Hirado prospered thanks to the merchants of the Ming Dynasty. It was also the pirate merchant Wang Zhi of the Ming Dynasty who led the way, and the Portuguese came to Hirado. Moreover, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty were different from the Portuguese. They only cared about business and did not force the Japanese to accept any religion.
.But the Portuguese always asked the local people and daimyo to accept Catholicism.
Since the arrival of the Portuguese, Nanman ships have continued to come to Hirado. Although Hirado is just an ordinary island, its prosperity can be called the "Western Capital". This trade relationship with Portugal lasted for fifteen years, but Portugal
People's repeated spread of religion in the local area met with fierce opposition from the Matsuura family.
At that time, the daimyos of Kyushu were following the trend of Catholicism one after another, and the Matsuura family's stubborn resistance was extraordinary. They respected Buddhism even more.
The Portuguese side was deeply unhappy with Hirado's response, and the relationship between the two parties became indifferent. At this time, another incident occurred. Hirado residents and Portuguese crewmen fought in front of the palace. The Portuguese side was killed and injured more than a dozen people. After that, the Portuguese ship gave up.
Hirado.
During this period, a maritime conflict even broke out between the Matsuura family and Portugal. In the eighth year of Eiroku (1565), when a Portuguese ship from Macau passed through the Hirado Strait to go to Omura, the port of the Catholic daimyo, the Matsuura family dispatched five ships.
Ten small boats attacked the Portuguese ship. The Portuguese ship used all its firearms to fight and was able to escape from danger.
The Portuguese were replaced by the Dutch and the British. The Matsuura family knew that the two countries were not Catholic and were not interested in spreading religion, so they had great goodwill towards them. In this way, Western European ships continued to arrive in Hirado frequently. However,
The daimyo of the Matsuura family fully realized that the Fujian and Zhejiang ships could permanently bring benefits to the island, so they granted extra-legal freedom and privileges to the Ming merchants in Hirado in their residence and activities.
"Speaking of which, Ichiguan started his career in Hirado."
Hamada Shinzo said in a drunken mood. He began to talk about the past events of pirate merchants in Hirado.
Since trade was inseparable from Akito pirates, the Matsuura family allowed the subsequent pirate leaders to live in Hirado and continue to trade with them.
The first generation of self-proclaimed "Japanese snails" - Yan Siqi, the leader of the Japanese pirates. He lived under Hirado Castle at that time. It is said that he had a tailor shop at that time and appeared as a tailor. The business was very good. Xinzang said: Yan Siqi was outstanding and had
He was knowledgeable and good at martial arts. He was an outstanding figure among the Chinese in Hirado. However, no Japanese at that time knew his true identity. Until one day, two pirate merchants, Yan Zhenquan and Chen De, came from Fujian.
, I had secret conversations with Tailor Yan for several days. Soon after, Yan Siqi disappeared.
At that time, the pirates of the Ming Dynasty were divided into eighteen groups, and all the leaders supported Yan Siqi as the big leader. For a while, he became famous at sea, but soon Yan Siqi fell ill due to alcoholism. He died in Taiwan.
"The second person who calls himself 'Japanese snail' is Ikwan." Hamada Shinzo said, "It is said that Zheng Zhilong is Yan Siqi's son-in-law, and some people say he is not. Regardless of whether it is true or not, Ikwan did marry his wife Tian Chuan here.
surname. He often calls himself Tagawa here."
The new generation of bosses no longer disclose their residences like Wang Zhi's generation. They even purchase land and houses directly from the samurai family. Zheng Zhilong deliberately chose Kawauchiura, not far from Hirado, as his residence. It is more spectacular than the samurai clan house.
The mansion was built in a mountain col deep in the bay. However, the mansion is now empty: the Tagawa family and the eldest son Fumatsu had gone to the Ming Dynasty a few years ago, leaving only the second son Jirozaemon in Japan.
Taira Akiumori knew that Jirozaemon had been living in Japan and had been passed down as the Japanese branch of Zheng Zhilong. But what he was interested in was not this, but how powerful Zheng Zhilong was in Hirado. He had a lot of power here.
What agent.
"What kind of agent does an official need here?" Hamada Shinzo laughed, but there was strong dissatisfaction in the laughter. "Master Hizen Mamoru is his agent."
Most of Zheng Zhilong's ships are bound for Nagasaki, but there are also a few ships that come to Hirado every year. Most of the goods on the ships that come to Hirado are directly purchased by the feudal lord here. This kind of transaction is of great benefit to both parties.
, the feudal lord made huge profits from the changed trade, and the Zheng family also obtained all the conveniences in Hirado, including hiring Japanese sailors and ronin from here, replenishing firearms and gunpowder, etc.
Ping Qiucheng thought to himself, it turns out that Hirado is Zheng Zhilong's base in Japan! However, he was still a little confused: "I heard that the first official is a Kirishitan believer. Doesn't the feudal lord hate the Kirishitan believers the most?"
"I don't know if Yiguan is a Chezhitan believer, but he also worships Mazu, who is most admired by merchants of the Ming Dynasty, and worships gods and Buddhas, so I'm afraid that's not the case. Aren't Chezhitan believers not allowed to worship other gods?"
Taira Akiumori nodded. Obviously, the Matsuura family in Hirado can be treated as "enemies".
From the beginning, Hamada Shinzo showed that young people in this time and space often show a keen interest in time-travelling people. Whether it is the glass bottle of rum they brought or Taira Akimori's pistol. Taira Akimori and Hamada
While Han Xuan was observing this young man, he was thinking about how he could use this person to give Zheng Zhilong a severe blow.
The day after the banquet, Taira Akiumori, led by Hamada Shinzo, walked around Hirado, the so-called "Western Capital". Because summer had just entered, there were still very few ships coming from Fujian. The dock was very quiet.
Hirado itself is a very barren island. If it were not supported by maritime trade, this place, like Goto, would be a typical backwater. If it were not a backwater, the local people would not drive boats across the sea to become Japanese pirates.
Everything is ready, all it takes is the east wind. Ping Qiusheng was looking at the Hirado Strait at the Portuguese Market Pier, and Zhao Yingong wondered how the preparations were going?
On the other side of the sea, Zhao Yingong was planning the first batch of ships bound for Japan after receiving the telegram.
The Planning Institute did not allocate a ship to him - the Planning Institute also had no ships to give him. After experiencing the long and frequent shipping of the engine operation, now except for a few ships maintaining regular routes and preparing for combat missions, all ships have entered the port.
Went for maintenance. Wu De told him very clearly that there were no ships for his use.
"You have to allocate resources based on the local area." The planning institute said in the call back to him, "make full use of Ming's resources."
In this way, Zhao Yingong must prepare his own ships and organize his own supply of goods. The latter is easier to say. After all, Jiangnan is a prosperous and prosperous place, and all kinds of goods can be purchased, but it is a bit difficult to prepare ships that can go to Japan.
.
In the Song Dynasty, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the main ports to Japan. However, in the Ming Dynasty, due to the strict maritime ban, not only the tonnage of ships shrank, but also the navigation technology deteriorated. Originally, Chinese merchant ships in the Tang and Song Dynasties could directly cross the East China Sea and go directly to Hizen Matsuura County.
By the Ming Dynasty, navigation had to rely on maritime landmarks such as island chains to navigate. Zhao Yingong felt that it was easy to find a ship that could go to Japan—a ship with a load capacity of one to two hundred tons these days could sail around the world, let alone cross the East China Sea.
short-distance shipping, but sailors capable of sailing ships across the East China Sea were nowhere to be found.
However, Zhao Yingong believes that as long as they are given suitable navigation personnel, it will not be difficult to cross the East China Sea to trade with Japan. The Chinese sailors are courageous - they are just lagging behind in technology. As long as someone gives them some guidance, they can do something for them.
If you set an example and have enough benefits, they will do it without hesitation.
For this reason, Zhao Yingong has rushed to Shanghai specially. He wants to do several important things in Shanghai.
The first thing is to contact the Shachuan Gang. Shanghai itself has a Shachuan Gang run by big businessmen, which specializes in the so-called Beiyang trade. That is, it goes north to Shandong and all the way to Tianjin, transporting various "Southern goods", and then returns to Shanghai from Tianjin.
, transporting "Northern goods". This kind of business was very big in the Qing Dynasty. The annual sales could reach several million taels. In the Ming Dynasty, it could not reach such a level, but the total volume was not small. This part of the transportation capacity
It is the most suitable object for him to peep at.
The second thing is to organize the sources of goods exported to Japan in Shanghai and set up a special agency to implement it. Trade with Japan is a very important and complicated matter, and he must set up a special agency to take charge of it.
At this moment, Zhao Yingong was sitting in a sedan chair. He was going to meet someone, an extremely outstanding figure in the Shachuan Gang.
This man's name is Shen Tingyang. Shen Tingyang is from Chongming County, Suzhou Prefecture. His fame is closely related to ships and navigation in the late Ming Dynasty. The only experiment of "transforming grain from land to sea" in the late Ming Dynasty was proposed and presided over by him: Ming Chongzhen Twelve
In the same year, Shen Tingyang presented the "Book of Shipping" to the emperor, expressing his willingness to build sand ships and resume maritime transportation. After the emperor approved the report, Shen Tingyang raised funds and built sand ships. Soon, Shen used sand ships to transport Huai rice and headed north along the sea route that Zhu Qing traveled.
It took ten days to reach Dagu and Tianjin, and resumed the Beiyang route.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang wrote to the imperial court in the first year of Hongguang's reign, hoping that the one hundred water vessels he owned for shipping would be replenished with sailors and should be used as warships specifically for the Yangtze River Navy.
After the city of Nanjing was broken, he and his generals commanded thousands of naval forces, hundreds of ships, and arrived at the Zhoushan Islands. King Lu made him the Right Minister of the Ministry of War and the Left Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the governor of the Zhejiang Navy.
In the first year of Yongli, when Shen Tingyang led his fleet to set out from Zhoushan to prepare for a counterattack on Suzhou, he was suddenly defeated by a storm outside Chongming Island. Shen Tingyang's warship capsized and sank in Xu Liujing, and many of his soldiers drowned. Shen Tingyang Yang was captured and died unyieldingly.
This person is extremely outstanding both in terms of work ability and national integrity. Compared with a group of scholar-bureaucrats who died for the country in the late Ming Dynasty, his ability to do practical things is obviously very strong. (To be continued.)