Dragon Sea Empire

"Is Master Huang not here?" Yin Feng first asked the people from the seven major merchants in Zhangquan.

A person who claimed to be the housekeeper Huang Cheng replied: "The master has gone to Macau, and he is sending you his greetings."

Yin Feng smiled, handed him a promissory note and said, "Thank you for your kindness. This is the 2000 taels of silver that you entrusted to receive the goods this year. Please keep it."

This is on the third floor of Leshan Building, in Yin Feng's private box, where Yin Feng hosted a banquet for representatives of major businesses.Other businessmen present were discussing and whispering to each other.After Yin Feng came back from Penghu, he sent someone to find out that Huang Cheng was from Nanping, Quanzhou, and also knew his other identity: Zheng Zhilong's uncle.

Zheng Zhilong was still a child with a yellow mouth at that time, and he was still playing with hitting people with stones on the street.When Zheng Zhilong grew up, he went to Macau to learn Spanish and do business with his uncle Huang Cheng.That's why Yin Feng made a special deal with Huang Zhi, and prepared to poach the young Zheng Zhilong to his side when the time comes.

Upstairs in Leshan, Yin Feng once again emphasized: "The Chinese company vowed to stick to the Manila trade embargo to the end; it is your business if you don't want to follow up. At that time, if you encounter pirates, typhoons, etc., all related unfortunate incidents will be related to us. Nothing to do."

Someone said: "Da Dong, who doesn't know that you have the most warships along the coast of Fujian today, and if you say it's none of your business, no one will believe you."

Yin Feng laughed and said, "That's not true. There are nearly 300 ships in the officers and men's navy, and our Chinese company escorts at most 100 warships."

"Your Flying Dragon can deal with half of the ships of the entire Fujian Navy."

"You have to talk about the regulations. Our business is in business, and we can't make money! Are we going to Manila forever?"

"Yes, tell me what to do?"

Yin Feng bowed to each other and signaled Zeng Jingshan beside him to stand up: "Okay, let the treasurer Zeng talk about the new year's cargo package plan?"

Yin Feng asked people to investigate the records of the trade to Manila in previous years - thanks to Zeng Qi's official relationship; Zeng Jingshan spread out a roll of paper and said: "In previous years, there were no more than 40 ships going to Luzon every year; the best The income is only one million taels of silver every year; last year, my Chinese company took care of the goods, and what everyone got was almost this amount.”

Of course, Zeng Jingshan didn't mention the fact that these goods were sold to the Dutch at a high price, and the Chinese company made a lot of profits.

"We will still do the same this year, but the price of our packaged goods will be negotiated with you again."

Everyone was discussing: "What is the basis for pricing?"

"We have the price of the goods that Frangji inquired about in Manila, and this shall prevail."

So a lot of price lists that had been prepared long ago were distributed, and these were all printed detailed catalogues; they even listed the price comparisons of the same goods in Macau, Pattani, Batavia and other places.This thing has a bold headline: "Business Daily"

This "Business Daily" is a publication planned by Yin Feng, and it cannot be regarded as a newspaper, because it is only published once every few months; because of the limited information conditions at that time, the business information to and from was brought by those merchant ships, and the time delay was unavoidable. .

The sources of goods of major merchants are different, and there is a competitive relationship among them; Chinese companies have successfully differentiated their same position and started to negotiate business with them separately.Zeng Jingshan, Han Ping and his son were busy with all this, while Yin Feng retreated behind the scenes.When he returned to the company headquarters, Chen Zhongji brought him some unexpected people.

A few days ago, the war fleet sent 20 warships to support the convoy that was fighting against the aborigines in the southern Langqiao area. As soon as they arrived in Langqiao, they captured two strangely shaped sailboats by the sea.The people on board can speak Chinese, but they claim to be natives from Luzon.This is too strange, so these people were escorted to Taiwan Hong Kong.

Some of these people said they knew Yin Feng, Lin Xiao felt that there was nothing suspicious after interrogating him personally, so he asked Chen Zhongji to bring him here.Yin Feng saw that there were two men, old and young, one of them was a mixed race with a typical Chinese appearance, and he did have acquaintance with Yin Feng once.

Back then, Yin Feng went to Manila to rescue people on the Fuxing ship, passing through the mouth of the Ango River in Lingayin Bay on Luzon Island, which is generally called Hawksbill Port by Chinese businessmen.While repairing the ship there, Yin Feng got acquainted with Da’an, a local Yi’ero-Chinese. That is, after Lin Feng’s failure to attack Manila more than 30 years ago, some of the people left behind when he retreated to Hawksbill Harbor, married with the locals. descendants left behind.Chinese youth Daan introduced Chinese businessman Zhang Wei to Yin Feng, and later Yin Feng sneaked into Manila and escaped from Luzon Island by relying on the simple map Zhang Wei gave him.

This time, Da'an brought the elders of his clan, and also news from Luzon Island:

After the Physiological Man-Chinese Uprising was suppressed, the Spaniards also searched and arrested sporadic Chinese in various places.At the same time, the Spaniards also found an excuse to encircle and suppress the deep mountains where the Yiluo-Hua people were hiding.Yi'ero-Hua learned about Yin Feng leading people to Taiwan through the tribes by the sea, so they sent people to Taiwan to contact Yin Feng as foreign aid against the Spaniards.

In fact, Zhang Wei, a Chinese merchant, was originally a needle master in Lin Feng's fleet. He was stranded in Ren Yain Bay because of being injured by the Spaniards. Later, he became a small merchant in Luzon.He always pays attention to the topography of various places in Luzon, so the map he drew for Yin Feng as a small businessman is simple but the basic terrain and directions are completely correct. This played a big role when Yin Feng led people out of Manila. .

Yin Feng was very happy and took Da'an, a Chinese youth, to visit the factory area and the wharf.In order to keep the information secret and prevent the information from leaking to the Spaniards, they didn't take him to visit the guard camp. Anyway, Da'an and the others had seen a lot along the way, and they sincerely admired the Chinese company.

Before leaving, Yin Feng gave them a batch of self-defense weapons used on merchant ships and promised to contact them as soon as they started to attack Luzon Island.

In this way, starting this year, Yin Feng inadvertently established a broader anti-Spanish united front.In May of that year, Yin Feng moored at Annan Port on his way to Siam to set up a trading house.The treasurer of the local Chinese business house mysteriously took several people onto his boat.

The Zhangquan dialect spoken by these people turned out to be the survivors of the "Pan Hewu incident" in Luzon Island more than ten years ago, and they were all Pan Hewu's subordinates.Back then, Pan Hewu killed the Spanish governor Das Marinas, and the rest of the Spanish soldiers were hacked to death and drowned one by one inexplicably before they woke up in their sleep.Pan Hewu also took advantage of the trend and "collected all his gold treasures and Jiazhan", seized the ship and went to Annan. Guo Weitai and other 32 people returned to China.

After Pan Hewu’s anti-Spanish colonial riots, the Spanish Governor’s son Das Marinas Jr. (the colonel who died in the Tondo Swamp) sent missionaries to Fujian to report to Fujian governor Xu Fuyuan that his father had been killed, The fact that the property of the warship was seized required the Ming government to execute the relevant criminals to avenge themselves.Governor Xu Fuyuan reported the matter to the imperial court, and the Ming court ordered Guo Weitai and 32 others to be arrested and imprisoned, and sent the Spanish missionary back to Manila as a gift.Pan Hewu was more sensible, "staying in Annan and dare not return", and escaped the persecution.The Pan Hewu incident enabled the Spanish colonists to have a clear understanding of the Ming Dynasty's overseas policies, and began to impose restrictions and expulsions on the Chinese unscrupulously, which was also one of the causes of the Manila Massacre.

Pan Hewu's hatred for the Spaniards has not dissipated, but his personal strength is insufficient. Although he is the leader in a Chinatown in Annan, he has only more than [-] people under him.So after he heard about the background of the establishment of the China United Company, he took the initiative to send people to contact the joint stock cooperation.

Yin Feng naturally accepted all the good things that came to his door, and by the way strengthened the position of Zhonghua Company in Annan.

When Yin Feng returned to Taiwan in September, Chinese company shops had already been set up in Ryukyu, Annan, Champa, Pattani, Siam, Malacca, Batavia and other places, and the number of merchant ships under them had reached nearly 600.

Everything in the company is booming and making money every day.The craftsmen have fully learned the technology of chiming clocks, and made the self-made chiming clocks more luxurious than those originally made in Portugal and Italy with the unique Chinese fineness.With the concerted efforts of Chinese and foreign craftsmen in weapon production, the production process of flintlock guns has been completely straightened out. Yin Feng also asked You Wenhui to draw a picture of the entire production process, which will be used as a teaching material for training workers.During the same period, Li Lihua learned the glass production technology from the Portuguese. It happened that the coal mine of Jilongdanshui had already produced it, which happened to be used as fuel and glassware.The Zhonghua Company also transported several ships of iron materials from Foshan, the center of the steel industry in the Ming Dynasty, and tried to make steel according to Western methods, and then made weapons; developed.

There are also minor problems. In June, Yuan Jin and Li Zhong's fleet robbed the Chinese company's merchant ships along the coast; Li Zhong's boat did not lose the wind at all.Of course, only Chinese companies can afford such a configuration.Yuan Jin and Li Zhong began to deal with those scattered non-corporate merchant ships, and made small gains, but internal strife occurred due to uneven distribution of spoils, and they have since disappeared along the coast of Fujian.

Yin Feng spent the longest time at home this year, and his harmonious relationship with his wives and concubines also developed rapidly.Zeng Jing had long accepted Yin Feng in her heart, but Yin Feng was too slow and timid to notice.Now that they get along for a long time, they will naturally melt together.At the end of the year, Zeng Jing fell ill and was inconvenient to cross the sea to return to Quanzhou.Yin Feng took Mai Wan'er back to the mainland to perform the task of meeting his father-in-law every New Year.Last year, because of the war to conquer Taiwan and the sailors' rebellion, Yin Feng did not return to Quanzhou, but he must go this year.

His guard team is now 20 personal guards. Since he is returning to Quanzhou, which is the territory of the government, he can't carry muskets and other guys, so the 20 personal guards are all dressed as servants, holding sticks and swords.Lin Xiao selected these personnel from among the guards. He had to have learned martial arts, someone in the family worked in the company, and was loyal to Yin Feng;

The captains of the personal guards were still Chen Zhongji and Yan Siqi, the two teenagers were already good friends, they were working as grooms in the front seat of the carriage, and they were still joking with each other.

This carriage was sent by the Zeng family to Haicheng County to pick up Yin Feng. The local area can be described as the strength of the China United Company. The slightly larger vendors or shops have all become shareholders in the China Company; The Chinese company's subordinate shops, merchant ships, and wharves work for a living.So the carriage moved very slowly, because there was the name of the Zeng family on the carriage, and everyone knew that Yin Feng had returned to Quanzhou, and they all stepped forward to greet him, Yin Feng had to stand at the door of the carriage, and kept returning the salute.

"Big Boss, you're back!"

"Boss, your old man is safe!"

I'm not old yet, Yin Feng returned the salute with a wry smile, and someone on the other side kowtowed to the ground and said loudly: "Captain Yin, kowtow to you, little old man!" Yin Feng hurriedly asked Chen Zhongji to stop the car, got out of the car and helped the old man up.

This stop was troublesome, the carriage was surrounded by men and women, and some people just wanted to see Yin Feng.The guards were sweating profusely before pulling the carriage out of the crowd.There were also more than 20 servants and servants sent by the Zeng family, and all of them were sweating profusely.

On the side of an avenue outside Haicheng County, two people squatted there wearing straw hats, watching Yin Feng's carriage huddling past.After the crowd passed by, a person on the left whispered: "Let's release the pigeons, and notify Haibo to prepare for action. As I said earlier, there are too many people supporting Yin Feng here, and our people can't escape after finishing their work."

The person on the right nodded, stood up and said: "Let's go, let Yin Feng live a little longer!"