Xianxia version of Water Margin

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Jiang Hongfei was secretly appointing a crown prince.

Up to now, except for Jiang Hongfei, no one knows who Jiang Hongfei is going to pass his throne to.

Although no one knows who the crown prince is, according to the performance of the princes, the crown prince is probably locked in among the dozen princes with the best performance.

Among them, the most popular ones are the eldest son of the emperor, Jiang Xiu, and the eldest son of the emperor, Jiang Zai.

Needless to say, Jiang Xiu began to supervise the country when he was a teenager. Later, he was sent to various key departments by Jiang Hongfei for training. He also trained in the army for several years. He is already a very mature politician. It can be said that he is a very perfect crown prince.

And Jiang Zai?

To be honest, Jiang Hongfei didn't think much of him before, because he was too naive, believed in literati, and wanted to turn the Yuan Empire into the Zhao Song Dynasty.

It can be said that at that time, he was completely unqualified to compete with Jiang Xiu and other princes.

But later, Jiang Hongfei sent Jiang Zai to the Northeast Army for training.

After spending a few years in the Northeast Army and experiencing the destruction of the Jin Kingdom, Jiang Zai grew up and was no longer as naive as before.

On the contrary, Jiang Zai has transformed into a suitable crown prince.

The key is that Jiang Zai is Jiang Hongfei's eldest son.

The key is that although Jiang Zai understands that only by combining civil and military affairs can the Yuan Empire be developed well, and Jiang Hongfei's division of civil and military affairs is very clever, he is still more favored by literati.

Therefore, many people in the Yuan Empire still hope that Jiang Hongfei can abide by the tradition of "establishing the legitimate heir instead of the illegitimate heir, and establishing the eldest son instead of the virtuous one" and establish Jiang Zai as the crown prince.

In addition to Jiang Xiu and Jiang Zai, Jiang Hongfei has hundreds of outstanding sons who have achieved outstanding achievements and outstanding performance in their respective fields.

It can even be said that any of Jiang Hongfei's hundreds of sons is qualified to be the crown prince.

Moreover, Jiang Hongfei now has not only many sons, but also many grandsons, among which there are also many excellent ones, who can also be the crown prince.

Let's put it this way, other dynasties were worried because there were no good crown princes, but the Yuan Empire was worried because there were too many good crown princes.

Because among Jiang Hongfei's sons, there were also many ambitious ones, and even many of them had military power.

If one of them was not handled well, a Thousand Kings Rebellion would break out.

The key is that such a complicated situation has no historical basis, and no one knows how to deal with it.

Therefore, everything can only be done by Jiang Hongfei alone.

Many people are even afraid of this matter and avoid it.

As the strongest competitor for the crown prince, Jiang Xiu should have avoided this matter, should have performed well, and should have tried to please Jiang Hongfei.

But no one expected that Jiang Xiu would come to "force the palace" when he saw Jiang Hongfei's aggressive military expansion.

When Jiang Xiu saw Jiang Hongfei in the Yangxin Palace, Jiang Hongfei was surrounded by a large group of beautiful women as usual, surrounding Jiang Hongfei in the middle, making Jiang Hongfei feel like he was in a country of women.

On Jiang Hongfei's left hand, there is a young woman lying on an extremely exquisite carpet. She has a dignified and generous appearance, exquisite and beautiful facial features, and a heroic look between her eyebrows, which makes her beauty more profound. A pair of clear big eyes are like two clear springs, revealing the unique beauty of body and leisure that has just transformed from a girl to a young woman. When she leans down, her long hair seems to be a beautiful landscape, changing different postures. Her slender figure is like a dancing butterfly, which attracts attention.

On Jiang Hongfei's right hand, there is a beautiful young woman with a very "relaxed" feeling. She has exquisite facial features and outstanding temperament. Her eyes are deep, and her smile hides stories, which makes people feel a kind of nobleness emanating from her bones. Her beauty is the calmness after years of precipitation, and the dignity that can be felt without much words. Every look and every movement of her reveals her shrewdness and noble temperament.

Jiang Hongfei had so many women that Jiang Xiu, who was not very interested in women, could no longer tell them apart.

But Jiang Xiu knew the two young women lying next to Jiang Hongfei, no, lying under Jiang Hongfei's hand, being stroked by Jiang Hongfei like a cat.

These two young women were Queen Hariphunchai XVII of the Kingdom of the Queendom, who was captured by her ministers in a mutiny and presented to Jiang Hongfei less than three months after ascending the throne, and Queen Mother Le of the Ly Dynasty.

Jiang Xiu was deeply impressed by them, especially the former.

Don't get me wrong, Jiang Xiu was not impressed by Hariphunchai XVII because of his beauty.

The reason why Jiang Xiu had a particularly deep memory of Hariphunchai XVII was that on that day in the court, the young monarch, in fluent Chinese, passionately condemned Jiang Hongfei's unjust actions, bluntly saying that his barbaric invasion of neighboring countries was as despicable as a robber.

At that time, Hariphunchai XVII's eyes revealed his determination to face death. His monarchic demeanor beyond his age deeply shocked Jiang Xiu.

Compared with those monarchs who were submissive and even grateful for the grace of not killing after being conquered by Jiang Hongfei, Hariphunchai XVII seemed particularly noble.

However, things are unpredictable. In just a few months, this monarch who once swore to die unyielding was tamed by Jiang Hongfei to be as docile as a cat.

Jiang Xiu felt mixed emotions in his heart. He was both awed and suspicious of Jiang Hongfei's methods.

He thought to himself that his father seemed to be omnipotent and everything in the world was under his conquest.

Facing such a father, Jiang Xiu couldn't help but doubt himself: "Am I really worried?"

Putting aside his distracting thoughts, Jiang Xiu took a deep breath, then knelt respectfully on the ground: "Your son greets you, father."

Jiang Hongfei said calmly without raising his eyelids: "Get up."

Jiang Xiu stood up, looked directly at Jiang Hongfei, and mustered up his courage to say: "Father, I dare to ask you to stop the external expansion."

When Jiang Hongfei heard this, his hand movements paused slightly, and then returned to normal, his voice calm and calm: "Oh? Why?"

Jiang Xiu firmly believed that he had a solid argument to persuade Jiang Hongfei to give up.

But when Jiang Hongfei gently uttered the word "why", Jiang Xiu suddenly felt a heavy burden on his shoulders, and the original firm reason seemed to lose its weight in an instant.

This is the deterrent power of Jiang Hongfei, the emperor of all ages!

Jiang Xiu glanced at Haripunchai XVII, who was willing to submit to Jiang Hongfei, and secretly speculated in his heart: "Maybe she was also impressed by the supreme majesty of her father?"

Jiang Xiu adjusted his breathing and slowly said the reason for his careful consideration: "Years of war have cost a lot..."

Jiang Hongfei interrupted Jiang Xiu: "Is the Ministry of Revenue short of money?"

Jiang Xiu was speechless for a moment.

The financial strength of the Yuan Empire is far beyond the imagination of the world.

On the account of the Ministry of Revenue, there are mountains of spiritual stones alone, which are enough to make the ancient and modern dynasties far behind.

And this huge wealth is largely due to the plunder of war.

The Yuan Empire was invincible. Every time it conquered a country, it would plunder all the wealth of its treasury, royal family and dignitaries, thus accumulating unimaginable huge wealth.

Take the fall of the Angkor Dynasty as an example.

Angkor City, this once glorious capital, is so large that it is astonishing.

It is said that its area is close to two million mu, which is not much less than the international cities of London and Paris that Jiang Hongfei was famous for in his previous life.

What is even more amazing is that it is four times the area of ​​Tokyo Bianliang City.

Let's put it this way, before the reconstruction of Yanjing City, Angkor City was undoubtedly the top of the world in this world.

The glory of Angkor City lies not only in its vast territory, but also in the grandeur and exquisiteness of its architecture. Especially Angkor Wat, as the soul of the city, its huge amount of stone and exquisite carving craftsmanship are a miracle.     It is estimated that more than five million pieces of stone were needed to build Angkor Wat, each weighing an average of one and a half tons, and some huge stones weighed as much as 76 tons.

Such a scale is not inferior to the Egyptian pyramids.

And every detail of Angkor Wat reveals the ingenuity of the craftsmen, and its exquisiteness has reached an unprecedented height.

Behind all this prosperity is the extreme use of craftsman resources by the Angkor Dynasty.

In order to build this extraordinary city, the Angkor Dynasty gathered almost all the top craftsmen in Southeast Asia and even India, with a number of more than 200,000, including world-class carving masters.

However, the fate of these skilled craftsmen was reversed under the iron hoof of the Yuan Empire. They were "invited" to the Yuan Dynasty by Jiang Hongfei and became a valuable resource for the construction of the empire, heralding the infinite possibilities of the future architectural art of the Yuan Empire.

The wealth gained by the Yuan Empire from conquering the Angkor Dynasty is even more difficult to estimate.

According to incomplete statistics, the official wealth alone has reached tens of billions of strings, and the wealth flowing into Jiang Hongfei's private treasury is even more unknown.

This huge wealth undoubtedly provided a solid backing for the strengthening of the national strength of the Yuan Empire.

Historically, the Jin Kingdom, with its powerful military force, captured the most prosperous Tokyo Bianliang City of that era. Even if the Tokyo Bianliang City was almost completely plundered, the Jin Kingdom could only obtain a mere 6 billion strings of wealth.

——This number may seem huge to later generations, but in fact it was far from what the Jin Dynasty expected. Faced with the huge indemnity that could not be fulfilled, the Northern Song Dynasty court had to reluctantly give up its love and use rare treasures, silk brocade and even women as collateral. In the end, it still owed the Jin Dynasty a debt of 342,780 ingots of gold and 871,300 ingots of silver, and promised to pay tribute every year to repay this heavy war indemnity.

In comparison, although it may not be as good as the Zhao Song Dynasty, the Angkor Dynasty was also extremely wealthy.

The Angkor Dynasty was not an isolated case. Although the small countries on the entire Indochina Peninsula were of different sizes, they all enjoyed the dividends brought by the East-West maritime trade due to their unique geographical location.

——They are located at the key nodes of the Maritime Silk Road. Their unique geographical location allows these countries to easily get a share of the busy trade.

So much so that even small countries of smaller scale can easily accumulate more than 10 or 20 billion in wealth.

When talking about the prosperity of maritime trade, we have to mention the rise of the Yuan Empire.

Since Jiang Hongfei's rise, the Yuan Empire has set its sights on the vast ocean and vigorously developed maritime trade.

This decision not only promoted the rapid growth of the domestic economy, but also enabled the Yuan Empire to establish a huge international trade network in a short period of time.

According to statistics, the Yuan Empire has established direct trade relations with hundreds of countries, from Java and Brunei in the east to India and Arabia in the west, and even Africa and Europe. All of them have close trade relations with the Yuan Empire.

It is particularly worth mentioning that commercial taxes occupy a pivotal position in the fiscal revenue of the Yuan Empire.

This is completely different from the dynasties in China that mainly relied on agricultural taxes.

For example, last year, the total fiscal revenue of the Yuan Empire reached 476 million strings.

Among them, the agricultural tax, traditionally known as the two taxes, totaled only more than 60 million strings of cash, accounting for only a tiny fraction of the empire's fiscal revenue, less than one-tenth of its total.

In contrast, the revenue from commercial taxes and their monopoly items, such as salt, tea, wine, coal, oil, natural gas, electricity, and even government-monopolized industries such as trains and ships, was as high as more than 250 million strings of cash.

This figure is not only shocking, but also marks that the Yuan Empire has become an unprecedented commercial empire.

The reason why the Yuan Empire is unique in history is that for the first time, commercial and related monopoly revenues exceeded half of the fiscal revenue, a feat that is unique in Chinese dynasties.

Particularly noteworthy is maritime trade, which is like the engine of the empire's economy, driving the two-way flow of wealth and civilization.

The Yuan Dynasty court, led by Jiang Hongfei, is well aware of this and spared no effort to promote the expansion of the Maritime Silk Road, building a huge trade network across the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa.

Today, the trade tentacles of the Yuan Empire have extended to more than 100 countries around the world, forming an intricate international economic system.

The conquest of the Indochina Peninsula not only brought a vast land territory to the empire, but also made the already prosperous maritime trade even more prosperous.

Java, Brunei and other South China Sea countries, small states in India, important merchant towns in the Arab world, and even distant countries in Africa and Europe have all been included in this huge trade system.

It is particularly worth mentioning that the Prince Continent, this vast territory newly discovered by the Yuan Empire, has become the export destination of the Yuan Empire's overseas trade. The tens of millions of people and a group of princes sent by Jiang Hongfei secretly took whatever they were given, and the Yuan Empire then transported back spiritual stones, grain, rubber and other bulk commodities from there...

Let's put it this way, the prosperity of the Yuan Empire's maritime trade has surpassed any period in history, even in the early days of the Age of Discovery.

With the completion of the initial industrial revolution, the Yuan Empire not only had rich resources of luxury goods, but also a large number of light industrial products, such as ready-made clothes, shoes and hats, daily utensils and even bicycles.

These goods were in short supply in overseas markets and became treasures that countries competed for.

The shipbuilding technology of the Yuan Empire reached an unprecedented height. Iron-clad wooden ships emerged like mushrooms after rain. Their scale and speed far exceeded any ships in history. They even began to try to use container technology, which greatly improved transportation efficiency.

The leap in navigation technology gave the imperial ships the ability to sail far, attracting merchants from all directions to board the imperial ships and shuttle between the vast oceans.

What is even more remarkable is the overseas expansion spirit of the merchants of the Yuan Empire.

They sailed to unknown waters in groups, explored new trade routes, established new business bases, and spread the influence of the empire to every corner of the world.

Among these merchants, there are many scholars who are well-read in poetry and books. Although they failed to achieve success in the imperial examinations, they found their own world in the business world and became an important force in promoting the empire's overseas trade.

With the booming development of maritime trade, the maritime merchants of the Yuan Empire rose rapidly, and the best among them accumulated astonishing wealth.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Revenue, in major port cities, there are many maritime merchants with a net worth of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of strings. They have not only become the pillars of the empire's economy, but also legendary figures in the history of world trade.

The wealth of maritime merchants is already staggering, and the wealth of the Indochina Peninsula, which controls the throat of trade between the East and the West, is even more immeasurable.

Jiang Hongfei conquered this place, and wealth naturally rolled in.

Imagine, if Jiang Hongfei had not spent huge sums of money to build railways, promote industry, and start wars, the Yuan Dynasty's treasury might have been filled with tens of billions of strings, or even more.

Of course, if Jiang Hongfei had not been so busy, the Yuan Empire would not have made so much money, let alone been so powerful.

Therefore, Jiang Xiu was speechless after a few words from Jiang Hongfei.

However, Jiang Xiu is no longer a child, but a mature politician who aims to be the crown prince.

Moreover, Jiang Xiu's focus of worry is not the current situation, but the long-term future of the Yuan Empire.

The Yuan Empire has a lot of wealth.

Maritime trade is profitable.

The industrial revolution initiated by Jiang Hongfei can continuously harvest the world for the Yuan Empire.

But these billions of strings of cash may seem a lot, but they will eventually run out, and according to Jiang Hongfei's squandering speed, it may not last for ten years.

What is more worrying is the huge 3.5 million troops of the Yuan Dynasty.

This unprecedented huge army consumes 100 million or 200 million strings of cash a year, like a bottomless pit.

In addition, casualties and pensions, and veteran resettlement are all heavy burdens.

If Jiang Hongfei continues to fight in the barren land of the Western Regions and Kievan Rus, he will have to spend more money and get more troops. The key is that there will be no more income, which may cause the Yuan Empire to fall into an endless economic vortex.

Faced with this, Jiang Xiu did not retreat. He bowed to Jiang Hongfei and said earnestly: "Father, although the Ministry of Revenue is rich, it also needs to be prudent. With the surplus of the Ministry of Revenue, it may be able to maintain it for decades, but what is the long-term plan? I hope Father will think twice..."

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