Gao pragmatically came to them to discuss sea trade, and this time the move would be huge.
As early as Gao Qi defeated the pirate alliance in the Fujian Sea, Gao Pragmatic had been considering one thing, which was to separate Jinghua's maritime power from the private ports, and then integrate it slightly to form the North and South Ocean Fleets, that is, the Beiyang Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet.
Although these two terms are slightly tragic for Gao pragmatism, they also have a sense of challenge.
Different from the Northern and Southern Fleets in the late Qing Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Fleets under high pragmatic planning were mainly tilted towards the Nanyang Fleet.
This is a matter determined by different eras and different weights of interests. After all, in his plan, the area responsible for the Beiyang Fleet was relatively small, covering the northern coast of the Ming Dynasty and the waters of Korea and Japan, and the furthest south only reached Nanzhili.
Of course, including Southern Zhili, it also includes Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, which means that the Shanghai area of the magic city in later generations will still be within the area responsible for Beiyang. But it doesn't stop there. Starting from Zhejiang all the way south to the current Annan area, they are all the areas responsible for the Nanyang Fleet. More importantly, the Nanyang areas that will definitely be involved in the future are also the responsibility of the Nanyang Fleet.
But even so, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet will not be too weak. At least Gao Pragmatic will definitely adhere to a "two-power standard": that is, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet must ensure that it exceeds the current combined maritime power of North Korea and Japan.
This standard is neither too high nor too low.
Whether it is high or not is because the current official maritime power of both North Korea and Japan is relatively limited. Needless to say about North Korea, after two hundred years of peace, the army has not learned to fight, and the generals are arrogant and lazy. The maritime power can be expressed in a simple way - soy sauce.
Even though Yi Sun-shin was so praised by later Koreans that he even became the so-called "Asia's No. 1 General", everyone knows the habits of the great powers in the universe. Before it was the Chinese's turn to speak, he was ridiculed by the Japanese - -Without the help of the Ming army, Yi Sun-shin would not even have a chance to play.
And even according to South Korea, Yi Sun-shin led only "14 warships and 100 civilian ships converted into combat ships" in the Noryang Sea Battle. The so-called "turtle ships" were invincible, and later generations have long discussed its absurdity. To put it simply, the biggest problems with this ship are: it has a low hull, is not suitable for long-distance voyages, has weak firepower, and is expensive.
As for the defense that it is famous for... With North Korea's metallurgical level, it is difficult to say how big a layer of iron can be. It is just that the Japanese army at that time was heavy on muskets and not on heavy artillery. There was not enough Just maritime firepower.
Moreover, whether the hull was covered with iron sheets or whether some iron nails and cones were added, the historical circles of China, Japan and Korea have not been able to give a credible explanation to later generations.
There were no heroes at that time, so Zhuzi became famous.
Even "There Are No Heroes" has problems. The artillery of the Ming army's warships at that time was probably enough to break through the turtle ship's defense. It's just that North Korea was lucky and Ming's father was a friendly force.
In addition, Yi Sun-shin started his career late. He only passed the martial arts examination five years ago. Although he is now thirty-seven years old, he still doesn’t know where he is playing.
After such a horizontal comparison, Gao Pragmatic feels that North Korea's current naval strength may not be able to withstand a single blow from the Jinghua Transport Fleet in Tianjin Port.
As for Japan, there is no need to worry too much this year. Although the Japanese pirates seem to be very powerful in rampaging, they have been causing trouble along the coast of the Ming Dynasty for almost two hundred years. The proportion is about one-tenth, and the rest are basically Ming Dynasty's own pirates, just under the guise of Japanese pirates.
After Zhang Jing, Hu Zongxian, and Tan Lun fought against the Japanese, not only did a group of famous generals such as Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and Liu Xian emerge, and they basically wiped out most of the established Japanese pirate groups, but also with the advancement of Gao Gong's policy of opening up the sea, the current Japanese pirates There are fewer and fewer Japanese pirates.
The Minhai Pirate Alliance suffered a massive defeat some time ago, further accelerating the decline of the Japanese pirate group.
Moreover, even when the Japanese pirates were at their most ferocious, the Japanese pirates' own ships had no advantages to speak of. The truly reliable pirate ships used as the main force were almost all provided by the pirates of the Ming Dynasty...
On the contrary, Japan's official naval power is not very good. Just look at the deeds of "Jinghai King" Wang Zhi in Japan. Japan is very aware of current affairs and will make friends if they can't win. What's more, Wang Zhi can get them advanced matchlock guns, so Wang Zhi even calls himself King Hui in Japan.
But the premise of this situation is very clear: Japan's maritime power has no way to defeat Wang Zhi.
Therefore, in a horizontal comparison, Japan's current official maritime power is not worth mentioning.
However, the reason why Gao is pragmatic and believes that "it is not too low to say it is low" is because this year is already the ninth year of Wanli, which is 1581 AD. Next year, in the tenth year of Wanli and the tenth year of Japan's Tensho, the Honnoji Temple incident will occur.
After the Incident at Honnoji Temple, Monkey will basically unify Japan in a few years. By then, Japan's maritime power will increase rapidly driven by his ambitions.
Therefore, whether the Beiyang Fleet's two-power standard can succeed depends on whether it can suppress Japan in the next few years, but it has little to do with North Korea.
Although Gao Jingshi is rich, he does not intend to rely on Jinghua Group alone to conquer the world. Whether the Beiyang Fleet can suppress Japan's ambitions after reunification, he does not intend to rely entirely on Jinghua Group to support it - Jinghua is still a business group after all. , is to pursue profits. If pure warships are manufactured in large quantities, even if the Ming court does not pay attention, he himself feels that it is a serious waste. Therefore, warships are only the core, and the peripheral strength must rely on armed merchant ships. This is also popular in this era. .
But Jinghua also has a "political mission", which is to lead a group of Ming Dynasty officials who originally only knew how to seize land to turn their attention to the sea and overseas, instead of focusing on grabbing the land of poor guardsmen and poor people. At this time, the requirements are high. Pragmatically, we cannot eat alone, we must mobilize their enthusiasm.
In this era, it is too extravagant to talk about patriotism, so we have to talk about interests. Only interests can make these people divert their attention.
But before talking about benefits, we still need to let these people know what ocean trade is all about, and what capital is needed to make money on the ocean.
This is what Gao Qi and the shipbuilding masters are doing today.
How profitable is maritime trade?
Vasco da Gama has a record of doing it 70 times. You read it right, and I wrote it right, that is 70 times the profit.
However, Jinghua’s current profits are not that high, because Jinghua can’t even go to India, let alone Arabia or even Europe.
The farthest trading place that Jinghua can currently reach is Malacca, trading with the Portuguese - it can also be traded in Macau, but it can make more money by shipping to Malacca. If traded directly in Macau, the profit is only two to three times, but once sent to Malacca, the profit margin can increase to more than 7 times at the lowest and nearly 15 times at the highest.
why? Because the Portuguese in Macau can trade with Guangdong merchants nearby, but there are far fewer Guangdong merchants who can go to Malacca to do business. In addition, due to its size advantage, Jinghua is able to monopolize certain goods to a certain extent, such as the simplest item: Jun porcelain from Henan. Only Gao Pragmatic has genuine products of this item now, and the profit is so high that it is shocking: All are above 30 times.
There is also Hu Silk Suzhou Embroidery. Since Wei Guogong, Linhuai Marquis and other nobles have become hardcore collaborators of Jinghua, most of these cutting-edge silk products near South Zhili are now basically monopolized by Jinghua. Maritime merchants in Suzhou and Hangzhou want to It’s not easy to get the goods either.
In this way, it would be difficult for the corresponding Portuguese people to obtain goods at low prices. Since Jinghua has ocean-going capabilities, these goods can be sent all the way to Malacca, and the profits will naturally increase.
Only Cantonese embroidery is not easy to control. The main problem is that the Portuguese stronghold in Macau is too close.
It's a pity that Gao Pragmatic still has too many things to do, and it's not time to fall out with Spain and Portugal. Otherwise, he will definitely find ways to get rid of this stronghold and take back Macau.
Of course, this is a matter of time. Portugal currently has other uses.
I heard that the profits from ocean trade could easily increase several times, or even more than ten times in some cases. All the nobles were not calm, and could even be described as restless.
Gao Pragmatic watched quietly in the dark with a smile on his face. This group of people looked as if they had missed the red envelope sent by the boss in the WeChat group, as if they had accidentally lost 200 million.
However, some relatively stable nobles began to ask questions, such as the cost of the ship, daily maintenance fees, how long it would take to change the ship, the employment costs and daily expenses of the people on the ship, how much damage might be caused in the event of encountering pirates, etc. , involving all aspects.
Although Gao Qi's career in sea trade has not been very long, he has devoted himself to making great achievements and worked extremely hard. It is not difficult to explain these problems.
Although they did not know how to fight but were good at settling accounts, the nobles discussed in private and quickly came to several conclusions:
First of all, sea trade cannot work alone, otherwise it is easy to be hacked. It must form a joint force to be strong and safe.
Secondly, you must have an experienced driver to lead the team, otherwise you will lose a lot of profits if you just mess around. How can you be as happy as making ten times as much as making twice as much?
Thirdly, only with the strength of people can we create the "monopoly effect" that Jinghua calls. Although it seems that they can only follow Jinghua's Beiyang Fleet at present, that is, only North Korea and Japan can do it. If they go to Nanyang, Nanjing I'm afraid Xungui won't agree. But it doesn't matter. Let's test the waters with North Korea and Japan first. If Nanyang is more profitable, then we can talk to those bastards in Nanjing - Yanjing's Jingnan nobles are more popular than Nanjing's founding nobles!
So the final conclusion is obvious: you must get on the giant ship of Jinghua to make money and make big money!
To be more precise, it is to join the "Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance" proposed by Gao Qi just now with Gao Qi's pragmatic intention!
