1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 535 Confrontation ([-])

"Major General Copet, you may not know much about Eastern culture." Senior Commercial Counselor Fred Upton said with a smile: "In the East, especially the Ming people, their entire culture is relatively reserved, but Sometimes when people are cornered, they will burst out with a strong sense of resistance. There is a proverb in the Ming Dynasty that says, it is better to smash the jade than to save your own tiles. They also have an old saying As the saying goes, the sleeping place next to you is not allowed to be easily touched by others."

"The Hanzhou continent, as their homeland, is regarded as forbidden by the Hanzhou people and cannot be invaded by anyone. And our Hollenburg is just near their royal city, posing a direct threat to the Hanzhou. This will inevitably lead to a fierce reaction. It is true that the Hanzhou people have invested a lot of military power in the Ming mainland, and it has also involved a lot of their resources and energy. But we should not underestimate the strength of the Hanzhou people and their determination to wage war for this .”

"According to the report of our business personnel stationed in Hanzhou, Hanzhou implements a system of compulsory service for all citizens, and their citizens undergo military training for a certain period of time every month. Hanzhou is also a country of immigrants. The vast majority of the people are young and strong. Gentlemen, do you know what this means? The Hanzhou people are estimated to have a population of more than 1. If they want to, they can mobilize an army of [-] people, and they still have [-] well-trained Su Su's professional army!"

"Mr. Upton, Hanzhou has a huge land force, but in the East Indies, they cannot put so much land force on a limited battlefield." Major General Kopet retorted: "In the East Indies In the Indian Islands, we possess absolute dominance over the sea, and it also has an overwhelming advantage over Hanzhou. Without command of the sea, Hanzhou will not pose a threat to us even if it has a large army.”

"Major General Kopet, is your suggestion to refuse to withdraw the Hollenburg in the north of Hanzhou, and then prepare for a new war in Hanzhou?" Upton asked with a frown.

"No, no, no..." Rear Admiral Kopet shook his head and said, "It is true what you said just now, although Hanzhou's navy is far inferior to ours, its professional warships and many armed merchant ships will still attack our East India Company." It will cause certain losses. In the event of a war, our large number of commercial stations and strongholds in the East Indies will definitely be attacked by Hanzhou, and our trading ships will also be intercepted or destroyed by them. Therefore, as a last resort, we will not fight with Hanzhou is fighting a war that hurts both sides."

"So, Major General Coppett, what did you mean by what you said just now?" Upton spread his hands and asked in puzzlement.

"Our current strength is not enough to completely destroy Hanzhou, and we can't even completely destroy their sea power." Major General Kopet said: "But we can't show weakness to Hanzhou, the other side is only threatening with force , we must immediately remove Hollenburg. Now, most of Hanzhou's land forces are conducting local intervention operations near Ming, and their sea forces may also go to Ming in the coming June and July. The annual immigrant work. So, I think Han Chau probably doesn't want to start a war with our East India Company at the moment either."

"In this case, why don't we talk to them? Taking advantage of Hanzhou's inability to mobilize all resources and military forces, remove Hollenburg and exchange interests with Hanzhou. For example, ask them to stop Transport all kinds of materials to the Portuguese in Makassar, especially the import of weapons is prohibited. Another example, we can ask them to buy the artificial manufacturing formula of cement and increase the export of steel to our East India Company. I think, as for wanting to obtain What economic interests, Mr. Upton, your business department should be the clearest."

"Are you trying to threaten Hanzhou to give us some special benefits on the condition of removing Hollenburg?" Upton frowned and said, "I think Hanzhou may not accept this kind of threat."

"I think we can try it." Major General Kopet said with a smile, "Perhaps the Hanzhou people are facing more difficulties than we imagined, and we may not know it."

"I quite agree with Major General Coppet's suggestion." Batavia Mayor Willer Huntington White said, "We can't easily show weakness for Hanzhou. Since the end of the war four years ago, the original residence Almost all the Chinese businessmen in Batavia transferred most of their properties to Hanzhou, and they should also resettle their families in Hanzhou. In recent years, refugees who have fled from Ming Dynasty and Japan have only regarded Batavia as a At the transfer station, under the continuous temptation of Hanzhou people, many people went to Hanzhou by boat. This is very fatal to us in Batavia. We must attach great importance to this and stop it. Therefore Regarding the removal of Hollenburg, we can agree, but we must let Hanzhou stop absorbing our eastern residents from Batavia."

"Yes, the Hanzhou people seem to be showing more and more strong expansionism." The Governor of India Manfred Cates de Vries said: "A year ago, the Hanzhou people established an Indian company and dug Many of our very experienced navigators and sailors have left. They even shipped a large amount of industrial products, as well as porcelain, silk, sugar, honey wine and other commodities, and bought them to India at a price far lower than what we sold. People. This kind of behavior indirectly damages the interests of our Indian market. We must restrain and control this, and we cannot allow them to destroy the market environment."

"Then, gentlemen." Governor Delin cleared his throat after everyone had finished speaking, "Since most people suggested maintaining a tough stance towards Hanzhou and thoroughly resolving the conflicts that have existed between the two sides for several years. We We will formally negotiate with the Hanzhou people on the condition of removing Hollenburg, and force them to make certain concessions to our East India Company in terms of business, market, and cessation of material support to the Makassar Portuguese. .”

"However, if you do this, it is likely to anger the Hanzhou people." Upton murmured.

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Sure enough, the representatives of Hanzhou in Batavia rejected the Dutch East India Company’s proposals for the removal of Holenberg and a series of related conditions. The peace agreement signed between the two parties is a serious military threat to Qi.It is required that the Dutch East India Company must immediately and unconditionally withdraw Hollenburg, otherwise, Qi will take necessary and decisive measures.

In the next few days, the Batavian colonial authorities successively received warnings from Kupang and Ambon. Several warships from Hanzhou had arrived near the ports of the two places. The hostility, however, deeply disturbed the Dutch merchant ships entering and leaving the port.

Rear Admiral Grigoris Kopet, commander of the Batavian Navy, responded tit-for-tat and immediately organized more than a dozen armed merchant ships to Kupang and Ambon to deal with the threat of Hanzhou ships.

Then, news came from the southern waters of Java Island that as many as four Hanzhou armed merchant ships had openly sailed into the port of Ciraza, the Kingdom of Mataland, suspected of carrying a large amount of supplies and ordnance. When the merchant ship tried to intercept, there was a serious confrontation, and there was a conflict.

Before it was too late, the two armed merchant ships urgently dispatched to Hollenburg were intercepted by four Hanzhou armed merchant ships when they were delivering supplies to the area. Ships sail in.Because, without the order to engage in armed conflict with Hanzhou, the two Dutch armed merchant ships did not dare to force their way, wandering in the long and narrow bay, caught in a dilemma.

The Dutch colonial authorities issued a ban prohibiting ships belonging to the Hanzhou Indian Company from docking for supplies along the way. If the Hanzhou government continues to act hostile to the Dutch East India Company, they will not rule out prohibiting Hanzhou merchant ships from traveling to and from various trading stations in the East Indies and strongholds to stop for supplies, as well as a ban on trade, and even a ban on entering Batavia.

Correspondingly, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Transport of the State of Qi issued a ban prohibiting the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company from entering the ports of Hanzhou and its overseas territories, and announced the temporary suspension of all trade activities between the two parties.

At this point, the Dutch East India Company and the State of Qi entered into a full-scale confrontation because of the Holenberg crisis, and interrupted the continuous fiery trade between the two sides for four years. Tensions in the Nanyang region also began to gradually heat up.

(End of this chapter)