The report of the Governor of Peru quickly attracted the attention of the Spanish and American authorities. If trade with the Empire of Light can be opened, its profits will definitely be crazy.

The Spanish authorities' current days are already very difficult. A large number of British pirates attacked Spanish merchant ships everywhere, resulting in a sharp decline in Spain's finances.

In the last century, the Spanish Invincible Armada encountered storms in a battle with the British, and most of its strength was lost.

In this century, the rebellion of the Netherlands caused huge losses to the Spanish. After the rebellion, the Netherlands even established a navy, making the Spanish fleet difficult.

At this moment, Europe is in the 30th Years' War. As a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, Spain also spent a lot of money on military expenditure.

If trade can be opened with the Empire of Light, the finances will inevitably improve.

Although the Spaniards had many gold and silver mines in the Americas, these things were obviously not allowed to be eaten. After all, Europe produced so many things, and when the money was too high, the prices naturally rose. For example, to make a weapon, five taels of silver, but because gold and silver were plundered everywhere, it led to inflation, and the cost was ten taels of silver.

Therefore, productivity itself has not changed. If you want to create more weapons and recruit more soldiers, you must continue to strengthen your efforts to seize gold and silver.

There was no paper money in this era, so it was not as good as you want. However, the era of gold standard also had an advantage, that is, there was no exchange rate problem. Even if the country's inflation was strong, it could buy more things in countries without inflation, but international trade was not very frequent in the era.

The Empire of Light has huge material. By transporting goods back from the Empire of Light, you can earn more gold and silver, so that the finances can improve.

Furthermore, the general's willingness to cooperate with them in the Far East to suppress the forces of the Netherlands is equivalent to having another ally in the Far East, and the competition between the Empire and the Netherlands has always been very fierce.

Just like the competition in the Far East, the Dutch had just occupied southern Taiwan, and the Empire also sent soldiers to occupy northern Taiwan, but the Empire was driven out of Taiwan by the Dutch not long ago.

For various interests, the American authorities decided to strive for the relationship between the general of the Empire of Light and immediately began to organize personnel to find the "tree of tears" in South America. The search progress was very smooth. Almost just mentioned, indigenous people provided clues, and the Spaniards quickly found the rubber tree in Brazil.

They found that this was a very wide tree, almost everywhere in the Amazon basin, and it didn't take much effort to get ten thousand pounds of rubber trees.

Soon the Spanish and American authorities decided to agree to the request of the general of the Empire of Light to provide them with ten thousand pounds of this rubber used to make porcelain for free every year.

But the premise is that the general can really trade with the empire in the Far East, as he said, and jointly suppress the forces of the Netherlands in the Far East.

These low-level countries were originally the territory of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Spaniards were obviously very annoyed by the rebellious low-level countries.

However, if they wanted to recover these low-level countries, they did not have enough financial resources. The Dutch built many bastions, which made the Spaniards very difficult to attack. They once fired more than 7,000 shells in the Netherlands, but had not yet captured a bastion. This made the Spaniards struggled to resist. If each bastion had to spend such a huge effort to contribute, even if the national treasury was wiped out, I wonder if the rebels in the Netherlands could be wiped out.

The Spaniards were absolutely anxious at this time. The situation on the European battlefield was corrupt and had entered a melee of various countries. As supporters of the Holy Roman Empire and the hostile to Protestantism, the Spaniards were eager to reverse the current situation. The biggest constraints were the silver issue. Their merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean were often attacked by pirates.

In essence, pirates have a common surname and a surname. The common surname is to plunder merchant ships and civilian ships. The surname is to plunder closely for plunder, or to resist the national political axe, or to plunder other countries' ships with the support of their national political axe.

Nowadays, a so-called "private license" business license is popular in the West. The "private license" is a certificate issued by the country to the pirates of their country, giving them legal status. At the same time, they will also give them some money, give some cannons, etc., specifically instruct them to attack enemy ships, and everyone will share the money after making money.

Even if countries are in a state of hostility, they generally do not attack the other party's ships before they are ready to declare war, which will cause large-scale wars. Therefore, if you want to steal other people's ships at this time, you will let the pirates do it.

The infamous Drake was the first British pirate captain who held a private license. Drake also made great contributions to the UK. He once robbed the treasures he had stored for a year in the Isthmus of Panama. Later, due to the storm, he was blown to the Death Strait between Antarctica and Tierra Tierra (after Antarctica was discovered, it was named Drake Strait). He successfully ran to the west coast of America, fled and plundered at various ports, and successfully grabbed a gold transport ship.

After that, Drake actually defeated the Spanish Invincible Fleet with the British fleet. In addition, the Spanish fleet suffered a storm and its strength was greatly reduced. After that, Britain was in the battle for hegemony with Spain at sea.

There are surprisingly many pirates holding privateer licenses, not only in Britain, but also in various countries, and they follow suit! Most of these pirates are concentrated in the Caribbean Sea, waiting for the emergence of Spanish merchant ships like wolves and tigers, causing Spain's maritime power to weaken year by year and its finances to decline sharply.

If you trade with the Empire of Light, you can directly transport gold and silver from the west coast to Manila. There are almost no pirates on the way. After the Empire of Light is exchanged into goods and then transported back to the local area, the safety surname will be greatly increased.

Take textiles for example. After the textiles purchased from the Empire of Light were shipped back to Europe, the gross profit reached more than 300%, and other goods were even higher.

Porcelain, tea, cane sugar, white sugar, silk, cotton cloth, musk, raw silk, white silk, paper, brocade, honey, etc. are all very popular products in Europe.

However, there is another product now, that is, glass mirrors. Orientals have actually made glass mirrors with better quality and larger specifications than Italians!

It can be imagined that after these mirrors were transported back to Europe, the nobles would have to conduct a new round of comparison.

In early April, the Spaniards, who reached a consensus, signed the Far East Cooperation Agreement with Cao Li, which stipulates the various obligations and trade details that both parties should complete.

Details stipulate that Spain will provide Zhao Yan with 10,000 pounds of rubber in the Americas every year, and Zhao Yan must ensure that he exports at least five million taels of goods to them every year.

At the same time, Zhao Yan must cooperate with the Spanish Far East Fleet to suppress the Dutch and have the responsibility to jointly eliminate the pirates in the Far East. The Spanish recognize Zhao Yan's protection of the South China Chinese, and the Spanish no longer commit acts that harm the interests of the South China Chinese.

This is the agreement signed by Cao Li and the Spaniards.

As a naval general who was released from America, Zhao Yan allowed them to sign an agreement with other countries in profitable circumstances, and then send it back for approval after signing.

"The Lord said that we can first make a fuss with Franjiren. Franjiren slaughtered 20,000 of our comrades in Southeast Asia. This account will be settled sooner or later." Cao Li persuaded Yang Yichuan before signing the agreement. With both of them agree, he signed the "Empress of Light, Spanish Empire Far East Cooperation Agreement".

When signing the agreement, several teams sent out to find rubber trees crossed the Indian Mountains again and returned with the rubber trees seeds.

In late April, the Spaniards used the method Cao Li gave them to cut more than 500 kilograms of rubber. After getting the rubber, Cao Li immediately sent a flying scissor ship back to Qingdao.

At this moment, their mission has been completed more than half.

Paita's Pioneer Fort has been built, and Cao Li and Yang Yichuan began to plan the next action. Their task is not only to find rubber trees and rubber, but also to find the Jinchona trees.

At the same time, they also need to survey the terrain of the Americas and the situation in various parts of the Americas, and slowly understand the situation in the Americas so that they can be convenient for their actions in the future.

"We currently have only one ship to explore the Americas mission and do not have enough power. The cinchona tree has been controlled by the Francos. It is a bit difficult for us to find such a tree!" Yang Yichuan said in a search.

"This is a tree, and it grows everywhere. Can they still pull out this tree? As long as the ground is still growing, it is not impossible to get this thing." Cao Li thought for a while and said, "Sir, this kind of tree grows a lot in the north area, and there are some places where we are, but there may not be many places. We will look for it locally first. If it really doesn't work, wait for the fleet to arrive, and then go to the north to find it."

"Well! That's all."

...Denglai in February is still busy building roads, and 700,000 to 800,000 people participated in the construction of roads. These refugees recruited last year and the people captured from the thieves have been building roads after planting winter wheat, and there is no wages!

There are too many roads to be built this year. If wages are paid, the cost will surge unless all the two million taels are used to build the road.

But in addition to road construction, the Ministry of Transport also needs to use this fund to build carriages and river ships, so it is impossible to pay for the wages.

It’s nothing if you don’t pay wages. These people are nothing. Zhao Yan placed them down and sent them to fields, oxen, seeds, and farm tools. This is a great kindness.

If I were a little stingy, I guess these refugees would still have to owe a lot of debts. Now I have only been working for a few months, and these paths have been built for myself.

"Everyone should work hard, finish the work early and have a meal early. When the road is repaired, it will be convenient for everyone to enter and exit. In the future, food, cotton and other things can be transported out." The political commissar of the Propaganda Department mobilized on the construction site.

When the young and strong people heard the shout, they immediately increased their speed. With the concerted efforts of everyone, they poured the concrete mixed with sand and stone and cement onto the road surface.

Soon a concrete road appeared, and then the plasterer applied another layer of cement, and the road became extremely flat. After solidification, the wooden boards on both sides could be removed.

In order to pursue speed, blasting has been underway. In terms of choosing these villages, they generally do not choose those valleys that are extremely difficult to build roads.

Like those mountain valleys, military farming is generally not allowed. The people in the mountainous areas are definitely the poorest, so Zhao Yan will naturally not create poverty again.

If you can build rich land overseas in the future, you will even consider moving the people in the mountainous areas out, then sealing the mountainous areas for special use for forest cultivation, and giving the space to wild animals.

The happiest person is Chen Zhongsheng. If this road is well built, Dengzhou will inevitably be prosperous. He started to rectify Dengzhou's Dianjie since last year, and has achieved certain results.

Chen Zhongsheng first managed the officials in various counties. This kind of small shrimp was the best to rectify, and it was also a major disaster. The small shrimps in various places were abolished and handled, and all the vacant positions were drawn from Zhao Yan.

At the same time, last year, some local bullies and powerful people were rectified, which immediately won him the reputation of a master of Qingtian, but his reputation was still a little worse than Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan has been giving porridge in Shandong every year and has opened shelters in various counties. In the past two years, no one has ever starved to death. At the same time, if you can't survive, you can go to the shelter. The shelter will be arranged to farm in various places or work in factories. If you have some education, you will go to the training first and then send it to various departments in various places to do things.

In addition, Zhao Yan's official position has soared since he was recruited. Now he is the General of Dragon and Tiger, and has become the leader of Shandong merchants.

Whether it is the people or the businessmen, they support Zhao Yan very much. However, the landlords in Denglai don’t like him so much, especially Laizhou and Qingzhou.

The river banks of Qingzhou in Laizhou were forcibly occupied by Zhao Yan, which caused dissatisfaction among some landlords. Those rivers were of great use to Zhao Yan, and textile factories needed hydraulic power. The Yishui River in Qingzhou was currently constantly building textile workshops.

Those landlords have a lot of resentment, but they can't cause any storm.

Merchants and landlords often repeat, and Zhao Yan also knows what kind of groups to win over. Therefore, for those merchants in Shandong guild halls, the land area is relatively mild, and they usually pay for it. The price is not too high, but guild hall merchants generally sell it obediently.

With the support of this upper class and lower class, Zhao Yan's reputation is very good in Shandong. He does have a little bit of the "land king" when dealing with those landlords with relatively scattered powers, but it only moves a small part. If you use all the knives, you will have to make a mess.

After the Chinese New Year, Chen Zhongsheng borrowed 1 million taels of silver from Zhao Yan to build Dengzhou water conservancy and restore agricultural production.

In addition to Zhao Yan's garrison, Dengzhou also has many self-cultivated farmers and some sporadic landlords. However, the number of these landlords is not too many. After all, the roads in Dengzhou are blocked and agricultural production is not profitable. Instead, it has become a paradise for self-cultivated farmers and a paradise for natural economy, and its productivity is generally not high.

The 1 million taels that Chen Zhongsheng borrowed were also used by Zhao Yan's staff in the execution of the payment, and only Zhao Yan's staff could make him feel at ease, otherwise the 1 million taels would have to be corruption all.

Water conservancy and roads are also built using Zhao Yan's technicians and techniques. Chen Zhongsheng inspected the water conservancy projects built by Zhao Yan.

For larger water conservancy, such as river channel management, Zhao Yan used the numerical calculation method not only has lower cost, but also has better management effect.

Not to mention the roads, those flat roads are not something you can do if you want to be repaired. If they are all paved with bluestone, how much money will it cost!

The cost of cement is much lower, and the cost of sand and stone is not high.

In order to cooperate with Chen Zhongsheng's reform, Zhao Yan gave up the salt profit in Dengzhou, and in terms of commercial tax, in addition to the Maritime Bureau (customs), they also gave up the salt and tax.

Zhao Yan needed to train a reformist civil servant, while Chen Zhongsheng was an official with a reform idea.

After all, he is a martial artist. Although he was a scholar before traveling through time, he also made the civil servants have some favorable feelings, and many things are still not convenient enough to do.

After Chen Zhongsheng borrowed 1 million taels, he immediately started to overhaul water conservancy and roads in Dengzhou with the people borrowed from Zhao Yan.

At the same time, Zhao Yan sent a garrison leader to train these officials and stationed them in various villages and towns. The number of self-cultivated farmers in Dengzhou was about 800,000. If these 800,000 people were organized, they would get many military sources in the future.

The cooperation between Zhao Yan and Chen Zhongsheng is also a bit like a backdoor. As a warrior, he is fine to manage his own villages. If he wants to interfere in those villages and towns, it is obviously a bit unreasonable. But if he takes Chen Zhongsheng's name, it is legitimate. It seems that Chen Zhongsheng is under the jurisdiction of Zhao Yan.

This year, the 800,000 self-cultivated farmers were organized, which meant that Zhao Yan had a population of 2.3 million and 700,000 young and strong labor force, and he spread his sphere of influence to every corner of Dengzhou, truly becoming a local emperor.

...On the second day of the second month, a rapid alarm suddenly sounded from Qingdao Port.

Those merchants who came to buy salt from other places were confused when they heard the sirens and didn't know what it was. But as soon as the sirens sounded, the port suddenly felt as if it was suddenly tense. Teams of soldiers rushed out of the barracks and began to evacuate the people at the port.

"Report to the commander, the brigade of unknown ships was found outside the sea, which were Westerners' ships." The soldier reported to Yan Shiliang.

"How many specific ones are there?" Yan Shiliang asked hurriedly.

"There are about eight warships and a few quick ships," the soldier replied.

"Let the artillery take its place and contact the First Fleet immediately." Yan Shiliang ordered, then climbed the observation deck and began to look into the sea in the distance, with an expectant look.

At the end of last year, Yan Shiliang was appointed as the commander of the offshore fleet and was responsible for guarding Qingdao. His former youthful and vigorous spirit have disappeared from Yan Shiliang. The cruelty of reality and the struggles in the officialdom once made Yan Shiliang think that he would never do anything again in this life.

But Zhao Yan gave him a chance. Now he is the commander of the offshore fleet and commands the coastal garrisons. Although the ships of the offshore fleet are all small ships of each garrison and can only be regarded as second-line troops, it is already a huge opportunity for Yan Shiliang.

After taking office, Yan Shiliang began to rectify the defenses of various coastal areas. With the assistance of those Qingming officials, he has achieved good results.

Yan Shiliang was even more meticulous in defense of Qingdao Port, for fear of letting Zhao Yan down. When there was no storm, he would never stop patrolling the outer sea every day, which allowed him to receive the news in advance. Now the Western fleet is about to come and knock on the edge, and the opportunity to make contributions is right in front of him.

After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, seven or eight black dots finally appeared on the sea in the distance, and the enemy ships came...
Chapter completed!