Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 781 Taiwan Island

Time flies like water, and another month passes in a blink of an eye, and it is already midsummer.

Gao Wushi returned to Guilin. During this month, he finished processing all the backlog of paperwork, and impeached an inspector who used a stagecoach for private use (historical facts, in "Shenzong Veritable Records", there was an inspector who fell this year because of this), There were also six or seven officials who were impeached by Gao Yushi because of other illegalities and imprudence. Finally, he did not work in vain for a year, and it was not easy to do business when he went back.

After Huang Zhiting sent Gao Wushi to Guilin, she stayed for a few days and then returned to Siming Mansion. After all, she also has business to do, so it's not good for her to stay away for a long time.

When she left, she was naturally very reluctant. Miss Huang, who was used to seeing life and death on the battlefield, had tears in her eyes at that time. Looking at her appearance, even if she suddenly said she couldn't leave, the wolf soldiers were not surprised.

Fortunately, the wolf soldiers led this time all knew in private that there was something unusual between the eldest lady and the high press platform, and each of them lowered their heads so much that they were almost stuffed into their crotches, which was barely maintaining the dignity of the eldest lady.

Gao Wushi didn't say too much. Although he has a good eloquence, he is not willing to say it at this moment. He simply said two words to Huang Zhiting: "Wait for me."

Huang Zhiting's tears were actually brought out by these two words.

He is not as interested in growing sweet potatoes as Zhang Ren is. Apart from "going to work" on time every day, he is also receiving requests for approval from Jinghua Group from various places.

He hasn't made too many adjustments recently, only one thing can be regarded as a new instruction: he ordered Gao Qi to use Quanzhou Port as the base, and send people to gradually investigate the port and its surrounding areas.

Yaogang, also known as Beigang, also known as Mosquito Harbor, is located in Budai Town, Chiayi County, Taiwan Province in later generations, in the lower reaches of Beigang River in central Taiwan.During the Ming Dynasty, Taiwan was once referred to as "魔港".Yaogang was also an important port for maritime merchants and fishermen to travel to and from Taiwan Island, Penghu Islands, and Zhejiang and Fujian.

If you start from Quanzhou, you only need to sail directly to the southeast to arrive, and you will almost pass the Penghu Islands on the way.

For a long period of time in Chinese history, the island of Taiwan has been in a state of obscurity and few people care about it.During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the mainland called Taiwan Island "Daoyi", during the Qin Dynasty it was called "Yingzhou", and during the Three Kingdoms period, it was called "Yizhou".

During the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was mainly called "Ryukyu". Some people who lived here for a short time passed by, and more residents were indigenous people on the island of Taiwan.

In the Ming Dynasty, various experts of later generations estimated that there were about [-] indigenous people living on Taiwan Island. They lived a primitive tribal life and scattered on the island's [-] square kilometers of land.

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, there were many folk names for Taiwan, such as "chicken coop" (referring to the northern part of Taiwan), "Beigang" (that is, Hong Kong, a general name for the western coast of Taiwan), "Dayuan", "Taiwanese", "Taiwan". Bay" (referring to the vicinity of the Anping area in Tainan today), officially called "Dongfan". During the Wanli period, Ming officials began to use the name "Taiwan".

Although the management of Taiwan by the mainland imperial courts in the past dynasties is loose, it is not completely laissez-faire.Due to the further development of maritime trade in the Song Dynasty, the contact between the mainland and Taiwan increased. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the government even sent troops to garrison Penghu to manage Taiwan.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Penghu Inspection Department was established. At this time, the number of people immigrating to Taiwan increased again.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Penghu Inspection Department was still established at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Until the 20th year of Hongwu, it was abolished due to the implementation of the sea ban, and the residents were moved to Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.In the 42nd year of Jiajing, due to factors such as coastal security, the Penghu Inspection Department was re-established.

However, in general, due to the policy of maritime embargo implemented by Ming Dynasty and the lack of effective management of Taiwan, this place has become a safe haven and activity base for some pirate smuggling groups. Among them, Lin Daogan and Lin Feng are more famous. Later Li Dan and Zheng Zhilong, father and son.

What Gao Qi defeated in Minhai was Lin Feng's remaining main forces and the Pirate Alliance after he failed to compete for Luzon.

Oh, in fact, Taiwan now has another name on the European side, called "Formosa".This is still 22 years old in Jiajing. At that time, the Portuguese accidentally passed the Taiwan Strait on the way to Japan, and accidentally discovered a beautiful island. They called this beautiful island "Formosa" (Formosa) ), "Formosa" means "beautiful island".

However, although the Portuguese discovered the "beautiful island", they did not occupy the island. Portugal has a limited population, and there are very few aborigines on Taiwan Island. For them, it is actually of little value.

In the subsequent history, if the little butterfly of high pragmatism does not appear, the Dutch should replace Portugal and Spain as the new maritime overlords.

Then the Dutch will establish the "East India Company" in Batavia City (now Jakarta) to manage the colonies in Southeast Asia.In the fourth year of the Great Ming Dynasty (1624), the Dutch will send some people to invade Taiwan Island and build Zeelandia Fort on the island (the Ming people call it Taiwan City, which is located in Anping in later generations). , the Dutch built Provencha Fort on the Chixian Mountain opposite Zeelandia Fort (the Ming people called it Chixian City, and it was located in Tainan in later generations).The Dutch thus began their colonial rule over Taiwan.

This place was originally a safe haven for the eastern pirate smuggling group, but it was suddenly occupied by the Dutch, which of course directly affected the interests of the Zheng Zhilong Group that was trading on the southeast coast of Daming at that time.However, at that time, although Zheng Zhilong had negotiations with the Dutch, he had no time to scruple because he was busy with the issue of fighting the Qing Dynasty and surrendering the Qing Dynasty.Therefore, during the struggle between the Qing Dynasty and the Southern Ming forces, the Dutch stationed steadily in Taiwan for 38 years.

Until Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan - everyone knows this, so I won't say more.

In short, there were a small number of Ming pirates or people related to pirates living along the coast in Taiwan at this time, but the population was very small.Overall, Taiwan is still a primitive desert island, a land without owner.

Gao Yushi asked Gao Qi to send people to investigate Yaogang, naturally not to wipe out the remnants of pirates—or this is only a very small part of the reason—he began to consider occupying Taiwan.

With Gao Wuzhen's current maritime strength, it is not difficult to occupy Taiwan. Even the Spanish, Portuguese, and later the Dutch probably would not consider competing with him for Taiwan.

Not to mention Portugal, decades have passed, they had a lot of opportunities to occupy Taiwan, but they didn't do it at all because it was not profitable.

But what happened to the Dutch, didn't they occupy Taiwan later?
In fact, this truth is worthless to put it bluntly: although the Portuguese rented Macau, although it is still inconvenient, it is still possible to trade with Daming.However, the Dutch have never obtained this "pass". They have been relying on Zheng Zhilong's change of hands in order to do business with Daming.

This was obviously not in line with the wishes of the Dutch who were known as the "sea coachman" at the time, so they came up with the idea of ​​Taiwan and colonized Taiwan, hoping that one day they could gather strength to defeat Zheng Zhilong, and then force Daming to directly trade with them .

So, to put it bluntly, everyone didn't go to Taiwan Island itself at this time, but to find a "transit station" to do business with Daming.

And the current Daming does not refuse to do business with people. Although the merchant ships of foreigners are not allowed to enter the port, Daming has already allowed Daming's maritime merchants to trade at sea, and since the imperial court is getting more and more profits from it, this is already a good idea. National policy will not be changed easily.

So, who would have a brain twitch to fight against the most powerful maritime trade group in Ming Dynasty for a desert island?
Therefore, at this time, Gao Yushi will obviously not encounter too much external resistance when he goes to take Taiwan Island.

(End of this chapter)