Dominate the Country

[Thanks to two friends ‘Shideng Wine Tea’ and ‘Early to bed, early to rise and more exercise’ for their 500-coin reward, thank you]

The residence of Prince Lushan.

Wang Huizu walked briskly into Chen Ming's study with a thick stack of ledgers. As soon as you enter the room, you are transported into another world. The overwhelming heat wave outside is completely cut off by a wall. The atmosphere in the study is cold. The large ice basins placed at the four corners and in the center are constantly emitting cold air, removing the scorching heat outside the room from the room. Completely expelled.

"Your Highness, the profits of the Soldiers' Cooperative for the first half of this year have been calculated." Wang Huizu was happy when he spoke. Chen Ming looked up at him, his whole face was in high spirits.

"How was the profit in the first half of the year?" It must have been a big profit, Chen Ming thought.

"Very good, the year-on-year increase is more than 20%. Your Highness, the price of cotton has risen sharply this year. The income from cotton alone is equivalent to more than 70% of the income of the military cooperative in the first half of last year." Wang Huizu put a thick The first volume on the stack of ledgers was handed to Chen Ming. This is the general record.

As the entire southern country was captured by the Fuhan Army, the scale of military cooperatives also expanded beyond Huguang and penetrated into the south of the Yangtze River and further south to southern Zhejiang, northern Fujian, and Guangdong. Naturally, there have been differences between them before. Although it has not reached the stage of splitting, after all, the cooperative has only just emerged two years ago. But it’s soon.

The imbalance of economic returns per unit area on both sides will soon lead to a break between the "military estates" in Jiangnan and Zhejiang and the "military estates" in Jiangxi and Jiangxi. This kind of dispute over individual interests cannot be stopped.

Chen Ming looked directly at the final data, not at the total income, but at the average income per mu of land, which was 22 percentage points higher than last year.

The smile on his face was full, but he still revealed the main reason for the huge increase in revenue this year: "The price of cotton this year is a bit too high." And if it hadn't been for more rain in June, the revenue from cotton would still be there. Can be higher.

Wang Huizu said: "The price of lint is particularly high." As far as he knew, the family of a cousin of the Crown Princess converted the old-fashioned rolling mill into a top-roller gin based on the idea proposed by His Royal Highness. This year I bought seed cotton and sold lint. I didn't bully the market, and I didn't act like a prince or princess. I made more than three thousand silver dollars in a serious way in the days after the cotton harvest. Now the family was very excited and gathered a group of carpenters to build a "saw-tooth gin".

This is what His Royal Highness the Prince said. In fact, Chen Ming's only impression of the flower tying machine is just one word.

Li Xiaomei's cousin's family not only made money by selling lint, but also made a lot of money by selling top roller gins.

Chen Han opened the trade port and introduced policies to reduce the cost and time of goods transportation. The most important thing is that this time the transaction between the two parties no longer needs to go through a foreign company such as the 'Thirteen Banks', and is directly between the buyer and the seller. face-to-face conversation. It greatly stimulated the domestic economy, especially cloth production.

Last year, the south of the Yangtze River was still raging with war, and cotton cultivation had to give way to waterways. However, the domestic demand for cotton has greatly increased. The supply exceeds the demand, and the price of cotton has naturally increased. Just like Chen Ming said, the price of cotton this year is a bit high.

In fact, with the development of trade exchanges, it will not take a few years for the cotton shipped by the British from India to fill the Chinese market, but this will take time. Just like the Sino-foreign trade that is already in full swing now, most sellers and buyers meet directly to discuss prices. However, in a few years, there will still be entrepot trading companies like the "Thirteenth Bank" in China, but they no longer have the permission of the court. Monopoly rights.

There is a lot of excitement among buyers and sellers this year, but few people are aware of it. Their direct transaction between the seller and the buyer seems to have won the greatest benefits for both parties, but in fact it has wasted precious time and valuable experience.

The transaction volume of a Western merchant ship was hundreds of thousands of silver dollars. He only had to deal with people with the words of the captain on board the ship. He also had to shop around and look over and over again. He was tired to death.

"Father, look, this is the income statement of the Military Cooperative for this year. This is the market survey of the Industrial and Commercial Administration for the first half of the year."

That night, Chen Ming came to Chen Hui with two reports, and also gave Chen Hui a comparison list.

Chen Hui looked at it carefully for a long time, and the smile on his face became more and more full, "Okay, okay. The price of food has plummeted, the price of iron materials has plummeted, the prices of cloth and livestock have risen sharply, and the prices of ordinary people have plummeted." My livelihood has been restored." Chen Hui was very happy.

In troubled times, the prices of grain and iron materials will never fall. Only when the situation stabilizes will cloth and livestock become popular commodities for urban and rural people whose livelihoods are recovering.

"Livestock prices have risen too high..." Chen Hui said with a frown after a moment.

"So Erchen thinks that we can send fleets to collect buffalo from various countries in Southeast Asia." Anyway, in the area currently controlled by the Fuhan Army, the proportion of buffalo used far exceeds that of scalpers.

"Nanyang?" Chen Hui looked at the globe beside the table. "Aren't those small countries in the south fighting fiercely?"

The son just said, ‘Go to Nanyang to buy buffaloes.’ But if I really thought that his son meant to buy buffaloes, then Chen Hui, the king of Han, would have been very incompetent.

Chen Ming's intention is clearly to take the opportunity to get involved in Nanyang!

In present-day Nanyang, Annan is in the civil war between the north and the south, and Siam is invaded by Burma. These three countries are the traditional three powers on the Indochina Peninsula and are at war with each other. The remaining countries such as Nanzhang, Luang Prabang, and Phnom Penh [Cambodia, Laos] have such a weak sense of existence that Chen Hui cannot even remember them. As for Malay and Indonesia in later generations, at this time there were still large and small sultans everywhere. Of course the Dutch and Spanish are also indispensable.

The Dutch ruled the Indonesian archipelago in later generations, and after the war twenty years ago, the resistance to the Dutch in the entire 'Dutch East Indies' archipelago by the indigenous forces fell into a low ebb.

The Spaniards also had a firm eye on Luzon and sent troops to attack the old island of Medan. Of course, Luzon under the Spanish was not very stable internally.

The British have not yet set foot in Nanyang!

"Father. Look at this place..." Chen Ming pointed to the location of Singapore on the globe.

"It is reported that the natural conditions of this place are superior, the water is spacious, rarely affected by storms, the water depth is also suitable, and the average tidal range is less than seven feet. It is a natural deep-water harbor. At the same time, the geographical conditions here are also extremely important. First of all, it is close to The Strait of Malacca blocks the main east-west shipping route; secondly, it is close to Borneo..."

Singapore's geographical location does not need to be explained at all. As long as any party is determined to show its talents in Nanyang, Singapore's superior geographical location will be clear at a glance.

And does Chen Han have the determination to enter Nanyang? To be precise, apart from Chen Ming, does his father Chen Hui have the determination to enter Nanyang? Chen Hui really hesitated about this matter.

"This is Spain, this is the Netherlands..." Chen Hui's brows were filled with worries.

He is not a 'country bumpkin' like Qianlong. In the past six months, Rodoni, who came from Portugal, has become Chen Hui's palace adviser. Chen Hui has heard a lot about European history from Rodoni. Although the Netherlands and Spain are in decline now, they cannot be underestimated.

Spain still has vast and rich colonies in the Americas, and Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is still the financial center of Europe. For London to completely replace Amsterdam's position, it would have to go through the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ten years later. The British lost a battle in North America and owed astronomical huge debts, and the majority of the creditors were the Dutch. Then John Bull wiped his face, put it in his trouser pocket, and beat Holland, his former close ally. "Lai" paid off the huge foreign debt owed to the Netherlands and plundered the Netherlands' rich caravan supplies and colonies. Amsterdam, which had been the financial center of the Western world before, was replaced by London in its financial status after the war.

The entire Netherlands was completely in decline.

"The men of these two countries are full of the blood of our Chinese people. Sooner or later, this score will have to be settled. But now..." Chen Hui hesitated. They still have the Manchus in Beitou who have not yet been solved.

"Father, we have just stepped in. We don't want to go to war with the Spaniards and the Dutch right away."

Chen Ming felt that Chen Han was currently having trouble with Spain and the Netherlands, so how could Spain and the Netherlands not have a headache with Chen Han? The Spaniards massacred the Chinese several times, and the bloodstains of what the Dutch had done thirty years ago have not yet dried up. The relationship between the three parties should be like fighting a wolf with a weak stick - two sides are afraid.

"No matter what our relationship with Spain and the Netherlands is in substance, we just need to ensure that there is no conflict on the surface." Bilateral competitive enemies will remain competitive enemies, and deals will come as they come. Europe seems to have been losing money in its trade with China, but the money it 'loses' definitely does not belong to their East India Company. If they lose one silver dollar from China, they can earn back two silver dollars by bringing it back to Europe.

When the British East India Company collapsed in later generations, it was not because they could not make money in China, but because they lost too much elsewhere. And the opiate franchise expired.

Qianlong regarded "rhubarb and tea" as a weapon for the Manchus to check and balance Russia. Although it was a bit naive, it cannot be denied that there is indeed three points of truth. As long as the scale of trade between China and Russia is expanded ten to twenty times, trade sanctions will indeed have three-fold effect. The same is true for Spain and the Netherlands now. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War has not yet broken out, and the Netherlands, which is in a period of economic prosperity, still has strong demand for many goods from Asia. The Dutch and Spanish will not cut off their trade with China easily.

China occupies the initiative in this regard. As long as the action is smaller and does not irritate the Dutch and Spanish too much, the West Netherlands' counterattack should not cross the red line. At most, are they supporting Malay natives to cause trouble?

…

On the blue sea, a Western-style sailing ship with full sails was sailing at full speed.

The snow-white sails stand out against the red flag flying on the mast.

This is the Nanhai No. 1 training ship.

The sea area where it is now located is in the Bohai Bay. Taking advantage of the southeast monsoon, Nanhai No. 1, which had been circling the South China Sea, set sail northward.

Zhu Xun stood on the tall mast and looked around with a telescope. According to the chart, they have entered the Bohai Bay. But so far they have not encountered a ship, not even a fishing boat going into the sea to fish.

The weather is very good today, and Zhu Xun likes this weather. They encountered a typhoon during training in Nanyang. Although they only scratched the edge of the typhoon, the scene of violent winds, rain, and huge waves has never been forgotten by him.

The thunder and lightning in the sky were like silver shuttles, and the huge waves bumped the ship like a toy.

At that time, Zhu Xun really thought the boat was going to capsize!

In that disaster, there were three fewer crew members on the ship. Two of them were rigging hands, one was swept into the sea by the big waves on the deck, and one was swept overboard by the strong wind on the mast; the other was the gunner, and the latter The reporter was driven to the wall of the ship during a jolt. The impact, which did not seem to be very heavy, was enough to kill him.

After staying on this Western-style sailboat for less than half a year, Zhu Xun has fully felt the huge difference between Western-style sailboats and Chinese-style sailboats. The same operation is required, but the former requires many more sailors. The large number of people naturally makes the sailors' living environment on the ship harsh. However, in the same weather with strong winds and waves, sailors on Western-style sailboats are much more dangerous than sailors on Chinese-style sailboats. Because the soft sails and ropes of Western-style sailboats are too troublesome to maneuver. When necessary, sailors need to risk climbing up the mast to cut off the ropes, just like the companion who was swept into the sea by the strong wind on the mast. He encountered misfortune while cutting the cables.

But to be honest, Western-style sailboats are indeed better able to withstand the beating of wind and waves than Chinese-style sailboats, that is, they are stronger. That time when we encountered a typhoon, there were huge waves and bumps. After everything calmed down, there were only two small holes in the entire ship, which were easily repaired.

Of course, Western sailing ships did not have watertight compartments, which was a major flaw in Zhu Xun's eyes. It would be absolutely great if the advantages of Chinese and Western ships could be neutralized.

Time passed little by little, and it was noon, and the sun in the sky shone brightly on the mast. Although the sea breeze was blowing, Zhu Xun, who was always watching the surrounding sea vigilantly, still calmed down. The time has come and the shift changer has arrived.

Being a lookout is a very demanding position. Especially in this area, it stands to reason that they should encounter Qing warships at any time.

Zhu Xun was still looking around with his telescope. "Huh..." He seemed to see two masts. Zhu Xin, who was holding on to his energy, felt as if he had taken a powerful tonic pill. He was very energetic. He held up his telescope and carefully searched the left front - where he had just sighted the two masts.

"Dang, clang, clang, clang..." A rapid warning sound came from the mast. The entire Nanhai No. 1 training ship immediately became busy.

To the front left, a fleet of six ships gradually jumped out of the sea. Zhu Xun couldn't see the flag of the fleet clearly, and he didn't know if there were other ships behind these six ships.

…

Just when Nanhai No. 1 discovered the fleet in the Bohai Bay, and just when Chen Hui, Chen Ming and his son were muttering about how to intervene in Nanyang without causing a backlash from the West and the Netherlands, two Chinese-style Guangdong ships slowly sailed into the Lingding Ocean. .

Abubakar looked at the scenery in Lingding Ocean with a mixture of anxiety and relief.

"Mr. Su, here, here, is this the place where Wen Tianxiang... wrote, 'No one has ever died since ancient times'..."

Abubeka didn't speak Chinese very fluently. He spoke in halting Guangzhou Mandarin and spoke to Su Yi beside him.

The latter is an authentic Chinese. When Su Yi followed his father Su Qun to take a ship to Batavia for trading more than ten years ago, he encountered a typhoon and the ship was blown to the Sulu Islands. Then the Su family and the Sulu Kingdom officially established a relationship.

Both Abubakar and his father have great trust in the Su family.

The first time Abubakar dealt with Chen Han, he went to China in person, where Su Yi had great influence. Looking at it from another angle, you can think of Su Yi as the Sulu version of Rodoni, or an absolutely enhanced and enlarged version.

"Yes. This is Ling Dingyang. The place where Prime Minister Wen wrote his famous lines throughout the ages." Su Yi replied. He knew that Sulu was in a difficult situation, and he knew why Abubakar felt sorry for people like Wen Tianxiang, because there was a strong opposition force against Abubakar within Sulu, and the black hand behind it was the people on Luzon Island. Spanish.

Sulu is an absolutely small country, with a total population of less than 200,000. If it weren't for the complex terrain, numerous islands, and alliance with the Green Sultan on Mindanao, would they be green on both sides? In addition, Luzon is also unstable internally. Although there are no major disturbances, uprisings occur frequently every year, and the indigenous people of Mindanao have been playing with the Spaniards on mushrooms - I will hide when you come, and I will come out when you go. , the Spaniards have not been able to spare enough power, otherwise the Sulu country will be more dangerous and may even be destroyed. Otherwise, you are a fool of the King of Sulu, and you want to take the initiative to become a Chinese citizen?

Abubakar sighed heavily. He just envied loyal ministers like Wen Tianxiang. The Sulu Kingdom implemented a hereditary aristocratic system, and many nobles in the country were now attracted by the Spaniards. This was an absolute threat to both Abubakar and the Sulu Kingdom. At that time, King Ma of Sulu sent an envoy to pay tribute to the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, as well as a package of land, and asked him to include the population in the Chinese Atlas. This was because the power of the royal family was about to be overwhelmed. Live stock.

After the Seven Years War in Europe ended, the Spanish power in Luzon increased, and Sulu was forced to cut off its ties with China under pressure. There is no way. Although China is absolutely friendly and generous to Sulu's envoys, China does not support Sulu. Then everything is false!

The two Guangzhou ships sailed into Huangpu Port smoothly. When Abubakar revealed his identity, the Guangzhou Customs officer almost vomited blood. They didn't expect anything like this to happen. The king of a country actually came in person...

Xie Hu in the city was alarmed at the first time. Chen Erbao, the governor of Lingnan, is now in Nanning. Xie Hu quickly organized the ceremonial guard and solemnly welcomed Abu Beka to the shore. The several manors that Chen Ming had kept before were originally prepared for reception. Now they are immediately put to use.

"Mr. Su, you are right, very right." Abu Beka was treated so solemnly, and he was extremely excited after entering the manor.

China treated him so solemnly and respectfully, which made him feel that his status was improving. Everyone cares about face, and Lu Lu is no exception.

In Abu Beka's view, China's solemnity is not only to give him face, but also to give face to the Sulu Kingdom he represents. As a king of a small country who is often oppressed by the Spanish Governor of the Philippines, this kind of respect is more rare and more heart-warming than money.

Xie Hu returned to the government office and immediately sent a pigeon to Lushan. At the same time, he also wrote a memorial and sent someone to report it quickly.

When this news was sent to Lushan, Chen Ming had just received a letter from the secret camp in the north - in Korea, Jinzhou was captured by the Qing army, the Korean King Li Sun was missing, and a group of Korean ministers and soldiers and civilians went to sea to Jeju Island.