Chapter 1057: Grandpa also likes cheap sugar

The Songjiang Ocean Trading Firm already had the full ability to monopolize some goods, such as the cotton cloth business.

Songjiang Prefecture possessed the most cotton textile workshops in the entire Ming and the entire world, including family-style workshops, small workshops with fewer than twenty people, large workshops with more than a thousand people, and several mechanical workshops.

And these mechanical workshops and large workshops were completely controlled by the Songjiang Ocean Trading Firm, or rather, one had to have a certain scale of production materials to reach the entry standards of the Songjiang Ocean Trading Firm and join the workshops.

The costs of mechanical workshops and large workshops were inevitably lower, and scale effects led to cost reductions.

Moreover, local cotton in Songjiang Prefecture could not satisfy the production of cotton textiles, and cotton needed to be purchased from the Ming hinterland or overseas. The situation where more than 50% of cotton raw materials needed to be purchased from outside made monopoly even simpler.

Because most of these merchants who purchased cotton cloth belonged to the Songjiang Ocean Trading Firm, as long as they wanted to, they could do it.

The reason why the Ming's powerful and wealthy families and rich merchants had not yet squeezed all the small workshops and family workshops to death was entirely because Sun Kehong and the first Songjiang Viceroy, Wang Daokun, had an agreement: don't make a fortune by taking everything, leave a way for others to live.

The Ocean Trading Firm could take 70% of the overseas orders, but the remaining 30% had to be left behind to give people a way to live.

In Sun Kehong's view, the meaning of "taking everything" was: engaging in monopoly would lead to the court making you lose everything; this was truly "taking everything."

Correspondingly, cotton raw materials should be used from overseas as much as possible, rather than local cotton, leaving local cotton for small and medium-sized workshops and family-style workshops.

As for the Ocean Trading Firm, naturally, it had to go to sea and expand overseas.

Twenty-two years after the Wanli opening of the sea, the behemoth called monopoly capital was still under the water, not floating to the surface. The reason why the gentleman's agreement between Wang Daokun and Sun Kehong continued to be fulfilled after Wang Daokun left office was that the court's tangible military boots were stepping on the intangible market.

The dangers of monopoly had been discussed very clearly before the Wanli Reform; Zhang Juzheng's statement that "the world is plagued by annexation" was the ultimate summary and conclusion.

"Have the Songjiang Prefect, Hu Junde, convene a public meeting, gather these merchants together, and explain the policy clearly and thoroughly—the pros and cons behind this pricing method."

"As for the opposition from the barbarians, there is no need to pay attention to it." Zhu Yi issued a clear imperial decree. Explain it clearly internally; as for these barbarians overseas, they were not qualified to oppose it.

When it was time to be strong and domineering, one must be strong and domineering.

Now it was a complete seller's market. It was these few Viceroyalties that needed the Ming's goods; otherwise, their silver would only be stripped clean by the West, and they wouldn't be able to exchange for anything.

Using annual average prices to set the prices of various goods—although some goods would rise in price, some would fall. For the barbarians, this was already an acceptable result.

"The Ming has not sent a fleet to bombard their ports, forcing them to accept Ming goods and Ming prices; that is already very benevolent." Zhu Yi emphasized again that the Ming was already acting with very high morality.

Not relying on military strength to burn, kill, and plunder everywhere, and not using strong ships and cannons to blast open port gates under the banner of free trade, was already a high-moral disadvantage of the Ming court.

Plundering is not as good as planting; plundering everywhere is not as good as managing and developing well. This was the experience and consensus of China for thousands of years, and Zhu Yi did not intend to change this consensus.

However, if the barbarians did not understand reason and wanted to continue to maintain this unreasonable price difference, the Ming was also proficient in fists and feet.

Stuffing a 36-jin cannon into their mouths would stop them from talking nonsense.

"We ministers receive the decree." Yao Guangming and Yan Shixuan bowed to receive the order. What they were waiting for was the Emperor's order. Diplomatic matters were directly managed by the Emperor. Without the Emperor's clear order, if they were overly harsh on the barbarians, they would be impeached by the censorate officials, which was also not conducive to opening the sea.

Zhu Yi chatted with Yao Guangming and Yan Shixuan, and then had Zhang Hong send them away.

Zhu Yi wrote an imperial decree and issued it to the Ministry of Rites, suspending the promotion of the circulation of Huang Jinbao Notes in the Pan-Pacific Commercial Alliance. On one hand, the matter could not be accomplished; on the other hand, things had to be done one by one.

The matter could not be accomplished because these overseas barbarian Viceroyalties had no sufficient goods but had sufficient precious metals, so they did not need the Ming's Treasure Notes, and the Ming was also a bit beyond its reach.

Secondly, promoting the circulation of Treasure Notes and promoting annual average pricing were somewhat in conflict, and only one thing could be done.

The purpose of these two policies was to use fewer goods to exchange for more silver. Treasure Notes were simply exchanging paper money for real gold and silver.

The road had to be walked step by step, and the meal had to be eaten mouthful by mouthful. Only by first making the whole world unable to do without the Ming's goods could they make the whole world unable to do without the Ming's Treasure Notes.

After Zhu Yi finished writing, he checked it again and issued it to the Ministry of Rites: one copy for the Great Zongbo and one copy for the Junior Zongbo, Gao Qiyu.

The Ministry of Rites' idea was good—military colonization, economic colonization, political colonization, cultural colonization. Promoting the overseas circulation of Treasure Notes was promoting economic colonization. The idea was certainly good, but it was a bit too eager and disregarded realistic conditions.

After Zhu Yi finished writing the imperial decree and handed it to Zhang Hong, he shook his head and said: "When Duke Wending was still alive, he said that the Ming only needed 500 million taels of silver for this silver to circulate."

"When there is enough silver in the market, these wealthy households of our Ming will be willing to dig the silver out of their pigsties."

"Unfortunately, Duke Wending still miscalculated."

In the "Memorial on Anchoring the Note System" presented by Wang Guoguang in the sixth year of Wanli, he looked forward to the future. After calculation by the Ministry of Revenue, only 500 million silver coins were needed to circulate in the Ming market, and then the wealthy households would not be reluctant to use silver.

Hiding silver in pigsties was a metaphor, meaning that wealthy households cherished the silver in their hands and accumulated it, unwilling to take it out for use, which led to even less silver circulating in the Ming and exacerbated the silver shortage.

Wang Guoguang initially estimated that by around the 50th year of Wanli, the Ming could possess so much silver. By then, the Ming's fiscal policy could be formulated more independently because the Ming's silver could complete an internal circulation.

Wang Guoguang ultimately miscalculated because development was faster than silver inflow. The more silver there was, the more silver was lacking—this strange thing just happened.

"Difficult, oh." Zhu Yi looked at the memorials organized by category, stood up, and went to inspect the troops and horses.

While the Emperor was inspecting the troops and horses, Li Yougong took a fast sailing ship and arrived in Guangzhou Prefecture. Arriving with him were 200 agents and 600 Embroidered Uniform Guards, totaling 800 people.

It took him only seven days to arrive directly in Guangzhou Prefecture from Songjiang Prefecture.

The reason it was so fast was that the fast sailing ship Li Yougong took was the Ming's newest fast sailing ship, the *Yangcheng*, hull number 042. This ship used four "Shengping No. 12" iron horses, with a total horsepower exceeding 2,000. The entire water journey was 3,600 li, arriving in seven days, traveling more than 500 li a day.

Li Yougong's arrival this time was very sudden. The Emperor's imperial decree had just arrived, and the *Yangcheng* had arrived in Guangzhou Prefecture.

When he arrived, it was in the middle of the night. Wan Wenqing, who had already fallen asleep, received the news and rushed to the port to welcome the imperial envoy. But Li Yougong, exhausted from the long journey, did not stop for a moment and went straight to the Guangzhou Armory.

There were five armories in Guangzhou Prefecture, all built during the Jiajing reign, with a total area of 3,000 mu.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the court's armories were directly managed by the Capital Battalion, and local armories were managed by the Regional Military Commission. This was also the reason why the Yongle Emperor could bypass the court during his personal expeditions.

The army was the Emperor's trusted confidant, and the Emperor trusted the army more than the court.

During the Xuande to Zhengtong reigns, the Capital Battalion gradually declined, and the armories were placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, while local armories were managed by officials of the Ministry of War's Armory Bureau.

Li Yougong got off the ship and headed straight for the armory. When he arrived at the first armory, he knew there was a big problem with this armory because the garrison soldiers who should have been guarding it were not at their posts, and the few people who were on duty were also very lazy.

Being absent from guard duty—Li Yougong, who had served as the internal official Regional Commander of the Capital Battalion for ten years, knew exactly what this meant: there was nothing inside, which was why they were so lax.

Li Yougong was not in a hurry either; he waited until several officials, including the Viceroy of Liangguang Liu Jiwen, the Prefect of Guangzhou Wan Wenqing, and the Assistant Regional Military Commissioner of Guangdong Chen Mei, had arrived, before Li Yougong produced the imperial edict and demanded that the armory be opened.

Li Yougong's expression was very gloomy. His hands were hidden in his vermilion eunuch robes, and his face became even more ghastly under the flickering light of the torches.

Exhausted from the long journey, Li Yougong's voice was a bit hoarse. He said in a low voice: "I know that local areas are intertwined, and some things cannot be investigated. If something is really investigated, it will be a huge matter."

"The Emperor sent me here to be the villain. Fighting at the front, there can be no mistakes at the back. Since you have all seen the Emperor's imperial decree and the notification from the Nanyang Navy Regional Commander, Luo Shangzhi, then open the gates."

"This, Great Eunuch Li, after such a long journey, why not rest a little and look tomorrow? It is already night; I am afraid that if we investigate, it will be dawn. Why not tomorrow?" Liu Jiwen wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked in a low voice.

Li Yougong looked at Liu Jiwen silently for a long time before raising an eyebrow and asking in a voice that could barely be heard: "Tomorrow?"

He was not weighing the pros and cons; he was using silence to apply pressure. The longer the silence, the more terrified the other party would be. Finally, asking a question that looked like an interrogative sentence was actually a negative sentence.

If he had been willing to drag it out until tomorrow, he wouldn't have come right after getting off the ship.

"Viceroy Liu is an official appointed by the court, so naturally, you understand the rules. Since I am standing here, do you say tomorrow or now?" Li Yougong asked calmly again.

"Now, then." Liu Jiwen sighed. He was just a Viceroy, and the eunuch in front of him was the Director of the Ceremonial Palace, who had grown up with the Emperor, the Great Eunuch among Great Eunuchs, the Old Ancestor in the palace.

Feng Bao would absolutely never leave the palace to handle affairs, but Li Yougong was basically traveling outside all year round.

Li Yougong's arrival was equivalent to the Emperor's personal arrival.

Li Yougong had waited so long in front of the armory gate and had wasted two sentences of nonsense with him, which was already giving him, the Viceroy, enough face. If he continued to block him, even if he had nothing to do with this, he would have something to do with it.

"Open it." Li Yougong waved his hand, and the Embroidered Uniform Guards began to take over the defense of the first armory.

The situation was even worse than Li Yougong had imagined. The armory was empty, with nothing at all. Even a mouse coming in would have to cry on its way out.

"Weapons should be in the armory." Li Yougong saved even the strength to inspect them and headed straight for the next armory. Of the five armories, only two had a little bit of inventory, and the rest were all empty.

This would not affect the war at the front because the Ming's main force this time was the Nanyang Navy. The Nanyang Navy, like the Capital Battalion, was directly managed by the court. The weapons, equipment, and grain of the Nanyang Navy's station were managed separately from the local ones, and they had all been checked and were all full.

He was investigating the local armories, and the result was a mess.

He knew clearly that if he investigated again tomorrow, he would have to face a fire burning the warehouse.

"We must clarify one thing: where did these long and short weapons, armor, and firearms go?" Li Yougong looked at Liu Jiwen and said. He had brought 800 people, which was completely enough. Regardless of whether the local area cooperated or not, he had to investigate clearly.

If these weapons and equipment all flowed into Annam, wouldn't that be equivalent to the local Guangdong army fighting against the Nanyang Navy directly managed by the court?

If the war was fought like this, it would be too distressing.

Li Yougong was filled with worry. Three days later, he obtained a result that made him feel a bit like laughing and crying. The weapons and equipment were indeed all gone—this was an indisputable fact—but they had not flowed to places like overseas.

To be precise, these weapons and equipment, totaling 420,000 silver in value, existed on the books, but in reality, they simply did not exist at all.

Of the 420,000 silver, 370,000 silver had been misappropriated by the Three Judicial Offices and the Guangzhou Prefectural Southern Yamen for other uses. Almost all of it had been moved to the promotion of the Dinghai School System because the court was very concerned about the Dinghai School System, and in order to achieve some better results, they had done so.

In the contradiction between "serving the superior" and "pacifying the inferior," the local officials in Guangdong chose to both serve the superior and pacify the inferior.

Rectifying military preparedness could indeed ensure the peace of a region; however, promoting the Dinghai School System could both satisfy the court's instructions and allow the common people to really be able to attend the three-level academies.

The Viceroy of Guangdong, Liu Jiwen, was clearly very clear about the whereabouts of this silver, which was why he had come forward to block him.

The silver that was truly put into the pockets of officials in this armory case was less than 60,000 silver.

Of the 310,000 silver, 150,000 was given to the Guangzhou University, and 150,000 was given to the construction of school buildings for the three-level academies in the Guangzhou area.

Facing this result, Li Yougong let go of the murderous intent in his heart.

"Aren't you afraid that the Japanese pirate scourge will rise again? Misappropriating the funds for military preparedness like this." Li Yougong personally went to see the Guangzhou University. It was built really well, not losing to the massive scale of the Capital University, and at the same time, he also saw the three-level academies that had been implemented.

The Dinghai School System in Guangzhou Prefecture was not only implemented, but it was even not inferior to Songjiang Prefecture.

The place where the Dinghai School System was best implemented was Songjiang Prefecture, followed by Guangzhou Prefecture, and then the capital. The capital was the first pilot, but the situation in the capital was complex, and the Ministry of Revenue's audit was strict, so they couldn't play these crooked tricks.

Liu Jiwen said quite frankly: "The Nanyang Navy is right at the door, and even the Guangdong water bandits, who were relatively numerous in the past, have disappeared. Just at Dianbai Port, there are seven fast sailing ships docked."

Liu Jiwen had a different view on the Japanese pirate scourge. He felt that one of the reasons the Japanese pirate scourge could be so rampant was the Jiajing maritime ban.

The intensity of the Jiajing maritime ban even exceeded that of the Hongwu reign, leading to the handing over of maritime rights to these Japanese pirates and water bandits. And in the second year of Jiajing, when the maritime ban was first implemented, the Japanese tribute dispute led to the disaster.

And the mainstream view in the court at that time was: the Japanese pirate scourge arose from the Maritime Trade Office, so it was abolished.

With the implementation of the strict maritime ban system, the Ming didn't even have ships, and maritime rights naturally fell into the hands of the enemy.

Northerners might not understand this logic, which is equivalent to saying that if the Northern Hu were forbidden from raising horses and all the horses were killed, the Northern Hu, without horses, would not even be able to defeat the half-farming, half-soldier garrison troops.

This was a wrong policy. The Ming lacked ships and soldiers, and finally, the Japanese pirate scourge broke out in the 29th year of Jiajing.

Now the Ming no longer banned the sea, and coupled with the Nanyang Navy right at the door, Guangzhou Prefecture and the Liangguang region were truly not afraid of the Japanese pirate scourge rising again.

Lin Daoqian, the big pirate, was indeed very powerful, but these pirates never dared to appear in the Ming's sea areas, let alone appear under the muzzles of the navy's cannons.

"Report the corruption case to the Emperor." Li Yougong ultimately did not define this case as "guarding the warehouse and stealing," but defined it as corruption. As long as a large amount of weapons and equipment did not flow into Annam, the matter was not too big, and there was no need to bite hard and bite the local officials in Guangzhou until they were riddled with holes.

His most important purpose in coming to Guangzhou Prefecture was to ensure that the war at the front would not be hindered by the rear and to obtain victory in the war. All his decision-making behaviors were carried out around this purpose.

Li Yougong simultaneously carried out merchant inspections. Any merchant involved in smuggling contraband was all arrested and brought to justice. Those involved in the smuggling of steel and gunpowder could not escape the death penalty.

The Songjiang Navy transferred 60,000 troops, plus the 60,000 troops originally from the Nanyang Navy, totaling 120,000 naval troops stationed in Guangzhou Prefecture. Whatever Li Yougong wanted to do, no one could stop him.

The situation was much more optimistic than the Emperor had estimated.

There really weren't that many internal traitors. There were only twelve merchants in total involved in the smuggling of steel and gunpowder, and the scale was not too large. If it weren't for the war, the crime might not even have been punishable by death. Unfortunately, the war had already begun, and immediate beheading was certain.

The court's Maritime Defense Inspection Office was not set up in vain.

The most smuggled goods were still "white goods," which were legal and compliant goods smuggled to avoid taxes. The most numerous of these was brown sugar from Annam.

Sugar was a very, very expensive commodity, and brown sugar was an extract of sugarcane and the raw material for white sugar. There were really many, many sugar workshops in Guangzhou Prefecture, and the raw materials were in short supply.

And the Guangzhou Maritime Defense Inspection Office also turned a blind eye to the smuggling of white goods. After all, maritime defense inspectors were also human. Once they went ashore, they also had to buy some sugar. Grandpa also likes cheap sugar.

But if they smuggled "black goods"—steel, gunpowder, opium—then the Grandpa of the maritime defense inspection would have to dispatch hydrofoil sailing ships.

No matter how fast your ship is, can it be faster than a hydrofoil sailing ship?

Even for more than twenty years, a universal tacit understanding had formed: merchants and poor laborers who handled the smuggling of white goods would spontaneously report the desperate outlaws who smuggled black goods to Grandpa. After all, to Grandpa, these desperate outlaws were all merits.

These merchants who smuggled white goods resolutely said no to illegal activities! They couldn't let the entire industry be severely hit because of the lack of virtue of their peers!

If there were too many black goods on the sea, Grandpa would collectively dispatch to crack down on them. The scale was very large, and even the smuggling of white goods had to stop. If it was short, it would be ten days; if it was long, it would be three to five months. If there was no income for three months, they really couldn't hold on.

According to Liu Jiwen, relying solely on the 200 inspectors and 3,000 archers of the maritime defense inspection simply couldn't prevent smuggling. They had to adopt this condition-screening method to filter out those desperate outlaws.

Li Yougong did not excessively interfere with the tacit understanding between local areas. He wouldn't be stupid enough to point fingers at areas he wasn't familiar with. Since the local area had formed this tacit understanding and it was operating well, interfering at will would have no effect other than destroying the relationship between the yamen and the common people.

As long as the sea is opened, smuggling, especially of white goods, is inevitable.

If they really wanted to completely eliminate most smuggling, the best way would be the "Boundary Relocation Order," which was not allowing common people to approach within 50 li of the seaside and setting up routine patrols. Let alone smuggling, even going out to sea to fish would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

After Liu Jiwen and Li Yougong finished talking about the armory corruption case, they began to talk about the economy of Guangzhou Prefecture. He said with a solemn expression: "Huang Jinbao Notes need to be issued in a targeted manner to Guangzhou Prefecture to replace sugar tickets. These sugar tickets are easy to counterfeit, and their use is inconvenient. Private tickets and fake tickets are emerging one after another."

In Guangzhou Prefecture, Li Yougong also observed a very peculiar phenomenon, which was that the people of Guangzhou Prefecture were all using a kind of sugar ticket.

The Ming's silver shortage presented a dilemma of silver damming in metropolises and a severe shortage of silver in the hinterland and small cities. Dredging was quite difficult, but the court had already dredged it through various means to the maximum extent.

The scale of Guangzhou Prefecture had already expanded to three times its original size, from a city with a circumference of 40 li to a circumference of 70 li. Trade was extremely developed, and the sails on the sea at Dianbai Port covered the sky and the sun.

Mizhou had Japanese silver entering the Ming, and Songjiang Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, and Fuzhou Prefecture all had large inflows of silver from Japan, Mexico, and Peru.

Guangzhou Prefecture was the only one among the five Maritime Trade Offices that did not have a silver damming metropolis.

Because Guangzhou Prefecture faced the Nanyang and the West, both of which were extremely lacking in silver. Under the circumstances of lacking silver and extremely developed trade, the promotion of Huang Jinbao Notes in Guangzhou Prefecture was extremely smooth.

When Wang Chonggu was still alive, Wang Jiaping entered the capital and begged at Wang Chonggu's door, asking Wang Chonggu to help establish a meeting hall and post station in Guangzhou Prefecture.

Although this phenomenon of silver shortage had been alleviated, the silver in Guangzhou Prefecture was still not sufficient. While Huang Jinbao Notes were widely used in Guangzhou Prefecture, various miscellaneous tickets among the people were emerging one after another.

Ultimately, sugar, as a hard currency, unified all these miscellaneous tickets. The largest scale used in the entire Guangzhou Prefecture was Huang Jinbao Notes, followed by sugar tickets issued by the Guangzhou Prefectural Southern Yamen anchored by white sugar, brown sugar, and brown sugar.

Sugar tickets, like the Ming's salt certificates, could all be used as currency and could buy any goods one wanted to buy in Guangzhou Prefecture.

"Targeted issuance." Li Yougong deliberated and said in a low voice: "Viceroy Liu, the Ministry of Rites is promoting Huang Jinbao Notes in the Pan-Pacific Commercial Alliance, and the resistance is heavy, but it seems that in the Nanyang and the West, Huang Jinbao Notes have great potential."

"Eh?" Liu Jiwen sat up straight suddenly. His eyes were shining with brilliance. After deliberating repeatedly, the joy on his face became stronger and stronger.

His energy recently had been focused on military affairs. When the Japanese pirate scourge was frequent, the Viceroy of Liangguang was the Viceroy of Liangguang. This position was in charge of military affairs. Although it had become a Viceroy after Ling Yunyi left, it still had to bear the responsibility of military affairs.

Once Li Yougong started this topic, Liu Jiwen connected all the things together in a flash of lightning. He said with a smile: "The east is not bright, but the west is bright. After I deliberate carefully, I will write a memorial to the court. I also thank Great Eunuch Li for the reminder."

Liu Jiwen actually didn't have much good feeling for Li Yougong, this eunuch who was rushing around. He, the local official, didn't give the imperial envoy a hard time, but Li Yougong, this imperial envoy, ran to the armory to give him, Liu Jiwen, a hard time as soon as he arrived on Guangzhou soil.

But now, with one sentence from Li Yougong, all misunderstandings were resolved. Standing high and seeing far, Li Yougong understood the trends in the court much more clearly.

In this way, it not only solved the problem that Huang Jinbao Notes needed to be issued in a targeted manner to Guangzhou Prefecture, but also solved the trouble that the court wanted to strengthen economic colonization. Both "serving the superior" and "pacifying the inferior" were resolved.

The Pan-Pacific Commercial Alliance wouldn't work, but the Western Commercial Alliance could.

The Western Commercial Alliance needed a general equivalent to measure the prices of various goods, and Huang Jinbao Notes were undoubtedly the most suitable first choice.

Sugar tickets belonged to local-nature valuable notes. It didn't matter if no one recognized them outside Guangzhou Prefecture, but various private tickets and fake tickets also kept Guangzhou Prefecture busy. Investigating and punishing illegal private tickets and fake tickets required huge manpower and material resources, which often outweighed the gains, and they also lacked the court's endorsement, making them feel tied up when doing things.

There is no such thing as the best of both worlds in the world, and there is no such thing as a dilemma that solves itself. If one asks what the price is, it is obvious: the West, which lacks currency, must accept the Ming's paper to buy their goods.

If the Ming is no longer strong, the Huang Jinbao Notes in their hands will be a pile of waste paper. If the Ming is always strong, Huang Jinbao Notes will be real gold and silver.

The Wanli Reform always transfers the price outward through various ways to reduce the pain of reform and reduce the resistance to reform.

This time, it was no exception.

If Huang Jinbao Notes did not have a huge reservoir, sooner or later they would learn from Felipe's gold bonds, go bankrupt three times, lose all credibility, lose the country's great trust, and make people suspicious. This was the lesson the Ministry of Rites learned from Felipe's gold bonds.

"Still have to thank Great Eunuch Li for the guidance." Liu Jiwen expressed his sincere gratitude again and took out a stack of Huang Jinbao Notes.

Eunuchs are this kind of creature. If you don't give them enough silver, they really dare to slander you in front of the Emperor. It's better not to offend them too much.

Li Yougong watched the stack of Huang Jinbao Notes being pushed out and said with a smile: "It cannot be used. It is all for the Emperor. Viceroy Liu does not need to be like this. When I work in Guangzhou, I still need to rely on the Viceroy to take care of me."

After pushing and pulling for a while, Li Yougong ultimately did not accept Liu Jiwen's bribe. It looked like it was at least a thousand silver thick.

When sending Liu Jiwen away, Li Yougong couldn't help but think of Hou Yuzhao. Hou Yuzhao was not that he didn't understand human relations, but that he simply didn't have this concept.

On the second day of the seventh month, Li Yougong received a victory report.

Lou Hu and Luo Shangzhi captured Guang'an City on the north bank of the Red River. Haiyang City was located on the south bank of the Red River, and they should have been supporting each other. This support situation was really difficult to attack.

Originally, when Guang'an City was attacked, the garrison of Haiyang City should have come out of the city to meet the enemy. In this way, under the pincer attack, the invaders would have had to retreat.

However, when Guang'an City was attacked, the garrison of Haiyang City remained as still as a mountain!

Luo Shangzhi guarded against it for a long time, ready to retreat at any time, but he actually captured Guang'an City, and the garrison of Haiyang City remained motionless.

Guang'an City was broken, and the garrison of Haiyang City fled directly at the sight of the wind, without even defending it.

Luo Shangzhi captured the maritime gateway of Long City in one fell swoop. Haiyang and Guang'an were equivalent to saying that Long City had opened its gates to the Ming.

This result was very unexpected even for Luo Shangzhi. This time it was just a probing attack, not a general offensive, but the enemy's will to resist was a bit too weak.

This time, 3,600 people were captured in Guang'an City, but only 120 were Ming people, and the rest were all Annamese. The ratio was completely different from the batch of captives on Gusu Island before.

Judging from the experience of past dynasties, Annam was indeed easy to fight but also difficult to govern.

The situation in Annam was a bit too complex. ===== CHAPTER 1058 =====