Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1137, Banner

In Xiyang City, Sri Lanka, Tong Yuan, who was wearing a crimson robe, stepped off the boat, and couldn't help taking a few deep breaths.

Along the way, the whole person almost collapsed.

From Tianjin to Songhu, and then from Songhu to Ryukyu, Ryukyu to Nanyang Luzon, Luzon to Malacca City in Zhenghe Province, and then Malacca all the way westward and finally arrived in Sri Lanka.

It took a full three months to walk this way, and this is only about two-thirds of the distance. Next, we must first arrive at Ningguo in West Tianzhu, and then go from Ningguo to East Africa. Chu State, from Chu State to the Red Sea to Egypt.

The whole journey is very long, and almost all of them are spent on the boat. Only when they arrive at some important ports, they will stop for a day or two to rest.

As Sri Lanka is the most important transit point on the Indian Ocean, Tong Yuan is naturally planning to rest here for two days before leaving for Ningguo.

"As expected of the largest port in the West, it really lives up to its reputation!"

Tong Yuan looked around, the whole port is very huge, there are many docks built, very large, and a large number of ships are moored in the port.

The dock was extremely busy, and the slaves who loaded and unloaded the goods were busy all the time. The open space next to it was full of goods, all of which were square and standard containers.

All kinds of flags were hoisted on the ships. After a closer look, Tong Yuan couldn't help laughing, because these flags looked alike.

It can even be said that it is not just like, but almost gives people the same feeling, because most of the flags show a dragon on them.

Among them are ships from Ming Dynasty, with the bright yellow dragon flag of Ming Dynasty flying on it. This kind of dragon flag has been recognized by the son of Ming Dynasty and the imperial court. Only ships of Ming Dynasty can fly this kind of dragon flag.

In addition to the bright yellow Daming dragon flag, Tong Yuan also saw blue dragon flags, red dragon flags, white dragon flags, black dragon flags and so on.

There are all kinds of dragon flags in different colors. If you take a closer look, you will soon find that there is one less dragon claw on these dragon flags than the dragon on the bright yellow dragon flag.

Since the last dynasty, there has been a saying of "five-clawed emperor, four-clawed princes, and three-clawed doctor". Obviously, these ships flying dragon flags of various colors are ships from the major overseas kingdoms of Ming Dynasty.

Because they all came from the imperial clan of the Ming Dynasty and have the same roots as the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the people in these vassal states were all from the Ming Dynasty, and they were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor.

Therefore, the ships of these vassal states all use dragon flags, but the color must not be the bright yellow that can only be used by the Ming royal family. The number of dragon claws must also be reduced, and only the four-claw dragon pattern can be used.

Dragon flags of various colors fluttered in the wind, hunting and hunting, and some positions below the dragon flags were flags of various patterns.

By looking at these patterns, you can know which company or family the ship belongs to. Flags and patterns were not popular in Ming Dynasty. Since ancient times, people have used surnames to distinguish them.

For example, since ancient times when a large army marches and fights, it will basically display the surname of the chief general on a big banner. When marching and fighting, you will know whose army it is as soon as you see this.

But now, with the development of overseas colonial activities, maritime trade, and capitalism, in order to distinguish major commercial firms, families, factories, etc., of course, there is also the meaning of erecting trademarks in later generations.

Therefore, most of the major commercial firms, families, factories, etc. will make a unique pattern, or stick it on their own products, or hang it on their own ships, commercial firms, etc., so that it is easy to distinguish. Easy to identify.

Among them, the sea-going ships were naturally the first to use these patterns, because on the sea, the communication between ships was basically done by semaphore.

If you want to show your identity, the best way is naturally to hang a unique pattern on the mast of the ship.

This kind of flag soon became popular in Daming. Ships going out to sea would fly the flag to indicate which firm they belonged to, which family they belonged to, and so on.

This is actually a bit equivalent to the trademark of later generations. Everyone who sees this trademark knows that it belongs to the cloth produced by a certain factory and the ship of a certain firm.

Tong Yuan really didn't pay much attention to these things when he was in Daming before, but after he came to the Western Port in Sri Lanka, he discovered this after looking at it.

Look carefully at these patterns, some of which are very simple writing, such as Qinghe Cui family, Taiyuan Li family, etc., you can tell at a glance that they are big families from a certain place.

Others use special patterns. For example, some businesses that specialize in sugarcane business embroider a single sugarcane with some small characters, such as Nanyang Guazhou Sugar Industry and the like.

In addition, there are some that use special geometric patterns, such as Tianjin Ocean Trading Company, which is now famous all over the world. The pattern they use is a circle with a triangle inside.

It is very simple and easy to identify. People can tell at a glance that this is the ship of Tianjin Ocean Trading Company. In addition, many industries under Liu Jin's command basically adopt this kind of logo, using simple set graphics.

In addition to a variety of unique patterns, the colors of these flags are also varied and varied, such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, and purple, all of which try to show their unique identity as much as possible.

"Interesting~"

Tong Yuan laughed immediately.

He went to Yinshan County to be a county magistrate. Yinshan County was a place ceded to Daming by the Wa Kingdom.

It is also very popular to use a variety of family emblems in the Ming Dynasty in various parts of the country. Every daimyo has its own family emblem, and even the warrior class, as long as the samurai have their own surname, they will design a family emblem that belongs to their own family. come out.

Now it is almost the same here in Daming. Reputable big families, big business houses, big factories, etc. will design their own Peugeots.

The rise of this trend is mainly due to the rapid development of ocean trade, ocean colonization, and industry and commerce. In order to better distinguish themselves from other businesses and families, various families and firms began to design Some special patterns are pasted on their products.

This is actually an inevitable result of capital development.

Because there are too many people producing the same product, and the quality of the products produced by different people and different firms is uneven. Some high-quality firms and families, in order to stand out from the crowd with their products, naturally have to pass such a means to achieve this goal.

"Excuse me, is this Master Tong Yuantong?"

When Tong Yuan was watching the various flags on the ships in Xiyang Port with great interest, someone came to Tong Yuan and asked very respectfully.

"Exactly, what is your Excellency?"

When Tong Yuan heard this, he quickly came back to his senses and looked at the other party carefully.

The clothes on the other party also looked like government officials, but they were different from those on Daming's side. Daming's official uniforms were basically crimson clothes with birds embroidered on them, like Tong Yuan from the fifth rank. Officials, his official residence is embroidered with white pheasants.

As for his teacher, the second-rank official of the Ministry of Officials of the Ming Dynasty, the color of his official uniform is crimson, with golden pheasants embroidered on it.

The so-called first-rank cranes, second-rank golden pheasants, third-rank peacocks, and fourth-rank wild geese are the patterns embroidered on the official uniforms of Ming Dynasty officials.

But the clothes worn by this person in front of him are also similar to Daming's official uniform, but the pattern embroidered on it is different from Daming's. The embroidered pattern on the clothes is a big tiger.

In addition to the pattern embroidered on the official uniform, even the hat is a bit different, the two wings on both sides of the hat are different, but it is still similar to Daming's official hat in general.

"Your Majesty, Li Shishi, is the Right Prime Minister of Ning Kingdom. We, King Ning, heard that Mr. Tong is coming to Xiyang, so we sent someone to come here to meet him in advance."

Li Shishi replied with a smile.

"So it's Prime Minister Li!"

As soon as Tong Yuan heard it, Wei Wei immediately gave the other party a lot of attention again, and returned the gift with a smile.

Well, there is a chain of contempt for scholars in Daming.

For example, in the imperial examination, the candidates in the south will despise the candidates in the north, and the candidates in the north will now despise the candidates in the east list.

In addition, the current Ming scholars, those who are officials in Daming, will despise the scholars who go to overseas colonies and feudal states to become officials, because most of these scholars who go to overseas feudal states to study are from Daming, and they can’t even pass the imperial examination. of.

For example, Li Shishi, the right prime minister of Ning Kingdom, was just a down-and-out scholar in Jiangxi of the Ming Dynasty before. He was depressed and frustrated, so he joined King Ning, followed King Ning in addition to the sea, and established a vassal state. Right prime minister.

Naturally, he has a very high status in Ningguo, but it is not very useful in front of Tong Yuan, a fifth-rank official of the Ming Dynasty, because Tong Yuan is a student of the Son of Heaven in Daming, and although the other party is also a scholar , but even failed the imperial examination.

So this also formed a chain of contempt. The officials of Ming Dynasty looked down on the officials of the vassal state, vassal state, and overseas colonies, and often they were not very good at looking at each other.

In addition, the nobles of Ming Dynasty would also despise those nobles of overseas vassal states and colonies. For example, there are only a few of them in Ming Dynasty, and they can be counted clearly when added up.

However, as the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty bloomed overseas, many vassal states were established. The vassal kings of these vassal states canonized a large number of nobles of their own vassal states, and there were countless dukes of various kinds.

Therefore, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty also despise the nobles of those overseas vassal states, after all, the titles of the Ming Dynasty are the most valuable!
　Do you find this interesting?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)