The fleet led by Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe set out from Quanzhou in mid-July, and it was already August when we arrived in Nagasaki.

There is no way to set out so late. Last year, the looting of sea ships on the sea caused serious dissatisfaction among various merchant gangs in Fujian. This kind of behavior of forcibly plundering by force by force and unruly is more important to the gentry.

Pirates are even more abominable!

Not only did the coastal gentry refuse to cooperate with the Huangjiahai Trade Bank, but the gentry in charge of supply in the mainland refused to supply the goods, and even if they offered high prices, they would not be able to provide them.

Although Li Yanzhi's navy is very powerful, the coastline of Fujian is long and winding, and there are bays that can go out to sea everywhere. The maritime merchants have learned their skills and have done more secretly to go out to sea. Many maritime merchants choose to transport goods by land to the safe side.

Go to Zhejiang and go to sea from Zhejiang.

So much so that during the whole year, the Royal Marine Trade Company did not get much goods, and in the end it only barely loaded ten maritime ships, most of which were daily necessities such as lacquerware department stores, and only got more than 500 ducts of raw silk.

There is no way to get this situation. Although the Fujian Governor Liu Mao is his own person and Li Yanzhi has the most powerful army in Fujian, the officials of various prefectures and counties are one with the gentry.

Collusion with each other and local forces are mixed. If it weren't for the emperor behind the Royal Maritime Trade Fair, it would be impossible for even establishing a good fortune.

In order to prevent excessive actions from triggering joint conflicts between the entire Fujian gentry, Fujian Governor Liu Mao has been persuading Li Yanzhi not to make a fuss, and it is best to reach some kind of reconciliation. However, Li Yanzhi is young and energetic, and he is proud to control the army, and the emperor is supported by him.

How to bow to the gentry?

The interests of maritime trade are too great, and the gentry of Fujian are not willing to give in, so it is naturally impossible to surrender.

Over the past year, the situation in Fujian has been surging, and the people have been talking about it. The gentry released rumors that the court would re-ban the sea and cut off everyone's way of life. Fujian has many mountains, many rivers, and there are few fields. Countless people live on the sea. I heard that

Many people were full of anger at the royal family by the gentry.

The Fujian gentry secretly sent people to contact pirates such as Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi. Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi and others led their fleets to attack the Fujian coast many times, which made Li Yanzhi exhausted. Because locals informed him, Li Yanzhi sent ships to clean up many times, and they all

Flee by the pirates.

In order to get enough cargo, the fleet had to drag it down again and again, and it did not set sail until mid-July, which was nearly a month later than in previous years.

Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe led the team, Zheng Zhilong led the fleet to be responsible for water wars, and Mao Liangzhe was responsible for cargo trade. The fleet had ten cargo ships, but there were as many as fifteen warships, all of which were three-masted sea ships, including two captured.

Dutch plywood ship.

The fleet of twenty-five three-masted sea ships has a total of 3,000 crew members, which is extremely powerful in terms of scale. The reason why such a large-scale fleet was sent to Japan was in addition to the sea trade.

Of course, there are other purposes. If you cannot intercept those maritime merchants on the coast of Fujian, then go to Japan to block them!

After arriving in Japan, they did not directly attack these maritime merchants, but started trading first. Then Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe became even more angry. The market this year is really bad, much worse than last year.

Last year, a bunch of raw silk in Nagasaki cost more than 400 taels, but this year it is only 220 taels. Although it still makes three times the profit, it is far from satisfying the two. The price of raw silk is so low, and other goods are also

Similarly, this year's overseas trade revenue will probably not exceed one million taels, far lower than last year.

Mao Liangzhe was worried that the sharp decline in Haimao revenue would make the emperor dissatisfied, while Zheng Zhilong was concerned about his own interests. He was a shareholder of Haimao Commercial Bank. He earned more Haimao and would have more money.

"No, I have to find a way!" Zheng Zhilong slapped the table.

Mao Liangzhe sighed: "Sell the goods first."

With a complete sales channel, it is not difficult to sell goods, but it still takes more than a month. After all the goods are sold, it has entered late autumn. In another month or two, the monsoon will rise and the long

The rugged Daming Maritime Merchant will return to Daming by boat.

According to calculations, the total income from this trade was 1.2 million taels, but more than 300,000 taels came from arms trade, and the real income from maritime trade was only more than 800,000, which was far lower than last year.

Last winter, with the secret support of Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe, Amacao Feng called on the poor Japanese farmers to make righteous promises on the Amacao Peninsula and captured several cities in one fell swoop. The number of rebels reached tens of thousands. Later, the fleet of the Royal Sea Trade Company pretended to be red-haired.

Ghost, bombarded the shogunate army that was fighting and helped the rebel army win a great victory. Amankara led the rebel army to take the opportunity to capture most of Kyushu Island.

However, it also attracted the attention of the shogunate. The shogunate mobilized the entire Japanese Daming, organized more than 200,000 troops, and launched an encirclement and suppression of Amakusa Yoshihiro. The war was extremely cruel, and half of Kyushu Island was almost destroyed, Amakusa Feng and others were killed.

The Japanese peasants who were unwilling to be cruelly ruled by the shogunate, fought a desperate resistance, but were unable to resist the strength of the shogunate army. Most of the cities occupied fell one after another, and finally they guarded the two or three cities on the Amako Peninsula to support them.

The arrival of the Royal Marine Trade Co., Ltd. made Tian Caofeng breathe a sigh of relief. He personally took a boat to Wudao to pay homage to Zheng Zhilong and the others and asked Mingguo for support.

Before the arrival of the Royal Maritime Trade Company fleet, Tiancaofeng also contacted other Daming Maritime Trade Company who arrived earlier, but no one was willing to pay attention to him.

After discussing with Mao Liangzhe, Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe immediately decided to sell Tiancaofeng five hundred grenades, one thousand muskets, and one hundred gunpowder and one stone of gunpowder, which was exchanged for more than 300,000 taels of silver. In a year of battle

Tiancaofeng plundered a large amount of silver, but as the cities were lost one after another, there was only so much left. In order to solve the current dilemma, Tiancaofeng took out all the silver, which was a desperate bet.

After obtaining the arms of the Royal Marine Trade Trading, Amako Feng immediately launched a counterattack, throwing hundreds of grenades out, and directly blowing up the besieged shogunate army, thinking that it was the rebels who invited Tianlei to help. Amako Feng quickly led the rebels to chase,

Tens of thousands of shogunate corpses were killed everywhere.

Once the army collapsed, it was too difficult to gather it. After the shogunate defeat, Daming on the entire Kyushu Island was extremely scared. Amankara Feng rushed to attack and conquered more than ten cities in a row. The Japanese people in Kyushu came to surrender one after another, and the momentum became even greater.

, it is in an attempt to sweep the nine provinces.

However, the civil strife in Japan had little impact on sea trade. The Japanese nobles were still extravagant and full of desire for goods from the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the war seriously damaged Japan's production, making Japan's various supplies even more scarce. It is estimated that the goods from Japan will be from next year

Prices will rise a lot, after all, Japan lacks everything, but it is not short of silver.

But that's all a story. Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe are now discussing how to deal with other maritime merchants.

The sharp decline in marine trade revenue made both of them very dissatisfied. The source is that these Ming maritime merchants are fighting against the Royal maritime merchants!

"Just come directly and send a post to all the merchants from the Ming Dynasty, and ask them to come to Fujiang Island. If you don't come, just give them a look!" Mao Liangzhe said with a murderous intent. He was a businessman, and his murderous aura was even heavier than Zheng Zhilong!

"If these maritime merchants join forces, it may not be good. Let's start quietly on the way back." Zheng Zhilong said. He was considering the problem from the perspective of pirates.

After all, although the fleet of the Marine Trade Commercial Bank is very strong, the combined number of these Marine Trade Commercial Bank is nearly 100, which is three times that of the Royal Marine Trade Commercial Bank. However, it may not be possible to escape if the fight occurs.

If it is intercepted quietly at sea and defeated each one, with the huge strength of the Royal Maritime Trade Company, these maritime merchants will not be able to escape as long as they are stopped. After all, these maritime merchants include Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong maritime merchants, which are not one.

.On the contrary, if the rumors of the storm are revealed, it will be very troublesome.

Mao Liangzhe shook his head: "General Zheng, you must now understand your identity. You are no longer the pirates of the past, but the General of the Ming Dynasty. Behind our fleet is the royal family and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so you must act upright!

No matter what, these maritime merchants are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty. We cannot attack directly. We must first be polite and then soldiers. If they refuse to obey, it will not be too late to be tough at that time."

Zheng Zhilong advised: "If they unite, we may not be our opponent."

Mao Liangzhe sneered: "So what? Do they dare to take the initiative to attack us? Unless they want to rebel, they will wait to destroy the nine clans at that time!"

Seeing Mao Liangzhe so tough, Zheng Zhilong sighed and stopped persuading him. Although he was nominally commanding the fleet, Mao Liangzhe represented the emperor, and more than half of the fleet were soldiers of the Fujian Imperial Guards.

Mao Liangzhe immediately ordered someone to write a post and sent it to various Ming maritime merchants in the name of the Royal Maritime Trade Company, inviting them to meet on Fujiang Island three days later. The post stated that the person in charge must come, otherwise it would be with the Royal Maritime Trade Company.

Business behavior enemy.

In fact, in Japan, the "bad behavior" of the Royal Maritime Trade Commercial Bank has been spread through Fujian Maritime Trade Commercial Bank, which has made Zhejiang and Guangdong and other maritime trade merchants avoid the Royal Maritime Trade Commercial Bank. Originally, there were many of them.

The residence of the maritime merchants, but in order not to have any connection with the royal maritime merchants, these maritime merchants went to other islands to live in. Noda Fukue River Island, one of the five islands, and now they live in the royal maritime merchants.

After receiving the invitation post, these maritime merchants were all frightened. The identities of these maritime merchants were either merchants set up by gentry, independent maritime merchants, or simply pirates robbed goods and came to trade.

To be honest, there are no timids who dare to come to trade in Japan through huge waves. But they are still a little scared. First, because the Royal Maritime Trade Company has strong strength, more than 20 sea ships and more than 3,000 troops.

The strength absolutely crushes all maritime merchants, and the identity of the royal maritime merchants is, after all, it represents the emperor.

Even though many maritime merchants were connected and discussed countermeasures, these were representatives sent by coastal gentry, and knew that there was no possibility of reconciliation with the Royal Maritime Trade Company. However, other maritime merchants were very hesitant. Those pirates were wanted by the court.

I can't stand it, so I naturally don't want to have any connection with the fleet with the imperial background. Of course, there are also some small sea merchants in Guangdong or Zhejiang, who have no background and no strength, and they think they have no guilt, and they do it early

The decision to go out to Fukue Island to attend the meeting.

Three days later, nearly a hundred small boats came to Fujiang Island one after another. After thinking, most of the maritime merchants still chose to obey the call. Even if the head of the company did not dare to come, they would send representatives to come. No matter what, they should listen.

What the Royal Maritime Trade Company said? Of course, some Maritime Trade Company did not know what kind of psychology they did not send anyone here.

Just on the beach of Fujiang Island, a high platform was built, and Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong sat upright on the platform, while the maritime merchants participating in the meeting could only sit on the ground in the audience.

Looking at the Ming flag on the stage and the guards in full armor around Zheng Zhilong, the maritime merchants participating in the meeting did not dare to say anything, and could only sit down on the beach with grievance.

"Since Taizu, our Ming Dynasty has implemented the strategy of sea ban, and those who go to sea without authorization are rebellious by the court!"

Mao Liangzhe stood up and as soon as he opened his mouth, he directly attacked these maritime merchants. The maritime merchants and representatives sitting in the audience suddenly became turbulent. Is it a false idea to convene everyone to discuss the matter, and the purpose is to catch everyone in one go?

Many maritime merchants were already looking around, thinking about how to escape from Fukue Island.

"However, since the opening of the sea in Longqing, the court's policy on sea ban has slowed down a lot, allowing Ming merchants to go to sea to trade." Mao Liangzhe changed his voice, and his tone seemed to ease a lot, and these maritime merchants were no longer so nervous.

"However, allowing trade to go abroad does not matter. Any maritime merchants must be allowed by the Maritime Bureau and can only go abroad after the Maritime Bureau is registered and paid tariffs. All of them are Daming Maritime merchants, have they ever registered and paid in the Maritime Bureau.

Tariff?" Mao Liangzhe asked coldly.

The sea merchants looked at each other, and everyone knew what the Maritime Trade Bureau was. The imperial court opened a Maritime Trade Bureau in Hangzhou, Quanzhou and other places, which specialized in managing maritime trade.

But for maritime merchants, as long as they bribe a few taels of silver in the coastal garrison, they can go out to sea in any place. Why pay a lot of taxes to the Maritime Mansion? Therefore, most maritime merchants go out to sea for trade without rushing to sea.

By Maritime.

"I, I have prepared a case in the Maritime Bureau." Suddenly someone said timidly, which attracted a surprising look.

In the eyes of everyone, a wise man stood up timidly. Some maritime merchants recognized him as Lin Qiang, who was a small maritime merchant in Zhejiang.

"Oh?" Mao Liangzhe was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that there was a real honest tax collector to the Maritime Bureau.

"Not bad, I don't forget to pay taxes to the court for making money. It's worth commending. Please sit down." Mao Liangzhe said casually.

"What about the others? Why didn't you pay taxes when you file a record with the Maritime Mansion Bureau?" Mao Liangzhe asked.
Chapter completed!