Zhang Bin knew that if he took Dongfan, occupied the city of Geranza, and escorted all the prisoners to the capital for beheading, the Dutch would definitely not give up on such a big matter.

However, he didn't expect that the Dutch would be so slow to react, and it had been almost a year before someone sent a negotiator to negotiate with him!

When he first took the city of Geranza, he thought that the Dutch would come to negotiate or directly send a fleet to fight in a few months at most, so he organized manpower and material resources, frantically cast a thousand catties of Buddha Franc machines, built the castle of Geranza, built a guard station, and strengthened the defense of Penghu, Yuegang and the entire Dongfan.

As a result, all the preparations were made, and the Dutch still did not react at all!

Now, Huang Taiji may attack the capital at any time, and he is concentrating his main energy on the north, and the Dutch are coming to join in the fun.

What's going on here?

In fact, after Zhang Bin took the city of Geranza, Kuhn, the governor of Batavia at that time, wanted to take revenge, and Dayuan was also one of the most important strongholds of the East India Company in the Far East.

If small countries like Manchuria, Luzon, and Champa robbed the strongholds of the East India Company, he would immediately send a fleet to fight them all over the place, but it was the Ming Empire that took the city of Geranza, so he would not dare to come nonsense.

Because, the Ming Empire is too strong!

The East India Company has long been taught a lesson by the Ming Empire, and this is the second time, and these two times the Ming Empire won, not the East India Company.

The Ming Empire's strength assessment has reached the strongest level, which means that the East India Company must go all out to defeat it.

It was not up to him, the governor of Batavia, to go to war with all his might, he had to report it to all the major shareholders of the company and even the interprovincial republican council.

Therefore, he did not rush to trouble Zhang Bin, but sent a report to the mainland.

At this time, the great powers had not yet invented steam-powered ships, nor did they have telephones and telegraphs, and it took almost half a year to send a report from Batavia to the European mainland!

It will take almost half a year for the top management of the East India Company or the United Provincial Republic Council to make a decision and convey the order.

It's been almost a year since this came and went, so they didn't react until now.

Their first reaction was not to trouble Zhang Bin, but to remove Kuhn and let Spex take over as governor of Batavia to deal with the Formosa problem.

Spex has received authorization from the council and the top brass of the East India Company to rally all the forces of the Far East and wage war against the Ming Empire if necessary!

Of course, he won't run over and start a war with the Ming Empire stupidly, after all, the result of this kind of war is unpredictable, if he wins, it's fine, if he loses, he will be finished.

Therefore, he sent the chief commercial representative of the East India Company, Fan. Mount. Brock came to negotiate with the Ming Empire, if the Ming Empire could accept their conditions, then there would be no need to fight, and if the Ming Empire did not accept their conditions, then there would be no choice but to fight.

What are their conditions?

Brock is already angry with Zhang Bin's mouth at this time, since he can't play tricks, let's be tough.

He grimaced and said solemnly: "Now, on behalf of the East India Company of the United Provincial Republic, I strongly condemn your country's barbaric acts in Formosa. ”

Zhang Bin plucked out his ears and said helplessly: "I told you, Dongfan is the territory of our Ming Empire, you occupy the territory of our Ming Empire, and you come to condemn us, it's too domineering, right?" ”

Brock ignored him at all, and continued to say coldly: "Now, on behalf of the East India Company of the United Provincial Republic, I ask your country. First, immediately release all captured East India Company employees. Second, to return immediately all the goods of the East India Company to Formosa, including merchant ships, cargo, and silver stocks. Thirdly, the castle of Geranza and the port of Formosa and their outbuildings should be returned immediately. Fourth, all Ming troops immediately withdrew from Formosa. Fifth, we will compensate our East India Company for the casualties, material consumption, and trade losses caused by this incident, totaling 30 million taels of silver. ”

After listening to the translator's retelling, Zhang Bin clasped his right hand tightly around the shocking wood, held back his anger, and said lightly: "Are you finished?" ”

Brock nodded coldly and said, "That's it, what are your opinions on the above five?" ”

Zhang Bin still said lightly: "This official has no opinion." ”

Brock couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, no opinion!

He asked incredulously, "Are you really okay?" ”

Zhang Bin still said lightly: "This official has no opinion, this depends on what his Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire has, this official is only the governor of Fujian, and he has no right to make any reply." ”

Brock was stunned again when he heard this, it turned out that he didn't have any opinions, but he didn't have the right to express any opinions, this was a bit unexpected to him, but it was reasonable, after all, the one in front of him was just a governor, not the emperor of the Ming Empire, and he definitely had no right to make decisions about such a big matter.

Brock thought for a moment and asked coldly, "Then when will your Ming Empire be able to reply?" ”

Zhang Bin slowly stood up and arched his hand towards the north: "This, this official must play our Emperor Majesty of the Ming Empire, and ask His Majesty the Emperor to decide." ”

Brock asked directly, "How long will it take?" ”

Zhang Bin said lightly: "This place is five or six thousand miles away from the capital of our Ming Empire, how long do you say it will take?" ”

Brock roughly estimated, and then said coldly: "Okay, I'll give you three months, and if you don't reply by then, don't blame us for being polite." ”

Zhang Bin nodded slowly, as if he was replying, but in fact, at this moment, he was not thinking about what would happen in three months at all, but about what was before.

Why did the East India Company not react for almost a year, and then suddenly there was a reaction?

This is an important question because they have a tough attitude this time, and they have made it clear that they have to do it, and they have to figure out what is going on in order to come up with a corresponding countermeasure.

He thought for a while, and suddenly asked, "Don't you need approval from above to start a war with our Ming Empire, does Kuhn have this power?" ”

He suspected that the governor of the other party was likely to be replaced, so there was such a big difference between the front and back, so he asked this question.

Sure enough, Brock snorted coldly: "Your Excellency Governor Kuhn has been dismissed from your murder, and now our Governor is Your Excellency Spex, who has obtained the authorization of the company's top management and the council, and can declare war on your Ming Empire at any time, if you don't agree to our conditions, just wait to be beaten." ”

Zhang Bin didn't say anything, but waved his hand directly: "It's good to go, don't send it." ”

Hearing this, Brock snorted coldly, turned around and left.

Zhang Bin looked at his back, sat down slowly, and fell into deep thought.

He knew very well that it was inevitable that Da Ming or his side would fight with the Dutch East India Company!

Because, in this, there are huge interests involved.

He has already had the books and correspondence of the Dutch East India Company translated, and this Eastern stronghold, the trade volume is so large that even Zhang Bin, who is used to seeing large companies in later generations, was shocked.

The East India Company was no ordinary company, and they were even better than the multinational corporations of later generations.

They transported a large number of metals and medicinal materials from the European continent, as well as spices, pepper, amber, linen, cotton, opium, tin, and lead from the South Seas, to Dayuan, and then sold them to Dongying, Ryukyu, and Korea, and also smuggled them to Daming through pirates.

At the same time, they also purchased a large number of cloth, porcelain, silk, tea and other goods produced by the Ming Dynasty through pirates and maritime merchants smuggled along the southeast coast, and sold them to the South Seas and Europe.

This is not the end, he also saw in a letter that the East India Company was gradually colonizing the surrounding areas of Dayuan, oppressing the local civilians to produce rice and sugar, breeding elk, and looting timber and rattan, which were the bulk materials that Dongying urgently needed.

This is another resale trade, and smuggling, and a colonial economy, the East India Company's profits are quite terrifying, and the income of the East India Company alone exceeds the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty, so big interests, how can the East India Company give up.

Zhang Bin also asked people to check all the records of the Fujian Chengxuan Political Envoy Department about the Dutch, and he found that the Dutch did not have a dispute with the Ming Dynasty only in recent years.

The trade dispute between the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands has a long history, and it did not start with his own intervention, nor did it start after Nan Juyi took office as the governor of Fujian.

At that time, the Dutch took advantage of the loopholes of the Ming maritime ban policy to directly anchor merchant ships to the southeast coast, let Ming merchants send goods to ships, blatantly carry out large-scale smuggling, and build strongholds in Penghu for transshipment, and also raised pirates to plunder Spain, Portugal and even Ming merchant ships, intending to monopolize the trade between Ming and other countries.

At that time, Shang Zhouzuo was making every effort to encircle and suppress the Japanese invaders, and he had no time to think about anything else, so he could only write a letter to negotiate and let the Dutch withdraw from Penghu.

As a result, the Dutch not only did not withdraw from Penghu, but also began to build a stronghold in Dongfan, preparing to monopolize the trade between the Ming and overseas countries for a long time.

In the second year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch even blocked the mouth of the Jiulong River, making it impossible for merchant ships in Yuegang to go to sea, in order to monopolize the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, negotiated with the Dutch many times, asking them to lift the blockade of the Jiulong River estuary and withdraw from Penghu.

Naturally, it was impossible for the Dutch to agree, so there was the Penghu War that followed.

The history of the next few hundred years proves that the great powers do everything for the sake of interests, what morality, what human nature, what conventions, what international organizations, everything, they don't care, they only care about interests, if they violate their interests, even if they sign a convention today, they will turn their faces tomorrow.

The only way to tie the hands of the great powers is to be stronger than them.

Through the temptation just now, Zhang Bin has understood that the East India Company does not think that it will not be able to stop the Ming Dynasty, but because of the change of governor, it has been delayed for so long.

Since this Spex has already set out to deal with Da Ming, then he will definitely use various methods to force Da Ming to submit, and if you believe that they will wait honestly for three months, then you will be a fool.

Thinking of this, Zhang Bin immediately got up and said, "Let General Zheng Zhilong and Zheng come to my study." ”

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was in the sailor fleet outside, and his main task was to deal with the Dutch. Mount. Brock led his fleet more than ten miles away from the castle of Geranza when he was discovered by a lookout sentry.

When Zheng Zhilong received the news, he immediately recruited the Dongfanzhong avant-garde sailor fleet stationed in the Taijiang Inland Sea, personally led Zhang Guan and other generals to block it, and at the same time sent a clipper to inform the Dongfan Zhongwei and the Dongfanzhong avant-garde sailor fleet to come to support.

He was quite familiar with the Dutch warships, and he had seen the power of super battleships, so he sent three fleets to intercept them.

This is the time for Fan. Mount. Brock had already boarded the super battleship and sailed away, and Zheng Zhilong had just disbanded the fleet of sailors of the Eastern Central Guard and the Eastern Central Guard, and was about to return to the castle of Geranza, when he received a notice from the clipper, and the governor asked him to come over.

Zheng Zhilong thought that Zhang Bin was probably preparing to make a move with the Dutch, but he never thought that this was not the case at all.

As soon as he entered Zhang Bin's study, Zhang Bin asked directly: "Zhilong, is there any news from Liu Xiang?" ”

Zheng Zhilong said a little smugly: "I'm afraid this kid is scared, it's been almost a year, and there hasn't been any movement, he may have secretly washed his hands and didn't dry it." ”

Zhang Bin shook his head and said: "No, you are wrong, the reason why he didn't move is because his master didn't speak, he knows that he alone will definitely be wiped out by us, so he has not dared to act rashly, at this time, his master is afraid that he is going to speak, and our merchant ships are probably in danger." ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he was shocked: "Ah, what's the matter? ”

Zhang Bin said coldly: "You also saw the Dutch just now, they came to give us an ultimatum, let us withdraw from Dongfan, return all our property, and pay compensation, otherwise, we will go to war with us." ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he snorted coldly: "I'm afraid they're dreaming, withdraw from Dongfan, pay compensation, what's wrong with the brain, if there is a kind of them, they will come!" ”

Zhang Bin shook his head and said: "They are not sick in the brain, they are just used to bullying people, these conditions, they think it is normal, this is not about him for the time being, I have a delaying strategy, within three months, they should not come to fight the idea of the East, however, it is not necessary to travel to and from Nanyang merchant ships, we have to guard against them." ”

Defend against them, how to defend them, the sea is not a little big, it is thousands of miles at every turn, people want to fight your merchant ship idea, you can fight anywhere, where are so many warships to defend them?

Zheng Zhilong said in embarrassment: "This, I'm afraid it's a little difficult to guard, from here to Nanyang, not to mention thousands of miles, we can't defend all places." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he asked directly: "How long does it take for a merchant ship to make a round trip from Nanyang?" ”

Zheng Zhilong thought about it and estimated: "It will take at least two months." ”

Zhang Bin nodded, and pointed: "You send fifty warships from each of the other eight guards, assemble in the Taijiang Inland Sea, and send a hundred warships to Yuegang on the first day of each month to protect our merchant ships to the South Seas, if you encounter Liu Xiang's pirate fleet, you can fight it, and if you can't beat it, let them escort the merchant ships to retreat here, and each fleet will send a wheel steamer to follow, you know?" ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he nodded thoughtfully, and then left with his hand.