Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 339 Your Majesty is not doing this for money
"The Minister of the Ming Dynasty's Shipbuilding Department sent a letter to Diego Forcado, the Governor of Manila:
Our Great Ming is a country established by the Mandate of Heaven, and our Emperor is a ruler established by the Mandate of Heaven.

However, the Dutch are ignorant of the will of Heaven and have attacked our cities and robbed merchant ships. Such behavior is like that of thieves and we should have sent troops to suppress them as soon as possible. However, out of respect for our emperor's kindness to distant countries, we have sent them repeated instructions in the hope that they will repent of their crimes.

However, they were so ignorant and stubborn that they refused to learn their lesson, which made my emperor so angry that he ordered me to lead a large army by land and sea to attack them in April.

When the soldiers arrived in TW, they captured and killed countless people. The Dutch had no way to escape and had to take off their clothes and beg for surrender. In a short time, all the treasures in the city belonged to us. If they had known that they were guilty and surrendered earlier, there would not have been such a disaster.

Your small country is no different from the Dutch. You bully our merchant ships and civilians and lay the foundation for strife and chaos.

Now that I have pacified Taiwan, I have hundreds of thousands of elite troops and thousands of warships. Moreover, the water route from Taiwan to Manila is short and convenient, so I can set out in the morning and arrive in the evening.

But considering that you have shown some remorse, and punishing the main criminals, you are no less worthy than the Dutch, so I will pardon your crimes for the time being.

If you wake up early, I will hand you over to Du Chen to report, and I will ask our emperor to show you mercy, pardon all the old punishments, and order our merchants to trade in Luzon; if you continue to be cunning, our ships will arrive immediately and burn all your cities and treasuries to the ground, and it will be too late to regret then.

The Dutch can serve as a lesson for us. We should choose between good fortune, disaster, benefit and harm. I hope you will think carefully and make a quick decision, and not delay and regret. This is my instruction.

April 10th, the first year of Jingwu.

Before seeing this ultimatum, Du Chen thought his mission was very simple. It was just to make some contact work for the Ming fleet to go to Manila.

After all, the cruel and murderous Ming Emperor was quite friendly towards him and was even prepared to hand over important departments such as customs to him for management.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty’s biggest enemy at sea should be the Dutch, and there should be a potential alliance between the two sides.

But when he read the letter carefully several times, this thought disappeared in an instant.

Something like this can no longer be called a letter. It is a naked ultimatum. Anyone who sees it would be furious, let alone the Spaniards who once dominated the world?

Then the problem arises.

How to prevent this letter from becoming an obstacle to completing your Majesty's mission.

After sitting quietly in the room for a long time, Du Chen finally put paper and pen on the table.

Then, with a wave of his right hand, a letter to the Governor of Manila fell on the paper.

“Your Excellency Diego Forcado, Governor of Manila:

I regret to inform you that our understanding of the Ming Dynasty was extremely wrong.

The Tatars in the north failed to take advantage of the chaos in the Ming Dynasty to destroy it. Instead, they lost a prince, four grand dukes and 600,000 troops in the war with the Ming Dynasty.

If the army's battles cannot give you a correct view of the Ming Dynasty, then I have another piece of news that I got through secret channels.

The Ming Empire was planning an attack on the Tatar capital from the sea.

Yes, Ming only used a small portion of its fleet when attacking Taiwan, and since their new emperor took the throne, the Ming navy is now likely on par with the Invincible Armada.

I know that the letters from the Ming people are very arrogant and rude, but for the sake of cannons and gold coins, you must restrain your anger and never get involved in the conflict between the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch.

In addition, I have a few small suggestions when dealing with the Ming people.

The Emperor of Ming is only seventeen years old. As long as you give him enough respect, he will treat you as a friend, but if you fail to do so, you should know what an angry teenager will do.

Believe me, the Dutch, who suffered heavy losses, and the Tatars, who were seeking peace with the Ming Dynasty, would be very happy to see this situation.

Your most loyal friend

Fernán Mendes Duchen

After writing and tearing, tearing and writing again for more than an hour, Du Chen finally put this basically true letter into an envelope.

This letter was very difficult to write.

On the one hand, Du Chen had to make the Governor of Manila fully understand the strength of the Ming Dynasty, but on the other hand, he had to be careful with his wording so as not to provoke the fragile self-esteem of the Spaniards.

After all, after the last Invincible Fleet, which Spain had put together with all its might, was burned to ashes by the Dutch, everyone knew that Spain's decline was inevitable.

Therefore, Du Chen was very careful when writing letters. He would carefully consider every sentence and start over if he found anything wrong.

But in the end he suddenly figured it out.

Once it was in decline, it was in decline. The few small sampans and less than 10,000 land forces left by the Spanish in Manila were enough to scare the local natives, but it was far from enough to maintain their self-esteem in front of the Ming Dynasty.

Rather than being hesitant and letting the Spaniards underestimate the strength of the Ming Dynasty, and then angering His Majesty the Emperor like the Dutch, it would be better to slightly exaggerate the strength of the Ming Dynasty so that those former compatriots can make the right choice.

In this way, Spain will not only avoid provoking a powerful enemy, but can also use the power of the Ming Dynasty to deter the Dutch. It is truly a win-win move.

"Forcado is a smart man. He should make the right choice."

Thinking of this, Du Chen called out to the outside, and handed the letter to the servant after he came in.

"Send this letter to Manila and hand it over to Governor Forcardo in person. Remember to go and return quickly. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty probably doesn't have much patience."

After he finished speaking, the servant took his order and left. When Du Chen was left alone, he took out a stack of papers with some words written on them from the drawer on the table.

This is his opinion letter on customs construction, which not only includes things like organizational structure, but also adds various business processes.

After carefully reading the previously written part, he began to write again.

It is obvious that the Portuguese Governor of Macau has taken on a new identity.

If a few more years pass, it is hard to say which identity he will accept more.

Du Chen's appointment did not cause any waves.

After all, some people have not yet figured out the cause and effect, while others know that it is irreversible.

To put it bluntly, although His Majesty still rarely acts arbitrarily because he takes the opinions of all parties into consideration, after victory after victory, everyone knows that the trend of the rise of imperial power is unstoppable.

Unless the Ming army suffered a severe defeat on the battlefield, as long as Zhu Cilang lived, all other parties would have to bow down to him.

However, Zhu Cilang did not intend to force everyone else into submission just because he gained power.

Take the taxation issue for example. In fact, after driving Duoduo back to Jiangbei, he could forcibly collect commercial taxes with the military force in his hands, but such means would inevitably cause fierce reactions from the gentry and families in various places, leading to extremely cruel consequences.

Ultimately, if you want to take money out of other people's pockets, you have to consider both the cost and the technology.

Otherwise, how could there be occupational distinctions such as robbers, thieves, swindlers, and merchants?
You see, now he has used simple, convenient and low-cost methods to obtain far more revenue than by forcibly collecting taxes locally. Not only does he not need to send unpopular tax inspectors to various places, but he has also avoided fierce internal resistance.

However, this kind of half-hearted approach was only part of his grand plan. He still had many plans to put into practice for the financial reform of the Ming Dynasty.

When it comes to leather modification, people naturally think of magnificent and fierce struggles.

But if we look at history clearly, we can find that some far-reaching changes in leather actually happened silently.

There is no need to say much about the other things, just mention the clan power.

This force has played an extremely important role in the thousands of years of Chinese history. Not only has it influenced the direction of history in every dynasty and generation in all aspects, but it has even been able to organize large-scale hot weapons battles due to children's fights in later generations.

But such a deep-rooted force was shattered in an era when everyone was busy making money.

With few exceptions, clan elders in other places not only lost the ability to decide life and death through legal means, but even the younger generation has begun to talk about "severing ties of kinship."

The pros and cons of this situation will be tested by history, but the key point is that in that era, everyone from top to bottom was concentrating on development. Who deliberately targeted clan forces?

By the time someone realized this, the daylily was already cold.

Zhu Cilang was well aware of this, so when facing certain problems he rarely used tough measures.

The world is now standing on the verge of an industrial revolution. If we just take this ride, many problems that have plagued generations will be solved.

Of course, this does not mean that we should just sit back and do nothing, and the dividends of the Industrial Revolution will fall on the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Cilang understood the key, so it was naturally much easier for him to do it.

It’s like setting up a “company” without even knowing what it should be called.

To others, this was probably just a trick used by the emperor to make money.

But his fundamental purpose was to lay the foundation for state-owned enterprises and then put capital into a cage.

He knew very well that capital without constraints was as terrifying as power without constraints.

It can even be said that due to the essential difference, unscrupulous capital can cause even greater harm to ordinary people.

With this understanding, Zhu Cilang was content to maintain sufficient influence on certain key industries through state-owned enterprises.

If we add the fact that he used state-owned enterprises as a starting point to lead the Ming Dynasty into the industrial age, his actions would not be just for the purpose of making money.

Well, making money is actually quite important.

At this time, Li Yongmao's Ministry of Industry had already established a prototype of a similar factory under the guidance of Zhu Cilang;

Although Song Yingxing's salt field in Hainan has not yet been fully developed in the basic resource link, it will not be a difficult matter as long as it passes this stage;
As for the company that is about to be established, it is simple. Even if the Dutch cannot swallow this humiliation in the end, it will not be a big problem for Ming Dynasty to gain some share in maritime trade with its strength.

These three steps focus on resources, production, and circulation.

Putting everything together, why would Zhu Cilang still worry about the issue of money?
just
While Du Chen was still doing his best for the construction of the Ming Customs, the heads of various companies in Guangzhou City were not idle either.

During the day, when welcoming the triumphant return of Shen Tingyang and Mei Chun, Zhu Cilang only mentioned levying taxes on foreigners, and did not mention opening up trade routes as they had expected.

Although the various families and clans that made their fortunes from maritime trade were somewhat disappointed about this, no one dared to act privately.

After all, the large-scale slicing scene is still vivid in our minds, not to mention that His Majesty is now a legitimate emperor on horseback.

Local forces in remote areas like these have little influence on the government, so how dare they collude secretly at this time?
Are you worried that you won't be able to wear a hat that suggests you have bad intentions?
Originally, they thought that things would end like this, and even if there were any changes, they would have to wait until the Dutch were completely dealt with.

But who would have thought that after the reception, Gu Zhongcheng was kept by His Majesty, and after he left, some rumors reached the ears of the heads of various families.

According to reliable sources, Your Majesty intends to set up a company like the Westerners, which will be responsible for the trade routes from Taiwan and Macau to overseas countries and will also allow private investment.

Everyone has basically the same opinion on this news.

To put it bluntly, His Majesty is short of money and wants to use this method of getting something for nothing to solve his urgent needs.

In the past, the Guangdong gentry who had been in business for half their lives would have sneered at this.

After all, no one's money comes from the wind, and it is really too much to think that you can cheat people out of their hard-earned money by just painting a big pie in the sky.

But now, Your Majesty has already proved with practical actions that the court is capable of opening up sea routes. If we really miss this opportunity.
“Ah~~~~~~~~.”

In a house not far from the Governor's Office, seven or eight familiar officials were having a banquet together.

But these people were all frowning and silent. It was not until the slightly plump middle-aged man sitting on the left sighed that they all turned their attention to him.

"We can't come up with a solution if we just sit here like this, so why don't we just buy some shares of that damn thing and wait and see what happens before we decide on anything else."

The words of the slightly plump middle-aged man seemed to hit the nail on the head for everyone present. As soon as he finished speaking, several people immediately echoed him.

"That's true. Those red-haired guys will continue to cause trouble for some time. It will be safer once Your Majesty has dealt with them completely."

"Well, your majesty is a good fighter, but that red-haired guy is no pushover. We are all small businesses, so it's better to be a little more cautious."

"Alas~~ I don't know who has bewitched Your Majesty. It would be better if we could just go out to sea on our own and save ourselves all this trouble."

After hearing what everyone said, the plump middle-aged man seemed to think of something happy.

But I don't know whether he was embarrassed by the situation or had other considerations, the joy on his face only flashed by, and then he followed everyone to talk about the "disadvantages" of establishing a company.

Things had come to this point, and there was no need to continue the banquet. Afterwards, everyone agreed not to join this crappy company and went back to their homes.

But after everyone left, the slightly plump middle-aged man did not rest. He waited until several trusted servants came back panting before returning to the backyard with satisfaction.

This chapter is a bit boring, but I want to write it.

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(End of this chapter)