1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 724 Gathering Intelligence
Although Cheng Dapeng is not affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, he is from a family of merchants and is no stranger to business affairs in the mall. This is the main reason why his superiors arranged for him to be a merchant as a cover.And his own field of expertise and main direction of attack are also concentrated in the collection and arrangement of economic intelligence.This made him feel like a fish in water when interacting with people like Su Keyi, and he was able to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors almost effortlessly.

On this basis, he has also experienced a situation that most of the intelligence personnel have not encountered, that is, the chaos of war.At present, many people in the city are very uneasy about the upcoming war, but for a person like him who has experienced the pain of genocide, the current battle situation facing Batavia City is not too terrible.Although the Madalan people are warlike, they are not all barbarians. They attacked Batavia just to covet the wealth here. Even if they are defeated, the possibility of slaughtering the city is very low. It is a cornucopia that can continuously generate wealth, not the ruins of a dead city that loses its value once it is acquired.

Therefore, Cheng Dapeng was not too worried about his personal safety, but wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to extract as much valuable information as possible from the Chinese comprador.Now Su Keyi took the initiative to come to the door, which saved him a lot of time.

Cheng Dapeng first asked his servants to make a pot of tea, and poured it for Su Keyi himself: "This is the tea that my family specially sent over from Fujian last month. Senior Brother Su might as well taste it. Tea used to grow in the deep mountains and no one knew about it, but the Haihan people wanted to buy tea from that place by name, and directly paid for that piece of land. The Haihan people have always been known for being good at enjoying, and the things they asked for by name are so It’s definitely not bad, and after a little of this tea came out in the market and someone tried it, it was really a good thing. It’s just that this thing is produced too little every year, and [-]% of it is bought by Haihan people, which is usually not seen in the market.”

Su Keyi replied: "Wuyi Mountain is famous for its tea, and I have heard of it a little bit, but it's the first time I've heard of Boss Cheng's place name."

Cheng Dapeng said: "Wuyi Mountain has 36 peaks, 99 rocks, and Yanyan has tea. Both Song and Yuan dynasties have selected varieties of tribute tea. Such as Bairuixiang, Suxinlan, Seeing the Sky, Golden Lock, Drunken Begonia, Fengwei Grass, golden melon seeds, etc., but this kind of tea only became famous after the Haihan people arrived in Fujian."

Su Keyi picked up the teacup, saw that the color of the tea was dark brown and fresh, clear and gorgeous, the bottom of the leaves was soft and bright, the edges of the leaves were vermilion, the heart of the leaves was light green with yellow, and the fragrance was overflowing, so he couldn't help taking a sip, the tea tasted sweet Hua Shun immediately praised: "It's really good tea, but Wuyi Mountain is the place where tea is produced, this kind of good product should have been discovered long ago, how could it be cheaper for a foreigner like Haihan?"

Cheng Dapeng explained: "It is said that the method of making tea used by the Haihan people is different from that of the local people, and the quality of the finished product is also very different. When I went to Sanya for business, I heard that the Haihan people As I said, they have more than ten processes to make the tea leaves, such as drying, drying, shaking, shaking, smashing, frying, kneading, initial baking, winnowing, picking, refire, sorting, stacking, and blending. The process is very complicated. , to produce a finished product of this quality.”

Su Keyi sighed: "The people of Haihan are good at craftsmanship, and they are so good at making tea...I don't know what the name of this tea is?"

Cheng Dapeng said: "The Haihan people named this tea Dahongpao."

"Dahongpao? That's a unique name." Although Su Keyi didn't understand what it meant, he didn't think about it.

After Haihan's trade tentacles entered the Fujian market, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a report to introduce tea trees from Wuyi Mountain, so the executive committee naturally made arrangements to introduce the best tea trees to Hainan Island for trial planting.However, after inquiring, no one knew about the most famous Dahongpao in later generations. After checking the classics, it turned out that the Dahongpao was gradually noticed by tea lovers in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and it probably took several years before it was really named years later.Naturally, Haihan would not let go of this resource, and immediately spent money to buy the land in Wuyishan Jiulongke, and then sent people to manage it locally.With Haihan's level of commercial hype and the quality of this high-grade tea itself, naturally it quickly became famous in the tea market.

The production capacity of this kind of tea is very limited. It is true that Cheng Dapeng said that it is not available in the market. Except for a very small number of teas that are used as gifts to local related households in Fujian, the rest are used to make special benefits for Haihan. .Originally, this thing could only be enjoyed by traversers, but in order to create Cheng Dapeng's identity as the young master of a family, the Ministry of Security tried every means to take a little out of the limited quota and send it to Batavia.

This thing may not be of much use in Cheng Dapeng's work, but it will become a part of Cheng Dapeng's identity symbol together with various other carefully crafted details.And it was with many such details that people like Su Keyi were convinced that Cheng Dapeng was indeed a son of a merchant from a wealthy family.

Of course, Su Keyi will also notice from Cheng Dapeng's intentional or unintentional words that his family maintains a good relationship with the Haihan people, otherwise he won't see some things here and there that are not seen in the market at all. Haihan goods.

"I heard that Haihan people are used to keeping the best things for themselves, and selling second- and third-rate goods. Today's tasting of the Dahongpao has proved this statement." Su Keyi took another sip, He continued to comment: "Since last year, some sea merchants have brought the Sanya high mountain tea from Qiongzhou to Batavia for sale. I have also tasted it, and there is still a gap with this Dahongpao. However, the foreigners in the council I like it very much, I bought a lot and plan to ship it back to China and sell it at a high price."

Cheng Dapeng said: "Most of the high mountain tea in Sanya is imported from Wuyi Mountain. If Fengshui is changed, the quality will naturally vary. However, these Westerners are rough people, and they probably can't taste the difference. "

Su Keyi's identity is sensitive, so he didn't answer his question at the moment, and changed the topic with a smile: "Boss Cheng is someone who will enjoy it, but now that Batavia is besieged by Nanyang barbarians, I'm afraid it will be difficult to feel comfortable in the near future."

Cheng Dapeng immediately followed suit and asked, "Then don't you know that the council has any other countermeasures besides food control?"

Su Keyi said: "Of course there are. Starting tonight, the whole city will implement a curfew. After nightfall, don't go out and walk around again, so as not to be arrested by the patrol team in the city as spies. In addition, everyone in the city All the men who have reached the age of sixteen have to sign up for orders from each block, and wait for the unified dispatch of the council."

Cheng Dapeng deliberately asked: "So what about weak scholars like me who can't carry it on their shoulders or hands?"

Su Keyi smiled and said: "This is just a recruiting of civilian husbands. Boss Cheng is naturally not included in this list, so you can rest assured."

Cheng Dapeng cupped his hands and said: "Brother Su Shi will take care of it! But with the army besieging the city, what is the council's plan to retreat from the enemy?"

"Retreat the enemy? It's not bad if you can defend the city without losing it." Su Keyi explained: "There are less than 4000 Dutch soldiers in the city, plus more than [-] auxiliary troops, the total strength is less than [-]. I heard that the Dutch army outside the city The Mata blue army has exceeded [-], and the fleet will continue to send people to land in the future. With such a few times the number of troops, what will the council use to repel the enemy?"

Cheng Dapeng pretended to be surprised and said: "It turns out that the situation is already so tight... Then I wonder which adult is commanding the city defense right now?"

"It's Lord Admiral Van Diemen." Su Keyi didn't mean to hide anything, and immediately replied: "Although this Lord seldom shows up in Batavia, it is said that he was able to be promoted to the general because of his predecessor. In the past few years in the Molucca Sea to the east, we have suppressed many aboriginal tribes in the South Seas, and they were promoted by virtue of their military exploits, so commanding battles must have its strengths."

The "Molucca Sea" mentioned by Su Keyi is the Maluku Sea that Haihan called according to the custom of later generations.The islands located in the western Pacific Ocean are rich in various tropical cash crops, and have always been one of the areas that the East India Company has focused on in Southeast Asia.In the past few years, Fan Dimen has been active in the Maluku Sea and the adjacent Banda Sea, Sairan Sea, and Halmahera Sea. While suppressing the resistance activities of the island natives, while driving away British and Portuguese merchant ships and colonists, It has indeed contributed a lot to the East India Company's dominance of the resources in this area.The governor at the time, Cohen, was also well aware of the deeds done by Van Diemen, so he recommended Van Diemen to the Dutch Parliament as the admiral of the Far East.

Among the military generals currently staying in Batavia, Van Diemen has the highest position and prestige, and he does not lack actual combat experience.Therefore, although the council still had some friction with him on the selection of the governor's successor, they had to temporarily choose to compromise under the pressure of the army, and gave him the highest local military command.

Seeing that Su Keyi had put down his guard, Cheng Dapeng began to slowly confide in military information, and immediately continued to say: "It turns out that there are only seven or eight thousand armed forces. For Mr. Fan, fighting this battle may be difficult." It's not easy anymore."

"That's right, it's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice. With such a small force, it will be gone after fighting. Lord Fan gave up the defense outside the city and retreated to the city to deploy defenses. This is the burden." Su Keyi also couldn't help sighing: "If The troops are strong, and if the horse hits the blue army halfway when they land, it will surely dampen their spirit, what a pity!"

Although Su Keyi didn't know how to fight, he understood the basic principles of offense and defense.For a port city like Batavia, if the enemy troops come to attack, they must conduct a landing battle. This was originally an excellent natural defense line, but Batavia did not dare to deploy the main force between the port and the port due to its limited force. The enemy was fighting head-on, so they had to completely abandon this line of defense that could have caused a lot of damage to the enemy.In order to prevent the weapons on the coastal defense turret from falling into the enemy's army and be used to attack the city, Van Diemen even ordered the destruction of two large-caliber heavy artillery that were too heavy to be moved back to the city in a short time.

Cheng Dapeng said: "But if the Blue Army besieges the city and does not attack, I am afraid that the food in the city will hardly last for three months!"

"It doesn't matter, they will take the initiative to launch an attack!" Su Keyi explained: "The Mata blue army comes from all over Nanyang, and it is inevitable to deploy tens of thousands of armed forces to fight in Batavia. Difficulties arise. First, supplies are difficult. All the war needs of these tens of thousands of people have to be transported by sea. With so many troops leaving their original bases, it will inevitably create a emptiness in the country. The longer the time is, the greater the risk of accidents in the country. In my opinion, the horse-fighting blue army is coming fiercely, and it will definitely take advantage of this To start the siege battle as soon as possible, lest the war drag on for too long and drag down the family first."

Cheng Dapeng nodded and said: "Brother Su Shi is right. I just don't know how the local city defense is, whether it can withstand the onslaught of the enemy's attack several times?"

Su Keyi said: "There is no need to worry too much. Batavia will renovate and renovate the city's fortifications every year. Although the city has only been built for ten years, the fortifications have been added three or four times. The city wall facing the sea is thick It is more than two feet long, and it is difficult for artillery fire. There is a fort every five feet above the city wall, and there are hidden soldier holes every one hundred feet under the city wall. If the army dares to forcibly attack the city wall, it will be very interesting."

Cheng Dapeng immediately kept this information in his mind. Places like the city wall were always heavily guarded. As a foreign merchant, he definitely couldn't go up there for field inspections.The information disclosed by Su Keyi in the chat was already regarded as valuable military information.

Cheng Dapeng asked again: "I don't know how the defenders in the city are compared to the Haihan Militia, which claims to have never been defeated after the founding of the army? If there is the combat power of the Haihan Militia, it should not be a big problem to defend the city."

Su Keyi shook his head and said: "This... I'm afraid there is still a gap. I went to Sanya last year. Although I only got a glimpse of it, I feel that the Haihan Militia is indeed not in vain. Its equipment and training level are far superior to those of the army in this city. Above. When I first arrived in Sanya, I lived in a military camp. The Haihan militia had to go out for training every day when the sky was dark. It was like this every day. Just imagine how they prepared for battle every day, and they naturally performed well on the battlefield. Although these troops in this city also have daily training, they train every five days or every ten days, and most of the auxiliary troops are recruited temporarily only when war breaks out, how can this compare?"

Cheng Dapeng pretended to be surprised and said, "If the two armies met on the battlefield, wouldn't the Dutch be defeated in one battle?"

Su Keyi sighed: "Before the negotiation last year, the Dutch had already suffered a major defeat in the waters of Fujian. It was just out of face that the news did not spread in Batavia. The officer Van Dewey who went to Sanya with me to negotiate with Haihan Gen, is the commander who lost the battle."

(End of this chapter)