Southern Ming Rebel Army

Meng Jun stayed in Suzhou for five days and then set out south again. His destination was Haining on the Qiantang River.

In fact, Meng Jun's southern tour was also the result of ignorant people secretly making up stories, saying that the emperor went to the south of the Yangtze River for two purposes: one was to return home to worship his ancestors, and the other was to collect beauties from the south of the Yangtze River.

Although such ignorant remarks were sneered at by knowledgeable people, they were particularly popular among the people. The emperor lived comfortably in the palace, and when he came to the south of the Yangtze River, he must have been looking for beauties to enrich his harem for pleasure.

At this time, the Qian Dynasty had already entered the initial stage of prosperity, with a full treasury, a strong military, and relatively clear politics.

Moreover, as the founding monarch, Meng Jun had the imperial power completely in his hands, so the conditions were fully met for the emperor to tour the south.

The reason why Meng Jun wanted to come on a southern tour was that after so many years of development, he wanted to come to Jiangnan in person to see how Jiangnan had developed.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the economic level of the Jiangnan region has been at the forefront of the country. It has fertile land, pleasant climate, and abundant water resources, which are suitable for the cultivation of various crops and cash crops, and the unit output is already higher than that of the northern region.

Especially in the sixth year of Zhaowu, Meng Jun carefully checked the tax situation of each province, prefecture, state and county in Jiangnan. Taking Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, Huzhou and Shaoxing as examples, the tax of some prefectures or even a county was actually more than that of half a province in the northwestern border area.

The Jiangnan region, with its developed economy and abundant money and grain, was the lifeline for maintaining the Qian Dynasty. Moreover, after Meng Jun implemented reforms with forceful means, many Jiangnan gentry and merchants had even begun to advocate for the Ming Dynasty. Although they did not dare to openly resist the Qian Dynasty, they were secretly supporting the Ming and suppressing Qian.

For a dynasty, the stability of people's hearts is related to its rise and fall, especially in this place, which is the lifeblood of the dynasty.

Meng Jun's southern tour was, on the one hand, to deepen his influence in Jiangnan, and on the other hand, to survey the water conditions.

Meng Jun didn't know this before. He only knew that the flooding of the Yellow River was enough to cause headaches for any ruler. But what Meng Jun didn't expect was that the tides in Zhejiang would also cause great damage to the coastal areas, so that part of the taxes in the Jiangnan region were not escorted to Beijing, but used for disaster relief instead.

Therefore, the last stop of Meng Jun's southern tour was Haining County on the north bank of the Qiantang River. He wanted to inspect the riverbed in person and prepare for river management.

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Just as Meng Jun was on his southern tour, far away in South Asia, in Fort William of Bengal, Ralph of the East India Company was talking to several merchants who had escaped from Songjiang.

These merchants were surprisingly the same foreigners who had cooperated with Yang Zhongliang to provide the longevity cream. At this time, they were complaining to Ralph, a shareholder of the East India Company.

As for the complaints, it was nothing more than that the contract was negotiated with great difficulty, but Party A ended up being thrown into jail, and the technicians sent to provide technical support to Party A were also arrested by the people of the Qian Dynasty. They went to negotiate with the Qian Dynasty government, but were beaten out with sticks.

At this time, the East India Company had already become a fairly large company. The full name of the East India Company is "The Company of Merchants of London Trading in East India".

The company was founded by a group of influential businessmen in 1600, the th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty. In that year, these merchants obtained a -year trade patent license to East India from Queen Elizabeth of England.

In the 40th year of the Wanli reign, Thomas Best, a general of the East India Company, defeated the Portuguese fleet in the Battle of the Gulf of Cambay, which earned them the attention of Sadr Khan, the governor of Gujarat of the Mughal Empire.

Under the bribe of the East India Company, Governor Sadr Khan agreed to help the East India Company, and the East India Company spent a large amount of gold and silver to offer to the Mughal Emperor.

With money paving the way, in the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Mughal emperor agreed to give preferential treatment to British merchants.

With such obvious protection, the East India Company soon surpassed the Portuguese, who had bases in Goa and Bombay, and the British established bases in Surat, Chennai, Bombay and Calcutta in the following years.

Fort William in Bengal was the East India Company's closest base to the Qian Dynasty. Next to Bengal was Myanmar, which was already under the control of Wu Sangui, a general of the Qian Dynasty.

The East India Company also sent people to meet Wu Sangui, hoping to establish a base in Myanmar for trade. Unfortunately, the people sent tried many ways and spent a lot of money, but they were unable to meet Wu Sangui.

Ralph touched his chin. He had received news that the Qian Dynasty in the east was waging war against the Dutch in Batavia, and the direction of the war was clearly in favor of the Qian Dynasty.

Merchants have a keen sense of smell. The country is already preparing for the second war against the Dutch. Ralph is not willing to have any conflict with the Qian Dynasty at this moment. Moreover, the East India Company is just a private enterprise and cannot pose any threat to the Qian Dynasty.

Although the British East India Company at this time, like the Dutch East India Company, could mint currency and had its own army, the British East India Company's army was very small, with only more than 4,000 people distributed in various bases. This number of people was not enough to protect itself against the Qian Dynasty, let alone threaten the Qian Dynasty.

After listening to the complaints of several merchants, Ralph shook his head and said, "Dear friends, we are just a company and cannot resist the laws of an empire. However, the Qian Dynasty suddenly announced a ban on Fu Shou Cream. I personally think this is a violation of the fairness of free trade. The company will send people to the capital of the Qian Dynasty to see if they can contact the emperor directly."

Several businessmen were delighted when they heard this. Since the Qian Dynasty lifted the maritime ban and promoted maritime trade, the trade between British businessmen and the Qian Dynasty has been in deficit for a long time, with a large amount of silver flowing out every year. It was rare that this longevity cream could create profits for the company. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Ralph was unwilling to throw away this cash cow.

Moreover, the East India Company has begun to grow ophiopogon in many places in Bengal. If there is suddenly no market for it, the money invested in the early stage will be completely wasted.

Therefore, Ralph decided to offer gold, silver and treasures to the Emperor of the Qian Dynasty on the one hand, and on the other hand, to form an alliance with the Qian Dynasty to jointly deal with the Dutch in exchange for the Qian Dynasty's relaxation of restrictions on the Fu Shou Cream.