(Qi Jiguang stills)
Strangely, during the Qing dynasty, the scourge of the enemy seemed to disappear. Not only in modern film and television works, but also in history books. In fact, this is because in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Zheng Chenggong and his son had a direct relationship with the coastal areas of China. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, both the Qing Dynasty and Japan across the sea imposed a very strict maritime ban, which physically cut off the possibility of China pirates collaborating with Japanese pirates.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Zheng family in Fujian was powerful and monopolized the local sea routes. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the Zheng armed forces gathered in Fujian were a huge force that the small court in Nanming and the Qing Dynasty dared not ignore. Because they are stationed on land and have a certain number of troops, they are an army with good combat effectiveness. In addition, Zheng, headed by Zheng Zhilong, has a huge navy.
In its heyday, this navy controlled the land and sea transportation routes from Japan to Southeast Asia. He was the first successful person in China in the Ming Dynasty who was involved in naval construction by non-governmental forces. For the purpose of controlling the trade route, it has formed a situation that has deterred the whole East Asia since Zheng He's voyage to the West in the Ming Dynasty.
In order to compete for business and collect business tax, Zheng Zhilong led a team to fight against the Japanese and the Dutch. With great strength, Zheng Zhilong wins every time. In Japan at that time, Zheng Zhilong's reputation frightened many Japanese. The mother of our national hero Zheng Chenggong is also a gentle woman of Zheng Zhilong in Japan.
Therefore, Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Chenggong and others do not need the court to come forward to negotiate with pirates who may threaten the trade routes. They will take the initiative to destroy these pirates to maintain their own maritime security. Moreover, the strength of their fleet was not something that all Japanese troops could challenge at that time. Over time, there are fewer and fewer pirates at sea.
The Qing dynasty's maritime ban policy was more strict and thorough. When the Qing dynasty gradually replaced the Ming dynasty as the ruler of the central plains, the rulers of the Qing dynasty realized the threat of the ocean, and at the same time, in order to maintain their rule in the mainland, they began to implement a stricter sea ban policy than the Ming dynasty. In June of the 13th year of Shunzhi (1656), the Qing court officially issued a "sea ban order", ordering the governors of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangnan, Shandong and Tianjin to mention the town saying, "Merchant ships are forbidden to go out to sea without permission, and some people trade with thieves all kinds of goods, such as grain, goods, etc .."
At first, the reason why they implemented this policy was to prevent Zheng Chenggong from getting supplies from the mainland. Later, as the situation changed, westerners began to wreak havoc in the waters around China. In order to gain commercial benefits, they do whatever it takes. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty began its own characteristic sea ban policy, forbidding people to build large ships and forbidding ocean navigation. At the same time, some coastal residents were all moved in, which physically isolated the possibility of the bottom people going to sea. If you want to go to sea, transport the boat from the inland to the seaside first!
The sea ban policy of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan also locked in the possibility of a large number of Japanese pirates going to sea. The main reason why the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan implemented the sea ban policy was not to limit Japanese pirates, but to prevent the influence of external forces on Japan. Before the Tokugawa era of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan's marine trade and shipping technology were not bad, but after the western missionaries entered Japan, the number of Catholics in Japan suddenly increased to several hundred thousand, which objectively weakened the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan.
In addition, after some Japanese vassal countries contacted with the west, their military strength gradually became stronger, which has seriously threatened the rule of the shogunate. Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate, which carried out the policy of repeatedly prohibiting the sea, had sufficient and justified reasons. In this way, the enemy of Japan was strangled in Japan.
Therefore, there were no enemies in the Qing Dynasty, and it was not that the navy in the Qing Dynasty was strong, which deterred the enemy. However, Japanese pirates have no environment in Japan, and Japan's sea ban policy limits the possibility of Japanese pirates going to sea. However, the Qing Dynasty's sea ban policy made Japanese pirates have no money even when they arrived in China. In addition, the Zheng fleet was severely hit in the early Qing Dynasty, which made it difficult for the Japanese pirates to survive in East Asia and naturally disappeared.