Chongzhen Undergraduates

"You mean what you say?" Wang Chengen was taken aback.

"Of course, you are not joking."

"The taste of this lion's head is really not good. It's too thick. It's not as tender as sunflower meat." Wang Chengen took a bite, looked at Zhu Youjian with disgust and said.

"Hahaha…"

For the salt merchants in Yangzhou, it was purely man-made.Salt has always been a large source of tax revenue for the imperial court, or it has been in official business since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

It is government-run but not state-run. It is just that the government controls the source of production but contracts the sales rights to a very small number of people.

In fact, neither the country nor the people benefited from this business, and the person who originally designed this method was purely for his own self-interest.

A lot of Chuanming novels use salt to make money and rise as primitive accumulation.To be honest, the possibility of this realization is not great.The salt merchants are indeed very rich, but it is a bit exaggerated to say that they are rich enough to support the war against China.

After all, eating salt is not food, unless you have the strength to control the national salt trade, and then sell the daily salt more expensive than the daily food.It is easy to calculate how much salt and grain a person needs in a day.Since the development of well salt mining technology in the Song Dynasty, the control of the country's economy by the salt thing has not reached the point where it can make the common people bite gold z%f.

If the traveler sells salt dozens or hundreds of times more expensive than grain, you can see if you will rise and the people will follow you.You must be a hundred times more black-hearted than the salt merchant.

The so-called recovery of state operations is actually to return profits from a very small number of people to the hands of the state, or to transfer profits to the common people.And table salt itself is also an industrial raw material, so it is impossible for Zhu Youjian to let these people lie on the spot and earn money for nothing.

There is well salt in the southwest, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi are close to the sea, and there is no need for Zhu Youjian to worry about the north of the Yellow River, so Zhu Youjian plans to set up three salt companies to produce salt in Lianghuai, Sichuan and Guangdong and Guangxi at the same time.

To take away the salt profit from the salt merchants, the fundamental core is not to control the origin of the salt, but the circulation of the salt.Ordinary traversers think that as long as they develop the technology of drying salt, they can defeat all salt merchants in minutes...

well!In fact, the core profit points of salt merchants are transportation channels and sales channels.The technology of drying salt is not very good. Don't think that the people of Ming Dynasty were so stupid that they didn't know the truth that the sun can dry water.

Where does Huai salt come from? It is because there is the largest natural tidal flat in China outside Yancheng, which is most suitable for drying salt.

(Forget it, this is the most basic noob question.)

To achieve state-owned salt, we must establish our own transportation and sales channels, which is a big project.

"Cheng Xianzhen, how many ships have been salvaged?" Zhu Youjian could only focus on the sunken ship in Gaoyou Lake.

"There are more than 5000 boats in total, but they are all small flat-bottomed boats suitable for sailing in the canal." Cheng Xianzhen said.

Zhu Youjian was a little disappointed when he heard that the sea was banned in the Ming Dynasty, and even the way of transporting salt was also affected. It was obvious that he could rely on sea transportation, but he was forced to use water transportation and mules.

It is said that water transportation has played a big role in China's development, but in fact it is all done by ourselves. Obviously, sea transportation can develop better, but Chinese people are afraid of the sea.

"The battle of the Jianghuai River has been going on for almost half a year, which means that many places have been cut off from salt for half a year, right?" Zhu Youjian suddenly thought of this problem, which is very serious.

"Yes, not only is there a shortage of salt everywhere, but there is also a shortage of food in the salt fields. Now there is a huge vacancy in shipping, and it may not be enough to rely on water transportation alone." Cheng Xianzhen hesitated to speak.

"You mean shipping on the Yangtze River?" Zhu Youjian asked.

"I am afraid that the shipping will not be timely enough..."

"Speak straight."

"Sea shipping is the fastest." Cheng Xianzhen mustered up the courage to say it.

Shipping has always been a sensitive topic in Ming Dynasty, if Cheng Xianzhen hadn't been favored recently, he might not dare to talk about it.

"It is said that Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Hongkui will come to Yangzhou to see me tomorrow." Zhu Youjian thought about it and had other ideas in his mind.

Chapter 421: Overseas Interests

In an exquisite courtyard outside Yangzhou City, Zheng Zhilong sat comfortably on a recliner drinking tea and smoking a cigarette.The braid on the back of his head was cut off on the first day he left the capital, and now even a black short inch has grown on the front of his head.

The battle of the Jianghuai River made the entire Houjin lose its ambition to recruit the Fujian Navy, not to mention that the Fujian Navy had disintegrated and split at that time.It is impossible for Zheng Chenggong to cooperate with Hou Jin.Therefore, Zheng Zhilong naturally didn't need to stay as a hostage.

"Uncle, the emperor is here." Zheng Zhilong was cleaning his ears with his eyes closed, when he heard the news, his hands trembled and his ears hurt and he woke up immediately.

Don't look at Zheng Zhilong who used to be the overlord of the sea, but now he doesn't even dare to hear Zhu Youjian's name, he trembles when he hears it. More than 100 million gold soldiers were eaten abruptly. This is no joke.Even Xiongxiong has to be honestly admired.

Where did Zheng Zhilong dare to lie down, he immediately got up, kneeled on the ground and kowtowed, not daring to lift his head.This kind of etiquette that is often forced to learn is deeply rooted in the memory.

"General Zheng, please get up quickly." Zhu Youjian quickly helped him up, his tone obviously omitted the title of title, but it can be regarded as letting go of Zheng Zhilong's surrender of gold.

Zheng Zhilong raised his head and realized that there were two people behind the emperor, his younger brother Zheng Hongkui and his son Zheng Sen.

Zheng Zhilong's eyes turned red, and he was too embarrassed to look at Zheng Chenggong. He had done too many bad things.Zheng Chenggong did not get close to his father, but stood behind Zhu Youjian, showing that he was the emperor's man.

"General Zheng, I came here this time to ask you for advice. The general has spent his whole life wandering overseas and has accumulated rich sea experience. I want to hear the general's sea stories."

"Your Majesty has offended you. You can ask me anything you want to hear, and I will tell you everything." Zheng Zhilong's lips twitched, a little aggrieved and a little excited.The courteous treatment of the Ming emperor was enough to make him ashamed.

"I don't want to hear about the Wa Kingdom today. I want to hear about the disasters suffered by the Westerners, Taiwan and Nanyang and my Huaxia people."

As soon as Zhu Youjian said this, the three members of the Zheng family were dumbfounded, and turned to look sad like a concubine.

Going to sea is the deepest memory of Fujian people. If this topic is talked about by ordinary people, it may be just a story, but if it is brought up by the emperor of the Central Plains, it will definitely touch the heartstrings of Fujian people.

If everyone didn’t pay enough attention to Nanyang at this time, the Zheng family couldn’t be more familiar with Tailat, which itself is Zheng Zhilong’s sad memory.

Since the Chinese began to ask for life from the sea, they began to want to take an organized step to the sea. If Lin Feng is a non-governmental behavior, then Zheng Zhilong definitely hopes to be No.1 under the official banner.

In other words, the idea of ​​regaining Taiwan was proposed by Zheng Zhilong, and his thoughts are much more urgent than Zheng Chenggong.

"Your Majesty..." Zheng Zhilong broke down in sobs, and immediately prostrated himself on the ground, knocking heavily on the stones on the floor, and then Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Chenggong knelt on the ground as well.

This move is no longer in the interests of the Zheng family, but to plead for the lives of thousands of Fujianese who have gone to sea.

"As the saying goes: I would rather go to the mountains than to go to the sea!" In this era, people in the mainland can't imagine how miserable people are when they go to sea.Zheng Zhilong really didn't expect Zhu Youjian to focus on this at this time.

"Today, I didn't just ask about the situation overseas, what I wanted was to let my Daming military power point to every piece of land that my people stepped on.

Zheng Chenggong, you know, my shipyard has this capability.As long as I plan well, I will have the strength to set foot on Taiwan within two years. "

Zheng Zhilong looked at Zheng Chenggong, he thought Zhu Youjian was bragging, but Zheng Chenggong nodded.

This is different. Zheng Zhilong wanted to regain Taiwan all his life, but he couldn't do so at the end of the day, because his strength was still not enough.But if the emperor of the Central Plains took action, the situation would naturally be different.

Later, Zheng Zhilong introduced the situation of Taiwan and Luzon Island to Zhu Youjian in detail.It was only then that Zhu Youjian learned that the present Taiwan was developed by the Fujianese from the thorns in the past. The Dutch occupied Taiwan in order to use Taiwan as a transit trade with Japan, and forced the Taiwanese to do hard labor, not to mention threatening the entire mainland to Japan and the sea. Benefit.

Zhu Youjian stayed here for a whole day and talked about many things overseas, but he didn't talk about the Zheng family.Zhu Youjian left alone, leaving three brothers, father and son of the Zheng family.

"Sen'er, has the emperor ever been overseas?" Zheng Zhilong was very curious. He said a lot about Nanyang and Xiyang today, but Zhu Youjian was not surprised at all. He acted as if he had been there. Zheng Zhilong himself knew all these things. I heard it from Westerners.

The simplest example is the Negro State.What Zheng Zhilong is most proud of is that he has a black guard, which he could show off when he went to the capital.

What black people might be curious about in front of ordinary people is not at all surprising to Zhu Youjian. On the contrary, the emperor can tell who they were born in, and even the difference in height between East Africa and West Africa is clear.This is not easy, because Zheng Zhilong's guard has two subordinates from East Africa and West Africa from different places thousands of miles apart.

"As far as I know, there is none. Did you know about it from Shi Lang? The emperor only sent Shi Lang to Nanyang." Zheng Chenggong was also curious that the emperor knew much more about Nanyang and the West than he did.

"Shi Lang knows shit, he can't know so much. It seems that the emperor has a master!" This is the only thing Zheng Zhilong can explain.