"The Ming people have signed a contract."

Gao Wenlu shrugged and said to Song Ke: "The war is over."

Song Ke said coldly: "We promise not to invade Penghu again, nor to go to Mingguo's sea to cause trouble. Mingguo allows us to go to Dongfan Island to take shelter from the wind and rest without interference."

Gao Wenlu is a middle-aged man in his forties, and Song Ke is a little older.

Both of them are typical Germanic Dutch with a very tall figure, blonde hair and blue eyes, strong and tall body, and cold in the depths of their eyes, revealing the mentality of typical European colonists of this era... Pride, conceit, cruelty, indifferent, full of confidence and enterprising spirit, lack of compassion and awe of all affairs, only slaves, gold and silver can impress them the most.

Gao Wenlu looked unhappy and said, "We will completely lose Penghu this time!"

Song Ke's expression was much better. He smiled slightly and said, "At least we have confirmed at the legal level that Ming Dynasty will not interfere with Formosa Island... Isn't it? Penghu was originally just a tentative occupation, and at least we also understand the determination of the Ming people..."

Gao Wenlu shrugged and said, "We have nearly a hundred casualties, and this temptation is a bit too expensive."

Song Ke said: "Of course, the company wants to give priority to Penghu, but it is still worth it if we take a step back and get the recognition and acquiescence of our occupying the port of senior officials."

Gao Wenlu admitted: "The Ming Navy still has considerable strength... Although their jungle ships were small and old, they were sufficiently equipped. They mobilized more than 10,000 people in the Penghu War. This was only the power of a southern province of Ming. Relatively speaking, the power of our company cannot be compared with a huge empire after all. Even the Spanish, they once wanted to conquer the Ming Empire with 30,000 people, but now it seems too arrogant."

Song Ke also agreed with Gao Wenlu's judgment. Although they tried to understand more about the situation within the Ming Empire, it was difficult to obtain real first-hand information due to their identity. The Ming Dynasty was still very clear about the Netherlands and the Spaniards, and they had to trust the Portuguese people. When Sun Yuanhua was training troops and cannons in Denglai, more than 300 Portuguese people were in the Dengzhou Town Army. In addition to the technicians who cast guns, they were instructors who trained the Ming army's musketeers, and also some mercenaries.

After the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, the Portuguese were very willing to be hired by the Ming Empire to fight. At that time, some ministers in the Southern Ming Dynasty also proposed to hire these Thais to fight. However, there were many twists and turns later, and their execution was too poor. Moreover, the Hongguang Dynasty of the Southern Ming Dynasty was quickly destroyed. Later, it actually lost the unified empire center. The small courts such as King Lu and King Gui were doing their own things and fought with each other. Even if they really had the intention to hire the Portuguese, they could only give up.

At this time, the real strength in Asia was actually the Spanish and Dutch. Even the British were quite limited. At this time, the British were still fighting against the Dutch at sea, plundering the Spanish sailboats in the Pacific Ocean, and accumulating wealth through various shameless methods. It only entered the period of the British Empire's maritime dominance a hundred years later. There was still some time before they actually managed India, let alone trying to get involved in China.

"After signing the peace agreement," Song Ke opened the wine bottle, poured two glasses of sweet wine, and smiled: "We can manage Formosa with confidence. Think about it carefully, this is also a good thing, and it is worth the toast."

"Nothing will happen, right?" Gao Wenlu said with some concern: "The Ming people are very cunning, and they may not necessarily abide by the contract."

"According to Xu Xinsu's information, Ming Dynasty was also exhausted." Song Ke drank it all, wiped the wine stains on his beard with his hands, and smiled: "They spent more than 100,000 silver dollars and complained everywhere. The gentry didn't want to fight and didn't want to pay, and the government had no money. They asked their court that the capital in the north was thousands of miles away, so they were unwilling to fight."

"It turns out that the country was also attacked by barbarians and was deeply trapped in the battlefield." Gao Wenlu said with gratitude: "The annual income of the Ming Dynasty was tens of millions of silver dollars, which is far from that of our country and European countries."

Song Ke smiled and said, "From the book, the silver coin income of this great empire in a year is simply tragic. Of course, they call it "two". In fact, the weight of one liang and one silver coin is not much different. They do not use gold coins, which is very different from that of Europe. I feel that their gold reserves are insufficient, but their court is sitting on the verge of a large amount of gold flowing out and is only interested in silver. This is called very surprised. The silver standard is not enough to support the financial system of the huge empire. In recent years, the Governor has sent people to carefully study and found that the empire not only has silver coin tax revenue, but also

There are a lot of in-kind taxes. They have an annual income of tens of millions of taels of silver, and they have an annual income of 26 million stones of grain. They can also collect cotton, cloth, charcoal, silk, and paper, which is quite considerable. They can collect a large amount of manpower for free, and at the same time define areas, such as levying cotton cloth for a certain place in Nanzhili and levying coal for a certain place. It is said that the imperial palace in Beijing will have to earn millions of kilograms of coal for free in one winter... So the national strength of the Ming Kingdom cannot be judged only from the silver coin income. The fact that we are being besieged at the moment also shows this."

It was the autumn of the Ming Dynasty. Even Fujian in the south became cooler, with gentle sea breezes and unremitting waves. Two senior executives of the Dutch East India Company sat in the low office of the castle and talked happily, and they felt relaxed and happy.

"To our genius governor."

"Respect the Governor!"

The two Dutch people sincerely respected the governor of the Dutch East India Company at this time. They raised their glasses high and wished their Governor good health.

At this time, the Dutch East India Company really had a talented governor who studied the Ming Dynasty, occupied Penghu in the east, and retreated to Taiwan's deployment. The trade with Asian countries including China and Japan was deployed by the governor named Jane, Pittszoen and Cohen.

Within Cohen's plan, the Dutch East India Company has developed quite rapidly.

Before Cohen became the governor of the United States, the Dutch colonies were very small, the area it controlled was also small, and the East India Company was also weak. Since Cohen took office more than a decade ago, several important decisions have led to the Dutch power's rapid advance in Asia.

The first thing was to make up the determination to drive away the Portuguese in the East Indies and include the East Indies in the Dutch colony or sphere of influence.

At the same time, Cohen began to harass the British, preventing the British from entering the Indonesian archipelago, and driving the British back to their strongholds in India, so as not to get involved in Southeast Asia and East Asia.

The third thing is to increase the trade volume in Asian countries, making the trade profits between Asian countries exceed the profits of returning to Europe bypassing the Cape of Good Hope. This alone makes Cohen not inferior to the name of genius.

The fourth thing is to decide to establish a base in Penghu and Taiwan, which will make it easier to control the existing territory and at the same time monopolize the trade route from raw silk to Japan.

The signing of Song Ke and others with the Ming Dynasty also proved that this decision was completely correct. In fact, the Dutch built two famous castles on Dayuan Island, and since then they made great profits in trade with China and Japan. This trend has been until decades later, Zheng Zhilong's tiger son Zheng Chenggong could not survive on the shore and was determined to establish a foundation on the island opposite the sea that would not be harassed by the Qing army. The Zheng family navy defeated the Dutch, but did not destroy the power map left by Cohen. The Dutch's existence in Asia continued until World War II. Even if they were defeated by the British on the ocean early, the maritime power of the sea coachman had long been avalanche.

At the same time, Cohen not only made money-making businesses such as spices, but also whaling business in the Arctic Circle, which also made a lot of money in the asphalt, tar and flax business in Europe.

The Dutch East India Company surpassed the Portuguese and Spaniards in Asia, overwhelming the British for more than a hundred years. The foundation laid by Cohen is also very important.

"This year the Governor gave us a war budget of 300,000 gold coins," said Song Ke. "Now the British are ready to move. In Europe, they not only target the Spaniards, but also fight with us. The Governor said that no matter what, we must preserve the territory and interests in Asia and send them back to the Netherlands if necessary. This year, we must build the castle of the Grand Secretary. Even if the materials and stones are removed from Penghu, we must hire people to do it at any cost."

The island is indeed seriously lacking in fine iron and stone. Many of the building materials were purchased by the Dutch on the coast of China, or sent by Japan, or even from Batavia.

The so-called Jelan Chateau, also known as Taiwan City, was chosen to be located on Dayuan Island, which was built in a harbor area next to the beach, which could effectively control the sea surface. In order to build this castle, the Dutch really invested a lot of money. The cost of a castle alone was hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. If the Penghu war and various costs were included, the cost would be even greater.

This castle is quite large, and it also has the shadow of the early bastion design. There are many turrets, the base floor has the largest range, with several large sharp angles, and there are two or three floors on it. The highest floor will flutter the Dutch flag high to declare the Netherlands' right to occupy this beautiful island.

When it comes to the British, the two Dutch people have a little gloomy face.

Britain has already caught up with the Dutch. The Dutch started out against the royal power, a symbol of European freedom, and a group of bankers and adventurers formed the earliest republic in Europe. It is precisely because of the nearshore and the country organized by bankers and rebels that trade and navigation will inevitably become the basis for its founding.

So far, the Dutch have had more than 10,000 merchant ships, and they are well-deserved overlords of the sea. After defeating the Spanish's invincible fleet, the British fought against the Spanish for a long time. Now Queen Elizabeth I, the real leader of the rise of Britain, has introduced a privateership system. In order to weaken the Spaniards' maritime strength, the British personally granted pirates privateers. The robbery was recognized and supported by the British state with privateers. The robbery he robbed was successfully whitewashed as long as he was handed over to the Queen. Encouragement of this policy, a large number of British people became official pirates, and pirates were everywhere in the ocean, and a large number of Spain

The gold transport ships that people returned to Europe from South America were robbed. A large number of gold transport ships under the sea hundreds of years later were still present. The Spaniards lost a lot of blood, and they were no longer as glorious as they were before. Now that the British have increased their strength, their hostility towards the Dutch has begun to rise. However, it is still limited to friction. The British are still not strong enough. However, with the British's trade and private income, coupled with the determination of the British to build a strong navy, it should be a matter of time before catching up with the Dutch and breaking out war. The upper classes of both countries are also aware of this. Everyone is ready to fight, but they don't know when the first shot will be fired.

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It’s the weekend and the month is midnight. Today I’m updated with two chapters and asked for a vote. Thank you everyone.
Chapter completed!