The sky is blue, and a few white seagulls soar over the blue sky and white clouds.

In the vast expanse of blue waves, the summer sea breeze ripples layer by layer, and the three three-masted sea ships sail southward, as if entering an anime-like world.

Since the sea has not been damaged by humans, everything here seems to be natural, with schools of colorful swimming fish swimming on the clear ocean floor and coral reefs sucking tiny floating objects in the water.

In the face of such a beautiful view, especially the more novel fish and coral reefs, the group of first-time sailors on the deck were very excited.

"The journey of the sun and the moon, if out of it; The stars are splendid, if out of it. Great, Daming! ”

"Swing your chest to give birth to stratus clouds, and break into the island. It will be the top of the boat, and you can see the fish at a glance. God, Nanyang! ”

"There will be times when the wind and waves will be long, and the clouds will sail into the sea! Why don't the men take Wu Hook and collect Guanshan Fifty Prefectures? ”

……

Wang Shouren, the children of Xun Qi and a group of students from the Guozijian stood at the front of the deck, and they couldn't extricate themselves when they saw the beautiful scenery in front of them.

Time flies, and the young man was already a young man who had reached the age of eighteen.

Under Zhu Youzhang's instructions, Wang Hua's Guozijian was no longer limited to cultivating talents for the imperial examination, but became a comprehensive college with subjects such as mathematics, medicine, fine arts, navigation, and languages.

This time, the imperial court arranged personnel to send back the envoys from many countries in the Luzon Islands, and the Guozijian arranged for some outstanding students to accompany them, so they were fortunate to see the beauty of the sea.

The sea of this era is indeed incomparably magnificent, which has increased the horizons of the students who have lived in Middle-earth for generations, and those Qi Xun's children who have always been above the top were also shocked.

Chen Zheng, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, stroked his beard lightly, and his eyes looked at everything in front of him in a daze.

He came as a messenger this time, broadened his horizons along the way, and finally understood why His Majesty led Huaxia out, instead of indulging in the vast land and natural resources all the time.

Perhaps the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty lacked nothing, but in this boundless world, Huaxia could actually obtain greater resources.

"Luzon, look!"

A young student stretched out his hand and said excitedly.

As far as they could see, a green strip appeared in the southern sea, a huge island full of pristine atmosphere, as if responding to their cheers.

"It's here, but ...... The island of Raja is no longer part of it! ”

The envoys of the Marani Kingdom came to the deck with the envoys of various countries, only to see the green coastline presented in front of them, and the corners of their mouths were filled with bitterness.

At this year's court meeting, Daming is not just talking.

In the past six months, the Ming court has made contact with various forces in Luzon, and these leaders who have always admired the Ming have paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

Previously, the entire island of Luzon was nominally owned by their Marani Kingdom, but now the Ming court corrected this mistake and stripped them of the status of lord of Luzon.

Now the whole of Luzon has been redivided, and Manila only occupies the central part of the Marani Bay, and the rest of the country has been officially divided into various powers.

Since they all belonged to the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of the Ming Emperor, they signed a non-aggression pact and could only operate in their own territory.

"So that's what the island of Luzon we live in!" Ma Zhu, the bearded king of Mayi, looked at the island in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

They are not worthy of the name, because they are only an alliance of village communities, and their leaders are mediated in external affairs, and the leaders do not have absolute dominance.

Of course, they are not part of the Marani State and have always been an independent federation.

As early as the Song Dynasty, they had trade with the Guangzhou area of the Ming Dynasty, exchanging local yellow wax, pearls, betel nuts and other goods for Chinese porcelain and ironware.

As for their territory, although they occupy part of southern Luzon, their main place of residence is Mindoro Island in the southwest of Luzon, so they are not the indigenous people of Luzon.

Because their strength was too weak and they needed to rely on the Ming in trade, the Ming Dynasty designated Marani as the lord of Luzon, and they did not dare to stand up against it.

Fortunately, now the Ming Dynasty not only stripped the king of Manila of the title of king of Luzon, but also officially gave them the title of king of Ma Yi from the country of Ma Yi.

Ma Zhu looked at Luzon Island in front of him, and he already had a clear decision in his heart.

After seeing the strength of the Ming Dynasty on this trip, he knew that if the small Ma Yiguo wanted to survive well, the only way to firmly hold the thick thigh of the Ming Dynasty was to hold on to it.

Whether it is yellow wax, pearls, or betel nuts, they have to send them desperately to the Ming Dynasty, so as to bring the relationship between the two countries closer.

"Compared with Daming, our island is not worth mentioning!"

Gu Ma Lang and other forces were also canonized as kings by the Ming court, and now they are standing on the deck with the color of the Marani envoy and the Ma Yi king Ma Zhu, but they have a different feeling.

When they landed in Tianjin by sea ship and went north from Fujian, they had already understood the difference between the two. Even if the island in front of you is spectacular, it is like a whale compared to the Ming Dynasty.

The fleet streaked across the calm sea, leaving white trails in its wake.

There were three seagoing ships on this trip, one of which was mainly to bring back the mission and their gifts, one of which was to transport military supplies and supplies to Luzon City, and one of which was to engage in maritime trade in the South Seas.

Although the Ming Dynasty has always had trade contacts with Nanyang, the Ming merchants mainly looked at other people's pearls, so the total trade between the two sides was not large.

It's just that now after the Ming Dynasty opened the route, even the surplus of grain, vegetables and fruits in Marani has now become a key trade commodity for the Nanyang merchant ships.

As for the Ming Dynasty, while carrying their favorite porcelain and ironware, they also vigorously promoted the cotton cloth of the Ming Dynasty to them, making cotton cloth the first choice for the clothing of Nanyang residents.

Once the fleet was close to the coastline of Luzon, it continued along the western coastline.

With a total coastline of more than 5,000 kilometers, Luzon would have taken more than a year to walk around the island without being able to get around.

Since the northern part of Luzon has an oceanic tropical climate, the southern part has a tropical rainforest climate, and it is now in the agricultural era, the population of Luzon is mainly distributed in the south.

In addition, most of the north-central Luzon is mountainous, plateau and hilly, such as Mayon Volcano, which is the most active volcano in the world, resulting in a relatively small population.

Special water sources are the biggest constraint on population development, not to mention the islands in Luzon that have no agricultural support and well digging technology, even in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty there are a large number of terra nullius.

It is precisely like this, even if the Ming Dynasty carved out several kingdoms on Luzon Island, they focused on arable land and water sources, and most of the entire island belonged to the terra nullius, or the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty's Luzon governor Yamen.

After a day and a night of sailing, the Daming fleet finally came to a place known as the hawksbill turtle, where the hawksbill turtle lived became an important supply station for sea ships.

It's just that now it's no longer a hunting ground, and now there is a port and a city, which are the Luzon wharves and Luzon cities built by the Ministry of Engineering sent by the Ming Dynasty.

The Luzon Governor's Yamen is naturally located in the city, and the Luzon Governor Zhang Sui has already led Yu Yuanzan and other soldiers to wait on the Luzon dock.

The head of the trip was Chen Zheng, the left attendant of the Ministry of Works, and although he was nominally escorting the envoys back to Luzon, the more important task was to keep abreast of the latest situation here.

It is now August of the third year of Hongzhi, and the Ming Dynasty has laid out Luzon for more than half a year.

Not to mention whether the emperor is in a hurry, even if the people in the capital are already looking forward to it, they want to know the results of Luzon and whether they can really find overseas gold mines.

"How many gold mines have you found?"

"There are four major gold mines!"

"What is the size of the gold mine?"

"Immeasurable, there are at least tens of millions of taels of gold by sight!"

……

After Chen Zheng, the squire of the Ministry of Works, ordered the envoys to send the envoys back from various countries, he immediately inquired about the specific situation with Zhang Sui, the governor of Luzon, and learned the answer that made his heart surge with ecstasy.

Although it is impossible to bring back tens of millions of taels of gold at once, even if it takes 20 years, the output of 500,000 taels of gold a year is very amazing.

Obviously, the emperor insisted on going to the South Seas to do the right thing, and the wise and martial emperor would open up an important source of wealth.

Beijing City, Xiyuan.

More than 10,000 miles away, the surface of the Taiye Pond Lake looks like an ancient well, and a black dragonfly is standing on the end of the fishing rod, which is like a beautiful hook picture.

As the buoy was pulled into the water, the dragonfly was startled away by the raised rod, and a very beautiful red carp was carried out of the water by the fishing line, and the red carp took on a vigorous body.

With a water area of 800 acres, it is not only a world without pollution, but also a place where there are no other anglers, and the fish here is simply a paradise for anglers.

"Your Majesty, this fish is so fat and beautiful!" Liu Jin stepped forward and took off the lively fish passage.

Zhu Youzhu put the fishing rod next to him, took the tea sent by the beautiful woman next to him and said, "Count the days, Chen Zheng should go to Luzon City now, right?" ”

In the past six months, he has changed the practice of fighting every year in the previous two years, and has chosen to rest and recuperate, and he has even deliberately cut major financial expenditures.

Although under his own administration, the salt tax and grain tax have been increased rapidly, and the revenue from the special grain tax has already been at a glance, and the annual grain tax revenue has advanced to 40 million stones.

It's just that the Ming Dynasty's clan wants money to support, Xun Qi and civil and military officials need to support, and their own army needs to continue to invest money to strengthen the army, and the fortifications of Jianzhou are still under steady construction, and the governance of the Yellow River also requires millions of taels of investment.

Zhu Youzhu deeply realized that it is difficult to be an emperor, and it is even more difficult to be a good emperor.

Whether it is Jiajing's policy of levying and sending "every family is clean", or Wanli sending eunuchs to levy mining taxes, in fact, the money received is stronger than that of his own acres.

On the contrary, he worked hard to be a good emperor, so he didn't intend to make the people clean, so he couldn't bear to raise taxes.

Fortunately, Chongwenmen's tax revenue got a little mosquito meat, and the effect of the extravagant tax was also very significant, but it was a large amount of tax subsidies for the rich.

Although he succeeded in solving the state-building project that was about to be halted and the control of the Yellow River was not affected by the financial situation, the extravagant tax revenue was limited after all, and it was impossible to loot all the rich people in the world.

An empire has never lacked places to spend money, especially since it is still facing the problem of weapon upgrades, so the current Ming Dynasty's finances are still not very rich.

"Your Majesty, the person should have arrived, and this one should be cured well!"

"Why do you want to treat Zhang Sui?"

"Zhang Sui was super-moved by His Majesty to the governor since he was a child, but he didn't know how to be grateful, but kept asking the court for silver taels, and now he is going to two million taels, and the slaves and maids feel that half of them may go into their pockets!"

"You don't understand!"

"Your Majesty, didn't you send Chen Zheng over to investigate Zhang Sui?"

"Yes and no, this money must be spent, but just don't let Zhang Sui spend it!"

……

Zhu Youzhu only discovered in this era that those who thought that there would be a steady stream of gold when they found it were deceitful, and that the early stage of gold mining required a huge amount of investment.

At this moment, he felt that it was not easy to do things, and he also understood why the profit margin of gold mining enterprises is not high.

Zhu Youzhu knew that if he wanted to mine gold, he would not only need a huge upfront investment, but also a set of effective management mechanisms.

The biggest problem was transportation, not how to transport the gold, but how to transport the living materials and production materials into it, which required a lot of silver support.

However, Luzon is a place suspended overseas, and the Baguio gold mine is the hinterland of Luzon, which greatly exacerbates the difficulty of mining and increases the cost of gold mining.

On top of that, the biggest problem is corruption.

Daming is not without gold and silver mines, in addition to Yunnan, which has an annual output of more than 100,000 taels of silver, there are several large silver mines in the southern provinces, which are also in a state of mining, but other silver mines do not have much mining value.

The mining value mentioned here is for the government, because of the low mining efficiency of the government, some silver mines are unable to make ends meet, but the maggots are in vain.

On the other hand, private mining of silver mines by the private sector has been repeatedly prohibited, and those silver mines that lose money are profitable to the private sector.

"Your Majesty Shengming!" Liu Jin learned that Zhu Youzhu had this in mind, and even complimented him.

Zhu Youzhu gently put down the teacup in his hand, and then threw the rod again: "Shengming can't be eaten, after Chen Zheng returned from the inspection for me, the follow-up money will have to be more, but the national treasury is almost bottoming out now!" ”

Obviously, he may get good news, and it is obviously a coveted gold mine in the future, but when he came to the dignified emperor, he didn't seem so excited.

Actually, there is another reason! Gold cannot improve the productivity of society, it is far better to focus on the development of nylon materials, but the world is obsessed with gold.