"Brother Imperial, I think this "Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom" is generally good, but there are still two omissions..."
Zhu Cibing, wearing a straight woolen arrow jacket, rode his horse to follow Zhu Cixiang, walking side by side in the snow-covered Laoshan hunting ground, only half a horse behind Emperor Zhu.
This blessed Prince Fu returned to Yingtian before the Chinese New Year, and was promoted, from being a clerk at Jinling Women's University to being Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Cabinet Office - this is a "Royal Elder"! It was a first, but it didn't cause too much trouble in the court.
Because King Fu Zhu Cibing did have the qualifications to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs. This man had been sent to the West twice, and both were very successful. The first time he brought back Princess Nisha for Zhu Cixiang; the second time he contributed to the fall of Vienna.
Moreover, Zhu Cibing was a serious imperial student who had been an official for more than ten years. He was also very popular - he had been the female chief minister for many years, and she was the Queen of the Ming Dynasty! I don’t know how many good marriages have been facilitated. Can the popularity be bad? Therefore, the big guys really can't object to Zhu Cibing's entry into the cabinet.
It's just this precedent... Haha, the royal cabinet!
Looking back at his brother, Zhu Cixiang remembered Henry Zhu who had become Henry de Mancini - this boy was quite capable. If he hadn't become the Archduke of Austria, he would definitely become the Archduke of Austria in the future. The first assistant!
Zhu Cixiang sighed and turned his mind back to the Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom. He asked, "Where is the omission?"
Zhu Cibing said: "Brother Emperor, the first omission is that there are too few neutral and free countries here. It is not enough to have only one Batavia Republic! Moreover, this Batavia Republic is a country of Westerners, not ours." The minds of different races must be different!”
This "neutral and free state" is not actually neutral, but an agent of a big country, using the name of neutrality in order to maintain international trade and exchanges when war breaks out between big countries... These days The war will never end, but we still have to live our lives and make money!
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty, Rome, and Ottoman all needed such neutral countries.
"That's right," Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Lao Liu, do you think we should add a few neutral and free countries?"
"Let's add two first," Zhu Cibing said with a smile, "One is Fifth Brother's Phuket Island... Although Phuket Island is not big, it is in a good location on the Little Western Ocean. And from Phuket Island The land route to Nakhon Si Thammarat Province on the Nanyang coast is not too far, only more than 300 miles."
Not long ago, Phuket was a battlefield between the Ming Dynasty and Dashun, but now the Dashun army has withdrawn, leaving behind devastation. However, the destruction of Phuket by both warring parties was, to some extent, also conducive to subsequent construction.
Because the armies of both sides on the island cut down a large number of trees, they also built many forts, forts and docks.
After the Dashun Army retreated, Zhu Cihuan, who had a conscience, allocated a large sum of reconstruction expenses to Zhu Cizhao - this was allocated in the name of military expenditures, on the grounds that he wanted to build Phuket Island into the Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition to Burma and support it. A big stronghold in India.
While receiving huge funding, Zhu Cizhao and Shi Lang also used their wartime powers to forcefully recruit a large number of indigenous people from Malacca and Sumatra to participate in the major construction projects on Phuket Island, thus greatly promoting the development and construction of Phuket Island. This makes this island located in the miasmatic land in the south have the conditions to become a neutral and free state.
"Phuket can indeed become a neutral state." Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Where is the other one?"
"Another neutral and free state of our own should be the Kingdom of Luzon!" Zhu Cibing continued, "My father has smashed all the coffins into Luzon Island in recent years..."
Zhu Cihong glanced at his brother, "Sixth, what are you talking about? Our father is the Supreme Emperor, what kind of coffin book do you want?"
This is correct. Emperor Chongzhen also died. It must have been paid for by the country and the most filial son of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cixiang, and he was buried in a grand ceremony. According to the "Royal Model" promulgated by Zhu Cixiang, the Supreme Emperor, the Supreme Empress, the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the Empress The state has to pay for the wedding and funeral of the prince and princess!
Of course, the state only provides money for a "basic grand funeral". If it really wants to go bigger, the royal family will have to pay for it themselves.
Emperor Chongzhen was the first emperor in the history of the dynasty - he himself said: Although I am not good at governing the country and using troops, I am good at raising princes. If all the princes were not still young at the time of Jiashen, how could there be such rampant rogue bandits and Eastern pirates?
Not to mention, this Emperor Chongzhen is really good at summing up experience! If he could survive in Beijing until the 27th or 37th year of Chongzhen... when Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cijiong, Zhu Cizhao, and Zhu Cihuan had all grown up, how could Li Zicheng and Donglu be so arrogant?
Those are ruthless people who have traveled thousands of miles and killed many people! The number one, number two, number three and number four ruthless people in the world are all the sons of Chongzhen!
With so many filial sons, Emperor Chongzhen still needs a coffin book?
"Brother Huang is teaching you a lesson," Zhu Cibing said with a smile, "but these old people, Eleven and others, have struggled to get to Qihai Island, and they have finally taken care of Luzon Island to some extent. As brothers, we should pull them in if we can. A handful!”
The scumbag prince has also grown up!
Although a few died in the process of growing up, those who survived were all reborn! Therefore, Luzon Island has also been on the track in recent years, and several relatively livable lands have been opened up around Manila Bay.
In addition, when the armies of the United States and the Qing Dynasty attacked the coastal provinces of southwestern Mexico, they finally discovered the legendary cinchona tree - a raw material used to produce anti-malarial drugs. Zhu Cixiang had long wanted to obtain the saplings of the cinchona tree.
However, due to the Spanish blockade and everyone's ignorance about cinchona trees, it was not easy to do it, although they successfully obtained some quinine and a few cinchona tree seedlings. However, due to poor preservation during smuggling or errors during planting, all efforts to transplant cinchona trees ended in failure!
But efforts to transplant the cinchona trees finally succeeded, after seizing parts of Mexico's southwestern coast where cinchona trees were planted.
Although it would take some time to supply quinine on a large scale, and quinine could not completely conquer malaria, it could eventually reduce the difficulty of exploring Southeast Asia.
Therefore, in Chongzhen's lifetime, he will probably be able to see the Luzon Kingdom turn its losses into profits...
"Then give them a hand!" Zhu Cixi finally nodded. In fact, putting a "neutral" sign on the Kingdom of Luzon will not greatly promote Luzon's economic development.
After all, Luzon is not on an important trade route. Not to mention compared to Temasek, even Phuket is far inferior!
Luzon has implemented "liberal neutrality", but it can make some money from ship registration, and maybe sell some national identity.
"Brother Imperial," Zhu Cibing began to talk about another loophole issue, "there is another trouble... there is a foreign country on the Little Western Ocean today!"
"A country beyond the sky? Are you talking about... rogue bandits?" Zhu Cixiang frowned.
The outer world is relative to the world. Some dignitaries, officials, and wealthy businessmen of the Ming Dynasty believed that attacking Burma and completely eliminating the rogue bandits was not worth the gain, so they simply put Burma "outside the world." And Zhu Cibing obviously thinks so too...
"Brother Emperor, of course the Roman State, the Ottoman State, and the Timurid State of Tianzhu will all recognize this "Treaty for the Protection of Neutrality and Freedom," and most other countries will also recognize it." Zhu Cibing said, "But what about this extraterrestrial country? They don't Will they recognize this treaty... They are not a party to it! But if they don't sign the treaty, then our ships will still not be able to go to the Little Western Ocean! Even the ships of the Batavia Republic will have a hard time entering the Little Western Ocean. "
It is much easier to rob at sea these days than to suppress bandits at sea!
Otherwise, the maritime powers in the West would not have paid tolls to the Barbary pirates.
Zhu Cixiang nodded and said with a smile: "Leave this matter to the prince... Hasn't he already invaded Yunnan?"
