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Chapter 1464 God’s Will
When he was formulating the Americas strategy with the General Staff, he planned to occupy both the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, which would basically cover the west coast of North America and South America and most of Central America.

The plan went smoothly at the beginning, but after the expeditionary force actually captured the Viceroyalty of Peru, they found that the plan was not keeping up with the changes!

When formulating the plan, one parameter was crucial: population. Although the General Staff had been monitoring the situation for over a decade, employing various methods, they still couldn't ascertain the exact population of the two governorates, not even their approximate numbers.

It's not fair to blame the General Staff for inaction, because the Spanish had never conducted a census. Even if the General Staff had the ability to turn the Spanish governors against their will, they still wouldn't know how many people lived in the two viceroyalties.

Population is crucial to development plans after occupation. If there isn't even a rough estimate, what standards should be used to formulate a plan? At this point, Hong Tao used a clever trick, racking his brains to recall data about the indigenous people of the Americas from later generations, claiming that it was obtained through special channels.

The emperor, of course, had special channels, and the General Staff, not daring to investigate further or believe it to be true, simply extrapolated the population of the western region based on a figure of over 3000 million, resulting in a rather optimistic estimate. The larger the population, the faster the development after occupation, and the less assistance would be needed from the local area.

Who would have thought that even the wisest can make a mistake, and the consistently correct emperor was wrong? After Du Wenhuan and Seter captured the major cities of the Viceroyalty of Peru, they quickly found tax records in the archives kept by the local churches and government.

The Spanish have never conducted a census, but they are very serious about collecting taxes. They remember every single item clearly and keep it very meticulously, with virtually no omissions.

Is there a relationship between tax revenue and population? The answer is yes, and it's a very direct one. The Spanish governors went to great lengths to increase tax revenue in the colonies, exhausting all means to ensure that no household was overlooked.

So at least within the Viceroyalty of Peru, the Spanish had already conducted a census without anyone noticing, and had been doing so diligently for over a century without ever letting up.

Then the problem arises: according to the Spanish tax data in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the taxpayer population in 1638 was over 100 million, of which 80 were indigenous people, and more than 20 were mixed-race people, slaves, and European immigrants.

However, the taxpayer population consists of adult males, typically the head of each household. To determine the actual population size, a coefficient needs to be multiplied, which represents the number of people per household.

How many people are in each household in the Viceroyalty of Peru? There's no fixed rule. A family has more children and fewer children; there's no fixed number.

However, statistics have the concept of average values. Based on the average values ​​of that era, each household had about 4-5 people, so the total population of the Viceroyalty of Peru was around 500 million.

Of course, this figure is an estimate and will certainly differ from the actual value, but it will not be too far off in the general sense and can serve as a basic basis for the government to formulate policies.

The difference between 3000 million and 500 million is a full sixfold. Correspondingly, the number of immigrants sent to the occupied territories in the Americas after the war would have to be many times greater. No matter how much redundancy the General Staff's plans had, they couldn't accommodate such a large error. Therefore, the previous plans had to be revised, and drastically revised at that!

Actually, Hong Tao wasn't wrong, he just got the timeline wrong. The 30 million+ population figure he mentioned was from before the Great Extinction. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Americas were hit by smallpox, measles, and influenza, causing a 70-80% drop in population. But how could the emperor make a mistake so easily? So Wang Datou voluntarily stepped forward to take responsibility, using two years' salary to protect the emperor's prestige and face, while also upholding the seriousness of the rules.

As for whether the special channel mentioned by the Emperor was an advisory office, and whether Wang Datou should bear the responsibility, the General Staff did not intend to investigate. Their current concern was how to revise the American plan; the main problem was where to get so many immigrants.

At this point, the emperor spoke again, telling the General Staff not to focus on the number of immigrants, as it was useless. If they didn't intend to affect the development of the mainland and existing overseas territories, they couldn't gather that many immigrants from anywhere.

The number of immigrants was insufficient, and the Americas Project could not be abandoned. This really troubled Tan Buming. He held four days of closed-door meetings with a group of confidential staff, but still couldn't come up with a solution.

Having no other choice, I had to bite the bullet and go to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to listen to the lecture, hoping that after the emperor had spoken his mind, he would take advantage of his good mood to point me in the right direction.

The emperor did not disappoint his students, talking about everything from the gold mines of Alaska to the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego, from the giant crabs of the Bering Sea to the penguins of the Drake Passage, and a great forest called the Amazon, where the beetles were said to be as big as a human hand.

Tan Buming was so overwhelmed by the lecture that he felt dizzy and his vision blurred; he almost suffered from hypoglycemia and collapsed before the Emperor. Fortunately, his ordeal wasn't in vain; the Emperor was quite considerate, and in the latter half of the fifth lesson, he finally steered the conversation back to the main topic, providing a general outline for modifying the Americas plan.

The solution is simple: shrink!

Originally, the plan was to take over all of North America, western South America, and Central America at once. However, due to a shortage of manpower, the problem cannot be solved in the short term. Therefore, it's better not to try to do too much at once. Instead, we should take over the best areas first and leave the others for later.

So which place is best? The emperor said that North America and South America each have their own merits, making it difficult to choose. But only one must be chosen, and since man cannot solve the problem, let's rely on fate.

Then the emperor took out a silver coin from the Ming Dynasty and tossed it three times in a row, landing heads each time. Thus, the Americas Project became the North America Project. Heaven believed North America was the best option, and the emperor believed it too. Who dared to disagree?

Tan Buming had been tricked by the emperor again. The silver coin looked exactly the same as the circulating coin on the front, but it was different on the back. Both sides were obverse, indicating it was a special silver coin, usually used for games with the imperial concubines in the harem. And there was more than one; there were also coins with reverse on both sides.

In other words, the emperor intended to choose North America, but the expeditionary fleet had already conquered the Viceroyalty of Peru. Without a compelling reason, abandoning South America after gaining control and then attacking North America would not be convincing. So he cleverly attributed his intentions to fate, thus misleading the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ming Empire.

Hong Tao had given this matter considerable thought: why insist on occupying North America first and abandoning South America, which they had already acquired? These past few days, not only had the General Staff been working tirelessly, but he himself had been keeping busy, spending most of his nights unable to sleep.

(End of this chapter)