I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 446 Come and hurt each other
Chapter 446

Across the river from the Dutch East India Company in Batavia is the Westport District of Batavia, which is also known as the Coconut City of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, the Dutch do not recognize this Coconut City, but think it is the Ming Dynasty's headquarters in Batavia. Asia's consular district.

Of course, this consular district is a bit big. According to the current ruling data, Yecheng District is about 320 kilometers long from north to south and 170 kilometers wide from east to west. Because of the irregular terrain, it is equivalent to about [-]% of the entire Java Island, which is equivalent to [-] kilometers. Five thousand square kilometers.

Because the Dutch East India Company ceded ownership of Sumatra to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's Royal Navy only had a symbolic patrol squadron stationed here, with a total of twelve Sea Wolf-class warships.Since this is the place where goods were traded between the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch East Indies, although there are not many troops stationed here, only about [-] people, there are more than [-] transport, loading and unloading workers here.

You can take out your weapons and fight at any time.

Originally, Putmans wanted to send someone to lodge a serious protest with the Ming Dynasty, but before the trip could take place, the board of directors in Amsterdam (Seventeen Gentlemen) passed a board resolution for Putmans to step down. The new governor of the Dutch East India Company, Anthony Van ·Dimen.

This is a legendary figure. Anthony became a businessman when he was 23 years old. In 1593, the Netherlands introduced tulips from the Ottomans. At that time, the quantity was small and the price was high. They were regarded by the upper class as a symbol of wealth and glory, and speculators took a fancy to them. Business opportunities, began to hoard tulip bulbs, and push prices up.

Anthony also joined this gamble, but soon his plantation in France was attacked by the war and all the tulips were destroyed, so he became a bankrupt businessman.To make ends meet, he became an "adelborst" with the Dutch East India Company on a five-year contract.Although in the 19th century adelborst, or "ensign", referred to a junior officer rank in the Dutch Navy.

Nowadays adelborst is neither a military rank nor a position in the navy. It refers to a soldier who has a little more education than his mostly illiterate colleagues, so that they can occupy some kind of leadership position in the future.

The Dutch East India Company usually had one adelborst for every five soldiers, and the salary was 5 guilders per month, while ordinary soldiers only had 10 guilders.

Anthony's rapid rise in the Dutch East India Company was not as wise, visionary, and adventurous as he wrote in his autobiography. In fact, his success was because of his wife, Maria nee Aelst. A wealthy widow, they got married in the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631).

In the following year, 1632, he joined the East India Company Committee as a member. At the end of the same year, he rose from a debtor with a debt of up to 750 guilders a year to a rich man with a net worth of over [-] guilders.

Antony's greatest achievement as Governor of the Dutch East Indies was that he led a fleet from the Isle of Wight to Batavia. This was a fleet of eight armed merchant ships and two warships, carrying soldiers recruited from There were more than 6 sailors, about 3 to [-] passengers and [-] to [-] soldiers. Only [-] people were lost during the journey, [-] of whom died in accidents.

Such losses can be said to be minimal. The real reason why the Dutch East India Company's board of directors supported him to become governor-general was because he was good at flattering and flattering. He could coax Maria into a happy mood, and he could also prosper in Amsterdam.

The problem was that after Anthony took over as governor, he did not want to continue Putmans' policy, but he immediately summoned Specks, who had worked in Japan for many years and was an expert on Far Eastern issues and an excellent diplomat.

"Your Majesty the Governor, congratulations on your promotion to Governor!"

Anthony smiled faintly: "My friend, I need your help!"

Specks understood what Anthony meant: "You mean, about the Ming Dynasty?"

"Yes, our company has invested a lot of money and manpower in Annan and Taungoo respectively. Now that it's like this, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the board of directors!"

Although Anthony is now the governor of the Dutch East Indies, he has become the leader of the Dutch overseas empire.As Governor-General, Antony was technically a salaried employee of the Dutch East India Company like his predecessors and, like all employees, was answerable to the company's board of directors.

If the board of directors wants to remove him from his post, he can only step down obediently, just like the feudal officials appointed by the imperial court. The strength of the Dutch East India Company alone cannot fight against the entire Netherlands, even if the Netherlands has not yet established an independent country.

Speces was an expert on the Far East, but the problem was that the problem lay with this expert on the Far East. Speces had been working in Japan until Japan closed itself off, and he withdrew from Japan to Batavia in 1635.For a long time, Specks did not know much about the Ming Dynasty, but he had a deeper understanding of Japan.

Specks did not answer his question directly, but said: "His Majesty the King of Spain has established diplomatic relations with the Ming Empire, and Lord Francisco de Melo has become the Spanish diplomatic ambassador to the Ming Dynasty!"

Anthony said with some worry: "It is precisely because of this that it becomes difficult. The Spanish Empire is too powerful, and the Ming Dynasty is also too powerful!"

"I admit that the Spanish Empire is powerful, but the Ming Empire is!"

Specs said with disdain: "They have long since declined. More than 200 years ago, they were very powerful. They were so powerful that the Spanish Empire was not even worthy of lifting shoes from the Ming Dynasty. But the problem is, it is not more than 200 years ago. What's more, we should Show the Ming Dynasty the strength of our Dutch East India Company."

"But the problem is, once there is a war with the Ming Empire, no matter the outcome, it will be difficult for the board of directors to explain it!"

"As long as the conflict is controlled within a certain range, there will be no war!"

Anthony became even more confused: "Specs, what do you mean..."

"The Annan and Toungoo people are both brave and good at fighting. What they lack compared to the Ming Dynasty is weapons and equipment. If we provide them with some weapons and equipment..."

"If Daming investigates it!"

"This is just normal trade behavior!"

"But Annan is so bad. It's not like we haven't supported them. They can't say anything!"

"Mercenaries!"

Specks smiled and said: "In the name of mercenaries, the number is too small to influence the situation of the war. What if there are three musketeers?"

"That's one-third of the strength of our Dutch East India Company!"

"The Han people have a saying, "You can't trap a wolf if you give up your children!" The Dutch East India Company moved very quickly, and they also took great pains to smuggle weapons and equipment. Through the exploration of Dutch craftsmen, they created a batch of closed submarines similar to submarines. The small boat passed through formal security inspection channels and entered the China Sea in the Ming Dynasty.

Since Cheng Shijie stopped the development of iron ore in Daming, all iron ore and copper ore produced by steel plants were purchased from the Dutch or Spanish, including Portugal and Venice.

Because the prices of these ores are extremely low, the Dutch are only interested in gold, silver and spices, and are also very interested in Ming Dynasty commodities. Transporting iron ore or copper ore is just incidental.

A group of more than 20 armed merchant ships successfully entered the South China Sea. When they saw that there were no Ming Navy patrol ships around, they lifted the submerged submarine up through the cables on the large ship and drained the water in the submarine. Small boats with a ton size can sail on the sea.

A large number of sailors got off the big ship. These sailors were actually mercenary soldiers. They took small boats and sailed towards Annan Saigon Port.

In order to confuse the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch East India Company also made a serious protest to the Coconut City of the Ming Dynasty. However, the result of the protest was that there was no result, and Li Weiluan did not even report it.

Although he did not report it, he raised the alert in Yecheng and inspected the movements of the Dutch Combined Fleet. As for the strength of the Dutch East India Army, Li Weiluan did not take it to heart. If the Dutch dared to take action, he was not afraid of the Dutch doing shit. Guess they got it clean.

The Dutch East India Company's small actions naturally successfully hid it from the Ming Dynasty. However, they hid it from the Ming Dynasty, but they did not hide it from their opponents. The people who know you best in the world will always be your enemy.

This was a British fleet consisting of eleven sailing ships. Under the command of Sir Thomas Dale, they attacked the transport fleet of the Dutch East India Company at sea. After a fierce battle, a Dutch armed merchant ship was captured. Hit the mast and lose power.

In order to avoid being surrounded and annihilated, other ships abandoned the ship. Originally, the Dutch wanted to sink it, but the British acted faster, so the British discovered the secret.

The British did not understand this important information at first, but one of the first officers survived and told the British about the plan.

Sir Thomas Dale realized that this was a good opportunity to sell the Ming Dynasty, and he immediately sent a representative to the Ming Dynasty, hoping to gain the Ming Dynasty's friendship.

When the British representative came to Guangzhou, Cheng Shijie was inspecting the government of Guangdong. Although he improved the treatment of officials and allowed their children to participate in the imperial examination, join the army, engage in politics, and engage in business, the problem is that they still habitually engage in corruption. .

These old officials thought they were doing things secretly, and Cheng Shijie and the people around them couldn't see it at all unless they went deep into the place. In fact, every time Cheng Shijie went out, it was always light and dark, and Cheng Shijie was bright when he was out. The Guards Brigade and Attachment on the surface, and behind the scenes is Chen Guodong supervising the Military Road Administration. Chen Guodong mainly checks whether the army has problems such as withholding military pay and reselling ordnance.

Military pay is only paid directly to individuals by generals. In fact, officers no longer have the main channels for corruption, but there are still ways of corruption, such as recommending non-commissioned officers for promotion to officers, military merit rewards, etc.

Jin Yiwei, on the other hand, conducts overt and covert investigations to collect evidence, but now Jin Yiwei only has the power to investigate and does not have the power to arrest or interrogate. In just a few months, Cheng Shijie has killed more than 40 executive committee members in Guangdong, and 100 Several working committee members also handled more than 60 corruption cases.

Cheng Shijie now finally understands that it is easy to conquer a country but difficult to defend it, why the Manchu Qing army has been unable to fight in just a dozen years. Once corrupted, the army will lose its combat effectiveness.

Cheng Shijie can only strengthen the ideological education of the army, but the education level of the soldiers in the army is not high. This reminds Cheng Shijie of the white-haired girls of later generations. This method can be adopted.

Therefore, Cheng Shijie recruited more than a dozen drama screenwriters in Guangdong, and asked them to use real events to write several stories that could reflect the dark governance of the Ming Dynasty, officials forcing the people to rebel, and forcing good people into prostitution, so as to strengthen the ideological education of army soldiers.

At this time, the British representative came to Guangzhou and met Cheng Shijie.

In line with the principle of being able to import without destroying his own soil, Cheng Shijie placed two large orders with representatives of the British East India Company: "300 million stones of rice and 20 tons of iron ore!"

These two big contracts almost knocked the representatives of the British East India Company unconscious. After blinking for a long time, they were sure that Cheng Shijie was not joking with them and was really going to make a big deal with them.

The representative stammered: "Your Majesty the Emperor, we are very happy to cooperate with you to make a lot of money, but... we don't have enough manpower! We have to mine phosphate rock, guano, tin ore, manganese ore, Copper mines, silver mines, sulfur, saltpeter, and we also have to cut down trees. So many projects have squeezed the human resources we have on hand to the limit, and now two more projects have been added, which..."

"Just tell me if I can do it?"

"Actually, rice is okay. The Indians grow rice, so just grab it from them or buy it from them. But the problem is that iron ore needs to be mined. This requires a lot of miners, and we don't have that many people!"

Cheng Shijie cursed angrily: "Is your brain blocked by money? There are not enough people. If there are not enough people, you won't catch it? In Africa, America, India, and Japan, there are plenty of people. These are all ready-made You don’t know how to use the labor force? Don’t tell me that you suddenly changed your ways and became a holy mother!”

The British representative gritted his teeth and said: "We can do this, but our fleet needs to pass through the waters controlled by the Dutch..."

"This matter is simpler!"

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said: "I will issue a note to the Dutch, telling them that the merchant ships you sell will be protected by the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy as long as they enter the waters of Malacca. If the Dutch dare to attack you, it will be regarded as a declaration of war against the Ming Dynasty!"

Britain is not yet an empire on which the sun never sets. Compared with the sea grooms, they are just small kalami.

As for the Dutch sending weapons, equipment and mercenaries to the Indochina Peninsula, Cheng Shijie did not take it lightly. Isn't it just a proxy war?
Who wouldn't.

Cheng Shijie issued instructions to the Luzon Management Committee and the Coconut City Management Committee to tentatively contact the Dutch-controlled colonies and ask them to rebel against the Dutch, asking for guns and money.

Come on, hurt each other.

Let's see who can't stand it first.

(End of this chapter)