At the beginning of July, the city of Guangzhou was empty, and the people rushed to the port with their families to see the sailing ceremony of the Ming overseas trade fleet.

In this matter, the Guangzhou wharf was crowded, the gongs and drums were noisy, and it was a lively and extraordinary joyful scene.

The fleet of ships for this overseas trade gathered on the water in front of the port, and more than 30 ships lined up in several rows, looking quite majestic, and many fishing boats cruising in the distance, and the people on board watched the excitement with excitement.

The governor of Guangdong, the governor of Guangdong, the political envoy of Guangdong, the envoy of Guangdong and the commander of the capital of Guangdong, all arrived and sent off the fleet at sea.

Among all the people at the scene, the horse Ranxing who came from Yangzhou was undoubtedly the one with the highest status, but it was a pity that the long-awaited Ming Fuchen and Zuochunfang University scholar Li Hongyu could not come due to busy official business, which made the people at the scene feel more or less disappointed.

However, considering that Li Hongyu was an important minister of the imperial court, he must have had many important military and political affairs to deal with, so his absence was also understood.

The chief commercial officer of the overseas trade, the Customs Department sent Wang Hong, a native of Zhejiang, the third class jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, and Li Hongyu were like-minded, so he became Li Hongyu's close friend.

After the forty-seventh year of Wanli's palace examination, Wang Hongben found an errand in the Ministry of Rites, and after the establishment of the Customs Department was announced, he recommended himself to the Wanli Emperor Mao Sui to become the general judge of the Customs Department, that is, the third in command of the Customs Department, and sat in the Yangzhou General Office of the Customs Department.

Since the establishment of the Yangzhou General Office, the specific affairs have been Wang Hong in the disposal, and then the important affairs to Ran Xingrang to report, Wang Hong in the Customs Department has deep qualifications, in addition to the high authority is also the first batch of people to Yangzhou in the Customs Department, personally participated in the establishment of the Yangzhou General Office of the Customs Department.

The reason why Li Hongyu let Wang Hong hold the important position of customs secretary is that in addition to Wang Hong's outstanding ability, it is also related to his fact that he is from Zhejiang, so as to appease the merchants and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and reduce the resistance in overseas trade.

The military chief of overseas trade was Bai Cheng, the chief general of the sailor, and since Bai Cheng was the leader of the sailor system, Li Hongyu didn't want him to get involved, so as not to encounter any accidents.

But Bai Cheng insisted on escorting Li Hongyu, even if he was a sailor, he couldn't watch Li Hongyu go on an adventure, and as the chief general of the sailor, how could he be absent from the sailor's first overseas voyage.

Li Hongyu knew Bai Cheng's thoughts, so he finally agreed to his request, making him the military commander of the first overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty.

Different from when Zheng He went to the West, because Zheng He was the commander of the Yongle Emperor, and the Ming Dynasty did not have a naval division at that time, the escort personnel were selected from the coastal guards, so Zheng He shouldered the military and political power when he went to the West.

This time, Li Hongyu deliberately separated the military power, Wang Hong was in charge of government affairs and trade, and Bai Cheng was in charge of the military, and the two sides performed their own duties.

In the event of an emergency, the military chief and the chief of government affairs and commerce will consult according to the procedure for handling affairs, and if no agreement can be reached, then no intervention will be allowed.

In Li Hongyu's view, only by establishing a sound system can we ensure the smooth implementation of overseas trade, and then make the most correct choice in the event of an emergency.

In addition, Li Hongyu also announced to the outside world that although the sailor was classified under the name of the Customs Department, it was an independent department, and the officials of the Customs Department had no right to meddle in the affairs of the sailor.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the imperial court implemented the strategy of controlling the military with literature because of the civilian government, and the commander of all the battles must be civilian officials, which is also an important reason why the Ming Dynasty is now at war with the Houjin.

Li Hongyu naturally would not make this mistake, his move was to improve the status of the generals of the sailors, so that the sailors could operate independently, and the generals of the sailors were naturally strong in terms of fighting.

Therefore, Li Hongyu can be said to have good intentions to avoid the sailor becoming a subsidiary of the Customs Department.

When a grand farewell ceremony was held on the pier, in the cabin of a Zheng Hebao ship moored in the flotilla on the water, Li Hongyu and Yang Li'er, Youlan, and Yamashita Sakurako were playing Western flower cards with great interest.

This Zheng He treasure ship is Wang Hong's ship, and it is loaded with raw silk and ceramics and other valuables, and if you sail on the sea, the bigger the ship, the safer it is.

Because of Li Hongyu's existence, he has actually become the supreme commander of this fleet, combining government, military and commercial power.

After all, this was the first overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty, so Li Hongyu naturally had to personally control it, and there was no room for mistakes, and there were many things that Wang Hong and Bai Cheng could not decide, such as disposing of the relationship with the Western countries entrenched in the South Seas.

With Li Hongyu in charge, Wang Hong and Bai Cheng suddenly felt down-to-earth in their hearts, as long as the two of them performed their duties and did their own things, and Li Hongyu would solve the troubles.

"Sir, Mark asks to see you." Just when Li Hongyu and Yang Li'er and others were having fun, an entourage entered the door to report.

"Let him in." Li Hongyu was slightly shocked when he heard this, Mark was now appointed by him as his attendant, so he was able to follow him to Nanyang.

"Lady Tongshi." Mark had already changed into a sailor uniform at this time, with the rank of lieutenant on his shoulder, and bowed respectfully to Li Hongyu after entering the door.

The Dutch captives brought by Li Hongyu this time were all awarded the rank of lieutenant like Mark, and enjoyed the treatment of lieutenant officers of the Daming Water Division.

"Lieutenant Mark, what's the matter with you?" Li Hongyu asked with a smile while playing cards.

"Greeting, we want to know who we are now?" Mark hesitated for a moment, then asked solemnly.

Since Li Hongyu appointed all the Dutch captives brought this time as officers of the sailors, Mark and the others have been nervous, and they don't know what Li Hongyu's intentions are in doing this, it stands to reason that they are now slaves and should at least go to hard labor, after all, the Netherlands and the Ming are now at war because of Penghu.

"You're my guests."

Li Hongyu knew that Mark and the others were in a complicated mood now, so he smiled and said, "However, because it is a time of war, I can't let you go, otherwise it will be treason." ”

"However, you can rest assured, you are now the people of the water master, as long as you do not violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, then no one can touch you in the Ming Dynasty."

Then, Li Hongyu opened his mouth to comfort, "When the war is over, you will be able to return to the Netherlands." ”

"Why did you do this, Lord General?" Mark's eyes lit up when he heard this, but he soon showed a puzzled look, looked at Li Hongyu in confusion and asked, in his opinion, this matter was too unbelievable and completely unreasonable.

"It's very simple, I need the knowledge you have, and you can see that there are still many deficiencies in the newly formed Daming Water Division, and we need to keep learning."

Li Hongyu pondered for a while, then put down the Western flower card in his hand and said solemnly to Mark:

"You know how your country and other European countries treat those countries whose military strength is lower than theirs overseas, our Ming Dynasty has ruled the East for more than two hundred years and has never plundered the wealth of those vassal states, but now you have not only colonized the countries of the South Seas but also extended your hand to the Ming Dynasty, we must protect ourselves."

Mark suddenly fell silent when he heard this, Li Hongyu's words made him irrefutable, he heard about the Ming Dynasty after coming to Nanyang, and knew that the Ming Dynasty was the suzerainty of the Nanyang countries.

The system of the Ming Empire is different from the suzerainty system of European countries, although they are all suzerains, but the Ming Dynasty did not collect tribute from the vassal countries because of its strong national strength, not only that, but instead used tributary trade to give benefits to those vassal countries, while Europe often collected taxes from the vassal states due to its poor national strength, and carried out cruel exploitation and oppression.

Ever since the European nations crossed the sea to the South Seas with their ships and guns, the countries of the South Seas fell into their colonial rule and had to succumb to their sharp firearms.

The Portuguese, who occupied Macao, were the first to arrive in the East, and their rule in the East can be divided into three forms:

1. The Portuguese have absolute sovereignty over the colonies, including Goa, Mozambique, Malacca and Diu;

2. Sovereignty belongs to the indigenous kings of the land, who are allies of the Portuguese kings or who are protected by the Nagons, who build forts or settlements, general trading posts or government offices, as is the case in most areas from the Persian Gulf to the coast of India;

3. Colonies that are completely subordinate to the will of the ruler of the country where they are located and whose sovereignty is completely independent of the Portuguese crown, such as Macau.

Therefore, Li Hongyu said that it is a fact that the Ming Dynasty wants to protect itself, and the three-masted warships and firearms of European countries are superior to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army in the Tuen Mun naval battle of that year occupied a huge advantage in terms of military strength, but it is not easy to defeat the Dutch, and if the Western countries unite to attack, the Ming Dynasty will be passive.

In Mark's eyes, the Ming Dynasty is actually no different from the indigenous countries of Nanyang, although the Ming Dynasty is larger and richer than the Nanyang countries, but it is feudal and ignorant and ignorant of natural science.

Otherwise, there would have been no Battle of Tuen Mun back then, how could little Portugal dare to offend this Eastern Empire with a population of hundreds of millions?

Seeing that Mark fell into silence, the corners of Li Hongyu's mouth couldn't help but show a smile, although this Mark is very smart, but he is very simple, and he was speechless by him in a few words.

If Mark can learn the city of the Orientals, then he will certainly not be reduced to the level of a murderer, and he will have at least a hundred ways to retaliate and get rid of the relationship perfectly.

Perhaps this has something to do with Mark's youthful vigor, after all, even the most stable young man has impulses, and impulsiveness is the devil and often leads to disastrous consequences.

Li Hongyu admires this mark, he can risk the Portuguese artillery, and when he was hanged, he did not beg for mercy and put on a posture of looking at death, relying on these two points alone, Li Hongyu felt that it was worth a lot of use.

If this mark can be polished well, then it will definitely come in handy in the future, and Li Hongyu will have an important candidate in his hands to deal with Western countries.

Of course, Mark couldn't have imagined that Li Hongyu had already started to fight him, and if he had an Oriental city, he would have seen some clues from the position of chamberlain, which was a position specially tailored for him by Li Hongyu.

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