1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 676 Hard Negotiations

Su Keyi didn't expect these two people to have such a relationship, and he couldn't help being taken aback when he heard this.He just saw that Yu Xiaobao was young and talkative, far less difficult to deal with than Gu Kai and Schneider, and he wanted to get close to him to ease the atmosphere of the negotiation, but he never thought of finding himself an elder Haihan.As a negotiator of the East India Company, if he got involved with his opponent personally, it would be fine if the negotiation came to a good result. If the negotiation collapsed, he would have to bear the blame alone?
"Mr. Shi really likes to joke... Let's get on with the business!" Su Keyi touched such a soft nail, so he had no choice but to give up his thoughts and return to the negotiation.

However, even if the two sides have changed their players, the rhythm of the negotiation still has not changed much compared with yesterday. Various requests made by the other party were rejected one by one.Even though Su Keyi spoke dryly, the negotiations still did not make any progress.And every time he tried to play a little trick to interfere with the opponent, Schneider would always make an inappropriate noise, which made him fail.

After a few rounds, Su Keyi finally understood that the other party was a master with his apprentice for an internship, and he was gradually getting familiar with the business, and he was that unlucky training partner.If Yu Xiaobao is singled out, Su Keyi believes that he still has a way to stumbling the opponent, at least his words can gain the upper hand, but with Schneider, a seasoned person watching the situation, it is difficult for Su Keyi to implement even if he has any ideas.

"Continuing such an endless debate will not benefit both of us. Why don't you find out calmly and see if there is any common interest. Maybe there will be no need to use war as a means of solving problems in the future." Su Keyi has tried various methods After both were declared invalid, they could only settle for the next best thing, trying to reach a peace agreement with Haihan first, while ignoring the disputes.

"Common interests?" Hearing this word, Schneider couldn't help taking the initiative to take the initiative: "The object of your common interests is a vassal like Shibazhi who is willing to obey orders, not an opponent who can sit on an equal footing with you."

"Mr. Shi, even Shibazhi has some common interests with the Ming government. What you said is a bit arbitrary. You must know that Shibazhi has always occupied a certain share of Fujian's maritime trade." Su Keyi retorted.Haihan compared the East India Company with pirates, which was their main argument for prohibiting Dutch ships from entering the disputed waters of the Natuna Islands. Su Keyi also wanted to argue with Schneider on this.

"Is Shibazhi a pirate?" Schneider asked immediately.

"We think they are just a group of maritime merchants who are not tolerated by the Fujian government. They do have private armed forces, but this does not mean that they are pirates. Haihan is also a merchant with private armed forces, isn't it? I believe that Haihan and the eighteenth Just like Zhizhi, organizing armed forces is only to protect their own interests." Su Keyi argued.

Schneider responded: "If charging high protection fees to passing ships, looting places, buying and selling by force, confronting the government, and armed riots are not considered pirates, then please tell me, Mr. Su, what do you think? Is this kind of behavior considered what a pirate should do? Do you want to have the word pirate tattooed on your forehead?"

"Private ships launch attacks on other ships at sea. This cannot simply be regarded as an act of piracy. At least in the Netherlands, the suzerain of the East India Company, this is an act approved by the government!" Of course, Su Keyi could not directly respond to Schneider's question, he could only avoid the important ones , secretly change the concept to deal with it.

But this kind of trick was obviously ineffective in front of Schneider. He responded with a mocking smile: "I know that many countries, including the Netherlands, allow ship owners to attack ships of hostile countries at sea, but in English 'pirate' It is still two completely different words from 'Privateer'. The East India Company's attack on Portuguese and Spanish ships at sea can be regarded as an official act, but no one behind Shibazhi authorized them to do so. Take Ming Dynasty From the point of view of the government, they are a group of pirates who are wanted by the government. There is no dispute about this. You can see the wanted reward notices about Zheng Zhilong and others at the gate of the city whenever you go to Zhangquan and other places. By the way, Zheng Zhilong The bounty on his head has dropped from the original 5000 taels to 3000 taels recently, losing Nanri Island is obviously a huge blow to his reputation."

Su Keyi couldn't think of a reasonable argument to refute Schneider for a while, so he had to change direction again: "Shibazhi's behavior was not ordered by the East India Company, it was just the personal wishes of Zheng Zhilong and others, and the East India Company should not blame them for their actions. Infamy."

"Your washing posture is not good!" Schneider shook his head and sighed, "Xiaobao, come here."

Yu Xiaobao said comprehendingly: "But in fact, you have already participated in their piracy in Fujian. You sent armed ships to attack the warships of the Ming government, which actually started the war. From the perspective of the Ming government, The East India Company and Shibazhi are indeed a combination of common interests, so they also issued a wanted reward for the officials of the East India Company who participated in this matter. The reward for Mr. Hans Putmans, the chief executive, is 1000 taels , life or death. And the other..."

When Yu Xiaobao said this, he looked at Van der Wegen with a smile and said: "...the other senior officer leading the team, the reward is 300 taels for living and 100 taels for dead."

At the time of the battle in the Nanri Island waters, the Dutch fleet participated in the battle with a total of six ships. As a result, only two escaped after being defeated. In the end, hundreds of prisoners were captured. The information about Van der Wegen has naturally been grasped by the relevant departments. .On the evening of the mission's arrival in Sanya, the relevant materials compiled by the Haihan Security Department had already been sent to the executive committee.Because Yu Xiaobao was assigned the task of directly contacting them, he was also fortunate to know this information, and he was also very clear about Van der Wegen's identity and deeds.It's just that Van der Wegen hasn't taken the initiative to mention Fujian since the beginning of the negotiation, and Haihan didn't specifically mention his previous identity.

Su Keyi almost choked on his saliva when he heard this, and for the sake of Vander Wegen's face, he decided to skip this paragraph while translating.This arrest warrant is not so much about killing the Dutchman as it is about humiliation—maybe it was the Haihan people who encouraged the Fujian government to offer a reward.

Van der Wegen didn't know that the content of the conversation between the two involved him. He knew very limited Chinese, and the conversation between the two basically left him in a state of emptiness throughout.

"In view of the position of the East India Company, as an ally of Daming, our attitude towards this is also consistent with that of the Ming government." Yu Xiaobao put an end to this debate without haste: "What is Daming's attitude towards you?" , What is our attitude. Of course, out of diplomatic etiquette, we will give you the envoy treatment you deserve during the negotiation period and guarantee your personal safety during this period."

Faced with such a statement, Su Keyi had no way to fight back.He is not afraid of Haihan people putting pressure on the negotiating table. If the other party does that, he can show his integrity through resistance, but the Haihan people's attitude is that they don't take this negotiation seriously at all, and have even begun to blatantly Take advantage of this occasion to bring apprentices.

After Yu Xiaobao made such a statement, Schneider next to him didn't even have the slightest intention to correct him, and Su Keyi's heart sank—he didn't even think about the outcome of the discussion here, no matter how hard he tried, That's just playing the piano to the cow.What's more, the initiative on the negotiating table has never been on the Dutch side from the very beginning.

"It's getting late, I suggest that today's negotiations should come to an end!" Schneider raised his hand to check the time, and ended the one-sided debate.Although Yu Xiaobao's performance is really good, Schneider believes that there is still room for improvement in the handling of some details, and he will have to give him individual tutoring later.

After the two Haihan people left, Su Keyi said with a tired face: "Gentlemen, what we are doing is meaningless. The Haihan people have been teasing us. Do you feel it? The purpose of our coming here is to meet Except for the Haihan people, it can be said that nothing has been completed. The negotiation has not progressed at all, and we are under house arrest here, without contact with the outside world, so we cannot obtain information. Most importantly, the Haihan people do not seem to continue talking with us. interest, they don’t expect to get anything from us, they are just using us to pass the time!”

"We all know what you said." Van Longen replied with a gloomy face: "But if we don't get any results, how are we going to report to the governor after we go back? Mr. Su, you have nothing to do, the big deal is to go back to the business. What you should do, but Mr. Van der Wegen and I are both sinners, if we fail to make some achievements this time, I am afraid that the governor and the board of directors will not give us good fruit when we go back!"

"But we can't change the Haihan people's attitude if we continue talking, we have no cards to play!" Su Keyi argued, "I think we should end this errand as soon as possible and return to Batavia , Inform the board of directors of the attitude of the Haihan people, and remind them to prepare for the battle as soon as possible, because the Haihan people obviously have no intention of reconciling with us at all!"

"No, no, if you go back like this, the result will only be reprimanded by the board of directors for incompetence, and then Mr. Van Longen and I will take responsibility for it, be dismissed from all positions in the company, and leave Badawi with shame and a few luggage Ya return to the Netherlands!" Van der Wegen also stood up to express his attitude at this time, his opinion was the same as that of Van Longen, that is, they couldn't just go back empty-handed, because they couldn't bear the corresponding consequences.

Before leaving Batavia, Governor Cohen had made a very clear request to them. If a certain negotiation result was not achieved in Sanya, then the previous defeats in the Battle of Fujian and the Battle of Natuna had to be settled with them. Let the parties be responsible.

Even now that the negotiations are frustrated and the prospects are slim, Van Longen and Van der Wegen are still unwilling to give up easily and continue negotiating with the Haihan people.Even if the Haihan people's attitude towards this is very obvious, they still have to persevere, because giving up the negotiation is tantamount to giving up their own future.

Su Keyi sat down slumped after listening to the statements of the two. He knew that it would be useless to continue to object. This mission was originally based on the opinions of the two Dutchmen, and he was only an assistant.If these two want to drag this matter on for their own benefit, then he can only obey the arrangement. After all, neither the Haihan people nor the two companions are likely to let him go back to Batavia alone. .

"Then I suggest writing a letter and asking the Haihan people to find Haishang to take them to Batavia, and briefly explain the situation here, so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings after the company has not received news for a long time." Su Keyi now only Can come back to the next best thing.

"The Haihan people may not agree, and what we wrote in the letter may be peeped by them." Van der Wegen has doubts about this.

Su Keyi shook his head and said: "We don't need to write anything too confidential, we just need to inform that we have arrived in Sanya safely and are negotiating with the Haihan people, but the progress is not going well. The Han people probably wouldn’t open it on the way to see it.”

"Mr. Su's proposal is reasonable. We will make relevant requests to the Haihan people later." Fan Longen agreed with this proposal.Seeing that the negotiation has come to an impasse, I don't know how long it will be delayed in Sanya. It is better to write a letter as soon as possible and send it back to report that it is safe. Misjudge the situation.Of course, they have been under house arrest so far, with no access to the outside world at all, and there is indeed no confidential information to report to the company.

But when they saw the Haihan people again, they found that even Schneider didn't show up, and Yu Xiaobao was the only one who came.When Su Keyi put forward the request to deliver the letter with anxiety, Yu Xiaobao agreed quickly: "We can find someone to deliver the letter on our behalf. You can write the letter and hand it over to the service staff here. But we can only arrange The ship that recently set off to the south will do it for me, so I can't give you an exact guarantee when it will be delivered to Batavia."

Su Keyi was a little worried about Schneider's absence at first, and Yu Xiaobao couldn't make the decision, so he quickly responded: "It's okay, I also know that the journey to Batavia from here is far away, and it will take a lot of time. This letter is just sent back. It’s just a report of safety, nothing else.”

Yu Xiaobao smiled and said: "It doesn't matter what you write, and we don't care. By the way, from today onwards, I will be the plenipotentiary representative of this negotiation."

(End of this chapter)