Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Expelling the Dutch and Portuguese from Dongning Island does not mean severing trade with them.

After hearing that the Dutch had plundered Xiangshan Bay three times and attacked it twice, Zhu Youjian knew that the Dutch and the Portuguese had the same goal and wanted to find a place to trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian was open to exchanges between China and foreign countries. In addition, he needed the silver brought by trade, so he pointed to the island east of Xiangshan Bay and said:
"The Dutch's purpose is nothing more than trade. I will order the Customs Department in Guangzhou to select an island east of Xiangshan Bay, that is, this Xiangjiang Island, to establish a customs branch and designate it as a free trade zone."

"As long as the goods in the free trade zone do not go through customs, they do not have to pay tariffs, only parking fees. How the zone is managed should be modeled after Xiangshan Bay."

"For those who abide by the laws of the Ming Dynasty and make contributions to the Ming Dynasty, I welcome them to come and trade."

"The trade quota will be determined based on their performance in the previous year and their contribution to Ming Dynasty."

The trade quota system previously implemented on the grasslands was applied to foreign trade. Through the adjustment of quotas, the behavior of Westerners could be restrained, and they could take the initiative to contribute to the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng Zhihu and Li Guozhu had both been to Xiangshan'ao and knew what was going on there. They were not clear about the trade quota, but they knew very well how Xiangshan'ao was currently managed. Li Guozhu asked in surprise:

"Your Majesty, do you mean to hand over this Xiangjiang Island to the Dutch for management?"

Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, not liking his words. But if he sent Ming officials over, no one would know how a free trade zone should be managed.

So after thinking about it, he said:
"Hong Kong Island not only allows the Dutch, but also allows Portuguese, English and other Westerners to come."

"Anyone who has the status of a Ming official, or who pays more than 100 taels of tax to the Ming every year, will be issued a residence permit by the Customs Department, allowing them to rent land on the island and temporarily reside there."

"These rents are the same as berthing fees. Half of them are paid to the customs and the other half is reserved for local governance. The longest lease term for all land is 60 years. After the expiration, the original tenant has priority to renew the lease."

After confirming that the Westerners on the island were just tenants, Zhu Youjian said:
"I authorize the free trade zone to be autonomous and governed by the Governor-General's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Navy Office."

"Tenants with residence permits can vote to elect members from among the Ming officials to form the Free Trade Zone Council. The council members serve for six years, and half of them are re-elected every three years."

"The Free Trade Zone Council can formulate autonomous regulations without violating the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and select personnel to form a government affairs office to jointly govern the area with the officials of the Imperial Court and the Imperial Guard sent by me."

"Those who hold the status of a Ming Dynasty official can serve as officials in the three government offices."

He gave up part of the legislative and executive powers and only held the judicial and law enforcement powers.

The purpose was, firstly, that the officials of the Ming Dynasty probably could not manage such a new thing as the free trade zone, and secondly, Zhu Youjian wanted to find a place to conduct experiments.

After all, he was planning to set up a parliament in the Ming Dynasty in the future, but the Ming Dynasty had no experience in how to set up this institution. Originally, he was planning to find a county to try to set up a parliament, and now he wanted to set up a free trade zone for Westerners, so he would do the experiment in this place at the same time.

If Zhu Youjian told these policies to the Ming officials, they would be confused. But Li Guozhu, who had been to Xiangshan'ao, could understand them.

Because the current management bodies of Xiangshanao are mainly the council and the citizens' assembly.

In his understanding, a citizens' assembly composed of tenants with residence permits will elect members to form a council responsible for the governance of the free trade zone.

However, this council does not directly govern the free trade zone like Xiangshanao, but selects personnel to form a government affairs office to govern the local area together with officials from the Supreme Court and the Imperial Guard sent by the emperor.

He thought the Dutch should be able to accept this condition, so he said happily:
"Your Majesty, I think we can negotiate with the Dutch before expelling them from Dongning Island."

"If Your Majesty allocates a piece of land for them on Xiangjiang Island, it should be possible to exchange it for Fort Zeelandia."

Zheng Zhihu was not happy with this, because he wanted to gain merit by capturing Fort Zeelandia, so he shouted:
"The barbarians fear power but not virtue. If we don't fight them, how will they learn to fear power?"

"I think we should fight them first, and then tell them they can go to Xiangjiang Island."

Apparently he had read a lot of newspapers during this period and knew about the recent debate in the capital about Westerners.

Zhu Youjian looked at him and said with some amusement:
"Don't be so anxious to fight. There will be plenty of opportunities to make meritorious contributions in the future!"

"The Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands have already fought a war on Penghu Island. They should have known the lesson of fear."

"In this way, it would be best if Fort Zeelandia can be conquered through negotiation. If not, you will lead the troops to fight."

"The specific negotiation work will be jointly handled by Zheng Zhilong and Li Guozhu."

"We need to talk to the Dutch in the south of Dongning Island and the Portuguese in the north, let them compete with each other, and then they will all go to the free trade zone in the future."

When Zheng Zhihu heard that his elder brother was participating in the negotiations, he stopped talking immediately.

Li Guozhu did not raise any objection to this, because he knew that the Dutch and Portuguese attached more importance to Zheng Zhilong, and if the negotiations were to succeed, they had to go through Zheng Zhilong.

Moreover, he was delighted that the emperor asked him to preside over the negotiations with Zheng Zhilong, because this meant that in the emperor's mind, he could barely be compared with Zheng Zhilong.

Thinking about the possible demands of the Dutch and the emperor's setting up of the free trade zone, Li Guozhu discovered that the emperor had missed one thing and asked, "There are many pirates on the sea, and they may go to the free trade zone to plunder."

“Who should be responsible for guarding the free trade zone?”

This is a practical problem. Zhu Youjian thought about it and decided:
"The free trade zone is allowed to form a certain number of defense teams, which will be jointly managed by the parliament and the Ministry of Defense."

"The defense force is under the supervision of the Navy and must cooperate when receiving a Navy transfer order."

"I will have the navy relocate a thousand-household unit to each of Xiangshan Bay and Xiangjiang Island to assist them in defense."

"Your people can also be sent in to participate in the management of the defense team."

Zheng Zhihu and Li Guozhu were overjoyed when they heard this, knowing that this would give them greater power to interfere in the free trade zone.

Moreover, they had a vague feeling that as they expanded into Southeast Asia, they would sooner or later fall out with the Dutch and Portuguese. Keeping their fleets in Xiangjiang Island and Xiangshan Bay would be a hidden danger in the future.

Therefore, they requested that the policies of the Free Trade Zone be implemented in Xiangshan'ao, that the defense of Xiangshan'ao be reorganized, and that the fortresses and artillery batteries be taken over.

Zhu Youjian was very dissatisfied when he heard that a fortress had been built in Xiangshan Bay. He looked up the "Sea Route Prohibition Treaty" formulated by Yu Anxing and felt that it was too rough and needed to be formulated in more detail.

So he sent a message to Yu Anxing, who was now the naval envoy, to formulate a new treaty based on the "Sea Route Prohibition Treaty" to designate Xiangshan Bay and Xiangjiang Island as free trade zones.

Moreover, Zheng Zhihu and Li Guozhu's reminder also reminded him of one thing. That is, the Portuguese living in Xiangshan'ao are not the same as the Portuguese in Manila.

One of them is Portuguese and the other is Spanish. Although they are one country now, they will be divided into two countries in the future, and their interests are not consistent.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian’s instructions were to separate the two groups in the future, to give appropriate preferential treatment to the Portuguese, and to be stricter with the Spaniards who had massacred the Chinese.

But it cannot be too strict, to avoid the Spaniards from coming and slowing down the inflow of silver.

At a time when the navy was just starting out, unable to seize control of the sea and without control of the American shipping routes, Zhu Youjian still needed the Spaniards to transport silver from America.

The same was true for the Dutch, the Sea Coachmen. Zhu Youjian needed their fleet to trade with the Ming Dynasty, otherwise he would not have expelled them from Dongning Island and established a free trade zone on Xiangjiang Island.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian asked Zheng Zhihu, Li Guozhu and others not to move the Dutch and Spanish strongholds in Southeast Asia. Li Guozhu's idea of ​​seizing Batavia was naturally rejected by him.

Zhu Youjian considered directly governing Luzon and Java, two good places. So he asked Li Guozhu to first seek a piece of land on Java Island without falling out with the Dutch, and move the people of the Ming Dynasty there to establish a stable base.

His fiefdom could be built on other islands first, such as the small islands around Java.

Li Guozhu was disappointed because this would delay his development of Java Island and he would face a lot of competition in the future.

However, the lack of sea control is real. Without the control of the sea in the South China Sea, it is indeed not appropriate to fall out with the Dutch and the Spanish.

So he made up his mind to use the money he had accumulated to expand his fleet.

Zheng Zhihu was the same, realizing that his ships and soldiers were the core of his strength. Now that they had accepted the amnesty, they could not only rely on the material resources of the Ming Dynasty to build ships, but also had a regular naval organization. Of course, they had to take this opportunity to expand their fleet as soon as possible.

So they petitioned the emperor to allow them to build their own ships. Not only did they plan to build traditional Ming ships, they also planned to recruit Chinese shipbuilders from Manila and other places to imitate Western sailing ships.

After learning about their idea, Zhu Youjian was very encouraging. He asked the Imperial Household Department to set up a shipbuilding workshop with them and provide them with convenience in all aspects. At the same time, he asked them to send some shipbuilding craftsmen to the Ship Research Institute to imitate the large sailing ships and galleons of the Westerners and study their advantages and disadvantages.

The Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding capabilities were already good, and under Zhu Youjian's deliberate promotion, they made rapid progress. The navy also began to grow rapidly, with more room to play.

After discussing these matters with the emperor, Zheng Zhihu, Li Guozhu and others returned to Fujian by boat with great joy. They were eager to tell their relatives and friends the good news and start the attack on Dongning Island.

The exiled remnants of the eunuch party, including Tian Ergeng, Xu Xianchun, Wu Chunfu, Huo Weihua, and Xu Dahua, who had arrived in Fujian for several months and even set foot on Dongning Island and gradually adapted to the climate here, also started to move after receiving the good news. They planned to establish Dongning Guard on the island as requested by the emperor.

With the in-law relationship between Wu Chunfu and Yu Zigao, the remnants of the eunuch party were able to live a decent life in Fujian. Even after Zheng Zhilong and others accepted the amnesty, they successfully set foot on Dongning Island with the help of their power.

However, the conditions for the surrender were not agreed upon, and the support they received was not enough. The work of opening up the Dongning Guard had not really started.

Without establishing Dongning Guard, the hereditary position could not be fulfilled, and it would be impossible to make merit and get a chance to be reinstated. Therefore, these people were most eager to open up Dongning Guard, and constantly urged Zheng Zhilong and others to provide support.

Now that the negotiations between the imperial court and Zheng Zhilong's gang were completely completed, they had reached a consensus to accept the imperial court's offer of amnesty and go to Southeast Asia to open up fiefdoms. With Dongning Island identified as the base for the southward march, they finally mobilized their forces to support these people in establishing the Dongning Guard.

The development of Dongning Guard began to advance rapidly. The Dongning Group established by the emperor began to improve. Various companies under the group were also established.

Zheng Zhilong, Li Guozhu and others negotiated with the Dutch and Spanish on Dongning Island while heading to Xiangjiang Island to seize the initiative in the free trade zone.

After receiving the emperor's order, Yu Anxing, the naval guard, also sent people south to sign a new treaty with the Portuguese according to the emperor's request, establishing a free trade zone in Xiangshan Bay and Xiangjiang Island. (End of this chapter)