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"Provincial Administration Commissioner... This student... this student understands!..."
"Mm... Finish your tea."
The sun slanted west, dusk floating with a golden glow, and the day was about to end just like this. Evening light spilled across the plum garden, with rockeries and ponds encircling it within; it was truly beautiful beyond compare. Yet Shi Wende had neither the mood nor the courage to appreciate the scenery. He merely lowered his head and, before Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe, drank his tea in small sips, not daring to drink too quickly and lose decorum, nor too slowly and seem to drag things out. The study fell silent for a time, so quiet one could almost hear a needle drop.
"The eastern barbarian kingdom, tribute from the eastern barbarian tribes... the Zhejiang Maritime Trade Office, the eunuchs supervising the Maritime Trade Office... Mm... Let me think..."
"At present, upright men fill the court, and the sage is benevolent and accepts remonstrance. I imagine the eunuchs would not dare to act recklessly and open tributary maritime trade at random! If I find out, one memorial submitted upward, and gentlemen and men of benevolence will all exert their strength together; they will surely make these eunuchs lose a few more treacherous heads, pale-faced and beardless!..."
Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Zhe slowly drank his tea, his expression flickering in thought. Ever since Great Ming's founding in the Hongwu era, the tribute of vassal states had always been mostly brought about by the inner-court eunuchs. Because this sort of "tribute" had always been the great achievement the eunuchs most longed for. The eunuchs only needed to answer to the emperor; once the emperor saw "all nations come to court" and was "greatly pleased," the eunuchs would naturally receive rewards and bestowals of power and status!