The military factory was a money-eating glutton that could never be satisfied. Xiao Ruxun did not know when she would be able to see what she wanted to see, but there was one thing that was beyond doubt: the money could not stop.
But the military factory needed money, and other places needed money as well. The expansion of cities needed money, and the construction of villages and settlements needed money. The endless stream of people arriving in Myanmar needed shelter and a place to live. This was what Xiao Ruxun had promised when he recruited the refugees. This was a signboard, and it could not be destroyed.
With such a large investment and limited income, Xiao Ruxun immediately appeared to be a complete pauper. For this reason, he wanted money so much that he went crazy. But what made him helpless was that now, those who had money were all staying in Jiangnan of the Great Ming Dynasty, living a luxurious life, not caring about the life and death of others at all.
There was a very interesting set of statistics. From the Long Qing Dynasty in 1572 to the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, a third of the total silver produced in the world flowed into China, totaling about 500 million taels of silver.
In other words, the gold and silver plundered by Spain and Portugal from the Americas eventually flowed into China in the form of trade.
But it should be noted that according to the tax rules of the Daming Dynasty, the 500 million taels of silver could not eat much from the imperial treasury. From Wanli to Chongzhen, the commercial tax on the southeast coast decreased year after year.
In the year of Chongzhen, the Chongzhen Emperor was tricked into giving up the little remaining commercial tax. This caused the farce of a tea tax of seven taels of silver.
The Emperor of the Daming Dynasty was extremely poor, and the people were also extremely poor. Then what about the silver? What about the 500 million taels of silver?
It was all in the hands of the officials, merchants, and landlords of the southeast coast. The Ming government could not get a share of the silver that flowed into China in the form of commerce. When the civil officials heard that the Emperor wanted to collect commercial tax, they immediately attacked, insisting that the Emperor retract his order. This was all for the silver that flowed in like an explosion for themselves.
Xiao Ruxun knew very well that the rich people of Southern Zhili, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces added together definitely had no less than a hundred million taels of silver in their hands, which was equivalent to the revenue of the Ming government for fifty years. And as time passed, the inflow of silver would only increase and not decrease.
Their foundation was deep and their wealth was abundant, comparable to that of the modern business tycoons, or even better than them. They had cash after cash, and there were no shares or external capital to invest in them. What they had in their hands was real money, not fake at all.
As long as the Ming government was able to levy a commercial tax, they would suddenly find that their revenue would increase by several times, almost catching up to the Song Dynasty's revenue. However, they would not allow the Emperor to levy a commercial tax. They would support their own representatives in the central government and do their best to prevent the Emperor from doing so.
There was no resistance on Xiao Ruxun's side, so he was very happy to collect commercial tax. From here, he also intercepted a batch of silver that should have flowed into the pockets of the landlords and landlords of the southeast coast.
Although this batch of silver was not much, as time passed, Xiao Ruxun would definitely be noticed by these people. They would notice the existence of Burma Town, and it would become a thorn in their side. This was something that Xiao Ruxun would have to face in the future.
These vermin and rats of the country, even at the brink of death, were unwilling to take out any silver to help the Daming fight against the Manchurian Qing. When the Manchurian Qing put a knife to their necks, they realized that the foreigners would not reason with them.
More than 70 years of wealth were all taken advantage of by the Manchurian Qing. The Manchurian Qing raided and slaughtered, and at least got a few hundred million taels of silver from these people to help them stabilize their political power.
Ridiculous!
There was no way for Xiao Ruxun to get silver from these people, and he did not want to do business with them. Behind them stood a group of civil officials and censors, and they had a strong relationship. If they submitted a memorial to the censors, it would be very troublesome for Xiao Ruxun.
The only person he could rely on in the capital was Song Yingchang. Song Yingchang had been the Minister of Justice for the past three years, and it was stable. However, if he wanted to support Xiao Ruxun, it was still not enough.
Since he could not go through the internal channels, he could only go through the external channels. In Nanyang, Xiao Ruxun's reputation was still of some use. Once he gave the order, no one dared to say no. That was why he could snatch a piece of meat from the landlords' mouths, and it was all fought for by force.
However, this piece of meat could not feed him now, and another delicious piece of roasted meat was still on the fire, so he could only go to other places to eat. The meat from the other small countries was either too small to fill the gaps between his teeth, or the vassal states that had good relations with him could not eat it. It seemed that only the Philippines, which was colonized by Spain, could eat it, and the size was just right.
Xiao Ruxun had always been envious of the Spanish spice business, and wanted a share of it. However, the Spaniards were not stupid, and it was impossible for them to share some meat with Xiao Ruxun for no reason. They did not even have enough meat for themselves!
Xiao Ruxun could not find a suitable reason, so he had been looking for trouble. This time, he sent Chen Longzheng to make trouble, thinking that he would have an excuse to make trouble for the Spaniards. Now, the excuse came.
The dispute with the Spaniards was not a domestic dispute. The domestic political struggle of Daming was about being thick-skinned and ruthless, forbearance and surprise. Under the influence of Confucian culture, the internal struggle of China's officialdom was like this, but when it came to the international arena, it could only be summed up in one word — shameless.
Therefore, when the Qing government first carried out diplomacy with the foreigners, they were always at a disadvantage. The other party was neither thick-skinned nor forbearance, and they talked about interests. When negotiating on an equal footing, they talked about the exchange of interests. When negotiating on an equal footing, they talked about the exchange of interests. When negotiating on an unequal footing, they talked about plunder.
If you wanted to make friends with them and use personal relationships to get a turning point on the table, don't even think about it. After more than a hundred years of triangular trade, these people's habitual thinking was the thinking of bandits. They only looked at fists and interests. If you did not talk about interests with them, or let them know your thoughts, then they would immediately turn against you.
In the beginning, the foreigners often wanted to change the contract, and if they did not change the contract, they would fight. This made the Qing government's thick-skinned palace fight experts very uncomfortable, and they suffered a lot because of this.
And Xiao Ruxun, who was well aware of the diplomatic secrets of the US imperialism running amok in the world, summed up the simple and crude way to deal with the Europeans — shameless!
It was shamelessness. Don't care about anything, turn black into white, turn right into wrong, turn your own mistakes into the other party's mistakes, and take the other party's right approach to your side. Standing on the moral high ground, you condemned the other party in speech and writing, arousing public anger, and make yourself the messenger of justice. Your purpose is to enforce justice on behalf of heaven. It's best to make others feel that you are the only one in the world, and no one else can uphold justice except you.
The cause of this incident was that Xiao Ruxun wanted to take back more than 30,000 to 40,000 overseas Chinese from the Philippines. He wanted to bring them to Myanmar to fill his population and prevent these people from being used by the Spaniards to threaten him in the future.
In the first wave of the contest, the Spaniards were thrown into confusion because of the Ming government's intrusion. Xiao Ruxun seized the opportunity to attack them, and they directly withdrew their defense and chose to surrender.
The second wave of the contest was a contest of force. The hawks in the Philippine Governor-General's Office were not satisfied with the governor's surrender, and they privately colluded with the big merchants among the overseas Chinese. They used the same interests as an opportunity to unite. In order to block Xiao Ruxun's plan to evacuate the overseas Chinese, they also fought hard.
Unfortunately, they encountered Chen Longzheng, the big scourge. They were directly suffocated by Chen Longzheng's wave of suffocation. Not only were the 200 troops all killed, but those overseas Chinese merchants were also wiped out by Chen Longzheng.
After the group of people boarded the ship and left, the Philippine Governor-General, who was brought by Ricci's messenger, arrived with his people. When he saw the scene, he suddenly felt dizzy …
In the face of such a situation, Xiao Ruxun decided to take the right to speak in his own hands. He did not give the other party a chance to refute, and seized the opportunity to launch an attack on the Philippines.
First, write a righteous letter of protest, saying that I sent people to coordinate and solve the problem. Not only did you not help me solve the problem, but you also sent people to stop me. With 200 troops, you dared to hold my advisor hostage, and dared to shoot at my advisor to the point that he fainted. I killed 200 of your people!
Not only that, you also colluded with those traitors to stop me from bringing people home. More than 3,000 people died because of this, and hundreds of them died tragically. I will settle the scores with you one by one. Don't worry!
Also, the Catholic Church, Bishop Alexander. Your poor execution and weak ability to respond have deeply disappointed me. I no longer trust you, and I will not allow you to preach in my territory.
Just like that, he angrily rebuked the Philippine Governor-General and Bishop Alexander, and their doves and Catholic forces, successfully provoking internal strife.
In particular, he did not allow them to preach. Those Catholics had sacrificed everything in order to preach in China. Just as the goal was about to be scored, the athlete who shot suddenly fell to the ground with half of his body paralyzed. What do you think this is?
After this incident, the Philippine Governor-General was carried back to City M. Bishop Alexander, who learned of what had happened, was also shocked. The hawks, who had always advocated toughness, were inexplicably terrified when they saw the scene of more than 200 heads piled up. Several officials who had secretly supported this action claimed illness and did not participate in the meeting. The faction that advocated compromise was distressed.
What the hell was this?
Just when he thought that the matter had been resolved, something like this happened. Those opponents of the opposition were hiding this matter from the Governor. If you succeed, then so be it. We'll just turn a blind eye to it. It's a little disappointing to leave some Chinese labor force behind.
But not only did you fail, but you also lost yourselves. Not only did you lose yourselves, but you also successfully angered Xiao Ruxun, the King of Hell.
Ricci's letter was very clear about what had happened. Under his persuasion, Chen Longzheng said that he would not shoot first. However, he did not expect Hughes to be so arrogant that he shot the ground under him and fainted. When Chen Longzheng saw this, he thought that he had been killed, so he decided to take revenge. This revenge ended up burying the troops of 200 people.
By the time he woke up, it was already too late. What happened afterwards was an internal affair of the Chinese people, so they did not need to care. However, Hughes had supported the actions of the overseas Chinese merchants with real swords and guns, resulting in the deaths of more than seven hundred Chinese people and a Chinese soldier.
With people dead, Xiao Ruxun would definitely not let it go. He hoped that the Governor-General's office and the bishop would be prepared. He was brought back to Myanmar to treat his injuries. Chen Longzheng stubbornly believed that he was injured and insisted on bringing him back.
The Governor-General really wanted to vent his anger and kill people, but he could not find a target. Because they had already been killed by the Chinese people.
Two hundred well-trained soldiers were annihilated by the Chinese people as soon as they fought. The Chinese people did not suffer any losses. Only a few soldiers sprained their ankles. The only Chinese soldier who died in battle was killed when they were chasing the overseas Chinese merchants. This meant that the Spaniards had sent two hundred soldiers in for nothing.
The Governor-General was frightened by the Chinese people's combat power. He did not even think about the situation at that time. He only knew that his troops had no power to fight back in front of the three hundred Chinese soldiers and were killed. He only had about one thousand and four hundred soldiers. If the Chinese came, he would definitely die. And it was no secret that Xiao Ruxun had thirty thousand soldiers under his command.
Previously, he was frightened by the Chinese Emperor, and now he was frightened by the Chinese Marquis. The Governor-General had already suffered from a serious China phobia.
"It's over … it's over … they will definitely send their troops! Xiao Ruxun will definitely send his troops! We will all die … we will all die … "
He held his head in his hands and muttered to himself.
Compared to the Governor-General's serious China phobia, Bishop Alexander's focus was not on this at all. Instead, it was on his great missionary work and his road to the Pope. In his view, the missionary work in China was a necessary aid on his road to the Pope. Without the support of the thousands of believers in China, he would not be able to win against those experienced cardinals.
He was considered relatively young, and the Pope must be of virtue and prestige. He did not have an advantage. Only by opening up a diocese in China and earning a lot of reputation was the only way to become the Pope.
Previously, he had already received Xiao Ruxun's promise. He had already taken the first difficult step on his road to missionary work in China. However, just as he lifted his foot, a gunshot rang out and hit him in the knee.
What is this? What is going on? I have worked so hard to devise strategies for peace and the right to missionary work, but in the end, your stupid officers destroyed this future with a gunshot. Not to mention the months of hard work going down the drain, Xiao Ruxun will most likely not allow them to missionary work anymore.
Bishop Alexander suddenly felt like he had been longing for China porcelain for a long time, but before he could play with it, it was grabbed by a rude officer and smashed to pieces on the ground.
Therefore, compared to the Governor-General's fear, he was more confused.
When Xiao Ruxun's official note was delivered, this confusion turned into anger.
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