Hearing Li Xiao's words, Yang Sichang was slightly stunned, the smile on his face stiffened a little, and he said in a low voice: "But I don't know, what conditions does Tang Guogong have to make peace with the imperial court?" ”

Li Xiao smiled and said: "Yang Gebu, the first condition of this duke is that the imperial court will restore the reputation, official position and title of this duke, and at the same time severely punish and instigate villains to return the innocence of this duke." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

Yang Sichang pondered for a moment, and then said: "Tang Guogong's request is really natural. Since the imperial court is willing to reconcile with the Duke of Tang Guo, this reputation and official title must be fully restored. In addition, as for punishing those who instigate villains, please rest assured that when the cabinet returns to the emperor, he will punish him and apply for justice for Tang Guogong. ”

Li Xiao nodded, and said: "As for the second condition, that is, from now on, if our Tang Army wants to expand its territory overseas and conquer foreign countries, the imperial court must not oppose or interfere. All newly occupied land, although it is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, can only be governed by officials sent by Li, and the imperial court is not allowed to appoint other officials. ”

Hearing Li Xiao's words, Yang Sichang's face trembled, but he didn't feel that he was in a deep groan.

Li Xiao's condition, speaking of which, is actually a bit of a high-flying and domineering taste. As a minister of the Ming Dynasty, he opened up territory for the Ming Dynasty, although he had great achievements, but he had to govern himself, from this point of view, Li Xiao's hand was a little long.

But can I oppose him?

In order to compete for the right to govern Taiwan, Li Xiao has fought with the imperial court, and a battle outside Jintang City has made the imperial court disgraced and lost. If Li Xiao gains more overseas land in the future, the imperial court will come back to fight for it, but I am afraid that this war of internal strife will resume again.

It's just that if Li Xiao hadn't gone to conquer these overseas places, the Ming Empire, which was now full of holes and dying of energy, would never have been able to occupy a single piece of land.

In other words, since the Ming Empire has no ability to obtain these overseas lands, and Li Xiao has the ability to fight, then he will arrange the governance by himself, but it is barely reasonable.

Thinking of this, Yang Sichang sighed lightly and said with a wry smile: "Since Tang Guogong is interested in expanding overseas, the imperial court will no longer interfere more. These overseas places were originally places to be turned into foreign places, and as for the arrangement of officials, it was not impossible for Master Li to make his own decisions. ”

Seeing that although Yang Sichang said this, his face was extremely embarrassed, Li Xiao chuckled lightly and said loudly: "Yang Gebu, there is a way, people respect me a foot, I respect people, Li Xiao is a minister of the Ming Dynasty, but he should also consider the face of the court. In this way, from now on, although the land of one government and two counties in Taiwan is not governed by the imperial court, it will also pay taxes to the imperial court according to the amount like all states and counties in the country. As for other overseas places, because the land is barren and the people are scarce, it will take a lot of time to develop them, and the government will have to invest a huge cost, and there will be no taxes to pay in these places. ”

After Li Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Yang Sichang with a smile on his face.

He calculated clearly in his heart that now in the Ming Dynasty, the annual taxes of ordinary states and counties are converted into silver taels, which are only hundreds of taels. In the land of Taiwan, there are Kaohsiung Prefecture, Changhua County, and Taipei County, and the annual tax, even if it is converted into 2,000 taels of silver, is only a drop in the bucket for itself. This bit of silver is just a few days' share of commercial taxes in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

And with this bit of silver handed over, the face of the emperor and the court was greatly satisfied. For them, it is a more cost-effective transaction to get free profits without spending any governance costs.

Sure enough, as soon as Li Xiao finished speaking, Yang Sichang showed a bright smile on his face, and he sighed: "Master Li is a man of Gancheng who values love and righteousness!" This land of Taiwan, won by Tang Guogong's successive defeats of the Spaniards and the Dutch, and the hard and bloody battles, but did not cost half a tael of silver to the imperial court, and it was completely governed and developed by Lord Li single-handedly. Now that Taiwan's newly established prefectures and counties can also pay taxes to the country, this cabinet is very admirable! Hmph, this pavilion wants to see that Tang Guogong is so well aware of righteousness, but there are still many villains in the court, who else can talk more and play right and wrong. ”

Seeing Yang Sichang's happy face, Li Xiao smiled and said his last request: "Lord Yang, my father-in-law will talk about the last condition." ”

"Tang Guogong, please speak clearly."

That is, from now on, in order to avoid the gap between the monarch and the ministers, the Duke hopes that if there is no urgent matter in the imperial court, the edict will not be issued to let the Duke enter Beijing. And the military system under the rule of this duke, since then, the imperial court is not allowed to intervene. Li Xiao said lightly.

"Tang Guogong, this 。。。。。。" Yang Sichang's face was difficult to look at.

If it is said that Li Xiao's first two conditions, although there are many domineering points, in the final analysis, there are many extenuating circumstances, and the imperial court can tolerate them. But like this one, it is almost clear that Li Xiao himself, and the Tang army under his rule, are no longer subject to the constraints of the imperial court, and in the Ming Empire, it is equivalent to a completely independent feudal town-like existence.

In this way, although Li Xiao is clearly a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, the court has no binding force on him anymore.

This is a dangerous start.

Seeing that Yang Sichang's face was embarrassed, Li Xiao sneered and said, "Lord Yang, do you think that this condition of my father is quite excessive?" The Duke told me again that although our army is not directly restricted by the imperial court, such as exterminating the thieves and fighting against the Tartars, the Duke will also send troops to participate, and will never stay out of the matter. Moreover, all the food and salary of our army and soldiers are prepared by themselves, and it does not cost the state half of the money and grain. And in the Ming Kingdom, it is limited to the existing land boundaries, and there will be no more power and land grabbing with the imperial court, so that there will be internal strife again. It can be said that the Ming Dynasty only used this land of Dengzhou Prefecture, plus Shanxian County and Jintang City outside the Saiwai, and then did not spend half a penny and half a grain of rice, and won the elite army with strong combat power of this duke, such a good thing, why not do it? ”

When Yang Sichang heard this, he let out a long sigh in his heart.

Li Xiao said it so clearly, Yang Sichang knew that there was no room for negotiation in this matter.

However, having said that, although Li Xiao's condition is suspected of being unable to be controlled and restrained by the state, for the current Ming Dynasty, it is still reluctantly acceptable to let such a strong and capable elite army be loyal to him, exterminate the thieves, and fight against the Tartars.

Thinking of this, Yang Sichang had a faint wry smile on his face, and said, "Okay, this condition, this pavilion has also agreed." If Tang Guogong has no other discussion, can he sign a document agreement on this, let Yang take it back to the capital, and after the emperor signs and decides, Tang Guogong and the court can negotiate peace on this. ”

Li Xiao laughed and said: "The conditions of this father, have been said, but there is no other discussion, if the Yang Pavilion has no opinion, then according to the three conditions of this father, sign the agreement." ”

Soon, Li Xiao ordered someone to bring pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and drafted the terms with Yang Sichang one by one, and signed them in duplicate.

Then, Yang Sichang picked up the dry agreement paper and got up to say goodbye to Li Xiao.

"Lord Li, Yang will return to Beijing immediately, please wait for news."

Li Xiao saw that Yang Sichang was like an arrow, and he wanted to return to the capital to report, but it was inconvenient to stop him, so he smiled and said, "Okay, then there will be the Lao Yang Pavilion." In addition, the public has 500 two-way instruments to send, and the Yang Pavilion Department should not refuse. ”

Yang Sichang smiled bitterly and arched his hand: "Tang Guogong is gracious, then Yang is better than obeying his fate if he is respectful." ”

Yang Sichang accepted Cheng Yi and hurried all the way, but after four days, he returned to the capital smoothly. Subsequently, Yang Sichang immediately entered the palace and handed over the agreement negotiated with Li Xiao to Emperor Chongzhen for inspection.

Chongzhen opened the agreement, quickly glanced at it, and then, unconsciously, his face froze.

Yang Sichang, who was secretly observing the emperor's expression for a while, saw the emperor's face change sharply, and his heart sank.

"Wen Weak, your agreement, the first two, I can still pinch my nose and admit it. But if this last condition, Li Xiao is not an emergency, does not enter Beijing to serve the edict, and the territory under his rule and his subordinate soldiers are not allowed to interfere, then from now on, I will no longer be able to control and restrain Li Xiao? Chongzhen's face was gloomy and he muttered.

Yang Sichang sighed lightly in his heart, and then said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, don't blame Weichen for speaking directly. Could it be that in the current situation, what is the emperor's way to control Li Xiao? Now that Li Xiao is willing to turn back, reconcile with the emperor, and no longer resume swords and soldiers to attack and kill each other, it is a rare good thing! And the elite division of Li Xiao's subordinates is also willing to be used by the Ming Dynasty again, suppressing thieves, beating Tartars, and fulfilling the duties of courtiers, so why does Your Majesty have to strictly control Li Xiao's army? Moreover, Li Xiao's soldiers and horses are all self-raised and self-built, and they do not cost the country half a grain of rice, which is equivalent to the country not spending a penny, and he got such an elite and capable army out of thin air. ”

Chongzhen lowered his head, his face was gloomy, and he was silent.

Yang Sichang arched his hands and looked at the emperor sitting on the dragon chair with an anxious look.

In the end, Chongzhen let out a long sigh and said slowly: "Okay, in order to end this infighting between the monarch and the minister as soon as possible, so as not to prevent my Ming Dynasty from continuing to suffer from this unwarranted disaster, this peace agreement has been approved." “

Yang Sichang knelt on the ground and said loudly: "The emperor judges the situation, is benevolent and tolerant, and is really an immortal monarch." ”

Since the emperor has agreed, next, this Tang Ming peace agreement will be officially stamped and put into effect.

Then, the emperor issued another edict one after another, restoring all of Li Xiao's official positions, and then appointed Liu Yuliang, the first assistant, to let the eunuch be reprimanded, and fined him for three months. The rest of the officials who had secretly accused Li Xiao were also degraded and punished, but they gave Li Xiao a bad breath.

And Yang Sichang, who has always been a scholar of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, who has not dealt with Liu Yuliang and others, is very happy to see that the emperor is incompetent to do things for these people, and will only provoke non-civilian officials to punish them more. He thought happily, this Liu Yuliang and the others were suppressed by this, and it is estimated that for a long time, they can only be people with their tails between their legs in the court.

After the imperial court's will was transmitted back to Shandong, Li Xiao was very happy, and his heart was inexplicably happy.

He thought with emotion that he used to be himself, in the Ming court, he was repeatedly constrained, and he always felt that his actions were more restricted. But now that this peace agreement is in hand, the ropes that bind me are as if they have been cut off, and from now on, we will no longer have to be constrained by the court as before. From this point of view, his previous battle with the imperial court was quite worth it.

Once the struggle with the imperial court was over, Li Xiao's next priority was to immediately arrange for immigrants to settle on Ezo Island and southern Sakhalin Island.

At this time, it was the beginning of April, and the originally frozen seas of Xiangzo and Sakhalin had thawed, allowing ships to pass smoothly. Li Xiao then arranged for 200,000 of the migrants who were waiting on Jeju Island to settle on Ezo Island, and the other 100,000 to settle in southern Sakhalin.

Li Xiao is convinced that with the immigrants of more than 300,000 people to reclaim the land and colonize, the originally uninhabited Ezo Island and Sakhalin Island will one day become more and more prosperous and prosperous, just like the island of Taiwan, and become a place where the descendants of the Han people in China will live forever.

As for the northern part of Sakhalin Island, because it was separated from the Qing Dynasty by only one Tatar Strait, in order to ensure the stability of the immigrants' lives and not be affected by the war, Li Xiao decided not to send immigrants here for the time being, or to wait until he could station troops in Manchuria in the future, so as to completely make Sakhalin Island a stable rear, and then arrange for immigrants to go there for production and development.

At the same time, Li Xiao's other focus is the construction of three new shipyards.

So far, among Li Xiaojun, there is only one shipyard in Dengzhou, and from last year to now, almost two years have passed, and the entire shipyard has only built three No. 2 Fu ships, more than a dozen sea cabin ships, and more than 30 bird boats.

This production progress, of course, is far from satisfying Li Xiao's heart.

Therefore, Li Xiao made careful planning, and finally decided to set up three more large shipyards in Taiwan Island, Jeju Island and Ezo Island, and the speed and output of ship production must reach several times that of the previous one.

These newly established shipyards are all from Dengzhou shipyards, and capable personnel are assigned to set up. The division of labor of each shipyard is also different.

Among them, Dengzhou Shipyard, as the oldest and largest shipyard, mainly produces large sailing battleships, especially imitation of various Western-style galleons in Europe.

The Jeju Shipyard mainly produces Chinese-style warships, such as fortune ships, catch boats, and sea cabin ships.

As for Taiwan's shipyards, they produce small boats, mostly bird boats and sand boats, which are mainly used for trade activities with Western countries and Fujian and Guangdong. And the reason why he does not carry out large-scale ship production in Taiwan, Li Xiao also hopes that when his own strength is not strong, he will not stimulate Zheng Zhilong, the overlord who occupies Penghu as his old nest and is now in the southeast sea.

After all, the Zheng family has been in business for many years, owning thousands of sea ships and tens of thousands of sailors, and such a terrifying sea force is by no means something that can be surpassed overnight.

As for the smallest Ezo shipyard, it also mainly produced small boats, and took advantage of the geographical advantages to recruit some Japanese craftsmen to imitate some Japanese warships such as Ataka and Kohayafune. The ships it produces are mainly used for the transportation of people and materials on Ezo Island and Sakhalin Island.

Li Xiao desperately hoped that after he vigorously expanded his shipyard, the size of his fleet would expand day by day, and his combat power would increase day by day. Then, when the scale of the fleet is further expanded, it will have a greater advantage and voice in the vast ocean.

Then, in the future, not only Luzon and the Philippine islands will be brought under their rule, but even the many undeveloped Indonesian islands further south, such as New Guinea and Brimantan, will eventually be completely conquered.

And after the conquest of these islands, Li Xiao's ambition will further expand southward, until that vast continent is now called Australia。。。。。。