Some people say that the Ming Dynasty was advanced, because it was infinitely closer to the glory of modern civilization than any previous Chinese feudal dynasty -- whether it could have the courage to change itself was one thing, at least it had touched the pulse of the times.

Some people say that the Ming Dynasty was glorious because it died more tragically than any previous Chinese feudal dynasty -- internal and external attacks, cultural attacks and martial arts struggles emerged one after another, and the course of decades of dying battles can be sung and wept, although defeated, it is still glorious.

Some people also say that the Ming Dynasty is a sin, because it only completed the re-establishment of the Han nation from the hands of Meng Yuan, but did not realize the revival of the Han nation after the fall of the Song Dynasty, but continued to embark on a historical fork in the road that was guided by the fault line of classical Han culture - in the system design, it lost the atmosphere of the Tang and Song dynasties and the refinement, and the glamorous appearance was full of the ignorance and retrogression of the remnants of the Meng Yuan rule, and the shackles of ideological castration began in the Ming Dynasty.

But in any case, standing at the height of national feelings, we have reason to give a deep-rooted historical identity to this Eastern Dynasty that has sent hundreds of millions of Chinese Han souls. At least in those days, people did not have to deliberately pursue a kind of historical dignity.

Under the butterfly wings of the new world, except for half a beat slower than the original history, the crooked wheel of history still has not stepped through the deep rutted ravine.

In the past 17 years of Chongzhen, the Dashun peasant army commanded by Li Zicheng entered the dying imperial capital Beijing after the plague ravaged, and the Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty then adhered to the royal motto of the empire "the Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies in the society", and ended his life of ups and downs and grievances on a crooked neck tree in the coal mountain, and left behind the resentment of "I am not the king of the country, and the ministers are the ministers of the country".

Li Zicheng, who was not even ready to sit in turn, even with the title of a new emperor, still showed the extreme short-sightedness and tyrannical ugliness of the feudal grassroots in Beijing. tortured and blackmailed Beijing officials who surrendered in a violent mode of pursuit, so that under Li Zicheng's nose, there was still a rumor in Beijing that "the days of the Ming Dynasty are not over." Men think allegiance".

At this time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also stepped through the difficulties of the struggle for imperial power, and straightened out the internal strength of the Rui Prince Dolgon, after receiving the "invitation letter" from Wu Sangui, the general soldier of the Ming Dynasty, personally led the army south, and changed the route of the march halfway, and directly took the three customs, turning the accident of history into an inevitability: a stone war, Li Zicheng's emperor dream was as short as smoke, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs.

The remnants of the Ming Dynasty in Beijing, who gritted their teeth at the Dashun regime, were surprisingly united at this time. Quickly bow down to the Manchu army that entered the city of Beijing. Wu Sangui led Dolgon into the city of Beijing, and the whole north set off a historical farce of revenge for Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

After weighing the basic situation of the world, Dolgon showed the vision and courage that a hero of the times should have. Regardless of the weak troops, the Qing army pursued Li Zicheng and defeated the army, and by the way, spread out all the way to encircle the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, connecting the outside of the customs and the inside of the pass.

"Never stand with the thief". It is probably the most persistent belief in the hearts of the entire Ming Dynasty officials and gentlemen at this time, or the fig leaf of the most high-sounding speculative psychology in the historical background. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty spread out a comprehensive circle to take the cheap fruits of the north, the officials of the Ming Dynasty, who still controlled half of the country, had no martial arts. At this time, there was also another tireless political enclosure movement -- who had the greatest say in the remaining half of the country.

If you don't die, you won't die, the tide of party strife actually climbed to the highest point in history when the building was about to fall, and between the mountains and rivers in the southeast half of the wall, the Ming Dynasty didn't know that there was little sand left in the hourglass of fate.

……

February 18, 1645. Sunday, the Viceroyalty of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Island in early spring is as busy as ever. Several blocks of construction sites in the interior are putting the finishing touches on it. Although the intensity of urban expansion is much smaller than in the first few years, compared with the previous two years, the urban construction of Hong Kong Island has undergone a lot of changes, and it looks more spacious and beautiful.

Eight years after the establishment of the Hong Kong Governor's District, after the promulgation of a new round of naturalization decree on the right of settlement, the official settlement population of Huamei on the island finally exceeded 10,000, but there are still more than 7,000 Ming displaced laborers who work and live here for a long time. These Ming laborers are mainly displaced people from Huguang and Jiangxi, and are engaged in the heavy work of dock movers, coachmen, and construction workers in Hong Kong. Due to the low local grain prices and the per capita monthly income of more than two taels of silver, most of the lives are stable, waiting for when they will save enough money to return to their hometowns.

With its excellent port location, free trade and low tax policies, Hong Kong has long replaced Macao as Guangdong's first gateway for maritime trade. In addition, OUCC has opened up part of its Far East business to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, and the Hong Kong Industrial Park finally has several small-scale manufacturing enterprises, which has enabled Hong Kong to get rid of the single development route of a pure trade and consumption town and have a certain self-hematopoietic ability.

At the port, a batch of rice newly purchased by the Oriental Union Group from Southeast Asia is being unloaded one after another, and the wharf is going back and forth with pallet trucks, and hundreds of Ming laborers working in Hong Kong are busy sweating and their feet do not touch the ground. In the warehouse storage area not far from the wharf, a group of maritime merchants who came from Guangzhou to engage in grain trade looked at the warehouse gate with their eyes, pinching the transaction contract and waiting to pick up the goods.

Compared with Guangzhou, which is close at hand, Nanyang rice has always been cheap, and the wholesale price per stone of rice is usually nine to one tael of silver, and in some years it is even lower. Since last spring, though, things have been different. Although the number of Nanyang rice arriving at the shore seems to be much higher than in previous years, the wholesale price of bulk grain in Hong Kong has been rising, and the wholesale price of rice in the last month has been equivalent to more than 1 tael or 3 cents per stone, and the quantity sold has also been strictly limited.

Thinking of the fact that most of the rice after the autumn harvest in Qiongzhou last year was sold to the Oriental Union Group by the Nanhai firm, people can't help but speculate whether the Oriental Union Group intends to hoard and reluctant to sell.

Guangdong, represented by Qiongzhou, has been harvesting good rice in the past two years, and the volume of foreign circulation has increased greatly year by year, and the people in Fujian's coastal prefectures and counties are also benefiting from the large amount of Nanyang rice. Guangdong's bulk grain trade has shrunk, which has also indirectly affected neighboring Fujian. The market price of rice in Fuzhou and Quanzhou has risen by 20 percent, reaching 2 taels per stone. For many years, the market grain price in Fujian has been stable at less than 128 yuan, and the current price increase is really a little nervous.

Now only half of the Ming Dynasty is left, and refugees from the north are moving south. Zhejiang, an important rice-producing area in the south of the Yangtze River, has also coincided with a rare large-scale flood, and Jiangxi has been ravaged by military disasters in the past two years, and there are faint signs of food shortage in the rich land south of the Yangtze River, and the grain price in Nanzhili has even climbed to six taels of silver per stone for a time.

Although the life of ordinary people in Jiangnan is not very good, Hong Kong's Nanyang transit trade is becoming more and more prosperous.

After the establishment of the Republic of Luzon, large-scale construction and agricultural development were carried out with the support of the Oriental Union Group, and the Chinese maritime merchants of Nanyang flocked to participate in the trade route from Manila in Luzon to Hong Kong. Luzon took a large amount of Huamei loans, like a baby waiting to be fed, and used Huamei Hong Kong as a transit port to purchase a large number of goods and smugglers from the Ming Dynasty. The "human teeth" that sold piglets on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty and were notorious for nearly a hundred years even penetrated into the interior of Liangguang and Fujian.

But compared to the spat splash of the Luzon maritime merchants. Most of the Ming refugees who moved from Huguang and Jiangxi to Dongguan and Xin'an counties chose Guangzhou or Hong Kong as their first choice. As long as they are not cornered, not many people are willing to sell themselves across the ocean to open up wasteland in the South Seas.

Since half a month ago, a group of Ming labor families who had settled in shacks near the port quarantine area were forcibly relocated by the police sent by the Governor's Office, and then they saw more than 2,000 Chinese Army soldiers stationed there. Standing on the high ground of Taiping Mountain, between a large area of dark green tents, groups of officers and soldiers wearing the badges of the Brown Bear Brigade of the Huamei Foreign Legion are walking around.

To the surprise of Hong Kong residents, another sizable convoy of transport ships has recently stopped at the bay anchorage, and batches of staggering cargo boxes wrapped in military canvas have been transported into the warehouses of the local garrison day and night. These merchant ships are not part of the common OUCC group vessels. It also included a huge cargo ship that had never been seen before, and was a lap larger than the largest merchant ship before the OUCC Group.

Except for the newly established National Guard Force, which was established last year, Hong Kong Island usually has at most one battalion of troops of the Eastern Brigade of the Chinese and US Army, which is stationed at irregular times. Even the official residents of Hong Kong, who had lived in Hong Kong for many years, did not know much about the sudden appearance of the Chinese Foreign Legion officers and soldiers. Good thing it's in the suburbs. It's far from the central city, so the small upheaval didn't have much of an impact.

At the same time, as the number of troops stationed in Hong Kong skyrocketed, the Governor's Office also increased the purchase of fresh food, vegetables and fruits. Some of the island's farming families and small merchants in Guangzhou who trade in fruits and vegetables were overjoyed. As the quantity of fruits and vegetables needed by the military suddenly exceeded the local supply, there was a shortage of fruits and vegetables in farmers' markets in Hong Kong's urban areas, and market prices rose.

……

The edge of an industrial park in the western suburbs of Hong Kong. In an antique courtyard that had only been built for a year or two, a dozen maritime merchants from Guangzhou sat on both sides of the main hall, listening carefully to the conversation of a middle-aged businessman.

“…… Ladies and gentlemen, as mentioned above, at present, not only the South China Sea merchants, but also the merchants in Qiongzhou wantonly occupy the two Guangxi trade routes, which is the time for the survival of our Guangzhou maritime merchants. Luo Huide put down the green tea that moistened his throat and deliberately showed a worried face, but there was a little imperceptible snickering in his eyes.

Although this is true, but the Nanhai business has the secret support of the Qiongzhou gentry and the governor Yamen, and the official connections are extraordinary. The shopkeeper of Luo Da now has a big business, but what is the best way? A short and fat Guangzhou maritime merchant probably heard something and quickly stood up and gave up his hand.

"Speaking of which, I am more familiar with the trade roads in Guangdong and Fujian, and the connections are not inferior to the Qiongzhou firms, but they are far inferior to the Qiongzhou firms. Don't hide it from you, at the time of the Shangyuan Festival, I was fortunate to sit with Qian Sanye, the Hong Kong manager of the Oriental Union Group, and talked about the appointment of the general agent of Nanyang Commercial Goods, but the Oriental Union Group regarded my Luo family as a single family, and I was afraid that I would not be able to eat the general agent's livelihood. ”

When Luo Huide said this, he looked sorry and self-deprecating, but he was secretly proud in his heart.

Since he had half of a deal with that gorgeous nobleman An Shaoqing, not only did his son go to Huamei tens of thousands of miles away to study, but Luo Huide's own business suddenly became smooth.

At the end of last year, Luo Huide took over a larger contract for Chinese military uniforms and civilian labor protection services from the Oriental Union Group, with a total of 100,000 sets in spring, autumn and winter, with a total order value of nearly 120,000 taels of silver.

Distributor!? As soon as these three words jumped out, the eyes of the Guangzhou maritime merchants present lit up. Who doesn't know what it means to be the general agent of East China Union Union Group (HUALIAN) trading general agent qualification.

Excluding the special status of the big man and Luzon, at present, the general agent of commodities in the Daming area of the Huamei Oriental Union Group in the Daming area along the coast of Daming and even radiating to the mainland is a Nanhai firm in Qiongzhou, and any Huamei seafood imported from the Nanyang Sea, whether in quantity or price, is better than the trading market of the Oriental Union Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

There are always a few months in a year when Nanyang Huamei seafood is temporarily out of stock, and Nanhai merchants will become the only agent supplier of Huamei seafood at this time, and even sometimes Guangzhou maritime merchants go to Qiongzhou to buy goods, almost close to the wholesale price of OUCC in Hong Kong.

In addition, as the general agent, Nanhai also has the qualification to introduce Huamei tools and equipment. At present, the number of Huamei machinery workshops in Qiongzhou has doubled compared to the previous two years. Many gorgeous seafood that could only be imported from Nanyang now have small production lines in Qiongzhou. From yarn to cloth, from matches to cement, from copper, iron and coal to refined sugar, the Qiongzhou squire behind him doesn't know how cool it is. In contrast, if it weren't for Qian Laosan's special care, it is estimated that Luo Huide's garment factory would not have the capital to expand.

"With the meaning of the big shopkeeper Luo, how big does the Oriental Union Group want to be in Guangzhou, so that it is willing to give a general agent?" Another person heard the truth. The voices were a few points higher, and the Guangzhou maritime merchants present exchanged their heads one after another.

"Imitating the South China Sea business, we and other Guangzhou maritime merchants should also join forces. One family is weak, how can it be worth the strength of many in Qiongzhou? Luo Huide saw that everyone present had their minds turned. Hurry up and strike while the iron is hot, "Luo wants to unite you to build a 'Guangfu Bank' to gather the financial resources, connections, and business routes of many people." Strive to be the general agent! ”

As soon as these words came out, the hearts of everyone present were hot. The fact that Nanhai Firm was able to become popular with the support of the Oriental Union Group is not because people have capital. Putting aside the official relationship. In terms of financial resources alone, the maritime merchants in Guangzhou are not much worse than those rural gentry in Qiongzhou, but the Oriental Union Group seems to recognize a façade. When I think of this, everyone's hearts are like cat's claws.

"I don't know what the rules of this Guangfu Bank are? How to distribute commercial goods and sales channels? An elderly Guangzhou maritime merchant pinched his beard and frowned, looking like he had probably suffered a loss from his peers before.

"This is not an alliance, but a 'joint venture'. Taking Nanhai firm as an example, you can invest in Guangfu Bank in silver taels and shops, and all personnel are appointed by the board of directors. Monthly, quarterly, and annual inventory can be checked, profits and losses can be settled, and dividends can be distributed according to shares at the end of the year...... During the first period, all the business gentry in Guangzhou can buy shares! ”

Luo Huide presented the plan and inventory that had been prepared long ago, and the Guangzhou maritime merchants present nodded one after another. In this era, the business reputation is far stronger and more valuable than that of later generations, and with the Luo family, which has been prosperous in Hong Kong in recent years, most people are moved.

Most of the people here are small and medium-sized businessmen who are not well-known in Guangzhou, and the Guangfu Bank led by Luo Huide this time is still far inferior to the Qiongzhou Nanhai business, which has been strong for many years. But Luo Huide seemed full of confidence, for only one reason, he had already received a hint from the Oriental Union Group.

At a time when the Nanhai business in Qiongzhou is getting stronger and stronger, with the understanding of the official and business culture of the Ming Dynasty, the view that "two eggs will never be put in one basket" has formed a consensus at the top of the Oriental Union Group.

In another sense, Qiongzhou is still a relatively closed circle compared to the entire Liangguang and even the southeastern coastal provinces of the Ming Dynasty. At best, the Nanhai firms were a new local landowner, official and merchant power, supported by an enlightened official, Zhao Youheng, and that force also needed a strategic ally of a similar nature.

A consortium of Guangzhou businessmen that can form a competitive relationship and strategic alliance with the Qiongzhou Nanhai firm is very important for the Oriental Union Group, which intends to continue to control the Ming and Fujian markets. As a result, OUCC Group's observation and recognition of Luo Huide basically came naturally.

As soon as you say it, I say it, and many details that Luo Huide has not thought clearly have been put forward, and then everyone discussed it together. Soon, a small peer gathering reached a consensus, the future Guangzhou Guangfu Bank will become a large commercial bank with 300,000 taels of silver and two share capital, and then participate in the competition for the general agent qualification of some Far East export commodities of the Oriental Union Group. (To be continued......)