After hearing Li Xiao’s words, Yang Sichang was slightly stunned, and the smile on his face became a little stiff. He said softly: “But I don’t know what conditions should Duke Tang take to negotiate peace with the court?”

Li Xiao smiled and said, "Yang Ge's subordinate, the first condition of this Duke is that the court restores the reputation of the Duke, official positions and titles, and severely punishes and instigates villains to restore my innocence."

Yang Sichang pondered for a moment and said, "This request from Duke of Tang is a natural thing. Since the court is willing to reconcile with Duke of Tang, this reputation and official position will be restored. In addition, as for punishing those villains, please rest assured. When this cabinet reports to the emperor, it will punish him and make justice for Duke of Tang."

Li Xiao nodded and said, "As for the second condition, it is that from now on, if our Tang army wants to expand its territory overseas and conquer foreign countries, the court shall not oppose or interfere. Although all newly occupied land is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it can only be managed by Li himself, and the court shall not send any other officials."

After hearing Li Xiao's words, Yang Sichang's face trembled, but he didn't feel like he was pondering.

Li Xiao’s condition, in fact, is a bit arrogant. As a minister of the Ming Dynasty, he has made great contributions to expanding territory for the Ming Dynasty. However, he has to govern himself. From this point of view, Li Xiao’s hand is a bit long.

But, can you object to him?

In order to compete for Taiwan's governance power, Li Xiao has already fought with the court. The battle outside Jintang City has left the court covered in dust and lost all its face. If Li Xiao acquires more overseas land in the future, the court will come to compete for it again, but this internal strife will begin again.

However, if Li Xiao had not fought and seized these overseas lands, the Ming Empire, which was full of holes and dying, would probably never have occupied a portion of the land.

In other words, since the Ming Empire did not have the ability to acquire these overseas lands and Li Xiao was able to fight, he would arrange and manage them himself, but it was barely reasonable.

Thinking of this, Yang Sichang sighed softly and said with a wry smile: "Since the Duke of Tang is determined to expand overseas lands, the court will not interfere more. These overseas lands are originally places of transformation, and as for arranging officials, it is also possible for Lord Li to take charge of it."

Seeing that Yang Sichang said this, his face was extremely embarrassing, Li Xiao chuckled and said loudly: "Yang Ge tribe, there is a saying, "I respect me one foot, and I respect others one foot. Li Xiao is a minister of the Ming Dynasty, but he should also consider the court's face. Let's do this. From now on, although the territory of one government and two counties in Taiwan cannot be managed by the court, it will pay taxes to the court based on the quota, just like the county and counties in the country. As for other overseas places, due to the remote land and sparse people, it will take a lot of time to develop it. I still need to invest huge costs, and there will be no taxes to pay in these places."

After Li Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Yang Sichang with a smile on his face.

He could figure it out in his heart that in the Ming Dynasty, in general prefectures and counties, the annual taxes were only a few hundred taels. And among the lands of Taiwan, there were Kaohsiung Prefecture, Changhua County, and Taipei County. Even if the annual tax was converted into 2,000 taels of silver, it was only a drop in the bucket for himself. This amount of silver was just a share of commercial tax in Kaohsiung Prefecture, Taiwan.

With this amount of money being handed over, the emperor and the court were greatly satisfied. For them, it would be a more cost-effective transaction to obtain profits without spending any governance costs.

Sure enough, as soon as Li Xiao finished speaking, Yang Sichang showed a bright smile on his face. He stroked his beard and sighed: "Lord Li is a man of Gancheng who values ​​affection and righteousness! This land of Taiwan was obtained by Duke Tang's defeat of the Spanish and Dutch in a row, and he fought hard, but he did not spend half a tael of silver in the court. It was completely managed and developed by Lord Li. Now, this newly established prefectures and counties in Taiwan can pay taxes to the state. Our heart is very impressed! Humph, our cabinet wants to see, Duke Tang is so wise, who else can talk too much and spread troubles in the court."

Seeing Yang Sichang's expression of joy, Li Xiao smiled and said his last request: "Mr. Yang, I will talk about the last condition."

"Duke of Tang, please tell me clearly."

"That is, since then, in order to avoid the slightest treachery of the monarch and ministers, I hope that if the court does not have an emergency, it will not announce an edict to let me enter the capital. Moreover, the military system under my rule will be established, and the court will not be allowed to inquire from now on." Li Xiao said lightly.

"Duke of Tang, this..." Yang Sichang's face looked ugly again.

If Li Xiao’s first two conditions were mostly domineering, in the final analysis, there were many feelings and excusable aspects, and the court could tolerate them. But this one was almost clear that Li Xiao himself and the Tang army under his rule were no longer bound by the court, and in the Ming Empire, it was equivalent to a completely independent vassal state-like existence.

In this way, although Li Xiao was clearly a minister of the Ming Dynasty, the court had no binding force on him.

This is a dangerous beginning.

Seeing Yang Sichang looking embarrassed, Li Xiao sneered and said, "Mr. Yang, do you think this condition is quite excessive? Then I will tell you clearly that although our army is not directly restricted by the court, we will send troops to participate in the matter of eliminating bandits and fighting the Tartars, and will never stay out of the matter. Moreover, all the food and money of our army is prepared by itself, without spending half of the country's money and food. Moreover, in the Ming Dynasty, it is limited to the existing territory and will no longer compete with the court for power and land, resulting in another internal strife. It can be said that the Ming Dynasty only obtained the land of Dengzhou Prefecture, plus the Jintang City outside the border, and without spending half a cent and half a grain of rice, and then it will surely acquire the elite army with strong combat power without spending half a cent or a grain of rice. Why not do such a good thing?"

When Yang Sichang heard this, he sighed in his heart.

Li Xiao said so clearly that Yang Sichang knew that there was no room for negotiation in this matter.

However, having said that although Li Xiao's condition is suspected to be incapable of controlling and restraining the country, for the current Ming Dynasty, it is still possible to barely accept such a powerful elite army that can be loyal to him, eliminate the thieves and fight against the Tartars.

Thinking of this, Yang Sichang smiled faintly and said, "Okay, this cabinet has agreed to this condition. If Duke Tang has no other discussions, can we sign a document agreement and take Yang back to the capital and sign the emperor to decide the case, and then peace will be negotiated between Duke Tang and the court."

Li Xiao laughed and said, "I have finished talking about the conditions of this Lord, but there is no other discussion. If Yangge tribe has no objection, then sign the agreement according to these three conditions of this Lord."

Soon, Li Xiao ordered someone to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and drafted the terms one by one with Yang Sichang, and then signed and signed the documents one by one.

Afterwards, Yang Sichang put the dry agreement paper in his hand and stood up to say goodbye to Li Xiao.

"Mr. Li, Yang returns to Beijing immediately. Please wait for the news for a while."

Seeing that Yang Sichang was so heartbroken, Li Xiao wanted to return to the capital to report, but was not convenient to stop him, so he smiled and said, "Okay, then it's up to Yangge's troops. In addition, this government has 500 two Chengyi to send him, so don't refuse."

Yang Sichang smiled bitterly and bowed: "Duke Tang is kind, so Yang is more respectful than obedient."

Yang Sichang accepted Cheng Yi and rushed all the way. In just four days, he returned to the capital successfully. Afterwards, Yang Sichang immediately entered the palace and handed over the agreement negotiated with Li Xiao to Emperor Chongzhen for a look.

Chongzhen opened the agreement and quickly checked it out, and then his face froze.

Yang Sichang, who was secretly observing the emperor's expression for a while, felt a sudden change in his face.

"I am weak in writing, I can still accept the first two agreements. But if this last condition is not an emergency, I will not enter the capital to receive an order, and I will not interfere with the territory and his subordinates under his command. Then, will I no longer be able to control Li Xiao from now on?" Chongzhen murmured with a gloomy face.

Yang Sichang sighed softly in his heart, and bowed and said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, don't blame me for speaking directly. Is there any way that the emperor can control Li Xiao in the present situation? Now Li Xiao is willing to turn around and reconcile with the emperor, and no longer raises troops to attack and kill each other again. It is a rare good thing! Moreover, the elite troops of Li Xiao's subordinates are willing to be used by the Ming Dynasty to suppress bandits and fight the Tartars, and to fulfill the duties of his ministers. Why does Your Majesty have to strictly control Li Xiao's army? Moreover, Li Xiao's troops and horses are all raised and built by themselves, and they do not cost the country half a grain of rice and grain, which is equivalent to the country without spending money, and he has obtained such an elite army out of thin air. From this perspective, Li Xiao's conditions are not unwilling to agree."

Chongzhen lowered his head, his face full of gloomy face, pondering without saying a word.

Yang Sichang bowed his hands and looked at the emperor sitting on the dragon throne with an anxious look.

Finally, Chongzhen sighed and said slowly: "Okay, in order to end this internal struggle between the king and the ministers as soon as possible, so as not to continue to suffer this unrestrained disaster in the Ming Dynasty, I will approve this peace agreement."

Yang Sichang knelt on the ground and said loudly: "The emperor judged the situation, benevolence, kindness, tolerance, and is truly a wise ruler who is not a worldly world."

Since the emperor agreed, the Tang and Ming peace agreement will be officially stamped and taken effect.

Then, the emperor issued another edict to restore all the official positions of Li Xiao, and then gave the eunuch a lot of blame, and fined the salary for three months. The rest of the officials who had reported Li Xiao secretly were also demoted, but the punishment was a pity for Li Xiao.

As the Minister of Rites and the Grand Secretary of the Dongge, who had never been very irresponsible to the Chief Secretary Liu Yuliang and others, Yang Sichang, saw that the emperor was incompetent in doing things and could only punish the civil servants for more punishment. He thought happily that Liu Yuliang and others were suppressed by this, and probably for a long time, they could only be a human being in the court with their tails in their arms.

After the imperial decree was passed back to Shandong, Li Xiao was very happy and felt inexplicably happy.

He thought with emotion that he was once repeatedly constrained in the Ming court and always felt that he was often constrained in his actions. But now with this peace agreement in hand, the rope that bound him was like he was cut off. From now on, he would no longer have to be constrained by the court as before. From this point of view, the previous battle with the court was quite worth the money.

The struggle with the court came to an end. The next key task Li Xiao had to do was to immediately arrange immigrants and settle in the southern part of Heiyi Island and Sakhalin Island.

It was already early April, and the originally frozen sea surfaces of the places like Essenii Island and Sakhalin Island had been thawed, allowing ships to pass smoothly. Li Xiao then arranged for those immigrants waiting on Jeju Island, 200,000 of whom would go to Esseni Island to settle down, and the other 100,000 would go to the southern part of Sakhalin Island to settle down.

Li Xiao was sure that with these immigrants of a total of more than 300,000 people, they would one day become more and more prosperous like Taiwan Island, and become a place where the descendants of the Chinese Han people will be eclectic and prosper.

As for the northern part of Sakhalin, there was only a Tatar Strait separated from the Qing Dynasty. In order to ensure the stability of immigrants' lives and not affected by the war, Li Xiao decided not to send immigrants here for the time being, and to wait until he could station troops in Manchuria in the future, so that Sakhalin Island would become a stable rear, and then arrange for immigrants to carry out production and development.

At the same time, Li Xiao's other focus was on building three new shipyards.

So far, there is only Dengzhou Shipyard in Li Xiao’s army. From last year to now, almost two years have passed, and the entire shipyard has only built three No. 2 blessed ships, more than ten sea cabin ships, and more than 30 bird ships.

Of course, this production progress is far from satisfying Li Xiao.

So Li Xiao carefully planned and finally decided to set up three large shipyards in Taiwan Island, Jeju Island and Hokkien Island, so that the speed and output of ships must be more than several times the previous ones.

These newly established shipyards were all divided into competent personnel from Dengzhou shipyards and went to form them. The division of labor in each shipyard is also very different.

Among them, Dengzhou Shipyard, as the oldest and largest shipyard, mainly produces large sailing battleships, especially imitating various Western-style sailing ships in Europe.

Jeju Shipyard mainly produces Chinese warships, such as blessed ships, rushing ships, sea cabin ships, etc.

As for Taiwan shipyards, they produce small ships, mostly bird ships and sand ships, mainly used to conduct trade activities against Western countries and Fujian and Guangdong. The reason why large ships are not produced in Taiwan is Li Xiao also hopes that when his power is not strong, don’t stimulate Zheng Zhilong, the overlord who occupies Penghu as his nest and now the southeastern sea.

After all, the Zheng family has been in operation for many years, with thousands of sea ships and tens of thousands of navy personnel. Such terrifying maritime power cannot be surpassed overnight.

As for the smallest Hokkien Shipyard, it also mainly produces small ships, and takes advantage of the convenience of the geographical advantages to recruit some Japanese craftsmen to imitate some Japanese warships such as Anzhai Ship and Xiaozao Ship. The ships it produces are mainly used to transport personnel and materials on the island of Hokkien and Sakhalin.

Li Xiao urgently hopes that after he vigorously expands the shipyard, his fleet size will gradually expand and his combat power will increase. Then, when the fleet size further expands, he will have greater advantages and voice in the vast ocean.

Then, in the future, not only will the Luzon and the Philippine islands be included in their own rule, but many undeveloped Indonesian archipelagos such as New Guinea and Brimantan, which are further south, will eventually be completely conquered by themselves.
Chapter completed!