Dragon Sea Empire

Since the 23rd year of Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty (1390), after Emperor Hongwu issued the "Forbidden Foreign Domain Traffic Order" again, the sea ban in this dynasty has become a curse on the heads of the people of Ming Dynasty.When the sea ban was the most severe, in the early Ming Dynasty, "Xin Guogong Tang He inspected the coastal cities of Zhejiang and Fujian, and banned people from fishing in the sea", which was an unprecedented "fishing ban"; "Decree that the sea is banned, and those who are both haggard and emaciated will be destroyed, and those who violate it will be beheaded!" All brigs were destroyed.After hundreds of years of sea ban, the people along the coast have gotten used to it, and basically regard going to sea as pirates and doing business overseas as one thing.

For the opening of Yuegang, the government's regulations on issuing "ship guides" say:

"Those who sell Fans will be cited every year, and they will be checked and re-examined on the road of return, and sent to the hospital for re-examination; those who sell in Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, and Funing will be checked and re-examined at the end of the season. Send to the hospital for re-examination." ")

It can be seen from this regulation that, in addition to the people in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, merchants in Fuzhou and Funing Prefectures in Fujian were also excluded from the scope of distribution of boat quotations. People from Zhejiang, Fuzhou, and Funing will have their esophagus checked at the end of the season, and they will be sent to the hospital for a review.”Only Zhangzhou and Quanfu are within the legal scope of the Tongfan, while people in other regions are not included in the legal scope of the Tongfan.

If merchants from Zhejiang Province took a merchant ship attached to Yuegang to sell silk fabrics in Yeluo, Luzon and other places, although they would definitely make huge profits, they might be punished with the "Tongfan Law" after returning home.

At present, most of the merchants gathered in the Zhongqingli Silk Guild in the east of Hangzhou are Huizhou merchants, and the rest are local Zhejiang merchants.Although Huizhou merchants and Zhejiang merchants used to be the pioneers of private overseas trade—both merchants and pirates, after experiencing a major blow during the "Jiajing Great Japanese Pirates" period, few Zhejiang merchants dared to take risks at sea.In the Ming Dynasty, China's coastal maritime transportation industry shrank completely.Therefore, transporting raw silk from Zhejiang to Guangzhou and Macau by sea was completely beyond their imagination.

Fujianese Yang Caipu was an old friend of the Zeng family in the business world. As soon as Zeng Jingshan arrived in Hangzhou, he entrusted him with the purchase of raw silk, and then took Yin Feng to Nanjing immediately.In fact, Yang Caipu was also a bold businessman. In the history of Yin Fengyuan's time and space, he and Zhang Yuyu, the leader of the silk guild, and others, later went to Japan to sell Hangzhou fine silk together, and made a profit of four times.But at the moment, he still doesn't know how the mysterious shopkeeper Yin of the Zeng family will ship the purchased goods out of Zhejiang and then to Macau.

In fact, Yin Feng didn't know much about it at the moment. He originally wanted to visit the beautiful scenery of his hometown Hangzhou at this time, but after only staying for a day, Zeng Jingshan forced him to drag him onto a boat and headed for Nanjing along the canal.When he arrived in Nanjing, he didn't have time to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Qinhuai River and the wind, flowers, snow and moon, and was dragged by Zeng Jingshan to wait outside the eunuch's yamen every day.After three consecutive days of boring waiting, a book office finally came out to meet the two of them.This small book office is related to Zeng Jingshan's so-called Nanjing Garrison Eunuch Office.

Then, two days later, Zeng Jingshan accompanied Yin Feng to manage a few more yamen, and then dragged Yin Feng back to Hangzhou.On the day Yin Feng left Nanjing, he went to the Luosiwan Office, the residence of the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci.This is the future Shigu Church at No. 112 Shigu Road, Nanjing.

However, when Yin Feng took Magaro to find this place, there were only a few Chinese believers staying behind.Half a month ago, Matteo Ricci himself and the missionary Baradas left Nanjing on the fifth day of April in the 28th year of Wanli, that is, May 1600th in 5 AD, and went to the capital.

Yin Feng has deep regrets for not being able to meet No. 1 in cultural exchange between China and the West.There is also a secret joy that the black Magaro can continue to be his servant for a while.He left a letter to Matteo Ricci, briefly explained the facts, and left Nanjing in a hurry with regret.

When Zeng Jingshan was receiving goods everywhere, Yin Feng, who kept a low-key and mysterious state, was finishing his book: "Journey to the East and West", and at the same time became a part-time accountant with a good name.Because he minimized going out to meet customers, he wandered around the firm as the second shopkeeper, and accidentally discovered that the bookkeeping method of the good name had not adopted the debit and credit bookkeeping method, and each account had to be recorded many times for checking.On a whim, he took out the basic part of the debit and credit bookkeeping method of later generations and taught those accountants.

How did he know these accounting principles?It's very simple, because his parents are both accountants, and it's just the result of his education since he was a child.

As a result, from June to August, he was busy in the accounting room, teaching debit and credit bookkeeping, calculating accounts, checking accounts, and checked all the accounts of the first five years of the good name; he never wanted to deal with numbers before, but now he can Well, I deal with numbers every day, and they are still Chinese numbers.In the end, he was so annoyed that he ran away from the accountant on the pretext of printing his own book.

In August, the goods were finally collected.The northwest monsoon in autumn is coming, it's time to go to sea.

He didn't expect that nearly a hundred cars of goods went out to sea through Beiwo, the water camp of Changguo, Zhejiang Province.

The Zeng family is a distant relative of the small book office with the surname Zeng under the eunuch guarding Nanjing. Through him, he found out that there was a smuggling transaction with the Zeng family more than ten years ago. Luo Qing, the former small sentry officer under the jurisdiction of Fujian Haibei Road, has been transferred Chang Guoshuiying prepares the Japanese general.Originally, the Zeng family only knew that Luo Qing had been transferred to Zhejiang, and this kind of relationship might not be needed for a lifetime, but now because of Yin Feng's appearance and the implementation of Yin Feng's risky business plan, this kind of relationship is needed.So there was Yin Feng's trip to Nanjing, and the specific transfer unit of Luo Qing was found out through the relationship of the Nanjing Ministry of War, and then everything was settled with money and connections.

Changguo is Zhoushan. In the 19th year of Hongwu (1386), Changguo County was abolished in the 46th year of Hongwu (3) when Xinguogong Tanghe patrolled the sea in the early Ming Dynasty. The residents of Weiwei area), Advocate (Lincheng, Baiquan area) two miles away and the residents of other [-] islands all migrated to the mainland, causing more than [-] people to be displaced. This is a major event in the history of Zhoushan.Because the documents and archives of the later generations of the government were lost, and the local chronicles did not dare to discuss the faults of the current dynasty, so there are very few historical materials left to study the emigration of the sea ban and the disaster it brought to the people of Zhoushan, so Yin Feng is not too concerned. Learn about the situation in Zhoushan in this era.In his mind, Zhoushan was still the image of a tourist attraction before crossing, and he couldn't help being surprised when he saw the desolate and desolate scene of Zhoushan Island at this time.The Buddhist resort of later generations, the Avalokitesvara Dojo now only has a thatched temple. There are a few monks chopping firewood on the mountain by the sea. This is the only Zhoushan Island resident that Yin Feng saw.

In the 27th year of Wanli, the governor of Zhejiang, the government of Ningbo, and the office of Dinghai County placed the stele of "Forbidden Treaty" erected in Mount Putuo by the sea. Yin Feng happened to see it when he went to the naval camp, and such words were clearly engraved on it. : "For this reason, I pay homage to the abbot, monks and passers-by of this mountain. I know that, except for the original building and the resident monks, the number has been checked in Dinghai County, and the deportation is exempted. After that, it is not allowed to move bricks and wood, and add homes. , widely recruiting disciples. One should go to the monastery as a wandering monk, stop giving food for three days, and then go down the mountain immediately, and are not allowed to stay in the house. …hereby declares it. I will abide by the scriptures and Le Shi Benshan forever.”

Therefore, the few monks Yin Feng saw were monks who insisted on ascetic practice in this ruined temple where incense and money were scarce.

Luo Qing, the head of the Changguo Water Battalion's preparation team, is going to get angry at a coastal defense outpost like Changguowei, where oil and water are scarce. He is really happy to have people from his hometown come to make extra money for him.According to the quota, Luo Qing has nearly 40 navy ships including two Fuchuan, a Dongzai boat, a sand boat, and 110 bird boats, and has nearly 3000 helmsmen and co-driving soldiers; The commander only has a little more than half of the rated force, and the rest of the ship's force only exists on paper.Among them, only two Fuchuan and one Dongzai can go to sea.Apocalypse's "Zhoushan Chronicles" records that his army's annual military salary quota is 21624 taels, 8 renminbi and 4 cents, but according to Ming's practice, it is not bad to get half of it every year; of course, Luo Qing himself has to get half of it, and the rest can into the hands of soldiers.This time, the Zeng family offered him 2000 taels of silver to hire a boat. Of course, he was extremely willing, and they also negotiated a cooperation plan for the next few years.

So, at the end of August of this year, three ships of the Yuan Navy appeared in the port of Dongfan, bringing a large amount of raw silk.

The sea merchants and pirates in the harbor did not panic at all, and it has long been common for the Fujian Navy on the other side to participate in smuggling.

The Goa, which had been waiting for a long time, and the Tomar, which arrived temporarily, returned with a full load.Bernardo, who came back from Japan, hugged Yin Feng tightly; Zeng Jingshan had been in a state of excitement since he left Zhoushan, and kept praising Yin Feng for his courage to think and do.Li Dan and Lu Shitou had not returned from Fujian yet, and Yin Feng imagined that their jaws would drop in shock if they saw the mountain of raw silk piled up in Han Street.

The goods from the Zeng family and Bernardo filled the two merchant ships to the brim, and the excess raw silk that couldn't fit was resold on the spot to the sea merchants gathered in Yaogang.

This year, from Yazhou, Hainan to Quanzhou, various merchants engaged in foreign trade are rumoring that the Zeng family in Quanzhou became rich overnight.At the same time, Yin Feng also became famous. Legend has it that he is a business genius with long sleeves, good at dancing, bold and capable of turning stones into gold, and he can call Yi merchants brothers.Only Yin Feng himself knows: he just came up with a rough plan, except that the final sale—directly to Fan Shang—is controlled by him, and the details and key links of the implementation of the plan depend on the human resources and resources of the Zeng family. The network is complete.

This year, due to the lack of raw silk goods from Guangzhou, the purchase price in Macau was nearly half that of previous years; and in raw silk production areas, due to poor sales and hoarding of goods, the price plummeted to only half of previous years.With such a rise and fall, Yin Feng made the Zeng family skip the countless middlemen in the past, and directly conducted transactions with Portuguese businessmen in Macau, excluding the expenses of managing the government and the naval camp.This year, he earned more than 10 taels of silver in the raw silk trade alone.At the same time, relying on the income from this trade and commissions, Yin Feng's personal assets rose to nearly 1 taels of silver.

Bai Huahua's silver was transported to Quanzhou by sea, and the Zeng family had never made so much money in one go in decades of business.They were originally small businessmen in Quanzhou, and their strength and reputation in Quanzhou were almost negligible compared to those giant merchants who went abroad all the year round.But from then on, their Zeng family could also straighten their waists and talk to those big businessmen.

Zeng Qi, the commercial director of the Zeng family and the judge of Yazhou, laughed so hard that he almost lost his temper when he heard about it.Then, he immediately wrote a letter to his elder brother Zeng Ke.He also asked Zeng Yue to return to his hometown of Quanzhou immediately in the name of preparing for the New Year, and bring this letter with him.

Yin Feng was also very happy. This was the first time he had participated in the whole planning of a business plan after time travel, and he was overjoyed to be able to earn so much money.This success made him a small wealthy businessman, and his plan to become a big wealthy businessman is progressing smoothly.In any case, the success of this transaction was his credit, so the Zeng family was very generous and immediately bought him a house in Quanzhou, and invited him to return to Quanzhou to celebrate the New Year with the Zeng family.

Before that, Yin Feng set off from Macau and went back to Yazhou.He wants to discuss with Zeng Qi about another business venture plan for the coming year.

If we say that this year’s trade of a good brand name is illegal except for bribing naval officers and using naval ships to transport goods, the rest are just playing around; but Yin Feng’s 1601 trade plan is completely illegal and violates the taboo of the court. The great crime of "Tongwa" - shipping goods to Japan for trading, and then shipping back pure silver produced in Japan.

It is hard to say whether Zeng Qi can agree.As for Yin Feng, he is still unable to complete this kind of trade independently.Although the power of smugglers such as Li Dan and Lu Shitou can be used to transport goods, the financial strength and upper-level network of Li Lu and others are far inferior to the Zeng family.

Therefore, Yin Feng must go to Yazhou.