Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 431 Zheng Zhilong: Million Stones of Grain Can't Be Delivered?

In May, Auntie Zhu sent a letter to Zheng Zhilong through Zheng Sen, asking the Zheng family to bring a batch of grain vendors from Southeast Asian countries to Daming.

It is now the beginning of September, three or four months have passed, the Zheng family should have brought the grain over.

But Auntie Zhu did not expect that Zheng Zhilong would come over in person.

It can be seen from this that Zheng Zhilong did have considerable trust in Zhu Yuxi's Zhaowu court, and at the same time, he should have dispelled his ambition to steal Fujian for self-reliance and even spy on the artifacts of the country.

However, Aimee Zhu is most concerned about how much food Zheng Zhilong brought.

All the cabinet ministers and ministers also knew that Aunt Zhu ordered the Zheng family to buy grain from overseas.

It’s just that three or four months have passed since the incident, and there is still no news from the Zheng family. If you are willing, you may not be able to transport much food.

Hearing Liu Shuying's report, all the ministers looked over.

Liu Shuying said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Nan'anbo said that he bought 100 million shi of grain from overseas this time."

100 million stone? !

All the ministers were pleasantly surprised.

Although Auntie Zhu had previously obtained 915 million shi of grain through auctioning the "treasures" of later generations, the actual amount of grain transported to Nanjing for the control of the center was only more than 300 million shi of grain.

Most of it will be used as military rations (to avoid transportation in different places), and part of it will be sold at a low price by the government to stabilize food prices. Therefore, at the beginning of September, the grain reserves that the center can mobilize in South Zhili have been reduced to less than 100 million shi .

If it wasn't for the upcoming autumn harvest, I'm afraid that the entire court would be worried about food, and they might not have the heart to support Zhu Yuxi's post-autumn war against the Qing captives.

The 100 million shi of grain transported by Zheng Zhilong may not be considered a timely gift to the imperial court, but it can be regarded as a solution to the imperial court's worries about grain this year.

Aimee Zhu was also very happy, and immediately said to the ministers: "Uncle Nan'an has done a great job in transporting grain from overseas this time, and it's his first time to visit Nanjing, so Huang Wenhuan, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, will go out of the city to welcome him."

Huang Wenhuan, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, immediately bowed and said, "I obey the order."

"Okay, the financial meeting is here today, everyone should leave."

···
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Aunt Zhu summoned Zheng Zhilong in the Hall of Martial Ying.

"My minister, Zheng Zhilong, sees my emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

"Flat body."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After Zheng Zhilong stood up, Aunt Zhu and Hao Guangming could see his appearance clearly.

Zheng Zhilong looks about 50 to [-] years old. He is neither tall nor short. He has begun to put on weight. His complexion is dark, and the traces of wind and frost left by years of running in the sea can still be seen on his face.

Seeing that he lowered his eyebrows and looked pleasing to the eye, he only raised his head to glance at Aimee Zhu who was sitting on the dragon chair, and then immediately lowered his head.

Although Zheng Zhilong knew that Auntie Zhu was only 17 years old this year, he still couldn't help being amazed at seeing such a young empress and hero of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, he recalled the various information mentioned in the letters written by his son Zheng Sen and his fourth brother Zheng Hongkui, as well as the "magic lamp" given to him by Auntie Zhu when she ordered him to sell grain overseas.

He is already convinced that Auntie Zhu is a fairy who descended to earth, otherwise how could he turn the Ming Dynasty around at such an age with the body of a woman?

It is obvious that such a true son of heaven, who is blessed by heaven and has supernatural powers, cannot be an enemy. If so, it is better to come here earlier and sincerely.

This is the reason why Zheng Zhilong came to Nanjing to see Aimee Zhu despite the grain transport fleet.

"I heard that Nan Amber defeated the Dutch fleet at sea in the early years of Chongzhen?"

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect Auntie Zhu to mention this matter as soon as she opened her mouth. Even though she already believed that Auntie Zhu was a fairy who came down to earth, he was still surprised.

Because as far as he knows, there are very few Dutch people in Ming Dynasty, and they are generally called Hongyi, and they are even confused with Spaniards and Portuguese.

As a result, Zheng Zhilong became even more in awe of Aunt Zhu, and did not dare to hide some things.

He clasped his fists and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, in fact, I fought against the Dutch in Taiwan in the seventh year of Tianqi."

"Oh?" Auntie Zhu showed interest and asked, "How did it turn out?"

Zheng Zhilong said: "The Dutch are few, and they were defeated by the minister."

Auntie Zhu laughed and said, "You don't take credit."

Zheng Zhilong said: "I dare not lie to Your Majesty, the Dutch have strong ships and powerful guns, and the warships in their army are often equipped with twenty or thirty red cannons, or even more.

In the early days, the old minister fought against the Dutch, relying mostly on the number of people and the number of ships, and won the battle with fire boats and side-to-side battles.

Although they bought or imitated barbarian warships later, due to various problems, a large ship with thousands of materials could only carry [-] red barbarian cannons, which was still far behind the Dutch warships. "

Aimee Zhu had only known before that the barbarians operating in the southern waters of the Ming Dynasty were mainly the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. She really didn't know the specific strength of the Dutch warships, so she was quite surprised to hear what Zheng Zhilong said.

However, the large sea ships of the Dutch with thousands of materials can only be equipped with [-] to [-] cannons, and the [-] materials of inland river-seat warships built by Zhu Wei in Sichuan can also be equipped with [-] bright-style cannons.

It can be seen from this that the Hongyi cannons used by the Dutch should not be much more advanced than the Hongyi cannons imported in the Ming and Qing Dynasties before, and they are far behind the Bright Cannons (steel cannons).

However, naval battles rely not only on cannons, but also on warships.

Aimee Zhu considered that although she could obtain a lot of shipbuilding materials from later generations through Hao Guangming, she still lacked skilled shipbuilders to implement them, so she said: "Since the barbarian people have strong ships and cannons, I, Daming, can build more large ships and cannons to beat him.

I have ordered the Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard to build sea-going ships before, but there is a lack of skilled shipbuilders, especially those who are familiar with barbarian warships. I wonder if Nan'anbo can transfer a batch of ships from Fujian to Beijing? "

Zheng Zhilong said: "Your Majesty has orders, and I must obey them."

Aunt Zhu nodded in satisfaction, then changed the subject and asked, "Isn't it not easy for Nan'an Bo to transport grain from overseas to Nanjing? I wonder what price he plans to sell to the imperial court?"

Zheng Zhilong said: "Serving the court is a subject's duty, how dare a subject ask the court for money."

Aunt Zhu shook her head, "Uncle Nan'an is wrong in what he said, the minister should have done a good job for the country, but he doesn't have to pay for his family's wealth.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty has always been short of grain. I know that Vietnam, Burma, and Southeast Asian countries all produce rice three times a year, and other grains are also abundant, so I plan to buy grain from overseas for a long time.

If Nan Anbo, the first person to buy grain from overseas for the imperial court, did not charge money, how could others be willing to buy grain for the imperial court in the future? "

"This···"

Zheng Zhilong was a little speechless. He never expected that he would not be able to send the 100 million shi of grain to the court.

But because of this, he respected Aimi Zhu even more.

Aimee Zhu has such an understanding and plan, but she is not just supernatural, her wisdom is also admirable.

After thinking for a while, Zheng Zhilong said: "As Your Majesty said, Vietnam, Burma and other countries produce a lot of grain, and the price of grain is much lower than that of Ming Dynasty. The court only needs to pay one or two stones for the grain brought by the old minister."

When he said this, Zheng Zhilong looked at Aimi Zhu cautiously, for fear that talking too much would cause Aimi Zhu to be dissatisfied.

As adults know, many times what people say is completely different from what they think.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong was not sure that Auntie Zhu really planned to pay a large sum of money for the million shi grains.

Unexpectedly, Auntie Zhu laughed and asked, "Is one tael of silver really enough? You must know that the food in Daming now costs two taels of money and a stone."

In fact, although grain is produced three times a year in Southeast Asia, it is actually not that cheap. Zheng Zhilong’s cost of transporting grain this time is more than one stone and one tael for the consumption and risks of transporting grain by sea.

It's just that Zheng Zhilong's visit to Aimee Zhu this time is indeed a sincere attachment, and he intends to gain Aimee Zhu's trust.

He has a huge family fortune, so naturally he doesn't care about accompanying him with a million taels of silver, and he can even afford to pay a million taels a year, so he quoted a price of one tael and one stone.

So, when Aimee Zhu asked, he said without hesitation, "One tael of silver and one stone are enough."

Auntie Zhu laughed and said, "I can't let you run away for nothing, so the imperial court will accept your million-dollar grain with two taels of silver and one stone."

It's not that Aimee Zhu doesn't care about millions of taels of silver.

She hoped that through the sale of the Zheng family's grain to the imperial court, other sea merchants would try their best to join in and continue to expand the scale of buying grain from overseas.

After a while, after the Ming court can fully control several customs offices, it will adopt a method that Hao Guangming plagiarized from many online novels—to use the transportation of grain back to the country as a rigid requirement for domestic and foreign merchants to import and export goods, further increasing Daming's food reserves.

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect that he would not be able to accompany him even if he wanted to lose money, so he could only bow and bow with a slight wry smile: "Thank you, Your Majesty Long En!"

After Zheng Zhilong gave his thank you gift, Zhu Wei said solemnly: "The imperial court will set up the Navy Governor's Mansion under the Military Affairs Council, and I will personally serve as the Great Governor, and the left and right governors will be appointed to assist the government affairs. Job?"

　Second more.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)