Chapter 182 Borrowing Troops
This negotiation is still ongoing, and the Portuguese municipal meeting in Macao has a certain interest in the suggestions of Guangdong officials - after all, ensuring trade with China is their biggest concern. The Australian Yang Fan's swaggering move into the Pearl River Estuary also made the Portuguese feel an unprecedented threat.
Although this group of so-called "Australians" in Lingao have not directly harmed the interests of the Portuguese so far - apart from granting India-Lingao trade concessions to a few ships, they have not done anything in overseas trade. Make a big move. Most of the transactions with the Chinese in Guangdong were bulk goods such as basic livelihood products, food, cotton, and various minerals, metals, and wood that the Portuguese had no interest in.
Generally speaking, the Portuguese and the Australians in Lingao are not in conflict with each other, and they each get what they need - the Australians sell a large number of high-quality and low-cost industrial products to the Portuguese, which makes the Portuguese in many distribution and transfer areas. They make a lot of money in the sales market. The Portuguese also sold a lot of "Indian goods" to Lingao. This made the Portuguese, who were originally desperate to open the Chinese market, become very interested in the Australians. They believed that if they could establish stable trade relations with the Australians, they might be able to open up sales channels for goods to Australia.
However, the Australians defeated the Ming army in Lingao, and the subsequent movement of the fleet into the Pearl River alerted the Portuguese - the Australians were obviously not a group of pirates or businessmen who were just content to stay in a remote small county. They have bigger intentions.
Among the Chinese in Guangdong, a vague rumor has reached the ears of the Portuguese: the Australians are Chinese who went overseas centuries ago, and they are coming back to regain the throne, title and fiefdom of their ancestors.
Geranzani can get the latest progress of the meeting every few days - it is not surprising that the intermediary in the Guangdong officialdom who came to negotiate was Li Luoyou, who lived and studied in the Jesuits when he was young, although he was Macao has his own residence, and the Jesuits still come to visit several priests he is familiar with every few days.
Li Luoyou did not conceal the purpose of his visit and the content of the negotiations. In Macao, the Jesuits have great influence on the Municipal Council of Macao. So he thought it would be beneficial for the Jesuits to understand the negotiation process.
Li Luoyou was shocked that the Ming government launched an attack on Lingao. He didn't expect that the government would attack Lingao so rashly - didn't they know to send someone to investigate in advance? Li Luoyu thought with regret that if they could send people in person, this war might be avoided. The officers and soldiers also conserved more energy. Based on his understanding, the officers and soldiers of Guangdong are no match for the Australians. Li Luoyou knew that without a numerical advantage, the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers might not be able to deal with the Portuguese army, which was cobbled together by various people. Not to mention the Australians, whose weapons quality and training organization were ten times better than the Portuguese. .
When the wealthy businessmen, officials and gentry in Guangzhou were involved in the fight for the purple title, and many merchants cut off business dealings with the Australians for various reasons, Li Luoyou still quietly continued to maintain transactions with Lingao. Ship after ship of medicine, metal, grain, and cloth were transported to Lingao. In exchange for him, I need all kinds of Australian goods. It was not until officers and soldiers blocked the Qiongzhou Strait that the movement was stopped. This kind of trade made his Qionghai Trading Company in Lingao very profitable, which greatly surprised Gu Baocheng, who was doing business in person for the first time.
In Li Luoyou's business, in terms of scale and efficiency, the Qionghai ship was not ranked at all. However, Li Luoyou set up this place as an important business base, and it was Gu Baocheng's first business business. ―He most likely regards this property as a way to revive the Gu family's business in the future, so his investment in it is quite generous.
Li Luoyou spent a lot of money to buy a large piece of land in a newly opened area of Dongmen City. Part of it was used to build houses and the Qionghai Trading Company. For the rest, he asked Baocheng to build the place first and not to use it in a hurry or sell it easily.
"Isn't it a pity that this wonderful world has been abandoned like this?" Gu Baocheng asked.
Li Luoyou asked him to find a few vegetable farmers and lease out the vacant land to grow vegetables. Growing vegetables is a very profitable project in Lingao - the large industrial, mining, administrative, military and other non-agricultural populations need a large amount of vegetables as non-staple food.
"Growing vegetables is not only to make more money." Li Luoyou taught earnestly, "but also to prevent people from gossiping. The good land is left with long grass. Others will not think of anything else when they see it. They will only think that we are wasting natural resources."
"My nephew understands."
"If you want to get the land, you can't let it go unused. This is your advantage." Li Luoyou expressed his appreciation for him.
On the eve of the officers and soldiers beginning to blockade the Qiongzhou Strait, Li Luoyou, who received the news, sent a messenger secretly to Lingao. Because the officers and soldiers' crusade against Lingao was so powerful, some of the crew members and stewards on the Qionghai were in panic all day long. He kept urging Gu Baocheng to return to Guangzhou first to avoid the limelight.
"The master said that if the young master feels that the situation here is critical, he can come back. The master will never blame the young master." The messenger said.
"You go back and tell the master." Gu Baocheng said confidently, "Although the Australians have a hard battle, it is extremely difficult for the officers and soldiers to win."
The messenger replied to Li Luoyou exactly what Gu Baocheng said. Li Luoyou nodded secretly. Although this child's vision was still a little bad, after all, he no longer followed others' opinions and had his own knowledge--the knowledge was not bad.
He Rubin's entire army was destroyed in Chengmai, and then he was besieged in Qiongshan. This was not beyond Li Luoyou's expectation. Even when Li Fengjie secretly sent someone to summon him and asked him to act as an envoy to negotiate with Macao, he was not surprised. The Governor's rash attack is bound to fail. After failure, someone has to clean up the mess. The one who cleans up the mess is of course Li Fengjie.
Li Fengjie is Li Luoyou's biggest backer in Guangdong. Li Luoyou handles many of the governor's business affairs, including investment and lending, and also runs many pawn shops, maritime trade, and sī businesses that the governor invests in. Or he has a bad reputation. Or officials are not allowed to get involved in lucrative industries. The collusion between the two is close. When Li Fengjie proposed that he wanted to compete for the post of governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Luoyou immediately asked someone to remit 5,000 taels of silver to the governor's office in Beijing's Zhezi Study Room as funds for the activity.
This kind of friendship is certainly extraordinary. So as soon as Wang Zunde fell ill and Li Fengjie came out to arrange the defense of Guangdong and secretly prepare money to negotiate a peace, he invited this "business partner" to come forward and ask him to come forward to negotiate with the Portuguese to help defend the Pearl River Estuary.
"Brother, I'm afraid you know it too." When Li Luoyou met He Chengzong, who was visiting Foshan on a starry night, he looked very unhappy. "The thieves have already entered the Pearl River and are now looting, burning and killing people in Dongguan, Xin'an, Shunde and Nanhai." The county was shocked three times a day..."
"I heard that they occupied the tiger gate?"
"Humen is so dangerous that it only took the Kun thieves two days." He Chengzong was frustrated and uneasy. "It was a complete defeat." He briefly told the story of the Battle of Humen. When he mentioned that the Australians had "strong ships and powerful artillery", Li Luo You was secretly surprised, because he heard from the other party's words: the Australians did not dispatch either large iron ships or iron clippers. Using only fifty or sixty ordinary sailing ships and self-propelled small boats that emitted black smoke, they captured the Tiger Gate, which had multiple forts and hundreds of artillery positions. 2,000 officers and soldiers were defeated.
Unexpectedly, the Australian navy was so powerful. Li Luoyu was secretly satisfied with the defeat in Guangdong, thinking that this was an excellent lesson for those arrogant officials. Now I am worried - the Australians have such a strong military and are now at odds with the Ming Dynasty. There is no guarantee that they will not be another slave builder in the future.
"Dong Weng has entrusted me with some important matters." He Chengzong said in a small voice, "Only me can handle this matter. Once the matter is accomplished, Dong Weng will express my gratitude."
"I can't thank you enough." Seeing his strange expression, Li Luoyou knew that it must be an important matter - this matter was probably related to the Australians. Could it be that he was asked to come forward and talk to the Australians? He also said in a small voice, "What do you want to do, sir?"
"This matter is not enough for outsiders to understand." He Chengzong continued.
"rest assured"
He Chengzong then revealed his purpose in a low voice. Li Fengjie asked him to go to Macao in person and ask the Portuguese to send troops to blockade the Pearl River Estuary.
"... the Fo Langji people have seven or eight large ships like a city in Haojing, with cannons like forests on them. Even the warships of the Kun thieves may be difficult to defeat." He Chengzong said, "The Kun thieves are now rampant and wreaking havoc on the river, but the weapons they use The artillery and artillery are all transported thousands of miles from Lingao. As long as the Folangji cut off their supplies and the thieves are short of weapons and ammunition, they will have no choice but to retreat."
Li Fengjie chose Li Luoyou to be the envoy. First of all, of course, he was his confidant and he could be assured of it. Secondly, Li Luoyou had a close relationship with the Portuguese. Finally, Li Luoyou was a businessman, not an official, and neither was he. People in the shogunate.
The matter of asking the Portuguese to send troops to help was, to put it bluntly, to seduce foreign vassals. If the Yushi Yanguan knew about it, it would cause an uproar. Only a businessman with no official background like Li Luoyu can take action so that officials can deny the news if it leaks out - after all, he is a serious "citizen", not even a "temporary worker".
Li Luoyou was speechless. He found this matter very difficult. He had no idea whether the Portuguese would do this or not. As a Chinese who is very close to the Portuguese and understands their way of thinking, he knows that the Portuguese are willing to maintain the smooth flow of their commercial trade, but there is a question mark as to how determined and capable they are. In addition, since the Portuguese opened port in Macao, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese can hardly be said to be harmonious - at best, they can only tolerate each other. The calls in officialdom to expel the Portuguese have never ceased. Especially recently, news has been circulating in the market that the high patrol will expel the Portuguese and ban trade. The words are so clear-cut and vivid that even the Portuguese have heard about it.
In this case, the Portuguese still had to send troops. He was not sure what the other party would think about it.
"This matter is very difficult." Li Luoyou decided to tell the truth, "The memorial of Gao Xunjian is now a storm in the city, and most of the people from Fo Langji also know about it. How will they deal with it when they ask about it?"
"Just say that there is absolutely no such thing."
This is simply a child's play. Li Luoyou thought to himself that the matter of Gao Xun's memorial will not come out of nowhere and veto it without any explanation. If the Portuguese get the exact information in the future, they will not regard Ming officials as A person with no integrity?
"This...if something happens in the future, wouldn't it be a huge loss of face for the government..."
He Chengzong smiled calmly: "Have the government ever said this?" He looked very pleased with himself.
Li Luoyou glanced at him in disbelief - he completely understood what He Chengzong meant. This was not said by anyone in the Guangdong government but by him, the representative. And Li Luoyou is not an "official", so there is no problem of officials lying. Besides, at that time, the government could completely deny that Li Luoyou had any relationship with the government.
This group of people thought so ridiculously that they actually regarded lying as a strategy. He Chengzong was so proud and said this without any subtlety. It seems that he obviously thought it was no big deal to let a businessman like Li Luoyou tell a few lies. . I suddenly felt extremely chilled.
"This class of scholars has read every book into the dog's belly. They can come up with all kinds of despicable and shameless ideas." Li Luoyou was furious in his heart. But his face was calm, he just smiled slightly and said: "This, isn't that appropriate?"
He Chengzong still had a complacent expression on his face: "What's wrong? You're always a businessman, so what does it matter if you say a few wrong words? Just deal with what's in front of you first."
"Haha, haha." Li Luoyou said haha. He can rely on "integrity" to gain a foothold in the mall. If he deceives the Portuguese this time, it will be difficult for him to gain a foothold in the Australian business community in the future. Therefore, he must not tell this "Li Dai Tao Jian" type of lie.
If the Portuguese really wanted to ask about the memorial of the high patrol, he decided to make a straightforward statement: saying that he did not know the matter. Let the Portuguese judge for themselves. There are many people in Guangzhou who are willing to sell everything for foreign money. They will naturally find the real answer themselves.
After He Chengzong left, he began to seriously consider this task. Of course, unless he no longer wants to do business in Guangdong, Li Fengjie's request cannot be refused. And you have to find a way to achieve it.
Although he is a business partner of the Australians, he thinks the Australians have gone too far this time. Disturbing Guangdong will only further bleed Daming's already severely weakened body. In his opinion, it is better for the Australians to continue to stay in Lingao and sell Australian goods. Although the Portuguese may not be able to succeed immediately, a little pressure will be useful.
The tricky thing is that this is difficult to do - the Portuguese may dispatch warships to patrol and try to expel the Australians for the purpose of safeguarding commercial interests. But their naval power, which is quite impressive in East Asia, can even make Liu Xiang fearful and dare not attack Portuguese merchant ships wantonly, but it is simply vulnerable to the Australians. As long as one of the four clippers appears at the Pearl River Estuary, it can single-handedly defeat the entire Portuguese naval power in Australia. He had no doubt of that.
Regardless of whether the Portuguese had the ability to expel the Australians, since the government was asking for help, it did not offer any conditions that were beneficial to the Portuguese. The senior bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty had a mentality of "drinking water without forgetting the well digger" and always regarded themselves as the well diggers. In the view of Li Fengjie and his staff, the Portuguese's ability to settle in Macao was entirely due to the grace of the Ming Dynasty. If the Portuguese want to stay here, they must serve the local officialdom unconditionally.
If they did not understand this, the bureaucrats were prepared to use threats to force the Portuguese to realize this.
In other words, this is not a reciprocal negotiation, but a constant threat that "you may suffer losses if you don't do this."
Of course, threats are also a means of negotiation. As long as the power is strong enough, the threat can be fulfilled at any time. But when his own side is in urgent need of help, he is still threatening possible allies, which really makes him feel embarrassed. The Australian Municipal Council must want to know what benefits it can gain by spending a large amount of military expenditures and dispatching warships to attack the Australians, who have always had friendly relations with them.
After much thought, Li Luo had no choice but to use the major issue that the Portuguese were most concerned about, the maintenance of China's trade, to persuade them to dispatch warships: if they want to maintain Macao's status as a major foreign trade hub in the Ming Dynasty, they must protect the waters of the Pearl River Basin. law and order. Ensure the safety of ship traffic.
The request of the Guangdong governor brought by Li Luoyou was immediately submitted to the Macao Municipal Council for discussion. Portuguese dignitaries and dignitaries from business associations held long discussions on this issue and formed two completely different opinions.
Although the Portuguese did not like the Ming Dynasty government, after all, the government gave them a place of residence and gave them a monopoly on trade with China under the mentality of not wanting to deal with foreign businessmen. Once the Australians and the Ming Dynasty fell into If the war continues for a long time, the lucrative trade operated by the Portuguese in the Pearl River Delta will be unsustainable. Therefore, the voice to help the Guangdong government fight against the Australians has always been high.
But other people thought that the Ming Dynasty was not a good trading partner. They constantly restricted the Portuguese's trade, restricted the types and quantities of goods they purchased, restricted the cash they carried, and even prohibited them from hiring or buying local slaves in Guangdong. And there are constant proposals to expel them from this small colony. Some people even believe that this "arrogant" government should be taught a "profound lesson" - if the Australians are willing to do so, the Portuguese do not need to intervene. On the contrary, the Portuguese can even use their natural position as a middleman in peace talks between the two sides to gain greater benefits.
