Harry Potter’s Morning Light

   Chapter 2175 Flower dispute (eighty-three)

  In Japanese legend, "mermaid" is the food of human beings, eating it can live forever.

   In addition, if the old things are discarded at will, such as umbrellas, wooden fish, pots and other daily utensils, they will become all kinds of monsters due to resentment, and they will come out to play in the middle of the night. The Japanese call it a ghost night walk.

But there is a kind of utensil that is different from these monsters. There is a geisha who threw the pipa that he loved before into the sea because of resentment of his lover. This pipa also became a monster, but it is not as harmless as the umbrella monster. Ups and downs, and made a mysterious musical sound, attracting other monsters in the sea. So it is called Ghost Pipa, which does not exist in "Hundred Ghosts Night Walk".

After the fleet arrived in Shanwei, it docked. The Admiral made a decision. A loyal servant and Wanning's aunt would **** her back to JDZ's hometown by land, while the others continued to travel by boat. At this time, Juren proposed to follow the team. leave together.

   No one accused him of escaping, and Nick actually wanted to go with Churen. Compared with the Guangdong navy, the Fujian navy's task is much heavier. Chaozhou has frequent exchanges with Taiwan, because Taiwan is Chaozhou's main rice supplier, and the Chaozhou people also immigrated to Siam because of the famine. development, and even monopolized the tributary ships of Siam, which was also prohibited by the Qing court.

   Not only Qianlong, but also Emperor Jiaqing worried that these Siamese ships operated by Chinese would be in trouble with pirates, and that Siamese ships would trade in small coastal ports from Guangzhou to Chaozhou.

   This cannot be counted as smuggling, as it was a tributary ship and it was not carrying prohibited goods, so the local authorities had no choice but to increase the supervision of Siamese ships.

  Xiamen should have become the largest port open to Europe. It used to be such a port in the past. The Dutch maintained frequent trade exchanges with Xiamen during the occupation of Taiwan, and the British also came here. However, compared with Xiamen, Fuzhou has a large population and less land, and is in urgent need of imported rice. Therefore, Emperor Qianlong specially approved the local people to manage rice in Southeast Asia.

The rice trade, which was originally only operated by Chaozhou merchants, was not only divided by Fuzhou people, but also by Guangdong merchants. In fact, Guangzhou merchants were more active in the rice trade, and their participation was higher, perhaps because Guangzhou was more capable of deploying large quantities of rice, although The total amount of rice imported in Guangzhou is not as large as that in Fujian, but only the ships that transport rice can be exempted from tax, and these rice ships will have other goods from Southeast Asia.

  In the trade with Japan, because of the "Zhengde New Deal" and the letter card system, the Fujian merchants lost to the Jiangnan merchants, and in the trade with Siam, the Fujian merchants lost to the Guangdong merchants, and the status of the Fujian merchants began to decline. To enter the port, foreign ships need to pay a "gift money". When they find that their profits have fallen sharply and it is difficult to meet the requirements of donating local officials every year, they will go to Fujian less. The Spaniards controlled Manila, and they would blackmail Chinese merchant ships in the same way when merchant ships from Xiamen or Shanghai passed by, as their merchant ships encountered in Xiamen.

  There is a saying in the City of London that "I only worry about the difference between the labor force transferred by one ounce of silver and the labor force transferred by two and a half ounces of silver", and the Spaniards will not engage in the "small profits but quick turnover" tea business. First, they do not have the habit of drinking tea like the British. The sea risk is too great, and if the price is too high, the price will be lost, and the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War is also related to the tax increase. Second, since the outbreak of the French Revolution and the United Kingdom and Spain turned against each other because of the Battle of Toulon, the relationship between the two countries has been very delicate. Both the Armada and the Royal Navy feel that they are number one in the world.

   What they need is "windfall profits", not to mention that Xiamen terminated foreign trade in 1758, making it a smuggler's paradise.

This sea area is very dangerous. At first, everyone thought that pirates would not dare to attack the official ship. What Nick said just now in a daze actually shook the hearts of the army, but the admiral did not blame him. After all the old and weak, women and children were arranged ashore, only men were left on the ship. This will make it easier to act.

After the    boat set off again, Nick sat in his cabin looking at his Spanish jackknife. It was made in Birmingham and was reflective like a mirror. At the same time, he also thought of the pirate in the red cape. He drew out his sword at "noon", and the sword also shone coldly, and cut off the head of the chicken. Then he used a bowl to hold the chicken blood, very He calmly drank the bowl of blood, as he said, it was "medicine".

  Nick also drank the "hangover tea" just now. It really doesn't taste like tea, but more like medicine. Coupled with the pillow mixed with the fragrance of Yuhua, the feeling of hangover is gone.

   The characteristics of such customs often arouse people's thinking. The British are so keen on drinking tea that they even invented the observation of tea for divination. Unfortunately, Nick does not understand this.

Then there is the reform of the Prime Minister William Pitt. He lowered the tea tax of the East India Company, making tea a luxury enjoyed by aristocrats into a drink that ordinary people can drink, and this is why the British are interested in the Chinese market. , they expect the abundance of cheap British-made textiles to be favored by the common people, provided there are not such high tariffs and layers of exploitation by corrupt officials.

   Muffled murmurs can be heard outside the cabin, revealing their actions to the pirates on suspicion of a traitor on board.

  Nick remembered the Venetian pirate on the Da Gama ship, and no one knew what happened to him.

  Since sailing along the undulating coastline, every time the sailboat stopped, Nick followed him ashore to take a look, so he was able to see tracts of salt pans, large sugarcane forests and vast tidal flats. When the weather is fine, I look at the villages and towns on the shore from the sea. At first glance, I feel that the appearance of the villages and towns is very attractive. If you look closely, you will find that many of these row upon row of houses have been idle.

This is another phenomenon brought about by a whip law. In the past, the rich lived in the countryside, and they needed to raise some thugs to protect their manor, just like Zhao Zhuangtou in the Soul Calling Case, and Hubei Mei who buried 23 villagers alive Tuning Yuan. After the implementation of the one-whip law, the wealthy all moved to the county seat. They believed that they could exchange information directly near the county magistrate, and their safety was also under the responsibility of the government. As a result, there was no need to keep a group of fighting people at home. Those who The thugs have no source of income.

  They formed their own gangs, engaged in various activities, and took on different jobs according to their own strengths. Some people were good at planning, some people ran fast, and some people were strong in writing. They would put the dead bodies on the road at the gates of wealthy people in the city, asking for money to settle it, or pretending to be a tooth shop without authorization, and robbing the peasants when they brought grain and sugar cane to sell in the city, leaving them behind. When it comes to getting money from "so-and-so shop", farmers often only get half of the price, or they can only go home crying empty-handed.

Their purpose is money, as long as they pay, no matter what class they are, they can hire them. For example, when building a tomb, one family thinks that it is harmful to Feng Shui, while the other insists on building it. Therefore, both parties hire them separately, which is similar in nature to employment. soldier.

   There are also people who hire them to break into the woman's family home and **** the bride for marriage, and this is a common storyline in operas and novels.

A village that looks beautiful on the shore is not necessarily beautiful, just like a forest, it looks magnificent from a distance, and the beauty of being in it disappears. Not only is there no road in it, but you also have to worry about being bitten by all kinds of poisonous creatures. One bite, and annoying mosquitoes.

If the mirage attracts people to chase an ethereal scenery, then if you are attracted by the scenery seen from a distance, and if you walk into the village and town to take a look, then the initial good feeling will be gone, and the suffocating smell in the street will be gone. It was unbearable, it wasn't the smell of a stable in Kent or Sussex, but a smell of manure mixed with rotting matter. It seemed that anything could be composted, including the shaved hair from the barber.

  We can understand the behavior of farmers. Without fertilization, their labor alone cannot bring about a rich harvest, nor can they feed a population ten times the size of the land. Just like there is a proverb, "a flower is inserted in cow dung", which is a derogatory term, but a plant without fertilization will not produce bright flowers.

So Nick will not go too far from the boat after disembarking. There are many temples in the suburbs and the seaside. These temples are built for various gods. Not only do believers go to temples to worship, this practice is to hope that the gods can Help yourself at a critical moment, and there are temples like the Dragon King Temple, where you pray that the dragon will not make a mess.

There are many legends about    Mermaids, many claim to have seen them with their own eyes, and European sailors also said that they often heard their moving songs when passing through certain waters.

  Da Gama's fleet also saw strange animals, such as parrots, when they passed through Africa for the first time. When they arrived in South America, people found parrots the size of hens. At first, no one believed them until someone took them back.

   So does a monster like the Forbidden Woman with terrifying poisonous long hair and similar to Medusa really exist?

   "Do you believe in parrots the size of a hen?" asked Bonaparte suddenly.

   "Of course I believe it." Georgiana said blankly, "Have you heard of the ball and bird?"

   He didn't answer.

   He must have thought the bird was extinct.

  Georgianna thought proudly, but smiled without saying a word.

   "Have you heard of the Bird of Paradise?" asked Bonaparte.

   "Who hasn't heard of it?"

   He smiled badly, as if planning a prank.

   (end of this chapter)