Zheng Zhilong frowned and calculated the account for Zhu Cixiang, "Master Qiansui, a big bird ship can only carry two to three thousand kilograms of rice Annan at most. In Zhancheng, no matter how cheap the rice in Shuizhenla is, it still needs to be transported on the ship."

Four or five taels of silver per stone, right? The price difference for a ship of rice is only two to three thousand taels. If you deduct the sailor’s wages and the cost of repairing the ship, it’s not much!”

Zhu Cixiang laughed: "Old Taishan, your calculation is wrong!"

How could it be wrong? Zheng Zhilong said in his heart: I know how to settle accounts! I can make millions of accounts a year without even counting them on my fingers.

Zhu Cixiang thought to himself: Can you beat me in calculating accounts? My math is really good. I am the only academic who almost got full marks in the college entrance examination. I used to calculate tens of billions of accounts without counting on my fingers!

Moreover, the business of buying rice in Annan, Champa, and Shuizhenla is not what you do at all. The place to make money in this business is not selling rice, but colonizing!

As far as Zhu Cixiang knew, colonization also involved losses and gains. Colonization at a loss was to occupy territory, but it could also be seen as a long-term, money-burning investment.

There are two types of profitable colonization. One is to make money. For example, the Dutch East India Company's colonization of Taiwan was to obtain a stronghold for trade with China and Japan.

The other type is to gain both wealth and land. In order to make money, you must also gain territory.

Now the Ming Dynasty has a lot of internal and external troubles, and it is not rich. It is impossible to lose money and spend money on colonization, otherwise it will lose money. But at the same time, the population of the Ming Dynasty is also large, and it is different from the Netherlands, which has not many people. We cannot just think about money.

Territory. So we have to take the path of gaining both wealth and land!

To gain both wealth and land, wealth comes first and land comes last! The key is to first find an industry that can "drain" traffic. Even if it makes less money or makes no money at all, it still needs to attract a certain number of people from the mainland.

Go to the colonies.

Only when the colony's population increases can it further develop industries and cities, so that it can occupy land and obtain generous returns.

Although the rice trade with Champa and Sui Chenla is not very profitable, it can be done on a large scale. The Mekong Delta is still very developed in this era. There is a large area of ​​land that can be cultivated, but at the same time it is not impossible.

With a little foundation, there was a port city named Puyango, which developed very well. This city would become Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City in the future. It is still the territory of the Kingdom of Sui Chenla, but it was given to the Kingdom of Sui Chenla more than 20 years ago.

He married a daughter of the Nguyen Lord of Quang Nam (a separatist regime in Annam) who married King Shui Chenla, so it became a paradise for Annan refugees fleeing the Zheng-Nguyen conflict.

The Annan refugees are similar to the Han people of the Ming Dynasty in terms of national origin, living habits, and language. Moreover, there is no official Annan Kingdom now, only the Annan Capital Commandery of the Ming Dynasty!

In other words, Annan is not a truly independent country now, but a chieftain regime that is dependent on the Ming Dynasty. This matter must start with the decline and usurpation of Annan's Houli Dynasty. Annan's Houli Dynasty entered into power in the early 16th century.

In the so-called "Era of Middle Decline", clans killed each other, and powerful ministers took the opportunity to rise. One of the powerful ministers named Mo Dengyong finally blocked the sky with one hand and played the trick of abdicating and usurping the country.

But this time the usurpation of the throne was not done swiftly. The other two powerful families of the later Li Dynasty, the Zheng family and the Ruan family, were not convinced by the Mo family's usurpation of the throne. They themselves wanted to usurp the throne! Mo Dengyong took the lead, so they had to become loyal ministers of the ZTE of the Li Dynasty.

, they found a distant relative of the Li Dynasty and established him as emperor to confront Mo Dengyong. Moreover, they also sent people to Beijing to ask for help from Emperor Jiajing. The Ming Dynasty was the nominal suzerain of Annan! They couldn't ignore the usurpation of the throne in the vassal country, right?

So Emperor Jiajing sent a large army to attack Mo Dengyong. Mo Dengyong realized that he was wrong. He couldn't balance the troops of the Zheng and Ruan families. If he added the Ming Dynasty, wouldn't he be dead? So he accepted the land from the Ming Dynasty.

To surrender, one must be a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty. When Emperor Jiajing saw that Annan had returned inexplicably, of course he stopped attacking Mo Dengyong and made him the commander-in-chief of Annan.

Annan Kingdom is gone!

Unfortunately, Lord Mo, who became the commander-in-chief of Annan, was still unable to defeat the remnants of the Li Dynasty. In 1592, he lost the capital of Thang Long and the remaining troops fled to the Ming Dynasty.

The revived Le Dynasty then professed its vassalage to the Ming Dynasty and requested to restore the title of Annan. However, it did not get the consent of the Ming Dynasty, and only transferred the title of Annan Commander-in-Chief to the later Le Dynasty.

However, the chaos in Annan did not end with Hou Li's resurgence, but instead became even more chaotic.

Because the Later Li Dynasty itself had no strength, it relied on the support of the two masters Zheng and Ruan to revive. After the revival, it was natural for the two masters Zheng and Ruan to usurp the throne. But there was only one high position, who would usurp it? So the two families

A fight broke out. At the same time, the Mo clan, who had fled to the Ming Dynasty for refuge, was not cool enough. In 1600, he restored Tsang Long and captured it. Although he did not hold it afterwards, he fled to the Gaoping Prefecture in the north of Annan to separatist power.

In addition, there was another Wu clan (Wu Degong) who played a big role in the collapse of the Mo Dynasty. In 1599, he launched an army to rebel, calling himself King Longping, and also separatist territory in the north of Annan Kingdom.

Therefore, there are now four political regimes in the small Annan Kingdom, which is a mess internally, and externally everyone has to recognize the "good father" of the Ming Dynasty.

But even such an Annan still had the power to bully the Champa Kingdom and Shuizhenla in the south. It was not Zheng Ruan Mowu who bullied them together. Just the Nguyen Lord of Guangnan suppressed Champa and Shuizhenla.

You can imagine how weak these two countries are.

And Zhu Cixiang, who aspires to be a great colonizer, is now very weak, and even the four "little masters" of Annan Kingdom may not be able to be eliminated.

But he needed to import grain from overseas and acquire farmland at the same time to alleviate the domestic contradiction between man and land. So he had to go to Champa and Shui Zhenla, the two weakest people, to bully them and they did not dare to send out troops aggressively.

To destroy the country, because all the soldiers have to be used to deal with the Tatars and Li Zicheng, so they can only use coaxing and deception to take advantage of the Champa Kingdom and Shuizhenla.

Zhu Cixiang saw that Zheng Zhilong didn't understand, so he had to explain patiently: "Lao Taishan, you really can't make much money by buying rice from Annan, Champa, and Shuizhenla and selling it in Quanzhou and Shanghai. After deducting the cost, you may not make much money. But you have to know

, if we spend half a tael of silver to buy rice from Annan, Champa, and Shuizhenla, and buy in large quantities, someone will definitely go there to cultivate and plant rice.

Regardless of Annan, both Champa and Shuichenla have a lot of wasteland and fertile soil that can be cultivated. Moreover, the national power of these two countries is extremely weak. Even Annan, which is divided into four parts of the country, can bully them at will, not to mention our great tomorrow?

Now that our country is short of food, it would be their honor to use their fertile soil for cultivation and planting! And we will not cultivate their fields in vain, we can protect them from being annexed by the Ruan family of Annan, and do nothing to their princes.

Words are also a beautiful thing, right?"

Zheng Zhilong still didn't understand. This matter might be a good thing for Shui Zhenla and the king of Champa, but what good would it do to the Zheng family?

Zhu Cixiang went on to say: "The rice from Shuizhenla and Champa needs to be transshipped through ports and commercial ports. Of course, these transshipment ports and commercial ports can be made into our territory, so that we can have rice in Shuizhenla and Champa."

We have established a stronghold that can exist for a long time. Suichenla and Champa are on the trade routes between China and Southeast Asia. Once we have our stronghold, it will be much more convenient for our merchant ships to go to Southeast Asia and Siam. You Zheng

The home territory at sea can also be expanded accordingly.

Moreover, Shuizhenla and Champa also have many specialties that can be sold for money, such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, ebony, agarwood, and yellow wax. They can also plant sugar cane and produce sucrose. As long as we have a stronghold there, these can all become ours.

Things that make money.”

It seems like this is going on. Zheng Zhilong felt a little dizzy when he heard it. He was obviously in the business of buying and selling rice, so why did he occupy other people's land to build a port and commercial port, and also take all other people's specialties as his own? This sounds like Tatarism.
Chapter completed!