"I don't know how long trade with this eastern country can last, but what makes people feel terrible is that this country with more than 3,000 merchant ships, they have changed their previous moderate attitude and bared their fangs at us!"

The Spanish Governor of the Philippines wrote a gloomy report and sent it home.

When the Spaniards first arrived in China during the Wanli period, they arrogantly claimed that only 4,000 people could conquer the whole of China, and frequently harassed the coast of China.

But as time went on, the Spaniards began to realize that if they jumped again and caught the attention of the Chinese authorities, the results would be devastating. Because of the number of Chinese merchant ships, the Spanish were already terrified.

At this time, there were no less than 3,000 civilian merchant ships in China.

Of course, most of the merchant ships were mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River basin, transporting Huguang's commercial grain to Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces. At the same time, cotton cloth from Songjiang Prefecture and various goods were shipped to Koguang. The peasants of Huguang were only responsible for the production of commercial grain, and had no habit of weaving and producing other commodities.

If it is said that the agricultural commercialization of Daming at this time is the highest, perhaps Huguang is one of them. The peasants there are largely not engaged in the production of the rural natural economy.

The area with the slowest pace of life, that is, Huguang and Sichuan, is mainly because there is not much pressure to survive, after all, in the grain-producing areas, no matter how starving, as long as you concentrate on rice planting.

To get back to the point, the number of merchant ships in the Ming Dynasty is indeed extremely amazing. It's just that most merchant ships are not engaged in ocean trade. But Daming's shipbuilding ability obviously frightened the Spaniards. Therefore, after the Spaniards realized this, they rarely harassed the Ming Haijiang. It seems to be a lot more settled.

But what the Spaniards feared most came true, and the Ming began to investigate the Spaniards for their crimes of massacring Han Chinese in the Philippines, put Spain on the trade blacklist, and also formed a larger navy.

Therefore, in his report to the mainland, the Spanish governor also asked the mainland to send enough warships and troops to reinforce the Philippines as much as possible to prevent China from attacking the Philippines.

The most affected by the changes in the pattern of maritime power is naturally Japan.

In the Ming blockade of the Taiwan Strait and the waters of the Ryukyus. After the inventory and interception of merchant ships bound for Japan, the number of merchant ships going to Japan became smaller and smaller day by day.

The Tokugawa shogunate of Japan naturally got the news from Li Dan, so in April of the third year of the Apocalypse. An envoy was sent to the Ryukyus to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty.

The answer given by the Ming Dynasty was very simple: it was strictly forbidden for private merchant ships to go to Japan in order to prevent these maritime merchants from soliciting Japanese pirates to plague China's coastal areas. The interception of the Dutch merchant ships was due to the fact that the Dutch had caused a great deal of harassment along the coast of China. As long as it is a Dutch ship. The Ming will intercept it and sink it.

In recent years, Japan has been de-sinicizing in an attempt to get rid of China's suzerain.

In this year, the Tokugawa shogunate had ordered the country to be closed and all Japanese ships were prohibited from going to sea to trade, but it did not mean that Japan did not need to trade, and Japan did not need to trade, and Japan had a lot of raw silk, deer skin, medicinal herbs, and all kinds of daily goods. And these goods are mainly obtained through trade with China.

Because of the total ban on Christianity in Japan, neither the Spaniards nor the Portuguese were allowed to travel to Japan for trade.

Only a big pirate like Li Dan was able to provide Chinese goods. In addition, he had a good relationship with the Tokugawa shogunate. In addition, the Dutch did not proselytize, so Japan allowed Chinese merchant ships and Dutch merchant ships to trade with Japan.

Japan's foreign trade was affected at this time. The demand for goods is not satisfied, so it is natural to come over and negotiate with Daming.

The request of the Japanese envoy was quickly reported to Zhu Youxiao.

"Japan is starting to close itself off this year? Not bad, not bad, worthy of encouragement. Colonel Zhu You looked at the report of the Navy and found a piece of information that made him feel very happy.

Japan was closed off from the country during the Tokugawa shogunate, and this Zhu Youxiao knew it. Later, the British bombarded the country with artillery, and had always maintained trade relations with China and the Netherlands.

It's just that Zhu Youxiao didn't know that Japan had been closed off from the rest of the country since 1623.

It's a good thing that little Japan wants to close itself off from the rest of the country! The province came out and jumped around. When little Japan has closed itself off for a hundred or two hundred years, it will find that the world has changed greatly......

Of course, history has changed, and who knows if Japan will really be closed off from the rest of the country for more than 200 years. However, Japan must be encouraged to close itself off from the rest of the world.

"The opening of trade with Japan will be of great benefit. Immediately send an envoy to Japan to negotiate trade with Japan. Zhu Youxiao immediately ordered the formation of an embassy to Japan.

Nearly half a month later, the Ming envoy prepared to leave for Japan with the trading fleet of the Imperial Trading Company. The Royal Trading Company dispatched twenty merchant ships this time, bringing with them many raw silks, deer skins, musk, medicinal herbs, and iron and steel products, as well as weapons such as armor and muskets produced by the Royal Military Factory.

After sailing at sea for more than ten days, the fleet successfully reached Nagasaki, Japan.

When the Tokugawa shogunate learned of the arrival of the Ming envoys, they were accompanied by a merchant fleet and immediately gave a warm welcome. Subsequently, he sent people to contact the Ming envoys.

The mission to Japan was clearly going well, and the Tokugawa shogunate needed to strengthen itself through foreign trade. The reason why the Tokugawa shogunate wanted to implement a policy of seclusion was mainly because it was afraid that the daimyo in western Japan would privately trade with overseas, thereby increasing their own power and posing a threat to the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Because the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate was absolutely inseparable from maritime trade.

Previously, the Tokugawa shogunate restricted other daimyo from owning ships with a carrying capacity of more than 500 koku, but the effect was not very satisfactory, and many daimyo still conducted foreign trade privately.

This time, the Tokugawa shogunate made a ruthless move, that is, to close the country. All Japanese ships were forbidden to trade at sea, and all Japanese were forbidden to travel with people from abroad, and stowaways were punished by death.

The arrival of the Ming envoys praised and affirmed the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of seclusion and seclusion.

"Your country's retreat can prevent ronins from attacking the Ming Sea Frontier. Therefore, my Daimei admired the decision of the shogunate very much, and decided to make friends with the shogunate and help the shogunate rule Japan, so this time I went to Japan, and also brought a new type of musket produced by my Daming to help the shogunate improve its strength. The Ming envoy said to Tokugawa Hidetada, and Tokugawa Hidetada's face was about to laugh.

"Naturally, the trade of the Shogunate was very beneficial to us. However, we hope that the Shogunate will not trade privately with other Japanese daimyos, and that it will secure the scale of trade with the shogunate while prohibiting private merchant ships and Dutch merchant ships from coming to Japan. Tokugawa Hidetada said to the envoy.

"There is naturally no problem with this, Daming can guarantee that the scale of trade with Japan will definitely not be less than before. In addition, the shogunate can stabilize Japan and prohibit ronins from going to sea to harass our Ming sea frontier, and it is impossible for my Ming to trade with other Japanese daimyo privately. The envoy assured.

At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate was clearly a government that wanted to live in peace. Unlike Toyotomi Hideyoshi before him, he had ambitions for foreign expansion, and then invaded Korea.

The historical Tokugawa shogunate did not expand to the outside world until it was over.

With such a peaceful regime, Zhu Youxiao naturally would not try to undermine Japan's stability. As long as the Tokugawa shogunate at this time lived in peace and was willing to trade with the Ming Dynasty, it was in the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

The Tokugawa shogunate had the intention of living with peace of mind, mainly learning the lessons of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. 200,000 troops invaded Korea, but they gained nothing, and they suffered heavy losses, and their rule over Japan was overthrown by the Tokugawa shogunate.

What made Tokugawa Hidetada very happy was the weapons and equipment brought by the Ming merchant fleet this time, among which the new ones were muskets, which were even better than the Dutch.

And Daming made it clear that as long as the Japanese ronin did not go to sea, Daming would only trade with the Tokugawa shogunate.

If the Ming Dynasty only traded with the shogunate, then the shogunate would be able to obtain overseas materials. And the other more than 200 lords of Japan could not increase their strength through sea trade. The strength of the Tokugawa shogunate was forever superior to that of the other lords, and it continued to rule Japan.

To put it bluntly, the situation of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan is somewhat similar to that of the Mongol Lindan Khan. It's just that Japan is influenced by Chinese culture and is more cultured and savvy than the Mongols. At the same time, Japan at this time did not have many external threats, and it was obvious that the policy of closing the country to the outside world was the greatest benefit to the shogunate.

Zhu Youxiao was also happy to succeed and expressed his support for Japan's seclusion to the rest of the country.

At this time, Li Dan's group of pirates and Dutch merchant ships could not reach Japan, and the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate could only accept trade with the Ming government if they wanted to obtain Chinese goods to maintain their own strength.

The Tokugawa shogunate also trusted Chinese official trade more, because the Chinese government also banned private merchant ships from going to Japan, which was also very happy for the Tokugawa shogunate.

Because of China's official trade with Japan, there are fewer chaotic overseas people arriving in Japan. This was also beneficial for the Tokugawa shogunate to maintain its rule.

With both sides in demand, the specific negotiations on trade were quickly agreed upon.

The Ming proposed that Japan should ban trade with the Portuguese to prevent the spread of Western Christianity in Japan. At the same time, Japan is required to increase the scale of copper mining, otherwise the scale of trade will not be able to increase.

The Tokugawa shogunate had no choice but to agree.

The Portuguese were not now banned from trading with Japan, but the Portuguese were Christian after all, and there was no need for the shogunate to offend the Ming for the sake of the Portuguese.

And increasing the scale of copper mining is also a good thing for Japan, so that Japan can afford to buy Ming goods.

Japan's Ashio Copper Mountain and Besko Copper Mountain were discovered in the last ten years, and these two large-scale copper mines made Japan the world's largest copper exporter in the 80s of the 17th century.

At this time, China was a country lacking copper mines, and there was a large demand for copper just by minting coins. (To be continued......)