1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 667 Procrastination
Since entering the Far East in 1619, the East India Company has always regarded itself as the most powerful force in the region. Even the Portuguese and Spaniards, who are also maritime powers, would never easily provoke the East India Company.This kind of unilateral delineation of time limit and forbidden area is undoubtedly a great humiliation to the East India Company, not to mention that the initiator is only a new emerging force.Although it is already known that the strength of the Haihan people cannot be underestimated, the arrogant wording in this diplomatic letter still aroused Cohen's long-lost anger.

"...Given that your company has long been a military ally with the local pirate group Shibazhi along the coast of Fujian, and supported it in its confrontation with the government by force, we have reason to suspect that your company has similar collusion with pirates in other areas..."

In the letter, the Haihan Executive Committee pinned such trumped-up charges on the East India Company, and it was in a confident tone. If it hadn't just been defeated by the opponent, he would still be afraid of its strength. Cohen really I really want to immediately order the crusade against these ignorant heretics.

Of course, although Cohen was angry, he did not forget his identity. He still maintained enough restraint and reason in front of his subordinates, and calmly analyzed the current situation of the East India Company: "Gentlemen, if the Haihan people take Natu The consequences may be more serious than falling into the hands of a group of pirates! We must try to stop them!"

Immediately, someone responded: "Let's send troops! We are not afraid of any opponent!" "It is absolutely unforgivable to compare us with a group of pirates!"

Even in such an indignant situation, there are still some calm opinions: "Why are the Haihan people so sure that they can defeat the Natuna Islands? Do they have any collusion with the pirates on the island?"

However, this kind of statement that was very close to the truth was immediately refuted by others: "When the pirates attacked Qiongzhou Island last year, it was said that they had already occupied half of the island at the worst time, but after the Haihan people sent troops from Qiongnan, they only used After a month, they regained all the lost ground and drove all the pirates out of the sea. If the Natuna Islands are really their old opponents, then the Haihan people will surely win."

Given the size of Qiongzhou Island and its many cities, it can't last a month. Natuna Island has only one port and one town, and the rest of the island is almost barren mountains and wild mountains. How can I keep it down.Thinking about it this way, the pirates really seemed to have no chance at all.The Dutch suffered because they did not have their own intelligence channels on Qiongzhou Island. Otherwise, from the pirates attacking the island last year, to the Haihan dispatch of troops, and then the pirates' withdrawal, the Haihan people took over the control of the Qiongbei area semi-openly. In fact, there are many things worth pondering.After all, it is impossible for such a big operation to have no loopholes. As long as you are willing to collect information, it is not difficult to find out that the Haihan people are playing tricks in the middle.For the outside onlookers who don't know the truth, the news that Haihan consciously released has become their objective perception of this matter.

Then someone expressed a different opinion: "The distance from Qiongzhou Island to the Natuna Islands is more than double the distance from the local area to Fujian, and the vicinity of the Natuna Islands is not as accessible as in Qiongzhou or along the coast of Fujian. Supplies can be obtained everywhere, and the Haihan people's expedition to the Natuna Islands may not have as great an advantage on the battlefield as they did when they fought locally. The difficulties we are facing in the crusade against the Natuna Islands are also indispensable to them. When they go to the Natuna Islands Narr Islands, maybe like our fleet last time, it will suffer a big loss due to lack of preparation."

As soon as these words came out, the faces of Spikes and Van Longen who were sitting outside were a little embarrassed.No one may remember the achievements they made for the company before, but the defeat in this battle will definitely be remembered by everyone.But at this time, no one cared about their expressions, and the discussion continued enthusiastically.

"Then what does your Excellency mean to take advantage of the unfavorable time for the Haihan people to attack the island?"

"It's okay. When the two groups are fighting, our fleet will swarm up again, occupy the port, and then slowly wipe out the remnants of the island..."

"This is just an idealized situation. If the Haihan people discovered our fleet before going to the island, then they will definitely give up the battle on the island and turn their heads to deal with us first! At that time, it may not be us who are cheap, but It's the pirates on the island!"

"Okay, stop and listen to me first!" Cohen knocked on the table, and the meeting room immediately fell silent again.

"Whether the Haihan people can beat the pirates or not, we can't let them occupy the Natuna Islands!" Cohen succinctly set the tone of this matter: "There is only one way to ensure this, and that is to rush They took back control of the Natuna Islands!"

However, the idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.Van Diemen, who was in charge of the battle plan to recover the Natuna Islands, took up the conversation helplessly: "My lord, I am afraid that we will have to wait for about one and a half months at the earliest before we can complete the troop mobilization and other preparations. It will take a month to send troops, and it will be even more difficult if there are other changes in the middle."

"Is there no way to advance this time?" Cohen asked with a frown.

"The time required to mobilize troops cannot be reduced." Van Diemen explained: "Because of insufficient troops, we need to mobilize combat personnel from the colonies east of Java. It takes a month's flight to go to and from these places. Although The military order has been issued, but they rushed from all over to Batavia to concentrate, at least it will be a month later."

"Damn it..." Cohen muttered, but he didn't ask any further questions.

Van Diemen is indeed not shirking responsibility. The process of mobilizing troops from various places is cumbersome and time-consuming, and it is difficult to effectively shorten the time required.First of all, Batavia had to send speedboats to convey military orders to various places. After the military orders arrived at the local area, the local governors of each place would decide how many people to send back to Batavia to participate in the expedition depending on the local situation.During this period, the local preparations for the expedition often took several days.Van Diemen said that one and a half months is actually a very conservative estimate.If there is any unexpected situation in the middle, such as indigenous rebellion, weather conditions are not suitable for going to sea, etc., it is hard to say how long it will be delayed.

Since it was impossible to send troops to Natuna ahead of the Haihan people, they had to think of other ways.Cohen asked, "If we want to delay the Haihan people's plan to send troops, what can you do?"

Taking military action is obviously not a wise approach. Now that the preparations for sending troops to the Natuna Islands to fight pirates have not been completed, how can we talk about tearing faces with Haihan, a powerful enemy?Cohen's intention to consult everyone is obviously to get everyone to come up with other ideas besides going to war.

"My lord, maybe we can send envoys to Sanya to have a direct contact with the Haihan people."

Cohen followed the sound and saw that it was Van Longen who had spoken, so he nodded slightly and said, "Please tell me what you think."

Encouraged by Van Longen, he boldly said: "The reason why we are undecided now is that we lack an intuitive understanding of the Haihan people. None of the gentlemen here, including myself, People have had face-to-face contact with Haihan people, not to mention going to their land to observe their local development in person. I think everyone should admit that there is a huge loophole in our intelligence work."

Everyone present immediately turned their attention to another person, Brandt Henk, who was in charge of the intelligence work of the East India Company. The problem pointed out by Van Longen happened to be in his field of responsibility.

Henk shrugged his shoulders and said: "Gentlemen, please don't look at this matter as a simple dereliction of duty. We want to collect information on the Haihan people, and there are obvious shortcomings in nature. Everyone here, what do you think? If a Dutchman goes to Qiongzhou Island, which is full of yellow people, what is the chance of not being noticed? Moreover, they have not declared their independence from the territory of Ming Dynasty until now, and there has been no reconciliation between us and Ming Dynasty, so we also There is no way to establish diplomatic relations with Haihan, and there is no reasonable reason to send intelligence personnel there."

"Don't forget that there are tens of thousands of Chinese in the city of Batavia, Mr. Henk." Some of the people present immediately expressed their dissatisfaction with this shirk.

"But among so many Chinese, how many of them are worthy of our complete trust and can safely deliver this kind of secret work?" Henke immediately retorted: "Look at the people here, is there anyone here who has the slightest bit of Chinese blood? Is it? Send Chinese to be spies, don’t you worry that they will bite us back because of the same ethnicity?”

Those who are not of my race must have a different heart. In fact, this concept is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the Dutch.Even though they have traveled all over the world, and their knowledge far exceeds that of the feudal kingdoms of the same period, it is still difficult to avoid these thoughts that come from physiological instincts.In the intelligence department of the East India Company, there are no Chinese members at all.Most of the information they could gather about Hai Han came from the word of mouth passed down by Ming maritime merchants and immigrants. Very limited.

But the more they feel that these rumors are unreliable, the more intelligence officials feel that these Chinese are unreliable, and the more unwilling to use them for their own use.In the past, this kind of employment situation did not cause any trouble, because the possibility that the current Ming Empire could pose a substantial threat to the East India Company is very small, and there is no need to arrange special intelligence collection work for it.It was 200 years ago that the huge fleet of the Ming Empire went out to sea for the last time. After that, Ming's maritime strength gradually declined, and it had gradually fallen to a level that was considered unpopular in the eyes of the East India Company.Now everyone in the company thinks that Ming has given up fighting for supremacy at sea for a long time, and it is unnecessary to spend resources to build an intelligence network against Ming.

Seeing that no one refuted his statement, Henk continued: "With all due respect, it is much less difficult for the Haihan people to send spies to Batavia. Although I have no definite evidence, I think that among the local Chinese, There should have been spies inserted by Hai Han'an long ago!"

Everyone in the room was in an uproar, and most of them found it difficult to accept his conjecture.Henk shook his head and said, "Gentlemen, it's hard for you not to notice that in the past year, Daming Marine Merchant has purchased less and less western goods, especially spices, from Batavia. That's because they have found better ones. The sellers are Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island! As far as I know, seven out of ten maritime merchants who come to Batavia have trade relations with Haihan to varying degrees, and many of them have invested in Haihan on Qiongzhou Island. Various plantation industries run by the Han people. In other words, many of these Ming merchants who do business with us are partners of the Haihan people, or people who run errands for them. If the Haihan people are willing, they can easily let spies Lurking in the city of Batavia with various identities, and we don't have any effective countermeasures for this right now."

"Then what do you think of Mr. Van Longen's proposal?" Cohen asked Henk not to let the topic go off track.

"I very much agree with Mr. Van Longen's proposal." Unexpectedly, Henk did not veto the other party's proposal because of Van Longen's almost named criticism, but instead expressed support for it: "As the director of the intelligence department, I think we At present, there is a great need for such a reasonable excuse to go to the old den of the Haihan people and collect some really useful information."

Cohen nodded and said to Van Longen, "You continue to talk about your thoughts."

Van Longen bowed slightly, and continued: "We can use diplomatic means to try our best to persuade the Haihan people to cancel or postpone the action on the Natuna Islands. Even if this goal cannot be achieved in the end, it can still play the role Mr. Henk said just now. Mr. Governor, the real problem we need to solve is not the timing of sending troops to attack, but the lack of real understanding of the Haihan group. Haihan is a competitor we have to face. If we can learn more about What they really are, I think that's going to help us beat them on the battlefield in the future."

Under the premise that the use of military means is inappropriate, there are indeed no other tricks that may delay time. This suggestion put forward by Van Longen has been recognized by almost everyone.The next step is to select the envoys and prepare the ships and related documents. Cohen proposed that Van Longen be the head of the embassy to complete this task that is destined not to be easy.And Van Longen, who was eager to restore his image, also readily accepted the appointment. For him, this is the battle that determines whether he can turn himself around.

(End of this chapter)