Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

"Your lords know the meaning of the center." Wei Fang, the admiral of the Sulu navy who presided over the Sulu battle on behalf of Maying who returned to Beijing, looked at the representatives of the inner feudal clan thoughtfully. "If you think it's not good to use native slaves to pay for military expenses, it doesn't matter. The Abbot Tuozhi Company is willing to pay for these slaves."

Yue Zhongqi, who attended the meeting on behalf of the hereditary governor of the Yue Kingdom of Long Island, smiled: "Your Excellency, you are joking. It is true that the abbot is short of manpower. It is also true that the new clans are short of manpower, but we and other feudal clans are also short of labor."

Yue Zhongqi's words represent the common aspirations of the San Francisco of Long Island and the Seven Kingdoms of Beiboni. Taking the area under the jurisdiction of Yue Guodu, which has been colonized for nearly ten years, as an example. The reason why the Protectorate's Mansion also competes for domestic immigrants is that up to now, it only has more than 15 registered households and [-] mu of land, and there is still a lot of room for expansion.However, it is a pity that there are more and more inner vassals conferred by the Huaxia Dynasty, and all the inner vassals are robbing the domestic population, even the disabled veterans who retired from the Shence Army and the North Korean laborers who struggled out of the domestic mines. Under such circumstances, the three feudal clans of Long Island and the seven feudal clans of Beiboni, which had been separated in the past, could not compete with the newly established uncle states and marquis states, let alone the soon-to-be-established duchies of the clan's children.Now that the people with decent household registration have lost their way, the slave trade will naturally flourish. However, when people turn their attention to the slave trade everywhere, they can only start from Chenla, Siam, Jinzhou (Sumatra) and other places. Slaves purchased in small quantities also became less readily available.While hesitating, the imperial court used the prisoners of the Sulu War to offset the military expenses advanced by the various feudal clans due to financial problems. Although this may not be a balance of income and expenditure, it is a reasonable exchange for the feudal clans that lack labor Only fools would sell the slaves they had finally obtained to others.

"That's right, that's right, I'm still counting on Brunei Suandan to sell us slaves under my name, how can I refuse the court's kindness." Li Yunye, who attended the meeting on behalf of Beibo Ni, Li Guodu's governor He echoed, not to mention, in order to ease the encroachment of the northern Peri clans, it is really possible for Brunei to resell the Sulu slaves who are of little use to them.

"My lord, I don't know if the natives of Cebu Island and Negros Island need to be purged." Lin Guotai, the grandson of Lin Xian, who attended the meeting on behalf of the general administration of the capital of Beibolin, asked a little bit unsatisfactorily. "We and other feudal vassals can increase their troops to serve the imperial court"

"Okay." Wei Fang was a little displeased with this kind of behavior of rushing to ask for it. "How to deal with the natives of the islands is up to the imperial court. You don't have to force it, and arrange to send someone with the boat to the Baohe Islands to inform the front-line commanders."

Seeing that Wei Fang seemed to be angry, all the representatives of the inner feudal clan had no choice but to retreat in desperation. At this time, the staff officer waiting outside the door entered the room and reported: "My lord, Mr. Lin Zhida, the governor of Luzon, sent someone to send a letter."

Wei Fang took a look at the letter and couldn't help but sneer and said: "Spanish barbarians are going to hand over the city of General Santos (in Mindanao). It's really a good idea. We expect us to fight with the Sulu people. Okay, let's inform [Bi Fang] ready to sail"

Wei Fang is preparing to cover the landing of a certain unit of the Longxiang Army on Mindanao, and Niu Mingli is sitting on the "Fulong" watching the Indian coastline gradually drifting away in his sight.Don't get me wrong, this time Niu Mingli did not follow the domestic merchants who smelled fish to open up business routes along the East African coastline, but went to the Persian Gulf to see what opportunities there were.Of course, Niu Mingli, who works in the Privy Council's office, is not from the governor's yamen, and cannot exercise diplomatic power on behalf of the Chinese court, so he can only use the name of merchants. Fortunately, all maritime merchants in this era are Fatian figures. , Therefore, if any mistakes are drawn, it will not affect the relationship between China, the Persian Kingdom and the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the future. [

After ten days of voyage, 【Fulong】arrived at the coast of Oman, then turned around and headed north, along the coastline to the famous Muscat Port, which is the base camp of Muscat businessmen active in the Middle East and East Africa. It is also a very important trade base for Portugal, the Netherlands, England, France and other countries in the Middle East.

Although [Fulong] was a newcomer, the characteristics of the Huaxia composite sailboat were still so obvious that the port guards recognized it as a Chinese ship at a glance.In view of Huaxia's strong strength in the war with the Dutch United East India Company, Muscat businessmen welcomed Niu Mingli and his party with an unusually warm attitude, and were even willing to underwrite all the commodities on the [Fulong], and hoped to In this way, establish a long-term trade relationship with Niu Mingli's firm.

"We can use gold sand, ivory, wool carpets, horses, and female slaves to pay for the goods." The Arab businessman in charge of entertaining Niu Mingli said in a showy tone. "If you need something else, as long as we can get it, that's fine."

"This time I brought a total of twenty cannons, five hundred flintlocks, and three thousand scimitars." Niu Mingli said slowly. "As for silk, porcelain, pearls, sugar, and tea, there are relatively few of them. That's no problem. Yes, there are big companies operating in China for silk, porcelain and other commodities. As far as we small merchants are concerned, It's not cheap."

"Mr. Niu, you are really an honest person. However, it is not something a small businessman can do that can bring cannons and flintlock guns." The Arab businessman exposed Niu Mingli's true colors in a teasing tone. "But don't worry, Persia is currently in civil strife, and the ordnance you brought can be sold for a good price."

"You're right. I heard that there was civil strife in the Safavid kingdom, so I made a lot of effort to raise this batch of ordnance." Niu Mingli avoided talking about his identity, and just followed the other party's lead. words said. "However, Your Excellency, if I sell all of them to you, there will be no goods to negotiate with Persia."

"Since you have told me the truth, I might as well tell you that the local Yarubb dynasty is preparing to fight Persia, so it is impossible for us to let you leave this place if we already know that you are carrying a large amount of ordnance. " Looking at the discolored Niu Mingli, the businessman hastily comforted him. "Please rest assured that we will not forcibly seize your ships and goods. On the contrary, we will give you a reasonable high price. I hope you will bring more weapons to Muscat for trading in the future."

Niu Mingli seemed to be angrily stumbled and said: "Since you have said so, even if you don't want to sell it, you can only sell it."

The Arab said with a smile: "Please rest assured, as I have just said, I will definitely give you a reasonable high price to ensure your interests, and even to make amends, I will give you several beautiful Persian virgins. Skater had a great time."

"Virgins don't matter, the old man wants to live a few more years." Niu Mingli is also in his early fifties, so he naturally doesn't care about women's "sex". His official career, so he took the opportunity to ask. "It's impossible for you to stop others from selling weapons to Persia forever. Why don't you tell me the current situation in Persia, lest I don't know anything and suffer in the future."

The businessman thought for a while, maybe he felt that what Niu Mingli said was reasonable, or he wanted to impress Chinese businessmen and attract more people to trade in Muscat. He finally said slowly: "The current Persian The situation is very bad. The previous generations of kings spent a lot of money and exhausted the treasury. Now that King Hussein is in power, he can’t even guarantee the horses of the Janissaries. When the king is on tour, the Janissaries can only ride donkeys. Lack of deterrence, local dissension, coupled with the fact that the "government" has raised taxes many times in order to raise funds, leading to uprisings by Afghans, Kurds, and Baluchi. In addition to internal troubles, there are also foreign troubles, the Cossacks and Uzbeks in the north have successively invaded, and the demise of the Safavid dynasty may be imminent.”

"So, your country is also preparing to take advantage of the fire to loot, and get a benefit when its country perishes." Niu Mingli's tone was tinged with sarcasm, but he still played the role he was playing now, so some words It was just a word, and even in order to dispel the other party's suspicion, he deliberately asked carefully. "Where is Afghanistan? What kind of people are the Kurds?" Niu Mingli asked presumptuously after the other party carefully explained the origin and location of the enemies inside and outside the Safavid dynasty. "Among the local princes in Persia, are there any powerful ones, I mean, those who have the financial resources to buy large-scale ordnance?"

The Muscat businessman has already doubted Niu Mingli's identity, he hesitated and said: "It's hard to say, these princes come and go one after another, and the alternation is too fast. It is really impossible to say who is strong and who has rich financial resources."

Niu Mingli knew that he had "exposed" a flaw, so he stopped asking about the situation in Persia, and changed the subject: "If I go to the Ottoman country to trade, will there be enough guarantees?"

"The Ottoman Turkish Empire has a trading port in Abadan." Muscat has been independent from the Ottomans for more than 100 years, so the taboo against the country is far less than that of the Persians who are near the other side of the strait. "You only need to go west along the coastline and you can see this harbor at the turning point. However, after the Ottoman Empire defeated Russia a few years ago and signed the Treaty of Passarowitz, it stopped fighting. I am afraid that your arsenal It doesn’t fetch a good price in the country.”[

"Ottoman country ever defeated Russia?" In order to hide his surprise, Niu Mingli had no choice but to bring the topic back to Persia. "A mere Cossack can be supported by Persian law, and the suzerain of the Cossack was actually defeated by the Ottoman country. Isn't the Ottoman country far stronger than Persia?"

"That's natural." Among all the Arab countries during this period, the Berbers in Morocco and the Muscats in Oman were not conquered by the Turkish Empire. Therefore, the strength of the Ottomans can better demonstrate the strength of Muscat. "The Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and almost went straight to Vienna in Austria. It is a powerful empire. It's just that the new Sultan Ahmed III doesn't like swordsmanship, so he didn't take the opportunity to attack Persia."

"If you don't take it, you will be blamed." After hearing this, Niu Mingli sighed in Chinese, then changed his smile and continued to speak in the common language of South Tianzhu. "Since there is no need for ordnance, I will not try to go to the Ottoman country next time."

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