In the summer of the fourth year of Shenwu, the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty was still at war, and countless people in the northwest were migrating with their families, but in the south, there was a scene of peace and prosperity, with thousands of nations coming to court, and a peaceful and prosperous age.
In July, after a year and a half of New Deal reforms in the seven southern provinces, they were finally completely completed. It is expected that commercial and local taxes, as well as customs duties, will reach as high as 10,000 taels of silver. This is an extremely terrifying figure, especially in this year.
ancient dynasty.
Even in the Song Dynasty, the richest Han dynasty, the annual tax revenue had never reached this level. What's more, this was only the tax revenue of the seven provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The four provinces of North China, southwest and northwest were not included. If we wait for these regions
After recovery, tax revenue is expected to be doubled again.
As the maritime ban was completely lifted, Spain and Portugal successively established embassies in Nanjing, and ocean-going ships from the two countries also came to Jiangnan for the first time.
Afterwards, a steady stream of merchant ships docked at the treaty ports in Ningbo, Hangzhou, and the Yangtze River Estuary.
In just a few months, merchants throughout the south of the Yangtze River became a sensation. As if smelling blood, they rushed to these treaty ports, opened shops, and set up cargo stations.
Shiploads of silk, tea, porcelain and even cotton, as well as rice paper, embroidery and other large items were purchased by merchants from both countries and shipped to Europe.
Similarly, merchants from the two countries not only brought shiploads of silver, but also spices, rubber and other things that were not available in the Ming Dynasty.
Things are rare and valuable. Once these things are transported to the dock, they will be bought by those far-sighted businessmen as soon as possible and shipped to various places in the south of the Yangtze River for sale.
In the past, trade between the two sides was limited by the inability to conduct direct transactions. Maritime merchants in the south of the Yangtze River almost only chose to send silk and porcelain, two popular items, to Manila for trade. They rarely purchased European items and always shipped silver back directly.
Nowadays, Spanish and Portuguese merchants come directly to the ports of the Ming Dynasty. Although silk porcelain is still the first choice, when they see other things they are interested in, they will also purchase some and ship them back to Europe for trial sale. They also begin to promote European specialties.
This greatly increased the types of trade products between the two sides, and caused the tariffs charged by those treaty ports to rise again and again. It can be said that this kind of direct trade has greatly stimulated the economy of the entire Jiangnan.
This situation is driving the Dutch crazy, because the biggest impact is on the local maritime merchants in Jiangnan. In just a few months, the number of merchant ships going to Manila and Jakarta has been greatly reduced. As for the Han people going to Dongfan Island to trade,
Merchant ships even disappeared.
It can be said that the Netherlands is about to completely cut off its trade with the Ming Dynasty. In order to prevent the Dutch from jumping over the wall, Spain and Portugal have united to prevent the Dutch from robbing at sea.
They even warned the Dutch that if they dared to touch the merchant ships of the two countries, it would be directly an act of war, and the two countries would inevitably unite with other European countries to attack the Dutch mainland.
The two countries have already monopolized the trade rights with the Ming Dynasty. It is easy to win over the two allies to attack the Netherlands on land, so the Dutch do not dare to touch the merchant ships of the two countries at all.
After several fruitless negotiations with the Ming Dynasty, he actively searched for allies and dispatched warships from all over the world to the East, hoping to get the Ming Dynasty to agree to establish diplomatic relations and trade with the Netherlands.
Nowadays, apart from the three countries in Europe, only the British have a decent navy and are actively developing maritime power. Today, their tentacles have extended to the Indian Ocean.
As a rising star, England has long been covetous of the three countries' overseas colonization and eastern trade. However, it started late and has been ostracized by the three countries, so it is in a very difficult situation. Now that a senior member of the Netherlands is willing to take them along, the two sides almost hit it off.
Precisely because the Dutch were dispatching more and more warships to Dongfan Island, Zheng Sen did not dare to attack rashly and had to choose to continue to accumulate strength and build more warship artillery.
There is no other way. The Zheng family's naval fleet is small. If they want to defeat the Dutch fleet, they must overwhelm the opponent with numbers. In this way, the casualties will be very heavy. Neither His Majesty nor the Queen Mother will allow him to use the navy.
The lives of the soldiers were paid for.
This is indeed the case. Both Zhang Yan and Zhu Cixi's attitude is that they can only win, not lose. They would rather take it slow and accumulate enough strength before fighting, rather than rush and act recklessly.
Because the Ming Dynasty can afford to drag and wait, the scale of the Longjiang Shipyard has been expanded again. After learning from Spanish and Dutch warships, the Ming Dynasty's own large-scale sea-going ships have finally begun to take shape. Once they are formed and launched, the Ming Dynasty will
You can create as much strength as you want.
Within a year or two, a large-scale maritime fleet will be built. Not to mention the more than 200 broken ships of the Netherlands, even if Spain and Portugal are included, the Ming Dynasty will not take it seriously.
At this time, in Nanjing City, inside the imperial palace, Zhang Yan was discussing the construction of a new shipyard with a group of ministers.
When Zhu Cihong left, he clearly told Zhang Yan that as long as the Longjiang Shipyard built a large sea-going ship, it would build a huge shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture.
The Longjiang Shipyard is a royal industry, so the Songjiang Shipyard will be placed under the Ministry of Industry, and all required expenses will be funded by the imperial court.
Although the first model large-scale ship in Longjiang Shipyard has not been completely completed, and sea trials will be conducted after completion, Zhang Yan does not want to wait any longer, because now she also realizes the importance of large-scale ships and the navy.
sex.
"I would like to inform the Queen Mother that the construction of a new shipyard takes a long time. It will take at least two or three years to wait for sea-going ships to be launched. I suggest that you can first purchase some merchant ships with those maritime merchants, and then let the Longjiang Shipyard refit them. This will be more convenient.
Being able to quickly expand the East China Sea Fleet can at least ensure the security of the Jiangnan waters."
Zuo Liangyu said slowly that he made a special trip to Ningbo a while ago. The merchant ships of the Xiyi people were indeed huge and had cannons on them. They were not able to compete with the small ships of the East China Sea Fleet. Once the two countries had evil intentions,
, the consequences were really unimaginable, so he had to deploy most of the Eighth Army's troops to the coast.
This made Zuo Liangyu very unhappy. The Eighth Army was used to intimidate the entire south, but now if there is a rebellion in any province or chieftain, he can dispatch up to 10,000 field troops to join the battle.
As for going south to expand the territory, it was even more powerless, but he had to be prepared. If a county town was captured by the Western Yi people in the coastal area, His Majesty would definitely be furious according to his character.
When the time comes, if His Majesty does not take action against him, the highest military commander in Jiangnan, is it possible that the Queen Mother will be held accountable?
So one can imagine the depression in my heart.
In fact, the ministers here are not fools, and they all understand Zuo Liangyu's meaning and concerns.
If the East China Sea Fleet is too weak, allowing ships from Spain and Portugal to directly enter the port for trade would indeed be a huge hidden danger.
Maybe one day they will suddenly attack the city of Nanjing, or directly defeat Hangzhou and Ningbo. Their navy is still training in the Yangtze River. As for the Zheng family navy in Fujian, it will be a big deal if they can ensure the safety of Fujian and Guangdong, and Dengzhou
The navy has no hope at all.
Now that the imperial court has a lot of money, and many maritime merchants are selling merchant ships, they can indeed buy them to save themselves.
So almost everyone's eyes turned to Zhang Yan. After all, buying those old merchant ships was a wasteful act. No one would dare to do it unless the Queen Mother nodded.