Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After coming out of the palace, Li Guozhu gradually regained his consciousness. He patted his head and asked Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Cai:

“Is the donation price we offer too high?”

"If we can only cultivate one mu of land, the price of each mu of arable land will be ten shi."

"Ten dan of rice can be sold for at least five taels of silver in the capital."

"This price is too high to buy uncultivated farmland overseas!"

The best farmland in the south of the Yangtze River costs only a little over ten taels per mu, and can almost be bought for only three or five taels.

Li Guozhu thought that the price of five taels of silver to buy uncultivated land overseas was too high.

Zheng Zhihu had just decided to donate a baronship to raise his own title. When he heard what Li Guozhu said, he touched his head and wondered:
"Is it high?"

"Isn't it one kilo of grain for every acre of land?"

"If you cultivate more farmland on your fiefdom, the price will be lower!"

I think the price is reasonable, neither high nor low.

If the emperor set the price of donating a baronship too low, he would feel that his brother's previous baronship was not worth much.

In fact, Wang Tiqian felt the same way after hearing the price Li Guozhu initially offered. He had offered millions of his family property to get the emperor's promise of viscountship.

If Li Guozhu could donate the baron with only a few hundred thousand taels of silver, he would think that his viscount cost too much. So as soon as Li Guozhu's price came out, he shouted "bold".

Those who had been granted titles all wanted to maintain the value of their titles. The emperor set the donation price ten times that proposed by Li Guozhu, which made them feel very comfortable.

For example, Wang Tiqian now feels that his viscount title has increased in value. After all, the donation price for a baron is more than 1.8 million taels. Moreover, the emperor has not yet relaxed the donation for viscounts, which makes Wang Tiqian feel that he has earned the viscount title promised by the emperor based on his merits. Now he is already preparing to choose a good fiefdom for his brothers and nephews to go to.

Li Guozhu didn't get recognition from Zheng Zhihu, so he looked at Zheng Cai again, because in his opinion, Zheng Cai, who was good at business, would definitely understand him.

Unexpectedly, although Zheng Cai understood his calculation, she did not agree with him. In the eyes of Zheng Cai, who had already joined the Jinyiwei and realized the power of the imperial court, the emperor's permission to donate a baron was already a favor.

At any other time, don't even think about it.

So he said to Li Guozhu:
"Sir Li, this donated land was not bought by you, but comes with the title."

"Without this title, what right do you have to occupy overseas lands?"

"Aren't you afraid that after you cultivate your land, others will take it away?"

"At that time, it was all about strength, and there were countless battles to fight!"

"If you ask me, it's more important to donate a few more titles while the court is short of food."

"Maybe in a few years the drought won't be so severe and the court won't need so much grain!"

As he spoke, he sighed deliberately:

"Why didn't I tell His Majesty about donating my knighthood?"

"The knight's fiefdom is only ten li square, equivalent to 37,500 mu of land. In the first year, you only need to pay 3,750 shi."

"The money I've earned in the past few years should be enough to pay the down payment."

"And my younger brother at home, I can donate one to him too!"

Zheng Zhihu slapped his thigh and said:

"Yes!"

“I should also donate one to Zhifeng, Zhibao, and Zhipeng.”

"When the time comes, the candidate fiefs will be next to each other, and we can allow them to cultivate them together."

"This way I can come to the north to fight without having to worry about my fiefdom!"

Having found this best of both worlds solution, Zheng Zhihu pulled Zheng Cai aside and discussed with him how to suggest to the emperor to relax the donation system for knights.

After all, there are many brothers in their family, and it is unrealistic for all of them to donate the title of baron. Therefore, the lower hereditary title of knighthood becomes a good choice for donation.

Moreover, if he could choose a good fiefdom and reclaim the knight's more than 30,000 acres of fiefdom into arable land, it would be possible to save up enough money for the down payment of the baronship in the future and then donate for the baronship title.

Li Guozhu was almost stunned when he heard Zheng Zhihu's idea. He never thought that Zheng Zhihu, who was known for his bravery and honesty, could come up with such an idea.

And if you analyze it carefully, it is indeed possible.

If many people donated money in this way, the good places would be occupied by them. The emperor might no longer be short of food and stop donating for titles.

This made him nervous. He no longer felt that donating the baron title was too expensive. Instead, he was thinking about whether he could use this method to donate the title to his brothers and relatives. His family could unite to occupy a good place first, and then use it as his fiefdom after he obtained the earldom in the future.

It can be said that under the leadership of Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Cai, Li Guozhu's thinking was gradually diverted. He went from thinking that the price of donations was too high to rushing to donate in order to grab a good fiefdom first.

Where is the best land in Southeast Asia? Li Guozhu can easily say that it is in Champa and Java Island, which he believes are the most suitable places for farming.

Champa was now being targeted by Annan and had become a vassal state of Annan. Annan was a powerful country, and Li Guozhu, as the leader of a pirate gang, had no ability to compete with it for territory.

But the situation on Java Island was different. As far as Li Guozhu knew, the Dutch seized the Coconut City with only one or two thousand people nine years ago and renamed it Batavia.

The Dutch then recruited Chinese and built a complete city. Before going north this time, Li Guozhu heard from some sea merchants that the Kingdom of Matram on Java Island was planning to send troops to expel the Dutch.

(When Western colonial outposts were established in South and Southeast Asia)

He saw an opportunity to occupy a piece of land on Java Island. With the fertility of Java Island, a large amount of arable land could be cultivated, making it convenient to attract immigrants.

At that time, he would rely on these immigrants to expand into the area of ​​Jiugang, and present the original Jiugang Xuanwei Office to the emperor in exchange for the title of earl.

Li Guozhu was targeting Java Island, while Zheng Zhihu was targeting Borneo. The area of ​​Borneo was enough to enfeoff two vassal kings, and there was still a lot left.

In this way, he and his brother could both obtain the title of earl, and their titles would be elevated if they made military achievements in the future, and their fiefdoms would also be expanded.

The most powerful country in Borneo was Brunei. This country was very strong a hundred years ago, but fifty years ago, it was invaded by the Portuguese. Although Brunei forced the Portuguese away with its tenacious resistance and familiar climate, its national power declined.

Now that many forces in Borneo have broken away from Brunei, Zheng Zhihu feels that with the strength of the Zheng family, they can completely conquer them. The two have different goals for development, so there is room for cooperation. After discussion, they hit it off and divided the two best and largest territories in the Nanyang area.

The two forces that had been in conflict in the past began to unite again. If others wanted to oppose, they would face the combined power of the Zheng family and the Li family.

After reaching a consensus, Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Cai and Li Guozhu requested to relax the donation system for knighthood during another audience with the emperor.

Zhu Youjian had no objection to the donation of a knighthood in principle, but he felt that collecting more than 30,000 shi of grain over ten years was a bit troublesome, and the price was a bit low.

After all, he set the price of donating to become a public official at one thousand taels, and the price of a hereditary knight with a fiefdom could not be set so low.

Otherwise, if people all donated money to become knights, how could he sell his officials?
So after thinking about it, Zhu Youjian decided:
"The donation price for a hereditary knight is set at 150,000 shi."

"The fiefdom can be set at 20 li square, which is exactly 150,000 mu."

"If the bid is higher, the fiefdom can be increased, and priority will be given to selecting fiefdoms under the same conditions."

This price was a little beyond the three people's expectations. But it was not unacceptable. After all, the down payment was one-tenth, and only 15,000 shi was needed, which their fleet could transport in one go.

Moreover, the emperor did not change the price of one shi per mu, but only raised the starting price of donating hereditary knighthood. This made Zheng Zhihu and Li Guozhu feel more comfortable, knowing that the hereditary knighthood conferred by the emperor on them was worth at least 150,000 shi of grain.

Although it cannot be said to be very high, it is still more valuable than the previous 37,500 stones!

So they all accepted the donation price and submitted applications for knighthood for their brothers and relatives.

Zhu Youjian was naturally delighted with the act of sending food, and he used his power to decide overseas affairs to grant him a title on the spot.

Anyway, all he paid was the title and those overseas lands that did not belong to him.

As for the donated grain, just like the silver donated to the officials, Zhu Youjian directly put it into the inner treasury as his own confidence. Even if it was taken away by the outer court to be distributed to soldiers and disaster victims in the future, they would know who was paying them and who was saving them.

Looking at these money-giving boys happily, Zhu Youjian did not forget to discipline them and reminded them:
"I previously asked the Governor of the Grand Canal, Guo Shangyou, to be transferred to the post of Governor of Nanyang. He will be in charge of coordinating the development of Nanyang. If you really can't make a decision, please come to the capital and submit it to me."

"As for those forces in the South Seas, I am not worried about their strength. Even if you cannot defeat them, you can always leave by boat."

"But the Portuguese and Dutch have the most powerful fleets. Before you gain control of the sea, it's best not to provoke them at will."

The lack of control over the sea was the reason why Zhu Youjian chose to establish a fiefdom in the north rather than enfeoff it in Southeast Asia.

After all, most of the land in the South China Sea is islands and peninsulas. Once blocked by other parties’ fleets, communication will be cut off.

So he chose to let Zheng Zhilong and other pirates go to Southeast Asia to explore first.

When Li Guozhu heard the emperor's warning, his heart suddenly skipped a beat, because he was targeting Batavia, which was occupied by the Dutch.

Now the emperor didn't allow them to provoke the Dutch, so he was in trouble. So he asked tentatively:

"What about the Dutch on Dongning Island? Should we touch them?"

"These people built a fortress on the island of Tungning, which they called Fort Zeelandia."

"A part of it has been built now, and it will be completed in a few years."

“Should we send someone to tear it down and drive the Dutch away?”

Zhu Youjian was very surprised to hear that Fort Zeelandia had not been built yet. After all, his impression of this city was that Zheng Chenggong had spent a lot of effort to capture it. He thought it would be a tough battle, but he didn't expect the Dutch to not even build the city.

So he immediately asked:
"What are our chances of taking Fort Zeelandia now? Can we occupy the entire island?"

Before Li Guozhu could answer, Zheng Zhihu spoke first:
"We don't need many, just a thousand will do."

"The Japanese Hamada Yabei had a conflict with the Dutch. This spring he led 470 ronin and 16 natives to cause trouble. The Dutch knew about it in advance and seized their weapons and gunpowder."

"Hamada Yahei was so angry that he took dozens of people to kidnap the Dutch leader and his son, and took his son back to Japan. He closed the Dutch trading house in Hirado and cut off trade with them."

"The Dutch are worried about this matter now. I think the Dutch chief needs to be replaced!"

Zhu Youjian laughed loudly when he heard this. He never expected that the Western colonists at that time were not as domineering as they were later. Dozens of Japanese could kidnap their superiors and sons.

This made him realize that the Dutch were not very powerful on the island and that it would not take much effort to expel them.

At the same time, they also realized the Japanese ambition to occupy Dongning Island as soon as possible.

So he decreed:
"If you have the ability to expel them, then expel them. Warn the Dutch to behave themselves when doing business and not to covet the land of the Ming Dynasty."

"If something like what happened in Penghu and Dongning Island happens again, the Ming Dynasty will cut off trade with them."

"Only if there is peaceful coexistence will the Ming Dynasty be willing to trade with them and grant them trade quotas."

"Otherwise, let them go back to where they came from!"

Zheng Zhihu and Li Guozhu felt relieved after hearing this, and they immediately agreed to expel the Dutch after returning.

They had previously disliked the Dutch building a city on Dongning Island, but there was a lot of land on the island and they had dealings with the Dutch, so they chose to keep out of each other's way and occupy a piece of land.

Now they were tempted by the titles and territories bestowed by the emperor and wanted to open up territories in Southeast Asia. Dongning Island was the rear base designated by the emperor. They certainly did not want to keep the Dutch stronghold and let them know the truth.

Therefore, these Dutch people and the Portuguese who planned to build a city in the north of Dongning Island had to be driven out of the island.

Zheng Zhihu did not find any difficulty and took the initiative to ask the emperor for this task, wanting to make a contribution first.

Zhu Youjian nodded in agreement, and thinking of the bastion that the Dutch were building, he instructed the eunuchs around him:
"Let Lu Xiang select a few people from the Wensiyuan Construction Research Institute to go to Dongning Island to inspect the Dutch castle."

"It would be best to invite their builders over to learn about the construction and design of the bastion."

"This matter is extremely important. Instruct Lu Xiang to send a capable engineer to lead the team."

"Zheng Qing must cooperate with them and write down all the construction plans, defense arrangements, soldier organization, soldier equipment, etc. of Fort Zeelandia."

An unfinished bastion was of great value to Zhu Youjian. It was the most defensive fortress of this era.

It can even be said that due to the emergence of bastions, it is now an era where defense is stronger than offense. The attack and defense of cities and fortresses mainly revolve around, and field battles rarely occur.

Zhu Youjian had previously formulated a tactic for the Liaodong army, which was to "build a strong camp and fight a stupid battle." Of course, he had to learn from the strong defensive fortress of the bastion. (End of this chapter)