I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 469 Letter from Sun Yuanhua ([-])

This Xiong Wencan is no ordinary person.

In the history of his previous life, when he was the chief envoy of Fujian, he advocated the recruitment of Zheng Zhilong, who was a pirate at the time.

And when there was a severe drought in Fujian and the people were in dire straits, they followed Zheng Zhilong's advice and encouraged the victims to go to Taiwan to reclaim wasteland and farmland.

Although his actions at that time contributed to Zheng Zhilong's power, they also objectively promoted the process of immigrating to Taiwan.

Now is the right time to put him in charge of Taiwan affairs.

Zhu Youxiao wrote quickly on the imperial case, and quickly wrote the edict. He turned to hand it to Zhang Chang and said slowly:
"You will send this edict to the cabinet later, and it will be implemented after discussion by the cabinet."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chang immediately took the edict and put it into his sleeve. He held Sun Yuanhua's title book in his hand, looked at Zhu Youxiao and said:

"Your Majesty, shall I continue reading?"

Zhu Youxiao nodded when he heard the words and said no more. He continued to lean back on the dragon chair with his eyes closed and relax, listening to Zhang Chang's recitation.

"I arrived in Macao in early October. This place was originally the territory of our Ming Dynasty. During the Zhengde period, the Portuguese came here from the west. They first invaded our territory of the Ming Dynasty many times, and were finally defeated by our Ming Dynasty. Finally, in the 32nd year of Jiajing, Portuguese merchants used the excuse that their ships ran aground due to strong winds. It broke and all the goods were wet with water. I asked for a place to dry the goods.

Wang Baixing, the deputy envoy of Guangzhou Haidao, agreed upon seeing this. Unexpectedly, the Portuguese took advantage of the situation and finally settled in Macau with 500 taels of silver per year.

From then on, the Portuguese and even Westerners began to gather in Macau. At the beginning, there were only dozens of tents. Later, due to profit from industry and commerce, they gradually built houses with bricks, tiles, wood and stone, and the area became larger and larger. When the present ministers entered the port, they discovered the port. There were so many ships that they covered the sky and the sun, and it was very prosperous. "

Zhu Youxiao naturally knew the story of Portugal's occupation of Macau, but when he heard about 500 taels a year, he shook his head and was very dissatisfied.

He did not want to rent this place to Portugal. What is the difference between this and the concessions in later generations.Not to mention that the cost of renting land is so low now, only 500 taels, and the Portuguese are sending them to beggars.

Thinking of this, his mood suddenly dropped a lot, but Zhang Chang's recitation continued.

After Sun Yuanhua finished writing about the origin of Macao, he immediately began to explain what he saw and heard in Macao.

As an important Portuguese stronghold in China, Macau can be regarded as a must-stop place for Europeans doing business in China.

Its geographical location is extremely important, so the local area is a mixed bag, with many people, including missionaries, Westerners, Han Chinese, and even Indians, Japanese, and Siamese.

According to the information he knew, Macao also conducted household registration statistics last year.

There are now nearly 500 Portuguese in Macau, and there are more than [-] Han Chinese who believe in Western religion.

But these people do not make up the majority of Macau's population. The majority are Han Chinese who work here to make a living, and there are nearly 1 people.

In addition, the Westerners had more than 5000 slaves. Many of these slaves had dark skin, much like the Kunlun slaves during the Tang Dynasty. Some of the slaves were Tianzhu, Champa, Khmer and others purchased from the West.Macau seems to be a mixed bag of good and bad people. Zhu Youxiao's previous understanding of Macau was limited to textbooks in his previous life. He did not expect that there were so many people in Macau.

It's just that there are so many people and I don't know how to manage them, but Sun Yuanhua quickly answered this question.

Sun Yuanhua said that although the imperial court "leased" Macau to Portugal, it did not mean that it did not send people to manage it.

On the contrary, according to his personal inspection, he found that the Chief Secretary of Guangdong adopted the policy of "building the city, setting up officials and administering it by the county" towards Macao.That is to say, institutions and officials were set up to manage Macau, relevant laws and regulations were formulated, military precautions were strictly enforced, and government officials were dispatched for inspections.

The Chief Secretary of Guangdong has officials in Macao for promotion, Japanese war preparation, patrolling, etc. These officials are collectively called "Macao Guards". These people are stationed and work in Macao.

At the same time, Macao's case settlement, criminal law and other matters are also managed by the county magistrate of Xiangshan County, Guangdong. They are generally responsible for compiling and checking the Baojia household registration of Chinese and foreign residents in Macao, approving the construction and demolition of houses in Macao, collecting land taxes from villagers in Macao and Portuguese land rent, Hear civil and criminal cases between Chinese and foreign residents, issue various administrative orders, arrest fugitives from the mainland, inspect ships entering and leaving ports, etc.

These affairs can be described as complicated, but it can be seen that Macau is still under the control of the Ming Dynasty, which also makes Zhu Youxiao's dull mood a lot better.

But this good mood did not last long. Sun Yuanhua soon reported very bad news to Zhu Youxiao.

According to the agreement between the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty at that time, Portugal only had residence rights and no military rights. Therefore, it could not build military affairs without the permission of the Ming court.

Sun Yuanhua was naturally very clear about this, but after he entered the Macau port, he discovered that the Portuguese had built the Gasilan Fort and the Nanhuan Fort near the Nanwan Port of Macau.

In addition, they also built a small fort at the A-Ma Temple in Macau that can control the eastern waters of Macau and the North Bay. Last year, they completed a section of the city wall that starts from the foothills of the Fortress in the north and ends at the seaside near the Gasilan Fort in the east.

When Sun Yuanhua asked the local county government official whether Portugal had permission to do this, the local government official was vague and ignored him.

It wasn't until he asked the local missionaries that he learned that it was built privately by the Portuguese without informing the Ming Dynasty officials.The reason given was actually to guard against the red robber barbarians.

These red-haired barbarians are at war with Portugal and the French. At present, they have established a stronghold in Java, and their fleets also frequently invade the South China Sea.Therefore, in order to prevent the Red Mao barbarians from invading Macau, they built city walls and forts without permission.

Zhu Youxiao naturally knows where the red-haired barbarians are, aren't they the Dutch?He also knows that the Dutch will come to Macau next year, and there will be a battle with the Portuguese in Macau.

But no matter what the reason was, what they did seriously violated the regulations of the court. Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but start thinking that there seemed to be something to do in this area.

"Okay, don't read it. I'll read the rest myself. Now send the edict I just wrote to the cabinet and tell Liu Yishen and others that I heard that the Portuguese rent for Macau is only 500 taels. , this amount is really a bit small.

And it’s okay if the Portuguese are just doing business, but they are too bold now and actually build forts and city walls privately. Do they put the court in the eyes of the court?Let the cabinet discuss this matter and come up with a charter, and then report it to me. "

Upon seeing this, Zhang Chang did not dare to neglect, and immediately put down Sun Yuanhua's title book respectfully, then bowed and stepped back to deliver the letter.

(End of this chapter)