1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1152
The meeting between Wang Tom and Shen Shikui lasted for more than an hour. During this period, after obtaining Shen Shikui's consent, Haihan sent several cooks to the island to set up various household items and cook a special lunch for the two of them. .Another soldier specially carried a table of eight immortals to the island, and set up a table of banquets in a serious manner.The two sides talked happily before, and Shen Shikui did not doubt that he was there, and even asked Shen Zhixiang to join the table.

Of course, there is no food without wine. Tom Wang brought the old daughter red from Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. Although the rice wine is not high in alcohol content, the alcohol is really strong. After a few glasses of wine, the atmosphere in the banquet gradually warmed up. network up.

"I usually eat these seafood in Phi Island, but I don't have so many dishes." Shen Shikui praised Wang Tom's chef's cooking skills while eating.

Although he is the commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town and has the status of an emperor on this island, but due to the extreme shortage of supplies on the island, the actual living conditions are actually very difficult, and the meat that can be eaten basically comes from the sea.However, the only seasoning on this island is free sea salt, and even oil, soy sauce and vinegar are in short supply, not to mention the various spices that Haihan cooking dishes are used to, so naturally they can't produce any special taste.

Wang Tom laughed and said: "Now the sea route from Dongjiang Town to Zhejiang is considered open. In the future, all kinds of products from the south will be transported to the north one after another. Master Shen will enjoy many good things in the future. Besides, Liaodong is rich in products. Mr. Shen has also done business before, and in the future, the maritime trade will be reorganized in the north, and the living standards of the soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town will definitely improve a lot compared to now."

Shen Shikui said: "I heard that Haihan is good at navigation and commerce. Today, it really deserves its reputation! Presumably before you entered Dengzhou, you had already planned to control the maritime trade routes in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea area?"

Shen Shikui lived in the north for a long time, even though he hadn't dealt with Hai Han much before, but judging from the two footholds chosen by the other party on the northern coast, he could see that Hai Han was planning something big.The line between Zhifu Island on the north coast of Dengzhou and Lushunkou at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula, one south and one north, happened to be on the border between the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. He would not believe it was a coincidence.The only reasonable explanation is that the Haihan people have planned this layout long ago, and their purpose is to control the right of navigation in this sea area, and then control the maritime trade in the surrounding coastal areas.

Shen Shikui still has a say on how lucrative maritime trade can be.Part of the reason why he abandoned business and joined the army was that he was married to Mao Wenlong, so it was not difficult to get an official position; the other main reason was to use his military status as a cover to engage in transnational maritime smuggling trade in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea.The warships in Dongjiang Town can travel between Liaodong, North Korea, and Ming Dynasty unimpeded, without paying commercial taxes to any party, and the profits are still considerable.Before Kong Youde defected to Liaodong, even some tribes under the control of Houjin were the targets of smuggling and trade in Dongjiang Town—all kinds of animal skins and medicinal materials produced in the mountains of Liaodong were in short supply in Daming. goods.

For a long period of time, Dongjiang Town, which did not receive much support from the Ming Dynasty, could only use smuggling as an important part of its fiscal revenue, and Shen Shikui, who was in charge of operating these projects, gradually entered Dongjiang Town. Among the upper echelons of power in the town.He is much more sensitive than Shen Zhixiang to the competitive pressure brought about by the emergence of Haihan people, and he is also more worried about whether the future situation will be competition within the existing business scope, or whether the two companies will cooperate to expand the business.

Wang Tom understood Shen Shikui's implication, and immediately responded: "Master Shen, don't worry, we have always paid attention to everyone getting rich together, and we have no habit of eating alone. Since it is stated that it is cooperation, we will share with you the division of labor and rights that we should have. Explain clearly. Which local products are purchased from you, and which southern products are handed over to you for local sale, these conditions can be negotiated slowly. If Dongjiang Town plans to send a fleet south by itself, we can also provide navigation and escort along the way to help Organize purchases at the place of origin. If Mr. Shen still feels uneasy, you can send someone to go south with our fleet to the coastal prefectures of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fuguang to inquire about our business reputation."

After all, Shen Shikui is an old man. Although Wang Tom's bowl of ecstasy soup has a good recipe, he has not lost his sanity because of it.Wang Tom said a lot, but he did not deny Shen Shikui's question just now, which is equivalent to tacitly acquiescing his guess, that is, Haihan really intends to use force to control the maritime trade routes in the Yellow and Bohai Sea regions, and to use In order to obtain long-term substantial trade benefits.Of course, there is still room in Wang Tom's words, which means that as long as Dongjiang Town is willing to cooperate, it can continue to do business within the trading system controlled by Haihan, and even expand the scope of trade to the far south.

A few years ago, Shen Shikui would have scoffed at Wang Tom's proposal, and overseas barbarians dared to dictate to the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers. How could he bow his head in front of a group of outsiders.But today is different from the past. Dongjiang Town is so weak that it can't even protect itself. Without Haihan's help, Shen Shikui will probably have to make a difficult decision to obtain survival resources this winter, or directly invade North Korea. Rob, or else you can only surrender to Houjin.For Shen Shikui, these two choices are contrary to the concept of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism that he has always adhered to in his heart.

The Haihan people's intentions are indeed not very friendly to Da Ming, but at least their interests are currently consistent with Da Ming's. Although cooperation with them may cause Da Ming to lose control of this sea area, at least they have created more out of thin air to let the East River The town regained its strength and regained the opportunity to regain the Liaodong territory.Of course, having said that, at the moment when the Dengzhou Navy and the Dongjiang Town Navy have been exhausted, talking about sea control is empty talk. In this sea area, the strongest maritime armed force is undoubtedly the sea. Han fleet.

There is no need for Wang Tom to explain this point, Shen Shikui can confirm it with the naked eye now - on the sea about two miles away from the deserted island, the warships of the Haihan Fleet are silently stationed there, densely packed sails and huge ships It has fully demonstrated the terrifying combat effectiveness of this fleet.Previously, he had heard Pan Yan say how unreasonable the Haihan fleet's combat methods were, but he could only have such a real feeling after seeing the true face of this fleet with his own eyes.

After Shen Zhixiang came back from Zhifu Island, he once told him that the Haihan people had controlled most of the waters south of the Yangtze River Estuary. After Shen Shikui saw the fleet in front of him, he realized that this kind of thing was really not a whim. With a few more fleets like this in the hands of the Haihan people, they can indeed control a considerable area of ​​the sea.

As a Ming general guarding the frontier, it is reasonable to say that even if he does not use force to drive out an ambitious outsider like Haihan, he must be careful. However, the current situation of Dongjiang Town must rely on Haihan's help to survive. Shen Shikui is very aware of this, so even if he doesn't accept the ambition of the Haihan people, he can only hold his nose and acquiesce to such an arrangement.

"If that's the case, then I will take care of you from now on!" Shen Shikui put down his chopsticks and raised his wine glass, and said sincerely, "Today, Dongjiang Town and Haihan Kingdom formed an alliance in Pidao to conspire for great things!"

Tom Wang clinked glasses with Shen Shikui with a smile, and said in his mouth, "I hope we can have a happy cooperation!"

The work that should be done in the early stage has basically been done in place. This time he came to Pidao to meet with Shen Shikui, and Wang Tom expected to win the opponent.Although Shen Shikui definitely still has doubts about the prospects of the cooperation between the two parties, but after he has tasted the sweetness of this cooperation in time, Wang Tom believes that Dongjiang Town will be like the Ming army in the south who cooperated with Haihan. Under the trend of interest relationship, he changed his position and became Haihan's vassal.

In the next day, several Haihan sailboats docked at the pier on the coast of Phi Island, and the residents on the island unloaded the food and various living materials on the boat to the shore. The fleet with the red and blue double-color flags has slightly reduced their vigilance.Although Haihan had sent aid here by sea before, the cargo fleet at that time did not have so many large warships accompanying them.After the news that these Haihan warships would become Dongjiang Town's military allies spread on the island, the pessimistic and desperate atmosphere that permeated Phi Island earlier has also been significantly improved.

Before the arrival of the Haihan people, Shen Shikui announced that he would select thousands of people to return to the Changshan Islands to settle in the near future, but the soldiers and civilians on the island were not optimistic about this arrangement, because Shang Kexi, who originally guarded the area, defected to Liaodong and surrendered last year. Hou Jin, no one can tell when he will return to the Changshan Islands wearing Hou Jin's official hat.However, the arrival of the Haihan people added a layer of insurance to this plan. This fleet is obviously much more reliable than those dilapidated wooden ships that Shang Kexi took away.

Of course, if the people in Pidao learned that the Haihan fleet would leave after they were sent to the Changshan Islands instead of staying there to protect them, maybe they would not be so relaxed.At least in this winter, the residents of the Changshan Islands still need to organize their own defenses.Considering that Dongjiang Town's combat capability is already very low, apart from the most basic defensive measures, all they can do is to pray that Houjin will not be so desperate and organize a cross-sea expedition in the cold winter months.

In the next two days, the island began to organize manpower for the Changshan Islands.Dongjiang Town believes that about 5000 people need to be transported to the local area to ensure that there is enough labor to rebuild the living and military facilities on the island, and organize spring plowing quickly after the beginning of spring.However, even if all the ships in Pidao were dispatched, coupled with the existing capacity of the Haihan Fleet, it would not be possible to send so many people to the local area at once.After calculation, it would take at least three trips to complete this difficult task, but Wang Tom didn't want to waste too much time on this unskilled task. Take another trip to Jinzhou Bay and Lushunkou on the east coast to see if there have been any new changes in Houjin's local maritime military deployment.

After negotiation between the two parties, it was decided that Haihan Fleet would help transport the first trip, and then Dongjiang Town would complete the subsequent transportation by itself.Fortunately, the distance between the two places is not too far, and a round trip is only more than 200 nautical miles. With the speed of the existing sailboats in Dongjiang Town, a round trip can be done in about three days.In this way, even if it is the method of transportation for ants to move, half a month is enough to transport people.

The one who won the task of guarding the Changshan Islands was naturally Shen Shikui's nephew, Shen Zhixiang.Shen Shikui had no children, so he usually treated Shen Zhixiang as his son. With this kind of opportunity to cultivate his younger generation, he naturally raised his talents and did not avoid relatives, so Shen Zhixiang took this job.Although the Haihan people also expressly stated that they will not launch military operations against the Liaodong Peninsula until the beginning of spring, but at that time, the garrison of the Changshan Islands, which is the closest to the Liaodong Peninsula, will definitely cooperate with their actions. If there is no accident, Shen Zhixiang can easily follow suit. A military merit is in hand.

Shen Zhixiang had already gotten acquainted with Wang Tom and others when he visited Zhifu Island a few days ago. This time, the two fleets set off from Phi Island together. He also directly boarded the flagship of the Haihan Fleet without hesitation. Leave with the same boat.

"This time I was able to negotiate with Mr. Shen smoothly, thanks to the efforts of General Shen, who came and brought the things up." Tom Wang received Shen Zhixiang in the captain's room, and then ordered someone to carry a box: " Let’s express our thanks, Xiao General Shen, don’t be disgusted.”

The box contained white silver ingots, 20 taels each, a total of fifty ingots.Shen Zhixiang closed the lid of the box after reading it, and said with a smile: "General Wang is too polite, this is also a matter of the next class, why give these vulgar things!"

Wang Tom said: "These are just small money. As long as General Shen cooperates with us well, prosperity and wealth will definitely not be a problem in the future. We can give you things that Daming can't give you."

Shen Zhixiang pretended to decline and said, "Isn't that good? After all, I'm also a general of the Ming army, how can I do something wrong to the court?"

Wang Tom said: "I don't want you to betray Daming, but I just hope you can help us do more things. If we stand firm in Liaodong, it will only benefit Daming and not harm you. The same is true for you. If you want military merit, there will be plenty of Houjin heads for you to receive meritorious service from now on. If you want to get rich, we will pave the way for you to become the richest man in the army in Dongjiang Town. Our strength and sincerity have also been fully demonstrated , Little General Shen, whether you want to take this Yangguan Avenue depends on your own choice."

(End of this chapter)