Dragon Sea Empire

**The Wanming army gathered in Anqing. After a battle on the Yangtze River, the Ming army immediately fell apart.

The navy of the Ming army and the infantry of the Ming army did not have many casualties in the Anqing water battle. Although almost all the ships of the navy were burned, sunk and captured, the loss of personnel was not large. There were only more than 3500 casualties. They were captured or fled; and the infantry of the Ming army were frightened by the firepower of the Chinese army. In the shelling that night, only 600 people were killed or injured, and they could no longer bear it. The whole army broke up and fled Anqing. Chen Daoheng, who organized the defense of Anqing, also had to flee Anqing City.

Among the retreating Ming troops, the only orderly ones were the more than 10000 white-armed soldiers belonging to Chieftain Shijie. They withdrew from Anqing after receiving an order from Chen Daoheng: let them retreat to Huangzhou. When the east of the city entered the city, the whole team withdrew from Anqing from the west of the city, protecting Chen Daoheng, Zhou Qiyuan and others all the way.

Twelve days later, the report of the battle of Anqing was sent to Yazhou, Hainan by the clipper communication ship.

Yin Feng is still on vacation in Sanya with his family and children. Of course, at the same time, he also inspected the Shilu Iron Mine and its affiliated copper mine that have been officially put into operation. This is the best iron-rich mine in China and East Asia. The most important iron ore base in the company's ruled area, many of the hard workers here are Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Jurchen, and even recently transported Malay prisoners of war. There are also a large number of criminals in the Yinfeng ruled area who are serving hard labor here. Around the mine, iron-making blast furnaces built using local river water and coal mines have sprung up like mushrooms, filled with black smoke and pungent smells. Walking in it, Yin Feng vaguely felt like he was interviewing in a highly polluted industrial area before crossing.

Throughout the first month, there was an endless stream of people who came to Sanya to meet him.

One of them is Lu Yun, the guardian envoy of the Ryukyu Town Guard Mansion. Lu Yun's character is Xiaohan. He was originally a subordinate of Xie Mingqin, the third official of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and was the business agent of the Ryukyu King. Later, in business, he got acquainted with Yin Feng, the general director of the Chinese company, and became the shopkeeper of the Ryukyu Chinese business house at the same time. The Shimadzu family of the Satsuma domain attacked Ryukyu. Yin Feng’s Chinese company then went on an expedition to the Satsuma domain, and finally seized the Ryukyu country. In just half a year The original Ryukyu aristocratic family was killed by the Japanese and the Chinese in turn, and almost died. Lu Yun lost his original boss. With his family relationship, he became the general manager of the civil affairs of the Chinese company in Ryukyu.

This time, he came to meet Yin Feng with him, as well as Kawakami Imamoto-Shimadzu's envoys from the Satsuma clan of Japan. They came for the trade between the Satsuma clan and the Chinese company, and the Satsuma clan paid off the Chinese company from the bankrupt place. After the debt, the business of going to North Korea to rob people and sell them to Chinese companies had to be stopped due to the strict order of the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, the life of the Shimadzu family has been very difficult. At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate tried to monopolize the Sino-Japanese business in Nagasaki. For trade, in order to fill the gap for the Tokugawa shogunate, Yin Feng decided to help the Satsuma clan financially. Xu Xinsu opened up a route from Ryukyu to Kagoshima in the next few years, making the Shimadzu family an agent for Chinese goods. Competing for business with Nagasaki Port directly under the shogunate.

This time, the Shimadzu family sent Kawakami Konmoto to give Yin Feng New Year's greetings: a large number of Japanese Catholics who fled to Satsuma, and a large amount of sulfur and silver. They were all sent to the newly opened Irian Island Chinese Company colony for resettlement.

There is also a group of people who came to Sanya from Taiwan, but they are from the opposite side of Hainan Island, the diplomatic envoys of the Annan Kingdom. Nguyen of the South.

This is the period of the late Le Dynasty in Vietnam’s history. In name, the Le Dynasty should now rule Annan. In fact, the king of the Le clan in the north is a rubber stamp, and the real power is under the control of the Trinh clan. In the south, the Nguyen clan has been seeking an independent kingdom for a long time. The Zheng family and the Ruan family were originally from the same family of the Li family. They once joined hands in an alliance to fight against the usurper of the Later Li Dynasty, Mo Dengyong.

Right now, Nguyen Phuc Yuan, who is in power in the Nguyen family, began to cut off the suzerain-vassal relationship with the Zheng family as soon as he came to power. Military pay and sacrificial offerings), the appointment of officials in the territory was held in their own hands, and the government agencies left by the Late Le Dynasty were changed to directly obeying orders from the Nguyen family. The most important thing was: the Nguyen family in the south stopped paying taxes to the Hanoi court.

The Zheng family in the north already had enough excuses to go to war, while the Ruan family in the south had already been preparing for war.

In terms of business relationship, the companies of Nguyen and Yin Feng have had trade relations for a long time, and Nguyen Phuc Yuan established a relationship with Westerners very early. A Portuguese trading post even opened in Hoi An, Malacca even before the establishment of the Chinese company. After Macau and Macau were successively controlled by Chinese companies, the Portuguese still kept their trading houses in Hoi An. In 1615, with the assistance of Portuguese engineers, Nguyen also started the production of their own Western bronze cannons.

There are also tens of thousands of Chinese merchants in Hoi An. When Yin Feng led the Chinese army to counterattack Luzon, the Chinese merchants in Hoi An also organized militia to support them. The Ruan family gave Chinese merchants very preferential treatment and allowed them to keep their own armed militia in Hoi An. With these relationships , Yin Feng and Zhonghua Company have a good impression of Ruan.

In the north, the Zheng family is orthodox. Although they have conflicts with the overlord Ming Dynasty, they learn from Ming Dynasty in dealing with overseas trade. Of course, this is also to deal with the southern Ruan family who are good at sailing. Therefore, when dealing with Chinese companies In terms of attitude, the Zheng family in the north is somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty.

These two envoys in the name of Lunar New Year sent envoys to Taiwan at the same time. When they met unexpectedly in Taiwan Hong Kong, the two envoys almost fought each other on the pier.

Then, they were all loaded onto the same ship and transported to Sanya. They bumped into each other a lot on the ship. After getting off the ship, the two sides even fought in the city of Sanya for the order of meeting Yin Feng. Yin Feng's personal guard Captain Lin Tian Ping had to send a team of black guards to guard the two groups of them.

Both parties are now making final preparations for the war. Ruan’s visit to Sanya is to strengthen ties with Chinese companies—purchasing arms, hoping that the Chinese militia can help the South fight in the future Civil War; In the name of the orthodox King Annan, he came to tell "Yin Feng and other maritime leaders" and "don't assist Ruan's rebels", and at the same time promised to supply food for the Chinese company at a low price.

Yin Feng first met the envoys of the southern Ruan family in the government office of Yazhou, accepted the large amount of gold and silver treasures sent by the Ruan family, and asked Li Jin, who was in charge of foreign affairs, to discuss with them the purchase of arms. Then, when receiving the northern envoys, Yin Feng was lying on a rattan chair on the beach by the sea. The Zheng family in the north did not agree to any request. Now that the Chinese company has negotiated peace with Siam, the grain output of Siam is far greater than that of Annan and North. lack of food.

In fact, Yin Feng hoped that Annan, South, and North would fight as soon as possible. The more intense the fight, the better. In East Asia, only the Chinese company is capable of providing high-quality firearms.

In terms of strength, Annan has more adults in the north, and less people in the south. When the war starts, they must attack from the north and defend from the south. In order to let them fight for a longer time, the Chinese company must first help the Ruan family in the south.

After sending away the envoys of the Zheng family in the north, the messenger sent the Jiangnan Military News: The Chinese navy fleet captured Anqing City, the brigade continued to go upstream, and the soldiers pointed directly at Wuchang.

He called Mai De, Zheng Zhilong and others who came to report on his work, and invited Xu Hongji and others to pass this battle report to everyone to watch.

"What do you think, our army is extremely sharp, and it should be no problem to reach Wuchang within a month,"

Although Yin Feng's prestige and power are already extremely high, he has always retained the style of the company's early days, brainstorming with everyone when encountering major events, "Now the court has not yet woken up, Jinling has become an isolated city, Wuhu, Jiujiang, and Anqing have all been broken. , When our army appeared in Wuchang and Hankou, the Ming Dynasty would be divided into two parts, the north and the south, and even a memorial would have to go around Guizhou and Sichuan,"

Xu Hongji and other members of the civil service system were discussing a lot, and Zheng Zhilong spoke first: "According to what the prince said the day before yesterday, with the strength of our army, it is difficult to destroy the Ming Dynasty, but it is easy to defeat the Ming Dynasty. There will be one thing that will be unclear. Excuse me..."

"I know what you want to ask." Yin Feng smiled and said, "You probably want to say that as long as you defeat the Ming Dynasty's army, you can destroy the Zhu family dynasty, but how do we deal with this situation when we destroy the Ming Dynasty?" As for the thirteen chief secretaries, our regular army is no more than [-], and the garrison, militia, self-defense force, and security force are no more than [-] or [-] armed forces. We must not only protect Nanyang, but also guard the islands in the East China Sea to guard against the Japanese and North Koreans. , dry Greeks, red-haired barbarians, etc., it is impossible to devote all of them to the mainland... But the Ming Dynasty has a vast interior, bordering the desert and plateau to the west, with various ministries of Tibet, to the north of Mongolia, and to the west there are also ministries of Huihui. Not enough,"

Xu Hongji nodded: "Our original idea was too simple. We thought that Ming Dynasty was like a broken house, which could be destroyed with one kick. Last year we fought two wars in Liaodong and Nanyang, and our financial situation was so tight... It can be seen that, If we cannot fully consolidate and digest Luzon, Nanyang, the islands of the East China Sea, Liaodong and other places, we will not be able to easily eat the big piece of meat of the Ming Dynasty."

Yin Feng looked at the beach in the distance, and heaved a long sigh: "It is not easy for us to come to this step. We are only a stone's throw away from mastering the world, but it is difficult to cross this step. I know that although the five-year plan It has been made public, but there are still many people in the company and the army who don’t understand, brother of an official..."

Zheng Zhilong, who was meditating, stood at attention reflexively: "We will not be here, my lord..."

Yin Feng patted him on the shoulder: "In my Chinese army, the younger generation counts you as the best. This time at the opening ceremony of the Chinese military academy, you will be the one to speak to the freshmen and tell them more about the significance of the five-year plan." and our actual situation..."

Looking back, Yin Feng said to Mai De: "Old people in the army, you can contact them. After the Jiangnan campaign is over and after the general's conferring ceremony, let them all come to the palace for a party and let's drink together."