1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2459
For Haihan, the entire East Asian region should be brought under its rule in the future, and the main sea lanes entering East Asia naturally became the key areas that Haihan must control.For example, the Sunda Strait and the Malacca Strait at the north and south ends of Sumatra Island, the Lombok Strait at the eastern end of Java Island, the Makassar Strait between Kalimantan Island and Sulawesi Island, etc. In the long run, the importance of these key waterways In fact, it is no less than the Fujian Strait.

In the past, these key waterways were controlled by the Western colonial forces who struck first, but as Haihan's strength grew, it was natural to try to take control of these areas back to itself bit by bit.

Haihan's proactive attack naturally caused uneasiness among the Dutch and Portuguese. Although they were all Haihan's allies in name, they were far away from each other. They were not sure if Haihan would gradually control these places. They will expel themselves by hand. After all, eliminating competitors in the region is the most common method used by Western counterparts.What's more, Haihan's current actions have shown that their scope of activities will not stop at these straits, and will definitely continue to expand westward.

However, Haihan was not as eager as they thought. After gradually controlling these important waterways, Haihan turned his attention back to the northern continent.

At this time, the southern coastal area of ​​Ming Dynasty has been eaten away by Haihan a lot, and Fujian has also fallen into a de facto split state. In addition, the coastal areas of Shandong and Zhejiang have been completely controlled by Haihan. A state of inland shrinkage.

But Ming has no time to take into account the deterioration of the situation in the south, because the military pressure on the north has directly threatened the safety of the capital.The battles with the Manchus became more and more frequent, and the resulting consumption of personnel and materials was also huge. Although the battles in the past year or so were no longer as passive as before, the Ming army sometimes even occupied However, this kind of war of attrition inevitably quickly drained the small amount of silver in the treasury.

At this time, Haihan proposed a solution to the problem: Haihan would provide Daming with war loans, but these loans could only be used for various arms and equipment produced by Haihan.The collateral used to obtain these loans is the various state capitals along the coast of Daming that are currently occupied by Haihan.

Haihan's purpose has been very clear, that is to find a reasonable and official way to formally take over these places.

In order to raise enough military expenses, either use Haihan's loan proposal to solve the urgent need, or they can only use internal efforts to levy more taxes from the people.But no matter which solution is used, it is an extremely difficult choice for Daming.

As a result, an extremely fierce dispute was triggered in the court. Both the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household hoped to get Haihan's assistance, otherwise the frontline troops would have difficulty maintaining their due combat effectiveness. Being an enemy would only make the current situation more difficult. There may even be a situation where the north and the south are attacking.

Some officials, represented by Yanguan, insisted that the imperial court should not compromise with Haihan, and believed that troops should be sent to quell the chaos in Fuguang and other places in the south, and take back the territory that belonged to Ming Dynasty.Of course, in this process, how many troops Daming needs to send, how much money and supplies will be spent, and how many people will leave their homes and die in battle, these officials don't know and don't care.

However, the changes in the situation did not leave time for Daming to respond calmly. Soon the Manchu Qing organized another round of large-scale offensive, with [-] Chen soldiers, and pushed the battle line westward to Shanhaiguan again.

In desperation, Chongzhen could only forcibly suppress the opposition in the court, and asked Yang Sichang to come forward to negotiate with Haihan to raise military expenses and combat supplies needed to resist the Manchu Qing.

In the autumn of 1644, Yang Sichang met secretly with Shi Diwen in Ningbo and reached a new cooperation agreement on behalf of the two countries.Haihan will provide Daming with a war loan totaling 1000 million taels of silver, [-]% of which will be delivered to Daming in the form of weapons and various materials, and the rest will be provided by Haihan Bank in silver checks that can be deposited and withdrawn.

As a loan collateral, Daming will recognize Haihan's interests in Lianzhou, Leizhou, Gaozhou, Zhaoqing, Zhejiang Ningbo, Shandong Dengzhou and other places in Guangdong, and Haihan will continue to retain Existing local government system.Although the wording was cryptic, in fact, Daming had already given up the right to rule these places, and Haihan also cooperated with Daming to save some face, and did not clear these local government immediately.

On the surface, it seems that Hai Han exchanged these places with 1000 million taels of silver, but in fact Hai Han paid far less than that.For the 800 million taels worth of munitions, Haihan's gross profit from it was almost half.And this agreement avoided the outbreak of a large-scale armed conflict with Ming Dynasty, and the military expenditure saved by this is also very considerable.

After obtaining such a large area, Haihan's income from operations will far exceed the taxation during the Ming Dynasty, and he will be able to recover his capital within a year or two at the earliest.

As for the Fujian region currently controlled by Xu Xinsu, it is not within the scope of this agreement. As long as Xu Xinsu does not have an independent regime, Haihan will not intervene too much in Fujian's affairs.How Daming will deal with the situation in Fujian is not a headache for the Haihan executive committee.

After receiving help from Haihan, Da Ming's combat effectiveness on the northern frontline has also improved significantly.In a battle in November 1644, Ming deployed a powerful pocket position with [-] artillery pieces that were secretly transported to the front line of Shanhaiguan, defeated the main force of the Qing army trying to attack Shanhaiguan, and wiped out more than [-] Qing troops. people, killed and wounded many generals of the Qing army, and achieved a rare victory since the beginning of the Anti-Qing War.

Huang Taiji suffered from this great loss, of course he immediately linked the decline of the Qing army on the battlefield with Haihan.However, Haihan did not send troops directly, nor did it violate the agreement between the two countries, so Huang Taiji couldn't tell.

Therefore, a strange situation emerged during this period. Haihan purchased a large number of products from the Central Plains in Shandong, and some of them would be transported across the sea to Jinzhou for barter transactions with the Qing Dynasty.And some of the special products outside the customs traded from Jinzhou will also flow into Daming through Shandong, Zhejiang and other places.

The Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty fought to the death near the coast of Liaodong Bay, while at the same time, Haihan, who was a middleman, made money on both sides, and even had spare energy to communicate some special matters for the two sides.For example, it is obviously difficult for an important person captured by the other party during the war to get him back on the battlefield. However, through Haihan's message in the middle, whether it is a prisoner exchange or a ransom payment, there is room for operation after all.

(End of this chapter)