Including Rodriguez, a Portuguese gunsmith who has always wanted to set up his own gun factory, it is not impossible to deregulate it one day.

A few hundred years later, in the world, there are so many arms companies that are private companies of a civilian nature, and they have not made any chaos to subvert their own regime. This shows that as long as it is properly managed, it is also possible to relax or deregulate government control over arms production.

It's just that in today's Ming Dynasty, even armor, bows and arrows belong to the things strictly controlled by the government, and private possession is forbidden for the people, let alone muskets and artillery.

Now the Chongzhen Emperor has the intention of loosening the strict control of cold weapons, and has already begun to do so.

For example, for the Han refugees in Liaodong under the command of the Fifth Route General of Dongjiang Town, especially among the Mintun under the jurisdiction of the Andong Town Guard, the ban on cold weapons such as armor, knives, guns, bows and arrows, and spears has been lifted, not only allowing them to possess them, but also encouraging them to possess them.

Including Cao Wenzhao as the town guard envoy in the jurisdiction of the Rehe town guard, the Han immigrants recruited by the military tun and the people have also released the control of swords, guns, swords, halberds and even armor, bows and arrows.

The reason why Emperor Chongzhen took the lead in lifting the ban on the manufacture and possession of cold weapons by the people in these two places was first of all because of the actual needs of these two regions.

Both the areas under the jurisdiction of the Andong Zhenshoufu and the areas under the jurisdiction of the Rehe Zhenshoufu were on the front line against the Jianguo and other foreign races, and if the Han immigrants wanted to take root there and ensure that the possession and cultivation of the land would not be threatened by the surrounding foreign races, in addition to maintaining a strong standing army in these areas, they could only encourage themselves to arm themselves and cultivate their martial spirit and pioneering spirit.

Secondly, it is also because in these two frontier areas, the imperial court's ban on cold weapons such as armor, bows and arrows was also in vain, even if you want to ban it, you can't ban it, you can't stop it.

Originally, in these newly opened places, the power of the government representing the imperial court was very weak, and if you forcibly prohibit them and suppress their ability to protect themselves, it would almost be tantamount to forcing them to rebel.

Therefore, when the news that Mao Wenlong, Marquis of Andong, allowed the Han people in the military tun under the command of the Fifth Route General of Dongjiang Town to hold weapons, when it reached the imperial court, there were still a large number of imperial historians who used this as evidence to impeach Mao Wenlong for dissenting intentions.

For example, he privately armed the merchants and civilians under his command, which was a disguised expansion of the army, and he was holding the weapons given to him by the imperial court to cultivate his personal power.

Is there any truth to this?

Maybe it makes sense.

Because Mao Wenlong is definitely not a good stubble, Emperor Chongzhen knows this.

But can you control it, can you control it? In other words, should it be regulated, should it be banned?

The people he armed were not Koreans, nor were they anyone else, but Han refugees from Liaodong who had been brutally oppressed, persecuted, and hunted down by Jianlu.

Before Jianyu was completely driven out and wiped out, these armed Han people in Liaodong, whether they were under the command of Mao Wenlong, Marquis of Anton, or Liu Xingzuo, the Bo of Pyongyang, were at least allies of the Ming court.

That is to say, the stronger Dongjiang Town, the more serious Jianyu's worries will be, and Huang Taiji will not dare to break through the border at every turn and besiege the Ming Jingshi.

Now the Chongzhen Emperor certainly knows the dangers of warlords, but the current situation can only be the lesser of two evils.

Including Zheng Zhilong, who is located on the southeast coast, and the Zheng family forces behind it, are they considered warlords?

Warlords, of course.

But the Ming Dynasty is not so strong in the sea now, you can only tolerate the existence of such warlords, and to some extent, in order to bring disaster to the outside world, or even simply to win over and buy, you have to pinch your nose and continue to sit back and even encourage them to develop and grow.

There's no way around it.

In April, Shen Tingyang, a scholar in the Wuying Palace, who was deeply valued by Emperor Chongzhen, was greatly encouraged because he participated in some decisions for Zheng Zhilong, and soon asked Emperor Chongzhen to "Please Advocate a Small Trial of Shipping".

This practice is ten years ahead of the original history.

In the original history, Shen Tingyang wrote this book because the Huaibei section and Shandong section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal were seriously silted up at that time, and there was no way to transport grain from the south to Beijing, and the lack of grain in the Jiubian Army was close to collapse.

Emperor Chongzhen sighed day and night, so anxious that his hair turned white, but the ministers of the court and the central government were helpless.

It was at this time that Shen Tingyang appeared on this "Please Advocate a Small Test of Shipping".

Emperor Chongzhen was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Shen Tingyang to supervise the construction of sea boats and lead the shipping affairs of grain.

Half a year later, the sea ship was created, Shen Tingyang went to sea from Huai'an, the hub of Cao Yun, with the fleet of Cao Yun at sea, and arrived in Tianjin in half a month, of which there were five days in the state of waiting for the wind, and the actual sailing time was only ten days, which was definitely time-saving and labor-saving compared to the canal Cao Yun.

However, this time, because after Yuan Keli became the governor of Caoyun, he went all out to recruit people to dredge the Grand Canal, and the eastern section and Huaibei section of the canal, which were often silted up before, are now wide and deep, and the operation is smooth, and there is no problem of difficulty in transporting grain to the north.

Therefore, Shen Tingyang's "Please Advocate a Small Test of Shipping" this time, although the name is the same as in history, the content is very different.

This time, his proposal was to form a shipping fleet to transport high-quality iron weapons produced in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, as well as cold weapons such as swords, guns, swords, halberds, bows, arrows, and armor to the South Seas.

Rice was exchanged or purchased with the kings of Annam, Siam, Manlajia and other places, and then transported back to the north of the Ming Dynasty to further alleviate the grain shortage in Jingshi and Jiubian.

As soon as Shen Tingyang's letter was presented, of course Emperor Chongzhen was very happy now, and it was of course a good thing that someone could open his eyes to the world and not only limit his vision to the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, after Emperor Chongzhen read this "Please Advocate a Small Test of Shipping" with changed content, he never gave Shen Tingyang a reply.

In mid-May, Shen Tingyang, who couldn't hold his breath, took advantage of the news of the great victory in Shanxi and the good mood of Emperor Chongzhen, and once again presented a more complete "Maritime Book" and "Maritime Map".

Once again, he asked Emperor Chongzhen to set up a shipyard in Tianjin or Dengzhou, build sea ships, form a fleet, and then go to Nanyang to buy rice.

After receiving Shen Tingyang's second letter, Emperor Chongzhen called him and asked him to hang up the shipping map submitted by Shen Tingyang in the study room of the Qianqing Palace, pointed to several islands at the southern end of Fujian and the Guangdong Sea, and nodded a few times with his finger, and then looked at Shen Tingyang without saying a word.

Could it be that Emperor Chongzhen, who was a traveler, did not know how to trade or buy rice from the small countries of the South Seas that were rich in rice?

Of course he does.

However, the coastal areas of Guangdong, especially the South China Sea, which must pass through to the South China Sea, are almost all controlled by Liu Xiang, the leader of the Guangdong pirates.

Hong Kong native Liu Xiang was originally a member of Zheng Zhilong's eighteen Zhi pirate gang, and the reason why the two parted ways later was that there were conflicts of interest, but Zheng Zhilong wanted to belong to the imperial court, and Liu Xiang was unwilling, which was also one of the very important factors.

After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Ming court, Liu Xiang immediately defected to the Spaniards, who had controlled almost the entire Philippine Islands, and at the same time, with the covert support of the Dutch, controlled almost the entire route from Guangdong to Batavia and Manolaca.

In this case, it is not so easy for your official fleet of the Ming Dynasty, or a trading fleet with an official background, to trade or buy rice in the South Seas!

Of course, there is no problem in shipping technology, but when your sailors are not strong enough to fight against Zheng Zhilong or Liu Xiang, and you engage in a large-scale maritime trade fleet, what is it?

Even if Zheng Zhilong agrees to let you pass through the Minhai Strait because he needs the support of the imperial court, Liu Xiang can let you pass through his territory unharmed, even if Liu Xiang agrees, can the Spaniards and Dutch, who are still enemies of the Ming Dynasty at this time, agree?

If things were really that easy, then the Ming Dynasty in history would not die.

The name of Champa rice has long been known to the Chinese during the Ming Dynasty, but since they all know that Annam, Siam, Manraka and other places are rich in rice, why didn't the Daming court buy it, is it that the emperors and ministers of the Daming are blind, or are they all stupid?

Of course not.

In the final analysis, it's just beyond the reach of the whip and the power to do it.

There is no way to acquiesce, connive, or even disguised encouragement quasi-warlords like Mao Wenlong and Zheng Zhilong to continue to grow in strength.

When the Ming Dynasty came to the Chongzhen period, the most lacking thing was not food, but time.

So even if he knew that conniving at the development of warlords like Mao Wenlong and Zheng Zhilong was likely to be a cup of poisonous wine, as long as he would not die of poison in a short period of time, Emperor Chongzhen would have to pinch his nose and drink it.

At least after Zheng Zhilong was annexed to the imperial court, the sea shipping north of the Fujian Sea was very peaceful, and the pirates who were once active in the coastal areas of Zhejiang, the Ryukyu area, and the sea off Dengzhou all disappeared.

This is one of the benefits that Zheng Zhilong brought to the Ming Dynasty after returning to the imperial court.

And when Jiang Yueguang and others went to North Korea, why did the Korean monarchs and ministers finally succumb?

Isn't it because the power of Donggang Town is strong enough to destroy North Korea?

Therefore, everything has to wait until you have enough strength to do it logically.