In the evening, Ningbo, the study room of the Liu family mansion.

A somewhat thin old man with a long beard was sitting on the chair. This man was responsible for Liu Jiamao, the head of the Liu family. He looked at the children of the Liu family standing below and asked: "How much wealth did the Shi family bring this time?"

?”

"The three large ships are all made of thousands of materials, and the cargo is worth more than 50,000 taels of silver." The Liu family member stood there respectfully and said.

"What goods are you planning to purchase?"

"Raw silk, grain, tea, etc."

"Okay, you can go out."

After sending that family member away, Liu Jiamao pondered for a while and sighed. Recently, Fujian has become more and more involved in maritime trade, which has had some impact on their Jiangnan maritime merchants.

During the Ming Dynasty, most of the so-called maritime trade referred to trade with Japan and Korea.

The small island country of Japan is rich in silver. The annual silver output of Iwami Ginshan alone can reach one million taels. The entire Japanese country has an annual silver output of more than eight million taels. However, the currency circulating in Japan is the Ming Dynasty.

Copper coins and the silver mined every year basically flowed into the Ming Dynasty through these maritime traders.

In this era, the Ming Dynasty's annual silver production was only a few hundred thousand cars. Before American silver flowed into China on a large scale, most of the silver circulating in the country came from the Japanese country.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, European colonists had just expanded their colonies to Southeast Asia. Sea trade in Fujian and Guangdong was not yet developed. At present, only the Portuguese had the largest trading volume, followed by the Spanish and the Dutch, who also gradually came into contact with the Ming Dynasty.

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Although the current trading volume of European colonists is still far lower than that of the Japanese, anyone with a discerning eye can find that the trading volume with these red-haired ghosts is increasing day by day.

Some emerging maritime merchants and small merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have focused their attention on these red-haired ghosts. The Liu family is one of them. For more than ten years, they have been able to earn a large amount of gold and silver from the Portuguese every year. However,

Since last year, the sudden rise of Fujian maritime merchants has captured a large amount of trade volume from them.

This resulted in a significant drop in their income last year.

This year, not far from the arrival of the Portuguese caravan, the Shi family once again purchased so much tea and raw silk from Ningbo. From this, it can be seen that their family may suffer huge losses in trade with Portugal this year.

Last year, they were unprepared. This year, there is absolutely no way that the Liu family would let something like this happen again.

The next day, several maritime merchant families who were mainly engaged in sea routes to Southeast Asia gathered at Liu's house to discuss how to deal with this important matter for Fujian maritime merchants.

"Master Liu, why did you find us this time?"

Liu Jiamao glanced at the other four people present, "Everyone, it's time to trade with those red-haired ghosts once a year. What do you think of this transaction?"

The four people present looked at each other and exchanged glances, roughly understanding what the Liu family leader meant by calling everyone here.

"If it were in previous years, that would be fine. I would wait for several families to discuss each family's share and that would be enough. But last year..." A family head sighed slightly.

"Last year, our stores had a lot of inventory left over. It's really unexpected that these damn Fujian people interfered."

"There's no way we can let these guys participate again this year."

"Of course, we developed this sea route bit by bit. How could we let these Fujian people pick peaches halfway?"

"Master Liu, please tell us what we should do."

Finally, a group of people discussed and turned their attention to Liu Jiamao again.

"Old rules, there's nothing to say. It's not impossible to get a share of the pie on this road, but we still have to weigh their weight. Let's talk about how many people each family can contribute."

The imperial court absolutely prohibits the sea, and no one can borrow the power of the imperial court. In other words, the sea is a lawless place. If you want to make money on it, you must have enough force, whether it is to deal with pirates appearing along the way.

Or other competitors, all of which require sufficient military support.

How big the sea trade can be depends on each company's own strength. Blocking people's way of making money is like killing their parents. Since these Fujian people want to steal business from them, don't blame them for being ruthless.

In this era, no maritime merchant has an armed force of hundreds of people. Not to mention other things, just the sailors who go to sea all the year round, fighting with pirates, almost all of them have such weapons in their hands.

A life or two.

There are no less than four to five hundred sailors in each fleet, plus spare manpower, pirates raised by each family, manpower to guard homes on the shore, intimidate tenants, and look after mines. I dare not say that any one of these companies has more manpower.

There are thousands of armed forces inside.

Just to feed these people requires thousands of taels of silver a year. Fortunately, the annual income is more generous, so these investments are nothing.

"My Sun family has three hundred men, five warships, and one thousand taels of silver."

"My Zhao family has four hundred people, six warships, and one thousand taels of silver."

Each family head contributes people and money according to the proportion of their family's share in the red-haired ghost sea trade. Overall, the total number of troops sent is 2,000, 30 warships, and more than 6,000 taels of silver.

The reason why there are so many manpower and ships is not to target the Shi family, but to severely crack down on the emerging maritime merchants in Fujian. To cause a Japanese pirate rebellion in the entire bay, strait and along the coast of Fujian, we must completely discourage these Hokkien guys from going to sea.

little thoughts.

This time we not only need ships and people, but also need to invite a wave of real Japanese pirates to take action for the silver coins each family provides. After all, they are under the banner of Japanese pirates, so there still need to be some Japanese pirates, even if there are fewer.

In fact, the strength of this wave of Japanese pirates that Liu, Sun, and Zhao families are looking for is not bad at all. The leader is named Okamura Tanaka. There are more than a thousand people, and a small number of them are composed of Japanese ronin.

Some are sailors and ashigaru.

The so-called ronin of Japan refers to those down-and-out warriors who lost their titles and wandered away from their masters.

In the Japanese country, those who can be called samurai are not ordinary people. The so-called samurai are already members of the lower class nobles, who are dedicated to fighting, and are roughly equivalent to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After the Kamakura Shogunate era, the Japanese nation entered the Warring States Period. Of course, this Warring States Period is what their own history books say. During this period, the small Japanese nation

However, there are hundreds of countries, and a single county can be called a country, so it is called the Warring States Period.

But in Wang Xuan's view, it is more appropriate to call it the "Yangcun Era".

Compared with the Warring States Period of China, the national war of Japan is not much different from Pleasant Goat vs. Big Big Wolf. It is nothing more than a game.

Of course, to be precise, it would be more appropriate to call it a war between counties. It is just a fight between hundreds and thousands of people, which is similar to two villages fighting for water.

The samurai are the absolute main force in such small-scale battles. When a daimyo is destroyed, these samurai lose their loyal masters and become ronin.

This group of pirates can stay on the sea for a long time, and its strength cannot be underestimated. In terms of combat effectiveness, it may not be worse than a joint fleet composed of several companies.

…

Five days later, the Shi family settled the deal in Ningbo and made a fortune again. Three ships loaded with goods set sail, starting from Ningbo, passing through the Zhoushan Islands and then around to Xiangshan County, where they could follow the coastline.

All the way back to Fuzhou Port.

But they didn't know that they had been targeted a few days ago.

The five Liu families did not use all their forces against the Shi family. They only separated a team of people. Six boats and 400 people were blocked in front of the mountain. The other people, including Japanese people, had already come all the way to the sea off Fujian.

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Just after noon, the lookout hand of the Shi family's fleet was looking at it with a telescope boredly. Suddenly, he saw six ships heading this way outside the mountain pass. They couldn't see them from a distance.

Clearly, I just thought it was some merchant ships and didn't pay much attention to it. When I got a little closer, I discovered that the other party's ship was obviously different from ordinary merchant ships. The hull was more narrow and long, and the speed was faster than ordinary merchant ships with a big belly.

A bad thought crossed the lookout's mind, and he immediately picked up the drum hammer and struck the gong beside him.

Hearing the alarm sound, the boatswain on the ship immediately rushed out and looked up at the lookout hand. Then he heard the other party yelling: "There are six ships heading straight for us. They don't look like merchant ships. They feel like they are coming."

With bad intentions!”

The boatswain was immediately startled, and while ordering someone to ring the alarm bell to get everyone ready, he turned around and ran towards the captain's cabin.

At this time, the person in charge of the Shi family's caravan, the fourth son of the Shi family, who heard the warning, also came out and asked, "What's going on?"

"Fourth Master, there are six ships approaching us. They don't look like merchant ships. I'm afraid..."

He didn't say the next words, and the fourth master of the Shi family understood what he meant.

Shi Laosi grabbed a telescope from the hands of the people around him, quickly ran to the bow of the ship and looked towards the opposite side. From the telescope, he could clearly see that the boat opposite was a sail-saddle boat.

At this time, two rows of oars stretched out around the hull, paddling wildly on the water, and the ship came towards us at high speed.

This kind of sailing paddle boat has high explosive power and fast speed. Although its ability to withstand wind and waves is low, it is not suitable for sailing in the open sea, and its endurance is relatively weak. However, it is very suitable as a pirate ship in coastal and offshore areas.

Shi Laosi put down his telescope with a livid face. These guys coming straight must be pirates!

If it were in the open sea, it would be okay, there would be three-foot waves even if there was no wind, but in this offshore area, no matter how hard our ship tried, we would not be able to outrun the other side. In addition, we were now in a strait, so even if we wanted to run to the open sea, it would be impossible.

Now there is only one way before Shi Laosi, do it! Do it to the end! If you win, you will live, if you fail, you will die!

Taking a deep breath, Shi Laosi shouted, "Get ready, everyone, let me increase the speed of the boat to the highest speed, let me sink them, and hit the bow of the ship!"

There are six ships on the opposite side, and they are all pirates. Their combat effectiveness is definitely much better than ours. Our only advantage is that the ships are big enough. If they collide head-on, it is not that Shi Laosi looks down on the other side, but their small broken sails and paddles are used for both purposes.

The ship, in Wang Xuan's words, has a displacement of less than 200 tons and can sink them in one blow!

As for surrender, he has never thought about it. He is not stupid. The opponent has obviously been prepared to attack him. It is unlikely that he will survive. Otherwise, he will not be able to attack him so accurately and have such sufficient strength.

Instead of praying for the enemy to survive, it is better to take a risk!

Shi Laosi gave the order, and the big ship immediately rushed towards the other party at full speed. These crew members were all tenants or children of the Shi family. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are a family, and their loyalty is extremely high.

Time passed by, and the two fleets were facing each other and soon they were fighting each other. Standing on the bow of the ship, Shi Laosi could clearly see the ferocious face of the pirate on the opposite side. He snorted coldly and pulled a rope.

He quickly tied himself to the side of the ship.

The pirate leader of the Zhao family across the way was a little confused as to what Shi Laosi was going to do. However, facing the fish on the chopping board, he didn't think much and just shouted, "Robbing, stop the ship for me. If you dare to resist, all of you will be killed."

Kill without mercy!"

As usual, I just threatened a few words and didn't expect the other party to surrender directly, but as soon as I finished the words, I felt something was wrong.
To be continued...