Gonzalez couldn't help but frown as he looked at the man who was lying on the chuáng, drunk like mud and making a loud noise. The room smelled of alcohol, and it was so strong that it was impossible to sleep.

"If you don't drink too much, you have to drink heavily." Gonzalez wiped his beard, and he drank a lot. In Batavia, where wine is scarce and poor, "the price is still very high." The most popular drink is beer, which is often drunk by the Dutch. This thing doesn't like wine at all for southern Europeans, who are used to wine, and calls it "urine".

At the reception, "rum was served, and several wine lovers such as Xue Ziliang brewed their own fruit wine at the demonstration farm." Although it is not possible to grow grapes for winemaking, the farms and communes promote the cultivation of "ten-sided" and courtyard-based economy, but many fruits are grown, and most of these fruits are used to make wine, except for the army, students, and workers.

When Xue Ziliang was in the United States, making wine by himself was a hobby, and he also had a special small hair equipment at home, so he was very familiar with the process.

The fruit wine produced by the winery was of a wide variety and in small quantities, and was basically used by the elders and banquets, and a few were sold in stores as special supplies to the higher classes of the naturalized people.

Gonzalez, of course, did not give up this rare opportunity to drink: the Spanish GIs were not inferior to anyone else in drinking. He drained a few bottles of cider, bō mì, and wild fruit wine, and then drank a lot of rum in one gulp, still unchanging his face, and had to talk to Miss Mendoza, who acted as an interpreter, for he had not seen a "woman of the motherland" for a long time. Although the woman spoke a lot of Spanish, he didn't understand the vocabulary and had an accent. Gonzalez guessed that she was a native Spaniard from the American colonies. Immediately, it was very enthusiastic and courteous. Although it can be seen that the other party has a good impression of him, he will always avoid him when he gets too close.

This made Gonzalez wonder.

Miss Mendoza felt close to seeing a European who also spoke Spanish. But the stench emanating from the Spanish GI was disgusting. González actually outperformed most of his contemporaries in terms of hygiene, and served in a place like Batavia, where it was difficult to survive without frequent bathing. After arriving in Lingao, he stayed at the sailor's hotel and was forced to take a bath.

After the reception, he and Trini returned to their room, and although the Merchant House had single rooms, Van der Lantron insisted on staying in a triple room for fear of getting too much money from the company. According to the standards of the Mouth Century Hotel, these three-person rooms can be called luxurious and comfortable. But with such a drunken guy in the room, the room became a little unbearable. The Italians also couldn't stand the stench of the Dutch.

"How about we go outside for another drink?" Gonzalez asked in Italian. As a soldier of the King of Spain, he served in Italy, and many of the robes were Italians.

"Of course. I'd love to. "Trinide's task is to draw", "Walk and see more, it is his task in itself." He thought for a moment, "But we don't have a translator. ”

"I don't need a translator." Gonzalez pulled out a rial, "That's the translation." ”

"What if we get on our way?"

"They're going to get us back." Gonzalez said nonchalantly, "Don't you want to find a woman?" ”

"The Dutch seem to be even happier with the outcome of this negotiation than we are." After the reception, the officials of the Ministry of Colonization and Trade gathered in the conference room of the office building. Hong Kong, a commercial representative in Hong Kong who was temporarily transferred from Hong Kong to participate in the negotiations, said. He was transferred back because the patriarch had the best German in Chinese, Xu Tianqi had already gone to the mainland, and he was the only one left who could communicate fluently in German.

"Of course. The Dutch played a hard game for Zheng Zhilong. It's hard to meet honest people like us, "how can you be unhappy." Skade was very happy. The trade agreement signed a few days ago with the Dutch East India Company was approved by the Senate after three readings. Although everyone was not very interested in the Dutch, "this agreement was too beneficial for the Lingao regime."

"I still propose that Hong Kong be included in the entrepot port." Hung Yoon once again put forward his idea.

The large quantities of Ming goods needed by the Dutch were currently mainly carried out through the Zhangzhou Bay trade, that is, the goods were mainly shipped from Fujian" This trade route is currently controlled by Zheng Zhilong.

It was not that the Dutch were reluctant to come to Canton, whose trade was mainly monopolized by the Portuguese.

In fact, as far as the convenience of supply is concerned, Guangdong is better than Fujian as a supplier of export products.

In fact, the mainland commodities sold to the Dutch, including raw silk, silk, groceries, medicinal herbs, etc., can be traded directly with the Netherlands at the Hong Kong station, reducing a link of transshipment and storage on the way, which can liberate the transportation capacity of mainland commodities originally used to load the trade with the Netherlands between the mainland and Lingao. The spices that the Dutch were trying to promote "could also be traded in Hong Kong, purchased by the Hong Kong station, sold directly locally, or sold at the Guangzhou station", earning the difference, making Hong Kong an entrepot like the old time and space, "expanding Hong Kong's influence as a trading port on the mainland", and building momentum for the empire to control the trade routes of Chinese merchants to Batavia.

"In addition, we can take advantage of the empty space of the Dutch. We are currently specifying half of the freight volume. Suppose that the Dutch ships carried half rice and half spices. After their ships unloaded the rice at Lingao, they had to go to Hong Kong to unload the spices. We can use the half of the empty space to hand over the cargo we need to transfer to Hong Kong and Canton to the Dutch ships. ”

This proposal made Sky's mind very excited, knowing that the biggest problem for the Colonization and Trade Department right now is the lack of capacity. Now that it is possible to not only save capacity, but also to take advantage of the capacity of the Dutch, Flood Yin's suggestion is attractive enough.

Skade nodded repeatedly: "Well, this idea is very good. ”

"Actually, Sanya is not in a hurry to open up." "Except for slaves, most of the goods shipped by the Dutch were indigestible locally" and we had to transport them back to Lingao or Hong Kong ourselves, and the goods sold to the Dutch in Sanya were mainly transported to Lingao.

It's equivalent to a lot of hands and feet for nothing. ”

Skade was struck by his words. It was the Senate's plan to build Sanya into an international trade port, and it seems inappropriate to veto it again "now that international businessmen are coming." He thought about it and decided that Sanya's plan 1 was "long-term" anyway, and it was no big problem to focus on Hong Kong now.

"However, Hong Kong is still under construction, can we really open up to you?"

"The Dutch don't send ships right away. I guess the first ships will be sent in the second half of the year. In the second half of the year, our capital construction was also completed, and the work of the Guangzhou station was resumed. The Dutch came with a maximum of 2-3 ships, which they could handle. ”

Skade nodded, he thought for a moment, "In this case, we will have to discuss with Ji An, the director of customs, to build a new customs office in Hong Kong." Clears customs directly at the local level to simplify procedures.

"So you can make big moves." He said.

"yes, otherwise what am I doing as a business representative in Hong Kong?" Hung Wan said unabashedly: "The potential for development in Hong Kong is still a little limited. However, it is still good as an outer harbor of Guangzhou. ”

As a result, in the final draft of the trade agreement, Hong Kong was added to the list of open trade ports.

However, in the ports that were opened, "consuls were dispatched only to Lingao. And who to send to Batavia to serve as a consul became a new question.

Hung Yin resolutely turned down the opportunity, even though he was currently the most German-speaking among the senators. But he didn't want to go, so he suggested that anyone who knew Spanish or other languages could also go to Batavia to do the job. Without seeing the Dutch attaché, there were Spaniards and Italians.

The Senate was hesitant to send a senator to the Dutch territory as consul.

Because there are few veterans, and the knowledge and skills of each veteran are valuable, it is impossible to say what the benefits of putting a veteran on the territory of a potential enemy thousands of kilometers away will be. The senator sent must not be of a low level, he must know a foreign language to be able to communicate with the Dutch, "he must have considerable negotiating skills, and he must be in good health." If something goes wrong, the Senate is completely out of his reach.

Of most interest to the dispatch of consuls is the Foreign Intelligence Service, which is an opportunity to openly send intelligence officers. However, the risk is greater than that of sending to Daming, and Batavia is not currently the main target of the attack, so the intelligence bureau has not shown much enthusiasm for this.

But it seems that it is a loss not to send a consul. After all, the other party can send a consul to Lingao, and the dispatch of a consul can also spread the influence of the Australians to the Chinese in Batavia. After some discussion, Wang Yan of the Foreign Intelligence Service proposed a compromise plan. Send a consul to ***.

Compared to Zundavia, *** strategy is a matter of the last few years. An intelligence officer is much more useful in the big man than in Batavia" and in case something happens, the distance from Hainan to *** is much closer.

"But it doesn't make sense." At the meeting, Skader questioned, "Our trade agreement is with the Batavian authorities, and unless they transfer their jurisdiction to trade with us to the council of the Lord, it will be difficult for us to propose to send a consul to an unrelated port for permanent residence." @。