In the autumn of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, a rare large-scale gathering in Hongmen was held in Bengang as the base camp of Hongmen under the call of Li Tianyang.

Representatives from all the major departments of Hongmen participated, including several major generals from Dongjiang Town and the Ryukyu Kingdom, who also returned, as well as the heads of the foreign guard intelligence system in various regions of the Ming Dynasty, who either came by themselves or sent representatives, all of them were absent.

At the same time, representatives of the Bengang Alliance and the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce also participated, and it can be said that this gathering is the largest and most complete in the decades since the establishment of Hongmen.

The proprietors of the members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce responded to the call, and in these years, they followed the Hongmen to bundle their operations, extending the tentacles of the Daming maritime merchants to all parts of the world, as far as the extreme west of the Cape of Good Hope, which Europeans call the Cape of Good Hope, and the east to the rich land of the Americas.

With the backing of the Hongtang army, the strong ships and cannons that the Westerners once relied on were no longer their patents, and the "Jiaolong-style" and "Yangfan-style" sea ships developed and imitated by Hongmen themselves were also popularized in the hands of the members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, as an important means for them to cross the ocean, which broadened their knowledge and earned countless monetary benefits.

In the past, Westerners had always been engaged in monopoly trade in this area, but with the entry of Hongmen and the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, the profits brought by the pioneering trade in the unknown places of the ocean made the members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce make a lot of money.

Li Tianyang was not worried that the members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce would get rid of the control of the Hongmen and run the shipping routes independently after making enough money, and the more this kind of pioneering trade with incredible profits, the more powerful the force was needed.

The virgin land that the Westerners have so hard developed is why they should let outsiders get a piece of the pie, not to mention that these outsiders are not their European Caucasians, but the yellow people in the East who are despised by them, and conflicts are naturally inevitable.

And when the conflict occurs, it is also a great opportunity for the Hongtang fleet to show its skills, in the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce and Qixintang to expand the route, active development of these years, every new route, there is the Hongtang fleet, there are countless Hongtang fleet soldiers and the blood of their opponents.

On the surface, even if the relationship between the various forces of the Westerners and the Hongmen was not harmonious, at least on the surface, they maintained enough goodwill, because they did not want to give up the vast and rich ancient Oriental market, and they did not want to lose the countless unique spices, silks, and porcelain on this market.

As the Hongmen became more and more powerful, the territory under their control gradually expanded, and the Westerners' fear of the Hongmen people gradually increased, and now, the price of turning the face with the Hongmen people is far more than the loss of a Ming Dynasty market, but also includes the east to the Wa Kingdom, Korea, west to Luzon, Annam and other places in the South Seas, these places have business opportunities and markets, no weaker than the Americas and Africa prospects found by their Westerners.

However, this does not mean that Westerners will watch the Orientals break into their forbidden areas step by step, and then loot the wealth and specialties of the local natives in front of themselves, which should have been owned by these pioneers, but now there is such an intruder, snatching benefits from themselves, and no one will be indifferent.

Therefore, the Westerners secretly resorted to various secret methods, sending troops disguised as pirates to raid and sneak attack the Ming Dynasty caravans, or instigating local natives to have conflicts with Ming Dynasty merchants, etc., and finally quelled these chaos, all of which were from the Hongtang fleet.

It is with the protection of these armies that the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce can straighten its waist in the face of the powerful and greedy Westerners, and is full of confidence to openly and openly argue with the Westerners, grab business and do business, and snatch back countless benefits from the hands of the Westerners, turn their heads to the Ming Dynasty, and achieve the future of China.

In this way, as long as the members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce are not fools, after tasting the sweet benefits, they will definitely not be able to break away from the Hongmen system, on the contrary, they must tie themselves to the Hongmen more firmly, so that they can earn more benefits and obtain greater value in the vigorous development of the Age of Discovery.

The party is like a huge festival, so that the whole Bengang County is immersed in a laughter, in order to shoot Li Tianyang's horses, maintain the relationship with Hongmen, now the wealthy Nanyang Chamber of Commerce owners have not come empty-handed, all kinds of new objects from the new world, the hired opera teams of all parties, and even the foreign civilization books, Western war horses, and African strange beasts collected by Li Tianyang have been transported to Bengang by these proprietors by their own means.

After these proprietors have money, they naturally have to show off in front of their colleagues, and it is also a great opportunity to gain face for themselves.

Before the time of the party began, the representatives of all parties who came early in Bengang began their performances, and all kinds of fighting objects and fighting faces appeared one after another, and 'Iran also let the local people in Bengang sit at home and open their eyes, as if they had entered the World Expo after the world, and the things that they had never had the opportunity to see in the past and in the future were opened in front of the people and villagers in this round, and became the talk of the people after dinner.

There are even many people in Keelung, Da'an and other places who heard about the prosperous scene of Bengang, and they wanted to open their eyes under the instigation of the idea of taking boats, trains and other means of transportation between Bengang and other places, which added countless popularity to Bengang.

Under this hype, while bringing more business opportunities to all walks of life such as Bengang, it has also brought them countless troubles.

But as long as there are business opportunities, there is naturally a solution to the trouble: the inns and dwellings in Bengang are not enough for the people who come to play, so people will flow to the various cottages of the Bengang Alliance, anyway, the road construction has been passed to the various tribes, and it is not too far to go back and forth, and at the same time, you can also feel the customs of the indigenous people, and it will be a topic of conversation in the future; It is not convenient to travel to and fro, so there are many people who lead the horses and oxen raised at home to make horse-drawn carriages and ox carts, which are enough to carry seven or eight people to and from various places on the road at a time, and the speed is not very slow............

All kinds of people have gathered Bengang into a sea of people, and before the party has even begun, there are countless troupes singing here; There are countless snack stalls, tea shops and restaurants spread out in the streets and alleys; At the same time, there are also opportunities for each business to display their own special products and sell them to customers in need, or to conclude a trade contract with others.

(End of chapter)