In the East China Sea of the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of large and small ships are sailing from north to south on the sea, and these hundreds of ships, including hundreds of lucky ships and sailing ships, are huge in size, and the sails on the mast are bulging.

The entire huge fleet began with a fleet of more than 50 Daifuku ships and sailing ships, and the dragon flag of the Ming Dynasty and the flag of the Tianjin Ocean Trade Company were hung on the high mast.

More than 50 big ships sail in a triangular shape on the water, like the formation of wild geese, and the first ship has three big characters written on the huge hull of 'Taishan'.

Behind the triangular formation, there were hundreds of large and small ships, which, like the ships of the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company, all hung the dragon flag of the Ming Dynasty and the flags of their respective trading houses on the mast.

Sangong Ocean Trading Company, Zhang's Trading Company, Li Trading Company, Northern United Trading Company, Huishang Ocean Trading Company...... The ships of the big trading houses also followed the ships of the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company in front of them in an orderly manner, and they also routed on the sea in a triangular formation.

These large trading houses were all powerful, and they had not only a large number of ships, but also many large ships, at least medium-sized ships.

Behind these large trading houses were many small trading houses or some individual merchant ships, which were often weak.

Not only is the number of ships in a trading house small, but there are very few large ships, usually medium-sized ships, and even some small ships can be seen following behind the procession.

It's really crazy, in order to go to the South Seas to make money, even small ships dare to follow the South Seas.

Hundreds of large and small ships sail together on the sea, the scene is very spectacular, hundreds of boats compete for the current, thousands of sails race, between the water and the sky, the seagulls around the fleet continue to chirp, from time to time to fall on the ships to rest.

On the 'Taishan', the Taiping Marquis Du Mingen looked at the sea on all sides with a telescope, as if he was expecting something.

"We are so fanfare, they shouldn't dare to come and rob us, right?"

By Du Mingen's side, Lin Shuhong put down the binoculars in his hand and said with a smile.

"I don't know, but I still hope that they can appear, and it is best to come all of them and eliminate these pirates and pirates, so that this route can be regarded as truly safe, otherwise these pirates and Japanese countries are on these routes, and in the future, merchant ships will definitely be looted, and then they will suffer heavy losses."

Du Mingen put down the binoculars and said with a smile.

Pirates and pirates, these are things to be cleaned up.

They posed a major threat to the Ming Dynasty's expansion at sea and global colonization, which would seriously affect the Ming Dynasty's foreign strategy and hinder the development of capitalism.

More importantly, behind these pirates and pirates are actually the sea merchants and big families in the Jiangnan area, and cracking down on these pirates and pirates can deal a heavy blow to these sea merchants and big families in the Jiangnan area.

After cleaning up these pirates, everyone can travel freely and safely, and naturally their monopoly will be broken.

If they wanted to share in the benefits of the sea trade, they would have to support the Ming Dynasty's policy of opening up to the outside world, rather than demanding that the imperial court strictly enforce the ban on the sea, as they had done before.

"If they don't come this time, then they won't have a chance in the future, and when the new army is trained, the mentor will definitely form a special sailor, and then they can hunt them down in the Great Lakes and Four Oceans."

Lin Shuhong nodded slightly, thought for a while and said: "I guess, they will definitely come, and this time they will definitely come out, and the pirates and pirates around our Daming will definitely come back." ”

"I'm afraid that they won't come, if they come, this time they will be killed cleanly, and the ocean will be clear."

Du Mingen didn't care at all.

This time to the South Seas, it can be said that since the Three Treasure Eunuchs, the Ming Dynasty has gone to the South Seas on the largest scale, these hundreds of ships, the scale and Zheng He went to the West back then.

Of course, the purpose between the two is completely different.

At that time, Zheng He went to the West with many purposes, but only the purpose of making money was missing, and this time, many commercial houses went south to the South Seas together, with no purpose, only one purpose, that is, to make money, engage in silver, nothing else is important, only for silver.

That's the fundamental difference between the two.

This will also determine that the two will have completely different fates.

Zheng He's voyage to the West, although the scale was huge, and he promoted the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, but it also exhausted the national strength of the Ming Dynasty and doomed it to be unsustainable.

Many commercial banks in Tianjin go to the West, the scale is also huge, but only for profit, only for money, which is doomed, once many commercial banks can earn silver in the Nanyang area, it can continue to develop, the scale will only get bigger and bigger, and the exchanges will be more frequent.

With such a large scale, the goods carried by the major commercial banks in Tianjin alone are worth millions of taels of silver, and without the escort of the sailors, if these pirates and pirates do not seize the opportunity, then they really will never have a chance again.

Liu Jin also calculated all this.

These maritime merchants and big families in the Jiangnan area, they will never let go of this opportunity, this is their last chance.

They have lost the markets of the Japanese Kingdom and Korea in the north, and if they lose the markets in the South Seas, they are destined to weaken.

Once there is no huge profit from sea trade, what will these sea merchants and big families use to support them?

The fleet continued to move south, and their first stop was Ryukyu Castle, and in a few days, they were almost at Ryukyu Castle.

Here in Ryukyu Castle, they would rest for a few days, replenish their fresh water and food, and then continue directly south to Luzon, and then to Siam, Annam, and the entire South Seas region, and finally, depending on the situation, to South Asia.

Du Mingen and Lin Shuhong were discussing whether there were pirates, and similarly on other ships, everyone was also discussing pirates and pirates.

On the 'Hui Shang', Zhu Benduan and Feng Xiang stood on the deck, looking at the mighty fleet on the sea, and the whole person was also a little obsessed.

These hundreds of ships are rampant on the sea, giving people the feeling of thousands of troops, and when they stand on the bow of the ship, they feel as if they are generals commanding thousands of troops, pointing out the country and scolding Fang Xuan.

"Brother Feng, do you think we will encounter pirates and pirates?"

Zhu Benduan said with some concern, this time the two of them decided to follow the fleet to the Nanyang region, and they were also very determined.

They are Hui merchants and salt merchants, but now the life of Hui merchants and salt merchants is not good, last year lost the northern market, this year's spring, Changlu salt field began to enter the southern market, Changlu snow salt everywhere, they these salt merchants simply collapsed, there is no resistance at all.

It was only a matter of time before he could watch his market be eaten clean by the Changlu Salt Farm, and completely withdraw from the ranks of salt merchants.

In fact, if the Changlu Salt Farm is like this, there will be no more salt merchants in the future, and there will be no salt merchants.

It's almost impossible to make money from salt.

Therefore, they must find new ways to make money, and the salt merchants, who have always had a great appetite, naturally looked at the sea trade, and the profits of the sea trade were too great.

In the Ming Dynasty, the common silk, porcelain, and tea to places outside the Ming Dynasty, the price is casually doubled several times, and when you come back, you will be filled with local specialties, and you will go back and forth, and the profit will be the least tenfold.

And now the fact that the Golden Continent is full of gold has also been confirmed, and a trip to the Golden Continent can bring back a wealth worth 30 million taels of silver, which also attracts the attention of the entire Ming Dynasty.

Naturally, these salt merchants will not miss it.

If you can really go to the Golden Continent, what kind of salt do you sell, the salt merchant doesn't make much money, ten ships go to the Golden Continent, and bring back 30 million taels of silver in more than a year, there is no more profitable business in the world, and a million profits are just that.

There was no way, they had to transform and find a new way out.

The Hui merchants were mainly salt merchants, grain merchants, and tea merchants, and there were no maritime merchants involved, and the maritime merchants were mainly merchants from the coastal areas of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangsu.

As salt merchants among the Hui merchants, Zhu Benduan and Feng Xiang naturally knew about these maritime merchants.

In the Jiangnan region, if there is money, these Hui merchants can be second to none, and then these merchants and families who go to sea are next.

Both the Hui merchants and the maritime merchants have one thing in common, that is, monopoly, both of them do monopoly trading, especially the salt merchants and maritime merchants, which are absolutely monopolistic positions.

The monopoly position of the salt merchants mainly relied on the salt introduction system of the imperial court to form a monopoly, and they mastered the salt works of the imperial court, so they naturally mastered the sale of salt, but now they were broken by the Changlu salt field, and the salt merchants declined.

The monopoly position of maritime merchants depended on the imperial court's maritime ban policy, and on the other hand, on these pirates and pirates, and almost every maritime merchant or family that went to sea was inextricably linked with the pirates and pirates.

For this, Zhu Benduan and Feng Xiang are very clear, they are both people from the Jiangnan region, and many of them are married to each other, how can they not know. dog

"Yes~Definitely~"

Feng Xiang nodded solemnly and said, very sure.

"They are about to lose their lives, if they don't toss anymore, they won't have any way out, and if the financial road of Nanyang is cut off, they will have no fun."

Feng Xiang smiled and said, the people in the Jiangnan area have never been so embarrassed.

The court has been hit hard, even the economy, these Hui merchants and salt merchants have a hard time, and these maritime merchants have a hard time.

In fact, for these maritime merchants in the Jiangnan region, the most stable financial route was the route to the Wa Kingdom and Korea, which were very closely connected with the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, both countries were deeply influenced by the Ming Dynasty, and the things of the Ming Dynasty were very popular in both the Japanese and North Korea, because the people of the upper class in these two countries learned everything from the Ming Dynasty.

The upper class of North Korea and the Japanese people were proud to speak the Ming dialect, write Chinese characters, and read Tang and Song poems, and the Ming tea, cloth, silk, porcelain, and so on were absolutely in demand.

In addition, it is much closer and safer to travel to Korea and the Japanese Kingdom, which is a stable financial route.

It's just that now it has been robbed clean by the port of Tianjin in the north, and the maritime merchants in the Jiangnan region can't compete at all, and they have lost this important financial route.

The road to the Nanyang region is relatively long and risky, and if you are unlucky, if you encounter a typhoon, you will have to lose all your money.

With the loss of the financial routes of the Japanese Kingdom and Korea, the days of maritime merchants in the Jiangnan region can be imagined.

"Since you are sure, then why do you have to go to Nanyang, once there is an accident."

Zhu Benduan heard it and asked again.

"Because I think these pirates and pirates are definitely not the opponents of the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company~"

Feng Xiang smiled and said: "Have you seen the ships of the Tianjin Ocean Trade Company, these ships are not only merchant ships, but also war ships, and there are several rows of gun holes on the sides of the ships. ”

"Last year, there was a rumor among the maritime merchants in the Gangnam area that the pirates and pirates in the Gangnam area wanted to loot the fleet bound for the Ryukyus."

"As a result, the entire army was wiped out, but the fleet of Ryukyu Castle was unscathed."

"I've been thinking about a question all along, that is, why we can't fight that Liu Jin or them."

Feng Xiang smiled slightly, then turned around, leaning his back against the side of the ship, as if he had a lot to say.

"Keep talking~"

I wish Benduan was immediately interested.

"During this time, we were in Tianjin and Beijing, did you find anything special?"

Feng Xiang looked at Zhu Benduan and asked.

"Something special?"

"You mean the high-rise buildings here in Tianjin? Or is it a concrete road? ”

Zhu Benduan thought about it and said.

The prosperity of Tianjin New City is indeed dazzling, around the vicinity of Tianjin Port, Tianjin has also formed a commercial block of almost a few miles away, very prosperous, very lively.

"No, these are superficial things, and the really special things are the factories and workshops in the Beijing-Tianjin area."

Feng Xiang shook his head and said.

"Factories, workshops?"

Zhu Benduan was slightly surprised.

"Yes, according to my statistics, here in Tianjin alone, there are tens of thousands of large and small factories and workshops, including hundreds of cement factories alone, all kinds of workshops and cement factories, very dense, and the number of workers is also very large."

"These are not seen at all in our Jiangnan area, it is difficult for us to see dense factories and workshops, and even if there are, they are only workshops with hundreds or thousands of people, and the number will not be too much."

"But in the Beijing-Tianjin area, factories and workshops with hundreds or thousands of people are nothing at all, and factories and workshops with tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of people are needed."

"How can such a huge factory and workshop be managed?"

"And what they produce, don't you take a closer look?"

"It's very standardized, if you look at these ships on this sea, as long as they are ships from Tianjin Shipyard, they are almost the same, there is no difference, which is very scary."

"There are also ironware produced by the Beijing Miyun Iron Factory, glass products produced by the glass factory, cloth produced by the textile factory, etc., the things produced by these factories are not only large in output, but also of good quality, and more importantly, almost all the products are similar, it is difficult to find the difference, and it is as if they came out of a mold."

"That's what's special."

Feng Xiang told his discovery in one breath.

"What's so special?"

I wish this end is still a little unclear.

"Technology~"

"When I talk to these factory owners and workshop owners in the Beijing-Tianjin area, I often hear them talk about this word."

"At first, I didn't really understand what this technology was, but I once learned what it was when I talked to a factory owner who also ran an iron factory."

"The ironmaking of Miyun Iron Works is completely different from our traditional ironmaking, they use blast furnace ironmaking for ironmaking, and the weight of a furnace of molten iron can exceed 100,000 catties, and it only takes one day to practice, and the iron that is practiced is still the best iron."

"Maybe you still don't understand this, so I'll just say salt."

"We all buy and sell salt, and we all know that this salt is boiled, but the salt in the Changlu Salt Farm is not boiled at all, it is dried."

"A Changlu salt factory employs tens of thousands of people, but the salt produced is enough to supply our entire Ming Dynasty, and there is a surplus, which can be used to pickle salted fish and sell it to North Korea and the Japanese Kingdom."

"We have all been to the salt farm, and the stove in the salt field boils salt all day and night, and can cook ten catties of salt a day."

"This is technology, this is why we have never been able to fight Liu Jin, because mastering these techniques, Liu Jin is invincible, plus we also pulled the emperor and the crown prince to our own boat, we can't fight him."

"In the same way, these sea merchants and big families who do sea trade can't fight him, and they will eventually lose in his hands, I heard that the power of the cannons produced here by the Miyun Iron Factory is very amazing, and they planted their heads on this last year."

Feng Xiang finished speaking with a smile, and when he said this, the whole person also admired from the bottom of his heart: "This Liu Jin really deserves to be a son of a master, far from being comparable to us ordinary people, there is no benefit to fighting with him, it is better to learn from the northerners, follow his footsteps, and naturally have a steady stream of benefits." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Benduan finally understood, and immediately pondered, and after thinking about it carefully, he nodded and said: "I see, the unsalable cloth in our Jiangnan area has been unsalable recently, and it is also related to this technology, the cloth in the north is not only of good quality, but also very cheap, unbelievably cheap." ”

"That's right, as far as I know, the textile mills and weaving factories in the capital all use the new textile machines and looms made by the Beijing Machinery Factory, and one person can spin several pieces of cloth in a day, how can our cloth in the south of the Yangtze River compete."

"This is technology~"

Feng Xiang nodded and sighed.

"But what is really admirable is that this Liu Jin, he is willing to share all these money-making transactions and let everyone make money together, this is the son of a master, and his mind is admirable."

"Now it's just some pirates and pirates, you just wait and see, if those pirates don't come, forget it, if you really dare to loot our fleet, it is estimated that most of them will be beaten and there will be no scum left."