"Xu Xinsu?" Zheng Haizhu read the name twice and said with a strange look on his face: "I've never heard of it."
Yan Siqi asked: "Where is Yu Zigao?"
"I know that. The current Fujian Commander-in-Chief is the son of Yu Dayou, a famous anti-Japanese general."
Yan Siqi nodded, rolled up Li Zhizao's simplified version of the world map, took four tea cups, and placed them on the table.
"Azhu, General Yu Zigao, Yu Zongbing, is now the same as Li Rubai in Liaodong. Relying on the foundation saved by his father's generation, his family's business is doing a lot. Of course, he is still stronger than Li Rubai, and he still controls the military command along the coast of Fujian. , the naval forces are all left behind by his father, Yu Dayou."
Zheng Haizhu stared at the tea cup representing Yu Zigao on the table and asked: "Is there a gunboat? How big is it and what kind of guns are it equipped with?"
Yan Siqidao took the second tea cup and said, "There are cannons, and they are not bad things. Most of them are based on the money Xu Xinsu made for him. Last year, Eunuch Liu sent a message, saying that after the imperial court appointed me as a propaganda envoy, I prepared a generous gift and went to see Yu Zigao near Xiamen. He must have got the news, and he treated me politely and allowed me to disembark. Not only did I see the gunboat, but I also met Li Dan's former aide, Xu Xinsu .”
Zheng Haizhu suddenly realized.
Although she could not recite the names of every key figure, she could still remember the general context of the Fujian-Taiwan sea area and the relationship between officials and businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty.
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Li Dan, the Chinese businessman who was entrenched in Hirado Port, Japan, and was Yan Siqi's original boss, had already planted cronies along the coast of Fujian, established friendships with the civil servants and military generals of the Ming Dynasty, and made a fortune together.
The imperial court's ban on trade with Japan gave them huge room for personal gain. Part of Li Dan's fleet was loaded with silver and bought goods from the Ming Dynasty from Yu Zigao. After being escorted by the Yu family army, they transported the goods back to the sea and fought with Japan, Portugal, Spain, and later the Dutch and the British. trade.
Therefore, after hearing the names "Yu Zigao" and "Li Dan", Zheng Haizhu understood the identity of "Xu Xinsu".
This Xu Xinsu was Li Dan's agent on the coast of Fujian, equivalent to a white glove. Local warlords like Yu Zigao, who did business and made profits, would also treat Xu Xinsu as a guest.
"Brother Yan, what did Yu Zigao say during your visit?"
The corner of Yan Siqi's mouth twitched slightly: "Just eating and drinking, talking about some scenes, and mentioning Qi Shaobao's poems. I don't want to be granted a title, but I hope the sea will be peaceful."
Zheng Haizhu said with a smile: "Of course I hope that the sea will calm down, otherwise we who are engaged in maritime trade will drink from the northwest wind? However, Xu Xinsu does not shy away from confronting you. Mr. Yu is an open-minded person. After all, there are always brothers in Japan. I can't hide this matter when I come to Taiwan to seek refuge with you. Did Xu Xinsu reveal anything during that visit?"
Yan Siqi placed the teacups representing Japan and Penghu to the east of the teacups representing Yu Zigao and Xu Xinsu, one to the south and the other to the north, and replied: "As for Li Guozhu's harm to us, and after Li Guozhu was sent back to Hirado by the imperial court, Xu Xinsu didn't mention Li Dan's attitude at all. However, when Yu Zigao asked Xu Xinsu to toast me a drink, Xu Xinsu said that the eldest brother is the eldest brother, and he beats Frankie well."
Zheng Haizhu stroked the rim of the teacup representing Penghu and muttered: "We are all trained foxes. What Xu Xinsu said in front of Yu Zigao was exactly what Yu Zigao meant. Do you still remember the patrolman who colluded with Li Guoshu? Haidao Deputy Ambassador Cai Feng, right?"
"The one who was shot to death by Eunuch Liu?"
"Well, that's him. I talked to Cai Feng. He has a Cantonese accent and was transferred to Fujian for more than a year. I guess that an arrogant civil servant like Cai Feng would be stupid not to let General Yu go. In his eyes, Cai Feng and the Spaniards wanted to share a piece of the merchant business near Penghu. Therefore, Yu Zigao was happy to see him die."
Yan Siqi echoed: "It's the most taboo thing in the world to dig out a snake nest without the ability, but not take the local snakes seriously."
Zheng Haizhu turned his head, moved closer to the window, looked at Beigang, which was gradually becoming clearer, and murmured: "Why are we digging out the snake's nest? We don't need to boast about being golden lins. We can join forces with the local snakes to deal with the foreign rats."
…
Beigang, Taiwan, is commonly known as "Old Port" and "Bengang", and covers the area from Taipei to Keelung today.
More than 40 years ago, Lin Feng, a native of Chaozhou, gathered people and started his business in sea trade. After growing in strength, he came to settle in northern Taiwan. While building ports and doing business, he also engaged in immigration and farming, and built northern Taiwan into a very prosperous city. Prosperity.
Lin Feng hoped to be recruited by the Ming Dynasty, but the court ignored him and ordered the general troops of Guangdong and Guangdong to continue the encirclement and suppression. Lin Feng then took all the people and ships and headed south to Luzon, trying to drive away the Spanish, occupy Manila, and establish his own overseas kingdom.
After Lin Feng left, the island of Taiwan, which originally had a middle-earth atmosphere, gradually became an "enclave". Chinese and foreign smuggling fleets occupied their own berths in northern Taiwan to trade goods and replenish water.
In the setting sun, Yan Siqi, who had sailed to the "Yan" flag ship north of Hualien, pointed to a row of three-masted ships with cloth sails in the distance and said: "After I established a foothold in Tainan, I and my brothers who came to Japan to seek refuge, I have visited this place several times. There are many private ships in Hirado, Japan, Ningbo, Zhejiang, and Zhangquan, Fujian. But the ones you see now are the ships of the Hongyi people. After the hurricane season last year, I I also saw your old acquaintance there.”
Hearing this, Zheng Haizhu rolled his eyes and smiled: "Is it that smooth-tongued Gulit?"
"Yes, our ship sold him more than ten tons of black tea. This Gulit didn't even pay back the price at the time. He seemed polite and sincere, but the next day he came to bribe the tea farmers on our ship and us, trying to get him to make black tea. French."
Zheng Haizhu was not surprised at all.
In the Age of Discovery, people, goods, ideas and technology have entered a process of global interconnection, and information lockout is impossible. The sweet potatoes that Xu Guangqi planted in Songjiang to prepare for the famine were also sneaked into the country by the Chinese from foreign ships.
Historically, after black tea appeared in Wuyi Mountain, black tea soon appeared on the commercial market in Sri Lanka and other places in Southeast Asia.
What matters is not technical barriers to cargo, but sea control.
As the ships sailed, in Zheng Haizhu's field of vision, the white sailing ships of the Dutch fleet and the Spanish fleet slowly turned into the bamboo sailing ships of the Chinese merchant fleet, and then the Japanese red seal ships.
But they have one thing in common: they are all equipped with artillery.
Truth is within cannon range.
The tax bank was out of cannon range.
Zheng Haizhu looked at Taiwan's North Port, which was still busy just before the Spring Festival. She knew that in two months' time, it would be even more lively to coincide with the Manila galleon's voyage across the Pacific in early summer.
The white tax money is within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the court itself cannot get it. Ten times the huge profits have been made by foreigners on the land that the Chinese have cultivated for generations.
In Zheng Haizhu's ears, he thought of Yan Siqi's voice: "Azhu, I am luckier than Lin Feng. Back then, I, Yan Siqi, got the recruitment that Lin Feng wanted. But what the imperial court gave me was the Taiwan Xuanfu Envoy, not the Tainan Xuanfu Shit, how can I be willing to accept it when I see Beigang is still in this situation, do you understand?"
Zheng Haizhu raised his head and looked at him: "Brother Yan, when you return to Tainan, give me a small boat and send the brother who went to Xiamen to take the helm. I want to see Xu Xinsu."
