1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 433 Guangzhou Event ([-])

On July 1642, 7, Li Zicheng's troops surrounded Kaifeng for several months. In an emergency, Chongzhen ordered Zuo Liangyu to go to help.Zuo Liangyu, Yang Wenyue, Hu Dawei, Yang Dezheng, and Fang Guoan were stationed in Zhuxian Town.When Zuo Liangyu saw that the enemy was powerful, he pulled out his camp and fled. All the troops in Xiangyang were defeated.Zuo Liangyu's army fled halfway and met Li Zicheng's ambush army. Zuo Liangyu's army was in chaos and abandoned thousands of horses and mules. Ren Dong, the supervisor of the army, died in the battle, and Zuo Liangyu fled to Xiangyang.

Chongzhen seeks to dismiss governor Yang Wenyue for the defeat of Zhuxian Town, and governor Ding Qirui is arrested and imprisoned.Chongzhen then ordered Sun Chuanting to go out of Guanzhong to break the seal. Chuanting thought that Guanzhong was restless, and the Shaanxi soldiers did not want to leave the soil as their homeland, so they stayed in Xi'an.

On July 7, Zheng Zhilong’s navy assembled more than 19 warships to attack Laoag (now Laoag City, Philippines), where Spanish reinforcements in northern Luzon were entrenched. After two days of fierce fighting, Zheng’s navy was still unable to break through the mouth of the Laoag River. , after losing more than 20 large and small ships, returned to Manila.Although the Spaniards repelled Zheng Zhilong's navy, but because Laoag's supplies could not meet the support fleet, they sent five warships to stop at Legazpi in the southwest of Luzon.

In August, King Charles I of England announced the "crusade against Parliament", provoking the first civil war.

On August 8, the Dutch East India Company united with the Sultan Kingdom of Cirebon to attack the Sultan Kingdom of Mataram in Tegal, destroying more than 11 galleys, killing and wounding more than [-] prisoners, and Mataram gave up. Zhige retreated inland.

Guangzhou in August is rainy and windy, and the climate is relatively hot and humid, and the citizens on the streets are also in a hurry.But no matter what the weather was, it didn't affect the activities of the merchants at all. They communicated with each other in restaurants, brothels, refreshment shops, and docks, talking about the latest business information and novelty goods, looking for a chance to make money.

"How?" In a restaurant near the Pearl River, the big shopkeeper of Hanzhou Warehouse looked at several Guangzhou traders opposite with a smile on Tuesday.

"Looking at the quality and clarity, it should be as good as Western goods." A businessman in his forties held a ten-inch round mirror in both hands, nodded and said, "Is there a mirror with a larger size?"

"Of course!" Tuesday Gui said proudly: "There are also mirrors ranging in size from three to five feet in the warehouse. The number is not many. After all, there are many damages during the journey across the ocean."

"What's the price?" Another slightly obese businessman asked casually while stroking the mirror in his hand.

"The price is naturally cheaper than the dioramas in the past." Tuesday Gui said, "If you want a large quantity, there will be a discount."

"Let's go to your warehouse and have a look." A bearded businessman said, "I think there are other rare goods in your Hanzhou warehouse. Let's take a look together."

"That would be the best!" Tuesday Gui said with a smile: "After you all have a look at the goods, in the evening, my little brother will do something, go to Yuehuizhai to have a few drinks together, and agree on the quantity and price together."

"Old Zhou, I heard that you have some relationship with Zheng Zhilong?" Su Yuanfei, the fat businessman, asked.

"We have some cooperation with the Zheng family." Tuesday Gui replied vaguely.

"You have a cooperative relationship with Zheng Zhilong, so you must have made a lot of money in the trade with Japan and North Korea." Su Yuanfei said with a smile: "Can you introduce some Zheng family members to my brother, let me wait in Japan and North Korea Also intervene in one or two."

"The maritime trade between Japan and North Korea is a market that the Zheng family insists on monopolizing, and our Hanzhou did not intervene in it." Tuesday Gui said with a wry smile: "The cooperation between our Hanzhou and the Zheng family is in... other aspects."

Su Yuanfei and the others took a deep look at Tuesday Gui, with a look of searching on their faces.The treasurer of Zhou, I heard that they came from the Nanyang region, which called themselves Hanzhou. They rose rapidly in just a few years. He has also fought in battles, and he has not lost the wind in the slightest. He seems to be a powerful maritime power group like Zheng Zhilong.

Recently, a sea merchant from the Nanyang area brought news that the Dutch red-haired ghosts took the initiative to make peace with them in Hanzhou, and also promised them a large piece of land.Now, that Hanzhou took advantage of the situation to establish a country and become the king, which made all the Ming people in the Nanyang region look at it with admiration.

In the past, the Hanzhou goods sold by the shopkeeper Zhou were only precious sandalwood and nanmu from the Nanyang region, as well as some giant trees used for construction, and of course some exquisite metal tools and agricultural tools, steel blocks (strips), Spirits and mead (cane wine) are basically products of crude benzene, and their value is not very high.

However, today the shopkeeper Zhou Da took out mirrors, which can only be produced by Westerners, which surprised several businessmen present. This Hanzhou can also produce such luxurious and exquisite objects. It seems that their It's not a wild place either.

As for the cooperation with the Zheng family in other aspects that Tuesday Gui said, they have also heard a little bit. The firearms of the Zheng family used to be Portuguese from Haojing (now Macau), but in recent years, the Zheng family has begun to ask Han The purchase of a large number of firearms in the continent made Zheng's army built into a force with a very high rate of firearms, almost sweeping across Fujian, northern Guangdong and other places, and all the bandits and thieves in the mountains and plains were wiped out.

So, from this point of view, the strength of this Hanzhou must be strong, otherwise it would not be able to gain a foothold in Nanyang, and it would be able to confront Western forces head-on without defeat.

The Hanzhou immigrant fleet gathered at the coast of Daming from the east and west lines at the end of July.The east line still follows the route in recent years, starting from Jianye City, passing through Weiyuan Island (New Guinea Island), Midway Island (now Palau Koror Island), Ping An Island (now Catanrenes Island, Philippines) ), arrived at Hanxing Island (today's Miyako Island).

The western route followed the original immigration route, passing Xinxiang City (now Suai Town, East Timor), Batavia, Xinsheng Island (now Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam) on Timor Island, and arrived in Guangzhou.The mirrors and other glazed (glass) products produced by Hanzhou were brought by the immigrant fleet on the western route.

In order to transport these precious commodities, all the mirrors are wrapped in thick paper, and a large number of wood shavings provided by Jianyecheng Wood Processing Factory are laid in the cabin to reduce damage caused by severe vibrations during the voyage of the ship.But even with heavy protection, nearly 40% of the mirrors transported to Guangzhou were damaged after a [-]-day voyage.This made Tuesday Guigui, who received the goods, very distressed. It was equivalent to spending a lot of money along the way!

Qi Dajiang, the commander-in-chief of the navy, did not arrive in Guangzhou. It is said that he brought the North Sea (Timor Sea) fleet to prepare to join forces with Xinsheng Island to attack the coastal area of ​​Priango (near Saigon, Vietnam) controlled by the Guangnan Kingdom and occupy a piece of mainland territory. .The three armed merchant ships that arrived earlier unloaded a large amount of Hanzhou specialty goods to Guangzhou, and then went northward to the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Huaihe River regions to start collecting immigrants.

On one of the ships, there are a few special people sent by Hanzhou, the diplomatic representatives of Qi State headed by Huang Zijia, they will go to Beijing, and with the attitude of giving it a try, they will go to see Emperor Chongzhen of Ming Dynasty , to see if it is possible to establish a direct diplomatic relationship with Ming.

From the exact news brought by the fleet, Tuesday Gui has already learned that Qi Tian, ​​the former commander of Hanzhou, has become the king of Qi and established the Qi State.As the shopkeeper who has been running Hanzhou in Guangzhou for many years, Tuesday Gui was included in the newly established Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and served as the Minister of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, becoming one of the middle and high-level officials of Qi State in one fell swoop.

After seeing his letter of appointment on Tuesday, Gui burst into tears with excitement.God is sorry to see him, he was just a clerk under a merchant, because he was the first to follow Cao Xiong, the commander of Hanzhou, to build Hanzhou's window in Daming, help run the Hanzhou warehouse in Guangzhou, and at the same time recruit craftsmen, entertainers, and Scholars who can be used by Hanzhou will be transported back to Hanzhou.Who would have imagined that one day he would get the status of a government official, and he would also be a senior official of the Ministry of Qi.

Not to mention, my life was completely sold to Han Zhou, oh, no, it was sold to the Qi State, to the King of Qi.His family members far away in Hanzhou also sent him a letter, saying that everything is fine in Jianye City, the two children have started to study in college, and his wife often participates in the Queen's organization while taking care of the parents and children. In the production meeting, I helped the women's school, Hanzhou quilt factory, printing shop, canned food factory and other workshops and schools to do some simple voluntary auxiliary work.

The people of Qi State did not despise him because of his status as a merchant, but highly affirmed his work.In the accompanying immigrant fleet, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Qi State sent more than ten middle and low-level officials and subordinates to Guangzhou, all under his unified management, to expand the commercial station of Qi State in Daming to a certain extent.

In Nanjing, Quanzhou, and Beijing of the Ming Dynasty, three Qi State merchant stations were added. The north and south Beijing are the political and economic centers of the Ming Dynasty, and Quanzhou is where Zheng Zhilong's power is based, and they are all key areas that Qi State is concerned about.With the establishment of the business station, the black-clothed guards sneaked in. Their main job was to detect the policies of the Ming Dynasty Hall and information from various places, and to cooperate with the business station to recruit useful talents from Daming.

At the same time, the black guards stationed in Beijing and Nanjing also accepted a very difficult task, that is, to try their best to collect and steal books from Wenyuan Pavilion and Mingyi Pavilion in the two capitals.Of course, this mission should be very top-secret. If the literati of Ming Dynasty learned that Qi, a small country in Nanyang, wanted to plunder the cultural treasures of Ming Dynasty, they would have to blow up their nests.Moreover, Hanzhou's reputation will be completely stink in Daming in the future.

That night, at Yuehuizhai by the river, on Tuesday, you hosted a banquet for several luxury merchants from Guangzhou, and discussed how to distribute the mirrors and colored glaze products produced in Hanzhou.Just when several people were drinking and getting familiar, an unexpected guest came from outside the box.

"Are you the shopkeeper of the Hanzhou warehouse?" Chen Houwen looked at the businessmen in the box with disdain.

"The brother-in-law of the prefect of Guangzhou." Su Yuanfei whispered to Tuesday Gui next to him.

"I'm the shopkeeper of the Hanzhou Warehouse, Tuesday Gui." Tuesday Gui stood up neither humble nor overbearing, bowed his hands to Chen Houwen and said, "I don't know why Your Majesty is looking for me?"

"Can you guys allow me to chat with shopkeeper Zhou alone?" Chen Houwen glanced sideways at the other businessmen sitting there, speaking politely, but his expression was full of arrogance.

Seeing this, Su Yuanfei and others looked at Tuesday Gui apologetically, and then left the box, leaving only Tuesday Gui, Chen Houwen and two relatives.

"I heard that your Hanzhou warehouse has a large number of dioramas?" Chen Houwen sat down loudly, and looked up at Tuesday Gui.

"Yes, we have mirrors in our warehouse, but they are not from the West, but produced in our Hanzhou." Tuesday Gui looked at the other party vigilantly, and said in his heart, this dude would not want to grab our Hanzhou's goods by force. Bar.

"It doesn't matter whether it's from the West or from Hanzhou." Chen Houwen said with a smile, "Because, I want this batch of goods."

"Oh? How much do you want?" Tuesday Gui asked in a deep voice.

"All."

"I'm afraid it won't work." Tuesday Gui shook his head and said, "Someone has already ordered some of this batch of mirrors."

"Who ordered it, you tell me. When the time comes, I'll let him cancel it." Chen Houwen said indifferently.

"..." Tuesday Gui's heart sank, sure enough, this dude wanted to grab her.

"Hehe..." Chen Houwen chuckled a few times when he saw that Tuesday Gui was silent, "I know that you have some relationship with Zheng Zhilong from Fujian. But don't forget, this is Guangzhou, under the rule of the governor of Guangdong. Thieves, no matter how many boats there are, they won’t be able to reach the shore.”

Tuesday Gui sighed slightly in his heart, this little thief didn't pay attention to Zheng Zhilong at all, so he might have nothing to back him up.

"This batch of mirrors is worth 15 taels of silver. How are you going to pay?" Tuesday Gui decided to compromise, as long as he gave the silver, he could deliver all the mirrors to him.

"15 taels!" Chen Houwen showed a hint of surprise on his face, then shook his head and said, "You also said that these mirrors are not from the West, but from your Hanzhou, so I'm afraid they won't be worth that much money. … 2 taels! You deliver all the goods to the warehouse on Yuexiu Street, and then come to my mansion to collect [-] taels of silver."

Gui Gui's face turned cold on Tuesday. Although he knew that the cost of this batch of mirrors produced locally in Hanzhou might be less than 2 taels of silver, but the cost of traveling across the ocean and traveling thousands of miles would have to be several times higher.Moreover, in the past, mirrors from the West were worth 1000 taels of silver if they were only one foot square.Many of the mirrors in the Hanzhou warehouse are three or four feet large, and the value will only be higher.

Isn't this 2 taels of silver the same as stealing their Hanzhou goods for nothing?

"Too much deceit!" After returning to Hanzhou Warehouse, Tuesday Gui Evil kicked over the table in front of him viciously, and immediately squatted down, hugging his feet and crying out for pain.

The few guys following looked at each other in blank dismay, wanting to go over and check if the shopkeeper's foot was broken, but they were afraid of further annoying him, so they stood behind him at a loss.

"Get out, a bunch of trash!" Tuesday Gui scolded angrily when he saw the embarrassed expressions of the guys behind him.

Several clerks hurriedly left the lobby, but unexpectedly, because of the darkness, they collided with some people outside the door who wanted to come in to look for Zhou Gui.

"Shopkeeper Zhou, why are you guys so clumsy?" Cao Song, the head of the black-clothed guard stationed in Guangzhou, walked in dissatisfied. I'm afraid they were chopped off with a knife!"

"What's the point of cutting off a guy." Tuesday Gui said angrily, "You have the ability to cut down the prefect of Guangzhou!"

"Hee hee..." Cao Song smiled, looked at the sullen Tuesday Gui, and said softly, "It would be a shame to kill the prefect of Guangzhou. If you really want me to kill him, I will More than a dozen methods can make him die without anyone noticing, and in the end, we can't suspect him."

"Really?" Tuesday Gui asked sternly, his heart moved.

"No way, you really want to kill the prefect of Guangzhou?" Cao Song was startled when he saw Tuesday Gui's serious expression.

"Don't kill the prefect of Guangzhou." Tuesday Gui said in a low voice, "It's the prefect's wife and brother."

"Why?"

"This little thief wants to rob us of Hanzhou's goods." Gui said darkly on Tuesday, "I don't know where he got the news. He knows that we have a batch of mirrors shipped from Hanzhou in our warehouse.  … He wants Hard grab."

"Hey!" Cao Song raised his eyebrows, "You son of a bitch, you dare to plot against our country of Qi, you didn't say anything. Let's do him tonight!"

"Tonight?" Tuesday Gui was stunned, "Isn't it too hasty....Aren't you going to prepare?"

"What preparations are there?" Cao Song said, "We have learned so many skills in Hanzhou, so it's time to practice our hands tonight!"

(End of this chapter)