On May 10, 1650, in the port of Riga, the pearl of the Baltic Sea, Zheng Yong had just had dinner. Although this is a "wild edge" in the eyes of Western Europeans, a standard poor country, and although the Swedes are ravaging here, Zheng Yong's standard of living is not low as a senior envoy to foreign countries in the East Coast Republic.

He lived in a European-style villa he had bought (next door to the East Coast Trading Station), guarded by agents of the National Intelligence Service, a Ming cook sent from abroad, and a few Polish maids, all of whom his wife had hired from her home in Poland. The dinner was a mix of Chinese and Western, including his favorite Chinese stir-fried dishes, as well as local popular pickled herring and grilled steak. As for the drink, of course, it is his favorite South African river Daqu that has been aged for ten years.

His Polish wife, Veronica, had just returned from Danzig on a merchant ship a few days ago, and had brought Zheng Yong's two sons back from Poland with her, and planned to travel to Arkhangel with her husband in a few days to inspect the development of the local trading post and also go on a tour. The local Russians have been looking forward to the people on the east coast for a long time, and they are on the verge of barbarism and are extremely eager for a qiē from the Western civilized world, not only for goods, but also for technology, and even for the so-called fashionable lifestyle.

This sentiment originated from their repeated defeats in front of the Western world over the years, such as the wars with Poland and Sweden. These humiliating defeats prompted the Russian aristocracy to reflect that perhaps their country really needed some change, and that this should begin with the military aspect.

After their defeat to Poland in the Smolensk War, the Russians have been lying on their backs all these years. Intent to wash away the stigma. For this. On the one hand, they procure Western weapons and hire Western instructors to train the army. On the one hand, he built an arsenal in Tula and tried to develop his own military industry. It's a pity that they don't have their own iron ore (iron ore needs to be imported from Sweden, but Sweden is also an enemy...... As a result, progress has been very limited, and weapons and equipment are still largely outsourced.

In the early forties, the main sources of imported weapons for the Russians were Britain and the Netherlands, after all, only these two Western countries opened irregular routes between them. Even a small amount of East Bank Army weapons exported to Muscovy changed hands through the Dutch. But in the last few years. With the increasing popularity of the trading posts of Danzig and Riga on the east coast, and the successful sailing of the Russians from Arkhangel to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the people on the east coast began to trade directly with them, and the transaction costs on both sides were greatly reduced, which naturally led to a much higher proportion of the use of East coast weapons in Moscow's elite shooting army.

The reason why the East Coast weapons are favored by the Russians is not without reason, the most important thing is that they are extremely cost-effective - the price is only about 15% more expensive than those produced in Britain and the Netherlands, but the life (mainly the barrel life) is 30% higher, and it also comes with a bayonet for free, and the appearance is also more exquisite. Naturally, this competitiveness is not comparable to others. The weapons of the East Coast were loved not only by the Russians, but also by the Ottomans, Tatars and even the Ukrainian Cossacks. This is all due to the reputation accumulated by its excellent quality.

Even now, although the Poles have severed their trade ties with the East Coast, some local nobles are still secretly engaged in underground trade with the East Bank. These trades are mainly concentrated in high-quality metal farm tools, high-end textiles, medicines and other civilian consumer goods, the scale of this stage is not large, but the trade volume is rising month by month, people can't help but feel that the central government of Poland, a scattered country, really can't control the local aristocracy, sooner or later they will die in this system.

But the Poles lived or died and didn't care what happened to the people on the East Coast. Even though his wife was Polish, Zheng Yong's impression of the country was terrible, because the Polish government ordered the closure of the Danzig trading station, which was originally the most profitable trading station under Zheng Yong's management, which cast a shadow over his future. He was only thirty-five or sixteen years old, and he still wanted to be motivated, but the actions of the Poles undoubtedly made his "political achievements" greatly dusty, which made him very annoyed.

"My dear, a good sister of mine is married in the Duchy of Courland, and she asked me what price we can give if I buy ordnance in our trading station?" After settling the two children to sleep, Veronica sat down next to Zheng Yong and suddenly asked softly.

"Oh? It's his husband who wants to do business, right? Zheng Yong, who was pouring himself a drink, was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then said nonchalantly: "Since it is your sister, then I will give him the price of the big wholesaler, well, just like their Grand Duke Jacob." If the ordnance at this price is sold to Poland, the profit margin is still not small. It just so happened that there were plenty of supplies in the trading station now, and the most of the goods brought by the local ships were ordnance, so he could buy whatever he wanted, as long as he could afford it. ”

As soon as Veronica heard her husband say this, she immediately nodded happily.

In other words, the Duchy of Courland, which is close to Riga, is now becoming more and more important in the commercial territory of the people on the east coast. Since the Kingdom of Poland severed its trade ties with the people of the East Coast, many Polish and Dutch merchants began to import goods from the East Coast - mainly high-quality army weapons - through the Duchy of Prussia and the Duchy of Courland - and then resold them back to Poland.

Now that the Kingdom of Poland is preparing to brutally suppress the Ukrainians who are revolting, there is a great need for ordnance (as the Polish army was almost completely wiped out in previous battles and is currently being rebuilt). In addition, the government of the Kingdom of Poland was not very financially rich (the price of grain, one of the main export commodities, was slowly falling in Western Europe), so it was also a love-hate for cheap and high-quality ordnance from the Eastern Republic and did not dare to say that it did not want such a good thing as a good price. Therefore, after much consideration, the government of the Kingdom of Poland finally turned a blind eye to this army weapon imported from the "Duchy of Prussia and the Duchy of Courland".

Obviously, this also led to the sale of East Coast Army equipment in the Nordic region after a period of stagnation, and suddenly entered a new stage. The East coasters, the Courlands, the Prussians, and some Polish and Dutch merchants (Dutch wholesalers who had been doing Polish business for many years) made a fortune in the process. And the husband of the good sister that Zheng Yong's wife said is obviously the kind of guy who wants to join in after seeing others get rich.

However, in Zheng Yong's opinion, the husband of her wife and best friend is really not as good as their monarch, Jacob, the Grand Duke of Courland. Because, at present, among the merchants who resell goods on the east coast in the Duchy of Courland, the largest one is this duke. So far, he has exported to Poland 15,000 flintlock rifles, 4,500 sets of cuirasses, 27 artillery pieces of various calibers, 1,600 bundles of hemostatic bandages, 1,000 flintlock pistols, and other things such as tents, carriages, medicines, military blankets, etc., with a total profit of more than 80,000 yuan.

Zheng Yong recently heard that this duke, who had made a fortune, and his family were originally experts in business. They first built up their primitive capital by exporting timber, rigging, flax, livestock, and grain to the Netherlands, and then became heavily involved in the commercial entrepot trade, exporting cheap industrial goods from Western Europe to Poland, Prussia, and other places. Recently, with Jacob succeeding the Grand Duke of Courland, the country has also begun to get involved in the sales of goods from the East Coast in the Baltic region, and has gradually become a more important wholesaler under the Riga trading station on the East Coast, which Zheng Yong is very valued.

Moreover, with the growth of economic power and the development of shipbuilding and shipping, the Grand Duke of Courland, Jacob, now had more than ten merchant ships capable of ocean voyages, and the Duchy of Courland was also interested in trading and even colonizing the distant New World. Zheng Yong had vaguely heard that the country had tried to colonize the Caribbean island of Tobago, but ultimately failed. But they were clearly not completely dead, for Jacob was now recruiting crews who were familiar with ocean voyages and building new ships, ready to colonize the outside world again.

To be honest, Zheng Yong was still quite interested in Archduke Jacob, who ruled a small country with a population of more than 200,000, and expressed great understanding of his unswerving overseas colonization. To this end, he once wrote a letter to the trustee to pass on to Archduke Jacob of Courland, saying that he would not want to colonize the Americas, but could also turn his attention to distant black Africa. It is also rich and can also grow high value-added cash crops such as sugar cane and tobacco.

Even if you are able to do so, you can conquer some of the black tribes through guò trade, warfare, etc., and sell the able-bodied men among them to the plantation owners of the New World, which is a good way to make money. No matter how bad it is, there is a shortage of able-bodied slave laborers on infrastructure sites on the East Coast, and they don't mind buying some black people to use as long as the price is right. Anyway, they are all consumables, at least they are much more "durable" than the Indians, and they can be thrown to the Black Eight Banners tribe in South Africa when they are used up to replenish their dingkou, which is really the best of both worlds. It's just that the Duke of Jacob hasn't replied to the letter so far, which makes Zheng Yong quite melancholy, and I don't know if this strange man has received the letter.

On May 18, 1650, after taking care of all the affairs of the Riga trading station, Zheng Yong took the old ship he bought, took his family and his retinue, and embarked on the voyage to the port of Arkhangel in the Moscow principality, ready to inspect the progress of the development of the trading station there. You must know that this trading station is now a place of hope for Zheng Yong to get out of the predicament, but he can't be sloppy. (To be continued......)