A fleet of ships headed north with the wind, and its leader was a young man.
The boy's name is Chen Li, who has just turned nineteen this year. His father is Chen Shuangxi, a pirate who Wang Yuan went to a meeting to surrender to.
Chen Shuangxi's transformation was very smooth. The pirates in the Zhoushan Islands were formed by him into a maritime trading gang. At its peak, there were more than 80 sea-going ships in the gang - most of them were offshore ships, focusing on domestic route trade, transporting goods from the south to Tianjin.
and Lushunkou, and then transport commodities from Liaodong and Hebei to ports in the south.
Of course, there are also more than a dozen large ships that specialize in Sino-Japanese trade. They are one of the main trading partners of the Japanese Ouchi clan and the Nishi clan.
The Ouchi family and the Nizi family have been fighting each other for many years. In the past two years, Maori Yuan has been independent, and the Nizi family has been in turmoil. The two families have been fighting to the death all day long. The people in the area under their jurisdiction live in poverty, but they have enriched the merchants of the Ming Dynasty.
Just last year, Chen Shuangxi suffered a shipwreck, and several ships sank in the storm. Chen Shuangxi's body has not been found.
When the news came back to Zhoushan, the three sons immediately started a quarrel and even involved a son-in-law to fight for the family property.
The eldest son was victorious, but the second son died. The son-in-law asked the elders of the merchant gang to mediate.
As the youngest son, Chen Li was assigned to a large ship, but the price was that he had to travel to other countries. Either he went to the Far East or went to the Indian Ocean, and was not allowed to return to the domestic coast.
Chen Li has been running ships with his father since he was fifteen years old. He has rich experience at a young age. He lobbied the maritime merchants in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, and actually pulled up a team of twelve ships to go to the Far East.
Obtain gold and silver treasures.
"Decheng, I'll say goodbye. I wish you a safe journey!" Fang Lingxi said, clasping his fists.
Chen Li quickly returned the gift: "Sir, take care!"
Fang Lingxi, a boy from Lehu, studied in the School of Physics for several years, and was hired by maritime merchants as soon as he returned to Hangzhou. He is now a teacher at Hangzhou Industrial and Commercial School. Several maritime merchants funded him to establish a laboratory, and he usually conducts research while leading
student.
This trip to Beijing was because Fang Lingxi received an invitation to attend the founding meeting of the "Physics Society" and happened to take Chen Li's boat heading north.
The fleet docked at Tianjin Port, and Fang Lingxi landed and left, but the fleet still had to unload cargo and replenish supplies.
When hundreds of ragged refugees saw the fleet coming, they immediately rushed over and said, "Master, will you take us out to sea? I really can't survive in my hometown!"
Whether they were forced or not? Among the first few batches of people from Shandong and Northern Zhili who went to sea, some went to Nanyang? Some went to the Americas and have already brought back some belongings to their families. These news spread quickly? It turns out that going to sea is really not the case.
Send yourself to death? You can even make money to send back home!
As a result, the poor people in coastal provinces have another helpless choice. They gather at the port to beg for a living all day long, waiting to go to sea with various fleets to make a living.
The sea fangs appear immediately!
They signed contracts with maritime merchants and farmers from all over the country and went with the ships to search for refugees at coastal ports. They loaned the refugees money to pay for their sea passage and sent them directly to work overseas, and slowly recovered the loan from the refugees' wages.
Single young women are very valuable because there are too many bachelors in Nanyang. There are even criminals who secretly abduct women and take them to Nanyang, where they can be resold at a good price.
Chen Li said to his confidants: "Go and select the able-bodied people and give them some food. If no disease is found after three days, we will ship them all away!"
"Yes!" This confidant is the old man left behind by Chen Shuangxi.
Chen Li used to run a boat with his father and heard countless rumors about the Far East. Not only did he want to earn gold and silver, he even planned to establish a country from other lands.
He transported a lot of goods from Nanyang to the north, and planned to sell them all in Tianjin and Japan. With only food, drinking water, cotton cloth, soldiers and armor, and people, he went to America to occupy a piece of territory, and then looked for opportunities to make gold and returned home, learning the pattern of exploring Haibo.
Develop and grow.
After years of exploration, the American routes have become relatively mature, and even navigation charts have been leaked.
It's a bit risky to go there because there are almost no islands along the way.
The return voyage is very safe, because the North Pacific Ocean close to the equator is dotted with islands of all sizes. Several of the large islands have even become fixed supply points. The natives on the islands prepare food and drinking water, waiting for the arrival of the Ming fleet.
Trading items.
Occasionally, people who get sick should not go on long voyages and simply stay on the island to recuperate.
The Marshall Islands was later an important nuclear test and missile base for the US military, and it conducted 67 nuclear tests.
As for this time and space, the chief of the Marshall Islands is Lin Chun, a native of Guangzhou. He got sick and disembarked from the ship to rest. He actually married the chief’s daughter and taught the natives advanced farming techniques. He also used the money he saved to buy weapons and lead
The warriors of this island conquered other surrounding islands. When the chief died, he inherited the chief's position. The chief's sons all died inexplicably.
Lin Chun only went to sea because his family was dead. He had no worries in the Ming Dynasty and simply focused on developing in the Pacific. He declared the founding of his own country, named the archipelago "Guanghai Kingdom", and even sent envoys to Beijing on the ship to ask for the emperor's canonization.
Zhu Houzhao really canonized it because "Guanghai Kingdom" is an important supply base in the Pacific Ocean and is very far away from the mainland on both sides. If all the natives of the archipelago are killed, supplies will become very troublesome, and they will have to collect food and fresh water by themselves.
Even if it is occupied, not many people are willing to stay and garrison, so it is better to let Lin Chun rule the natives.
A man who settled down in Guangzhou actually became the king of the sea and was officially canonized by the Ming Emperor. This immediately aroused the ambitions of countless people, and Chen Li was one of them.
After several months of sailing, Chen Li's fleet arrived at Oak Bay.
Looking at the dense oak forest, Chen Li's eyes turned red. This was indeed a heaven-given shipbuilding base. Unfortunately, this was the territory of the imperial court, and Chen Li did not dare to seize it.
A middle-aged man in linen clothes came over with local immigrants, cupping his fists and saying, "But the fleet of Detective Haibo?"
Chen Li got off the boat and returned the greeting: "We are an exploration fleet formed by private merchants. My surname is Chen, my given name is Li, and my courtesy name is Decheng. May I ask your surname?"
The middle-aged man praised: "A good name means that the ruler and ministers are upright, the father and the son are close, the elders and the young are harmonious, and then etiquette and justice are established. My surname is Zhang, my given name is Zhuo, and my courtesy name is Yunhe."
Chen Li smiled bitterly in his heart. His handwriting was obtained by his father who paid a famous teacher for it. It was especially ironic now that he thought about it.
Ming Li, whose name is Decheng, is a virtue of etiquette and justice, which means that the ruler and ministers are upright, father and son are close, and the elders and the young are harmonious. But when the father died, the three brothers fought for the family property. The eldest brother killed the second brother and exiled himself overseas. How could there be any
What etiquette exists?
Chen Li clasped his fists and said, "It turns out to be Mr. Zhang. I didn't expect to meet a scholar overseas."
"Ashamed, I'm wearing a sinful body and can't bear to see others." Zhang Zhuo said with shame.
Zhang Zhuo is forty-two years old this year. He was originally a lecturer at a government school. He was reported and found to be imprisoned for colluding with students to cheat in the imperial examination. This was a very serious crime. In order to save his wife and children, Zhang Zhuo voluntarily exiled himself to North America.
Chen Li said: "I heard that there is a long-term lack of salt in the Far East, so I brought a lot of salt here in exchange for some food and fresh water."
Zhang Zhuo smiled and said: "There is no shortage of salt in Oak Bay. Can I exchange it for iron?"
"No shortage of salt?" Chen Li asked in surprise.
Zhang Zhuo said: "We can already cook our own salt."
During the Zhengde period, the method of drying salt had been invented in the south, but boiling salt was still the main method throughout the country. Boiling salt required a special large iron pot. In order to prevent kitchen households from cooking privately, the court divided a pot into several parts, which required several times.
Only when all households work together can they boil salt.
In order to use salt to choke the immigrants' necks, Tanhai Bozhuhai never brought a large iron pot for boiling salt, and even deliberately prevented Zao households from becoming immigrants.
Zhang Zhuo, a scholar in the government, secretly communicated with the indigenous people and made huge pottery. He himself was a Zao householder and gained fame through the imperial examination. Salt boiling was Zhang Zhuo's family tradition.
Using self-produced salt, Zhang Zhuo not only sold it to two other nearby immigrants, but also annexed the first indigenous tribe Zhu Hai encountered.
There were only two to three hundred people in that tribe, and now they have all migrated to Oak Bay.
The Han people taught the indigenous people advanced farming techniques, and the indigenous people taught the Han people how to hunt and gather. There were even free marriages among interracial people.
When Chen Li came to America for the first time, everything he saw was strange, so he took the initiative to go to the Oak Bay immigration settlement.
The immigrants brought a lot of fresh meat, and every household dried the meat. Chen Li asked curiously: "You have enough food here. Everyone can eat meat?"
Zhang Zhuo explained: "Whether you are going from the south or the north, you will reach a flat land after crossing the mountains. There are many bison there. I was wondering if I could capture and tame them. I organized people to capture them a few days ago. The calves were captured and raised.
When they caught it, they skinned the big cow and ate it. They caught so many at one time that they couldn’t finish them all.”
This guy led people to dig a big pit, and he had iron tools to dig it quickly. He covered it with turf and sent natives to drive the buffalo herd into the pit, catching more than 30 big and small buffaloes at once.
As for whether bison can be domesticated, no one can say for sure, but they successfully raised two calves.
Passing by an open space, Chen Li saw a group of children practicing calligraphy on the ground with tree branches. He admired him: "Sir, you are so talented that you can teach the way of sages even in a foreign land."
Zhang Zhuo said with a smile: "These are all indigenous children. If you want to naturalize them, you have to start with Chinese and Chinese characters. I told these natives that Han people and natives have a common ancestor and are both descendants of the Chinese. They
My ancestors were the old people of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and they crossed the sea to come here due to the war. I think this land in the far east should be called Yin land, Yinzhou, and the natives here can be used by me!"
Chen Li's eyes immediately lit up. This was a great idea. If you want to build a country from all over the world, you don't need to kill all the natives, just turn them into Han people!
Zhang Zhuo quietly said to Chen Li: "Chief Chen, let's make a deal."
"What deal?" Chen Li asked.
Zhang Zhuo said: "Next time you come over, transport some carpenters and blacksmiths, and do some carpentry and blacksmith work. We can smelt iron, build cars and ships by ourselves. I have nothing to repay now. When we become prosperous in the future, we can
I can sell you cars, ships and ironware in Yinzhou."
Chen Li asked: "Why don't you ask Uncle Hai to investigate this matter?"
Zhang Zhuo said: "Uncle Tan Hai is on guard against us. There is oak everywhere here, but we can't even build a wheel."