Chapter 234

When Cheng Shijie first arrived in Luzon, he immediately met with the Chinese representatives in Luzon and had a grand dinner with the Chinese representatives.

After dinner, Cheng Shijie had a brief meeting with Wu Shangzhi, Li Guoqun and other Chinese representatives.

"How many Chinese are there in Luzon now?"

"More than 55,000 people!"

Wu Shangzhi was busy preparing for the establishment of the Luzon Executive Committee during this time, and he began to count the population according to the model of Ning Haijun, but fortunately, there were many merchants under his command, and he knew that Ning Haijun, that is, Cheng Shijie, never collected poll tax, and there was no poll tax in Ning Haijun's taxes at all.

So when it comes to counting the population, it's also relatively smooth.

Wu Shangzhi continued: "More than half of the population living in Manila, about 25,000 people, some of them are distributed on the north bank of the Bashi River, distributed in more than 20 reclamation areas, and some of them are about 6 or 7,000 people, who rely on fishing for a living! ”

These Chinese do not include the naval soldiers and army soldiers of the Ning Navy, and now almost ninety and five of the maritime forces of the Ning Navy are stationed in Manila, and the whole army has a total of six strike squadrons, all of which are in Manila, including the Jumping Battalion, the Guards Division, and the Luzon garrison where Liu Qingsong is located, totaling more than 26,000 people.

Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Luzon is a treasure land, although there are many mountains, hills, and large plains, but there is a lot of developable land, and it is not a big problem to settle five or six million people!" ”

Cheng Shijie briefly understood the current situation in Luzon, but the situation was not optimistic. Because Zheng's fleet landed in Subic Harbor, 40,000 or 50,000 army troops were transported back and forth, and they began to seize territory.

What made Cheng Shijie smile bitterly was that Zheng Zhilong was indeed prepared to fight a protracted war with the Ning Navy in Luzon, as predicted by the General Staff.

Early the next morning, Cheng Shijie, accompanied by Cheng Shi, visited the Chinese reclamation area of Lu Pillow with Wu Shangzhi, Xie Jinglin, Li Guoqun and others.

First of all, a village located about 50 kilometers northeast of the Bashi River was originally tried by the indigenous coalition to break through the town, but the indigenous people did not succeed in taking the town under the joint defense of more than 500 villagers.

When Cheng Shijie arrived, he could still vaguely see mottled traces on the outer wall of the town, and with the Ning Navy controlling Manila, a town with a very twisting name, according to the situation of the Ming Dynasty, Siquan Town was obtained.

Because most of the inhabitants of this town are from Quanzhou, they first arrived in Luzon during the Jiajing period and began to settle down here, of course, the current inhabitants are three different groups from the original inhabitants, the first and second generations of residents have been killed, and now the third generation of immigrants.

According to Gao Xiangrong, the mayor elected by the people, "There are a total of 560 households in our town, of which 340 live in the town and 220 live on plantations within 50 miles around!" ”

"How many people do you have in your town?"

"Three thousand eight hundred and twenty-five!"

Cheng Shijie nodded, roughly equivalent to an average of seven people, in this case it is very common in Daming, but it is very rare in Liaodong, because the principle of land distribution in Liaodong is according to households, not according to population.

It is to use the way of interests to force the people to divide their families, to avoid the formation of a huge clan force, and the larger clan forces will also be scattered and settled, and it is impossible to gather and settle in one town.

If these reasons are not considered, it is very likely that the big will bully the small, and the civil struggle is actually not weaker than in the imperial court, especially in ancient times, between villages and between clans, and between clans.

In fact, the daimyo of Xiao Ri, even if it is a daimyo of the 10,000-stone level, is barely at the level of a village chief, and it is already very remarkable to be able to command hundreds of people to fight.

"Be sure to pay attention to safety issues!"

Cheng Shijie said with a serious face: "If you are not of my race, their hearts will be different, the natives dare to cause trouble, don't bear it, they will be beaten to death if they dare to do it!" ”

A young man who followed Gao Xiangrong said: "There are many indigenous people. ”

"This requires us to unite, if you can't afford to fight, you can apply to the garrison, and the garrison will help you fight the natives!"

Cheng Shijie's ass is very positive, the strategy in Luzon is to land without people, the Ming Dynasty is different from the Europa powers, the powers all have a fatal weakness, they have no people, and the Ming Dynasty has nothing but people.

When I returned from a visit to Siquan Town, it was almost evening.

"In the city of Manila, it was renamed Luzon City, the Port of Manila was renamed Zhenghe Port, the current Zhenghe Port was changed to North Port, and the Bashihe River River was called South Port in the south!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Wu Shangzhi and said: "In Luzon, public schools should be established, and all school-age children should be enrolled. ”

Wu Shangzhi replied: "We have a school in Manila, in Luzon, but it was built in the southern part of the city at that time, and it was very inconvenient for the children to go to school. ”

"Then arrange a ferry!"

Cheng Shijie said pointedly: "Seize the opportunity!" ”

Cheng Shijie did not explain in detail to Wu Shangzhi that the various subtle influences brought about by the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization can build a completely different Luzon as long as the Chinese people are given a chance.

……

After the defeat in the last naval battle of Subic, Zheng Zhilong fell ill. As the saying goes, illness comes and goes, and illness goes like a thread, and Zheng Zhilong has not recovered until now.

After recovery, Zheng Zhilong is worthy of his true character, and he has regained his fighting spirit.

Zheng Zhilong summoned his staff and henchmen, he looked at Zheng Zhibao and said, "Old Five, you are all about Xiyi, I think they are not happy to see the Denglai Sailor defeat us and control the entire South China Sea!" ”

Zheng Zhibao was taken aback, and said puzzledly: "Big brother, you want to borrow troops from Xiyi?" ”

"It's not borrowing troops, it's uniting with them!"

Zheng Zhilong said indignantly: "Cheng Shijie acts aggressively and never leaves room for it, I don't think they are willing to deal with such a sharp character...... You tell them that they know what to do! ”

"Yes!"

No matter what kind of orders Zheng Zhilong issued, it was stronger than his lack of instructions for nearly two months, originally the Zheng fleet seemed to be like a rusty machine, but now with Zheng Zhilong's recovery, this machine began to move.

After a while, Zheng Zhilong looked at another staff member, Chen Shiqi, and said, "Shiqi, you go to Fuzhou and tell the surnamed Zhang that he should also move, otherwise Lao Tzu will not be able to spare him!" ”

Chen Shiqi asked with some puzzlement, "What does Lord Admiral mean ......?"

"Everyone wants to reap the benefits of the fisherman, there is no such good thing in this world, it was Cheng Shijie who asked me to fight, if he doesn't make a move now, don't blame me for being unkind!"

Zheng Zhilong said with a gloomy face: "No matter what means he takes, no matter what he does, Admiral Ben doesn't care, but I want Cheng Shijie to change from a hero of the country to a chaotic minister and thief who brings disaster to the country and the people!" ”

Chen Shiqi sighed and said, "Lord Admiral, I'm afraid he can't do this, even Wen Shoufu can't sit on this!" ”

Chen Shiqi looked at Zheng Zhilong, who had cold eyes, and felt a little bitter in his heart.

Zheng Zhilong was afraid of Cheng Shijie, this is Chen Shiqi's judgment, in other words, Zheng Zhilong has given up his plan to confront Cheng Shijie head-on, and is ready to use roundabout tactics.

As he did with Liu Xiang and other colleagues before, he co-opted the imperial court and Xiyi to join forces to strangle, and exchanged for a greater victory at the smallest cost. The generals of the Zheng clan laughed and praised Zheng Zhilong for his good strategy, and tons of sycophants made Zheng Zhilong feel good and laughed. Only Chen Shiqi's expression became more and more worried, and he was silent for a long time.

Shi Daxuan was surprised, and after leaving the mansion, he saw that Chen Shiqi was still frowning, and couldn't help asking: "Shiqi, isn't the deployment of Lord Admiral appropriate?" Why are you so anxious? ”

Chen Shiqi's voice was dull: "We have lost this battle!" ”

Shi Daxuan was taken aback: "Shiqi, you can't talk nonsense!" ”

"I didn't say nonsense, Lord Admiral's deployment seems to be ingenious, but in fact it is wishful thinking! He forgot how good Cheng Shijie is at driving everyone to do things for him with interests? ”

Speaking of which, Shi Daxuan also understood. Chen Shiqi judged correctly, Zheng Zhilong's plan is impossible to succeed, first of all, those bigwigs in the imperial court, if they really have the ability to deal with Cheng Shijie, how can they promise Zheng Zhilong heavy benefits?

Cheng Shijie's real backstage is not the imperial court, but Emperor Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen has no money, and officials all over the world reach out to Emperor Chongzhen to ask for money, only Cheng Shijie not only does not want money, but tries every means to send money to Emperor Chongzhen, which stabilizes Cheng Shijie's position in the court.

As long as Cheng Shijie promised to give a part of the protection fee at sea to Emperor Chongzhen, even if he killed a river of blood, the Chinese Wu was impeached every day, and Emperor Chongzhen would turn a blind eye.

As long as he promised Xiyi that he could trade and preach fairly in Canton and Fujian, Xiyi would kneel before him and ask for the right to send troops to fight on his behalf.

Now Cheng Shijie is the winner, he can give the emperor far more and Xiyi than the Zheng family, Zheng Zhilong's trick is useless to him!.

Thinking of this, Shi Daxuan was a little helpless, and sighed a little sadly, and whispered: "In the end, it's still ......."

Those who are barefoot are not afraid of wearing shoes, and now Zheng Zhilong has already put on shoes, while Cheng Shijie is actually barefoot, because the strength of the Ning Navy Navy is weak, if he is not fierce and courageous, he will be killed by Zheng Zhilong in a slow process.

Shi Daxuan didn't say it, but he agreed with Chen Shiqi's statement in his heart.

Yes, Zheng Zhilong has indeed given him a feeling of twilight in recent years, on the surface it still looks majestic, those who go along with it prosper, and those who go against it die, but in fact, he has lost his enterprising spirit, and he is just blindly keeping it.

But the Ning Navy, which has already ruled half of Liaodong, is at the time of being sharp and angry, they don't have the slightest intention of defending, they expand to Jiannu, Jiannu blocks the way and beats Jiannu, they expand to the sea, Zheng Zhilong blocks the dragon and beats Zheng Zhilong, the Spaniards stand in the way, they unceremoniously seize Manila, and raise four or five thousand Spaniards like pigs.

The current Ning Haijun is like the territory and power that he had just inherited from Yan Siqi and the king of Taitai, and he was as angry as a tiger, and whoever did not accept it would be beaten.

Now, even Zheng Zhilong, the soul of the character, is afraid, how can this battle be fought?

Shi Daxuan smiled bitterly, patted Chen Shiqi on the shoulder and said, "Shiqi doesn't need to be so pessimistic, Lord Admiral is just depressed for a while, and he will soon regain his strength." Although our army has been defeated in a row and has suffered a lot of losses, it still has more than 2,000 ships and tens of thousands of troops, no matter how powerful Cheng Shijie is, it is not so easy to defeat us! ”

"The Zheng Group is not as powerful as we imagined, I believe that the imperial court and Xiyi will soon see through this, and our days will only get more and more difficult."

Chen Shiqi shook his head, frustration and disappointment were written on his face: "Obviously we still have such elite sailors and so many warships, but Lord Admiral does not dare to fight with Ning Haijun head-on again, what hope do we have for victory?" ”

Chen Shiqi's frustration was due to his participation in the Battle of Subic, and he witnessed the Ning navy suffer heavy losses under the frantic attack of the Zheng fleet, and the losses skyrocketed.

At that time, the Ning Navy fleet was getting weaker and weaker, and the Zheng fleet seemed to have suffered great losses, but the problem was that the Zheng fleet was very large, and as long as the wheels were taken, even if they used human lives, they could exhaust the naval guns of the Ning Navy.

But the problem is that Zheng Zhilong, the soul of the Zheng fleet, chose to retreat, even if he retreated to Subic Harbor City, the Ning Navy fleet, which had suffered heavy losses, had retreated to Manila Harbor, and they clearly wanted to rely on the port's batteries to defend it.

However, Zheng Zhilong has been pretending to be sick, but he is unwilling to face this bad situation.

Zheng Zhilong used to be Chen Shiqi's faith, but he showed a cowardly side, and he couldn't help but be disappointed.

Chen Shiqi didn't know what the result would be when the news reached the capital.

Compared with Cheng Shijie, Zheng Zhilong was born as a pirate, and was recruited by the court in desperation, and he naively thought that the court would be on his side.

It's really ridiculous, no matter how bad Cheng Shijie is, he is also the most orthodox hereditary thousand households in the Ming court, after Cheng Yongxing, and Ning Haijun was also formed by Sun Yuanhua himself, and Sun Yuanhua also has Xu Guangqi, the second assistant of the cabinet, and Cheng Shijie and Sun Chengzong, the teacher.

But Zheng Zhilong? What did he have in the court?

……

Cheng Shijie didn't know anything about Zheng Zhilong's reaction, and he was not interested in knowing. The naval division of the Ning Navy was in Manila, not now in Luzon Harbor to rest, while the fifth and sixth new squadrons were taking the initiative to attack the warships of the Zheng fleet.

Of course, it was just to attack the patrol warships of the Zheng fleet in the Subic Strait, just like when Li Zhixiang led the main fleet, and practiced with pirate ships that did not have much combat effectiveness.

Cheng Shijie explained to Li Fang and Chen Shi very clearly, don't feel sorry for the shells, the gunners are fed by shells, and the veterans and elites are all from the recruits. Only by training hard and training by fighting can we achieve rapid growth.

In a capitalist society, everything is about interests, as long as the price given is high enough, anything can be sold, and of course, as long as the interests are big enough, anything can be bought.

Catherine, after nearly a month of deliberation, and consulted with others in the Republic of Venice, finally decided to spend one million ducats, or the equivalent of three thousand five hundred and sixty kilograms of gold, to buy Venice's solution to the problem.

A solution to the problem cost three and a half tons of gold, which is not a small amount, because although the ducat, although it is a gold coin, is actually worth more, because it is used in all countries of Europa.

Just like the British pound, as the UK's status grew, 1 pound contained 7.32238 grams of pure gold, but in fact, the purchasing power of the British pound far exceeded the value of 7.32238 grams of pure gold. The same is true for ducats, which are about fourteen million to eighteen million ducats in terms of revenues from the Republic of the Venetian city-state.

Taking out a million gold coins is not a small amount of money for the Republic of the Venetian city-state.

"Your Excellency, Duke, I have decided, we, the Republic of Venice, are willing to spend one million ducats to buy His Excellency's solution to the problem!"

"No problem!"

"At the time of payment, we hope that we can pay in installments!"

Catherine said with a serious and serious face: "The first payment is thirty percent, that is, three hundred thousand ducats, after His Excellency the Duke handed us the solution to the problem, we will pay another thirty percent, and the remaining forty percent, we need to wait for our Venice city-state Republic to be verified for at least three years, if this plan is effective, we will pay forty percent of the final payment!" ”

"In principle, I agree to this deal!"

Cheng Shijie also understands Venice's concerns very well, after all, empathy, some people say that they can tell Chongzhen that I can solve the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty, and Emperor Chongzhen will promote him at most, instead of taking out real money! ”

Cheng Shijie looked at Catherine and said, "I also have a request, that is, I must use Ducat's gold coins to trade......"

"This can't be done!"

Catherine smiled bitterly: "One million ducats will cause huge fluctuations in the market, we can take the same value of silver or other goods, such as the precious wood you need, equipment and even the books, seeds, mineral resources, or land of the Europa countries you need, if Your Excellency the Duke wants, we can sell a part of the land use rights!" ”

"Land?"

Cheng Shijie was very interested in land, and he asked curiously: "Do you have land in the East?" ”

"No, but we have it in the Mediterranean!"

Catherine took a pair of charts and said, "I heard that His Excellency the Duke and the Spaniards have spent three million taels of silver to buy a piece of land in Dayuan, and we can sell our Crete in the Mediterranean, and we can propose land not less than the size of Tamsui City......"

"Oh, just the Mediterranean island of Crete!"

Although Cheng Shijie did not appear to be interested, in fact, he was still interested in Kerry. Cheng Shijie does not have the strength to arrive in Crete now, it does not mean that he will not have the strength in the future, he also knows Catherine's true intentions, Catherine and Coraqua have the same thoughts, which is the Europa version of the disaster to the east. It is hoped that the Yining Navy will confront the Ottoman Empire.

If nothing else, the Ottomans took Crete in 1669, that is, more than thirty years later, as long as the warships of the Ning navy arrived in Crete before Venice lost Crete, this land deal contract, Venice had to accept this land deal.

It's not a big problem not to accept it, the battleship will let them accept it.

"I agree in principle!"

Cheng Shijie smiled: "Do you have the authority to trade this transaction?" ”

"I'll tell our Governor and get the authorization, and of course we can put it in the next transaction to cover the payment for the solution to the problem!"

"Yes, yes!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "When the first advance payment arrives, the solution to the problem of the Republic of Venice will naturally be handed over to you!" ”

Catherine was very excited, she knew Cheng Shijie's ability and strength very well, even if she didn't understand it before, it was impossible if she didn't understand it now, because Cheng Shijie is now a big celebrity, and his deeds can be treasured by every soldier in the Ning Navy.

Basically, it includes, getting acquainted with Song Xiance, buying officials Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu, Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu rising, Ning Navy garrison, and the Dengzhou change that made everyone supportive.

Cheng Shijie's real career was the Kong Youde Rebellion, pacifying the Kong Youde Rebellion, Cheng Shijie was promoted to the chief of the Ning Navy, and then crossed to southern Liaoning to develop southern Liaoning, he can be said to be a model of self-made.

Spend 1 million ducats to get the solution to the problems of the city-state republic of Venice, this is the most lucrative business in Venice, if Cheng Shijie grits his teeth and insists, even if this plan is 10 million ducats, Venice will buy it.

Cheng Shijie thought that Catherine would delay for a long time, but he didn't expect that in just five days, Catherine would put the value of 300,000 ducats, that is, more than 287,600 taels of silver, in front of Cheng Shijie.

It turned out that Catherine dumped the goods from Shanghai directly to the Dutch, earning a small commission.

"Your Excellency, I have already given you the money, when can the solution to the problem be given to me?"

"Right now!"

Cheng Shijie took a brush on the paper and wrote directly in front of Catherine: "Liaodong model, copy homework!" ”

Seven words.

When she saw these seven words, Catherine was so depressed that she wanted to vomit blood.

Seven characters cost one million ducats, each ducat is equivalent to nine dollars and five cents of silver, which means that she spent nine hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver to buy seven characters from Cheng Shijie, and an average of one word is equivalent to 135,700 taels of silver.

"Just those seven words?"

"That's right, these seven words can perfectly solve the problems faced by your Venice city-state republic!"

"How is this possible!"

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "The problem you Venice encountered, in the final analysis, is only two words, population, population is not the biggest shortcoming, in the face of the Ottoman behemoth, they can fail countless times, but a miserable victory is enough to put your Venice in trouble, if my prediction is not bad, your total population should be less than 200,000 now, right?" ”

"Yes, we only have more than 187,300 now, even counting the newborn children!"

"You are actually very similar to my situation in Liaodong, you are short of people, but the problem is that you have money in your hands, why don't you poach people from the Holy Roman Empire?"

Cheng Shijie said: "You have the same language as the Holy Roman Empire, the customs are almost the same, you can hire people from the Holy Roman Empire to fight, work, and farm for you, as long as the population is large, are you still afraid of the Ottomans?" ”

(End of chapter)