What does opening the sea mean?

This means that merchants from the Ming Dynasty can also gather escorts and sail on the sea to do business in other countries.

When the news of shipbuilding and opening to sea was announced at the court meeting.

Zhu Ying, who was standing nearby, found it a little unbelievable.

He had talked to the old man several times before, and although the old man was touched, he had never issued a formal decree.

However, how come there has been such a big change today just because I went outside the palace yesterday?

That’s not all.

As Liu He read out the imperial edict, the Maritime Customs Office was reorganized at various docks.

All maritime merchants must obtain a maritime clearance document from the Maritime Customs before they are eligible to sail on the sea.

Anyone who does not obtain a document of maritime access will be deemed to be smuggling overseas.

Those who violate the law will have all their cargo confiscated and their accompanying personnel will be forced to do hard labor depending on their positions.

After this decree was issued, the Ministry of Revenue was also ordered to issue detailed tax regulations on maritime goods.

Zhu Ying exclaimed in his heart, what a great guy.

The old man is really good at this.

Without any fuss, the matter was settled.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not let his ministers discuss the matter, but made the decision on his own and issued the decree directly.

The people below naturally knew that they had no right to submit a memorial. If they stood up to oppose at this time, it would be like they thought they had lived too long. No one would joke with their own life.

Zhu Yuanzhang obviously noticed the change in his eldest grandson's expression and smiled complacently.

After the morning court session, the grandfather and grandson began to chat.

"Grandpa, why did you suddenly decide to lift the maritime ban? We haven't even finished fighting Japan yet." Zhu Ying asked in confusion.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Why, you allow your grandson to make some money, but we can't?"

"Speaking of which, it's all thanks to you, my great grandson, that we can see something different."

"I have never been exposed to the business world before. I didn't expect that there are so many details in this world."

"If it is controlled well, this money can really appear out of thin air. It is too magical."

"I have been thinking about it over and over again, and I have found some methods that will not only benefit the people, but also bring a large amount of income to the national treasury, which will come much faster than the previous taxes."

"This makes us realize something: if all the money in the world could be divided equally, no one would starve to death."

"What does this mean? It means that the money and grain in the hands of these landlords and gentry are much more than we can imagine."

"I remember when we were wandering around, some landlords had stored grain that had gone moldy and been eaten by rats, but they were still unwilling to give it out."

"We could rob them before, but not now. It would cause chaos. So we have to follow the method of our eldest grandson and make them willingly pay for some new things."

"What new and interesting things can our Ming Dynasty have? This kind of thing must come more from overseas."

"I'm too lazy to do more, so let's just ask the customs to increase the tax and sit back and collect the money, isn't that great?"

"Grandson, tell me if this is the truth."

Zhu Ying was a little stunned listening to the old man's long speech.

Is this still the old man he remembered?

Why does the feeling change so much?

It was as if it had suddenly broken through the scope of its own vision.

You have to know that these things of Zhu Ying basically all come from his memories of past lives.

Some places cannot be said to be perfectly matched. Things from different eras are forced together, but there is no problem.

Theories that are too advanced are completely meaningless now. Zhu Ying is, to some extent, crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Zhu Ying replied: "Grandpa, what you said makes sense, but I don't know why Grandpa suddenly..."

Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted with a laugh: "So what? Why? As long as the eldest grandson has an idea, we can't have any ideas."

Zhu Ying couldn't help but feel ashamed at this: "Of course that's not what I meant. My grandson is just a little weird."

Zhu Yuanzhang patted his grandson on the shoulder and sighed, "I am not such a stubborn person. I have taken your grandson's actions to heart over the past few days."

"At the beginning, I felt that the current Ming Dynasty was already quite good enough. In the world today, which country can be compared with our Ming Dynasty?"

"I know what my eldest grandson is thinking. He is just like me back then. He has the ambition to build a career and expand the territory."

"You are only nineteen this year, my dear grandson. You are so young. In our opinion, you don't know so much."

"But now, my thoughts have changed. My eldest grandson is so outstanding that I never thought of it before. So I think that even though I am old, I can follow him and try again."

"At least from now on, isn't it better?"

Listening to the old man's words, Zhu Ying felt a little warm in his heart.

This is the old man's recognition of himself, an all-round recognition.

Zhu Ying wanted to say something, but it seemed like he had a lot to say and didn't know where to start.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw this and said, "Let's give it a try and see how high we can push the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Ying nodded seriously: "Okay."

…

The news of opening the sea soon spread throughout the capital through official bulletins.

Many merchants are ready to make a move.

Anyone who knows something about it would be interested in overseas trade.

An old man in his fifties, after listening to the storyteller's description of the incident in the court newspaper, could not help but stand up and say, "Your Majesty really issued such an order."

As soon as the words were spoken, the other guests expressed their dissatisfaction.

After all, everyone is listening attentively. Wouldn't it ruin the mood if you interrupt them like this?

When the old man saw this, he realized that he had been rude and quickly bowed to apologize.

After that, he did not listen to the storyteller's story and went straight back to his mansion.

The old man was originally from the Jiangnan area and was considered a wealthy man.

They were forcibly relocated to the capital by the current emperor.

Before this, he had been out to sea on a ship.

We all know very well how valuable maritime trade is.

Now, when I heard the news of the opening of the sea, I immediately became interested.

"Send me today's newspaper as soon as possible."

The old man instructed his servants.

Then I went to the study and read carefully some introductions about opening the sea.

One advantage of the Imperial Palace Gazette is that when the court makes some decisions, there will be relatively detailed introductions.

The old man looked at it, and his eyes became brighter.

He smelled a business opportunity, and it was very strong.

He wants to be one of the first to try something new.

He used to be an ordinary beggar, and it was by relying on his keen sense of smell that he earned his current fortune.

Many wealthy people who were forced to relocate here did not live as comfortably as he does now.

After thinking carefully in my mind, I felt my body.

“I can still do this for at least another ten years.”

The old man was very satisfied.

Then he called the housekeeper and asked him to gather all those good-for-nothing sons.

Starting a business is no small matter, you need to have enough capital.

The old man was ready to take out all the silver buried in the cellar and gamble on this one.

However, the younger son was a little impatient: "Father, there is really no need to take such a big risk. We can live well now. If we go on this journey, everything is unknown. If something goes wrong, we will lose everything."

Hearing this, the other brothers also responded.

Everyone is used to the comfortable life in the capital, and of course they don't want to make a living at sea.

"You, rebellious sons!"

The old man cursed: "We only have those two shops in our family. When I die, how are you three going to divide them?"

"I was a bit hesitant about this wasteful thing that just ate up all the money I had, but now it seems that I have to go on this trip."

"If you don't want to go, that's fine too. I'll give you some money and you can fend for yourself."

After hearing this, the three sons dared not say anything more.

The old man snorted coldly: "You have to go whether you want to or not."

"I took you guys out to sea a few times, which helped you gain some skills. Even if you were left with nothing, you could still be a general officer for others, or at worst a financial attaché."

"At least I can have a full meal and not starve to death."

The old man was not satisfied with any of his three sons.

I can't study, and I don't know how to do business.

The old man was worried and wanted to give them a good training.

Now that the sea has been opened, there is an opportunity.

It’s a pity that none of the three sons, even the chief official and the treasurer, knew what it meant.

The so-called chief officer is in charge of all affairs of the ship.

The so-called financial officer is the one who is in charge of the sale of goods and daily account calculations.

If you have experience working overseas, it is easy to get started in these two positions, and it is a skill.

The old man's situation is certainly not an isolated case.

Any businessman who has been involved in maritime trade is generally aware of the huge profits involved.

However, there are also some requirements for going out to sea, at least guards are required.

When passing through some small countries, killing and looting are commonplace.

Just like that, warriors suddenly became respected.

…

After destroying the Japanese fleet, the Ming army easily landed on Kyushu Island.

Although it is said that there are 500,000 troops, strictly speaking, there are of course not that many.

As for the number of soldiers capable of fighting, there are probably close to 300,000 or so, which is already the limit.

The remaining more than 100,000 are almost all logistics personnel.

In a long-distance campaign like this, logistics is a very critical point if the war is not supported by fighting.

It's basically the same on Yao Guangxiao's side.

But even so, this was an extremely huge pressure for the Japanese troops on Kyushu Island.

In front of the great fire and artillery.

Japan's low city defenses are not worth a whole.

After a bombardment, they will soon break through and then rush in.

There is no need for too many tactics or strategies.

The gap between the two sides is naturally not on the same level.

However, due to their familiarity with the terrain, the Japanese warriors still have a certain degree of defensive power.

If the city cannot stop us, we can only fight a wild battle.

The personal qualities of the Japanese warriors were still very high, which caused a lot of trouble to the Ming army's anti-Japanese army.

This is especially true on difficult mountain roads.

Judging from the overall situation, Japan is losing ground and there is almost no hope of victory.

The two sides are completely not on the same level in terms of personnel quality or armaments.

For the current Japan, it is currently in the early stages of the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties War.

In history, it is called the Muromachi period.

The name comes from Muromachi, the shogunate's headquarters in Kyoto.

The population of Japan during this period was not too large and it did not experience the stable development of the Edo period.

There is no statistics on the population of Japan, but according to the territory and historical statistics, this era is also called the Warring States Period, and the total population exceeded seven million.

A large number of Japanese cities were quickly occupied, but these Japanese people knew that they could not resist the Ming army head-on, so they fled one after another.

Although the advance was smooth, the casualties among Japanese soldiers were not great.

Obviously, Japan's current idea is to drag it out.

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Goryeo side, they all belong to the concept of expeditionary force.

Including Feng Sheng, no one would just lead his soldiers to charge forward recklessly.

The key is to take each step carefully.

After conquering the coast of Kyushu Island, Feng Sheng immediately ordered the occupation of the surrounding Japanese cities and began to annex them.

"Those Japanese really annoy me to death."

"General, should we fight or not? When should we fight? How should we fight? Please tell me."

"If we remain in this stalemate, and their troops from other places come over, our situation won't be as easy as it is now."

Zhu Yu said directly.

He is in a somewhat impatient mood now.

Because it was too easy to attack Japan. Those Japanese were as easy to deal with as chopping melons and vegetables. There was no way we could stop them.

After winning a few times, Zhu Yu began to feel a little proud.

Are you still clamoring to lead your troops to attack Huanglong?

Feng Sheng listened to the urging, but did not rush to answer. Instead, after thinking for a while, he said:

"Your Highness, I understand what you mean, but first we need to think clearly about one key point. That is, what if the army encounters some disadvantages when it goes there?"

"Our army has come all the way from Ming Dynasty, and we don't know anything about the terrain of Japan."

"If we encounter an ambush by natural dangers, even if we win, it will be a tragic victory, and countless soldiers will die."

"We are waiting here, and there is no replacement. If a soldier dies in battle, there will not be someone to replace him like in the Ming Dynasty."

"Your Highnesses, don't you think that if we want to build a vassal state, there will be a long time to go. It can't be decided in one or two days."

"So since we have already captured more than ten cities, we cannot let our guard down and must advance step by step with caution."

Feng Sheng's words calmed down Zhu Yu, who was the most noisy one.

The situation is unclear now. If there are major losses, then this expedition will be a joke.

"Don't worry, Your Highnesses. We will first take control of this place, and then slowly nibble away at it. This is the most stable way."

Feng Sheng looked at the princes who were all in deep thought, and spoke again.

In fact, for Feng Sheng, he really hopes that this battle will last as long as possible.