Chapter 832 Cautious Xu Xinsu

Shi Diwen thought to himself, we just want to sell weapons to the north now, but we are just worried that they will fall into the hands of pirates, so we are not doing it yet. However, it is not convenient to say this clearly for the time being. He pondered for a while before asking again: "As you say,

, in addition to pirates, there are also officials who collude with pirates, so it’s hard for us to attack! Isn’t there anyone who can be exploited? "

"It depends on what effect you want to achieve." Xu Yuzhuo explained: "If you just want to clear the local sea area and scare Xiaoxiao, it is actually very simple. Just send troops to fight all the way, and no one can stop you.

.But if you want to get the approval of the Zhejiang government and do business there in the future, it will be more troublesome. Because there are too many people involved, and if you want to get rid of the local pirates, you will definitely hurt the interests of some people and recruit people.

Jealousy and resentment are inevitable.”

Shi Diwen said: "General Xu means that high-level officials from the local government are involved?"

Xu Yuzhuo hesitated for a moment and then nodded, acquiescing to Shi Diwen's statement. For local powerful people, pirates are a very useful tool. All the work that cannot be done on the table can be left to pirates.

, and I only need to control the situation behind the scenes and collect money on time. Occasionally, there are a few unsociable officials who will be quickly taken away by the superiors and the subordinates, and they will definitely not stay there long.

Shi Diwen said: "Then we should settle for the next best thing. We don't need big people, just small people who are worthy of support. Please don't worry about it, General Xu. When we approached Master Xu to cooperate, it wasn't because we liked him at that time."

It’s just that we think he can be trusted and worthy of our investment in supporting him. As long as there is a suitable candidate, we can replicate this process in Zhejiang.”

When Haihan first contacted Xu Xinsu, he was just a low-level officer who had just spent several thousand taels of silver to buy a general military position in the Fujian Navy. If Haihan hadn't put in a lot of effort to support him, he would have been there long ago.

In 1628, he had already been killed by Shiba Zhi on the battlefield, and there would have been no chance of him climbing all the way up to the rank of general in Fujian. Xu Xinsu had the status and power he has today, which was indeed largely due to his success.

Yu Haihan has been providing continuous military assistance for several years. The people of Haihan know this, and the people of the Xu family also know it.

Shi Diwen used Xu Xinsu as an example, which is indeed very convincing. Since Haihan has the ability to lift a navy commander all the way to the position of commander-in-chief of a province, then of course he can also try to support a commander in Zhejiang.

Or a few local spokespersons. The big shots may be unwilling to cooperate with Haihan because of various inseparable interests or favors, but the people below may not all be of the same mind. There will always be some who have ambitions or other intentions.

Taking risks to fight for the upper hand. What Haihan needs now is to find a support object like this.

Xu Yuzhuo said: "I am only responsible for military affairs, and I don't know much about the official news in Zhejiang. It would be really difficult for me to recommend candidates!"

Seeing the disappointment on Shi Diwen's face, Xu Yuzhuo quickly added: "However, my father has a dedicated person in charge of this matter, and there are definitely candidates. However, the matter still needs to be reported to my father for him to make a decision.

"

"Of course it should be. Mr. Xu has made up his mind. It's easy for us errands to do things!" Shi Diwen nodded and responded. Haihan's plan to attack Zhejiang would have been communicated with Xu Xinsu. The reason why he first

When I came to see Xu Yuzhuo, I also wanted to explore the attitude of the Fujian military first. Since Xu Yuzhuo had already put forward the conditions for a share of the pie on behalf of his family, the subsequent details could be communicated and discussed bit by bit.

When Shi Diwen listened to Xu Yuzhuo's detailed description of the various situations in Zhejiang, he had actually thought that his family, or the Fujian military, must have secret intelligence agencies conducting relevant operations, but he lacked a chance to collect them.

Use the intelligence information. Maybe the Xu family has secretly trained some people in Zhejiang, but the time has not come yet and they dare not make it public easily, or they themselves have not thought about how to act locally to provide benefits to Fujian.

Strive for benefits.

Although this matter ultimately depends on Xu Xinsu's attitude, Shi Diwen is not worried about it. He had dealt with Xu Xinsu two years ago and can feel the ambition that cannot be hidden in the other party. If there is an opportunity to extend his power to

With the expansion of surrounding provinces, he believed that Xu Xinsu would not miss such an opportunity. Moreover, it was Haihan who proposed it this time. Xu Xinsu did not need to come forward directly. He only needed the appropriate cooperation from the Fujian military.

Now that the general direction has been agreed upon, Shi Diwen is not in a hurry. However, Xu Yuzhuo does not want to waste time, so he edits a letter in front of Shi Diwen and then asks someone to send it back to Zhangzhou immediately. Xu Yuzhuo thought that Shi Diwen would be gone after arriving in Penghu.

He turned to Zhangzhou without stopping. It was obvious that Haihan was quite anxious about this matter. Shi Diwen didn't say anything, but he couldn't pretend not to understand.

The waterway from Zhongzuo to Zhangzhou City is less than a hundred miles. The messenger sent by Xu Yuzhuo set off by boat and arrived at the dock outside Zhangzhou City at dawn the next day. After getting off the boat, there was no delay at all and he directly used the token to call the dock.

There was a carriage specially used for emergency matters. There was no need to check it when it arrived at the city gate. The defenders at the city gate opened the city gate to let the carriage go. When Xu Xinsu got up early in the morning and went to the yard to exercise, the messenger delivered Xu Yuzhuo's letter.

"Haihan people finally couldn't hold it any longer!" Xu Xinsu returned to the study and read the letter, feeling very good for a while.

As an official, Xu Xinsu had no choice but to go to the capital if he wanted to be promoted. However, he did not intend to let go of his career in Fujian and become a clay Buddha in the Ministry of War, so in the past year, someone from the Ministry of War sent a letter to solicit him.

He argued that his body was not adapted to the northern climate and he did not want to be transferred to the north. After all, here in Fujian he could be as obedient as he was and earned millions of dollars through various trades every year.

Everything can be achieved, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a local emperor.

However, the current scale of the Xu family's maritime trade is far from reaching Xu Xinsu's own goal. He believes that his family's maritime trade business seems to be prosperous, but in fact it is extremely restricted, except for Hainan Island, which is directly controlled by seafarers.

In addition, the trade environment in neighboring areas to the south and north is not ideal.

The vast majority of sea trade in Guangdong is controlled by the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce headed by "Fu Ruifeng". Although the business firm under Xu's name is also one of the thirteen shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa", it is closely related to the large merchants in Guangdong.

It can be considered a friendship of colleagues, but Xu's sea trade business in Guangdong is still subject to many restrictions. Of course, there is nothing to say about this. Guangdong merchants must also abide by the various rules set by Xu when they arrive in Fujian.

Just each other.

As for the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas in the north, the situation is even far worse than that of Guangdong. At least the competition in Guangdong is fierce, but with Haihan presiding over the situation, the maritime merchants of Fujian and Guangzhou will never be divided because of competition. On the contrary,

There are many opportunities for cooperation and investment. However, it is much more difficult to get involved in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. You have to be on guard at all times, and you might one day be taken advantage of by pirates.

The situation in the south is actually not bad. Xu Xinsu's current main trading partner is Haihan. The direct route from Fujian to Hainan is similar to that to Manila City in Luzon Island in the past. The trade volume with Haihan is at least as high as that with the Spanish in the past.

More than ten times. At the same time, with the help of Hainan Island as a trade transfer station, Xu Xinsu was able to open up trade channels from Fujian to Annan, Champa and other Indo-China Peninsula regions. The trade volume has increased many times compared to a few years ago.

In addition to the daily need to be careful in the north, Xu Xinsu's biggest headache is actually that the route to the north is blocked at this location. The Haihan people have occupied Taiwan Island, and a large number of immigrants are needed to move into the local area for development. This is Xu Xinsu's problem.

I am very interested in participating. However, the cost of recruiting immigrants from Fujian is too high. It is far less cost-effective than shipping cheap refugees from the Central Plains back from the north one by one. The more people are transported back, the more cultivation will be done on the island of Taiwan.

The faster the development progress of the park can be. However, the Zhoushan Islands are stuck in the middle of the shipping route, which greatly increases the cost of population transportation and the navigation risks of the fleet, which makes Xu Xinsu feel a lot of resentment.

News came back from Penghu a few days ago that after the Haihan people opened a port in southern Taiwan, they went to war non-stop with the Folangji people who occupied the north. In less than twenty days, they had completely driven out the Folangji people.

Taiwan Island, which means that this large island, which is about one-third the size of Fujian, has completely fallen under the control of Haihan.

Xu Xinsu still had some idea of ​​why the Haihan people wanted to capture Taiwan Island. More than two years ago, the Haihan people had implicitly expressed their interest in Taiwan Island to him. At that time, Xu Xinsu wanted to take over Taiwan Island as soon as possible.

Bazhi was expelled from the Fujian Strait. For this reason, even Penghu could be handed over to Haihan, not to mention Taiwan Island, which was not under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Haihan people wanted to take over this wild island, except for planting.

Outside the park, they must also intend to use it as a springboard to expand their sphere of influence eastward and northward. In recent months, the Haihan people first went south to build a port in the Kaohsiung enclosure, and then went north to expel the Folangji people. This series of actions is obviously

The plan is to bring Taiwan Island and its surrounding waters under its own control, and then continue to expand outward in this way.

The Haihan people wanted to expand their sphere of influence northward, which was also one of Xu Xinsu's goals. The interests of both parties coincided. Xu Xinsu was actually waiting for Haihan to take the initiative to discuss this matter with him, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly.

"Send the order to go to sea today and inspect the Zhongzuo Station!" Xu Xinsu made a decision quickly. He knew how much information his son had mastered, and Xu Yuzhuo was definitely unable to discuss the specific operational details with the Haihan people.

, he, the person in charge, must come forward to talk to the Haihan people in detail. Shi Diwen came to Fujian twice last year, and Xu Xinsu met with him both times, and he also knew that Shi Diwen's status in the Haihan Army was not low.

, I took the initiative to go from Zhangzhou to see him, which was not a loss of status.

Xu Xinsu's inspection out of the city would not be as simple and convenient as Xu Yuzhuo's sending a messenger. Just preparing his guard of honor, gathering his entourage and private guards, and mobilizing relevant ships took more than an hour, and this was already considered an extremely fast move.

It's time. By the time Xu Xinsu left the city and boarded the ship, it was almost noon. Although the fleet he was patrolling was not too large, it still had six ships. The flagship was an exploration-class warship purchased from Haihan.

There were also three blessing ships, a troop ship and a supply and rescue ship. The sailors, soldiers and accompanying personnel totaled about 400 people.

However, the fleet went out to sea by going downstream, and the journey was much faster than when the messenger came. When the sun set that day, the outline of Gulangyu Island could already be seen by the ship at the front.

Shi Diwen didn't expect that Xu Xinsu would come so quickly. After talking to Xu Yuzhuo yesterday, the official rushed over today. This efficiency is indeed much higher than that of Ming Dynasty bureaucrats in this era. At the same time, it can be seen that Xu Xinsu has a deep love for Hai.

I am very interested in the suggestions made by Han, which can be regarded as good news.

Xu Xinsu is a very pragmatic person. After arriving at the official residence in the city, he only asked the kitchen to prepare a table of simple wine and food, and asked all the servants to retreat, leaving only the Xu family father and son and Shi Diwen. After sitting down, Xu Xinsu and Shi Diwen exchanged views.

After a round of toasts, he took the initiative to bring up the topic: "General Shi, if my understanding is correct, Haihan's preparation to go north this time is the intention of the Executive Committee, right?"

Xu Xinsu can be regarded as a Ming official who has a deep understanding of Haihan's power system. He knows that Haihan's highest authority is the Executive Committee. Now that he wants to take serious action with Zhejiang, he must confirm that this is indeed from the Haihan Executive Committee.

The decision was made by the Haihan military rather than by the Haihan military.

"Don't worry, Mr. Xu, the things I came to discuss with you this time are all discussed and approved by the executive committee." Shi Diwen calmly took out a document and put it in front of Xu Xinsu.

: "This is the authorization letter from the Executive Committee. Please take a look at it, Sir."

Xu Xinsu picked it up and scanned the contents. When she saw that the signature was stamped with Haihan's unique round carrot seal, she said with a smile: "It's a serious matter, so we must be cautious. Please forgive me, General Shi."

"Master Xu is mature and prudent, so he should check the authorization letter." Shi Diwen thought to himself. Fortunately, Yan Chujie was more cautious before setting off from Sanya, and went to the executive committee to get an authorization letter. He was afraid that Xu Xinsu, an old fox, would be suspicious.

, it really came in handy here.

Xu Xinsu said: "It's not that I'm suspicious and can't trust General Shi. It's because this matter may require the use of some hidden stakes that I have deployed deeply in Zhejiang. Once the identities of these people are exposed, it will be difficult to continue to stay there in the future. There are many things at stake.

I have to be careful about people's future and destiny."
Chapter completed!