A closer look at the diplomacy of the late Ming Dynasty will reveal that the colonial activities of Western powers were also present at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and they did not suddenly appear until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info is just that the Ming court is more powerful, and it has successfully repelled in the face of foreign aggression, so it has never made any shameful memories of unequal treaties. But it seems that because it is too smooth, it is not memorable.

But in reality, the Portuguese stayed in Macau. The Dutch invasion of the Penghu Islands, the garrison of the city of Geranza in Taiwan, and the construction of cities by the Spaniards in Taiwan, were all acts of aggression and colonization.

However, whether it was the Portuguese, the Dutch, or the Spaniards, their activities in these areas of Ming sovereignty were not an attempt to make China a colony and enslaved by the Western powers. In fact, they are eager to get a piece of the trade with Japan.

It is precisely because the Japanese were closed to trade by the Chinese that these third parties are trying their best to buy silk goods from China and sell them to the Japanese to earn high profits.

Of course, in addition to the Western powers, there are also Chinese smugglers.

For the Japanese trade, the smuggling merchants of the Ming Dynasty are okay, they are directly the place of origin, and they can sell raw silk to Japan if they buy it in China. The Portuguese have Macao as a base, so the import supply is also quite smooth.

In contrast, the Spaniards were frustrated in their ability to manage, and their diplomacy had several troubles with the Japanese, so their progress was slow. The British have a small capital and a second largest scale, so let's not mention it for the time being.

The Dutch, as the sea coachmen of this era, were rich in money and enterprising, and they were more proactive in comparison, and spent half a century trying to open the door to trade with China.

In 1603, Stephen Hagen, commander of the Dutch fleet, traveled to China with gifts and diplomatic envoys in an attempt to meet the Chinese emperor and ask for trade, but was coldly rejected by the tsundere officials......

In June 1604, the Dutch, led by the commander of the Dutch fleet, Wei Malang, was ordered to go to China from Pattani, and this time the Dutch were well prepared, not only contacting several maritime merchants, but also bribing a tax supervisor to try to follow the path of eunuchs to open up trade channels. At the same time, he also plans to beat Macau directly.

What they didn't expect was that here in the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese kept describing the Dutch as a barbaric and unreasonable country, and the Dutch were aggressive and stationed troops in Penghu, which aroused the vigilance of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was not the Qing Dynasty, and it turned a blind eye to overseas territories.

As soon as the Dutch took Penghu, some people wrote to explain their interests. Daming obviously has no shortage of people of insight, knowing that the geographical location of Penghu is very important, and the Dutch must not be allowed to occupy it.

For this reason, Xu Xueju, the governor of Guangdong, quickly mobilized troops and horses, although the Ming Dynasty was quite far behind in armament like the Qing Dynasty, but the Ming people's will to fight or mobilization ability were far beyond the imagination of the Dutch.

The Dutch were not only defeated by the Ming army several times on land, but also surrounded by the Ming army's naval divisions at sea, and finally had to retreat.

The soft ones don't work, the hard ones don't work.

The Dutch thought about it and still had to choose to leave Penghu and quietly fled to Taiwan.

In any case, all the colonization efforts of the Dutch were only to buy Chinese goods, such as raw silk, and thus become a second-class dealer...... Sold to the Japanese.

However, the tsundere Ming officials directly rejected the barbarians' demands for trade......

At this time, when I think of China's supply-side reform in later generations, the current situation of the world looking for a market to sell Chinese goods, I suddenly feel so embarrassed and laughing at the long-standing propaganda of resisting the invasion of foreign powers in the late Ming Dynasty......

Speaking of which, it is possible to understand the pivotal position of the Japanese in the entire East Asian landscape.

To put it simply, because of the development of silver mines in Japan, the cultivation of the market, and the abundance of purchasing power, Japan at this time was a place where people came with stupid money and more money.

How could Zhu Cihong miss such a key place if he wants to engage in the strategy of overseas development?

Now, peace has been restored to the Ming Dynasty. The seeds of the workshop spilled by Zhu Cihong actually represent the beginning of capitalism to take root.

The huge group in the hands of Zhu Cihong with Hengxin Commercial Bank as the core is taking advantage of the extraordinarily abundant capital investment and merger every year, cultivating one workshop after another.

When the time comes, it can be met that the market of the empire will one day be occupied and sufficient. And the Malthusian trap will finally come one day.

At this time, seizing the foreign market in advance is undoubtedly a know-it-all move.

A huge market of 15 million to 20 million people, a bridgehead from East Asia to the Eastern Pacific. In any case, Zhu Cihong did not allow himself to miss all this.

However, how to enter Japan's overseas trade is obviously another very important issue.

Li Banghua is quite clear about the history of the government, and he also understands why Zhu Cihong has his eyes on North Korea.

The reason again starts with Fujian.

Fujian is a place with many people and little land, and there has been a culture of doing business and studying since ancient times. Not to mention the latter, for the former, relying on the sea to eat the sea, many people have also gone to maritime business in addition to fishing.

At the same time, since the pacification of the Japanese invaders, many people of insight in the Ming Dynasty have begun to reflect.

Many officials are aware of a crucial point: "If the city is connected, then the government will turn into business; The city is banned, and the business is turned into a coward. "It's easy to ban business, but it's hard to ban criminals."

Many people have gradually understood that among the Japanese robbers, there are of course Japanese ronin samurai and Japanese businessmen, but more "Japanese robbers" are ordinary Ming people who can't survive on the southeast coast.

If we do not solve the economic problems of the southeast coast, the problem of the Japanese will never be resolved.

Therefore, the court's attitude towards the sea ban began to change.

In the first year of Longqing, Xu Zemin, the governor of Fujian, asked for a ban on the sea, and as a result, Fujian Yuegang began to open the sea ban with restrictions and conditions. Although the sea ban was lifted, there were still regulations such as restricting Japan and prohibiting foreigners from trading in China. But in any case, China's overseas trade has restarted. Of course, this is where the tributary trade of the last two hundred years came to an end.

It's just that what makes Zhu Cihong feel unhappy is that although Fujian and other places are still Ming territory, the natives entrenched in them still regard themselves as Ming officials. However, whether the imperial decrees can be implemented in Fujian, especially in overseas trade, everyone knows well.

Of course, Zhu Cihong knew it well, so he paid attention to North Korea.

This does not mean that His Majesty the Emperor chose to retreat in the face of Fujian's local snakes, such as Zheng Zhilong, but Zhu Cihong simply calculated an account.

The reason why Fujian has become the center of overseas trade is nothing more than the convenience of policy.

But for Zhu, there are clearly better options.

If you want to eat the fat of overseas trade, there is not only a huge war road.