The Ming Dynasty in the twelfth year of the Apocalypse,

The coastal provincial capitals, especially Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, are somewhat more prosperous than last year.

As the imperial court lifted the sea ban and promoted industrialization, all kinds of goods emerged in endlessly. Whether it was porcelain or silk, they became more refined and beautiful, and more and more delighted overseas foreign countries. These were all priceless goods.

There are no sea bans in coastal areas, and fishermen can go out to fish. Seafood and aquatic products are now more and more abundant in Daming. Some large sea fish or aquatic products are caught and sent to the city, and they can often be sold at a good price.

In addition, the long-dormant shipbuilding industry on the southeastern coast has begun to develop again. Nowadays, anyone who is interested knows that this is an era of overseas trade. When doing business overseas, as long as you can reach the destination, you can make a lot of money.

Full.

Therefore, the number of sea-going ships in various parts of the Ming Dynasty increased rapidly.

Take Jiangsu and Zhejiang as an example. In the original Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, the total number of smuggling ships, small cargo ships and large sea-going ships controlled by various gentry families totaled only a few hundred. However, after the imperial court clearly imposed a sea ban last year, this number doubled.

I don’t know where so many sea ships came from.

As for this year, there are no less than 3,000 sea-going cargo ships in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, and this number is still expanding.

Take the wealthy businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who are engaged in the silk and satin business and the porcelain and tea business. They set up companies based on their hometowns to raise funds and go public, and then raised funds to purchase large ships for export trade.

The feeling of being from the same hometown and having the same surname is the strongest bond. When everyone raises funds, the company can have better competitiveness. Sufficient funds allow the company to develop very fast, and everyone will gain more. This also makes this kind of family, the same surname and the same hometown.

Companies with the main focus are popping up everywhere, and whether they are listed or not, their capabilities are not small.

Therefore, in today's southeastern waters, the most common sight is ships flying the flags of various companies riding the wind and waves on the sea.

These sea flags, either hung with Shen or with the flags of the wealthy gentry such as Liu, Zhang, Li, Qian, etc., are often the property of a place or the main business of a family.

On the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, the scenery is beautiful, thousands of sails are sailing, and the ships are constantly returning like schools of fish, bringing products and gold and silver from various places into the Ming Dynasty and into this great era.

As merchant ships from all over the world continued to sail to the West, trading in Goryeo, Japan, Southeast Island countries and even further places, in the Ming Dynasty stock market, the corresponding stocks of porcelain, tea, silk and satin cloth were also rising steadily. These wealthy families in the Southeast took advantage of the Ming Dynasty.

The new trends of the Kaihai New Deal expanded the family's assets several times, and everyone's mouths were full of food, and their bowls were filled with food. Naturally, they became more and more supportive of the imperial court.

Above the Southern Ocean, a fleet of ships was cutting through the wind and waves.

This fleet consists of more than a dozen large ships. Each large ship is full of sails and is moving steadily forward driven by the monsoon. The word "Sink" on each sail represents the sinking of this fleet in the south of the Yangtze River.

Home.

The Shen family is undoubtedly a wealthy family in the south of the Yangtze River. They have always been involved in water transportation and salt production, and they have many sea ships engaged in smuggling business. They are truly a billionaire family.

The Shen family controls a fleet of hundreds of ships, which can be said to be powerful.

The current fleet of more than a dozen large ships is just an ordinary fleet owned by the Shen family. After all, as the Shen family's business went public, the Shen family, which was already proficient in overseas trade, took advantage of this shareholder trend to start.

You can make money domestically through the business of porcelain, cloth, salt and grain, and because of the system set by the imperial court, in order to stabilize the market, the prices of daily necessities such as salt, grain, and oil are set by the imperial court based on the situation, and the increases are extremely low.

It can be said that you can make money, but the profits are small. You won't lose money, but you can't make a lot of money. After all, salt and grain are just like coal and iron, and most of them are in the hands of the court.

It’s not that no one is trying to make more money. For example, there was a flood in Henan Province before, which submerged half of the province. The imperial court asked neighboring regions to support Henan. Some businessmen took the opportunity to sell salt and grain at high prices.

But as soon as the imperial court's warehouses were opened, a large amount of salt and grain poured into Henan at low prices. Not only did these merchants not make any profit, they also lost a lot of money in travel expenses.

If this is the case, forget it, the flood has just ended,

The imperial court began to liquidate, and teams of Tiqi set out from the capital to seize people, ransack their homes, and exiled them. All backgrounds were wiped out under the wrath of the Supreme Being in the palace.

This wave of low-priced grain sales by the imperial court not only resulted in no losses, but also confiscated a large amount of money, salt and grain. However, merchants from all over the country learned about the power of the imperial court's new law and the consequences of speculation.

In the words of the old man of the Shen family, they are "a bunch of dead people who have been blinded by lard. It doesn't matter when they are still thinking of going against the imperial court. Let them die unjustly. Don't involve us who are doing business well."

Influenced by those businessmen who were characterized by Prime Minister Zhang as "speculators," the local government offices strictly investigated each businessman's situation at that time, but each business was frightened. After all, you are as rich as the country.

In the eyes of the imperial court, you are just a fat pig. If the imperial court really wants to take action, what else can you do besides being slaughtered?

Shen Chao didn't think much about it. Today's imperial court is very strict about rules. Whether it's the Holy Emperor or Prime Minister Zhang, what kind of status do they have?

Others rely on their brains, opportunities, and backgrounds to make a fortune, but the Lord and Prime Minister Zhang decide whether you can make a fortune. They are the makers of the rules of the game.

As the legitimate son of the second wife of the Shen family, Shen Chao is now in his thirties. When he ascended the throne, he was only more than ten years old. It can be said that he is one of the people who have truly experienced the New Deal reforms.

Starting from the second year of Tianqi, the imperial court was changing, the yamen were changing, everything was changing.

At that time, as a high-spirited young man of fifteen or sixteen years old, Shen Chao also admired the new learning proposed by Zhang Haogu. Shixue despised Donglin's old learning and believed that he would at least be a famous minister who would criticize Fang Qiu in the future.

However, the Shen family was in the south of the Yangtze River, and the new learning was not prominent in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, so he could not slip away to the north.

Later, a lot of things came out, and the Holy Emperor encountered assassinations and conspiracies. But as these small twists and turns passed, the Holy Dragon's power became more and more powerful, and the majesty of the imperial court was also constantly reflected. Liaodong was destroyed, Monan was leveled, and the surrender was

Fortunately, the new army of the imperial court has demonstrated the strength of the imperial court to the people of the world. The implementation of the New Deal has become the truth between the government and the public under the leadership of the hundreds of thousands of new troops in the imperial court and the Datong Academy and New Party scholars all over the country.

At this point, the Shen family also began to move closer to the New Party. Now the Shen family is more and more aware of the benefits of the New Party. They don't covet your money, and they don't need your compliments. As long as you don't break the law, nothing will happen. If you can still

If you do something practical, the new party will like you even more.

Taking the current fleet as an example, if it were not for the support of the New Party, the Shen family would not be able to easily raise funds and go public.

Standing on the bow of the boat and smelling the fresh air on the sea, the air is much better than in some places in the south of the Yangtze River today.

Nowadays, the country estates in Jiangnan are okay, but the big cities are each engaged in industrialization. Industrialization has indeed brought convenience and money, but it has also made the originally good atmosphere smoky.

The industrialization promoted by the imperial court was equivalent to putting dust on a beautiful picture of mist and rain in the beautiful Jiangnan, but no one could refuse the process of industrialization.

Shen Chao also visited Tianjin Prefecture. Seeing the train running on the track with billowing black smoke and shrill whistles, he clearly realized that these things are the future.

No one will care about anything else until they have enough food, clothing, and support for their families.

However, in fact, the progress of industrialization in the north and south of Ming Dynasty is also limited, because various factories are close to towns, relying on sufficient population markets and convenient roads, so some small cities, or manors outside the city, and mountain villages are still so beautiful. Full of poetry and painting.

Smelling the slightly cold and fishy air at sea, Shen Chao felt that he liked life at sea more.

There are various rooms in the Shen family. Although the eldest family is taking care of business, the children of the eldest family are studying. They hope to give the Shen family more official clothes in the future.

Those in the third room traveled around the mountains and rivers, recited poems and wrote poems, and finally made a lot of names in Jiangnan. They were called various names, but they were of no use to the Shen family.

You are fighting for each house, thinking about competing for your own share of the Shen family, which is getting richer now. What is the point of this?

Shen Chao felt that he was born to be at the sea. The scenery on the sea was so beautiful.

At noon, the sun is high in the sky and shines its warm sunshine on the sea. The blue sea is rippling, and the fleet rides on the waves, going to foreign countries one after another and experiencing the customs and customs of each place.

Throwing away the messy thoughts in his mind, Shen Chao stretched out leisurely and said, "The scenery on the sea is really beautiful. Why are you thinking so much? Let's just look at the scenery in the distance."

"Huh? Fleet?!"

"Zijian? Zijian?! Bring the telescope!"

Hearing Shen Chao's cry, his cousin hurried out from the cabin and handed a three-section telescope into Shen Chao's hand.

Shen Chao opened his telescope and looked at the fleet in the distance. The fleet had no conspicuous signs and looked like an ordinary caravan. But which caravan would use so many double-decker red ships? ?

These Dutch ships are more like warships than merchant ships. Their two decks are often equipped with more than twenty-four cannons, and the ships are faster than ordinary sea ships. They can be said to be essential ships for sea robberies. .

When he discovered that this fleet was heading straight towards him, Shen Chao's heart skipped a beat and he realized something was wrong: "Zijian, please invite Uncle Fu quickly."

Shen Zijian knew something was wrong by looking at his cousin's expression. He immediately went to find Uncle Fu. He was an old man of the Shen family and the anchor of the fleet.

Uncle Fu, who was already fifty years old this year, came to the front deck, looked at Shen Chao and asked, "Did the second young master find any traces?"

Shen Chao handed over the telescope: "Uncle Fu, look, is that fleet coming towards us? Is it a pirate?"

Uncle Fu did not hesitate. When he looked through the telescope, his expression immediately became solemn: "They are all red barbarian ships. With this momentum, they are definitely not merchant ships, but damn red barbarian thieves!"

"These red barbarian thieves have been competing with our families for business. They have done it several times at sea in the past few years. Now they are seeing our business getting bigger and bigger, and I can't help it anymore!"

Shen Zijian still couldn't believe it. This was his first time going to sea, so why did he encounter pirates?

Taking a chance, Shen Zijian asked: "Is it possible that he is a naval officer of the imperial court?"

Before Shen Chao could speak, Uncle Fu shattered Shen Zijian's fantasy: "How could the imperial navy come to this area of ​​water? Moreover, the imperial navy's warships do not look like this, and there is no imperial navy's Qinglong flag on it. This How could he be a naval officer of the imperial court?"

"Second Young Master, let the ships prepare for battle. We can't escape."

Shen Chao said in a deep voice: "Then it depends on Uncle Fu."

Obviously, in this aspect, we still have to look at Uncle Fu, the Old Man of the Sea.

Uncle Fu didn't hesitate too much. He quickly contacted each ship, and then the cannons were pushed out from the cabin. In just a few quarters of time, this merchant ship turned into an armed ship that could part-time as a pirate.

When sailing on the sea, no one can be trusted. The only ones you can trust are your own family, swords and guns.

If the ship on the sea is not equipped with some artillery, it will just be a pure meat bun that anyone can take a bite of.

After Uncle Fu ordered all the ships to prepare their artillery, he came to Shen Chao and said, "Second Young Master, this situation is not right. In my opinion, we have to retreat while fighting. If we can retreat to the imperial waters, we may be saved. Otherwise, These red barbarian thieves cannot let us go easily."

Shen Chao also knew that he was not thinking about business and making money at the moment. It would be okay if the goods on these dozen large ships were gone, but the people were gone. Not to mention the various compensation issues under the imperial system, so many skilled sailors were lost. Boatman, if more than a dozen large ships are damaged, the Shen family will definitely be seriously injured, and the Shen family's stock market will be affected by then.

"Everything is up to you, Uncle Fu." Shen Chao directly gave Uncle Fu full authority to handle this crisis.

At this time, the red barbarian ships on the opposite side were also close. From this distance, Shen Chao could clearly see that these red barbarian ships were a little narrower than his own merchant ships. Different from the wide and fat merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty, these red barbarian ships were It is narrow and long, with rams and artillery arranged in the front, four masts at the front and rear, and all kinds of sails. The red barbarians can already be seen on the deck brandishing matchlock guns and swords.

There is no doubt that this is coming for the Shen family’s merchant ship!

At Uncle Fu’s finger

After waving, the sailors shouted one after another, and each merchant ship began to slowly turn and adjust the rudder. At the same time, the gunners had already loaded the gunpowder, stuffed the heavy solid bullets into the muzzles and tamped them, waiting to fire. The command.

Although these gunners were still a little nervous, after all, they were all veterans of many voyages, and some of them had also encountered the Red Yi people. Therefore, under the leadership of these old people, the newcomers did not do anything stupid.

As the ships from both sides got closer and closer, Shen Chao looked at the nervous sailors behind him and still wanted to fight for peace, so he shouted loudly: "Friends across the way, we have no intention of fighting with you."

At this time, some awkward Chinese words came from the Hongyi ship opposite: "We don't want to fight our friends across the way. As long as you are willing to hand over the goods, we are willing to let you leave."
To be continued...