After Zhou Xian opened the two ports of Weihai and Jiaozhou, the huge merchants with financial resources gradually began to tentatively go out to sea. Most of the ship merchants went to the closer North Korea, Japan, and a few other countries in the South China Sea.

North Korea won't say much. Although Inzu Li Yu betrayed the Ming Dynasty and made North Korea a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty. However, because the Qing Dynasty did not set up troops in North Korea, he had enough autonomy. In terms of external affairs, the measures he had always taken were to not offend. Faced with the Ming merchant ship coming to North Korea, he chose to turn a blind eye and let it go.

When the shogun Tokugawa Ieki succeeded to the throne, the daimyo, who was hostile to the shogunate, was either wiped out or had expressed complete surrender. The shogun obtained the dominance of Japan and became the actual king of Japan. In order to maintain its own rule, Tokugawa Ieki broke off diplomatic relations with Spain in 1624, and Britain gradually withdrew from trade with Japan because of losing business opportunities. The process of the lock-up system moved forward a lot.

Even so, the influence of the West on Japan was still everywhere, and the most obvious thing was the rapid spread of Catholicism in Japan. At the end of the 16th century, there were as many as 150,000 Catholics. In fact, in the face of the increasingly powerful Catholic forces, the "ban on religion" was issued during the period of Tokugawa Ieyasu, but the spread of Catholicism still did not stop.

In 1634, natural disasters occurred in Shimahara and Amakusa areas, and the people lived in poverty. The shogunate continued to impose taxes, which aroused fierce resistance from the local people and eventually triggered the Shimahara Uprising, which was participated by nearly 40,000 people. These righteous people quickly seized the Hara Castle in the south of the Shimahara Peninsula, erected a cross in the city, and hung flags with crosses and icons. To be precise, this was a war between Catholics against the Japanese shogunate.

After four years of persistence, the Yimin was exterminated by the shogunate. In the second year after the war, the shogunate decided to completely ban religion on the grounds that the "Shijihara Rebellion" was a pagan rebellion. First, it strictly prohibited Portuguese ships from landing in Japan, and completely banned their ships from sailing, completely cutting off the road to trade with the West.

However, the Netherlands became the only Western country that could trade with Japan because it helped Japan to quell the Shimahara Rebellion. The Dutch East India Company established a branch in Nagasaki. Although the Dutch could not leave the Nagasaki Merchant House and the Japanese were strictly prohibited from going to sea, at least the two maintained normal trade.

Although the Ming Dynasty and Japan passed the Wanli War to Aid Korea, the civil exchanges between the two have not been cut off. Japan also needed raw silk and other goods from the Ming Dynasty. The merchants of the Ming Dynasty could not only trade with Japan, but also get ashore. However, the trade must pass through the Japanese shogunate and cannot be directly traded with the private sector.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty and Japan had always maintained trade exchanges with Zheng Zhilong. He lived in Nagasaki in his early years. Although he later became a pirate and became a general, his ties and trade with Japan were not cut off. His eldest son, Zheng Chenggong, was still called Zheng Sen, was born in Japan. He did not return to the Ming Dynasty with his mother Takawa when he was six years old.

Due to official relations, merchant ships departing from Weihai or Jiaozhou are not accessible in North Korea and Japan, but they encounter some difficulties in Southeast Asia.

After the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the Dutch also saw the strength of the Ming Dynasty and respected Zheng Zhilong who defeated them. In the continuous temptation, the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong gradually reached an agreement that each other agreed. The Ming Dynasty forbidden the sea, and the Dutch were not allowed to go ashore along the Ming coast, but the Ming ships could go out to sea by smuggling. Fishermen carried goods to nearby islands, and then traded with the Dutch or other Westerners. They went further to the Nanyang and resold them to other Nanyang countries.

Zheng Zhilong owns the largest smuggling fleet, and he is also responsible for maintaining order in the South China Sea. Any merchant ship, as long as he hangs the Zheng family's flag, no matter Westerners or pirates, dare not rob these ships again. Many of those who do not want to hang the Zheng family's flag will be robbed by pirates or Western ships. Many of those pirates were originally raised by Zheng Zhilong, with the purpose of forcing those merchant ships who went to sea to hang the Zheng family's flag.

Of course, these flags are not free for people to hang. Each trip is 10 to 20% of the profits are drawn by the Zheng family. By smuggling and collecting money from smuggling people, Zheng Zhilong started from Fujian and ended at Nanyang, including Taiwan, Japan and other places, and established a huge commercial empire belonging to his own Zheng family.

Therefore, when Zhou Xian allowed Denglai's merchant ships to come to Nanyang, it was equivalent to challenging the order he had established for a long time. He sent pirates to rob the ships and killed some of the crew members above. Because they were both Fujianese and unwilling to break up with them. Zeng Hualong sent people to negotiate with Zheng Zhilong to let him return the alive officials and arrest the pirates.

Although Zheng Zhilong was a pirate, he was smart and had long been familiar with these polite sexual intercourses in the officialdom. He put some crew members back and said that the pirates had cleared, but continued to hold other crew members as bargaining chips for negotiation.

Zeng Hualong was a traditional Ming official and was diligent in his work. He had no choice but to face the ruffian Zheng Zhilong.

However, a large number of merchant ships went to sea, and the one who guaranteed it was the Yanziying Navy at that time. With Huang Fei's acquiescence, Han Kuo picked out some ships from the navy, and also pretended to be pirates, specifically robbed merchant ships flying with Zheng's flags and headed to Japan. The Nanyang was close to Fujian and was at the doorstep of Zheng Zhilong's house. But Denglai went to sea to sea in the East China Sea, which was within the control of Yanziying.

There are many countries in the South China Sea and fleets from the West, so the total amount of trade is not comparable to that of a Japanese. However, the ship merchants in Denlai were just starting out, and very few were really willing to go to the South China Sea. The trade between Zheng Zhilong and Japan has been operating for many years and has long formed a large scale. If this continues, the greater loss will definitely be Zheng Zhilong.

Moreover, when Huang Fei was preparing to recover Yongning Supervisory City, Han Kuo led his fleet to Pi Island and attacked the Dandong front with Lin Qingye to support Huang Fei. On the way back, Han Kuo captured a merchant fleet of five sea ships, and the leader was Zheng Zhilong's son Zheng Cai.

Zhou Xian didn't know at first that it was not until Zheng Zhilong's brother Zheng Hongkui came to Denglai and wanted to get Zheng Cai back that Zhou Xian knew that he had such a big bargaining chip in his hand. Zheng Cai was Zheng Zhilong's son, and he was a unique existence in the Zheng group. Although he was only a good writer, he had a unique sensitivity to numbers. Since Zheng Zhilong's rise, he has always been in charge of the financial power of Zheng's family and was Zheng Zhilong's God of Wealth.
Chapter completed!