The Emerald City at the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar.
The Irrawaddy River is the name of the people in Myanmar. People in the Ming Dynasty habitually call it the Great Jinsha River or Lishui (this is the Great Jinsha River, which is not the same river as the Jinsha River at the source of the Yangtze River). It is the largest river in Myanmar.
The river is also one of the transportation hubs between Yunnan and Myanmar in the Ming Dynasty.
Emerald City is a brand new city that was only built in recent years.
Although the Zhang brothers never sent troops to attack Myanmar, they relied on powerful artillery to force the king of the Ava Dynasty of Myanmar to set aside part of the land for them to establish colonies and lease the same place.
Emerald City is the colony of the Zhang brothers in Myanmar. It is not very big, but it is the bridgehead for the Zhang brothers to attack Myanmar.
It is also the base where the Zhang brothers monopolize the jade trade in Myanmar. All jade business in Myanmar is monopolized by the Zhang brothers, and no one else is allowed to intervene.
In this matter, the Zhang brothers were extremely domineering and even sank several merchant ships to punish those trading houses that crossed the border. They regarded Myanmar as the territory of the Zhang brothers and did not allow anyone to interfere.
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All merchants and firms who want to buy Burmese jade must go through the Zhang brothers, and only the Zhang brothers can do all trade in the Kingdom of Myanmar.
The whole of Myanmar is very big. Not only the Myanmar business, but also the business of timber, fur, grain, salt and iron, cloth, tea, etc. are not small in scale. Monopolizing the business transactions of the entire country of Myanmar has also made the Zhang brothers' wealth rapid.
expand.
But this also led to dissatisfaction with the Zhang brothers within the Ming Dynasty, especially the Duke of Mu Qian in Yunnan. It was the Duke of Guizhou who had been doing the jade business in Myanmar.
But in recent years, with the prosperity of maritime colonization and trade in the Ming Dynasty, trade with Myanmar gradually shifted to the sea with more convenient transportation (in ancient times, land transportation between Myanmar and Yunnan was actually very inconvenient, mainly because of the huge mountains
Due to the blockage, only a small amount of goods can be transported by hand and shoulder).
Originally this was nothing, but the Zhang brothers' tyranny monopolized trade and exchanges throughout Myanmar, which harmed the interests of the "King of Yunnan" Duke Qian. Therefore, he was extremely dissatisfied with the Zhang brothers and wrote to them many times.
But the Zhang brothers also relied on the favor of Empress Zhang and Emperor Hongzhi. They didn't care at all and still dominated the entire Myanmar trade.
Nothing happened in a short period of time, but as more and more jadeite was discovered in Myanmar, the business grew, more and more people were eyeing this place, and the Zhang brothers faced increasing pressure.
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On the other hand, the Ava Dynasty of Myanmar has become increasingly dissatisfied with the Zhang brothers' monopoly on Myanmar's trade. On the one hand, their goods cannot be sold at high prices. Without competition, the Zhang brothers have lowered prices.
The prices are very low, and at the same time, the prices of goods Myanmar needs are raised very high.
These have seriously damaged the interests of the Ava Dynasty, causing the Ava Dynasty to continuously explore new trade objects. On the one hand, they expanded trade with the Duke of Guizhou, and on the other hand, they also began to continuously increase the main trade goods.
price, and try not to buy goods from Zhang Brothers again.
Prompted by these factors, the Zhang brothers had to set up a Myanmar Jade Trading Company. On the one hand, they could ease the pressure and conflicts within the Ming Dynasty and recruit a large number of powerful people into the group. Among them, the Duke of Guizhou was also one of the major shareholders of the Myanmar Jade Trading Company.
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Another aspect is to raise funds, form armed forces, and prepare to invade and occupy Burma, occupy the entire Burma, and implement colonial rule over it.
Because under colonial rule, all the wealth in Myanmar will be available at the lowest price, instead of having to be purchased at higher and higher prices.
The special geographical location and functions of Emerald City also allowed Emerald City to rapidly develop from a small fishing village into a sizable city in just a few years.
A large number of merchants arrive here from all over Myanmar every day, bringing jade, exotic animals, furs, ivory, etc., and then purchase tea, salt, grain, horses, ironware, etc. here.
In addition to these normal trades, the Zhang brothers also vigorously developed the slave trade in order to expand their profits. A slave sold to the Zhang brothers could be sold for more than ten taels of silver.
Therefore, it also caused internal turmoil and chaos in Myanmar, wars between tribes, and a large number of people were trafficked to the Emerald City, and then trafficked to various places by the Zhang brothers.
The slave trade alone can bring huge profits of millions of taels of silver to the Zhang brothers every year.
This is also one of the important reasons why the Ava Dynasty became increasingly disgusted with the Zhang brothers.
A large number of people were sold as slaves, which caused a large loss of the Ava Dynasty's population, and also aggravated the already fragmented situation within the Ava Dynasty. The battles between tribes became more cruel and frequent, and conflicts continued to intensify.
Behind all this, it was the Zhang brothers who were adding fuel to the fire, causing the originally relatively stable Ava Dynasty to become precarious and turbulent.
Mu Shan in the north, Pyay, Taungoo in the south, etc. are all ready to take action and continue to launch attacks, making the Burmese dynasty turbulent.
For this reason, King Shwe Nam Kyaw Hin of Myanmar is also determined to take back the Emerald City and break the current situation. To this end, he has taken various measures.
On the one hand, they sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty many times to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and even submitted their credentials, hoping to become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, so as to gain support from the Ming Dynasty court.
But on the side of the Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, the Zhang brothers were blocking it, and Queen Zhang would naturally speak for the Zhang brothers. On the other hand, the existence of the Myanmar Jade Trading Company also allowed the Zhang brothers to unite many high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty, and they all stood up.
Opposed to accepting Burma as a vassal state.
Of course, in history, the Burmese people were actually similar to Annan. As long as they were unified, they would feel that Yelang was arrogant and powerful, so they provoked the Ming Dynasty to the north and wanted to annex Yunnan.
The Ava dynasty also did this kind of thing when it was strong. Needless to say, the result was that Yunnan, under the control of the Duke of Guizhou, easily crushed their ambitions. If it weren't for the barrier of hundreds of thousands of mountains, it would probably be impossible.
They all went to Myanmar.
There are also the chieftains who sometimes helped the Ming Dynasty to suppress Luchuan, and sometimes helped these chieftains to resist the rule of the Ming Dynasty and took the opportunity to occupy the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
This also resulted in the high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty not having a very good impression of Myanmar. They paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty when they needed it, and bit back the Ming Dynasty when they didn't. They were capricious.
The second step is to restrict Myanmar merchants and tribes from trading with the Emerald City. To this end, large armies are stationed at the checkpoints leading to the Emerald City to carry out strict investigations and punishments.
But the effect was very mediocre. After the death of Ming Kang Er, the strength of the Ava Dynasty declined rapidly. The princes and tribes in various places became stronger and rebelled one after another.
The decree of the King of Burma almost became a dead letter and no one paid attention to it.
At the same time, the trade in the Emerald City is extremely important to the princes and tribes everywhere. Jade, ivory, precious mahogany, furs, slaves, etc., can allow them to rapidly increase their strength.
At the same time, the tea, cloth, ironware, horses, etc. here in the Emerald City are also things they urgently need, especially ironware. If you want to rebel, how can you do it without weapons? The ironware of the Ming Dynasty is of good quality and cheap, and is sold all over the world.
If they don't trade with Emerald City, it will be difficult for them to become stronger and they won't be able to get what they want.
Seeing that many measures had no effect, the King of Burma began to significantly increase taxes. At the same time, he also monopolized important trade goods and drastically increased the prices of these goods.
The prices of jade, ivory, mahogany, etc. have increased significantly, and the taxes levied have also become heavier and heavier. They are also trying every means to take back the colony of Emerald City.
But it is obvious that the Zhang brothers will not let go of the meat in their mouths in vain. The Zhang brothers, who have long regarded Myanmar as their own territory, are also using soldiers to block water and earth, and take advantage of every opportunity.
Now the relationship between the two sides has become extremely tense, and a military confrontation may occur at any time.
Here at the Emerald City Port, ships flying the Zhang family's flag are sailing towards the Emerald Port.
Soon, these ships docked one after another and anchored at the pier.
As the ships moored, neatly arranged teams continued to disembark from the big ships. The troops were well-armed.
Helmets, armor, muskets, cannons, etc. were almost armed to the teeth, even comparable to the equipment of the Ming Dynasty army.
"Huh~"
"Finally arrived at the Emerald City."
Zhang Yanling got off the boat and let out a long breath.
He doesn't like riding in boats. The bumpy sea is really unpleasant.
"This Emerald City looks much more depressed than before."
Zhang Heling also got off the ship, and this time both brothers came to the Emerald City of Myanmar. Zhang Heling would be responsible for arranging everything in the Emerald City, while Zhang Yanling would lead his army to attack the Ava Dynasty and occupy Myanmar.
Looking at the Emerald City in front of him, Zhang Heling also frowned. Last year, he came to Emerald City. At that time, the Emerald City was very lively and prosperous, with many ships and carriages coming and going.
But now, it looks very bleak, with fewer ships and carriages coming and going. There is no doubt that my business has been greatly affected.
The many measures taken by the Burmese king seriously affected his own business.
"Of course it's depressed."
"Not long ago, the King of Burma sent troops to Pyay to attack Pyay's merchants traveling to the Emerald City. This caused our business to deteriorate a lot. The number of slaves shipped this month was less than 10,000, not even half of the previous number.
