1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 995 Military Assistance
Although Haihan's real purpose is to seek benefits for himself, and played a lot of tricks in the process of military aid to Daming, Luo Shengdong also has to admit that if Haihan did not help in Fuguang and Guangxi, Daming alone would It is indeed difficult for the government to deal with natural disasters and troubles caused by bandits and pirate gangs with its own strength.These two places have not become as chaotic as the hinterland of the Central Plains, and are even more prosperous than during the Tianqi period. The stabilizing role played by Haihan in the middle cannot be ignored.

Of course, the benefits that Haihan obtained from Daming through military aid are also obvious. On the one hand, he obtained direct benefits such as manpower, resources, and markets that he urgently needed; The channel has gained more opportunities to exert influence on Daming.For example, the promotion and publicity of Haihan's unique systems such as culture, finance, and commerce are changing the perception of Haihan among the people in Fuzhou and Guangzhou bit by bit.Now this model has extended northward to the coast of Zhejiang. With Haihan's style of doing things, they will probably not be satisfied with the status quo, and will continue to expand their sea control area northward.

However, the nature of the military aid that Ning Qi is talking about now is obviously different from the previous exchange conditions. Hai Han hopes to exchange military aid from Daming for more substantial benefits, such as Hai Han who has been recognized by the court. State power and the corresponding normalization of diplomatic relations.

Luo Shengdong hesitated and said, "Negotiating conditions with the imperial court... I'm afraid it's not that easy. The Portuguese and the Dutch tried similar methods in the early years. The Portuguese not only sold guns to Daming, but also sent artillery regiments to the capital to help With the Ming army fighting, a lot of things have been done, but the condition in exchange is nothing more than a long-term rental right in Macau.”

What Luo Shengdong said was that the Portuguese had already tried this method before, and the treatment they could get from the Ming court by relying on military aid might not meet Hai Han's expectations.

Ning Qi naturally knew what Luo Shengdong said.In order to legalize their presence in Macau, the Portuguese, in addition to paying taxes and land rent to Daming every year, have also been providing Daming with advanced artillery and related artillery training. In 1621, the Ming court sent Zhang Tao and Sun Xueshi as imperial envoys. They went to Macau with a call from the Ministry of War to buy artillery and hire artillery masters.The Portuguese worked very hard to recruit an artillery unit of 26 people from India, Manila, Japan and other places, and sold 1626 British cannons to Ming Dynasty, and returned to the north with the imperial envoy.Some of these artillery stayed in the capital, and the other part was transferred to Shanhaiguan by Dong Hanru, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and then transported to Ningyuan City outside the pass. The artillery used in the Ningyuan victory in [-] was bought from the Portuguese before.

In 1628, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Li Fengjie and Wang Zunde, members of the two major groups, to entrust Portuguese businessmen to purchase artillery and recruit soldiers.In February of the following year, the Portuguese from Macau donated ten cannons and several muskets, which were escorted northward to Beijing by special personnel.Emperor Chongzhen deployed the artillery in important places in the capital and named it "General Shenwei".At the same time, Xu Guangqi was appointed as the general promotion association, and the Portuguese were asked to assist in casting cannons and training artillery in the capital.However, due to objectively existing technical obstacles, the actual effect of these measures is not ideal.

So in 1630, Emperor Chongzhen ordered again to let the Portuguese buy artillery from Macau to recruit soldiers.This time the Portuguese also responded positively, not only providing the Ming court with an artillery team of more than 300 people, but also 40 artillery pieces.But at this time, there were differences of opinion within the Ming court. Some of the opposition believed that the Portuguese should not be allowed to intervene too much in the military, especially the defense of the capital, and should not be entrusted to foreigners. This view no longer accepts the large-scale military aid provided by the Portuguese.

During this period, the Ming army was equipped with the most and most advanced firearms, and the garrison in Dengzhou, Shandong should probably be regarded as one of them.Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua gathered the artillery, gunners and gunsmiths provided by the Portuguese to Dengzhou, trying to build a powerful firearms force here.Sun Yuanhua's troops possessed more than 20 French cannons, 320 Western blunderbusses, and [-] bird blunderbusses, as well as a group of gunners who had mastered Western artillery technology.

But it is a pity that during the Dengzhou Rebellion, this elite division was almost destroyed. In the battle, 12 Portuguese mercenaries, including the artillery commander Gongsha, were killed, and 15 others were seriously injured and captured. .The surviving Portuguese left Dengzhou after the war, went south and returned to Macau.Afterwards, Kong Youde and others who defected to the Northeast to invest in post-gold brought the local artillery craftsmen and weapons and equipment, which basically came from this firearms unit built by the Ming Dynasty with a lot of money.

Considering that the permanent population of the Portuguese in Macau is only one or two thousand, being able to provide this level of military aid to Daming can be regarded as a dedication.And compared to their efforts, the benefits they got from Daming were actually quite limited, compared to what Hai Han was receiving now, it was a thousand miles worse.But Haihan is obviously not satisfied with the status quo, and hopes to gain more benefits with the help of military aid, which is somewhat unrealistic in Luo Shengdong's view.

Ning Qi said: "At this time and then at that time, during the Tianqi years, the internal and external pressures Daming had to face were far worse than they are now, and the Portuguese couldn't negotiate terms if they wanted to. But now Daming is caught in internal and external troubles. If you continue to watch with cold eyes, within ten years, Daming's world will be lost!"

"Ten years? This... shouldn't be enough, right?" Luo Shengdong didn't believe the number Ning Qi said.

Although the Ming Dynasty has indeed gone downhill in recent years, how can such an empire that has ruled the world for more than 200 years be finished?After seeing the family history of Haihan, Luo Shengdong did not believe that the peasant army that caused chaos in the Central Plains could bring down Daming. In his opinion, these people were just rogues after all. It is impossible to achieve great things by killing and looting.

To put it bluntly, the Northeast wild boars outside the pass are a group of barbarians who are not yet fully civilized. When Luo Shengdong heard Hai Han people mention Hou Jin, his tone was mostly extremely disdainful.Although Da Ming has been in a situation of losing more than winning against the Jin army since 1626, this will not hinder Luo Shengdong's blind confidence in Da Ming's military power - even if he can't beat Haihan, he can't beat Haihan. The tribal armed should be no problem, right?

However, Luo Shengdong didn't know that in the original history, Hou Jin outside the customs would change his country name to Qing Dynasty in two years and follow the example of Ming Dynasty to establish a regime.Ten years later, in 1644, Li Zicheng led the peasant army into the capital and ended the rule of Emperor Chongzhen. Then the Qing army entered the pass with the cooperation of Wu Sangui. Since then, he has been in a slump, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he has lost the world since then.The ten-year lifespan that Ning Qi gave Daming was not a random nonsense, but had a very objective historical basis.

Ning Qi said: "Mr. Luo, you have been dealing with us for seven years. You should have seen cases where we predicted the development of the situation. Has there ever been a time when we didn't fulfill it?"

"This...not really." Luo Shengdong really admired Hai Han's predictive hit rate, so much so that many people in the official circle now regard Hai Han's views on the direction of the situation as a golden rule.But the nature of predicting the fate of the country is much more serious. Although Luo Shengdong no longer regards his identity as an official of the Ming Dynasty, his attitude towards it is still very cautious.

Ning Qi went on to say: "If the problems that Daming is facing now do not get our help, the situation will only become more and more difficult in the future, but we must try to make the Ming court understand this situation and realize the necessity of doing business with us, so that In order to realize the plan I mentioned before. To achieve this goal, we Haihan alone are far from enough, we must have some people who can speak for us in the court.”

Luo Shengdong responded subconsciously: "Master Xiong..."

"That's right, we think Mr. Xiong is quite suitable for this job." Ning Qi nodded and said, "Mr. Xiong served as the governor of Fuzhou and Guangxi successively, which shows that he has won the trust of the court and believes that he can provide His opinion should have some weight. We originally planned to take advantage of this celebration to invite Mr. Xiong to come to Sanya for an interview, but Mr. Xiong probably had some concerns, so in the end we couldn’t make the trip.”

Luo Shengdong thought that Xiong Wencan was not only worried, but really worried, okay?Haihan Liguo came to the Sanya platform as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. What is the nature of this behavior?If the court found out, most of the charges of treason and defection to the enemy would not escape.Even if Xiong Wencan did not express any objection to Haihan's founding of the country, he would definitely not express his opinion lightly at this juncture.

Ning Qi continued: "However, this matter is not in a hurry. After the celebration is over, we are going to contact Mr. Xiong again to see if we can arrange a meeting. At that time, we may have to trouble Zongbing Luo to go north to Zhaoqing to get in touch. .”

Luo Shengdong quickly responded: "This is a matter within Luo's part, and he should try his best to complete it." He was not being polite, and now doing things for Hai Han is doing things for himself, and the interests of the two are the same. If there is a way to make the court recognize the existence of Haihan, Luo Shengdong is definitely happy to see it.

Ning Qi was very satisfied with Luo Shengdong's attitude, nodded and said: "Let's talk about business here, you should stay in Sanya recently and don't travel far, I will inform you of the next arrangement when I'm ready. "

Luo Shengdong replied, but his buttocks did not move, Ning Qi guessed that he must have something to say, and immediately asked: "Is there any difficulty in life and work that we need to help solve recently? "

Luo Shengdong quickly responded: "I do have a small matter, I hope the chief can give me some pointers."

Ning Qi said: "Tell me and listen."

"When I went to Guangzhou, I visited the heads of the Guangzhou Office. I heard that Haihan intends to build a new city near Lijiazhuang. On the way back to Sanya, I have been thinking about what can be done for Haihan. place." Luo Shengdong thought about it and said, "It's just that I'm stupid, after thinking about it, I still feel that I need to ask the chief for advice."

After Ning Qi listened, he roughly guessed what Luo Shengdong was planning.Haihan plans to build a new city in Panyu. This plan has indeed been put on the agenda, and he has also discussed the land acquisition conditions with Li Jifeng, a local landlord in Panyu.

The main purpose of Haihan's plan is to gradually control the trade power in the Pearl River Basin and transfer the trade center of this area from Guangzhou City to the control area of ​​Haihan.Although Panyu County is still under the jurisdiction of Daming in name, in fact, even Guangzhou City, which is [-] miles away from Panyu, has difficulty interfering in local affairs, basically acquiescing to the existence of Panyu, an extralegal place.

But building a city is not a city building in the traditional sense. It is definitely not cost-effective for Haihan to build a city so close to Guangzhou City. It is better to replace the city building cost with military expenditure. Take Guangzhou directly.Rather than building a city, it is actually more similar to building a comprehensive trade center, expanding the scale of the original docks, storage, trading and other functional facilities here, and making the functions of the original immigration camp public.In the final analysis, it was just to expand the existing business scale. However, when Luo Shengdong went to the Guangzhou Office, he might have heard some differences from the people there, so he thought that Haihan planned to build a city there.

In any case, this must be a big project. Since Luo Shengdong has heard the news, it is reasonable to want to intervene early to reap some benefits.Ning Qi asked: "Then do you want to invest in some local business, or do you plan to buy real estate and land?"

Luo Shengdong replied: "This is where I'm not sure. It is reasonable to say that using money to buy property and land is the right way, but when I go to the Guangzhou Office this time, I heard Director Ma talk about working capital with me. Making money with money, after listening to it, I think it makes sense, but I have been dealing with salt in the past few years, and I don’t know much about other businesses, so I don’t know how to operate it.”

Ning Qi said in his heart that you are still not satisfied with your private salt business, but you are quite ambitious and want to invest in other businesses.This is probably because I went to Guangzhou to see the wealth of Li Jifeng's family, and I was a little jealous, so I suddenly came up with such an idea.Maliko is also a master with super ability to fool, and if Luo Shengdong hits him, it is inevitable that he will be limp after being fooled.But Ning Qi is not in charge of business and trade, and he only knows a little about the trade and operation in Guangdong, so he really can't give any safe advice.

"How about this, Mr. Shi will come to me later to discuss a document, how about asking him to give you some professional advice?" Ning Qi felt that since Luo Shengdong had already asked to come here, he still had to find a way to give you some advice. He only needs one answer.Later, he had to be sent to run errands, and the horse had to be fed enough grass to run.

(End of this chapter)