The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 476: The Country of Tigers and Wolves
One morning in early September, at the Tiger Port in Lushun, Meng Jinbao, captain of the First Fleet of the Great Qi Empire Navy, led his soldiers on board a Dutch cargo ship named the Nemesis.

The Dutch cargo ship came from Jakarta, or more reliably from as far away as Rotterdam.

The journey, thousands of miles across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, was extremely difficult and arduous. Finally arriving in Liaodong, the Dutch sailors were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, scrambling to reach land. However, they received a "friendly warning" from the Qi State Customs Department that they would only be allowed to land after inspection.

The Dutch had no choice but to obey, for at that moment, the port of Lushun was surrounded by a forest of masts, with at least a hundred warships prowling the sea. Hundreds of warships and transports were continuously carrying tens of thousands of soldiers and supplies out of the harbor. According to customs officials, the Great Qi army would land in Tianjin and sweep across the interior, achieving the true unification that Emperor Wu Ding had so longed for.

Although the Dutch had been mentally prepared for the strength of Qi, they were still deeply shocked by the strength of the Qi army when they saw the endless stream of soldiers and horses appearing at the port.

Looking across the entire European continent, there are only a handful of countries that can compete with this powerful army. The Kingdom of Britain is one, the Spanish Empire is one, the Holy Roman Empire can barely hold its own, and France and Tsarist Russia may also be able to do so. However, Emperor Wu Ding's army is still expanding rapidly. Currently, they only occupy a corner of the northeast. It is said that China still has more than a dozen provinces like Liaodong...

The strength of the Qi army made the Dutch delegation increasingly aware of the correctness of their choice of peace talks (in comparison, Britain and France seemed too radical). This trip to Qi hoped to redefine the interests of both sides in the Far East.

The Dutch requested that the Emperor of Qi respect their interests in Taiwan, Macau, Japan, etc. (of course, this was impossible in Liu Zhaosun's view).
The naval and customs officials immediately conveyed the general demands of the Dutch Republic back to Shenyang. Liu Zhaosun, who was preparing to enter the customs by land, gave instructions after hearing about this and ordered Ma Shiying to be the full-fledged negotiating representative of Daqi to go to Liaodong to negotiate with the red-haired barbarians.

Before Ma Shiying left, the retired emperor set the bottom line for negotiations for him: Taiwan belongs to Da Qi, Macau belongs to Da Qi, Manila belongs to Da Qi, Jakarta also belongs to Da Qi, and even the East India Companies opened by European countries will belong to Da Qi in the future.

Simply put, the central idea of the Supreme Emperor is that what is mine is mine, what is yours is mine, and what is his is still mine.

If the Dutch wanted to exchange what they had with the Great Qi, and wanted to trade in the Great Qi, Korea, Japan and other places, they had to comply with the unilateral most-favored-nation requirements, that is, the tax rate that Japan had to comply with in the "Niusuki Treaty". By trading according to this tax rate, the maritime trade between the two sides was roughly divided into a 2:8 ratio.

Influenced by the emperor's tough attitude, Meng Jinbao and his soldiers had no good attitude towards these red-haired barbarians.

The soldiers carefully searched every corner of the cargo ship to prevent any contraband from being brought ashore. The red-haired foreigners standing on the deck were also searched carefully.

The shore of Tiger Harbor was in chaos. Merchants, translators, straw raincoat guards, pacification soldiers, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, school representatives, auxiliary soldiers and all kinds of people gathered in front of the cargo ship "Venetian" (a poor translation of "Athena" by the Chinese translator), pointing at the big ship as if they were dissecting a corpse.

Meng Jinbao, who was born as a porter, kept cursing. He was very dissatisfied with the job of searching for the red-haired foreigners. He thought he should not be here doing odd jobs. He should command the warship and land in Tianjin together with other main battleships to charge into the battle for the emperor to pacify the world.

At this time, his superior, Wu Aheng, had already led the main force across the Liaohai Sea and bombarded scattered pirates near the port of Tianjin, clearing the way for the army to land in Tianjin.

"Liaodong is a thousand miles of land covered with grass! Chasing the wind and dust is not easy outside. Don't be picky when you are rich. Learn from Kong Rong's example of giving away pears! (Doing business abroad is not easy. Coming to Liaodong and giving you food is good enough. We will teach you how to be a good person.) The emperor has always encouraged normal trade between Europeans and China!"

After searching, the dark and strong Meng Jinbao came out of the cabin, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and yelled at the Dutch standing on the deck.

The interpreter quickly translated the chief officer's words into Dutch and told them to the red-haired barbarians, retaining all the slang of the porters, regardless of whether the hairy red-haired barbarians could understand it.

After hearing this, the Dutch looked at each other in bewilderment. The Chinese translator they had hired from Macau at a high price could not understand the jargon of the Northeastern gangs at all.

Captain Lacey was also the head of the delegation. Following the translator's instruction, he took out a small bag of heavy Dutch Republic gold coins and bribed Meng Jinbao with clumsy movements. Based on their experience in trading at the Nanming port, they knew that the officials and people of this country were very good at bribery. At Zhoushan Port, when the Athena was replenishing fresh water, if they did not give enough tips to the servants and sailors on the shore, they would use smelly and dirty water to perfunctorily treat the delegation.

"Get out of here! You want to kill me?"

The golden coins gleamed in the morning light. Meng Jinbao loudly refused the bribe from the red-haired barbarians and was about to angrily scold the barbarians for not understanding the laws of the Celestial Empire when suddenly, a soldier came up to Captain Meng and whispered something.

Meng Jinbao was furious when he heard this. He pointed at Captain Lacy's red nose and cursed loudly:
"You idiots! Customs officials have warned you before, but you still dare to defy the decree of the Emperor of Great Qi and bring contraband into Great Qi!"

The Dutch delegation was still looking at each other in bewilderment when, with a bang, a soldier participating in the search threw a battered Protestant Psalter onto the deck. Lacy was startled, for he immediately recognized it as Karlbe's personal belongings.

"All you red-haired barbarians, remember this: in Da Qi, there is only one God, and that is Emperor Wu Ding. All other faiths within Da Qi are granted by the Emperor's grace. Without the Emperor's permission, all others are heresy! In your Europe, pagans will be crucified and burned at the stake."

Deng Cang, the naval instructor next to Meng Jinbao, loudly ordered the interpreter to translate this sentence in full to the red-haired barbarians.

Captain Lacy turned pale with fear, and with trembling fingers he stretched out towards Karlbe.

Meng Jinbao waved his hand, and several soldiers immediately stepped forward and took Captain Lacy and missionary Karlbe to the side of the ship. The soldiers pressed the two men to the ground and prepared to behead them.

The other Dutch people around were surrounded by dense muskets and bows and arrows, and the scene before them shocked them.

"Officer Meng is a little slow. The Emperor has ordered that we keep him alive and take him to Shenyang."

A young man's steady and powerful voice came from the shore. Meng Jinbao and Deng Cang looked up at the same time, and the person who came was Li Zicheng, a straw raincoat guard under Zhang Dong.

Of course Meng Jinbao had to give face to Zhang Mazi, not to mention the emperor's edict.

"Let go and leave it to the Mino Guards!"

Meng Jinbao waved his hand impatiently, and the executioner slowly lowered his raised sword. A group of naval soldiers stepped forward and supervised the Dutchmen as they boarded the sampan and staggered onto land.

Carl looked back at the "Psalm" that had fallen on the deck and reached out to pick it up. There was a clang and a sharp blade blocked the missionary's way.

Instructor Deng Cang said with a sinister look, "You can leave, but leave the things behind! When you come back, I'll return them intact!"

~~~
After this episode, Karlbe had a new understanding of the strict military discipline of the Qi army. This country showed an aura that was very different from the small Southern Ming court.

The army was strong, the officials were honest and efficient, and the people were neither humble nor arrogant (at least there was no such thing as begging around Dutch merchants like in the south).

What the missionaries saw and heard in Liaodong was far beyond their expectations.

From any angle, this doesn't look like a country of barbarians.

In order to prove this fact, he made up his mind to go to Shenyang to find out for himself. On the way to Shenyang, the situation was beyond Karlbe's imagination.

Compared with the rampant banditry in the Nanming defense zone, the Qi army defense zone was like a paradise.

The soldiers in the Qi army's defense zone were polite and courteous. The ports and cities were very prosperous, with fleets and convoys constantly unloading and loading goods.

He was surprised to find that there were no beggars or prostitutes in Qi, which was very different from what he saw in the territory of Southern Ming.

After his idea was confirmed, Karlbe made a decision that changed his life - he took the initiative to visit Liu Zhaosun, the retired emperor of Qi, in Shenyang.

(End of this chapter)