In August of the twenty-ninth year of the Ming Dynasty (1601), three huge Dutch ships appeared off the coast of Macau, which made the Portuguese who were occupying Macau panic.
Facts have proved that this Dutch fleet did not come to Visit Macao, still less to do business with Portuguese businessmen, but simply wanted to capture Macau by force.
A war ensued between the Dutch and the Portuguese.
This is certainly the ambition of the Dutch to seize, but behind the Dutch, it is even the one who led the Dutch and Australian battles:
In fact, he was a tax eunuch placed in Guangdong by the Ming Dynasty.
That was Li Feng, the Guangdong tax inspector of the Ming Dynasty.
So what kind of feud did he have with the Portuguese in Macau, so that he did not hesitate to collude with the Dutch to enter Macau?
1. How brutal is Li Feng's takeover of Guangdong's tax revenue?
Looking at the Records of the Ming Dynasty, before the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1599 Grandma), Li Feng was almost unknown, so his early experience was a blur.
However, in February of the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar, a letter to protect him directly changed his fate, causing him to appear frequently on the Shenzong Dynasty's recitals thereafter.
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With a thousand households Chen Baosheng, li feng, the internal official, mined the pearl pond in Leizhou and other places, and levied the tax department of the city.
(Records of the Myōshin Sect)
At the recommendation of a thousand households named Chen Bao, Emperor Mingshenzong Wanli Zhu Yijun appointed the eunuch Li Feng to the local government to hold multiple positions.
The first is the governor of Guangdong Zhuchi, and the other is to serve as the tax supervisor of the Guangdong Municipal Shipping Department, that is, he is specifically responsible for the customs taxation of Guangdong.
Since then, Li Feng has been in the post of Guangdong tax inspector for more than ten years, becoming a real power faction in charge of Guangdong's economic, political and foreign relations, and is also a typical example of being extremely prominent but discredited.
Because Li Feng was in Guangdong in order to collect taxes, he really caused anger and resentment and even caused a popular uprising, and almost caused the Portuguese in Macau to rebel.
The Ming and Portuguese sides also came to the point of almost starting a war.
About the second half of the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar, Li Feng officially arrived in Guangdong to begin performing his duties, and then received the annual assessment task given to him by the Wanli Emperor.
He is asked to take the amount of taxation he collects each year to a new level.
Li Feng, the tax inspector of Guangdong, was ordered to collect 200,000 taels per year.
In the same period, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces were about less than 100,000 taels, and the tax revenue in Guangdong was also less than 200,000 taels before that.
This made Li Feng's pressure increase sharply, in order to complete the tax targets of the Wanli Emperor, he could be said to have done everything to the extreme, and the land in Guangdong was eager to be plundered by him.
Within three or four months of his arrival, a tax-resistant civil uprising broke out in Xinhui County, and the two sides clashed with the government and the people because of the heavy taxes imposed.
According to the report of Gu Longzhen, the inspector of Guangdong, after Li Feng took office, he not only raised the number of taxes, but also used force to carry out forced expropriation, and the people would be punished miserably if they did not comply.
The messenger officer Chen Bao went to Xinhui County, detained civilians, and tortured them severely.
In addition to using harsh punishments to urge, Li Feng also vigorously extorted money from prison, such as saying that after Zhang San was beaten into a confession, he would let Zhang San confess his comrades.
Zhang San was forced to say that he had colluded with Li Si and Wang Wu, so Li Feng sent someone to arrest Li Si and Wang Wu, and then forced a confession against Li Si and Wang Wu, thus pursuing more innocent "human prisoners".
Of course, arresting people is not Li Feng's goal, and forcing the people to "voluntarily" pay heavy taxes by arresting people is the goal that Li Feng wants to achieve.
In the Great Prison of Kuxing, if A is convicted, it is known that so-and-so and so-and-so-and-so-B and so-and-so-B are instigated, and they are exhausted.
However, there is persecution there, there will be resistance there, rather than being oppressed by Li Feng and having no way to live, it is better to stand up and directly resist.
So Xinhui County took the lead in the anti-tax struggle.
So that the soldiers and people thousands, clamored for the county hall
。 (Records of the Myōshin Sect)
Thousands of angry people, who were persecuted and had no way to survive, flocked to the county to fight against taxes, only to be suppressed by the county government by force.
Armed clashes ensued, and the angry populace, though numerous, was unable to defeat the fierce tax collectors and officials.
In the end, dozens of people died in the anti-tax conflict.
Leading the party to hold each other, from noon to the end, squeezing the dead and injured at the county gate, more than fifty lives
After the suppression of this anti-tax struggle, the people not only did not succumb to Li Feng and others, but on the contrary broke out an even larger anti-tax struggle.
Xinhui County's resistance to taxation is only the epitome of Li Feng's "exhaustion and fishing" after he served as a tax supervisor, in fact, after Li Feng took office, the tax conflict in Guangdong was not limited to the government and the people.
Even the local government and other institutions had a lot of conflicts with Li Feng, and the two sides complained to each other in front of the Divine Sect.
However, in the face of the impeachment of Li Feng, Ming Shenzong chose to be selectively blind, either criticizing the officials who filed the complaint, or choosing to stay in the middle and press the matter.
Because After all, Li Feng was making money for the Divine Sect.
2. Doubling the tax increase led to armed protests by Portuguese businessmen
In fact, Li Feng also knows that even if the people scrape the ground, they can't find a few words, but fortunately there is a Macao in Guangdong.
Macau was re-inhabited and traded by the Portuguese, and in the decades from Jiajing to Wanli, Macau soon developed into an international trading port.
Naturally, the customs duty collected by the Ming Dynasty from Macao will not be less.
Originally, according to the custom, the Ming Dynasty's target for imposing tariffs in Macao was only enough to collect 20,000 taels of silver a year, and Portuguese merchants also accepted this not much tax.
However, after Li Feng became the tax inspector of Guangdong, because he had to complete the target of 200,000 taels per year, in addition to raiding the military and civilians, he naturally set his sights on Portuguese businessmen in Australia.
On the basis of the original twenty-two thousand, he demanded that the tariffs imposed be doubled, that is, forty thousand taels must be received a year.
He also sent haojing Australian goods 20,000 taels, and since the liberation of more than ten years, the skin and flesh of the merchants have been exhausted.
("Yin's German Tax Canal")
Originally, 20,000 good and evil people could still pay it every year, and now 40,000 taels a year, not to mention the Portuguese, can't stand it, and there are also Ming Dynasty maritime merchants in Guangdong, Fujian and other places who are doing business in Macao, and naturally they are also implicated in paying taxes with "plus pounds".
Portuguese businessmen will certainly not protest against this.
But who is Li Feng? If protest is useful, why do you want your own bunch of dog legs?
Yao Wenwei had complained about Li Feng's brutal behavior in collecting taxes in the early days of Guangdong, and what virtue the tax collectors he appointed were.
Spreading their hearts, the trees and minions, the officials and officials, many outlaws and scoundrels, digging up people's graves, bad people's houses, adulterous rooms, ruining people's property, robbing people's wealth, in order to help the desire of the stream
Obviously, Li Feng did not intend to be a person, he was trying to accomplish the taxation goals of the Divine Sect, and for his own profits, the means were all-use.
However, although the Portuguese businessmen protested at the first time, the two sides did not break out armed conflict and were still controlled within the scope of negotiations.
Subsequently, Li Feng felt that the Portuguese merchants did not know decency, so he toured Macao in July and August of the 29th year of the Wanli Calendar, and his original goal was to demonstrate and pressure the Portuguese businessmen.
As a result, because of the heavy bribes demanded from the "Samba monks", the two sides turned from a verbal dispute to a clash of arms, and some officials of the Ming Dynasty died in the clash.
Xiangshan Haojing Ao Sanba monk is very rich, Li Feng personally went to the demand, radically changed Heiyi, and went to each other, and could not return home.
("Sam Yue Hun Gou Yi Shu")
The so-called "Sampa monks" here are the missionaries in the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau, who usually receive supplies from Portuguese merchants and Portuguese authorities, so they do have a lot of property.
When Li Feng learned of this, he asked the missionaries for heavy bribes, of course, it may also be "persuading" them to pay taxes, in short, they were rejected by the missionaries.
So the two sides broke out armed clashes, and the number of casualties on the scene is unknown, but as far as the fierce description of the Ming Dynasty Heiyi is concerned, Li Feng must have suffered a loss.
Otherwise, it will not be "undesirable".
After this conflict, Li Feng dispatched troops and warships to coerce Macao by force, and who knew that the Portuguese in Macao did not instigate it.
The "Luo Tongshi", who was sent by Li Feng to communicate, that is, a translator surnamed Luo, was beaten to death in public by an angry Portuguese.
After the killing of Luo Tong, the Portuguese in Macao knew that the Ming Dynasty government would not give up, so they also built fortifications to gather merchants and soldiers, ready for a battle.
People are panicked, and there is almost chaos
。 ("Sam Yue Hun Gou Yi Shu")
Fortunately, in the end, it was resolved through negotiation and negotiation, because dai Yi, the governor of Liangguang, did not deal with Li Feng, the head of the military and political affairs of Guangdong.
Therefore, he did not support his armed liquidation and suppression actions, but instead repeatedly wrote to accuse Li Feng of making unreasonable trouble, and finally this armed confrontation between the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese was appeased by the "Tang Notice" appointed by Dai Yi.
3. Li Feng colluded with the Dutch to take revenge
Soon after the armed resistance of The Portuguese businessmen in Macao subsided, Li Feng, a brutal and vengeful tax inspector, waited for the opportunity to seek revenge on "foreign aid."
Li Feng originally wanted to "clean up" the Portuguese businessmen and kill a hundred people, but the helpless governor Dai Yi did not support it, so Li Feng could only temporarily stop eating a "dumb loss".
But sooner or later, he will repay this vendetta.
In August of the 29th year of the Wanli Calendar, two Dutch ships appeared off the coast of Macau, and the Dutch claimed to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and obtain the right to trade like the Portuguese.
However, according to the Ming Dynasty's foreign handling practices, if there is no tribute, the local government is not allowed to receive, and it is obvious that the Dutch who have just arrived "do not understand the rules".
However, they were warmly received by Li Feng of the Guangdong Taxation Bureau.
If he wanted to pay tribute, he did not dare to do anything for him, and when it was difficult, the tax envoy Li Dao summoned his chief into the city and wandered for a month, and did not dare to hear about the court, but returned it.
(Ming Shi Holland Biography)
So why did Li Feng go against the usual practice and receive the Dutch who had never paid tribute? Because Li Feng wanted to borrow a knife to kill people.
If a cruel and insane person like him does not want revenge without twisting his heart, is that still like words?
Li Feng deeply hated Macao yi and sent people to take advantage of it and seduce Macao, which was unprecedented in Macao. ”
("Sam Yue Hun Gou Yi Shu")
Why did Li Fengxiang like the Dutch as a helper?
Because the Dutch have a clean foundation, they basically have no contact with the Ming Dynasty before, and they need to tie the Ming Dynasty when they come out to drive, and the key is that he can see that the value of the Hongyi force is higher than that of the Portuguese.
Wang Linheng, a Guangdong official who experienced the first Portuguese-Dutch-Macao conflict, saw the tall Dutch and their huge and sturdy ships.
His hair is red, his eyes are round, and his eyes are long. Its boat is very large, wrapped in copper leaves on the outside, and it enters the water for two feet.
("Cantonese Sword Compilation Zhiwaiyi")
For the arrival of the Dutch fleet, the Portuguese in Australia were even more afraid than to see Li Feng, who must have captured the discord between the two countries, so he decided to use the red hair to retaliate.
Within a month of bringing the Dutch to Canton for consultations, the two sides had drawn up a rough charter of cooperation:
Li Feng demanded that the Dutch kill the Portuguese, and the Dutch demanded trade with the Ming Dynasty; and after the Portuguese captured Macau, the Dutch naturally replaced them.
So after leaving Guangzhou, the Dutch did it.
On September 27, 1601, three Dutch warships arrived in Macau, with a total strength of more than two hundred men, and the Portuguese were ready for war.
As a result, the two sides broke out into an armed conflict, and the Dutch, after all, had few ships and few ships, so they were defeated by the Portuguese in the battle, and 20 of them were captured.
After negotiations between the two sides, 17 Dutch prisoners were beheaded by the Portuguese for piracy, while the remaining 3 escaped.
The Dutch, who had suffered a loss, had to sail away.
After the war, Li Feng sent a ship to try to pick up or send the Dutch off, but in the end did not catch up, and the plan to kill people with a knife also ended in failure.
Li Feng still dispatched the ship and could not chase it.
It can be seen that the eunuch Li Feng and the Dutch are still a bit "deep in comradeship", but the Dutch are definitely at a loss.
Compared with Li Feng's simple use of the Dutch to attack Macao to avenge himself, Dai Yi, the governor of Liangguang, had a relatively profound understanding of the Portuguese-Dutch conflict.
He certainly would not do the "killing with a knife", but he also supported the Portuguese and the Dutch to go to war, because the pressure of the Portuguese competition increased, and the Ming Dynasty officials naturally better disciplined them.
Moreover, the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty was not monopolized by the Portuguese family, on the contrary, it could also shop around and increase taxes in a serious way.
In his words:
I don't have a fee, and Wei has already traveled overseas.
(Cantonese Sword Compilation: Notes on the Fourteenth Night of September)
Although he was at odds with Li Feng himself, he raised his hands in favor of the war between Portugal and the Netherlands, and even ordered the Ming army sailors not to interfere, just watch the hilarity on the side.
I ordered the boat master to lie twenty miles away to see how it changed
。 (Cantonese Sword Compilation: Notes on the Fourteenth Night of September)
The Dutch were good for the Ming Dynasty to win or lose:
After winning the war, when the Dutch first arrived, they had to listen to the arrangements made by the Guangdong side, and certainly did not dare to rebel; if they lost the battle, they also gave the Portuguese a lesson, added some pressure to them, and were not allowed to listen to discipline in the future.
However, judging from the results of the battle, Li Feng's purpose was obviously not achieved, but Dai Yi's strategic purpose was completed.
(A word of family, seek common ground while reserving differences, thank you for reading)