Chapter 324: August in Nanyang, It Is Not Easy to Get Gold

The sky is blue, and a few white seagulls are flying above the blue sky and white clouds.

In the vast expanse of blue waves, the summer sea breeze ripples, and three three-masted ships sail southward, as if they have entered an anime-like world.

Because this sea area has not been damaged by humans, everything here seems natural. Groups of colorful fish swim on the clear seabed, and patches of coral reefs suck tiny floating objects in the water.

Facing such beautiful scenery, especially the more novel fish schools and coral reefs, the group of people on the deck who were going to sea for the first time seemed very excited.

"The movement of the sun and the moon can be seen within it; the stars can be as brilliant as if they were seen within it. How magnificent is the Ming Dynasty!"

"Strata of clouds grow in my chest, and I reach Gui Island from my canthus. I will be at the top of the boat, and I can see all the fish and small fishes at a glance. It's magical, Nanyang!"

"There will be times when strong winds and waves break, and you can hang your sails directly across the sea! Why don't you bring a Wu hook and collect the fifty states in Guanshan?"

…

Wang Shouren, Xun Qi's disciples and a group of Imperial College students stood at the front of the deck. They couldn't help themselves when they saw the beautiful scenery in front of them, and they all expressed their feelings.

Time flies, and the young man back then has become a young man who has reached eighteen years of age.

Under Zhu Youtang's instruction, the Imperial College presided over by Wang Hua was no longer limited to cultivating imperial examination talents, but became a comprehensive college with subjects covering mathematics, medicine, fine arts, navigation, and languages.

This time, the imperial court arranged for personnel to send back envoys from many countries in the Luzon Islands, and the Imperial College arranged for some outstanding students to accompany them, so they were fortunate to see the beauty of the ocean.

The sea of ​​this era is indeed extremely majestic, which has broadened the horizons of students who have lived in Middle-earth for generations, and the disciples of Qi Xun, who have always had their eyes set higher than the top, were also shocked.

Chen Zheng, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, gently stroked his beard and looked at everything in front of him with blurred eyes.

This time he came as an imperial envoy and broadened his horizons along the way. He finally understood why His Majesty wanted to lead China to come out, instead of being obsessed with the vastness of the land and its rich resources.

Perhaps the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty lacked nothing, but in this boundless world, China could actually obtain greater resources.

"Luzon Island, look!"

A young student raised his hand and looked very excited.

As far as the eye could see, a green strip appeared in the southern sea. It was a huge island full of primitive atmosphere, which seemed to be responding to their cheers.

"It's here, but... it no longer belongs to Raja's island!"

The envoy from the Malani Kingdom came to the deck with the envoys from various countries. When he saw the green coastline in front of him, there was a trace of bitterness in the corner of his mouth.

Ming Dynasty did not just talk about it at this year's imperial meeting.

During this period of more than half a year, the Ming court established contact with various forces in Luzon Island, and these leaders who had always admired the Ming Dynasty all surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

In the past, the entire Luzon Island was nominally owned by their Malani Kingdom, but now the Ming court corrected this mistake and deprived them of their status as the Lord of Luzon.

Now the entire Luzon Island is being redivided. Manila only occupies the central area of ​​Malani Bay, and the rest of the island has been officially assigned to various forces.

Since they all belonged to the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of the Ming Emperor, they signed a non-aggression treaty and could only operate in their own territory.

"So this is what the Luzon Island we live in looks like!" The bearded King Ma Zhu of Mayi looked at the island in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

Their Mayi country is not worthy of its name, because they are just an alliance of village communities, and their external affairs are coordinated by their leaders, who do not have absolute dominance.

Of course, they are not affiliated with the Malani State and have always been an independent alliance.

As early as the Song Dynasty, they had trade relations with the Guangzhou area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, exchanging local products such as yellow wax, pearls, and betel nuts for Chinese porcelain and ironware.

As for their territory, although they occupy part of southern Luzon Island, their main residence is Mindoro Island in the southwest of Luzon Island, so they are not the aborigines of Luzon Island.

Because they were too weak and needed to rely on the Ming Dynasty for trade, the Ming Dynasty designated Malani as the lord of Luzon, and they did not dare to stand up and oppose it.

Fortunately, now the Ming Dynasty not only deprived King Manila of his title as King of Luzon, but also officially gave them the title of Mayi King granted by Mayi Kingdom.

Ma Zhu looked at Luzon Island in front of her and already had a clear decision in her heart.

After witnessing the power of the Ming Dynasty during this trip, he knew that if the small country of Mayi wanted to survive well, it had to firmly embrace the strong thigh of the Ming Dynasty.

Whether it's yellow wax, pearls, or betel nuts, they have to work hard to deliver it to the Ming Dynasty, thereby bringing the two countries closer.

"Compared with the Ming Dynasty, our island is not worth mentioning!"

Gumalarang and other forces were also canonized as kings by the Ming court. Now they are standing on the deck with the Malani envoy Color and Mayi King Mazhu, but they have different emotions.

They landed from Tianjin on sea ships and went north from Fujian, but they had already experienced the gap between the two. Even though the island I live in front of me is spectacular, compared to the Ming Dynasty, it is like a whale compared to a small shrimp.

The fleet sailed across the calm sea, leaving white ripples behind.

There were three large sea ships on this trip. One sea ship was mainly to send back the mission and their rewards, one was to transport military supplies and supplies to Luzon City, and one was to come here. Nanyang engages in maritime trade.

Although the Ming Dynasty has always had trade relations with Nanyang, the Ming Dynasty merchants are mainly interested in the pearls, so the total trade volume between the two sides is not large.

However, now that the Ming Dynasty has opened the route, even the surplus grain and fruits of Malani have become the key commodities traded by Nanyang merchant ships.

As for the Ming Dynasty, while carrying the porcelain and ironware they like, they also vigorously promote the cotton cloth of the Ming Dynasty to them, making cotton cloth the first choice of clothing material for Nanyang residents.

When the fleet approaches the coastline of Luzon Island, it will continue to sail along the west coastline.

The total length of the coastline of Luzon Island is more than 5,000 kilometers. If the factors of impassability are excluded, it will take more than a year to walk around the island.

Since the northern part of Luzon Island has a marine tropical climate and the southern part has a tropical rainforest climate, and now it is in the farming era, the population of Luzon Island is mainly distributed in the south.

In addition, most of the central and northern parts of Luzon are mountains, plateaus and hills. Mount Mayon is an active volcano ranked among the best in the world, which makes the population here relatively small.

Water sources are the biggest factor restricting population development. Not to mention that there are no islands in Luzon that support agriculture and digging wells, there are also a lot of unowned lands in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty.

That's why even though the Ming Dynasty divided Luzon Island into several kingdoms, they focused on arable land and water source areas. Most of the island was unowned land, or the jurisdiction of the Luzon Governor's Office of the Ming Dynasty.

After a day and a night of sailing, the Ming Dynasty fleet finally arrived at a place called hawksbill turtles, where the hawksbill turtles living here became an important supply station for sea vessels.

But now it is no longer a hunting ground, but now there is a port and a city, which is the Luzon Wharf and Luzon City built by the Ministry of Works sent by the Ming Dynasty.

The Luzon Governor's Office is naturally located in the city. Luzon Governor Zhang Sui has led Yu Yuanzan and other soldiers to wait at the Luzon Wharf.

The person in charge of this trip was Chen Zheng, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Works. Although nominally escorting envoys from various countries back to Luzon Island, the more important task was to understand the latest situation here.

It was already August of the third year of Hongzhi, and the Ming Dynasty had been planning Luzon for more than half a year.

Let alone whether the emperor was in a hurry, even the people in the capital were eagerly waiting, hoping to know the results of Luzon and whether they could really find overseas gold mines.

"How many gold mines have been found?"

"There are four main gold mines!"

"What is the scale of the gold mine?"

"It is inestimable, and it is estimated that there are at least tens of millions of taels of gold!"

...

After ordering the ship to send the envoys back, Chen Zheng, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, immediately asked Zhang Sui, the governor of Luzon, for the specific situation. The answer made him feel ecstatic.

Although it was impossible to bring back tens of millions of taels of gold at once, even if it took twenty years, it was amazing to produce 500,000 taels of gold a year.

Obviously, the emperor was right to insist on going to Southeast Asia. The wise and powerful emperor will open up another important source of income.

Beijing City, Xiyuan.

The surface of Taiye Lake, more than 10,000 miles away, seemed calm, and a black water dragonfly was standing on the end of the fishing rod. It was like a beautiful fishing hook.

As the float was pulled into the water, the dragonfly was scared away by the raised fishing rod, and a very beautiful red carp was brought out of the water by the fishing line. The red carp showed a vigorous figure.

The water area of ​​800 acres is not only a world without pollution, but also a place without other fishermen. The fish here is simply a paradise for fishermen.

"Your Majesty, this fish is so fat and beautiful!" Liu Jin stepped forward and took off the lively fish.

Zhu Youtang put the fishing rod aside, took the tea from the beautiful woman next to him and said: "Calculate the days, Chen Zheng should be in Luzon City now, right?"

In the past six months, he changed the practice of fighting every year in the previous two years, and chose to recuperate, and even deliberately cut major financial expenditures.

Although under his administration, salt tax and grain tax have increased rapidly, especially grain tax revenue has been sitting three times four times, and the annual grain tax revenue is advancing towards 40 million shi.

It's just that the vassal of the Ming Dynasty needs money to support, the nobles and civil and military officials need to support, and his own army needs to continue to invest money to strengthen the army. The fortifications of Jianzhou are still under steady construction, and the management of the Yellow River also requires an investment of one million taels.

Zhu Youtang deeply realized that it is difficult to be an emperor, and it is even more difficult to be a good emperor.

Whether it is Jiajing's policy of increasing taxes and levies to make "every family clean", or Wanli's sending eunuchs to collect mining taxes, the money received is actually better than measuring the land by himself.

Unfortunately, he worked hard to be a good emperor, so he didn't intend to make every household clean, so he couldn't bear to increase taxes.

Fortunately, the tax revenue of Chongwenmen got a little bit of money, and the effect of the luxury tax was also very significant, but it got a large amount of rich tax to subsidize the finance.

Although he successfully solved the Jianzhou project that was once to be suspended, and the management of the Yellow River was not affected by the finance, the money collected from the luxury tax was limited after all, and it was impossible to rob all the rich people in the world.

An empire never lacks places to spend money, especially when he is facing the problem of weapon upgrades, so the finances of the Ming Dynasty are still not very abundant.

"Your Majesty, the people should have arrived, and Zhang Sui should be punished!"

"Why should Zhang Sui be punished?"

"Zhang Sui was promoted from a small supervisory censor to a governor by your majesty, but he didn't know how to be grateful. Instead, he kept asking the court for silver. Now he has already spent two million taels. I think half of it probably went into their pockets!"

"You don't understand!"

"Your Majesty, didn't you send Chen Zheng to investigate Zhang Sui?"

"Yes and no, the money must be spent, but just don't let Zhang Sui spend it recklessly!"

...

Zhu Youtang found out in this era that those novels in his previous life that finding novels would bring endless gold were deceptive, and a huge amount of money needed to be invested in the early stage of gold mining.

At this moment, he felt that it was really not easy to do things, and he also understood why the profit margin of gold mining companies was not high.

Zhu Youtang knew that in order to mine gold, not only a huge initial investment was needed, but also a set of effective management mechanisms.

The biggest problem was transportation. It was not how to transport the gold out, but how to transport living materials and production materials in, which all required a large amount of silver support.

Unfortunately, Luzon is located overseas, and the Baguio gold mine is in the hinterland of Luzon Island, which greatly increases the difficulty of mining and the cost of gold mining.

In addition, the biggest problem is actually corruption.

It is not that the Ming Dynasty does not have gold and silver mines. In addition to Yunnan, which produces more than 100,000 taels of silver annually, there are several large silver mines in the southern provinces, which are now also in the state of mining, but other silver mines do not have much mining value.

The mining value mentioned here is for the government. Due to the low mining efficiency of the government, some silver mines are unable to make ends meet, but they are fattening those maggots in vain.

On the other hand, the private mining of silver mines by the people is repeatedly banned, and those loss-making silver mines are profitable businesses for the people.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Liu Jin complimented Zhu Youtang when he learned that this was his idea.

Zhu Youtang gently put down the teacup in his hand, and then cast the fishing rod again and said: "The wise cannot be eaten. After Chen Zheng returns from the inspection for me, there will be more money in the future, but the national treasury is almost at the bottom now!"

It is possible to get good news, and it is obviously a gold mine that people in the future will covet, but when it comes to the emperor, he does not seem to be very excited.

In fact, there is another reason! Gold cannot improve the productivity of society, and it is far better to put energy into the development of nylon materials, but the world is obsessed with gold.