The fine music is played, and the tune is melodious.

The grand wedding feast began.

Shi Lang, who was dressed as a groom official, was accompanied by more than a dozen acquaintances, began to toast table by table, and had to exchange a few polite words with the guests who came to attend the wedding, the patriarch Qiyue, and the country fathers and elders, and kept thanking them.

The people who came to participate in the wedding banquet, in addition to the guests from all sides, were more officers at all levels of the land and water armies of the Nanyue Army stationed in Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai and other places, and most of these people were familiar with Shi Lang.

And unlike Shi Lang's noisy and persuasive drinking, Li Shouhan, as the host, toasted with Shi Daxuan, Zheng Zhilong and others, but not so many people dared to be presumptuous in front of them.

Under the deliberate arrangement of Jiang Yihong, Ye Qi and others, the guests from all over the country were placed together in different categories.

These people with different identities and different minds have the same goal, and they focus on Li Shouhan's look and mental state.

Accompanied by several important civil and military ministers, Li Shouhan also drank a few cups with the guests from all over the table one by one, although it was only a light taste, but his face was ruddy and full of energy, and he quickly dispelled everyone's speculation about Li Shouhan's condition.

"Grandpa Guo is in good health, we just have to rest assured!"

"Lord Li is in good spirits, which is a blessing for us!"

It seems that the outside world rumors say that Li is terminally ill, which is inevitably a little untrue, so let's honestly obey his orders! lest you set yourself on fire. ”

In all kinds of eyes, Li Shouhan came to the guests of the Taixi Kingdom under the embrace of a group of civil and military people.

This so-called Taixi, in fact, is just according to Zheng He's statement when he went to the West, and the Nanyang and Tianzhu, Tianfang, Spain, Portugal, England and other countries are collectively referred to as the Taixi countries. Among them, representatives of countries such as Myanmar and Siam. Looking at Li Shouhan's eyes, it is the two heavens of ice and fire.

When Li Shouhan raised the wine glass and raised it to the envoy of the King of Siam Dacheng with a smile, this envoy made a move that made several representatives of the princes and marquis of Burma beside him quite disdainful.

"When the envoy came out of our country this time, the whole country spoke in unison, and the king of our country ordered the little envoy to play to the grandfather, and the soldiers and civilians of Siam were willing to attach to Nanzhong! I thought it was a congratulatory gift for my grandfather to marry his daughter. ”

Don't dare to talk to Li Shouhan with a glass of wine. But he knelt on his knees and said something in his mouth, which immediately surprised everyone present, including Li Shouhan!

If it weren't for the fact that Li Shouhan's expression was not contrived, almost all the guests would have thought that this was a big drama arranged by the Nanyue army and the Siamese envoys for everyone to see.

The lively wedding banquet was suddenly much quieter. At the very least, the dozen or so tables that housed the visitors from all over the world were silent. Many people are surprised, but their brains are also spinning rapidly, Siam is going to sacrifice the country, so what should we do? Is it also necessary to express something? But we will never be able to dedicate ourselves to the country!

However, there are also people who analyze it more calmly from the perspective of the Siamese people. Trying to find a basis for their dedication to the country.

After the signing of the Treaty of Ayutthaya, Siam ceded the Chao Phraya River valley and other places, along with the long and narrow peninsula, to Nanzhong, and was only immersed in logging and mining. At the same time, on the basis of providing a large number of ordnance and armor in the south, it has repeatedly opened up with its evil neighbor Myanmar in the north, and after several battles, it has also recovered some territory. When the Nanyue army conquered Burma the year before last, Siam was even more jubilant and attacked Burma from the south, taking away nearly a thousand miles of land in one fell swoop. This incident made the princes of Burma who were divided by the Nanyue Army hateful. But because everyone is the same master. Moreover, Myanmar and Li Shouhan have the righteousness of in-law, and the princes of Myanmar have to swallow this breath.

But. This is also one of the reasons why the kings of Burma are constantly in conflict and fire. Since I can't mess with Siam, it's always okay for me to hit the neighbors around me, right? As a result, there were almost daily conflicts of varying sizes between the feudal kings of Burma.

The neighbors in the north are constantly fighting, and the original tidal flat wasteland in the south has taken the form of a land of fish and rice after more than ten years of hard work by the military and civilians in the south. Seeing that it is another huge anointed land, it is about to become a source of money and food for the Nanyue Army. How does this not make the royal family of Ayutthaya feel remorseful and remorseful?

Historically, the money bags and rice bags that originally belonged to Siam were taken by the Nanyue Army early, although they have not changed from a coastal country to a landlocked country, but they have also reduced a lot of coastline and a lot of sources of wealth.

These are probably the reasons why Siam unanimously demanded the sacrifice of the country?! Some people think that they have found the reason and original intention of Siam's dedication to the country, and they can't help but be secretly proud.

"Today is the great day of the county lord. The envoy is bold, and he does not dare to carry the soldiers, horses, accounts, money, food, albums and other bulky things here to bother. After the happy event of the county lord, the envoy took the map, soldiers, horses, money, food, household registration books and other items from the pavilion and presented them to the national government! ”

If it weren't for the fact that he learned from the eye contact of several civil and military officers around him that this matter was definitely not arranged by them in advance, and it was used to add luster to the marriage of the county lord, Li Shouhan would almost think that this was a matter that was properly arranged and rehearsed.

After he was stunned for a long time, he asked the Siamese envoy why he wanted to sacrifice his country, and the Siamese envoy made a ridiculous remark. In addition to admiring the Celestial Empire, our country is located in a remote area, not to mention the wilderness, and is threatened by strong neighbors from time to time, and finally the king of our country and the ministers unanimously felt that it was safer to be a small people of the Celestial Empire than to be a foreign vassal king, so they decided to sacrifice the country. Under the command of Grandpa Guo, he is a rich man with plenty of food and clothing. ”

Isn't this kind of plot a bit bloody? But the bloody matter is still to come!

In the face of the Siamese envoy's dedication to the country, Li Shouhan still refused the Siamese envoy's request after a fierce ideological struggle!

So, at Li Huamei's wedding scene, an extremely peculiar scene was staged, the Siamese envoy was full of tears in his eyes and asked to dedicate the country, and the whole country was attached to the army and the people, and became the people under the rule of the Southern Guangdong Army of the Ming Dynasty. But on the other hand, Li Shouhan, as the first actor, refused to accept Siam's dedication to the country no matter what.

If it weren't for the atmosphere of today's scene, I was afraid that any scenes of crying Qin Ting and disemboweling Mingzhi would be staged.

In Li Shouhan's opinion. Siam's request for an annex was naturally a good thing, so that the Burmese bread was sandwiched from the south, which made the Burmese kings even more afraid to make mistakes. However, this good thing is a pot of raw rice at this time! Don't say that at this time, the signs of rebellion in various parts of Nanzhong were rising one after another, and there were not enough manpower and officials, and it was a peaceful time. If a large area of land like Siam is to be managed in villages and towns, it also requires a large number of people to prepare!

However, in order not to chill the whole of Siam, and at the same time to strictly implement the provisions of the Ayutthaya Treaty and ensure the safety of his allies, Li Shouhan still agreed very much, and ordered the battalion office to select and transfer elite horses from all over the south and central parts of the country to be stationed in Siam, and at least one mixed brigade should be stationed on the border between Siam and Burma. He also promised to send a large number of capable personnel to help the Siamese royal family train the army and police to ensure that they were not threatened by foreign enemies.

"The troops of our Southern Guangdong Army stationed in Siam must strictly abide by military discipline. Don't harass Siam! If there is a person who is not subject to military discipline, you are allowed to tie up the people of your country and the people of the army before they are tried by the military law of the Southern Yue Army. What do you think? ”

Although he has never achieved the goal of dedicating the country to ensure peace, at least he does not have to worry that his net worth and property may be plundered by those Burmese barbarians and beasts in the north. Although the Siamese envoy did not achieve all his goals, he retreated to the side contentedly.

The few words of Li Shouhan at this banquet became the strategy of the Rite Division and Siam when they refined the relevant terms. And according to this strategy, it was written in a perfunctory manner, and a supplement to the Treaty of Ayutthaya was formed. It also laid a good foundation for the thorough attachment of Siam in the future.

But. It is also accused by later generations of conscientious young historians as the dirtiest page in history. "In the name of protecting others, occupying other people's countries. Plundering other people's land is even more shameless, and the officials of the Nanyue Army can actually go to Siam to serve in Siam. It's also called communication! On the one hand, the army threatens the legitimate regime of Burma and exercises a power regime to split the regimes of other countries, and on the other hand, it enforces all kinds of evil extraterritoriality in the country. Is there anything more shameless in the world? ”

However, this scene and the news of Li Shouhan's health spread through various channels. Many careerists are also gradually beginning to relent.

Unlike Siam's dedication to the country, the Japanese Matsudaira was much more measured.

Looking at the representative of the Dutch East India Company standing side by side with him, Li Shouhan couldn't help but feel a burst of pride in his heart, and the current Batavia was no longer the power center of the Dutch East India Company in Southeast Asia to order one side to extort and exploit.

More than ten years down. Batavia, or Jakarta as the Turks call it, is just a Dutch trade and freight terminal warehouse in the South Seas. The surrounding area, as long as it is out of the city wall, it is not far from the territory of the Nanyue army. But this is also good, and the Committee of Seventeen of the East India Company is very calm and says to the small shareholders of the company, "Isn't this bad?" There are people outside who guarantee the safety of our company and allow us to carry out business and trade activities along the way. At the same time, we don't have to raise so many armed forces. This greatly reduces the company's operating costs. If you are going to reduce the dividends by more than 70 percent, then our committee can consider re-assembling a large armed force! ”

To form an armed force? To rebuild a naval fleet that can control the entire eastern sea? But in this way, the money in his pocket will be like the angels in the church frescoes, with wings and flying so that he doesn't know where to go. How can this get the shareholders of the company to agree?

On the other hand, now, the sailors of the Nanyue Army are cruising in the waters outside Batavia, and as long as they have declared their taxes at the customs, they will naturally accept the protection of the Nanyue Army's sailors, so why should we bother to build our own fleet? You know, the navy is a gold-swallowing beast.

And at present, the external environment provided by the South Yue Army to the East India Company is really good! So good that the members of the Committee of Seventeen could easily reap handsome benefits when they lay on a huge copper bed covered with thick cushions.

The trade contracts, documents, bills for tax declarations to the customs, customs clearance procedures, and speculation contracts are all very much in line with the taste of the Dutch. Originally, they were sea coachmen who used ships to transport them from place to place in order to get a huge difference. Now that you can sell the carriage and become the commander of the Nanyue Army, the financial service industry that Grandpa Li said in front of you can make huge profits, is there anything better in the world than this?

What's more, Li Shouhan also gave the Dutch a good deal.

That is to use the identity of the Dutch and meddle in Europe. The flames of war are burning more and more on the European continent. In addition to the lives of the European countries, the food that filled the bellies of the cannon fodder, the weapons in their hands, the military uniforms and armor on their bodies, which of them was not kindly provided by the Dutch to the monarchs of European countries? Tong guò transported all kinds of industrial products and grains produced in South China to Europe, which made the kings of Europe curse constantly. But they did not dare to disobey the lack of German business activities, and the Dutch made a lot of money.

As for the reason why the representatives of the Dutch East India Company were able to sit with Matsudaira Nobutsuna of the Tokugawa shogunate of the Wakoku kingdom and talk so happily, it was because they had another project of cooperation between them, which lacked virtue and smoked, but was extremely lucrative.

Wa Volunteers!

Although the Dutch are not as bold as they were back then, the old roots of the sea coachmen are still there. From the beginning of the use of the Japanese volunteers by the Li family and the Portuguese Restoration Army, this group of Dutch people regarded the social instability in the eyes of the daimyo and the generals as former samurai in the rural cities of the three islands of the Japanese country, the current ronin gang, and the Japanese Nokukuku, who later made the world talk about the tiger. It became their next business opportunity.

How could such a good cannon fodder resource be missed by being able to slaughter the Balkans under the Ottoman Emperor to the bloody ground, and quickly open the road from Punggara to Uszang with leather whips and sticks? You must know that at this time, whether it is the European continent or England, it needs a large number of people to enrich its army.

As long as it is filed with the Nanyue Army, with the approval document used by Grandpa Li, several boats of rice, chintz and a large number of copper coins are transported to the Wa Kingdom. Then go up to the Tokugawa shogun of the Wa kingdom and down to the retainers of the daimyo everywhere. The recruiting committee members who come to recruit mercenaries will be taken care of. As for the soldiers, there are as many as you want! There will even be a daimyo who will discuss with the recruitment committee in a low voice, "You are going to Europa, the mountains are far away, the turmoil is thousands of miles, and there will be few people on the ship who will die." You have to bring more. to prevent excessive wear and tear on the road! In the words, it is not people who are transported over long distances, but goods such as mules, horses, and livestock. It is completely the Japanese Army style of later generations.

Filled with hundreds of former Japanese samurai who had come to Europe to serve as mercenaries, the Dutch plywood ships, each with a cabin similar to the canned fish produced in Nanchu, set sail from the treaty ports of the three islands of the Japanese country. All the way to the west. If it weren't for the constant replenishment of the islands along the way, so that the sardine warriors in the bilge could come out to breathe, eat some vegetables, and replenish some fresh water, I am afraid that three or two of the ten stops would have become food for the fish and shrimp in the sea on the way to Europa.

But that's not all. After these ships arrived in the territory of the Southern Yue Army, especially when they passed through Guò from Manlaga, Lijiapo, Lingjiawei, etc., the space on the ships had to be greatly reduced again. All kinds of industrial products produced in Nanzhong, from spearhead swords, armor, gunpowder, firearms, artillery, all kinds of meat, oil and salt, to dyed cloth of various colors and patterns, were sent to the ship like flowing water. As a result, the already pitiful transportation space on the ship is even more compressed. These Dutch people will not let the Nanyue army calculate the transportation capacity according to the standard of how many tons per person, it is completely a standard for the black slave trafficking, but the poor samurai back then, in order to earn at least 600 stone of rice per year, but enjoy the treatment of black slaves and piglets hundreds of years in advance.

As everyone knows, these goods, which occupy their space, will be traded for gold and other valuables after they are transported to Europe. Earned several times the profit for the Dutch, not counting. This group of conscientious Dutch gentlemen would even take these gold and precious stones, and even Europeans who tried to take refuge in the East to escape the war in Europe, engineers, craftsmen, university teachers, and other people needed in Nanzhong, to exchange for grain and rice to pay for their military salaries.

In the middle of the exchange, the triangular trade between Europe, the Japanese state, and South China was booming.

The Tokugawa shogunate of the Wa Kingdom eliminated the factors of social instability and better controlled the social order and law and order of the Wa Kingdom. And the daimyo who are entrenched in various places have also obtained a steady stream of overseas Chinese remittance income, and they have eaten themselves full of fat. (Poor, before the arrival of the Nanyue army, I am afraid that it was difficult for the vast majority of Japanese people to understand the meaning of this idiom.) ）

The monarchs of European countries were also very happy, paying a ridiculously cheap military fee than the Swiss mercenaries, and obtaining such a cost-effective cannon fodder resource, where to find such a good thing? Although these mercenaries have a savage Oriental habit of paying a bonus according to the head of the harvest for each battle, and they like to plunder and slaughter enemy cities, what is the problem? Anyway, it wasn't my subordinates who killed.

As for the most important top corner in this triangular trade, the Nanyue Army. People only saw the export of a large number of industrial products, a large number of precious metals and the import of wheat, horses, and horses, as well as countless European technical personnel, scientific and technological personnel, and craftsmen who continued to go to Nanzhong to escape the war. (To be continued......)