Amid the jingling of sail bells, the heavy double-masted Pangu treasure ship surrounded by more than ten armed merchant ships, left the warm Hangzhou Bay in a mighty way. Some merchants pretended to be happy and waved their hands, shouting about something they brought back. On the shore, some old couples leaned dejectedly on the cast iron pole tied with anchors. It is not certain whether they can see each other again in their lifetime.

However, in the crowd, a Dutch old man with high nose and red hair was also watching this scene with his eyes straight. Every time he saw him, he had to be immersed in the powerful power burst out from this ancient Eastern country. Napoleon once described China as a sleeping lion. This lion was three hundred years earlier and woke up!

However, after the shock, the Dutch old man's expression turned into pride again. He smiled and snorted coldly, leaned on a crutch, turned his head and turned into the crowd again, disappearing.

Now Hangzhou Port has definitely become an international metropolis. There are even more British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese who come here to survive and work, even more than Macau. He is really inconspicuous among the crowd.

After leaving the port, next to the large warehouse next to the harbor, four-wheeled trucks were unloading boxes of raw silk. When he saw the old man coming back, one of the fat merchants in the Ming Dynasty who were in charge of delivering goods happily put down the pen that was recording like flying and waved to him.

"Mr. Cohen, here!"

"Thank you, kind Mr. Dai!"

It was also the warm smile on his face, and holding his helping hand, the old Dutch man jumped onto the rush frame in front of the horse-drawn truck. While taking out a pipe, he took out a few sips, and even made a joke with the owner.

If we look at the appearance alone, we would never be able to associate this kind old man like the grandfather next door with the commander behind the scenes, slaughtered the indigenous people of the entire Spice Islands, and supported the seven small lowland provinces, with the iron-blooded figure who fought the cruel eighty-year war for most of his life.

The number of raw silks in this batch was quite large. About one hundred Korean porters unloaded them for a whole morning. Then they unloaded the goods and piled them in the dock warehouse. The old man held his pipe in his mouth and spitted a circle while following the truck to escape the bustling streets and markets in Hangzhou.

The destination of the truck is not too far from Hangzhou, and it is also one of the base camps of the Jiangnan gentry, Shaoxing!

Speaking of Shaoxing, people's first impression is that their daughter Hong and the careful Shaoxing master. The land was highly annexed by the Jiangnan landlords, which forced most Shaoxing people to study hard and seek a way out. However, the road to the imperial examination was so narrow that many scholars and literati who were taller than those of the Jiangnan clans could only be depressed and unsuccessful to work as staff and tutors for shops and yamen. However, indirectly, the business trend here has risen.

Five years ago, Shaoxing encountered a catastrophe, which was Mao Jue's famous official position reform plan. Almost most of the middle and low-level scholars in Shaoxing moved out and took a boat north through Yuhang to take the imperial examination. Up to now, there are nearly 100,000 public officials in the Northern Ming Dynasty, and more than 10,000 Shaoxing natives are still in the East India Company. However, the Southern Dynasty has never paid attention to the loss of talents, so it has left Shaoxing so deserted. It was not until March this year that this ancient humanistic city had a trend of revival.

The carriage was transported from the north gate of Shaoxing City. It was like Wenzhou last year, with a jingling sound everywhere. The street was low and dilapidated, and the abandoned people were demolished one by one, and two or three floors of tall and bright, intriguing traditional wooden shops were rebuilt. It was different from the intrigue and swarming of ships last year that the various maritime merchants rushed south. This time, all the southern merchants became rational and finally knew how to unite.

In the center of Shaoxing Ancient City, next to the Governor’s Office, the entrance of a towering three-story wooden building, with five bright characters written in gold paint, Ming General Commercial Bank!

The Battle of Nanyang has awakened Nanshang. If it weren't for this spring, Grand Secretary Zhang Pu went to Hangzhou to seek hard work, Luo Zhen forced Luo Ning to raise the purchase price by 50% and sign out a large order of 40 to 50 million taels, and regained the funds. Until now, these Nanshang still couldn't breathe.

He lost at least 30 million taels and destroyed nearly 100 schools by committing suicide. The bloody lessons made these Nan merchants start to face up to their opponents and analyze production based on the market.

First of all, most areas in Southeast Asia cannot be accessed. The North and East India Company has already taken deep roots in various places. If you go to the custody, you will give away meat and make a profit.

Then the large-scale industrial production of goods such as iron tools, clay pots, stoneware, cotton clothes, and clothing, and even the low-end silk market gave up. The steam looms buzzed a piece of cloth a few times, and their hand weavers worked hard to get one piece of cloth a month, which was incomparable.

But handicrafts also have the advantages of handicrafts, that is, the meticulousness of people and the sense of art of people cannot be compared with large-scale industrial production.

The low-end exporter of the South Merchants only exported raw silk, and then recruited master-level craftsmen. The high-end exporter used the famous Su embroidery to occupy the market, and porcelain also took the high-end route. The official kilns in Jingdezhen were snatched by these South Merchants from the big landlords such as Qian Qianyi and occupied the high-end market of the North and Ming Dynasty with a large number of high-quality porcelains.

Then there are Wuyi Tea, West Lake Longjing, Shaoxing Daughter Hong, and in business, these southern merchants began strategic stratification.

More importantly, the export share distribution system has reduced internal friction among the South merchants and will not lose due to the rush to reduce prices. They have begun to make profits!

However, if someone is interested, it is impossible to complete such a short-term strategic transformation with the arrogant and stubborn Jiangnan gentry. Among them, the shadow of the Dutch is everywhere, and the references are all made by the Dutch East India Company, while fighting the 80 Years of War and maintaining the country's destiny through export trade. Even in the Ming Dynasty, there are many old Dutch managers hired directly from Batavia.

When he got here, Keen got out of the car with his pipe in his arms and sued Manager Dai. Then, Manager Dai went to the Ming Dynasty General Chamber of Commerce to report. He was staggering and went straight to the governor's yamen next to him. The servants guarding the yamen did not stop him, but bowed respectfully and sent him into the mansion.

Before the old guy could walk to the backyard of the governor's yamen, fierce gunfire sounds came out again.

In the spacious backyard racecourse, ten straw men were beaten to pieces and had no recognition. There, Zhang Pu, who had always been a scholar's weapon, was aiming at him with a musket for the first time, and pulled the trigger suddenly. With a bang, the huge recoil pushed him, the scholar staggered, but another trick came. The bullet that had originally hit the foot came to a headshot.

However, this musket is completely different from the previous Ming Bird Gun. First, it has a buttstock that is used to shoot with shoulders. Its appearance is basically the same as the first year of the Beiminghai Guokaihong rifle. In terms of ignition, it also abandons the usual fuse. The exquisite sand wheel rubs over the flint. In the windproof cover, a spark was ignited brilliantly, and the bullet was fired out.

Thanks to Qian Zeng for the business opportunities he discovered. A large number of Beiming kerosene lighters imported from Chameng were sold to the government office. They removed the spring-shaped ignition sand wheel on the kerosene lighter, which was the ignition device of the flintlock rifle!

As soon as the launch was completed, the personal soldiers around him had already handed over a reloaded musket. They raised their hand and were about to fire, but suddenly they watched Coen walk in with a small crutch, Zhang Pu couldn't help but laugh and greet him.

"Mr. Cohen, you are here!"

Since the last time, the boat brought by Lu Feili shined in the battle at the Yangtze River Estuary, Fushe's attitude towards these "barbarians" has taken a 180-degree turn. In the Northern Ming Dynasty, the most popular mistreats were the British who cooperated with Mao Jue to run the East India Company. In the Southern Ming Dynasty, they were the Dutch people. Now Wenzhou only retains one overseas business path, which is Batavia. A large number of Dutch people also got the opportunity to preach and do business under the political protection of Fushe.

But there is no love in the world for no reason. Beiming is close to the British because Mao Jue wants to use the British to exert influence in Western Europe. The Netherlands is fully supporting Nan Ming, and also wants to establish a strong enemy for Beiming. At last year's shareholder meeting of the Dutch East India Company, Cohen raised an extremely important issue.

"The Chinese are smart, strong, hardworking and willing to work hard. God gave them all their strengths, but they left a fatal weakness. The Chinese are too good at infighting!"

"Once the Nanming is supported, those greedy and greedy landlords of the aristocratic family will probably be the first to yell at the terrifying lion in the north. At that time, it will be their Dutch's chance!"

Use India to attract the attention of Beiming. When the two empires went to war, the interests of the French, Spanish and Portuguese were inevitably caught in, almost allowing Beiming to make enemies in the entire Western Europe. Even the Southern Ming did not need to fight fiercely with Beiming. As long as a few ceded ports were brought back, it would be enough to severely hit the overseas forces of Beiming. Once the Ming Dynasty contracted, the Dutch East India Company could eat the vacant benefits in one bite!

Looking at the flintlock rifle in Zhang Pu's hand, Coen's slightly blurry eyes first showed a sense of jealousy, but then he greeted him happily.

"The most knowledgeable lord of the Ming Dynasty, it seems that you are using new weapons well!"

"The ignition device is too difficult to build! Such a small thing, the workshop under Wang's family has imitated it for more than half a month, and it has only created ten copies!"

When Zhang Pu mentioned this, a sense of anger and helplessness appeared on his face. However, for a moment, he smiled happily and said, "But through Lord Luo's line, he bought goods from Hangzhou in the name of imported lighter accessories. It won't take long to take my Ming Dynasty muskets to produce energy. At that time, it will be the end of those thieves!"

Zhang Pu was so murderous that when he heard Coen's blurry old eyes, he couldn't help but smile again. The profound oriental etiquette bowed slightly, and Coen said with a big smile.

"The old man wishes the adults a victory in advance!"

"Haha, it's easy to say!!!"
Chapter completed!