Daming Military Empire

Chapter 178
The capital city in November was already covered by heavy snow, and it was completely covered in silver. Zhu Cijiong walked out of the corridor between the palaces, stepped on the soft snow, and walked forward slowly.Behind him was a young man in a python robe. This man was not Zheng Chenggong, but Wang Zhengnan, the new governor of Jinyiwei.

Zhu Cijiong called Wang Zhengnan here, of course not to have a snowball fight and build a snowman, but to discuss something important with him. While thinking, he secretly paid attention to the positions of guards and eunuchs on duty everywhere. Then he opened his mouth and asked in a low voice: "Laixian, how is the selection going?"

Wang Zhengnan glanced around quietly, then cupped his hands and said in a low voice: "Excluding the 1000 people sent out earlier, a total of more than [-] Jinyiwei with good skills have been selected. The rest may be difficult to find. It’s deserted, almost no decent drills have been done, and those who can have some skills are passed down from family.”

Zhu Cijiong shook his head and sighed: "Luo Sigong, Luo Yangxing father and son only know how to be good gentlemen, and Tian Ergeng is busy attaching himself to the eunuchs. They have all forgotten the responsibilities of Jinyiwei. The remaining 7000 good ones are due to the deep strength of Jinyiwei. This time, we must gather enough 1 people. If we don’t have enough, we will go to the guards of the Beijing camp to pick them. It happens that the First Army of the Imperial Guard is also replenishing the source of troops. I say hello to Qin Liangyu, and I will leave you with good skills. Anyway, they will use guns in the future, so it doesn't matter if they are a little short."

Wang Zhengnan hurriedly cupped his hands and replied: "I will go to General Qin tomorrow, and try to recruit everyone within a few days."

Zhu Cijiong nodded slightly and said: "Let them practice their disguise and detection skills more, and leave other things alone. From now on, your Jin Yiwei will mainly focus on secret detection. Daming has many enemies. You have to find out their situation for me." Find out one by one, so that I can deal with them."

Wang Zhengnan immediately replied resolutely: "I understand."

Zhu Cijiong nodded encouragingly and said: "Well, work hard, I will leave you the position of the next Jinyiwei commander."

Hearing the words, Wang Zhengnan trembled all over his body, and replied excitedly: "Thank you for your kindness, my humble minister will definitely live up to the emperor's entrustment."

Zhu Cijiong waved lightly and said, "Well, let's go down."

Hearing this, Wang Zhengnan hurriedly bowed his hands and stepped back respectfully.

Zhu Cijiong turned to look at the gray sky, and murmured: "I really can't wait how many troops the Dutch have deployed in Nanyang."

Java Island is located on the vast sea thousands of miles south of Daming. The island is densely covered with clumps, and the vegetation is evergreen all year round. It is rich in tropical crops such as coffee, tea, tobacco, rubber, sugar cane, and coconut. The Indians established the Mataram Dynasty on the island. After several changes of power on the island, it was finally occupied by the Dutch East India Company in the 47th year of Wanli (1619 AD).

In October of the sixth year of Chongzheng, a lucky ship from the Ming Dynasty slowly entered the waters of Java Island with a merchant flag. Judging from the direction of the ship, it should be going to Batavia for business.

At this time, Xiao Jiuzheng was standing on the bow of the Dafu boat, using his binoculars to keep looking at the distant boats, memorizing the numbers in his heart.Don't look at his appearance as a businessman, in fact he is a hundred households of the Jinyiwei, under the command of the new Zhenfu Division of the Jinyiwei, Mr. Wang Zhengnan, and is responsible for scouting out the enemy's situation.

This time, he was ordered by Master Wang Zhengnan to come to investigate the situation of the Dutch garrison on Java Island. Before he arrived on Java Island, he was surprised by the warships patrolling along the way. Isn’t the Dutch East India Company a business? How could it be? How many warships are there?

Just as he was concentrating on observing a super battleship in the distance, someone from behind suddenly patted him on the shoulder, reminding him: "Lord Xiao, don't look, we are about to enter Hongmaofan's port soon."

He didn't need to look back to know that the person who came was the real owner of this merchant ship, Cai Fu, the director of Daming Western Trading Company.By the way, what kind of company and executive are these? It's really awkward to call them, but there is no way, no matter how awkward they are, they have to be called this way. This is the name changed by the emperor himself.

A company is a larger firm, the supervisor is equivalent to the manager of the firm, the manager is equivalent to the treasurer of the firm, the general manager is equivalent to the big treasurer of the firm, as for the boss above, it seems to be called shareholders or directors, and the real The big boss is called the chairman!

Xiao Jiuzheng knew that this Daming Western Trading Company was not an ordinary big firm, and their chairman was Zhennan King Zheng Zhilong!In fact, this Zheng Zhilong is not the biggest boss, the biggest boss is the current emperor!

Just like Rixinglong Company, which has a close relationship with Jinyiwei, these two big companies are actually run by the emperor.

However, the Daming Western Trading Company has been 'reorganized'. I heard that because Zheng Zhilong handed over his sailors, the emperor rewarded him with an additional [-]% of the shares, and merged all his men who used to do business at sea into Daming Western As for the trading company, only King Zhennan and the Emperor know how big the Daming Western Trading Company is now, but it is scary anyway.

Due to the scary background of Daming Western Trading Company, Xiao Jiuzheng was very polite to Cai Fu. Hearing this, he quickly handed the binoculars to the subordinates next to him to put them away, then turned around and said with a smile: "Director Cai, call me after you have agreed to go to sea." Shopkeeper Xiao, are you afraid that I will become the manager on top of you?"

Although Cai Fu knew that this master was from Jinyiwei Baihu, Daming Western Trading Company was not an ordinary small business, and he was not afraid to joke with others. Hearing this, he laughed and said, "Then please go back to the boathouse to rest. , I will come to support you when the place is available.”

Xiao Jiuzheng nodded, and said loudly: "Hurry up, go and carry the goods up."

After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked towards the boat cabin with his hands around.

The Jin Yiwei who was standing upright on the deck immediately changed his serious expression when he heard this, and became busy like a peddler.

The Dutch are quite kind to the merchants. After the big ship docked, they just sent a small team on board to check to see if there were any weapons of mass destruction. As if you didn't see it, who doesn't have something for self-defense when running on the sea.

After the inspection, a large number of gunpowder weapons and artillery were not found, so the team leader found Xiao Jiuzheng and rubbed his fingers with a smile, which meant that the tax was paid.

Xiao Jiuzheng was also unambiguous, and directly offered a small box of silver. He didn't know how much the tax was here, anyway, a box of 500 taels should be a lot.

Sure enough, the Dutchman who led the team checked the silver, gave him a thumbs up, and then walked away with a smile. This means that we are done, and you can do whatever you want!

Xiao Jiuzheng nodded and bowed to send the red-haired devil off the boat, and began to prepare for business.

I am not familiar with the place, how to do business?During the training of Jin Yiwei secret agents, there was a detailed introduction on how to go to a different place to be a fake merchant. First, find out if there are any restaurants and inns opened by Han people in the local area.

Xiao Jiuzheng was lucky, and he really found a restaurant owned by a Han Chinese. Without a word, he went in and ate and drank directly, and got to know the boss first.

The boss was very enthusiastic. During this period, there were not many chances to meet Daming when he was wandering abroad. Now that he met him, he felt very cordial. After a few glasses of wine, Xiao Jiu succeeded in getting some of the basics he wanted. Information, as for the specific information of the Dutch, he did not ask the boss.

What he wanted to investigate was military intelligence, and [-]% of the boss didn't know about it. Even if he knew a little, he wouldn't ask. If he ran over and asked people directly, people would definitely become suspicious, and it would be inconvenient for him to act in the future. up.

He treated himself as a real businessman, and he didn't ask a single word about irrelevant topics, but just asked about the sales channels of various goods, as if he really wanted to do business here.

In fact, he didn't bring much goods, and they were all expensive silk, porcelain and tea, so the sales in this place were naturally not very good.

What if the sales are not good?Naturally, please hurry up and ask the boss to manage it up and down, find someone to help, and go to the Dutch master to sell it!
He is like a rookie who opened up the market, the kickback he gave was amazing, he was given half of the kickback directly after he sold the item!

Although this will not result in a loss, the profit will not be much. It is equivalent to giving it all to the middleman. I got acquainted with the compradors and agents under the Dutch.

As a result, he became a well-known kid in Batavia. He is a fool with a lot of money. Not to mention the amazing kickbacks he gives, he also invites people to eat and drink all day long. Wherever he can get acquainted with the Dutch Whenever people have a chance, they come to him for food and drink, but he really does not refuse like a fool!In order to build a relationship with people, he also specially asked the restaurant owner to find a few local Han people to act as interpreters for him, chatting and spanking with people, which was a lot of fun.

If he talked too much with people, it was inevitable that he would talk about the Dutch. Unknowingly, he slowly figured out the situation of the Dutch garrison near Java Island.

It's really scary!The Dutch East India Company alone has forty battleships, more than 1 naval forces, 150 armed merchant ships, and more than 5 sailors and part-time pirates!In recent years, the Dutch Navy has also stationed a fleet here, with 100 super battleships, more than 2 other small warships, and more than [-] naval forces!

The locals have also seen another fleet of the Dutch Navy, which is about the same size as the fleet stationed here. It has been to Java Island many times, but that fleet seems to be specially designed to protect cargo ships transporting valuable materials. I ordered something and left. Someone secretly went to inquire about it, and all the gold and silver that was shipped up were full boxes!

Xiao Jiuzheng couldn't sit still after knowing the situation. He had to rush back to the capital to report such important information to Mr. Wang Zhengnan.Therefore, he half sold the remaining goods and half gave them to a few familiar local comprador merchants at a low price, and made an appointment to come here often to do business and see old friends.

Afterwards, he set sail with a group of men and headed back to Daming.

(End of this chapter)