Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1846 Westward Journey ([-])

October 1681, 10, Changsha, sunny.

Perhaps because of the growing relationship between Wei and Fu, Li Laiheng waited for several days before announcing that he would meet the East Coast Special Envoy Jiang Yunfan and his party in his palace.And the palace he lives in now has been replaced by a brand new palace from the relatively cramped and small former governor's office, that is, a newly built palace on the basis of the former Mingji Palace.

Jiang Yunfan and others waited temporarily in a side hall. Officials from the Ministry of Rites of Shunguo accompanied them for a chat. Jiang Yunfan tried his best to cope, but he seemed absent-minded.And in another side hall separated from them by a wall, Dashun Emperor Li Laiheng was talking with Crown Prince Li Siming, Pingxiang Hou Gao Shougui, Wushan Bo Haoping and his confidants.

Prince Li Siming is about 33 or 1664 years old now, and is the eldest son of Li Laiheng.In the early years, Li Siming went to the battlefield from time to time (of course it was impossible to lead troops to fight on the front line). In the past ten years, there have been fewer and fewer Li Siming. In the prince's mansion in Changsha, he sometimes went to the palace to help Li Laiheng handle political and military affairs.Of course, he didn't know that in the third year of Kangxi (4000), when the Qing army besieged Maolu Mountain, he led [-] people to guard Tanjiazhai, "defending danger and defending", "arranging guns and playing cards to resist the enemy". Three-way siege, attacking and pulling out the fence, Li Siming "killed in the middle stream".

One died in the wilderness and was rumored to be everywhere, and the other lived in a high-rise mansion and looked down on the world. The two fates are so different. The source of everything lies in the landing of a fleet in Bohai Bay in Yantai in 1643. The world is so bizarre. Probably nothing more than that.

"People in the Eastern Kingdom like to pursue profit, and they have always attached great importance to trade. I heard that they are building a weaving factory in Ningbo, and I am afraid that they have their eyes on our Dashun market." Said Wu Shanbo Hao Ping, a general of the Silver Gun Xiaojie Army : "There are also weavers in our country, and there are many of them. The cloth and silk produced are sold in various provinces, such as the security cloth in Wuchang, etc. But there is a big problem in the cloth industry in our country, that is, most of the homespun cloth is woven by small households. That is to say, in recent years, there have been some weaving workshops in Changsha, Yuezhou, Hengyang, Wuchang, Nanchang, Ganzhou and other places, and the sudden release of the market to the people of the East may be a disaster.”

Although Hao Ping is a general, he has been to Ningbo and other places, and he still knows something about people from the east coast.Moreover, in recent years, he has always tried every means to buy various books from Ningbo with a lot of money, and his understanding of the routines of the people on the east coast has reached a new level. Is it possible to do this too.From this point, it can be seen that the people from the East Coast still have a considerable influence on the high-level officials of Shun Country.No matter how much suspicion, wariness, and embarrassment there are in private between the two countries, as far as the Dong'an people's model is concerned, the high-level officials of Shunguo still partially agree. You must know that they are not scholars who have learned the sage's unique skills and are full of words and righteousness. In fact, people who have spent dozens of times in troubled times, even if they have a low level of education, their way of thinking about problems and their vision of seeing people and things are definitely not bad.This has nothing to do with other things, it is only related to life experience, so Hao Ping said this.

Of course, Hao Ping may be too pessimistic, because even the people on the east bank themselves do not have much confidence in breaking down the barriers of the small peasant economy on the land of China.In the Yinxian County Archives Bureau, there are many reports written by envoys to Shunguo. Among them, the economic aspect is involved. Jiang Yunfan remembers the most clearly: "The residents of Shunguo are like the residents I have seen in other parts of the mainland. They all wear homespun clothes. The short-staple cotton in China can only be spun into roving, which is equivalent to our 16-count yarn. With this kind of yarn, we can weave a very Nice cloth. This kind of cloth is thick and strong, really suitable for farmers or other people who do hard work. And this kind of cloth is very cheap, can be mended again, can be worn in any weather, those who are just starting out in Ningbo The goods produced by textile factories cannot compete with them anyway. Their most reasonable idea is to target the middle class with higher spending power. Although this market is relatively small, it is better than nothing, isn’t it?”

"Your Majesty, the cloth industry is the foundation of the people's livelihood and should not be ignored. Wushan Boyan said that the Dongguo people were eyeing our country's cloth market, and the old minister thought it was correct. At the beginning of the year, the minister led the army back from Jingzhou, Jiangling, Public Security, Huarong, Baling, Xiangyin , Changsha all the way, I saw that some subordinate officials and merchants actually wore azure forged suits, and their wives and daughters also wore red satin and red silk skirts. Look at the materials of the rich man’s clothes in Changsha City Their daily affairs are extravagant, and they usually wear brocades and flower forgings. And these silks and satins are mostly produced in Ningbo, and the price is high. I don’t know how much silver taels flow out every year, which is often embarrassing. Your Majesty, Dashun has established the country for more than [-] years. Since the war, all kinds of hardships and hardships are hard to understand. It’s really hard for people of my generation to understand. The old minister is very heartbroken. I am also sixty-five years old this year. I have fought for my country all my life. Your Majesty has also rewarded me very generously. I can stay at home They only wear plain cloth. These young people in the city, how can they compete with each other for extravagance? It's really outrageous. I hope His Majesty's decree will put an end to this unhealthy trend." After Hao Ping finished speaking, there were not many survivors in the Dashun army. Said Gao Shougui, Pingxiang Hou, a veteran of the Gao family.

This person is the nephew of the deceased Empress Dowager Gao Guiying. He had been working in the former battalion under the leadership of Gao Yigong. He fought against the Qing army on both sides of the Yangtze River for many years. Dashun has made great contributions, and now he is named Marquis of Pingxiang, his status is not low.

But what's interesting is that this person surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in history, and he was the official to Chenchang Zongbing.When Li Laiheng and others were besieged in the third year of Kangxi, the Qing government sent Gao Shougui to surrender, but failed, and then gradually disappeared into scriptures.Of course, in this time and space, the fate of many people has been changed, Li Laiheng and his son are the same, Gao Shougui is also the same, he is now the Marquis of Dashun Kingdom, a great loyal minister, the Qing Dynasty General Chen Changbing in history and him seem to be from two worlds people.

Li Laiheng met them in the palace today, mainly because of the frontline affairs in Hubei.The Qing army seemed to be furious because of the failure of the battle in Sichuan, so they began to storm the fortresses built by Shun Kingdom in some areas on both sides of the Yangtze River regardless of casualties.Hao Ping and Gao Shougui had just returned from fighting at the front line. Li Laiheng came to them mainly to learn about the situation in Hubei, but the meeting ended with talking about the military and started talking about economic affairs.

Now it seems that his two trustworthy generals are not in favor of opening part of the market to people from the east coast.What these people are worried about is that after the money of the people and the country is used to buy the silk and cloth of the people on the east coast, they will have no money to buy horses, guns, armor, medicine and some machinery and equipment needed for the maintenance of ordnance for the war to continue. , This will undoubtedly drag down the combat effectiveness of the Shun country army and put them in a disadvantageous situation on the battlefield, so we firmly oppose it.

To be honest, Li Laiheng somewhat agreed with their views.However, he is the emperor of Dashun after all, and he is the person who takes care of the overall situation. Naturally, we can't just think about the problem from this aspect.All he knew was that the Dongguo people are demanding more and more from Dashun, especially after they won a decisive victory in Sichuan, the Dongguo people suddenly changed their face, from the previous kind face I half gave you something, of course it seems kind...), and asked for a lot of conditions that he was a little unacceptable for a while, such as opening the five ports of Jiujiang, Wuchang, Baling, Xiangyin, and Changsha, allowing the East Bank Merchants and people are free to conduct trade and start businesses here, and the tax rate is levied according to the average level of the country.

At a glance, Li Laiheng felt that the problem was not a big deal, he was just doing business, so why not!However, after consulting some big businessmen and ministers who are proficient in economic affairs in the country, he felt that something was wrong. He was worried that it would lead to a large outflow of gold and silver in the country. It's always the right thing to do.

However, he wanted to guard against the people on the east coast, but the people on the east coast didn't plan to give him a chance to bargain this time.Before that, Ma Wenqiang had asked someone to bring a diplomatic letter, asking Shunguo to agree to some opening of the port proposed by the people on the east coast.However, at that time, Li Laiheng refused on the grounds that the military situation was urgent and he could not be distracted, which made Ma Wenqiang very unhappy. Shao Shuguang from the Bank of Taiwan also complained, and even almost withheld a batch of local medicines that were going to be distributed to them.

This time, Shunguo has won a decisive victory in Sichuan, and it can almost declare that it has won another province—a rich province with a large population—so the people on the east coast have brought up the old story again, and once again demanded that the above-mentioned ports be opened to allow enterprises from the east coast to enter , and also sent a mission with Jiang Yunfan as the special envoy to force Dashun to express his position.

Li Laiheng knew that the East Coast people probably wouldn't give him any more leeway this time. If he agreed, he agreed, and if he didn't agree, he didn't agree. The East Coast people would adjust their future policies accordingly based on his reply.For this, Li Laiheng didn't have any good way to solve it, thinking in his heart that he could only agree to the conditions of the people on the east bank, otherwise he might not be able to pass this level.After all, Sichuan has just been won, and the situation of all parties is still quite unstable. It is necessary to beware of the massive counterattack of the angry Qing army, and at the same time, to maintain sufficient vigilance against the Nanming regime who is spying on the back of Sichuan. Therefore, they still need the East Bank at this time. people help.Some economic interests have to be put aside in the face of national justice.

However, Li Laiheng also made up his mind that once Dashun got over his breath and spent a few years to purge and digest, he would slowly expel the influence of the people from the East Coast.Did you earn Dashun's money so casually?You Dongguo people neither bow down to Emperor Dashun nor donate money to the court of Dashun, so why should you make money in Dashun?

Thinking of this, Li Laiheng sighed and waved off the two generals.In fact, these two are also smart people, they understand Li Laiheng's thoughts, so just now they picked up what he likes to hear. In fact, as front-line generals, couldn't they see that Dashun cannot do without the armaments of the East Bank?How can it be!

Jiang Yunfan, the envoy from the east bank, soon came to this side hall at the invitation of Li Laiheng's personal eunuch.Li Laiheng, who is now in his fifties, sighed softly, and waved to find several ministers and servants from the Dashun Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Households, and Ministry of War, and asked them to talk directly to Jiang Yunfan and others.These people basically already know the keynote of this negotiation, so they are also very targeted when talking about it, that is, knowing that they cannot hinder the determination of the people on the east coast to open a trade port, carefully plan and negotiate repeatedly, so as to benefit the country as much as possible. Gaining benefits is their main task.

Shunguo is still most concerned about the trade of war materials.They have just captured most of Sichuan, and the territory has greatly increased, but they are facing military pressure. Especially when many passes leading to Shu in northern Sichuan and Hanzhong are still under the control of the Qing army, Sichuan It can be said that the Shun army is facing a huge challenge, and it is really hard to say whether it can hold its ground.

Moreover, before Zuoying entered Sichuan, the people on the east bank gave them a large number of guns, ordnance, and armor. Now they have been fighting for several years, and these are very worn out, and the military production base in Changsha is completely unable to fill the gap, so Now Dashun is more eager than ever for military supplies from the east coast.

Before Jiang Yunfan came, he knew the details of Ma Wenqiang's handover, so he readily agreed to Shunguo's request for military assistance—it was said that it was assistance, but in fact, he had to pay, but it could be temporarily credited.Of course, his promise also has additional conditions, that is, Dashun must maintain peace with the Nanming court and other separatist regimes, such as the king of Lu in southern Zhejiang, the Zheng family in Fujian, and the Li family in Guangdong, and must not initiate border disputes without authorization, otherwise East Coasters have the right to interrupt military assistance at any time.

Li Laiheng agreed to the request after a long silence.Anyway, it is too late for them to digest Sichuan and deal with the counterattack of the Qing army, and there is no reason to fight the enemy on multiple fronts.When I get over the past few years, don't I just do whatever I want?Is it difficult to create some evidence of border conflict that you are the victimized party?Isn't it unusual to strike back into imperial territory in self-defense?I believe that as long as the trouble is not too much, if you get some benefits, you will stop decisively, and the people on the east coast should not be in trouble.

However, this Dongguo person is really hateful, he regards himself as a kingdom of heaven, and even a small envoy dares to criticize himself and his court, how can this be tolerated!I still have to find a way to attract more foreign businessmen, such as those Englishmen, Frenchmen, Dutch red-haired people, etc. This first requires that I have an outlet to the sea.Well, I'm back here again, I still have to find a way from those remnants of the former Ming Dynasty.It's time to wait!

On that day and the next few days, the East Coast Mission represented by Jiang Yunfan signed a series of agreements with Shunguo, which made him very satisfied.As for Li Laiheng, he also got a promise from the people on the east bank to continue supplying goods—even a promise to help them update some equipment in the Changsha gun factory—this is of great significance to the defense of Sichuan. At least that's how it looks right now.

(End of this chapter)