Chapter 327 An Unnamed Wanyan Clan Member
Li Shimin also agreed with Li Jing's judgment.
Therefore, he was more cautious about this sea policy.
Is it to follow the old path to create a century of prosperity that will shine in China.
Or to reverse the national policy and lay out a thousand-year situation in advance.
This is not his own achievement, but it is related to the well-being of tens of millions of people, so he has to be cautious.
[Therefore, it can be said that it is the huge archipelago and rich products in the South China Sea that make Chinese ships inconvenient for ocean voyages.
Because they are basically sailing within the archipelago, and the coastal trade within the archipelago is basically complex and changeable nearshore winds.
The nearshore wind is complex and changeable, so Chinese ships are rushing all the way in the technology points of the longitudinal sail.
Coastal trade often needs to consider the problem of reefs, so the technology of watertight compartments has been improving.
The result is that the cross-sail suitable for monsoon ocean voyages has not invested too many technology points. After all, how can there be research without demand?
The problem of seagoing ships has become very complicated by the Ming Dynasty, and the most prominent problem is the sea ban.
The policy of maritime ban was not invented by the Ming Dynasty, but learned from the Yuan Dynasty, which in turn learned from the Song Dynasty.
The reason for lifting the maritime ban in the Song Dynasty was also very simple: it was all my money! I want to keep it all for myself!
In this regard, a certain Song Dynasty emperor Wanyan, who did not want to leave his name, summarized it very clearly:
"The profits from the maritime trade are the most generous, and the income is often in the millions. Isn't it better to take it from the people? The reason why I pay attention to this is that I can relieve the burden on the people."
Let's not talk about how much gold powder this sentence puts on his face, but it does have a very accurate understanding of the profits of marine trade.
The maritime ban in the Song Dynasty was not abolished until the reign of Emperor Shenzong. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong lifted the maritime ban again and it lasted until the fall of the country. The maritime ban lasted for a total of 252 years.
The Yuan Dynasty itself had a short life. Although it tried the official ship system of official ships rented by civilians, it soon failed. There were four maritime bans, adding up to 19 years.
The Ming Dynasty learned the lesson of the Song and Yuan Dynasties - because when the Southern Song Dynasty fell, the Semu people in Quanzhou surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty under the leadership of their leader Pu Shougeng and killed the royal family and officials of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This backhanded move really opened the eyes of the later emperors.
Because of the lessons of the previous dynasty, the rebellion of Zhang Shicheng's remnants in the early Ming Dynasty, and the invasion of Japanese pirates in the later period, the severity of the sea ban was gradually strengthened, and finally lasted for 197 years.
And the history of the entire southern part of the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years can be said in one sentence, the Ming Dynasty officials and the maritime merchant group did not urinate in the same pot on the issue of interests.
As a result, Emperor Yongle directly abandoned the maritime merchants and went it alone, from the upstream production source weaving bureau, ceramic town, tea garden, to the downstream Zheng He's door-to-door customized delivery of goods to the West, all in the hands of the emperor alone.
This attitude completely intensified the contradiction between the sea merchants and the government, leading to the Ming Dynasty civil servants group to directly implement the maritime ban, but the sea merchants did what they should do in the name of Japanese pirates to smuggle, which made the Ming Dynasty court completely embarrassed.
On the issue of the sea, the development of warships, the seizure of sea power, and the creation of marine divisions were all things that the sea merchants could not accomplish.
And on the issue of the sea, the Ming Dynasty also lacked the most important leg: mathematics was removed from the imperial examination, which led to its development almost stagnant.
This leg could have been supplemented through cultural exchanges on the sea trade route, but the sea was finally opened two hundred years later. Xu Guangqi started from scratch. Even if he worked hard to make up for the leg of the Ming Dynasty, it was too late.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty's sailors had also seen the galleons that came across the sea. From our current perspective, the galleons can be regarded as the pinnacle of ship design in the 16th century.
This advanced sea ship also brought a great shock to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty also imitated the galleons and absorbed their advantages to improve Chinese ships.
But its core idea is still to trade between the South China Sea islands, and there is no idea of ocean-going.
The iconic keel rib hull, soft sail, and oblique mast sail of the galleon can all be seen in the shipbuilding records of the Ming Dynasty.
After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty went a step further on the basis of the maritime ban and directly began to close the country.
In the end, during the Opium War, Britain relied on 28 galleons and less than 20,000 troops to defeat the Qing government, which had deployed 800,000 people.
Completely opened a chapter in modern history. 】
Seeing the structural diagram of the giant ship, Yan Lide dragged his brother and violently knocked away the Duke in front of him, then raised his head and grabbed a table.
A large piece of white paper was spread on the table. Yan Lide just exchanged glances with his brother, and the two of them copied on the white paper at the same time.
The structure of this galleon is huge and complex. Yan Lide knows that he can't plan it all by himself, but fortunately there is still a younger brother.
It was not the first time that the two brothers had worked together on a painting. They knew each other's strengths, so after sketching out a rough outline, they quickly looked up and down to add things to the picture.
The more they copied, the more Yan Lide felt that the Tang Dynasty's naval master still had a long way to go.
Unlike the horseshoe, which only required one glance to see the effect, and unlike the gunpowder, which only required three to five months of intensive research to achieve a breakthrough.
The composition of this galleon was really a copy. Why is it a narrow structure at the top and wide at the bottom? How to dispatch so many sails? How to control the oar-like things at the stern?
In particular, what does the inside of this ship look like? At this time, Yan Lide was a little crazy, and he wanted to get into the light curtain and grab the collar of the junior and roar:
There are already two pictures, what's wrong with you adding a picture of the inner structure?
But Yan Lide quickly calmed down during the copying process. If you calculate the time, this is a ship from a thousand years later. It is a blessing to be able to see it once. How can you ask for more?
And even if you only look at the appearance, it is at least possible to copy it. Unlike the "Dongfeng Express", from takeoff to patrol to explosion, there is no way to see the doorway.
Besides, this galleon does not necessarily need to be completely copied. As long as we can figure out why the shape of this ship is designed in this way, it will be of great benefit to the shipbuilding of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Shimin was very pleased to see the busy Yan brothers. My Tang has talented people. The craftsmanship can communicate with the gods, and the painting can convey the truth. They are not trivial.
The Yan brothers acted in a hurry, so some drawing papers were scattered on the ground at the original drawing table.
Li Shimin leaned over to pick it up and was about to put it neatly, when he saw the content on the drawing paper. An emperor was laughing on the couch.
The faces were lifelike, and the emotions of the characters were so vivid that if one ignored the fact that the face on the drawing resembled himself by 90%, Li Shimin would probably still appreciate it.
However...
Looking at the Yan brothers who wished they had an extra hand, Li Shimin calmly put the drawing paper into his sleeve and returned to the couch.
In front, Fang Xuanling was still discussing with Du Ruhui in a low voice:
"If we follow the saying of later generations...isn't the rebellion of the Semu people a hidden mine left by the Tang Dynasty for the Song Dynasty?"
Du Ruhui stroked his beard and whispered;
"In terms of the management of foreign races, the Tang Dynasty has no precedents from the previous dynasties, so there must be omissions."
"In this case, if we encounter problems that have not existed in the previous dynasties, we must be extremely cautious."
Fang Xuanling also added: "Government orders must also leave room for correction."
However, after Fang Xuanling finished his supplement, he was also quite moved by the evaluation of the Song Dynasty:
"The Song Dynasty paid a lot of reparations and turmoil, but it was able to continue the country for hundreds of years. Was it because of the huge profits from maritime trade?"
He wanted to say "quite profitable", but thinking about the fact that this trade was enough to support a country, this wealth can only be described as huge profits.
And then the maritime bans of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties were repeated and gradually became stricter, which was not too surprising to Fang and Du.
Since they knew about the Champa rice that matured in 50 days, the two recalled the chaos of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and they were sensitive to the fact that the financial gap between the north and the south would only get bigger and bigger.
After all, the north not only had to face the foreign barbarians, but also had to face the internal chaos of the Huaxia Dynasty. Every time, the Central Plains was almost destroyed.
The south had rice that matured every two months to enrich the granary, and there were sea merchants to replenish the financial resources. There was no enemy outside and no chaos inside.
The uneven amount, the different rich and poor, and the different customs of the people, how could there not be rifts?
The two looked at each other and sighed together.
Now the wider the horizon, the more worries there are.
Regarding the contradiction between the central government of the Ming Dynasty and the sea merchants, Li Shimin grinned:
"If the Ming Dynasty could have an invincible army on the sea, how dare the sea merchants say so much?"
The internal situation may be very complicated, but Li Shimin stood aside and felt that this problem was essentially the same as the principle of striking the powerful.
If you have strong soldiers and horses, then the people under your rule will be good citizens who pay taxes obediently.
If you have few soldiers and weak horses, then the people under your rule will be tyrants who do not obey discipline.
Wei Zheng looked at the battle record of the famous Qing in later generations and was a little confused:
"The sharpness of these ships is so sharp? 20,000 against 800,000?"
The generals present were not surprised. Li Shiqi explained:
"This 800,000-man army just sounds bluffing. Even if there are really 800,000 troops, they cannot be combined in one place."
"On the contrary, this British ship can attack Guangzhou today, enter Hedong tomorrow, and come to Quanzhou the day after tomorrow."
"It is unpredictable, taking advantage of the wind and sails to attack the tired, fleeing when encountering a strong, attacking when encountering a weak, attacking the Qing must defend, and then attacking them by surprise, how can they not win?"
Wei Zheng was silent.
…
In Chengdu government office, Zhang Fei was a little bit hard to imagine:
“Can this maritime trade route really be so prosperous?”
Kong Ming laughed:
“How could Yide forget how the Parthian Empire prospered?”
So Zhang Fei remembered:
“Control the Silk Road…”
Kong Ming nodded:
“The Silk Road can support a vast empire, so how difficult is it for the maritime trade route to support a country?”
And in his mind, Kong Ming could list several advantages of maritime trade.
For example, ships can carry more than horses and camels.
For example, traveling on the sea does not require being exploited like on the Silk Road in the Western Regions.
For example, if there is a favorable wind, the speed is much faster than traveling by land.
The only problem is that after the prosperity of maritime trade, there will inevitably be pirates, but if it is calculated as pure profit, it is still much faster than land.
For a while, Kong Ming sighed a little: How great would it be if Jiaozhou was all smooth?
In that case, after recovering Hanzhong, we will take Jiaozhou, and then build sea vessels to promote maritime trade. Wouldn’t the small Cao thief be easy to deal with?
Unlike now, it is hard to find a seaport.
His heart was full of sighs, but his hands never stopped.
While using charcoal pencils and rulers to draw the picture of the galleon on the light screen, he had time to ask Pang Tong and Liu Ba, who were not good at painting, to copy the picture in their minds and check for omissions in the drawing later.
He even had time to answer Liu Bei's question:
"Kong Ming, should this sea ban be implemented?"
The charcoal pencil in his hand spun around and drew an arc, and Kong Ming replied:
"What is the sea ban? The lord is confused at this time."
"Maritime merchants don't have the sharp tool of sextant. If they don't sail along the coast, they are in danger of getting lost. There are many key places where checkpoints can be set up on the sea."
"Since there are borders on land, there should be customs on the sea."