Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 280 Zhoushan Lieutenant General
To some extent, Wu Mengwen was able to make this judgment by inferring others based on his own experience. After all, it was after he learned that Emperor Tianqi was ill that he urged his elder brother to cut ties with the eunuch party.

When Lin Hai's article denouncing Wei Zhongxian reached the Wu family, Wu Mengwen's first reaction was that Lin Hai had also heard the news from the palace through certain channels.

After all, if it is said that Lin Hai did this because he was angry at Li Shi for demanding a bribe from him, then he would not have to take the risk of taking the old eunuch to the Tiger Hill Five Tomb in Suzhou, and then post articles denouncing Wei Zhongxian in Liuhe and Loujiang.

However, at that time, Wu Mengwen's guess was just a guess. He didn't know Lin Hai very well. It was hard to say whether this man was really a righteous man who opposed the eunuch party.

This conjecture was finally confirmed until he heard that Lin Hai was going to visit Zhang Pu.

After all, not long ago, Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai led a movement in Taicang to expel Gu Bingqian, a core member of the eunuch party, and their reputations soared. This incident was later called "the two Zhangs driving out Gu."

Seeing that Lin Hai was unwilling to admit his guess, Wu Mengwen smiled and gently brushed off the question: "Whether intentional or unintentional, Lin Yourong is regarded as a hero against eunuchs by the Donglin people. Now that he has been surrendered, he came to visit Zhang Tianru as soon as possible. If you say that he has no intention of making friends with the Donglin people, I don't believe it..."

He picked up the tea bowl, moistened his throat and continued, "Since you have Donglin as your support, how can you be afraid of my calculations? Besides, after you resigned from your official position, you were able to maintain such a strong army and wiped out the Minhai bandit Zheng Zhilong in one fell swoop. It can be seen that your influence overseas is not insignificant. The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty is open to you. If I have to say it, I should be afraid of you."

"Mr. Wen, you are too polite. I have never thought of resigning from my official position again." Lin Hai smiled faintly when he heard this. He was already somewhat tempted at this moment.

Just as Wu Mengwen said, Lin Hai was not actually worried about the Zhoushan Wu family's plot. The reason why he had never thought about cooperating with the Wu family again was mainly because he did not want to get involved.

But Mr. Wen Si is a rare clear-headed person. Since he has such a clear understanding of the situation of both sides, he probably won't cause any more trouble.

Lin Hai continued, "Since you have already said it, why not continue talking about it? What do you mean by 'sincerity'?"

Wu Mengwen said: "Penghu is too far from Jiangnan. Since Lin Yourong wants to make friends with Donglin, I wonder if he is interested in coming to Zhejiang Province to serve as the lieutenant general of Zhoushan?"

"Commander-in-Chief of Zhoushan? Are you sure, Mr. Wen?" Lin Hai's eyes flashed when he heard this. He thought that Wu Mengwen's so-called "sincerity" referred to the price of raw silk, but he didn't expect that he wanted to help him get an official position.

He did have the idea of ​​returning to Zhoushan. After all, the Xu family already had a network of connections in Fujian, so there was not much point in being an official in Penghu.

In contrast, Lin Hai wanted to serve in the navy of Zhejiang or South Zhili. As long as he had this title, it would not be difficult for him to control the coastal areas of Zhili and Zhejiang. It was equivalent to having another piece of land besides the coastal areas of Fujian, which was very beneficial to trade and immigration.

In addition, Zhoushan has several advantages over Penghu:

First of all, Zhoushan is located on the shipping route between the Jiangnan cargo source and Japan. Now that Sijiao Mountain Water Fort has been abandoned, Lin Hai still needs a trade bridgehead here.

Secondly, Zhoushan is located further to the north, making it more convenient to deploy troops to Liaodong and northern Zhili from here, which is also conducive to a faster response to the situation in the north.

Finally, there is one more point. The population of Zhoushan Islands is more than 100,000, which is not much less than that of the current Jinhe Kingdom. The fertile land on the islands has been developed and is enough to feed so many people. Today's Linhai is no longer the small thousand households without any foundation. It is possible to eat up all these people and lands with a good operation.

"Since I have proposed this, I am naturally confident of it." Wu Mengwen was certainly not bragging. His confidence came from the fact that this matter had already been approved by Zhang Yandeng, the current governor of Zhejiang Province.

Zhang Yandeng served as an examiner for the military examination in the 47th year of Wanli's reign. Wu Mengming was also taking part in that examination. It can be said that the former was his teacher.

During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, Zhang Yandeng was appointed as the Minister of Imperial Household Department. At that time, the factional struggles in the court were intensifying. Zhang Yandeng was from Shandong and had a deep connection with the Qi Party, but his political views were actually closer to those of the Donglin Party. Therefore, when the Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang parties joined the Eunuch Party in large numbers, he did not kowtow to Wei Zhongxian.

In fact, his consistent stance was to strongly oppose party struggles. He had people in both the Qi Party and the Donglin Party who had a good relationship with him. Later, when the two sides became hostile, he was caught in a dilemma.

In this respect, Wu Mengming and Zhang Yandeng are somewhat similar. He was in the Jinyiwei, and on the one hand, he had a good personal relationship with Xu Xianchun, a core member of the eunuch party, and on the other hand, he was very sympathetic to the Donglin Party, so the situations of the two during the Tianqi period were quite similar.

The same circumstances made Wu Mengming and Zhang Yandeng feel somewhat sympathetic. In addition to their relationship as master and teacher and similar political views, the two established a deep personal friendship during the Tianqi period.

Because of this relationship, after Wei Zhongxian fell, Wu Mengwen instigated his eldest brother to lobby Zhang Yandeng to recruit Lin Hai in order to rebuild the trade cooperation between the two families. Unexpectedly, Lin Hai was recruited by Fujian.

Lin Hai heard Wu Mengwen speak so confidently, so he asked, "How long will it take to complete this matter?"

Wu Mengwen said: "I will smooth the relationship between Zhejiang and the capital. As long as Lin Yourong can make sure that the Governor of Fujian does not raise any objections, it can be done in half a year at most."

"Then we have Fourth Master Lao Wen. Fujian won't be a problem." Lin Hai agreed to let Wu Mengwen handle the matter. In fact, with his current power, it is possible for him to accomplish this task by himself, but there are still uncertainties after all, and the speed will definitely not be so fast.

Since Fourth Master Wen has shown his sincerity, Lin Hai thinks it is not a bad idea to give Zhoushan Wu another chance. After all, the two sides are highly complementary in business, and it is necessary to introduce two suppliers in Zhejiang, the number one silk province.

The two then discussed the framework of cooperation. Lin Hai once again emphasized the rules of the game during the cooperation with Master Ren Wu, which was that no deposit was required and the money and goods were paid in full. Master Wen Si also agreed immediately.

Finally, Lin Hai ordered another 1,000 dan of raw silk from Mr. Wen Si, agreeing to pick up the goods after the matter of the Zhoushan lieutenant general was settled.

In this way, the Wu family and the Xie family each had 50 dan, which was enough to make up the amount of raw silk sold to the Japanese market in the first year of Chongzhen. The total value was about 70 taels of silver, and it was expected to occupy % to % of the Japanese market.

In Manila, with the fall of Huang Mingzuo of the Zhangzhou Gang, Huiyou Company is expected to occupy nearly 50% of the raw silk market, with the other half belonging to Portuguese merchants.

(End of this chapter)