On May 1, 1671, two three-masted sailboats sailed into the dredged and silted Guanhe River, and then followed the southeast wind and finally stopped in a newly established river port, Xiangshui Port.

There are currently thousands of Qing residents living near Xiangshui Port, so the place is also known as Xiangshui Town. The Qing Dynasty has a customs office here (this seems to be a new thing learned from the outside world), a salt road office, a river office, a response camp (a large-scale camp that uses Spanish large array tactics), a coastal defense fort, and other a series of institutions. Except for a few salt workers and vegetable farmers, the residents in all towns are basically the families of officials.

In addition, near the Guanhekou a little further away, the Guanhekou city, which the people of the East Bank had built roughly back then, was also used by the Qing army. They continued to repair and expand the original scope, and referred to the opinions of British consultants, adding many elements of European fortresses, making this brand new Guanhekou city a medium-sized fortress that can accommodate about two or three thousand soldiers and a large amount of supplies (a cavalry camp that accommodates three thousand horses was built a few miles away), which was an important gateway to Xiangshui Town.

After arranging the defenses of sea and land in Guanhekou, the Qing Dynasty contacted the British East India Company, which had been privately connected for many years, and then jointly decided to set up the trading locations of the two sides here. As for the Qing Dynasty and the Dutch Indian Company, there were many places where the Qing government traded with the Netherlands. It was originally Haizhou. When Haizhou Port was greatly damaged in the earthquake and the sea retreated 30 miles, the two sides negotiated to set up the trading locations in a new province just established by the Qing government in Jiangsu Province, which was separated from east to west from Jiangnan Province to form some coastal locations. Sometimes the Dutch would even risk going to the Liaodong Peninsula or Hangzhou Bay to trade with the Qing Dynasty, which was also aware of the lack of power in the east coast and could not handle the weaknesses everywhere.

Although Xiangshui Port is a river port, the conditions are very outstanding to be fair. The river is wide and the water is deep, which is conducive to the entry and exit of large ships; at the same time, the river surface is calm and the waves are not stirring, and it is a very good anchorage. In addition, the hinterland of Guanhe is the Huaian Prefecture, which has always been rich. Although 500,000 people were moved away at once, the foundation of this large-scale population is still there. Many unaffected prefectures and counties are still very dense. Even in Shanyang, Qinghe, Andong and other counties, there are still a large number of people in the Siye countryside. In addition, over the years, the Qing court has continuously migrated landless or small land farmers from Jiangnan, Henan and other places with rapid population growth, and settled in Jiangbei. These have greatly restored the social economy of Huaian Prefecture in Jiangbei. The production of hot-selling foreign trade products such as raw silk and silk are increasing day by day, which brought great fiscal revenue to the Qing court.

Therefore, in general, it makes sense that the British and the Qing court shared their favourites this place. This is indeed a very ideal trading port. Although it is not as good as the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay, considering that it is a common area for the Navy on the East Coast with the Changshan Islands, it is not low to avoid that area of ​​sea. After all, the naval power of the East Coast people is seriously insufficient, and it is difficult to block the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay, so they are naturally powerless to other places.

This is not the first time Hawks Clifford has come to the Far East, but he used to be a sailor. After raising enough funds and purchasing a ship in London, he can finally sail to the Far East for trade as a captain and merchant, which is a big leap for him.

As a rising star of the Clifford family, Hawks also understood what this voyage meant to him. Many years after his uncle died at the hands of the East Coast people (although there is no definite evidence, everyone believes that the East Coast warship robbed Clifford's ships), their family had just paid off their debts and obtained a little pitiful start-up capital. If he failed this time, the family would not start from scratch again.

Fortunately, I looked good this time. The ships passing along the way all arrived in India, Macau, Xiamen and Xiangshui Port. They did not have all kinds of problems in the middle as before, and they were tragically robbed by pirates, suffered from danger, lost their way, etc.

Clifford's ship is called the "Squid", built in London, with a standard displacement of 460 tons, and has 12 small and medium-caliber artillery, which can barely be called an armed merchant ship. Together with it, there are four merchant ships belonging to the East India Company, namely the narrow-tail sailing ship "Bantan" and the large merchant ship "Crown" (the two ships disappeared on their way to Taiwan to establish a commercial station in 1671), the armed merchant ship "Return" and the "Test"

(These two ships successfully drove to Taiwan in 1672 and established a commercial station. Later, they were captured by the Dutch on the way back to Banten.) They were ships of about hundreds of tons, carrying a large number of artillery and muskets (the Qing court made its own muskets while importing them. Because the quality of British guns was much better than that of the Qing court, they also imported a batch every year), plate armor, telescopes, artillery sighting and weighing equipment, etc., were all ready to be sold to the Qing Dynasty, which was very easy to sell.

In addition, as usual, there were a group of military talents recruited in the British and German regions on the ship, including former mercenaries who were familiar with the battle formation and construction talents in military engineering. There were also many, and there were dozens of people. They were all hired by the East India Company for a large price in Europe. Of course, this would not lead to any losses, because the Qing government had promised to buy out their contracts at a high premium and then re-sign a high-paying employment contract with them so that they could serve the Qing court more with peace of mind. Even if they had a good job, it was said that they might be incorporated into the Eight Banners system and even awarded a title. Former German mercenary officer Leccenstein has set an example for everyone.

"The King of Fujian, the king of Guo, and the supporter of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong also recruited military talents everywhere in Xiamen. It is said that the "Flying Eagle" and the "Formosa" have already been loaded with a large number of weapons and Nanyang specialties to Xiamen Island. It is said that a formal business station will be built there for long-term contact. This is a brave attempt. "The first mate of the ship, the Danish Martin, held a large pipe and whispered beside Little Clifford.

"They put their hopes on the continuous conquest of the Lord, but this seems very unlikely to me. Before Christmas last year, the Lord's ships went to Bandan and Batavia to buy copper everywhere, but they all hit a wall. This person obtains a large amount of copper pieces every year through Japanese trade, but it is not enough. It only means that he has used all of the coppers to cast cannons and cast money. What does this mean? It means that his rule may be in crisis, so it requires a lot of money and weapons. This is an important factor that a qualified merchant must consider." Little Clifford took out a wallet from his safe and then smiled at the first mate Martin: "But considering that even the Dutch East India Company failed to successfully establish a commercial station on Xiamen Island, what if the "Flying Eagle" and "Holmosa" try their luck? Maybe they will succeed, maybe not, and there is no loss for us."

"You can't say that, my captain." Martin shook his head gently and said in a disagreement tone: "To establish a commercial station in Xiamen, we will inevitably divide our strength. The King of Fujian is not a good investment target. He has a relatively elite armed force. I remember that the name is "Iron Man Army", and it is all heavy infantry units formed with plate armor imported from the Portuguese and the Dutch. This may have been somewhat useful ten years ago, but in today's mainland China, such heavy infantry units have become increasingly out of date. They are clumsy, slow, and exhausting physical strength, but cannot effectively resist the attacks of bullets and shells. It is simply too bad, and he is still obsessed with strengthening the organization of such troops.

In addition, the territory of the King of Fujian was too barren, just like the continuous mountainous areas in Switzerland and northern Italy, with almost nothing worth mentioning except tea and a small amount of raw silk. The way he relied on to maintain a huge armed force was just to monopolize the trade of mainland China with Japan, but the degree of this monopoly was still much worse than the previous generation of their family. Mr. Captain, I lived in Macau for nine years and I couldn't know much about these. It is hard to say whether the power of the King of Fujian family has advanced or retreated in these years, especially as the sources of leather, sugar, raw silk, tea and cotton they brought to Japan to trade were decreasing."

In fact, the issue that Martin talked about is also a dilemma that the Zheng family in Fujian has been facing over the years. That is, the power of the East Coast people rose rapidly in the Pearl River Estuary and controlled more than half of the foreign trade of Guangzhou and Huizhou prefectures, which raised the market price of raw silk, sugar and other commodities, making the Zheng group very uncomfortable. It can be said that if Zheng Chenggong had not been within the Ming Dynasty system and bought a considerable amount of sugar from Guangdong, how could his trade with Japan continue to maintain. So, this is the reason why Zheng Chenggong began to send people from Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi to collect people from Taiwan, across the sea to Taiwan Island was mainly due to the Dutch power. He had to find a stable source for sugar and leather, otherwise there might be big trouble.

In addition, there is another issue that must be mentioned, that is, Zheng Chenggong is now old and not in good health. He was infected with malaria a few years ago and barely saved his life by relying on Jinjinashuang, who was so expensive to buy from the East Coast. Now, Zheng Chenggong, who felt that he had not had much time, has begun to arrange the succession. His eldest son Zheng Jing has been following him in recent years to learn political strategy and military affairs, and has been attending various occasions. As long as the people in the Zheng group are not blind, they know which lord they will be loyal to in the future.

Although Zheng Jing's ability is not very outstanding, it is not very bad. It should be no problem to use it to maintain its foundation. Besides, there are some talents around him, such as Chen Yonghua, Feng Xifan, Liu Guoxuan and others, who can be regarded as assistants with good talents. If Zheng Jing can make good use of it, his future prospects will still be promising even if he can't beat others on the mainland in the end and is defeated, he can still retreat to the sea to show his future.

"You are right, Martin, I accept your point of view. The current Guoxian is worth betting, but it cannot be a heavy betting. Let's take a look at what the future will be like." Cox Clifford was very satisfied and felt that the old Danish sea dog he recruited in Macau last year was worth the money and was worthy of the high salary he offered him.

"Yes, Captain Clifford, it's not time to place a heavy bet yet. Let the cards on the table be played for a while and see what will happen." Martin said: "When I was in Macau, I heard a familiar missionary mention that the relationship between Guoxian and the Dutch East India Company in Fujian has not been very good recently, probably because of the disputes arising from trade between Japan and South China Sea. This conflict seems to be within a controllable range, but in the future, once the subordinates of Guoxian are in deeper and deeper in the development of Holmosa, they may be even more escalating. At that time, it may be the opportunity for our British East India Company, especially when the Dutch decides to help Li Chengdong, the Guangdong King who has a grudge against Zheng Chenggong, or simply help the Manchurian Tatar Emperor, Zheng Chenggong's life will be very sad. I promise that at that time, it will be the time for him to beg us."

"Very good. At the deck of Chinese deck in the Far East, after years of unremitting efforts, we finally sat on the deck. The trade profits with the Qing and Ming countries were so abundant that many people in the company were shouting "Forgot India". This is really an interesting fact. Martin, enjoy this moment. The number of ships in the East Coast people here is limited and they cannot monopolize this huge country. In fact, I guess no one can monopolize this trade treasure house that can be called the second India. Now is the time for us to enjoy rich trade profits, although the Dutch East India Company seems to have a close relationship with the Manchurian Emperor." Cox Clifford changed his body clothes with the help of his servant, and then sprinkled some perfume imported from India on his body. Then, accompanied by the first mate Martin and several other entourage, he went down to the dock through the springboard and began contacting and negotiation with the Qing customs officials.
Chapter completed!