Dragon Sea Empire

Another New Year's Eve is approaching.

At the end of this year, Japanese pirates suddenly attacked Kinmen, and then followed the north wind to the coast of Zhangzhou, which caused shock among the people.The Zeng family’s boat went to the sand embankment (that is, Shacheng) at the junction of the Fujian-Zhejiang maritime transport as soon as it entered the water. Do not cross Fujian.Since the launch of the Zeng family's boat, three batches of foreign goods and silver have been shipped to the Zhejiang branch of the firm in preparation for the next year's trade.

Hearing the warning of Japanese pirates, Haozihao hurried back to Yuegang.The Zeng family was also worried about Yin Feng; this guy went to Dongfan Port as soon as his new boat was launched, saying that he was going to train the sailors.In fact, in addition to training the sailors, he went to receive a batch of weapons and equipment from the Goa.This is because Yin Feng entrusted Bernardo with 50 arquebus guns, two 2-12-pound copper smoothbore main guns, and four 18-pound bronze guns bought in Siam.When ordering these goods at the beginning of the year, the price Bernardo asked for cost almost half of Yin Feng's family property. Fortunately, his family property is still increasing this year.

Bernardo had no objection to buying the firearms escort ship, and he also had shares in this ship.But Yin Feng wanted so many guns at a time, which really made him embarrassed; there are many gun manufacturing centers in Europe, the most influential of which are Brescia (Italy), Munich, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Saar (Turingi) Asia), Paris, Liege, Maastricht, Utrecht, London, etc., but that is too far away.

Among the countries that can produce firearms in East Asia, Portugal and Spain strictly control the firearms sold to the people; Yin Feng never thought about buying Chinese firearms; It was because the firearms of the Ming Dynasty had fallen behind relative to the West at that time.

Finally, Yin Feng, who had studied Portuguese colonial history, thought of it; he could go to Thailand-Siam to buy firearms.There was a Portuguese settlement in the capital of Siam at that time. As a condition for settling here, the Portuguese provided mercenaries for the King of Siam and taught the Siamese to produce various gunpowder guns.Therefore, the Siamese became famous producers of guns and gunpowder. Even Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, ordered guns and gunpowder from the King of Siam in 1606 and 1608.

Few people know that during the French Revolution, the two cannons used in the battle to capture the Bastille on July 1789, 7 were given to King Louis XIV of France by the King of Siam in the 14th century.

Relatively speaking, not many people know that Siam can produce firearms, and the control is looser, so it is easier to buy.

Finally, in the era of great voyages, money was so attractive, the so-called "Golden Commander is the Heaven, the God of Money is the Land", this batch of weapons was successfully bought.Although the number of cannons is seriously insufficient, it should be no problem to deal with ordinary pirates and pirates.Now the problem is that with weapons, no one will use them.

Lu Shitou's pirate ship has almost been rehabilitated, and has been trading with Li Dan, and no one on his ship is proficient in firearms.Several of Li Dan's boats are traditional Fuchuan type, and he never thought of putting cannons on board to fight, so his people can't count on them either.Therefore, he had to wait for Bernardo to bring him a cannon instructor next year.Fortunately, Lin Xiao played with Qianhusuo's fast gun when he was a child, and the principle of fire is the same as that of the matchlock gun. Lin Xiao, who is active and quick-witted, understood how to fire the musket after playing for a while.

Yin Feng continued to drill his sailors on the beach of Dongfan Yaogang.This time, I held a wooden stick to simulate musket shooting training, and made a so-called three-row formation.Due to the small space on the ship, this formation training had to be turned into a standing salvo training on the ship.Sometimes the training was held on the beach of Yaogang, and the pirates and fishermen who lived in Yaogang for the winter were not interested in it, and everyone thought it was just playing tricks.Occasionally, local aborigines pass by fishing, and they are very curious to watch.

When Yin Feng slowly brought out the perverted exercises such as jumping frog 100 times a day, doing 50 push-ups and squats with weights 50 times, practicing handstands and sit-ups 50 times before going to bed at night, etc., the group of Danmin sailors responded to this. Already completely numb, everyone listened to the password with high nervousness and acted reflexively.

To be honest, if this group of sailors were not the people who have suffered so much, the fishermen who have been fighting for their lives at sea all the year round, the temptation of Yin Feng’s 40 taels of free money every year, and Yin Feng’s daily supplementary nutrition at any cost, he said Perhaps the sailors had fled long ago.Lin Xiao has already started to regret: what is wrong with doing, I have to go to sea with this lunatic boss.

While Yin Feng was having fun playing the game of training soldiers, Li Dan's subordinates, who had already returned to Quanzhou to prepare for the New Year, and the servants of the Zeng family came to Yaogang on a smuggled merchant ship. The entire Demon Harbor.The members of the Zeng family specially instructed Yin Feng to go home to celebrate the New Year quickly, and the status of the regular prison donated to him by the Elder Master has already been approved.

The Ming Dynasty's tradition of emphasizing literature over military affairs and emphasizing imperial examinations has an extremely profound social foundation.Although Zeng Ke claimed to be a family of merchants, in any case, their family was already a family of officials and eunuchs.In this way, Yin Feng's identity as a commoner businessman was very problematic; in the families of officials and gentry at that time, the concept of being a good family was deeply rooted in the bone marrow.

In order to be in good standing, Zeng Yue, who likes Yin Feng the most in the Zeng family, came to be his brother-in-law and thought of donating.He paid for it himself, so he should thank Yin Feng for saving his life.

As early as the Jingtai period, the imperial court had an order to "take millet into prison". Now Emperor Wanli's mine supervisor tax envoys are all over the world, and it is very common to donate to prison.In the beginning, only students who had the status of scholars were allowed to "take millet into prison". Now anyone can "take millet into prison". The title has made it so that in today's Taixue, seven out of ten supervisors are either regular supervisors or paying tribute.

It just so happened that Fujian Bingbeidao was going to reorganize its troops to fight the Japanese pirates. Zeng Yue paid a sum of money through his connections as the navy's military salary, and successfully sold Yin Feng the title of a regular prisoner.Yin Feng did not expect that back in ancient times, he would become a son of a wealthy man who was admitted to university by means of sponsorship. In desperation, he had no choice but to bow his head to the social reality; besides, Zeng Yue was indeed helping him by doing so.Now his social status can barely be regarded as the rank of a scholar, and it is not a problem to marry the Zeng family; moreover, when he travels abroad to do business, he also has an extra layer of political identity vest to protect himself.

……

Wan'er was bored and lazily sitting under the plum tree in the yard, which was in full bloom.The girl looked at the plum blossoms, thinking about something in her heart.Magaro followed Yin Feng to Dongfan on the other side of the sea, and Wan'er was not even the only one she could play with.Magaro is learning to speak Chinese, and the clumsy look of the black fan ghost is Wan'er's only entertainment during the long waiting days.

People here say that women can't go on a boat, but Wan'er grew up on a fishing boat. Now that she is so close to the sea, she can no longer go to sea to catch fish.This made Wan'er suffer from severe homesickness, and on top of that, lovesickness towards a heartless male master...

In this year, Wan'er only saw Yin Feng three times, and the total time she served him was only one and a half months.For the rest of the time, Wan'er just cleaned the house, washed the clothes, and waited boredly for dark.A month ago, when Yin Feng returned to Quanzhou, he didn't even go home, but went straight to the shipyard off the coast of Fuzhou.

Beginning in March this year, the second young lady of Zeng's compound, her future mistress, began to send a little girl to contact her, asking her to enter the back house of Zeng's mansion to talk with her.I call her a few times a month or so.Most of the time, she just watched the second miss of the Zeng family reading and writing at her desk, and then answered some boring questions from the second miss; sometimes she talked about Yin Feng in a roundabout way, but she only asked where Mr. Yin was and what he was doing.Her expression is always so faint, it seems that nothing can excite her.This dislikes Wan'er, who was born above the sea and has a hard life but has a cheerful personality.

Thinking of this, Wan'er felt very awkward, and broke a flower branch with her hand.

"I'm a maid!" She sighed.

On the contrary, the little girl beside Miss, Rui'er, is petite and cute, only ten years old, articulate, and always comes here to talk to Wan'er.

At this time, there was a sound outside the gate of the small courtyard, and she heard Magaro's strange Chinese pronunciation: "Be careful, be careful." Then there was the sound of a group of people clamoring.Wan'er's heart twitched suddenly, she heard Yin Feng's voice.

Wan'er immediately jumped to open the gate, outside the gate a large group of servants were carrying two large wooden boxes, she found Yin Feng in the crowd.

Yin Feng mainly ran between Macau and Taiwan this year, and spent the most time in Macau.But because of the "military training" for the past two months, he has become dark and thin. He has just returned from the Yuegang Wharf in a carriage, with a messy beard and disheveled hair.

Wan'er frowned distressedly, opened her mouth, and said only one sentence: "The young master is back."

Yin Feng smiled and nodded at her, and continued to discuss the topic with Zeng Yue: "...Brother Shanyue, you can rest assured that these two chiming clocks are specially made by me in Macau. .My uncle will definitely be satisfied."

Zeng Yue said: "I will go to the capital to sell the other clock. The family sent someone to the capital to pick up my second elder brother during the first month of the month. They happened to go together on the way. This time, the spring was not successful. The second elder brother said that he would study hard in the capital. In the coming year Must hit. Hehe..."

The general examination in the Ming Dynasty was held in February of the second year after the provincial examination. The venue was set in the capital and presided over by the Ministry of Rites. It is also called "Chunwei".

The second brother Zeng is the new imperial examination candidate Zeng Shan. In the first month of this year, he rushed to the capital to take part in the general examination, but he failed in everything.He didn't want to go to the Guozijian to sit in prison. After the expiration of the term, he would be elected as an official, at most it would be a local school official.He also didn't want to go to the Ministry of Officials to take the exam and become an official. At most, he would be a local promotion official or a school official.So he stayed in the Fujian Chamber of Commerce in the capital, saying that he was going to study in the capital, and he would take the exam next year.

The two of them entered Yin Feng's yard and directed a group of servants to carry one box into the back room which was used as a warehouse, and the other box was put in the yard to be unpacked.Yin Feng directed the servants himself, and he worked hard for half a day to install the chime bell, which was as tall as a person.

The earliest was in 1580 A.D., the missionary Luo Mingjian introduced the self-ringing bell to China.When Matteo Ricci came to the capital in 1601, he included two chime bells in his gift to Emperor Wanli.Matteo Ricci held a private watch exhibition in his residence in Beijing, which caused a sensation among the imperial scholars, high-ranking officials, governors and governors in the court. For a while, there was a crowd of people rushing to watch, and spent huge sums of money to buy western self-ringing clocks.

Therefore, Yin Feng had a whim at the beginning of the year and ordered three Chinese-style chime clocks from Portuguese craftsmen in Macau.Its shape is designed as a Chinese-style building with overhanging eaves and beams, and the villains who tell the time are some auspicious Chinese gods.In order to apply for the government's water diversion permit for his ship, a clock has been sent to Gao Cai, the eunuch of Fujian tax envoy.

Of the rest of the chime bells, one was given to the Zeng family for their flattery, and the other was going to be shipped to Beijing to be sold at a high price.

Wan'er hid aside, peeping at Yin Feng, feeling better and better; the reason for her happiness is simple, because the young master is back.

……

There is an open space in the backyard of the Zeng family compound. In the early years, the grandfather Zeng Ke returned from doing business in the south of the Yangtze River. Arty wanted to turn this place into a water-friendly garden. It is a large patio with a pond.In the end, Zeng Ke gave up his plan to turn this place into a garden, so this place became the back garden of the inner house.

Zeng Qi's second daughter, Zeng Jing, nicknamed Liang'er, lost her mother since she was a child, and was brought up by Zeng Qi's main wife.Although she suffered a lot of cold violence, she finally grew into a slim, well-educated girl.Like her mother, she has a beauty that only gets her into trouble.

Now she has been betrothed to Yin Feng and is waiting for the marriage next year.This was a turning point in her fate, but she herself had no right to influence the progress of the marriage, all she could do was wait, wait.

Now, she was sitting and reading in the stone pavilion by the pond, but she didn't read anything.Damu has always opposed her reading miscellaneous books. Although Zeng's family is a merchant's family, but now they have to be on par with officials and officials. Therefore, "a woman without talent is virtue" is the principle that Damu has always emphasized.The only books she could read were the Fourth Nvshu.

The little girl Rui'er hurried over, panting and said: "Miss, my uncle is back..." Seeing Zeng Jing's unfriendly eyes, she stuck out her tongue and said with a smile: "It's Mr. Yin who is back. My master has a western chiming clock that tells the time by itself, and..."

Zeng Jing interrupted the little girl: "Stop talking, if you want to see western goods, go by yourself." She turned her head and continued to read at her desk.

Rui'er stuck out her tongue when she touched the little girl with a gray nose, turned around shyly, and ran away.

At this moment, Zeng Jing's mind was full of her mother's words before she died: "Businessman, lucky man."

……

Yin Feng didn't know that his future wife was slandering all the businessmen, and he was busy with year-end accounts.Now he seems to be the chief accountant of Zeng's commercial firm, walking around with his hands behind his back, supervising his subordinates to settle accounts.But he was wandering in his mind, planning to go to Quanzhou and Fuzhou to find blacksmiths and make some firearms; he felt that the weapons and equipment on his merchant ship were still not enough.In fact, according to the weapon configuration of the "Xingxing" ship, if it is only sailing along the coast of East Asia, it is no problem to deal with scattered pirates and Japanese pirates.

However, Yin Feng's ship is going to sail further to the ocean.There were Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French ships there, so he thought it necessary to strengthen the armament.