In the thirty-first year of the Jiajing reign, in the beginning of winter, Zhoushan Lik Harbour was completed! The wide harbour, the fortress with artillery, the trading market, the Franco-Chinese church, thousands of houses ……
Everything was even more glorious than the original Shuangyu Harbour.
On the day of the completion of Likang, Wang Zhi, the king of the sea and the uncrowned king of the Japanese invaders, held a banquet in Likang for the big and small leaders of the Japanese invaders. Whether they were directly under Wang Zhi’s command, those under Wang Zhi’s control, or those who were not under Wang Zhi’s control and did not agree with each other, almost all of them were present at the banquet. Even the rival Japanese were very generous in sending people to attend the banquet. For example, although Xu Hai did not personally attend the banquet, he also sent Torin Saburo with generous gifts to celebrate.
The banquet venue was placed on the open space in front of Ligang Pier, all of which were covered with red carpets and set up with several tables.
There were hundreds of Japanese leaders of all sizes, and they were seated in order of their strength.
Wang Zhi sat at the most honourable first place of the banquet table, displaying his “King of Hui” ceremonies to the fullest, he was wearing a gilt embroidered gold python scarlet robe, with a jade belt at his waist, and a golden five-eaved yellow umbrella, with four beautiful maids of honour at his side, and fifty burly golden-armoured and silver-helmeted guards behind him lined up in a fan-like shape.
“Gentlemen, today the completion of the Leach Harbour is a day of great joy for us, so this king feasts to invite you all to congratulate him.”
Wang Zhi raised his golden bottle and laughed freely as he said to the crowd of Japanese pirates.
“Many thanks to King Hui, it is all thanks to King Hui’s planning that we have this place to stay in Ligang.”
“Allied Lord is mighty, we have been blessed.”
“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”
“Congratulations to Chief Wang.”
The crowd of Japanese leaders at the banquet rose and respectfully raised their glasses, and they did not address Wang Zhi uniformly. Some called Hui Wang, some called the alliance lord, some called the great king, and some called Wang leader ……From the inconsistent names, it could also be seen that the Japanese were not ironclad amongst themselves.
“Today we drink this cup of wine together, and in the future we will share the glory and wealth of the sea trade.”Wang Zhi looked at the heads of the Japanese pirates under the field with satisfaction, raised the golden bottle with great vigour and tilted his head back to drink the wine in the cup.
“Share the glory and wealth.”The crowd of Japanese leaders followed and shouted, raising their cups and drinking it all in one go.
“Gentlemen, please be seated. Men, pass the dancers on to help with the fun.”Wang Zhi invited the group of Japanese pirates to take their seats, and caused the dancers to be summoned.
Soon, a group of beautiful Japanese women came on the stage, twisting their waists and limbs like willows in the banquet room.
A group of Japanese, look at the eye of the hot, some bold directly into the arms of the dancers, up and down, Wang straight laughs, did not stop, the rest of the Japanese see this also have followed suit.
For a while, the banquet was on fire.
“Lord, this Lekang will not suffer from the disaster of Shuangyu harbour again, right?!”A Japanese leader at the banquet had experienced the scourge of Shuangyu Harbour and remembered it vividly, so he couldn’t help but say to Wang Zhi with some concern.
“He Laosan, you are thinking too much. Nowadays, Ningbo province or, Shaoxing province or, Hangzhou province or, which is not acquiescence to our private market, the government is to turn a blind eye to this.”
“The day before yesterday, I also took my son Erlang to buy a hundred pieces of cloth on the streets of Suzhou Province, and the Suzhou Prefectural Office didn’t even care.”
“That’s right, it’s just you old boy who thinks too much! The older you get, the less courage you have, it really makes people laugh.”
The banquet was heating up, when He Laosan threw a pot of cold water, a group of bonobos couldn’t help but scoff.
“No, once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of a well rope ah, back then I personally experienced the disaster of Shuangyu harbour, it was really a river of blood.”
He Laosan shook his head and laughed bitterly.
Other bonobos heard, but also scoffed, “this is one thing and the other is another, now the government default private market, I heard that there are many officials also proposed to open the sea ban it, Fujian and Zhejiang area of the people are more towards the private market, there is a saying what is called, the trend of the trend of the sea trade is the trend of the trend of the sea trade.”
“He Laosan’s concern is not unfounded. When Shuangyu harbour, this king is also a personal experience, if not for the fact that this king was lucky enough to escape a robbery, this king today will not have the opportunity to sit in front of you and others.”
Wang Zhi waved his hand to stop the chaos in the arena, stretched out his finger to point at He Laosan, and said leisurely.
The field was quiet for a moment.
“The private market is ultimately small, difficult to become a climate, only the Ming Court opened the harbour to the market, our generation can be ambitious.”
Wang Zhi slowly scanned the crowd of Japanese pirates, and then looked at the distant sea, said with a firm face.
“Open the harbour and open the market?!”
The crowd of Japanese pirates looked at each other in disbelief, not expecting Wang Zhi’s ideals to be so grandiose.
“That’s right! It is the opening of harbours and markets! Today’s world is the world of sea trade! The merchant ships of the Franks don’t travel far and wide, spreading across the ocean to various barbaric places, and they have already made a lot of money. Daming is the centre of the whole world, the population and richness is billions of times better than the barbarians, here contains huge business opportunities and wealth. As long as we open the harbour to the market, we will have endless glory and wealth!”
Wang Zhi said to the Japanese underneath the scene with great vigour, giving them a picture of the prosperous world of sea trade.
The crowd of Japanese pirates couldn’t help but feel hot under the collar.
He Laosan and some cool-headed Japanese were cautious about Wang Zhi’s picture.
The sea ban was a state policy of the Great Ming, could it allow the opening of harbours and markets?
“Oh, He Laosan, although your worries are not unfounded, they are too pessimistic! As they say, the sea trade has been driven by the momentum! You party has said Shuangyu harbour, huh, yes, he Zhu dandy is destroyed Shuangyu harbour, killed Li Guangtou and so on, so what? He Zhu dan does not know the time, the line of protection armour strict sea ban, the result was Jiangzhe heart to the sea trade of the scholars to the whole death. From then on, inspecting ministers are no longer established, inside and outside the court no one dares to mention the sea ban! Moreover, you look at your side of Zhang Da Mao, He Da Bao a few of them, a few of them but when the annihilation of Shuangyu Harbour of Fujian sailors, when the fight is over Shuangyu Harbour, Zhu dandy in the demobilisation of these pirate ships, the court does not pay food and wages, causing the Fujian sailors mutiny, half of the troops and ships directly defected to the king’s command. Zhang Da Mao, He Da Cannon and several of them are the hundred of the navy, now not also become our people! There are also a lot of officials to write a letter of advice, open the sea ban ……So, sea trade is the general trend!”
“Not to mention, the year before last, this king cooperated with the Jiangzhe government to catch the evil pirates Lu Qi, Shen Jiu, last year, this king was entrusted by the seaway Yamen captured and killed Chen Si Pan, for the maintenance of the order of the sea area has made a great contribution.”
“So, it’s time, this king decided that tomorrow, he will ask the Ming court for trade, open the harbour and open the market!”
“With the opening of the harbour and the market, everything will also be legal, and the disaster of Shuangyu Harbour will never happen again! Our golden age is here!”
Wang Zhi was full of pride, raising his wine cup and impassionedly addressing the group of Japanese, as if he were a god.
