December 25, 1643, fine.

This day is Christmas in the West, but in South Africa, where Ming immigrants are the majority, there is no festive atmosphere at all. On the side of a small hill about 100 kilometers south of the river fort, several East Coast cavalrymen dressed in khaki khaki uniforms, large caps, and riding boots proudly rode past a group of German mercenaries in various clothes, and the dust splashed made these German country buns curse.

This is the land border between the East Coast and the Dutch East India Company, because the number of military horses in South Africa has expanded a lot, and the establishment of the South African cavalry company has been expanded from 110 to more than 230 horses with the approval of the military department, and gradually took over the patrol task in the border area.

The Dutch defense was still taken over by the German mercenary employees of the East India Company, and their numbers had not expanded much over the years, remaining at more than 300 men. Compared with the continuous expansion of the East Coast, their development is obviously lagging behind a lot, but what can be done about it? The East India Company preferred to spend its money on wars with the Portuguese and Spaniards, but was stingy with spending a small amount of money to hire more soldiers from the German countryside to protect its land and business.

"I don't know why the members of the Indo-Indies Committee are so stingy to hire a bankrupt farmer from the Hessian countryside for only 9,000 guilders a month, and only 9,000 guilders a month to hire a thousand people." Little Hagel looked at several distant East Coast cavalrymen and said dissatisfiedly.

"9 guilders was an outdated price before, and now the price of recruiting a soldier is 11 guilders. Without this price, others will not follow you. Because they're taking a big risk. "Little Hagel's brother. Said the head of the mercenary army, Big Hagel.

Little Hagel naturally understood what his brother meant by "taking risks." In fact, the mortality rate of employees who were hired by the Dutch East India Company to Asia during this period was very high. Even in a fully developed city like Batavia, the mortality rate among local residents remains high. Someone once described Batavia as having a coffin ready here, and the night before you were talking to someone, and today he died, and tomorrow you attended his funeral, and the day after tomorrow he was forgotten.

At this time, the annual mortality rate of employees of the Dutch East India Company in Asia was about 20 percent, and the cause of death was mostly disease and a small number was war. And in the disease. Malaria accounts for the vast majority. It has been recorded that the inhabitants of Batavia like to build fish ponds near the city, and these fish ponds are basically stagnant using the rivers and lakes in the area, so they cause mosquito breeding and malaria epidemics, but the local residents do not seem to realize this, they simply think that the air here is "poisonous".

Very average salaries, poor working conditions, extremely high mortality rates, such a bleak work scenario, if it were not for the opportunity to make a fortune in the local area. The pen will go. In fact, the Dutch East India Company employs only 9% of the total number of sailors in Dutch ports each year, and many people are reluctant to try their luck in the East Indies, where "only one out of three people can return". And only those who are single, extremely poor, and can't find other jobs. will be signed as a soldier or sailor of the Dutch East India Company as a "desperate last" hope; Of course, it is not excluded that there are some "all kinds of grassroots-chewing hillbillies" from the poor countryside of Germany who take a fancy to the meagre salary, and hope to get a promotion and a salary increase to join the Dutch East India Company to serve in Asia.

As mid-ranking officers of the East India Company, the Hagel brothers enjoyed the same treatment as captains, with the eldest receiving a salary of 80 guilders per month, while the younger Hagel received a salary of 60 guilders per month. As for Governor Dejan in the Fort of Good Hope, his salary was a staggering 350 guilders - of course, no one expected to live on his salary alone.

The tens of thousands of employees of the Dutch East India Company paid more than Rp 150,000 per month, or nearly Rp 2 million a year. This is not a small number, you must know that in the past ten years, due to frequent wars with the Portuguese and Spaniards, the average annual profit of the Dutch East India Company was less than 4.5 million dong (about 1.5 million yuan). This amount of money is even comparable to the profit made by the East Coasters from the sale of textiles, and if the dividends are excluded, the Dutch East India Company has much less discretionary money per year than expected.

It is an embarrassing fact that the Dutch East India Company, although it won the competition with the British East India Company and drove out its rivals, in fact the profit margins of their operations were inferior to those of the British. Because they had large expenses for building ships, recruiting men, and fortifying their strongholds, this was necessary unless they abandoned the war with the Portuguese to reduce their expenditures, although then their losses seemed to be greater.

So, when you know that the Dutch East India Company is not in the same beautiful financial situation as it seems, you will understand why they would refute every action that might lead to an increase in expenses, which is all a lack of money. Only then will you understand why they have been tolerant of all kinds of behavior of the people on the East Coast, still because of their merchant style - to control all unnecessary spending. In addition, the strength of the fleet of the people on the east coast is also good, and it is in the necessary place of the trade route of the Dutch East India Company, and the Dutch are always reluctant to officially tear their faces with the east coasters.

Of course, although there are all kinds of scruples, it does not mean that the Dutch East India Company has no bottom line. Their bottom line was that if the East Coasters' fleet entered the waters near the Spice Islands and Ceylon, the East India Company would do everything in its power to drive out the ill-intentioned rival who was trying to get into their business, just as they had used force to drive out the British.

"It was very difficult to persuade the upper echelons of the company to increase the number of garrisons in Cape Town, to purchase some necessary flintlock rifles, artillery, and to build some reasonable fortifications." "Unless we enslave the Negroes as we do on the East Coast, we unfortunately have a friendly relationship with the Kamar, the only Negro kingdom we come into contact with, and we can only employ them, but not to mention how much it costs, and their own manpower alone does not seem to be sufficient." ”

Since the Battle of the Blood River was brutally defeated by the people of the East Coast, the Kama tribe has kept a low profile in the past two years. While maintaining good relations with the Dutch, they closed their fronts, ending the continuous fighting in the east, and instead devoted all their energies to the west, fighting the armed infiltration of the Eight Banners, the lackeys of the easterners. As a result, a series of small, but rather bloody and brutal armed clashes broke out between the two sides in the mountains, which only slowly subsided in the last year.

"But the strength of the East Coast has been increasing, and according to the information provided by the inside line we have bought, it seems that they have brought back more than a thousand immigrants from the East the other day. And the vast majority of these more than 1,000 people are men, God, they are all madmen, terrible madmen who have to undergo military training for every man, they must be thinking about how to expand their army against us. Little Hagel said with some concern, "Now they are so arrogant, as you can see from the arrogant cavalry that patrols the border, if their number of soldiers increases, it will be easy to defeat us and take Fort Good Hope, they will do it!" ”

"You're too allergic, my dear brother." "As far as I know, these people will only stay in Fort River, and their final destination will be the East Coasters in the New World. Seriously, though, the East Coasters seem to be trying to make a big deal this time, and a week ago they had sailed a huge fleet of nine ships from mainland China. These ships are all great ships, but it is said that they are all fast ships that have only emerged in the past two years, and they are not suitable for combat. So, I guess the convoy that the people on the east coast put in should have been to the east to pull immigrants, but I'm really interested in how they broke through the blockade of the Strait of Malacca. The company had a wide range of armed warships in Galle and Malacca, and the ships of the East Coasters could not easily pass through them. ”

"No matter what they do, it won't add us a single silver in income." Little Hagel shrugged his shoulders indifferently and said, "It's better if they fight in the Strait of Malacca, so that the company will pay attention to the Cape Town colony and make up its mind to cut off the east coast from the source." Cape Town has no future if it continues like this. Damn, there aren't even a few girls here, and if I don't increase the army and immigration, I'll even want to try my luck in Batavia, where there are at least some beautiful and enthusiastic girls, despite the rampant diseases. ”

"I don't think so." Hearing his brother say this, Big Hagel suddenly laughed, "It is not a wise choice to go to Batavia now, because you will most likely be sent to fight against the Portuguese, the Spaniards and even the East Coast and the Chinese, which is a very dangerous thing, and you have a high chance of dying of disease or war." On the contrary, here in Cape Town, I think there will be a brief period of peace as the center of gravity of the East Coast shifts eastward. Although the oil and water here may not be as abundant as in Batavia, you will not be left to die, so enjoy this rare time of peace, my dear brother. (To be continued......)