1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 663 Mercenaries

April 1651, 4, Batavia, City Hall.

"Mr. Appleton, what do you think will happen if our East India Company dispatches a task force to attack the mainland of Hanzhou at this time when all the main fleet of Hanzhou is going to fight with Zheng Zhilong in the waters of Ming Dynasty?" Rear Admiral Gris Kopett, commander of the Batavia Navy of the Dutch East India Company, said with a smile.

"Oh, then we will still meet in Hanzhou mainland." Although he knew that Admiral Coppert was joking, Fred Upton still solemnly warned him, "Although the main fleet of Hanzhou Most of them were transferred to the sea area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, but the local defense is still impregnable, which is not something we can easily overcome. You must know that the population of Hanzhou has more than 40, and a large number of militia can be recruited at any time to deal with any external forces. invasion."

"Mr. Upton, you seem to have been trying your best to avoid armed conflict between our East India Company and Hanzhou, and you have also insisted on deepening economic and trade ties with them....Why?"

"Because, the business purpose of our East India Company is to obtain more commercial benefits, earn inexhaustible profits for shareholders, and to continuously develop and strengthen our East India Company." Fred A. Puton said: "Wars and conflicts with Hanzhou will hinder us from achieving the above goals. Because Hanzhou is a regional power with strong strength, and we are just a joint stock company."

"So, Mr. Upton, as a senior employee of the company, your family can continue to help the Hanzhou people and damage the basic interests of our East India Company?"

"Major General Coppert, I don't really understand what you said." Fred Upton said seriously: "What exactly do you want to express, please say it directly."

"Witt Upton, is that your nephew?" Major General Gris Coppett asked with a straight face.

"Yes, Little Werther is my nephew. Did he do something that harmed the company's commercial interests?" Fred Upton felt a little guilty when he heard this, and he instructed his nephew to obtain it from Hanzhou in private. A large number of cheap industrial products were then shipped to Makassar, Malacca, Ceylon and India, completely bypassing the commercial channels of the East India Company, and even many goods were sold directly to the Portuguese, which completely violated the East India Regulations for business operations of companies in the Far East.

If the "smuggling" of Werther Jr. was caught by Major General Gris Kopet, then he really couldn't justify it.This kind of business behavior can be said to be parasitic on the body of the huge East India Company, using the company's resources, but carrying out a kind of "external economic" cycle based on private interests, intercepting what should have belonged to the East India Company. business profit.

Even, sometimes, in order to cover up this "smuggling", Witt Upton disguised two merchant ships under his command as merchant ships from Hanzhou, and hung the red yellow dragon flag indicating Hanzhou's identity on the bow. Selling a large amount of goods with the Portuguese online is completely a kind of "collaboration with the enemy" behavior of Chiguoguo.

"Witt Upton had contact with many excellent naval officers and sailors under the company, and then when the service period of these people ended, they immediately transferred to Hanzhou to serve the navy and merchant ships of Hanzhou." Major General Gris Kopet He said angrily: "You know, in the past, most of the company's officers and sailors who were about to end their service would choose to continue to renew their contracts with the company and sign an employment contract that satisfied both parties."

"Now, those people have all chosen to leave our East India Company. You know, Mr. Upton, it is very difficult to recruit a qualified officer and sailor in Europe. Moreover, even if qualified officers and sailors are recruited Sailors, it will take them at least a year to get familiar with and understand some of the conditions in the waters of the East Indies when they arrive in the Far East. This means that our merchant ships need to spend more More time and more energy. Especially in the face of local conflicts, they will be a little naive."

"Major Admiral Kopet, as far as I know, the company will have a number of officers and sailors who have finished their service every year, and they will go to Hanzhou to serve their navy and merchant ships. After all, the treatment given by Hanzhou is much higher than that of Hanzhou. We are the East India Company. Therefore, you cannot accuse Jr. Werther of some immoral acts in it.” Fred Upton heard that Rear Admiral Coppett had come to question the company’s naval officers and sailors for switching to Hanzhou thing, a little relieved.

"However, in the past two years, the number of officers and sailors who have completed their service and transferred to Hanzhou has increased." Major General Kopet said with a wry smile: "Especially the many officers and sailors who have been in contact with your little Werther. It shouldn’t be a coincidence. Little Werther is helping the Han people recruit mercenaries, isn’t that right?”

"..." Fred Upton was at a loss for words immediately, and couldn't help but hate his nephew, why he recruited a sailor and an officer for Hanzhou, he was so edgy, and Major General Coppett grabbed his sore foot.

"Little Werther helped the Hanzhou people recruit mercenaries. He must have regarded this matter as a good business, and he also got a lot of money in return." Major General Kopet said with a smile, then stood up, After tidying up his military uniform, he put on his military cap, turned and walked out of Upton's office.

Fred Upton sat blankly in his chair for a long time, and finally burst out laughing.

Since the end of the Second Han-Dutch War more than a year ago, the East India Company has lost more than [-] ships due to unfavorable wars. As the commander of the navy, Rear Admiral Coppett has been criticized by many parties. Because of his military background, Governor Derling dismissed him a long time ago and drove him back to the Netherlands.

Major General Copet himself is said to be preparing to leave Batavia with the fleet returning to Europe at the end of the year, bidding farewell to this remote place that discredited him.

That being the case, Major General Coppett should not use his "noble" professionalism to catch a not-so-serious "poaching" incident.

Then, the purpose of his seemingly inadvertent coming to point out this matter is self-evident.It seems that after a while, Werther Jr. will have to visit the Batavian naval commander who is about to leave.Well, when you go, you should bring some valuable "gifts".
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In terms of using manpower, Qi State has already played to the extreme.Gein, the mainland of Hanzhou is barren, Xuanhua (Timor Island) and Weiyuan (New Guinea Island) have harsh environments. In the early development of many immigrant strongholds, Qi will forcefully recruit a large number of natives and let them carry out preliminary environmental transformation and construction. , and then slowly filled with immigrants from Ming Dynasty.

Of course, in addition to the development and construction of those immigrant strongholds with harsh environments, the bones of the natives were also consumed in the large number of mines in Hanzhou.

Since the establishment of the Hanzhou Continent 16 years ago, the former Hanzhou and the current Qi State have almost never stopped wars and regional conflicts.During this process, the Qi State Navy and Marine Corps have gradually grown from weak to strong, gradually developed and grown, and have become the most combat-friendly armed force in the entire Nanyang region.

Among Qi's armed forces, there is an important group that cannot be ignored, and that is the many hired Japanese wandering samurai.Whether it is the Loyalty Army on the Daming battlefield, the Han Xie Army stationed in Sulu, or the guards formed on Hanxing Island (today's Miyako Island in Japan), Nanping (today's Cam Ranh in Vietnam) and other places, there are The figure of a Japanese ronin.

Although I don't know why, King Qi has always had a negative view of the Japanese, but in the army and overseas territories, Japanese soldiers are the favorite soldiers of all army chiefs and officials.They are tenacious, brave, and obedient, and will not hesitate to follow any orders from the chief. They are the best soldiers (cannon fodder) on the battlefield.

Serious social contradictions arose during the establishment of the Japanese shogunate system, one of which was the problem of ronin.Ronin refers to those warriors who have lost their monarch, knowledge or salary, and separated from the feudal master-servant relationship.The root cause of Ronin was the implementation of the policy of separation of soldiers from peasants.But even so, in the stage when wars were frequent and samurai were closely connected with their birthplaces, the problem of ronin was actually not prominent.

However, after the Battle of Sekigahara, the total number of ronin produced by daimyo's large-scale personnel changes reached as many as 50.Among them, there are not only a large number of Catholic ronin known as "Konishi Ronin" and "Amakusa Ronin", but also many samurai who lost their livelihoods in the war such as "Sekigahara Ronin" and "Osaka Ronin".

For the shogunate, Catholic ronin who believe in Christ and are not afraid of power are the biggest threat.During the Battle of Osaka and the Shimabara Rebellion, the shogunate had already realized this deeply.Therefore, in 1623, the shogunate forcibly expelled the ronin on a large scale in Kyoto, known as the "Ronin Lair".Later, the ronin registration system was implemented throughout the country to strengthen the management of ronin.

Although the shogunate's management measures against ronin included the purpose of hunting down Catholic ronin, they were fundamentally aimed at weeding out dangerous elements who were outside the hierarchy of scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce.

In this way, among the ronin who lived in poverty, endured high pressure from the shogunate, and still hoped to revive Wumen, there would naturally be a dangerous atmosphere that was about to move.

Many ronin with no means of living learned a few years ago that in Kyushu (that is, Kyushu Island, the island is divided into 9 ruling countries, which is the origin of the name) there are often overseas forces hiring samurai to go to sea to "show off their martial arts", and A large amount of silver will be paid, enough to support a loyal warrior with a family.

Under the enthusiastic introduction of the Shimadzu family (Satsuma clan), countless Japanese ronin took a boat from Kyushu to Ryukyu (today's Okinawa Island), and were immediately recruited by the Qi people as "soldiers" and sent to various military hotspots region, and fought bravely for Qi's overseas interests.

Today, more than [-] Han Xiejun troops drawn from Sulu Kingdom and Lecheng (now Jolo City, Sulu Islands, Philippines) are gathering and resting in Yizhou City (now Legazpi City, southeastern Philippines), preparing to Half a month later, an attack was launched on the territory of Luzon to which Zheng Zhilong belonged.

In Yizhou City, in addition to a part of the Han Association Army composed of Japanese ronin, there were more than 2000 armed rural soldiers drawn from Weiyuan Island and Pingan Island, plus the native servants of the Sulu Kingdom and Yizhou soldiers. There are a total of [-] soldiers in the state and town.

In fact, the attack on Zheng's Luzon territory was not included in the corresponding combat plan formulated by the Qi State General Staff.

For this reason, in addition to dispatching more than 500 members of the standing army to which they belonged, they also mobilized and assembled more than [-] armed village soldiers in the areas under their jurisdiction.There are more than [-] native servants, vowing to attack and weaken the Zheng family's Luzon territory that poses the greatest threat to them.

Of course, they also want to jointly attack the Zheng family with Qi, and want to take some people and property from the opponent.After more than five years of development, the population of the entire Yizhou town will exceed 1. There are several strongholds under its jurisdiction, and there are only some simple handicraft industries. .

Although the nearest stronghold of Zheng's Luzon territory is more than 500 miles away from Yizhou Town, who knows, after a few years, will it gradually expand to Yizhou as the population grows? If one is not careful, it may be annexed by the Zheng family.

Therefore, the leaders of Yizhou Town gathered together and immediately decided to take advantage of the opportunity when Qi Guo and Zheng Zhilong turned against each other, and pounce on each other and bite each other hard. If they can eat a few pieces of their territory, that would be the best .Even if it is impossible to occupy Zheng's territory because of the distance, it is still possible to rob some people and property through this war, right?

A few years ago, several leaders of Yizhou Town heard the news through representatives stationed in Hanzhou that Qi State seemed to have no intention of annexing Yizhou, and they had acquiesced and supported their gradual expansion in Luzon.If you think about it, the mainland of Hanzhou is six or seven thousand miles away from Luzon, and I'm afraid you can't reach that far. It's better to support a local force in Luzon that is close to Qi.

That being the case, Yizhou Town simply attached itself to the Qi State and began to nibble away at the surrounding native forces, gradually expanding its sphere of influence.During the immigration season every year, Yizhou Town will also send several ships of its own to Daming along with Qi State to collect and transfer immigrants to enrich its population.

More than ten days ago, Yizhou Town took advantage of the fact that the Han Alliance Army drawn from Sulu was resting and preparing for war in Yizhou, and invited them to launch a campaign against the surrounding native forces by using the seized native property as a commission payment model. Several rounds of suppression operations were carried out, extending the sphere of influence of Yizhou Town directly to the west and south for tens of kilometers, killing and wounding more than 2000 natives, and abducting nearly [-] people.

Seeing the brave fighting style of the Han Xiejun, Cheng Guangyin, the commander of Yizhou Town, was very satisfied, and immediately decided that when he immigrated this year, he might as well go to Ryukyu to recruit some Japanese wandering warriors, just like Qi, and use them to expand Yizhou's territory earth.

On May 5, as six armed merchant ships from the Weiyuan Fleet of the Qi State arrived in Yizhou City one after another, the countdown to the attack on Zheng's Luzon territory also entered.

(End of this chapter)