Nanking.

When the Dutch envoy Mattheis came here, he instantly felt the urge to prostrate and bow down.

On top of the 20-meter-high city wall, there are also three-story castle towers, and the building height of nearly 30 meters makes Mattheis feel small as a mortal.

Miracles, these are the miracles that God has left on earth!

Mattheis has been to Guangzhou, to Fuzhou, and this time to stay in Hangzhou. The above three cities are not as shocking as Nanjing, and Mattheis could not even have dreamed that such a city could appear in the mortal world.

The envoys were brought into the city, and the crowd of people rubbed shoulders made them feel like boats in the sea.

The population of this city is probably larger than that of the whole of the Netherlands, right?

After being arranged to stay for a few days, Matthias was finally allowed to meet Zhao Han in person.

"Great King," said Matthews, saluting respectfully, "I have come to negotiate with you, on behalf of His Excellency the Governor of Batavia of the Dutch East India Company, in the hope that the dispute between the two sides may be properly settled. ”

Zhao Han asked expressionlessly: "I heard that you detained my horse?" ”

Matthias replied, "Your Majesty's war horses have been properly transported to Batavia, and there is a very professional horse breeder to take care of them. By the time I left Batavia, only 41 horses had died, and God would bless them. ”

"Tell me, how can you pay me back." Zhao Han was too lazy to go around the bend.

Matthieus laughed, "After deducting the deposit you paid to the Dutch, you will be charged 60 taels of silver per horse." ”

For the second batch of horse breeds, Zhao Han paid a deposit of 10,000 taels of silver in advance.

As a result, it was transported halfway through and robbed by the Dutch.

If the Dutch could transport the horses to Shanghai and charge only 60 taels of silver per horse, Zhao Han would have paid much less to buy the horses.

This is the Netherlands taking the initiative to show goodwill, obviously wanting to exchange some benefits.

Zhao Han asked, "Does Malacca belong to the Netherlands?" ”

"It's almost over," said Matthieus, "the Netherlands have blockaded the Straits of Malacca, and are storming the outer cities of Malacca, and are besieging and bombarding the castles of Malacca. ”

Why did the Netherlands seize the Indian colonial stronghold, this time recruiting thousands of mercenaries, including Swedish mercenaries, as well as German and Swiss mercenaries.

Portugal colonized the East for more than 100 years, and there were too many enemies.

Also as colonizers, the Netherlands were allies everywhere. Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, Malaya...... The countries in these places were willing to help the Dutch fight the war and work together to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Portugal.

In the case of Malacca, the Dutch first attacked Ceylon, and the Portuguese defenders of Malacca immediately rushed to support.

So on the Malacca side, there were only one or two defenders left.

A funny situation arises.

The Portuguese castle was defended by more than 100 people, and the Dutch bombarded it with heavy artillery for two months. Mercenaries don't work, they can't stand the tropical climate, and half of them get sick while fighting. The Kingdom of Johor also sent 2,000 soldiers to help in the war, but they still couldn't gnaw at the castle.

In the end it was the Portuguese themselves who surrendered, because the grain ran out.

If there is enough food, these more than 100 Portuguese are estimated to be able to hold on to Malacca for several years......

Matthias said, "Your Majesty, the ports of Canton and Fuzhou, I ask you to open them to the Dutch fleet. ”

You say that if you are open, you will be open, do I not want to lose face?

Zhao Han replied: "Ten taels of silver for each horse, which is considered to be the freight for you, and it will be transported to Fuzhou and handed over to Zheng Zhilong." If more than 50 horses died, the Dutch would not want to land in any Chinese port in the future! ”

"Of course, great king, if the horses die too much, we will bring them back to make up for it." Mattheis was very happy.

It didn't matter what the money was, the main purpose of the Dutch was to do business with China in person.

Zhao Han doesn't care about this, who does business with or not?

If the Dutch occupy Malacca, the price will definitely be much cheaper if they find the Dutch to buy horses in the future.

Moreover, the Dutch can fight naval battles and compete with Zheng Zhilong!

Zheng Zhilong, that guy, has been pretending to be deaf and dumb. Except for the six warships sold to Zhao Han at a low price, the other warships refused to hand them over, and it seemed that they would wait for Zhao Han to become emperor before expressing their position.

Zhao Han said again: "I want ten Dutch shipbuilders, and as long as they are excellent, they are not allowed to fool me with ordinary goods." If the shipbuilders are too skilled, I will ban trade with the Netherlands at any time. ”

Mattheis immediately agreed: "There is no problem with this, we will meet Your Majesty's request." ”

There is nothing else in the Netherlands, and there are many shipbuilders to the involution.

Today, there are about 20,000 merchant ships at sea in the world, and the Netherlands alone owns a quarter of them. The combined tonnage of merchant ships in Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain is not comparable to that of the Netherlands.

In the Dutch capital alone, there are more than a hundred shipyards.

Merchant ships from all over Europe place orders in Dutch shipyards, because Dutch shipyards are the cheapest to build.

Zhao Han only needs ten shipbuilders, and the Netherlands does not need to send the top ones, just to reach the average level in Europe, and there are no trade secrets at all.

Compared with the opening of Guangzhou and Fuzhou, ten shipbuilders are a fart.

The two sides reached a friendly exchange on this, and the Portuguese were ruthlessly abandoned by Zhao Han.

Over there in Macau, let's take it step by step.

Chinese language schools have been opened and Portuguese children are required to attend school. In twenty or thirty years, there is no need for coercion to organize the Portuguese into households, let them abandon their beliefs and become Chinese.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, there were many official eunuch families, which were Central Asian green cultists left by the Yuan Dynasty.

They read the Four Books and the Five Classics, and were admitted to the rank of scholar and official, not to mention that their ideology and beliefs became Han Chinese, and even their appearance became Han Chinese.

Before Matthis's departure, Zhao Han finally reminded: "Remember, merchant ships of any country come to Chinese ports to trade. The customs duties are either paid directly to the silver or the Datong silver dollar, and taxes are not to be paid in other currencies! If there is no silver, and there is no Datong silver dollar, you can exchange it at a bank near the wharf. ”

The Jiangxi Mint has now minted more than six million silver dollars.

Only a small part of the silver comes from mining, and most of it comes from taxes. After receiving the broken silver, it was melted and minted, and the Datong silver dollar was generally accepted by the market.

Although it contains a lot of impurities, the merchants also recognize that it is worth one tael of silver.

More than six million silver dollars, plus a large number of copper coins, were minted, and the grain bank was finally renamed the bank. In addition, Cosmos Bank was spun off from the Finance Department and became an institution directly under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Government.

Portugal's silver coin of eight riyals, Dutch silver coins of horse sword, these currencies can be circulated by the people, but Zhao Han's official department does not recognize them.

Including the British fleet, when they came to Guangzhou to do business, the tariff was to go to the bank to exchange silver dollars or silver first.

The Dutch envoy left, and Zhao Han went to the meeting.

Huang Shunfu spoke first: "Tian Fu must be changed. Especially in Jiangnan Province, there are not many people who grow grain, and the fields can no longer be collected in kind, which is very inconvenient for the people. ”

Fei Chun has stepped down as director of the finance department to take charge of Datong Bank full-time, and he is now equivalent to the governor of the central bank.

However, this central bank is different from the central bank of New China in that it not only issues currency, but also operates banking business itself, and is also engaged in grain business.

Fei Chun said: "Banks have also been built in various parts of the Yangtze River, but all the grain has to be transported from other provinces. In the last summer harvest, farmers in the south of the Yangtze River had a variety of cotton, and they had not yet arrived to pick and assemble. There are many arrears in the summer grain fields, and they have no money to pay at all. Fortunately, it was a newly occupied land, and it was hit by floods, so this year's summer grain was simply waived. However, during this year's autumn harvest, the peasants in Jiangnan had to exchange cotton for money, then use the money to buy grain, and then pay taxes after buying grain. ”

Li Banghua said: "It is extremely cumbersome. ”

"It's really time to change," Zhao Han nodded, "Starting from Jiangnan Province, the future grain will be converted into silver or copper coins." If it is a copper coin, only more than five cents will be accepted, and ten cents will not be collected! ”

Pang Chun said: "In my opinion, the reality is different from place to place. There should be a rule that how much money you receive and how much food you receive. In the hands of the people, there is money to pay, and there is grain to pay, but it is up to the people to choose. ”

Li Banghua nodded and said: "Indeed, in some poor places, silver money is not enough, and it is a bad thing to convert Tian Fu into silver. ”

Zhao Han thought carefully for a while and said: "Paying money and grain is all up to the people's will, and this policy can be implemented." But you can't keep it that way, set a deadline. In areas that have been governed for more than 10 years, all the money will be used to pay the land in the future. If it is governed for ten years and the local people have no money to pay taxes, then it is a dereliction of duty on the part of the local officials! ”

"I agree." Huang Shunfu seconded.

Zhao Han also said: "In the future, the bank should gradually reduce its grain business and hand over the grain transportation and trade to the merchants, and the Datong Bank should be responsible for setting the grain reserve price." ”

The idea that the state collects and purchases grain in a unified manner is very beautiful.

But with the expansion of the territory, limited to the ancient storage and transportation technology, this thing is really very difficult to do. And, with the passage of time, corruption will inevitably breed, and it is not easy to investigate.

Xiao Huan said suddenly: "But local governments or banks still have to keep part of the granaries and grain, and they should be regarded as regular liquidation." ”

Li Banghua said: "This statement is reasonable. ”

It is often closed, used for relief during disasters, and can also open a warehouse to stabilize the price of rice.

"Then it's decided, and if there is a problem in the future, it will be corrected." Zhao Han accepted the offer.

The territory expanded to several provinces, and with the feedback from local officials, Zhao Han found more and more problems. The previous policy could be implemented in one or two provinces, but it would be impractical in a few more provinces.

"Is there enough food for war this year?" Zhao Han confirmed again.

Fei Chun smiled: "It's definitely enough, but it's best to stop marching within three months." ”

Pang Chun said: "You can take Jianghuai in two months." ”

Li Banghua spoke: "The prefectures and counties of Jianghuai are mainly three enemies. One is Luo Rucai in the direction of Lu'an, the second is the Cao thief in the direction of Xuzhou, and the third is the salt thief in the direction of Rugao. The war is easy to fight, and after the battle, the Cao army and the salt households have to be resettled, they are all forced by the officials to rebel against the people. ”

Zhao Han said: "Except for Luo Rucai, other enemy generals, if they are willing to surrender and hand over all their property, they will all be regarded as civilians, and they can also give them land." ”

"Who knows if you have handed over all your property?" Chen Maosheng asked.

Zhao Han smiled and said, "If he escorts his whole family to other prefectures and counties to settle down, how many taels of silver can he bring?" He hid a few hundred taels privately, and I didn't bother to investigate it, so I hid too much and cut off my head directly! ”

Pang Chunlai sighed: "Let's see if they are willing to surrender." It is best to surrender, so as not to cause more killing, and can also save a lot of military rations. ”