Chapter 723 Intelligence Work

This is not the first time that Su Keyi has been a guest in Cheng Dapeng's study, but every time he comes here, he can't help but be shocked by the gorgeous furnishings in his study.

Su Keyi is already the third generation of the Su family to move to Nanyang, but his cultural inheritance and living habits are still based on the traditions of the Han people, so it is not difficult for him to recognize the calligraphy and paintings, ornaments, books, furniture and even the paintings in Dapeng's study.

Pens, inks, papers, and inkstones were all high-end items of great value. But Cheng Dapeng himself was very indifferent to this. When Su Keyi came to visit for the first time, he casually praised the beautiful glass paperweight on the desk, and Cheng Dapeng treated it as if it were a good-looking thing.

Give it to him as a gift.

Su Keyi was shocked at the time. You must know that the glass inkstone was a colorful commemorative edition of the first year of Chongzhen produced by Haihan. A total of 88 sets were produced. When they were sold, they were sold in the Guangzhou market for nearly a thousand taels of silver. The head of the Su family

Su Minggang asked people to buy a set in Guangzhou, but they couldn't buy it at all. It has become a priceless collection in the market a long time ago. Cheng Dapeng was so young that not only could he collect this thing, but he was also so generous. This really impressed Su Keyi.

I felt that this person's background and demeanor were quite extraordinary, and I immediately wanted to make friends with him.

Later, Cheng Dapeng revealed intentionally or unintentionally that his family not only had business in Guangdong, Guangdong, Fujian, Annan, and Champa, but also had excellent relationships with big figures in the official circles of Fuzhou and Guangzhou in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, in recent years, on Qiongzhou Island

The rapidly rising Haihan people also have business dealings with his family - the limited edition paperweight given to Su Keyi was obtained through this channel.

Of course, since there are so many ways, Cheng Dapeng's family's business is naturally not limited to the grain business. He told Su Keyi frankly that he came to Batavia to open this rice store, in fact, it was just to open a rice store in Batavia.

Nanyang is just a trade window. When the time is right, the family may slowly increase its business projects in Nanyang.

Cheng Dapeng's witty conversation, broad knowledge, elegant temperament, and generous treatment of others all showed that he was an unusual person. In addition, Su Keyi also met more than once a merchant from the Ming Dynasty who visited Cheng Dapeng at the "Dacheng Rice Shop"

, upon inquiry, these merchants all said that the Cheng family took great care of their business elsewhere, and when they arrived here, they naturally wanted to visit the Cheng family. After going back and forth, Su Keyi gradually gave up the idea that there was not much in the first place.

wariness.

But Cheng Dapeng's true identity is of course not a steward sent by a big family to Nanyang to attack the front station, but a special commissioner of the Nanyang Affairs Office of the Haihan Security Department, and one of the few intelligence personnel classified as Class A secret by the Ministry of Security. Although his identity

It is fake, but the name Cheng Dapeng is genuine and not false. He is originally from Qingyuan, Guangdong, and he is indeed from a merchant family. He has received a good education. He was selected as a scholar at the age of sixteen and is also a minor celebrity in the local area.

Famous young talents.

If it hadn't been for the natural and man-made disasters that broke out across Guangdong in 1628, Cheng Dapeng might have successfully passed the examination and then used his family's financial resources to donate an official position and pursue a career in politics. But it is a pity that his hometown

Qingyuan happens to be one of the main sources of banditry, and a wealthy family like Jia Jia naturally becomes the first target of gangsters in troubled times.

During the bandit turmoil in Qingyuan, Chengjiazhuang was one of the first Zhuangzi to be conquered by bandits. After the bandits looted all of Zhuangzi, they set a fire and burned Zhuangzi to rubble. Cheng Dapeng was one of the few who escaped from Chengjia Village alive.

One of Zhuang's victims first fled to Guangzhou. However, because there were too many refugees in Guangzhou, the Guangzhou government was worried about causing chaos and had banned the refugees from entering the city. Cheng Dapeng, a scholar, used his body as a scholar to grab the limited relief food.

There was simply no way he could win over others. So he continued southward, and when he arrived in Panyu, he happened to meet Haihan who was recruiting immigrants. At that time, Cheng Dapeng had not eaten for several days, and he had no worries about survival, so he signed up right away.

migrant.

What happened later was similar to that of most of the Ming Dynasty refugees who immigrated to Hainan Island from the mainland. After Cheng Dapeng arrived at Victory Port, he was quickly singled out because of his origin and outstanding cultural quality, and then several units worked together

After a wrestling match, the Ministry of Security won the spot. After a short-term training, Cheng Dagui successfully passed the entry examination and became a regular employee of the Ministry of Security. Afterwards, the Ministry of Security established the Nanyang Affairs Office and sent personnel south to Badawi.

Asia established an intelligence agency. Cheng Dapeng, a new face, had very little time to show up in Shengli Port. In addition, with his good results in previous professional training, he was selected to be the person in charge of one of the groups, as a senior manager of "Dacheng Bank"

, went to Batavia City and opened a rice store.

Cheng Dapeng relied on his own cultural accomplishment and the various supports provided by Haihan, a strong backing, and quickly established a foothold in Batavia. Based on the lessons he learned during his time in the Security Department, he began to slowly build a

His own social intelligence network. Children like Su Keyi who come from a powerful local family are naturally among Cheng Dapeng's targets.

Last year, Su Keyi received an errand to go to Sanya to negotiate with Haihan people. Before leaving, he came to Cheng Dapeng to ask for advice, hoping to gain some experience in dealing with Haihan people. Although Cheng Dapeng did not know the executive committee at the time,

What attitude will the Executive Committee take towards the peace talks between the two sides, but he is not optimistic about Su Keyi's mission at all, because many of the intelligence directions he collected before this are related to the Ambrosia Islands, which is enough to see that the Executive Committee

Determined to seize this place. Since Haihan had already spent so much time and effort to seize this place, how could he possibly spit out the fat he had eaten in his mouth?

Sure enough, after Su Keyi, Van Longen, and Van der Wegen arrived in Sanya, it can be said that they did not get any benefits at all. The negotiations were deadlocked from the beginning, and it was not until two months later that an agreement was reached, which was later used by the Batavia Council.

The armistice agreement was gritted with teeth. The Dutch suffered a big loss, but the council could not blame the three people in charge of the negotiation for not achieving the predetermined negotiation goals - after all, the military strength was not as strong as the other side, and what could not be obtained on the battlefield, naturally

You can't expect to get it just by talking.

After Su Keyi returned to Batavia, he was further used by the family, because the Su family believed that after the armistice agreement was signed, the trade relations between Haihan and the Netherlands would gradually normalize. In recent years, Haihan has been in the Ming Dynasty.

Even though the Su family is located in Southeast Asia, they have heard of the scale of trade carried out in Annan and other places. The head of the family, Su Minggang, believes that the size of Haihan can be compared with the East India Company, and maybe it has advantages in some aspects -

—For example, military strength.

If the two sides can carry out trade exchanges after this, Su Minggang hopes that the Su family can grab a higher ranking. After all, the businessmen who have relied on Haihan have really benefited a lot in recent years. Haihan who came to Batavia for trade

Merchants are also adding more and more Haihan products to the shipped goods. How much profit can be made to prompt the maritime merchants to make changes? Su Minggang, as the representative of the Chinese merchants in Batavia, naturally knows a lot.

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Among the direct descendants of the Su family, not many have had face-to-face contact with the Haihan people, and Su Keyi's two-month experience in Sanya naturally made him a leader among the candidates. So Su Keyi was recruited soon after returning from Sanya.

Entrusted with the important task of preparing for the establishment of trade relations with Haihan.

Su Keyi is indeed considered a "Hai-Han expert" in his family, but he has personally been to Sanya and knows that the true situation of Hai-Han cannot be grasped by just looking at it, not to mention that he was actually under house arrest for most of his time in Sanya.

He couldn't go out in the hotel. So even if he got the family's favor, it would be difficult for him to get started with this job smoothly. However, he was very lucky that he knew Cheng Dapeng, because this young man who got married had also worked in the hotel two years earlier.

Because of the family business, I had the experience of living in Sanya for a short time. In terms of experience in dealing with Haihan people, this person should have more experience than myself.

Of course, Cheng Dapeng would not refuse such a good thing that came to his door. While pretending to advise Su Keyi, he took the opportunity to collect various relevant intelligence information, especially the various business projects and operating conditions of the East India Company in Nanyang. Cheng Dapeng

They all gave Su Keyi a lot of useful information in the name of reference.

Su Keyi obviously didn't realize the importance of this information, let alone Cheng Dapeng's ulterior motives, and unknowingly revealed a lot of inside information to him. In his opinion, Cheng Dapeng was just a friend in the grain business.

There is nothing directly related to the project run by the Dutch. Even if we know how much nutmeg the Dutch buy and sell every year, how many ships they send to Da Yuan and Japan, how much raw silk they purchase from the Ming Dynasty, what does it matter?

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Of course, Cheng Dapeng didn't just ask questions but didn't give any ideas. In fact, using the special location of Ambuna Port to carry out slave trade was one of the suggestions Cheng Dapeng made to Su Keyi.

Haihan's immigration rate has begun to slow down in the past two years. The Executive Committee is also seeking to introduce labor from Southeast Asia through the slave trade. The location of the Ambrosia Islands makes it difficult to attract mainland immigrants to settle there. Cheng Dapeng believes

Since the armistice agreement allowed Dutch merchant ships to dock locally, they could try to conduct slave trade with the local Haihan people.

The slave trade is not a rare thing in Batavia and the entire Southeast Asia. There are more than one large slave markets outside the city of Batavia. Every month, a large number of slaves come from all over Southeast Asia, the Indian Peninsula, the Middle East and even Africa.

Slaves were transported here for sale. At least 70% of the workforce in the Su family's plantation on Java Island were slaves. However, if you want to sell these slaves to Haihan, you will definitely not be able to bypass the Dutch - Su

As the number one Chinese comprador under the East India Company, he wanted to bypass the Dutch and deal directly with Haihan. This was undoubtedly an act of treason. If the council discovered it, the entire Su family would suffer.

Therefore, although Cheng Dapeng's idea sounded good, Su Keyi handled it very carefully. He was very clear about the seriousness of the matter, and after discussing with the family management, he finally came up with a compromise method to implement the matter.

The Su family organized the supply of goods at the slave market in Batavia, and then hired Dutch merchant ships to transport the slaves to the Port of Ambrosia for trading. In this way, the council had received taxes from the transactions in the slave market, and the participation of the Dutch merchant ships also allowed

Being able to grasp the whereabouts of these slaves would prevent unnecessary suspicion of the Su family's behavior. The Dutch slave trader Jansen whom Roger met after returning to Port Ambrosia was actually the Su family's leader in this business.

Partners. Eighty percent of the slaves transported to the Port of Ambrosia by Jansen's fleet were organized and purchased by the Su family in the Batavia market.

Due to the profit sharing caused by having to let a third party intervene, and the risk of loss during the transportation of slaves, the income the Su family gained from this business was actually not high. A shipload of slaves could only be earned if it was successfully transported.

A few hundred taels of silver is far less than the return from selling some other high-profit products. But what the Su family values ​​​​is not just the economic benefits of this business, but more importantly, they hope to use this to gradually build a broader relationship with Haihan.

Deeper trade relationships.

It has been more than a day or two since high-profit Haihan goods entered Batavia, but these goods were almost all shipped by merchants from the Ming Dynasty, leaving little profit margin for the Dutch. Therefore, the council's response to the Su family's actions

It also adopted a default attitude of not supporting, not opposing, not encouraging, and not stopping, hoping that the Su family could partially replace the market share of Daming Shipping and reduce the port price of some Haihan products. If the Su family does well in this process

If it is not ideal, or if there are any illegal actions, then it will be too late for the council to step in and stop it.

As for the shame of losing the Ambrosia Islands, it is not that important to some people in the council. As long as Batavia's route to Northeast Asia can be preserved, ceding territory and truce is not an unacceptable solution.

After all, before the Haihan people took that place away, the East India Company only used it as a supply station on this route. And if it can gradually establish trade relations with the Haihan people, it can ease the conflict with this powerful enemy.

The tense situation, on the other hand, can also suppress the position of Portugal, a competitor, in the Hai-Han trade system.

Of course, the most important point is to allow all the gentlemen in the council and the business groups behind them to obtain actual benefits from the emerging trade relations. The East India Company has already suffered from the outbreaks in the Ambrosia Islands and Fujian.

Two wars caused huge losses, and many people were unwilling to continue fighting against such a powerful enemy as Haihan. To happily do business and make money, that was the real reason why everyone traveled thousands of miles to come to the Far East, wasn't it?

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Chapter completed!