Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1170
His eyes fell on the work reports sent to various overseas stations recently.He thought of the recent report sent by Zhao Yingong about trying to open up the Shanghai-Tianjin sea route.Zhao Yingong pointed out in the report that the coastal shipping industry in Ming Dynasty was backward in technology and inefficient.Taking the current navigation technology of the Senate as an example, even using local sand ships in Shanghai can transport a large amount of goods and speed up the two-way logistics trade between the north and the south.Especially grain transportation, not only has a lot of profits, but also can further disrupt the social and economic foundation of Ming Dynasty.

But he was not only interested in this matter, but also the Shanghai mentioned by Zhao Yingong.

As a trading port, Shanghai is not only of great significance in China's coastal trade, but also an important foreign trade port.Skaide has always wondered why the importance of Shanghai as a port in the Ming Dynasty was not as important as that of Fujian?The main foreign trade ports in the Ming Dynasty, from Shuangyu and Yuegang at the earliest to Anping and Xiamen at the end of the Ming Dynasty, were all located along the coast of Fujian without exception.

From a trade point of view, Fujian is surrounded by mountains on three sides and has few plains. Except for sugar and indigo, it is not a production base for bulk trade commodities.Many commodities are transported thousands of miles from other provinces to Fujian for re-export.Clark porcelain in the Ming Dynasty was first fired in Jiangxi. Later, due to the difficult transportation from Jiangxi to Fujian, high loss and high shipping costs, someone set up a kiln to fire on the spot in Fujian.

However, this situation was limited by China's backward maritime positioning and navigation technology at that time.China's traditional nautical navigation mainly relies on the "needle path" and uses a compass to coordinate with maritime landmarks. Therefore, navigation is generally carried out along the island chain.At that time, sea ships going to Japan followed the route of sailing to Japan along the first island chain in the direction of Taiwan.Therefore, the sea routes to Japan have been dominated by the ports in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces since ancient times.

Since the Ming Dynasty began to lag behind in astronomical positioning methods, navigation has become more and more dependent on maritime landmark positioning, so that when sailing north-south along the coast of China, ships in the Yuan Dynasty could enter the black water ocean, but in the Ming Dynasty they regressed to only sail between coastal islands up.

The biggest problem with this route is detours. The route from Fujian Airlines to Japan takes more summer routes, taking the southeast monsoon, first to Taiwan, and then following the southeast monsoon along Ryukyu to Nagasaki, the whole journey is 1000 nautical miles.And if you start from Shanghai, you can choose to ride the northwest monsoon in winter, and the direct flight to Nagasaki only takes 400 nautical miles. If you set sail from Shanghai, you can sail to Nagasaki in ten days.Not to mention that the distance is shortened by more than half, and typhoons that are common in summer are avoided.

No matter from which point of view, Shanghai is a port a hundred times better than Anping.Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, backed by the two golden waterways of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, and itself is the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with the richest resources and the most prosperous society.Whether it is porcelain from Jiangxi, raw silk from Zhejiang, or cotton cloth from Songjiang, they can all be transported to Shanghai by convenient and cheap inland waterway shipping, and sugar and indigo from Fujian and Guangdong can also be shipped by coastal routes.

If Zhao Yingong's Hangzhou Station can carry out large-scale trade with Japan, not only will this piece of fat fall into the mouth of the Senate, but it will cut off the possibility of Zheng Zhilong, Li Zhilong and other big Fujian merchants regrouping from the root.

This plan was proposed a long time ago, and Skaide was also tempted, but he felt that this project would be too troublesome, requiring considerable manpower and material resources, and it might intensify the conflict with the Zheng Group—it is absolutely possible. On the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation, first use Zheng Zhilong's power to obtain benefits, and then it will not be too late to plan slowly.

Now it seems that the prospect of peaceful adaptation and utilization no longer exists, and it will be a matter of time to open up trade with Japan from Shanghai.Instead of passively waiting for others to bring it up, it is better to start it yourself.Anyway, this is also a way to deal with the Zheng Group's "drawing from the bottom of the pot".

Although this is not a direct action, the overall strategic significance is much greater than a purely tactical attack.

What's more, now that they have mastered the relay base of Jeju Island, it is a favorable condition for ships to take shelter from the wind to replenish or stockpile goods-not to mention that they can also use Jeju as a base to export North Korea and Liaodong's special products to Japan.Skade knew that Korean ginseng was a "miracle medicine" in Japan at that time, and its price was even higher than the supply of gold.Many Japanese girls sell themselves as prostitutes in order to treat their relatives.

Skade thought, no matter how you look at it, the development of trade with Japan is an important matter. The question is who should be sent to this matter?
After much deliberation, he decided to send Ping Qiusheng who came back from Southeast Asia to Japan—Ping Qiusheng had been begging him for a long time on this matter.Now Ping Qiusheng is his subordinate——since he went to Southeast Asia, he successfully opened up trade with Siam.This trade route brought a large amount of rice to the Senate, which was struggling with food problems, and Ping Qiusheng's popularity in the Senate soared.He has become a group of hard-working talents who have emerged recently - Skade has to seriously consider his opinions and wishes.

Furthermore, there is quite a force in the Senate that wants to "kill him".In the Ministry of Colonial and Trade, Ping Qiusheng must be professional, professional and meritorious, and he may become a suitable "new candidate" in the eyes of some people.It's not good to be pulled over as a cannonball.Why not take this opportunity to get him into his favorite Japanese business, and realize his dream of "Ping General" and "Ping Shogunate". As long as he leaves the Central Committee for a few years, the trend will naturally dissipate.

Ping Qiusheng didn't know the twists and turns in the stomach of the minister. When he heard that he was going to preside over the trade with Japan, he couldn't help but cheer up, saying that he was ready to leave immediately.

"I plan to go to Jeju first—this place is very important for the development of trade with Japan." Ping Qiusheng had studied the tripartite trade between China, Japan and North Korea at that time, and he had already prepared his plan in his chest, and he spoke clearly.

Japan is not a place where everyone can go to trade-according to the shogunate's lock-up order, only Ming, Dutch and Portuguese merchants are allowed to trade in Japan.The Dutch trade was temporarily suspended due to the Hamada Yahei incident, and the trade route will not be reopened until the Dutch East India Company's "degassing journey" this year is effective.As for the merchants of Ming Dynasty, only those merchants who have obtained the Zhuyin certificate from the shogunate can go to Nagasaki to trade.

Even if Zhao Yingong immediately sent a merchant ship to Japan, he would not be able to start trading because he did not have a Zhuyin certificate.

Of course, according to the style of the colonialists, the senate could have a "black ship visit" in the 17th century. The problem is that the sea power of the senate is limited after all, and it is not appropriate to let the crowd ridicule its skills.Compared with Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang, who have hidden troubles in their hearts, Japan is only a place where you can make money.

As a result, it is necessary to find vests or special channels to carry out trade with Japan.

Looking for a vest is to find a sea merchant with a Zhuyin certificate, use various means to control it, and then use his Zhuyin certificate to trade.As for the special channel, it is the channel of Tsushima Fan.

Ping Qiusheng felt that it would be quicker to start with the special channel of the Tsushima Fan than to search for a Zhuyin-like maritime company to go public through a backdoor.

He expressed his opinion to Skade, and Skade expressed his complete agreement with him.

"You are the plenipotentiary representative of the Ministry of Colonial Trade for the trade between China, Japan and North Korea—I have already issued the document, not only the import and export business of Daming to Japan and North Korea, but also Jeju's trade with Japan and Daming. You are also responsible for the management and coordination."

Ping Qiusheng nodded again and again, his excitement was beyond words.

"I'll send you a few naturalized assistants, and you can take a Japanese with you—a genuine Japanese samurai."

"Zichuan! Zichuan! Zichuan..."

Zi Chuan only felt like a big rock was pressed against his chest, and he couldn't breathe. Every time he took a breath, the big rock became heavier, and the pain was burning. Gradually, he didn't know if he could breathe, and the pain disappeared. It turned into a tunnel of light in front of my eyes. It seemed that someone was singing or performing a Noh play in the tunnel. I was being pulled by a force to walk towards the end of the tunnel step by step...

I have been called by the Lord
A voice said to him: You still have things to do, go...

"Zichuan! The chief is calling you!"

It was a dream.

Since being injured in Jeju City, Hideji Shikawa has often had this dream. In fact, when a person falls into a state of shock, the nerve activity does not completely stop, and some sense organs will receive some external information sporadically.

At that time, Zi Chuanxiuci had an arrow on his leg and his right armpit. Unlike the bamboo bows in Southeast Asia, the Korean composite bow was very lethal. The arrow in his right armpit penetrated the chest cavity, causing an open pneumothorax. Naturally, it must be elsewhere. He was dead, but the Australian army was not elsewhere. The military doctor took a large bronze needle made by Lingao and inserted it into his chest to deflate him, and gave him antibiotics, so God decided to let him go back.

Later, because of his serious injury, neither Feng Zongze nor the Guihua civilian military doctors in Jeju were able to continue to treat him. If he continued to stay in Jeju, he would die sooner or later.And his performance in the battle made the elder feel that it was a pity to let him die like this.A dead horse was treated as a living horse doctor, so he was sent to Lingao on a naval ship, and was admitted to the Ma Niao Army General Hospital.

The ten-day sea voyage almost killed him, but Zichuan's vitality is very strong, and after some tossing, he finally slowly began to recover.

The death penalty is to avoid the living crime, the arrow in the leg pierced the knee, at least the leg was saved, but it is impossible to completely recover, Zichuan can neither run nor climb the wall for the rest of his life.Therefore, he is now very worried about whether he can live a life of rice under the hands of the Australians.In the end, I came up with a comfort from God.

The young Australian nurse had brought him a neat military uniform and helped him dress.Then he put on his crutches and limped out of the ward of Ma Niao General Hospital with the support of the nurse.

(End of this chapter)