Mr. Zhang likes to think about national affairs under the cover of smoke.

After enjoying the pleasure brought by tobacco for a while, he held his pipe and said, "Yes, since the implementation of the performance evaluation system, it has indeed achieved unexpected results. Now that everyone is in control, it is a great time to make a change and start anew!"

"Yeah." Young Master Zhao nodded excitedly and agreed, "Then let's do it!"

"Alas, what a pity..." Zhang Xianggong exhaled a long puff of white smoke and sighed, "A good cook cannot cook without rice. Since the Zhengjia period, the finances of the Ming Dynasty have been in a complete mess. During the period when Gao Ge Lao was in power, although his political achievements were remarkable, he also spent a lot of money - not only did he fight troops in the north and south, but he also repaired the Yellow River and opened the Yi River, spending money like water. By the time of my father, the treasury was already extremely empty. The Ministry of Revenue could not even pay the salaries of the officials in the capital, and had to borrow from your Jiangnan Bank."

As he spoke, he became more depressed and said, "The Ministry of Revenue is now heavily in debt, with a net loss of two to three million taels every year. In the past two years, my father has been increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, but he has only managed to avoid bankruptcy. But there is nothing we can do to make a difference."

"Uh..." Zhao Hao twitched the corner of his mouth. The longest road he had ever walked was the routine of his father-in-law.

In the past two years, Zhang Juzheng has used various excuses to get the Ministry of Revenue to borrow nearly three million taels of silver from the Jiangnan Bank...

Because he can make money on his own, he doesn't have to look at anyone's face, and he won't be threatened by anyone.

"Is that so?" But this is hard for Master Zhao...

"Look, you shrink back when it comes to money." Zhang Juzheng rolled his eyes at him and said, "Don't think your father doesn't know that most of the silver notes you print don't need to be redeemed. Isn't that the same as printing paper?"

Zhang Xianggong said as he took a puff of his pipe in frustration. "It's a pity that the imperial court has lost all credibility. Otherwise, I could have printed banknotes freely, and why would I need you?"

"Father-in-law, you misunderstood. I have always supported you wholeheartedly." Zhao Hao explained hurriedly, "It's just that we can't just print silver notes whenever we want. We must strictly abide by the minimum ratio of 10 to 7. This is a red line that cannot be crossed. If we print more without regard for the consequences, the fate of silver notes will be worse than that of treasure notes."

He smiled bitterly and said, "Because the silver note promises to be redeemed for cash."

"If I had cash, would I want your silver notes?!" Zhang Juzheng snorted in dissatisfaction.

"Speaking of which, I have heard a rumor." Zhao Hao suddenly said mysteriously: "It is said that a large gold mine was discovered on Jiyi Mountain in Luzon, Southeast Asia, and many people flocked there to pan for gold. I am afraid this is also the real reason why the red-haired devils invaded Luzon."

"Oh?" Zhang Juzheng was moved and asked, "You mean, let the court send people to pan for gold?"

Without waiting for Zhao Hao to nod, he shook his head and said, "No, you can't. If you have such a good thing, why don't you go and mine it yourself?"

"Father-in-law really looks down on me. I have donated such a big island as Taiwan to the country, so how could I keep such a small gold mine for myself?" Zhao Hao said sternly.

~~

What Zhao Hao meant by offering Taiwan to the country was that in August of the sixth year of Longqing, shortly after the new emperor ascended the throne, the governors of Fujian and Guangdong provinces jointly submitted a memorial stating that the South China Sea Group and Guangdong Deputy General Lin Daoquan had cooperated tacitly to eliminate the Japanese pirates and pirates entrenched on the island of Taiwan.

In view of the fact that Taiwan is the left protector of the four provinces and its area is as large as one-third of Zhejiang Province, abandoning it will inevitably lead to disaster again. Therefore, the South China Sea Group proposed that the court establish a county in Taiwan, immigrate and settle in it, so that it will always serve as a barrier for the Ming Dynasty to repel enemies from the sea.

At that time, Mr. Zhang did not know that he had become Empress Li's dream lover. He was racking his brains to strengthen the confidence of the young emperor and Empress Dowager Li in him in order to consolidate his position.

But he still had to renovate the bureaucracy first, so he couldn't achieve any political achievements in a short time. In fact, even if he did achieve political achievements, it is estimated that the young emperor and his mother would not necessarily understand it. So it is best to do something intuitive.

He heard from Feng Bao that Empress Li was an uneducated village girl who was extremely superstitious. So Zhang Xianggong instructed Wang Zhuan, Li Yihe and others to search for auspicious signs such as white lotus and white swallows to deceive the young empress dowager.

For this purpose, Zhang Xianggong even presented a white turtle, saying that his original name was Zhang Baigui...so it was God's will for him to assist the new king.

The village girl believed it without a doubt, and the little emperor also loved the white turtle and kept it in his imperial study...

But this trick can only fool the mother and son in the deep palace and consolidate his position. It can't fool other people outside the palace, so it is not only useless but harmful to establish his authority.

If we can expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty and add a large piece of land at this time, it will be a blessing from heaven. It will also be of great benefit to Zhang Xianggong's authority and the implementation of his performance evaluation system!

After all, since the reign of Emperor Yongle, the imperial court had lost the Jiaozhi Chengxuan Zhengshisi, as well as the vast territory north of the Great Wall, including the Hetao area, and the Nurgan Dusi and U-Tsang Tusi were also in name only. In recent years, even the three Xuan and six Wei of Myanmar were annexed by the newly rising Toungoo Dynasty...

Not to mention the series of territories opened up by Zheng He overseas, such as the Governor-General's Office of Luzon, the Xuanwei Office of Old Port, and the Malacca Foreign Prefecture, which all the officials in the court could not even remember.

The continuous loss of territory made the Ming officials, who had always been the best in the world, feel very embarrassed.

Now, the territory has been increased by one-third of a province. Isn’t that enough for everyone to brag about Niu Boyi?

The most important thing is that this happened during his tenure as Prime Minister Zhang. Not only was it considered a great political achievement in his time, but it would also leave a significant mark in history books a hundred years later.

So after getting Zhao Hao's promise that he would not spend a penny of the court's money, Zhang Xianggong agreed to the request of the two provinces... In fact, it was according to Zhao Hao's idea to divide Taiwan Island into two, with Danshui County in the north, under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture in Fujian, and Fengshan County in the south, under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong.

~~

The establishment of a county in Taiwan was naturally also the idea of ​​Mr. Zhao.

After Zhao Hao and Fatty Tang decided on the plan of "100-year Immigration", he thought deeply about it. He realized that no matter how powerful the Jiangnan Group was, it would not be able to carry out large-scale immigration without the support of the court.

In fact, Jiangnan Group has encountered a bottleneck in its overseas immigration in recent years.

It’s not that it’s hard to leave one’s hometown or no one wants to live abroad, nor is it that the conditions of Jiangnan Group are not attractive.

The Ming Dynasty had already been annexed to a serious extent. The rich had fields stretching across the country, while the poor had no place to stand. In order to avoid labor and unwilling to accept the exploitation of the landlords, countless people voluntarily left their homes and became refugees. According to estimates, the number of refugees in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty now added up to nearly 100 million!

On average, one out of every two or three people became a refugee. These people dreamed of owning their own land! Moreover, they had nothing and couldn't even go back to their hometown. Why didn't they go out to sea and try their luck?

The problem lies with the people who rule the country. Neither the central court nor the local authorities can accept the continuous outflow of population.

Even if these people cannot survive in the Ming Dynasty, they will die in the country. This mentality of treating the people as property rather than as human beings is prevalent in the bureaucratic system.

Therefore, although the Jiangnan Group has only quietly emigrated overseas in recent years...hundreds of thousands of households, it has already aroused the vigilance of the officialdom. At that time, one of the charges against Gao Gong's men who impeached him was "luring people overseas to plot against him"!

Although these noises have disappeared with the arrival of my father-in-law.

But Zhao Hao knew very well that the voices of opposition had only been temporarily suppressed, not disappeared.

Even Zhang Juzheng warned him that it was against human ethics to tempt the people to abandon their homes and go to sea, and to break away from the king's rule. It was better not to do such things...

He had to listen to his father, so Zhao Hao had to suspend his immigration.

But the policy of the century-long immigration must not be changed. He must change his strategy to dispel the doubts of the court, especially his father-in-law.

His solution was simple - since what they were most worried about was the people being separated from the king's rule, they should turn overseas countries into places ruled by the king!

Zhao Hao also did not want separatism to breed among overseas immigrants, so he persuaded the board of directors to donate Taiwan to the country in order to complete the countyization.

The effect of this move was immediate. No one doubted the intentions of the Jiangnan Group anymore. Instead, they praised the young minister for expanding the country's territory and making contributions that will last for generations! Some people even submitted a petition requesting that he be made an earl and given an iron certificate according to the ancestral system...

Of course, this is all to flatter his father-in-law, not that those people really think Zhao Hao has made any great contributions.

Before Taiwan became a treasure island, a sugar island, and a grain island, these guys who only cared about the mainland would not realize its value.

As for setting up Taiwan into two counties and dividing it into two provinces, it was a trick of Zhao Hao to attract people from Fujian and Guangdong provinces to immigrate to Taiwan and develop Taiwan together.

At least in the short term, it is very beneficial. Since the establishment of the two counties in the first year of the Wanli reign, the number of Fujian people who immigrated to Taiwan in one year has reached 200,000. There are also 150,000 people in Guangdong... This is because Tang Youde deliberately controlled the pace in order to avoid chaos. Otherwise, it would be easy to break 500,000.

~~

Zhang Juzheng finished smoking a pipe of tobacco, put it on the table, and said in a deep voice: "Tell me, what tricks do you have?"

"What bad intentions could I have? I just want to help my father-in-law accomplish a great deed and add another territory that is ten times the size of Taiwan Island to the Ming Dynasty!" Zhao Hao smiled sincerely and said, "After that, my father-in-law can continue to borrow large amounts from Jiangnan Bank by using the gold mining rights in Luzon as collateral without having to worry about affecting the credit of the silver bills!"

"Well, so that's it..." Zhang Juzheng felt relieved. He wondered what Zhao Hao was going to do.

Even though he was the top politician, his eyes were still inevitably focused on the two capitals and thirteen provinces in his homeland, and he was dismissive of Taiwan Island, let alone the more distant Luzon.

"But Luzon is too far away, right? If we want to imitate Taiwan's county system, we will probably be laughed at." Zhang Juzheng frowned slightly.

"That's right, so we won't set up a county in Luzon anymore. We can just follow our ancestral system and control Luzon!" Master Zhao said slowly, revealing his true intention.

ps. Post first and modify later.