However, Xiong Xin's worries are actually a bit too much, and the Haihan Executive Committee really has no plans to attack Guangzhou at present. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn recent years, Haihan has invested most of its energy and resources on Qiongzhou Island, and various large-scale infrastructure projects have been carried out one after another, and if the base area is to be moved to the mainland, it will take a lot of time and money, and most of the existing investment will be ineffective because of the relocation of the ruling body. Moreover, the mass base in the mainland is far inferior to that of Qiongzhou Island, which has been in operation for several years, and after moving there, a lot of work, including the grassroots civil administration system, will have to start all over again, and this is not a situation that the Executive Committee wants to see.

The relatively closed social environment of the islands can greatly reduce the difficulty of the Haihan in governing the locality, and the close proximity to the mainland can make it easier to obtain population and resources, and by the way, the industrial and agricultural commodities produced by the Haihan can be sold to the mainland market. Based on the islands rather than occupying mainland cities, this clear development idea basically eliminated the possibility of large-scale armed conflict between the Haihan and the Ming Dynasty, and also left more buffer space for diplomatic relations between the two sides.

Of course, Yan Chujie and Schneider would not explain these strategic decisions in detail to the representatives of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention that even if they did, they might not be able to understand Haihan's intentions.

"We have prepared a handwritten letter to Xiong and Xu, the letter has a detailed explanation, please bring the letter back, I believe that after reading it, the adults will be at ease. Schneider didn't want to waste too much saliva, took out the letters that had been prepared, and finally sent the two official representatives of the Ming Dynasty away.

"I'm so tired, I'm going to take a vacation after I go back to Sanya this time. After sending the two away, Schneider collapsed on the chair and complained weakly: "For such a big project, it will take at least a year or two to negotiate slowly, and the executive committee will rush to finish the matter in a month or two, which is simply killing me!"

"There's no way around it. Yan Chujie comforted: "If you want to hold a founding ceremony in early April, you can only get the trade alliance done in advance, and then you can sign formal agreements with other countries." Fortunately, this task is basically completed, and when you go back, you can rest in peace for two days. I'm really bitter, I've been out for a few months, and I can't go back for a while, and I have to wait until the base on Star Island is formed before I can let go. ”

Yan Chujie left Sanya in September last year and led the fleet south for military exercises, which has been three or four months, and most of the time has been floating on the sea, and life is naturally far less comfortable than staying in Sanya. Now Roger is in Star Island, Mu Shabai is in Cam Ranh Harbor, the two generals are one south and one north, and the empty place of Ambuna Island can only be controlled by him himself. And a large number of infrastructure projects on Sing Tao and Ambuna Island will almost be carried out simultaneously in the next few months, and neither side will be separated, and Yan Chujie will inevitably be tied here for a long time.

But thinking that the founding of the country is imminent, and the great cause they dream of will be accomplished, even if they are a little tired, they are gritting their teeth and preparing to endure this time. After all, the day of the establishment of the Haihan Kingdom is the time when their founding fathers will go down in history, and it is still worth paying a little more now. What's more, even on this isolated island in the South China Sea, the standard of living they enjoy is far from comparable, and there are special standards for food, housing and transportation, all of which are good things that are specially supplied internally, and what they want to do only needs to be ordered in one sentence.

After the signing of the framework agreement of the South China Sea Trade Alliance, representatives of various parties began to leave Ambuna Island one after another to return to China. There are still a lot of articles and written materials on the implementation rules of the trade alliance that need to be digested slowly after they go back, and there are many specific measures that still have to take a short time to implement and operate, and some specific bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements need to be submitted to their respective domestic superiors for approval, and they have to wait until early April to visit Sanya to observe the ceremony.

The news of the completion of the South China Sea Trade Alliance began to spread in various countries after half a month, and for businessmen from all over the world, there are also joys and worries, such as Daming, Annam, Portugal and other countries with close trade relations with the Haihan Dynasty are naturally very welcome, because the framework agreement signed before includes the reciprocal content of many member countries, and in the future, in the cross-border ordering, transportation, sales, settlement, warehousing and other trade links will enjoy more convenient conditions, which will undoubtedly greatly promote the substantial growth of trade between these countries.

But for members of the alliance such as the East India Company, it is difficult to judge whether the effect of the trade alliance will be good or bad. Although the East India Company was reluctant to accept it, Haihan imposed restrictions on the scope of activities of Dutch merchant ships, and designated the ports of trade that Dutch merchants could enter in Northeast Asia: Sanya, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, and Zhoushan. The Ryukyus, Toei, and Korea, which could have been used to trade, were all included in the forbidden area by the Haihan. Of course, the Dutch knew that this was a conscious attempt by Haihan to gradually monopolize foreign trade in these areas, but the existing maritime armed forces were far from being the opponents of Haihan, and there was no other way to think of anything but to swallow their anger.

Of course, the East India Company could continue to quietly do what it wanted to do in violation of the contents of the alliance framework agreement, but the risks of doing so were also obvious - the Haihan people had already made it clear that they would not warn the Dutch merchant ships of possible violations, but would deal with them directly after they were discovered, and all the men and ships would be seized, while retaining the right to expel the Dutch people from Dayuangang. Such a large risk is indeed not worth the loss compared to the dozen or twenty ships of goods that are brought back from Northeast Asia every year.

Of course, apart from the disadvantage of being limited to the scope of commercial activity, the Dutch did not benefit from it at all. For example, the silk, porcelain, tea and other oriental specialties that they want to purchase from the Ming Dynasty every year can be supplied in greater quantities through Haihan -- but the purchase price will also rise by two to three achievements, after all, the Haihan people are not doing public welfare for free, and the monopoly operation must have corresponding benefits to be reasonable.

But it is better to have to buy than not to buy, because of the bad relations with the Ming official, in the past, the Dutch were entrusted to comprador businessmen such as Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong to purchase, but later Xu Xinsu took refuge in the Haihan side, and Eighteen Zhi was driven to hide in Tibet and could no longer trade with the mainland, and these high-value goods became more and more difficult to buy. After the Haihan people settled in Penghu and Kaohsiung, the smugglers who would have been able to transport goods to Dayuan Port also died down under the warning of Haihan. If Haihan did not open this channel to the East India Company, sooner or later the smuggling trade engaged in by the Dutch would be completely blocked.

In addition, there were several additional supply ports under the control of the Haihan during the voyage from Batavia to the distant Ming Dynasty, which greatly reduced the risk to Dutch merchant ships during the round-trip voyage. In the Far East of this era, a well-resourced and well-functioning supply port such as the one controlled by the Haihan was a lifesaver for the unfamiliar Western maritime merchants. The East India Company did not hesitate to send its armed forces to Ambuna Island to fight the Haihans, not because of the wealth on the island that could not be abandoned, but simply because of the region's role as a supply port during the long voyage. And now that the Haihan are willing to provide several ports where Dutch merchant ships can dock and replenish, it really takes no effort to come by.

The East India Company weighed the pros and cons of the conditions and demands thrown out by Haihan, and in the end it could only choose to accept it, and for the time being, it could not let the Portuguese take all of its trade in Northeast Asia. As for what to do in the future, we can only take one step at a time.

Of all the countries in the Far East, however, it was not the Dutch who suffered the most from the establishment of the South China Sea Trade Alliance, but the Spaniards, who were excluded from the whole thing.

Since the invasion of the Philippines in April 1565 led by the Spanish Legaspi, the colonists have maintained their rule in the Philippine archipelago centered on Luzon for nearly 70 years.

For two and a half centuries beginning in 1565, the Spanish colonial authorities in the Americas sent several galleons each year between the Mexican port of Acapulco and Manila, and millions of pesos of American silver arrived in Manila each year, about half of which went to China to buy raw silk, cotton, silk, porcelain and other goods.

The commercial boom in the southeastern Ming in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was also spurred in part by the huge amount of silver capital injected into the Spanish market, and this transpacific trade route brought huge profits to both sides during this period, and was one of the most important trade relations in the Far East.

However, the route, which was not in decline until the 19th century, declined nearly two hundred years earlier, when the Haihan suddenly attacked two Spanish strongholds in the northern part of the island in early 1633, driving out the Spanish colonists stationed there, and greatly affecting trade relations with the Ming Dynasty. Just a few months later, the number of Daming merchants who even traded in Manila fell sharply, which led to a direct halving of the size of the fleet from the port of Manila to the Americas in June.

Galleons to the Americas must depart in June to catch the Kuroshio Current, which is more than 10,000 nautical miles away from the 45° north latitude and takes nearly six months to complete, despite the help of natural currents. Every year, the Spanish colonies in the Americas basically count on the annual goods transported by the Manila fleet, so that the local production capacity of silver dollars, silver ingots, cocoa, wool and other local products has the opportunity to be exported. In the long run, the decline in cargo traffic this year will directly affect the other side of the ocean and even far Europe, and in the near term, the Philippine governor and his subordinates will have to bear the corresponding responsibility for this. If the Spanish royal family were to be questioned, they would all have to go back to Madrid to stand trial.

The Spaniards suffered this great loss by surprise, and Gusman and Alcalázo, who were serving in Chicken Coop and Tamsui at the time, were imprisoned immediately after returning to Manila, because the course of the battle they described was so ridiculous that the Spanish army could have been breached by a group of armed merchants in just a few days? The Spanish Governor in the Philippines considered them guilty of grave dereliction of duty and fear of war and must be held accountable for them.

In addition, the Manila authorities are not prepared to let the Haihan people occupy their hard-working stronghold in vain, and they are also preparing to launch a counteroffensive against the local area. However, out of prudence, they still collected the intelligence of Haihan through various means, so that they could attack this group of maritime merchants who did not know the height of the sky and the earth in a more targeted manner. But when the information from all sides was gathered, the Spaniards discovered that the situation described by the imprisoned Tamsui Governor and the Chicken Coop Commander may not be entirely a fabrication to shirk responsibility, but a situation that has actually happened.

The Spaniards came to the Far East primarily for trade and colonization, and their main competitors were undoubtedly the Portuguese and the Dutch. Although Portugal was still one of the vassal states of Spain at this time, the Portuguese and the Spaniards had always been distinct from each other overseas, and the competition was very obvious. The Netherlands was Spain's death in Europe at this time, and the number of people who died in the war between the two sides in the past few years was probably several times greater than that of the colonists in the Far East.

However, both opponents were defeated by the Haihan, and it is said that the Portuguese simply took refuge in the Haihan and became one of their accomplices. The Manila authorities were quite suspicious of the Portuguese playing an inglorious role in the Haihan attack on the Taipei stronghold, because according to the later description of two local officials, the artillery units of the Haihan army were extremely combat-ready, and by no means the level of the Far Eastern army, even if they were placed on the European battlefield, they should be of the highest rank. The only plausible explanation is that the Portuguese sent troops to participate in the battle in Taipei, helping Haihan to break through the local Spanish stronghold.

As for the Dutch, it seems that the Dutch did not seem to be much better, it is said that the Dutch were blocked by the Haihan fleet in the local stronghold of Dayuan Port, and their agent Zheng Zhilong in Daming was expelled to an overseas island for refuge. If it weren't for the mercy of the Haihan people, the local stronghold of the Dutch East India Company would probably have changed hands. (To be continued.) )