I

Nanjing.

When the Dutch envoy Matthies came here, he had the urge to prostrate and kneel down in an instant.

On the 20-meter-high city wall, there are three-story towers built. The height of the building is nearly 30 meters, which makes Matheis feel insignificant as a mortal.

Miracle, this is God's miracle left in the world!

Matais has been to Guangzhou and Fuzhou, and he is still staying in Hangzhou this time. The above three cities are not as shocking as Nanjing City. Matthies never even dreamed that such a city could appear in the world.

The embassy was brought into the city, shoulder to shoulder with the crowd, making them feel like boats in the sea.

The population of this city is probably larger than the entire Netherlands, right?

After being arranged to stay for a few days, Matais was finally allowed to meet Zhao Han.

"Great King," Matthias saluted respectfully, "On behalf of His Excellency the Governor of Batavia of the Dutch East India Company, I have come to negotiate with you, hoping to properly resolve the dispute between the two parties."

Zhao Han asked blankly, "I heard that you took my horse off?"

Matheis replied: "Your Majesty's war horses have been properly transported to Batavia, and are taken care of by very professional horse breeders. When I left Batavia, only 41 horses died. God will bless them. "

"Tell me, why are you willing to pay me back?" Zhao Han didn't bother to go around.

Matais laughed and said, "After deducting the deposit you paid to the Dutchman, you will be charged 60 taels of silver per horse."

For the second batch of horse breeds, Zhao Han paid a deposit of 10,000 taels of silver in advance.

As a result, it was transported halfway and was robbed by the Dutch.

If the Dutch could transport the horse breeds to Shanghai and only charge 60 taels of silver for each horse, Zhao Han would pay much less for the horses.

This is the Netherlands taking the initiative to release goodwill, obviously wanting to exchange for some benefits.

Zhao Han asked, "Does Malacca belong to the Netherlands?"

"It's coming soon," Matthies said, "The Netherlands has blocked the Strait of Malacca, and has invaded the outer city of Malacca, and is surrounding and bombarding the castle of Malacca."

In order to seize the Indian colonial stronghold, the Netherlands recruited thousands of mercenaries this time, including Swedish mercenaries, German and Swiss mercenaries.

Portugal has colonized the East for more than a hundred years and has made too many enemies.

Also as a colonist, the Netherlands is allies everywhere. Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, Malaya...the countries in these places are willing to help the Netherlands fight and work together to overthrow the brutal Portuguese rule.

Take Malacca as an example. The Netherlands first attacked Ceylon, and the Portuguese defenders in Malacca immediately rushed to support.

So there were only more than a hundred defenders left in Malacca.

Funny thing happened.

The Portuguese castle defended by more than 100 people was bombarded by the Dutch for two months. The mercenaries didn't work either, they couldn't stand the tropical climate, and half of them got sick from beating them. The Kingdom of Johor also sent 2,000 soldiers to assist in the battle, but they still couldn't eat the castle.

In the end it was the Portuguese themselves who surrendered because they ran out of food.

If there is enough food, the more than 100 Portuguese may be able to stick to Malacca for several years...

Matthias said: "Your Majesty, the two ports of Guangzhou and Fuzhou, please open to the Dutch fleet."

If you say open, then open, I don't want to lose face?

Zhao Han replied: "Ten taels of silver for each horse is regarded as the shipping fee for you, and it will be shipped to Fuzhou and handed over to Zheng Zhilong. If more than 50 horses die, the Dutch will not be able to land at any port in China in the future!"

"Of course, great king, if too many horses die, we will re-ship them to make up for them." Matthias was very happy.

It doesn't matter how much money the war horse has. The main purpose of the Dutch is to do business directly with China, without having to turn to Portugal for trade.

Zhao Han doesn't care about it, who is he doing business with?

If the Dutch occupy Malacca and buy horses from the Dutch in the future, the price will definitely be much cheaper.

Moreover, the Dutch can fight naval battles and can compete with Zheng Zhilong!

That guy Zheng Zhilong has been pretending to be deaf and dumb. Except for selling the six warships to Zhao Han at a low price, the other warships were not willing to hand over, as if they had to wait until Zhao Han proclaimed himself emperor before making a statement.

Zhao Han said again: "I want ten Dutch shipbuilders, and as long as they are excellent, don't use ordinary goods to fool me. If the shipbuilders' skills are too bad, I will ban trade with the Netherlands at any time."

Matais immediately agreed: "There is no problem, we will meet His Majesty's request."

The Netherlands has nothing else, and there are too many shipbuilders to involve.

Today, there are about 20,000 merchant ships at sea in the world, and the Netherlands alone accounts for a quarter. The combined tonnage of the merchant ships of Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain cannot be compared with that of the Netherlands.

In the Dutch capital alone, there are more than one hundred shipyards.

Merchant ships from various European countries place orders in Dutch shipyards because Dutch shipyards are the cheapest.

Zhao Han only needs ten shipbuilders, and the Netherlands does not need to send top-notch shipbuilders, but only needs to reach the average level in Europe, and there are no commercial secrets at all.

Compared with the opening of Guangzhou and Fuzhou, ten shipbuilders are nothing.

The two sides reached a friendly exchange on this, and the Portuguese were ruthlessly abandoned by Zhao Han.

Over there in Macau, come step by step.

Chinese schools have been opened and Portuguese children must attend school. In 20 or 30 years, without coercive means, the Portuguese will be registered as householders, and they will give up their beliefs and become Chinese.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, there were many official families who were Central Asian Green Cultists left over from the Yuan Dynasty.

They read the Four Books and Five Classics, take the Jinshi examination and become officials. Not to mention their beliefs and beliefs, they become Han Chinese, and even their appearance is mixed to become Han Chinese.

Before Matais left, Zhao Han made another final reminder: "Remember, merchant ships from any country come to trade in Chinese ports. Tariffs must be paid directly in silver or in Datong silver dollars. Taxes in other currencies are not allowed! If there is no silver, There are no Datong silver dollars either, so you can exchange them at a bank near the wharf.”

The Jiangxi Mint has minted more than six million silver dollars.

Only a small part of silver comes from mining, and most of it comes from taxes. After receiving the broken silver, it was melted and used to mint coins. The Datong silver dollar has been generally accepted by the market.

Although it contains a lot of impurities, merchants also recognize that it is worth a tael of silver.

More than six million silver dollars and a large amount of copper coins were minted, and the grain bank was finally renamed the bank. Moreover, Datong Bank was spun off from the Finance Department and became an institution directly under the jurisdiction of the Dudufu.

Eight riyal silver coins from Portugal, and silver horse sword coins from the Netherlands, these currencies can be circulated among the people, but Zhao Han's official department does not recognize them.

Including the British fleet, when they come to Guangzhou to do business, the tariffs are firstly exchanged for silver dollars or silver in the bank.

The Dutch envoy left, and Zhao Han went to the meeting.

Huang Shunfu spoke first and said: "The land tax must be changed. Especially in Jiangnan Province, there are not many people who grow food, and the field tax can no longer be collected in kind, which is very inconvenient for the common people."

Fei Chun has resigned from his position as the director of the Finance Department and is now in charge of Datong Bank full-time. He is now equivalent to the governor of the central bank.

But this central bank is different from the central bank of new China, because it not only issues currency, but also operates banking business itself, and is still operating grain business.

Fei Chun said: "Banks have also been established in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, but all the food has to be transported from other provinces. The last summer harvest, the farmers in the south of the Yangtze River planted cotton, and it was not yet the picking season. Many summer grain and land taxes were in arrears, and they had no money to pay the taxes. Fortunately, it was a newly occupied land and suffered floods, so this year’s summer grain was simply exempted. But this year’s autumn harvest, farmers in the south of the Yangtze River have to exchange cotton for money, then use the money to buy grain, and then pay taxes after buying grain.”

Li Banghua said: "Extremely cumbersome."

"It's time to change," Zhao Han nodded, "Starting from Jiangnan Province, all food taxes in the future will be converted into silver or copper coins. If it's copper coins, only five or more will be accepted, and ten will not be accepted! "

Pang Chunlai said: "In my opinion, the real situation is different in different places. There should be rules, how much money is collected, and how much grain is collected. In the hands of the people, if you have money, you pay money, if you have food, you pay food, but it is up to the people to choose. "

Li Banghua nodded and said: "Indeed, in some poor places, money is not enough, and it would be a bad thing to convert the land tax into silver."

Zhao Han thought about it carefully for a while, and said: "The payment of money and food depends entirely on the people's voluntary consent. This policy can be implemented. But it can't always be like this. Let's set a time limit. For places that have been governed for more than ten years, all land taxes will be paid with money in the future. If After ten years of governance, if the local people have no money to pay taxes, then the local officials have failed in their duties!"

"I agree." Huang Shunfu seconded.

Zhao Han also said: "The bank will gradually reduce the grain business in the future, and hand over the grain transportation and trade to the merchants, and Datong Bank will be responsible for setting the grain floor price."

The idea of ​​the country's unified collection and purchase of grain is very beautiful.

But with the expansion of the territory, limited to the ancient storage and transportation technology, this thing is really difficult to do. Moreover, as time goes by, corruption will inevitably breed, and it is not easy to check.

Xiao Huan suddenly said: "However, local governments or banks still have to keep some granaries and grains, and treat them as regular warehouses."

Li Banghua said: "This statement is justified."

Changping warehouses are used for relief during disasters, and can also be opened to release grain to stabilize rice prices.

"Then it's settled like this, and we will change it later if there are problems." Zhao Han accepted the proposal.

The territory expanded to several provinces, and with the feedback from local officials, Zhao Han discovered more and more problems. The previous policy could be implemented in one or two provinces, but it would be unrealistic in a few more provinces.

"Is there enough food to fight this year?" Zhao Han reconfirmed.

Fei Chun smiled and said, "It's definitely enough, but it's best to stop entering troops within three months."

Pang Chun said: "JAC can be taken in two months."

Li Banghua said: "There are mainly three enemies in the prefectures and counties of the Jianghuai River. One is Luo Rucai from the direction of Lu'an, the second is the Cao thief from Xuzhou, and the third is the salt thief from Rugao. Wars are easy to fight. After the battle, the Cao army He and Yanhu have to be resettled, they were all forced by the government to rebel."

Zhao Han said: "Except for Luo Rucai, if the other enemy generals are willing to surrender and hand over all their property, they will all be treated as civilians and they will be given land."

"Who knows if all the property has been handed over?" Chen Maosheng asked.

Zhao Han smiled and said, "Escort his whole family to other prefectures and counties to divide the land and settle down. How much silver taels can he bring with him? He has kept a few hundred taels privately, and I don't bother to pursue it. If he hides too much, I will behead him!"

Pang Chunlai sighed: "Let's see if they are willing to surrender. Surrender is the best, so as not to cause more killings, but also save a lot of rations."