Lee said: "Of course I won't let you take only such a few people to do such dangerous work.

The company will advance a part of the support, and you are lucky to have met a professional businessman like Mr. Li Weijing. ”

Li Weijing handed the two a list, which included a fleet that was preparing to go south, the composition of the fleet was very complicated, there were ships of Chinese merchants and ships of the Oriental Trading Company, which could provide transportation services for them, enough to transport more than 800 people, and the ships captured from pirates could also be transferred, and the transportation volume could be increased a lot.

In addition, Li Weijing ordered 400 arquebuses and a large amount of ammunition from the arsenal of the Oriental Trading Company, while Li Zhaoji sold more weapons at friendly prices, mainly Qing army materials captured during the Northern Expedition, including 400 sets of chain mail or iron armor, cold weapons such as spears and waist knives, and 200 bird guns.

In addition, Li Zhaoji also equipped the army of this expedition to Kuching with four cannons, all of which were Liaozhen artillery obtained from Jeju Island, cast in the sixth year of Chongzhen, and were small Hongyi cannons made by Xiong Wencan, the governor of the former Ming Dynasty, and called Yanwei cannons in the Qing Dynasty.

This kind of cannon has a beautiful spindle body, and it is qualified in terms of casting skills and materials. With a total weight of more than 200 kilograms, its guns can be counted as three-pounder guns, and their effective firing range exceeds 300 meters. This is one of the few artillery pieces cast in the Ming Dynasty that can be converted into field artillery.

And if Shi Lang still thinks that the firepower is insufficient, the captured Franc machine is there.

It can be said that Li Wei was able to easily arm an army of 1,200 people by purchasing weapons from the Oriental Trading Company and donating weapons from Li Zhaoji.

The Malay army in Kuching is only two or three thousand men, lacking firearms, and all of them are cold-armed troops, the only thing to note is that these religious lunatics have a strong will to fight, and with the help of religious people and stimulants, they may launch a fierce charge that is not afraid of death.

Gu Rong had been a pirate for so many years, and he had never seen such a rich armament, he was immediately full of confidence, but he did not express his attitude directly, but looked at Shi Lang, after all, Shi Lang knew the destination more deeply than himself.

"It's enough to just defeat the local nobles and their armies and capture Kuching City, but I need some time to recruit and train soldiers," Shi Lang said.

Six months, how about we can gather in freshwater. ”

Li Weijing immediately shook his head: "No, there is not so much time, you only have three months, and the location cannot be in Tamsui, but in Pattani." Our shareholder, Mr. Lin Tongwen, will arrange training grounds and supplies for you.

You probably haven't been to Tamsui, it's very prosperous, there are never enough people, if you recruit pirates and the Zheng family, these guys will definitely throw away the bird guns and go to work in the factory.

And the north wind build-up is coming to an end, and in fifteen days you must go south. ”

Gu Rong asked: "We train the army in the country of Beitani, won't the king there attack us?" ”

Li Weijing directly gave a positive answer, but did not explain. Nanyang is full of large and small sultanates, which are generally less civilized, so they rely heavily on the Chinese and Indian merchants, and the Chinese are very influential in Pattani, which is known as Da Ni and is the distribution center of Chinese goods.

Lin Tongwen is not only the guest of honor of the Sultan of Pattani, but also the lord of Pattani. The port lords were almost a kind of local vassal kings, who would demarcate land from the mouth of one river to the mouth of another, and then create their own kingdoms, as long as they paid enough taxes to the king or sultan.

So, that shareholder had enough land and resources to house the army for training.

"Then I need to go to Fujian immediately." Shi Lang said.

"Yes, I will be able to take two captured pirate ships and some sailing men, and we can go to Hong Kong in fifteen days to assemble." Li Weijing said, obviously, in the Borneo company, he is the highest speaker, Gu Rong and Shi Langzhi are responsible for leading the troops to fight.

In the South Seas, especially in places like Pattani, mercenaries could be recruited at any time, and there were many Portuguese diasporas and their descendants, as well as the Japanese Chejitan, who were good soldiers. But obviously, Shi Lang and Gu Rong both want to use people they are familiar with, Gu Rong is quite simple, he only needs Li Zhaoji to release the pirates and he will have a team again, while Shi Lang needs to go to Fujian to recruit the scattered Zheng family forces.

Shi Lang and Gu Rong immediately got up, Li Zhaoji asked Zhao Changshui to arrange for them to wash up first, and Li Zhaoji took people to the restaurant first.

"Do you think these two people can succeed?" Li Zhaoji asked.

Lin Liu said: "Shi Lang is a young and promising person, I trust his ability, and Gu Rong is cunning enough. Their only drawback is that they don't know enough about Kuching. ”

"But we can't afford not to think about what it would take to fail, and if it fails, what if it does?" Li Zhaoji asked.

"There is a group of pirates in Centipede Island, and the leader has some friendship with me, and they have more than a thousand ......." Li Weijing said.

But Lin Liu immediately interrupted him: "No, we shouldn't deal with that group of people too early. The Dutch will be on their toes, and don't forget, our plan is to gain a foothold in Kuching before the Dutch notice, and deal with those pirates, it will be a bad strategy. ”

Ccentipede Island is the Natuna Islands, where a group of Chinese pirates live by robbery, and there is no limit to the target, the Dutch and the Zheng maritime group are also their targets.

"We can't use pirates, I like businessmen, I don't like pirates," Lee said. Any pirate is a destroyer of order, and they are beyond the scope of our discussion. ”

Li Weijing and Lin Liu both nodded, but they thought in their hearts, you, Li Zhaoji, are the biggest pirate in this sea area.

At this time, Shi Lang and Gu Rong came back, and unlike Li Weijing and others, who were somewhat lacking in confidence, Li Zhaoji thought that they had a high success rate. But in order to give confidence to the partners, Li Zhaoji said: "Shi Lang, Gu Rong, you only have one chance to solve the main trouble before July."

So that this winter, Kuching will have the first immigrants.

But if you don't succeed before July, I'll send someone to take your place, and I'll send my army to it. ”

Shi Lang and the others nodded, while Li Weijing and the others looked a little ugly, they hoped that Li Zhaoji would participate, but they didn't want him to participate too deeply.

Li Zhaoji took his plate and said, "Mr. Li, talk about our goals, tell us more good news, and let the two new friends have more confidence." ”

Lee is a businessman who has been to Kuching before, and this time in order to determine its value, he made a special trip to investigate it last month.

The Sarawak region where Kuching is located is theoretically the territory of the Sultanate of Brunei, but only theoretically, the local Celestial lords and religious figures do not take Brunei seriously.

In the last century, Brunei was very powerful and a hegemon in the South Seas, but after the Spanish crusade, Brunei weakened and lost its direct rule over Sarawak.

Kuching's land is relatively barren and the local indigenous agricultural technology is outdated, so the rice is imported from Java, but it is indeed a rich land.

Kuching was chosen as a basic condition because it used to be the centre of the steel industry in Nanyang, of course, that was a long time ago, and now there is almost no steel industry, after all, there is a lack of effective prospecting and mining technology in Nanyang, and the iron smelting industry can only develop in open pit veins.

However, because of the iron smelting industry, many plains were born here, which was caused by the massive deforestation for iron smelting. In the 17th century, the absence of rainforest land was a great asset, which meant a more comfortable environment, lower development costs and a basis for the development of plantations.

Despite the poor soil conditions, Kuching has a good climate and among its suitable crops, there are two cash crops worth developing, one is pepper and the other is oil palm.

The former is the most demanded spice in Europe and West Asia, and although it is cheap, it has a wide market. The latter are oil crops with an oil content of more than 50 percent.

Meat is rare in any region, and heavy manual laborers cannot be short of oil and water, and oil palm is the best substitute.

Of course, cash crop cultivation does not attract enough immigrants or convince so many partners to participate in the development, which is the future development industry that Lee Siu Kee has planned for the Borneo company, and the most gimmick and the most attractive in Kuching is the gold mine.

Thirty kilometres from Kuching there is a Bau gold mine, which is the largest gold mine in the South Seas, although it is not an open-pit gold mine, but it is very shallow and the development cost is not high, and the presence of mercury mines means that the cost of smelting gold and silver has been further reduced.

There are gold prospectors in Kuching now, but it is clear that large-scale development will require the opening of this gold mine.

The Bau gold mine was an important reason to convince all the partners, and almost all of them were tempted to contribute to the event. When Shi Lang and Gu Rong heard that there was a gold mine, their eyes immediately lit up, and it can be said that their wealth was moving.

But it is clear that these two men's views on colonization were limited to robbery and gold mines, while Li Weijing was more professional.

"Now that we've started to take action, it's time to determine Borneo's status and trade policy." Li Weijing said cautiously, because these can only be obtained from Li Zhaoji.

Shi Lang immediately asked: "Yes, we have laid Kuching and the surrounding areas, who does the land belong to, and who does the gold mine belong to." Corporation, shareholder, or something else? ”

Li Zhaoji said unceremoniously: "Of course it belongs to me and my children and grandchildren, and the whole world is not the king's land." ”

"If it's royal land, it should be the land of Emperor Ming." Shi Lang said coldly.

Li Zhaoji said: "It is uncertain who will be the emperor in the future, and it is uncertain whether there is a Ming dynasty." ”

Li Weijing pressed Shi Lang's wrist to prevent him from continuing this meaningless dispute. He knew that Shi Lang was a Ming courtier, and he couldn't accept Li Zhaoji's remarks and practices, but the fact was that even if the Borneo Company took down that piece of land, it had to accept the protection of the Oriental Trading Company, otherwise it would not be able to survive.

Li Zhaoji smiled and said: "The Borneo company is authorized by me to be established, and I will authorize you to develop in Borneo and its surrounding areas for a period of 30 years. You can form an armed force and establish your own ruling institutions. However, it is not allowed to issue currency, and there is no independent diplomatic power outside the limited scope.

You also have no right to declare war, and in religion you are to carry out the policies that I have made, and all the power you do not have is with me. ”

"That is, if I own a house in Kuching and can only live in it for thirty years, after thirty years, you can sweep me away?" Shi Lang asked.

When Li Weijing heard this, some pleasure flashed in his eyes, and he looked at Lin Liu, who was also relaxed. Originally, they wanted to negotiate terms with Li Zhaoji, which would inevitably offend him, but now that Shi Lang is charging into battle, it makes the two less troublesome.

Li Zhaoji shook his head slightly: "No, I respect and protect your private property. Even if the colonies are returned to me in thirty years, your lands and lands will be yours. But only for our kindred, the rest are not protected.

I want sovereignty, not the wealth you've worked so hard for. Let's put it this way, you don't think about setting yourself up as a king and building a state, then everything else can be discussed. ”

Shi Lang nodded: "If that's the case, there is still a need for cooperation." ”

After saying this, he couldn't think of any other questions. Li Weijing asked, "What about the policy of trade, my lord?" ”

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