Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 367 Harvest
On the Nagasaki pier, there was a sea of ​​people seeing off people, including Chinese who had been doing business in Japan all year round, businessmen who stayed here temporarily, and a large number of Japanese officials.

Among them, a group of gorgeously dressed and unusually beautiful women are the most conspicuous.

These women all looked sad, and when they saw the Chinese boarding the ship, they couldn't help but shed tears.

They are a group of Japanese geisha. Dong Xiaowan followed Fu Wang from Nagasaki to Kyoto, and was overshadowed by Fu Wang all the way, but she was by no means inactive. On the contrary, she invited top local geisha to communicate with each other wherever she went.

These geishas are extremely humble, and they learn from Dong Xiaowan attentively, learning the most popular dances of Daming, the libretto of Nanqu, and the techniques of playing musical instruments. the best.

So every geisha whose status in Japan may not be lower than Dong Xiaowan stayed with Dong Xiaowan as disciples. From Nagasaki to Kyoto, they followed all the way, not only studying, but also serving Dong Xiaowan's daily life, getting up earlier than Dong Xiaowan every day , waiting for him to freshen up, and they would not rest until Dong Xiaowan fell asleep at night.

Faced with such a group of women who respect her, Dong Xiaowan was actually deeply moved. She also shed tears when she was in the merchant ship.

There is no doubt that through Dong Xiaowan, Yang Chao brought the melodious sounds of Ming Dynasty and the warm wind from the south of the Yangtze River, which can smother people's bones, to Japan.

But this is not the biggest harvest of this trip. The biggest harvest is not Dong Xiaowan's cultural transmission, not the harvest of King Fu, but the interests of the Zheng family.

The Zheng family has a very special relationship with Japan. Zheng Zhilong's first wife was Japanese.

Zheng Zhilong is definitely a hero. At the age of 17, he moved from Macau to Japan with his elders to make a living. By working as a shoemaker and tailor, he got the appreciation of a knife maker from China in Japan, and fell in love with the Japanese adopted daughter of the knife maker. , After marrying this adopted daughter, Zheng Zhilong got the support of a knife maker.

He began to buy ships, recruited sailors, and invested in the name of Li Dan, the great sea merchant at that time, and was appreciated by Li Dan, who accepted him as his adopted son. Zheng Zhilong thus became a powerful maritime merchant force at that time.

However, Zheng Zhilong's ambitions also skyrocketed, and he sworn brothers with Yan Siqi and other 28 people, planning to do a big event, which is extremely incredible, because they wanted to overthrow the shogunate and occupy Japan.

The matter was revealed ahead of time, and the 28 people could only go out to sea by boat and leave Japan. At this time, Zheng Zhilong's first son, Zheng Sen, was just born in Japan.

Later, he went to Taiwan, robbed business travelers in the Taiwan Strait, and soon developed into the largest pirate force in southern China. Zheng Zhilong was appreciated by his boss, Yan Siqi, and became Yan Siqi's son-in-law. Soon after Yan Siqi passed away, Yan Siqi's men all joined him. Zheng Zhilong, who combined Li Dan's forces and Yan Siqi's forces, jumped up and became China's largest pirate and maritime merchant force.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was only 20 years old. It only took him three years from a poor boy who was reduced to earn a living in Japan to becoming the number one pirate.

Zheng Zhilong's relationship with Japan made the Japanese hate and fear him. They dared not refuse to trade with Zheng Zhilong, and they were not happy to watch him take away Japanese money ship by ship.

But this time, through Fukuoka's trip to Japan, Zheng's relationship with the Japanese authorities improved, and the Japanese shogunate treated him quite differently, even allowing Zheng Zhilong to trade directly in Hirado in the future.

Japan has issued five sea bans in the past ten years, and each time is more stringent. At this time, only the Chinese and the Dutch can legally trade in Japan. The Spanish, Portuguese and British have all been driven out, while the Dutch and the Dutch The Chinese can only trade in one place in Nagasaki.

Now that Zheng Zhilong is allowed to go directly to Hirado, the most prosperous political center in Japan, it can be said that he has obtained the greatest benefits.

Even the Zheng family took the opportunity to recruit hundreds of Japanese vagrant samurai shogunate and turned a blind eye. You must know that they are extremely disgusted with the population going to sea. The five sea bans have banned Japanese people from going to sea. At the beginning, the Japanese who had been overseas for five years were allowed to return to China, and for the last time, all overseas Japanese were directly refused to return to China. Obviously, these ronin recruited by Zheng Zhilong were not included in this list.

At the end of February, when the mission fleet returned to Daming, Yang Chao personally went to Songjiang Mansion to greet them.

With an apologetic and grateful attitude, Dong Xiaowan was soothed, and then the two stayed together and returned to Nanjing by boat.

Zheng's fleet also brought back a list of trade goods for the next year.

Seeing this list, Yang Chao was very satisfied, because he saw a large increase in the number of goods such as brocade, and most importantly, many Japanese people also ordered many popular gadgets in the Qinhuai River, from Chinese spice stoves to the most fashionable tea sets, to rouge The box and copper mirror are all available, and to Yang Chao's surprise, there are also people who order toothpaste.

The history of Chinese brushing teeth is much earlier than later generations imagined, and it was not introduced from the West. Of course, the habit of brushing teeth of the general public was cultivated after modern times, but brushing teeth has indeed been around since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

From the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the wind of brushing teeth has become popular in the upper class. Brushing teeth is called tooth brushing. "Chutai Secret Yao" records that "every morning, the willow branch bites the head soft, and takes medicine to wipe the teeth. It is fragrant and clean."

During the Tang Dynasty, the branches of poplar or willow were used to brush teeth after one end was bitten loose. At this time, there were already toothpaste medicines, and salt was also used to brush teeth.
In the Song Dynasty, "Taiping Shenghui Fang" recorded the formula of toothpaste in detail: decocting willow branches, locust trees and mulberry branches, adding ginger juice, asarum, etc. to wipe teeth.At the same time, there is also a special toothbrush. According to Zhou Shouzhong's "Health Regimen Compilation" in the Song Dynasty: "Ponytails are used to cover and brush teeth."

The toothpaste formula used in the Ming Dynasty came from the Song Dynasty, and some improvements were added, but the habit of brushing teeth is still limited to a small number of people, and ordinary old farmers who can rinse their mouths when they wake up are regarded as being particular about people.

But people like Dong Xiaowan definitely know how to brush their teeth. The word bright eyes and bright teeth did not come for no reason. Ancient beauties brushed their teeth every day to naturally whiten their teeth. Otherwise, big yellow teeth would be unappetizing.

The shops selling toothpaste in Nanjing are concentrated in the Qinhuai River area. Although the scale is not large, quite a few have their own unique formula.

This time when Dong Xiaowan went to Japan, he was served by geisha in daily life. These geisha also saw Chinese toothpaste and toothbrush from Dong Xiaowan. Although Japan also has the custom of brushing teeth, most of them were passed down from the Tang Dynasty. The method is still the willow branch, there is no special toothbrush yet, and the toothpaste is even the medicinal powder from the Tang Dynasty, which is very inconvenient, so this toothpaste order came about.

Yang Chao believes that this is just the beginning, and the custom of brushing teeth with Daming toothpaste will become popular among Japanese soon.

"You have been a great help to me!"

Surrounding Dong Xiaowan, Yang Chao couldn't help but say.

Dong Xiaowan smiled slightly, she didn't make this trip in vain if she could help Yang Chao, not to mention she was quite touched by the trip.

Dong Xiaowan learned a lot from Japan's exoticism. After all, Japan's upper-class culture also learned from the Tang Dynasty, and preserved a lot of Tang people's style, which still looks quite ancient.

After the Zheng family opened up the Hirado line, they have decided to invest in last year's profits and told Yang Chao that they may purchase 700 million taels of goods this year. According to the proportion, Yang Chao will get more than 400 million taels of which, after deducting the payment, The profit is 300 million.

I believe that next year, at most the year after, Zheng's trade will reach 1000 million taels, and Yang Chao's profit will reach more than 500 million taels.

It can be said to be quite rewarding.

It's just that the Dutchman was a little depressed. He was already behind the Zheng family in the competition, but this time he was pulled away by the Zheng family.

It is said that representatives of the Dutch East India Company actively sought to see the shogunate, hoping to receive the same treatment as the Zheng family, but the shogunate refused and threatened to cut off their trade if the Dutch were dishonest.

The Dutch could only swallow the bitterness.

Who asked a vassal king from Daming to go to Japan in person, unless the Dutch also sent a vassal king, but the Netherlands is a republic, so there are no vassal kings, this is a merchant country, and even if the Dutch send a vassal king, The Japanese probably won't recognize it either. Can you, a barbarian, be compared to the Ming Dynasty's feudal king?

The Dutch did not dare to offend Japan. The East India Company has 35 strongholds in Asia, and the Japanese stronghold ranks first in profits, accounting for nearly 2% of the total revenue. These profits are converted into about six tons of gold, and No.[-] is In Taiwan, the income accounted for more than [-]% of the income, equivalent to four tons of gold.

These two strongholds accounted for more than half of the revenue of the Dutch East India Company, especially Japan, which was almost half the size, and the Dutch would not dare to offend if they were killed.

In order to stay in Japan for trade, the Netherlands swore that they were completely different from the preached Spain and Portugal, and they were allowed to continue trading only after they absolutely guaranteed that they would no longer preach in Japan. They would not dare to risk losing Japan. Antiques from the Indian Company were able to eat the Governor of Batavia alive.

So they really have no other good option but to envy Zheng Zhilong.

It has been three months since I returned to Nanjing.

In March of the first year of Hongguang, there is a custom in ancient Chinese dynasties that the new king will continue to use the old name in the first year of his ascension to the throne. Last year was the 17th year of Chongzhen, and this year is the first year of Hongguang.

It is still Hongguang. In history, it was Hongguang who became the king of Fu. Zhu Cihong, a crown prince with a strong root, ascended the throne. It is probably because although the emperor has changed, the civil servants have not changed.

During this time, Nanjing was very lively, because the Spring Festival had just ended, and scholars from the Jiangnan imperial examination gathered in Nanjing, which made the Qinhuai River very popular.

But when Yang Chao returned to Nanjing, it was full of mourning, because the list was released, and every time the list was released, except for a few winners, everyone else was in the worst mood. A group of lamenting scholars lamented that the imperial court could not select talents.

At this time, there were four very low-key scholars, wearing bamboo hats and looking at Jinbang coldly, their hearts were full of resentment!

One of them said bitterly: "The traitor is in the way, and he is jealous of the virtuous and capable."

The others groaned.

The man went on to say: "My brother has made up his mind to go, go to Wuchang under the command of the Zuoping bandits, and we must rectify the court plan!"

(End of this chapter)