open sea

Chapter 1482 Decoration
The sea breeze in Long Beach Port is very cool. I don’t know if it’s because of the weather or the arrival of the dry season. Even at the seaside, the air is still dry.

Li Zhi, who got off the ship, seemed to be still trembling with the sea voyage in his mind. Even though his treatment this time was much better than when he came from the mainland, the Eastern Army chose a Spanish fast boat for him, and the route was smooth. Stayed at sea for a full 20 days.

He was a little confused about the relationship between the Kingdom of Spain and Daming.

In Daming itself, people don't know much about Spain. For a person like him who has a lot of friends and experience, his understanding of Spain is still in Daming's martial arts book.

It was a country that was defeated by Ming Dynasty in two wars. Even if they knew more about the causes of the two wars, they would only say that the two wars started very muddled.

Back then, no one in the imperial court could figure out what was going on. In short, Chen Mu fought the Spanish treasure fleet while leading the fleet southward, intervened in the Luzon war, and won a war to expel Xiyi from the coast of Daming.

Later, as time progressed, people became more and more aware of that war. Both the government and the public knew that it was a group of Portuguese pirates who entered and left Lingdingyang and robbed a few cows in Tuen Mun. In this matter, the governor was ordered to pay 27 taels of silver.

There are also rumors that Chen Shuai seemed to be determined to provoke and go to war, because he told the Portuguese messenger that the governor of Luzon, Spain, would only give a reply in May, which was May at that time, and the combat preparations of the Nanyang Fleet had been completed, and did not wait until June. Just go to sea.

However, this is just a joke of the people in the countryside after drinking and tea. The result of that war is that the Nanyang military government has handed over 400 million taels of silver to the court every year for more than ten years, and 400 million shi of Annan, Champa, and Siam rice. .

Not counting the large amount of rice, hardware, pearls, and precious stones sold by merchants to the people, the trade routes between Daming and the Southeast Asian countries prospered to an unprecedented level, and the rebel army, which was spinning like weeds, disappeared without a trace.

There is no soil for rebellion anymore. After all, there are only a small number of ambitious people in the rebel army, and most of them are ordinary people who really can't survive. In fact, their problems may be solved well with only one tael of silver per month.

Now as long as people go to the ports of coastal towns, they will stand for a long time, and there will be crew members who will come forward to ask whether they can go to sea. When they go to sea, they will first settle down with ten taels, and the monthly silver is two taels at sea. They can also bring a hundred and ten catties of their own goods on board.

Even if they are truly ambitious, they will not be able to attract people to join the gang if they want to rebel.

Mingxi's second war was even more confusing. People in the country thought that Mr. Fei from Spain was a big fool, and our family Chen Mu was an obvious big bully. Seeing him take a large fleet to sea, it's not bad if he doesn't provoke you, you People still provoke him?

Shocked by Spain's lack of beatings.

When I arrived in East Asia, the information I received from the port people and Zhao Shizhen was that the Spaniards did all kinds of evil in this land, but on the east coast, everything changed.

The businessman said that Spain has a lot of stupid people and a lot of money, no matter what you transport there, you can earn ten times the profit;

In Havana, although there were many people wrapped in hemp robes who looked at him coldly, most Spaniards still had bright eyes when they saw the Ming people, and those young girls wanted to drag the old man into the tavern.

Even the captain of the Daming man proudly patted the side of the boat and told him that this kind of boat was specially prepared for Daming by Mr. Fei from Spain. From Daming Port to Daxi Port, it only takes [-] days to cross the ocean. .

It made Li Zhi feel that the Spaniards are not bad.

How did he know that this ship is a long-distance communication ship specially built by Philip with a waste of effort. It travels extremely fast, has fewer passengers, and has no cargo capacity and tries to reduce its weight as much as possible. real-time situation.

As a result, the ship was built, and the New World was gone. Only Peru was left hanging half-dead, which also made Philip lose interest.

Except for the first year of Mingxi's trade, he did not receive any new silver coins after that, and all the money was used to place orders from the Eastern Army.

Daming's military and economic capabilities have enhanced the country's credit in this land. Starting from the Western Sea Merchants, people have widely accepted Wanli Tongbao as a general equivalent. Anyway, the money from the Western Sea Merchants is only used to buy it from Daming people. Things, as long as the Ming businessman collects the money, that's enough.

Not to mention the paper-based Wanli Tongbao, even the copper Tongbao of the four generations of Longqing, Jiajing, Zhengde, and Yongle is the standard currency in Spain.

Longqing and Jiajing Tongbao were first brought to Asia by immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, and then brought to Spain by native Asian sailors. Zhengde and Yongle Tongbao were brought by Ming’s troops stationed in South Asia and businessmen from Japan.

There are still a small number of copper coins living in Spain, and the merchants only trust Li Dan in Daming Port for clearly marking the exchange rates of various coins.

Daming Port is willing to allow people to exchange currency, unlike Chen Mu in Dongyang who does not want anyone to exchange currency to prevent the outflow of silver. Daming Port always exchanges coins at the standard price, but charges a little handling fee.

In order to enhance the confidence of the people of the West in the coins of Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the most Ming copper coins are in Muye.

Since Haifa Sand, the leader of the Longhouse Alliance, the indigenous warriors in Muye have always passed down the habit of wearing Ming coins to make bronze armor, and as their integration with Daming deepens, this habit has gradually become more sophisticated.

In Long Beach Port, Li Zhi saw many Baojia female soldiers wearing iron helmets and money armor walking around.

All this was very novel to Li Zhi, he hadn't seen a woman serving as a soldier for a long time.

When he heard that in the iron mines in Muye, countless women from the longhouse alliance had fought against the government to get permission to mine the mines in order to have decent jobs and maintain their matrilineal society, the old man was so surprised that his jaw dropped. down.

These female soldiers all wore rouge and powder from Ming Dynasty, and wore Ming style earrings and necklaces. They were exquisite; but their strong and energetic figures were not as fragile as domestic girls.

Wearing an iron helmet similar to a bowl on the head, but wearing their traditional feather crown decoration behind the helmet, they also wear a simple sleeveless plain breastplate, but the helmet's hem, the hem of the breastplate, and the armor skirt , many people do not use cloth, but made of copper coins.

When they were shopping in the market at Long Beach Port in Muye County, they would lift up the hem of their armor and draw out their short knives to cut off the cords of the armor and give them to the shopkeeper when they saw something.

Some people also need a little protection in addition to decoration, and they use armor skirts riveted with iron coins and flat iron rings, which obviously cannot be spent, Li Zhi even went up to ask, those girls are not Shy, let him see the iron money openly.

There are all kinds of words cast on iron coins, and some are even forged steel coins, with words made by brazing.

Most of them are blessing words such as peace in the world, many children and blessings, good weather, good harvests, and long live the emperor.

The girls smiled and said, "It's the wise magistrate of the county who allowed us to use money to make armour, and also allowed everyone to use the feather crowns of past leaders to decorate themselves."

(End of this chapter)