It was already the end of June, and the sun was pouring down on the earth like a stream of fire.
The seaside area was extremely hot and humid, and it was particularly uncomfortable, but this was not yet the hottest time of the year.
In such weather, even at night and early in the morning, the air is filled with heat.
No one wants to move, let alone do anything.
Even the most industrious farmer doesn't want to wait for the hot sun to work.
However, the new commander-in-chief of Dinghai, Mr.
Lu, started to struggle at this time.
Not only did he urge his subordinates to go out to sea to patrol and strictly investigate pirates, he actually took a large ship to patrol various parts of Hangzhou Bay at the mouth of the Yongjiang River.
There was such a big commotion at this time of the season.
Naturally, everyone in the officers and soldiers of Dinghai Castle knew the reason.
Of course, some were happy and some were worried.
What is gratifying is that the officers and soldiers deployed by the Commander-in-Chief Lu Tai did not consider the hot weather a hardship at all, and followed the Commander-in-Chief's buttocks one by one to serve.
Originally, he was a poor military household that his grandma did not care for and his uncle did not love.
He was not even in the eyes of the deputy generals and other adults.
Now he is finally appreciated by the new commander-in-chief and has the opportunity to make extra money and benefit.
Who is not excited?
If you don't work hard, you should know that opportunities like this originally belong to the generals' cronies.
The ones who are worried are several generals in Dinghai.
After the former commander-in-chief Wang Zhiren resigned, in addition to the new commander-in-chief Lu Tai, deputy general Wang Lan, staff general Ma Yong, and guerrilla general Li Tao became the most respected.
Now, these three people gathered together and discussed with gloomy faces.
"Let me just say, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
Even though he is new here, you should not completely leave him alone.
Now he is in trouble."
Guerrilla General Li Tao said with a frown.
"It wasn't something we all discussed together at the beginning.
Complaining now is useless," Deputy General Wang Lan snorted coldly and scolded.
"I was opposed to it at the beginning.
It was you who said that Wu didn't understand anything when he came here and it was easy to fool him.
But now, he is not an idiot and has long understood how huge the profits are.
Now it is clear that the car If you do this, let me see how you explain it to those companies."
Li Tao glared and retorted.
Although Wang Lan is the deputy general and is two ranks higher than him, everyone is a hereditary Qianhu, and the strength of the military households they hold is not much different.
Li Tao is not afraid of Wang Lan.
"Okay, stop arguing.
Since something happened, it's useless to argue.
Let's think of a solution."
General Ma Yong quickly tried to smooth things over.
"There are two ways.
One is to simply kill this person named Wu.
From now on, we will have the final say in Dinghai, and all the benefits will be ours," Wang Lan said through gritted teeth.
Before he finished speaking, Li Tao jumped up.
"Wang, you are crazy if you want to be the commander-in-chief.
Don't drag us with you if you want to die.
Kill Lu Tai.
Do you know who Lu Tai is?
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He is a confidant of Duke Qi.
Although Duke Qi observes filial piety in Hangzhou, there are people in Zhoushan.
There are three thousand troops.
Wang Yin, the governor of Zhejiang, is also a member of the Duke of Qi.
You actually want to take risks for a mere piece of money.
I won’t let you go."
"Vice General Wang, don't be joking, brothers want to live a few more years."
General Ma Yong looked at Wang Lan displeased.
The coward Wang Lan glanced at the two of them disdainfully, "I'm just saying that there is this way.
Of course, killing people is not an option.
It's not worth making such a big fuss for a little money.
Then there is only another way, which is to share the profits.
The only way is to divide the gentry.
The benefits we promised will go to Wu’s share.”
"This is the only way, but how much do we have to divide him?"
Ma Yong nodded and became embarrassed again.
Seeing that Wang Zhiren was finally able to get rid of him, the brothers finally got fat, and another Lu Tai came, shrewd Wang Zhiren is worthy of his place, but looking at the array Lu Tai has set up, I'm afraid he won't be able to satisfy his appetite if he doesn't give him enough.
"At most give him a quarter, and the four of us will share it equally."
Before Wang Lan could speak, Li Tao jumped up and shouted again.
He dared not kill people, but he was so stingy about sharing money.
He was really greedy and cowardly.
Wang Lan glanced at Li Tao with disdain and simply refused to pay attention to him.
Then he looked at Ma Yong and said: "Following the example of previous years, Mr.
Wang Zhiren Let’s give the soldier’s share to someone named Wu.”
Ma Yong nodded: "That's all it can do."
But Li Tao shouted: "The guy surnamed Lu is new here.
He doesn't know the market at all.
You can't give him so much."
"Shut up, or you go talk to him."
Wang Lan angrily scolded this troublemaker, which made Li Tao shut his mouth.
At night, the cool breeze blows from the sea, blowing away the heat of the day, and people feel much better.
Lieutenant General Wang Lan prepared a banquet at the only hotel in the castle and invited the Commander-in-Chief to the banquet.
Wang Lan and the other three waited for a long time, but the commander-in-chief, Lu Tai, arrived late.
"Thank you for your hard work on the inspection, Commander-in-Chief.
I would like to propose a toast to you."
Wang Lan took the lead in picking up the wine glass and saluted Lu Tai.
Lu Tai held the wine glass but did not pick it up.
Instead, he glanced at the three people who were worried, and said with a half-smile, "We are all warriors, so don't beat around the bush.
Say what you have to say straight away.
It's over."
It’s not too late to drink and have fun together again.”
"Master Lu is indeed a cheerful person.
I admire him in the end."
Before Wang Lan could say anything, Li Tao took the lead in flattering him.
Lu Tai glanced at Li Tao and ignored him, but said directly: "Although I have just arrived, I am not a stickler.
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As the saying goes, eat the mountains and eat the sea.
Our Dinghai City is close to the sea and is located on the top of the mountain.
The land is It is barren, and there are tens of thousands of military households in Dinghaiwei.
It is not easy to fill our stomachs, so we have to reach out to the sea.
This Ningbo Prefecture has many hills and mountains and few plains.
In terms of civilian wealth, it is far inferior to Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Huzhou, Jiaxing and other prefectures, but it also has the same advantage, that is, there are many seaports and developed shipping, and it is close to Japan and Ryukyu.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Ningbo Prefecture has been an important place for maritime trade.
Every year, there are dozens or hundreds of ships traveling to and from the Japanese kingdom of Ryukyu.
Of course, the imperial court has regulations prohibiting the sea.
As the commander-in-chief of Dinghai Anti-Japanese War, my duty is to inspect ships traveling to Japan.
There is no discussion on this. " Following Lu Tai's words, Wang Lan, Li Tao and others turned pale.
Could it be that Lu Tai was really a stick and insisted on raiding smuggling merchants?
"Of course, life is not easy for the people.
Many times, going to Japan to trade is forced by life.
Although I have responsibilities, I cannot kill them all.
If it is not copper and iron and other military supplies, it is not a bad idea to turn a blind eye."
Lu Tai changed the topic and said again.
"Yes, yes, it's not easy for the common people, we should consider them," several people were overjoyed when they heard this, and said one after another, "Don't worry, Mr.
General, the common people are shipping and trading daily necessities such as cotton, raw silk, tea, and porcelain.
It’s not a military material.”
"Is it true that military supplies must be inspected on site?
Moreover, they go out to sea to make a lot of money, but our brothers have a huge responsibility.
The brothers are running around in water and fire, but their families are waiting for food, so we have to let the brothers talk about it.
Let’s eat.”
Lu Tai said in a stern and sanctimonious way that the next step would be to share the blame on the spot, so everyone knew that it was time for a showdown.
Among the three, Wang Lan was the calmest and had the most ideas.
Although Li Tao was dissatisfied with him and repeatedly contradicted him, Wang Lan was still the leader when it came to serious problems.
Wang Lan held the wine glass and his mind was spinning rapidly.
The new commander-in-chief spoke with both eyes, and he was very reasonable.
Not long after arriving in Dinghai, he unknowingly attracted a group of run-down military households to serve him.
Efficacy, it can be seen that it is not a fuel-efficient lamp.
Maybe people have already found out how deep the water in Dinghai is.
In this case, it would be stupid to bargain and bully others who are new to the country and don't understand it as Li Tao said.
"Commander Lu is very cheerful, and the brothers are not hiding anything.
You, Commander-in-Chief, know about the situation in Dinghai, and the general will speak directly."
Every summer when the southeast monsoon rises, merchants go to sea for the Japanese country.
There are about dozens of Ningbo ships going to sea every year.
As the general said, even if they make a lot of money, they can't let their brothers have anything to do with it.
According to the custom, each seagoing ship will give our brothers 500 taels of silver.
In exchange for our brothers turning a blind eye, it only adds up to 30,000 to 40,000 taels a year.
The chief soldier always gets 30% of this money, the three of us each get 20%, and the remaining 10% is shared equally among the brothers.
What do you think about sharing profits according to this proportion this year?”
After Wang Lan finished speaking, he looked at Lu Tai without blinking.
As a general soldier, he alone gets 30% of the annual income of thirty to forty thousand taels, which is about nearly ten thousand taels of silver.
This is a huge income.
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By the end of the Ming Dynasty, although silver had depreciated due to the continuous influx of silver, it was still very valuable.
The annual income of a medium-sized family was only twenty or thirty taels of silver, and the annual tax revenue of a county was only so much.
After hearing this, Lu Tai felt excited.
He knew that the anti-Japanese soldier was very rich, but he didn't expect it to be so powerful.
With such a huge profit, no wonder these three people were so excited that they wanted to bypass him and swallow up so much money.
In addition, they usually drank the soldiers' blood.
A few of them could make two to thirty thousand taels of silver every year.
Wang Lan and the three of them worked together to find him.
That is to say, he wants to drag himself into the water and join them.
However, Lu Tai sneered in his heart.
"Okay, I, Lao Lu, am not a greedy person.
As Brother Wang said, I will distribute the dividends according to the proportion of previous years.
But when the ugly words come to the front, I, Lao Lu, will not rub sand in my eyes.
When will the ship go out from my Dinghai?"
You have to tell me in advance.
I want to know the situation of all the ships.
If anyone dares to fool me, don’t blame Lao Lu’s sword for not recognizing people."
Lu Tai said, patting the steel knife on his waist and issuing a stern warning.
"How can you do that?
Sir, you are overly worried."
Seeing Lu Tai agree, Wang Lan and others immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
It was not possible to eat more and occupy more.
At least the previous benefits were preserved, and each person had a proper sixty-seven.
A thousand taels of silver went into the bag.
"Come on, brothers, let's go."
Lu Tai picked up the wine glass and drank it in one gulp, and everyone started to exchange glasses.
The breeze blew the military flag, and the flag fluttered to the northwest.
The wind became stronger and stronger, and the flag was blown loudly.
The southeast monsoon is coming, and it is the time of year to go north to Japan for sea trade.
Yang Wenqing went to Dinghai Castle in person and sent five hundred taels of silver.
Yang Wenqing was a member of the Yang family in Yinxian County and the cousin of Yang Bingnai, the head of the Yang family.
He was unable to study well and had no hope of taking the imperial examination, so he had no choice but to run the troubled business for the family.
The Yang family has three ministers and seven jinshi.
It is the first family in Ningbo Prefecture.
It is also famous in the entire Jiangnan.
The land under its name spans tens of thousands of acres across prefectures and counties.
It is among the top families in Zhejiang. landowner.
The economy in Jiangnan is developed, mainly because the fields have a variety of cash crops such as mulberry and cotton.
If they are all grown in grain, tens of thousands of acres of land will produce enough grain for tenants to eat, and the rest will not be sold for much money.
However, growing mulberry and raising silkworms is different.
The value of silk produced by raising silkworms in an acre of mulberry field is eight to nine times or even ten times more than growing grain.
This is also the reason why there is less food and more mulberry and cotton in the Jiangnan area.
A load of raw silk was worth fifty or sixty taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty.
If the raw silk was transported to the Japanese country, it could be sold for more than two hundred taels of silver, and the profit would be several times higher.
The huge profits have attracted countless maritime merchants.
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From the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present, although the court has repeatedly banned the sea, it has been banned repeatedly.
It is the profit that makes people move forward bravely.
If the imperial court's ban was too strict, major turmoil would occur, such as the Japanese pirate rebellion during the Jiajing period, which was instigated by the wealthy coastal families.
The Yang family, and even other families in Ningbo Prefecture, will not let go of profitable businesses such as sea trade.
As long as the raw silk they produce is shipped to the Japanese country, the value can be increased several times.
This is comparable to the hard work of raising silkworms and reeling silk. easy.
However, when doing business, you have to take care of things along the way, and all the devils in the world have to understand that no matter how powerful the Yang family is, they cannot cover the sky with one hand, not to mention that anything can happen on the vast ocean.
Therefore, in order to buy peace, each ship needs to spend three thousand taels of silver to buy a "water mark" from the Zheng family of Fujian, which dominates the Japanese routes.
The so-called water mark is a flag, which means that the Zheng family is allowed to trade with Japan.
Because they monopolize the Japanese shipping routes to the South Seas and sell water signs every year, plus their own trade, the Zheng family's income reaches tens of millions of taels.
It is a truly wealthy country.
No, it is more than the Ming Dynasty's annual treasury income.
The "King of Hell" of the Zheng family needs to be taken care of, and the "little devil" of the Dinghai Japanese Defense Force cannot be ignored.
The Dinghai Japanese Defense Force is stationed at the mouth of the Yongjiang River and is responsible for most of the coastal defense of Ningbo Prefecture.
If it is the military households in Dinghai A little mischief can make the ship never return.
Of course, given Dinghai's silver, he doesn't need as much as three thousand taels.
For those shabby military households in Dinghai, five hundred taels is enough to make them turn a blind eye.
Yang Wenqing sent money to Dinghai and agreed to go to sea in two days.
In the past two days, two three-masted fortune ships were moored in a small fishing port in Hangzhou Bay.
The fishing port was owned by the Yang family.
One after another, ships carrying raw silk, cotton cloth, lacquerware, tea, etc. entered the fishing port via the Yongjiang River and loaded all kinds of goods onto seagoing ships.
Ships carrying goods passed by the Yongjiang estuary one after another, but the officers and soldiers of Dinghai Castle turned a blind eye.
This kind of cooperation has been going on for decades or hundreds of years, and everyone has regarded it as normal.
Two days later, the two ships set sail and took advantage of the rising southeast monsoon to head towards the Japanese country.
Yang Wenqing stood on the stern of the ship, looking at the receding coast, lamenting that it would take another half a year to get there.
But thinking about the huge gains he got after half a year made him happy again.
However, as soon as the ship left Hangzhou Bay and passed Jintang Island, more than ten ships surrounded it, which surprised Yang Wenqing
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