The maritime merchants "took the initiative" to pay the commercial tax, and together with the income seized by the merchants from the attacks on Fuzhou and Funing, the income amounted to 6.5 million taels, and the income from the commercial firms' own maritime trade, the income from this year's trip to Japan reached 7.6 million taels. Among them, 5.2 million taels of silver, plus goods worth more than 2 million taels, can be described as a full harvest.

"This year's income is twice as high as last year's, and when the news reaches Beijing, Your Majesty will be very happy." Mao Liangzhe said with a smile on his face. Among the thousands of people in the imperial merchant house, no one knew better than him how short of money the emperor was.

"Your Majesty is happy, our brothers will definitely be promoted to knighthood." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

"Brother Yiguan will definitely be promoted. I forget it, a businessman with no fame, it is a blessing to be appreciated by His Majesty and become the treasurer of the firm. Mao Liangzhe sighed, although his tone was regretful, but his expression was very satisfied.

Controlling the entire trading house, with dozens of three-masted ships, thousands of crew and soldiers, and millions of silver in hand every year, he is so powerful that he doesn't do anything when he is a prefect of Mao Liangzhe, so what is there to regret.

"Haha, Brother Mao Jian is in the emperor's heart, if you want to be an official, it's not easy." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

Mao Liangzhe shook his head: "Your Majesty is very short of money at the moment, my duty is to help Your Majesty earn money, I am satisfied if I can always make money for Your Majesty in this life, and I dare not think about him anymore." ”

"Is Your Majesty short of money?" Zheng Zhilong asked tentatively, although Mao Liangzhe often mentioned that the emperor was short of money, Zheng Zhilong still couldn't imagine it. The dignified son of heaven, the entire Ming Dynasty is his, how can he be short of money?

"Very lacking! The provinces of the Ming Dynasty have been suffering from natural disasters for many years, land annexation is extremely serious, and the imperial court taxes are getting less and less year by year, and there are too many places to use money. If it weren't for the lack of money, why would Your Majesty send me to Fujian to open up maritime trade? Mao Liangzhe sighed.

"Brother Yiguan, now I want to pay you the truth, I am afraid that most of the silver earned this time will be sent to Beijing City, whether it is the income seized from the attack on the merchant gang, or the commercial tax paid by the maritime merchants, it cannot be shared with you, and you can only share the profits obtained by the merchant bank's sea trade." Mao Liangzhe said solemnly.

The Royal Maritime Trade Company has a three-percent stake in Zheng Zhilong, but it is impossible for the profits to be distributed according to the originally agreed proportion.

Zheng Zhilong was silent for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "Brother Mao doesn't need to say that I understand." The seizure of the attacking merchant gang is not in the profits of the merchant house, it is the result of the hard work of the soldiers of the fleet, and I am not qualified to share the profits. And the commercial taxes paid by the maritime merchants were handed over to the imperial court, and they had nothing to do with me. ”

Seeing Zheng Zhilong like this, Mao Liangzhe was also very happy: "It's best if Brother Yiguan can think like this, Your Majesty will not treat meritorious people badly." ”

Zheng Zhilong smiled and nodded. Whoever doesn't like silver, Zheng Zhilong naturally likes it too, but he knows better that the silver that shouldn't be taken shouldn't be remembered.

At present, the Royal Maritime Trade Firm is no longer just established, no longer a dozen ships and hundreds of old pirates, but now the Merchant House has dozens of large ships and thousands of soldiers, which can suppress the huge existence of the entire Daming Maritime Merchants. Such an existence can only be controlled in the hands of the emperor, what qualifications do you have to share the profits?

He is now a general of coastal defense, and with this merit, he will most likely be promoted to deputy general after he returns, and he has never thought of such a high official position.

Compared with the wealth of his wife and son, silver is no longer so important, and he is not short of money at all, and the silver he earns now cannot be spent in three lifetimes.

Mao Liangzhe was very satisfied, and said that after returning to the Ming Dynasty, he would give Zheng Zhilong good words in the recital, and as the chief treasurer of the commercial bank, he had the right to give the emperor alone.

Since then, this year's maritime trade matters have come to an end, but waiting for the north wind to rise, they set sail back to Daming.

While waiting, the tide of the battle on Kyushu Island changed, and the Amakusa Rebel Army suddenly split up and launched an attack on the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain in the southwest of Kyushu Island.

The Shimazu clan is located around Kagoshima in the southern part of Kyushu Island, where the land is barren and often affected by typhoons and tsunamis. After the shogunate implemented a policy of seclusion and allowed only Nagasaki to trade with the outside world, the Satsuma domain was in decline. By sending troops to occupy the Ryukyu Kingdom and wantonly blackmailing the Ryukyuan people, he barely managed to maintain the luxurious life of the aristocracy.

The sudden attack of the Amakusa rebels surprised the Shimazu clan, and in just a few days, all of the Shimazu clan's domains on the main island of Kyushu were captured and they had to retreat to Kagoshima. The Amakusa rebels gathered ships everywhere and prepared to storm Kagoshima, and Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the daimyo of the Satsuma domain, had to order the withdrawal of troops from the Ryukyu Kingdom.

However, the sea journey from Ryukyu to Kagoshima for hundreds of miles, it takes half a month to go back and forth, and it is so easy to withdraw from it, and before the Ryukyu Japanese soldiers withdraw, Kagoshima was captured by the Amakusa rebels, Shimazu Mitsuhisa committed suicide, and the Shimazu clan was killed by the rebels.

On the day that the Amakusa rebels captured Kagoshima, the monsoon finally came, and the day of the return trip arrived.

A few months after arriving in the Wa Kingdom, the whole business bank couldn't wait to go back, and everything was ready. So Mao Liangzhe ordered to set sail back. There were twenty-five ships at the time of arrival, and now there are nearly fifty ships in all, half of which have been captured from merchants and pirates. However, the fleet was divided into two groups, one led by Zheng Zhilong, with a total of 10 three-masted ships and more than 1,000 soldiers, from Nagasaki to the south via Kagoshima, to the Ryukyus to help the Ryukyus recover. Mao Liangzhe led all the remaining ships to the southwest and returned to Daming.

Zheng Zhilong led the fleet all the way south, and when he passed Kagoshima, he saw that the island was full of smoke and fire, and countless Japanese peasants were burning and looting.

Zheng Zhilong naturally couldn't hear what these rebellious Japanese peasants were shouting, he just sighed very emotionally, with the secret help of the trading house, especially after getting a large number of grenades and other firearms from the trading house, the combat strength of the Amakusa Righteous Army increased greatly, and even the powerful Kyushu feudal domain such as the Satsuma Domain was easily captured, and one day, the Japanese peasant army might be able to capture the whole of Japan. If Nagasaki is captured by the rebels, will it affect the trade with the Japanese next year? However, with the relationship between the trading house and the Amakusa rebels, it was a big deal to sell the goods to the rebels at that time, and maybe they could earn more silver.

The fleet passed Kagoshima, and two days later, it suddenly encountered a fleet of ships coming from the south, but it looked like an Ataka ship and a Seki ship unique to Wakoku.

"Pull down the flag and stop it!" Zheng Zhilong's eyes rolled and he hurriedly ordered.

The Japanese boats, again from the Ryukyus, were supposed to be the fleet sent to the Ryukyus by the Satsuma Domain, but they retreated due to the attack on Kagoshima by the Amakusa rebels.

Since you meet it at sea, you can't let it go! However, in order not to let the other party find out his identity, he still removed the banner of the comptoir and pretended to be a pirate.

Zheng Zhilong's ten ships are all three-masted ships, all of which are 2,000 large sea ships, and in this sea area of East Asia, except for the plywood ships of the Xiyi people, there is no ship that can only be compared with them. Moreover, each ship has been modified to be able to carry six Hongyi cannons, one for the stern of the bow and one on the decks of the two sides. Ten lucky ships, there are as many as sixty Hongyi cannons alone, so naturally they will not take the oncoming Japanese fleet in their eyes.

Because the fleet lookout was equipped with telescopes, they discovered the Japanese ships first, and the ten lucky ships set up a flanking formation, occupied the upper hand, and greeted themselves towards the Japanese ships. And when the Japanese boat found the Ming ship, it was already in a disadvantageous state.

"Boom Boom"

When the two sides were two miles apart, the Hongyi cannon in the bow had already opened fire, and fired the cannonball at the oncoming Japanese ship, but the ship's cannon hit rate was too poor, and none of them hit.

The boat is not good at seeing and trying to get rid of it, but the style of the house boat is square, it looks very similar to the building boat of the Daming River, the speed is far inferior to the fortune boat, and it is in a headwind position, and it is impossible to get rid of it.

With a loud "click", a lucky ship adjusted its bow and hit the side of a Japanese ship diagonally, and the huge collision angle was deeply inserted into the belly of the Ataka ship, almost knocking the Ataka boat in two, and the Japanese people on the boat screamed and fell into the sea like dumplings. The helmsman of the Fukubune skillfully turned the rudder, and the Fufude made a graceful arc and threw out the broken Ataku ship, and then saw that the Ataka ship began to sink at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Boom Boom"

The Hongyi cannons on both sides of the ship fired one after another, close at hand, and the hit rate suddenly increased a lot, and in a short period of time, two Japanese ships were hit by shells one after another, one of the Japanese ships was shot off the mast, and immediately lost its speed and stopped at sea, and the other Japanese ship was shot out of a large hole, and a large stream of sea water continued to pour in.

"Turn the rudder!" Zheng Zhilong ordered in a deep voice. The ten lucky ships that crossed by the Japanese ships all turned their rudders, drew a circle on the sea, and chased after the remaining three Japanese ships.

"Boom, boom, boom" Hongyi cannon fired again.

An hour later, after a chase, all the ships were sunk.

The waterline of these ships is extremely shallow, and they are not loaded with much cargo at first glance, and the quality of the ships is far inferior to the Daming Fu ships, and it is useless to take them, Zheng Zhilong is unwilling to sacrifice his soldiers to engage in broadside battles, so he simply sank them all.

After some interlude, the fleet continued southward, and after another two days, a series of islands appeared in front of it, and the Ryukyu Kingdom finally arrived.

More than 10 years ago, the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain launched an attack on the Ryukyu Kingdom. Although Ryukyu is a country, the entire Ryukyu has a population of only 100,000, and it is distributed on dozens of islands of all sizes, and it is not as good as the land of a county in the Ming Dynasty in terms of area and population, so it is naturally not the opponent of the Satsuma Domain. Under the coercion of the Satsuma Domain, he first ceded Amami Oshima Island in the north to the Satsuma Domain, and then was forced to submit to the Wa Kingdom.

A few years ago, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the daimyo of the Satsuma Domain, sent troops again, captured Shuri, the castle of the Ryukyu king, and after looting on a large scale, plundered more than 100 people under the Ryukyu king Shōnin back to Kagoshima, and then forced the Ryukyu kingdom to submit to the Wa kingdom and became a vassal of the Wa kingdom.

Unwilling to be bullied by the Japanese people, the officials in the Ryukyus crossed the ocean to ask for help from the suzerain.

In another time and space, the Ming Dynasty was worried about internal and external troubles, and it was no longer able to ask about the vassal states on the sea thousands of miles away, so they could only let the Wa Kingdom gradually annex Ryukyu. And now, Zhu Youzhen is no longer the former Zhu Youzhen, and naturally knows the importance of the Ryukyu Islands to the Ming Dynasty, because it is the gateway to the Pacific Ocean of the Ming Dynasty, so he gave an order to the Fujian Navy Division, ordering the opportunity to expel the Japanese State and rescue the Ryukyus.

The Japanese naval divisions of the Satsuma Domain were completely wiped out at sea, and only a few hundred people remained in the Ryukyus, who were easily annihilated by Zheng Zhilong.

King Shangning and hundreds of members of the clan were plundered to the Wa Kingdom, but one of King Shangning's sons, Shang Feng, was not in the royal castle at that time, so he escaped from the army of the Satsuma clan and hid on a remote island. Hearing that the Great Ming Naval Division had arrived in Ryukyu and annihilated the Japanese army that had invaded Ryukyu, Shang Feng immediately rushed back to the royal city.

The Amakusa rebels captured Kagoshima, and the life and death of the Ryukyu Shangning king, who was plundered to Kagoshima, was unpredictable, and after consideration, Zheng Zhilong decided to support Shang Feng to succeed to the throne and become the new Ryukyu king, but Shang Feng also needed to be canonized by the Ming court in order to be justified.

The Satsuma Domain was destroyed, the Amakusa Rebellion was rampant in Kyushu Shikoku, and the Wa Kingdom had no time to take care of the Ryukyus for a long time, so there was no problem with the security of the Ryukyu Kingdom for the time being, so there was no need to stay in the garrison. So after pacifying the Ryukyus, with the great gratitude of King Shangfeng, Zheng Zhilong led the fleet back to the Ming Dynasty, accompanied by an envoy sent by King Shangfeng, whose mission was to go to Beijing to ask the Ming Emperor to canonize Shangfeng as the new King of the Ryukyus.

Considering the superior geographical location of the Ryukyu Kingdom, after returning to the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong proposed to Mao Liangzhe that a merchant house be set up in the Ryukyus to be responsible for trade in the Ryukyus. The main island of Ryukyu is hundreds of miles in circumference, the land is quite fertile, and the abundant rainfall in the deep ocean is very suitable for growing sugarcane, and the trading houses can open sugarcane gardens in Ryukyu and make sugar from sugarcane, and after forming a scale, they can also earn a lot of silver every year.

After thinking about it carefully, Mao Liangzhe felt that what Zheng Zhilong said was very right.

Although the Ryukyu Kingdom is a small country and a small country, its location is very important, and it still has a certain value. The establishment of a trading house in the Ryukyus allowed immigrants to cultivate sugar cane, and after a period of profit, an army could be stationed, which was important for controlling the trade in the Northeast Seas.

However, it was a matter of vassal states, and Mao Liangzhe had no right to decide on this matter, so he wrote a note and sent it to Beijing to ask the emperor to make a decision himself.

At this moment, Li Yanzhi led the sailors to encircle and suppress the pirates, and the matter of the Japanese State had been reported back to Fujian, and he heard that his fleet was completely wiped out by the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, and the gentry of the Fuzhou and Funing merchant gangs were going crazy, and Lin Rui and Wu Huang and others cursed Zheng Zhilong and Mao Liangzhe all day long.

Even for them, who are rich and rival countries, the loss of millions of taels of silver is incomparably large, and it is simply an unbearable loss. It's just that they lost some silver taels, and more importantly, the fleet is gone, the experienced sailors are gone, and the threat of Fujian sailors at sea makes it difficult for them to trade at sea in the future.

However, anger is anger, and they have no choice for a while, although they have huge power in the government and the opposition, but the affairs of the Japanese state cannot be put on the table after all. In addition to taking control of the supply of goods and cutting off the supply of goods from the trading houses, there are not many ways.

However, they themselves had no way to go to sea, and it was very difficult to make the gentry who provided the goods from the inland obedient, and in the face of interests, the friendship between the gentry was not very effective.