Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 105 The Death of the Chief Officer
"The Ming Dynasty is better. I ate rice dumplings in Japan until I felt like vomiting." Lin Hai said to Xu Xinsu, picking up a piece of orange cake and putting it in his mouth.

In order to facilitate the discussion, the Xu family and his son and Lin Hai found a room alone.At this time, the food and wine on the table had been removed and replaced with after-dinner refreshments. It was time to get down to business.

Xu Xinsu held a bowl of Wuyishan Dahongpao and scraped the tea with the lid of the bowl: "My nephew said he wanted to buy something from me. I don't know what he wants to buy?"

Lin Hai swallowed the lucky orange cake in his mouth and said: "After I go to Zhoushan, I will start recruiting troops immediately. I heard that Fujian and Guangzhou have blunderbuss specially sold overseas. The workmanship is better than those used by the border army, so I want Uncle Xu to buy one for me." Granted. In addition, if there is a suitable fine iron cotton armor, I would also like it."

The finely crafted bird muskets exported by Fujian and Guangzhou were mentioned in Zhao Shizhen's "Artifact Book" during the Wanli period. In addition, Fujian iron was also of the highest quality in the Ming Dynasty. Well-made armor generally had to be made of Fujian iron, so Lin Haicai wanted to purchase equipment in Fujian.

Xu Xinsu heard this and said: "Bird guns are not a problem, but Mianjia is a bit troublesome. The court is very strict about it. I wonder how much my nephew wants?"

Lin Haidao: "I don't know how many soldiers we can recruit yet, but I would rather wait for the soldiers than wait for the soldiers. If possible, it would be best to have five hundred sets of blunderbuss and five hundred sets of armor each."

Xu Xinsu shook his head and said: "There are too many. It's just a matter of time to get as many muskets as you want. But if you don't have armor, I can get you a dozen or so at most."

"That's it, five hundred precision-made muskets, no cotton armor, and one hundred thousand kilograms of high-quality Fujian iron." Lin Hai continued, "In addition, I also want a sea-going ship with five hundred materials. It’s best to use a Guangzhou ship, coupled with a Dafa Ke and a Fo Lang machine.”

The Bowang went to Haojing, and now Lin Hai only had a large sand boat in hand, and his water combat capability was very worrying.Among the ships of the Ming Dynasty, the most suitable for warships was the Guangzhou ship, followed by the Fu ship and the Zhe ship. The sand ship was the least vulnerable, but had the best seaworthiness north of the Yangtze River.

Xu Xinsu nodded in agreement, and then his eldest son Xu Letian spoke: "It is rare for people to wear armor when fighting on water. From what Brother Lin means, it seems that he wants to fight on land with Thief Zheng?"

"Zheng has many pirate ships. We are no match for the water battle for the time being. It is best to fight him on land."

"Brother Lin, thank you very much. My father went to see Yu Zongrong a few days ago and wanted him to lead a warship to the east to annihilate the Zheng bandits. Yu Zongrong also said that water warfare is difficult to fight."

Lin Hai nodded when he heard this. It seemed that Yu Zigao was self-aware, but later facts proved that he couldn't even defeat Zheng Zhilong in a land battle.It seems that he still has to rely on himself to destroy this pretty boy, but fortunately, he has money now, which is his greatest confidence in the duel with Zheng Zhilong.

For the classical army, military pay can be roughly equal to morale. The winner of a war often does not lie on the battlefield, but more on logistics, equipment, training and organization.Therefore, there is a joke on the Internet in later generations: The Ming army is not satisfied with its pay, but it is invincible if it is fully paid.Where can I find full pay?The Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty.

Although this is a joke, it hits the point. There are many examples in history of the Ming army shaving their heads and greatly increasing their combat effectiveness.The main reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was corruption. This was the fate of the dynasty cycle. This situation was still there 260 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. It was already rare among ancient dynasties.

This is the reason why Lin Hai spares no effort to make money.The population that Houjin could control before entering the customs was only one million. Although he made a lot of money from robbery and ginseng trade, his economic size was still much worse than that of the Ming Dynasty. As long as he could monopolize the Ming Dynasty's sea trade , it shouldn’t be a big problem if money and food outweigh the support.

Seizing the opportunity of money and food, and climbing the technological tree are just trivial matters. As for the queuing and shooting, hollow square formation, wall-mounted charge, etc. that many cyber strategists in later generations talked about, they are not currently within the scope of Lin Hai's consideration.

It’s hard to say how reliable these military theories are and must be tested in practice.At least the modern cavalry wall charge is completely nonsense. If you want to rely on this thing to destroy Houjin, you will probably be beaten by Huang Taiji until you don't even recognize your mother.

At best, these things are just icing on the cake. As long as Lin Hai ensures that money and food outweigh Houjin, even if he doesn't climb the technology tree and doesn't make any tactical changes, there is still hope for annihilating the Jiannu.After all, the quality of soldiers, weapons and equipment, and even common tactics of both the Ming and Qing Dynasties were basically the same. The biggest difference was whether the bulk of the soldiers were hungry or not.

This is the overall idea of ​​Lin Hai's plan to eliminate money. Although it seems a bit stupid, it is better than being down-to-earth.In order to monopolize Ming Dynasty's maritime trade, the first obstacle that must be eliminated is Zheng Zhilong, and Lin Hai is quite confident about this.

Even at a glance, Zheng Zhilong's current strength is at best equivalent to that of the Jiajing Japanese pirate.Lin Hai had a strong capital of millions of taels, and had opened up the supply of goods in Zhejiang and the Japanese trade routes. If he could not defeat this rabble, then there would be no need to have a grand dream of annihilating the slaves.

"My nephew, this is also a mature plan." Xu Xinsu took a sip of Dahongpao, "Actually, what President Yu is worried about is that Thief Zheng and Hong Mao will join forces. If it is just Thief Zheng, what does the Fujian Navy have to fear?"

Lin Hai heard that he was still superstitious about Yu Zigao, and wanted to remind him, but stopped when he reached his lips.For Xu Xinsu to recognize the reality, I'm afraid she can only wait until Yu Zigao is beaten to disgrace by Zheng Zhilong.

Thinking of the last time in Xiamen, when Li Guozhu asked Xu Xinsu to win over the Dutch, Lin Hai followed his words and asked: "In that case, what is Hongmao's attitude now?"

"This is a strange thing to say. The high-ranking Yi chief had promised to join forces with General Yu to exterminate the Zheng thieves, but he fell into the water and died within a few days. As soon as the old Yi chief died, the new Yi chief also said that he would kill Peng They will only take action if the lake is returned, otherwise they will not help each other.”

The barbarian chiefs Xu Xinsu refers to refer to the chief officers of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch retreated from Penghu to the chief officers in the fourth year of the Apocalypse. The first chief officer was Martinus Songke. Yue drowned outside Taiyuan Bay, and was later replaced by Senior Commercial Officer Gerard Frederiks de Wet as Chief of Staff.

Lin Hai generally knew about this period of history, but he did not know about the negotiations between Yu Zigao, Xu Xinsu and the two previous officials.It seems that the officials did not report this matter to Batavia, so it did not appear in the historical records of the Dutch.

"Excuse!" Xu Letian slammed the table, "Weite has been hanging out on the coast of Fujian for several years. He knows full well that Mr. Yu will never agree to let them return to Penghu. This guy said that they are not helping each other. , If we really get into a fight, I expect that I will still side with Thief Zheng."

Lin Hai heard this and said, "Why do brothers Letian say that?"

"Brother Lin doesn't know. As soon as Zheng arrived in Dongfan, he was sent as a senior officer by the old captain. At that time, Waite was still the second-in-command of the senior officer Hongmao. Zheng was working as an assistant next to him and even followed him. Robbery of merchant ships heading to Luzon. I even suspect that the old Yi chief Song Ke died at the hands of these two people."

What Xu Letian said was a bit abrupt, and Lin Hai didn't know what basis he had, so he immediately asked: "You mean, Song Ke wanted to join forces with Yu Zongrong to wipe out the Zheng thieves, so he was killed by Waite and the Zheng thieves together? Xu Letian nodded and said: "Uncle Li fell into the water and died, and Song Ke also fell into the water and died. It was less than three months before and after. How could there be such a strange thing in the world?"

"Wait a minute..." Lin Hai suddenly remembered something, "According to you, Song Ke died in July?"

"Yes, Brother Lin, why do you ask that?"

"It's nothing, I just feel strange. The old captain died in April, Leader Yan died in May, and Song Ke died in July. It turned out that Thief Zheng and Waite came to power one after another. It's such a coincidence." Lin Hai was now convinced that Song Ke's death was not an accident. The reason was that the date of his death was inconsistent with history.

Historically, these three people died one after another. Lin Hai clearly remembered that Li Dan died first, followed by Yan Siqi and Song Ke.Li Dan originally died in August of the fifth year of Tianqi, which means Song Ke's death must have occurred after this in history.

Now Song Ke died in July, and the cause of death was still drowning... Lin Hai didn't believe Xu Letian's guess at first. After all, it was really unbelievable, but now he had to believe it.

"At Leader Yan's funeral, it was Waite who represented Hongmao. Without Hongmao's backing, Thief Zheng was determined not to be the leader. Now that I think about it, what Waite said at that time is very likely to be true. Song Ke didn't know about it..." Xu Letian continued, but in fact Lin Hai no longer needed to listen to his pile of circumstantial evidence.

He felt a little strange. Zheng Zhilong's motive for murdering Song Ke was obvious, but it was hard to imagine that he could have tampered with Song Ke's ship without the help of Waite. So what was Waite's motive?
After all, the Dutch East India Company was different from the pirate gang. After all, Waite was just a wage earner, and it seemed a bit unreasonable that he murdered his boss in order to get promoted.Compared with Zheng Zhilong's murder of Li Dan and Yan Siqi, the risk-benefit ratio of Waite's murder of Song Ke is really too low.

In fact, Waite was not recognized by the Batavia General Assembly in the end. His acting commander was never promoted to a regular position and was removed from his post two years later.

This leaves only two possible explanations. One is that Waite and Song Ke have other conflicts, and the other is that Waite is really helping Zheng Zhilong.

According to Xu Letian, the second reason is very likely. If this is the case, then things will be a bit troublesome.This means that before Waite stepped down, the alliance between Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch was almost unbreakable, and the Dutch had no possibility of remaining neutral.

In addition, the Spanish fleet will arrive in Keelung in half a year, which means that Lin Hai will be enemies of Spain, the Netherlands, and Zheng Zhilong at the same time in the next two years. For him, this is simply a hellish difficulty.

Lin Hai pondered for a moment and said: "In that case, why don't Uncle Xu give Waite a look at the color, cut off the supply of red hair, and let them drink the northwest wind in Da Yuan to see if Waite will still stand on the side of the Zheng thief."

Xu Xinsu shook her head and said: "Huang Mingzuo has been selling goods to Thief Zheng. With this old boy here, Hong Mao will probably not accept this trick. Instead, he may be determined to stand by Thief Zheng. I am still thinking of ways to win Hong Mao's support. If you really can’t, it’s not too late to break up with them.”

"What's Uncle Xu's clever plan?" Lin Hai's eyes lit up when he heard this. In his impression, Xu Xinsu should have been doing business with the big man Hongmao during his lifetime. Maybe he finally won the support or neutrality of the Dutch.

"There is a Captain Su in Ba City. He has always been on good terms with my father. My father wrote to Captain Su and asked him to find a solution for us." Xu Letian explained at the side.

The so-called Batavia is Batavia, the Asian headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.Lin Hai knew who Xu Letian was talking about as soon as he heard it, so he said, "Isn't this the person that Brother Letian is talking about, Su Minggang?"

Xu Letian smiled and said, "So Brother Lin has also heard of the name Captain Su?"

"It's like thunder piercing the ears, and I just hate that I have never met him before." Of course Lin Hai knew Su Minggang. This man was the first and longest-serving Chinese Kapitan in Batavia. He served for 17 years and had a close relationship with the six Dutch governors during that period.

Sumingang was not only the largest spice Chinese merchant in the late Ming Dynasty, but also contracted Batavia's customs duties, gambling taxes, slaughter taxes and urban construction, and had the exclusive right to mint copper coins granted by the Dutch Governor-General.

Xu Letian added: "Captain Su is also from Tong'an, Quanzhou. He and my father and the old captain are from the same hometown. Although they have never worshiped each other, they also have sympathy for Jinlan. His younger brother Su Tingxuan is still in his hometown in Tong'an. There are many spice shops opened in various places in Fujian, and my father is responsible for all official matters."

Lin Hai nodded when he heard this. Li Dan still had a solid foundation. There was a reason why Li Guozhu was able to survive eight years in Chongzhen.

As an overseas Chinese leader, it is difficult for Su Minggang to participate in the decision-making of the Batavia authorities, but at least he has the ability to do public relations.Unlike the Philippines under Spanish rule, the Chinese have a high status in Batavia, and the Dutch have always valued maintaining good relations with overseas Chinese.

Since Taiwan's chief executive's lawsuit cannot be settled, then go directly to the Batavia Governor's Mansion. This is the legendary dimensionality reduction strike.

From the Dutch perspective, Xu Xinsu has been a trading partner for nearly ten years and directly controls the supply of goods in Fujian, but Zheng Zhilong relies on Huang Mingzuo to supply him.The old boy's biggest patrons were the Spaniards, and his officials often robbed merchant ships sent by Huang Hexing Company to Manila.

Therefore, according to common sense, even if the Dutch do not side with Xu Xinsu, they cannot completely fall to Zheng Zhilong.I wonder what kind of ecstasy soup this pretty boy poured into Waite's mouth. It can't be that he just sells his ass again?
"Sure enough, Third Uncle Xu's hands and eyes are all over the place. There are people even in Hongmao's old house. My nephew is really impressed!"

Lin Hai started to flatter him again. As long as Batavia's chief executive set the tone, he had nothing to worry about even if the senior officials were acting in secret.

As far as he knew, there were currently only over 200 members in the VOC, and the construction of Relanja City had just begun.The senior officer himself does not have much strength. What is really worrying is that once a war breaks out with the senior officer, Batavia can send a large fleet to support him at any time.

(End of this chapter)