Lu Jiude only said a few words, indicating Emperor Chongzhen's attitude, but he had completely reversed the atmosphere in the hall. Originally, it was the Fujian officials on Cai Shanji's side who were afraid that the appeasement would fail and lead to another military disaster along the coast of Fujian.

But now, I am afraid that the conditions will be too much, so that the envoy sent by the emperor will leave with his sleeves up, and the one who fails to appease him will become the side of the pirate leader.

As a result, the lobby, which was originally full of people, suddenly fell silent, and everyone began to rethink the conditions they wanted to propose.

Looking at the scene that suddenly quieted down, Lu Jiude glanced at everyone and continued: "As for what this Zheng Leader proposed just now, His Majesty also has a preliminary plan for how to settle you after Zhao'an.

His Majesty said that the current maritime ban policy of the Ming Dynasty is out of date, and the opening of only one Fujian Yuegang is completely unable to meet the commercial needs of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and even Tianjin, ports open to maritime trade will be built, and Fujian's foreign trade ports will also be relocated from Yuegang to Zhongzuo, where conditions are more convenient. ”

Li Kuiqi couldn't help but interrupt Lu Jiude's words, and he asked a little eagerly: "Is Your Majesty going to open the sea ban?" However, only 88 ships were issued this year, and now that so many ports are opened, wouldn't it be even more difficult to get a ship guide in the future? Or how many more merchant ships does His Majesty plan to issue for overseas trade? ”

Lu Jiude waved his hand at Li Kuiqi, who stood up in a gaffe, and said with a smile: "This leader doesn't need to be in such a hurry, just sit down and talk slowly." His Majesty has decided to abolish the ship guidance system and replace it with a security deposit system. In the future, the Ming Dynasty no longer limited the number of ships engaged in overseas trade, nor did it stipulate the places where merchant ships could go for overseas trade. And as long as the merchant ship declares before departure, it does not have to be bound by the requirement to return to Daming within one year. ”

Zheng Zhilong frowned when he heard this, this new overseas trade policy not only harmed the interests of the Fujian gentry in monopolizing overseas trade, but also had a huge adverse impact on the pirate group.

Originally, Zheng Zhilong only needed to send people to watch the sea near Fujian's Yuegang, so that he could know all about the merchant ships leaving the port to trade, and he could also mobilize ships from the Taiwan base area to intercept these merchant ships at any time.

As Chongzhen said, the geographical location of Taiwan Island determines that the Fujian merchant ships across the sea have no way to secretly go south to Southeast Asia or north to Japan under Zheng Zhilong's nose.

Because the navigation technology of this era was still very bad, except for those European merchant ships, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty lacked the technology of ocean navigation. The captains of the Ming Dynasty basically use the near-shore voyage and the characteristic landmark memory as the direction of the navigation instructions.

In this era, if you find a good route, you will be passed on to future generations by these captains as a family heirloom, and you will not reveal half a word to outsiders. And those captains who rely on rote memorization of route signs will always run this one route, and if they deviate slightly from the route, they will not find their way at all.

As for Zheng Zhilong, who had been an interpreter for the Dutch, he had learned some European navigation knowledge in the days when he was working for the Dutch, and although he may not be qualified to cross the Pacific Ocean, there was no problem in controlling a Taiwan Strait.

Because Zheng Zhilong had some basic knowledge of navigation, his group could freely change courses in the Taiwan Strait without the risk of getting lost. And for those Fujian maritime merchants who did not dare to deviate from the route, it was a completely asymmetrical naval war.

But if the Ming Dynasty opened the coastal ports from Guangdong to Tianjin, in the face of such a long coastline, let alone Zheng Zhilong, even if he joined forces with the Dutch and the Spaniards, he would not be able to block the maritime trade of the Ming Dynasty. If Zheng Zhilong really forced the Fujian maritime merchants to go to sea in other regions, they would lose a stable source of wealth.

As a pirate, Zheng Zhilong knew very well that without money, he would not be able to gather men and increase ships. And men and ships are the basis for him to unify the sea power of this sea.

When Zheng Zhilong was entangled in the port that the Ming Dynasty was about to open, Zheng Cai opened his mouth and asked, "Gonggong Lu, what does this deposit system mean?" In addition, if the imperial court lifts restrictions on overseas trade, the number of merchants who trade overseas will increase, but after all, the markets in Japan and Manila are limited, will it cause merchants to compete for bargains and lose their money? ”

"Is this margin system, that is, in the future, ships below 200 materials will pay a deposit of 1,000 taels of silver, ships between 200-400 materials will pay 2,000 taels of silver, and ships above 400 materials will pay 3,000 taels of silver. As for whether the businessman you mentioned will lose money, as long as you do business, you will naturally make money and lose money, and the imperial court does not guarantee that overseas trade will make you money. Besides, if you dislike Japan and the Manila market is too small, you can go to the hometown of those Western merchants to do business, they can come to Daming, why can't we go to the West to see? ”

Lu Jiude's words seemed to give Zheng Zhilong a hint of something, so he opened his mouth and said, "Father-in-law Lu, this margin is too high, right?" Is this a year-long delivery, or is it a one-time delivery for the boat? And didn't the imperial court have a rule that it was forbidden to build big ships? ”

Zheng Zhilong's words immediately resonated with several subordinates, and they also said that the deposit was too high, and it would be almost as long as half of it was reduced and paid back once a year.

The words of several pirate leaders made Lu Jiude a little dumbfounded, and he asked a little strangely: "Do you think it is acceptable to pay half of the silver a year?" ”

Zheng Zhilong smiled and said to Lu Jiude: "Could it be that Your Majesty even gave the right to modify the conditions to your father-in-law?" If my father-in-law can settle down, I'll take this as the first condition. ”

Lu Jiude blinked his eyes for a long time and said regretfully: "It seems that you have misunderstood the meaning of the security deposit, which is to ensure that merchants who conduct overseas trade will not evade taxes and smuggle contraband. In case of violation, a part of the bond will be confiscated, as the case may be, and the entire deposit will be confiscated in the case of a particularly serious case, and the merchant's overseas trade will be disqualified. But if you strictly abide by the law and don't want to trade overseas, you can get your deposit back and go home. As for the ban on large ships, His Majesty has already intended to abolish it. His Majesty said that if you want to cross the sea, you need a big ship that is not afraid of wind and waves, and the larger the ship, the more economical the freight. ”

Zhong Bin, who was about to drink tea, suddenly choked on the tea and put it into his trachea, Zheng Zhilong was also a little embarrassed, and disguised himself as he picked up the teacup and lowered his head to drink tea.

Zheng Cai rolled his eyes and thought about it, and immediately complimented Lu Jiude: "We are all small people who have never seen much of the world, which makes my father-in-law laugh." Unexpectedly, His Majesty actually knew something about things at sea, and knew that the bigger the ship, the smoother the voyage, and sure enough, the Holy Ming was no more than the Son of Heaven. ”