Five million taels!

Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong were almost jumping up.

This is really a huge number! It is almost equivalent to the annual income of the Ming Dynasty treasury.

Of course, the tax situation in the Ming Dynasty is complicated. First, the tax cannot be raised, and then a large amount of taxes are intercepted by local governments for local expenses, and hundreds of thousands of royal family members are required to support them. If the Liao pay and other taxes are not added, they will be handed over to the household

The tax on the treasury is only four or five million taels per year. But even so, it can be compared with the treasury income, which shows how huge the profits of maritime trade are! This is just a search of two major merchant gangs and seven or eight small pirates.

Just a sea boat.

After snatching the records and seizures the account book from the manager, Mao Liangzhe went to look carefully, and Zheng Zhilong also came over and stretched his neck to watch.

After looking closely at the two, they found that there was no five million taels in cash, only three,243,000 taels, and the rest were estimated at the discount of other goods.

A large amount of red copper was seized from the merchant ship, with a quantity of as much as 500,000 kilograms, and several lucky ships were filled with blessing ships. These red copper ingots were transported back to the Ming Dynasty and then privately cast into copper coins. Next time the sea trade was traded, they were then shipped back to the Ming Dynasty.

Selled back to Japan.

The currency that is popular in Japan is the Ming Dynasty. Although Japan has a large amount of copper ore, it cannot mint coins. Therefore, when the Ming Dynasty merchants came to Japan for trade, they bought a large amount of copper ingots, and then brought them back to the Ming Dynasty to make money privately.

, and then ship it back to Japan for silver, and the profit will be several times.

In addition to a large amount of red copper, there are other goods worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. For example, swords, swords produced by Japan are excellent in performance, far better than swords of the Ming Dynasty, and are very popular among Ming Dynasty warriors. A Japanese sword is worth dozens of dollars in the Ming Dynasty.

There are two silver dollars, and the number of Japanese swords and swords that were found in the search is as many as a thousand handles. In addition, there are a large number of Japanese handicrafts such as folding fans, lacquerware, and screens, which are all Japanese specialties.

What shocked the two of them the most was that they had collected a large amount of sulfur on the ship, which was as large as tens of thousands of kilograms. There were many volcanoes in Japan, and there were a large amount of sulfur ore around the volcano, and sulfur was an important component in making gunpowder.

A brief look at it, there are more than a dozen types of cargo on the ship, including a large number of copper ingots, which is worth more than one million taels. Of course, this value is estimated based on the price after being shipped back to the Ming Dynasty, so there is five million taels.

Total data.

But even so, the seizure is amazing!

"Compared with Fuzhou Business Gang and Funing Business Gang, our business is really poor!" Mao Liangzhe said with a wry smile.

The sales of all goods sold by Royal Marine Trade Store is only 1.2 million taels, and the income from the search is worth as much as 5 million taels. What if it is not a poor person?

"You can't say that. After all, our royal trading company has only been established for a year, and these business groups are controlled by local gentry. They have been operating maritime trade for many years. They all have huge funds, have their own fleet, and have a large supply of goods. We are temporarily in the process of not only having to pay.

It is normal not to be compared with them." Zheng Zhilong comforted.

Mao Liangzhe nodded, seemingly agreeing with Zheng Zhilong's words, but he sighed in his heart. The sea trade is so profitable, these Southeast Maritime Merchants are all rich enough to rival the country, but the national treasury is extremely empty, and they are close to these Southeast gentry with millions of dollars.

More than that, the emperors in the Forbidden City are simply poor.

However, the emperor's vision was still very accurate. He lived in the palace and knew that the profits of sea trade were so high that he sent Li Yanzhi and himself to Fujian early. After more than a year of hard work, the sea trade matters were basically opened, as long as this time

It can conquer a number of maritime merchants and can sit and collect money from now on.

"It's fine for sea merchants, pirates, and sea merchants, but being a pirate is also a good choice. As long as you capture a sea boat, you can make a fortune. Brother Guan, I finally understand why you chose to go out to sea back then." Mao Liangzhe

Smiling.

I have been with Zheng Zhilong for a long time and knows Zheng Zhilong's background very well. I know that Zheng Zhilong's family was actually very good when he was a teenager, but he chose to go out to sea.

Zheng Zhilong smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's not that easy to capture a ship. The sea is boundless, and it's hard to meet a sea boat. Even if it meets it, it's hard to say who can beat him.

It is very difficult to beat the other party, but it is very difficult to capture the other party's ship. Once it is dragged until night, it can escape all night, and it is almost impossible to find it again.

Moreover, the battle on the side is always the most cruel. Even if you win, you will suffer heavy losses. Many times, unless you know that your strength is far higher than that of many parties, basically no one will choose to start a war on the initiative. If you can do business and make money, not many people are willing to fight.

Kill and kill.”

This is also the reason why Zheng Zhilong hesitated at the beginning whether the war should start, because the other party's ships are no worse than those of the Royal Maritime Trade Fair.

"To be honest, being able to win this time is a advantage of the sudden attack. If the other party is prepared, even if we can win, we will suffer heavy losses and even lose more than we can get." Zheng Zhilong sighed.

"That's why I insisted on taking action. Today I called them to discuss matters. No one knew what we were asking them to do. Of course, no one would have thought that we would take action today, just to catch them off guard." Mao Liangzhe smiled.

"Two lords, Nagasaki, Japan, sent someone to come." At this moment, someone rushed over and reported to the two.

The two looked at each other and thought to themselves that they were coming so fast.

Nagasaki is an official sent by the Japanese shogunate to manage Nagasaki Port. It was directly appointed by the shogunate and has nothing to do with the daimyo around Nagasaki. Nagasaki is the only foreign trade port in Japan, and it is naturally very important to the shogunate, so it has always been a member of the shogunate.

Directly governed.

Nagasaki is both the Chief of Administrative Officer of Nagasaki Town and the Trade Officer in charge of trade. He is also responsible for preventing foreign invasions and spreading Christianity, and is also responsible for dealing with foreigners in Nagasaki Port. He can be said to be a combination of power and his status is equivalent to that of the Ming Dynasty.

The local governor is only a few dozen miles away in the entire Nagasaki Town, which is less than a county in the Ming Dynasty.

"Take him here." Mao Liangzhe ordered. The person who came was just a subordinate official who was in Nagasaki, and it was not worthy of the two of them.

After a while, a short middle-aged Japanese man came over, wearing a Japanese robe, with an ugly hairstyle, and a short beard under his lips, which looked very funny.

"You and others attacked Nagasaki Port without authorization and attacked innocent merchant ships. This is a serious provocation to our great Japanese country. I followed the order of my master and came to tell you and immediately hand over the murderer who attacked the port, otherwise our Nagasaki defenders would be in charge of the troops.

We will attack Fukue Island immediately!" The Japanese official named Masao Yamashita shouted.

Mao Liangzhe felt dumbfounded. At first glance, the Japanese looked so mean and weak, but just a threat of empty words.

"The reason why we attacked Nagasaki was to capture all kinds of pirates. Just two months ago, along the coast of Daming, ten ships filled with goods from our business were robbed in the Zhoushan waters, and the business suffered huge losses.

Later, Nagasaki suddenly discovered that the robbed sea boats were actually parked in Nagasaki Port. I want to ask your country whether they colluded with those pirates who did all kinds of evil?" Mao Liangzhe asked.

"No, what does what happened in the Ming Dynasty's waters have to do with our country? Nagasaki is a trading port, and any Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants can come here to trade, regardless of whether they have done robbery or not." Yamashita Masao said angrily.

"Since that's the case, our capture of Ming pirates has nothing to do with your shogunate." Mao Liangzhe said with a smile.

"As long as the war occurs in Nagasaki and in our country's territory, it will have something to do with us, it is a provocation to the shogunate? If you refuse to hand over the perpetrator, just wait for our great Japanese navy to attack.

No one of you can survive. Your business will be prohibited from coming to Nagasaki for trading in the future." Yamashita Masao sneered.

"Don't get angry, don't get angry." Zheng Zhilong hurried over to make a red face and smooth things over, "Our business has not notified Nagasaki in advance to follow it. It's our fault. I promise that there will be no such thing in the future. As for handing over the perpetrator, it's our fault.

, please give us two days, we will definitely send people to Nagasaki." Zheng Zhilong said.

Masao Yamashita was quite satisfied with Zheng Zhilong's attitude, so he gave a warning and told him the various rules to be followed in Nagasaki, and agreed that someone would have to be sent to Nagasaki the next day, and then left. Zheng Zhilong sent him all the way and asked him to

The man brought ten pieces of silk and satin boxes as gifts and asked the mountain to bring them to Nagasaki for his pursuit.

"The Amakusa Yoshihiro army has captured most of Kyushu Island, and it is only two Daming from Nagasaki Port. The Daming troops around Nagasaki were transferred to the front line to block the rebel army. Nagasaki's garrison was extremely empty, so where did the troops come from to attack Fukue Island?

?” Mao Liangzhe said to Zheng Zhilong.

"So we did such a big thing, so Nagasaki practice just sent someone to scold him." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

"Brother Yiguan, do you think if we suddenly send troops, can we capture Nagasaki Port?" Mao Liangzhe said suddenly.

Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, but unexpectedly, Mao Liangzhe, a scholar, was even more warlike than his former pirate.

Then he smiled bitterly: "We have 3,000 people and hundreds of red cannons. It is natural that there is no problem to capture Nagasaki Port. But what's the use of capturing Nagasaki Port? At most, it's plundering, and it can't be defended at all.

Although Japan is a small place, it has a population of tens of millions. The Japanese shogunate mobilized it and could mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, including many elite samurai who have been through the battlefield for a long time. Just the few thousand of us are not enough to see.

”

Mao Liangzhe smashed his mouth and said a little regretfully: "Forget it. Your Majesty is short of money and has to rely on Japan to make money, so he won't make trouble. By the way, what should you do if you promise to hand over the perpetrator?"

Knowing each other well, Mao Liangzhe naturally would not believe that Zheng Zhilong would really hand over his own people to Japan.

"I will send someone to the Amacao Peninsula quietly to the Amacao Peninsula in the evening, send some seized weapons to Amacao Feng, and then ask him for some people to take the blame." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

Since Nagasaki is now unable to attack Fukue Island, it is enough to give him a casual explanation, and I believe he will not investigate it in depth.

"Send all the swords and muskets seized from the pirates to Amakoto, and then tell Amakoto to send a group of people to attack the Satsuma family in the southeast." Mao Liangzhe said.

“You mean…”

"The Satsuma clan was bold and sent troops to subvert the Shang clan of Ryukyu and plunder the King of Ryukyu back to Japan. The envoy of Ryukyu went to Beijing to ask for help. His Majesty asked the Fujian Navy to wait for an opportunity to expel the Japanese pirates and help the Shang clan restore the country. Since we have reached this point, by the way,

I did this and sent a fleet to Ryukyu on the way back, killing all the Japanese there, and then supporting a descendant of the Shang family to succeed the King of Ryukyu." Mao Liangzhe said.

Zheng Zhilong thought about it and found that this was not difficult. After all, the Satsuma vassal that attacked Ryukyu was just a famous name in Japan, and its strength was limited. If Amakoto Feng attacked the Satsuma vassal, even if he could not destroy the Satsuma vassal, he could force him to withdraw his occupying troops from Ryukyu.

As long as you send a few ships, you can help Ryukyu restore the country.

"Sir, I will personally lead a few ships to Ryukyu." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

It is easy to make military contributions in this matter. Although the contribution is not great, the names of the generals in charge of the army can reach the court and reach the eyes of the emperor. After all, Ryukyu is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and helping the vassals restore the country is definitely a matter of showing their faces.

You may be able to advance to the next level with this skill.

"Brother Yiguan is willing to go there, that's better." Mao Liangzhe smiled slightly.

"I heard that the royal family of King Shang was robbed to Japan. What if the descendants of the Shang family could not be found in Ryukyu?" Zheng Zhilong said suddenly.

"No matter what, leave hundreds of soldiers to garrison at that time, and then report to the court to wait for the court to make a decision." Mao Liangzhe said.

That night, Zheng Zhilong sent someone to take a boat to Fukuoka Castle on the Amanka Peninsula. When he came back, he brought back more than a dozen Japanese people on the boat. They were the scapegoats found by Amanka Maki.

What surprised Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong was that these scapegoats knew that they were going to die, and they were all happy.

"There are so many people under Tiancaofeng's men who died for him. He is really a hero." Zheng Zhilong sighed. If it were him, he would probably not have found so many people willing to die.

"So many loyal subordinates have been sacrificed for just some weapons, and Tiancao Feng is nothing but Err." Mao Liangzhe sneered.

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said nothing more than some weapons. It was from the Royal Maritime Trade Company and the support from the Ming Dynasty.

The next day, Zheng Zhilong sent people to Nagasaki Port, and he was too lazy to dress up. Nagasaki did not interrogate him, so he sent more than a dozen perpetrators who attacked Nagasaki Port.

The pier was executed and there was no chance to speak to these people, and then the corpse at the port was a warning.

The Royal Maritime Trade Trading Company sent more than a dozen sea ships to attack Nagasaki Port, and the perpetrators were actually more than a dozen Japanese people. The news came out that other maritime traders from the Ming Dynasty were in an uproar. The Royal Maritime Trade Trading Company was too powerful, even the Japanese shogunate.

There is no way, so what else can they do? They can only pay commercial tax honestly.

On that day, several maritime merchants took the initiative to go to Fujiang Island, gave silver to the Royal Maritime Trade Bank and took the initiative to send account books for verification. Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong naturally came here and praised these people who knew the times.

In the following days, every day, maritime merchants took the initiative to board Fujiang Island to pay taxes, and there were too many people that had to wait in line.

It took two days to complete the business tax matter.
Chapter completed!