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The Kokura Castle Guest House was built according to Tang Tong's design drawings. It has a garden-like environment and bluestone pavement. The accommodation in the hotel consists of 30 modern villas. Only two of them have been built so far, and the others are not yet completed. The main building of the dining area and the conference hall have been built. The floors and walls are decorated with marble, which looks extremely luxurious.
In this era, marble was not easy to mine and even more difficult to polish. Even the richest families could not afford the luxury of decorating all the walls with marble like Tang Tong. Zheng Zhihu could not have imagined that the marble in the Guest House was polished with a hydraulic grinder, which was fast, clean and inexpensive.
What is even more luxurious is that the windows of this modern building are all made of glass for lighting. This is a recent product of the glass factory under Tang Tong. In this era, although the West does not have glass manufacturing, the price is extremely expensive. Other people may not know this, but Zheng Zhihu, who has been dealing with Westerners for a long time, knows very well in his heart how much money these glasses in front of him will cost.
When Zheng Zhihu and his party stepped into the courtyard of the Guest House, they were first attracted by the extremely beautiful buildings. As for gardens, although modern people do not value such environments, Zheng Zhihu's home is a huge garden, which was built by Zheng Zhilong at a huge expense and covers an area of dozens of acres. Therefore, the greening of the Guest House did not attract Zheng Zhihu. Instead, it was the later-style buildings that combined Chinese and Western styles that caught Zheng Zhihu's eyes. When he saw the marble decoration of the pavilion, it looked extraordinary. Zheng Zhihu had an urge to live there at first sight.
Zheng Zhihu was originally marveling at the luxurious marble decoration here, but when he got closer, he saw that all the doors and windows were made of glass. He was even more shocked, his mouth opened wide. Zheng Zhilong also had two pieces of Western glass in his hand. The price of each piece was more than one hundred taels of silver. Looking at the glass and marble on these buildings in front of him, Zheng Zhihu silently calculated in his mind and estimated that the total cost of the entire guesthouse would be as high as one million taels of silver.
When Zheng Zhihu thought about how Tang Tong and his team had spent so much money just to build a guesthouse for entertaining guests, his heart trembled. It was not difficult for Zheng Zhihu to guess what kind of money this Lord Tang had.
After all, Zheng Zhihu had seen some of these places with his brother Zheng Zhilong, but the men who came with him had never seen such a luxurious place. When they entered the living room and saw the shaky marble floor, more than a dozen people's legs trembled as if they were walking on clouds. They thought to themselves that the Jade Emperor's Lingxiao Palace might not be much better than this.
There was a circle of sofas in the reception room, which Zheng Zhihu and his party had never seen before. At Xu Yuanhua's signal, these people sat down carefully one by one. Afterwards, several beautiful Japanese waitresses made tea for them. Looking at the glass in front of them, with tea leaves rolling up and down in the glass, even Zheng Zhihu couldn't help swallowing his saliva, wondering how much money this Lord Tang made here. He used such precious glass cups to entertain guests. Could it be that silver in Japan was so easy to make? Why didn't he know this before? This matter must be discussed with his eldest brother later.
Xu Yuanhua saw Zheng Zhihu's expression and sneered inwardly. He said, "This place isn't completely finished yet, so please forgive us for our inadequate hospitality. These items were all produced in my master's factory, so they don't cost much. If Master Zheng wants to build a house, we'd be happy to donate some glass. After all, we all serve the court, so we should look after each other."
"Ah... Oh... We came here this time to discuss the issue of overseas Chinese passports with your Lord Tang..." Zheng Zhihu came to his senses from the shock and told his purpose.
"There is nothing to discuss about this matter. My master is also following the emperor's order. My master has clearly stated that from now on, the area between the Chinese Sea and the Japanese Sea will be under our jurisdiction, and the Ryukyu and South China Sea areas will be under the jurisdiction of you, Master Zheng. The two sides will not interfere with each other. If you encounter an attack by the Dutch in the future, we can send troops to help you." Xu Yuanhua interrupted Zheng Zhihu before he finished speaking.
Zheng Zhihu was very unhappy when he saw Xu Yuanhua interrupting his topic so rudely. Moreover, as the largest force on the Chinese sea, he least wanted another force to appear on the Chinese sea. To put it bluntly, Tang and his men had seriously infringed on the interests of the Zheng family. Zheng Zhihu felt that he had given face to Lord Tang by not bringing people to kill him directly, but he did not expect that the other party would not give him face at all.
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