Cutting 1719

Chapter 517 Gold Coin or Friendship
After the formal breakdown of the negotiations, Yang Yingyuan was escorted by the secret channel of the Military Intelligence Department, and moved towards Awa. On the way, Burmese civilians fleeing the war can be seen everywhere, as well as groups of Fuhan soldiers.

"I don't know when this battle will end."

Yang Yingyuan looked at the ragged people and sighed slightly. Although he was not the kind of pedantic scholar-bureaucrat, he still had kindness in his heart.

However, the officer of the Military Intelligence Department at the side misunderstood Yang Yingyuan's meaning, and he said enthusiastically, "Master Yang, you probably don't know that we have won an unprecedented victory in the war against Upper Burma, and the war will be completely over before July .”

"But I have to fight in Burma"

Yang Yingyuan's face was full of deep meaning. In fact, after he learned that the Annan Protectorate was about to be established, he knew one thing in his heart, that is, the nearby Annan Kingdom, Guangnan Kingdom, Dacheng Kingdom and Vientiane could not escape this day.

What is the Annan Protectorate?Naturally, it is necessary to restore the glory in history, not to mention that the emperor has added some new things under the current Annan Dufu system. At that time, the nobles from Nanjing, the consortium, and the Northern Chamber of Commerce that the capital wants to unite, they They will choose to use overseas interests to make up for the loss of interests caused by unification.

The Northern Expedition is naturally a grand event that is beneficial for thousands of years, but in the short term, it needs to bear part of the losses, especially for the nobles and financial groups in the south. To support the Northern Expedition, the only thing that can win them over is their interests, that is, the original interests of the North.

But the emperor saw clearly in this matter that the unification of the North and the South is not only about war, but also about the integration of other aspects. If the nobles and financial groups in the south are allowed to plunder the north, it will only cause a huge rift between the north and the south, which is not conducive to Unification, so after the end of the Northern Expedition, the principle of equal exchange between the North and South chambers of commerce will be formulated.

Of course, so far, the overall situation can definitely be taken care of, but for those nobles and chambers of commerce in the south who contributed money and efforts, they were forced to admit this matter under the pressure of the emperor, but after all, there was something wrong in their hearts. Unhappy, the first battle in Myanmar was to find new benefits for these people.

The Annan Protectorate's Mansion built on this foundation will only have stronger combat effectiveness than those in the past, and it will also have greater ambition and digestion capacity. It will slowly devour all the countries around Annan, and Turning them into their own nourishment will also further feed back to the country, fueling the ambitions of nobles and consortia to expand outward.

Yang Yingyuan believes that he is not the only person who can see through the essence of this matter. It can even be said that when the enfeoffment system came out, the stimulation to Da Chu was quite powerful and very beneficial.

Generals and soldiers have begun to dream of being awarded titles, so they bravely killed the enemy on the battlefield, and ordinary people are eager to join the army in order to obtain titles; The title was bestowed, so everyone was diligent and conscientious, not only the implementation of the New Deal, but even corruption was much less.

Everyone is working hard for the small country in their hearts, and expressing their admiration from the bottom of their hearts to His Majesty the Emperor who created all this.

"This is Qin Zheng!"

The person who said this was not Yang Yingyuan, but Wei Desheng, a Western missionary living in Nanjing. He came to Nanjing during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, and later witnessed the entire process of Ning Chu’s conquest of the world after the Han army rose up. , so it can be regarded as a real China hand.

Wei Desheng pinched the corner of "Qingliu Bao" and said with emotion: "I didn't expect that today's Dachu would embark on this road so quickly and resolutely."

On the opposite side of Wei Desheng, Ernst, the director of the Great Chu Mint Committee and good friend of the Great Chu Emperor Ning Yu, was holding a bowl of sweet soup at this time, and said with a smile: "Are you talking about colonization?"

"That's right, with a little shell to cover up, but it is naked colonialism in its bones. When Da Chu's enfeoffment system is implemented, all ambitious people will jump out. They bring guns and seeds, and they will take their fancy. The land is in his arms. And with Da Chu's force, there will be no one else in Asia who can stop him."

Ernst was noncommittal, he could naturally see the ambition hidden in the emperor's heart, but it was a great thing for him. In the Chinese words, "Learn the art of writing and martial arts, and you can be as good as the emperor's family." ', if the emperor is only satisfied with the status quo, how can he be appreciated?

"Mr. Wei, you are a missionary from the West, but I still don't know which country you are from, and your accent seems to be French?"

Wei Desheng took a deep look at Ernst and said, "At first I was just skeptical, but now I am completely sure that the Emperor of Chu sent you here, there must be a deeper purpose, so let's talk about it."

Ernst frowned slightly, and said, "That's right, the emperor sent me here for a very important matter, and that is about Europe's interests in Asia."

"After any country is strong, it can't wait to turn its eyes to the surroundings. Right now, Asia is mainly dominated by the forces of Russia, Spain, Britain, and France. But I think that the emperor should not have too much power before defeating the Russians." Involved in the pattern of Nanyang."

Wei Desheng analyzed it calmly, "If there is any conflict, it must be the war in Burma, which has already begun to make the British vigilant."

Ernst chuckled, nodded and said: "Mr. Wei is really not an ordinary person. Before I came, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already received news that the British East India Company stationed in Burma's Shanlian Trade Master Pandas, once suggested to the King of England It is required to send an ambassador to China, especially for the interests of Southeast Asia, and it is required to share interests with China."

"So what do you mean?" Wei Desheng was a little uncertain what Ernst meant, or he didn't understand what the majesty behind the scenes was thinking.

Ernst put down the teacup in his hand, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty's meaning is very simple. Naturally, doing business is to share benefits. At present, neither England nor France has really established influence in Southeast Asia, so don't rush to eat this." Let’s eat the cake of the future, and whether it is a cake or poison is up to His Majesty.”

In fact, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Western countries are still very interested in the China described by Marco Polo, and there are continuous folk or official adventurers who sail across the ocean thousands of miles away on sea ships and arrive in China. This legendary land of wealth.

It's like Ernst went to the West to recruit so many talents and used a lot of money to attract them to China. These people are often very happy to come, and there is not much resistance, because they really yearn for this land of wealth. .

As early as 1503, fully armed Portuguese came to Malacca by sailboat and established the first colony in Asia. At that time, Malacca was already the most prosperous trade center in Southeast Asia, bringing together spices and rice from all over Asia. , gold, porcelain and silk, so that the Portuguese got huge profits from it, and it also made the Westerners taste the sweetness.

In the following decades, the Portuguese successively occupied the spice-rich Maluku Islands and Indonesia, and even arrived in Guangzhou, China. At that time, the Ming court was still in its heyday, so the Portuguese dared not do it easily.

Under the example of a successful old neighbor, the Spaniards, whose eyes were turning red with envy, were not to be outdone, and soon launched a large voyage fleet. It took three years to complete the first voyage around the sea in human history, and successfully arrived at Asia, occupied Luzon Island, established the city of Manila.

However, in Europe at that time, the maritime hegemony of the Portuguese and the Spaniards gradually declined, and was soon transferred to the hands of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Therefore, these two goods did not have the power to support their expansion in the Far East until the end of the sixteenth century. After the Dutch maritime overlord arrived in Java, they got a full fleet of spices and returned to Europe, making each of them a rich man, and all this also made the enthusiasm of the West for the East reach its peak again.

Later, the Dutch East India Company announced its establishment, and it also occupied the Portuguese Maluku Islands, and later even occupied Taiwan. Fortunately, Ming Zheng successfully restored Taiwan at that time, which prevented Taiwan from falling to the Dutch colonists. hands.

But despite this, the Dutch at that time still established their position in Asia, and took the lead in the Westerners' overseas expansion competition in Asia, and all this was seen by the British. He was very dissatisfied with controlling the Spice Islands, and also established the British East India Company, demanding to come to Asia for a share.

Of course, the British were still weak at the beginning, and the size of their fleet was not as good as that of the Dutch. Therefore, after a conflict with the Dutch, they had to withdraw from Indonesia and focus on India, trading cotton cloth and pepper.

After the bourgeois revolution broke out in Britain, the national strength of Britain was rapidly enhanced, and in the 1652 years from 1674 to 22, three colonial wars took place between Britain and the Netherlands, and these three wars also exhausted the strength of the Netherlands itself, making the Great Britain successfully achieved maritime supremacy.

Although Britain has basically established its dominant position, in the current expansion of East Asia, Britain can only rely on the East India Company, and the East India Company has been developing in India for the past few decades. During the war that broke out with the Mughals, it suffered a disastrous defeat, which can be described as Waterloo.
As for the establishment of the East India Company in France, the previous few times it ended up going bankrupt repeatedly. Although the reorganization was finally successful in the past few years, it was only a little bit easier, but it did not even achieve the general results of the British East India Company.

To put it simply, in Asia right now, these evil colonists do not have much power at all. For example, the British East India Company opened a trading point in Guangzhou to exchange money, while the French East India Company is holding Pondicherry. dried salted fish
Of course, both the British East India Company and the French East India Company had opened trading posts in Than Lien, Burma, so they had some control over the situation in Myanmar. The ambassador, in order to cooperate with Ning Chu, also wants to get involved in the interests of East Asia.

Wei Desheng snorted coldly: "Currently, Ning Chu has not even completely unified the whole of China, and he has no room to intervene in the affairs of the South China Sea. How did Southeast Asia become his taboo?"

For Wei Desheng, who has received Sinology education for a long time, he can even speak Chinese better than many Chinese people, so he can get along like a fish in water in Nanjing's upper class with his blond hair and blue eyes.

But Ernst didn't like him, he raised a finger and said: "Your Majesty has no intention of fighting an aimless battle with Western countries on the sea—you should understand that His Majesty's goal is only land, Especially those lands in the north that have not been taken back are our real goals."

"Russia?"

Wei Desheng's eyes froze. In fact, his identity is quite complicated. Although he is French, he is doing things for Britain and France at the same time. There are even some other European countries that use him to conduct Eastern trade. He can be regarded as a An international broker, and for him, all news related to Russia can be sold for a considerable price.

Ernst did not confirm it, but changed the subject and said with a smile: "You should understand that whether it is the British, French, Spaniards, or Portuguese, or even the king of Sweden, they actually hope to You can find a friend in the East, a friend who can make money together."

"If that's the case, what benefits do I have?" Wei Desheng rolled his eyes.

"A gold coin or friendship from His Majesty."

"make a deal!"

The two laughed, and no one explained whether the so-called benefits were gold coins or friendship, but for the two of them, they had already understood it, so there was no need to say more.

After Ernst returned to the imperial city, Ning Yu was holding a gleaming long sword in one hand and a roll of soft muslin in the other hand, and was slowly wiping the sword. .

Ernst stepped forward quickly, saluted and said, "Your Majesty, I have already contacted Wei Desheng, and I believe that with his participation, England, France, and even Sweden will send ambassadors to the East to establish formal diplomatic relations with me, Great Chu. "

When Ernst returned to Europe last time, Ning Chu did not have a real Northern Expedition after all, so the contact with the Westerners was only a taste, but this time it was more or less formal, and it should be possible to establish diplomatic relations smoothly.

While listening to Ernst's report, Ning Yu poured out some oil from a small bottle while he was listening to Ernst's report. Declaring interests in Asia at this time, it will be more logical to turn around in the future.”

(End of this chapter)