The summer of 1681 in South China was destined to be uneventful, and this was the most prominent feeling of Huang Hanhua, deputy general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, head of the Haizhu Island Commercial Station, and major of the military police. To this end, he had already made a report last month requesting the rebuilding and expansion of the scale of the Haizhu Island commercial station/fortress, and without waiting for the approval from the upper authorities (almost a sure thing), he had already taken out a large amount of money in advance, and then recruited a large number of people from the vicinity to expand the commercial station through the connections in the Guangdong officialdom.

He did this because he heard that Li Chengdong, the de facto ruler of most of Guangdong, was terminally ill, which brought a shadow to Guangdong's stability. And once Guangdong becomes chaotic, then the Haizhu Island commercial station that is close at hand may also be impacted, and you must prepare in advance. Even if it is not impacted, then once something happens in Guangzhou, it can react in advance, in short, it is necessary to renovate the fortress, expand the docks, increase the number of troops, and replenish the treasury, and it is best to complete it within the next year, otherwise it may be too late.

As the captain of the light cruiser "Beiluoshimen" of the Navy's Third Fleet, which cooperated with Huang Hanhua at the Haizhu Island Commercial Station, Captain Lu Xiaozhong also agreed with this. Now his ship and another "Star"-class light cruiser under his command, the "Sky High Hunting," are active in the Pearl River estuary all year round, cracking down on pirates and arresting "illegal merchants." If the situation in Guangdong changes drastically in the future, I am afraid that they will not be able to rely on their two warships (the modified "Star" class, that is, equipped with a steam propulsion system). Therefore, he also planned to report to the headquarters of the Okhotsk detachment in a few days, requesting that two or four additional warships be transferred to the area around the mouth of the Pearl River in order to make all preparations.

The situation in Guangdong is really affecting the hearts of the people on the east coast now! Now the death of Huiguo Gong Li Chengdong is probably a matter of this year, the eldest son Li Yuanyin has experienced a hundred battles, has won the heart of the army, and has been fighting abroad all the year round, even if Li Chengdong has suppressed it intentionally or unintentionally many times over the years, but the influence of this son in the army is still very high. And the second son is also Li Chengdong's biological son Li Yuanhao, but it is much worse, just a middle-aged person, and his personality charm is not very strong, but he is better than his father's support, and at the same time he is in charge of the strong force of more than 10,000 people in the Lianzhou battalion of the Guangdong New Army.

At present, it seems that only the two of them have hope to sit in the position of Hui Guogong, and the others are either too young, or incompetent, or the people's voice is too bad like the second ancestor, and they have lost the possibility of inheritance. Huang Hanhua and Lu Xiaozhong, as high-ranking officials on the east coast who have long been concerned about the situation in Guangdong, Guangzhou, and Fujian, are also very familiar with the situation in Guangdong today; not only did they write a basket of reports, but they also collected a lot of inside information about Guangdong's officialdom, business circles, and people through various channels.

The two of them believe that compared with the second son Li Yuanhao, who does not have a lot of daily contact, Li Chengdong's eldest son Li Yuanyin is more loved by the people of the East Coast. Especially in the battle of Huai'an Mansion that year, when many armed forces, including Zheng's and King Lu, were playing tricks and refusing to do their best to fight, the Huiguo Gongmen commanded by Li Yuanyin dared to fight and move forward bravely, winning a good impression of the middle and high-level officers on the east coast.

Later, as Li Chengdong's only adult son, Li Yuanyin's connection with the East Coast people became closer and closer, and many things were handled by him, which gave the East Coast people a lot of convenience and made him make a lot of friends. Every time the envoy from the east coast went to the city of Guangzhou, he would ask Li Yuanyin to accompany him by name, until he was later sent to the southwest by Li Chengdong to assist the Ming court.

Li Yuanyin went to the southwest for several years, and then returned to Guangdong under repeated requests. When he went, he brought nearly 10,000 horses, the strength was uneven, and after he returned, the number of people did not decrease but increased, reaching the appearance of 15,000 people, and the fierce atmosphere of the repeated battles was unobstructed, and those who knew the industry only needed a little glance to know that it was a strong force.

After Li Yuanyin returned with this force, he was stationed in Chaozhou Mansion, monitoring the Zheng Group opposite, and at the same time, there were faint signs of separating the ten counties of Chaozhou Mansion. Li Chengdong may be ashamed of him, after all, his adopted son is also a son, and he has feelings for so many years. What's more, this son charged into battle for him in the army back then, fought dozens of battles large and small, and made outstanding achievements, and now he is greatly sorry for depriving him of his inheritance, and he really can't bear to treat him too harshly. He also told the people on the east coast through the mouth of Hao Shangjiu, the new Taihou, that Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Team, also acquiesced in Li Chengdong's arrangement after learning about it, probably because he was afraid that a civil war would break out in Guangdong.

Li Chengdong arranged it like this, because he didn't want to see his two sons fighting each other, but if he thought so, he might not be able to represent his two sons. Huang Hanhua was in charge of the intelligence network on the east coast of Guangdong and Fujian, and from the various information gathered, he believed that the people on the east coast must be prepared for the possibility of a civil war breaking out in Guangdong after Li Chengdong's death. Therefore, he resolutely demanded the expansion of the fortress of Haizhu Island and the fort of Yaniang shoes, the increase of local troops, and the dispatch of additional warships to make all preparations.

In addition, he also suggested that in the event of Li Chengdong's death, the people on the east coast should send an envoy to the palace of Yanping County in Fuzhou as soon as possible to have a good talk with Zheng Jing, and asked him not to take the opportunity to raise troops to invade the south and disturb the situation in Guangdong. You must know that from the twilight years of Zheng Chenggong to the first few years of Zheng Jing, the Fujian Zheng Secession Group has been cultivating and accumulating strength in Taoguang, and now it is considerable.

They not only completely reequipped the army (imported a large number of muskets, cannons, armor, and other military materials from the east coast), but also rectified the original chaotic navy, eliminated many small fishing boats and small cargo ships that were half soldiers and half civilians, and stipulated that all small fishing boats below a certain tonnage should be eliminated and used as civilian ships. Therefore, don't look at the Zheng Group's low-key for so many years, but its strength has risen rapidly.

Huang Hanhua received information at the beginning of this year that Zheng Jing ordered part of the army to move south to Zhangzhou and Tingzhou, with more than 20,000 people, and the intention of provoking a border war was quite obvious. That is, Li Yuanyin was there with the elite of a hundred battles, and the local soldiers of Chaozhou Mansion were very disgusted with the bandit troops under Zheng Jing, which did not give Zheng a chance to take advantage of - of course, the role of the people on the east coast should not be ignored, Huang Hanhua on behalf of Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Team, directly sent a sternly worded letter to Fuzhou, threatening to cut off trade with Fujian, and at the same time sent the heavy cruiser "Cadiz Rock" to the sea off Fuzhou, showing off his might, Only then can Zheng Jing hold down the imminent Zheng Jing.

Of course, Zheng Jing is being held down now, but if Li Chengdong dies and the two sons compete for the throne, the situation will become more delicate. It is true that Li Yuanyin has a hundred battles in his hands, and the economy of Chaozhou Mansion is still so-so, but Li Yuanhao's Lianzhou New Army has also grown to tens of thousands at present, well-equipped, and trained for many years. What's more, he will inevitably inherit a considerable part of Li Chengdong's influence, and most of the veterans and coaches will also support him, and this strength will definitely not be worse than Li Yuanyin, or it should be steadily overpowered.

In such a situation, it is naturally very likely that a civil war will break out to seize the throne, which will give foreign enemies an opportunity to take advantage of, and the Shun army may be too busy to take care of itself at present, but the Zheng clan in Fujian will definitely not let go of this opportunity. Even, even the leaders of the Southern Ming army in western Guangdong and Guangxi will probably not let go of such an opportunity to expand their territory, and it is impossible to raise troops to fish in troubled waters at that time.

That's dangerous!

It is precisely because of this that after some discussion, Huang Hanhua and Lu Xiaozhong decided to request more troops in Guangdong, and it is best to mobilize 1-2 servant divisions to go south, so that they can have some power to interfere slightly. Their first choice was, of course, to maintain stability in Guangdong and to eliminate the signs of civil war. If this goal cannot be achieved, then according to the previous plan, send people to contact Li Yuanhao and Li Yuanyin respectively, see the conditions they put forward, and at the same time put forward some conditions to them, and finally comprehensively consider which side to support - the plan also has a note here, that is, if the conditions of the two sides are almost the same, then give priority to supporting Li Yuanyin to control Guangdong, and the way to support is to mobilize all relations and influence the choice of middle- and upper-level officials in Guangdong, and even armed intervention is naturally not excluded from the option at this time.

"Guangdong is really important to us, especially the elite Guangzhou and Huizhou prefectures, with a large population and developed commerce, the trade volume of the Pearl River continues to increase every year, and the income of the Haizhu Island Commercial Station has gradually become a major source of income that cannot be ignored. At this time, Guangdong is in chaos, but it really gives us a big problem! In the captain's room of the light cruiser "Beiluo Shimen", Huang Hanhua and Lu Xiaozhong were sitting opposite each other drinking, only to hear Huang Hanhua continue: "This time the matter is not handled well, both of us have to eat and hang, this is an obvious thing. ”

"Lao Li wants to die, and we can't help it. This kind of warlord succession has never been so simple, not only the matter of Li Yuanyin and Li Yuanhao, but also the matter of their generals, officials, staff, and businessmen, so this kind of competition is destined to be very fierce, and I only hope that it will not be taken advantage of by outsiders, causing Guangdong Province to fall into a full-scale war. Captain Lu Xiaozhong raised his head and drank a glass of wine, and said depressedly: "The war is together, but I don't know when it will be fought." Of course, if there are external forces involved, then it may be possible to calm down the situation relatively quickly, so we have to pay close attention to Zheng Jing, this guy has been staring at Guangdong since his generation, and everyone knows the idea of annexation. It's just that Li Chengdong is not an easy person, he has dealt effectively for many years, and the combat strength of Zheng's own army units is scarce, so he has repeatedly stopped in Chaozhou Mansion. However, now that Zheng has spent a lot of money to reorganize and reform the army, its combat power has been enhanced, and its equipment is even better, and it seems that he has the intention of re-provoking a border war and invading Guangdong. ”

"Entering Guangdong to gain the rear – or hinterland – has always been a strategic choice for the Fujian Zheng Group. For many years, we have tried to reverse their direction and let them operate the island of Taiwan as a rear, but now it seems that they are not very willing to build a rear from scratch, and prefer to pick up a ready-made province like Guangdong as a rear, which is no choice. Therefore, if we want to intervene, we must act quickly, and we must not let Guangdong be chaotic for a long time, because then things may develop more in an uncontrollable direction. Huang Hanhua said: "We must strike a thunderous blow to defeat one side completely, and at the same time let the other side be intimidated by our strength, and in the future we will be our agents and control the province of Guangdong, at least Guangzhou, Huizhou, and Chaozhou in our hands, to serve the interests of our great east coast." In such a situation, the 1-2 servant divisions are afraid that they will not be able to achieve their goals, and it is better to transfer the elite men and horses of the two mixed battalions as well, so that the certainty will be much greater. ”

"That's right." Lu Xiaozhong nodded in agreement. Two mixed battalions of the regular army would be 3,000 men, and if there was a crack cavalry force, which was extremely rare in the south, and which was likely to be decisive in battle, it would not be difficult to carry out a more successful surprise attack, and it would be enough to change the situation at a critical moment.

"People like Zheng Jing, I can see through it now, it's a rat! Li Chengdong was honest like something before he died, and he only dared to make some small moves over the years, and rebelled against some people close to them in Chaozhou Mansion, and his courage was even worse than that of his old man. Now that he sees that the situation in Guangdong may be in chaos, he is about to pounce on it and pick up the bargain, but what did he do? I only plan to use 20,000 horses to go south, and the rest will stay at home! Hehe, this kind of person is a typical person who is afraid of his head and tail, doing big things and regretting his life, if Guangdong is really taken by him, then God is blind. Huang Hanhua touched a glass with Lu Xiaozhong, and said with a sneer: "You don't have to worry too much. There is some danger now, but the situation should still be manageable. Of course, if the situation is really out of control in the future and is completely out of control, then there is no way, and the final plan will be executed. Directly sent troops to raid the city of Guangzhou, plundered the population, wealth, cultural relics accumulated over the years in the heart of Guangdong Province, and did that hammer deal, who is afraid of whom! ”nt

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