The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 690 Supporting the Puppet

Emperor Wanli was willing to spend 20 million gold and silver coins to buy land.

King Avana was overjoyed.

He never even dared to dream of having so much money before.

To be honest, he was a little embarrassed to accept it.

This time, he was genuinely a little embarrassed.

After all, the reason His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to buy so much land was to mobilize a large army to protect them.

It's really unreasonable that he accepted so much money from them.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then solemnly said, "I will pay for this; I cannot use your land for nothing."

However, I did not bring this many gold and silver coins with me this time, and it is impossible for us to gather our troops so quickly.

"Alright then, I'll give you one million gold and silver coins as a deposit first. Once our troops arrive, we'll pay you the remaining balance."

The troops haven't arrived yet?

Upon hearing this, King Avana looked up at the densely packed giant ships at the port docks and asked anxiously, "Your Majesty, when will our troops arrive?"

Yes, Not Bad.

It seems this guy is a fairly responsible king, at least not the kind who would risk his life for money.

Some people only care about money; they don't care about anything else as long as they can make money.

This guy, however, puts safety first.

It's already quite impressive that the king of the vassal state could do this.

Wanli nodded slightly, then reassured him, "Don't worry, our troops will arrive in two or three months at most."

Moreover, I will lead my naval fleet to guard this area during this time; the colonial bandits will not be able to defeat us.

You even personally led your naval fleet to help us guard it!
King Avana was deeply moved upon hearing this, and repeatedly bowed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Sometimes, different ways of saying the same thing can lead to different feelings in others.

If he were to rely on the strength of the Ming Dynasty and come to a vassal state to act arrogantly, demanding that they give up 20 million mu of land, and then throw 20 million gold and silver coins at them like a beggar.

Even if they accept the money, they probably won't feel comfortable doing it that way.

He said he was there to help the vassal state defend against colonial invaders, that he was personally leading his navy to guard the land, and that he was even paying to buy land from them. They must have been extremely grateful.

Emperor Wanli nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Someone, bring the deposit over."

At his command, five hundred Imperial Guardsmen filed in, each carrying two bags of gold and silver coins, and neatly stacked the deposit next to King Avana.

This guy has thousands of bags of gold and silver coins piled up together, they're taller than a person!

King Avana piled up more and more gold and silver coins, his excitement as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

With so much money, can I buy the thing I've always dreamed of?
Thinking of this, he suppressed his excitement and carefully said, "Your Majesty, I have always dreamed of buying some nice things. Now that I have money, I wonder if I can buy some?"

I'm giving you money so you can use it to buy things.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "No problem. After our army migrates here, we will build a port city here. Shops will also be built in the city. You can just go and buy whatever you want."

Uh, I'm not talking about those things.

King Avana pointed to the densely packed ships at the port and said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I would like to buy some ships, is that alright?"

You want to buy a boat?

I can't sell you the ship.

Emperor Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "What kind of ship do you want to buy, and what will you use it for?"

King Avana quickly explained, "I just want to buy some boats to fish, the kind that many people row."

We simply can't build ships that big, and our small boats can't withstand the wind and waves at sea, so we don't dare go too far from the shore when we fish, otherwise we won't catch many fish at all.

Oh, so you want to buy the centipede boat.

That's no problem.

The centipede-shaped naval ships are becoming obsolete.

Wanli nodded without hesitation and said, "No problem, how many ships do you want to buy?"

Is it really possible to buy one of those big ships?

King Avana rubbed his hands excitedly and asked, "Your Majesty, how much does one of those large ships cost?"

I really don't know the price, but I do have a general idea of ​​the cost.

We harvested most of the timber for these 800-piece centipede boats ourselves, so we don't need to calculate the material costs, just the labor costs.

The Longjiangzhou Shipyard and Xinzhou Shipyard can build 600 ships in three months, roughly 200 ships per month. Each ship can only require a maximum of 100 workers from start to finish. Each worker is paid an average of 3 taels of silver per month, so at most, it would only cost 300 taels of silver.

However, I cannot allow you to have too many ships. If you use too many ships to bully other vassal states, then I will only be asking for trouble.

After careful consideration, Wanli solemnly said, "Building such a large ship is quite troublesome, so we can't just look at how much timber was used. The labor cost we expended far exceeded the material cost."

I'll price it for you based on gold and silver coins. For the largest denomination silver coin, the fifty-cash kind, it'll be twenty thousand coins for one ship.

If we're talking about gold coins, the largest denomination, the five-hundred-cash coin kind, would cost two thousand for a ship.

That's cheap? I already have two million gold and silver coins!
Upon hearing this, King Avana immediately pointed to the pile of gold and silver coins beside him and said, "Your Majesty, how many ships can you buy with these gold and silver coins? I'll buy them all."

You're joking.

Can I sell you so many centipede ships?
Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly, then explained in detail: "I cannot sell you too many, because building such large ships is really troublesome, and we haven't built too many ourselves."

Moreover, you won't need too many. One such large ship can catch tens of thousands of catties of fish a day. If you only fish to eat, you wouldn't be able to finish eating the fish caught by ten such large ships.

If you want to smoke and sell the fish you catch, then you'll have to rely on manpower. Each of these large boats needs at least fifty able-bodied men to go out to sea to fish, so a hundred boats would require five thousand able-bodied men.

"You can probably only muster ten thousand able-bodied men to fish, so buying two hundred fishing boats will be enough."

My goodness, a ship like this can catch tens of thousands of kilograms of fish a day!

Now, all our small fishing boats combined can't even catch tens of thousands of kilograms of fish a day.

How many kilograms of fish could two hundred such large ships catch?

That's at least several million kilograms a day!

Upon hearing this, King Avana nodded repeatedly and said, "Very well, Your Majesty, I will buy two hundred ships. How much do you want? I will pay immediately."

How much money can two hundred ships generate?

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "You don't need to pay this money now. I will have it deducted when we settle the final payment next time. I can give you ten boats first, so you can eat your fill of fish."

You don't need to pay this money now?
You'll give me ten ships first!
King Avana nodded repeatedly and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

That's about it for now. I still have other places to go.

Wanli nodded slightly, then raised his hand and said, "Yunqing, give him ten centipede ships."

Upon hearing this, Deng Zilong immediately ordered the naval officers and soldiers on the ten centipede-shaped ships docked at the nearby pier to go to other ships.

That's it for Avana.

Immediately afterwards, Wanli went to the vassal state of Umana and secured 20 million mu of land. Then he led his fleet to carefully inspect the area.

This sea area is exceptionally large, and the number of islands is also exceptionally high.

If we consider the sea area, this sea area is more than thirty times the size of the Ming Dynasty's inland sea. If we consider the number of islands, there are at least six or seven thousand.

It is extremely difficult to completely protect such a large area of ​​sea.

While Wanli was carefully examining the map, he ordered Li Zhizao to draw a detailed map, pondered how to build a defensive line, and waited for the able-bodied men and women of Pianguan Town to migrate over.

Unexpectedly, before he could even see the able-bodied men and women of Pianguan Town, he was met by Deshera.

That afternoon, around 3 PM, he was leading his fleet to inspect the islands southeast of this sea area when a centipede-shaped ship suddenly rowed over from the further south.

To the south lies the land, and they haven't established a South American Eastern Command here, nor have they assigned anyone to garrison it, because the southern part of this island is almost entirely tropical rainforest, which is not only hot but also very troublesome to cultivate.

Therefore, Qi Jiguang divided the area into several vassal states based on the distribution of tribes and the size of the region in the jungle.

He only gave ten centipede ships to Avana and Umana each, so how come there are centipede ships in other vassal states?

Upon hearing the news from the Flying Dragon Ships on the outer perimeter, Emperor Wanli couldn't help but raise his binoculars and scan southwards.

It was indeed a standard centipede-shaped ship of the Ming Dynasty navy, but the people rowing it were not their naval officers and soldiers.

Even from a distance, he could see that those people's hair was yellowish.

In other words, the boatmen were European colonial bandits!
Why didn't the Flying Dragon ships on the outer perimeter stop this ship?
As he was wondering, the ship had already sailed within ten miles of the flagship, and he could see the people on board clearly.

It turned out that De Shera was wearing the crimson robes of a Ming Dynasty count, standing at the bow of the ship waving vigorously at them.

This guy actually came here!
Wanli paused for a moment, then put down his binoculars and carefully instructed, "General Shan, have your men block off all the passageways leading from the cabin door to this place with screens."

Also, the passageway is lined with Imperial Guards on both sides; don't let De Shera wander around aimlessly.

Upon hearing this, Shan Sinan quickly bowed and left.

Before long, the centipede ship pulled up to the flagship.

A moment later, Desila rushed up excitedly, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Your Majesty the Emperor."

He truly hadn't expected that His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty would personally come here.

Wanli nodded slightly, then gestured for the man to sit down before asking, "So, De Shera, have they agreed to appoint you as Governor-General of Brazil?"

How could they disagree?
If they disagreed, the Ming Empire wouldn't have sent troops to help.

If the Ming Empire had not sent troops to help, the entire Viceroyalty of Brazil might have been seized by the Dutch and Anglo-French allied forces.

In other words, if they don't agree to my appointment as Governor-General of Brazil, then the Governor-General's territory is most likely gone.

De Shera nodded repeatedly and said, "They agreed, and I am now the Governor-General of Brazil."

well.

Once this guy becomes the Governor-General of Brazil, everything will be much easier.

The reason he threatened to withhold troops and force this guy to become the governor of Brazil was that he wanted to install this puppet in power.

This guy's greatest strength is that he's obedient, he listens to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty!

He needs an obedient puppet to cooperate with him.

(End of this chapter)