Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1181 Sand Boat Gang

Hirado prospered thanks to the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, and it was the pirate merchant Wang Zhi of the Ming Dynasty who led the way, and the Portuguese came to Hirado.Moreover, Ming merchants are different from the Portuguese. They only care about business and do not force the Japanese to accept any religion.But the Portuguese always asked the local people and daimyo to accept Catholicism.

Since the arrival of the Portuguese, Nanban ships have been coming to Hirado.Although Hirado is just an ordinary small island, its level of prosperity can be called the "Western Capital".This kind of trade relationship with Portugal lasted for 15 years, but the Portuguese repeatedly spread religion locally, which was strongly opposed by the Matsuura family.

At that time, the daimyos in Kyushu joined the Catholic Church one after another as if they were following the fashion, and the stubborn resistance of the Matsuura family was extraordinary.They respect Buddhism more,
The Portuguese side was deeply unhappy with Hirado's response, and the relationship between the two sides became indifferent.At this time, another incident occurred. The residents of Hirado and the Portuguese crew fought in front of the palace. More than a dozen people were killed or injured on the Portuguese side. After that, the Portuguese ship abandoned Hirado.

During this period, maritime conflicts even broke out between the Matsuura family and Portugal.In the eighth year of Yonglu (1565), when a Portuguese ship from Macau passed through the Hirado Strait for the port of Omura, a Catholic daimyo, the Matsuura family dispatched fifty small boats to attack the Portuguese ship. The Portuguese ship launched all firearms to fight. out of danger.

The Portuguese were replaced by the Dutch and the British.The Matsuura family knew that the two countries were not Catholic and were not interested in spreading religion.So have a great deal of kindness towards them.In this way, Hirado was still visited by Western European ships frequently.However, the daimyos of the Matsuura family fully realized that it was the Fujian ships and Zhejiang ships that could permanently bring benefits to the island, so they gave the Ming businessmen in Hirado extra-judicial freedom and privileges in terms of residence and activities.

"Speaking of which, Yiguan started his family in Hirado."

Hamada Shinzo said drunkenly.Start talking about the past of the pirate merchants in Hirado.

Due to the inseparable relationship between trade and Ming pirates, the Matsuura family allowed the rising pirate leaders to live in Hirado and continue to trade with them.

The first generation claimed to be "Japanese snail"—that is, Yan Siqi, the leader of the Japanese pirates.At that time, he lived under Hirado Castle.It is said that he was a tailor at that time and appeared as a tailor.Business is good.Xinzang said: Yan Siqi is outstanding, knowledgeable and good at martial arts.Among the Chinese in Hirado, he is a very outstanding figure.But no one in Japan at that time knew his true face.until one day.Two pirate businessmen, Yan Zhenquan and Chen De, came from Fujian and had a secret conversation with Tailor Yan for several days, and soon after, Yan Siqi disappeared.

At that time, the pirates in the Ming Dynasty were divided into [-] groups, and the leaders supported Yan Siqi as the leader.For a while, he was famous at sea, and then Yan Siqi died of an illness in Taiwan after drinking too much.

"The second person who calls himself 'Japanese conch' is Yiguan." Hamada Shinzo said, "It is said that Zheng Zhilong is Yan Siqi's son-in-law, but some people say otherwise. Regardless of whether it is true or not, Yiguan did marry a wife here. He often calls himself Tagawa here."

The leaders of the new generation no longer disclose their residences like Wang Zhi's generation, and even directly buy fields and houses from the Wu family.Zheng Zhilong purposely chose Kawauchiura, which is not too far from Hirado, as his residence. Compared with the samurai Jinya, the mansion was built in a mountain depression deep in the bay.But the mansion is empty now: Mr. Tagawa and his eldest son Fukumatsu had gone to Daming a few years ago, leaving only his second son Jirozaemon in Japan.

Hiraaki knows that this Jirozaemon has been living in Japan, and has been passed down as Zheng Zhilong's Japanese branch.But what he was interested in was not this, but how powerful Zheng Zhilong was in Hirado, and what agent he had here.

"What kind of agent does an official need here?" Hamada Shinzo laughed loudly, but there was strong dissatisfaction in his laughter, "Master Hizen Mori is his agent."

Most of Zheng Zhilong's ships headed for Nagasaki, but several ships also came to Hirado every year.Most of the goods on the ships that came to Hirado were directly purchased by the lords here.This kind of transaction is of great benefit to both parties. The feudal lord obtained huge profits from the resale trade, and the Zheng family also obtained all the convenience from Hirado, including hiring Japanese sailors and ronin from here, replenishing firearms and Gunpowder and more.

Ping Qiusheng thought to himself, so Hirado is Zheng Zhilong's base in Japan!However, he was still a little puzzled: "I heard that the official is a Chezhitan believer. Doesn't the lord of the feudal lord hate the Chezhidan believers the most?"

"I don't know if Yiguan is a Chechidan believer, but he also worships Mazu, the most admired businessman of the Ming Dynasty, as well as gods and Buddhas. I'm afraid he can't be. Isn't the Chechidan believers not allowed to worship other gods?"

Hirako nodded, obviously, Hirado's Matsuura family can be dealt with as an "enemy".

From the very beginning, Hamada Shinzo showed the strong interest in time-traveling people often expressed by young people in this time and space.Whether it was the glass bottle of rum they brought or Ping Qiusheng's pistol.While exchanging pleasantries with Hamada, Ping Qiusheng was observing this young man, thinking how he could use this person to hit Zheng Zhilong severely.

On the second day after the banquet, under the leadership of Hamada Shinzo, Hirado toured the so-called "Western Capital", because it was just summer and there were very few ships from Fujian.It was very quiet on the pier.

Hirado itself is a very barren island. If it were not supported by maritime trade, this place, like the five islands, would be a typical backcountry.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.Ping Qiusheng looked at the Hirado Strait from the pier of the Portuguese market, and Zhao Yingong wondered what was going on with his preparations?

On the other side of the sea, Zhao Yingong was planning the first batch of ships bound for Japan after receiving the telegram.

The Planning Institute didn't allocate a boat to him-the Planning Institute didn't have any boats to give him at all.After a long and frequent voyage of engine operations, all ships are now in port for maintenance, except for a few ships maintaining regular routes and combat readiness missions.Wood told him very clearly that there were no ships for him to use.

"You need to allocate resources based on the local area." The Planning Institute said in the call back to him, "Make full use of Daming's resources."

In this way, Zhao Yingong had to prepare his own ships and organize the supply of goods by himself.The latter is easier to say.After all, Jiangnan is a prosperous and prosperous place, and you can buy all kinds of goods, but it is a bit difficult to prepare ships that can go to Japan.

In the Song Dynasty, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the main ports to Japan, but in the Ming Dynasty, due to the strict sea ban, not only the tonnage of ships was reduced, but also the navigation technology was degraded.Originally, Chinese merchant ships in the Tang and Song dynasties were able to cross the East China Sea directly and go directly to Hizen Matsuura County. In the Ming Dynasty, they had to rely on the navigation of maritime landmarks such as island chains to navigate.Zhao Yingong felt that it was easy to find a ship that could go to Japan—ships with a load capacity of [-] to [-] tons can sail around the world these days, not to mention short-distance shipping such as crossing the East China Sea, but there is nowhere to find sailors who can steer a ship across the East China Sea.

However, Zhao Yingong believed that as long as they were provided with suitable navigators, it would not be difficult to cross the East China Sea to Japan for trade.The courage of the Chinese sailors is good - but they are technically behind.As long as someone gives them advice, sets an example for them, and adds enough benefits, they will do it without hesitation.

For this reason, Zhao Yingong has rushed to Shanghai specially, and he wants to do several important things in Shanghai.

The first thing is to contact the Shachuan Gang.Shanghai itself has a Shachuan Gang run by big businessmen, specializing in the so-called Beiyang trade.That is to go north to Shandong, all the way to Tianjin, to transport all kinds of "Southern goods", and then set sail from Tianjin back to Shanghai to transport "Northern goods".This kind of business did a lot in the Qing Dynasty.Annual sales can reach several million taels.In the Ming Dynasty, this level could not be reached, but the total amount was not small.This part of the capacity is the most suitable object for him to spy on.

The second is to organize the supply of goods exported to Japan in Shanghai, and at the same time set up a special organization to implement it.Trade with Japan is a very important and complicated matter, and he must set up a special organization to take charge of it.

At this moment, Zhao Yingong was sitting in the sedan chair, and he was going to meet someone, an extremely outstanding figure in the Shachuan Gang.

This person is called Shen Tingyang.Shen Tingyang is from Chongming County, Suzhou Prefecture.His fame is closely related to the ships and navigation in the late Ming Dynasty.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the only experiment of "transformation of grain into the sea" was proposed and presided over by him: in the 12th year of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang presented the "Book of Shipping" to the emperor, expressing his willingness to build sand ships and resume shipping.After the emperor's quasi-playing, Shen Tingyang raised funds to build sand boats.Soon, Shen used sandboats to transport Huai rice, and traveled northward along the sea route traveled by Zhu Qing. It took ten days to reach Dagu and Tianjin, and resumed the Beiyang route.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, in the first year of Hongguang, Shen Tingyang wrote to the imperial court, hoping to add sailors to the [-] water-based ships he owned for sea transportation. They should be used as warships and specially used as Yangtze River Navy.

After the city of Nanjing was broken, he and his generals commanded thousands of naval troops and hundreds of ships, and arrived at the Zhoushan Islands.

In the first year of Yongli, when Shen Tingyang led the fleet to set off from Zhoushan to counterattack Suzhou.Suddenly encountered a storm outside Chongming Island and was defeated.Shen Tingyang's warship capsized and sank in Xuliujing, and many soldiers drowned.Shen Tingyang was captured and died unyielding.

This person is outstanding both in terms of his ability to handle affairs and his national integrity.Compared with the scholar-officials who died for their country in the late Ming Dynasty, their ability to do practical things is obviously very strong.

(End of this chapter)