"On average, almost every month, there is a festival in Manchester City that everyone devotes themselves to. The theater was overcrowded, and the rich were willing to pay several livres for a piece of refreshing music. ”

"Every day there are merchant ships from all over the world that bring a steady stream of goods to the city to satisfy the happy and luxurious life of the people, and the consumption tax paid by the people is estimated to be as high as 3oo thousand lifoles a year."

"In the eyes of the people of Manchester, the world is made up of a Manchester city, a few oceans and hundreds of thousands of villages, and everyone everywhere is a hillbilly except them."

"From NSU 6, Europe to Asia, there are hundreds of cities and tens of millions of people who directly or indirectly serve the city's 150,000 citizens. To put it bluntly, if the citizens of Manchester get even the slightest bit tired of a certain life, it means that the livelihood of tens of thousands of French families will be in jeopardy......"

This is the account of a French diplomat in the American mission in China in his Christmas diary of 1644, which contains exaggeration and surprise and jealousy. Of course, based on what he has seen and heard in Huameidu, even if the careful statistics are correct, it still cannot fully summarize the average living standards of life in Huamei, Vietnam and Europe.

As the country with the world's largest economy in this time and space, the income and consumption power of Chinese and American citizens are also at the forefront of the times. The average annual disposable income of a Chinese family has reached 32o US dollars, and the average annual household consumption is more than 2oo US dollars.

In the past 1644, not counting the related industrial consumption, Huamei consumed a total of 120,000 tons of grains, 70,000 tons of fish, meat and eggs, 250,000 tons of vegetables and fruits, 30,000 tons of various wines, 80,000 tons of dairy products, 90,000 standard horses of various fabrics, 20,000 tons of salt, sugar, oil and tea, and 5ooo tons of fireworks......

In Manchester City, which has the highest standard of living, this consumption accounts for 2o% of the country's total consumption. Every day, 5ooo cows provide milk to the city, 40,000 chickens and ducks lay eggs for the city every day, and 3oooo livestock and 15ooo chickens and ducks are slaughtered every day......

……

Friday, April 14, 1645.

A small spring rain shrouded the city of Huameidu, and a few huge hand-painted billboards were newly erected in the southern commercial street square, probably because the waterproof paint was not painted in place, and the advertising patterns were washed by the rain. It looks particularly funny.

Newsstands on the streets are selling Friday editions of the Manchester City Financial Newspaper, and front-page reports of the shipwreck of the Ao Guang merchant ship in the North Atlantic continue.

The Ao Guang large flying scissor merchant ship, which is famous in the history of Sino-American Atlantic trade, left Qingcheng in Haizhou a month ago and headed for Yar, but as soon as it went, it was not heard from. The Chinese and American Atlantic Fleet then sent two frigates, and after a futile search for a circle around the route, they reluctantly gave up the search and rescue, and announced that the Ao Guang had sunk due to a shipwreck.

In addition to the 4o crew members and a number of accompanying merchants, the Ao Guang was also loaded with cargo belonging to a dozen small domestic trading companies with a total volume of nearly 8oo tons. In this shipwreck, which did not leave even a single residue, several small trading companies that directly led to charter merchant ships were declared bankrupt because they did not have insurance.

The content of the second page of the newspaper is also a bit shocking. Historically, Caribbean yellow fever from the Mexican side was prevalent several years earlier with the help of more prosperous maritime trade than at the same time in history. Today, yellow fever has quietly spread to the overseas states of the Caribbean6, causing the death of dozens of nationals or slave laborers, and it is said that the front line of the epidemic has even reached the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

Although there has not yet been an outbreak of yellow fever in North America, the Ministry of Health has issued an emergency notice to the whole country since the beginning of spring, and the level of port health and quarantine work has been greatly increased.

But people are probably more concerned about the current war in England and France, because the Atlantic trade between these two countries and the United States has been in a semi-stagnant state for the past year.

The English Civil War continued, with both sides trying to block and block each other's access to any foreign supplies. A large number of livelihood goods that can normally be imported into England and Scotland every year are now backlogged in American Yar or Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Coupled with the heavy blow to the people's livelihood economy, many industrial and agricultural raw materials exported to England fell by 8o%.

The tragedy was even worse in France, where several trading port towns on the southwest Atlantic coast were plunged into Protestant riots and refugees. Local economic production was destroyed by Yan zhòng. Coupled with Spain's large-scale counteroffensive in Italy and other border areas, as well as the continuous deterioration of relations between France and China and the United States, the import and export trade between China and the United States and France has also been greatly affected.

Together, although trade with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands is still steadily improving, Huamei has suffered a direct loss of more than $150,000 in import and export trade to Europe in the past quarter. The potential economic damage is yet to be estimated. The stock prices of several large and medium-sized trading companies or production enterprises whose main business is in Europe have fallen considerably.

Except, of course, from these unpleasant news. There is good news, too. For example, thanks to the unremitting efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, the Kingdom of Portugal will conditionally open Indian ports to China and the United States, including Goa, the Portuguese Indian colony, next year. After that, the merchant ships of the Huamei Oriental Union Group could carry out import and export trade directly in the above-mentioned ports, thus avoiding the loss of profits caused by the transit monopoly of many Portuguese chambers of commerce.

Another example is the state-owned postal company and the state-owned ocean shipping company jointly opened a high-passenger commercial service between major cities in China, with a total of 6 high-speed cruise ships with an average voyage of 18 knots responsible for operating the routes of the Viceroyalty of Manchester and the overseas territory of Manchester Nanshan.

The time for the high cruise ship from Manchester City, passing through Bermuda, Butterfly Island, Taoyuan Island, and then to Nanshan Port, only takes 2o days, of course, the ticket price is still not affordable for ordinary citizens.

As for the situation in the Far East, which has been in the spotlight since last summer, it has gradually faded down in various newspapers. Except for the knowledge that the country is strengthening the military deployment in the Far East, and because the vigorous construction projects of Luzon, Dayuan and Lanfang have doubled the demand for the transportation of goods and materials in the Far East, there is basically no major movement.

……

The spring rain continues, and a core board meeting is also underway in the headquarters building of OUCC.

"A group of guys who won't die if they don't die, and it's actually on our heads again!" Guan Yun, the rotating chairman of the board of directors of the Oriental Union Group, was holding up a telegram in his hand with a cold face at this time, "Shen Tingyang committed suicide. Zhao Youheng was also dismissed, and Ding Chukui, the governor of Liangguang, began to extort money from merchants in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou in the name of rectifying the rule of officials. This insatiable guy is a well-known corrupt official in history, it is said that when he surrendered to Li Chengdong, he brought millions of taels of gold and silver with him! ”

"It must be Zheng Zhilong who is making a bad deal out of it, and teaming up with the Donglin Party to take some bad things to obstruct Zhao Youheng's advance to Nanjing. It seems that he, a big warlord, is determined not to allow us to enter Fujian and Zhejiang directly. This time, making a fuss about Qiongzhou officialdom and the South China Sea firm was deliberately shown to us. Ren Changle frowned, as if he didn't quite understand the strange reaction of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the position and policy of the cabinet.

"Nothing surprising, a world of chaos. People with a bit of power are lucky, always thinking that they have the most opportunities and their choices are the most correct. In history, the Donglin Party lost the bet, Wu Sangui bet on half of it, and Zheng Zhilong almost got it right. Except for us, no one knows the true outcome, so Zheng Zhilong probably thinks that he has a good chance of winning. Zhou Junting, chairman of the board of directors of Xinhua Chemical Group, took the telegram with a smile, only glanced at it a few times, and then threw it aside indifferently.

"Endure it for so many years. We can't let this dying Nanming lead us by the nose anymore! Yan Xiaosong, we must respect our position. They forced Nan Ming and Zheng Zhilong to be anxious like this, they were purely squandering our hard work and putting us at gunpoint! If the South China Sea firm is destroyed. All these years have been in vain. ”

Deng Mingquan, chairman of the board of directors of Huamei Wood Group, rarely showed a cold expression at this time. Now Deng Mingquan's adopted eldest son, Deng Jiaqiang, graduated from West Point Military Academy not long ago and was assigned to the Eastern Brigade.

"Yan Xiaosong is actively preparing for military intervention in the Far East, if we put too much pressure on him. I'm afraid it's not good, and there is a Guan Ruzhong ...... Ren Changle, who has the best personal relationship with Yan Xiaosong, knows that Guanyun and others plan to use the power of the Congress to change the cabinet's plan. At this time, the expression was a little hesitant.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already eaten the closed door, Shen Tingyang has hung up, Zhao Youheng has been dismissed, the South China Sea business has been severely suppressed, and Hong Kong is almost unable to be saved, isn't this enough!" Guanyun sneered a few times and pointed in the direction of the Congress, "As long as the newspaper publishes it, it is impossible for them to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and the initiative must be in our hands." ”

"Does everyone mean the same thing?" Ren Changle glanced at Zhang Li, the rich woman of the Standard Oil Group of North America, who had been silent, and looked around at the people present.

"I'm afraid that's not what the cabinet expected...... To be honest, Nanming is like a marquee, and there may not be anything suitable for us. Zhou Junting lit his cigar and smiled weirdly, "In my opinion, this gives us another idea." It's an incorrigible mess anyway, and instead of making multiple choice questions between rotten and worse, why not change the group of people who are willing to deal with us? I have been passively choosing for so many years, and now I think it is worth it to pay some price in exchange for an honest Daming government environment and high-quality assets that we need, just like Dayuan, Luzon and Lanfang. ”

"Besides, isn't it okay to have Guangfu Bank, it just so happens that we can rearrange and integrate the market of the two Guangzhous."

Zhou Junting's alternative and simple calculation method made everyone present nod secretly.

……

The complaints and tricks at the headquarters of the Oriental Union Group have not stopped, and the internal disputes in the Chinese Congress have not stopped.

The information compiled by Jin Xiaohan, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Far East Affairs, and the "dramatic" development of the matter, made the members of the Far East Strategy Group of the National Security Council smile a little bitterly.

As a cabinet minister, Yan Xiaosong was given the authority to deal with the affairs of the Far East and the Ming Dynasty by Premier Guan Ruzhong. In view of the operation of the Far East in the past 20 years, Yan Xiaosong quickly formulated a basic idea of military intervention in the Ming and Qing wars.

The breakthrough point of this line of thinking was that Huamei took the opportunity of the renewal of the Hong Kong Island concession to formally communicate with Nanjing through the words of Zhao Youheng, the governor of Guangdong: Nanming officially opened the commercial ports of Guangzhou, Fujian, and Zhejiang in exchange for military assistance from Huamei.

In this process, it is inevitable to touch the core interests of Zheng Zhilong, the first smuggling monopoly warlord on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that so far, in addition to the two Guangzhous with the greatest influence of Huamei, the general switch of Huamei's maritime import and export trade in Fujian and Zhejiang is still in the hands of Zheng Zhilong Group.

The change of Jiashen led the Ming Dynasty power chess game from the north to the south of the Yangtze River. As soon as a former "remote warlord" like Zheng Zhilong becomes the core force, he will inevitably plunge into the whirlpool of struggle for the interests of Jiangnan politics.

Zheng Zhilong's political, economic, and military influence was one of the most important variables in the Southern Ming Dynasty, and it was the biggest beneficiary of the fall of Nanjing, the Ma Shiying Party and the Donglin Party. Historically, he first supported Emperor Longwu to ascend the throne, fought and oppressed other anti-Qing forces, and then surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, leading to the fall of Zhejiang and Fujian.

By extension, if Emperor Longwu had not been in charge, there would have been no farce of cannibalism between Emperor Shaowu (Emperor Longwu's younger brother) and Emperor Yongli. Not to mention that the young Zheng Sen (Zheng Chenggong) inherited Zheng Zhilong's strategic thinking and continued to play with some small actions of the balance of the Yongli regime in the Southern Ming Dynasty. Speaking of which, these are all directly or indirectly related to Zheng Zhilong.

In Yan Xiaosong's long-term plan. Zheng Zhilong, a political, economic, and military powerful member of the Yan family, whose essence as a feudal warlord who smuggled and monopolized the military separatist group in the late Ming Dynasty, could not really bring about the progress of relations between Huamei and the Ming Dynasty. Whether it is the political reorganization and opening up of the Ming Dynasty itself, or the economic interests of the layout of the Huamei Far East, Zheng Zhilong Group is an object that must be broken or even eliminated.

Before the gorgeous Far East layout was in place, Yan Xiaosong had to run a relatively conservative Far East mechanism under the "Far East 3+1+1" model that was originally built, accommodating the monopoly position of the Zheng Zhilong Group, which was backed by the official façade of the Ming Dynasty, and acquiescing to the Zheng family to continue to eat the majority. They only used the maritime trade agents of Liangguang, Dayuan, and Luzon to carry out some infiltration, and were unwilling to take the initiative to provoke the battle for the initiative in the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade.

Started last year. The Far East Strategy Group of the National Security Council led by Yan Xiaosong hoped to take advantage of the Ming and Qing wars to decompose the Zheng Zhilong separatist group, which had historically led the Ming Dynasty and had a complete military collapse.

As for the possible variables in the diplomatic implementation plan, the Far East Strategy Group analyzed a total of three results.

The first outcome. The Nanming regime accepted Huamei's formal trade and diplomatic conditions, Zheng Zhilong gave in, and actively cooperated with Huamei's military operations, with Huamei's 6 navies deployed in the Far East as the main force. Blocking the southward movement of the Manchu Qing along the Yangtze River. After successfully helping Nanming gain a firm foothold, it will provide long-term support to Nanming's emerging forces with the help of the commercial and trade ports that have been opened. Dismember the stubborn old school and complete the recovery of the benefits of strategic investment.

This result is the best prediction, and probably even the most optimistic Yan Xiaosong himself has only one percent of the estimation of the success rate.

However, this is the result that the Chinese and US militaries most want to see, because according to the many years of experience of the Chinese and US militaries, especially in several small-scale wars in the South African Governorate, the operational logistics of the Chinese and US 6th Army is strictly dependent on the water and transportation and a large number of labor in the theater. Without the logistical support officially organized by the Ming Dynasty, relying solely on the logistics and transportation capabilities of the brigade-level units of the Huamei 6th Army, its maximum combat radius could not exceed 6 battles and 2oo kilometers, and it would not be possible to penetrate deep into the 6 operations in the Ming Dynasty.

As a second result, the Nanming regime refused to open up Fujian and Zhejiang due to internal struggles and the Celestial Empire's mentality, ignoring Huamei's interests in exchange diplomacy, but out of a sense of urgency and crisis, it turned a blind eye and acquiesced to Huamei's initiative to attack the Manchus.

The self-purifying posture of the Nanming bureaucracy represented by the Donglin Party Doctor, this result has a high occurrence rate, but it will form a gorgeous hot face to stick to the cold buttocks, Nanming will continue to play internal PVP without worry, and Zheng Zhilong will continue to control the situation in Fujian.

In other words, the Chinese and American armies had to fight alone, and after unilaterally paying huge military and economic costs, neither the interests of the Chinese and American forces in the Far East nor the Ming Dynasty itself would not change. Even the threat of Huamei in the eyes of the Ming bureaucracy would rise to the occasion with the defeat of the Manchus.

As a last resort, Huamei is unwilling to accept this result for follow-up operations.

As a third result, the Nanming regime, out of security anxiety and stubborn thinking, not only rejected the exchange of interests between China and the United States, but also refused to accept military assistance from China.

The probability of this outcome is arguably the highest estimated by the National Security Council of China and the United States, but it is also more flexible than the first two outcomes. The reason is that once the defense line of the Yangtze River collapsed in the Southern Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong and other warlords were forced to be at the forefront of the war, it was easy to look back and consider the gorgeous Tiyì, for example, in history, the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty did not choose to eat and ask for foreign help.

Taken together, whether it is the pro-Oriental faction in China or the conservative and indifferent faction, the third outcome seems to be the best way for Huamei to cut into the affairs of the Ming Dynasty, and the reward will even exceed the first result.

At that time, it will only take one or two key military strikes to help the frightened doctors of the Southern Ming Dynasty to regain hold on to half of the country, and the conservative forces that obstruct Huamei will inevitably be severely weakened in the process, so as to realize Huamei's strategic interests in the Far East.

But at present, none of these three results have appeared, and most people have intentionally or unintentionally ignored the autonomous judgment of the Southern Ming Dynasty and Zheng Zhilong in this process.

Maybe Huamei still thought of Zheng Zhilong too easy-going, and under Zheng Zhilong's annoyed and angry actions, the side effects of Nanming's internal struggle actually shifted to Huamei's agent, trying to force Huamei to back down in a way that made an example of chickens and monkeys.

Under Zheng Zhilong's methods, the fourth unexpected result appeared. Although Huamei did not directly become the enemy of the existing rulers of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Zhao Youheng and Nanhai Firm, Huamei's biggest spokesmen for commercial interests in the southern Ming Dynasty, were severely damaged.

Not only was the diplomatic renewal of the Hong Kong concession suspended, but the exchange of trade interests between Fujian and Zhejiang was ignored, and even the existing interests between Guangdong and Guangdong were about to be unsafe. Under such circumstances, taking the initiative to send troops to resist the southward movement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty seems to be self-defeating, and it is very likely that it will be used as a weapon by both sides of the Southern Ming struggle and become a tool to eradicate dissidents. (To be continued......)

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