With a plain white gauze on his head, a delicious meal in his mouth, and a glass bottle full of delicious drinks in his hand, Jacques Le Maire is now completely relaxed.

After going to sea for nearly two years, I have walked around the earth for most of the circle, and the adventures that should have been have passed have already passed, and I don't want to have this thing before arriving at the destination today, I don't know if it's lucky or weird.

Sbrandin sat across from Jaco, sipping the Coke he had brought from the base, and looked at the one in front of him. He has been in Europe for a long time, but his understanding of this era is still very limited, because when he first saw Jaco, he thought that he was a Spaniard or Portuguese who was used to walking here, but unfortunately Sbrandn did not know Portuguese, so he asked Jacole in Spanish and did not respond and then switched to French. Seeing Jaco's reaction, Sbrandt realized that he was afraid that there were still Dutch people in this sea, so he switched to German. The so-called Dutch speaker, in fact, is Low German, a dialect of German, Sbrandan studied in Europe and traveled all over West Prussia for a long time, speaking a few German dialects is not a problem, I don't want this man to really understand.

"If you talk about the countries of the ocean, the natives on the island of your friend are the most hateful, and I don't know who gave them the name in the first place." Kent Guillaume was the younger brother of the captain of the Ndracht, one of the two merchant ships on the voyage, and he was still haunted by the sacking of the fleet by the natives of the Friends Islands, especially the barrels of rum, which had expired and mildewed since the passage of Cape Horn.

The so-called Friends Islands is the Dutch name for the Tonga Islands at this time, according to what Jacot said before, the fleet is to explore new trade routes, since leaving Amsterdam in June of the previous year, from the southernmost tip of South America into the ocean, then all the way west to find the Spice Islands, after arriving in Tonga, first went north to discover the Horn Islands, fought a battle with the local natives, won a big victory, and rested in the local area for a week before going west again. According to Sbrand's heard, the two Dutch merchant ships were heading west along the north coast of New Guinea, and were now carrying spices that had been collected there.

"I have heard for a long time that the people of your country are fond of business, and I can see it today, and it is indeed worthy of its reputation, I thought that the merchant ships of the East India Company all went all the way east from the Cape of Good Hope, but I didn't want you to really go around the earth."

Jacole listened to Spuran's words and secretly wondered, all said that the people of the East were ignorant and barbaric, but they did not want to meet such a group of people in this wild land, they were all Asian-looking, but they could communicate with them in the language of their homeland, you must know that there are many points in the German of the Low Ground, if according to the Chinese language, there are many cases of ten miles of different sounds, and now it is even more surprising to talk about the circumnavigation of the world and the East India Company, but Jaco's must also correct the mistakes of the comers, so he replied: "Sir, we are not the crew of the East India Company, but the Australian Company." Seven years ago, he formed a company, and we went to sea to open up trade routes. ”

It dawned on Sbrain that he had made a mistake, and that there had been more than one Dutch trading company in history, and although the West India Company had not yet been established at this time, the Australian company had been formed a few years earlier. In fact, many European ships have been to the north coast of Australia earlier, but Australia has not been found, only New Guinea. It was only in the second century that Europeans had the conjecture of the southern continent, which was called Australia (note: the word Australia (Australia) originally meant "the southern continent", which was changed from the Latin terraaustralis. Therefore, in order to open up a new road for maritime business, it is also justified in the name of this. In retrospect, this is also the true history of the sight, which Mechaesy specially taught, but now that the Dutch East India Company is in full swing, it is a blind leaf.

Li Xiao asked with concern: "Now that Mr. Yake's injury is fine, what should I do?" ”

"Since I first looked for my partners to land and replenish the water, I had to go to Java in the end."

On the island of Java, the Dutch East India Company is in conflict with Banten State, according to time calculation, the construction of Batavia City will also begin this year, after completion, it will be the center of the Netherlands in the South Seas, although Jaco's party and the East India Company still have conflicts, but after all, they are all one country, and they must return through the Indian Ocean, and they must always be properly supplied in their own ports to act. It's just that along the way, there are many pirates in the former crossing the Sulu Sea, and there are many armed Spanish merchant ships patrolling the Spice Islands, so the two merchant ships of the Australian company are not enough to replenish, and they are passing in a hurry, and the ships are also dilapidated here. Therefore, the day before yesterday, Yake left his friend Shu Teng in charge, and he brought his cronies to land first to find supplies, and Shu Teng also asked his brother Kent to follow Yake as a gesture of heart, but he was ambushed by the Bajau Department yesterday afternoon, and the news was cut off.

It turned out that Zao Yake and others were four days old, and Li Xiao and his entourage had a general matter to lead them to land here to investigate the geography, and there was a royal monument given by the Ming Emperor in the Chinese Balu Mountain. Because there is a concubine who is a Bajau woman, she is kind to the natives here, and there are many transactions on weekdays. It didn't take much effort for him to pass it all the way, and the team on the East Road of Bisheng hit a big luck, and the patriarch's daughter was in an emergency, and she was bedridden for ten months, and she was dying. The sorcerers in the clan have also seen it, and a few days ago, they had asked people to go to the Chinese town at the mouth of the Broken Hand River to find Langzhong from the mainland, but they didn't see any improvement, and the Han Langzhong only said that he was afraid that it was colic, and he was helpless.

Colic is also the old name of appendicitis, if it was before the invention of surgery, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was also an emergency to die, but in the eyes of Zhong Ling, a lady who knew the affairs of health and welfare, it was just a gesture, and the cooking stopped in less than half a moment, and the rest was just waiting for the patient to recover. In less than half a day, the daughter was already well, the fever had subsided, and the patriarch and the people of the clan were even more worshipful to the East Road team, killing chickens and slaughtering pigs.

Before landing that day, the detachment only hid the ship in one place on the shore, leaving Xiong Taibai on the ship, and the general secretary led the other four people ashore. Originally, Zhong Ling's brother Zhong Yi was born in engineering, and there were more actual combat opportunities on the construction site in later generations than Xiong Taibai, who retired from the serious army, plus automatic weapons in hand, enough bullets, and protecting his own sister, when he didn't have to worry too much, Shi Bran was also a good gun.

The day before yesterday, I saw two strangely shaped merchant ships crossing the estuary and anchoring in a secluded place for several miles, and landed in a small boat, so I informed Li Xiao with a handset, otherwise the huge coast, in one day, the Bayao Department would not be aware of it. It's just that now that the prestige of the detachment in the Bajau Department has been demonstrated, and it asks for a few live mouths, why does the patriarch refuse to go? Quickly gave the order, and even the people below did not dare to slack off, for fear that they would not do a good job, annoy the divine envoy, and send disasters.

Seeing that there was someone interpreting here, Li Xiao did not hesitate to come over and say a few more words, and said with a smile after listening to Yake's reply: "I have a trading station in Bo Ni, which is in the city of Boranai, which is only a day's water journey away, your company may wish to go to our place to replenish, I will write a letter to you, and someone will arrange it with you." ”

Jaco: "We didn't have an intersection originally, you don't know what to ask for, please give me a quote." ”

"But I think too much, just thinking that it is not easy for you to travel thousands of miles, so I do my best to do my best, why does Your Excellency say that we have something to ask for?"

"I don't dare, but when I was still in Amsterdam, I often listened to my father's teachings, saying that we and other businessmen always have to pay in return, and the same is true compared to returning home."

Isaac Lemaire, the father of Jaco, was one of the most wealthy merchants in Amsterdam and the founder of the Australian Company, and the Dutch of the 17th century were arguably the most business-minded of businessmen.

Li Xiao heard the words and said with a smile: "In this way, it is not all without want, we are really Chinese relics, three hundred years ago because of avoiding Mongolia and crossed to the south, saw a big island, rich water and grass, so it has multiplied so far, now the people of the country are thinking about the homeland, the whole country and return, in this South Sea land, but also to operate, but I have long heard that your East India Company is dominant, should be monopolized by commerce, we do not want to make friends with it, if your company originally cooperated with our country, it would be better." ”

Jaco didn't know much about China, but he vaguely remembered that in his past travelogues, there was the so-called Central Plains Dynasty that was destroyed by the Tatars, and these people were the remnants of that dynasty? If it is as said, it was also a few hundred years ago, which is quite interesting to the Europeans who like to visit the lost civilization, but then I thought, when it comes to trade, this place is nothing more than spices, and on the islands, except for the Dutch are Spaniards, the Dutch ships are strong, and Spain's national power is in full swing.

He turned the topic aside and asked, "What do you mean by the big southern island?" ”

"Exactly what your company is looking for in Australia......"

Jaco's heart sank, and he got up and said, "I wonder if you can tell me where Australia is?" We have come for this purpose, and if you tell me, we will pay you a reward. ”

Li Xiao's face sank, and he performed on his face, and then slowly said: "It's not a secret, there was a disaster a year ago, and Shenzhou has sunk, so we are waiting to return to China, and we are helpless." ”

Na Yake was also sad when he heard it, he didn't have too many doubts about what Li Xiao said, but he had been at sea for two years, and when he heard the news of the Southern Continent, it was bad news, and it was not easy to accept it for a while. Seeing that Yake no longer accepts the words of trade, Li Xiao is not in a hurry, it is just human nature, how can there be a reason not to put bait in fishing. He smiled faintly and said: "Your Excellency should not be discouraged, the Nanyang countries have not been subject to the king for a long time, and the Taixi countries are accustomed to bullying the weak, this time our department has already prepared, as for this trade in goods, it is not just a local product, I don't know how much this thing can be worth if it is transported back to Amsterdam." ”

Seeing the things that Li Xiao handed from his arms, Fang Caiyake's gloomy expression suddenly became radiant, and what Li Xiao handed over was naturally the fist product of the current crossing group - mercury mirror.

The delicate mirror reflected the honor that he had not taken care of because of his years of wandering, but Jaco did not mind in the slightest, the merchant's intuition could tell him the value of this object, and as for the vanity box wrapped on the outside of the mirror, although it was also exquisite, it was much different from the value of the mirror itself.

"What is this mirror?"

"It's made in my Da Song factory."

Jacques was in good spirits, he had never seen such an object before, and he had only heard of a Venetian glassmaker being able to make a similar mercury mirror, but it was a sky-high price, and the silver mirror given by Venice from Venice when King Louis IV of France married the Empress seventeen years ago was worth 150,000 francs, enough for a nobleman and his retinue to travel a thousand times between Paris and London. If this item is really shipped back to Amsterdam, no matter how high the price is, someone will buy it, as long as it can be monopolized. He hurriedly shouted, "Kent? You go to your brother Shuten by boat and let them all come ashore here, and I have important matters to discuss with your brother. ”

Seeing that Yake's heart was agitated, Li Xiao smiled and said, "Your Excellency doesn't have to, your company's friends should be about to arrive." ”