Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 986
"We can go to Japan when the engine program officially starts." Ping Qiusheng thought so.Regretfully abandoned the Japanese business group plan.Concentrate on preparing for the inspection in Southeast Asia.

The main target of Ping Qiusheng's Southeast Asian inspection is the Indochina Peninsula, which is now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, and does not involve the current Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.Because the main purpose of the planning institute's support for this expedition is to obtain food.In addition, the Spaniards and the Dutch both have strong colonial powers in the latter areas, and they are intertwined with each other. The Senate currently does not intend to fall into such a mess.

For the ship heading to Southeast Asia, Ping Qiusheng originally expected to get a 901 as his own ship-the black-smoky battleship majesticly broke into the land of the barbarians, and set up several cannons on the coastline to force them to pay tribute. , What a colonial thing this is!
But the imminence of engine action bankrupted his ambitions.Not only is it impossible for him to get any of the 901s, even the larger and better sailing warships are basically impossible to get.

He could only choose ships from the fleet ships of the Southeast Asian company-the two Guangzhou Ships that finally fell into his hands.Each ship has a displacement of 200 tons and is a common cargo/fishing ship along the coast of this time and space.The state is the best two ships in the fleet of Southeast Asian companies.After reading it, Ping Qiusheng thinks it can roughly meet the needs of Southeast Asian inspections.

The commander of the two ships going to Southeast Asia this time is such a former pirate leader He Congfu.

He Congfu is an old pirate, known for his treachery in the gang.It belongs to small pirates but has been more successful.From a small fishing boat all the way to the boss with five large ships.When the Zhucai Boss Gang collapsed, he managed to escape with two boats.

Since voting for the Senate, he has been watching the development of the Australians.Such a person is not one, but the majority of Southeast Asian companies.

The merchant fleet that joined the Southeast Asian company at the beginning were all old pirate leaders who had doubts about the "kun thieves" and wanted to save a little bit of their own strength as a way out.With the continuous expansion of the power of the Senate, the unified personnel system of the fleet, the implementation of the unified remuneration system, and the political transformation of grassroots personnel, the personal control of the old bosses over the sailors of the fleet has basically disappeared. The so-called preservation of strength is to wait for changes It has become empty talk.Even a ship of which they themselves are captains cannot act without an order from the Admiralty.

After the victory of the second anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, the navy marched into the Pearl River Estuary and bombarded the Wuyang Station. In order to catch the express train from Conglong, these people finally decided to sell their bodies and seek refuge. For this reason, they unanimously sold their ownership of the ships to the Planning Institute ——to show your loyalty.In this way, their personal influence on the ship is completely zeroed out, leaving only the dividend shares discounted by the ship.

He Congfu has been to Siam before, and he is familiar with the sea route of this trip—of course, it is not the best route. The sailing routes of ancient Chinese sailors generally prefer to choose sea areas where the coastline can be seen, or even a series of islands as the route. reference.

But such a route is very suitable for Southeast Asian business groups: their main purpose is to inspect the coastal conditions and conduct trade, and the coastal route is exactly what they want.

He Congfu was wearing a senior seaman's uniform—actually the officer's uniform of the Senate Navy, but the full set of logos he wore was from the Merchant Navy.Embroidered on the armband is the logo of "Senate Grace Charter Southeast Asia Company".He looked imposing with the latest binoculars on his chest.

From the mast flew the Morning Star flag of the Senate and the corporate flag of the South East Asian Company: a scaled-down Morning Star in the upper left corner, and nine red and white stripes for the rest.The informal name is "Nine Duan Banners".

Finally, there is Ping Qiusheng's personal senator's coat of arms flag, which is a red background flag with his own family crest on it.

Quark has never been able to figure out what the "nine-segment flag" of the Southeast Asian Company means, but in his opinion, the flag is very similar to the flag of the British East India Company, especially the red and white stripes.

The red and white stripes of the East India Company are the colors of St. George's flag. I don't know what the Australians mean by using this color scheme?Quark took a keen interest in this.But even He Fanghui and Ping Qiusheng couldn't tell why.

The actual reason is: when Dr. Zhong designed the flag for the Southeast Asian company, he directly copied the layout and creativity of the flag of the British East India Company.

In Dr. Zhong Lishi's view, the British East India Company was a very successful enterprise. Although it was still weak in this time and space, the achievements of the British were far greater than those of the Dutch.It is "auspicious" to copy the banner of such an enterprise.

However, Quark was very dissatisfied with the state of the East India Company to which he belonged.The British East India Company was a "disadvantaged group" in the East Asian ocean in the 17th century. It occupied some isolated strongholds and business houses on the vast sea, and the trade territory it occupied was extremely small and very scattered.Not only are the most lucrative trades rarely able to get their turn, but they are also constantly attacked by various competitors.

But he had struck a gold mine.This is the second time that Quark has transported slaves to Sanya.With the successful experience of last time, as well as those high-grade white sugar, rum and various Chinese products of such high quality that they had never seen before, the British business house in Banten was a sensation.This time, the people who kept coming to visit were more enthusiastic about everything about Australians.Even the British's less friendly neighbor: the Dutch in Batavia.

Coupled with the report of Dutch businessmen visiting Lingao, it became a rapidly fermenting information, and some adventurers gathered around Quark like flies smelling blood.A steady stream of funds, ships, and slave supplies emerged.His actions were also very fast. In less than three months, the second ship with nearly 1000 slaves was transported to Sanya.The cabin on the return trip was filled with raw silk, sugar, rum and various Chinese groceries.

The huge profits allowed Quark to quickly raise enough funds. Now Quark's fleet already has two large cargo ships with a displacement of 300 tons, but this scale is still a bit small. His fleet must pass through Guangzhou to go south. On the long coast of the southern country, the king there has a good cooperation with the Portuguese, which makes Quark quite worried-he has suffered from the Portuguese, and the goods on these ships are very valuable. Without speed, if someone asks for help, there will not even be enough sailors for hand-to-hand combat.It is a typical big fat meat on the sea.

During his stay in Sanya these days, he heard that the Australian trade group was going south to Siam. Since it was going to Siam, it must pass through Guangnan. Don't worry too much.Thinking of this, he immediately conveyed this idea to He Fanghui, and expressed his willingness to act as the pilot and local guide of the Australian fleet, and the Australian readily agreed.So Quark immediately handed over the command of his fleet to Captain Higgins, but he himself boarded the big ship of the Southeast Asia Company—the flagship of Ping Qiusheng.

The fleet sailed south with Fengxin, and soon reached the waters of Hue. At this time, the Le Dynasty in Vietnam had been divided into the Northern and Southern Dynasties by the powerful ministers Zheng and Ruan.

In 1620, Nguyen Phuc Yuan, a power minister entrenched in the north, formally refused to hand over taxes to the court in Hanoi, and then refused an order requiring the Nguyen family to submit to the authority of the court. Zheng Song died in 1623, and his son Zheng Bing succeeded him.Zheng Bing once again formally asked Ruan to surrender, but Ruan Phuc Yuan also repeatedly refused.The open war between the Trinh and Nguyen finally broke out in 1627.

After four months of continuous fighting between the two sides, the outcome was still undecided. The entire Le Dynasty Vietnam was split into two parts, the north and the south. The Zheng family controlled most of the north and the Ruan family ruled most of the south.The dividing line between the two sides is on the Zhengjiang River in Quang Binh Province-this border is very close to the [-]th parallel north latitude that was later divided into North and South Vietnam.

The Nguyen also had some advantages over the Trinh ruling a much more densely populated territory.First, they are on the defensive.Secondly, the Nguyen benefited from their contact with Europeans, especially the Portuguese, and were able to purchase more advanced European armaments and employ European military experts in city defense.Third, the geography was in their favour: large, organized armies were only suitable for plain fields, and such locations were rare in Vietnam—where the mountains almost squeezed into the sea.

The main stronghold of the Nguyen family in the south is in Hue.After repelling the Trinh's offensive for the first time, the Nguyen established two main fort lines across the narrow flat land between the mountains and the sea.The city wall was erected near Dong Hai City in the north of Hue.It is said that the European-style fortress group was built under the guidance of Portuguese military engineers, and the solid defense system formed by cannons and matchlock guns made it difficult for the Zheng family's army to break through.

In order to break through these walls, the Zheng family conscripted [-] soldiers, [-] war elephants and [-] warships.The first attack on the defenses of the Nguyen city walls failed, and repeated attacks continued for several years.Up to now, the battle is still going on in front of this "Great Wall". Countless Vietnamese farmers have been reduced to out-and-out cannon fodder in this protracted war, and tens of thousands died.

For the Senate, this war also had a very bad impact on them - the warehouses set up in Haiyang have gradually lost the advantage of cheap grain purchases.Rice grains were embezzled for military use, farmers were captured and served as soldiers, and often never returned, the fields were barren, and the market became depressed.

Because the "Great Wall" of the Ruan family had a significant effect on the front line, it happened from time to time that the Zheng family harassed the south from the sea.The South also responded with an eye for an eye, and the battle between the two sides at sea was also very fierce.

(End of this chapter)