1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 950 Changes in the situation
However, Xiong Xin's worries are actually a bit overstated. The Haihan executive committee really has no plans to attack Guangzhou.Over the past few years, Haihan has invested most of its energy and resources on Qiongzhou Island, and various large-scale infrastructure projects have continued one after another. If the base is to be moved to the mainland, it will take a lot of time and money, and the existing investment will also be reduced. Most of them lost their function due to the relocation of the governing body.Moreover, the mass base in the mainland is far inferior to that of Qiongzhou Island, which has been operating for several years. After moving there, many tasks, including the grassroots civil administration system, have to be done from scratch. This is not the situation that the Executive Committee wants to see.

Haihan's current main expansion method is to occupy large islands in the coastal area by leapfrogging. The relatively closed social environment of islands can greatly reduce the difficulty of Haihan's local governance, and the closer the distance from the mainland, the more convenient it is to obtain population and resources, and by the way, sell the industrial and agricultural products produced by Haihan to the mainland market.Based on islands rather than occupying mainland cities, this clear development idea basically eliminated the possibility of large-scale armed conflicts between Haihan and Ming, and also left more room for buffering in the diplomatic relations between the two sides.

Of course, Yan Chujie and Schneider would not explain these strategic decisions in detail to Representative Daming, and even if they did, they might not be able to understand Haihan's intentions.

"We have prepared a personal letter to Mr. Xiong and Xu. There are detailed explanations in the letter. Please take the letter back. I believe the adults will feel at ease after reading it." Schneider did not want to waste too much Drooling, he took out the letter he had prepared, and finally sent the two official representatives of Ming Dynasty away.

"I'm so tired. I'm going to take a vacation for myself after returning to Sanya." After sending the two away, Schneider collapsed on the seat and complained weakly: "Such a big project needs at least one or two Negotiations and consultations can only be done slowly over the years, and the executive committee has to rush to finish the matter in a month or two, which is really killing me!"

"There's no way around it." Yan Chujie comforted: "If we want to hold the founding ceremony in early April, we can only get the trade alliance done in advance, and then we can sign formal agreements with other countries. Fortunately, this task It can be regarded as basically completed. When you go back, you can rest in peace for two days. I am really suffering. I have been out for a few months, and I can’t go back for a while. I have to wait until the base on Xingdao is formed. to let go."

Yan Chujie left Sanya in September last year to lead the fleet to the south for military exercises. It has been three or four months, and most of the time was spent floating on the sea. Naturally, life is far less comfortable than staying in Sanya.Now Luo Jie is in Xingdao, and Mu Xiabo is in Cam Ranh Port. The two generals are one in the south and the other in the north. He can only take charge of the empty Anbuna Island.And a large number of infrastructure projects on Xingdao and Anbuna Island will almost be carried out simultaneously in the next few months, and neither side can be separated, and Yan Chujie will inevitably be tied here for a long time.

But thinking that the founding of the People's Republic of China is imminent, and the great cause of their dreams will come true, even if it is a bit hard and tiring, they all grit their teeth and prepare to survive this period of time.After all, the day when the Haihan Kingdom was established was when the names of the founding fathers of the country went down in history, so it is worthwhile to pay a little more now.What's more, even on this isolated island in the South China Sea, the standard of living they enjoy is far beyond human comparison. There are special standards for food, housing and transportation, and all of them are good things specially provided internally.

After the signing of the framework agreement of the South China Sea Trade Alliance, representatives of all parties began to leave Abunana Island to return home.There are still a lot of articles and written materials about the implementation rules of the trade alliance that need to be digested slowly after they go back. There are many specific measures that will take a long time to implement. Some specific bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements, Due to the need to report to their respective domestic superiors for approval, they have to wait until the beginning of April to observe the ceremony in Sanya before signing.

The news of the establishment of the South China Sea Trade Alliance began to spread in various countries half a month later, and there were joys and sorrows for businessmen from various countries. Countries with close trade relations with Haihan, such as Daming, Annan, and Portugal, naturally welcomed this, because The previously signed framework agreement includes the reciprocal content of many member states. In the future, they will enjoy more convenient conditions in the cross-border ordering, transportation, sales, settlement, warehousing and other trade links, which will undoubtedly greatly promote these A substantial increase in the volume of trade between countries.

But for members of the alliance like the East India Company, it is not easy to judge whether the effect of the trade alliance will be good or bad.Although the East India Company was reluctant to accept it, Haihan still forcibly stipulated the scope of activities of Dutch merchant ships, and designated the trading ports that Dutch merchants could enter in Northeast Asia as Sanya, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung Port, and Zhoushan Dinghai Port. place.Ryukyu, Dongying, North Korea and other places that could still go to trade, were all included in the restricted area by Haihan.Of course the Dutch knew that this was Haihan's intention to gradually monopolize the foreign trade transactions in these regions, but the existing maritime armed forces were far from Haihan's opponent, and there was no other way but to swallow their anger.

Of course, the East India Company can also continue to quietly do what it wants to do with the content that has not been written into the alliance framework agreement for the time being. Instead of warning merchant ships for possible violations, they will deal with them directly after they are discovered, and seize all people and ships, while retaining the right to expel the Dutch in Dayuan Port.Compared with the dozens or twenty ships of goods shipped back from Northeast Asia every year, such a large risk is indeed a bit outweighed by the gains.

Of course, apart from the disadvantage of being limited to the scope of commercial activities, the Dutch are not without any benefits.For example, the silk, porcelain, tea and other oriental specialties they want to purchase from Daming every year can get a larger supply through Haihan—but the purchase price will also increase by two to three times because of this. It is not doing public welfare for free, monopoly operation must have corresponding benefits to be reasonable.

But it’s better to have something to buy than not to be able to buy it. Because of the bad relationship with the Ming government, the Dutch used to entrust comprador merchants like Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong to make purchases, but later Xu Xinsu took refuge in Haihan’s side, and Shibazhi was driven out. There is no way to trade with the mainland anymore, and these expensive goods are becoming more and more difficult to buy.After the Haihan people settled down in Penghu and Kaohsiung, those smugglers who would have shipped goods to Dayuan Port all died under Haihan's warning.If Haihan did not open up this channel for the East India Company, the smuggling trade engaged in by the Dutch would be completely blocked sooner or later.

In addition, during the voyage from Batavia to the distant Ming Dynasty, there were several additional supply ports under the control of Haihan, which also greatly reduced the burden on the Dutch merchant ships during the round-trip voyage. risk.In the Far East of this era, well-resourced and well-operated supply ports like the one controlled by Haihan are simply life-saving straws for Western maritime merchants who are unfamiliar with their places of life.At the beginning, the East India Company did not hesitate to send armed forces to Ambuna Island to fight against the Haihan people, not because there was so much wealth on this island that could not be given up, but purely because of the role of this place as a supply port during the long voyage.And now the Haihan people are willing to provide several ports where Dutch merchant ships can dock for supplies, which is really a no-brainer.

The conditions and demands raised by Haihan had both advantages and disadvantages. The East India Company weighed it over and over again, and in the end it could only choose to accept it. For the time being, keep its own trade share in Northeast Asia, and the Portuguese cannot take it all.As for what to do in the future, we can only take one step at a time.

However, among the many countries in the Far East, it was not the Dutch who were most negatively affected by the establishment of the South China Sea Trade Alliance, but the Spaniards who were excluded from the whole thing from beginning to end.

Since the Spaniard Legaspi led his troops to invade the Philippines in April 1565, the colonists have maintained their rule in the Philippine Islands centered on Luzon Island for nearly 4 years. The trade partner is Daming across the sea.

For two and a half centuries starting from 1565, the Spanish American colonial authorities sent several galleons between the port of Acapulco in Mexico and Manila every year, and millions of pesos of American silver arrived in Manila every year. , and about half of them flowed into China to buy raw silk, cotton cloth, satin, porcelain and other commodities.

The commercial boom in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty in the 67th century was stimulated to a certain extent by the huge amount of silver capital injected into the market from Spain. This trans-Pacific trade line brought huge profits to both parties during this period. One of the most important trade relations in the region.

However, this route, which would have gradually declined until the 19th century, showed a decline nearly 200 years earlier. This is because the Haihan people suddenly attacked two Spanish strongholds in the northern part of Taiwan Island in early 1633, driving away the stationed The local Spanish colonists, and the trade relationship with Ming Dynasty were also greatly affected.Just a few months later, even the number of Daming sea merchants going to Manila for trading dropped sharply, which led to a direct halving of the fleet size from Manila Port to the Americas in June.

Galleons bound for the Americas must set off in June in order to catch the "Kuroshio Current" at 45° north latitude and head eastward. Despite the help of natural ocean currents, this voyage still exceeds tens of thousands of nautical miles and takes nearly six months. month to complete.And every year, the Spanish colonies in the Americas basically count on the goods shipped by the Manila fleet every year, so that the locally produced silver dollars and silver ingots, cocoa, wool and other native production capacity have the opportunity to export.And the decline in cargo carrying volume this year will directly affect the other side of the ocean and even distant Europe if it is far away. If it is close, the Governor of the Philippines and his subordinates must bear corresponding responsibilities for this.If the Spanish royal family questioned them, all these people would have to go back to Madrid for trial.

The Spaniards suffered a big loss by being caught off guard. Gesman and Alcarazo, who were working in the chicken coop and freshwater at the time, were immediately imprisoned after returning to Manila, because the combat process they described was too ridiculous. How could it be possible for the majestic Spanish army to be breached by a group of armed businessmen in just a few days?You must know that even if the Dutch sent troops to attack the Taipei stronghold, they did not gain any advantage.The Spanish Governor in the Philippines believes that they have committed serious dereliction of duty and crimes of fear of war, and they must be held accountable for this.

In addition, the Manila authorities are not prepared to just swallow their anger and let the Haihan people occupy their hard-working strongholds in vain, and are also preparing to launch a counterattack against the local area.However, out of prudent considerations, they collected information on Haihan through various means, so that they could attack this group of ignorant maritime merchants in a more targeted manner.But when all the information was gathered together, the Spaniards suddenly discovered that the situation mentioned by the imprisoned Tamsui Chief and Chicken Cage Chief may not be completely fabricated to shirk responsibility, but has actually happened. .

The main purpose of the Spaniards coming to the Far East was trade and colonization. The main competitors who also came with these two purposes were undoubtedly the Portuguese and the Dutch.Although Portugal is still one of Spain's vassal states at this time, the Portuguese and the Spaniards have always been very different from each other overseas, and the competition is very obvious.And the Netherlands is Spain's death place on the European battlefield at this time. The number of people who died in the war on both sides in the past few years is probably several times more than the colonists in the Far East. As long as they meet, they will never die.

However, both of these opponents were defeated by the Haihan people one after another, and it is said that the Portuguese simply surrendered to Haihan and became one of their accomplices.The Manila authorities are quite suspicious that the Portuguese played a disgraceful role during Haihan’s attack on the Taipei stronghold, because according to the descriptions of two local officials afterwards, the artillery units of the Haihan Army were extremely powerful, which was by no means what the Far Eastern Army should have The level, even if it is placed on the European battlefield, should be considered top-notch.The only explanation that seems more reasonable is that the Portuguese sent troops to participate in the war in Taipei and helped Haihan break through the local Spanish stronghold.

As for the Dutch, it seems that they are not much better. It is said that the local stronghold of the Dutch was blocked by the Haihan Fleet, and Zheng Zhilong, their agent in Daming, was expelled to an overseas island for refuge.If it weren't for the Haihan people showing mercy out of some consideration, the local stronghold of the Dutch East India Company would probably have changed hands.

(End of this chapter)