Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 972 A bold idea ([-])

"The Dutch ship is gone." The young secretary Peng Yuanzhi walked into the official office on Zhifu Island and said softly to Shao Shude.

This is the heart of the people on the east coast of the Far East - the headquarters of the Pioneering Team, the Heishui Security Command, the Northern Theater Command and other institutions - a large number of oriental-style buildings built with bricks and stones stand on the desolate and barren Zhifu Island. The eaves, painted buildings, pavilions and pavilions are expensive at first glance.

Shao Shude was getting old, and he was no longer used to staying in the dark and damp underground command room of the Yantai Fortress, so he spent huge sums of money to build a new office area on Zhifu Island—that is, in the Far East far away from Emperor Tiangao. It is impossible to "waste public funds" to build such a magnificent office in the local area - except for the Fortress Garrison Command, all other institutions in the Yantai area have moved out of the cramped and narrow bastion and moved into a spacious and bright new office area.

"In these European countries, the local policy is one policy, and the overseas colonies are another policy, which makes us a little at a loss." Shao Shude, who was wearing a woolen coat, sat on a chair covered with bearskin, and left The pamphlet he was reading in his hand said in an injustice: "In Europe, the relationship between the Netherlands and us is constantly improving, but in the Far East, the Dutch East India Company is picking on us, which is really unreasonable; But in Europe, our relationship with Portugal has always been very cold, and the two sides have not had much contact. Even out of strong Catholic sentiments, the Portuguese are still more hostile to us, but in Asia, it is better. They came to Dinghai and Yantai from Macau, To improve relations and trade with us, this is really... beyond words!"

Shao Shude's words were not groundless, because this year the Dutch finally verbally agreed to cut off the trade with the Qing court for the sake of the small amount of raw silk and tea sold to them at Dinghai Port.However, Shao Shude and others still have doubts about this, and they are not sure whether the Dutch will implement it seriously. Fortunately, Fujian and the southern coast of Zhejiang have basically been controlled by Zheng, and the northern coast of Zhejiang is the scope of activities of the East Coast Navy. Even the two of them dared not come here to play tricks.

The sea area of ​​the Changshan Islands is now the focus of inspection by the people on the east coast. It is estimated that the Dutch will not touch this brow again.The only thing left is the Jiangbei coast, but there are also ships from the east coast passing by there from time to time. If the Dutch don’t want to cause serious diplomatic incidents, I’m afraid it’s better to restrain themselves—now the east coast also sells some raw silk and tea every year. If they don't know what is good or bad, I am afraid that the powerful "Cadiz Rock" will come to the door to argue.

However, even though the Dutch were convincing, Shao Shude and others still had a sense of distrust towards them deep in their hearts, just like the Dutch never trusted the East Coasters.Even though the Dutch East India Company specially sent ships to the territory of the East Coasters this time, and brought rice, spices, precious wood, coral pearls, gems, lead, tin, iron, sulfur and other commodities that the East Coasters needed, But this can't change Shao Shude's deep-rooted opinion. He still thinks that these duplicitous Dutchmen are extremely dangerous. If necessary, it's better to encourage the Zheng family to send troops to take Taiwan—but now that they are having a good time in Fujian, I'm afraid they are not very happy. Go to a place like Taiwan.

Compared with the Dutch, the Portuguese are much cuter.This may be because their situation is relatively bad. Since 1641, the power of the Dutch East India Company on the waters of Asia has been increasing day by day. They have competed with the Portuguese in all directions from the coast of East Africa to Japan in the Far East.In the process, due to the loss of key Japanese trade, the Portuguese were far less financially powerful than the Dutch, who shipped about 1500 million florins worth of gold bars from Japan each year (the florins originally contained 3.5 grams of gold , by the 17s, the gold content per florin was about 50-2.8 grams, so even according to the most conservative calculation, this amount of money still exceeded 2.9 million East Coast silver dollars), in recent years, although Japan exported gold The amount of silver slowed down, but the Dutch still had no problem shipping out 2000 million florins a year.

This huge amount of money went away from the Portuguese, and then went into the pockets of the Dutch East India Company. How could it not affect the balance of power between the two sides on the water in Asia?In recent years, the Dutch drove the Portuguese away from the East Indies, and then captured Malacca, Malabar, Portuguese India, the Coromandel coast, and then half of Ceylon. The Portuguese have been operating for more than a century The territory has been beaten to pieces, how can this keep them from being angry?And this is why they rushed to the door after hearing that the people on the east coast were at odds with the Dutch East India Company-it is said that the armistice agreement between them and the Dutch had just ended in 1652, and Ceylon and part of India The coast is about to be rekindled.

Shao Shude's appeal to the Portuguese is actually very clear, that is, the two sides join hands to drive out the Dutch East India Company, and then sit down and slowly divide the interests.It's a pity that this goal is too big and not realistic enough. In addition, the main interest of the East Coast people in the Far East is immigration, and everything else, including economic interests, can be given up if necessary, so Shao Shude really doesn't want to agree. This request of the Portuguese.

It is one thing for people on the east coast to engage in friction with the Dutch or even engage in low-intensity naval battles along the coast of Daming. The Dutch may not even take it seriously, but if they really team up with the Portuguese to fight the Dutch East India Company, then the problem will be serious. Well, the Dutch have seven or eight large professional warships and dozens of armed merchant ships in the East Indies. This force must not be underestimated. If Liu Haiyang retaliates, the seven professional warships on hand may not be able to withstand it—by then , Is it possible to stop the immigration business, and then arm all the immigration transport ships with artillery?Isn't that nonsense!

Therefore, for the "guests" who came from Macau, Shao Shude could only say sorry, and there is no problem in doing business, but it is better to avoid forming an alliance to fight against the Netherlands, which is not in the interests of the Eastern China Republic.

"It's all because of profit." Hearing Shao Shude's complaint, Peng Yuanzhi swiftly took back the pamphlet he had thrown away at random and put it away. Well, it's not difficult to understand, after all, they are having a hard time now. The Dutch are all fools who are greedy for petty gains. They may not have much hostility towards us, but they are just habitually arrogant. I feel that if we hadn't controlled Ningbo Mansion and Normal production has resumed, and some raw silk and tea can be exported to them, but they may not be willing to deal with us, in fact, this is very normal.”

"Forget it, as long as they don't touch our bottom line, then don't worry about them. Of course, the business will continue. Many of the products they shipped are also what we urgently need. The prices are cheap, and fools don't buy them." Shao Shude drank. A cup of camellia produced in Fenghua, and said: "Tell me what happened to Wei Boqiu? I remember that the representative he sent asked you in private. What's the situation?"

"That's it..." Peng Yuanzhi cleared his throat, and said eloquently: "Deputy Commander Wei wants to go to the coast of Japan to make a fortune! He said that from the end of the year before last to the beginning of last year, Yubi Zhengxue, a leader of Japanese ronin, rebelled in Edo (because Butterfly factors of the people on the east coast, the rebellion was moved to the end of the year), they almost succeeded, and the shogun took a lot of effort to put down this thrilling coup. And because these rebels fought Under the banner of Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the lord of the Kii feudal clan, and others, this person is suspected by the shogunate and is currently under house arrest in Edo Castle. Many retainers and samurai leaders in the territory have been ordered to perform seppuku, and many hard-core samurai have also been disbanded. At its weakest stage, so..."

"To get to the point, what's the benefit of hitting this place?" Shao Shude waved his hand and asked a little irritably.He's getting old, so he doesn't want to make troubles, he just wants to keep everything as it is, but none of the people under him are easy-going, they can do something for you if there's nothing to do, Wei Boqiu is just like that.Last year's kidnapping of Yoshinobu Tokugawa had just been cleaned up, and now he wants to mess with Kii Fan again. How much hatred does he have for this fan?

"Deputy Commander Wei said that this domain is a well-known musket producing area of ​​the shogunate. It has a large number of industrial workers and relatively skilled technology. What's rare is that most of them are concentrated in production, which is easy to arrest and control. And he said that this domain is now leaderless. We can't gather many people. It's great to have hundreds of warriors leading thousands of farmers and soldiers with low combat effectiveness. Besides, it is also a question of whether they can be assembled under a surprise attack. Therefore, Deputy Commander Wei thinks that we can gather soldiers and ships. Ji Yifan chose the opportunity to land in the sea, ransacked and then took away those craftsmen, this is an inestimable wealth."

"Hmph, Lao Wei is also greedy for profit!" Shao Shude took a sip of tea, and commented: "I always miss Japan and North Korea. I make friends with all the Japanese in the Matsumae domain all day long, and try to adopt my youngest son to him. The head of the family, Sima Zhao’s heart is well known. Sigh, Lao Wei usually looks shrewd, but you can see that his pursuit is so fucking unrealistic! I want to develop industries in the Far East, and I even want to be the king of Korea and Japan. , Humph, I want to see if he can do it in his lifetime."

"Commander, do you agree or not?" Peng Yuanzhi asked softly.

"Let's see the situation." Shao Shude waved his hand, and said, "The immigrant transportation season will end soon, and the ships will be almost empty after maintenance, but where the ships and soldiers will be used in the next step is still unknown." We have to look again. Maybe the Qing court will launch a major offensive recently, and the southern theater may need to use ships. We will wait and see, and we will talk about it when the situation becomes clearer."

(End of this chapter)