On September 20, 1687, in Dinghai Port, Ningbo, a merchant ship had just left the port.

This is a merchant ship bound for Qinzhou Port, which belongs to the Navy's Third Fleet and is a "Yaxa"-class armed transport ship ordered at the Heishui Shipyard. It departed from Jeju Island, which was under the jurisdiction of the Tenglai Pioneer Team, and loaded hundreds of war horses and some horse materials to supplement the high loss of war horses and draft animals caused by long-term battles in the southern region.

The Blackwater Horse has always been the most reliable partner of the cavalry on the east coast, and has played a great role in many wars. Especially in the south, where horses are scarce, cavalry on tall horses is even more powerful, and can play a decisive role in many battles. The cavalry company of the third mixed battalion had defeated the Ming infantry once outside the city of Tengxian County, when they only had more than 100 cavalry, but a charge broke the defense line composed of more than 1,000 Ming infantry, and its power was incomparable, which reminded people of the rebellion of Di Qing Ping Nong Zhigao during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the original invincible Nong Department in Guangxi was rushed and collapsed by the cavalry of the Fan Han under the jurisdiction of the Western Army, which was like a child's play.

Cavalry, in the era of cold weapons, is indeed a strategic force! Although the people on the east coast have entered the era of hot weapons, the Ming army in Guangxi is not familiar with modern firearms and tactics, the equipment is also very simple, and the morale is even more sluggish, and it is impossible to reach the cavalry on the east coast, which has been trained hard for many years. Therefore, the people on the east coast attached great importance to the great role of cavalry in the south, and even if the mortality rate of horses was high due to the climate, they spent a lot of money to constantly replenish it to maintain this advantage.

Speaking of which, we have to put forward the "Twelve Years Plan of Ma Zheng" founded when Marshal Mo was in charge of Denglai. Through this systematic breeding and breeding of excellent war horses adapted to the Chinese climate (the bloodlines are mainly from Andalusian horses, Turkmen horses and Mongolian horses), after continuous screening and elimination, the horse political plan has been completed, and the genetic inheritance of the Heishui horse has been very stable, becoming the main horse breed of the Far Eastern domains, both for the warriors to charge the battle horses, and for the daily use of the officials to ride horses.

Even a few years ago, Denglai spent a huge amount of money to bring in some Shire horses of British origin from the mainland, intending to breed large force horses in the Far East, so that in the future some heavy artillery could also be better equipped with the troops. There is no doubt that this is an ambitious plan, and at the same time, it is also an investment plan that can produce huge output, and if it succeeds in the future, street car companies, transport companies and even the military will place a large number of orders, and the money situation is naturally bright.

"Horses have become the fist product of Denglai's export, and I am quite envious when I think about it. It was still the far-sightedness of Chief Mo that bought them such a family business. Now in a year, I'm afraid there is a trade volume of 300,000 or 400,000 yuan, right? In the office building of Dinghai Customs, Liu Houfei, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Team, looked at the distant sail shadow outside the window, and asked with a smile: "Old Jiang, you have worked in Denglai for many years, should you be no stranger to this?" ”

"I'm afraid there won't be 400,000 now." Jiang Yunfan shook his head and said, "After breaking off the deal with Shunguo, the export volume has dropped sharply. Now Denglai is actively exploring the Japanese and North Korean markets, and even Vietnam, they are willing to try it. In the first half of this year, our East Coast Japanese company exported 1,200 horses to Japan, a record high, but this is far from enough, far from filling the gap of losing the Shunguo market. ”

Those who are interested may notice that in the dialogue between Liu Houfei and Jiang Yunfan, Qing Guo, the largest country on the land of China, was omitted intentionally or unintentionally. The Qing State, which is dominated by the northern provinces and has a larger cavalry scale, is undoubtedly a more huge export market for war horses, but it is a pity that for many years because of political factors, Denglai has been implementing export controls on it, except for some civilian goods that can be exported to the Qing Dynasty, military supplies are all in a state of embargo, even if the relations between the two countries have improved greatly in recent years, this makes Denglai a little dissatisfied, thinking that the local "old man's politics" confused policy has affected their commercial interests.

Of course, the above is only the dissatisfaction of a small number of people, in fact, the vast majority of people are still sober. After decades of uninterrupted propaganda, neither Denglai nor Ning Shao had a very good impression of the Qing Kingdom. It is widely believed that the country is authoritarian, corrupt, and unequal among ethnic groups, and covets the rich East Bank control area, and once they rule, everyone's happy life is about to end, so the policy of imposing an embargo on sensitive materials against the Qing State is relatively supportive of weakening the Qing State's efforts in military progress.

"Shunguo died by himself, which is considered a natural disaster, and there is no way to do it." When it comes to Shunguo, Liu Houfei's face is also sad, obviously this country has caused him great troubles in recent months, so much so that a few gray hairs have grown on his head.

In fact, if you think about it from another perspective, people are also fighting for survival and their own future. This country, sandwiched between the Qing and Ming states, has a long and narrow territory, is surrounded by enemies on both sides, and hardly has much strategic depth. Therefore, they probably dreamed of annexing Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangzhou, and adding a little strategic rear to their country. This is a grand strategy and interests related to the survival of Shunguo, no wonder they would rather do it under our sanctions, this civil strife in the Ming Dynasty is indeed a golden opportunity for them. Jiang Yunfan lit a cigarette for Liu Houfei, and then said, "Actually, it's time to think about what to do now?" It seems that Shunguo will not dare to go to war directly with us, so what about us? Are you really willing to pay the price for an all-out war with Shunguo? Is that really in the interest of our country? ”

"But it's not like a word if you don't punish Shunguo! This time, the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guizhou were captured, and the thickness of the land was almost doubled, and the increase in population and wealth was also quite large. Although it may be necessary to subsidize it in the short term, in the long run, this is a big tonic pill, which can make the economic and military strength of Shunguo jump to a higher level. It may not be able to compare with the Qing State for the time being, but the gap is not as big as before, not to mention that the Qing State is still facing great military pressure in the northwest region, which are all factors that are beneficial to the Shun State. Liu Houfei took a puff of his cigarette and said a little unwillingly: "What annoys me the most is that this time Shunguo completely ignored our warnings and brazenly launched the Ming War, which is a provocation to our authority. If we don't give them some substantial punishment this time, I am afraid that everyone will follow suit in the future, and our decades-long layout in China may collapse overnight, and no one can afford this serious consequence. ”

Indeed, as Liu Houfei just said, the war launched by Shunguo to conquer the Ming Dynasty this time was too shameless for the people on the east coast. The people on the east coast wanted to keep the Southern Ming - even if it was a weakened Nanming - but Shun Guo seized the favorable opportunity of the Qing army to confront Galdan in the desert and the northwest, and directly launched a war to destroy the Ming State, which was naturally a very bad behavior in the eyes of Liu Houfei, Liao Degong, Lan Fei and other major officials in the Far East, so they directly took measures such as withdrawing economic aid, arms embargo, and interrupting political and cultural exchanges, and at the same time launched a blitzkrieg in the south to prevent Shun Guo's attempt to further seize Guangdong, Minimise their gains.

However, it seems that it is still difficult for the East Coast people to swallow that breath. They pondered how they could further restrain Shunguo and cause it to suffer more serious damage, so as to save more face. It's just that the facts may be a little embarrassing, and the number of people on the east coast has come and gone, and it is really difficult to have further sanctions. You can't just improve relations with the Qing State and help them because of this, right? In this way, it is impossible to obtain the consent of some political forces in the country, and second, it is not in line with the overall strategic intention, because at present, it seems that the Qing forces are still stronger than the Dashun, and such chaos is only afraid that it will be self-defeating and eventually cause the Dashun regime to collapse.

So, it's really difficult, this dumb loss may only be able to pinch his nose and admit it! Changsha's Li Laiheng may seem arrogant and irascible, but he is actually a shrewd monarch who sees through the strategic intentions of the East Coasters in Chinese mainland and makes good use of this to seize vital interests for Shunguo. This time I swallowed the three southwestern provinces, and it only took five or six years to rectify and digest them, and it may be more difficult for the people on the east coast to check and balance Shunguo in the future, although the internal part of this country is not monolithic at present.

"Captain Liu, the matter has come to this point, it is useless to be annoyed no matter how much you are annoyed, let's think about how to deal with the aftermath? Lianzhou and Wuzhou don't seem to have much of a problem to take down, so do you have to stick to it for a long time? My suggestion is to hold on, Wuzhou is the hub of Guangzhou, Lianzhou controls the mouth to the sea, and it is also very important to transport Vietnam and extend its influence to the Indochina Peninsula. I didn't have a plan for this before, but now that I've won it, there's no reason to give up. Captain Liu, I think you can contact Commander Liao of Denglai, and it is best to bring Director Lan of Heishui and Captain Lu of Manmeng to report to the local government and apply for the establishment of a new administrative district in the Lianwu area to provide support for future strategies. Jiang Yunfan suggested: "Actually, I think that taking Lianzhou and Wuzhou is already a slap in the face to Shunguo, which is enough to make them feel heartache." Maybe our control over this country will be significantly reduced in the future, but so what? Through the crisscrossing of Chinese mainland, we have absorbed about two million immigrants in the past few decades, right? Well, even if it doesn't, it's not far off. On top of that, there is a lot of trade revenue, which actually greatly compensates for the huge deficit caused by immigration. We have even established a solid base area in Denglai, Ningshao, Manmeng, and Heishui, and more than 3 million people in the four places are very supportive of our east coast, and the finances of Denglai and Ningshao have even been able to balance their payments. Since ancient times, China has had a tradition of dividing and reuniting for a long time, and this is not subject to anyone's will, and I think we may not be able to stop this trend unless the restrictions on the Far East are lifted at home. However, under the existing circumstances, we can only delay this reunification as much as possible. Shunguo will destroy Nanming, they are actually just solving the problem of survival, and the overall strength is still inferior to that of Qingguo. We might as well relax and try to loosen the policy at home, and see what happens next. With so many local investments in Denglai and Ningshao, will the members of the Founders' Parliament really sit back and watch this large amount of investment depreciate or even go down the drain? ”

Jiang Yunfan's words are actually quite true. There is indeed a lot of local investment in Ningshao and Denglai, including the railways built by the Southern Railway Company, a series of trade nodes established by the Bank of Taiwan, many factories built by private investors, and even banks and insurance companies have entered in a big way in recent years to carry out a series of financial services. In fact, such a level of investment also indicates that the color of the Far Eastern vassals as the places of export of immigrants is gradually fading, and the colors of emerging markets and investment hotspots are becoming more and more distinct. In short, Denglai and Ningshao are already two high-quality assets, and high-quality assets that can provide a lot of profits are indeed not in the interests of the East Coast Republic of China if they are allowed to fall or even be taken away. Based on this consideration, it seems logical that the various controls on the Far Eastern colonies should be appropriately relaxed.

This point has been recognized by more and more people in recent years, and the battle launched by Shunguo to conquer the Ming Dynasty also provides a good opportunity for this policy to be relaxed.