There are not many countries currently recognized by the Tang Dynasty. There are only a few countries that are slightly stronger or have special functions, such as the Safi Dynasty in West Asia, the Mughal Empire in northern India, and the Ottoman Empire at the turn of Central Europe.
These countries all had conflicts with the Tatars, and even war broke out. Based on the concept that the enemy of the enemy is a friend, Datang recognized and planned to support them.
Then there are two countries in Europe, namely Spain and Portugal!
Although most of the above-mentioned countries have not established formal diplomatic relations with the Tang Empire, there are still occasional exchanges. When the officials of the Tang Dynasty use words, they will refer to these countries as such-and-such kingdoms!
Let’s make an important point: Officially, the Tang Dynasty would never call a certain country a certain empire.
There is only one emperor under heaven and earth, and that is the Great Emperor Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty!
There is only one empire, and that is the Tang Empire!
Others are kings at best...
As for the remaining countries or forces, in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, they were all aborigines. Are the aboriginal kingdoms considered countries? They certainly don’t!
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the annihilation of the local indigenous kingdoms being written into the agreement!
But this verbal promise made Fang Dongquan determined to give Tianshui Company a chance. Although it was not in line with the rules to give money in advance, Fang Dongquan was not afraid of being deceived. If Tianshui Company accepted the money and failed to do anything, he could
Bring the complaint to the imperial court.
After the two parties signed the cooperation agreement, Sun Kaiyi took the check from Fang Dongquan and breathed a sigh of relief. Now the employees' wages could finally be paid out and part of the loan could be repaid first.
When the people from the Imperial Development Bank saw that Tianshui Company was preparing to finalize the contract, they did not insist on forcing Tianshui Company into a desperate situation. Instead, they agreed to repay part of the loan first, and the remaining loan could be extended for one year to be repaid. Of course,
Interest still has to be paid, and it’s not low!
After securing the most important armed escort, Fang Dongquan personally took a large group of people and boarded several hired merchant ships to Luzon!
In addition to more than 600 armed guards, this group of people also included more than 100 members of Fang Dong's family or servants, as well as more than 300 employees temporarily hired by the North Borneo Development Company he established, and then
There are also more than 3,000 immigrants recruited.
This scale is much larger than when Wang Shanxi sealed Wandan!
Facts have proved that Li Xuan granted large-scale fiefdoms to nobles and actually gave these nobles large amounts of land. Although it will cause many problems in the future, for now, it can greatly promote the development of overseas territories.
In the past, the immigration development of overseas territories often relied on the Immigration and Reclamation Department, although the Immigration and Reclamation Department has organized hundreds of thousands of immigrants overseas in recent years.
However, it must be said that the main work of the Immigration and Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture is still concentrated in the country, especially in the country’s border areas.
The core of the work of the Immigration and Reclamation Department in recent years has been to organize a large number of landless farmers from areas in the country with many people and little land to go to provinces with less people and more land for development and reclamation.
For example, in the early days, the Huguang area, some plain areas in Guangxi, and the Pearl River Delta area in Guangdong were all key development areas, and the results were quite good. The population in the above-mentioned areas increased rapidly, and the resulting large number of labor forces also increased rapidly.
A large amount of local land was developed.
The Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong is also a large-scale plain area in terms of geographical conditions, which is very suitable for the development of agriculture. In addition, the same is true for some plain areas in Guangxi, not to mention the Huguang area.
After so many years of hard work by the Immigration and Reclamation Division, the Huguang area has become a granary comparable to that of the Jiangnan area, and has become the largest food supply area in the country. In addition to meeting the food needs of the local population, the food produced is also large in quantity.
Supply to other areas.
This point is unmatched by the current Jiangnan region. Although the Jiangnan region has developed agriculture and high food production, the local population is also very dense and its own food consumption is extremely huge.
Therefore, the amount of grain supplied to the outside world is no longer as good as that of the Huguang area.
After the agricultural development in Huguang and Guangdong and Guangxi achieved certain initial results, the Immigration and Reclamation Department focused its work on the reclamation of border areas such as the southwest, northwest and northeastern regions.
For example, the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou in the southwest are a little barren, but no matter how barren they are, they are still large enough to support a large population.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the central government's rule in the above-mentioned two provinces, the Tang Empire adopted very strict measures to reform the land and return it to the local people. In the process, it also encountered a lot of resistance. In order to stabilize the central government's rule in this area,
To rule, a large population base is very necessary.
There are also regions such as the Northwest and the Hetao that also need to immigrate a large number of people to consolidate the border areas.
As for the Northeast region, there is no need to consolidate the frontiers in this region now, because there is basically no foreign threat in the Northeast region. The Tang Army's troops have almost swept across the entire Northeast region, reaching as far as the Daxing'an Mountains and even beyond.
to the far north.
Therefore, for immigrants in the Northeast, it is not so important to consolidate the frontiers, but to develop various local resources is more important.
Especially after a large number of minerals were successively discovered in the Northeast, a large number of attractive companies went to develop the minerals there and recruited a large number of workers.
At present, the companies of the Tang Empire have surveyed a large number of coal mines, iron mines, and discovered gold mines and other minerals in the Northeast, among which coal and iron ores are the top priority.
Northern Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, has developed multiple coal mines in western Liaoning and eastern Liaoning provinces.
Subsequently, Liaoxi Iron and Steel Company, headed by Jiangnan Iron and Steel Company and jointly established with several other companies, was also established in the past few years to develop local iron ore.
At the same time, local coal resources are used to make iron and steel nearby. The cost of the steel produced is very low, and it has been supplied to many regions in the country, especially the northern region.
The development of the Northeast was also the first area to focus on industrial development among the many immigrant development areas in the Tang Empire.
Of course, its agricultural development has not fallen behind. Although the western and eastern Liaoning provinces are a little colder, they have flat terrain and relatively abundant water resources, so it is more suitable to develop agriculture. In addition to growing the traditional three types of grains: sorghum, wheat, and rice.
In addition, soybeans have also been widely grown locally.
Nowadays, the scale of soybean planting in Northeast China is not small, and the quality of the soybeans grown is so superior that Northeast soybeans have gained a good reputation in the domestic market and have quickly become the engine of local economic development.
one.
Its importance is no less important than local mineral development!
The Tang Empire's immigration development in many areas within the country was far more intensive than the immigration development in overseas territories. After all, the local area was the foundation, and overseas immigration development was only a supplement.
Many times, the development of immigrants in overseas territories is mainly for military services. The empire needs to maintain a certain number of immigrant populations in overseas territories to maintain local rule.
Under this general environment, the official forces represented by the Immigration and Reclamation Department of the Tang Empire actually did not invest much effort in the development of overseas immigrants.
However, today's nobles are making up for this shortcoming.
The nobles who were ennobled to overseas territories spent their own money to organize a large number of immigrants to develop their fiefdoms for their own benefit.
Although they are doing it for their own interests, they also directly promote the empire's development of overseas territories.
For example, in Borneo, the official agencies of the Tang Empire have not had time to deal with Borneo affairs in recent years. Although this place is nominally under the jurisdiction of Luzon Prefecture, they have also set up offices in several coastal ports in Borneo.
A commercial station and a port were established, but over the years, no formal administrative organization was established.
Now, as Fang Dong organized a large number of immigrants to Borneo, the Tang Empire officially sent relevant officials to Borneo for the first time, and officially established the Borneo Yamen, which directly belonged to Luzon Prefecture.
Wen Dong, the first governor of Borneo in Luzon Prefecture, took his subordinates and Fang Dongquan's fleet there.
As the fleet went all the way south, it anchored in Guangzhou and resupplied, and then headed straight into the depths of the Southern Ocean. When preparing to go to Luzon, Wen Dong stood at the stern of the ship, looking at the ground that was gradually disappearing from the sea level!
After he could no longer see the ground, he sighed deeply!
Unlike nobles like Fang Dongquan who had obtained fiefs and happily went to their fiefs, few of these officials were happy to go to serve in overseas territories.
Fang Dongquan was elated because he had more than 300,000 square kilometers of land in Borneo as his fiefdom, and more than 30,000 square kilometers of land was his private land. It goes without saying how huge benefits it contains.
And metaphorical.
But for officials like Wen Dong, it is not a good job to serve in overseas territories. However, all officials with some connections will try their best to avoid serving in overseas territories.
Because the overseas territories these days are basically barren lands, thousands of miles away from the mainland, there is no difference between going to overseas territories and being sent into exile.
However, Wen Dong is just an ordinary official. He has no prominent family background and no good connections. Since he became an official at the age of thirty, although his rank has been rising quickly, his official career is actually not that great.
smoothly.
In the past ten years or so, he has been working in the local area. He has never worked in Gyeonggi Province, and when he worked in the local area, it was not a good place. In the past ten years, he has been working in the southwest region.