Chapter 250 Who doesn’t know how to play word games?

Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 250 Who doesn’t know how to play word games?

Chapter 249

In the East Port of Batavia, the setting sun in the distance gradually disappeared into the sea. It burned the sea in the west, and it was a blood-red color.

Breuer, the Governor-General of the Dutch East India, stood on the pier of the port, letting the evening sea breeze blow up his clothes. He just looked into the distance. He didn't know what he was thinking.

The Dutch East India Combined Fleet has more than forty warships and armed merchant ships, large and small. The tall figures of those warships are sailing towards the depths of the ocean with the last ray of sunlight.

Coconut City Port, also known as Batavia West Port, is something that the Dutch East India Governorate wants to take back. After all, if Ning Haijun is stationed here, it will be equivalent to a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the Dutch.

If a wolf wants to eat a sheep, he will find an excuse no matter what.

There are many Chinese living in Batavia, most of them living in Donggang District. What's more, the Dutch are used to bullying the Chinese. If something like this happens again, with the Dutch bullying the Chinese, something similar to what happened in Luzon Port will inevitably happen.

It was the Ning navy that bombarded the East Port area of ​​Batavia.

This problem is really too serious, but the problem is that the Dutch East Indies cannot make unrestricted compromises, and his biggest concession cannot satisfy Ning Haijun's appetite.

Letting the warships leave the port at night is a sense of crisis and a temporary escape. Without the protection of the fort, these warships are not necessarily safer in the port than at sea.

"Your Majesty the Governor!"

"Dear Hans, are you back?"

"Yes, Your Excellency... I'm very sorry!"

Brewer looked at Putmans's face and knew that he must be disappointed. Ning Haijun did not agree to the peace talks.

Putmans smiled bitterly and said: "The Ming people are too greedy. They not only want money, they also want Sumatra, and they asked us to provide 80 million taels of war compensation as war compensation!"

"This is impossible!"

"Now that the negotiations have broken down, there is only war!"

Putmans looked frustrated: "With the strength and power of our Dutch East Indies, it is simply not enough to resist the attack of the Ning Navy, but the location of Sumatra Island is too important..."

Brewer knew that there was no way to support them in the Kingdom of the Netherlands now: "The only way is to delay for a while!"

"I'm afraid the people of Ming Dynasty won't give us this time!"

"You are like this... go there again and tell them that our Dutch East India Company's greatest sincerity is to compensate them 50 million guilders, and that the Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company can guarantee that similar things will not happen in the future!

"

Fifty million Dutch guilders is also a huge sum of money for the Dutch East India Company, and it is an astronomical sum. According to the current normal exchange rate with the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver (37.125 grams) can be exchanged for 3.9 Dutch guilders, five thousand guilders.

Ten thousand guilders is equivalent to 12.82 million taels of silver (the most recent exchange rate cannot be found, the exchange rate in 1637)

This is almost equivalent to about 70-80% of the profits of the Dutch East India Company.

Of course, due to the Netherlands' high international status, the actual purchasing power of Dutch guilders far exceeds the equivalent value of British pounds.

After learning about this situation, Xie Jinglin reported to Cheng Shijie.

"What are you going to do, Commander?"

Cheng Shijie stared at the huge world map hanging on the opposite wall. The most eye-catching blue color on the map shows the sphere of influence of the Dutch East Indies. Except for scattered dots, most of Sumatra Island has been

It was painted blue, and there was the Port of Medan, which shocked Cheng Shijie.

In comparison, the scope controlled by the Ning Navy is much smaller. In addition to Dajuan and part of Luzon Island, there is only the West Port area of ​​Batavia, which is less than 5% of the Dutch East India Company's territory in Southeast Asia.

.

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "The military contest between us and Zheng Zhilong is over. The next battle can only be fought in the imperial court. I must return to the capital immediately!"

"What should we do here?"

"There is no way we can spit out the territory we eat!"

Cheng Shijie said: "We only give the Dutch two choices, either to pay back with silver, or to exchange for Sumatra and Medan Port!"

"If the commander leaves, will the fleet also follow?"

"Some of them will definitely have to leave, and now the Navy is going to be reorganized!"

Cheng Shijie said: "I am fighting life and death now. If I don't get benefits, I won't leave. Tell the Dutch that they will have three days to make a decision. If they don't make a decision, Ning Haijun will send troops to retaliate immediately!"

"Really?"

"Of course we can't really fight!"

The problem Cheng Shijie considered was that the Spanish Empire needed to persist longer in Europe, and at the same time, the Dutch could not be too weakened. Otherwise, how could the Dutch suppress the British?

Without the four Anglo-Dutch wars, Britain's rise would have been faster. This would have been a worldwide war. A decisive naval battle would not be easy. The key problem is that if the other side does not want to fight openly and openly, it will adopt a method of breaking up the engagement.

, Cheng Shijie will also have a very headache.

Cheng Shijie thought of the countries established by the Chinese in various parts of Nanyang in later generations, including the Lanfang Republic established by Luo Fangbo, the Daiyan Kingdom established by Wu Yuansheng, the Jiexu Kingdom established by Zhang Jiexu, an officer who defeated the Nanming army, and the Sanfoqi Kingdom established by Zhang Lian.

There is the Suntha Kingdom, and the most famous one is the Luoshe Kingdom, which is the Thonburi dynasty established by Taksin in Thailand.

However, these countries established by the Chinese have only been in existence for a short time. The Srivijaya Kingdom has been destroyed by the Manchujia Kingdom. It will take more than thirty years for Zhang Jiexu to establish a country. Now it is not known whether Zhang Jiexu was born or not.

Cheng Shijie looked at Xie Jinglin and said, "You stay in Nanyang to do something big!"

"What's the big deal?"

"Chinese have been immigrating to various places in Southeast Asia for a long time, such as in Medan, Semarang, Surabaya and other places now. The Chinese are very powerful, but they are all oppressed by the Dutch!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Now they must have received the conflict between us and the Dutch. You don't need to go to them, they will come here to find you!"

It's not that the Nanyang Chinese are not united, but that at that time, they had no choice. Now that Cheng Shijie has stepped forward, if they don't seize this opportunity, they deserve to be bullied.

"If these representatives want to accept the protection of Ning Haijun and go to Luzon or Yecheng Port to register and obtain their household registration, they will be protected by our Ning Haijun!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Whether they are mixed-race Chinese or Chinese, they can all obtain the household registration of the Ming Dynasty. Each household registration costs no money and only requires one hundred pence for the cost of labor. In addition, we seized two coins from the Dutch East Indian colonial army.

There are more than a thousand muskets, as well as a large number of weapons and armor. If these equipment are not enough, then transport them from Liaodong!"

"yes!"

Xie Jinglin smiled and said: "Commander, I'm afraid this is just wishful thinking. These Chinese are used to being bullied in Nanyang. How should I put it? They are a bit cowardly. Even if they are given weapons, they don't dare to resist!"

"Don't be afraid of this. The enemy of your enemy is your friend. As long as you are willing to go against the Dutch and resist their colonial rule, you can buy them with money if you need equipment or training!"

Xie Jinglin said: "Price!"

"The production cost of our weapons is not high, but transporting it to Nanyang is also very laborious. Doubling it tenfold shouldn't be too much!"

“Not too much!”

Cheng Shijie said: "If no one is willing to take the lead, let's train a few, Lin Bufan, who is on the executive committee. Do they have any tribesmen in Medan?"

"It is said that there is, but the relationship is relatively distant!"

"Don't be afraid of distance. We were the same family five hundred years ago!"

Under the colonial control of the Dutch East India Company, the East India economic system was dominated by a single colonial economic system. The single colonial economy brought many benefits. East India was an important producer of coffee, rubber, palm oil, and cane sugar. In the past, the Dutch

These crops were purchased from plantations and sold to Europe, and then various industrial products were imported from Europe. Huge profits were obtained over and over again, which became an important income for the Dutch government.

Now this part of the income will be transferred to Liaodong. Liaodong itself has strong industrial production capacity. Various industrial products can be produced in Liaodong. However, due to the insufficient population in Liaodong, the scale of the Liaodong market is not large, which seriously restricts Liaodong's industry.

develop.

Now, with the addition of Luzon, Dajuan and Yecheng, Liaodong's industrial production capacity will undergo a new round of expansion.

Xie Jinglin said: "Then what's the difference between us and the Dutch?"

"Where do you see the difference?"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "In the eyes of the natives, we are invaders just like the Dutch. It's just that under the rule of the Dutch, the Chinese in East India are like leeks. They grow and cut every time they grow. Under our rule

Down here, the Chinese are the rulers, at least we don’t just plunder, we can also build.”

The real reason why Cheng Shijie did not expand on a large scale in East India is that he had a clear understanding of his own power. Strength and ambition are directly proportional. Ning Haijun is so powerful that he only dares to occupy Yecheng Port now.

The reason for expansion is that the territory is too large and the troops will be scattered and defeated by the Dutch one by one.

Although the Tiaodang Camp is very powerful in combat, in fact the heavy infantry, which mainly uses cold weapons and equipment, has really fallen behind. If the Dutch charged directly with casualties and used volley fire, the Tiaodang Camp would also suffer.

heavy losses.

This is what Cheng Shijie does not want to see. He will continue to increase his troops. Luzon is the base of Ning Haijun in Nanyang, and Yecheng Port is a tentacle of Ning Haijun reaching out to Nanyang.

Before leaving, Cheng Shijie made adjustments to the personnel arrangements of Yecheng Port. First, he integrated the 4,500-strong Tiaodang camp and the Chinese garrison of more than 1,600 people into the Yecheng Garrison Brigade.

.

This garrison brigade has four regiments, two heavy infantry and two light infantry. Li Weiluan serves as the major general brigade commander.

Guo Bingren served as the colonel's chief of staff and the commander of the third light regiment, and Li Shiji served as the colonel's deputy brigade commander and the commander of the fourth light regiment.

The commander of the Fourth Fleet is Rear Admiral Li Fang, who has 32 warships under his jurisdiction. Since the Sea Wolf class is not assigned in place, the entire Fourth Fleet now has a total of 28 Sea Shark class warships and four Jusha class warships.

.

Xie Jinglin serves as the director of the Executive Committee of Coconut City, and Lin Bufan, Li Sixi, Li Weiluan, Li Fang, etc. serve as members of the Executive Committee of Coconut City.
To be continued...