Chapter 642 Alternative Conditions

Zheng Xinzhi thought for a moment and then changed his explanation: "The Haihan people are good at engineering construction. Whenever they go to a place, the first thing they do is to build ports and fortifications. Although I have never been to Sanya Victory Port, it is said that the local

The forts and fortifications are all over the harbor, and there is also a strong city built by the Haihan people on the shore, which is called Victory Fort. Such a large project was completed by the Haihan people in only about a year. And this kind of engineering skills is also

The Haihan people used it as a base outside Qiongzhou Island. There were at least four ports built by them near the Pearl River Estuary alone. The Haihan people used these ports as springboards to sell their specialties to the Ming Dynasty and other countries, and from

Immigrants from outside the country come in to fill the vacancies in their labor force.”

Hearing this, Fan Longen interjected again: "It is understandable that the Haihan people enjoy privileged treatment in Annan. After all, they helped Annan end the civil war between the north and the south. But how could the Ming Dynasty allow outsiders like them to open and build ports on their own along the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi?"

Van Longen didn't ask this casually. When the Dutch occupied Penghu, they tried to make it a transit port for the East India Company to the Ming Dynasty and Northeast Asia. However, for some reason, the Fujian government did not care about this island group with a small population.

He was very concerned, as if his tail had been stepped on, and he relentlessly organized tens of thousands of land and sea troops to fight with the Netherlands for more than half a year, even at the cost of several times the casualties, and finally drove the Netherlands out alive.

It’s finally over in Penghu.

In the consciousness of the Dutch, the Ming Empire should be very sensitive to the issue of territory. Even an overseas enclave like Penghu would not easily let outsiders occupy it, and the Haihan people should be no exception. Even if they look like Haihan people,

They are very close to the Ming people and claim to be descendants of the Han people. However, neither the Ming people nor the Dutch really think that they belong to the same country as the Ming and Han people. However, the Haihan people are able to circle the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Building cities and ports, and even organizing immigrants from the Ming Dynasty to move to their own territory. This kind of differential treatment is really incomprehensible to Van Longen.

Zheng Xinzhi replied: "Although the Haihan people use engineering construction as the foundation for development, their external expansion is based on commerce. As we all know, most of the things produced in Victory Port are valuable things, and Haihan makes little profit from it every year.

It’s worth millions of taels of silver, and Haihan’s family is definitely not the only one to benefit from this. As far as the villain knows, most of the local officials in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Guangxi have interests entangled with Haihan, and many of them are even directly involved.

In the Haihan people's business, a lot of the money that comes and goes goes into their pockets."

Fan Longgen suddenly said: "After accepting money from the Haihan people, these Ming officials naturally turned a blind eye to their actions."

The Dutch have done a lot of similar things. When dealing with certain Eastern countries to establish commercial relations, bribery is always the best stepping stone. However, it is almost impossible for the East India Company to allow outsiders to participate in the company.

In their business operations, they simply provide financial benefits to the other party. This approach is obviously different from Haihan's.

Zheng Xinzhi nodded after listening to the translation and continued: "These officials of the Ming Dynasty thought they had received benefits, but they did not know that they were allowing Haihan to do whatever they wanted. The Haihan people gained land, population, and became stronger and stronger. Last year on Qiongzhou Island

There was a bandit trouble in Shanghai, and the Guangdong government was unable to send troops. In the end, it asked the Haihan militia to go out. The banditry was eliminated, but the northern part of Qiongzhou Island was naturally taken over by the Haihan people. Now all ships going to Qiongzhou have to stop in Haihan

The Ministry of Shipping has to go through the formalities before entering the port. Otherwise, the Haihan people will be labeled as spies and confiscated together with the people and the ship. Although Qiongzhou Island is still nominally owned by the Ming Dynasty, it has actually been taken over by the Ming Dynasty.

Controlled by the Haihan people."

Van Longen and Hans couldn't help exchanging glances when they heard this, and found that each other was hard to conceal their surprise. Although Qiongzhou Island is similar to Da Yuan, it is also a large island hanging overseas, but Da Yuan does not have Ming Dynasty Island.

The Dutch took over the administrative post, and there was no dissatisfaction from the Ming Dynasty for the time being. Qiongzhou Island was the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and there were more than 200,000 people on the island, but it was so quietly given to the sea.

The Han people were all surrounded, which really made the Dutch a little envious and jealous.

"There are people in Haihan today who are rich and have occupied the overseas enclave of Qiongzhou Island. They also have the ability to manufacture their own weapons and train their own troops. It would be very difficult for the Ming Dynasty to restrain and suppress them." Zheng Xinzhi

He said sincerely: "If you can't suppress their momentum of entering Fujian, in one or two years, the coastal areas of Fujian will also be controlled by them. By then, let alone trade with the Ming Dynasty, even if you want to keep Ryukyu,

The trade power of Japan and other places will probably also be under pressure from Haihan."

"In the end, the topic came back to asking for help..." Fan Longgen had already heard Hans mention the purpose of the Haihan envoy's request, so he was not surprised when Zheng Xinzhi brought up the topic.

With the strength of Shibazhi, it is a bit difficult to confront the Fujian Ming Army head-on. If there is a stronger Haihan who has been sitting behind the scenes and has not taken any action, then Shibazhi will indeed be difficult to withstand it. If

If we cannot find help as soon as possible to change the current unfavorable situation, it seems that it is not far away that Shibazhi will lose its base in Penghu or even be completely destroyed.

Hans asked Van Longen calmly: "Mr. Van Longen, what do you think?"

"Hai Han is indeed an object worthy of our vigilance, but in terms of our current situation, it is not suitable to start a war with Hai Han." Van Longen's view is still relatively objective: "Our first task is to improve the port of Taipei and Relanjia.

The construction of the city, rather than a crusade against a force that is not easy to mess with. Moreover, with the armed strength we have on Da Yuan Island, we may not be able to defeat the Haihan people."

Hans nodded in agreement: "Your idea is basically the same as mine. Although Haihan is a threat, we do not have the ability to eliminate this threat now. So even though he has visited me several times, I still don't agree.

His request."

After losing Penghu and fighting in Taiyuan Port, the East India Company moderately strengthened the deployment of armed forces. Now Taiyuan Port can arm about 1,500 troops. In addition, some local indigenous tribes that have surrendered can also organize six to seven hundred troops.

A large-scale auxiliary army. These forces may be enough for self-protection. After all, less than a thousand troops withstood the offensive of tens of thousands of Ming troops in Penghu for more than half a year. But if these people are to be drawn out and used on the front,

On the battlefield, facing the Haihan militia, which was said to have never been defeated since forming an army, no one dared to guarantee that it could defeat its opponent. Moreover, it was obvious that Haihan and the Fujian government had reached some kind of alliance.

Whichever party is offended among the forces, the consequence may be that they will face a joint attack. The board of directors of the East India Company will never want any big trouble to occur in the port of Damian, two thousand nautical miles away from Batavia, because of such a long distance

, even if the company wants to rescue, it is just helpless.

The translator, following Hans' instructions, did not inform Zheng Xinzhi of the content of this conversation. Zheng Xinzhi looked at the two men uneasily, hoping to see some sign of good news from their expressions.

However, Hans's next reply to him through a translator still disappointed him: "Although I am very worried about Mr. Zheng Zhilong's current situation, the East India Company will not directly intervene in the conflict between Shibazhi and the Ming Dynasty government.

Go. Unfortunately, I cannot agree to your request."

Zheng Xinzhi knew that if he didn't seize the opportunity to say a few more words about this matter, Hans would probably give the order to see off the guests again, so he hurriedly said: "Master Hans, please listen to me, if you are willing to assist my lord this time,

Take back Nanri Island and you will definitely be rewarded in the future!"

"Oh? Do you have any conditions for repaying us?" Hans asked back. In the previous negotiations, the only conditions Zheng Xinzhi could offer were to increase the price and pay more, but this kind of thing requires a decision.

Not only due to economic considerations, Hans also considered political factors, and there was no way to give Zheng Xinzhi a detailed explanation for this reason.

"Shibazhi is willing to send troops to help you drive away the Folangji people entrenched in the northern part of Dayuan Island!" Zheng Xinzhi felt that the other party's tone was loose, and quickly offered the generous conditions he had prepared: "After taking over the local area

, my lord is willing to divide the territory with you and share the fruits of victory!"

Hans's expression was a bit contemptuous, but his mind was already active. These Ming pirates couldn't even tell the difference between Portugal and Spain. They only called them Francois according to the established customs, but they didn't know that these two countries

Although it has now become one country, operations in the Far East still revolve around their respective camps. It was the Spaniards who came north from Luzon Island who occupied the chicken coop and Tamsui ports in the northern part of Taiwan Island. These guys are

Like a venomous snake, it bit just seven inches away from the East India Company's Northeast Asia route, which virtually added a lot of danger to Dutch merchant ships going north to Ryukyu, Korea, Japan and other places.

In the five years since the arrival of the Spanish, the Dutch have lost more than fifteen merchant ships in the waters north of Taiwan Island. Some of them disappeared for unknown reasons, and some were sunk or captured in maritime conflicts with the Spanish.

——Of course from the Dutch point of view, the reasons for all the missing ships are blamed on the hateful Spaniards.

Of course, the Spaniards had very good reasons for doing this, because since the Dutch settled in Taiwan, they have tried every means to block maritime merchants from the Ming Dynasty to Manila, asking these merchants to either sell the goods directly to them or transport them themselves.

Go to Batavia on Java Island to isolate Spain from trade with the Ming Dynasty and other Northeast Asian countries. To this end, the East India Company dispatched armed fleets more than once to intercept and kill Spanish merchant ships in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

, there were also many Spanish galleons that fell into the hands of the Dutch.

In order to ensure smooth access to the countries in Northeast Asia, the Spanish spent a lot of money to build two port strongholds in the northern part of Taiwan Island, forming a confrontation with the Dutch, one in the north and the other in the south.

After Hans took office, of course he also regarded the Spaniards at the northern end of the island as his primary enemy. After all, no one could tolerate sand in their eyes, and no one was willing to tolerate his opponents setting up a stronghold so close to him, but the organization organized by Hans

Several offensives against the Spanish did not go well, and could even be said to have suffered minor setbacks. And with the prospect of the war unclear, Batavia was unable to provide more support to Hans. Under such circumstances,

Therefore, Hans could only temporarily acquiesce in the other party's existence and wait silently for the next opportunity.

Shibazhi has always adopted a relatively neutral attitude and maintained trade relations with both parties. They do not help each other and no one can be offended. Zheng Xinzhi’s statement can be said to be the first of its kind. The combat effectiveness of Shibazhi is unknown to Hans.

It seems that although it is only at the level of bandits and pirates, its military strength and maritime transportation capacity are really hard to ignore. Although they have suffered consecutive defeats in Fujian for several years, the size of the armed personnel of Shibazhi can still be maintained at more than 10,000 people.

This number is fully five times more than the Dutch armed forces stationed in the country. If this strong support can be obtained, the possibility of the Dutch side winning the battle will indeed be greatly increased.

However, Hans was not dazzled by the news, and still remained calm and cautious, because he knew very well that the pirates of Shibazhi had no moral principles at all. They usually maintained a certain relationship with the Spaniards in the north.

There may be another envoy going north and offering the same conditions to the Spaniards. If the Spaniards are willing to help them retake Nanri Island, there is no guarantee that these guys will betray their integrity because of this.

"As far as I know, you seem to have a good relationship with those guys in the north?" Hans asked tentatively: "Can you really break your skin and start a fight with them?"

"Perhaps not in the past. After all, we and Fo Langji have been business partners for several years. But now in order to protect ourselves, we can only do it reluctantly." Zheng Xinzhi looked calm, showing no signs of betrayal.

Awareness: "Those who can help us are our partners."

"So you have already tried to obtain military assistance from them?" Hans asked with a half-smile: "After failing there, you came to the south to find us, right?"

"There is no such thing. My lord has identified your side from the beginning. As for the Francois, they should return to Luzon Island to rule the local natives." Zheng Xinzhi responded with an unchanged expression.

Seeing how calm and composed he was, Hans couldn't tell for a moment whether he was acting or telling the truth.

"It's not true. Do you have any proof such as Mr. Zheng Zhilong's handwritten letter?" Fan Longgen next to him proposed a solution in a timely manner.
Chapter completed!