Tang Shunzhi, like Master Shen, instructed Shen Mo to focus on his studies in the past half a year, and if he passed the exam, his fate would be in his own hands; If you can't take the test to solve the yuan, you can only be slaughtered by others.

Silent and only responded, Tang Shunzhi asked him to look at the words he wrote, and saw the eight strong and powerful big seals on it: "When you go, you stop, and you don't want to pay it." He asked, "What is the meaning of the word 'heart'?" ”

Shen Mo said softly: "The heart of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages......"

"What about that?"

"Men should not care too much about personal interests and losses, and they must be worthy of their conscience whether they do it or not."

Tang Shunzhi nodded slowly and said: "It can also be said that this painting is given to you, go back and take a look at it, it will be good for your knowledge and work." ”

Shen Mo took the painting home and ordered Shen An to find someone to frame it. He himself closed the door, spread out a blank piece of paper, and began to ponder it earnestly. After nearly a year of exploration, he has a relatively comprehensive understanding of the southeast of the Ming Dynasty, so now, it is time to sort out the complicated information in his mind and take a pulse for the southeast of the Ming Dynasty.

This time he wants to look farther and look at the whole world, the middle school history textbooks of his previous life told him that the era he is in now has a more resounding name, called the Age of Discovery.

Although it is not clear how many years the 34th year of Jiajing is converted into the Western Era, from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Qing Dynasty had about 270 years of Guozuo, and after Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, there were four or five emperors such as Long Wan Tianchong, about 70 or 80 years of Guozuo. So it's probably 156 A.D. now.

As a good student who has always been a top student, he knows more about the Western Age of Discovery than he knows about his contemporaries in China...... Who made history textbooks just like that?

He could clearly remember that Columbus, who had discovered the New World, had died half a century earlier; Magellan, who sailed around the world, also returned to the West thirty years ago; In this era, the Spaniards conquered the Americas, the Portuguese conquered Africa, and extended their tentacles to Asia...... Shen Mo had already sent someone to inquire clearly, and just last spring, the Portuguese, also known as the 'Franco-Robot Man' as the Ming Dynasty called it, had occupied a small fishing village in the southernmost part of Guangdong, 'five or six miles from east to west, north and south two bays', called Haojing.

Shen Mo still knows that it has another name, called Macau.

Through the 'evil slave trade' and the 'bloody plundering of the colonies', the Spanish and Portuguese received a treasure of gold and silver that would turn the history of mankind upside down, so that the two nouveau riche had to spend money, and the world's produce flowed to both countries in exchange for a large amount of gold and silver.

Among them, the silk cloth, porcelain, and tea produced in China are the most popular among the princes and nobles of the two countries, so a large number of Xiyi merchants have come from thousands of miles across the ocean, 'the products of China, the foreign countries, the exchange of things, and the profit can be ten times'.

The wealthy merchants and wealthy families on the southeast coast also realized the huge profits of this kind of foreign trade, and many wealthy people along the coast built huge ships one after another to carry out large-scale smuggling trade, and many poor people living in hardship and military households who escaped from the guards went to the sea one after another to survive, and some gentry who were frustrated on the way to the palace and poor scholars also mixed in. After a long time, several forces joined forces to form a relatively large armed smuggling group, that is, a maritime group.

Of course, empty ships can't run away from gold and silver treasures, and they have to have goods, so these maritime smuggling syndicates must rely on the wealthy families along the coast to help them hoard and sell goods. Although the Ming Law strictly prohibits the private sector from conducting export trade, driven by interests, all laws are empty letters. Moreover, during the Zhengde period, the law and discipline were relaxed, and the sea ban was virtually nonexistent, which became the golden age of the development of these maritime merchants.

According to the memories of the old officials over the age of 50, the official trade in Ningbo City was still in place at that time, and the private trade of the people was even more prosperous, and the wealthy families in the southeast set up workshops, tea farms, and porcelain kilns one after another, employing a large number of ordinary people to carry out production, and then reselling the hoarded goods to the maritime merchants, who sold them to the West.

During this period, a large number of people escaped from the country that had become a pot of porridge, joined the overseas trade, and became a very useful thug and worker, and the threat to the southeast coast was not great, so during the entire Zhengde period, although the imperial court's coastal defense post was rotten, it was a surprisingly calm period.

However, many things were ruined on this 'but', and the 'Envoy Tribute Incident' that occurred later was originally just a relatively serious diplomatic incident, but it was blamed by the then Shoufu Xia Yan on the City Shipping Division, thinking that it was the chaos caused by frequent foreign trade and too many foreigners coming and going, and rashly closed it.

The result of this extremely stupid practice was only to reduce a large amount of official tariff revenues, but it made smuggling more rampant, and the strength of maritime merchants became stronger and stronger, and they became the largest political and economic bloc in the southeast, and were also welcomed by all circles in the southeast.

According to the depictions of the contemporaries, before the 29th year of Jiajing, the government in the southeast knew that the other party was a smuggler, but it coveted its huge profits, allowed it to pile up goods, and escorted it. ’

A veteran officer of Ningbo Wei once described the jaw-dropping scene to Shen Mo, saying that whenever a maritime merchant fleet docked, "the people in the vicinity either sent fresh goods, or gave wine and rice, or offered their children, and there was an endless stream; The officials of the border guards, who have always had a friendship with the sea merchants, bow down and kowtow when they meet, and are willing to deliver goods for their servants, and they are proud of themselves. ’

However, this kind of prosperity was disorderly after all, and after the strike of the market, the purchase channels of the maritime merchants were all controlled by the wealthy families along the coast, and they often used the excuse of 'the government to crack down on the prohibition' and hoarded the goods, which made the maritime merchants miserable. The friction between the two parties, which had been close to each other, grew, and when the grievances deepened, the maritime group finally retaliated by force, killed people and set fires, and looted their furniture.

In order to exhibit the guilt, the local officials declared to their superiors that the thieves had been convicted. Wang Zhi, Xu Hai and others tasted the sweetness, and also took advantage of the fear of the Ming Dynasty officials and people for the Japanese Invaders, and often used the banner of 'Japanese Invaders' to kill people and oversell goods, and do evil...... In fact, there are very few real people inside, and they are all coolies.

The 'plague' in the southeast became more and more severe, and finally alarmed Emperor Jiajing, so he ordered Zhu Kun to supervise the southeast and reiterate the ban on the sea. Zhu Kun strictly enforced the emperor's edict, strictly prohibiting fishermen from entering the water and burning all large boats. is also ready to move those big families.

According to Admiral Zhu's meaning, all those who supply goods for shipment can be regarded as participating in smuggling, and the entire southeast can be regarded as a 'Tongfan' nest. Admiral Zhu wanted to move this hornet's nest, so it would be strange not to be stung to death.

Since then, the imperial court has relaxed the sea ban, but it has been unable to curb the surging 'woes', because the smuggling syndicate has tasted the sweetness of burning, killing and looting through the contest of force, and has also seen through the weak Jiajing government and the opposition...... Not their opponents at all.

At this time, there was also a division within the so-called 'Japanese Invaders', and some people, such as Wang Zhi and others, played the banner of 'Japanese Invaders' in order to confront the government and protect their own trade activities, so they mainly focused on trade and took robbery as a part-time business.

But there are also those who think, 'Why pay for what you can get if you can get it openly?' For a time, the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang suffered unprecedented destruction, countless cities were plundered, and the people who were plundered were even more immeasurable.

This is the cause and current situation of the plague in the southeast.

While thinking, he was silent and wrote the words 'big household', 'maritime business' and 'official government' on the paper, and the official government of course refers to the southeast official government.

Under these three, he wrote the word 'smuggling'. In Shen Mo's view, these three would have shared interests...... They all hoped for stable and efficient smuggling, so that the silk, cotton, tea, and porcelain in the south of the Yangtze River could be exchanged for an endless supply of silver, so that the big households, maritime merchants, and officials could enjoy a luxurious life, and even the common people could get a standard of living that was much higher than that of other provinces...... A strong alliance of common interests is bound to deal the hardest blow to any spoiler. Zhu Kun's death can be seen as a combination of the three to block the northern imperial court's strengthening of the sea ban.

Shen Mo wrote the word 'Japanese Kou' on a piece of paper, and when the maritime merchants turned into Japanese Kou, the situation changed greatly, and they plundered the coastal provinces, and the southeastern officials also bore great responsibility for it, and countless people were dismissed and exiled.

At the same time, the interests of large investors have also been seriously affected. In the face of the bandits, they can no longer maintain fair trade, they have to spend several times the original cost, and even the safety of life and property is threatened.

Those 'robbers' who are also merchants and thieves are naturally the most satisfied with the status quo. Of course, this satisfaction comes at the cost of the dissatisfaction of other groups of people.

Thinking of this, Shen Mo put a cross on the word "Koukou", but circled the word "Maritime Merchant". A hazy idea arose in his heart, and he wanted to see if his little butterfly could change the tide of history.

Thinking of this, an indescribable pride surged in his chest, and he pushed the window and said outside: "We will go back to Hangzhou tomorrow!" ”

(To be continued)