Chapter 51 Lando’s Mission
"Can you mark all the facilities in the port?"
"I am allowed to go anywhere, but there is a large part of the port that I and my men are not allowed to set foot in. [Read the full text]" Li Huamei said with regret, "They monitor me very strictly - in the past, Australia It's relatively loose when people are guarding it in person. Now it's replaced by Ming people recruited from the mainland, but it's much tighter."
"So you are starting to lose attraction to them." Li Siya said jokingly, "Your charm has declined."
"No, I think they like me very much, especially among naval officers." Li Huamei said, "But there are some people among Australians who are very vigilant and suspicious of everyone-including their own people. Consider it. When they are actually weak, there is nothing wrong with doing so.”
"How many troops do you estimate they have?"
"I can't estimate this, but at the port, you can see about two companies of infantry at all times. They are very well trained - completely European-style training and very well equipped. Gunners and sailors are not included. If the sailors are All armed, at least twenty companies can be organized. These sailors are also well-trained. The Australians have many firearms and plenty of ammunition."
"In this way, the Dutch have no hope of attacking Lingao."
"Not at all. How many ships can the Dutch dispatch? Fifteen? Sixteen ships? When they expedition to Penghu, they could only dispatch fourteen ships." Li Huamei said, "Back then, when they pulled all the British on board and dispatched all the ships, they still couldn't even do it. Macau has not yet been captured, and now if we attack Lingao, which is ten times more difficult to conquer than Macau, I am afraid we will not even be able to enter the port, and we will only be in trouble."
"So they are willing to pay five thousand shields." Li Siya said.
"We have a very good relationship with the Australians, and the Goa trade is very profitable. Why go to the fire to get chestnuts for the Dutch? It's just five thousand guilders."
"This matter is not as simple as five thousand guilders." Li Siya opened a corner of the curtain and looked at the dripping fountain in the atrium. "You said: In the past three years, the strength of the Australians has been increasing day by day. One day they become stronger. When they are strong enough to ignore the heroes in the South China Sea, will our sisters still have an easy life?"
"They were very early. Zheng Zhilong..."
"Zheng Zhilong is also a threat." Li Siya said, "The Australians in Lingao are more dangerous than Zheng Zhilong - no one knows what their intentions are - they still have many trump cards that they have not revealed."
Li Siya believes that a fight between the Dutch and Australians would do no harm to them. Since it is impossible for the Dutch to destroy the Australians - they will only be beaten and defeated - their interests in Lingao will not be affected in any way. The threat of the Dutch as a strong enemy for the Australians will only further win over existing collaborators, and Li Huamei can extract more benefits from them.
Generally speaking, if this opportunity is used well, the two families will suffer a "double loss", while the Li sisters will "win a win".
"We want the Australians to suffer a little bit," Li Siya said, "so that they will treat you better. In short, there needs to be less chaos on the sea."
"The Dutch can't make the Australians suffer. They don't have the ability."
"It's up to us," she said, "to give the Dutch a helping hand."
Li Huamei remained calm: "What do you want to do?"
"There is a person and I am going to use him."
"Aragones? Although he is in a bad situation, he is not a useful person."
"He? It's somewhat useful. But I want to use this person: Weiss Lando."
So she called one of her closest confidants, a black slave girl, who often handled secret matters for her, to see Lando. Not only can this woman speak very good Portuguese, she is also a cold-blooded killer when necessary. She is good at preparing poisons and administering poisons. She has secretly eliminated many enemies for Li Siya and those who annoyed her. people.
Li Siya uses her keen sense of smell and pervasive spying - she has raised a large number of scum of all nationalities in Macau, acting as eyes and ears - to master all kinds of information in the city.
When Weiss Lando appeared in Macau, she didn't arouse much interest. He was just a common European dregs in the Far East - relying on his brute strength and ability to wield a knife and a gun to get some benefits. Even on the Countess of Scarborough she was not too impressed by the man. Except for the strangely accented Italian and the mannerisms that don't fit in with the surroundings.
Later she saw him many more times on the street, in hotels and in churches. This person never received his attention, but once, one of her men brought her a strange thing.
This is a rectangular piece of paper, printed very beautifully, with a beautifully printed round head of a European man on it. As for the text above, she didn't recognize it. It should be in a European language. In addition, it is just an Arabic numeral 1o.
The source of this piece of paper was the proprietress of the small hotel where Lando stayed. The man was drunk and tried to use this piece of paper to pay the bill. When he was rejected, he went crazy with alcohol and stuffed it into the boss's wife's bra.
Li Siya asked the proprietress to buy the piece of paper for one rial. In this piece of paper, she thought of similar printed matter that she had found from Shopkeeper Wen. But Shopkeeper Wen’s shirt is red, with the Arabic numeral 1oo written on it. The avatar is of a yellow man. In addition, the text above is also in Chinese characters.
Weiss Lando turned out to be an Australian, and at least he had a deep relationship with the Australians. Li Siya appeared in the new continent. Thinking about it this way, when Aragones attacked Lingao, he was throwing himself into a trap. Needless to say, the other party sent this person to Macau for himself.
She immediately asked people to keep an eye on the Australian - but almost more than a year later, Lando not only never returned to Lingao once, but also never even visited Huang Shunlong's shop. He had no contact with the outside world at all, except for When the Jesuits go out for work, they spend almost every day in Macau living a life of intoxication.
He doesn't look like a secret agent in any way.
She asked the Jesuit insider for all the information about this man. Lando received it from the Ming government. The Ming government captured him from a small coastal county called "Lingao". At that time, he was rescued by several fishermen and brought to the county.
The insider told him: Lando served the Jesuits very faithfully, and Lord Geranzani was very satisfied with him - except for spending money.
After a long period of observation and testing. Li Siya confirmed one thing: Lando is an Australian, but Lando and the Australians in Lingao are not the same group.
If they were part of a group, he would never have had anything to do with Lingao's Australian life in the past two years or so. Moreover, he had never done anything to serve the Australians - except for raiding gambling shops at night. The news may have been leaked by him.
In addition, she also learned from Geranzani's attendants that Lando had said to the president several times: "They are out-and-out Chinese, although they are not from the Ming Dynasty."
Although the president may not understand what he means, Li Siya does: Lando clearly shows that he knows the details of the Australian in Lingao. As for why he said "they are Chinese, not people from the Ming Dynasty", there should be another reason.
If he were an ordinary person, Li Siya would have secretly kidnapped him and tortured him to find out the reason. But Lando was serving the Jesuits in Macau, and she was not so wild as to dare to offend the Jesuits.
Now is a good opportunity. Li Siya thought about it for a few days and came to such a conclusion.
If the Dutch wanted to find out about Lingao's secrets, she could let Lando go. If Lando was an Australian spy, he would never tell her Lingao's key defensive measures. But Lando didn't know that Li Huamei was hers. Just compare it and you'll find it. On the other hand, Lando is not a spy, and he will have more detailed information about the Australians than his own nanny.
If this is the case, Lando will be a rare person. Li Siya thought that the Australians will definitely be the dominant force in the South China Sea in the future. The benefits of having someone who knows their details in her hands are immeasurable. of.
Lando didn't know that he had been tricked by Li Siya. Since he accepted the money, he decided to go to Lingao in person. Go see with your own eyes what the Chinese are doing in Lingao, and gauge whether you can defect to them. In his opinion, no army in this time and space can be an opponent of the Chinese armed with modern weapons. If the Chinese actually suffered a defeat at the hands of people from this time and space, it would be better for him to simply give up the idea of defecting to them.
However, the faces of Europeans are too conspicuous in Lingao, and the Chinese will stare at them as soon as they enter the country. It's impossible to pretend to be a businessman - I don't look like a businessman, I know nothing about the trade here, and I can't stand questioning at all. Lando thought twice and decided to pretend to be the priest's attendant. The Jesuits will soon send two priests to Lingao. 6 After Ruohua's letter requesting to send more priests arrived, the Jesuits sent three more people. However, the demand for priests in Lingao continued to increase, and in the previous period, another priest fell ill while preaching in Li District. “Called by the Lord.” In accordance with the requirements of the Lingao Church, the Jesuits decided to send two more priests to Lingao to preach.
Lando went to ask Father Comange, saying that he was very curious about Lingao and hoped to go with the group to see it. His request was immediately granted. So Lando became a member of the Jesuit mission.
The spring sunshine shines through the gaps between the bamboo trees outside the window, casting mottled shadows on the square tiles. The gentle breeze shook the green bamboo, and a broken curtain flowed back and forth like a stream.
The bamboos have all turned green, and the withered yellow leaves of winter are fading away one by one. The courtyard was full of life.
The furnishings in the study are very simple, and it is difficult to imagine that it is the private study of Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.
Wang Zunde was reading a letter with his head down. His attire is very simple, almost as good as a Han Confucian. Wang Zunde was famous for his simplicity. He always lived in civilian clothes and was a vegetarian. He had a reputation for being upright in official circles.
This is a letter brought back from the capital by one of his disciples. With his dignity and status, it is convenient and quick for the provincial officials to send him private messages, but Wang Zunde never bothers with their service - who knows if Dongchang has ever seen the letters sent back to the province by these official officials? private message.
A private letter from Beijing contains nothing more than family gossip, various news, and trends in the court. It turned out to be nothing, but I was afraid that the gang of eunuchs in Dongchang would find out some "shouldn't" words, and I would be in trouble.
The letter was written by a court official in the same year. And this letter made him feel an inexplicable worry. What aroused his concern were the several "enclosed letters" included in the letter.
According to the official customs of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the main text, people wrote letters with a so-called "details". A letter is an anonymous letter used to request services or discuss confidential matters.
The letter now in Wang Zunde's hand also has three sub-openings.
Believing that the text contained some polite remarks about daily life in the cold weather as usual, Wang Zunde glanced at it hastily. The first one was about the news from the court. He read it briefly and talked about the recent trends of the court: Yuan Chonghuan's prospects are not good - more than a month ago, the court had sent people to Guangxi to arrest Yuan Yuanhua in Teng County. Family members and relatives came to Beijing. This high-ranking official who was once highly valued by the emperor may not be able to escape the fate of execution. Although Yuan Yuanyu had nothing to do with him and he was not implicated, seeing him being reused and then being arrested made him feel sad.
He picked up the second copy.
The content above is the news of the imperial court's battle with Jianlu and rogue bandits. The war in the east has temporarily calmed down since the imperial court regained Zunhua, but the situation of rogue bandits in the northwest is getting worse day by day, and is gradually starting to start a prairie fire. Moreover, among them, the postmen, town soldiers, and military households in Shaanxi Town were "a lot of thieves."
When Wang Zunde saw this, he couldn't help but sneered, thinking that this was just an expected thing. The town soldiers were already in arrears on an annual basis, and the abolition of post soldiers was even more of a failure. Northwest Shaanxi is a bitterly cold place, not as fertile as Jiangnan and Guangdong, where one can barely survive begging for food. It turned out to be a miserable life of half-starved and half-fed, but now they have been laid off. How can they survive without rebellion?
This kind of chaos may not be suppressed within seven or eight years.
He dropped the envelope and picked up the next one.
This letter is very simple, but relatively important. The main thing is that since Xiong Wenhuan recruited Zheng Zhilong, the situation along the southeast coast has stabilized, and the emperor seems satisfied with this. Xiong Wenhuan is being urged to "clarify the foreign situation" as soon as possible.
Zunde snorted. Xiong Wenhuan's move was just to use a thief to fight a thief, hoping that both sides would lose and he was just reaping the benefits. It's just that this matter may not be as simple as he thought.
Although Guangdong doesn't have much contact with Zheng Zhilong, it knows a lot about it. The news came mainly from the Portuguese. Including Zheng Zhilong’s origin history and his special relationship in Japan, etc. Wang Zunde knew very well that Zheng Zhilong was by no means a kind person, nor was he an ordinary pirate who would be satisfied with the empty title of "guerrilla general".
After he was appeased, he refused to leave the Zhongzuo Institute and occupied Jinsha. His purpose was nothing more than to use it as a port to trade with Japan and other places. The Portuguese come to Guangzhou twice a year for trade, and a lot of useful information can be obtained from their mouths. For example, Zhongzuo Institute is more ideal as a trading port than Yuegang; Zheng Zhilong's repeated attacks on Yuegang were not intended to rob, but mainly to force merchants to no longer trade locally, etc.
"Zheng Ni is ambitious and has great intentions, and he is definitely not sincerely surrendering to the imperial court." This was Gao Shunqin's comment after hearing Zheng Zhilong's request - privately, of course.
But Xiong Wenhuan doesn't see it that way. For more than a year, he has been continuously supporting Zheng Zhilong with heavy artillery on ships, and even gave Zheng Zhilong a lot of Hongyi cannons cast by Wang Zunde for Fujian. Zheng Zhilong simply gets wind and rain in Fujian. He knew that the Zheng family had purchased properties in Fujian, and even reached out to Guangdong and bought many farms and properties. He even purchased a farm outside Guangzhou. It's absolutely insane
But Zheng Zhilong finally wiped out Zhu Cai Lao and other long-standing pirates one by one. As long as Xiong Wenhuan's good news continues, any impeachment will have no effect. In both the government and the public, there are quite a few people who agree with Xiong Wenhuan's approach. The court meeting is very favorable to him, and depending on the momentum, he is very likely to be promoted.
These news seem to have nothing to do with Guangdong. However, Wang Zunde knew that if Xiong Wenhuan was promoted, he would most likely take over his position - there were also pirates in Guangdong, and their momentum was no less than that of Fujian. Xiong Wenhuan will probably come to Guangdong now that he has a reputation as a capable person who can defeat thieves and calm the sea. He is now the governor of Fujian and has made great achievements. It is not necessarily just a smooth transfer to the governor of Guangdong.
If I can't quickly open up a situation and achieve several maritime victories, I'm afraid my position as governor of Guangdong and Guangdong will be unsustainable.
It's just that the pirates on the Guangdong ocean are not easy to deal with. The first big pick is Liu Laoxiang. This person has been patrolling outside the Pearl River Estuary for a long time. From time to time, he goes deep into the Pearl River to rob villagers and ships, blocking overseas trade. The Portuguese in Macau came to talk to him every three days, hoping that the two sides would jointly attack.
The Portuguese had large plywood ships and large bronze cannons, and their combat power was considerable, but the Ming Dynasty could not send any troops. If you want to attack, you need to pay the troops and prepare the ships, which requires a lot of money. The chief envoy of Guangdong has been crying about poverty, saying that there is no money in the vassal treasury. Right now, most of the money for cannon casting for the provinces is still owed. The price of the artillery pieces approved by the Ministry of Industry has not yet been seen.
However, Guangdong has a lot of financial resources. If you really want to fight, you can still do it regardless of where you make a fortune first. Just not worth it.
Moreover, the Guangdong official circles knew nothing about Liu Laoxiang's details, and they didn't even know as much as the Portuguese. Without a guide, it is simply wishful thinking to find Liu Laoxiang's fleet among the vast sea and countless small islands. In the end, it was nothing more than losing troops and generals. The imperial court could afford to lose in the past, but now it can no longer afford to lose. Losing a battle once means never being able to recover.
Thinking of this, he was very irritated. a! ~!
