The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 171
Autumn is crisp and the sea breeze blows.

A huge fleet approached Hangzhou and lined up three miles away from the shore. The Dutch flag was hung on the boats, but the leader was eight large ships about 50 meters long, each with dozens of black holes sticking out. The muzzle bared its fangs like a beast.

Among them was a seventy-long warship that was particularly conspicuous. It took Jiang Wuji, the sharpshooter general stationed in Hangzhou, to wake up after a long time.

Although the sea along the coast is covered with mines, Jiang Wuji still dare not be careless. Such a huge fleet is far from being comparable to Zheng Jing's fleet. He thought to himself: "Could it be that these people are the barbarians mentioned by the prince? Then why the other party?" With so many warships coming, do these barbarians want to start a war with Daming?
...........
On the 70-meter-long battleship, Feng Haixiao, Feng Xifan's son, tried his best to dissuade him: "Master Navy Commander, quickly put away the cannons, and don't offend Prince Huaxing, otherwise this trade will be ruined."

Joseph Jansen snorted, and saw more than a hundred cannons and thousands of well-trained musketeers through the binoculars, and then let go of the contempt in his heart, and said seriously: "Mr. Feng, the other party is not small, my commander You will not fight back, you should contact the owner who has a lot of silk and porcelain as soon as possible."

It turned out that Nicholas, the head of the East India Company, heard that the prince of Ming Dynasty was willing to trade with the great Netherlands. First of all, he was furious. The Ming Dynasty had long since perished, and now China has become the world of barbarians. Then there is the Ming Empire The presence?

After Feng Haixiao's detailed narration, it became known that in the past six months, Ming Dynasty had returned to the country again, but the Manchu and Qing Tartars still occupied the north, and Ming Dynasty occupied the fertile south.

It was only then that Nicholas knew that the Netherlands had ignored the development of the situation in China and got the same answer from other Chinese maritime merchants. Rear Admiral Joseph rushed to trade with a large amount of food and a powerful navy.

It would be better to exchange cheap grain for silk and porcelain.

Thinking of this, Joseph hid the pride in his heart. If he messed up this matter, he would be fired and the Jansen family would be ridiculed.

After the interpreter's explanation, Feng Haixiao finally felt relieved, and said with a smile: "Respected Commander, I'm going to contact the general on the other side right now, please stay calm."

Joseph nodded, and Feng Haixiao got on the boat with a low waist. According to the instructions of Lord Huaxing, the seaway with buoys can be docked safely, but this passage is so small that a large ship cannot pass through it at all.

When Jiang Tao received Jiang Wuji's report, he was surprised. These Dutchmen arrived in less than a month. Recently, he is inspecting and supervising the training of the army, and has increased the number of sharpshooters to 2. People, but the guns are not yet in place, and there are still more than 7000 handles.

The artillery battalion has also increased to 2000 people. The Huaxing infantry artillery and tiger squatting artillery are basically in place.

Jiang Tao didn't dare to delay, he hurried to Hangzhou, and Joseph was impatient for a long time, when he saw Jiang Tao in the Hangzhou government office, he was shocked, this person was not shorter than him, but stronger than him, so rare, he woke up instantly Come over, bow slightly and say: "Hello, King of the Ming Empire, I am Rear Admiral Joseph, Commander of the Far East Fleet!"

There was a general interpreter, Jiang Tao understood it very well, he was obviously taken aback, and immediately understood that the reason why the other party was so polite must be for the huge benefits of silk, etc., thinking that the other party could not be so cheap, he laughed and said: "Give me a seat , this king does not like vain etiquette, you wait for you to come from a long way, rest for a night before talking."

Joseph's face suddenly changed, and he cursed these Easterners who had no sense of time in his heart, and directly retorted: "Thank you for your kindness, the king, let's trade as soon as possible."

"Very good, how many tons of grain did Mr. Major General bring this time?"

Hearing King Huaxing's question, Joseph's spirit was shocked, and he exclaimed excitedly: "It exceeds one hundred thousand tons, and you have to exchange it with a whole ship of silk and porcelain."

10 tons, assuming that one ton is equal to 20 shi, it is only 200 million shi of grain. Now that the war has caused the price of grain to rise a lot, it is worth 160 million taels of silver. The other party will definitely not use small boats to load porcelain, etc., but If a thousand-ton ship is filled with porcelain and silk, Jiang Tao will lose at least several million taels of silver according to the eastern market price. Although the cost price is not as high as this, he is unwilling to be taken advantage of.

Jiang Tao sneered, it seems that the Dutchman is not stupid, he said unquestionably: "Big mistake, very wrong, my king buys your food with gold and silver, and you buy my silk and porcelain with gold and silver, this is called fair trade , otherwise no discussion."

Joseph originally wanted to use a large cargo ship of more than 1000 tons to make a big profit. He didn't want this stupid big guy to be so easy to fool. Thinking that the other party must be short of food, he said in a threatening tone: "No matter who it is, dare to play with the great one!" The commander of the Dutch Navy will be bombarded by thousands of warships!"

"Haha!" Jiang Tao laughed for a while, and then sneered again: "If you want to start a war, my 50 elite will accompany you at any time, but it seems that you are going to war with Britain, France and other powerful countries. I don't know how the battle is going?"

Joseph suddenly became a bitter face, 50 troops with tunnel-fired muskets?impossible!But after he entered the city, he found that there were at least ten thousand people in the city and outside the city with muskets. Hey, how could this person know about the war thousands of miles away?
Could it be that there are also British businessmen coming over?

Joseph's face was uncertain, and he was stunned for a while before he smiled awkwardly: "Misunderstanding, hehe, I am joking with the king, hehe, okay, just do as the king said."

What happened next was a matter of course. Jiang Tao gave him 10 million taels of silver for 160 tons of grain, but he quadrupled the original price of silk and porcelain. Unexpectedly, Joseph did not frown and readily agreed.

Jiang Tao's heart jumped suddenly. The other party was obviously not stupid, but the other party didn't feel the high price of the goods. He opened his mouth wide open and waited for Mr. Major General to bargain. According to this, isn't the Zheng family, which monopolizes the sea power in East Asia, making a lot of money?
Joseph used 10 tons of gold, 100 tons of silver, and grain to purchase silk and other items. Jiang Tao was very happy. Not only did he get the urgently needed grain, but his personal coffers also had nearly 400 million taels of silver. More food will be shipped next time.

During the unloading period, Jiang Tao and Joseph had a good chat, and Jiang Tao took the opportunity to throw an olive branch to the Netherlands. The grain transaction continued, with an unlimited quantity, and ordered [-] new tunnel-fired guns and a state-of-the-art battleship from the Dutch military. If there is further cooperation, such as accepting overseas students sent by Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty will only do business with the Dutch, and will never pay attention to other European countries such as Britain and France.

Hearing King Huaxing's words, Joseph's eyelids couldn't stop jumping, and his heart couldn't be calm for a long time. The prince opposite was not only well-informed, he couldn't be fooled by muskets and battleships, and he was extremely rich and powerful.

Now the motherland is at war with two major powers, and the trade volume has dropped sharply. However, if the trade of silk and porcelain in China is controlled, the Netherlands will have greater economic strength and can build more battleships. Maybe it will become the only one at sea again. overlord.

In fact, the Netherlands is also greedy for spices from the Philippines, but that is the treasure of Spain's wealth. As long as the Netherlands intervenes, the country will be threatened by the Spanish army, which has more than 10 troops.

Thinking of this, he couldn't sit still anymore, bid farewell to Jiang Tao in a hurry, and no longer waited for the merchant ship that was unloading, and sailed to Southeast Asia with all his strength on the flagship. He couldn't decide on such a big matter.

The reason why Jiang Tao chose to cooperate with the Netherlands is because the tail of the Netherlands can't grow long. It not only faces the powers on land, but also faces the powers of the sea. Unlike the UK, which is an island country, it does not need to be equipped with a large army. It only needs to vigorously develop the navy. , will be able to defend the country.

The empire on which the sun never sets is about to rise. If the Netherlands cooperates with Daming, it is very likely that they will resist for a while.

Anyway, Daming can't intervene in the maritime trade for the time being, and it has nothing to do with him no matter how popular the European war is. Jiang Tao looked at Joseph's back and sneered, and returned to the barracks again, preparing to train a group of marching commanders and staff officers, which are equivalent to higher ranks than captains. political commissar.

Now under the command of King Huaxing, there are only political commissars among a hundred people - captains, obviously unable to keep up with the speed of army expansion. Now there are more than 1 troops, of which [-] are based. The military leader will be a general. There are two lieutenants, ten commanders, one hundred school lieutenants, one hundred captains, and one thousand small captains. If ten marching commanders and two staff officers are added, it will obviously be more conducive to Jiang Tao's control of the army.

Unexpectedly, within two days, the guards came to report: Wei Qingfeng bribed the guards and replaced the emperor of Ming Dynasty, Yang Qilong, with a human skin mask, and he has not been found yet, Wei Qingfeng has been arrested.

Jiang Tao was extremely angry, Wei Qingfeng was so confused.

(End of this chapter)