Chapter 137 Trigger

Yes, smoke.

Of course, this was not the smell of some extremely dangerous contraband (in fact, Mu Qi didn't know what contraband smelled like, and he had never sold cigarettes in Humen), but a familiar, strong smell of old-fashioned tobacco composed of nicotine and tar; quite overbearing and choking - if you could take a walk around the migrant workers' dormitories outside the construction site, you would immediately remember this smell.

…So, where did this tobacco come from?

The important officials who were on duty all had very sensitive noses and immediately smelled a strange odor as soon as they opened the door. They didn't know what tobacco was, they just felt the smell was strangely pungent; although there were fragrant flowers and clean water everywhere to cover it up, the smoke still lingered. When the palace servants opened the corner gate and led everyone to the emperor, the strange smell became even stronger, heavier and more uncomfortable: what drifted out with the smoke was actually the scent of a large amount of ambergris and top-grade agarwood, the best spices mixed with the smell of tobacco nicotine, the effect was quite indescribable - at least a few old men like Yan Fenyi, Xu Shaohu and Li Jurong couldn't stand it, and they coughed continuously on the spot, their old faces flushed red.

Fortunately, the palace where the emperor lives has recently been renovated with reinforced concrete, with the height increased and the span expanded, greatly improving ventilation conditions. After turning a few narrow corners, the cool breeze from outside slowly came in through the newly opened windows, and the old monks were finally able to take a breath; they took the wet wipes to wipe their heads and faces, then looked around, only to see half-human-high gilded and silver-inlaid incense burners on all sides, burning years of accumulated agarwood, and the mist was still lingering.

Ever since the victory in Shangyu and several battles against the Japanese pirates, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor became arrogant and complacent, and his innate vicious temper naturally broke out. Counting with fingers, Zhenjun is only sixty years old, just the age when he is as playful and innocent as a flower. As the saying goes, life is fleeting, so we should enjoy it while we can. What’s more, youth is fleeting, and good time is hard to come by, and the sunset of sixty is just around the corner. Now that my achievements have been made, if I fail to indulge myself and enjoy this great life, I would be laughed at by the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor Wu!

Moreover, the two recent victories in naval battles have also opened up a rare opportunity for the True Lord's desires. It's not that the emperor doesn't want to be extravagant on weekdays, but after all, he still has to keep up his reputation after thousands of years. No matter how greedy he is inside, he has to wear Taoist robes and act weird outside. He has to wear only eight sets of clothes for four seasons and his image as a saintly monarch must not be ruined. He can only make money by white gloves. But now, with the Sino-Japanese "Nanjing Agreement" as a guarantee, Japan's countless mountains of gold and silver, mineral resources and fisheries have basically been opened to the royal family to get involved in and plunder, and there is no longer any moral obstacle - the historical books that have been written for thousands of years will not cry out for injustice for the Japanese pirates!

Because of this, the current saint quickly discovered the fatal bug in the feudal system - if he wanted to increase taxes and fees to open mines in the Central Plains, the interests involved would be too great and he would offend too many people, and if he was not careful he would provoke the censors to a desperate situation; but if he wanted to make a fortune from the silver and gold mines in Japan, he didn't even need the cabinet to approve the decree, he could just write a small note to Yan Donglou. A large amount of gold and silver was secretly traded and spent at will, and the court officials outside the court were probably still ignorant of it!

This is what malicious bugs do. After the new channel was opened up, public opinion, censors, ancestral system, and all the mechanisms in the feudal system that still constrained imperial power became ineffective; and under this unrestrained effect, our Master Feixuan finally fully demonstrated his unrestrained nature, and proved to everyone with eloquent facts that the emperor's luxurious life in the previous decades was just a small test of material desires that was not worth mentioning.

The affairs of the imperial palace are secret, and no one knows the exact expenses. But now, looking around, one can see the incredible extravagance in the palace. The incense burners burn large amounts of top-grade agarwood such as Kynam and Green Phoebe. One inch of them costs thousands of gold coins and are often out of stock. In the past, the palace's agarwood supply was supported by tributes from Myanmar and Siam. Even the emperor only had about half a pound of agarwood per year, and the quality was still hard to say. But now that the shipping route to Southeast Asia has been opened up, spices from India and other places have also been mined. Zhenjun immediately instructed Yan Donglou to squeeze a large amount of silver from the Iwami Silver Mine in Japan, and after transporting it to Southeast Asia, he bought 800 kilograms of agarwood.

——Yes, it is 800 kilograms of agarwood.

In general, after the 800 kilograms of agarwood were transported back, the palace immediately prepared countless half-person-high incense burners; one burner was lit in the outer market, one burner was lit in the inner room, one burner was lit at the bedside, one burner was lit in the study, and one burner was lit in the toilet. The fragrance, which was worth more than a thousand gold coins, lingered all day and night, permeating every corner of the huge palace. It was said that even the pants that Zhenjun took off were fragrant...

This practice of burning top-quality spices as firewood was only a tiny glimpse of the gold and silver squandered by the True Lord; and this tiny glimpse was enough to make the knowledgeable ministers stunned. But the greater shock was yet to come. When everyone knelt in turn outside the pearl curtain of the throne, there was a long clanging sound of bronze chimes from behind the curtain, and the maids on both sides came forward in turn to bring snacks to the ministers. But unlike the usual tea and cheese, what was served this time was a porcelain bowl from a Bian kiln heated on a small golden stove, filled with a bowl of what looked like bright red vermicelli.

"Blood bird's nest?" The Prince of Mu muttered.

After the eunuch Sanbao made six voyages to the West during the reign of Emperor Taizong, bird's nests were introduced from Southeast Asia to the Central Plains and became a popular tonic along the coast. Mu Qi had some spare money in his pocket earlier, and he specially bought bird's nests for Zhao Fei and Liu Li as gifts. However, the current harvesting and preservation technology is limited after all. Ordinary bird's nests are easy to obtain, but the precious blood bird's nest is hard to come by at a high price. Even the connections in the Duke's Mansion are not available, so they can only use white bird's nests.

After opening Nanyang, it might not be difficult to get some blood swallows, but it is too extravagant to just give them to people...

The prince looked around and carefully pulled Yan Donglou, who was kneeling obediently beside him:

"This blood swallow..."

Yan Donglou was stunned for a moment, but still replied:

"It was the message from the palace that asked us to transfer the Japanese tariffs and go to Southeast Asia to buy a thousand kilograms of supplements."

One thousand [jin]? Mu Qi was silent.

I can only say that this is indeed the work of Lao Deng... Originally, he was a little touched by this rare snack, but judging from the magnitude of this dish, I'm afraid even the cats raised by Lao Deng can have a bowl of blood bird's nest, right?

Of course, even if all the reserves in Nanyang were plundered, it is estimated that there would not be enough reserves of 1,000 kilograms, so there must be another mystery behind the purchases in the palace. Mu Qi stirred the blood swallow in the porcelain bowl with a golden spoon and immediately smelled a familiar medicinal aroma; he looked up and down, carefully moved the porcelain bowl away, and sure enough, he saw a faint red light in the stove, and a ginseng as thick as a thumb was quietly roasting.

Mu Qi closed the porcelain bowl with a whoosh:

"This is--"

“This is also a supplement I bought.”

"There are still such people in Goryeo?!"

Judging from the size and thickness, this ginseng is at least fifteen years old, and is an excellent medicinal material. But even if Goryeo's reserves were exhausted, I'm afraid it would not be able to meet this consumption!

"It's not Korean ginseng." Yan Xiaoge Lao was obviously also deeply impressed by this extravagance: "It's a business with the Portuguese and the English. They said that there are a lot of ginseng growing on the land of 'America' across the ocean."

...Oh, it turns out to be American ginseng.

Westerners do not have the habit of eating ginseng, so the stock is sufficient and the price is not expensive. Even so, it is incredible to buy large quantities of ginseng only to use it as charcoal and firewood.

When formulating the Sino-Japanese "Nanjing Agreement", Mu Qi had calculated it over and over again in his mind, always thinking that it would take at least thirty to fifty years to plunder Japan's output and make it impossible for them to recover forever; but now it seems that as long as the True Lord lets go and enjoys himself twice, the progress will surely be rapid, and it won't take thirty to fifty years at all...

Is this the level of tyrants and traitors in the feudal era? Mu Qi was shocked and could only sigh.

——Take every penny and use it like dirt and sand; the Fu of Afang Palace is extremely exaggerated, and the effect is probably just this, right?

·

Probably to show sympathy to his close ministers (after all, the important ministers who were qualified to enter the palace were the real working oxen and horses, and they had to be won over); the emperor rang the bronze bell only after everyone had finished drinking the bowl of bird's nest roasted with ginseng. Everyone stood up immediately and knelt before the pearl curtain. There was a rustling sound inside the curtain. Princess Sishan opened the pearl curtain and welcomed the Emperor who had not been seen for dozens of days and looked even more handsome.

Yes, although he had been hiding in the palace for dozens of days, perhaps the lavish spending really improved his mood, or perhaps the South Sea tonic he had taken at all costs finally worked; when the emperor walked out slowly from behind the curtain, his old face was flushed and his eyes were bright. How could he look sick?

Of course, there were still subtle changes in the emperor's appearance this time; for example, his clothes were still the same plain Taoist robe as usual, but in his hand he now held a bright green jade staff, with distinct joints and flawless throughout. It was obviously carved out of a whole piece of jade ore, a work of art that cost an unknown amount of money. But the emperor was not stingy at all, he just knocked the ground with his stick, making a thumping sound, and his tone was quite calm:

"I was reading a book yesterday and came across two wonderful lines. I still can't forget them. I feel really touched."

It's inexplicable, without any preparation, coming suddenly, and incomprehensible. But everyone present was already used to it, and Elder Yan knelt forward and said:

"Your Majesty, please let me know."

"'A traveler came from the west, and stopped in the east; the flames spread, and the golden crows disappeared.'" The emperor chanted in a slow voice, with a very elegant demeanor: "This is the wonderful article I have memorized. What do you think of it, Grand Scholars?"

He is a familiar riddle teller, and he also speaks inhuman language, which makes people dream about the past. The grand secretaries were too familiar with the emperor's style, so they reacted immediately.

"To answer your Majesty's question, this is the divination inscription of the Tui Bei Tu." Elder Yan said respectfully, "Yuan Tiangang used numerology to predict the flow of worldly affairs for a thousand years, but was stopped by Li Chunfeng's Tui Bei Tu. The content of the divination was compiled into a ballad and recorded in cryptic language; what your Majesty is chanting is just one section of it."

"The secret cannot be revealed, so it can only be recorded in code." The emperor smiled and said, "Then according to Lord Yan's opinion, what does 'A guest has come from the west' mean?"