The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

There was no need to wait for the news to reach the court. Wang Wenlong only revealed the news in Xiamen City and a few days later it caused a reaction in Fujian.

Just as Wang Wenlong was about to leave Xiamen and return to Fuzhou, scholars from Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xinghua Prefectures went to the local prefectures and counties to discuss the matter enthusiastically, and for a time they petitioned and blocked the government offices.

Of course, there were economic reasons behind this behavior. By the Wanli period, Fujian merchants had been doing business with foreign countries for nearly fifty years. Although the official circles did not know much about the situation of Western countries, many people in Fujian were not familiar with the European colonial methods. All have personal experience.

Seeing those European colonists making a lot of money in Southeast Asia, many businessmen had the idea of ​​replacing them.

Zhang Ni, the maritime merchant who deceived Gaoyin Mining Machine Yishan before, just wanted to deceive a soldier and horse to open up the Luzon Island colony for him. Historically, more than ten years later, Yan Siqi and Zheng Zhilong led their people to enter Taiwan Island because of this desire. The idea of ​​starting a colony.

It can be said that the idea of ​​fighting for the colony had already appeared among the Fujian businessmen at this time, but they had never received support from the court before, and these businessmen did not have the courage to "start provocations without permission". Now the British are paying tribute. It seems that Tuan's death can make a big fuss, and the maritime merchant groups in Fujian with strong colonial desires will naturally encourage this trend of thought.

Many leaflets published by Jiang Wang Wenlong about the death of the British mission were instantly popular on the Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xinghua interfaces, and the contents of the British credentials mentioned by Wang Wenlong and Jin Xuezeng were also leaked.

This letter of credence originally meant friendship and trade. Elizabeth I wanted to seek help from the Ming Dynasty, lowering her status very low, and her tone was very sincere. Under the polish of the publisher, Elizabeth I was even more humble, pious, and direct. Created the image of a "friendly vassal state".

In this way, the envoys of the vassal state who submitted to the Ming Dynasty were killed, which made some merchants and small landowners who could read the text full of indignation.

Wang Wenlong did not say at all which country killed the British envoy, nor did he even confirm whether the British envoy died in a shipwreck or murder. The route from Europe to East Asia was too long, and the probability of an accident was too high. How did the British envoy die? It is also a mystery in history.

But it does not prevent the popular version on the street from starting to add fuel to the fire. The Dutch and Portuguese are the first to bear the brunt. The reason for doubting the Dutch is because Wang Wenlong said that the place where the British mission was killed is close to the Dutch colony, and the reason for doubting the Portuguese is somewhat That's nonsense, because according to "History of Portugal" written by Wang Wenlong, the European country that Fujian people were most familiar with at this time was Portugal, and they generally felt that Portugal was very powerful.

Portugal is in trouble. Now it has been annexed by Spain. The Portuguese overseas are also cowering in small colonies and trembling, but they still have to be detained in this shit basin.

Everyone was filled with indignation. The scholar, who was born in a merchant family, went to the Yamen with fierce words to complain, hoping that the murderer of the British mission would be punished by the court on the grounds of revenge for the vassal state.

This process was well organized and coordinated with each other, creating a huge public outcry, and even Fujian merchants began to spontaneously boycott and stop trading with Europeans. But for the Europeans who penetrated deep into the borders of the Ming Dynasty, merchants who went overseas should do business.

The Fujian Yamen were greatly surprised and quickly appeased the people. At the same time, they also changed their attitude towards European businessmen. Some compradors who were apparently Europeans were imprisoned and they were repeatedly investigated for any illegal behavior.

No innocent people were harmed. After an investigation, these European compradors, whether they were Dutch or Spanish, all had illegal activities, ranging from human trafficking to concealing weapons and illegal activities abroad - the imperial court Only 100 ships are allowed per year, which is impossible to meet Fujian's export needs. A closer look shows that every maritime business is illegally venturing overseas.

Unexpectedly, they were arrested in batches, so that these maritime merchants could only work hard to clear their channels, while many local merchants in the Ming Dynasty took the opportunity to seize their channels. After several attempts, the cost of purchasing goods for Europeans increased greatly. However, At this time, the productivity of the Ming Dynasty was too strong. After the price increase, the Europeans could still make a huge profit by shipping the goods back to Europe and selling them. They just squeezed out some of their profit margins and gave them to the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants.

At this time, the Dutch and Spanish had no ability to come to the Ming Dynasty to do anything to Wang Wenlong. Wang Wenlong was not afraid at all. Seeing the situation, he even added fuel to the fire. As soon as he returned to Fuzhou, he immediately told the Spanish colonists how to colonize Luzon and how to harm them. The affairs of the Chinese in Luzon were written in the "Xunbao" and serialized in two special topics in each issue.

There are so many things to write about, especially in Luzon, where the Spaniards and Ming Dynasty merchants fought more than once.

Seven years ago, the Spanish governor of the Philippines, Dasmarinas, organized a fleet to attack islands near the Philippines and forcibly recruited more than 200 local Chinese sailors to serve as sailors. He threatened these overseas Chinese sailors with force, which directly angered more than 200 Chinese. At that time, there were only more than 80 Spanish colonists on the warship. Pan and five other Chinese led the crew to rebel and directly killed more than 80 Spaniards until only 14 managed to escape. Even the Spanish Governor of Luzon was poked. die.

Pan and Wu robbed the Spanish ship and sailed directly to Vietnam to wait for the follow-up situation.

After the death of Dasmarinas, his son Luis temporarily served as the Spanish governor of Luzon and immediately sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to demand the handover of the murderer.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was still fighting the Wanli War to aid Korea. Xu Fuyuan, the governor of Fujian, reported to the Wanli Emperor that he agreed to the Spanish mission's request so that they could be used to spy on Japanese military intelligence.

However, Pan and Wu and others were not stupid. They did not return to China after hearing the news. After grabbing the money, most of them stayed in Hoi An in central Vietnam. Now this group of people has established a huge Chinese gathering area in Hoi An, and There is a certain power. The original name of Dongdao, the second largest island in XSQD in later generations, was Hewu Island, which was named after Pan Hewu.

However, more than thirty crew members who returned to the Ming Dynasty were captured by Xu Fuyuan and given to the Spanish. They were sent back to Manila and tortured to death. From then on, the Spanish were extremely afraid of the local Chinese and practiced a lot of discrimination. sexual policy.

The massacre of Hua in Luzon in a few years is already underway.

The tragic situation of the Chinese in Luzon does not need to be described in detail. You can get a lot of first-hand information by directly interviewing businessmen who have been to Luzon. Wang Wenlong published these news in the "Xun Bao", which immediately aroused enthusiastic response from the people.

Many Fujian people originally did not care about overseas affairs, but after these two pieces of news came out one after another, everyone realized that these Spanish people actually dared to be so disloyal to the Ming Dynasty.

The matter has caused a sensation in the local area. Jin Xuezeng and Xu Xueju also had to respond. They wanted to verify what Wang Wenlong said, but who could find out what happened in Europe? In the end, it was Wang Wenlong who gave the details after careful consideration, and then Jin Xuezeng wrote a letter.

Shangshu traveled 800 miles directly to the capital and rushed to the capital, which instantly shocked the court, which had just changed its cabinet.

At a time when the situation in the entire imperial court was treacherous, the news from Fujian could not be hidden from anyone. Not long after the news was sent to Huijimen, it spread throughout the capital.

First of all, the Ministry of Rites could not sit still.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of specialized agencies that dealt with foreign envoys. Most of them were located in the Ministry of Etiquette. The Ministry of Etiquette rushed to call everyone for a meeting. It first asked the officials of the Host and Guest Department if they knew about Britain. If they didn't, they went to the Seiyi Pavilion. , the heads of the Huitong Pavilion, and the Travel Department, who are responsible for management, reception of foreign envoys, and translation work. After asking these people, they don't know anything about Britain, and they can't find anyone who can speak British.

At this time, he slapped Shi Zhong on the forehead and said, "Didn't a foreign monk Matteo Ricci come to Beijing this year?"

In February of the 29th year of Wanli, Matteo Ricci came to Beijing in the name of paying tribute to special products from foreigners. Matteo Ricci was very popular in the capital and attended banquets everywhere. The main reason was that Ricci was extremely proficient in various European learnings. , and at the same time he is familiar with the Ming Dynasty's classics. Such a character can enjoy it anywhere.

After traveling around the capital, Matteo Ricci not only gained the admiration of the Donglin and Zhejiang Party members in the capital, he even went the way of Tianjin Tax Supervisor Ma Tang and was recommended to Emperor Wanli by the eunuch.

In the original history, Matteo Ricci did a lot of popular science in the capital, but the content did not seem to be conveyed very accurately. For example, "Ming Tongjian" recorded that he was "Matteo Ricci, an Atlantic man", and then explained, "Atlantic man, Europa" The unified name of the continent." This directly confuses the Atlantic with Europe.

By the way, "Ming Tongjian" paraphrased Matteo Ricci's statement and confused the missionary process of Jesus and his disciples, thinking that Jesus was born in Asia and traveled west to preach in Europe - directly describing Jesus as a Bodhidharma-like figure.

At this time, Matteo Ricci and his companion Guo Jujing were planning to build a church in the capital. Officials from the Ministry of Rites approached Ricci and asked about the matter.

Matteo Ricci heard that the details described by Wang Wenlong were very complete. Many place names had little meaning to the people of the Ming Dynasty at this time, but Matteo Ricci and Guo Jujing could understand them. They quickly figured it out through questioning. After hearing what Wang Wenlong said about the development of the matter, I believed it.

There were few people in the Ming Dynasty of this era who could clearly explain the situation in Europe, and the details in Fujian's memorial were so complete that the two European missionaries agreed that it could not have been made up by the Fujian people themselves.

So both of them were very surprised: the British envoy was actually killed!

The two even directly identified the suspect: it was either the Dutch or the Spaniards.

Matteo Ricci was Italian, and this matter had nothing to do with him. The main stronghold of the Jesuits in the Ming Dynasty was Xiangshan Ao, controlled by the Portuguese.

Matteo Ricci quickly responded: These Ming Dynasty people cannot let these Ming Dynasty people involve the Portuguese, otherwise Jesus will definitely be affected.

(End of this chapter)