"By the way, have the Dutch been negotiating with us lately?" Li Yi suddenly thought of this stubble and immediately asked with great interest.

"Why not? In April, the bullshit count of Recife sent a few delegates to Port Oriente. These men claimed to be able to represent both the Dutch East India Company and the West India Company, and even to some extent the Dutch government. Good fellows, as soon as they came up, they rebuked us for wantonly undermining the principles of free trade, and imposed high punitive tariffs on Dutch goods. They demanded that we immediately lift this discriminatory policy and compensate the Dutch businessmen for their losses. Shi Qinjie poured himself another cup of Xiangshan dry red and said to Li Yi.

"What happened?" Li Yi asked.

Anyway, the so-called punitive tariffs on the East Coast came into effect in January, which was already April, and it was almost expired. Since the Dutch had sent someone to talk about it, the people from the east coast had just happened to get off the donkey.

Moreover, according to Schinger, the Dutch themselves were very weak-minded, and it was distressing to hear that the Brazilians there had recently come and had the upper hand in several skirmishes in a row. No way, who makes the Brazilians have more artillery and better than you, and almost all of them are equipped with flintlock rifles with excellent performance? Not to mention the fact that they also have high-quality, lightweight, and sturdy bulletproof plate armor, and the Dutch mercenaries have been fighting with them for so long before they are defeated, and they are already worthy of the salary. Therefore, after the Dutch shouted about the tariffs, they changed their minds. Demands began to be made to the people on the east coast to completely cut off arms assistance to the Brazilians. To do otherwise would be to "seriously hurt the feelings of the Dutch West India Company".

What the feelings of the Dutch West India Company were, the East Coast people did not care. They only care about getting what they want. When asked whether the fleet of people on the east coast would be able to sail and anchor freely near Ceylon and Malacca, the Dutch refused without thinking. They are naturally hostile to any outsider who tries to get involved in the spice trade, and even if that person pledges not to engage in such trade, they will not be completely reassured. All they wanted to do was to monopolize the Spice Islands, Aceh, Ceylon, and parts of India, protecting their trading bases and shielding them from all pretenders.

"In the end, the negotiations also broke up unhappily, and the two sides did not agree on a date for the next negotiation, and it seems that the negotiations have completely collapsed." Shi Qinjie summed up later. "But in fact, the situation is not so serious, the Dutch are not small in our hands, and after we opened up the eastern route, the role of Malacca is greatly reduced. So, in fact, we can adjust our policy in Brazil, and the only thing we need to think about is to pick a good moment and see if we can squeeze some oil out of the Dutch and force them to make concessions in some areas. ”

"This kind of tightrope walking and playing with fire diplomacy is dangerous!" Li Yi directly commented, "This requires people who have a deep understanding of the international situation and a clear judgment of the strength of the enemy and the enemy." I really doubt that the people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are capable of this. In case the Dutch are not provoked, this tiger is going to eat people! At the end of the day, it's not us who are soldiers to wipe their butts? Never mind. Don't talk about these useless things, let's look at it step by step. Old Shi, you have to be careful here, the strength is not enough? In the event of a sudden outbreak of the Dutch, most of the connection between the mainland and this side will be severed, will you be able to hold on to it independently? Don't take it for granted, the war may not end for a while, and you have to be prepared for a long siege. ”

"The newly built material storage and transportation center here is almost complete, and the material reserves are not small." Shi Qinjie thought for a while before saying: "To put it bluntly, the basic living materials such as cloth, salt, paper, wine, building materials and other materials to maintain the operation of our colony are quite sufficient, and it will not be a problem for the existing personnel of the colony to use them for a few years. Moreover, the local coal, timber, and fishery resources are abundant, and the grain output is also okay, and there is no worry about eating and drinking, and there is no fear of the Dutch blockade at all. It's just that the amount of gunpowder is less, and once the war starts, the consumption of the three batteries is estimated to be a bottomless pit, and this must be solved as soon as possible. On the whole, Xinhuabao is not afraid of the Dutch blockade, but it is very dangerous on the Tacheng side. The construction over there has only just begun, and the defense is very thin, and if the Dutch have enough troops, I guess it will be difficult to defend against it. ”

Shi Qinjie's words are not pure nonsense. Now everything is indeed ready on the side of Xinhua Fort, not only the construction of 36 coastal defense gun positions at the mouth of the bay has been completed, but even the land defense fortress has been basically completed. Not only that, but the slaves were also preparing to build a huge lighthouse on the high ground of the North Headland. The lighthouse uses large concave condensers brought in from the mainland, providing clear indication of passing ships even on the darkest of nights. Of course, its more important job is to provide sufficient light for the night observation of the coastal defense artillerymen.

As for the gunpowder problem mentioned by Shi Qinjie, there is already a preliminary solution. The Northern Gunpowder Factory in Jushu Township, Ping'an County, has just arrived with a group of technicians who will train personnel in the new Huaxia area and open a new gunpowder factory, the Xinhua Gunpowder Factory. The factory is located on a peninsula across the sea northwest of Xinhuabao, where a large area of trees has been cleared, where workers have built two wooden trestle bridges and large quantities of construction materials are being sent to the shore in fishing boats and canoes.

The gunpowder factory is large-scale, estimated to cover an area of more than 1,000 acres, with three workshops: a pig workshop, a nitrate workshop and a gunpowder workshop. The pig workshop will raise pigs, which can produce a large amount of manure, and the collected manure will be sent to the nitrate field to be nitrified by nitrifying bacteria to produce nitrate. After the last powder, these nitrates will be processed into gunpowder after the last processing process in the gunpowder workshop. The whole production process is exactly the same as the Northern Gunpowder Factory in Jushu Township, both in terms of production technology and processing process. The technicians from the mainland optimistically estimate that with such suitable temperature and humidity conditions on the Xinhua side, the output of this nitrate should be much higher.

The only concern may be that the sulphur will need to be brought in from home, or they can buy it from the Dutch nearby. However, considering that trade routes may be cut off during the war, it is necessary to store large quantities in advance, so that there is not enough sulfur in case gunpowder is urgently needed. The reason why this gunpowder factory was built on the peninsula in the northwest was mainly to reduce the pollution of the nearby soil by nitrifying bacteria, and because of its strong smell, it was more reliable to stay away from the main city.

In order to build this gunpowder factory, Shi Qinjie even suspended the construction of residential houses in Xinhua Fort and the construction of the trade square outside the city, in short, everything to make way for gunpowder, a strategic material. After all, compared to the possibility of war, what is business?

"Xinhuabao is becoming more and more prosperous now, the population of free people has reached more than 2,000, and all kinds of factories are complete, which is stronger than the industrial base of Hezhong Fort." Li Yi finished eating today's second lobster, wiped his hands with a napkin, and said with a smile: "That's fine, in the future, we will transport materials to the Far East, and many things can be shipped directly from you nearby, which is much more convenient than transporting them from the mainland." ”

Li Yi and the others did not plan to stay in Fort Xinhua for a long time, after all, they had a heavy responsibility, and they had to quickly rush back to the mainland to report to the Admiralty and the Executive Committee in order to decide on the next move as soon as possible. However, considering that the brothers had been adrift at sea for more than half a year and were now physically and mentally exhausted, they decided to stay at Fort Xinhua for two more days to maintain their boats.

On October 10, 1642, two ships of the expedition that had completed the maintenance of the ships left Xinhua Harbor, which had been in an orbit for three days, accompanied by a 650-ton flute transport ship built by the Xinhua Shipyard - this ship was loaded with construction supplies to transport it to Tacheng Harbor. The flute ship carried a large cargo, required a small number of sailors, and although it was slower, it was very suitable for the conditions of the east coast today, so it was still built in large numbers in the country.

This ship is the first large ship produced by the newly established Xinhuaxia Shipyard not long ago (fishing boats are not counted), and the wood used is all locally produced red sandalwood, which belongs to the East African Transport Company, which is also newly established. The company is part of the Ministry of Communications, but is also under the leadership of the Madagascar Pioneer Team, which is mainly responsible for the transportation between the new Chinese colony and Fort River, Xinhua Port - Tacheng Port and Xinhua Port - Suez Port in South Africa. Of course, the company currently only has one slick ship, and both the tonnage and the number of sailors need to be expanded.

The ship has been running back and forth between Tacheng Port and Xinhua Port a few times, and the quality seems to be relatively reliable. Encouraged by the successful construction of this ship, the new Huaxia shipyard is now starting to recruit new apprentices and at the same time start the construction of a second ship, with a view to forming a certain size for the East African Transport Company's fleet as soon as possible.

The three ships parted ways at Tacheng Harbor, and the "Chopper" and "Breaking Waves" pulled a pile of timber and, after hastily adding some coal and fresh fresh water, they sailed south on the warm current of Mozambique, heading south towards the South African River Harbor.

On October 30, the East Coast Expedition Fleet successfully docked at the South African River Harbor in late autumn. After a brief reinstatement with the main military and political officials of the area, the two ships pulled anchor again and set sail, and finally anchored in the military dock of the port of Vostok on November 20, successfully completing the expedition to the southern Indian Ocean route. (To be continued......)