Although Li Zhaoji directly made this request, he did not have a suitable candidate in his hands. After all, those who can serve as prefects must have meritorious fame, and it is best to be a jinshi. And there is no such person in the Oriental Trading Company, even among the people who are good friends with him, there is only Chen Shangchuan, but he is arranged in the more critical Yangtze River estuary.

Fortunately, Li Zhaoji has friends in the Guangdong gentry circle, and these people can definitely come up with a suitable candidate.

Zhao Wenji thought about it and nodded slightly, as long as he didn't tear the earth and seal the king, it was not a big problem in his opinion. And if you don't agree to Li Zhaoji, it will make Li Zhaoji create problems, and now Da Ming has no time to take care of other aspects in the face of such a behemoth as Da Shun.

"I can agree to this matter for the time being, and Dong Weng will also consider it. You talk about other things. Zhao Wenji said.

Li Zhaoji spread his hands: "I can't think of it for the time being, the favor deal is over, let's talk about money, how much money is Lord Shen going to pay for the Liao soldiers?" ”

Zhao Wenji smiled, poured himself a drink, and said, "Don't worry about talking about money, Dong Weng still has a reward for you." ”

"Please." Li Zhaoji smiled, since he knew Shen Youlong, this old guy used himself to defend himself, what reward can he have?

Zhao Wenji said: "In the current situation, the king who is good with you, Xingbu Ping Domain, Shanghai, and Chen Shangchuan, who is also good with you, can become the prefect of Songjiang in two or three months."

The civil and military forces on the ground in Songjiang are all your people, and Dong Weng means that he is ready to follow the old things of Guangdong and establish a customs in the south of the Yangtze River, which is called Shanghai Customs. ....... in and out of Jiangnan in the future. ”

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested in Shanghai Customs, if Lord Shen is willing to build it, he can handle it himself, and it has nothing to do with me." Li Zhaoji said with his hands on his chest.

For the Ming Dynasty, the greatest effect of the establishment of the Guangdong Customs was to obtain the preparation costs of the Guangdong Army from the Guangdong Pass with customs revenue.

Although the Ming Dynasty experienced the rebellion of the Lujian State, the old army and the Beijing camp were cut down a lot, and now the taxes of the imperial court can supply the whole country, but for a court, there is no time for too much money. In particular, Shen Youlong is also preparing to establish a new army of firearms, and dealing with Dashun will inevitably lead to financial inadequacy.

It is also a way to build a Shanghai Customs to borrow money from Guangdong Tongtong.

Compared with the establishment of customs in Guangdong, the resistance is smaller, because of the Zheng family's suppression, the scale of trade with foreign countries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is relatively small, and there are naturally not many participants, so the resistance is naturally small.

For Shen Youlong, the only thing that needs to be considered is whether the Jiangnan gentry also contributed money to establish a bank, but in this way, it seems that the Jiangnan gentry and Li Zhaoji have too much contact, otherwise, borrowing from Guangdong will be attacked by a large number of political enemies.

But Shen Youlong never expected that this matter would be suffocated by Li Zhaoji, and he didn't mean it at all.

"Why, in Guangdong Customs, didn't Daming cooperate very well with you?" Zhao Wenji's face was full of surprise, because Li Zhaoji was not bargaining, but directly refused, and refused to give any room for negotiation.

Li Zhaoji said: "In this matter, I no longer need to cooperate with Daming. ”

At the beginning, Li Zhaoji tried his best to prepare for the establishment of Guangdong Customs, which had some purposes, but was also limited by his own strength.

He needed the Ming to build an army of considerable strength and march north with the Eastern Brigade. Prevent the Manchu Qing from entering the customs and ensure the balance of power on the mainland. Obviously, this purpose has been achieved.

The second is to establish a common interest relationship with the gentry of Guangdong, so that Guangdong officially opened the port, and now this purpose has been achieved, Hong Kong has opened the port, becoming the window of foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty.

The customs is the official agency of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the Ming court that integrates Guangdong's foreign trade resources with the help of the water power of the Oriental Trading Company. Li Zhaoji couldn't integrate it alone, because of the limitation of strength, if at that time, the Oriental Trading Company did it by itself, the result could only be to become a pirate, let the Ming court send Fujian Zheng Zhilong to kill himself.

Because of the limitation of strength, Li Zhaoji had to cooperate with the Ming court.

But now there is no need to do this at all, because the only force that the Ming Dynasty restricts the Oriental Trading Company, the Fujian Zhengjia Naval Division has completely collapsed, and the Ming Dynasty has such an enemy as Dashun that threatens its existence, even if Shen Youlong is afraid of guarding against Li Zhaoji's Oriental Trading Company, he must also be cautious to prevent Li Zhaoji from making trouble at sea and dispersing the resources of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that Zhao Wenji was puzzled, Li Zhaoji said: "Mr. Zhao, I am already preparing to issue water tokens in Shanghai, Tamsui and Lushun to ensure the order and safety of the eastern seas. Working with Daming will not significantly increase security, but will reduce my earnings. ”

The water token is the Oriental Sea Area Navigation Permit issued by the Oriental Trading Company in its own name, which is similar to the ticket issued by the Guangdong Customs and the water order flag issued by the Zheng family that year, but the difference is that the latter two have the endorsement of the Ming court, while the water order flag does not.

All three have one thing in common, essentially relying on the naval strength of the issuer.

Now the Oriental Trading Company Navy has replaced the Zheng Maritime Group and has become the hegemon of the China Sea, and there is no need to rely on the endorsement of the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called water token is actually the same as the water flag, ostensibly a pass, but actually a protection fee, not the issuer to provide protection, but just the issuer to ensure that you are not robbed.

According to the model of the Guangdong Customs, if the China Sea were ruled in the name of the Customs, Li Zhaoji's losses would be very large, and the first loss would be the Customs' revenue.

The revenue of Guangdong Customs is divided between Daming and Oriental Trading Company, and if a customs office is established in Shanghai, Oriental Trading Company will not even get sixty percent.

The second is the income from domestic trade, and Guangdong Customs can only collect customs duties on ships going to trade in the east and west oceans, but cannot collect customs duties on domestic trade. After the establishment of the Guangdong Customs, there were cases of small merchants in Guangdong carrying goods to Zhangquan and Quan, and using the merchant ships of Fujian merchants to trade with foreign countries in order to avoid tariffs.

Now that Li Zhaoji has changed to issue water tokens, he can logically collect taxes on all merchant ships in China's sea, otherwise his safety will not be guaranteed.

For Zhao Wenji, Li Zhaoji did not hide it, but directly said it thoroughly, Zhao Wenji said: "If you do this, it is a threat to the Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible for the imperial court not to react." ”

"What's the reaction? Rebuild the sailors and start a war with me, or move the border and forbid the sea, and close the country? Li Zhaoji asked with a smile, he said: "This is forcing me to vote for Dashun, Lord Shen's first assistant is enough, but the Ming gentry don't want to donate stolen money yet." ”

"The imperial court can prohibit foreign ships from entering the port!" Zhao Wenji said.

Li Zhaoji spread his hands: "Isn't that good, my Tamsui City can become a trade center, everyone comes to me to do business, and it will be more convenient to collect taxes." ”

For the competition for tax revenue generated by maritime trade, the Oriental Trading Company and the Ming Dynasty had their own advantages.

The advantage of Daming is that he has a variety of handicraft products that are in demand all over the world, and at the same time he has a huge market. Li Zhaoji can be blackmailed in this way, but Li Zhaoji also has maritime supremacy and control of foreign markets.

Not to mention anything else, as long as Li Zhaoji sent a few ships to block the port of Nagasaki, then all merchants who wanted to trade with Japan would obediently pay protection fees.

It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to implement a strict policy of banning the sea, and the rebellion of the Japanese has proved that the ban on the sea will only cause greater chaos, and now the Ming Dynasty is not the time of the Jiajing Dynasty, there is money and an army to pacify the chaos along the coast, and the huge income of maritime trade will also make countless smuggling merchants appear along the coast, and the ban on the sea is unstoppable.

And the Ming court had to worry even more that the uncontrolled maritime power of the Oriental Trading Company would take refuge in Dashun.

After all, Dashun now owns the entire north, and if Daming is lost, most of the resources can be made up from Dashun, and the rest can also be made up from smuggling.

Li Zhaoji poured wine for Zhao Wenhe with a smile and said: "Of course, if the Ming Dynasty wants to establish Shanghai Customs, I don't care, and I can't control it." ”

The most important thing is that Li Zhaoji has arranged a fleet in Hong Kong and Qiongzhou to carry out anti-smuggling at any time, and as long as it is found that those who do not pay customs duties will even be detained and sold by ships and goods and people, and the merchants of Guangdong will not be able to resist if they want to, and they will not be able to find the yamen, but the yamen will not be able to control them, and they will find the gentry, and the income of the Guangdong customs will directly determine whether the gentry's banks can make money, and they will not care.

Shanghai Customs, nothing, collect a gross tariff?

On the contrary, if the Shanghai Customs is really to be established, not only must it not ban the sea, but it will also vigorously promote maritime trade, so that foreign ships such as the Oriental Trading Company and Europa foreign ships can arrive in Hong Kong, and only these ships can honestly pay tariffs.

Zhao Wenji had nothing to say, he didn't expect that Li Zhaoji's ambitions had expanded to this point, in the past, when Li Zhaoji was in the relationship with Daming, he would have equal interests and cover all aspects, but now it has completely changed, as long as he can swallow it alone, he will never give it to others.

"Mr. Zhao, what other requirements does Lord Shen have, you mentioned them together, after that, let's talk about Liao Bing, oops, this group of people is too good to eat." Li Zhaoji said.

Zhao Wenji smiled and said: "Don't mention it, today is really too much to drink, my head is a mess, and I can't count the words I say, treat the old man, treat the old man ......." ”

Saying that, Zhao Wenji staggered up, and he looked like he couldn't walk, but Li Zhaoji didn't debunk his clumsy acting skills, called Zhao Wenji's entourage, and supported Zhao Wenji. All the way to the door, Zhao Wenji got into a carriage, and Li Zhaoji asked, "Changshui, where did you place Mr. Zhao?" ”

Zhao Changshui said: "If you go back to the big shopkeeper, Mr. Zhao will be placed in the Luming Pavilion. ”

"What about Dashun's mission?" Li Zhaoji asked again.

Unlike Zhao Wenhe, who came quietly and only brought three or five followers. After Li Zicheng passed the New Year, he directly sent an embassy, and the specifications were very high.

The main envoy is the righteous marquis Zhang Nai, and the scale has reached more than 100 people.

Among them were civilian officials who had come to discuss trade and diplomacy, a military observation group that had learned the same thing, and even a dozen veterans and craftsmen who were good at using firearms.

After these people arrived, they were unceremoniously saying that this was also a visit and a study, and the demands they put forward were more than one too much.

There is no doubt that this is a high-level delegation, and there is nothing that the two sides cannot mention.

Zhao Changshui said: "At the beginning, we had to arrange people in the Luming Pavilion, but there were too many people, so only Zhang Nai and other high-ranking officials were arranged inside.

All the people below were arranged outside the city, and Mrs. Gu asked me to clean up a sugar farm outside the city, set up a brigade, and let them use the carriages and horses in the sugar village.

It's just that during this time, they have been visiting Tamsui's arsenal, shipyard and other facilities, and for the convenience of access, Zhang Nai and others did not stay in the Luming Pavilion, but lived in the sugar village outside. ”

Li Zhaoji nodded slightly and said, "Changshui, you have to think of a way to let Zhang Nai and the others live in the Luming Pavilion." ”

Zhao Changshui didn't understand what he meant, and then saw Li Zhaoji's eyes staring at Zhao Wen and the carriage he was in the distance, and immediately understood.

The Liao army on Jeju Island, Dashun also wants, but it is not so urgent. But Dashun's advantage lies in having money, a few days ago I visited the arsenal and ordered 2,000 Chongzhen 17-year-old arquebuses in one breath, which is really close to 100 million people.

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