On August 25, 1685, on the south bank of the Pearl River, Lan Fei Shang was lying under a big banyan tree to cool off.

Guangdong was so hot in August that it would not be long exposed to the sun. Even the officers and soldiers of the Taiwan Land Battle Battalion, who were well-trained and adapted to the environment, could not stand it, let alone the "Wuling Young People" from the eastern coast capital. These second-generation rich young officials were huddling in the temporary military camp, sticking out their tongues and gasping like dogs. There was no way, and they were tortured by the weather, and they couldn't stand it.

Because of supervising the armistice in Guangdong, the east coast army led by Lieutenant Colonel Lan Fei has been stranded on the south bank of the Pearl River opposite Guangzhou (to not overly stimulate Li Yuanhao) for more than half a year. In the past six months, they occupied Foshan Town south of Guangzhou City, and used this as a base to continuously search for local residents willing to immigrate to the sea to enrich the immigration inventory. At this moment when the civil war in Guangdong was covered with clouds, there were still some people who were willing to immigrate to the sea under the "sweet words" on the east coast. The total number was probably thousands, which was a surprise.

In addition, when 4,000 infantry and artillerymen from the east coast set out from Xiangshan and Macau, although they did not encounter any major obstacles along the way, there were some "stubborn people" who could not recognize the situation and actually gathered people to resist stubbornly, which surprised Colonel Lan Fei and was also a little angry. After these people were defeated and captured, they all kidnapped and sent them to the collective farms under the jurisdiction of the Hei Shui Development Team for labor reform, and then sent them to the local area in batches and received by the Immigration Department.

Even under the pressure of the immigrant gap, Colonel Lan Fei made "expanding" without any psychological pressure, and punished local residents with minor mistakes, and the punishment was to arrest and exile. These small mistakes were ridiculous and even terrifying. For example, who had hooked up with the nearby Li Yuanhao's forces, which seemed to be unfavorable to the East Coast. Regardless of whether there was conclusive evidence or not, they directly arrested the old friends of the whole clan and then loaded them in the north. If someone helped to resist or hide in this process, it would be better. They should be plundered immediately as a party, without any mercy.

Actually, if you think about it carefully, it is normal for them to do things for him, but in the name of mediation and peacekeeping, the people of the East Coast directly sent troops into Guangdong, plundering everywhere, and intimidating the "local legal government". Is this really good? It is true that the people of the East Coast are the invaders of Guangdong! Therefore, the people of the Guangdong are doing business for the "Imperial Army" during the day and then reciprocate at night. Is there any problem?

But the people of the East Coast naturally don't care! They were eager to collect the population, but if there was no reason, they wouldn't be able to do whatever they wanted in Guangdong, "friendly countries", worried about affecting their future business. Now, it's just right to take advantage of the opportunity to mediate the Er Li War and make a lot of money in Guangdong. Even if they look a bit ugly, it doesn't matter. Such opportunities are not often available. I missed this time when I might be going to be next time.

According to incomplete statistics, the East Coast army entered Guangdong for mediation, occupied prosperous places such as Shunde and Foshan, and captured more than 60,000 people (most of them were surrendered soldiers and their families). At the same time, there was a large amount of food, livestock, gold and silver and other commodities, with a total value of no less than 300,000 yuan. If we included the food, grass, pigs, sheep and cash silver that the local wealthy households had to donate, the total amount was probably 600,000 yuan. It was worth the remaining amount of the cost of sending troops this year, which made Colonel Lan Fei very proud, and at the same time he had a new understanding of the wealthy people in Guangdong.

Such a rich place has been occupied by Li Chengdong, an old farmer in Shaanxi for so many years. Based on the current situation, how rich the old Li family in Guangzhou City should be. If you have the chance in the future, you must "see"!

"Capital Commander Lan, you are so intriguing." Just as Lan Fei was slapping the palm-leaf fan while drinking herbal tea to escape the summer heat, a burst of laughter rang out of the door.

Soon, Lu Xiaozhong, wearing a sky blue navy summer uniform, strode in, picked up the herbal tea on the table, and drank it all, and said: "Do you know you are going to work in a bitter and cold place, so you miss the flower world of Guangdong? In fact, it is completely unnecessary. What is there in the jurisdiction of the Hei Shui Management Committee? The whales, volcanoes and geothermal hot springs in Heixiazi Port, salmon, moose and seals in Sakhalin Island, horse galloping in Hokkien, and the intoxicating scenery of the Kuril Islands dancing with bears, are all enviable. Ah, by the way, the summer there is not so hot, it is a good place to escape the summer, the environment is beautiful, and even the harsh winter can be skating and skiing. Don't be too comfortable."

"I still remember the holiday I spent when I went north to report my work at the headquarters. It was really memorable." Lu Xiaozhong pulled a chair and sat down under the shade of the tree opposite Lan Fei. While tasting tea, he said with a smile: "My friend and I were fishing in Dabo Bay. There were surprisingly many flounders there. We even got sea urchins. The real 'first minute' sea urchins were sprinkled with lemon juice. It tasted great. By the way, there were many seals, sea lions, and sea dogs there. They couldn't even be driven away. They were so stupid that they were all moving wallets, haha."

"I also went to Heixiazi Port to deliver supplies a few years ago. The Qing army prisoners who were exiled and intermarried with local natives and established a city of considerable size. In recent years, some normal immigrants have passed, and the whole city has become more and more outstanding. More importantly, it is not cold, not cold at all, and it is still a port of non-freezing all year round. I remember that time we went to a submissive native tribe to visit and swim in a wilderness hot lake. It was a big winter, haha. Later, we had dinner with a group of reindeer and dogs (huskys) on the shore. It was a novel experience, and I still miss it very much." Lu Xiaozhong continued.

"You are very good at this state, a businessman who runs a ship flight or hotel." Lan Fei glanced at Lu Xiaozhong and teased: "It's a pity that our country has not developed tourism as a pillar industry. Therefore, your personal experiences are of little use. Of course, as the incoming director of the Black Water Management Committee, I will of course travel to every piece of land in my jurisdiction during my term of office. I will inspect everything to ensure that there are no omissions."

"Of course-" Lan Fei raised his voice and finally said with a smile: "I will try the halibut, salmon, cod, king crab, sea urchin, sea cucumber and so on you recommend. After all, this is one of the work content. The Hei Shui area has endless resources, not only mineral resources (coal, gold), forest resources, but also rich animal resources, especially the rich local seafood. It can be said that it is sold at home and abroad. When I was in Yantai, I heard that every child in Denglai grew up eating dried salted fish, which is already very telling. Moreover, the potential of the Hei Shui area has not yet been realized. I heard that the whaling industry has been developing for so many years, but it is still the same as before, with low yields. How can this be done? The leather industry is the same. It is unreasonable to be satisfied with the current low level, and it is also necessary to change it."

"You are fat, you are still breathing, haha." Major Lu Xiaozhong, who is said to be promoted to the commander of the Okhotsk Sea Squadron of the Third Fleet, immediately said with a smile. Once Lu Xiaozhong becomes the chief officer of the Okhotsk Sea Fleet, he will automatically enter the Blackwater Management Committee and be ranked fifth, and he is also one of the local leaders.

Although Lan Fei did not know some of the movements within the navy, he saw the retirement of the old navy guys in the Far East and the local people who returned to the local people, and there were only a few people with some abilities and fame among the younger generation, so he knew it. Therefore, he was willing to accompany Lu Xiaozhong here for a while, just to think that it was for communication in advance for future work.

"By the way, how should the mess in Guangdong end now?" After joking, Lu Xiaozhong asked about the important matters of the trip. He had just returned from Fujian and went through hard work. Finally, he agreed with Zheng Jing to withdraw from the chaos in Guangdong. In exchange, the people of the East Coast need to fully support the Zheng family's development career in the senior official (Taiwan), provide tools, medicines, tents, cloth, daily necessities and even weapons and ammunition at preferential prices, and help the Zheng family block the pressure that may face in diplomacy. In addition, the Zheng family wants to join the Shandan trade where the people of the East Coast are doing, and hope that the people of the East Coast can provide some help.

In fact, the second one is easy to say. After all, people from the East Coast often need to get goods from Fujian (raw silk, tea and sugarcane). They rely on the Zheng family, so it is not impossible to bring them into the Shandan trade business circle. Everyone sit down and have a good talk. They should be able to talk together. The only difference is how big it is to take you to play.

But the first article fully supports the Zheng family's development on Taiwan Island, so we need to be cautious. You should know that as the East Coast people take more and more goods from the Dutch (mainly spices, rice, sugar and other tropical commodities), the amount is getting bigger and bigger, Formosa Island, which can stably provide a large amount of rice, sugar and leather to the East India Company, its status is really becoming more and more important. If we include the re-export trade between the Zheng family in Fujian and Japan through this island, and the smuggling trade between wars and local governments in Guangdong, the profit provided by this island to the East India Company once accounted for nearly one-third, which was very amazing.

To be honest, one-third of the profit ratio is enough to do anything for Batavia. Anyone who dares to threaten this part of their interests will cause their crazy blows unless you can prove that you can bring more benefits to them; or simply prove that you are better than them and can easily knock them down and cause them to suffer greater unbearable losses.

The previous development of the Zheng family in the northern part of Taiwan Island has already made them unhappy! If they had not received a large amount of Wuyi green tea, raw silk, porcelain and other commodities from the Zheng family every year to export to Japan, Vietnam or European markets, they would have turned against Zheng Jing long ago, so how could they have been delayed until now! Of course, perhaps the support of the East Coast people, whether open or secretly, is one of the important reasons why the Dutch dared to take action. The interest binding between the East India Company and the Taiwan Bank is really too deep. It can be said that it is a typical example of the combination of two benefits and the division of two defeats. No party can easily make up their minds to turn against each other. Therefore, as long as the activities of Zheng Jing's subordinates are limited to the northern part of the Holmosa Island (which was a Spanish colony many years ago, and was not well managed and had little interests), and did not seriously threaten the Dutch East India Company's rule in the core area of ​​the southern island, then they would continue to endure and not make any excessive reactions.

But what does the Zheng family want to do now? It is obvious that they have lost interest in developing in the northern part of the wild and dangerous Dayuan Island at a huge cost. Now, they want to develop further south because the further south, the higher the development level, the more population, and the higher the environmental improvement, which is indeed more attractive.

Zheng Jing is now mostly focused on managing the basic Fujian market, and developing Dayuan Island is just a way out. At this stage, he has no motivation to invest much resources into it, which is unrealistic. Therefore, it is better to concentrate resources and focus on developing the central and southern regions close to the Dutch-ruled region, which has a better environment and easier access to benefits. As for the threat from the Dutch? Isn’t it necessary for you, the Eastern people to come forward to mediate!

When Lu Xiaozhong talked about this situation to Colonel Lan Fei, both of them were hesitant. Why are there so many troubles in Zheng Jing? Supporting you to expand on the entire island of Taiwan, don’t you know how much the cost and risk it will cost? One bad thing is a war. Can your Zheng family afford it? If the Dutch fights against you, I am afraid that a pound of tea will not be sold to Japan. Is it fun?

If the East Coast people are dead, they will help you prepare more things that are necessary for tropical pioneering. In addition, they will be helpless. If you want to tease the Dutch, the East Coast side is supportive in their hearts, but they will not give too much obvious assistance in their actions. At most, they will sell some weapons. But now Zheng Jing clearly wants the East Coast people to come forward and escort their pioneering career on Taiwan Island. The cost to be paid is high. They cannot be decided by the two of them. They must discuss it with the other people and then make a collective decision.

"Is Zheng Jing a little too arrogant now?" Lan Fei put the teacup on the tea table, then stood up, took two steps, and said, "Where did he get the confidence? Do he think he was holding our shortcomings? Now the war between the two Li has basically subsided, and the possibility of a resurgence in the short term is not high. Even if he attacks Chaozhou Prefecture, do he really think that the situation can be reversed? In my opinion, the Li Yuanhao in Guangzhou is already out of his courage. He dares not fight against us at all. Even if Zheng Jing's envoy came to Guangzhou to speak sweet words, I can't tell anyone that Li Yuanhao will restart the war again. Therefore, the Zheng family is too high to take its own energy!"

"But the Zheng family is also a rare force that we can see through. It still has a certain effect on balancing the situation on the mainland. You can't kill it with one stick." Lu Xiaozhong also stood up and said with a smile: "Some dirty and wet work are still needed to rely on the Zheng family to do it in the future. Let's discuss it with Denglai and Ning Shao first, and then have a conclusion. I heard that the Southern Development Team is planning a trade strategy for the southward advance. Because of insufficient strength, they intend to pull the Zheng family to do it together. It is hard to say what their attitude is. Let's wait patiently first."

After hearing Lu Xiaozhong mention the so-called trade strategy for southward entry, Lan Fei nodded slightly and agreed to his opinion. In fact, the main operators of this southward entry are Taiwan Bank and Haizhu Island Merchant Station, that is, they go south to enter the sphere of influence of non-Dutch East India companies including Indochina Peninsula, the Philippines, Timor Island and other non-Dutch East India companies, launch trade and many cooperation to obtain commercial benefits.

This strategy has actually been planned for some years, but it has not been implemented. This time, it happened to be a peace talks with the Qing court, and it was obvious that there would be no major war in the next ten years. Therefore, the Southern Development Team and the Taiwan Bank also began some other attempts. This Southward trade is obviously one of the attempts.
Chapter completed!