February 21st year of Zhengde.

A special ship set sail in the port of Zhoushan, Ningbo, flying the iconic land and sea flag of the Daming Nanyang Company, and on the deck there was a Daming Navy wearing a white uniform.

Gu Zhitong personally went out to act as an intermediary liaison between the merchants and the government, and went to Luzon to deal with the purchase of land.

However, the party to this sale was not Luzon, but the Governor's Mansion of Luzon in the Ming Dynasty.

After the land is purchased, the form of disposal is no longer to divide 100 mu equally, and each one goes to the immigrant family, but directly goes into the hands of the purchaser according to the amount purchased, and carries out unified reclamation and cultivation.

Gu Zuo named the new subsidiary Donghua, which is ordinary and unnoticed by anyone, and its biggest role is to build a bridge between the official and private business groups.

On the one hand, it supports their confidence in investing, and on the other hand, it conveys to the upper level that the government needs to intervene to solve the problems, such as sending troops.

In fact, Gu Zuo was also ordered by the emperor to do such a thing.

He can also understand the intention of the imperial court, which is interests. And from then on, the demand for overseas territories of the Ming Dynasty has been driven by interests, and these unofficial behaviors will be more disorderly and more crazy.

But, how to say it.

Da Ming found a way to obtain benefits, and then went to practice, that's all.

Gu Shantong traveled at sea for more than a month and arrived at Shitang Port in March.

Then he took his father's handwritten letter and went to the governor's palace.

After waiting for an hour, I finally saw the governor, that is, Zhu Feng, the Duke of Chengguo.

Gu Shantong remembered seeing him in Hangzhou a few years ago, when he had just become governor and was ordered to go to sea.

"How many acres of land do you need?"

"It depends on how many two acres are set by Chengguo and how much land there is in Luzon."

Cheng Guogong replied: "This needs to be consulted by the emperor." Although it will delay some time, this is a major decision, and the emperor can only think about many things if he doesn't open his mouth. ”

"Yes, my father also expected it, and he had already made a note to the emperor before leaving, and if it went well, he should have a reply soon."

Then it's easy to do.

"In that case, let's stay first and wait patiently for a few days, you are still coming to Shitang Port for the first time, right? I'll have someone take you around. ”

Gu Shantong's estimate was not wrong, and about half a month later, the Governor's Mansion really sent someone to summon him.

Although he waited anxiously for this time, he still held back.

Luckily, I was lucky.

So he did not delay for a moment, and went directly to the governor's palace again.

This time, Cheng Guogong's attitude has obviously improved a lot, and he doesn't have to think about it to know that the emperor is making efforts, and after meeting, he became more enthusiastic, and said: "I, who was an uncle, didn't know before, it turned out that what the virtuous nephew was planning was a big deal.

I fully understand your intention now, in the final analysis, we are all working for the court and the emperor. The purchase of land is not a problem at all. ”

Gu Shantong is a ghost person, he didn't take it big, but was still polite, "With Chengguogong's words, Xia Guan's heart will be much more stable." I wonder if the price of that land has been set? ”

"It's settled." Zhu Fengbi stretched out his index finger, "One acre of land, one or two silver, it is a meaning account, neither the imperial court nor the governor's palace points to this money." ”

"One or two?!" Gu Shantong's eyes widened.

Although he thought that the land here would definitely be very cheap.

Because of Shangtun, you have to leave profit margins for businessmen, otherwise who would want to come all the way here to do this kind of hard business?

But one or two is just too cheap.

In the past ten years, with at least 30 million taels of silver imported into the Ming Dynasty every year, the Ming Dynasty has an oversupply of currency, which has actually caused a certain amount of inflation.

As a result, the price of land in the south of the Yangtze River has risen all the way, and in the past two years, the price of one acre of high-quality paddy field has exceeded 50 taels.

Of course, land in the south of the Yangtze River is already expensive, and in some provinces there are still cases of ten or fifteen taels of silver per acre of land.

But even when compared to cheaper areas, the price of land here in Luzon is a free gift.

"Just one or two." Zhu Feng smiled lightly, "Although you are not an official in the court, you have a family history and are familiar with it, so you should know that the emperor has a long-term vision." This time I did this, not because of more money and less money, and the court was not for the little silver in the pockets of merchants, but for them to have more motivation to cultivate wasteland. Compared to this, what is selling land cheaply? If the land is sold cheaply, the price of grain will be lower when it comes back. ”

Of course, businessmen will not take the initiative to lower grain prices for the sake of excess profits, but the imperial court will not sit idly by.

What else can Gu Shantong say?

He just thought of the phrase he had always heard before: either don't do it or never do it.

It's good now

A new business opportunity is in front of us,

The land on the offshore islands is like giving away for nothing, which is equivalent to a large part of the cost being removed, so will you worry about the lack of commercial capital investment in the future?

I'm afraid that if it's the other way around, I'll scramble to buy the land first, right?

"By the way, are there any conditions for such a low price?"

"Yes, that is, within ten years, the grain produced can only supply the Ming Dynasty."

This shouldn't be a problem.

When Gu Shantong brought the news back,

The seven merchants who came with him were all excited, and they even started asking 'offensive' questions, saying, "This can't be fake, right?" ”

Gu Shantong explained: "Cheng Guogong's words, can there be any falsehood? And there is a reason why the imperial court did this, first of all, these lands were obtained for nothing, and some of them were given to immigrants for free, but the number of immigrants was limited after all, so what was the use of the remaining pies? It's better to sell it cheaply. ”

"But it's also too cheap."

"Nope." One of the merchants said, "Haven't you all seen the Atlas of Nations?" How much better arable land is there in the world? I don't think the imperial court 'cherishes' these lands too much, after all, Luzon is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm afraid there will be more in the future. ”

Gu Shantong didn't think so deeply,

But it's true.

"Don't care about those, do you want these one-two-acre land or not?"

"Of course I want to, I want 50,000 acres!"

"I want 70,000 acres!"

At the same time, the Doge's Palace,

The third prince Zaiyao was extremely excited about the court's decision, "My father should have done this a long time ago, if this policy had been implemented three years ago, and there would have been a great drought in the north last year, he would have been able to transfer grain immediately." ”

"Third Highness," Zhu Feng said with a little worry, "There are many benefits to this matter, but there are two problems. Who will cultivate such a large amount of land? It takes manpower. Besides, King Suleiman's side will definitely complain. ”

A few months ago they had a handman.

Because they captured more than 4,000 rebels, but they used them to reclaim the land.

There's really no one right now.

"In terms of manpower, we can only hire more young people from Luzon. As for Suleiman, the king had already seen him unpleasantly, so he killed him. ”

"If you act without permission, I'm afraid you will anger Your Majesty."

"I want to ask my father for a decree." Zaiyao touched his chin and said, "If the imperial court wants to speed up the speed of reclamation and alleviate the problem of food shortage in some areas, then it can't tie hands and feet. When thinking about the Tang Dynasty, Wang Xuance only served as an envoy, but he attacked and destroyed a country on the way and made great achievements. The same should be true for now. ”

In fact, there is such a logic in ancient political concepts. It's all social Darwinism in nature, I'm better than you, I'm going to kill you, that's normal.

As for Zhu Houzhao, he has a strong ability to control, so he will slow down a little, because there are many countries in Nanyang, and if he sends troops to destroy Luzon, other countries will panic.

And the Ming Dynasty is trading here, and the peaceful and stable political environment is broken, so what kind of business is there to do?

But he also understands some of the overbearing thoughts of the ancients......

If someone really cleaned up all the Nanyang, he could only praise him as the emperor, which was a great contribution to the expansion of the territory, how could he not be rewarded?

So it's normal for Zaiyao to have such thoughts.

Zhu Feng looked forward to it, "If it is the Third Highness, the emperor should consider it as appropriate." ”

"You should have made a decision early, why drag on with him again? Suleiman himself is also a person who is yang and yin, and has a lot of thoughts, even if he is killed, what can he do? If it really can't be done, you can also promise him a prince of peace and invite him to live in Beijing. This also frees these businessmen from worrying about the future, and can also set off a round of development of Luzon. ”

Zaiyao had a sense of honor of 'Huangming', he couldn't sit still, "No." Sooner rather than later, I'll write it now! ”

……

……

Kyoshi at the beginning of February.

Qianqing Palace.

"I am against selling these lands for a high price. The high price of land will inhibit the investment enthusiasm of Ming merchants, lock these economic activities, and finally only make the Ming Dynasty lack the motivation to move forward.

Looking at the world, too many places have valuable land, it is really meaningless to hold it in your hands, you should let the merchants of the Ming Dynasty easily buy them, whether it is grain, cotton, these are what the Ming need more!

The high price of land can only be a one-shot sale, and there will be some benefits in front of you, but what you will lose is the future of the Ming Dynasty. ”

The words of the Son of Heaven were loud and clear, logical and long-term, echoing back and forth in the temple.

In fact, it was also a symbiotic relationship between the imperial court and the merchants. When these capitals continue to obtain excess returns in this way, they will try all kinds of ways to promote the continued expansion of the imperial court.

It is even possible to support some literati to create some beautiful arguments to provide a complete set of logic.

Of course, it all started with the attack on Japan.

After the emperor explained, the courtiers gradually understood and understood the connotation of the long-term vision that the Son of Heaven said.

Foreign Minister Yan Song expressed his stance and said: "Wanton military force refers to the exhaustion of national strength and people's wealth. But Your Majesty's method can make land and labor supply in a very low-cost way, and from this, more territory and more output, so that the Ming will only get richer and richer. ”

This is exactly what Zhu Houzhao thinks in his heart, as long as he occupies the cultivated land and grows food, with the combat power of the Ming army and the population potential of the Ming Dynasty, who else in this world can be opposed?

(End of chapter)