Dragon Sea Empire

After the first month of the 29th year of Wanli (1601), Yin Feng's first ship was built in Fuzhou, with a designed load of 700 tons.At the same time, Zeng's ship was also started to be built; they followed Yin Feng's suggestion and started to build a ship; however, they built a traditional Fuchuan type merchant ship with a load of about 300 tons.The boat of the Zeng family has one-tenth of Yin Feng's shares, and Yin Feng's boat was jointly built with Bernardo. Yin Feng holds the majority of the shares, 7%; the remaining [-]% belongs to Bernardo, and the owner will be Yin Feng.He planned to apply for a Portuguese merchant shipping route license in Macau through the network of new Christians, so that it would be convenient to travel between Macau, Manila and other places in Southeast Asia, without being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty government.

This year was also a busy one. When the south wind was blowing, Yin Feng and Bernardo purchased various goods in Macau.My own boat has not been built yet, so I can only set off on the Goa merchant ship.

Yin Feng and his party rode the sea breeze to Taiwan-Dongfan's Hong Kong, received the raw silk purchased by Zeng's firm in Jiangnan, and then set off for Japan.Everything went smoothly, because halfway with the Portuguese Sino-Japanese trade fleet, there were 20 ships arranged in two columns, and there were no shadows of Japanese pirates along the way.

Li Dan still runs his Manila route. His business in Manila is going smoothly and he doesn't want to go to Japan for the time being.

During the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the Goa returned from Hirado, Japan together with the Sino-Japanese trade fleet from Macau.The ships were laden with Japanese silver, and this year the Japanese were willing to pay five times as much for all silk products as there was a shortage of raw silk the previous year.This made Bernardo, the Zeng family, and Yin Feng reach the point of counting money until their hands cramp.

As soon as the Goa and the Sino-Japanese trade fleet arrived in the sea off Macao, there were few ships in the port, and there were Portuguese warships cruising; the Portuguese municipal guards and armed black slaves hired by the customs came and went, and the guards were heavily guarded.

It turned out that the Dutch fleet came.

On September 1601, 9, the second day of September in the 27th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Dutch Admiral Jacques Van Naker led the battleships "Amsterdam" and "Gouda" and a brig to Macau. port.The Dutch sent two groups of scouts ashore in small boats, and had a fierce conflict with the Macau Municipal Guard. As a result, none of them returned to the sea. A total of 29 Dutch sailors were all captured.During this period, the Dutch admiral also negotiated with Li Feng, the tax envoy of Guangdong, but was refused by the Ming Dynasty government because he was not a tributary country as stated in "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" and "Da Ming Hui Dian".

On October 10, the Dutch left the Chinese coast disappointed.But the Portuguese in Macau did not know whether the Dutch had really left China, so they kept a high level of vigilance.

The commander of the Macau Sino-Japanese Trade Fleet immediately issued an order for combat readiness, and all ships were mobilized.The position of commander of the Macau Sino-Japanese Trade Fleet is very popular. Those who want to get this position in Portugal have to spend 10,000+ gold coins, which is clearly marked.There are still many people vying for this position, because every time the Sino-Japanese trade comes down, the commander's personal income is often several times the price of the position.

Not only is the income amazing, the commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet was once the highest administrative officer of Macau at the same time, governing everything about the Portuguese in Macau.In the past, due to climate reasons, several Chinese and Japanese trading fleets gathered in Macau in different years, and several commanders almost broke their heads in the fight for the jurisdiction of Macau.This situation lasted until 1595, when the King of Spain granted the Portuguese settlement in Hogan an autonomy.Of course, in an emergency, the commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet still has to participate in the defense of Macau.

Bernardo's uncle, Antonio Diaz de Caceres, was once a city councilor of the Macau Council. Among the members of the Caceres family in Macau, only Bernardo is the closest to Antonio Caceres. The nephew of his nephew, so the sons of resigned elders and city councilors can serve as the magistrate of the city, and Bernardo becomes the magistrate.A total of 24 people are listed on the list of sheriffs each year, and 2 of them are on duty every month.

The whole city of Macau resounds with the sound of church bells, which is only the case when major events occur.Whenever a major event occurs, the Macao Council may call the former city councilors, bishops, priests, and citizens to discuss it together. This kind of meeting is called a city-wide assembly.Now Macau is holding a city-wide meeting, and Bernardo and the others rushed to the venue as soon as they got off the boat.Yin Feng is not Portuguese, so he can only go back to Bernado and wait for the news.

Bernardo's home was the same as other Macanese Portuguese at that time. It was a four-story Spanish-style building with stilted balconies and a garden.More than 10 black slaves lived on the ground floor, and members of the Cáceres family lived upstairs.Yin Feng was walking in the garden boredly, and it took him a long time to see Bernardo returning in a hurry, with an ugly expression on his face.

"What's going on?" Yin Feng asked hurriedly.

"They're going to kill all the Dutch prisoners."

"why?"

Bernardo sighed heavily, and said, "Because they are heretics."

The Dutch are Protestant and the Portuguese are Roman Catholic.

Yin Feng was a little surprised, thinking that countless "heretics" were killed in the name of religion in the Middle Ages in Europe, he couldn't help but sneered: "Actually, this is to warn the Dutch: they are not allowed to interfere in China's foreign trade? Why, why not?" Do you want to involve the Inquisition?"

Bernardo looked at Yin Feng suspiciously: "No, the execution will be executed tomorrow. I am also a Catholic, you don't understand us."

He paused, sighed and said: "Yin, I know you are a person with a sense of justice like a Christian. But please don't mention the name of the Inquisition in the future. This term is not allowed in my family, especially In front of my uncle."

The Inquisition was the sworn enemy of the new Christians.At that time, in Goa, in Peru, in Mexico, there were incidents of the Inquisition persecuting new Christians or Jews everywhere.

Yin Feng saw Bernardo's doubts about his identity for the first time.In the past, the two also talked about the current situation in Europe. Whenever Yin Feng talked about the Jewish topic, Bernardo would talk about him from left to right.It is also easy to understand that European Jews at that time were developing a trend of "integration" and "assimilation", with the purpose of assimilating into the local ethnic groups in European countries, and no longer emphasizing the religious and ethnic characteristics of Jews.However, by the 17th century, anti-Semitic trends continued to rise and fall across Europe, and finally the rise of Zionist thought changed the history of the Jewish people.

The next day, 20 of the 17 Dutch were executed—by hanging.The 3 survivors urgently announced their conversion before they died: converted to Catholicism.In this way, they left their lives, and the Macao Council decided to send them to the Governor of Java, Portugal in Malacca for another treatment.

On this day, Li Dan's two ships also came to Macau from Manila for trading.He told Yin Feng that before the Dutch came to Macau, they attacked Manila by the way, but were repulsed by the Spaniards due to insufficient troops.This is also the reason why his ship returned to China so late.Lu Shitou's ship was also refurbished, with cloth sails with bamboo sails—this was Yin Feng's suggestion, and Yin Feng borrowed a boat from him to go to Yazhou to find sailors for his ship.

The northwest wind has blown to the southeast coast.Yin Feng stood quietly at the bow of the boat, and the Dayan Port in Yazhou was in front of him.Zeng Qi is about to beg for bones from the imperial court—requested to be an official and return to his hometown. As the Zeng family is about to own their own ships, their business center will be transferred back to Quanzhou.Yin Feng will also leave Yazhou, and may never come back.

This was the first piece of land he set foot on after coming to this era, and it was also the place where he started to make a fortune.

In fact, in the past two years, he has lived in Yazhou City for less than half a year, but he has always regarded this place as "home" in his heart.While working with those pirate sea merchants, he still missed the days he spent with the Dan people.

He insisted on going back to Yazhou to recruit sailors this time, because he wanted to recruit all the Dan people in Dayan Port.Subconsciously, these Dan people are the people he is most willing to trust, and his first batch of subordinates must also be those he can fully trust.

Mai Bo was quickly persuaded. He called all the men in the village by the sea and told Yin Feng what he meant.

In the past few years, the life of the Dan people has been a little bit better, and thanks to Yin Feng's help, the Zeng's firm no longer ruthless prices when buying pearls.But the Dan people have a habit of spending as much money as they have. Except for the Maibo family in Dantou who have settled ashore, the money that was handed out to buy pearls is basically spent in a few months.Then, they lived a precarious life again, with the last meal and the next meal.

Yin Feng guarantees that each crew member can get 40 taels of silver for work and food every year, can get a red envelope at the end of the year, and can resign at will after five years.He also promised that if any sailor died in an accident at sea, he would give his family a pension of 200 taels of silver.

The Danmin sailors below looked at each other, each speechless.For nothing else, they were just intimidated by the numbers.40 taels of silver per year, this income has exceeded the annual salary of the state government servants by more than three times.Not to mention the pension of 3 taels, these Dan people may not have earned 200 taels of money in their lifetimes.

At present, more than 100 Danmin boys signed up.They all knew Yin Feng, knew that he stood out for them, helped them make money, and was also a benefactor of Mai Bo's family.Therefore, the Dan people also trusted Yin Feng.

In just 3 days, Yin Feng recruited all 100 sailors needed by his merchant ship, all of whom were selected from the applicants.All of them are proficient in water and have experience in going out to sea.These people included Mai Dahai, and old man Mai was cruel enough to let Dahai follow Yin Feng into the world.In fact, nearly half of the people in Danmin Fishing Village in Dayan Harbor are related to the Mai family, and relatives of the Mai family accounted for at least one-third of this group of sailors.

In addition, news of Yin Feng's recruitment of sailors spread, but an unexpected guest came that night.

When Yin Feng came back from the prefecture, he gave his "East and West Travel Records" to Mr. Zheng Zhifu, and asked him to write a preface for the title of the book.The magistrate gladly wrote a title for it, wrote a preface, and asked Yin Feng to give him another copy after it was published.

It was already late when Yin Feng returned to his yard, and before he opened the door, he found a black figure squatting at his door.

"Who!" Yin Feng was taken aback and took a few steps back.

The squatting figure stood up, turned around slowly, and smiled wryly at Yin Feng with a pale face under the moonlight.

Yin Feng stepped back a few more steps, and said angrily, "Why are you? Are you still finished?"