Regarding Chongzhen's question, Li Chaoqin didn't even think about it, and immediately blurted out: "The minister is willing to receive the order, and please ask Your Majesty to command..."

When Li Chaoqin walked out of the palace gate, his steps suddenly became brisk. Although the task entrusted to him by Chongzhen was not as simple as it seemed, it was the beginning of the emperor's acceptance of him.

After Li Chaoqin left, the upper study suddenly became quiet, and Zhu Youzhen also felt a little tired. After transferring the King of Shu out of Shu, Li Chaoqin, who took over the Mansion of the King of Shu, would temporarily seal the gold and silver property in the Mansion of the King of Shu and the land in the name of the King of Shu.

The Shu Wangfu, which has accumulated wealth in Shu for more than 200 years, has a rich collection of mansions, and even he, the Ming Emperor, has to covet it.

However, Zhu Youzhen did not intend to swallow the wealth of the King of Shu so roughly, in this case, I am afraid that it will frighten the clans everywhere and bring him a lot of trouble.

Therefore, after Li Chaoqin sealed the property in the palace of the king of Shu, he would set up an account with him in the central bank, and then transfer the property to this account.

As long as the wealth is in the bank, he can use the wealth in various ways, and he doesn't need to care about whose name the wealth is.

And then the registration and cleaning of the business name and the sealed fields under the name of the king of Shu was the key task of Li Chaoqin to go south this time. For those fields where the formalities are incomplete or the property rights are disputed, they shall be returned to the original owner of the land, and those that do not have the original owner shall be confiscated into the state treasury.

Those fields that exceed the upper limit of the Shu king's fields must also be recovered from the state, and the other clans of the Shu king's lineage will be cleaned up, and those who have no fields or only a small amount of land will be allocated some fields to support their families. According to the grade, it is divided into 6 standards of 5 hectares to 30 hectares, and the clans that do not meet the standards can allocate fields from the fields of the King of Shu to make up for it.

Although the Shu clan has encroached on a lot of ownerless land, it is also a privilege that only has the rank of general of Zhenguo, as for the clan below the general of the auxiliary state, because there are too many people, not to mention the privilege of exercising in the locality, it is quite difficult for some lieutenants to support their families.

After all, the number of clans whose names were registered on the jade plate had reached more than 120,000 by the first year of Chongzhen, and the number of clans without genealogy was several times that.

If it weren't for the Jiajing period, which carried out a change in the clan and set the upper limit of the annual distribution of the clan's money, it would now cost more than 10 million stones per year for the clan alone.

Although the Jiajing year limited the clan to 8 million stones a year, the actual annual distribution was only about 4 million stones. Since the apocalypse ascended the throne, with the deterioration of the situation in Liaodong and the rebellion of Lu'an, it is difficult to guarantee even 4 million stones per year.

The population of the clan is increasing every year, but the clan's income is fixed, and the upper echelons of the clan obviously will not take the initiative to reduce the amount they deserve, so the most beneficial ones of the reduction of the income must be those at the bottom of the clan.

Where the Ming Dynasty was founded, the number of clans was only 49, but today there are hundreds of thousands. According to the old practice, these clans could not participate in the imperial examination and enter the official career, nor could they join the army to kill the enemy, and they could not even run the business of the four people to support themselves. The clan of the Ming Dynasty was actually no different from the domestic pigs that were raised.

Zhu Youzhen is not interested in continuing this kind of pig breeding business, he hopes that these clans can support themselves. Being able to use the fields of the King of Shu to appease these clans and let them support themselves in the future, he felt that it was still worth it.

After the field was granted, he no longer planned to bear the burden of the Shu King's lineage clan. This can be regarded as a preliminary reform of the clan, and the king of Chu opened a factory last year and exchanged the clan of the Chu clan for shares.

In addition to granting land to the clan of the King of Shu, Zhu Youzhen also asked Li Chaoqin to cooperate with the personnel sent by the Criminal Department, first, to return to the owner's land that was encroached upon by the clan, generals, and gentry; The second is to limit the land rents in Guizhou and Sichuan, and abolish the local usury, especially the usury issued by the Shu Wangfu.

Finally, the land that had not been confiscated into the national treasury was distributed to meritorious soldiers, and the Sichuan health center was further reformed, and the land of Shaanxi immigrants was distributed so that these immigrants could settle down.

Zhu Youzhen finally summed up a sentence for Li Chaoqin, using the wealth of the Shu Wangfu to appease the people and the army in Sichuan, as long as he can grasp these two points, he will resist other things for Li Chaoqin.

At the cabinet meeting the next day, after a day of thinking, the cabinet ministers basically agreed to Chongzhen's proposal. The Criminal Department sent personnel to verify the encroachment on the land of the people who died in the Lu'an Rebellion in Guizhou, Sichuan and other places.

As for the case of the Shu king's bandits, let the king of Shu go to Beijing to defend himself and not deal with it publicly, so as to avoid the shaking of the clan in the world. Since Chongzhen made his attitude clear from the beginning, believing that the subjective will of the king of Shu and the bandits did not exist, but the objective facts may exist, so letting the king of Shu go to Beijing is just to clarify the facts, but not to handle his case.

Therefore, the matter of the king of Shu and banditry only needs the king of Shu to defend himself to the Zongren Mansion, and there is no need for court officials to ask questions. As for the period when the king of Shu is not in Shu, a eunuch will be sent by the palace master of ceremonies to temporarily preside over the daily affairs of the Shu king's mansion.

The cabinet ministers saw that the emperor seemed to have no intention of doing the case of the Great Shu King's bandits, and they were not willing to get involved in the problems between the emperor and the vassal king, so they acquiesced in the fact that the Zongren Mansion would preside over the investigation.

After this cabinet meeting, Zhu Youzhen also deliberately called Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the household department. Chongzhen told him that he hoped that the Food Bureau could send personnel to Sichuan with the palace personnel, and during the period when the palace took over the Shu Palace, the grain in the fields under the name of the King of Shu would be brought under the control of the Food Bureau.

Guo Yunhou naturally would not refuse this kind of good thing that fell from the sky. With the support of the Criminal Department and the Ministry of Households, coupled with the resolution of the cabinet, when the Southwest Jie Bao and Xu Yingyuan's impeachment of the King of Shu arrived in the capital, the court officials who received the news were still mixed feelings, and the emergency meeting of the state was held, and the response plan formulated by Chongzhen was supported by the majority.

So before the court officials could react, the court's rewards for the winning generals and troops in the southwest, and the low-key treatment of the king of Shu, had been quickly implemented.

When Li Chaoqin and officials from the Criminal Department and the Ministry of Household Affairs headed south, three British-flagged merchant ships had just sailed into the mouth of Dagu. On the Unicorn, led by three merchant ships, Captain Andrei was standing on the deck with a middle-aged man in his 40s, enjoying the surrounding scenery.

The director of the Banten Merchant Hall and the general manager of the British East India Company, Methwald, looked at the three diamond-shaped forts on the north and south banks of the Dagu Pass, firmly guarding the mouth of the Haihe River, and couldn't help but shake his head and admire: "If the Kingdom of Banten also has the ability to build such European-style forts, then we don't have to worry about the threat of the Dutch to Banten."

However, the Jesuit monks were so generous that even the knowledge of the construction of such bastions was spread. Aren't they worried that when the Chinese have learned all their knowledge, they will drive them out of China like the Japanese? ”

Andrei took out his binoculars and carefully observed the cannons that had been installed on the turrets before he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Although they have learned how to build forts, their skills in forging cannons do not seem to be as good as ours.

And the Emperor of China was much easier to deal with than the King of Japan, and I have been here for more than three months, but I have met His Majesty the Emperor several times, and I think that His Majesty seems to be full of goodwill and curiosity about England.

Not only did he allow us to open a merchant house in Beijing or Tianjin, but he also agreed to protect our legitimate merchant ships in these waters. If you can gain the confidence of His Majesty the Emperor, I believe that the company will find a strong ally in Asia, and we can use the name of the Emperor of China to carry out trade operations throughout Asia, which is better than trying our luck in India. ”

Methwold hesitated for a moment before saying, "But what His Majesty the Emperor has asked for is a reciprocal entente, and the power we have in China, their merchants will have the same power in England."

You know, His Majesty is very concerned about the company, but his concern is how many gold coins the company can bring him. Rather than giving those Chinese merchants the right to trade freely in Britain.

The Emperor of China had the power to determine the amount of tariff to be given to the company's goods, but the company could not guarantee the same tariff treatment to Chinese merchants. That's our biggest problem right now. ”

Andre thought for a while before he said: "This should be a matter for the shareholders of those companies in London to negotiate with His Majesty, and our task is to open the door to China.

If the shareholders of the company could not convince the king, we would lose some money on tariffs at most, but if we could establish a trade route with China, we would not make any less profit from Chinese trade than the Dutch would have gained from the Spice Islands. ”

Methwold smiled at Andre and replied: "I hope so, Andre, if the company and China can really establish a trade relationship this time, you will become the hero of the company." I'm sure when you return to London, the majority shareholders of the company will definitely promote your position within the company..."

While Andre and Methwold were talking, a small boat rowed from the north shore, which was the pilot of the port of Tianjin.

After the Chinese pilots who boarded the Unicorn talked to Andre for a while, the Unicorn was allowed to dock at the Zizhulin Wharf, while the other two merchant ships were able to dock at the pier on this side of Tanggu Port.

The reason for this is that there is a shortage of berthing spaces due to the recent return of distant-water fishing vessels to the port and the fact that the new Zizhulin Wharf has not yet been fully completed.

The artillery equipped on the three British merchant ships also made the Chinese reluctant to let the three British merchant ships enter the Tianjin River together.

Andrei and Methwald, who were asking for the Chinese, showed rare politeness and obedience, and divided the fleet into two groups according to the Chinese's request.

Methwold decided to travel to Tientsin with André, hoping to get approval from the port officials to get them to the capital earlier to meet His Majesty the Emperor of China.