It was midsummer, but the sea breeze was still cool. A huge fleet was passing through the Tatar Sea, passing through Sakhalin Island, and slowly entering the real North Sea along the coast.

There is no other ship on the sea except their fleet, and there is no one on the coast. It seems like an abandoned world. Although the trees are flourishing, it gives people a different sense of desolation.

Zhu Qizhe held the telescope and glanced at it for a long time. Then he sighed slightly and asked, "Bogong, what do you think of this situation?"

Zhang Jimeng, the new Liaodong Governor, was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he said carefully: "Your Majesty, I'm going to ask, is this cold and cold place in the extreme north really worth our efforts to develop?"

This question is good. After all, the Ming Dynasty is already vast enough now. Even if there are constant natural disasters in the northwest, it is still no problem to manage the granaries in Huguang, Jiangnan, Dongban and other places well and feed the existing population.

The border land is basically vast and sparsely populated, and no one cultivates it, so it cannot generate any tax revenue, and the environment is very harsh.

Therefore, in the eyes of many people, occupying the extreme north, west, and even the extreme south is a heavy burden, which is also the reason why the emperor after Yongle slowly gave up these places.

The expenses in these places are too high, and the court can't bear it!

Of course no one is willing to do such a loss-making business.

Zhu Qizhe pointed to the woods on the shore and said, "A lot of these trees can be used to build ships, build houses, and make houses. If we send people here to log and build ships, and then transport the wood to Jiangnan and other places, how much money do you think we can make?"

Well, both logging and shipbuilding require manual labor, and both require a lot of labor.

Zhang Jimeng said carefully: "If you build a ship, you should be able to make some money, but if you log, you may not make much money. After all, the labor and freight for cutting trees are very expensive."

This guy, can't you find a way to cut trees?

Zhu Qizhe said embarrassedly: "If you cut a few trees or dozens of trees, you can only cut them manually. It is really difficult to cut them down. If you cut a lot of wood, we can use steam engines and saw wheels to design a large car head similar to Yuanbaoshan Coal Mine, then install a large saw wheel and drive them all the way."

When Zhang Jimeng heard this, his eyes couldn't help but illuminate, and he said with admiration: "The emperor is wise."

Is this called wisdom?

Zhu Qizhu continued: "I said that wood is just an example. There are many resources here, but not just wood. Do you know that if you look at the problem from a development perspective? The Ming Dynasty seems to be lacking in nothing now. After decades or even hundreds of years, the population will increase several times or even dozens of times, and all kinds of resources will probably be scarce. Not to mention anything else, just copper and silver. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was no shortage of copper and silver. However, as the population grew, the lives of the people became better and better, and there were more places to use money.

Copper and silver gradually began to tighten, especially silver. Almost all silver ores with high content have been mined. The Ming Dynasty's silver production is even worse than Japan, let alone copper tables. Since the start of manufacturing steam engines, the Ming Dynasty's copper ores have gradually been unable to keep up with demand. If we hadn't transported a large number of copper ores from the sea through Spain every year, there would be no machine tools, ships, and trains. Should we have to wait until the day when resources are scarce before thinking about expanding territory?"

Zhang Jimeng is already over fifty now, and he will be over sixty after ten years.

The emperor's intention is to let him retire as the chief minister of the cabinet!

This is simply the greatest honor for civil servants.

When Zhang Jimeng heard this, he couldn't help but say excitedly: "Thank you for your grace."

Zhu Qizhuo nodded slightly, then looked at the vast sea and fell into deep thought.

He prepared to form four major northern provinces in order to firmly control the vast territory from north Liaodong to the Siberian Khanate.

This Liaodong Chengcheng announced that the Political and Envoy Department was the first, and its jurisdiction included the original Liaodong and the old lands of Nuergandu.

In other words, the newly built Liaodong province alone is almost half the size of the original two capitals and thirteen provinces.
Chapter completed!