On this day, Li Zhi sat in Li Xing's Fanjiazhuang official hall and summoned Cui Changwu, Lü Hu, and Gao Ligong to inquire about maritime affairs. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Today's overseas affairs, the fleet is in charge of Lu Hu, the trade affairs of Hirado are in charge of Zheng Kaida, and the development of Taiwan is in charge of Zheng Hui. At the same time, the Overseas Affairs Agency, as the department in charge of overseas affairs in the shogunate, also had a ledger that recorded the various expenses and revenues of overseas affairs, which could constitute supervision over specific operating departments.

This expedition to the south lasted seven months, and I don't know what happened to overseas affairs. Li Zhi was free on this day, so he summoned a few of his subordinates to ask.

Li Zhi asked Lu Hu, "How many ships are there in the fleet now?" ”

Lu Hu was originally the deputy commander of the Xuanfeng Regiment, in charge of artillery. Now after successive promotions, he is already an official of the Wei Commander. He arched his hand at Li Zhi and replied: "Uncle, this year, the shipyard has been building day by day, and has built twenty-one big ships with pointed heads, and now there are thirty-one big ships in the fleet. ”

"The fleet now consists of 1,100 shipwrights and 2,170 gunners, and the monthly expenses for food and clothing are fifteen thousand taels. The fleet is only responsible for transporting goods, and this monthly money is a pure expense. ”

"These 31 big boats can transport 3 million pieces of cotton cloth at a time in Pinghu, and 10,000 peasants in Taiwan. The fleet ran from mid-May to the end of August last year to Hirado, and the rest of the time it ran the Taiwan route. Today, 75,000 farmers have been transported to Hsinchu. ”

It turned out that Hsinchu already had 75,000 farmers, which was already the size of a county. Li Zhi thought for a while and asked, "How is Hsinchu currently developing?" ”

Lu Hu arched his hand and said, "Uncle, Hsinchu is now quite large-scale. As far as I know, more than 400,000 acres of paddy fields have been reclaimed. For specific accounts, please ask the ambassador of the Overseas Office. ”

Li Zhi turned to Gao Ligong and asked, "Mr. Gao, do you have an account for the specific situation in Taiwan now?" ”

Gao Ligong made a lot of contributions to Li Zhi's liaison with maritime affairs, and Li Zhi did not forget him when he recounted his merits this time. He was just promoted to a thousand households a few days ago, and now he is a military attaché.

By the time of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the tradition of civility and martial arts has been defeated by the situation of the flames. Nowadays, civilian officials cannot control military attachés at all, and the sense of superiority of civilian officials over military attaches has naturally disappeared. Compared with being a student, Gao Ligong felt that he still had more status as a military attache of a thousand households.

He was very pleased with his promotion and was more diligent.

Gao Ligong bowed to Li Zhi and said, "Uncle, the lower official has an account here." Taiwan has so far transported 75,441 people, of whom 119 have died of malaria. ”

Hearing Gao Ligong's words, Li Zhi was silent. Malaria is indeed a major pest in Taiwan, and more than 100 people died in the first year. However, Li Zhi repeatedly emphasized environmental sanitation to Zheng Hui, thinking that with the maturity and improvement of the living environment, fewer and fewer people will get sick in the future.

Gao Ligong continued: "After removing masons and other handymen, there are now 70,000 peasants in Taiwan, and in February 440,000 mu of paddy fields have been reclaimed and distributed to 22,000 peasants. Farmers planted seedlings in March, and it is expected that more than 400,000 stone of grain will be harvested in June. At that time, the adults will receive more than 200,000 stone of rice as land rent. ”

Li Zhi nodded when he heard the figure of more than 200,000 stones. The benefits of developing Taiwan are really high. According to the current grain price of 221 stone in the grain store, the more than 200,000 stone of rice is the income of 4 to 500,000 taels of silver. And that's just half a year's rent.

As the follow-up farmers successively open more paddy fields, Taiwan's development will bring greater profits to Li Zhi.

Gao Ligong also said: "Uncle, hiring these peasants to open up the wasteland is also costly, and now 50,000 farmers are still cultivating the wasteland, and we give these farmers the treatment of food and housing, and we will pay two taels of money every month, and the cost of this month is 160,000 taels of silver. If the fleet continues to transport farmers to Hsinchu, the cost will be even greater. ”

Hearing such an astonishing monthly expenditure figure of 160,000 taels of silver, Li Zhi was stunned. Li Zhi hired peasants to open up the wasteland, and the fields opened up were Li Zhi's private land, so it stands to reason that the peasants should be given money, food, lodging, and clothing. However, the expenses of these farmers are really huge. Each peasant spends three taels of silver per month, and more than 50,000 people are 160,000 silver.

Li Zhi asked Li Xing: "Is there a big deficit in the account now?" ”

Li Xing said: "There was a surplus of 50,000 taels in the original account, plus 60,000 taels of profit after the expansion of the textile factory, the 400,000 taels of profit earned by the fleet last year for three and a half months of flat trade, and the 90,000 taels of rental income from Taiwan's late rice last year, and the overall account was a slight surplus. ”

Hearing that there was no child on the account, Li Zhi was relieved.

Li Xing said: "Big brother, if the size of the fleet continues to expand, if the number of people in Hsinchu continues to expand, the deficit will appear, and it will get bigger and bigger. Nowadays, the trade between Tianjin and the peace of our households is saturated, and it is difficult to increase profits. I propose not to build new ships. ”

Li Zhi groaned and said, "The new ship still has to be built. These big pointed ships can only be used for seven or eight years, and if new ships are not built, the old ships will be useless when they are scrapped. But the speed doesn't need to be so fast, let's keep two shipbuilding points and start construction. ”

Gao Ligong nodded and said, "Then I'll go and inform the shipbuilding points in Dengzhou and Laizhou that no new ships will be built." Only the two shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Tianjin should be left. ”

Li Zhi nodded.

Li Xing suddenly said: "Big brother, 30,000 farmers who fled from Henan a few months ago came and found fields in Tianjin!" ”

Li Zhi asked, "What's going on?" ”

Li Xing said: "Big brother, over the years, we have cultivated 600,000 mu of dry land in Fanjiazhuang and five counties, hired 60,000 peasants, transported more than 70,000 peasants to Xiaoliuqiu, plus the 20,000 soldiers and 20,000 workers recruited, plus the 20,000 traders in Fanjiazhuang City, we have absorbed nearly 200,000 people near Tianjin, and the vast majority of them are still young people. ”

"Tianjin, one government, two prefectures and 20 counties, is only more than 2 million people. Because we have taken away so many people over the years, many tenant fields near Tianjin are now vacant. Farmers who previously had less land to cultivate land were often able to farm more. Because of our development, the farmers in Tianjin have plenty of land to cultivate, and they are slightly richer than before. ”

"In addition, we have been guarding Tianjin for all these years, and the Tartars have not plundered Tianjin. The peasants in Tianjin were in a much better situation than elsewhere because they had not been stricken by the war. ”

"Last year, there was a big drought in Henan, and there were places to eat people. Compared with Henan, Tianjin is much richer. Tens of thousands of Henan refugees fled to Tianjin when they heard that there was food to eat in Tianjin. Some of the vacant tenant fields were given by the landlords to the peasants from Henan. More than 30,000 people have found a way to survive in Tianjin. ”

Li Zhi listened to Li Xing's words and kept nodding. Later, Li Zhi laughed and said, "I didn't expect that our development in Tianjin could also benefit the farmers of Henan." ”