"When the engine starts in earnest, I can go to Japan." Ping Qiusheng thought like this and regretfully gave up the Japanese merchant group Jihua. Concentrate on preparing for the Southeast Asia expedition.

The main target of Ping's expedition to Southeast Asia was the Indochina Peninsula, which is now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, and did not involve present-day Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. This is because the main purpose of the Planning Institute's support for this expedition is to obtain food. In addition, the Spaniards and the Dutch had strong colonizations in the latter areas, and the Senate did not intend to be in such a mess at the moment.

Ships heading to Southeast Asia, Ping Qiusheng originally expected to get a 901 as his own ship, and the black smoke of the battleship majestically broke into the land of the barbarians, and set up a few cannons on the coastline to force them to pay tribute, what a colonial thing!

But the imminence of the engine's action bankrupted his ambitions. Not only is it impossible to get any of the 901s, but even the larger haode sail ships are basically out of reach.

He could only choose ships from the fleet ships of the Southeast Asian company, and what fell into his hands were two Canton ships. With a displacement of 200 tons each, it is a common cargo/fishing vessel along the coast of this time and space.

The state is the second most haode in the fleet of Southeast Asian companies. After seeing it, Ping Qiusheng thought that it could roughly meet the needs of Southeast Asian investigations.

The commander of the two ships that went to Southeast Asia this time was none other than such a former pirate leader, He Congfu.

He Congfu is an old pirate who is known for his jiān slippery in the big gang. It's a small pirate, but it's a relatively successful mix. From a small fishing boat to the leader of five large boats. When the Zhucai Boss Gang broke up, he finally escaped with two boats.

Since joining the Senate, he has been watching the development of Australians. Such a person is not one, but the majority of companies in Southeast Asia.

At the beginning, the merchant fleet that joined the Southeast Asia Company was full of old pirate leaders who were suspicious of the "thieves" and wanted to preserve a little of their strength as a way back. With the continuous expansion of the senate, the implementation of the unified personnel system of the fleet, the implementation of the unified remuneration system and the political transformation of the grassroots personnel, the control of the old leaders over the sailors of the fleet has basically disappeared, and the so-called preservation of strength to see the changes has become an empty phrase. Even the ship, of which they themselves were captains, could not act on their own without an order from the Admiralty.

After the victory of the second anti-encirclement and suppression, the navy entered the mouth of the Pearl River, and after the bombardment of Wuyangyi, in order to catch the express train of Conglong, these people finally decided to completely sell themselves to the army, for this reason, they unanimously sold the ownership of the ship in their hands to the planning institute to show their loyalty. In this way, their personal impact on the ship is completely zeroed, leaving only the dividend shares discounted to the ship.

He Congfu had been to Siam in the past, and he was familiar with the sea route of this trip, of course, it was not the best route, and the navigation route of ancient Chinese seafarers generally liked to choose the sea area that could visually view the coastline, and at worst, there should be a series of islands as a reference for the route.

But such a route was suitable for the Southeast Asian merchant community: their main purpose was to investigate the coastal conditions and conduct trade, and the coastal route was exactly what they wanted.

He Congfu wore a high-class seaman's uniform, which was actually the officer's uniform of the Senate Navy, but the full set of symbols he wore were all of the merchant navy. The armband is embroidered with the mark "Senate Grace Permit Chartered Southeast Asia Company". He had the latest binoculars in front of him, and he looked majestic.

On the mast fluttered the Morning Star flag of the Senate and the corporate flag of the Southeast Asian Company: in the upper left corner was a shrunken Morning Star flag, and the rest was nine red and white stripes. The unofficial name is "Nine-Paragraph Banner".

Zuihou is the personal patriarchal heraldic flag of Ping Qiusheng, a red sè bottom flag, which is decorated with a family crest of his own design.

Quark had never been able to figure out what the newly appeared Southeast Asian Company's "nine-paragraph flag" meant, but it seemed to him to be similar to the flag of the British East India Company, especially the red and white stripes.

The red and white stripes of the East India Company are the face of the St. George's flag, I wonder what the meaning of the Australians with such a match sè? Quark took a keen interest in this. But including where to return and Ping Qiusheng can't say why.

The actual reason is that when Dr. Chung designed the flag for the Southeast Asian company, he directly copied the layout and creativity of the flag of the British East India Company.

In Dr. Jones' view, the British East India Company was a very successful enterprise, and although it was still weak in the time and space, in the end the British achieved far more than the Dutch. It is very "auspicious" to copy the banner of such an enterprise.

However, Quark was not satisfied with the state of the East India Company, to which he belonged. In the 17th century, the British East India Company was a "vulnerable group" in the East Asian Ocean, occupying some isolated strongholds and trading houses on the vast sea, occupying a very small trade territory, and very scattered. It was already the second time that Quark had transported slaves to Sanya. With the success of the last time, as well as the quality of high-quality white sugar, rum and all kinds of Chinese goods that have never been seen before, the British merchant house in Banten became a sensation. This time, the steady stream of visitors was even more enthusiastic about all things Australian. Even the British were not very friendly neighbors: the Dutch from Batavia came.

Coupled with the report of the Dutch businessman's visit to Lingao, it became a piece of information that was already rapidly fermenting, and some adventurers gathered around the quark like flies smelling blood. A steady stream of money, ships, and slaves appeared.

His movements were also very fast, and in less than three months, the second ship approached 1CCC and the slaves were transported to Sanya. The cabin on the return trip was filled with raw silk, sugar, rum and all kinds of Chinese groceries.

The huge profits allowed Quark to quickly raise enough funds, and now Quark's fleet has two large cargo ships with a displacement of 300 tons, but this scale is still a little thin, and his fleet will inevitably pass through the long coast of Quang Nam to go south, where the king now has a good cooperation with the Portuguese, which makes Quark quite worried that he has suffered from the Portuguese, and the goods on these ships are very valuable, and the heavy merchant ships have no firepower or speed, in case they are helped, There are not enough sailors even for white-knuckle combat. It is a typical big fat meat on the sea.

During his stay in Sanya, he heard that the Australian trade mission was going south to Siam, and since he was going to Siam, he would definitely have to pass through Quang Nam, as long as he followed the Australian fleet safely through the coastline of Vietnam, there was no need to worry too much about it. Thinking of this, he immediately conveyed this idea to He Fanghui, and expressed his willingness to act as the pilot and local guide of the Australian fleet, and the Australian readily agreed. So Quark immediately handed over the command of his fleet to Captain Higgins, and he himself became the flagship of the Southeast Asian company's big ship, Ping Qiusheng.

The fleet set sail south with the wind and soon reached the waters of Hue, where the Lê dynasty had been divided into the Northern and Southern Dynasties by the Trung and Nguyen dynasties, and in 1620, the northern vassal Nguyen Phuc Nguyen formally refused to pay taxes to the court in Hanoi, and then refused to submit to the authority of the imperial court. In 1623, Zheng Song died, and his son Zheng Jili. Zheng again formally demanded that Nguyen surrender, but Nguyen Phuc Nguyen repeatedly refused. An open war between the Truong and Nguyen clans finally broke out in 162.

After four months of fighting, the entire Lê dynasty of Vietnam was divided into north and south, with the Truong controlling most of the north and Nguyen controlling most of the south. The dividing line between the two sides was on the Trung River in Quang Binh Province, which was very close to the 17th parallel of the North and South latitudes, which was later divided between North and South Vietnam.

Compared to the much more densely populated territory ruled by the Truong clan, the Nguyen clan also had some advantages. First of all, they are on the defensive. Second, the Nguyen benefited from their contacts with the Europeans, especially the Portuguese, and were able to acquire more advanced European armaments and hire European military experts for the defense of the city. Thirdly, the geographical situation was in their favor: a large organized army was suitable only for the plains, which were scarce in Vietnam, where the mountains were almost squeezed into the sea.

The main stronghold of the Nguyen Clan in the south is in Hue. After repelling the Truong offensive for the first time, the Nguyen established two main lines of forts, stretched across a narrow strip of flat land between the mountains and the sea. The city wall was erected near Dong Hai city in the north of Hue. It is said that the European-style fortress group built under the guidance of Portuguese military engineers, combined with cannons and arquebuses, formed a strong defense system, which made it difficult for the Zheng family's army to break through.

In order to break through these walls, the Zheng clan invested 100,000 soldiers, 500 war elephants and 500 warships. The first assault on Nguyen's city wall defenses was unsuccessful, and repeated attacks continued for several years. Fighting is still going on in front of this "Great Wall", and countless Vietnamese peasants have been reduced to out-and-out cannon fodder in this protracted war, and thousands have died.

For the Senate, the war also had a very bad impact on them, and the warehouses set up in Hai Duong had gradually lost the advantage of purchasing cheap grain. Rice was diverted for military use, peasants were taken into the army, often never returned, the fields were barren, and the markets became depressed.

Because the Nguyen clan's "Great Wall" on the front line was effective, it was not uncommon for the Trung clan to harass the south from the sea. The south also retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, and the battle between the two sides at sea was also very jījī fierce.