Xiang Xiaoqiang frowned and threw the conditions proposed by Holland on the table:
"No, it's impossible. It's too far off, and I can't explain it to the country."
Not only Xiang Xiaoqiang, but also the two old men were overjoyed at this time. The two old men were more conservative and did not have as big an appetite as Xiang Xiaoqiang. When they heard that Holland opened his mouth and offered the northern half of Pazia Island to Daming, they were already very surprised.
. Even if they agree now, they will be very satisfied. But everyone knows that negotiations cannot be like this. No matter how high the price offered by the other party is, they cannot show that they are satisfied.
The Netherlands proposed to give the northern half of Pazia instead of the southern half, mainly because South Pazia is close to Batavia Island and has the large city of Palembang, which makes it easier to continue to rule without being occupied by a piece of Ming Dynasty in the middle.
The sphere of influence is fragmented. Moreover, North Pazia has more oil wells than South Pazia, and is geographically closer to Siam. The Ming Dynasty should be easier to accept.
But Xiang Xiaoqiang was unwilling to accept it, which was expected by Feinberg. So he vomited a lot of bitterness, and after grinding for a long time, he "reluctantly" asked Xiang Xiaoqiang to put forward their opinions. Xiang Xiaoqiang directly stated that Ming Dynasty wanted to
The entire island of Batavia, as well as the northern half of Pazia Island, and 180 million Ming Yang, as well as the Port of Pontianak in Borneo and the Port of Medan in North Pazia. This is equivalent to half of
Pazia Island was given up, and other conditions remained unchanged.
Feinberg said again that he could not accept it. The two sides went back and forth, and it was almost noon. Feinberg said that he would send these conditions back to China and wait for a reply from China. Xiang Xiaoqiang asked someone to prepare a radio station for Feinberg, and then
He was given a private room. Feinberg closed the door, immediately took out his code book, wrote down the results of the morning's negotiations, translated them into cipher text, adjusted the band and sent them out.
At noon, Xiang Xiaoqiang prepared a lunch for Feinberg. Different from the tit-for-tat during the negotiations, the atmosphere at the lunch was still very harmonious. Several people talked and laughed happily, talking to Xiaoqiang about the customs and customs of Batavia Island, and
The rich products here made him very excited. However, the more he became elated, the heavier Feinberg's heart became. He already felt that this young general had completely regarded Batavia Island as Ming Dynasty's own new territory.
"Come, Mr. Feinberg, try our Australian lobster from Batavia Island!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang personally gave him a piece of lobster meat.
"Come on, Mr. Feinberg, try our Batavia Island hawksbill turtles!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang personally gave him a "big turtle head".
"Come on, Mr. Feinberg, try the shark fin from our Batavia Island!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang personally served him a bowl of shark fin soup.
"Come, Mr. Feinberg, try the papaya juice from our Batavia Island!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang personally poured him a glass of fresh papaya juice.
Finally, Xiang Xiaoqiang actually took out a bottle of dusty wine and asked Mr. Feinberg to try the 1910 wine collected by "our Governor's Mansion".
Feinberg couldn't help it and said half-jokingly:
"Haha, Mr. Xiang, this wine belongs to 'our' Governor's Mansion. After all, it should be regarded as something I invited you to drink!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang laughed and said:
"Don't worry about this, I won't make a mistake. Even Batavia Island is ours, and of course the Governor's Palace on Batavia Island is also ours, so why is the wine in the Governor's Palace not our wine?
?Hahaha……"
Several people laughed. Even though Feinberg shook his head and refused to admit it, he didn't dare to ruin the atmosphere and started laughing too.
Then Xiang Xiaoqiang acted as if nothing was wrong, and talked excitedly about the frightening plant in Batavia Island - the man-eating tree. He lowered his voice and mysteriously exaggerated the origins of this plant called "Dian Cypress".
It rolls up passing animals and slowly digests them. Everyone except Feinberg listened with rapt attention, and Qiu Qiu even widened his eyes, imagining what this terrifying plant looked like.
Feinberg knew in his heart that Xiang Xiaoqiang's words "our Batavia Island, our Batavia Island" at noon were irritating him. But he was still stimulated. He was now almost certain that Xiang Xiaoqiang had already taken Batavia away from him.
Via Island is regarded as the new territory of the Ming Dynasty and has no plans to be returned to the Netherlands.
…
At half past one in the afternoon, Feinberg received domestic instructions. At two o'clock, negotiations began again.
Xiang Xiaoqiang's amiable attitude during lunch was gone, and his attitude was even more aggressive than in the morning. Moreover, he seemed impatient and began to threaten with force. Xiang Xiaoqiang's attitude made the two old consultants sweat.
I'm afraid that this young boy will be too angry and push people too hard, and the negotiation may break down, and half of the Pazia Island that he has already obtained will be lost.
But Feinberg seemed to be very fond of the "threat of force". Every time Xiang Xiaoqiang threatened, Feinberg would sweat profusely and back down a little on the conditions. In the eyes of the two old men, Xiang Xiaoqiang was a threat, but
In Feinberg's view, Xiang Xiaoqiang really wanted to fight. Therefore, Xiang Xiaoqiang's "threat of force" was particularly effective.
By the time it was almost dusk, Feinberg's conditions were: 1. Compensation of 120 million Ming Yang; 2. Extradition of the Governor; 3. Compensation to the Batavia Chinese according to Ming Dynasty standards; 4. Cession of the entire Pazia
The island was given to the Ming Dynasty; 5. Surabaya Port on Batavia Island and Pontianak Port on Borneo were ceded as naval and army bases for the Ming army.
Even a greedy person like Xiang Xiaoqiang is already satisfied with this generous offer. This has satisfied Xiang Xiaoqiang's psychological price. But after all, he cannot agree so readily. Everyone knows that Pazia Island and
The importance of Batavia Island is not on the same level. Now that Ming Dynasty has made such a happy decision, what will the Netherlands think?
Xiang Xiaoqiang seemed to have exhausted his patience. He threw the documents on the table, pressed the table and yelled at Feinberg:
"Don't tell me that your government is going to use such a useless thing to make us give up the Batavia Island that we worked so hard to capture! Whether it is Pazia Island, Borneo, or Sulawesi, there is no
There are so many Batavia Islands and such good ports! And Batavia Island is full of big cities and developed economies! On the indifferent Pazia Island, in addition to virgin forests, everglades, and mangroves,
,what else?"
Feinberg sat in his chair, leaned back subconsciously, touched his handkerchief to wipe his cold sweat, and murmured:
"Pazia Island contains 80% of East India's oil..."
"Oil? Haha!" Xiang Xiaoqiang slapped the table, looked at the sky and said with a smile, "We have stationed the fleet in several large ports on Batavia Island. By then, getting oil will not be a matter of words? How dare you
Won’t you sell it to us? Ah? Do you dare to sell it more expensively? Ah?”
Feinberg's face turned pale, his lips were trembling, and he couldn't say a word.
Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at him with a sneer:
"Mr. Feinberg, you and your government must not have any illusions! Don't think that we are willing to stop conquering and negotiate with you just because we don't want to fight anymore. Don't
Think about it this way! From the day they set foot on Batavia Island until the day they captured the entire Batavia Island, 80% of them had never fired a shot! Those who had fired a gun did not even have their weapons with them.
One of the bullets we brought has not been used up! This is not a war at all, this is a trip. Our soldiers are eager for a real battle!
"If we do it ourselves, not only can we keep Batavia, we can also take Pazia, Borneo, Sulawesi, and even the west side of Papua! Instead of sitting here
Like a donkey, let you hold the island of Pazia as a carrot and dangle it in front of our noses!
"Mr. Feinberg, now that there are only a few of us here, we can put down our worries and speak. Do you think that if we expand in Southeast Asia, Britain will be afraid of us and help you? ...No, I tell you,
Absolutely not. The United Kingdom is still our ally! Before the war started, our Majesty said, "We do not want mediation from a third country." The United Kingdom remained silent and watched us capture Batavia Island from your hands.
. Now I am sure that we can capture Pazia Island again and it will still be within the tolerance of the British. Do you believe it or not?
"What about the United States? Haha, the isolationism in the United States should not be too strong now! Besides, here is still a hundred and eighty thousand miles away from the Philippines, and the United Kingdom tolerates it. The United States is too full to care about this matter?
"What about France? Haha! Let's not talk about the broken ships of the French Navy! Moreover, does France have the energy to take care of overseas affairs? If you can find out which French cabinet can be stable for half a year without collapse,
I'm impressed by you!
"Mr. Feinberg, do you believe it or not? We can own Batavia Island and Pazia Island at the same time without having to go to all the trouble of exchanging this with you. As long as we do it ourselves. The reason why we are willing to
Sitting at the negotiating table is purely to show the world that we are not a warlike country... It depends on whether you are worthy of cooperation."
Feinberg's face was ashen, staring at the paper on the desktop, unable to say a word.
After Xiang Xiaoqiang finished talking on the phone, he sat down, took a sip of juice, wiped his mouth, stood up and said:
"You enlighten him."
Then he called the big dog, squatted down and petted it for a while, then led it to the lawn to chase the peacock.
The two old men laughed, Song Ruhai and Feinberg laughed and said:
"Hehehe, look at... Mr. Xiang is a young man, and he has such a personality, hehehe... But we are all old people, and we can all talk calmly. In fact, you have to know, the reason why we want to keep Bada
Via Island is mainly interested in Batavia Island's several large ports and its central location in the East Indies. But you are so... alas, how difficult it is..."
Song Ruhai's "unintentional" loosening of tone made Feinberg full of hope. He suddenly felt that Song Ruhai was hinting that it was not impossible to get Batavia Island back, but a sufficient price had to be paid.
This made Feinberg overjoyed. He calmed down, then stood up and left, saying that he would go back to the hotel to report the results of today's negotiations to the country and wait for instructions from the country.
Xiang Xiaoqiang did not force him to stay, and the two sides agreed to continue the talks the next morning. However, Xiang Xiaoqiang said that he hoped to finalize it tomorrow and did not want to delay it any longer. Feinberg seemed to feel much better at this time, and said with a smile that he also hoped
in this way.
…
After Feinberg left, Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately held a banquet to celebrate and opened the best champagne in the Governor's Palace wine cellar.
"Cheers to the coming Ming Dynasty era!"
"cheers!"
The four cups clinked together, and the sound was pleasant.