"The sea breeze is blowing, the waves are roaring. The loyal and brave soldiers are here, setting sail on the sea?? The bright Ming Dynasty is correcting the Yanhuang. Everyone is united to protect our sea territory?? Charge! Charge! Charge! Fight to the death and go abroad for thousands of years."
The fleet of the Ming Dynasty mission passed through the Baltic Sea and entered the Atlantic Ocean. The lonely sailors sang loudly the military song of the Ming Dynasty Navy, "Sea Wind Song", and the majestic singing resounded throughout the sea.
"Servant, are we really not going to the Red-haired Yi Kingdom?" Li Shouzhi asked, eager to give it a try. The Red-haired Yi Kingdom once invaded the Ming Dynasty's coastal areas and once occupied Taiwan. The people of the Ming Dynasty regarded it as barbarians who drank hair and drank blood. He wanted to go to this country of tigers and wolves.
Take a look.
"I heard that the red-haired barbarian country is what kind of republic. It doesn't have an emperor. Without a king and father, there is no Gangchang in the world. What kind of country is it? Why does Li Yuanwai want to go to that barbaric country?" Dong Xuan said angrily.<
/p>
Since the establishment of the "United Provinces of the Netherlands" (Netherlands) in 1581, the Netherlands has had no emperor, but has had a ruling power. However, since the death of the ruling William II seventeen years ago, the parliamentary faction took the opportunity to launch a coup to overthrow the ruling system.
Entering the period of anarchy. This made Dong Xuan, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, who was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics and could not live without the emperor, indignant. It was chaos, everything was chaos! How could a country be without an emperor? Then who should the people kowtow to? In fact, without the emperor, the Netherlands is still developing extremely well and is the shipbuilding center of the world. There are dozens of shipyards in the capital Amsterdam alone, and hundreds of ships can be built across the country at the same time. Their merchant fleet has more than 16,000 ships.
The ships account for three-quarters of the total tonnage of European merchant ships and one-third of the world's transportation ships. They are called "sea coachmen".
Not only was the economy prosperous and it had maritime hegemony, its territorial area was also increasing. The Netherlands included the later Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of northern France. After the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,
Spain recognizes the independence of the Netherlands, but still retains the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium and Luxembourg).
Afterwards, the Republic of the Netherlands continued to expand, including Batavia (Jakarta), Sumatra, Spice Islands (Maluku Islands), Malacca, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Cape of Good Hope (located in southern Africa), and the Hudson River.
The river basin (located in North America) and the Antilles (located in South America) have all become its colonies. If Emperor Guangwu had not sent troops to expel the soldiers of the Dutch East India Company, Taiwan would still be owned by others today. p>
Because the Dutch were notoriously domineering at sea and had a bad reputation for being fond of robbery, Franzbekov did not plan to visit this country. He smiled and said to the two of them: "The Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands have already established diplomatic relations.
, the two countries have been trading, I think there is no need to go to the Netherlands, just go to France. That is a beautiful and rich country!"
When he said he was going to France, the others would naturally not object and cheered in unison, and the fleet set off for France.
Unexpectedly, Dutch warships often appeared during the voyage, and each ship was in a fighting state, as if facing a powerful enemy.
The fleet evaded several groups of Dutch warships in succession, with no danger.
Franzbekov was surprised. Are the Dutch going to start a war? With whom?
"Servant, we seem to have been targeted by the red-haired barbarians," Ming Navy Commander Liu Sheng hurriedly came to report.
Franzbekov took a look and saw that a Dutch signal ship was following his fleet. In the distance, another signal ship was leaving quickly, obviously going to report the news.
"Speed up!" he shouted in horror.
The three Dafu ships that the mission boarded were all improved models and were quite fast, but they could not stay on their territory. Although they had tried their best, a fleet of ships appeared in front, rear, and left wing soon. "Boom!"
The Dutch began to fire warning cannons.
"Raise the white flag and tell the Dutch that we are envoys of the Ming Dynasty and are going to visit Amsterdam." After all, Franzbekov has seen the world and quickly regained his composure.
"The visit to the Red Mao Yi Country was a complete accident. Our original destination was the French Country??" (Dong Xuan's "Visit to the Western Yi Country")
Not only the Ming Dynasty envoy was surprised, but also the Speaker of the Dutch Provincial Assembly, John de Wit, was surprised. However, after learning the news, he still met with Franzbekov and his entourage cordially and friendly in the parliament hall in Amsterdam. After all,
The Republic is a commercial country, and the Ming Dynasty is the Republic's largest commercial partner in the East. In fact, as the Ming Dynasty's national power continues to increase, Dutch warships have rarely harassed Taiwan and Penghu, but have behaved with the Ming Dynasty.
Business.
Because the two countries have already established diplomatic relations and trade, there is no negotiation. They just exchanged some gifts to deepen their relationship.
"Dear Speaker, I saw your country's warships frequently dispatched on the sea. What happened? Is a war about to break out?" Franzbekov asked quietly.
"The damn Gallic chicken (referring to France) actually wants to get involved in the throne of Spain. This is absolutely not allowed!" John de Wit said angrily.
It turned out that King Philip IV of Spain died two years ago, and his son Carlos II succeeded to the throne and was very sick. King Louis XIV of France used the excuse that his wife was the sister of Carlos II and also had the right to inherit the Spanish throne, so he asked Spain for
The Spanish Netherlands was the legacy of Philip IV. Spain naturally refused, so France sharpened its sword against Spain.
Although the Netherlands and Spain fought for independence, in this era, there was trade competition between the Netherlands and France. More importantly, the Spanish Netherlands was a barrier between the Netherlands and France. If France captured this area, the Netherlands would
will be exposed to the French military front. Therefore, the Netherlands has no choice but to clearly support Spain and prepare for war with France. Although France has a very strong army in this era, the Netherlands has the best navy in Europe. p>
The war was about to break out, but the Ming Dynasty envoy had to pay a visit to Amsterdam.
Seeing that the Dutch Speaker was furious with France, Franzbekov hurriedly swallowed his request to leave Amsterdam and visit France, and changed his words: "Mr. Speaker, thank you for your hospitality. We want to visit the Kingdom of England."
, please give us convenience."
"England?"
John de Wit smiled disdainfully, "We just defeated them two years ago. Don't worry, I will send troops to escort you."
Needless to say, the name "Sea Coachman" is not called for nothing. After hoisting the orange, white and blue horizontal striped flag representing the Netherlands, they sailed through the Strait of Dover unimpeded. The British warships they met along the way were actually
Don't dare to stop it.
The tricolor flag flutters in the hunting wind, confident and arrogant. The Dutch people, who yearn for democracy and freedom, have abandoned the Prince of Orange flag and switched to this tricolor flag. However, these three colors all originate from Orange.
Prince's coat of arms.
Under the escort of the Dutch fleet, the mission's fleet headed towards London until they encountered the British fleet in the waters near Margate.
After the Dutch fleet commander handed over Franzbekov and his party to the British fleet, he raised the flag in a gentlemanly manner and then returned home.