20,000 taels of silver a year for seven years, and if Charles could keep his promise, no one would be indifferent to it.

Ying Ming almost escaped from prison with his legs, and he was afraid that he would hesitate a little longer before agreeing.

It was only when he walked out of his cell and saw the light of day that he finally believed that he had the talent to be a general—at least, he was sure that he had the ability to live long enough to be canonized as a general by the imperial court.

There are almost no people in the world who don't know what Chen Mu did in the early days, and among those rumors that are true and false, people know that the money for Chen Mu to form the first expedition fleet came from the governor Zhang Han, who handed over to him the finance that intercepted part of the Haojing taxes.

People are willing to believe that Chen Mu deceived the governor Zhang Han, because the governor may not know how much Haojing's tax revenue is, and no one knew that the maritime trade was so profitable at that time.

Although in fact, trade was not very profitable at that time, but people used to take the sea trade income after the Sanyang Military Mansion in the city to look at that time, and felt that there was also a lot of income at that time, in fact, the real sea trade made a lot of money, starting with Chen Mu getting Malacca from Portugal and starting the Mingxi trade with the Oriental Military Government.

Before that, Daming had the best goods, but there was no force to escort them at sea, who could sell the goods to? Sold to the Portuguese, the money was made by them, and the Ming merchants felt that they were making a lot of money if they could make double the hard money; The Ming court felt that it had a lot of money more money when it collected the navigation tax of its own merchant ships.

And now that the achievements of the sea trade and the saint's family are deepening, so that no one can say anything to Chen Mu's 'evil' back then, they can get ten times the profit from it, and they only need to run the Oriental route twice, and the principal has increased a hundred times.

Is there anything crazier than that?

Ying Ming knew that Chen Mu had done a lot of things, not to mention contracts like this, and even privately went to war with a country and then negotiated peace, but Chen Mu's ability does not mean that he can also - at that time, the Ming Dynasty started from scratch overseas, and now they have the Four Oceans Military Government, which is a complete system, and he has no right to do such a thing.

He wanted the money, but he wanted it even more.

Since his self-knowledge told him that he was likely to die if he took the money, he wanted to know how the money came from and how to use this other people's money to add a meritorious service to himself.

Ying Ming is not a person who has never seen money, in the kingdom of Ailan, the king Zhu Xiaoen made them the Ming generals as guests, giving them great power and glory, although Ailan is poor and small, but gold and silver, women, farms, slaves, they can get what they want, in addition to the distribution of the vast majority of the booty.

The booty of the rebel nobles captured in the war was sold by merchant ships, and half of the proceeds from the sale became the king's reward for the Iran Fu ** and the legions sent by the Oriental Arans.

Compared with the tribal leaders who surrendered on Eland Island, the king trusted the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty more, and hoped to save more resources as soon as possible in exchange for more support from the Oriental military government for the kingdom.

Zhu Xiaoen wanted a small Ming on an island, not an Ireland supported by the Ming army.

It's the same for Ying Ming, 20,000 taels a year is indeed a temptation, and it's not enough for him to make the wrong choice.

When people have a greater vision of the future in their hearts, they have enough determination to ignore the temptations in front of them.

"General, Alan Mumin said that their queen has no taxes, only some ship taxes symbolized when defending against pirates and fighting, and the various lords collect taxes in kind, and some strange taxes, houses, windows, servants, carriages, and even things like makeup powder, cards, etc., are roughly 10 percent."

Ying Ming's Alan King Ding said, shook his head and said: "But the tax in Puli County is not heavy, mainly to collect a little rent from the peasants, and the lord's tax is very miscellaneous, but the powerful will avoid the tax, so the tax of Earl Charles is not much, about two thousand pounds a year." ”

The commander lay on the table, wrote down the source of income of 2,000 a year with a charcoal pen, and continued to ask the family: "Where did the other money come from?" ”

"We have received some rumors that our subordinates have sent people to verify the claims of the people of the city, and some people say that the earl has two pastures outside the city of Puli that are used to raise sheep, and there is also a large woolen workshop, which sells the woolen wool produced every year to a group of merchants called Levant in exchange for a large amount of goods. ”

"In addition to this, in the early years, the Count invested in a company called the Moscow Merchant Group, which had many ships like the Quanzhou Company, and could share the profits every year."

Livant, Moscow.

Ying Ming wrote down these two names, and chose to frown and think: "Moscow, this name is very familiar. ”

"Back to the general, these seem to be two place names, the former is an annual route to and from the Ottomans, according to the custom of England, the queen authorizes a regional route to a group of people, and the subordinates heard that the Levant Regiment has just been established for a few years, and the principal is 80,000 pounds, of which 40,000 are the queen's, and 150,000 pounds of wool are sold to the Ottomans every year."

"The latter went to a country called Moscow in the East, and they consisted of more than a hundred merchants, stationed in London and Plymouth and Moscow and Riga, and others transported goods by sea, buying woollen wool and firearms from London and Plymouth every year and selling them to Moscow."

"Buying furs, honey, fish oil, timber, etc., from there, makes a great profit every year, and the Count gets a share of thousands of pounds."

Syllable!

Ying Ming put down the charcoal, slapped his hands, and focused on the desktop to point this finger to Jiading: "That's it, that's what makes him profit 60,000 taels a year." ”

"The participants of the merchant group are not close to him, from production to sales, if he alone can make a profit of fifty thousand taels a year, how much can the whole of England get? Even their queen is involved. ”

The commander wanted to write something more on the paper, but he couldn't put pen to paper, so he looked up and said to his family with great seriousness: "Regarding these two trade routes, I need to submit a very comprehensive report to the military government, no matter what method is used, I must find out clearly. ”

"The environment of the route, the charts, the wars along the coast, the countries passed, the price of many goods traded, the number of men and ships in the merchant group."

Ying Ming said the key purposes one by one, paused, and finally raised his hand and knocked on his head, adding a sentence: "Mo Xiangying bought firearms and woollen wool, why do they need firearms and woollen wool; Ying buys fur and timber from Mo, why do they need fur and timber - and everything you can find. ”

"Every year, hundreds of thousands of pounds of wealth enter England, and the royal family and nobles make a lot of profits, and this money will become their warships and gunpowder artillery, and the strong neighbors are on the side, which is not good news for the king of Alan, so that the route that can make huge profits is not used by the Ming Dynasty, and it is bad news for the imperial court."

The commander Ying Ming clenched his fist against his lips, and his face was righteous and awe-inspiring: "You have to make it yellow!" ”