Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1276 Barbarians
Now that the method of "copying homework" had been decided, Zhu Cizhao felt much more relaxed and continued to discuss the matter with Huang An.

Regarding the specifics of establishing a government and military headquarters, Huang An couldn't offer many suggestions; he simply said to follow the example of the Song Dynasty when the time came. However, he did talk a lot about the future development of Yongguo. In the past two years, Yongguo had relied on its abundant forest resources to stockpile a lot of good materials for shipbuilding, and the workshops originally used to help maintain the Ming Dynasty's naval warships had been further expanded, and they had begun to try shipbuilding.

Although the ships currently being built are ordinary seagoing vessels, this project is starting from scratch. Given Yongguo's current technical talent and capabilities, it's simply impossible to immediately begin building large ships or even warships. Therefore, Huang An is extremely concerned about this matter. Even though they are ordinary seagoing vessels, they still have their uses. They can navigate near-ocean waters without problems, and the local fishing industry is quite abundant. They can find ways to address this. There are ways to address the population shortage; if not enough people are engaged in farming, they can supplement the diet through fishing. As the saying goes, "those who live near the mountains live off the mountains, and those who live near the water live off the water." The fishery harvest can not only supplement the food shortage but can also be sold to Songguo, providing another source of income.

As for other aspects, Huang An couldn't come up with a better solution for the time being. Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. While Huang An, as a technical official in the Ministry of Works, was capable, the circumstances of Yongguo were what they were. Unless they discovered a gold mine with abundant reserves like Songguo, completely solving the problem of funding was out of the question.

Speaking of mineral exploration, Huang An, who was originally a technical official of the Ministry of Works, had been doing this for a long time. Unfortunately, although he found some coal and iron mines near Xinyongzhou in the past two years, he had not found any gold or silver mines, which was a pity.

However, neither Zhu Cizhao nor Huang An knew that there were also gold mines around their territory, not just gold mines but also gold-copper mines, and their reserves were not small, even comparable to those of Xinjing.

However, the gold mines in Xinjing are slightly different from those in Xinjing. Due to the terrain, the gold mines in Xinjing are easy to find. In addition, the erosion of the rivers near the gold mines causes a large amount of gold sand on the surface of the gold mines to be washed into the riverbed, which is conducive to mining.

The gold mines in Xinyongzhou are all located in the mountains, making them extremely difficult to find. Without modern methods, it would be impossible for a few people to find them in a short period of time. Finding a mineral vein in such a vast area is almost like hitting the jackpot.

"Your Highness, the court's relaxation of the policy on enfeoffing princes outside the capital is a great thing for you. However, even so, Yong Kingdom is still no match for Song Kingdom in terms of its foundation. Song Kingdom not only has abundant wealth, but also has the advantages of terrain and climate. After the migration to the New World, I'm afraid there won't be many people left in Yong Kingdom."

Huang An raised a question that everyone knew. Zhu Cizhao nodded with a wry smile. Although the number of immigrants to Yongguo has increased slightly recently, it is because the Southern Song Kingdom has suddenly reduced the number of immigrants and begun to adjust its national policies.

Zhu Cizhao had initially thought that Prince Zhu Mincheng of Song intended to proceed cautiously and use this opportunity to reorganize internally. Now, in retrospect, it seems Zhu Mincheng had long planned to demand this condition from the court and had begun preparations beforehand. Now that the imperial decree has been issued and the Song state has officially established its government, the Song's policy of temporarily suspending immigration will likely be readjusted, and large-scale immigration will once again occur.

Compared to the wealthy State of Song, the State of Yong had no chance of competing with Song for immigrants; at best, it could only scrape by with the leftovers from Song. This problem remained unresolved and was a major obstacle to the development of the State of Yong.

"I am naturally aware of this matter, but given the circumstances, I have no choice but to accept it!" Zhu Cizhao shook his head and sighed. He even thought that it would have been better if this decree had come six months or even a year later, so that more immigrants could have been brought in. But now the population of Yong Kingdom is pitifully small. In addition to the first batch of people who came to Yong Kingdom with Zhu Cizhao in the past year, all the immigrants have just exceeded five thousand.

In other words, the current population of the entire Yong Kingdom is only a little over six thousand, which is at most the population of a small county. However, the territory of the entire Yong Kingdom is no less than that of the Song Kingdom. In addition, the division of the region is only a preliminary determination of a large area. In the absence of other vassal states, in theory, either the Yong Kingdom or the Song Kingdom could occupy twice as much land as they do now, as long as they could control it. But the fundamental reason for doing so is that they need a large population.

The problem was that Yong State lacked the resources to attract people. Firstly, its climate was inferior to Song State's, and secondly, Song State, being wealthier, offered more favorable treatment. Furthermore, the King of Song held a different status; anyone with common sense could understand that following the King of Song offered far greater prospects than following the King of Yong. Under these circumstances, everyone's first choice was naturally Song State, not Yong State.

"Your Highness, just because immigrants from the mainland aren't working doesn't mean others aren't!" Huang An reminded him at this moment.

"You mean...?" Zhu Cizhao's heart stirred slightly, and he immediately asked in return.

"Aren't there people over there?" Huang An pointed eastward.

"Indigenous?"

"They are indeed natives!" Huang An said. "There are several native tribes to the east of Yongguo, ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand people. It is said that further southeast there are tribes with tens of thousands of people. The latter are another matter for now, but we can think of ways to deal with the tribes with a few hundred or a thousand people." "My Yongguo is not as good as Songguo, so naturally it cannot attract many local immigrants, but it is different for these natives. If Your Highness can attract these natives to settle in Yongguo, educate them, let them learn my writing and language, and let them build houses and cultivate land in Yongguo, wouldn't they then be people of my Yongguo?"

“But these are barbarians…?” Zhu Cizhao hesitated.

“Barbarians are people too!” Huang An advised. “Those who enter China become Chinese. These barbarians lack nothing more than education. Besides, Your Highness has been in the New World for quite some time and has seen these barbarians. In Your Highness’s opinion, how are these barbarians different from our Ming people?”

Zhu Cizhao thought for a moment and said, "We don't speak the same language, our customs are different, and our attire is also different from that of our Great Ming..."

"But their appearances are similar, aren't they?" Huang An reminded Zhu Cizhao before he could finish speaking.

Zhu Cizhao pondered for a moment and nodded slightly. He admitted that Huang An was right. Although the indigenous people he had seen were dressed in a rough style and looked like they were eating raw meat and drinking blood, they could still make out some features if they looked closely.

Whether it's their hair, skin, or face, they are eight or nine parts similar to the people of the Ming Dynasty, or rather, they resemble the mountain people and other ethnic groups from the Ming Dynasty. If you remove all the messy things they usually wear and put them in Ming Dynasty clothing, it would be difficult to tell them apart without careful observation. Huang An is right about this.

"Before coming to the New World, I heard a rumor," Huang An said earnestly. "I don't know where this rumor came from. The rumor says that the natives of the New World were originally Chinese. Back when the Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty was destroyed, and when the Zhou emperor established his rule over China, a group of merchants fled north to avoid disaster. They crossed the sea from the far north when the sea froze over in the dead of winter and settled here. Over thousands of years, they eventually evolved into the natives of the New World today."

"In addition, there is another rumor that the Xia people crossed the sea to the north at the end of the Xia Dynasty and became the natives of this new continent. Although we cannot confirm the truth of these rumors, the appearance of these natives is indeed similar to that of the Chinese people. Moreover, I have had a lot of contact with these natives in the past few years, and their living habits and some behaviors are indeed similar to those recorded in ancient Chinese history. Therefore, although it is a rumor, it is somewhat possible upon closer examination."

"I've heard of this as well," Zhu Cizhao said. "But I haven't thought about it that deeply. Even if that's the case, so what? Even if they really are ancient immigrants of China, thousands of years have passed. They probably don't recognize China anymore, right?"

“They may not acknowledge it, but we can!” Huang An laughed. “Whether the rumors are true or false, their appearance and customs are real. Besides, what future do these people have as natives? If they can come under the prince's rule, carry out education and live in peace and prosperity, wouldn't that be a better thing than nothing?”

"Moreover, Your Highness can use this as evidence to write an article. Regardless of whether the other party believes it or not, we must believe it first. As long as we can bring people here to populate our Yong Kingdom, we can solve most of the population problem. After decades of education, once one or two generations have grown up, how will these people be different from the citizens of our Great Ming?"

Huang An's words truly moved Zhu Cizhao, and upon careful consideration, the plan did indeed make some sense. Yongguo's biggest weakness was its population, and this shortage severely limited its development. Relying solely on immigration from the Ming Dynasty would take an eternity. Moreover, compared to the Song Dynasty, Yongguo had no advantages whatsoever!

It would be better to start with the indigenous people, recruiting them to serve and increase the population. Moreover, these indigenous people are similar to the Ming people in appearance and some customs. Through education, they can be taught to speak and write Chinese, and live a farming life according to the Ming people's habits. Over time, after two or three generations, they will be directly assimilated. By then, they will have changed their clothes, speak fluent Chinese, and behave indistinguishably from the Ming people. Who could tell whether they were originally indigenous?
That's not all. Huang An also proposed an even more feasible plan: to find a way to bring in some people from Europe from the south to join Yongguo.

Thanks to its shipbuilding technology, including its workshops, Yongguo has begun constructing ordinary fishing boats. While Yongguo's land development lags behind Songguo's, it has gained a significant advantage in fishing.

With Zhu Cizhao's support, nearly a thousand people in Yongguo now make a living this way, and they own more than forty fishing boats that can go out to sea. The catch not only supplements their food shortage but can also be sold to the southern Song state in exchange for other goods. This is unavoidable; Yongguo is severely underpopulated, with too much land lying fallow. Furthermore, due to the climate, Yongguo only harvests one crop a year, resulting in a severe shortage of resources, especially food. This method is the only better solution available.

Therefore, Yongguo's fishing boats frequently sailed south, bringing back a considerable catch of fish and purchasing supplies, including grain, from the southern Song Kingdom to return to Yongguo. Sometimes, Yongguo's fishing boats would continue sailing south, partly to explore routes and find more suitable fishing grounds, and partly to make contact with European colonies further south, including Spanish colonies in Central and South America, and to conduct trade with them.

(End of this chapter)