I

  Chapter 644 641【Traitor and Buyer】

  Forbidden City, Qinzheng Hall.

   Liu Xiangke recounted the dispatch of troops in detail, and said: "Your Majesty, the eight northeastern islands of Ryukyu should be separated from Ryukyu County and set up as a separate county."

   "How about the land, specialty products, and population there?" Zhao Han asked.

Liu Xiangke said: "The eight islands in the northeast of Ryukyu are not smaller than the main island of Ryukyu in terms of geographical area. The largest island among the eight islands is called Ufu Shima Island by the Ryukyu people, and Amami Oshima by the Japanese. This island There are many mountains in the middle, and there are hundreds of years of giant trees on the mountains, many of which are hardwoods, which can be used to build ships and other appliances. Although there are many aquatic forests (mangroves) around the coast of the island, there is also a lot of arable land. Crops It is mainly rice and sugar cane, and the islanders are good at making brown sugar. The brown sugar on this island was once the most stable fiscal revenue for the Satsuma clan in Japan."

  Brown sugar is a kind of brown sugar, which is boiled longer than ordinary brown sugar and rich in iron.

  In the ancient times when the sugar making process was underdeveloped, any commodity that had anything to do with sugar could get huge profits by participating in sea trade. Amami Oshima's specialty brown sugar alone is enough to attract Zhao Han's attention, not to mention that there are many hundreds of years old giant trees on the island.

   This time the troops are dispatched, and the profits are guaranteed.

  The war indemnities of Satsuma and Hirado are more than enough to recover military expenses. And brown sugar and wood will have income every year in the future. As long as heavy taxes are not imposed on agriculture, the island's self-produced rice can be self-sufficient.

  If you switch to Western colonists, the islanders will inevitably be forced to give up growing rice and switch to more profitable sugar cane—this is called the colonial plantation economy.

  Spain is like this in Luzon, and the Netherlands is like this in Java.

   Even, in order to facilitate the control of spices, the Netherlands used force to cut down the spice trees scattered all over Java. Then select some islands where there are spices, and artificially transplant a large number of spice trees, and cut down the trees that cannot produce spices on the island.

   There are three advantages to doing this.

  First, large-scale planting and processing of cash crops to maximize profits.

  Second, it can effectively control the most economic crops with the least amount of troops.

  Third, the indigenous people in the relevant areas can no longer grow food, or rarely grow food. The colonists, on the other hand, could buy grain from other places and use it to control the natives in the area from rebelling.

  This kind of practice is very short-sighted and effective, but it seriously damages the natural ecological balance and social ecological structure. Once something goes wrong, such as the late arrival of the food fleet, the region will immediately fall into famine.

  Zhao Han naturally would not do this, because he built Ryukyu and Amami Oshima according to the local conditions, and he must achieve food self-sufficiency as much as possible.

   "Li Qing, how are you?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.

  Li Banghua cupped his hands and said: "I didn't expect the overseas islands to be so rich in products. Your majesty is still wise."

   It seems that there is still a conflict in my heart.

  Zhao Han said to Li Xiangjun: "The proposed decree is to separate the eight islands in the northeast of Ryukyu and set up a separate county. The name is..."

  Seeing that Zhao Han was still thinking of a name, Li Xiangjun smiled and said, "It's better to call it Fangzhang County."

   "Good!" Zhao Han clapped his hands in approval.

  Penglai, Yingzhou, Abbot, and the Three Immortals Mountains on the Sea.

Zhao Han also said: "The main island of Abbot County will be renamed Abbot Island in the future, and it can no longer be called Wufu Shima Island or Amami Oshima. To attract business from the people, once selected, you can recruit workers and immigrate to Abbot Island to cut down forests. Only fifteen merchants will be recruited, and each family will be given 350 mu of forest. After the forest is felled, trees must be replanted. Each family is allowed to retain 100 mu of land, which will be reclaimed as arable land after felling."

  Abbot Island is rich in forest resources. Hundreds of years later, Japan had more than 400 logging farms on the island.

  Zhao Han thought for a while, and continued: "Give Xu Ying two hundred acres of mountain land, and let his elder brother recruit people to go to the island for logging. The royal family will pay for the immigration expenses for recruiting workers."

  Xungui veterans, in addition to Citian, more or less have franchise licenses.

  Of course, in order to prevent unfair competition from Xungui, the business scope of these exclusive licenses is not large. For example, you can mine a certain mine, such as the right to operate a salt shop in a certain county (a county has several salt shops, and Xungui only occupies one of them).

   This is also to make the nobles feel psychologically balanced. Otherwise, it would be impossible to justify seeing merchants with a lot of money while they were born and died with only a few dozen acres of land.

   Only Xu Ying has never accepted the exclusive rewards from industry and commerce.

  Maybe his identity is too sensitive, similar to the commander of Jin Yiwei in Ming Dynasty, he was afraid that he would end up with too many things.

   This time, Zhao Han was forced to reward him. Two hundred acres of overseas mountain forest is not much, but it is enough to bring stable profits. Moreover, the 200 mu of mountain forest given to Xu Ying includes land ownership. The fifteen merchants recruited only have the right to develop and use the forest. The government can take back the contract when it expires, or choose to renew the contract according to the situation.

  Abbot Island has a subtropical climate, and logging forests is not difficult.

   Logging forests in Luzon Island, that's enough. There are so many tropical rainforests, it's almost a haircut.

  Putting everyone away, Xu Ying was invited to see her.

  Zhao Han talked about rewarding overseas mountains and forests, and before Xu Ying refused, he said: "Don't talk too much, you have been poor, and others will say that I treat heroes poorly."

  Xu Ying had no choice but to bow her hands: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward."

  Zhao Han asked: "What's the latest news about Annan?"

Xu Ying said: "The Ruan family is ready to move, and seems to be planning to send troops to occupy the city. The Zheng family is also ready to move, and seems to be planning to send troops to the Ruan family. There will be a battle between the Ruan family and the Zheng family after the rice harvest this year! In addition, the garrison sent to the Champa According to the detailed report, the rice in the southern part of the country can be cropped three times a year."

   "Three cooking is very good." Zhao Han said with a smile, just relying on this will eat up the Champa Kingdom.

  Xu Ying also said: "The area at the border between the Champa Kingdom and the Jimi Kingdom (the transliteration of Jinnah and Phnom Penh, which is Cambodia) has already been cultivated by the people of Annan, and all of them can be cultivated three times a year."

  Xu Ying refers to the Jiulong River Plain in the Mekong Delta, which belongs to Cambodia at this time. Most of that fertile land still belongs to mangroves, and farmers rely on fishing for a living. It is not the most important granary in Vietnam hundreds of years later.

   What's even more nonsense is that it clearly belongs to Cambodian territory, but most of the people who developed the Jiulongjiang Plain were Vietnamese people.

  Vietnam and Cambodia do not border at all in that area. It was the Nguyen regime in Vietnam who coerced the King of Cambodia by force, and the Vietnamese people were allowed to immigrate to the Jiulongjiang Plain. Moreover, the Vietnamese farm land in Cambodia, but they do not pay taxes to the Cambodian government, but only pay taxes to the Vietnamese Nguyen regime.

  In addition to being threatened by force, the main reason why the King of Cambodia agreed was that the Jiulongjiang Plain was "unsuitable" for farming.

  Who would have guessed that after hundreds of years, after reclamation and transformation, it would become the most fertile and productive area in Southeast Asia!

  Zhao Han asked again: "King Champa, how are you doing in Nanjing?"

   "I don't want to miss Sichuan," Xu Ying said, "I invited a famous chef to go home, and I visited the cottage every now and then, and recently I fell in love with brothels."

Zhao Han laughed and said, "Ask him, five hundred thousand taels of silver, grant him the title of Duke of Zhan, give him 50 acres of land, and the right to manage a salt shop in Nanjing for ten years, see if he is willing to donate the kingdom of Cham. "

  The king of Champa and his son were unwilling to leave when they arrived in Nanjing, and they shirked each other before persuading one of his sons to return to the country to take charge of the government (for details, see Chapter 614 of the lifting of the ban).

  A small country the size of a palm, with a land area about one-third of Hainan Island. Five hundred thousand taels of silver, 50 acres of land, ten years of salt shop management rights, and a duke of Zhanguo, Zhao Han thinks this is a fair deal.

  Xu Ying went to find Po Lai, the king of Champa, in person, but as a result, the guy lingered in brothels and never returned.

  The brothel women in Nanjing, even if they are not famous prostitutes, are generally of higher quality than the concubines in Champa. What's more, all of them can play lyrics and sing songs, and Po Lai feels that today's life is much more comfortable than being a king in Champa.

   It was not until the third day that Xu Ying received the news that the king had finally returned home.

   After meeting, Xu Ying asked, "Why hasn't the prince returned to China?"

   Po Lai said: "My third son has returned to Champa to inherit the throne. I stay in Nanjing, and it is very good here. If you want to talk about state affairs, you can just find my son and don't bother me."

   "Okay, leave." Xu Ying left immediately.

   Champa has 500 troops stationed in Datong, and the military rations are supplied by Champa.

   More than two months later, Battalion Commander Xiao Chongguo found the new king and asked, "Your Highness seems a little worried?"

  Wang Ponan forced a smile: "It's okay."

   But this guy came back from Nanjing to take over the throne, and found that the government was controlled by the powerful minister Hetu, and his orders could not get out of Bintong Longcheng.

  Xiao Chongguo said: "Perhaps, I can relieve His Majesty's worries."

  Po Nan is only sixteen years old, and he doesn't know how to govern the country at all.

   If you really want to use the hands of the Datong Army to trap and kill powerful officials, and then clean them up afterward, it's really hard to make up your mind.

   "Oh, if only I could stay in Nanjing to enjoy the blessings like my father." The mother-in-law couldn't help but sigh.

   After eating good food for half a month in Nanjing, it’s still tasteless when I return to Champa. The food in the palace is not as good as the small restaurants in Nanjing city.

  Xiao Chongguo smiled and said, "Your Highness can sell the Champa Kingdom to the Datong court."

   "Selling the country?" Po Nan thought it was very fresh.

  Xiao Chongguo said: "500,000 taels of silver, 50 acres of land, ten-year management rights of a salt shop in Nanjing, and then confer the title of Datong Zhanguo Duke. How?"

   Five hundred thousand taels of silver!

  The mother-in-law took a breath.

   In the small country of Cuoer, although Wangcheng is a commercial port, it really doesn’t collect much business tax, because a lot of tax for entering the port is taken away by officials.

  Even the guards in the royal palace can only support a few dozen. When fighting against the Zheng family in Vietnam, farmers had to be temporarily recruited into the army. Wanting to repair the palace would require corvée. The king had never seen hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

   Po Nan said: "After I betray the country, can I not live in Nanjing? The rewarded salt shop should not be rewarded in Nanjing."

  Father and two elder brothers are both in Nanjing. He wants to monopolize the interests of the traitorous country, and he does not want his father and brother to come to him to share the money.

   "Yes." Xiao Chongguo smiled.

   "Then let's talk about it," Po Nan asked again, "Apart from Nanjing, which other cities in China are the best?"

  Xiao Chongguo said: "There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. Both Suzhou and Hangzhou are suitable for enjoying."

  Po Nan happily said: "Then I'll go to Suzhou!"

  A third of the territory of Hainan Island was bought in this way.

  (end of this chapter)