Five million taels!

Mao Liangzhe and Zheng Zhilong almost jumped up.

That's a huge number! It is almost equivalent to a year's income of the Ming treasury.

Of course, the tax situation in the Ming Dynasty is complicated, one is that the tax does not come up, and then a large amount of taxes are intercepted by the local government for local expenses, and to support hundreds of thousands of clans, if there is no additional levy on Liao and other taxes, the tax silver handed over to the treasury of the household department is four or five million taels per year. But even so, it can be compared with the treasury revenue, which shows how huge the benefits of sea trade are! And this is just the seizure of the ships of the two major merchant gangs and seven or eight small pirates.

The splitter snatched the account book from the steward's hand, Mao Liangzhe looked at it carefully, and Zheng Zhilong also came over and craned his neck to watch.

After a careful look at the two of them, they found that the cash silver was not five million taels, but only three million two hundred and twenty-three thousand taels, and the rest were estimated at a discount from other goods.

A large amount of red copper was seized from the merchant ship, the amount was as much as 500,000 catties, and it was filled with several lucky ships, and these red copper ingots were transported back to the Ming Dynasty, and then privately minted as copper coins, and then sold back to the Japanese country in the next sea trade.

Although there are a large number of copper mines, they will not mint money, so there are Ming maritime merchants who come to the Ming to trade and buy back a large number of copper ingots, bring back the Ming Dynasty and make money privately, and then transport it back to the Japanese in exchange for silver, and it is several times the profit when it comes back and forth.

In addition to a large amount of red copper, there were other goods worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. For example, the sword, the sword produced by the Wa State has excellent performance, far better than the Ming sword, and is very popular with the Ming warriors, a sword is worth dozens of taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty, and the confiscated sword is enough to have as many as a thousand handles. In addition, there are a large number of folding fans, lacquerware, screens and other Japanese handicrafts, all of which are special products of the Japanese country.

And what shocked the two the most was that a large amount of sulfur was copied from the ship, which was tens of thousands of catties. There are many volcanoes in the country, and there are a large number of sulfur mines around the volcanoes, and sulfur is an important ingredient in making gunpowder.

A cursory look shows that there are more than a dozen types of cargo seized on board, and counting a large number of copper ingots, the value is more than one million taels. Of course, this value is estimated according to the price after it was shipped back to Daming, so there is a total data of five million taels.

But even so, the seizures were staggering!

"Compared with the Fuzhou Merchant Gang and the Funing Merchant Gang, our commercial bank is really poor!" Mao Liangzhe smiled bitterly.

All the goods sold by the Royal Maritime Trading Company were only 1,200,000 taels, and the proceeds of the confiscation were worth as much as 5,000,000 taels.

"The same cannot be said. After all, our royal trading house has only been established for a year, and these merchant gangs are controlled by the local gentry, who have been operating maritime trade for many years, all of them have huge assets, have their own fleets, and control a large number of goods, so it is normal for us not to be able to compare with them for the time being. Zheng Zhilong comforted.

Mao Liangzhe nodded, seemingly agreeing with Zheng Zhilong's words, but he sighed in his heart. The sea trade is so profitable, these southeastern maritime merchants are all rich, but the treasury is extremely empty, compared with these southeastern gentry with millions of dollars, the emperor in the Forbidden City is simply poor.

However, the emperor's vision is still very accurate, and he actually knew the huge profits of sea trade in the palace, so he sent Li Yanzhi and himself to Fujian early. After more than a year of painstaking management, the affairs of maritime trade have basically opened, as long as this time can subdue a group of maritime merchants, they can sit and collect money.

"Maritime merchants, pirates, maritime merchants, but being a pirate is also a good choice, as long as you take a sea ship, you can make a fortune. Brother Yiguan, I finally understand why you chose to go to sea back then. Mao Liangzhe said with a smile.

has been with Zheng Zhilong for a long time, and I know Zheng Zhilong's details very well, and I know that Zheng Zhilong's family background was actually very good when he was young, but he chose to go to sea.

Zheng Zhilong smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's so easy to seize the ship." The sea is boundless, and it is difficult for sea ships to meet at sea, and even if they do, they don't know the details of the other party, and it is difficult to say who can beat whom. It is very difficult to take down the opponent's ship, once it is dragged by the opponent into the night, it can escape all night, and it is almost impossible to find it.

And the broadside battle has always been the most cruel, that is, if you win your own side, you will also suffer heavy losses, and many times, unless you know that your strength is far higher than that of many parties, basically no one will choose to take the initiative to fight. Being able to do business and make money, not many people are willing to fight and kill. ”

And this is also the reason why Zheng Zhilong hesitated whether to start a war at the beginning, because the manpower of the other party's ships was no worse than that of the Royal Sea Trade Company.

"To be honest, if the other party is prepared, it will be able to win, and we will lose a lot, and even the gains will outweigh the losses." Zheng Zhilong sighed.

"That's why I insisted on doing it, convening them today, no one knows what we are looking for them to do, and naturally no one would think that we would do it today, just to catch them off guard." Mao Liangzhe said with a smile.

"Two lords, the Nagasaki government of the Wa Kingdom has sent someone." At this moment, someone rushed to the two and said to the two.

The two glanced at each other, and the secret came so quickly.

Nagasaki was an official sent by the Wakoku shogunate to manage the port of Nagasaki, and was directly appointed by the shogunate, and had nothing to do with the daimyo around Nagasaki. Nagasaki was the only foreign trade port in the Wa Kingdom, and it was so important to the Shogunate that it was always under the direct jurisdiction of the Shogunate.

Nagasaki is not only the chief of administration and justice of Nagasaki Town, but also the commercial and trade officer in charge of trade, and is also responsible for preventing foreign invasions and the spread of Christianity, and is also responsible for dealing with foreigners in Nagasaki Port.

"Bring him here." Mao Liangzhe commanded. The person who came was just a subordinate official of Nagasaki, and he was not worthy of being welcomed by the two.

After a while, a short, middle-aged Japanese man walked over, dressed in a Japanese robe, with an ugly hairstyle and a short beard under his lips, looking very funny.

"You and others attacked the port of Nagasaki without authorization, attacking innocent merchant ships, this is a serious provocation to our great Japan, I have come to tell you and others to immediately hand over the murderer who attacked the port, otherwise my Nagasaki defenders will immediately attack Fukue Island!" The Japanese official named Yamashita Masao shouted.

Mao Liangzhe's heart was dumb, this widow looked like a fierce inward, but it was just an empty threat.

"The reason why we attacked Nagasaki was to capture pirates who did all kinds of evil. Just two months ago, along the coast of Daming, ten ships loaded with goods of our firm were robbed in the waters of Zhoushan, and the firm lost a huge amount of money. When I arrived in Nagasaki, I was surprised to find that the robbed ships were moored in Nagasaki Harbor. I would like to ask your country whether it is in collusion with those pirates who do all kinds of evil. Mao Liangzhe asked.

"Nonsense, what does what happened in the waters of the Ming Kingdom have to do with our country? Nagasaki was a trading port, and all Ming maritime merchants could come to trade here, regardless of whether they had done robbery or not. Yamashita Masao said angrily.

"In this case, our capture of the Ming pirates has nothing to do with your shogunate." Mao Liangzhe said with a smile.

"As long as there is a war in Nagasaki, in our Wa country, it has something to do with us, and it is a provocation to the shogunate? If you refuse to hand over the perpetrators, just wait for my great Japanese sailor to come to crusade. When the time comes, you won't be able to survive until you wait, and your trading houses will be banned from trading in Nagasaki in the future. Yamashita sneered.

"Don't be angry, don't be angry." Zheng Zhilong hurriedly came over and pretended to be red-faced, and said in a round way, "My firm caught the Bo pirates without notifying Nagasaki in advance, it was our fault, and I promise that there will be no such thing in the future." As for handing over the perpetrators, please give us two days, and we will definitely send people to Nagasaki. Zheng Zhilong said.

Yamashita Masao was quite satisfied with Zheng Zhilong's attitude, and admonished him again, telling him all the rules to be followed in Nagasaki, and agreeing that someone must be sent to Nagasaki the day after tomorrow, and then left. Zheng Zhilong sent it all the way, and asked people to take ten horses of silk and a box of Ming books as gifts, and asked Yamashita to bring them to Nagasaki.

"The Amakusa rebel army has already conquered most of Kyushu Island, and there are two daimyo from Nagasaki Port, and the daimyo armies around Nagasaki have been transferred to the front line to block the rebel army, and the Nagasaki garrison is extremely empty, where will the troops come from to attack Fukue Island?" Mao Liangzhe said to Zheng Zhilong.

"So we did such a big thing, and the Nagasaki commission just sent someone to scold him." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

"Brother Yiguan, you said that if we suddenly send troops, can we capture Nagasaki Port?" Mao Liangzhe said suddenly.

Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that Mao Liangzhe, a scholar, was even more belligerent than himself, a former pirate.

He smiled bitterly and said: "We have 3,000 people and hundreds of Hongyi cannons, so there is naturally no problem in capturing Nagasaki Port." But what's the use of capturing the port of Nagasaki, at most it will be looted, and it will not be able to hold it at all. Although the Wa State is a small land, but it has a population of tens of millions, the Wa Shogunate mobilized, can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, including many battle-hardened elite samurai, just with our thousands of people, it is not enough to see. ”

Mao Liangzhe smashed his mouth and said with some pity: "Forget it." At present, His Majesty is short of silver, and he still has to make money in the Japanese country, so he will not make trouble. By the way, what about your promise to hand over the perpetrator? ”

Knowing each other's roots, Mao Liangzhe naturally wouldn't believe that Zheng Zhilong would really hand over his own people to the Wa Kingdom.

"I'll send someone to the Amakusa Peninsula quietly by boat at night, send some captured weapons to Amakusa Kaede, and then ask him for some people to apologize." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

Since Nagasaki is now unable to attack Fukue Island, it is enough to give him an explanation, and I believe that he will not delve into it.

"Send all the swords and firearms captured from the pirates to Amakusa Kaede, and then tell Amakusa Kaede to send a group of men to the southeast to attack the Satsuma Domain." Mao Liangzhe said.

"What do you mean ......"

"The Satsuma clan was so bold that he sent an army to overthrow the Ryukyu Shang clan and plundered the Ryukyu king back to the Wa Kingdom, and the Ryukyu envoys went to Beijing to ask for help. Since we have reached this point, we will do this by the way, and send a fleet to Ryukyu on the return trip, kill all the Japanese there, and then casually support a descendant of the Shang family to succeed the king of the Ryukyus. Mao Liang Zhe said.

Zheng Zhilong thought about it and found that this matter was not very difficult. After all, the Satsuma Domain, which attacked the Ryukyus, was only a daimyo of the Wa Kingdom, and its strength was limited, so if Amakusa Kaede attacked the Satsuma Domain, even if it could not destroy the Satsuma Domain, it would be able to force it to withdraw its occupation forces from the Ryukyus, and as long as a few ships were sent casually, it would be able to help the Ryukyus recover.

"My lord, I will personally lead a few ships to the Ryukyus." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

It is easy to make a military merit in this matter, although the credit is not great, but the name of the leading general can reach the imperial court directly and enter the eyes and ears of the Son of Heaven. After all, Ryukyu is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and helping the vassal restore the country is definitely a face-showing thing. At that time, you may be able to move up to the next level with this skill.

"It's best if Brother Yiguan wants to go there." Mao Liangzhe smiled slightly.

"I heard that the Shang royal family was plundered to Japan, what if I can't find the descendants of the Shang family in the Ryukyus?" Zheng Zhilong said suddenly.

"No matter what, leave a few hundred soldiers stationed at that time, and then report to the court to wait for the court to decide." Mao Liangzhe said.

That night, Zheng Zhilong sent someone to quietly go to Fukuoka Castle on the Amakusa Peninsula by boat, and when he returned, the ship brought back more than a dozen Japanese people, who were the substitutes for the dead found by Amakusa Kaede.

And to Mao Liangzhe's surprise Zheng Zhilong, these ghosts for the dead knew that they were going to die, and they were all willing to do it.

"Amakusa Kaede's subordinates have so many people dying for him, it's really a hero." Zheng Zhilong sighed. If it were him, I am afraid that his subordinates would not be able to find so many people who were willing to die.

"Sacrificing so many loyal subordinates for the sake of a few weapons, Amakusa Kaede is no more than Erer." Mao Liangzhe sneered.

Zheng Zhilong sighed and didn't speak again, Amakusa Feng didn't just have some weapons, but from the Royal Sea Trade Firm and the support of Daming.

At dawn the next day, Zheng Zhilong sent people to send these Japanese people to Nagasaki Port, and he didn't even bother to dress up, but the Nagasaki Commission did not interrogate them, so he asked the more than ten perpetrators of the attack on Nagasaki Port to be executed at the pier, without even giving these people a chance to speak, and then the violent corpse port set an example.

The Royal Maritime Trading Company sent more than a dozen ships to attack the port of Nagasaki, and the perpetrators turned out to be more than a dozen Japanese people, and when the news came out, other maritime merchants from Daming were in an uproar. The Imperial Maritime Trading House was too powerful to even be able to do anything about the Wa Shogunate, so what else could they do? I can only pay the business tax honestly.

On the same day, several maritime merchants took the initiative to go to Fujiang Island to send silver to the Royal Maritime Trade Company and took the initiative to send the account book for verification.

In the days that followed, there were many maritime merchants who took the initiative to go to Fukue Island every day to pay taxes, and there were so many people that they had to wait in line.

It took a full two days to completely complete the business tax matter.

The remaining fifty or sixty sea vessels paid a total of 1,100,000 taels of commercial taxes.