There are two reasons: one is that Mai Wan'er is pregnant, but her belly has been silent, and the other is that Li Dan, who is also both father and brother, did not return to Taiwan with Ye Hua's fleet, but stayed at the southernmost tip of Africa. The Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope became the leader of the crew members who lost their ships and could not return. He brought a Spanish letter to Li Lihua, saying that he wanted to re-create his own world in Africa and was unwilling to face the situation after returning to Taiwan. Due to the internal strife between his brothers, Li Dan basically gave the property he left in Malacca to Yuan Jin and Li Zhong brothers. His original intention was to express his apology for not taking good care of them, but he did not expect that the brothers would use both. These assets created a Huatian company to fight against Yin Feng in Nanyang.
On the way back from Europe, Li Dan learned about the changes in the situation in Nanyang from the Portuguese businessmen he met along the way. He felt that he was responsible for it and was unwilling to return to Taiwan to face Yin Feng and Li Lihua, so he chose to stay at the southernmost tip of Africa. Got off.
Li Lihua felt that her position put Li Dan in a dilemma, so he had to stay thousands of miles away in Africa.
Yin Feng actually had no intention of blaming Li Dan; to a certain extent, Yin Feng also admitted that he had indeed robbed Li Dan of his territory in Taiwan and used Li Dan's property and Li Dan's connections. Li Lihua and Xu Xinsu, As well as their relationship network, Yin Feng relied heavily on it during the initial establishment of the China Company. If a hero like Li Dan had not been unlucky enough to be imprisoned by the Spaniards, he might have been the one to create a situation in Taiwan. Moreover, if it were not for Li Lihua's relationship, it is entirely possible that Li Dan would have commanded Yuan Jin, and Li Zhong and his group were against Yin Feng. Li Dan chose to go into self-exile, and Yin Feng thanked him from the bottom of his heart.
At the end of the 40th year of Wanli (1612), the year-end shareholder dividend meeting and shareholder representative meeting of Huaxing Alliance were held in a mainland province for the first time. Yin Feng took the unhappy Li Lihua to Hangzhou by the way.
When he left Taiwan Port, the Dutch merchant ship "Golden Fleece" from Batavia in the South China Sea was entering the port. On the port side of the "Golden Fleece", Yuan Jin in disguise was observing the situation in Taiwan Port. Next to him is Li Jin, the only Chinese deputy manager of the Dutch East India Company.
This was the first time that Li Jin returned to China after the Battle of Penghu Bay. He also looked at Taiwan Port with great curiosity, this magical place that had become the largest trading port along the coast of China in nine years.
The Dutch ship docked south to the newly built Nangang Wharf, just near the South Fort. Due to the increasing number of ships coming to Taiwan Port, the port management department of the Chinese Company had to divert some ships to the newly built South Wharf in the south of the harbor. This area is dotted with Emerging residential areas such as Anping Port, South Fort and Tainan, especially the area around South Fort Castle, have developed like a town, with warehouses, stables, barracks, hospitals, shops, rice shops, restaurants, tailor shops, and various workshops. The armory, the arsenal, the inspection department prison, and even a cemetery...are arranged in order. In many places, there are neatly stacked logs. The shipbuilding timber cut down from Alishan is built like a pyramid of stones. , building materials for the construction of Taiwan Port City Wall.
Every building in the South Fort is built very solidly and has defensive facilities. The fortress is surrounded by high walls, with trenches behind the walls and large wooden piles in the trenches. To the south of the castle is the stronger Anping Castle that is being built. Inside and outside the South Fort Castle, there were constant pedestrians coming and going. There were people and soldiers from all walks of life, and it was bustling like a market.
There is also a weapons manufacturing workshop inside the fort, with the sounds of hammers, noises, cars, horses, horns and whistles, and shouting orders coming and going.
Yuan Jin was a traitor and sworn enemy of the Zhonghua Company, and many people knew him, so he did not dare to get off the ship during the day. Li Jin had a good walk around, and after returning to the ship, he vividly told the scene on the shore. Yuan Jin.
Yuan Jin was nearly thirty years old at this time and was much more stable than before, but his unruly and unruly spirit had not diminished at all. He sneered with jealousy and a little envy: "This situation is indeed..., I'll wait. Given time, Huatian Company may not be able to create another Taiwan port. This Yin Feng is just a villain who secretly steals people's money and seduce women. Huh... He doesn't seem to be in Taiwan."
Li Jin frowned: "How do you know? I heard that Captain Yin Feng went to Zhejiang yesterday..."
Yuan Jin sneered: "Uncle Li, you work for the Dutch and you are also a friend of our Huatian Company. I won't hide it from you: Yin Feng is going to Zhejiang. Whether he can come back alive depends on his luck."
Li Jin's face remained unchanged and he said in a disbelieving tone: "The government has no plans to deal with him at the moment. Could it be that... you still want to send someone to assassinate him?"
Yuan Jin played with a revolver he got from the Dutch and said with a smile: "Uncle Li, although you are one of our own, there are some things you don't know. Haha, in Yin Feng's territory in Hong Kong, Taiwan There is nothing I can do about it; in Fujian, there are too many people in the government who have been bribed by Yin Feng, and I have no way to deal with him; but when Yin Feng arrives in Zhejiang, I have a chance to deal with him. I have sent people to the Zhejiang government to ask for recruitment. My subordinates have brothers from Zhejiang, let them come forward privately, haha, Yin Feng, Yin Feng, let’s see what you do,”
One day later, Lin Xiao, the general manager of the security department of the China Company, received a secret letter, which was secretly sent by a Chinese Protestant believer placed by the security department in a church in a Dutch residential area.
Lin Xiao thought it was information about Nanyang. Li Lihua should have been in charge of it originally, but now he was temporarily in charge of it. He put the secret messages aside and dealt with some corruption cases within the company at hand first. When it got dark, he used lame After finishing writing some documents, he called the clerk and asked him to take them away. He took a long breath and was about to get up and go home when he suddenly found the secret letter sent from the Dutch Protestant church and quickly opened it.
Lin Xiao was shocked when he saw it and stood up suddenly.
"Bang," the desk of the head of the security department was accidentally pushed to the ground by Lin Xiao. The guard at the door was startled, pushed the door open, and looked at Lin Xiao in surprise.
"Quick, immediately notify all personnel of the Security Department to hold a meeting. Wait, take my seal and immediately send people to these places to deliver the message; the duty office of the company's business information department, the duty office of Major Zeng Rui of the escort and military supervision department, and the duty office of the military intelligence department. , ask all the supervisors on duty to come over, it’s urgent, do you understand?”
Half a quarter of an hour later, the deputy director of the Business Intelligence Department arrived (the director was Xu Xinsu, who now accompanied Yin Feng to Zhejiang), followed immediately by the temporary director of the Military Intelligence Department, and the director of the Military Supervision Department Zeng Rui also arrived. The director of the Military Intelligence Department was personally controlled by Yin Feng , if he is away from the headquarters, Li Lihua will serve as the temporary supervisor; if the above two people are not at the headquarters, the temporary supervisor will be Zeng Rui. Young Zeng Rui is actually smart and studious since he was a child, but his studiousness is reflected in miscellaneous subjects such as astronomy and geography. He had no interest in the Four Books and Five Classics at all. Now he has completely given up on the imperial examination career and devoted himself wholeheartedly to Yin Feng's career.
Everyone saw Lin Xiao walking around like an ant on a hot pot, and when they were about to ask questions, Lin Xiao handed everyone the secret letter from the Dutch Church. Everyone gathered around to take a look, and all gasped.
Zeng Rui shouted: "Brother Feng must be brought back quickly,"
Han Ping, the deputy director of the Business Information Department, said distressedly: "It's too late. The ship owner has been gone for a day and a night. Only the Sea Spirit can catch up. The problem is that the Sea Spirit has gone to Siam to perform a secret mission. It will take three months to come back,”
Lin Xiao looked at everyone's expressions and said angrily: "The secret letter said that this matter was done by Yuan Jin's Huatian Company, and the government will take action. Our undercover may not know exactly how it will be done. The ship owner This trip is directly by sea to Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Now it is impossible to send a ship to recover it. What I mean is: send a letter to the Hangzhou Huaxing Co., Ltd. and the business information department personnel of Huaxing Bank to let them prepare. , once the ship owner arrives in Hangzhou, immediately ask him to find a place to hide; at the same time, we must immediately dispatch the Feilong and Feihu battleships, and take all the gunboats of Colonel Ye Hua's Taiwan fleet to Zhejiang, in case something happens to the ship owner. , we have to take action to save people from the government,"
Zeng Rui said anxiously: "Brother Lin, since the secret letter said that Yuan Jin secretly arrived in Taiwan, we should start searching for him immediately."
Lin Xiao looked around at everyone seriously, and said with a sneer: "I don't want to do this, but the person who wrote this secret letter is a secret chess move that the ship owner ambush inside the Dutch East India Company a long time ago. The entire China Company Only the ship owner has his exact identity. I just know that this person exists, but I don’t know the specific situation. According to the agreement, only the ship owner sends someone to send him a signal can he start activities. This person took the initiative to send this letter this time. The secret message is already in violation of the rules. If there is no urgent emergency, he will definitely not risk sending this information. Therefore, we cannot take action against Yuan Jin, because this may expose this person's identity. Yin Captain Feng once said that any actions related to this person must be ordered by him,"
Zeng Rui became even more anxious: "This person risked sending a secret message, which can prove that Brother Feng is in extreme danger at this moment. Inform Brother Mai De, Mai Dahai, Ye Hua and others to mobilize the entire escort team, oh, the Chinese Army stand up,"
Everyone looked at each other, and Han Ping said: "Are we going to go to war with the imperial court now?"
Zeng Rui stamped his feet and said fiercely: "If the Zhejiang government arrests the ship owner, then they will start a war with our Zhonghua Company. Do we have to sit back and wait for death?" He took a step closer to Han Ping: "Shopkeeper Han, are you I want to see the captain of the ship suffer,"
Han Ping turned his head away with an ugly expression, ignored Zeng Rui, and said to Lin Xiao: "It's better not to mobilize the army yet. Inform Mr. Zeng. He has many connections in the officialdom and may be able to find a solution."
Lin Xiao shook his head and said: "The old man is in Quanzhou, and Captain Yin has gone to Hangzhou. The government is dragging its feet, and it is too late to help. I am afraid it will be too late. I think the two roads should be taken at the same time. The army is mobilized and someone is sent to inform Mr. Zeng to take action immediately. You see how,"
After some discussion, everyone felt that time was urgent and there was really no good solution.
Immediately, the first brigade of the Chinese Army stationed in Taiwan, which was the first brigade-level infantry unit of the Chinese Army developed from Zhao Tie's first regiment, urgently began mobilization.