Dragon Sea Empire

At the end of the year, the chief secretaries of Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, and Sichuan successively issued orders to inspect the branch offices of Huaxing Union Stores in various places. It was too big. Although the company issued an evacuation order in time, many people still fell into the hands of the government. More than ten shopkeepers, more than 100 book offices, and accountants were arrested and imprisoned on various charges. At the same time, implicated in the In the Huaxing Lianhao case, more than a dozen wealthy businessmen from all over the country had their homes ransacked, and more than a dozen Huaxing Lianhao employees who were born in the imperial examination were stripped of their merits for the crime of colluding with rebels.

About a dozen banks and banks were also implicated. However, because the businesses of banks and banks in various places have been deeply involved in the family business of officials, merchants and gentry, only Huaxing Bank in the capital was seized. The main stores of the banks are all in Taiwan, and the treasury is also in Taiwan. The local government who checks the banks actually has very limited income.

This year was the 44th year of Wanli, and many scribes lamented "eventful autumn" at the end of this year.

At the beginning of the 44th year of Wanli (1616), there was a great famine in Shandong. Zhang Qiyou, a Juren from Qingzhou, published "The Map of Fingers and Palms of the Great Famine in the East". The hungry people fled into the Jianghuai area, and then became a city.

On April [-]th, in Wuyang, Biyang, and Suiping counties in Henan Province, hundreds of hungry people rioted. The civil and military officials defended and suppressed Fu, and "determined to extinguish them in order to curb the chaos."

In May of the 44th year of Wanli, there were locusts in Jiangbei and Shandong, with an area of ​​about a foot, and more than 3000 people gathered in Huai. On June [-] of the same year, [-] hungry people rioted in Wu'an, Shandong, and killed the county chief who was pressing for food and taxes. Sun Guangyao.

On June 28, the Yellow River burst at Zhujiakou in Xiangfu, Henan, and Chen, Qi, Sui, and Zhecheng counties all suffered from it. The main reason for the breach was the water storage gate built in the early Ming Dynasty, which had not been repaired for 200 years. Most were destroyed, resulting in widespread disasters.

Instigated by the spies of the Chinese company, the hungry people in the north could go to the coast of Shandong and wait to go to sea to make a living. Now the imperial army has set up countless checkpoints in Rizhao, Jiugang and other places, cutting off the way for the hungry people to flee to sea, causing refugees They gathered in Shandong, and the supervisory censor in charge of Shandong refugee relief passed the court training and Shandong governor Qian Shiwan did their best to relieve the famine, but the grain depots in various counties and counties had already been sold out by the collusion of government and businessmen, and the relief of refugees had to rely on food from other places. Without help, countless refugees starved to death, and some hungry people rose up, attacked prefectures and counties, and looted the homes of officials, gentry and landlords.

In other places, such as in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, fishermen were not allowed to fish in the sea due to the sea ban, which caused repeated conflicts between fishermen and officers and soldiers of the patrolling navy... The boat owners who were banned from going to sea lost their livelihoods and simply went to the sea to join the Taiwan Zhonghua Company. Some merchant ships hung the Chinese flag on a blue background, equipped with firearms such as small Francophones provided by the Chinese company, and openly confronted officers and soldiers at sea.

After Yin Feng received the news of the imperial court’s sea ban in Nanyang, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Sometimes he couldn’t figure out what was wrong in the minds of these court bureaucrats: the hungry people were not allowed to go to sea, and they would rather let them riot in the interior; Fish, I would rather let them take risks because of livelihood issues... The imperial court also has a policy of letting fishermen farm land, but they know that the coastal lands of Zhejiang and Fujian cannot support people, and they still have to let people stay on the land and wait to starve. This kind of policy There are no words to describe it stupid.

He did not return from Nanyang immediately, but went to Aceh, and held a mediation meeting on the Spice Islands with the participation of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal and the Chinese company. The Netherlands joined the turf game and has robbed many places over the years. However, due to the elimination of too many elite troops by the Chinese company in the Battle of Java, they were gradually driven out by the Portuguese; recently, the British joined the war and began to seize spices. The territory of the archipelago; the war affected the business of China United Company, the largest buyer of Spice Island products, so Yin Feng called all parties to hold a mediation meeting in Aceh.

For the invitation of the overlord in the coastal areas of Southeast Asia today, no one dares to lose face.

The Netherlands and the United Kingdom were allies in the war against Spain. Now that the Netherlands and Spain have signed a peace treaty, the result is that the contradictions between the Netherlands and Britain have become more and more prominent, and the colonial interests of the two countries in the world have conflicted.

Portugal now only wants to keep its current territory. No matter who it ally with, the Spice Islands are the cash cow they must keep anyway.

Yin Feng announced at the meeting that if the three countries cannot cease fighting in the Spice Islands in a short period of time, then the Chinese company will fully intervene to protect their own commercial interests. In the end, the three countries and the Chinese company signed the Spice Islands Agreement, and the four parties divided up the spices Islands territory: Portugal accounts for half, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom each account for [-]%, and Chinese companies account for [-]% of the islands, thus formally participating in the international spice trade.

Before the Spice Islands was formally signed, Yin Feng left Li Lihua to represent him, and he rushed back to Taiwan on the Sea Soul to participate in the shareholders' meeting at the end of the year.

When he arrived in Taiwan, he was greeted by Luo Xuri, a wealthy businessman from Haicheng, the first major shareholder of the board of directors who was not "Manila Fugitive", and Lin Xiao and Zeng Rui with worried faces. Since the two intelligence chiefs came, I knew something big was bound to happen.

"What's going on? Why are so many company employees arrested? Didn't they be notified to evacuate in time?" Yin Feng looked at a stack of documents in the secret study of his inner house, and angrily said to Lin Xiao: "You manage Feige The communication line has been going on for many years, so this time the evacuation notice was sent by flying pigeons?"

Lin Xiao nodded helplessly: "In most places, it is true that flying pigeons are used to pass the letters. Sichuan, Hubei and Gansu are too far away. In the past, they were forwarded through the Jinling Commercial Hall and the Hankou Commercial Hall. This time, I didn't have time to notify. It was unexpected. Yes, the imperial court seized the company’s branch very quickly this time, and they are very familiar with the layout of our company’s branch. There is no way around it. In most places, our company’s branch has been in operation for more than five years and cannot be kept secret. "

Yin Feng thought for a while, and leaned helplessly on the teacher's chair: According to the current communication conditions, it is impossible to quickly and timely notify all Chinese companies' business offices throughout the country. A communication channel rivaling the imperial court.

He suddenly saw Luo Xuri with a tired face, stood up suddenly and said: "Old Luo, you must have something to do when you came to see me, your family in Haicheng is all right, right?"

Luo Xuri recently served as the business director of Fujian and Guangdong, but his tired face was not due to work. He stepped forward to give Yin Feng a deep bow and said, "Mr. Luo is here to ask you for help. Captain, you must help me save people." ah,"

Yin Feng stood up, went around the table to support Luo Xuri, frowned and said, "What's the matter, could it be that among those who were captured by the government, there are children from your family?"

Luo Xuri burst into sobs, Yin Feng quickly helped him to sit down, Lin Xiao whispered beside him: "Master Luo's nephew was caught by Jinyiwei in the capital."

Zeng Rui went on to say: "When he was arrested, a copy of the confidential inner court memorial was found on his body. At the same time, we managed to secure a hidden insider in the palace - a eunuch was also exposed,"

Yin Feng was taken aback. He knew that Zeng Rui and Lin Xiao had followed his orders all these years and vigorously planted informants and spies at all levels of the court, but he did not expect that all the spies from the Ministry of Military Intelligence would develop into the eunuchs in the palace. .

……

It turned out that on the left side of the imperial city of the capital, every fourth, fourteenth, and twenty-fourth day of the lunar new year, there would be eunuchs in the palace to organize a market trade, which is called "inner market". After the incident, Liu Tingyuan, the censor of the imperial city, and others went to the shuffle, please prohibit the inner city to avoid the disaster. At the same time, inside the four gates of the imperial city, internal ministers must be inspected when they come in and out.

At the beginning of the 44th year of Wanli, Emperor Wanli issued an edict for this purpose: the gate control should be strict, and the Ministry of War, the City Patrol Division, and the Taoist officials should be strictly interrogated at any time. If there is a need to help the relief, let’s stop for a while, but no one is allowed to enter with copper and iron bows and arrows, and those who violate it will be punished.

In fact, the inner city is a place where the eunuchs in the palace can openly accept bribes, and it is also a good opportunity for various merchants to get acquainted with the eunuchs of the inner court. Therefore, if the inner city is closed, it will harm the interests of too many people. Therefore, the inner court Under the persuasion of the eunuchs, Emperor Wanli did not order the inner city to be closed.

Luo Xuri's nephew, Luo Jing, is a talented scholar, who belongs to the kind of scholar who feels that his talents are underappreciated, but his eyes are high and his abilities are low. He failed many times in the imperial examination and then went out to do business with his uncle. A certain form of anti-government dissatisfied elements, similar to Xu Hongji, after noticing Yin Feng's strange behavior, he took the initiative to ask to join the Ministry of Military Intelligence. After the museum was confiscated and closed, he was not affected. On this day, when the inner market was open, he received a secret letter from the Ministry of Military Intelligence from someone, ordering him to go to the inner city to communicate with an eunuch in the palace. , To get a confidential memorial about when the imperial court will attack Taiwan.

Zeng Rui and Lin Xiao both carried out intelligence work under the guidance of Yin Feng, and Yin Feng is a half-assed intelligence worker. At most, he has the experience of digging up insider information. The expansion was too fast, and too many people were absorbed, and something happened this time.

Luo Jing is a scholar after all, with high eyesight and low hands. As a hidden stump, he showed up for the first time to do business. His face turned pale and his hands trembled nervously. He connected with the insider and got the things, but his abnormal behavior was guarded by Jin Yiwei. One of the thousand households found out, and as a result, he was arrested and imprisoned, and the insiders in the palace were also arrested.

This time, the palace spy case once again shocked the entire court: the tentacles of the Chinese company had already penetrated into the palace, which was simply a sensational event.