Chapter 479: Land-Purchase Policy

Macau, no? Very much so.

But this palm-sized piece of land has now plainly become an ink smudge on the face of the Great Ming giant. It's like a toad crawling onto your foot — it doesn't bite, but it disgusts you.

If one claimed that the Ming sovereign and ministers lacked the concept of "preserving national territorial integrity," that would be a bit unfair. The concept of "the golden goblet without a chip" has existed since ancient times. Otherwise, why did the court fight the Dutch to the death at Penghu back then? One must realize that Penghu lies in the middle of the strait, far more distant from the mainland than Macau.

The key issue lies in this: the Portuguese used the right method of "insertion."

From beginning to end, the Portuguese maintained an extremely low posture when dealing with Ming officials.

From the initial "borrowing land to dry goods" to the later construction of Macau City, the Portuguese, no matter how strong they were behind the scenes, always maintained a humble posture on the surface. This diplomatic approach was very effective when dealing with Ming bureaucrats who considered themselves the Celestial Empire.

Therefore, the Ming state did not hesitate to mobilize a great army to fight the hardline Dutch, yet relaxed its vigilance against the Franks right under its nose, and was little by little "nudged" by the camel out of the tent of Macau.

Yet now, when the Ming sovereign and ministers discover that the Frankish devils in Macau have grown too powerful to be cut off — sorry, it's too late!

In fact, by the late Wanli period, Ming officials had already become aware of this trend: the Red Barbarian Cannons that the Ming state used to defend Beijing and Ningyuan, treasured like precious objects, were everywhere to be seen in Macau's cannon foundries, forts, and warships.

Ming officials were no fools; by this time they naturally understood that forcibly expelling the Franks was no longer realistic. Even though the Ming later adopted soft measures like cutting off grain supplies and halting trade, this precisely revealed the court's lack of confidence.

It is impossible that the Emperor and his chief ministers did not know about the Macau situation. Memorials arriving from various channels in Guangdong often mentioned Macau, and whenever the Portuguese stirred up trouble, dispatches from the censors and the Three Provincial Offices would be sent to Beijing at the first moment.

By now, everyone actually knows that this piece of land is in fact already self-governed by the Portuguese. That pale, feeble jurisdiction of the Great Ming is, rather than jurisdiction, more like a head deliberately bowed by the Portuguese to accommodate the face of the "suzerain state."

Therefore, when the Loyal and Brave Count raised the matter of Macau, the expressions of those present could not help but be a little strange. After all, once someone has torn open a scar, one can no longer gloss over it and pretend not to see it.

In terms of first reaction, the Emperor had no reason to reject the proposal. According to the Loyal and Brave Count, he would contract the labor and materials for attacking Macau himself, and after the decoration was finished, he would also be responsible for handing over the house — where could one find such a fine patsy?

But on second thought, the Emperor felt this matter could not be handled so hastily — if he lightly permitted this fellow Cao to deploy troops in a distant land, beyond the court's reach, would it lead to a series of subsequent reactions, such as this man becoming arrogant and domineering in Guangdong from now on?

Furthermore, although this matter seemed not large, it did after all involve uprooting the Franks entirely. The opinions of the court, including those of Guangdong officialdom, also needed to be comprehensively considered. Thinking of this, Chongzhen's expression became hesitant.

Senior Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru, standing to the side, saw the Emperor's expression. Having originally risen to power by divining the imperial will, he immediately voiced what was on the Emperor's mind: "This matter is of great importance; it still requires public discussion with the court ministers. Let it be set aside for later deliberation."

Hearing this, the Emperor promptly nodded, and the matter was thus temporarily shelved.

Seeing this situation, Regional Commander Cao did not say anything further. This proposal was originally just an advance notice, a case of courtesy before force — when the day truly came that the Transmigrators wanted to deal with the Portuguese, with the Emperor far away and the generals beyond his reach, who would still care whether Chongzhen agreed or not?

After the fact, casually writing the court a memorial stating "friction led to a sudden outbreak of war" would already be giving them face. Could the Emperor possibly order Regional Commander Cao to return Macau to the Franks? Would he not fear that when the Tartars came, Regional Commander Cao would not go to the King's Rescue?

Times have changed; Regional Commander Cao's importance is no longer something the Emperor can manipulate at will. So once he has thought it through after the fact, the Emperor is certain not to slap his own face and fall out with Cao Zhongchen over such a matter.

Besides, it is now April 1630, and not much time remains before a certain Governor-General of Guangdong dies from overwork. When the newly appointed (this is almost certain) Governor-General of Liangguang, Xiong Wencan, along with the hardline officials in Guangdong who have always advocated expelling the Franks, launch a wave of memorials, how could the court possibly obstruct it further?

Regional Commander Cao's audience with the Emperor this time, after the consultation on the Macau issue, could be considered a perfect conclusion.

Overall, the atmosphere of this tea gathering in the Imperial Garden was quite harmonious between host and guest; the Emperor himself can be said to have done his utmost to win over Cao Zhongchen. From the perspective of the supreme sovereign, Chongzhen's posture today was very low, which was quite rare.

Regional Commander Cao also basically obtained what he wanted. The most important point among these was that, while securing the predetermined achievements of the King's Rescue, he successfully detached himself from the mess in the north and returned to a transcendent strategic position where he could advance to attack or retreat to defend.

After the tea gathering's serious matters were concluded, Regional Commander Cao also had the honor of being treated to an evening meal by the Emperor. Having filled himself halfway at the imperial table, the three ministers then, with faces full of grateful expressions, bid farewell to His Majesty and returned to their residences.

From the moment he left the palace, Regional Commander Cao entered the countdown to going home, but before that, there was still much work to be done.

For the next period, although Regional Commander Cao still had to attend court every day, by this time no one paid him any attention. If civil officials do not criticize a military officer, then according to court rules, that military officer truly is just a human background board, with no right to speak on the great affairs of the realm — this is an unwritten rule.

However, every day after court was dismissed, once Regional Commander Cao returned to his residence, the old man was very busy.

Due to the previous land-purchase policy, the Loyal and Brave Count Residence was thronged with visitors; various nobles and high officials came to call one after another, and so Regional Commander Cao had no choice but to frantically host banquets, drinking from the end of the workday until late at night, repeatedly explaining the land-purchase policy to his guests.

Within a few days, the Loyal and Brave Count had befriended nearly half of the nobles in Beijing, acknowledging countless "elder brothers" and "younger brothers," and had thoroughly transformed into a hot commodity.

Meanwhile, the row of storefronts facing the street at the Loyal and Brave Count Residence also began a large-scale decoration campaign: the Folding-Paper Office and the General Commerce Corporation would both be opened here.

The Folding-Paper Office was what later generations would call a Beijing liaison office. Local Dayuan of the Loyal and Brave Count's rank would typically establish a liaison office in Beijing to handle the sending and receiving of correspondence and documents in ordinary times, as well as to complete other tasks assigned by the bigwigs.

The Loyal and Brave Count Residence's Folding-Paper Office and the Northern Trade Head Office were two sets of organizations with one set of personnel, presided over by the very inconspicuous official, Beijing Station Chief Xue Haiyuan, Manager Xue. That is to say, there were actually three sets of organizations here; outsiders naturally would not know about the Beijing Station.

Although Manager Xue's official rank was low, he was currently equally scorching hot — the civil officials in Beijing could not openly visit a soldier-boy, so they had no choice but to send trusted Advisers or family members to call on Manager Xue.

Those who could seek out Manager Xue naturally would not be those impoverished capital officials who could not even afford to replace their official robes.

Generally speaking, those who dared to take out 50,000 taels of silver to test the waters were certainly those gentry and great clans whose families had held official posts for generations. As for the first-generation families established by newly successful jinshi graduates, these people lacked sufficient accumulation and could not get involved.

Facing the Stewards, retainers, Advisers, and Accountants who came calling from all quarters, Xue Haiyuan naturally treated everyone equally. Even if the owner of a particular household had previously criticized his own master in court, Manager Xue still greeted these people with a smiling face, and furthermore convened multiple investment promotion meetings, publicly explaining the Tainan land-purchase policy to all the various deities.

Overall, the land-purchase policy introduced by the Transmigrators was very much to the Ming people's taste.

First, the first point, and the point of greatest concern to everyone: regarding taxation, Manager Xue publicly made a commitment — no matter what the harvest after everyone purchased land, the Loyal and Brave Count Residence would not collect a single wen of agricultural tax; this commitment was valid forever!

In traditional agriculture, apart from those fields that were concealed, landlords had to pay agricultural tax on the land recorded in the open. This tax was the most important tax category of feudal dynasties, escalating step by step in the late Ming; the Three Levies additionally imposed by Chongzhen were all scraped out from the agricultural taxes of the realm.

The various deities, having confirmed the point of no taxation, immediately became full of confidence in this investment plan: this was equivalent to buying ten thousand mu of hidden fields, where all harvests only needed to be shared with the tenant farmers.

Moreover, before such a massive force, presumably the Loyal and Brave Count would not dare to go back on his word.

Those participating in this land-purchase activity this time were almost all the capital's bigwigs and powerful gentry from various regions, encompassing the entire court's civil and military officials, even including top-ranking nobles and imperial in-laws like the State Uncle and noble consorts — this force could basically represent the court itself; had anyone seen the Emperor utter a sound? So it was impossible for the Loyal and Brave Count to renege.

However, the Transmigrators absolutely would not go back on their word.

Present-day Tainan had long since been constructed by the Transmigrators into a standard industrialized society. The masters in Beijing fundamentally did not understand the terror of an industrialized society... as long as the Government was willing, there were countless channels through which those agricultural taxes could be collected in disguised form.

But what the masters could be thankful for was: to avoid draining the pond to catch the fish, the Transmigrators would not do that. As long as someone was willing to invest in Tainan at this time point, then the Transmigrators, who thirsted for resources, were certain to guarantee the investors' profitability.

This kind of guarantee was very precious. In fact, at the investment promotion meetings held by Xue Haiyuan, he not only promised the point of not collecting agricultural tax, but also promised that public agricultural facilities including reservoirs, roads, canals, and so on, would all be contracted and built by the Loyal and Brave Count, the old man himself.

Hearing this kind of policy supporting agriculture, which was very common in later generations, the gentry from various regions, who were often "urged to donate" silver by local officials to build roads, were also quite delighted — they had finally met a patsy!

After the benefits were fully laid out, in the conditions that followed, the Transmigrators bared their fangs: every land-purchasing party must, in Tianjin or Shanghai, and in the future Shandong and other places, deliver to the private port operated by the Loyal and Brave Count a number of able-bodied laborers sufficient to cultivate ten thousand mu of land.

These laborers would first have to undergo training in the Quarantine Camp before being transported away.

This figure was calculated based on each able-bodied laborer cultivating 20 mu of land. That is to say, each land-purchasing household must deliver 500 able-bodied men to the Loyal and Brave Count, not including the family members of these able-bodied men.

As for whether these people, after arriving in Tainan, would hire Iron Bulls to plow the land due to the enormous cost, the Transmigrators did not care; in any case, if you want to buy land, first send over the matching tenant farmers for me.