1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1724 Cheng Dapeng's Plan
On the way back to Dacheng rice shop, Qin Huacheng could clearly feel that his boss was not depressed by the bad news brought by Welbeck, but seemed relaxed and happy. He even hummed a little song with his hands behind his back, as if the East India The company's highly targeted measures will not affect the future operations of Dacheng Rice.Out of curiosity, Qin Huacheng asked Cheng Dapeng about the mystery, but Cheng Dapeng just laughed and said that he would wait until he went back.

Qin Huacheng also knew that it was not appropriate to talk about the relevant secrets outside, so he could only hold back his curiosity and inquire after he went back.

But Cheng Dapeng did not return to Dacheng Rice Shop in the end, but took Qin Huacheng to his residence in Batavia City.It was the first time for Qin Huacheng to follow Cheng Dapeng to his private residence, and immediately felt that the trust he had gained seemed to have improved a lot because of this incident.

During the siege of the Mata Blue Army, quite a few buildings in the city were seriously damaged, especially many houses near the north coast were smashed to pieces by the big stones thrown by the Mata Blue Army outside the city. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins.When the city was being rebuilt after the war, Cheng Dapeng took advantage of this time when the land price dropped to the bottom, bought a few scattered pieces of land in the city, and then built some houses by himself.

Some of these houses are used as residences, and some are used as shops or warehouses. Even if Cheng Dapeng has no other property now, these houses in the city are enough to ensure that he can be a wealthy and idle man in Batavia in the next few years. Apartment.

Of course, this possibility is not great. After all, Cheng Dapeng's main business not only requires him to have a wide range of social status, but also to take the opportunity to establish a relationship with people from all walks of life and classes.Without the cover of being a businessman, it would not be so easy for Cheng Dapeng to complete this kind of benefit transfer without any trace.

Although Batavia is a big city, the area of ​​land purchased by Cheng Dapeng in the city is still limited, not enough for him to build a traditional Chinese courtyard, and there are almost no local architects who can build courtyards after the war. We could only find the Dutch to design, so the buildings Cheng Dapeng built in the city were somewhat nondescript, neither a Chinese courtyard nor an authentic European style. Qin Huacheng even found a little Spanish style here.

Cheng Dapeng himself doesn't care about this architectural style that mixes multi-ethnic and Eastern and Western cultures. Although his residence looks ordinary on the outside, the level of decoration inside is really not bad. The building materials and furniture are almost all from Daming and Haihan. There are even a full set of ceramic sanitary ware and hot water boilers made in Sanya, shipped across the sea.

Of course, this is not a rare item in the current Batavia. After many Dutch dignitaries sneaked to the island of Ambuna to experience the Haihan-style gold selling cave, most of them paid to install one in their homes.Cheng Dapeng himself and Haihan still maintain a clear business relationship, so no one would feel wrong about such a trivial matter.

In order to avoid unnecessary troubles, the money Cheng Dapeng spent on his personal residence was not public expenses, but his business income in Batavia.Of course, this part of the money is actually difficult to define public and private. The Ministry of Security has always turned a blind eye to this. After all, intelligence officials who need to be on duty in foreign countries all the year round, if there is no benefit at all, then who will stay? live.As long as the intelligence officers remain loyal enough to Haihan, the Ministry of Security doesn't mind relaxing the rules a little bit so that they can live more comfortably overseas.

Cheng Dapeng led Qin Huacheng to the study room, and told him: "You wait here for a while, and I'll come after changing clothes. You can browse the books in the bookcase casually, without restraint."

After Cheng Dapeng left, Qin Huacheng looked at the layout of the study. Apart from the Chinese-style bookcases, tables and chairs, what attracted him most in this room was a map of the South China Sea on the wall.

Qin Huacheng saw a map like this at the garrison headquarters when he was a security policeman in Manila. Of course, the detail is far better than the one hanging in Cheng Dapeng's study.The map in front of me does not have detailed place names, but it draws a map that starts from Hainan Island in the north, Java Island in the south, Mindanao Island and Sulawesi Island in the east, and Banda, the capital of Aceh, at the west exit of the Strait of Malacca in the west. This area of ​​Aceh.

Qin Huacheng was able to recognize the area drawn on the map so quickly, not only because he had seen similar maps before, but also because during the voyage to Batavia this time, someone specially assigned them to bring them from Xingdao. The interns who came out took classes, and the content was to identify nautical charts, and they memorized a lot of place names at that time.So although [-]% of the areas on the map have never been to, Qin Huacheng can still quickly recognize the places drawn on the map.

As a multinational businessman, it is not surprising that Cheng Dapeng has such charts in his study, but Qin Huacheng believes that Cheng Dapeng must have more accurate charts in his hands that can really be used in navigation and navigation. The map of the study room is just a decorative painting.

Qin Huacheng turned to Cheng Dapeng's bookcase again, wanting to see what books his boss was usually reading.The doors of Cheng Dapeng's bookcase are all inlaid with palm-sized flat glass. Compared with the mahogany material of this bookcase, it seems ordinary.

Qin Huacheng opened the cabinet door and looked at the books in the bookcase, but he was a little disappointed. There were no important documents as he imagined, and they were almost all printed and miscellaneous books from the Wanli period. "Annotations to the Thirteen Classics", "Annotations to the Book of Rites", "Shi Wen Lei Ju", "The True Treasures of Ancient Texts Explained by Confucians"... Qin Huacheng flipped through a few books at random, but couldn't read them at all.He was not a scholar in the first place, and he had no interest in these literary things.

"These books are just for decoration. In fact, I seldom read them." Cheng Dapeng came to the study at some time, and took the initiative to wake up Qin Huacheng who was standing in front of the bookcase: "I'm usually here. I don’t live there much, unless I want to spend the night in the city, I usually go back to live in a manor outside the city, and the air is better than this city.”

Qin Huacheng had already relaxed a lot at this time, and upon hearing the words, he answered, "The shopkeeper is free and easy, and he has residences inside and outside the city, which makes me really envious!"

Cheng Dapeng said: "You don't have to envy anything, just do things well according to the arrangement given to you, are you afraid that there will be no house or land in the future? Working in our yamen, you will not be short of money if you are short of anything. You remember this sentence Already!"

Cheng Dapeng said this very grandly, and Qin Huacheng could only sigh inwardly when he heard this. It's nice to be rich.In fact, Qin Huacheng has not intuitively felt how rich the intelligence agency of the Haihan Security Department is, but Cheng Dapeng's wealth is actually in front of him.

Soon a servant brought hot tea and snacks, and Cheng Dapeng said: "People like us who work outside must make ourselves feel more comfortable, and only when we do things will we be motivated enough. Even if one day If you want to sacrifice your life for the country, at least you have enjoyed a good life, which is not a loss."

Qin Huacheng couldn't help but tense when he heard the words "sacrifice his life for the country", and Cheng Dapeng said with a smile: "You don't have to worry, there are very few times in our business where we need to fight with our opponents. There is a special person in charge of this kind of work that requires desperation, and we only need to use our brains."

Qin Hua thought that although he didn't need to work hard, it wasn't as safe as Cheng Dapeng said. Before that, he ordered an unlucky ghost to cut off his hands because of a small amount of corruption, and now his life and death are unknown.If Cheng Dapeng could be so ruthless towards "our own people", it would be even more so for foreign enemies. Qin Huacheng had no doubt that Cheng Dapeng would decisively get rid of the opponent who threatened him.

Cheng Dapeng did not continue to develop on this topic, but brought the conversation back to the current business: "What do you think about Welbeck?"

Qin Huacheng didn't expect the topic to change so quickly, he quickly put the teacup he had just brought back on the table, and replied honestly: "I think this Dutchman is greedy for money and afraid of trouble, and has an inexplicable feeling for the big shopkeeper. trust, you can use it to your advantage.”

Cheng Dapeng nodded and said: "You basically agree with me. I have been observing Welbeck for several years, and I was just waiting for such an opportunity for him to take the initiative to fall to our side. What he told me earlier alone The information is not much different from what I know, and the reliability is very high, I think he is also reassured to rely on this method in exchange for help."

Of course, Cheng Dapeng’s source of information is not limited to Welbeck, because he has been engaged in the grain trade for the past few years, and he has many opportunities to get in touch with relevant personnel of the East India Company. Even if Welbeck wants to keep some information secret, Cheng Dapeng will not I have already learned part of it through other channels.The few requests made to Welbeck earlier were just to let him show his nomination certificate first to prove his sincerity.

Qin Huacheng asked: "There's one thing I don't understand. Why is Welbeck so sure that the shopkeeper can help him keep his official position?"

Cheng Dapeng said: "This is because I have never made mistakes in the things I was responsible for in the past. He should have certain expectations for my ability to handle affairs. Secondly, he has no better choice in his current situation. If No one in the East India Company is willing to stand up for him, so I may be the only straw he can grab."

Qin Huacheng continued to ask: "But it is the Batavia Council that decides whether he will stay or not. Will these Dutch people really listen to the opinion of the big shopkeeper?"

"How is that possible!" Cheng Dapeng shook his head and said, "Although I know a few high-ranking officials and have dealt with Governor Van Diemen, it is still impossible for them to listen to me. We need Paul Welbeck , we can only find ways to highlight his role, so that the council has to continue to appoint him to be in charge of agriculture and food procurement."

"Where do we start?" Qin Huacheng frowned and said, "Do we have to disrupt the local grain market first?"

"First of all, cut off the East India Company's possibility of purchasing grain from other places, and do not give them the opportunity to bypass the Dacheng Rice Bank to complete the purchase of grain. Second, raise the price of local arable land and grain, and increase the cost of others entering this industry. In the end, if it is still not possible, then try to get rid of Welbeck's potential competitors." Cheng Dapeng gave three measures in one breath, and it seems that he has already had some ideas about this.

Qin Huacheng said: "Boss shopkeeper, why do I think the third rule is easier to work?"

"It is easy to work, but it is also too dangerous. If we use this method, it is likely to make the Batavia Council vigilant, which will not be good for our future actions." Cheng Dapeng explained: "So we need to give priority Consider using the first two means to solve the problem."

Qin Huacheng said: "Then if we can manage to save him, how can we use him in the future?"

Cheng Dapeng responded: "Getting the internal information of the East India Company from him is one aspect, and another aspect is to open a hole through him, and let him come forward to help us obtain more sensitive information, such as military information. The Dutch ordered a batch of warships from Sanya last year, and they will begin to deliver them one after another this year. I think they will not let these warships bought at a high price sit idle in Batavia Port for too long."

At this time, Qin Huacheng already had the ability to draw inferences from one instance to another, and then Cheng Dapeng said: "If the Dutch want to launch a war abroad, the soldiers and horses will go first before the food and grass are mobilized, and the grain in stock will definitely be mobilized first."

Cheng Dapeng nodded and said: "That's right, we have the opportunity to collect more information through Welbeck. This person must be protected, but it may take some twists and turns."

That night, after Cheng Dapeng returned to his residence outside the city, he used the radio station hidden here to send a telegram to the north. When the news arrived, since Cheng Dapeng, who sent the telegram, listed it as a first-level incident, the International Liaison Office sent it to He Xi immediately after translating the telegram.

He Xi got up from the bed and read the content of the telegram, but he was not in a hurry. He thought it was a bit of a fuss for Cheng Dapeng to list this as a first-level incident and request urgent handling.The deployment of the Ministry of Security in Batavia was not accomplished overnight, and the control of the grain market was only one aspect, and He Xi had long expected that the Dutch would not sit back and watch Dacheng Rice's semi-monopoly on the local grain market for a long time. Sooner or later there will be manual adjustments.

In the telegram, Cheng Dapeng expressed the hope that Sanya could provide assistance, first to prevent the Dutch from buying food from Champa, and second, to delegate power to allow him to take some measures in Batavia to keep Welbeck's official position.

The first point is not troublesome, as long as He Xi goes to Fort Victory after dawn and explains the situation to the executive committee, then the executive committee will delegate the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and send a telegram to Champa to inform The local embassy and its official negotiations on the line.But regarding the second item, He Xi was a little hesitant.

(End of this chapter)