open sea

Chapter 447 Good and Bad
At the same time, the requisitioned barracks in the barracks outside Manila were brightly lit, and the senior officials of the Nanyang Military Mansion gathered for the second round of banquets.

"No, no, I can't think about them in the way of my Ming people!" Facing Gao Gong's lease and customs to Chen Mu, Chen Mu waved his hand and said: "If you ask me to transfer the customs defense to the diplomatic Yi, that's impossible, but they're different."

"Their kings can hand over taxes to merchants as collateral. Can Daming do it? Since ancient times, our officials have been in charge of localities, not only collecting taxes, but also building water conservancy projects, settling disputes, and even importing goods. They There are no officials, and the nobles under the jurisdiction of each place only collect taxes and don't care about the rest."

"I think leasing land and customs is not the most difficult thing. The difficulty lies in the appointment of local officials and the selection of merchants. They will definitely require merchants and officials to be devout believers." Chen Mu took a sip from the wine bowl and shook his head. He laughed and said, "Drinking too much wine today made me even more excited! I heard old Pinto say that King Philip said that he would rather die than rule a country with heretics."

"This is the biggest reason why he may not agree to the lease."

Gao Gong was a little unaccustomed to Chen Mu's situation of chatting about such important matters while eating snacks and drinking, so he sat upright without drinking or eating, and said, "What is the purpose of Chen Shuai for renting the land? One million taels of silver is so generous!"

"Could it be that my Ming Dynasty still lacks so much land?"

Chen Mu pursed his lips and smiled, waved his hands and said, "It's not generous, it's not generous. To tell the truth, for Mr. Gao, this 700 million taels of silver, Mr. Chen, didn't plan to ask for a tael."

"As long as their king accepts the lease of Seville, our merchants can be sent to Spain in a legitimate way. The sea is far away. Whether he wants to or not, my fleet will stop in Mexico. I will wait for two big victories. Will he dare to stop it when it docks in Mexico?"

"If you dare, I have an excuse to send troops to Mexico and the leased land in Seville; if you don't dare, then our troops will just be stationed in Mexico and Seville." Chen Mu pointed to himself with a thumbs up, and said, "Wait for me." For example, Lu Song and Lin Lai, my tiger and wolf division won two big victories, and the result is doomed-they can't beat me."

"Like this 700 million taels of silver, should they give it to me? Of course not. Why should I ask someone for 700 million taels? It's not because I overturned their fleet." Chen Mu said in a barbaric manner. He patted the table and said: "Now they themselves feel that they owe me 700 million taels!"

"They will never guess that I want Seville's leased land to station troops in Mexico. That is the source of their wealth. If I ask for it rashly, I will definitely not agree." Chen Mu said, leaning forward, mysteriously Said: "I have to do something worse than garrisoning troops first, and when the time comes, I will propose garrisoning troops. They agreed without even thinking about it."

Gao Gong frowned. Chen Mu is too evil. Even if he does good things, if he does not follow the right path, he will become the source of disaster. He asked, "Then you are lying when you talk about cooperation?"

"Of course it's not a lie! I really plan to send Dan'er to them as a customs tax officer to rectify their taxation. Our merchants used to do business in an upright manner. I not only let people go to trade, but also set up schools for them. , Teach them the Analects of Confucius, bring them advanced humanistic thoughts, open Yangjiyuan, Louzeyuan, and Huimin Pharmacy.”

"If Spain needs it, I'll sell him as many matchlock guns as he wants; I'll sell him as many gunboats as he wants; I'll sell him as many cannons as he wants. Even if I bid for Daming’s mercenaries, I will still persuade the imperial court to send him mercenaries—as long as it is beneficial to Daming, now, it is most profitable for Daming to land in Spain.”

Chen Mu didn't know many things for people at the time, so he was always an uneducated guy in the eyes of Gao Gong and others, but this did not prevent him from starting high. No one could argue with him at the level he knew .

"What's good for Daming?" Gao Gong didn't like being caught in Chen Mu's context, so he couldn't speak at all. He could only listen to the intelligible details in his speech, and asked, "Sell other people's weapons, teach others knowledge. , Opening a nursing home and Luze Garden for them, what is the benefit of Ming Dynasty?"

"Da Ming can affect Spain's economy, defeat will also affect their military, merchants can affect their politics, but all of these will bring their opposition to Da Ming, so we need to give them some sweetness to make them feel that Da Ming is not bad, Then exert influence from it, all activities are a whole and cannot be viewed separately.”

Chen Mu said with a sly smile, and said: "I learned from the Jesuits. They recruit merchants, build hospitals, and universities in Haojing, and they are also collecting information and estimating the strength of the army on the other side. Only doing good things will make people feel stupid." , Doing only bad things will make people feel evil, but doing good and bad things together, other people's views on us will be divided by themselves, and they will be internalized."

"Da Ming's overseas interests are in Japan, Ryukyu, Luzon, Sulu, Borneo, and Malacca. Today, only Malacca is in the hands of the Portuguese and cannot exert influence. The rest of the countries have been included. As long as The Great Wall in the inner sea of ​​Daming is stable, and the hinterland of Daming and Xinming are not threatened by overseas."

"Overseas, no matter what happens, Yu Daming is irrelevant."

Gao Gong nodded. He was the one who came up with the name of the Great Sea Wall, so he naturally understood its power, but: "The country of Western Yi is so far away, even if it exerts influence on it, it is not as good as the countries in Southeast Asia."

"It's a long sea journey to send troops, merchants, and goods to the Western Kingdom. You should know the risks and consumption involved."

Gao Gong shook his head slowly, and said: "In the past, you recruited soldiers wherever you went. The Nanyang countries are not far away. It is not difficult to dispatch troops and generals between them. Now the military guards only have [-] personnel. If you want to garrison Mocheng and Saicheng, where does the military government get these troops, it will require a huge amount of supplies, and it will be difficult to come and go, not to mention profit."

"But it's something you can do even if you give up money."

Mr. Gao also drank alcohol today, and he drank the northern shochu. He cupped his hands in a dazed state. I'm afraid he didn't know what he was talking about. In the end, Chen Mu understood the sentence, and he said, "I want to know too. "

Seeing that Gao Gong was so serious, Chen Mu felt embarrassed. He smiled and said: "Actually, it's nothing. The key is not to benefit merchants. The purpose is to understand the Western Yi countries and exert influence on them, so as to deepen our understanding of them. Their understanding, as for their understanding of us, it is enough to know that we are very powerful."

"Other than that, Chen has no better idea. It's nothing more than fighting for labor costs. They don't have many handicraftsmen, so the wages are expensive. However, there are many colonies, and the raw materials are not expensive. My wages are cheap. From doll carts to coffins, from guns to cannons, from horse-drawn carriages to sea ships, shipping is too expensive, so we directly open the factory in Mexico to use their raw materials, and we can always make a profit.”

"By the time their attention is still on the well-made utensils produced in Ming Dynasty, Magui should have already run to North America. When they want to turn their faces again, for the military government, it is already a local battle."

The corners of Chen Mu's mouth curled up, and he squinted his eyes and said, "That Jurchen warrior, Mongolian cavalry, fought in America for the land bestowed by the emperor, spreading the country's prestige to another continent. Don't Mr. Gao want to see it?"

(End of this chapter)