Oh, and there's also oil. Balikpapan and Brunei have astronomical amounts of oil buried underground.
In World War II, the Japanese risked their lives to march south and go to war with the United States, all for oil and rubber.
While supporting the Maritime Merchants Association's development in Borneo, the emperor also used various means to purchase cinchona and rubber tree seeds.
Compared to the cinchona tree, which can treat malaria, rubber tree seeds should be easier to obtain because the function of rubber is not yet known to the world and there are no restrictions on the export of rubber tree seeds.
Corn and potatoes from South America have been flowing into the Ming Dynasty for decades. As long as we make great efforts to purchase cinchona and rubber seeds, we will eventually get what we want.
To this end, the emperor painted a big pie for the missionaries: as long as they could obtain one of two things, they would be able to preach freely in the newly opened territories of the Ming Empire.
This was indeed an extremely tempting offer, and the emperor wasn't too worried about the impact it would have on the Ming Dynasty. If he felt it was difficult to control, he could just purge and suppress it.
Religion cannot be left alone. If it affects the stability of the country and the regime, it must be regulated, suppressed, or even eliminated.
Several anti-Buddhist movements in history have shown that religion cannot compete with state power.
Therefore, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity can all develop within the prescribed scope, but the premise is that they cannot endanger national stability and the stability of the regime.
Li Dan explained to Sun Weida in considerable detail that the more people he could bring to Borneo, the better. After all, the development of Borneo was led by the Maritime Merchants Association, and the better the development, the greater the credit.
Of course, Li Dan did not tell the emperor about his promise. It was a secret and could not be made public. Li Dan worked so hard to obtain the real title of nobility with fiefdom.
The Spanish in Luzon must be destroyed, and then the Dutch red-haired devils, and we must also resist the British invasion and expansion in Asia.
Look, apart from Mekong Province, the overseas land is so vast, and having more real nobles with fiefs will not have much impact.
The emperor's plan was to grant fiefdoms to more than just Li Dan. He generously granted titles to those who made the greatest contributions, regardless of whether they were merchants, civil officials, or military commanders.
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Guyuan.
The seat of Sun Chuanting, the governor-general of the Three Borders, was in charge of the military affairs of Shaanxi, Gansu, Yansui, and Ningxia, and he controlled the nine generals in Gansu, Liang, Su, Xi, Ningxia, Yansui, Shendaoling, Xing'an, and Guyuan.
It has only been ten years since Sun Chuanting passed the imperial examination and became a third-class Jinshi in the 47th year of the Wanli reign, and has become a high-ranking official with great power. It can be said that he has risen to prominence and had a smooth career.
Of course, the emperor's promotions also had rules to follow. First of all, although Sun Chuanting was a Jinshi, he was eight feet tall, could shoot with both hands, and had unparalleled martial arts skills.
Personal martial arts ability was only one factor. Sun Chuanting also went through stages of study, further training, internship, observation of battles, and inspection before he was promoted to the position of Governor of the Three Borders by the emperor.
Studying and further training refers to the one year spent in martial arts; internship and observation of war refers to the final stage of the campaign to annihilate the slaves and pacify the Liaodong region, when he followed the cavalry of the Beijing Camp to fight in Liaodong; as for inspection, it was the three summons of the emperor, during which Sun Chuanting presented the northwest defense and received personal instructions from the emperor.
"If the holy lord is waiting in front of me, I would like to shed my blood and tears on the steps." These are the lines of poetry written by Sun Chuanting when he left Beijing for the frontier, showing his ambition to achieve great things.
When he left Beijing, the emperor said, "If the Hetao area is preserved, border troubles will subside; if it is lost, border troubles will arise." This gave him a clear goal. However, this goal was only in its early stages.
In the hall, Sun Chuanting chatted with the guests while his eyes kept scanning the map on the wall. Hetao was the area that attracted the most attention.
"Brother Boya, you seem distracted!" Shaanxi Grain Supervisor Hong Chengchou put down his teacup and said with a smile, "Hetao is certainly important, but the entire Shaanxi province has been affected by the disaster. I'm afraid the military operation will have to be postponed!"
Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting were both Jinshi in the same class. Hong Chengchou performed better than Sun Chuanting, ranking second in the class, while Sun Chuanting ranked third in the class.
However, due to the emperor's appreciation and promotion, the experiences of Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou were different from those in history. In turn, Hong Chengchou was inferior to Sun Chuanting.
Sun Chuanting chuckled and said, "The disaster will not affect military operations. Recovering the Hetao area and managing it well may alleviate the disaster in Shaanxi."
The main reason why the Ming Dynasty finally abandoned the Hetao region after several twists and turns was that it could not establish an effective logistics system in the Hetao region.
Since all the required money and food had to be transported from the rear, the huge logistical consumption made it impossible to maintain the long-term presence of the Ming army in the Hetao area.
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