Li Zhaoji nodded, pointed his finger at Borneo, and said, "You can choose to carry out pioneering activities here." ”

Shi Lang asked: "A place where the land is barren and the rice yield is low? ”

Li Zhaoji smiled, Shi Lang is worthy of being born in the Zheng Maritime Group, and he still knows about Nanyang.

"Haha, I don't need a piece of rice right now, millions of acres of land around Tamsui have not yet been developed." Lee said he circled the map around Borneo, the northwestern part of what came to be known as Kalimantan, and in this circle, the name of a city — Kuching — has been marked.

This area is known as Sarawak and, as Serang knows, the land here is barren. Of course, the so-called barren land is compared to places like Java.

Most of the Nanyang region has a tropical rainforest climate, and the leaching of rainforest areas will cause rapid loss of nutrients in the soil. The exception is Java, where a series of islands with active volcanoes are an exception, as the ash constantly replenishes the land.

Obviously, there are no such conditions in the Kuching area because of the low fertility of the land. It is precisely for this reason that this place has become a place where later generations of Chinese can gain a foothold, and the early colonists did not look down on it at all.

"There are a lot of indigenous people on the island of Borneo, there are several sultanates such as Brunei and Mazen, and we don't know how many people are on this huge island equivalent to six Fujian provinces, but the Dutch estimate that there are 400,000 to 500,000 people.

We chose to be here because the Dutch have no interest in it, and it is only a Dutch sphere of influence, not a Dutch-controlled territory. Li Zhaoji said seriously.

Shi Lang immediately became alert: "Wait, you say....... We! Dare to ask Master Li, who are we referring to, it won't be you and us. ”

Li Zhaoji did not answer, but turned to look at the stern and asked in a loud voice: "What do you think of them, are you willing to cooperate with them?" ”

"There is no opinion under it." A man in a blue robe, who looked to be thirty years old, walked out, and behind him, there was a guy who looked like a white Dutchman, but with a Han face.

And Shi Lang looked at the strangely dressed person behind him and said, "I really want to see you somewhere." ”

"In Fuzhou, your father and my eldest brother ......." The man said with a smile, and Shi Lang immediately became alert, he took a step back, and said, "You are the attendant next to Yang Kun." ”

"Lin Liu, this is my name." Lin Liu said lightly.

The acquaintance of the two stems from the grievances and grievances between the Batavian Chinese community and the Zheng family in Fujian. The Nanyang Chinese community, including Batavia, was more or less connected with the Ming court, because most of the Chinese were descendants of Fujian, while the Portuguese monopolized the contact with Guangdong, so the Chinese mostly contacted Fujian.

Lin Liu's eldest brother, Yang Kun, was once in charge of the liaison between the Batavian Chinese and Fujian, which of course was supported by the Dutch. Because the Zheng family monopolized the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch hoped to construct a new trade route through the Chinese.

So Yang Kun took the ship to Fuzhou, and once met the governor of Fujian at that time, but was learned by Zheng Zhilong. Shi Lang's father personally dealt with the matter, bribed the governor, and convicted Yang Kun of being arrested and imprisoned, and spent a lot of money to be ransomed.

But because of this, Yang Kun's family property was all lost, and he died of grief, using his Dutch to pay off his debts.

Lin Liu was Yang Kun's sworn brother, and when the Chinese leaders in Batavia had semi-retired, Lin Liu took on the responsibility of providing various services to the Dutch through the Chinese network.

"Do you know each other?" Li Zhaoji asked.

"His father was Zheng Zhilong's eagle dog and killed my eldest brother." Lin Liu said coldly, but he said again: "But this has nothing to do with him, the Zheng family has fallen, his father has also died, and Shi Lang back then just followed his father's ass to gain knowledge, and like me, he was a powerless person." ”

Obviously, Lin Liu was not going to settle old accounts, and Li Zhaoji said: "Okay, let me introduce you to this one again, he is from Malacca, and Li Weijing Mr. Li." ”

"In front of adults, I dare not call Mr." Li Weijing said respectfully.

Li Zhaoji said, "Please sit down too." Mr. Lee, can you introduce Kuching. ”

"Wait, Master Li." Shi Lang continued to ask, "Will these two gentlemen also participate?" ”

"Yes, they are shareholders ........ As he spoke, Li Zhaoji patted his head and said, "Blame me, I didn't make it clear, let's introduce our cooperation method to you first." ”

"It seems that I can't go to Borneo to be a mountain king." Shi Lang said lightly, obviously sensing something.

"What is the future of being a king of the mountain, you should be a conqueror, a governor." Li Weijing said, and then he spoke on behalf of Li Zhaoji about the development of Borneo.

Lee Zhao-ki's Oriental Trading Company sounds like a trading company, but it is actually already a maritime empire. Like the Dutch East India Company, it has the same name as the company, but in fact it is already a powerful institution with state functions.

But the difference is that the Dutch East India Company is a joint-stock company, while the Oriental Trading Company is only a private property of Lee Siu Kee. This was already established when the Oriental Trading Company was established on the island of Neilingding. It can be said that from the very beginning, Lee Zhaoji has been the uncrowned king.

Even, some people have complained about Li Zhaoji, the uncrowned, whether it is within the trading company or the allies of the trading company, they all propose that Li Zhaoji should be the king.

After the end of the Northern Expedition, Shen Youlong always hoped that Li Zhaoji could establish a country and become king, but the premise was that he would accept the canonization of the Ming Dynasty and Li Zhaoji's kingdom would become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

But this point was categorically rejected by Li Zhaoji, because he accepted the canonization of the Ming Dynasty, it was not good to have a good relationship with Dashun, and if the relationship between the two sides became two countries, many things would be difficult to operate. In particular, the Ming Dynasty is in power by a group of scholars, in their eyes, the name or something, more important than anything, the king will only bring trouble, will not bring benefits.

It can be said that Li Zhaoji's Oriental Trading Company was a feudal centralized state, and such a country was not suitable for overseas colonization.

Historically, most of the major achievements in overseas colonization have been bourgeois states, at least constitutional monarchies. Austria, the Ottomans, and Russia, for example, are also European powers, but when it comes to overseas colonization, even rising stars like Belgium can't compare.

The only two exceptions were Portugal and Spain, which had taken the lead, nearly two centuries before other countries began to colonize, and accounted for two centuries of backward navigation technology, even if four centuries of cheapness, eventually turned their colonies into public colonies.

Even now in the 17th century, Spain, which ruled most of Latin America and had a colonial population of more than 20 million, did not benefit from the colonies, and every year gold and silver were shipped from the colonies and sent directly to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to pay off their debts, and the colonies became part-time jobs for Dutch financiers.

As a result, Lee Siu-kee laid down similar commercial-led rules for overseas colonization from the outset.

In fact, Li Zhaoji hopes that the Borneo trading company will follow the example of the British East India Company rather than the Dutch East India Company, and the difference between the two is that the British East India Company sells shares to the whole country.

However, considering the confidentiality in the early stage and the requirements of the participants, in the end, the Borneo company is still a joint-stock company similar to the Dutch East India Company.

The shareholders who took a stake in the company came from three groups, the Nanyang Chinese businessmen, the Ming gentry, and the top executives of the Oriental Trading Company.

In the Oriental Trading Company, a total of seven people, including Li Zhaoji, Chen Liuzi, Liu Mingde, Yang Yandi, and Tang Mu, became shareholders, and the Ming gentry all came from old friends in Guangdong, Lin Weiyuan, Huang Guanlou and Hai Shuzu.

Nanyang Chinese businessmen are the main promoters and operators of this company, and without them, this company might have been established a few years later.

Li Weijing and Lin Liu are the two shareholders, as well as Yang Xin from Siam, Wei Zhiyu from Annan, and Lin Tongwen from the Soviet Union of Pattani. Each of them is powerful, and Lee Weijing has a slightly lower status, but he is also the leader of the Chinese community in Malacca.

Yang Xin and the other three were the guests of the king of the country where they lived, and they were the ministers who took care of the maritime trade for the king.

Li Weijing was the most active one, and he took the initiative to come to the door, because now the rulers of Malacca have changed from Portuguese to Dutch, and the Dutch are trying every means to suppress Malacca's trade status and improve the status of Batavia, and there are no merchant ships coming and going, and Malacca is rapidly declining.

Lin Liu represents Su Minggang and other Chinese leaders in Batavia. They coincided with Li Weijing, because the rise of the Oriental Trading Company was already a fact, and it was still expanding rapidly.

As early as after the signing of the Hong Kong Treaty, a large number of Chinese such as Su Minggang began to emigrate to Tamsui or buy land and property, but this still could not dispel their worries.

These Chinese knew very well that the colonists liked the hard work and business network of the Chinese, but they absolutely could not accept the Chinese to become bigger.

Now that a Chinese-dominated maritime power has emerged in the eastern seas, sooner or later there will be a conflict with the Dutch East India and Du Company, and when the time comes, the Chinese living in Batavia will definitely be implicated.

Therefore, they had to make arrangements in advance, but when they went to Tamsui, they found that this was not a free country, Li Zhaoji was a king, and the members of the trading company were the officials who served him.

When Lin Liu and Li Weijing met in Tamsui, a plan was born to establish a free country that cooperated with the Oriental Trading Company and accepted its protection, but was actually under their control, and after explaining it to Li Zhaoji, the Borneo Company was born.

However, this company lacks armed forces, and Li Zhaoji, as a major shareholder who only contributed 10,000 taels but accounted for 20 percent of the shares, is responsible for finding some capable thugs for this company. Shi Lang and Gu Rong are their choices.

"There are about 50,000 to 60,000 people in Sarawak, and some Malays enslave the local indigenous people to produce and live. Among them, there are about 2,000 to 3,000 combatants. If the two of you can take Kuching and eliminate the main resistance there, of course it will only collapse the original ruling class without cleaning up the resistance in the countryside.

Then, you two can become full shareholders of the Borneo company, and we have set aside 10% of the shares for you. You also automatically become full members of the company's power committee and have the right to vote. Your men can also serve as the company's first arm.

But if you can't do it, you won't be able to do it, and you can only accept the company's employment or leave immediately. Li Weijing said seriously, with Li Zhaoji as the backing, he spoke very hard.

Gu Rong asked: "Then what support can we get, should we take this money, recruit some scattered sailors, and go to the local natives to fight?" ”

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