"The riverside advocates the hustle and bustle, and the merchant houses and Jia Bo go to each other: the coral tortoiseshell pours into the city, and the ivory rhinoceros is wrongly feasted; Taipu Pearl even multiply the photo, the fire cloth in the south of the day is lit at night, and the ......" This poem comes from Han Shanggui's "Guangzhou Xingcheng Fang Bo Hu Gong" during the Apocalypse of the late Ming Dynasty, and this "Fang Bo Hu Gong" is Hu Yingtai, who was the governor of Liangguang at the time. From this poem, on the one hand, we can feel the boundless prosperity built by the commerce of ancient Guangzhou 400 years ago, and a more important aspect; It is the prosperity brought by its overseas trade, after all, coral hawksbill turtles, ivory rhinoceros, Nippon fire cloth and the like come from overseas.

Throughout the reign of the Ming Dynasty, the "sea ban" has always been the basic policy of the Ming government towards the sea, not only the overseas private trade of the ocean nature was prohibited, but the Ming government even did not allow the people to engage in fishing and coastal trade.

However, there are policies and countermeasures, since the official does not allow it, then smuggling!

The government did not allow foreign trade on the surface, and Fujian's tariff revenue was only 20,000 taels in the early years of Wanli, and only 50,000 or 60,000 taels in Chongzhen at its peak, but according to Shi Zhihong's article "The Causes and Historical Consequences of the Formation of Conservatism in the Early Ming and Qing Dynasties", it is estimated that in the seventy or eighty years from the fifth year of Longqing to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the American silver that flowed into China through the China-Luzon-Mexico Pacific "galleon trade" route alone was no less than 60 million pesos, which was converted into more than 40 million taels of silver in Kuping. And what about the silver of the Wa Kingdom? What about the silver that came through the Straits of Malacca?

With so much silver flowing in, there was an outflow of commodities worth so much silver, most of which were smuggled abroad to earn back silver.

The foreign trade center of the Ming Dynasty was Fujian, and the foreign trade object was mainly Nanyang, followed by Japan.

Then there is Jiangnan smuggling, and Guangdong's foreign trade, is also very prosperous, at that time, not only foreign merchant ships into the coastal ports of Guangdong more and more, and from Guangdong set sail to, the Western merchant ships are also a lot, the end of the Ming Dynasty Qu Dajun recorded: "Guangdong Wangxian people are more than Jia, with the time to incense candy box iron rattan wax pepper Su Mu Pukui goods, its south to Macao, as for the red hair, Japan, Ryukyu, Siam, Hu, Luzon, etc., sail two oceans, thousands of miles, with China's precious things trade, get a big profit. ”

Lo and behold, the Cantonese smuggling route, those who are incapable, transport the goods to Macao, and transport them to the big cargo ships of the Hongmaofan (that is, the Portuguese, but collectively referred to as Hongmaofan).

Those who were able, not being exploited by the Portuguese, went on ships by sea, sailed overseas, and arrived in Hongmao, Japan, Ryukyu, Siam, Hu, Luzon and other places, and directly traded with the Yi people from all over the country.

Maritime merchants are rich, but maritime merchants are also extremely dangerous!

Natural disaster: Typhoon hits, people and ships are destroyed!

Understand why Mazu's faith is so strong by the sea?

At that time, the boats were all made of wood, and they were weak and powerless under the power of nature, and they could only pray to the gods and worship the Buddha.

After natural disasters, there are man-made disasters.

The maritime merchants worked hard to cross the sea, and there were people who wanted to make quick money, and that was pirates!

There are local pirates like Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi, as well as red-haired part-time pirates who read the Bible "Thou shalt not kill", and even worse, the local authorities of the red-haired fan who directly attacked the maritime merchants and ate big households!

For example, in 1603, Spanish bandits who had killed people from Europe, Asia and Africa finally attacked the Chinese in Luzon. They spread rumors that the overseas Chinese had colluded with the Ming government to attack Luzon, so they set up cannons on the overseas Chinese's residences and bombarded the market where the Chinese were doing business into nothing.

Under the oppression of the Spaniards, the Chinese revolted angrily and gathered tens of thousands of people to fight against the Spaniards.

However, the Spaniards had already prepared, and they united with the local Bangya and 800 Japanese to besiege the rebellious Chinese, and killed the local Chinese with artillery, guns, and swords, killing the local Chinese with a river of blood. According to historical records, 25,000 local overseas Chinese were killed, leaving only 300 people.

Among them, there are many Chinese maritime businessmen who don't know how much.

Poor Luzon seaside bones, still a person in a deep dream!

The news was reported to the central government of the Ming Dynasty, and the Wanli Emperor at that time did not care about the death of overseas Chinese. It turned out that for the imperial court, only those who stayed in the country were called compatriots, and when they went abroad, they became chaotic people. No matter what kind of bullying they receive, it is none of the affairs of the court. For the death of these overseas Chinese, Emperor Wanli even had to gloat. As if to say, "Look! This is the consequence of leaving the sphere of my domination! ”

The Wanli Emperor still drafted an edict "Edict to Lu Song", "reprimanding" the Spaniards who slaughtered overseas Chinese, and asking them not to do such inhumane things again. For their massacre, the Wanli Emperor, who was so gracious, could not bear to punish them, "his overseas slaughter is not exhaustive", and demanded that the Spanish side "think about the emperor's great grace and the great benevolence and righteousness of China".

What's even more chilling is that Emperor Wanli claimed in the article: "The four people of China, the merchants are the most cheap, how can they use the untouchables to stir up a military revolution!" "Those overseas Chinese who are overseas stay in foreign countries, do not return to the motherland, do not worship ancestral temples, and are abandoned by their fathers, ancestors and brothers. Therefore, it is not a pity for them to die, and there is no need for the Ming Dynasty to send troops to save them. As a result, overseas Chinese were expelled from their nationality by the Ming Dynasty.

And the Spaniards who learned the news were even more fearless, they never thought that the powerful Ming Dynasty would be so "magnanimous"! As a result, overseas Chinese have truly become fish and meat.

Not only the Spaniards, but also the Chinese who trade and do business in Southeast Asia, are fed up with the anger of the red hair, and your home country does not support you anymore, so don't blame outsiders for being unkind to you!

Overseas Chinese have to be exploited by Hongmaofan, if there is a dispute with Hongmaofan and local aborigines, it must be the Chinese who are angry!

Under pressure, the Chinese maritime merchants had to fight to the death against the pirates by armed escorts while sailing!

Every shipload of goods, every shipload of silver, there are Chinese, and the blood of my Chinese people is poured on it!

But in front of the cannon of the red-haired plywood ship, the Chinese maritime merchants could only swallow their anger!

Without the support of the state, the Daming sailors no longer had the courage of Zheng He to go to the Western Ocean and go directly to the Red Sea in Africa, and retreated to the beach to catch fishing boats.

Without the ocean-going fleet, the power of the Ming Dynasty retreated to the coast, causing the Chinese merchants who traveled between the East and the West to suffer from the raids of the Red Maofan.

There are also pirates from all walks of life who rob Chinese merchants!

Why did Yan Changwu strongly support the shogunate's closure of the country? Because the Japanese were also a major force in the killing of Chinese merchants, in 1603 Luzon in terms of killing Chinese, the Japanese and Filipinos killed the most vigorously, even the Spaniards were afraid of their cruelty, it is said that the screams of the Chinese when the Japanese killed the Chinese made the Spaniards unable to sleep!

As soon as the shogunate closed the country, the Japanese stayed in the country and laughed at themselves, and Yan Changwu's pressure on the Oriental side was greatly reduced, and he only used only four cruisers in the Ryukyus.

……

Today, Yan Changwu, who has a fleet, the general of the Ming Hussars, the commander of the Taiwan Guard, the Fujian coastal defense guerrilla, the Guangdong coastal defense guerrilla, and the two sets of brands of the Southeast Prefecture Overseer and the Great Dragon Head, announced that he would charge an annual fee of 2,000 silver dollars for the ocean-going cargo ships in Guangdong Province for water diversion and Chinese merchants for one ship.

It has undoubtedly increased the burden on everyone. However, almost all the maritime merchants in Guangdong Province sent important personnel, or personally arrived at Wailingding Island, and met with Yan Changwu, claiming to have sent silver!

Just for Yan Changwu's promise: "Those who dare to offend those who hold the flag of my order will be punished even if they are far away!" ”

That is to say, after a long absence of 113 years (starting with the arrival of 4 warships of the Portuguese fleet in Tuen Mun, Guangdong in 1517, the situation in the South China Sea changed color, the sunset afterglow of Zheng He's voyage to the West completely disappeared, and the South China Sea and the area west of it were no longer our Chinese sphere of influence, now in 1630), China's formed maritime forces will re-descend on the South China Sea region, which has become the Hongmao Fannei Lake!