At first, Liu Haojia thought that it would take a lot of effort to take away the Guangdong navy after arriving in Guangdong. But I don’t want the whole thing to go smoothly! It was not until he left that the officers of the Guangdong Navy understood the reason. After listening to it, he couldn't help laughing!
It turns out that the distance between Guangdong and Fujian is very close, so merchants have frequent exchanges. While Liu Haojia was busy with official duties, what happened in Quanzhou had spread to Guangzhou! So everyone in the Guangzhou government was a little afraid of this young marshal who didn't play by the rules and was very aggressive!
But then news came that he got along well with the Quanzhou gentry, invited the Quanzhou gentry to meet for a banquet, and also invited them to visit the naval training, so the local officials and gentry in Guangdong were relieved! I felt that Liu Haojia must have done something to the local gentry when he ransacked his home, which led to the counterattack!
The news from the merchants seemed to support this, so they had no objection to the navy's order to change defenses. Anyway, from their point of view, these navy masters will be bribed by them sooner or later. It is nothing more than a matter of spending more money, so why bother to quarrel with the new chief officer.
Liu Haojia was relieved after hearing the news and saw that things were going well, so he left the Guangdong Navy to repair the ship and pack his luggage. He took a boat with his men in casual clothes and rushed to Macau.
This time he went to Macau to learn from the experience. After Macau was defrauded of its right of residence by the Portuguese, its economy developed rapidly. Especially after the emergence of the Grand Triangle Trade, the shipbuilding and gun casting industries here developed rapidly! And what Liu Hao's family is eyeing is the shipbuilding craftsmen!
He himself believes in the wisdom and craftsmanship of Chinese craftsmen, but this does not prevent him from learning from Western things. After all, Western warships do have obvious advantages over Eastern ships in terms of speed and firepower.
Due to the distance between the two places, Liu Haojia arrived in Macau quickly. The first thing that caught the eye was the huge six forts. In order to protect their monopoly on Macao's foreign trade interests and the safety of residents, the Portuguese built six forts, which required a considerable number of cannons for use.
"Xiangshan County Chronicle" records: six forts, the largest is the Sanba fort, with Sanjiao as the crown, forty-seven guns, sixteen bronze tools, and the rest are iron. The upper part houses the Tibetan soldiers, and the lower part is the cave room for storing flames and saltpeter. Next, there are two stations, Guia East and Guia Xi, facing each other on the East and West Mountains. The east column has twenty guns and five bronze tools; the west column has twelve guns and five bronze tools, and the rest are iron. The Niangma Pavilion fort has twenty-five cannons, twelve bronze utensils, and the rest are iron. Nanwan Fort, four guns. The fort of Gansi has eighteen guns, seven bronze tools, and the rest are all iron. There is one large bronze tool inside, weighing more than ten thousand kilograms, more than ten countries in size, about two feet long, and several stones for the medicine.
Macau at this time was far from as prosperous as later generations, but it could be regarded as a prototype. There are a large number of Portuguese and people from other countries gathered here, so many Western-style buildings have begun to appear. At the same time, there are many Chinese-style houses mixed together, which has a unique style!
Here in Macau, the Portuguese dominate. This has become one of their main windows in Asia. Historically, both the British and the Dutch tried to occupy Macau. However, with the concerted efforts of the local military and civilians, they firmly defended Macau. However, although Portugal kept Macau, they lost the sea, making all efforts here meaningless!
When it comes to Macau, many people think that the Ming Dynasty lost Macau and was taken away by the Portuguese. This is not the case at all! The cession of Macau was done by "the Qing Dynasty"! At that time, no matter in the Ming Dynasty or in Portugal, everyone undoubtedly believed that Macau was the territory of the Ming Dynasty! The Ming Dynasty government had complete sovereignty in Macau!
Some records can prove that the Ming government was able to exercise sovereignty in Macau. The first is that the Guangdong government accepted the annual land rent paid by the Portuguese in Macau. Since 1572, Macao and Portugal have paid 500 taels of land rent to the Guangdong government of China every year.
Secondly, the Guangdong government also set up customs to collect ship taxes. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a river ship station near the A-Ma Temple in Macau. As the number of Portuguese in Macau increased, the Guangdong government established a customs office in Macau to be responsible for collecting taxes from foreign ships. The payment of taxes enabled the Portuguese in Macau to transform from private traders to wage merchants and obtain the qualifications to engage in legal trade in China.
The Guangdong government also set up officials to guard Macao, and clarified that the Xiangshan County Magistrate (magistrate) would implement the administrative power and execute the final judicial disposition power. Ao Shou Guan, also known as Ao Guan, is an official and government office (inspection office) established in Macau by the Guangdong government of the Ming Dynasty such as Titui (in charge of the arrest of pirates and traitors) and Beiwa (in charge of mobile patrols and arrests of traitors). , as well as the Chinese officials who read the Ming government orders to the "Yimu" and the "senior pavilion" where officials from both sides met to discuss government affairs.
The Xiangshan County Magistrate is in charge of general civil affairs and justice in Macau. The Ming Dynasty regarded Macao as part of Xiangshan County, and the magistrate of Xiangshan County exercised the power to govern Macao. For example, in 1567 (the first year of Longqing), Xiangshan magistrate Zhou Xing banned land and water smuggling and child trafficking in Macao; in 1608 (the thirty-sixth year of Wanli), Xiangshan magistrate Cai Shanji executed "Yimu" (officials of the Portuguese self-organized government). Punishment, etc. are all manifestations of the Ming government's exercise of its ruling power. So all this can prove that Macau is still under the Ming Dynasty!
But when Liu Haojia landed, there were five more people in his team. These five people were dressed in ordinary clothes, but they were all a bit older. But looking at the calluses on their hands and the color of their faces, you can tell that these five people must have been craftsmen. But Liu Haojia has great respect for these five people!
These five people are indeed craftsmen by background, and they are professional shipbuilders! They were all master craftsmen recruited by Liu Haojia through Emperor Wanli. Each of their shipyards is full of top-notch people! Liu Haojia's purpose of bringing them here was to allow them to see for themselves what Western warships looked like, so that they could learn the best parts of them and use them on their own ships.
In fact, Liu Haojia originally wanted to recruit a few Western shipbuilding craftsmen to go back, but considering the possibility of success, he decided to bring them over. Because if you can't recruit anyone, just get them on board, I believe you can learn a lot with their eyes.
Liu Haojia and others attracted some people's attention as soon as they landed. Several people on the pier wanted to walk towards Liu Pei, but a young man got the first step. He followed the young man for a few steps and came to Liu Pei before everyone else.
