Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 822 Allies
The emissary is a middle-aged man, although he is wearing traditional Chinese decent clothes, neatly holding the unique bun on the Chinese head, and wearing an elegant and luxurious gauze cover - this is a wealthy talent among the Chinese There are decorations.However, the governor still felt that he could smell the sea water and the stench of rotten fish and rotten shrimp on his body.

Obviously, the decent Chinese clothes made him feel uncomfortable on the messenger, and De Capontier noticed that he pulled the clothes on his body from time to time, which seemed uncomfortable.

Liu Xiang's envoy made a deep bow in front of him, and De Capentil just nodded slightly. As the governor of the East India Company, he believed that he represented the authority of the seventeen directors of the United Provinces, and he did not need to criticize the South China Sea. The pirates are waiting for you.

"Well, what new advice have you brought?" asked the governor.

What the messenger brought was Liu Xiang's proposal to ask the Dutch for support.To be precise, Liu Xiang hoped that the Dutch would dispatch warships from the big staff to support the battle between him and Zheng Zhilong—he was planning to launch a maritime operation against Zheng Zhilong recently, and if possible, completely destroy the center left.

In addition to hoping that the Dutch will directly participate in the battle, the accompanying requirements also include requiring the Dutch to provide artillery, matchlock guns, gunpowder, and craftsmen and soldiers who can use and repair European guns.He can pay for all of these.If the Dutchman is willing, sell or lease him a few European-style "large plywood ships", of course with sailors to operate them.

"That's not a small request," thought the governor.There are only two resident ships in Dayuan, one of which is a speedboat.But he has always been cautious about directly joining the conflict between Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong - after all, most of the businessmen going to Dayuan Port are from Fujian, if Zheng Zhilong is annoyed, he is likely to block this trade route.This is not worth the candle.

The relationship between the Dutchman and Zheng Zhilong is delicate.First of all, in 1627, Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch's attempt to get involved in Fujian's ocean trade, forcing Natz, who was stationed in Dayuan Port, to sign a three-year trade agreement with Zheng Zhilong the following year.Although this trade agreement was not implemented later, the Dutch have always been jealous of Zheng Zhilong's power. In 1630, Putmans, a representative of the East India Company, went to the mainland to conduct business negotiations with Zheng Zhilong and reached a trade agreement.Since then, the two sides have had a period of "friendly exchanges".The Dutch provided some help to Zheng Zhilong in pacifying the warlords at sea, including allowing his ships to enter Dayuan Port at will.

However, Zheng Zhilong's growing power made him eventually become the middleman of the Dutch in the Zhangzhou Bay trade: the goods shipped by the Dutch to Fujian Ocean could only be sold to the Zheng Zhilong Group, and they could only buy Chinese goods from the Zheng Zhilong Group.

The East India Company was very dissatisfied with the trade monopoly.At the same time, the two sides also have frictions on the trade route with Japan.The Dutch hope to monopolize the trade with Japan, and the Zheng Zhilong Group also regards trade with Japan as a taboo.

Under various factors, the Dutch have always hoped to support another force to attack and weaken Zheng Zhilong, so that the Chinese maritime groups on the Fujian-Guangdong ocean cannot monopolize coastal trade and open the door to free trade for the Dutch. .

Supporting the Liuxiang Group is a reasonable choice for the East India Company.Of course, considering the fragile status of the big trade, the Dutch's support for Liu Xianglao has always been relatively subtle.Secretly providing assistance such as artillery and ammunition has been going on, but the matter of providing ships is too big-not to mention that the Dutch do not have many ships in the East Indies.

Generally speaking, the East India Company does not want to see a decisive battle between Liu Xianglao and Zheng Yiguan.The final result of the decisive battle must be that the winner takes it all. By that time, a group with a monopoly on coastal trade in Guangdong and Fujian provinces will be a nightmare for the East India Company.

The message brought by the envoy complained that Zheng Zhilong was putting more and more pressure on him—after Zheng Zhilong took refuge in the imperial court, his official status gave him full convenience in his activities along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong. He could easily obtain supplies from the shore, and even You can also get intelligence and weapons support from officers and soldiers.Even Zheng Zhilong has the upper hand in the competition on land: whether it is Zheng Zhilong or Liu Xiang, they have allies on the shore of the so-called "mountain master" as their lair. "Mountain owners" are half farmers and half bandits. They are not simple bandits. They were originally a group of exiled farmers who felled wood, burned charcoal, and opened up wasteland to grow cash crops in the mountains.The mountain owners not only provided pirate sea merchants with supplies and a safe nest after landing, but also were the main source of commercial crops exported by sea merchants, the largest commodity of which was indigo.Indigo was another cash crop that was exported in large quantities in China at that time, and it was a major source of profit for maritime merchants.After Zheng Zhilong became an official, the government in Fujian clearly supported Zheng Zhilong's activities. Under such double pressure, the attitude of the mountain owners changed significantly—Liu Xiang had fewer and fewer "friends" on the shore. His business and even his very existence are threatened.

The combination of these problems eventually forced Liu Xiang's gang to make a decision to have a showdown with Zheng Zhilong.

With [-]% certainty, it is really not a good opportunity to launch a decisive battle, but as time goes by, Zheng Zhilong is constantly getting stronger. In the past, he was just a force on the surface of Fujian, Guangdong and foreign countries. Now he has become a foreign force with the support of Xiong Wencan. The strongest force on the face.Moreover, this strongest force has no intention of "sharing wealth and honor" at all, and it is clear that it wants to monopolize everything.

"Does Xianglao really want to fight to the death with an official?" The governor raised his eyelids and looked at the envoy standing in front of him.

"My lord, you have a clear lesson! An official is getting more and more powerful now! The old ghost Xiong Wencan gave him many big ships and many red cannons. He can recruit as many people as he wants in Fujian, and he is not afraid of death when fighting. Destroy the ship. If this goes on, our gang will be dragged to death sooner or later."

The envoy said that recently Zheng Zhilong's fleet has repeatedly approached the fundamental core area of ​​Liu Xianglao in the Chaoshan area. In order to defend his core territory, Liu Xiang's gang had to retreat from the vicinity of the Pearl River estuary. Respond to Zheng Zhilong's challenge.

The loss of territory near the mouth of the Pearl River was a very serious problem for Liu Xiang—this was his main source of income, and although the foreign goods trade was patrolled by the Portuguese at sea, he could not monopolize the route, but various other coastal trade ships in and out of Guangzhou paid The "toll" income is equally lucrative.Although Zheng Zhilong's actions did not provoke a direct sea battle between the two sides, it made Liu Xiang very passive.He can't take the risk of losing the basic territory near Chaoshan and let Zheng Zhilong copy his old nest and continue to stay in the Pearl River Estuary to generate income and do business; but now he is forced to return to the Chaoshan area, the Pearl River Estuary territory that has been gradually laid down since the end of the apocalypse. It will be slowly taken away by others.Without territory, there is no money, and without money, there is nothing.

For Liu Xiang's gang, war may not be possible right now, but death is inevitable if there is no war. Chaoshan's resources alone cannot maintain the survival of the gang.

De Capentil certainly understands Liu Xiang's current predicament.But he doesn't plan to send any ships to support Liu Xiang at all-since Liu Xiang is not sure of winning, it is unwise to bet all the bets on it now.Even if Liu Xiang is lucky enough to defeat his opponent, with Zheng Zhilong's current strength, it may not be that he will decline.He will inevitably take revenge by blocking the route of the senior staff.Support for weapons and personnel can be considered.The company had two sailing ships in poor condition in Batavia Harbour: the Vigilance and the Zealous.These two 12-ton brigs had to pump water during the voyage due to serious water leakage.No voyage can be made without a supernumerary sailor.But the sails and armaments above were complete, one had 18 cannons, the other had [-].Selling to Liu Xiang together is a good choice.The Chinese will fix them, they have enough ship builders and ship materials.

But this is not the main problem.The governor had to consider another possibility after Liu Zheng opened the station: what if Liu Xiang failed in the decisive battle?There is no doubt that Zheng Zhilong will go straight to the Guangdong Ocean, and by that time the company will have less and less negotiation conditions with him.In the end, it will definitely be reduced to the original trade between Xu Xinsu and Dayuan Port - at that time, the company's businessman stationed in Dayuan had to buy the goods shipped by Xu Xinsu at a price 50% higher than the market price.

The Governor suddenly thought of the Australians in Lingao, and asked, "What kind of people are the Australians in Lingao?"

The envoy was taken aback for a moment, probably not expecting the governor to suddenly ask about the Australians.

——The following plots are void, please see the end of Section 46 and the beginning of Section 47——
"Oh?" The governor suddenly became interested.

"The imperial court has sent soldiers to Lingao to exterminate the Australians. There are only a few thousand of them in total, and they don't have a few boats. How can they be the imperial court's opponents?" He told his subordinates to attack Lingao and failed.He also talked about the recent gathering of the Ming army near Guangzhou to prepare for a large-scale attack across the sea-Liu Xiang withdrew from the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary to avoid a frontal conflict with the officers and soldiers.Another important factor why he thought of a decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong was that the army was about to attack Lingao, and the Australians would never take action against him.Lifted the worries back at home.

"...At that time, the shopkeeper didn't know how powerful their firearms were, so he miscalculated." The messenger said nonchalantly, "In the end, thousands of people were lost."

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　Plot modification: The ending of Section 46 is invalidated. Some plots conflict with the timeline of the main line. For details, please refer to the description at the beginning of Section 47.

　　Section 47 was updated to 3200 words, and the number of plot words that were invalidated was made up.

　　There is no record of where Liu Xiang is from.There is a view that his group may be the Hakka maritime merchant group in the Chaoshan area.This book adopts this point of view.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)