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Hirado prospered thanks to merchants from the Ming Dynasty. It was also Wang Zhi, a pirate merchant from the Ming Dynasty, who led the way and the Portuguese came to Hirado. [No pop-up novel website] Moreover, Ming businessmen are different from the Portuguese. They only care about business and do not force the Japanese to accept any religion. The Portuguese always asked 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 the Portuguese repeatedly spread religion in the local area and met with fierce opposition from the Matsuura family.
At that time, the daimyos of Kyushu were joining the Catholic Church as if they were following the trend, but the Matsuura family's stubborn resistance was unusual. They respect Buddhism 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 lost more than a dozen people, and the Portuguese ship abandoned Hirado.
During this period, maritime conflicts 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 on its way to Omura, the port of the Catholic daimyo, the Matsuura family dispatched fifty small boats to attack the Portuguese ship. The Portuguese ship used all its firearms to fight before escaping. Danger.
The Portuguese were replaced by the Dutch and the British. The Matsuuras knew that both countries were not Catholic and were not interested in spreading the religion. So have great kindness towards them. In this way, Western European ships still arrived frequently in Hirado. But the Matsuura family's name was fully realized. What can bring permanent benefits to this island are Fujian ships and Zhejiang ships, so Ming merchants in Hirado are given extra-legal freedom and privileges 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 called themselves "Japanese snails" - Yan Siqi, the leader of the Japanese pirates. I lived under Hirado Castle at that time. It is said that he was in a tailor shop and appeared as a tailor. Business is very good. Xinzang said: Yan Siqi is outstanding, knowledgeable and good at martial arts. He is an outstanding figure among the Chinese people in Hirado. But no one in Japan at the time knew his true identity. until one day. Two pirate merchants, Yan Zhenquan and Chen De, came from Fujian and had secret talks with Tailor Yan for several days. Soon after, Yan Siqi's figure disappeared.
At that time, pirates in the Ming Dynasty were divided into eighteen groups, and the leaders supported Yan Siqi as the big leader. For a time, Yan Siqi became famous at sea, but soon fell ill due to alcoholism. The guest 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, but some people say not. Regardless of whether it is true or not, Ikwan did marry a wife here, Tian Chuan. His surname is Tagawa."
The new generation of leaders no longer disclose their residences like Wang Zhi's generation. They even purchased land and houses directly from the Wu family. Zheng Zhilong deliberately chose Kawauchiura, which is not far from Hirado, as his residence. A more spectacular mansion than the Samurai Jinya was built in a mountain col deep in the bay. However, this mansion is now vacant: the Tagawa family and their eldest son Fukumatsu had gone to Ming Dynasty a few years ago, leaving only their 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 interests him is not this, but how powerful Zheng Zhilong is in Hirado and what agents he has here.
"What kind of agent do I 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 went to Nagasaki, but a few ships came to Hirado every year. Cargo on the ship that came to Hirado. Most of them were directly acquired by the feudal lord here. This kind of transaction was of great benefit to both parties. The feudal lord made huge profits from the transferred trade, and the Zheng family also obtained all the conveniences in Hirado, including hiring Japanese sailors and ronin from here, replenishing firearms and Gunpowder and so on.
Ping Qiusheng thought to himself, it turns out that Hirado is Zheng Zhilong’s base in Japan! However, he still had some doubts: "I heard that the first official is a Chichidan believer. Doesn't the feudal lord hate Chichidan believers the most?"
"I don't know if Yiguan is a Chezhitan believer, but he also worships Mazu, who is most admired by merchants in 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?"
Ping Qiucheng nodded. Obviously, the Matsuura family in Hirado can be treated as an "enemy".
From the beginning, Hamada Shinzo showed the keen interest in time-travelling people that young people in this time and space often show. Whether it was the glass bottle of rum they brought or Ping Qiu Sheng's pistol. Ping Qiusheng was observing this young man while chatting with Hamada, wondering how he could use this person to hit Zheng Zhilong hard.
The day after the banquet, Taira Akiumori, led by Hamada Shinzo, wandered around Hirado, the so-called "Western Capital", because summer had just entered and there were still very few ships coming from Fujian. It was very quiet on the pier.
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 we need is the east wind. Ping Qiusheng was looking at the Hirado Strait at the Portuguese Market Pier. Zhao Yingong didn't know how prepared he was?
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 had no ships to give him. After experiencing long and frequent shipping during engine operations, now except for a few ships maintaining regular routes and combat readiness missions, all ships have entered port for maintenance. Wu De told him very clearly that there were no ships for him to use.
"You have to allocate resources based on the local area." The Planning Institute said in a reply to him, "Make full use of Ming's resources."
In this way, Zhao Yingong had to 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. However, in the Ming Dynasty, they had to rely on navigation from maritime landmarks such as island chains to navigate. Zhao Yingong felt that it was easy to find a ship that could go to Japan - ships with a load capacity of one to two hundred tons could sail around the world these days, not to mention short-distance shipping across the East China Sea. However, there were no sailors who could sail across the East China Sea.
However, Zhao Yingong believed that as long as they were given suitable navigation personnel, it would not be difficult to cross the East China Sea to trade with Japan. The Chinese sailors are courageous - they just lag behind in technology. As long as someone gives them a hint, sets an example for them, and provides them with enough benefits, they will do it without hesitation.
For this reason, Zhao Yingong has rushed to Shanghai specially. He wants to do several major events in Shanghai.
The first thing is to contact the Shachuan Gang. Shanghai itself has the Shachuan Gang run by big businessmen, specializing in the so-called Beiyang trade. That is to say, it goes north to Shandong and all the way to Tianjin to transport various "Southern goods", and then returns from Tianjin to Shanghai to transport "Northern goods". This kind of business was very big in the Qing Dynasty. Annual sales can reach several million taels. It could not reach this level in the Ming Dynasty, but the total amount was not small. This part of the transportation capacity is the most suitable object for him to covet.
The second thing is to organize the supply of goods for export to Japan in Shanghai and set up a special agency to implement it. Trade with Japan is a very important and complex 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 person'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 "replacing grain from land to sea" in the late Ming Dynasty was initiated and presided over by him: in the twelfth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang submitted the "Book of Maritime Transport" to the emperor, expressing his willingness to build sand ships to resume maritime transportation. After the emperor approved the report, Shen Tingyang raised funds to build a sand ship. Soon, Shen used sand ships to transport Huai rice and headed north along the sea route that Zhu Qing had traveled. It took him ten days to reach Dagu and Tianjin, and resumed the Beiyang route.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang wrote to the court in the first year of Hongguang's reign, hoping to add sailors to the 100 water ships he owned for shipping. They should be used as warships and specially used as Yangtze River navy.
After the city of Nanjing was broken, he and his generals commanded thousands of naval forces and hundreds of ships. They traveled to the Zhoushan Islands and were appointed by King Lu as the Right Minister of the Ministry of War and the Left Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Governor-General of the Zhejiang Navy.
In the first year of Yongli, Shen Tingyang led a fleet from Zhoushan to prepare to counterattack Suzhou. They encountered a sudden storm outside Chongming Island and were defeated. Shen Tingyang's warship capsized and sank in Xu Liujing, and many of his soldiers drowned. Shen Tingyang was captured and died unyieldingly.
This person is extremely outstanding both in terms of work ability and national integrity. Compared with the group of scholar-bureaucrats who died for their country in the late Ming Dynasty, their ability to do practical things was obviously very strong. (To be continued.)
