The fleet led by Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe had only set out from Quanzhou in mid-July, and it was already August when they arrived in Nagasaki.

The reason why I set off so late is that there is no way. Because of the looting of ships going to sea last year, it aroused serious dissatisfaction among various merchant gangs in Fujian. This kind of forcible plundering by force of honor guards, unruly behavior, in the eyes of the gentry is even more hateful than pirates!

Not only did the coastal gentry refuse to cooperate with the Huangjiahai Trade Company, but the squires in charge of supply in the mainland also refused to supply, and they couldn't afford to pay high prices.

Although Li Yanzhi's sailors are very powerful, the coastline of Fujian is tortuous and long, and there are bays everywhere that can go to sea.

So much so that for a whole year, the Royal Sea Trade Company did not get much goods, and in the end only barely loaded ten sea boats, most of which were daily necessities such as lacquerware department stores, and only more than 500 quintals of raw silk were obtained.

Although Liu Mao, the governor of Fujian, is his own man, and although Li Yanzhi is in control of the most powerful army in Fujian, the officials of various prefectures and counties are one with the gentry, and the Fujian squires collude with each other, and the local forces are intertwined.

In order to prevent the entire Fujian gentry from uniting and resisting, Liu Mao, the governor of Fujian, has been persuading Li Yanzhi not to make too much trouble, and it is best to reach some kind of reconciliation. But Li Yanzhi is young and vigorous, he is confident that he is in control of the army, and he has the support of the emperor behind him, how can he bow to the gentry?

The interests of maritime trade are too great, and the Fujian gentry are not willing to give it up, so it is naturally impossible to give in.

In the past year, the situation in Fujian has been turbulent, and there have been many discussions among the people, and the gentry have released rumors that the imperial court is going to ban the sea again, which will cut off everyone's way of life. Fujian has many mountains, many rivers and few fields, and hundreds of people live on the sea, and after listening to the gentry's flickering, many people are full of anger towards the royal family.

The Fujian gentry secretly sent people to contact pirates such as Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi, and Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi and others led the fleet to attack the coast of Fujian many times, making Li Yan tired of coping. Because of the news from the locals, Li Yanzhi sent ships to clean it up many times, but the pirates fled.

In order to get enough cargo, the fleet had to delay its journey again and again, and it did not set sail until mid-July, almost a month later than usual.

It was Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe who led the team, Zheng Zhilong led the fleet to be responsible for water warfare, and Mao Liangzhe was responsible for trade in goods. The fleet consisted of ten cargo ships, but the escort was carried by as many as fifteen ships, all of which were three-masted ships of one water, including two captured Dutch plywoods.

The fleet of twenty-five three-masted ships, with a combined crew of 3,000 soldiers, was already incomparably powerful in terms of size. The reason why such a large fleet was sent to the Wa Kingdom was, of course, for other purposes besides sea trade. If you can't intercept those maritime merchants on the coast of Fujian, then go to the Japanese country to block them!

After arriving in the Wa Kingdom, they did not directly do anything to these maritime merchants, but first traded, and then Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe were even more angry, this year's market is really bad, much worse than last year.

Last year, the price of a load of raw silk in Nagasaki was more than 400 taels, but this year it was only 222 taels, and although it still made three times the profit, it was far from satisfying the two. The price of raw silk is so low, and so are other goods, so that most of this year's sea trade revenue will not exceed one million taels, far lower than last year.

Mao Liangzhe was worried that the sharp drop in Haimao's income would make the emperor dissatisfied, while Zheng Zhilong was concerned with his own vital interests, he was a shareholder of Haimao Commercial Bank, and Haimao earned more than he could share the silver.

"No, we have to find a way!" Zheng Zhilong patted the case.

Mao Liangzhe sighed: "Let's sell the goods first." ”

With a complete sales channel, it was not difficult to sell the goods, but it still took more than a month. By the time all the goods had been sold, it was already late autumn, and in a month or two, the monsoon would rise, and the Daming maritime merchants of Nagasaki would return to Daming by boat.

According to calculations, the total income from this trade is 1.2 million taels, but more than 300,000 taels of this trade came from the arms trade, and the actual sea trade income is only more than 800,000 taels, which is far lower than last year.

Last winter, with the secret support of Zheng Zhilong Mao Liangzhe, Amakusa Kaede called on the poor peasants of the Wa Kingdom to raise a rebellion on the Amakusa Peninsula, and captured several cities in one fell swoop, and the number of rebel troops reached tens of thousands.

However, it also attracted great attention from the shogunate, and the shogunate mobilized the entire daimyo of the Japanese kingdom and organized more than 200,000 troops to encircle and suppress the Amakusa rebel army. The war was fought extremely cruelly, the small half of Kyushu Island was almost destroyed, Amakusa Kaede and others led the Japanese peasants who were unwilling to be cruelly ruled by the shogunate to resist to the death, but they were defeated by the strength of the shogunate army, and most of the cities occupied fell one after another, and finally guarded the two or three cities of the Amakusa Peninsula and struggled to support.

The arrival of the fleet of the Royal Sea Trade Company made Amakusa Kaede take a breath, and he personally took a boat to visit Zheng Zhilong and the others on the five islands at night, and asked for support from the Ming Kingdom.

Before the arrival of the Royal Maritime Trade Fleet, Amakusa Kaede had also contacted other Ming maritime merchants who had arrived earlier, but no one would pay attention to him.

After Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe discussed, they immediately decided to sell Amakusa Kaede 500 grenades, 1,000 guns, 100 gunpowder, and 1 stone of gunpowder, in exchange for more than 300,000 taels of silver. In a year's battle, Amakusa Kaede looted a large amount of silver, but with the loss of the city one after another, there was only so much left, in order to solve the current dilemma, Amakusa Kaede took out all the silver, which can be described as a desperate gamble.

After obtaining the arms of the Royal Maritime Traders, Amakusa Kaede immediately launched a counterattack, throwing out hundreds of grenades, and directly bombing the besieging shogunate army collapsed, thinking that the rebels had invited Tianlei to help. Amakusa Kaede then quickly led the rebels to chase and kill, killing hundreds of thousands of shogunate corpses all over the field.

Once the army collapsed, it was too difficult to retract it, and after this defeat of the shogunate army, the daimyo of the entire island of Kyushu were terrified. Amakusa Kaede waved his army and attacked more than 10 cities in a row, and the people of Kyushu came to vote one after another, and the momentum became more and more huge, and there was a tendency to sweep Kyushu.

However, the civil strife of the Wa Kingdom had little impact on the maritime trade, and the Japanese aristocracy was still extravagant and full of desire for goods from the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the war has seriously damaged the production of the Japanese country, making the Japanese country more scarce of various materials, and it is estimated that the price of goods in the Japanese country will rise a lot next year, after all, the Japanese country lacks everything, that is, there is no shortage of silver.

But that's all for later, and now Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe are discussing how to deal with other maritime merchants.

The income of sea trade has shrunk greatly, which makes the two of them very dissatisfied, and the source of this is that these Daming maritime merchants are fighting against the Royal Sea Trade Firm!

"Come directly to the hard one, give a post to all the maritime merchants from Daming, let them come to Fujiang Island, and give them the color if they don't come!" Mao Liangzhe said murderously, he is a businessman, and his murderous aura is even heavier than Zheng Zhilong!

"If these maritime merchants join forces, I'm afraid it's not good, let's do it quietly on the way back." Zheng Zhilong said. He was thinking from a pirate's point of view.

After all, although the fleet of the Maritime Trade Firm is large, there are nearly 100 of these Maritime Merchant Ships combined, which is three times that of the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, but it may not be able to escape well in a fight.

And if it is quietly intercepted at sea and broken by each one, with the huge strength of the Royal Maritime Trade Company, as long as it is stopped, these maritime ships will not be able to escape, after all, these maritime merchants have Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong maritime merchants, and they are not one. On the contrary, if the news is revealed to let these maritime merchants unite, it will be very troublesome.

Mao Liangzhe shook his head: "General Zheng, you have to understand your identity now, you are no longer a pirate before, but a general of the Ming Dynasty, behind our fleet is the royal family, and it is the son of the Great Tomorrow, so you must act uprightly!"

No matter what, these maritime merchants are the people of the Ming Dynasty, we can't attack directly, we have to salute first and then soldiers, if they refuse to listen, it is not too late to come again. ”

Zheng Zhilong persuaded: "If they join forces, I'm afraid we are not opponents." ”

Mao Liangzhe sneered: "What? Do they dare to take the initiative to do something to us, unless they want to rebel, and wait to destroy the Nine Clans at that time! ”

Seeing that Mao Liangzhe was so tough, Zheng Zhilong sighed and stopped persuading. Although he was nominally the commander of the fleet, Mao Liangzhe represented the emperor, and more than half of the fleet was a soldier of the Fujian Praetorian Guard.

Mao Liangzhe immediately ordered someone to write a post, in the name of the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, to send it to the various Daming maritime merchants, inviting them to meet on Fujiang Island three days later, the post stated that the person in charge must come, otherwise it would be an enemy of the Royal Maritime Traders.

In fact, in these days of the Japanese Kingdom, the "bad behavior" of the Royal Maritime Trade Company had already spread through the Fujian maritime merchants, making the maritime merchants of Zhejiang and Guangdong all avoid the Royal Maritime Trade Firm. Originally, there were many maritime merchants living on Fukue Island, but in order not to have anything to do with the Royal Maritime Trading Company, these maritime merchants went to live on other islands, and Nuoda Fukue Island, one of the five islands, now lives in the Royal Maritime Trading Company.

After receiving the invitation post, these maritime merchants were terrified. The identity of these maritime merchants was either to belong to the merchant gangs set up by the gentry, or to be independent maritime merchants, or simply pirates who robbed goods and came to trade. To tell the truth, there is no cowardice who dares to come and brave the huge waves to trade with the Japanese country. But they still felt a little frightened, firstly, because the Royal Maritime Trading Company was powerful, with more than 20 sea ships and more than 3,000 troops, it absolutely crushed all the maritime merchants in terms of strength, and then the identity of the Royal Maritime Trading Firm, after all, it represented the emperor.

Even though there were many maritime merchants who were in tandem with each other to discuss countermeasures, these were representatives sent by the coastal gentry, knowing that there was no possibility of reconciliation with the Royal Maritime Trading House. However, other maritime merchants were very hesitant, those pirates were originally wanted by the imperial court, and they could not see the light, so they naturally did not want to have anything to do with the fleet with the background of the imperial court. Of course, there were also some small maritime merchants in Guangdong or Zhejiang who had one or two ships, who had no background and little strength, and who thought that they did not have the sin of the Royal Maritime Trade Company, and made the decision to go to Fujiang Island to attend the meeting early.

Three days later, nearly 100 small boats came to Fukue Island, and after thinking about it, most of the maritime merchants chose to heed the call, and even if the principal did not dare to come, they would send a representative. Either way, listen to what the Royal Maritime Trading House has to say. Of course, there are also some maritime merchants who don't know what kind of psychology they have and don't send people over.

On the beach of Fujiang Island, a high platform was built, on which Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong sat upright, while the maritime merchants attending the meeting could only sit on the ground under the stage.

Looking at the Daming banner on the stage, and looking at the Praetorian Guards wearing full armor around Zheng Zhilong and his surroundings, the maritime merchants attending the meeting didn't dare to say anything at all, so they could only sit down on the beach aggrieved.

"Since Taizu, my Ming Dynasty has implemented the policy of banning the sea, and those who go to sea without permission are all rebellious to the imperial court!"

Mao Liangzhe stood up, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he gave these maritime merchants a direct crit. The maritime merchants and delegates sitting in the audience suddenly became in a commotion, could it be that the Royal Maritime Trade Company convened everyone to discuss the matter, in order to wipe everyone out? Many maritime merchants were already looking around, wondering how to escape from Fukue Island.

"However, since the opening of the sea in Longqing, the imperial court's policy on the sea ban has slowed down a lot, allowing Ming merchants to trade at sea." Mao Liangzhe's voice changed, his tone seemed to be much softened, and the expressions of these maritime merchants were no longer so nervous.

"However, the permission to go to sea for trade does not mean that everything is indifferent, and all maritime merchants who go to sea must be allowed by the municipal shipping department to file and pay customs duties before they can go to sea. You and others are all Daming maritime merchants, can they have paid customs duties in the city shipping company? Mao Liangzhe asked coldly.

All the maritime merchants looked at each other, everyone knew what the city shipping division was, and the imperial court had a city shipping division in Hangzhou, Quanzhou and other places to manage maritime trade.

But for the maritime merchants, as long as they bribe a few taels of silver from the coastal guard station, they can go to sea in any place, so why pay a lot of taxes and silver to the city department? Therefore, the vast majority of maritime merchants go to sea to trade without going through the city.

"I, I've filed a case in the city." Suddenly, someone was timid, causing a look of surprise.

In the eyes of everyone, a slender man stood up resignedly, and some maritime merchants recognized that this person's name was Lin Qiang, a small maritime merchant in Zhejiang.

"Oh?" Mao Liangzhe was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that there were really people who honestly taxed the city.

"Yes, make money and don't forget to pay taxes to the court, it is worthy of praise, please sit down." Mao Liangzhe said casually.

"And what about the others? Why don't you go to the city to file and pay taxes? Mao Liangzhe asked.

The maritime merchants present were silent, nonsense, a fool would give the silver to the city for nothing!

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