Needless to say, the commercial port at the mouth of the Yangtze River is, of course, Shanghai, which is ten miles away!
Shanghai's geographical location is absolutely unique in the map of East Asian trade. Not only at the mouth of the Yangtze River, but also at the intersection of the Beiyang, Nanyang and the East Ocean - in the era of sailing ships, the types of ships used in the Beiyang and Nanyang were different. The wind is strong in the South Ocean and the water in the North Ocean is shallow. Therefore, pointed-bottomed boats are used in the South Ocean and flat-bottomed boats are used in the Northern Ocean. The Yangtze River and canals use river boats.
Once Shanghai opens its port, three types of ships, including pointed bottoms, flat bottoms, and inland river ships, will all converge in Shanghai. It will be difficult for the city not to be prosperous!
Therefore, in history, not many years after Shanghai opened as a port, it stole the limelight from Guangzhou and became the central city of China's foreign trade.
Even a thousand-year-old commercial port like Guangzhou was once deserted by Shanghai after it opened as a port, not to mention Taiwan Island... What was there in Taiwan Island in the late Ming Dynasty? In addition to deerskin, there are all kinds of fatal infectious diseases. The foreign devils living there are just exchanging their lives for money!
If there was a bustling, lively and safe Shanghai to go to, cities like Relanja and Prominja would definitely become ghost towns.
The Dutch East India Company came here to make money. As long as the cities of Relanja and Praminja became bottomless pits of losses, selling them at low prices would be inevitable.
As for Daming, if it shows a certain strength. For example, establishing a European-style army with real combat effectiveness, with 20,000 to 30,000 people, is enough to make the Netherlands, a distant Western power, silent, and it is enough to discuss issues of win-win cooperation...
However, Zheng Zhilong couldn't understand this trend and the entanglement of interests in it for a while.
Seeing Zheng Zhilong deep in thought, Zhu Cixiang knew that what he said today was a bit too much. Zheng Zhilong had to slowly digest it, so he smiled and said: "It's getting late. I'm going back to the inner city first. Lao Taishan is in Huang Weishuai's garden." Stay here for a night, and ask your senior brother to take you to see the garden tomorrow. This is a garden given to Quanguo Mansion by this palace. Although Lao Taishan has not been officially granted the title, you can live there for now... When Lao Taishan is settled, Come and see me in the palace again. Until then, we can discuss it slowly."
As he spoke, Zhu Cixi stood up and left, while Zheng Zhilong, Huang Binqing, and Zheng Sen also stood up to see him off.
Zhu Cixiang walked a few steps before reaching the entrance of the lobby. He suddenly remembered something and turned back to Zheng Zhilong and said, "Old Taishan, can you lend me the 400 Japanese soldiers you brought?"
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Master Qiantose, the 400 Japanese soldiers I brought here are just for Master Qiantose... These 400 people are proficient in gun and sword skills. They are brave and good at fighting. They can fight with the Tatar infantry!"
"Okay, okay," Zhu Cixiang smiled, "I need them right now... Can they all speak Chinese?"
Zheng Zhilong said: "Several leaders can speak Chinese."
"Okay," Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Let senior brother bring them to Dagong Square to see them tomorrow."
The Japanese pirate leader who followed Zheng Zhilong to Nanjing was a bad old man in his fifties, named Zahepu, who was born in Zahe Township, a remote place in Japan's Kii Province.
Kii Country was also a very difficult place to deal with in medieval Japan. It is very close to Heiankyo in Japan and should be better developed. However, because there are many mountains and dense forests and few flat lands, it does not have much development value. And those valleys suitable for reclamation in the gaps between deep mountains and dense forests cannot support many powerful daimyo, and can only become the soil for the development of local tycoons at the level of "village chief".
At the same time, starting from the Heian period, temples that became increasingly prosperous in Japan began to use the mountains and forests of Kii Province as a place for spiritual practice. The temple community and the local tyrants gradually formed a master-slave relationship.
So during the turbulent Warring States Period, Kii Province, located in Kinai and very close to Heian Kyo, became an area dominated by temples and local tyrants.
Although this area is mountainous and densely forested, it is not closed. It is not only along the coast, but also close to Heian Kyo and Japan's large commercial port Sakai. Therefore, the "iron cannon" brought by Western merchants was introduced to Kii Country very early and became Once the iron cannon, a weapon used by local tycoons to fight village battles, became popular, it was actually a cheap weapon that was very suitable for use by the tycoons of Kii Country.
Later, when the local tycoons of the Kii Kingdom became famous for playing with iron cannons, they began to form mercenary groups and were employed by daimyo and temples. The more famous ones were the "Genlaizhong" and the "Zagazhong". And this Zahepu is a member of the Zahe community.
However, he has not encountered good times. He is fifty years old this year and was born in 1594. By the time he grew up enough to be a mercenary, the Battle of Sekigahara had been fought for many years. So he had no choice but to be employed by the declining Toyotomi family and participate in Osaka's winter and summer battles. After the fall of Osaka, there were no opportunities in Japan. He spent a few years wandering around and did not wait for the Toyotomi family to rise again. Instead, he saw an increasingly stable Japan where heroes no longer had any use.
So working abroad became the only way to earn some money to support the family.
Zahe Sheng, who was born in the Zahe clan, did well overseas because he was good at using iron cannons and was also good at using swords. First he worked as a thug for the Dutch, and later he was poached by Zheng Zhilong at a high price and became the "pen head" of the Zheng family's Japanese soldiers.
Although they received Zheng Zhilong's high salary, Zahe Sheng and his group of Japanese soldiers all had a samurai dream - to become a real samurai, serve as a feudal lord, and own a small territory of their own.
Zheng Zhilong, a "merchant stream" warlord, did not engage in feudalism at all, and had little interest in developing land territories. And he doesn’t believe in the Japanese. Zheng Zhilong only believes in fellow Fujianese, not even the Cantonese, let alone the Japanese.
Therefore, Zahepu did not have much enthusiasm under Zheng Zhilong. Until not long ago, Zheng Zhilong found him and said that he would go with the Grand Marshal of the Army and the Prince of Fujun to fight the Tatars. This is a rare thing. What an opportunity!
The marshal of the world's soldiers and horses!
It sounds similar to General Zhengyi, and he is appointed by the crown prince and has the highest righteousness!
If you follow such a general, oh, he is a general, you can always get a warrior with territory, right? If the generalissimo doesn't act like a samurai, should he act like a jinshi?
Moreover, he is also very confident in his skills in playing iron cannon. He is a Zahezhong who has been fighting illegal cannons for generations. He is also proficient in swordsmanship and is a master of the one-sword style. How can he be worth an annual salary of 250 dan... .
However, his "250 Stone Dream" began to wake up after seeing the Generalissimo's "Iron Cannon Banners".
Because he discovered that the Ming Dynasty Marshal's "Iron Cannon Banners" were much more powerful than the legend! The heavy iron cannons fired very accurately, which was nothing remarkable, but their light iron cannon team was very distinctive.
The first thing that shocked him was that the formation of the Generalissimo's "Iron Cannon Banners" was so dense that they were shoulder to shoulder - Zaga Sheng, who was proficient in artillery, knew that such a dense formation could easily cause trouble when loading ammunition. Fire accident. But if this point can be overcome, intensive firepower can cause fatal damage to the enemy in front of you!
What surprised Zahe even more was that the light iron cannon of the "Iron Cannon" could be equipped with a blunderbuss sword, turning it into a short spear five or six feet long.
Zahe, who had experienced many group fights, knew that a five- to six-foot-long short spear was as powerful as a three- to four-foot sword. Moreover, the short spear is easier to practice than the tachi, and it is more suitable for fighting in groups.
With the gun sword, would he have no use for the one-sword-style slashing technique he had practiced for half his life?
Can I still get the salary of 250 shi of brown rice?
"Hey, what's your name? How much salary do you want? Do you, a little old man, understand Chinese? Why don't you answer?"
The somewhat impatient voice of a young man interrupted Zahe Sheng's thoughts. Only then did Zahe remember that he and several leaders of the iron artillery team had followed Zheng Sen to the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty Prince to see him.
Naturally, it was not easy to see the prince, so Zahe and a group of subordinates waited in a small room to meet him. While waiting, he thought randomly and then lost his mind.
He quickly looked up and saw a young eunuch wearing a python robe and holding a whisk, who had entered the room at some time and was standing in front of him asking questions.
"Ah, my Zahepu," Zahesheng said quickly, "The annual salary requires 250 shi of brown rice..."
"I know, grocery store, 250..."
Huang Xiaobao carefully recorded Zahepu's name and required salary in a notebook, but accidentally wrote Zahepu as a grocery store... Then he went to ask about the names of several other Japanese pirates. Name and salary requested.
