open sea

Chapter 1119
This order was conveyed by Chen Mu to Lin Xiao.

Just after he sent away the Spanish envoy from the Viceroyalty of Peru with a warm smile on his face.

The envoy is an acquaintance of the Viceroyalty of Spanish Peru, and he routinely delivers silver ingots to the Eastern Army at the beginning of each year.

"Then the commander asked Lin Xiao to tell Lautaro that a village kills a Spaniard every month?"

Zhao Shizhen still had a roll of paintings in a paper tube in his hand. It was a painting he had just drawn with a group of Fuguo generals at the Imperial Clan University using the Europa perspective method he learned from his teacher Xu Weina. In the end, he was still two strokes away. When Chen Mu told him to run over in a hurry.

After listening to Chen Mu's endless ins and outs, he said firmly, "Is it because the Spaniards don't send less silver this year?"

In the mind of the mechanics unit, the entire Peruvian Viceroyalty is an automatic silver mine belonging to Ming.

Every year, 17 catties of silver are automatically sent over. The Dongyang military government deducts 450 catties first, and another 200 catties are deducted during the minting process. Carry out Mingxi trade, and the last one or two million and a half taels will be shipped to Philip.

People have to eat, fish have to swim, and Spaniards have to pay minting fees—this is an eternal and unchanging objective law.

In the past, when Lautaro fought in guerrilla melees in Colombia, Chen Mu never instructed or assigned him anything, nor did he hand over Ming army standard equipment to him. This year, he directly sent the matchlock made by Changsheng to him, which shows the objective law. changed.

The reason for the change, Zhao Changji guessed, was that the Spaniards gave less silver, which dissatisfied Chen Dashuai who fell into the eyes of money.

"I lost [-] catties this year. It seems that I can't get people from Peru. I can understand it."

Chen Mu's appearance was not as angry as he showed, on the contrary, he sipped his hot tea very easily, and said with a smile: "To the north is Marshal Deng from Panama, to the south is Marshal Shao who collects nitrate in the desert, and to the east are the Portuguese and Lautaro, it's normal not to get people, and it's normal for production to drop."

As he said that, Zhao Shizhen saw Chen Mu's idle left hand pointing out two fingers at the table, and said, "They said, no matter how much their output has dropped, the [-] catties given to the Dongyang Military Mansion will remain the same, although we will still A little bit, but not so much."

Of course Zhao Shizhen knew that they didn’t lose much. In fact, silver is almost useless in the whole of Asia. Asia Tongbao is in circulation. The power to print money, set prices and collect taxes is in Ming Dynasty. Spain can’t stop trading with Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, Fei Laoer's desire for trade is increasing day by day-this matter has always been Zhao Shizhen's happy fruit.

Starting from coinage, seigniorage, minting process, delivery of silver coins to exchange for Tongbao, trade with Tongbao, payment of taxes to the Oriental Army through the trade volume, tax payment to Mexico City when leaving the port, and delivery to Daming Port in Seville to pay to Li Dan Taxes... After layer upon layer of exploitation, the original 270 million taels of silver became one to two million and a half taels in Spain and goods worth 200 to 20 taels of silver in Songjiang Prefecture.

Even Philip felt that he had made a lot of money.

This is not the thing that makes Zhao Shizhen laugh the most. The thing that makes him laugh the most is that according to Li Dan's letter, His Royal Highness Philip can really make money from this kind of trade.

And earn a lot.

In the case of soaring prices and shortage of materials in Spain, even if the price of the goods is ridiculously high, Spanish merchants can still sell them. Just last year, a broken cup signed by Chen Mu was sold in Madrid for 250 and a half taels. The price of the money was bought by the cardinal archbishop, and a stone foundation was specially built and placed at the entrance of the Seville Cathedral, advising believers to spit into the cup every week.

Of course, the appearance of the so-called broken cup is very good, even if it is placed in Daming, it will definitely be the appearance that can be served on the tea table of the squire and landlord's house, but the signature of the earthworm has ruined the feng shui.

When the Dongyang Military Mansion learned of this anecdote, the cup had been stolen under the noses of the troops stationed in the Plaza de Armas in Seville, and its whereabouts were unknown.

The whole of Spain suspected that it was the most impious Mr. Andre Ditis. Li Dan said that he was wronged, and even wrote an angry letter to King Fei Laoer, saying that he did not know about this cup before this incident happened. Otherwise, he would have sent someone with explosives to blow up the church, and at the same time strongly condemned the archbishop for this practice.

Finally, in the name of Chen Mu, he extorted three thousand and a half taels from the Seville Cathedral before finishing the calculation.

Later, it was rumored that Li Dan did not do this. It is said that the cups appeared briefly in Milan and Florence, and people suspected that they were stolen from the Medici family who tried to imitate porcelain five years ago to study porcelain.

Legends are always legends, and no one knows where Chen Mu's holy grail is hidden.

Of course, even Chen Mu, the person involved, didn’t care, and Zhao Shizhen didn’t care even more. He cared more about why Chen Mu changed his strategy of silently supporting Lautaro in the past, and gave direct support, sending matchlock guns, gunpowder and lead pellets to him… It was almost as if the Dongyang Army was going to beat up the Peruvian Western Army.

This doesn't make sense. It seems that Chen Mu is not angry because Peru sent four thousand catties less silver this year, but he looks like he intends to tear his face with the Spaniards and start the third Ming-Xi war.

But the third war is about to be fought, so what's the point of killing an enemy a month?
Besides, now that Mingxi's third war is going on, isn't that pushing your godson who stayed in Daming Port to collect taxes into the fire pit?
"It's not because of silver. In the past few years, a large amount of silver has flowed into the country. There is no such shortage of silver. The imperial court is not in shortage, and the Eastern Military Government is not in shortage. The half of the coins minted last year are useless. Not only can this year's money Send it to Spain, even next year or the year after next will be enough.”

Chen Mu waved his hand, looked at Zhao Shizhen and said, "I want to consume the Spaniards who are still in Asia. Do you think one person a month is less?"

"Lautaro has more than 470 villages and squads, and they are active in various places bordering Colombia and Peru. The Spaniards were disturbed by them and could only hide in towns and outposts, but they always wanted to go out."

"This is the test method for Lautaro. If you do well, you will lie in ambush on the only way, and the Western Army will send messages, transport food, and collect taxes. If you release a shot and hit it correctly, it will be considered normal; the same thing is in the It is repeated 470 times a month on the land, and including Peru, which has been recruiting soldiers and practicing martial arts, there are less than 2 of them in total."

"Let him die five thousand a year, not to mention that the grain transportation team walks over. Whoever sticks a wooden cannon in the forest and shoots them out can complete half a year's performance in one go."

As Chen Mu said, he pushed the letter out and said, "As for the reasons, there are two reasons. First, Fei Lao Er has successfully become the king of Portugal. He has already lost North Asia and he will not allow himself to lose Brazil. If he wants Brazil, he will We need to send more people to Brazil, because Peru is closer to Spain, and the fewer people there are in Peru, the more likely it is that Brazil belongs to Ming."

"Besides, this Fei Laoer sent over with a letter of credence, and wanted to marry the third princess to the emperor. I don't know which bastard told him that there are a lot of concubines in the Ming Dynasty. He is a bald man who wants to be the head of the country. How can I bully him after becoming the head of the country?"

(End of this chapter)