Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 295 Carve up sea power
Shi Kefa nodded: "That's right, find someone to make money for the imperial court. Since the profits from sea trade are so huge, instead of letting those thugs who connect to the sea earn money for nothing, why not let the imperial court connect to the sea by themselves, and use these huge profits to solve the imperial court's urgent needs. If the strength of Haimao is enough, the Holy Majesty will also be exempted from three salaries, so that all people in the world can recuperate!"

To share the worries of the emperor and let the people live. Compared with the former, Shi Kefa values ​​the latter more. As a Confucian who truly believes in the way of Confucius and Mencius, he has a sense of mission to put the people at heart.

Yang Chao nodded and said: "I understand, the imperial court wants to find someone to do the sea trade business, and then prohibit those rich and powerful gentry from accessing the sea without permission, and return all the sea trade to the imperial court!"

Shi Kefa nodded and said, "That's exactly what I mean."

Yang Chao suddenly felt a sense of the collapse of the world view. This is the emperor. To collect the benefits of maritime trade in his own empire, he actually needs to smuggle it himself. Isn’t it a huge profit to open a customs office to collect taxes directly?

If it were another emperor, whether it was Wanli or Longqing who didn't care much about the attitude of the officials and the comments of the people, I'm afraid they would have been impatient to start it. Violating the ancestral system, or making people laugh at him for competing with the people for profit, he refused to admit that it was his fault that Ming's subjugation was his fault, this is a person who loves his wings too much, such a person is definitely not a good politician .

Yang Chao couldn't help but smiled wryly and said, "Then the Holy One and Lord Shi, have you figured out what to do and who to ask to do it?"

This is completely different from Yang Chao's original plan. Yang Chao wanted to let the imperial court lift the sea ban, encourage trade, and stimulate industry and commerce.

It turned out that a simple matter was made so complicated by the emperor.

Shi Kefa shook his head: "If I knew about it, I wouldn't have discussed it with you. To tell you the truth, I want to recommend you."

"I?"

Yang Chao was surprised, but also thought that it was not unusual for him to provoke the incident, and it ended up on his own head.

But Yang Chao originally wanted to promote the opening of the sea, and then he could get a share of the trade. Yang Chao is entrenched in Xinjiangkou, which is close to Nanjing and has a wharf he controls. In addition, he is getting more and more formal In the exchange, Yang Chao can control a logistics chain, from organizing the supply of goods to transporting transactions, providing one-stop services, so that Yang Chao's own financial resources can be greatly improved, and it may not be a problem to raise tens of thousands of soldiers at the time. Really have their own roots.

However, the emperor's idea was too special, and he didn't plan to open the sea ban at all, but secretly organized smuggling on the basis of the sea ban.

Yang Chao really hadn't thought about how to do this.

So Yang Chao shook his head lightly.

Shi Kefa's expression suddenly became calm: "You don't want to share the worries for the imperial court, you don't want to share the worries for the Holy One."

All civil and military officials knew how to shirk, knew about party struggles, but no one was willing to think about it from the perspective of righteousness. The more they saw through this situation, the more disappointed Shi Kefa would be. Too willing to come forward.

Seeing Shi Kefa's appearance, Yang Chao couldn't bear it: "It's not that the general doesn't want to stand out, but the general really doesn't know what to do?"

Shi Kefa's eyes suddenly brightened: "Then you are willing. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to do it, you can think about it slowly. Since you know the sea trade, you can always find a way. I don't know anything about it, so I can only support you as much as possible." .”

Yang Chao opened his mouth, but couldn't find a reason to refuse.

I could only grit my teeth: "Okay, I will try my best in the end."

Only then did Shi Kefa feel relieved, and his expression relaxed a lot.

After sending Shi Kefa away, Yang Chao suddenly realized that he had taken over a hot job. There are countless forces in Jiangnan involved in maritime trade. You must know that Westerners and Japanese are all waving money to buy silk and porcelain from China. Well, for these two things, the whole world recognizes Chinese products.

Therefore, although the imperial court has always banned the sea, these goods are flowing out in the open and in the dark. Such things as smuggling cannot be stopped in hundreds of years. Smuggled small boats, and the Ming Dynasty has abandoned martial arts for more than 100 years. Zheng He's fleet even burned the charts. How could it stop smuggling? To put it bluntly, the naval strength of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as those pirates Well, what can stop people from getting rich.

It is because the technology in this era is not yet developed enough, and the risk of sea navigation is too high, so the trade volume is not large enough to affect the price of Ming Dynasty, so the government has not paid full attention to this matter, and smuggling has become an open secret, but others can do it , the emperor can't do it, the court can't do it.

Therefore, if Yang Chao wanted to help the imperial court earn money from maritime trade, he would have to scramble for food from the powerful families in the Songjiang Mansion at a close distance, and fight openly and covertly with each of the maritime merchant forces at a distance. Yang Chao can be wiped out with a finger.

The aristocrats in Songjiang Mansion are easy to deal with. They usually only supply goods to ocean powers like Zheng Zhilong. What is really scary is a giant crocodile like Zheng Zhilong. It is no longer in my hands, not only depends on God's face, but also Zheng Zhilong's face, if Zheng Zhilong is not happy, it is estimated that Yang Chao's fleet will never return.

Not to mention Yang Chao, even the Dutch coachman in the sea, why don't he obediently pay taxes to Zheng Zhilong in exchange for the Zheng family's order flag, and then he can do business in this sea area in the east?

Obviously, Yang Chao has no way to compete with Zheng Zhilong Group at sea, and even if he competes, he doesn't have hard power in his hands.

On land, on the Yangtze River, Yang Chao can do something, but on the sea, there is no captain Yang Chao who is just sailing. It is no problem to sail a boat on the Yangtze River with a large mast, but on the sea, he can't even tell the direction. Cleared up.

Considering various strengths, soft and hard, Yang Chao felt that he still had no way to compete with forces like Zheng Zhilong, so he could only cooperate and still allow them to share a share of the pie.

When he thought about it, Yang Chao suddenly felt that the potato in his hand was really hot, but the temptation was also huge, because this difficult thing also meant a huge power.

That is, if it is done well, it is possible for him to carve up Daming's ocean trade territory with Zheng Zhilong. Thinking of the reported tens of millions of profits of Zheng Zhilong Group every year, Yang Chao feels that this risk is worth taking.

After planning for three days in a row, Yang Chao finally took the written plan and found Shi Kefa again for a secret talk.

"You want to cooperate with Zheng?"

After hearing what Yang Chao said, Shi Kefa immediately became concerned.

Yang Chao nodded: "That's right. At present, in the Ming Dynasty, only the Zheng family has a large fleet of ships that go through the sea. If we do the sea trade by ourselves, it is impossible to cultivate familiar sea conditions in ten or eight years. The sailors of the sea conditions. So if you want to get profits from the sea as soon as possible, you have to let Zheng's share of the pie. Or let's take Zheng's share of the pie."

Shi Kefa nodded, there is nothing wrong with that, Zheng Zhilong was born as a pirate, and later joined the government, relying on black and white to take both sides, and then with the support of the government, he wiped out all the pirates along the southeast coast, with thousands of warships in his hand, desperate There are tens of thousands of sailors, and even the imperial court can't easily move him. It can only acquiesce that he breaks the imperial court's sea ban from Fujian and Guangdong to make huge profits!

But cooperating with Zheng Zhilong is not what Shi Kefa is worried about. What Shi Kefa is worried about is: "Once we cooperate with Zheng, if things are leaked, I am afraid that the Holy One and the court will be very embarrassing."

Yang Chao smiled lightly and said, "The one who cooperates with Zheng is obviously the last general, so what does it have to do with the Holy Majesty and the court?"

When Shi Kefa heard Yang Chao's words, he couldn't help being moved. Yang Chao was taking on the responsibility for the emperor and the court.

Shi Kefa secretly felt that he was being unfair to Yang Chao, so he couldn't help telling: "General Yang should be careful, if things get leaked, it will still be very troublesome."

Yang Chao nodded. Of course he knew the risks involved. Once the matter was leaked, a large number of officials would definitely impeach him, especially those civil officials who were born in the south of the Yangtze River and had close ties to smuggling wealthy tyrants. They would definitely impeach Yang Chao crazily. tide.

Emperor Chongzhen was not an emperor who could take responsibility for his subjects. Chen Xinjia was an example. Yang Chao didn't want to be another Chen Xinjia.

Take Zuo Liangyu as an example. Zuo Liangyu was defeated by Li Zicheng in Zhuxian Town last year, and then fled to Xiangyang with his troops. Li Zicheng captured Xiangyang, and Zuo Liangyu fled to Wuchang. He led his troops to escape to Jiujiang, plundered Jiujiang Mansion, and clashed with the local civil servants, but the emperor did not acquiesce, and Xiong Mingyu only sent Hou Fangyu to bring letters to appease him.

Zuo Liangyu can make the emperor, the imperial court and civil officials helpless. What is the reason? It is the 20 army in his hand. The imperial court can even bear the looting of the people in Jiujiang. How can the imperial court bear the mere business with Zheng Zhilong? No, it depends on Yang Chao's strength. If Yang Chao still has the hundreds of people now, the civil servants will definitely want to fight. If Yang Chao has [-] soldiers, the civil servants are afraid that they will throw a mouse. If they can't bear it, they have to bear it. up.

So Yang Chao's next step is to expand his troops: "The last general is not afraid of trouble. We just need Lord Shi's support."

Shi Kefa nodded: "How can I support you?"

Yang Chao said in an orderly manner: "Maritime trade is limited in profit. If the court wants to get a share of the pie, then the wealthy and powerful gentry will get less of it. The wealthy and powerful gentry will definitely not let it go. In Jiangnan, where is there a rich and powerful gentry? Didn’t a rich family raise hundreds of thugs, outlaws and servants? The last general only has a few hundred elite soldiers in his hands, and even if he could recruit enough strong men from Haizhou, it would only be about two thousand. So Although some people can keep the safety of the ship, they can't prevent the rich from entering the sea at all."

Shi Kefa suddenly had doubts: "So you want to expand the army?"

Yang Chao nodded: "That's right, the army needs to be expanded in the end, not only the army, but also a batch of ships."

Shi Kefa suddenly became thoughtful.

Yang Chao knew Shi Kefa's concerns. Ever since Zuo Liangyu came out, the imperial court was very wary of the power of generals and would not allow generals to expand their power easily. Therefore, Zuo Liangyu has been produced over the years. There are only a handful of generals with tens of thousands of soldiers.

After a long time, Shi Kefa said: "Then how many soldiers do you want to add? How many ships do you want to add?"

Yang Chao has been quietly waiting for Shi Kefa, just waiting for him to choose. If Shi Kefa refuses to allow himself to expand his army, Yang Chao can just stop doing this matter. After all, this matter has offended too many people, but the benefits are for the court. If you can't take the opportunity to expand your strength, then you can't even protect yourself, so it's not worth doing.

Shi Kefa finally opened his mouth. It seemed that he had made a choice in his heart, and that was to choose to trust Yang Chao. After all, a treacherous official could not use six hundred soldiers to fight to the death with [-] captive soldiers.

Seeing Shi Kefa's question, Yang Chao was already prepared: "Actually, the last general doesn't need to expand his troops too much. The last general has three thousand troops in the headquarters, and a total of [-] soldiers, which is not enough for a battalion. The last general I want to expand the battalion. As for the ships, the last general only has three ships, and if he wants to go to sea trade, he needs at least thirty large ships."

Yang Chao has always wanted to squeeze the left and right thousand headquarters away, so that Yang Chao can take charge of the water camp alone, but he has never been able to find a suitable opportunity. 1000 taels of activity funds per person, but the two sued Yang Chao and Shi Kefa instead.

Now Yang Chao didn't say to let these people go, he just said that he needed a battalion of soldiers. If Shi Kefa really wanted to do maritime trade to earn money for the court, then he had to find a way to transfer those officers away.

It's not that Yang Chao didn't think that the lion would open his mouth and ask Shi Kefa to ask for [-] to [-] troops, but that would make Shi Kefa have a lot of scruples, and if it didn't work out, Shi Kefa would transfer Yang Chao away from the water camp.

Yang Chao is entrenched in the water camp, but he has always used it as a base to build, and now he has more and more foundations. If he transfers away, he will give up halfway, so Yang Chao wants a battalion just right, and squeezes out the other thousand bosses. The number of troops is four to five thousand. If Yang Chao's standard is to train four to five thousand people, it will be no less than ten thousand or even tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. If the court wants to move him at that time, it can try.

Sure enough, upon hearing Yang Chao's words, Shi Kefa's brows slowly relaxed. Although the court was wary of generals, there were too many generals who commanded a battalion of soldiers. The north randomly pulled out a general, who didn't hold thousands of soldiers Ma, besides, Yang Chao's character has always been very good, and Shi Kefa still trusts him.

As for the ship problem that Yang Chao mentioned, it is even less of a problem. The imperial court has plenty of craftsmen, so it is enough to issue tasks, and there are good materials ready-made. Shi Kefa believes that if he embezzles it, the emperor will not mind.

So he nodded after thinking it over and said: "Since this is the case, I should approve you. I will report to the Ming court and allow you to recruit a battalion of soldiers. There is no ready-made boat, but a batch of timber has recently been imported here in Nanjing. It was the Holy Majesty who planned to assign it to King Fu to build the palace, but it was not sent away because Henan was in chaos again. It is just right for you."

Yang Chao nodded, and Shi Kefa agreed. It is definitely impossible to get the boats that are built right away. It will be fast if they can be built in half a year, but Yang Chao doesn't need to use so many boats right away. He still needs training. The captain is not.

Those who deserve to be obtained have been obtained, and it is not in vain to help the court.

After bidding farewell to Shi Kefa, Yang Chao hurried back to the Jinchai Building, and asked He Mingyu, who was reselling at the exchange, to talk to him early the next morning.

He Mingyu was the agent who had introduced Wang Xiao to Haishang. Yang Chao told him that he had only one purpose, and asked him to contact Zheng Zhilong's people.

Yang Chao wants to talk to Zheng Zhilong, he wants to carve up the power of Daming sea with Zheng Zhilong!

(End of this chapter)