The fleet entered Beigang Pier, and Li Zhi found that the port town was not big. There were dozens of houses on the pier, and dozens of cargo holds, which stored the materials shipped by Zheng Jiafu's ship from the mainland, as well as the rice to be sold to the mainland. That
There was quite a lot of rice. Li Zhi's sailors made a rough count and found that more than 100,000 shi of rice were stored in more than a dozen granaries.
These more than 100,000 shi of grain were probably the annual land tax or land rent of farmers in Beigang, and were worth more than 400,000 taels of silver. At this time, all of them became Li Zhi's possessions. The Zheng family believed that they controlled the southeast sea and were not afraid of being robbed by others.
He even wanted to snatch Li Zhi's Hsinchu, but he didn't expect that Li Zhi would dare to snatch his Beigang.
There is a gorgeous five-entry courtyard to the north of the pier, which is the "palace" where Zheng Zhilong lived in Beigang. At this time, seeing Li Zhi attacking, all the Zheng family members in the courtyard fled, and they didn't know where they fled.
Zhi's soldiers searched the hospital for a while and only found more than 20,000 taels of silver in one warehouse. It seems that Zheng Zhilong did not have the habit of storing large amounts of money in Beigang.
Three miles east of the pier is a town. There are about a thousand traders and craftsmen living in the town. At this time, when they saw someone attacking the pier, the people in the town hid in their homes, and the roads in the town were deserted.
Li Zhi rode horseback to the countryside again and found that the countryside in Beigang was in tatters. The people were hiding in mud houses with thatched roofs. Occasionally, there were uninformed farmers working in the fields, and they were all sallow and thin.
Li Zhi was ready to take over Beigang and manage this place well. Naturally, he could not let the people be afraid of him. Li Zhi asked soldiers in groups of ten to go deep into towns and villages to promote his policies:
"The Duke of Jin crusades against injustice and only punishes the culprits without harming the people. Don't panic, people!"
"The Duke of Jin has occupied the entire territory of Hong Kong, the order of the towns has been restored, the people can go out to business with peace of mind, and the soldiers will not commit any crimes."
The soldiers shouted along the street for half an hour, and the people of Beigang gradually stopped panicking. Li Zhi found ten prestigious village elders and used a wine shop in the town to entertain them, trying to understand the basic situation of the entire Beigang.
"Dear fellow villagers, I am Li Zhi, Duke of Jin! From now on, Beigang will be under my jurisdiction."
The officials loyal to Zheng Zhilong in Beigang have long since fled, and the people left in the town have nothing to do with the Zheng family. When these village elders heard Li Zhi's words, they left their seats and knelt down, but Li Zhi gave him a blank look.
He raised his hand to stop it.
"Excuse me, I would like to know how many people there are in Beigang, how much land there is, and how did the Zheng family collect taxes in the past?"
The village elders looked at each other, and an old man with a gray beard stood up and replied: "Your Excellency, Lord Jin, please forgive me for being rude. As far as I know, there are more than 4,000 households in Beigang, with a population of three."
Twelve thousand people. I don’t know the exact number of fields, but the former head butler of the Zheng family once invited us for a drink and said that Beigang has 2,000 hectares of fields. I think there are 2,000 hectares of fields."
Although the old man spoke Mandarin, his Fujian accent was very strong. It took a lot of effort for Li Zhi to understand and nodded.
"How does the Zheng family collect taxes and land rent?"
The old man said: "These fields owned by the people of Beigang were cultivated voluntarily by Li Dan, the 'Oriental Shipowner'. They are private fields of the people, so there is no ground rent. However, when the Zheng family comes, they will receive 60% of our land tax.
The common people had to pay six dou to the Zheng family to receive one stone of grain, so the common people were very poor."
It turns out that the Zheng family set the land tax at such a high level. Although it was a land tax, it was actually no different from land rent.
"I also charge 60% of the land rent from the people in Hsinchu. The people are very wealthy. Why are the people in Beigang so poor when they pay 60% of the land tax?"
When the village elder heard Li Zhi's question, he hesitated and did not dare to speak, fearing that his behavior of crying about poverty would offend Li Zhi. A fat old man next to him stood up and said:
"The Duke of Tianjin must be aware that the fields in Beigang are cultivated by the common people along the valley. Irrigation and watering are all carried out by buckets on poles. A young couple can only plant 25 acres of land and they are half dead from exhaustion."
. Moreover, manpower is always insufficient to carry water for irrigation, and the harvested grain is limited. It is good to harvest two dan in a year. After removing the land tax, there are only a dozen dan left for personal use."
"You can only harvest so little food after a hard year. How can the people of Beigang not be poor if you have to feed your whole family?"
Li Zhi understood after hearing what the old man said. The main problem in Beigang is that there are no water conservancy facilities, and each citizen has less land to plant. Inadequate irrigation leads to low yields, so the people are poor. In comparison, Hsinchu has water conservancy facilities, and every citizen is poor.
The productivity of a strong man is twice that of Beigang.
Li Zhi nodded and said confidently: "Don't worry, fellow villagers, since I am now in charge of Beigang, I will definitely make the people rich in the future. Not to mention that food and clothing will not be a problem in the future, I will also let the people live in
Go to a brick house, wear silk clothes, and eat meat!"
When the village elders in Beigang heard this, they all knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Li Zhi vigorously. Although they may not believe Li Zhi's words in their hearts, the faces of these village elders had expressions of sincerity.
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Leaving five hundred soldiers to maintain order in Beigang, Li Zhi sailed the fleet to the open sea outside Beigang.
The advantage of Li Zhi's fleet lies in its maneuverability and firepower. Only in the vast open sea can the fleet be free. If the ship docks in the port and is surrounded by Zheng Zhilong's army, the situation will not be good. The water channel in the port is narrow and the ship cannot move quickly.
If you maneuver, you will definitely be surrounded by the Zheng family pirates in the end. By then, thousands of people will be climbing up the side of the ironclad ship with swords in their mouths, and no matter how big the cannon is, it will be useless.
Attacking enemy ports is not what Li Zhi's steamships are best at. There are many reefs near the mainland, and an ironclad ship with a deep draft can easily run aground if it maneuvers at high speed in the shallow sea near the land. But if it does not maneuver at high speed, it can easily be outnumbered several times.
Surrounded by his own Zheng clan pirates.
So Li Zhi sailed the fleet to the open sea outside Beigang and cruised at high speed. On the one hand, it could plunder the Zheng family's merchant fleet returning from Japan, and on the other hand, it could intercept the Zheng family navy trying to regain Beigang.
Beigang can bring hundreds of thousands of taels of income to the Zheng family a year. Zheng Zhilong would not be able to swallow this breath no matter what.
Li Zhi's fleet patrolled the waters off Beigang for five days, and indeed encountered Zheng Zhilong's huge fleet.
On April 21, Li Zhi was pondering the map on the poop when he suddenly heard a loud call from the lookout. Li Zhi looked up and found that countless spots suddenly appeared on the distant horizon. Those spots were getting bigger and bigger.
Finally, they formed a line on the sea horizon. The straight line became thicker and thicker, covering the entire end of the sea from south to north.
Under the bright sunshine of early summer in April, those spots gradually revealed their original appearance: the sails of a sailing ship.
The Zheng family's fleet seemed to cover the entire sea surface. There were no one knows how many warships, attacking fifty-three steamships arrogantly.
