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Tang Tong decided to build a large cigarette factory. However, there were no machines in this era, but this was not a problem for Tang Tong. China has never lacked skilled craftsmen since ancient times, and Tang Tong now has many skilled craftsmen under his command. Under Tang Tong's guidance, hundreds of craftsmen made a batch of auxiliary tools for cigarette making. Although the work in the cigarette factory was still manual, the speed was much faster than that of pure manual work, and the quality of the cigarettes basically met the requirements.
These cigarettes produced by Tang Tong were mixed with a small amount of opium, and were sold to Westerners, especially Thomas from Britain, who were Tang Tong's main sales targets.
After several transactions with Thomas's East India Company, Tang Tong obtained about 700 Western cannons and equipped 30 warships. Together with the original warships, Tang Tong already had more than 40 warships under his command. His strength was so great that Zheng Zhilong no longer dared to oppose Tang Tong. At this time, several months had passed and the first batch of cigarettes was produced.
Tang Tong did not immediately start trade with Europe, but turned back to clean up the Dutch who returned to Manila. When Tang Tong's huge fleet appeared in Manila, Reyos gave up resistance and surrendered to Tang Tong.
Tang Tong seized the remaining Dutch warships and did not make things difficult for Reyod. Instead, he signed a trade agreement with Reyod, one of the clauses of which was that the Ming fleet could be supplied and repaired in the colonies controlled by the Dutch.
This point is very important. In this era, it is difficult to reach distant places when sailing on the sea without a place to resupply. Lei Yuez cannot help but agree with this point. He knows that Lord Tang of the Ming Dynasty has the most powerful army in the world, and his current strength at sea cannot be underestimated. What's more, Lord Tang has a huge empire behind him - the Ming Dynasty. Lord Tang is a formal official of the Ming Dynasty, and his title is much more legitimate than that of Zheng Zhilong who was recruited. Lei Yuez is also very clear about this. In the South China Sea and the China Sea, Lord Tang's world is now the world of the South China Sea.
If they wanted to trade with the Ming Dynasty, they had to make friends with Lord Tang. In addition, for the sake of his own life, Reyoz had to give in. The two sides signed a non-aggression treaty at sea. This treaty was also important to the Dutch. Although the Netherlands had a huge maritime power, the area that the Netherlands had to control was also too large. In addition, the war in Europe made it impossible for the Dutch to devote all their efforts to dealing with the Ming Dynasty.
Perhaps the Dutch still had the ability to organize one or two hundred warships to go to war with Tang Tong, but the result would be more harm than good, because the Dutch population and territory were too small. A victory in such a large sea battle would not immediately bring wealth to the Dutch. Instead, the huge military expenditure would weaken the Dutch's strength in Europe, thereby damaging the Dutch's interests in Europe. If they lost, it goes without saying that the Netherlands would never recover and would once again become a vassal of another country.
Finally, one reason that forced the Dutch to sign this agreement with Tang Tong was for the interests of the Dutch in Sri Lanka and India. The Dutch were more or less aware of the secret treaty signed between Tang Tong and Britain. At that time, the Dutch had too many conflicts of interest with Britain. In order to reduce a powerful enemy like Tang Tong, the Dutch also hoped to get along with Tang Tong.
The Dutch left Southeast Asia, which greatly affected two forces. One was the Spanish who had an alliance with Tang Tong, and the other was the Zheng family who had an alliance with the Dutch. The Spanish naturally had a lot of opinions about Tang Tong signing a peace agreement with the Netherlands, but now Spain was caught in the Thirty Years' War in Europe and had no power to say anything in Southeast Asia. Tang Tong and his men occupied Manila, and the Spanish could only acquiesce. Who knew that Tang Tong now had more than 40 large warships?
Strength determines everything. When Tang Tong sent his men to negotiate with the Zheng family, Zheng Zhilong welcomed them with enthusiasm. Since Tang Tong did not put forward any harsh conditions, the two sides quickly reached a cooperation agreement. The most important point was that the Zheng family joined Tang Tong's trade team to Europe.
In order to strengthen cooperation, Tang Tong accepted Zheng Zhilong's son Zheng Sen (Zheng Chenggong) as his disciple, which was actually a hostage. After Zheng Zhilong signed the agreement, he brought his son Zheng Sen to Malaysia to visit Tang Tong.
After Tang Tong met Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Sen performed the ceremony of becoming his apprentice. Tang Tong directly changed his name to Zheng Chenggong. At this time, Zheng Chenggong was only eight years old. Because he grew up in Japan, his living habits were different from those of the Ming people. He admired the great reputation left by Tang Tong in Japan. It goes without saying that he was able to worship this Lord Tang as his teacher.
The first trade fleet to Europe consisted of thirty warships and about one hundred warships without artillery. Among them, the Zheng family dispatched ten warships and twenty large ships. The Zheng family side was led by Zheng Zhibao, and Tang Tong's side was led by Tang Chaosan. Tang Tong's side also dispatched one thousand soldiers, two thousand Japanese auxiliary troops, and two thousand trained professional gunners.
The Zheng family had a musket battalion of a thousand men equipped with a thousand muzzle-loading matchlock rifles purchased from Tang Tong. The huge fleet of both parties combined was not something that the pirates could possibly aim at. The main trade items this time were cigarettes and slaves. Regardless of whether the Westerners were willing to buy these slaves or not, Tang Tong planned to send these South Sea monkeys to Europe and let them cause some trouble for the Westerners.
Tang Tong's next goal is to drive the Spaniards out of Southeast Asia, but this goal is not very urgent. After Tang Tong recruited An Lei and Hu Chuiyang from his own school to Southeast Asia to take over the jobs of Dayuer and Liu Rushi, Tang Tong brought the four women and others back to Ming Dynasty, ready to develop Ming Dynasty's power with peace of mind.
A year passed in total, and Dalian City, as a military base, began to take shape. Moreover, Zhang Yiheng, the person in charge here, formed a new auxiliary army. The members of this team were Jurchen savages and armored slaves of the Jiannu. These people did not have a high status in the Jiannu and were not very loyal to them.
Although Huang Taiji established the Later Jin Dynasty, there were still a small number of Jurchen tribes in the deep mountains and old forests who had not submitted to Huang Taiji. These people lived in a very primitive society. Zhang Yiheng simply called them Jurchen savages. In addition, there were a large number of armored slaves among the Jiannu. These people's horsemanship skills were not as good as the Jiannu, but they were very good at infantry combat.
These Jurchen savages were quite difficult to capture. Among the 3,000 Jurchen auxiliary troops, there were only more than 200 of them, and the rest were captured armored slaves. During this year, in order to train his troops, Zhang Yiheng sent his men many times to disguise themselves as bandits and plunder in Huang Taiji's territory. Dozens of small Jiannu communities were wiped out by these people, and the property they obtained was mainly horses and women. Nearly 20,000 horses in a year had become a heavy burden due to the lack of pasture.
The cost of training a cavalryman is much higher than that of training a musketeer. The even higher cost is to train a cavalryman equipped with a musket. As the expense of horses was too high, Zhang Yiheng consulted Tang Tong and formed a cavalry team of 2,000 people. However, before Tang Tong came back, Zhang Yiheng, overwhelmed by the burden, handed the cavalry team over to Zhang Niujiao.
Zhang Niujiao was in charge of the Korean concession, which was not as developed as Kokura Castle. However, the Korean king was very obedient, so Zhang Niujiao rented a large grassland from Korea to support this cavalry team. At that time, this team was considered the defense force of Korea, and when there was a larger battle, this cavalry team would join the battle sequence.
Having said that, the loyalty of the Jurchen soldiers was not as great as that of the Japanese soldiers. Although their individual combat effectiveness was stronger than that of the Japanese, Zhang Yiheng did not dare to train them into musketeers because they were too barbaric.
After Tang Tong returned to Daming, he first went to Dalian City to take a look. Seeing that the security measures here were basically complete, he felt relieved. For Tang Tong, it was not the time to destroy Huang Taiji yet. The most important thing was to develop his own strength with peace of mind. After explaining something to Zhang Yiheng, Tang Tong finally returned to his home in Daming after a long absence.
Tang Tong is now the general of Dongjiang. Logically speaking, he should withdraw from the Weizhenso in Changzhou, and the military households here should be handed over to another person sent by the court for management. However, Tang Tong has money now. With the help of money, one of his flag generals was promoted to the commander of the Changzhou Weizhenso. Naturally, the subordinate who followed Tang Tong would not drive Tang Tong and his family out of this place. In fact, the number of military households in the Weizhenso now is simply a group of people who work in Tang Tong's factory. When the superiors come to inspect, these people go out for training. As for fighting, the superiors will not send this group of people to the battlefield after taking over Tang Tong's position.
Nowadays, Tang Tong's home has been renovated into a large manor. Although it is not as good as those famous gardens, it is also well-known in the Jiangnan area. Looking at this new home, Tang Tong couldn't help feeling a little emotional.
A little girl ran out and looked at Tang Tong blankly, her eyes full of tears.
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