The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 608 Deterrence
Huang Zongxi thought to himself that it was exactly as His Royal Highness the Co-Regent expected, so he sneered at Bertman: "After all, you still want to monopolize Daming's maritime transactions.

"It's not impossible, as long as the goods loaded and unloaded at Daming Port are priced by the Customs Department, everything will be handed over to you for resale."

Bertman was taken aback. What he earns in business is the price difference. If the buying and selling prices follow the Ming Dynasty's, wouldn't he really be an errand runner?
He shook his head, "How can this work? The historical rules..."

"Rules?" Huang Zongxi interrupted him unceremoniously, "Let's just say it clearly. In the past, the rules were indeed set by the Helan people. The East India Company was entrenched in the East, relying on warships to be tyrannical. What you said Who dares to disobey?"

"However, from now on, this rule cannot be up to you to decide on your own." He glanced at several Helan people, and said in a sonorous tone, "From now on, all barbarians who want to come to Daming to do business can dock at our coastal ports. After paying the tax, you can buy and sell freely. Whoever dares to block it, I, the Ming Navy, will never sit idly by!"

Bertman also knows that today is not what it used to be. Zheng Zhilong's "ally" was wiped out overnight, but the Daming Navy was almost unscathed.With the backing of a powerful navy right now, Da Ming has the confidence to say this, he hastily smiled and said: "Actually, the East India Company is also concerned about the safety of your country's merchant ships, and there are as many pirates around Da Ming. If there is no agreement with these guys, Whenever a merchant ship goes to sea, there is almost no possibility of arriving safely."

He immediately added, "Just like the Japanese pirates back then, they were never destroyed. Only when we mediate with the pirates can we keep the waterway open."

What he said is true and false. There are indeed many pirates in the Ming sea area, but in fact the biggest pirates are these Helan people. "Pirate looting" has also become a means for them to deter maritime merchants from various countries.

If it was just Huang Zongxi and other Ming Dynasty officials, they would have been bluffed by his words at this time. The great Ming maritime merchants had indeed escaped death when they went to sea, and they would have been robbed and killed by pirates. How could they know their identity as pirates.

However, Huang Zongxi, who had been instructed by Zhu Linming a few days ago, knew all about it, and couldn't help snorting, "I'm afraid you and the Lan people know better than anyone else how this pirate got here.

"However, the Daming Navy still has confidence in guarding its own merchant ships. There are only a few pirates, so come and try if you are not afraid of death.

"Ah, since your Excellency mentioned the Japanese pirates, I will say a few more words.

"At that time, the Japanese pirates were rampant, and the imperial court just blindly defended against them, and even suppressed them repeatedly, causing disasters for decades. But now if there are still people who dare to do evil at sea, we will never passively defend, but send a large army to join the water. Master the strong ship, go straight to the lair of the bandits, cut off the roots of the bandits, and complete the merits in one battle!"

What he said was simply a threat from Chiguoguo - whoever dared to plunder at sea, Daming would send troops to take over his lair.He also said earlier that "the Helan people know the origin of the pirates best", that is to tell Bertman that Daming already knew who was behind it.

Huang Zongxi saw that the red barbarians were still unwilling, so he raised his voice and said: "I will not hide from you, the Daming Navy currently has three warships with 34 guns, five warships with more than [-] guns, and warships with more than [-] guns. Twenty boats. These are plywood boats with soft sails, and all the cannons only weigh more than four pounds. As for the old-style hard sail boats, there are more than a hundred in total, let alone say."

It is natural that he "leaked" the family background of the Ming army navy in such a way that he was instructed by the assistant king.Zhu Linming knew that the people of Helan would know that something as big as a navy warship was there, sooner or later, so it was better to put it out in this period of strategic opportunity for deterrence, and strive to win without fighting.

The Helan people knew that Daming already owned a lot of Galen warships, but they never knew the exact number.Hearing Huang Zongxi's words now, several Helan envoys looked at each other in shock—it turned out that the combat effectiveness of the Daming Navy is no less than the sum of all the warships in Taiwan!
Cesareo, who came to Nanjing with Bertman as a military advisor, was young and energetic, and blurted out: "We have another powerful fleet in Batavia..."

Huang Zongxi could actually understand Helan language, but he seemed to turn a deaf ear to it, and still thought to himself: "This is just the navy's existing warship. I can also reveal what is being built on the berth."

As he said, he looked down at the "cheat sheet" in his hand. His Royal Highness gave too many details, and it was inevitable that some of them were not memorized. Completed. A 22-gun warship will also be completed next month.

"Nan'an. A warship with 32 guns will be completed in [-] days. Two small boats with [-] guns will enter the water soon.

"As for the largest Longjiang shipyard in Ming Dynasty," he smiled, but let it go, "it's a secret of the court, and it's inconvenient for lower officials to say more. But Longjiang shipyard is bigger than the previous two shipyards combined, so you can figure it out for yourself. .”

Bertman and the others had already received the news that Daming was building a [-]-gun warship, but after Huang Zongxi said it, they were still shocked.You know, Batavia's trump card that can shock the entire Far East is a fifty-gun warship.

And the Longjiang shipyard that Mr. Huang didn't mention clearly made several people think about it secretly.They also went to the Longjiang shipyard to have a look around in person yesterday, and they knew that what Huang Zongxi said was true, maybe there was another [-]-gun ship on the slipway inside.

In fact, Longjiang Shipyard has just completed the process standardization reform, and the craftsmen are not yet familiar with the construction skills of Galen warships. For the time being, they can only build some Galen ships less than [-] tons.There are several Junk merchant ships of six or seven hundred tons on the berth, which are prepared for ocean-going caravans.Therefore, although the scale here is large, it will take time to start construction of ships over [-] tons.

But in reality, the shipbuilding capabilities of the Longjiang Shipyard have given the Helan people a lot of room for imagination.

Bertman swallowed hard, and nodded with the assistant of the chief administrator, Owat, who was planning to come up with a backup plan—with Daming's current momentum, in another half a year, don't say anything, Even if the Batavia fleet is dispatched, it may not be able to beat the Ming navy.Not to mention that there are Spain and Portugal eyeing Helan's power in Asia, and even the British are ready to come to the Far East to take a share at any time. It is absolutely impossible for the Batavia fleet to deal with the Ming Dynasty.

Since he was too hard to grasp, he had no choice but to bow his head.Bertman rubbed his hands dryly with a smile, and said to Huang Zongxi: "Master Huang, although your country has enough strength to deal with pirates, it will cost a lot to protect the long sea route.

"If your country agrees to hand over the sea trade to the agent of the East India Company—that is, to maintain the status quo—we will pay a profit of 100 million taels of silver every year in return."

(End of this chapter)