** Ten thousand Ming troops gathered in Anqing. After a battle on the Yangtze River, the Ming army immediately fell apart.
The Ming Navy and various Ming infantry actually did not suffer many casualties in the Anqing naval battle. Although almost all the ships of the Navy were burned, sunk, and captured, the personnel losses were not large, with only more than 3,500 casualties, most of them were captured or fled; and the various Ming infantry troops were frightened by the firepower of the Chinese army. After only five or six hundred people were killed or injured in the shelling that night, they could no longer bear it. The entire army collapsed and fled Anqing. Chen Daoheng, who wanted to organize the defense battle of Anqing, also had to flee Anqing City.
Among the retreating Ming army troops, the only one who still had some order was the more than 10,000 white pole soldiers belonging to Chieftain Shi Ling. When they evacuated Anqing, they received an order from Chen Daoheng to retreat to Huangzhou. Therefore, they left Anqing with the Yang Qi Marine Corps. When entering the city from the east, the whole team exited Anqing from the west of the city, protecting Chen Daoheng, Zhou Qiyuan and others along the way.
The battle report of the Battle of Anqing was sent to Yazhou, Hainan by a clipper communication ship twelve days later.
Yin Feng was still on vacation in Sanya with his family and children. Of course, at the same time, he also inspected the Shilu Iron Mine and its affiliated copper mine, which have been officially put into operation. This is the best rich iron mine in China and East Asia. At the moment, China The most important iron ore base in the company's ruling area, many Spanish, Japanese, Jurchen and even recently transported Malay prisoners of war are working hard here. There are also a large number of criminals from the Yinfeng ruling area who are doing hard labor here. Around the mine, iron-making blast furnaces built using local river water and coal mines have sprung up. Black smoke is everywhere and the smell is choking. Walking around, Yin Feng vaguely feels like he was interviewing in a highly polluted industrial area before crossing.
Throughout the first month, there was an endless stream of people coming to Sanya to see him.
Lu Yun, the envoy of the Ryukyu Governorate, is one of them. Lu Yun, also known as Xiaohan, was originally a subordinate of the Ryukyu Kingdom's third official, Xie Mingyakata, and was the business agent of the Ryukyu King. The origin of the family is a Chinese with a surname of 36 from Fujian who immigrated to Ryukyu in the early Ming Dynasty. Later, while doing business, he met Yin Feng, the general director of the Chunghwa Company, and at the same time he became the shopkeeper of the Ryukyu Chinese Merchant House. The Shimazu family of Satsuma Domain attacked Ryukyu. Yin Feng's Chunghwa Company then went on an expedition to Satsuma Domain, and finally seized the Ryukyu Kingdom. In just half a year, The former aristocratic family of Ryukyu was massacred by the Japanese and the Chinese in turns, almost all of them died. Lu Yun lost his original boss, and relying on his family connections, he naturally became the general person in charge of civil affairs of the Chinese company in Ryukyu.
This time, people who came with him to visit Yin Feng were Kawakami Immoto and the Shimadzu family envoys from Satsuma Domain in Japan. They came for the trade between Satsuma Domain and China Company. After the debt, the business of going to Korea to plunder people and sell them to Chinese companies had to be stopped due to the strict order of the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, the Shimadzu family had been living a very difficult life. At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate was trying to monopolize the Sino-Japanese trade in Nagasaki. In order to fill the trade gap for the Tokugawa shogunate, Yin Feng decided to help the Satsuma clan economically. In the following years, Xu Xinsu opened a route from Ryukyu to Kagoshima, allowing the Shimazu family to become the agent for Chinese goods. Stealing business with Nagasaki Port, which is directly under the shogunate.
This time, the Shimadzu family sent Kawakami Imogen to give Yin Feng a New Year's gift: a large number of Japanese Catholics who fled to Satsuma, as well as a large amount of sulfur and silver. Yin Feng looked down upon these things and treated the Japanese They were all sent to the newly opened colony of the Chinese Company on Irian Island for resettlement.
There is also a group of people who came to Sanya from Taiwan, but they are from the diplomatic envoys of the Annan Kingdom on the opposite side of Hainan Island. They are said to be a group of people. Specifically, they are divided into two incompatible groups: the Zheng family from the north of Annan, and the Zheng family from the north of Annan. The Ruan family in the south.
This is the post-Le Dynasty period in Vietnam's history. In name, the Le Dynasty is now unifying the Annan kingdom. In fact, the King of Le in the north is a rubber stamp, and the real power is under the control of the Trinh family; in the south, the Nguyen family has been seeking an independent kingdom for a long time. , the Zheng family and the Nguyen family were originally from the same Li royal family, and they once joined hands to form an alliance to fight against the usurper Mo Deng Yong of the later Li Dynasty. After the Mo Dynasty was destroyed by them together, the two families began to fight against each other in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Now, Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, the leader of the Nguyen family, began to sever the vassal relationship with the Trinh family as soon as he came to power. He first carried out administrative reforms and established the She Chai Department (in charge of litigation), the Jiangchen Li Department (in charge of money and food) and the Ling Shi Department (in charge of the main business). (military pay and sacrifices), and held the appointment power of officials within the territory in his own hands. The government agencies left by the later Le Dynasty were changed to directly take orders from the Nguyen family. The most important thing is that the Nguyen family in the south stopped paying taxes to the court in Hanoi.
The Zheng family in the north already had enough excuses to start a war, while the Ruan family in the south had already been preparing for war.
In terms of business relations, the Ruan family and Yin Feng's company have had trade relations for a long time. Ruan Phucyuan has established relations with Westerners very early. A Portuguese trading post was opened in Hoi An even before the establishment of the Chinese company. Malacca , after Macau was successively controlled by Chinese companies, the Portuguese still maintained a business office in Hoi An. In 1615, with the assistance of Portuguese engineers, the Nguyen family also started the production of their own Western bronze cannons.
There are also tens of thousands of Chinese businessmen in Hoi An. When Yin Feng led the Chinese army to counterattack Luzon, the Chinese businessmen in Hoi An also organized militia to support them. The Nguyen family treated the Chinese businessmen very favorably and allowed them to retain their own armed militia in Hoi An. With these relationships, , Yin Feng and the entire Zhonghua Company have a good impression of Ruan.
The Zheng family in the north, who considered themselves orthodox, had conflicts with their overlord, the Ming Dynasty, but in dealing with overseas trade, they followed the example of the Ming Dynasty in banning the sea. Of course, this was also to deal with the Ruan family in the south, who was good at navigation. Therefore, when dealing with Chinese companies, In terms of attitude, the Zheng family in the north is somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty.
The envoys of these two families sent envoys to Taiwan in the name of celebrating the New Year. When they met unexpectedly at Taiwan Port, the envoys of the two families almost started fighting with each other on the dock.
Then, they were all put on the same ship and transported to Sanya. They bumped into each other a lot on the ship. After getting off the ship, the two sides even fought in Sanya City over the order of meeting Yin Feng. Yin Feng's guard captain Lin Tian Ping had to send a team of black guards to watch over the two groups.
Now both parties are making final preparations for war. The Ruan family came to Sanya to strengthen ties with Chinese companies - to purchase arms, hoping that the Chinese militia could help the south fight in the future North-South War; while the Zheng family in the north came to Sanya as In the name of the orthodox King Annan, he came to tell "Yin Feng and other maritime merchant leaders" not to assist the Ruan rebels, and at the same time promised to supply grain to the Chinese company at low prices.
Yin Feng first met with the envoys of the Ruan family from the south at Yazhou Prefecture, accepted a large amount of gold and silver treasures sent by the Ruan family, and asked Li Jin, who was in charge of foreign affairs, to discuss the purchase of arms with them. Then, when he met with the envoys from the north, Yin Feng was lying on a wicker chair on the beach by the sea. The Zheng family in the north did not agree to any of the requests. Now the China Company has negotiated peace with Siam. The grain output of Siam is far more than that of northern Annan. Yin Feng is not Food shortage.
In fact, Yin Feng hopes that the Annan and South families will fight as soon as possible, and the more intense the fight, the better. In East Asia now, the only company capable of providing high-quality firearms is the China Company, and sooner or later the Zheng family in the Annan and Northern families will come to ask for his help.
In terms of strength, there are many adults in the north of Annan, while the south is narrow and has few people. When the war starts, they must attack from the north and defend from the south. In order to let them fight for a longer time, the Chinese Company must first help the Ruan family in the south.
After sending away the envoy from the Zheng family in the north, the messenger sent a military report from the south of the Yangtze River: the Chinese naval fleet captured Anqing City, and the brigade continued to move upstream, with its frontline pointing directly at Wuchang.
He called Mai De, Zheng Zhilong and others who came to report on their work, and also invited Xu Hongji and others to pass the battle report to everyone for viewing.
"What do you think? Our army is extremely sharp and we should have no problem reaching Wuchang within a month."
Although Yin Feng's prestige and power have been extremely high, he has always retained the style of the company's early days, brainstorming with everyone when encountering major events, "Now the imperial court has not yet woken up, Jinling has become an isolated city, Wuhu, Jiujiang, and Anqing have all been destroyed. By the time our army appears in Wuchang and Hankou, the Ming Dynasty will be divided into northern and southern parts. To send a memorial, you have to go all the way to Guizhou and Sichuan."
Xu Hongji and other people in the civil service system were talking a lot. Zheng Zhilong was the first to speak: "According to what the prince said the day before yesterday, with the strength of our army, it will be difficult to destroy the Ming Dynasty, and it will be easy to defeat the Ming Dynasty. There is nothing unclear about it. I would like to ask..."
"I know what you want to ask," Yin Feng said with a smile: "You probably want to say that as long as we defeat the Ming Dynasty's official army, we can destroy the Zhu Dynasty, but if we destroy the Ming Dynasty, how should we deal with this situation?" As for the 13 Chief Secretaries, our regular army is only 100,000. Together with the garrison, militia, self-defense force, and security force, we are only 178,000 armed. We must not only protect Nanyang, but also defend the islands in the East China Sea to guard against Japanese invaders and North Korea. , the Greeks, the red-haired barbarians, etc., it is impossible to invest them all on the mainland... And the Ming Dynasty has a vast interior, connected to the desert plateau to the west, with Tibetan tribes, Mongolia to the north, and Huihui tribes to the west. Our strength is still It’s not enough,”
Xu Hongji nodded: "Our original idea was too simple. We thought that the Ming Dynasty was like a broken house and could be destroyed with just one kick. Last year we fought two wars in Liaodong and Nanyang, and our financial situation was so tight... It can be seen that, If we cannot fully consolidate and digest Luzon, Nanyang, the East China Sea Islands, Liaodong and other places, we will not be able to easily eat the big piece of meat of the Ming Dynasty,"
Yin Feng looked at the beach in the distance and let out a long sigh: "It's not easy for us to reach this point. We are only a stone's throw away from mastering the world, but it is difficult to cross this step. I know that although the five-year plan It has been made public, but there are still many people in the company and the military who don’t understand it. I am an official..."
Zheng Zhilong, who was deep in thought, stood at attention like a reflex: "I will be here soon, Your Majesty..."
Yin Feng patted him on the shoulder: "You are the most outstanding among the younger generation in the Chinese Military Academy. At this opening ceremony of the Chinese Military Academy, you will be the one to speak to the new students and tell them more about the significance of the five-year plan. and our actual situation…”
Looking back, Yin Feng said to Mai De: "Old men in the army, please contact me. After the Jiangnan Campaign is over and after the general conferment ceremony, let them all come to the palace for a gathering and let's drink together."