1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2457
On the National Day of Haihan in April 1641, the executive committee announced a new law called "Law of the Sea", which made a legal statement on Haihan's various rights and interests overseas.

The content of this new law is mainly aimed at the situation that private capital builds industrial projects such as ports, immigration points, and farms in overseas non-Haihan-controlled areas in private names. In the future, as long as they are registered with the relevant departments of Haihan, these industries will be It will be recognized and protected by the state.

This is actually encouraging non-government forces to open up new colonies overseas, so as to accelerate Haihan's external expansion.There are a large number of undeveloped areas in the South China Sea. The land area of ​​Kalimantan alone is equivalent to more than 20 Hainan Islands. Most of the local indigenous kingdoms are still in a relatively primitive society. To occupy, in the end, it will be in vain for the Europeans.

The South China Sea area has always been regarded by Hai Han as his own back garden. Now that he has freed up his hands, it is natural to gradually take control of this area into his own hands.The use of private power to achieve external expansion is actually imitating the practice of Westerners, but compared with distant Europe, Haihan can be said to be close to the water, and it can provide greater support to private capital.

This is not good news for Portugal and the Netherlands. Obviously, their activities in Southeast Asia have become the target of the Haihan Executive Committee, but considering Haihan's military strength, they are unlikely to take force against it. As a countermeasure, the diplomatic envoys stationed in Sanya can only lobby the Executive Committee to see if conflicts can be avoided as much as possible.

But the executive committee has big plans, and its vision is not only in Southeast Asia. Naturally, it will not accept the lobbying of the Europeans. It only promises to ensure that the colonies that have been built so far will not become the target of Haihan's expansion. As for commercial competition, it is still Old practice will be followed and no targeted measures will be taken against Western businessmen.

Of course, such measures will not yield immediate results. The overseas operation and development cycle of private capital will be much slower than that of the official ones. It may take three to five or seven years before the Nanhai region will gradually appear as expected by the Executive Committee. situation.As for the colonization in a farther range, it will definitely take longer, and many of the traversers may not be able to wait for that time.

At this stage, what restricts Haihan's development speed is no longer land, wealth, or production technology, but the most basic population.As a country, Haihan's current population base is no longer enough to support more overseas colonies.You must know that even a small European country like Portugal has a population of several million, while Haihan's population at this stage is only a few hundred thousand, so it is difficult to realize the plan of the executive committee.

Although tens of thousands of immigrants can be introduced from Ming Dynasty every year, and the country has also promulgated some measures to encourage births, the population growth rate brought about by immigration and births alone is still unable to achieve the expected goal of the Executive Committee.

In the spring of 1642, there was a sudden rebellion in Lianzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture in the Guangdong area. A Hainan businessman died in the war, and a large amount of money and goods were also robbed.Afterwards, Haihan quickly dispatched troops, and before Daming had time to respond, he had already taken control of the state capital, and announced that the Haihan army would temporarily take over the defense of the two places to avoid further deterioration of the situation.

When the Ming court received the news and was still hesitating whether to take a tough stance on it, it was said that the rebels from these two places fled to the neighboring Gaozhou Prefecture to make trouble, and then the Haihan Army followed up quickly, but within a few days , and Gaozhou Prefecture was also included in the bag.

Of course, there are discerning people in the Ming court who saw through this kind of trick. After all, this is not the first time that Haihan has used similar means to occupy the land of Ming Dynasty. In the past, Haihan fought from Qiongnan to Qiongnan in the name of assisting the government to suppress bandits. North, and finally swallowed the entire Qiongzhou Island.And what is happening in these state capitals now is obviously a repeat of that year.

When Hong Chengchou, the imperial envoy from Daming, arrived in Guangdong and asked Haihan to stop his actions and return to Hainan Island, Haihan had already captured half of Zhaoqing Mansion, was approaching Xijiang, and was about to step into the area of ​​Guangzhou Mansion.

Although Hong Chengchou had a tough attitude, he really couldn't come up with any means to make Haihan return these occupied areas west of Guangzhou.As far as he knew, Haihan had deployed several elite troops in this campaign, with more than [-] troops. You must know that Haihan had only deployed a few thousand troops in the confrontation with the Manchus in Jinzhou, Liaodong.Such a scale of action obviously cannot be explained by excuses such as "protecting businessmen" and "maintaining order".

Negotiations between the two countries in Zhaoqing Prefecture lasted for a month, but Haihan only agreed to let the troops withdraw from Zhaoqing. As for Lianzhou, Leizhou, and Gaozhou, Haihan claimed that they must be managed by him in the next five years to protect the troops. Haihan's interests in these areas.

After saying this, it is obvious that he does not intend to pay back.Hong Chengchou knew that he couldn't go back to do business, so he could only stay in Guangdong and continue spending time with the Haihan people.

Haihan was certain that Daming would not dare to fight in Lingnan, so naturally he would not make concessions at the negotiating table.In fact, if Hong Chengchou hadn't rushed to Guangdong to demand negotiations, Haihan might have pushed all the way to Dongping.

Governments at all levels in Guangdong have been infiltrated by Haihan in the past ten years. Many local officials have very close interests with Haihan.Before this operation, Haihan had basically confirmed the attitudes of officials from all over the country, and the very few officials who were regarded as hidden dangers because of their toughness had also dealt with them in advance, so they did not encounter fierce resistance during the whole process.

After Haihan occupied these places, normal social order was restored very quickly, and many people even knew that the place they lived in had changed hands, and they would no longer obey Daming's orders from now on.

Haihan made such a big commotion in the south, the news naturally couldn't be concealed, and it soon spread to the far north.Huang Taiji believed that at this time, Daming was just focusing on the south, and Haihan swallowed up the land in the south of Daming, and it would take time to digest it. If his own side sent troops, it would be difficult for Daming to take care of both.

So in the summer of 1642, the Manchu Qing found an excuse to tear up the Jinzhou Peace Treaty, dispatched [-] soldiers and horses, and leveled several Ming cities outside Shanhaiguan before the fall.Although Daming reacted quickly and mobilized the army to launch a counterattack, the effect achieved was extremely limited. It only allowed the Qing army to retreat to a place a hundred miles north of Shanhaiguan.

(End of this chapter)