Listening to Li Zhaoji's words, Guo Xu was stunned at first, obviously he didn't expect Li Zhaoji to take the development of Mokowei to heart, after all, it was only the most remote location of all the interest areas of the trading company, and the scale of trade carried out now was not very large.

Guo Xu immediately said: "It's about Mokowei, but it's more about Japan and the Netherlands East India, Du Company." ”

"Oh, what's the news?" Li Zhaoji asked.

Guo Xu smiled slightly, and said seriously: "Sir, you also know that in the waters off Sado, we conducted an armed cruise with the Dutch, so I have a good relationship with some Dutch officers and business officers........ ”

Li Zhaoji recognized this, Guo Xu is indeed exquisite, that fleet includes the British and Dutch two East India companies, the relationship between the two is not very good, but Guo Xu let them listen to the command together, and they are really capable.

“...... Because of this, I also got a little bit of news from the Dutch. They launched a new collaboration with the Japanese shogunate. Guo Xu said.

"Tell me more." Li Zhaoji and Guo Xu came to his captain's room together, and after letting the left and right retreat, Li Zhaoji motioned for Guo Xu to continue.

Guo Xu said while making tea for Li Zhaoji: "In the first battle of Sado, the shogunate has taken our strength squarely and no longer treats us as mere coars. They realized that relying only on the Dutch East India, such an unreliable ally, would not be able to defeat us.

As a result, the shogunate also began to raise a new type of naval army, and they asked the Dutch to provide technical support and let the Dutch send personnel who could build gunboats.

You also know that with Japan's strength, with the support of the Dutch, it would not be a problem to build a navy of size. ”

Li Zhaoji nodded slightly, the technical level is not a problem at all, when Japan was not closed to the rest of the country, it had built a galleon, set off from Japan, carried Japanese Catholic believers across the entire Pacific Ocean, arrived in the Americas, and went to Rome from the Americas on a pilgrimage.

That ship was built by Japan with the support of Spanish craftsmen, and as long as the Dutch were willing to support it, they could repeat the same tricks, in fact, even if the Dutch did not support it, the Japanese shogunate went to the Philippines to find the Spaniards, as long as they were willing to trade, they could also do it.

As for resources, Japan, as a country in the East, is naturally much stronger than trading companies.

"It's a big problem, and I'll put it to my attention, but you know, the Navy doesn't happen overnight. When the war on the mainland is over, our navy will also expand, after all, we are ahead of the curve and have a considerable foundation. Li Zhaoji thought about it and said.

Although the trading company's fleet is known as a navy, except for the Jeju where the two are located, which is a professional warship, the rest are all armed merchant ships. It is not clear how much investment and how much time it will take to build a navy, but Japan is obviously lagging behind.

More importantly, the trading companies had the initiative, and if the expansion of Japan's new navy was too rapid, it was entirely possible to send a fleet to Japan and beat it up. When the Japanese navy was still weak, it was forced to fight, and then annihilated in one fell swoop.

"Tell me about the situation in Mokowei. That was the sphere of influence of the Manchus, and now we are at war with the Manchus. Li Zhaoji said.

Guo Xu immediately found a map and said: "Mokowei is here, there is a place called Vladivostok in the north, from the perspective of the trade environment with the mainland, Vladivostok is closer to the inland, so it is easier to trade with it, but Vladivostok will freeze in winter, and the drift ice period is very long, so we still set up our stronghold in Mokowei."

In Vladivostok, we also set up a camp to trade with the local Jurchens.

They were very fond of the ironware, salt, cloth and many other goods we brought with us, and they traded us high-value goods such as ginseng and furs. Because this year is the first year, the size of the transaction is not large, but the profit is high.

At present, the Manchus do not know what is happening to us, and they do not exercise direct rule in that place. The nearest garrison was in Ningguta, but a large number of them were also drawn away in response to the war in Liaodong and Guannai.

If we start from the direction of Mokowei, we can conquer a large area of its land, but it is not very significant.

It was very far from Liaodong, and it was not the sphere of influence of the Manchus.

According to the local natives, the Manchus had a local activity called Wu Aya, starting from Ningguta, sending clothes and iron tools produced in the interior to the territory of the northern Jurchens, and receiving fur tribute from the Jurchen tribes. ”

Lee asked: "Is the scale of the tribute large, and are the locals dissatisfied with it?" ”

Guo Xu said: "There was certainly dissatisfaction, but they were unwilling to resist, first of all, there was not much pressure to pay tribute, and the Manchus were the only channel for obtaining handicraft products before our arrival." The most important thing was the military pressure of the Manchus, and any rebellion against Manchu rule would be met with devastating retaliation, and the tribes would be exterminated and directly annexed.

Less than two years have passed since the latest annexation, and the ministries are compliant.

The Manchus would also carry out some co-optation activities, such as marrying the daughters of the Eight Banners of Manchuria in Liaodong to the leaders of various tribes as wives. ”

Li Zhaoji nodded slowly, which was not different from the historical knowledge he had learned. After thinking for a moment, he said, "What do you think the Manchu side will react to when they learn about your trade exploitation behavior?" Speaking of this, Li Zhaoji added: "I mean, after the Manchus withdrew from this war. ”

Guo Xu immediately said: "They will definitely not allow us to touch the Jurchen homeland, which is their back garden."

I learned that the Manchurians often increased their Dingkou by annexing the Jurchen tribes, and the more they fought in the Guannai, the more they did this kind of thing.

But I do not consider them invincible, for they are far from Liaodong and cannot be besieged with a large army, and we only need to build considerable fortifications, with a few hundred soldiers armed with firearms, to resist the Qing attack, and they cannot be stationed in a distant place for long.

There are no such conditions in the local area, on the contrary, we can resupply at sea, which is very convenient.

There are two things I am worried about about the development of the Northeast. ”

Li Zhaoji laughed: "Guo Xu, it seems that you are very concerned about this matter, I appreciate your enthusiasm, although I appointed you as the commander of the North Sea Fleet, but you don't need to be satisfied with being a commander, you can also become a conqueror." ”

Guo Xu was praised by Li Zhaoji and was very happy, but when he heard the last sentence, he quickly knelt down and said, "Big shopkeeper, I'm just conquering on your behalf." ”

Li Zhaoji held up his body and said, "Tell you about my two worries. ”

"One point is that the south of the court, Xian, if you use troops in the northeast, in terms of supply, the court, Xian is the closest. And the dynasty, which is rarely a subsidiary of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, should also send troops. I heard that the DPRK and Xian were not equipped to repair their military strength, and their combat power was very weak, but just providing supplies was a problem for the development of trading companies.

Another point is the development of the Outer Northeast, the issue of input and output. This is not the focus of the expansion of the trading company, and it is difficult to invest a lot of resources ......... Guo Xu said this, and was interrupted by Li Zhaoji.

Lee said: "Trading companies are very rich now, but there are many places to spend money. Sado's own gold and silver mines generated a lot of profits for the trading company, and in the first two quarters he had already handed over 640,000 silver dollars worth of silver and gold.

Sado's gold and silver production has fully recovered, with a slight increase.

In Beihai, there are two other colonization areas, Mokowei and Ezo, for which Matsushita Fuming submitted a report in June, asking for 50,000 taels, half of which will be replaced by salt, wine, sugar, cloth, and other commodities that are popular among the tribes. I only fulfilled three-fifths of his requirements because Ezo doesn't see any profit points at the moment.

The fur profits still have to be invested, but I have also heard that there are merchants in Guangdong who buy boats to go whaling in the area, and maybe create new profit points.

This is true for a Ezo land, not to mention the Outer Northeast, where you face a more powerful enemy. ”

Guo Xu's face immediately turned ugly, Li Zhaoji patted his face and said, "Guo Xu, this does not mean that I will not provide you with support, in fact, I will support you, but there is a limit to this scale." I can give 50,000 taels of silver a year to support, but the problem is that as long as the Manchus attack, it will all be in vain.

If your colonization activities do not generate profits, my personal support will be drowned out by the many opposition. ”

"Now that you are leading the army against the Manchus, is this the strategic direction of the trading company in the future?" Guo Xu asked.

Li Zhaoji immediately gave a negative answer: "No, although the trading company may still be at war with the Manchus in the future, this is not a strategic direction." And the resources invested in the direction of the Manchu Qing are also directly invested in the north, and you have also seen the fortresses and the like that I built. ”

Li Zhaoji devoted all his resources to build the Oriental Brigade to the north, although he had the selfish intention of preventing the Manchus from entering the Central Plains, but the most important thing was to maintain the balance of power on the mainland. Relying on a decadent and degenerate small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty could not balance with the Great Shun, so it was necessary to retain a Manchu Qing who did not enter the customs.

The trading companies made a large profit from the continental war, and it is likely that they will take advantage of this turmoil to gain hegemony in the China Sea, but hegemony will not be carried out in the form of peaceful transfer, and hegemony at sea will not be given and recognized by others, but by strong maritime power.

Therefore, the next strategy is to invest in the navy and thoroughly grasp the hegemony of China's seas. It takes time and, above all, a lot of resources.

"It's the same as I imagined, so I want to change the way I open up the Northeast to the outside world." Guo Xu said.

He took out his pen and drew a few words on the map of Nu'er Gandusi, and wrote the three words Outer Northeast, since the head of the trading company called this land Outer Northeast, then it could only be called by this name.

Li Zhaoji nodded with satisfaction, but instead of changing Guo Xu's name, he said approvingly: "I like your clever mind, in this world, many things can be bought with money or power, but wisdom can't be bought." ”

Guo Xu clicked on the map, and there was a river marked with black lines that passed through the vast northeast and flowed into the Pacific Ocean, and this river was the Heilongjiang River.

"Big shopkeeper, you just said that you can give me 50,000 taels of silver every year, will the support be interrupted for some reason?" Guo Xu asked.

Lee said: "In the case that you can't keep the results of development, you can't keep the profits. ”

Guo Xu nodded: "In other words, if I can earn 100,000 taels in the Outer Northeast Colonization every year, then I will have 150,000 taels of funds every year, right?" ”

"Yes." Li Zhaoji nodded, and his finger was pointed at Vladivostok: "But as long as the Manchus know about your existence, send three hundred people here, and use the authority they have built up for decades to intimidate the Jurchens into not allowing you to trade, then you will not get any profit."

I will not spend 50,000 taels a year to maintain the existence of the fortress of Mokowei, and if there is a need for that, I would prefer to invest this money in the fortress of Arthur. ”

Guo Xu was not disappointed with this result, he said: "Your request is reasonable. So I'm going to build another trading base here. ”

The pen in Guo Xu's hand went all the way north along the coastline of the outer northeast, and finally drew a circle at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, and this map, drawn in the Yongle period, clearly marked that this was the residence of the Nuer Gandusi, which was called Temple Street in the Qing Dynasty and Nikolaevsk after the Russian occupation.

new