Van Longen had not understood why Van der Wegen, who led six armed sailing ships, would be beaten by the Haihan people and lose his armor, but when he saw the Haihan fleet docked at the military dock in Victory Port, he could feel Van de Wegen's helplessness at the beginning. Yes, the armed forces under the command of the Haihan were not merchant ships equipped with a few guns, but a real combat fleet, and there was a clear gap in strength between the armed merchant ships of the East India Company.

As for how much it would cost to maintain such a large fleet, Van Longen, as the commander of a merchant fleet, still had some points in his heart. The most terrifying thing is that the Haihan people obviously have more than one fleet under their command, and they also have a large number of combat ships in Fujian and Annam, which means that there are at least two other fleets. Van Longen believes that at least the warships seen here should be multiplied by three, or even greater multiples, and that is the real state of Haihan's naval combat power.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the board of directors of the company did not make the decision to attack Sanya or start an all-out war with Haihan, otherwise in the current situation, once the war started, the East India Company would suffer a big loss.

As an officer, Vanderwegen had already seen his eyes straight, and after coming to Sanya for more than a month, he finally saw the goal of his trip. But the Haihan people did not leave him more time to observe, so he could only glimpse it from a distance. I am afraid that it will be difficult to explain the intelligence information that can be gathered in this way to the board of directors after I go back.

In order to prevent the Dutch from making any irrational moves, the Haihan Navy specially dispatched two "Exploration-class" sailing ships to "escort" the Dutch fleet all the way south, and did not turn back until the next day.

After sending off the Dutch fleet, the Sanya Autumn Fair finally entered the first stage. Merchants from all over the world gathered in Sanya to sign various cooperation agreements. Among them, the relatively large projects are mainly concentrated in the northern Qiongbei area, and there are seven collective farm projects of more than 10,000 mu alone. In addition, there are agents from all over the country who signed the contract, this time in addition to Fuguang and Guangzhou, there are many merchants who have traveled thousands of miles from Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places to come, in order to obtain some of the Haihan goods in the territory of Daming "provincial sales agent qualification".

In the past two years, the sales channel network led by the Ministry of Commerce of Haihan has gradually spread out in Fuguang and Guangdong provinces, and the sales area of Haihan commodities has slowly extended to inland provinces and the central and northern regions of Daming. Some merchants with good vision and access are ready to follow the example of their counterparts in Fuguang and Guangzhou, take the initiative to establish business cooperation with Haihan, and underwrite Haihan goods in areas that cannot be reached by Haihan's own commercial channels.

Almost no one will have doubts about the strength of the Haihan after inspecting the actual situation of Hainan Island, and everywhere they go, including the local government, they are obedient to the Haihan people, and this big island located on the border of the South China Sea of the Ming Dynasty seems to have the atmosphere of a country within a country. However, the merchants did not care so much about whether the Haihan people's actions here were not tolerated by the law of the country, as long as they knew how much they could earn from their cooperation with the Haihan, and that the Haihan people had enough ability to ensure the stability and security of this cooperative relationship. As for whether the Haihan people are loyal to the court and the emperor, can these still be converted into white flowers and silver into their pockets?

The autumn fair was successfully concluded at the end of October, during which in addition to receiving a large number of commodity orders, two provincial-level business guilds of Guanghai Business Alliance and Fuhai Business Alliance were newly established. This kind of guild is different from the "Qiong Lianfa" established by the Haihan organization before, it is not a profit-making organization based on the joint-stock system, but a relatively loose business alliance organized by merchants in the Ming Dynasty.

As the name suggests, the members of this kind of business alliance are all merchants who have trade dealings with Haihan, and it can be said that they are all stakeholders of Haihan, and the influence of these people in the local community is also very considerable. The values, culture, finance, lifestyle, etc., that Haihan wants to promote to the outside world, if it only relies on its own strength to operate, the efficiency will definitely not be too high, but with these regional business alliances to participate in the promotion, the effect will be very different.

Taking the two Guangxi as an example, the members of the Guanghai Business Alliance basically include all the state capitals such as Chaozhou, Huizhou, Nanxiong, Shaozhou, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Luodingzhou, Gaozhou, Lianzhou, and Leizhou under the rule of Guangdong. Once there is a new commodity or foreign policy on the Haihan side, it can be promoted to the entire province in a very short time, and there is no need to slowly expand the scope of influence by word of mouth as in the past.

The benefits of Daming businessmen participating in this business alliance are also obvious, in addition to being able to obtain the underwriting qualification of Haihan commodities in the first time, get the latest market quotations, etc., the most important thing is that so many powerful merchants are concentrated, it is easy to intervene in the market, so as to obtain more benefits. In addition, Haihan Bank will also provide more special services for the business alliance to facilitate the settlement of funds in the transaction process of the business alliance members and improve the operation efficiency of their funds.

And for Haihan, in addition to the various benefits that can be seen on the surface, there is also a purpose to take advantage of the situation to suppress those local merchants who are unwilling to cooperate with Haihan, or even adopt a hostile attitude towards Haihan. In addition, with the strength of the Haihan, he can provide all kinds of help to his own support targets, especially the military support that the local rich gentry are very interested in.

The Li family, supported by Haihan in Guangzhou Prefecture, has become a model model for almost all foreign cooperation. A few years ago, Lijiazhuang, which was besieged by the rogues and almost wiped out, is now known as the first village in Liangguang, not to mention the rich side, and has a very strong military equipment. Although it is a dart shop on the surface, those who know the inside know that this dart store is no different from a private army, not only is it highly organized, but the weapons and equipment used are all specially supplied by the Haihan people, and all the personnel are also trained by the Haihan - many of them even have the experience of serving in the Haihan militia.

First, the Li family and the Haihan people behind the golden shield are indeed powerful enough, and the grass-roots officials of the sixth or seventh grade generally can't move people at all; second, there are occasionally places in the local area that turn to the golden shield for help, such as escorting the treasury silver, convicting felons, arresting wanted criminals, arresting robbers and thieves, etc., these jobs are much better than the local officials, and they are handled cleanly from beginning to end, and will not bring too much trouble to the government.

In the eyes of the local bigwigs, armed organizations like Golden Shield can do more private work. You can not only look after the home, but also brush up on the pomp. The dignitaries of the Li family are traveling now, and they are all accompanied by escorts carrying Haihan muskets, and the pomp is even bigger than that of some officials, who doesn't envy it?

At this autumn fair, Haihan conveniently announced that in the future foreign cooperation, all members of the business alliance can apply for Haihan's military support, including personnel training, weapon purchase, first aid, etc., which is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for those local big investors who have been eyeing the Li family in Guangzhou and the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa", and they finally have the opportunity to be able to pretend happily together on an equal footing with these pioneers.

And the special treatment given to the members of the business alliance like this involves almost every aspect imaginable. Haihan Bank will set up a special counter for the business alliance, and there will be exclusive warehouses for the business alliance at each wharf, but all places that can reflect the difference in the membership of the business alliance are included in the relevant instructions of the business alliance in detail. Although businessmen don't understand what VIP treatment is or what differentiated service is, just these temporary treatments on paper can already make them feel the difference in the membership of the business alliance.

Of course, there is also a threshold for entry to enjoy these treatments, in addition to certain requirements for the asset size of members, members of the business alliance also have to pay a certain amount of public fees every year. In Schneider's words at the promotion meeting of the business alliance, this kind of measure is to raise the entry threshold, and not let the business alliance become a low-level guild that cats and dogs can mix in. Far from being disgusted by this, the tycoons thought that they had entered this circle in order to make business partners of equal strength, who would want to cooperate with people who were too different in rank and concept.

Although Haihan does not directly lead and interfere in the day-to-day operations of the business alliance, it also has a great influence in it. The first chairman of the Guanghai Business Alliance was held by Li Jifeng, the treasurer of "Fu Ruifeng", and this position of the Fuhai Business Alliance was held by Xu Xinsu's second brother Xu Xinzhe.

After finishing the affairs of the Autumn Fair, the Executive Committee began to implement the next step of the plan, that is, to eliminate the 18 Zhi and clean up the shipping lanes along the coast of Fujian and the Taiwan Strait. Although the scale of its operations is not as large as that of the Annam Civil War, and the combat distance is not as good as that of the Anbuna Islands, this combat goal can still be regarded as a new challenge for Haihan.

The defense of the Ambuna Islands was very limited, and it took it almost no effort for Haihan to take it, and then it was more advantageous to defend against the Dutch. However, Shibazhi has occupied Penghu for several years, and there are still nearly 10,000 young and strong people under his command, and the strength at sea cannot be underestimated, and it is impossible to fight as easily as Anbuna Island. At the time of the war in Annam, the supply line was far from being as long as Fujian, and in addition, the mobility at sea was obviously superior, so the pressure of the operation was much less. If we go to Fujian to fight, we can raise grain and grass locally, but military supplies still basically have to be transported from Hainan Island, and if the war goes badly, such a long supply distance will become the biggest operational obstacle.

In order to solve this trouble, the relevant departments have also prepared a solution, on the one hand, through negotiations to make the Dutch retreat and no longer provide assistance to Shibazhi, on the other hand, they have also begun to prepare war materials to be transported to Fujian in advance by sea. However, this kind of transportation cannot be made public, and must be carried out in secret, so as not to startle the snake. Therefore, almost all the ships that carried out this task came from the Daming maritime merchants, and did not use the ships of the Ministry of Shipping.

On 5 November, a fleet of Fu ships slowly sailed into the port of Tielu through the narrow channel outside the port of Guò. Located on the west side of Sanya, in the southeast corner of Hainan Island, the Iron Furnace Port is currently second only to Yinggehai in the salt field under Haihan Control, and is a cut higher than the production capacity of the Shengli Port Salt Field and the Danzhou Bay Salt Field, which has just been put into production. At the same time, it is also the main sales point of Haihan to sell private salt, and big salt sellers like Luo Shengdong are now going to Tielu Port to load their ships.

However, the fleet that arrived today was a little different, and after arriving at the dock, it did not immediately start loading like other salt carriers, but quietly docked on the shore without moving. After the other salt ships came, they were eager to finish loading them in three or five clicks and quickly pull them out, so that they could run one or two more trips a month to earn more silver, and where would they have the leisure to stop here to waste time -- because of the narrow channel of the Iron Furnace Port, the number of ships that can enter the harbor and dock is limited, so the ships that stop here are charged by the hour, and even Luo Shengdong will not let his ship dock here for more than half a day.

But the unflagged fleet remained silent, apparently intending to spend the night here, and the other ships carrying illicit salt left in a hurry before sunset, leaving the fleet alone on the docks on the west shore of the harbor.

As twilight fell, the wharf suddenly began to be lively, with porters pushing convoys of carts and torches and lanterns lit on the side of the ship. The sailors quickly set up the gangplank, and the porters began loading boxes of cargo onto the ship.

These goods were all military supplies produced in Tiandu's workshop, secretly transported through the valley between Guò Tianduku and the Iron Furnace Port, and then loaded and transported here in the name of smuggled salt. In order to keep it as secret as possible, such shipments were often scheduled at night, and the sailors on board had no idea what the cargo was about—they only knew that the goods on this trip were worth much more than illicit salt, and that they would be paid a lot more.

The shipment continued until the second half of the night, and as soon as it was dark, the fleet left the iron-hearted harbor and headed north-east. Their destination was Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, where the cargo had to be loaded and unloaded once before being transshipped by a merchant ship from Fujian to Kinmen Island in Fujian, where the Haihan military advisory group was stationed.