New Shun 1730

George Anson was a man of great backbone.

But integrity is of no use facing the vast sea. If they could not dock in China for supplies, they would not be able to move forward on the vast Pacific route. There would be a serious shortage of supplies. The first fleet came to the Pacific with no experience, and a large number of people got scurvy.

If you want to attack the Philippines or intercept Spanish ships in the Philippines, you will also need to use Fujian or Taiwan as a docking place.

The typhoon has not passed yet, and we still need a place where we can maintain and escape from the typhoon.

The Dashun warship that has seized the T prefix has opened its cannon door. Even if it starts a war for the honor of the officer regardless of the political consequences, it may not be an opponent.

After all, this is the doorstep of Dashun. If this is in the English Channel, even in the Caribbean or North America, it will be as large as a battleship and seven cruisers. George Anson thought to himself that if it were in those places, I would definitely let them do it. I paid for the insult.

Unfortunately, that's not the case here.

On the big ship, Liu Yu used a telescope to observe the situation here. When he saw the people on the deck still grinding and chirping, he couldn't help but cursed: "You are still so arrogant when you ask for help?"

Dupleix hurriedly added: "The British have always been like this. Last time in Guangzhou, we should have been more ruthless to let them remember."

After lingering for a while, the British warship finally lowered its flag and finally gave in.

Liu Yu sent a signal to Mantou, and the pilot set off, leading the fleet to the Kowloon Peninsula where there were dense forts.

…………

On the sea, on a British East India Company ship watching the excitement in the distance, sixteen-year-old Robert Clive witnessed the whole process.

This was his first time in Asia. Clive, who would become a crazy gambler and bet nine hundred and seventy thousand to decide India, was still very young at this time.

He came to Guangzhou on a ship of the East India Company because his father, a member of Parliament, thought that the child could no longer be expected to study and it was better to send him to the East India Company to find a way out.

The original plan was to wait until he came of age in two years before going there, but Dashun had launched formal diplomacy with Western countries, and the East India Company wanted to expand the size of its commercial mission to China and was short of manpower.

His father loves his son so much that he considers that the person who gets on the bus first will occupy the car and it will be difficult to get on the bus in the future.

India is not a good place. It has a hot climate, malaria, fever, cholera... If we can't catch up with this opportunity for the company to expand its business office in China, we will have no choice but to go to India in two years.

As for Dashun, no matter what, the big port city is much better than the one in India.

Whether it is the climate, urban drainage construction, sanitation, etc., it will be much better.

If you miss this opportunity to expand your business center and recruit new people, it will be more difficult to come to China, a more comfortable place, instead of India in the future.

So the father, who was a parliamentarian, used connections, asked for help, gave some gifts, and finally found a job for his son as a clerk at the East India Company's commercial office in China. He registered goods, but did not participate in accounting - because he did not study well. , can't be an accountant.

Dashun requires ambassadors from various countries to be stationed in Tianjin and general managers of commercial offices to stay in Tianjin.

If you want to get first-hand information about goods at the remaining commercial offices in the southern port cities, you must station personnel.

In the past, many ships were traded in Guangzhou, not because Dashun also engaged in trade, but because Macau had a good foundation before, which was a kind of inertia.

But now, of course, those who buy tea go directly to Fujian. The British like to drink cheap Wuyi tea. Wuyi Mountain is not in Guangdong, so it is definitely cheaper to buy it in Fujian. Those who buy silk, of course, go to Songjiang.

Moreover, after the establishment of trading companies in Songjiang, big capital began to gather in Songjiang. The original route from Jingdezhen to Macao via Porcelain Road was changed to the Yangtze River waterway from Anqing to Songjiang for bulk goods.

Nowadays, East India companies in various countries have begun to develop their business centers northward, trying to buy goods as close as possible to save a dollar, but they are short of manpower.

This trend became even more obvious after the Dashun diplomacy started. Under the change, Clive, who was originally going to go to the East India Company to seek a career in two years, was sent away under the arrangement of his father to "seize a good place". When I get to China, where the climate is more suitable, I will first experience it.

This was originally a relatively good arrangement. If it weren't for the help of connections, the company would only have so many positions in China. Even a clerk would be more comfortable than in India. At least it would not be easy to get tropical diseases. sick.

However, after witnessing this scene in Ling Ding Yang, Clive had other thoughts in his mind.

He doesn't like it very much.

“Has China always been so arrogant?”

Clive, who was watching the excitement on the deck, asked an old employee of the company, a friend of his father.

"Yes, China is not India. Here, if customs officials board our ship, we need to kneel down. And if the company has anything to ask local officials, it cannot use 'application', 'note' or the like. The word must be used. "

"We must abide by the rules here. The company has also issued an order prohibiting the carriage of goods such as opium. The company must abide by local laws here. After all, our company is still in China and has to face Sweden, Denmark, and France. , the Dutch and the Portuguese, and even the Prussians.”

"And... the company's sales of goods in China are not very good. There are not many big businessmen willing to contact us."

The previous ones have always been like this, and the employees of the East India Company do not have scholar status. How can they not pay homage to them when they see an official?

The latter can be regarded as Britain's helplessness at this time.

Historically, the Opium War was still 20 to 30 years away, steam engines had already appeared in Britain for a long time, and the merchants of the Thirteenth Bank of Guangdong were not yet ready to see the British. Because the goods that the British used to barter to compensate for silver coins were really difficult to sell.

Before the Opium War, the only country in history that could trade normally with China and balance the trade volume after excluding opium smuggling was the United States, which sold ginseng and mink skins.

The British East India Company was certainly dishonest, but the imperial court had long been aware of the dangers of magical medicines such as "Dinoga" and issued a smoking ban.

The British side is unable to give Dashun a beating for the time being, and is afraid of being banned from trade, so it can only strictly stipulate that company employees should not engage in petty tricks.

This is completely different from Britain's trade elsewhere in Europe. In India, let alone kneel down and worship, you can often chat and laugh with the princes of the local princes. But here in Dashun, it is really difficult to meet a Jiedushi level.

Moreover, Dashun only drew a circle here, and the ground was drawn as a prison, and they were not allowed to move out of the circle at will. Not only were they worried about missionary work, but also after the map incident of the "Han Legal Kingdom", Dashun was extremely wary of this group of Westerners who secretly drew maps for export... and was worried that they would steal porcelain, raw silk and other technical reasons.

The Russians spent a lot of money to purchase rhubarb seeds, and Dashun has investigated several major cases here. The French here also almost stole the secret of porcelain, so we must guard against it.

This is completely different from the arrogant company style that he heard, which makes Clive very uncomfortable.

Even though he hasn't officially worked in the company yet, Clive is already a little tired. Thinking about the endless clerical work, and then thinking about the "overbearing and overbearing" barbaric behavior here in Dashun, it is not as free as it is in India.

Looking at the Royal Navy fleet with the flag lowered in the distance and moving slowly under the surveillance of the Dashun warship, Clive imagined his future life and couldn't help but frown.

Imagine that you are only sixteen now.

Every day, I have to work as a clerk in the port business hall, counting goods, inventory, and counting.

After working for thirty years, from a young boy to a middle-aged and elderly person, such days can be seen thirty years from now.

Days like this are really worse than death. If I like this kind of life, I will go to school and study hard, and I won't have to transfer to another school and be dropped out of school.

I had listened to many legends of the East India Company and stories about the sea, and thought that the outside world must be as interesting, adventurous, and exciting as the stories. Every day I lived was like placing my lover as a bet on the gambling table. .

But looking at those obedient warships of the Royal Navy, and listening to the old uncle's words that even use the word "Zhencheng", the contrast between reality and imagination is really too great.

Clive looked at his father's old friend and said distressedly: "Uncle John, I heard that life in the company is very exciting and there are many legends of getting rich, so I came to the company."

"If order and laws must be observed here, why should I come? Is there no order and laws in the UK?"

"Are the stories about the legendary company all false?"

Old John smiled and said: "It's true. But among the stories and legends you've heard, did any of them happen in China? Oh, by the way, except for the incident when I was beaten by French sailors in Guangdong. As hate has always been publicized.”

"The legend is true. A life of excitement and adventure can be in the Caribbean or in India. But not here. Here, there is an empire that can maintain their law and order. We can only abide by the laws here."

Clive asked with the surprise of a rebellious sixteen-year-old child: "Uncle John, can you endure such a life?"

Old John also looked at Clive in surprise and asked: "Oh God. There is no tropical malaria or fever here; there is no summer weather that is so hot that you want to take off your skin. There is no need to worry about war or war. We don’t have to worry about the French leading the princes to capture us, and we don’t have to worry about the lead bullets shot by the Indians from the woods... The salary and overseas subsidy are higher than those of domestic clerks, my child, isn’t this a good life?”

The two people couldn't understand each other's thinking at all.

Clive was a lifelong gambler seeking excitement.

When I was eleven or twelve years old, in pursuit of excitement, I climbed onto a church statue and hung upside down to act like the Hanged Man.

Not to scare the praying neighbors.

Just to feel the tension of falling to death at any time. Every time my heart beats faster and every pore in my body is sweating, it feels like I have experienced an ultimate... orgasm.

Later, he almost single-handedly conquered Bangladesh and created a legend, but that only raised his stimulation threshold. The subsequent war made him no longer feel the excitement, and he was so empty that he began to smoke opium in pursuit of the pure and ultimate spiritual pleasure.

A year before the North American rebels were about to launch an uprising, Clive, who felt increasingly empty and less excited after taking too much opium, committed suicide with a knife.

The commission to grant him the governorship of the Massachusetts Colony, allowing him to suppress the rebels and recreate the legend of Bengal is already on the way.

It was difficult for Clive to understand Old John's words. Every day when he went to and from get off work, a sixteen-year-old could know the life of a sixty-year-old. Why would anyone like it?

Old John also felt that Clive's question was strange. Why would anyone not like a life without tropical diseases, a relatively clean city, good wages, and a stable life without life-threatening dangers?

Clive looked at the Royal Navy warships that had already gone far away and obeyed the laws and order of Dashun, and finally shook his head firmly.

"This is not the life I want. Life here, you can know what it will be like when you are sixty from the age of sixteen, so what's the difference between me dying now and dying at the age of sixty? I don't like laws and order. Under the sky of laws and order, there is no soil for legends and heroes."

"I... don't like China. Here, there is order. Can I apply to be transferred to India? Or, can the company destroy the order of Dashun?"