When we arrived at the estuary of the Yangtze River, Xu Guangqi was even more surprised to find that there were thousands of ships busy transporting goods and personnel. Cao Tai told him proudly: "Our army is very harmonious with the people in Jiangnan. Our company advocates fair trade. The current bank transaction will never be denied. Merchants and vendors everywhere are willing to trade with us. Did Lord Xu see that? These merchant ships transport goods we purchased in Jiangnan. The bulk of them include raw silk, silk fabrics, porcelain, sugar, and fruits. , deer skin and various daily necessities, our company sells these freight overseas in exchange for a large amount of silver, pepper, suma, spice, etc., and returns to China for sale. The merchant ships you see from our company to Jinling are carried from Various goods brought overseas,"
Xu Guangqi, a native of Jiangnan, naturally knew that Xu Guangqi was a local, but he did not expect that the strength of the Chinese company had reached such a level: thousands of ships came and went on the Yangtze River, and transported the wealth of Jiangnan, the Chinese Army A lot of money was spent along the way, hiring almost all ships along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and a large number of fishermen and sailors on the Yangtze River joined this unprecedentedly large commercial transport fleet.
The flying and font sizes, the giant ships, the giant-like hull and the rows of gun windows on both sides were also shocked to Xu Guangqi very much. He couldn't help but say to Zhao Xingbang, the military officer: "The Chinese company's ships are strong and powerful. This warship can reach all the warships of our navy,"
Zhao Xingbang said with a pale face: "Sir Xu doesn't know that when you were trapped in Tianjin by pirates, our imperial naval ships had basically been destroyed by them. Now the official naval warships can only Activities in Wuchang and Hankou areas…”
Xu Guangqi and his party landed on Yanziji, Nanjing, and came to welcome representatives of the gentry, officials and civilians in Nanjing. The Chinese army did not come forward. Those gentry, officials and civilians were trapped in the city on the day when Nanjing was trapped. They saw Xu Guangqi, They all came forward to express their difficulties, asked the court to open their minds to them, and reached peace with the maritime merchants as soon as possible, so that they could get out of the situation of house arrest.
Two days later, within the Yingtian Prefecture Office in Jinling City.
"Opening the sea and making the country rich, and engaging in business and enriching the people is a great thing that benefits the country and the people. But the court refused to allow this war. Lord Xu is here to recruit people, which is a blessing for us and other coastal merchants..." Yin As soon as Feng and Xu Guangqi met, they went straight to the point, without any greetings or politeness. Xu Guangqi did not care at all, and bowed to Yin Feng with an equal attitude, which made Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji and others standing on the side A little surprised, I couldn't help but have a good impression of Xu Guangqi.
Xu Guangqi saw several Western missionaries standing behind Yin Feng: Yin Feng’s personal adviser Lu Ruohan, Taiwan’s lieutenant bishop Jinnige, who is a follower of Matteo Ricci, is more familiar with Xu Guangqi, and they are now using Catholic etiquette. Giving up.
The negotiations quickly reached the point: Yin Feng agreed to a ceasefire with the court on behalf of the Chinese company and withdrew troops from the two capitals, but he demanded that his six major vows be approved by the imperial court as a franchise of merchants of the Chinese company.
At the same time, the Chinese company asked the court to release all prisoners who were imprisoned due to the sea ban, including those Huaxing Lianhao, Huaxing Silver, money shopkeepers, buddies, and those related to the company, who were arrested by the government during the sea ban the previous year. The merchant, of course, has resumed business with all the business names, money shops and bank accounts related to the Chinese company, and the government is responsible for sending back the seized materials and money.
Finally, after evacuating Nanjing, the China Company demanded to have a garrison in Jiangnan, control the Yangtze River estuary, and all coastal islands were placed under the jurisdiction of the China Company, and Yin Feng was appointed as King Jinghai.
Xu Guangqi shook his head helplessly: "Boss Yin, you are talking big. The court will never agree to such conditions... The court photographed us coming to recruit coastal merchants. Let's talk first. Let’s talk about when you will withdraw troops from the two capitals.”
Yin Feng sneered, he had a lot of good cards in his hands, and the initiative in negotiations was in his hands: "Mr. Xu, what does this mean? If the court does not have the sincerity of negotiations, then we don't care about continuing to start the war."
...
Yin Feng's style is suitable for being a businessman. There is still a difference between political bargaining and commercial trade bargaining, especially in China, where Confucian tradition emphasizes the issue of legitimate argument.
After the negotiations collapsed on the first day, Yin Feng withdrew from the negotiating table and asked Zeng Shan to continue negotiations with Xu Guangqi as the general secretary of the board of directors of China Company. After Yin Feng left, the negotiating officials of the Ming Dynasty court proposed their identity. For the issue of waiting, we asked to negotiate directly with Yin Feng. After all, the court sent a second-rank official to negotiate, and Zeng Shan proposed that the Ming Dynasty court could only come for peace talks, not for pacification.
In this way, on the procedural issue of negotiations, the two sides were entangled and took ten days. The court's negotiation host was replaced by Zhao Xingbang. He was a typical Confucian scholar and had to set the theme of the negotiations. , Substantive negotiations can only begin after legitimate statements.
Xu Guangqi learned from his Catholic church members that in Nanyang, Luzon, Taiwan, Chinese companies face many problems. He made up his mind to delay and wait for change, hoping that Chinese companies would first make concessions in negotiations due to the overseas colonies. .
Yin Feng also had the same idea.
At the beginning, Yin Feng was obviously deliberately delaying the negotiations. Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji, Zhao Tie and others came to ask him. He pretended to be mysterious and said, "You can wait and see, not long after, the court will come to ask for it." We negotiated,"
Everyone has always admired Yin Feng's strategic vision, but when Yin Feng faces political struggles, he often shows off as a layman, so everyone is skeptical, but Yin Feng just delays the negotiations and is not in a hurry at all. Zeng Qi sent it in Taiwan. The letter was urgently asked the Southern Front troops to draw a part of the naval fleet back to Taiwan, because another group of Japanese Catholic exiles arrived in Taiwan.
The situation in Southeast Asia is not stable. The Portuguese in Macau sent an envoy to ask the Chinese company to come forward to help them deal with the Dutch and British who besieged Malacca. The Dutch and the British are now competing on the coast of Europe, but in the Far East they are doing it for The common interests joined forces to attack Malacca, hoping to grab the Indian Ocean passage that the Portuguese had occupied for many years.
No matter how anxious everyone was, Yin Feng was not in a hurry.
The day after Xu Guangqi arrived in Nanjing, Yin Feng received a secret report from Zeng Qing, the intelligence manager of the Northern Line troops: something big happened outside the wall on the east side of Liaodong.
On the tenth day of the negotiations, more accurate news was spread to Nanjing through the Feige Book Transmission System: Nurhaci of the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe rebelled, and the Eight Banners of the Jurchens captured Kaiyuan, Chenyang, and Fushun in one fell swoop.
In the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), Nurhaci had established the Eight Banners system; the following year, at the beginning of the Bingchen year of the lunar calendar, the Jianzhou Jurchens read the document by Erdenibakesh at the grand ceremony and presented Nurhaci with the words " Fengtian overthrows the wise Khan of the nations, "The female real-time founding of the country is called Khan. At this time, the court was busy fighting in the internal affairs and banning the sea. Although some officials were very alert to the situation in Liaodong, they did not cause much response. After all, For the entire Ming Dynasty, the situation in Liaodong was just one of many difficult problems.
Yin Feng carefully recalled his history lesson: Nurhaci, the original one, began to officially rebel against the Ming Dynasty this year (the 46th year of Wanli). In fact, North Korea at that time reported to the Ming court that after Nurhaci established the country, he called the Ming Dynasty. He became the "Southern Dynasty" and used his own Tianming Year name to establish the Yuan Dynasty to claim to be the lord of a country. However, the Ming Dynasty still did not attack him and maintained a peaceful situation between the two sides.
Yin Feng sometimes thought: Why did the Ming Dynasty court have to be so concerned about the sea ban? He tried every means to force me to rebel. Look at Nurhaci, the founding of the country and the court ignored him. He handed over this top-secret information to Zeng. Shan, said: "Look, Nu Ke rebelled, most of the time it was taking advantage of the Liaodong army to enter the pass to fight, and the defense of the border wall was empty. He should thank us for sending troops to the two capitals and giving him the opportunity to rebel,"
Zeng Shan frowned and looked for a while: "I said to the ship owner, have you known that something is wrong in Liaodong for a long time, so he delayed the negotiations?"
Yin Feng looked at Zeng Shan and saw that he was tired and unshaven, and laughed: "Third brother, you have a fight with that Lord Zhao these days, it's very hard,"
Zeng Shan was very dissatisfied with Yin Feng's heartless performance and shook his head and said, "So, what should we do now? Are we going to use this information to threaten the court?"
Yin Feng thought for a while and said, "No, let's wait for the imperial court's report. It is estimated that in half a month, it will be here. We have a fast and effective intelligence network in the north, so we cannot let the people of the Ming Dynasty find out. So we cannot take the initiative to provide this news to Xu Guangqi and the others,"
Yin Feng stood in front of the window, looked at the purple gold mountain in the distance, and breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that the trajectory of history has not deviated too far. Nurhaci still rebelled at this time, and the time was just one month ahead of schedule. , the mission of the Northern Line troops will be changed,"
Zeng Shan didn't understand and approached and asked, "Can we help Nuqi start a war with the Ming Dynasty?"
Yin Feng sneered at his question: "Don't underestimate Nurhaci. He can lead dozens of people to develop to the present establishment of the country and call him Khan. He must not be an incompetent person. He is the enemy of the Ming Dynasty and will also be ours. The enemy, let Zeng Rui come here. He doesn't know about this. The news was reported to me directly by Zeng Qing."
A black-clad guard rushed into the study, stood attentively and saluted, and handed over the third piece of information about the situation in Liaodong to Yin Feng: "Report, this is what Captain Magaro, the guard's guards asked to hand it over to you immediately,"
"Did you just received it?"
"Yes, the letter carried by the carrier pigeon, just flew to the backyard,"
Yin Feng nodded. After the personal guard withdrew, he immediately opened the letter and looked up, and said to Zeng Shan: "On April 8 this year, Nurhaci's Eight Banners soldiers captured Chenyang on the day of celebrating his 60th birthday. , Go and call Mr. Xu, and send a message to Lin Xiao, and ask him to turn his intelligence focus to Liaodong,"
The information concisely stated that in one month, the Eight Banners soldiers conquered Kaiyuan, Fushun, Chenyang, and Fushun guerrilla Li Yongfang surrendered, and the garrison Xiao Zigan died in battle.
History in remote areas of Liaodong did not seem to have changed much because of the emergence of the Chinese company. Nurhaci's border town began in Fushun, and the border was about to surrender, that is, Li Yongfang, which had a great impact on the changes in the later Ming and Qing wars. From this point of view, Yin Feng found that there was no example of Ming Dynasty generals surrendering to him publicly, and he fell into deep thoughts for this.