Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 245 The Ambition of the Yellow Dragon

"The Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of France..."

"United salute to the great, powerful and invincible, the commander of the navy of the Ming Dynasty, the warrior who liberated Luzon, the helm of the Ocean Armada, and the guardian of the whole territory of Nanyang, General Huanglong."

"Please allow me to kiss the back of your hand to express my respect to you from the four governors-general of the Three Kingdoms."

At the end of November, on the beach of Patong Island, a typical Western European aristocrat with blond hair and white skin was kneeling on the beach on one knee, and on the left and right sides of him were standing tall Ming army pickers, and in front of him was sitting under the awning Huanglong, the captain of the navy.

Facing the impatient Huang Long, Rickon didn't dare to show any disrespect, because he knew that they didn't have the strength to talk to Huang Long on an equal footing.

Ever since the vast Ming Navy warships and baggage ships went south and blocked the Karimata Strait from Borneo to Sumatra, whether it was Britain, France, Spain, Portugal or many Nanyang chieftains.

They all knew how terrifying the warships of the Ming army were, and even more so, how huge they were.

For the Karimata Strait, which is only more than [-] kilometers wide at its widest point, it is a breeze for a fleet of more than [-] warships and supply ships to block it.

The sea is no better than land. When [-] ships stay behind every few miles, the waterway from the South China Sea and Bangla Sea (Bay of Bengal) to the Java Sea is completely cut off.

As a result, Cohen and others in Batavia had no choice but to flee through the Sunda Strait, and the water depth in the east of the Sunda Strait is very shallow, the shallowest point is only [-] meters deep, and with sand and big waves, it is difficult for ordinary ships to escape. sailing.

Even so, if Cohen and other top executives of the Dutch East India Company try to escape from here, they can still escape.

However, it depends on their reluctance to abandon Nanyang, an important source of spices and a lot of wealth.

Therefore, everyone saw the obvious situation, and the East India Companies of France, Britain, and Portugal organized themselves, sent Rickon as an envoy, and brought a generous meeting gift.

At this moment, Rickon, as the envoy, was waiting for Huanglong's response, and Huanglong was watching carefully with the gift list written in Chinese characters in his hand.

Beside Rickon and Huanglong, their translators stood respectively.

It was suddenly quiet for a period of four weeks, only the sound of the sea wind and sea water indicated that the time was not prohibited.

"Your gifts are very good, but I still have only one sentence for this."

"All your troops withdraw from Nanyang, and the Frangji of Haojing can stay, so that I will not conquer you again, and you need to go to the army to apologize to His Royal Highness King Qi and His Majesty."

Huang Long closed the gift list with satisfaction, and at the same time stated his position.

Regarding his position, Rickon obviously knew it, and they also knew that they were no match for Ming's navy, so after hearing the translated content, Rickon immediately said:
"Your Excellency, we can withdraw from Nanyang, but we implore the great and holy Great Tomorrow to open trade to His Majesty the Emperor."

All the colonization activities of the East India Company in the Far East were actually for making money.

Europe is currently in the midst of the Thirty Years War, the War of Independence, and the Civil War in the Kingdom. Therefore, all countries have established the East India Company to organize state-owned ocean trade.

For Rickon, the representative of the Three Kingdoms, he knows exactly what the Three Kingdoms need.

land?islands?tax?These are all important, but the most important is trade.

As long as there is trade, they can hide the fact that they are retreating without a fight.

Similarly, Huang Long also learned of their demands, so after Ruiken spoke, Huang Long, who had already been instructed by Zhu Youjian, said:

"If you are willing to hand over the land occupied in Nanyang after our army defeats the Hongmaoyi, then I can go to Shulong and ask for the opening of an official city trading point in the old port of Malacca."

"You are the greatest, benevolent, benevolent and benevolent general I have ever seen in my short life." Rickon was instantly relieved when he heard that the trade request was granted so easily.

Then, he began to discuss in the tone of a businessman:

"Your Excellency, how will you set the price for the trade?"

"The price is very simple. I've already asked someone to make it. You can take a look." Huang Long glanced at Li Dan next to him, and Li Dan also understood the catalog Huang Long gave him earlier and handed it to the soldier next to him.

The soldiers stepped forward and handed the list to Rickon, and the list was written in three languages.

[A catty of brown sugar...three cents of silver]

[A catty of sugar... four coins]

[A bolt of white cloth...five coins]

[A catty of rough tea...three coins]

[A catty of second-class tea...seven coins]

[A catty of high-quality tea...a tael of silver]

[One catty of premium tea...three taels of silver]

[One catty of tribute tea... ten taels of silver]

【One catty...】

"No! This is too expensive! Your Excellency the General."

Seeing the prices of hundreds of registered goods, Rickon widened his eyes and looked at Huanglong in disbelief.

瑞肯了解明朝白银和欧洲各国的价格比对，眼下1英镑是明朝3两银子汇率，1个法国的金路易可以兑换2.8两，而明朝的1两银子可以兑换西班牙的1.4银索比。

Looking at it this way, it seems that Ming's silver exchange rate didn't take much advantage, but Rickon knew the prices of these things in Daming.

Don't say anything else, let's just talk about brown sugar. At this time, most of the country in Daming is Fujian brown sugar, and the price is around five yuan, but when it comes to Huanglong, he directly doubles it by nearly six times!
You know, even if this batch of brown sugar is sold to Europe, it will be sold at a price of less than 1.5 cents at most. That is to say, after the price adjustment, they can earn about [-] times the profit at most.

In addition to brown sugar, the prices of crude tea, second-grade tea, white cloth and other items are all three to six times higher than those purchased in Daming.

This means that if Rickon signs this trade treaty, the trade income of the merchants of the three countries will be directly reduced by at least three times and at most six times.

Even if they still make money, and not a lot.

But people who are used to eating from golden bowls will only find it disgusting when they use wooden bowls.

Rickon looked at Huanglong desperately, but Huanglong said impatiently:
"Okay, Daming still needs freight to transport these things from the north to Nanyang, not to mention that I know the prices of your things in Europa. Even according to this price list, you can still make a lot of money."

Huang Long's words instantly made Rickon speechless.

He didn't understand why Huanglong could know the prices in Europe, but in fact Huanglong didn't know anything.

In Daming, apart from many missionaries, Zhu Youjian was the only one who really knew the prices in Europe at the moment, and he not only knew the current prices in Europe, but also knew the prices in Europe in the future.

With the discovery of America and the opening of new shipping routes, Spain and other countries plundered a large amount of gold and silver from the colonies.

For example, at present, the annual amount of gold shipped from America to Europe is as high as [-] taels, and the amount of silver is as high as more than [-] million taels.

This is only the Americas. If you add other colonies such as South Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia, this will be an astronomical figure.

It is precisely because a large amount of cheap gold and silver flowed into Europe, which directly caused the depreciation of gold and silver in Europe, and the prices continued to rise.

Right now, apart from the fact that Ming has such a size to ease inflation in Europe, there is no second force in the world that can suppress inflation in Europe.

Trade is not just about making money, but more importantly, the political means behind the trade.

If possible, Europe is also unwilling to send a large amount of silver mined every year to Daming to buy things.

In Europe in this era, apart from firearms being slightly more advanced than Ming Dynasty, all other walks of life were a few mountains away from Daming.

Ming can use sustainably produced goods such as tea, brown sugar, porcelain, silk, and cloth to earn silver from Europeans, but Europeans have nothing to trade with Ming.

In this way, such a huge trade surplus directly led to the fact that Europeans became emotionless labor machines, and Daming only needed to squat at the door of his house and eat melon seeds, and the Europeans would take the initiative to send money to the door.

Zhu Youjian wanted to take down Nanyang, but it was just for the convenience of tax collection.

It only needs to control Malacca, so that Europeans can trade home after arriving in Malacca, then the maritime trade that originally belonged to the private sector will be directly monopolized by the imperial court.

The inflow of more than [-] million taels of silver every year will become Zhu Youjian's biggest pusher for the reform of the Ming tax system.

However, such a trade surplus will naturally lead to dissatisfaction among Europeans. In history, Europeans have always produced such things as opium because of their large trade surplus with the Qing Dynasty.

With opium, the return of trade can be achieved, and the ban by the Qing Dynasty caused the outbreak of the Opium War.

The failure of the Opium War completely allowed the Europeans to occupy the market, use various things to suppress the local goods of the Qing Dynasty, and then raise prices to harvest the gold and silver within the Qing Dynasty.

The so-called weak and poor Qing Dynasty is also false. After all, who would rob a beggar?
Wasn't it because he saw how fat the Qing Dynasty was eating, and in the end, he didn't have the strength to protect himself, so he was targeted by European robbers.

Therefore, if Zhu Youjian wants to maintain Ming's strong trade surplus with Europe, he must form a strong army so that European countries can honestly work for Ming.

This is the reason why he wanted to fight Nanyang and sent so many troops.

To put it bluntly, just one sentence, first show your fists, let the countries know that Daming's fists are big, and then talk about business with them stubbornly.

Like the Qing Dynasty, those with small fists and a hard mouth will end up with a few big mouths from others.

Just like the current Rickon, if Huanglong didn't have a sea fleet with a total tonnage of more than [-] tons behind him, he wouldn't be able to negotiate with Huanglong like this.

"If you don't want to accept it, then let's go."

Huanglong frowned slightly, feeling that Xiyi was making noise in front of him, and when Rickon saw this, he could only discuss and say:

"You just said the price of the goods, but you forgot that we are willing to hand over the Nanyang land in our hands. Isn't this worth the discount for us, General?"

Rickon was also helpless, he couldn't fight again and again, and if he didn't surrender now, it would probably be the fate of the Netherlands and Spain. After being beaten up, he didn't even have bargaining chips, and he had to spit out a lot of things with profit.

If he had fought well, Rickon would never be so humble. This is the helplessness of a weak country.

"Discounts are impossible, but His Royal Highness King Qi of the Ming Dynasty has some sympathy for you, and is willing to offer [-] catties of brown sugar, [-] catties of white sugar, [-] catties of second-class tea, [-] sets of coarse porcelain, [-] bolts of silk and satin. You three countries exchange land."

Huanglong looked like Rickon had received great benefits, but Rickon was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood.

If these things Huanglong said were placed in the first year of Tianqi, they would cost less than [-] taels at most.

According to the price of the workshop, the price of this group of things is at most [-] taels.

It turned out to be better now, Huanglong made a paper price list of the imperial store, and instantly increased the original value of [-] taels to more than [-] taels of silver.

As a result, Daming used [-] taels of silver to buy more than [-] taels of Nanyang land in the hands of various countries.

The land was sold for more than [-] taels, which was a loss-making transaction. In the end, Huanglong was still at this price, and he was directly broken.

Rickon only felt that if he continued to chat, he might die of anger on this beach.

"I still need to return to Malacca to confirm this condition."

Rickon felt aggrieved, but he had to keep a smile on his face, discussing with Huanglong with a smile on his face.

"You only have one month. I will attack the red-haired barbarians in Batavia in three days. If there is still no movement after I pacify the Java Islands in a month, then the governor can only lead the army to attack."

"Yes yes yes..." Hearing Huang Long's words, Rickon couldn't help being shocked while being angry.

Because Huanglong mentioned that he wanted to pacify the Java Islands, and the Java Islands have a large number of people, and they can gather tens of thousands of troops casually.

Huanglong actually proudly said that the Java Islands could be pacified in a month, which was something they hadn't done in more than ten years.

If Huanglong really pacified Java in a short period of time and defeated Cohen of Batavia, then Rickon could only smash his teeth and swallow in his stomach, and had no choice but to sign this "unequal" trade treaty.

Regarding this, although he didn't want Huang Long to win, he still licked his face and complimented:

"May the Holy Lord bless you in triumph, Your Excellency General..."

"Hmm..." Huang Long waved his hand, obviously unwilling to chat with Rickon, and Rickon felt humiliated when he saw this, but he still retreated with a smile on his face.

At this time, Li Dan beside Huanglong also said:
"These western barbarians, on the surface, compliment you, the governor, but in fact they hate me, Daming, very much in their hearts."

"Don't worry about them, they're just clowns, but you can exchange hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Nanyang with some things, which is a bit of a deal." Huang Long said, taking a sip of wine from the flagon beside him.

After taking a sip, he said again:
"This time the coastal areas of Luzon and Poro were recovered, and a lot of gold, silver and food were seized. Keeping them can reduce the pressure on the imperial court."

"Ji Ming (Shen Tingyang) has already started to organize the people in Fujian to move southward. I told him to speed up, otherwise the rice in Luzon and Poluo may not be harvested in time."

"I didn't expect that rice can be planted three times a year in this land of Southeast Asia."

Huang Long sighed a little. Before coming to Nanyang, he thought it was a barren land, but now it seems that Nanyang is simply a cornucopia of trade and food.

Although the average grain output per crop of three crops is only a few hundred catties, after harvesting the millions of acres of arable land that has been laid down by the Ming army, it can completely guarantee that [-] troops will be permanently stationed in Nanyang.

"The land of Nanyang is loosely located on the sea. You must tell His Highness to make a new plan for the Commander's Mansion of the Five Armies."

"Otherwise, based on the number of natives on many islands, even if the twelve navy guards are called in, it may take decades to encircle and suppress them."

Huang Long had a good understanding of the situation in Nanyang. He believed that at this time, the Southern Army Commander's Mansion should be assigned directly to Nanyang. Otherwise, with the size of the Nanyang natives, the four infantry guards of the twelve navy guards would not be able to see it at all.

"I'm afraid His Highness will not agree..."

Suddenly, Li Dan frowned and said:

"In the land of Nanyang, there are many natives, and the trade is prosperous, and the land has been reclaimed, which is enough to support a large number of troops."

"The model of the Five Armies Commander's Mansion is mainly based on the fact that the money and food of all the troops are controlled by the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

"The situation in Nanyang is complicated, and it is impossible to manage it with only a few guard battalions."

"However, if the Confederate Commander's Mansion is moved here, once the Confederate Commander's Mansion with nearly [-] soldiers rebels, the court will be beyond its reach. I'm afraid it will repeat the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty..."

The Dudufu of the Five Armies has no financial power. This is the result of Zhu Youjian deleting and restricting the power of some Tang Dynasty envoys.

But for this, Li Dan obviously didn't understand the model of the Dudu Mansion very well, so Huang Long laughed and said:

"The Anshi Rebellion was successful because the families of the soldiers were all in the three towns of Hebei. After they rebelled, their families were in the rear, so they naturally had no fear."

"But right now, the battalion guards of my five-army governor's mansion are all recruited from the two capitals and the thirteen provinces, or recruited here, and go to other places to serve as battalions."

"Their family members are in the Central Plains, but those who have gone to other places only want to go home, and they don't think about rebelling and hurting their families."

"But the governor..." Li Dan frowned and said:

"In this case, the soldiers far away overseas may deliberately save their lives because of homesickness..."

"Save your life? Hehe..." Huang Long couldn't help laughing and said, "Do you think they want to save their lives?"

Huang Long pointed to the distance and talked about how many Xiyi and natives he had beheaded, and how many soldiers he had received as rewards. He looked at Li Dan jokingly, and Li Dan also came to his senses:
"It's true... to deal with the Western Yi and the natives, it's a good way to motivate and tempt the soldiers by rewarding silver."

"It's just that if the imperial treasury is short, I'm afraid the soldiers will feel resentful."

What Li Dan said is also a kind of border town atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty.

For example, the Zhe soldiers and Ji soldiers who fought in North Korea were massacred and disbanded because they failed to make a sound.

In history, Chongzhen tried his best to satisfy the Guanning iron cavalry in Shanhaiguan, but there was no way to pay the full salary and at the same time issue the first-level reward silver.

This also led to the generals of the border town needing to solve the payment and rewards of the soldiers under their command. After seeing this scene, the soldiers under their command only knew the general but not the emperor and the court.

The reason why the Ming army is now brave and loyal to the court is also based on the fact that their military pay is directly resolved by the court.

If at any time the Ming Dynasty can no longer pay the salary, then in a few years, the army of the imperial court will become the servants of the generals.

The emergence of the servant system itself was due to the situation that the imperial court could not pay enough money, so Li Dan's worries were quite normal.

Although Huang Long is only a general, after all, he has cooperated with Shen Tingyang for so long and knows some financial problems, so he said:
"It is precisely because of the need to enrich the national treasury that His Highness sent troops to conquer Nanyang."

"Once Nanyang is recovered, the Shibo Department will earn millions of taels of silver every year. Even after the cost is removed, there will be two to three million taels of silver."

"The field tax can also harvest millions of taels of silver."

"Anyway, the salaries of the twelve guards of our navy and the maintenance of the ship, the supply cost has been earned back."

"Not only did I earn back, but I also contributed one or two million taels of silver to the imperial court. Now I want to see, who still looks down on my navy's twelve guards!"

Huang Long's words revealed their aggrievedness.

This is not to say that the other five armies ridiculed their navy. On the contrary, the generals of the five armies have all received help from the navy.

Those who really ridiculed the Twelve Guards of the Navy were the group of civil servants and censors in the Palace of the Emperor.

After all, there are nearly [-] people in the twelve guards, and there are nearly [-] auxiliary soldiers including the logistics. They spend more than two million taels of silver every year. It is normal for the civil servants to be unhappy.

Huanglong endured this grievance for a long time, and as long as he captured Nanyang, he would feel proud.

When the tax of nearly four million taels of silver is paid, I am afraid that the civil servants will wish to praise him to the sky.

"If you want me to say, the fief of His Highness should be in Nanyang."

At this time, a lieutenant beside Huang Long couldn't help but speak, and Li Dan frowned immediately, and Huang Long shook his head at the same time and retorted:

"Once the imperial court sees the wealth of Nanyang, I am afraid they will not be willing to hand over Nanyang."

"But after conquering Nanyang, His Highness should gather the kings to discuss matters, and then discuss going to the West to prepare for the kings to divide the overseas territories."

Naturally, Huang Long also knew about the enfeoffment overseas, but he actually felt a little uncomfortable.

In Huanglong's view, enfeoffing the kings overseas is a bad move.

This is not to say that Huang Long thinks that the kings will rebel, but he thinks that if he does so, Zhu Youjian will also go overseas as a vassal king in the future.

If Zhu Youjian left, what should they do with so many generals who were promoted by him?
Like Huang Long, who was promoted from the grassroots by Zhu Youjian to the existence of the six giants of the Ming military, and he is even more unwilling to change the current situation.

If Zhu Youjian leaves, what should people like him, Qi Jin, Qin Bangping, Man Gui, and Sun Yingyuan do?
It's okay for Qi Jin and Qin Bangping to say, after all, they have served Daming since they were young, and although they are grateful to Zhu Youjian, they are only grateful.

If they were asked to choose between the king of Qi and the emperor, they would definitely choose the emperor after hesitation.

But what should Man Gui, Huang Long, and Sun Yingyuan do?They are the direct descendants of King Qi.

After King Qi took over, they couldn't leave with him, because they were officials of Daming, not King Qi.

But if King Qi becomes a vassal, it will be very embarrassing for them to stay. If the emperor doesn't trust them, they will be beaten to the end soon.

Even if the current emperor trusts them and continues to entrust them with important tasks, what about the next emperor?

Can the next emperor trust Zhu Youjian like Zhu Youxiao?

As long as there is a conflict between the emperor's line and the Qi king's line, the three of them will face the worst result of being decapitated.

The most uncomfortable thing is the age of the three of them.

Among the three, Man Gui is the oldest and is now forty-six years old, while Huang Long is only thirty-two, and Sun Yingyuan is only thirty-three.

Even if Zhu Youjian didn't become a feudal clan until ten years later, Man Gui, Huang Long and Sun Yingyuan were only fifty-six, forty-two, forty-three years old.

If they were the same age as Qi Jin and Qin Bangping, they wouldn't worry about Zhu Youjian becoming a feudal clan.

But the problem is that they are much younger than Qi Jin and Qin Bangping, and their heirs must be the direct line of King Qi.

In this way, Qi Jin and Qin Bangping may not be able to harm their children and grandchildren, but Huang Long and the others...

Thinking of this, Huang Long's expression turned ugly. He didn't have much affection for the emperor, and the one he admired and admired the most was King Qi.

Once King Qi leaves Daming, the result of their direct descendants will inevitably end in tragedy.

Therefore, in his view, even if the King of Qi had to go overseas, he would have to stay in Daming for at least [-] years to give them the opportunity and time to transform and remove their identities.

If he is suddenly ordered to become a vassal overseas, the direct descendants of Qi Wang such as Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, and Huang Long will either be demoted for their foolish loyalty, or they will have to raise troops to protect themselves...

Thinking of this, Huanglong got up and walked to the beach under the sun, looking at the sea level in the distance, he had to sigh in his heart:
"Your Highness, please don't let us down..."

(End of this chapter)