Dragon Sea Empire

After Yan Siqi defeated the army of Nanjing Jinglue and Zhang Heming, Minister of the Ministry of War, the defenders of the Ming army in Suzhou City voluntarily surrendered, and Yan Siqi occupied Suzhou. The area stretches from the sea in the east to Wuhu along the Yangtze River in the west, a large and affluent area in the south of the Yangtze River.

Jiangnan was the most affluent place in the Ming Dynasty. However, this wealth belonged to the imperial relatives, official businessmen, gentry landlords, and some rich merchants colluding with the government. The phenomenon of small farmers abandoning land as refugees and selling land to become tenants of big landlords in other places is very serious.

In the south of the Yangtze River, the tenants were called "tenant servants" as an example. Every time the landlord used the tenant as a servant, he was forbidden to take the imperial examination. It is not uncommon for the big gentry to oppress their tenants, treat them as slaves, and bully their wives. The laws enforced in the counties occupied by the Chinese army are a mixture of Ming laws and Chinese company regulations, so it is generally not easy to touch officials, gentry and wealthy families. However, the landlords and gentry who resisted the Chinese army were all shot to death, and their homes were seized and the property was distributed. This made some servants and tenants see hope. Yes, next, the Chinese army will seize the homes of those landlords and distribute the fields to tenants and servants.

Landlords who generally acquiesced to the rule of the Chinese army, most of them had to improve the treatment of tenants a little, fearing that they would take the risk and bring disaster to their whole family.

In the government of this era, government orders had to rely on the power of the local gentry to implement government orders outside the gate of the county seat, and the grassroots political organization was completely maintained by the landlord and gentry. Therefore, the administrative power of the Ming government basically did not exist at the village level. The power is in the hands of the landlords, and the gentry and local tyrants are the local emperors who can do whatever they want.

Jiangnan is even more heavily taxed by the imperial court. The taxes in the Susong area are second to none in the country. Before the Jiajing Year, Susong’s taxes and grains accounted for one-ninth of the country’s total taxes and grains:

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the country, the total tax and grain in the world totaled more than 940 million shi, Zhejiang 270 million shi, Suzhou 280 million shi, and Songjiang 120 million shi. In one-ninth of the country, Suzhou is slightly less than Zhejiang, with one prefecture reaching one province, and is known as "the most important place in the world". With one branch, Songjiang is the one with the heaviest taxes and grains in the world.

As for the 45th year of Wanli's tax and food, it is obvious that there is no need to pay it, and there is no place to pay it if you want to. The landlords went to negotiate peace with the tenants themselves, and the Ming government always took the initiative to help them urge rent.

These grain-exemption policies were well received by small farmers and small rural landlords. As for those gentry, officials and businessmen, adhering to the ancient motto that a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall, they did not have the courage to stand up against the Chinese army. As far as it is concerned, it is a heaven and an earth, and the common people see it. Although the privileges of the gentry have lost the protection of the government and their property has been hit, but because the Chinese army and ordinary people live in peace, it is difficult for the gentry to use this to encourage the common people to revolt. thing to resist.

The people who welcome Yin Feng's army the most are merchants and craftsmen.

The happiest people are handicraft craftsmen. The well-developed handicraft industry in the Jiangnan area has made the work of recruiting craftsmen for the Chinese Army very smooth. Thousands of craftsmen who were attracted by the generous remuneration of the China United Company gathered in Nanjing City, and some of them temporarily set up in the Chinese Army The silk factories and military factories have already started working. Most of them have to go to Taiwan, Luzon, Ryukyu, West Borneo and other places by boat. They sign a contract with the company, and they must work for the company for five years before they can terminate the contract. Become a freelance craftsman, and at the same time, you can join the company's workshops as a craftsman and become a long-term employee of the company. After the five-year period expires, they can return to their hometown, or open their own workshops in the company's ruled area.

Merchants can now directly do business with the China United Company, regardless of the size of the merchants, they can buy and sell fairly. The government merchants and "power merchants" who used to monopolize the market have all gone with the fleeing government and government soldiers, and these merchants have benefited a lot from this.

In the past few months, commercial trade has flourished in the area ruled by the Chinese army. Even on the shore of Taihu Lake in the north of Huzhou, there are many businessmen who are doing business with Chinese companies under the eyes of the officers and soldiers. In fact, they are defeated. The morale of the officers and soldiers is low, and they don't want to take care of these things about the small businessmen.

Along the Yangtze River, merchant ships from Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi came in an endless stream. The giant cannon ships of the Chinese Army even patrolled the city of Nanchang, escorting the ships of various merchants all the way. The destruction of the warships of the Chinese army is completely powerless. Gu Yanwu wrote an article saying: "Since Wanli, water conservancy, milling, field ferrying, and markets in the world are all belonging to the gentry, and it is common for officials and businessmen to follow each other." Landlords actually controlled the industrial and commercial economy.

However, with the arrival of the Chinese Army, the impact broke the old industrial and commercial order. Without the protection of the government, the power of the salt merchants, Shanxi Shanxi merchants and other business gangs colluding with government and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River suffered a major blow. Without the protection of the government, it is impossible to compete with the Chinese company on the basis of fair trading.

Similarly, in the Jiangnan cities occupied by the Chinese army, the phenomenon of extortion and extortion of merchants by subordinate officials and gentry disappeared immediately with the escape of officials and soldiers. In the name of "buying", they went door-to-door to extort merchants from all walks of life. Even those yamen who did not have the right to purchase did everything possible to send slaves to the market to collect goods at half the price, and even extorted at more than ten times the original price.

During Yin Feng's inspection in Nanjing, although he didn't last long, he also heard that Ying Tianfu started from the policemen, clerks, book offices, etc., and every member of the yamen often made things difficult for the merchants. When buying things, the price is often only half of the price. For example, if a fan is worth two yuan, only one yuan is given, and so on. Some of the shops that were designated as "hemai" went bankrupt because of this.

Zaoli in Nanjing are all old officials who have been in office for many years. The tickets given to the merchants are marked with "pay to the local government office". Tickets are collected along the door, one family gets the silver, and the other family returns to the other family. There are more than two hundred members of the Jiuqing yamen hall in Nanjing, almost all of whom are good at extortion. They would rather simply offer bribes to these subordinate officials directly than suffer from their extortion under the guise of "hemai".

Especially at that time, the government’s extortion of merchants was carried out openly by "one family gets money and returns to the other family". Almost all the power of subordinate officials, the political system of the Chinese company is actually a top-down Chinese style, but the powers are clearly defined, the structure is simple and effective, and officials at all levels come from the political academy, and they are indoctrinated with the concept of military discipline and integrity , learned the precise concept of digitalization, and has supervisory departments such as the Ministry of Commerce and Intelligence that are directly responsible to Yin Feng, and there is very little corruption.

Moreover, the Chinese company was founded by a business group after all, and it highly respects the concept of fair trading. There is basically no phenomenon of using power to buy shares. Of course, the Chinese army is the company's largest backstage, but the spirit of military-national unity promoted by the Chinese army is consistent with the centralized and unified army. Discipline and system determine that soldiers rarely have the opportunity to bully civilians.

Most merchants and ordinary people in Nanjing applauded this, and many ordinary people hoped that the Chinese Army would not leave.

Of course, there are also scholars who don’t know the world to make trouble. Some of them came to Nanjing, scolded "thief" on the street, or wanted to meet Yin Feng to persuade him to surrender to the court. Among those who did such boring things, there were masters of Neo Confucianism Liu Zongzhou and Xia Yunyi from Songjiang Huating (now Songjiang, Shanghai).

Yin Feng knew about Liu Zongzhou, because before the sea ban, he wrote an article attacking the Chinese company for corrupting people's hearts, which was reprinted in the imperial palace newspaper. Yin Feng also saw Xia Yunyi's famous post, and the more he read it, the more he felt the name was very familiar. It took me a long time to remember: Isn't this the father of Xia Wanchun, a young hero who resisted the Qing Dynasty?

Xia Yunyi's name is Yizhong, and his name is Yuangong. At this time, he was still a scholar who was farming and studying in his hometown. He keenly discovered that the Chinese Army has a good way of winning people's hearts. He thought it was an act of the Chinese company to buy people's hearts, so he decided to come to Nanjing to discuss with the pirates.

Liu Zongzhou is 39 years old this year. He is already well-known in the Confucianism. Because of his close contacts with the Donglin Party, he failed in the court party struggle and returned to his hometown. ", and his actions of emphasizing martial arts over literature, are incompatible with his theories of "preserving the principles of nature and curbing people's desires", and that salvation depends on rectifying people's hearts.

So Liu Zongzhou came to Nanjing regardless of his family's dissuasion, trying to persuade the pirates to change their ways and turn to the good, so he and Xia Yunyi came together and came to Yingtianfu Yamen together to ask to see Yin Feng. A disciple of Liu Zongzhou who followed him to death.

At this moment, Yin Feng is distressed by the court's rigid and uncompromising attitude.

Zeng Qi, Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji and others were also worried about how to negotiate peace with the imperial court. Although the Chinese army is strong, it is not strong enough. It is still impossible to swallow the entire Ming Dynasty in one go. However, the imperial court The current attitude really made Yin Feng feel a little bit hard to ride a tiger.

Yin Feng was accompanied by You Wenhui and Portuguese missionary Lu Ruohan. They could only be bystanders to this situation.

Now, the missionaries are accompanying Yin Feng to receive some Western missionaries and Chinese Catholics in Nanjing.