"Lord Liang, please stay."

At the end of the conversation, Liang Xing was about to leave when he was stopped by Wu Jin.

"When is the city lord of Wu?"

"When I was at the port this morning, I met a few businessmen from the Lanfang Company, and they asked someone to invest in business in Songkhla, and Wu felt that there might be another reason for this, so he asked Lord Liang if he would like to accompany Wu to meet them tomorrow."

"There are not a few Lanfang merchants who do business in the Malay Peninsula, maybe there are some people who can use it this time, and it is not a bad thing to learn more about the princely kingdoms in the Central Malay Peninsula from them."

"Yes, Wu also thinks that having more contact with them will have some benefits for the next military operation." …………

The next morning, the seven Lanfang merchants gathered in the meeting room early and whispered to each other.

"Gu Shopkeeper, is Songkhla going to war, yesterday there were more than ten ships of troops on the dock, all of them were equipped with breech rifles, and the bright bayonets on the rifles looked really terrifying."

"Nine times out of ten, there is going to be a war, yesterday there were not only more than 10 ships of soldiers on the wharf, but there were also eight gunboats and gunboats docked in the port outside the wharf, this guy is in the South Seas, in addition to the foreigners have one or twenty ships, that is, in the hands of the Thais, at most there are five or six small steamers, whether it is the tonnage or the cannons on board, they are far worse than the gunboats in Songkhla Port."

"If you want me to say, it's a pity that Mrs. Jia didn't choose to cooperate with the Nanyang Legion six years ago, if the object of cooperation with the Nanyang Legion is Lan Fang, I can't say that the eight warships outside the port are now docked at the port of Dongwanlu." …………

The Liu family's control over Lanfang has gradually strengthened, since the first generation of the head of the family, Liu Taier, became the first lady of Lanfang, the Liu family has produced four people who have held the position of Lanfang Jiatai, and have controlled the power of Lanfang for nearly forty years.

In the process of expanding the power of the Liu family, the Luo family, the Chen family, the Gu family, and the Jiang family, the four old Lanfang families, were excluded from the power center one after another, and the power and financial resources in their hands were deprived and weakened little by little, and the contradictions accumulated by the two sides were better day by day.

"Lanfang company is the foundation laid by the Luo, Jiang, Chen, and Gu families, and the Liu family only relied on the support of the Dutch to ascend to the position of Jiatai, and now the father and son of the Liu family in order to please the Dutch, regardless of the life and death of 300,000 Chinese in Lanfang, allow the Dutch to send administrative officials to supervise Lanfang's internal affairs, and then let the Liu family father and son develop unscrupulously, and the destruction of Lanfang is just around the corner.

Gentlemen, virtuous people, our foundation and family business are in Lanfang, if Lanfang perishes, even if we can escape, we will lose the land and wealth accumulated for a hundred years, and without wealth and power, will you really be willing? ”

"What can be done if you are unwilling, the power of Lanfang is in the hands of the Liu family and his son, and the customs, docks, and ports of Dongwanlu and Shaokouyang are supervised by administrative officials appointed by the Dutch, we just want to make a difference, and we have nowhere to start."

"It's not that there is no way, the merchant group armed forces directly controlled by the four major families add up to more than 1,000 people, if you can get on the line with the Nanyang Legion through the Wu City Lord, and smuggle some weapons and ammunition from the Nanyang Legion, it may not be impossible to oust Liu Asheng and his son."

"What the Luo family master said is true, yesterday my men saw the Songkhla army move down boxes of goods from the ship, the wooden boxes that are more than two meters long and more than half a meter wide are quite heavy, and it takes three or four people to carry them, and then contact the situation that the Nanyang Army dispatched the Natuna Islands garrison to Songkhla, those boxes must contain muskets and ammunition for the Song City Lord."

"Yes, even if we buy two or three hundred breech rifles from the Nanyang Legion, we are not afraid of the threat of the Liu family's father and son."

Everyone discussed, expressing their dissatisfaction with Liu Asheng one by one.

"Luo family master, your ancestor is the founder of Lanfang's entrepreneurship, Luo Tong, this time it was also your idea to come to Songkhla to visit the city lord of Wu, you said to come up with a charter and tell us what to do, we will listen to your arrangement."

"Thank you Brother Liang and you for your love, Luo is not a person who is greedy for power and money, but he is really uncomfortable when he sees that his ancestors' foundation has been betrayed by villains like Liu Asheng and his son, so for the time being, in the name of the Luo family, I ask all the heads of the family to form an alliance to oppose Liu Asheng and his son, and take back the dominance of Lanfang back to us."

Luo Yibo directly and clearly expressed his resolute opposition to the Liu family's father and son's attitude of ruling Lan Fang, and continued: "Originally, Lan Fang ranked first among the many powerful people of the Nanyang Chinese, but in the past two years, Songkhla has been supported by the Han State, and the economic and armed forces have surpassed Lan Fang. ”

"Luo Family Master, the relationship between the Han Kingdom and Lan Fang has not been very good, will they promise to help us?"

"Whether they will help us or not, I am not sure of my determination."

Luo Yibo shook his head, and said in an upward tone, "However, opportunities are earned, if we don't work hard to create opportunities ourselves, Lanfang Company will only have a dead end." ”

"I heard that the king of the Han Kingdom likes beauty, the head of the Luo family, or you marry your sister-in-law to His Royal Highness the King of Han, and the two families form a joint family, in that case, the Nanyang Legion will definitely help the Luo family master deal with the Liu family father and son, and maybe after the Liu family father and son and the Dutch are settled, the Liu family master can be in the position of the head of the country."

"Go, go, Boss Zhou is a little unobtrusive, if His Royal Highness the King of Han is as greedy and lustful as you think, he can conquer South America with his own hands, not to mention that the sister of the Luo family has been married, she is a big girl with yellow flowers, and people may not be able to look at it."

"That's not necessarily, Wu Cheng mainly doesn't marry his daughter to His Royal Highness the King of Han, and can get such strong support from the Han side, according to me, it is better to find a way to marry His Royal Highness the King of Han."

"It is a good way for the two parties to get married, but within the Luo family and in your families, there is no suitable candidate for the time being, and the marriage can be postponed for the time being, but at present, we can do a few things for the Nanyang Legion and the Wu City Lord."

"Master Luo, please make it clear."

"First, the four major families are the head, take out 700,000 taels of silver, and the other three families each take out 100,000 taels of silver, making up 1 million taels of integer, and unconditionally hand over the silver to the Nanyang Legion in the name of helping the war, and express our sincerity in cooperation with the Han side to the Han side.

Second, the family behind the seven heads of the family, the Zhou family, which has been the latest in the South Seas, has also been operating in the local area for thirty or forty years, each of which has more or less business contacts in the Malay Peninsula, and in the peaceful period of the world, our business dealings in the Malay Peninsula are not of much use, but at present, the Nanyang Army and Wu Cheng mainly use force against the central part of the Malay Peninsula, with our local business to help, it is not easy to say, just to reduce the conflict with the local British merchants, we can play a big role. ”

"The Luo family master is sure that the Nanyang Legion will participate in the internal affairs of Songkhla?"

"Can't be wrong, more than 40 years ago, the Kedah Tuwang rebellion, Songkhla disobeyed the orders of the Kingdom of Thailand, refused to send troops to assist, has caused Thailand's dissatisfaction, now Thailand and Britain because of each other to compete for the right to dominate the central region of the Malay Peninsula, did not rashly intervene in Songkhla's internal affairs, did not take advantage of the opportunity of Thailand and Britain to contain each other, unified Songkhla's internal military and political affairs, missed the opportunity, and there will be no such good luck in the future."

Combined with his understanding of the princely states of the Malay Peninsula and the intelligence support provided by other families, Luo Yibo roughly analyzed the key points of the Nanyang Army's integration into the central part of the Malay Peninsula, that is, to pay equal attention to politics and military, prudently handle the intricate political situation in the local area, and limit the area of military operations to four provinces and one state. The three places in Perlis adopted the policy of maintaining the status quo, and used the conditions of the Nanyang Army to acquiesce to the British control of the three places and the display of their own force, so as to dispel the British Strait colonial government's intention of fishing in troubled waters and taking advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, so that the military and political power within Songkhla was concentrated and smoothly transitioned.