Chapter 1581: Homecoming

The homes of the crew members of the long-distance fleet are all on the mainland, and if they hurry up they can go home for the New Year, so they are naturally eager to return home.

The citizens of Luzon were reluctant to let them go and tried very hard to keep them, even trying to make them their sons-in-law behind closed doors.

Bah, wishful thinking! The crew members are now worth 20,000 to 30,000 taels, and they are all rich. Who wants to be a son-in-law?

Finally, the Governor-General's Office stepped in and said that the members of the ocean-going fleet would hold a national tour next year. They would definitely be invited to come and chat with everyone for a month or so, okay? After Mr. Zhao gave his endorsement, the citizens of Luzon reluctantly let them go.

So on the seventeenth day of the winter month, the fleet continued its voyage back north.

However, not everyone went back. Many researchers stayed in Luzon and rushed to turn their research projects into results.

Especially those who were engaged in animal and plant research, none of them returned home. One third of the animals and plants they brought back had died due to the long voyage, and they were not suitable for breeding and cultivation in China. So it was more important to stay here and help them quickly adapt to their new home.

Zhao Hao asked the Governor's Office to approve two plots of land in Yongxia City specifically for them, one for establishing the Luzon Zoological Research Institute and the other for establishing the Botanical Research Institute.

He had high hopes for the latter, especially because the millions of seeds brought back by the fleet included 12 kinds of rubber tree seeds, 20 kinds of cinchona seeds, 8 kinds of cocoa seeds, 15 kinds of coffee seeds, as well as seeds of hundreds of South American agricultural and cash crops, including corn, sweet potato, potato, cassava, pumpkin, tomato, pepper, peanut, sunflower, tobacco, cashew, upland cotton, pineapple, kidney bean, avocado, American ginseng, papaya, etc.

Zhao Hao allowed the Botanical Research Institute to take one-tenth of each sample and plant it in the spring of next year. In order to increase the survival rate and let these treasures settle in Luzon as soon as possible, he spent a lot of money to let the institute build a glass greenhouse in case the temperature in Luzon is still too low for some tropical plants.

He had incredibly high expectations for these crops, and ordered that the Botanical Institute be given the highest possible security treatment—that is, a security brigade of 1,000 people solely responsible for the Institute's safety.

This made everyone look at the Botanical Research Institute with new eyes. They wondered what kind of amazing wealth and secrets were hidden in this place where flowers and plants were fiddled with, and why the young master was willing to spend so much money to protect it.

There was no need for Zhao Hao to explain, because all the independent research institutes were funded by the Singularity Foundation...which meant he paid for it out of his own pocket.

Of course, he could ask Jiangnan Group or Nanhai Group to pay for it, but in that case he would have to explain to the increasingly professional board of directors and the increasingly nosy board of supervisors why he had to spend the money. He would also have to produce a business plan and be subject to audits at any time, which would be very troublesome and not conducive to confidentiality.

Therefore, Mr. Zhao simply made the scientific research system independent of the group, and it was operated solely by the Singularity Fund and was responsible for its own profits and losses.

The full name of Singularity Fund is 'Singularity Science and Technology Investment Fund', which is 100% owned by Singularity Investment Company.

The main assets of Singularity Investment Company include Zhao Hao’s 34% stake in Jiangnan Group, 26.32% stake in Xishan Group, and 11.48% stake in Lugouqiao Group, accounting for more than 90% of Zhao Hao’s assets.

Zhao Hao continuously injects capital into the Singularity Fund through Singularity Investment, maintaining ten research institutions of varying sizes, including the Xishan Island Research Center, Jiangnan Ship Research Institute, Kunshan Agricultural College Research Center, and Jiangnan Medical College Research Center, but all of them are good at spending money.

Excluding the two in Luzon, the annual research expenses of all research institutions amounted to a whopping 2.5 million taels, which is equivalent to about 1.5 billion RMB in today's money.

Even if Zhao Hao had mountains of gold and silver, he couldn't afford to spend money like this. Moreover, those mountains of gold and silver belonged to the group, not to him personally.

At first, he could only fill the hole by selling stocks or taking out mortgages. Fortunately, the "April Stock Market Crash" in the fifth year of Longqing made him earn tens of millions of taels, which enabled him to survive until now.

Fortunately, Mr. Zhao adopted a combination of industry, academia and research. When the research institute produced results with application value, he would form a joint venture with a company under the group to realize the results. The research institute was responsible for providing patents and technical personnel, the company was responsible for production and sales, and then the profits were distributed according to the agreement.

After years of exploration and adjustment, this path has become wider and wider. Last year, the fund shared a profit of 1.9 million silver taels in this way. That is to say, while the research funding is increasing day by day, the net expenditure is shrinking, and it only needs 600,000 taels of investment subsidy from Qidian.

This was enough to make Mr. Zhao very happy. He finally didn't have to sell all his belongings or borrow money from his wife. He could maintain the operation of the fund just by relying on the dividends from the three groups.

And there will be more than 100,000 taels of silver left, which can be used as hotel money... Oh no, it's more convenient to use private money.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hao couldn't help but burst into tears. Is it easy for me? After ten years, I can finally save some private money...

In fact, Mr. Zhao might already be one of the top ten richest people in the world. Even with the most conservative estimate, his assets are already more than 100 million taels of silver.

But the size of the assets is useless. The rich emperor of the Ming Dynasty must have assets worth tens of billions, right? Doesn't he still rely on him for support?

And there is the King of Spain, on whom the sun never sets. Didn’t he also have his capital chain broken and go bankrupt and refuse to pay his debts?

He couldn't tell the girls in the brothel that he had billions of dollars in assets but couldn't withdraw them at the moment, so he could let me get it for free and then lend me five thousand taels to unfreeze the funds?

I guess they will call the police to arrest him.

So, real gold and silver are money.

~~

Master Zhao also boarded Liu Daxia and he couldn't wait to return home.

He doesn't want to go back to the brothel. He hasn't been home for more than a year.

Now that his father-in-law's precious daughter has returned, and brought a thousand-year-old turtle with her, Zhao Hao finally dares to return to the country to see his daughter.

Last year, Li Mingyue, Jiang Xueying and Sister Ma came to Luzon to spend the New Year with him. But they were worried that the children were too young and there was malaria in Luzon, so they didn't bring either the daughter or the son.

As a result, from the twelfth month to the first month, only the three heroes fought against Lu Bu, and there was no child to distract them, which made Lu Bu's legs tremble with exhaustion. As soon as the first month was over, they were all sent back to the mainland.

The reason is very sufficient. Children grow up in the blink of an eye. It is cruel for their fathers not to be around. Mothers need to spend more time with them to avoid any regrets.

Perhaps it was because of his age, Mr. Zhao, who was already 25 years old, had finally awakened to his father's love, had the awareness of being a father, and began to miss his child.

He is already the father of seven children, so it’s time for him to wake up... After Li Mingyue returned from Luzon, she gave birth again in July this year. And they were twins, a boy and a girl!

Xueying's belly didn't move anymore, so she could only admire her. In terms of giving birth, she really couldn't compare to the little princess.

As for Qiaoqiao, she is at home taking care of the kids and didn’t come to Luzon. If there is any problem, it will be a big problem…

So Zhao Hao now has five sons and two daughters. This is because they spend less time together than together. If they were together all day, he could produce a football team's starting lineup.

~~

Moreover, Zhao Hao plans to stay in the mainland for a year or two before coming back to Luzon.

As the saying goes, "Everything is difficult at the beginning." In the past two years, his focus has basically been on Luzon. Now that all work has been put on the right track, Jin Ke and Tang Baolu will follow the rules and regulations and there will not be any major problems.

This is of course thanks to Lin Feng's surprise attack on Acapulco, which forced the Spanish expedition to be postponed for several years.

But to be honest, Zhao Hao didn't really take the Spaniards seriously. At least in Asia, he was not afraid to face the Spanish fleet that had come so far.

The reason why he did not go south to attack Cebu in the past two years was to allow the Spanish to maintain their presence. In addition to the galleon trade, more importantly, he needed an enemy in Southeast Asia!

In this way, the tribes in the Nanyang countries will urgently need their father's protection and cry for inclusion.

If this enemy didn't exist, they probably wouldn't be so close to their father.

Therefore, the Spaniards cannot leave until Zhao Hao has completely completed his layout.

In fact, to put it more clearly, Zhao Hao put Luzon Island in a state of being on the verge of a formidable enemy, which is also a means to strengthen the immigrants' dependence and make them easier to manage.

But if the string is always kept tight, it will break, and it's time to let them relax a little.

There is no need for any explicit or implicit hints. As long as he leaves for a while, the atmosphere of Luzon will naturally come down.

~~

In winter, the prevailing wind on the sea is from the northeast, so sailing north is against the wind. Fortunately, with the surging Kuroshio Current, the speed is not too slow.

Ten days later, the fleet arrived in Kenting. After resting for a day and replenishing supplies, they continued northward along the east coast of Taiwan Island.

During the rest period in Kenting, Zhao Hao asked Lin Feng to convey that the crew and passengers whose homes were in Fujian and Guangdong could disembark, and the garrison would arrange boats to take them home for the New Year.

However, no one left the ship. They now clearly realized that after three years and three months of sailing, they had become legends.

No one wanted their legendary story to have any flaws, so they all chose to return to Pudong with the ship to put a perfect end to the round-the-world voyage.

The Spring Festival comes every year, but such a legendary experience may only happen once in a lifetime. So their choice is understandable.

So the fleet continued northward.

At this time, Zhao Hao and Xiao Zhuzi had almost had enough of each other, and then they remembered their good friend Xuelang, who was also on a round-the-world voyage.

He felt a little embarrassed and quickly sent someone to invite Master Xuelang. However, the guard went there and reported back that Master Xuelang stayed in Luzon and did not board the ship.

This made Zhao Hao very puzzled. Why did the noisy monk change his temperament so drastically? He no longer wanted to compose poems for him and was even hiding from him?

Could it be that because he was too handsome, he was treated as daily necessities by the thirsty crew members in the vast ocean?

Thinking of this, Zhao Hao became very anxious and quickly asked someone to find the special operations officer hiding among the crew.

Although that guy and his men got off the ship in Morocco, there were still many members of Kote lurking in the fleet, secretly monitoring every move of the fleet.

Fortunately, the Special Operations Department reported that Master Xuelang had not suffered any super-friendly attacks, but had just said that he had some enlightenment and wanted to sit in a state of death to understand it. I don't know if it's true, or if he was too embarrassed to see me because his secret was exposed in the Linfeng Strait?

We can only wait until we meet again in the future.

~~

Ten days later, Laba arrived in Naha, where he was also warmly welcomed by the Ryukyu people.

During the years when the Zheng family ruled Ryukyu, apart from other things, they paid close attention to the Chinese education. Now the Ryukyu people no longer regard the Ming Dynasty as a suzerain state, but as "their own country"...

Moreover, many of the crew members in Ryukyu had romantic relationships and had many children. The crew members actually had a stronger affection for this place than for Luzon.

However, time is tight, so I can only make it short and focus on my work. I'll deal with other things later when I have more time.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the fleet set out again, heading for the last stop of this long journey - Shanghai Pudong!

(End of this chapter)