Find another way to survive!

Almost everyone thinks this way when they are faced with a desperate situation, but the same question also bothers them whenever they think about it.

Where is the way to live?

As the third son of the Jin family, Jin Wenbo as early as the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he took a few subordinates, holding the customs clearance documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, all the way south, because of the severance of the Grand Canal, he could only enter Wuchang from Zhili through Xiangyang, and then from Wuchang through the water through Changsha, Vietnam Ridge, and then all the way over the mountains and mountains, to Guangdong in Lingnan. Especially in the depths of the mountains of Nanling, where the miasma is even more pervasive, so that several domestic slaves are infected and die there, and the risk on this road is not slightly safer until after crossing Nanling.

Finally, the group came to Guangzhou after a lot of hardships, and the depression of Guangzhou did not see the prosperity of the past. The reason is simple, when the Qing army entered the city, it had killed hundreds of thousands of people inside and outside the city of Guangzhou, and there were hundreds of thousands of people in the provincial capital, but there were only more than 10,000 people alive, and even now, outside the city, there are huge tombs, which are the places where the bodies were buried after the Manchu massacre, even if the evidence of their crimes, it is also a deterrent to the people.

And for Jin Wenbo, who is used to seeing all this along the way, he doesn't care about these things at all, just like his father said, he never cares how many people the Qing army killed, as long as the Jin family can get rich, it is more important than anything else.

Nothing is more important to a merchant than silver, and as for the rest...... It's not a big deal! And now, Jin Wenbo came to Lingnan after thousands of hardships and hardships, for the future of the Jin family.

However, Guangzhou is not Jin Wenbo's destination, the place he will eventually go to is Macao under the rule of the Portuguese, in fact, he didn't know much about Macau, but as the third son of the Jin family, he originally did not have any hope of inheriting the family business, and because of this, as the young master of the Jin family, he had the opportunity to contact those foreigners in Beijing, and it was from the foreigners that he learned about Macau, and also knew about Europe, although he only knew a little about Europe, but in this stormy time, He was keenly aware that perhaps, the Jin family's way of life was in a foreign country.

It didn't take much trouble to get from Guangzhou to Macao, although according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, not an inch was allowed to go to sea, and the sea ship had already been dismantled, but there was no need for a sea boat to go to Macao, and a sloop river boat could send him to Macao, to this place under the rule of the Portuguese.

After he arrived in Macao, Jin Wenbo did not go to the church according to the introduction, but searched around Macau for news, and the news he inquired about was not particularly complicated news, but news related to Europe.

"It's really fascinating......"

Looking at the information in the books about the "Hanseatic League" and the "Dutch Republic", those merchants who ruled and even controlled the country, Jin Wenbo's expression was full of fascination, as early as a teenager, when he first heard about the "merchant state", he was curious, what kind of businessman can establish a country.

And now, in the library of Macau, through those books, he saw the rise of autonomous city-states founded by merchants, of course, although these city-states have long since declined, but the status of merchants has not declined, and in those areas, successful merchants are even more respected than kings.

And that's why he's here. He wanted to know as much as he could about Europe, to know everything about it, and it was just hearsay, which did not allow him to understand it, so he came to Macau, hoping to learn about that distant place from other foreigners, from books.

"Perhaps, this choice is the right one!"

Jin Wenbo muttered to himself, his eyes staring at a certain corner of the map, his expression full of yearning.

"Perhaps, it's a merchant's paradise!"

For Jin Wenbo, who has become accustomed to government blackmail, he never imagined that in the world, there would be countries controlled by businessmen, let alone that money is equal to everything in Europe.

This is the difference between China and China, at least there, where the merchant is not a fat sheep in the eyes of the king, not a piece of fat for the mermaids.

"Why do you have to stay here?"

When leaving the library, Jin Wenbo looked into the distance, thinking that his father was worried about the current situation in the world all day long, and he was depressed about the future of the Jin family.

For the Jin family, there are not many choices. In any case, the current chaotic situation makes him have to think about the future of the Jin family, and it is also for his own future.

After all, for the south, the Jin family is a traitor who must be severely punished, and it is the object that must be raided and destroyed.

"Even if the Qing Kingdom wins, what can it do? The Jin family is just a minion! ”

Jin Wenbo said to himself, he would never dare to say such a thing when he was in Jingshi, but now, he said it, and this sentence is also his heartfelt words.

The south didn't leave a way for the Jin family to survive, but in the eyes of my Qing Dynasty, the Jin family was just a slave and a fat sheep!

In this case, instead of staying here. It's better to go another way and go to Europe! To the place where the status of the merchant can be compared to that of many powerful people. That's a merchant's paradise.

"However, how to get to Europe is a troublesome matter."

When he came to the port, looking at the Chinese-style Western-style ships in the port, Jin Wenbo's brows were tightly locked, looking at those Westerners with different coat colors and very different appearances from the Chinese, he secretly thought to himself in his heart.

Even if his father had agreed, how would his brothers have agreed?

Go to Europe!

Facing his father with a sad face, Jin Wenbo once lobbied his father like this, he was born in the Jin family and knew very well that for the Qing Dynasty, the Jin family was a slave, and for the Ming Dynasty in the south, the Jin family was a traitor who brought disaster to the country and the people, even in his hometown in Shanxi, there were many people who poked their backbones in the back.

What is the future of the Jin family?

Jin Wenbo didn't know, but he knew very well that whether it was for the Qing Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, the Jin family was just meat on the board.

Daming won't let them go!

Will the Qing Dynasty let them go?

"Back then, when the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Dolgon invited our eight families to enter Beijing, saying that it was a reward for meritorious deeds, but in fact it was to let the eight families pay for the silver, and there was no tax and grain in the south of the Yangtze River. Now, with the loss of taxes and grain in Jiangnan, what do they rely on to maintain hundreds of thousands of troops? Do you think the Green Battalion soldiers really worked for the Qing Dynasty? They are for the silver! Without the silver, how can these hundreds of thousands of green camps be maintained? When the time comes, where will they get the money? ”

My father knew very well how important the taxes and grains in Jiangnan were to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty had to rely on it to raise troops and pacify the world.

Now, if the Qing Kingdom wants to recover Jiangnan, it needs a lot of military spending and a lot of silver.

But where do they get the money now?

It's only against the eight imperial merchants!

In the past, whenever the imperial court was tight, it would either let the eight families reciprocate, or ask the eight families to borrow silver, and of course, they would also repay the borrowed silver in the end. But the current situation, if it continues to deteriorate day by day, I am afraid that before the Great Qing Kingdom is finished, the Jin family and several others will be squeezed dry by the Great Qing Kingdom.

The pigs are fattened, and they are going to stay for the New Year!

Now these eight families are the fattened pigs of the Qing Dynasty!

"I want to find a way back for the Jin family!"

Posterior!

Where is the back road?

If it was a hundred years ago, maybe Jin Wenbo lamented that there was no place for the world, after all, for the people at that time, how could they know that there was such a vast world outside of China, and even everything there was not much worse than China? And in some places, it is even incomparable to China.

But now, thanks to the introduction of the Western priest, he knows that there is a wider world outside of China, and in that world, more opportunities await him.

It's just that the world is too far away from here!

And along the way, I don't know how many hardships and obstacles I will suffer, after all, there are always such and such risks on this vast sea. And these risks, even if he is willing to take them, how many people in the Jin family are willing to take them?

"Young Master, look at that man as black as a piece of charcoal, and look blacker than charcoal."

The words of the house slave made Jin Wenbo look over there, and sure enough, he saw a few sailors on the ship who were blacker than charcoal, they should be the black slaves in the priest's mouth.

Those black slaves came from Africa. I heard that there are not even countries where these black charcoal-like blacks live everywhere, and the whites of Europe are sold to all over the country as slaves, as if for the whites, those blacks are not people, but just talking animals.

At this time, Jin Wenbo, who was a little absent-minded, was thinking about how to bring the Jin family out of China, but the risk was so great along the way, how could the rest of the Jin family be willing to leave by boat with him?

And, even in the end, everyone agreed. But what about the ship? Where do you find those boats?

Looking at the foreign ships at the wharf, thinking of the hardships when he came to Lingnan from Beijing on the way, Jin Wenbo naturally thought of taking a boat, compared with the land route, the waterway is undoubtedly safer. And there will be fewer risks on the waterway, especially if the Jin family leaves, the finances carried by the ship at that time may not be a few.

"If you can hire a few boats all the way to Tanggu, you will save the difficulties on the way......

However, when this thought came to mind, Jin Wenbo's eyes looked at those boats, but he couldn't help but think of another question in his mind, are these people willing to go all the way north to Tanggu?

When this thought came to his mind, Jin Wenbo, who was ready to find a few ships in Macau, deliberately paid attention to the news in this regard. He even chose to live near the docks, and often haunted bars and brothels frequented by Western sailors. With the Portuguese he learned from Western missionaries, Jin Wenbo easily integrated into those crew members, and soon became a group with those crew members.

For him, who was born into a merchant family, what he is best at is dealing with others and making friends with strangers, so it is easy to make a few foreign friends.

"To the north, you see that at least half of the boats on this dock will sail to the north, Qinghe, yes, Qinghe!"

In the hall of the brothel, which was mixed with all kinds of strange smells, Jin Wenbo listened to Ruiz's words and asked with some curiosity,

"Why are you all there?"

After coming to Macau, he found that these foreigners' evaluation of the pirates in the south seemed to be much higher than that of the Qing Dynasty.

"Because it's open to everyone, even Ningbo, which is controlled by Zheng Chenggong, isn't necessarily as attractive there, there are raw silk, porcelain, glass mirrors and all kinds of other products, believe me, Guangzhou is now in decline, because the Tatars are blocking trade, but Ningbo, Qinghe, it is the rise, and soon, they will become another Guangzhou, and it is far more suitable for trade than Guangzhou, after all, it is closer to the most prosperous place in China......"

Although he is only the second mate on the ship, Ruiz is still worthy of Jin Wenbo's friendship, after all, what he needs now is a person who can be trusted, and here Ruiz, he has learned a lot of things related to navigation, just like he learned from him, an ordinary maritime standard - hiring a ship, far less safe than buying a ship, because the crew will never betray the shipowner unless they are determined to become pirates, but if it is just a temporary employee, who knows? Maybe you will encounter pirates at sea. Although it may not seem like much difference in employment, it is safer to become a ship owner.

Even because of this, he would inquire near the wharf about those ships that were willing to sell, although he did not bring much silver this time, but he could still get the silver to buy a few boats, and even Jin Wenbo also considered registering a shipping company in Macau, just like the common practice of Westerners, this practice is undoubtedly safe, at least for Westerners.

"Business, let's put it this way, it's better to do business there. And unlike other places, when we go there, we always have to think about how to deal with the local officials, and there is no need to think about that at all, because everything there is very similar to Europe, it is open, it is open to everyone. ”

"Hey, did you hear that?"

Suddenly, just then, someone in the bar was there shouting loudly.

"Chinese's fleet appeared in Southeast Asia, a very large fleet ......"