Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 788
Shaotian six years, autumn.

Hirado.

Outside Hirado Bay, there were some huge ships floating, but these huge ships did not sail back and forth like other ships, they stopped there for a long time without moving.

The earliest huge ships have been here for several months, and the Japanese in Hirado called these huge black ships black ships.

The black ship stood still at sea, but there were often ships approaching.Ships came from the open sea and unloaded a lot of cargo on the huge ships. Those ships were also very strange, not ordinary sea ships.

This kind of ship is slender, with a sharp and protruding front end, and it sails close to the water surface at an extremely fast speed. When they sail at high speed, it seems that flying shears are constantly cutting the sea surface.

They come and go quickly as they come and go.

Every time they leave, there will be another kind of ship of the same long and narrow type to pick up the goods from the black ship to Hirado Port. Those ships are all galleys, and the speed is also extremely fast.

Those black ships are like huge floating dock warehouses.

In Hirado Castle, a man pushed open the door of Tagawa Shichizaemon and entered.

"My lord, the seven clipper ships have just arrived and are unloading the black ship."

Hearing this, Tagawa Shichizaemon closed the account book in his hand, "I just left the day before yesterday, but I'm here again today, so fast."

Although the young man who came to report the letter is also dressed in a Japanese uniform, he is actually a descendant of Fujian maritime merchants, and his mother is a Japanese. He is of mixed Chinese and Japanese blood like Tagawa Nanazawamon in front of him, but Tagawa Nanazawaemon has more mixed blood. .

Tagawa Qizaemon is a young man in his 20s, but in Hirado Island, he is very important. He is also a well-connected maritime merchant in Tomorrow Trade. His mother, Tagawa, is Matsuura, the lord of the Hirado Domain. The daughter of the clan's retainers.

The father of the Tagawa family, Tianchuan Weng Yihuang, was actually named Weng Yihuang. He was born in Fujian. There are a lot of Fujian merchants running sea trade in Japan, especially in Hirado, where they are very powerful.

For example, the famous Japanese pirate Wang Zhi used Hirado as his base camp, and later large merchants such as Li Dan also focused on Hirado and traveled to and from Fujian.

He had a fellow Fujianese, Zheng Zhilong, who followed his uncle to the docks when he was very young and started doing business in Macau. Later, he became a Catholic and took him to Manila. His uncle later recommended this clever nephew to Li Dan, a big businessman.

Li Dan is not only a big merchant, but also a great pirate. Li Dan also admires Zheng Zhilong, a young man who is young, smart, courageous and resourceful, and soon entrusts him with management of a ship and takes him to his own. Hirado, the base camp of Japan.

Because Li Dan had no children, he adopted Zheng Zhilong as his adoptive son and planned to train him to be his successor. The young Zheng Zhilong also suddenly became a rising star among maritime merchants.

The Matsuura family, the lord of the Hirado feudal clan, not only gave Zheng Zhilong land to build a house, but even asked his retainer Tianchuan Weng Yihuang, who was also from Fujian, to marry his daughter to Zheng Zhilong.

This marriage also brought closer the relationship between Zheng Zhilong, a great sea merchant, and the Matsuura family of Hirado domain. After marriage, the Tagawa family also gave birth to two sons for Zheng Zhilong. Door.

Later, Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others planned to rebel against the separatist regime in Japan, but failed and fled to Taiwan. His wife and children were ignored, but fortunately, the Aritagawa family took care of them.Zheng Zhilong opened up wasteland in Taiwan, not long after the leader Yan Siqi died suddenly, so Zheng Zhilong quickly married Yan Siqi's daughter and became the new leader. thing.

Later, Zheng Zhilong occupied Taiwan and led Shibazhi to become an official party. He also used the relationship of Tianchuan's family to continue to operate trade with Japan. Later, he took the initiative to unite with the Dutch, step by step to whitewash his identity, and accepted the imperial court's recruitment. , back to my hometown in Fujian.

He sent someone to pick up his wife and children, but the shogunate did not agree, and only picked up the seven-year-old eldest son Zheng Sen.Many years later, he became the overlord of the southeast sea and took away his wife, but his second son was never able to take him away, so he stayed in Japan, making him an important connector of the official party in Japan.

In those years, the shogunate closed the country, so that all foreign businessmen gathered in Nagasaki for trade, the Dutch were concentrated in one island to live, the Chinese also lived in Tangfang, and Shichizaemon also went there.

However, in the past few years, with the trade agreement reached between the Edo shogunate and the Shaotian Dynasty, Hirado reopened, and he came back. It was only two years ago that the Japanese shogunate locked down the country again and forcibly closed Hirado again, but Shichizaemon But I never went to Nagasaki again.

He is still here, continuing to act as an intermediary.

On the surface, he is the young master of the Tagawa family, who are the retainers of the Hirado domain daimyo, and on the other hand, he is still Zheng Zhilong's son.

"Let's go, let's see what is delivered this time!"

Shichizaemon got up and first went to see his grandfather Tagawa Ong Yihuang.

"The clipper ship is coming again?"

"Well, it is said that the seven clippers have just arrived and are unloading on the black ship. I guess it is tea, silk and ginseng."

"Go and pick up the goods."

Weng Yihuang, a young man, can no longer see much of the Chinese Fujianese. He seems to be an authentic Japanese, a samurai of the Hirado family, and a high-ranking retainer.At that time, the Tianchuan family took a fancy to him because he was smart and capable, but he came from a poor background, so they recruited him as a family member.

For the Chinese, marrying into a family is not a last resort. Being a son-in-law is the most undignified status, but he, who was also a pirate at sea, still married into the Tianchuan family.

Over the years, with his special Fujianese identity, he has been doing business for the Tagawa family with Fujian merchants, and at the same time handling maritime trade matters for the Hirado Clan.

Because the essence of the Tokugawa shogunate's lock-up order is to snatch trade rights, and deny the daimyos such foreign trade power, the shogunate wants an exclusive monopoly, so the Matsuura family, which is famous for producing Japanese pirates, also started smuggling without hesitation.

When the shogunate banned them, they deliberately supported a group of Japanese pirates to fight against them.

But now, the Japanese pirates of the Matsuura Party only rob the shogunate or the Koreans, not the merchant ships of Ming Dynasty.

"You can help me ask later, can you sell us a few of this kind of clipper boat? If we have such a fast clipper boat, we will also go to Kyoto by then, and we can also go to Edo Bay. Look."

"Okay." Shichizaemon smiled and stood up to say goodbye.

He led a team out of Tagawa's house and went straight to Hirado Port. Soon, more than a dozen fast crab boats received the signal and gathered at the pier.

These ships were all sold to Shichizaemon by Daming Ningbo Shipyard.

Ningbo Shipyard costs 500 taels, and one can be built in two months. Mass production is very fast. It is sold to Shichizaemon, but it is 2000 taels, without any equipment such as artillery and bird guns.

Shichizaemon spent an additional price of 1000 taels per ship, and ordered three cannons and twenty bird guns for each ship, but the cannons were Franji.

However, with its extremely fast speed, this fast crab boat still has great advantages in offshore ports and inland rivers.

Shichizaemon boarded a fast crab boat, and with a wave of his hand, more than a dozen fast crab boats started to move together, and the short but strong Matsuura pirates paddled their paddles vigorously.

Quick Crab quickly arrived in front of the black boat.

It has long been familiar.

The Tagawa family's flag and the Shichizaemon's mark on the fast crab boat allowed them to approach smoothly.

Board a black ship.

In fact, the black ships were Ming’s smuggled merchant ships—barges. These large rectangular flat-bottomed ships had no power, so they were not considered real ships.

"Recently, the Tokugawa family has become more and more arrogant. This ban has been followed one after another. It seems that Tokugawa Iemitsu has completely ignored our warning."

On the huge black ship, Shichizaemon unexpectedly met his elder brother Zheng Sen, who is now called Zhu Chenggong, adopted son of the Ming Emperor, and also the admiral of the Royal Navy's East China Sea Fleet, and the founder of Yanping County.

"I found out that Tokugawa Iemitsu is on the verge of dying, and probably won't last this year." Shichizaemon was very happy to see his elder brother, and quickly revealed an important piece of information.

Iemitsu Tokugawa was the third general of the Tokugawa shogunate. His grandfather, Ieyasu Tokugawa, gave him the nickname Takechiyo.

"He's less than fifty, so he can't do it?" Zheng Chenggong was a little surprised.

Tokugawa Iemitsu officially changed his name to Iemitsu 30 years ago in Yuanfu. Three years later, he went to Luo with his father Hidetada. After returning to Edo, he officially became a general of the third generation. After his death, he was truly pro-government.

It has been 18 years since he was in power. When Tokugawa Iemitsu was in power, he showed toughness, such as monopolizing the interests of Nagasaki trade, continuing to suppress Catholicism, and so on.

But three years ago, he accepted the advice of his family elders to pay tribute to Ming Dynasty on behalf of Japan and open up trade, etc., but he soon regretted it. The huge trade deficit and the large outflow of gold and silver made him decide not to send money to Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty paid tribute, even tore up the agreement, closed Hirado and other ports, and continued to limit the number of Ming merchant ships coming to Japan, the trade quota, and especially the strict restrictions on the outflow of gold, silver, and copper.

Tomorrow, the relationship will turn bad rapidly, and the trade between China and Japan has also changed from a friendly trade to a full-scale smuggling trade.

And Tokugawa Iemitsu was also commented by many daimyo as politically arbitrary, and he became more and more dissatisfied with the shogunate. For example, the Matsuura family of the Hirado domain is now smuggling trade with Ming Dynasty. The actual trade volume of Hirado has even far exceeded the officially designated long Saki Port.

"My information is very accurate. He can live for half a year at most. The next general will be succeeded by his second son Tokugawa Iezuna, but he is only ten years old. The shogunate may actually be ruled by his uncle Hoshina Masaoyuki and the old man Sakai. Tadakatsu, Nakamatsuhira Nobuzuna, Abe Tadaaki and others are assisting and presiding." Shichizaemon analyzed that if Iemitsu, a strong man, dies, the new general will be too young, and it will be even more difficult to control the feudal clans.

Zhu Chenggong didn't care too much about these things. After he asked the emperor to take charge of dealing with Japan, he began to build a port on Jeju Island and station troops to store grain. Japan and North Korea are making troubles and further collecting intelligence.

Not in a hurry to fight, it's not that there is no movement, it's just that they are still making preparations.

While collecting information, he stationed troops on Jeju Island to store food, and at the same time, he was sneakily engaged in smuggling trade, which earned a lot of money. With the protection and participation of his own navy, the current smuggling trade with Japan is even more direct than before. Trade with the shogunate is even higher.

The shogunate restricted the entry of Tang ships into Japan in Nagasaki, and then continued to reduce the number, from a limit of one hundred per year, to eighty, sixty, and finally to a maximum of fifty ships per year for trade in Japan, and even limited the number of ships per ship. The trade amount cannot be exceeded.

It also banned the export of gold and silver, the export of copper, the import of porcelain, etc., but Zhu successfully smuggled with those big names along the coast, not only rebuilt Hirado into the largest smuggling port in Japan, but also several ports Smuggling is also serious.

Even now, Tsushima and Iki have become important smuggling ports, and even Japanese businessmen have gone directly to Busan Port in North Korea and the Jeju Concession of Ming Dynasty to trade.

The shogunate's ban has become a dead letter. Those feudal lords who have mines in their territory can ignore the shogunate's ban, dig mining desperately, and then find a way to smuggle them out, exchange them for exquisite Ming Dynasty goods, and sell them in the territory, or even transport them to other daimyo territories for sale. .

Under such circumstances, the export volume of smuggled Japanese copper has skyrocketed. Before the ban, the highest export volume of Japanese copper had reached 1000 million catties a year, and then fell to one million catties for a short time, and now it has skyrocketed to 600 million catties.

Gold is even more important, because in the Ming Dynasty, gold and silver reached [-] to [-], and one tael of gold was exchanged for a catty of silver, so Japanese merchants took the initiative to trade gold.

They used gold to cash out Daming's silver, and of course Daming would not suffer.

The Shaofu Supervisor directly established a new mint on Jeju Island, where the silver obtained through trade with Japan and North Korea was minted directly into silver coins there, and then used to buy Japanese copper or exchange them for their gold.

A large amount of Ming silver dollars flowed into the Japanese country, and their gold, copper, and even their silver ingots were flowing out in large quantities. The same is silver. From merchants to common people in Japan, even daimyo and vassals, they all prefer daimyo silver dollars, because they are more exquisite and more elegant. It is accurate and convenient to trade, which is more convenient than the douban silver cast by the Japanese shogunate. Douban silver is the same as the silver used in the Ming Dynasty in the past. It is weighed, and it also involves issues such as fineness.

How can Shaotian silver dollars be so easy to use, especially it is convenient to trade with Ming merchants.

The Japanese lords now simply concentrate on mining, looking for large gold, silver and copper mines everywhere to fill their trade deficit. The deficit is too large. The commodities they can sell to Daming are gold, silver and copper, and then lacquerware , sulfur, Japanese swords, and fans. It turned out that Hirado-yaki porcelain was exported with great difficulty. As a result, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom can easily import porcelain from China. Who cares about the original substitutes?

The Ming Dynasty exported so many good things, daimyos and samurai liked everything, from silk to porcelain, to tea, shredded tobacco, scriptures, pens and inks, etc. Can import.

In order to satisfy their own desires, and of course for the prosperity of trade, they can only fill the deficit through mining.

If you dig a lot of mines, you can not only buy and buy casually, but also recruit more soldiers, equip more sophisticated equipment, and then grab more mines, and even annex other territories to become a big lord, and maybe even a new one. What about the shogun?

Daming now uses Shaotian silver dollars as trade settlement with Edo. In the smuggling market in Edo, if Japanese merchants don’t have enough Daming silver dollars, they will settle the settlement with copper bars and copper. If there is not enough copper, they will use silver ingots. Use gold if not enough.

(End of this chapter)