"Ryukyu?"

Everyone looked at the place Liu Jin pointed to and said in unison.

At this time, the treasure island is not called the treasure island, in history in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the treasure island is called 'Daoyi', at that time the world was divided into Kyushu, this treasure island was divided into the scope of Yangzhou, but at that time, it seemed that this was still a barbarian land, and there was a "Yi" word is enough to explain.

In the pre-Qin period, it was also called Yingzhou, Qin destroyed Hanxing, it was called Dongying, and when it came to the Three Kingdoms, it was called 'Yizhou', and when it came to the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, it was changed to Liuqiu, and it was changed to Ryukyu from the Yuan Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

That's why at this time, Zhang Mao, Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Fu, Xu Guangzuo and others will say Ryukyu.

In fact, there are many names here on the treasure island, "Dongfan", "chicken coop", "Dawan", "Dayuan", "Taiyuan" and so on, only in the Wanli period, because the topography of the treasure island is like a curved bow, and the floating sea is like a platform, so there is the name of "Tai~~Bay".

"Yes, it's Ryukyu."

Liu Jin smiled and nodded, then pointed to the map and said: "Everyone, please see, the location of the Ryukyus is very critical, it can enter Korea and the Japanese kingdom first, go down to the South Seas Luzon, and can also go to Australia, and at the same time it is the throat of the southeast coast, and the geographical location is very important." ”

The location of the treasure island is naturally undoubted, and now it is not prominent because it is still mainly land, but once it enters the age of sailing, the location of the treasure island is suddenly highlighted.

Everyone listened to Liu Jin's words, took a closer look, and then analyzed, and immediately nodded.

"I really didn't find this Ryukyu so important before, but now it seems that this Ryukyu is really important."

Zhang Mao stroked his beard and said.

The Ming court of this era did not pay much attention to the Ryukyus at all, and there were many reasons for this.

One is that the Ryukyus of this era have not yet been developed, and the real developers of Treasure Island are Zheng Chenggong and his descendants, and when they moved to Treasure Island, they brought tens of thousands of people with them, and it was these tens of thousands of people who began the development of Treasure Island.

Because it was not developed, the treasure island of this era was actually a barbarian land, and the description in the book was that it was full of miasma, and barbarians were not civilized.

There were very, very few Han people on the treasure island, and even in the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court organized people to move the Han people on the Ryukyus to Zhangzhou and Putian, which was considered to have abandoned this place.

The other is that Baodao and Shenzhou face each other across the sea, and it is extremely inconvenient to come and go, plus the late Yuan Dynasty began to be full of pirates and pirates, and the Ming court also felt that it was a thankless task to develop it.

In addition, the weather here is hot, there are many miasma and mosquitoes, and it is easy to breed all kinds of diseases, and it is difficult for the Han people to adapt to the environment here, and the conditions here are difficult, and there are no people willing to move there at all.

One of the most frightening things is mosquitoes, which don't just bite people, they also bring malaria, malaria, and before the cinchona tree was discovered, it was incurable.

It was only after Europeans discovered the cinchona tree from South America and used its bark to grind it into powder to treat malaria that malaria was conquered.

"In the future, if we want to go south to the South Seas and Australia, we will definitely not be able to avoid the Ryukyus, and in addition, it is indispensable to use the Ryukyus as a base to clean up the pirates and pirates on the southeast coast."

"It is imperative to develop the Ryukyus!"

Liu Jin said categorically.

"Liu Jin, as far as I know, there are very few Han people in this place of Ryukyu, there is a miasma here, and the barbarians are very barbaric, and it is not easy to develop this place."

"And we are here to make money, not to lose money, if we really have a base, there are many bases in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, and they have a foundation in themselves, especially here in Quanzhou, which used to be a key point for Zheng He to go to the West, and there is no need to bother to develop Ryukyu."

Chengguo Gong Zhu Fu thought about it and said.

In his opinion, there is no need to develop the Ryukyus, because Fujian is very close to the Ryukyus, just a water away, and Fujian itself has a very good foundation.

"Of course, there is money to be made in developing the Ryukyus, how can I, Liu Jin, do a loss-making business."

Liu Jin said with a smile.

Hearing Liu Jin's words, everyone's eyes lit up slightly, and after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that this was really the case, and Liu Jin had never lost money in the business.

"Although Ryukyu is a wild place, where miasma is rampant and barbarian and ferocious, the geographical location of Ryukyu is very important, and it is a necessary place for us to go south to the South Seas and Australia in the future, and the development of this place, the construction of ports, the construction of ships, etc., can lay the foundation for the future."

"In addition, the Jiangnan region and the southeast coastal area have always been unable to intervene, but the Ryukyus are different, if we develop it ourselves, it is equivalent to having a foothold in the southeast coastal area, and it will be much easier to intervene in the future."

"In addition, although the conditions in this part of the Ryukyus are very harsh, the Ryukyus also have many benefits of the Ryukyus."

"There is plenty of sunshine and rain, and you can grow rice here twice a year, and even three times a year in the southern Ryukyus."

"If the entire Ryukyus are developed, it is equivalent to having an additional granary after the Ming Dynasty, and if there is a famine in the north, we can directly transport grain from here to the north for disaster relief."

Liu Jin began to slowly talk about the benefits of developing the Ryukyus.

"Liu Jin is close to the tropics, even in winter, there is rarely frost and snow here, so in winter, when we have no way to plant in the north of the Ming Dynasty, here you can grow vegetables and fruits, and when the time comes, you can make a lot of money by boat."

"Of course, these are things that can only be done slowly after the development of the Ryukyus, and in the short term, if we want to make money from the development of the Ryukyus, we can do two things, one is to grow rice, and the other is to make sugar."

"Sucrose?"

Everyone listened carefully, and in Liu Jin's description, this Ryukyu is not only not a barbarian land, but a treasure land, as long as a little cultivation, real money and silver can be harvested here, and it is also a foundation for the future.

When they heard about planting rice, everyone was not surprised, but this cane sugar, everyone was puzzled again.

"Yes, sucrose~"

Liu Jin nodded, and then poured out a bowl of sugar from a jar on the side.

"Everyone, please see, this is sucrose, I think everyone usually eats it, and it is not unfamiliar."

Everyone took the bowl handed over by Liu Jin, looked at it carefully, and nodded one after another, Zhu Houzhao, a glutton, even grabbed some candy and ate it directly.

"Lao Liu, why is your sugar even better than the one in the palace?"

Soon, Zhu Houzhao discovered that the sugar he had just eaten tasted more pure than the sugar in the palace, without a trace of miscellaneous taste, and the sweetness made him can't help but eat a few more bites, and then took out a handful of sugar and looked at it carefully.

When the others heard this, they immediately grabbed a handful of candy and put it on the table to take a closer look, and then tasted it carefully, and suddenly their eyes lit up slightly.

The sugar Liu Jin took out was snow-white, the particles were very delicate, the taste was very pure, and there was no trace of miscellaneous taste when eating, which was definitely the best sugar.

"I process this sugar myself from brown sugar, and I make it white sugar."

Liu Jin smiled and explained.

In this era, there was no white sugar, and only when Jiajing was boiling the sugar, the person who boiled the sugar inadvertently boiled out the white sugar, so the sugar now is basically brown sugar.

Brown sugar has large particles, ugly color, and not pure taste, but even such brown sugar belongs to the ranks of luxury goods in this era, and it is not something that everyone can afford.

Of course, this is not only the case with Daming, but also with the whole earth in this era, and things like sugar are luxuries.

If you want to eat sweets, one is honey, but the production of honey is very limited, which is not enough to satisfy everyone's appetite, and the other is to rely on sugar.

But the production of sugar is also very low, and sugar has always belonged to the ranks of luxury goods.

From the pre-Qin period, caramel made from malt is a precious condiment, which is generally used in sacrifices, state banquets, and even an expensive medicinal material to replenish qi and nourish blood.

In the Tang Dynasty, through the Silk Road, the ancient Indian sugar technology was introduced to China, and sugar was relatively easy to obtain at this time, but because of the regional climate, it could only be produced in the south, and the output was still very small, and it was still an expensive luxury.

In the Song Dynasty, there was frosting, because of the improvement of technology, the yield and quality have also been improved, sugar from the former exclusive to the court and dignitaries, slowly developed into an expensive commodity, for ordinary people, it is still something that cannot be eaten.

It was only in the eighteenth century, when Europeans began to use sugar beet to make sugar, that the production of sugar began to increase significantly, and it slowly entered the mouths of ordinary people, but the price was still very expensive.

The Ming Dynasty was pretty good, because there were domesticated bees to produce honey very early, plus sucrose, although this sugar is expensive, but it is not too much, but in Europe in this era, sugar is definitely only the real top princes and nobles can eat, and the price of what you eat is more expensive than gold, and it is definitely not a joke.

On the Ming side, even if the sugar production is okay, but the price of this pound of sugar, even the worst sugar, is thousands of Wen, and the quality of good sugar, even a pound of sugar has to be sold for a few taels of silver, and the price can be described as extremely expensive.

For the era when you could marry a wife for three taels of silver, ordinary people were reluctant to eat such expensive sugar, it was a luxury that only those who had money could afford to eat.