In addition to Chen Dexing and Huang Zhishen, there are also Ren Yijiang, Land Rover, Gao Da and Monk Liu. Ren Yijiang is the deputy minister, and he also serves as the secretary of the newly established Ministry of Communications. Land Rover is the secretary of the army, Gao Da is the secretary of the Admiralty, and Monk Liu has now also been transferred to the cabinet office as the secretary of the colonial department.

The Colonial Department was also a newly opened ministry and was responsible for the colonial development of the continents of Mingzhou, Oceania (discovered a year earlier), the African continent, and the islands of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It sounds like a big name, but the real power is very limited.

"It's also good to use some black slaves, because there is too much land and too little population under our colony, and many things we want to do but can't. For example, the plan to establish the Northeast Mingzhou Governor's Palace, and to build a fortress and port in the Northeast Mingzhou, is not known when it will be realized because no one is going to build a port and build a city. ”

Monk Liu took over the topic, and then talked about the stall in his hand, in his opinion, these colonies of the Ming Dynasty are too short of labor, and it is necessary to introduce some black slaves appropriately.

"If there are tens of thousands of black slaves in the Northeast Mingzhou Governor's Palace, many things can be done. If we can build ports and fortresses on the east coast of Mingzhou and reclaim some land, it will be easy for our people to settle down in the past, right? ”

"In addition, there are still many natives in Beimingzhou who do not obey the king, and our strongholds along the Mayan Sea have been attacked by them. The Mayan Coastal Governor's Office also wants to hire some mercenaries from Europa to suppress the natives of Northern Mingzhou. ”

"Not only are there few people in North Mingzhou, but we have fewer people in South Mingzhou, except for a stronghold in the saltpeter desert, there is not a single soldier in other places, if you want to ensure South Mingzhou, let alone dozens of fortresses, this also has to use people."

Monk Liu nagged for a long time. In fact, he was complaining about the lack of resources invested by the imperial court in Mingzhou - mainly because of the lack of manpower invested, and there was absolutely no shortage of gold and silver in Mingzhou! But with gold and silver alone, everything is still equal to zero. Now in the two continents of Nuoda, the manpower invested by the Ming Dynasty is only tens of thousands, mainly the people who dig for gold and silver, officials, and the dependents of military households. There are only more than 3,000 people who really do things for the imperial court on the Mingzhou Continent. This also includes the Heavenly Daoist Daoists.

In contrast, the Ming Dynasty invested most of its strength in the Southern Fan, Tianzhu Expedition and Western Expedition. The former has invested no less than 300,000 people, while the latter has more than 100,000 soldiers and nearly 200,000 people.

Huang Zhishen shook his head and said: "Mingzhou's affairs can't be rushed, we have to come step by step." The military department has drawn up a plan to strengthen the Atlantic Fleet first, as long as the Atlantic sea power is controlled, Mingzhou will definitely be ours. The second is to support Europa to resist Mongolia, as long as Europa and the Mongols keep fighting, they will not have the strength to care about Mingzhou's affairs. ”

Now the politics of the Ming Dynasty is "small government, big army". The governments at all levels are small in size and have limited powers, and they are still controlled by parliament. But the size of the army is very large, and it is deployed globally. There are three large fleets that control an ocean alone, and they are still being strengthened. The army was equally enormous, and several wars were being fought at the same time, thousands of miles away. In this case, the government has to listen to the army on many things.

The Admiralty Shangshu Gao also said: "The Navy's idea is to use the Atlantic Fleet to enclose Mingzhou first, and the development can be slowed down." After all, there is nothing but gold, silver and saltpeter at the moment. Mingzhou is also not of much use. It is better to pass a law to prohibit foreigners from entering Mingzhou. ”

"Don't let the foreigners go. How to develop Mingzhou? Who will do the coolies? Monk Liu asked.

"Then don't make a big development, anyway, you don't need it now, let's circle it first."

This is to treat Mingzhou as Manchuria. Chen Dexing thought to himself, but if a piece of land is not developed, when he wants to use it in the future, can he really use it immediately? It's a barren place. Can it be said that development is development?

Moreover, when the land of Mingzhou is really useful, who can guarantee that the people in the future will not be in a hurry for quick success?

"Mingzhou must be circled, but it can't be abandoned all the time, and the development that should be done still needs to be done." Chen Dexing paused. "There are six governor-general's offices that can be set up in Mingzhou: the Governor's Mansion of North Mingzhou, the Governor's Mansion of Central Mingzhou, the Governor's Mansion of Mayahai, the Governor's Mansion of Northeast Mingzhou, the Governor's Mansion of Southwest Mingzhou, and the Governor's Mansion of Southeast Mingzhou."

Deputy Prime Minister Ren Yijiang spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "No one, what's the point of the Governor's Mansion of the Light Pole?" If these governors' palaces are to be truly operational, a governor's palace must have at least tens of thousands of people who eat imperial food. Including officials, soldiers, Taoists, medical officers, and craftsmen. These tens of thousands of people can't all be singles, they also have to have family members, people to serve them, and someone to provide logistics. And there must be castles, ports, towns, mercenaries and slaves for us. This slave is really indispensable. ”

A governor's palace has at least 10,000 people who eat the imperial grain, plus family members, plus merchants, plus hired native troops. In the entire Mingzhou, these people alone cost two or three hundred thousand! So many people, how much infrastructure? How much to eat? How much land will be cultivated?

No one is a slave, tired to death, how can he farm and build?

All Han Chinese? Don't dream about this right now. How many Han talents are there now? And how many places can I go? Now the Han people who go to Mingzhou are either digging for gold and silver or being masters, who will go to farming? Who wants to be a coolie? Even if they are given land, they do not grow it themselves, but at most they manage the land as farmers. If they want to be coolies, they have to be paid more than digging for gold, and who can afford it?

Therefore, the problems encountered by Chen Dexing now are the same as those encountered by the Europa people in the past when they entered the Age of Discovery!

The world is too big, the population is too small, and the coolies are far from enough.

Chen Dexing shook his head, it seemed that these ministers of his own could not put forward any constructive suggestions.

"Since you don't have any good ideas, let's listen to the opinions of the experts in human resources."

Professionals in human resources? What kind of talent is this? Several ministers shook their heads, indicating that they did not understand.

"Xuan Selassie. Solomon! Chen Dexing waved his hand. A yellow-robed guard walked quickly out of the gate of the Zichen Hall in the Jiangdu Daming Palace. On the porch outside the door, a shivering white man with a black face was standing, and two yellow-robed guards stood behind him with horizontal knives in their hands.

This "human resources expert" from Ethiopia never dreamed that he would actually sell fifteen white slave girls into the court of the Ming Emperor, and also regarded a heavenly envoy with the status equivalent to a cardinal as a white slave girl, and said many insulting things in front of others......

Will it be burned to death? Will it be decapitated? Will it be sawn off the ass? Will...... Selassie. While thinking about all kinds of terrible executions, Solomon pushed and shoved into the conference hall of the Zichen Palace—not the kind of hall where the emperor Lao Tzu was high and the civil and military ministers were on either side, but a conference room with a long table and a circle of chairs, and small pieces of transparent glass inlaid in the windows. Sunlight came in directly through the glass on the windows, and the interior was very bright.

"Get on your knees!" Someone in Selassie. Solomon roared in his ears, and the black slave trader quickly knelt down and prostrated himself on the ground, not daring to look up. Although he is a "white aristocrat", in the Zagwe kingdom of East Africa, a "white aristocrat" like him who believes in Judaism is not worth anything at all, and any governor is the object that he, a slave trader, must desperately fight. And now, any one in this chamber is more noble than the king of the Zagwei Kingdom, especially the Ming Emperor, who is the real king of the world and the king of kings. That's a ruthless person who can make the Zagwei Kingdom about to be wiped out with a slight movement of his mouth.

"Solomon, lift up your head." A familiar and majestic voice in Selassie. Solomon's ears rang. This is the voice of Chen Dexing. Solomon raised his head tremblingly, and as soon as his eyes met Chen Dexing in a dragon robe, he immediately felt a dazzling light - this is the king of the world who can't look directly! He hurriedly lowered his gaze and stared only at his "white" hooked nose.

"This is a slave trader, who originally sold black slaves to Bai Yi, and now sells white slaves to Daming."

Chen Dexing pointed to the kneeling Solomon and said to the courtiers in the hall: "He has a specialization in art, his family has been selling slaves for generations, and he is most familiar with slave affairs, so we might as well ask him for advice." You can ask any questions you have, but I'll ask the first one first. ”

The ministers looked at each other, and then they all looked at the slave trader kneeling on the ground with very unfriendly eyes. Several of them had white slave girls in their families, so they naturally knew that there was a slave trade. Although they all like to raise a few white slave girls to play hand in hand, they do not have the slightest good impression of the slave traders who sell them...... Human trafficking is not a good person!

Chen Dexing asked: "Selassie, my Mingzhou Continent needs labor, a lot of cheap labor, do you have any way?" ”

"With black slaves." Selassie. Solomon replied without thinking.

"How do you get black slaves?" Monk Liu asked.

"Buy, if you want to transport slaves to Mingzhou, you need to buy them from the tribes along the coast of West Africa."

"Will they sell their people to us?" Monk Liu was stunned.

"Not their own, slaves they took from other tribes." Selassie. Solomon said, "Give them some swords, support them in waging war, and let them exchange slaves for weapons." Tens of thousands of able-bodied slaves a year were readily available. ”

Chen Dexing said again: "But I don't want black slaves to exist in Mingzhou for a long time. ”

"Then don't let them reproduce." Selassie. Solomon said, "Only male slaves were imported, and female slaves were strictly restricted." That's what the Great Cannibals did, and they sometimes used castrated black slaves. (To be continued......)