Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 846 Trade
The timing of Manchu Qing was very good, or Chechen Khan's timing was very good.

As the saying goes, the north wind blows the ground and the grass breaks, and Hu Tian is snowing in August. At this time, the Mobei area is already in the early winter season. When the war is over, it will inevitably snow heavily.

At this time, taking advantage of the severe winter, it happened to eliminate the opposition and absorb the strength of the hostile forces.

And because of the weather, neither the Tushetu Khan nor the Zasak Khan could send troops to support them, and could only watch the Chechen Khan being swallowed.

Of course, there is no radio in this era, let alone communication signals. Zhu Yixi has no way of knowing the news of Mobei, but only vaguely heard the movement of the Chechen Khan.

All this will have to wait until next year to find out.

As for him, he will spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with his wives, concubines and concubines, which is very lively.

The big move of the imperial court is the use of troops in the northwest.

Different from the Qing Dynasty in later generations, at that time the entire Junggar tribe had unified the Oirat Mongolia, and Ge Erdan bought a large number of firearms from Tsarist Russia, so he was well prepared and wiped out the Yarkand Khanate.

Became a tyrant in the Western Regions and Central Asia.

Therefore, during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, the Manchu Qing was open to the West and used missionaries in order to gain an advantage in firearms.

At this time, Oirat was divided into three, and Geldan had not yet taken power, and Ming directly eliminated the Yarkand Khanate, taking the lead in the northwest.

In this case, the offensive and defensive situation is different.

According to the analysis of the cabinet, only relying on the tens of thousands of people in Tiannan is not enough, and Gansu should at least increase its troops by about [-] to wipe out Oirat Mongolia in one fell swoop.

"From then on, the three Mongolian tribes of Moxi, Mobei, and Monan will all surrender to Ming Dynasty, and the frontier will be in danger!"

Zhao Shu said happily.

The cabinet ministers echoed and agreed.

This is the reason why civil servants support the Northwest General Army, to cut off the border troubles of Mongolia, not to occupy any territory.

In fact, the original Qing Dynasty also sent troops frequently for nearly a hundred years in order to cut off the Junggar tribe's idea of ​​unifying the Mongolian tribes.

Zhu Yixi didn't bother to pay attention to the reasons why civil servants supported the war, as long as the Northwest General Army went well:

"Gansu sent [-] troops, and Li Dingguo directly led the troops to preside over the combat against the Oirat Mongolian tribes."

"In addition, the Ministry of Households allocated 200 million yuan and 300 million grain to support this war."

In this regard, the cabinet has nothing to do.

This is the time when the cabinet is at its peak.
It is the most inferior method to transport grain directly from Taicang to Gansu and the Western Regions.

Therefore, it is generally used to adjust the grain from Gansu, or from Shaanxi. Naturally, the summer tax for shipment is used.

In order to prepare for the war, Gansu did not start shipping the summer tax for two years, precisely for this time.

Of course, just in case, the imperial court will still send grain transport envoys to be responsible for grain management, and even supervise the Gansu granaries to prevent them from being greedy for ink.

The war in the northwest depends on food.

Supervision, operation, coordination, every aspect must not be neglected, this is the responsibility of the literati.

From this aspect, we can also see why for thousands of years, culture has been valued over military.

With the increasing professionalism of war, the test of logistics is becoming more and more serious, and civil servants naturally have an overwhelming advantage in logistics.

The greatest role of the warriors was to lead the troops to fight, and the rest depended on the literati. In this case, the warriors were stronger than the founding period, and as time went by, the civil servants must dominate.

This is the inevitable result.

Li Dingguo is in the northwest, and he has already made great moves.

Using the reason for sending troops against Adurat Khan before, the Tiannandu Division made a big move, which made Oirat Mongolia, especially the bordering Junggar and Heshuote, very vigilant.

When the time came to the end of August, the weather in the northwest was greatly reduced. Even in the daytime, the wind was biting cold, which made people suffer.

At this time, the two departments also put down their vigilance and prepared to survive the winter.

Li Dingguo is going to place the first target on the Junggar tribe.

Among the three tribes of Junggar, Heshuote, and Durbert, the Junggar tribe is the strongest, and it borders the Kazakh Khanate, the Uzbek Khanate, and Tsarist Russia, receiving a lot of trade, and has an advantage in both military strength and firearms.

After several years of investigation, he also had a general understanding of the strength of the Junggar tribe:
There are more than [-] herdsmen and [-] soldiers.

As for the entire Oirat, there are only about [-] tents in total, and Junggar directly occupies half of the population, so they continue to move westward and bully the Kazakh Khanate.

Of course, the Heshuo Special Division was originally the most dominant one. Unfortunately, Gushi Khan led the main force eastward to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and established the Heshuo Special Khanate, leaving some old, weak, sick and disabled to his nephew, Eqiertu sweat.

Even if some are old and weak, let the Heshuo special department occupy the position of leader.

Today's Heshuo Special Department, after decades of development, has [-] members.

The northernmost Duerbert tribe is nomadic near the Yenisei River, and has the smallest force, with more than [-] tents.

Therefore, even if the strongest Junggar tribe was defeated, even if the Heshuote tribe and the Duerbert tribe later joined forces, they would not be Ming's opponents.

And the most important thing is that the Junggar tribe is in the weakest state at this time.

In 1653, that is, the seventh year of Shaowu, Batur Huntaiji of the Junggar tribe died, and his fifth son, Seng Ge, inherited Taiji. However, his brothers refused to accept it and rebelled.

In the past few years, he has been on the road of countering the rebellion, which can be described as extremely hard work.

If you don't take advantage of the fire to rob at this time, when will you wait?

Li Dingguo's heart was moved instantly.

So when the reinforcements from Gansu arrived in Shache, he led an army of [-], preparing to directly take down the Junggar tribe - the Ili River Valley.

The dispatch of the Ming army shocked Seng Ge.

He did not expect that the Ming army would dare to directly send troops to Junggar in winter.

"Could it be that the Ming army is supporting the two younger brothers?"

As soon as Sengge thought about it, he couldn't help but cursed, and then quickly asked the Heshuo Special Department for help.

But his two younger brothers were overjoyed, they lost their spirits after lingering on their last breaths, and immediately prepared to join the Ming army.

In this way, with the leading party, the Ming army went very smoothly.

In the First World War, the main force of Junggar was directly defeated, and the fertile Ili River Valley was directly occupied, and nearly ten thousand herdsmen were captured.

But Seng Ge fled directly to his father-in-law's house - the Heshuo Special Department, preparing to raise troops again to take back the tribe.

Seeing the opportunity, Tsarist Russia hurriedly took the opportunity to sell its own firearms, preparing to fish in troubled waters, and could not let the Ming people easily succeed.

For a while, the entire Northwest became a mess.

……

On the sea in August, the strong wind blows the sails to form a huge curved surface. Under the action of the sails, the bow jumps between the waves, galloping through the waves without touching the ground.

The rain brought by the south wind poured down on the ship, and the two strings of drainage holes were like the mouth of the dragon king, pouring out the rainwater and the splashed sea water.

"The sea wind is too strong! The boat will capsize if it goes on like this!"

Pa, a loud slap came.

"Baga, say something unlucky at this time."

The captain opened fire directly, and then began to command.

On the deck of the ship, five or six men in short coats were busy, covering the goods on the deck with canvas and fastening the ropes.

The clothes on them were already wet by the rain, and the sea was high and the waves were rough, so they had to open their throats and shout loudly when talking to each other.

According to common sense, the best itinerary is winter. At this time, the wind blows from the mainland to the sea, which is not only weaker, but also conducive to navigation.

But for businessmen, the advent of the age of sailing makes all time count, and only money is eternal.

"Baga!" At this time, a man walked out of the cabin, wearing more expensive clothes, he wiped the rain from his face, and looked up:
"Be careful, the goods here are very expensive, and you can't afford to sell your whole family."

"Hi--"

"Lower the sail! Lower it to one-third of the height! Also, go in and tell Abu to hold the rudder! There is so much rice on the boat, it cannot fall over."

The captain hurriedly commanded, pulled the last rope with all his strength, stepped on the cargo box with both feet, leaned back, and the ship shook, and even he fell on the deck of the ship, "Hey! Come on!"

"Yes—" Several other people swarmed over, helped him up hurriedly, pulled the rope, and tied it to the fixed object on the side of the boat.

"Master, you can't go on like this! Look at the direction of the wind, there's still some wind blowing, why don't you find a place to shelter from the wind and rain before you go?"

The captain bowed his waist and asked the nobleman who had just appeared.

The man ignored the crew's suggestion, seeing that there was no major problem with the safety of the cargo, he waved and led the crowd into the cabin, and took off the rain hat on his head.

"You silly bastard! Find a place to shelter from the wind and rain? What should you do if someone finds out what's on the boat?"

"Sorry! I was wrong."

Then they asked about the itinerary, and when they learned that it was only a hundred miles away from Nagasaki, everyone laughed.

After the storm, the captain cautiously returned to the cabin: "Master, how much money can I make this trip?"

"Our ship is a bit damaged. If we make less money, we won't be able to get back our money—"

Shimadzu Hisunari looked at the servant and sighed.

After leaving Beijing, he followed the man's plan and settled down in Ryukyu, preparing to take the exam for a scholar.

It's a pity that this trip made the family's not rich family worse, not to mention learning how to buy books, so he couldn't help but want to start a business.

So I borrowed a sum of money, bought a small boat, and planned to import some white sugar from Taiwan and ship it to Nagasaki for sale.

Thanks to his contacts in the Guozijian, although it was very difficult to buy and sell white sugar, he still got fifty or sixty shi, plus some tea and fragrant rice, which was not a loss.

Or make a fortune.

"500 yuan."

"So many?" The captain was taken aback.

His boat was bought and sold for only a few hundred yuan, but this trip has doubled.

"Taiwan's white sugar is the most popular among samurai and vassals in Japan! If it hadn't been for this heavy rain, I'm afraid there would be more sugar."

Shimadzu Hisashira sighed, he was afraid that the rain would melt the white sugar, otherwise it would be a big loss.

The wind and rain on the sea came and went quickly, and before the first watch, the wind and waves weakened more and more. Although it was still raining on the sea, it was no longer a problem compared to just now.

Next, they encountered the Ming navy sailors on cruise.

Helpless, after paying a sum of money to buy the road, I arrived in Nagasaki smoothly.

Although Shimadzu Hisagi was annoyed, he was used to it.

As early as the sixth year of Shaowu, that is, four years ago, the Ming army forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sign a tributary treaty, which not only forced Nagasaki to expand the scale of trade, but also cut off the Fukue Islands outside Nagasaki as a base, allowing the Ming army to water division stationed.

And Japan gives 5 taels of silver every year as naval expenses, allowing it to protect Nagasaki's trade.

It's a pity that sailors are also soldiers, and they are always greedy. After half a year, they began to collect travel expenses.

Thirty yuan for a large boat, ten yuan for a medium boat, and five yuan for a small boat. The cost is not much, and the merchants let them do whatever they want.

"Hmph!" Watching him leave, Shimadzu Hisashiro sneered and said, "When I pass the examination next year as a scholar, I will definitely be impeached. A mere navy dares to collect money. I really don't care about the Commercial and Taxation Department."

Having lived in the Ming Dynasty for a long time, Shimadzu Jiucheng certainly understands that the Commercial and Taxation Department has great control over commercial taxation, and the local government can only enjoy the share, and cannot directly mix it.

What's more, sailors are also soldiers. If they are allowed to collect taxes, wouldn't they grow at will and escape the control of the court?
Under the strong central government of the Ming Dynasty, this is a great provocation and will never be allowed.

After he came to Nagasaki, since he was originally from the Shimadzu family, although the family and property were separated, his connections were still there, and some businessmen were very generous and bought all the products directly.

Among them, white granulated sugar is mostly exported to Xiyi, and a small part goes to the mainland. Japan has a small share and it is difficult to sell it. The price per stone is close to 15 yuan silver dollars.

And when he bought it from the Taiwan government, it was only five silver dollars, which directly tripled.

"Why are the prices so high?"

Shimadzu Hisagi couldn't help asking.

"Although the general is young, he still loves sweets. As a result, everyone in Edo loves it, so that the price of white sugar is increasing day by day. As long as you have some, I can take it."

The businessman said respectfully.

Sixty stones of white sugar directly earned 600 yuan, which made Shimadzu happy for a long time.

Some teas, grains, books, etc. are ordinary things, perhaps imported too much, the price is very low, but the cost is increased by [-] to [-]%.

From this, Shimadzu Hisagi calculated in his mind that he made nearly 700 silver dollars directly on this trip, and after repaying the loan, there was still about 400 yuan left.

These are enough for him to prepare for the exam.

"When will you come next time? I'll accept as long as it's white sugar, and I can add [-]% to the price of the rest of the Tang goods."

Enthusiasm of businessman face.

White granulated sugar is very popular, but there are very few people who can get access to buy goods from the Taiwan government. The average businessman has no contacts at all, and can only sit back and watch the big businessmen eat happily, and they are greedy.

And now this Shimadzu Hisagi has connections, which is really surprising.

Hearing this, Shimadzu Hisagi was taken aback for a moment, the words were still on his lips, and he couldn't say anything.

Anyway, there is still a year before the county exam, so I will take another trip by myself, and then I will concentrate on preparing for the exam in Taiwan government, and let my subordinates run errands.
It's great to earn money while studying.

"A month later! I'll try to get as much sugar as possible."

(End of this chapter)