I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 497 Luzon Today
  Be careful.

"My lord Cui Li pays homage to your majesty, long live your majesty!" Cui Li looked very excited. He was the governor of Luzon. Although he had great power, he had been living overseas for many years. Even when he was a magistrate in Taiwan, he didn't last as long as five years. He had long wanted to return to Beijing.

"Excuse me, give me a seat."

Zhu Yijiong smiled and said: "Cui Qing has worked hard in Luzon for so many years. He came to try the newly planted tea leaves in southern Jiangxi. I tasted it and it was pretty good."

Cui Li did not dare to neglect, and quickly stood up to thank him: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the tea."

The female officer brought the steaming tea cup over, Cui Li pursed her lips and took a sip: "It's really good. It's a little bitter at first taste, but after entering the throat, it has a sweet aftertaste. It should be considered top quality."

What is top-grade is purely a psychological effect because I have been in Luzon for a long time and have not tasted tea from the Central Plains for five years. Moreover, this tea was given by the emperor.

Zhu Yijiong heard this and took another bite.

Tsk, it was still very bitter and had no aftertaste at all. It seemed that he still didn’t understand tea. He put down the teacup and said warmly: "If Cui Qing likes it, then take a few pounds with you when you leave! It’s all about Gannan." The tea planted and promoted on trial basis is not worth much money.”

Nangan tea is a pilot policy promoted by the new Jiangxi governor after Nangan re-merged with Jiangxi.

After all, selling tobacco entirely would have too single an economic category, and tea itself was originally planned to be promoted by Jiang Chengzhang, the former governor of Southern Jiangxi.

But later, the emperor suddenly decreed that tobacco cultivation was no longer prohibited, so Nangan switched to tobacco cultivation, and further produced cigarettes, successfully seizing the tobacco monopoly in overseas trade.

"Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty." Cui Li stood up and saluted again.

Zhu Yijiong waved his hand for him to sit down, and then got to the point: "I summoned Cui Qing this time because I want to have a good chat with Cui Qing about how the Luzon Governor's Mansion should develop in the future. Is there anything else that needs to be changed? , Cui Qing has been in Luzon for five years and can speak freely."

Cui Li had been prepared for this and was sitting upright at this moment: "Reporting to your Majesty, I have served as governor of Luzon for five years and have basically sorted out the situation on the entire island. Luzon has a unique geography. As long as there are no foreign enemies invading, we will be able to rely on the favorable geographical location in the future." It is gradually becoming more prosperous. However, since the Ming Dynasty established the Luzon Governor's Palace five years ago, there are more and more powerful landlords in Luzon today."

"I have sent officials to make statistics. There are more than [-] Han households living in Luzon. However, most of the Han people do not have their own land. Because there are so many barbarians in Luzon, even after five years of reclamation, most Han people are gathered along the coast. . The north and the central part of the island are almost all the territory of the barbarians. In order to fight against the barbarians, the Han people in Luzon often spontaneously formed clan and township parties led by powerful landlords."

"Even if conflicts broke out with the indigenous barbarians, most of them were resolved by force between the clan and township parties, and the government was rarely invited to intervene. Moreover, when Han people who belonged to the clan and township parties reclaimed new fields, they would often actively contribute to the land. clan, seeking refuge.”

Zhu Yijiong understood. It was almost similar to the conflict between natives and guests in China. The most common one was in Guangdong. A large number of Hakkas from other provinces moved to Guangdong and then formed groups to compete with the locals for land.

Zhu Yijiong didn't care too much about this: "The more powerful the landlords are, the more powerful they will be! This is still the early stage of immigration, so everything can be done slowly."

There was no way. Luzon was too far away from the Ming Dynasty and even more isolated overseas than Taiwan. The cost of immigration and governance was too high. At present, we basically rely on the encouragement of the government, and the people go to immigrate and develop on their own. In the early days, [-]% of those who dared to go to Luzon were powerful landlords, and they all went there for the land there.

Therefore, there are more and more powerful landlords in Luzon, which is what the court expected. There are only [-] Han households in Luzon now. In the past, there were more than [-] Han people, less than [-] people. The imperial court could temporarily tolerate any land annexation or powerful landlord issues, and the priority was to digest Luzon.

Of course, after a few more governors-general terms, as the number of Han people in Luzon gradually increased, the court would definitely have to impose restrictions. It is not necessary to completely imitate the mainland's method of dividing land into acres, but it is definitely necessary to divide the land, and once the land limit of [-] acres is exceeded, taxes must be increased step by step to inhibit land annexation.

In the early stage, you can rely on land annexation to attract Han people to move to Luzon for development, but if you stay in Luzon for a long time, the original Han people will lose their enterprising spirit sooner or later. To seize land from the natives, you have to fight to your death and take risks, but to seize the land of fellow Han people, it is not that troublesome. It is nothing more than killing people without blood.

Cui Li nodded and began to report on the work situation in Luzon: "In the first two years of my tenure as governor of Luzon, I basically divided the land and plantations left by the original Spaniards for the immigrant Han people and the local Han people to settle down. Now they have all been divided by the Han people in Luzon, and each of the troops stationed in Luzon has been assigned a piece of land."

"In the name of the Governor's Office, I also raised money to recruit Han people and indigenous people in Luzon and renovated some water conservancy facilities that had been left in disrepair by the original Spaniards and Pampanga indigenous people. With these water conservancy facilities, the Han people and indigenous people on the island reclaimed new lands. Farms and wasteland can all benefit from it, so most Han people and indigenous people are willing to cooperate with the government."

"Furthermore, although the silver wire trade was cut off in the past few years, there are still many merchant ships traveling to and from Luzon. In particular, tariffs accounted for most of Luzon's finances in the past few years. Therefore, I started to expand the original port terminal in Luzon, which happened to be The silver trade between the imperial court and Spain resumed the year before last, and there were many Spanish and Ming merchant ships going to and from the Luzon port. Fortunately, the port has been expanded in advance, so there will be no trouble."

"I also actively maintained relations with the Ilok natives in the north, and encouraged the Han people in the area to trade and contact those Ilok people. By the end of last year, many tribes of the Ilok natives in the north had good relations with the Ming Dynasty. And Minbu City ( Many of the Pampanga indigenous people around Manila have also been successfully civilized and have now registered their households and are temporarily naturalized."

Zhu Yijiong couldn't help but ask: "Are those natives really willing to be friends with me, the Ming Dynasty?"

Cui Li said: "Exactly. I personally sent troops to talk to the tribal leaders. They all think that I, the Ming Dynasty, are much easier to talk to than those red-haired Spaniards."

Send troops in person...Okay! That’s how they talked. No wonder these natives are so easy to talk to.

This is not surprising.

In fact, this is what normal Chinese officials should do like Cui Li. On the one hand, he actively built water conservancy projects, organized households, and reclaimed land. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to use force to coerce and lure the natives and let them become naturalized citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Chinese people.

Who dares to disobey, then this coercion can directly turn into counter-rebellion. As long as they are all wiped out, the rest will be the indigenous obedient people of the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty.

Cui Li cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I have another suggestion."

Zhu Yijiong said: "But it doesn't hurt to talk."

Cui Li said: "Although there are only more than [-] Han households in Luzon, most of them are relatively concentrated. Some of them live in Daibi County, and some live on the west and south banks of Minbu City. In addition to the naturalized indigenous people, Most of them have learned Chinese, many have long-term business contacts with Han people, and many Han people have married indigenous women. I think that an additional county may be added to the south bank of Luzon to facilitate Minbu City. The Governor's Mansion manages and digests the indigenous and Han people."

"allow."

Zhu Yijiong only thought for a moment, then nodded and said: "The new magistrate will be selected by the Ministry of Civil Affairs together with the new governor to take office!"

(End of this chapter)