The cold of the south is not something that northerners can easily adapt to.

When Pingnan Wang Shang Kexi finally survived the winter, he was going to a new spring.

As long as it's human, there's no one who doesn't like spring.

It represents new hope, new opportunities, and new beauty!

Perhaps, after all this is settled, he can return to Liaodong - the willow trees there are also starting to soften now, right? What a beautiful place Liaodong is, in winter, the warm earth kang will drive away all the cold in your bones, and after a good night's sleep, every pore will open up-

In the winter in the south, that kind of cold seems to be able to penetrate into the bones, and it can't be driven away - is Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, a person who can't afford to burn charcoal to keep warm? No amount of charcoal can only make the skin feel good!

Today's charcoal is really cheap, less than half of what it used to be, and this amount of military spending in the army can be regarded as saved.

Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, knew that this charcoal was produced in the Fujian region controlled by the Zheng family's forces, and that merchants had transported it by land or sea.

The king of Pingnan Shang Ke couldn't help but be happy at sea, he was familiar with things at sea, and he was the master who went by boat back then.

Without commercial taxes, what will he use to raise his army?

Without freight, where would he get pig iron to make weapons?

And-

Thinking of pig iron, he couldn't help but feel a tightening in his heart, he remembered that he once read the "Fujian Times", which said that the pig iron output of Zhengjia Iron and Steel Plant this year was the first in the world!

There are white-skinned people in the world, and there are dark-skinned people, they are all people of Fanyi, he knows this, but what is the concept of being the first in the world?!

How big is the world, and they still brag about it in the newspapers? How dare you boast that there is more pig iron than the entire North?!

When he saw how many tons were written, he found someone who understood, and after asking about the conversion of this ton and stone, he panicked for a moment, so much?!

How many knives and guns can be crafted!

He immediately encouraged the purchase of pig iron, and at the same time, vigorously recruited soldiers and gave them the land of the ownerless, saying, "The city is there, the land is there, the city is not there, where is the land?"

After this, the military heart is available!

At the same time, he strictly enforced military discipline, did not allow people to harass merchants and trade, and encouraged farming, weaving, and handicrafts -- the land of Canton soon regained its vitality, and it was not long before commerce began to flourish.

However, after enduring the winter, the spring of the year brought terrible news!

The actions of the Hantang Group scared him!

Firearms, only firearms can have such power!

The news that came back one after another proved this, and there were even vague pictures on the newspaper, but if you looked closely, you could see that it seemed to be a fire gun!

However, the news that came back was too much to imagine - Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, could only do his best to understand, and while sending a small work to the place where he was on the battlefield, he also sent people to Macao to ask for and buy guns and artillery.

The speaker of the Macau parliament, De Along, and the head of the Macau soldiers, Waski, decisively rejected the request of the Tartars, and the Macao officials would never come out to participate in the war on the Ming mainland, and they also studied the relevant reports in the "Han and Tang Times", and from the content, they had already concluded that the Han and Tang clique must be the enemies of the Tartars, and even, they disdained to declare war with them, they even thought that such a vicious Tartar was just a group of robbers, and all they had to do was to catch them and judge them with the laws they believed in!

Bandit gangs are not worth declaring war.

The Macao area, which originally had less than 10,000 Portuguese, is now less than 3,000, and many Portuguese merchants moved their businesses to the Hongfan district of Geranza, and of course, the original Ming merchants here moved even more.

On the surface, due to the geographical location, the Macau area has begun to decline due to the change of supply channels and locations.

Of course, the supreme leader of the Macao region will not stop the actions of the local merchants, after all, he was elected by them, and everyone is subordinate to the Portuguese East India Company, but he is also based on commercial profits, and in a normal society, there is no requirement for merchants to take the collective profit as the first step.

The speaker of Macau, De Aaron, and the head of the Macau soldiers, Vasky, could only smile bitterly and watch everyone move away, only the business of the speaker de Aaron did not move, these are two different things, because he is the speaker here, like the head of the soldiers, waiting for the final arrangement of the Portuguese and Indian governors, it is very simple, he is the supreme leader of the Portuguese East India Company in Asia.

Therefore, the Han Tang Group could bring the greatest profits to the Portuguese merchants, and of course they could only throw themselves into the arms of the Han Tang Group, and the Tatars' demands were ignored.

However, the king of Pingnan, Shang Kexi, sent personnel to ask the merchants to buy at a high price, and this had nothing to do with the Macao Council on the surface, and the speaker of the Macao Council, De Along, could not interfere, but smuggling in the Macao area was absolutely not allowed, and those customs duties must not be demanded.

In this way, the business is a private bounty.

At the beginning, there were Hongmao businessmen who secretly smuggled arms into Guangzhou, and the speaker of the Macau parliament, De Along, really did not know what the total number was and how many batches there were.

Actually, he didn't want to stay in Macau, but he didn't want to go to the Geranza area, he had his eye on Temasek Island, and he found that most of the goods were transported, and that was the place to stop.

However, business activity is also booming in the Goa region of India, where Daming City now seems to be better than Macau at its best.

Everything awaits the orders of the Portuguese and Indian governors.

There is still some business in Macau, but it is just surviving, and the goods and goods are too low-end.

After the news was disseminated by the people sent by Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan, this huge profit triggered a number of outlaws to participate in smuggling.

As long as you think of transporting guns and artillery to Guangzhou City, there will be huge returns, and there are always people who dare to take risks, and the silver taels of white flowers can be exchanged for horse tickets from the Hantang Group, and then take away the more profitable goods and transport them back to Europe, dozens of times the profit!

At the beginning, the exemplary director of the intelligence and security department of the Hantang Group received a few reports from the Macau, Manila and Batavia regions, and later added a more complete report from the Guangzhou area, and he compiled a detailed piece of information.

Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan in Guangzhou, was not waiting for death, but was preparing for war, not only obtaining his own processed firearms and artillery from the Foshan area, but also making full use of smuggling.

Involved in the smuggling were individual outlaws in Manila and Batavia.

Even, in the Tartar army in the Guangzhou area, there was a kind of flintlock pistol that borrowed the magnesium strip of a lighter as a firing equipment!

The magnesium strips were cut into small pieces, so that the direction of the sparks and the direction of the spark was very easy to control when fired, so that it far exceeded the best flintlock pistol, which had only a 70% success rate, and of course, it could not compare to the 100% success rate of the arquebus.

Chairman Wu Dapeng smiled and said, "Damn, where did this method come from?" It's even better than the flintlock pistol we provided to the belligerents in Vietnam, it's really imaginative, and they will use it if they give it a little sunshine, and the price is not low! Why, is it the people of the Zheng Family Group who are involved? ”

The minister shook his head and said, "It doesn't seem that they are trying to solve the problem of how to save the bullets of the matchsticks, flintlock guns, they still look down on them!" ”

"Still thinking of using that match head medicine as a primer/fire? , it's not the same thing—"

The minister said indifferently: "But they used it in the hair pulling equipment, Zheng Jia Group style grenades, match head hair pulling, porcelain powder as friction agent, their rockets, artillery and explosives packages, also use this hair pulling equipment-"

Chairman Wu Dapeng was stunned for a moment and said, "Why don't I know? ”

Minister Fan shrugged his shoulders and said: "You don't look at the "Fujian Times", they Zhengjia Group called this name "Bombardment Cannon", Thunder, they all use it - I have already hung it on the Internet, Zhengjia Group's new news, you didn't even read it?!" ”

Chairman Wu Dapeng blushed in his heart and said: "Look at it, I've seen it, but I forgot -- they don't all use our match head medicine, and they are nothing if they stop."

But pride, let them be proud, learn to use it, it's better than resting on your laurels, don't you say it, the boss of the Zheng family is still aggressive, the introduction of equipment, dumping impact, military scientific and technological breakthroughs, he is going to become a refinement! Oh, that's interesting—"

The example minister didn't answer his words, we forced it, you think he learned it spontaneously! He still wants to save his life, and even his own brother doesn't know where he lives at night, as if we will do something to him, the ancients are at this level.

Minister Fan said at the time: "Don't laugh, there is such a grenade in Guangzhou!" ”

"Damn! How do you just say that? Is it Boss Zheng who released the water?? ”

Minister Fan rolled his eyes and thought, "Didn't I come to report to you?"

"I think it may be that his men are smuggling, and the price that King Shang Kexi of Pingnan may give is tempting—"

Chairman Wu Dapeng said: "Last time, it seems to have appeared once, right? It was one of them who resold the grenades and bullets we sold -- according to his style, the whole family was executed, where is there anyone to learn from? ”

Minister Fan thought for a moment and said, "That time it seems to be his real relative, right?" He finally lifted it high and lowered it gently. Well, that's all for my debriefing, what else is required of our security intelligence services? ”

In fact, the intelligence of the Guangzhou area has always been in hand, but everyone really didn't care too much, after all, in the original plan, there was no decision to attack the Guangzhou area, and the forces of the two Guangzhou areas were intertwined, and it was very chaotic.

When the plan of the Haian Brigade was released, everyone lazily set their eyes there.

Well, Wang Shangkexi of Pingnan has used a lot of methods and means, and he has built a firearms army, and he is still practicing non-stop, and he has learned to shout slogans.

Damn, it's all fine.

But the problem still needs to be solved, what's the use of scolding?

Chairman Wu Dapeng said: "Okay, I'll send a telegram to Boss Zheng, and then, transfer the Zheng family's second goods to the Guangzhou battlefield, it just so happens that He Ma Xiang is still not dealing with him!" Let him go and fight the city of Canton—"

At that time, such an arrangement was just an intention, and it should not be a matter of exemplary ministers, but he still said: "If Zheng Lao Er has some accidents, the Zheng family group may not be able to bear it." ”

Chairman Wu Dapeng said coldly: "Zheng Laoda is still pragmatic at the root, I began to doubt whether he really trusts the contract, if he tears up the contract at a more critical time in the future, come to a sentence There are no eternal friends, and there are no eternal enemies, we will not laugh, this is to let the ancients play!"

So, let Zheng Lao Er face the consequences of their distrust of us! Maybe there will be nothing? ”

The minister thought for a long time, yes, you can't send your own people to face it, right?!

Neither of them talked about the carelessness of the Hantang Group.