Dragon Sea Empire

When he arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Xu Guangqi was even more surprised to find that thousands of ships of various kinds were busy transferring goods and personnel. Cao Tai told him proudly: "Our army and the people in the south of the Yangtze River get along very harmoniously. Our company advocates fair trade. Cash transactions will never be in arrears, and merchants and peddlers everywhere are willing to trade with us. Master Xu, have you seen that these merchant ships transport the goods we purchased in Jiangnan, and the bulk of them include raw silk, silk fabrics, porcelain, sugar, and fruit products? , buckskin, and various daily-use treasures, etc., our company sells these goods overseas, and in exchange for a large amount of silver, pepper, sumac, spices, etc. to return to China for sale, the merchant ships of our company that you saw going to Jinling carried goods from All kinds of goods brought from overseas, "

As a local, Xu Guangqi knew about the prosperity of Jiangnan, but he did not expect that the strength of the Chinese company had reached such a level: thousands of ships were coming and going on the Yangtze River, carrying the wealth of Jiangnan, and the Chinese army along the way A lot of money was spent, almost all the ships along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were hired, and a large number of fishermen and sailors on the Yangtze River joined this unprecedentedly large commercial transport fleet.

The huge ships of Feizihao and Zhenzihao cruising on the river, with their giant hulls and rows of gun ports on both sides, also shocked Xu Guangqi very much. He couldn't help saying to Zhao Xingbang in the military department: "The Chinese company's ships are strong and powerful. Only this one warship can match all the warships in our navy,"

Zhao Xingbang said with a pale face: "Scholar Xu doesn't know something. When you were trapped in Tianjin by the pirates, all the ships of our court navy were basically destroyed by them. Now the official navy warships can only Activities in Wuchang and Hankou..."

Xu Guangqi and his entourage landed in Yanziji, Nanjing, and they were greeted by representatives of Nanjing's gentry, officials and people. The Chinese Army did not show up. Those representatives of the gentry, officials and people were helplessly trapped in the city on the day of Nanjing's fall. When they saw Xu Guangqi, They all stepped forward to express their grievances, asking the imperial court to be lenient to them, and to reach an early peace agreement with the maritime merchants, so that they could escape the situation of being under house arrest.

Two days later, Jinling City was within the Yamen of Tianfu.

"Opening the sea to enrich the country and enriching the people through commerce is a great thing that benefits the country and the people. But the court refused to allow this war. Master Xu came here to appease the people along the coast. It is a blessing for us and the coastal merchants..." Yin Yin As soon as Feng and Xu Guangqi met, they went straight to the point without any greetings or politeness. I was a little surprised, but I couldn't help but have a good impression of Xu Guangqi.

Xu Guangqi saw several Western missionaries standing behind Yin Feng: Lu Ruohan, Yin Feng's personal adviser, and Jin Nige, the vice-bishop of Taiwan. Jinnige was a follower of Matteo Ricci and was familiar with Xu Guangqi. Greetings.

Negotiations quickly got to the point: Yin Feng, on behalf of the Chinese company, agreed to a truce with the imperial court and to withdraw troops from the two capitals. However, he demanded that his six pledges be approved by the imperial court as the franchise rights of Chinese company businessmen.

At the same time, the Zhonghua Company asked the court to release all the prisoners who were imprisoned because of the sea ban, including those who were arrested by the government when the sea ban was launched the previous year. Merchants, of course, all firms, banks, and banks related to the Chinese company resumed business, and the government was responsible for returning the confiscated materials and money.

Finally, after the Zhonghua Company withdrew from Nanjing, it requested to have a garrison in the south of the Yangtze River, control the Yangtze River estuary, and all coastal islands, all of which were under the jurisdiction of the Zhonghua Company, and Yin Feng was canonized as King of Jinghai.

Xu Guangqi shook his head helplessly: "Boss Yin, you are a lion's mouth. It is absolutely impossible for the imperial court to agree to such conditions... The imperial court photographed me and waited to come here to appease the coastal merchants. Let's talk about it first." Let’s talk about when you will withdraw your troops from the two capitals.”

Yin Feng sneered, he had a lot of good cards in his hand, and the initiative to negotiate was in his hands: "Master Xu, what do you mean? If the court is not sincere in negotiating, then we don't care about continuing the war."

……

Yin Feng's style is suitable for a businessman. There is still a difference between political bargaining and commercial bargaining, especially in China, where the Confucian tradition pays attention to the issue of righteousness and justice.

After the negotiation collapsed on the first day, Yin Feng withdrew from the negotiating table and asked Zeng Shan to continue the negotiation with Xu Guangqi as the general secretary of the board of directors of Zhonghua Company. He asked to negotiate directly with Yin Feng - after all, the imperial court sent a second-rank official to negotiate, and Zeng Shan pointed out that the Ming court could only come for peace talks, not appeasement.

In this way, the two parties were entangled in the procedural issues of the negotiations, and it took ten days. The negotiating chairperson of the imperial court was replaced by Zhao Xingbang. , Substantive negotiations can only begin after the name is justified.

Xu Guangqi learned from his Catholic friends that in Nanyang, Luzon, and Taiwan, the Chinese company was facing many problems. He made up his mind to wait for changes, and hoped that the Chinese company would first make concessions in the negotiations because of the problems of overseas colonies. .

And Yin Feng had the same idea here.

From the very beginning, Yin Feng was obviously delaying the negotiation on purpose. Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji, Zhao Tie and others all came to question him. He pretended to be mysterious and said: "Just wait and see, the imperial court will come to ask for it soon. We negotiated,"

Everyone has always admired Yin Feng's strategic vision, but Yin Feng often behaved like a layman when facing political struggles, so everyone was skeptical, but Yin Feng just delayed the negotiation and seemed not in a hurry. Zeng Qi sent a message from Taiwan An urgent letter requesting the southern front troops to transfer part of the naval fleet back to Taiwan, because another group of Japanese Catholic exiles has arrived in Taiwan.

The situation in various parts of Southeast Asia is also unstable. The Portuguese in Macau sent envoys to ask the Chinese company to help them deal with the Dutch and British who besieged Malacca. The Dutch and British are currently competing on the coast of Europe, but in the Far East they are The common interests joined forces to attack Malacca, trying to snatch the Indian Ocean channel that the Portuguese had occupied for many years.

No matter how anxious everyone was, Yin Feng was not.

On the second day after Xu Guangqi arrived in Nanjing, Yin Feng received a secret report from Zeng Qing, the intelligence chief of the Northern Front Army: something major happened outside the Liaodong side wall.

On the tenth day of the negotiations, more accurate news reached Nanjing through the Feige transmission system: Nurhachi of the Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou rebelled, and the Jurchen Eight Banners troops captured Kaiyuan, Shenyang, and Fushun in one fell swoop.

In the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), Nurhachi had already established the Eight Banners system; in the following year, at the beginning of the Bingchen year of the lunar calendar, at the grand ceremony of Jianzhou Jurchen, Erdeni Bakshi read the document and gave Nurhachi the "Feng Tian Shu". At this time, the court was busy with internal strife and sea bans. Although some officials were very vigilant about the situation in Liaodong, they did not cause much reaction. As far as the court is concerned, the situation in Liaodong is just one of many thorny issues.

Yin Feng carefully recalled his history lessons: the original Nurhachi also officially rebelled against the Ming Dynasty this year (46th year of Wanli). The "Southern Dynasty" claimed to be the lord of a country with its own name of destiny in Jianyuan, but the Ming Dynasty still did not do anything to him, and still maintained a peaceful coexistence between the two sides.

Yin Feng sometimes thought: Why does the Ming court have to be so concerned about the sea ban? It tried every means to force me to rebel. Look at Nurhachi, who has established a state and reign, and the court doesn't care about him. He handed over this top-secret information to Zeng Shan, said: "Look, Nu Chief's rebellion, most of them took advantage of the Liaodong Army's entry into the pass to fight, and the defense of the side wall was empty. He should thank us for sending troops to the two capitals and giving him the opportunity to rebel."

Zeng Shan frowned and looked at it for a while: "I said, Mr. Captain, did you know that there was something going on in Liaodong, so you delayed the negotiation?"

Yin Feng looked at Zeng Shan, seeing his tired face and unshaven beard, he laughed: "Third son, it's been hard for you to argue with Mr. Zhao these days."

Zeng Shan was very dissatisfied with Yin Feng's heartless performance, shook his head and said: "So, what should we do now, shall we blackmail the court with this information?"

Yin Feng thought for a while and said: "No, let's wait for the Tang newspaper from the imperial court. It is estimated that it will arrive in half a month. We have a fast and effective intelligence network in the north, and we cannot let the people of the Ming court find out. So we can’t take the initiative to provide this information to Xu Guangqi and the others.”

Yin Feng's tall body stood in front of the window, looking at the Zijin Mountain in the distance, he let out a long breath and said: "It seems that the track of history is not too far away, and Nurhachi rebelled at this time, and the time has been advanced by one month. , the tasks of the northern front troops will be changed,"

Zeng Shan didn't understand, so he leaned forward and asked, "Could it be that we are going to help Nuqiu start a war with the Ming Dynasty?"

Yin Feng sneered at his question: "Don't underestimate Nurhachi, he is able to lead dozens of people to develop to the present, he must not be an incompetent person, he is the enemy of the Ming Dynasty, and will also be ours. Enemy, ask Zeng Rui to come over, he doesn't know about this yet, the news was reported to me directly by Zeng Qing."

A personal guard in black rushed into the study, stood at attention and saluted, and then handed over the third piece of information on the situation in Liaodong to Yin Feng: "Reporting, this is what Captain Magaro of the personal guard requested to hand it over to you immediately,"

"Did you just receive it?"

"Yes, the letter, carried by the carrier pigeon, has just flown into the backyard,"

Yin Feng nodded. After the guards withdrew, he immediately opened the letter and looked at it, then raised his head and said to Zeng Shan, "Nurhachi's Eight Banners captured Shenyang on April [-] this year, the day when Nurhachi celebrated his [-]th birthday. , you go and call Mr. Xu, and also, send a letter to Lin Xiao and ask him to shift the focus of intelligence to Liaodong."

The intelligence stated succinctly that the Eight Banners soldiers successively captured Kaiyuan, Fushun, and Shenyang in a month. The Fushun guerrilla Li Yongfang surrendered, and the guard Xiao Zigan died in battle.

History in the remote areas of eastern Liaodong does not seem to have changed much because of the appearance of the Chinese company. Nurhachi conquered the border city from Fushun, and Ming border surrendered, that is, from Li Yongfang. This had a great impact on the changes in the Ming and Qing wars. From this point, Yin Feng discovered that there was no example of a general in the Ming Dynasty surrendering himself publicly, and he fell into deep thinking about this.