Chapter 430

The plenipotentiary of the Dutch East India Company saw a joint statement in the "Ming Imperial Times", in which the Ming Empire recognized the Spanish Habs Empire as the sole legitimate government of Spain, the Netherlands (the Netherlands and Belgium), Austria, Alsace, Silesia (southern Poland, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Netherlands, Portugal, New Spain (Mexico), Italy, Genoa, etc.

Similarly, the Spanish Habs Empire recognized the Ming as the sole legitimate government of the Ming Dynasty as the Ming Dynasty, the Western Regions, Hanhai, Usizang, Nurgandus, Korea, the Lost Bil Khanate (Siberia), the Dzungar Khanate (west to Samarkand in the Fergana Basin in Central Asia, to Lake Balkhash in the northwest, to the middle reaches of the Chu River and Taras in the north, to the Khalkha border in the northeast, and to the Badak Mountains in the southwest), the Kazakh Khanate, the Astrakhan Dynasty, Dayuan, Luzon, Annam, Donghu, Coconut City (Batavia), Sumatra, and other places.

The two sides sent envoys to each other, traded with each other, etc., when Fernand saw this announcement, he was immediately anxious, you must know that the current United Kingdom of the Netherlands has not officially obtained independent status, but the Netherlands and the Portuguese Empire have been seeking independence, and participated in the war with the Spanish Empire, if the Ming and Spain become allies, for Europa, it will be a catastrophe.

On the one hand, he submitted an application to the Ming cabinet for a meeting, and on the other hand, he hurriedly wrote a letter to the governor and board of directors of the Dutch East India Company, informing the United Kingdom of the news that the Ming had established diplomatic relations with the Spanish Empire and that there was a possible alliance, hoping that the United Kingdom would immediately send a heavyweight representative to the Ming Dynasty to deal with the matter.

At the same time, he lobbied Xie Jinglin, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fernand did a lot of homework, when he lobbied Xie Jinglin, he mainly said that the Spanish Empire was strong, and the Ming Dynasty was indeed a better environment than the Spanish Empire now, but the problem was that once the Spanish Empire was allowed to survive the current financial crisis, it would raise tigers later.

Later, the Dutch East India Company also sent representatives to Beijing to explain to Cheng Shijie the issue of the naval battle in the Beibu Gulf, and on the side of the Dutch East India Company, they insisted that it was the Ming Royal Navy that first launched an attack on the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company, and the Dutch East India Navy was forced to counterattack.

Moreover, the Dutch East India Company also sold badly, although the area where the incident occurred was in the North Bay, but the Dutch East India Company had normal trade contacts with the Annan country, and this time they sent more than 1,500 skilled workers to prepare to improve the sugar production technology of the Annan country.

This kind of normal trade exchanges, but by the Ming Royal Navy's brutal attack, directly caused the sinking of four merchant ships, as many as 1,943 skilled workers were killed, and 457 people were missing, including 1,568 skilled workers, together with more than 300 workers' families.

This tragedy was a violation of the sovereignty of the Dutch East India Company by the Ming Dynasty, which strongly condemned the irresponsible actions of the Ming Royal Navy......

When the representative of the Dutch East India Company expounded this statement, the Ming Military Department directly said that this was the Dutch East India Company's invasion of the Daming Sea area, and when the Daming Royal Navy identified itself and asked to be on board the ship for inspection, they not only did not check according to the requirements, but lit up the gun jackets, which was a hostile act against the Ming Royal Navy and the Ming Empire.

The crux of the problem is that the Dutch East India Company really can't defeat the Ming Royal Army and Navy, and it does not dare to launch a threat of war against the Ming Dynasty.

So the question is, is Beibu Gulf considered a sea area of the Ming Dynasty?

Now there is no international law, the Ming Royal Navy implements Cheng Shijie's theory of sea power, and the entire South China Sea is the inland sea of the Ming Dynasty, including Venice, the Spanish Empire and even the Dutch themselves, the map is marked with the China Sea, so the Beibu Gulf is the sea area of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as they enter the waters of the Ming Dynasty, all ships must report to the Ming Dynasty and be inspected by the Navy at any time, otherwise it will be an act of infiltration and hostility.

Xie Jinglin started a lawsuit with the Dutch East India Company because of this matter, and there was no substantial progress between the two sides, although so, it was Sun Zhilan who came to the door, originally he didn't know what the Spanish Empire was, but the problem was that as Sun Zhilan used the world map to find out the territory of the Spanish Empire on the map, he was shocked into a cold sweat.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

Just when Cheng Shijie was taking a nap, Sun Zhixi's voice appeared outside the door with some nervousness.

Cheng Shijie got up, washed his face, and said, "Yongyan, what's wrong, what's wrong?" ”

"Meet the King!"

Cheng Shijie said: "No courtesy, sit down, say something slowly!" ”

Sun Zhili said a little hurriedly: "Your Majesty, we have established diplomatic relations with the Spanish Empire, and opened the sea ban to trade with each other, but we are afraid of ......."

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "Although we have always had a sea ban in Daming, the maritime trade has never stopped, and the gold and silver found in Europe in the Americas have continuously entered Daming through sea trade, hundreds of millions. It's just that the sea trade has always been controlled by the maritime merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, and there is nothing to do with the imperial court, and the imperial court can neither participate in the maritime trade and compete with the people for profit, nor can it collect taxes from it. ”

Sun Zhili said: "We can use the powerful navy to completely blockade the maritime ...... in the south of the Yangtze River."

"Have you ever thought about the consequences?"

"The consequences?"

"Right?"

"If we continue to ban the sea, the direct consequence of this practice will be that the country will be poor, the people will be poor, and all the bastards in the middle will be cheapened. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's interest in the West seems to be limited to their gold and silver, and they do not care about Western scientific knowledge at all, and they are not even willing to have normal exchanges with the West, which is absolutely not okay. ”

Cheng Shijie continued: "The life of the Ming Empire lies in expansion, and the vitality of the country lies in exchanges. ”

Both the Ming and Qing dynasties made the same mistake and were reluctant to actively communicate with foreign countries, as a result of which the Ming Dynasty missed the Age of Discovery, and the Qing Dynasty missed the first industrial revolution, and both dynasties paid a heavy price for it.

Fortunately, at this time, Cheng Shijie turned the tide and gave the country a chance to start over, using the opportunity of the armistice negotiations to establish diplomatic relations with Spain, a seafaring power, to open the door that had been closed for a long time to them, and also to use them to open the door to Europe.

"But the Spanish Empire is too strong, they already have a powerful territory, tens of millions of people, once they get through this crisis, I am afraid that our Ming Dynasty will raise tigers!"

Cheng Shijie sighed and said: "You think too much, good goods have to be sold to foreign countries in order to create more taxes for the treasury, isn't it?" In addition to establishing diplomatic relations with Spain and the Netherlands, I also wanted to establish the same diplomatic relations with another great power. ”

"Another powerhouse?"

"Yes, it's the Ottoman Empire, a behemoth that straddles three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa."

Cheng Shijie went on to explain: "The Ottoman Empire was founded by the descendants of the Turkic people. ”

Sun Zhilan is naturally no stranger to the Turks, in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Xianbei people began to weaken, and then the soft people rose, but the soft people seemed to be like a flash in the pan, rising rapidly and withering rapidly. Also bearing this fate were the Turks, who, under the leadership of the Tumen Khan, rose to prominence and were a formidable nation for a time.

They are angry and strong, come and go in the wind, crisscross the desert, invincible, when their heyday their territory spans the Eurasian continent, in the east like a giant ancient pressed on the heads of the Sui and Tang dynasties, pressing the Sui and Tang dynasties breathlessly.

As powerful as the Sui Dynasty and as wise as Yang Jian, he also had to adopt a dividing approach, dividing the Turks into five, and later into two, so that Li Shimin could have various opportunities to break through.

Speaking of Turks, Cheng Shijie has to think of the Ming Dynasty, in history, the Ming Dynasty, since Li Zicheng entered Beijing, it is considered to be destroyed, but the problem is that almost all the Ming officials and generals have surrendered, but it is the two traitors of the Dashun Army and the Daxi Army who are still trying their best to maintain the crumbling dynasty of the Ming Dynasty until they shed the last drop of blood.

In fact, the same is true for the Turks, when the Tang Dynasty fell, countless Jiedu envoys set themselves up as kings and divided one side, but the Shatuo Department was still fighting to support this crumbling empire, fighting Zhu Wen, Khitan, and ...... In short, whoever dares to move the Tang Dynasty will fight whoever they want, as if they have become the last guardian of the Tang Dynasty, if the Turkic kings of the past dynasties saw this scene, it is estimated that the coffin board will not be able to hold it down!

Isn't it funny that a bunch of Han people rebelled and destroyed the Tang Dynasty, but the Turks, who were supposed to be the sworn enemies of the Tang Dynasty, swore to defend the glory of the Tang Dynasty in the east and west, and even named the country they established after the Tang Dynasty, isn't it funny?

Of course, Sun Zhili's worries were actually unnecessary in Cheng Shijie's view, and he patiently explained to Sun Zhixi: "Since I reformed the land in Liaodong, developed industry, developed the navy, attacked the navy, and collected commercial taxes, I have sent 13 million stone of grain to the imperial court over the years, and through the collection of commercial taxes, I have divided the property of the Zheng family, and cracked down on the Jin merchants, and I have made more than 20 million taels of silver before and after, has the financial situation of the imperial court improved?" ”

"Nope!"

Sun Zhilan couldn't figure it out, so much money and food was enough for Emperor Chongzhen to build an army similar to Ning Haijun and feed hundreds of thousands of horses, which was not a problem at all. But the problem is that if Emperor Chongzhen led more than 100,000 Ning Navy during the Northern Expedition, it would be impossible to lose the Northern Expedition, and he could even beat Huang Taiji to the point that he could not take care of himself.

Sun Zhili then asked, "What does the king mean that the Spanish Empire is also like the Ming Dynasty?" ”

"It can be said that it is about the same, because the Spanish Empire mined a lot of silver and gold in the Americas, and the Spanish Empire was very wealthy, and after their armada was completely destroyed, it took only three years to rebuild the armada, and it was larger than the previous armada!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "But the problem is that silver can neither be eaten nor drunk, once there is too much silver, there is actually no benefit, just like our Ming Dynasty, in addition to the impact of disasters and wars, in the early Ming Dynasty, the price of rice per stone, four coins and six cents of silver." By last year, even in the Huguang area, where rice is abundant, the price of rice per stone was equivalent to one or two taels of silver. This is still the price of grain collected directly from the hands of the people, which means that our inflation is more than four times that of the Ming Dynasty. ”

It can be said that now is not the most serious period of inflation in the Ming Dynasty, in the history of Chongzhen Gengchen, Xin has been, Renwu (AD 1640, 1641, 1642) grain prices rose to three taels and six dollars per stone, this data is not the statistics of the northern grain price, but the price of grain produced in the south of the Yangtze River, from this aspect can be seen how serious the inflation of the Ming Dynasty.

In the face of the financial crisis, there are only two ways in front of Emperor Chongzhen: the first is to print money; The second is a tax increase. As a result, Emperor Chongzhen did both things, and in just twelve years, inflation was nearly four times.

Sun Zhili asked in surprise: "Is this also the case with the Spanish Empire?" ”

"No, they're worse than us!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "They will sell an egg for two pesos now, about two or four dollars of silver, even small nobles can't afford to eat eggs, what kind of life do you say their people live?" ”

If it weren't for Zhang Juzheng's reforms, the Ming Dynasty would not have been able to adhere to the Chongzhen Dynasty at all, but Zhang Juzheng died too early, and the ability of the Wanli Emperor was too strong.

In fact, a country is like a large enterprise, after a period of rapid development, if there is pride and complacency in the upper leadership, then the enterprise will enter a period of weakness, a large number of inferior assets should be abandoned, only light equipment can run faster.

Therefore, many enterprises in later generations did not set up manufacturing plants, but outsourced production tasks, because production tasks require many personnel, and they are also the most prone to problems. Just like the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty to its demise, they not only created two or three hundred thousand clans, but also created more than 108,000 people and jinshi, which is more than 108,000 huge privileged classes, and these privileged classes sucked blood on the Ming Dynasty and directly sucked the Ming to death.

Many people will sum up, there are many clans and corrupt people in the Ming Dynasty, but few people will sum up, their real reason is that they are too good to scholars, and those who conceal the land are all gentry, Zhang Juzheng clarified the country's acres of land, and there were 397 million mu of land, equivalent to nearly half of the country's cultivated area.

This means that nearly half of the land was hidden from the gentry and officials at that time, and it is strange that the country does not have problems.

Sun Zhili said: "The king means that even if we trade with the Spanish Empire, their problems will not be solved, and the country's financial problems will not get better?" ”

"This is for sure, although trade is an act of the state, the Spanish Empire is responsible for trade, it can only be the aristocracy, and it has little to do with the common people!"

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "If we import a large number of goods and commodities from the Spanish Empire, in this way, it is indeed possible to improve the domestic environment of the Spanish Empire, but the problem is that we will not import their goods, we can only import their raw materials, such as various ores, as well as gold and silver, their national economy will not get better and better, but will get worse and worse!" ”

(End of chapter)