Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1841 Disposal Measures

On August 1681, 8, when the scorching sun cleared, Shao Shuguang, the general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, had just returned from Fujian by boat, and Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Exploration Team, happened to be working in Dinghai County, so he was summoned immediately.

"Zheng Jing hesitated and hesitated, and he was vague. I think he is very thoughtful and unreliable." Just after wiping off his sweat with a towel, Shao Shuguang yelled, "I met him in Fuzhou, and talked to him a few times. Second. From his words, we know that this person—or the entire Zheng Group—is still very concerned about the situation in Guangdong next door. Fujian and Guangdong provinces have frequent sea and land trade, and there are many exchanges between the people. Among them, Ancha spies and bribery are naturally very simple, just like ours. Compared with the Guangdong branch, it is much more difficult for them to establish an intelligence network in Shunguo Jiangxi. Because the relationship between the two places is not very harmonious, the people There are fewer business exchanges.”

"That is to say, Zheng Jing didn't follow our advice and set his mind on Guangdong?" Ma Wenqiang rubbed his sore temples and asked helplessly and dissatisfied.

"Yes." Shao Shuguang drank a cup of herbal tea, then sighed and said: "Zheng Jing said that Taiwan is a land of miasma, and the Taipei Prefecture he established (under the jurisdiction of Taipei and Zhuchi counties) has only [-] to [-] people. , and the number of people who died of fever was unknown, and I was really afraid. I felt that this was a bottomless pit, and I dared not fill it in. I believe that if he was not reluctant to part with the foundations that Taipei Prefecture has developed, Zheng Jingbao would have given up on this place. Now, focus on Fujian and Guangdong."

In fact, from Zheng Jing's point of view, giving up Taipei City—or not investing a lot of resources here—is a normal strategy.After so many years of reclamation and management in Taiwan, the Zheng family has some understanding of this island, and is deeply impressed by its serious threat of malaria. He knows that if he wants to develop it, he will have to pay a huge price and sacrifice.Moreover, even if they were willing to sacrifice so many lives, they could only get half of the island, and the southern half was still in the hands of the Dutch.

The Dutch East India Company is not a good stubble!

This huge colonial enterprise has huge colonies in the Indian subcontinent, the East Indies and other places. It has established a huge commercial network in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific. It has strong financial resources, many ships, and troops all over the country. The group, to be honest, can only show off its prestige in the offshore area. If it goes to the farther deep water area, the Dutch are not afraid. Of course, they don't need to provoke the Zheng family, because everyone is a businessman, and harmony makes money. It is benevolent.

Faced with such a situation, even if Ma Wenqiang switched to Zheng Jing's position, the decision he made might not be much different. Compared with Guangdong and Taiwan, which is more important, as long as it is a normal person, it is not difficult to make a choice.Zheng Jing sent troops south to the border of Guangdong with the intention of immediately entering Chaozhou to pick up bargains in case a good opportunity arises.Fujian has many mountains, few lands, and fewer people. How can it compare with Guangdong, which has always been prosperous?Even if they only win one Chaozhou Prefecture, it will be enough for them to digest it for a long time. How can Taiwan Island compare with Chaozhou Prefecture?Zheng Shi is not that stupid!

Therefore, the people on the east bank asked the Zheng family to increase investment in the army of land reclamation in Taipei Prefecture and subsidize those official and private reclamation accounts, which was naturally rejected by them.With the fat meat in Guangdong at the top, who would care about petty profits? Even if people from the east bank ask for it, because it violates the core interests of the Zheng Group, fierce conflicts will inevitably erupt.

"You have worked hard this time." Ma Wenqiang nodded, and said, "At this time, we will not get any good results when we go to Fujian as an envoy. However, Zheng Jing is so determined that he is ready to tear us apart ?"

"I'm afraid it's true." Shao Shuguang pondered for a while, then raised his head, and said decisively: "In this case, Captain Ma, we can no longer be mothers and mothers. Hurry up and write Captain Chen of Heishui, let Heishui Have the shipyard and Kushiro Shipyard parked the Zheng family’s ships that have just been launched? Or even if they are built, they should be used for our own use or sold to the North Koreans. We must not allow the Zheng family’s naval power to grow any longer. Could have an impact on our strategy."

"I will take care of this matter." Ma Wenqiang asked the secretary to write down the matter, then stood up, paced around the room anxiously, and asked a little after a long time: "General Manager Shao, what do you think?" Has the situation in Guangdong really reached a critical moment? Is it really necessary to increase troops there?"

"I think it is indeed necessary to increase the number of troops, because the situation is really critical. But where is the increase? The Haizhu Island Commercial Station is too small to be deployed. Even though it is currently expanding, it will not be a place where large troops can be stationed in the future. Besides, this place is close to the provincial capital, once tens of thousands of people move in, I'm afraid rumors will spread and the situation will be turbulent!" Shao Shuguang said with a frown.

"It doesn't matter. I prefer to send the first mixed battalion (coming to the Far East to replace the returned seventh mixed battalion) to Haizhu Island as a rapid mobile force. Once the situation in Guangdong changes in the future, this department will be our intervention in the surrounding areas of Guangzhou. The sharp weapon of the situation.” Ma Wenqiang said with confidence: “In addition, I plan to transfer the Bogdan Department of the Second Division of the Zhejiang New Army to the south and station it in Macau City, waiting for the opportunity.”

"Macao?" Shao Shuguang was a little surprised, but also a little enlightened.That’s right, the Portuguese in Macau are really hard-pressed now. Many of them have gone to Timor Island or India. Transporting people and goods.And for the sake of their hard work, the Haizhu Island Trading Station sometimes sells some mainland products to them, so that they can be shipped to India or even Lisbon to sell and earn money.Therefore, the Portuguese in Macau are now quite docile in front of the East Bank. It may be a bit exaggerated to say that they are servants, but they are not too far away.

Based on this understanding, Shao Shuguang believed that if Ma Wenqiang wanted to station troops in Macau, he might encounter resistance and backlash from the Portuguese, but the degree should not be too serious.Those businessmen are actually very easy to dismiss. They leak some benefits to the top figures in Macau City through their fingers, and then hand over the business of water supply and some supplies to those small and medium businessmen in the city. The opposition voices probably disappear. .

Moreover, there is an additional advantage of stationing troops in Macau, that is, the county magistrate of Xiangshan County next door is secretly controlled and influenced by Dong An. The wealthy merchants are inextricably linked with the East Bank.Once the Second Division of the New Army goes to this area, it cannot be counted as a guest soldier for the expedition. It is equivalent to having a logistics base for supplies, which is of great benefit to future operations.

Therefore, after thinking about this episode, Shao Shuguang did not express any doubts, but he had some doubts about only sending a second division of the Zhejiang New Army there. He only heard him say: "Captain Ma, only send the second division of the New Army The division commander's troops passed by, isn't it a little too thin? There are only 500 people, can it really help a big thing? Moreover, the first mixed battalion is brave, but the number is less than 10. Is it really enough for people to go straight to Guangzhou? I always feel that once the chaos in Guangdong unfolds, Li Yuanhao and Li Yuanyin will fight against each other, and a large number of local militiamen will be engulfed by the core soldiers. For a battle of [-] or even [-] people, it is a bit difficult for us with small arms and legs to interfere."

"We don't have a lot of troops. Don't we also have the troops from the Haizhu Island Commercial Station and the infantry battalion formed by your company? There are more than 2000 people in total. In addition, the Portuguese in Macau can also think about it." Think of a way, there are so many unemployed former mercenaries in the city, armed with 1 people, I don’t think there is any problem at all, this is 3000 people, I will allocate more ammunition and artillery for them, so that they can be strong Don’t worry about consumption, you should be able to play a decisive role at critical moments.” Ma Wenqiang sat behind a tea table, took a sip from a porcelain cup, and then continued: “In addition, Mr. Shao, you We need to find out, who is our enemy? It is neither Li Yuanhao, nor Li Yuanyin, nor the Zheng family! Do we need to go to war with them? Do we need to fight them to the death for some territory or treasure, right? Our goal is that Guangdong will not fall into chaos. At least the elite areas such as Guangzhou and Huizhou will not be too severely poisoned, and the provincial capital Guangzhou City must be in a state of peace! Based on this consideration, think again, Do we need to make them all enemies? Even if we wanted to, we wouldn't be able to!"

Hearing what Ma Wenqiang said, Shao Shuguang suddenly understood.After all, he has never held a high-level position in the government and has been running a relatively simple Bank of Taiwan. Therefore, he was a little slow to respond to things involving complicated political and military situations.Therefore, after listening to Ma Wenqiang's analysis, he will immediately understand what he means: what Ma Wenqiang considers is to rely on these more than 1 relatively elite troops to control the situation in the rich and elite areas around the Pearl River Estuary, that is, to prevent them from being attacked. To the chaos of wolves and tigers.Even, if this cannot be done, then retreat directly to the surrounding areas of Guangzhou, so that this piece of land that gathers the essence of the whole of Guangdong will be saved from military disasters.As for whether this move will be protested by Li Yuanhao, that is beyond Shao Shuguang's knowledge. In his opinion, with Bogdan's cruel and irritable temper, if Li Yuanhao dared to show his teeth, he might really dare to start a war with him. , That would be cheaper for Li Yuanyin from Chaozhou.

The people on the east bank sit on the hills and watch the tigers fight in the Guangzhou area, obviously hoping to see how the second Li of Guangdong's "Hui Guogong Succession War" is going, and then make a decision on the next step.At the same time, they will also pay close attention to the military leaders in the west of Guangdong who have been gradually divided and won over by the Ming court to see if they have any signs of entering the east of Guangdong. These local warlords with relatively weak forces were beaten back, so that they would not come to add chaos and harm the local area.

But for the Fujian Zheng family, there is not much to do.Unlike the King of Lu regime, the Zheng family in Fujian was less dependent on the east coast. Although they imported weapons, military assets and ships from the east coast all the year round, this was not necessary.If it is not possible, they can also produce part of themselves. At the same time, they also maintain close business ties with the British, Dutch, and Portuguese, and even the merchants under their control include the Spaniards as far as Luzon. Those who are engaged in trade, they can import these foreign goods to get rid of their dependence on the people on the east coast, so they are very independent, which is the reason.

Zheng Jing is the biggest variable in the chaos in Guangdong this time, and the people on the east coast must devote a lot of energy to watching their every move.Although most of them have to see clearly the direction of the situation before taking action, it is also a big trouble for the people on the east coast and must be dealt with, but Shao Shuguang's trip to Fuzhou obviously did not achieve any substantive results As a result, Zheng Jing kept laughing, without concealing his intentions. This time it can be regarded as a failure.

"But for us, it's better not to break out the so-called succession war in Guangdong. So, General Manager Shao, I think you still have to make another trip, but it's not Fuzhou, not Guangzhou, and not Taiwan, but Chaozhou. Yes Yes, that’s right, just to meet Li Yuanyin himself. Speaking of which, he can be regarded as our old acquaintance. Someone will give you my personal letter, and you will take it to Chaozhou and give it to Li Yuanyin, tell him about the current situation, and tell him not to act rashly. Chaozhou Prefecture has ten counties at any rate, and the population is also quite large. Isn’t it refreshing for Wang to dominate? If he leads his troops southward, the Fujianese from Zhangzhou and Tingzhou will kill them as soon as they leave. If the back road is cut off, the soldiers have no fighting spirit. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing? "Ma Wenqiang waved his right arm, and raised his voice and said: "Just tell him that Zheng Jing has no good intentions. I'm afraid he told him to beg for Li Yuanhao and help him enter Guangzhou, but secretly stared at Chaozhou. The government is drooling, let him not be fooled. Besides, after going to Li Yuanyin's place, if possible, can you go to Guangzhou again to meet Li Yuanhao? I am afraid that Mrs. Zheng will give them some ecstasy soup and invite him to attack Li Yuanyin in Chaozhou. It would be too unwise to lead wolves into the house in the end. Well, General Manager Shao, don’t be too busy. It’s completely in time to go again in a few days. Let’s take a good rest first. I still have to prepare for it. Someone will go with you."

"If it wasn't for the initial decision of the Shaoxing government, the intermittent peace talks with the Qing army, and the situation is not very stable, we could have sent more troops to the south, and it would have been easier. Unfortunately, the timing is not coincidental, Now the newly acquired land of Shaoxing Prefecture must be guarded by a large army, otherwise I am afraid of accidents." Ma Wenqiang finally said regretfully.

(End of this chapter)