Following Hei Pi and the others' lead, a city where Eastern and Western cultures blended together appeared before Tang Tong and his companions. Although brick and tile houses were rare, most of them were wooden and earthen houses. However, the styles of those wooden and earthen houses were built according to the current style of the Ming Dynasty, which was much better than the wooden sheds of the local indigenous people.
This city was expanded on the basis of the Dutch castle. The castle was not demolished, but a larger circle of walls was built around it, expanding a small castle into a big city.
"Sir, this city has not been named yet. It is waiting for you to name it." Hei Pi has gained a lot of knowledge over the years, and his flattery skills have greatly improved.
"Haha, then this place will be Daming City from now on. This land will belong to our Daming." Tang Tong smiled and patted Heipi's shoulder, making Heipi smile proudly.
After a quick inspection of the construction site of Daming City, the man came to the castle in the center of the city. Hei Pi had already cleaned up some rooms for Tang Tong to move into. Tang Tong was very satisfied with Hei Pi's actions, and then held a brief meeting with everyone in the conference hall.
At the meeting, Tang Tong first acknowledged the contributions of Hei Pi, Xu Ren, Tang Chao San, and Liu Yiming, and then discussed his future plans: "As you know, the issue currently plaguing our development is naval construction, and the most important of these is artillery. Therefore, I plan to build a large artillery factory. I intend to recruit technicians and personnel from Western countries, which will require a lot of capital."
"Sir, we have obtained tens of thousands of taels of gold in the Nanyang area. I heard that gold is more valuable among Westerners. Can we use this batch of gold?" After hearing what Tang Tong said, Liu Yiming handed over the batch of gold that was temporarily under his control to Tang Tong.
"Well, that's one aspect. The amount of funds we need will be huge, so we need a stable source of funds to prepare for the ever-increasing military expenditures in the future. In addition, how many ships has the shipyard you built produced so far?" Tang Tong nodded approvingly after hearing Liu Yiming say that there were tens of thousands of taels of gold. He knew that at this time, the gold standard was the currency in circulation in Europe, while the Ming Dynasty had a silver-based financial system, so the value of gold in Europe was higher. With such a large amount of gold, the problem of insufficient funds was temporarily solved.
"Sir, the shipyard is temporarily under your management because there is an adequate source of oak here and other shipbuilding materials are not lacking. In addition, the Spaniards provided us with some technical personnel, and we now have tens of thousands of people. Therefore, the progress of the shipyard is still good. Currently, there are more than 130 warships, but because they have no guns, these warships are now parked in the port and have not gone out to sea." Xu Ren was in charge of the shipyard. Seeing Tang Tong asked this, he gave a brief explanation.
"Well, with so many ships, although they don't have artillery, they can be used for transportation for the time being. We can also buy a small amount of artillery from those Westerners in India to equip these warships, and then transport the things we want to transport to European cities to sell. There is a business we can also do now, that is the slave trade. The black slave business in Africa is very good now, but we can also sell the natives here to Europe. The only drawback is that these natives are too lazy by nature, and I am afraid they will not be welcome among Westerners. This life "This is a one-time deal, but I must remind you of one thing: even if these natives can't be sold for a good price, we must try our best to transport them to the Westerners and let them fend for themselves there. If you need manpower, we can bring people over from the Ming Dynasty." This era was a prime time for the slave trade. Tang Tong and his men couldn't get involved in the slave trade for the time being, but they could sell some of the natives here. This would first reduce their number, free up more living space, and perhaps also help with funding.
Everyone naturally agreed with what Tang Tong said. In this era, no one took human rights seriously. Tang Chaosan stood up and said, "Sir, leave this to me."
Tang Tong nodded and said, "Okay, let's go to India in a few days and buy some artillery from the Westerners. We must develop our naval power as soon as possible. Before the Westerners become stronger, we can bring Southeast Asia and that Australian island into our sphere of influence. With a strong navy, we can also intervene in Africa and America. That way, even if we can't gain a foothold in the Ming Dynasty in the future, we will still have plenty of territory."
Tang Tong's words were not what a minister should say, but now everyone present was Tang Tong's die-hard supporter. Seeing the ambition and rebelliousness that Tang Tong showed, their eyes lit up and they quickly thought of becoming a founding hero. Few men would not want to be a founding hero. Such a title that goes down in history is absolutely attractive to men. The first to express his opinion was Heipi: "Sir, don't worry, we will definitely work hard."
Then the others also expressed their opinions. Although these people were not outstanding people, they were not stupid either. They would naturally understand what Tang Tong meant. After everyone expressed their opinions, Tang Tong began to arrange their future tasks.
This time, the expressions in Dayu'er and Hailanzhu's eyes, who were listening on the side, were different from before. Hongniang was only happy about Tang's thoughts, but Liu Rushi, because she was young, did not know the meaning of Tang's words. However, to her, what Lord Tang wanted to do did not matter much to her. Liu Rushi wondered what kind of place India was.
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