In 1664 AD, March of the 15th year of Dashun's rule, Shalian City.
This city, located at the southernmost tip of the Dashun Empire, was the only seaport for Dashun, a feudal military country that was blocked by the Ming Dynasty in the mountains of southwest China. Around ten years of joint rule, as the war between Dashun and Siam gradually subsided, the feudal lords across Myanmar gradually accepted the reality that Dashun replaced Toungoo. This became the largest exchange between the Dashun Empire and the world. thoroughfare. Silk and porcelain from Sichuan, cotton and horses from India, and arms from the West and the Ming Dynasty (the Ming Dynasty exported arms, but could not monitor their flow), all came here from thousands of miles away.
But the businesses in the Ming Dynasty that were full of the evil smell of capitalism were different. There was no unpleasant smell of capitalism in this trading city that belonged to the Dashun Empire.
This is a rather serious and dull trading port!
In Salim, trade can only be carried out in the designated Shipping Bureau, and all merchants who come to Hong Kong can only trade with the Salian Shipping Bureau, and cannot directly trade with merchants from Dashun or other people coming to Hong Kong. Businessmen conduct transactions. Merchants who violate this provision will be subject to heavy fines, usually confiscation of goods and deportation!
In addition to having only one trading object, merchants who come to Hong Kong for trade are not allowed to wander around casually. They can only hang out in the barley yard on the banks of the Dashun River (Yangon River). It's just a prison city. It is surrounded by tall walls, and there are only two entrances and exits, one leading to the dock and the other to Sha Lianfu City. They are all under the guard of Dashun's Changzhengfu soldiers (fu soldiers who have served for a long time), and their entry and exit are strictly controlled.
According to regulations, ordinary merchants can only travel between the "Lengcheng Prison" and the dock - the passage between the "Lock City" and the dock is not a normal road, but a corridor blocked by wooden fences. Merchants could only carry their goods through the corridor, and trenches were dug on both sides of the corridor. The bottom of the trench was filled with sharpened wooden piles, making it impossible to pass.
Since the Shipping Department of Salim City is relatively slow, during the busy trade season, businessmen coming to Hong Kong have to queue up to wait for transactions. Therefore, when entering the market, merchants must first get a number, then stay in a designated hut in the market, and then wait patiently.
Of course, the huts are simple and simple, and the food is very monotonous. There are only meat buns, some fruits and vegetables, and a kind of rice wine brewed from rice. If you don’t like to eat, you can bring your own dry food, or you can go hungry...but you can’t spend money on delicious food!
Because there is no place to buy, there are no shops that serve food in the market. In addition, in order to prevent businessmen coming to Hong Kong from illegal transactions in the market, merchants are not allowed to bring gold, silver, copper coins and other currencies into the market. It's on the market, so they don't have the money to buy it.
How to trade without money?
Bartering, of course.
Unlike the Ming Dynasty, which was keen on accumulating gold and silver, the Dashun Empire did not need gold and silver, nor did it need a surplus (it did not need gold and silver, so there would be no surplus), and of course it did not accept a deficit. Dashun's foreign trade purpose is one, to exchange what is needed.
That is to say, the silk and porcelain produced in Sichuan were exchanged for the cotton, horses and arms needed by the Dashun Empire.
Among all the foreign merchants who came to Hong Kong for trade, those who arrived with Western guns and cannons were undoubtedly the most popular. Because the long-term war between the Dashun Empire and the Ming Dynasty is still slowly going on!
Since the eleventh year of the co-rule, at least 250,000 Dashun soldiers have been serving in battles throughout the year on battlefields bordering Ming and Shun in Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, etc. (the number of Dashun soldiers now has reached 500,000, so half are serving and half are in the countryside). Although the battle was not intense, the year-round consumption still put great pressure on the Dashun court, which had limited material resources.
Not only was the supply of arms very tight, but because too many government soldiers and civilian servants were serving in the army, the consumption of food was also alarming.
Fortunately, Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou under Dashun have maintained a relatively high population growth rate in the past two decades. Therefore, there is already a surplus of labor in the countryside. Even if half a million people (50% government soldiers and 50% civil servants) have been separated from agricultural production for a long time, the rural land has not been left barren.
Not only is there no desolation, but the sown area is increasing every year - the excess population has made it possible to develop large-scale terraces, so the cultivated land in Sichuan and Yunnan and Guizhou has increased year after year.
At the same time, the pressure of population growth also forced the Dashun court to increase its efforts to develop Myanmar. Since the 13th year of the co-rule, tens of thousands of Sichuan peasant households whose land was taken away by the government soldiers have left their homes every year under the organization of the household government of the Dashun court and came to Myanmar, which is full of malaria, to cultivate land.
Sha Lian Mansion, located on the seaside, is also an area where Sichuan farmers from southward settled. So when Bruce Van Diemen left the "Prison City Forecasting Field" and headed for Shalianfu City, he passed two brand-new, fortress-like villages and towns belonging to Sichuan immigrants.
His current identity is the special envoy of the Batavia State - in the name of the special envoy of the Dutch East India Company, he cannot meet Li Jicheng, the grandson of the Dashun Emperor who is in Shalian, because the East India Company's special envoy will be regarded as Dashun officials. A lowly businessman.
Here in the Dashun Empire, merchants are the last of the four peoples...
Salimfu City is a triangular bastion, constructed very cleverly, occupying a triangular island located south of Salim Quechang and located at the intersection of two rivers. This island was originally a delta, with two sides facing water. The only side that was originally connected to the land is now blocked by an artificially dug river channel, so it has transformed from a delta into a triangular fortress.
On the northwest side of the triangular fort, where the artificial river is located, there is a town surrounded by a wooden fence, leaning against the artificial river. It is more prosperous than the "Liaocheng Market". There are shops run by indigenous merchants and Han merchants from the south in the town.
But when Bruce arrived, these shops were already closed because it was getting late and the town curfew was coming...
"Um, I know that the Sha Lian Mansion is responsible for Gao Yidao, and I came here to ask questions on the order of the Governor-General of Burma's Military Affairs, His Majesty the Crown Prince!"
In the town outside Sha Lian Mansion, in a relatively decent-looking post house, Bruce Van Diemen finally met a big shot.
The younger brother of Empress Dowager Gao Guiying of Dashun, Gao Yidao, the prefect of Sha Lian. Like other Dashun officials, Gao Yidao also followed a simple path. This old Shaanxi man who had been in a high position for a long time wore a faded blue official robe, no hat, and his gray hair was combed. Bun.
Bruce Van Diemen stood up quickly, performed a Chinese fist-clasping salute, and then said in Chinese: "Your Majesty, Van Diemen, the envoy of the Kingdom of Batavia, has met the governor."
"Hahaha, Ambassador Fan's Chinese is pretty good!" Gao Yidao raised his hand at Bruce, "Sit down, sit down and talk... This is not the Ming Dynasty, we don't have such big rules. !”
In fact, the rules here in Dashun are much better than those in Daming today! If Bruce came as a representative of the East India Company, it would be time to kowtow to Gao Yida...
"Thank you." Bruce thanked him and sat down generously.
"Tell me, what are you going to do when the Bala Kingdom sends you here? Is it to make a sacrifice? Or is it to make good friends?"
Bruce Van Diemen smiled and said: "No, we, the Batavia Kingdom, are here to ask for help from the Dashun Celestial Empire!"
"Please help?" Gao Yidao touched his gray beard, "Who bullied you?"
"It's the Ming Dynasty!" Bruce Van Diemen said, "We, Batavia, Johor, Aceh, Perak, and Pattani, have always lived in harmony in Malacca without any disputes with the world. But the Ming Dynasty In the past few years, they have continued to send troops to invade. The year before last, they also invaded the Pattani Kingdom, killing countless people and committing many crimes. It is really outrageous! Therefore, we, the Kingdom of Batavia, Johor, Aceh and Perak, had to join forces to fight against the Ming Dynasty. It’s just that our national strength is really limited and we can’t defeat the Ming army, so we had to send me to ask Dashun for help!”
