Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"The emperor really plans to divide the feudal lords!"

"Even the subjects' allegiance has been determined—"

"This is really about enfeoffment!"

Sighing over and over again about this incident, Zheng Zhihu listened to the newspaper read by Zheng Cai. I was quite interested in what happened at the sutra feast a few days ago.

The last time he came to Beijing, the emperor made him a knight, made his brother Zheng Zhilong a baron, and asked them to choose a fiefdom on Dongning Island.

At that time, he felt that the emperor's golden words would definitely fulfill his promise. But after returning home, I was discussing with my brother Zheng Zhilong and other leaders. Most people felt that the emperor was using titles to appease their hearts, and it was impossible to implement enfeoffment——

After all, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, no one has ever received real land enfeoffment. Even the Mu family, Duke of Guizhou, only lived in Yunnan.

So after Zheng Zhihu was excited, his heart gradually cooled down. I didn’t have much expectations for getting a fiefdom.

I only hope that the emperor's title can be recognized by the world, and that I can share the same fate with the country in the future.

However, what Zheng Zhihu never expected was that after coming to Beijing this time, he saw news in the newspapers that the emperor and his ministers were discussing the enfeoffment system.

And judging from the emperor's attitude, it seems that he really intends to implement enfeoffment. It was even establishing the relationship between monarch and ministers for enfeoffment.

This made Zheng Zhihu excited and excited, realizing that the emperor's decision to appoint him and others to the fiefdom was not just a lie.

The emperor really planned to enfeoff overseas countries and grant them fiefdoms.

This made him excitedly say to Zheng Cai and others beside him:
"Your Majesty, you must be faithful!"

"I will do what I say, but I can't be dishonest!"

He kept his promise to the emperor and was extremely surprised.

Although the emperor determined that the princes and ministers were loyal to the emperor, it was impossible for them to do whatever they wanted in this fiefdom. But Zheng Zhihu didn't care, because everyone in the Ming Dynasty was theoretically loyal to the emperor, and no one except the outer vassals felt wrong.

Zheng Zhihu is now happy that he can really get a fiefdom——

After having a fiefdom, the family has a stable foundation.

His descendants will be rich and prosperous for generations.

Even, thinking about Yu Zigao's words to win over him, Zheng Zhihu felt that he still had the opportunity to make contributions and continue to improve his title.

He didn't dare to think of a title like Duke Duke, but he thought he had a good chance of becoming a Viscount or Baron.

After all, according to the information he had gathered, the emperor planned to turn hereditary commanders into viscounts, hereditary commanders of thousands of households to barons, and hereditary commanders of hundreds of households to knights. He is only one step away from being promoted to baron.

Moreover, he planned to lead three thousand ships and soldiers to the north. According to the Ming Dynasty's establishment, that was three thousand households, equivalent to half a guard. Obtaining the rank of commander is not easy?

Therefore, Zheng Zhihu had already made up his mind to serve the imperial court. He even couldn't wait for the arrival of his shipmen and led the troops to fight in southern Liaoning. He wanted the emperor to see his abilities and improve his title.

This idea somewhat conflicts with Zheng Zhilong's instructions. After all, before he went north this time, what Zheng Zhilong had warned him repeatedly was to remind him to be cautious and not to work hard for the imperial court and lose the men under his command.

However, Zheng Zhihu was once again encouraged by Yu Zigao when he passed through Tianjin, and saw the news in the capital that the emperor was really going to enfeoff. The thought of making great achievements suddenly filled my mind, leaving my elder brother's words behind -

After all, he and his eldest brother both have titles, and their families will inevitably separate in the future. In his heart, of course he has to consider his own descendants.

For a moment, Zheng Zhihu laughed and thought about becoming a prince in the future with the people around him.

Zheng Cai, who was reading the newspaper next to him, was extremely envious of this. Because he did well in the last negotiation, he got a share commitment from Zheng Zhilong, but compared to the title, what are shares?
At this moment, he was thinking about how he could obtain the title:

"If you want to be knighted, you must have military merit and have sailors under your command." 』

"But I have only been in the sea for three years, and I have been doing business all the time. 』

"I wonder when will we have soldiers and horses?" 』

Thinking about this matter, and then thinking about the fact that after accepting the recruitment, the soldiers and horses under Zheng Zhilong and others were also restricted by the imperial court.

Zheng Cai had already thought at this time that the chance of him having soldiers and horses in the future was very small, or even said to have no chance at all.

Unless he gives up everything now and immediately joins the army.

But now it is impossible for him to get soldiers and horses in the army, and he may even die on the battlefield.

Thinking about Jianlu's cruelty, Zheng Cai quickly gave up the idea. I know that I am not Zheng Zhihu and do not have this ability.

So he thought about it and felt that the most likely way was to donate the title.

The emperor allowed people to donate the title of a knight, and maybe a knight's title might also be donated:
"One thousand taels can make you a public servant, but can ten thousand taels make you a knight?" 』

"If it doesn't work, then one hundred thousand taels or one million taels. I don't believe the emperor won't be tempted." 』

On the way back last time, Zheng Cai met people from the Li family of Wu Qinghou. Listening to what happened to the Li family, he felt that the emperor raided the Li family of Marquis Wu Qing just for money.

Especially after knowing that Jiubian owed millions in wages and that Emperor Tianqi's imperial mausoleum also required two million, he was almost certain that the emperor's house was confiscated for money——

After all, as a pirate, he would instinctively think of this.

Therefore, he felt that by donating money to the emperor, he might get a title.

Moreover, he did not pay the money. He acted as a middleman to help the emperor collect money from Zheng Zhilong and others:

“Your Majesty only knows that we collect money at sea, but he doesn’t know how much we can collect. 』

"If I surrender to His Majesty, help him collect all the money he deserves——"

"You can earn millions of dollars a year and still not get a title?" 』

Thinking about her small share in Dongning Company, even if the dividends were reduced, Zheng Cai already had the idea of ​​joining the emperor and acting as an informant for the emperor——

Compared with money, a title is the wealth that can be passed down from generation to generation.

It can be said that from the moment he accepted the recruitment, Zheng Zhilong's control over his subordinates began to decline sharply.

He and other leaders had the status of being ministers of the emperor.

It would be fine if the emperor didn't care. When they knew that they had a chance to attract the emperor's attention, they all chose to bypass Zheng Zhilong and join the emperor directly.

This is the reason for Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Cai's thoughts. Other leaders not named Zheng had even more advanced ideas. Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi and others had other ideas.

So Zheng Cai didn't think there was anything wrong with this kind of thing, and he wasn't even worried about being punished by Zheng Zhilong if the matter was revealed.

After all, after he surrendered to the emperor, he became the emperor's man. Even if Zheng Zhilong noticed it, he would not dare to punish him easily.

Moreover, as Zheng Zhilong's kinsmen, the two are connected by blood. Even if there are some differences, they will not fall out.

Therefore, after Zheng Cai made up his mind, he quickly found Qi Changguo, who had negotiated last time, and asked him to convey his thoughts.

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed when he learned that Zheng Cai was going to join him. Zheng Cai may seem inconspicuous, but he is a clansman of Zheng Zhilong and is trusted by Zheng Zhilong. This person is familiar with the details of the Zheng Group. If he could subdue this person, he would have a stable source of intelligence in the Zheng pirate group. Moreover, it can reduce the possibility of Zheng Zhilong concealing information and collect more money.

So after thinking about it, he said:
"I plan to change Dongning Head Office to Dongning Group Company."

"The group has a board of directors and a board of supervisors responsible for daily management and supervision."

"The board of directors has a general manager and a general accounting office, which are responsible for daily operations and financial revenue and expenditure."

"If Zheng Cai is willing to join us, I can let him serve as the deputy general accountant and concurrently hold the accountant position of Dongning Insurance Company."

"If he can do a good job in this position, I will naturally promote him or even give him a title."

The reason why he valued Zheng Cai so much was because Zhu Youjian realized that he would need a lot of money to recreate rituals and music.

Not to mention the unresolved salary arrears in Jizhen and Xuanda, he has been promoting the increase of eighth- and ninth-grade officials and standardizing the levels of officials, which all need salary support. Ordnance manufacturing and new army training also require money.

Some of the money required tens of thousands, and some required hundreds of thousands. In Zhu Youjian's opinion, it was not much. The money he copied from Wu Qinghou could last for a long time.

But for the imperial court, which had an annual cash income of less than two million, it was actually a huge expenditure.

Now that the tax-sharing system has not been fully implemented and the court has very little money, Zhu Youjian urgently needs financial resources to help him survive this period.

Zheng Zhilong's huge profits from the sea have long been targeted by him.

Zheng Cai took the initiative to surrender, which can be said to have hit the muzzle of the gun.

Therefore, before summoning Zheng Zhihu, Zhu Youjian secretly summoned Zheng Cai.

She never expected that the emperor secretly summoned her, and Zheng Cai immediately felt that the emperor took this matter very seriously.

So he thought hard and told everything he knew:
"When the ship arrives, the water is reported, and the cargo is calculated and points are drawn. This is a common practice at sea."

"During the Jiajing period, each ship was divided into a few hundred silver cents, and later it rose to a thousand cents."

"Now every ship has to pay three thousand as a rule."

"As far as I know, there are at least 200 merchant ships entering and exiting Yuegang every year."

"Last year, I followed the leaders into Yuegang and sailed down the river in a hundred and fifty boats. Ten to five households reported water."

"The income from that time alone was more than 200,000 taels."

When Zhu Youjian said this, he didn't feel anything. Qi Changguo and others accompanying him were all red-eyed after hearing this——

By collecting a water report, you can get more than 200,000 taels of silver. Many of their family assets do not reach this amount.

Even the less than two million taels of cash the imperial court received each year was pitiful in comparison.

This made Qi Changguo and others deeply understand why the emperor valued these pirates. Even Zheng Cai, who could not be called a leader, had to meet him in person.

Zhu Youjian didn't think that more than two hundred thousand taels was a lot, because there was still a big gap between it and his expectations.

But think about it, Zheng Zhilong has been fighting with Yu Zigao and others in the past few years to compete for maritime interests. Zhu Youjian realized that Zheng Zhilong at this time was far from dominating the sea. There are also many businessmen who do not pay him the remuneration.

This naturally gave him more leverage. Sharing interests with Zheng Zhilong also gives him more confidence.

So he asked Zheng Cai:
"How many ships pass through the strait between Fujian and Dongning every year?"

"If everyone collects water, how much money can they receive?"

It is planned to collect money from all ships by taking advantage of the convenience of controlling the strait.

However, this kind of overall data is not clear to Zheng Cai, a pirate. He could only estimate based on what he saw and heard:

"In the first year of my visit to the sea, that is, the fifth year of Tianqi, there were about thirty or fifty ships passing through Dongning going to Luzon, seven going to Chenla, eight going to Vietnam, and seven going to Siam. ship."

"In the sixth year of Tianqi, there were seventy or eighty ships passing through Dongning to Luzon, and there were fewer in other places."

"Things at sea also depend on market conditions. There is no fixed number every year."

"And the largest number of ships on the sea are actually red-haired barbarian ships. But their ships have many cannons, and we can't receive water reports."

"I estimate that if all ships passing through the strait collect water, it is possible to earn tens of millions per year."

"Your Majesty divided Dongning Company into ten million shares. This must be your intention."

This data was similar to the impression in Zhu Youjian's mind, which made him understand more clearly what huge profits at sea were.

Zheng Zhilong's annual income was tens of millions, which was his vague impression. But how Zheng Zhilong earned so much, he didn't understand.

Now after hearing Zheng Cai's explanation, Zhu Youjian finally understood that Zheng Zhilong's annual income of tens of millions was earned after completely dominating the sea. Compared with the interests of the entire sea, it is actually not much——

After all, 10 million taels per year only need to collect water reports from more than 3,000 ships.

The Netherlands, known as the carriage driver of the sea, now has more than 10,000 merchant ships. A country as big as the Ming Dynasty would only need more ships than a tiny country like the Netherlands, which was far from what it is today.

Therefore, in Zhu Youjian's view, Ming Dynasty has great potential for maritime trade. If he introduces policies to encourage maritime trade, the number of ships along the coast of Ming Dynasty may increase rapidly. The money that can be collected will naturally increase.

Thinking about the money he could collect if the Ming Dynasty had ten thousand merchant ships, Zhu Youjian's eyes turned red, and he lamented the huge profits at sea:

"Huge profits!" 』

"It's really huge profits at sea!" 』

"No wonder now is the Age of Discovery! 』

Thinking that the imperial court ruled such a large place, it received less than two million taels of cash every year. The total tax revenue of the imperial court barely exceeds 20 million.

Compared with Zheng Zhilong, who can easily earn tens of millions per year, and may even earn thirty million per year after the development of maritime trade, Zhu Youjian deeply understands why this is the age of great exploration.

Now, it is time for him to cooperate with Zheng Zhilong and others to share this benefit.

Zhu Youjian doesn't ask for much. He can get three to five million taels of silver every year. It only takes a few years to let the court relax.

At that time, he would try to improve taxation and change this method of robbery.

Therefore, he generously rewarded Zheng Cai who took the initiative to seek refuge, and asked the Jinyiwei Economic Affairs Department to set up a maritime trade department to collect such information.

He also appointed Zheng Cai as a member of the Jinyi Guard Hundred Households to collect intelligence along the southeast coast.

Zheng Cai was overjoyed when she was appointed. Because the emperor intended to convert hundreds of hereditary households into hereditary knights, he had also heard rumors.

Now that he has a position in a hundred households, as long as he works hard to convert it to hereditary status, he can become a hereditary knight in the future and have a fiefdom like Zheng Zhihu and others.

So he happily accepted the emperor's order and became a member of Jinyiwei, an increasingly large intelligence agency. (End of chapter)