Chapter 215: Time to move and stop, no intention
Tang Shunzhi was like Master Shen, and told him that in the past six months, he should focus on his studies. If he got Jieyuan, his destiny would be in his own hands; if he couldn't get Jieyuan, he would have to be slaughtered.
Silence responded only to the following. Tang Shunzhi asked him to look at the characters he wrote, and saw eight powerful seal scripts on it: 'It's time to go, and I'm not interested.' and asked him: "How can I interpret the word 'heart'?"
Silently said softly: "The desire to seek profit and avoid harm..."
"What about this sentence?"
"Men should not care too much about their personal gains and losses when doing things. Whether they do or not, they must be worthy of their own conscience."
Tang Shunzhi nodded slowly and said, "You can also say this. I'll give you this calligraphy. Going back and taking a look will be beneficial to your knowledge and work."
Chen Si took the letter home, and ordered Chen An to find someone to make a living. He closed the door and opened a piece of white paper, and began to think about it carefully. After nearly a year of exploration, he had already had a relatively comprehensive understanding of the Japanese sufferings in the southeast. Now, it is time to straighten out the complicated information in his mind and take a pulse for the southeast of the Ming Dynasty.
This time he had to look farther and look at the whole world. The middle school history textbooks in his previous life told him that there was a more resounding name in the era he was in, called the Age of Discovery.
Although it is not clear how many years it was converted into the 1911 Revolution, based on the 1911 Revolution, the Qing Dynasty had about 270 years of national destiny, and after Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, there were four or five emperors such as Longwan Tianchong, and about seventy or eighty years of national destiny. So now it is about 156 AD.
As a good student who has always been the best in learning, his understanding of the Western Age of Discovery is far greater than his understanding of China in the same era... Who made history textbooks compile like this?
He could clearly remember that Columbus, who discovered the New World, had passed away half a century ago; Magellan, who sailed around the world, had also returned to the west thirty years ago; in this era, the Spaniards conquered America, the Portuguese conquered Africa, and extended their tentacles to Asia... Silence had sent people to inquire clearly. Just last spring, the Portuguese, which was called the "Franchise Man" in the Ming Dynasty, had occupied a small fishing village in the southernmost tip of Guangdong, five or six miles east and west, two bays north and south, and was called Haojing.
Silence still knows that it has another name, called Macau.
Through the "evil slave trade" and the "bloody plunder of the colonies", the Spanish and the Portuguese obtained gold and silver treasures that could subvert human history. So the two nouveau riche had to spend money, and the world's production flowed to the two countries in exchange for a large amount of gold and silver.
Among them, silk cloth, porcelain and tea produced in China were the most popular among the princes and nobles of the two kings and nobles. Therefore, a large number of Western merchants traveled thousands of miles and came across the ocean, "losing China's products, traveling to foreign countries, changing squares, and making ten times more profitable."
The wealthy businessmen and wealthy families on the southeast coast also realized the huge profits of this foreign trade. Many coastal tycoons built giant ships and carried out large-scale smuggling trade. Many poor people in poor life and military households who escaped from the garrison went to the sea to survive. Some gentry who were frustrated in the official career and poor scholars also mingled. Over time, several forces united to form a relatively large armed smuggling group, namely the maritime merchant group.
Of course, empty ships cannot escape gold, silver and treasures, and goods must be included. Therefore, these maritime smuggling groups must rely on the wealthy families along the coast to help them hoard and sell goods. Although the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibits the private trade, driven by interests, all laws are empty. Moreover, during the Zhengde period, the laws and regulations were relaxed and the maritime ban was useless, which became the golden years for the development of these maritime merchants.
According to the recollections of veteran officials over 50 years old, the Ningbo Maritime Warehouse Department, which had official trade in that era, was still there, and private private trade among the people was even more prosperous. The wealthy families in the southeast opened workshops, tea farms, and porcelain kilns, hiring a large number of people to produce, and then reselled the hoarded goods to maritime merchants, and sold them to the West from maritime merchants. Everyone performed their own duties, and the smuggled goods were transported and sold more smoothly, and they were profitable to each other.
During this period, a large number of Tokyo people escaped from the country where the war was a whole pot of porridge and joined overseas trade, becoming very useful thugs and workers. It was not a big threat to the southeast coast. Therefore, during the Zhengde period, although the imperial coastal defense center was already rotten, it was a surprisingly peaceful period.
However, many things were destroyed in this "but". The later "Tokyo envoy's tribute dispute" occurred, which was originally just a serious diplomatic incident, but was blamed by the then prime minister Xia Yan on the Maibo Department, believing that it was a confusion caused by frequent foreign trade and too many foreigners entering and leaving, and was rashly closed.
This extremely stupid approach only reduced the official tariff revenue, but made private smuggling more rampant, and the strength of maritime merchants became stronger and stronger, becoming the largest political and economic group in the Southeast, and was also very popular among all sectors of the Southeast.
According to the description of people at that time, twenty-nine years ago, the southeast government knew that the other party was a smuggler, but he wanted to make a fortune and allowed him to pile up goods. He also escorted him. "I don't investigate and ask if I don't ask, but I send fire guns and thieves to him."
An old officer from Ningbo Guard once described a jaw-dropping scene to Shen Mo. He said that whenever a fleet of merchants docked, "the people near the land either delivered fresh goods, wine and rice, or children, there were endless streams; the officials of the front guards had always had friendship with the merchants, and they would bow down and kowtow when they met, and were willing to serve their servants and deliver goods to them. They would go there as soon as they called, and they felt proud."
But this prosperity is disorderly after all. After the strike of the market order, the purchase channels of maritime merchants were controlled by wealthy families along the coast. They often hoarded goods on the pretext of "the government's investigation was very tight", which made maritime merchants miserable. The friction between the two parties, which had been inseparable from cooperation, became increasingly severe. When the resentment gradually deepened, the maritime merchants finally retaliated with force, killed people and set fire, and looted their houses.
In order to promote the Japanese crime, local officials claimed to the superiors that the Japanese pirates were invading. Wang Zhi, Xu Hai and others tasted the sweetness, and also took advantage of the fear of Japanese pirates by the Ming Dynasty officials and people, and often used the "Japanese pirates" as the banner, killing people and robbing people and doing evil... In fact, there were very few real Tokyo people inside, and they were all coolies working.
The "Japanese plague" in the southeast became more and more powerful, and finally alarmed Emperor Jiajing, so he ordered Zhu Wan to supervise the Southeast and reiterate the ban on the sea. Zhu Wan strictly enforced the emperor's decree, strictly prohibiting fishermen from going into the water and burning all large ships. He was also preparing to move those big families that were connected.
According to Admiral Zhu, anyone who supplies freight and ships is considered to be smuggling, and the entire southeast is considered a "Tongfan" nest. It would be strange if Admiral Zhu wanted to move this hornet's nest, and it would be strange if he didn't get stung to death.
Zhu Wan's death represents the complete failure of the maritime ban policy. From then on, the imperial court relaxed the maritime ban, but it could no longer curb the surging "Japanese siege". Because the smuggling group tasted the sweetness of burning, killing, looting through the weak Jiajing dynasty... it was no match for them at all.
At this time, the so-called "Japanese/pirates" also diverged. Some of them, such as Wang Zhi and others, took the banner of "Japanese/pirates" to confront the government and protect their own trade activities, so they mainly trade and robbery as part-time jobs.
But some people think that since you can get something you can get by robbing openly, why should you buy it with money?’, such as Xu Haiyema and others, completely transformed into open fire pirate gangs. For a time, the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang suffered unprecedented damage, and countless cities were attacked, and the people were even more immeasurable.
This is the cause and current situation of the Japanese attack in the southeast.
While thinking, I was silent and wrote the six words "big people", "main business" and "official government" on the paper. Of course, the government refers to the Southeast government.
Below these three, he wrote the word "smuggling". In Shen Mo's opinion, these three originally had common interests... They all hoped to have stable and efficient smuggling, so that the silk cotton, tea, and porcelain from the south of the Yangtze River could be exchanged for endless streams of silver and money. Large households, maritime merchants and officials could enjoy a luxurious life, and even ordinary people could get a living standard far higher than other provinces... The common interests brought a solid alliance, which would inevitably give any destruction the most violent blow. Zhu Wan's death can be seen as a joint force of the three to block the northern court's strengthening maritime ban.
Chen Si wrote the words "Japanese/pirate" on the paper. When the maritime merchants turned into Japanese/pirates, the situation changed greatly. They plundered coastal provinces, and the Southeast officials also took great responsibility for this. Countless people were dismissed from office, beheaded and exiled to death.
At the same time, the interests of the big players have also been seriously affected. In the face of robbery maritime merchants, they can no longer maintain fair transactions. They must spend several times the cost, and even the safety of their lives and property is threatened.
Those "Japanese pirates" who are both business and thieves are naturally the most satisfied with the status quo. Of course, this satisfaction comes at the cost of dissatisfaction of other groups of people.
Thinking of this, silence made a fork on the word "Japanese/Gui" and circled the word "Maritime Business". A hazy idea rose in his heart, and he wanted to see if his little butterfly could change the trend of history.
Chapter completed!