1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 641 External Perception
"Haihan people! It's these troublesome Haihan people again!" Hans couldn't help frowning after hearing Van Longen's explanation: "Is there any definite evidence?"

"The performance of the artillery they use is obviously superior to that of the Portuguese. It has a long range and is accurate, and it reloads ammunition very quickly. It seems that the Portuguese have never heard of similar weapons." Van Longen explained.

Hans shook his head and said: "Mr. Van Longen, your news is a bit late. Recently, we have received news that the Portuguese colony in Haojingao, Guangdong has begun to replace the new artillery. It is said that these artillery are from the Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island. These money-seeking heretics not only sold weapons to Daming, but also sold them to our opponents. If the group of pirates you encountered bought weapons from the Haihan people, then I It's not surprising at all."

"Then why don't we contact the Haihan people? In the eyes of merchants, there shouldn't be any difference between Portuguese silver and our silver." Van Longen asked puzzled.

"It's not that I haven't tried this before, but the result made me even more worried." Hans' gloomy face showed that he was not joking: "I used to find a middleman to contact Haihan's office in Zhangzhou, but They don't seem to be very interested in doing business with us. Of course, this is probably the result of the damn Portuguese getting in the way. There are reliable sources that the Portuguese had secretly signed a cooperation agreement with the Haihan people two years ago. , and the content of this cooperation agreement is likely to be exclusive.”

"Two years ago? Wasn't that the end of Annan's civil war?" Van Longen raised his eyebrows: "These Portuguese changed their positions really fast enough. Seeing the fall of Annan's southern regime, they immediately jumped into the But why did the Haihan people choose to cooperate with the Portuguese? They probably don’t know yet, whether in the West or in the Far East, the country’s situation is already declining.”

"Perhaps they knew this and chose to cooperate with the Portuguese." Hans' view was exactly the opposite of Van Longen's: "The Portuguese's strength in the Far East was limited. After being expelled from Annan, they actually had only Haojingao is the foothold. For such a down-and-out person, they have very limited room to bargain with the Haihan people. It is said that the Haihan people are very shrewd in business, and they probably value the weak situation of the Portuguese. Now the Portuguese have not only kept Haojingao, but also obtained the right to trade with Qiongzhou Island. In addition, it is said that Annan Kingdom has re-signed an agreement with Portugal, allowing Portuguese merchant ships to enter Annan Port for trade-of course, these ports are also all It is under the control of the Haihan people."

"Mr. Hans, according to what you mean, do you think the Haihan people will become our opponents in the near future?" Van Longen asked.

Hans said solemnly: "It's not the future, but the present. After Zheng Zhilong lost Nanri Island, we also lost a major channel for trading with Ming merchants. The mission sent by the Haihan people to Fujian this time was favored by Xu Xinsu." Specification reception, after they join forces, they can completely monopolize the maritime trade from Fujian to Guangdong, which is definitely not good news for us. And I don't think they will stop here, Haihan continues northward along the coastline of Daming Expansion is almost inevitable, whether it is Ryukyu or Japan and North Korea in the north, they will become their targets sooner or later, and the competition with us will become open, and conflicts will be inevitable."

"Then we should try to stop them!" After Van Longen finished speaking, he felt that he had made a mistake. Shibazhi, known as the number one force at sea on the southeast coast of Daming, could even handle an expedition fleet sent by Haihan to Fujian. No, what will the Dutch use to compete with the Haihan people?
Hans also shook his head in dismay and said: "It's not that easy. Haihan's expansion in Daming is far faster than ours. If the company can't invest more resources in Dayuan Island in the next few years, it will have to Wait for Haihan to push us out of the game bit by bit."

Hans's vision is undoubtedly relatively accurate. Although this attack on Nanri Island is Haihan's first public attack in the waters of Fujian, Hans has already realized the oppressive feeling brought about by this change.The Haihan people are unwilling to develop trade relations with the Netherlands, which shows that they completely regard the Netherlands as a competitor, or even to the extent of imaginary enemies.However, the armed forces deployed by the East India Company on Dayuan Island were very limited, and it was not enough to support their expedition to Qiongzhou Island to fight against the ignorant Haihan people.What's more, even if he can go, Hans is not sure that he can take down the Sanya port, which is said to be guarded by hundreds of coastal defense guns and dozens of large warships.

Therefore, even though he knew that everything Hai Han was doing was weakening the influence of the Netherlands in the Far East, Hans had no way to change this situation.He had already mentioned this matter in the report submitted to the company's board of directors before, but the East India Company's main energy is now on the development of Southeast Asia, and it has no time to estimate the changes in the situation in Northeast Asia.After all, there are still a large number of tropical islands in the waters east of Java Island waiting for navigators to discover the treasures among them, and the distant Dayuan Port may be just halfway to the Northeast Asia route in the eyes of Batavia officials. It's just a supply port.

The bad news brought by Van Longen made the attention Hans expected from Batavia even more distant, because even if the company headquarters wanted to ensure the stability of the Northeast Asia route, it would definitely deal with the Natuna Islands first. The wild armed forces that appeared suddenly, after all, had already begun to intercept and kill the sailing ships belonging to the East India Company, and the situation in Taiwan was far from deteriorating to the point where war would start in the near future.

While the two were discussing the change in the situation, a servant came to report to Hans that someone had asked to see him.

"This is Zheng Zhilong's envoy." Hans handed the greeting card from the future to Fan Longen, but Fan Longen couldn't recognize any of the square Chinese characters on it.

"This person has been here for five days in a row. His purpose is to persuade me to sell a batch of arms to Shibazhi. If possible, he also hopes that I can send troops to help them take back Nanri Island." Han Si briefly introduced the situation.

"How is this possible!" Fan Longen seemed very disapproving of the Zheng family envoy's suggestion.

After the Netherlands retreated in Penghu in 1624, the East India Company ordered to prohibit Dayuan from taking any military action against the Ming government, so as not to cause unnecessary troubles—although the Daming Navy may not be able to capture Dayuan Port , but if the local trade is interrupted due to the war, it will also be a loss in disguise for the East India Company.In the eyes of Daming officials, Shibazhi is a lawless pirate, and the Netherlands is nothing more than selling weapons. If they help, the nature is no different from directly sending troops to invade Daming. Hans didn't even need to ask for instructions. Batavia will never allow this to happen.

"However, this envoy knows Hai Han very well. Are you interested in hearing what he has to say about Hai Han?" Hans asked Van Longen.

"People from Haihan? I'm interested in learning more about it." Van Longen's previous understanding of Haihan was just rumors, and when it came to him, he had already changed hands a few times, and it was quite different from the original facts. However, he really wanted to hear from those who had witnessed it about the specific situation of this emerging power in the Far East.

After Hans gave the order, a man dressed as a Confucian scholar of the Ming Dynasty came to the reception room in a short while, followed by a young man with black hair and yellow skin, but with deep eyes and a high nose, he seemed to be a thing Fang Mulatto.

The man clasped his fists and said something, and the mixed-race young man behind him translated what he said into Dutch, which turned out to be the interpreter he brought.

"Villain Zheng Xinzhi, I have met Lord Hans!"

"Mr. Zheng, if your purpose of coming here today is to persuade me to provide military aid to Shibazhi, then I advise you to save your mouth." Hans didn't save any face for him because of the other party's politeness, As soon as he opened his mouth, he expressed his attitude straight to the point: "But if you are willing to talk to us about other topics, then Mr. Van Longen and I who have just arrived in Dayuan Port are more than happy to communicate with you."

After hearing the translation, Zheng Xinzhi raised his head to look at Fan Longen, and made another deep bow: "Since Mr. Hans has spoken, the villain will always follow suit. I wonder what the two adults want to talk about?"

"Tell us about the Haihan people, and tell us what kind of people you know about the Haihan people." Hans pointed to the lower chair, motioning for him to sit down and speak slowly.

"Haihan people? That's a long story. They're not an easy group of guys..." After sitting down, Zheng Xinzhi began to talk about what he knew.

The emissary sent by Zheng Zhilong named Zheng Xinzhi was actually the mastermind of Zhangzhou's assassination of the Haihan mission two months ago.Immediately after the incident in Zhangzhou that day, he went out of the city to escape by boat, and escaped with his life by luck.Although the assassination plan fell short at the last moment and failed, Zheng Xinzhi was rewarded by Zheng Zhilong after returning to Magong Port in Penghu, believing that his actions had deterred Haihan and had the effect of warning the other party.

However, Zheng Zhilong was only concerned about morale, so he could only swallow the broken teeth, because within a few days after the incident, the Shibazhi secret piles and staff in Zhangquan and Quanzhou were arrested by the government one after another. As a result, many smuggling trade channels were destroyed, and the direct economic losses and personnel losses were very large.Fujian Maritime Merchants, who have never completely broken with Shibazhi, also changed their attitude because of this incident, and began to interrupt various trade and cooperation relations with Shibazhi. For them, Haihan, a big customer, must have is much heavier.

But a few days later, the coalition forces of the Haihan Fleet and the Fujian Navy set out from Zhangzhou and destroyed Shibazhi's stronghold on Nanri Island in one fell swoop. Zheng Zhilong could no longer pretend to be calm.As soon as Zheng Zhihu, who escaped from Nanri Island by chance, returned to Penghu, he asked Zheng Zhilong to kill Zheng Xinzhi, an "internal traitor", in order to sacrifice his dead brother. It would not arouse the anger of the Haihan people, so they chose Nanri Island, which is the closest to Zhangzhou, as the target of revenge. Shibazhi deployed more than a thousand men and more than 20 boats there, and only a few dozen returned to Penghu in the end. People, two small sampans, the ending can only be described as miserable.

Zheng Zhihu had nowhere to vent his anger, and he could only vent his anger on Zheng Xinzhi, the person who started the incident.If it wasn't for Zheng Zhilong to make the decision, Zheng Xinzhi would probably have been dragged out and beheaded the day Zheng Zhihu set foot on Penghu land.

After the incident got to this point, Zheng Zhilong could no longer defend his staff, Zheng Xinzhi, just as the group of his subordinates clamored to fight back to Nanri Island for revenge, so Zheng Zhilong gave Zheng Xinzhi another errand, asking him to go to the Dalai Lama. Yugang asked the Dutch for help.After all, without a large number of artillery, it would be very difficult to capture a relatively strong defensive stronghold like Nanri Village, and now the only ones who can provide heavy weapons to Shibazhi are the Dutch family.

And Zheng Xinzhi didn't get any good looks after he came to Dayuangang. He visited Hans several times, but he was either excused because he had no time to meet him, or Hans changed the topic directly before he could say a few words.After three or five times, Zheng Xinzhi is actually a little tired, but he also knows that if this matter is not handled well, he will definitely not be able to report to Zheng Zhilong when he goes back. At that time, those vulgar people who don't like him will have more reason to shout It's time to punish yourself for your sins.So even though every time he came to visit Hans, he had to encounter some setbacks, Zheng Xinzhi still insisted on visiting here every two days. If he couldn't convince Hans, then he didn't plan to go back.

Zheng Xinzhi didn't quite know what the origin of this Mr. Van Longen was, but he was obviously not an idler. Looking at his dusty appearance and sun-drenched complexion, Zheng Xinzhi speculated that he should have come from Batavia. Dutch officials.Zheng Xinzhi would be more than happy to do it if it was possible to make senior Dutch officials feel bad and hostile towards the Haihan people.

Zheng Xinzhi thought for a while before he said: "There are many folk theories about the origin of the Haihan people, but they are not descendants of the Han people, they just look alike, and they use this identity to confuse the people of Ming Dynasty and seek personal gain. These people value profit over profit. Righteousness, capriciousness, doing unrighteous things in the name of business, is really a shameless person..."

After listening to a few words of translation, Van Longen interrupted him impatiently: "Please tell me something practical. I don't want to hear your judgment on their morality. What I want to know is what the Haihan people can do. What do you want to do, what are you good at, what are you afraid of.”

(End of this chapter)