Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘Hua Bai Ren Wei Hui’ for the 1,000-coin reward]

The night gradually faded away, and a hint of white gradually emerged in the eastern sky. The dawn was brewing behind the clouds.

In Beijing, Yu Zecheng stretched himself, stood up and walked to the basin in the corner of the room, scooped up water and splashed it on his face. The cold water was a bit biting. Beijing in October was already quite cold, but it was not Lingnan where people were still wearing thin clothes. The coldness completely dispelled Yu Zecheng's sleepiness after a sleepless night.

A new day has arrived. Yu Zecheng's troubles have not been solved yet.

But his troubles could not stop the awakening of Beijing. Shops opened for business one after another, and the streets and alleys of the city went from sparse to numerous.

Yu Zecheng's face was not good, and he had a stern face for the whole morning. The guys and managers around him who didn't know his true identity would take the initiative to show up less in front of Yu Zecheng when the boss was angry; those who were the real direct descendants knew why their boss was frowning, and they also stopped hanging around him.

Yu Zecheng's brain hurt from thinking about it, but based on the existing information, he really couldn't find the answer.

Did the Qing Dynasty send the elite Eight Banners and bannermen back to Guandong in succession to grow grain outside the pass to help Beijing and Tianjin with their food shortages?

But if that was the case, wouldn't the troops sent be too many? Moreover, the Qing Dynasty also increased the defense of Tianjin, and a large number of artillery were transported from Beijing to Tianjin, claiming that they were to be used as coastal defense artillery. However, there was a report from the Tianjin secret camp that the artillery platform at Dagukou, Tianjin, did not add so many artillery. Instead, the Tianjin Navy replaced a batch of artillery. Is the Qing Dynasty rectifying the navy?

How is this possible? Although the Qing Dynasty should indeed rectify the navy, wouldn't the artillery platform be safer and more secure at this delicate time? Their Southern Kingdom Navy was completely destroyed. Even if the Tianjin Navy was reorganized, how much manpower, material resources, funds and time would be needed to build the Tianjin Navy into the scale of the Guangdong Navy? And didn’t the Guangdong Navy of that scale also die in one battle?

Yu Zecheng’s brain was a mess, and he consciously told him that there was something strange. But he just couldn’t analyze the real intention of the Qing Dynasty from the intelligence outside the Great Wall and the intelligence in Beijing and Tianjin.

"It seems that I will be criticized again this time."

Yu Zecheng touched his forehead, which was a little hot, and he didn’t know whether it was because he overused his brain or because he stayed up late for several consecutive days.

"Alas..." He sighed for a long time. He felt very miserable for himself now. Who likes to be criticized for nothing? At the beginning, Yu Zecheng was ordered to infiltrate the Third Artillery Factory. After two years, he had achieved nothing and was severely criticized by his superiors. Until now, there is still a word "acting" in front of the title of the station chief of Beijing Station. Now if there is another criticism, I really don’t know if he can keep his position as the station chief of Beijing Station?

So Yu Zecheng tried hard on this matter, very hard. But the effort was not rewarded, and the effect was not seen.

At this moment, Liu Mansion by the Shichahai Sea.

The old but not dead Liu Tongxun was carefully reading the memorial handed over by Hailancha, which was a summary of the strategy of the Qing army's upcoming attack on Korea.

Hailancha decided to follow the route that the Later Jin attacked Korea in the past, cross the Yalu River, capture Yizhou, Dingzhou, Anzhou, and then occupy Pyongyang, camp in Zhonghe, and send envoys to Seoul to write a letter to force a surrender.

As for the excuse of the Qing Dynasty's invasion of Korea - it was also very simple, the latter worshipped the former Ming emperor and had long harbored different intentions.

Decades ago, in order to repay the "rebirth grace" of Ming Shenzong who sent a large army to aid Korea during the Imjin Japanese Invasion, Joseon Sukjong Li Yun ordered the construction of the Dabaotan, commonly known as the Huangtan, in the back garden of Changdeok Palace in Seoul (now Seoul, South Korea) on the 60th anniversary of the demise of the Ming Dynasty to worship the Zhu Ming Emperor. The current ruler, Yi Sun, is the so-called King Yeongjo in the mouths of Koreans in later generations. The objects of worship at the Dabaotan have been increased to Emperor Taizu of Ming and Emperor Chongzhen.

Before the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus did not take Korea seriously. Later, Emperor Qianlong was so poor that he was furious and restored the tribute of Korea to the standard of the Shunzhi era, that is, the regular tribute regulations every year (New Year's Day, Wanshou, Winter Solstice): 500 taels of silver, 200 pieces of cotton silk, 200 pieces of cloth, 60 pieces of ramie cloth, 10 pieces of mink skin, 30 pieces of otter skin, 15 pieces of blue mouse skin, 7 pieces of deerskin, 20 pieces of flower mat, 100 rolls of large paper, 50 rolls of small paper, 2 Shun knives, 10 small knives, a pair of bedding, a pair of boots and socks, a saddle horse, and an empty horse.

Before Emperor Qianlong, the tribute to Korea was halved. But doing so is more like hysteria.

Moreover, this year, Emperor Qianlong raised the tribute of Korea to the level of the early years of Shunzhi: 400 pieces of tribute cloth, 200 kilograms of sumac, 1,000 packs of tea, 1,000 pieces of various cotton silk, 5,000 pieces of various fine cloth, 1,000 pieces of cloth, 5,000 pieces of coarse cloth, 10 knives, and 1,000 packs of tribute rice.

This little bit of stuff is a drop in the bucket for the huge Daqingguo. Finally, a secret report from Liu Tongxun, the hometown of the saint, opened a new window for Emperor Qianlong. He felt that Liu Tongxun was right:

"If you have lost your life, why do you still have face?"

Besides, according to the rules outside the pass, the big fish eat the small fish and the small fish eat the shrimp. If you suffer a loss in the east, you can make up for it in the west.

Emperor Qianlong gritted his teeth and finally decided to do it. And in order to further explore the armaments of Korea, he sent the sticking pole office to investigate. As a result, he found many things he could not even think of, such as the big newspaper altar.

A grand sacrificial ceremony is held at the large altar in the Joseon palace every year. After Joseon Suzong, the king personally participated in it almost every year. It is the most solemn sacrificial ceremony in the Joseon palace and fully expresses Korea's gratitude and longing for the former Ming Dynasty. . After the big newspaper altar was built, Suzong made it clear that from then on, the big newspaper altar should be "enjoyed every year and should exist with the country."

Qianlong was so angry that he vomited blood when he discovered the secret relationship between Korea and China.

How dare a little North Korea deceive this great king like this? Lee deserves to die.

The report at the stick included the North Korean royal ministers' homage and memory for Zhu Ming, as well as the fact that there were many North Korean people who used the Chongzhen reign name. When they came back from North Korea, they brought back more than a dozen North Korean books. The water used in it is from the Chongzhen era.

The news of the Fuhan Army's uprising has also reached North Korea. The whole country was overjoyed with this news. No matter whether officials or people, no one said that the Fuhan Army had brought disaster to the country and the people.

In this way, Qianlong could no longer tolerate the conquest of Korea.

As for the purpose of Sticking's trip to North Korea, they also conducted detailed exploration - North Korea's armaments are lax and vulnerable. "There has been no war for hundreds of years, and the soldiers there are mediocre and cowardly, and they are vulnerable to a single blow."

[When I have time in the future, I will write a chapter of Sticky Stick’s travels in North Korea, (*^__^*) hehe...]

Not only was Hailancha on land, but the naval force preparing for war at Tianjinkou was not targeting the Fuhan Army navy team wandering in Shandong, but North Korea. They will march together with Hailancha and attack Ganghwa Island.

The latter is only a short two or three miles away from the mainland. During the many crises of the Korean regime, it became a refuge for the princes, important officials and the royal family. During the Later Jin Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty attacked North Korea. On the one hand, Li Zong [King of North Korea] sent Cui Mingji and others to the Qing camp to negotiate in order to delay the war; on the other hand, he sent the princess, prince and ministers' wives to Ganghwa Island again for temporary refuge.

Qianlong wanted to take over North Korea cleanly this time.

Gold, silver, cloth slaves, and very important and very important grains, these will become the top ten tonic pills of the Qing Dynasty.

Liu Tongxun was not very good at war. He was a very pure man of letters. Therefore, he read Hailancha's report more carefully. It’s just that Liu Tongxun, who is seventy years old, is not healthy after all. He spent the whole night with no one yesterday, and he does not have to go to the palace to be on duty today. He is sitting on the kang reading booklets, and there is a thick stack of books on the geography and history of Korea. books, people fell asleep unconsciously...

The old servant beside him didn't wake him up, but gently put a quilt on him.

"emperor……"

In the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart, Wu Shulai watched Qianlong take a scarlet pill with tears in his eyes. These are all tiger and wolf medicines.

If you eat too much, your body will be hollowed out. Didn’t the late Emperor Shizong die suddenly after swallowing the elixir? This thing has been a taboo since Yongzheng. But now Qianlong, in order to maintain his strong energy and rosy complexion, he had his face healed and started taking elixirs two months ago.

From one pill every other day at first, to one pill a day now. Wu Shulai was really afraid that one day the emperor would die like this!

How many nights, when he was on duty in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, had he thought about whether he would hit the wall directly, hang himself, or use some other method to kill himself on that day?

Anyway, the fate waiting for him is death!

After swallowing a pill, Qianlong felt as if he had been given a shot of chicken blood. His face turned red, but it was too red, which was a bit abnormal. Qianlong opened his collar, he felt hot. Wu Shulai looked at Qianlong's protruding collarbone through his open collar, but felt that the emperor was even thinner than last month.

…

Not only Guangzhou, but most of Guangdong is painted in red.

Chen Ming ordered the secret camp to take action immediately. Before the Fuhan Army attacked Guangzhou, uprisings broke out in Shaozhou, Fogang, Luoding and other places.

The local strength of the Qing army was really weak. All the Qing soldiers in various states and counties were mobilized, and all they could rely on was the reorganized regiment training and civilian bravery. These forces are not in the hands of the government. Of course, there are also ministers of regiment training in Guangdong. Unfortunately, all the people's bravery that the minister of regiment training can control have already gathered in Guangzhou.

Therefore, once the chess pieces planted or bribed by the Fuhan Army in the secret camp are used, the color of "heaven and earth" will change immediately.

When the Fuhan Army captured the city of Guangzhou, Chen Ming did not need to send troops to attack the huge Guangdong, and most of the counties in the state were still replaced by red flags.

Chen Ming's subordinates ordered the First Division to pursue the remnants of the Qing army who escaped in Guangzhou, and ordered the rebels in western Guangdong to block the river, and tried their best to retain the remnants of the Qing army who fled west. Then the Fujian First Division was ordered to advance northward to Fogang and Shaozhou. The local rebels cooperated one after another, and the connection between Guangdong and Hunan was established almost without a fight.

However, during this period, Chen Ming did not focus on this aspect at all. He could only turn his eyes and stare at the West Road. He did not even care about the Southeast Navy and Nanyang Navy's efforts to capture cities and territories, and focused his main energy on dealing with foreigners. on the matter, as well as on the liquidation work of the Thirteenth Bank.

Led by Pan Zhencheng's Tongwen Bank, Taihe Bank, Yuyuan Bank and other foreign banks have large and small business scales, good and bad industries. But no matter what, no matter how small a guy here is, he is the most open-minded person in China in this era, and he is also the person Chen Ming needs most.

Take Pan Zhencheng as an example. He has walked through Manila three times and can speak four foreign languages.

In Manila, I witnessed scenes of local Chinese being oppressed by the Spaniards, and I also knew that the Dutch had also brutally attacked the Chinese. Pan Zhencheng was not an indifferent person, he was also angry. However, as a businessman, Pan Zhencheng, whose social status was definitely not as high as Europeans imagined, could not stir up a wave of boycotts against the Spanish and Dutch. How did he do it?

As any boycott of Spanish and Dutch trade is irrational, Pan Zhencheng's method is: not to boycott Spain and the Netherlands, but to cultivate their opponents.

Pan Zhencheng’s chosen target is the Swedes!

As a once European superpower, Sweden first drew a draw with the Spanish-led Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years' War, and then lost to Peter the Great's Tsarist Russia in the Great Northern War. Its national power was greatly weakened without any There is no economic growth point in overseas colonies.

Compared with Spain and the Netherlands, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Chinese, the United Kingdom has become increasingly powerful and has firmly established itself as the largest naval power in the Western world. It has defeated the Netherlands three times and seized a series of strongholds in Southeast Asia. Although the United Kingdom The main sphere of influence in Asia is still limited to India, but Pan Zhencheng still maintains a certain vigilance against it.

China and Sweden are natural allies. They should treat Britain favorably and be wary of it, treat France with courtesy, and treat Spain and the Netherlands in a business-like manner.

At the end of the fourth year of Qianlong's reign, the first "Gothenburg" to China arrived in Guangzhou. Pan Zhencheng, who was still a waiter at the time, urged his boss Chen Kuiguan to take on this seemingly risky but relatively meager business and run up and down the business by himself. , warm reception, multi-faceted management, and try to maximize the profits of the Swedish customers who came to China for the first time. This seemingly absurd behavior was often ridiculed by peers at the time, but Pan Zhencheng was confident. Sure enough, only two years later, the "Gothenburg" appeared again at the Pearl River Estuary, bringing with it two other Swedish merchant ships, and named Chen Kuiguan's foreign company to do business with, making other foreign companies with unsalable goods jealous.

Of course, great joy brings sorrow, and the first Gothenburg soon ran aground and sank. Just a few hundred meters away from the shore.

This brought a huge blow to both the Swedish East India Company and the newly established Tongwenhang. The Swedish East India Company, which still had insufficient financial resources, lost its battleship and was unable to recover for a while. Pan Zhencheng also lost an important trade channel, because other Swedish merchant ships were smaller than the "Gothenburg", and the "Gothenburg" still owed money. As time goes by, this small deficit may turn into a vicious circle and turn into a bottomless pit.

In the following years, Sweden's trade volume with China declined significantly. As time went by, the Swedish East India Company owed more and more money to its colleagues, causing Pan Qiguan himself to live in considerable poverty for a time. Pan Qiguan's second son, Pan Youwei, once recalled to outsiders that at that time Pan Qiguan's wife, Huang, worked as a nun during the day and still spun paper and cloth at night to supplement the family income. His brother Pan Youneng could only wear rags and didn't even have a change of clothes. Once it rained and his clothes got wet, he had to bake around the stove. His life didn't look like a wealthy businessman's home, but like a poor beggar. .

Fortunately, Tongwenxing's business soon boomed.

Chen Ming didn't know that in his previous life, there were rumors on the Internet that Pan Zhencheng had personally gone to Switzerland to attend the shareholders' meeting of the East India Company because the Swedes owed him money. Chen Ming, who only had a superficial understanding of the Thirteenth Industry, did not know that. Don't know about this period.

But he knew that Pan Zhencheng had a really good relationship with Sweden. At that time, Pan Zhencheng gave his glass portrait as a gift to Nicholas Savingri, director of the Swedish East India Company, which proved that he attached great importance to the friendship with Swedish businessmen.

For a person like Pan Zhencheng, Chen Ming felt that he could be included in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under preparation.

Have a vision and a long-term view of the world.

Therefore, although Pan Zhencheng had repeatedly contracted arms deals with the Qing Dynasty, Chen Ming did not let the secret camp attack Pan Zhencheng. In fact, if the Fuhan Army's usual standards were followed, the secret camp would have killed the Pan family many times.

When the Fuhan Army arrived in Guangzhou, the occupying Fuhan Army did not do anything to Pan Zhencheng. On the contrary, the previous Qing army almost emptied Pan Zhencheng's bank account.

So when faced with Chen Ming who recruited him again after entering the city, Pan Zhencheng naturally obeyed.

"Your Highness can relax some policies towards merchants from Swedish ships, Denmark, Prussia and other Protestant (Christian) countries that do not have Eastern colonies, and try to buy all the goods they bring, and allow them to buy our goods on credit, and the prices can be appropriately discounted; Right not far The British and French merchants in the Eastern Colonies purchased most of the goods they brought and were prohibited from buying Chinese goods on credit, but some modifications could be made. For the Dutch and Spanish who occupied Southeast Asia, they should buy and sell in full accordance with market conditions, and they were strictly prohibited from buying on credit. Commercial goods.”

Pan Zhencheng was very sad about Zenghai's cruelty. He thought he was worthy of Da Qingguo. Pan Zhencheng was responsible for several arms transactions between the Qing Dynasty and the Portuguese, Britain and France, and he donated no less than 200,000 taels of silver. In addition, he also had a large number of grain, rice, ships and other materials. Even two of the arms transactions were Pan Zhencheng made the payment on his behalf.

As a result, because he was unwilling to leave with the Qing army, Zenghai asked Su Bai to lead troops and nearly ransacked his home.

Pan Zhencheng is still undecided whether to continue doing business or to join Chen Han as an official. But he actively provides Chen Ming with help in some foreign policies and understanding of European countries.

After entering the Qing Dynasty, because Guangzhou and Manila have direct trade, there are not many Spanish merchant ships that go directly to China.

"Your Highness, the number of British merchant ships coming to China has increased day by day recently, and this must be prevented." If the target of China's exports all become British, it will be a reversed sword.

"Among the Western countries, the only one that can compete with England is France. The Double Eagle Country (Austria) and the Single Eagle Country (Prussia) are also reportedly Western powers, but their actual strength is not as good as that of Britain and France. More than ten years ago, the Western War was called the 'Seven Years' War' by foreigners. The Single Eagle Country and the Double Eagle Country were allies of Britain and France respectively..."

Chen Ming tasted the 'trade' thought expounded by Pan Zhencheng more and more like 'using foreigners to control foreigners'. It's just that China in this era is not like the Qing Dynasty in history. It was just to save face by calling Western powers "barbarians". China now has the capital to call Europeans "barbarians"!

Macao has been recovered, and the Portuguese flag has landed from the forts. Guangzhou will continue to open.

The number of Portuguese who choose to "naturalize in China" is not too large, but it is more than Chen Ming imagined, as many as three or four hundred. Many people in the Fu Han Army have a little opinion on this.

The Opium War broke China's dream of the Celestial Empire. Before the Opium War, the Chinese who were intoxicated with the dream of the "Celestial Empire" really had their eyes on the top of their heads!

"Liu Wu, you look down on those foreigners, don't you?"

"I look down on them. They have red hair and blue eyes, and they don't look like humans." Liu Wu answered honestly.

"Then black people are even less human." Chen Ming followed Liu Wu's words and made a cold joke.

"Foreigners are better than us in guns and cannons." The Fu Han Army was able to "borrow" a lot of European technical achievements at the beginning. "Not to mention our iron-cast cannons and rockets. The foreigners' guns and cannons are more powerful than ours, and their warships are also more powerful than ours. Just look at the big green fruit before. If we really get close and fight each other, can we definitely beat the foreigners?"

Liu Wu has seen the world map. The territory of the West is not smaller than that of China, not to mention that there is America, which is larger than the territory of China.

"Since there is no certainty of beating the foreigners, why do we look down on them?"

Chen Ming certainly knows the answer in his heart. The power of tradition, the power of culture, and habit become nature.

The Celestial Empire in the previous life capsized, so I hope that the Chinese at this moment can truly continue to dream of the Celestial Empire.