Dragon Sea Empire

Yin Feng looked around and saw that everyone was looking at him, and continued: "These Westerners are different from us Chinese businessmen. If they can't do business better than us, they will use their knives and guns to rob us. On this point, you For those of you who haven’t been to Luzon, you may not feel much about it.”

Huang Cheng nodded and said, "These Western barbarians are indeed pirates sometimes!"

Yin Feng said: "So, if we Chinese businessmen want to make more money, if we want these Westerners to do business in a proper manner, we must let them see our strength. What our Huaxing Alliance has done these days is to Demonstrating for the Red Maoyi."

A businessman shook his head and said, "Could it be that we can match the power of Western barbarians? Unless the government can send troops to conscript, what can we lowly people do?"

Yin Feng shook his head: "You're wrong, haven't we just defeated them now?"

"That was just a fluke. What should you do if the red-haired barbarians keep sending troops to fight?" Huang Cheng also shook his head.

Yin Feng thought proudly: here, who else knows the history of the Netherlands better than me?

"The Hongmaoyi country has only a million people, and their businesses are all over the world. The Hongmaoyi are around China and the Nanyang area. There are no more than a thousand people in total. We need to deal with Nanyang Tubang, Macao Folangji people, and Luzon ties. The Greeks; their hometown in Europe is still at war with neighboring countries, and the war has been going on for more than 50 years.”

Although a group of big businessmen are engaged in foreign trade, their understanding of the Hongmaoyi is almost zero except that they came from a certain place with the Frangji people.Therefore, when they listened to what Yin Feng said, most of them heard it in a daze, with half-belief.

"And the biggest enemy of the Hongmaoyi is their former suzerain country, the Ganla people. In this way, our Chinese company actually has a common enemy with them!"

Yin Feng looked at the expressions of these people and knew that they were dubious.Yin Feng sneered secretly in his heart, he didn't understand the general trend of the world, how could he get along in the age of great navigation?In this era, among the Chinese in the entire Ming Dynasty, it was almost rare for the Chinese people in the Ming Dynasty to be able to fully understand the details of the Hongmaoyi, Folangji, Ganguanla, and other Westerners.During the more than 100 years of cultural exchanges between China and the West in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, more than a thousand Westerners came to China, and the Chinese who were able to go to the Western world to find out the details of the hometown of the red-haired Frangji, except for a few Christians such as Li Jin Except for the believers, there are probably three Chinese businessmen who went to Mexico for investigation recorded in "Great China Chronicle", ten fingers can't make up.

In the process of competing with these Westerners for the ocean, the Chinese have already lost in terms of knowing themselves and their enemies.Fortunately, there is still Yin Feng, a time traveler.

Yin Feng also thought about leaving some suspense for others, he waved his hands and said: "All shopkeepers and folks, right now, the red-haired general is waiting for my summoning at the door. Wait a minute, and you will be a witness; we both If you want to do business with them, you also need to make them submit."

Yin Feng sat on a chair and ordered his subordinates to bring a large table; however, there was really no good furniture on the island, and the guards only borrowed a broken table from a fisherman's house.

No way, the first negotiation with the Hongmaoyi started in front of this broken table.

Wei Malang waited at the door furiously, and wanted to walk away several times, but he dared not; his own fate, and the fate of hundreds of his subordinates, depended on this mysterious person he was about to meet.On the contrary, Li Jin had already fought it out, but stood there with a livid face and said nothing.

Finally, the boy from before came out again, and said carelessly: "The boss said, the red-haired general can go in!"

Baradas nodded, leading the way and walking into the temporary camp.It is still a very busy scene here, many of the injured escort brothers are being sent to the temporary greenhouse for treatment, and many people are coming and going to carry the seized guns and ammunition.

Wei Malang entered a simple wooden shed with complicated emotions.The ground here has been cleaned, and there is a pair of chairs in the middle. A tall Chinese man in his 30s is sitting behind him, wearing Spanish plate armor, with a half-smile on his face.Behind him, there was actually a black guard with a weapon - Magaro, and two young guards standing behind him, including Yan Siqi who had just sent the message.

Around the young man, on the left is a group of proud armed men in armor. It is Lin Xiao, Mai Xiaoliu and others, and Colonel Kutley is also there.On the right are representatives of Han Ping and the seven big merchant families from Haicheng and Anhai who just arrived.

In the corner of the shed, there is also a Chinese man wearing a priest's black robe - You Wenhui.

There was a bench near the door. Wei Malang looked around and knew that the bench was reserved for himself, so he couldn't help being very annoyed: a group of people faced him alone, and this posture was like a trial in a court.

He shook his head and sneered, and was just about to say something tough to save face when the young man suddenly said in Portuguese: "Your Excellency General Valveik, the authorization given to you by the East India Company includes fighting against trade partners." power?"

Wei Malang was born in an upper-class businessman family in the Dutch province, and knew many European languages. He immediately responded: "Are you the governor of the Chinese company?"

Yin Feng chuckled and said, "I am Yin Feng, the president of the China United Company. I can decide the company's daily business, including cooperation or combat with the Dutch East India Company. Aren't you here to seek trade routes? Why do you want to cooperate with the Dutch East India Company? My company fights?"

Wei Malang was suddenly blessed. He was still struggling in despair just now, but now he suddenly felt that God had given him new hope.

Although the Dutch East India Company was the earliest joint-stock company, its management system was very strange.The management of the East India Company was arguably messy, and the Dutch favored "committees" in both business and political life.What can be done by a committee can never be done by one.

This is true in politics, and it is exactly the same in the commercial field. There is no single leader in the East India Company, and there is no general manager position like the president and general manager of a modern limited company.Its governing body is divided into 4 "secret rooms".Each chamber represents a certain number of shareholders, the largest shareholder being Amsterdam, which invested 370 million guilders.Followed by Zeeland, 130 million dong, Horn and Enkhui were 55 dong and 25 dong, respectively, Delft and Rotterdam were 45 dong and 17.5 dong.

There are no human shares in other cities.Thus, although the monopoly of the East Indies was sanctioned by the Federal Assembly, and the Commonwealth was held under the banner of the Union, all affairs were in the hands of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland.Although residents of other provinces may individually own shares in the company, they cannot exercise any influence over the management of public affairs.

The members of each "secret room" only care about the commercial interests of their own city, supervise and equip the merchant ships that their city is allowed to send, and the merchant ships allowed to be dispatched by each secret room are distributed according to their total share capital.Thus, strong localism emerged within the Dutch East India Company; a merchant ship sent from Delft or Hoorn had to return to Delft or Hoorn, and so on.

In fact, when contemplating the establishment of the China United Company, in view of the management problems of the Dutch East India Company, Yin Feng referred to the modern joint-stock enterprise system in another time and space. Control and influence.At the same time, Yin Feng firmly holds the military power of the escort, which is the most powerful guarantee for consolidating his position in the Chinese company.Unlike the East India Company, the Chinese Company does not have the jurisdiction of the national government, so the control of the armed forces is very important.

The East India Company is not only a trading company, but also a sovereign political institution. It owns the army and fleet in the name of the federal parliament, and has the right to decide wars, make peace and acquire territories. Therefore, some kind of central organization must be established to supervise the company's overall policy.

So the East India Company had a board with 20 representatives in Amsterdam, 12 in Zeeland and 7 in each of the other two cities.However, the actual power of the company is in the hands of a group of governors. There are 17 governors in the company, known as "Mr. Seventeen".Among the 17 governors, 8 were in Amsterdam; 4 in Zeeland; 2 in each of the other two cities; the 17th member was appointed in turn by the other 3 chambers except Amsterdam.In both the 17-member committee and the board of directors, Amsterdam controlled the management of the company through its own substantial capital advantages, just as it controlled virtually every other area of ​​the republic.

Seventeenth appointed the Governor-General of the East Indies and all other civil, military, and judicial officers; but these appointments were subject to the approval of the Inter-Provincial Assembly.However, the Interprovincial Assembly has practically nothing to do with the company.They never controlled the appointment of any officials in the East Indies except for the selection of the Viceroy.As long as the company's stock interest remains at 500 or even higher, they will not ask anything about the company.

But this trip to Penghu was proposed by the East India Company and authorized by the Provincial Council.Wei Malang's fleet does not actually belong to the East India Company, but is directly under the Inter-Provincial Parliament, but it is only temporarily transferred to the East India Company's jurisdiction and command.If Wei Malang's expedition is successful, he will receive a large reward, and the future in the political and military circles is bright.

If he failed, he wouldn't need to say anything about his future, and his status in his own family would not be worth mentioning.

Yin Feng had understood in advance that the only criterion for the failure and success of the East India Company in this Penghu expedition: the company's profits.

As long as Wei Malang can bring back a large amount of Chinese goods for the Dutch East India Company and open up trade routes, the East India Company will make a lot of profits; then, no matter how many people die in this operation, it will be a great success.

Wei Malang is worthy of being the general of the Merchant Republic, and immediately understood that there is still hope for his expedition mission.He no longer needed Li Jin to translate for him, and started negotiations with Yin Feng directly in Portuguese.

He moved the bench and sat in front of Yin Feng, and discussed the issue with Yin Feng enthusiastically, sometimes spitting, sometimes slapping the table and shouting; Slowly pastime: He already knew the bottom line of the Dutch, and he knew that the Dutch came to Penghu from thousands of miles to pursue Chinese products; There is no confidence in trying to be tough.

The seven merchants looked at each other in blank dismay, only Huang Cheng was doing business in Macau and knew a little Portuguese.But these two people spoke so fast and eloquently that Huang Cheng's hearing couldn't keep up.Li Jin was quite surprised; he already knew from Yin Feng's words that the big owner of this Chinese company was actually the owner of the "Xinxing" who was fighting Japanese pirates in Dongpan.

Li Jin couldn't help sighing that he hadn't been back to his hometown for only a few years, yet such a behemoth, Zhonghua Company, appeared at the door of his hometown.Moreover, the person in charge is actually a young man, and he is so familiar with the Western situation and the internal situation of the Netherlands, better than Li Jin, who has been to the Netherlands.