Chapter 229: South to Hue

“I can go to Japan once the Engine Project officially begins,” Ping Qiusheng thought. He reluctantly abandoned the Japan trade mission plan and focused all his energy on preparing for the Southeast Asia expedition.

The main target of Ping Qiusheng’s planned Southeast Asia expedition was the Indochinese Peninsula, which included present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. It did not involve present-day Malaysia, the Philippines, or Indonesia. This was because the Planning Commission’s main purpose in supporting this expedition was to acquire grain. In addition, the Spanish and Dutch had strong colonial forces in the latter regions, and their territories were intertwined. The Council of Elders did not intend to get involved in such a chaotic situation at the moment.

For the ships to Southeast Asia, Ping Qiusheng had originally hoped to get a Type 901 as his flagship—a warship belching black smoke, majestically entering the land of barbarians, setting up a few cannons on the coastline to force them to pay tribute and acknowledge suzerainty. What a colonial fantasy!

But the impending Engine Project shattered his ambitions. Not only could he not get any of the Type 901s, but even the larger and better sailing warships were basically unavailable.

He could only choose from the ships of the Southeast Asia Company’s fleet. In the end, he got two Guang-style ships. Each with a displacement of 200 tons, they were common dual-purpose cargo/fishing vessels along the coast in this era. They were the two best-conditioned ships in the Southeast Asia Company’s fleet. After inspecting them, Ping Qiusheng believed they could roughly meet the needs of the Southeast Asia expedition.

The commander of the two ships for this trip to Southeast Asia was just such a former pirate leader, He Congfu.

He Congfu was an old pirate, known for his cunning in the big gangs. He was a small-time pirate but had been relatively successful, growing from a small fishing boat to a leader with five large ships. When Zhu Cailao’s gang collapsed, he managed to escape with two ships.

Since surrendering to the Council of Elders, he had been observing the Australians’ development. He was not the only one; most of the people in the Southeast Asia Company were like him.

Initially, all those who joined the Southeast Asia Company’s merchant fleet were old pirate leaders who were suspicious of the kūnzéi and wanted to preserve some of their own strength as a fallback. As the Council of Elders’ power continued to grow, with the implementation of a unified personnel system, a unified remuneration system, and the political reform of the grassroots personnel, the old leaders’ personal control over the fleet’s sailors had basically disappeared. The so-called preservation of strength to observe the situation had become empty talk. Even the ships they personally captained could not act without orders from the Admiralty.

After the victory in the second anti-encirclement campaign and the navy’s advance into the Pearl River Estuary, firing on the Wuyang Post, these people finally decided to completely sell themselves out to get on the “dragon-riding” bandwagon. To this end, they unanimously sold the ownership of their ships to the Planning Commission to show their loyalty. In this way, their personal influence over the ships was completely eliminated, leaving only the dividend shares from the valuation of their ships.

He Congfu had been to Siam before and was familiar with the sea route—of course, it was not the optimal route. Ancient Chinese sailors generally preferred routes where they could see the coastline, or at least a series of islands as a reference.

But such a route was very suitable for the Southeast Asia trade mission. Their main purpose was to investigate the coastal conditions and conduct trade, so a coastal route was exactly what they wanted.

He Congfu wore a senior seaman’s uniform—which was actually the officer’s uniform of the Council of Elders’ navy, but with all the insignia of the merchant fleet. The armband was embroidered with the mark “By Grace and Special Permission of the Council of Elders, the Southeast Asia Company.” He wore the latest issue of binoculars on his chest, looking very imposing.

The mast flew the Morning Star flag of the Council of Elders and the company flag of the Southeast Asia Company: a smaller Morning Star flag in the upper left corner, with the rest of the flag consisting of nine red and white stripes. It was unofficially called the “Nine-Dash Flag.”

Finally, there was Ping Qiusheng’s personal coat of arms flag, a red field with his self-designed family crest in the center.

Quark could never figure out the meaning of the newly appeared “Nine-Dash Flag” of the Southeast Asia Company, but in his eyes, it was very similar to the flag of the British East India Company, especially the red and white stripes.

The red and white stripes of the East India Company were the colors of the St. George’s Cross. What was the meaning of the Australians using such a color scheme? Quark was very interested in this, but neither He Fanghui nor Ping Qiusheng could give him a clear answer.

The actual reason was that when Dr. Zhong designed the flag for the Southeast Asia Company, he directly copied the layout and idea of the British East India Company’s flag.

In Dr. Zhong Lishi’s view, the British East India Company was a very successful enterprise. Although it was still weak in this era, the British ultimately achieved far greater success than the Dutch. Copying the flag of such an enterprise was very “auspicious.”

However, Quark was very dissatisfied with the state of his own East India Company. In the 17th century, the British East India Company was a “disadvantaged group” in the East Asian seas, occupying some isolated strongholds and trading posts on the vast ocean, with a very small and scattered trading territory. Not only did they rarely get a share of the most profitable trade, but they were also constantly attacked by various competitors.

But he had struck gold. This was Quark’s second time transporting slaves to Sanya. With the successful experience of the last time, and the high-quality sugar, rum, and various Chinese goods that he had never seen before, the British trading post in Banten was in an uproar. This time, the endless stream of visitors was even more enthusiastic about everything related to the Australians. Even the not-so-friendly neighbors of the British, the Dutch from Batavia, came.

Combined with the report of the Dutch commercial officer’s visit to Lin’gao, it became a piece of rapidly fermenting information. Adventurers gathered around Quark like flies to blood. Funds, ships, and slave sources appeared one after another. He acted quickly, and in less than three months, the second ship with nearly 1,000 slaves arrived in Sanya. The return cargo hold was filled with raw silk, white sugar, rum, and various Chinese goods.

The huge profits allowed Quark to quickly raise enough funds. Now, Quark’s fleet had two large cargo ships with a displacement of 300 tons each. However, this scale was still somewhat thin. His fleet had to pass the long coast of the Nguyễn lords to go south, and the king there now had a good relationship with the Portuguese, which made Quark quite worried. He had suffered at the hands of the Portuguese, and the goods on these ships were very valuable. The heavily loaded merchant ships had neither firepower nor speed. If they were boarded, they wouldn’t even have enough sailors for a melee. They were a typical fat prize on the sea.

During his stay in Sanya, he learned that the Australians’ trade mission was going south to Siam. Since they were going to Siam, they would definitely have to pass through Quảng Nam. As long as he followed the Australian fleet safely through the Vietnamese coastline, he wouldn’t have to worry too much afterward. Thinking of this, he immediately conveyed this idea to He Fanghui and expressed his willingness to act as a pilot and local guide for the Australian fleet. The Australians readily agreed. So, Quark immediately handed over the command of his fleet to Captain Higgins, while he himself boarded the large ship of the Southeast Asia Company—the flagship where Ping Qiusheng was.

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The fleet set sail with the wind and soon reached the waters of Hue. At this time, the Lê dynasty of Vietnam had been split into northern and southern dynasties by the powerful ministers of the Trịnh and Nguyễn clans.

In 1620, the powerful minister Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, who was entrenched in the north, officially refused to pay taxes to the court in Hanoi, and then refused an edict demanding that the Nguyễn clan submit to the authority of the court. In 1623, Trịnh Tùng died, and his son Trịnh Tráng succeeded him. Trịnh Tráng again formally demanded the submission of the Nguyễn clan, and Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên repeatedly refused. Open warfare between the Trịnh and Nguyễn clans finally broke out in 127.

After four months of continuous fighting, the outcome was undecided, and the entire Lê dynasty Vietnam was split into northern and southern parts. The Trịnh clan controlled most of the north, while the Nguyễn clan ruled most of the south. The dividing line between the two sides was on the Gianh River in Quảng Bình province—this border was very close to the later 17th parallel that divided North and South Vietnam.

Compared to the Trịnh, who ruled a much more populous territory, the Nguyễn also had some advantages. First, they were on the defensive. Second, the Nguyễn benefited from their contact with Europeans, especially the Portuguese, which allowed them to purchase more advanced European armaments and hire European military experts for their city defenses. Third, the geographical situation was in their favor: large-scale organized armies were only suitable for open plains, which were very rare in Vietnam—in Vietnam, the mountains almost squeezed into the sea.

The main stronghold of the southern Nguyễn clan was in Hue. After repelling the first offensive of the Trịnh, the Nguyễn built two main fortress lines across the narrow plain between the mountains and the sea. The walls were erected near the city of Đồng Hới, north of Hue. It was said to be a group of European-style fortresses built under the guidance of Portuguese military engineers, forming a solid defense system with cannons and matchlocks, making it very difficult for the Trịnh army to break through.

To break through these walls, the Trịnh had invested 100,000 soldiers, 500 war elephants, and 500 warships. The first attack on the Nguyễn’s wall defenses was unsuccessful, and repeated attacks continued for several years. The fighting was still going on in front of this “Great Wall,” and countless Vietnamese peasants became cannon fodder in this protracted war, dying by the thousands.

For the Council of Elders, this war also had a very bad impact. The trading post in Hải Dương had gradually lost its advantage in purchasing cheap grain. Rice was diverted for military use, peasants were drafted into the army and often never returned, fields were left barren, and the market became depressed.

Because the Nguyễn’s “Great Wall” on the front line was effective, the Trịnh often harassed the south from the sea. The south retaliated in kind, and the fighting at sea between the two sides was also very fierce.