"Sure enough, it's the other way around!"

-- At a special discussion meeting on this matter, when the news that the Ming Empire asked the Qiong Navy to "explain" about salt and coinage was conveyed, it really stirred up an uproar below: "It's just that I want money again!" ”

"I helped them quell the Shandong Rebellion from afar, which can be regarded as a surrender; The Spanish attacked Luzon, they didn't help at all, they just wanted loot for no reason! Forget about the spoils of war, and take them as a gift to maintain friendship - but now they are not satisfied, and with those pig-like officials, they still want to collect salt taxes and money taxes from us? Are we all dead? ”

"Every time we take a step back, they have to go further and can't compromise anymore! Even if we don't bird, what can they do? Can they let the army swim and land on Hainan Island? ”

"As long as we are ruthless, we can beat the coastal plates of the Ming Dynasty and not go to the sea, and cut off the Yangtze River by the way! If you are more ruthless, you will directly send troops to land in Tianjin and bombard the city of Beijing! Grandma's, let that group of Ming Dynasty officials clear their minds and know who can be messed with and who can't be messed with! ”

"It's time to sober them up and let them know that we don't just have money, we have guns!"

"That's right! Let those sweet tofu brains know that our salty tofu brains are by no means easy to mess with! ”

…………

The attitude of the "masses" in the auditorium below was still very fierce, and the voices of shouting for the use of force abounded. However, this can no longer attract too many people's attention - anyway, every time I deal with the Ming Dynasty, there will always be such a group of "martial arts factions" shouting and shouting and killing, threatening to go to Beijing City at every turn.

On the contrary, at the long table in the central part of the conference room, the members of the committee, who were the main body of the meeting, were still calm, and the voices of anger in the committee were much less than the last time when the Luzon spoils of war incident was discussed. Many people also showed an expression of "I knew this was the case" on their faces, including Ye Mengyan!

In fact, according to Xiao Yezi's character of fearing that the world will not be chaotic, if he was still sitting in the auditorium at this time, he would definitely be shouting that the war would not stop, but he is now sitting in the central seat, and the biggest difference between this position and the auditorium is that his opinions may really become the guidelines and policies of the entire collective, and then affect the overall direction of the Qiong Navy. This made Ye Mengyan have to be cautious - if he casually shouted something like before, he would go to war, and so on, people would definitely immediately ask him how to deploy the specific military plan? How to ensure logistical supply? And most importantly, will you be able to manage the post-war situation? "And so on, in the past, we could have two hands: it was the work of the staff committee, and I was out of the hands of the masses. But now he has no such excuse, unless he voluntarily returns to the "masses" - the question is whether he willing?

In the final analysis, this is the difference between the opposition and the ruling party - the ruling party is responsible for its own words and the consequences. Since they are in this position, they need to take responsibility for the future of the entire collective, and there is such a constraint, no matter how high and jumpy their personality is on weekdays, their ideas of real encounters will always be more realistic than those of the "ordinary people".

The biggest advantage of collective decision-making is that it is prudent, and one or two brain-dead people will not affect the overall situation. Even if an unreliable guy like Xiao Yezi has to force himself to learn to mature when he enters the committee-what if someone still makes a lot of nonsense with a completely irresponsible mind after joining the committee? ――It's very simple, just ask him to walk. The members of the committee are elected, of course, they can be elected, and if everyone thinks that you are not suitable for the position, then you don't even have to wait a year for a general meeting to be re-elected. This is a special restraint system formulated by everyone out of concern for this "leading body" when the first committee was established, and it has not been used in the past few years, but it does not mean that it is useless.

“…… The old man is really far-sighted. ”

Seeing the commotion in the surrounding auditorium, the members of the staff group sitting next to the decision-making table and ready to provide consulting services to the committee at any time were also whispering -- as early as the last time, when discussing the division of the spoils of the Luzon campaign in response to the Ming Empire's demands, Professor Li Mingyuan clearly pointed out: There will definitely be many such things in the future. Therefore, it is better not to regard the "Zhao'an" agreement that Qiong Haijun had reached with the Ming court as the final result of relations with the Ming Dynasty, but only the beginning - no, it was indeed fulfilled. The staff team had also given the Committee a precautionary shot, so that the Committee could remain calm.

After a period of commotion in the auditorium, someone in the committee finally put forward a more formal opinion -- Li Jiangdong spoke on behalf of the "hardliners" in the committee: "What did we say in the Zhao'an agreement with the Ming Dynasty? Could it be that the Ming Empire is ready to stop abiding by this agreement? ”

"These two aspects were not mentioned in the Zhao'an agreement, in fact, the greatest usefulness of that agreement was to confirm our political relationship with the Ming Dynasty: we were no longer enemies. But after that, it is obvious that the entanglement of interests between our two sides cannot be completely settled through this paper agreement. All kinds of new problems will certainly emerge in a steady stream, and this salt administration and money law are just one of them, and it is estimated that there will be other problems in the future. ”

As a deputy, Pang Yu presented to the committee the results of the staff group's analysis of the matter. And this result is obviously not so easy to accept.

"Damn, so we will have to endure the blackmail of the Ming Dynasty endlessly in the future?"

"Of course not, all matters involving interests are inevitable. But now the main problem is that our ideas are too far from those of the Ming Dynasty, and what we think is natural is a great rebellion in their eyes, and what they take for granted is absolutely unacceptable to us. In the past, it did not matter if the two sides were hostile, but now there is a need for cooperation in many places, and various contradictions have come to the fore. ”

Pang Yu did not simply talk about the two things of money, politics and salt law, but extended the topic to the entire cooperation with the Ming Dynasty - the staff group believes that there will definitely be many such things in the future, and it is necessary to establish a major principle in this regard, not just on the facts, every time, "Do we have to cooperate with them?" Can't develop it yourself? ”

According to their rules of procedure, as long as they were one of the 139 modern people on board the Qionghai, they all had the right to participate in the collective deliberations, including the right to ask questions, questions and speak, exactly the same as the management committee members on the stage. However, in an ordinary meeting, no one in the gallery shall have the right to vote, unless the number of people who have requested to vote exceeds seventy, that is, half of the total assembly, in which case the meeting shall be considered a plenary meeting, and all shall have the right to vote.

Therefore, Pang Yu must also respond to the official opinions coming from the auditorium - of course, the previous wild shouting and screaming that was obviously out of anger can be ignored.

"Without cooperation with the Ming Dynasty, we would not have access to her enormous resources: manpower, minerals, markets, and most importantly, a wealth of all – the name. Don't underestimate this, dealing with the outside world under the banner of the Ming Empire is completely different from using the name of our Qiong Navy itself. It can be said that if it weren't for the banner of the Ming Dynasty, it would be difficult for us to even collect taxes internally. Trade with Japan, Korea, Annam, and the West will also be constrained by many constraints, and it will no longer be as smooth as it is now. ”

"What are you afraid of! We have guns, just grab them! ”

On the stage, Ye Mengyan held back for a long time, and finally couldn't help jumping out and firing a shot. Pang Yu glanced at him, rolled his eyes and didn't speak. Lin Feng, who was still sitting next to Xiao Yezi, was kind, and explained: "From the perspective of long-term business efficiency, robbery is far inferior to trade, let alone the risks taken. There are many things that cannot be solved by force alone. ”

Seeing that it was Lin Feng who took over the topic, Pang Yu continued: "The key is that our current control over Hainan Island, Luzon, and Taiwan is largely in the name of the Ming Dynasty. Take Hainan Island under our feet as an example: the real direct conquest by us by force, in fact, only Lingao and Qiongzhou, Chengmai in the middle is considered to be deterred, but the rest of the places have not sent troops over, basically all of them are determined by rumors - and the reason why we can do this is precisely because we have never openly broken with the Ming Dynasty, even when we occupied Lingao County and blew up all the 5,000 Ming troops, we have never officially raised the banner of rebellion. Therefore, local officials, gentry, and ordinary people did not need to bear too much psychological pressure when cooperating with us, and they did not need to take the risk of 'rebellion' to make an either/or choice between the Ming Dynasty and us - although what we did was actually no different from rebellion. ”

"If we openly break with the Ming Dynasty now, first of all, there will be confusion in the hearts of the people in all parts of the territory, and the rest of Hainan Island is still managed by Ming officials except for Lingao and Qiongzhou, and once we raise the banner of rebellion again, whether they are willing to continue to obey our rule is a question. Of course, we can send troops to suppress it, but this process will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, as well as time. Outside of Hainan itself, it is uncertain whether the bases in Luzon, Taiwan, and Weihai in Shandong will remain in place – we will not have enough manpower to maintain such a large territory. ”