After the first lunar month of the twenty-ninth year of Wanli (1601), Yin Feng's first ship started construction in Fuzhou, with a designed load capacity of 700 tons. At the same time, the Zeng family's ship also started construction; they followed Yin Feng's suggestion and also
They started building ships; however, they built traditional Fuzhou-type merchant ships with a load capacity of about 300 tons. The Zeng family's ship had a tenth share of Yin Feng, while Yin Feng's ship was jointly built with Bernardo, and Yin Feng owned
The majority of the shares is 70%; the remaining 30% belongs to Bernardo, and the owner of the ship will be Yin Feng. He plans to apply for a Portuguese merchant shipping route license in Macau through the New Christian's network, which will make it easier to travel between Macau and Manila and other places in Southeast Asia.
, without being subject to the control of the Ming Dynasty officials.
This year was also a busy one. When the south wind blew, Yin Feng and Bernardo purchased various goods in Macau. Their own ship had not yet been built, so they had to set sail on the merchant ship Goa.
Yin Feng and his party rode the sea breeze to Dongfan, Taiwan, and received the raw silk and silk fabrics purchased by the Zeng family firm in the south of the Yangtze River. Then they set off for Japan. Everything went smoothly because they went with the Portuguese-Sino-Japanese trade fleet on the way.
, there were 20 ships, arranged in two columns, and not even the shadow of the Japanese pirates could be seen along the way.
Li Dan still runs his Manila route. His business in Manila is going smoothly and he doesn't want to go to Japan for the time being.
In the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the Goa returned from Hirado, Japan, together with the Sino-Japanese trade fleet in Macau. The ship was fully loaded with Japanese silver. Due to the shortage of raw silk in the previous year, the Japanese were willing to buy all silk products at five times the price this year.
.This made Bernardo, the Zeng family, and Yin Feng all reach the point where their hands cramped from counting money.
As soon as the Goa and the Sino-Japanese trade fleet arrived off the coast of Macau, they saw few ships in the port and Portuguese warships cruising around. The Portuguese municipal guards and armed black slaves hired by the customs came and went along the coast, making the port heavily guarded.
It turns out that the Dutch fleet has arrived.
On September 27, 1601, the second day of September in the twenty-ninth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch admiral Jacques van Nack led the battleships "Amsterdam" and "Gouda" and a small two-masted boat to arrive.
Arriving at the port of Macau, the Dutch sent two groups of scouts ashore in small boats and had a fierce conflict with the Macau Municipal Guard. As a result, none of them could return to the sea. A total of 20 Dutch sailors were all captured. During this period, the Dutch navy went ashore.
General Huan negotiated with Li Feng, the tax envoy of Guangdong, but because he was not a tributary country as stated in the "Emperor Ming Ancestor's Instructions" and "Da Ming Huidian", the Ming Dynasty officials refused to trade with him.
On October 9, the Dutch left the Chinese coast in disappointment. However, the Portuguese in Macau did not know whether the Dutch had really left China, so they remained on high alert.
The commander of the Macau Sino-Japanese Trade Fleet immediately issued a war preparation order, and all ships were mobilized. The position of the commander of the Macau Sino-Japanese Trade Fleet is very popular. Anyone who wants to get this position in Portugal has to spend hundreds of thousands of gold coins, which is clearly marked.
.There are still many people vying for this position, because after every Sino-Japanese trade trip, the commander's personal income is often several times the price of the position.
Not only was the income astonishing, the commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet was also the supreme chief executive of Macau, overseeing all things related to the Portuguese in Macau. In the past, due to climate reasons, several Sino-Japanese trade fleets gathered in Macau in different years, and several commanders
The fight for the jurisdiction of Macau almost broke their heads. This situation lasted until 1595, when the King of Spain allowed the Portuguese settlement of Oyster Mirror to enjoy autonomy. Of course, in an emergency, the commanders of the Sino-Japanese trade fleets still had to participate in Macau.
defensive mission.
Bernardo's uncle, Antonio Dias de Cáceres, was once a city councilor in the Macau Council. Among the members of the Cáceres family in Macau, only Bernardo is the closest to Antonio Cáceres.
Therefore, according to regulations, the sons of retired elders and city councilors can serve as the city's sheriff, and Bernardo became the sheriff. There are a total of 24 people on the annual list of sheriffs, and 2 of them are on duty every month.
.
The whole city of Macau resounds with church bells, which only happens when major events occur. Whenever a major event occurs, the Macau Council can summon former city councilors, bishops, priests and citizens to come together for a meeting to discuss. This kind of
The meeting is called a city-wide meeting. Now Macau is convening a city-wide meeting. Bernardo and others rushed to the venue as soon as they got off the boat. Yin Feng is not Portuguese, so he can only go back to Bernardo's house to wait for news.
Bernardo's home, like other Portuguese people in Macau at that time, was a four-story Spanish-style building with a hanging balcony and a garden. There were more than 10 black slaves living on the ground floor, and members of the Cáceres family were all
Living upstairs. Yin Feng was walking in the garden boredly, and it took him a long time to see Bernardo returning in a hurry, with a very ugly look on his face.
"What's going on?" Yin Feng asked hurriedly.
"They want all Dutch prisoners of war to be executed."
"Why?"
Bernardo sighed thoughtfully and said, "Because they are pagans."
The Dutch are Protestant and the Portuguese are Roman Catholic.
Yin Feng was a little surprised, thinking that in the Middle Ages Europe had killed countless "pagans" in the name of religion, he couldn't help but sneered: "Actually, this is to warn the Dutch: They are not allowed to interfere in China's foreign trade? Why, still
Are you going to involve the Inquisition?”
Bernardo looked at Yin Feng in surprise: "No, the execution will be tomorrow. I am also a Catholic, you don't understand us."
He paused, sighed and said: "Yin, I know you are a person with a sense of justice like a Christian. However, please don't mention the name of the Inquisition in the future. This term is not allowed to be mentioned in my family, especially
It was in front of my uncle."
The Inquisition was the mortal enemy of the new Christians. At that time, in Goa, Peru, and Mexico, there were incidents of the Inquisition persecuting new Christians or Jews everywhere.
It was the first time that Yin Feng saw Bernardo's doubts about his identity. The two of them had talked about the current situation in Europe before. Whenever Yin Feng brought up the topic of Jews, Bernardo would talk about him. This is also
It is easy to understand that at that time, European Jews were developing a trend of "integration" and "assimilation", aiming to integrate into the local ethnic groups in European countries and no longer emphasize the religious and national characteristics of the Jews. However, by the 17th century,
Anti-Semitic trends continued to arise one after another across Europe, and finally the rise of Zionist ideas changed the history of the Jews.
The next day, 17 of the 20 Dutch people were sentenced to death - hanging. The three surviving people urgently announced their conversion to Catholicism before they died. In this way, they only survived, and the Macau Council decided to put them to death.
Send it to the Portuguese Governor of Java Province in Malacca for separate processing.
On this day, Li Dan's two ships also came to Macau from Manila for trading. He told Yin Feng that before coming to Macau, the Dutch attacked Manila and were repelled by the Spanish due to lack of troops. This is why his ships were so
The reason for his late return to China. Lu Shitou's ship was also repaired and equipped with cloth sails with bamboo sails. This was Yin Feng's suggestion. Yin Feng borrowed a ship from him to go to Yazhou to find new materials for his ship.
sailor.
The northwest wind has blown to the southeast coast. Yin Feng stood quietly on the bow of the ship, with the Dadagang Port in Yazhou in front of him. Zeng Qi was about to beg for bones from the court - asking to become an official and return to his hometown. As the Zeng family was about to own
With their own ships, their operation center will be transferred back to Quanzhou. Yin Feng will also leave Yazhou and may never come back.
This was the first land he set foot on after coming to this era, and it was also the place where he started to make a fortune.
In fact, he has lived in Yazhou City for less than half a year in the past two years, but he has always regarded it as "home" in his heart. When working with those pirates and merchants, he still missed the days spent with the people.
of.
He insisted on going back to Yazhou to recruit sailors this time because he wanted to recruit all the gangsters in Dadan Port. Subconsciously, these gangsters were the people he was most willing to trust, and his first group of subordinates must also be
One that I can completely trust.
Uncle Mai was quickly convinced. He summoned all the men in the village at the beach and told Yin Feng what he wanted.
In the past few years, the lives of the Dan people have become slightly better. Thanks to Yin Feng's help, the Zeng family business no longer sets price controls when purchasing pearls. However, the habit of the Dan people is to use whatever money they have, except for the ones that have landed.
In the settled Dantou Maibo family, all the money they distributed to buy pearls was basically spent in a few months. Then, they once again lived a precarious life, with no food to eat.
Yin Feng guaranteed that each crew member would receive 40 taels of labor and food money every year, receive a red envelope at the end of the year, and be free to resign after five years. He also promised that if a sailor died in an accident at sea, he would give his family a pension of 200 taels.
.
The sailors and sailors below looked at each other and were speechless. For no other reason than they were frightened by these amounts. At 40 taels of silver per year, this income was more than three times the annual salary of the state government officials.
.Not to mention the 200 taels of pension. These poor people may not have earned 200 taels of silver in their lifetimes.
At that moment, more than 100 young Dan people signed up. They all knew Yin Feng and knew that he stood up for them, helped them make money, and was a benefactor of Uncle Mai's family. Therefore, the Dan people also trusted Yin Feng.
In just three days, Yin Feng recruited all 100 sailors needed for his merchant ship. They were all young men selected from the applicants. All of them were proficient in water and had experience in going to sea. These people include
Mai Dahai, Mr. Mai was so cruel that he let Dahai follow Yin Feng into the world. In fact, nearly half of the people in Danmin Fishing Village in Danggang were related to the Mai family, and at least one-third of these sailors were relatives of the Mai family.
More than one.
In addition, news of Yin Feng's recruitment of sailors spread, but an uninvited guest came that night.
When Yin Feng came back from the prefecture, he gave the "Journey to the East and West" he wrote to Master Zheng, and asked him to title and write a preface to the book. The governor happily titled it and wrote a preface, and also asked Yin Feng to send it to him after the book was published.
One of his.
It was already very late when Yin Feng returned to his yard. Before he could open the door, he noticed a dark figure that seemed to be squatting at his door.
"Who!" Yin Feng was startled and took a few steps back.
The squatting figure stood up and slowly turned around. Under the moonlight, a pale face smiled bitterly at Yin Feng.
Yin Feng took a few steps back and said angrily: "Why is it you? Are you still finished?"