There are two sides to the matter. Cao Peng saw the telegram from Zhao Xin early in the morning. He was eating breakfast and spit out the porridge without holding it in his mouth. When the newlywed wife Lin Sanyue saw this, she hurriedly helped clean up the mess with the maid.
"Eat slowly, what happened?"
"This 'Prince Zhao' is so ambitious! After messing around with Europe and South Asia, I think he is even more troublesome than the British!"
Lin Sanyue didn't understand her husband's nonsense and sat on the steps of the porch playing with the kitten. After she got married, her black braid disappeared and was replaced by a woman's bun. At first, she had her hair styled into the most common style of the Li Dynasty noble lady's hairdo. However, Cao Peng found it ugly, so she asked Shen Xuan for advice and changed it into the Ming Dynasty's "?? bun" hairstyle.
At this time, the sunlight outside the house was shining down, making March's hair even darker and shinier, and her fair neck glowed with a strange brilliance in the sunlight, which made Cao Peng a little crazy.
Yue Yue felt that the sound of snoring and eating porridge behind her suddenly stopped. When she turned around and saw Cao Peng, she couldn't help showing a hint of shyness and rolled her eyes at him.
oops! Cao Peng thinks such a small life is really wonderful!
Life has to be lived and business has to be done. He finished the last piece of pickled radish on the plate and lingered for a while. Then he got up and changed his clothes. He led two of his men out of the house and went to talk to Shibata Kakuzo.
Kakuzo Shibata had been promoted from the "messuke" of the Sendai Domain - that is, the spy chief - to the chief of the feudal clan two years ago, and was specifically responsible for matters related to docking and Beihai Town. Things like labor export, arms purchase, Qingye Camp personnel recruitment, etc. were all put under his name. Of course, he is also responsible for borrowing money from Beihai Town.
Seeing Cao Peng, Shibata Kakuzo changed his poker face that had not changed for thousands of years, showed a smile, stood up and held his hands, and said in slightly stiff Mandarin: "Brother Ling Han is here?"
That's right, Cao Peng also has words now. Before he left Beihai Town, he specifically asked Duan Yucai to give him a word. Otherwise, he would feel uncomfortable when he thought of being called "Cao Sang".
Duan Yucai first asked his birthday and then his place of origin. Of course, Cao Peng did not dare to say that he was born in the 1980s, so he reported the year according to the eighteenth century. The lunar month and day were true; what about his place of origin? Naturally, he is from Shexian County, Anhui Province, a fellow countryman of Cao Wenqian. Duan Yucao thought for a moment and wrote three options on the paper: "Hai Qiu, Yi Zhi, and Ling Han". Cao Peng fell in love with the last one at a glance.
Cao Peng smiled and cupped his hands towards Shibata Kakuzo and said: "Shibata-san, I have been entrusted by the Palace of Prince Zhao to come to you today to discuss a major matter."
As soon as he heard that Zhao Wangdian had an order, Shibata Kakuzo immediately backed away, knelt down and sat upright, as if he was prepared to accept the order. Cao Peng then sat cross-legged and whispered into the other person's ear for a moment.
After hearing this, Shibata Kakuzo asked with a surprised look on his face: "Brother Ling Han, is there anything wrong with this domain that would dissatisfy Prince Zhao?"
This guy is obviously more than ten years older than Cao Peng, but he calls him "Brother Linghan" every time.
Cao Peng shook his head in surprise and said, "Why did Shibata-san say this?"
Shibata Kakuzo said: "This domain and Beihai Town are in the same spirit. We can gather 15,000 troops, not to mention 5,000, so why go to Edo?"
Cao Peng thought about it. Now the Sendai Domain alone has a population of nearly 700,000 in the Mutsu Domain alone, not to mention the 600,000 in Minami Kyushu. In addition, Zhao Xin also provided guns and military pay this time. If the Sendai clan had sole control, it would probably make a lot of money.
It is said that the Sendai clan has borrowed more than 7 million taels of debt from Hokkai Town in recent years, so that it can maintain its position as the leader of the "Mutsu Deha Alliance" and lead a bunch of poor small clans to fight against the Tokugawa shogunate. He even thought about seeking Guan Bai's position. Even though the head of the family, Date Saimura, is only 17 this year, he has sent several sums of money to the court in Kyoto and is now a fourth-ranked Lieutenant General of the Guards. In history, Date Qimura was nothing more than a fourth-ranked Guards Major General until his death.
The problem is that the money borrowed from the businessman can be ignored, but the money borrowed from Beihai Town to the Sendai clan cannot be ignored even if it is a hundred times bold. However, just relying on the output of Sendai Domain and Minami Kyushu, seven million taels would not be enough in a hundred years. Now that there was a sudden opportunity to make war fortune, how could Shibata Kakuzo share the profits with the Tokugawa shogunate?
Sure enough, in the meeting hall of Aoba Castle Ninomaru the next day, everyone including the head of the family, Date Saimura, agreed with Shibata Kakuzo's approach. Isn't it just 15,000 soldiers? The Sendai clan is all covered! No dregs of soup will be left for the Tokugawa family!
It is said that the island country has had a good relationship with the Dutch over the past two hundred years, and has developed many orchid scholars. They have long learned from the Dutch books that the land in Southeast Asia can be harvested three times a year.
In the past, there was no chance, and neither the Spanish nor the Dutch could afford to rebel; but it is different now. With the support of the Northern Navy fleet, it doesn't matter a few people. If we can get a piece of land there and send people to cultivate it, It will definitely greatly alleviate the situation of insufficient grain production. In the future, there will be no need to import wheat from Beihai Town, which can save a lot of money.
When Cao Peng learned from Shibata Kakuzo that the Sendai clan wanted a piece of land, he sent a telegram to Bacheng and mentioned the Sendai clan's request to provide all the troops.
However, because Zhao Xin ran back to worry about buying a ship, he did not call Cao Peng back until five days later. As long as Kalimantan was captured, the Northern Navy would assist the Sendai clan in acquiring the long and narrow Palawan Island in the northeast. But there is one thing. In the middle of the island, the Northern Navy wants to take away a piece of it as a transfer station to the Nansha Islands in the future.
The reason why Zhao Xin chose this island is that although it is 425 kilometers long from north to south, it is only 40 kilometers wide from east to west, so there is no strategic depth at all. If there is really any trouble, the Beihai Navy can easily penetrate it by attacking from both sides.
After Shibata Kakuzo learned the news from Cao Peng, he was overjoyed and immediately reported it to the head of the family, Date Qimura and his elder Ishikawa Murafumi. The young Ida Qicun was also quite excited about this. This was about opening up territory, so there was nothing to be afraid of. All he had to do was have the big ships from Beihai Town to help transport people.
No matter how many sons you have in the future, you won’t have to worry about losing your fiefdom, and you won’t have to become a monk anymore!
As for the first batch of troops, for the sake of confidentiality, Ishikawa Murafumi decided to allocate them directly from the Sendai Domain workers who were building the railway in Beihai Town, and then deploy additional troops later. Ever since Beihai Town imported railway construction workers from the island country, the Sendai Clan Alliance and the Shogunate Beihai Province have always been doing their own work. The two sides are hundreds of miles away and cannot be seen at all.
Three days later, Cao Peng, on behalf of Beihai Town and Date Qi Village, signed an agreement on related matters in a secret room in Ninomaru, Aoba Castle.
The two parties agreed that no later than the end of January 1793, that is, December 17, the fifth year of Kansei, the Sendai Domain must transfer the first batch of 5,000 healthy soldiers to Beihai Town for training, and provide no less than Two hundred vassal officers as reserve officers; the second batch of 5,000 men should be delivered no later than the end of April 1793 - that is, March 15th of the sixth year of Kansei; the third batch of 5,000 men should be delivered no later than the end of June - that is May 15th, the sixth year of Kanzheng.
Beihai Town will train all soldiers and feudal lords in accordance with the standards of the Aoba Camp and provide all equipment including military uniforms, weapons and ammunition. After these troops complete their mission and return home, all weapons and equipment will be donated to the Sendai Domain.
During the service of all officers and soldiers, Beihai Town will pay monthly allowances based on the standard of 10 to 100 Beihai dollars. The relevant death and injury pension standards are the same as those for officers and soldiers of the same level in the Northern Navy. In order to control and enable the families of officers and soldiers to get the money on time, Ishikawa Murafumi also added a special clause in the agreement. All subsidies will be deposited into the savings account of Ishinomaki Port Hokkai Bank and shall not be paid directly to individuals.
While Cao Peng's affairs were completed, the delivery procedures for the fishing boat and several small boats purchased by Zhao Xin were also completed. What he got this time was a medium-sized tuna seine fishing boat that had just been launched for a year. Because it had to hunt down tuna schools, the main engine power was as high as 3000kW and the speed could reach 14 to 17 knots. The length is 60 meters and the total tonnage is 1,000 tons.
The most special thing about this ship is that there is a thick mainmast behind the deckhouse, and there is a fish lookout on the top, which is perfect for observing the surrounding situation. Because its speed is unmatched by anyone in this time and space except Beihai Town, no 75mm cannon is installed on the ship.
The only regret is that Zhao Xin spent a third of the money because he bought it in a hurry. However, almost every time Prince Zhao buys a boat, he is in a hurry, and he is used to being taken advantage of...
After being delayed in Bacheng for so long, several French people were already a little annoyed. There are only so many places to go in the three cities with Tiananmen Square. Moreover, the church in Bacheng has been converted into a hospital, and there is not even a place to worship. The problem is that there is no church in Beihai Town. The only two priests are Orthodox and are incompatible with Catholicism. Now it’s too late to hire someone from Macau. Let’s wait until next year.
The personnel of the alligator team have been selected, half of them are marines and security teams. After the personnel are in place, they will shoot close-range moving targets at the shooting range every day. All team members were told that they could only hit the crocodile on the head and never on the body. The crocodile skin is a good thing.
Hunting crocodiles does not mean waiting for the crocodiles to land and shoot them from a few dozen meters away. It means baiting them with iron hooks in the river. When you find that the crocodile has taken the bait, you drive the boat over, pull the rope to lift the crocodile's head, and then shoot it.
The court asked the court to find manpower for the leather-making workshop from local immigrants. A few dozen people would be enough. Traditional leather making in China generally uses vegetable tanning or oil tanning, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The plant method is to extract tannic acid liquid by boiling the bark and soak it; oil tanning is generally soaked in fish oil solution, which is what is commonly known as oil chamois. Bacheng is close to the sea, so there is no shortage of fish oil.
In addition, tanning leather also requires quicklime and large amounts of sea salt. Limestone is easy to say, it can be mined in the southern part of Sumatra Island, and the reserves are extremely abundant; in addition, a salt drying field must be built.
The immigrants who came to Bacheng have only grown sugar cane and coffee over the years, and only a few people have farmed. Now, following Zhao Xin's idea, everyone from top to bottom became busy. You must know that just to extract lime from Sumatra Island, you have to build a fleet and recruit a group of miners.
Zhao Xin checked the information and found that the limestone and iron ore reserves in the southern part of West Java were very rich. He felt that the cement industry could be developed in Bacheng in the future. At the very least, bridge building, road construction and port construction were all needed. But in order to deal with these, we still have to deal with the Dutch in the south and the surrounding sultanate.
Due to time constraints, a group of French people spent a hot Christmas in Bacheng. Zhao Xin brought two Christmas trees from another time and space and installed them with snowflakes, bells, puppets and a star on the top of the tree, surprising the "Ra Gods" and Louis Charles. In addition to arranging a delicious meal, he also bought a lot of gifts, painstakingly removed the labels, wrapped them in colored paper, and placed them at the door of every house on Christmas morning.
Is it easy to hire a few intellectuals for Beihai Town?
