Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1160 Give it a go

  On the wooden building of the city hall, Ah Huang carried a watermelon.

   Tapped it skillfully a few times, "I picked this melon myself, it's absolutely sweet."

   "Where did you get it?"

   Ah Huang said with a smile, "It was transported from Penghu Island and grown on the island. The soil there is very famous for growing melons and fruits. We in Xinjinshan have no time to grow watermelons this year. Next year we will be able to eat the watermelons we grow ourselves."

   "Are there any merchant ships coming from Penghu?"

"Our boat came from Fuqing. It took the same route that Saburo came to the south last time. It first went to Penghu, then went to the east coast of Liuqiu, and then went south along the coast, passed Qixingyan and crossed the strait to the golden island. By the way, when the fleet came this time, they built a small stronghold on Crab Island, which is 300 miles south of Qixingyan, left some people to guard it, and stored some supplies on it.”

   "I will eat crabs on Crab Island later."

The Crab Island mentioned by Lao Huang is the northernmost small island of the northernmost archipelago in Luzon. It is located at the southern end of the Bashi Channel and the northern end of the Philippine North Strait. Xiaolanyu is only two hundred miles away.

  Crab Island is very small, later named Yami Island. It is less than five miles long and less than two miles wide at its widest point. The island is full of coconut trees and mango trees, and there are a lot of coconut crabs.

This kind of crab living in coconuts can grow to more than three feet, the largest can grow to nearly twenty catties, and the average weight is six to seven catties. This kind of crab mainly eats coconut pulp, so the meat quality is still very good. By that time, it had already been eaten as an endangered animal.

But now, the islands in the South China Sea are full of this kind of crabs, and even flooded. There are also many on Luzon Island. fate.

  A big crab, steamed or braised, the crab meat inside is very delicious.

The last time Qin Lang traveled north to Bashi Channel and went south, he also passed through Yami Island and stayed on the island. He liked the coconut crabs there very much. The coconut crabs here are bigger, generally more than ten catties, and the meat quality seems to be better. delicious.

The Qin family fleet that came from Fuqing Port this time remembered this incident, and went to the island on purpose. They also set up a stone tablet on the Qin family crab island on the island to declare their sovereignty, and built a simple tree on it. House, sent a few people to stay behind.

  Caught hundreds of coconut crabs from the island.

  Through the 300-mile Bus Channel, there are still 600 miles left from Coconut Crab Island to the mouth of the Cagayan River in the north of Luzon Island.

   From the northeast corner of Luzon to Xinjin Mountain, there are still six hundred miles.

   It is two thousand miles from Fuqing. Fortunately, it takes a sea route, passing through the Liuqiu Strait and then the Bashi Strait. As long as there is no storm, it can be reached in a few days with smooth sailing.

The Qin family's deep-sea treasure ship can reach a speed of ten knots, so it can arrive at Xinjin Mountain from Fuqing Port in three days at the fastest. slow down.

  But a mature route can still save a lot of time. In the Age of Discovery, European galleons could cross the Atlantic Ocean in three days.

   According to Zheng He, who sailed to the Western Seas in the Ming Dynasty, his treasure ships could reach a speed of twelve knots. (One knot is one nautical mile, one nautical mile is 1.852 kilometers)

   "This melon must be the most delicious one under ten catties." Ah Huang took a knife to cut the melon open, and sure enough, the melon sac inside was bright red with some sand.

   "The sandbags are the sweetest. The soil on Penghu Island is not suitable for growing food, but the melons and fruits grown taste the best."

  Penghu is located in the Liuqiu Strait. Merchant ships going south and north, and traveling between Liuqiu, Fujian, often rest on the island. Now the island has become a busy sea supply port, and the melons and fruits grown on the island are very popular.

   "Isn't it cheap to ship this melon from Penghu?"

"I don't count the food that I brought with me. If I really want to calculate it carefully, it must not be cheap. Selling it to those merchant ships on Penghu Island costs at least one penny a catty, and a melon costs ten pennies. And It was transported here from Penghu by boat and traveled another two thousand miles by sea, which really counted, and the cost naturally increased immediately, and a melon sold for 40 to 50 yuan is still relatively cheap."

Except for salt and coconuts, everything in Xinjinshan is now imported from outside. From food to cloth, to fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs, food, melons and fruits are mostly shipped from San Francisco, while cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks are mainly imported from Guangzhou, Taiping, Shipped from various ports in Fuqing.

  The watermelons in Penghu are delicious, and some can be brought along with the boat every time. This kind of watermelon is only supplied to the wealthy people in Xinjinshan in small quantities. The watermelons shipped from San Francisco are much cheaper, at 20 yuan each, and they are also more popular.

  As for the cheaper ones, you can’t get them, so ordinary gold diggers or workers eat local coconuts directly.

   This stuff is everywhere, cheap, and you can even pick it yourself, no money required.

  After the melon was cut, Zhang Chao just arrived, so the three of them shared about ten catties of Penghu watermelon, which was indeed very sweet.

   "This is a melon from Penghu, sweet."

  After eating melons, seeing that it was late, he simply set up the stove, and then Zhang Chao peeled a dozen coconuts, and Lao Huang brought three fresh coconut crabs over, and the coconut crabs were stewed with coconut milk.

  After the coconut crab stew was finished, Qin Lang, Lao Huang and Zhang Chao came to the balcony of the small building in the city hall. Although it was only a three-story building, it was considered a landmark building in Xinjinshan at this time.

  Looking at Xinjinshan City from a high place here, I feel much smaller.

   "Is everything okay here?"

A Huang smiled, showing his big gold teeth. After A Huang became Marquis of Wu'an, he also thought about pulling out these big gold teeth again. He thought they were too dazzling and looked very vulgar. After thinking about it, I used to be just a horse thief, and later I became the groom of the Qin family, and then became the steward of Qin Lang, and then I was able to become a marquis. I really broke out in this life, so I didn't care about those.

"I, Lao Huang, used to be a horse thief. When I had the most subordinates, I managed thousands of horses. They were all desperadoes. When they moved, they would draw their swords and face each other. Blood spattered five steps. Later, I became a **** for King Zhongwu, and then I followed Sanlang as a horse. Servant, I have also polished my mind for many years, and then went to Wu'an to help manage Sanlang's fief property. I have worked for more than ten years, and I have made a little money. In fact, I feel that it is not bad to come to Xinjin Mountain, and it is very smooth."

  Zhang Chao also laughed, "The main reason is that there are no constraints here, and it is comfortable to do things."

   "But everything here has to start from scratch, which is not easy." Qin Lang said.

  Zhang Chao took out the betel nut and handed it to Qin Lang and Lao Huang. Lao Huang took it, but Qin Lang waved his hand and refused.

   "Chew this thing properly, eating too much is not good for your health."

"You get used to it after chewing and chewing, and you feel like you're almost done if you don't chew it twice." Zhang Chao smiled, "Actually, it's not as difficult as Sanlang said. With Sanlang's full support, a large amount of money and food are thrown over. Money is easy to do things. ah."

  The Qin family fully supported the colonial development of Luzon Island, and they discovered several large gold seedling belts as soon as they came up, and they were directly Wang Zha, who produced tens of thousands of taels of gold per year, so Luzon would not worry about it. What's more, the Qin family's strong blood transfusion in all aspects, from transporting slaves to build grain, sugar cane, cotton and hemp plantations, to building salt farms now.

Money for money, people for people, craftsmen for craftsmen, and even guards for guards. With such support, Luzon is indeed developing fast. The development of Xinjinshan is even faster than that of San Francisco at the beginning, because the current conditions better.

The Qin family was already very strong in the field of industry and commerce, and they still dominate the maritime trade. Now they are developing in Luzon across the sea. It's not a problem, on the contrary, it has become a protection for the Qin family, preventing them from being restrained by the imperial court.

   It is very convenient and free to do things without restraint.

"We found that there is a kind of abaca on this island, which grows like a banana tree. Its petiole can extract very good hemp silk, which is very resistant to water immersion. It is very suitable for making fishing nets and cables. It can be woven into fine linen to make clothes and shoes, and the outermost layer of hemp fiber can be used to make paper, which is very valuable.”

Ah Huang said excitedly, "We plan to build some abaca plantations and plant a large amount of this kind of abaca for making fishing nets, cables, weaving linen, paper, etc. The value of the output is much higher, and the weather and soil here are very suitable for the growth of this kind of abaca.”

Qin Lang couldn't help but nodded when he heard this, and then he remembered that Luzon is indeed rich in this kind of abaca. Abaca has nothing to do with jute and others. It looks very similar to a banana tree. Very good fiber, this fiber has a strong tensile force, especially the characteristic of not being afraid of water, it is very good for fishing nets, boats and cables.

  And the inner fiber can also be used to weave linen to make clothes, and the messy fiber can also be used to make paper, paper bags, etc. It can be said that the economic price is very high, not inferior to cotton and linen at all, and it is much more convenient to plant.

This is a perennial plant, you can start harvesting two or three main stems one and a half years after planting, and then you can cut another two or three main stems every two or three months, until the sixth year is the highest yield, and the eighth year The yield begins to decline in the first year, and it needs to be replanted after ten years. Once planted, it can be cut for at least eight years, and dozens of main stems can be harvested for hemp.

"kind."

  Qin Lang was negligent before, but now Lao Huang mentions it, of course he supports the establishment of abaca plantations.

  This development is good, and the money is boundless.

  Old Huang talked about some of his views on the future development direction of Xinjinshan. He believed that Xinjinshan and San Francisco actually have similar conditions, so their positioning should also be similar. In the future, they will be the two leaders of Treasure Island, and they will go hand in hand and develop together, regardless of the importance.

   Driven by gold mining and salt drying, and then supplemented by sugarcane planting, cotton and hemp planting, abaca planting and grain planting. Among them, grain planting is self-sufficient, and there is no need to consider external sales. Selling grain is not cost-effective.

  The four major planting industries of sugar cane, cotton, jute, and abaca can be further processed on the island to form two industries of sugar refining and textiles.

  Old Huang believes that Treasure Island has another excellent condition, that is, it is located overseas and not far from the Central Plains, so it can completely benefit from this favorable condition and develop trade.

The gold and silver mined on the island, the white sugar, and salt produced on the island are not shipped back to the Central Plains for sale, but are sold directly to the countries in the East and South China Seas, and even the barbarians from the West and the West are recruited to trade, and the sugar is directly transported from New San Francisco to Taiwan. Hong Kong sold to Hu merchants.

   In this way, a large amount of customs duties on the market, as well as the imperial government's restrictions on the export of gold and silver, as well as monopoly restrictions and heavy taxes on sugar and salt can be avoided.

  It’s like salt. The imperial court buys a catty of salt for ten renminbi, and then sells it to salt merchants for an additional 100 renminbi. The biggest profit is taken by the imperial court.

  Gold and silver are also similar. They are made into gold and sold to overseas Hu merchants, and the profits are extremely high, but if they are only sold to the imperial court with gold materials, the difference is huge.

  Sugar also belongs to the monopoly of the imperial court. Although the Qin family used to be the sole master of the secrets of refining and processing white sugar, the white sugar was heavily taxed by the imperial court, and then distributed by the nobles of the rich and powerful families.

Lao Huang's proposal is actually that Luzon will become a duty-free zone in the future, or a smuggling island, bypassing the imperial court, customs duties, special taxes, and even trade bans, etc. All the benefits will be yours that's it.

  Zhang Chao hesitated and said, "If this is the case, it is indeed possible to benefit from it alone, but can the court allow it?"

Ah Huang said, "Actually, over the years, which of the wealthy families you said did not participate in the maritime trade, and who did not get a share? Whether it is a direct operation or a partnership, they all have a share, and these overseas Trade caravan, which one do you think doesn’t have any commercial stations or strongholds overseas?”

"Those who mine, plant, and trade overseas, who have paid taxes to the court? Since they are not within the territory of the court, they naturally don't need to abide by the tax laws of the court. Our Treasure Island, of course it’s the same.”

   "But they are not as large-scale as ours, so they just make small noises. One or two shops, a few mines, some plantations, etc., can they compare with ours?" Zhang Chao said.

   This is indeed the problem.

  But Qin Lang had already considered these, and even thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to ignore it.

This is not Wu'an Mansion, nor Fuqing Port, nor the Qin family's strongholds in Liuqiu or Liaodong. It is also reasonable to transport gold, silver, salt, sugar, etc. back to the country without paying taxes to the court.

  As for the hidden risks, there must be, but there are risks in everything you do.

  If you are afraid of everything, then you really don’t have to do anything.

   "Let's do it, it won't take ten or twenty years, we may not be able to make the court pay attention."

And Qin Lang also understands that even if the Qin family wants to manage Lu Song with all their strength, after all, this place is isolated overseas. With the large-scale management of Lingnan by the imperial court and the favorable conditions for the great prosperity of industry, commerce and sea trade, it was able to grow to a population of over one million in less than 20 years, and the industry and commerce flourished, making it the third largest port in Lingnan.

  These are all conditions that are difficult for Luzon to have.

Even if the Qin family is doing their best to manage it now, it will develop more slowly as it goes on. Stimulated by the gold rush tide, the first 100,000 people will be easily reached, but the second 100,000 people will definitely slow down, and the third one will definitely slow down. The fourth hundred thousand will only get slower and slower!

   It is almost impossible to reach a population of one million without a few decades.

"The imperial court is still focusing on the land. Goguryeo in Liaodong is bound to be destroyed. Expanding operations to the western regions is also an established strategic direction. It also needs to guard against grassland nomads in the north. Even if it has energy, that is Continue to advance to the southern barbarian tribes south of the Red River."

  Qin Lang analyzed to the two of them that unless the Qin family directly established a country on Luzon Island and proclaimed themselves emperor, it is basically unlikely that the court would have much reaction.

  (end of this chapter)