The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 384 Stowaways and Baoan Port

The ocean-going fleet carrying the Persian monarch Fateh, the Georgian monarch Bagration, and the Ming Dynasty's Honglu Temple delegation headed by Ma Weiguo, the right chancellor of the Honglu Temple, stopped at the Lion City Port for replenishment and rest, and also underwent a comprehensive inspection.

Zhu Jianxuan often said that all the people in the world are the king's subjects, but the Ming Dynasty is indeed unable to treat everyone equally now. The Ming Dynasty and Shenzhou are now divided into local and overseas.

Malacca was the southern gate of the Ming Dynasty. The present-day Singapore Port in Johor Province was the gatehouse of this gate.

Stewards and guards are stationed in the gatehouse. There are Ming Dynasty’s naval, land and air force bases on both sides of the strait. The main forces of the three armed forces of the Ming Dynasty in the Nanyang region are all nearby.

Further south, on the west side of Java Island, there is the Sunda Strait with better navigation conditions, but the management there is not as strict as that of Malacca.

Because the ships that pass through the Sunda Strait are basically large ships going to South Africa and the east coast of Linzhou. These places are already reserved territories of the Ming Dynasty and there are no vassal states or foreign ships operating there.

All ships entering and leaving Malacca, as well as the people and goods on board, are subject to a comprehensive inspection.

The ships going out are mainly checked for smuggling. Some types of goods are not allowed to be smuggled by private individuals, and only government-run and royal-owned manufacturers are allowed to operate them.

Overseas areas have not yet been fully incorporated into the king's rule, and not everything can be sold.

Incoming ship owners will be checked for smuggling, and no one without the right identity and special approval will be allowed to enter the heartland of the Ming Dynasty.

Ma Weiguo and his entourage were all official members of the Ming Dynasty court. Fateh, Bagration and their entourage also had documents from the Honglu Temple, so they could pass normally.

However, when they went ashore, they saw groups of illegal immigrants on the dock, being guarded by the Jinyiwei of the Lion Customs Office.

Although most of these people were wearing Ming-style casual clothes, it was obvious that most of them were Hu people or white people.

Although most of them were in a very shabby and slovenly state, there were some who were dressed quite decently and seemed to be intellectuals.

Now and then, groups of Jinyiwei would come and escort more stowaways from other passenger ships and join the stowaways on the dock.

When Fatah saw this, he couldn't help but ask Ma Weiguo:
"Mr. Ma, these people... don't have a pass?"

Ma Weiguo said with disgust:
"Yes, these are all illegal immigrants without a pass. They are either hiding in the cargo holds of ordinary passenger ships or directly on cargo ships, intending to sneak into the Ming Dynasty.

“Their methods vary, but His Majesty has been prepared for this.

“More than 20 years ago, His Majesty knew that there would be a large number of illegal immigrants in the future, and at that time he stipulated methods to control people of different ethnic groups.

"A special management office was set up in advance to search for these illegal immigrants at various entry points."

Fateh and Bagration couldn't help but click their tongues when they heard this.

They now cannot fully understand why so many people would want to smuggle here, and they cannot imagine the Ming Emperor's forward-looking prediction.

Moreover, on the way from the Persian Gulf, during the interactions with Ming officials, I have heard countless similar advance predictions.

Predicting once or twice and preparing for a few things in advance can be considered as foresightedness.

But the Ming Emperor made too many predictions.

Fatah said subconsciously:

"Why would the Ming Dynasty refuse them entry? Most of them are young and middle-aged people...

"Oh... by the way, the population of Ming Dynasty is too large, and all Ming people are migrating abroad, so it is even more impossible to allow them to enter.

"Each person in the Ming mainland only has three acres of land left, and it is even more impossible to use food to feed these outsiders."

Fatah realized halfway through his speech that the Ming Dynasty was the place in the world with the least shortage of people.

Bagration also reacted, and then subconsciously asked:
"Then how will the Ming Dynasty deal with these people? Smuggling shouldn't be a capital crime under Ming Dynasty law, right?"

At this time, Fatah subconsciously added:
"Since they sneaked into the Ming Dynasty like this, they probably wouldn't reveal their original identities and whereabouts.

"If we can't just execute them, it might be very troublesome. Can we use them as slave labor?"

Ma Weiguo recalled the rumors he had heard:

“It seems that smuggling is not a capital crime now, but they can’t think of staying in Ming mainland for any reason, and they can’t even think of staying in Southeast Asia.

"I have talked to the Jinyiwei here, and they said that many illegal immigrants believe that being able to stay in Nanyang as a slave is a success, and that staying in Nanyang will give them the opportunity to go back to the Ming mainland.

“Because the Ming people’s slaves were not the slaves that Asians and Europeans understood.

"Slaves are not the private property of their masters under the laws of the Ming Dynasty. If a master harms the life of a slave, he will also be punished by the government.

"The Ming Dynasty's slaves could own their own property, and according to European perceptions, they were more like lifelong employees.

“The core of the laws of the Ming Dynasty is warning, not punishment. Since they want to be slaves in China and Southeast Asia, the government will definitely not let them do so.

"They will all be sent to Africa to serve as slaves for the latest batch of immigrants, helping them to open up wasteland and cultivate land in Africa.

"Unless there is special permission from the imperial court, no outsiders can stay in the mainland of Ming Dynasty."

Going to Africa to open up wasteland is a relatively dangerous thing, because there are a large number of savage natives in the interior of Africa, and conflicts often break out between them and the immigrants.

The process of the Ming Dynasty opening up wasteland and cultivating farmland in Africa was also a process of completely clearing out the surrounding indigenous people.

The cultural differences that Russian Tsar Alexander experienced were also experienced by Fateh and Bagration at this time.

The Ming Dynasty’s legal prohibitions were real prohibitions, not conditions or costs that had to be borne.

The key point is that these young and middle-aged people were willing to be slaves in Southeast Asia, but the Ming Dynasty did not allow it and did not want to provide them with food.

Although they already knew that there were more native people in the Ming Dynasty, when this directly related fact was placed before them, Fateh and Bagration had a stronger sense of reality.

Ma Weiguo, Fateh, Bagration and his party stayed in Singapore for three days. After checking and replenishing the supplies, the fleet set sail again and headed for Bao'an Port in Guangzhou Prefecture.

The gate of Malacca can be regarded as the "courtyard gate" of the Ming Dynasty, while the Guangzhou Prefecture on the mainland is the real "house gate".

Being able to land in Guangzhou means truly entering the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, which is also the target of all illegal immigrants.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou Prefecture was very large, covering almost the entire Pearl River Delta.

In Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, most areas of Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong and Macao were under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture.

Guangzhou Prefecture was also the first large-scale industrial base built by the Ming Dynasty court in South China with its concentrated efforts.

Guangzhou City was originally the site of Nanhai County during the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, the city could barely be considered to be facing the sea, so it was named Nanhai.

But after the Pearl River continued to silt up under the city for more than a thousand years, Guangzhou has changed from a seaport to an inland port.

Before industrialization, Guangzhou, the last city on the main channel of a large river, was very suitable as a port, and was the junction between seagoing ships and inland ships.

In the sailing age, ships of 2,000 tons were considered large, and wooden ships had a shallow draft when lightly loaded.

But as industrialization really began, ships became larger and larger, with deeper drafts, and it became increasingly difficult to enter and exit the narrow Pearl River channel. River ports like Guangzhou were no longer suitable as ocean ports.

It was also during the continuous advancement of industrialization that the concept of natural deep-water ports gradually emerged in the world.

In recent years, the Construction Department of the Ming Dynasty court and the Guangzhou Prefecture jointly surveyed and selected, and finally chose the peninsula in the southwest of Bao'an County to build a new large seaport to connect Guangzhou with Southeast Asia.

Bao'an County originally belonged to Dongguan County. It was split out during the Wanli period to form the independent Xin'an County, whose jurisdiction was probably the area of ​​Shenzhen and Hong Kong in later generations.

During the process of industrialization and integration of the Ming Dynasty in this world, the imperial court discovered that there were too many places called Xin'an County in Shenzhou. In order to facilitate distinction, Xin'an County was changed to Bao'an County.

The place where the port was built was located on the Shekou Peninsula in later generations.

The natural water depth on one side of the Pearl River Estuary is between nine and fourteen meters. A little dredging can reach a canal depth of sixteen meters. Continuing to sail southwards, the water depth will soon reach twenty meters.

Bao'an Port first met the trade needs between the Ming Dynasty's Southern Industrial Zone and the Jiangnan Industrial Zone and the Bohai Rim Industrial Zone.

It also carried shipping between the Ming Dynasty and the Nanyang region.

It is also the starting point or transit port for ocean trade between Ming Dynasty and Australia, India, Arabia and Europe.

Such a huge shipping driving force, coupled with the already quite favorable natural conditions, made Bao'an Port quickly become the largest civilian seaport in the Guangnan region of the Ming Dynasty.

The peninsula where Bao'an Port is now located has been turned into berths and docks.

When the fleet that Ma Weiguo was on sailed towards the port, the Yuen Long area across the Shenzhen Bay was also full of busy construction sites.

It is obvious that the scale of the city of Bao'an is expanding rapidly.

The city’s core area is around Bao’an Port, but in the future it may become the area around the entire Shenzhen Bay.

The water outside Shenzhen Bay is relatively deep and can be dredged and deepened to become part of the port.

The water inside is very shallow and is a saltwater swamp wetland, which is certainly not suitable for building a port, but it can become a park within the city.

Also because the water in the wetland is shallow, it will be possible to build a long bridge in the future to connect the two sides of the bay.

Now the largest port in the south of the Ming Dynasty is located in Bao'an, rather than places like Kowloon and Hong Kong Island with better natural waterway conditions.

The fundamental reason is that the industrialization of the Ming Dynasty was endogenous and was not interfered with by external forces.

This kind of port, born out of local endogenous industrialization, usually appears in coastal foothills connected to the internal plains, even if it is mainly used for external communication.

The foothills mean that the coastline is rocky, which makes it more likely for natural deep-water ports to appear, and there is less pressure on channel dredging and maintenance.

Being directly connected to the great plains in the interior, it is easier to build railways and roads, to mobilize the vast resources in the inland, and to transport the products out of the inland.

It would be even better if such a port could be located at the mouth of a large river, connecting inland rivers with ocean routes.

The Ming Dynasty court and Guangzhou Prefecture chose to build a port in Bao'an in order to build a port to transport domestic goods to the outside world, and a place where ocean routes and inland waterways converge.

Therefore, connection with the internal hinterland is a very important condition, and the final site selection must be a compromise between waterway conditions and location.

Bao'an County and the areas around Shekou Peninsula are very good choices.

Although the natural waterway conditions between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island are better, it is not connected to the core plain area of ​​Guangzhou Prefecture.

There is a deep-water bay in the middle, separated by a series of hilly areas.

This is an isolated corner on the edge of the continent, and communication with the inland is very inconvenient.

When industrialization was just beginning, it was quite troublesome and difficult to build railways and roads to Kowloon.

Hong Kong's special location makes it particularly suitable as a distribution center for rare commodities dominated by external forces, or as an inherently isolated military port.

Alternatively, when industrialization develops to a new stage, we can forcibly build high-standard railways and highways to connect with the inland, and become a dedicated deep-water port for ocean-going large inland cities.

Similar to the Yangshan Port in Shanghai in Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life.

The rise of Hong Kong is the result of specific historical circumstances. The world no longer has such specific conditions, so Hong Kong naturally cannot obtain the status it had in its previous life.

Now Kowloon and Hong Kong Island have become naval ports of the Ming Navy.

In the future, somewhere on Lantau Island or a small island nearby may have the opportunity to become the "Yangshan Port" of Guangzhou Prefecture.

If the Guangzhou Prefecture will not be split into several parts in the future.

When the fleet Ma Weiguo was on slowly approached Bao'an Port, he also took out a telescope to observe the surrounding situation.

Ma Weiguo mainly wanted to see what changes had taken place here during the six months that he had been away.

In this era, especially in the most advanced industrialized areas such as Guangzhou Prefecture and Bao'an Port, every year is different even for the people of the Ming Dynasty.

For outsiders like Fatah and Bagration, this impact was elevated to a whole new level.

They had seen large-scale construction sites in the Persian Gulf and huge ports and countless fleets in Malacca.

In the Pearl River Estuary, around Bao'an Port, these two things are superimposed on each other, and the scale of each has expanded to a higher level.

They originally thought that they had become completely numb, but now they showed expressions of surprise from time to time again.

After all, the Persian Gulf and Malacca are both manifestations of the external power of the industrialized Ming Dynasty, while Bao'an Port has to face the industrial society itself.

After the fleet docked at Bao'an Port, Ma Weiguo and his team underwent a new round of inspections.

Ma Weiguo and others found another group of illegal immigrants escorted by the Jinyiwei at the dock. These were the fish that slipped in from other "gates" such as Lion City and Ryukyu.

The number is an order of magnitude less than that of Singapore Port, and the composition has also changed significantly, with fewer European whites and more Hu people.

Ma Weiguo ignored these people and took Fateh and Bagration to go through the formalities.

Then the group went ashore here.

Instead of continuing to Shuntian Prefecture by boat, they were specially arranged to visit Guangzhou Prefecture first, and then take the train to Shuntian Prefecture to meet the emperor.

In the future, when overseas monarchs come to Beijing to pay homage, they may be arranged to visit.

Let them first see the true situation of the Ming Dynasty and recognize the current reality to avoid unnecessary misjudgments.

When facing the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he was also able to adopt an appropriate attitude.

The first stop of Fateh and Bagration's visit was the Foshan Iron and Steel Plant, followed by the seamless steel pipe plant, the military factory, and the shipyard.

(End of this chapter)