In 1664 of the Western calendar, in March of the 15th year of the reign of Dashun, Shalian City.

Located in the southernmost part of the Dashun Empire, this is the only Haikou of Dashun, a feudal military state in the mountains of southwest China that was blocked by the Ming Dynasty. Around the tenth year of the reign of the Emperor, as the war between Dashun and Siam gradually subsided, the great feudal lords in various parts of Myanmar also accepted the reality that Dashun replaced Donghu, and it became the largest communication route between the Dashun Empire and the world. Silk and porcelain from Sichuan, cotton and horses from India, and arms from the West and the Ming Dynasty (the Ming exported arms but could not monitor their flow) all traveled thousands of miles to this place.

But the commercial cities of the Ming Dynasty that were full of the evil smell of capitalism were different, and there was not the slightest unpleasant smell of capitalism in this commercial city belonging to the Dashun Empire.

It's a rather serious and dull trade port!

In Salian, trade can only be carried out in the designated market and all merchants who come to trade in Hong Kong can only trade with the Salian City Ship, and not directly with the merchants of Dashun or with other merchants who come to Hong Kong. Merchants who violate this rule will be subject to heavy fines, usually confiscation of goods and deportation!

In addition to the only trading partner, merchants who came to Hong Kong for trade were not allowed to wander around casually, and could only let loose in the Yongchang on the banks of the Dashun River (Yangon River) - the reason why it was "let off the wind" was because the Rongchang was a prison city at all. It is surrounded by a tall wall, and there are only two entrances and exits, one leading to the pier and the other to the city of Sarang. All of them were guarded by the Long March soldiers (that is, the long-serving soldiers) of Dashun, and their entry and exit were strictly controlled.

According to the regulations, ordinary merchants could only travel between the "prison city" and the wharf - the passage between the "prison city" and the wharf was not a normal road, but a wooden fence blocked by a road, through which merchants could only carry their goods and their goods, and ditches were dug on both sides of the road, and the bottom of the ditch was full of sharpened wooden stakes, which could not be passed through at all.

Due to the slow pace of business in Saliem, traders arriving in Hong Kong have to wait in line to make deals during the busy trading season. Therefore, when the merchants entered the field, they had to get a number first, and then live in the designated hut in the field, and then wait patiently.

Of course, the hut is rudimentary, and the food is very monotonous, except for meat buns, some fruits and vegetables, and a kind of rice wine made from rice. If you don't like to eat, you can bring your own dry food, or you can go hungry...... But you can't spend money on good food!

Because there was no place to buy it, there was no store for food in the market...... In addition, in order to prevent traders from trading illegally in the market, merchants were not allowed to bring gold, silver, copper coins and other currencies into the market, so they had no money to buy.

How can you trade without money?

Barter, of course.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, which was keen on accumulating gold and silver, the Dashun Empire did not need gold and silver, nor did it need a surplus (it would not produce a surplus if it did not need gold and silver), and of course did not accept a deficit. The purpose of Dashun's foreign trade is one, to communicate with each other.

That is, the silk and porcelain produced in Sichuan were exchanged for cotton, horses and arms needed by the Dashun Empire.

Among all the foreign merchants who came to Hong Kong to trade, the foreign merchants who arrived with Western guns were undoubtedly the most popular. Because the long-term war between the Great Shun Empire and the Great Ming Dynasty is still going on slowly!

Since the 11th year of the communist rule, in Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou and other battlefields bordering Ming and Shun, there are at least 250,000 Dashun soldiers serving and fighting all year round (now the number of Dashun soldiers has reached 500,000, so half of them are serving and half are in the township). Although the battle was not very fierce, the year-round consumption still caused great pressure to the Dashun Imperial Court, which had limited material resources.

Not only is the supply of arms very tight, but also because too many government soldiers and civilians have served in the army, the consumption of food is very alarming.

Fortunately, Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou under the rule of Dashun have maintained a high population growth rate in the past two decades. Therefore, there is already a surplus of labor in the countryside, and even if 500,000 people (half of the government soldiers and half of the people) have been out of agricultural production for a long time, it has not caused the land in the countryside to be barren.

Not only is there no barrenness, but the sown area is growing every year - the excess population makes it possible to develop terraces in large quantities, so the arable land in Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou has increased year after year.

At the same time, the pressure of population growth also forced the Dashun court to increase its efforts to develop Burma. Since the beginning of the 13th year of the Communist Party, tens of thousands of Sichuan peasants who have been deprived of their land by the government of the government have left their hometowns every year under the organization of the household government of the Dashun Imperial Court and come to the miasma-ridden Burma to reclaim land.

The Salian Mansion, which is located on the seafront, is also an area where Sichuan farmers who go south are concentrated. So in the blues. Fan. On his way to Shalianfu City, he passed through two brand-new, fortress-like villages and towns belonging to Sichuan immigrants.

He was now an envoy of the state of Batavia - in the name of the envoy of the Dutch East India Company, he could not see Li Jicheng, the grandson of the Emperor of Dashun, who was in charge of Salem, because the envoy of the East India Company would be regarded as a low-status merchant by the officials of Dashun.

Here in the Dashun Empire, merchants are the last of the four people......

Salang Castle is a triangular bastion that occupies a triangular island at the confluence of two rivers to the south of Salen Field. The island was originally a delta with water on both sides, and the only side that was originally connected to the land was now blocked by artificially dug rivers, so the delta became a delta fort.

To the northwest of the Triangle Fort, where the artificial river is located, leaning against the artificial channel, there is a town enclosed by a wooden fence. It is more prosperous than the "prison city field", and there are shops run by indigenous merchants and Han merchants from the south in the town.

However, by the time Bruce arrived, the shops were already closed, as it was getting late and it was time for the town's curfew......

"The amount is that the affairs of the Salian Mansion are high, and I came to ask questions on the order of His Royal Highness the Governor of Burma's Military Affairs!"

In a town outside Sarang Province, in a more decently built pavilion, Bruce. Fan. Dimon finally met a big man.

The younger brother of Gao Guiying, the empress dowager of Dashun, is a knife from the prefect of Shalian. Like other Dashun officials, Gao Yidao also took a simple route, this old and long-standing Shaanxi man wore a faded blue cloth official robe, no hat, and his gray hair was combed into a bun.

Bruce. Fan. Dimen hurriedly got up, made a Chinese-style fist salute, and then said in Chinese: "Xiaguan Batavia's envoy Fan. Dimen, I've seen Taishou. ”

"Hahaha, Fan Envoy's Chinese is good!" Gao Yidao raised his hand at Bruce, "Sit, sit down and talk...... Eh, this is not the Ming Kingdom, there are no such big rules! ”

In fact, the rules here in Dashun are much better than the current Daming! If Bruce had come as a representative of the East India Company, it would have been time to kowtow to Gao......

"Thank you." Bruce thanked him and sat down generously.

"Tell me, what are you going to do when the kingdom of Barak has sent you to Emen? Is it an offering? Or do you want to make friends? ”

Bruce. Fan. Dimen smiled: "No, our Batavia Kingdom is here to ask for help from the Great Shun Heavenly Empire!" ”

"Help?" Gao Yidao touched his gray beard, "Who bullied you?" ”

"It's Mingguo!" Bruce. Fan. "We in Batavia, Johor, Aceh, Perak and Pattani have always lived in harmony in Malacca. However, the Ming Kingdom has continued to send troops to attack in recent years, and the year before last, it also broke through the North American Kingdom, killing countless people and doing many evils, which is really outrageous! So we had to join forces in Batavia, Johor, Aceh and Perak to fight against Ming. It's just that our national strength is really limited, and we can't defeat the Ming army, so we have to send me to Dashun for help! ”