Ming East India Company

Shirano said without hesitation:

"Don't worry, I will buy your families from him."

After deducting the silver distributed to the participants and the transportation costs paid to Cheng Keqin, Baiye had a surplus of at least 800,000 taels of silver from the Battle of Ryukyu.

Zhang Gu Zhang estimated that such a worthless garrison household would only be worth a few dozen taels of silver at most, and with the Bai family's strength, it wouldn't be difficult to find a few dozen street urchins in the Suzhou and Hangzhou area to "supplement" Zhang Yan Yu.

After all the problems were solved, there was still one problem that could not be avoided: how to solve the problem of the Ryukyu King.

The Bai family members certainly couldn't become the kings of Ryukyu, as the court would suspect them of plotting a rebellion overseas. But finding just anyone wouldn't work either, not to mention the fact that they had to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty every two years, which was something most people couldn't do.

After much thought, Bai Ye decided to pull Zheng Jiong out of the box and make use of him.

……

For Zheng Jiong, the former Ryukyu Tang Eiji, the past month has been a rollercoaster of life.

Tang Rongsi was perfectly fine at first, but after a trip to Jin Guiren City, he inexplicably became a prisoner.

Then he witnessed the "unprecedented upheaval" in Ryukyu. The Sho Dynasty, which had ruled Ryukyu for hundreds of years, collapsed in an instant, and a Ming Dynasty maritime merchant family became the new masters of Ryukyu.

Zheng Jiong's mood also underwent very complex changes during this period.

At first, he was very resentful when he was captured by the Bai family's expeditionary force, but after witnessing the downfall of the Shang family dynasty, he began to sincerely rejoice that he had jumped ship in time.

However, in the past few days, he has become uneasy again. The battle is over, and as a "traitor," shouldn't he be rewarded?

At the very least, they should be sent back to their hometown to eke out a living!

As a result, although the Bai family ostensibly gave him a horse to ride and money to spend, they still strictly controlled his personal freedom.

In desperation, Zheng Jiong began writing a letter of confession to Bai Ye every few days, begging for surrender, but all of them went unanswered...

"Commander Zheng, the young master requests your presence."

Zheng Jiong's heart sank; what was bound to happen had finally arrived.

Your life will be decided within the next hour.

In the main hall of the Ryukyu Palace, Shirono stood with his back to the door, casting a long shadow in the twilight.

"Greetings, Your Excellency." Zheng Jiong didn't know how to address Bai Ye. Although he knew that the pirates called Bai Ye their Lord, he wasn't sure if he was qualified.

"Commander Zheng, how have you been lately?" Bai Ye's voice was extremely gloomy.

Zheng Jiong bowed and said cautiously:

"Thanks to the angels' favor, I've been eating and sleeping well lately, and everything is fine."

Then came a long silence. Zheng Jiong wanted to ask Bai Ye how to deal with him, but he swallowed the words back.

"Commander Zheng has been in charge of the Tangrong Bureau for many years; I wonder if he has any knowledge of the Ryukyu Kingdom's treasury and taxation?"

Zheng Jiong nodded repeatedly:

"I understand, I understand."

"In that case, write it down!" Shirono said coldly.

The guard then presented paper and pen.

Zheng Jiong knew that the other party was testing him, so he quickly wrote down everything he knew.

Baiye picked up Zheng Jiong's confession and checked it one by one. It detailed every aspect, including Ryukyu's annual tax revenue, foreign trade revenue, and the expenses of the Shang Dynasty during Zheng Jiong's many years as an official.

Bai Ye stared for a while, then turned around:

"Commander Zheng, haven't you omitted something from this calculation?"

"No, no," Zheng Jiong waved his hands repeatedly, "Everything I know and understand is written on this paper."

"Is that so? Then may I ask what kind of gifts our Great Ming Dynasty gives to Ryukyu every year?"

According to the established system of the Ming Dynasty, tributary states would generally receive a return gift equivalent to several times the value of the tribute goods, in order to show the magnanimity of the court.

However, in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, as the imperial court moved the tribute mission from the capital to Fuzhou, the Ryukyu envoys could no longer meet with the emperor. The rewards were also directly distributed by local officials in charge of maritime trade.

Without the emperor's "personal supervision," local Ming officials began to manipulate the returned gifts.

Every time Ryukyu envoys arrived, they would arbitrarily lower the prices of tribute gifts to outsiders, while exaggerating the prices to their superiors in order to obtain more gifts in return. All the extra money was pocketed by the officials of the Maritime Trade Office.

However, since Ryukyu could use the opportunity of paying tribute to conduct "trade by imperial decree," the Ryukyuans turned a blind eye to the exploitation by Ming officials.

By the time Zheng Jiong took office as the Tang Rong Si, the return gifts had basically dropped to zero.

However, by sheer coincidence, Zhang Juzheng came to power and began to rectify official corruption, which led to a temporary improvement in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, and the return gifts originally issued to Ryukyu were restored to normal.

This aroused Zheng Jiong's greed. He embezzled the gifts from the Ming Dynasty and then reported to the King of Ryukyu that the gifts from the Ming Dynasty were still zero. He even told his family that the embezzled wealth came from foreign trade.

Throughout history, Tang Rongsi had used tribute to engage in some private business on the side, and his family believed his claims without question.

It can be said that no one else in the entire Ryukyu Kingdom knew about this matter except him.

Even those in the Ming Dynasty who weren't officials of the Maritime Trade Office wouldn't have known such secret details.

That's why he dared to hide something when Shirane asked him to explain the financial situation of Ryukyu.

Now that Bai Ye could see through his secret at a glance, Zheng Jiong almost wondered if mind-reading really existed in this world.

Zheng Jiong was so frightened that his face turned deathly pale, and he hurriedly knelt down and begged for mercy:

"Your Excellency, I know I was wrong, please spare my life!"

"I just saw the angels ransack the homes of all the wealthy and powerful people in Shuri City, and I thought that if I ended up in the same situation, I could at least save some money for my retirement."

He then took out a key from his person:

"There is a cellar in my backyard. I exchanged these gifts for silver in the Ming Dynasty at that time. Over the years, they have totaled about 50,000 taels of silver, which I have offered to His Excellency the Angel. From then on, I have no more secrets."

Bai Ye couldn't help but laugh when he heard this:

"Commander Zheng, we've practically plundered the entire Ryukyu region, and we only got a little over a million. You alone embezzled fifty thousand. You even accused Xiang Kezhi, the supervisor of Beishan, of slandering you. If you ask me, he was absolutely right to kill you!"

"The angel is right, he is right."

"However, Commander Zheng, you've misunderstood. I didn't come here today for that matter."

"What do you want, angel? Speak."

"Now that Ryukyu has lost its king, shouldn't a new king be appointed? Otherwise, what will happen to the biennial tribute system?"

Zheng Jiong very obediently kowtowed his head to the ground:

"Long live Your Majesty!"

In his view, this was Hakuno asking him to "show his loyalty".

But to my surprise, Shirane just smiled faintly:

"Commander Zheng has misunderstood again. This new King of Ryukyu is none other than you, Zheng Jiong."

"ah"……

Zheng Jiong couldn't believe his ears. Just a moment ago he was a prisoner, and now he was going to become the King of Ryukyu?