Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 258 Zheng's Pirates Are a Big Problem

At this time, Mao Yuansheng, the head of the Royal Weaving Bureau, took the initiative to stand up:
"Your Majesty, the turmoil in Jiangnan this time was caused by the Royal Weaving Bureau. Jiangnan was famous for its cloth, and Songjiang white cloth is even more famous for its clothes. However, the intervention of the Royal Weaving Bureau has caused a large number of Jiangnan weaving workshops to stop production. This made the people feel dissatisfied, and even local people burned the cotton cloth produced by the Royal Weaving Bureau several times, and because of this, the Royal Weaving Bureau was widely excluded in the south of the Yangtze River.

Weichen felt that since the Royal Weaving Bureau wanted to become the number one cloth merchant in the world, it had to take on the responsibilities of other weaving workshops and retrain these weavers so that they could learn how to use Guian looms and understand what machines and steam power are. . "

Mao Yuansheng said, "Wei Chen asked someone to make an estimate. If we consider that the Royal Weaving Bureau will establish branches in the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty and the thirteen chief ministers in the future, with the largest amount of cloth needed in the world today, the Royal Weaving Bureau 10 weavers can be recruited, and these 10 people should be able to go to work directly after simple training.”,

"The Royal Weaving Bureau only focuses on the market in the two capitals and the thirteen chief envoys. Even if it is the Manchu Qing and Wu Xiang Departments in the northern part of the country, important strategic materials that do not involve the military can be traded. The military is the military, and the business is the Buying and selling, some money is not earned for nothing, making them dependent on our economy, and even a bigger blow to him in the future!
In addition, there are foreigners such as Xiyang and Dongyang. The hateful thing is that the best outlets in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian are controlled by the Zheng family, which greatly restricts our business. However, we can find ways to communicate with Liaodong, Guangdong and Guangxi. Get in touch with Xiyi. Based on the demand of Europa and other places, your Royal Weaving Bureau can be doubled. "

Zhu Youxiao is now eager to quickly solve the problem of labor surplus caused by the rapid increase in productivity in the south of the Yangtze River due to the emergence of steam power, so he didn't think too much, so he just said it out of his mouth, but who knew that Mao Yuansheng immediately said anxiously :
"Your Majesty does not know that the business with Xiyi can only be done through the Zheng family. The Zheng family is now a country of its own in the sea. Neither Nanyang nor Dongyang is its opponent. Moreover, the Zheng family has already made an agreement. The transactions between these Xiyi and Daming can only be done through the Zheng family, otherwise these Xiyi will be wiped out by the Zheng family, so even if we are willing, the Xiyi are not willing to do business with us directly."

Zhu Youxiao did not expect that the Zheng Group had such a powerful force in the sea, and directly monopolized and controlled the ocean trade of Ming Dynasty, so that he naively thought that as long as he brought out the advanced productive forces, he would be able to produce a large amount. The products are exported, and then earn a lot of wealth and strengthen the national power of Ming Dynasty.

But now it seems that it is not that Ming does not want to conduct overseas trade and foreign exchanges, but that these armed groups of sea landlords who hide their selfishness do not want Ming to have a free and open ocean trade.

It's no wonder that the Zheng family can run a one-time transaction of tens of millions of taels. Just imagine controlling the ocean trade of a country or the world's largest country, can it not be rich and powerful?

"I'm afraid that there are quite a few people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian who belong to his Zheng family. They co-authored to take advantage of the powerlessness of our court to make a fortune, and his Zheng family worked as dentists for these big families, and these big families Be his backer," Zhu Youxiao asked coldly.

Mao Yuansheng handed in a copy: "This is the Zheng family from the Royal Weaving Bureau within four months of this year. The first three months were 300 million horses, but this month it was directly reduced to 100 million horses. The reason is that Isibania (Spain) was at odds with Poldovar (Portugal), Xiyi did not need so much goods, which made the backlog of the Royal Weaving Bureau increase by 500 million horses after the 200 million horses backlog caused by the turmoil in the south of the Yangtze River, and the loss reached 80 Silver dollars, but in fact, I want my minister to tell His Majesty to treat the gentlemen in the south of the Yangtze River with caution, so I submitted their secret letter to Your Majesty."

Zhu Youxiao nodded. He did receive the secret letter from Mao Yuansheng, but he didn't want to be threatened by a pirate group, so he ignored the secret letter from the Zheng family, but now he has to admit that Zheng The family is really a stumbling block that hinders oneself from making a fortune, so you can't get rid of it!
But now Zhu Youxiao has to admit that he has nothing to do with the Zheng Group. The imperial court does not have a strong navy, and even if it does, it will be difficult to compete with the maritime hegemony of the Zheng Group.It could be sanctioned through an economic blockade, but in this way, not only the Zheng family, but also the Ming court would suffer huge losses.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao can only adopt a policy of preferential treatment for Zheng's group now, and said: "In the matter of engineering, Yan Jizu once made a petition to persuade me to recruit the Zheng family. The Zheng family intends to belong to the imperial court, and can serve as a guerrilla for coastal defense and stay in southern Fujian forever."

As far as Zhu Youxiao knows, in the original history, the Zheng family did belong to the Ming court at this time, but now it can only follow the development of history. If it is not bad, once he succeeds in recruiting the Zheng family, the Zheng family It will be justifiable to fight other pirates, and consolidate its own sea power and expand its territory.

But this is not good for the imperial court. When there are many pirates, the imperial court can still fight one by one, but once the southeast coast, even the South China Sea, the Yellow Sea and other places are controlled by the Zheng family, then the entire Ming court will have nothing to fight back against the Zheng's group at sea. power.

"At the same time, the decree was given to Yan Yingyuan to appease the pirate Gu Sanmazi, and Shang Zhouzuo, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to appease Li Guiqi, Zhong Bin and other ministries, but they were all given guerrilla positions, implying that if they belonged to the imperial court, the imperial court would have to borrow others. Surround them with all your might.”

Crows in the world are generally black, and the pirates of the Ming Dynasty also have a characteristic. It is common for them to surrender and then rebel, and they also regard the imperial court's consolation as a trifling matter.It is difficult for these pirates who are used to robbing houses to really belong to the court. For example, Li Kuiqi mentioned by Zhu Youxiao is such a character, but Zhu Youxiao still does this for no other reason, that is, to make the Zheng Group lose the legality to annex these pirates The opportunity is also considered to be a chance for these pirates to protect themselves, so they couldn't help but refuse.

In this way, Daming may have solved the sea trouble on the surface, and thus hoped that these pirates would be able to live in peace, so that the Royal Industry Company and the Royal Weaving Bureau would have more goods to export, and the people along the coast Less damage and looting.

At the same time, this will also give Zhu Youxiao more time to build his own sea power. As long as he has a strong navy, he doesn't have to be afraid of the Zheng Group, and even Ming can expand his maritime hegemony and survive from a desperate situation.

Everything has to be done step by step. Since he wants to build his own navy, Zhu Youxiao has to do a lot of things. First, he must determine how to train naval officers and soldiers, and then he must determine how much money it will cost. navy.

(End of this chapter)