The Chu Empire's policy towards Annan was actually similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the two sides did not help each other and tried to keep Annan in a divided and non-threatening situation.
Therefore, the Chu Empire previously refused to canonize the Li Dynasty under the control of the Zheng family, and was unwilling to canonize the Ruan family.
At the same time, the Great Chu Empire also had contact with two local forces in northern Annan, namely the Mo family and the Wu family. In order to prevent them from being stationed by the Zheng family, it even sold them a batch of ordnance at a low price a few years ago.
This time, if the imperial high-level officials had not changed their policies and sought Cam Ranh Bay for free trade, they would not have reached such an agreement with the Ruan family.
But now that things have been done and the benefits have been obtained, it is time to reconsider the balance of the situation in the Annan region.
Therefore, when the Zheng family came to the door and offered a lot of conditions, the Dachu Empire did not refuse. Instead, they negotiated with them and signed a new agreement with the Zheng family.
For example, the monarch of the Li Dynasty under the control of the Zheng family was officially canonized as King Annam, and a batch of ordnance was sold to the Zheng family at a fair price.
The price paid by the Zheng family was to fully open the market, allow the merchants of the Chu Empire to do business freely in the northern areas of Annan, allow the Chu Empire to survey and develop the high-quality coal in Guangning in northern Annam, and allow the Chu Empire to conduct business in Guangning. A port was rented along the coast for trade and coal transportation.
The Chu Empire has long been drooling over the high-quality coal in the Guangning area in northern Annan. Although it has been involved in it through conventional commercial means before, it excavated and imported local high-quality coal and transported it to Guangzhou and Qiongzhou Island for ironmaking and civilian use. .
But there is always a lack of corresponding protection!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Dachu Empire simply proposed formal survey and development rights.
The Zheng family naturally has concerns about this. Although they don't use too much of these fine coals, they know the value of these coals to some extent. What's more, once they loosen their power and let the Chu Empire If you rent a port here, it means that the Chu Empire can directly send troops for protection.
They say they are sending troops to protect the coal mines, but if something happens, these troops will be able to kill Shenglong in minutes.
But on the one hand, the Ruan family has brought too much pressure to them. On the other hand, if the Chu Empire really wants to attack them, they can't stop it... The Lianzhou Mansion of the Great Chu Empire is in Annanguang It's not far to the north of Ning Mansion.
Finally, the Dachu Empire also provided considerable benefits, such as providing jobs for coal mining, providing taxes on coal development, etc.
Of course, the most important thing is that facing such a behemoth as the Dachu Empire, they don't even have the courage to resist!
In the end, they agreed.
They don't need this coal anyway, so it would be nice to have the Chu Empire collect some tax revenue after it is developed.
In the end, the Dachu Empire also officially signed a new cooperation agreement with the Zheng family.
With the finalization of the agreement, the Dachu Empire has officially become legally compliant, and is guaranteed to be able to enter the Guangning area of Annan to develop coal mines.
After these coal mines are excavated, they will be transported by ship to Qiongzhou Island and Guangzhou, where they will be mainly used for ironmaking. In addition, some of them will also be supplied to the nearby private coal market in Guangdong.
In the past two years in the Chu Empire, with the successful development and promotion of honeycomb coal, residents in major urban areas have gradually increased their use of coal, which has also led to a gradual increase in demand for coal.
Coal mining in the Da Chu Empire has entered a period of high development, and many places such as Guangdong lack large-scale high-quality coal, so there is a relatively large demand for imported coal.
Now we can obtain Guangning coal, and we can also supply the private coal market in Guangdong and Guangxi nearby.
In order to better develop the coal in Guangning, the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire specially established the Guangning Mining Company to develop Guangning coal.
What’s interesting is that after the Ruan family and the Zheng family reached agreements with the Da Chu Empire respectively, they both obtained a large number of cheap weapons and equipment from the Da Chu Empire. In addition, they boasted that they had the support of the Da Chu Empire. So the moves were both big and small, and the two sides started fighting again...
The civil war between the north and the south of Annan has been going on for many years. It started in the 16th century and lasted until the 17th century. It has been fighting intermittently for more than a hundred years, and it is estimated that it will continue to fight in the future.
Therefore, the upper echelons of the Chu Empire had little reaction to this. As long as one party was not completely killed, the Chu Empire could sit firmly on the Diaoyutai and sell ordnance and do business. There was no need to get involved in the civil war among these indigenous people.
With the smooth operations of the Chu Empire in the Annan region, especially after acquiring Cam Ranh Bay as a military base, Luo Zhixue praised the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, thinking that their work was excellent and effective, and asked them to continue working hard for the empire's free trade. struggle.
After receiving the praise, they immediately set their sights on other areas of Nanyang as if they had been given a shot of chicken blood.
According to contemporary navigation, most ships sail along the coastline. Many ships from the Chu Empire sailed along the coastline of the Southeast Asian peninsula when they sailed south.
At the same time, trade will also be carried out with indigenous countries along the way.
Under such circumstances, the next step of the Ministry of Rites and Education was naturally to surrender to the Phnom Penh Dynasty of the Kingdom of Cambodia south of Annan.
Cambodia's Phnom Penh Dynasty has a very long inheritance. The Wang family moved the capital from Angkor to Phnom Penh hundreds of years ago, so the current Cambodian dynasty is also called the Phnom Penh Dynasty.
Today's Phnom Penh Dynasty, like most of history, exists as a buffer state between Thailand and Vietnam, and is not very powerful.
At the same time, in recent decades, the foreign policy of the Phnom Penh dynasty has been relatively open, allowing merchants from all over the world to trade. Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Chinese merchants went to Phnom Penh to set up business offices and conduct trade.
However, the attitude towards Europeans was not so good. At the end of the 16th century, the Spanish Luzon authorities once intervened in the civil strife in Cambodia. Later, they took the opportunity to set up trading houses and garrison troops in the lower reaches of the Mekong River, hoping to monopolize the trade in the Mekong River Basin. .
As a result, they encountered strong opposition from local nobles and other foreign businessmen, including Chinese businessmen. In the end, amid the opposition, the Spanish were completely defeated and almost the entire army was destroyed.
A few decades later, around the eighth year of Chengshun, the Dutch also wanted to intervene and monopolize the trade in the Mekong River Basin. However, they were also opposed by Cambodians and other foreign merchants, including merchants from the Chu Empire.
With the support of opponents from all sides, Cambodia organized troops to expel the Dutch.
In this process, the merchants of the Dachu Empire, well, to be precise, the Nanyang Trading Company played a large role in it and provided a batch of matchlock guns to Cambodia. Otherwise, the Dutch would not be so straightforward in the fight. retreat.
After this incident in the past few years, the merchants of the Chu Empire still have quite a good influence in Cambodia, and their business scale has gradually expanded, almost controlling the main trade in the local Mekong River Basin.
However, as civil strife broke out in Cambodia, and the king who had been supported by the Nanyang Trading Company died, the Chu Empire's trade interests in this region were somewhat damaged.
In the past, the Chu Empire was too lazy to take care of these small overseas matters. Basically, each trading company handled it on its own. As the Nanyang trading company involved had a big business and was focused on going to India, it didn't have much thought. revenge.
So it only took a few years, but!
There is an old saying that it is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge!
When the upper echelons of the Da Chu Empire began to insist on and expand the free trade policy, the people in the feudal affairs department of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs also remembered this incident, so they said hello to the Nanyang Trading Company...
In October of the twelfth year of Chengshun, a fleet flying the flag of the Nanyang Trading Company arrived in the Mekong River Basin. Later, more than 500 marines flying the flag of the Nanyang Trading Company, who had just "nominally retired" from the navy not long ago, arrived. Landed and fought towards Phnom Penh...
The Kingdom of Cambodia has always had relatively decentralized power, with local dignitaries controlling actual power. However, the power of the royal family has always been very weak. Its royal guards are weak and are no match for these more than 500 marines...
After a small-scale battle, the Cambodian royal guard was almost completely wiped out... The king fled Phnom Penh in a hurry.
Nanyang Trading Company did not pursue it, but randomly found a member of the royal family to support him as the new king of Cambodia, and then signed a new treaty with Cambodia.
The treaty stipulated that Cambodia would completely open its market to the Chu Empire, and cede part of the lower reaches of the Mekong River for trade use by the Nanyang Trading Company, and compensate the Nanyang Trading Company for its loss of 250,000 taels of silver.
The new king of Cambodia surrendered to the empire, and Luo Zhixue canonized him as the king of Cambodia.
At the same time, in accordance with the treaty, it accepted the military and internal affairs 'guidance' of the Great Chu Empire, and the Great Chu Empire sent people to take over the customs and finance to raise funds to compensate the Great Chu Empire for its losses.
To a certain extent, the Chu Empire only sent a fleet, carrying more than 500 marines, and destroyed Cambodia in the name of Nanyang Trading Company, and also created a puppet state...
However, this puppet state is only in name, because Cambodia is internally divided, and most areas are actually controlled by local nobles. The king himself does not have much territory and power, otherwise he would not be conquered by the Chu Empire. A mere five hundred Marines were overthrown...
This king was originally unable to command the noble kingdoms in their country, and after becoming the puppet king of the Chu Empire, he could not command either.
But this is not important, what the Chu Empire wants is just a treaty.
After ceding the mouth of the Mekong River, the Chu Empire could actually completely block and control the trade in the Mekong River Basin.
This is what the Chu Empire wants!
From this incident, it can also be seen that the Chu Empire has embarked on the path of external expansion of Western countries such as Spain and the Netherlands.
If the Chu Empire still maintains a certain degree of popularity in its treatment of Annan, then when it comes to Cambodia, the situation of the Chu Empire is extremely ugly.
Directly send troops to kill the other party, then accept it as a puppet state, and completely block and control the foreign trade of the local country.
This is something the Spaniards and the Dutch wanted to do before, but failed to do.
However, what the Chu Empire did in Annan and Cambodia gradually spread to the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which aroused the alert of the Ayutthaya Kingdom!
According to gossip, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya has been in contact with the Dutch. At the same time, they are also building forts at several major coastal ports and expanding and training new troops using matchlock guns and artillery.
This clearly shows that he wants to guard against the Chu Empire!
It's just that this kind of defense seems to be of no use in the Chu Empire... In the past, the Chu Empire exercised restraint in the Nanyang region purely because the top officials of the empire did not set their sights on the Nanyang region.
Now that Luo Zhixue has spoken out about supporting the expansion of free trade, the empire's foreign expansion goal is naturally placed in the direction of Southeast Asia.
After taking care of Annan and Cambodia, the affairs of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya were put on the agenda!
Of course, this kind of thing is not a large-scale war, nor can it be discussed at the Imperial Council. The Navy, which was operating in Cambodia before, and Nanyang Trading Company, as well as the Eighteen Trading Company, which just arrived, had a little discussion. After a while, the fleet was assembled and left Cambodia, and then entered the Gulf of Thailand in December of the twelfth year of Chengshun.
A formal request was made to the Kingdom of Ayutthaya to fully open its market and concession trade ports.
The Kingdom of Ayutthaya felt very uncomfortable about this!
reject?
It's easy to say, even if their Dacheng Kingdom and the Dachu Empire are not directly bordering, people can still come from the sea.
Besides, Cambodia in the east has become a puppet state of the Chu Empire. The Chu Empire has established leasehold areas in the lower reaches of the Mekong River, and even established Jiulongjiang Prefecture there, which means nine estuaries from the outlet of the lower reaches of the Mekong River.
The Dachu Empire now has about a thousand troops stationed in the Jiulongjiangfu area.
This force of one thousand men can enter the Kingdom of Ayutthaya directly by land without even having to travel by sea.
And when it comes to action, it is estimated that there will not only be the Chu army of more than a thousand people, but also the servant army from the Kingdom of Cambodia.
If these threats are still relatively small, then the Chu Empire still has thousands of troops stationed in Jinling Bay, not far away.
In the second half of this year, the Da Chu Empire continued to increase its troops to Cam Ranh Bay. Now the Cam Ranh Bay fleet has reached a scale of more than thirty warships and auxiliary warships.
At the same time, there are more than a thousand Marines and an Army mixed regiment stationed there.
When necessary, these troops can be deployed in the war against the Ayutthaya Kingdom at any time.
Not to mention, behind these Chu troops, there is a country that is huge enough to make them despair: the Great Chu Empire!
Therefore, no one dares to say no easily!
But similarly, the Ayutthaya Kingdom did not dare to agree easily!
Whether it is to fully open the market or cede coastal ports, it will have extremely serious consequences.
The former will destroy the handicraft industry and re-export trade within the Ayutthaya Kingdom, and the latter... With the shameless popularity of the Chu Empire, once their troops are allowed in, let alone expect them to leave in the future, maybe the Ayutthaya Kingdom will follow the example of Cambodia. It has become a puppet state.
Therefore, the Ayutthaya Kingdom is in a dilemma.
In desperation, they remembered the Dutch they had contacted some time ago and tried to find foreign aid!
