"I don't know how long the trade with this Eastern country can last, but what is terrifying is that this country with more than 3,000 merchant ships has changed its previous gentle attitude and showed its fangs to us!"

The governor of Spain's Philippines wrote a pessimistic report and sent it back to the country.

When the Spanish first arrived in China during the Wanli period, they once arrogantly claimed that they could conquer the entire China with only 4,000 people and frequently harassed the Chinese coast.

But as time went by, the Spaniards began to realize that if they jumped again, it would attract the attention of the Chinese government, and the result would be devastating. Because the number of Chinese merchant ships had already made the Spaniards frightened.

At this time, there were no less than three thousand civilian merchant ships in China.

Of course, most merchant ships are mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Basin, transporting Huguang's commercial grain to southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces. At the same time, transporting cotton cloth and various commodities from Songjiang Prefecture to Huguang. Huguang farmers are only responsible for producing commercial grain and do not have the habit of textiles and producing other commodities.

If there is the highest agricultural commercialization in Daming at this time, perhaps Huguang is one of them. The farmers there are basically not engaged in the production of the rural natural economy.

The slowest living area, namely Huguang and Sichuan, mainly does not have much pressure to survive. After all, in the grain-producing area, you can’t starve to death. Just focus on rice planting.

Back to the topic, the number of merchant ships in the Ming Dynasty was indeed extremely amazing. However, most merchant ships were not engaged in ocean trade. However, the shipbuilding ability of the Ming Dynasty obviously also shocked the Spanish. Therefore, after the Spanish realized this, they rarely harassed the Ming Dynasty's seafront and seemed much more peaceful.

But the Spanish were most worried about. The Ming Dynasty began to pursue the crime of massacre of Han people in the Philippines, put Spain on the trade blacklist, and formed a larger navy.

Therefore, in its report to the local government, the Spanish Governor also asked the local government to try to mobilize enough warships and troops to reinforce the Philippines to prevent China from launching an attack on the Philippines.

Japan is the most affected nature of the changes in the maritime power pattern.

After the Ming Dynasty blocked the Taiwan Strait and Ryukyu waters, the merchant ships heading to Japan were intercepted, and the merchant ships heading to Japan were fewer and fewer than day by day.

The Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan naturally obtained the news from Li Dan, so in April of the third year of the Apocalypse, he sent an envoy to Ryukyu to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty.

The answer given by the Ming Dynasty was very simple. It was strictly forbidden for private merchants to go to Japan because they were prevented from attracting Japanese pirates to cause trouble to China's coast. The intercepting of Dutch merchant ships was because the Dutch caused great harassment to China's coast. As long as it was a Dutch ship, the Ming Dynasty would intercept and sink.

In recent years, Japan is constantly de-Sinicizing, trying to get rid of China's sovereign power.

This year, the Tokugawa shogunate had ordered the country to be closed down and banned all Japanese ships from going to sea for trade, but it did not mean that Japan did not need trade. Japan used raw silk, deer skin, medicinal materials, and various daily necessities. These commodities were mainly obtained through trade with China.

Because Japan completely bans Christianity, neither the Spanish nor the Portuguese are allowed to go to Japan for business.

Only pirates like Li Dan can provide Chinese goods. In addition, they have a good relationship with the Tokugawa shogunate. In addition, the Dutch did not preach, so Japan allowed merchant ships and Dutch merchant ships to trade in Japan.

Japan's foreign trade was affected at this time. If the demand for goods was not met, it would naturally come over to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty.

The request of the Japanese envoy was quickly submitted to Zhu Youxiao.

"Japan has started to close the country this year? Not bad, not bad, worth encouraging." Zhu Youxiao looked at the navy's memorial and found an information that made him very happy.

Japan was closed to the country during the Tokugawa Shogunate era, but Zhu Youxiao knew about it. Later, the British bombarded the country with cannons and had always maintained trade relations with China and the Netherlands.

But Zhu Youxiao didn’t know that Japan had been in a closed-door country since 1623.

It is a good thing for Japan to be closed to the country! It’s a good thing! It’s a waste of money. When Japan’s stay in the country for a hundred or two years, it’s time to find that the world has changed a lot...

Of course history has changed. Who knows whether Japan will really be in a closed country for more than two hundred years? However, Japan must be encouraged to keep it closed.

"It will be of great benefit to open trade with Japan. Immediately send someone to Japan to discuss trade matters with Japan." Zhu Youxiao immediately issued an order to form an envoy to Japan.

Nearly half a month after the Ming Dynasty's mission was prepared, he went to Japan with the trading fleet of the Royal Trading Company. The Royal Trading Company dispatched twenty merchant ships this time, carrying many raw silk, deer skin, musk, medicinal materials, and steel products. At the same time, he also brought armor, muskets and other weapons produced by the Royal Military Factory.

After sailing at sea for more than ten days, the fleet successfully arrived in Nagasaki, Japan.

When the Tokugawa shogunate learned that the Ming envoys were coming, there was a merchant fleet accompanying him, he immediately welcomed them warmly. He then sent someone to contact the Ming envoys.

This time the mission to Japan was obviously very smooth. The Tokugawa shogunate needed to strengthen its own strength through foreign trade. The reason why the Tokugawa shogunate implemented a policy of closing the country was mainly because it was afraid that the daimyos in western Japan would trade privately with overseas trade, thereby strengthening their own strength and posing a threat to the Tokugawa shogunate's rule.

Because the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate is absolutely inseparable from the maritime trade.

Previously, the Tokugawa shogunate restricted other daimyos from owning ships with a capacity of more than 500 stones, but the effect was not very ideal, and many daimyos still conduct foreign trade privately.

This time, the Tokugawa shogunate made a tough move, which was to close the country. All Japanese ships were prohibited from going to sea for trade, and all Japanese people were prohibited from interacting with overseas people. Stowaways were sentenced to death.

The arrival of the Ming envoy praised and affirmed the Tokugawa Shogunate's policy of closing the country.

"Your country can block the country in a closed-door way, which can prevent the ronin from plaguing the Ming Dynasty's sea. Therefore, my Daming Emperor highly appreciated the decision of the shogunate, and decided to make good friends with the shogunate and help the shogunate rule Japan. Therefore, this time, I was sent to Japan and brought new muskets produced by my Daming to help the shogunate improve my strength." The Ming envoy said to Tokugawa Hidetachi, and Tokugawa Hidetachi's face was almost laughing.

"Trade of Ueguo is naturally very beneficial to our shogunate. But we hope that Ueguo will not trade with other Japanese daimyos in private. At the same time, we hope that Ueguo can ensure the scale of trade with the shogunate while prohibiting private merchant ships and Dutch merchant ships from coming to Japan." Hidetaki Tokugawa said to the envoy.

"Of course there is no problem with this. The Ming Dynasty can guarantee that the scale of trade with Japan will definitely not be less than before. In addition, the shogunate can stabilize Japan and prohibit ronin from going to sea to harass our Ming Dynasty's sea front. It is impossible for me, the Ming Dynasty to trade with other Japanese daimyos in private." The envoy promised.

At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate was obviously a regime that wanted to live a peaceful life. Unlike the previous Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had the ambition to expand externally, he invaded North Korea.

The Tokugawa Shogunate in history has never expanded to the outside world until it was over.

Zhu Youxiao would naturally not try to undermine Japan's stability in such a regime that lived with peace of mind at this time. As long as the Tokugawa shogunate lived with peace of mind and was willing to trade with the Ming Dynasty, it would be in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

The Tokugawa Shogunate had the intention to live a peaceful life, but mainly learned from the lessons of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He launched 200,000 troops to invade North Korea, but he got nothing and fought hard to lose a lot of money. His rule over Japan was overthrown by the Tokugawa Shogunate.

What made Tokugawa Hidetachi very happy was the weapons and equipment brought by the Ming Dynasty's merchant fleet this time, and the new one was muskets, which were even better than those of the Dutch.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty made it clear that as long as the Japanese ronin did not go out to sea, the Ming Dynasty would only trade with the Tokugawa shogunate.

If the Ming Dynasty only traded with the shogunate, the shogunate would be able to obtain overseas material. However, more than 200 other lords of Japan were unable to gain strength through maritime trade. The strength of the Tokugawa Shogunate would be able to forever surpass other lords and continue to rule Japan.

To put it bluntly, the situation of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan is a bit similar to that of the Mongolian Lindan Khan. However, Japan is influenced by Chinese culture and is more cultural and smarter than the Mongolians. At the same time, Japan at this time did not have many external threats, and the policy of closing the country was obviously the greatest benefit to the shogunate.

Zhu Youxiao was also happy and expressed support for Japan's closing to the country.

At this time, Li Dan and his group of pirates and Dutch merchant ships could not reach Japan. If the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate wanted to obtain Chinese goods to maintain its own strength, he could only accept trade with the Ming Dynasty.

The Tokugawa Shogunate also trusts China's official trade more because China also prohibits private merchant ships from traveling to Japan, which is also very happy to see for the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Because of the official trade between China and Japan, many messy overseas people arrived in Japan. This was also beneficial to the Tokugawa shogunate maintaining its rule.

When both sides have demand, specific trade negotiations also quickly reached a consensus.

The Ming Dynasty proposed that Japan should ban trade with the Portuguese to prevent Western Christianity from spreading in Japan. At the same time, it was required that Japan increase the scale of copper mining, otherwise the scale of trade would not be increased.

The Tokugawa shogunate had no choice but to agree.

The Portuguese are not banned from trading with Japan yet, but the Portuguese are Christian countries after all, and there is no need for the shogunate to offend the Ming Dynasty for the Portuguese.

Increasing the scale of copper mining is also a good thing for Japan, so Japan will have the money to buy Ming Dynasty goods.

Japan's Azuo Tongshan and Bezi Tongshan were discovered in the past decade. These two large-scale copper mines have made Japan the world's largest copper mine exporter in the 1780s in history.
Chapter completed!