In early February, the First Fleet docked in the Dutch-controlled port of Recife.

This Brazilian port had fallen into the hands of the Dutch for several years, and the Portuguese had been unable to reclaim it. In fact, they no longer care about recovering Recife, San Salvador and other places at the moment, and they are thinking about whether they can keep the remaining Brazilian territory. After many years of blood transfusion from the arms trade in the East Coast Republic of China, the Portuguese and their mercenaries remained unsuccessful, and were frequently defeated by the Dutch.

Of course, their decline is not so obvious compared to history. At least at this time they maintained a certain amount of armed strength, and the losses of the Dutch were far greater than they were in history. The war had been going on for many years, and by this time both the Dutch West India Company and the Portuguese and Brazilian colonial authorities were already exhausted.

At present, there is a semi-ceasefire on the front lines of both sides. Brazilians rearm and lick their wounds while waiting for the international situation to change; The Dutch, on the other hand, brought in many peasants from the country and began to run the occupied northeastern region of Brazil in order to form their own roots as soon as possible.

In view of the "inappropriate" position of the East Coast Republic of China in the Brazilian War, the Dutch naturally did not give the East Coast people too much of a good look. However, they have a lot of enemies, and they are not brainless enough to provoke a New World country, which is not beneficial to them in the slightest, so the First Fleet naturally has no problem docking at the port to replenish. After replenishment, the fleet rested for a day before setting sail for the north again. This time they will go straight to the Canary Islands and then arrive in Bordeaux.

In late March, the First Fleet, which had been at sea for several months, arrived in Bordeaux again after a long period of hardship. After the captain of the "Butterfly" handed over the customs papers, the entire fleet was allowed to enter the harbor and anchor. But. After all, the situation of this port call is different from the past.

Customs officials in Bordeaux after inspecting the goods shipped by the First Fleet. A customs duty of 300 francs was imposed. This is the first time for the ships of the Republic of China on the east coast of China. As we all know, thanks to the care of Baron Lloris and other bigwigs, the ships on the east coast have never been taxed by any tax officer in Bordeaux, does this levy indicate a change in the attitude of the local bigwigs in Bordeaux? In this regard, Mo Ming, who came with the ship, was a little unsure.

Things don't seem that complicated, though. Xu Xin, who got the news, quickly rushed to the dock, and he explained in detail the reason for the levy. Quite simply, France and Spain went to war. France wants to raise military spending.

By the end of the Thirty Years' War last year, with the successive defeats of Denmark and Sweden, the Protestant allies, the Austrian Habsburgs had largely stabilized the situation. Faced with this situation, France and Britain, which had been sitting behind the scenes to reap the benefits, suddenly could not sit still. In particular, France, which believed in Catholicism, took the initiative to jump out for the sake of its own national interests, personally declared war on Spain and Austria, and resolutely continued the war.

Faced with the huge pressure of military spending brought about by the war, the famous Cardinal Richelieu had to announce the introduction of a war tax, and divided the share of tax revenue in detail among the country's 32 provinces and regions. Thereinto. Ile-de-France, Picardi, Champagne, Gascogne, Languedoc, Provence and other regions of the rich provinces naturally bear the lion's share. And this is the reason why Bordeaux customs officials are now "serious".

The crowd breathed a sigh of relief when they learned the truth. Immediately, with the assistance of the Pasquier family's hired workers, the unloading began, and 30,000 horses of East Coast calico were immediately sent to the warehouse. As many as 600 tons of potatoes have become the object of the eyes of the major grain merchants in the city.

As Austria entered French territory from the southeast, there was an uproar throughout South-France. Especially when the Spanish army assembled in Roussilon also began to move, Montpellier and Toulouse were like great enemies, and even Bordeaux, which was far away, was affected to varying degrees. Wandering beggars from the streets, poor tenant farmers from the countryside, bankrupt workers and craftsmen poured into the army like a tidal wave, and the army suppliers came all over the world to buy all kinds of military supplies, and among them, food was definitely a very important one.

The Ministry of Trade sent a number of attachés to Bordeaux as Xu Xin's assistants, and before that, the Republic of East China had bought some of the houses near and opposite the former merchant's station, and was now renovating them to build a medium-sized warehouse here to store all kinds of goods. 600 tons of potatoes were stored in batches in the trading station, and it is believed that Xu Xin will find a good buyer for this batch of goods in the next time.

"The war won't spill over here, will it?" Mo Ming brought a group of new agents from the General Intelligence Bureau into the trading station, and then immediately found Inspector Sun Heiqi for questioning.

"No, it won't." Sun Heiqi replied succinctly, "In order to resist the invasion of Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, the French built a dense castle complex in the southwestern part of France, and it was basically impossible for the Spaniards to make a breakthrough here. ”

"Oh, you're so sure?" Mo Ming raised her eyebrows and asked.

"There are several reasons for this." Sun Heiqi replied unhurriedly, obviously doing a lot of homework in advance, "First, the financial support of the Spaniards will not be long. After so many years of war, they have squandered all the gold and silver they have collected from the New World, and now they are on the verge of financial collapse. Second, the elite Flemish legions of Spain were fighting in the South Netherlands and North France, and the strength of other units was limited, and even if they joined forces with the Austrians, they would not necessarily be able to bargain in the south of France. Third, the castles in southwestern France were dense and located on the plain, which was conducive to the French cavalry to charge and kill, and the Spaniards were mostly fierce and unlucky. To sum up, there will be no large-scale war in the south of France. ”

"So, can the business continue here?" Mo Ming was a little surprised, Sun Heiqi, a guy from a sergeant in the guard, can be said to be extremely vulgar and has a very poor cultural level, but at this time, he can give such a logical and reasonable answer, which shows that he has also put in a lot of hard work to investigate.

"You can do it." Sun Heiqi replied in the affirmative, "Ludwig has not been back to Bordeaux for a long time, and he now spends most of his time in Lyon and Marseille, and it seems that he is in trouble with business. ”

"It's good to let him increase his memory." Mo Ming sneered contemptuously, "We haven't finished our account with him yet, and we'll settle it out with him when the time comes." ”

"Recently, the pace of church immigration to Quebec has been increasing, and in the past six months, it is conservatively estimated that they have sent more than 1,500 immigrants to Quebec, which is a huge scale. If it weren't for the weak facilities of the French over there, I'm afraid they would have sent more immigrants there. Moreover, with the outbreak of the war between Spain and France, it is a surprise that the tide of unemployed workers that once plagued us has been invisibly dissolved. Sun Heiqi continued to report the situation.

"Well, that's good." Mo Ming approvingly, "Keeping abreast of all kinds of information is the basic quality of intelligence officers, Inspector Sun, you have done a good job during this time." ”

"The stationmaster has won the award, and he will continue to work hard." Sun Heiqi laughed and said.

"Hehe, if you can do it, I'll have the final say." Mo Ming got up from his seat, and then said to Sun Heiqi: "There are some new guys from the bureau this time, you settle them down first." You'll probably have to do some preparation in the next few days, and then go with me to the Haute-Gallon and Languedoc area, and Provence if you can. Well, I call this a staff trip. ”

"Yes, obedience." Sun Heiqi nodded yes.

On 30 March, the First Fleet, which had rested for a few days in Bordeaux, set sail in the morning sun, and after rowing a beautiful white wave outside the mouth of the Gironde, five battleships turned due west and headed for the New World.

The fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Lu Ming, did not seem to have a clear goal, and they were ready to try their luck in Massachusetts first. If not, continue south to the Chesapeake Bay area and see if the Englishmen have any memories.

Last year, the privateer fleet plundered several British merchant ships laden with tobacco and furs in a row, and it was considered a small fortune, but I don't know if Lu Dao had this luck this year. After all, the British are not stupid, and they will definitely take strict precautions. Of course, if you can't do it, you can go south to the Caribbean and harass the Spaniards.

All in all, it's a scheme that looks completely aimless. Of course, the fact is not far from the truth, the Navy has always wanted to plunder the rich Caribbean, but the Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters have insisted that they work hard to harass the British colonies in North America.

In desperation, they could only give up the opportunity to eat fatty meat and gnaw on the bones of the British.

At the same time, the British fleet, which had just been traded from Cartagena, was also in the hands of William. Clifford's command left the great city on Spanish land and turned due north, preparing to leave the warm Caribbean Sea and sail towards Jamestown, Virginia. Until then, perhaps they will also make a trip to St. Augustine in East Florida to trade furs and cotton with Spanish smugglers.

The deal in Cartagena went well, and the woolen and cotton cloth were sold for a good price. In addition, the sales of agricultural tools and metal products in the country are also relatively good, and the captains and cargo owners have returned a lot of money. As soon as they had sold the little woolen and cotton cloth they had left in St. Augustine, they would go straight to Virginia to buy tobacco and furs, and then return to Portsmouth. (To be continued......)