"Blockade. Trade? ”

Hearing the Dutch ruling method, the Duke of Alva couldn't help laughing, he looked at the Prince of Orange, who was eating the Netherlands, sleeping in the United Kingdom, and thinking about being the prince of England, and said with a wry smile: "Your Royal Highness, you obviously don't know enough about the Ming Empire, which is a giant country with a population of 60 million!" Moreover, this country also maintains close trade contacts with the Great Zhou, Qing Dynasty, Korea, Annam, Japan and other countries, which is a trade circle with a population of more than 100 million, no less than the scale of the whole of Europe! In fact, even if they lose the markets in Europe and the Americas, they will only lose two or three hundred thousand pounds of silver a year, which is not unbearable. Moreover. It's not possible to completely cut off trade, I guess you know about sea smuggling, right? ”

He seems to be talking about Holland! The Dutch coachman was an ancestral smuggler, and Spain had worked hard to colonize the New World and scrape the land, and the silver he got was either robbed by English pirates or cheated by Dutch profiteers, and there was nothing left to fight with the mad king of Spain.

The Dutch consul smiled coldly: "Duke, of course I understand what smuggling is. In some parts of the world, the smuggling trade can be ten times larger than the legal trade! ”

This place, where the smuggling trade is ten times more than the legal trade, is the Spanish American colony. I don't know how it's governed! In short, the governors of New Spain were all able to make a lot of money, but the king's pockets were getting empty!

The former viceroy of New Spain, Duke Alva, browled and looked at the Dutch government with burning eyes.

The Dutch ruler smiled and said: "Duke, our trade blockade really can't stop the export of goods from the Ming Dynasty, even if we completely prevent the import of silver into the Ming Dynasty, the impact on them is limited." But. What if the target we want to attack is not the Ming Empire, but just the Nanyang Trading Company of the Ming Dynasty? ”

"Blow. Nanyang Trading Company? Duke Alva's eyes lit up, and he already understood what this bad Prince of Orange was up to!

Duke Alva asked, "Prince, do you mean that we can attack the Zheng family by blockading trade?" ”

"Yes!" The Dutch consul nodded, the corners of his mouth curled slightly, revealing a smug expression, "Actually, the overseas expansion of the Ming Empire is mainly carried out by relying on the Zheng family and the network of Chinese merchants throughout Southeast Asia controlled by the Zheng family. According to the East India Company's report, the South Seas Trading Company owned more than 120,000 tons of armed merchant ships capable of ocean trade, and the company also owned most of the Ming Dynasty's Galen and Old Gate ships. If the Nanyang Trading Company collapsed, the Ming would lose most of its maritime and ocean-going capabilities. At that time, the Ming strongholds in Acapulco and Malacca will be completely isolated! ”

"That's right! Right! You're quite right! Duke Alva gritted his teeth and said, "As far as I know, the Zheng family's armed merchant ships have been providing support to that consul in Acapulco, General Geng Juyi, for the past two years. Last year, more than 30 Galen and Lao lock boats arrived in Acapulco, carrying at least 6,000 Chinese immigrants, large quantities of weapons and ammunition, and a large number of household items. And this year there may be more than fifty Galen ships and old lock ships arriving in Acapulco, and the Chinese immigrants who arrived in the New World on these ships are likely to exceed 10,000 people! ”

William III sneered: "Fifty armed merchant ships with a load of about 500 tons do nothing, just transport people to the New World. Probably only the Zheng family's Nanyang Trading Company in the world can do it, right? Duke, imagine that if we can't stop the Zheng family's behavior, but sit back and watch them continue to expand the size of their transpacific fleet, within twenty years, the number of Chinese in the Americas will probably exceed the white and native whites of the peninsula, right? ”

Colonization! Whoever breeds more and grows faster will be more competitive!

And the so-called white people on the peninsula are those who have a Spanish "hukou", but the white people living in the New World, in the Spanish American colonies, these people are the masters, and they are all old Spanish white flags. Spain's rule in the colonies of the New World was mainly maintained by these hundreds of thousands of old Spanish white flags.

And under them, there is a native "Tubai", which can be regarded as a white flag, right? They were also relatively loyal to Spain, but later they rebelled against independence in the New World.

Further down, of course, there are mixed whites, which are divided into two categories: "Indian mixes" and "black mixes", they are no longer "in the flag", and of course they are even less loyal to Spain.

Mixed white people are Indians who have converted to the Father, they are still human, which is good! It's just that it's not a "sound human", it's a human who needs the Spanish lord to exercise "guardianship".

And at the bottom of the New World, of course, are the Indians and black slaves who do not believe in the Father, and these are of course non-humans!

And below the white flag, they basically belong to the masters who want the republic and want the republic.

Now Spain can still maintain the situation by relying on more than a million white flags and white flags. But if the number of Ming immigrants exceeds one million, then Spain's rule in the New World will face a major crisis.

William III added: "Duke, the total plate of your Spaniards is only a few million, and even if there is no one left in the mainland, all of them will go to the New World. And how many Chinese are there? Almost 100 million, right? If you can't cut off the migration routes in the Pacific. Daming's victory over Spain in the New World will be an unstoppable trend! ”

Duke Avar looked at William III with a solemn expression: "Prince, what do you want to say?" ”

"Duke, our trade blockade has made the Zheng family's Nanyang Trading Company lose money at most, and it has been greatly weakened, but it may not be able to destroy it!" William III said in a cold tone, "If you want to completely destroy the Nanyang Trading Company, you can only . . . Dispatch the Spanish Armada! ”

Duke Avar was stunned, "You want to send the Invincible Armada to East Asia?" ”

"Yes!" William III said, "If I'm not mistaken, Philip II had planned to send his Armada to transport 20,000 Spanish warriors and Japanese mercenaries to conquer the Ming Dynasty, right?" Now that the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan is on our side, as long as we weaken the Zheng family's sea power, the next step is to send a fleet to Japan, and then use Japan as a base to deliver the final blow to the Zheng family. When the Zheng family's maritime power completely collapses, the Ming Dynasty will be locked on the East Asian continent and will never be able to get out. ”

"Will it really never come out?" The Duke of Avar didn't dare to underestimate a country of 60 million people now - they had already killed the governor of New Spain with just a small general and a few thousand soldiers! If it weren't for Juan. José's relationship with him is so strong that he might end up in jail!

"Of course!" William III was very sure, "Daming did not unify China, as long as we killed the Zheng family's sea power and stationed a fleet in Japan at the same time, we could provide support to the Great Qing and Great Zhou from the sea, and then the civil war of the Chinese would continue endlessly!" ”

"Good!" Duke Alva shook his fist, "That's how we want to deal with their Royal Highness, what should we do next?" Is it necessary to announce a trade blockade immediately? ”

"No, we should give Li Yat-sen and Zheng Jing a chance to kneel and beg for mercy one last chance! As long as they are willing to withdraw from the New World and Malacca, and dismantle all the Galen ships, then we will . They can be firmly locked on the continent of East Asia! ”

"General, General, good news, good news, good news, the people of the Duke of Sui have taken Ezo Island! Now the springboard to the New World is in hand! ”

On the sixth day of the sixth month of June in the sixth year of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zhongshan, who had returned to the Nanjing General's Mansion after inspecting the construction site of the new river channel of the Yellow River into the sea yesterday, had just sat in his own general's capital hall early this morning, and got a good news from Zheng Jing, who rushed to the meeting.

"Good!" When Li Zhongshan heard the news, he also grinned happily, "Third Brother Yang is really good at doing things. Someone's coming! Take the map of Ezo Island! ”

When a master bookkeeper in the capital heard Li Yat-sen's words, he immediately found a rough map of Ezo Island from a row of bookshelves on the side and spread it on the desk in front of Li Yat-sen.

This map of Ezo Island was obtained by Zheng Jing from Japan through his uncle Tagawa Nanaemon, and it is very sloppy, the coastline is not very accurate, and the drawing is too large, but it still has great reference value.

Zheng Jing picked up a lead bar, sketched it on the map, and then said to Li Zhongshan: "This is the Dulai Peninsula, and now the people called Sui Guogong have controlled it, and Sui Guogong also sent Sauron soldiers to sweep the east and west Ezo land, I believe that it will soon be completely controlled." In the Higashi-Ezo area, which is a few other places facing the Pacific Ocean that are suitable for the construction of ports and tuntians, the Matsumae family, who originally ruled Ezo, also opened markets in some of these places for trading with the Ezo people. Here, here it is! ”

As he spoke, Zheng Jing drew a few circles around the place where the word "market" was written on the map.

Li Zhongshan looked at the place where he had drawn a circle, and quickly selected a bay where there seemed to be a large plain nearby, and then pointed to it and said to Zheng Jing: "Just choose this place, we must build the port, fortress, and fort as soon as possible, because there is not much time left for us!" ”

"Not much?" When Zheng Jing heard this, he was also a little nervous, "General, did you hear any rumors?" ”

Li Zhongshan nodded, then took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Zheng Jing. Zheng Jing took the envelope and took out the stationery inside, looked at it a few times and was stunned, the words were written neatly, at first glance it was written by the woman, and the head of the head was "Brother-in-law Shikai Big Brother Junjian", and at the end was "That is, Song, little sister Xiaomi book".

"It's." Zheng Jing looked up at Li Zhongshan, "Sui Guogong's sister-in-law wrote it to you?" ”

Li Zhongshan said: "It's the queen in the north!" ”

It's just a biography of the wild goose, above board, there is nothing to hide!

"It's really Queen Yang!" Zheng Jing glanced at the "little living Lu Bu" again, and said in his heart: "It's really good-looking! Also, what exactly is the relationship between the two of you? Have you ever met? Have you ever been on?

Then he looked at the letter carefully, and after reading it for a while, his face changed, and he said in a low voice: "Eleven countries. The Netherlands - Spain - Portugal - England - Holy Roman Empire - Great Mongolia - Chagatai Khanate - Indian Timurid Empire - Persian Kingdom - Japan - Sweden, this is a combination of Eastern and Western powers! ”

It turned out that this letter was written by Yang Xiaomi to inform Li Zhongshan that "the eleven countries of the East and the West are about to form a great alliance against the Ming Dynasty".

Although she also belongs to the anti-Ming camp, the way back that should be left is still to stay, in case this eleven-nation alliance together can't defeat Li Yat-sen, what should she do? You can't martyr the Qing Dynasty, right?

In addition, her brother Yang Qilong is now "the heart of the Duke of Sui, known to passers-by"!

Maybe one day, she will use Li Zhongshan's power to restrain her brother!

So after learning that Li Yat-sen wanted to be a "pen pal" with her, he readily agreed. This time, it was even more interesting to stab Li Zhongshan about the Eleven Nations Alliance under discussion.

"Got it all together?" Li Zhongshan snorted, "There are still four left!" ”

"Which four?" Zheng Jing asked.

There are still China, the United States, Russia, and France!

Oh, there is no "beauty" yet, there is only one "Acre city-state", so I don't know if there will be a "Geng Shengton" in the future.

Thinking of this, Li Yat-sen said to Zheng Jing: "There are still the Ming Dynasty, France, Rakshasa Kingdom, and the Ottoman Empire!" ”

If there is no "beauty", let the "soil" be on top!

It's still the 17th century, and the Ottoman Empire is still one of the Western powers, and in a few years, they will have to fight Vienna again!

"But we don't have any dealings with France, the Rakshasa Kingdom, or the Ottoman Empire!"

In fact, the new Ming Dynasty under the leadership of Li Yat-sen did not pay much attention to diplomacy - because Li Zhongshan was reluctant to interfere in the historical process of Europe, and it was not easy to do it! On the one hand, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal have a large number of overseas colonies, and even the great powers that have opened their sub-bases to the doorstep of the Ming Dynasty, they must be opposed!

On the other hand, France, which was ruled by Louis XIV of the country, is now "full of vitality and all things are competing", and history has singled out the European powers and has not fallen behind.

As for the Rakshasa Kingdom, it will soon be the era of Great Peter

"Don't be too proactive," Li Zhongshan frowned, "they'll come to us. If the Great Qing Dynasty and the Great Zhou Alliance the Netherlands, England, and Spain, then France and Rakshasa will definitely find us. ”

He paused, "The current world is like our Spring and Autumn Warring States, where the great powers stand side by side, and things are indispensable for them to join forces and horizontally and horizontally. But the most important thing is our own strength! Wing King, is your shipyard still only able to build Galen ships with a load of 8,000 stones? ”

With a load of 8,000 stones, it is about 500 tons, and the carrying weight of Western-style sailing ships in this era was about two-thirds of the displacement, which means that the displacement of this class of Galen ships is less than 1,000 tons. Compared with the first-class battleships with 2,000 tons and 100 cannons in the Western naval powers, it is really a bit far behind.

"You can build a big ship with a load of 10,000 stones!" Zheng Jing said with a solemn face, "According to their division, it is almost a fourth-class ship, which can be equipped with 50-54 cannons and has a capacity of about 350 people. ”

The progress of the Ming sea power is still very fast!

Don't look at Li Yat-sen, he didn't throw much money into the navy, but he let go of his hand and let Zheng Jing and Jia Guozhu do it. Among them, Jia Guozhu's strength is weak, and Li Zhongshan has to inject resources into him. And Zheng Jing has already achieved a large profit, his merchant ship tonnage is more than that of the British Navy and the Dutch Navy, and the net profit earned every year is far more than that of the Dutch East India Company!

So Zheng Jing has the money to develop the shipbuilding industry and build a stronger fleet. And Li Zhongshan only stifled the development of Zheng Jing in the Ming Dynasty, and through the reorganization of the army, almost all the Zheng family's army had been incorporated. But overseas, Zheng Jing can do it casually, no matter how big it is.

However, the development of the navy is not after all, and the cost of a 1,000-ton fourth-class ship is at least 20,000 taels of silver!

And go up, the growth of tonnage and cost is not proportional, the cost of a 2,000-ton first-class battleship, how to get more than 100,000 taels, if you loosen your hands a little, you can spend 200,000 yuan. If you make 10 or 20 of them, a few million taels will be gone!

And Zheng Jing's engineers are not that capable, they have never built a warship seriously before, and now it is not easy to make a fourth-class ship successful.

What is a century-old navy? To develop the navy, we have to accumulate slowly, and we pay attention to accumulation and development. If you don't accumulate it, you won't be able to build ships, and you still want to develop the navy. It's a dream at all!

But now, it seems that the Ming Dynasty does not have a hundred years to develop slowly.

(End of chapter)