Buried alive in the Qing Dynasty

Page 331

And on the Guide Gate Tower, the Ming Emperor Zhu Heqi, the Supreme Emperor Zhu Cijiong and all civil and military officials, honored clans, and envoys from various countries were all on the Guide Tower, playing all the cards in front of the emperor, waiting The meritorious soldiers who led the expedition to Luzon triumphantly and the captives captured by them as prey.

People in the two capitals of the north and the south have seen such a grand event before, but it is the first time for the people of Guangzhou City, Haijing, which is the land of prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, to see it... and the newspapers in Guangzhou have all said that this time What was defeated by the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty was not a small country in Nanyang, but the largest country in the world, Spain, the empire on which the sun never sets, known as the gods!

The so-called sun never sets means that the country is too big and too wide, and his family's territory is everywhere, and the land is all over the world, so there is always a place under the sunshine of the sun!

And this Spanish empire on which the sun never sets is extremely vicious. It began to rise almost 200 years ago. It was fighting every year and expanding every year. It expanded from a small country in a corner of the European continent to a land area. A superpower far surpassing that of Ming Dynasty...even established a stronghold on Taiwan Island, the inherent territory of Ming Dynasty!

And more than a hundred years ago, when they had just conquered Luzon Island, they even planned to use Luzon as a base to destroy Ming Dynasty with an army of [-]... This is the extreme madness, life and death!

Later, although due to various reasons, the expedition failed to take place, but the country massacred Chinese businessmen in Luzon three times... At least half of the Chinese businessmen who were killed were fellow Cantonese fellows of the big guys!

This is a country full of evil, except for Shang Kexi and Kang Mazi, they are the worst in the world.

Moreover, this Spanish country teamed up with Kang Mazi, who had gone to India, and wanted to attack Daming ruthlessly!

Such an evil empire is now defeated by the subordinates of the Great Ming Dynasty... and Da Ming didn't use all his strength, he just recruited a group of dwarf soldiers from Japan, and beat up the mighty God's family Spain all over the place. !

Looking at the scene on the street where groups of dwarf soldiers with flintlock guns are escorting the tall and burly Spanish foreigners, it is not only relieved, but also a little funny.

And behind the street windows of the tall buildings on both sides of the street, there are many big businessmen who are doing business in various countries in Southeast Asia, or have made a fortune in maritime trade with the Nanyang Trading Company.Most of them held up the binoculars of the Crystal Palace brand and looked at them from a distance. Seeing those foreigners who were arrested, they all became very excited... Spain is nothing but this, and the Netherlands is not much better than it!

The fortress of Santiago, which the Spaniards worked hard in Luzon, was broken by those dwarf soldiers with mines and rockets in a few days... How strong can the Dutch Batavia fortress in Java be?Where is the fortress of the Dutch in the Straits of Malacca?

If Batavia and Malacca can be taken down...then the Netherlanders' monopoly trade in the Spice Island in Southeast Asia and through the control of Malacca will all fall into the hands of the Ming maritime merchants!

This is a good business with a lot of money!

In many enclosures, at this time, there were already people discussing in low voices about petitioning Emperor Zhu to crusade against the Netherlands...

"No matter how bad the Spaniard in the Philippines was, he never dared to invade the mainland of China. However, the East India Company in Batavia repeatedly offended China and even burned down a new warship built by Zheng Yiguan in Xiamen... Zheng Yiguan The official is a guerrilla from the Daming Navy, and they burned the ship of the Daming Navy! This account must be settled!"

"What's more! They took advantage of the death of the surname and the civil strife in the Yanping Palace, colluded with the Qing demons to attack Xiamen, killed many anti-Qing fighters, and forced the little King Yanping to give up Xiamen and flee to Taiwan... This enmity, little Can King Yanping forget?"

"The Dutch also colluded with Kang Mazi, sold a lot of weapons and sugar medicine to Kang Mazi, and helped Kang Mazi kill my Ming soldiers. He deserves death!"

"That's right, the Dutch are more hateful than the Spaniards, we must not let them go!"

"How could it be possible to let it go? After defeating the Spaniards, it is time to defeat the Dutch... If the court wants money, they can issue Malacca bonds and spice bonds. I will buy one hundred thousand yuan first..."

"We can bring it up at the advisory council, and the imperial court will definitely agree!"

"You can also invite Big Brother Hui, Yanping Wang and Chen Junshi to talk together..."

These Cantonese fellows of Zhu and Qi are really loyal and patriotic to the emperor. They have already decided to spend money to buy bonds to help Emperor Zhu beat the Dutch!

Just as these patriots were discussing how to be patriotic, the warmest cheers erupted from Guidmen.

"Wan Sheng! Daming Wan Sheng..."

It turned out that the team that offered the captives had already arrived at the Gate of Guide, and all the captives were escorted to kowtow to the Grand Duke on the top of the city gate to beg for work... Seeing this scene, the people outside the Gate of Guide were of course in a state of excitement .

On the top of Guide Gate, all eyes were on Emperor Zhu. There were almost 1 people kneeling on the street outside Guide Gate, and most of them were female relatives... Forgive, or not?

Of course I'm sorry!

Those who couldn't be spared, the "short soldiers" took them to various places in Luzon to do coolies...the death is over!Those who can be escorted to Guangzhou to offer prisoners, of course, can be spared after screening.

Emperor Zhu turned his gaze to a group of foreign envoys standing in the corner, including those from the Netherlands, England, France, Ottomans, Hindustan, Rakshasa, Sweden, and some small Southeast Asian states. The envoys who came were all wearing their respective dresses.However, there are no envoys from Spain, Portugal, and Great Mongolia, and there are no envoys from European countries such as Dabobo and the Holy Roman Empire who are too busy with their own country's affairs and have no time to expand overseas.

Among them, the envoys of the Netherlands, England, France, Sweden, and the Raksha Kingdom were of course pale--half of today's prisoner offering ceremony was held for them, right?This is clearly showing Spain as a target and beating them to several countries!If you don't accept it, you will beat them up next!

And the envoys of Annan, Siam, Lancang, Borneo, Chenla, Champa and other small Nanyang countries are trembling-the Great Tomorrow is showing its power!Who will be the next to be unlucky?Is it too late to kneel now?If you want to kneel, will Da Ming turn over the old score tomorrow?Will it destroy their country?

As for the envoys of the Ottoman Empire and the Hindustan Empire, they are full of expectations... Daming is on their side!Now that Daming is so powerful, it is imperative for them to follow him!

At this time, Su Zhanshan, the admiral of the Luzon Army who presided over the Luzon battle this time, had already led several aides and general soldiers to the tower at high speed, and reported to Zhu Heqi for victory.I saw this Su Zhanshan walked up to the Emperor Zhu, bowed, and then played loudly: "My lord, Su Zhanshan has led our Ming Dynasty's heavenly soldiers to help you kill the Spanish bandits who have occupied Luzon Island for more than 100 years. It was wiped out... and 880 prisoners were captured!"

"Okay!" Zhu Heqi laughed a few times, and then deliberately raised his voice so that the foreign devils' envoys could understand, "Good fight! I played the Tianwei of my Great Tomorrow Dynasty... My Great Tomorrow Morning In the era of Taizu and Chengzu, it was the celestial dynasty that the barbarians were subject to. Malacca, Java, Myanmar, Luzon, Annan, Chenla, Champo, etc., were all ministers of the celestial dynasty and were under the protection of the celestial dynasty. I don’t know when, these The ministers of the Celestial Dynasty were either trapped by the Western Barbarians, or they were self-aware of the Celestial Empire, or they were obedient to the Celestial Empire, so that the laws and regulations of the Celestial Dynasty did not exist, and the vassal states were in chaos, and even became a colony of the Western Barbarians!

Today, my Ming Dynasty has been revived, and my country's prestige has spread farther overseas. North Korea is attached to China, and Mongolia is tied. Already seated? "

Chapter 787 Trade War!Financial war!

Daming is taking dogs again!

Is it right?

What are the benefits of being a dog?

Will not be a dog will die?

Of course, there is the most important point... who is qualified to be Daming's dog?

As soon as Zhu Heqi's words came out, the heartbeats of the envoys from all over the world on the Guide Gate tower quickened, and the speed of their brains also accelerated!

Those who can be sent by their respective monarchs and governments to Daming as envoys are all smart people. How could they not know the meaning of Zhu Heqi's speech on the guide gate tower?Moreover, Zhu Heqi's consistent position was to restore the Ming Dynasty's international status—that is, to form an international system with Ming as the suzerain and East and Southeast Asian countries as vassals.

Moreover, these envoys also knew that the rebuilt Celestial Dynasty system was quite different from the Great Ming Dynasty system constructed by Zhu Yuanzhang!

Because Zhu Yuanzhang was not able to completely pacify the Northern Yuan Dynasty, he had to use the main force in the North, and he did not build a navy that could easily conduct ocean-going operations, nor did he obtain huge profits from overseas trade—it was not a great voyage at that time. In the era, there was no American gold and silver flooding the market.Even Japan's gold and silver were not mined in large quantities.

And Zhu Heqi's Daming Navy is one of the most powerful navies in the world, and his Ming Dynasty earns a lot of income from international trade every year, and before Zhu Heqi pacified Jiangnan, he had already united Zheng Jing and Qiu Hui, Chen Jinnan and others founded Nanyang Trading Company and began to set foot in overseas zero-dollar shopping.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang was a very traditional oriental feudal empire based on the small peasant economy.There is not much interest in overseas expansion, especially when the empire is at its strongest in the early days of its establishment, because there are few people in the territory and a large land, there is no need to go overseas to grab land for the surplus population.And when the population of the empire continued to grow and the land gradually became insufficient, the military force of Ming Dynasty had already declined, and it was impossible to expand abroad.

But today's Ming Empire is a new type of country that attaches great importance to and encourages the development of industry and commerce, and overseas wealth, markets, and resources have an irresistible attraction to this country!

Therefore, although Zhu Heqi wanted to do things under the banner of rebuilding the Ming Dynasty system, it was completely different from Zhu Yuanzhang back then!

Of course, the situation in Southeast Asia is now very different from that of Zhu Yuanzhang!

The Westerners have already come, and they have also formed an international system and rules that are beneficial to them.Moreover, this system and rules have been in operation for more than 100 years. Not only Western colonists have become accustomed to this system, but even many princes and nobles of Nanyang land states have become accustomed to this system. System... Daming is just a distant legend to them!

In addition, there are some powerful countries in Southeast Asia who take advantage of the absence of the Ming Dynasty and become the Kingdom of Heaven themselves!

On this evening when the entire city of Guangzhou was immersed in the joy of the daytime celebration ceremony on the fifth day of May, a carriage with the flag of the Dutch East India Company swaggered to Shamian, adjacent to the Pearl River, outside Guangzhou. The entrance to the island.Shamian Island is a sandbar close to the land, and part of it has been connected to the land, so it is not an island in the strict sense.

When Zhu Heqi left Guangzhou to go north to the south of the Yangtze River, this Shamian Island was still barren. Later, because of the prosperous sea trade on the banks of the Pearl River in the south of Guangzhou, it became more and more prosperous.The price of land has also risen, to the point where every inch of land is worth every penny.Therefore, Qiu Hui, who was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi at the time, came up with the idea of ​​developing Shamian Island... Big Brother Hui had done the business of developing ports in Chaozhou back then, so he turned Shamian into a foreign businessman and foreign embassy with ease. Gathered business district.And he also understands the reason why good locations are only rented and not sold.Therefore, the ownership of the land on Shamian Island belongs to the Guangzhou government, but it was leased to foreign businessmen and foreign envoys to build buildings.

And these buildings themselves are also part of the rent. Ten to 15 years later, they will all be the property of the Guangzhou government.Of course, foreigners can also renew the lease at a high price or buy it out at a high price...

Although they didn't get the ownership of the land, and they didn't have any concessions or extraterritorial rights, foreign businessmen from Guangzhou still gathered on Shamian Island.After seven or eight years of development, Shamian Island is now full of foreign-style buildings and commercial buildings, including the embassies of France, England, the Netherlands, Luocha and other countries in Guangzhou, as well as several East India companies. shop.

After entering Shamian Island, this large carriage with the flag recognized by the Dutch East India Company went straight to the largest garden mansion on Shamian Island, the British East India Company's shop in Guangzhou.

Armed guards with Western faces and swords were placed outside the commercial halls of the British East India Company.They have been instructed a long time ago that all visitors from the English Embassy, ​​Dutch East India Company, Dutch Embassy, ​​French Embassy, ​​and French East India Company will be let in... no interrogation or inspection!

It is said that today is the [-]th birthday of Charlie Gough, the president of the British East India Company in Guangzhou, and he needs to make arrangements.So today, Charlie Goff held a big banquet in the business hall, and invited foreign businessmen in Shamian and leading figures from the foreign embassy to the banquet.

However, the prominent figures who came to the banquet today looked quite strange. Why did they close the windows and draw the curtains and sit in the carriage in such hot weather?Aren't you afraid of the heat and being silly and smelly?

Although the guards guarding the gate had question marks in their heads, none of them dared to disobey Sir Goff's order.

Although this commercial building in the downtown area of ​​Shamian does not have tall walls, it has spared no expense in transplanting many tall trees to surround the main building of the commercial building, making it difficult to see the situation inside the yard from the outside.

As soon as this large carriage of the Dutch East India Company entered the trading hall, it was found that the trading hall was quiet and quiet. the meaning of.

The carriage didn't stop, but drove along a gravel road to the gate of the commercial building. Charlie Gough was leading a few big class guards at the gate. When he saw the carriage stop, he rushed over to meet it. With a smile on his face, he opened the car door himself—this is a big man who would shake the ground when he stomped in the Shamian foreign business district, but now he actually opens the door for someone himself!I don't know what kind of man is sitting in this carriage?

The door was opened, and then a handsome western man in his 30s got out of the carriage, followed by an oriental man in a western suit.

If Zhu and Qi were here, they would probably be able to recognize at a glance that the oriental man was the former comprador of the British East India Company, Nicholas Ji Dabao.He is so powerful now that he has become a professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge) in the United Kingdom, and he has also become a special adviser to King James II of England.

In addition, he has now become England's largest pirate and a famous translator... He can translate Chinese books into French, English, and Latin, and then sell them in Europe.At the same time, he will also translate European books into Chinese and sell them to colleges and universities in Ming Dynasty.

Of course, Ji Dabao would not even pay a penny for royalties.And he won't admit to piracy...Knowledge knows no borders!He transferred knowledge between the East and the West, how can he say "stolen"?

And this time he did not come to Ming Dynasty as a knowledge porter. He came to Ming Dynasty as an advisor to the King of England on Eastern issues and accompanied the king's confidant, Baron John Churchill.

The rather handsome middle-aged man who was with him was Baron John Churchill. He is still a major general of the English Army and is the most important military talent of King James.

The reason why I sent him to the East this time is not only to rely on his diplomatic skills to deal with the troublesome Eastern issues, but also to let him inspect the Ming Dynasty’s army by the way, so as to serve as a reference for the British Army’s “high sugar”——Kangxi Khan's sugar business in Lahore has already started, so "advanced European countries" such as England, the Netherlands, and France can finally have "sugar freedom"!

But England's army has always been thrifty with sugar...just counting the grains!Now that it suddenly becomes richer, it really doesn’t work anymore, so we have to investigate it.

Because he had some special missions, Baron Churchill did not use diplomatic channels to enter Daming—otherwise, his identity as a major general and baron of the English Army would be a bit eye-catching.In terms of the size of the English Army, how many major generals can there be?

So Baron Churchill pretended to be a businessman. In order to deceive people, he did not take a British ship, but a Dutch East India Company ship-he and the Netherland consul William III were also good friends. Also in order to allow a good friend to ascend to the British throne, he became a general who turned against him!

……

When the two distinguished guests, Baron Churchill and Ji Dabao, arrived, there were already seven or eight people scattered in the British East India Company’s Guangzhou store. figure.There was even a representative of An Nanguo among them—Annan seemed to be the next one to be beaten by Daming!

Moreover, due to historical reasons and Annan's internal affairs, the Li Dynasty Zhengzhu of Annan Kingdom is not qualified to be a dog for Daming... So Annan Zhengzhu had to find a way to hug the foreign devil's hairy legs.

And the Annan Zheng family has always had contacts with the Dutch East India Company-their family's deadly rival, Annan Ruan, has always accepted the support of the Portuguese. Against the Dutch.

And this time, they approached the Dutch well-versedly, and they were regarded by the Dutch as a trump card that could hold back the expansion of Ming Dynasty. back!

With such a proud record, these foreigners who are worrying about not finding cannon fodder will regard the Annan Zheng family as a treasure.

"Through this battle in the Philippines, I believe that the expansion of the Ming Empire will never stop until it encounters a real force that can stop it... In the history known to the outside world, there has never been a powerful empire that would It stops before it expands to the limit. Whether it is the Persian Empire, the Alexander Empire, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Arab Empire, and of course the Eastern Han Empire, Tang Empire and the former Ming Empire. So I don’t think the current Ming Empire will stop either! What we can do now is to do everything possible to slow down its expansion and buy ourselves time for military reforms!”

It was Baron Churchill who was speaking.As an outstanding military strategist and statesman, he seems to have found a way to contain Ming.

"Baron," the governor of the Dutch East India Company, Kemps, also came to Guangzhou, and asked with a frown after hearing what Baron Churchill said, "but what can we do to slow down the pace of Ming's expansion?"

"There are two ways," Churchill looked at the governor of the Dutch East India Company seriously, "one is to do everything possible to support the brave and freedom-loving people who are willing to resist Ming; the other is to do everything possible to fight a trade war with Ming Financial war!"

"Trade war? Financial war? How to fight?"

The governor of the Dutch East India Company, Kemps, frowned when he heard this.

Although the Netherlands is still a big trading country today, and its strength in the financial field is also very strong - that is the country that used to stir up tulips in the sky!

But unlike England next door, Dutch capitalists are not very patriotic, and they advocate freedom too much... It can also be said that they are blind to money and have no principles. They can even sell weapons to the enemy during wartime.So Dutch trade and finance are less likely to be weaponized for hegemony wars.And England is very good at using trade and finance as weapons to attack opponents!

Churchill glanced at Camps, who only knew the interests of shareholders and did not care about the interests of the country, and said with a faint smile: "The trade war is to interrupt trade or artificially reduce it, so that Ming cannot export a large amount of goods to the west of Malacca to earn silver. It is also impossible to obtain goods from the west of Malacca... The purpose of how to do it is to prevent silver from flowing into the Ming Dynasty, and to attack the porcelain, silk, glass, ironware, sugar and other industries of the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, we can also support as much as possible India's cotton cloth, sugar and other industries replaced the related industries of the Ming Dynasty to export commodities to Europe.

The method of financial warfare is to abandon the silver standard and implement the gold standard...so as to reduce the value of the silver currency and reduce the wealth stock in the Ming country, that is, the Ming country, which has stored a large amount of silver, has changed from a rich country to a poor country! "

After hearing this, the governor of the Dutch East India Company, Kemps, was not happy, "Baron, do you know how much money we earn from Ming's foreign trade every year?"

John Churchill shook his head and looked at the Dutch profiteer in front of him with disdain, "Mr. Governor, I think you have got a major problem wrong... It is not free trade that brings profits to the East India Company! It really makes the company money , is the force of the company!"

Chapter 788 I Know Trade Wars Best!

John Churchill is indeed much smarter than Krampus of the Dutch East India Company!

This probably also reflects the gap in the level of ruling elites in England and the Netherlands, right?Of course, the Dutch had a fairly capable consul, William III.Because the level is too high, there is really no way to get along with a group of philistine councilors who fell into the eyes of money and almost ruined the country. Later, they simply switched jobs and went to England to become the king...

Churchill looked at Camps and said word by word: "Our so-called free trade... the essence is actually to use force to coerce trade in exchange for cheap goods! Sometimes we even directly seize the production areas of those goods! For example, East The spices of the Indies and Ceylon, as well as the control of the Straits of Malacca, were not all taken by force?"

The East Indies are also known as the Spice Islands, and the main spice producing areas are concentrated on several small islands to the east of Java Island.And these spice islands were world-famous spice producing areas before the arrival of the Dutch!Now, the Dutch East India Company owns those islands and controls almost all the plantations.Ceylon is rich in spices and gems, and now it has also become a cash cow for the Dutch East India Company.

In addition, the Dutch East India Company has recently seized many ports and cities in the southernmost part of India, and is preparing to turn them into the new Java Island and Malacca.

John Churchill said slowly, one word at a time: "If we can't stop the pace of Ming's southward advance... then the spices of the West Indies and Ceylon, the control of the Strait of Malacca, and the Dutch East India Company in southern India Everything gained by force will eventually be lost!

So we have to win, even if it costs every last penny in our pockets! "

Camps said in his heart: "You England must win, even if you spend the last penny in our Dutch population belt?"

Thinking of this, Campus frowned and said to John Churchill: "If we use the means of interrupting trade to deal with Ming Dynasty, is it possible for Ming Dynasty to directly attack Batavia and Malacca? After they seize Batavia and Malacca Finally, is it possible to directly march into Ceylon? Can our troops in Batavia, Malacca and India stop the Ming army that attacked the Philippines before? If not, not only will we lose all our colonies in Southeast Asia, but even your England The colonies in India that people took with great difficulty will also be lost!"

John Churchill shrugged, "We England are ready to sacrifice everything to defeat the demons who want to conquer the world... A few colonies in India are nothing!"

Those colonies were not the property of John Churchill, but belonged to the British East India Trading Company.And John Churchill was not a shareholder of the British East India Company, so he was very willing to take risks with the property of the British East India Trading Company for the benefit of the Kingdom of England.

Of course, in his opinion, if Ming breaks through the Strait of Malacca and enters the Indian Ocean before the English Army completes the "high sugar" reform, then the British East India Trading Company's colony in India cannot be kept.

So now we have to do everything possible to hold back Da Ming, and at the same time weaken Da Ming's financial resources as much as possible... But these two things must be in order.Someone has to hold Daming down before the trade war and financial war can start.Otherwise, if Da Ming lost his eyes in the trade war and financial war, he would definitely turn the tables!

Otherwise, if Ming really took Batavia, Malacca and the spice islands to the east of Java in one go, and then threatened Ceylon, the Dutch might choose to compromise.

And the one who can act as a human shield for the Kingdom of England, and use his own sacrifice to hold back Daming's progress... seems to be the only An Nanguo!

Thinking of this, he glanced at a short and thin Annan man in his 30s in the living room, with dark skin, high cheekbones, and protruding eyeballs. He looked a bit ugly.

"Master!"

Charlie Gough was sitting next to this Annan man, seeing Baron Churchill's eyes, he immediately called this Annan man "Shizi Ye" in Chinese. It seems that this man is really a great person.

The man called "Shi Zi Ye" was surnamed Zheng, Zheng Jing's Zheng!

But Zheng Jing is not his father, his father has only one root character, and it has nothing to do with Yanping Palace, but Dingnan King of Annan Kingdom.

At this time, the Houli Dynasty of Annan Kingdom had been completely emptied, and the real power of the Thanglong court was the Zheng family of King Dingnan known as the "Lord Zheng".

In addition, there is also the Ruan clan of Guangnan King who controls the southern part of Annan Kingdom and Zheng Zhu, who are called "Ruan Zhu".

In addition to the two "masters" of "South Ruan and Bei Zheng", there are also two young masters in Annan, one surnamed Wu and the other surnamed Mo.However, neither of these young masters was very good at fighting, and they all became defeated under "Bei Zheng".Among them, Mo Dengyong, the entrepreneurial leader of the Mo family, once forced Li Gonghuang to abdicate and proclaimed himself emperor.Later, the Mo family was crusaded by the Ming Dynasty, and they had no choice but to accept the surrender. Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty pushed the boat along the river, surrendered Annan Kingdom as the Annan Metropolitan Commander, and granted Mo Dengyong the Annan Metropolitan Envoy.So Annan legally became a feudal town under the Ming Dynasty.

However, Mo Dengyong still proclaimed himself emperor internally, behind closed doors he became his Ninth Five-Year Lord!