1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 723 Intelligence Work
It was not the first time for Su Keyi to be a guest in Cheng Dapeng's study, but every time he came here, he would still be overwhelmed by the gorgeous furnishings in his study.

Su Keyi is already the third generation of the Su family who moved to Nanyang, but his cultural inheritance and living habits are still based on the traditions of the Han people, so it is not difficult for him to recognize the calligraphy and paintings, ornaments, books, furniture and even in Cheng Dapeng's study room. Pens, inks, papers and inkstones are all expensive and high-end goods.But Cheng Dapeng himself was very indifferent to this. When Su Keyi came to be a guest for the first time, he casually praised the glass paperweight on the desk, and Cheng Dapeng gave it to him as a gift.

Su Keyi was very surprised at the time. You must know that the glass inkstone was the five-color commemorative edition of the first year of Chongzhen produced by Haihan. A total of 88 sets were produced. When it was released, it was sold for nearly a thousand taels of silver in the Guangzhou market.Su Minggang, the head of the Su family, couldn't even buy a set in Guangzhou. It has been a priceless collection for a long time.Cheng Dapeng was young, not only was he able to collect this thing, but he was also so generous, which really made Su Keyi feel that this person's background and bearing are quite extraordinary, and he immediately wanted to make friends with him.

Later, Cheng Dapeng revealed intentionally or unintentionally that his family not only had businesses in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Annan, and Champa, but also had excellent relationships with important figures in official circles in the two provinces of Ming, Fujian, and Guangxi.In addition, the Haihan people who have risen rapidly in Qiongzhou Island in recent years also have business contacts with his family - the limited edition paperweight given to Su Keyi was obtained from this channel.

Of course, since there are so many ways, the business of Cheng Dapeng's family is naturally not limited to grain business.He told Su Keyi frankly that he came to Batavia to open this rice store, in fact, he just opened up a trade window in Nanyang.When the time is right, the family may gradually increase the number of business projects in Nanyang.

Cheng Dapeng's conversation is witty, knowledgeable, elegant, and generous, showing his unusual status everywhere.In addition, Su Keyi also encountered maritime merchants from Daming to visit Cheng Dapeng at the "Dacheng Rice Company" more than once. After inquiring, these maritime merchants said that the Cheng family took good care of their business elsewhere, and it was natural when they came here. I also want to visit the married people.After going back and forth, Su Keyi gradually dispelled his little guard.

But Cheng Dapeng's real identity is of course not a steward sent by a big family to Nanyang, but a special commissioner of the Nanyang Affairs Office of the Haihan Security Department, and one of the few intelligence personnel listed as a top secret by the Security Department.Although the identity is false, the name Cheng Dapeng is genuine and not false. He was originally from Qingyuan, Guangdong, and he was indeed from a family of merchants. He received a good education. He was selected as a scholar at the age of 16. Famous young talent.

If it weren't for the natural and man-made disasters that broke out in various parts of Guangdong in 1628, Cheng Dapeng might have passed the exam smoothly, and then used his family's financial resources to donate an official position and go in the direction of official career and politics.But it's a pity that his hometown Qingyuan happened to be one of the main sources of the bandit chaos, and wealthy families like Chengjia naturally became the first targets of the bandits in troubled times.

During the bandit rebellion in Qingyuan, Chengjiazhuang was one of the first villages to be attacked by bandits. After the bandits looted all of Zhuangzi, they set a fire to burn Zhuangzi to ruins.Cheng Dapeng was also one of the few victims who escaped from Chengjiazhuang alive. He first fled to Guangzhou, but because there were too many refugees in Guangzhou, the Guangzhou government was worried about gathering crowds and causing chaos, so they banned the refugees from entering the city.And with the stature of a scholar like Cheng Dapeng, he couldn't grab the limited relief food at all.So he continued to go south again, and when he arrived in Panyu, he happened to meet Haihan soliciting immigrants.At that time, Cheng Dapeng hadn't eaten for several days, and he couldn't care less for his own life, so he immediately signed up for immigration.

What happened later was similar to that of most Ming refugees who immigrated to Hainan Island from the mainland. After Cheng Dapeng arrived in Shengli Port, he was quickly singled out because of his background and outstanding cultural quality. After wrestling, the Ministry of Security snatched the spot.After a short-term training, Cheng Dagui successfully passed the entry assessment and became a full-time employee of the Security Department.Afterwards, the Ministry of Security established the Nanyang Affairs Office and sent people south to Batavia to establish an intelligence agency. Cheng Dapeng, a new face, rarely showed up in Shengli Port, and he had received good results in professional training before, so he was selected as one of them. The person in charge of a group, as a senior manager of "Dachenghang", went to Batavia City to open a rice store.

Relying on his own cultural accomplishment and the various supports provided by Haihan, a powerful backer, Cheng Dapeng quickly gained a foothold in Batavia. According to the lessons he learned during his stay in the Ministry of Security, he began to build a Own social intelligence network.Children like Su Keyi who came from a powerful local family are naturally within Cheng Dapeng's target range.

Last year, Su Keyi received an errand to go to Sanya to negotiate with Haihan. Before leaving, he specially came to find Cheng Dapeng to learn from him, hoping to gain some experience in dealing with Haihan people from him.At that time, although Cheng Dapeng didn't know what the executive committee's attitude towards the peace talks between the two sides would be, he was not optimistic about Su Keyi's errand at all, because many of the intelligence he had collected before were related to the Abunna Islands , is enough to see the executive committee's determination to seize this place.Now that Haihan has spent time and effort to win this place, how could he spit out the fat in his mouth again.

Sure enough, after Su Keyi, Van Longen, and Van der Wegen arrived in Sanya, it can be said that they did not get any bargains. The negotiation was deadlocked from the beginning, and it was delayed until two months before they reached an agreement that was later passed to the Batavia Council. Gritting armistice.The Dutch suffered a great loss, but the council could not blame the three people in charge of the negotiation for failing to achieve the predetermined negotiation goal - after all, the military strength is not as strong as the opponent's, and it is naturally impossible to rely on lip service for things that cannot be obtained on the battlefield. can get it.

After Su Keyi returned to Batavia, he was further reused by the family, because the Su family believed that after the armistice agreement was signed, the trade relationship between Haihan and the Netherlands would gradually normalize.As for the scale of Haihan's trade in Daming, Annan and other places in recent years, the Su family has heard of it even though it is located in Nanyang. The owner Su Minggang thinks that Haihan's size can be compared with the East India Company. On the other hand, there are still places to win-such as military strength.

If the two sides can carry out trade after this, Su Minggang hopes that the Su family can grab the top ranking. After all, the businessmen attached to Haihan in recent years have really gained a lot of benefits.The sea merchants who came to Batavia for trade also increasingly added the proportion of Haihan products to the goods they shipped.As the representative of Batavia's Chinese merchants, Su Minggang naturally knows how much profit there is in order to prompt the sea merchants to make changes.

Among the direct descendants of the Su family, there are not many people who have dealt with Haihan people face to face, and Su Keyi's two-month experience in Sanya naturally made him the best candidate.So soon after Su Keyi returned from Sanya, he was entrusted with the important task of preparing for the establishment of a trade relationship with Haihan.

Su Keyi is already regarded as a "Hai Han Tong" in his family, but he has been to Sanya himself, and he also knows that Hai Han's real situation cannot be grasped at a glance, not to mention that he was actually under house arrest for most of his time in Sanya You cannot go out in the hotel.So even if he is reused by the family, it is difficult for him to get started with this job smoothly.However, he is very fortunate that he knows Cheng Dapeng, a friend, because two years earlier, the married young master also had the experience of living in Sanya for a short time because of the family business. There should be more bits than yourself.

Of course, Cheng Dapeng would not refuse such a good thing delivered to his door. While pretending to make suggestions for Su Keyi, he took the opportunity to collect various relevant intelligence information, especially the various business projects and operating conditions of the East India Company in the Nanyang region. Cheng Dapeng They all sent out a lot of dry goods to Su Keyi in the name of reference.

But Su Keyi obviously didn't realize the importance of these information, let alone Cheng Dapeng's ulterior motives, and unknowingly confided a lot of inside information to him.In his opinion, Cheng Dapeng is just a friend who is in the grain business, and has no direct relationship with the projects run by the Dutch. How much raw silk did Daming buy, what's the point?

Of course, Cheng Dapeng didn't just ask questions but didn't come up with ideas. In fact, taking advantage of the special place of Anbuna Port to carry out the slave trade was one of Cheng Dapeng's suggestions to Su Keyi.

In the past two years, Haihan’s introduction of immigrants has begun to decline. The Executive Committee is also seeking to introduce labor from overseas in the South Seas through the slave trade. The location of the Annabuna Islands is doomed to make it difficult to attract mainland immigrants to settle there. Cheng Dapeng believes that Since the Dutch merchant ships are allowed to dock locally in the armistice agreement, it is possible to try to conduct slave trade with the local Haihan people.

Slave trade is not uncommon in Batavia and the entire Southeast Asia. There are more than one large slave markets outside the city of Batavia.Every month, a large number of slaves from all over Southeast Asia, the Indian Peninsula, the Middle East, and even Africa were transported here for sale. At least [-]% of the labor force in the Su family's plantation on Java Island was raised slaves.However, if you want to sell these slaves to Haihan, you must not bypass the Dutch—as the number one Chinese comprador under the East India Company, the Su family wants to bypass the Dutch and directly deal with Haihan. This is undoubtedly a kind of treason. If the Lord's actions are noticed by the council, everyone in the Su family will suffer.

So although Cheng Dapeng's idea sounded good, Su Keyi handled it very carefully.He was very aware of the seriousness of the matter, and after discussing with the management of the family, he finally came up with a compromise method to implement this matter.

The Su family organized the supply of goods in the slave market in Batavia, and then hired Dutch merchant ships to transport the slaves to the port of Ambuna for trading.In this way, the council has already received taxes from the transactions in the slave market, and the participation of the Dutch merchant ship also allows it to grasp the whereabouts of these slaves, so that there will be no unnecessary doubts about the actions of the Su family.The Dutch slave trader Jansen that Roger met after returning to Port Amberna was actually the partner of the Su family in this business.Eighty percent of the slaves transported by Jansen's fleet to the port of Ambuna were bought by the Su family in the Batavia market.

Due to the profit sharing caused by having to let a third party intervene, coupled with the risk of loss during the slave transportation process, the Su family’s income from this business is actually not high. A few hundred taels of silver is far less than the return of selling some other high-margin commodities.But what the Su family valued was not only the economic benefits of this business, but also hoped to use it to gradually build a broader and deeper trade relationship with Haihan.

It has not been a day or two for high-profit Haihan products to enter Batavia, but almost all of these products are shipped by Ming merchants, and there is not much profit margin left for the Dutch.Therefore, the council also adopted a tacit attitude of not supporting, not opposing, not encouraging, and not stopping the actions of the Su family, hoping that the Su family could partially replace the market share of Daming Marine Merchant and reduce the arrival price of some Haihan products.If the Su family did not perform satisfactorily during this process, or if there were any illegal actions, then it would be too late for the council to come forward to stop them.

As for the shame of losing the Abunana Islands, it is not that important to some people in the council. As long as Batavia's route to Northeast Asia can be kept, ceding territory and truce is not an unacceptable solution. After all, before the Haihan people took that place, the East India Company only used it as a supply station on this route.And if we can gradually establish a trade relationship with the Haihan people, on the one hand, it can ease the tension with this rival, and on the other hand, it can also suppress the position of Portugal, a competitor, in the Haihan trade system.

Of course, the most important point is to allow all the lords in the council and the business groups behind them to obtain actual benefits from the emerging trade relations.The East India Company has already caused huge losses due to the two wars that broke out in the Abona Islands and Fujian, and many people are unwilling to continue fighting with a strong enemy like Haihan.Doing business happily to earn money, that is the real reason why everyone travels to the Far East, isn’t it?

(End of this chapter)