Dashun Yongchang

Therefore, after obtaining Li Zicheng's consent, Ma Shiying mobilized part of the grain reserves to stabilize grain prices in Suzhou. In addition, the trial procedures were simplified, and those convicted of exile would not be reviewed again, and the verdicts would be declared valid.Under the alternating blows of these two hands, the Jiangnan gentry did not have time to react. Whenever these gentry want to do something, they will definitely not let their servants come forward, otherwise the government will directly come to arrest people. What they rely on is to maintain civil order. powerful people.

Now that these powerful people have been arrested and exiled, there is no communication relationship between the gentry and the common people. The common people are not familiar with individual gentry. If they are gone, the restrictive relationship between them and the city gentry will be lost.After all, city gangsters are local ruffians, and gentry have families and businesses just like them. They are afraid of street gangsters but not gentry, because there is an imperial court above them.

Now that the court decides for them and lets them speak out, they are naturally willing to get close to the court.What's more, after the new government cracked down on the evil forces, a large number of idle city gangsters began to look for jobs in order not to be exiled overseas. This also greatly reduced the labor cost in the Suzhou area and created new opportunities for the local people. prosperity.

It can be said that after entering March and April, Ma Shiying knew that this anti-crime and anti-evil operation against the Jiangnan area was a great success, and that one arm used by the gentry to control the people was discounted.

Chapter 558

However, while Li Zicheng suppressed the gentry forces in Jiangnan, he also gave scholars in Jiangnan another way out, that is, the expansion of education and the expansion of civil servants.

Because of the high literacy rate in Jiangnan, but the limited number of places in the imperial examination, many scholars were in a state of being underachieved. In this state, literati and bureaucrats had to change their contemptuous attitude towards craftsmen.

Yuan Hongdao once said that there is actually no difference between a craftsman who is proficient in one skill and a scholar who is well-versed in poetry and books.Therefore, some masters of jade carving can even sit side by side with gentry, and some scholars will also learn a skill if the road to the imperial examination is not smooth, such as making glasses, jade or engraving books, cabinet furniture, etc.

Because of the participation of these scholars, the craftsmanship of Suzhou craftsmen was at the top of the world for a while, even the craftsmen in the capital could not match it. Especially the fine wood furniture and jade wares in Suzhou have broken away from the concept of daily necessities and have become works of art.Wen Zhenheng, a famous scholar in Suzhou, even wrote 12 volumes of "Long Wu Zhi", which taught people how to enjoy life.

According to the view of the traveler, scholars can't find a way out, that's why Jiangnan Shifeng becomes more and more strange.To solve these problems, it is necessary to find jobs for these scholars so that they have something to do.

So what can readers of this era do?One is teaching, and the other is becoming an official.As for teaching, the new government will popularize compulsory primary education, so it will naturally attract a group of scholars.But being an official is more troublesome. Scholars want to be an official rather than a subordinate. Although there is no difference between the two in the eyes of the time traveler, for the scholars of this era, this is completely different.

Faced with such a situation, if you want to create a batch of positions to accommodate these scholars, you need to divide the functions of officials in detail. For example, a commercially developed city like Suzhou is not suitable for the small government form of the feudal dynasty.Separating government duties from city management duties one by one, especially setting up separate yamen for finance and taxation, municipal administration, and judiciary, will allow for many more duties.The other one is about overseas colonization affairs, and many more positions can be created.

Of course, for these positions, Li Zicheng did not intend to adopt the imperial examination system for admission, which would only strengthen the power of the gentry.He hoped that the new bureaucratic class should be closer to the common people, that is, the kind of bureaucratic class that the common people can enter without much effort.As for the old gentry class, there are only 300 to 400 people every three years. Compared with a country with a population of hundreds of millions, it is too little to do things and too much to manage the country.

If you compare the social classes of later generations, Jinshi is more similar to elite bureaucrats. Their ability is not to deal with specific affairs, but to establish systems or reform systems for the country.Similar to the technical officials in charge of practical affairs in later generations, almost nonexistent in this era, the subordinate staff is actually more like a kind of existence similar to hereditary craftsmen. They only know Xiao Gui Cao Sui, and they don’t know why they do this .

Cultivating technocrats is actually very simple, as long as special schools are established for education.When the yamen selects candidates, a graduation certificate, plus a qualification certificate at most, can be screened through the civil service examination.Compared with taking the Jinshi examination, this route to becoming an official is obviously smoother. After Li Zicheng instructed Ma Shiying to disclose this promotion route, he quickly attracted a group of scholars.

In addition, Li Zicheng also showed his favor to the Suzhou business community through Weng Hanjin and Xi Benzhen.After cracking down on a group of intermediaries and usury merchants who bullied the market, Li Zicheng told these merchants that in a commercially developed city like Suzhou, merchants should have the right to propose appropriate legal provisions on commercial issues and organize public events to protect the interests of merchants. Chamber of Commerce, and set up a commercial dispute arbitration tribunal under the chamber of commerce. Problems that cannot be resolved by the arbitral tribunal will be brought to the government.

The Suzhou businessmen, who were frightened by the new government's thunderous tactics, finally felt at ease after receiving this promise from Li Zicheng.They are not afraid that the government will attack those unscrupulous businessmen. What they are afraid of is that the government will also attack them. After all, there is no one who does not wet his shoes when he often walks by the river. Although they are not unscrupulous businessmen, it does not mean that they have never done it Black hearted matter.

Li Zicheng asked them to put forward appropriate legal provisions for commercial disputes, which is indeed good news for businessmen. As the core of Jiangnan's economy and the most developed commercial city, various commercial disputes encountered in this city are almost All commercial disputes that may have arisen throughout the country have been covered.

Not all of these commercial disputes can be resolved reasonably. In fact, most of the disputes are ultimately where the weak are forced to accept the demands of the strong, or are simply wrongly judged by confused officials, and businessmen have no place to reason.

Although before Li Zicheng did not propose it, merchants also elected merchant leaders to act as arbitrators to resolve commercial disputes between them.However, this kind of private mediation is not protected by the law. The merchant leader must obtain the approval of the officials before he can obtain the power to handle disputes. However, once the officials are transferred, all the rules have to be repeated.

Now that Li Zicheng gave them such a big pie, these Suzhou businessmen naturally accepted it immediately.As the economic core of Jiangnan, the commercial laws formulated by Suzhou merchants were easily accepted by the surrounding areas, which in turn increased the authority of the new government.The authority of the government does not actually enact laws, but comes from the public's recognition of the law. The public doesn't care who proposed the law, they only care about whether the law protects their own interests.

Cracking down on evil forces, establishing new laws, and giving hope to scholars to become officials, after these three policies were implemented, the people's hearts in Jiangnan immediately stabilized, while the gentry who originally controlled the place suffered a great loss.At least their influence in the city is not as good as before.

At this time, Ma Shiying also further introduced new policies, that is, to re-measure the acres of fields, divide them into acres, count the population in the south of the Yangtze River, and re-compile the taxation book.Nominally, Ma Shiying announced the abolition of the additional Pai during the Ming Dynasty, but if such things as re-measurement of the fields are done, the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River will not get any benefits, because in the past history of compiling the Yellow Book, many landlords put their own The taxes were distributed to the common people, and the clearing of the acres meant that these hidden lands and taxes would be dug out.

Landlords naturally refused to do it, and even Chen Mingxia couldn't bear it at this time.At this time, he has become the leader of the southern gentry. After all, he is now the highest-ranked southern gentry in the new dynasty. Qian Qianyi's status as a member of parliament cannot be regarded as an official.

Chen Mingxia really didn't want to conflict with the newly appointed Ma Shiying from the very beginning, because this would be slapping Li Zicheng in the face.Emperor Yongchang personally appointed the first cabinet prime minister by name. If you say no, you can’t do it. Will the new government still have authority in the future?Everyone came from the Ming Dynasty, and naturally they all knew that if an emperor became stubborn, it would be more than one or two people who were unlucky.

Therefore, Chen Mingxia felt that he had to bear with it for a year or two.It's just that he didn't expect that Ma Shiying had such an eager temper, and he couldn't wait to attack the Jiangnan gentry before his ass sat on the chair of the prime minister.And he was so ruthless with one strike, it was clear that he wanted to dig the roots of the gentry, so he couldn't help but stay out of the way.

He couldn't figure it out, and there were so many people watching.If he doesn't show up, the hearts of the subordinates will be scattered, wouldn't he, the Chief Assistant of Nanjing, be nothing more than a display.Therefore, he impeached Ma Shiying to Li Zicheng: he acted in a serious manner, was very happy with his achievements, and meant to take personal revenge.

Li Zicheng didn't take the impeachment of people like Chen Mingxia to heart, but he didn't say anything, just letting Ma Shiying do his thing.Chen Yuanyuan was a little puzzled, and said to Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty sent these impeachments to Prime Minister Ma. Do you want him to introspect? Or do you want him to deal with these people? I think that although Chen Mingxia and others are pedantic, But he's not really a bad guy, is he?"

Glancing at Chen Yuanyuan, Li Zicheng laughed and said, "Since I am the prime minister, I should have the power of the prime minister. As long as the new government can still operate normally, why should I question the prime minister who is in charge of the cabinet for some memorials attacking individuals? If If I don't trust his words, the cabinet should be dismissed.

As for Ma Shiying, how he views these impeachment memorials is his business.The question now is whether he will be able to fulfill his responsibilities as prime minister.If he is unable to fulfill this responsibility, he should resign voluntarily; otherwise, he can naturally laugh it off and continue to advance his governance plan.

My responsibility is to make this country run well. I am not a military police who checks personal morality.I think it's right for them to understand this well..."

Ma Shiying was quite nervous at the beginning when he received the impeachment memorial sent by Li Zicheng. He once planned to stop his post in accordance with the rules of Ming Dynasty, and then wait for the emperor's ruling.That is to say, after the emperor clarified his suspicions before going to work, he also wrote a letter of apology and sent it to Pingshan Hall.

However, Li Zicheng's reaction was rather strange. After reading his apology book, he approved a review and then sent it back.And there was no replacement for him as prime minister.Ma Shiying continued to work in trepidation, and then the impeachment memorials Li Zicheng received were still reviewed and forwarded to him. Now Ma Shiying slowly figured it out, His Majesty Yongchang asked him to handle these impeachment memorials by himself.

Although it is not in line with official rules to deal with these whistleblowers by himself, Ma Shiying did not rely on formal channels to achieve his current position, so he launched revenge.Although it was revenge, Ma Shiying also knew that Li Zicheng was watching him, so his revenge was personnel adjustments, throwing officials who opposed him to the far frontier, and then letting the northerners cross the river to become magistrates.

After the merger of Dashun and Ming Dynasty, there were still a large number of northern scholar-bureaucrats who could not find a place to arrange. Since Ma Shiying had matched up with the Jiangnan gentry, it was logical to win over these northern scholar-bureaucrats.These northern scholar-bureaucrats are also willing to serve the new dynasty, and they have been dissatisfied with the southerners for a long time. The north has fought for so many years. These southerners have enjoyed peace for so long, but they still refuse to pay taxes. This is not too selfish Is it?

Chapter 559 Yunnan

When people in the south of the Yangtze River gradually settled down, Yunnan was caught in a large-scale chieftain rebellion at this time.The Guizhou State Mansion, which was almost as long as the Ming Dynasty, was captured by the chieftain for the first time.

Although Mu Tianbo, the current Lord of the State of Qian, fled to Chuxiong, his mother Chen and his wife Jiao failed to escape, and fled to a nunnery in a hurry to commit suicide.Mu Tianbo's younger brothers, Mu Tianze and Mu Tianrun, were also killed in the rebellion.

Since the first Duke of the State of Guizhou sealed off the town of Yunnan, the government of the State of Guizhou has been no different from the emperor to the people of Yunnan. In fact, the orders of the Duke of the State of Guizhou in Yunnan are more effective than those of the imperial court.

However, Muying's descendants are not as humble and talented as their ancestors. Not only did Duke Qian's inheritance show several times of brotherly murder, but the Duke of Qian also only cared about enjoying the glory and wealth, and had no intention of governing Yunnan at all. This greatly reduced the prestige of the chieftain in the Qianguo government.

The current Duke of Qian, Mu Tianbo, is not an outstanding figure. His father, Mu Qiyuan, was frivolous and lawless, conniving at home slaves to harm the common people, and patrolling Yu Yan to arrest law-breaking home slaves.Mu Qiyuan actually mobilized troops and aimed artillery at the patrol office.So in the first year of Chongzhen, the grandmother Song was afraid that her son would cause trouble for the family, so she poisoned Mu Qiyuan to death. Mu Tianbo was only 10 years old at that time.

Because of his father's death, Mu Tianbo didn't have a good impression of Chongzhen. Hongguang ascended the throne and asked Yunnan to help him with his salary, but he didn't give anything away.It's just that he mistakenly thought that what the chieftains of Yunnan were afraid of was the prestige of the Duke of Guizhou, but he didn't know that what these chieftains were afraid of was the Duke of Qian of the Ming Dynasty.

When Daming saw that he was on the verge of collapse, the chieftains looked down on the Duke of Qian, who only asked for bribes and tributes.In September of the second year of Yongchang, Wu Bikui, chieftain of Wuding, launched a rebellion, declaring: "Emperor Zhu is gone, so there is no Duke Mu."

Wu Bikui captured Dayao, Dingyuan, and Yao'an successively, shaking the whole Yunnan.Mu Tianbo and Yunnan officials hastily ordered to mobilize Shiping Chieftain Long Zaitian, Sie'e Chieftain Wang Yangzu, Mengzi Chieftain Sha Dingzhou, Ningzhou Chieftain Lu Yongming, and Jingdong Chieftain Diao Xun to defeat the rebels in one fell swoop in September. , Wu Bikui and his henchmen were captured alive.

Although Mu Tianbo quelled the chieftain's rebellion, the rebellion also exposed the weakness of the Qian government.Because in the past, the chieftain's rebellion was suppressed mainly by the army, and the chieftain sent troops as a supplement. The chieftain's dispatch of troops was actually just to show his position.But this time, the suppression of the rebellion was almost all the chieftain's force, and the Ming government army hardly dispatched much.

The wise people among the chieftains have realized that the news that Beijing has been breached by thieves has dealt a considerable blow to these Yunnan Ming troops, especially some mainland officers and soldiers have already wanted to return to the mainland and are unwilling to stay in Yunnan to guard the frontier. , because they no longer know who they are guarding.

Although the Qianguo government has considerable influence in Yunnan, the relationship with these inland officers and soldiers is not good, because in the past, the Qianguo government treated them as outsiders and believed that they were sent by the imperial court to monitor themselves in Yunnan. .Now that the imperial court is gone, who would be willing to listen to Duke Qian's orders?

Without the support of these inland officers and soldiers, how can the local forces in Yunnan compare to the soldiers and horses of the chieftains? After all, there are not many Han people in Yunnan, and they don’t need to participate in the battles between the chieftains like the natives. They have their own imperial court to protect them. , so the military power of the Han people in Yunnan is relatively weak compared with that of the chieftain.

With such a weak military force, but occupying such a magnificent Kunming city, in the eyes of the chieftain, Kunming city, which has been run by the Mu family for more than 200 years, is really no different from heaven.The chieftains themselves had different ideas, and among them Sha Dingzhou was the one who dared to think and do things the most. He took his position as chieftain by stealing from his elder brother, so he naturally believed in the truth that the powerful can have everything.

From Sha Dingzhou's point of view, now that the Guizhou government is weak and he is strong, he can naturally replace the Qian government after he has eliminated it.Therefore, he stayed in Kunming and did not leave until the other chieftains left Kunming and suddenly launched an attack on Kunming. The unprepared Mu Tianbo was unable to organize a resistance at all, and finally left Kunming and his own under the protection of several guards. His family members, defected to Yang Weizhi of Chuxiong.

However, Sha Dingzhou followed the suggestion of Tang Jiabin, the mastermind, and did not fool around and raise the banner of anti-Ming, because the surrounding Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou were still under the rule of Ming.While trying to win over Yunnan officials appointed by the Ming court and registered Han officials and gentry, in the name of Wu Zhaoyuan, the governor of Yunnan, and Wang Xigun, a registered university scholar from Lufeng, he sent an edict to the Marshal's Mansion, saying: "Tianbo rebellion, Dingzhou to seek peace, it is appropriate to use On behalf of the town of Yunnan."

On the one hand, after inquiring about Mu Tianbo's whereabouts, he dispatched troops to Chuxiong, trying to eradicate Mu Tianbo.However, his army was defeated by Yang Weizhi's assembled army.After the failure of the westward advance, Sha Dingzhou sent troops to collect all parts of Yunnan, and within a short time, except for the area west of Chuxiong under the control of Yang Weizhi and Mu Tianbo, all belonged to the Sha family.

After Li Zicheng received Sha Dingzhou's letter, he threw it aside and did not reply. He waited for the other side's offer.Sure enough, not surprisingly, in April of the third year of Yongchang, he received a letter of appeal for help signed jointly by Mu Tianbo, Yang Weizhi and other Yunnan officials.

Only then did Li Zicheng convene the generals to inquire about the countermeasures. Naturally, all the generals unanimously condemned the Tusi Rebellion in Yunnan. Since Li Zicheng inherited the territory of Ming Dynasty, Yunnan cannot be separated from Dashun. Everyone knows that this is a political issue. , not a military issue.

However, regarding how to deal with the Tusi Rebellion in Yunnan, the generals have great differences. Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing think that the Shadingzhou rebellion must be wrong, but now Shadingzhou has almost occupied more than half of Yunnan. Yang Weizhi, Mu Tianbo can only control Chuxiong, and the strength of the two sides is completely out of proportion. To put down the chaos in Shadingzhou, he has to transfer troops from other provinces to Yunnan, but now Dashun has no troops to transfer, so Shadingzhou should be appeased. superior.

The views of Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing have also won the support of a group of generals, because although Dashun has nominally gained the ruling power over the southern provinces, the centripetal force of each province to the central government is different.To put it simply, the closer the place is to Shunjun, the more it recognizes Dashun, and the farther away it is, the less it takes Dashun seriously.

Yunnan and Guizhou are far away from the Yangtze River Basin. It would be nice for these two places to obey the central government in name. As for asking them to be loyal to the central government wholeheartedly, it is unrealistic. After all, it takes a month to travel.Therefore, if the officers and troops around Yunnan are transferred to Yunnan to quell the chaos, there will be no troops to transfer, or it will be impossible to obey such an order. If the Shun army is sent to Yunnan, the provinces passing through the border will have to skip their feet, and there is no guarantee that it will not cause greater chaos. .

Therefore, the best way is to admit the status quo. As long as Sha Dingzhou does not become king on his own, he will not be bothered. Far.

However, Jia Hanfu and Zhang Nai disagreed. They felt that a rebellion broke out in Shadingzhou just after the establishment of the new dynasty. If we eliminate him before he manages Yunnan into an iron bucket, then Yunnan may "no longer be owned by China" in the future.

The two went further and said that the rebellion in Yunnan is still a trivial matter, the point is that if the new dynasty's response is not appropriate, and other careerists think that the new dynasty is just a vain name, then it is difficult to say that it will not cause more such incidents, and even if they want to Even the suppression cannot be suppressed.

In addition to the opinions of these two factions, there are other slightly modified views, but after all, there is no escape from the two main directions.Li Zicheng fully listened to the views of the generals, and then asked the government for their views, and then ordered the Dashun Times to make a series of reports on the Shadingzhou rebellion.

After such a long period of time, the Statistics Department has almost collected all kinds of information on Yunnan, so at the request of Li Zicheng, Dashun Times emphasized two points.

One important point is that Sha Dingzhou murdered his elder brother, married his sister-in-law, angered his father to death, and obtained the position of chieftain.Another important point is that the chieftain soldiers in Shadingzhou massacred and plundered the Han people in Kunming.

After the Dashun Times published these contents, the people in the south of the Yangtze River who didn't care about the Tusi Rebellion in Yunnan now turned their backs on Sha Dingzhou. He was angry about the massacre of Han people in Kunming.

Before that, the people of Ming Dynasty didn't feel much about killing Han people or not. What they resented was the act of killing people.However, under the concept of region, these people will defend the behavior of local officials and soldiers killing people from other places.

It was only after the Yangzhou Rebellion that Li Zicheng elevated the killing of civilians to a political level that the citizens of Jiangnan also began to pay attention to the identity of the murdered.The event that Dashun sent troops to Japan to stand up for the Chinese sailors trapped in Nagasaki further stimulated the sense of identity of these Jiangnan people with their country and nation.

Therefore, this time Sha Dingzhou massacred the Han people in Yunnan, which quickly aroused the resentment of the citizens in the south of the Yangtze River. At the same time, he also spontaneously criticized the maintenance of the overall situation advocated by some gentry scholars.Seeing that public opinion is not conducive to appease Sha Dingzhou, many people who advocate maintaining the overall situation shut their mouths.

Seeing that the mainstream opinions on suppressing the rebels in Shadingzhou formed in the public opinion, at the end of May Li Zicheng once again convened military and political officials to make a final decision on the matter of Yunnan.At this meeting, Li Zicheng said to the military and political officials: "Shadingzhou's action is a rebellion. Now public opinion believes that Shadingzhou should be captured as soon as possible to save the people of Yunnan, and my opinion is the same.

Of course, as far as the current situation is concerned, it is still not appropriate for us to send troops directly, but to mobilize troops around Yunnan to counter the rebellion, I think it is best to mobilize troops from Sichuan.There are two troops in Sichuan, one is Zhang Xianzhong's department, and the other is the Ming Dynasty's official army, send envoys to ask the two places to see who is willing to lead troops to Yunnan to quell the chaos..."

The momentum of public opinion has become the mainstream, and naturally there will be no more proposals for appeasement at this meeting.

Chapter 560 The Dutch

In June of the third year of Yongchang, Peter Flack, a member of the Dutch East India Company, arrived in Shanghai on the Dutch merchant ship Gro. Facing the stretches of farmland on the shore and the villages that appeared from time to time, Flack, standing at the bow of the ship, spoke enthusiastically. Looking at Kui Yi who was beside him, he said: "Although we fought a battle with the Chinese, the Chinese agreed that our merchant ships can enter the Yangtze River. From this point of view, we are not considered a failure in this battle. It seems here that It’s as prosperous as the Netherlands…”

Faced with Flack's emotion, Kui Yi was not so optimistic. He had to remind: "The Chinese allow us to conduct transactions here, but we must act in accordance with the rules set by the Chinese, and we are not allowed to build military strongholds such as castles here. Therefore , this place cannot become another Batavia."

Flack replied disapprovingly: "The Chinese are not those barbaric natives. Since we all have to bow our knees to the shogun, it is no big deal to bow our knees to the Chinese emperor who is more powerful than the shogun.

Governor Lane has decided that the purpose of the company is to come to the East to make money, not to conquer the East. We have fought enough with the Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Banten, and Matalan in the past few years. If there is another fight with the Chinese, what will the company do to give back to shareholders?

The war cannot continue, what we need is to obtain the right to trade with China, and ask the Chinese to open the route to Japan, otherwise the company will have almost no business in the East. "

Although Kui Yi did not have the broad vision to view the company's development as the governor and congressmen, he also knew that after the Chinese expanded to the sea, the maritime order in East Asia became a mess.

In the past, the maritime order in East Asia was actually jointly maintained by the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong. After several unsuccessful challenges to China’s offshore sea power, the Dutch acquiesced in Zheng Zhilong’s control of China’s coastal areas, and Zheng Zhilong also recognized the Dutch’s control of the South Seas. ruling power.Although the two parties reached an agreement verbally, they are still pretending to be pirates and robbing each other's ships behind their backs, because both parties know that the other party has nothing to do with them.

The Dutch East India Company is due to lack of manpower. Although it has an advantage in ship performance, the number is really too much to fight recklessly with Chinese maritime merchants. In fact, it does not need Chinese maritime merchants. It is Cambodia, which is weak on the mainland, and the Dutch East India Company Can't handle it either. From 1643 to 1644, the Cambodia-Dutch War broke out between Cambodia and the Dutch East India Company, and the Netherlands was defeated.

The biggest problem for Zheng Zhilong is that he did not have the support of the imperial court, so he did not dare to expand abroad with great fanfare. It can be said that Zheng Zhilong put most of his energy on the mainland, but only a small part of his energy on the sea. trading.The biggest ally of the Dutch East India Company against Chinese maritime merchants was actually the Ming court.

But it's different now. The new emperor who defeated Ming on the mainland took full support for Zheng Zhilong's outward expansion, and the ropes that bound China's maritime merchants were untied.Not to mention the Dutch East India Company, even Japan couldn't withstand a random blow from this continental country.In fact, after the news that the Japanese shogunate apologized to China and released the Chinese Catholic crew, the Dutch, who had been encouraging the shogunate to fight against the Chinese, immediately turned off their flames.

They are very clear about one thing, that they can make the Japanese, who have always had a good face, humbly let people lose money, then it shows one thing, the Japanese can't really beat the Chinese.Then the next choice is very simple. Once China continues the war with the Netherlands, Japan will definitely surrender to China and cut off trade with the Netherlands.

The economic basis for maintaining the Dutch East India Company is not only the spice trade. In 1620, the Dutch themselves calculated the needs of the European spice market: cloves consume 47 pounds a year, nutmeg consumes 40 pounds, and nutmeg dry skin consumes 8 pounds. . More than 20 years have passed, and this consumption has not increased much.

Now only a quarter of the profits of the Dutch East India Company come from the spice trade, and the rest come from the trade of Japanese, Chinese, and Indian goods.In particular, Chinese goods not only have the best quality, the most complete variety, but also the largest quantity.Now that the Chinese have cut off the two most profitable routes of the Dutch East India Company, the newly appointed Governor of Batavia can only kneel down.

Van der Leyen also spent a lot of money to compete for this position. If he fought the Chinese here for five years, wouldn't it mean that he would return home empty-handed?Let alone whether the shareholders will accept this result, even he himself cannot accept this result.The company's insistence on Taiwan is because Taiwan can bring benefits to the company, but if it cuts the route between Japan and China for this benefit, it will be a loss of watermelon.

What's more, the sesame seeds may not be picked up yet, because the Chinese have already occupied the northern part of Taiwan, conquered the Dadu Kingdom and opened up the passage to the south, which means that the city of Zeelandia has actually lost its role in defending Taiwan, because the Chinese can Go south all the way from the north, and then besiege the city of Zeelandia together with the navy.

After figuring out the situation in Taiwan, Van der Leyen immediately decided to abandon Taiwan. His request to Peter Flack was that as long as the construction cost of the city of Zeelandia could be recovered, no matter how much it was, then it could be over. dispute with the Chinese.Those who are dissatisfied with the company's decision are probably the employees of the Taiwanese business hall such as Kui Yi. After all, they have invested a lot of money in Taiwanese land.

However, Peter Flack doesn’t care about these things. He has never invested money in Taiwan’s business houses, but he has a good chance to invest in Shanghai. What a place to rent or buy land to build a stack on.

However, Peter Flack was sent to Yangzhou by officials waiting here before he had time to see the prosperity of Shanghai County.However, this trip to Yangzhou was worthwhile for these Dutch people, because they were approved to cross the canal from Suzhou to Yangzhou this time.

At this time, it was the brightest golden age of the Dutch province. Hundreds of ships came in and out of the outer port of Amsterdam almost every day, surrounding the canal system of Amsterdam, expanding the city to a scale that was unattainable in the agricultural era. It is the de facto capital of Europe, full of sunshine, hope and money.

However, when Peter Flack saw the city of Suzhou, he felt that he had seen another city of miracles. This city also benefited from the canal system, and the inland river boats lined up on the canal so densely that it was impossible to see the beginning and the end.And none of the villages and towns around the city are in decline, and they are full of vitality with the coming and going of people.

In fact, all the way from Suzhou to Zhenjiang, the Dutch think they are traveling in the city, because they can't understand that there are so many shops and inns in the countryside, they can only think that the Chinese put the farmland in the city, Thus created a unique urban culture.Peter Flack felt that his eyes were not enough, because there were so many things to observe.

It was also because of this journey that the Dutch became more determined to make peace with the Chinese, because they felt that it was impossible for them to defeat such a powerful country in the East.As long as the Chinese have enough wood, de Flack thinks that the Chinese can build as many ships as the Dutch themselves, just relying on the craftsmen in this city.

Although the Dutch are a big shipbuilding country in Europe, it takes a lot of time and money to drive ships from Europe. During this period, it is estimated that the Chinese have already controlled Nanyang.So why do the Dutch, who have lost control of the sea, fight with the Chinese who have control of the sea?

With such awareness, the Dutchman became much more honest when he arrived in Yangzhou, obediently waiting to be summoned by Li Zicheng.At this time, Li Zicheng was busy negotiating with Zheng Zhilong about overseas colonial affairs.At the Xuzhou meeting, Zheng Zhilong was conferred the title of Marquis of Nan'an, which was considered to be one level higher than that of Nan'an Bo, who was conferred by Emperor Hongguang.

However, Zheng Zhilong is more concerned about being named the Minister of the Navy. For him, this position is even rarer than the title of Guangzong Yaozu.Because this meant that he had the opportunity to re-plan the maritime power, so he ran back from Macau soon after receiving the news, and wanted to confirm his position as the Minister of the Navy first.

Li Zicheng expressed his appreciation for Zheng Zhilong's enthusiasm, but he disagreed with Zheng Zhilong's desire to bring all the power of the sea under his control.He believes that Zheng Zhilong alone cannot take care of overseas affairs, and sea travel is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also takes into account the impact of the weather. Therefore, the main task of the Minister of the Navy is to build the navy and plan the port. Ensure control over key points of sea traffic.

Zheng Zhilong looked down on Li Zicheng at first, because he felt that Li Zicheng was a general on land and he was not familiar with maritime affairs, so as long as he discussed maritime affairs, the other party should not be able to speak for himself.Of course, if Li Zicheng uses power to suppress himself, he can only admit defeat.

However, after several discussions between the two sides, Zheng Zhilong had to admit that Li Zicheng was quite familiar with maritime affairs, and he thought it was the credit of the Statistics Department.So it is not very unusual to get such information.

Leaving aside those other thoughts, after Zheng Zhilong and Li Zicheng had a heated discussion, Zheng Zhilong promised Li Zicheng that he would distinguish between the sergeants and sea merchants under his command, and then withdraw from commercial operations to ensure that the navy can focus on war .

Li Zicheng also decided to give some privileges to Zheng's maritime merchants as compensation for the fact that they had to be recruited by the imperial court when necessary.At the same time, he decided to divide the East Asian region into two maritime control areas, bounded by Ryukyu and Shanghai, the northern sea area belongs to the Minister of Beiyang, and the southern sea area belongs to the Minister of Nanyang. The two ministers are located under the navy and are responsible for dispatching the navy in this area. , defend the route and strike hostile forces.

Chapter 561 Overseas Colonization I

Zheng Zhilong has some opinions on the division of the northern and southern oceans, because the Japanese route is separated from the Manila and Batavia routes, but he can't come up with a better plan, and even the Fujian and Zhejiang maritime merchants have begun to split.

Although Zheng Zhilong is the protector of Chinese maritime merchants, his status is caused by the historical environment, and it is not that he really controls the foreign traders along the entire coast of China.And this historical environment is inseparable from the imperial court's strict control over overseas trade and the growing influence of European merchants in Asia.

Although Long Qing opened the sea to let Ming relax the sea ban, the emperor just regarded the customs duties as his own private money, so what the emperor paid attention to was not overseas trade, but how much tax overseas trade could bring him.Because the emperor looked at overseas trade from this perspective, the eunuchs sent to the customs to collect taxes did not care about overseas trade, but only how much tax the sea merchants could pay.

These eunuchs who only focus on the emperor's hobbies don't care about the difference between overseas trade and agricultural production. Agricultural production is almost stable, so they can collect a fixed tax every year, and the eunuchs naturally regard overseas trade as a Another type of agriculture at sea, as long as the tax amount is determined, the owner of the ship will have to pay taxes no matter whether the ship returns or not.

This kind of rigid taxation method can only force ship owners with no background to smuggle, because sailing at sea is three-thirds risky, and five ships go out and return four are quite successful. According to the Europeans, the merchant ships traveling between Europe and Asia are the most It's only three times back and forth, the first time is the safest, and the third time is very likely to be shipwrecked.

Therefore, overseas trade and agricultural production are two different things. When things go well, the shipowner can make a fortune at one go, but when things go wrong, a shipwreck can lead to bankruptcy.The imperial court used a rigid agricultural production method to manage maritime merchants, which naturally aroused dissatisfaction among maritime merchants.For example, after Zheng Zhilong rebelled against the court for the first time, he quickly gathered thousands of ships. These ships were actually investments made by smugglers.

Why did the smugglers invest in Zheng Zhilong? First, because Zheng Zhilong was not a real pirate. He was also a maritime merchant. He used to be a comprador of the Dutch East India Company. Instead of plundering coastal civilians, it was to force the imperial court to make concessions in overseas trade.

The second is that because of the rapid expansion of the Dutch East India Company in the East Asian Sea, the previous governors were all expansionists. The trade between the Portuguese and the British in Asia naturally threatened Chinese maritime merchants.

But in the face of the huge fleet of the Dutch East India Company and the more advanced large ships and cannons, Chinese maritime merchants can only be harvested one-sidedly by a single force. This is why they are willing to support Zheng Zhilong and then hold together to keep warm.In the Kinmen naval battle in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong's fleet defeated the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, thus preserving the routes in East Asia for Chinese maritime merchants.

However, under the leadership of Zheng Zhilong, Chinese maritime merchants can only keep their existing territory, and cannot prevent the expansion of the Dutch East India Company in the Southeast Asia region. The channel was controlled by the Dutch, and the area of ​​Chinese maritime activities was further reduced.