Zhu Youzhen clenched his fists, bared his teeth and couldn't wait to slap this Zheng Zhilong directly, and secretly scolded this old fox in his heart for only knowing that he was very scared, but he refused to let go for a long time and was willing to spit out part of the benefits, it is really as the world says, people don't cry when they don't see the coffin.

"It's good to understand, I know that it's a little embarrassing to let Zheng Zhilong give up the interests of the Zheng family, and it's true that as you said, your Zheng family's fleet is now also my Ming Dynasty's official army, I can't give you military salaries, but it also robs you of your wealth, after all, you also ensure the stability of my Ming Sea Frontier, but at present, the imperial court's military expenses are tight, the people are poor and the country is poor, I have to take the benefits, and the tariffs will continue to be levied!"

But I can not levy the customs duties of your Zheng family, and your Zheng family can enjoy the privilege of being free of customs duties!

However, you have to ensure the safety of the merchants who are allowed to go to sea by the government, and you must not levy any more docking and protection fees on these merchants, but if there are more than three cases of robbery by pirates among the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, I will dismiss you and take back the privileges granted to you by the Zheng family, are you willing? ”

Zheng family tariff exemption? But do you have to ensure the safety of merchants going to sea from being robbed by pirates, and you can't charge for protection?

Zheng Zhilong carefully calculated the conditions given by Zhu Youzhen in his heart.

If the Zheng family can avoid the levy of tariffs, he is naturally satisfied.

However, collecting protection fees for import and export ships is also a major source of income for him, and now if he does not collect protection fees from domestic merchants, it seems that he is still at a loss.

"Your Majesty, forgive Weichen for being presumptuous, thanks to Your Majesty's understanding, you are exempt from taxation to the Zheng family; But the cost of going to sea is so easy to get rid of! Although the brothers had to smuggle some goods for profit, in the end, they were small profits, and the brothers escorted them, and they couldn't say that they had to pay some hard work! ”

Zheng Zhilong stared at Zhu Youzhen with sly eyes as he spoke.

Zhu Youzhen is now eager to kill this Zheng Zhilong.

The privilege of being tax-free given to you by an emperor is already the biggest compromise, and he actually bargained with himself, saying that the smuggling of tens of millions of taels is just a small profit, if it is a small profit, why did he refuse to let it out just now.

But Zhu Youzhen could only say calmly at this moment: "I understand what you mean, but in order to strengthen my Ming business and trade and not let the foreign country monopolize the benefits of the sea, I must support my Ming merchants, after all, they are also my people, since they have paid taxes for the imperial court, I can't ignore them, Aiqing can collect a little more from the red ghost and the Franc Ji and others, besides, I have brought you the Zheng family tax exemption is not only the benefit that your Zheng family does not have to pay taxes, you can think about it again, The benefits of the ocean in this world are equally shared between me and your Zheng family? ”

Zheng Zhilong did as Zhu Youzhen said, and began to think about it carefully, but he quickly figured out the key points.

Of course, he also knew that it was not easy to say this kind of thing, but he also gave a big salute to Zhu Youzhen more frankly than before:

"Thank Your Majesty Longen, please rest assured, the Zheng family will never betray Your Majesty, absolutely guarantee the safety of Ming merchants going to sea, and never charge any fees for my Ming people to go to sea, it stands to reason that this is a matter of Wei Chen's responsibility, but now it is really stupid to ask Your Majesty to mention something."

"It's good to know that it's your own business, but with such a big benefit, your Zheng family can't get it in vain, I have to run a school, and I have to ask the help of your Zheng family", Zhu Youzhen began to say his true purpose.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but be stunned, thinking to himself, Your Majesty still needs to beg our Zheng family?

But as soon as Zheng Zhilong thought that His Majesty had given him such a big benefit to the Zheng family, he couldn't help but agree, so he immediately gave up: "But please Your Majesty say bluntly, as long as the Zheng family is needed, the Zheng family will never refuse!" ”

"I heard that your Zheng family's naval generals abound, now since you are in the court, you should naturally do things for the court, I intend to open a Ming ship master school, train the best naval officers and naval talents in the future of the Ming Dynasty, now the red ghost and the Franco machine man rise too fast, I am worried that after a hundred years, the power of the sea will be taken away by Xiyi, so I need to transfer a group of generals from your Zheng family to train my Ming navy, and train a group of excellent commanders who can command naval battles."

When Zhu Youzhen said this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but nodded: "What Your Majesty said is very true, Weichen has fought with Xiyi several times, although they have not suffered defeat for the time being, but the advantage of their ships and artillery is indeed above us, and Weichen is willing to do this for Your Majesty." ”

Zheng Zhilong regretted it after speaking.

Because he realized that Zhu Youzhen said that he had not fought against Xiyi to set up this academy to train naval commanders and naval talents, in fact, he had no intention of establishing his own navy, that is, the sailors and navy mentioned before, he was afraid that he would have the purpose of confronting his Zheng family's maritime forces in the future.

Once he sent someone from the Zheng family to help the imperial court cultivate naval talents, he was creating a future opponent for himself!

Only then did Zheng Zhilong understand that it was no wonder that His Majesty was so willing to give the Zheng family tax-free privileges, so that the Zheng family could take advantage of the world's oceans.

But Zheng Zhilong also knew that if he wanted His Majesty to be willing to give the Zheng family tax exemption privileges, he could only agree to His Majesty's matter, otherwise there would be no need to cooperate, and he could not completely deviate from the imperial court.

As for helping the imperial court to strengthen the imperial court's own navy, Zheng Zhilong felt that the growth rate of his Zheng family's power after occupying the benefits of tax exemption was only afraid that the imperial court's navy might not be able to catch up, and he was the master, the imperial court navy was an apprentice, and the master taught the apprentice, how could the master give all his skills to the apprentice.

"Brother Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Zhibao have always been great generals at sea, the two of them must enter Beijing, and the rest of the generals, Zheng Jiadang will exclude more than fifty people, and it will be completed within three months!"

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, Zheng Zhilong nodded and agreed: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Weichen will definitely let them go to Beijing to do things for Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and asked Zheng Zhilong to step down, and then he ordered Wang Chengen to send Fan Jingwen, the first assistant of the cabinet, instructing him to no longer levy the Zheng family's tariff when he was about to start the tax collection work.

Fan Jingwen was naturally surprised, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, it is tantamount to making the Zheng family even bigger!" ”

"I didn't know that this move would make the Zheng family even bigger, but now I don't have a strong navy of my own! That's all there is to it! Now that he wants to reap the benefits of the gentry, he can only win over the heart of the Zheng family, otherwise there will be too many enemies, and it will not be a good thing for the imperial court."

Zhu Youzhen naturally knew that the privilege of giving the Zheng family tariff-free was equivalent to allowing the Zheng family to smuggle legally, and the Zheng family could lure a large number of private merchants to trade under the banner of the Zheng family with an amount lower than the imperial tariff, but I was afraid that only Zhu Youzhen's own imperial merchants and officials and merchants belonging to the imperial court would go to sea to trade because they were their own merchants who would be registered by the imperial court customs agency, but that would inevitably increase the cost of imperial merchants and the cost of officials and businessmen, and reduce the competitiveness of national capital.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Youzhen said that he shared the benefits of the world with the Zheng family.

His Zheng family can almost use this privilege to become the biggest backer of private merchants, and even become the largest capitalist.

And their own royal merchants can also compete with them through the monopoly of some industries and the development of emerging technology industries.

As for who will become the master of the entire social economy in the future, it is difficult to say.

However, Zhu Youzhen believes that as long as his royal capital has the most advanced production technology and a strong navy in the future, he will not be able to control the marine economy of the entire Ming society and take back the interests occupied by the Zheng family.