After Xiong Cixu made his conditions, the room, which looked magnificent, immediately became very silent, even so quiet that you could hear your own heartbeat, and in this silence, the stench that was originally covered up by perfume also spread, which made Xiong Cixu and his party frown slightly.

The reason why the body odor on those British people is permeating is not because of anything else, but because of sweat, and they sweat, but because of anger!

Yes!

All the Englishmen in this room were in a state of anger.

But on the side of the Ming Dynasty, he felt that these conditions were not a big deal, after all, the price offered by Xiong Cixu was not high, except for the Jamestown colony, which was the first British settlement in North America, St. Helena Island in the Atlantic Ocean and New Amsterdam in North America were all snatched from the Netherlands. In other words, it's not a British thing at all, so what's there to feel sorry for?

What he didn't know, however, was that it was unacceptable to the British.

"It can't be!"

Pepis stood up almost immediately, his eyes wide open and he glared at Xiong Zhixu and shouted loudly.

"Britain would never agree to such conditions!"

Ceded St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean and the colonies of New Amsterdam and Jamestown in North America to the Ming Kingdom.

My God, is this possible?

If possible, they could even negotiate peace with the Dutch on the same terms, and even Peppis believed that the Dutch would agree to negotiate as long as the British promised to return St. Helena and New Amsterdam to the Dutch, and as for the colony of Jamestown, the Dutch would not have opened this mouth at all.

Britain is indeed in great difficulty now, but it has not yet reached the point where it has to cede these things to other countries in exchange for support.

This condition is absolutely impossible for Britain to accept! Even Pepis believes that if such conditions are spread, everyone will think that the people of the Ming Kingdom are crazy!

They're crazy!

Such a condition would be proposed!

"Of course, this is just a negotiation ......"

Xiong Cixu smiled disapprovingly at Pepys's refusal, and then he stood up. As he stood up, so did his entourage, and everyone knew that the moment he stood up, negotiations without any progress had actually broken down.

This round of negotiations was over, and the two sides did not reach any consensus.

Negotiations broke down?

When he left the castle where the negotiations were taking place in the carriage, Xiong Cixu, who was sitting in the carriage, just looked out the window quietly, and Fang Zhongde, who was an entourage, looked at him who was silent and asked.

"Will our conditions be too high? It seems that their reaction was very violent, maybe ......"

"Lower some conditions, don't you?"

Turning his head to look at Fang Zhongde, Xiong Cilu knew that his status as an attaché was very special, he was the son of Fang Yizhi, the governor of the Northeast, which meant that after returning to China this time, he would be reused by His Majesty, and he would not avoid his relatives, not to mention that Fang Zhongde himself was knowledgeable, and he could even talk about mathematics, physics and other knowledge with scholars there in Cambridge, and even aroused the admiration of British scholars every time.

But as a diplomat, he is still a little too young and needs to learn for a while.

"At least this way, the negotiations will not break down!"

Fang Zhongde's words made Xiong Cilu laugh.

"The negotiations have not broken down, many times things at the negotiation table, just like buying something in the market, if our offer is too low, then there is no room for bargaining, and now, our offer seems to be a bit high, but they can bargain, besides, ......"

Smiling slightly, Xiong Cixu said in a mysterious tone.

"We have a bottom line, it's just that this bottom line, the British don't know it, and it's ......"

Glancing out the window, Xiong was not worried that the coachman would be able to understand his official language, in fact, there was not a single Englishman in England who could speak Chinese.

"If they don't agree now, it doesn't mean that they won't agree in the future, and when they lose the ability to negotiate, they won't be allowed to be so tough!"

"The deputy envoy means the Dutch!"

Fang Zhongde looked at Xiong Cixu as if he had a comprehension and asked.

"Will the Netherlands gain an advantage on the battlefield in the near future?"

"Who knows?"

Xiong Cixu replied with a smile.

"But one thing is for sure, it is the Dutch, not the English, who have the upper hand right now, and the Dutch will certainly do everything possible to extend their advantage, and all we need is to wait, wait for the advantage to expand! By then, having lost the money to negotiate, do you think the English would not make concessions? ”

After asking this rhetorical question, Xiong Cilu's eyes were fixed to the northeast, as if he wanted to see the Netherlands on the other side of the strait. In fact, Xiong Cixu didn't know that when he was negotiating secretly with Peppis, in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, there was a heated discussion because of this negotiation.

"We must take into account that the size of the Ming fleet far exceeds that of the Netherlands, and if they join forces with the British, it will be a disaster for us and for the Netherlands!"

Johan de Witt, who is a coalition of the seven provinces of the Netherlands, is a little anxious in the face of the deputies of the parliament, and as the speaker of the parliament, he is also a coalition of the seven provinces.

Originally, everything went very smoothly, the Netherlands won everything on the battlefield and won again and again, of course, the Netherlands also paid the price not only for the loss of warships in the naval battle, just after the Netherlands won the naval battle of St. James's Day, and not even before they celebrated the victory of the naval battle, the "Holmes bonfire" incident was like a stick in the head that made the Netherlands immediately lose any joy of victory, and the "Holmes bonfire" caused the Netherlands to suffer heavy losses, although this incident can hardly be classified as a naval battle, But the losses suffered by the Netherlands exceeded the total losses inflicted on the British fleet during the entire war. The British Holmes was ordered to lead a small detachment to raid the Dutch island of Freeland, but unexpectedly discovered a large number of Dutch merchant ships hidden in the middle. With little resistance, the British fleet set fire to more than 150 Dutch merchant ships huddled together.

After the Battle of St. James's Day, although there were no more large-scale naval battles between the British and Dutch, the war did not stop there. The two-year-long naval war has caused the two countries to lose their national strength and greatly damaged their vitality. Just when the Netherlands was grieving the loss of the "Holmes Bonfire", a month later, a rare fire befell London, burning for 4 days and 4 nights, destroying 2/3 of the city.

However, the Dutch side's desire for peace talks is not as strong as that of the British, and domestic revenge for the "Holmes bonfire" incident is still high. In order to increase the bargaining chips at the negotiating table, Werther authorized Leut to develop a plan to attack British soil.

Even he was ready to accept the British's request for peace talks, but who would have thought that suddenly, the Ming Dynasty, which occupied the colony of the Dutch East India Company in the East and drove the Netherlands out of Asia, actually appeared in Europe, Spain, and France, and they even sent secret envoys to conduct secret negotiations with the English.

If this country becomes an ally of England, then for the Netherlands, I am afraid, it will not be as simple as a disaster. After all. As far as the information available now, the size of the Ming fleet is three times that of the Netherlands, and their fleet has tens of thousands of guns, and only one fleet needs to be sent, which is equivalent to the entire Dutch fleet, plus the words of the British...... It will be a devastating disaster!

"So what are we going to do? Are we just going to give everything away? Agree to the terms of the British now, negotiate with them, and end all this before the fleet of the Ming people arrives in England, right? ”

In the face of the rebuttal of others, John DeWitt first shook his head, then nodded again.

"That's right, the only option we have now is to end all this before the Ming people arrive!"

Yes, it has to be over!

To catch up with the people of the Ming Kingdom!

Without any hesitation, without any doubt, almost all the Dutch parliamentarians agreed with this point of view, and they even shouted - after defeating England, send a fleet to recover the Cape of Good Hope, recover the East Indies, drive the Ming people back to Asia, drive back to their country!

Amid the cries of the parliamentarians, Michel Adriansson de Leut, the admiral who led the Dutch navy to victory after naval victory in this war, came to Parliament, a hero to the Dutch and, of course, the hope of the Dutch to win the war.

"Michelle, my friend, how's it going? Is the plan in place? ”

When he met Michel, Johann de Witte was extremely enthusiastic, although deep down he had begun to be wary of the admiral who had brought victory after victory to the Netherlands, and who was regarded as a hero by all the Dutch, but the Netherlands needed the admiral.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Leut said as he looked at Werther.

"We've done a lot of research on the plan, and I think we have every chance of implementing it!"

Reut's answer made Werther nod in satisfaction, and then he looked at Reut and said.

"My friend, you should already know, now the Ming people ...... I know, as you said, that it is not fitting for us to raise up more enemies at this time, so we tolerate their occupation of the East Indies, of the Cape of Good Hope, but how have they reciprocated us? They are negotiating with the English, and at any moment they may send their fleet to attack us with the British, so ......"

With eyes fixed on Reut, Werther said in a serious tone.

"We have to solve this problem completely before they arrive, otherwise, we will most likely have to face the attack of two countries! My friend, if all this happens, then there is a good chance that the Netherlands will cease to exist! ”