Dragon Sea Empire

The council meeting was held in a hall of the Luzon Branch - Luzon Township Mansion. At the beginning, Yin Feng declared to a group of representatives of landlords, manor owners, and big businessmen: In this venue, those who speak are innocent, and all People can speak freely; the purpose of this meeting is to let everyone discuss the preparation measures against the Spaniards; at the same time, due to the increase in the purchase cost of the sea ban, as well as the development of Luzon, and the military expenditure of the Nanyang Expeditionary Force, the Chinese United Company Lu The Song branch is short of money now.

Most of the meeting participants were people who had read books for a few years, and they spoke in a dignified manner at the beginning, but it didn’t take long before disputes arose over the issue of apportionment of military expenditures and the construction of fortifications: no one wanted their families to pay more, nor did they May the land of one's own home become a battlefield, and everyone scrambles to shirk responsibility.

A day later, the meeting became a place where a group of businessmen and landlords who had economic disputes and life grievances with each other attacked each other.

Zeng Jingshan looked at the venue, and asked Yin Feng very puzzled: "What can these people negotiate, they are just short-sighted people..."

Yin Feng suddenly understood one thing: these representatives of the major domestic business gangs have the spirit to venture into the world, but they do not have the corresponding foresight and tolerance. , tainted with the tyrannical spirit that permeated the Ming Dynasty, and suddenly without the government's coercive oppression, they didn't know how to deal with their positions. In fact, under the rule of the Luzon tutelary government, they were members of the highest class, The meeting bureau is actually a channel for them to participate in the political power; but their reaction is completely old-fashioned, no one realizes that they are actually deciding their own affairs now, and what Yin Feng can't understand is: these people grew up in It is said that in an atmosphere of traditional culture that emphasizes moderation, blending, and excess, it is a nation that put forward the concept of "Tai Chi". It seems that officials at all levels in the imperial court are very happy with the party struggle between the same party and the different party, which is also a manifestation of the mainstream culture.

"It seems that I was wrong. It is meaningless to push the seedlings to encourage growth," Yin Feng said to Li Lihua in bed at night: "Give them power, they won't use it at all, there is no time to waste..."

Li Lihua didn't quite understand what he was talking about, and said softly, "Without their help, we can defeat the Spaniards ourselves, so why worry about them?"

Yin Feng sighed: "It seems that I am still too idealistic, too advanced... But, they don't work hard and don't pay, where can I get some cash? The company is short of money now, and there is a sea ban in the country. , a large sum of money has not been recovered in the mainland; this Nanyang expedition has spent another million taels of military expenditure, and the merchant ships that went to sea at the beginning of the year have not yet returned to Hong Kong, I am short of money, "

Although the Chinese company has a rudimentary financial institution - a bank and a bank, it mainly operates in the mainland. At that time, the turnover period of overseas trade funds was very long, the shortest one year, and the longest took three to five years to recover all the money.

"What are you talking about? I heard that the kings in Europe have borrowed money from rich merchants. You can try it too."

"God, how could I have forgotten this?" Yin Feng rolled over and pressed Li Lihua's soft body, and said in Spanish with a smile: "I'm saying, you are my goddess of wisdom..."

In all fairness, among the three wives and concubines, Yin Feng still prefers Li Lihua's body: the western court education of riding and dancing since childhood gave Li Lihua a perfectly developed body.

After a whole night of tossing, Yin Feng went out refreshed in the morning and came to the conference hall of the Council.

Without waiting for those wealthy businessmen and landlords to quarrel, Yin Feng announced a series of policies: For those who lend temporary military expenses to the Chinese company, the Chinese company will sign a loan agreement with them and open it at the gate of the Luzon town guard's mansion. After the war, they will add one point The interest will be returned, and it can be converted into the shares of the China United Company: Any landlord who voluntarily sells land to the company to build military facilities, the company will calculate the price with him, count it as arrears, and return it with an equal amount of land after the war, plus one point of interest.

Everyone looked at each other, at a loss, Yin Feng waved his hand, and Zeng Jingshan and Zeng Shan distributed the details of the loan agreement he had drawn up earlier in the morning.

Yin Feng's move was beyond the expectations of those businessmen and landlords: they tried their best to oppose the Chinese company apportioning military expenses and occupying their land to build fortifications. Merchants borrowed money to transport food, but they never used commercial rules, credit contracts and other business rules to manage merchants.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty's "opening the Chinese law" was limited to the frontier areas. Merchants transported grain to the frontier fortresses in exchange for salt imports. The imperial government granted a patent system for salt sales. However, salt imports are a symbol of the imperial court's monopoly on salt, which is completely beyond the control of merchants. Moreover, the royal family, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats saw that it was profitable to hold salt coins, and they all sued for salt coins, resold them to salt merchants, and profited from them. It destroyed the Kaizhong system and seriously affected the government's financial revenue. It is imperative to reform the salt law to make up for the country's financial revenue. To Taicang, and then distributed to all parties, each import of salt and silver varies from three to four yuan, resulting in more than one million silver in Taicang. The country's fiscal revenue has increased sharply, and every link has given officials the opportunity to embezzle money. , making salt merchants unprofitable, so most of the salt merchants in the frontier moved in with their families, and the commercial settlements were quickly destroyed, and the food reserves of the frontier army were also greatly reduced.

However, the Chinese company is a trading company, a super-large-scale company, and credit is the life of business. Therefore, in comparison, the businessmen present believe in the Chinese company. , The contradiction between wealthy businessmen is basically resolved.

At the same time that the Ye Hua Fleet was victorious in the Cirebon naval battle, preparations for war across the Philippines also entered a climax.

The fortification system of the four major forts in the east, west, north, south, and outside of Manila was quickly established. Although it is a civil structure, it is completely built according to the model of the multi-angular fortress in the firearms era; On Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay, now renamed War Island, the fort has been reinforced, three 64-pound heavy guns have been added, and there is also a Chinese army built by a Chinese company. The heavy-duty bombardment cannon with a length of one foot (1 meter) was used to bombard the enemy troops who attempted to land on the island.

The Cavite shipyard was surrounded by a city wall and became a fortress town; now, except for military ships, the construction of other ships in the shipyard has stopped, and a large number of single-masted schooners for offshore defense have been built, each carrying two guns ; At the same time, a large number of fishing boats and small merchant ships were transformed into fire boats.

The Chinese company’s demand for cannons has soared, but due to the sea ban of the imperial court, the cannon foundries in Taiwan and Luzon have become extremely risky to transport raw materials such as iron and copper to the sea. After all, the places where iron and copper minerals are produced are all in the imperial court Under the control, the development of mineral resources in Taiwan and Luzon has just started, and it is simply unable to meet the large-scale production needs of the Chinese United Corporation for building artillery, manufacturing flintlock muskets, shells, bullets and other ammunition.

Therefore, Yin Feng, who got the loan from the businessman, bought ballast, iron, copper and even stones from foreign ships anchored in Manila at high prices - as shells. At the same time, Siam, Pattani, Portugal, Britain, France, The Dutch and other merchant ships are more or less always equipped with some cannons for protection; Yin Feng ordered people to buy cannons from them at high prices, regardless of size, good or bad.

The strength of the First Brigade of the Chinese Army has expanded to 8000 people, with two regiments under its jurisdiction, each regiment has four battalions under its jurisdiction, each battalion has four sentry teams under its jurisdiction, plus a professional artillery battalion, logistics battalion, and supply battalion. There are two sentry teams directly under the brigade, and one brigade directly under the artillery sentry team, and several sentry teams directly under the arrest, investigation, and medical care teams, headed by Zhao Tie and deputy head Mai De.

At the same time, the cavalry regiment has been transferred from Taiwan to Luzon Island. Due to the large number of horses from Jeju Island in North Korea, this cavalry regiment has expanded to more than 300 people, of which 100 are elites riding Andalusian horses and wearing heavy armor. The heavy armored cavalry, which took the limelight in the Battle of Satsuma in Kyushu, was headed by Major Andrei, an old Dutch mercenary. The rest of the more than 200 cavalry could only be regarded as cavalry infantry in the embryonic form - using muskets to fight, riding Mongolian horses collected from Jeju Island and various places in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Kuiqi's artillery battalion has expanded into an artillery regiment, with more than 1200 people, ten artillery sentry teams with more than 100 cannons of various calibers, and a heavy sentry team specializing in transporting gunpowder and shells. After the battle, he has not been able to participate in any major battles, and he has been suffocated for a long time. He trained his troops desperately, and every day he fired hard at the training ground in the south of Manila for live ammunition training, regardless of the cost. The firing made Yin Feng feel a little worried about his own military expenses. He approached Li Kuiqi and tried to persuade him to save ammunition, but Li Kuiqi blocked the question with Yin Feng's own words: "Master, you said in the military academy: Sweat more, bleed less when you die in battle, I am strengthening my training."

Yin Feng nodded helplessly: "Okay, if that's the case, I'll ask Taiwan to bring over the shells and gunpowder in stock.

The Ming court is not what it used to be, and its control over all social classes has become weaker and weaker. Although the sea ban policy has been announced, there has been little thunder and rain. Apart from increasing the purchase cost of Chinese companies, it basically has no control over the main business of Chinese companies. Business - Overseas trade has too much influence, so the possibility of direct conflict with the imperial court is also greatly reduced. Therefore, Taiwan and other places began to deploy manpower, weapons and equipment to support the Philippines.

At the end of the year, a battalion of infantry sent by Zhao Xuanming, the fourth regiment scattered in Nanyang, arrived in Manila on the returning Ye Hua fleet. , The Chinese Army has assembled 2000 infantry in Luzon Island, and another [-] sailors and musketeers can be drawn from the fleet. Five main warships are moored in the port of Manila, except for the aircraft repaired in Batavia. The Leopard, the Feizi and the Manila are resident in Luzon.

Now, everyone is waiting for the Spaniards to come, almost eager for them to come. The Chinese army is full of confidence and fighting spirit,