The Rise of the European Emperor

After sending Marin and his party all the way to the Huitong Hall, Fang Yong and his Jinwu Guard took most of Marin's guards to the residence of the Jinwu Guard in the city to stay.

The Huitong Hall is specially used to entertain the envoys of the vassal state or the residence of the monarch, but generally speaking, few monarchs come to pay tribute. After all, the monarch generally does not leave the country lightly, so as to avoid domestic changes. In addition, it is very dangerous to go by sea. Therefore, general vassal states send envoys to pay tribute, and do not put the monarch in danger.

As for Marin's guards, except Kahn and other 20 or 30 confidant guards, everyone else was arranged to live in the Jinwu Guard's barracks.

In fact, if it weren't for Marin's 900 guards who didn't carry weapons and only carried flags, they wouldn't be qualified to enter the capital at all, and would only camp outside the city.

Generally speaking, even if a foreign monarch comes to court in person, the entourage should not exceed a hundred people. The rest are all outside the city and are not allowed to enter the city.

However, Marin made an exception and was allowed to enter the city because he presented the super auspicious black tortoise hanging from the sky, and the 900 people did not carry weapons. However, they were also assigned to the Jinwu Guard's residence so that the Jinwu Guard could monitor them.

After moving into the Huitong Hall, Marin quickly received a notice from Huang Qinghe, the host and guest secretary, that the date of Marin's tribute to the court was set on the 15th day of the sixth lunar month, about five days later.

Emperor Zhengde was not a diligent emperor, and he often went to court only a few days ago. Otherwise, Liu Jin would not have the opportunity to invade the government and the public. The emperor goes to the court to handle political affairs every day, and you have a chance to speak out as an eunuch?

It is precisely because Zhengde does not often go to court, Liu Jin is often the one who wears red on his behalf, and is only allowed to report to important memorials. For ordinary trivial matters, let Liu Jin approve directly. In this way, there is room for Liu Jin to operate. For example, Liu Jin can judge for himself which is a big deal and which is a small deal. What is considered a major matter is sent to Zhengde for personal approval, and what is considered a trivial matter is his own decision... But what is a major matter and what is a small matter depends entirely on how Liu Jin judges, so he has the opportunity to control the government...

...

Seeing that there are still five days before the court meeting, Marin decided to take this opportunity to bribe those who need to be bribed...

Marin brought several large carts of silver, all of which were packed in boxes and escorted by the guards himself, without handling others. The money was used to bribe Liu Jin and others.

Originally, Marin wanted to bribe a few more people. But when I thought about it later, people in Liu Jin's party all followed Liu Jin as their horse. As long as Liu Jin nods, the others dare not disagree.

As for the dissatisfaction of the rest of Liu Jin's party? They will also be unlucky after Liu Jin's downfall. So, don't worry about what they think.

Similarly, those officials opposite Liu Jin did not need to be bribed. Because they don't have the right to speak yet.

However, the other members of the Zhengde Eight Tigers had to be bribed. Because, although Liu Jin is currently the most powerful, the others are not bad. The most important thing is that after Liu Jin fell, it was time for these people to stand up. Don't bribe them now, when Liu Jin falls, I will definitely give you small shoes.

Moreover, eunuchs hold grudges the most. If you ignore him, you are most likely to be hated. Therefore, others don't need to bribe, but none of the Eight Tigers of Zhengde can escape, and they all have to serve in place.

Of course, the eunuch Gao Feng has already retired and went home to take care of himself, so there is no need to bribe him. And Qiu Ju, who has been assigned to Nanjing, is out of reach. As for Zhang Yong, who went to Anhua (Qingyang) to appease the people, although he was not there, Marin had to give gifts. Otherwise, it would definitely not be a good thing to be missed by Zhang Yong after he came back. Moreover, because of his meritorious service in exposing Liu Jin, Zhang Yong was later widely used.

...

However, if you want to bribe these eunuchs, dragging a big box to the door in broad daylight seems indecent and will be criticized by others. However, there is a curfew in the capital at night, and you can't go out casually. In addition, money houses had not yet emerged in this era (money bank banknotes would not emerge until the late Jiajing Dynasty), so it was difficult to exchange so much silver into bank notes that were easy to carry. Therefore, Marin quietly contacted Liu Jin through Jinyiwei, saying that he would visit at night and ask him to help solve the curfew problem.

Liu Jin naturally knew that Marin was going to bribe him,

Naturally happy. What's more, with his power over the government and the public, it's only a matter of one sentence to get this done.

Then, a small team of Jinyiwei was sent to the Huitong Hall to assist Marin. Then, Marin also put on a Jinyiwei costume (not a flying fish suit, and the flying fish suit is not rewarded and cannot be worn indiscriminately), pretending to go out to handle cases at night with Jinyiwei...

As for the guards under Marin who were responsible for carrying the silver boxes, they also changed into the ordinary clothes of the low-level brocade guards.

Then, under the guidance of several official Jinyi guards, that night, Ma Lin and a few of his men came to Liu Jin's mansion outside the palace with a few boxes of silver...

"Ma Lin, the lord of the Beihai Kingdom, has met Eunuch Liu!"

After coming to the upper living room of Liu Jin's mansion, Ma Lin quickly bowed to salute after seeing Liu Jin sitting on the main seat, which was a standard salute...

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty at this time, Liu Jinquan was in power, and the ordinary princes of the Ming Dynasty would not only salute Liu Jin, but even kneel down when they saw Liu Jin.

But Marin is the lord of a foreign vassal, and he is a "barbarian" who "does not understand etiquette". Therefore, Liu Jin will not be too fussy. What's more, Marin is here to give money, he is the God of Wealth. Moreover, Marin is not willing to kneel down to a eunuch, it is too shameful. Kneeling to Emperor Zhengde is fine, but kneeling to an eunuch is a big joke. Therefore, he just pretended to be stupid, and it was inconvenient for Liu Jin to publicly ask a foreign monarch to kneel down to him.

After Liu Jin snorted casually, he signaled that he knew. Then, he turned his attention to the boxes brought by Marin...

Marin immediately understood and asked his men to open the box...

Then, with the help of the light, the shining silver appeared under Liu Jin's eyelids...

Marin brought a total of five boxes, each containing 10,000 taels of silver. Rao Liu Jin saw more gold and silver, so he was quite satisfied with these five boxes of silver. After all, Marin is just a fan ghost king, and he is satisfied with being able to send him so much money.

"Mr. Ma, please sit down!" Liu Jin's attitude immediately improved a lot when he saw Qian, and he cheerfully asked Ma Lin to sit down.

"More seats from Mr. Liu!" Ma Lin happily sat down and chatted with Liu Jin.

"I don't know how far is the Beihai Kingdom of Mr. Ma from Daming, what is the size of the country? What is the population?" Liu Jin asked straight to the point. Regarding Ma Lin, Liu Jin had a high-ranking mentality, and he didn't bother to be polite, so he asked directly.

"Our country is about 26,000 miles away from Daming 6th Road..." Marin thought about the length of the later Eurasian 6th Bridge, and directly applied it.

"But Route 6 is very unsafe. There are many powerful countries along the way, and there are many tyrannical forces like Mongolia with cavalry. Therefore, ordinary people will not take Route 6. Otherwise, they will be killed by these grassland barbarians halfway."

"How about going by sea? How far?" Liu Jin asked with interest.

"About 30,000 to 40,000 miles, and it will take more than a year to travel. However, it is not safe to travel by sea. If there is a hurricane, the ship will be destroyed and people will die. Therefore, coming to Daming is actually a gamble!"

Liu Jin nodded, agreeing with Marin's opinion. As a Ming Dynasty eunuch, Zheng He is definitely the idol of the Ming Dynasty eunuch. As for the deeds of Zheng He's voyages, Liu Jin naturally knew about it, and knew that what Marin said was true. Above the South China Sea, there are often hurricanes (typhoons). If the ship encounters it, it will never run away.

"What about the land and population of your country?"

"The area of ​​our country is about the same size as that of Zhejiang Province..." Marin thought for a while, as if the area of ​​the German mainland of the North Sea country was about 65,000 square kilometers. But the newly acquired Scottish Highlands have more than 20,000 square kilometers, plus the Southern Border Province, Northumberland in England, and Wicklow County in Ireland, the total must exceed 100,000 square kilometers, basically catching up with Zhejiang Province.

"Population...probably less than 2 million..." This statement is actually watery. The native population of the North Sea State is about 1.5 million, but the Scottish Highlands and other places are sparsely populated, and the populations of Northumberland, Scottish Borders, and Wicklow County are not large, which is not far from 2 million. But the people of the Ming Dynasty had no way to prove it, so they naturally followed Marin to brag. Moreover, Marin didn't exaggerate too much.

"Oh, it's quite big... Seeing that Mr. Ma is so generous, could it be that your country owns the silver mine?" Liu Jin is a greedy guy. Obviously, this guy has got Marin's idea and wants to get more.

Naturally, Marin couldn't foolishly say that he had a lot of money, so he began to cry about being poor...

Marin said that all the money is in the treasury of the Beihai State. If you can get the permission of Daming, you can buy silk and other products of Daming and sell them back to the country, then you can recover the cost. Otherwise, it will go bankrupt...

Liu Jin was impatient, but also gave up the idea of ​​continuing to blackmail Marin. In his opinion, the barbarians in Fanbang were all poor and remote, and they came to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute, and they all came to ask for more rewards. Therefore, he also believed that Beihai had no money.

Seeing that Marin sent so much money, Liu Jin still agreed to speak for Marin.

Then, Marin took the opportunity to ask Liu Jin to continue to help, and asked him to go to the houses of several other eunuchs to give gifts. Moreover, Marin deliberately let Liu Jin know that he only intends to send one or two thousand taels of silver to other people...

Liu Jin was really in a good mood and agreed to help. Moreover, Marin's hand also convinced Liu Jin that Marin really didn't have much money...

In fact, 50,000 taels of silver is only equivalent to more than 43,000 gold coins, and Marin can sell a batch of grain for hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Marin didn't feel bad about the money. Of course, he didn't want to be taken advantage of and continue to be slaughtered. That's why Liu Jin deliberately made Liu Jin think that he had no money...

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