I'm really not doing business

Chapter 782 Ms. Purazzo

After taking a bath and changing his clothes, Liu Ji opened a row of sandalwood boxes with padded linings. In this row of boxes, there were seventeen white porcelain bottles. Compared with the almost transparent bone china of the Ming Dynasty, the glaze of these white porcelain bottles looked quite milky and even covered with cracks, as if they were broken.

Liu Ji stared at the glazed cracked porcelain in front of him with a heavy expression.

(Glazed crackle-shaped vase from the Southern Song Dynasty)

"Commander Liu." Zhang Cheng has completed the inspection of the goods. The personal belongings of each crew member have also been inspected, but these personal belongings will not be included in the official ship's cargo list. Each crew member can carry 170 kilograms of smuggled goods, and these personal goods are also one of the rewards for ocean voyages.

The crew members mostly carried light but high-value goods such as spices, quinine, and gems. Some crew members simply carried all silver, because there were actually not many valuable goods and silver was hard currency.

"Da Yao." Liu Ji came to his senses and greeted Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng looked at the porcelain in front of him and asked in confusion, "The glaze of these porcelains is not smooth enough, and they look badly damaged. Why does Commander Liu protect them so carefully?"

These porcelains are obviously made in the Central Plains style, and the quality seems to be a bit poor, without much commercial value. Liu Ji cherishes them so much that he carefully wraps them in sandalwood boxes for fear that they will be damaged. It is somewhat strange that he still checks them as soon as he takes a bath and changes clothes.

Liu Ji took a deep breath and said, "This is what we seized after defeating the local black tribes in the country of Merina. It is porcelain fired locally and is about 250 years old. I want to find the craftsman who fired this porcelain, but the locals told us that no one can fire it anymore and it has been lost."

These porcelains are not foreign trade goods, but antiques, made in Merina itself, and are not imported from the Central Plains.

"Fired locally? Was it fired overseas? Isn't this a typical gall-shaped bottle from the Southern Song Dynasty?" Zhang Cheng said in confusion with a frown. This is a very typical Southern Song Dynasty shape.

Liu Ji sighed and said: "When the Southern Song Dynasty fell, a group of Fujianese, in order to escape the war, sailed south, passed through the Southeast Asia, went out of the Strait of Malacca, passed through Ceylon, and finally arrived at the largest island in the northwest of the West, Melina Island (now Madagascar Island). They lived on the plains in the east."

"The temperature in the northeast does not change much throughout the year. There is no frost or ice. The precipitation is extremely abundant. The plains are vast and boundless. The Fujianese who found their new home settled down there, built houses, fired porcelain, reclaimed land, and established camps and forts."

"Two hundred and fifty years ago, King Merina attacked these Fujianese, killed the men, burned down their farms and homes, and robbed their wealth. These porcelains became King Merina's heirlooms because of their excellent quality."

"The little information left is that the place is called Renjia Village."

Among the captives captured by Liu Ji, there were a large number of black tribes, including the King of Merina, Lalangbo.

Larambo dispatched nearly 30,000 people, cooperating with Persian and Arab merchants, to harass the Ming fleet. The Ming paid the price of seven casualties, repelled the enemy, broke through the enemy's capital, and captured the enemy's king, just like Zheng He captured the King of Ceylon.

The Ming Dynasty's official ships and official trade were extremely wealthy. Every time they docked at a port, there would be people with ulterior motives who would target Ming Dynasty ships.

Robbery had happened many times before, but this time it was the king of the local dynasty who attacked the Ming fleet, which was completely different in nature.

Among the captives, a small number were mixed-race people of black and Han descent, with typical Han features.

Liu Ji had to fight back. If he kept silent, these Persian and Arab merchants, the red-haired foreigners and the black foreigners would continue to harass the fleet in the future.

It was also during this attack that a five-masted ship and two horse boats of the Ming Dynasty anchored in the port were burned because the place where gunpowder was stored was ignited during the fight.

Renjiacun was the only information Liu Ji obtained. The reason why he guessed that the person was from Fujian was because this type of vessel was mainly concentrated in Fujian during the Southern Song Dynasty.

"You deserve to die for killing the Han people! You deserve to die for attacking the Ming fleet!" Zhang Cheng finally understood why Liu Ji cherished these porcelains so much. Two hundred and fifty years later, the only traces left to prove the existence of these Fujianese were these porcelains.

Liu Ji took them home, returning to their roots.

Liu Ji looked around and said, "That area can be reclaimed for at least one million hectares. It is endless and all plains. The rainfall is very high, and there can be three or four harvests a year. From west to east, there are mountains, forests, grasslands and plains."

Why did the Ming Dynasty's global trade fleet go through Merina? The main reason was that there were no colonies or governor's offices of the red-haired foreigners there.

Opposite the Kingdom of Merina is the Governor's Office of Mozambique established by the Portuguese Almeida in the 18th year of Hongzhi. With Fort St. James as its core, it was surrounded by more than 60 castles for colonial rule. Its sphere of influence extended from the Cape of Good Hope to Mombasa (now Mombasa).

The Portuguese rule in the local area can be simply summarized as ruling without governing, and just robbing and leaving.

The local chiefs were constantly in conflict with the Portuguese. They could not break through the Portuguese castles, but they were always able to break through the Portuguese plantations. The angry Portuguese would form a foreign rifle team to quell the rebellion. Back and forth, the chiefs fought hard and it was hard to separate the two.

The native chiefs knew the terrain better, while the Portuguese had firearms, so the battle between the two sides was very intense.

According to the fleet's understanding of the Governor's Office of Mozambique, the chieftains seemed to have a feudal state. Deep in the mountains and forests, there was a king who enfeoffed the chieftains. Almost all attacks came from these enfeoffed chiefs.

Liu Ji had neither the interest nor the ability to learn more. The Ming Dynasty was simply too far away, and Portugal's colonial war had been going on for more than eighty years and would continue into the foreseeable future.

The Ming Dynasty's global trade merchant ships had enough strength to protect themselves, but excessive involvement in wars would bring unnecessary risks to the ocean-going fleet. So with the help of Persian and Arab merchants, the Ming Dynasty explored the direction of Merina and, after departing from the Cape of Good Hope, changed to the Merina route.

The route change is due to safety considerations as well as tariff considerations.

It is too expensive and unnecessary for the Governor's Office of Mozambique to resupply along the way. Fresh water has been replenished at the Cape of Good Hope, so there is no need to make too many stops. However, the high tariffs along the way are always painful.

Liu Ji did not expect that this was a trap carefully set up by the Arab and Persian merchants in collaboration with the local king. All the star maps, needle maps, and hydrology were real, except for the good intentions which were fake.

(Gifford Islands)
“Although they walked into the trap step by step, they still relied on their strong strength to thwart the opponent’s plan, captured the opponent’s king, and presented him to the emperor.” Zhang Cheng said in summary.

The Portuguese Governor's Office has been in a love-hate relationship with the local indigenous people for eighty years, and is still troubled by the indigenous people.

On the other side of the sea, the Ming Dynasty's global trade fleet walked step by step into a carefully laid trap. Unintentionally, they broke the siege of the enemy's 30,000 people, invaded the enemy's capital, and captured the enemy's king.

This sounds outrageous, but for the Ming Dynasty, it seems very reasonable.

After all, this happened once before, when Zheng He defeated the ambitious King of Ceylon, captured him, and presented him to the emperor.

Very reasonable.

"It is obvious that the country of Melina is very suitable as a supply base for the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Western Ocean. If all of the more than one million hectares of fertile land are reclaimed, how many people can be fed?" Zhang Cheng understood Liu Ji's true intention. It was very suitable to settle a pioneer lord there and become the land of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty needed some footholds in the vast Western Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean to ensure free trade.

It's all about free trade!
Liu Ji escorted a large number of prisoners on the fast sailing ship Feiyun to the capital. In March, the Bohai Bay had become unprecedentedly busy.

The third day of March every year is the Kaicao Festival. On this day, all industries related to maritime trade in the areas north of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River begin to prepare for maritime trade. Liu Ji led the fleet to Tanggu Port in Tianjin Prefecture.

On the seventh day of March, the Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun received a report that Liu Ji was staying at Huitongguan Inn.

Before meeting Liu Ji, Zhu Yijun received two memorials. One was Liu Ji's memorial to the emperor about his experiences in Mozambique, and the other was a memorial from the Ministry of Rites about depriving Yang Tinghe and Wen Zhong of their posthumous titles.

Wen Zhong is the posthumous title second only to Wen Zheng.

A posthumous title is a record of one’s deeds; a title is a symbol of one’s achievements.

The posthumous title is the final judgment on a person's life achievements. After carefully studying the records of the Zhengde and early Jiajing years and various old cases, the Ministry of Rites reported to the emperor and requested the revocation of such high-level posthumous titles.

If Yang Tinghe's posthumous title was "Wen Zhong", the posthumous title would become cheap, which would be a huge harm to all civil officials. It was like after Emperor Zhenzong of Song went to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, no emperor was willing to go to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth.

Giving Yang Tinghe the posthumous title of Wen Zhong would lead to a devaluation of his posthumous title.

The Ministry of Rites' reasons were sufficient. Emperor Shizong won the dispute over the Great Ceremony. If he had lost, his fate would at best have been the same as that of the deposed emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, Marquis Haihun.

There is no doubt that Yang Tinghe was an out-and-out powerful official. If Yang Tinghe was given such a high standard and the posthumous title of Wen Zhong, it would also be a violation of the etiquette and laws between the monarch and his subjects that had existed for thousands of years, so the Ministry of Rites made corrections.

"In December of the 45th year of Jiajing, Xu Jie led the Imperial Academy to submit a series of memorials, saying that Yang Tinghe was a man of integrity and should be given a pension. The late emperor could not change his mind with Xu Jie or the public opinion, so in order to calm the discussion, he had no choice but to reinstate him and grant him a posthumous title." Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said, "Then follow the Ministry of Rites' decision and revoke his posthumous title."

The late emperor gave Yang Tinghe a posthumous title because it was needed by the court, and Zhu Yijun deprived him of it because it was also needed by the court. This is the fickleness of politics.

Xu Jie made a fuss about requesting a posthumous title for Yang Tinghe because he was afraid that he would not die a good death. He also wanted to seduce the newly enthroned Emperor Longqing and let him know who had the final say in the court. But in the end, Xu Jie, like Yang Tinghe, was expelled from the court.

The second memorial submitted by Liu Ji explained the situation of the country of Melina. In summary, Melina had fertile land but was very poor.

The lack of large livestock means that farming is restricted and one can only rely on manpower to reclaim land bit by bit. In addition, the lack of large livestock means a lack of transportation, and traffic is very blocked.

In addition to the lack of livestock, the local black people are very lazy. The weather and location are too favorable. Even if they just sow a few seeds, they can get a huge harvest. The locals do not have a strong motivation to promote the development of agriculture.

The weapons used by the Kingdom of Merina were mainly spears tied with stone flakes and bronze wares of very poor quality. In the view of the Ming Dynasty, the quality of those bronze wares was even worse than those used during the Three Dynasties of Confucianism and Legalism.

Melina is very suitable as the Ming Dynasty's foothold at the end of the Western Ocean. If the Ming Dynasty gains a foothold there, it can directly reach the Governor's Palace in Old Port from the Cape of Good Hope. On the east side of Melina, there are many small islands that can be used as fresh water supplies, which can save a lot of time.

On the east side of the Kingdom of Merina, there are continuous islands, which were named Bat Islands by the Portuguese Mascarene. The islands are deserted and uninhabited. Liu Ji built several supply points on these islands without garrisoning anyone. Their main purpose was to supply fresh water to the Ming merchant caravans. Liu Ji named them the Gifu Islands.

Liu Ji said that the sea water of the Gifu Islands was very beautiful, and Zhu Yijun knew that what Liu Ji said was true. In later generations, this place was called Mauritius, and tourism was its pillar industry.

"Liu Ji brought me dozens of dodos, asking me to come and do something else." Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said, "Go get a few and let me see them."

(Dodo) Feng Bao quickly caught three dodos and came to the outside of Tonghe Palace. Zhu Yijun looked at the dodo in front of him. The biggest feature of the dodo is its huge beak, which is nearly seven inches long, and its blue-gray feathers, which make it look particularly beautiful. Its wings are very small, which means it cannot fly. Its tail has a cluster of curly white feathers, which looks quite fluffy.

This bird looks a little dull and not very alert. It was moved around by people, but it just looked around with curiosity instead of fear.

"Dudu!"

The dodo, which was originally curious, made a sharp hissing sound and flapped its short wings desperately, looking a little funny.

The dodo got its name from its call "dudu". The Ming sailors liked to watch them in a daze and drove them away for fun. It was really funny when they ran away in panic.

The good-tempered dodo was so frightened because a big hand grabbed its neck and lifted it up.

Zhu Yijun reached out and grabbed the dodo, held it in his hand, and pulled the fluff off the dodo's tail.

The dodo's feathers are covered with a thick layer of down. Judging from the feel, an adult dodo weighs more than 30 kilograms, which is heavier than a goose.

"Bring me some white goose down." Zhu Yijun threw the dodo back into the cage, holding a handful of down in his hand.

The eunuch brought the best white goose down from the Ming Dynasty palace. Since the Tang Dynasty, white goose down has been mainly used to make lightweight warm linings and quilts. Zhu Yijun carefully compared the white goose down with the dodo down for a long time before he was sure that it was not inferior to white goose down.

A doctor from the Academy of Gewu once did a boring experiment. He wrapped boiling water in different beddings, inserted a thermometer, and kept it there for quarters of an hour to measure the thermal insulation properties of the various beddings. In order to be accurate, he conducted hundreds of experiments in total.

Wrapping in a down jacket reduces the temperature by 3 degrees; wrapping in a woolen jacket reduces the temperature by 5 degrees; wrapping in a leather jacket reduces the temperature by 7 degrees; and cotton cloth reduces the temperature by 10 degrees.

Zhu Yijun once paid attention to this boring experiment. Down has the highest thermal insulation rate, and the down on the dodo is of high quality, with excellent fluffiness and softness.

The Ming Emperor looked at the dodo swaying in the cage and said, "It has a very good temper, much better than a goose. It looks a little lazy. It weighs more than 30 kilograms and has a lot of meat. Its eggs are larger than duck eggs. Most importantly, it is not picky about food. It is a very good poultry."

"Send Baoqisi to the Minister of Agriculture for cultivation."

According to the sailors, the taste was very good, a bit like pigeon meat. Zhu Yijun was reluctant to kill them, so he brought back dozens of them in total, and first let them breed and increase the diversity of poultry through artificial selection and breeding.

Zhu Yijun really likes these seemingly insignificant things that can quietly change the Ming Dynasty and add diversity to the Ming Dynasty's dining tables. They are very beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. People are actually very simple, just eating, clothing, housing and transportation.

In addition to a detailed description of the Kingdom of Merina and the Gifu Islands, Liu Ji's memorial also described the colonial war in Mozambique.

Portugal's most important interest in Mozambique is gold. Unlike the Ming Dynasty, Western Thailand has a large number of silver mines and each country produces silver, but gold is extremely scarce. Mozambique has a river called the Zambezi River, and a large amount of gold is produced in the upper reaches of the Zambezi River.

The Portuguese colonists set out from the castle and after hundreds of attacks, they still failed to take over the gold mining area. In order to obtain enough gold, the red-haired foreigners chose to form an alliance through marriage.

In the Governor's Palace of Mozambique, a system of plazo was born, which is a form of identity politics that is only awarded to local women, also known as plazo ladies.

Any woman who was granted the status of Ms. Purazzo could live in the colonist's castle, free from the suffering of war, and her property could be fully protected. She could even be recognized by the upper class. Ms. Purazzo could attend various cocktail parties, learn Portuguese and Latin, wear gorgeous clothes, and learn various etiquette.

The gold in their hands is the ticket to enter the upper class.

The most interesting thing is that Ms. Plazo’s identity is hereditary, but it can only be inherited by her daughter. Based on her identity, the property can only be inherited by women.

To obtain the above privileges, Ms. Prazo had to marry a Portuguese, convert to Catholicism, and swear an oath of allegiance.

Ms. Purazzo has a strict hierarchy of four levels, depending on the amount of gold she owns. The four levels have different privileges. Ms. Purazzo, who is the highest level, can even join the Governor's Council and participate in policy decision-making.

Of course, not having enough gold is not a problem. There is another way to upgrade Ms. Purazzo's level: persuasion.

There are two types of persuasion, the first is introduction.

A lowest-level Prazo lady only needs to introduce 112 qualified indigenous ladies to become converts of God in order to be promoted to the highest-level lady.

But there was also a very strict system of collective responsibility. If a Prazo woman did not marry a Portuguese and betrayed her husband or God, she would be considered unfaithful and unfaithful.

These 112 ladies of Plazo who were introduced into the city were all subject to punishment, which was burning at the stake.

The second way of persuasion is war.

There were 1,400 Plazzo ladies living in Fort St. James. Every time there was a war between the colonists and the native barbarians, these Plazzo ladies would go out of the city with the colonists to act as lobbyists, persuading the local tribes to give up resistance, or become internal supporters, because after the tribe was conquered, the women were captured and regarded as converted.

"I have to admit that when it comes to colonization, Westerners are extremely capable." Zhu Yijun said sincerely after studying the Ms. Purazzo system in detail.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty finally understood why Le Ya Shi always criticized the Ming Dynasty for being addicted to being a father and having a fatherly sense of morality, and repeatedly emphasized that the Ming Dynasty had a high moral disadvantage in the process of colonization.

As an emperor, Zhu Yijun has tried his best to put away his fatherly airs. Sometimes, Zhu Yijun even feels that the Ming Dynasty can compete with the West in terms of low morals!
Isn't it just worse than being a human being? The Ming Dynasty has its own debate on Chinese and barbarians!
Zhu Yijun was completely awakened. In terms of low moral advantage, Westerners were still far ahead.

"Your Majesty, I think it's useless." Feng Bao said in a low voice: "This is all tricks, not the truth. Even if we do this, the red-haired barbarians still don't control the upper reaches of the Zambezi River. The coveted gold still has to be obtained through trade."

The Portuguese took advantage of Ms. Purazzo's influence and completely gained the upper hand in the colonial war, but that was all. The Portuguese still failed to penetrate the upper reaches of the Zambezi River and take control of the gold mining areas.

When the indigenous tribe discovered what Ms. Purazzo had done, they began to ban her from entering the tribe, and even killed her unconditionally to eliminate possible risks.

The second largest interest of the Portuguese in Mozambique was the black slaves.

Mozambique can capture more than 10,000 slaves every year and send them to various plantations for cultivation. Unlike the Arab merchants who like to engage in monopoly business, these slaves will not be castrated, so that they can reproduce on the plantations.

In the slave trade in Mozambique, both men and women are loaded onto ships and sold.

"Liu Ji has sufficient evidence to show that those ladies of Purazzo who have lost their value will be sold as slaves by their husbands, because the Portuguese who do business with the Ming Dynasty often change their female companions, and some of the women on board are obviously mixed-race." Feng Bao reminded His Majesty of the details in Liu Ji's memorial.

The spirit of contract advocated by Legazpi was just a pursuit, just like the kindness of the literati, a moral appeal rather than a reality.

The reality is that the red-haired barbarians would never abide by the agreement. After Ms. Purazzo's original tribe was conquered, the lady who had lost her value would be sent on board a ship and sold to an unknown place.

This caused Ms. Purazzo to rebel.

The previous Governor of the Governor's Palace of Mozambique, Enes, was killed in the Governor's Palace by a Ms. Purazzo named Karovi. Ms. Purazzo escaped from the castle and established a resistance force against the Governor's Palace of Mozambique, calling on Ms. Purazzo to resist.

The new governor has not been able to quell the resistance force led by Ms. Purazzo so far, which is a result of his own actions.

"Prepare to summon Liu Ji." Zhu Yijun submitted Liu Ji's memorial to the Ministry of Rites, asking them to use it in compiling the "Records of Overseas Foreign Countries".

The Overseas Records of Foreign Countries is still a best-seller in the Ming Dynasty. Any owner or captain who wants to go to sea must buy a copy as a reference to prevent misjudgment of local conditions.

The next morning, Zhu Yijun summoned Liu Ji, the commander of the foreign army who had just returned from a long voyage, to the Wenhua Palace.

"Your Majesty, I, Liu Ji, pay my respects to you. Long live your Majesty, long live your Majesty."

"Your Majesty once told me: In an age of great strife, the strong will become stronger and the weak will perish. Only by wielding a sword can one travel the world. I kept your teachings in mind, but when I arrived at the country of Merina, I still relaxed my vigilance and fell into a trap. I am guilty." After Liu Ji bowed five times and kowtowed three times, he solemnly bowed and pleaded guilty.

Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said, "My dear minister, please don't be polite. I have read your petition and asked the imperial guards to question the captains, boat masters, helmsmen, sailors and others. I found that you are not guilty. It is just that the enemy is too cunning."

Three ships were destroyed and seven sailors died in the battle. This was not Liu Ji's responsibility. Liu Ji was very cautious. He confirmed that the star map, compass map, and hydrological chart were all correct. Liu Ji even sent several ships to make contact and only docked when everything was normal.

After docking, Liu Ji strictly ordered the crew not to drink alcohol or eat food from unknown sources.

If it were not for these cautious orders, the Ming Dynasty's global trade fleet, which fell into the trap, would not have suffered such small losses.

"The Ministry of Rites must do a good job of providing relief. According to old practices, children must study in the third-level school affiliated with the Songjiang Town Maritime College. They must not be left without a family. If the mother does not remarry, the soldier's wife must still be given monthly food rations." Zhu Yijun once again emphasized the relief work.

The soldiers who sacrificed their lives all died fighting for the collective interests of the Ming Dynasty. Their loyal and heroic families and descendants should be given sufficient grace and honor.

Every New Year, the governor of Songjiang would visit the families of these loyal heroes on behalf of the emperor and help them solve their practical difficulties.

Xu Bangrui, Duke of Wei, came up with a system when the emperor was on his southern tour, which provided monthly rations to the wives of soldiers. The more children they had, the more they were given. It was an incentive system that achieved very good results. Even if a soldier died, his children could grow up safely and attend the school affiliated with Songjiang Maritime College.

When working for the Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun, you don't have to worry about compensation or worries. His Majesty is doing it, and all the soldiers are watching. The people's support seems illusory but it is real.

Zhu Yijun took the porcelain presented by Liu Ji and said sternly: "And this King Lalangbo of Merina and a group of thieves, behead them and change the Governor's Office of Jifu. They dare to kill Han people and attack our Ming fleet. They will die!"

When Zheng He presented the King of Ceylon and his son to the imperial court, Emperor Chengzu Wen chose to grant them the Five-Chapter Royal Robe and made them a vassal state.

Zhu Yijun chose to kill.

Just as the Ministry of Rites memorial said, times have changed.

(End of this chapter)