Go to the study room.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes narrowed slightly, with a faint chill in them, while Hu Weiyong underneath looked as if nothing had happened, as if the old god was there.
"Your Majesty, I think our Ming Dynasty is not sufficiently prepared to open the sea."
Hu Weiyong continued to express his views.
"Now, although the navy led by Wei Guogong has achieved one or two victories."
"But there are still many Japanese pirates entrenched in the waters of Zhejiang."
"Furthermore, the source of Japanese pirates is that there are still many Japanese pirates in Japanese islands and other places. Before the Japanese islands are pacified, I think it is impossible to open the sea."
"If we open the sea, we should also set aside treaty ports. Otherwise, if all the cities in the coastal areas can go to the sea, I am afraid it will cause chaos and make it difficult to govern."
"I think we can first delineate the area, and then set up a municipal shipping department within the area. When the time is right, we can open the sea."
Hu Weiyong knew that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to open the sea, established a navy from Xu Da, and went to sea to fight and win consecutive battles, so he knew what Zhu Yuanzhang meant.
But opening the sea now is not a good thing.
After all, the coastline of the Ming Dynasty is very vast. If the sea ban is lifted now, people along the coast may flock to the sea, causing the land to be barren.
In addition, the Huaixi Group has not yet made plans for going overseas. If the sea ban is lifted now, the Huaixi Group will definitely be caught off guard.
It would be a good thing to wait for a while before opening the sea ban.
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Hu Weiyong's words, the chill in his eyes slowly dissipated, and then he said:
"The opening of the sea is of great importance. Before we announce the opening of the sea, no external news is allowed. Do you hear me?"
"According to the order."
Hu Weiyong bowed and responded.
"You go down first. After the pirate prisoners are escorted back to Beijing, you can go to Xu Da to hand over."
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and asked Hu Weiyong to retreat first.
After Hu Weiyong left, Zhu Biao asked Zhu Yuanzhang with a puzzled face:
"Father, do you really plan to open the sea?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said:
"In the past few days, we have been looking at the Haizhi of the previous dynasty and the Song Dynasty."
"After reading these records about sea trade, we feel that the Ming Dynasty should not close the coast, but should open the sea ban like the Song Dynasty and previous dynasties."
"Using the coast, collecting taxes, and at the same time attracting wealth from overseas to the Ming Dynasty, it's two birds with one stone."
"The reason why the rulers of the previous dynasty were able to be extravagant and lustful was because of the treaty ports of Fujian and Guangdong."
"The Song Dynasty was able to raise an army of millions in a small area because of these trading ports."
"Although we are not extravagant and lusty, but now the national treasury is empty and the people are poor. If we can open the treaty ports, we can replenish the national treasury."
"Then we can use this money to help the people, expedition to the northern grasslands, and pacify the four directions."
Zhu Yuanzhang's words were powerful and domineering, giving people an unquestionable sense of majesty.
Zhu Biao nodded in agreement, and then continued to ask:
"Father, why don't you let Li Jin stay in Fuzhou and serve as the prefect of Fuzhou?"
"If Li Jin serves as the prefect of Fuzhou, Fuzhou will definitely recover quickly, and wouldn't it be more convenient to use Fuzhou as a treaty port in the future?"
Zhu Yuanzhang replied:
"Now that the Japanese pirates have not been completely pacified, how can Li Jin waste time in Fuzhou?"
"As Hu Weiyong said just now, the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang have not been completely pacified yet."
"The Japanese pirates on the Japanese island have not yet been conquered. We still need the navy under Li Jin to quell the Japanese pirates for us."
"Moreover, the East India Chamber of Commerce he established for us and the large silver mine promised by the Japanese pirates have not yet been won by us."
"The next priority is to go to sea, and this is all based on pacifying the Japanese pirates and conquering the Japanese islands."
Only then did Zhu Biao realize that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted Li Jin to continue in Shanghu County to help exterminate Japanese pirates and subsequently conquer Japanese islands.
"But my father, Shanghu County only has a navy of 20,000 people. I'm afraid it will be difficult to conquer the Japanese island, right?"
"A few days ago, didn't we ask Li Jin to recruit another ten thousand navy?"
Zhu Yuanzhang reminded:
"Thirty thousand navy, plus Xu Da and Lan Yu, should be enough."
Only then did Zhu Biao remember that before Li Jin went south to Fujian, he asked Lan Yu to go to Yiwu to recruit soldiers again.
Presumably, Lan Yu should have almost recruited them by this time.
....
Yiwu County.
It was clearly winter, but a group of fierce men were running shirtless around the county seat of Yiwu County.
Lan Yu was wrapped like a rice dumpling, standing on the city wall of Yiwu, looking at the strong men of Yiwu running underneath.
Lan Yu followed Li Jin's instructions and came to Yiwu County to recruit the navy.
The conditions offered were very favorable, which attracted people from Yiwu County to sign up and enlist in the army.
Since there were so many people who signed up, Lan Yu could only select the strongest men to join the navy.
According to the screening method given by Li Jin, a background check was first conducted, and only good family members were eligible to join the army.
Then a physical fitness test is conducted, and only the best among them can join the army.
As time went on, Lan Yu conducted three rounds of physical fitness tests, but there were still nearly 13,000 people who passed the examination.
It can only be said that Yiwu people have a background in mining and fighting. These people are all physically strong, otherwise they would not be able to mine.
Lan Yu cherished these soldiers and simply ignored the recruitment quota given by Li Jin and accepted all 13,000 men.
Later, Lan Yu gave these people resettlement allowances with a wave of his hand, and returned to Shanghu County after three days.
Following Lan Yu were the Yiwu soldiers recruited previously.
However, there are now less than 2,000 Yiwu soldiers left.
Li Jin gave full pensions to soldiers who were killed or injured in battle, and asked Lan Yu to distribute them in front of the people of the county.
This is why so many Yiwu soldiers died in the battle, but there are still so many people willing to join the army.
There is no other reason than that Li Jin gave too much.
Those who died in battle were given a pension of two hundred taels each.
Injured and disabled people will receive a pension of 100 taels each, and will also be arranged to work in Shanghu County, with a monthly salary of 1 tael.
For ordinary people, in this era, this is already a huge amount of money.
People in Yiwu used to fight and fight to death. Death is no longer a rare thing for them.
It's just that there was no such high pension for those who died in fighting before.
As a result, the people in Yiwu County urged their men to sign up for the army. After all, the settling-in allowance given by Li Jin was a large amount of silver.
Lan Yu eventually recruited another 13,000 people in Yiwu County, and these people were handed over to the original 2,000 Yiwu Navy for brutal training.
....
Fuzhou Prefecture.
After annihilating the pirates, Li Jin and Xu Da led their troops to the Nanyang region according to the prisoners' instructions and wiped out Chen Zuyi's base camp.
Chen Zuyi's base camp is located in Southeast Asia, a place called Dragon Tooth Gate. After a little comparison, Li Jin discovered that this place called Dragon Tooth Gate is basically Singapore in later generations.
The Keppel Harbor opposite the Aralia Gate was later known as the Strait of Malacca.
The pirate forces established by Li Jin and Xu Da in Longya Gatekeeper Chen Zuyi were all eliminated.
Those who dared to resist were killed on the spot. In the end, less than 30,000 people were left, and they were dragged back to Fuzhou Prefecture by Li Jin and Xu Da.
From the Dragon Tooth Gate, Li Jin also found property worth tens of millions of taels of silver.
These properties naturally belonged to the East India Chamber of Commerce. At the beginning of going to sea, Li Jin had already reached an agreement with Zhu Yuanzhang.
After all, these ships and the navy led by Xu Da now all belong to the East India Chamber of Commerce in name only.
The ships were purchased by the East India Chamber of Commerce from Li Jin's shipyard, and the navy was hired by Li Jin in the name of the East India Chamber of Commerce.
Naturally, all these silver and slaves are the private property of the East India Chamber of Commerce.
Xu Da didn't say much, just said that he would report these to Zhu Yuanzhang and let Zhu Yuanzhang make a decision.
Li Jin ignored Xu Da, but was thinking about how to use the Longyamen Peninsula.
If you use it well, your wealth will be endless in the future.
After all, Singapore’s financial strength is obvious to all.
Singapore is a small place, but it can have such wealth because it occupies a geomantic treasure like the Strait of Malacca.
After thinking for a moment, Li Jin gradually came up with an idea.
