Wang Xinyu only stayed in Singapore for one day, and the next morning, he took Zheng Jing and Zheng Xi on a catamaran clipper to Hindu, which is located at the mouth of the Greater Jinsha River.

With a voyage of more than 2,000 kilometers, the catamaran sailing ship arrived in just two days and two nights. The fast boat arrived at the mouth of the Dajinsha River, and under the guidance of the pilot boat, sailed into the mouth of the river and headed towards Xingdu City. Coming to the river here, Zheng Jing and Zheng Xi both doubted whether they had returned to China! On the river, there are almost all Chinese-style ships sailing back and forth, and occasionally you can see a few foreign ships, which are also Burmese ships, which are also the style of oriental-style ships.

"Why aren't there any Tessie ships here to trade?" Zheng Jing asked.

Wang Xinyu replied: "Maybe Your Majesty doesn't like the Taixi people, such a good port, it is really a waste not to vigorously develop foreign trade!" ”

It is true that Yongli does not like those Western-style soft sailing ships equipped with a lot of cannons to enter his capital, so the port of Hindu prohibits foreign ships from entering, and Hindu's foreign trade relies on Daming's own ships to transport it to Shalian, which is more than 100 kilometers away, and trades with the East India Company, which not only costs more transportation costs, but also makes money for foreigners in vain. Speaking of which, the tradition of the Ming Dynasty is very backbone, and it will never bow to foreigners. Because of this, Yongli also does not like to see foreign ships dangling in front of him all day long, so he simply forbids foreign ships to enter the mouth of the Dajinsha River.

Wang Xinyu had deals with the British East India Company, the Portuguese, and even the Dutch, allowing foreigners to enter the upper reaches of the Dajinsha River to mine minerals. In this way, these foreigners can only go to Salian first, and then take the ships of the Nanyang Ming Army or the Jin King Ming Army to go upriver from the Dajinsha River to exploit Burmese minerals.

Getting closer and closer to the Hindu City, Zheng Jing and Zheng Xi saw that the construction of the Hindu City was no worse than Singapore, and Zheng Jing sighed again: "I can't imagine that this place is later than the construction of Singapore, and such a big city has been built in such a short time!" ”

Zheng Xun asked, "Was this also built with Tartar captives?" ”

"This city was not built by Tartar captives, but by Burmese captives and Annamite captives. However, there are also many Han people here. The king of Jin brought tens of thousands of Han people from Bamo, plus the soldiers of the king of Jin and the king of Gongchang, the population here has reached more than 100,000, and a big city will soon be built. Wang Xinyu explained.

The catamaran clipper, which has the characteristics of the king of the South China Sea and hangs the flag of the Qiongzhou military marshal, has just sailed into the mouth of the Dajinsha River, and someone has already reported to Li Dingguo.

The catamaran sailed slowly on the Dajinsha River and docked at the Hindu pier.

On the wharf, there were already officers and soldiers standing under the banner of King Jin, and when they saw the ship docking, the gongs and drums on the wharf were noisy. Firecrackers rang out, and the Jin King and Ming Army held a huge welcome ceremony. However, King Jin himself did not come to greet him personally, after all, his throne was one level higher, and he was an elder, so it was impossible to go to the dock to greet him in person.

It was Mu Zhongxian, the Duke of Mu Guo, who came to the dock to greet him in person, although he had already been mentally prepared, but when he saw the three kings coming to the capital at the same time, Mu Zhongxian was still taken aback by the momentum of the three kings.

Seeing Wang Xinyu and the others get off the boat, Mu Zhongxian stepped forward and saluted: "The prince of the small country greets the three princes!" ”

"No excuses!" Wang Xinyu said. "Let's go to the Jin King's Mansion first?"

"Yes!" Mu Zhongxian arched his hand and said, "Prince Jin knows that you three princes are coming, and he has already prepared a banquet in the mansion. ”

Hindu is completely different from Singapore, and the city of Singapore has no city walls. Hindu, on the other hand, is surrounded by city walls. The pier is set up outside the city, and after leaving the pier, you can reach the city gate through an avenue. There is also an inner city in the Hindu city. The inner city is surrounded by a specially dug moat, and there is also an imperial city inside the inner city, which is a bit like a small capital. The outer city of Hindu. It was the garrison of ordinary residents, merchants, and general armies; The inner city was inhabited by civil and military officials such as the King of Jin and Shoufu. The area of the imperial city is not large, in fact, it is not as large as the royal palaces of some feudal states.

Walking into the city, the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty is relatively prosperous, the streets in the south of the outer city are full of shops on both sides, and the prosperity is not lost to Singapore, and even compared with Suzhou, Hangzhou and other big cities in China! There are fewer foreigner-owned shops than Singapore, but the streets are much more lively because of the population base. Hindu has a population of 120,000, while Singapore currently has less than 60,000.

There is also a lively Jiaofang Street in Xingdu, which is built in imitation of the Qinhuai River in Jiangning.

But Wang Xinyu saw that there were churches and Westerners in the Hindu City, and he was very puzzled. He had poor knowledge of history, and he did not know that Yongli was actually a Catholic and had hired Portuguese mercenaries. Therefore, although Yongli refused foreign ships to enter the Hindu directly, it did not refuse foreigners to come to the Hindu, which also provided convenient conditions for the British and Portuguese to develop the upper reaches of the Dajinsha River.

When the group came to the Jin Palace, Li Dingguo was already standing at the door to greet them.

"Xiao Wang has seen the prince!" Wang Xinyu, Zheng Jing and Zheng Xi saluted Li Dingguo at the same time.

Zheng Jing finally met Li Dingguo, a national hero who was known as the two pillars of the Southern Ming Dynasty along with his father. Although Zheng Chenggong was sorry for Li Dingguo before, later, Zheng Chenggong also reflected on himself. Zheng Jing also admires Li Dingguo's two famous kings and their hard work to support the endgame.

Li Dingguo set up a banquet to entertain the three county kings. The matter of the three kings coming to the capital had a great impact, and Bai Wenxuan should also come, but because Bai Wenxuan was wary of Wu Sangui in Bamo, he was unable to attend. Although the Ming army had secretly signed an agreement with Wu Sangui, they were not at ease with Wu Sangui, whether it was Li Dingguo or Bai Wenxuan, and they still needed strength to avoid Wu Sangui's sudden turn of face. In fact, Wu Sangui coveted the Ba Mo Tobacco Factory and the Eight Banners Special Supplies Factory, if it weren't for the fear that he would suffer heavy losses if he sent troops to attack him, I'm afraid Wu Sangui would have found an excuse to occupy Ba Mo a long time ago.

After three rounds of drinking, Wang Xinyu asked: "The commerce of this Xingdu City is still quite prosperous, I wonder if the imperial court has collected commercial taxes?" ”

Li Dingguo replied with a smile: "The commercial tax must be collected, and we don't grow much food, and we don't collect commercial tax, how can we live with the civil and military officials, the army and the people?" ”

Since this is the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, many merchants have more or less such a relationship with the court officials. However, Wang Xinyu heard before he came that it was much better than the previous practice of the Ming Dynasty, at least Yongli could receive commercial taxes.

In the past, during the Chongzhen period. The commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty were not confiscated, but they all went into the private pockets of the officials through the relatives of the government. There are transportation taxes in various places, and those that should not be collected must be set up with cards. Therefore, the local people who can engage in business are all gentry and officials, and ordinary people can only be responsible for and retail, otherwise the taxes paid on the road can make him bankrupt. Therefore, during the Chongzhen period, the emperor was so poor that his dragon robe was patched, but the officials and gentry were so rich.

In the previous curse water difficulty, almost all the officials around Yongli were killed, especially a group of people led by the traitor Ma Jixiang were killed. That reckless white is equivalent to helping Yongli clean up a batch of filth.

Now the officials around Yongli, in addition to the people of King Jin and King Gongchang, are a group of officials of the Guangxi court of the former Southern Ming Dynasty brought back from Annan by the first assistant Guo Zhiqi. For these people, the king of Jin can control them, and the profiteers do not dare to evade taxes through the channels of officials. Once a profiteer bribes a corrupt official is found out by Li Dingguo, he will not hesitate to behead his family.

As for the profiteering industries such as tobacco and glass manufacturing, they are directly controlled by King Jin.

The Yongli court did not produce its own grain, and all the grain was supplied or traded by the Nanyang Company, but the huge profits from commercial activities made the Yongli court very rich. There is no need to grow your own food at all.

Li Dingguo also said: "Your Majesty also built a cigarette factory in Hindu, which was opened by the Son of Heaven with his own silver. The tobacco sales here are very good, although not as good as the Ba Mo Tobacco Factory that traded with Wu Sangui, but only the sales of cigarettes in the Hindu and the Mon areas of southern Myanmar make a profit. It is enough for all the expenses of the imperial court and civil and military officials. ”

In fact, judging from the current situation, Xingdu is a court here, but there are another group of important officials in Qiongzhou, such as Fang Yizhi, Wang Fuzhi and others in Qiongzhou. Soon after. These officials will be moved to Hangzhou, and the center of gravity of the Nanyang Ming army will gradually shift from Qiongzhou to Hangzhou.

The next morning, I will go to the pilgrimage to the Holy God, and it will be the fourth watch. Wang Xinyu and the others got up to change their clothes, changed into python robes, and went to the palace.

The so-called imperial city is only a little larger than the Guiwang Mansion when Zhu Youlang was in Guangxi before, and there is only one more city wall. This imperial city covers an area of just over 30 acres, which is too small compared to the Forbidden City, which covers an area of more than 1,000 acres. But although the sparrow is small, it enters from the outer city gate, passes through the urn city, and after entering the inner city gate, there is a small square in front, and then it is the Chengtian Palace, which is the place where the Yongli Dynasty went to court.

The Fengtian Hall of the last dynasty is really pitifully small, compared to the Huangji Hall of the Forbidden City (known as the Huangji Palace, changed to the Taihe Hall in the Qing Dynasty) to only one-tenth of the size, it is really a veritable ******.

When Wang Xinyu came to the main hall and waited, there was Shoufu Guo Zhiqi standing in front of him.

"Lord Wang!" Guo Zhiqi was still very grateful to this life-saving benefactor, so he said hello.

"Xiangye!" Wang Xinyu also returned the salute.

The civil and military officials who were waiting under the Great Hall also came up one after another to greet Wang Xinyu. Because Wang Xinyu made a contribution to saving Yongli and rescued a group of officials who were detained by Annan, he had become the first hero of the Yongli court at this time.

It was easy to wait for the time of the last dynasty, and the civil and military officials walked into the main hall and divided into two rows. On the side of the civil official, Guo Zhiqi was naturally the first, and Li Dingguo was the first on the military general's side. As the eunuch shouted the order, the two rows of civil officials and military generals knelt down and bowed: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”

"Zhong Aiqing is flat!" Yongli Road.

Everyone stood up, and Yongli looked at Wang Xinyu again: "Wang Aiqing, you are loyal and courageous, first entered the south of the Yangtze River with Yanping, defeated Jiannu, and then made Zheng Jing and Zheng Zheng attack two Aiqing turn into jade silk, and at the same time defeated the invasion of Qiongzhou Jiannu, and killed Hong Cheng Chou, it can really be said that I am the great blessing of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

Wang Xinyu hurriedly replied: "This is all thanks to Your Majesty Hongfu, the King of Jin and the King of Yanping and the Shangguan Yin Yin teaching, and the ministers dare not speak out!" ”

Yongli was very happy: "Wang Aiqing has made great contributions, I don't know how to reward him?" ”

Wang Xinyu replied: "Your Majesty, the position of the king of Yanping County has been given to Zheng Cong. Zheng Jing was originally the son of the world, although he made mistakes, but after all, he was the eldest son of the king of Yanping, and this time I entered the south of the Yangtze River, defeated the Tartars, recovered Hangzhou and other places, and the army of the king of Yanping made the greatest contribution. Weichen is Zheng Jing's brother-in-law, and Zheng Cong, the king of Xinyanping, also intercedes for his eldest brother. I also hope that His Majesty will forgive Zheng Jing and not trace his mistakes. ”

Yongli said: "Quasi-play!" ”

After retiring from the dynasty, Yongli summoned Wang Xinyu and Li Dingguo into the imperial study.

"Wang Aiqing! I heard that you still have something to do, and everyone is so mixed that it is inconvenient to say it. There are no outsiders here, so Wang Aiqing just spoke. "Yongli seems to be in a particularly good mood.

"Weichen has a map to offer to His Majesty, as long as Your Majesty looks at it, you will know!" Wang Xinyu said.

"Bring it in!"

Wang Xinyu hurriedly took off the paper tube from his back, took out the world map from it and spread it out on the desk. He pointed to the location of China on the map and said: "Your Majesty, this is our Ming Dynasty, but it has just fallen into the hands of the Tartars!" ”

Yongli was taken aback: "I have thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, just a little big?" The world's oceans are too big, aren't they? ”

"Two-thirds of this world is the ocean! To the west is the Taixi countries, and to the north were the original Mongolian tribes, but now they have been eaten up a lot by the Rakshasas, who already border the Tartars! To the south is the South Seas, and to the southeast, is a large piece of terra nullius; The two continents to the east are also borderlands. Wang Xinyu pointed to the map and said.

Yongli was even more surprised, and his eyes widened: "Borderland? There are so many borderlands in the world? It's much older than my Daming! ”

"Your Majesty! Exactly! So Weichen thought, let Zheng Zheng, the king of the Eastern Capital, and Zheng Jing, the original son of the king of Yanping, occupy these borderless lands, and with these territories, we will not worry about not having strong cavalry! Although Weichen has a strong naval division and good infantry combat effectiveness, he can only fight with the Tartars in the mountainous areas of the southern water network. If you reach the northern plains, the foot soldiers will not be able to fight against the Tartar cavalry! The Tartars can't run, and we can't catch up; If we can't beat it, we can't outrun the Tartars! To go north to the Central Plains, you also need a strong cavalry! Wang Xinyu said. To tell the truth, in the south he was sure of victory over the Qing army. However, in the Northern Plains, the Ming army would be very passive, and he was not sure that he would defeat the Qing army in the Northern Plains.

Yongli asked: "Doesn't it mean that after Jiannu entered the customs, the combat effectiveness declined quickly, and the Eight Banners were no longer to be feared?" ”

Wang Xinyu replied solemnly: "That's just the Eight Banners of Ruo, the Tartars still have an elite army outside the pass, and they have not entered the customs!" Now it is even more impossible to enter the customs, they have to deal with the Rakshasas who have already appeared in the north! (To be continued.) )