The Executive Committee had already set the tone for dealing with the Western forces that appeared in the South Vietnamese region, and the Indochina region, especially the East Coast, where the Strata group intended to establish a stronghold, could not allow other large-scale Western forces to exist. The southern region of Vietnam is the only way to cross the group's future shipping route to the Strait of Malacca, and controlling this area basically controls the western forces from the sea to nearly half of the shipping route in Northeast Asia, which is of great strategic significance to the future development of the group.

At the beginning of the year, the Executive Committee decided to send troops to Annam to provide military assistance to the Trung regime, and one of the important reasons was that it learned that the Nguyen clan in South Vietnam had the support of Western forces. If there is no such thing, the Executive Committee is likely to sit back and watch the North and South Vietnam slowly and leisurely fight, but since Western forces have begun to intervene in this regional wrestling, the Executive Committee will naturally not sit idly by, and the way to deal with it is more radical than that of the opponent hiding behind the scenes, and it will directly roll up its sleeves and go to the battlefield.

The decision of the Executive Committee also had the taste of being driven to the shelves, because the training time of the North Vietnamese troops was too short, and their combat effectiveness was questionable, and the North Vietnamese army was losing and retreating on the battlefield without much time to respond. If the Executive Committee had not chosen to send troops and let the situation develop, the North Vietnamese regime would have been in jeopardy, which was unacceptable for the Crossing Group, which had already invested a lot of materials and manpower in North Vietnam in the early stage, and the fall of the North Vietnamese regime meant that it was very likely that these efforts would become useless.

At that time, the Executive Committee's decision to participate in the war was not only a military risk, but also a political crisis. Compared with the Western forces, which have been tossing at sea for hundreds of years and occupy a large number of colonies around the world, the current crossing group is still relatively lacking in maritime strength, and if it has a choice, the Executive Committee does not want to be a head-on enemy of the Western forces at this time. If they tear their faces and fight, these Chinese-style sailing ships under the Crossing Group, which are mainly Fuchuan and Guangchuan, will not be able to pull out to compete with the Westerners' Galen armed merchant ships.

Although the expeditionary force was unable to intercept the foreign military advisers in the South Vietnamese battalion on the line of Heng Shan and the river, it can be inferred from various information obtained afterwards that it is very likely that the forces supporting the South Vietnamese regime behind it were the Portuguese. The Portuguese, who feared nothing in the world, had no shortage of trouble since their entry into Asia, and had a passion for the arms deal, even for such dirty things as selling guns from British shipwrecks to the Ming Dynasty, and it is difficult to speculate how they would react to their defeat in South Vietnam.

After research, the Executive Committee believed that it was extremely unlikely that the Portuguese would directly turn against the Crossing Group, because the closest stronghold to Victory Port was Macao, and Macao, which was under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, was not strong enough to attack Victory Port, and it was even more unrealistic to transfer troops and ships from Manraka, thousands of miles away. If the Portuguese were really ready to make a move on Port Victory, they would have to have at least half a year of preparation, and the Executive Committee believed that this time was enough for Port Victory to train a group of navies with basic combat power.

Rather than being attacked at Port Victory, the Executive Committee was more concerned that the route from Port Victory to Canton was being used by the Portuguese as a place of revenge. At present, this route is still the most important material import channel through the group, and more than 30 ships go to Shengli Port from the banks of the Pearl River every month. Although this number is still extremely cold in the eyes of future generations, considering that it has been less than a year since the opening of Shengli Port, it is not easy to attract so many mainland merchants to visit. This waterway is also regarded by the Executive Committee as one of the lifelines of the crossing group, and for this reason, the Military Police Department has long planned to set up a maritime base at the mouth of the Pearl River to ensure the safety and smoothness of this waterway. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)

However, Macao, located on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary, is a threshold that cannot be bypassed, and if the Portuguese want to make trouble at the Pearl River Estuary, there is no very good way to deal with it in terms of crossing the group. Even though the shipyard had already launched several warships, the military police department did not dare to casually send these ships to fight in the sea where there were no supply points thousands of miles away. In short, if it is a land war or amphibious operation, the crossing group is actually not too frightening to the Portuguese, but if the war takes place at sea, then the Portuguese will still have a clear advantage in navigation.

Of course, the outbreak of war was only a relatively extreme situation, and although the Portuguese business in South Vietnam was hit, it did not cause very direct losses to them. If the outbreak of war was driven by profit, then there was not enough interest to push the Portuguese to start a war with an uncertain prospect.

Before the battle broke out in Annam, the Crossing Group had already intended to make contact with the Portuguese in Macau, preparing to buy items that could not be purchased in the Ming Dynasty, such as canvas from the Indian Peninsula.

Cotton cultivation appeared in the Indus Valley civilization in BC, and the island cotton introduced to the Liangguang region through Southeast Asia came from India, and the cotton textile industry has always been one of the important specialties of the Indian peninsula. In order to monopolize the maritime spice trade routes from India to Europe, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama chose Goa as his base in 1498 and began to establish a colony there. In 1510, Albuquerque, the commander of the Portuguese fleet, led his army and sailors to defeat the local Punjab king, captured Goa City, and declared sovereignty over Goa, which was included in many overseas Portuguese colonies.

In the 16th century, when other Western powers came to India, most of the Portuguese possessions were divided between Britain and the Netherlands, and Goa soon became the most important overseas territory of Portugal, and even had an armed conflict with India because of sovereignty issues, until the 70s of the 20th century, Portugal recognized India's sovereignty over Goa after the "425 Revolution".

As an important stronghold of the Portuguese in Asia, almost all the canvas needed by the Portuguese fleet came from Goa, and the Executive Committee was not particularly satisfied with the canvas fabrics produced by Daming, and still hoped to buy some tougher fabrics from their Western counterparts. However, after Annan's incident, the Executive Committee suspended its work of dealing with the Portuguese. However, I did not expect that the Portuguese in Macao would be able to sort out their heads so quickly after learning the news of the war in Annam, and take the initiative to come to the door for negotiations.

However, Enrique did not show an obvious attitude in his words, and Tao Donglai was not sure whether he had come to Xingshi to ask for guilt or if he had other plans, so he could only say vaguely: "Regarding the war in Annam, we have no intention of participating in the dispute between the north and the south, but only to take revenge on our merchant ships that were plundered by the South Vietnamese navy." Of course, given that we have always maintained relatively close commercial ties with the North Vietnamese regime, we did choose to support the North Vietnamese Trung clan in this civil war, but we also did not want the North and the South to resolve their political differences by force. ”

Although Enrique is considered to be a "China expert" for most of the time and can listen to and speak Chinese, Tao Donglai's diplomatic rhetoric still makes him a little confused. Obviously he has already entered the war, and he said that he was not fighting for North Vietnam, and he chose to support one of the sides, so why did he say anything against the means of force?

Tao Donglai continued: "If our information is correct, the person who supported the South Vietnamese Nguyen clan behind the scenes and provided them with weapons and military training should be your country?"

Enrique did not deny Tao Donglai's speculation, but readily admitted: "Our merchants have a lot of business in the southern port of Hoi An, and if the Nguyen clan loses this civil war, it means that our merchants will suffer huge losses as a result." ”

"So you're trying to persuade us to leave Annan and not meddle in the civil war in Annan?" Tao Dong came to see that since the other party had made his position clear, he no longer continued to hide, but directly asked about the purpose of the other party's visit.

"While I did come with such intentions, I don't think I'm sure I'm sure I'm going to be able to convince you. Enrique said: "Before I came to Guangzhou, I had heard a lot about Haihan, and after coming to Guangzhou, I was surprised by some of your practices. In my opinion, although you look the same as the people of the Ming Dynasty, your style of doing things is very different, unlike the Ming people, who pursue orthodoxy and good face in everything, and it is more like the practice of us Westerners, who focus on practical interests. ”

"No, no, no, we don't do it the same. Tao Donglai immediately shook his head and denied Enrique's point of view: "As you said, we do have similarities in the pursuit of interests, but our starting points are completely different. You are only trying to satisfy your own selfish desires, exploiting everyone as much as possible, even your own. And our purpose is to let more people earn money and live a better life, and accept all those who are willing to join our camp, whether it is Daming or Annan, can become our partners. And in your eyes, they are nothing more than piles of gold and silver waiting for you to move home. ”

"According to you, Mr. Tao, then we can also become trading partners?" Enrique asked mockingly. He has seen a lot of people who talk about it, but he has never seen such a serious nonsense guy as Tao Donglai. How can anyone believe this kind of casually blown cowhide blowing out?

"Absolutely. Tao Donglai's answer made the expression on Enrique's face freeze for a moment: "Mr. Enrique, we Haihan people are also businessmen, and the conflict we have in Annan does not mean that we cannot cooperate in other aspects. I have a point of view that I don't know if you can agree with. ”

Enrique retracted his thoughts, nodded and said, "Mr. Tao, please speak." ”

"In the end, Annan's civil war had to be resolved by the Annanites themselves. It is impossible for either us or you to send a large number of troops to directly influence the war in Annam. When we were in Annam, we may not be rivals, but outside of Annam, why can't we become partners in trade? We Haihan people will not have trouble with money, I wonder if the merchants of your country will find it too troublesome to make money?" After Tao Dong finished speaking, he looked at Enrique silently and waited for him to answer.

Enrique did sense something from Tao Dong's words, first, the Haihan did not seem to intend to clash with his own side on the battlefield of Annam, and second, the Haihan people had the intention of trading with him. Compared with the deaths and injuries of the South Asian monkeys on the battlefield of Annan in the distance, the topic of how to make money is obviously more attractive.

Enrique asked cautiously, "Then I don't know what kind of trade Mr. Tao has?"

Tao Donglai smiled and said, "Regarding trade, I think we must have a lot of common topics to talk about." ”

The materials purchased by the Portuguese in Daming were mainly silk fabrics, ceramics, cane sugar, etc., although these materials were not produced in the territory of the crossing group for the time being, but Tao Donglai was very confident that the trading location of these commodities would gradually be transferred to Shengli Port.

Although the Portuguese established a settlement in Macao, the local area belonged to the two sides of the co-governance, and the Ming court still had a place of governance, so the Portuguese wanted to buy the goods of the Ming Dynasty, most of the time they could only go through formal channels, although the trading places were in the Ming Dynasty, but this kind of transaction would undoubtedly be regarded as an export trade and taxed, which led to the rise in the cost of goods in disguise. And Shengli Port, which has taken "duty-free port" as its biggest selling point since the beginning of the opening of the port, can just avoid this link.

If the Portuguese and Ming merchants had traded in Shengli Harbor instead of Canton, both sides would have saved a lot of money in taxes. In comparison, the cost of the five- or six-day voyage from Guangzhou to Shengli Port is a small amount. The Portuguese merchants who came from the direction of Malacca, on the contrary, were able to save a large part of the voyage, and no longer had to risk all kinds of unknown risks at sea from Hoi An, South Vietnam, to Guangzhou.

The Portuguese have purchased the largest number of commodities, which are currently in the list of development projects of "Qiong Lianfa", and the fastest effective cane sugar is estimated to be harvested in the second half of the year, and the executive committee is optimistic that the silk fabric, a project with a relatively slow effect, will not exceed five years. At that time, when Hainan Island began to produce these local outputs, the Portuguese probably would not have much interest in Guangzhou anymore.

Of course, it will take a lot of work to convince the Portuguese to accept such an arrangement, after all, the two sides are still in a delicate state of hostility from a certain point of view, and it is not something that can be done quickly from the adversary mode to the role of the opponent. For example, the Portuguese, who had invested a lot of resources in South Vietnam, would not necessarily agree to a rapprochement with the Haihan side. Moreover, this Enrique is only an envoy sent by the Portuguese, and he probably does not have the power to participate in decision-making, and it still depends on God's arrangement to make any step he can take.

In the afternoon of the same day, Schneider, who had temporarily ended the "Joan Lianfa" symposium, also joined the verbal artillery offensive against Enrique. Schneider's appearance greatly relieved the pressure on Tao Donglai, at least he could communicate more directly with Enrique in his mature Portuguese, avoiding all kinds of misunderstandings caused by improper expression and understanding in Chinese.

Enrique was also obviously surprised that the head of business of the Haihan people was actually a high-nosed and deep-eyed Portuguese speaker, which also gave him a slight sense of closeness, after all, it was extremely rare to meet someone who spoke the same language in the far east.

As a bystander, Li Nai once again observed the mouth cannon kung fu of the Haihan executive committee members at close range. Although Schneider couldn't understand more than half of his words mixed with muttering foreign languages, this did not prevent him from noticing that Enrique's expression gradually changed from initially wary to relaxed. If it weren't for Li Nai's personal introduction, he would have even wondered if these three guys had already known each other somewhere before.

In the afternoon, Enrique left the office as quietly as he came, and he will rush to Macao overnight to report to the local chamber of commerce about the results of the meeting.

On the same day, the preparatory forum for "Qiong Lianfa" finally came to an end, and a total of 13 shareholders, including Haihan, initialed the preparatory agreement for "Qiong Lianfa" in the Guangzhou Office. The events of this day were recorded in later history textbooks as "a commemorative meeting in the history of Haihan business", "created a new business model", etc., and the other 12 shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" were also evaluated as "wise men among Ming merchants" and "pioneers of the commercial revolution". After the Guangzhou Office became a historical and cultural memorial hall, there was even a room marked with the words "Signing Site of the First Preparatory Meeting of the Qiongzhou United Development Company", and the participants at that time would never have imagined that the meeting they held here purely for money would become the object of remembrance for future generations.

Of course, the actual situation is not as lofty as recorded in the historical records, and in fact, most of the last two days of the meeting were spent in disputes and even abuse from shareholders. After determining the money-making prospects of "Qiong Lianfa", shareholders began to verbally compete for the shares that had not yet been sold, and Schneider had to stop the meeting several times to persuade him. No matter what era it is, rich and willful people are very difficult to control, and what is even more troublesome is that a large group of wayward people get together