As a nomadic people riding on horseback, Mongols have always been used to fighting on land. When they marched to the south, they also wisely knew how to use the ocean ―― they not only took in the betrayed Southern Song navy, but also owned large ocean-going warships and large ocean-going cargo ships. We also got another seemingly impossible way-the help of pirates, and established overseas trade from Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf.
127 1 year, Kublai Khan named the country Dayuan, officially acceded to the throne as emperor, and began to implement the plan of attacking the Southern Song Dynasty southward. At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty occupied Lin 'an (now Hangzhou) and other places, and Kublai Khan urgently needed a passage to transport food from the south to the north.
As a nomadic people riding on horseback, Mongols have always been used to fighting on land. When they marched to the south, they also wisely knew how to use the ocean ―― they not only took in the betrayed Southern Song navy, but also owned large ocean-going warships and large ocean-going cargo ships. With the help of another seemingly impossible way-pirates, overseas trade from Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf and a stable maritime grain transportation system were established.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were several islands in the Yangtze River estuary from Zhu to Zhang, the largest of which was Chongming Island. Chongming Island is surrounded by water, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. /kloc-in the 3rd century, it was no longer controlled by the Song Dynasty and became a free paradise for pirates. /kloc-In the middle of 0/3rd century, there were two famous pirates in this area: He U, who led many people to "rob", sold illicit salt and robbed wealthy merchant ships. At most, they gathered nearly a thousand pirates and owned 500 ships, which ranged from Tonghai in the south to Jiaodong Peninsula and Laizhou Bay in the north, and were recruited by the Southern Song Dynasty.
1273, Zhang u betrayed the southern song dynasty and became an important force in the yuan navy. Zhu Qing was awarded the title of "agent of thousands of households". Three years later, two former pirates received a task: transporting the treasures of the Southern Song Dynasty. That year, the Yuan Army captured Lin 'an, and the Minister of Southern Song suggested that Prime Minister Bo Yan should transport all the treasures of Southern Song Dynasty, including archives, charts and sacrificial utensils, to the capital of Yuan Dynasty at that time, for compiling the history of Song Dynasty. But at that time, Huaidong was still under the control of generals in the Southern Song Dynasty. So, thinking of shipping, he handed this task to He Zhang U and achieved success.
Six years later, the grain transported to Beijing through the Grand Canal was delayed, and the inland freight was expensive, so Bo Yan remembered the Songcang maritime transport in 1276.
After Bo Yan reported this law to Kublai Khan, Kublai Khan weighed the advantages and disadvantages of different grain transportation schemes, decided to adopt the suggestion of Prime Minister Bo Yan, ordered the construction of 60 seagoing ships, recruited a large number of boatmen and crew familiar with the sea situation, and appointed He U as a household to be responsible for grain transportation at sea.
1282, 60 Yuan Dynasty gondolas were built. Under the auspices of He U, the tanker loaded grain in Liuhe, Taicang County, Jiangsu Province today. Ship loading 1000 stone, ship loading 300 stone, flat-bottomed seagoing ship loading 60 * * * grain 4. 60 thousand stones. After the fleet left the port, it passed Yangzhou, Huanglian Shazui and Wanli Longtan to the east of Haimen County, then sailed northwest to Huai 'an and Yancheng counties, and then went north, along the long coastline, to the west in today's Rongcheng area of Shandong Province, to the ancient port of Dengzhou, and continued westward to enter today's Haihekou. The whole voyage lasted more than four months, and all the grain arrived in Beijing 1283 in March. Although the quantity is not enough, it's a good start ―― this voyage proves the feasibility of transporting food by sea. At that time, Zhang had a poem, "At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a million ships crossed the ocean", which described the scene of transporting grain at that time.
The success of navigation made the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty pay more attention to maritime grain transportation. In the 20th year of Yuan Dynasty (1283), the imperial court built 2,000 waterwheels, and in the 22nd year of Yuan Dynasty (1285), another 3,000 were added, all of which were put into grain transportation. The amount of grain transported by sea is increasing year by year. By the twenty-seventh year of Zhiyuan (1290), the annual transportation volume of grain by sea reached1590,000 stone.
At this time, Kublai Khan was bent on invading Japan and Champa (now southern Vietnam), and needed a large number of ships and sailors. At that time, the economic strength of the Yuan Dynasty could not build a gondola suitable for transporting a large number of goods. So he decided to rely on businessmen and pirates to complete this dangerous sea voyage.
He gave the task of organizing personnel to transport grain to Zhang U, who had the right to choose people and even granted official positions without the approval of the court. 65438+In the early 1980s, the cost of building a large ship with a displacement of 1000 tons (which was the load unit of ancient survey ships) was about 100 spindles, while the freight of 1000 tons was 170 spindles. With such high profits, maritime businessmen will certainly not miss the opportunity. So, Zhu Qing and Zhang U immediately called tens of thousands of salt merchants, salt workers, ship owners, fishermen, grain transportation officials and sailors, and invited pirates from the southeast coast to join in.
This policy gave businessmen huge profit space and encouraged them to participate in many ways. In the end, water transportation achieved unprecedented success. For more than half a century, the sea was the main way of grain supply in the Yuan Dynasty, reaching its peak in 134 1 year, with grain transportation reaching 3.6 million stones, which was unprecedented in the history of China.
1287, Zhu Qing dredged the Loujiang River (now Liuhe River) and opened the Liujiagang waterway to Luoba. Zhang Zhu and their crew moved here. This little-known village became a busy port overnight, and Ryukyu, Japanese and Korean merchant ships also entered the port for trade, so Liujia Port was called the "Six-country Wharf".
At that time, private businessmen in the sea were strictly restricted, and once they were discovered, they would confiscate all their family wealth. However, the merchant ships dispatched by Zhang were an exception, because their trade was acquiesced by the imperial court and senior officials. Zhu He also prints their own paper money, which is slightly darker than the official paper money.
These two former pirates did their duty, so they also shared a lot of profits from trade with Japan, North Korea and Southeast Asian countries. According to Yuan Shi? ; "Food II" records: "If you have a ship for this company, you will get ten points of interest if you choose people to trade in various goods, seven points for officials and three points for barter." It can be seen that 70% of the profits will go back to the court, and businessmen will get another 30%.
Zhu and Zhang's influence soon expanded from the sea to the land, and they became the richest and most powerful people in southeast China. /kloc-In the 1980s, Taicang sent 100 senior officials and 12 officials to 64,000 households, including 400,000 households, most of whom were sons, nephews and relatives of Zhu and Zhang.
Zhu Qing himself was in power for a while. In the fourth year of Yuan Dade (1300), he was promoted to Zuocheng, a province in the south of the Yangtze River, and was in charge of grain transportation in the Yuan Dynasty. "Continue to rule the country with a mirror? ; In Yuanji, it is said that the two schools "are all tired of high officials, idyllic rooms are all over the world, huge ships are in the crowd, and horses and chariots fill the door." "
Every month's profit is a loss, and officials often hand over their bankbooks. However, because of their ability to sail on the sea, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty not only failed to punish Zhu and Zhang for their arrogance, but also issued an announcement declaring that the court fully trusted them. At that time, Kublai Khan said to Prime Minister Wan Ze: "Zhang Zhu has great honor and great work, and I will send an ankle escort."
1303, timur, son of Kublai Khan, was seriously ill, and the queen was regent. Someone seized this opportunity to accuse Zhu and Zhang of collusion. Rebellion was an unforgivable felony at that time. The queen sent a letter to escort Zhang and their families back to Beijing. Zhu Qing committed suicide in a rage, and Zhang and his son were executed.
Since then, Zhu and Zhang's property, including ships at sea, land on land and jewels at home, has been confiscated. In order to dispose of their property, the court specially appointed an imperial envoy. Before they became rich, it took them six years to check and trace the hidden property.
Although he and Zhang U were executed and their property was confiscated, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not deal with treason in the traditional way, nor did they deal with others who followed them in trade activities. This is a complicated consideration of the imperial court-for the Yuan Dynasty, the sea route could not be completely banned, and Zhu and Zhang's families and subordinates could be spared. Relying on these skilled workers to continue to maintain small-scale maritime trade activities, the maritime grain transportation would not be seriously damaged.
But in any case, the court will not let individuals be so powerful and enrich themselves. After their death, the court nationalized maritime transportation. In the era of Zhang U, at least four officials and 24,000 households supervised maritime trade. One year after their death, the chief of Pingjiang Road (now near Suzhou) took over the task of shipping, greatly simplifying the administrative procedures, with only one member, two households and three deputies. According to the regional division, thousands of households are changed to 1 1, and only Daluhuachi, Thousand Households and Sub-Thousand Households are set up.
Although the institutional setup of the imperial court has been improved, * * * still lags far behind Hezhang in the management of maritime trade. In order to maintain the traffic volume, * * * has to rent (and in many cases, detain) private vessels. 1309 There was a famine in Beijing in May, and * * * urgently needed 200,000 stone meters to help the hungry people. Therefore, the transportation process is full of difficulties.
The report submitted by the Chief Executive of Zhejiang Province recorded these difficulties. He wrote that in the past, when Zhang U controlled the transportation of grain by sea, the annual transportation volume gradually increased from 400,000 tons to/kloc-0,000 tons, and the transportation vessels were always more than enough, and the freight rate was very reasonable. However, in 1309, taxes and miscellaneous taxes were heavy, and private ship owners were in trouble. As a result, they went into hiding to avoid heavy taxes. In order to make up the number of ships, officials had to go to Fujian and other places to "requisition" ships. ...
At the same time, the official mentioned that the Yang family in Ganpu has a boat and is familiar with waterways. He asked the court to appoint Yang of Xupu as the head of maritime transportation, and to make use of their experience in maritime transportation to make maritime transportation go smoothly.
These circumstances make Mongolian rulers begin to reflect: is it correct to put the maritime grain transportation under the government?
13 10, perhaps because of the request of Zhang U's grandson, perhaps because the famine in the north urgently needed the court to re-enable Zhang U's family. In a word, this year the emperor gave * * * to Zhu Qinghe and Zhang U, and put Zhang U's eldest son in charge of trade with Japan. However, it is too late to deliver food to save the famine at once.
13 10, after the food was safely transported to Tianjin port, the emperor specially sent an imperial envoy to Tianjin to worship Poseidon, thanking Poseidon for blessing the fleet. The following year, an able man in Zhu Qing successfully set up a fleet of 800 ships and escorted 2,773,266 meters of grain into Beijing. Today, the quantity of grain transported is also a miracle.
After these things, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty realized the complexity of shipping and promoted the position of shipping officials again. From a record of Liu Guan, a famous minister, we can see the importance attached by the court to them: these officials can wear tiger-headed gold medals and travel by troika, and the local officials in various cities pay tribute to them ...
After Zhang U, the Yang family in Ganpu is a famous pirate family.
The Yang family engaged in maritime trade in Song Dynasty. Like Zhu Qing and Zhang U, Yang Fa, the core figure, was wooed by the Southern Song Dynasty and later took refuge in the Yuan Dynasty.
1277, Kublai Khan imitated the Song Dynasty and set up three trading companies in Ningbo, Shanghai and Ganpu, all of which were under the jurisdiction, and the Yang family quickly moved to Ganpu Town, Haiyan County. Four years later, it became an important commodity distribution center in Southeast Asia. Italy Kyle? ; Poirot has been to Kampu and wrote in his travel notes: "This is an excellent harbor, so cargo ships from India often stop here."
After the downfall of Zhang U, 13 1 1 year, because "Yang Jia and others have boats and know Cao Cao like the back of their hands", Yang Fa was named as the maritime transportation capital, with thousands of households, and gained more long-distance exchanges and trade opportunities.
After Yang Fa's death, his son Andy continued his career. Andy mainly engaged in maritime trade with Japan, Korea and other countries in his early years. 1293, with the Yuan soldiers marching south to Java (now Indonesia). Because Andy is familiar with the oceans and customs in Southeast Asia, he was appointed as the Minister of Propaganda and Comfort, and was responsible for military navigation together with Minister Ikmusu. After his successful return, he was named general manager of appeasement and later served as general manager of Hangzhou Road.
Andy's son Yang Shu is a famous navigator in China. He once reached Hormuz near the Persian Gulf, which was the main destination of Zheng He's voyage to the West. Zheng He arrived on the third voyage to the West.
Yang Shu's voyages to the West were earlier than Zheng He's11year. 130 1 year, 19-year-old Yang Shu was appointed as the agent of an official ship and went to the Indian Ocean for overseas trade. On his return, he stopped at Hrus Moore Port in the Persian Gulf and met Nahuai and others, messengers sent by King Hezan of Persia. Wyna arrived in China in 1303. After most of them met with Yuan Chengzong, he asked to return to Persia by a sea boat from Yang Shu. In the Yuan Dynasty, Yang Shu was specially appointed as the captain and vice captain of Zhongxian, and was awarded the gold medal to escort Huai and his party back to China as officials.
1304 In the early winter, Yang Shuhu sent Nahuai and his party off. The journey was difficult and dangerous, and the storm repeatedly hindered their trip. It was not until 1307 that the fleet arrived at Hulu Moose port safely and completed its mission.
After the imperial monopoly on maritime trade was broken, maritime trade developed further, and businessmen engaged in this trip could enjoy a luxurious life. Yang's family is famous for its luxury. At the same time, they also gave alms to temples and printed Buddhist scriptures. The temples built by the Yang family are all over Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
Although the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty allowed businessmen to expand maritime trade, they appointed as many Mongols as possible to carry out this cause. Due to the close surveillance of Zhang U and other subordinates by the imperial court, the space on Yangjiahai is getting smaller and smaller. Andy began to indulge in opera creation. He has adopted more than 65,438,000 actors at home and can rehearse his new play at any time. It was a well-known party at that time. Yao Tongshou's "Whispering in the Music Suburb" in the Yuan Dynasty records that "there are no people who are not good at singing in the north and south" and "the good songs of Haiyan juvenile Yuefu are all from Yang's hometown", which can be seen.
The operas he created secretly reflected the dissatisfaction of the Yang family. Weichi Gong, a famous soldier in the Tang Dynasty, was demoted and re-appointed. Huo Guang's ghost admonition in Chengming Temple was written in the Western Han Dynasty. Fu Huo Guang tried his best to assist him when he was loyal to the royal family. After his death, he "continued to shine for his country" and also remonstrated with ghosts. Although these dramas follow the routine of China's orthodox dramas to promote loyalty to the monarch, they still vaguely reveal the voice of injustice.
In a sense, the Yang family replaced He Zhang U, but the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty managed them more strictly. The only power of the Yang family is to recruit businessmen engaged in maritime trade. They didn't get such high-ranking officials, and they didn't get a chance to be reused until Zhang U fell. But unlike the family, Yang Jiahao lived a luxurious life until the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, eradicated them.
The forgotten rulers of the Yuan Dynasty encouraged businessmen to engage in maritime transportation and paid high freight rates in advance. This kind of transportation system can make ordinary people avoid the corvee of transporting grain, and * * * does not need to increase the burden and increase the bureaucratic structure to manage it. It is known as "a generation of good laws". "History of the Yuan Dynasty" said that "the people lose without pains, and the state-owned savings are rich".
Therefore, except for a period of time after the death of Zhang, the Yuan Dynasty has been implementing this policy ―― using pirates and merchants to transport grain. The practice of recruiting maritime merchants by the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty greatly affected the shipbuilding industry. 1294, the largest ship that can be built 1000 tons of meters. With the increase of maritime transportation, the load capacity of ships is also increasing. By 13 14, the largest ship can carry 8,000 to 9,000 tons, and the smallest ship can also carry 1,000 to 2,000 tons, which shows the progress and carrying capacity of the ship.
While encouraging shipping, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not forget land transportation. In order to ensure the smooth shipping, in 1289, Yuan Shizu ordered the excavation of Huitong River, starting from the procedural county of Dongping Road (now Dongping, Shandong Province) and ending in Yu He, Linqing, with a total length of more than 250 miles, and building 3 1 gate. Two years later, at the suggestion of Guo Shoujing, Kublai Khan used more than 2.8 million laborers to dig Tonghui River. Yuan * * * restricts the load of ships entering the river. At the beginning of Huitong River, only 150 ships were allowed to pass, and the number of ships built by merchants gradually increased to 300-400 or even 500, which was the result of the court paying high freight and the merchants building ships. But it has caused bad results-because there are too many ships sailing, the transportation speed of ships on the Grand Canal has slowed down.
However, it is a pity that the shipping policy of the Yuan Dynasty was not inherited by the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Liujiagang and Ganpu, two prosperous overseas trading ports, quickly fell silent and were forgotten.