Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 325 Zheng Zhilong

After thinking about it, Li Jing decided to enlighten Sun Chuanting in another way: "Master Sun, do you want to know something about the pirates in the southeast?"

Sun Chuanting nodded and said: "I've heard of this. Last year Fuzhou general Zheng Zhilong beheaded the big pirate Liu Xiang, which made a stir. Even though Sun is at home, he also heard about it."

"Then, does Mr. Sun know how much Zheng Zhilong's military strength is?" Li Jing then asked.

Sun Chuanting frowned, but still replied: "I heard that there are thousands of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers."

Li Jing smiled and said: "Zheng Zhilong was also a pirate before. Most of his ships are pirate ships, and most of his soldiers are also pirates. How do you think they got so much money to build ships, buy ships, and support so many soldiers?"

"It's nothing more than robbery, what else can pirates do?" Sun Chuanting said disdainfully.

"The people along the coast don't have that much money, and they can't afford so many ships and soldiers by robbing the people." Li Jing continued with a smile.

"Master Li is making fun of Sun? Although Zheng Zhilong and the pirates also rob people, their main income is plundering merchant ships." Sun Chuanting said displeased.

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "Lord Sun, please calm down. Li asked this question to see if Master Sun understands the key points. It seems that Master Sun still understands a little bit."

Sun Chuanting glared at Li Jing and said, "Is there any key here, because everyone understands the ways of pirates."

Li Jing smiled and waved his hands: "I'm afraid not necessarily. Let me ask Mr. Sun again, you said that pirates are so rampant in the southeast coast, why do merchant ships dare to go to sea for business?"

"This... yes, pirates are so rampant, why do those businessmen risk their lives to go to sea?" Sun Chuanting was stunned and murmured.

Seeing Sun Chuanting's confused face, Li Jing smiled and said, "Master Sun, let me tell you, it's for profit!
Do you know how much profit merchants can make by shipping supplies to Nanyang once they go to sea?

Let me tell you, it is more than twenty times, that is to say, goods that can be sold for one tael in Daming can be sold for at least 20 taels of silver when shipped to Nanyang.With such a high profit, those businessmen will naturally risk their lives to go to sea. "

"Wait, Mr. Li, I'm a little confused, what are you trying to say, what are you trying to say?" Sun Chuanting scratched his head.

Li Jing smiled and said: "Master Sun, don't worry, let me tell you again, now, Zheng Zhilong has completely occupied Fujian to Taiwan (the name of Taiwan has appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, it was called Xiaoliuqiu in the early Ming Dynasty, and Dongfan in the middle period. There is also the sea area around the chicken coop, which in the past only needs to pay Zheng Zhilong to let the merchants go, and the risk of merchants going to sea has been greatly reduced."

Sun Chuanting shook his head, cupped his fists at Li Jing and said, "Excuse me for being stupid, I still don't understand Master Li's meaning."

Li Jingjing nodded, and suddenly said with a serious face: "Zheng Zhilong ran rampant along the southeast coast, received countless money, but never paid a penny of tax to my Ming Dynasty, my Daming treasury is shrinking day by day, but Zheng Zhilong is rich like an enemy, is there such a reason in the world?
Why can't Ming Dynasty collect this tax?It's just because the court's navy is not good enough, and they don't have any right to speak in the sea.And Zheng Zhilong saw this exactly, so he didn't take the court seriously because of his large number of soldiers.

If I had a strong navy in Ming Dynasty, I would be able to add millions of taels of silver every year just for taxation alone. If I sent people to sea to do business, it would be easy to earn 800 million taels of silver a year. "

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "Li knows that some people look down on me, but if the country has no money, how can it support soldiers? How can it be used to pay officials, build water conservancy projects, or help victims of disasters?
All of you here are leaders, and you must know the difficulty of not having money.In fact, our Daming not only has no money in the treasury, but the whole country has no money, or the money is not enough.

Daming does not produce much silver, and it is not enough, what should I do?I think there is only one way, and that is to ask other countries to send us money. Of course, we are not going to grab it. Our Ming Dynasty is a civilized country, so we don’t do such indecent things. It is to trade with other countries.

But if Daming doesn't have an escorting navy, he can only rely on others.If others ignore us, let's not talk about going abroad for trade, we won't even be able to collect taxes. "

Sun Chuanting suddenly realized when he heard the words: "I understand, the commander-in-chief is planning to build a navy, and then use it as a backing to protect merchants from doing business with foreign countries. We collect taxes, and the imperial court can also send fleets to sea for trade and earn money. profit."

"That's exactly what he meant. Does Mr. Sun have the guts to take on this job?" Li Jing nodded.

"This...Sun doesn't understand the navy! I'm afraid it will delay the commander-in-chief's important event." Sun Chuanting hesitated.

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "You don't understand the navy, as long as the people below understand it, we are now planning to build a navy, and we first need someone who can coordinate, and Mr. Sun is the right candidate."

Hearing that Li Jing said that he could coordinate, Sun Chuanting looked at Li Jing suspiciously, then turned his head to look at Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng, not understanding why Li Jing said he was suitable for this job.

Obviously, Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng didn't understand why Li Jing had such a view, and they shook their heads slightly at the same time.

With a smile, Li Jing continued: "Master Sun has no soldiers or generals, and only brought 6 taels of silver. From scratch, he wiped out Gao Yingxiang in only four months. Who else in the world is better at doing this than Master Sun?" Preparation?"

Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng suddenly realized when they heard the words, Qi Qi stretched out their thumbs to Li Jingyi and said: "What the commander said is not bad, Mr. Sun is indeed the best candidate. The commander has a unique vision, and Hong (Lu) admires it."

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "This time we will build a naval force, which will be the most important thing for Ming Dynasty in the next few years, so we can't just send 6 taels of silver to send Mr. Sun away. I plan to allocate 100 million to Mr. Sun every year." Two silver coins, and besides, Mr. Sun wants people to give people and things to give, so, Mr. Sun dares to take on this important task?"

When Sun Chuanting heard the words, he got up suddenly and saluted Li Jingchang: "Marshal, you value the subordinates so much, and promised such conditions, the subordinates will go all out to build a powerful navy for our Ming Dynasty."

Li Jingjing nodded, and stretched out his hand to help Sun Chuanting: "Brother Boya, please stand up. With Brother Boya's words, I am relieved. But you have to remember that building a navy is not a one-day job. Soldiers and ships are indispensable. Don't rush it. I suggest you build your ships while you train your soldiers.

I think it is more suitable for the shipyard to be built in Chengshanwei, Wendeng County, Dengzhou Prefecture (now Rongcheng City, Weihai, Shandong). Brother Boya can go and inspect it.As for the boatmen, one is to recruit locally, and the other is to go to Fujian to poach Zheng Zhilong's corner.I will also send people to Macau and other places to hire some knowledgeable barbarians to go there.

In addition, building a shipyard is not a trivial matter, and you can do without soldiers. In this way, your original subordinates will still be under your command, and I will ask Sun Meng to send an army to assist you. What do you think? "

Sun Chuanting clasped his fists and said: "The commander-in-chief thinks so thoroughly, the next official will definitely live up to the commander-in-chief's great trust."

Li Jing nodded slightly.

Since Sun Chuanting nodded in agreement, Li Jing immediately appointed Sun Chuanting as the minister of the leading military department, the title of admiral of the First Fleet of the Ming Dynasty East China Sea Fleet and the supervisor of shipbuilding in Dengzhou Prefecture.

Seeing that Li Jing appointed two high-ranking officials and one deputy-ministerial-level official in a blink of an eye, and they were both in positions of real power, Zhu Youjian couldn't help secretly admiring him.

Zhu Youjian knew very well that these three appointments of Li Jing took great risks.

Because Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting are different from others, they all started in times of chaos, and it was Zhu Youjian who brought these three people up when the country was in crisis.To Zhu Youjian, these three people are both loyal and grateful.

Once they receive a signal from Zhu Youjian, there is a great possibility of raising troops to serve the king.

But Zhu Youjian then shook his head secretly. If he could think of this level, Li Jing must also be able to think of it.

With Li Jing's skills, the arrangement had been made long ago, and if there was a slight change in the three of them, they would be taken down immediately.

Thinking of Li Jing's previous talk about purging the army, the first step was to rectify the Beijing camp, Zhu Youjian smiled wryly, Li Jing took the Beijing camp first, and when the Beijing camp was rectified, how could the people below dare to object?
Then Li Jing used the Jishi Army as his team to build five major military regions and naval divisions. The officers at all levels were all Li Jing's people, so who dared to stroke Li Jing's beard?

In addition, the most brilliant thing about Li Jing is not to use power to suppress people, but to create opportunities for these people to make contributions.

Li Jing used this to seduce the three of them. After the formation of the five major military regions and naval divisions, the three of them would only be thinking about expanding the territory and making contributions.
And looking at Li Jing's current state, I'm afraid he really did what he said. These people see that their emperor lives happily, and they probably have no intention of helping him regain power.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian took a peek at Li Jing, and thought to himself: This man is not much older than himself, and he is far superior to him in terms of governance and political skills, especially his decisiveness in killing and killing.

Suddenly Zhu Youjian was taken aback, but he saw that the temples under Li Jing's hat were faintly white.

Zhu Youjian's heart moved, and he said suddenly: "Li Aiqing, take off your hat and show me."

Li Jing didn't know why, but he still took off his hat and turned to look at Zhu Youjian: "What does the emperor want to see?"

Zhu Youjian got up and walked to Li Jing's side, and took a closer look, only to see that Li Jing's temples really had white hair.

After reading it, Zhu Youjian sighed and said with a wry smile: "Li Aiqing, I always thought that I was the only one who worked hard, but I didn't want Aiqing's hair to turn gray!"

Li Jingwen said with a smile: "What do I want to see as Your Majesty? It turns out that I have white hair on my head. A few white hairs are nothing. As long as I can rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty and promote my country's prestige, Li Jing will be tired again." It's worth it too."

As soon as Li Jing finished speaking, Ma Wu suddenly said: "Your Majesty doesn't know. In fact, when I first met the commander-in-chief, the commander-in-chief's health was much better than now. It's just that the commander-in-chief has hardly been idle these years, especially in the past two years. It's even more emaciated."

"Marshal is tired. We all know that Marshal likes to drink, and he can drink a lot, but Marshal seldom drinks a few times throughout the year, only during the New Year's Eve." Ma Wu can't drink Dashuai alone, and now Dashuai can't drink us brothers. " Ma Wu sighed.

Li Jing shook his head and smiled, "Fifth brother, look at your potential, what can a good drinker do? If you can't drink so much, I won't drink so much!"

Or when the soldiers made meritorious service, they only saw the general drink a few glasses. "Yang Liufeng answered.

(End of this chapter)