My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 340: Even the Crown Prince's Uncle Has Collusion with the Japanese?
Two weeks ago, in Penghu.

Penghu has a hot climate, unlike Beijing which has four distinct seasons.

Penghu has terrible weather, with several months of typhoon season every year, and the wind is so strong that it can almost blow houses away.

Penghu was plagued by many epidemics, and many people died in a foreign land without knowing why.

Penghu has many disadvantages, but it has one advantage: there are large tracts of unclaimed land.

Li Wenquan didn't actually enjoy much happiness in his childhood. Wuqing Earl Li Wei was very stingy with his family. He also grew up doing farm work and had a special feeling for the land.

But when he met these Fujianese people, he realized that his attachment to the land was at most a little, while these Fujianese people were fanatical about the land!
Li Wenquan organized a colonization team in Fujian to develop land in Penghu.

Through his connections with the Penghu County Government, Li Wenquan obtained a promise from the colonization and expansion group.

In Penghu, every settler registered under the Ming Dynasty could register 50 mu of land for reclamation and development.

In other words, each land reclaimer could claim up to 50 acres of land in Penghu. Once the land was developed into farmland after three years, it would belong to them, and the Penghu County Government would issue land deeds.

In fact, Li Wenquan didn't have much confidence at the beginning.

Cultivating fifty acres is no easy task. Penghu is located in the tropics, and many places are not wastelands, but rather virgin forests overgrown with thorns.

Even without forests, clearing land is extremely difficult.

To turn ordinary land into farmland, the land needs to be plowed several times, or even dozens of times.

They also need to remove the stones from the land and break up the hardened clods of earth.

There are still tasks to be done, such as composting and improving soil salinity.

Clearing land is an extremely arduous task, and in the early stages, there is almost no return on investment.

Li Wenquan estimates that it would take ten years to cultivate fifty mu of land per person.

However, Li Wenquan underestimated the Fujianese people's passion for land.

When the first group of settlers who went to Penghu with Li Wenquan returned to their hometown in Fujian and told their fellow villagers about the new policies in Penghu, these settlers brought along all their relatives from the village.

These Fujian pioneers worked with their entire families, the men plowing and breaking up stones while the women cooked and tended the fires.

Even in families lacking male members, women can still lift the wooden mallet used for ramming the earth and work under the scorching sun.

These Fujianese people work day and night, but there is still too much unclaimed land in Penghu.

Moreover, relying entirely on manual labor is extremely inefficient.

Seeing such enthusiasm, Li Wenquan simply gathered all the settlers together and, following the example of the railway public shares, established an organization called the Penghu Colonization Merchants Group.

Li Wenquan's initial idea was that Penghu was not like the capital, where powerful and wealthy people gathered, so he set the investment threshold lower, with ten silver dollars as one share.

Li Wenquan originally planned to raise a few thousand silver dollars to get some start-up capital.

Then, Li Wenquan, the crown prince's maternal uncle and a prominent Ming dynasty merchant, stepped forward to purchase oxen, farm tools, seeds, and slaves.

To Li Wenquan’s surprise, the colonists in Penghu showed great enthusiasm and were much richer than he had imagined, raising 50,000 silver dollars in one go!
Now that we've raised so much money, it's time to get down to business.

So Li Wenquan held a banquet at his own estate to mark the founding of the colonization and expansion business group, inviting the group's shareholders and Penghu's upper echelons to the banquet.

At the banquet, Li Wenquan also announced that he would travel north on a merchant ship in half a month to carry out the first trade activity of the colonization merchant group!
Li Wenquan planned to purchase a batch of iron farm tools and livestock at Zhigu Port, transport them back to Penghu, and then continue his journey to Southeast Asia, where he would purchase native slaves in Manila before returning home.

Of course, when heading north, Li Wenquan would also bring Penghu's specialty sugarcane wine and sugar, and before going to Southeast Asia, he would also bring a full load of Ming Dynasty silk, porcelain and tea.
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On May 15th, Li Wenquan, the executive director of the Penghu Colonization Merchants Group, was preparing for his departure the next day.

Just then, the steward suddenly came to report that Zhang Chun, the Provincial Education Commissioner of Penghu, was requesting an audience.

Li Wenquan was somewhat puzzled as to why Zhang Chun would come to visit him at this time, but he still went to greet Zhang Chun personally.

If he were just an ordinary provincial education commissioner, Li Wenquan, the crown prince's maternal uncle, wouldn't have been so enthusiastic.

However, Zhang Chun was Su Ze's disciple, and the Crown Prince even wrote a letter specifically asking Li Wenquan to take care of Zhang Chun.

However, Penghu is very large, and after Zhang Chun took office, he traveled between several colonization sites in Penghu.

Just recently, Zhu Juntang arrived in Tainan, and Li Wenquan wrote a letter asking Zhang Chun, Zhu Juntang's classmate, to come back and find out what was going on.

Unfortunately, Zhang Chun didn't make it in time, and Zhu Juntang returned to Japan after receiving the imperial decree.

Upon seeing Li Wenquan, Zhang Chun immediately bowed and greeted him:
"Sir!"

"Mingzhi (Zhang Chun's courtesy name), didn't I tell you to address me by my courtesy name last time? Why are you being so formal?"

Zhang Chun said in a serious tone:

“Your Highness, you are the heir of the Marquis of Wuqing, the Crown Prince’s maternal uncle. I dare not be disrespectful.”

Li Wenquan had no choice but to let him go.

Li Wenquan looked at Zhang Chun, wanting to know why he had come to visit him today.

Zhang Chun said:

“Your Highness, I have come today to request that the Colonization and Expansion Merchants Group allocate funds to build an elementary school in Tainan.”

"primary school?"

Li Wenquan recalled the incident mentioned in the newspaper.

It seems to be a school that recruits young children, specifically for their early education.

After primary school, there are preparatory courses and so on.

So it's a school.

Li Wenquan understood why Zhang Chun had come to visit him.

“Mingzhi (Zhang Chunzi), it’s not enough to just convince me, the CEO. Our Colonial Expansion Merchants Group is funded by shareholders, and how the money is used needs their approval.”

Zhang Chun smiled, pulled out a petition covered with signatures, and said:

"Upon hearing about the plan to establish a school, everyone was very enthusiastic. I have contacted several major shareholders, and they all support the establishment of the school. I have already persuaded most of the shareholders to sign this petition."

"Your Highness has been very busy lately, and I apologize for only being able to bother you today!"

"There's no need to worry about the government. I've already applied to the Penghu County government to build a school. The Ministry of Rites' official document says that the imperial court will subsidize half of the cost of primary schools that are voluntarily established in various places."

Hearing Zhang Chun say this, and with the shareholders all agreeing and the official procedures completed, Li Wenquan naturally had no objections.

So Li Wenquan took the pen from the servant and prepared to sign his name as well.

But Zhang Chun also said:
"But those garden owners said they wanted to build the school next to the Mazu Temple..."

"Those plots of land seem to belong to yours, Your Highness?"

Next to the Mazu Temple?
Li Wenquan recalled that on the high slope at the edge of the lighthouse construction settlement in Tainan Port District, the settlers who came with him insisted on building a Mazu temple next to it.

Is the school going to build a temple next to Mazu now?

Li Wenquan said nonchalantly:
“It’s a good thing to start a school. Tomorrow, have the person in charge accompany you to the patrol office to transfer the land to the government. Let’s build the school here.”

"Then on behalf of the children of Penghu, I thank the Crown Prince for his donation."

Zhang Chun sincerely thanked Li Wenquan and said, "Then I wish Your Highness a safe journey!"

But just as the two finished exchanging pleasantries, a county official suddenly arrived at Zhang Wenquan's residence.

Zhang Wenquan recognized the county official as a confidant of Wang Jiaping, the magistrate of Penghu.

The county official recognized Zhang Chun again and quickly said:

"Your Highness, Magistrate Wang requests your presence at the county office for a meeting."

Then the county official said to Zhang Chun:

"It's perfect that you're here, Supervisor Zhang. I was just wondering where to find you. Please come with me to the county office!"

Li Wenquan and Zhang Chun exchanged a glance, wondering why the county magistrate had summoned them for a meeting at this time.

However, this Penghu magistrate was a fellow student and friend of Su Ze, a member of the Hanlin Academy, and it is said that he requested to come to Penghu to serve as magistrate.

Li Wenquan and Zhang Chun were both people he couldn't afford to offend, so he followed the county official to the county government office.

Li Wenquan remembers that this place used to be the Penghu Patrol and Inspection Office.

Originally, Penghu was a deserted island, and the Penghu Patrol Office was a nominal institution, which was later placed under the Fujian government.

Later, after the Ming Dynasty opened up the seas, Li Wenquan came to Penghu to colonize the area. For the needs of security and economic management, the imperial court moved the Penghu Patrol Office back to Penghu and set it up in Tainan City.

Later, the imperial court felt that a single patrol office could not cope with the growing population of Penghu, so it abolished the Penghu patrol office and established a county in Penghu, under the jurisdiction of Fujian.

Li Wenquan estimates that, based on this development trend, Penghu may have to dismantle other counties, or even be upgraded to a prefecture.

The Penghu County Magistrate met the two men in the main hall of the reception room, indicating that the magistrate had summoned him urgently for official business.

Upon entering the main hall, Zhang Chun saw another familiar face: Hu Zhen, the head of the Penghu Office.

Zhang Chun was secretly surprised. County Magistrate Wang Jiaping, Registrar Hu Zhen, and himself, the Penghu Provincial Education Commissioner, were all the officials in Penghu.

With the addition of Li Wenquan, a relative by marriage, Wang Jiaping has gathered everyone from the entire Penghu officialdom today.

Li Wenquan and Zhang Chun bowed to Wang Jiaping, who was dressed in a green official robe.

Wang Jiaping said to the two of them:

"Gentlemen, this is Chief Hu from the Penghu Office. You should know him, right?"

The two then bowed to Hu Zhen.

Wang Jiaping said:
"I have invited you two to the county office today because of a letter from the Japanese Ministry of Communications."

Upon hearing the name of the Japanese Ministry of Communications, Zhang Chun trembled.

Zhang Chun felt extremely guilty because his teacher Huang Wenbin from the Imperial Academy and his classmate Zhu Juntang were shipwrecked and ended up in Japan. It was he who invited Zhu Juntang to Ryukyu for a vacation.

The last time Zhu Juntang came to Tainan with a Japanese ship, Zhang Chun was on official business in Mengjia. By the time he returned, Zhu Juntang had already sailed back.

Hu Zhen, the director of the Penghu Experience Office, who was also present, seemed somewhat distracted.

Huang Wenbin, the chief of the Japanese Ministry of Communications, was also an acquaintance of his.

Back when Huang Wenbin had just been transferred to the Office of General Affairs, I was the one who guided him through the work. I never imagined that I would be assigned to Penghu while Huang Wenbin is in Japan.

Hu Zhen felt that there was probably something evil in the Office of Transmission. The curse of the Office of Transmission was so terrifying that so many officials had not been able to escape it!

Hu Zhen put aside his thoughts and got down to business:
"This is a letter from the Japanese Ministry of Information and Communications. This news is of great importance. Please share your thoughts."

Li Wenquan and Zhang Chun accepted the letter from Hu Zhen. After reading it, their eyes widened in surprise!
Wang Jiaping sighed and said:
"Your Highness, you were one of the first to come to Penghu to settle and develop the area, and you had the most contact with merchants. Does the silver mountain mentioned in this letter really exist?"

The only three officials in Penghu with official ranks all focused their attention on this son of the Marquis of Wuqing.

Li Wenquan carefully chose each word as he spoke:
"The claim that Japan has a silver mine is probably true."

Hearing this, Hu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

As the chief of the Penghu Experience Office, he was not allowed to intercept Huang Wenbin's intelligence.

However, as a member of the Office of General Affairs, he was also responsible for this intelligence.

Once Huang Wenbin's intelligence is delivered, the imperial court will certainly inquire with the nearby Tongzhengsi (Office of Transmission) to determine whether the information in Huang Wenbin's secret letter is true.

If the Iwami Silver Mine truly existed, then even if the amount was wrong, the Tongzhengsi (Office of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices) wouldn't be considered to have "deceived the emperor."

Li Wenquan then said:

“I heard from Portuguese merchants who stopped in Penghu that Oda Nobunaga was indeed generous, importing large quantities of firearms from Portuguese merchants.”

"I initially thought this was just the nonsense of a Portuguese merchant. How could a mere military commander in Japan have such great wealth? But if Japan has a huge silver mine, then it's not surprising."

After listening to Li Wenquan's words, Magistrate Wang Jiaping said, "Your Highness, I have a matter to ask of you."

Li Wenquan immediately said:
"Magistrate Wang, please don't be so polite. Speak your mind."

Wang Jiaping said:
"Isn't Your Highness preparing to set sail? I would like to ask the Penghu Colonization and Trade Association to send a merchant ship to Japan."

"Japanese country?"

Li Wenquan frowned.

Wang Jiaping said:
"If what the Ryukyu Administration says is true, and Japan really has a large silver mine, then silver in Japan must be very cheap. I want to verify this. The only group in Penghu that can organize a fleet for long-distance voyages is the Crown Prince's colonization merchant group."

Li Wenquan said:
"It's not difficult to obtain nautical charts from Japanese ports, that's not a problem, but..."

Wang Jiaping said with a smile:

"Please speak, Your Highness."

Li Wenquan said:
"But what goods will you sell to the Japanese?"

Wang Jiaping said:
"Your Highness need not worry about this matter; I have already made preparations. Didn't the intelligence from the Japanese Ministry of Communications state that the Japanese daimyo spent a lot of money to buy firearms from the Portuguese? There are two hundred old-style muskets in the warehouse at the port now."

Li Wenquan exclaimed in surprise:

"Magistrate Wang, are you suggesting that I, the young master, should collude with the Japanese?"

Wang Jiaping said:
"Your Highness need not worry. These are all arquebuses from the late emperor's reign, and they were all collected from the common people. I have already reported this matter to the Fujian authorities."

During the war against Japanese pirates, a large number of arquebuses were lost to civilians, especially in the coastal areas of Fujian.

Wang Jiaping was indeed not lying to Li Wenquan; those two hundred bird guns were collected in Xiamen, across the strait from Penghu.

Wang Jiaping added:

"Director Hu and Supervisor Zhang are also here today, and they can also serve as witnesses for the young master. If anything goes wrong, this county will take full responsibility."

Hearing this, Li Wenquan didn't mince words and said:

"I wouldn't feel comfortable entrusting such an important matter to my subordinates; I'd better go myself."

(End of this chapter)