On August 20, 1681, the scorching sun was cleared. Shao Shuguang, general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, had just returned from Fujian by boat, while Ma Wenqiang, captain of the Southern Development Team, happened to be in Dinghai County, so he was summoned immediately.

"Zheng Jing hesitated and was vague. I think he was very thoughtful and not very reliable." As soon as he wiped his sweat with a towel, Shao Shuguang shouted: "I saw him in Fuzhou and talked to him several times. From his words, he learned that this person or the entire Zheng group is still very concerned about the situation in Guangdong next door. Fujian and Guangdong provinces have frequent sea and land trade, and there are many exchanges among the people. They inspected spies and bought detailed works, which is naturally very simple, just like us. Compared with Guangdong, they have too many difficulties in establishing an intelligence network in Jiangxi, Shunguo, because the relationship between the two places is not very harmonious and there is less private business exchange."

"In other words, Zheng Jing did not follow our advice and put his ideas on Guangdong?" Ma Wenqiang rubbed his sour temples and asked helplessly and dissatisfiedly.

"Yes." Shao Shuguang drank a cup of herbal tea, and then sighed: "Zheng Jing said that the Taipei Prefecture (under the jurisdiction of Taipei and Zhuqian County) he established has only 20,000 to 30,000 people so far, and there are countless people who died of fever. I was really afraid. I felt that this was a bottomless pit and dared not fill in it anymore. I believe that if I had not been reluctant to let go of the foundation that Taipei Prefecture had developed, Zheng Jing would have given up this place and focused on Fujian and Guangdong."

In fact, from the perspective of Zheng Jing, it is a normal strategy to give up Taipei Prefecture or not invest a lot of resources here. After reclaiming land in Taiwan for so many years, the Zheng family has some understanding of this island, and is deeply touched by its serious threat of malaria. They know that if they want to develop it, they will have to pay a huge price and sacrifice. Moreover, even if they are willing to sacrifice this large amount of life, they can only get half of the island, and the southern half can still be controlled by the Dutch.

The Dutch East India Company is not a good deal!

This huge colonial enterprise has huge colonies in the Indian subcontinent, the East Indies and other places. It has established a huge commercial network in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific. It has strong financial resources, numerous ships, and troops all over the country. To be honest, the Fujian military and political group under the jurisdiction of the Zheng family can only show off its might in this near-shore area. If you go to a far-reaching deep water area, the Dutch are still not afraid. Of course, there is no need to provoke the Zheng family, because everyone is a businessman, and the kingly way to make peace is to make money.

Faced with such a situation, even if Ma Wenqiang changed to Zheng Jing's position, the decisions he made may be almost the same. Compared with Guangdong and Taiwan, it is not difficult to make a choice as long as he is a normal person. Zheng Jing sent troops south to the border of Guangdong, and in the event of a good opportunity, he would immediately enter Chaozhou to get a bargain. Fujian has many mountains, fewer lands, even fewer people, how can he compare with Guangdong, which has always been prosperous? Even if he only takes one Chaozhou Prefecture, it will be enough for them to digest for a long time. What can Taiwan use to compare with Chaozhou Prefecture? Zheng's family is not so stupid!

Therefore, the East Coast people asked the Zheng family to increase their investment in the Taipei Prefecture's land reclamation army and subsidize those official and private reclamation accounts, so they naturally rejected it. Guangdong is ahead of this piece of fat, who would care about the little profit? Even the East Coast people would not, because this violated the core interests of the Zheng family group and would inevitably lead to fierce conflicts.

"Thank you for your hard work this time." Ma Wenqiang nodded and said, "When you go to Fujian at this time, you won't get any good results. However, is Zheng Jing so determined, is he ready to break up with us?"

"I'm afraid that's right." Shao Shuguang pondered for a while, then raised his head and said decisively: "Since that's the case, Captain Ma, we can't be mother-in-law anymore. Hurry up and write Captain Chen of Heishui to let Heishui Shipyard and Kushiro Shipyard stop the Zheng family's ship that had just been launched? Or even if it is built, use it for us first or simply sell it to the North Koreans. We must never let the Zheng family's naval power grow, which may have an impact on our strategy."

"I will take care of this matter." Ma Wenqiang asked the secretary to take care of this matter, then stood up and paced anxiously in the house. After a long time, he asked with a little brainless question: "General Manager Shao, according to you, is the situation in Guangdong really coming to a critical moment? Are you really going to increase troops?"

"I think it is necessary to increase troops, because the situation is really critical. But where is the increase? The Haizhu Island Commercial Station is very small and cannot be implemented. Even if it is currently expanding, it will not be a place to station large troops in the future. Moreover, it is close to the provincial capital. Once tens of thousands of people enter, it is afraid that rumors will not arise and the situation will be turbulent!" Shao Shuguang said with a frown.

"It's okay. I want to send the First Mixed Battalion (to Far East to replace the Seventh Mixed Battalion who has returned) to Haizhu Island as a fast mobile force. Once the situation in Guangdong changes dramatically in the future, this department will be a powerful tool for us to interfere with the situation around Guangzhou." Ma Wenqiang said confidently: "In addition, I plan to transfer the Bogdan Division of the Second Division of the Zhejiang New Army to the south and station it in Macau, waiting for the opportunity."

"Macau?" Shao Shuguang was a little surprised and a little enlightened. Yes, the Portuguese in Macau is really hard-working now. Many people have gone to Timor Island or India. The people who stayed are all relying on the East Coast people to enjoy their meals, that is, they use ships to transport people from the San Francisco Far East and transport supplies. In view of their diligent work, the Haizhu Island Merchant Station sometimes sells some mainland goods to them so that they can transport them to India or even Lisbon for sale to make money. Therefore, the Portuguese in Macau is now quite docile in front of the East Coast. It may be a bit exaggerated to say that it is a servant, but it is not too far away.

Based on this understanding, Shao Shuguang believed that if Ma Wenqiang wanted to station troops in Macau, he might encounter resistance and rebound from the Portuguese, but the degree should not be too serious. Those businessmen are actually easy to pass on. They give the top figures in Macau from their fingers, and then hand over the business of water supply and some material supply to the small and medium-sized merchants in the city. Most of the opposition will probably disappear.

Moreover, there is an additional benefit to stationing troops in Macau, that is, the county magistrate of Xiangshan County next door was secretly controlled and influenced by the East Coast. He has always been helping the East Coast work openly and secretly. In addition, there are many wealthy merchants in the county that have a close relationship with the East Coast. Once the Second Division of the New Army goes to this area, it cannot be considered a guest soldier on the expedition of the Labor Force. It is equivalent to having a logistics base for supplying materials, which is of considerable benefit to future operations.

Therefore, after thinking about this festival, Shao Shuguang did not express any doubts, but he had some questions about sending only one Zhejiang New Army Second Division, and heard him say: "Captain Ma, is it a bit too thin to send only the commander of the New Army Second Division? Only 7,500 people, can it really help big things? Moreover, the first mixed camp is brave, but the number of people is less than 1,500. Is this a little bit of people going straight to Guangzhou? I always feel that once the chaos in Guangdong begins, Li Yuanhao and Li Yuanyin fight, with the core troops, it is likely that it will be a battle of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. It is a bit difficult for us to interfere."

"Our military strength is not very abundant. Isn't there any other troops from the Haizhu Island Merchant Station and the infantry battalion formed by your company? There are more than 2,000 people in total. In addition, the Portuguese in Macau can also think of ways. There are so many unemployed former mercenaries in the city, arming one or two thousand people. I don't think there is any problem at all. This is 12,000 or 3,000 people. I will give them more ammunition and artillery to make them fight hard. Don't consider consumption. You should be able to play a final role at critical moments." Ma Wenqiang sat behind a coffee table, picked up the porcelain cup and took a pleasant sip.

Then he continued, "In addition, Mr. Shao, you have to figure out who our enemy is? It is neither Li Yuanhao nor Li Yuanyin, nor Zheng's family! Do we need to go to war with them? Do we need to fight with them to kill and grab any territory or treasure? No, right? Our goal is that Guangdong will not fall into a chaotic situation. At least, the essence of Guangzhou and Huizhou cannot be severely poisoned, and the provincial capital Guangzhou City must be in a state of peace! Based on this consideration, think about it again, do we need to beat all of them as enemies? Even if we want to do this, we don't have the ability!"

After hearing what Ma Wenqiang said, Shao Shuguang understood it immediately. After all, he had not served in the top government and had always operated a relatively simple Taiwan bank. Therefore, he reacted a little slowly to such things involving complex political and military situations. Therefore, after listening to Ma Wenqiang's analysis, he immediately understood what he meant: Ma Wenqiang was only considering relying on more than 10,000 relatively elite troops to control the situation in the rich and elite areas in the Pearl River Estuary.

That is, he would not be poisoned by the riots like wolves and tigers. Even if this could not be done, he would directly conceal the surrounding area of ​​Guangzhou to prevent this land that had collected the essence of Guangdong from war. As for whether this move would be protested by Li Yuanhao, it was not something Shao Shuguang could know. In his opinion, with Bogdan's fierce and irritable temperament, if Li Yuanhao dared to grin, he might really dare to go to war with him, and that would be a good deal for Li Yuanyin from Chaozhou.

People on the east coast were sitting in the mountains and watching the tiger fight in Guangzhou, obviously hoping to see what the situation of Guangdong's "Duke Huiguo's Inheritance War" was like a second Li of Guangdong, and then make the next decision. At the same time, they would also closely monitor the military leaders in western Guangdong that were slowly divided by the Ming court and attracted the past to see if they had any signs of entering eastern Guangdong. If so, they might as well send out some movements to fight back these warlords with relatively weak forces, so that they would not cause trouble and harm the local area.

However, there are not many ways to deal with the Zheng family in Fujian. Unlike the Lu king regime, the Zheng family in Fujian has a weak dependence on the east coast. Although they import weapons, military funds and ships on the east coast all year round, this is not necessary. If it really doesn't work, they can also produce part of their own. At the same time, they maintain close trade relations with the British, Dutch and Portuguese. Even the merchants under their control also trade on the Spanish territory in Luzon. They can import these foreign goods to get rid of their dependence on the East coast. Therefore, this is why they have strong independence.

Zheng Jing is the biggest variable in the chaos in Guangdong this time. The people of the East Coast must devote considerable energy to pay attention to their every move. Although most of them must see the direction of the situation before taking action, it is also a big trouble for the people of the East Coast and must be dealt with. However, Shao Shuguang's trip to Fuzhou obviously did not achieve any substantial results. Zheng Jing kept beating without any concealment of his intention. This time, it can be considered a failure.

"But for us, it is better not to break out of the so-called succession war in Guangdong. So, General Manager Shao, I think you should go there again, but it is not Fuzhou, not Guangzhou, nor Taiwan, but Chaozhou. Yes, that's right, just go to meet Li Yuanyin himself. Speaking of which, he is also our old acquaintance. I'm not at ease with others. You should work harder and go there. In two days, I will have someone to give you my handwritten letter to you, you will take it to Chaozhou and hand it over to Li Yuanyin, tell him the current situation and tell him not to act rashly. Chaozhou Prefecture has ten counties and a large population. Isn't it easy to be a king and dominate the country in separatist? If you lead your army to the south, I'm afraid that the Fujianese in Zhangzhou and Tingzhou will be killed.

Come here, the soldiers are not willing to fight when the back road is broken, wouldn't they sit on the wax?" Ma Wenqiang waved his right arm and raised his voice and said, "Tell him that Zheng Jing is not kind-hearted. He is afraid that he will openly tell him to challenge Li Yuanhao and help him enter Guangzhou City. He secretly stared at Chaozhou Prefecture and drooled, telling him not to be fooled. In addition, after going to Li Yuanyin's place, if possible, can he go to Guangzhou again and meet Li Yuanhao? I'm afraid that Zheng would give them some ** soup and invite him to attack Li Yuanyin in Chaozhou, which will eventually lead to the wolf entering the house. That would be too unwise. Well, General Manager Shao, don't be busy first. It's time to go there in a few days. Let's have a good rest first. I have to prepare here, and I may also send some people to you at that time."
Chapter completed!