Because of the prolonged closure, both foreign merchants and local merchants in Jiangnan suffered serious losses.
In fact, the goods themselves are not bad. These days, sea trade goods are not particular about the existence of shelf life. The transshipment of necessary daily necessities has gradually resumed under the control of the Ming army. The main reason is that the Ming army's blockade and limited access policy made merchants unable to pay due to time. The reason was heavy losses.
The goods that were originally scheduled to be shipped at a certain time could not be shipped on time because the Ming army blocked the port. This was a heavy loss and might lead to bankruptcy.
Of course these are not the most critical issues.
The most critical problem is that most of these foreign and local businessmen are afraid of the Ming Dynasty, and the reasons for their fear are easy to explain.
"Hongwu Political Commentary" was spread in the Southern Song Dynasty just like floods, and it naturally spread to the port of Quanzhou.
And what is very special is that because this is a work written by the Ming Dynasty Emperor Su Yonglin himself, not only the local businessmen in Jiangnan have a strong interest in this book, but also foreign businessmen because of the increasingly influential Ming Dynasty. And interested in this book.
Most of them had never had direct contact with the Ming Dynasty. They only knew about the existence of the Ming Dynasty because of its powerful military and good fighting skills.
As for direct contact with the Ming Dynasty, only a few people had experienced it. However, due to the threats from officials of the Shipping Department of the Southern Song Dynasty, several foreign businessmen who were interested in reaching commercial cooperation with the Ming Dynasty were forced to give up the idea of cooperation.
The Southern Song Dynasty certainly did not want the Ming Dynasty to share their meat.
Originally, these were the interests controlled by the Southern Song Dynasty court and the powerful, but the Ming Dynasty insisted on stepping in. Who would be willing?
There are only so many big dogs. If one more person gets a piece of the pie, the others will have to eat a lot less. No one is a fool.
With the shipping department and maritime trade rules in hand, the Southern Song Dynasty officials could easily exclude the Ming Dynasty's fur products, finished Chinese herbal medicines, bone products, dairy products with a long shelf life, air-dried meat and other products that have the regional characteristics of the Central Plains, Liaodong and grasslands. commodity.
These were not available in the Southern Song Dynasty. Seeing that businessmen from certain countries were also very interested in these goods and seemed to have the idea of reaching cooperation, they immediately felt unhappy.
Even if they couldn't produce these things, they were unwilling to let the Ming Dynasty earn profits, so they directly threatened the foreign businessmen through the channels of the Shipping Department, forcing them to give up the idea of doing business with the Ming Dynasty.
He also threatened them that if they dared to do business directly with the Ming Dynasty, their permission would be permanently revoked by the Shipping Department of the Southern Song Dynasty. From now on, they would not be allowed to do business with the Southern Song Dynasty. They would not be able to buy silk, porcelain or tea at all.
Anyone who dares to do secondary business with someone whose license has been revoked will have his or her license revoked as long as he is found out.
As a result, even if they were very interested in Ming products, foreign businessmen did not dare to do business directly with Ming people, for fear that their "illegal" behavior would be discovered by the Shipping Department and they would be expelled.
Therefore, most foreign businessmen have had little direct contact with the Ming Dynasty and do not know much about the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, as a window to understand the Ming Dynasty, when "Hongwu Political Treatise" spread to Quanzhou, they were greatly interested.
There are a relatively large number of foreign businessmen who can speak Chinese living in Quanzhou Port.
Some of them could not only speak Chinese, but also write Chinese characters, so they collaborated with each other to translate the contents of "Hongwu Political Treatise" for compatriots who were not proficient in Chinese, so that they could also understand this work written by the Ming Emperor himself. .
There are no obscure words or phrases in "Hongwu Political Treatise" because it was created by Su Yonglin so that more people can understand it. Therefore, not only does it look easy to Chinese people, but it is also not difficult for foreign businessmen to translate it, and the translation can be as close as possible. original intention.
As time went by, not only Chinese businessmen finished reading "Hongwu Political Treatise", but a considerable number of foreign businessmen also read "Hongwu Political Treatise".
Then I was shocked.
It should be said that although they feel that China is rich in products, economically prosperous and culturally prosperous, fundamentally they do not feel that there is any difference between China and their motherland.
I have a king and you have an emperor.
I have the local strong factions and you have the frontier nomads.
I have corrupt officials and you have corrupt officials.
I have pawns who slap people twice, and you have soldiers who slap people three times.
I have my East-West partition and you have your North-South confrontation.
There is essentially no difference between us, they are all equally bad.
But at this time, a completely different existence suddenly appeared among us.
This Ming Dynasty regime that shouted for revolution, liquidation, safeguarding the interests of farmers, and serving the people seemed strange to me, but their emperor could actually write such a fatal book!
No matter where you are, anyone who writes this kind of book will be killed.
The businessmen traveled all over the country and were well-informed, and basically all had a certain level of education and political vision. After reading the content of this book, they knew that the ideas in this book would never be acceptable to their kings and emperors.
It must be fatal.
But it happened that this kind of fatal thing was actually written by the emperor of a country. He actually wrote so many fatal things in a book openly and openly and widely advertised it, so that everyone could see it, and he wanted to treat his son The people reveal the secrets of power and the secrets of politics.
Can the family world continue in this case?
You can be the emperor, but where is your son?
Why are you so different?
Of course, this problem can be eased a little, and there is another more important thing.
The Ming Dynasty emphasized liquidation and revolution.
Who is the target of liquidation and revolution?
The so-called evil-doing upper class people who obtain wealth and status through oppression and exploitation.
Oppression and exploitation.
No one understood these two words at first, so the Southern Song Dynasty understood them as bullying the common people and bullying the weak. When foreign businessmen translated them, they translated them according to this meaning. It feels almost the same anyway.
Then they panicked.
They have all done this before, there is no doubt about it. If you want to make a fortune these days, and want to make a big fortune, how can you do it without bullying the weak?
Who doesn’t have a little injustice on his hands?
Ming Dynasty wants to liquidate everyone together?
this……
Nothing but panic.
Because they all knew that the Southern Song Dynasty could not defeat the Ming Dynasty. Every time they fought against the Ming Dynasty, they were beaten miserably. However, the Ming Dynasty never attacked Quanzhou or Guangzhou. After all, they were located in a remote area and were not ruled by the traditional core. within the area.
They felt that they were safe for the time being, and if something happened, wouldn't they be able to get through the port quickly?
What I never expected was that when the Ming army first arrived, they blocked the port, and then set up various roadblocks to prevent people from escaping. They controlled them tightly. Some people do not believe in evil. He tried to escape, but was beaten to pieces by a terrifying firearm called an artillery piece.
Everyone in the entire fleet died, no one survived, and then all the property belonging to the fleet owners was confiscated by the Ming army.
The cash, the goods, the ship itself, and their real estate in Quanzhou were all confiscated. The confiscation was done openly and with full confidence, and a special notice was issued to warn everyone that anyone who commits any crime again will be severely punished!
After this, everyone, whether local businessmen or foreign businessmen in Jiangnan, dared not move.
At the same time, they lived in fear, trembling, fearing that the Ming army would liquidate them, kill them, confiscate all their property, and their wives and children would not be spared.
Because of such a deterrent effect that even the Ming army themselves were not very aware of, the order of the entire Quanzhou was brought under control after the Ming army only carried out a simple blockade.
The Ming army was able to successfully clear out all the descendants of the Zhao and Song clans in Quanzhou, uproot their influence and clean them up.
In this process, the fear of local businessmen and foreign businessmen was indeed increasing day by day. The longer the time went by and the less the Ming army did not take action against them, the more fearful they became.
At first, they were frightened by the military power of the Ming army and could bear it, but as time went on, they gradually couldn't stand it any longer. They sent representatives to negotiate with the Ming army, hoping that they could open the ban.
Even if you pay a little more for this, or give gifts to the generals of the Ming army, anything is fine as long as the ban can be opened, even if it is just for individuals.
But the Ming army did not want money and did not open the ban. They only said they would wait for orders.
Waiting and waiting, the merchants who were waiting were almost going crazy. Finally, they couldn't bear it anymore. Seeing that the Ming army showed no signs of taking action, they took the initiative to send people to test the Ming army, wanting to see what was inside the Ming army's gourd. What kind of medicine are they selling?
They became more and more frightened, and even prepared to fight to the death with the Ming army. This was better than worrying day and night and having three surprises in one night.
At this critical moment, on the second day of March in the sixth year of Hongwu, Lin Jingchun, the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the envoy of Quanzhou and Guangzhou Shipping Department, arrived at Quanzhou Port, entered Quanzhou City, and summoned the main Jiangnan businessmen and foreign businessmen in the city to meet in the big hall in front of the City Shipping Department Yamen. A meeting was held in the square to read out the imperial policy.
