Is Macau small? Very small.

But this palm-sized land has now become an ink spot on the face of the giant Daming. This is called a toad crawling on the surface of the foot, not biting, and responding to people.

If it shows that the monarch and the minister do not have the concept of "maintaining the territorial integrity of the country", it is a bit wronged. The concept of "golden ou without defects" has existed since ancient times. Otherwise, why did the imperial court fight the Dutch in Penghu in the first place? You must know that Penghu is in the middle of the strait, far more from the mainland than Macao.

The key problem is that the Portuguese are using the right "insertion".

From beginning to end, the Portuguese had a very low posture in dealing with Ming officials.

From the beginning of "borrowing land to dry goods" to the later construction of Macau City, no matter how strong the Portuguese are behind the scenes, they have always maintained a humble posture on the surface. This kind of diplomacy is very effective when dealing with the Ming bureaucrats who think they are the superior kingdom of the Celestial Empire.

Therefore, the Ming Kingdom did not hesitate to mobilize a large army to fight with the Dutch who took a tough line, but relaxed his vigilance against the Francois who were close at hand, and was "arched" from the tent in Macao by a camel.

However, to this day, when the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Kingdom found out that the Franco ghost animal was already too big to lose in Macau, sorry, it was too late!

In fact, at the end of the Wanli period, Ming officials had already realized this trend: the Ming State used to defend the capital, defend Ningyuan, as a treasure like a red-coated cannon, can be seen everywhere in Macao's artillery factories, batteries and warships.

The officials of the Ming Kingdom are not stupid, and at this time they naturally understand that it is no longer realistic to forcibly drive away the Franco. Even if the Ming State later adopted soft measures such as cutting off grain and terminating trade, this just shows that the imperial court is not confident enough.

It is impossible to say that the emperor and his ministers did not know the situation in Macao. Macao is often mentioned in the recitals sent from various channels in Guangdong, and whenever the Portuguese make trouble, the posts of the imperial historian and the three divisions will also be sent to the capital as soon as possible.

Now everyone knows that the land is in fact self-governing by the Portuguese. The pale and powerless jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty is not so much jurisdiction as the deliberate lowering of the head of the Portuguese in order to take care of the face of the "suzerain".

Therefore, when Lord Zhong Yongbo raised the matter of Macao, the expressions of several people present were inevitably a little weird. After all, the scar has been revealed, and it is not enough to try to downplay it and pretend that you can't see it.

From the first reaction, the emperor had no reason to refuse the proposal. According to Uncle Zhong Yong, not to mention the contractor and materials in Macau, he is also responsible for handing over the house after the decoration, where to find such a good wronged boss?

But the emperor thought about it for a while, and felt that this matter could not be so hasty and easy to allow Cao to use swords and soldiers in a distant place, and the imperial court whip could not reach it, would it lead to a series of follow-up reactions such as this person's arrogance and domineering in Guangdong in the future?

In addition, although this matter does not seem to be a big deal, after all, if you want to uproot the Franco, the opinions of the court, including Guangdong officialdom, must also be taken into account. Thinking of this, Chongzhen's face became hesitant.

After Zhou Yanru, the first assistant on the side, saw the emperor's face, he originally came to power by figuring out his intentions, and immediately said what he thought for the emperor: "This matter is big, and it still needs to be discussed with the courtiers, and it will be discussed later." ”

When the emperor heard this, he nodded in time, and the matter was put on hold for the time being.

Seeing this, Cao Zongbing didn't say anything more. Originally, this proposal was just to say hello in advance, but it can also be said that the day when the soldiers really crossed the crowd to clean up the Portuguese, the sky was high and the emperor was far away, who would care if Chongzhen agreed or not?

Afterwards, even if it was enough to write a note to the imperial court that "small friction leads to a sudden war", could the emperor still ask Cao Zongbing to return Macao to Franco? Aren't you afraid that the Tartars will come, and General Cao will not go to King Qin?

Today, unlike in the past, the importance of General Cao is no longer something that the emperor can grasp casually. So as long as he looks back on it afterwards, the emperor will definitely not slap himself in the face and quarrel with Cao Zhongchen on such a trivial matter.

Besides, it was already April 1630, not long before a certain governor of Guangdong died of overwork. When the time comes, Xiong Wencan, the newly appointed (which is almost certain) governor of Liangguang, and the hard-line officials in Guangdong who have always advocated the expulsion of the Franco, will launch a wave of letters, how can the imperial court hinder it again?

General Cao entered the palace this time to face the saint, and after the consultation on the Macao issue, it was considered a successful conclusion.

Generally speaking, at this tea party in the imperial garden, the atmosphere between the guests and the host was quite harmonious, and the emperor himself could be said to have tried his best to win over Cao Zhongchen. From the perspective of the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, Chongzhen's posture is very low today, which is quite rare.

Cao Zongbing basically got what he wanted. One of the most important points is that while getting the predetermined results of King Qin, he successfully got out of the mess in the north and returned to a transcendent strategic position that can be attacked, retreated, and defended.

After the tea party was over, Cao Zongbing was fortunate to be invited by the emperor to have dinner. After mixing half full at the imperial banquet, the three courtiers bid farewell to His Majesty with gratitude on their faces and returned home.

..............................

From the moment he left the palace, Mr. Cao entered the countdown to go home, but before that, there was still a lot of work to be done.

For the next period of time, although Cao Zongbing said that he still had to go to court every day, no one paid attention to him at this time. If the civil official does not spray the general, then the military general is really a human flesh background board according to the rules of the court, and he has no right to speak on major events in the world, which is an unspoken rule.

However, every day when he went down to the court, after Cao Zongbing returned home, his old man was very busy.

Due to the previous land purchase policy, the Zhongyong Bofu was in full swing. Dignitaries from all walks of life came to visit one after another, and then Cao Zongbing had no choice but to feast on guests, drinking from work until late at night, and repeatedly explaining the land purchase policy to the guests.

Within a few days, almost half of the nobles and loyal and brave uncles in the whole capital had made friends, and the "old brothers" and "old brothers" recognized countless people, and the loyal and brave uncles were completely transformed into fragrant dumplings.

At the same time, a large-scale renovation operation has also begun on the street of Zhongyongbo's mansion: the excerpt house and the trading company will be opened here.

The excerpt room was the Beijing office of later generations. A local magistrate of the level of Zhong Yongbo usually set up an office in the capital to send and receive letters and documents on weekdays, as well as complete other tasks assigned by the boss.

The excerpts of Zhongyong Bofu and the North Commerce and Trade Corporation are two sets of teams and one set of people, and the host is Xue Haiyuan, the stationmaster of Beijing Station, who has a very inconspicuous official position. In other words, there are actually three sets of teams here, and outsiders in Beijing will naturally not know about it.

Although Xue Shishi's official position is small, it is also hot at the moment, and it is impossible for civil officials in the capital to publicly visit a Qiu Ba, so they have to send their henchmen or family members to visit Xue Shishi.

Those who can find Xue's experience will naturally not be those poor ghost Beijing officials who can't afford to change their official robes.

Generally speaking, those who dare to take out 50,000 taels of silver to test the water must be those wealthy gentlemen who have been hairpins for generations. As for the first-generation family formed by Xinke Jinshi, these people have not accumulated enough and cannot be involved.

Xue Haiyuan faced the account room of the housekeeper who came to the door from all walks of life, and naturally treated everyone equally. Even if the owner of this house had sprayed his own adults in the court before, Xue Shi still greeted these people with a smile, and held a number of investment promotion conferences in a row, and publicly explained Tainan's land purchase policy to all immortals.

In general, the land purchase policy launched by the crossing public is still very appetizing to the Ming people.

First of all, the first point, and the point that everyone is most concerned about, in terms of taxation, Xue Shi publicly made a promise: no matter what the harvest is after everyone buys the land, Zhongyong Bofu will not charge a penny of agricultural tax, and this promise will always be valid!

In traditional agriculture, the landlord has to pay agricultural taxes on the fields on the surface, except for the fields that are hidden. This tax is the most important tax of the feudal dynasty, and it was raised step by step at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the three salaries collected by Chongzhen were all scraped out of the world's agricultural taxes.

The immortals who confirmed the non-taxation of this point were immediately full of confidence in this investment plan: this is equivalent to buying 10,000 acres of hidden land, and all the harvest only needs to be shared with the tenants.

And before such a huge force, if you want to come to Zhongyongbo, you don't dare to speak.

Almost all of the people who participated in the purchase of land this time were the bigwigs in the capital and the powerful gentry from all over the country, including the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, and even the top nobles and concubines of the national army. Therefore, it is impossible for Zhongyong to repay the debt.

However, the traversal will never speak and will not count.

The current Tainan has long been built into a standard industrialized society. The old men in the capital do not understand the terrible ...... of industrialized society at all As long as the government is willing, there are countless channels to collect those agricultural taxes in disguise.

But the old man can be thankful: in order to avoid fishing in the water, the traversal will not do that. As long as someone is willing to invest in Tainan at this point in time, then the traversal who is thirsty for resources must ensure that the investor is profitable.

This guarantee is precious. In fact, at the investment promotion conference opened by Xue Haiyuan, he not only promised not to collect agricultural taxes, but also promised that the public facilities of farmland, including reservoirs, roads, canals, etc., would be built and repaired by the old man Zhongyong.

Hearing this policy of supporting agriculture, which was very common in later generations, the gentry from all over the country who were often "persuaded" by the magistrates to donate money to build roads were also quite happy, and finally encountered the wronged leader!

After the benefits were given, the next conditions, the crossing of the crowd showed their fangs: every land buyer must be in Tianjin, Shanghai, and in the future, Shandong and other places, to the private port opened by Zhongyongbo to transport enough prime-aged laborers to cultivate 10,000 acres of land.

These labourers are trained in quarantine camps before they are removed.

This figure is calculated on the basis of 20 acres of land cultivated by each strong laborer. In other words, each household that buys land must be handed over to 500 Zhuang Yongbo, not including the families of Zhuang Yongbo.

As for whether these people will hire big iron oxen to plough the land because of the huge cost after they go to Tainan, they don't care about it, anyway, if they want to buy land, the supporting tenants will send it to Lao Tzu first.