The "Yaksa" armed transport ship had already dropped its sails and went up the river with steam power. Therefore, it slowly arrived on the Pearl River outside Guangzhou City until the morning of the 28th. On the way, they stayed a little outside the famous Humen Fort, but unfortunately there was only a piece of weed left on it at this moment. Since the British merchant fleet led by Weidell captured this place and demolished the cannons in 1637, Li Chengdong has not tried to restore Humen, the key coastal defense area outside Guangzhou, which is a strange thing. However, this may be related to his lack of high-quality coastal defense cannons. After all, just by the waste cannons of the Ming Dynasty, it is far from blocking the river surface, let alone protecting the colorful world of Guangzhou.

The arrival of the armed transport ship with the twin swords and goshawk flags made the Pearl River outside Guangzhou a mess of chaos on the Pearl River. The fishing boats and boats were avoiding each other. Some panicked sailors jumped into the water excitedly because they still remembered that the British merchants - perhaps saying that pirates were more suitable - galloping across the Pearl River, as if they were in a no-man's realm, so they thought that the Widell fleet had come again.

However, the East Coast people were not "violent" British men who were both businessmen and robbed. The "Jacsa" with only 10 small and medium-caliber artillery was not Weidell's fleet. They anchored the Pearl River River and sent someone to carry a letter to the shore. They first expressed their identity loudly, and then directly asked to see Duke Huiguo Li Chengdong. The Nanhai County public servants who were so nervous that they didn't know what to do on the shore immediately stepped forward when they heard this, and did not dare to be too rude. Instead, they "guarded" several East Coast envoys and headed into the city.

The messenger went there for half an hour without any news. Shao Shuguang set up a table in his bored state, opened a bottle of Daqu in the river, and drank with Tian Xing, who was on the boat. Han Jin, who had been serving Shao Shuguang, saw that there was no suitable food, volunteered to go to the shore to buy some back. Shao Shuguang felt that it was not too dangerous, so he let him go.

Han Jin casually lit a few big and thick guards, brought pistols and bayonets, and then took a small boat and went to the shore. The Ming people on the shore looked at these short-haired people with strong clothes and short hair. After thinking that they were not like vicious people, the Guangzhou citizens who were more open to trade for many years were not afraid. Therefore, when Han Jin took out silver dollars to buy food, someone came up to contact him soon.

Qu Dajun, a famous scholar in Fanyu, once said: "Everything in the world is almost available in eastern Guangdong, but not all the foods in eastern Guangdong may not be available in the world." Although this is exaggerated, it also shows from another perspective that Guangdong is delicious, knows how to eat, and dares to eat anything. Han Jin bought some fish, roasted wax and snacks without spending a few silver dollars. In addition, he also bought some "Henan tea" (i.e. green tea produced in the south of the Pearl River) and stored it in case of emergency needs.

Shao Shuguang picked up the chopsticks and tasted the food that Han Jin bought. He thought it was pretty good, so he felt the idea of ​​finding a few chefs in Guangzhou to enrich his private chef team. He even remembered his local friend Xu Hao, a second-generation dresser who likes to open a restaurant, has opened a "Penglai Restaurant" locally, focusing on Shandong local cuisine. He planned to recommend some Guangzhou chefs to him and let him open a Cantonese restaurant to enrich the food culture of the Xiada East Bank.

After all, in the eyes of Shao Shuguang and other second-generation people who grew up with golden spoons, the frugal life of their parents is simply unbearable. The East Coast urgently needs "literary poverty alleviation", "entertainment poverty alleviation" and "food poverty alleviation" to adapt to the people - in fact, it is mainly the powerful and wealthy class - the increasingly high requirements for spiritual civilization construction.

The source of "poverty alleviation" is naturally the Ming Dynasty, the former mother country of the East Coast people. They absorb some cultural nutrients from the Ming Dynasty - naturally they have to take the essence and remove the dross - both reasonable and reasonable. In the future, it is more convenient to integrate and localize them to form a new "East Coast culture". After all, you cannot expect the Ming people who account for nearly half of the population to enjoy French drama and Italian opera. They are more willing to watch street juggling and not to go to the Dongfang County People's Theater to watch the performances of the famous clowns and Scalamcha, who are popular in the old continent.

Shao Shuguang is paying attention to food, while Tian Xing, who was born as an intelligence official, is observing the pattern of Guangzhou City. This city, which was built in four years in Shunzhi, is now quite large in scale. It is bordered by the Pearl River in the south and Yuexiu Mountain in the north. It is indeed a self-contained and difficult to conquer - of course, the premise is that the East Coast people are defending. If it is Li Chengdong and the East Coast people, the East Coast people will ask that it will take no one week to break the city and enter.

It’s a pity that the superiors would not agree to their southern war zone occupying Guangzhou, which is unreasonable and even more illogical. For this, Tian Xing, who has always been coveting the wealthy Guangzhou, is still a little regretful. However, thinking that the East Coast people may control the foreign trade of Guangzhou Prefecture and even the entire Guangdong in the future, his mood became a little better. He turned his eyes and began to measure the geography around Guangzhou City, thinking about where to set up a commercial station, the easiest and difficult to defend, and the most convenient transportation.

At around 1:00 p.m., Shao Shuguang and Tian Xing, who were a little anxious, finally came to Li Chengdong's envoy, and they were actually an old acquaintance. Hao Shangjiu, the new Taihou of the Southern Ming Dynasty!

This military head, who once participated in the Battle of the Yangtze River with Liu Junmen, has gained a lot of weight compared to the past. It seems that Guangzhou, a place where people are raised, has sacked this guy. I wonder if Xin Taihou, who was trained in Jiangxi, can withstand the battle now under the impact of the Dengzhou horse team?

"Haha, it's a distinguished guest of the Eastern Dynasty! I didn't know beforehand so that I could prepare. Back then, Mr. Hao, I also had some friendship with Liu Junmen of your country, and I always hoped that he would come to Guangzhou to live in a short time so that I could do my best to be a landlord. Unfortunately, Liu Junmen was transferred back to the court, and Yuan Keng was on the side, which was a pity! Well, I heard that Liu Junmen returned to the court and entered the Privy Council and became the Prime Minister. No wonder he hurriedly returned to the country and finally got promoted, haha!" There were still twenty or thirty meters apart, Hao Shangjiu, who was shy with a big belly, shouted with his throat.

Shao Shuguang felt a little whispered when he heard this: If Commander Liu really accepts your invitation to live in Guangzhou, how could he go alone? At that time, you will be suspicious, so why bother? But as soon as the fat man came up, he said insincerely that we came uninvited, and then pulled up Liu Haiyang's tiger skin to make a big banner. He looked very weak. Could it be that he was really afraid that we would learn from the British who went ashore to rob? Well, his mentality is quite interesting. If possible, he could also make a little use of it.

After the follower reminded him to learn about Hao Shangjiu's identity, Shao Shuguang and Tian Xing stepped forward to greet him, and then briefly told him about the purpose of their people. After hearing this, Xintai Hou gave a breath in his heart, as long as it was not to come to trouble them! His benefactor, Li Chengdong, was holding his hand before leaving the door, and was anxiously worried whether the East Coast people came to make trouble. After all, they refused to buy Guangdong raw silk for the East Coast people. After a few years, they seemed to have refused to export "piglets" to the East Coast people. After thinking about it, there are quite a few places that "offend" the East Coast people. Maybe they are here to find fault, so they must be careful! Fortunately, the East Coast people finally clarified their intentions, which made Hao Shangjiu feel relieved. Then they quickly turned their eyes and asked a servant to go back to report the message. Where is Hui Guoyu waiting!

After knowing that the East Coast people were dealing with the Franchise Marine Merchant, Hao Shangjiu felt that this was not very difficult to deal with. He really wanted to break up, that is, to transfer a few battalions of troops to Haojing Ao (of course he took it for granted. In fact, there were many Portuguese people in Macau and were not weak). However, these Franchise men had a wide range of friendships. Not only did the Huiguo Duke and his group had many business dealings with them, but many of the wealthy families in Guangzhou were also inseparable from them. If the Franchise man was expelled, it would have touched many people's wallets. The trouble was quite large. You must act carefully, and it would be best not to offend them!

Shao Shuguang and others quickly came to the shore and headed towards the city under Hao Shangjiu's guidance. Because they were unwilling to sit in the sedan chair, the group rode their horses to go there. Many Ming people on both sides of the street pointed at each other. Shao Shuguang, Tian Xing and others didn't care, so they tidy up their woolen coats and entered the city with their heads raised their chests.

Li Chengdong's residence covers a vast area, pavilions, towers, eaves and walls, and is full of luxury. It is full of the atmosphere of nouveau riche. However, Shao Shuguang and others were interested in seeing it. Compared with the heavy, simple and practical buildings in the East Coast, Li Chengdong's residence brought them a different novel feeling. He even began to wonder whether to recruit some Ming Dynasty architectural craftsmen to build a beautiful house for himself on the East Coast, and he would almost enjoy it when he returned.

At the same time, Shao Shuguang secretly reminded himself that after coming to Guangzhou for a while, he began to pay attention to food, daily life and other enjoyment. It was really not possible! From this, we can finally know why the Qing Tartars began to fall rapidly after entering the pass (but it was much slower than in history), and why Li Chengdong, the Shaanxi-Gansu gang who were originally capable of fighting, have now developed a bunch of waste. It is really a flower world that can destroy people's will. In terms of enjoyment, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty is really unparalleled. It is probably only the arrogant, extravagant and lewd sultan princes of the Ottoman Empire can compare with it. However, the laws of our Great East Coast are strict, the systems are sound, and rewards and punishments are fair. Even if the soldiers live in this prosperous place in eastern Guangdong for a long time, I believe they will not be like the soldiers and generals under Li Chengdong.

Li Chengdong is tall and burly. He originally looked heroic, but for many years in Guangzhou, his energy has become less and less, so he has almost become a rich man now, completely losing the courage and bloodiness he used to make when he was fighting against the Qing Dynasty and returning to the Ming Dynasty.

His housekeeper held a sumptuous banquet for everyone in the flower hall, mostly with local characteristics of Cantonese. In addition, there were also opera troupes nearby, but they sang popular bangzi operas in Shaanxi and Gansu, which was probably related to the origin of Li Chengdong and his core subordinates - people from Shaanxi and Gansu naturally like to listen to the exciting and exciting Qin Opera roar!

The actors of the Bangzi Opera should be all locals in Guangdong. Later, they learned the Western tune halfway to please these new masters of Guangzhou City. The show I performed today is called "Han Shizhong Rescue the King", which is based on the old story of the Song Jingkang period. Although Shao Shuguang, Tian Xing and others claimed to be Miao descendants of the Song Dynasty, they were not very familiar with this history. In addition, the influence of the Western tune of Qin Opera made them even more ununderstandable, but this did not prevent them from appreciating this art form.

In addition to Li Chengdong himself and his two adult sons, there were also generals such as the new Tai Hou Hao Shangjiu, adopted son Li Yuanyin, and some local officials who were recruited after entering Guangdong. At this time, under the instructions of Li Chengdong, these people kept coming forward to persuade them to drink and get close. Although the language communication between the two sides was a little disconnected, the relationship was finally brought closer, and the atmosphere became a little warm for a while.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Chengdong coughed lightly, and then heard Li Yuanyin talk about the Franchise Man in Haojing's inadvertent tone. The man's face was flushed and looked so powerful, but his mouth was clear. He spoke and recorded the Franchise Man's bad deeds in Xiangshan. From forcing to forcing to selling to spreading foreign religions, all kinds of things seemed to be completely incompatible with these Franchise Man.

The officials sitting beside him also nodded, expressing their approval, and occasionally interjected a few words, which were nothing more than Franchise sailors who were prostitutes and stayed in residential houses, which were devastating. But these treacherous officials then changed their minds and said that the local bandits were in trouble and that the army should not be easily released. I hope that Duke Huiguo would think twice. If the powerful soldiers of the Eastern Kingdom were willing to ease Haojing'ao, they would do their best to support the food and grass, and would never let the army sleep in the open and have no food and clothing.

Speaking of this, Shao Shuguang and others also understood Li Chengdong's choice, that is, they were from the East Coast, and Franchise chose to make good friends with the East Coast, abandoning their former business partner Franchise. For this reason, even if they were willing to offend some senior officials in the South Ming Dynasty or local gentry in the Cantonese, this was limited, at least they would not send troops to do this in person - this made the East Coast a little regretful. After all, if Li Chengdong could draw thousands or even tens of thousands of troops to march from the land, then control the Fujing.

It is very easy to expel and even arrest the Portuguese. It is much more convenient and much lower than the East Coast people who risked the threat of heavy artillery in Macau to land and fight. But this is also impossible. Li Chengdong is a warlord. Warlords have always regarded preserving their own strength and maintaining their own rule as their top priority. Others are false to them. Now that he can do this, he has shown considerable kindness to the East Coast. What else can you ask for?
Chapter completed!