Zhu Youzhen was a little surprised by Shen Pei's question, but he quickly said: "Of course there is no problem, you can send it to me every time you write a paragraph, and Wang Chengen will tell you how to send me a letter in a while." Now let's talk about the arms business you want to do. ”

When it came to business, Shen Pei suddenly became more active. He spoke in fluent words about his plan, which had obviously been running in his head countless times, and he had already thought of most of the details of it.

From Shen Pei's mouth, Chongzhen learned that Southeast Asia is now in an era of alternating powers. The Dutch competed with the Kingdom of Java and Banten for control of the Spice Islands.

The Kingdom of Johor, which exits the Straits of Malacca, is joining forces with the Dutch to attack the Portuguese-controlled city of Malacca.

The Spaniards in the Philippines were engaged in a fierce confrontation with the Moro pirates, and the Spaniards were also harassed by forces in Mindanao and the Sulu Islands*.

In Southeast Asia on the mainland, Vietnam was in the post-Lê period, and the confrontation between the north and the south was formed in the country, and Nguyen Phuc Yuan, with the southern separatist forces established by Thuan Quang as the center, refused to obey the orders of the central government in the north that was held hostage by the Truong clan.

Nguyen Phuc was born into the Duke of Nhanh Nh, who recruited Portuguese merchants to establish the commercial port of Pheu Phuoc, which developed into one of the best trading ports in Southeast Asia.

He also purchased advanced European cannons from the Portuguese, learned how to make European ships, and with the assistance of Portuguese engineers, began to produce his own Western copper cannons. This separatist power in South Vietnam, which became known as Quang Nam Province, began to grow rapidly and strongly.

In addition to actively resisting the invasion of the Zheng clan in the north, Nguyen Phuc Yuan also continued to encroach on the land of neighboring countries such as Champa and Chenla. For example, he married his daughter Nguyen Thi Ngoc to King Ji Zheta II of Chenla, thus gaining the power to establish a town in Saigon, etc.

Zheng Jie in the north held Li Shenzong hostage and held the central power of the Later Li Dynasty. In order to eliminate the Nguyen regime that had seized the south, Zheng Jie took Lê Shen Zong to the south last year and fought a four-month war with Nguyen Phuc Yuan. But under the walls and cannons built by Nguyen Phuc Yuan, it was finally in vain.

In addition to these two regimes, Vietnam also has a Mo dynasty entrenched in Cao Ping, which is the former Vietnamese regime overthrown by the Hou Lê dynasty. Because of the support of the Ming Dynasty, the Zheng family could only tolerate him to continue to survive in Gaoping.

However, in 1623, when Zheng was in civil strife, Mo Jingkuan took the opportunity to lead the southern expedition and incited various local forces in the country to rebel, but when he arrived in Jialin County, he was defeated by Zheng Jie.

So in 1625, Zheng Jie sent Zheng Qiao to lead his troops to retaliate, and Zheng soldiers captured Gaoping and captured most of the Mo clan. only escaped Mo Jingkuan and his second son Mo Jingwan. Under the pressure of the Ming Dynasty, the Later Li Dynasty made him a lieutenant and a prince of Tongguo, and allowed him to return to Gaoping, but the Mo family no longer had the strength.

The kingdom of Siam, between Malacca and Chenla, was under the rule of the Ayutthaya dynasty, and the name of the current Siamese king was King Songran.

Siam defeated Burma for independence more than 30 years ago, but colonizers from Europe began to look at the rich country.

In 1516, Portugal was the first to sign a treaty with the Ayutthaya Dynasty, stipulating that the Portuguese could live, do business and preach in Ayutthaya City, Tanah Salin, Megui, Pattani, Liukun and other places.

In 1598, Spain and Thailand signed a treaty of commerce. In 1612, the British were allowed to open a trading house in Pattani. In 1617, the Dutch East India Company signed a treaty of commerce with Thailand.

Siam was fertile and the Ayutthaya Dynasty was friendly to the Chinese, so there were more than a few thousand Chinese in Pattani.

The Ayutthaya dynasty may have had the idea of using China to control the country, and the country liked to use the Chinese as its trade agents, so that they could handle the trade relations between the country and these foreign merchants.

After listening to Shen Pei's account of the current situation in Southeast Asia, Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before opening his mouth and saying to him.

"I can allow you to trade arms in these areas, but these arms trade must be monitored and audited by the General Staff of the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces, and 50% of the profits from the arms trade must be handed over to the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces, are you willing to accept it?"

Shen Pei's heart suddenly cooled, taking such a big risk and investing in arms trade, the emperor, who had invested nothing, actually wanted to take half of the profits, and he suddenly became distracted.

Looking at Shen Pei, who was unwilling, but did not dare to refuse him directly, Zhu Youzhen smiled and continued: "In the future, without the consent of the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces, no person or group will be allowed to smuggle arms abroad.

For the time being, you will be the only Ming merchant with the right to export arms. Your sale of arms will no longer be a private business, but a semi-officially licensed business protected by the state.

In other words, if you have any trouble selling arms, the Ming army will solve that trouble for you. Any individual or country that dares to default on the payment of goods will also be recourse by the state on your behalf.

Finally, I will give you the status of a Ming Overseas Trade Inspector, so that you can more easily deal with Southeast Asian countries and European colonists in Southeast Asia. ”

Shen Pei, who originally lowered his head, suddenly raised his head unconsciously after listening to Chongzhen's description, and finally looked at the emperor with wide eyes and said, "Xiaomin has no opinion on His Majesty's request. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him and said, "Then the matter of the arms business, let's talk about it first, and then about the Longjiang Shipyard, did he tell you about the letter I sent to Shen Tingyang?" ”

Shen Pei immediately replied respectfully: "Xiaomin has already heard from him that when I went to Beijing this time, several other families who participated in the shipyard made me promise to His Majesty on behalf of them that we are willing to accept the model of the board of directors managing the shipyard."

However, the Longjiang Shipyard is located in Nanjing, so why did His Majesty put the Nanjing Manufacturing Bureau in the place between Baoshan and Songjiang? Although there is a county town of Shanghai nearby, there is now only a rice field outside the county, and it would be a lot of investment to rebuild the port, foundations and houses. ”

Zhu Youzhen said disapprerovingly: "Although Nanjing has ready-made ports, roads and houses available, but after all, Nanjing is one of the two capitals of my Ming Dynasty, and dragons and snakes are mixed.

If Longjiang Shipyard and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau make a profit in the future, I am afraid that those nobles in Nanjing will not look at the meat in front of them and not take a bite.

After all, I am in Beijing and not Nanjing, and if something happens, I may not be able to react in time.

Although Shanghai County is now small, it is located in the key areas of the river and the sea, and the Yangtze River is in the north, which can be connected to the lake and Guangzhou. The Wusong River and the Huangpu River in the east and west, and the Taihu Lake are connected to it. The location is excellent.

Even if it is a rice field now, it will become a more prosperous city than Nanjing in the future. Moreover, the population of Shanghai County is not large, and there are few local gentry and wealthy families, so if you want to buy land here, you will encounter less trouble.

I have already thought that after the transformation of Shanghai County into a city, in addition to the original Shanghai County area, Baoshan Institute and Chongming Island will also be included in the new Shanghai City, and Shanghai will be directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. ”

Shen Pei was silent for a moment, the reason why he didn't want to put the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai was because Chongming Island did not belong to Shanghai County.

As a foreigner, the Shen family will definitely be inconvenient in Shanghai. But now that the emperor has tied Chongming and Shanghai together, he naturally has no opinion.

What's more, what the emperor said is not unreasonable, after all, there are many powerful people in Nanjing, in front of them, the Chongming Shen family is really nothing, if it is really targeted by that powerful person in the end, the Shen family will really break the fortune and avoid disasters.

When Zhu Youzhen picked up the tea and was about to send it off, he remembered something, stopped what he was doing, and said to Shen Pei: "You go back today and rest for a day, and then tomorrow I will have someone take you to see some of the stocks of the Capital Arsenal, can you see that those three-eyed guns and old * can be sold to the natives on those islands?"

There are also a lot of new machines made in the arsenal, and when you go south, you can bring a few and some manpower, and then you can establish this Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau with them as the core. In addition, in two days, I will let the new county magistrate of Shanghai meet with you, and the two of you will cooperate with each other to build a trading port in Shanghai as soon as possible..."

After sending Shen Pei away, Zhu Youzhen got up and said to Wang Chengen beside him: "I have decided, you can talk to Xu Ge Lao for me, and let him put Song Yingsheng in the position of the magistrate of Shanghai." ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly replied: "The minister knows, and the minister will do it." There is one more matter, which the minister has to report to His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and asked, "What's the matter, you say." ”

Wang Chengen bowed down and said cautiously: "The funds of Tangshan Iron Smelting Plant of 2 million yuan have been fully raised.

Now there are two things to ask Your Majesty to decide, one is that Tangshan Iron Smelting Plant has many supporting facilities and needs a person in charge of overall responsibility; Second, where is the location of the iron plant? ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then asked, "Has the map of the survey team been sent back?" ”

Wang Chengen instructed the little eunuch outside, asked him to bring over a prepared drawing, and then personally unfolded it for the emperor to look at and said: "The detailed new map has not yet been completed, but the minister asked them to prepare a sketch map. ”

Zhu Youzhen took a look and found that it was indeed much more detailed than the previous landscape painting map, but unfortunately there were still too few surveyors, and the contour map he wanted still couldn't be completed now.

"What is the opinion of the prospectors, the officials of the Ministry of Works, and the craftsmen of the government-run ironworks?" Zhu Youzhen asked as he struggled to identify the terrain.

"Prospectors feel that it is best to place the iron smelting plant in an area close to the iron ore because the amount of iron ore used is large and it is easy to transport nearby. At present, the place where the iron ore is explored is in the mountainous areas near Zunhua and Jizhou Town, and the coal mine is near Zhongtunwei in Kaiping.

Officials of the Ministry of Industry believe that it is best to put it in Zunhua City, where there was originally a government-run iron factory, and there are many people who make a living from iron, and it should not be difficult to restore it now.

The craftsmen of the government-run iron smelting plant believed that the iron factory should be set up in a place where water transportation was convenient, so that iron ore and coal could be easily transported, pig iron could be easily transported out, and the iron factory could easily use water. Wang Chengen replied while remembering.