Zheng Zhilong frowned and calculated the account for Zhu Cixiang, "Qiantai Master, a big bird boat can only carry two to three thousand shi of rice at most... No matter how cheap the rice in Annan, Champa, and Shuizhenla is, It costs four to five taels of silver and one stone to transport it on the ship, right? The price difference for a ship of rice is only two to three thousand taels. If you deduct the sailor’s wages and the cost of repairing the ship, it’s not much!”
Zhu Cixiang laughed: "Old Taishan, your calculation is wrong!"
How could it be wrong? Zheng Zhilong said in his heart: I know how to settle accounts! I can make millions in accounts a year without even counting them on my fingers...
Zhu Cixiang thought to himself: Can you settle the score with me? I'm so good at math, I'm the one who almost got full marks in math in the college entrance examination... I used to calculate tens of billions of accounts without even counting on my fingers!
And the business of buying rice in Annam, Champa, and Shuizhenla is not what you do at all. The place to make money in this business is not selling rice, but colonizing!
As far as Zhu Cixi knew, colonization also had its rewards and losses. Colonization at a loss is about gaining territory—it can also be seen as a long-term, money-burning investment.
There are two types of profitable colonization. One is to make money. For example, the Dutch East India Company's colonization of Taiwan was to obtain a stronghold for trade with China and Japan.
The other type is to gain both wealth and land. Not only do you want to make money, but you also have to gain territory.
Now the Ming Dynasty has a lot of internal and external troubles, and it is not rich. It is impossible to lose money and spend money on colonization, otherwise it will lose money. But at the same time, the Ming Dynasty also had a large population, which was different from the Netherlands where there were not many people. We couldn't just think about money but not the territory. So we have to take the path of gaining both wealth and land!
When it comes to gaining both wealth and land, wealth comes first and land comes last! The key is to first find an industry that can "drain" traffic - even if it makes less money or makes no money at all, a certain number of people must be attracted from the mainland to the colonies.
Only when the colony's population increases can it further develop industries and cities, so that it can occupy land and obtain generous returns.
Although the rice trade with Champa and Sui Chenla is not very profitable, it can be done on a large scale. The Mekong Delta was still very developed in this era, and there was a large area of land that could be cultivated, but at the same time it was also It’s not that there is no foundation. There is a port city named Puliango that has developed very well. This city became Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City in the future. It is still the territory of the Kingdom of Thuy Chenla, but it was given to a Nguyen Lord of Quang Nam (a separatist regime in Annan) who married King Thuy Chenla more than 20 years ago. As a result, it became a paradise for Annan refugees fleeing the Zheng-Nguyen conflict.
The Annan refugees are similar to the Han people of the Ming Dynasty in terms of national origin, living habits, and language. Moreover, there is no official Annan Kingdom, only the Annan Capital Commandery of the Ming Dynasty!
In other words, Annan is not a truly independent country now, but a chieftain regime dependent on the Ming Dynasty - this matter must start with the decline and usurpation of the Li Dynasty after Annan. The Hou Li Dynasty of Annam entered the so-called "middle decline era" at the beginning of the 16th century. The clans killed each other and powerful ministers took the opportunity to rise. One of the powerful ministers named Mo Dengyong finally blocked the sky with one hand and played the trick of abdicating and usurping the country.
But this time the usurpation of the throne was not done swiftly. The other two powerful families in the later Li Dynasty, the Zheng family and the Ruan family, were not convinced by the Mo family's usurpation of the throne - they wanted to usurp it themselves! Mo Dengyong took the lead, so he had no choice but to become a loyal minister of the Li Dynasty's ZTE, find a distant relative of the Li Dynasty to be the emperor, and go against Mo Dengyong. Moreover, they also sent people to Beijing to ask for help from Emperor Jiajing. The Ming Dynasty was the nominal suzerain of Annan! Can't we ignore the usurpation of the throne in the vassal country?
So Emperor Jiajing sent a large army to attack Mo Dengyong. Mo Dengyong realized that something was wrong. He couldn't balance the troops of the Zheng and Ruan families. If he added another Ming Dynasty, wouldn't he be doomed? Therefore, he surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and wanted to be a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty. When Emperor Jiajing saw that Annan had returned inexplicably, he of course stopped attacking Mo Dengyong and made him the commander-in-chief of Annan.
Annan Kingdom is gone!
Unfortunately, Lord Mo, who became the commander-in-chief of Annan, was still unable to defeat the remnants of the Li Dynasty. In 1592, he lost the capital of Thang Long and the remaining troops fled to the Ming Dynasty.
The revived Le Dynasty then professed its vassalage to the Ming Dynasty and requested to restore the title of Annan. However, he did not get the consent of the Ming Dynasty, and only transferred the title of Annan Commander-in-Chief to the Later Li Dynasty.
However, the chaos in Annan did not end with Hou Li's resurgence, but instead became even more chaotic.
Because the Later Li Dynasty itself had no strength, it relied on the support of Lords Zheng and Ruan to revive. After the ZTE, it was natural for the two masters Zheng and Ruan to usurp the throne. But there is only one big position, who can usurp it? So the two families started fighting. At the same time, the Mo family, who had fled to the Ming Dynasty for refuge, was not cool enough. In 1600, he restored the throne and captured Tsang Long. Although they did not hold on after that, they fled to the separatist regime of Gaoping Prefecture in the north of Annan.
In addition, there was another Wu clan (Wu Degong) who played a big role in the collapse of the Mo Dynasty. In 1599, he rebelled and called himself King Longping. He also separated a piece of territory in the north of Annan Kingdom.
Therefore, there are now four political regimes in the small Annan Kingdom, which is a mess internally, and externally everyone has to recognize the "good father" of the Ming Dynasty.
But such an Annan still had the power to bully the Champa Kingdom and Shuizhenla in the south - it was not Zheng Ruan Mowu who bullied them together. Just the Nguyen Lord of Guangnan suppressed Champa and Shuizhenla. , you can imagine how weak these two countries are.
And Zhu Cixiang, who aspires to be a big colonizer, is now very weak, and the four "little masters" of Annan Kingdom may not be able to be eliminated.
But he also needs to import grain from overseas and acquire farmland at the same time to alleviate the domestic contradiction between man and land. So I can only bully the two weakest ones, Champa and Shuizhenla... and I don't dare to send out soldiers to destroy the country aggressively - because the soldiers will be used to deal with the Tatars and Li Zicheng. Therefore, we can only use coaxing and deception to take advantage of Champa Kingdom and Shuizhenla.
Zhu Cixiang saw that Zheng Zhilong didn't understand, so he had to explain patiently: "Old Taishan, you really can't make much money by buying rice from Annan, Champa, and Shuizhenla and selling it in Quanzhou and Shanghai. After deducting the cost, you may not make much money. But you have to know , if we spend half a tael of silver to buy rice from Annam, Champa, and Shuizhenla, and buy in large quantities, someone will definitely go there to cultivate and plant rice.
Regardless of Annan, both Champa and Shuizhenla have a large amount of wasteland and fertile soil that can be cultivated. Moreover, the national strength of these two countries is extremely weak. Even Annan, who is divided into four parts of a country, can bully them at will, let alone our great Ming Dynasty?
Now that our country is short of food, it would be their honor to borrow their fertile soil for cultivation! And we don’t cultivate their fields in vain. We can protect them from being annexed by the Annan family. For their princes, is it also a good thing? "
Zheng Zhilong still didn't understand. This matter might be a good thing for Shui Zhenla and the king of Champa, but what good would it do to the Zheng family?
Zhu Cixiang went on to say: "The rice from Shuizhenla and Champa needs to be transshipped through ports and commercial ports. Of course, these transshipment ports and commercial ports can be turned into our territory... In this way, we can use it in Shuizhenla and Champa." La and Champa have strongholds that can exist for a long time. Shuizhenla and Champa are on the trade routes between China and Southeast Asia. Once we have a stronghold, our merchant ships will go to Nanyang and Siam. It’s much more convenient. Your Zheng family’s territory at sea can also be expanded accordingly.
Moreover, Shuizhenla and Champa also have many specialties that can be sold for money, such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, ebony, agarwood, and yellow wax. They can also grow sugar cane and produce sucrose. As long as we have a stronghold there, these can become our things to make money. "
That seems to be what happened... Zheng Zhilong felt a little dizzy when he heard it. He was obviously in the business of buying and selling rice, so why did he occupy other people's land to build a port and commercial port, and also take all other people's specialties as his own? This sounds like something the Tatars and Westerners did! My great dynasty should be a dignified country, so why do I do this kind of deception, abduction and bullying?
