Dragon Sea Empire

Kapitan Li Jin, the first Chinese in the former Batavia Dutch City Hall, has officially become the major shareholder of Zhonghua Company and served as the director of the company's foreign affairs bureau. At the latest monthly board meeting, Li Lihua first proposed to let Li Jin join Board of Directors.

Among the 25 members of the board of directors of Zhonghua United Company, most of them are Chinese businessmen from Manila, and some are representatives of Fujian businessmen, basically some business partners of Yin Feng when he first started his business. Now, Nanyang Chinese businessmen represented by Li Jin will also join the company Anyone with a discerning eye can see what the nominal highest decision-making body represents.

Li Jin was not very happy about the change of his destiny. He once said to his adoptive son Su Minggang: We were originally abandoned by the Chinese dynasty, but now we are just rebels from the Chinese dynasty. I only hope that Captain Yin can achieve great things, then Those of us can become the Chinese pioneers who opened up Nanyang, and thus live forever, otherwise we will only become unknown wandering souls who have left their hometown in obscurity after a hundred years."

Su Minggang was the last Chinese Kapitan appointed by the Dutch before Batavia was seized by the Chinese army. He was imprisoned by the Dutch governor Kun. After the war, he finally came out alive. Su Minggang is from Tongan County, Fujian Province. This year is 38 years old. He is "intelligent in nature, has little ambition, good at writing, and good at martial arts". When he was less than 14 years old, he went south from Quanzhou to Banten, West Java to do business. With his outstanding talents, he became Li Jin's assistant and volunteer. son.

After the first Javanese Chinese War, he led a group of overseas Chinese from Banten to Batavia. In October of that year, because Li Jin left Batavia, the governor of the Dutch East India Company, Kun, appointed him as the first Chinese. At that time, Bidan wanted to maintain his independence and kept a distance from Chinese companies. Not only did he own a vast pepper field by himself, but he also had relatives who purchased products in Gendarer City near Semarang.

Of course, while he was in Kapitan, he also did some good things for the overseas Chinese: such as buying land from the Dutch colonial authorities, leading the overseas Chinese to build river embankments and build houses, and also contributed to reducing the working hours of the overseas Chinese and resolving internal disputes , because he was independent from the power of the Chinese company, the Dutch trusted him more. Soon after he was appointed as the Chinese Kapitan, he was appointed as a local judge, and was later elected as one of the Batavia municipal executives.

The Dutch colonists carried out their ruling strategies faithfully, enacted and implemented various tyrannical policies, such as not allowing Chinese to build properties in coastal areas, and ordering the demolition of previously built residential buildings and forced relocation of their residents, etc., which made the Chinese extremely resentful and dissatisfied. Various boycott actions were taken under the leadership of the Chinese company and business hall. When the peak reached the most extreme, the Chinese businessmen boycotted all transactions with the Dutch side. Even the shoemakers took practical actions to support them and refused to repair shoes and boots for the Dutch colonial army.

On the other hand, Su Minggang tried his best to deal with the Dutch and the Chinese, and advised Governor Peterson Kun: to eliminate the implementation of the above-mentioned unreasonable and tyrannical policies, and at the same time contact the local Chinese businessmen to exclude the existence of Chinese companies. The governor of Kunming moderately relaxed various regulations and improved the unfriendly attitude with the Chinese. Su Minggang once thought that by making some concessions, the Chinese could still get along with the Dutch in a friendly manner.

However, once the Dutch decided to go to war against the Chinese, Su Minggang was inevitably caught between the two sides. In the end, because of his ethnic identity, the Dutch colonists still put him in prison. The good relationship between people disintegrated overnight.

After experiencing the torture of the black prison, Su Minggang understood a problem: the destiny of the overseas Chinese cannot be changed by concessions and forbearance, and his own background cannot be changed. As one of his own, Su Minggang is now the first county magistrate of West Java County, the Java township of the Chinese company. He has already planned to work for the Chinese company. Su Zhongshuang went to Taiwan to take the entrance examination for the Political Academy, and after half a year of training, he has already started working as an intern clerk in the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the King Jinghai Shogunate, that is, the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Zhonghua Company.

Su Minggang’s experience is actually similar to that of many overseas Chinese businessmen and overseas Chinese at that time; Chinese people who had no national concept, after meeting Westerners, heard, witnessed and personally experienced the deeds of Western powers, and cultivated a preliminary understanding from their own personal experiences. The concept of modern nation-state: In fact, this modern concept of nation-state is only in the initial stage of germination in Western countries, and its development level is actually about the same as that of the people under Chinese companies.

At this time, the Chinese company just filled the gap in the sense of national identity of overseas Chinese. Therefore, after the Nanyang War, the Chinese company's business in Nanyang prospered, and the prestige and authority of Jinghai Wang Yinfeng had surpassed , The Ming emperor who has never been in charge of the affairs of the Chinese in Nanyang.

By the end of Wanli 47, the Chinese company had more than 200 million immigrants in Nanyang, Dongyang and other places, and it had become a political entity under the leadership of the Chinese company and Yin Feng, King Jinghai.

Li Jin came to Macau in October of this year. As the company’s head of foreign affairs, he wanted to sign a new trade agreement with Macau’s Portuguese City Hall. The safety of the Portuguese in Macau, and at the same time, the shares of Portugal's Chinese trade fleet going north to Japan, China and Portugal will redistribute the share.

After he landed in the Inner Harbor of Macau, he temporarily lived in the Chinese Commercial Center.

That night, Yu Anfu, the director of the commercial intelligence department of the company in Macau and the military intelligence department of the Chinese Army, led a Portuguese businessman secretly into the Zhonghua Guild Hall. He knocked on the gate of the courtyard where Li Jin lived. younger brother.

"Master Li is already asleep. What's the matter with Mr. Yu? Can't you come tomorrow morning?" Su Zhongshuang asked while rubbing his eyes, curiously looking at the man in black who was hiding behind Yu Anfu. Big guy, it doesn't look like a Chinese.

Yu Anfu lowered his voice, and said very dissatisfied: "You don't know anything, you just came to work at the Foreign Affairs Bureau, right?"

Su Zhongshuang was startled, and hurriedly explained: "I, Su Zhongshuang, whose name is Guangyuan, graduated from the Wanli 47-year short-term training class of Political Academy, and just came to work in the Foreign Affairs Bureau..."

"No wonder you don't recognize me. Forget it. I'm from the Military Intelligence Department. I'll call Mr. Li immediately. I have urgent matters. Remember to keep your voice down. Don't disturb the people around you. Do you understand?"

Su Zhongshuang is also a smart person. Hearing that the visitor was from the Ministry of Military Intelligence, he immediately knew that the visitor had sneaked into the business hall late at night, and there must be something important. He immediately let Yu Anfu and the other two come in, and turned around to wake Li Jin up.

……

"What, the imperial court sent people to Macau to buy cannons,"

Li Jin was shocked after listening to the Portuguese businessman who came with Yu Anfu. Although he had only entered the senior management of the Zhonghua Company, Yin Feng trusted him very much and kept many things from him. The truce between the imperial court and the Zhonghua Company It is temporary. The company has been guarding against the imperial court. Regardless of the means of monopolizing overseas trade, blocking coastal maritime traffic, and blocking the spread of advanced military technology to the mainland, the goal is all aimed at the Ming court. Cannons, you don't need to use your brain to think, must be used to deal with the Chinese army.

Li Jin drew the cross on his chest and asked in Dutch: "U zegt is dat je ogen zien? (Did you see what you said with your own eyes)"

The Portuguese businessman named Luanda, with a beard on his face, bowed humbly to Li Jin, regardless of Li Jin being a Protestant, he still drew a cross on his chest: "Deus te aben?oe, (Portuguese: God bless ,), and then spoke a lot of Portuguese - he can understand Dutch, but can't speak it, Yu Anfu immediately made a simultaneous translation: "He said: He is the rotating magistrate of the city hall this month, but he is going to Japan Thomas Thomson, the commander of the trade fleet, can't control him. The dock is now taken over by the trade fleet. Therefore, he doesn't know how many cannons have been dismantled from the fleet warships to the dock in the past half month. Until today, Only then did he discover that every day Chinese sailboats from Guangzhou went to the wharf where the warships of the fleet were located to load goods, and he saw with his own eyes some officials in court uniforms boarding the flagship of Thomas Thomson, commander of the trade fleet."

"Did he actually see the cannon loaded onto the government ship?"

Yu Anfu replied: "He saw with his own eyes that two bronze naval guns were installed on the sailboat of the Guangzhou government."

Li Jin thought for a while, opened his mouth, and asked Yu Anfu in Hokkien dialect: "This Folangji man doesn't understand Quanzhou dialect, right?"

Yu Anfu shook his head: "He can understand Cantonese, but not Quanzhou dialect,"

Li Jin immediately said in Hokkien dialect: "Whether the Macau City Hall is involved in this matter, if there are indeed Macau Francois involved, then the Portuguese authorities in Macau have violated the alliance treaty signed with the Chinese company: During the Chinese civil war, the Macau people We can't use weapons, equipment and personnel to help any side fight. They are helping the government to deal with us. Then the treaty signed between the company and Macau Folang Robotics will be invalidated. This will make things worse. I'm here The matter of re-signing cannot be carried out, I have to report this matter to the prince immediately, how many pigeons are there in the commercial affairs department in Macau, "

"Three of them send messages between Taiwan and Macau all the year round,"

Li Jin pointed to the bearded Portuguese businessman and said, "Why does he help us like this?"

Yu Anfu smiled and replied: "He is the secret shareholder of my company, a secret agent of the business intelligence department developed by Mr. Bernardo, and has been secretly working for our company,"

Li Jin suddenly realized: "So that's the case, no wonder, well, with my highest authority, first reward him with 1000 silver coins, and tell him that the prince will reward him for this, and I will draft a simple letter to the prince. Send out the situation report immediately with carrier pigeons. Tomorrow, the communication ship Urchin will come to Macau. You write a detailed report and send Urchin to Taiwan."

For five days in a row, Li Jin, the plenipotentiary representative of Zhonghua Company who was supposed to sign a new agreement with the Macau City Hall, fell ill due to overwork during the long-distance sea trip. Jin, seeing this nearly 50-year-old man lying on the bed with a sallow complexion, panting constantly, they came to condolences on behalf of all the Portuguese businessmen in Macau, and hoped that Li Jin would recover soon, and then sign a new peace alliance agreement with Macau as soon as possible , Li Jin on the sickbed sighed, made the sign of the cross, and nodded repeatedly...

In the area under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong capital in the past few months, the imperial army has stationed troops on the front lines of Liaoyang and Jinzhou, and has not sent troops for a long time; 15000 bird gunners from North Korea crossed the river from Yizhou. It has been a month since they arrived in Liaoyang, and there is no movement, Yin Feng Now I have been paying attention to the development of the situation in the Northeast, and I have been thinking in my heart: because of the disturbance of this big butterfly, the famous battle of Saerhu in history will happen in the end.

In the inner city of the center of Taiwan Harbor City, the original Ship Owner’s Lane is now called Wangfu Street. The Jinghai Palace has more than doubled the size of Yin Feng’s original residence. Yin Qian, a 9-year-old daughter, writes and draws, and helps her six-year-old son (whose name is Zhengfeng, whose name is Yifei) make handmade toys.

The contented Mai Wan'er became more mature and stable after having a son; and Yin Feng's favorite concubine, Mei Xinlan, was also pregnant recently, which made Li Lihua very unhappy for a while, and Yin Feng was still busy comforting her. At the same time, Yin Feng was afraid that Zeng Junting, the seventh young lady of the Zeng family who married him in Zeng Jing's place, would be left out, so he took her to the sea for a tour.

It is rare for Yin Feng to enjoy the family happiness in such a peaceful way, but he also feels very tired.

Soon, a secret report from Chen Zhongji broke his peaceful family life, and he hastily sent someone to summon Lin Xiao, the head of the Commercial Affairs Department, Li Yue, the head of the Weapons Research Department, and several staff officers from the old battalion's combat department. .

"Xu Guangqi, the imperial envoy of the Ming court, and Xiong Tingbi, the Nanjing economic strategist, have already begun to form a new army. The supervisor of the training of the new army is Shen Yourong, the commander-in-chief of Fujian. Yu Zigao has been appointed as the guerrilla in Wuhu to preside over the training of the troops," Lin Xiao said word by word. After reading the short information sent by Chen Zhongji through the carrier pigeon, he raised his head with a wry smile and said, "Boss owner, oh my lord, as I said at the beginning, this Yu Zigao is always a member of the government, let him learn our war strategy and technology , will be against us,"

Yin Feng shook his head and said: "Forget it, there is no need to mention the past. Besides, the Western army, which is comparable to ours, was defeated by us. The problem is, there is one thing that I find very strange: Xu Guangqi He wanted to train the new army a few years ago because he was stillborn because of lack of food and wages, but now that the imperial court is preparing for the war against the Jianzhou Jurchen, where is the money to train him?"