When Luo Yuan finished introducing the situation in Luzon, everyone understood the main topic of today's meeting. It is nothing more than the question of whether to only focus on the area around Manila after the battle of the Maritime Trade Alliance, or whether to
Take over the entire Luzon Island, or go one step further and fight Spain to the death over the entire archipelago.
The nobles first discussed privately, and most of them felt that just taking the city of Manila was a bit unreliable. They should at least take Luzon Island. In this way, future defense would be easier, and it would look more like a successful victory for Luzon.
The Song Kingdom "continues to survive".
This idea is somewhat traditional Chinese. To take over, you have to take over an entire area, just like the Portuguese colonial strongholds in Asia. There are hammers in the east and sticks in the west. This is really not something they can understand.
.
However, although they were talking about taking a whole piece of land, they thought that only Luzon Island was enough, and were not very willing to continue to attack the entire archipelago.
In addition to Jinghua, Zhu Yingzhen, the Duke of Chengguo who contributed the most armed transport ships to this expedition, may have the most representative statement. He explained: "Rixin, this is how I look at this matter: take Luzon Island
After that, we actually completed our planned plan, which was to master the transit point for trade with the Spanish. From now on, we no longer have to pay the fluctuating taxes and fees to the Spanish.
In addition, we only took Luzon to show our generosity, which meant that we did not intend to kill them all. When the Spaniards saw this, they would not be so angry that they would simply stop trading.
The last point is that we go out for a trip. Although we happened to capture the opponent's large treasure fleet and made a lot of money, it is not reasonable to soak in the sea for a long time and waste time. After all... no matter
How about it, we in the Maritime Trade Alliance are doing business, we can’t just focus on fighting people, can we?”
Gao Pragmatic did not express his position clearly, but nodded. Zhu Yingzhen's understanding of his action was that Gao Pragmatic could at least understand his intentions.
Yes, the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance is a trade alliance after all. No matter what you do, the first thing you must consider is interests. There are many kinds of interests, but the word sea trade in "Sea Trade Alliance" has already explained the foundation of this alliance.
Where. If we only focus on fighting and abandon trade, can we still call it a sea trade alliance? Let’s just call it a war alliance.
The nobles originally proposed Zhu Yingzhen as a representative. Gao Pragmatic just nodded but said nothing. They didn't want to all stand up and express their opinions at the moment, lest if Gao Pragmatic didn't agree, the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance would fall into internal chaos.
There's a deadlock.
Although everyone is indeed talking about business now, they will not forget their roots after all - they are first and foremost nobles. What are nobles? Honorables are political figures, even if they are usually a marginalized group in the administrative decision-making of the court.
, but in terms of status, he is still an out-and-out political figure.
Politicians cannot only consider economic interests, because their economic interests are dependent on political interests, so they must also consider political interests. And when it comes to political interests, they are naturally unwilling to be pragmatic, which in their eyes will be necessary sooner or later.
The person who is the chief assistant creates a stalemate in the relationship.
Especially when Gao Pragmatic's age advantage is so obvious, who knows how long he will be able to rule the world in the future? If nothing goes wrong, he will be the chief assistant for twenty or even thirty years in the future, then
It's not necessarily impossible. During such a long time as an assistant, who can get good results if he offends him?
Therefore, after Zhu Yingzhen finished speaking, an embarrassing silence inevitably occurred in the conference room of Rixin Building.
Xu Wenbi, the extremely rare Duke of Dingguo, also came today. He didn't intend to speak at first. Seeing this, he finally coughed lightly and said slowly: "The great Sinong has won every battle, but now he has some unfinished ideas, thinking that
Isn’t it true that only taking Luzon has done the full job?”
Gao Pragmatic is such a person. As soon as he heard Xu Wenbi's words, he knew that the old man had either gone astray or deliberately provoked the general.
What does it mean to "have not finished all the ideas" and "have not done all the work"? Does that mean that if I want to continue to fight this battle, the reason is just because I don't want my reputation of "victorious in every battle" to be damaged?
"What Duke Dingguo said is wrong." Gao Pragmatic smiled slightly, looked around at all the nobles, with a hint of pride in his eyes, and said solemnly: "The right way is that the Yi and Di are afraid of power but not moral, so "Zuo Zhuan"
It was once said: Virtue softens China, and punishment threatens the barbarians. Today Spain is the leader of the barbarians in the West. We are a vast dynasty. If the sword is not unsheathed, it will stop. When the green blade is spread out, why do you cut off your fingers and turn back?"
When all the nobles heard this, they couldn't help but be surprised. They knew Gao Pragmatic's temper very well. Generally speaking, he was a "good talker". But everyone knew that if anyone thought that Gao Pragmatic only had a talkative side, then
It is not far away from suffering a disaster. There are too many lessons learned from this matter, and it is not even necessary to give examples.
They all know what kind of pragmatic temperament they have: when he feels that the conditions are negotiable, if you offer a higher price and demand more, he will be easy to talk to and willing to give you face; when he feels that the conditions cannot be negotiated, you
If you dare to continue to object, then he will at least kick you away and do it yourself, or at worst, he will dispose of your stepping stone until you are stuck in the ground.
So when Gao Pragmatic said this, Xu Wenbi couldn't help but frown and asked: "In that case, does Da Sinong want to take all the islands?" He paused slightly, and then asked: "The great heights of Da Sinong's temple are known to the world.
, but I am old and stupid, but I don’t know what the purpose of taking all these islands is, and whether it is cost-effective?”
The other nobles also looked at Gao Pragmatic, waiting for his explanation.
Gao Pragmatic didn't seem to be sullen, and he still said slowly and calmly: "It is better to use the remaining bravery to chase the poor bandits, and not to pretend to be an academic overlord. A common trick used by Westerners is to occupy a stronghold first, and then take the opportunity to build up momentum and be unprepared.
And launch a surprise attack in order to subvert. Therefore, this battle of mine is not only a battle to establish power, but also a battle of absolute danger. I will definitely defeat them completely. I can only withdraw my troops by relying on my breath.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! As for whether it is a good deal... You have cooperated with our Beijing-China Northern Fleet for a long time, but do not know the achievements of the Nanyang Fleet. I naturally understand. But since you have also set foot in the East this time (see previous chapters)
, the Philippines is regarded as the East in the Ming Dynasty), I would also like to share some investigation results with you that are not published to the public."
As soon as Gao Pragmatic said this, the nobles immediately became energetic. Zhu Yingzhen seemed to have forgotten that he was the first representative of the nobles to express his unwillingness to continue the fight, and immediately asked: "What is the result?"
Faced with this problem, Gao Pragmatic was very generous and did not hide it at all. He seemed to have forgotten what happened just now and said with a smile: "Two aspects, one is the mining prospect and the other is the agricultural prospect. Of course, with this
The two are related to their respective processing industry prospects."
Zhang Yuangong couldn't help but interrupt at this time and asked: "What's the situation in mining?"
Gao Pangshi glanced at him briefly and said calmly: "The archipelago is rich in gold, silver, and copper, of which 60 to 70% may be produced in Mindanao, the largest island in the south, followed by Luzon."
"oh……"
"ah!"
"oh……"
Surprises and exclamations suddenly echoed among the nobles. They had all seen the map published by Jinghua, and this time it happened to be the Philippine Islands. Although they only had to sit in the house and wait for news, they had already figured out the Philippines.
Several large islands in the archipelago are no strangers to Mindanao.
Zhu Yingzhen immediately asked: "Since it is said to be abundant, what are the reserves?"
"The copper may be half that of our Ming Dynasty, and the gold is about 30%. But the silver is still uncertain, and only some local folk rumors can prove it. However, the gold, silver, and copper mines in the Philippine Islands are mostly associated mines. Since there is a lot of gold and copper
, I guess the silver won’t be too little.”
Gao Pragmatic's words were half true and half false. Liu Xin had introduced the Philippines' metal mineral reserves to him before. Calculated in terms of mineral reserves per unit area, it was indeed not bad. Its gold reserves ranked third in the world, and its copper reserves ranked third in the world.
It ranks fourth in the world in terms of nickel ore reserves and sixth in the world in terms of chromium ore reserves.
However, the premise here is "mineral reserves per unit area", which is not an absolute value. For example, for copper mines, the Philippine Islands has the fourth largest mineral reserves per unit area in the world, but if you only look at the absolute value of total reserves, it is
In later generations, it dropped to around thirteenth or fourteenth in the global rankings of countries.
Of course, having said that, the Philippines is still very rich in gold and copper reserves. But silver is different. Gao Pragmatic's statement that "there must not be too little silver" is purely deliberately vague. Liu Xin told him that until she traveled through time,
The silver mine reserves in the Philippines are not high, to the extent that even she "doesn't know how low they are." In her mind, Gao Pragmatic actually ignored the silver reserves in the Philippines.
After Gao Pragmatic said these half-truths, the nobles really got excited and whispered. This did not surprise Gao Pragmatic at all. After all, the Philippine Islands only have an area of about 300,000 square kilometers, less than two
The size of Shanxi.
Of course, two Shanxi provinces are not too small, but in the eyes of nobles and nobles, a foreign land like the Philippines itself cannot be compared with Shanxi. Therefore, it has so much gold and copper reserves that it is worthy of everyone's envy.
.
There was light in the eyes of the nobles. Only Xu Wenbi, Duke of Dingguo, was relatively calm, but at this moment he couldn't help but ask: "Da Si Nong seemed to be talking about agriculture just now? Could it be that there are still many fertile fields in this archipelago?"
"
To be honest, in Gao Pragmatic's view, Xu Wenbi's question was relatively unreasonable, because although "fertile land" is an important part of agriculture, agriculture is by no means just about fertile land. Of course, people in this era have little regard for
The understanding of agriculture is so superficial, and it cannot be said that it is Xu Wenbi’s problem alone.
According to Liu Xin, the Philippines in later generations had an area of 30 million hectares (300,000 square kilometers), of which 47% was agricultural land. The main agricultural land was concentrated near cities and densely populated areas. The remainder was forest land, accounting for 15.8 million hectares.
Among them, 14.2 million hectares are usable land, and 93% (13 million hectares) of this total is agricultural land - almost equivalent to the entire Anhui Province.
Among the 13 million hectares of agricultural land, it is divided into grain land, other food land and non-food land. Grain land accounts for about 31%, or 4.01 million hectares; other food land accounts for about 52%, or 8.33 million hectares; non-food land is about
Accounting for 17%, 2.2 million hectares.
Among the food land in the Philippines in later generations, 3.34 million hectares were used for corn and 3.31 million hectares for rice. Among other food land, coconuts accounted for the most at 4.25 million hectares; sugar cane 673,000 hectares; industrial crops 59.1 hectares; various fruit trees 148,000 hectares; vegetables and roots
There are 270,000 hectares of crops and 404,000 hectares of pasture.
Of the entire agricultural land, 78.31% is most suitable for agriculture, and 6.1 million hectares are most suitable for farming. However, Gao Pragmatic is not very interested in growing rice, one of the domestic staple foods, because he knows that there are enough people who covet the production of this staple food.
He does not need to pay too much attention or interfere in areas other than Liaodong.
However, he did not plan to make a big pie and then package up the "fertile land" in the Philippine Islands and hand it over to the nobles. In fact, he did not want the nobles to participate in rice cultivation, and he made this clear.
"Everyone, I don't recommend going to the archipelago to plant rice, and Jinghua doesn't intend to get involved. I don't think the agricultural and economic interests of our Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance in the archipelago lie in rice."
Xue Zheng, Marquis of Yangwu, said in surprise: "If you don't farm? What will you do?"
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "I will introduce to you a way to make a fortune - sugar production." The nobles suddenly understood, but they were still waiting for Gao pragmatic's next step.
Gao Pragmatic was also unambiguous and introduced: "My wife was originally the chieftain of Siming Prefecture in Guangxi. You all know this. Her hereditary hometown was originally quite barren. When I was the censor of Guangxi, I made great contributions to the economy of Guangxi.
After some planning, especially the wood and sugar industries are now developing best.
Let’s not talk about wood, let’s talk about sugar production. After the Huang family moved out of Guangxi, the original Siming Prefecture and surrounding counties and counties vigorously planted sugar cane, while Jinghua set up a sugar factory nearby to manufacture various sugar products. As you know, Jinghua
What was the gross profit of Qinzhou Sugar Factory last year?"
All the distinguished officials were from the north, so they naturally shook their heads as they didn't know the details of Jinghua's sugar factory in Guangxi.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "Qinzhou Sugar Factory alone produced about 40% of all sugar products in the Ming Dynasty last year, with a gross profit of about 370,000 taels."
The nobles took a deep breath, but Gao Pragmatic didn't finish his sentence. He continued in an understatement: "However, sugar products are still in short supply everywhere. Jinghua's internal statistics show that even if Ming's current sugar production increases five times,
, and don’t worry about sales at all.
What's more, the sugar production in other surrounding countries is not very good, and they will not refuse us to sell sugar to them... In other words, even if we build ten more enterprises like Qinzhou Sugar Factory, we don't have to worry about the lack of marketability of our products.
Oh, by the way, Europeans have a higher demand for sugar than we did in the Ming Dynasty, and the same goes for Tianzhu, who can use sugar very well."
The nobles looked at each other, and they believed Gao Pragmatic's words. Sugar seemed to have always been in short supply, and there was never a time when it could not be sold. But what everyone was concerned about was that Jinghua was willing to spend this money.
Hand over the sale?
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PS: I fell asleep in the middle of typing at night, and it was already past 12 o'clock when I woke up. I didn't expect that my golden body, which has been continuously renewed for more than a thousand days, would be broken like this... Sigh.
Thanks to book friends "milan123", "riding alone to illuminate the blue heart", "skyfishno.", "Cao Mianzi", "July 13, 19", "book friends 141216122515977", "Lao Xi of Altay", "All the Way"