Yang Qing did not know that an anti-Yang coalition was forming against him.

Of course, he could guess.

This turmoil, which lasted for nearly a year, has already attracted all forces, after all, everyone understands that if he survives Zhu Cihong, then it will be unlucky for all parties to divide the forces. The Nanjing Imperial Court has developed to this point, and it can be basically said that it is invincible alone, and Dolgon and Li Zicheng may be able to make a few moves with Yang Qing, but the other three families can only be crushed in the face of this huge war machine that is fully mobilized.

Yongli is not the most urgent.

The most anxious are Zhang Xianzhong and Jin Shenghuan, who are weaker than him, at this time, if the forces of all parties are ranked, Yongli can already rise to fourth, and Zhang Xianzhong has fallen to fifth.

After all, Zhang Xianzhong is still an old-style army.

However, the strength of Yongli's 50,000 Morris phalanx mercenaries should not be underestimated, and Zhang Xianzhong's advantage in famous generals may not be able to make up for the technical gap between the two sides.

In particular, Yongli also has a large number of European officers.

Because of the battle for Taiwan, the Dutch East India Company turned to Yongli, and obtained the same place of residence in Yongli, which was actually Hong Kong Island, and the Dutch also looked at Hong Kong. Although the Portuguese objected, they had already learned through the Yingtian Daily that Portugal was in Europe, and the Dutch were truly in perpetual fashion, and they readily agreed to the Dutch to set up a special place of residence on Hong Kong Island in imitation of Macao, but their rent was much higher than that of the Portuguese. However, the Protestant missionary rights demanded by the Dutch were rejected by Yongli, which was also regarded as a face for the Portuguese, but fortunately, the Dutch did not care about this, they only wanted a place to live.

Through this friendly relationship, the expansion of the two Cantonese maritime merchants in the South Seas was tacitly approved by the Dutch.

After all, they are not Nanyang Corporation.

The Nanyang Company can cross the island of Ambuna without caring about the mood of the Dutch, because whether the Dutch go to the port of Daming or go north to the island, they have to agree with the boss behind the Nanyang Company, but the two Cantonese maritime merchants do not have such a backstage.

So they leased Hong Kong to the Dutch.

In exchange, the Dutch acquiesced in the construction of their colony in River Than.

Then Yongli hired a large number of Dutchmen.

These people brought him the most genuine Maurice phalanx tactics, and even the manufacturing technology of Suer-style arquebuses and plate armor, relying on the iron ore mines in northern Guangdong and the developed iron-smelting industry in Foshan, Yongli's army equipment was fully close to the Ming army. All of this made him far more than Zhang Xianzhong's old-style army, but Zhang Xianzhong is also trying to reform, and Li Dingguo is in charge of reorganizing a new army of the Ming army, but he has to find everything from scratch, so the progress is very slow.

As for Jin Shenghuan, the jar was broken.

Anyway, he's a big piece of territory, and the only thing he can do is to be a subordinate......

Uh, that's an adjective.

On the one hand, he continued to hug Li Zicheng's thighs, and it is said that Li Zicheng's ancestral hall was built, and on the other hand, he also welcomed Nanjing, often entertaining passing merchants, and pulling people to see the Zhongyong Marquis Changsheng tablet he offered at home, and he had to give his daughter to Huang Degong as his daughter-in-law.

Poor two children are not even ten years old!

In short, as the forces of all parties gradually stabilize and are constantly improving, he is now making a living by selling cuteness more and more unaffordable.

As for Dolgon, he was still licking his wounds.

After making a serious mistake in the previous route and being beaten out by the gentry, during this time, Dolgon simply broke the jar and broke it, and fully implemented his tax package system in the north, and all the taxes of the Han people in the areas controlled by the Qing army in the north were all contracted to the local gentry, of course, including the Eight Banners. He doesn't care how the latter collects taxes, in short, as long as he can collect them, the local tax resistance will also be left to these people to solve by themselves, and the Eight Banners Army will also join the suppression if necessary. As a result, the small and medium-sized landlords and rich peasants in the north were also completely pushed into the abyss, just like before the collapse of the bald men in the later period, and even the small and medium-sized landlords in the north could not survive, and there were even small landlords who abandoned their land and fled.

But it really solved the finances.

Dolgon supplemented the losses on the Shandong battlefield by continuing to expand the Eight Banners Divine Army.

Obviously, the latter is reassuring.

In this way, the northern gods and people were basically included in the Eight Banners Divine Army, surpassing the Eight Banners Manchuria in one fell swoop and becoming the largest military branch of the Eight Banners, but the Han army was still the core force of Dolgon's rule because of the backing of those gentry's militias, and the Eight Banners Korea became the lowest oppressed object.

After all, they don't have anything.

At this time, even our Qing Dynasty's Tokyo was already in danger, and after two years of rest, the Korean battlefield opened again, relying on the support of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Li family's army was about to hit the Datong River. Hauge struggled to support in Pyongyang, supporting the rule in Korea for our Qing Dynasty, and even had to ask Dolgon for help, under the coordination of Da Yuer, Dolgon still sent 10,000 Han troops of the Eight Banners to reinforce North Korea, as for the sea of corpses and blood in North Korea, needless to say.

"It is said that cannibalism has begun in the areas controlled by Jiannu, and human flesh is openly sold in Pyongyang."

Stilwell said.

"What about Shenyang?"

Yang Qing asked while practicing calligraphy.

"Almost, in fact, Shenyang has been maintaining this kind of trade in the winter, but it is just sneaky, and the grain that Dolgon transported back from the customs last year is still not enough to maintain, and because of the large number of eight banners entering the customs, a lot of land outside the customs has been abandoned, and the grain output has plummeted, and the people who remain outside the customs are all nobles, and most of them are not engaged in production, and even mainly fish and hunt, and it is difficult to endure the heavy snow in winter."

Stilwell said.

"There is also information that they are trading with the Wa Kingdom, and several whaling ships of the Beiyang Company have robbed a merchant ship bound for Wonsan at sea, carrying rice."

He went on to say.

"Uh, it's all forced to do this?"

Yang Qing couldn't help but be stunned.

He really didn't expect to force our Qing Dynasty to such a point, but this is also inevitable, after all, other directions have been blocked, and the only object in East Asia that can be used by Dolgon to make friends is only the Wa State. However, it was a sporadic trade, and the Yellow Sea was under the control of the Beiyang Naval Division, and only the route from Wonsan to Wa was temporarily safe, but there were armed whaling ships of the Beiyang Company on this route. Those old pirate-turned-whalers are absolutely happy to make a cameo appearance again and cut down a few Jiannu leaders to receive a reward.

In fact, they do it a lot.

Not only to rob those northern merchant ships encountered at sea, but also to land and burn the village, the Ming Dynasty's reward for the head of the Jiannu is ten yuan, that is, ten taels of silver, no limit on size. And it will not distinguish between the real Jiannu and the Korean slave, in short, as long as it is the head of the rat tail, as long as it is not obviously shaved after death, then it will be ten yuan.

There was such a reward, and those whaling ships often made a detour to the western coast to hunt their heads on the return voyage when the whaling harvest was insufficient.

By the way, fresh water and meat are also replenished.

Driven by profits, these whaling ships have run as far as the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, after all, the further north they go, the more whales, and the higher the proportion of sperm whales. Although Yang Qing lured him with ambergris, in fact, after the whalers really started whaling, what made them rich turned into whale brain oil. The whale brain oil harvested from the capture of a large sperm whale and transported to the processing plant in Matsue can almost be replaced with a brand new whaling ship. The first whaling ship to return from the Whale Sea, that is, the North Japan Sea, brought back the whale brain oil in exchange for silver, and after paying high compensation to the crew members who died at sea, the remaining whaling ships could be exchanged for three brand-new whaling ships of the same kind.

The huge benefits make people crazy.

Countless coastal merchants and fishermen have plunged into this dangerous but lucrative industry, and more than 100 whaling vessels are being built in various shipyards.

Even the first whaling station has been built in Hokkaido, and the eyes of the entire coast of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and even Shandong are all focused on the distant and icy sea in the north, but full of giant whales. The two whaling ships belonging to the Beiyang Company are already heading east to more areas of sperm whales at this time, and according to Yang Qing's estimates, it will not be long before the whaling ship will become the first Daming ship to reach the Americas. After all, the more you go to Alaska, the more sperm whales there are, in the final analysis, it is still the interests that make people crazy, he only needs to guide in the back, and the rest of the interests will be solved.

As for headhunting, it's just a side hustle for whalers.

After all, not every whaling ship will return with a full load.

In fact, even the warships of the Beiyang Naval Division did the same, but their headhunting scope was in the Yalu River estuary and the Liaodong Peninsula, and even the Beiyang Naval Division had once again established bases in the area of Shicheng Island and Phi Dao, specifically responsible for headhunting in this area.

The whole north is completely barbaric.

From Liaodong Bay to the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, there are these Ming Kou boats everywhere.

Anyway, at this time, our Daqing is really pitiful, there is no breakthrough in the four corners, and they are all surrounded like iron buckets, completely enclosing them in the cold northern ice and snow.

"Let them stop this thought!"

Yang Qing put down his pen and said: "Let the Beiyang Naval Division transfer a detachment of fleets, allocate the newly built twenty cruisers to the Beiyang Naval Division, and then use this incident as an excuse to bombard the Japanese State." Starting from Shimonoseki to the north, all the way to Sado Island, it's time to explore this route, and by the way, let the Tokugawa family pay a reparation, at least two million taels, otherwise we will land on Sado Island and take it ourselves. ”

"My subordinates understand!"

Stilwell hurried to write it down.

That's it, the grain imported from Wonsan Port will definitely be used to replenish Pyongyang, let them continue to sell human flesh, anyway, it's not the Ming people who die, and this war will leave a million people on the Korean Peninsula!

"Let's go, go to the Four People's Congress, and see what these guys are arguing about!"

Yang Qing said with satisfaction.