The outlet of the Ganges River, the location of what would later become Bangladesh.
Here, the two brothers Zhang Yanling and Zhang Heling established their own colony, and built Shouning City and Shouning Port at the outlet of the Ganges River in order to rule and plunder this vast colony.
At the same time, it also became the bridgehead for the Zhang brothers to invade Myanmar. The two brothers have always coveted Myanmar's jade and wanted to turn Myanmar into their own colony.
To this end, the two brothers even used various means. On the one hand, they organized other vassal kings, merchants, and families of the Ming Dynasty to attack Myanmar to prevent others from stealing food.
On the other hand, the Burmese Jade Trading Company was listed on the Tianjin Stock Exchange and raised several million taels of silver to form a colonial army of fifty thousand people in preparation for the opportunity to attack Burma.
The two brothers also invested heavily in jade from Myanmar. In recent years, the profits from the Zhang brothers' businesses have basically been invested by the two brothers.
He first occupied this place and built Shouning City, and then used Shouning City as a base to continuously expand his colony, find out the situation in Myanmar, and train his colonial army.
For this reason, the two brothers almost moved their whole Zhang family here. They didn't even plan to go back to Ming Dynasty to celebrate the New Year. Instead, they celebrated the New Year directly here in Shouning City.
In the Governor's Mansion in Shouning City, the colony of the Zhang brothers is also governed in the form of the Governor's Mansion and has jurisdiction over the colony, just like the Western United Trading Company. As the eldest, Zhang Heling naturally became the Zhang family of East Tianzhu.
Colonial Governor.
"The Chinese New Year is coming soon. Where are the gifts for the Queen?"
Zhang Heling was sitting on his governor's chair and was busy.
Being a governor of a place requires you to be busy with many things, but you can no longer spend your free time in the capital bullying men and women like before.
"The news has just been sent to the hands of the Queen. The Queen likes it very much. She just misses you, the Marquis and the uncle. She said that the Marquis and the uncle must not be able to eat well or sleep well in this wild land.
Well, I can’t even go back to celebrate the New Year, and I shed tears because of it.”
Next to Hou Ninghou, Zhang Yong quickly replied that Zhang Yong is a son of the Zhang family, and almost all important positions in the Zhang family's colony in East Tianzhu are held by Zhang family's children, which is different from the Western United Trading Company.
Because they are all descendants of the Zhang family, they are all one family, so they are more united than the Western United Trading Company. This is the same as many family colonies.
"Sister, it's true. I just didn't go back during the Chinese New Year. I will naturally go back after finishing all these things."
After hearing Zhang Yong's words, Hou Ninghou also said helplessly.
Empress Zhang didn't really say anything to her two younger brothers. Of course, Shouning Hou and Jian Changbo were also very kind to their sisters. Even when they were overseas, they never forgot to give them gifts during the New Year and festivals.
"The Queen also said that she would find a way for His Majesty to directly send troops to attack Myanmar, so that you and your uncle can go back early."
Zhang Yong smiled, the Zhang family can be what it is today, in fact, it depends on Queen Zhang. Without Queen Zhang, the Zhang brothers are nothing, and the Zhang family is nothing.
Empress Zhang was the only wife of Emperor Hongzhi and the mother of the current crown prince. Relying on this relationship, the Zhang family could withstand anything that happened as long as they did not rebel.
"A woman's perspective is short-sighted~"
"The imperial court sent a large army to defeat it. How can it be easily handed over to our Zhang family?"
"If we don't get it done right then, the duck we got will become someone else's."
When Zhang Heling heard this, he couldn't help but shake his head. This sister of hers really has no vision and is short-sighted. Fortunately, she really cares for her two brothers.
"Hasn't the Sultan of Bengal been caught yet?"
Without thinking about Queen Zhang anymore, Zhang Heling asked about the Sultan of Bangladesh again.
This place originally belonged to the Sultanate of Bangladesh. After the Zhang brothers invaded here and turned it into a colony, they started a series of wars with the Sultanate of Bangladesh and forced the sultan of this country to flee. He is still hiding in Tibet to this day.
"Not yet. He may have fled to the Delhi Sultanate somewhere."
Zhang Yong quickly replied.
"Delhi Sultanate?"
"Next year it will also be destroyed. The whole of Tianzhu will be divided up by us Ming people. We can escape for a while, but we cannot escape for the rest of our lives."
Zhang Heling said very confidently.
"Has all the colony's rice been harvested this year?"
"It's all harvested. It's harvested according to the 30% standard. This year's harvest will be a bumper. The grain we harvested is piling up like a mountain and we can't sell it at all."
"If you can't sell it, just use it to raise pigs, cattle, horses, and make wine. These can always be sold, right?"
"I heard that the Egyptian canal is being excavated and hundreds of thousands of Egyptian laborers have been recruited. A large amount of food is needed. Send people to Egypt to inquire about the situation and sell it to them cheaper. Mosquito meat is also meat and cannot be wasted.
.”
Zhang Heling thought for a while and said.
Colonial plunder is mainly divided into resource plunder, including the plunder of precious resources such as gold, silver, and copper. There are no precious resources in East Tianzhu, so it suffers in this regard.
The second is the plundering of the harvest. The Zhang brothers took over this place and did not kill all the original indigenous people. Instead, they allowed them to continue living, but they had to pay taxes to the Governor's Mansion.
Grain tax is naturally the most important tax.
This place is not suitable for growing cotton, spices, etc., but it is extremely suitable for growing rice, sugar cane, and tea. The yield of rice is extremely high, the quality of tea is also very good, and the sugar content of sugar cane is very high.
In order to fully plunder the wealth and resources here, the Zhang brothers built a large number of plantations here, which were under the direct jurisdiction and management of the Governor's Palace, specializing in the cultivation of sugar cane, tea, jute and other cash crops.
Another aspect is to lease the fields to local indigenous people for farming and collect rent. 30% of the annual harvest belongs to the governor's palace, and the remaining seven floors belong to the indigenous people who plant the fields.
The 30% tax rate is quite terrifying in today's Ming Dynasty. The fields in the Ming Dynasty are almost uncultivated. Tenancy rents are falling again and again. In most places, the rents are already less than 20%. Even if
Well, it is often difficult for landlords to rent out all their fields.
But for East Tianzhu, the tax rate of 30% is quite low.
In the past, under the rule of the Bengal Sultanate, people in these places had to pay more than half of the harvest, and at the same time they had to undertake many arduous tasks such as corvee labor.
Moreover, land is privately owned and highly concentrated, which adds to the pressure and burden on people at the bottom.
After the Zhang brothers occupied this colony, they brought all the land, minerals, resources, etc. under the Governor's Mansion, and killed all the nobles, lords, etc. of the original sultanate, or sold them as slaves to Southeast Asia and other places.
After taking back all the land, it was naturally impossible for the Zhang brothers to plant it themselves, so they rented the land equally according to the population of each place, which was equivalent to land reform in disguise.
In addition, only 30% of the tax revenue was collected, so that although the Zhang brothers were outsiders, they quickly established a foothold here. The lower-class indigenous people here supported the rule of the Zhang brothers.
Because there is more land that can be cultivated, more food can be left every year, tax pressure is greatly reduced, and life is much easier than before when the Sudan ruled.
Of course, the Zhang brothers did not start a charity, but doing so was more in line with the interests of the Zhang brothers. The food collected from the colonies alone every year was so huge that the Zhang brothers became the largest in the Indian Ocean region.
Grain merchants specialize in selling cheap grain.
In many colonies and vassal states that were short of food, they would turn to the Zhang brothers to buy food.
"Yes~"
Zhang Yong quickly wrote it down.
“How is the situation here in Myanmar?”
After asking about the situation in the East Tianzhu colony, Zhang Heling did not forget to pay attention to the affairs in Myanmar.
Compared with the little money they get from selling grain, what the Zhang brothers value most is the jade from Myanmar. A good piece of jade can be sold for thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver.
This is a big deal, and the bulk of the money is coming in. This place was built to invade Myanmar and seize Myanmar's jade and jade.
"The conflict between the Mon and Wa people is intensifying, and the Shan State is also restless with our support. It only takes some time for them to fight, and then we can reap the benefits."
Zhang Yong quickly replied.
Myanmar is still very strong in this matter. Siam was beaten so hard that even the capital city was attacked by the Myanmar army. However, the internal situation is also very complicated. Several powerful tribes are not willing to fight for civil war, and there are frequent conflicts between the north and the south.
When a war breaks out, especially when one side is strong, they will always want to unify the entire Myanmar.
"That's good. Keep cheering them up and let them fight as soon as possible. The harder they fight, the better."
Zhang Heling nodded with satisfaction. Although the two brothers were synonymous with waste in the Ming Dynasty, they became elites overseas and knew how to sow discord.
"Big brother~big brother~"
"Something big happened, something big happened!"
At this moment, Jianchang Bo Zhang Yanling hurriedly walked in. Before the person arrived, the voice had already been heard.
"What happened?"
Zhang Heling asked very puzzledly.
The colony here is peaceful, and the well-fed natives are very docile and obedient. They don't dare to resist the Zhang family's rule, so what big trouble can happen.
"It's the Western United Trading Company that has caused a big problem."
"Hu Xian, the governor of Ceylon, wanted to monopolize the Western United Trading Company. A few days ago, he dismissed Zhang Yuan, Feng Xiang, and Zhu Benduan, and appointed members of their Hu family to take charge of the entire Western United Trading Company, using people from the Armed Forces
Massively arrest the people sent by our families."
Zhang Yanling said hurriedly.
"You Hu Xian, you don't even look at how many pounds you have. You even dare to swallow my Zhang family's things, and you don't even look at whether you will die. The boss behind this doesn't even dare to offend me easily.
It's good for you, you still want to monopolize the Western United Trading Company, you are really not afraid of death."
When Zhang Heling heard this, he stood up immediately, his eyes widened in disbelief.
This Hu Xian dared to think of monopolizing the Western United Trading Company, which was really audacious.
"Brother, what should we do?"
"what to do?"
"Assemble the colonial army and prepare to attack Ceylon Island! The things belonging to our Zhang family are not so easy to swallow!"
