Needless to say, the commercial port of the Yangtze River estuary, of course, is the ten-mile ocean field of Shanghai!

Shanghai's geographical location is absolutely unique in the territory of East Asian trade. Not only at the mouth of the Yangtze River, but also at the confluence of the North, South and East oceans - in the era of sailing, the types of ships used in the North and South Seas were different. The South Sea is windy, and the North Ocean is shallow. Therefore, the South Seas use sharp-bottomed boats, and the North Seas use flat-bottomed boats. The Yangtze River and canal use inland river boats.

Once Shanghai opens its port, three types of ships, such as pointed bottom, flat bottom and inland river, will converge in Shanghai, and it will be difficult for the city to be prosperous!

Therefore, in history, not many years after the opening of Shanghai, it stole the limelight from Guangzhou and became the center of China's foreign trade.

Even a thousand-year-old commercial port like Guangzhou was once deserted by Shanghai after the opening of the port, not to mention the island of Taiwan...... What was the island of Taiwan at the end of the Ming Dynasty? In addition to deerskin, there are all kinds of deadly infectious diseases, and the foreign devils who live there are exchanging their lives for money!

If there is a bustling, lively and safe Shanghai that you can go to, what is the city of Relansha and what is the city of Pu Min, it will definitely become a ghost town.

The Dutch East India Company was here to make money, and as long as the cities of Geranza and Promensha became bottomless pits of loss, selling at a low price was inevitable.

And Daming's side, if it shows a certain strength. For example, the establishment of a truly combat-effective European-style army, with 20,000 or 30,000 men, is enough to make the Netherlands, a distant Western power, not stop talking, and it is enough to discuss the issue of win-win cooperation......

However, such a trend and the entanglement of interests in it, Zheng Zhilong couldn't figure it out for a while.

Zhu Cihong looked at Zheng Zhilong and fell into deep thought, and knew that there were a lot of things to say today, and Zheng Zhilong had to digest them slowly, so he smiled and said: "It's not too early, the palace will go back to the inner city first." Old Taishan and stay in Huang Weishuai's garden for a while, let the senior brother take you to see the garden tomorrow, this is the palace to Quanguo Mansion, although the old Taishan is not officially sealed, but you can live first...... When the old Taishan is settled, come to the palace to see it again. At that point, we'll discuss it slowly. ”

As he spoke, Zhu Cihong stood up and left, and Zheng Zhilong, Huang Binqing, and Zheng Sen also got up to send them off.

Zhu Cihong walked a few steps before he arrived at the door of the lobby, and suddenly remembered something, turned back to Zheng Zhilong and said, "Old Taishan, can you lend the 400 Japanese soldiers you brought to the palace?" ”

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "Chitose Lord, the 400 Japanese soldiers brought by the minister are for Chitose Lord...... These 400 men are all proficient in the art of guns and swords, and they are brave enough to fight the Tartar infantry! ”

"Okay, good," Zhu Cihong said with a smile, "This palace needs them....... Can they all speak Chinese? ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "Several leaders can speak Chinese. ”

"Okay," Zhu Cihong nodded, "Let Senior Brother bring them to Dagongfang tomorrow." ”

The leader of the Japanese pirates who followed Zheng Zhilong to Nanjing was a bad old man in his fifties, named Zahepu, who was born in the poor and remote area of Saga Township, Kii Province, Japan.

Kii Province was also a very difficult place to play in medieval Japan. It is very close to Heiankyo, Japan, so it should be well developed, but because the mountains there are dense forests and the flat land is scarce, there is not much development value. And those valleys that are suitable for reclamation in the deep mountains and dense forests cannot raise any powerful daimyo, and can only become the soil for the development of local tyrants at the level of "village chiefs".

At the same time, temples and shrines, which flourished in Japan from the Heian period, turned the mountains and forests of Kii Province as a place of practice. The temple and the local tyrant gradually formed a master-slave relationship.

Therefore, during the turbulent Warring States period, Kii Province, which was located in Kinai and close to Heiankyo, became an area dominated by temples and local tyrants.

Although this area is mountainous and densely forested, it is not closed, not only along the coast, but also close to Heiankyo and the Japanese national trading port of Sakai, so the "iron cannon" brought by Western merchants was introduced to Kii Province very early on, and became a sharp weapon used by local tyrants to fight village warfare - once the iron cannon became popular, it was actually a cheap weapon, which was very suitable for the local tyrants of Kii Province.

Later, the local tyrants of Kii Province became famous for playing with iron guns, and began to form mercenary groups and were employed by daimyo and temple shrines, among which the more famous ones were "Nerai people" and "Saga people". And this Zahepu is a member of the Zaga congregation.

However, he did not meet the good times, he was fifty years old this year, born in 1594, and by the time he was old enough to be a mercenary, the Battle of Sekigahara had been fought for many years. So he had to be hired by the Toyotomi family, which was declining, and participated in the Osaka winter and summer battles. After the fall of Osaka, there was no chance in Japan, and he wandered for a few years, not waiting for the Toyotomi family to rise again, but saw a Japan that was becoming more and more stable and heroes were no longer useful.

So going abroad to work has become the only way to earn some money to support your family.

Saga Katsu, who was born in the Saga people, is good at using iron cannons and is also good at playing with the sword, so he is good overseas. first worked as a thug for the Dutch, and later was poached by Zheng Zhilong at a high price, and became the "pen head" of the Zheng family's Japanese army.

Although he received Zheng Zhilong's high salary, Zaga Sheng and his group of Japanese soldiers all had a samurai dream - to become a real samurai, become a feudal lord, and own a small piece of territory of their own.

And Zheng Zhilong, a warlord of the "merchant stream", does not practice the lordship system at all, and has little interest in expanding land territories. And he doesn't believe in Japanese devils, Zheng Zhilong only believes in Fujian villagers, and Cantonese people don't believe in it, let alone the Japanese?

So Zahepu didn't have much momentum under Zheng Zhilong's hands, until not long ago, Zheng Zhilong found him and said that he would follow the generalissimo of the army and horses and His Royal Highness the Prince of Fujun to fight the Tartars, this is a rare opportunity!

The generalissimo of the world!

It sounds similar to the general of Zhengyi, and it is also appointed by the crown prince, and he has the highest righteous name!

With such a general, oh, it's the generalissimo, you can always mix up a samurai with territory, right? If the generalissimo doesn't give a samurai to be a warrior, should he still be a jinshi?

And he is also very confident in his skill in playing iron artillery, he is the ancestral black cannon of the Zahezhong, and he is also proficient in swordsmanship, he is a master of the sword, how can he be worth 250 stones......

However, his "Dream of 250 Stones" began to wake up after seeing the Generalissimo's "Iron Cannon Banner Public".

Because he found that the generalissimo of the Ming Dynasty's "iron cannon banner is much more powerful than the legend"! The heavy cannons were accurate, which was not a big deal, but their light iron cannon team was extremely distinctive.

The first thing that shocked him was that the formation of the Generalissimo "Iron Cannon Banner" was so dense that it was shoulder to shoulder - Saga Katsu, who was proficient in artillery, knew that this density of formation could easily cause a fire accident when loading ammunition. But if this can be overcome, the dense firepower can inflict lethal damage on the enemy in front of you!

What surprised Saga even more was that the light iron cannon of the "Iron Cannon Banner Public" could be equipped with a sword, thus turning it into a short spear five or six feet long.

Saga, who has had many experience in group fighting, knows that a short spear five or six feet long is no less powerful than a three- or four-foot sword. Moreover, the short spear is easier to practice than the Taidao, and it is time to fight in groups.

With the sword, he has practiced the one-knife slashing method for half his life, is there no place for it?

Can I still get 250 stone of brown rice?

"Hey, what's your name? How much do you want? Can you, little old man, understand Chinese? Why not answer? ”

A young man's impatient voice interrupted Saga Sheng's thoughts, and only then did Saga remember that he and several leaders of the iron artillery team had followed Zheng Sen to the palace of the Ming Prince.

Naturally, the prince was not so easy to see, so Saga waited with a group of his men in a small room, and while waiting, he thought nonsense, and then lost his mind.

He hurriedly looked up and saw a young eunuch wearing a python robe and holding a dust, who had entered the house at some point and was standing in front of him to ask questions.

"Ah, my, Zahepu," Zaga Sheng hurriedly spoke, "The annual salary needs 250 stone brown rice......"

"Got it, grocery store, 250 ......"

Huang Xiaobao carefully recorded Zahepu's name and the required Yulu in a notebook, but accidentally wrote Zahepu as a grocery store...... Then he went and asked the names of the other vassals and the money they were asking for.