"What? The merchants of the British East India Company and the Qing Dynasty in the north...didn't they say that the Qing Dynasty was very poor? How could the English..."
Caballero was a little skeptical of Van Diemen's words.
The civil war in England is not over yet! Both the parliament and the royal party were busy killing each other and had no extra energy to interfere in the internal affairs of a great eastern empire. Therefore, the British East India Company's behavior in the Far East should be, and could only be, the pursuit of short-term interests.
If you want to pursue short-term interests, you should naturally interact with Daming.
The Ming Dynasty not only had silver, but also bulk trade items such as silk and porcelain. And the Qing Kingdom in the north...how much money do they have? What else can be sold to Europe?
There was nothing, how could the people of the British East India Company have close relations with the Qing court? Aren't you afraid of offending the Ming Dynasty?
In addition, the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company were sworn enemies... If they had secret dealings with the Qing Dynasty, they would definitely have to hide it from Van Diemen, otherwise he would definitely expose it to the Ming Dynasty.
Van Diemen also knew that the Justice of Manila was not that easy to fool—how could he be a Justice if he was so easy to fool? How to try the case?
But the profiteer Van Diemen is not afraid of being seen through by the Manila Justice... So what if he is seen through? The Spaniards will still take over from Bruce - Bruce Van Diemen has a new place to go recently. The newly appointed governor of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia feels that it is unprofitable to maintain secret contacts with the Qing Dynasty, so Bruce Van Diemen and his team are to be sent to Ming Dynasty as military advisors!
Therefore, Van Diemen now wants to find a successor for the situation he created in the Qing Dynasty. The Spaniard, who does not care much about profits, is obviously a very suitable successor.
And the conflict between them and Ming Dynasty is irreconcilable...so they can only bite the bullet and take over!
Van Diemen did not bother to explain why the English wanted to be friendly with the Qing Dynasty, but directly talked about the Qing Dynasty's plate.
“The Qing Dynasty had a population of more than 11 million and a standing army of about 200,000 people. Their cavalry was very powerful, and they also had a small number of 3-pound cannons... They were all high-quality artillery produced in England, and the gunners were well-trained. In the Mongolian War in 1648, a prince of the Qing Dynasty commanded an army of 50,000 people and defeated the Khalkha-Mongolian coalition at a very slight cost. It also caused extremely heavy casualties to the Mongols. Now the entire Mongolia is in ambush. At the feet of the Qing Dynasty!"
What Van Diemen was talking about was the battle between the Qing army commanded by Dodo and the Khalkha Mongol coalition supporting the Sunit tribe. It was the same as in history, and Dodo won a complete victory! And the victory was even more glorious, because Dodo's army had thirty or forty 3-pound bronze cannons.
It may be difficult for these artillery to show its power against the Ming army's positional battles, but it is very effective against the Mongolian warriors with poor equipment and too many Amitabha chants. In the battle of Ouket Mountain, more than thirty 3-pound cannons were concentrated They approached and opened fire, causing heavy casualties to the Mongolian coalition forces and causing chaos in their formation. Duduo took the opportunity to send out cavalry to attack, and easily defeated the Mongols, killing the Mongolian coalition forces and leaving them lying dead for dozens of miles.
Now the Khalkha Mongolian tribes knew the power of the Qing Dynasty, and they cried and offered Jiubai's tribute to Emperor Amadorgun for mercy.
However, Dorgon, who defeated the Mongols, did not regain his ambition to go south. Instead, he transferred his energy to the Jingqili River Basin and the Yaksa area. The Daur tribe living there reported the discovery of Luo to Ningguta. The bandits from the Kingdom of Cha are invading!
Because of the help of the "English Military Advisor", Dorgon already knew that the Rakshasa Kingdom was a vast Western power and could no longer take it lightly.
Moreover, there is no hope for the Qing Dynasty to move south. If his hometown in the northeast is taken away by the Rakshasa Kingdom, won't there be no place to escape?
So now he doesn't dare to take it lightly, and is considering whether to have a fight with the Rakshasa people... And this is the opportunity for the "English" to withdraw and the Spaniards to enter the market to take over!
...
When Dorgon turned his eyes to the north and wanted to protect the retreat of the Ten Banners (including the two green flags), the Ming Dynasty was busy going south to eat - the territory of Jin'ou Army and Jing Haijun was not small, although it was not too fat. , but it is also an extremely humid plain. Once it is developed, it will not be a problem to transport tens of millions of tons of rice home every year.
Calculating the yield of three shi per mu, tens of millions of shi is just three to four million acres.
On Jinghaijun's territory alone, there are no less than 1.5 million acres of abandoned farmland (originally belonging to Zhan people)!
And re-cultivation is much easier than opening up new cultivated land... So in the eyes of Yao Daqiao and Ye Jiaxin, who really know how to farm, Jinghaihai is a treasure land to make a fortune!
Outside Shanghai Shiliupu Pier.
At this time, it was a noisy and chaotic scene. There were a sea of people on the pier, some of whom were waiting in line to get on the ship, and some who came to see off their relatives.
Prepared to go out to sea are three bird ships carrying five to six thousand stones, belonging to a Huizhou Gang small shipyard - now there are six maritime business groups in the southeastern sea of the Ming Dynasty, the largest of which is of course the Minnan Gang headed by the Zheng family, followed closely. The last is the Haisha Gang headed by Shen Tingyang's Shen family. These two gangs of maritime merchants are both semi-official and semi-private, and are very powerful, but they cannot monopolize maritime trade. In addition to them, there are four maritime merchant gangs including Huizhou Gang, Ningbo Gang, Guangfu Gang and Hakka Gang.
The reason why we form a gang is to keep each other warm.
There is no royal law at sea. Even with the order established by Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang in the North and South Oceans, it cannot guarantee 100% safety.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants are now traveling further and further, and have extended their business beyond China's offshore waters. There, the influence of the Zheng and Shen families was not that great. Therefore, other maritime merchants formed four major gangs based on their respective places of origin.
Yao Daqiao, a big profiteer from Hubei, lost half of his street in the feudal debt crisis. Because he had business dealings with several big Huizhou merchants, he chose this street belonging to the Hui Gang on their recommendation. of medium-sized bird boats.
"Boss Yao, don't worry, my boat couldn't be safer. No matter how big the waves are, it can't capsize. Moreover, it's equipped with 6 3-pound cannons. It's better to go with three bird boats. I'm not afraid of pirates... ..."
The person who is patting his chest and promising to Yao Daqiao is a Huizhou boatman. His surname is Wang. It is said that he is a member of the clan of Wang Zhi, the owner of the Wufeng boat that roamed the coasts of China and Japan. He is in his thirties this year and has been running on the sea for fifteen years. You have to look like an African.
Yao Daqiao still had some money, so he built a deck to transport not only people, but also goods and livestock.
He was a profiteer with an old business and knew that he should conduct investigations before making big bets - he was too impatient when he speculated on feudal debts last time and did not conduct a thorough investigation, so he only lost half a street.
But this time he learned his lesson, and instead of attacking the Jin'ou army immediately, he sent Ye Jiaxin to go first - the trip was not cheap, the shipping fee alone was hundreds of taels! If you don’t have the capital, you borrow a loan shark to buy a ticket to get on the ship, you will end up working as a coolie when you go to Jinou Army or Jinghai Navy...
But Ye Jiaxin's trip was not in vain, and he found out the situation of Jin Ou Army and Jing Haijun. Knowing that Jin Moujun can't go, we have to go to Jinghai Army - Jin Moujun is an endless forest, and it is not easy to develop it, unless you want to cut down the trees and sell the wood.
There are large areas of abandoned paddy fields over Jinghai Haijun. Anyone who knows anything knows that it is not difficult to revive recently abandoned farmland.
In addition, it is difficult to sell livestock and agricultural tools in Jinghaihai - the agriculture of the Zhan and Annan people is not very advanced, there is a lack of high-quality agricultural tools, and the number of buffaloes is also small. If there were hundreds or even thousands of acres of land, without cattle or good farm tools, it would be impossible to farm.
So Yao Daqiao spared his money and bought a deck, bought 30 buffaloes (both male and female) and a large number of "Shenyang Iron and Steel" farm tools (not Shenyang Iron and Steel, but Shenjia Iron and Steel), and shipped them to Jinghai Navy together.
In addition to buffaloes and farm tools, Yao Daqiao also bought some sweet potatoes and taro to take with him on the road - farming is risky, so you can't just plant one variety, you have to plant several varieties to ensure that colonization will not lead to starvation.
