Dashun Yongchang

At the time of the severe drought in Fujian, we had to exhaust our tongues and sent a lot of money to force Fujian officials to let go.Of course, if there were no civil unrest in various parts of Fujian, it is estimated that those officials would not necessarily agree..."

Li Zicheng listened to Zheng Zhilong's rambling talk, and then asked simply: "Let's not talk about the past. Why don't we just talk about the future. Just like what I just said to those Yangzhou councilors, everyone Shun is the Da Shun of the people, not the Da Shun of the emperor and gentry. Therefore, I want to ask you, are you willing to defend the interests of the people of Fujian and the Chinese people?"

Chapter 177 Yangzhou Fifteen

Although Zheng Zhilong is a successful businessman, he has not studied the political economy of later generations after all, so he showed hesitation about Li Zicheng's question. The power is not that great, I don't know if I can defend the interests of the Chinese people..."

Li Zicheng got up suddenly and interrupted Zheng Zhilong's words. After tidying up his clothes, he nodded to Zheng Zhilong and said, "Whether you are willing to defend the interests of the people is a matter of attitude.

As for the ability to defend the interests of the people, I don't think this is a primary issue.Since you are willing to defend the interests of the people together with me, let's have a serious talk in another place.This place is not suitable for such an important military affairs. "

Although I don't know where Li Zicheng wants to take him, Zheng Zhilong still intends to accept the other party's arrangement, but when he got up, he still explained to his son behind him: "Don't follow this kind of military affairs, you and Li De, Xie Biao, let them stay together."

Zheng Sen looked at his father very sadly, he really wanted to hear Li Zicheng's high-level remarks on defending the interests of the people.Although in Fujian and Nanjing, he has met many scribes who like to point out the world, even his teacher Qian Qianyi is fond of talking about the power struggle in the imperial court, but he has never heard of such a refreshing man as Li Zicheng. remarks.

Ever since he became enlightened, he has heard all about the struggle between the gentleman and the villain, but no one has ever put forward as straightforwardly as Li Zicheng that the principle of doing things is to defend the interests of the people.How do you distinguish between a gentleman and a villain?Even a great Confucianist like Qian Qianyi, the teacher, used party theory to distinguish gentlemen from villains, and did not talk about other standards, so Zheng Sen was still confused sometimes.For example: Can a gentleman still be called a gentleman if he has done bad things?Can't villains be praised for doing good deeds?

But after listening to Li Zicheng's words today, the tangled problem in his mind was suddenly solved. Why should there be a distinction between gentlemen and villains?Just look at whether what they do protects the interests of the people.No matter how plausible a gentleman is in words, if he does things that harm the interests of the people, he is naturally not a gentleman.

Therefore, when the state selects ministers, it should not be based on whether they are praised by everyone, but on what they have done.After all, some gentlemen never do anything, and prevent others from doing things. They become gentlemen if they do nothing. Those officials who have done a lot of practical things, on the contrary, become villains because they offended others. This is too unreasonable up.

Zheng Sen felt that listening to Li Zicheng's words for a long time today was better than the first half of the class with teacher Qian Qianyi, because the teacher's knowledge was too profound, and he still couldn't really understand it.But Li Zicheng's words are concise and clear, and people can understand what he means after hearing it.So he still wants to listen to it again, and there are not many opportunities for such benefits.

It's just that he didn't expect that it was his father who stopped him, which is really speechless.But Zheng Sen also understood in his heart that what his father said was correct, and with his current status, he really couldn't inquire about such important military affairs.And strictly speaking, there is no need for Li Zicheng to tell his father these things, because his father did not swear allegiance to Li Zicheng, and the relationship between the two parties is not a monarch-subject relationship. It is already a bit rash for Li Zicheng to disclose such military affairs to his father.

But just when Zheng Sen wanted to respond to his father, Li Zicheng said to them: "Since he is the eldest son of Nan'anbo, let's listen to it together. Since Nan'anbo brought him across the river to practice, Naturally, we should listen more and see more, so as to increase our knowledge. Besides, don’t young people like them still need to defend the country in the future? Let him follow along.”

Zheng Zhilong turned his head and glanced at Li Zicheng who was going down the steps, then turned to look at his son, and finally told him: "Don't interrupt for a while, just put your ears on. This is not Anhai's hometown."

After all, Zheng Zhilong followed Li Zicheng's footsteps, and Zheng Sen was stunned for a moment before following closely without saying a word.After the father and son followed Li Zicheng through several gates, they finally stopped in a separate courtyard and walked into a row of main rooms to the north.

A group of young people in blue arrow suits in the main room got up and saluted Li Zicheng when they saw him coming in. After Li Zicheng returned the salute, he said, "Is the map room ready?"

A young man replied: "Except for the sand table, everything else is almost done."

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "I don't need the sand table for now, I just want to see the map of Tianzi No. [-], can I put it?"

The young man immediately walked to the west room and opened the door and said, "I'll take it out for you, please wait."

Zheng Zhilong and his son followed Li Zicheng into the west room and found several tables arranged in a T-shape.One side of the table was covered by a white cloth, obviously the so-called sand table was underneath.The young man who entered the room took out a cylinder from the vase in the corner, opened it and took out a blueprint, then walked to the horizontal table and spread it out to press the four corners with a paperweight.

Zheng Zhilong walked in and took a look. It turned out that it was the world map given to him by Li Zicheng, but it seemed that this one was more detailed, with many more annotations.Li Zicheng looked at the map and thanked Guangrong Company in his heart. Without the "Great Navigation Era Online" published by it, he really couldn't remember the appearance of so many worlds.

Li Zicheng pointed to a place above France and said: "This is the homeland of the Dutch. Their country is only so big, and they are still at war with the Spaniards. Spain is here, which is what we call the Great Francophone." , and the one near the sea, which I call Portugal, seems to be occupied by the Spaniards.

The Dutch should actually be called the United Provinces of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is just one of the provinces. Because the Dutch province has the strongest economic population, most of the people who come to Asia are Dutch, which makes us think that the name of this country is the Netherlands. .

The United Provinces of the Netherlands used to be part of Spain, but since decades ago, the people in this area have begun to fight against the rule of the Kingdom of Spain, and the war has not ended until today.

Of course, I am not talking about the war between the Spaniards and the Dutch. What I want to say is that at present, most of Europe, that is, this area, is involved in a large-scale war.And this war began 18 years after the coming of Christ as the Europeans say..."

Zheng Zhilong finally couldn't help but interjected: "Is your majesty's news really correct? You mean, such a small country of Quer is fighting in Europe while occupying territory everywhere in Asia. How could they have such strength? Me and Those Dutch people have also dealt with many times, they don't look like a country in war at all."

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "Indeed, if only relying on the strength of the country, then the Dutch would not be able to resist the Spanish attack. Speaking of this, we have to start from the history of Spain and Portugal. Both countries were conquered by the Arabs centuries ago, and it took them nearly 700 years to reclaim their lands.

Although the country is restored, the whole country has also been turned into ruins. In order to rebuild the country, they all hope to find a sea route to the east, so as to avoid the land channel controlled by the pagans.Therefore, the Portuguese royal family and the Spanish royal family successively funded explorers to explore new sea routes. It was during this exploration of new sea routes that they discovered the American continent and the sea passage to Asia.

America, that is, this continent, is much closer to Europe than to us. It only takes 2 months to sail to get here, so Europeans have a rich and undeveloped virgin land.Since Europe discovered America, they have looted a large amount of gold, silver and various resources from this land to feed Europeans.

The Netherlands is currently the number one shipbuilding country in Europe, and it has as many fleets as other European countries combined, which means that the Dutch have an absolute advantage in maritime trade.The gold and silver excavated by the Spaniards from the Americas were eventually sent to the Dutch, and the Dutch exchanged the gold and silver with goods imported from my country and spices from Southeast Asia. This is why the Dutch were able to maintain the war for a long time s reason. "

Zheng Zhilong fell silent. After thinking for a long time in his heart, he felt that Li Zicheng's analysis was correct. The Dutch had a foothold in Batavia and Taiwan, but their purpose was to control the spices in Southeast Asia and monopolize China and Japan. trade.

The reason why Zheng maintains a tepid relationship with the Dutch is that on the one hand, he hopes to use the Dutch to contain the Spaniard, so that the two competitors can raise the price; Therefore, it is difficult to reach real cooperation with these Dutch people.

But now it seems that the Dutch do not actually have much strength behind them, they are just a business group engaged in entrepot trade, and their strength is not much stronger than that of the Zheng family. This is really giving them Taiwan for nothing.In the past, Zheng Zhilong thought that the power of the Dutch in Asia was just the tip of the iceberg, so he had to hold back three points.

In the coastal waters, the Zheng family is not afraid of any European merchant fleet, and the Zheng family, which relies on the mainland, can make a comeback even if it fails.But in the far sea, under the constraints of the court, Zheng Zhilong is helpless, even if he is beaten, he can't hold it.After all, the Zheng family is a business group, not a country. After occupying Manila and Batavia, who else would they do business with?Except for these Europeans, Southeast Asians are all poor ghosts, who can't afford real money to buy so many Chinese goods.

While Zheng Zhilong was thinking, Zheng Sen glanced at his father and asked Li Zicheng cautiously, "So, are we going to unite with the Dutch and the Portuguese to fight the Spaniards together?"

Zheng Zhilong subconsciously blurted out: "No, of course the Dutch should be attacked first. I mean, if we really want to go to war."

Chapter 178 Yangzhou Sixteen

After Li Zicheng took a look at Zheng Zhilong, he also nodded and said, "I have the same opinion. We really need to take back the control of Taiwan first. After taking back Taiwan, we can cut off the Dutch's northward route and cut off their trade with Japan." connect.

From the information I have obtained, these Europeans traded with my country from two sources of silver. The Spaniards transported silver from the Americas to Manila to trade with us, while the Dutch and Portuguese relied on silver from Japan.Therefore, as long as the outflow of Japanese silver is cut off, the trade network of the Dutch and Portuguese in Asia will be cut off.

The Dutch and the Portuguese relied on commercial interests to gain a foothold in Asia. Cutting off their business network meant that they either allocated resources from the country, or they could only increase the direct exploitation of the local aborigines.And with their number in Asia, it is obviously not enough to completely suppress the resistance of these local aborigines by force.

Therefore, if we want to clean up these outsiders at our doorstep, we must first control Taiwan.Then we will continue to squeeze their space for trade activities, and finally we will be able to regain control of Nanyang.So South Amber, what are your thoughts? "

Compared with his naive eldest son, Zheng Sen, Zheng Zhilong still had a clear understanding of the situation in the East and West. The difference between him and Li Zicheng was that he could not expand his vision to areas other than the East and West.This is not because he doesn't want to understand, but because of the Europeans' information blockade against East Asians.

The Spaniards have occupied the Philippine Islands for almost 80 years, and the galleon trade has continued for almost that long, but Chinese businessmen still have not been able to figure out the route to the Americas and the national strength of the Spaniards, even if they have done the Dutch East Zheng Zhilong, the agent of the Indian company, also knew nothing about this, which shows that European businessmen traveling to and from the East have reached a tacit agreement to block any news about Europe from the Orientals, so as to prevent Chinese businessmen from going to the Americas or Europe for trade.

But when Li Zicheng pointed out what the world outside the East and West is like, even if this introduction is not so comprehensive, it has enough basis for Zheng Zhilong to make a judgment.The only thing that surprised him was how, as a leader of the Northern Peasant Army who had been fighting against the imperial court, he had obtained so much information from overseas, but thinking of those missionaries from Europe, he understood again.

Hearing Li Zicheng's question to him, Zheng Zhilong withdrew his distracted thoughts, looked at the world map in front of him and said: "According to the information I got, the year before last the Dutch launched a war against the Spaniards who occupied the northern part of Taiwan. Victory was achieved. The Spaniards had acquiesced to the fact that they were unable to recover the northern part of Taiwan occupied by the Dutch.

It can be seen that the Spaniards are not strong enough and can only be in a state of self-preservation. When we start a war with the Dutch, the Spaniards will not take any action.Conversely, if we attack the Spaniards first.

I have been to Manila, where the Spaniards built a rather majestic city, and foreigners with weapons were not allowed to enter, even those local servants and Chinese artisans who served them were not allowed to stay in the city when it was dark .

Therefore, if we attack the Spaniards first, we may fall into a long-term siege. It will take at least ten days from Guangzhou to Manila, and we may not be able to arrive if there is a storm.This means that we have to transport a large number of troops to Manila at one time, and we may not be able to obtain supplies from the local area. If the Dutch intervene, then the army attacking Manila will be in danger.

Therefore, if you want to go to war against the Spaniards, you must at least remove the Dutch stronghold in Taiwan first, so that they cannot easily pose a threat to our maritime transportation.only…"

Li Zicheng recognized Zheng Zhilong's vision, after all, he was the one who won the naval battle of Liuluowan.So he asked the hesitant Zheng Zhilong, "Just what?"

Zheng Zhilong hesitated for a moment and then said: "It's just that it's not a small expense to fight the Dutch first and then the Spaniards. Your Majesty is going to fight the Northern soldiers right now, and you can still afford money to support the southern sea operations." In addition, His Majesty also said just now that the silver for overseas trade comes from Japan and the Americas, and we drove away the Spaniards in Manila, will American silver be shipped to Manila in the future?"

A businessman is a businessman. Li Zicheng couldn't help but secretly commented in his heart. Although driving away the Dutch, Spaniards and Portuguese would allow them to monopolize overseas trade, they would still worry that the war would affect their current income.

While Li Zicheng was staring at Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Sen on the side felt a little hot on his face, because he felt that what his father said was too utilitarian. In his education, morality always outweighed interests. After all, when Zheng Zhilong married Yan Siqi It is immoral for a daughter to abandon their mother and child.

As a victim, he naturally would not approve of his father's approach, otherwise, wouldn't it be right to support his father in abandoning his mother and himself?What's more, after returning to Fujian for so long, he knows that Fujian's maritime trade is almost all under the control of Zheng's business group. In the past, there are fewer and fewer free merchants. As the biggest beneficiary of maritime trade, they are defending It is really shameful to be so preoccupied with the issue of Chinese overseas Chinese.

However, Li Zicheng did not show any dissatisfaction because of this. He said frankly to Zheng Zhilong: "I really don't have any money. In fact, when I go south this time, I hope to get money and food from the south to support the war in the north."

Zheng Zhilong suddenly didn't want to talk, he thought in his heart, what you just said is so righteous, and the result is that you want me to fight the Dutch with dry food on my back?Didn't you kill the Dutchman to get rid of the troubles, and kill me to get rid of the internal troubles?Really shameless.

Li Zicheng didn't know that the calm-faced Zheng Zhilong had so much drama in his mind, he just continued to say according to his own thoughts: "I don't know if Nan'anbo has calculated the scale of our country's overseas trade in a year?"

Zheng Zhilong's eyes flickered for a moment before he said: "There are always three to five hundred ships going out to sea a year, one-third goes to the East, and two-thirds goes to the West. The value of the exported goods is estimated to be three to five million, and the goods brought back are about Two to three million, and the rest is silver. That's about it."

After thinking for a while, Li Zicheng said: "China's arable land was about 7 million mu in Wanli. The yield per mu in the north is calculated by bucket, and the yield per mu in the south is calculated by stone. On average, there is still rice for one stone per mu. The annual grain output is 7.842 million shi calculated in terms of rice, and 3.921 million shi when converted into rice.

According to the summary of data from farmers in various places, roughly 15-20% of the grain is sold in exchange for various necessities of life.Calculated at 15%, that is 5881.5 million shi. Calculated at 8 coins per shi of rice, the annual trade volume in the grain market is 4705.2 million taels.my country is a country dominated by agriculture, so almost most of the demand for commodities is in the countryside, which means that after farmers sell grain, they must replace it with daily necessities. Therefore, the total trade volume of commodities in our country should be 9500 yuan a year. More than ten thousand taels.

Calculated in this way, even with the lowest trade volume in the domestic market, the overseas trade volume only accounts for one-tenth of the domestic market, and the actual proportion may be even lower.Now the price of rice in the north is 2 taels a stone, Yangzhou and Nanjing are between 2 and 3 taels, and Suzhou even broke 3 taels. This shows that my country's food needs are far from being met.

Nan Amber, you also said just now that besides luxury goods, only silver is left in the materials brought back from overseas. The needs of a small number of people, and the needs of these people are less than one-twentieth of the grain market, calculated at this year's grain prices.

Therefore, for our country, what currently needs to be imported from overseas is not a small amount of luxury goods and a large amount of silver, but a large amount of bulk items such as grain, cotton, jute, soybeans, and timber.Because compared with the overseas prices of these items, the overseas prices of raw silk, porcelain and other commodities we export are higher, which means that we can exchange lower-value commodities for higher-value commodities, so as to satisfy The needs of more people in our country.

For businessmen, importing 100 million taels of silver is obviously more beneficial than importing 100 million taels of rice, but for our people, importing 100 million taels of rice is much more valuable than importing 100 million taels of silver, because 100 million taels of silver It's just to let the merchants keep a few more singing girls and repair a few gardens, but 100 million shi of rice can support at least 40 to [-] people.

For a country, the wealth that these three to four million people can create in a year is obviously much more than the tax paid by 40 million taels of silver.Therefore, as long as the people understand this truth, everyone will advocate importing raw materials such as grain, cotton, and hemp, rather than silver.

But we are also very clear that although there are vast lands overseas, those European colonists and barbarians have occupied those fertile lands. They cannot develop them themselves and refuse others to develop them. Violations, such as the two massacres of our nationals by the Spaniards in Manila.

We must reorganize the overseas order, so as to establish the production system of overseas colonies, and form a trade cycle with the country, which will greatly reduce the burden on our farmers and reduce our country's prices. One million stones of rice is equivalent to the output of one million mu of medium-sized cultivated land, and the land owned by Taiwan alone has exceeded this amount.

So, Nan Amber, you see, there is the greatest untapped wealth overseas. We only need to dig out this wealth, and naturally we don't have to worry about the cost of the war.The people of our country are not without money, a large amount of silver is stored in the cellars of rich people, what they lack is an investment channel to get a reasonable return, we will establish such a channel for them..."

Chapter 179 Yangzhou Seventeen

Li Zicheng's method of raising combat funds by pre-selling overseas land immediately stimulated Zheng Zhilong's desire to go to war with the Dutch.Although most of the land in Taiwan after the war may fall into the hands of Dashun, for the Zheng business group, what they want is not the land of Taiwan but to control the air routes passing through Taiwan.

It is not that Yan Siqi has never done such things as developing overseas wasteland, but the investment is large and the return is small, and if he wants to develop those lands full of forests and swamps, the mortality rate is actually very high. It dies after winter.

This is also why Zheng Zhilong is not interested in Taiwan. In order to gain the favor of the imperial court, he did not hesitate to hand over Taiwan's foundation to the Dutch in exchange for the withdrawal of the Dutch from the Penghu Islands.When the Ming Dynasty was not in trouble at home and abroad, the imperial court still recognized that the Penghu Islands belonged to the country, but the island of Taiwan, which was farther away, was not counted.

Therefore, Fujian officials tolerated the Dutch occupation of Taiwan, but they could not bear it when the Dutch were stationed in the Penghu Islands.Even if a pirate like Zheng Zhilong is recruited, the Dutch cannot be allowed to establish a resident in the Penghu Islands.

However, Zheng Zhilong will not be honest with Li Zicheng about how many people will die in Taiwan.After all, it doesn't matter to him. The only thing he can promise to Li Zicheng is that the Zheng family is willing to take back Taiwan with Dashun, and launch an attack on the Spaniards who occupy Luzon according to the situation. He only asks for two points, one is Li Zicheng At least [-]% of the expedition fee should be provided. Second, after the war, he needed the castle and port established by the Dutch in Tainan.

When Li Zicheng proposed to Li Zicheng that he wanted to obtain the Dutch castle and port in southern Taiwan, Zheng Zhilong did not consider the issue of failure. After Li Zicheng told him about the situation in Europe, he was already confident about forcing the Dutch to withdraw from Taiwan.It's just that he also needs Li Zicheng to stand with him in this war. Only when Li Zicheng deters Nandu can he freely plan how to attack Dayuan Port in Tainan, otherwise he really can't worry about these officials on the mainland.

At this time, the launch of combat operations against the Dutch has entered a real substantive discussion. Li Zicheng quickly threw out a new plan and said: "Before discussing the operation to recover Taiwan, I would like to discuss it with Nan Amber. Let’s take a look at a comprehensive plan for the reconstruction of the Asian maritime order. I wonder if Nan Amber has any vision for the establishment of the Asian maritime order?”

After the conversation with Li Zicheng just now, of course Zheng Zhilong will no longer regard the other party as a person who knows nothing about maritime trade. Although he had some ideas about maritime order in the past, these ideas revolved around the word "maintaining" spin around.No way, when he moved his family from overseas back to his hometown in Anhai, although he gained the power of the court and hit his competitors, he also tied the Zheng family with the gentry on the mainland.

Those land-based gentry could tolerate lower trade profits, but placed great emphasis on soundness.This is why Zheng sold raw silk and porcelain to the Dutch before, instead of going to Japan for trade in person, because in the eyes of the gentry, double the profit is already very good, and the voyage from Xiamen to Tainan is within the coast of Fujian. , the risk is still controllable, but going to Japan is not necessarily the case.

That is to say, the situation in the north has become worse and worse in the past two years, and those gentry have begun to lose the power of the court, which makes Zheng Zhilong, who has soldiers and ships in his hands, more and more powerful in the business group. Trade, trying to directly grasp the plan of trade with Japan can be implemented.

However, no matter what Zheng Zhilong imagined, the biggest goal is to completely control the Zheng business group and get rid of the control of the Dutch East India Company.Faced with Li Zicheng's question, he quickly hid his thoughts, and sincerely asked the other party: "Your Majesty has great talents and strategies, and foreign ministers can only listen carefully. Please give me your advice."

Seeing Zheng Zhilong put his figure so low, Li Zicheng smiled slightly, leaned down and looked at the drawings for a while, and said: "Just now I told Nan Amber that the current overseas trade targets luxury goods and gold and silver. is extremely unhealthy.

We need to import a large amount of production raw materials and living materials from overseas that can improve the living standards of the people, so that more ordinary people can benefit, and the import and export volume of overseas trade continues to increase, so that the country can extract tariffs from them to support soldiers shipbuilding.With soldiers and ships, we can use force to defend the maritime order we have established. This is a win-win situation in which the country and the people promote each other's growth.

Products that are closely related to the people are nothing more than resources related to basic necessities of life.Therefore, we should import food from overseas, not only rice, but also fish and livestock; we can also import textile raw materials such as cotton and hemp, which are processed into cloth at home and then exported in exchange for more raw materials...

To achieve the above, we must establish a free trade market dominated by Chinese demand. This market should include North Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, Vietnam, Champa, Cambodia, Siam, Boni, Banten, and Myanmar. Or even further west of India.

As long as the people need something, we should go to the world to find and produce it.To establish such a free trade system, we need to do three things.

The first is the development of navigation technology. Without the improvement of navigation technology, it is impossible for us to transport overseas products back to China accurately, timely and cheaply; the second is to guide the production of various places, which is to ensure that overseas can produce sufficient quantities materials to meet our needs;

The third is to establish a free trade system. In this system, we must unify weights and measures, currency, and cultural values.For example, the natives in many areas only like to barter, or deliberately restrict trade quotas like Japan, or just want to plunder our property like Spain and the Netherlands. If they are indulged, it is obvious that this free trade system cannot be established. of.

Confucius said that in the world of Datong, the old will be able to die, the strong will be useful, the young will be strong, and the widows, widows, lonely, disabled and sick will be supported.Let me ask, if everyone has different weights and measures, different currencies, and different standards of right and wrong, then what is the world of Great Harmony?

Therefore, whether it is to meet the needs of people in China and around the world, or to build a world of great harmony as the Master said.In my opinion, establishing a free trade system that connects countries is always the first step. "

It's the first time Zheng Zhilong has seen such a person who talks about doing business so elegantly and refinedly.Speaking of which, he had met quite a few outstanding businessmen, but none of them talked about Confucius like Li Zicheng.Zheng Zhilong suddenly came to his senses, maybe this is the biggest reason why the opponent can be the emperor, but he can only be the chief soldier.

Glancing at his son with glowing eyes, it seems that Li Zicheng's rhetoric has completely moved this big piece of wood. Also, is there any scholar who can't be excited when he hears about the road to the Datong world?Then it means that he is no longer a scholar, but an official who has entered the official career.Scholars in Ming Dynasty are all like this. Before they entered the officialdom, they were all high-minded like national scholars. Once they entered the official career, they immediately put aside righteousness and only knew how to form cliques and seek self-interest.

Withdrawing the emotion in his heart, Zheng Zhilong quickly adjusted his mentality, and said sincerely to Li Zicheng: "If such a free trade system can really be established, it will indeed be a great thing for Chinese businessmen. A fixed trading objects is better than ten unfixed trading objects.

It's just that, not to mention other places, even North Korea and Japan may find it difficult to accept the free trade plan we proposed.Almost everything produced by these two countries can be produced by ourselves, and our production is even better.Fortunately, Japan has gold and silver mines, but North Korea has very few gold and silver mines. It may be difficult for them to accept free trade, because it will only lead to a large outflow of gold and silver in their country, which will cause a shortage of money in the country. "

Li Zicheng shook his head and objected: "Before gold and silver were dug out of the mine, what was the difference between them and stones? Almost all valuable things in this world were produced through human labor." Value. So the root of wealth should lie in human labor, not gold and silver itself.

It's just that everyone doesn't understand this problem at present, and thinks that gold and silver are wealth, so everyone desperately hides gold and silver underground, as if this way they can keep their wealth.But when wars and natural disasters come, a piece of cake and a piece of cloth are more valuable than a warehouse of silver, because the cake can fill the stomach, and the cloth can keep out the cold, but silver can't even light a fire to keep warm.

As a country that leads the advancement of civilization, it is our natural responsibility to correct this wrong thinking of other countries.In my opinion, not only slaves in our country should be liberated and allowed to join the labor market, but slaves in North Korea and Japan should also be liberated and allowed to participate in the labor market.

There are trees in North Korea and Japan, and there is a sea on the edge where you can fish. Aren’t these what our people need?The land in their own country may not be enough for so many people to produce labor, but the world is so big, is there no land for them to work?

For example, such a large piece of land in the Americas is still undeveloped. The Spaniards have only collected some gold and silver mines after more than 100 years of development, and there are still large areas of land that are in a natural state.How can such a big world be developed by our people alone?Even a hero needs three helpers, not to mention that we are already one or two hundred years behind the Europeans in the project of exploring the world. If we want to catch up with the Europeans, we have to invest more manpower and material resources than them.

Then North Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, which are similar to our culture, are our best helpers.They opened up the world for us, and we protected the fruits of their labor from European plunder.For example, the Spanish sailing route connecting the Americas and Manila. According to my guess, the Spaniards must sail northward from Manila to the westerly drifting belt between Ryukyu and Japan, and use the westerly wind and ocean currents to go to the continent of America.

In other words, the best ports of departure for the American continent are central Japan and Ryukyu Island. Japan's ports are more advantageous because they can replenish a large amount of supplies and obtain manpower.North Korea and Japan, which have closed their doors, do not meet the needs of our country..."

Chapter 180 Yangzhou Eighteen

Zheng Zhilong immediately understood Li Zicheng's meaning. There were too many dead people in overseas land reclamation, so they asked Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese to open the way.He thought, this is indeed a solution.

Even though the Fujian people are famous for their love of going abroad for trade, in fact, except for those idealists who really want to see different overseas scenery, most people can't get along on the shore, so they decide to pay attention to going to sea to try their luck .

Once some people make a small fortune, they immediately go back to their hometown to buy land and become landlords, and they will not wander at sea for a long time.Those who have made a fortune and continue to sail at sea are likely to encounter misfortune, because the risks at sea are too great. Veteran sailors who have sailed for three months and sailed for 30 years have the same chance of encountering shipwreck.

It is obviously affirmative that the overseas vassal states can share the death rate of exploring new sea routes for China, and then China will take most of the benefits, because even if the people of these overseas vassal states make a fortune through the new sea route, they still have to get money from China. Those who buy luxury goods satisfy their own enjoyment, so it is Chinese businessmen who ultimately benefit.

He looked at the map in front of him and pondered for a long time, before he said to Li Zicheng carefully: "I, Mrs. Zheng, would like to persuade the businessmen in Fujian to support this free trade system for His Majesty, but I don't know how Your Majesty plans to start?"

Li Zicheng stretched out his hand with confidence and said on the map: "Let's start from France."

Although Zheng Zhilong had tried his best to keep up with Li Zicheng's thinking, he was still a little confused at this moment. He didn't understand the relationship between the European country he had just heard today and the free trade system Li Zicheng talked about. He began to feel a little annoyed at his own There is not enough information, which makes him act like a young boy who has just started in front of Li Zicheng today.

However, his habit of patience in his past career made him ask Li Zicheng more respectfully: "I don't quite understand what your majesty means. It seems that the French have never been to China by boat. We are separated from them by tens of thousands of miles." , what can they do for us?"

Li Zicheng once again clicked on France on the map, and then drew a circle around France, and then said calmly: "It doesn't matter whether there are merchant ships from France that have visited China. What is important is that Europe can sail to China's seas." The big countries are all on the edge of France.

For example, if North Korea, Japan, and Vietnam become rich by relying on maritime trade to Europe.Our country has fallen behind them, so what do you think our country will choose? "