On this day, Li Zhi sat in the official hall of Fanjiazhuang in Li Xing and summoned Cui Changwu, Lu Hu and Gao Ligong to inquire about the status of maritime affairs.
Today's overseas affairs, the fleet is in charge of Lu Hu, Hirado's trade matters are in charge of Zheng Kaida, and Taiwan's development is in charge of Zheng Hui. At the same time, the Overseas Agency, as the department in the shogunate that specializes in overseas affairs, also has an account to record overseas affairs.
Various expenditures and incomes can constitute the supervision of specific operating departments.
It had been seven months since he left for the southern expedition, and he didn't know what was going on with overseas affairs. Li Zhi was free that day, so he summoned a few of his subordinates to ask.
Li Zhi asked Lu Hu: "How many ships are there in the fleet now?"
Lu Hu was originally the deputy commander of the Frontier Regiment, in charge of the artillery. Now after successive promotions, he has become the commander of the guards. He handed over his hands and replied to Li Zhi: "Uncle, the shipyard has been working hard every day this year.
He built the land, and built twenty-one large ships with pointed heads, so that now there are thirty-one large ships in the fleet.”
"The fleet currently has 1,100 boatmen and 2,170 gunners. The monthly salary and food expenses are 15,000 taels. The fleet only transports goods that it does not handle. This monthly salary
It’s pure expense.”
"These thirty-one large ships can transport three million pieces of cotton cloth at a time to Hirado, and can carry 10,000 farmers to Taiwan. The fleet sailed to Hirado, a Japanese country, from mid-May to the end of August last year, and at other times it sailed to Taiwan.
So far, 75,000 farmers have been transported to Hsinchu."
It turns out that there are already 75,000 farmers in Hsinchu, which is already the size of a county. Li Zhi thought about it and asked, "How is Hsinchu being developed currently?"
Lu Hu cupped his hands and said: "Uncle, Hsinchu is now quite large. As far as I know, more than 400,000 acres of paddy fields have been reclaimed. For specific accounts, please ask the Ambassador of the Overseas Affairs Office."
Li Zhi turned to Gao Ligong and asked: "Mr. Gao, do you have any account of the specific situation in Taiwan now?"
Gao Ligong served Li Zhi in liaison with maritime affairs, and he was very creditable. Li Zhi did not forget him when he recounted his merits this time. He had just been promoted to Qianhu a few days ago and is now a military attaché.
Now in the 14th year of Chongzhen, the tradition of the noble and the military has been defeated by the raging war. Now the civilian officials cannot control the military officials at all, and the sense of superiority between the civilian officials and the military attachés has naturally disappeared. Compared with making a living,
Gao Ligong felt that he would have more status as a military attaché of Qianhu.
He was very happy with his promotion and became more diligent in his work.
Gao Ligong bowed his hand to Li Zhi and said, "Uncle, I have an account here. Taiwan has shipped 75,441 people so far, and 119 of them died of malaria."
Hearing Gao Ligong's words, Li Zhi was silent. Malaria is indeed a major hazard in Taiwan. Unexpectedly, more than a hundred people died in the first year. However, Li Zhi repeatedly emphasized environmental hygiene to Zheng Hui. He thought that as the living environment changed,
As it matures and improves, fewer and fewer people will get sick in the future.
Gao Ligong continued: "Excluding the masons and other handymen, there are now 70,000 farmers in Taiwan. In February, 440,000 acres of paddy fields were reclaimed and distributed to 22,000 farmers. The farmers planted rice seedlings in March.
It is expected that more than 400,000 shi of grain can be harvested in June. By then, you can get more than 200,000 shi of rice as land rent."
Li Zhi heard the figure of more than 200,000 shi and nodded. The benefits of developing Taiwan are really high. According to the current grain price of 2 taels and 1 shi in cheap grain stores, the more than 200,000 shi of rice would be between 40,000 and 500,000 taels.
The income of silver. And this is only half a year's rent.
As subsequent farmers gradually open more paddy fields, Taiwan's development will bring greater profits to Li Zhi.
Gao Ligong added: "Uncle, hiring these farmers to open up wasteland also costs a lot of money. Today, 50,000 farmers are still opening up wasteland. We give these farmers food and accommodation, and we also pay two or two months of money every month. This month's
The cost is only 160,000 taels of silver. If the fleet continues to transport farmers to Hsinchu, the cost will be even greater."
Li Zhi was stunned when he heard such an astonishing monthly expenditure figure of 160,000 taels of silver. Li Zhi hired farmers to open up wasteland, and the fields opened were Li Zhi's private fields. Logically speaking, the farmers who opened up wasteland must be given wages, food, accommodation and clothing.
.But the expenses of these land reclamation farmers are really huge. Each farmer spends three taels of silver per month, which is equivalent to 160,000 silver for more than 50,000 people.
Li Zhi asked Li Xing: "Is the deficit on the account big now?"
Li Xing said: "There was originally a surplus of 50,000 taels in the account, plus the 60,000 taels of profit after the expansion of the textile factory, the 400,000 taels of profit earned by the fleet from the Heirado trade for three and a half months last year, and the 90,000 taels of Taiwan's late rice last year.
From the rental income of the two places, there is a slight surplus in the accounts as a whole."
Li Zhi felt relieved when he heard that there was no innocent person in the account.
Li Xing said: "Brother, if the size of the fleet continues to expand, and if the number of people opening up wasteland in Hsinchu continues to expand, the deficit will appear, and it will get bigger and bigger. Now our trade between Tianjin and Hedo has been saturated, and it is difficult to increase profits.
. I suggest no more building new ships.”
Li Zhi pondered and said: "New ships still need to be built. These large pointed ships can be used for seven or eight years. If new ships are not built, there will be no ships left when the old ships are scrapped. But the speed does not need to be so fast. Keep it.
Let’s start construction on the two shipbuilding sites.”
Gao Ligong nodded and said: "Then I will inform Dengzhou that the shipbuilding site in Laizhou will no longer build new ships. Only two shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Tianjin will be left."
Li Zhi nodded.
Li Xing suddenly said: "Brother, 30,000 peasants fleeing famine came from Henan in the past few months and found fields in Tianjin!"
Li Zhi asked: "What's going on?"
Li Xing said: "Brother, we have reclaimed 600,000 acres of dry land in Fanjiazhuang and five counties over the years, hired 60,000 farmers, and transported more than 70,000 farmers to Xiaoliuqiu, plus recruited 20,000 soldiers and soldiers.
With 20,000 workers, plus 20,000 traders in Fanjiazhuang City, we have attracted nearly 200,000 people near Tianjin, and the vast majority of them are young people."
"Tianjin has one prefecture, two prefectures and twenty counties, with only more than 2 million people. Because we have taken away so many people over the years, many tenant fields near Tianjin are now vacant. There used to be less tenant farming land.
Farmers in Tianjin can often farm more crops. Because of our development, farmers in Tianjin have enough land to cultivate, and they are slightly wealthier than before."
"In addition to the fact that we have been guarding Tianjin all these years, the Tatars have never plundered Tianjin. The farmers in Tianjin have not been harmed by the military, and their situation is much better than in other places."
"Last year there was a severe drought in Henan, and there were places where people could eat people. Compared with Henan, Tianjin is much richer. Tens of thousands of refugees from Henan fled to Tianjin when they heard that there was food in Tianjin. Some of the vacant land was occupied by landlords.
They were given to farmers fleeing famine from Henan. More than 30,000 people found a way to survive in Tianjin."
Li Zhi listened to Li Xing's words and kept nodding. Later, Li Zhi laughed and said, "I never thought that our development in Tianjin could also benefit farmers in Henan."
