"Third sister, Chagu, Xiangyu, Zhen'e, Dongzhu, Erlin, Ajige, Gaomei, Miho, Mary, Natalie, Sizhen, do you all understand what I just said? Whoever doesn’t want it, tell me now.”
Tonight, the twelve concubines from Zhu Cihong's harem gathered together for a rare dinner at Zhu Cihong's Yanshan Palace. After three rounds of wine and five delicious dishes, Emperor Zhu Da told the big guys about the big deal of "investing in the founding of the country".
The vast majority of these women have given birth to sons for Emperor Zhu, and some have given birth to more than one son. Among them, the youngest Miho Takada and Natalie are also pregnant. Even though they did not give birth to a son this time, based on their With your age and degree of favor, there will be many opportunities in the future. Therefore, Zhu Cixi also counts them both, and plans to give each of the twelve concubines a quota for "investing in the founding of the country" - of course this is a new quota, which has already been given to the Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty (son of Wu Sanmei), the King of Hezhong (Zheng Cha) The son of his aunt) and the King of Joseon (the son of Kim Dong-joo) do not account for the quota.
In other words, Wu Sanmei, Zheng Chagu and Jin Dongzhu can all take an extra share.
"Your Majesty, can my child also become a king?" Mary Mancini asked Emperor Zhu Da, blinking her big talking eyes. But the answer was already written on her face.
Of course she, the "royal mistress," wants to seek a throne for her son!
"Of course! Henry is also my son!" Zhu Cixiang looked at Mancini with a smile.
This woman is now in her twenties and has given birth to two children. Her body has completely grown and her figure has not lost much shape. This is when she is most charming. And she is also very good at making use of her natural capital. She has fascinated Zhu Cixi in recent years, and she has accumulated a huge sum of money as a result.
Zhu Cixiang smiled at Mancini unknowingly: "Mary, I will not treat little Henry badly. I will definitely prepare a very wealthy city-state for him, but you also have to invest in this city-state. Capital."
"Okay," Mary Mancini smiled happily, "That's what it should be... It's what I should invest in Henry."
Of course, a mother should spend money for her own son. Emperor Zhu will discuss this matter with his women tonight in order to attract investment from them. It's not that Zhu Cixiang can't come up with the money, but he knows that most of these women have their own little plans. Except for Wu Sanmei, whose mother is in the world, no one regards the money from the Royal Chamber of Commerce as their own.
So we have to let them invest a lot of money in their son's country, because only if they invest money themselves do they know how to cherish it!
And if mothers cherish it, only those who are sons will cherish it!
"Your Majesty, there are twelve of us sisters. Each of us has one country, which makes us twelve countries. Are there that many? Our family can't take all the benefits, right?"
Queen Wu Sanmei spoke after Mancini. She was supposed to be the first to speak, but the Italian vixen beat her to it. But she won't be as familiar as the little fox - the little fox has no status, and any son he has will not be named after the Zhu family, so no matter how favored he is, he will not threaten Wu Sanmei in the slightest.
“It’s impossible to build a big country like the United States,” Zhu Cixiang said with a smile. “It’s also impossible to build a fifteen thousand-mile square kingdom like the Jiaqing Kingdom...but city-states and principalities are still possible. In fact, building a big country is all about burning money. Although I am rich, I cannot build thirteen countries that are burning money at the same time.
So I want to build a kingdom of thousands of miles for each of our twelve sons! "
"Wanli?" Tokugawa Takako stuck out his tongue, "That's pretty big too!"
"Not big, not big," Zhu Cixiang shook his head, "The so-called thousands of miles does not mean thousands of miles across, but thousands of miles square... It means that there are thousands of miles square of fertile soil that can be cultivated, and there are no mountains, forests, sandy land, or tidal flats that cannot be cultivated. Counted.”
"How old is it?" Tokugawa Takako still didn't understand.
"About 4 million acres." Zhu Cixiang said, "If the rent is charged at five dou per acre, it would be 2 million shi."
"Two million stones!"
Now Tokugawa Takako finally understood, "Then the twelve princes can get a total of 24 million koku, which is almost as big as Japan!"
"Actually, it's not that big," Zhu Cixiang waved his hand. "Japan is covered in mountains and there is not much arable land. The country I want to build for the twelve princes will be located on the Malacca Peninsula. Although it is not as big as Japan. It is large, but has a lot of flat land. It should be enough to divide twelve states with an area of 10,000 square miles. If it is not enough, then we can draw some more territory on the island of Sumatra opposite the Malacca Peninsula.
So I plan to build twelve big cities in places where ports and trade can be opened, and each big city will cover thousands of miles square of land. Each of the twelve princes you gave birth to for me can get a big city and the title of Duke, and at the same time, they can also receive the title of Prince of the Ming Dynasty! "
Wu Sanmei had seen the world map and knew the size of the Malacca Peninsula. She immediately laughed and said: "Isn't it a bit crowded to build twelve principalities in such a narrow place?"
Zhu Cixiang shook his head: "Although the place is small, it is also rich, and it is also at the center of the east-west sea trade. Even if we cannot build twelve kingdoms, eight to nine will be no problem, and the rest will be built on Sumatra. This way We can firmly control the Strait of Malacca!"
It turned out that Zhu Cixi wanted to establish twelve city-states and principalities for his sons on the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra Island.
The reason why a bunch of city-states and principalities were built instead of a large kingdom was because the chokepoint of Malacca was too important and too rich to be ruled by a single vassal state. Otherwise, it would be difficult for this vassal state to grow big. Packed up.
As for placing the Strait of Malacca under the jurisdiction of a vassal town, it is also inappropriate - if this vassal town does not have jurisdiction over the navy, it cannot control the strait, and there is no need to set it up. If the navy is under the jurisdiction of the vassal, then the strength of this vassal town will be too great.
It is also impossible to establish a direct province in Malacca. The Strait of Malacca is the place where the three major civilization circles of China, Tianfang Sect and Christianity collide. However, the direct province cannot handle such a lot of troubles at all, and they all have to be reported to the imperial court, and the imperial court is eight thousand miles away - by sea! How long it takes depends on the situation. If you want to travel by land, it will be at least 15,000 miles, and there is no post station from the General Affairs Department...
After careful consideration, Zhu Cixi chose the method of governing the land area of the Strait of Malacca with the twelve principalities each taking charge of their own affairs - these twelve city-states could adopt the method of "Han and co-governance" and be governed by the merchant gentry and bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty. In the cities and suburbs, Japanese samurai families suppressed the countryside and firmly controlled the land in the Strait of Malacca.
At the same time, the Malacca Garrison Fleet (Ming Navy) was established to control the Strait channels. Thus turning the Strait of Malacca into the southwest gateway of the Chinese civilization circle!
Zheng Chagu still knows the situation in Nanyang relatively well. After hearing what Zhu Cihong said, she immediately frowned: "Your Majesty, Malacca is the territory of the Dutch now! If we want to go south..."
"Of course there will be a conflict with the Dutch!" Zhu Cixiang said with a smile, "The report from the American Government said that peace talks with the Kingdom of New Spain are in progress, and an armistice treaty is expected to be reached this year! Once there is an armistice with Spain, we will be free to deal with it. It’s the Netherlands.”
"But once we go to war with the Netherlands, will Spain tear up the peace treaty?" It's not easy for Zheng Chagu to actually have some international vision!
Zhu Cixiang smiled: "Spain will not break the treaty, because Philip IV will not live long... As soon as he dies, his son-in-law Louis XIV will attack the Spanish Netherlands. Then the Spaniards will have to Go all out against France, maybe the Dutch will get involved in the war too!
As soon as the Netherlands is involved, Britain will definitely join the French side in the war... This war is of vital importance to Spain, so Don Juan Jose will not have the energy to go against us anymore. . "
