to learn, no matter the cost."
As Park Sung-sung finished speaking, Park Deok-hwan fell silent.
Was Park Sung-sung right?
That's definitely right.
In fact, Goryeo has never stopped its progress in recent years, and the reason why it has been able to make progress is because of the large number of books that flowed into Goryeo from the Central Plains during the Yuan Dynasty.
However, Park Sung-sung's statement is not entirely correct.
As the power of the Ho Yuan dynasty declined, Emperor Toghon Temür of Ho Yuan also died a natural death. King Wang Jeon could no longer rely on the power of Ho Yuan, and King Shin Don became increasingly arrogant. Chaos was becoming increasingly apparent in Goryeo.
Under these circumstances, Goryeo should stockpile some food and supplies, especially ironware.
Only in this way could the king have the confidence to completely eliminate Shin Don.
Seeing that neither of them could convince the other, Park Sung-sung could only sigh helplessly and say, "Let's talk about it when we visit Yang Shaoqing tomorrow."
"In addition, after you finalize the items for the border trade tomorrow, you need to return to Goryeo as soon as possible and have them transported over."
Park Deok-hwan opened his mouth, and after a long while, he said, "Yang Shaoqing may not be willing to sell the books to Goryeo."
Park Sung-sung was slightly taken aback and asked, "How did you know?"
Park Deok-hwan shook his head slightly and sighed, "I have no evidence, but that's how I feel."
After a slight pause, Park Deok-hwan added, "Perhaps we can see some clues from the forced laborers we saw today."
Park Sung-sung pondered for a moment, then frowned and said, "If that's the case, then it's going to be quite difficult."
Two different prison uniforms, two completely different treatments.
It is obvious that those conscripts without the character "倭" (Wo) on their chests were ordinary citizens of the Ming Dynasty, while those with the character "倭" were either real Japanese pirates or ordinary citizens of the Ming Dynasty posing as Japanese pirates.
The fact before them was that, regardless of whether those laborers with the word "Japanese" on their names were real or fake Japanese, Yang Shaoqing did not treat them as human beings, nor did the soldiers responsible for supervising them.
In other words, Yang Shaoqing was likely preoccupied with the Ming Dynasty and its people, and probably didn't care about the lives of the Goryeo people at all. He also wouldn't have allowed Goryeo to buy books.
After a long silence, Park Sung-sang sighed and said, "It's all up to us. Let's talk to those Yang Shaoqings tomorrow first."
To the surprise of Park Deok-hwan and Park Sung-sung, Yang Shao-feng readily agreed to their request to buy books.
"You can buy any of the Four Books and Five Classics you like."
While secretly rejoicing that the printing house in Ningyang County could make another fortune, Yang Shaofeng said with a smile, "Actually, even if you two hadn't brought this up, I was planning to persuade you to buy some books."