I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Although the Spanish Empire was the first maritime power in the Age of Discovery, the problem was that the life of its sailors and crew at sea was very poor. The only food they could store was dried meat and dry bread. Although the canned food produced in Liaodong soon became This attracted the attention of these maritime merchants.

But the problem is that the price of canned food is too high. Until now, the Spaniards have not understood the key to the problem of extending the shelf life of canned food. They have learned to make it themselves. However, the canned food can be stored for up to half a month and smells bad when opened. , the Spanish do not understand the principles and techniques of disinfection and sterilization.

Of course, they are only a thin layer away from the window paper that breaks through the technical barriers of cans.

In the Spanish Empire, only those who couldn't make it in the country would go on an ocean voyage. Navigation was very difficult. Crossing the ocean once could take three lifetimes of hard work, and it was also very dangerous. Once you go out, you don't know if you can come back. Apart from navigators, those who choose this kind of life are those poor people who have nowhere to go. Only those who have a decent job are willing to be sailors! ,

In Europe, sailors are the embodiment of filth, gamblers, and desperadoes. Most people will only fear them, despise them, and will never respect them!

Soldiers and generals in the Spanish navy did not have such a good opportunity. Even the canned food prepared on the ship was not a material that ordinary sailors could enjoy.

Occasionally, they would be rewarded with canned food because of their meritorious service. It was simply the most delicious thing they had ever eaten. In the eyes of the Spanish sailors, the sailors of the Ming Dynasty were so happy that they actually thought canned food was not delicious and wanted to grow bean sprouts on the ship?
In short, the Spaniards were extremely envious of the Ming Dynasty's powerful national power. When they were in Liaodong, all they saw were brand-new houses, clean streets, mountains of supplies, and densely packed warships and ocean-going transport ships.

Since Cheng Shijie fought with the Dutch, the speed of building warships of the Ming Dynasty has slowed down, while the speed of building transport ships has accelerated a lot. The people of the Ming Dynasty are actually very smart, and most of the craftsmen have no way out. Once If you open your mouth, technological innovation can simply be described as changing with each passing day.

Just like back then, Cheng Shijie successfully built the Giant Shark-class battleship with the help of the Shachuan Gang craftsmen. However, under the temptation of high wages, Nanjing craftsmen went to Liaodong one after another, especially the [-]-ton Guangfu ship. Now the ocean-going transport ships that follow Shen Qidong out to sea are all eight thousand material ships, which is [-] tons.

In addition to the material support, what made the Spanish sailors the most envious was the difference in status. Shen Qidong was preparing to go to sea, and many decent people came to see him off, but they were puzzled.

"These Chinese sailors seem to be well respected!"

A Spanish sailor whispered, "This is not like Europe,
"Our peers are different from us!"

Another Spanish sailor said: "Their treatment is so good that it makes people jealous!"

A smart sailor laughed: "When they return to the Ming Dynasty empty-handed from the wasteland where there is no gold or silver at all, I wonder if they can still be so respected?"

Many sailors laughed, "I'm afraid no one will pay attention to them anymore, just like what happened to Captain Columbus!"

It is recorded in the history books that Columbus was determined to open up a new route to the East throughout his life, bypassing the barbaric Ottomans and establishing a maritime Silk Road with the rich East.

In fact, Columbus was all about gold from the beginning to the end. He won the trust of the King of Spain. The King of Spain spent his own money to put together a fleet for him and personally sent him on board. He also promised to pay for gold when he returned. The king brought back shiploads of gold.

Everyone knows the later story. Columbus discovered the American continent and opened a new page in world history. However, he failed to bring back the gold and silver that the Spanish king desired most, and was thrown into prison by the angry king.

So now the Spanish sailors are just waiting to see the jokes of the Ming sailors. They have been to the La Plata Plains. There is no gold or silver in that land. This voyage is [-]% loss-making. I don’t know that these sailors will lose all their money. Will anyone come to welcome them back to Liaodong?

In fact, Shen Qidong's mission was not to find gold or silver, but the vast plain that they mentioned was half the size of the Ming Dynasty...

As a member of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, Shen Boyun naturally knew that this trip was very dangerous, but the Shen family's position in the Dingxin Dynasty was a bit embarrassing. They had no military power and could not make contributions on the battlefield. They also had no family education and could not stand out in culture and education. , the only way is to use their advantage of running sea ships. As long as they successfully reach the plain that is slightly smaller than Daming, they will have made a great contribution.

Cheng Shijie once openly announced to Shen Boyun and Shen Qidong that as long as Shen Qidong established a stronghold in the La Plata Plain and successfully established a foothold, Cheng Shijie promised that the title of the first Duke of the Dingxin Dynasty would be granted to Shen Qidong. After completing the mission, Cheng Shijie made Shen Qidong the British Duke.

In Shen Qidong's mind, Cheng Shijie wanted to make Yingshan County in Huguang his fiefdom. Yingshan County was the seat of Britain more than 4000 years ago.

Of course, Cheng Shijie's original intention was to change the name of Great Britain.

Shen Qidong bid farewell to his wife Wang and his colleagues. He strode onto the ship. Amid the loud shouts of the sailors, the anchor was pulled up, and the ships sailed out of the port one after another and headed towards the vast ocean.Shen Qidong stood at the stern of the boat, reluctantly looking at the coastline that was gradually being swallowed up by the intoxicating blue. He held the sachet containing a small packet of native soil tightly in his hand, and said silently in his heart: "I will definitely succeed!"

Just as Shen Qidong was heading to South America, Cheng Shijie finally arrived at the port of Lin'an Management Committee from Jiangnan. Qin Liangyu, Shi Tianbao and others came to welcome Cheng Shijie's arrival.However, due to the need for confidentiality, Qin Liangyu could not welcome Cheng Shijie with grand etiquette, let alone hold a big banquet. He could only bring a few personal entourage to greet him, and salute when he saw him: "Greetings to the king!"

"Free gift!"

"Old General Qin, are you still used to living here?"

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. This place is very nice!"

Qin Liangyu never thought that the people under her command would live a life of endless food and meat. Now the Lin'an Management Committee is still the same management committee, but the population has increased to more than 700 million. More than 2000 town-level organizations have been established alone.

After nearly a year of development, this place has changed a lot.This place has become a prosperous city similar to Jiangnan. Dozens of ethnic groups are working hard here, and those who have the conditions also engage in poultry and aquaculture, creating an idyllic scene.If it weren't for the different accent and different dress, Cheng Shijie would have thought he was still in Jiangnan.

The road is built with straight Sanhe soil. Of course, the road is also being built and traffic is being passed at the same time.There is no way. As the number of immigrants increases and the number of vehicles increases, the originally narrow road affects traffic and can only be widened.

Cheng Shijie looked at the common people working with weapons on their backs and smiled: "Will those southern monkeys still come to trouble you?"

"no!"

Qin Liangyu didn't answer, but a dark-skinned woman following her said directly: "Those monkeys have been wiped out, so they will naturally not come to trouble us!"

Cheng Shijie asked with some confusion: "It's been wiped out completely? What do you mean?"

The beauty said: "Those monkeys were hiding in the mountains and forests and kept attacking us. It was so annoying. We destroyed all their strongholds, killed all those who dared to resist, and sold those who dared not resist to the Western Yi as slaves. So now there are basically no southern monkeys here.”

Compared with Luzon's policy of vacating the cage and replacing the bird, it was implemented more thoroughly here. The multi-ethnic army composed of chieftains from Sichuan, Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Yunnan and Guizhou, was very barbaric and very bloodthirsty.

They have been dealing with the Han people for thousands of years, and have been living as neither humans nor ghosts, until Cheng Shijie assigned this place to them, provided them with equipment and supplies, and let them trade their swords and guns for their own living space.

After seeing the fertility of the Red River Plain, the chieftain troops or young men who had been there were unwilling to leave. They never knew that there was such a fertile land in the world. Even the Hanjiang Plain in Huguang was far less fertile than the plains of the Han River in Huguang. Upper Red River Plain.

Qin Liangyu took Cheng Shijie to Shizhu Town, where the executive committee is located. Although it is called a town, it is actually larger than most cities in the south of the Yangtze River, with nearly 20 people living there.

Cheng Shijie followed Qin Liangyu to the street and looked at the various commodities. He found that the prices here were outrageously low. At first, "fen" in Liaodong was the smallest unit of silver coins, but he soon discovered that one silver coin could be exchanged for It is really inconvenient to exchange one tael of silver for one hundred cents, because one cent can buy a lot of things. In desperation, I just use copper coins.

In fact, one penny of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty is roughly equivalent to one yuan in later generations. Basically, there are not many items that can be purchased for less than one yuan. But now copper coins are used here. One penny can buy one liter of rice, and one tael of silver can buy one liter of rice. Buying ten shi of rice is almost equivalent to one-tenth of the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty.

One penny can even buy two or three palm-sized fish. Money is really valuable here. Of course, it is limited to copper coins and silver coins. For example, broken silver or silver jewelry. Gold jewelry is not valuable, but one that looks like the manufacturing process is pretty good. A silver hairpin only costs five cents. If this silver hairpin were placed in the Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible to buy it without three or five taels of silver. The silver alone would be worth more than two taels.

What surprised Cheng Shijie even more was that there were so many children here. It was normal for a woman to have three or five children, but there were even seven or eight more.

Of course, Cheng Shijie discovered a problem. Not everything here is cheap. Some things are still very expensive. For example, the four-wheeled carriage produced in Liaodong. An ordinary version of the carriage in Liaodong costs about 25 taels or 30 taels of silver. Not counting the horses pulling the carriage, of course.But the problem is that this kind of four-wheeled carriage costs at least 80 or 120 taels of silver, and the one with rubber wheels even exceeds [-] taels of silver. But the problem is that there are still a lot of buyers, and there are also linen or linen clothes, this kind of fabric The clothes are sweat-absorbent and comfortable, more comfortable than linen, but not cheap. Of course, the value of swords, guns and weapons is more than double that of Liaodong.

Follow Qin Liangyu, Shi Tianbao and others to another town about sixty miles away from Shizhu Town. This is called Yongning Town. From the name, you can tell that the chieftains here come from the She family. In fact, there is not a town for every chieftain in Lin'an. , but each chieftain is not allowed to independently own a town-level unit.

Instead, at least ten chieftains were placed in a town. The same mixed method was adopted. A town was divided into ten chieftains. No matter how many chieftains there were, all the chieftains were disordered. The Shizhu chieftain was divided into more than 80 towns by Qin Liangyu, and the nearest chieftain was divided into more than [-] towns. There are also neighboring ones with a distance of more than [-] kilometers.

The same is true in Yongding Town. There is only one chieftain of the She family in Yongning Town, which is also a hundred households. The others are Shizhu, Longshan, Shuixi, Yongshun, Dafang, Pingyuan (now Zhijin), Weining, Sixi, etc.

Cheng Shijie had to admit: "Director Qin, you did a good job!"

"It's all thanks to the king's mercy!"

Qin Liangyu smiled and said: "Actually, not everyone wants to be king and hegemony. Most people only have one purpose: to survive. Your Majesty allows us to live. We are naturally willing to survive under His Majesty's plan!"

Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Seeing that this place is developing so well, I feel relieved!"

As the saying goes, unruly people come out of poverty, and the most fundamental reason is that they are poor. As long as they have food, drink, and property, how many people will take risks?
Qin Liangyu continued: "Your Majesty, we can eat here, but there are still problems!"

"what is the problem?"

"Read!"

Qin Liangyu smiled bitterly and said: "The king promised us that like the children of the Han family, we can study, do business, join the army, and participate in politics. But the problem is that most of our people are illiterate and want to teach the children to read. There’s no way to teach it!”

"This matter can only be done slowly!"

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "You also know that even among the children of the Han family, only [-]% of them are scholars. But don't worry, there is no golden phoenix tree, and you can't attract the golden phoenix. But when the development here is better, the teacher will come Yes! By the way, are the Ruan family and Zheng family still fighting?"

Qin Liangyu shook his head and said: "No, they seem to have put aside their prejudices and concentrated their forces to deal with us!"

Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Do you have any difficulties? Do you need help?"

Shi Tianbao said: "If the king doesn't bother, we can still deal with those monkeys!"

Shitianbao is not bragging. Hualu City (today's Guangbin Province) is a large city in Nanhou. It was captured by the chieftain army more than a month ago. The defenders of Hualu City broke through several times but were beaten back by volleys and cannons. , the Annan Army reinforced several times, but failed to break the siege of Hualu City.

Qin Liangyu was very good at fighting. When the Annan Army came to support, he put their main troops into the city, but concentrated his elite troops to intercept the grain transport convoy of the Annan Army. To put it simply, people could enter, but not a single grain of food would be lost. Can't go in!

The result of several reinforcements was that there were more and more soldiers in Hualu City, but less and less food. In addition, Shi Tianbao bribed spies from time to time to sneak into the city and set fire to the grain depots. Soon the defenders in the city were starving. Eating human flesh.

The inside of Hualu City became a purgatory, but outside the city were endless rice fields, sugar cane, and cassava. The defenders leaned feebly on the battlements, looking at the mature crops outside the city, with bright green eyes, which was very scary.

Qin Liangyu only trapped Hualu City with deep trenches and strong walls, and did not launch a large-scale attack. He turned Hualu City into a flesh and blood mill. Before and after, the two major families of Ruan and Zheng had already had [-] troops grinded by him. Became meat sauce.

Cheng Shijie asked: "So Hualu City has been captured?"

"We captured it in just over a month, and we are now preparing to attack Thang Long City!"

Qin Liangyu frowned slightly and said: "Your Majesty, we are preparing to attack Shenglong City. I don't know whether it is appropriate or not?"

Qin Liangyu was worried about why Nanhou said it was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Is attacking a vassal state a bit of bullying?

"If you are well prepared, you can fight if you want!"

Cheng Shijie said calmly: "It doesn't matter how much territory you gain, the key is to hold it!"

What Cheng Shijie didn't know was that he had released a giant gluttonous beast.For a long time, chieftains from all over the country were suppressed by the Central Plains dynasty. They could only successfully rebel after establishing slaves.Even though An Bangyan had an army of 16 and fought all the way to Chongqing, he was still held back by the Ming Dynasty.

Although Ming Dynasty paid a heavy price, the problem is that now Cheng Shijie directly armed them, released them, and set them in Indochina to bite people.

Just after Qin Liangyu, Shi Tianbao and others left.

Zhou Ning said with some worry: "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid of raising tigers?"

"so what?"

Cheng Shijie said calmly: "We have now entered the age of firearms. Their barbarism and bravery are no longer useful. If we compete with numbers to compare with national strength, who is our opponent? What's more, with this method, it will be difficult for them to suppress the Southern Monkey." !”

"Didn't they say they killed them all?"

"How is it possible to kill them all?"

Cheng Shijie said calmly: "The forests and mountains here are not like the mountains in the Northeast. The mountains and forests in the Northeast can freeze to death in winter, making it difficult to survive there. The climate here is warm, and there are not a few southern monkeys who escape into the mountains. Their The vitality is so tenacious, just wait, they will concentrate their strength to fight back!"

In fact, the real reason for Cheng Shijie is that he really hates the white-eyed wolf Nanhou. As for the Tusi army, they have been too deeply influenced by Chinese culture. The past dynasties have intimidated them deep into their bones. Even if they want to rebel, they can't. They want to Having enough food is not a problem, but if you want to become rich, you cannot do without the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Ning naturally saw that Cheng Shijie seemed to be hiding something, but Cheng Shijie didn't say anything and he didn't ask.

At this moment, Cheng Shijie took out a map and began to draw grids on it. While drawing, Cheng Shijie asked: "Zhou Ning, what title do you want?"

"A title?"

"Correct!"

"According to your merits, I should also make you a knight. You should at least be made a duke!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "How about making a German Duke?" (End of Chapter)