On May 5, 1691, a large cargo ship was sailing on the east ocean.

This is a 1,200-ton large fly-slipper cargo ship that was eliminated from the local area. It is affiliated to the Ministry of Immigration and can be used to transport cargo or personnel. Once, after sailing from South Africa to Dinghai Port, it was sold to the Bank of Taiwan as agreed in advance, becoming one of the largest tonnage ships under the company.

In fact, Taiwan Bank did not intend to buy this ship, mainly because the ship had a long service life, its hull was relatively dilapidated, and it was even more so after voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. However, there was no way, the capacity in the Far East is now in short supply. North Korea's grain, coal from Sakhalin Island, wood from Manchuria, building materials from Den Lai, etc. are all bulk materials, and the transportation volume is increasing year by year.

In the past few years, due to peace with the Qing Dynasty, the transportation capacity of the East Coast government or private companies (mainly Taiwan banks) was greatly improved, and a large number of ships were liberated from the expropriation state and could engage in various types of civilian transportation. In that era, sea freight rates fell and then fell, and merchants doing overseas trade were smiling.

However, the speed of economic development is also amazing. Especially after the economy of North Korea, Japan, Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang has been more deeply integrated, the transportation volume of various materials has increased year by year, gradually swallowing up the original redundancy of transportation capacity and pushing up the price of freight.

Taking Ningshao area as an example, with more and more manufacturers using steam power, the consumption of coal is also increasing day by day. Taiwan Banks have seen business opportunities and increased their efforts to transport coal from Sakhalin Island, and have obtained a lot of profits from it. Large-tonnage ships are undoubtedly the first choice for transporting bulk materials such as coal. This explains the reason why they bought the old ships of the Immigration Department and did not hesitate to do overhaul for them to prolong their life. The market is really booming.

Today, this large cargo ship set sail from the Blackwater Port on Sakhalin Island. On the way, it stopped at Ishimatsu Port of Sendai Fan, Japan, unloaded some war horses, armor, saddles, sabers, muskets and other things, and then installed some Japanese seafood, screens, folding fans, samurai swords, and copper pieces. It set sail directly towards Dinghai Port along the northeast wind.

Dinghai is the largest consumer goods market in Ningshao area and is also a large light industrial product production base. The coal, wood, medicinal materials, fur, mountain and Japanese specialties loaded by cargo ships were sold here for a good price. At the same time, it loaded many textiles and re-exported goods from neighboring areas set sail and headed to Mawei Port, Fujian.

Zheng Kezang's status in Fujian is now basically as stable as Mount Tai. The execution of Feng Xifan, Liu Guoxuan and his followers greatly shocked the officials in Fujian Province who had some opinions on his succession. Now they are all in a proper manner. No matter what strange thoughts, they will spend this time in a low-key manner.

Under the advice of the East Coast military adviser, Zheng Kezang comprehensively reformed the military system and eliminated most of the army officers and soldiers who were scattered or had insufficient skills, retaining only 30,000 elite troops and forming three divisions. Zheng Kezang appointed division commanders one by one, intending to use these three divisions as seeds to reorganize at least 60,000 troops.

Of course, the East Coast Consultant is not optimistic about his idea. If the 60,000 army is in accordance with the current configuration of the new army, Fujian's finance will not be able to bear it. Even if they have obtained a lot of money through overseas trade, this is still impossible. You must know that Fujian still has a navy of equal size!

To be honest, Fujian's navy has been shrinking for many years. This is actually easy to understand. In Zheng Zhilong's era, there was no large base on the land, and land defense expenditure was very small, and most of the funds were spent on the navy. But after all, the situation was very different! To the west was Jiangxi, the core province of Shunguo, and there were a long border between the two provinces, and there were many soldiers and horses to be stationed; to the south, they once fought with the Li family in Guangdong for Chaozhou Prefecture. Now, although Chaozhou has been Li Yuanyin, as long as the Zheng family did not give up its ambition to invade Chaozhou for a day, it would be necessary to station a large number of soldiers and horses here and prepare a lot of war materials; their only relatively peaceful border is probably the place where the northern border with King Lu, which is basically very loose, with few soldiers and horses, with only more than 3,000 people.

Therefore, the Fujian regime's onshore defense pressure is very large and the expenses are also very large. It has to compress the naval expenses. Of course, it is inaccurate to say that the Navy's expenditure is compressed. After all, the funds of the Fujian Navy have not decreased significantly in terms of the absolute amount, but the problem is that the proportion has been greatly reduced, and now after regularization, the expenditure has also increased sharply.

For example, the Fujian Navy in Zheng Zhilong's era used a few professional officers and soldiers as the backbone, supplemented by a large number of fishermen. These fishermen usually farmed and fished at home for a living, which did not require Zheng to pay any fees. They were recruited during the war and carried their own ships to gather at designated locations. The core professional officers and soldiers of Zheng's family distributed weapons and equipment to command them to fight, and only then would incur expenses. In addition, there were many small and medium-sized pirate organizations at that time. They also managed themselves on their own during the war and might follow Zheng Zhilong to fight, but this part of the expenses were not heavy.

After Zheng took over the whole province of Fujian, he began to formalize, so everything would be different. The number of professional officers and soldiers of the Fujian Navy increased greatly, and the maintenance cost naturally increased greatly. Therefore, although the scale of the Fujian Navy has been reduced too much compared to before, its expenditure has not decreased, but its proportion of military expenditure has been reduced a lot.

The Fujian Navy has also undergone reforms. After Liu Guoxuan, the first navy, was confiscated and exterminated the clan, Zheng Kezang, at the suggestion of an advisor to the East Coast, organized the Quanmin Navy into two parts, namely the sea defense fleet dominated by small boats, non-professional warships and miscellaneous ships. A Zheng clan member served as the fleet admiral; in addition, the warships purchased from the east coast and the warships he imitated were formed into the ocean fleet. Zheng Kezang appointed Huang Youcai, an officer who had learned warship driving and artillery skills on Sakhalin Island, as the admiral of the Ocean Fleet.

Huang Youcai is in his thirties and has a little bit of qualifications. He doesn't seem to be suitable for being the top leader of the Ocean Fleet. However, because this person has been learning the new generation of naval technology and tactics in Sakhalin Island for many years, he also participated in the supervision of the Fujian Navy's first modern warship (a 250-ton armed transport ship of the "Yaksa" class), and then helped to imitate the warship at the Mawei Shipyard. His strength was outstanding in all aspects because he was appointed as the admiral of the Ocean Fleet and officially took charge of the elite of the Fujian Navy.

Of course, Zheng Kezang is not a three-year-old child. He also doubted whether Huang Youcai was already controlled by the East Coast. Therefore, he also sent two mature and loyal generals to him to serve as deputy admiral. They were not in charge of daily training, except for combat, but had a great say in logistics and personnel. At the same time, they also formed cliques and did not allow the navy to become a god, so as not to be taken away by Huang Youcai alone.

Of course, this will lead to problems with the navy's combat effectiveness, but for the sake of the superiors, it can only be like this. There is no nationalism or nationalism in this era, and the cohesion of the people is not very strong. It is actually indifferent to whoever comes to be an emperor. Therefore, controlling the army must use the skills of power. The more capable Huang Youcai is and the greater his ability, the more he needs to restrain himself, and the more he needs to pull him back. In this way, Zheng Kezang can sleep at night. After all, Liu Guoxuan's knowledge is not far away, so he doesn't want another Liu Guoxuan to appear in the navy.

This large east coast cargo ship full of all kinds of goods met a "Yaksa" class modeled by the Fujian Navy outside the Minjiang River. Because the flag of the east coast was flying, this warship belonging to the Ocean Fleet did not express any statement. Of course, this matter was not under their control. The coastal defense fleet was the main owner.

The large cargo ships encountered no trouble when entering Mawei Port. They unloaded a large amount of metal products, weapons and equipment in the port, and then loaded a lot of tea, sugar and other agricultural products, intending to go south to Chaozhou and Guangzhou in two days.

Chaozhou General Li Yuanyin now has only one mansion. After the East Coast people made a promise of safety, they are now focusing on developing the economy, special agricultural products, and traditional handicraft workshops. The East Coast also cooperated and bought a lot of goods here to sell them within their own sphere of influence, allowing him to share the benefits of this economic circle of tens of millions of people.

Li Yuanyin has basically accepted this pattern. With his current situation, it is impossible to expand in Guangdong, so it is better to settle for the second best, maintain his current position and vigorously develop the economy. And when his money is similar to his family, even if Chaozhou is occupied by others, he can still go to the east coast to become a rich man without having to die as he used to be.

Compared with Li Yuanyin, Li Yuanhao, the owner of most parts of Guangdong, was very confused. He controlled the most important Guang and Hui governments in Guangdong, and at the same time opened trade with foreign countries, which was actually very healthy in finance. However, because he faced huge pressure from Shunguo in the northern mountainous areas, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi were threatened by all parties, so Li Yuanhao had to invest a large amount of financial resources into the new army to resist the enemy.

But Li Yuanhao is actually very clear that his army is not on the same level as the battle-prone Shun Army. Although he spent a lot of money to build up the army, he might be defeated at once. After all, this is not the same as suppressing bandits in Lianzhou and other places. The Shun Army, which is like a wolf and a tiger, is much harder to deal with than those mountain villagers. When this time, when he was jointly dealing with Gaozhou General Qiu Lin, the Lianzhou New Army, which Li Yuanhao once proud of, was not particularly good in performance and did not have the effect of crushing. The reason is probably related to the lack of reliable generals, unless you feel at ease to let the East Coast Military Advisory Group take over the command matter, but this is obviously impossible.

Li Yuanhao is now struggling to continue to invest huge amounts of money in the construction of the Army in recent years. Is it worth spending money like flowing water? With this money, he is better than immigrating to the East Coast. He is definitely a wealthy person. If he runs some industries, he will definitely be a sensational figure in the industry, not better than being a Guangdong Caotou King?

Of course, Li Yuanhao only thought about it occasionally. But Guangdong's huge territory was passed down by his father, and he dared not and could not be defeated at will. What's more, the wealth that Guangdong can provide him now is still very amazing, far more than making money by operating industries on the East Coast, if he does not invest large amounts of taxes in military construction and local expenses.

Li Yuanyin is still reluctant to give up his ancestors' foundation, but he is also pessimistic about Guangdong's future, believing that even with the East Coast providing various help, Shunguo can still easily destroy them. Therefore, he now has a negative attitude towards how good it is to build Guangdong. In addition to not saving much military expenditure, the funds originally used for local economic construction or people's livelihood expenditure were misappropriated by him and deposited them in the East Coast Bank in Ningbo. This is his capital if he runs away in the future.

From this we can see that among the several minor regimes in the south, the most promising and enterprising one was actually the Zheng group in Fujian. At least they were willing to invest a large amount of funds into the navy and army and do their best for the security and future development of their jurisdiction. Of course, the Zheng family understood that once Shunguo sent troops from Jiangxi, they might not be able to resist it, but this was definitely not the reason for them to reduce local administrative expenses and military construction. If that was the case, it would be a complete warlord. Once the warlord regime that lost the public's expectations was defeated militarily, the speed of complete destruction would definitely exceed everyone's imagination.

The East Coast actually has nothing to expect from these four regimes. The military police department has already given a report, believing that even if the East Coast takes action, the probability of destruction is very high. Shunguo is determined to annex the land, and even if he risks being completely blocked by the East Coast. The Zheng family in Fujian can probably withstand it for a while, but in the end, under the impact of the Lu Lion of the Shun army, the land will be completely defeated and then lose most of Fujian.

The last destination of the Zheng family and the Lu king regime in Fujian was probably to retreat to Taiwan and Qiongzhou, two offshore islands, and then survived by the protection of the eastern coast navy. Of course, before this, there must be some struggle. The warlord style of the Republic of China, like Li Yuanhao, who only knows how to make money in the local area but does not build it, is definitely not allowed. The Southern Development Team has decided to send special envoys to Guangzhou in a few days to urge Li Yuanhao to increase local livelihood expenditures (this will involve a series of trade with the eastern coast). At the same time, a large-scale construction was carried out in Nanxiong Prefecture, the old fortress was repaired, and new fortresses were built in some other key throat places, increasing the difficulty of the Shun Army going south.

These unscrupulous regimes will be more valuable even if they perish!

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