New Shun 1730

After drinking, these lovely boys started to talk more.

Their faces were flushed, their eyes were squinting as if they were about to fall asleep, but they were trying to keep them open, which was a bit funny.

As they talked more and more, some people started to cry, probably because they remembered their parents, who they had forgotten what they looked like. The emotional release came quickly, but it was slow to go away, and the sobbing lasted for a long time.

Liu Yu simply gave them a holiday, so that they didn't have to go to class these days, and just packed up the things they needed to prepare.

He sent a few confidants to follow them and take care of the children's lives after they went there.

I wanted to send another confidant to Europe to lure Harrison, who had already made the H1 marine clock, over.

But after thinking about it, although the British side was stingy with rewards, they had a set of technical blockades. The British have always been like this: I may not get it, but if you want to get it, I will find ways to disgust you.

It is estimated that even if I take out 20,000 or 30,000 pounds, it will be difficult to make the trip.

Besides, that thing was completely handmade, and it was too difficult to learn, and it could not be mass-produced at all. After hesitating for a long time, he finally gave up.

All the treasures of longitude measurement were placed on star maps and nautical astronomical calendars, hoping that Euler would be more powerful and lay a good mathematical foundation for the astronomical calendar as soon as possible.

As the monsoon approached, all preparations were completed.

Liu Yu did not believe in ghosts and gods at all, but before sailing this time, he still took the officers on the Free Trade to Changdao, Yantai.

In front of the Xianying Palace Mazu Temple in Changdao, he worshiped carefully and prayed for the blessing of Mazu.

This matter is of great significance. If successful, it will arouse the interest of sea merchants in Europe; if it fails, not only will his most trusted people in the navy die, but it is very likely that the plan of Dashun sea merchants to leave Malacca will completely fail.

The officers on Weihaiwei and Liugong Island saw Liu Yu worshipping the temple for the first time, and they all knew that this time was of great significance and could guess the danger.

Even when Bering and others were going to explore America, Liu Yu did not burn incense and pray for blessings, which shows the importance of this voyage.

After returning from Xianying Palace, the wind direction changed in October, and a long string of firecrackers was set off on Liugong Island.

Mantou boarded the ship and set sail. He first went to Songjiang, where he loaded tea and silk, and then went to Fujian, where he filled Fujian with ordered porcelain and stockpiled rhubarb.

He formed a fleet with two Swedish merchant ships and set sail from Fujian, embarking on this journey to Europe.

At the same time as the Free Trade set sail in Fujian, a Chinese merchant ship heading to Batavia was counting heads.

This ship had nothing to do with Liu Yu.

More than a hundred bankrupt farmers with ragged clothes and dull eyes continued the journey to Southeast Asia since the opening of the Dashun Kingdom to trade.

The bow was familiar with the road, and I don’t know how many times it had run to Batavia.

The accountants were checking the contract. These illiterate poor families who went to Southeast Asia had to listen to the accountants read the contract clearly.

"Taixing 18th year, month, day. Because of poverty, I went to Southeast Asia. The ship fare owed will be paid by the master after arriving in Southeast Asia. The ship fare will be paid in advance, and I will work to repay it in the future..."

After reading this contract, which was almost a contract slave, to make sure that these people understood it, the illiterate poor people pressed their fingerprints on it.

They didn't know what fate they would suffer, but they knew they couldn't survive on the shore.

The land was gone. There was not much land in Fujian. Even though sweet potatoes were popularized in Fujian as early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was still not enough to eat.

All the wives and children that could be sold were sold. Of course, most people didn't have anything at all. There was no other way to make a living except going to Southeast Asia.

I heard that when you go there, you will be provided with food and accommodation, and you will work for others to cut sugarcane and boil sugar. It sounds pretty good, at least better than starving to death here.

With a little hope for the future, this group of poor people boarded the ship to Batavia.

It was not much different from a slave ship. A group of people were crowded in a small space. They had to queue up to defecate and urinate. The smell of fishy and foul smells filled the cabin.

There were not many goods in the ship. The captain would count the heads every day and throw the sick people into the sea.

I just hope that not too many people will die.

Nowadays, business in Batavia is not easy to do. They just rely on selling slaves to make a little money and bring back some spices when they come back.

Since the Austrian Ostend Company collected a wave of tea hoarding here a few years ago, causing the Dutch to abandon Batavia as a transit station and send a Chinese Trade Commission from Amsterdam, the opening policy of Dashun completely made the sea merchants who used to be second-hand dealers have no way to make a living.

The Dutch bought tea directly in Guangdong and Fujian.

Batavia often seized merchant ships, making it difficult for sea merchants to make money in Batavia. They could only sell some people to avoid empty ships.

They did not sell them to the Dutch. The Dutch were worried that the increasing number of Chinese in Batavia would be difficult to control, so they introduced various policies to control the entry of Chinese into Batavia.

They sold them to local "compatriots", who were the real buyers of slave labor.

In the bumpy cabin, the captain drank wine and ate food with several deputies, and laughed: "These poor guys can't get off the ship once they get on! When they get there, they don't have Dutch residence permits, so they can only work illegally in the sugarcane plantation. How many years have the landowners been there if they dare to run away and ask for more money? Just tell the Dutch that those without residence permits have to dig river embankments and serve labor. It's better to work in the sugarcane plantation for a lifetime."

Several deputies also laughed. After all, at sea, those deceptive faces no longer need to be maintained.

In order to prevent the Chinese from having the power to resist, the Dutch "mercifully" exempted the Chinese from military service, but they had to pay a poll tax.

As a result, the Chinese are almost a group of pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered. They have no experience as soldiers and no strong organization.

Some wealthy Chinese businessmen were hired as tax collectors to rule indirectly and use China to control China. The deep-seated hatred and contradictions were all placed on those tax collectors who acted as scoundrels, and no one would clearly tell them the truth about the cruel oppression. The Dutchman behind it.

The sugar cane plantations invested by wealthy Chinese businessmen require a lot of labor.

On the one hand, Chinese workers need to apply for a very troublesome residence permit, and on the other hand, they need to pay a head tax.

Under the tax farming system, it was impossible to collect the poll tax from everyone. The Dutch did not have such grassroots control in Nanyang and could only rely on tax farming to collect it.

The garden owners concealed these slave labor and did not need to pay a poll tax, but only needed to pay a bribe to the tax collectors.

Similarly, if these compatriots who are slave laborers cannot stand the suffering and want to run away, the tax collectors will bring people over and beat them up, or they may kill the chickens to scare the monkeys and catch a few troublemakers to the Dutch as if they do not have a residence permit. If you are a black household, you have to do slave labor for the Dutch and build embankments until you die.

The small merchants and Chinese traders in the city of Batavia hated the wealthy businessmen and tax collectors who were regarded by the Dutch as passing on their conflicts; the slave workers in the sugar cane fields also hated the owners who were all compatriots and spoke the same dialect. .

Under the instigation of the Dutch, the Chinese in Nanyang almost became two ethnic groups, and they became completely scattered: the rich, educated and organized people were the lackeys; the people with no money, many people, and the strength to protect them They took their own lives, but they hated the losers first, and no one told them that the real oppressor was hiding behind them.

The shipowners in Batavia couldn't understand these matters and didn't care.

They know what they are selling. But to them, this is just a business.

The Dutch went directly to Guangdong and Fujian to buy tea and porcelain. Batavia no longer needed these maritime merchants for transit. They could sell people, and it was better to go there with empty ships.

But before setting sail, they saw the Free Trade number of the trading company, which brought some shock.

"I said, have you seen it? That trading company's big sailing ship? When did they build such a big ship? It's bigger than those Western ships."

Taking a sip of wine, the captain sighed about what he had seen before setting sail in Fujian. The huge shadow of the big ship made his ship look like a small boat.

"Is there anyone who can't see it? They are packing tea in Fujian... Otherwise, they are doing big business. Damn, if you can sell tea to those Western ghosts, who is willing to sell people?"

"The ship is so big. If you go to the Western Ocean, it won't cost you a million taels of silver?"

With 70% envy and 30% sadness, the people on the boat felt unhappy.

An arm cannot twist a thigh. The Westerners have such a big company, guns, cannons and warships. How can shipowners like them, who are as scattered as sand, compete with the Westerners? Unless someone organizes it, but the court does not organize it, private organizations would be taboo.

A few years ago, when I was transporting tea to Batavia, I was detained by the Dutch. Seeing the interest increasing day by day, the tea gradually aged, and I could only sell it at the low price given by the Dutch.

Although he had sworn an oath, the fool would transport tea to Batavia in the future, but it could only stop here, and he could only swallow his anger, otherwise what could he do?

"Those big traders all went to Songjiang a few days ago to buy shares. Unfortunately, we don't have much money. By the time we got the news, all the shares had been distributed. Think about it, transporting rice to Tianjin can also bring private goods. If you can do this, who will do this?"

The captain talked sourly about the turmoil caused in Fujian a few days ago, and several deputies also muttered: "There is no way, the people over there are capable. Zhangzhou is helping Fuzhou and helping those people who are running to the East, they have lost their temper, what can be done ? Who is the backstage of the Fuzhou Gang and the Zhangzhou Gang?

"Let me tell you, this business will become more and more difficult in the future. You won't make much money selling people, and you will save empty ships. Have you heard that the price of sugar in Bacheng has dropped again?"

They have not studied much economics, but they know that if the price of sugar drops, it will be difficult to develop the sugar cane plantation.

Sugarcane plantations are difficult to grow, so the price of slave labor is low, and they may not even be sold. Slave workers couldn't be sold, so they had to go one way to Batavia, and they wouldn't make much money if they went one way.

The boat owner said helplessly: "Let's have a look. If we really can't continue the business after a while, we can take the boat to Songjiang and see if we can buy stocks there? The more people we have, the more energy we have. Westerners rely on What? Isn’t it just because there is a big company with a lot of people, a lot of money, a lot of ships, and a lot of guns?”

"They always stop our ships. See if they dare to stop the Free Trade?"

The Free Trade is just an armed merchant ship. It can't even defeat the cruiser Liu Yu has been complaining about.

But such a large ship, and it is also a Chinese ship, appears in Nanyang for the first time since Zheng He, and may even go to Europe for the first time. This still has a great impact on the maritime merchants of Nanyang. .