The unit of measurement for Chinese ships is material, and one material is the volume of one cubic foot. That is to say, one ton is equal to approximately three materials.
A large ship with 5,000 materials and a load capacity of 1,600 tons. It can be said that this is a warship capable of suppressing the entire East Asia and even Asia.
Among the three major naval divisions of the Ming Dynasty, the strongest one was the Beihai Navy. Due to the need to protect the capital, shipping, and the frequent trade between China and North Korea, its size exceeded 8,000 men.
The main ships are the 3,000-material ships, with a total of five ships.
Based in Tianjin and Dengzhou.
The Donghai Navy is in the Zhoushan Islands and is responsible for protecting the Yangtze River estuary and ports such as Ningbo. There are two large ships with three thousand materials.
The Nanhai Navy is in Fujian and is responsible for the ports and sea conditions in Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan and Fujian. Therefore, it has three large ships with a capacity of more than 5,000 people.
The three major naval forces protect thousands of miles of sea territory, which is barely enough.
It's not that Zhu Yixi doesn't want to increase investment, it's just that sea-going ships are too expensive, especially artillery.
Take a battleship with 3,000 materials as an example. The cost of making this ship is only 1,000 silver coins, and the number of cannons it can carry is 30. The average cannon is 500 yuan, which is 15,000 yuan.
two.
If there is a war, the gunpowder will not be poured out without money. When the cannon is fired, there will be ten thousand taels of gold.
To maintain the current three major naval divisions, the annual daily maintenance costs exceed one million yuan. Under the pressure of the emperor, the Fifth Army Governor's Office had to allocate an additional two hundred thousand yuan for shipbuilding.
As a result, not only the governor's office was full of complaints, but even the household department couldn't stand it. The navy couldn't get in and out, which was really annoying.
After all, the Japanese pirates are gone and the pirates are nowhere to be seen. Maintaining a huge navy is of little use.
Zhu Yixi did not suppress speech, and a few complaints were nothing.
When the benefits from the South continue to flow, people will succumb.
"How long will it take to build a ship with 5,000 materials?"
"Your Majesty, it will take about a year and a half."
"too slow."
Zhu Yixi frowned and felt unhappy.
At this time, the emperor's majesty was revealed, and several people could not bear it. Their knees unconsciously softened and they knelt on the ground.
The missionary on the side was a little confused and muttered a few words to the translator. When he understood what he said, his face was full of helplessness.
My God, I’m afraid no one in Europe would kneel down like this when seeing an angel!
"As soon as possible!" The emperor glanced at several people and did not embarrass them. He just took a look.
This fell far short of his expectations.
"Your Majesty, there are large shipyards in Taiwan that can build such ships."
Suddenly, the missionary spoke quickly, and the translator was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses.
"oh?"
Hearing this, the emperor became interested.
Taiwan actually has such a large shipyard?
The translator on the side continued: "Your Majesty, after the Portuguese went to Taiwan, they rebuilt the gun factory and shipyard. After all, from Manila to Fujian, and then north to Japan and North Korea, you need to pass through Taiwan."
"The demand for repair and shipbuilding was very strong, so the Portuguese returned to their old business and introduced craftsmen in Manila and Batavia. Coupled with the participation of many missionaries, Taiwan's shipyards became very large."
"Although it is not the Dagukou Shipyard, they have mature craftsmen who can build ships immediately."
"That's true." Zhu Yixi suddenly realized, with a smile on his face.
At this time, the atmosphere immediately became much more relaxed, and the craftsmen also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then we will use a two-pronged approach. The five thousand material ship must become the main force in a short time."
Having said this, Zhu Yixi had a thought in his mind. He couldn't wait that long.
However, the development of Taiwan Government was beyond his expectation.
After taking Taiwan, due to insufficient population and the takeover of Macau, a large number of Western barbarians had nowhere to go, so Zhu Yixi treated Taiwan as an open port and allowed them to settle freely.
In fact, people from mainland China can still live here even if they do not have household registration.
This has created a special open environment in Taiwan, and even a large ship with 5,000 materials can be built.
"Let Jin Yiwei collect the situation in Taiwan."
After lowering his head and giving instructions, Zhu Yixi began to patrol the shipyard.
Dagukou Shipyard is not only government-run, but also run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is a cooperation between the two parties, so it can not only undertake shipbuilding tasks for the military, but also build ships for civilians.
For example, a large number of modified armed ships have become the favorite type of merchants. Not only do they have a huge load capacity, but they also have weapons to protect them.
It can be built for long voyages, offshore, and can even repair and clean ships. It can be said to be all-round.
According to the current prosperity of shipping, excluding military orders and private ships alone, Dagukou Shipyard can make at least 100,000 yuan a year.
Tianjin Mansion is very young, and the three guards have only been integrated for a few years. There is not much to see, so he took his three sons for a walk. Then he turned around and returned to Beijing.
Counting the round trip, it only took three days.
At this time, Jin Yiwei presented the intelligence collected by the Taiwan government.
Zhu Yixi glanced at it, which was beyond his expectation.
In just a few years, Taiwan's population has exceeded 500,000 and is approaching 600,000.
Since there were no household registration restrictions, many pirates, escaped slaves, and merchants came here enthusiastically.
Of course, there are also many Westerners, with more than 30,000 settling in Taiwan.
In this way, the style of Taiwan is very different from that of mainland China.
Its architecture is a combination of Chinese and Western, each with its own characteristics, and there are many Gothic churches; economically, the Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese have built more than a hundred banks, with an unprecedented scale.
In terms of system, the Taiwan government adopts the policy of using foreigners to control foreigners, choosing China experts to govern its own people, as long as they pay taxes on time.
As a result, there are actually four Xiyi Streets in Taiyuan County, which is governed by the Taiwan Prefecture.
The British, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish each occupy one street, with the Portuguese making up the majority.
"This is like the role of Hong Kong's port back then."
The emperor groaned, feeling a little surprised.
From his personal point of view, the prosperity of the Taiwanese government has fueled the development of the Jiade Plain, with the establishment of a large number of manors and squatter houses one after another.
There are forests of sugar cane and tens of thousands of workers.
Sugar, this addictive thing, is continuously transported from Taiwan to the mainland.
Unfortunately, Taiwan's annual production of brown sugar is only one million stones. It not only needs to satisfy the mainland, but also needs to be exported. The supply is really in short supply.
You must know that mainland China alone has a population of 150 million. People are not addicted to sugar. Everyone loves sweetness. This market is so vast.
What is sold to the mainland every year is less than 20% of the output.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yixi couldn't help but feel a little melancholy.
When will Taiwan’s sugar be able to satisfy mainland people?
And how much of the income from internal funds is lost due to the loss of output?
To go south, you must go south.
By the time he was fully prepared, I don’t know what year or month it would be.
The millions of indigenous people in the Philippines are the best labor force.
"Let Zhang Qi come to see me..."
Two hours later, the shocked Zhang Qi left the palace and couldn't wait to return home. She couldn't contain her excitement and said: "Contact those chambers of commerce, we have a big deal."
The sugar mills in Taiwan are basically controlled by dozens of large families. Only 30% of them are controlled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but nearly 70% of the plantations are taken over by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of sugarcane land are enough to determine the price of brown sugar.
In a sense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is the emperor who decides on sugar merchants.
In order to achieve better sales and maintain profits, under the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Taiwanese government established the Brown Sugar Guild.
All sugar shops and sugar merchants are involved in this process to maximize profits.
What’s even more crazy is that all sugar will be sold at auction, and the auction will be next year’s brown sugar.
It's like pre-ordering.
For sugar merchants, this allows them to recover their blood faster without losing money, and the risks are borne by those merchants.
Merchants who purchase brown sugar are like salt merchants under the Salt Law. They purchase a certain amount of brown sugar and sell it in different regions. The source is the big families in each province.
"It's only the beginning of the year? Why is there another auction?"
"You're crazy, don't you want to increase the price?"
The sugar merchants were wailing, but their steps were not slow, and they entered Zhang's house one after another.
With the implementation of the Salt Invoice Law, the price of salt continued to fall, and profits declined significantly. Although the price stabilized, so did the profits.
Therefore, for businessmen, the value of sugar has now exceeded that of salt. There is almost no need to worry about selling it, and there is no private salt to grab it. There is a price but no market, and the industry is monopolized, so they can make money while lying down.
However, due to the limited sugar cane production, the Sugar Laboratories had no choice but to turn to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
It is conservatively estimated that the sugar industry in Taiwan exports five million silver dollars every year, and when it comes to the mainland, the scale can be expanded to thirty million.
"Everyone, the reason why we come here is not to increase the price, but to seek more brown sugar."
Zhang Qi stood up, and all the discussion immediately disappeared, leaving only his clear and loud voice lingering.
"Zhang Shaofu, is there going to be a Tangliu in Taiwan again?" someone said excitedly at this time.
Shaofu, this is the honorific title given to Zhang Qi, Minister of Internal Affairs.
"No." Zhang Qi shook his head: "Taiwan's population has never been prosperous. It has only reached 600,000 in the past few years. I don't know if sugar houses can be added in the same year."
"What Zhang is talking about here is another place where there is countless land and labor force."
"Oh?" At this time, a smart person immediately said: "Could it be Hainan?"
"No." Zhang Qi immediately objected: "Hainan Prefecture is not as late as Taiwan. Besides, the food there can only be obtained by itself. There is no extra land to grow sugar cane."
"Besides, it's not easy to get rid of Li, even if they mess up the government, it won't break."
At this time, everyone was helpless and looked at Zhang Qi eagerly, wanting to know where the place in his mouth was.
"Manila, do you know?"
These sugar merchants ran sugar factories in Taiwan, and there were many Westerners coming and going, so they were naturally familiar with Manila, which was run by Spain.
It is located below Taiwan. In 1565, the Spanish turned the Philippines into a colony.
Previously, the Philippines, that is, Luzon, was the sphere of influence of Chinese businessmen. The Spanish invasion aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Chinese.
In 1574, Lin Feng, the leader of the "pirates" (merchants) on the southeast coast, led 62 warships carrying 4,000 people and launched an attack on the Spanish army in the Philippines.
Many of these people were once "Japanese pirates" that the Ming Dynasty wanted to hunt down, such as Wu Ping. The base of this group of maritime merchants was on Taiwan Island. It took Spain three years to defeat them and completely occupy the Philippines.
In order to seize trade rights from the Chinese as soon as possible, the Spanish attacked the Chinese in Manila in 1603 and massacred 25,000 Chinese at one time. "Except for a few who escaped, almost all of them died under the sword."
This kind of human destruction immediately changed the color of the Philippines, and the Spanish completely took control of the Philippine economy.
After the massacre, there was a shortage of labor in the Philippines, so a large number of Chinese poured in. Gradually, the Philippines' business fell into the hands of the Chinese.
In 1639, Spain massacred the Chinese again, killing 21,000 Chinese successively, making the Chinese in Luzon almost extinct.
Today, only more than ten years have passed, and the Chinese in the Philippines are once again flourishing, with extremely close exchanges with Taiwan.
"Luzon?" Many people stood up, excited.
"I heard that there are more than 10,000 Ming people there, and the Spaniards have no choice but to bully us and use the natives to check and balance us."
"We Han people are so smart. The little Xiyi will not be able to have fun without us -"
"I heard that the Spaniards captured Luzon with only 600 people. Now the Governor's Mansion only has 2,000 or 3,000 people. The most people are just the navy..."
Many people started talking and expressed their opinions.
However, they were not angry or sad about the massacre of Chinese Filipinos.
There is no one else, because many of these people are pirates, sea merchants, and their descendants. The alien people of the alien land cannot be further away.
In an era when nationalism had not yet flourished, they did not feel much.
As far as the imperial court was concerned, these people not only had not paid taxes or performed corvee labor, but also disobeyed and wandered around in other places every day, so they deserved to be killed.
Zhang Qi originally thought so, but the emperor told him that the matter could not be settled like this.
Emperor Wanli said it was okay with the first massacre, but he was not forgiven for the second massacre, which meant that he had an excuse at his fingertips.
As long as Manila, which has been run by Spain for hundreds of years, is no less than the next Taiwan, doubling sugar production is just a matter of course.
"In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Spaniards unscrupulously slaughtered our country's maritime merchants and the people of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the country was in decline and it was difficult to take care of it. Now, I, Emperor Shaowu, are wise and powerful, respecting heaven and loving the people. After learning about this, he was very angry."
Zhang Qi said loudly: "Spain needs an explanation for this matter."
"Then I don't know how the court will behave? How can I help?"
"You have gentry from your family who travel on the sea. You should go to Luzon to collect information and military information from them. When the time comes, it will be of great use to report to the court."
Zhang Qi saw that everyone's eyes were about to bulge, and he couldn't help but said: "In addition, if anyone can come out on top, not to mention the reward from the court, it will be of great benefit to future business dealings!"