Red Mansion Royal Cat

Chapter 551: All the Land Wherever the Sun and the Moon Shine Is Han Land

This group of Western pirate leaders who took the lead had a large number of overseas colonies in the Eastern and Western Oceans.

In particular, the newly rising England was competing with the Kingdom of Portugal for ownership of India, Luzon and other places.

As for Japan, perhaps because the Celestial Empire put too much pressure on them, they actually wanted to drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, so they lured the British into the country, ceded a piece of land, and traded with them.

In addition, with the opening of the sea to Daxia, there were many English merchants doing business in China, and if they pooled their money together, they could raise a lot of silver.

The left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Sheng Yihong, grinned so much that his mouth almost reached his ears. Seeing the cartloads of silver being moved into the treasury, he immediately felt refreshed.

"The English are really rich. They have raised five million taels of silver in just two days... But my lord, we have already negotiated with these Westerners to open the sea for trade. We are friends. Isn't it a bit... a bit unethical to do this?"

Jia Cong snapped the folding fan in his hand, put it behind his neck, and prepared to leave with his hands behind his back.

These Pixiu in the Ministry of Revenue are all the same. My saliva is almost flowing out.

"Isn't it just five million taels of silver? Lord Sheng, why do you act like you have never seen the world? Cotton is grown in the south of China, and the money earned from the slave trade in Africa is enough to rebuild the Forbidden City with gold."

When Sheng Yihong, the head of the national treasury, heard these words, it was as if ants were crawling all over his body. He immediately grabbed Jia Cong's arm.

"Don't go, is this true? Is this Englishman so rich?"

Jia Cong glanced at the English envoy who was handing over to the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, and whispered: "Master Sheng, you are the head of our Ministry of Revenue after all, so you have to pay more attention to the news outside. England fought a war with France in the Americas and snatched a large number of colonies from France. The Western barbarians don't care about saintly principles and benevolence. For gold and silver, they slaughter people and exterminate clans as if it were a game..."

In fact, England is still far from reaching the power of the British Empire.

But it is undeniable that England has accumulated enough wealth through the slave trade and plundering of colonies to drive the Ministry of Revenue crazy.

Big gold bricks, jewels as big as eggs, huge amounts of gold, silver and jade articles, and fertile soil, which one doesn't the Celestial Empire want?

Erdi, Erdi, all Erdi!

The officials of the Celestial Empire were too benevolent and there was no need to talk about morality with the pirate leader.

Only the Celestial Empire's army can bring a bright future to this world. At least even if the Celestial Empire engages in slave trade, it will not cram people into ship cabins and suffocate them to death.

Or like the Western Yi, they would exterminate an entire tribe for gold and silver. The kind-hearted people of the Celestial Empire would never do such a thing that goes against the harmony of nature.

At most, we could exchange them for precious pottery, porcelain, linen, and silk...

Yes, that's right. The people of China are so kind. They brought boatloads of ceramics to exchange for gold, silver and jade. I think the Indians and blacks would be willing to do so.

Off track...

"Lord Sheng, don't always focus on the country. With our population and current commercial development, whether we adopt the gold standard or the silver standard, the existing gold and silver are far from enough. We have to rob... ahem, go outside and continuously transport gold and silver back to the country, so that business can be more prosperous and the country will never be short of money..."

The dynasty began to prepare for a state-owned bank two years ago. Unfortunately, after calculation, it was found that although there were tens of millions of taels of silver in the treasury, it was still not enough as a reserve for issuing paper money.

This is awkward!
In order to save money, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue went crazy and blocked the financial expenditures of various departments, and almost blocked the silver for offerings to the emperor.

Jia Cong whispered in Sheng Yihong's ear about the black tribes on the African continent, the Indian and Mayan tribes on the American continent, including the abundance of gold, silver and jade artifacts in their tribes, and the huge profits the Western barbarians made through burning, killing, looting and brutality. He constantly instilled in Sheng Yihong the idea that gold and silver were everywhere overseas and that one could be tripped by large gold nuggets while walking.

After being instigated by Jia Cong, Sheng Yihong's eyes turned red.

The way he looked at the English envoy now was as if he was looking at a huge gold ingot.

"My Lord, I think it is necessary and our duty for the Celestial Empire to rescue the Indians who are suffering! As the saying goes, all land under heaven belongs to the king, and all people in the world are his subjects. The Indians should be immersed in the king's rule and the grace of your majesty."

Sheng Yihong will now turn into a saint, his whole body glowing with holy light, compassionate yet resolute.

"Africa and America have been an inseparable part of the Celestial Empire since ancient times! The Western Barbarians must return all of our territory that they have occupied. I have already found the evidence. In a few days, I will have people from the Imperial Academy translate the Classic of Mountains and Seas. They will translate everything into Parrot Language, French, and Spanish for them to see..."

My goodness, it’s true that scholars have dirty hearts.

Jia Cong nodded in satisfaction, saying that this was what an official should do.

He bowed to Sheng Yihong and said, "Then I'll leave this matter to Lord Sheng. Remember to find a few more colleagues to submit memorials to His Majesty. I will help you prepare the fleet and soldiers."

Under Sheng Yihong's confused and shocked gaze, Jia Cong swaggered out of the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

We have already blocked the 50,000 troops of the Western Yi in a ravine under the snow-capped mountains, and we are still talking about morality with them.

You have to be thick-skinned and ruthless. Since you've already offended them, you might as well offend them to death.

If you want to drag the entire ruling class of the dynasty into trouble, using gold and silver as bait is definitely the right thing to do.

……

In the past, Jia Cong talked a lot about the mountains of gold and silver overseas in order to open up the sea.

But whether it was the officials or the common people of the Celestial Empire, most of them just treated it as a curious anecdote and at most talked about it after dinner, but not many people were interested in it.

But when Jia Cong completely uncovered the huge profits gained from colonial plundering by the Western barbarians, the court immediately changed its direction.

There are mountains of gold and silver right there, but I can choose not to take them.

But if you, the Western barbarians, cannot take it back, that would be more painful than killing me!

Therefore, at the grand court meeting on the first day of August, Sheng Yihong joined more than a dozen officials from the Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Works, and Ministry of War to present a letter in the hall.

It reaffirmed the inherent territory of the Celestial Empire since ancient times: wherever the sun and the moon shine, it is Han territory!

Your Majesty's subjects overseas are being bullied and slaughtered by the Western barbarians. The Celestial Empire has the responsibility to send a large army across the ocean to America and Africa to rescue its subjects!

Jia Cong almost believed the righteous words of Sheng Yihong and others. Look at the group of people he brought together, every one of them is drooling.

The Ministry of Industry was so short of raw materials for its cotton spinning machines that they were jealous. When they heard that black people were good at growing cotton, they almost forced the Minister of Industry to board a ship and go overseas to recruit people.

Not to mention the people in the Ministry of War. If there is no war, where would the Ministry of War get its status and interests?
After Sheng Yihong confidently described the robbery of silver as a just act to save the people of the Celestial Empire, the direction of the court meeting suddenly took a strange turn.

The censors from the Ministry of Rites, the Censorate and the six ministries were all stunned. They had clearly agreed that today they must get His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to agree to suspend the reform of the imperial examination system, but how did it turn into going to sea to rescue some Indians?

Oh, it turns out there is gold in that piece.

So what? It's just gold...

What? Gold everywhere? You can pick up a pigeon egg-sized gem just by falling down?

"I, He Shen, the Minister of Personnel, second the motion!"

"Your Highness Zhou Jun, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Rites, seconded the motion!"

"I second the proposal!"

"I second the proposal!"

……

Can we rob... ahem, we are all disciples of the saints, who read "The Analects of Confucius" and "The Spring and Autumn Annals", and we can't stand seeing people suffer.

The Western barbarians are so cruel and brutal that the Celestial Empire naturally has the responsibility to send troops to rescue the common people.

Besides, Sheng Yihong is right. The Classic of Mountains and Seas clearly states that the east-west distance of heaven and earth is 28,000 miles, and the north-south distance is 26,000 miles...

Add to that the distribution in China, overseas, and in the wilderness, and it’s not an exaggeration to include America and Africa.

They had originally planned to force the Crown Prince Regent to agree to suspend the reform of the imperial examination today, but when they heard that the Western barbarians had snatched so much gold and silver from right under their noses, the civil and military officials in the Fengtian Hall felt that it would be more painful than killing them.

Uh, huh, that’s all huh!

Jia Cong watched the excitement with his hands in his pockets. The Crown Prince looked confusedly at the officials in the hall who were filled with righteous indignation and wanted to bite the Western barbarians to death. He looked at the ministers in the cabinet with great doubt.

"Masters, this..."

Mr. Zhou Jiong took another leave today. It is said that he is not feeling well and needs to rest for a few days.

Xia Lingxing, the deputy minister who was temporarily in charge of the cabinet affairs, nodded and said, "Your Highness, I think it is time to start the process of enfeoffment in America."

In fact, the Celestial Empire had already formulated a complete and detailed strategy for colonizing America, but only a few important officials and royal relatives knew about it.

Today is a good opportunity to make part of the plan public, and also to test the reaction of the court.

"Enfeoffment? What enfeoffment?"

It was the first time for the middle-level officials in the palace to hear about it. After Xia Lingxing briefly introduced what the governor-general system and the overseas feudal system were, the Fengtian Palace was completely in an uproar.

"To put it simply, as long as you have the ability to go to America or Africa and occupy a piece of land, the imperial court will not hesitate to confer titles on you, as long as you pay tribute to the imperial court every year!"

Kings, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and men, as long as you can respect the Celestial Empire as your supreme authority, becoming a duchy or a marquisate is not a dream!
This is the strategy formulated by the central government. Instead of fighting within the country, it is better to fight outside.

"What if a merchant conquers a piece of land overseas? Can he also be granted a title?"

Someone raised this question, and Xia Lingxing just smiled and said, "As long as we can conquer and hold on, it won't be a problem to appoint him as governor."

What businessmen? Behind them are gentry and officials.

This test was also within the cabinet's expectations. The population of the Celestial Empire would only grow. Although the Celestial Empire was vast and rich in resources, one day it would become so crowded that the land could no longer support the population.

It’s better to set the tone now and continue to expand outward.

Go out, the sky is high and the earth is vast!

Of course, if we say today that we allow our people to go overseas to colonize, it is just a matter of issuing a decree.

Except for the royal family members and military nobles who were granted fiefdoms, the rest of the people had to go out to sea and raise their own funds and recruit their own personnel. The court only provided sea charts, which could be sold to ships at low prices.

Just like the great voyages of discovery, the first group of people who went out to sea were basically just fearless desperados.

"Okay, the sea has been opened for several years, and you have more or less heard about what overseas is like. There are endless wealth on the sea, but also countless dangers. However, now is a time of great contention. If our dynasty does not fight, it will only benefit the Western barbarians. Therefore, the cabinet drafts an order to order the officials to organize an army of no less than 50,000 people, cross the sea to the east, colonize... to America to rescue the suffering people of the Celestial Empire!"

It doesn’t matter what they think inside, the prince has expressed his meaning in a righteous manner anyway.

The American Indians have been the people of the Celestial Empire since ancient times, and they must be saved from disaster.

The Governor's Office and the Ministry of War began discussions and selected some elite soldiers from the imperial guards. At the same time, they posted a notice to recruit young and strong people who were good at water from the public.

After handling a few official duties in the Imperial Household Department, Jia Cong leisurely left the imperial city and prepared to return to Rongguo Mansion.

Unexpectedly, before he even got on the carriage, he was surrounded by a group of people.

"Finally, you have arrived, my Lord. I and other family heads of the Capital City Chamber of Commerce have prepared some wine in Penglai Pavilion. Please come over for a chat, my Lord."

News spreads really fast!
Jia Cong smiled and nodded to the heads of the Beijing Chamber of Commerce.

Penglai Pavilion was originally the headquarters of the Capital Chamber of Commerce. As the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Cao Desheng sat together with nine other wealthy merchants, including Li Daozheng, the head of the Li family who had the support of the Tu family, the son-in-law of the imperial son-in-law, and Zhang Zhiwei, the cousin of Zhang Siwei, the right governor of Sichuan. They all looked at Jia Cong with anticipation.

"It seems that everyone has received the news..."

Jia Cong did not hide it. Behind this group of people were basically royal relatives, and they had long known about the overseas fiefdoms.

The enfeoffment of the main family was destined, but these vassal families actually all had their own little thoughts.

Now the imperial court has set a precedent for allowing them to go out to sea on their own. Even if they cannot be granted overseas fiefdoms like their masters, it would be nice to go overseas to make some gold.

It would be great if we could conquer a piece of land overseas like those Western barbarians and be granted the title of viscount, baron, governor or something like that.

Jia Cong could certainly guess what these people were thinking. For example, Cao Desheng was a branch of the empress dowager's family. He had no share in the Cao family's fiefdom, but he also hoped to be granted a title.

"My Lord, I and a few of my friends would like to order ten large sea vessels from the Ministry of Industry. I hope you can help us..."

As he spoke, Cao Desheng clapped his hands, and two strong men carried a large wooden box into the private room and opened the box with a clang.

Oh, it’s so dazzling!

The box was full of gold, silver and jewelry. Jia Cong raised his hand to cover his eyes.

"What does Patriarch Cao mean by this? Given our friendship, why would we have to do this?"

Jia Cong looked displeased, as if Cao Desheng's actions had tainted the pure friendship between them.

But Cao Desheng still insisted and had the wooden box covered and placed next to Jia Shiyi.

"My Lord, friendship is friendship, but if you don't accept this box, we don't have the face to let you be the middleman. We relied on our well-informed information and proximity to the central government to get the upper hand, so we invited you first. The Ministry of Industry's orders are likely to increase significantly, and with you as the middleman, we can rest assured."

Cao Desheng was an experienced man and knew that the Ministry of Works was Jia Cong's private domain, especially the several shipyards within the Ministry of Works.

At this time, whoever has faster hands will have the greatest advantage.

If they want the Ministry of Industry to take over their order, Jia Cong must go and talk to them.

Even his main family, the Cao family, was not as effective as Jia Cong in the Ministry of Works.

Jia Cong nodded reluctantly and accepted the silver, then glanced at the wealthy businessmen present.

"You all know me well. Considering our friendship over the years, I will give you a glimpse of the truth..."

Everyone perked up instantly. Jia Cong said solemnly, "Australia is the destination my family has reserved for the prince in the palace. The one in Tianzhu is the Prince Ji's Mansion... To the east, America, England and France are almost fighting each other to death. It's not suitable for you to go there for the time being. Go to Africa. The southernmost tip of Africa is known as the Golden Horn..."

Monthly ticket recommendation ticket

　Yesterday, a chapter about colonization was blocked and could not be released. Today I wrote a new chapter, which should be able to connect to the previous plot.

　　I'll revise it tomorrow and see if I can release it...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)