Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 178

Although the outlying island is the garrison of Zheng Zhibao and the four pirates, after all, it only exists for a month, and it is not the real home of the four pirates, so Wang Yan captured four thousand pirates and hundreds of warships in this battle , did not gain much money, but after this battle, it completely changed the current situation in the Guangdong Sea.

In order to open up the situation in Guangdong, Wang Yan escorted [-] pirates back to Guangzhou, and held a grand celebration ceremony outside Guangzhou, attracting crowds of people from Guangdong.

After the ceremony, Wang Yan selected another hundred pirates to parade in the city, led by Zheng Zhibao who was tied to the prison car, so that the whole of Guangzhou would know that the Guangdong navy had defeated the pirates entrenched in the Guangdong Sea.

Among the big merchants in Guangzhou, some knew the existence of Zheng Zhibao, and when they saw Zheng Zhibao dying of shame in the prison car, they were terrified.

They never imagined that the Zheng family, which spans all over the world, would actually lose to the newly built Guangdong Navy and Wang Yan, the general town of Guangdong.

These merchants originally thought that Wang Yan would be defeated, so they all fell to the Zheng family, but now Wang Yan has gained a firm foothold in Guangdong, and Guangdong Hai is also controlled by his navy. Their future trade must be approved by Wang Yan. Trade can be carried out on the Canton Sea, but the original Zheng family can't guarantee them.

Under such circumstances, after Wang Yan returned to the mansion, some sea merchants began to give him gifts, expressing their intention of seeking refuge, but Wang Yan did not accept them all.

When Wang Yan first entered Guangzhou, he had such an attitude towards Chen Bangfu, Ma Jixiang and others. The last four were all kicked out of Guangdong. Now it is the same with the maritime merchants. For a while, the maritime merchants in Guangzhou couldn't help but panic, thinking that Wang Yan Yan wants Qiu Hou to settle accounts.

The status of the merchants was low. Although there were powerful families behind them, Wang Yan held a large army in his hands.

Daming's army is notorious for being ruthless and evil. Whether it's Zuozhen and the four towns that have been surrendered, Fang Guoan under King Lu's command, or He Tengjiao from Hunan, they are all good at abusing people. If you have no money, you will send troops to plunder, but it doesn't matter what the family is or not.

After Wang Yan entered Guangdong, military discipline has been rectified, and there has been no act of abuse of the people, but the crows in the world are as dark as black, how can there be a cat in the world that does not steal?
Maybe, Wang Yan is ready to take them all together.

On November [-]st, when the sea merchants were panicking, they received invitations from Wang Yan one after another, asking them to go to the Duke of Chu's mansion for a banquet. But the big businessman said: "We are all in Guangzhou. If the Duke of Chu really wants to treat us badly, it is useless to hide!"

After Huang Cheng finished speaking, he left the guild hall and ordered his servants to prepare presents before heading to the Duke's Mansion. Seeing this, other sea merchants had no choice but to follow.

In the evening, the Duke’s Mansion held a banquet. This time Wang Yan did not refuse the gifts from the sea merchants to make them feel at ease, but he did not say anything about maritime trade and pirates. He just let people eat food, but the sea merchants How can they eat it?

A banquet ended quickly with Wang Yan putting down the bowl in an extremely weird atmosphere.

At this time, he stood up and looked around at everyone, "Since you all have no appetite, then move to the side hall and discuss business matters."

After speaking, Wang Yan got up and left, and he appeared in the side hall after a while, and behind him was a foreign woman holding a tray.

After Wang Yan settled down in the side hall, he asked the woman to put the tray covered with a yellow handkerchief in front of the table, and then he lifted the yellow handkerchief with one hand, and dozens of letters appeared.

Seeing this, all the sea merchants turned pale with fright, and the side hall fell into dead silence.

After a while, Wang Yancai stood up and broke the dead silence and said: "Today, I am going down to the boardwalk. With the heart of saving the country and the people, this governor is ordered by His Majesty to run the Guangdong Province. It is to collect taxes for the imperial court and raise soldiers, and also to protect the Guangdong Province. Tranquility. Since the governor entered Guangdong, he has quelled the chaos in Guangxi, resolved the disputes between locals and tourists, lightened corvees and paid little taxes, to support the people, eliminate pirates, and open up trade routes. The governor is dedicated to the development of Guangdong and the sea. In order to expand trade. For this reason, the governor did not hesitate to risk himself, personally raised troops and horses to sweep the Guangdong Sea, and spent money at his own expense to add ships and guns to the navy. What did the governor do? It is not for the sake of everyone here, not to be exploited by pirates, It can make the maritime trade bigger. Bendu originally thought that this governor should be supported by many maritime merchants in Guangdong, but these letters slapped Bendu in the face."

Wang Yan was very excited when he spoke, but the maritime merchants in the hall were ashamed.

At this time, he had achieved the desired effect, and after a short pause, he said in a slow tone: "These letters are all obtained by the governor on the outlying islands, and they are all letters from Cantonese maritime merchants and pirates. The governor's department will Admonish the governor and arrest him according to the letter, but the governor does not want to know who wrote it."

Many sea merchants who were originally pale-faced, suddenly heard Wang Yan's words, couldn't help being stunned, and all looked at him.

Seeing this, Wang Yan went on to say: "The governor knows that if you sit among you, there will be people who write letters, but the governor doesn't ask about it. Now more than forty letters are here, and the governor will let people Hold them up in the hall and burn them to the public. I only hope that some of you will change from now on, and those who don’t will be determined to do your best to run the Guangdong-region trade with the governor.”

After Wang Yan finished speaking, the sea merchants couldn't help but look at each other, their moods were really ups and downs to the extreme, until the foreign maid brought the brazier and burned the letter in public, and then slowly came to their senses.

At this time, they couldn't help having a new understanding of Wang Yan. Although they knew that it was an act of buying people's hearts, they still felt a shock in their hearts, and they all bowed together: "The Duke of the country is wise, we will definitely help the country wholeheartedly." Public, do a good job in maritime trade."

Seeing this, Wang Yan nodded his head, but he knew that businessmen value profit, which is their nature, and it is not very useful to just rely on emotion. If they want to be loyal to them, they need to have the strength to guarantee the safety of their maritime trade, so he continued Said: "You can have this heart, the governor is very relieved, but the governor also knows that you are in business, after all, you still have to consider the profit and the safety of the sea. Today, the governor will tell you that the governor and the Duke of Pingguo An agreement has been reached. From now on, the trade between Guangdong and the Southeast Asian countries only needs to fly the flag of Shibosi, instead of Zheng's small yellow flag. The safety of you and others in the South China Sea will also be controlled by the Guangdong navy. ,take full charge of."

Many maritime merchants in Guangdong are most worried that both Wang Yan and Zheng Zhilong are so strong, but Zheng's maritime power is always stronger than Wang Yan's. The sea had to pay taxes to the Zheng family again, but now Wang Yan's words dispelled their doubts.

Although it was limited to Nanyang, the trade between Japan and North Korea was already monopolized by the Zheng family, and Guangzhou has always been dominated by Nanyang trade, so they couldn't help being surprised.

Wang Yan watched the sea merchants following his words, making the atmosphere in the hall warm. He knew that his strategy of summoning the sea merchants after Chen Bangyan negotiated with Zheng Zhilong was right.

(End of this chapter)