On top of the Manila Castle, Du Ming'en and Lin Shuhong looked over the entire Bay Area with telescopes, preparing to plan the place they had just arrived.
“What a great place~”
Through the telescope, you can clearly see the entire Manila Bay.
The turquoise blue water, the surrounding dense primeval rainforest, the vast plains, and the fertile land all look like a paradise, with beautiful scenery that makes people nostalgic.
"It is indeed a good place. If nothing else, the open plains on both sides of the river alone are enough to cultivate countless plantations."
Lin Shuhong also nodded and said, then pointed to the river mouth and said: "We can build a port here at the river mouth and rely on the river and the existing castle without spending too much effort.
"
"There is no need to rush to build the city. This castle is enough for the early stage. In a short period of time, there won't be too many people here. But by next year, it is estimated that at least tens of thousands of people will have to immigrate here to gain a foothold here.
.”
"The number of these indigenous people still accounts for an absolute advantage. Without enough people to immigrate, we will never have any sense of security."
Du Mingen nodded, thought for a while and said.
"Don't worry, there will definitely be no need to worry about people when the time comes. Look below, I guess this small castle will definitely not be able to accommodate people."
Lin Shuhong said very confidently, pointing to the bustling castle.
It turned out that the castle had become extremely lively at this time, and people from the fleet that had followed them south poured into the castle, all ready to take a good rest.
In the entire Manila, except for the houses in the Mingren neighborhood, which are still intact, the neighborhoods where the indigenous people live have been almost razed to the ground, and only the entire castle is left with intact houses for everyone to rest.
A large number of people poured into Manila Castle. At the same time, Du Mingen and Lin Shuhong also decided to show everyone their harvest. They also placed all the things that the Ming army had looted from the castle at the entrance of the palace.
Boxes and boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, emeralds, agates, gems, ivory, pearls, etc. are piled up in mountains, arranged neatly, and blooming with charming colors.
In addition, there are some large items, such as a rockery made of red coral, a stone lion carved from a large piece of jade, and the top-grade imperial green jadeite the size of a millstone on the roof of the palace...
All these things were placed at the entrance of the palace, which immediately attracted everyone's attention. Soon there was a sea of people at the entrance of the palace, and everyone's eyes were shining brightly looking at these things at the entrance of the palace.
"Oh my god~"
"How much gold, silver, jade, agate, pearl, ivory, how much is this worth?"
Zhu Benduan looked at a box of gold, silver, jewelry, etc. Although he was a big salt merchant and a person who had seen a lot of the world, he had seen many kinds of gold, silver, jewelry, etc., but he couldn't see it all at once.
Seeing so many things piled together, I still can't help but sigh.
"I heard they estimated it to be worth at least 40 million taels of silver~"
Feng Xiang stretched out four fingers and said with saliva.
"Forty million taels of silver, my dear~ isn't this another trip to the Golden Continent?"
Zhu Benduan was speechless after hearing this.
These salt merchants used to be extremely wealthy, but when it comes to tens of millions or millions of taels of silver, they are extremely jealous.
"Did you see that coral?"
Feng Xiang pointed to a screen made of coral. It was made of a whole piece of large coral. It was more than one foot tall. It was very red in color and made people fall in love with it at first sight.
"Oh my god, what a big coral~"
Zhu Benduan looked over and suddenly his eyes widened.
He thought of the pieces of coral in his home, which were only over a foot high and had always been his favorite ornaments. For this reason, he had spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy them.
Take a look at some of the coral ornaments in front of you. Even the smallest coral is much larger than theirs. Moreover, the color is as red as a ruby, with a hint of luster. Under the sunlight, it is bright and eye-catching.
"Have you never seen it before? I have never seen such big corals before. Just these few coral ornaments can be sold for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in our Ming Dynasty."
"The largest coral ornament can easily be sold for millions of taels of silver."
Feng Xiang's eyes were also shining. He was a well-informed person. He could see good things at a glance and knew how much they were worth.
"And that piece of jadeite as big as a millstone. This is the best imperial green jadeite. The color is very yang, full of water, crystal clear, and the flesh is extremely delicate. This piece of jade alone is a priceless treasure~"
"I didn't see that fist-sized ruby. Such a big ruby with such a pure color. This is the first time I have seen such a ruby in my life. It is also a priceless treasure~"
"The gems in that box, rubies, sapphires, and purple sapphires, are all very large in size and very pure in color. There is no problem in selling any one of them for tens of thousands of silver."
"They really got rich this time. This Nanyang region is really rich. There are so many gems, pearls, jade, ivory, agate, etc."
"There are also these ivory tusks. There are so many ivory tusks, there are hundreds of them. Any ivory is sold for thousands of taels of silver in our Ming Dynasty. These pearls are very big and can be sold for hundreds of taels of silver each.
no problem."
Feng Xianggru pointed to the box and said, as if counting treasures from his family, the more he spoke, the more his eyes turned red, this wealth came too quickly and too easily.
Just by looting the castle, the Ming army plundered a huge wealth worth 40 million taels of silver. The key is that there is something in it. It is a priceless treasure. If you have money, you have no place to buy it.
"Yes, although this Nanyang area is a barbarian land, it is very rich as Liu Jin said~"
"The country of Luzon is rich in gold and silver. I heard that there are many large and small gold mines here. If we can find a gold mine here in the future, it will be enough for us."
"Boni Country is rich in pearls and corals, Sulu Country is rich in precious fragrant woods, Siam is rich in ivory and jewelry, Myanmar is rich in jade and jade, and Sri Lanka a little further west is rich in all kinds of top-quality gemstones."
"It is not difficult to earn ten times the price by transporting these things to our Daming Dynasty. But if our silk, porcelain, tea, etc. are transported here, we can earn ten times the price casually.
It’s a big price, come and go, you can make millions of taels of silver in just one trip.”
"Now that the Marquis of Taiping has announced that Manila belongs to our Ming Dynasty, we must not miss the opportunity. We will have to write a letter of divorce and go back. Let the family send people over. When the time comes, some tribesmen will immigrate here. If there is a stronghold here."
"We can transport goods from Daming to Manila, and then sell them to the entire Nanyang region. Then, the goods purchased from the Nanyang region can be concentrated in Manila. With a transfer station, the business will be stable."
"Tianjin Ocean Trading Company must have the same plan, otherwise it wouldn't have occupied Manila."
Zhu Benduan nodded, then thought about it and said.
He has already seen huge wealth rolling towards him. This Nanyang region is really too rich, and there are too many good things here.
In the past, when people from the Ming Dynasty came to do business in the Nanyang region, they would do so in one ship, or three or four ships would come to the Nanyang region together.
Often because of time constraints and unfamiliarity with the place, there is often no way to maximize one's profits, but even so.
Relying on the routes and trade to the Nanyang region, the merchants, big families, etc. in the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty were still extremely well fed. They were able to interfere in the government affairs and vigorously promoted the maritime ban policy in order to monopolize this hugely profitable maritime trade.
Now the people in Tianjin Ocean Trading House are different. Liu Jin sees it very clearly and has made long-term plans and plans. It is not just for one bite today and one bite tomorrow.
Liu Jin has a huge appetite. Not only does he want to eat the Nanyang area, but he also wants to eat it continuously for a long time, and slowly annex it.
Just making some wealth is nothing, Liu Jin's money is not bad at all, what Liu Jin needs is the rich land of Nanyang and its vital position.
Now Europeans have begun to sail around the world. They have reached the east coast of Golden Continent a few years ago. At the same time, Vasco da Gama has also bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and reached Tianzhu, and has also returned to Portugal.
In more than twenty years of history, Europeans began to aggressively enter the Nanyang region and set up colonial strongholds in the Nanyang region. Relying on the colonial strongholds, they carried out ocean-going trade on the one hand and colonial plunder on the other.
The location of Nanyang is too important. Liu Jin will never let it fall into the hands of Europeans. In Liu Jin's plan, Europeans must not get involved in Nanyang. This is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, so it must be
Occupy it first.
Not only Manila, in the future Liu Jin will also set up many colonial strongholds in the Nanyang region like the Europeans. Manila is just the first one, and there will be colonial strongholds set up in many important checkpoints in the future.
On the one hand, it is convenient for the major Ming Dynasty merchants to do business in the Nanyang region, and to continue westward to Tianzhu, Arabia and Africa. On the other hand, it can rely on strongholds for colonial plunder, thus promoting the primitive accumulation of capital.