The wharf of Tianjin, which is gradually flourishing, has completed an expansion, and the wharf area, which could only dock twenty or thirty large ships, has built dozens of docks on the left and right, but now it can dock and unload more than 100 large ships at a time.

Since the Westerners came to Beijing to congratulate the envoys, Tianjin has developed from an important guard city to a commercial port.

A year has passed since the truce between the Hong Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty on the Yangtze River, and the newly enthroned emperors of each other have also maintained a cautious attitude and have not started a larger-scale war.

But everyone knows that this is actually just the calm before the storm, at least on the side of the Hong Dynasty, they have been working hard, seizing every minute to enrich the strength of the Hong Dynasty's army.

However, due to the fact that the territory occupied by the Hong Dynasty has been suffering from war, and the new emperor of the Hong Dynasty, Emperor Hongxian Li Tianyang, is not a reckless soldier, he was stunned that the military department was not given the opportunity to recruit troops unscrupulously, so that the speed of the Hong Dynasty's army to develop and expand the strength of the army was severely restricted.

But even so, as the territory occupied by the Hong Dynasty gradually calmed down, and the people at the bottom gradually settled down to the status quo, the number of the Hong Dynasty's army slowly expanded.

When the first heavy snow arrived in the winter of the second year of Hongxian, the total number of the Hong Dynasty's army broke through to 500,000 for the first time, and the main force of the Hong Dynasty stationed on the Yangtze River reached 350,000.

"Before Bohai Bay freezes, it's time for us to set off south, right?"

In the upper room of the "Youjian" inn in Tianjin City, two Han people wearing thick robes were talking to each other with a cup of hot tea.

"Wait a minute, I heard that another batch of porcelain has been burned in Jingdezhen, Shanxi, and it will arrive in Tianjin City in the next few days.

In the face of the worried looks of his companions, the middle-aged Han man, who looked thinner but more ambitious in words, was full of optimism and persuaded his partner.

After the Hong Dynasty and the Westerners reached a trade consensus, the Ming Sea area, which had been in the semi-blockade, finally resumed its unimpeded flow Of course, the Jiangnan Sea where the Ming Dynasty is located is still under the shadow of the two powerful naval fleets of the Hong Dynasty, except for those smugglers who dare to risk their lives or have an inextricable relationship with the Hong Dynasty, who are cautiously carrying out black-box operations, the rest of the foreign trade channels of the Ming Dynasty are completely cut off.

Even the Portuguese, who originally relied on their close relationship with the Hong Dynasty and were in Xiangshanao, a place bordering the Ming Dynasty, stopped trading relations with the Ming Dynasty under the strong opposition of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hong Dynasty.

At the last moment, the Portuguese Far East Fleet and the Spanish Fleet suddenly appeared in the port of Xiangshanao, and more than 20 warships unfurled their guns at the same time, pointing to the north of Xiangshanao, which made the Ming government have to consider the risk of erecting two more strong enemies.

In fact, this is just a fig leaf for the Ming Dynasty, everyone knows that the Portuguese have long been wearing the same pants as the Hong Dynasty, at least they still maintain their respect for the Ming Dynasty on the surface.

And as the Hong Dynasty lifted its blockade of the sea, the northern merchants in the territory of the Hong Dynasty began to make their moves, joining the challenge of crisis risk and great wealth.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty, which had attached great importance to the policy of sea prohibition since Emperor Hongwu, the Hong Dynasty had a very open-minded attitude towards maritime trade, as long as there were merchants willing to get involved, then the Ministry of Commerce of the Hong Dynasty would issue passes to facilitate the trade of the other party.

Of course, these merchants had to pay high taxes in exchange for the opportunity to trade legally.

Through hard work and luck, the predecessors obtained huge profits in the ocean trade, and converted all kinds of materials produced by Eastern and Western civilizations into wealth, while the Hong Dynasty reaped the power of the fishermen and obtained the money needed to maintain the imperial court through commercial taxes.

Obviously, the two men in Chinese costumes who are now in the "Youjian" inn are part of the Hong Dynasty's maritime merchant army.

"But Brother Meng, isn't it too risky for us to make such a desperate bet?"

The shorter, younger man was still apprehensive about his partner's offer.

"This is the savings of several generations of our two families, if there is anything wrong at sea, how can the two of us go back and explain to our families?"

The land policy of the Hong Dynasty made the landlords and gentry who originally hoarded a lot of land gradually disappear, and perhaps these classes will still make a comeback in the future, but at least in Li Tianyang's time, these classes do not want to resurrect for the time being.

Of course, the government of the Hong Dynasty was not the kind of unscrupulous people who forced people to die, they exchanged real money for land in the hands of the landlords and gentry, which made the landlords and gentry change from a family that controlled countless lands to a family that controlled a huge amount of money.

Money is in the hands of the audience, and it cannot be turned into land as it once was, so far-sighted people will naturally not hold this pile of dead things as the heirloom capital of the future family, but actively look for another way out for the family.

Thankfully, there are plenty of paths to choose from.

They can buy a technology from the hands of Hongchao R&D personnel and R&D institutions, and then invest in opening factories and manufacturing products to sell.

They can invest it in knowledge, so that their children can learn more advanced knowledge and embark on the path of politics.

Of course, they can also run a shop or a business network on their own, and become a serious businessman.

In the past, the attitude of Confucian literati towards merchants was contemptuous and despised their means of survival, but in the current Hong Dynasty, merchants have no difference in status from any other class, and they will not be discriminated against and looked down upon by others.

No matter how big the businessmen are, their children will not be restricted from entering politics because of their status, and they will not be inferior.

As a result, the number of people who are willing to invest their wealth in business and do business in a bright and bright way has gradually increased.

Maritime business, as the industry with the highest income and the fastest return on investment in this era, naturally has countless new members, bringing a new chapter in the maritime trade of Chinese civilization.

How much impact such a change will have on China in the end, and where it will lead Chinese civilization, even its initiator Li Tianyang and the Hong Dynasty government behind it are unpredictable.

What they can see now is that a large amount of real money and silver was sent from the hands of merchants and transformed into the heritage and strength of the Hong Dynasty.