After another two days, Yunying and Cao Che recovered from the cold, so Yunxi took their husband and wife and Zhu Lu and Zhu Mo to inspect the Leizhou Peninsula.

Leizhou Prefecture, later known as Zhanjiang City, has long been the largest sugar production base in China, and until the 21st century, it was one of the three major sugar producing areas in China. Especially in Xuwen County, where almost no one grows grain and sugarcane, many merchants in Hai'an Port privately call it Sweet Harbor.

In this era, sugar is a profiteering industry, not to mention clean white sugar, that is, brown sugar is expensive to death, before there was no market when spices were more expensive than sugar, after the opening of the market sugar is almost the most expensive seasoning in the world, ordinary people unless it is a festival, or almost will not buy sugar to eat, that is, to buy the cheapest brown sugar, or directly buy molasses.

Yun Xi is also very concerned about the sugar industry. To put it mildly, at this time, the sugar making technology of the Nanyang countries is much more backward than that of the Ming Dynasty, and it is an important local export industry, which can earn real money for the country's exports; To put it in perspective, the only large-scale handicraft industry in Leizhou is the sugar industry, and if the sugar industry can be further developed, it can drive the local economic development.

However, Yun Xi did not know how to make sugar, and although he visited several sugar houses as a 'central commissioner' and felt that their sugar making technology was very backward, he did not know how to improve it.

However, Yun Xi knows that cash crops such as sugar cane are more suitable for the development of plantations than the small-scale farmer economy of one family; It just so happens that the population of Leizhou is not large, and there are still many fields abandoned.

In his capacity as a special commissioner, he summoned several local sugar businessmen and small and medium-sized landowners who had no officials in their families to tell them about their ideas for a plantation economy and encourage them to develop their plantations.

The plantation economic system, which emerged in the Age of Discovery, was invented by the Furak state, generally covering an area of several thousand to tens of thousands of hectares, employing thousands of peasants or employing thousands of serfs for large-scale production. The number of plantations is not necessarily large in a country, but it plays an important role in the production of cash crops in the country. The plantations have a complete set of production and living facilities, many of which not only have agricultural and transportation machinery, but also domestic road systems, agricultural product processing plants, agricultural machinery maintenance plants, power supply and water supply, education and health facilities.

Compared with the small-scale farmer economy, the plantation economy has a higher ability to resist risks, and because of the unified management of the land, it can be planned in a consistent way in terms of how to grow crops, coupled with the advantages of agricultural tools and water conservancy over small-scale farmers, it can be said that it has reached the highest efficiency before the invention of modern agricultural machinery.

But the people he summoned were still hesitant. The development of plantations is very suspicious of land annexation, and all Chinese dynasties have restricted land annexation, even if this official says so, if the local government does not follow his words at that time, who will they go to make up for the losses? However, the officials from the central government explained the matter, and even if they did not listen to it after that, they all agreed one after another, saying that they would do it when they returned.

Yun Xi heard that their tone was slightly perfunctory, sighed, and waved their hand to make them retreat. The people didn't really believe him, and he couldn't force his head to do what he said.

But waiting for these people to retreat, Zhu Lu, who was pretending to be another commissioner just now, said: "Official, it sounds like this so-called plantation still has some truth, and it is more than the crops that a family can produce. ”

"However, these people who work on the plantations are all long-term workers, no, they are not as good as long-term workers, and long-term workers are actually not busy all year round, except for the sowing and harvesting of the year, which is usually more leisurely; And the people on this plantation are very busy all year round. In Daming, few people would volunteer to work on the plantations. If you want them to work, it's better to buy slaves and maids. ”

"But Daming strictly prohibits slaves and maids, and it is a felony for ordinary people to buy many slaves and maids, so it is not suitable to use plantations in Daming."

"You mean to say that your Song Domain is a good plantation?" Yun Xi heard what he meant.

"That's it! Official, the situation of our Nanyang vassal states is different from that of the Ming Dynasty. Whether it is my Song Fan or the twenty-first brother Luo Fan, there are some locals who are unwilling to obey our orders. It's not good to kill these people rashly, but it's not okay to have no punishment, and most of the people caught now are used for mining and building cities. ”

"If there is a plantation, these people can be used as slaves and maids, and the government will send people to preside over the plantation and let them work." Zhu Lu said.

"You mean, state plantations?" Yun Xi asked rhetorically.

"State plantations?" Zhu Lu frowned, and immediately stretched out. Although he had never heard the word before, it was easy to understand, and he immediately said: "It's a state plantation." ”

Yun Xi thought about it and thought it was good. In order to prevent serf rebellions, the private plantations in history were armed, and the feudal kings he added to the South Seas were not strong in themselves, even if the private plantations were opened, they would definitely have trouble sleeping when they saw the plantations armed. At this stage, it is more in line with the national conditions to be state-run.

"Then when you go back, you will implement the state-run plantation." Yun Xi said.

He had a sense of irony. What was originally intended to be promoted in Guangdong, but in the end, it turned out to be in Nanyang to take root.

Zhu Yu agreed, and was about to speak, when he suddenly heard a female voice say: "Third brother, what is a plantation?" ”

The three of them looked up and saw Yun Ying walking in - they were talking to the locals just now, Yun Ying was inconvenient to appear as a woman, and waited until those people were gone before coming from the backyard.

Yun Xi roughly explained and said: "Actually, Taiwan can also implement plantations!" There are many barbarians in the local area who do not obey the king, so they can be allowed to work like this. ”

"It's really suitable," Yun Ying also said with some joy: "Taiwan's local water and soil are very good, and the implementation of plantations can increase the yield of local crops." "'So that we can increase the taxes of the government, so that there will be a way to get money.'" She added the second half of the sentence in her heart. Although Taiwan Town, as a military town of the imperial court, has a fixed allocation, and the money is enough to raise soldiers, they have too many things to do, and they still don't have enough to spend. She, a princess who had no concept of money before, had to find a way to get money everywhere.

"But third brother, there must have been some expenses for the implementation of the plantation at the beginning, and the money given by the imperial court to Taiwan Town every year is not enough, so you have to allocate some money to us separately." She said again.

"And us. Butler, we don't have much money in our hands, and we have to allocate some money from the imperial court. Zhu Lu said loudly.

Yun Xi first scolded Zhu Lu and Zhu Mo with a smile: "I said Uncle Nineteen, how did you say it so clearly, it turned out that you were waiting for your nephew here, and you wanted to ask the court for money." However, the imperial court now gives you a lot of money to repair the city every year, don't be too greedy. My nephew won't give you money for that. ”

He immediately turned his head to Yun Ying and said, "Taiwan, you can allocate money, but it won't be much." ”

"Third brother!" Yunying said coquettishly.

"There are too many places for the imperial court to spend money, and there is not much money now." Yun Xi said 'sincerely'.

Yun Ying knew that it was a lie as soon as she heard it: there were so many taxes in the city every year, and there was also the increase in business taxes after the change of officials to the police, and now the tax revenue of the imperial court far exceeded that of the Hongwu period, even if there were many projects under construction, they were still fighting with Annan, and there was money in the treasury.

She was about to say something to continue pleading, but her eyes rolled and she said, "Third brother, do you remember the bet you made the day before yesterday?" ”

"Remember, what's wrong?"

"Third brother, let's do it, if the gambling sister wins, the court will allocate money to Taiwan according to the expenses; If my sister loses, it's as it is, what? Yun Ying said with a smile.

"Done." Yun Xi agreed.

"Official, eldest niece, what kind of bet did you make?" Zhu Lu asked at this time.

Yun Ying probably said it, and Zhu Lu immediately said: "The official family, I will also make such a bet with the official family, if it is ......"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Yun Xi and said, "Don't even think about it!" ”

Zhu Mo laughed loudly, lying on the table and laughing so hard that he couldn't straighten up; Yun Ying also covered her mouth with a handkerchief, her face full of smiles.

Zhu Lu was about to say more, when a person suddenly walked in from outside the house and shouted, "Your Majesty, Annan is urgent." ”

Everyone immediately fell silent, not daring to say another word, but looked at the retribution in the hand of the man who walked in.

Yun Xi opened it and looked at it, his face was unswerving, he asked Huang Lu to take out a pen and paper, write a document, think about it again, and said to the guard: "Go and call He Wenchang over." The guards took the order.

Taking advantage of this gap, Zhu Lu asked boldly, "Your Majesty, what happened?" Was it the army that suffered a defeat in Annam? ”

"It's a small defeat. However, this is not tight, the tightening is that nearly 400,000 troops were blocked under the city of Duobang, and two consecutive temptations were beaten back, and they could not advance an inch. Yun Xi said.

What he had just read was the report that Lan Zhen had sent back from under the city of Duobang. Two of these temptations were returned, the first refers to Mu Sheng's temptation to lose some troops, and the second refers to the means taken by Lan Zhen after leading the entire front army to join Mu Sheng, unwilling to wait here for the army in other directions to make a breakthrough. He ordered hundreds of his soldiers to cross the river in the middle of the night, through a sheep's intestine path, in an attempt to sneak close to the city of Dobang to spy on information, and at least cause some confusion for them.

But as soon as they came out of the woods, they were attacked by an unknown number of Annam soldiers, and in the darkness they could not tell where the bows and arrows were coming from, and they immediately scattered and fled, and at last only a dozen of them escaped. In fact, not many were killed by the Annanes, most of them broke into the jungle in a panic and were killed by poisonous snakes and beasts.

Whether it is Yun Xi or Lan Zhen, he doesn't care about this loss of soldiers: although he said in his speech at Haikang a few days ago, "I don't want to hear your bad news, you are all my people, and I don't want you to die on the battlefield", this is not all political propaganda, he really doesn't want the Ming soldiers to be killed or injured, but he also understands the reason that Ci is not in charge of the army, and he can accept valuable casualties.

But these people died worthlessly, and nothing was tested, which meant that if Da Ming wanted to capture Duobang City from the front, he would have to pay a heavy price, which was the reason why he frowned.

He looked up at Yun Ying and said with a wry smile: "Big sister, the third brother now expects that the people you brought from Taiwan can make great contributions." If they can break through the Annan army in front of them, the Hu family father and son will have to transfer troops from other places to support, and there will be loopholes in the defense, and the army in the north will be able to move south smoothly. ”

"Third brother rest assured, even if those Taiwanese barbarians can't make much credit, the nearly 150,000 left army land division will definitely be able to complete what the third brother ordered." Yun Ying comforted.

"I hope so. I always feel like, forget it, don't talk about it. Yun Xi took back the words halfway through, and said, "It's not too early, let's go to dinner." ”

A few people agreed, and they went to lunch together. At this time, He Wenchang, the general secretary who had been called by Yun Xi before, rushed over, and after seeing Yun Xi, he bowed and saluted: "He Wen has often seen Your Majesty. ”

"No courtesy." Yun Xi immediately ordered, "I have something to do with you." You took this will I wrote and sent it to Zhang Wen's Chinese army camp, and you still have a few words to tell him. Yun Xi then whispered a few words in his ear.

"Yes, Your Majesty." He Wenchang listened to Yun Xi's instructions and bowed down.

Yun Xi breathed a sigh of relief and continued to eat with them.

……

……

At this time, on the sea surface of the Beibu Gulf, where there are no waves in the ancient well, thousands of ships of various types are splitting the waves and heading westward.

On the deck of one of the ships, several people were standing at the bow of the ship, looking out at the land that they couldn't see yet, talking about something.