In 1664 AD, in March of the 15th year of the reign of Dashun, Shalian City.

This city, located at the southernmost tip of the Dashun Empire, was the only seaport of Dashun, a feudal military country that was blocked by the Ming Dynasty in the mountains of southwestern China. Before and after ten years of joint rule, as the war between Dashun and Siam gradually

After the war subsided, the feudal lords across Myanmar gradually accepted the reality that Dashun replaced Toungoo, and it became the largest thoroughfare for exchanges between the Dashun Empire and the world. Silk and porcelain from Sichuan, cotton and horses from India, came from

Arms of the West and the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty exported arms, but it was impossible to monitor their flow. They traveled thousands of miles and gathered here.

But the businesses in the Ming Dynasty were full of the evil smell of capitalism. This trading city belonging to the Dashun Empire did not have the slightest unpleasant smell of capitalism.

This is a rather serious and dull trading port!

Here in Salim, trade can only be carried out in the designated Shipping Bureau, and all merchants who come to Hong Kong can only trade with the Salian Shipping Bureau, and cannot directly trade with merchants from Dashun or other people coming to Hong Kong.

Merchants conduct transactions. Merchants who violate this rule will be severely fined, usually having their goods confiscated and deported!

In addition to having only one trading object, merchants who came to Hong Kong for trade were not allowed to wander around casually. They could only go to the barracks on the banks of the Dashun River and the Yangon River. The reason why it was "leafing" was because the barbarians were basically a prison city.

It is surrounded by tall walls, and there are only two entrances and exits, one leading to the dock and the other leading to Shalianfu City. They are all guarded by Dashun's Long March soldiers who have served for a long time, and access is strictly controlled.

According to regulations, ordinary merchants can only travel between the "Lengcheng City" and the pier. The passage between the "Lengcheng City" and the pier is not a normal road, but a corridor blocked by wooden fences.

Merchants could only carry their goods through the corridor, and trenches were dug on both sides of the corridor. The bottom of the trench was filled with sharpened wooden piles, making it impossible to pass through.

Since the Shipping Department of Salim City operates slowly, during the busy trade season, businessmen coming to Hong Kong must queue up to wait for transactions. Therefore, when entering the market, merchants must first obtain a number and then specify the number in the market.

Stay in the hut and wait patiently.

Of course, the hut is simple and simple, and the food is very monotonous. There are only meat buns, some fruits and vegetables, and a kind of rice wine brewed from rice. If you don’t like to eat, you can bring your own dry food, or you can go hungry, but you can’t spend money to buy delicious food!

Because there is no place to buy, there are no shops that serve food in the market. In addition, in order to prevent businessmen coming to Hong Kong from illegal transactions in the market, merchants are not allowed to bring gold, silver, copper coins and other currencies into the market, so they also

There is no money to buy it.

How to trade without money?

Of course it's bartering.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, which was keen on accumulating gold and silver, the Dashun Empire did not need gold and silver, nor did it need a surplus. It did not need gold and silver, so there would be no surplus, and of course it did not accept deficits. The purpose of Dashun's foreign trade was one, interoperability.

Whether or not.

That is to say, the silk and porcelain produced in Sichuan were exchanged for the cotton, horses and arms needed by the Dashun Empire.

Among all the foreign merchants who come to Hong Kong for trade, those who arrive with Western guns and cannons are undoubtedly the most popular. Because the long-term war between the Dashun Empire and the Ming Dynasty is still slowly going on!

Since the eleventh year of the co-rule, in Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou and other battlefields bordering Ming and Shun, at least 250,000 Dashun soldiers have been serving in battles throughout the year. Now the number of Dashun soldiers has reached

500,000, so half are serving and half are in the countryside. Although the war situation is not too intense, the year-round consumption still puts great pressure on the Dashun court with limited material resources.

Not only was the supply of arms very tight, but because too many government soldiers and civilian servants were serving, the consumption of food was also staggering.

Fortunately, under the rule of Dashun, Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou have maintained a high population growth rate in the past two decades. Therefore, the rural labor force has become surplus, even if 500,000 soldiers and civilian officials have been separated for a long time.

Agricultural production has not left rural land barren.

Not only is there no desolation, but the sown area is increasing every year. The excess population has made it possible to develop large-scale terraced fields, so the cultivated land in Sichuan and Yunnan and Guizhou has increased year by year.

At the same time, the pressure of population growth also forced the Dashun court to increase its efforts to develop Myanmar. Since the 13th year of the joint rule, tens of thousands of Sichuan farmers who have been deprived of their land by the soldiers of the government have been resettled in Dashun every year.

Under the organization of the household government of the imperial court, he left his hometown and came to colonize Myanmar, which was full of malaria.

Sha Lian Mansion, which is located on the seaside, is also an area where Sichuan farmers who migrated south concentrated to settle down. Therefore, when Bruce Van Diemen left the "Prison City Forecasting Field" and headed for Sha Lian Mansion City, he passed two places belonging to Sichuan immigrants.

brand-new, fortress-like villages and towns.

His current identity is the special envoy of the Batavia State. In the name of the Dutch East India Company's special envoy, he cannot meet Li Jicheng, the grandson of the Dashun Emperor who is in Shalian, because the East India Company's special envoy will be regarded as a low status by Dashun officials.

businessman.

Here in the Dashun Empire, merchants are the last of the four peoples

Salimfu City is a triangular bastion, very cleverly constructed, occupying a triangular island located south of Salim Field and at the intersection of two rivers. This island was originally a delta, facing water on both sides.

The only side that was originally connected to the land is now blocked by artificially dug river channels, so it has changed from a delta to a triangular fortress.

On the northwest side of the Triangular Fort, where the artificial river is located, there is a town surrounded by a wooden fence, leaning against the artificial river. It is more prosperous than the "Longcheng Qiangchang", and there are indigenous people in the town.

Shops opened by merchants and Han merchants from the south.

But when Bruce arrived, these shops were already closed because it was getting late and the town curfew had arrived.

"Well, I know that the Sha Lian Mansion is responsible for Gao Yidao, and I have come to ask questions on the order of the Governor-General of Burma's Military Affairs, His Majesty the Crown Prince!"

In the town outside the city of Sha Lian, in a relatively decent-looking post house, Bruce Van Diemen finally met a big shot.

The younger brother of the Empress Dowager Gao Guiying of Dashun, Gao Yidao, the prefect of Sha Lian. Like other Dashun officials, Gao Yidao also followed a simple path. This old Shaanxi man who had been in a high position for a long time wore a faded blue cloth.

He was wearing an official robe, no hat, and his gray hair was combed into a bun.

Bruce Van Diemen stood up quickly, performed a Chinese fist-cup salute, and then said in Chinese: "I am the envoy of the Kingdom of Batavia, Van Diemen, and I have met the governor."

"Hahaha, Ambassador Fan's Chinese is pretty good!" Gao Yidao raised his hand at Bruce, "Sit down, sit down and talk. This is not the Ming Dynasty, there are no such big rules!"

In fact, the rules here in Dashun are much better than those in Daming today! If Bruce comes here as a representative of the East India Company, he should kowtow to Gao Yida

"Thank you." Bruce thanked him and sat down generously.

"Tell me, what are you going to do when the Bala Kingdom sends you here? Is it to make a sacrifice? Or is it to make good friends?"

Bruce Van Diemen smiled and said: "No, our Batavia country is here to ask for help from the Dashun Dynasty!"

"Please help?" Gao Yidao touched his gray beard, "Who bullied you?"

"It's the Ming Dynasty!" said Bruce Van Diemen. "We, the Kingdom of Batavia, Johor, Aceh, Perak, and Pattani, have always lived in harmony in Malacca and had no disputes with the world. But these days of the Ming Dynasty

In the year before, they continued to send troops to invade. The year before last, they also invaded the Pattani Kingdom. They killed countless people and committed many crimes. It was really outrageous! So we, the Kingdom of Batavia, Johor, Aceh and Perak, had to join forces to fight against the Ming Dynasty. It’s just us.
Chapter completed!