Chapter 545: Who Controls the Ocean Controls the World

In the first year of Emperor Wanli, a Spanish galleon dispatched by Philip arrived at Ming's Yuegang, requesting "tribute" trade—this was how Luo Luo Gongchen, director of the Maritime Customs Office at Yuegang and Assistant Prefect for Coastal Defense, reported it to the court; to Captain Antonio, it was simply an overseas commercial voyage.

The gears of fate began to turn, and everyone's destiny changed dramatically.

Zhu Zhu Yijun, to quell the petitioning of censorial officials at the palace gate, summoned Hence Hai Rui back from his hometown.

That trade mission was, in fact, extremely difficult.

Because the Ming had no policy of levying duties on Western merchant ships, these vessels were legally illegal, so the galleon could not pass through customs; at that time, the galleon lacked even a shipping permit and was not permitted to dock at Yuegang, so Antonio resorted to "throwing money," bribing Luo Luo Gongchen of the Maritime Customs Office.

Luo Luo Gongchen had gone to Beijing in Emperor Longqing Sixth Year seeking to impose duties on foreign ships, primarily targeting Portuguese vessels—the "ocean" in "foreign ships"—but he failed; although Zhang Zhang Juzheng received the memorial proposing such duties, he could not convince other court ministers, and at that time, the dominant theme in court was factional infighting.

Zhang Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong were locked in a final struggle; after Gao Gong fell, the Jin Faction still held deep, entrenched power, even encroaching upon imperial authority.

The two eunuchs sent to Hainan to bring Hence Hai Rui back to the capital, Zhang Cheng and Zhang Jin, coveted the galleon's silver; the state treasury and imperial treasury were then extremely impoverished, so these two "angels" forced the Yuegang Maritime Customs Office to levy duties on the galleon; had Hence Hai Rui not returned to court and argued on their behalf, citing the principle that "when a sister-in-law drowns, one must reach out to save her"—that is, emergency measures—they might have faced another round of accusations from court officials.

At the time, Francisco de Sande, Spanish Governor of the Philippines, held the Ming in utter contempt; in his words, only two thousand men were needed to destroy the Ming, because everyone in the Ming opposed the emperor.

Later, Francisco was captured by Yin Yin Zhengmao, the National Surname Lord, who breached the castle's water gate with sheer force; Guangdong mercenary troops and Lin Lin Afeng's pirates stormed the castle and took the boastful governor prisoner, who remains imprisoned in Manila to this day.

Francisco was still alive; initially held as a hostage, later intended as leverage to extract ransom from Philip, with the original aim of using this nobleman to secure Spanish recognition of Ming control over Lu Song, forcing Spain to swallow its pride—after all, business must continue, and some matters are better clarified.

But Philip refused to pay even a single cash coin, and did not even mention him in the state letter; the reason was simple: I cannot act now, Lu Song is too far, but I will not abandon my claim to Lu Song as Anthony did not abandon his claim to the Strait of Ma Liujia—this is the relationship between Ming and Spain: cooperation amid competition.

For instance, in the third year of Emperor Wanli, Philip purchased fifty five-masted ocean-going ships from a shipyard, to be delivered over five years.

When the galleon arrived, the Ming clearly realized two facts: it had no ships capable of conquering the ocean, nor any long-distance navigation technology; the Celestial Navigation techniques that had once made the Ming proud during Yongle's reign had, due to astronomical prohibitions, been entirely lost.

This meant the Ming had lost its competitive advantage in shipbuilding, and also meant an unavoidable truth: backwardness in long-distance maritime technology.

The Ming prided itself as the Celestial Kingdom, but what was the Celestial Kingdom? It meant complete global leadership, standing at a height others could never reach, where barbarians could only look up in awe, with no aspect of its civilization lagging behind anyone—that was the Celestial Kingdom.

The absence of shipbuilding technology, the backwardness in long-distance navigation, and even the West's achievement of an empire "on which the sun never sets"—after contact with the West, the Ming realized it was losing its status as the Celestial Kingdom.

Zhu Zhu Zaiyu was lured to the capital by a precise sextant; though he had numerous conflicts with the imperial clan, though he refused to acknowledge himself as Prince Zheng's heir, though he rejected the hereditary title, though he had endured fifteen years of waiting at the palace gate, silently accusing the court and emperor of injustice.

But faced with the precise sextant, Zhu Zhu Zaiyu had no choice but to go to the capital; he could not refuse this invitation—the great romantic quest to explore the boundaries of human knowledge, he Zhu Zhu Zaiyu could not miss.

Now, ten years later, the Ming, through frantic and relentless development, had finally completed global navigation, joining the table as a diner, and then completed global trade, becoming the most robust diner of all.

Neither Philip nor Antonio possessed the capacity for global trade; because relations between Spain and Portugal were extremely tense, and countless conflicts had erupted over colonial territories, Philip chose the Atlantic-Pacific route to reach the Ming, while Portugal chose the Atlantic-Indian Ocean route.

And the Ming became the only diner capable of trading across all three oceans, making all others mere dishes on the menu.

The lag was small, so the catch-up was swift; if another three hundred years passed, it would no longer be a matter of persistently opening the seas for ten years to solve the problem.

Since the maritime prohibition after Yongle, the world's center of science and culture had been shifting toward the West, and the pace was accelerating, because Western learning was coming to the East.

Western learning coming to the East meant missionaries spreading Western academic thought and knowledge to the East.

Matteo Ricci's arrival in the Ming in the tenth year of Emperor Wanli was a representative event of Western learning coming to the East.

Matteo Ricci came to the Ming both to proselytize and to bring Western learning; he translated seven thousand volumes of Western books into Chinese, but these translations were selective—most of the seven thousand volumes were religious and theological texts.

Matteo Ricci was a missionary; his primary purpose in coming to the Ming was proselytizing, and his books were primarily sourced from the Vatican.

At this time, the West was undergoing the Renaissance, and science had begun to sprout; in the first year of Emperor Wanli, Western mathematics was already ahead of the Ming's.

In the West, to proselytize among nobles and upper-class intellectuals, one had to provide certain books; to maintain the authority of the Vatican, the Roman Church established many movable-type printing workshops, then printed and published the Church's treasured books.

Missionaries often used books as a key to unlock the doors of nobles and upper-class intellectuals, then leveraged their influence to spread the faith.

In the West, this was called the Library Defense Movement, ranked alongside the Grand Tour, later termed the bloodstream of the Renaissance.

Science was the key; theology was what the Church truly wished to promote; thus, among Matteo Ricci's seven thousand volumes, there were not enough, nor sufficiently weighty, scientific works—only theological texts.

This method was universally effective in the West, and worked equally well in the Ming; Li Li Zhizao, Xu Xu Guangqi, and others became closely associated with Western missionaries precisely because of mathematics.

And now, the world's center of science, culture, trade, and economy—or rather, the world's center—had returned once more to the East!

The Ming was that singular, unique Celestial Kingdom.

"Your Majesty, a circle is a set of points—what points? The set of points equidistant from the center." Zhu Zhu Zaiyu stood before the emperor, drawing a circle with a compass, explaining to him.

Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded and said: "I understand what you mean. Please continue."

"Let Li Kaifang explain now." Zhu Zhu Zaiyu was about to speak himself, but suddenly pulled Li Kaifang, who stood respectfully beside him, forward, and declared firmly: "You discovered it."

Li Kaifang had offended the emperor; he relied on his genius, his perfect score on the mathematics imperial examination, and the emperor's appreciation for talent, to petition at the Wu Gate on behalf of his younger brother.

The emperor truly valued talent.

His achievements were always presented by his uncle Zhu Zhu Zaiyu, avoiding direct contact with the emperor; Zhu Zhu Zaiyu did not believe in avoidance—he had once been a reckless man! As for offending the imperial clan, he had lived for fifteen years in a thatched hut outside the Zheng Prince's mansion, slapping the imperial clan hard across the face—and hadn't the emperor punished him?

Now that he had entered the Academy of Investigation, become a Five Classics Doctor, he had severed worldly karmic ties, transcended the Five Elements; if he had achievements, he must loudly declare them to the emperor, exhaust every ounce of his talent, and pave the broad road for Ming's investigative learning—that was the truest form of reverence!

"Your Majesty, do you know the Pythagorean theorem?" Li Kaifang trembled slightly.

Zhu Zhu Zaiyu covered his face—he truly wanted to walk away in embarrassment; he was already terrible at social graces, and Li Kaifang was even clumsier; the emperor was a mathematical genius—if not for administrative duties, he would have been the top investigator at the Academy.

How could the emperor not understand such a simple mathematical principle as the Pythagorean theorem?

Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded and said: "I know: the square of the base plus the square of the perpendicular equals the square of the hypotenuse."

In a right triangle, the "base" is the shorter leg, the "perpendicular" is the longer leg, the "hypotenuse" is the slanted side—the Pythagorean theorem, known to every middle school student.

Li Kaifang established a Cartesian coordinate system with the circle's center as the origin, selected a point on the circle, marked the base, perpendicular, and hypotenuse, and said: "We discovered that a circle can also be expressed algebraically—not only linear, quadratic, but circles and ellipses can all be expressed algebraically."

At the very moment Li Kaifang drew the Cartesian coordinate system from a point on the circle, Zhu Zhu Yijun immediately understood: it was the standard equation of a circle.

Li Kaifang did not stop there; he expanded upon it and began deriving, pausing after each step to ensure the emperor understood; to accommodate the emperor, he explained in great detail, and Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded continuously, occasionally asking questions.

"What's the use of this?" Feng Bao whispered to Zhang Hong; Feng Bao hadn't understood a word, but the emperor seemed to understand, since he occasionally asked questions.

These people might as well have been discussing in another world.

"I don't know either—I didn't understand it," Zhang Hong sighed and shook his head. "I'll just read the emperor's agricultural books. I know how to farm."

Feng Bao shuddered and said: "I can't even farm."

"It doesn't matter," Zhu Zhu Yijun said to Feng Bao. "What he's doing seems useless—it's pure mathematics. To most people, it's like scribbles by ghosts. Say it's useful? It's not. Say it's useless? It gives us a new perspective on problems—from the angle of mathematics."

What Li Kaifang had developed was called analytic geometry.

It was not a technological breakthrough like hydraulics, with immediate applications and prospects.

Sometimes, a new breakthrough does not solve existing, urgent problems more simply; its greatest value lies in offering an entirely new way of thinking.

For example, curved motion in physics, instantaneous velocity, parabolic trajectories in military science, planetary orbits in astronomy—navigation, astronomy, mechanics, economics, military affairs, production—all these fields, without the integration of number and shape, without analytic geometry, could not be said to be impossible, but progress would be painfully slow.

Li Kaifang had actually transformed mathematics into algebra, by introducing variables and the integration of number and shape into mathematics, propelling it into a new developmental phase.

The era of variable-based mathematics had quietly arrived.

Zhu Zhu Yijun fully affirmed Li Kaifang's achievement and granted him additional rewards, ending today's audience; he had come to the Imperial Academy of Investigation to observe the hydraulic press in practice, but the result was not good—the hydraulic press was not as universally effective as imagined; there was a long road from theory to engineering practice.

The Ming emperor left the Imperial Academy of Investigation through the back gate, walked five minutes, and arrived at the Tonghe Palace's imperial study—this area was within the Forbidden Garden.

While the diligent Ming emperor was busy with state affairs, the Ming's long-distance trade fleet had just departed from Shuri Naha Port in Ryukyu, beginning its return to Songjiang Prefecture.

Departing from Songjiang Prefecture in March of Emperor Wanli Tenth Year, after one year and two months away from the Ming, the long-distance trade fleet finally returned home on the third day of the fifth month of Emperor Wanli Eleventh Year—earlier than scheduled by a month, because the journey from the West to the Mongol Empire had been exceptionally smooth; the Ming had reclaimed the Strait of Ma Liujia and exerted strong influence over the Western seas.

Provincial governors and ports along the route dared not make things difficult for the Ming fleet, fearing the Ming's warships might suddenly appear at their harbors.

"We're home," Liu Ji stood at the bow, facing the sea wind, gazing at the vast ocean, feeling unprecedented joy, yet also some trepidation—the fear of approaching home.

Chen Chen Tianrui, the navigator who had led the previous global voyage, was again in charge; this global voyage greatly enriched the star charts and produced four additional navigators with long-distance capabilities—all four, like Chen Chen Tianrui, belonged to the Ming Navy.

"Even to reach Ryukyu, we need large ships; if only the Ming had a Mediterranean-sized pond." Chen Chen Tianrui gazed southward, where lay a great black chasm: from Yuegang, one must first reach Ningbo's Shuangyu before reaching Ryukyu, then detour to Jilong Island's Tianshui Town—the great black chasm was a maritime barrier blocking the Ming's expansion into the open ocean.

The water of the great black chasm was shallow, but its hydrology and monsoon winds were unpredictable; one must wait at the Penghu Police Inspectorate for favorable winds before proceeding to Xinglong Village on Jilong Island.

Having a "pond" meant maritime technology could develop steadily, inching gradually toward long-distance navigation, toward the deep blue.

In fact, the Ming had already achieved this; despite harsh natural conditions, Zheng He's seven voyages during Yongle's reign were long-distance navigation.

Chen Chen Tianrui and Liu Ji did not dwell on the past or criticize the scholar-officials who had obstructed maritime opening; perhaps there had been various problems then that needed resolution, but after the Emperor Wanli Reforms and the opening of the seas, the Ming must never again lose the ocean!

The West primarily relied on North Atlantic currents for navigation, while the Ming's coastal currents were too complex and scattered; such complex currents meant double the effort for half the result in maritime opening.

Advances in maritime technology—rudders, compasses, multiple masts, star charts, needle charts, propellers—some were recovered through archaeological research from old records of Zheng He's voyages, some learned from Western culture; though missionaries always favored religious texts, Ming envoys to the West preferred Western mathematical and astronomical books.

But most technological advances were the result of active exploration and innovation since the Emperor Wanli Reforms.

"Who controls the ocean controls trade; who controls world trade controls the world's wealth, and thus controls the world," Chen Chen Tianrui said solemnly. "The emperor's words have been proven true once again."

This maritime trade yielded immense profits, most notably the discovery of two new global commodities: pepper and tea.

"Global commodity" was a concept mentioned by Wan Shihé; a global commodity requires several essential conditions: bulk volume, universal usage, ease of storage and transport.

Pepper was an essential spice in cooking, with high demand worldwide; it was the pungent fruit of a tropical vine; in the West, Westerners called pepper: "the bride around whom everyone dances."

In Lisbon, Chen Chen Tianrui and Liu Ji tasted French black pepper steak, Italian peppered sheep's milk cheese, and pepper cookies from the Holy Roman Empire; objectively speaking, most Ming people could not adapt to that flavor—it was too intense.

In Lisbon, Liu Ji once met a merchant from Nuremberg who, after drinking too much, complained to Liu Ji: "The King of Portugal, master of spices, sets the price of pepper according to his whim. No matter the price, no matter how expensive, it will eventually be sold to everyone."

Price was never the issue—as long as you had pepper.

In the Ming, pepper was primarily used medicinally, secondarily for seasoning; this slightly pungent pepper was ideal for cooking strongly fishy foods, making it a genuine necessity for the Ming.

The Ming possessed over two hundred plantations in the South Seas, with cultivated land reaching 1.5 million hectares—a figure still rapidly increasing—and these two hundred-plus plantations were the greatest foundation for defining pepper as a global commodity.

The other commodity, tea, primarily served to stimulate alertness; the tea bricks sent to the West, preserved well without dampness or mold, were highly popular; as long as they arrived safely in the West, tea's profit exceeded 1000%!

In the West and worldwide, tea was an expensive stimulant; in England, even moldy tea bricks were used in cooking with various additives, even giving rise to a sweet, milk-laced tea—taste to a Ming person was truly indescribable.

Throughout the entire global trade, the Ming's long-distance fleet discovered that people everywhere passionately pursued stimulants.

Demand meant market; market meant silver.

Western galleons brought tea bricks to the West, most of which were moldy, yet still sold at extremely high prices; because the Ming emphasized firearms and placed great importance on preserving gunpowder during long voyages, its sealing and moisture-proofing technology surpassed the West's, so the tea bricks delivered to the West were of superior quality.

Fujian was best suited for tea cultivation.

Fujian was mountainous; since ancient times, it had been a land ignored by strategists; poor and rugged, with eight mountains, one water, and one field, it was ignored because there was nothing worth fighting over; but if tea bricks could be marketed overseas, the livelihood of Fujian's people could improve.

Cotton, pepper, and tea were the greatest gains from this long-distance voyage.

On the seventh day of the fifth month of Emperor Wanli Eleventh Year, the Ming's long-distance trade fleet arrived safely at Songjiang Prefecture's New Port; Songjiang had three ports, and New Port was the largest maritime port of the Great Ming, with Wan Guo City established nearby.

Five five-masted ocean-going ships and fifty three-masted junks slowly docked at the wharf under the guidance of barges.

"What's that?" Liu Ji was about to disembark and step onto the long-missed homeland; he had just raised his foot when he saw a large ship approaching from afar across the sea—only its sails visible, no hull.

Chen Chen Tianrui had some knowledge of the Songjiang shipyard; before the trade fleet departed, fast-sailing ships had already begun construction; he ventured: "Youlong?"

Soon, the ship lowered its sails and slowed; barges moved to guide it; only then did Liu Ji and Chen Chen Tianrui see clearly: there were two ships—one behind the sails.

Indeed, it was Youlong and Feiyun; having successfully completed sea trials, they returned together to their home port.

The Hai Ce of Youlong was entirely smooth, but the Hai Ce of Feiyun encountered difficulties—the propeller became entangled in seaweed, and each cleanup was exceptionally troublesome.

Engineering projects never proceed without obstacles; they always advance through trial and error, gradually refining the design. This is an entirely new ship design concept, requiring a longer path to completion.

The Great Ming now has patience and can afford to wait.

The docks of Xingang immediately grew busy; laborers chanted as they marched toward the large ships, which carried abundant cargo.

The main cargo was cotton. During this voyage through the Mughal Empire, much of the ship's cargo was exchanged for cotton; even Liu Ji used a portion of Bai Yin to purchase additional cotton. Cotton was not cheap in Songjiang Prefecture, but in the Mughal Empire, it was extremely inexpensive—just one tael of Bai Yin could buy six bags of cotton.

One bag of cotton weighed 120 jin; one bag could weave twelve large bolts of cloth or fifteen small bolts. In the Great Ming, one bag of cotton cost nine qian of silver. Transporting Mughal cotton to Songjiang Prefecture yielded a gross profit of 0.73 taels per bag.

Selling the woven large cloth to the Mughal Empire fetched one tael per bolt, with a gross profit of about 0.6 taels.

The Great Ming only needed to deliver the goods to the Mughal ports; Akbar of the Mughal Empire was the Great Ming's largest agent in the Western Seas, and cotton cloth exports reached volumes in the hundreds of thousands of bolts.

Liu Ji had already been extremely restrained: this voyage brought only 100,000 bags of cotton. Despite such high profits, he did not bring more, to prevent an oversupply of Mughal cotton from devastating local cotton farmers. Over half of Songjiang Prefecture's farmland was planted with cotton, yet its climate was better suited for rice than cotton—Shandong was actually more suitable for cotton cultivation.

Changing the crops grown in Songjiang Prefecture requires time.

It cannot be achieved by the court simply issuing an edict ordering peasants to switch from cotton to rice. Entire environmental conditions must be gradually altered: cotton prices must decline steadily, local officials must earnestly encourage agriculture and sericulture, and adjustments must unfold slowly. Only when cotton cultivation becomes unprofitable will the vast cotton fields of Songjiang Prefecture slowly vanish.

Besides cotton, there were also pepper, fish oil, palm oil, refined sugar, abaca, rubber, and red copper—all purchased in Manila. These goods primarily filled the holds; their prices were roughly 40% higher than in Lu Song, as the profits from maritime trade had diminished due to its growing prosperity.

After unloading cargo in Lisbon, the fleet had always sailed empty, as there were no valuable goods to carry—even in the Western Seas. Only upon reaching the Mughal Empire did cotton and saltpeter begin to fill the holds, and only in Manila were the holds completely packed.

The lack of valuable cargo to carry was one of the challenges of Yongle's maritime opening. The Western Seas were vast, but only individual ports were worth visiting, and there were insufficient goods for exchange. Each voyage was massive yet yielded little, weakening the motivation to sail.

After the cargo came the vast quantities of Bai Yin, which also needed unloading. The ocean-going junks required maintenance: damaged sails, hulls covered in barnacles, partially activated watertight compartments needing repair, and thorough cleaning to prevent rats from boarding shore and spreading plague—all required attention.

Liu Ji and Chen Chen Tianrui and others transferred the Bai Yin onto the fast sailboat Youlong, which was faster and safer.

Accompanying the fast sailboat was a massive fleet of 150 ships.

This fleet was tasked with maritime grain transport. Four million shi of grain had been packed into grain crates and loaded onto 450 grain ships. The 450 ships would be divided into three batches for transport—this was the achievement of maritime grain transport since Emperor Wanli's second year.

Sails blotted out the sky and sun as they sailed toward Tianjinwei.

The Great Ming Emperor Zhu Zhu Yijun received a memorial from Songjiang Prefecture.

Shen Shen Shixing, Provincial Governor of Songjiang, met the returning Great Ming heroes at the docks and inventoried the cargo; the inventory had been stamped and filed with the Ministry of Revenue.

"This time, they brought back over three million taels of Bai Yin," Zhu Zhu Yijun said, his voice tinged with excitement as he read the memorial.

The time to test the productivity of Great Ming craftsmen has arrived!

Huang Huang Zifu, the Five Classics Doctor, promised that by year's end, the imperial silver coin production capacity would rise to 2.5 million taels annually.

At present, it is far from enough!