I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 667 Nanyang
Yan Boyong, the governor of Yecheng, officially resigned early last year. The great things he did in Nanyang helped Ming Dynasty expand hundreds of miles overseas.

In order to show his merit, Emperor Zhu specially issued an edict, allowing him to choose to stay in Beijing or be released abroad.

A foreign minister can serve as the governor of a province, and with the emperor's attention and a little effort, he can easily be promoted to governor of a region.

And the starting point for staying in the capital is not bad. The minimum is to be a minister. After working hard in the capital to accumulate political achievements, he will definitely be able to become a minister before the age of fifty, and even join the cabinet to become the prime minister.

If this imperial edict continues, it can be regarded as finding a shortcut for promotion and wealth for scholars all over the world. As long as they serve as governors overseas and open up territories for the emperor, they can be promoted quickly.

At most, it would only be five years of hard work, and in five years, he would be able to achieve an official career in which he would rise to the top and become a prime minister before the age of fifty.

No matter how you calculate it, it’s a good deal!

Zhu Yijiong admitted that he was deliberately inciting the mood of civil servants to open up new territories. In addition, there were military generals who opened new frontiers and became kings. Even if he died in the future, Ming Dynasty would not immediately lose its enterprising spirit.

You also need to pay attention to methods when going to war. If it is to plunder overseas countries to support yourself, then this is called "primitive accumulation of capital."

But it was said that Kang Zifei's fleet sailed on the sea for a month and finally arrived at Yecheng Port at the beginning of summer.

After hearing the news, the new Governor of Yecheng, Zhang Xicheng, put down his affairs and went to the dock to greet him in person.

No matter that he attached so much importance to it, the fact was that the Governor's Mansion of Coconut City that he took over had too many problems.

Yan Boyong, who had been promoted and returned to the capital long ago, fought the battle happily and more than doubled the area under the jurisdiction of the Yecheng Governor's Mansion.

But with so much newly added land, the distribution of population and household registration, the financial problems caused by the war, the downturn of the maritime trade economic market, etc., were all exposed in the first war.

Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on former Governor Yan Boyong, because these problems actually exist to a greater or lesser extent for several overseas governor's offices. Even as early as the period of Dutch control, the trade volume of Batavia Port was already low. .

The reason for this naturally lies in the Ming Dynasty itself. The strong rise of the Ming Dynasty first annexed Ryukyu, the "backbone of all nations" for maritime trade, and then defeated the Satsuma Domain of Japan, forcing it to open trade routes with China, and defeated the Spanish. , captured the ports of Luzon and Manila.

This series of overseas wars, including the destruction of Annan and the establishment of Guangnan Province, further strengthened China's trade position in the Far East.

With more shipping routes to choose from, Chinese maritime merchants began to ignore the Dutch. They even took advantage of their numerical advantage to crazily squeeze the Dutch's trade share.

Kang Zifei's trip here was not only to find the southern big island for the emperor, but also to use the official background to re-activate and revitalize the trade routes of the Coconut City Governor's Mansion.

The fleet stayed at the port of Yecheng for half a month, processing goods brought from Luzon and Taiwan, and replenishing freshwater fruits and grains.

"Kang Hou, please look, this is the Coconut City under our feet." Zhang Xicheng pointed at the map and explained to Kang Zifei: "To the east from Coconut City are the indigenous sultanates on the two islands of Yogyakarta and Solo. Of the two countries, the Sultan of Yogyakarta is more powerful. Although he was temporarily defeated by Governor Yan, if possible, Kang Hou’s fleet should try not to pass through here to avoid any mishaps. "

Kang Zifei nodded: "The two sultans of Yogyakarta and Solo...Hey, one island is actually divided into so many indigenous vassal states."

Zhang Xicheng said: "Kang Hou must not underestimate this island. There are volcanoes all over the island. After years of eruptions, the land on the entire island is comparable to the best farmland in the country. As long as you start to cultivate it a little, you can live countless lives!" "

Kang Zifei was a little surprised: "There is such a magical island! No wonder there are many indigenous vassal states on this island. It turns out that the entire island is full of high-quality fertile land, enough to feed so many households."

Zhang Xicheng smiled and said: "So what if there are so many vassal states? For such an overseas fairy island to be occupied by a group of barbarians, it is really a waste of natural resources!"

These words were a bit too naked, but Kang Zifei didn't think there was any problem.

It would be a waste to not capture all the overseas fairy islands that are full of fertile fields and just leave them to a group of indigenous people who don't know how to farm. Zhang Xicheng added: "Between Yogyakarta and Solo is the Semarang Governor's Palace. This is the territory of our Han people. If Kang Hou is interested, you can stop here and have a look. And eastward from Semarang is the Sultan of Surabaya, where Although it is an indigenous vassal state, it is controlled internally by overseas Han people. These Han people are not under the jurisdiction of our Yecheng Governor's Palace, but they have already been in contact with Yecheng. If Kang Hou's fleet passes by, the other party will not be embarrassed. "

"Going east from Surabaya, there are Brambang, Bali and Larantuka respectively. Brambang and Bali are both Hindu countries, which are different from the Islamic religion practiced by the Sultans of Java. And further east The Larantuka people are just the opposite. They do not believe in Islam or Hinduism. Instead, they believe in Catholicism. "

Kang Zifei said: "Portuguese colony? That's not surprising. This Catholicism should have been brought by the Portuguese."

Zhang Xicheng said: "If Kang Hou wants to go south to find the island this time, he can seek help from Portugal and the Netherlands. Further east of the Portuguese is the territory of the Dutch. These Dutch have been overpowered by our tomorrow's army. They The merchants have been trying to restore the spice trade in Coconut City Port in the past few years. As long as I give you a warrant, they will definitely not refuse."

The Dutch were defeated and lost the port of Batavia, but now they are more eager to restore bilateral trade. The previous war is like nothing before.

All I can say is that this is very Dutch indeed.

In a country governed by merchant politics, the interests of merchants are the top priority, and can even override national interests.

Decades ago, the happy King Charles II, carrying the pressure of the Black Death in the country, broke out a war with the Dutch. From the perspective of national strength, the British should have been even less able to sustain it.

But the final result was that the Dutch businessmen gave up, because if the war continued, the British would indeed be unable to hold on, but the Dutch businessmen would also go bankrupt.

It doesn't matter if the country wins, it doesn't matter if they go bankrupt.

Kang Zifei stayed in Yecheng for more than half a month. While replenishing fresh water supplies, he also basically clarified the situation on the Nanyang Islands through Zhang Xicheng, the governor of Yecheng.

Half a month later, the fleet set off from the port of Coconut City again.

Along the way, we specifically avoided the Sultanates of Yogyakarta and Solo, and only stopped briefly at the ports of Semarang and Surabaya.

Especially here in Semarang, if you look around, almost all of them are colonial plantation estates similar to those in the Netherlands and Spain.

This is both a legacy of the Dutch and a result of actual circumstances.

The Luzon Governor's Mansion had less land and more people, so he was forced to adopt the inland sharecropping system. Moreover, the indigenous slaves in Luzon were too stupid and did not know how to farm the land at all.

But Yecheng Governor's Mansion is different. Every piece of land here is fertile land. Yan Boyong expanded too fast before, resulting in a lot of land that the Han people could not cultivate.

There is plenty of land but few Han people, so it is natural to imitate the plantation model of European colonists.

Fortunately, it is not connected to Luzon, so the Civil War will not break out over farming.

The record officer of the fleet took out his notes and wrote: "In the area under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Mansion of Yecheng, the Han people followed the colonial strategy of the Western Barbarians, established manors, and used tenant slaves. It is really different from the tenant farming of the Governor's Mansion of Luzon..."

The fleet did not stay in Semarang, Surabaya and other places and continued sailing east.

Passing through the countries of Brambang, Bali, and Larantuka, apart from Brambang, the impression that Kang Zifei had on the remaining two countries was just one sentence: black, too dark!

He now knew where so many Kunlun slaves in the coastal areas came from.

(End of this chapter)