Chapter 68: Xu Dong [2]

Xu Dong said loudly: "The minister will not live up to His Highness's order." He groaned slightly and said, "There are still more than 1,000 ministers and more than a dozen large ships overseas, and I am willing to dedicate them to His Highness." ”

"Oh." Zhu Houhuang's eyes narrowed slightly, and he was overjoyed. As soon as I heard Xu Dong's scale, I knew that he was the later Li Dan, Zheng Chenggong's predecessor, and a pirate group that was also a businessman and a thief. "What a harvest today." Zhu Houhuang thought secretly in his heart. In fact, Zhu Houhuang came to the southeast with the intention of recruiting a pirate group, but he didn't expect to find the right owner all of a sudden.

"Is this the Xu family's background?" Zhu Houhuang asked.

"Nope." Xu Dong said: "It's not the Xu family's background, but the minister's family." The Xu family has been in business for generations and has never done anything illegal, but they have been prodigal since childhood. Wandering out to sea, he was unrestrained, and only then did he run rampant on the sea with the country prodigals. ”

Zhu Houhuang didn't believe that the Xu family was a spotless white lotus. But he wouldn't be stupid enough to get to the bottom of it, he just smiled and didn't delve into it, but asked: "Aiqing is still familiar with the sea?" ”

Xu Dong said: "The minister is quite familiar with Japan, Ryukyu, Dongyong, and the East China Sea. ”

Zhu Houhuang was overjoyed and asked, "But I don't know what the situation is in the East China Sea?" How many pirates are there? ”

"Pirates?" Xu Dong chewed on the word and said: "If you specialize in pirates, it's just some small minions, not much at all, but the sea is very risky, generally speaking, you must not go empty, if there is an accident at sea, you can supplement some property from other aspects, there are also some." It's just that they are not honest people who do forbidden business. Said ruthlessly. Yes, but there don't seem to be pirates who specialize in raiding. ”

Xu Dong's sentence revealed the essence of the Ming Dynasty's Japanese invaders for a long time, that is, although they were called Japanese invaders, they were actually maritime groups, both merchants and thieves, merchants were the first, and thieves were the second.

"Which side in the East China Sea has the most strength?" Zhu Houhuang asked.

"The Imperial Court." Zhu Houhuang said. Was he a little surprised?

"Of course it's the imperial court?" Xu Dong looked at Zhu Houhuang a little strangely, and said: "Above the East China Sea, the imperial court sailor is the most powerful, even if I wait to go to the sea, I have to pay money to the sailor." Otherwise, don't want to go to sea a step. ”

Zhu Houhuang never thought that the imperial court sailor still had such strength. Let him have some understanding in his heart, the current Ming Dynasty is not the later Ming Dynasty, even in the late Ming Dynasty, the sailor is not inactive. Whether it is a paper tiger or a real one, the imperial court sailor is the biggest force in the East China Sea, which is good for Zhu Houhuang. After all, no matter what, the imperial court sailor is still surnamed Zhu. Zhu Houhuang still has some influence on the imperial court sailors, but whether this influence is big or small can only be seen when the time comes.

Zhu Houhuang changed the topic and said: "But I don't know what is the way in the naval battle? ”

"Firearms come first in naval warfare, and nothing else is anything but a big ship beating a small boat." Xu Dong scratched his head, and finally had to say this.

Zhu Houhuang's eyes lit up, but he appreciated Xu Dong even more, this sentence seemed simple, but it was not something that an expert couldn't say. Yu Dayou famously said: "There is no other way to fight a naval battle, but a big ship is better than a small ship, and a big unification is better than a small unification." Although what Xu Dong said was not good, it was indeed the way of naval warfare. Zhu Houhuang groaned slightly: "Do you know the Franc machine people in the Nanyang area?" ”

Xu Dong said: "There has been contact. The people of the Buddha Lang machine wanted to trade with China, but they couldn't get along in the imperial court, so they had to sell it secretly and privately, and the ministers did a few transactions with them, and they were stupid and had a lot of money, and they had more than 10,000 taels of silver for a random shipload of goods. ”

"What do the Franc machines sell?" Zhu Houhuang asked.

"Porcelain, silk, and everything else is miscellaneous."

Zhu Houhuang and Xu Dong had a very happy conversation, Zhu Houhuang learned about the Ming Dynasty maritime group from the information of later generations, but it was far less detailed than what Xu Dong said, and there were some misunderstandings that Zhu Houhuang understood. For example, he thinks that there are very powerful pirate groups in the East China Sea, but on the contrary, there is no such thing at all. From the perspective of the whole world, the rise of the Southeast Pirate Group is due to the direct impact of the Age of Discovery on China.

If there were no Westerners to reach the East, no East-West shipping route would have been opened. The maritime group simply does not have the financial resources to support such a large arm, nor does it have the ability to set off such a huge rebellion, and at this point in time, the Portuguese have come to the east and occupied Malacca, but the strength of this fleet is very small, only a dozen ships, and it will take several years to make large-scale transactions.

Therefore, there is no maritime group at all now, but there are also indispensable people in the East China Sea, and most of these people go to sea privately by Japanese routes, because Japan is in turmoil and is in urgent need of various materials of the Ming Dynasty, and the official exploration and trade is simply not enough to meet the needs of Japan. However, although these have some strength, on the whole, they are scattered and not integrated at all.

However, Zhu Houhuang knew that this was the tranquility before the explosion. Wait for a large number of Western ships to arrive. A large number of ships along the entire route from the Ming Dynasty to Western Europe, these maritime merchants became as big as blowing up balloons, and the large amount of demand also made their private small-scale transactions not satisfy the appetite of Westerners at all, one side was huge demand, and the other side was a closed country. The rebellion came into being.

The general trend is like this, and the pig that the maritime group is officially put in the wind, he himself doesn't know that they are about to be blown up.

But this plane. With the existence of Zhu Houhuang, it is very different. It's just that I don't know if this shareholder wind can blow the whole Dongyong up.

"Your Highness, it's getting late."

Only then did Zhu Houhuang realize that he had talked too much with Xu Dong. Before he came, his understanding of the whole of Dongyong, that is, Taiwan, was only on paper. Although he felt that he had done enough homework, he was no better than Xu Dong, a person who had been running the sea for many years. As soon as I talked about it, I forgot the time, and before I knew it, it was already night.

Zhu Houhuang and Xu Dong chatted all day.

During this whole day, not only Xu Dong was talking, but Zhu Houhuang was also talking, and he also told Xu Dong his plan.

Zhu Houhuang's plan is actually very simple, using the promise of Emperor Zhengde to build Dongyong into a trade center, monopolizing the trade between the Ming Dynasty and the West, and Zhu Houhuang's Yongguo is a pro-Ming vassal naturally has no reason to prohibit going, so that the goods will be transported to Dongyong and changed hands in Dongyong. The shipping of the Ming Dynasty will not be broken and broken.

Of course, assumptions are just assumptions. I can't figure out all the keys for a while, and I can't get through the joints. Just a blueprint. It's just that Xu Dong, a perennial person who runs the sea, can naturally taste the strong taste of money in Zhu Houhuang's method. Xu Dong secretly made up his mind in his heart. Secretly said: "His Royal Highness King Yong is really heroic, according to His Royal Highness's method." As long as this port is built, it will simply sit on top of a mountain of gold. No, it is above the Milky Way, with the support of this Milky Way, it is definitely not delusional to expand Dongyong. ”

Thinking that if Dongyong can claim to be a country like Zhu Houhuang, even if he becomes an official of a vassal king, he can be regarded as upright.

Xu Dong raised his head and looked, only to feel that Zhu Houhuang's figure seemed to be revealing a golden light against the backdrop of the light. For a time there was a smell of sacredness.

Xu Dong stood up and said, "It's getting late, and the minister is leaving." ”

Zhu Houhuang originally wanted to leave Xu Dong to talk at night, but he just asked him to spend the night with a man, I am afraid that the next day, it will be rumored that he has the good of Longyang. Zhu Houhuang got up and sent Xu Dong out of the post gate before going back.

Xu Dong looked at the figure that Zhu Houhuang sent him out from afar, and his heart suddenly moved, "Your Royal Highness is only sixteen now, and she is about the same age as my little sister, if my little sister can marry the prince, my Xu family's wealth will be guaranteed." ”

Mr. Xu has a total of four sons and a daughter. The daughter is the youngest, and she is naturally the pearl of the palm. The four brothers of the Xu family love this sister very much, and Xu Dong moved this idea at this moment, not only for the wealth of the Xu family, but also because he thought that Zhu Houhuang was an extraordinary person and could make some achievements.