Antonio looked at the five-masted and twenty-one-sail ocean-going ship, and he was about to own two such ships, which he had exchanged for the silver he earned, and he saw hope again.
"What makes me feel strange is why this ship appears here." Antonio looked at the majestic sailboat and asked with a frown.
The Ming Emperor was so brave!
Antonio couldn't understand that this ship was an improved version of the Ming Dynasty Fengzhou and plywood giant ships. Especially the rows of artillery were really frightening to see. He didn't understand why this ship appeared in Luzon.
"Governor Yin may not have understood my question. Luzon is to the Ming Dynasty just like the Verde Islands to Spain and Portugal. The Verde Islands and Cape Verde are already completely free. It is hard to imagine why the Ming Dynasty's court decided to With Luzon deploying such powerful firepower, wouldn’t the emperor of the Ming Dynasty be afraid that the governor of Luzon would join forces with the red-haired bandits, Japanese pirates, black bandits, and desperadoes to invade the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty?”
"We are very worried about this problem because pirates in Cape Verde continue to invade the port. For example, Duguay Trouin, who was originally a nobleman and later became a pirate, captured our port with the French, demanded ransom, and gave We have caused great difficulties." Antonio did not believe that the Ming court would not have such concerns, but due to Ming's decision, the ship had already been deployed in Manila.
Free Cape Verde is completely free without any rules. Is this freedom really freedom? But if freedom has rules, is it still freedom?
Yin Zhengmao was silent for a moment and said: "The imperial court's requirements for me are actually not very high. They are to stop the Hong Mao Fans from encroaching on the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory, and prevent the Hong Mao Fans from getting together with Japanese pirates and desperadoes to cause trouble to the Ming Dynasty; in anti-smuggling, In fact, I cooperated with the Ming Dynasty to prevent tax evasion and smuggling; but I did better, recruiting many pirates, settling them in Luzon, and even assuming the function of the imperial court to exile criminals."
“To trust others, you must first be strong enough yourself.”
Yin Zhengmao received administrative subcontracting tasks from the emperor, including military, economic, cultural and political tasks, and he completed these subcontracted tasks very well, and even used his subjective initiative to find ways to stabilize the Ming Dynasty's maritime territories. After doing so much, it is natural to gain the trust and favor of the court.
"If you do well, you will be rewarded, and if you do bad, you will be punished. Isn't this the right thing to do?" After Yin Zhengmao finished speaking, he laughed.
A man with a national surname who has made great achievements does not believe in celebrating rewards and punishments, just like Wang Chonggu, the Minister of Punishment in the Ming Dynasty, does not believe in laws.
Antonio shook his head and said: "You are right. In theory, it is right, but the reality is that there is no justice in reality."
Antonio has traveled around the world in his life and has seen too many things. He does not believe in justice, and from his observation, there is no justice in the Ming Dynasty. Justice is more like the rules of the game, packaged as a dream that makes people believe. Only those who make use of the rules of the game can thrive.
Deng Zilong thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Captain, our Yin Butang is actually a descendant of the clan living among the people. When we return to Beijing this time, we are going to recognize our ancestors and return to the clan! This time we will directly change our surname when we come back!"
Antonio's eyes lit up, and he kept nodding in agreement: "If that's the case, then everything makes sense."
Yin Zhengmao did not refute again, because he was already a national surname certified by the imperial court.
"There is no justice in reality." Yin Zhengmao repeated Antonio's words with some emotion. This problem was also common in Ming Dynasty.
In fact, more than one person said similar words to him and instigated him to proclaim himself king, and there were not many of them.
Japanese invaders were everywhere in Guangdong and Guangxi, and Li Qian, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, could not pacify the local herdsmen. Yin Zhengmao was ordered to come to Guangdong and Guangxi, destitute and with nothing. The pirates rode directly on Yin Zhengmao's face and beat them out. He won the battle, pacified the Japanese pirates and calmed the local herdsmen. , he did it all.
In May of the fifth year of Longqing, the powerful Jin gentry controlled the salt supply from Guangdong to Guangxi. Yin Zhengmao's method of changing salt was used by the officials to sell salt from Guangdong to Guangxi, snatching food from the hands of the powerful Jin gentry. Guangxi's official movement allowed Guangxi people to eat it for the first time. Affordable salt also allowed Guangdong salt collectors to get the remuneration they deserved for the first time.
In the second year of Wanli, he eliminated the last group of Japanese pirates.
And this time when Yin Zhengmao returned to Beijing, he saw a mountain of impeachment memorials against him. Those officials and officials exaggerated him into a corrupt and corrupt person. Yin Zhengmao only admitted that he was corrupt and that he was greedy to support foreign soldiers. , If you don’t raise guest soldiers, you can’t pacify the Japanese. If you raise guest soldiers, the court won’t give you any money, and you have to let the horses run without giving them grass.
But Yin Zhengmao could also understand the difficulties of the imperial court, because the imperial court really had no money. It couldn't even feed mice with the national funds, so it really had no money for Yin Zhengmao to quell the Japanese bandits.
Yin Zhengmao could only feed the Jin gentry.
The number of memorials impeaching him is decreasing rapidly, while the number of memorials asking him to return is increasing. Ling Yunyi has now become a serious problem for the Jin gentry in Guangdong and Guangxi! Even Yin Zhengmao's reputation has improved a lot.
Yin Zhengmao is very capable, but in the eyes of the court, he is still a thorn and a corrupt man. If the emperor hadn't asked him to come to Luzon, how would things have turned out?
Zhang Juzheng was worried that Yin Zhengmao would no longer support him because he wanted to serve as a vassal. The criticism from the officials made it difficult for him to withstand, and he was eventually hidden. Worse, like Hu Zongxian, he became a victim of the strife in the court; and he fought for the Ming Dynasty. In a few years, the guest soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who survived the bloody sea of corpses may have to be disbanded on the spot. These guest soldiers have transformed from loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty into pirates who threaten the maritime borders of the Ming Dynasty.
Is there anything more cruel than picking up a knife and pointing it at the former robe?
When pirates reappeared, a vicious cycle began. The pirates of the Ming Dynasty suppressed more and more pirates, and became stronger and stronger.
There is no justice in reality. This is a wise saying. Things that should be so but are not so often happen.
The bureaucrats who were supposed to carry out the imperial decrees became the mouthpieces of the private sector and a weapon for the common people. The gentry were not peaceful herdsmen, but exploited the local people. The emperor should have worked hard to govern, but he indulged in extravagant enjoyment. The government officials should have hunted down the thieves, but instead He became a city sniper, using his wings to swallow up good things.
The world is always like this, it should be like this but never is.
"Governor Yin, I'm very confused." Antonio was very upset because of the loss of the two ships. As a result, he had some confusion and doubts about the path of life. He needed someone to clear up his doubts, and he felt that Yin Zhengmao was a good person to turn to.
Yin Zhengmao said with a smile: "I am not your priest."
Yin Zhengmao understands Thai and Western culture very well. This kind of seeking help from priests is a very common phenomenon in Thai and Western countries.
"I don't know what the point of doing this is." Antonio said helplessly. Indeed, Yin Zhengmao was not his priest and had no reason to answer his doubts in life, but he really couldn't find anyone to turn to.
"Then let's start with why Felipe II can't be emperor." Yin Zhengmao decided to answer Antonio's questions. On the one hand, Emperor Ming was one of Antonio's investors. Although these investments required real money, For example, weapons, ships, and privileged trade.
On the other hand, the reason why Yin Zhengmao was willing to answer his questions was because Antonio brought a large amount of crops to his majesty.
These crops are of great significance to enriching the agricultural structure of the Ming Dynasty. In the capital, Guo Xingye saw Baoqisi cultivating fine seeds, and also saw the positive effects of the Ming Dynasty's continuous reclamation of wasteland and sowing sweet potatoes.
On the other hand, Antonio brought ships to the Ming Dynasty every year and transported a large amount of silver to the Ming Dynasty, which injected power into the Ming Dynasty's whip method and solved part of the Ming Dynasty's money shortage problem.
Yin Zhengmao said quite accurately: "Felipe II is the king of the empire on which the sun never sets. His fleets have traveled throughout the new world, but he is still not an emperor, just a king, because he still cannot establish an effective system. The rules that allow the territory under his rule to operate stably are the reasons why Felipe II cannot become emperor."
"Emperor, Caesar (Caesar), I think this Latin translation is more accurate. It is not just a conquest, but also a code of etiquette."
"I don't understand." Antonio shook his head again. He didn't understand what Yin Zhengmao's analysis of Felipe II's inability to be Caesar meant to his life.
Yin Zhengmao looked at Antonio and said: "What you did is right, and it is not completely meaningless. You are loved and supported by the civilians in Taixi, but only civilians without strength cannot accomplish anything."
"Whether it's a noble or a religion, Felipe II's strength is an insurmountable mountain for you. You need to constantly enhance your strength. Common people have power, but these powers need to be used in more effective ways. , can it be reflected.”
"To be more clear, you need more muskets, more artillery, more grassroots officers who are loyal to you, and more well-trained sergeants, otherwise you and Felipe II will compete for the Little Franco machine. He will only be beheaded as a trophy by Felipe II and become one of the evidences of his great martial arts."
"If you have 20,000 people, he will need to think about the cost of pacifying you. If you have 50,000 people, he will hesitate. If you have 100,000 people, he will recognize you as the king of Xiao Fo Langji! "
"Power must be in your own hands!"
When Yin Zhengmao said the last sentence, he clenched his fists in front of Antonio.
Antonio didn't understand, but Luo Lian did. In fact, the summary of what Yin Zhengmao said was, order, place the order quickly, Antonio, pay.
A five-masted ocean crossing ship requires at least 150,000 taels of silver coins, and the supporting ordnance and other items cost more than 50,000 taels. Finally, to arm the ocean crossing ship, Antonio has to pay more silver.
Luo Li'an could only say that Yin Zhengmao was worthy of being a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, and he was so confident when he asked for orders.
Yin Zhengmao was not deceiving Antonio. This illegitimate son wanted to compete for the throne of Portugal. He had no army and only the support of civilians, so he would only be shown his head in public.
Yin Zhengmao was actually very busy in Luzon, and Luzon also changed its appearance. The water gate of the previous Hongmaofan Fortress was not blocked, but was covered by forts protruding from the sea. In this way, he wanted to recreate Yin Zhengmao's strategy of defeating ten guilds with one force is no longer possible.
Before, there were no drainage channels in the city, not even a toilet. Now, the muddy ground has been changed. Green wood has been paved, and bathhouses and toilets have been built.
Yin Zhengmao was very disgusted with the Westerners not bathing. The smell of the Westerners' glands was really too strong.
Yin Zhengmao was handling various matters in Luzon. He planted a large amount of palm and sugar cane in Luzon. Luzon's pillar industries were oil and sugar, both of which were urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty. He was also developing new pillar industries.
The planting area of palm trees has expanded to 120,000 hectares, and the planting area of sugar cane has expanded to 230,000 hectares. He constantly recruits desperate people to come to Luzon to make a living, and divides the fields wherever they go, and he does what he says. .
Yin Zhengmao finished disposing of the last official document. This was a small case. There was a dispute between two merchants on Daming Street in Luzon. There are more and more disputes like this. This does not mean that the security of Luzon is getting worse, but that the people of Luzon used to I don't trust the Governor's Mansion at all. The disputes that were previously handled by the people themselves were brought to the Yamen to be judged by the referee, so it seemed busy.
In the past, when merchants had conflicts, the usual solution was to have a fight with each other. After the small fight, the losing party would be unconvinced and look for people everywhere in order to regain the place. Small fights would turn into group fights, or even group fights. It may evolve into turmoil throughout Luzon, with verbal disputes escalating into group fights everywhere. This is the case in Luzon, even in Manila, where turmoil occurs three or four times every year.
After Yin Zhengmao's arrival at the Governor's Mansion, the merchants finally learned how to seek judgment from the referee, and Yin Zhengmao saw with his own eyes that two merchants who were still in court yesterday were drunk in a restaurant today.
A scholar asked to see him. Yin Zhengmao put down his pen and looked at the person in front of him. He was Chen Chengyi from Guangzhou Dianbai.
This person is a candidate from Guangzhou. He went to Beijing to take the exam three times and failed to pass the exam. In order to become an official, this candidate came to Luzon. After nine years, he will receive the special gift of Enke Jinshi and then return to Beijing.
Yin Zhengmao is not afraid that those who come to the island are just pragmatic idiots. Practical idiots will never come to Luzon, which is isolated overseas.
"Yin Budang." Chen Chengyi greeted him very respectfully. Yin Zhengmao was a legend in Guangdong and Guangxi. The Japanese troubles that had occurred for many years were pacified by Yin Zhengmao in four years. No matter how the powerful gentry poured dirty water on Yin Zhengmao, Chen Chengyi and the people of Guangdong still remained. Thank you very much Yin Zhengmao.
Yin Zhengmao said with a smile on his face: "No courtesy, no courtesy. There are not so many big rules on the island. We are all doing things for His Majesty."
"What should I do?" Chen Chengyi asked in confusion.
"Don't you want to rest for two days? Coming here by boat is very tiring." Yin Zhengmao said with a smile: "No rush, no hurry."
"My family has been a maritime trader for generations, so it's not very tiring." Chen Chengyi said very accurately.
Yin Zhengmao liked this kind of people. He worked as soon as he arrived. He asked Chen Chengyi to take charge of the copper and gold mines. There were gold and copper mines on Luzon Island, and mining required people to organize and schedule. Can Chen Chengyi do it? Yue will know.
Chen Chengyi is not a pragmatic person. He has been taking the Jinshi exam for many years but failed. To take the Jinshi exam requires not only knowledge, but also famous teachers. Chen Chengyi's family is relatively wealthy, but it is true that he cannot find famous teachers. He passed the exam at the age of twenty and became a third-level scholar. When he was more than ten years old and failed three times, Chen Chengyi still wanted to be an official, so he followed him to Luzon.
Chen Chengyi was immediately confused by Yin Zhengmao. He had read books about sages all his life, and Yin Butang asked him to mine. He really didn't know how to...
Yin Zhengmao gave Chen Chengyi an official factory record of copper mining, and asked Chen Chengyi to take Lin Afeng's guards on the road. The target location was Parakalan, a small town east of Manila with about 10,000 people. With a population of five thousand, there are a large number of private gold miners here.
Chen Chengyi knew what he wanted to do when he arrived at the place, and turned the private kilns here into public kilns.
There was no war. The guards formed after Lin Afeng was recruited were vulnerable to Yin Zhengmao's elite guest soldiers. However, facing these miners composed of lowly natives, Lin Afeng had an overwhelming power. Advantage.
The guards under Lin Afeng were very tall. The height of the miners here was only as high as Chen Chengyi's chest. With such a height difference, if there was a real fight, the guards would win. After entering, Chen Chengyi began to improve the methods of gold mining and refining copper ore.
The gold mining methods here are so inefficient that there is no copper mining process.
Chen Chengyi was not obsessed with gold mining. Gold mining had too much luck and was far less stable than copper smelting. Chen Chengyi began to try to improve the copper smelting process here.
Any mountain that produces copper ore is always filled with soil and rocks. If you dig a few feet deep, you can get the gangue that wraps the copper ore. This gangue is shaped like a piece of ginger with a copper star on it, so it is also called Tongpu.
After cleaning the soil on the copper Pu, you can start to smelt copper, and almost all copper Pu contains lead.
The copper smelting furnace was quickly fired. This furnace is very interesting. It has two holes, high and low. After the copper is melted in the furnace, the copper will flow out from the small hole at the bottom, and the lead will flow out from the small hole at the top. Copper and zinc are brass, and copper and tin are bronze.
Chen Chengyi does not intend to further refine it. This step is enough. The produced copper ingots will be transported to Manila and then sent back to Daming.
The conditions were very simple, and the copper ingots cast by Chen Chengyi were very ugly. A hole was hammered into the sand pit to create a sand mold for the copper ingots.
But no matter how ugly they are, they are still copper ingots. After solving the problem of crude copper smelting, Chen Chengyi began to organize people to farm, palm and sugar cane. Yin Zhengmao did ask him to smelt copper and pan for gold, but Chen Chengyi was from the Ming Dynasty, and he was very concerned about persuading farmers and mulberry trees. Careful and persistent, if you think you are an official and do not encourage farmers, then you are still an official?
With fields, there can be more people, and with more people, we can better mine copper and gold.
Plantations began to appear on both sides of the river. Chen Chengyi often took more than 20 guards and two generals to personally search for land that could be reclaimed.
The first batch of copper materials began to be shipped back to Daming. One hundred and fifty thousand kilograms of copper materials were loaded onto a five-masted sailing ship. A large amount of palm oil, fish oil, and sugar filled the entire ship.
Yin Zhengmao also wanted to test the performance of the large ship. Ocean-crossing ships have to cross the ocean, so carrying a full load of cargo is also a kind of sea test.
Accompanying him was Antonio's galleon. He bought what he needed in Manila and headed north again.
In Songjiang Prefecture New Port, two large ships were moored. In comparison, the five-masted ocean-going ship made of 1,000 materials was a whole circle larger than the four-masted sailing ship.
Those who were responsible for the weighing and drawing were Antonio's old acquaintances, Zhang Jin, the eunuch of Nanjing Military Preparation, and Zhang Cheng, the chamberlain of Songjiang Admiral. In the first year of Wanli, when Antonio first came to the Ming Dynasty, these two eunuchs were responsible for the weighing and drawing, and the capital The co-president of the coastal defense department was still Luo Gongchen, the same Luo Gongchen who came to the capital and wanted to win points for foreign ships.
Songjiang Commander-in-Chief Chen Lin and Songjiang Governor Wang Daokun also rushed to the port.
It is a big event every year to draw points for foreign ships. This is a symbol of the emperor's southern treasury. The sea taxes entering the capital are divided into half and half of the national funds.
"All national and internal funds are the emperor's money. They have to be divided every year. It's really troublesome." Zhang Jin shook his sleeves and divided the foreign ships. It was the thunder that Zhang Cheng and Luo Gongchen had shouldered. They cut it first and played it later.
Zhang Jin didn't quite understand why His Majesty, the late Emperor, and Emperor Jiajing wanted to separate the state funds and the internal funds. In his opinion, all the money, grain, taxes, and taxes were sent to the internal funds, and the court had to ask His Majesty if they wanted to use it.
This is the emperor.
The emperor made money in a wise way, and when he did some business, in addition to the business of the imperial palace, he also had to share the accounts with the state funds. Naturally, the eunuchs were dissatisfied because it was all his majesty's money!
Zhang Jin's idea seems very reasonable when he meets the emperor of Ming Dynasty, but what should he do if he meets the emperor who can only enter and not come out? All the silver went into the palace, and the emperor rewarded the artists with silver. For a lantern festival held in Aoshan, he would be rewarded hundreds of thousands taels, which was the same amount for a battle with the Daning Guards.
Zhang Cheng smiled. The separation of state funds and internal funds was the result of a long-term struggle. It was not formed overnight. It was the final product of the constant compromise and struggle between the emperor and his ministers. Eunuchs were actually in the struggle between imperial power and ministerial power. , in a minion position without much decision-making power.
Literary men scolded the eunuchs every day for causing harm to the country. The eunuchs during the Jiajing and Longqing years were very quiet, and they did not see the Ming Dynasty flourishing.
Ming Dynasty is a system. When Ming Dynasty slides down in a swooping posture, every meat-eater in this system, regardless of each other, is a sinner.
Antonio couldn't understand it again. The most unloaded cargo from the Ming Dynasty's ships was copper ingots, not the more precious gold. There were at least three places on Luzon Island where gold could be mined, but Yin Zhengmao seemed to be more obsessed with mining copper mines.
"A total of 150,000 kilograms of copper material can be used to cast 20 million copper coins. According to the calculations of the Ming Dynasty, it is 20,000 guans and 20,000 taels of silver. Is it just for such a small amount of copper coins that you have spent so much effort?" Antonio asked the old man An acquaintance, Luo Gongchen.
"The captain is supported by the common people in the West. It seems more like a competition for the throne, and he does not really care about the common people." Luo Gongchen's words were not polite. Everyone was acquaintances, so there was no need to be polite.
"You! You! You... are slanderous!" Antonio was really anxious and even used idioms. As a noble, he really paid attention to civilian life.
Luo Gongchen said with a smile: "Because copper coins are used by the people of the Ming Dynasty, gold and silver are used by meat eaters. Mr. Yuan Fu's idea has always been that the people are the foundation of a country, and the foundation is solid. It is not that your Majesty does not pay attention to silver and gold. But similarly, common people also have to spend money, and copper coins are specially given to common people, so Your Majesty pays more attention to copper ingots."
"So that's it, I understand." Antonio suddenly realized.
"Honorable Chamberlain, can I still go to the Glazed Pagoda this year? I'll be satisfied just by looking at it. If I can't see that tower, it's like I haven't come to the Ming Dynasty." Antonio applied to Zhang Jin, the military eunuch, to visit Baoen Temple. Glazed Tower.
"Uh, okay, I can only watch from outside." Zhang Jin agreed. He actually didn't quite understand why Antonio was so obsessed with that tower.
In Antonio's eyes, that tower was a miracle and a symbol of civilization in his mind. When Felipe II saw the painting of the Glazed Tower, he always asked to build a similar one in his palace, but Felipe II's The secretary told him that he couldn't do it.
The Ming Dynasty used more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians to build the Glazed Tower, and it took more than ten years to complete. Seville, the home of the New World Trading, only had a total of 150,000 people. How could it be built?
The Ming Dynasty had very complicated feelings about the Glazed Pagoda. The purpose of constructing the Glazed Pagoda was during the Yongle period when Emperor Cheng Zuwen built it in memory of his mother, Queen Ma. Since the construction began, there has been constant opposition, criticizing the people's power, extravagance, and extravagance. There are endless categories of words.
After Emperor Cheng Zuwen came to visit the guests, the tower was left unattended for more than three years due to the wind and public opinion.
The sacred tower in Antonio's mind. Every year when a large sailboat arrives at the port, Antonio goes there with a pilgrim mentality. One look at it makes him convinced that he has really arrived.
"The Emperor of Ming Dynasty promised me that I can buy Ming Dynasty's ocean-going ships. Is this promise still valid?" Antonio asked the second concern, buying ships.
Songjiang Admiral Zhang Cheng, an internal minister, said with a smile: "Your Majesty, since you have agreed, you have agreed. You can place an order here, but you need to go to Beijing and get your Majesty's edict before we can deliver it to you. See Is that a boat? It’s already launched.”
Antonio's eyes lit up, and his expression became relaxed and happy. He laughed and said, "Take my silver and let your people leave my ship!"
"I want two!"
The attitude of the emperor's attendants largely represented the emperor's attitude.
In the system design of the Ming Dynasty, the power of the eunuchs came entirely from the emperor himself. The emperor himself was the foundation of the eunuchs, so the possibility of an eunuch betraying his master was almost zero. The day before the emperor Liu Jin fell, no one expected Liu Jin It was such a simple death.
Wei Zhongxian is said to be nine thousand years old. Didn't Emperor Chongzhen, who is a brother-in-law, just take care of it?
The only eunuch in the Ming Dynasty who betrayed his master occurred during the Tianshun period of Baozong. Cao Jixiang rebelled. Cao Jixiang's rebellion was like child's play, but rebellion is rebellion. The chief assistant Li Xian was chopped, and the imperial censor of Zuodu, Kou Shen and Gong Shunhou Wu Jin was killed, and Huaining Bo Sun's son was killed.
Antonio's experience of going to Beijing this time was like flying. He was on a hydrofoil sailboat, and the coastal defense patrol took him to Tianjin Wei.
Antonio, an old captain, started swaying as soon as he got off the boat. He held on to the pillar and vomited. He almost threw up his stomach. He collapsed on the ground. Riding a hydrofoil sailboat was an unprecedented experience.
Seasickness is something that can happen to even the most experienced captain.
Please give me a monthly ticket, wow! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
(End of chapter)
