In the bustling casino, Goryeo merchants and nobles shuttled back and forth, curses, laughter, and exclamations interwoven, creating an extraordinary clamor.
Li Cheng-jae appeared beside Li Kaiyuan at this moment. He looked at Hwang Byung-ahn and said, “Chairman Li, this person is Hwang Byung-ahn, the eldest son of the Goryeo State Councilor Hwang Ja-man. His father holds a high and influential position in Goryeo, and is one of the King of Goryeo’s most trusted high-ranking officials.”
“Is that so? That’s a big fish indeed,” Li Kaiyuan narrowed his eyes. Although Goryeo was defeated, the Great Yu Empire currently only controlled Haigucheng and Bisa Castle.
The true controller of this land was still the King of Goryeo. There were some matters where they still needed the King of Goryeo’s assistance.
For instance, the matter of trade. The merchants in Haigucheng seemed busy now, but in reality, they had not touched the core of true trade.
Like the Great Yu Empire, Goryeo was also a feudal dynasty. Many trades required the approval of the imperial court.
Precisely because of this, he was in no rush. In his opinion, it would be simpler to participate in Goryeo’s trade in his capacity as an official.
Li Cheng-jae had basically figured out the Great Yu Empire’s objective during this period, which was commerce. Now, Li Kaiyuan being so interested in this Hwang Byung-ahn must also be for business.
So he said, “All Goryeo maritime trade requires the approval of this person’s father. As long as Chairman Li can bribe him, Chairman Li can conduct Goryeo’s trade however he wishes.”
Li Kaiyuan had only brought Li Cheng-jae over to confirm Hwang Byung-ahn’s identity. In fact, when Hwang Byung-ahn entered Haigucheng, he had already been targeted by the secret guards.
While the two were speaking, Wang Xuan rose from a gambling table and walked towards them.
Li Kaiyuan, seeing this, dismissed Li Cheng-jae and then smiled at Wang Xuan. “The intelligence your secret guards provided this time is good. This Hwang Byung-ahn is indeed the son of the Goryeo State Councilor.”
After Haigucheng was captured, Wang Xuan arrived here. His purpose was to establish a pro-Great Yu Empire faction of officials in the Goryeo court.
Before the Golden Tent Khanate fell, Goryeo was not yet a vassal state of the Great Yu Empire, and the Great Yu Empire could not directly command the King of Goryeo.
However, having worked so hard to conquer Goryeo, business could not be delayed. So Xiao Ming ordered him and Li Kaiyuan to take the lead, with Ye Qingyun assisting in bribing the Goryeo court, to maximize the Great Yu Empire’s commercial interests.
Wang Xuan smiled, “My subordinates are always meticulous; they rarely make mistakes. Now, how do you plan to deal with this Hwang Byung-ahn?”
“Our true objective is to control Hwang Ja-man, Hwang Byung-ahn’s father. However, this Hwang Ja-man is neither addicted to women nor greedy for money, making him very difficult to deal with. His only weakness is this son,” Li Kaiyuan said.
Wang Xuan nodded. All this information was provided by him to Li Kaiyuan, and even the merchant who lured Hwang Byung-ahn was arranged by him.
Sometimes, it must be said that under the lure of generous profits, there were always merchants willing to take risks. During this period, the secret guards bribed quite a few Goryeo merchants.
The price was a promise to support these merchants to become the foremost magnates in Goryeo, and also to provide them with security protection.
Now, these merchants, whose heads were turned by silver, had moved to live in Haigucheng. They were only waiting for the arrival of the Great Yu Empire’s trade ships, so they could sell these goods throughout Goryeo.
“If that’s the case, then let him play here for a few days, and then let him lose all his family’s wealth,” Wang Xuan said with a slightly malicious smile.
The secret guards were an organization operating in the shadows. Sometimes, they had to use unscrupulous means to bribe officials.
Then he showed a playful expression and said, “This casino’s games are certainly novel enough, but I always feel something is missing. To make Goryeo’s powerful elite and merchants addicted to this, it’s probably not enough.”
Li Kaiyuan showed a displeased expression. “You, the secret guard commander, are even prying into my affairs now. You’re right, there won’t be a shortage of novelties in this gambling house, and all of these were given to me by the Emperor.”
Wang Xuan, now addicted to gossip due to being a secret guard, asked excitedly, “What is it?”
Li Kaiyuan recalled for a moment. He couldn’t help but admire the Emperor’s whimsical ideas. So he said, “The Emperor said he wants me to select some beautiful women in Goryeo, have these women wear alluring clothes to accompany these gamblers, and also build a kitchen in the casino to bring over the Great Yu Empire’s stir-fried dishes. Besides that, there’s the most important thing: tobacco and opium.”
“I’ve heard of tobacco, but what is this opium?” Wang Xuan heard of it for the first time.
“I had never heard of it before either. It was His Majesty who told me about it when he came. He said that on Ryukyu Island, there are Dutchmen who brought tobacco leaves from North America, and also something about Indian pipes…”
While the two were discussing these casino anecdotes, Xiao Ming was in the study of the Qingzhou temporary palace, playing with a tobacco pipe and a packet of tobacco leaves.
These two items were among the gifts sent by the Dutch delegation last time.
At that time, after Qian Dafu put these things away, he didn’t inquire further until a few days ago when he suddenly remembered the matter and unexpectedly discovered these items, which shocked him considerably.
It was then that he recalled the origin of tobacco and opium.
Tobacco, like potatoes and sweet potatoes, was never indigenous to Asia.
In the Ming Dynasty era, the Dutch first introduced North American Indian pipes along with tobacco leaves to the Great Ming through Ryukyu.
From then on, the Great Ming Dynasty had its first batch of smokers. At that time, the speed and widespread nature of tobacco’s spread terrified Emperor Chongzhen of the Great Ming Dynasty, who then issued a ban on tobacco.
Because at that time, there was no distinction between tobacco and opium, opium was mixed with tobacco for smoking, causing symptoms of addiction.
However, Emperor Chongzhen did not expect that the prohibition of tobacco would instead lead to the spread of opium in the Great Ming Dynasty, causing its widespread dissemination.
Officials at the time had pointed out the harm of opium, stating that unless the users were killed, they could not be cured.
The “Daming Huidian” (Compendium of the Great Ming) also recorded the tribute of opium from Asian vassal states to the Ming imperial family at that time.
At that time, the kings of Siam, Java, and Bengal regularly dispatched tribute missions to the Great Ming Dynasty, and opium was among the tribute items, though it was then called “black incense.”
Siam would offer two hundred jin to the Great Ming Emperor and one hundred jin to the Empress each time. However, this amount could not satisfy the imperial family’s needs, and the Emperor even had to send eunuchs to seek out and purchase opium everywhere.
And the price of opium at that time was basically equivalent to gold: one tael of gold for one tael of opium.
This suggests that the Ming imperial family at the time was already suspected of using opium. The famous Wanli Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty was reportedly said to have opium as an ingredient in his alchemical concoctions.
However, at this time, due to the high cost of opium, it was primarily consumed by the powerful elite and wealthy merchants. The spread of opium among the common people was negligible until the late Qing Dynasty, when opium became cheap, leading to its widespread consumption.
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