In the first month of the twenty-third year of Chongzhen (1650), more than two months have passed since the mutiny seized power, and it was not until Jinyiwei and Dongchang were solved that Li Hongfei could be regarded as completely stabilizing the situation in the capital........

At this time, one of the Manchu forces after the split, migrated to the Shunzhi Department in the Hulunbuir grassland, but once again ushered in the war. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Manchu Eight Banners were divided, and Azig, Duoduo and others, with their strong force, occupied more than 20 guards such as Duoyan, Taining, and Fuyu, and constantly squeezed the tribes led by Shunzhi and Xiaozhuang further north.

At the end of 1649, Xiaozhuang and Shunzhi led 200,000 people to brave the severe cold, passing through the territory of the Oroqen tribe and crossing the Outer Khing'an Mountains to find a new living space in Siberia.

Long-distance migration is difficult, especially in the cold north, even though the Manchu people have long been accustomed to such weather, in the end, the migration still caused nearly 10,000 people with weak constitutions to freeze to death, and nearly half of the horses, cattle and sheep froze to death.

This is not the most cruel, originally thought that they had found a new place to breed, but they did not expect that they broke into the territory of another great power - Tsarist Russia.

From the late 16th century (around 1572), Tsar Ivan the Terrible began a process of colonial invasion of Siberia and the Far East, and Siberia and other places gradually became colonies of the Russians.

In 1647, the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia had covered the area of the Outer Khing'an Mountains, but the other side had been cleaning up the surrounding small tribes, and had not officially crossed the Outer Khing'an Mountains and entered the territory of China.

Tsarist Russia didn't call, but Xiaozhuang and Shunzhi took the initiative to find each other's bad luck.

It's no wonder that today's Manchu tribes also have the blood of invaders in their bones, they can't kill the Ming Dynasty with a huge population, can't they still kill just Tsarist Russia?

As soon as the two invaders met, a war broke out.

The Tsarist army in the Trans-Khingan Mountains was seriously insufficient (less than 5,000 men), the Manchus had just experienced a long migration, the personnel were also exhausted, and the poor weather conditions in Siberia made the battle a victory, but also suffered heavy casualties, and the number of troops in the battle was reduced from more than 70,000 to less than 60,000.

Fortunately, after this war, Manchurian Liquidation gained a foothold in Siberia, and it was also an area where Tsarist Russia had completed construction.

However, through the interrogation of the Tsarist soldiers, Xiaozhuang knew what kind of behemoth they had provoked.

From Ivan IV onwards, Russia continued to expand abroad, and in 1547-1552 the expedition destroyed the Kazan Khanate.

In 1556 the Astrakhan Khanate was also annexed, and then the Great Nogai Khanate and Bashkir were annexed, bringing many peoples of the North Caucasus to Russia.

In 1557, the Siberian Khanate also submitted to Ivan, and in 1579 it was occupied.

In 1572, Tsarist Russia smashed the Crimean Khanate, known as the "whip of the Ottoman Empire".

The national strength of Tsarist Russia at this time, spanning the entire Eurasian continent, was not much worse than that of the Ming Dynasty.

If the Manchus had not been divided, perhaps in Siberia, they would still be able to defend against Tsarist Russia, but now their strength has been weakened too much, and once the other side reacts and carries out a retaliatory strike, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Xiaozhuang is worthy of being a strong woman in politics, and she is aware of the crisis, but she also realizes the opportunity, if you can "cut" half of such a large territory as Tsarist Russia, then the Manchu Qing Dynasty will once again restore its former supreme glory.

The soldiers of Tsarist Russia are all powerful warriors who are not afraid of death, as long as they can be used by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is not impossible to counterattack the Ming Dynasty in the future.

So Xiaozhuang actively organized defense in the Outer Xing'an Mountains, and on the other hand, sent envoys to various Mongolian tribes, as well as Azig, Duoduo and others stationed in Duoyan Sanwei.

Xiaozhuang is preparing to unite the major tribes and start a war with Tsarist Russia............

It's a pity that the Ming Dynasty's intelligence ability outside the customs is basically zero, otherwise if Li Hongfei learns this news, he will definitely follow and get involved, the Ming army will sooner or later engage in Tsarist Russia, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty can't let them grow!

Li Hongfei failed to pay attention to the rapid changes in Siberia in time, but Nanyang was concerned all the time.

At the beginning of the month, Situ Yan, who had been on his way to Nanyang for more than half a year, led a large fleet of nearly 100 merchant ships to arrive at the Dagu port in Tianjin.

In only half a year, the "Huaxia Ocean Trading Company" led by Situ Yan made three round-trips to Nanyang, sailed south in the direction of Java via Champa (present-day south-central Vietnam), and landed in Semarang to conduct trade with local residents.

Java is the fourth largest island in the country, and the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, is located on the northwest coast of Java Island.

Today's Java is basically controlled by the Dutch East India Company, and it will not be so smooth if Zheng Zhilong and others originally wanted to do business here.

However, since the Battle of Taiwan, the Daming Navy Division was once again Yang Wei overseas, and the Dutch were firmly pinned down by the British at this time, so they could not spare their hands to interfere with the forcible intervention of the "Huaxia Ocean Trading Company".

The indigenous Javanese people are well aware of the "friendliness" of the Great Ming Dynasty, and even some locals regard Zheng Zhilong's fleet as a savior who came to rescue the Javanese people.

When Zheng Zhilong sent people to sell a large number of "advanced" weapons to the islanders, and in a skirmish, drove out and sank two Dutch warships, the Javanese people completely treated Zheng Zhilong's fleet as a guest.

The Dutch were too busy to take care of themselves, and after unsuccessful negotiations with Zheng Zhilong's fleet, they had no choice but to relinquish control of the Semarang area and instead strengthen the military power of the remaining ports, and began to build fortresses near the ports, as was the case in Taiwan.

The Nanyang region is not as good as the coastal area of China, Zheng Zhilong and others are newcomers, and the background is indeed not as good as the Dutch, and the purpose of the fleet is mainly for trade, so it is naturally impossible to carry a large number of weapons and ammunition, so after occupying Semarang, Zheng Zhilong temporarily stopped the pace of invasion and began to trade with the local people.

This gave hope to the de facto rulers of Java, the Sultanate of Aceh, who believed that the Ming had only come to establish a treaty port, which was far more civilized than the Dutch who were bent on occupying it.

It seemed that the Ming fleet was really like this, and Zheng Zhilong approached the envoys of the Sultanate of Aceh, expressed his desire to lease the port of Semarang, and promised to sell a large number of "advanced firearms" to form a stronger army for the Sultanate of Aceh and help it recover the entire Java state as soon as possible.

Well, Zheng Zhilong will not be stupid enough to fight with the Dutch, his crew is not an active soldier of the Ming Dynasty, every time he dies, he has to pay for his own settling-in expenses, and it is more cost-effective to hand over this kind of thing to the locals, he just sells arms and earns silver.

When the Sultanate of Aceh really drove the Dutch away, the Javanese natives without a fleet could still prevent the Ming Naval Division from occupying these treaty ports?

Soon, the 100,000 arquebuses brought with them were sold out, and the Aceh Sultanate's army bought more than 50,000 of them, and the rest was divided among the smaller forces on the remaining islands.

In case the Dutch are really driven away, and without war, who will want to buy your weapons?

So Zheng Zhilong was shrewd and didn't put his eggs in one basket.

Zheng Zhilong used the large amount of gold and silver earned by weapons to start buying spices, cane sugar, tung oil, natural rubber and other scarce materials in the Ming Dynasty nearby, and transported these materials back to Hong Kong, which soon increased by six or seven times.

This is also the result of bidding with Portuguese companies in Macau, and selling them cheaply.

Even so, these weapons to be returned to the furnace earned nearly seven million taels of silver for the "Huaxia Ocean Trading Company."

After that, Zheng Zhilong purchased porcelain, tea, silk, matches, cigarettes and other goods on the spot, and carried out the second ocean trade.

However, this time, the effect was not as good as the first time, and the people of Java were basically poor, so how could they have the money to buy these luxury goods?

The royal elites who can afford to spend money have also run out of money after buying arms (and even if they had, they would have saved up to buy arms), so the dumping of goods seems to have reached a bottleneck.

At this moment, the Dutch came to the door again, and they were willing to spend money to buy all the goods of the "Huaxia Ocean Trading Company", and to collect as much as they could in the future, on the condition that Zheng Zhilong's fleet would not interfere in the war between the Dutch and the Sultanate of Aceh.

Moreover, the Dutch also showed a keen interest in steam warships, hoping to spend a lot of money on ten or twenty of them, which they would use in India, and compete with the British for control of India.

The reason why the Dutch have this confidence is because of years of plunder, so that they have already become rich, people are not as "gentle" as Zheng Zhilong, people are directly plundering local mineral resources, some are real money, not to mention buying at a normal price, even if it is doubled, they can get the money.

Moreover, Huaxia's goods are already in demand in Europe, and they couldn't be bought with money before, but now the other party has taken the initiative to transport such a long distance, no matter how it can be counted, it is all earned by the Dutch.

In response to the Dutch's request, Zheng Zhilong only agreed not to sell weapons to the Sultanate of Aceh, and to remain neutral in the following war.

As for the steam battleship, don't even think about it, this is the capital of the Ming Dynasty to cross the ocean in the future.

After the two sides negotiated, they quickly changed from hostile relations to "closest partners", and Zheng Zhilong even promised the Dutch that if necessary, if they paid enough benefits, they could lead steam warships to India to support the Dutch fleet.

Although the Sultanate of Aceh did not have much purchasing power, Zheng Zhilong did not abandon the treaty port, and he used the money he earned from the Dutch to buy mines in Java.

If you refuse to spend money to buy my Ming goods, the labor and management will dig up money in your house, although there is not much profit in a short time, but after a long time, the rate of return is not even lower than that of ocean trade.

After all, trade is very dependent on market demand, and the manufacture of goods is not unlimited, now the Ming merchant ships have not all gone to sea, and foreign merchant ships have been suppressed by the Huaxia Ocean Trading Company, it is difficult to obtain enough goods, which makes Zheng Zhilong's fleet temporarily obtain a monopoly of goods.

However, this kind of thing should not last long, and when the coastal merchants see the benefits and follow suit, or the imperial court begins to pay attention to the ocean-going trade, the profits of Zheng Zhilong's fleet trade may not be as fast as the money from opening a few gold mines in Java.

Moreover, due to the war in Java, the price of the mine fell again and again, and many Dutch people saw that the mine was about to be taken away by the Sultanate of Aceh, so they directly sold it to Zheng Zhilong at a low price at a price of more than 100,000 or 200,000 taels of silver.

When the army of the Sultanate of Aceh worked so hard to recapture a gold mine, before it was warmed up, it was received by a Ming merchant with a contract, not to mention how depressed it felt.

One Dutch is enough for them to have a headache, and then resist the Ming army? The Sultanate of Aceh really didn't have the guts.

So much so that when Zheng Zhilong led a team to Nanyang for the third time, the royal family and nobles of the Aceh Sultanate bought half a shipload of goods in one go, not for anything else, just to curry favor with Zheng Zhilong.

And Zheng Zhilong agreed very "generously" to help recruit ten arquebus masters from the Ming Dynasty.

It is not a violation of the agreement to directly provide weapons and provide weapons manufacturing talents.

After eating Party A and eating Party B, only a pirate like Zheng Zhilong can play so handily, and as those Ming officials who have read poetry and books, they can't pull off this face at all.

.............

The fleet led by Situ Yan consisted of only ten steam warships to escort the ship, and the rest were large ocean-going merchant ships, and the merchant ships were all loaded with real money, silver, and valuables of equivalent value.

Of these goods, one million taels of silver was to be turned over to the state treasury.

In overseas trade, unless you hide your wealth abroad (or buy fixed assets such as minerals abroad), you must pay the corresponding customs duties according to the price of the goods on board when entering and leaving the customs.

Originally, the tariffs for returning to China for the third time should be collected by Hong Kong Customs, but in order to persuade the ministers of the DPRK and China, Li Hongfei directly asked Situ Yan to go north along the coast and enter the customs in Tianjin.

To put it bluntly, Li Hongfei is showing off his wealth.

Since the Ming Dynasty does not have a specific tariff system, the current tariff and commercial tax are still at the same level, that is to say, the tariff of one million taels of silver proves that the value of the goods of this fleet is about ten million taels of silver.

"Ten million taels of silver! This is enough to equal the commercial profits of the two ordinary provinces in the north combined! Shi Kefa couldn't help but sigh.

Shi Kefa is now in charge of finance, and he still has certain views on the country's economy.

Before 1644, the tax revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty was less than 70 million taels of silver, which was not enough to pay military expenses (only the annual military expenditure in Liaodong was 30 million taels, and the military expenditure in the interior was even more bottomless in order to deal with Li Zicheng)

After that, from 1645, the Jiangnan area was fully reformed, and the commercial tax increased significantly, and by the end of 1648, the Ming Dynasty, which occupied half of the country, had a maximum tax of about 80 million.

Even now, if the sea trade is opened, factories are built, and the entire Central Plains is recaptured, the tax revenue at the end of last year has just exceeded 100 million.

If you really want to calculate it, in order to support the northern provinces, even if the budget of the national defense force is drastically reduced, the national treasury is now shrinking sharply, and if there is no way to restore the economy, the entire Ming Dynasty will not even be able to support the standing army............