The messenger was a middle-aged man, although he wore the traditional decent clothes of the Chinese, neatly tied in a bun characteristic of the Chinese's head, and wore a graceful and luxurious gauze hood - a decoration that only the rich of Chinese have. #本章节随风手打#然而总督依然感觉能闻到他身上的海水和臭鱼烂虾的腥臭味道.

Apparently this decent Chinese dress on the body of the messenger made him feel very uncomfortable, De? Carpontier noticed that he tugged at his clothes from time to time, and seemed uncomfortable to wear.

Liu Xiang's envoy made a deep bow in front of him. Carpentere bowed slightly, as the Governor of the East India Company, he considered himself to represent the authority of the seventeen directors of the United Provinces, and did not need to be courteous to the pirates of the South China Sea.

"Well, what new advice did you bring to the table?" The Governor asked.

The envoy brought Liu Xiang an offer to ask the Dutch for support. To be precise, Liu Xiang hoped that the Dutch would send warships from Dayuan to support the battle between him and Zheng Zhilong, who had recently prepared to launch a maritime operation against Zheng Zhilong and, if possible, completely destroy the center-left.

In addition to the direct involvement of the Dutch in the fighting, the accompanying demands included a request for artillery, arquebuses, gunpowder, and craftsmen and soldiers who could use and repair European guns. He can pay for these. If the Dutch wished, they sold or leased him a few European-style "plywood ships", of course, with sailors who operated them.

"That's a big deal." The Governor thought to himself. The Grand Master has only two permanent vessels, one of which is a speedboat. But he has always been wary of joining the conflict directly between Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong, after all, most of the merchants now heading to Dayuangang are from Fujian, and if Zheng Zhilong is annoyed, he is likely to block the trade route. The gains outweigh the losses.

The relationship between the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong is delicate. First, in 1627, Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch's attempt to get into Fujian's foreign trade, forcing Natz, who was stationed in Dayuangang, to sign a three-year trade agreement with Zheng Zhilong the following year. Although this trade agreement was not implemented later, the Dutch were always jealous of Zheng Zhilong's shili. In 1630, Putmans, the representative of the East India Company, went to the mainland to negotiate with Zheng Zhilong and reached a trade agreement. Since then, there has been a period of "friendly exchanges" between the two sides. The Dutch provided Zheng Zhilong with some assistance in leveling the sea heroes, including allowing his ships to enter Dayuan Harbor at will.

But Zheng Zhilong's shili expansion made him eventually the Dutch's middleman in the Zhangzhou Bay trade: the Dutch could only sell goods to the Fujian group, and they could only buy Chinese goods from the Zheng Zhilong group.

The East India Company was very dissatisfied with its monopoly on trade. At the same time, the two sides also have friction on trade routes with Japan. The Dutch wanted to monopolize trade with Japan, and the Zheng Zhilong group also regarded trade with Japan as a ban.

Under various factors, the Dutch have always hoped to support another shili to attack and weaken Zheng Zhilong, so that the Chinese maritime groups in the Fujian-Guangdong Ocean cannot monopolize the coastal trade and open the door to free trade for the Dutch.

Supporting Liu Xiang Group was a reasonable choice for the East India Company. Of course, given the fragile position of the Daguan trade, the Dutch's support for Liu Xianglao has always been relatively subtle. The covert provision of artillery, ammunition, and the like had been carried out, but the supply of ships was too great - not to mention that the Dutch did not have many ships in the East Indies.

In general, the East India Company did not want to see a decisive battle between Liu Xianglao and Zheng Yiguan. The final outcome of the decisive battle was bound to be the winner's monopoly, and at that time, a bloc with a monopoly on coastal trade in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian would be a nightmare for the East India Company.

The message brought by the envoy complained that Zheng Zhilong was putting more and more pressure on him -- after Zheng Zhilong defected to the imperial court, his official status made his activities along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong fully convenient, and he could easily obtain supplies from the shore, and even receive intelligence and weapons support from officers and soldiers. Even the competition on land Zheng Zhilong had the upper hand: whether it was Zheng Zhilong or Liu Xiang, they had allies of the so-called "mountain lords" as their lair on the shore. The "mountain lords" were not simple bandits, they were originally a group of exiled peasants who felled wood, burned charcoal, and cultivated cash crops in the mountains. Not only did the mountain lords provide supplies and a safe nest for the pirate merchants after landing, but they were also the main source of cash crops for the sea merchants, the largest of which was indigo. Indigo was another cash crop that China exported in large quantities at the time, and was a major source of profit for maritime merchants. After Zheng Zhilong became an official, the Fujian government made it clear that it supported Zheng Zhilong's activities, and under such double pressure, the attitude of the mountain owners changed significantly-Liu Xiang had fewer and fewer "friends" on the shore, which posed a threat to his business and even his survival.

These problems converged, and finally forced Liu Xiang's gang to make the decision of a showdown with Zheng Zhilong - in comparison, Zheng Zhilong's Liliang is not too strong now, and at this time, there is at least a fifty percent certainty of launching a decisive battle.

Fifty percent of the grasp is really not a good opportunity to start a decisive battle, but time is lost, Zheng Zhilong is constantly getting stronger, in the past he was just a liliang in the Fujian and Guangdong oceans, and now he is the strongest shili in the ocean with the support of Xiong Wencan. And this strongest shili doesn't mean "common wealth" at all, and it is clear that he wants to swallow everything alone.

"Does Xiang Lao really have to fight to the death with an official?" The Governor lifted his eyelids and looked at the messenger standing in front of him.

"Master, you are getting more and more powerful now, Xiong Wencan, this old ghost, gave him a lot of big ships, as well as many Hongyi cannons, he can recruit as many people as he wants in Fujian, and he is not afraid of the dead and destroying the ship when he fights. If this continues, our gang will be dragged to death sooner or later. ”

The envoy said that recently, Zheng Zhilong's fleet had repeatedly approached Liu Xianglao's fundamental core area in the Chaoshan area, and in order to defend his core territory, Liu Xiang's boss gang had to urgently retreat from the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary, and the whole division returned to the Chaoshan area to prepare to meet Zheng Zhilong's challenge.

The loss of territory near the mouth of the Pearl River was a very serious problem for Liu Xiang - it was his main source of income, and although he could not monopolize the shipping routes due to the Portuguese maritime patrols in the foreign goods trade, the "tolls" paid by the various other coastal trading vessels that entered and left Canton were equally lucrative. Although Zheng Zhilong's actions did not provoke a direct naval battle between the two sides, it made Liu Xiang very passive. He couldn't risk losing the basic territory near Chaoshan and letting Zheng Zhilong take the risk of copying his old nest and continue to stay in the Pearl River Estuary to generate income and do business; But now that the whole division is forced to return to the Chaoshan area, the territory of the Pearl River Estuary, which has been gradually laid down since the end of the Apocalypse, will slowly be taken away by others. There is no money without territory, and there is nothing without money.

For Liu Xiang's gang, it may not be possible to survive in the current war, but if it does not fight, it is an inevitable thing to die, and it is impossible to maintain the survival of the gang by relying on Chaoshan's resources alone.

Morality? Carpenter, of course, understands Liu Xiang's current predicament. But he had no intention of sending any ships to support Liu Xiang - since Liu Xiang was not sure of victory, it would be unwise to bet all his bets on it now. Even if Liu Xiang is lucky to defeat his opponent, with Zheng Zhilong's current strength, he may not necessarily decline. He will inevitably retaliate by blocking the route of the Omble. Weapons and personnel support could be considered. The company has two sailing vessels in poor condition in the port of Batavia: the Vigilance and the Zealous. The two 300-ton brigs had to be pumped all the way during the voyage due to a serious water leak. No voyage can be made without an overnumbered sailor. But the sail lines and armaments on it were complete, one with 12 cannons and the other with 18. It is a good choice to sell it to Liu Xiang together. The Chinese will repair them, they have enough shipbuilders and materials.

But this is not the main problem. The governor had to consider another possibility after Liu Zheng opened his station: what should Liu Xiang do if he loses the decisive battle? Zheng Zhilong will undoubtedly go straight to the surface of Guangdong, and by that time the company's negotiation conditions with him will become smaller and smaller. Eventually, it would have fallen into the original trade between Dayuangang and Xu Xinsu - at that time, the company's salesman in Dayuan had to buy the goods shipped by Xu Xinsu at a price 50% higher than the market price.

The Governor suddenly remembered the Australians in Lingao, and he asked, "What kind of people are the Australians in Lingao?" ”

The envoy was stunned for a moment, probably not expecting the governor to suddenly ask about the Australians.

"They won't be able to jump for long." The messenger said.

"Oh?" The Governor was immediately interested.

"The imperial court has already sent a large number of soldiers to Lingao to exterminate the Australians, and they only have a few thousand people in total, and they don't have a few boats, how can they be the opponents of the imperial court?" The envoy did not hide it, and told Liu Xiang about the failure of Liu Xiang's subordinates to attack Lingao. He also talked about the recent build-up of the Ming army near Guangzhou in preparation for a large-scale sea attack -- Liu Xiang's withdrawal from the vicinity of the mouth of the Pearl River was also to avoid a frontal clash with the officers and men. And the reason why he thought of a decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong was that another important factor was that the official army was about to enter Lingao, and the Australians would never be able to deal with him. Relieved of worries.

“…… At that time, the big shopkeeper didn't know that their firearms were powerful, and they miscalculated a game. The messenger said nonchalantly, "Zuihou has lost a thousand people. ”。