Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Chinese Maritime Merchants in the Sixteenth Century

When the writer Li Ao gave a speech at Peking University in 2005, he once had a thought-provoking famous saying: For 5,000 years, we always thought that the enemy came from the grassland. Judging from the content of his speech, the object of this sentence is the Opium War and China after that, but the Ming Dynasty may also have a deep understanding of this sentence.Since the founding of the People's Republic, the main strategic defense focus of the Ming Dynasty was the Mongolian tribes in the north. The Great Wall had been built since Zhu Yuanzhang, and the "nine sides" were set up in the north, hoarding millions of soldiers. By the time of Zhu Di, the capital was moved to Beijing to strengthen the defense of the north.The threat from the sea, from the end of Yuan Dynasty to the beginning of Ming Dynasty, was the continuous harassment of Japanese pirates, and they were suppressed repeatedly.However, in the middle and early Ming Dynasty, it was mostly small troubles.Since Emperor Jiajing Zhu Houcong ascended the throne in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates have become a major problem that plagued the entire Ming Empire. From Shandong to Zhejiang and then to Guangdong and Fujian, Japanese pirates have ravaged the southeast coast of China for 20 years. During this period, Portuguese colonists and Spanish colonists successively Invasion, countless people in the southeast coast were slaughtered.The enemy at sea has gradually become a serious problem for China's border defense.

When reviewing various historical materials about "sea trouble" in the mid-Ming Dynasty, we were surprised to find the following new terms.One is "treacherous people", which mostly appear in various records about the invasion of Portuguese colonists. It is said that the Portuguese colonists used coastal "treacherous people" as guides, and then invaded the southeastern coast of China. At first, there were only a few people, and later there were "treacherous people" People's minds are confused, and the common people become traitors one after another".The second is "real Japanese" and "fake Japanese". The real Japanese are easy to understand, and most of them are pirate Japanese pirates from Japan, while the fake Japanese are mixed. Chinese.Even for quite a long period of time, the number and scale of harassment by "fake Japanese" was far greater than that of "real Japanese".Such a spectacle is indeed rare in previous history.Regardless of "treacherous people" or "fake Japanese", they all reflect another new term: the Chinese maritime merchants on the southeast coast of China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

For more than a century after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, "maritime merchants" was actually an illegal word. Since the Warring States period, there have been merchant groups in the eastern coast of China who made a living by overseas trade. By the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, maritime merchants in China's coastal areas had gradually become large-scale, and even reached their peak.For example, the large-scale immigration of border residents along the southeast coast of China to Southeast Asia began in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.During the Song and Yuan dynasties, China's overseas trade reached its peak, and the eastern ports of Quanzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou were all international trade ports.During the vigorous peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and others who revolted in the southeast coast were closely related to the already strong maritime merchants in the southeast coast.For example, many generals under Zhang Shicheng's command were from maritime merchant families. Although Fang Guozhen was from a salt merchant family, he rebelled against the Yuan by uniting with maritime merchants and "gathering at sea". "Yuan Shi" said that when the peasants revolted at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in the southeast, it said that "the sea bandits in the southeast are everywhere, and they are chaotic", which is the truth.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a farmer, started from fighting for the world and finally unified the country. He adopted a strategy of severely cracking down on maritime merchants.After the Ming Dynasty ruled the world, Zhu Yuanzhang first severely suppressed the rich in the south of the Yangtze River, especially those with maritime business backgrounds. Not only did they impose heavy taxes, but they also forced many families to move north to the northern border areas for reclamation.Here is one person to mention, namely Shen Wansan, a well-known rich man in the south of the Yangtze River.It is said that he has a "cornucopia". In fact, his way of making a fortune is very simple. He is based in Zhouzhuang, uses the canal to facilitate the purchase of inland goods, and resells them to foreign businessmen at high prices. Fang Guozhen, Zhang Shicheng and others are all his "trading partners". "Wu County County Chronicles" said that his fortune was "rich in the world, and he got it from the pass".After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Wansan took the initiative to "show his loyalty", not only donating property to Zhu Yuanzhang, repairing the Nanjing City Wall for Zhu Yuanzhang, but also donating money to reward the army.However, these actions of his made Zhu Yuanzhang furious. In the sixth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1373), Zhu Yuanzhang condemned Shen Wansan, exiled him to Yunnan, and confiscated his family property. Seven years later, Shen Wansan died in Yunnan (also known as Guizhou).The matter was not over yet. In the nineteenth year of Hongwu (AD 1386), Shen Wansan's second sons, Shen Zhi and Shen Zhuang, were convicted and imprisoned again, and the Shen family was ransacked again.Even in the 31st year of Hongwu (1398 A.D.), when Zhu Yuanzhang was about to die, Zhu Yuanzhang imprisoned Shen Wansan's family again on the basis of the Lanyu case, and Shen Wansan's great-grandson was executed by Ling Chi.After several times of rectification, the family that was so wealthy in the late Yuan Dynasty finally withered and fell.

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang punished Shen Wansan was that he coveted the huge wealth of the Shen family, and others said that it was because Shen Wansan rewarded the army, which violated Zhu Yuanzhang's taboo.However, a fact that cannot be ignored is: since the Ming Dynasty ruled the world, the remnants of the former Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and other ministries have occupied the coastal islands and often waited for opportunities to harass the mainland.In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the simplest and most brutal method. On the one hand, he stationed 500,000 troops on the southeast coast, set up thousands of guards, and strengthened coastal defenses.Shen Wansan became Zhu Yuanzhang's prop for "killing chickens to warn monkeys".At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang strictly closed the country, and in the year following Shen Wansan's conviction, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the three municipal bureaus in Quanzhou, Mingzhou, and Guangzhou that had been established since the Tang Dynasty.The law of the Ming Dynasty further stipulates that anyone who builds ships without authorization and trades with foreigners will be executed and his family members will be exiled to the border. Under the "Strike Hard", China's southeast overseas trade, which has become increasingly prosperous since the Tang and Song Dynasties, was almost banned for 30 years.

The loosening of the "Sea Forbidden" mouth began after the Ming Dynasty's "Battle of Jingnan" ended and the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di came to the throne in the second year.In the first year of Yongle (1403 A.D.), Yongle Emperor Zhu Di reopened the city shipping department in Mingzhou, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou, especially the Guangzhou city shipping department, which was supervised by eunuchs soon after.Zhu Di made this move, on the one hand, to prepare for the upcoming "Zheng He's voyages to the West", and on the other hand, to strengthen the management of the official "tributary trade".The biggest difference between the Ming Dynasty's sea ban and the Qing Dynasty is that the Ming Dynasty did not "close the country", but firmly grasped the right to overseas trade in the hands of the government, and the government conducted official trade.But this kind of official trade is basically "spending money to buy face", and often the money for ginseng is exchanged for foreigners' radishes to reflect the "wealth" of the Ming Dynasty.Two gaps in the sea ban also emerged at this time - private goods and mutual market.

The so-called "private goods" refer to foreign missions who come to pay tribute. In addition to carrying goods for tribute trade, they often carry a lot of private goods for private trade.The way of trade is to carry out "mutual market" with local merchants under the supervision of the Shipbuilding Department.This situation happened in the first year of Yongle. The envoys of the Boni Kingdom "traded" with local merchants and people in Nanjing. The Department of Shipping asked Zhu Di whether to collect taxes, and Zhu Di generously said that they would be exempt from taxes.For a long time after this, it has become a practice to levy less or even no tax on the "mutual market".As a result, when a large number of foreign missions "pay tribute", they all scramble to carry private goods, and the private "mutual market" is more lively than the official tribute trade.After being suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang's era, Chinese maritime merchants have slowly recovered in this way.

In the Xuande and Zhengtong years in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the situation continued to change. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was peaceful for a long time, the economy in the southeast coast was developing rapidly, and commercial smuggling activities that broke the official monopoly of the Ming Dynasty became increasingly rampant.The Ming Dynasty cracked down on smuggling many times. For example, in August of the eighth year of Xuande (AD 1433), it strictly ordered all provinces to ban smuggling.In the third year of Jingtai (1452 A.D.), rectification was carried out in Fujian, and private trade between coastal residents and overseas merchants was strictly prohibited.However, new maritime merchant forces still developed. For example, in Fujian, "Xiangji" specialized in trading smuggled goods appeared, forming a set of underground networks, and evolved into the vigorous Deng Mao Seven Uprisings during the orthodox years.Although the uprising was suppressed by the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had just undergone the "Civil Fortress Change" at that time, and the country's vitality was seriously damaged, so it "coerced and ignored" the many smuggling forces involved in the rebellion.Gu Yanwu's supervisor said that "there will be more and more people who have fornicated fans".

What the Ming Dynasty didn’t know was that in the nearly 100 years from Zhu Di’s re-opening of the Shibo Department to the end of the 15th century, Central Asian countries were in chaos, the land Silk Road was not as good as it used to be, and the prices of Chinese silk, tea, and porcelain in European countries skyrocketed , and the "Malacca route" for transshipment of goods from the East was being controlled by countries in West Asia and Southeast Asia during this period. The Chinese goods they obtained through "tributary trade" were sold to Western countries at high prices for huge profits. After the "Rule of Renxuan", the Ming Dynasty could no longer bear the burden of "tributary trade".On the one hand, the management of the Shipbuilding Department was lax, and foreign tribute missions often violated the regulations and brought goods that exceeded the quota for trading. For the sake of "face", the Ming Dynasty basically accepted all orders. The more "tribute", the more the Ming Dynasty lost money.At the same time, land annexation was serious in the Ming Dynasty. Since the reign of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, the country's land tax revenue has dropped sharply year after year, and the tribute trade has become more and more inadequate.

In the fourth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1509), the Ming Dynasty had to make adjustments again, stipulating that all foreign goods traded in China, as long as all "private goods" were taxed at a rate of 20%.From then on, the Department of Shipbuilding, which was originally in charge of supervising private goods trade, shifted more of its responsibilities to taxation.The "private goods exchange" that was originally supervised by the Department of Shipbuilding was changed to be completed by the Department of Shipbuilding in the local organization of "tooth shops".The so-called "Yaxing" means that the Shibo Department came forward and appointed local people to organize the market and manage the "private goods exchange market". merchant.This was the reign of Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. First Liu Jin was in chaos, and then Liu Liu and Liu Qi rebelled.After this reform, the income of the Shipbuilding Department increased significantly. In the fifth year of Zhengde (1510 AD), the Guangdong Shipbuilding Department sent 300,000 taels of silver to the central government, which relieved the urgent need of the Ming Dynasty.But from then on, the authority of the Maritime Shipping Department gradually declined, and the maritime forces along the coast took advantage of the cover of the "Taiwan Bank", and smuggling activities became more and more rampant.

From the beginning of the 16th century to the early 16th century, the sea ban policy after the founding of the Ming Dynasty can be said to have changed a lot. The severity of the sea ban can be said to be tighter and looser at times, but the general trend is that it is getting looser and looser.At this time, the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty was developing, capitalism was in its infancy, and the power of maritime merchants in the southeast coast was increasing day by day. With the reform of "Yaxing" and other reforms, many transactions were increasingly legalized, and the authority of the Shipping Department was gradually reduced. The do-it-all, becomes more and more devolution.But at the same time, during the period from Yongle to Zhengde, the customs revenue of the shipping department in the Ming Dynasty rose in a straight line. The "spending money to buy face" in the early years has become an increasing tax amount at this time.The expansion of the authority of maritime merchants and the existence of the maritime ban policy have become the general trend.At this time, the addition of an external factor added a catalyst to this general trend-the Portuguese. At this time, it was the beginning of the 16th century, the "opening period of new sea routes" in the West. The Portuguese fleet expanded all the way, first defeated the Indian fleet that monopolized the Indian Ocean trade, and then occupied Malacca. The next target was China.The Portuguese visited China for the first time in the ninth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1514). The Portuguese fleet arrived at the Pearl River Estuary. They asked to trade with the Ming government because they could not produce the "contract" (trade license) of the Ming Dynasty's tribute trade. certificate), was rejected by the Ming government.However, the Portuguese discovered another group of people—local smugglers in Guangdong who took the initiative to trade with Portugal and act as guides for the Portuguese.Through the help of businessmen working in Guangdong's "Yahang", Portugal successfully bribed the eunuch guarding Guangdong, and obtained the opportunity to visit Zhu Houzhao in Beijing.Unexpectedly, the good times did not last long. Zhu Houzhao died of illness in the 16th year of Zhengde (AD 1521). Emperor Jiajing came to the throne and took a tough attitude towards Portugal. The Gulf twice thrashed the Portuguese fleet.Seeing that the business with the Ming government was useless, Portugal began to collude with maritime merchants along the coast.These maritime merchants who have been engaged in smuggling trade on the southeast coast all year round are familiar with the local area and have been suppressed by the Ming government. Naturally, they are willing to cooperate with Portugal to make a fortune.Since then, the Portuguese, Japanese pirates, and Southeast maritime merchants have co-operated and harassed the southeast coast repeatedly. This is the "Japanese plague" that began during the reign of Emperor Jiajing. People today talk about the magnificent battle against the Japanese, but some things that are rarely mentioned will surprise future generations: the coastal maritime merchants colluding with the Portuguese and the Japanese pirates are of course notorious local "smugglers" crime", but the people along the coast also participated in it.For example, the famous "Battle of Hengyu Island" in the 26th year of Jiajing (AD 1547) was the joint occupation of Hengyu Island in Zhejiang by the Portuguese, Japanese pirates, and Li Guangtou, a maritime merchant, and built the place into an "international trade port". ".Japanese historian Toyohachi Fujita once praised this place as "Shanghai in the sixteenth century".The trade on the island is prosperous, and business travelers gather here. Not only businessmen from various countries flock here, but also merchants from the surrounding area.There are not only markets on the island, but also Baldy Li's "yamen", Portuguese churches and hospitals, like a country within a country.In the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing (AD 1547), Zhu Wan, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Ming Dynasty, mobilized a large army and launched a strong attack to break through Shuangyu Island in one fell swoop.After going to the island, he was surprised to find that the 40-mile-long main road on the island was not even a blade of grass.Zhu Wan couldn't help sighing: "There are so many business travelers, this shows it." After the battle of Shuangyu Island, a large number of "pirates" fled to Fujian.Zhu Wan hit the iron while the iron was hot and chased after it quickly. He hit the "pirates" in Wuyu and Zoumaxi, Fujian successively, and severely cracked down on smuggling. interest. But something embarrassing happened. Zhu Wan, who had made great military exploits, was impeached immediately. Many censors accused Zhu Wan of "killing innocent people indiscriminately and neglecting human lives".Under the raging public opinion, Emperor Jiajing had no choice but to dismiss Zhu Wan from his official position.Unable to bear this anger, Zhu Wan sighed angrily, "Going to a foreign country to steal what is easy, but going to China to steal what is difficult", took poison and committed suicide. Zhu Wan's injustice is mostly attributed to "fraud by treacherous ministers" and "fraud by profiteers" by later generations, but a fact is that not only the powerful and powerful households in Fujian who colluded with "pirates", even ordinary people, there are also people who Sue Zhu Wan.The local coastal people have been involved in the smuggling trade for many years, and many of them make a living from it.Adhering to the imperial decree of Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Wan strictly enforced the sea ban and cracked down on smuggling after he took office. He thought he was "making decisions for the people", but he had no intention of cutting off the way for most people to survive.At that time, smuggling had been rampant in Fujian for many years. The local gentry, dignitaries and even ordinary people participated in it. Even the Fujianese officials in the capital also profited from it.Rampant maritime merchants and chaos along the coast are actually the bitter fruit of the Ming Dynasty's more than 100 years of maritime prohibition. Before the opening of the maritime ban in the Ming Dynasty, there were three well-known maritime merchants who ruled the southeast coast: Wang Zhi, Xu Hai, and Wu Ping. In many history books, these three "pirates" are all called "traitors" without exception, because they are inextricably linked with the Japanese pirates who ravaged the coast of China at this time.The three people have different identities in the maritime business and different goals in life, but they end up in the same end by different routes - being suppressed by the Ming Dynasty. To talk about the difference between the three sea merchants, perhaps it can be said: one is very ideal, one is somewhat ideal, and the other is not ideal at all. Very ideal, it is Wang Zhi.He is a native of Jielin County, Huizhou. He was originally from a merchant family. He first engaged in smuggling in his hometown when he was an adult. In the 19th year of Jiajing (1540 A.D.), he fled to Guangdong, built a large ship with all his money, and then secretly went to sea, evading the patrol of the warships of the Ming Dynasty, and then "let go of the golden lock and walk away from the dragon".They first joined the smuggling gang of maritime merchant Xu Dong. After Xu Dong was shot dead by the Ming army on Shuangyu Island, his subordinates almost scattered. At the critical moment, Wang Zhi stepped forward and led the remnants out of the Ming army's encirclement.In the next few years, Wang Zhi occupied the islands along the southeast coast, fought a guerrilla war against the Ming Dynasty, and made a splash in foreign trade. The merchant forces were also wiped out one by one by him.Not only was he good at fighting, Wang Zhi was also very good at giving away. Many officials and military leaders along the coast of the Ming Dynasty had taken advantage of him and colluded with him.After several years of painstaking efforts, Wang Zhi became the "leader" of Chinese maritime merchants on the southeast coast. Maritime merchant ships along the coast must fly Wang Zhi's "Five Peaks" command flag in order to pass safely on the sea.Wang Zhi, who became the boss, also has a famous name: the old ship owner. When people talk about the history of Wang Zhi's fortune today, they all say that he colluded with Japanese pirates and caused chaos in the southeast.In fact, although Wang Zhi has been traveling between China and Japan, it was not until his fifth year as a pirate (AD 1544) that he brought three Japanese pirates to rob together. The previous "buying and selling" was basically his The team went it alone.After becoming the "boss", Wang Zhi stopped fighting guerrillas. Instead, he generously established his own territory in Nagasaki, Japan, and named it "Song Kingdom". "The most powerful one.Most people today call Wang Zhi a "traitor" on the grounds that there are many Japanese pirates under Wang Zhi's command. In fact, the so-called Japanese pirates are all cannon fodder for "Old Captain Wang" to fight.By the way, Wang Zhi, who was entrenched in Nagasaki, introduced the Portuguese who had been doing business with him to the local vassal in Nagasaki, Minamoto Yoshinaga. The Portuguese have since gained the right to do business and preach in Japan. Western technology, especially military Technology began to be introduced into Japan in large numbers.Later Oda Nobunaga actively learned gun technology from Portugal and eventually unified Japan.It is no exaggeration to say that this move has changed the history of Japan. But Wang Zhi's ideal is not to change Japanese history, but to change Chinese history.When he was smuggling in Anhui, his ideal was to go to sea; after going out to sea, his ideal was to be the boss; after becoming the boss, his ideal was to be an "old ship owner".Step by step, relying on his gambler character, he has achieved it all, but in his heart, there is still an ultimate ideal: to abolish the maritime ban and legalize overseas trade. In the 33rd year of Jiajing (1554 A.D.), Hu Zongxian became the governor of Zhejiang Zhizhi, which gave Wang Zhi the dawn of a gamble. Not long after Hu Zongxian took office, Wang Zhi gave him a blow.Starting from April, he captured Taicang first, then Suzhou, and then conquered Qingpu, Jiading, and Zhabei. He took a self-driving tour in the most affluent Jiangnan area of ​​the Ming Dynasty. He killed countless people and looted all his belongings. , The army of the Ming Dynasty could not resist at all.Under the military power, Hu Zongxian was very knowledgeable and began to seek a "peaceful solution". He first sent an envoy Jiangzhou to Japan and reached an agreement with the Nagasaki prince Minamoto Yoshitomo. Intrusion, this is tantamount to giving Wang Zhi a peace signal.Wang Zhi immediately expressed to Hu Zongxian that he hoped that the two sides would hold peace talks.After several exchanges between the two sides, Wang Zhi proposed to lift the sea ban and open the mutual market, saying that if so, he would not only stop the intrusion, but also help the Ming Dynasty to eliminate other pirate forces that caused troubles.It is not Hu Zongxian's decision to lift the sea ban, but the opening of the mutual market can be discussed.In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (AD 1557), Wang Zhi led a team to Zhejiang. After receiving Hu Zongxian's guarantee of personal safety, Wang Zhi went ashore with confidence, went to Hangzhou to have an interview with Hu Zongxian, and asked Hu Zongxian to transfer to the Ming Dynasty again, requesting Open the market. However, things changed at this time. Regarding the opening of the mutual market, Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houcong had an ambiguous attitude at first, but when he heard that Wang Zhi had landed in Hu Zongxian's camp, the "opposition" in the court suddenly became confident.First, the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty clearly rejected the request for "mutual market", and then the censor Wang Bengu actually designed to trap Wang Zhi in Hangzhou.Hu Zongxian originally wanted to recruit Wang Zhi to deal with the Japanese pirates, but he didn't expect it to backfire, but before he got angry, Wang Bengu impeached him confidently, and he firmly suspected Hu Zongxian's "passing the Japanese".The "angry youths" in the imperial court also criticized and criticized repeatedly. Under heavy pressure, in order to protect himself, Hu Zongxian could only keep his mouth shut and stopped defending Wang Zhi.Even in prison, Wang Zhi still did not give up his original intention, and made repeated memorials to the court. First, he promised that he would be able to perform crimes and make meritorious deeds against Japanese pirates. He even admitted that if the mutual market was opened, the Ming Dynasty could gain huge profits through foreign trade.However infatuated, the Ming Dynasty has always turned a deaf ear to it.On December 15th in the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing (AD 1558), Wang Zhi was beheaded in Hangzhou. He had a last word on his deathbed: "If I die alone, the people of Zhejiang and Zhejiang will suffer." After being punished, his subordinates, under the leadership of his adopted son Mao Haifeng, occupied Cengang, Zhejiang Province, and fought against the Ming army. The Ming Dynasty mobilized two famous anti-Japanese generals, Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, and fought hard for 8 months before conquering it.What surprised the Ming Dynasty even more was that the "Japanese plague" along the coast was exacerbated by the death of Wang Zhi, and the leaderless pirates launched a large-scale invasion of the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty.When Wang Zhi was alive, the pirates invaded with only a few thousand people. After Wang Zhi's death, almost every time they invaded, it was a large-scale invasion of tens of thousands of people, which was far more tragic than before. Compared with the idealistic Wang Zhilai, Xu Hai, who is also regarded as a "traitor", is a somewhat idealistic person. Compared to Wang Zhi who took the initiative to gamble and went bankrupt and became a pirate.Xu Hai, who is also a hero, did this job completely because his uncle dragged him into the bandit boat. He was originally a monk in a Hangzhou temple. His Dharma name was Pu Jing.One day, his uncle came to him and coaxed him to go out to sea to do business and make a fortune. Only when Xu Hai got on the ship did he realize that he was a pirate.Coincidentally, Xu Hai's uncle is exactly Xu Qianxue, an old brother who sailed with Wang Zhi back then, and Xu Hai became one of Wang Zhi's servants in this way.Xu Qianxue wanted to get rid of Wang Zhi to stand on his own, and kicked Wang Zhi away to cooperate with the Japanese pirates alone, but was accidentally killed in a battle.Xu Hai, who lost his loved one, joined the ranks of Japanese pirates in this way. After boarding the boat, Xu Hai discovered after countless battles that his greatest skill, after half his life of eating vegetarian food and reciting Buddha's name, was actually fighting sea battles. Xu Hai is good at naval warfare, and he is almost self-taught. He not only created an original naval warfare formation, but also commanded it well.At that time, the main battleship of the navy of the Ming Dynasty was the "Dafu Ship", and its tonnage and artillery were superior to those of the pirate ships of the Japanese pirates. Therefore, once they encountered the fleet of the Ming Dynasty at sea, most of the Japanese pirates were "good guys don't suffer from immediate losses", and fired a few shots immediately. slip.Xu Hai didn't slip away. He created the "close combat method" originally, taking advantage of the speed and flexibility of the Japanese ship, taking advantage of the advantages of iron cannons and small cannons to bombard the Ming army. Hai's status among the Japanese pirates rose, and he soon had his own armed force.His role is similar to those traitors who led the devils to sweep up in the Anti-Japanese War movies, that is, they acted as guides for Japanese pirates, harassed the coast of China, and then sat on the ground to share the bill.Because of his strong fighting power, most of the Ming army dared not fight. Many Ming navy sailors ran for their lives when they saw the "Xu" battle flag.At that time, among the naval forces of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Dayou was the only naval general who could fight against Xu Hai. If it is said that Hu Zongxian still has the heart to recruit peace for Wang Zhi, then for Xu Hai, Hu Zongxian has made up his mind from the very beginning: eliminate evil and do everything.But Xu Hai is too evil, the strength of the Ming army can't "eliminate" him at all.Therefore, while contacting Wang Zhi directly, Hu Zongxian pretended to win over Xu Hai, sent envoys to contact him repeatedly, and showed Xu Hai the letters between Wang Zhi and Hu Zongxian.After learning that Wang Zhi also wanted to surrender, Xu Haisheng became very upset. He himself was "wasted by the Japanese pirates" and took his beloved concubine Wang Cuiqiao away from him. wind.Xu Hai also knew very well that fleeing to the sea was not a long-term solution, and he always had to find a way out for the future, so he frequently communicated with Hu Zongxian's envoys.But Xu Hai didn't know that his confidant Wang Ao was instigated by Hu Zongxian after several missions and became the internal response of the Ming Dynasty.The catastrophe of extinction came gradually. In the first month of the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing (AD 1556), Xu Hai, tempted to test the attitude of the Ming Dynasty, launched a tentative attack on the coast of Zhejiang. Xu Haijun plundered Guazhou and Cixi, and the Ming Dynasty was defeated.Hu Zongxian resolutely judged Xu Hai's intentions, mobilized heavy troops to confront Xu Hai, and sent an envoy Xia Zheng to reprimand Xu Hai.Xu Hai tentatively proposed that Hu Zongxian should "reward" his subordinates, and Hu Zongxian sent 50,000 taels of silver with a big wave of his hand, along with good wine and meat.Xu Hai made another tentative attack. On the Qingpu River, Yu Dayou's troops fought bloody and killed Xu Hai.With the combination of grace and power, Xu Hai finally gave in. The undercover Wang Ao deliberately let Xu Hai know that Xu Hai's accomplices, Chen Dong and Ma Ye, were also planning to surrender.After several weighings, Xu Hai gradually became more determined, and took the initiative to retreat from the coast of Zhejiang, and released more than 200 prisoners of the Ming Dynasty captured earlier.Just when Xu Hai was lax, Hu Zongxian suddenly launched an attack and sent Yu Dayou to attack Xu Hai's lair Zhapu Island by surprise, taking away Xu Hai's lair in one fell swoop. Xu Hai's accumulated property from robbery for many years was looted, and many relatives of his subordinates also fell into the Ming army. hand.As a result, Xu Hai, who had been "begged to surrender" by Hu Zongxian before, had to surrender now. Hu Zongxian's few tricks completely subdued Xu Hai, and then Xu Hai bowed his head and expressed his willingness to surrender sincerely.Hu Zongxian struck while the iron was hot and asked Xu Hai to lead his troops to eliminate his old partners Chen Dong and Ma Ye as a "certificate of surrender" for surrender.Being under the eaves, Xu Hai had no choice but to bow his head, and then Xu Hai once again displayed his "genius in water warfare" to eliminate two accomplices, Chen Dong and Ma Ye, in succession, and tied them up and sent them to Hu Zongxian.As a result, Xu Hai, who had been rampant in the southeast for the first time, was finally betrayed by all the pirates.As a result, Hu Zongxian immediately sent a message to Xu Hai to allow him to surrender.Xu Hai immediately brought tens of thousands of troops to Hangzhou. Outside Hangzhou, Xu Hai's banners were unfurling, and his army was so powerful that all officials of the Ming Dynasty were frightened.Hu Zongxian was not afraid, and acted like a governor to restrain Xu Hai.Then Xu Hai's subordinates were disarmed and placed in Shenzhuang on the edge of Hangzhou City. At this time, Xu Hai was looking forward to the dream of "peaceful life". I would like to have a free job so that the whole family can live in peace." He didn't know that a disaster was about to strike. That night, Hu Zongxian mobilized the most elite Yu Dayou troops to launch a surprise attack on Xu Hai's surrendered troops.The Ming army suddenly arrived, and the unprepared Xu Hai tribe was immediately defeated. After a night of killing, tens of thousands of Xu Hai tribes were annihilated.This second largest "sea bandit" force in the southeast after Wang Zhi was completely destroyed in Hu Zongxian's step-by-step calculations. Wang Zhi, who took the initiative to be a Japanese pirate, and Xu Hai, who was "taken by a Japanese pirate", are still household names.However, compared to these two idealistic maritime merchants, there is a third maritime merchant force in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty at this time. Although this person without ideals is not well-known today, he was also a headache for the Ming Dynasty at that time—Wu Ping . Wang Zhi became a monk halfway to become a pirate, and Xu Hai was "pirated". In contrast, Wu Ping's qualifications are much older, and his family has been pirates for generations. Wu Ping, a native of Meiling, Shaoan, Fujian, has been a hard-hit area for smuggling since the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty. Wu Ping's grandfather and father were both wanted by the local government in the Ming Dynasty.During the Battle of Hengyu Island, he was just a small leader who charged with Baldy Li. In a battle of Hengyu Island, most of the influential pirate leaders in the Fujian and Zhejiang regions were hunted down by the Ming army. stand out.He first became the nephew and son-in-law of the great pirate Lin Guoxian, and with the help of Lin Guoxian, he formed his own gang.Then he ran to the southeast with his gang. When Wang Zhi was arrogant, he followed, and when Xu Hai was arrogant, he also followed. After Wang Zhi and Xu Hai were executed one after another, Wu Ping recruited many of their subordinates. , his strength suddenly swelled, and he became the most powerful Chinese businessman on the southeast coast, and took over the "cooperative relationship" with Japan after Wang Zhi's death.Beginning in the 40th year of Jiajing (AD 1561), Wu Ping invaded and invaded the Fujian area, successively conquering important coastal towns such as Xinghua, Zoumaxi, and Wuyu, killing and plundering countless civilians.In the Ming Dynasty, the hardest-hit area of ​​the Japanese invasion also shifted from Zhejiang to Fujian and Guangdong. One could say that Wu Ping's fortune was all due to the "foreign fishing" of Wang Zhi and Xu Hai, but that's not necessarily the case. Like Xu Hai, Wu Ping is also a master of naval warfare, and even the Portuguese fleet with strong ships and guns was robbed by him. However, people gave it the nickname "Long Hai Long Whale".He is more courageous than the gambler Wang Zhi. He not only cooperates with Japanese pirates, but also has an "internationalist spirit" in robbery. He not only plunders Fujian and Guangdong, but also often invades neighboring countries such as North Korea, Vietnam, and Java. His subordinates There are also Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Vietnamese, which can be called "international pirate gangs."His stronghold is today's Nan'ao Island at the junction of Guangdong and Fujian. This place is difficult to defend and easy to attack.At this time, Emperor Jiajing was eager to solve the problem of Japanese pirates, and even issued an imperial edict to reprimand the local magistrates.In order to seek political achievements, the Ming Dynasty came up with the "recruitment trick" (this time because they really wanted to recruit security). Wu Ping was cunning and agreed to the recruitment first, but he stuck to Nan'ao and kept asking for military pay from the Ming Dynasty Lions. Take a cold breath and go out to rob.In the forty-three years of Jiajing (AD 1564), Wu Ping "surrendered and rebelled", plundered Fujian and Guangdong areas, and once forced Fuzhou with troops. There are tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of giant warships.Regardless of Wang Zhi or Xu Hai back then, it was difficult to compare with him in terms of strength. In May of the forty-fourth year of Jiajing (AD 1565), after careful preparations, the Ming Dynasty sent heavy troops to encircle and suppress Wuping. This army was led by the famous general Wang Daokun as the governor, and included Yu Dayou's Yu Family Army, Qi Jiguang's Qi Family Army, and Sichuan Liu Xian's Sichuan Army. .The three most elite ace armies of the Ming Dynasty were all used to deal with Wu Ping, which can be said to have cost a lot of money.When the battle broke out in mid-May, Wu Ping shrunk his defenses and concentrated his warships at Meiling to prevent the Ming navy from advancing. He also dug trenches on the top of Nan'ao Mountain and stored rations for three years, intending to stick to it for a long time.Unexpectedly, Qi Jiguang dispatched a surprise army and personally led a death squad of thousands of people, entered from the mountain road and alley, and copied Wu Ping's back all at once.The Ming army immediately launched a general offensive, and Yu Dayou's navy made an assault with all its strength, and wiped out Wuping's navy in Meiling.Wu Ping, whose entire army was annihilated, was worthy of "the long whale in the sea", and he just drove his boat through the gap to escape under the artillery fire of the navy of the Ming Dynasty.Regrettably, because of this incident, Yu Dayou, who made the first contribution in this battle, was impeached by Governor Wang Daokun, and was actually dismissed and investigated. The following year, the Ming Dynasty, which has always been worried about it, decided to "hunt across borders". Tang Kekuan and Qi Jiguang jointly led the army to enter Vietnam to continue hunting down Wu Ping.The Ming army landed from Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, searched for Wu Ping's whereabouts separately, and finally surrounded Wu Ping at Wanqiao Mountain. After a fierce battle, 390 people from Wu Ping's department were wiped out, and Wu Ping died under the artillery fire of the Ming army.This small-scale battle is of great significance in the history of the Ming Dynasty: he was the last group of Japanese pirates wiped out by the Ming army. After this battle, there was no large-scale Japanese pirate invasion on the southeast coast of China. The Japanese pirate rebellion that lasted for centuries came to an end, but the sea ban issue did not end. In fact, for more than a century, the voices of the Ming Dynasty questioning the sea ban have never ceased. Ouyang De, a famous minister in the early days of Emperor Jiajing's accession to the throne, once said: using the sea ban to prevent pirates is like fighting fire with salary.After Emperor Jiajing came to the throne, he was always vacillating on the issue of "loose" or "strict" sea ban.Zhu Wan's angrily committed suicide, Wang Zhi's ambition was unfulfilled, and these are the root causes of the tragedy.With the changes in the political situation of the Ming Dynasty, more and more ministers of the "Yangming School of Mind" took charge of the country's major affairs. Many of the officials who were baptized by these "new ideas" had business backgrounds and held an open-minded attitude towards overseas trade.In the later years of Jiajing, Xu Jie was the chief assistant of the cabinet. He once asked to open the sea ban, but was opposed by many "clear people", and the matter was finally settled.But the opening of the sea ban is not far away. After the death of Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Longqing Zhu Zaihou came to the throne.In the first year of Longqing (AD 1567), the opening of the sea ban was put on the agenda again. At that time, Emperor Longqing took over the "mess" left to him by Emperor Jiajing, and the state treasury could only support one month of grain.Under the scarcity of funds, opening up the sea ban has naturally become an inevitable choice.In February of the first year of Longqing (AD 1567), Zhu Zaihou officially issued an edict to lift the sea ban that had been in place for nearly 200 years since Zhu Yuanzhang's time, allowing coastal merchants to trade with foreign merchants.This incident is the famous "Longqing switch" in history.From then on to the end of the Ming Dynasty for more than 70 years, according to the statistics of Western economists, one-third of the world's silver was imported into China, and the economy of China's southeast coast has flourished since then.The maritime merchants who were originally "illegal armed" finally obtained legal status.在大航海时代已然进行了近100年后，古老的明王朝，终于敞开大门，迎接世界。