Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 411 We are not here to rob, we are here to fight against monopoly! (Please vote for me, please subscribe)

Where to get it?
Li Zhongshan was a little dumbfounded when he heard Zheng Jing's question.

Zheng Jing has forgotten his roots!
How many years have you been aboard for the third generation of pirates in your family?Have you forgotten all about your old profession?I have no choice but to give you a make-up lesson.

Thinking of this, Li Zhongshan said to Zheng Jing: "King Yi, do you know the specific location of the Spice Island in the Netherlands?"

"I know!" Zheng Jing nodded, "Of course I know this. It's around the Maluku Sea and the Banda Sea. Before those Westerners who killed a thousand swords monopolized it, our Fujianese merchant ships could also go there. In the spice business.”

The main spices that Europeans like are pepper, nutmeg, and cloves. Among them, pepper is grown in a wide range of areas. However, nutmeg and cloves are currently only grown on Tidore Island, Ternate Island, and Ternate Island in the East Indies. It can only be produced in the Banda Islands.

Among them, the Banda Islands were conquered by white-skinned mercenaries and Japanese mercenaries sent by Cohen, the then governor of the Dutch East India Company, in 1621. A massacre was then carried out. 1.5 of the 1.4 residents on the island were killed, and the rest All were forcibly moved to Batavia.The entire island was controlled by the Dutch, who established clove plantations on the island that used slaves for labor, and completely monopolized the world's supply of cloves.

The residents of Tidore and Ternate were relatively "lucky". Their leaders signed a highly unequal treaty with the Dutch in 1652. The Netherlands owned all the nutmeg plantations on the two islands.All nutmeg trees that do not belong to the East India Company must be cut down once a year, and the mercenaries of the Dutch East India Company will regularly conduct "expeditions" to the two islands. When they find privately planted nutmeg trees, they will not only cut down the trees, but also Kill people!

After more than 20 years of continuous felling of people and trees, the supply of nutmeg was completely controlled by the Dutch East India Company!

Li Zhongshan asked again: "King Yi, do you know how our people can get there?"

"You know, just go south from Guangdong and Fujian, sail from the west of Luzon Island to Sulu, and then go south from Sulu. By the way, Sulu was the trading hub for Nanyang spices going north. It's not difficult to find a way to go to Sulu. A guide to the Spice Islands of the South Seas.”

"Can you still find it now?" Li Zhongshan quickly asked again.

"Now? Yes, it should be possible. Cloves in Southeast Asia have been monopolized by the Dutch for more than 50 years, but nutmeg has only been monopolized by them for more than 20 years. Moreover, the island that produces nutmeg is large and needs our ironware and groceries. We in Fujian People’s boats can still get through.”

"Hahaha, that's good!" Li Zhongshan laughed.

Zheng Jing didn't realize something was wrong until he got here, and looked at Li Zhongshan blankly, "General, what do you want to do?"

Before Li Zhongshan could answer, his father Li Fuchen had already answered: "Hey, what good thing can he think of? He must be trying to rob the Dutch Spice Island!"

"Rob the Spice Island?" Zheng Jing took a breath, "General, we can't defeat the Dutch East India Company and the Spanish Armada right now. Is it too hasty to attack the Spice Island now?"

"Father," Li Zhongshan did not answer Zheng Jing's question immediately, but said to Li Fuchen, "What are you talking about? I just want to go to Spice Island to get some cloves and nutmeg... How is this robbery?"

"What's this if it's not robbery?" Li Fuchen didn't like his son, "Just grab it, what's the point?"

"Father," Li Zhongshan still refused to admit that he was a robber, "you still don't understand. I didn't want to go and rob the spices on the Spice Island. I will give you money! In fact, I just want to destroy the Dutch people's interest in spices." Monopoly of trade!”

"Breaking the monopoly?" Zheng Jing's business acumen immediately rose and he asked immediately, "General, how do you want to break it?"

"Simple," Li Zhongshan said with a smile, "I will buy a batch of cardamom and clove tree saplings from the Spice Island, and then transport them back to Qiongzhou Island to plant them. In the future, we will also have cloves and nutmeg, so we will have to ask for help. ? King Yi, from now on, this business will be done by Nanyang Trading Company and Guangdong Trading Company! One company specializes in cardamom, and the other only makes cloves!"

Zheng Jing already understood what Li Zhongshan was thinking, "General, you want to cut off the roots of the Dutch East India Company!"

"Cut off the roots?" Li Fuchen didn't understand again, "It's just a little seasoning, why did it get cut off?"

"Of course it's broken!" Li Zhongshan sneered. "The Dutch East India Company makes a monopoly on spice profits, but it still loses money every year in the general ledger. If there is no spice profit, can they still survive?"

Cloves and nutmeg have provided the Dutch with huge profits over the past few decades. Of course, most of them have been divided up by the top brass of the Dutch East India Company.

However, the profits from the clove and nutmeg trade were still very important to the continued operations of the Dutch East India Company.

Because the Dutch East India Company maintained a large fleet of ships, mercenaries, and a large number of company bureaucrats.If it loses its monopoly profits from the spice trade, the East India Company will inevitably fall into huge losses. After all, the East India Company is a joint-stock commercial company. How can it be sustained if it suffers huge losses for consecutive years?

Although the Dutch navy is very powerful and the Ming Dynasty navy is no match for them, the Netherlands is after all a commercial country with a population of only 300 million and is extremely dependent on overseas trade for maintenance.They will not engage in loss-making transactions regardless of cost like France and Spain.With their little wealth, even if they wanted to do business at a loss, they wouldn't be able to do it for a few years.

Therefore, Li Zhongshan figured out a way to attack the commercial interests of the Dutch East India Company to force the Dutch back in Southeast Asia.

His main purpose in letting the French fleet return to Europe with enough silk, porcelain, sugar, tea, lacquerware, and spices was actually not to give Louis XIV a blood transfusion, but to let Louis XIV use those goods to compete with the Dutch. .

1000 million taels of Oriental goods shipped to Europe cannot be sold for 3000 million to 4000 million?It takes a long time to digest!
And he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for the Dutch and Spanish to "avoid" the conflict with France, and the purpose of raiding the Spice Islands was to fundamentally break the Dutch's monopoly on spices!

Li Zhongshan said to Zheng Jing again: "King Yi, let's go back and see Yang Qilong together. After you get the money from him, you will start stocking up. Within three months, you will stock up on goods worth at least 800 million yuan. Can you do it?"

Silk, porcelain, sugar, lacquerware, and tea are sold for 800 million taels in China, which can at least allow Zheng Jing's Nanyang Trading Company to earn a gross profit of 300 million taels.

The remaining 200 million taels will be made up with spices snatched from the Maluku Islands and Banda Islands.

In this way, the 1000 million taels that Fuquan had with Yang Qilong would stay in the East Asian market, and Louis XIV would get goods that could be sold for 4000 to [-] million taels in Europe, which was also a win.

This is the legendary win-win situation. Ming Dynasty wins once and France wins once. Of course the Netherlands and England lose and cry!

"800 million." Zheng Jing thought for a moment and smiled, "No problem, I'll place the order tomorrow. I'll be able to get everything together within three months!"

Li Zhongshan nodded and thought to himself: The production capacity of the Ming Dynasty's handicraft industry is really amazing. It can produce 3 million yuan of goods in 800 months. Although some of it must be inventory, this kind of industrial and commercial production scale is probably not comparable in the world. Only India can compare, right?This India is a big problem after all!
At this time, Zheng Jing suddenly frowned again: "General, the Dutch are very strict with the Maluku Islands and Banda Islands. Warships patrol there regularly. Our fleet is about to encounter the East India Company." We are not sure about the fleet of warships!" "How can we not be sure?" Li Zhongshan laughed, "We have the Royal Sun! And we also have a French naval advisory group led by Rear Admiral Cotentin. They are all professionals. French naval soldiers are definitely better at naval warfare than the merchants of the East India Company!”

"That's right!" Zheng Jing clapped his hands, "We have a first-class battleship! Although there is only one, the Dutch's armed merchant ships have to hide away. It's not like playing with this first-class battleship to attack their merchant ships. Yes? General, you have spent the 50 taels well!"

Outside the Navy Pier in Gaoqiao Town, Baoshan County, there was a lot of people coming and going.Teachers and students of the Chongming Island Naval Academy moved their classes from the campus on Chongming Island to the pier in Gaoqiao Town - here is the best navy and the most powerful sailing battleship in the world, and one of them has been sold to The Ming Navy!

What does it mean that the first-class battleships that could only be seen as illustrations in textbooks have now become the property of the Ming Navy?This shows that the period of great development of the Ming Dynasty's navy has arrived. Perhaps in 10 or 20 years, there will be hundreds of first-, second- and third-level battleships flying the sun and moon flag of the Ming Dynasty, cruising on the ocean.

And they, the Ming Navy cadets, will all be the pillars of the navy by then!
As excited as these young Ming navy men were the officers and sailors from France.

Some of them have already received high-paying consulting contracts from Rear Admiral Cotentin. In the next few years, they will become military consultants for the Ming Navy, and the minimum annual salary is equivalent to 3000 livres!This is a high salary that they can’t even imagine in France!

Those French naval officers and soldiers who did not receive high-paying contracts also received a gift from the Ming Dynasty General's Palace - several pieces of exquisite silk and a large bag of fresh green tea that is said to prevent scurvy.

A few pieces of fine silk were not worth much in the Ming Dynasty, but they were very expensive when brought back to Europe.

But no matter how expensive the silk is, it can't compare to the fresh green tea that can prevent bad soldiers!

Scurvy was the number one cause of death among European sailors, especially low-level sailors during the Age of Discovery!If drinking a few cups of green tea a day can prevent and cure scurvy, those French sailors will undoubtedly have an extra life!

No matter how much money you make, you still have to spend it with your life!

The Royal Sun, which has had most of its fancy carvings removed, now has a Chinese name - Liaodong!And became the general flagship of the Ming Navy.

The newly renamed Liaodong seems to be about to sail away.

A team of Ming sailors were pushing a wheelbarrow that could hold a lot of things, transporting supplies to the first-class battleship docked at the dock.

A red-bottomed sun and moon flag is flying on the mast of the Liaodong, together with the white-bottomed golden iris flag symbolizing the Bourbon royal family!
The harsh suona sound suddenly sounded.The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty Navy and the teachers and students of the military academy who were busy or visiting all stopped, and then lined up neatly on the dock, looking very well-trained.

Then, a line of carriages and horses came from a distance, and the hoofbeats of three large four-wheeled carriages could be heard.Behind and to the left and right of the convoy, there were Shanziying guards on horseback carrying flintlock guns, breastplates, sabers and iron helmets.

If there are Shanziying cavalry, there will naturally be General Li Zhongshan!

Li Zhongshan is now riding in the same car with Zheng Jing, Leibniz and Cotentin.Leibniz has now finally become a high official - Deputy Director of Military Industry of the General's Office, Deputy Head of Yingtian University Hall, and has the rank of First Grade Admiral.

He is now a member of the Leibnizlai army, and he has really achieved his wish!

Like him, Cotentanco became the admiral of the military sect. Cotentan also received the military rank awarded by the General's Office. Now he is the deputy director of military science and the deputy director of Chongming Island Naval Academy. He also graduated from the first rank. Admiral's military gate.

Zheng Jing was introducing the situation of Nagasaki, the destination of this trip. He said: "This Nagasaki was captured three months ago by General Sabusu under Yang Qilong's command. The battle of Nagasaki was fierce and full of For two months, the Japanese Hizen clan troops guarding Nagasaki suffered heavy losses, with thousands of casualties! The Kyushu clan armies sent by the Tokugawa shogunate to support Nagasaki also suffered heavy casualties!
However, Yang Qilong's new Korean army also lost thousands of people, and after defeating Nagasaki, it was unable to fight again in the short term. Therefore, the war in Kyushu has been stagnant for the past two or three months. "

He spoke in Chinese, and "Lai Junmen", who was now proficient in Chinese, was responsible for translating and translated his words into French.

"With the war going like this, should Nagasaki's sea trade stop?" Cotentin asked.

He, a Frenchman, had also heard the legends of "Japan's Golden Kingdom" and "Nagasaki Trading Port"!

"It stopped for a few months, but it has started to recover recently!" Zheng Jing said with a smile, "Yang Qilong still has a way. He turned Nagasaki Commercial Port into a concession! He also invited the Dutch, English, and Spanish , the Portuguese participated in management together.

Now businessmen from all over the world can freely enter and leave Nagasaki. The market in Nagasaki is controlled by the Qing soldiers, and there are many rules in all aspects. Now it is difficult for Nagasaki not to be prosperous!Hearing Zheng Jing's words, Li Zhongshan couldn't help but smile - the operation to turn Nagasaki into a lease-clearing operation was of course directed by Li Zhongshan behind the scenes.

Today's Japanese devils are really frustrated. They were clearly invaded by the Qing vassals, but the Qing Dynasty was able to remain neutral - the Qing Dynasty's Korean Supervisor State attacked Japan, and then the Qing Dynasty was still neutral!Not only can you be neutral, but you can also rent a Japanese army in Nagasaki to be a father!

Do the Japanese devils dare to agree?

How can it be?The Qing Dynasty is now a good friend of the Netherlands, England, Spain, Portugal and other Western powers!Compared with the Qing Dynasty, Japan is a cannon fodder producing area.

Moreover, the vassals of the Qing Dynasty suppressed Japan and fought. If Japan is not convinced, those foreign fathers will abandon Japan. By then, Japan will only recognize its father!

And this Ming father has actually been recognized by the Japanese feudal lord. Li Zhongshan set foot in Nagasaki this time just to meet secretly with the three feudal lords of Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa!

According to Li Zhongshan's plan, he had to hire 5000 mercenaries from Satsuma and Choshu Domains for the attack on the Maluku Islands and Banda Islands!

If used smoothly, then these Japanese mercenaries will be responsible for doing dirty work, causing harm to the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese territories in Southeast Asia!
The Spanish Armada sounds very powerful, but as long as you avoid them for a little bit, you can take out these imperialist strongholds in the Nanyang Islands. When those strongholds are destroyed, the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese will really Are you planning to spend all your money in Nanyang and fight the Ming Dynasty to the end?
Of course, the four countries of the Netherlands, England, Spain, and Portugal have made considerable progress on Japan's territory - they have now become Japan's foreign fathers, and have begun to recruit mercenaries in Japan. At the same time, they have given the Tokugawa Shogunate Certain assistance was provided to help the Tokugawa shogunate train new armies.

In short, these four "foreign fathers" are now raising the banner of resisting Korea and aiding Japan, and are ready to fight to the last Japanese.

As for the Japanese themselves, according to the report of Zheng Jing's uncle Tagawa Nanasaemon, they seem to be quite happy, especially a group of bitter ronin. Now they can find "respectable samurai jobs"!

Anyway, no matter which "father" they fight for, they all have the opportunity to make contributions. Even if they don't get a fief, they can still make a lot of money.

(End of this chapter)