As the Ming Dynasty's mission to Europe left Shanghai Port and headed south in the autumn of the third year of Hongxing's reign, the level of exchanges between the two worlds of the East and the West was obviously raised to the highest level. In this era, it was not just the prosperous Ming Dynasty that was entrenched in the southeast and was communicating with the West. The Qing Empire entrenched in the north also opened its door to foreign exchanges.
Facing the Whale Sea, not far from the northeastern border of Hamgyong Province in the Kingdom of Korea, it was a rainy, foggy, cold and windy morning in a fishing port called Vladivostok. At the entrance of Niujiao Bay, which is shaped like a bull's horn, there is a newly built sea viewing platform on the top of a slender hill extending into the sea. Several men dressed in Qing Dynasty military attache's clothes were waiting there impatiently, looking towards the rainy and foggy sea from time to time.
Now is the time when the northwest wind blows, and the cold wind blowing from Siberia seems to never stop. From time to time, autumn rain comes, and the temperature has dropped to near freezing point. The autumn wind and autumn rain are really freezing!
I don't know how long it took, but the waiting people's hands and feet were already cold from the cold. Only then did they vaguely see a piece of white sail flashing on the sea, breaking through the rain and fog, and using the northwest wind to barely sail toward the northeast. Among the people waiting, there was a middle-aged man with a baby face and a full beard who stamped his feet anxiously: "Old Jia, Old Fan, why did you choose such a day? You will freeze to death!"
The person he called Lao Jia was none other than Jiabus from Jia Le City. He was also too cold and shivering, "Vice Admiral Shang, the Spanish sailing ship leaves the port of Manila every May. Go north to trade at the commercial ports along the coast of Nanming, and then leave Shanghai for North Korea in July. Wouldn’t it have to be late autumn when we get here?”
The baby-faced Vice Admiral Shang is Shang Kexi’s younger brother Shang Kexi. After the Battle of Qufu, he was transferred to General Shengjing’s Mansion and served under Duduo. He also participated in the campaign against Khalkha Mongolia. .
After his triumphant return from Khalkha Mongolia, he was appointed Vladivostok Melezhangin, which in Chinese is the Vice-General of Vladivostok.
In order to avoid Nanming's blockade of the Qing Dynasty's Bohai Bay coast, and at the same time avoid seeking too much help from North Korea. Before Bruce left, Dorgon ordered Duduo to find a suitable location to establish a trade port on the coast of the Whale Sea in the northeast.
The final choice of Duduo was to build a port in Vladivostok, which was not too far away from Jilin and North Korea. He also established a Vladivostok Melezhangjing Yamen, and asked Shang Keai to serve as Melezhangjing to preside over the construction and opening of the Vladivostok port. matters.
In fact, it's not a big deal. Vladivostok is a natural haven. A port can be built anywhere in the nearly twenty-mile-long Niujiao Bay.
As for opening a port, it is even simpler, because no one will come to Vladivostok to trade. Only one or two of the Spanish sailing ships from the Philippines will go north to the Whale Sea and visit Vladivostok on their way back to America. ——According to the agreement reached between the Italian envoy Caballero and Dorgon, the Italian galleons will bring muskets and bronze cannons produced by Italians in exchange for muskets and bronze cannons produced in Northeast China. Fur and Dongzhu!
It is said that these two things are worth a lot of money in Europe! Cossacks from the Rakshasa Kingdom traveled thousands of miles to find precious furs.
Dorgon thought, since the fur is so precious, Dongzhu seems to be more valuable, so why are you so polite? Rather than letting the Rakshasa Kingdom make money, it would be better for the Qing Kingdom to make the money itself.
The various tribes outside the customs are very good at hunting and so on. Huang Ama has made a decree to get some cotton cloth, grain, iron tools and other things to send. Are you afraid that you won't be able to get furs in exchange?
It’s all money when it’s transferred to the Japanese!
Of course, the Qing Dynasty did not need money very much. The Qing Dynasty did not have developed industry and commerce, so it could not spend money if it was available. The Qing Dynasty now needs weapons that can arm itself against the Ming Dynasty and the Rakshasa Kingdom.
So Dorgon reached an agreement with Caballero to exchange muskets and artillery for furs and dongzhu.
It was for this deal of "guns for hair, guns for pearls" that Dodo sent Jabs to the frozen Vladivostok!
Another person called Lao Fan is an old man wearing a mink cloak outside his official uniform. He has a bold and unrestrained manner. This man's name is Fan Yongdou! The leader of the nine major Shanxi merchants, he was originally a member of the Zhenghuang Banner Han Army, but now he was changed to the Xiangqing Green Banner, and he was also awarded the worldly title of Ada Hahafan (a bit like a title). He was sent by Dorgon to do business with Jabs and Shang Keai.
Hearing the discussion between the two, Fan Yongdou laughed a few times: "Yihu (Jabs means Yihu) is really a formidable young man. He even knows the ship schedule of the Spanish people!"
"What you are saying, old man, is that I am in this business. Can you not make it clear?" Jabs smiled, "You are so powerful, old man. When the Qing Dynasty was still outside the customs, you were a hero of the Qing Dynasty. We are all your juniors!"
Fan Yongdou laughed a few times and said nothing.
The three of them were silent like this. After an unknown period of time, a Spanish Galen ship with a load of four to five hundred tons finally sailed into the entrance of Niujiao Bay.
Shang Keai let out a breath and said to Jabs and Fan Yongdou: "We're finally here... Let's go down to the dock and see what good things the Japanese have brought us?"
Jabs and Fan Yongdou nodded, so the three of them put on their raincoats and walked out of the observation deck together towards the pier at the foot of the mountain.
The visitor was the Manila, commanded by de Velasco, which was the Galen ship that sent Caballero to Shanghai last time. The ship left Manila in May, but it did not go to Shanghai as Jobs suspected, but to the port of Naha in the Ryukyu Kingdom.
This port and the entire Ryukyu Kingdom are currently under the actual control of the Satsuma Domain of Japan, but the Ryukyu King Shangzhi was canonized by Zhu Cixiang two years ago. But Zhu Cixiang had no excuse to confer a title and send troops to expel the Satsuma army in Ryukyu - there were too many places where he needed to send troops, and he had no time to deal with Ryukyu for the time being.
Moreover, since the opening of Shanghai and the Zheng family obtained the trading rights to enter Uraga Port (5 large ships of 10,000 stone per year), Naha Port has declined sharply and has now become a weak point in the hands of the Satsuma Domain. In order to make up for the losses caused by the decline in Naha's trade income, the lord of the Satsuma domain, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, had to use Naha to start the business of smuggling arms!
The matchlock gun was introduced to Japan from Kagoshima in Satsuma, and the Shimadzu family was famous for its use of "iron cannons" during Japan's Warring States Period. After the winter and summer wars in Osaka, Japan's troubled times were completely over, but in the troubled times The iron cannon production capacity established in China is not so easy to remove.
Handicraft industry! As long as the craftsmen are still there, it will be easy to restore production capacity. The Summer Battle of Osaka has only lasted for more than 30 years, and for a period of time Shimazu Tadahashi (the first lord of the Satsuma Domain) was still evil-minded and maintained the production capacity of iron cannons for a period of time, so a large number of finished iron cannons were stored.
In addition to maintaining the production capacity of iron cannons and storing finished iron cannons, the Shimadzu family also used the special status of Naha Port to maintain secret exchanges with the colonial powers of Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal in the East.
Therefore, we received a large order from Manila a few months ago—3,000 six-cylinder cylinders!
The Manila went to Naha to ship these six barrels of North Shanghai Sangui in exchange for furs and dongzhu. Because the Qing Dynasty needed a large number of muskets, and they needed them urgently (the war with the Rakshasa Kingdom was tight!), the Spaniards had no time to transport them from the Americas, nor did they have time to order them from Guangdong and Fujian.
Although many new iron workshops were opened in Foshan and Anping, the output of the handicraft industry increased very slowly. All the iron workshops in the two places combined could not produce 3,000 Hongxing three-year-old matchlock guns in a month. And it’s impossible to sell them all to the Spanish. The Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty is still waiting to purchase them!
So the Manila had to go to Naha to buy it from the Japanese. While the sailboat was stranded in Naha, Manila Governor Chacon also sent a caravel to deliver a letter that needed to be forwarded to the Qing Dynasty immediately. .
