1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 665 Hostility
After talking with Van der Wegen, the anger in Cohen's heart due to the news of the defeat of the generals gradually calmed down.Judging from the information we have learned so far, this battle is not an accidental armed conflict. The opponent has actually planned and made full preparations. This armed fleet did suffer a great loss due to lack of preparation during the battle.

Obviously, the opponents did not intend to kill them all, so they released the flagship of the fleet, giving Van der Wegen a chance to leave the battlefield.It's just that Cohen hasn't fully understood their purpose of doing this. He just vaguely feels that the opponent's purpose is not pure, and it's not just advocating force.The terrible strength shown by Haihan in the First World War in Fujian has once again attracted Cohen's attention to this emerging force. He found that in the past few years, the East India Company has put too much energy on maintaining the Northeast Asia. China's trade system, while ignoring the quiet rise of potential competitors.

At a hearing the next day, the company's top brass heard van der Wegen's account of the Fujian battle, which again sparked heated debate among the directors.The directors once again split into the two factions of the main war and the main peace, each holding their own views and arguing fiercely, but the focus of the debate has shifted from the previous Natuna Island to the distant Fujian of Ming Dynasty.

However, the voice of the main combat faction this time is obviously much smaller than the previous time. After all, Fujian is too far away from Batavia. Anyone with a little military knowledge can imagine how amazing the manpower, material and financial resources will be spent on the expedition, not to mention The opponent was no longer the weak Fujian Ming army seven years ago. Not only did they update their equipment and personnel, but they also had Hai Han, a powerful foreign aid that could not be ignored.

According to the information presented by van der Wegen, the Fujian Ming army, especially the naval forces, has undergone large-scale equipment updates and personnel adjustments in the past three years.A large number of young officers who have received special training from Haihan began to appear in command positions. Many of them are inextricably related to the current Fujian General Soldier Xu Xinsu. To a certain extent, they can even replace this army The fresh-blooded Ming army is regarded as Xu Xinsu's personal army.The common feature of these young military officers is that apart from their personal allegiance to Xu Xinsu, they also admire Haihan's military system and equipment.

According to incomplete statistics, in the past three years, more than a thousand rifles have been sold by Haihan to the Fujian Ming Army every year, and the content of the transaction has been upgraded from the original matchlock gun to the more advanced flintlock gun since last year. .The Ming army in Fujian purchases more than [-] artillery pieces of various calibers every year. In the past few years, Shibazhi's key attack target, Zuosuocheng, has almost all been replaced with standard weapons provided by Haihan. , This also directly led to the fact that Shibazhi has hardly won a decent victory in the past three years, and the combat goal of capturing the Zhongzuo has never been achieved.

In addition, Haihan has been providing new warships to the Fujian Navy since last year. Although the number of ships that have begun to serve is not large, it is clear that this momentum will not stop. Xu Xinsu exchanged a large amount of silver for Under the influence of the military assistance of the Fujian Ming Army, the strength of the Fujian Ming Army will increase year by year, and it may even further threaten the safety of the Dutch colony in Dayuan Port and the East India Company's routes in Northeast Asia.

"How can the Fujian government have so much money to equip the army? As far as I know, the military expenditure of the Ming Empire comes from their military department, and this empire has been struggling with the enemies in the north in recent years. They have even increased The proportion of taxes in the southern region is used to subsidize military expenditures in the northern battlefield. Under such circumstances, how could the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty approve these expenditures by the Fujian government?" The person who asked the question obviously had a relatively deep understanding of Ming Dynasty, and this question also That's the right question.

Van der Wegen explained: "In fact, according to the information we have, only a very small part of these military expenditures was approved by the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, and most of them were privately funded by Xu Xinsu and the Fujian business group he led. One of the important reasons why he placed a large number of cronies in the army. In addition, we also heard that Haihan’s banking institution provided them with an unknown amount of loans for them to purchase Haihan’s arms and equipment.”

"Borrow money from the Haihan people to buy their weapons? Isn't the money turned around and returned to their own pockets? These profiteers!" Some people expressed contempt for this kind of behavior, completely forgetting about Europe at this time On the battlefield, there were also a large number of Dutch businessmen who did the same thing when they were arms brokers.

Most of Van der Wegen's information came from the spies arranged by Shibazhi earlier in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and other places to be merchants. Although the information that can be collected is not complete, it can be regarded as having a certain effect.Haihan Bank has indeed been providing low-interest loans to the Fujian military since 1629, specifically Xu Xinsu’s private individual, for arms purchases.This is also one of the methods used by Haihan Ordnance to sell arms to the outside world. The same method is not only used in Fujian, but also in the arms trade with Annan.

In fact, Xu Xinsu's economic situation is much better than that of the Annan people. After taking charge of the military power in a province, the wealth he can create through various commercial channels under his overt and covert control is also quite astonishing. Too much.During the transaction with Haihan, it was more often that Xu Xinsu was restricted in the quantity and type of arms purchased, rather than the issue of whether he could get the money.One of the reasons why Fujian is willing to use Haihan Bank's low-interest loans is that it can use the loans to purchase some originally restricted arms and equipment. Loan agreement and then purchase contract.

This is not because the people of Haihan Bank and Haihan Ordnance are just tossing around. In fact, this kind of trading method can not only allow the bank's idle funds to earn a certain amount of interest, but also has a very important The role is to promote the application of banking services in Fujian.After the Fujian government adopted the bank's loan service, Haihan had a better example to use as a publicity when promoting the bank settlement system to Fujian businessmen.

As for the loan to the Fujian military headed by Xu Xinsu, Haihan Bank does not have to worry about the safe recovery of funds. After all, the cooperation between the two parties has been very deep now. By paying interest to increase the price to buy those high-end equipment that Haihan restricted to sell-he cares more about whether he can buy it than at what price to buy it.

Of course, such a low-interest loan method is currently only provided to the Fujian government, and the Haihan Bank's unique financial settlement method is promoted to the private sector.Similar means have been in operation in Guangdong for a longer period of time, and the mechanism has become more mature, and can basically be directly applied to Fujian.Merchants traveling between Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan Island can use Haihan Bank's office system to realize money withdrawal and trade settlement in different places, eliminating the inconvenience and danger of traveling long distances with a large amount of cash in the past.And some businesses with strong capital and good credit can also directly apply for temporary loans from Haihan Bank when turnover is inconvenient. Of course, the interest on such loans is not as low as the special loans provided to the government.

As for the security of these funds, it has been gradually improved in the continuous operation.After several years of operation, the "Golden Shield Escort", which was born in Guangzhou, has now opened branches in all the prefectures in Guangdong, and has also opened offices in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian.The staff has also rapidly expanded from a hundred or so people at the time of its establishment to a huge scale of more than a thousand people at present.Of course, so many people are no longer only composed of the children of Li Jiazhuang, two-thirds of them are naturalized personnel, and the operation power of the entire organization is no longer decided by Li Nai alone—— Of course, he didn't pay much attention to things like business, even if he knew the actions of the Haihan people, he would pretend not to see them.

In addition to the armed escort of valuables such as gold, silver and jewelry between various places, the "Golden Shield Escort" has another important function as the armed guards of Haihan Bank.This security not only refers to protecting the personnel and money in the bank, but also undertakes tasks under special circumstances—such as the need to use force to recover some troublesome accounts.However, because of their Haihan background, local governments often turn a blind eye to their actions.With such an easy-to-use powerful thug, all kinds of troubles Haihan Bank encountered in promoting its business in the local area have been greatly reduced.

Of course, in addition to this, this organization also has a more secretive task, which is to add to the militia army as an organized unit to accept the unified command of the military during wartime.A considerable number of soldiers who have retired from the Haihan Militia have entered this organization to work. After all, the treatment here is a bit higher than that of returning home to farm or working in a factory. It is a good deal for veterans. way out.This organization also implements militarized management in normal times. The leaders of each team are almost all veterans who have served in the militia. During wartime, they can complete the role change in a very short period of time, turning this civilian armed force into a regular army. Although it cannot be used on the frontal battlefield, it is definitely enough to maintain local order, manage logistics, and act as a temporary policeman.

And the penetration effect of this kind of financial system combined with commercial activities in Fujian is definitely not reflected by the intelligence collected by Shibazhi's spies.The merchants of the East India Company did not understand the transaction method between Haihan and the Fujian government. A large part of the reason was that the Netherlands and Ming Dynasty had historically been at odds, so the East India Company could only rely on small-scale smuggling transactions so far. To maintain trade with Daming, if they have the opportunity, they can visit Zhangzhou City in person, see the large-scale Haihan special wharf in the local area, browse the row upon row of Haihan products in Zhangzhou City, and listen to how the local people view Haihan’s various products. With this method of infiltration, they might realize that the Haihan people conduct trade in such a complicated way, not just for the extra interest income.

"Gentlemen, please be quiet and listen to me." Cohen stretched out his hand and tapped lightly on the table twice, and the directors who were still arguing immediately quieted down. As the governor for many years, his prestige did not decline because of his physical condition And reduce how much.

Cohen was very satisfied with the effect, and continued after everyone quieted down: "Gentlemen, we must first correct a misunderstanding. The current Fujian army is not the army we fought against seven years ago. Not only their commanders, but also their weapons and fighting methods, and this is a situation that we have not encountered before in the Far East. I had a detailed conversation with Mr. van der Wegen yesterday, and the Haihan people's naval warfare methods and Experience is worthy of our vigilance. They are indeed rookies who have just risen, but they are not fledgling rookies! Not only can they make weapons and warships, but they are also very good at combat... Judging from the current known situation, whether it is Whether at sea or on land, their armies have a very high level of combat. In the battle to defeat Mr. van der Wegen, the Ming army navy obviously obeyed the command of the Haihan people and acted as a bait throughout the battle , cannon fodder, and miscellaneous roles, which shows that the Fujian Ming Army highly respects the strength of the Haihan Militia, and is willing to appear on the battlefield that belongs to the territory of the Ming Dynasty as an allied army. Gentlemen, this is a very terrible thing!"

All the participants have quieted down, quietly listening to Cohen's analysis.Regardless of whether it is military or political fields, Cohen's knowledge and depth of thinking are undoubtedly much greater than those present here. His opinions almost represent the will of the East India Company, and his views on this matter will also directly affect To the company's attitude on how to deal with the situation in Fujian.

Cohen stopped and coughed a few times, and then continued: "Gentlemen, in view of the attitude of Daming, Annan and the Portuguese towards Haihan, I think this will be a strong opponent that the East India Company will face since it entered the Far East. Here I must first admit that I made a mistake in decision-making. We all know that when they first arrived at Qiongzhou Island a few years ago, there were only a few hundred people. If they are wiped out, then it is impossible for them to threaten our colony now a few years later. And now Haihan is no longer a weakling that can be dealt with simply by sending a fleet. And what we must pay attention to is that they have already Showed obvious hostility towards us!"

(End of this chapter)