"The number of ships lost in the Banda Sea this month has finally dropped significantly." In the Governor's Villa of the East India Company in Batavia, Balthazar Bert, who had been promoted to Governor, was listening to a report from his subordinates.

Bert took office in a hurry in mid-1687. Because of the complete elimination of the English and Portuguese colonial powers on the island of Ceylon, and the incorporation of the indigenous kingdom of Jaffna into his rule, Bert was favored by the Council of Seventeen in Amsterdam and promoted to governor of the East Indies.

It was an enviable position for many, and Bert had the power to kill the East India Company's 12,000 European-born employees in the East, as well as many more of them of other nationalities. It can be said that apart from the affairs of the Church, he can intervene in many other affairs, including colonialism, trade, military affairs, and foreign religions, and ask what great power this is, and what amazing wealth it brings.

Balthazar Bert did not have much background and no big man to cover him, he was able to become the governor of the East India Company by virtue of his outstanding achievements in Ceylon and his qualifications in the Far East for more than ten years (he did not die of illness for more than ten years, which was also against the sky), and he also knew that the most important thing for the Committee of Seventeen in Amsterdam was the profit generated by the company every year. In other words, if Bert wants to stay in the governorship for a few more years and not be robbed of his ass before he is in the hot seat, then it is better to focus on how to make more profits. Undoubtedly, this could not have been done without the assistance of the people on the eastern coast, who had great influence in the Indian Ocean and along the coast of China, so as soon as he took office, he made up his mind to make a comprehensive reconciliation with the people on the eastern coast and enhance their economic and trade ties in an all-round way.

To be honest, being able to make such a decisive decision shows that Bert's political wisdom has improved over the years. Once upon a time, Balthazar Bert was a cruel and cunning colonizer and executioner, who slaughtered the natives, England, and the Portuguese in Ceylon, and at the same time he was very dissatisfied with the aggressive people of the East and intended to take tougher measures against them, but he did not have the decision-making power at that time.

Ten years have passed in a flash. In the years following the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Colombo and East Holland, Balthazar Bert had largely abandoned any hostility towards the Easterners through his long contacts with the Easterners. Especially after the formation of the East Portuguese Combined Fleet and the occasional cruising of the northern Indian Ocean, Bert was keenly aware that this would be a big problem for the Dutch East India Company's trade in the Far East. And if they want to solve this trouble, they have no choice but to negotiate a compromise, and there is only one way to go to war.

At that time, it was not without people clamoring for war against the people on the east coast in order to gain superiority in China and India. But fortunately, this group of people accounts for only a very small part, and most of them are the middle and lower classes with little real power, and their voices are automatically ignored. At that time, the real majority was actually the kind of people who wanted to show a tough attitude towards the Easterners by various means, so as to force the Easterners to submit. In other words, the prevailing opinion of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East at that time was to adopt cold violence against the East coasters, but to avoid war as much as possible and to seize the greatest benefit at the lowest possible cost.

With this in mind, the Dutch did a series of things in those years. For example, they ordered to raise export tariffs on Nanyang rice, which was imported in large quantities by the East Coasters, which cost the East Coasters a lot more money, although it may have hurt their own business interests in the long run; For example, they strengthened trade ties with the Qing state, not only transferring a lot of the import share of tea, raw silk, and silk from Guangdong and Fujian, but also helping the Qing to recruit experienced officers in Europe and help them form more new armies; For example, they are still making every effort to explore the Japanese market, trying to squeeze out the influence of East Coasters here, in order to obtain more commercial benefits.

The above things are basically not very happy for the people on the east coast, but they will not declare a full-scale war for this. The Dutchman carefully controlled the situation and tried not to give too much of a push on the east coast. You see, they haven't even closed Malacca and Galle Fort, two important nodes on the East Coast migration route, and are still providing services normally, which speaks for itself.

To the surprise of the Dutch, however, the East Coasters fought back very resolutely. They accelerated the formation of a combined fleet, cruising with Portugal and Spain in China and Southeast Asia, although the number of ships is not large, and the age of the ships is also very large, but they are semi-professional warships (usually they will also dump some goods between Guangzhou, Vietnam, and Luzon to supplement the expenses), and it is still very advantageous to beat some merchant ships, so this makes the Dutch East India Company a little uneasy and even angry, because they have already sunk ships off the coast of Vietnam, and they don't know who did it.

In addition, the southward breakthrough of the people on the east coast into Timor Island is even more miraculous. The island is located on the southern edge of the Banda Sea, not far from Batavia and even closer to the Spice Islands. From here, the fleet could easily reach several of the Spice Islands, where cloves, nutmeg, and other high-value spices were cultivated by the Dutch East India Company. Perhaps due to military strength and other factors, the people on the east coast could not land on these fortified islands to burn and loot, but they did not have any difficulty in attacking the ships that traveled between the islands, and the collection would be quite large.

The Dutch East India Company had the intention of taking the East Coasters of East Timor, but the problem was that they did not have the strength. The Portuguese colonial powers had been running East Timor for many years, and the Dutch East India Company had never been able to completely take it. Now that they have joined the East Coasters, they are a little less likely to be able to take it unless they can attack it regardless of the losses, which is very difficult to do, and there is a risk of a full-scale war.

In addition, last year, the people of the east coast advanced into Brunei, which is geographically crucial, and gained an important foothold in the land of the wind. Although it is still only a trading station, and there are not many people stationed there, but do you know that it will not develop into a large-scale base in the future? You know, the people of the east coast are very good at running colonies, and now they have begun to emigrate to Brunei, hundreds of families, which are said to be military personnel and their families from the Tenglai area, which is even more worrying.

The Dutch East India Company had recently strengthened its ties with the Sultan of Brunei, giving them large loans to buy Western-style weapons and hire Western officers to boost their military capabilities. These are all precautionary measures to prevent Brunei from being annexed by the east coast, and although I don't know if it will work, it is always necessary to do it.

From the above layout, it can be seen that the East Coast people have made a long-term layout in order to solve the threat of the Dutch East India Company. The Zheng Group on Formosa, the trading post directly under Brunei, and the fleet of East Timor are the three key nodes that firmly clamp the East India Company's trade routes and spice-producing areas, and the threat is quite great. Not to mention, they have been building a base on the island of Diu in northwest India for several years in a row, and the island of Diu, which is also stationed in a joint fleet of East Portugal, has become a base camp to curb the expansion of the East India Company to the northwest coast of India. In the summer and autumn of each year, their fleets could travel directly south along the northern Indian Ocean circulation, threatening the many colonial posts and trading posts established by the Dutch on the west coast of India, threatening their commercial interests.

Balthazar Bert is tough for tough, but he's not a fool with a tendon. On the contrary, dealing with such so-called hawks may be simpler than ordinary people, because you just need to show that you have the ability to destroy the other side, and there is no need to say more. Therefore, when Bert carefully assessed the situation and found that several of the company's major financial resources such as Formosa, the Spice Islands, and India were all fiercely threatened by the East Coasters, he decisively pressed the internal voice calling for countermeasures, and turned to dialogue with the East Coasters, trying to resolve the dispute between the two sides through peaceful negotiation.

As soon as he took office, Bert announced that he would suspend the imposition of high export duties on Nanyang rice exported to Ningbo, and at the same time sent a representative to the island of Formosa by boat, and contacted Liu Houfei, the leader of the Southern Pioneer Team, through the Bank of Taiwan, a semi-official and half-civilian institution that was still conducting business in the area.

It should be said that the results after the initial contacts between the two sides are quite good. The Dutch said they would increase their grain exports to the east coast, and that prices could be reduced by more than 10 percent, while tariffs would remain at their original levels. Liu Houfei expressed his appreciation for this, saying that he could increase the import of Nanyang rice, and at the same time increase some Chinese specialty commodities exported to Formosa Island. However, he did not mention whether he would continue to operate the Brunei trading post and the East Timor naval base, much to the uneasiness of the Dutch, who were two swords hanging over their heads, and at some point they might fall.

The Dutch envoy then visited a number of other officials, though most avoided meeting at this sensitive time for fear of getting into trouble. Only certain officials of the Bank of Taiwan made it clear to the Dutch that Brunei and East Timor would probably not be under the jurisdiction of Ningbo in the future, but would be managed by a newly established high-ranking official organization located in the Lianwu area.

Of course, there is one point that these officials of the Taiwan bank did not explicitly say, that is, these two locations are very important, and since the people on the east coast have gone, I am afraid that it will be difficult for them to leave. Now that 425 Tenley servant families have been relocated to the Brunei Merchant Station, and a total of 107 Terrai military families have been removed from some wilderness areas on the outskirts of Dili Port in Timor-Leste, all of whom have received government subsidies and have bought land locally - well, there are some difficulties in purchasing land in Dili Port, because of the fierce opposition of the local Portuguese, and negotiations are currently under way - how can it be relocated?

And if they don't leave, I am afraid that more military families will move to the past in the future, because the reduction of the Denglai servant army has slowly entered a small climax, and there are too many military families there can be relocated. Although they may not be very happy in their hearts, there are always some people who are willing to go to sea to earn a living, as evidenced by the two groups of people who have already gone to Brunei and Dili in advance.

In fact, the Far East side had a secret plan. They want to slowly change the ethnic composition and religious tendencies of Brunei, East Timor, and even Diu through immigration and other means (such as war), so as to lay the foundation for better local rule and implementation of various local policies in the future. In such a situation, how could they voluntarily abandon these two places? The Dutch East India Company was doomed to get nothing out of its efforts on this, but they did not know it yet.

Balthazar Bert also sent an envoy to New Huaxia Island. They have now figured out that Diu Island is actually under the direct administration of the supreme governor of this colony, and if they want to make a breakthrough in the direction of northwest India, they still have to find a way to get Xinhua Port.

Shao Yaoguang, the captain of the New China Pioneer Team, also took time to receive the envoys of the East India Company. However, his attitude may not have been as polite as that of Liu Houfei of Ning Shao, and he directly pointed out that the New China side and the East India Company did not have so much mutual trust in India, which was entirely caused by the aggressive attitude of the Dutch East India Company. If the Batavian side wanted to really improve bilateral relations, it would be better to take the initiative and cancel the regular annual fleet cruises (from Ceylon to the northwest coast of India, intended to strike at the merchant ships of other countries), and at the same time liberalize some of the monopoly of the trading posts so that merchants from the east coast could also enter and trade in them.

Bert's emissary turned green when he heard this, but he did not dare to lose his temper, but kept saying that this required the advice of His Excellency the Governor.

Of course, the talks between the two sides in Xinhua Port have not been without any results. Eventually, the two sides agreed to establish an effective, long-term dialogue mechanism to try to resolve conflicts of interest through negotiations, rather than war or indiscriminate piracy and privateering, which was clearly not beneficial to either side – a dialogue mechanism that had previously been approved by Liu Houfei in Ningbo, and everyone agreed to try to resolve their differences in this way.

"The intensity of the pirate privateer should be reduced." Balthadze Bert said: "The establishment of the bilateral dialogue mechanism has been very effective, and the profits of the board members have been preserved to the maximum. However, if we want to truly break the encirclement that the people on the east coast have built against us from the west coast of Africa to the coast of China, and protect the safety of our shipping routes, we still have to rely on the enhancement of our own strength. The British were already experimenting with how to put a steam engine on board, and they copied a propeller of the East Coaster to try to come up with this advanced underwater propulsion system, which failed but was commendable. It's a pity that our United Province has been busy with some trivial things over the years, and we don't pay enough attention to this core technology, only our company and some other shipping companies are doing it themselves, which is really stupid! Hopefully, this incident will give Amsterdam some touch, and only by getting a steam-powered ship – I mean the kind of product that's really more reliable, rather than a high-priced hand-made toy – will we'll have some confidence in the East Coast. ”