Wang Chengen thought of this, paused slightly, and looked at Chongzhen's face carefully. Zhu Youzhen didn't mean to be angry, he just hesitated slightly, and then said: "There is no problem with the Saigon town guard, canonize him."

In addition, let the Maritime Association tell him that the Vietnamese are capricious and will probably obey him when they are smaller. But once Vietnam's population exceeds more than half of the local population, he has to beware of the Vietnamese Nguyen's coveting of Saigon.

It was suggested that he relocate some Han Chinese from the Liangguang region to Saigon to ensure Ming control over the Saigon region. In addition, the Mekong region is located in the tropics, and all kinds of diseases are rampant, as long as he accepts it, the imperial court can send a medical team to set up a hospital in Saigon to treat the sick and save people. ”

Wang Chengen finally couldn't help but whisper: "Your Majesty, the official position should be rewarded by Your Majesty, this Liu Xiang is so rude, dare to talk to himself, and ask the court to canonize him as the envoy of Saigon Town, it is really ill-intentioned." ”

Zhu Youzhen said disapprerovingly: "It's normal to be ambitious, Sun Monkey still wants to make a Monkey King." If I don't canonize him, he will have no ambition?

Saigon is far overseas, and without the support of the Ming Dynasty, how long can he stay there? Liu Xiang asked me to canonize this Saigon town guard, which means that he has taken a fancy to this place in Saigon.

In the past, these pirates were all over the world, and my Ming Navy couldn't do anything about them, wasn't it because I couldn't find their lair? The better he builds Saigon now, the more he will refuse to abandon it in the future.

Even if he really turns against my Ming Dynasty in the future, can he still load Saigon on the ship and take it away? I just want these pirates to build their nests openly, and not hide in the corners, even if we want to crusade against them in the future, are we afraid that we will not find a place? ”

Chongzhen's words suddenly made Wang Chengen speechless, and he immediately praised Chongzhen's wisdom as natural.

Regarding Wang Chengen's praise, Zhu Youzhen just smiled slightly. He still has Saigon in mind, when the Mekong Delta was just a swamp with a network of rivers.

However, in later generations, it was the most important rice producing area in Vietnam. But to exploit the area, it must be able to resist malaria, which is the most prevalent disease in the region, as well as other tropical diseases.

If Liu Xiang can really take root in Saigon, what is the point of a mere Saigon town guard. After Saigon, Palawan, and Ambuna Island were included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the navigation safety of the Ming merchant ships in the South China Sea was guaranteed.

With these three places supporting each other, the Strait of Malacca can be seen in the west, and the Southeast Asian islands can be set foot in the south, and it can truly compete head-on with Western colonizers such as the Netherlands and Spain.

What Wang Chengen then read was a report forwarded by Yang Tiansheng and Chen Xinji through the Maritime Association.

The content is similar to Zheng Zhilong's report, but the tone is much more soothing than Liu Xiang's. The two thought that Ambuna Island was too far away from Taiwan and Guangzhou, and if everything needed to be reported to the rear, the daylily would be cold.

The situation around Ambuna Island was originally a Portuguese sphere of influence, but with the rise of the Dutch in this area, the Portuguese influence in the Malay Peninsula began to be expelled.

The Dutch, united with the Kingdom of Johor, which had been driven out of Malacca by the Portuguese, and the British in Pattani, were attacking the Portuguese.

And the Kingdom of Johor not only wanted to retake the city of Malacca from the Portuguese, but also to defend itself against the attack of the Kingdom of Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra. In Iskander. Under the leadership of Sultan Muda, the Kingdom of Aceh was at its strongest.

Although the Dutch are united with the Kingdom of Johor, they are also eyeing the Natuna Islands, which are nominally part of the Kingdom of Johor.

After they took possession of the island of Artuna, several nearby islands soon sent people to submit to them, willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty.

The Kingdom of Johor, due to the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, did not dare to raise its voice in their actions, but the Dutch sent them a note asking them to leave Ambona Island, which was the new name given to the island by the Dutch.

The Dutch's impudent demands were, of course, rejected by them, but they desperately needed an official title to hold the island of Arjuna.

In addition, the British in Pattani expressed friendship with them and were willing to establish normal trade relations with them.

The King of Siam was old and fit, and the Natuna Islands were far from Siam, so he did not want to be troubled. However, under the persuasion of the Dutch, emissaries were also sent to the two men who occupied the island of Artuna.

The messenger was the crown prince of the King of Siam and the true ruler of the current state of Siam. He did not have a good impression of the Dutch, but was very close to the Chinese.

According to the future King of Siam, if they can come up with a token representing the Ming Dynasty, the Siamese Kingdom will have no objection to the actions of the Ming Dynasty.

He was willing to help the Ming establish themselves in the region, but hoped that the Ming would regain control of the seas of Southeast Asia, allow the Siamese to trade tributaries, expel the increasingly restless Dutch, and help Siam deal with the feuding Burma.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time, and then said cautiously: "Yang Tiansheng can be appointed as the envoy of Wansheng Shitang Town, and Chen Xinji as the deputy envoy of the town." With the Natuna Islands, or at least the island of Atuna, as the bottom line, they can decide the relationship with the surrounding powers.

But they have no right to decide on their own in any formal negotiations between States, as well as in all agreements on territorial sovereignty relations.

In addition, a Southeast Asian Foreign Affairs Office was established on the island of Atuna, and personnel from the Imperial Palace, the Social Research Office, the Navy Academy, and the Ministry of Rites were all dispatched.

First, collect information on the politics, culture, economy, and natural resources of Southeast Asian countries; second, to deal with some temporary and sudden diplomatic relations; The third is responsible for proposing to the cabinet the solution to the Southeast Asian problem and how to ensure that the Ming Dynasty maintains its dominant position in the region.

The British and Siamese agreed to trade requests, but their trade quota was tied to the amount of grain sold to the Ming.

The basic trade quota of the British per ship was 100,000 taels, which meant that each British ship that arrived in the Ming Dynasty could only sell 100,000 taels or buy 100,000 taels of goods.

For every ton of rice he sold to the Ming Dynasty, he could get a trade quota of 3,000 taels, and if he sold other miscellaneous grains, then half of the treatment would be distributed, and all the trade of imported grain would not be taxed. Siamese ships, the trade volume doubled.

As for the other demands made by the Siamese, they were temporarily rejected. If the Siamese were willing to maintain friendly relations with the Ming at all times, then none of these problems would be a problem in the future. ”

Wang Chengen carefully wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand and read the last part of the report, which was the news about the route to the Americas that the Maritime Association had heard.

There were three routes to the Americas, one was the route traveled by the Portuguese, Macau-Malacca-Goa-Africa, and then around the Cape of Good Hope and westward across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, the Kingdom of Portugal's colony in the Americas.

The route is quite long, taking 6-8 months to sail and two years for a round trip. If you miss the monsoon period, it's 3 years. The only good thing about this route is that there are mature ports along the way that can be replenished with repairing ships, but this is for European ships.

The second was the Manila galleon trade route, which crossed the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco. In June, the southwest monsoon set sail from Manila to the north, to a certain latitude of waters, along the "Kuroshio" in the North Pacific Ocean eastward, and finally to Acapulco, a journey of more than 10,000 nautical miles, lasting about 6 months.

The route was still in the hands of the Western colonizers, and no one was willing to reveal the correct route map to the Chinese merchants.

The third route departs directly from the islands near Japan and crosses the Pacific Ocean, landing at a continental fjord above Mexico.

Tsunecho Shikura was ordered by the shogunate to visit Europe aboard the Date Mura Maru. He set out on 28 June, crossed the Pacific Ocean in two months, and arrived in the port of Acapulco, Mexico, for another month.

The voyage was so sensational at the time that it became widely known, and many ships used to travel to and from both sides of the Pacific Ocean along this route.

It is said that there were many Chinese immigrants in Puerto Acapulco, and these Chinese even became members of the city's self-defense forces.

The route is mainly dependent on Japan's Kuroshio waterway, which is smooth and light in the wind, especially in June and July, so it is safer to travel before the hurricane season in late July.

The biggest problem with this route was that after two months at sea, there was no supply and food** and fresh water storage needed to be addressed.

The return from Mexico is relatively simple, taking the Manila route directly, relying on the trade winds in only 2-3 months, and there are islands along the way to replenish the islands.

The report concludes that the best way to open a route between Daming and the Americas is to start from the central part of the Japanese archipelago, follow the route traveled by Shikura Tsunecho to the northern continent of the Americas, and then take the Manila route from the port of Acapulco back to Daming.

After listening to the last part of Wang Chengen's report, Chongzhen fell into silence for a long time.

Although the report gives a very detailed picture of the Pacific route to and from the North American continent, the people who came to collect the information did a lot of hard work. However, Zhu Youzhen felt that this report was still too optimistic.

The Pacific Ocean is named the Pacific Ocean not because it is really peaceful, on the contrary, it is precisely because of its vagaries that people want it to be peaceful.

Winter winds and waves in the North Pacific have caused even modern ships of later generations to be shipwrecked, not to mention wooden sailing ships that now have no positioning system at sea.

If you look at the Spaniards' insistence on the Manila route, you can see that the route from the Japanese archipelago may not be as stable as the report suggests.

However, for Daming, this route is the safest one, because there are no obstacles set up by Europeans on this route. The ship only faced difficulties set by nature, which was good news for the Ming who stepped out of Asian waters for the first time.

Zhu Youzhen finally waved his hand at Wang Chengen and said, "If you don't have anything else to report, let's stop here today." ”