1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2045
As the head of the Xu family in Fujian, Xu Xinsu chose to cooperate with Haihan very early on, and this cooperative relationship including economics and military affairs also helped him become the local emperor of Fujian step by step.Now Xu Xinsu has tens of thousands of sea and land elite soldiers under his command, controlling the access to the sea in the southeast of Ming Dynasty. It can be said that he needs money and people, and now even the imperial court's orders may not be enough to move him.

Although Xu Xinsu still has to rely on Haihan's support in many aspects, as the economic scale and military strength have increased year by year, her independence has become stronger and stronger.Especially in terms of trade, Xu Xinsu was originally a maritime merchant engaged in smuggling before joining the army, and he was familiar with cross-border maritime trade. Now that he has power in his hands, he is even more comfortable running his old business.If the tonnage of merchant ships and cargo ships is calculated, the current operating scale of the Xu family in Fujian has exceeded the heyday of Shibazhi.

And Xu Xinsu's cross-border trading partners are far more than Haihan's family. In fact, for businessmen, business is business, and the only difference is whether they can make money. As for the camp they belong to, their positions, and their closeness, these are not the decisive factors in choosing a trading partner. .Even Haihan maintained trade with the Spanish colonial authorities through middlemen for a long time, let alone Fujian.

When Spain and the Netherlands competed to open up colonial settlements in the Taiwan Strait, one of the purposes was to facilitate trade activities with Fujian.The root cause of the conflict between Xu Xinsu and Shibazhi was the conflict of interests caused by the competition in cross-border trade.But winners and losers, losers liquidated out, and now Fujian's import and export trade is naturally decided by Xu Xinsu.

After taking sole control of Fujian's import and export trade, Xu Xinsu's directly or indirectly controlled industries must have some invisible operations, such as maintaining trade relations with Western countries such as the Netherlands and Spain.Haihan is not completely ignorant of this, but both parties have tacitly understood this, knowing that this is just for the sake of food, and will not affect the existing cooperative relationship because of these things.

But if the matter that Haihan asked Xu Xinsu to investigate turned out to be the property of the Xu family, then this matter might not be easy to handle.After all, the most profitable foreign trade business in Fujian is almost all in the hands of the Xu family, and the situation that Jin Ming is worried about is not impossible.

Gong Ping asked back: "Then what countermeasures do you have?"

Jin Ming said: "It's not appropriate to leave this matter to Mr. Xu to handle it completely. The relevant investigation must be followed up by us."

When Gong Ping heard this, he already understood that Jin Ming didn't want to miss this credit.If Xu Xinsu was really given the full authority to investigate this matter, he would probably be able to find something, but afterward the intelligence department might not even get the slightest bit of credit, so Jin Ming had to think of a high-sounding reason to participate in it.

This kind of thinking is actually understandable. After all, the functions of the intelligence department are quite special. If you want to make a contribution, you must have a job. In Fujian, no one has dared to go against Haihan in recent years. The intelligence personnel stationed here are basically There is nothing to do in the world, let alone meritorious service.This time there was finally an arrest mission, of course Jin Ming didn't want to miss the opportunity for nothing, even though Sanya meant to hand over the matter to Xu Xinsu, but he could make do if he couldn't eat meat and just drink some soup.

Gong Ping replied solemnly: "That's the truth. Then when we go to meet Mr. Xu later, we will explain this request. Presumably Mr. Xu will not object."

Gong Shaoqi also responded: "Brother Jin has considered it thoroughly, and it is indeed necessary to have this arrangement to be at ease."

The father and son of the Gong family are all human beings, and after figuring out Jin Ming's intentions, they cooperated very well.They invited Jin Ming over for a discussion. Apart from doing things according to the rules and requiring people from the intelligence department to be present in relation to intelligence affairs, they also had the idea of ​​asking Jin Ming to come over to share the responsibility.The problems that Jin Ming thought of, they have actually already considered. If something goes wrong, someone has to bear the corresponding responsibility.The Gong family and his son were stationed in Fujian for several years. Apart from their own ability to handle affairs, this is also one of the reasons why they are prudent.

The three of them agreed on a plan, and they drove to Xu Xinsu's mansion together.For ordinary people, Xu Xinsu is not someone who can meet whenever they want. Officials with slightly lower ranks have to hand in invitations and wait for a schedule when they go to Xu's mansion. As for ordinary people, they can't even step through the gate.However, the officials sent by Haihan to Fujian are a special case. No matter when they visit, Xu Xinsu will meet him immediately as long as he has time.

The concierge recognized the father and son of the Gong family, and knew that these were his master's guests, so he didn't dare to let them wait at the door, so he took them to the side hall where they first entered the courtyard, and asked the servants to inform the master immediately.

As soon as the concierge was in a hurry to bring hot tea to these few people, someone came from the inner courtyard to greet them, but the person who came was not Xu Xinsu, but Dong Yanyun, his confidant and aide.

"The three are really rare guests!" Dong Yanyun waved his hands and greeted after stepping into the room: "Unfortunately, Mr. Xu is receiving guests, so the old man can only welcome the three on his behalf."

Gong Ping said politely: "Mr. Dong was just joking, how dare Mr. Xu come out to greet him in person! Since Mr. Xu is busy, I will wait here."

Although Dong Yanyun's identity is only Xu Xinsu's master, he was stationed in Sanya on behalf of Xu Xinsu in the early years, and he has good friendship with the big shots on Haihan's side, and he has a lot of weight in Xu Xinsu's camp.As officials stationed in Fujian by Haihan, the Gong family and his son naturally knew that Dong Yanyun's identity was not just a confidant, master, aide, or subordinate. It would be more accurate to say that he was Xu Xinsu's friend or partner, and he must be given enough respect. .

If it was an ordinary visitor, it might not be possible for Dong Yanyun to come forward to greet him. As for allowing Xu Xinsu to greet him in person, Gong Ping asked himself that he hadn't expanded to such a degree.According to the principle of reciprocity, Xu Xinsu would personally greet Haihan senior officials when they visited Fujian.

While greeting Gong Ping and the other three, Dong Yanyun was secretly thinking about the reason for their visit.If it was just the Gong family and his son who came to visit, he would think that the other party should be here for political affairs or business, but he knew that Jin Ming was an intelligence officer, since this person also came with him, it was probably not an ordinary thing.

The cooperation between Haihan and Xu Xinsu is not only in the military and economic fields, but also includes intelligence sharing. For this reason, Xu Xinsu even set up a special intelligence agency to facilitate the connection with Haihan's intelligence department.But if it was purely intelligence affairs, Jin Ming probably didn't need to come here, because the intelligence work in Fujian was not managed by Xu Xinsu himself, but by his third son Xu Yuxing, so there was no need to come to Xu Xinsu for work handover.

But since the Haihan people don't take the initiative to explain their intentions, Dong Yanyun won't be impatient, some things will lose half if you speak first, and an old Jianghu like Dong Yanyun won't be fooled.On Haihan's side, Gong Ping was the leader, and Gong Shaoqi and Jin Ming sat obediently, and Gong Ping chatted with Dong Yanyun about local current affairs without saying a word, without mentioning his own reason for coming.The two old foxes looked very relaxed, as if this visit was really just an ordinary visit to the house.

After waiting for about half an hour, a servant hurried in, bowed and whispered something in Dong Yanyun's ear.Dong Yanyun nodded, and greeted Gong Ping and others: "My lord, please meet the three of you in the study."

On the way to the study, they saw a Westerner leaving under the guidance of servants.The Gong family father and son may not recognize this person, but Jin Ming has met this person because of work.This is the Dutch maritime merchant Philip, who has been stationed in Dayuan Port, Taiwan in recent years.Although Dayuan Port is not what it used to be, and the scale of trade is squeezed by the neighboring Kaohsiung Port and Penghu Magong Port, there are still a few maritime merchants like Philip who are based in Dayuan Port.After all, this place is relatively close to several trading ports in Fujian, so buying and selling between the two sides of the strait can still be a bit lucrative.

And the western businessmen doing business in these trading ports in Fujian are all on the watch list of the Haihan intelligence department, and Philip is naturally no exception.Jin Ming knew that Philip came to Zhangzhou at least three to four times a year, but he didn't know that he could still enter Xu Xinsu's mansion. It seemed that there should be some secrets between Xu Xinsu and the Dutchman.

Xu Xinsu's study room is very large. In addition to the place to read and write, there is also a large wooden table nearly two feet long and five feet wide. It is used as a conference table when convening meetings with his cronies.

"I kept you three waiting for a long time!" Xu Xinsu greeted them at the door of the study.

"The Dutch were just sent away, and these red-haired ghosts actually had to look around in Shu. It seems that they have gradually let go of them in the past two years, and they actually want to come to Zhangzhou to open a business store." After Xu Xinsu sat down, he took the initiative to explain the reason for the meeting with the Dutch just now.

Gong Ping replied: "The Dutch probably won't be able to stay in Dayuan Port. After all, there is no property there, and there is not enough manpower to complete the infrastructure. It is such a small port with a thousand people. It is difficult to see what is there. business prospects."

Xu Xinsu nodded and said: "Master Gong is right. The Dutch have actually been greedy for the Fujian market for a long time, but they haven't got your country's permission, so they don't dare to go one step further. Today, the Dutch businessman came to pester me Granted a piece of land for them to build a business store, saying that as long as they agree to this matter, they are willing to donate 5000 taels of silver. Hehe, I am quite willing to spend money!"

Gong Ping asked calmly: "Then I don't know how Master Xu replied to him?"

Xu Xinsu smiled and said, "That's not easy. I'll ask him to go to you to get permission first. As long as Haihan agrees, I'll let him go."

Gong Ping laughed dumbly and said: "Your Excellency is easy to calculate, now the Dutch can only give up automatically, and we have to charge this account to Hai Han!"

Of course, Gong Ping was only joking, Haihan would not worry about how the Dutch in Dayuangang would feel, when they left this place and did not directly level it, they had given enough face to the Dutch.As for the idea of ​​going to Daming to open a business store, it is 100% unacceptable here in Haihan, so the Dutchman didn't even take the initiative to say hello after meeting just now, and he naturally knew that this road would not work anyway.

Of course, if he can win Xu Xinsu's support, then things will be different.At that time, even if Hai Han is dissatisfied with this matter, he must take care of Xu Xinsu's face, and maybe this shop will have a chance to open.

In fact, this kind of operation is not without opportunities, but the problem is that the conditions that the Dutch can offer are really limited, and it is impossible for Xu Xinsu to risk offending the Haihan people to support him in opening a business store in Zhangzhou. Although 5000 taels of silver is not a small amount, but for Xu Xinsu's net worth, this is really not even a drop in the bucket, so naturally he will not be moved by it.

Of course, whether Xu Xinsu's description of this matter is true or not, only he and the Dutch Philip will know.Although Gong Ping was joking, he secretly paid attention to it in his heart.As for Jin Ming, who was sitting next to him, he was already thinking about whether to leave first, try to bring Philip back to have a cup of tea, and talk to him about opening a business inn.

But Jin Ming just thought about it for a while and knew that this matter was not feasible. It was not that there was something wrong with arresting a Dutch businessman and going back for interrogation, but that he wanted to do it before the other party left Zhangzhou. If Xu Xinsu found out, he would definitely think Hai Hanxin was the only one who would make such a move.This will definitely have a negative impact on the relationship between the two parties, and Jin Ming still dare not easily try this kind of operation beyond the rules.

This was just a small episode. After the exchange of pleasantries between the two parties, Gong Ping could no longer wait patiently with Xu Xinsubi this time, so he took the initiative to mention the purpose of his visit: "Master Xu, what I informed you the day before yesterday, now The investigation has made new progress, and I need your assistance in Fujian."

After gun cases occurred in several places one after another, Haihan also notified the situation to his main allies in order to collect as many clues as possible.However, there are almost no hostile forces on the surface of Fujian, so there have been no relevant clues. If the intelligence personnel have not inquired from Cebu and found relatively clear information pointing to Fujian, then Haihan probably would not pay attention to it. Focus on this seemingly unlikely problem area.

Xu Xinsu said: "Wait a minute, since Mr. Jin has also come, it seems that this matter also requires me to send out relevant personnel. I will call the third child here first, so that you don't have to repeat it to him later."

The "oldest" that Xu Xinsu called was Xu Yuxing, his third son who was in charge of intelligence work.Although Xu Xinsu set up a special intelligence team following the example of Hai Han, but because this thing somewhat violated the taboo of the imperial court, he did not create a new yamen to operate it, but included it in his own guard establishment name, and let the third son Xu Yuxing be in charge of the operation.

(End of this chapter)