Gao pragmatically came to them to discuss sea trade, and the move this time would be huge.
As early as Gao Qi defeated the Min Sea pirate alliance, Gao Pragmatic had been considering one thing, which was to separate Jinghua's maritime power from the private ports, and then integrate it slightly to form the North and South Ocean Fleets, that is, the Beiyang Fleet and the
Nanyang Fleet.
Although these two terms are slightly tragic for Gao Pragmatism, they do not have a sense of challenge.
Different from the Northern and Southern Fleets in the late Qing Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Fleets in the highly pragmatic planning were mainly tilted towards the Nanyang Fleet.
This is a matter determined by different eras and different weights of interests. After all, in his plan, the area responsible for the Beiyang Fleet was relatively small, covering the northern coast of the Ming Dynasty and the waters of Korea and Japan, and the furthest south only reached Nanzhili.
Of course, including South Zhili, it also includes Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture. In other words, the Shanghai area of the later magic city is still within the area responsible for Beiyang. But it only stops here, starting from Zhejiang and going all the way south.
Until now, the Annan region has been the responsibility of the Nanyang Fleet. More importantly, the Nanyang region that will definitely be involved in the future will also be the responsibility of the Nanyang Fleet.
But even so, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet will not be too weak. At least Gao Pragmatic will definitely adhere to a "two-power standard": that is, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet must be guaranteed to exceed the current combined maritime power of North Korea and Japan.
This standard is neither too high nor too low.
Whether it is high or not is because the current official maritime power of both North Korea and Japan is relatively limited. Needless to say, North Korea has been in peace for two hundred years. The army has not practiced war and will be arrogant and lazy. The maritime power can be expressed in a simple way -
—Make soy sauce.
Even though Yi Sun-shin was so praised by later Koreans that he even became the so-called "Asia's No. 1 general", everyone knows the habits of the great powers in the universe. Before it was the Chinese's turn to speak, he was ridiculed by the Japanese -
—Without the help of the Ming army, Yi Sun-shin would not even have a chance to appear.
And even according to South Korea, Yi Sun-shin led only "14 battleships and 100 civilian ships converted into combat ships" in the Noryang Sea Battle. The so-called "turtle ships" were invincible, and later generations have long discussed its absurdity.
To put it simply, the biggest problems with this ship are the following: its low hull is not suitable for long-distance voyages, its firepower is weak, and its cost is high.
As for the defense that it is famous for... With North Korea's metallurgical level, it is difficult to say how big a layer of iron can be. It is just that the Japanese army at that time was heavy on muskets and not on heavy artillery. There was not enough
Just maritime firepower.
Moreover, whether the hull was covered with iron sheets or whether some iron nails and awls were added, the historical circles of China, Japan and Korea have not been able to give a credible explanation to later generations.
There were no heroes at that time, so Zhuzi became famous.
Even "There Are No Heroes" has problems. The artillery of the Ming army's warships at that time was probably enough to break through the turtle ship's defense. It's just that North Korea was lucky and Ming's father was a friendly force.
In addition, Yi Sun-shin started his career late. He only passed the martial arts examination five years ago. Although he is now thirty-seven years old, he still doesn’t know where he is playing.
After such a horizontal comparison, Gao Pragmatic feels that North Korea's current naval strength may not be able to withstand a single attack by the Jinghua Transport Fleet in Tianjin Port.
As for Japan, there is no need to worry too much this year. Although the Japanese pirates seem to be very powerful in their rampage, they have been causing trouble along the coast of the Ming Dynasty for almost two hundred years.
The proportion is about one-tenth, and the rest are basically Ming Dynasty's own pirates, just under the guise of Japanese pirates.
After Zhang Jing, Hu Zongxian, and Tan Lun fought against the Japanese, not only did a group of famous generals such as Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and Liu Xian emerge, they basically wiped out most of the established Japanese pirate (pirate) groups. With the advancement of Gao Gong's policy of opening up the sea,
, there are fewer and fewer Japanese pirates now.
The Minhai Pirate Alliance suffered a massive defeat some time ago, further accelerating the decline of the Japanese pirate (pirate) group.
Moreover, even when the Japanese pirates were at their most ferocious, the Japanese pirates' own ships had no advantages to speak of. The truly reliable pirate ships used as the main force were almost all provided by the pirates of the Ming Dynasty...
On the contrary, Japan's official naval power is not very good. You only need to look at the deeds of "Jinghai King" Wang Zhi in Japan. Japan is very aware of current affairs and will make friends if it cannot win. What's more, Wang Zhi can also give
They acquired advanced matchlock guns, so Wang Zhi even called himself King Hui in Japan.
But the premise of this situation is very clear: Japan's maritime power has no way to defeat Wang Zhi.
Therefore, in a horizontal comparison, Japan's current official maritime power is not worth mentioning.
However, the reason why Gao is pragmatic and believes that "it is not too low to say it is low" is because this year is already the ninth year of Wanli, which is 1581 AD. Next year, in the tenth year of Wanli and the tenth year of Japan's Tensho, the Honnoji Temple incident will occur.
After the Incident at Honnoji Temple, Monkey will basically unify Japan in a few years, and by then Japan's maritime power will increase rapidly driven by his ambitions.
Therefore, whether the Beiyang Fleet's two-power standard can succeed depends on whether it can suppress Japan in the next few years, and it has little to do with North Korea.
Although Gao Jingshi is rich, he does not intend to rely on Jinghua Group alone to conquer the world. Whether the Beiyang Fleet can suppress Japan's ambitions after reunification, he does not intend to rely entirely on Jinghua Group to support it - Jinghua is still a business group after all.
, is to pursue profits. If pure warships are manufactured in large quantities, even if the Ming court does not pay attention, he himself feels that it is a serious waste. Therefore, warships are only the core, and the peripheral strength must rely on armed merchant ships. This is also popular in this era.
.
But Jinghua also has a "political mission", which is to lead a group of Ming Dynasty executives who originally only knew how to seize land to turn their attention to the sea and overseas, instead of focusing on grabbing the land of poor guardsmen and poor people. At this time, the requirements are high.
Pragmatically, we cannot eat alone, we must mobilize their enthusiasm.
In this era, it is too extravagant to talk about patriotism, so we have to talk about interests. Only interests can make these people divert their attention.
However, before talking about benefits, we still need to let these people know what ocean trade is all about and what capital is needed to make money on the ocean.
This is what Gao Qi and the shipbuilding masters are doing today.
How profitable is maritime trade?
Vasco da Gama has a record, he did it 70 times. You read it right, and I wrote it right, it was 70 times the profit.
However, Jinghua’s current profits are not that high, because Jinghua can’t even go to India, let alone Arabia or even Europe.
The farthest trading place that Jinghua can reach is Malacca, and it trades with the Portuguese. It can also be traded in Macau, but it can earn more by shipping it to Malacca. If it trades directly in Macau, the profit will only be two to three times, but once
When sent to Malacca, the profit margin can be increased to more than 7 times at the lowest level and nearly 15 times at the highest level.
Why? Because the Portuguese in Macau can trade with Guangdong merchants nearby, but there are far fewer Guangdong merchants who can go to Malacca to do business. In addition, due to the size advantage of Jinghua, it can to some extent
Monopolize goods, such as the simplest item: Jun porcelain from Henan (nowadays, Zhu Yijun is taboo, and is called Yu porcelain). Only Gao Pragmatic has genuine products of this now, and the profits are astonishingly high: all are more than 30 times.
There is also Lake Silk Suzhou Embroidery. Due to Wei Guogong (Xu Bangrui, whom Gao Pragmatic praised), Linhuai Marquis and other nobles have become Jinghua's die-hard collaborators, these cutting-edge silk products near South Zhili are now basically monopolized by Jinghua.
, it is not easy for maritime merchants in Suzhou and Hangzhou to get goods.
In this way, it would be difficult for the Portuguese to get goods at low prices. Since Jinghua has ocean-going capabilities, these goods can be sent to Malacca, and the profits will naturally increase.
Only Cantonese embroidery is not easy to control. The main problem is that the Portuguese stronghold in Macau is too close.
It's a pity that Gao Pragmatic still has too many things to do, and it's not time to fall out with Spain and Portugal (the common monarchy federation), otherwise he will definitely find ways to get rid of this stronghold and take back Macau.
Of course, this is only a matter of time. Portugal currently has other uses.
I heard that the profits from ocean trade could easily increase several times, or even more than ten times in some cases. All the nobles were not calm, and could even be described as restless.
Gao Pragmatic watched quietly in the dark with a smile on his face. This group of people looked as if they had missed the red envelope sent by the boss in the WeChat group, as if they had accidentally lost 200 million.
However, some relatively stable nobles began to ask questions, such as the cost of the ship, the daily maintenance fees, how long it would take to change the ship, the employment costs and daily expenses of the people on the ship, how much damage might be caused in the event of encountering pirates, etc.
, involving all aspects.
Although Gao Qi did not switch to sea trade for a long time, he was dedicated to making great achievements and worked extremely hard. It is not difficult to explain these problems.
Although they did not know how to fight but were good at settling accounts, the nobles discussed in private and quickly came to several conclusions:
First of all, sea trade cannot be fought alone, otherwise it is easy to be hacked. Only by forming a joint force can it be strong and safe.
Secondly, you must have an experienced driver to lead the team, otherwise you will lose a lot of profits if you just mess around. How can you be as happy as making ten times as much as making twice as much?
Thirdly, only with the strength of a large number of people can we create the "monopoly effect" that Jinghua calls. Although it seems that they can only follow Jinghua's Beiyang Fleet at present, that is, only North Korea and Japan can do it. If they go to Nanyang, Nanjing
I'm afraid Xungui won't agree. But it doesn't matter. Let's test the waters with North Korea and Japan first. If Nanyang is more profitable, then go talk to those bastards in Nanjing - Yanjing's Jingnan Xungui is comparable to Nanjing's Founding Xungui
The more expensive, the more popular!
So the final conclusion is obvious: you must ride on the giant ship of Jinghua to make money, make big money!
To be more precise, it is to join the "Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance" proposed by Gao Qi just now with Gao Qi's pragmatic intention!
