Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 391

On the port pier in Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu King, a group of Satsuma warriors forcibly boarded a Ryukyu merchant ship.

The Ryukyu merchants were very frightened and begged the samurai to show their favor.

The Satsuma vassal said: "From today, the Ryukyu trade tariffs and other miscellaneous fees will be collected directly by the Satsuma vassal. All Ryukyu merchant ships must pay the full amount of taxes to the Satsuma vassal and fulfill their obligations."

"May I ask how much this tax will be paid?"

"Fifteen percent of the total value of your goods."

The Ryukyu businessman exclaimed: "This is too high! Those of us who are small people who run sea merchants may not be able to earn [-]% of the profit if we work hard. If we want to levy [-]% of the value of the goods, it is tantamount to killing us." ah!"

The Satsuma vassal pushed the merchant away and said, "Don't think we don't know that the prices of all kinds of commodities you brought from the Ming Dynasty have already increased by at least [-] to [-]% when they came to Ryukyu. Prices have increased by [-]% to [-]%, and some commodities have even doubled! Japan’s gold and silver will be cheated by you black-hearted businessmen! It is necessary to collect your taxes here.”

The samurai actually said, but it can't be called completely wrong. After the industrialization of Ming Dynasty started and actively promoted trade, it has become a powerful trading country, providing a large number of low-priced commodities to the outside world.Not to mention that compared with industrial products, even ordinary handicrafts cannot be compared with those produced locally in Japan. The craftsmanship is backward and rough, and the price is even more expensive.The Japanese goods at this time cannot be equated with the forcibly endowed craftsman spirit of later generations.Craftsmen exist, but there are few good things.

As a result, the Ryukyu people, who acted as transit trade distributors, brought some Ming products to Japan, and many of them were sold at extremely high prices.Of course, this situation will not last long, because Ryukyu merchants are also facing competition from Ming merchants. After a product enters the Japanese market and defeats local products after a period of time, it will inevitably decline to a relatively low level due to the seizure of the market. Reasonable price range.But at least during this period, golf merchants who actively participated in maritime trade earned excess profits.

Some golf merchants even raised funds to go to Daming to buy faster clipper merchant ships, hoping to carry more goods for sale.Their maritime trade is not limited to China, Japan, Korea, and Northeast Asia. Many golf merchants are also actively involved in trade in Southeast Asia. Using an inappropriate analogy, Ryukyu merchants have played a similar role in East Asian ocean trade for a long time. characters like the Dutchman.

It's just that the Netherlands can protect itself, but Ryukyu is too weak.The Satsuma domain controls Ryukyu, and after seeing Ryukyu making money, they immediately set their minds on them.The Satsuma domain is a relatively independent feudal lord territory, and it also has a certain nature of confrontation with the shogunate. After the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate, the stone heights were used for the feudal names. Translated, it is equivalent to the area of ​​cultivated land.If the Satsuma clan can get more benefits in trade, it is equivalent to improving their own stone height.

The Ryukyu merchants couldn't resist, so they could only say: "My lord, why don't you collect taxes on the merchant ships next to you?"

The Satsuma warrior got angry, kicked him down, and said, "None of your business! The Satsuma tax is collected from the Ryukyu, which belongs to the Satsuma clan. You are Ryukyu people, and you should pay taxes to the Satsuma clan!"

The merchant ship next to it is from Daming.

At the other corner of the pier, Zheng Chenggong watched what happened here from a distance, and beside him was his younger brother Zheng Xingying.

"Brother, there are only dozens of warriors in the Satsuma clan in Ryukyu, and less than a hundred soldiers. Our Zheng family has already had a hundred elites sneaked into Ryukyu. Just one order from my brother can wipe out the Japanese pirates in the Satsuma clan overnight." Zheng Xingying Suppressing his excitement, the Zheng family is a very large clan, including Zheng Chenggong's clan, and a series of ministers who are loyal to the Zheng family.

The form of the Zheng family is actually very similar to the feudal form of Japan. The clan and retainers form a force loyal to a clan, but their loyalty to the centralized power at the upper level is limited.

So after Zheng Chenggong took refuge in Bai Mingxiu, the members of the Zheng family were actually very frustrated. Their power was reduced and they had no place left.There are some generals like Ma Xin and Hong Xu who didn't have such a close relationship with the Zheng family before, so they left the Zheng family directly and lost their mountain tops.The hilltopism in the Ming army is not obvious, and Bai Mingxiu does not engage in balanceism. All officers and generals must be loyal to the country and the emperor, perform tasks 100%, and do not engage in intrigue.But this is obviously not suitable for the Zheng family, so Zheng Shengying and other Zheng family members were actually not used.

When the situation in the Ming Dynasty was initially settled, the matter of conquest of Japan was brought up. Bai Mingxiu found Zheng Chenggong and told him that he could go to his Zheng family's private army. Mostly the guys of the family, not the country, were regrouped under Zheng Chenggong's banner.

After all, Zheng Chenggong is still the deputy commander of the navy. He has seen many talents in the army in the past two years, and he really doesn't pay attention to these people from the original Zheng family.However, he has always helped his relatives and protected his shortcomings. Even if these people are useless, he still keeps them by his side.

Speaking of which, Zheng Chenggong was still a little hesitant. Many of his Zheng family's private troops were his old brothers, but they had not experienced actual combat after the reorganization.He has also personally inspected it a few times, and feels that his army is still a bit inferior to the real Ming army, and its spirit is different.But at least, the equipment of the Zheng family's private army is the same as that of the Ming regular army.

"Arrange people, we are ready to start. Divide into two teams. You personally lead a team and cooperate with Zhang Jin and Lin Fu to guard the Ryukyu Palace. I will personally lead people to deal with these Satsuma warriors at the dock." Zheng Chenggong acted very decisively. They have already figured out the situation on the Ryukyu side. Although they only have a hundred people in hand, they have a better chance of winning if they do the calculations mentally or not.

Not long after, forty or fifty soldiers from the Zheng family's private army stationed in the Daming Commercial Hall came. Their military uniforms were also very special. They were all in camouflage uniforms. The regular army of the Ming Dynasty did not change their camouflage uniforms. Instead, they used them first. up.These Zheng's private troops were not equipped with the latest M4 rifles of Ming Dynasty, but the old-fashioned M1 paper cartridge rifles, which were more than enough to deal with the Japanese.

"Call me! Eliminate all these Japanese pirates and occupy the pier." Zheng Chenggong gave an order, and Zheng's private army rushed up immediately.The Satsuma vassals who were still dealing with the Ryukyu people did not know where such a group of people came from, and several of them were brought down immediately.The worst thing is that these warriors didn't bring any firecrackers at all, and they were beaten by Zheng's private army so that they couldn't get off the boat.

(End of this chapter)