Since Wang Zunde has been removed from the post of governor of Guangdong, it is necessary to find another successor.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the ministers in front of him who were a little looking at each other, and then said to the Ministry of Officials, Shangshu Chengji: "For the governor of Guangdong, is there a suitable candidate for the Ministry of Officials?" ”

Previously, when Lu Daqi, a scholar in the cabinet, was ordered to go to the ministry to ask him about Wang Zunde's situation, Cheng Jiming was prepared for this, so as soon as Emperor Chongzhen asked, he immediately said: "Wang Yehao, the head of the household department in Nanjing, may be competent." ”

After saying this, seeing that the emperor was expressionless, Cheng Ji hurriedly said: "Wang Yehao is a Jinshi in the forty-first year of Wanli, and he is currently a squire of the household department in Nanjing, and he has served as the imperial governor of Guangdong for several years, and he is quite familiar with the situation in Guangdong. And this person is the great-great-grandson of the new Hou Yang Ming Gong after the sage, and after entering the office, he has been in many positions, all of which have a virtuous name. ”

Wang Yangming was named Xinjian Bo after pacifying the rebellion of King Ning, and was posthumously named Xinjian Marquis when he died, but the descendants are hereditary or Xinjian Earl's title, and this Wang Yehao is Wang Yangming's branch great-great-grandson.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw Cheng Jiming say this, he turned his eyes to look at Bi Ziyan, the head of the household department, and said, "What does Bi Aiqing think? ”

Bi Ziyan is the head of the household department, and he should have the right to speak about the household servant in Nanjing.

Of course, the most appropriate person for consultation should be Su Maoxiang, who is now the secretary of the Nanjing household department and the political envoy of Nanyu, but Su Maoxiang is not in front of him.

At this time, Bi Ziyan, the head of the household department, nodded and said: "Wang Yehao is quite trusted by Su Maoxiang, the head of the household department in Nanjing, and has also made a lot of contributions to the transfer of grain, salary, ordnance, and support for the rebellion in Yungui and Guizhou. ”

After Bi Ziyan said this, Emperor Chongzhen of course knew what it meant, and then looked at Li Guoqi and Xu Guangqi, both of whom said, "The minister has no opinion. ”

Soon, the holy decree of dismissing Wang Zunde from the post of governor of Guangdong, appointing Wang Yehao, a chamberlain of Nanjing, to take over as governor of Guangdong, and cooperating with Wang Zhichen, the governor of Liangguang, to mobilize troops and horses to quell the rebellion was sent to Nanjing and Guangzhou.

As for the candidate for the Nanjing Household Minister, it was recommended by the Ministry of Officials and Su Maoxiang, who was also in charge of the Nanjing Household Department.

Nowadays, four of the five municipal departments that have set up Hong Kong and trade are under the jurisdiction of the Nanyu political envoy under the auspices of Su Maoxiang, and a competent assistant who can carry out his intentions is very important, so it is naturally best to recommend him and the officials jointly.

The impact and impact of the opening of the sea and trade on the Ming Dynasty has just begun to appear, but Emperor Chongzhen has already felt it personally.

In addition to the civil unrest of the indigo industry in northern Guangdong, he has also personally experienced the changes that have taken place in Beijing in the past few months.

In fact, when the war against thieves in Shanxi was in full swing, Emperor Chongzhen, who was in Beijing, was not idle for a moment.

At the end of April, at the recommendation of Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Emperor Chongzhen summoned the Chinese-speaking Portuguese craftsman Joe Rodriguez again in the Forbidden City.

This time, Rodriguez also brought a Portuguese merchant named Gotinho, who unexpectedly proposed to Emperor Chongzhen that he wanted to obtain the approval of the Ming Emperor to buy land in the Ming Dynasty to open a factory.

What surprised Emperor Chongzhen even more was that Gotinho, a Portuguese merchant who could not speak a word of Chinese, presented the emperor with a one-foot-square glass mirror.

Of course, mirrors are not a rarity in Daming, including glass, but a one-foot-square glass mirror, at least for Daming in this era, is a new industrial product.

And this Portuguese businessman, who had heard that the Ming Dynasty had ordered the opening of the sea for trade, and went north to Beijing from Haojingao to look for business opportunities, actually wanted to open a glass factory in Beijing.

The production process of flat glass is not complicated in later generations, but at this time the Ming Dynasty in the East is still a secret that no one has mastered.

In the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the glass products of this era are only a kind of glazed products, not only the transparency is not good, but also can not be pure and colorless, and the large pieces are not broken and smooth as grinding.

For Europeans, however, as early as the fourth century AD, the nobles of the Roman Empire had already applied glass to windows and doors.

Especially by the thirteenth century, the Italian glass-making technology had been very developed, and the Catholic churches and royal palaces throughout Europe had become very common to decorate doors and windows with various glass products.

In this era, the glass mirrors made of flat glass by Italians have become famous throughout Europe.

It's just that the Italians kept this secret for 300 years, until the end of the 16th century, the beginning of the 17th century, the manufacturing process of large flat glass, with the war in Europe, spread in Western European countries, glass products in Europe immediately fell in value, no longer the exclusive rarity of the aristocracy.

Carlos Gottinho, who came from a family of glassmakers in Lisbon, heard that there were no glass products in the East, and even high-ranking officials and dignitaries still used the kind of metal mirrors that lasted for thousands of years, so he took craftsmen and servants to the East to look for opportunities.

In the summer of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Gotinho came to Haojingao, an important stronghold of Portuguese trade with the Ming Dynasty, opened a glass factory, and began to produce monocular clairvoyants for military use and glass mirrors for civilian use.

Most of the monoculars purchased by the Ming court from Ho Jing Ao came from the glass factory in Gotinho.

It was also in Ho Kong that Gotinho, a glassware manufacturer, met Joe Rodriguez, a Portuguese artisan technician who had lived in Ho Ho Kiang O for a long time.

Later, Joe Rodriguez, as a gun technician employed by the Ming court, followed Sun Heding to the Ming Jingshi, and soon entered the military academy.

More than a year later, Emperor Chongzhen announced the edict of opening the sea and trade at the Zhengdan court meeting on the New Year's Day of the second year of Chongzhen, and Joe Rodriguez, who was bent on making a fortune in the East, was not willing to just receive a seemingly expensive salary in the gun factory of the Arsenal, but wanted to make a fortune by operating a completely "monopoly" unique business like Capo and Dias, the owners of the "Dias gunpowder" brand.

For the Portuguese Antonio de Capo and Dias to open their own Dias gunpowder factory in Tongzhou Baliqiao, because there was a verbal consent of Emperor Chongzhen before, so whether it was Sun Yuanhua, the director of the Armed Forces Institute, or Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and even Yin Yanghe of Shuntian Mansion, they were all given the green light, but for Joe Rodriguez's request to open his own gun workshop near the Bali Bridge in Tongzhou, Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua both refused.

After breaking off the idea of opening a gun factory to make a fortune, Rodriguez suddenly remembered that Gotinho, a Portuguese glass manufacturer in Haojingao, found that the Ming Dynasty, whether it was ordinary people or high-ranking officials, was still using bronze mirrors and brass mirrors, so he hurriedly wrote a letter to his Portuguese compatriot Gotinho and asked him to come to the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, at the end of April, the Portuguese businessman Gotinho took the road guide obtained by "bribing" the order of Xiangshan County, Guangdong, and came all the way to the Daming Jingshi.

After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, Gotinho contacted Rodriguez, and then went to the Xiyi Pavilion of the Li Fan Yuan, which now specializes in the management of Western affairs, to apply for leasing land to set up a factory, but unfortunately Wu Weiying, the envoy of the Li Fan Yuan, went to patrol the border with Sun Chengzong, the minister of military aircraft, and the deputy envoy Jiang Yueguang has not returned from the envoy to North Korea, and no one has accepted such a matter at all.

So Rodriguez, who was quite valued by Bi Maokang, found Bi Maokang, who was transferred to the Ministry of Industry, here.

Bi Maokang was one of the few enlightened figures among the Ming officials in the late Ming Dynasty, and after listening to the ideas of Rodriguez and Gotinho, he quickly took them to meet the emperor.

To the surprise of Rodriguez and Gotinho, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was unexpectedly enlightened and agreed to allow them to open a glass factory in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and also allowed them to set up the Rodriguez-Gottinho joint glass products factory in Hexi, which is known as the "gateway to Jingdong" and "the first post of Tianjin".

However, to their deep surprise, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to setting a high tax rate of five taxes and one for them, also asked the two of them to agree to the royal shares, in addition to the shops and factory land in Hexiwu, the Baohe Company belonging to the royal family should also account for one-third of the shares.

No matter how much silver Rodriguez and Gotinho are going to invest as share capital, Baohe will become one of the three major shareholders.

Carlos Gotinho initially disagreed, but when Rodriguez, the "China expert" of this era, explained to him the absolute authority of the Ming Emperor and the Baohe Company in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, Gotinho quickly agreed.

In this way, Fang Zhenghua, who was in charge of Baohe Company instead of the emperor, negotiated a final agreement with Rodriguez and Gotinho within a few days, and the total share capital was discounted by 100,000 Chongzhen silver dollars.

On behalf of the company, the royal family holds 30% of the shares, Rodriguez has invested all his savings in the East for more than 10 years, accounting for 20% of the shares, and the Carlos Gotinho family has a total of 40% of the shares, including 30,000 silver dollars in technology.

At the end of May, the so-called "Luoge United Glass Products Factory", which had actually invested a total of 65,000 silver dollars, successfully started production in Hexi, Wuqing, Tianjin.