Dragon Sea Empire

Li Dan said slowly: "First: Nowadays, the inspections of the officers and soldiers on the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang are extremely strict, and those aristocratic families who go overseas from Yuegang will not let you go easily. They are more hateful than those officers and soldiers, and they will not easily let outsiders participate. Go to overseas trade, otherwise we and other small merchants will not go to this harbor to take shelter; in addition, your Portuguese ships are different, they are easy to be recognized by officers and soldiers, and it is difficult to sail into the sea."

He took a sip of wine and held up two fingers: "Secondly, in the Jiangnan area, the emperor's mine supervisor tax minions are everywhere; taking the two Zhejiang provinces as an example, there was Cao Jin, the eunuch in 25 years, and now there is Liu Zhong, the mine supervisor in Zhejiang, collecting mine tax." ; Last year, Liu Cheng, the tax supervisor in Jiaxing, Hangzhou, discussed the tax; now Sun Long, the weaving eunuch of Suzhou and Hangzhou, is collecting taxes in Suzhou and Hangzhou! The tax levied by the eunuch Gao Cai alone caused chaos in Fujian!"

Yin Feng found that this Li Dan was indeed not simple. Not only did he have a certain understanding of the Western world, but he was also very concerned about domestic affairs, and he was literate. His conversation revealed that he had a certain cultural quality, and he was not a simple Jianghu. man.For ordinary businessmen at that time, they were not so familiar with the situation of the imperial court’s mine supervisor and tax envoy. After all, there was no news media at that time, and things like the mansion newspaper were only circulated among the scholar-bureaucrats.Right now he is just an insignificant maritime merchant, but he must also have close ties with some officials of the Ming Dynasty government, otherwise these sources of information would not be available.

From this point of view, Li Dan did have some talents. He was able to become the king of the sea in East Asia after 1618, not just relying on the relationship of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan.

"I went to Jinling last year to collect goods. I saw that there are many customs, entrances, bridges, and gates in Zhejiang, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. There are many tax cards. Luggage boats, houses, huts, rice, wheat, soybeans, pigs, chickens, donkeys, and mules. There is no tax. Hexi Wuzhi Zhangjiawan is only a hundred miles away, and it is governed by three officials. When the goods come, they have to pay taxes several times. Yizhen is only one or two miles away from Jingkou, and they have to pay taxes twice. When sailing on the Yangtze River, from Going downstream from Wuhan, you have to pass through five or six tax cards in a day."

The more Li Dan talked, the more excited he became. He grabbed the wine glass and drank several cups, patted the table and continued: "The court collects taxes, and we wait for the common people to pay taxes. , don’t give me a way out for businessmen. I’m waiting for a living in a place far away from the emperor, but I’m just being forced to go to Liangshan!”

Such rebellious words, uttered in this anarchist Pirates' Inn in Hong Kong, did not cause any special effects.The drinkers around were doing what they were supposed to do, but Zeng Jingshan behind Yin Feng frowned and lowered his head to cover his head to drink.

Li Dan continued: "It can be seen from this that it must be difficult for Brother Yin to go to Zhejiang to collect goods. There are checkpoints everywhere and taxation everywhere. The most important thing is: How do you plan to transport the goods from the place of origin to your ship?"

Yin Feng really did not expect the evil consequences caused by the mine supervisor and tax envoy, which has directly threatened his business plan.Most of his influence on the mine supervisor and tax envoy came from the books of his time, although he had personal contact in Yazhou.But the reality is still far harsher than he imagined; it is very likely that the Goa will not be able to approach the coastline at all; what is more likely is that even if they can purchase enough raw silk goods in the south of the Yangtze River, they will still face the problem of being unable to smoothly transport them to the coast.

Yin Feng thought for a while, then nodded and said: "Brother Li's words have benefited me a lot. This trip to the sea is indeed too hasty. Now, it is really hard to get off. I went to sea this time in partnership with a Portuguese businessman from Macau. Only a very small amount of goods were imported in Guangzhou. We could have waited for Fujian and Guangdong merchants to come to trade in Macau, but the purchase price would be twice as high as the original price of the place of origin,..."

Suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in Yin Feng's mind, remembering that Lu Shitou was doing business with Li Dan, he turned to Lu Shitou and said, "Brother Lu, is there a place for your Li Zi ship to go now?"

Lu Shitou didn't know why, and said: "Left and right are just circling the nearby coast, try your luck. My ship is too broken and is still under repair, so I won't be able to go to Luzon Island this year. Brother Li's ship is trading goods in Manila. When his ship comes back, we will jointly sail the Luzon route.”

"Since there is no other place to go for the time being, can you borrow me? Your ship is the same as the civilian ships along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang. It should be no problem to deceive the officers and soldiers."

"Going to Zhejiang? Officers and sailors are a trivial matter. I'm familiar with the coastal waterways. I can just walk around if I can't provoke them. It's best to use money to open the way." Lu Shitou's eyes lit up, and he shook his head again: "It's just that my boat is too small. , can’t ship much.”

Zeng Jingshan raised his head from the wine glass at this time, and said with a little excitement: "It's okay, just run twice more."

Everyone looked at him strangely together, as if they had just discovered his existence.Zeng Jingshan has always insisted on dressing in literati and Confucian clothing, which looks very dazzling in this pirate den.When everyone saw that he was only drinking with his head covered, and knew that he was a child of an aristocratic family, they deliberately ignored his existence.

Li Dan couldn't help laughing and said: "The key is not the size of the ship, how will you get the goods out?"

"As long as Brother Lu transports us ashore, we will find our own way to deliver the goods to the seaside." Zeng Jingshan said triumphantly.

The "Third Young Master" of the Zeng family is not incompetent; he has been traveling with the Zeng family merchants since he was a child, and he is a veteran in business.Yin Feng knows that he has a lot of self-esteem because of his adopted son status.

Seeing that everyone was staring at him, Zeng Jingshan pretended to take a sip of wine, and continued: "My Zeng's family is in the eunuch's garrison in Nanjing, and there are people who can talk to me."

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other, but no one said anything.Zeng Jingshan understood that they were suspecting that he was talking big, so he blushed and said, "The ancestors of the Zeng family were also officials in Nanjing, and there are also some friends from the past..."

Yin Feng was worried that he had talked too much, so he hurriedly came out to smooth things over: "You are all people of the same kind, and you are all living in the sea, as long as you help us this time, no matter when, I will remember..."

"Brother Yin, what are you talking about!" Lu Shitou interrupted Yin Feng, patted his chest and said, "Originally, when Lord Jiao broke up with me, he told me to find an opportunity to repay the Zeng family's relief. Even without his words , I saw that brother Yin has a deep sense of loyalty and is very speculative, and I will help with this job."

That night, Yin Feng, Li Dan, and Lu Shitou agreed on a cooperation plan; Lu Shitou's ship would transport them to the Jiangnan area of ​​Zhejiang Province to buy raw silk, and then in August of this year, Lu Shitou's ship would go to Zhoushan to pick up Yin Feng.If everything goes well, we can go to Macau for trading in September.

Moreover, Yin Feng and Li Dan agreed to go to Luzon for business in the coming year.The Manila route is the main route for Yuegang's overseas trade. The Zeng family has always hoped to join the merchant fleet that goes to Manila every year, but they suffer from not having their own ship. With a ship, it is difficult to obtain the government-issued overseas permit-Chuan Yin.

Goa is being repaired at the pirate ship repair yard in Hong Kong. The captain and more than a dozen wounded will be recuperating in Fanhan Street in the harbor until Yin Feng and his cargo are ready.The next day, they discovered that there were other Westerners taking shelter in the harbor: a Macau merchant ship "Maria" headed to Japan privately. Jesuit missionaries.

Bernardo temporarily decided to take the Maria to Japan to inspect the business, and Yin Feng was entrusted with the full rights of the acquisition of raw silk.

On the beach of Yaogang, Lu Shitou's boat was disguised as a common civilian ship carrying marine cargo along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, ready to travel.

In the past few days, Yaogang has become more and more lively; fishermen from the other side have arrived one after another, and various smuggling sea merchants have also arrived with full loads of goods, including several Japanese ships.On the beach and everywhere in Fanhan Street, all kinds of transactions were going on in full swing, and countless people gathered inside and outside Yaogang.There is no government tax collection, no subordinates extorting, no need to bribe officials, no exclusion from the power of aristocratic families, it is a completely free transaction.

Of course, the law of piracy is that the strong is king, but Yaogang is a pirate den, and the various smuggling merchants or pirates who come here consciously maintain a balance, and no one will go too far.However, it is inevitable to use knives and guns to kill and injure others after drinking too much.Li Dan and several other ship bosses are the order maintainers of the anarchist Hong Kong, and their daily affairs are to deal with some disputes.

When Yin Feng crossed the sea to Zhejiang, Zeng Jingshan and the servants of the Zeng family would of course follow; Li Dan also sent Yuan Jin to him to go to the south of the Yangtze River to buy goods.Magaro insisted on going to Nanjing to find his master's brother, but taking such a black man to Jiangnan was too shocking and too eye-catching.In desperation, Yin Feng changed Magaro into a set of Chinese-style underwear and put a headscarf on him before letting him board the boat.

In April of the 28th year of Wanli, farmers in the sericulture production areas in the south of the Yangtze River were worried about their livelihood.Since last year, the number of vendors who came to buy raw silk and silk has decreased. There are more and more tax gates at various ferries and intersections in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, and the minions of tax inspectors are everywhere.Since the beginning of the year in the Songjiang area, the vendors have even disappeared.Most of the local farmers grow mulberry and raise silkworms, and the annual income from silkworms is the main part of the family's livelihood.Many local silk shops have hoarded raw silk that could not be sold in the previous year, so naturally they will not be in the mood to buy the newly produced sericulture from farmers.

The key point is that in previous years, merchants had already come to order and receive the goods at this time.However, this year, there were not many merchants at all.From the sericulture farmers to the shopkeepers of the local silk shop, everyone is frowning.Especially farmers, many of the taxes they pay to the government every year are also income from sericulture.Moreover, the mining supervisory tax has added more and more tax items, and the government's tax cannot be paid at that time, so they have to go to the government office to spank their buttocks.

Tangqi Town on the edge of Hangzhou is a town famous for producing silk and growing hemp. It is the silk trading center of Hangzhou Prefecture and northern Zhejiang. The place.

In mid-April of this year, a Fujian commercial firm suddenly came here to purchase a large number of various silk products.The price of silk in that year was only half of that of previous years due to the large amount of goods hoarded by various silk shops.This well-known firm received large sums of money, traded in cash, and rented the warehouse of Hangzhou businessman Zhang Yuyu in the town to store the purchased silk goods.Not long after, a large number of packages began to pile up like a mountain.

The good news immediately spread throughout the sericulture production areas in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu.In May, a large number of goods from the silk industry were transported to Tangqi Town.According to legend, the head manager of the Fujian Commercial Bank was a young man originally from Hangzhou who had returned from the West.

The Hangzhou Silk Guild was built in Zhongqingli, east of Hangzhou. It was first built in the Song Dynasty as the Tongsheng Temple, dedicated to Chu Zai, the ninth grandson of Chu Suiliang, as the ancestor of the silk industry.After encountering soldiers, the temple collapsed. In the 21st year of Yongle in the current dynasty, colleagues donated money to rebuild it, so it was called Tongsheng Temple.

At this time, more than a dozen major Anhui merchants gathered in the lobby, surrounded Zhang Yuyu, a local businessman, and asked this and that.

"Mr. Zhang, it's up to you if you can accommodate me. Please charge more for my goods."

"Brother Zhang, where did the Zeng family in Fujian come from? Are they reliable?"

"Master Zhang, don't these rich guys want to get involved in Japan? Don't implicate me in the serious crime of getting involved in Japan!"

"Yes, Lao Zhang! How do those Hokkien guys ship their goods to Yuegang, Fujian these days?"

"..."

Surrounded by the crowd, a middle-aged man finally couldn't stand it any longer. He stood up and spread his hands together, saying, "Fellows, gentlemen, I, Old Zhang, only know a little bit about the details, and it's just involved in important matters, so it's inconvenient to spread it out. Don't you think so?" Can't even trust me?"

A middle-aged businessman with a strong Fujian accent came out of the back hall, and said with a big laugh, "Everyone, don't worry about Lao Zhang, you must trust me."

Everyone surrounded him with a loud roar, and after greeting him, just about to ask, the businessman said proudly: "I, Yang Caifu, have lived in Hangzhou for more than ten years. Have you ever made mistakes in the goods you shipped through me?"

All the merchants shook their heads together.Yang Caipu continued: "The shopkeeper Yin of the well-known firm who came to Hangzhou to collect goods this time is indeed going to do foreign business. But they are not going to Japan, nor to Yuegang, but to Macau."

All the merchants were taken aback, and someone couldn't help saying: "Macau? By sea? Don't be afraid of officers and soldiers."