Almost all the people on the island are fishermen, and all of them are good at sailing. Ming people living on the island even exaggeratedly said that the islanders are as light as arrows.
The people here, like the people on the Five Islands, are descendants of Japanese pirates who were once rampant. Less than a hundred years ago, their ancestors followed the ships of China's great pirate merchants to plunder the coast of the Ming Dynasty every year.
Serve as the vanguard of the charge.
In addition, they are also good at diving to fish for abalone, sea cucumbers, catching sharks, and making shark fins - these are all skills learned because of the needs of Chinese businessmen. Every year, a large number of figurines are transported from here to the Ming Dynasty and exchanged back to the Tang Dynasty ships.
Bring "treasures".
The island owner's daimyo, the Matsuura clan, is a daimyo that has been inherited since before the Warring States Period, and can be regarded as the oldest daimyo family in Japan.
The lord of the feudal lord here has the Miao character Matsushima. Like the Goto clan, the daimyo of the Fukue clan, the name is Miao after the place here.
It is said that the Matsuura family's original surname is Minamoto, and they are called Saga Genji. However, they have also called themselves Taira or Fujiwara before. This is a common phenomenon among daimyo.
It is said that the ancestors of the Matsuura clan were brave and powerful warriors from the Eastern Kingdom. The Yamato court moved them as garrison warriors to the coast of Chikushi to resist the barbarians. These barbarians, covered in pig skins and covered with lard, were the ancestors of the Jurchens.
Driving a simple raft made of logs, they followed the currents and burned, killed and plundered along the coast of the Japanese archipelago.
Entering the Heian period, this system became in name only, and the central government forgot about their existence. The garrison soldiers who were abandoned in the wilderness formed gangs and claimed weapons and land for themselves. By the time of the Kamakura period, they had formed a group called
Several samurai groups of the "Party" fought against each other and formed many independent "halls", which became the "Navy Army" that harassed the coast. The ancestors of the Matsuura family slowly grew up in this long and chaotic historical era.
Eventually he became the overlord of the upper and lower Matsuura areas.
During the Toyotomi Hideyoshi era, the Matsuura clan also participated in the attack on Korea. After the Battle of Sekigahara, because they were neutral, they were able to continue to exist with the family name of 63,200 koku. Compared with only 15,000 koku
The Fukue Domain of Ishi is much larger, which shows the importance of Hirado's overseas trade to the Matsuura family.
The terrain of Hirado Island is rugged, and most of the roads are slopes. There is only a small flat area called Miyomae with stone walls built up, rammed earth elevated, and paved with stone slabs. This is called the trading square of the "Portuguese Wharf Market".
Fujian boats with bamboo leaves as sails, Zhejiang boats with straw mats as sails, and red-haired Nanman boats with cotton sails also docked here.
The Zhou family's ship anchored here. After the ship docked, the sailors of the Zhou family began to busy unloading the cargo, while the elders directly took Zhou Xingru's name card and led them to a building from Ping Kefu.
In the evening, a banquet was held in the museum for a group of "Australian maritime merchants" who had come from afar. The person who received them was a young man. The young man had a hairstyle with a bun combed from the back to the top of his head. He looked very refreshing. Look.
He must not be more than thirty years old. This should be a business store, but the person who comes here looks a bit like a samurai. Thinking about it, it is not surprising. Kyushu was originally the home of Japanese pirate merchants, so-called various trades.
This is the case for most naval forces - the leader of the Goto family also started his career in this way. Most of these naval forces were not integrated into an organization until Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyushu expedition: they broke away from the level of "nationals" and "wild samurai"
, he can be regarded as an upright warrior.
Although the visitor is dressed as a samurai, he is very enthusiastic and has a shrewd look in his eyes, looking like a businessman. The rise of Hirado benefited from foreign maritime merchants. For the local samurai, foreign merchants were money trees, so much so that the Ming Dynasty
Merchant ships are called "treasures" in Hirado.
After the guests and hosts were seated, Ping Kefu introduced this young man as the "host" Hamada Shinzo. His father is the famous Hamada Yahei.
Hamada Yabei, an originally unknown Japanese, became a famous figure in the history of East Asian foreign relations because of his conflict with the Dutch East India Company, which led to the "Hamada Yabei Incident".
Although the outcome of this incident ended with the surrender of the Netherlands, looking at the entire incident, the greed of the Dutch, the arrogance of the Japanese, Zheng Zhilong's power and the law of the East Asian maritime jungle were fully exposed in this incident
show.
In the final analysis, the "Hamada Yahei Incident" has a vital relationship with Zheng Zhilong's monopoly position in coastal Fujian, and Hirado is where Zheng Zhilong started his career - it is not an exaggeration to say that it is his base camp in Japan.
If he can block his trade here, break his monopoly, and replace it with the monopoly of the Senate, the Zheng Zhilong Group will be seriously injured due to the loss of a large number of economic sources, and may even be defeated without a fight. This is why the Executive Committee must
Approved to start trade with Japan at this time.
In the summer, the Ming Dynasty merchant ships would not sail to Japan - the Tang ships to Japan would only sail in the winter. This gap period is enough for them to do a lot of things. If Zhao Yingong works harder, he will rewrite the new history of Sino-Japanese trade.
It's not impossible.
When Zheng Zhilong's Anhai Ship came to Japan again... Elder Ping couldn't help but feel complacent.
The banquet was quite sumptuous, at least better than Taira Akimori expected. He had read a few books and saw that the "royal food" offered to the emperor was also very shabby: just more dried fish from the sea. This is an island, so at most it was
There was more seafood - he had long been tired of eating this. Now what was served was roasted meat dipped in sauce, and the aroma was fragrant. He took a bite, and it looked like chicken.
"Is this Satsuma chicken?"
"Master Ping is knowledgeable." Hamada can understand Chinese. Although his Chinese has a strong accent of southern Zhili Mandarin, the meaning is understandable.
Now Ping Qiusheng praised the fatness of the chicken again. In fact, before coming to Japan, the cadres of the Ministry of Agriculture stationed in Jeju Island asked Ping Qiusheng to collect some Satsuma chickens and transport them back to Jeju Island. Satsuma chickens are fat and fat, grow well, and can
Adapting to the environment of Jeju Island will be of great help in solving the island's meat and oil supply in a short period of time. In the old time and space, Satsuma chicken was called one of Japan's three major native chickens. Although the Satsuma chicken in this time and space has not yet passed
The system has been improved, but after eating it like this, it really tastes good. If it is paired with Lingao's Tianchu series of seasonings, it will definitely taste better. I immediately wrote it down and prepared to tell Ping Kefu to prepare it later.
In addition to the chicken breast, we also serve some grilled fish and various shellfish, as well as salt and pepper made from squid. There are also rice, rice cakes, and of course the miso soup that the Japanese drink all year round and never get tired of drinking it every day.
.
The young owner was amazed by the rum in glass bottles brought by Taira Akimori. He drank two bottles in a row and became slightly tipsy. In Japan during the Tokugawa era, only wealthy businessmen had both financial resources and
Not bound by the etiquette of samurai and nobles, they can be more particular about eating. However, Japan's material conditions are always limited, and it is quite backward in eating, drinking and enjoying. Especially Japanese wine - despite the fact that Japanese sake was famous in the old time and space, even in
A system similar to enology has been formed internationally, but Japan is still quite backward in the winemaking industry at this time. The wines on the market are mainly grain fermented wines, and shochu is rare, let alone high-end wines such as "Guoshi Wushuang"
Distilled wine.
Finally, the servant served two more side dishes after the meal, one was plums and the other was persimmon yokan. Taira Akimori had done some research on traditional Japanese snacks. Let’s not talk about whether the umeboshi was Nankoume, but the persimmon yokan was truly delicious.
Rich specialties are not available in Kyushu, so the Hamada family's enjoyment is considered excellent.
Hamada apologized repeatedly, saying that his father was busy with affairs at the main hotel in Nagasaki. Although Mr. Zhou had informed all the Australian guests that they were coming, he was short of time and could not prepare. From the conversation, he learned that the Hamada family was actually a big family in Nagasaki.
Agents of businessman Noto Jiro. Their main business is the import of raw silk from Quanzhou - this business is the largest business in Sino-Japanese trade and is very profitable.
Talking about his father, one cannot help but talk about the "Hamada Yahei Incident". Hamada Shinzo couldn't help but feel proud - the East India Company's envoys have arrived in Japan, which is considered a complete number. One of the parties involved is a large number of people.
The governor-general will also be handed over to the shogunate. In return, the shogunate will allow orchid ships to re-enter Japanese ports.
No matter from which angle you look at it, this matter can be regarded as a great victory for the Japanese. But Hamada Shinzo did not show much joy because the root of the matter: Zheng Zhilong's monopoly has not yet been resolved.
Under Taira Akimori's persuasive guidance, Hamada Shinzo drank a few more drinks and couldn't help but bring up many things.
In recent years, the coast of Fujian has been controlled by the Zheng family. The Zheng family's fleet has almost monopolized the raw silk trade between the Ming Dynasty and Japan. If the Japanese want to buy raw silk in Quanzhou and transport it back to Japan, the Zheng family will never issue a flag.
, and it is basically difficult for a fleet without the Zheng family flag to safely transport goods back to Japan. This almost chokes the necks of Japanese maritime merchants who hold the red seal.
Either the Japanese merchants would honestly pay 2,100 taels of silver in exchange for the flag, or they would risk being intercepted by Zheng Zhilong and losing all their people, ships and cargo.
Hirado, in particular, has been an important gathering place for Chinese pirate traders since the Wang Zhi era. Zheng Zhilong and his former father-in-law Yan Siqi both had offices here, and they were very influential among the local Japanese and had many eyes and ears.
.
"I heard that his wife and son went to China."
"His father-in-law's Tagawa family is still in Hirado," Hamada said, already half-drunk with wine and already flushed. "There are many people working for him here. The feudal lord also thinks highly of him."
Since the Yan Siqi era, Chinese pirate merchants have enjoyed powers similar to extraterritoriality in Hirado - almost like the "foreign master" treatment of foreigners in the old time and space. (To be continued.)