Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 238 If you don't want to get beaten, then obey (Part 1)

After Zhu Jue used both soft and hard tactics, Valdes finally signed the cooperative development agreement.

Next, they can seemingly develop the copper, rubber, and nitrate mines in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

However, development is not something you can just do whenever you want, nor can it be started with just a few words.

This development really requires a huge investment of manpower, resources, and equipment.

Moreover, the journey to the Americas is long, and a round trip by ship takes three or four months. They also need to transport personnel and equipment there first.

After the personnel and equipment were brought there, they still had to build port cities to facilitate the transfer of materials, consider the safety and confidentiality of personnel and equipment, and organize manpower for mining and smelting, etc.

The key is that he needs to assign a capable person to be in charge of the development.

Having manpower, resources, and equipment alone is not enough for this kind of thing. Take the Americas today, for example. Did the Spanish lack manpower? Did they lack resources? They even sent a lot of equipment over, but they still couldn't develop it.

There are countless examples like this in later generations. With the same amount of manpower, resources, and equipment, some people can make a fortune, while others lose everything and end up with nothing.

Therefore, this person in charge is very important. If there is no capable person in charge, it will be difficult to develop that area.

He chose Xu Guangqi as his capable assistant.

Xu Guangqi worked in Qiongzhou Prefecture for about half a year, and the area was almost fully developed.

At this point, he no longer needed to promote potatoes and sweet potatoes, because Sun Chuanting was organizing the military and civilians to frantically reclaim mountain land. At this time, the total planting area of ​​sweet potatoes and potatoes in Liaodong was more than ten million mu.

Meanwhile, Pan Yunteng, also known as Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, was also frantically reclaiming mountain land. In Hanzhong Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture alone, tens of millions of acres of mountain land had already been reclaimed. Henan Prefecture, Qinzhou, Nanyang Prefecture, Runing Prefecture and other places were also under development, and it was unknown how many acres of mountain land had been developed there.

In other words, by this autumn harvest, the Ming Dynasty will have no shortage of food, and at least the disaster victims will not go hungry.

As for the issue of traitors, that's not his concern.

He was just considering whether to submit a memorial to the emperor requesting permission to promote tea cultivation and sericulture in Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan when the emperor's edict arrived first.

The Emperor has summoned him to return to the capital immediately for an audience!
Without hesitation, he followed Wang Yingchao's fleet to the capital.

Before Zhu Jue could even see Wang Yingchao and Xu Guangqi's fleet, he was greeted by Zheng Hongkui and Wang Laipin's fleet.

On the 16th day of the seventh month, around 7:00 AM, Zheng Hongkui and Wang Laipin's fleet arrived at the North Outer City Canal Wharf.

Around 9:00 AM, Zhu Jue, somewhat impatiently, arrived with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others.

At this time, the canal wharf on the east side of the outer city of the north was already full of 1,600 Zhiyuan merchant ships, while the thirty Weiyuan warships did not even have a wharf to dock and could only be lined up neatly to one side.

On the dock, the able-bodied men carrying goods were moving copper ore, raw rubber, and saltpeter like ants carrying food.

Lu Xiang-sheng, Song Ying-xing, Song Ying-sheng, Yuan You, and others had already arrived upon hearing the news. They seemed to be chatting animatedly with Zheng Hong-kui and Wang Lai-pin on the dock in the middle.

As soon as Zhu Jue stepped onto the dock, everyone rushed forward to pay their respects.

He nodded slightly, then asked, "Hongkui, how much saltpeter did you bring back?"

This family wasn't prepared at all.

Zheng Hongkui said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I really don't know how efficient they are at mining saltpeter. It's such an important resource, but they don't seem to care about it at all. It seems like the amount they mine is just enough for their own use."

I gave their governor an extra 10,000 taels of silver, and only then did that guy load nearly 200,000 catties of saltpeter from his stockpile onto our ships. We didn't even fill a single ship.

However, their governor said they would organize more manpower to mine it, and they should be able to provide us with two million catties of saltpeter on the next trip.”

Twenty catties of saltpeter would be barely enough to make some gunpowder, but it wouldn't even be enough to make fertilizer.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly, then asked, "What about refined copper ore and raw rubber? How much did they prepare this time?"

Zheng Hongkui explained in detail, "They prepared over 20 million catties of refined copper ore, enough to fill one hundred of our medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships. They also prepared tens of millions of catties of rubber, enough to fill about fifty Zhiyuan merchant ships." These guys, over 20 million catties of refined copper ore seems like a lot, but that's not copper. Even if the quality of the refined copper ore over there is high, with a copper content of over 20%, it can only be refined into a maximum of about 5 million catties of copper.

They essentially took over the copper smelting job from someone else.

As for the hundreds of thousands of taels he saved, what would he do with that money?

He wants copper!
As for rubber, even tens of millions of kilograms in one trip wouldn't be enough. It would only be enough for them to make steam engines, boilers, and ships. It wouldn't even be enough to make shoes. Moreover, rubber has many other uses.

The Spanish are incredibly inefficient. Fortunately, they've reached an agreement on collaborative development.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and said, "The Spanish are too inefficient. We won't need them to mine copper, saltpeter, or smelt raw rubber anymore."

I have already reached an agreement with them. From now on, we will send our own people to develop copper mines, saltpeter mines, and extract raw rubber. They can just take a cut of the profits.

We also need to make some adjustments to the ocean-going fleet. From now on, the Zhiyuan merchant ship will be operated by the officers and soldiers of the Southeast Navy, while the officers and soldiers of the Beijing Navy will operate the Weiyuan and Zhenyuan warships.

"Hongkui and Laipin, you've both worked hard for so long. It's perfect timing; we still need to gather manpower, build equipment, and equip more Zhiyuan merchant ships and Weiyuan warships. All of this will take time. You should go home and rest first."

what?
Shall we go home and rest now?
Upon hearing this, Zheng Hongkui cautiously said, "Your Majesty, the payment for this goods is still on the Weiyuan warship. Should we move it to the Imperial Treasury first?"

"Furthermore, Your Majesty, if we take a full ten days or so of rest, it will be August by then. By the time we return, the Inner Sea will probably be frozen over, and the goods will have to be unloaded at Lingshan Guard. From Lingshan Guard, we'll have to use horse-drawn carriages to get them to the capital."

Oh, I forgot to put the payment into the internal warehouse.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue asked directly, "How much real gold and silver did you bring back this time?"

Zheng Hongkui explained, "Your Majesty, the amount of money brought back this time is about the same as last time. The gold is still over three million taels, and the silver is still over two million taels."

It seems the Spanish have become lazy again. They probably think that as long as they have enough money, they don't need to work hard to expand the production of gold and silver.

These guys are so inefficient at mining and smelting real gold and silver, you really can't count on them.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue waved his hand and said, "Cheng'en, take some men to unload the payment from the Weiyuan warship and take it to the inner treasury."

Upon hearing this, Wang Chengen immediately bowed and left.

Zhu Jue then explained in detail: "Hong Kui, you don't need to worry about the ice-covered inland sea."

I have already told Liangfu that before the ice freezes this year, we will develop a batch of icebreakers specifically for breaking ice and dredging floating ice. At that time, we will naturally open up a waterway for you in the inland sea.

Furthermore, we are also going to build a large seaport terminal at the mouth of the Haihe River, where you can unload the goods you bring directly.

As for land transportation, I am having Chang Geng develop a railcar. When that happens, horses will pull the railcar, and it won't take long to transport tens of millions of catties of goods from the mouth of the Haihe River to the capital.”

They no longer lack money, and he's ready to start large-scale development.

He also plans to address the issue of land transportation.

However, you don't get on the train right away.

It's unknown how long it will take to develop that thing; it's definitely too late this year, and it might not even be available next year.

This is causing too much delay.

He plans to first develop a batch of railcars.

The so-called railcar is basically a freight car with iron wheels on top, without a locomotive, pulled by horses one by one.

These railcars are actually useful, but hauling goods is only one aspect; the key is mining.

Nowadays, the most time-consuming part of mining is hauling the ore out of the mine. If these railcars were laid, miners could just dig without having to haul it, which would increase efficiency by at least ten times.

(End of this chapter)