His Royal Highness Prince Lu was very pleased.
In his opinion, these nobles are actually similar to him. They are all just in name but not doing anything. Why can they join the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance and make their mouths full of food? I can only rely on that. Is King Jing’s legacy of extremely poor profitability a living?
What's more, King Jing's legacy is extremely important, and it's hard to say whether he can get the real number. Although his mother has promised him privately, after all, the real head of the Ming Dynasty now is the emperor's brother.
As long as the emperor is easy to talk to, that's all. If he is not easy to talk to, or doesn't want to bear the pressure from the outer court, wouldn't he not be able to get fifty or sixty thousand taels a year?
Is this also called Zhufan Guanzhan? Do you see how poor the princes are now?
Seeing His Royal Highness Prince Lu's face getting worse and worse, Gao Jingshi knew that the heat was almost over, but it was best not to speak first, but to wait until Prince Lu took the initiative to mention it.
So he pretended to be thirsty and coughed lightly, picked up the tea cup on the table, gracefully wiped the non-existent tea foam with the lid of the cup twice, and then took a sip.
This move did not wake up His Royal Highness Prince Lu, who was lost in thought, but it alerted the Chief of Prince Lu's Palace. Chang Shi was afraid of neglecting Gao Pragmatic, so when he saw this action, he immediately asked in a low voice: "Gao Gongbao, is the tea soup getting cold?"
Gao Pragmatic was a little speechless. You are also the head of the royal family, and a scholar who has been on the gold list. Why do you ask this question as if you want to pour me tea in person? Even if you have the nerve to pour it, I have to have the nerve to accept it.
Gao Jingshi just smiled and waved, but before he had time to be polite, His Royal Highness Prince Lu was awakened by his long history's words and suddenly asked: "Gao Gongbao, although what you just said makes sense, I suddenly thought of a trouble. .”
Huh? The level of His Highness seems to be a little higher than I thought, but he didn't ask me for advice immediately?
"If you have any trouble, Your Highness, you might as well come and hear it."
King Lu sighed and said: "Although Gao Gongbao has turned stones into gold, Xiao Wang is not as capable as Gao Gongbao. Even if Gao Gongbao is willing to give some advice to Xiao Wang, it will take Xiao Wang to do so." Only with capital can things be accomplished. At present, the Ministry of Household Affairs cannot even come up with a single statement about King Jing’s legacy. It’s still unclear how long it will take to get it all in place. No matter how much Xiao Wang is moved, there is nothing he can do. ah!"
After hearing this, Gao Pangshi couldn't help but snorted in his heart, and thought to himself: This guy was already so greedy even before he became a vassal. No wonder his mausoleum later exceeded the standard. Hey, since I came to see you in person and said what I said, of course I don’t want you to get these inheritances of King Jing and cause harm to the local people and trouble to local officials. You actually want to kill King Jing. Let’s wait until we get the inheritance?
Could it be that you still want to take advantage of King Jing’s inheritance first, and then slowly invest money to ride on my ride in Jinghua? What a beautiful thought.
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "Giving up, giving up, everything in the world must be given up first, and then gained. King Jing's legacy is famous all over the world. Everyone in the world knows that it is huge, but few people know that his benefits are not outstanding. .Now His Highness must first take possession of King Jing’s legacy. I think this is a small move at the expense of a big one, but it is really not the behavior of a wise man.”
Gao Pragmatic didn't wait for Zhu Yili to ask questions, and continued: ""Your Highness may not agree with what I said, but it doesn't matter, please listen to me carefully. "
Zhu Yili did not agree with what Gao Jingshi said just now, but he did not dare to disapprove of Gao Jingshi, so he nodded and said seriously: "I would like to hear Gong Bao's words."
Gao Pragmatic was not polite, nodded and said: "Since everyone in the world knows that King Jing's inheritance is very huge, once His Highness pursues it and demands a real amount, then everyone in the world will regard His Highness as a wealthy man. In this way, Your Highness will want to do more in the future If you do anything, you will have to endure endless prying eyes, and everyone will pay attention to His Highness's every move. If you are not careful, Your Highness will be reprimanded by the court and discussed by the people..."
King Lu's expression didn't change much. It seemed that he was not afraid of this.
Gao Pragmatic was not surprised, and just said softly: "Perhaps Your Highness thinks that with the protection of the Queen Mother and the Emperor, these reprimands and discussions are nothing to Your Highness. But Your Highness should know that the days are endless, and human life is limited. The Queen Mother How long can I protect His Highness? Ten years, twenty years, thirty or forty years?"
Zhu Yirui looked at Gao Pragmatic in shock and was speechless.
Do you dare to say such a thing?
The chief historian was so angry that he wished he could cut off his own ear - why am I here? Is this what I should be listening to?
But Gao's pragmatic expression looked more and more sincere. He sighed: "This is not what a minister should say. However, when the late emperor ordered his ministers to read to the prince, he once told him, 'Little Gaoqing's family must know everything in the future. "Speaking, speaking without exhaustion is the only way... Now that the late emperor's words are still in my ears, I dare not not speak out and give my correct advice, out of loyalty to the late emperor, I hope His Highness will understand."
There are daily records to check what the late emperor said. Since Gao Pragmatic dared to say it, Zhu Yili certainly would not doubt it. When the word "Xiandi" came up, of course he had nothing to say and could only nod to express understanding.
However, Gao Pragmatic's words really shocked him.
At Zhu Yili's age, he would not have considered that his mother would die one day. This would be no different from people hundreds of years later. What's more, his mother was in good health and there was no serious problem at all. He just I have never thought about it from this angle.
But now Gao Pragmatic said this bluntly, and the meaning was extremely simple: You are now "fearless" because of the protection of your mother, but your mother is more than 20 years older than you after all. She is, after all, You will die, who will you rely on then?
Do you rely on your royal brother? Of course this is the case in theory, but in terms of true love, is the emperor's brother really as good as his mother?
There is no need to prove this at all. Zhu Yili certainly knew that it was impossible.
I thought more seriously that if the emperor's brother had no children, he might have a better attitude towards me, but that is not really comparable to the mother's love, it's just that there is nothing he can do. What's more, the imperial brother has a son, so in his eyes, what does his younger brother mean?
If you are honest, then the feudal lords will be watching. If you are dishonest...hehe.
Zhu Yirui took a deep breath, his face began to look tangled, and after a long while he said: "Xiao Wang now believes that Gao Gongbao did come with sincerity today, but Gao Gongbao just said that only by giving up can you gain... If Xiao Wang understands it well. Gao Gongbao wants to persuade Xiao Wang to give up King Jing’s legacy, right? But if King Jing’s legacy is given up, what will Xiao Wang get? "
"Endure the calm for a while and take a step back to open up the world." Gao Pingshi said calmly: "If His Highness can give up King Jing's legacy, it is certain that the world will be praised as a virtuous man, but that is not all. Apart from this, since everyone in the world knows Your Highness has given up King Jing’s legacy, so wouldn’t it be natural for Your Highness to earn some money through other means?”
King Lu frowned and said: "Of course that's the truth, but doesn't it come back? Without King Jing's legacy, how can Xiao Wang make money?"
Gao pragmatic chuckled: "Look and rely on opportunities."
King Lu was puzzled and said: "I don't know what Gao Gongbao is referring to? Xiao Wang has not been out of the palace for a long time to study, and his knowledge is shallow. Please give Gao Gongbao more details."
Gao Pragmatic was already prepared. He took out an unsealed envelope from his arms, took out a few pieces of paper from the envelope, chose one of them and handed it to Zhu Yili, saying: "Your Highness, you can tell the Emperor, in order to avoid infringement on the people." Noisy, although His Highness’s fiefdom remains unchanged, King Jing’s inheritance is gone and will only be exchanged for the island marked on this map.”
Unexpectedly, Zhu Yiliu couldn't see where Gao Pingshi's picture was after looking at it for a long time, so he had to ask his long history.
Chang Shi looked at it for a while and was a little surprised, but he still replied: "From the picture, it seems that this island is in Guangdong, and it is not far from the Pearl River Estuary."
Gao pragmatic smiled, nodded and said, "Yes, this island is under the jurisdiction of Xin'an County, Guangdong."
"It's not even a county?" King Lu looked at Gao Pragmatic with wide eyes and asked in disbelief: "Gao Gongbao persuaded the little king to exchange King Jing's inheritance for this mere island for food? Gongbao, even if This place is a fishing ground, and Xiao Wang will be far away in Weihui, Henan Province, so I’m afraid he won’t be able to eat the fresh sea fish here.”
These words were obviously filled with anger, and he was almost uncontrollable.
But Gao Jingshi was not in a hurry at all, but said with a serious face: "Yes, as long as His Highness can persuade the Emperor to exchange this island for King Jing's inheritance, in three years at the latest, His Highness's annual income should be at least one hundred thousand Two or more.”
"What?" Zhu Yili was shocked: "Gao Gongbao is kidding, isn't he? What's the use of this island?"
Of course it is useful. If it is of great use, this island will be very powerful in future generations.
The development of this small island during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and before the Sui and Tang Dynasties was relatively average. It was not until the Song and Yuan Dynasties that a large number of people from the mainland moved there, which promoted the local economy and culture to develop greatly. During the Yuan Dynasty, the area belonged to Jiangxi Province. During the Yuan Dynasty, an inspection department was set up in Tuen Mun in the southwest of the island and Tuen Mun in the outer port of Guangzhou to station troops for a long time to prevent pirate invasion and protect the Guangzhou area.
During the Wanli Period, part of Dongguan County was set aside to establish Xin'an County. Specifically, this island has been under the jurisdiction of Xin'an County, Guangzhou Prefecture since the Wanli Period.
The name of this island is almost unknown to later generations: Hong Kong is also.
However, in the original history, before the British occupied Hong Kong, Hong Kong was basically a desert island. Only a few fishermen lived in Stanley, Tai Tam Tuk and Shek Pai Wan in the south of the island, and in A Kung Rock and Shui Tseng Wan in the east. In other places such as Wong Nai Chung, Deng Di Chau and Qi Sisters, there were some small village bays. At that time, there were only about 3,000 residents on the island.
However, the British were interested in the potential of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor to become an excellent port in East Asia, so they have been focusing on seizing it from the Tatars.
During the Ming Dynasty, the population of Hong Kong Island was not large, and it was also a desolate fishing village island. But just like the British in original history, Gao Pragmatic also took a fancy to Hong Kong.
What did the British think of Hong Kong at that time? At that time, the world had entered the colonial era, and the British Empire had established colonies in many parts of the world. However, at this time, Britain was still a country of merchants, and it would conduct careful cost accounting when formulating foreign policies. Costs and benefits were still considered as the starting point for making foreign strategic decisions.
Whether to turn this place into a colony or keep it as it is; whether to be directly ruled by the British or to support local agents, the key to thinking about these issues still lies in the cost.
Therefore, when some places did not have a large population and lacked complete social organizations or government agencies, the British might directly occupy the place as a colony. If there were local chiefs, even if they were just native chiefs, the British would make use of these chiefs and then colonize the place step by step.
The British understood that for a huge country like China, the cost of completely destroying its state machinery and then establishing a new colonial government was too high, and it was not in its interests.
The British also admitted that they were a merchant government. When they went to war with the Tatars, they only forced the Tatars to open their markets. This was what later generations would say was the first step for Britain to drag China into its world system.
The reason why Britain forced the Tatars to cede Hong Kong was also for this purpose. When it sent the Macartney mission to China, it also wanted to find a place as its commercial base.
Macartney's reason is very simple. The Ming Dynasty gave the Portuguese a Macau as a stronghold. Why can't it give us the British one now? At that time, the British considered Ningbo and Zhoushan, and finally chose Hong Kong.
But Gao Pragmatic already has a private port in Guangzhou, so why does he want to bring Hong Kong into the Jinghua private port chain?
This matter has something to do with Huang Zhiting and the Spanish President Alfaro last time. To put it simply, Gao Jingshi actually agreed to the Spaniards and replaced Portugal in the Ming Dynasty. However, in fact, Gao Jingshi did not intend to directly squeeze Portugal out. He hoped to balance the strength of the "two teeth" and allow them to maintain competition. ——Even though the two countries are now in a common monarchy and federal relationship, since each has its own government, Gao Pragmatism can still be used.
You can even quietly stir up conflicts between them.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic plans to use Hong Kong as the foothold of the Spanish, but he cannot use methods such as leasing to affect sovereignty, but must limit it to commercial leasing - for example, leasing some land in the port area to the Spaniards so that they can Unload cargo to facilitate transactions with Guangzhou Port.
One thing to note here is that according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, neither the Portuguese nor the Spaniards in the future are allowed to take the initiative to go to Guangzhou Port. Ming merchants in Guangzhou Port can only contact them - in short, their ships Kazuto cannot enter the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. If they want to trade, the Ming Dynasty can only take the initiative, so they need a foothold close to the mainland.
It was here that Gao Pragmatic took a fancy to Hong Kong, and this was also the reason why he introduced Hong Kong Island to Zhu Yili.
After Zhu Yixuan got Hong Kong Island, as long as the trade with the Spanish was carried out smoothly, and nothing else, the rent collection alone would definitely be higher than the profit of King Jing's legacy.
If you are willing to give up, this is gain.
Even if the Spaniards may still decline in the future, Hong Kong's geographical location is here, and the location advantage is obvious enough. Even if the Spaniards do not do business in the future, the Dutch and the British will naturally take their place.
This is a deal you can never lose money on.
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