The fleet sent by the Datang Western Company one after another, but also transported a part of the reinforcements to Banten, and now, the company's armed forces on the Banten side, although not as good as the strength in Mian Lao Island, but also have more than 500 garrisons, and also built a perfect fortress, so that the local Banten people are helpless, and even the Portuguese are hesitant to see it!

Although there is no evidence on the side of the Tang Dynasty, but their own family knows their own affairs, in January this year, the colony of the Tang Dynasty in Mian Lao Island was attacked by pirates, although there are not many foreigners in it, but there are many Nanyang natives, Japanese pirates, foreign pirates and other gangs, but this pirate is secretly organized by them.

Even the ones who commanded the battle were the Portuguese!

However, they took advantage of the fact that the fleet of the Tang Western Company was not in the port, and although they occupied the port, they suffered a shameful defeat when attacking the castle!

More than 3,000 people besieged it, and after half of the casualties were small, they still failed to break through the fortress, and then learned that another fleet of the Tang Western Company was about to arrive, so in order to avoid the conspiracy being exposed, they had to retreat.

In this battle, there were only 26 casualties on the side of the Tang Western Company, while the pirates besieging the castle suffered more than 400 casualties!

The merchant house on Mian Lao Island just can't be beaten, Banten is still this kind of fortress, not to mention, people in Banten also have an indigenous regime, they don't say that they want to fight in the past, so in recent months, they are looking at the merchant hall of the Tang Western Company in Banten, from a small warehouse to a fortress, and finally want to have no thousands of people, with dozens or hundreds of artillery, there is no way to fight, rely on human lives to fill, by, when colonizing overseas, no one has many troops, if the Portuguese can stop tens of thousands of troops from attacking, They've done it a long time ago.

Anyway, today's Tang Western Company is only establishing a commercial hall, and has not shown a clear intention of establishing a colony and taking over the local indigenous regime, plus the commerce and trade between the two countries is getting bigger and bigger, but the relationship is also becoming more and more tense.

Of course, there is another very important reason for this, that is, the two trading stations established by the Tang Western Company, one is in Mian Lao Island and the other is in Banten, although the location is also important, but after all, it is not in or around Malacca.

The grape people pay the most attention to the Indian Ocean route, as long as Malacca is blocked, the Indian Ocean is their world, as for the South Sea, it is the traditional East Asian maritime trade circle, they want to put an end to it, they can't put an end to it, if they dare to meddle casually, the Tang Navy is not a decoration, dozens of warships ran over to bombard Malacca, what should I do?

The forbearance of the Portuguese has, to a certain extent, stimulated the expansion speed of Datang Western Company!

Now Datang Western Company is once again aiming at the main island of Luzon and is accumulating strength to open a new trading post on the main island of Luzon.

Therefore, the colonization activities of the Tang Dynasty in Luzon and Banten were not as pessimistic as Wang Shanxi expected, and even smoother.

Because Datang Western Company seems to be a company fighting, but in fact it is just the vanguard of Datang's external expansion!

Standing in the rear is the entire Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Army, Navy and Cabinet have all given strong support to the Tang Western Company, to what extent?

Allowing Datang Western Company to establish company armaments, not to mention the purchase of various ordnance and even warships, and the provision of retired soldiers is also a trivial matter, and now, the Datang Navy has even begun to lease warships to Datang Western Company.

If they hadn't leased warships from the navy, how could they have so many ships to maintain their existing shipping routes and colonies?

After all, the current operation of the Datang Western Company is completely inadequate, and the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver invested in the royal assets are all used for shipbuilding and hiring personnel, if it weren't for the navy leasing a few of their frigates and more than a dozen armed transport ships at a relatively cheap price, they wouldn't even have enough ships.

At that time, when it was reported that the company's ships were not enough, Li Xuan directly instructed that the company's warships were not enough to find the navy to rent!

In order to solve the problem of the shortage of ships of the Tang Western Company, especially the armed ships, Li Xuan personally decided to let them find the navy to lease ships, and by the way, lease the navy officers and sailors.

The navy was opposed at first, thinking that this would damage the dignity of the navy, but then Li Xuan said that the navy has the responsibility to maintain the safety of trade routes, and you have to protect the safety of the routes of Datang Western Company even if you don't lease ships.

So the navy finally pinched its nose and recognized it, and in the past six months, it has been leased to Datang Western Company one cruiser, three frigates, and six patrol ships.

Or to put it more simply, the Navy directly leased a detachment to the Datang Western Company!

On the army side, more than 1,000 retired soldiers were newly provided to join the Datang Western Company.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture also reached an agreement with Datang Western Company to help transport immigrants to Nanyang.

However, these things have further exacerbated the financial deficit of Datang Western Company!

In the sixth year of Xuanping, Datang Western Company lost a total of 360,000 taels of silver, and in the first quarter of the seventh year of Xuanping, Datang Western Company lost 130,000 taels of silver, which made the Royal Assets Department quite a headache

This year, I lost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and I can't do this business!

But the official investment and refusal to invest, the official finances are tight, and there is a big mess in the country, which gives you a monopoly on Western trade, do you want financial subsidies? Just kidding.

As for issuing shares, this is a good way, but Li Xuan is pressuring not to issue shares so early, and now is not the time to issue shares.

Datang Western Company is the only company with a Western trade license, and it can also have company arms, which is destined to be not an ordinary company, even if it finally issues shares, it must be cautious, Li Xuan also expects to use this company as an introduction to establish a perfect stock trading system.

The official does not give financial subsidies, and the company itself operates at a loss, so there is no choice but to suck blood from other subordinate enterprises of the Royal Assets Division, but fortunately, there are many enterprises in the Royal Assets Division, and most of them are new industries, and the ability to make money is very strong.

Just the two items of glass and soap are making the royal assets more and more money, not to mention the royal assets department, which has invested in the establishment of a new industry: matches.

This cheap and ignition product, once launched, was widely enjoyed and even became a major export commodity.

Not to mention the Royal Bank!

Although the stall is also large, it can still be squeezed out if you squeeze it here and there.

However, it is the wealth of the Royal Assets Department that can support the current investment of more than one million taels of silver from Datang Western Company, which cannot be supported at all if it is replaced by other ordinary private enterprises.

There is not much money, and you have to explore shipping routes and build a commercial hall, what to do, naturally how to save money and how to come, and if you can't afford to build and buy a ship yourself, then rent a ship from the navy.

Anyway, the navy is very idle now, and its main combat mission is in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Bohai Sea, while maintaining coastal security and controlling trade routes to Japan.

With the current strength of the navy, to be honest, it is a bit excessive, but the navy is still in the process of large-scale expansion, so the navy is also happy to lease some ships to the Tang Western Company, so that they can help them raise their fleet.

Under various circumstances, it is the Datang Western Company that still maintains a high speed of expansion in the face of a mess of losses!

But this kind of loss can not last too long, at present, Datang Western Company has not opened up the Indian Ocean route, but it has indeed occupied Luzon Mian Lao Island, also established a base in Banten, and started commercial activities based on this, although the money is not much, but it can also subsidize some.

Wang Shanxi took the Jinyuan to explore in Australia alone, naturally he didn't know the situation of Datang Western Company in the past six months, and he didn't even know the situation in China, so he still adopted the most conservative strategy and prepared to return north to Mian Lao Island from the eastern waters of Borneo.

When Wang Shanxi left Australia with the Jinyuan and began to return north, a new round of war was also set off in China.

The First and Second Armies, which had been preparing for a long time, officially launched the Battle of Irikawa with the support of the Navy's Yangtze River Fleet.

Part of the main force launched an attack along the Yangtze River, while part of it attacked over the mountains and mountains, and at the same time, the Fifth Army also attacked from north to south, from Guanzhong into the hinterland of Sichuan.

The outcome of this battle is not too suspenseful!

Because the Tang Army has prepared three armies for this battle, with a total strength of 120,000 people, and according to intelligence, the main force of the Ming army in Sichuan is the superintendent, but the current superintendent is different from the previous superintendent, and there is only one superintendent left in the current superintendent army, and there are also some remnants of the right army and the front army, adding up to less than 60,000 people.

King Jing's direct army is also the scale of 10,000 people.

As for the rest of the guards and the like, no one took them seriously!

In early June, the First Army launched an offensive, and in mid-June, the First Army conquered the strategic place of Badong, and captured Wanxian, Zhongzhou and other important cities along the Yangtze River, and then gathered the main force to kill the capital of Chongqing.

In late June, the First Army conquered the city of Chongqing, and Song Zhiwen, the governor of eastern Sichuan of the puppet Ming Dynasty, retreated to Luzhou with more than 20,000 remnants of the Biaohou Army.

At the same time, the Fifth Army also entered Baoning Mansion, and then turned to the southwest and went straight to Chengdu Mansion!

Throughout June, it was the performance time of the Tang Dynasty's royal division, and the three armies entered Sichuan from many directions, captured Chongqing, and marched to Chengdu.