'The per capita expenditure of the Guangzhou Squadron should be less than half of that of the Qiongzhou Squadron, but the reported accounts are only so much less than that. It seems that many people in the Nanhai Navy are corrupt. Let Jin Yiwei check it out.
Look who is doing corruption.' This was the first thing that came to Yunxi's mind.
He secretly recorded the matter in his mind and began to think about what was ahead of him.
"I just asked Aiqing why the people in other places are unwilling to move to Qiongzhou. Why don't you tell me this?" Yunxi asked.
"Your Majesty," Li Shuli said: "Although people from other places would not be willing to move here if they knew that everything in Qiongzhou was so expensive, how could ordinary people in other places know about such a thing? Therefore, I did not include it in the list of reasons for other places.
This is the reason why the people are unwilling to move to Qiongzhou." Li Shuli said seriously.
Yunxi glanced at him, but said nothing. Well, Li Shuli's idea cannot be said to be wrong, but it is problematic to answer like this when asked by superiors. Yunxi is tolerant and will not take this matter to heart.
If an emperor who was not magnanimous asked him and answered like this, Li Shuli's future would probably stop at the fourth rank.
Yunxi returned his thoughts to the matter in front of him. After thinking for a moment, he asked him many detailed questions about the local situation in Qiongzhou. He also took out a map of Qiongzhou and drew it while talking.
Finally, Yunxi thought for a while, and as it was almost noon, he said: "Now it seems that the reason why the people of Qiongzhou are not very wealthy is that one of the most important reasons is that everything here cannot be produced by itself and needs to be transported from the mainland.
"
"So I decided to relocate hundreds of households of various types of craftsmen to Qiongzhou City, Danzhou City, Yazhou City and Wanzhou City, so that the local area can produce many items by itself and save high prices."
"In addition, I want to change the Yangpu Port in Danzhou into a dual-use port for both military and civilian use, allowing passing Ming merchants to stop here."
Finally, Yunxi thought for a while, and as it was almost noon, he said: "Now it seems that the reason why the people of Qiongzhou are not very wealthy is that one of the most important reasons is that everything here cannot be produced by itself and needs to be transported from the mainland.
"
"So I decided to relocate hundreds of households of various types of craftsmen to Qiongzhou City, Danzhou City, Yazhou City and Wanzhou City, so that the local area can produce many items by itself and save high prices."
"In addition, I want to change the Yangpu Port in Danzhou into a dual-use port for both military and civilian use, allowing passing Ming merchants to stop here."
"Your Majesty, it is indeed a good deed to move many craftsmen to Qiongzhou Prefecture. The people of Qiongzhou Prefecture will definitely be very grateful to Your Majesty. However, the Yangpu Port in Danzhou was originally a military port. It would not be appropriate to allow the people to use it as they please." Li Xuliang said.
Yangpu Port was built with the help of the manpower and material resources he organized from Qiongzhou Prefecture. He was very familiar with the place, so after hearing Yunxi's words, he knew what was going on without looking at the map and immediately raised objections.
"There are many docks in a port. Of course, the navy will not mix the docks with ordinary people and merchants, nor will it allow any common people and merchants to enter the docks, even the family members of navy soldiers." Yunxi explained.
"But, Your Majesty, why do you allow people and merchants to use the port?" Li Xuliang asked again.
Yunxi sighed in his heart, Li Xuliang, you must be too arrogant, and had to say: "I think the reason why everything in Qiongzhou is so expensive is that even compared with Leizhou Prefecture, which also cannot produce many items by itself, the prices of items are much higher.
, in addition to its remote location and local poverty, it is also because there was only one port in the past, Haikou Port, that could transport goods from the mainland, and the roads on the island were not convenient. That is why we opened the Yangpu Port in Danzhou for the use of the people.
, having another port on the west coast of Qiongzhou Island that can be used to transport goods can alleviate this situation."
"The only people transporting goods are merchants, so merchants must be allowed to use the port." He roughly explained.
But the real reason is of course not just that.
After Yunxi had conversations with Li Jiqian and Li Xuliang, and read the reports submitted by the local Jinyi guards in Qiongzhou, combined with what he saw in later generations, he felt that he had probably understood why Qiongzhou was not very developed.
.
First of all, of course, it is because it is located in a remote area and belongs to the boundary of Chinese civilization. The consequence of this is that few people are willing to migrate here, and this is not the first place where Chinese civilization began, so it is sparsely populated. The sparsely populated area means that there are no
There are enough markets, and because it is so remote that it is difficult to rely on markets in other places, commerce and handicrafts are very backward. This creates a vicious circle and has been unable to develop. These reasons are not necessarily all the reasons, but they are definitely the most important ones.
One of the reasons.
What Yunxi did was to first provide local handicrafts with state support and reduce the price of goods; secondly, he provided policies based on local advantages and local conditions to develop business here.
When talking about the advantages of Qiongzhou, the first thing that most people in later generations will think of is the beautiful environment and beautiful scenery, but this is not an advantage in this era. As the old saying goes, the poor and the rich are poor. In this era, those who have the ability and are willing to go to other places
There are not even one ten thousandth of the country's total population as tourists, and most of these less than one ten thousand people go to Yangzhou where "Fireworks Fall in March", Suzhou and Hangzhou where "there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below"
, Luoyang, Xi'an, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, the capital of Shu, the land of abundance, and now the largest city in the world - the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Except for those who had to go to Qiongzhou due to work transfers, even the extremely famous Xu Xiake in history did not come to Qiongzhou.
tour.
Qiongzhou's real advantage at this time is its geographical location. Qiongzhou is located at the southernmost end of the Ming Dynasty. This was a great disadvantage in the era when maritime trade routes were not developed, but it had become a disadvantage in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.
Advantage.
Although there are already routes sailing from the Dashi Peninsula to the Ming Dynasty in this era, navigation technology is still unable to withstand natural disasters. A typhoon may wipe out the entire fleet, and there is no weather forecast. All depends on the experience of the captain.
So most fleets sail along the coastline.
In this way, the advantages of Qiongzhou Island are revealed. Most of the fleets heading to the Ming Dynasty from the West passed through Malacca (Malacca) and then sailed directly to Champa, which was later known as southern Vietnam, and went north along the coastline to Beibu Gulf.
Passing eastward through Qiongzhou Island, we arrived at the coastline of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, there is another route to Daming after passing Managara, which is to fly directly from Pulau Chong (Singapore) to Borneo (Kalimantan Island), along the northern coastline of Borneo via Palawan Island, and the Philippine Islands
Cross the Bashi Strait, pass through Taiwan Island and arrive at the coastline of the Ming Dynasty. Even in history, Zheng He's fleet only stopped at many ports along the way, but it still followed these two routes.
Ignoring the other line, the first line must pass through Qiongzhou. And most of the fleets do not have large ships like Zheng He's fleet, so there must be more ports that need to berth along the way. Yangpu Port in Danzhou has been opened.
, they can stop at Yangpu Port to replenish food and vegetables; at the same time, because Yangpu Port has become a dual-use port for military and civilian purposes, some businessmen who are inspired by the news will come here to do business, so that local commerce can flourish.
Coupled with the initial establishment of the handicraft industry, a positive cycle is formed to promote the economic development here.
This is actually very similar to the development model of Singapore in later generations. Singapore is located at the throat of the Malacca Strait, and it took active measures to attract ships passing by to stop here, becoming one of the most developed cities in the entire Eastern region. The geographical location of Qiongzhou
It’s not as good as Singapore, and given the age gap, the effect will definitely not be as good as Singapore’s, but it will definitely be effective.
Yunxi even wanted to open more ports here to attract passing ships to dock. However, the only large ports built in Qiongzhou Prefecture are Haikou Port in Fucheng and Yangpu Port in Danzhou. The remaining ports are now too small to even be allowed to dock.
It is difficult for the entire Qiongzhou Squadron of the South China Sea Navy to be stationed and cannot be opened for civilian use. Haikou Port is originally intended for both military and civilian use, so it has no port to open, so it can only do this.
"Li Aiqing, you must cooperate with the Navy Yamen to complete the construction of Changhua Port as soon as possible." Yunxi suddenly asked Li Xuliang. Changhua Port is a military port currently under construction. It is located south of Yangpu Port. After it is completed according to the plan,
It will be the third largest port in Qiongzhou Prefecture and can also be developed for both military and civilian use.
‘I’ll have to tell the local navy office later.’ Yunxi thought again.
At the same time, Yunxi looked at the east coast of Qiongzhou. All the large ports under construction are now on the west coast. Yunxi didn't know why. It seemed that it was because there were more typhoons on the east coast and fewer on the west coast. No matter why, he felt that the east coast
There should be a port like this. But he looked at it for a long time and studied the memorials of the Navy Yamen. He found that all the ports on the east coast were not large in scale and were under construction, so he had no choice but to give up.
Having decided the matter, Yunxi's purpose of meeting Li Xuliang today has been achieved, and because it was already noon, Li Xuliang stood up and wanted to bow and leave.
Just as Yunxi was about to return the gift, he suddenly thought of something and said, "Li Aiqing, wait a minute."
Li Xuliang straightened up with doubts on his face, and heard him say again: "I suddenly thought that the name Qiongzhou is so unlucky. Doesn't it curse the people here to remain poor? This name must be changed."
"I wonder what your Majesty wants to change?" Li Xuliang asked.
"Do you have a good name?" Yunxi asked.
"I dare not name this mansion, so please give me your Majesty's permission." Li Xuliang bowed and said.
"In this case, I will give this place a name." Yunxi said: "This place is located in the south of the Ming Dynasty, south of the sea, and will be renamed Hainan from now on."
He immediately ordered people to call in Hu Yan, who was guarding the side room, and ordered him to draft the imperial edict. After a while, the imperial edict was drafted, and he transcribed several more copies. Yunxi took out eleven copies and gave them to Li Xuliang.
He kept one for himself and distributed the rest to the states and counties in Hainan Prefecture, and the rest was sent to the inns to be sent to all parts of the country.
After Li Xuliang, Hu Yan and others left, Yunxi stood up and stretched, saying to himself: "I have also benefited the people of this area. Although this seems to be a matter for local officials and should not be handled by me personally, but
Who makes other people not have this vision? I can only reluctantly do such a thing myself."
After saying this, he put on his coat, left the outer study and walked towards the backyard of the palace.
As soon as he walked out of the outer study room, Huang Lu whispered in his ear: "Your Majesty, Li Qianshi stayed in the courtyard of Empress Yunbin in the backyard for an hour, and left the empress's courtyard half an hour ago.
I haven’t spoken to any of the palace maids or eunuchs.”
Yunxi nodded, walked to the backyard, and soon came to the dining hall. At this time, Li Sha'er was already waiting here. When she saw Yunxi walking in, she immediately bowed and saluted and said coquettishly: "My husband is finally here, sir."
I’m all hungry.”
"Is my beloved concubine hungry? That's not possible. It's not good for my beloved concubine to starve and lose weight." Yunxi also joked with her: "Huang Lu, you go to the kitchen immediately to declare. What kind of meal do they have that can be cooked quickly?"
Bring a portion for Shaer immediately."
"Husband," Li Shaer said with a smile, "Although I am hungry, I am not worthy of this."
"Then I have to go," Yunxi said deliberately: "I can't starve my beloved concubine to lose weight. If she loses weight in places where she shouldn't be, then I will be sad." As he said that, he also did something with his hands.
He looked like he was holding onto something.
"Husband, you are so bad." Li Shaer said with a slight blush on her face: "How could you say such a thing in broad daylight?"
"My beloved concubine is right, I will no longer speak during the day, but from now on I will speak at night." Yunxi said with a smile.
Li Shaer joked with him a little more, and the soup before the meal was delivered. The two of them sat down and drank the soup while talking.
"Husband, I heard that you only talked to Jiqian for an hour and then he left? You two haven't seen each other for half a year. You should have a lot to talk about. Why did you only talk for such a short time?" Yun He asked.
"Your Majesty, although I haven't seen my brother for half a year, all I can talk about during the past six months is the war with Annan. I don't like to hear these things. The only things I can talk to my brother about are things that happened in the capital.
There is nothing to talk about trivial matters and the affairs of my brother’s family and my two children.”
"Furthermore, Your Majesty has gathered soldiers from Lianzhou, Leizhou, and Qiongzhou, and all navy ships have to take turns to go out to seize the Annan people's ships. My brother has something to do in the afternoon, so it is not convenient for him to stay for a long time. So I am telling him
After talking for an hour, I asked him to leave." Li Shaer said.
The first reason she said was a lie. She really didn't want to hear Li Jiqian talk about the war, but as a new parent, her heart was almost entirely devoted to her children. Because she cared about her children, she even
Before leaving, she specifically asked Xiyao for permission to send letters from her courtyard every day to let her know about her children. If Yunxi hadn't personally ordered her to follow her, her two children would have been more than half a year old, and they usually wouldn't eat her food.
Milk, she will definitely not follow Yunxi on his southern tour. They never finish talking about their children when chatting with others. How could Li Shaer and Li Jiqian have "nothing to say"?
The second reason is the real reason. There is a war now, and it is inconvenient for Li Jiqian to be special. Although everyone knows that privileges exist, using them in normal times is one thing, and using them at critical moments in the war is another.
Li Sha'er was concerned about Li Jiqian's development in the army, so she didn't keep him for too long. She only spoke for an hour and asked him to retire.
However, although Yunxi had been a father for more than a dozen times, because of his special status and being different from ordinary people, and because he had too many children, he did not understand the feelings of first-time parents very well, so he actually accepted her reasons.
However, Li Shaer was still worried, so she immediately changed the subject and said: "Speaking of which, Sister Xue's eldest brother is also in the navy and is stationed in this area now. If Sister Xue can come over, she can also reunite with her brother.
"
"Yes, if Xiyi also comes here, she can meet and talk to Xiran." Yunxi said, "But she was affected by witchcraft a few days ago. Although she has been raised for a few days, she is still a little weak. If she continues to sit The boat's southern tour may not be good for your health, so I can only stay in Guangzhou to recuperate."