The three ships left Guangzhou Port and left the Pearl River Estuary, but did not go south, but turned east...
Originally, when leaving Guangzhou Port, Malacca envoy Najib asked Columbus and others to wait. Because the craftsmen they wanted to explore and smelter the tin mine had not arrived yet.
The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were so miserable, like a slave. When they received the letter from Malacca Sultan Mahmoud requested to support several craftsmen who explored and smelted tin mines, they did not have to wait for the approval of the capital. The Guangdong Provincial Office, who was in charge of the tribute trade of the Guangzhou Maritime Bureau, made a decision and agreed.
However, there were no such talents under the Guangdong Provincial Administration, nor were there large-scale tin mines. However, Pingyuefu (now Hezhou City, Guangxi) next door to Guangdong Province was the most important tin-producing area in the Ming Dynasty.
The Guangdong Provincial Administration and the Guangxi Provincial Administration are not very familiar with Chen Jin, who is also the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governor of Guangdong. So, the left governor of Guangdong, Chen Rui, directly asked Chen Jin to go to Pingyuefu to find several craftsmen who explored and smelted tin mines.
As the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Chen Jin did not interfere in local government affairs. However, in name, he was still the boss of Guangdong and Guangxi officials. Therefore, it was no problem to go to Pingyue Mansion to ask for a few craftsmen. So Chen Jin agreed immediately. For this reason, Najib also gave Chen Jin several large pearls. As a maritime country, there were not many other pearls in Malacca, and there was no shortage of pearls. The unlucky craftsmen had no say and were sold directly by the men. In the eyes of the civil servants of Daming, the craftsmen were just a group of slaves who worked, and they would give them as soon as they were sent...
However, it was not that fast to get a few craftsmen from Pingyuefu. It would probably take a long time to go through a process. So, Najib had to wait for a while. At the same time, Najib also hoped that Columbus's fleet would wait for him and wait for him to return to Malacca together.
However, Columbus' fleet has other tasks. What is their mission? It turned out that before leaving, Marin asked the Columbus fleet to look for Dongfan Island (that is, the Taiwan Island in later generations).
Why are you looking for Taiwan Island? Of course, I want to set up a trade transfer station on the island!
The Tai Island has not been developed yet and is desolate. The Ming Dynasty did not pay attention to maritime interests and voluntarily gave up Dongfan Island and shrank its power to Penghu Island, mainly monitoring the Taiwan Strait. However, it ignored Dongfan Island.
Malin has always been unable to understand why the Ming Dynasty ignored a large island like Dongfan Island. You said you don’t pay attention to island development. Qiongdao had been developed long ago. The Ming Dynasty also established Qiongzhou Prefecture. Tai Island is larger than Qiongdao and has more plains on the southwest coast, which is very suitable for development. Therefore, Malin is very unaware of this.
However, this is cheaper. The location of Tai Island is quite important. It is facing the Ming Dynasty's Hu province, which is conducive to trade with the Ming Dynasty. In addition, starting from the northern part of Tai Island and following the Ryukyu Islands, you can also reach Japan. Moreover, it is very convenient to go to Southeast Asia from here.
Therefore, Dongfan Island is simply an excellent transit station for maritime trade. Therefore, after occupying Taiwan, the Dutch launched a prosperous maritime trade with the Ming Dynasty and Japan, and it was very prosperous for a while. If it weren't for the powerful Zheng Chenggong later, the Dutch's maritime trade might have continued to flourish.
In fact, neither the Ming Dynasty nor the Qing Dynasty paid attention to Dongfan Island, or even ignorant. The Ming Dynasty people called Tai Island Xiao Liuqiu in their early years. In fact, this so-called Xiao Liuqiu is 9 times larger than the real Liuqiu Kingdom...
The Qing Dynasty did not attach much importance to Taiwan. The reason why Shi Lang was sent to unify Taiwan was because there were a large number of Ming Dynasty royal families on Taiwan. Kang Mazi was worried, so he asked Shi Lang to take them all back to take them back to take care of them.
After taking back Tai Island, the Qing Dynasty actually left Tai Island there and left it without much care. This also led to the development of the West Coast and the northern region until the late 19th century. As for the East Coast, it was not developed much.
Just in time, Marin needed an opportunity to trade with the Ming Dynasty. However, because the Beihai Kingdom had no other Ming vassal states to prove its existence, and the Ming civil servants would never take risks with themselves, sailing tens of thousands of miles to go to Europe to see what was going on.
Therefore, Marin's plan was to occupy Taiwan first and establish a country like the "Big Belly Kingdom". Then, he requested to submit to the Ming Dynasty in the name of the chief of the country. It would be best if he could be named a vassal state. If he could not, Marin planned to directly apply to become the chieftain of the Ming Dynasty and directly incorporate Taiwan into the Ming Dynasty territory.
The chieftain system is a very special system, similar to the autonomous region in later generations. However, it is more autonomous than the autonomous region. Because the chieftain's official position is hereditary system. In addition, the imperial court also gave very little taxes to the chieftain. Even the chieftain paid very few taxes, much lower than those in the Hanmin area. Even at the beginning, the chieftain's taxes were declared by the chieftain themselves. If you ask yourself to report the tax amount, you can report more? Therefore, the chieftain's taxes were very small. Of course, the chieftains in the southwest Shaomin area were mostly mountain people. Living in the villages was indeed poor and they had no money to pay taxes. It was not popular to travel to the Shaomin area for a trip this day, so the southwest villages were very poor at that time. Even if you wanted to impose more taxes in the Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible.
The biggest difference between the chieftain system and the autonomous regions in later generations is probably "rule its troops". In other words, as chieftains, they have actual military power. Therefore, the rights of chieftains are much greater than those vassal kings. Of course, they cannot be compared in this way. Because the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty were raised as pigs and had no rights at all.
With military power and autonomy, chieftains are basically equivalent to independent kingdoms. However, compared with vassal states such as Korea and Ryukyu, chieftains have much lower official ranks. The kings of Korea are princes and Ryukyu are princes, and they are all super-ranked kings. And those chieftains are usually hereditary prefects and other official ranks, which are much lower than kings.
In addition, the difference between chieftains and vassal states is that they have to pay a small amount of taxes while paying tribute. In addition to those close, those who are far away can pay tribute once every two or three years or even five years. However, because chieftains belong to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, they require tribute once every year or two years.
The reason for this is that the court is actually because it is afraid that the number of vassal states that pay tribute will come too small and cannot create a formation of "all nations come to pay tribute". For the feudal dynasty, this is very embarrassing. Therefore, letting those low-level chieftains make up the numbers is the best way.
Even some young leaders who only occupy a few villages can be named chieftains. If these soy sauce-made chieftains were brought to the dynasty meeting of the capital, there would be a lot of big piles. So many people were bustling with strange clothes, and they could indeed create the illusion of "all nations come to pay tribute". For this reason, the Ming Dynasty was very diligent in urging these chieftains who came to pay tribute. Of course, they would never let these chieftains suffer losses. Often these poor chieftains brought mountain goods to the capital, but when they returned, they were full of silk and satin rewarded by the court...
However, the biggest advantage of chieftains is that they can trade freely with the Ming Dynasty. Because, in terms of law, chieftains are the territory of the Ming Dynasty. The merchants of the Ming Dynasty went to the jurisdiction of chieftains, or the chieftains went to the Han area to trade, which was not considered abroad, and were relatively free. At most, they were extorted by officials and officials. Unlike those vassal states, they were generally allowed to trade in designated locations only when they came to pay tribute. However, tributes were paid once a year at most, how could this satisfy Marin's appetite?
Therefore, Marin's plan was to occupy Tai Island and then try to apply to become the chieftain of the Ming Dynasty. As long as he became the chieftain of the Ming Dynasty, then Tai Island would be considered domestic. At that time, trade and other things would be unrestricted.
Therefore, the purpose of Columbus' trip was to "discover" Tai Island. Then, record the latitude and longitude coordinates. When the road in Panama is repaired and Panama City is also built, you can use Panama City as the starting point to arrive at Tai Island through the route used in the historical "Manila Sailing Trade" and occupy Tai Island. Then, with the entire Tai Island, you request to submit to the Ming Dynasty and become a chieftain. Once you become a "owner" and purchase supplies, it will be very convenient. After all, the other side is Quanzhou Prefecture...
Even Marin had already arranged the destination of Columbus's trip - Sheliao Island in Keelung (that is, part of Peace Island in later generations).
The reason for this is to be decided here is a multi-faceted consideration. First, Marin contacted the Ming Dynasty in the future and planned to use the Pacific route. Keelung faces the Pacific Ocean directly and is a very suitable port.
In addition, Marin also plans to send troops to control Japan in the future, at least occupy Ishimi Yinshan. Therefore, using Keelung as a springboard is the most suitable.
In addition to these two factors, there are two other factors that are also very important - First, there is a super-large gold mine "Golden Gourdstone" in the east of Keelung. Generally, gold mines with reserves of dozens of tons of gold can be considered super-large gold mines. The gold reserves of the Golden Gourdstone Gold Mine are estimated to be more than 500 tons, and they are of high taste.
The second point is also very important - that is, Sheliao Island north of Keelung is separated from the island. Establishing the first stronghold here can avoid being attacked by the indigenous people on the island...
You should know that the natives on Taiwan are very fierce. Especially the Gaoshan tribe (compared to the Pingpu tribe), they are best at jungle warfare.
If you land directly on the island, it will be easy to be attacked by the indigenous people day and night. The Dutch colonized Taiwan and almost suffered a great loss at the beginning. Later, the Dutch colonists saw that the indigenous people were too fierce, so they used deception to "buy" a large piece of land, and then built a solid castle in Tainan as a stronghold. Then they gained a firm foothold on Taiwan.
Later, the Spanish also colonized Tai Island. They were also smarter - they directly occupied the island of Sheliao Island at the mouth of the Keelung River and established a castle San Salvador on Sheliao Island. Sheliao Island is not connected to land, and faces the Keelung River directly, without lacking fresh water. Therefore, the Spanish's choice is also very good.
In addition, Marin needed to consider the factors of Pacific routes, occupying Japan and developing the Golden Gourdstone Mine. Therefore, Marin decided to learn from the Spanish and build a castle on Sheliao Island first. Then, when the strength is enough, then conquer the island.
After conquering the island, I will apply to be the chieftain of the Ming Dynasty...
Chapter completed!