1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 731 Depressed British
On March 1657, 3, Guangning (now Cilegon City in the northwest of Java Island, Indonesia).

Casper Wells, the senior foreign affairs representative of the British East India Company, has come to this Hanzhou stronghold for the third time, and every time he comes here, he will be amazed by the newly discovered affairs.

In view of the increasingly sharp confrontation between the British East India Company and the Hanzhou people in India, the company, out of consideration of its own economic interests, appointed him as an envoy to Hanzhou to meet their king.In addition to protesting against the warships of the Hanzhou people—yes, the Hanzhou people even sent professional warships—to frequently attack the merchant ships of the East India Company, they also tried their best to ease the armed conflict in the Indian region with this southern New World country. trade relationship, that is the best.

Of course, it was not that the British East India Company did not send personnel to contact the representative of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company in Surat, but the other party claimed that his position was low and his authority was limited, so he could not decide to adjust the relationship with the British.If you want to formally discuss the differences between the two sides on Indian affairs, then you have to go to the mainland of Hanzhou and pay a visit to several big shopkeepers of our trading company. Maybe you can get their understanding and end the fierce and antagonistic relationship with each other.

Therefore, in November last year, Casper Wells arrived at the British East India Company's trading station in Banten by boat.When he was resting and preparing to continue to the mainland of Hanzhou, his ship was intercepted by a Hanzhou warship in the Sunda Strait.After being subjected to a humiliating boarding inspection, they were told that because the two sides did not have diplomatic relations, they could not go to Hanzhou mainland at will, and they needed to submit a diplomatic visit application through Fort Guangning.After getting permission, you can go there on the ships of Qi State.

After some ineffective protests, Casper Wells had to take a boat back to the company's commercial station in Banten, and then personally took people to Quanning Fort to submit a so-called diplomatic visit application.

During the long three months of waiting, he brought people to Guangning Fort several times, asking when they could approve their trip to the mainland of Hanzhou, and formally meet their king, or their cabinet prime minister, to complete the company's assignment The diplomatic mission, but the reply is always lukewarm "replying".

Faced with this situation, Casper Wells felt very angry, but what followed was more helplessness.He couldn't help being envious of the Dutch. They seemed to be able to pass through the narrow Sunda Strait at will, and they were also able to freely enter and leave the mainland of Hanzhou and the many overseas strongholds controlled and occupied by Hanzhou.Obviously, the relationship between them is very close, and their business ties are also closer.

He didn't know why the same country from Europe was treated differently in this southern New World country.Hanzhou seems to be full of vigilance towards our English Republic (in the Cromwell period, it was a republic), and there is even a subtle hostility that cannot be concealed.

But the problem is that we, England, have never invaded this southern New World country, and we should not be treated like this.You know, the damned Dutch, but there were two official wars with Hanzhou. It stands to reason that the two of you should be opposing each other and fighting each other, which is a more reasonable phenomenon, rather than blind dates like this The look of being in love.

Full of grievances and a lot of confusion, Casper Wells finally received a reply from Fort Guangning a week ago. Hanzhou natives accepted their application for diplomatic visits, and they can come to Fort Quanning and wait When the ship returning to the mainland arrives, you can take it to Jianye Port.

Guangning Fort is a small fort with a circumference of less than a mile. It has official offices, warehouses, barracks, shops, private houses and reservoirs.There are more than 400 soldiers stationed in this stronghold, nearly 200 ordinary residents, and more than [-] Javanese natives. They control the surrounding valleys, narrow coastal plains and a low mountain within a few miles.

Surprisingly, the Hanzhou people cultivated nearly a thousand acres of arable land in this uneven and broken land, and planted rice, corn, tobacco, and a lot of vegetables.Casper Wells carefully observed the crops growing in the field, and found that the growth of various crops here is obviously much better than that of the natives of the Kingdom of Banten.

The farmers here appear to be more industrious. When the sky lightened up a little, they took all kinds of agricultural tools and carefully took care of the thriving crops in the field until the sky was dark.

Of course, besides the hard work of the farmers here, the cultivated land reclaimed by Fort Guangning seems to be more fertile than the farmlands of the nearby natives. How can the arable land with the same conditions be made more suitable for the growth of crops?
In fact, it is no wonder that these British people are incredulous about the transformation of farmland by the Han people, just because European farming technology, including the British, has lagged far behind China for a long time, and they lack a "high level" in agricultural production. Technology", that is, it will not "make shit"!
That's right, the "high technology" that caused Europeans to lag behind the East for thousands of years during this period is "shit", which is called dung in classical Chinese, and "fertilizer" in scientific terms.

Why can plants grow on the land, it must have absorbed nutrients.According to the principle of conservation of matter, any matter cannot be created or disappeared out of thin air, and it has its origin and destination.In addition to photosynthesis, plants must absorb various nutrients from the land, so they can grow.

The reason why the land is said to be barren is that it lacks nutrients and neither food nor plants can grow large.And if the land is always being cultivated, the lost nutrients cannot be replenished, and it will quickly become barren.Therefore, China not only invented the "row tillage method" to let the land fallow, but also creatively invented the nuclear weapon-level "dung fertilizer method".

Don't think this thing is very simple, it is really high technology, the crystallization of thousands of years of experience and wisdom.What can be used, what cannot be used, when to use, how much to use, and how to process must be carried out according to scientific methods.Otherwise, not only is the effort in vain, but the plants may be "burned to death", or the nutrients are too high to support them to death.

These methods of fertilizing fields have been systematically summarized and explained in many agricultural works in China, which have played a positive role in promoting the development of China's agriculture.

Why are there so many fewer people in Europe than in China at the same time?In fact, the main reason is that there is too little food produced, and the prerequisites make it impossible for them to feed too many people, so they may not be able to give birth, or they will not be able to feed them.Therefore, in the period of economic underdevelopment, it is "food is the most important thing for the people", and there are as many people as there is food.

Why is food production low in Europe?There are many reasons, but the first one is that the climate is not good. It is not cold in winter and not hot in summer.This is mainly caused by lighting problems and cannot be changed.As a result, photosynthesis is not strong, and rice, which requires strong light, is difficult to promote on a large scale, and it will not survive if it is planted.

The second is the soil. Let’s not talk about the fertility of the land. Why do ancient civilizations appear next to the big river?The main reason is that the land is easy to plow, otherwise, with the human efficiency in ancient times, it would be too low, and it would not be possible to plant much area at all.From this point of view, China's Yellow River Basin is much stronger than most of Europe.Ordinary people can turn it with a tool, and it is more convenient after having a cow. One person and one cow can operate it.

In Europe, except for the land along the Mediterranean Sea where the rate of desertification is appropriate, most of the other areas are wet and heavy land, which is highly viscous and too laborious to cultivate.Not to mention manpower, even oxen are laborious, so European plows require at least two oxen, and more than four oxen.But cattle also have to eat grass. Even if the European land is suitable for growing grass, it will delay the grain harvest.Therefore, European civilization only originated in Greece and Rome in the Mediterranean Sea, and other places are wild lands, which are suitable for riding horses, fighting wars and driving large ships-to engage in robbery.

The most important point is here. All the above conditions can be overcome. It is nothing more than finding suitable crops and two more cows. There is nothing difficult. A fool can dream of it.

However, if the land has been cultivated for a long time, the nutrients will decrease year by year and become barren.However, European farmers do not know how to use manure to fertilize the fields, let alone fermentation methods, so that the production efficiency of the land slowly declines.According to statistics, for a long time in Europe, the output ratio of seeds and grain was only about 5 times, or even only two or three times. This kind of non-planting seems to be meaningless. After the seeds are left every year, there are few bites to eat that's it.As for China, since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the output ratio has been at least 20 times, and this kind of land is only cost-effective.

Therefore, the population in Europe has been small since ancient times, because the climate is not suitable for food crops, the land is not easy to cultivate, and they do not know the craft of "making shit", so the output cannot increase, and it cannot feed too many people.

Guangning Fort is located on the northwestern edge of Java Island. It was originally covered with volcanic ash and the land was relatively fertile. However, industrious immigrants continued to put all kinds of manure and phosphate ore from Dog Island (now Christmas Island, Australia) to the cultivated land. Accumulated, coupled with careful care, the crops in this field are naturally more gratifying than the crops in the nearby native farms.

According to the previous lease contract signed with the Banten Sultan Kingdom, the lease time of Quangning Fort expired three years ago.For this reason, Qi State once sent a representative to negotiate with Banten Sultan State and extend the lease to ten years.

However, out of fear of Qi's power, the Sultan of Wandan disagreed with life and death, and insisted that Qi withdraw from Guangning Fort and restore Banten's "national integrity".

After finally occupying an important point in the Sunda Strait and controlling the key waterway leading to the mainland of Hanzhou, how could Qi easily spit out the "meat" that reached its mouth?

For this reason, under the pretext of negotiating the extension of the lease, Qi State directly relied on Guangning Fort, and also slightly expanded the control area to the north by a few kilometers.Of course, during the extension negotiation period, we still have to pay the rent. Every October, people will send 500 Hanzhou silver dollars to Wandan City on time.

What is ironic is that Banten is unwilling to lease Guangning Fort from Qi State, and insists on withdrawing from Banten territory. He also does not respond to the extension negotiations of the leased land, but he accepts the "rent" sent every year. No rejection at all.

That being the case, Qi State continued to operate Guangning Fort with peace of mind, successively built Yonggu Wharf, armament warehouses, security posts, and a large number of civilian and commercial facilities. This place is built as a permanent military stronghold.

On March 3th, Casper Wells, the senior foreign affairs representative of the British East India Company, and a group of entourage boarded a Hanzhou merchant ship, preparing to go to this magical southern New World country, and sent them a letter from the Republic of England. sound.
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October 3, Batavia, Governor's Palace.

"Gentlemen, according to the news from Banten, it has been confirmed that those British people went to the mainland of Hanzhou half a month ago." Keene Ma, No.12 Governor of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia Tesek (this gentleman was the longest-serving governor of the Dutch East Indies, 1653-1678) said solemnly: "Do you think that the British will ease their relationship with the Hanzhou people and establish formal business relations?" ?"

The poor No. 11 governor, Carl Veneriel, only reigned for three years. In 1653, he suffered from terrible malaria and died in office.Gene Mattesek then took the post of senior manager in Amsterdam and was promoted to the governor of Batavia. He took over the increasingly prosperous Sino-Dutch trade and, in close cooperation with Hanzhou, compressed the British and French India's market space, and then further consolidate and expand the company's business interests in India.

Now, these nasty British people even sent a team of trade representatives to Hanzhou to meet the king and cabinet government of Hanzhou, trying to establish a formal trade relationship.By doing so, isn't it poaching the corner of our East India Company.In case they fall in love with each other and leave us the Dutch behind and cooperate closely, this is nothing less than the deadliest threat to the East India Company.

With the deepening of exchanges with Hanzhou, the Dutch East India Company has deeply realized the vigorous development momentum of this country, and its strength has grown rapidly almost at the speed of the naked eye.Their navy will launch new warships almost every year, and then put them into the combat sequence.Their tentacles gradually penetrated into the East Indies, Ming Dynasty, Japan, Korea, Malay and India.

What is even more frightening is that the population size and industrial output of Hanzhou are also growing rapidly year by year. It is said that the total population of this country will easily exceed 100 million in the next few years.Hanzhou also produces more and more industrial varieties, such as steel, shipbuilding, military industry, enamel, sugar, cotton cloth, leather goods, daily chemicals, whale processing... and even tea and porcelain originally produced in the Ming Dynasty.

Through its strong commercial network and transportation capacity, the Dutch East India Company resold a large number of Hanzhou commodities, which led to rapid growth in the company's overall trade volume and profits, and the two sides have become each other's largest trading partners.

Faced with this situation, the Dutch East India Company was naturally very nervous about the changes in the relationship between Hanzhou and the British.If Hanzhou wants to dominate the entire East Indies, it is not impossible to find another foreign force to take the opportunity to suppress the strength of our East India Company.

"I think there is a high probability that China and Britain will not establish a so-called commercial relationship." Senior Commercial Counselor Feite Rios said: "After all, we have cooperated with Hanzhou for many years, and our business interests are deeply integrated. What can people bring to Hanzhou? They have nothing, not our business network all over the East Indies and India, nor our large number of transportation resources, nor our mature financial means. More importantly, Hanzhou Europeans don't like British people."

"Hanzhou people don't like the British?" Governor Gene Mattesek looked at Fett Rios in astonishment, "Why don't they like the British?"

"...Han Zhou thinks that the British are pirates, and they are not worthy of dealing with them, let alone trusting them." Rear Admiral Ulbert Troup, commander of the Batavia Navy, interrupted suddenly: "A few years ago, we had a When the Hanzhou people formed a joint fleet to cruise the waters of India and Malacca, many officers under their banners reported that the Hanzhou people seemed to be full of strong hostility towards the British, saying that they were a group of robbers who disrupted regional peace and only knew how to shamelessly plunder and Destruction. Moreover, they also overwhelmingly sided with us in the Anglo-Dutch war that we had in Europe."

"They even said at one point that they could provide us with military and economic support within their ability when fighting against the British, and they would not mind the two sides signing a military cooperation agreement on this. Therefore, in Asia, our Dutch East India Company can even completely Hanzhou as our military ally."

(End of this chapter)