Chapter 11: People Who Can Use Tools
Since Yunfu's army has cleared Guangzhou, the city's trade has become extremely prosperous.
Why does this abnormality occur?
It is entirely because the hearts of the businessmen in Guangzhou have completely fallen to the ground.
Whether it is good or bad, when the results come out, people will have corresponding countermeasures.
The businessmen here find it strange that officials from the Lantian Imperial Court regard land as their lifeblood and regard it as a priority.
They are busy dividing the fields of wealthy families and paying no attention to the prosperous commercial activities in Guangzhou. As long as the merchants pay taxes, they appear to be very talkative.
In fact, without the secret extortion by officials, the taxes paid by the merchants were actually much less than before.
This made the businessmen secretly happy.
Many merchants who occupied a lot of land even laughed at the secret gatherings that the Lantian Imperial Court was a country bumpkin imperial court that only knew about land and knew nothing about business.
To be honest, in Guangzhou, a huge city, more than 90% of the people are eating business food. As for farmland... that is a symbol.
So, in Guangzhou, it is easy to implement land reform. Many times, when dividing and allocating land, local officials can even see a touch of ridicule on the faces of the stewards.
After waiting for half a year, the merchants finally determined that the focus of the Lantian Imperial Court's reform was land, not business. It can even be seen from the news transmitted by the Guangzhou government office that the Lantian Imperial Court supported business. manner.
The Lantian Second Fleet, which is responsible for blocking the sea, has also recently completely relaxed its sea ban on merchants.
As a result, Guangzhou’s business activities, which had been suppressed for a long time, exploded in an instant. Come.
The world gradually settled down, the displaced war life gradually ended, and people's lives gradually returned to the right track. The demand for supplies began to rise, especially spices and sugar that could not be sold before. It is the focus of all goods.
Although there was sugar cane in Fujian, Guangxi, and Taiwan at this time, the output here was far from enough to supply the huge market of Ming Dynasty. In Lantian County alone, the demand for sugar reached appalling levels. Twenty million kilograms.
Especially after the Guanzhong people diluted the sugar into a solution, and then crystallized the sugar solution into rock sugar through yellow mud pits and cotton ropes, the Guanzhong people had a huge demand for this sugar with a more pure sweetness. It's even bigger.
But the Lantian Royal Court planted countless sugarcane forests in the distant Malacca...
Palm oil and sugarcane forests are the cash crops specially developed by Han Xiufen in Malacca. , now, there are at least 60,000 Malacca natives taking care of these crops in these estates.
Not only palm trees and sugar cane forests, Han Xiufen also followed Yun Zhao’s instructions and deliberately reported to the Netherlands four years agoAdventurers, Portuguese adventurers, British, French, and Spanish adventurers placed orders and obtained 200,000 "tear tree" seeds native to the American jungle at the price of equal weight of gold.
Now, these tear trees are already one foot tall. In three years, these tear trees will produce something called rubber.
Although Han Xiufen still doesn’t know what Yun Zhao wants this thing to do, she also doesn’t understand why Yun Zhao knows that there are such strange trees in places where cannibals roam far away in America.
The location and appearance of the tree were also drawn so vividly that the explorers immediately found this strange thing after going deep into the jungle.
And from Yun Zhao’s secret letter to her, she could feel that Yun Zhao valued this kind of tear tree far more than palm trees and sugar cane forests.
The person in charge of these three things is Zhang Mingliang, and he hates this job.
The biggest problem is land reclamation!
Although it is summer here all year round, the trees and vines cover the land he needs so tightly that it would be extremely difficult to burn it all down.
There is only a short period of one month during the dry season in the year that can be used. If the wasteland burned hastily is not digged out all the weeds and tree roots, it will be destroyed after a rain. , the burned wasteland will be full of life again.
Therefore, to open up wasteland in this environment is to fill it with human lives.
Han Xiufen didn't care much about how many people died. She just asked Zhang Mingliang if he wanted palm trees, sugar cane groves, or tear groves. As for anything else, she wasn't even interested in asking.
For this matter, Han Xiufen assigned all the black sailors on hand to Zhang Mingliang. This dark-skinned sailor seemed to be more adaptable to jungle life than the people in Lantian in the past. When they discovered that they could When people do whatever they want in this land...the darkest era of Malaya has arrived.
Since Han Xiufen’s demand for palm trees, sugar cane groves, and tear groves is endless, her demand for manpower to open up wasteland and plant these estates is also endless.
These black sailors, as well as the surrendered Malacca natives, hunted the Malacca natives in the woods.
It is hard to say what will happen to the strong men and the old people and children who are left behind to sell for money, without strong labor to protect them.
When all the Malacca people within a radius of 500 miles were rounded up, and when the black sailors found that their profits had dropped sharply, they began to target people as black as themselves.
In other words, they are targeting all animals that walk on two legs.
As a result, there were many more white-skinned and brown-skinned people in the manor.
Zhang Mingliang, who was about to go crazy due to lack of manpower, naturally refused to refuse, and did not hesitate to increase the price of slaves again and again to stimulate him.Those black sailors, and the enthusiasm of the Arab pirates to plunder the population.
Now, even the British and the remaining Portuguese think this is a way to make a fortune. When they catch people at sea again, they no longer kill them casually, but kidnap them. Get up and sell to Zhang Mingliang.
At present, Zhang Mingliang, even die-hard brothers like Liu Chuanli, are not willing to communicate with him. After all, any individual will stay away from Zhang Mingliang after seeing the slaves working on the plantation.
This made Zhang Mingliang very sad...
He wanted to escape from this shackles, but unfortunately, both Yun Zhao and Han Xiufen had always had a hard-hearted heart towards him.
When I came to Paradise Island to report on my work, Zhang Mingliang, who used to be tall and bright, was gone. He was very thin and dark.
A pair of eyes were sunken deeply into the sockets, and the eyeballs were slightly yellow. This was a morbid reaction.
"I can't hold it anymore."
Zhang Mingliang curled up his thin body in a huge wicker chair and told Han Xiufen.
Han Xiufen poured a cup of tea for Zhang Mingliang and said, "Be patient."
Zhang Mingliang shook his head in pain and said: "What I am doing now is seriously inconsistent with the education I received, and even But it’s a step backwards.”
Han Xiufen frowned and said, “Is it serious?”
Zhang Mingliang smiled bitterly and said, “One hundred people will fill up the manpower in two months. After that, I need to bring in another hundred people to maintain the situation."
Han Xiufen frowned and said, "How did these people die? The supply you gave them seems not bad."
Zhang Mingliang shook his head and said: "Mainly those who died of illness, plus poisonous insects and leeches, people are very vulnerable in the jungle."
Han Xiufen nodded and said: "The environment in Malacca is too harsh. We need Java Island, where there are large plains."
Zhang Mingliang cupped his hands and said to Han Xiufen: "Can you replace me?"
Han Xiufen said: "Don't you. If you want to go, you have to go."
Zhang Mingliang said painfully: "It is better for me to stay here and ruin the reputation of two people than for me to bear all the sins alone."< /p>
Han Xiufen said: "Your Majesty also knows that this matter is inappropriate, so only a few of us are allowed to know about it. Therefore, there are no extra manpower for you, but you can train some of your own manpower." , and then gradually free yourself from this shackles."
Zhang Mingliang looked at Han Xiufen and said, "It can only be a foreigner, right?"
Han Xiufen nodded and said: "Blacks, whites, Arabs and even natives of Malacca are all allowed, but they cannot be Han Chinese."
Hearing this, Zhang Mingliang took a breath and said: "Okay, just agree to it, I don't have to go Ignore this matter."
Han Xiufen said no more. Zhang Mingliang relaxed and soon snored loudly in the wicker chair.
It was a great relief for him not to have to live like a ghoul.
Many times, people need to deceive themselves and others in order to survive. When we hear tragedies coming from far away places, our brains often automatically downplay these things, and finally lament a few times, saying that things hurt their own kind. I can continue to live my life.
If you witness these tragic things with your own eyes or do it by your own hands, then for a person who still has some conscience in his heart, it would be a catastrophe.
During dinner, Zhang Mingliang met Leonie who had returned from the sea. The first thing Leonie said when she saw Zhang Mingliang was to ask him why he continued to snatch slaves. The Dutch are not as good as them. Just today, she encountered three slave ships on the route, which were filled with slaves from India.
After asking, I learned that these people were the property of the Dutch East India Company.
When Zhang Mingliang heard what Leonie said, he immediately cast his pleading eyes on Han Xiufen.
Han Xiufen put down the chopsticks in her hand, looked at Leonie and said, "Are you interested in this job?"
Leoney smiled and said, "At least it's okay. You can do better than Zhang Mingliang!"
After hearing this, Zhang Mingliang burst into tears and said to Han Xiufen with a choked voice: "I am not as good as Miss Leoni in this regard. I can't even catch up with her."
p>Han Xiufen frowned and looked at Leonie and said, "Have you ever seen a slave ship?"
Leoney laughed and said, "I got it when I was six years old. Know what a mooing tool is, what a talking tool is, and what a silent tool is.
I also saw "Know Yourself" on the wall of the Temple of Apollo in Greece. This motto.
In my opinion, Mr. Zhang Mingliang’s work is derelict. He has consumed too many slaves and given too many benefits to them. He doesn’t even know how to get those slaves to work. Develop the value of the slaves to the maximum.
Therefore, I suggest that I should replace Mr. Zhang Mingliang to manage the palm groves, sugar cane groves, and tear groves that His Majesty is most interested in. ”
Zhang Mingliang stretched out his trembling hands to hold Leonie's hands, but Leonie arrogantly threw them away. Zhang Mingliang did not feel any humiliation, and even said sincerely to Han Xiufen: "I apologize. , I will write a letter of apology to Your Majesty, and I will also apologize to you, the Governor, and I seriously agree that Captain Leonie will replace me, a useless person, to manage the three major crops that Your Majesty values.”
Leone is arrogant. He raised his head, looked at the roof and said leisurely: "You should have been like this!"