Regarding Song Xiance's admonition, Zhang Guoji's face did not change. After working under the emperor for so long, and three years in the Netherlands, the financial center of Europe, he is no longer the great salt merchant who only promises power.

He looked up at Song Xiance and said, "I also understand what you said, although Your Majesty has given us enough autonomy, we still can't act in Europe without the strategy formulated by Your Majesty. What's more, without domestic support, we can't do anything in Europe.

However, under the general direction of cooperating with His Majesty in formulating strategies, we still have the right to do something that benefits the country and ourselves. As for the war that was going on in the south, I also hoped that France would win. So I would like to ask you, can France win this battle? ”

The doubts in Song Xiance's heart became heavier, and he hesitated for a while before he said: "Although King Louis XIII of France did not fight any famous victories, every time Bishop Richelieu persuaded the French King to come to the battlefield in person, it was basically when the French army had the upper hand. So I think that the French army should have a victory rate of more than seventy percent in this war in the south. But what does this war have to do with your business? ”

Zhang Guoji hit one of the opponent's soldiers with a cannon on the chessboard, and then said: "You know, since we reached a cooperative relationship with the Commercial Bank of Amsterdam, Peruvian silver, our goods, the Dutch's bills and transportation, and the Spaniards' material needs have formed a perfect trade route.

The Netherlands was indeed a strange country, fighting the Spaniards while lending and selling supplies to the Spaniards without worry. However, since the emergence of our Daming bank in Europe, these Dutch bankers want to cooperate with us to share the risk and financial pressure.

I think you should also have some understanding of the business of the bank now, the business of the bank is actually the business of money, the left hand out and the right hand in, every time the capital flows, it means that a profit is earned. So for banks, the faster the capital turnover, the higher the profit.

Of course, the best business model is that the gold and silver are kept in the bank's vault, and only the various bills issued by the bank are circulated in the market, which can not only earn interest out of nothing, but also reduce the risk of the bank itself. In this respect, His Majesty's substitution of paper money for gold and silver circulation is truly prescient..."

Song Xiance interrupted him expressionlessly and said, "Don't brag about Your Majesty's wisdom anymore, it's only the two of us here, to be honest." ”

Zhang Guoji was choked and coughed a few times, and then said with a smile: "Hehe, Lao Song, you still have a flawless eye, and you can see the flaws at a glance." Actually, it's not that I really want to hide it from you, it's just that the matter is big, and Zheng Hou told the fewer people who know about it, the better, so I don't dare to tell you plainly. ”

After explaining what he had just done, Zhang Guoji moved the chessboard, sat upright and said to Song Xiance: "Old Song, you should know that the Dutch have been plotting to seize Portugal's overseas colonies by taking the opportunity of the war with the Spaniards, among which northern Brazil is the most important.

As a result, the Portuguese in northern Brazil had to flee south to the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro in southern Brazil, and as the Portuguese held the southern part of Brazil, and the interests in this area were not great, the settled Portuguese began to look for suitable places to grow sugar cane in the south.

However, most of the areas suitable for sugar cane cultivation were occupied by the powerful, so some small planters had to go deep inland, but the Indian tribes in the interior did not seem to like the Portuguese, so after being attacked by the Indians, many people had to choose to take a boat to the African colonies to find opportunities.

However, some of these people found gold in the mountains 5-600 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, but his companions who went deep into the interior with him were killed by the local Indian tribes, and he knew that there was no way to mine gold in the local area by his own strength, and if the news was spread, not only would this gold mine not be his share, but even his own life would not be saved.

So after he fled back to Rio de Janeiro, he simply concealed the news and prepared to take a ship to Africa to do the slave trade, and then return to mine gold after accumulating some financial resources and manpower. However, his luck was not good, as the ship he was on was close to Africa and he was cut by pirates again.

If Captain Edmund hadn't happened to pass by and saved the boat, the unlucky man would have been thrown into the sea by pirates to feed the fish. The man was very clever, knowing that although he had escaped from the pirates, he had not escaped from the hands of death, so he told Captain Edmund the news of the gold mine, and said that as long as the captain healed his wounds, he would be willing to take the captain to the great gold mine when he was healed.

Captain Edmund had the ship's doctor take a lot of effort to revive him, and then took him deep into southern Brazil once last winter. At the end of April, Zheng Hou sent me a special letter, first, to tell me the above story, and to say that Captain Edmund had confirmed that what he said was true, and that they had picked up several black stones with gold grains in a small river in the local area. After exploration, the scope of this gold mine is about several times larger than that of Taiwan's Jingua area, and the reserves are more abundant.

Taiwan's gourd mine produces about 1 gold a year. 2—1。 About 5 tons, 4-500,000 taels of silver per year. Even if the annual output of Taiwan's gold mines is doubled, it is nearly a million taels of silver. This was enough to support the expansion of the South African fleet to the scale of fighting the Dutch in the Atlantic, so Zheng Hou meant to let the Ming get a name for possession of Portuguese Brazil, such as a Portuguese crown..."

Song Xiance subconsciously reacted, glared at the other party's eyes and said, "You want to buy the crown of Portugal from the King of Spain?" ”

Zhang Guoji clapped his hands lightly, and said with a smile on his face: "It is this idea, as long as the Spaniards lose this war, they will no longer be able to quell the rebellion of the Portuguese, and the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal is a matter of time."

However, the Spaniards still controlled the Holy See and the Old Church Union, so it was difficult for the independence of the Portuguese to be recognized by Spain and European countries, and the independence of the Dutch had been fought for decades, and the Portuguese were probably no exception.

But with the experience of the Dutch, the Spaniards may still consider whether to conquer the Portuguese by force. At this time, the Portuguese crown was a chicken rib for the king of Spain, and even if he forcibly wore it on his head, the Portuguese would not recognize him as a king.

But if we were to buy the crown for Princess Isabella at this time, it would be an excellent choice for the Spaniards. It was possible to preserve the dignity of the king and to obtain a sum of money for the reorganization of the army of the Kingdom of Spain after its defeat at the hands of France.

And for us, having this crown will not only justify our seizure of the Portuguese overseas colonies, but also allow us to make some deals with the Duke of Bragança. Isn't that idea good enough? ”

However, Song Xiance was obviously not confused by the prospect depicted by Zhang Guoji, he got up and paced back and forth in the room, and whispered to Zhang Guoji with a blank face: "What the hell, are you carried away by gold?" Captain Edmund should have thrown the Portuguese into the sea and sunk the secret to the bottom of the sea..."

The smile on Zhang Guoji's face froze, and he asked puzzledly, "Why?" What's wrong with finding gold? Didn't Your Majesty and the Imperial Court always encourage their subjects to look around for gold and silver overseas? ”

Song Xiance stopped, stared at him viciously and said: "The purpose of these Europeans to colonize overseas is to find wealth, if such a big gold mine falls into our hands and is so close to Europe, do you still expect them to sit on the sidelines and watch us eat alone?"

The Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, all have reason to claim ownership of the gold mines from us, and how could the French and the British pass up the opportunity to intervene. Therefore, as long as the news of the gold mine spreads, our layout in Europe may be ruined, and thus become the target of the joint efforts of European countries, after all, the Atlantic has never belonged to the Ming Dynasty.

Besides, why do we need to dig gold and silver ourselves, as long as we control the commodities imported into Europe, these gold and silver will flow to the Ming Dynasty sooner or later..."

Zhang Guoji was silent for a moment, although he felt that what Song Xiance said was good, but if there was such a big gold mine in front of him and he didn't take it, I am afraid that only a saint could do it.

But although he was not convinced, he didn't dare to show it on his face, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Then according to your meaning, this matter should be interrupted first?" ”

Song Xiance was also silent for a long time, and then eased his expression and asked, "We can stop, can Zheng Hou stop?" ”

Zhang Guoji's face suddenly became ugly, and he said after a long time: "You know, Zheng Hou is not something we can command. ”

Song Xiance suddenly shook his head and said: "Then things will get worse, attacking the Portuguese colonies without a name will only arouse the disgust of Western European countries, and it will be difficult for us to find any more allies in Europe." ”

After thinking for a while, Song Xiance clenched his fists and said: "In this way, we can only take one step at a time, and get the crown of Portugal first." Fortunately, Britain is now in a very chaotic state and is powerless to interfere in foreign affairs. The King of France and the Bishop of Richelieu are not in good health, and if they can control the political situation in France, then they will be able to control the influence of the gold mine discovery as much as possible. I don't know what Kuhl is doing in the UK, he hasn't heard anything for a long time..."

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