Do you still have a monthly pass? Rollo is in dire need of support, woo, begging for a monthly pass

Confucianism's emphasis on agriculture is actually not unreasonable. China has always been a country with a large population and an agricultural country. The civil strife of all dynasties and dynasties either started with the feudal kings of the feudal towns or the hungry people who did not have enough to eat. Therefore, whether there is enough food is, to a certain extent, equal to whether the country is stable.

However, it is unreasonable to combine heavy agriculture with suppression of business, at least in the late Qing Dynasty, when there was an obvious surplus of labor, and no matter how much industry and commerce develop at present, there will be no one who will not be left to farm. It's okay for Zuo Zongtang to engage in intrigue and political struggle, and the level of governing the country seems to be like this.

Thinking of this, Zhu Jishi beckoned to the left military division, invited him to his side, and asked people to add him a chair and a pair of chopsticks. After Zuo Zongtang sat down, Zhu Jishi smiled and held his hand, looking at his heart.

"What the military advisor is worried about is what this king is worried about! Guangdong Province has been short of grain since the end of the Ming Dynasty and relies on Hunan and Jiangxi to transport rice and grain to the south. If we want to vigorously develop industry and commerce, and at the same time vigorously promote the prosperity of the mulberry silkworm tea industry, we will inevitably occupy a little fertile land, and the shortage of rice and grain in Guangdong will inevitably be even greater. In the event that the war in Hunan and Jiangxi is postponed and agriculture is abandoned, we in Guangdong may be short of grain......

But can we fill the stomachs of millions of people by promoting farming? In my opinion, it can't, the reason is very simple, there is too little flat land in Guangdong, and it is not fertile, and the land that can be cultivated has already been turned into farmland. According to the archives left by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Guangdong's farmland has reached more than 20 million mu, and there is really not much room for growth. Even if we barely reclaim some lean fields and terraced fields, we will not be able to increase much grain. So this is the problem of food shortage in Guangdong. It still has to be solved through trade! ”

The room was silent. Not only Zuo Zongtang was listening carefully. The wealthy businessmen of the Thirteen Lines also stretched out their ears, for fear of missing a word. Hearing Zhu Jishi's proposal to obtain food through trade, these people couldn't stop nodding.

They are different from Zuo Zongtang, they are really looking at Shijie carefully, and they may not know much about Europe and America, but they still know the situation in Nanyang.

This rice grain, if it can't come from Hunan and Jiangxi. I had to find it from Nanyang.

Zhu Jishi lightly tapped his fingers on the table and said quietly: "Trade, we should exchange what we have, and exchange what Guangdong has in abundance for what Guangdong needs, rather than blindly accumulating silver." And Guangdong is rich in ironware, porcelain, tea, silk and other things. What Guangdong lacked was rice, cotton, wool, machinery, brass, ...... These things are abundant in India, in the South Seas, and in Australia, and can be obtained through trade, and there is no need to force Guangdong to produce them themselves.

In addition, Guangdong's population is actually overpopulated. Thus since the end of the Ming Dynasty. Cantonese people have a tradition of going to Nanyang to make a living. Today, the Grand Duchy of Lanfang in Nanyang was established by the Cantonese people who went to Nanyang, and it is in other places in Nanyang. There are also a lot of Cantonese and Fujianese. At present, the porcelain, cloth, ironware, lacquerware, tea and other items exported to Nanyang by the Thirteen Lines are mainly sold to them. Therefore, the people of Fujian and Guangdong went to Nanyang to make a living, and the Ming court not only could not prohibit them, but also encouraged them, and recognized them as the people of the Ming Dynasty living abroad, and should establish embassies in various parts of Nanyang to provide protection and support to the overseas Chinese within their capabilities. If possible, we should also sign treaties with Western countries to protect overseas Chinese, so that our people can live and work in peace and contentment overseas. ”

Exporting population to the South Seas is actually Zhu Jishi's established policy. It is a vague policy between immigration and colonization. This Nanyang is on the lips of China, and it is really embarrassing for Westerners to take the lead. However, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was no Liliang that had expelled Western colonists from the South Seas with a gunboat army. Therefore, we can only use the method of exporting the population to engage in "soft colonization" first, and when we have the strength in the future, we can either use force or compare people's heads, and we can drive away the shili of foreigners......

However, this idea can only be buried in the bottom of his heart now, and even Zuo Zongtang cannot tell it, let alone these "comprador" bourgeoisie of the Thirteen Lines -- if the news leaks out and arouses the vigilance of Western countries, it will not be easy to deal with it.

"Your Majesty, should this Grand Duchy of Lanfang try to be incorporated into my Daming?" Zuo Zongtang didn't know if he understood Zhu Jishi's words, but he stroked his beard and thought for a long time, and suddenly pulled the topic to the Grand Duchy of Lanfang.

"This Lan Fang ......" Zhu Jishi smiled bitterly in his heart, why didn't he want Lan Fang to merge with Daming? But how did the British pass that hurdle? The current British Empire is still in full swing, and it is better not to offend if you can. "This Lan Fang and Da Ming are the country of the common monarch, and the time is not ripe to merge into one."

"However, Lanfang's court and the Ming court are not subordinate to each other, and it is inevitable that there will be disagreements in the future, if the king intends to colonize Lanfang in order to increase the strength of the Ming Dynasty, it is best to put the Lanfang court under the jurisdiction of the Ming court. In particular, Lanfang should not have an independent army and navy, otherwise there may be a disaster in the future......"

Great unification has always been admired by the Chinese people, and Zuo Zongtang is no exception. In his eyes, Lan Fangguo was just a province of the Ming Dynasty, and it was most appropriate to send a governor or governor to govern it. Now Lan Fang has his own court and army, and the heir to the throne of Lan Fang and the heir to the throne of the Ming Dynasty are not alone, so it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no second battle of Jingjing in the future!

So Zuo Zongtang has always wanted to find an opportunity to speak to Zhu Jishi and eliminate potential disasters in the bud.

Hearing Zuo Zongtang's words, Zhu Jishi chuckled and said: "I have been thinking about this matter for a long time, since the military advisor mentioned it, I might as well say it to the military advisor." At present, the conditions for the merger of Lanfang and Daming are not very ripe, and I plan to set up a governor's palace to govern Lanfang, and the governor's palace will be directly responsible to me, and the financial surplus of the governor's palace will be handed over to the palace treasury, and then the palace will be allocated to the treasury.

The army of Lanfang was all reorganized into the Ming army sequence and changed to the Lanfang Legion of the Ming Army, and the corps commander and officers at all levels were appointed by the Generalissimo of the Ming Dynasty. ”

At present, the Lanfang Chinese all consider themselves "Chinese people", who used to identify with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but now that the Ming Dynasty has restored the country, they naturally regard themselves as the people of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the abolition of the Grand Duchy of Lanfang and the establishment of the Governor's Palace will not produce any backlash in Lanfang, but it is very difficult to say whether the British will raise objections.

……

"Set up the Governor's Mansion of Lanfang? Is this to prepare for the Lamin merger? ”

Listening to Zhu Jishi talk about this matter, the general adviser of the Ming court, Robert. Churchill sighed a little helplessly. The interests of the British Empire in Lanfang can only be described as insignificant, and even if Lanming merges, there will not be much to lose, so it is not unacceptable. It's just that Zhu Jishi's attitude towards the British Empire is becoming more and more estranged, which really makes him a little worried.

"Jason, you first adopted a policy that went against the interests of the empire on the opium issue, and now you want to merge Lanfang under the protection of the British Empire into the territory of the Ming Kingdom, which will make it very difficult for us."

This "we" naturally refers to the British bigwigs who are more friendly to Zhu Jishi. There are still many people who hold this attitude in the UK, but not many in Hong Kong and Nanyang.

"Jason, can't you just make some concessions on opium?" It was Will who spoke. Hemming, after the "liberation" of Guangzhou, went to Hong Kong and had a secret conversation with his father-in-law, Sir Davis, and had just returned to Guangzhou. "The Tundi and Madison have already left for England, and it is very likely that they will lobby the British top brass, prompting them to adopt a policy of hostility towards the Ming and support for the Qing Dynasty."

Zhu Jishi shook his head resolutely, and looked at Qiu Fatzi with blazing eyes, "Robert, after a while, I hope that you can go to the United Kingdom as a representative of the Ming Kingdom, together with my right prime minister and foreign minister Liu Peng." ”

Luo Xiangmei has not returned to Europe yet, but the matter she negotiated with the British government seems to be outdated. Zhu Jishi was not only the Grand Duke of Lanfang, but also the King of the Ming Dynasty, and his kingdom was likely to have a population of 100 million, an area larger than that of mainland France, so it was necessary to send new envoys to Europe and the United States to negotiate with the foreign powers. And Liu Peng is the most suitable minister of the Ming Dynasty to undertake this task, so he will not wait for the Ming Dynasty to unify Guangdong, he will go to Europe. (To be continued......)