Chapter 5: Two Forces

"Shandong Jiaozhou Mansion has been cleaned up, and when I came over on the four seas fleet, I met Shen Yongmao in Jiaozhou Mansion. He was about to go to Qufu next, but I changed his plan and asked him to continue cleaning up Weihaiwei. ”

"Hmph, my governor of Shandong is now the same as the rebels, and he needs to bring soldiers to see the seal. Shandong Shen Yongmao is like this, and so is Zhou Yanru Yingtian. ”

None of the people present dared to answer this sentence, and Xiong Wencan could only smile. When he saw Wang Chengen's father-in-law the day before yesterday, he knew that His Majesty the Emperor had been in Fuzhou for almost half a month. The emperor didn't bother him, but directly requisitioned the house in Fuzhou next to Rouyuanyi, and he kept waiting. And it was only today that a holy decree was proclaimed that he had come to his audience.

This time, the emperor's secretary was Wen Tiren, who poured Xiong Wencan a cup of hot tea and put some paperwork in his hand.

"Your Majesty, don't you know ...... Jiaozhou?" Xiong Wencan knew that His Majesty the Emperor had returned, but he didn't expect that his emperor would appear in front of him like the owner of a caravan, and he had been playing in Fuzhou for half a month. What does Your Majesty want to do in Fuzhou? He didn't dare to ask, so he could only follow the emperor's words first.

"There are no Japanese pirates, at most seven or eight Japanese ronin. The rest was pretended to be someone from the Jiaozhou prefect himself. In order to pave the way for pirates and rich people, any crazy thing can be done. In this way, I am still more law-abiding. The following 13 officials of the Jiaozhou prefect and more than 31,100 people involved in this eucalyptus should be sent to Dali Temple, and those who should be sent to the Supervision Yuan were sent to the Supervision Yuan. ”

After speaking, Zhu Youzhen also glanced at Wen Tiren.

"Actually, it's good news, it's not just to vacate the Weihaiwei I need. The goal of the Imperial Northern Navy is to control Dongying and Korea, and I have been thinking about it for a long time, and I am determined to set up the northern military port of the Ming Dynasty here. ”

After saying this, Zhu Youzhen easily handed over the briefing from the military headquarters at hand.

Originally, this was Jingshi's Hutu lawsuit, not to mention that Zhu Youzhen didn't want to talk too much about local affairs with Xiong Wencan.

"Come on, come on, I have a lawsuit in the head of the capital master, and it will be a few days to relax with you. Tell me about the current movement of the fleet, why did the East India Company and Zheng Zhilong's people come to negotiate? ”

Xiong Wencan wiped the sweat from his head, the news that the Dutch East India Company and Zheng Zhilong were going to meet with Daming was still transferred from himself, and he originally wanted to ask the opinion of the military department, but he didn't expect it to turn around but it was transferred to the hands of His Majesty the Emperor. I knew that His Majesty the Emperor was coming, so why did I bother to do it.

"Your Minister, please arrange for Echo to come and meet you."

Zhu Youzhen nodded, now that he also knew that Aike was the daughter of a murdered shareholder of the Dutch Indian Company, Aico, who was bent on revenge, should know more.

"As far as the minister knows, the Dutch East India Company was very powerful, and established its headquarters in Batavia, Java, with a peculiar base in the East Indies, on the Spice Islands."

"The number of these strongholds is supposed to be more than 20,000, and each stronghold has at least one hundred and fifty merchant ships, thirty warships, thirty thousand sailors, and twenty thousand mercenaries."

"They also have more than 70 ships in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou in our Ming Dynasty, more than 10,000 sailors, and 16 merchants, and the total should not exceed 50,000."

"Hmm." Zhu Youzhen nodded.

"Zheng Zhilong. Has there been any change from the last time you followed you? ”

"No, the recently added warship pattern ministers have already reported to the military department, and the military department believes that although the number is relatively large, it is still relatively backward."

The representatives of these two factions were waiting outside their own to meet them, but they were in no idea of the movements of the fleet they had sent out. Zhu Youzhen gritted his teeth and said to Wen Tiren:

"The outsiders have arrived at my door, where is my own fleet? Do? What's the difficulty? I just don't know anything. You write down my predicament clearly, send it to the Minister of State and Xu Yingyuan, and ask them if there is any good way. ”

As for the Dutch East India Company, Zhu Youzhen actually knows better than everyone present.

In 1550, a group of Dutch merchants went to Portugal to spy on intelligence, and the group formed a company to use their commercial intelligence, navigation plans, and world maps to develop into the mysterious East Indies.

Around 1580, the Dutch established more than a dozen companies focusing on the East Indies region and trade. In order to avoid internal competition among their own companies, the dozen or so companies formed a consortium, which became known as the Dutch East India Company. The board of directors of the company consisted of seventy people, but after a bloody and brutal struggle, only seventeen actually held the actual power of the company.

It is also known as the Board of Seventeen. Eight from Amsterdam, four from Zeeland and one from each other region.

The East India Company was not a simple company limited by shares.

Not only can it own weapons, but it can also hire its own soldiers.

It is even possible to issue currency, sign formal jumps with other countries, and exercise the right to colonize and rule the areas occupied by its own armed and treaty occupations. The Netherlands is also a strange country, directly authorizing the company to have a monopoly on trade between the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and South America.

Southeast Asia has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty carried out a unique tributary model of the Ming Dynasty.

However, since the beginning of the Age of Discovery, which started from commerce and took the economy as the main driving force, the originally calm ocean was no longer calm, and the tributary system of the original Ming and Southeast Asian countries was also broken.

Therefore, they were able to negotiate with Da Ming through Zheng Zhilong, it must be their own fleet that made the East India Company suffer in the ocean. And they couldn't find a better way for a while.

According to Zhu Youzhen's understanding of these real pirates, as long as they can solve the problem by force or dirty means, it is impossible to think of such a form of negotiation.

While he was thinking, Echo came in.

"How do we communicate with the fleet on a daily basis?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

"There is a fleet of merchant ships that travel regularly to and fro." Echo replied directly.

"We also have people who come and go by boat on a regular basis. But this time there must have been a problem. ”

"Is the merchant fleet still normal?" I can't say for sure, but maybe there was a bad weather like a typhoon or a rainstorm, and all the merchant ships took refuge there.

"Normal. There is no news of a whirlwind. There were also no major battles on this route. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said:

"Then tomorrow I will meet this East India Company messenger and Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Zhibao, and see how it goes."

In any case, in this case, it can only be said that his fleet has now become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of these two forces, and Zhu Youzhen is still a little proud. However, the sea is too wide, and I just want to supply my fleet without a bottom line, and now I can't do anything.

"What is the progress of the shipyard's current replication of medium warships?"

"According to the drawings of the Carrak galleons that can be provided by Ai, we have set up eight ships at the same time in the secluded Siyuan shipyard. The Ministry of Industry has already paid for four ships this year, and the remaining four ......"

"Leave them alone." Zhu Youzhen said that he felt powerless.

"Next year, I will transfer Sun Yuanhua to Guangzhou, and he only needs to be beaten a few times, and it will be clear. Don't think about the issue of funds, Chen Zilong will continue to provide it to you. I also brought a design of an ironclad ship with me this time, and the people and craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences will help me send it to the Siyuan Shipyard tomorrow. ”

"In any case, by the end of the year, the task of sixteen fleets must be completed."

"In this vast sea, if I could, I would like to tie those literati to the mast, and let them have a good conversation with the guns of those East India Company people in the way of Confucian and Mencian barbarian civilization."

"Your Majesty, don't be anxious, if they don't come, these things will not be easy to understand." Xiong Wencan and thin mud.

"You're right, but I'm here this time."

"It's hard for me to say anything about the sea, but whether he Zheng Zhilong or the Dutch, isn't he all begging for a living and doing business in Quanzhou and Guangzhou in the Ming Dynasty. If they really provoke me, I will make them a dilemma of life and death in the land of the Ming Dynasty! ”