Gao Jing is not very unfamiliar with the Spaniards in Luzon, but he is obviously not familiar with "Mexico". In fact, when he just said Mexico, he meant Mexico City.

In terms of the current administrative division, Mexico City is the seat of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Kingdom of Castile.

The Viceroy of New Spain had a vast area that included what would become Mexico, Central America (with the exception of Panama), California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the Philippine Islands in Asia, known to the Ming as Luzon, the Spanish colonial empire's main overseas territories.

As for the transportation of silver from the Americas to the Philippine Islands, this is a phenomenon that exists in the original history, and under the influence of high pragmatism, the Spaniards transported silver on a larger scale than history.

The most significant features of the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty are two, one is that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty almost only accept precious metals, mainly silver, supplemented by gold; The second is that the value of the goods sold far exceeds the value of the goods bought, so it has become a global black hole of precious metals, especially silver.

As we all know, after the discovery of Iwami silver mine in Japan, according to the estimation of historians, in a century of 1540~1644, an average of 75 tons of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty from Japan every year, totaling about 7,500 tons, that is, 150 million taels of silver (according to the previous instructions in this book, the weight of the Ming system was converted into the current city jin, city tael, so this data is about equal).

In other words, in Japan alone, an average of about 1.5 million taels of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty unilaterally every year.

However, although Japan has a geographical advantage, it is only one of the sources of silver into the Ming Dynasty, and another bigger source is the Americas.

In the 24th year (1545) and 27th year (1548) of the Ming Dynasty, the Spaniards discovered very large silver mines in Potosí (later Bolivia) and Zacatecas, Mexico. Since then, large quantities of low-cost American silver have been poured into Spain and other major European countries through international trade, financial operations, smuggling, piracy, and war reparations.

But what's more funny is that most of the American silver that flowed into Europe at the beginning was eventually shipped to Daming to buy those products that Daming had world exclusivity and irreplaceability.

In the beginning, the silver circulation route was as follows: Spain's famous "Armada" loaded with silver, departed from Mexico, Panama and Peru, passed through the port of Lisbon in Portugal and Seville in the southern port of Spain, and bypassed the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to the port of Goa in India.

Along the way along this line, there are buying, selling, loading and unloading. After arriving at the port of Goa, a large amount of silver from the Mediterranean and the Middle East market flowed into India, and then shipped to Macao via Malacca. Eventually, the Portuguese used the silver to buy huge quantities of Ming goods needed for markets in Japan, India, the Middle East, the Near East, Central Europe, and Western Europe, which effectively served as the "factory of the world."

At that time, only the Portuguese merchant ships transported silver from the port of Goa to Macao every year was about 120,000 taels at the beginning, and then gradually increased to about 600,000 taels.

In the fifth year of Longqing (1571), the Spaniards established a colonial capital in Manila, Philippines. Since then, the shipping lanes have changed, and American silver began to cross the Pacific Ocean directly, transported to Manila, and then transferred to the Ming Dynasty through trade, which is the famous "Manila galleon" trade in world history. This route also became the main channel for silver from the late Ming Dynasty to enter the Ming Dynasty.

In the last 50 years or so of the Ming Dynasty, the total amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty through the Americas-Philippines-Ming Dynasty reached at least 4,620 tons, or 92.4 million taels.

In fact, in the period after the middle of the Wanli Dynasty, the world's silver production, including Japan and the Americas, accounted for one-third or even one-half of the total, and eventually flowed into the Ming Dynasty. It's no joke to understand that the silver black hole is being claimed.

The root cause is that the competitiveness of "Made in China" in the late Ming Dynasty was too strong, and it can be called invincible in the world. At that time, the whole world benefited from the high-quality and inexpensive goods exported by the Ming Dynasty, such as tea, porcelain, silk, cotton cloth, medicinal herbs, and so on.

Looking at the world from the Ming Dynasty, the goods that can be sold to the Ming Dynasty in other places are very limited, which forces them to use silver as currency to do business with the Ming Dynasty.

According to history, foreign merchant ships at that time came to trade in the Ming Dynasty, "there were few goods on board, and most of them belonged to silver". The reason why the later Tatar Qing emperors habitually claimed that they lacked nothing in the Celestial Empire may also be due to the inertia of China's thinking that China had maintained a large trade surplus for three to four hundred years before 1800.

To tell you a bit funny, in the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), when the merchant ships of the British East India Company arrived in Daming for the first time, the British were very excited, thinking that they could finally make Daming's money. Who knew that the slap in the face came too quickly, they couldn't even sell a piece of British goods, and in the end they just threw out 80,000 Spanish silver dollars, and then returned with a full load of Daming goods - what's even funnier is that they sold this batch of goods after they went back, and they actually made a lot of money, but it was much more cost-effective than selling British goods in Daming.

The current Spaniards have not yet enjoyed the treatment of the British in this story, and they have no way to directly sail the merchant ships into the Ming Dynasty, so they can only retreat to the second best thing to do the resale trade through the Portuguese in Ho Jing (Macau).

If not, you can only wait in the Philippines, waiting for the merchants of the Ming Dynasty to take the initiative to come and trade. Fortunately, the Spaniards found that in recent years, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty seem to be growing rapidly, especially the fleet of the "Jinghua Sea Trade", which often made appointments with them and came directly to the Philippines to trade.

However, with King Philip II of Spain taking advantage of the crisis of succession in the Kingdom of Portugal and forcibly "uniting" Portugal on the basis of Spain's strong military force (although he did have the right to claim it), this situation may have a chance to change.

At least, the Spaniards in Luzon felt the opportunity and were working on it.

Little did they know, however, that the Portuguese had no interest in giving themselves another competitor for no apparent reason.

The timing of the Jinghua Expeditionary Fleet's expedition to Burma happened to be the first attempt by the Spaniards to take over the "Ming trade concession" currently held by the Portuguese.

Coincidentally, Gao Jing's Spanish fleet, which had just arrived in Luzon from the Americas, had just completed a large deal with the Beijing-South Ocean Fleet in Luzon and Quanzhou ports, and was heading to Malacca to return to the European mainland.

Forty Spanish ships from Manila have been on their way for two days, approaching Changsha (Guangdong, that is, the Nansha Islands), and the Jinghua Expeditionary Fleet, which departed from Golden Harbor more than a day earlier, has also arrived at a location that history buffs may be familiar with: near the waters of Natuna Island - but Natuna Island at this time is not called this name, and the Ming Dynasty called this island Wansheng Shitangyu.

The origin of this name is related to Zheng He, and the meaning of "Wansheng Shitangyu" refers to the fact that the island is the island where Zheng He's soldiers lived and produced.

According to Gao Jing's suggestion, the Jinghua fleet will temporarily dock at Wansheng Shitang Island today to replenish supplies such as fresh water and fruits on the island.

In fact, this is also due to the fact that the army has only undergone a short period of maritime adaptation training after all, especially the wolf soldiers under the command of Huang Zhiting. After all, in the words of Gao Pragmatic, the Guangxi wolf soldiers belong to the professional arms of mountain warfare and jungle warfare, and the short sea adaptation training of less than a month may not be able to ensure that they can drift on the sea for a long time, and then immediately enter the intense battle after disembarking, so it is necessary to stop and rest halfway.

Of course, Wanshengyu is a Ming person, and even to be exact, this is now the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and there is a big surname in the local area for Zeng. Zeng's ancestor was called Zeng Yuanfang, who was the leader of a group of shipwrights who were ordered by the emperor to keep the island during the Xuanzong period, and later the Zeng family slowly became the actual owners of the island.

The reason why Zeng was able to become the de facto "island owner" was because although Xuanzong stopped going to the Western Ocean, he had a decree to let Zeng Yuanfang and others keep the island, and even gave the words "Wanshengyu, Anbuna" in the imperial pen. Therefore, Wanshengyu is the official name of Wansheng Shitangyu, and the meaning of "Anbuna" is said to mean "to guard the island with peace of mind, and not to pay taxes" - anyway, that's what they said to the people in Jinghua.

It is not the first time that the people of Jinghua Sea Trade have come to Wanshengyu, but the level of the people who came this time is too high, and the head of the Zeng family of this generation heard that it was the "Deputy Commander of the Southern Metropolitan Department of Daming Annan", and he was immediately startled.

After asking again, I learned that this deputy capital envoy was not only a dignified member of the Ming Dynasty, but also came with a large army this time, and the people sent by Gao Jing took the boat he sent to the offshore sea to let him see what it means to "have thousands of heavenly soldiers and thousands of sails covering the sea".

There is no need to say that Zeng Yongcheng, the current head of the Zeng family, was busy arranging the reception.

However, although this island is large, the population on the island is not very large, probably less than 30,000, of which the main city of the Zeng family is more than 10,000 people. The so-called port is even more cramped, and it is simply impossible to dock such a large fleet.

Therefore, after sending small boats to discuss, Huang Zhiting and Gao Jing decided to dock only four warships into the harbor, and the rest of the ships anchored on the offshore coast outside the harbor. Fortunately, the water inside and outside the harbor is deep enough, otherwise there would have been other troubles.

Watching the majestic giant ship of the "motherland" sail into the harbor, the islanders on Wanshengyu Island were extremely excited and cheered one after another, and some old people even bowed their heads, not knowing what to shout.

If Gao Shishi was in person, he would definitely be particularly emotional, but Huang Zhiting was not a traverser in the end, she just watched the silence for a while, and said to Gao Jing: "Like Wanshengyu, the island is an island with the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, is there still it in Nanyang?" ”

Gao Jing was even more surprised than Huang Zhiting, and nodded: "Of course there is, in fact, there are quite a few remnants of the Celestial Empire in Nanyang, but there are not many remnants of the Ming Dynasty like Wanshengyu, and most of them are mixed among the natives." The lord has explained it before, let us contact them well, the reason why the Nanyang Fleet can get so much news in Malacca is because of this. ”

Huang Zhiting thought for a while, and suddenly asked: "I remember that Gao Gao told me at the beginning that the key to overseas development is to master the sea routes and seaports, and use each seaport as a springboard to connect them in series. Just like a pearl necklace, each harbor is a pearl, and the middle line is the shipping channel, so as to form its own chain of maritime power - haven't you considered Wanshengyu as one of the 'pearls'? ”

"How could you not have thought about it?" Gao Jing smiled bitterly: "The little one personally wrote a letter to report this matter to the master, but the master refused, saying that since the people of Wanshengyu Islander think that they are my Ming people and still hold the edict of the Xuanmiao in their hands, then don't take it by force...... What the lord means is that we can only occupy islands that have nothing to do with my Daming. ”

Huang Zhiting frowned slightly and asked, "Then what are the results now?" ”

"There are no noteworthy results on the part of the Annan detachment." Gao Jing spread his hands helplessly: "Right now, Jinghua is concentrating on migrating people to Annan, and Annan can't control it, how can there be any extra people to transfer to Nanyang?"

If the island wants to become the 'pearl' that the lord said, it is useless to just erect a stone monument, and it can only be talked about after actually moving the population and establishing towns and harbors. According to Xiao's understanding, at present, there is only one such target on our side of the Nanyang Fleet, and that is the port of Dragon...... Oh, now called Taiwan. ”

Huang Zhiting smiled and nodded: "It seems that I am so ambitious, presumably your master should have his own plan in his heart for these things." ”

This is not very easy to accept, neither can it be said that the master has no plan in his heart, let alone offend Huang Deputy Dutong in person, admitting that she is "so ambitious", so Gao Jing just laughed, then changed the topic, and said: "Dutong, although Wanshengyu is not controlled by our Jinghua, but in fact, the difference is not too big, because the imperial court has actually not taken care of Wanshengyu for a long time - Guangdong sailors may come to patrol the sea every three or five years, but because Wanshengyu does not have to pay taxes, Therefore, when the Guangdong sailor came, at most, he was the same as us this time, coming here to replenish fresh water and food, and would not interfere in the affairs of the island. ”

Huang Zhiting heard Gao Jing's subtext, and raised her eyebrows slightly: "You mean, the owner of Zeng Island...... Well, will be happy to cooperate with us? ”

"I don't know if he's 'happy' to be small, but 'cooperate' will definitely cooperate." Gao Jing said with a smile: "Don't say that with our current strength, we can easily take the whole island, even if there is only the Great Seal of the Great Defense of the Commander, they will not dare not cooperate, after all, his family can hold the Niu Er of Wanshengyu, relying on the edict of the Xuanmiao to let them guard the island, if they dare not obey the order in the face of the three members of the imperial court, what island is he guarding?" And why should the people of the island obey his house anymore? You must know that his ancestors were only the head of the boatmen, not the toast. ”

Huang Zhiting was very satisfied, nodded, and asked: "With such a big island, fresh water is enough to replenish, but food and fruits are ......."

"It doesn't matter if the food is there, we have plenty of it." Gao Jing said: "The main thing is fruits, but this is not a problem, there is no spring, summer, autumn and winter in this place in Nanyang, so it is difficult to say anything else, fruits are really everything, and there is almost no need to plant, there are mountains and fields everywhere, as long as you send someone to pick it." ”

At this time, the two of them were just about to get off the boat, when suddenly a very small centipede speedboat came from behind, and the Jinghua crew certificate on the speedboat waved the flag vigorously.

Huang Zhiting and Gao Jing turned their heads to look at the reminder of the sailors on the lookout, but Huang Zhiting did not understand the flag language and did not know what the crew on the dinghy meant, so they had to look at Gao Jing.

Gao Jing looked at it for a while, and immediately frowned, his face became very serious, and he said to Huang Zhiting: "The fleet guard formation sent a report that the Spanish fleet had been found in the waters of Changsha in thousands of miles, and the scale was very large. They don't know if they should think of it as an enemy army, so they're moving closer to us...... Well, they also said that two clippers had been sent to monitor the movements of the Spaniards, but asked us to give orders as soon as possible. ”

When Huang Zhiting heard this, her face also changed, and she asked in a deep voice, "Spaniards?" The fleet of forty Great Galen ships you spoke of earlier? ”

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