Chapter 1368: Can the Dutch East India Company Still Be Kept?

"Governor-General, Prefect Wei requests that you come to the prefectural office."

As Matsorco was fretting helplessly, his secretary's voice suddenly sounded by his ear. Only then did he realize that his secretary had entered the office at some point without his noticing, and had brought with him a visiting card from Wei Qingmu, the Prefect of Temasek City.

Wei Qingmu had returned from Europe a year earlier and had been elected Prefect of Temasek City by the city's thirty-seven-member council. Six months ago he had formally received the appointment of the Great Ming Emperor and taken office as Temasek City's second prefect. Because the Wei family were originally Chinese merchants in Batavia and had quite good relations with the Dutch East India Company, Matsorco had at the time felt that he could enjoy the remainder of his term as Governor-General in Temasek very pleasantly.

He had not expected that soon after Wei Qingmu took office, worrying news would arrive from the West for Matsorco!

France and Holland were going to form an alliance and come to the Indian Ocean to contain the Great Ming Empire. And that was not all — they had also colluded with the Shun Empire, which had just been defeated in Sichuan.

If it were merely a matter of containing the Great Ming in the Indian Ocean, that would be one thing. After all, the Great Ming Empire's expansion seemed to have reached its limit, and it was not certain that it would push westward in great strides. Moreover, going westward by way of the Southern Seas was not easy. In the past three or four years, at least one-third of the northern warriors who had settled in the "Twelve Duchies of Benevolence and Righteousness" had died of illness! If one added their losses during the pacification of the Twelve Duchies — also mainly from illness — then half of the northerners were already buried at Malacca.

With such staggering losses, and since these northern warriors' demands for land had almost all been satisfied, this group had lost its former edge. Everyone only wanted to live out the rest of their lives in peace and stability. So even if the Son of Heaven wished to expand westward, he would probably find it hard to find many men willing to charge into battle for him for the time being.

Therefore, the containment of the Great Ming by France and Holland might seem a joke in the eyes of the Son of Heaven.

But the collusion of France and Holland with the Shun Empire was what truly drew hatred. The Shun Empire was the Great Ming Empire's mortal enemy! The Son of Heaven had just personally led a campaign to take Sichuan, which the Shun had occupied for twenty years, and now France and Holland had gone and allied with the Shun, who had fled to Burma. Was that not openly making trouble for the Celestial Empire?

The Celestial Empire might not necessarily launch a great expedition into the Indian Ocean, but it might very well strangle the Dutch East India Company to death!

And at this moment, the damned Puritan madmen — meaning the English — and the Catholics — meaning the Portuguese — were still holding back a surge of energy, waiting to stab the Dutch East India Company in the back. The English East India Company had in recent years continuously increased its investment in the Pacific market, and had also cooperated with Zheng Zhilong's Yiguandang trading house to establish the Temasek Trading Company, using Temasek Island as a transit station for East-West trade. It had already seized a considerable share of the Dutch East India Company's trade.

And the Portuguese, who had long since been knocked to the ground by the Dutch and the English, had in recent years begun to turn things around as well!

The former Portuguese Governor's Office in Macau, after losing its authority to administer the Portuguese in Macau, had accepted investment from the Mancini Tea House and begun transforming itself into a joint-stock chartered trading company similar to the Dutch East India Company, called the Macau-New Company, whose main business was also East-West trade and trans-Pacific trade.

With the existence of the English East India Company and the Macau-New Company, the Dutch East India Company's position in the Celestial Empire's foreign trade no longer seemed irreplaceable.

With his mind full of worries, the aging Dutch merchant left the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, boarded a luxurious carriage, and headed straight for the prefectural residence near the port of Temasek.

The prefectural residence of Temasek City was not built in the style of a traditional Chinese yamen. It was a three-story brick-and-wood structure combining Chinese and Western styles, situated on the banks of the Temasek River. From the reception room reserved for Prefect Wei Qingmu, one could see the busy port of Temasek through the glass windows.

When Matsorco arrived, Wei Qingmu was chatting with two Westerners, and they were speaking English!

Seeing the secretary lead Matsorco in, Wei Qingmu smiled and made introductions for him.

Wei Qingmu continued speaking in English: "Mr. Matsorco, this is Rear Admiral Blake, commander of the English Eastern Fleet, and this is Mr. Beckett, chief supercargo of the English East India Company. This is Mr. Matsorco, Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company."

Mr. Matsorco nodded to the two Englishmen, put on an elegant smile, seated himself in a round-backed chair, and then said with a smile: "Welcome to Temasek Island. I think that if you stay here for just a few days, you will come to like this charming tropical city."

Rear Admiral Blake smiled and said: "Governor-General, I am very sorry, but Mr. Beckett and I must leave Temasek tomorrow and head north, for we have received an invitation to go to Yingtian Prefecture to have an audience with the Son of Heaven."

"Is that so?" Matsorco still wore a smile. "I can write a letter to the chief supercargo of the East India Company in Shanghai Prefecture, asking him to entertain you two properly."

The Dutch East India Company's office in Shanghai was very luxurious, situated on the Bund, in a four-story European-style building.

Wei Qingmu smiled: "Mr. Matsorco, I think you may go to Yingtian Prefecture together with Rear Admiral Blake and Chief Supercargo Beckett, because His Majesty the Emperor summons you to an audience!"

As he spoke, Wei Qingmu took Zhu Cilang's handwritten edict from one of his private secretaries and handed it to Matsorco with both hands.

Matsorco hastily rose to his feet, bowed toward the edict, then respectfully received it with both hands, and, still standing, unfolded the Son of Heaven's handwritten decree.

Although it was called the Son of Heaven's handwritten decree, it was not actually written in Zhu Cilang's own hand. Only at the signature was a seal reading "Invincible Under Heaven" affixed — this was the seal Zhu Cilang used exclusively when issuing handwritten edicts.

The handwritten edict was written in French, and from the handwriting one could tell that Marie Mancini had written it on Zhu Cilang's behalf. The content was very simple: it requested that he immediately go north to Yingtian Prefecture!

Wei Qingmu smiled: "It happens to be early summer now, and the winds are favorable for going north. Mr. Matsorco, you should set out at once. Do not keep His Majesty the Emperor waiting!"

Matsorco immediately agreed: "Very well, I shall depart at once — tomorrow!"

These were extraordinary times. The Dutch East India Company did not know when it might be kicked out of the Pacific, and he dared not delay for a single moment.

He almost wished he could sprout wings and fly to Yingtian Prefecture to seek a lifesaving path!

A path certainly existed. Marie Mancini, the Great Ming Emperor's royal mistress, had received no small amount of benefit from the Dutch East India Company over the years! At a critical moment, she ought to be of some use, ought she not?

But the news coming from Wuhan Prefecture still made Matsorco very worried, because Princess Nisha seemed to have become the Son of Heaven's new favorite, while Marie Mancini had gradually lost His Majesty's favor.

And that Princess Nisha was a person the Dutch East India Company simply could not buy!

Because her father, Aurangzeb, had always detested the Dutch. The Timurid dynasty of India had always been pro-English!

While the Englishmen Blake and Beckett and the Dutchman Matsorco, each with his own schemes, boarded northbound sailing ships, the Great Ming Son of Heaven, Zhu Cilang, was traveling by riverboat, sailing downriver eastward, returning to Yingtian.

This imperial campaign of his had finally ended in complete victory! Except for the territory of the Sichuan Regional Military Commission south of the Great Snow Mountains, plus half of Mahu Prefecture, half of Wumeng Prefecture, half of Zhenxiong Prefecture, and the whole of Dongchuan Prefecture and Wusa Prefecture — these border corners — all of Sichuan had been recovered by the Great Ming's heavenly troops.

However, the province of Sichuan was not restored as an administrative unit. Instead, three military governorships appeared: Western Sichuan, Eastern Sichuan, and Northern Sichuan, ruling respectively the eastern, northern, and western-southern parts of Sichuan Province. But the degree of autonomy of these three military governorships was not high; they could not compare with frontier military garrisons such as Anxi and Beiting, and they would not last long. At most they would exist for four or five years, until Sichuan was completely pacified, and then the fiefs would be abolished and a province established.

By that time, the roving bandits' rule in Yunnan would also be nearing its end, and the Great Ming Empire's restoration would be thoroughly complete!

But the Great Ming's restoration was not the end, but a new beginning!

(End of Chapter)