His eyes fell on the work reports recently sent to various foreign stations. He recalled the recent report sent by Zhao Yingong on trying to open up a sea route from Shanghai to Tianjin. Zhao Yingong pointed out in the report that the coastal shipping industry in Ming Dynasty was technologically backward and inefficient. Based on the Senate's current navigation technology, even the use of Shanghai's local sand ships can transport large quantities of goods and speed up the two-way logistics trade between the north and the south. In particular, grain transportation was not only very profitable, but it could also further disrupt the socio-economic foundation of the Ming Dynasty.
But what interested him was not just this matter, but the Shanghai mentioned by Zhao Yingong.
As a trade port, Shanghai not only plays an important role in China's coastal trade, but is also an important foreign trade port. Si Kaide has always wondered why the port of Shanghai was not as important as Fujian in the Ming Dynasty. The main foreign trade ports in the Ming Dynasty, from the earliest Shuangyu and Yuegang to Anping and Xiamen in the late Ming Dynasty, were all on the coast of Fujian without exception.
From a trade perspective, Fujian is surrounded by mountains on three sides and has few plains. Apart from sugar and indigo, Fujian itself is not a production base for bulk trading commodities. Many commodities are transported thousands of miles from other provinces to Fujian for re-export. Clark porcelain of the Ming Dynasty was first fired in Jiangxi. Later, due to the difficult transportation from Jiangxi to Fujian, large losses and high freight, some people set up local kilns in Fujian for firing.
However, this situation was limited by China's maritime positioning and navigation technology that had begun to lag behind at that time. China's traditional navigation technology mainly relies on the "needle path" and uses a compass to coordinate navigation with maritime landmarks. Therefore, navigation is generally carried out along the island chain. At that time, the sea ships going to Japan all followed the route of sailing along the first island chain in the direction of Taiwan to Japan. Therefore, the shipping routes to Japan have been mainly based on the ports in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces since ancient times.
Since the Ming Dynasty, the method of astronomical positioning began to fall behind, and navigation increasingly relied on maritime landmark positioning. As a result, when sailing north and south along the coast of China, ships in the Yuan Dynasty could enter the black water ocean, but by the Ming Dynasty, they had regressed and could only sail among coastal islands. .
The biggest problem with this route is the detour. The route from Fujian Airlines to Japan mostly takes the summer route, taking the southeast monsoon, first to Taiwan, and then along the southeast monsoon along Ryukyu to Nagasaki, a total distance of 1,000 nautical miles. Starting from Shanghai, you can choose to ride the northwest monsoon in winter, and the direct voyage to Nagasaki is only 400 nautical miles. If you set sail from Shanghai, you can reach Nagasaki in ten days by sailing. Not only the distance is shortened by more than half, but also the common typhoons in summer are avoided.
No matter from any angle, Shanghai is a hundred times better port than Anping. Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, backed by two golden waterways, the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal. Shanghai is also the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with the richest products and the richest society. Whether it is porcelain from Jiangxi, raw silk from Zhejiang, or cotton from Songjiang, it can be transported to Shanghai via convenient and cheap inland waterways. Sugar and indigo from Guangdong and Fujian can also be transported along coastal routes.
If Zhao Yingong's Hangzhou Station can carry out trade with Japan on a large scale, not only will this piece of fat fall into the mouth of the Senate, but it will also fundamentally cut off the possibility of Zheng Zhilong, Li Zhilong and other Fujian large merchants from regrouping.
This plan has been proposed a long time ago, and Si Kaide has also been interested in it, but he feels that this project is too troublesome, requires a considerable investment of manpower and material resources, and is likely to intensify the conflict with the Zheng Group - it is completely okay On the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation, it is not too late to use Zheng Zhilong's power to gain profits, and then slowly make plans later.
Now it seems that the prospect of peaceful adaptation and utilization no longer exists, and it is only a matter of time before trade with Japan is opened up from Shanghai. Instead of passively waiting for others to mention it, it is better to start it yourself. At any rate, this is also a way to deal with the Zheng Group's "drawing money from the bottom of the cauldron" strategy.
Although this is not a direct action, its overall strategic significance is much greater than a simple tactical attack.
What's more, now that they have mastered the relay base of Jeju Island, it is a favorable condition for ships to shelter from the wind for replenishment or to store goods-not to mention that they can also use Jeju as a base to export specialties from North Korea and Liaodong to Japan. Skade knew that Korean ginseng was a "miracle medicine" in Japan at that time, and its price was even higher than gold. Many Japanese girls sold themselves into prostitution in order to treat their relatives.
Skade thought, no matter how you look at it, developing trade with Japan is an important matter. The question is who should be sent to do this?
After much thought, he decided to send Ping Qiu Sheng, who had returned from Southeast Asia, to Japan - Ping Qiu Sheng had been begging him for this matter for a long time. Now Ping Qiusheng is his general - since he went to Southeast Asia, he successfully opened up trade relations with Siam. This trade route brought a large amount of rice to the Senate, which was struggling with food problems, and Ping Qiusheng's popularity in the Senate greatly increased. He has become a group of practical talents who have emerged recently - his opinions and wishes must be seriously considered by Skade.
Furthermore, there is quite a force in the Senate that wants to "kill" him. Ping Qiusheng must be professional and meritorious in the Ministry of Colonization and Trade, and he may well become a suitable "new candidate" in the eyes of some people. It wouldn't be good if someone pulled him over and used him as a cannonball. It is better to take this opportunity to get him into his favorite Japanese business and realize his dream of "flattening the general" and "flattening the shogunate". As long as he leaves the Central Committee for a few years, this trend will naturally dissipate.
Little did Ping Qiusheng know that the director of the department was worried. When he heard that he was asked to take charge of the trade with Japan, he couldn't help but cheer up and said that he would be ready to leave immediately.
"I plan to go to Jeju first - this place is very important for developing trade with Japan." Ping Qiusheng had already studied the trilateral trade between China, Japan and North Korea at that time, and he already had a plan in mind and spoke clearly and clearly.
Japan is not a place where everyone can trade - according to the shogunate's lock-down order, only Ming, Dutch and Portuguese merchants are allowed to trade in Japan. The Dutch were temporarily suspended from trading due to the Hamada Yabei Incident, and will not reopen trade routes until the Dutch East India Company's "gas relief tour" this year is effective. As for the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, only those who had obtained the seal of the shogunate could go to Nagasaki to trade.
Even if Zhao Yingong sends a merchant ship to Japan immediately, he will not be able to start trade because he does not have the Zhuyin certificate.
Of course, following the style of the colonialists, the Senate could have carried out a "black ship visit" in the 17th century. The problem is that the Senate's maritime strength is now limited after all, and it is not appropriate to use its group mocking skills. Compared with the evildoers like Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang, Japan is just a place where you can make money.
As a result, if you want to carry out trade with Japan, you must find a vest or special channels.
To find a horse is to find a maritime merchant with a red seal, use various means to control him, and then use his red seal to trade. As for the special channel, it is the channel through Tsushima.
Ping Qiucheng felt that instead of looking for a Zhuyinzhuang maritime merchant to go public on the backdoor, it would be faster to start with the special channel of Tsushima.
He expressed his views to Skade, and Skade said that he completely agreed with him.
"You are the plenipotentiary representative of the Ministry of Colonization and Trade for trade between China and North Korea - I have issued a document. Not only the import and export business of Ming Dynasty to Japan and North Korea, but also the trade of Jeju to Japan and Ming Dynasty are managed and coordinated by you."
Ping Qiusheng nodded repeatedly, his excitement palpable.
"I will send you a few more naturalized assistants. There is one Japanese you can bring with you - a genuine Japanese samurai."
"Zichuan! Zichuan! Zichuan..."
Zichuan felt as if a big stone was pressing on his chest, and he couldn't breathe. Every time he took a breath, the stone became heavier, and it hurt like a burning fire. Gradually, he didn't know whether he could breathe anymore, and the pain disappeared. Suddenly, my eyes turned into a tunnel of light. There seemed to be people singing and performing Noh drama in the tunnel. I was being pulled by a force to walk step by step towards the end of the tunnel... I was summoned by the Lord to say a voice to him: You still have things to do, go ahead... "Zichuan! The chief is calling you!"
It turned out to be a dream.
Since being injured in Jeju City, Murasaki Hideji has often had this dream. In fact, when a person falls into a state of shock, neural activity does not completely stop, and part of the senses will receive scattered external information.
At that time, Murasaki Hideji was hit by an arrow in the leg and right armpit. Unlike the bamboo bows in Southeast Asia, the Korean compound bow was very lethal. The arrow in the right armpit penetrated the chest, causing an open hemopneumothorax. He was dead, but the Australian army was not elsewhere. The military doctor inserted a large bronze needle in his chest to deflate him and gave him antibiotics, so God decided to let him go back.
Later, due to his serious injury, Feng Zongze and the naturalized civilian military doctors in Jeju were unable to continue treatment. If he continued to stay in Jeju, he would die sooner or later. And his performance in the battle made the elders feel that it would be a pity for him to die like this. A dead horse was treated as a live doctor, so he was sent to Lingao on a naval ship and admitted to Ma Niao Army General Hospital.
More than ten days of sea voyage almost killed him, but Zichuan's vitality was very strong, and after a lot of trouble, he finally began to recover slowly.
The arrow in his leg pierced the knee. At least the leg was saved, but it was impossible to recover completely. Zichuan could neither run nor climb walls for the rest of his life. Therefore, he is now very worried about whether he can survive the life of having rice all the time under the hands of the Australians. Finally, I came up with God’s comfort.
The young Australian nurse had brought him clean and neat military uniforms and helped him get dressed. Then he put up his crutches and limped out of the ward of Ma Niao General Hospital with the help of a nurse.
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