Nurhachi was in the offensive to unify the Haixi Jurchens. The Ula vitality was severely damaged, and Hada and Huifa perished one after another. The situation was quite favorable to Jianzhou, which was about to destroy the Ula; the strength of the Jianzhou Jurchens had far exceeded that of the Northeastern Jurchen tribes. Since the Ming Dynasty, A major hidden danger in the Northeast is becoming a serious concern.
In the eyes of a very few sober-minded bureaucrats in the capital, Yin Feng and Nurhachi, one in the south and one in the north. One is on the southeast coast and the other is on the black soil of the northeast. They are both potential threats to the Ming Dynasty. But there are too few such sober people. The vast majority of the bureaucracy is still engaged in constant party bickering, intrigues, and intrigues. Although everyone talks about national affairs in the name of it, in fact no one cares about the real "state affairs." No one regards Nu Chief and Yin Feng as a serious nuisance. "Establishing a prince", "building a kingdom of blessed kings", etc. are important events. In their eyes, the emperor's family affairs are much more important than military affairs and the general trend of the world.
In comparison, most of the more pedantic Qingliu class in the imperial court still regard Yin Feng's China Company as pirates. They believe that the so-called slogan of "opening up the sea to enrich the country and benefiting the people through trade" is purely to deceive people and endanger social stability.
In this era, the extensive development of the Chinese mainland market is almost completed. The population of the people is increasing day by day. In the situation where the contradiction between population and land is becoming increasingly prominent, especially in coastal areas such as Fujian, the focus of national economic development and solving the problem of feeding the population Moving the outlet to the sea was a better way to solve the social crisis at that time. Of course, within the scope of traditional Chinese culture and the international environment at that time, making such a choice required great courage. Making such a choice This means the shift of the national economic strategic focus and the start of the modern transformation of the economic system. The development of an export-oriented economy will inevitably lead to the transformation of the natural economy and the destruction of small-scale peasant production forms. This was intolerable to the mainstream Confucian concepts and Neo-Confucianism at that time. Therefore, Most of the court officials who were deeply influenced by Confucian culture, whether they truly believed in Confucian Neo-Confucian concepts or not, did not dare to do it anyway, and it was impossible to think of how to do it.
The rulers' attitude toward private overseas trade at that time was still to try to control and prevent adverse effects on themselves, rather than to strongly support and encourage it like the governments of Western countries at the time. The booming private overseas trade in the late Ming Dynasty was achieved without state power. With the support of the people, the people moved forward alone. Starting from the demise of Zheng He's fleet, this is no longer a tragedy for an ocean-going fleet. It is a tragedy for a country and a nation. In a sense From the very beginning, the Ming Dynasty easily gave up an important opportunity that could break through the bottleneck of economic and social development and thus promote the transformation of Chinese society into modern times. It gave up an opportunity to rely on private economic power to control Southeast Asian trade routes, thereby restructuring China's southeastern coastal defense. It is a God-given opportunity to open up new geographical space for China's economic growth and expand China's regional influence in the Asia-Pacific region. This is very regrettable.
Yin Feng has already felt that his burden is getting heavier and heavier. He is making up lessons, patching, or modifying the source code for the development of Chinese history. This makes him feel stressed and out of breath.
Yin Feng walked around Fuzhou and then went to Nanjing. He gave a round of gifts to the Nanjing eunuch and others, and then rushed back to Taiwan. Everything in the Ming Dynasty was basically on the road to death according to his own inertia. The influence of the Chinese Company was only limited to the southeastern area. Although Yin Feng knew the outcome, he was still very disappointed with the political situation of the court. After he returned to Taiwan, he handed over all dealings with the government to his father-in-law Zeng Qi and transferred Han Jing to Lu Song went to serve as the manager of Lu Song Branch. Yin Feng himself devoted himself to the construction of the army. The joy brought by the pregnancy of his wife Zeng Qian only lasted a few days. He began to act like he did during the initial establishment of Zhonghua Company. .Busy day and night.
The Ryukyu incident did not involve much energy on his part. Yin Feng was busy these days with the reorganization of the Huaxing Bank system and the mainland intelligence agency. He was also working in factories and military camps. He was busy developing new types of hand grenades and explosive shells.
When Han Jing returned to Taiwan with Luo Aquan and Pessoa, Taiwan Port was beginning a new round of urban expansion. The arrival of a large number of new immigrants caused the urban area of Taiwan Port to expand day by day. Yin Feng originally insisted on pre-planning and unified urban construction. The plan simply could not keep up with the reality of the rapid increase in population. Outside the port and in the Anping Port area in the south, residential areas spontaneously established by mainland Han immigrants have appeared. Therefore, Han Jing was surprised to see that he had only left Taiwan for half a year. I can no longer recognize the style of Taiwan Harbor.
He took people to the city where the company's headquarters was located. He was surprised to find a group of craftsmen digging foundations along the streets of the headquarters area.
"What are you doing?" Han Jing asked a craftsman in surprise. This craftsman was probably a new recruit. He didn't know Han Jing, who often visited the headquarters. He replied angrily: "The inspection department is expanding the city wall here. .Don’t watch around with other people waiting..."
"Inspection of Sicheng Walled City."
Yin Feng is not at the headquarters or at home.
Han Jing led people throughout the port and factory area. Finally, he found Yin Feng in the weapons research department.
"Big Boss, what's going on with the inspection of Sicheng Walled City?"
Yin Feng was watching a batch of trial-produced iron-shell grenades explode in sequence at the testing ground. He replied absently: "It's Brother Han. It's been a good journey. The inspection of Sicheng Walled City will surround the company headquarters in the city wall fortress. This is for Just in case."
"Building a city privately is against the laws of the imperial court." The smiling expression on Han Jing's face did not seem to indicate any worry.
Yin Feng smiled faintly: "Brother Han, do you think the Fujian government still has time to take care of our trivial matters? Come on, let's get down to business. Did you see Ji Zai when you passed by Ryukyu?"
Han Jing suppressed his smile: "The Japanese pirates are planning to attack Ryukyu after March next year. And... they will attack Taiwan at the same time..."
…
When Han Jing returned to Taiwan Port, it was already the end of the year. Originally, there were basically no wars in Taiwan this year except for the rebellion of the indigenous people. People all wanted to have a peaceful year. However, Yin Feng suddenly issued a large number of orders. The entire island of Taiwan has entered a state of war readiness and mobilization.
The escort soldiers trained day after day. They did not feel anything unusual about this; they had long been accustomed to fighting at any time and anywhere. The newly arrived immigrants from the mainland felt a little strange; the workers who were used to being lax in the farmland of their own villages were placed under strict supervision. The work and rest system is managed without slacking off at all. They work overtime for days to produce gunpowder, muskets and various equipment; the new labor force in the farm is driven by the village boss and villagers to participate in military training in batches; they drag their families to Taiwan. People suddenly discovered that there was a serious shortage of labor in the farms, factories, and workshops here. Even women had to be recruited to work, especially in textile, weaving and dyeing factories. Fortunately, the people along the coast had a tradition of women participating in labor for their livelihood. The new immigrants had no complaints.
Under the armed protection of the brigade's escort team, the migrant workers who were recruited to open up the road to Taipei passed through a burned-out Dadufan village. They saw piles of indigenous corpses. They carefully transported a large amount of stone to the north. A large number of Food, ammunition, and weapons were transported to the chicken coop in Taipei and Tamsui forts, and were stocked in warehouses.
At the same time, across the island of Taiwan, a large number of convoys were divided into small teams and went deep into the mountains to hunt down the rebellious natives. They were followed by a large number of Han immigrants. Immigrant villages were established one after another in their footsteps.
Another group of newly arrived immigrants from Fujian joined the escort. Most of these people were people from the mountainous areas of western Fujian. Some were followers of the White Lotus Sect. After the rebellion, they were defeated and hunted down by the officers and soldiers. They were not allowed to come to Taiwan; some came to Taiwan to avoid the war. These There were almost no children from military households among the group of people. However, there was a small group who had been bandits in the mountainous areas of western Fujian. This mixed group of people were immediately thrown into the recruit camp. As the military training progressed, some people were continuously eliminated to the Zhuang Ding team. Or go to work on the farm.
Zhao Tie's troops switched defenses with Zhao Xuanming's 4th Regiment and returned from Luzon. At this time, Zhao Tie's Kuangbiao Regiment had expanded to 5,000 people. It had four infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, and several professional auxiliary teams. The 500 Pampanga indigenous auxiliary soldiers brought back from Luzon will be used to deal with the indigenous rebellion on the island.
Zhao Tie watched a large number of recruits begin long-distance training at the training ground of the recruit camp. Yin Feng, Yan Siqi, Lin Yue and others looked around with binoculars on the camp watchtower. Zhao Tie quickly climbed up to the watchtower, stamped his foot, stood at attention and saluted. : "Head of the Cyclonus Regiment, Zhao Tie of Hundred Households reports."
His standing at attention made the entire watchtower tremble. Yin Feng turned around with a smile, raised his hand and said in return: "Captain Zhao, I haven't seen you for a few days, but you are more energetic. Come, come, take a look at these new recruits. What do you think?"
Zhao Tie stood at attention and said loudly: "My subordinates have just observed. To be honest, this batch of recruits is mixed and lacks skills. In my opinion, many of them have good physical strength and flexible reactions, but they have no sense of discipline at all. They are not suitable. Be a soldier."
Yin Feng nodded: "There is no way. Now we urgently need to expand the army. We must train these people into qualified soldiers in a short time."
Zhao Tie walked to the railing of the watchtower, looked around for a while, and said in a low voice: "Ship owner, oh, sir, do you really want to expand the army? Didn't the board of directors pass the army expansion budget for this year and next?"
Zhao Tie is a regimental commander-level officer. According to regulations, he personally received a resaleable share of the company. At the same time, he is also the agent of those shares that Zhao Jiaao collectively invested in. He can get the latest and most confidential information from the board of directors. Therefore, he fully supported the expansion of the army and preparations for war. In recent years, almost all Zhao Jiaao's children immigrated to Taiwan. The entire family has successively acquired land due to military merit and other means, which has almost exceeded the size of a county. Of course, these lands are scattered. In Taiwan and Luzon, it can be said that the entire Zhao family has tasted the benefits of overseas expansion.