Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1317 Obtaining a Stronghold
Song Yingsheng stayed in Qiongzhou for half a month before leaving for Guangzhou, and soon went to Macau to send a letter to the Portuguese for the King of Chu.Unexpectedly, here, he got a piece of news that surprised him.

Song Yingxing, who set out from Ningbo Port and sailed east, entrusted a Portuguese merchant ship to cross the Pacific Ocean to Macau after arriving at the Portuguese stronghold in southern America, and brought a letter back to Daming.

This letter was originally invited to the Portuguese in Macau, and was forwarded to the Guangzhou government, and then handed over to him through government channels, but he was lucky enough to get this letter first when he arrived in Macau.

In the letter, Song Yingxing was very anxious, and even showed a trace of fear. He said that according to the Portuguese accompanying him, the fleet had only traveled one-third of the voyage, but what Xiyi said was basically verifiable. Said it might be true.

When the fleet crossed the equator and the Polaris disappeared from the night sky, he almost collapsed, mentally as if the sky was collapsing, and he couldn't believe that the earth was really a sphere.

The collapse of the traditional Confucian worldview made Song Yingxing unable to adapt to it for a long time, and was full of anxiety. He thought he understood the world and the world well, but one day suddenly, he discovered that everything in the past was wrong. When the world was not what they understood it to be, he immediately felt extremely strange about this world, and even felt terrified.

When writing this letter, Song Yingxing had basically accepted Xiyi's argument, but he did not return to the voyage, but decided to continue sailing, head to Europa, and then return to Daming to complete the entire voyage.

This letter also had a huge impact on Song Yingsheng, making him feel very uncomfortable and anxious.

People always have a comfort zone, and they are used to being in their own comfort zone. Song Yingxing's letter undoubtedly broke Song Yingsheng's comfort zone. The environment he was in suddenly became strange and unknown, and anxiety was inevitable.

Ordinary people encounter this kind of situation, most of them will cover their ears, refuse to admit it, are unwilling to accept it, and are unwilling to step out of this comfort zone, but there are still some people who can continue to step out of the comfort zone and challenge the new environment. Conquer new environments.

People, or countries, who are always in the comfort zone will eventually lose their fighting spirit and fall behind others. Only by bravely challenging the new environment can talents make progress and achieve success in the worldly sense.

After staying in Macao for a period of time, Song Yingsheng left Guangdong and hurried back to Nanjing to report to Wang Yan.

Eight years of rule, 1657 AD, spring.

Just after the new year, when government affairs piled up, Wang Yan got up early in the morning, exercised his muscles and bones in the yard, washed his hands and face, and the princess asked for breakfast to be brought over.

After Wang Yan ate hastily, Princess He Zhizhi approved a cloak for him, and he went to the cabinet in a carriage.

The carriage left a trail of wheels on the street covered with thin snow. The guards stepped on the snow and arrived at the cabinet in a short while.

The soldiers on duty in front of the gate saw Jian Guo's carriage approaching, and hurriedly removed the threshold, and the carriage went directly into Wenyuan Pavilion. The guards brought small stools and set them up, and lifted the curtain, Wang Yancai came out holding a hollowed-out hand stove.

"See Jian Guo!" The two officials came out to greet Wang Yan when they knew that Wang Yan was coming.

Wang Yan gasped, "Song Shilang, Qian Fanyuan, is President Chen here?"

"Wait in the Yizheng Hall!" An official bowed back.

Immediately, Wang Yan went straight up to the second floor and entered the Yizheng Hall, where the three people were sitting and talking, when they saw Wang Yan coming in, they got up and saluted.

Wang Yan put the heater aside, untied his cloak, handed it to the guards, and then sat down with the heater in his arms, "Sit down too, you don't need to be formal, today is not a formal meeting, I just want to know a few things from you, okay Make some adjustments to the forecast for this year."

Several people sat down after hearing the words, Wang Yan looked at Song Yingsheng, and then asked, "How did Kong Yuan gain from his inspection tour in Guangnan?"

Song Yingsheng hurriedly prepared to stand up, but Wang Yan waved his hand to press him down, motioning him to sit down and said, Song Yingsheng sighed: "Reporting to Jianguo, I have a lot of emotions this time, and I have already made a deep understanding of the shipbuilding. Write a note, and it will be handed over to the cabinet in a few days."

Wang Yan nodded and asked again: "What did they say about the letter to the Portuguese?"

Song Yingsheng said: "The Portuguese in Macau said that they can't control Tianzhu, and they need to transfer the letter of supervision to the country, and ask the King of Portugal to make a decision."

Wang Yan frowned slightly when he heard this, "Does Yuan Kong think the Portuguese will agree to Gu's request?"

Song Yingsheng shook his head, "Portugal also has interests in Tianzhu. In essence, they are the same as the Netherlands and Spain. They are in a competitive relationship with our court. If they lease their stronghold to our court, it will definitely affect their trade in Tianzhu. Minister I thought that the King of Portugal would probably not agree, and maybe he would use excuses to evade it."

As the trade of the Ming Dynasty expanded to Tianzhu and Tianfang, the Ming Dynasty urgently needed to obtain a berthing place in Tianzhu and the Mughal Empire for the berthing and supply of Ming Dynasty merchant ships, and to use this as a base to engage in various related activities. kind of trade.

Wang Yan heard from Jin Yiwei that the Portuguese had multiple strongholds in the Mughal Empire, such as Aguo, Uce, and Daman, so he hoped to borrow one for the use of merchants in the Ming Dynasty, so he wrote a letter to the Portuguese.

His idea is somewhat wishful thinking. Although the relationship between Daming and Portugal is relatively harmonious, they are two countries after all, each has its own interests, and it is impossible to harm oneself and benefit others.

However, Portugal disagreed, and Wang Yandao would not become angry and drive the Portuguese out of Macau. He needed to stay in Portugal to understand the changes in the West.

Wang Yan couldn't help but nodded after hearing this. Since the Portuguese couldn't get through, he could only think of other ways, so he looked at Qian Bingdeng and said, "Qian Fan Yuan, how are you talking with the Dutch and the Spaniards?" ? Can you use the captives to find the Dutch for a stronghold in Tianzhu?"

Qian Bingdeng thought for a while, "Reporting to the supervisor, the Dutch are too busy to take care of themselves now, and really want to redeem their warships and captives. I propose to exchange captives for a stronghold, and they may really agree!"

"Oh?" Wang Yan was puzzled. He tried his best to find Portugal, but there was no result. Something happened to the Dutch, and it was possible to give Daming a stronghold.

At that moment, Wang Yan couldn't help sitting upright, and said seriously, "What trouble did the Dutchman encounter?"

"It is said that after the Dutch transferred the soldiers from Tianzhu to Malacca, their stronghold in Tianzhu was empty. The English country took advantage of the vacancy and is robbing the Dutch stronghold in Tianzhu. Therefore, the Dutch are eager to negotiate peace with us. Redeem captives to fight against the English."

After hearing this, Wang Yan couldn't help touching the short beard under his forehead, rolled his eyes, and said, "The negotiations with the Netherlands should be carried out quickly, but more conditions can be raised. If they agree readily, then Give them back the captives, and if they don't agree, then there's no need to continue the negotiations."

"I know!" Qian Bingdeng said immediately, "I will ask someone to call the Dutch envoys to the Lifan Court for a discussion later."

Wang Yan nodded slightly, thought for a while, and added: "The Dutch are cunning and have repeatedly broken contracts. You must be careful when negotiating. You must first get the stronghold before releasing them."

"Yes, I understand."

Wang Yan then asked again: "How was the conversation with the Spanish Duke?"

Qian Bingdeng said, "The terms and conditions have basically been finalized, and we are currently discussing the exchange rate between the Chinese silver dollar and the Spanish silver dollar (peso). Once this matter is settled, the treaty can be finalized, and we only need to wait for the King of Spain to sign it." , it can be executed.”

Wang Yan looked at Chen Yonghua, "Fufu, what is the exchange rate given by Wudehao?"

After the implementation of the new monetary policy in the Ming Dynasty, in principle, foreign trade must be settled with silver dollars of the Wude brand, and the circulation of gold and silver is gradually banned in the country.

Chen Yonghua heard the words and said hurriedly: "Reporting to Jian Guo, Wu De Hao's suggestion to Li Fan Yuan is an exchange ratio of one to four."

Wang Yan was startled when he heard this, "Will they accept one tael of silver for four Spanish dollars?"

Chen Yonghua said: "Don't worry, I got news from the Portuguese that there is a shortage of supplies in Spain, and the price of goods is soaring. Four Spanish silver dollars can't buy a stone of grain, but I am paying one stone of grain for about one or two dollars. This ratio is It is reasonable to negotiate based on the price, and the Spaniards will have no objection."

Wang Yan only knew the general idea of ​​these issues, but he didn't understand them very well. He planned to take some time to study them before learning more about them.

At that moment, Wang Yan nodded, looked back at Qian Bingdeng and said, "Qian Fanyuan, later you write a note and hand over the specific situation and details of our negotiations with the Netherlands and Spain to the cabinet, and let several cabinet members The minister has an understanding."

Qian Bingdeng nodded and said yes, then Wang Yan asked another important matter, "Fufu, is Wude's actions against the Kingdom of Jin going to be caught soon?"

It has been a year since the cotton prices in Jinguo have been hyped, and Wang Yan estimates that domestic cotton merchants and cloth merchants are also somewhat unable to support it.

Chen Yonghua smiled, "Reporting to Your Highness, the net is about to be collected. But there is still a period of time before the Wude is ready to let Jin Guo plant the new season's cotton, and then start operations."

The new season's cotton was planted, and when the price of cotton fell, it would be too late for Jin Guo to replant. Wang Yan smiled, feeling a little complacent in his heart. It seemed that his great cause of reunification was not far away.

After discussing these few things, the direction of this year's New Year's plan will come out.

To sum up, there are two relatively big things. The first thing is to prepare to conquer the Kingdom of Jin and complete the unification of the Ming Dynasty. The second thing is to comply with the requirements of maritime merchants, expand the scope of trade to the Mughals, and establish a stable A stronghold to protect the rights and interests of the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants in the Mughals...
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(End of this chapter)