I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Li Dan's words made Zheng Zhilong particularly moved.

Although the Ming Dynasty sent its imperial envoy Sun Yuanhua to the Western countries last year, and also specially brought three or four people from the Ming Dynasty trading company to go with him.The purpose is to open up routes to the Western Ocean and obtain greater profits.

But Ming Dynasty is really too far away from the West, even by sea.

In addition, Sun Yuanhua stopped and stopped along the way to understand the conditions along the way. After waiting for various Western countries, he also had to go to various countries as envoys to understand their customs and customs.Therefore, not only does it take a long time on the road, but the time spent in the West is probably even longer.

When he came back from his mission, he didn't know it was the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.

Zheng Zhilong was still a little anxious in his heart, but he had no ideas, but without a suitable crew and ship, he had no choice but to worry.

Therefore, Li Dan's suggestion really suited Zheng Zhilong's wishes.

Li Dan has many skilled sailors, most of whom have rich sailing experience, and his ships are Western-style ships that can travel across the ocean.With his support, the Ming Dynasty Trading Company could not wait for Sun Yuanhua to return from Europe and send crews to the West and the New World again to trade and open up shipping routes.

Therefore, he made a decisive decision and immediately wrote to Zhu Youxiao about the matter, hoping that Zhu Youxiao would approve him to send a ship to explore.

Zhu Youxiao was very interested after receiving it. This kind of thing takes a long time to achieve. If you do it early, you can take advantage of it.

After all, there are still many places in the world that have not been discovered, and it would be good to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty in advance, so he agreed without thinking, and specially used 20 taels of internal funds to support this matter.

But Zhu Youxiao knew very well that compared with the Dutch and Spanish, the Ming Dynasty's exploration experience was far less rich than theirs.

But now when I am really sleepy, someone will give me a pillow. With so many Dutch warships captured by the Fujian and Zhejiang Navy of the Ming Dynasty, plus many prisoners, isn't this a rich crew that provides Ming Dynasty with adventure experience in disguise?

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao immediately gave Zhang Chang instructions.

"Zhang Chang, send someone to find Zheng Zhilong from Daming Trading Company outside the palace and ask him to come to the palace the day after tomorrow. I have something to give him."

Zheng Zhilong's request was actually accompanied by good news, that is, Li Dan had now officially accepted the recruitment and arrived in Ming Dynasty first to show his submission to the imperial court.

It's just that he has a lot of wealth and fleet in Japan.So even if he returns to the Ming Dynasty first, it will probably take the end of the year for his family property and fleet to be completely returned to the Ming Dynasty.

For this reason, Bi Ziyan, the governor of South Zhili, is very happy. This means that in only half a year, the South Zhili Navy will have dozens of more warships and its strength will be greatly increased.

Moreover, Li Dan's return to the Ming Dynasty will also cause many Ming Dynasty merchants who originally settled overseas to follow suit and return.

This can not only increase the Ming Dynasty's tariffs, but also show that the Ming Dynasty does not care about past grudges and is open to all rivers, which is very helpful for both tax revenue and the reputation of the court.He specially wrote a letter to commend Li Dan for this purpose, hoping that the imperial court would appoint Li Dan as a counselor of the Southern Zhili Navy.

Zhu Youxiao had no objections to this, and he also fulfilled his previous promises about the shares of Daming Trading Company.If it weren't for his identity, he would have wanted to meet this famous "giant businessman" in Southeast Asia in person to learn more about sea trade.

In addition, there are two other happy events about Southeast, one of which was mentioned by Yuan Keli in the victory report.

Now that after the victory in Penghu, the route from Fujian to Taiwan is open again, so the previously stalled immigration to Taiwan has started again, and it has arranged for the third batch of immigrants to go to Taiwan.

The other is the title book presented by the Chief Secretary of Guangdong and the Guangdong Jinyiwei. Since the last Dutch expeditionary fleet failed to attack Macau, they were afraid that Zhu Youxiao would blame them for not having the responsibility to defend the territory, and they were even more annoyed with Portugal's occupation of Macau and causing trouble.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao also issued edicts several times, mentioning the problem of low rents in Macau, so they immediately sent officials to Macau.Countless times, the Portuguese caused trouble in Macau, built forts and walls, and provoked Western countries to send troops to attack several times, disturbing the Ming Dynasty officials and people.

Therefore, I proposed to the Portuguese that the rent in Macau should be raised to 10 taels per year. If the Portuguese can afford it, they can rent it, and if they can't, they can get out.

This news from the Ming Dynasty immediately surprised the Portuguese Council in Macau and Carvalho, the commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet.In their opinion, Daming is definitely asking for too much money.

You must know that the previous rent was 500 taels, but now the Ming court instantly mentioned 10 taels, a full two hundred times. In the eyes of the Portuguese, the Ming Dynasty was completely "stealing money."

However, the Chief Secretary of Guangdong did not care about so much and had an extremely tough attitude towards the Portuguese.

This is mainly because now that the Ming Dynasty has opened the sea, the importance of Macao as a sea trade transfer station has been greatly reduced. You can go to sea anywhere, and Macao is not needed much.

The second is that Guangdong is not satisfied with Macau and has been causing troubles, leading to endless incidents of theft, missionary work, and naval battles, which the Chief Secretary of Guangdong cannot control at all.The most critical thing is that the officials of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong are now more concerned about whether they can keep their black hats.After all, they were unable to defend the territory, which led to the Dutch invasion. In anger, the emperor dismissed them from their posts and investigated them, which was frivolous.

With the pressure of dismissal, the officials of the Chief Secretary of Guangdong were so concerned. Even if the Macau side hinted that the contribution would be increased every year, the Chief Secretary of Guangdong would relent and insist on 10 taels. If he did not pay, he would get out.

When Macau saw how tough Ming was, they couldn't help but feel angry. For the moment, they didn't want to be friends and wanted to confront Ming.But Yuan Keli helped Guangdong a lot.

After Yuan Keli sent the Fujian and Zhejiang naval divisions to destroy the rebel Dutch fleet in Penghu, the news quickly spread to Macau.This made the attitude of the Portuguese Parliament, which originally wanted to fight the Ming Dynasty to the end, immediately soften.

They were also afraid that once the Ming Navy arrived, they would block the sea first and then send an army to attack. Macau would no longer be able to defend it.And now Macao's status in the United Kingdom of Portugal and Spain is constantly improving.

Especially now that the Ming Dynasty has abolished the maritime ban, it is equivalent to the entire Ming Dynasty market being opened to Portugal and Spain. They will never give up such a large market.

Therefore, they did not dare to object any more and immediately agreed to Ming's request for rent of 10 taels of silver.

But no matter how many twists and turns there were, Zhu Youxiao didn't care. What he valued most was the rent of 10 taels of silver, thinking that this was another income.

At the same time, he also secretly thought in his letter that since the Portuguese could accept even 10 taels of silver, it was enough to show that the profits brought to them by Macau must far exceed this amount.In the next few years, it will be temporarily set at 10 taels. In the future, this number can be gradually increased to see how long the Portuguese can sustain it.

The continuous good news made Zhu Youxiao feel very good.At this moment, Zhang Chang suddenly reported:

"Your Majesty, Luo Sigong, commander of the Royal Guards, would like to see you."

"Let him in."

After a while, Zhang Chang led Luo Sigong in. After a brief kneeling, Luo Sigong immediately took out a question book and stated his purpose.

"Your Majesty, just now Yang Yishan, the commander of the Jinyi Guards in Liaodong, came to report that the spies in Hetuala came to report. He said that he had asked the spy beside Yue Tuo to escape to North Korea."

"What's Yue Tuo's reaction? Is it like he's grasping at a life-saving straw?"

When Zhu Youxiao heard this, he immediately laughed and started joking with Luo Sigong while taking the question book.

Zhu Youxiao never expected that sending the Jin Yiwei to Liaodong would give him such a big surprise.The spies placed around Yue Tuo have been conveying intelligence to the Ming Dynasty, and also instigated the Han army under construction to bring order to the Han army.It also allowed him to secretly influence Yue Tuo and let him do things according to his own plan when Yue Tuo's power was only left.

"What His Majesty said is that Yue Tuan has no choice now. Staying in Hetuala is a dead end. I think Yue Tuan is also very entangled. It is either a choice for him to leave or a choice not to leave. Now we suggest that he go to North Korea, even if he does not If he is willing, the soldiers and horses under him will also let him agree."

Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly when he heard this. This was a naked conspiracy and Yue Tuo's only choice at the moment.

Unless he has the will to die to stick to Hetuala, he will definitely flee to North Korea.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao asked Zhang Chang on the side to pick up the situation map of Liaodong and read it carefully.

According to the inscriptions written by Xiong Tingbi and others, Chen Liangbi will march towards Hetuala after about half a month's rest, and the Jin Yiwei will also bring the oral instructions prepared in advance and order the North Korean general Cao Wenzhao to secretly relax his vigilance and give instructions to Yue Tuo and others. People let go.

As long as Yue Tuo brings his more than 2000 elite troops to the Yalu River, he will immediately block the Yalu River again, strictly patrol, and capture the remaining captives in the jar.

The purpose of such a huge effort is actually very simple, which is to better control North Korea.

Since the civil strife in Korea last August, the Ming Dynasty has successfully supported the four-year-old Li Hao, the son of Lord Lingyang Li Hao, as the new king of Korea. At the suggestion of the DPRK, the Ming Dynasty also stationed troops in Korea to prevent the pirates from coming to plunder Korea. , in which North Korea is responsible for all military expenditures, and other North Korean soldiers and horses must also cooperate with the Ming Dynasty operations.

But now that Jianlu is about to perish, if Ming Dynasty wants to further station troops in North Korea, it must have more sufficient reasons.And in order to better control North Korea and make it the "breadbasket" and economic colony of the Ming Dynasty, it is necessary to give North Korea a sense of crisis so that it cannot leave the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao thought carefully and decided to save Yue Tuo's life.

Deliberately letting him enter North Korea, he combined with Gwanghaejun's old troops to disturb the situation in North Korea and caused panic in the North Korean court.In this way, North Korea will need Ming even more, and no one will object to Ming's stationing troops in North Korea, and it will gradually become a rule. (End of chapter)