Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 668 Great Voyage (VIII)
Autumn of the sixth year of the Republic 460 (676)
Qiongzhou (Hainan Island)

Southwest Seas of Qiongzhou (Beibu Gulf)

Wang Bo left Panyu, the richest city in south of the Five Ridges, and took a merchant ship to Jiaozhi.

According to the captain himself, the merchant ship was going to cross the sea to Jiaozhi to buy grain and sugar cane, and then transport the grain and sugar cane from Jiaozhi to Shandong for sale.

Rice is grown in the Jiaozhi area, and it is cropped three times a year. It is an area with a grain surplus. Some northern officials transport the excess grain to the Yangtze River waterway, and then enter the Grand Canal along the Yangtze River waterway. Finally, it is transported to Luoyang and Chang'an to support the imperial dignitaries. .

Others were bought by merchants and resold to the overpopulated Central Plains, where there were too many people and the consumption of food was terrible.

As for sugarcane, it is mainly used to squeeze sugar. There is no sugar mill in Jiaozhi, so the sugarcane can only be transported to the Jiangnan area, where it is processed into brown sugar and finally sold to dignitaries.

However, the road was not safe. The pirates of the Yan Kingdom would rob the merchant ships of the Tang Empire from time to time.

Although the Republic is divided into several countries, Yan State is only one of them. It is not only Yan State that robbed the merchant ships of the Tang Empire, but also Xingfan State, but the Central Plains still habitually calls the Republic Yan State, and occasionally Xing Fan State It is called Nanyan.

The Republic issued the "Private License", allowing guilds and citizens to spontaneously form pirate fleets to plunder the merchant ships of the Tang Empire. All the materials plundered do not need to be handed over to the Republic or pay taxes. marauders.

Through this method, the guilds and citizens of the Republic were encouraged to actively rob and attack the maritime trade of the Tang Empire.

In fact, this is a disguised form of allowing civilians to form private armed forces.

The Central Plains Dynasty did not dare to play like this, fearing that after the people had private armed forces, they would become independent.

For example, the warlords and princes in the late Han Dynasty, many of them recruited Xiangyong to start their careers.

However, the republic is originally independent from each other, and it has already been divided, so there is no need to worry about the independence of civilian armed forces.

Councilor Xing Fanguo and Councilor Yan Guo often quarreled over funding issues in the Republican Assembly.

Yan Guo hopes that the Republic will spend more funds on reclaiming forests and swamps in the Northeast, while Xing Fan Guo hopes that the Republic will use more funds to expand overseas interests.

Inside the Republic, it is divided into [Northern School] and [Southern School]. The North School cares more about the development of the Northeast, and the Manxia School cares more about overseas development.

Members of the Northward faction, united together, formed a party for private interests, and were called the "Northern Party" by the citizens of the Republic. The members of the Southward faction, not to be outdone, also formed a faction for private interests, and were called the "Southern Party" by the citizens of the Republic.

In the Republic, the embryonic form of partisan politics has begun to appear.

However, at present, Yan State is still in a dominant position within the Republic, so the "Northern Party" has a great advantage. Most of the funds are used to develop the Northeast, and only a small part of the funds is used for overseas expansion.

Such a small amount of funds can only be used to establish some trade bases and explore new sea routes, and has no strength to conquer overseas civilizations.

When there are no separatist forces within a country, there will be concerns about the emergence of a separatist force.

When a country is full of separatist forces, it doesn't matter if there is another separatist force.

In addition to the rudiments of partisan politics, the share dividend system is also developing further.

Not all citizens of the Republic have the money to form their own pirate fleet alone. Therefore, dozens of citizens often contribute money together to buy ships, hire free sailors, and then go to the coast of the Tang Empire to rob. Dividends are distributed in proportion to the capital contribution.

Not only can you use [money tickets] to contribute, but you can also use your own technology to contribute.

For example, some freeman sailors don't want wages, but think that this pirate fleet has a great future, so they use their own sailing technology to contribute and use their own technology as a share of this [pirate fleet].

Robbery mainly refers to the capture of people to sell to plantations, and occasionally looting of property.

The main reason is that the wealth of the Central Plains is stored in the city government. Pirates can't enter the city, and they don't have siege equipment. The artillery is too expensive. Only the regular army of the Republic has artillery.

Therefore, the pirates of the Republic can only rob the rural areas along the coast of the Tang Empire, and there is no way to plunder those cities.

There is nothing in the countryside, only food and people, and the pirates can only rob food and people.

This is the most serious sea disaster in the history of the Central Plains.

The continuous stream of pirates from the ocean is even more unpredictable than the continuous stream of nomads from the grasslands.

The sea is vaster than the grassland, easier to get lost than the grassland, more difficult to maintain logistical supplies than the grassland, and more difficult to conquer than the grassland.

What the Tang Empire could do was to imitate Yang Guang, move the population to the interior, and create no-man's land along the coast, so that the pirates of the Republic would have nothing to rob.

The Tang Empire took the initiative to move inland and gave up the coast, so some courageous pirates of the Republic were not welcome, and directly established pirate strongholds along the coast of the Tang Empire to temporarily store the looted property and population.

There are also fights between pirates, and even some pirates of the Republic will collude with officers and soldiers of the Tang Empire to attack other pirates of the Republic.

This is the negative effect brought about by the "Private License". The pirates are not united. They will not be 100% loyal to the Republic. They also have a chance to collude with the Tang Empire, and in turn fight with pirates of other republics.

If it hadn't been forced by the Tang Empire, the Republic really didn't want to issue the "Private License" policy that would hurt the enemy by one thousand and self-damage eight hundred.

Fortunately, the navy of the Republic is stronger than the Navy of the Tang Empire, so the pirates are more afraid of the Republic. Therefore, the pirates who cooperate with the Tang Empire are only a few special cases.

Moreover, the shareholders of the pirate fleets are not ordinary people of the republic, but citizens of the republic, who belong to the ruling class of the republic.

It doesn't matter where the slaves go, they are all at the bottom anyway, but these citizens, their privileges are all in the republic, once they leave the republic, they are nothing, even if they run away to the Tang Empire, they are just a person who has to pay poll tax and serve corvee Ordinary Tang Dynasty people.

Anyone with a normal mind would not ignore the privileges of citizens and go to the Tang Empire to pay poll tax and do corvée.

The republic uses privileged interests to guarantee the loyalty of its citizens, not slogans.

As long as the privileged interests of the citizens are bound to the Republic, unless there are special circumstances, they will not really betray the Republic, because betraying the Republic is tantamount to betraying themselves.

The South China Sea was hot, and Wang Bo stood on the deck of the merchant ship, fanning himself, looking forward to the reunion with his father.

However, when the merchant ship sailed away from the coastline of Qiongzhou Island and sailed to the far sea.

Three pirate ships from the Xingfan Kingdom were galloping towards the merchant ship that Wang Bo was on.

"Quick! Turn the rudder! Dock!"

The captain turned pale with fright, and hurriedly turned the rudder to escape back to Panyu.

(End of this chapter)