The old port was later called Palembang, also known as Ba Linbian. In later generations, it was the capital of South Sumatra Province in Indonesia, the largest port and trade center in the south of Sumatra Island, with an altitude of only 2 meters, across both banks of the lower reaches of the Musi River, and the waterways in the city were vertical and horizontal, and it was known as the "Water City".

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, because of the war, many Chinese came to settle here, and during the Hongwu period, Chen Zuyi, a native of Guangdong, fled to the old port with his family because of the crime, and defected to the Bolin State south of the old port as a general. After the king's death, he appointed himself a chieftain and began his career as a pirate.

But there is not only Chen Zuyi's side here in the old port, there will also be the Srivijaya dynasty in the north of the old port.

The Old Port used to belong to Sri Buddha, but when the Majapahit conquered it, Sri Buddha's Prince Bairi Missoulah fled to Temasek and then to Malacca, forming the Malacca dynasty.

After the escape of Baili Milan Sula, the local area fell into a state of no power, a chaos, so more than 1,000 local Chinese supported Liang Daoming, a native of Nanhai, Guangdong, as the leader, Liang Daoming led the Chinese and the locals to resist the invasion of the Majapahit, Liang Daoming established a regime called the new Srivijaya Dynasty (there was the old Srivijaya before), and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians crossed the sea from Guangdong to Liang Daoming in ten years.

In 1405 A.D. (the third year of Yongle of Ming Chengzu), Ming Chengzu sent Liang Daoming's fellow townsmen to supervise the imperial history Tan Shengshou and Yang Xin of Qianhu to Zhao'an with an edict; King Liang Daoming and his courtier Zheng Boke entered the tribute together, leaving his deputy Shi Jinqing to lead the army and the people.

So now the northern part of the old port is the power of Shi Jinqing of the Srivijaya Dynasty, and the southern part is Chen Zuyi's territory, and the two sides originally did not invade each other, and sometimes cooperated to grab a sum at sea.

In the original history, Chen Zuyi wanted to invite Shi Jinqing to attack Zheng He's returning fleet together, but Shi Jinqing told Zheng He to inform, and was finally broken by Zheng He and escorted back to Beijing to be killed. In the same year, Shi Jinqing sent his son-in-law to Beijing to pay tribute, and Ming Chengzu ordered Shi Jinqing to be the consolation envoy of the old port.

But now history has completely changed.

At the end of November last year, Chen Zuyi returned from Fujian, accompanied by 2,000 Ming troops led by Zhu Gaoxu's general Fang Yanping and his family (rebel army).

Fang Yanping originally stayed in Yunnan, but now that Gu Cheng, Xu Zhong, He Fu and other generals have arrived in Yunnan, Zhu Gaoxu transferred Fang Yanping over.

After the Ming army arrived in Palembang, they immediately reorganized Chen Zuyi's soldiers and horses in the local area, and at the same time recruited the Three Buddhas Qi Shi Jinqing in the name of the Ming court.

Liang Daoming, the former king of the Three Buddhas, was recruited by Ming Chengzu to return to his hometown Guangzong Yaozu, and Guangdong is now on Zhu Gaoxu's territory.

Fang Yanping brought Liang Daoming's handwritten letter.

After Liang Daoming returned to his hometown, Ming Chengzu gave him a local inspection, which was almost an official who did not enter the stream.

Liang Daoming was originally quite satisfied, after all, he has changed from a pirate to an official, although he is the king overseas, in fact, in the eyes of the Nanyang countries, he is still a pirate like Chen Zuyi.

Li Yuan learned about Liang Daoming's experience from Chen Zuyi, and immediately asked Liang Daoming to choose one from Nanhai County and Guangzhou Weiqianhu.

Liang Daoming finally chose a civil official and wanted to be a county official.

With Liang Daoming's handwritten letter, Shi Jinqing, as in the original history, also accepted Zhao'an, and since then the new Srivijaya Dynasty has disappeared, and the old port government of the Ming Dynasty has been established.

To say that this Chen Zuyi is also a ruthless person.

He took Shi Jinqing to gather the leaders of his subordinates on both sides and said that the imperial court wanted to recruit peace, which of you agreed? If the brothers don't agree, I'll take them to be pirates.

There were really some people in the subordinates who disagreed, and after everyone raised their hands, Chen Zuyi immediately turned his face and took the Ming army to cut down all those who disagreed.

Then Chen Zuyi, Shi Jinqing and the Ming army reorganized the soldiers and horses, eliminated the old and weak, and collected the elite.

Chen Zuyi's subordinates said that there were more than 10,000 people, all of whom were dragged by their families, and Fang Yanping selected 5,000 young people from them, of which 2,000 and their families would go to Fujian with Chen Zuyi, and the other 3,000 and their 2,000 Ming troops were organized into a guard to establish the old port guard in the local area.

There are many people on Shi Jinqing's side, there are tens of thousands of Han people alone, Fang Yanping directly selected 5,000 households with strong ones, and established the old port left guard, most of which are Ming army.

In the two guards here, each guard has more than 1,000 people guarding the port, 2,000 people in the fields, and 2,000 people as sailors who operate along the surrounding coasts all year round, ensuring sea trade routes and fighting pirates.

More than 5,000 sergeants of each guard take turns to do these things, and you may be at sea in March, and you will go to Tuntian in May.

The families of the military households no longer have the title of military surplus, the younger ones gather to read and write, and those who are over 16 years old follow the tuntian, and the men go to sea to defend the city and other auxiliary affairs.

If you read very well, you will also be used as an official of local administration.

Fang Yanping told everyone that the King of Han will set up the Jiugang Mansion here, and there will be officials such as the prefect and the county governor in the future, and a group of officials will come from Daming, but on the Jiugang side, a group of people will also be used as officials.

Everyone's children will study well in the future, and they can all become officials, and even go back to Daming to become officials in the future.

The pirate became even more energetic when he heard it, and after his son learned to read and write, he could still become an official? This is a glorious ancestor.

Most of the Han people here fled from the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and they were unable to live and avoid disasters at that time.

Chen Zuyi was willing to be recruited, and he also had half of his mind, wanting to go back and be like Liang Daoming, glorifying his ancestors.

Fang Yanping also organized adult women in each family to dry salt, grow sweets, and make brown sugar, but the quantity was not much, just to provide for themselves.

Fang Yanping came over in November last year to organize and rectify, and when Chen Zuyi left, it was already January this year.

By this time he had taken control of the old port, and the pirates had been transformed into officers and soldiers, receiving salaries, and the locals were accustomed to their presence.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's instructions, Fang Yanping observed every day and found that this was indeed a good port, and there were many merchant ships coming and going.

In later generations, it was the fourth largest commercial port in Indonesia, with developed commerce and trade, and trade with more than 70 countries and regions.

Now, too, whether you enter Malacca or come out of Malacca, you can walk here and easily.

If you want to buy spices and go to Java, this old port is a must-pass port to trade and replenish.

Of course, if you have enough supplies, you can also drive directly there without stopping, but from Malacca to Temasek (Singapore), all the way to the old port, only this port can be resupplyed, and the next supply will go to Java Majapahit, so this side is one of the most important ports both at this time and in the future.

In January, Fang Yanping officially collected taxes in the old port.

In the past, when Chen Zuyi was there, he robbed the ship when he saw it, and no one dared to come, but now the Ming army has arrived, it has only been a month or two, and there are a lot of merchant ships coming and going, and the sea is very fast, everyone knows that this place is occupied by the Ming army, Chen Zuyi was recruited, safe, so there will be more and more merchant ships in the future.

Fang Yanping set the tax relatively low, according to the size of the ship, no money will be charged for ships below 300 materials, 50 taels for 300 to 500 materials, 100 taels for 500 to 1,000 materials, 150 taels for more than 1,000 to 2,000 materials, 200 taels for more than 2,000 materials, and the highest is 200 taels.

If it is a merchant ship of the Ming people who came from the north, and took a flag from Jiaozhi and other places in Fujian and paid silver, it only needs to pay one-fifth of the tax here.

Because the average merchant ship wants to transport more goods, it is relatively large, and the bigger the run, the more profitable it is, so Fang Yanping only began to collect money from more than 300 materials, and the merchant ships of 300 to 500 materials, even if they run a short distance between the old port and Cochin, can earn at least a few hundred taels, so only 50 taels is relatively small.

For example, there are many merchants in the old port, who drive a medium-sized ship of three to five hundred materials to Jiaozhi to pull a boatload of white sugar, and go back and forth for about a month, at least a few thousand taels.

Of course, you must have the ability to buy white sugar in the hands of the Ming army, because this white sugar is very popular in Nanyang, and it is a special product for the upper nobles and rich people in various kingdoms.

In order to sell sugar to Java and other places, and at the same time, in order to allow the old port to receive taxes, Zhu Gaoxu opened a sales point in the old port.

The white and brown sugar are transported here by the sailors of Cochin, and passing merchant ships can buy it without having to go to Cochin, and they can also be booked in advance.

For example, if there is a ship going to Java, passing through the old port, you can book 10,000 catties, and when you turn back, the white sugar of Cochin has been sent to the old port, and you can take it away.

In this way, the old port soon became an important trading port, and there was an endless stream of merchant ships coming and going.

Fang Yanping collected taxes on the first day of January, and by the end of January, he had received more than 5,000 taels.

It can pay almost half of the salary of the old Hong Kong Wei Ming Army.

Fang Yanping is very happy now, because there will definitely be more and more merchant ships, and he can pay for himself in the future, and he even has some money to hand over.

The second day of February.

Dozens of large ships slowly approached the old port, and Fang Yanping was standing on the shore watching.

This was another batch of Viet and Angkor dynasty people being transported to the Old Port.

Zhu Gaoxu, the king of the Han Dynasty, was staggering immigration, immigrating the Yue and Angkor Dynasty people to the Old Port, and immigrating some locals from the Old Port to Cochin and Champong.

The sergeant of the "newspaper" quickly came to Fang Yanping: "Zheng He is back, he just arrived in Temasek last night. ”

Fang Yanping was overjoyed.

He had been waiting for Zheng He, because Zhu Gaoxu was afraid that he would not come to the old port when he returned.

But Zhu Gaoxu didn't know that in fact, in history, Zheng He passed through the old port, and from the old port to Java, and also went to the new village, which refers to Gresik near Surabaya on the northeast coast of present-day Java, Indonesia. After the 15th century AD, it was an important trading port in Java.

Although Zhu Gaoxu was a crosser, he did not know Zheng He's route to the West.

In fact, Zheng He went to the old port for the first, fifth, and seventh times, and arrived at the Xincun port.

Moreover, when Zheng He first came here the year before last, he encountered the civil war of the Majapahit Kingdom, and the king of the West accidentally killed the Ming envoy and was willing to compensate 50,000 gold.

For this matter, Zheng He sent the eunuch Chen Xi back to Beijing to ask the emperor, but unfortunately he was intercepted by Zhu Gaoxu's people in Zhancheng.

If the trajectory of the original history is followed, Zheng He will definitely go to Java again to see if Chen Xi has received new instructions from the emperor.

When he went to Jajapahit, he had to pass through the old port.

Fang Yanping waited for so long in the old port, and finally waited for Zheng He.

At this time, Zheng He had the strongest invincible naval fleet in the world today.

(End of chapter)