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Quanzhou Mansion, Jinjiang County.

As the seat of Quanzhou Prefecture, Jinjiang County can be described as a southeast victory. There is a spring mountain in the northeast of the county, and the name is Qingyuan. There is Baogai Mountain in the southeast. There is Lingyuan Mountain in the south. Southeastern Coast, there are salt works. There is Penghu Island in the sea. There is Jinjiang River in the south, which flows in from Nan'an County, passes under Shita Mountain in the west of the city, and enters the sea in the southeast to Daiyu. There is the Luoyang River in the northeast and flows into the sea in the south. There is Yongningwei in the southeast again, and there are thousands of households guarding Fuquan in the south, all of which are placed in February of the twenty-first year of Hongwu. There are Xiangzhi in the southeast, Wuxun again, Shenhu in the south, and there are four inspection divisions around the head. In the southwest, there is Anping City built in the middle of Jiajing. In the southeast, there is Shihu City built in the middle of Wanli.

However, when Jinjiang County is mentioned now, the local people will immediately think of the luxurious Zheng Mansion.

Since the first year of Chongzhen's fight against Xiong Wencan, he was recruited by Xiong Wencan to serve as a guerrilla in coastal defense, Zheng Zhilong left Taiwan and sat in Minhai. He was joined by 30,000 men and more than 1,000 ships.

In the third year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong built a luxurious mansion in Anping Town, Jinjiang County. Zheng Zhilong spent three years to build this mansion, he did not spare gold and silver, the whole mansion west to Xigang, north to Xi'antou, south to Anping bridgehead, direct access to five ports, covering an area of 138 acres. The main structure of the mansion is a mountain-style five-bay room with thirteen frames, three doors, two fire lanes, and five courtyards. On both sides, the wings, pavilions, pavilions and pavilions are opposite each other, and the ring is listed as a barrier. There is "Dunren Pavilion" in the east, there is "Taiyun Building" in the west, the front hall is "Catholic Hall", and the middle hall is "Xiaosi Hall", and the scale is magnificent. Behind the big house, there is a "Zhiyuan Garden", which is protected by the wall, and is sparsely covered with hills and ravines, pavilions, fine houses, ponds, small bridges, winding paths, beautiful trees, and exotic flowers and plants.

In the eyes of the local people, this mansion is comparable to a royal palace.

Two months ago, when today's son promoted Zheng Zhilong to the Fujian General Army, not long ago, he was crowned Nan Anbo, so this mansion is not only Zheng Zhilong's private residence, but also serves as the Fujian General Military Mansion.

This Uncle Nan'an and the Chief Soldier like to handle official business in his mansion, so naturally no one dares to say anything.

In fact, the entire town of Anping has become a military stronghold for Zheng Zhilong's self-respecting troops and a maritime trade port under strict control.

Zheng Zhilong does not leak the operation of Anping Town, and it is ironclad.

Regardless of whether it was a pirate, a merchant ship or a Dutchman, if they wanted to cross the Golden Gate route, they had to obediently hand over the money to buy the road.

At this moment, in the Zhiyuan Garden's Fang Pavilion, Zheng Zhilong was slowly pacing with his hands behind his back.

He was dressed in dark blue straight shirts, wearing a lazy scarf on his head, and his feet were crossed with cloud boots, no matter how he looked at it, he didn't look like a feudal official, but more like a scholar.

Although he is over 40 years old, he is very well maintained, his cheeks are smooth and fair, and his skin is firm and there is not a trace of wrinkles.

Running on the sea all the year round has not left traces of time on him, and this overlord of the Fujian Sea, who is also an official and a coward, both righteous and evil, is really a little unpredictable.

Just as Zheng Zhilong was pacing in the pavilion with a heavy heart, a person hurriedly walked on the garden path.

"Big brother, are you looking for me?"

This man was dressed in short stubs, revealing all his tendons and flesh.

Seeing that he has dark skin and a strong figure, he is two extremes with Zheng Zhilong's softness.

"Fourth brother, are you here? Come in and sit. ”

The fourth brother in Zheng Zhilong's mouth is his younger brother Zheng Hongkui.

Zheng Hongkui's original name was Zheng Zhifeng, and his brothers were the fourth, and he was one of the famous Eighteen Zhi. Later, when he took the martial arts examination, he changed his name to Hongkui, and the word Shengyi.

Although Zheng Hongkui is only 31 years old this year, he is already Zheng Zhilong's right-hand man and has won Zheng Zhilong's trust.

This time, Zheng Zhilong summoned him to Zhiyuan Garden to discuss the matter, just to reply to the imperial court.

A month ago, Zheng Zhilong's eldest son, Zheng Sen (Zheng Chenggong), wrote a letter to his family and sent it to Fujian. This letter to the family is not just as simple as greetings, Zheng Sen euphemistically said that the Son of Heaven hopes to jointly establish an Huangming Trade Chamber of Commerce with the Zheng family.

The Huangming Traders Chamber of Commerce was directly subordinate to the imperial court, and the Zheng family was responsible for the specific operation. Ships anchored in the name of the Huangming Trade Chamber of Commerce can go to the sea to do business in the name of the imperial court's official ships, and there is no need to pay sea taxes to the imperial court.

The profits from going to sea to do business were divided equally between the imperial court and the Zheng family.

Zheng Sen also pointed out that the Zheng family could sell the right to join the association, and other maritime merchants who wanted to join the Huangming Trade Chamber of Commerce could directly pay a sum of money to the Zheng family, and the imperial court would not ask how much this money was.

Of course, the imperial court can also sell the right to join, and eventually dividends will be distributed according to the amount of shares invested.

This undoubtedly gave the Zheng family great power, and Zheng Zhilong even obtained the privilege of monopolizing the trade of Fujian and Haihai.

However, Zheng Zhilong did not immediately agree.

After all, now he is the absolute real power in Fujian, and the overcollection of sea taxes is all in his words.

Of course, part of the collected sea tax must be paid to the imperial court, but the amount of payment also depends on his mood.

When he was in a good mood, he gave the court more silver. When he was in a bad mood, he gave the court less silver.

If the Imperial Ming Trade Chamber of Commerce was established, at least theoretically, half of the profits would have to be ceded to the imperial court.

That's what a fool would do.

Fortunately, the Son of Heaven asked Zheng Sen to reveal this meaning to Zheng Zhilong in the name of the family letter, so that even if Zheng Zhilong did not respond immediately, the Son of Heaven would not be too ugly on his face.

It's just that yesterday the eldest son Zheng Sen sent someone to send a letter from home, and Zheng Zhilong was really a little tempted after reading it.

"Big brother, but what promises did the court make? What did my good nephew say in the letter? ”

Zheng Hongkui is obviously in a very good mood, and recently the imperial court has been an official and a knight to the eldest brother, which can be described as a favor. At this time, Zheng Sen sent someone to send a letter to his family, and it was a good thing to be allowed to be sure.

Zheng Zhilong handed an unsealed letter to Zheng Hongkui, and said with a faint smile: "Look at it yourself." ”

Zheng Hongkui took the letter, unfolded the letter and looked at it, at first he was still calm, but he exclaimed in surprise after reading half of it.

"The imperial court wants to change the transportation to sea transportation?"

It is no wonder that Zheng Hongkui was so surprised, since the opening of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, it has been an important link between the north and the south. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the reliance on the Grand Canal has also reached the point of no return. Regardless of whether it is silk, grain or salt from the south of the Yangtze River, they all need to rely on the Grand Canal to transport them to Beijing.

However, during the Wanli period, the canal was often silted, and the imperial court had to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to desilt it. In addition, the efficiency of Cao Yun became increasingly low, and the imperial court began to think of replacing Cao Yun with sea transportation.

But this is just a thought, and it has not been put into practice.

The reason is that the Grand Canal supports hundreds of thousands of workers, and if the abolition of water transportation is replaced by sea transportation, it can certainly improve efficiency and streamline expenses, but then hundreds of thousands of workers will have no food to eat, and it is likely to cause a big mess.

However, when the old things are brought up again today, it has a different meaning. The country of Jiashen changed the world, and almost all of the northern land fell into the hands of the Eastern Captives and rebels. Even though the Son of Heaven wisely ordered the official army to take Shandong not long ago, he had to admit that the north-south transportation was still blocked and paralyzed.

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