Since the end of the war with the Spaniards seven or eight years ago and the signing of a peace agreement between the two sides at the port of Luocha, the Republic of the East Coast of China, in addition to a little repair on the basis of the simple wharf left by the Spaniards in the port, turned its attention to the north, and began to focus on the heavy industrial area of the Yahu River basin and the agricultural and animal husbandry area of the capital. Luoqia Port, an excellent deep-water port, is like being forgotten and no one cares about it, and its resources and population are not related to her, so she can only watch the vigorous development of the northern region.

That changed in the first half of the year. After the Ministry of Industry and Commerce sent people to inspect the environment here, it quickly submitted a report to the Government Council on the phased construction of a wharf and a freight yard and the establishment of a bulk commodity trading market at Luoqia Port. The Government Council quickly approved the report, and mobilized nearly 5,000 cadets from the Guards Cadet Corps, the executive committee of the Corps Fort, to participate in the construction of the pier in their spare time. Thanks to the efforts of these enthusiastic and simple students, a two-kilometre-long berth has been built at the port of Luocha, which is enough to berth dozens of large ships at the same time. That's not all, they also built a coastal defense battery with more than a dozen gun emplacements around the port, giving this natural deep-water port another layer of protection.

The main reason why the Executive Committee suddenly decided to build the Luoqia Port was for money. In view of the steady export of grain to Europe by the Eastern Republic in recent years, this has attracted the attention of many grain merchants in Europe, especially those from the Hanseatic League from North Germany, who have recently been in decline. These merchants were of great help to the East Coasters in the matter of Livonian immigration, and brought about 10,000 Latvians, Estonians, Samogitians, and Lithuanians from there to settle and live in the East Bank, although they themselves made a lot of money in this immigration business. But at least I mixed up with the East Coast people and got some incense, didn't I? Therefore. When it was learned that the people of the East Coast were going to set up a market for grain, which was extremely scarce in Europe, on their own soil. They rushed over as soon as possible to find out the situation.

On July 2, Gao Mo, the foreign affairs commissioner who temporarily presided over the commodity trading market, and Han Gang, director of the trade bureau under his jurisdiction, enthusiastically introduced to these old acquaintances who came to inquire about the situation: "The original intention of the establishment of this market is mainly to facilitate transactions. In the next six months, the Republic of China on the east coast of China will be open to exporting more than 10,000 tons of various types of grain, and you will not have to travel for several days or even a month to buy a little grain, which will save you a lot of trouble. Moreover, we will no longer charge any fees other than the normal processing fee for trading here. You can buy the best quality food at the lowest cost, and we can save some of the costs of shipping and sales. So it's actually a win-win for everybody. ”

When they heard that the port of Rocha was full of large transactions and that there were no longer as many fees as in Colonia, the Hanseatic merchants were excited. If you don't have these miscellaneous expenses, then it means that their costs are reduced by a lot. Moreover, as the people on the East Coast said, for the Hanseatic merchants in the New World, who were not very well-connected, it was not cost-effective to run several ports in a row in order to purchase one or two hundred tons of grain, and it was impossible for everyone to have such a centralized trading market. The only people who are unhappy in this process may be the Spanish merchants in La Plata, but who cares? to the most rear. All the buyers came to Puerto Rocha to buy food, so the people of La Plata had to come here to sell food, right? It's almost a given!

"Except for food. In the future, we may continue to increase the bulk trade of cloth, leather, spirits, etc., but this may be delayed for some time. Gaumo continued to draw large cakes to the merchants, all of whom did not know the year of the monkey, and also had to consider the mood of the Spanish merchants in the neighboring city of Colonia.

However, this did not prevent these German merchants from excitedly relaying the good news to each other. For example, the FOB price of potatoes is 40 yuan/ton, the FOB price of wheat is 160 yuan/ton, the FOB price of sorghum is 110 yuan/ton, and the FOB price of rice is 180 yuan/ton. The prices of these grains are set by the people on the east coast according to their own domestic market conditions and with reference to international prices, and the prices of potatoes, wheat, and sorghum are still very profitable. Nowadays, the price of grain, especially grain, in the European market is simply soaring like a rocket, and if they buy a few thousand tons of grain from the east coast here and sell it to Europe, it will be a huge profit of more than 100,000 or 200,000 ducats. In any case, the migrant ships departing from Hamburg, Rostock, Danzig and other places also need to carry some goods on their return journey so that they do not run out, so these grains are simply the best commodities to carry on the return journey.

Of course, if you change to the east coast people to go to the local direct sales of these grains, then you will not get such a high profit, especially when the east coast sea capacity is so tight you have to bear the risk and cost of sea transportation, in general, it is not very cost-effective. It would be better to trade with these German merchants at FOB in the port of Rocha, so that it would be convenient for everyone.

Over the next few days, the German merchants from the Hanseatic League bought about 3,500 tons of potatoes, 1,000 tons of wheat, and 1,500 tons of sorghum, which filled a dozen galleons. These greedy Hanseatic merchants, even if they rented some Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships at high prices, had to spend every copper on them to turn into food. In the end, they paid a huge fee of about 450,000 yuan to the Trade Bureau of the Republic of the East Coast, and the people of the East Coast, in order to show their support for their large procurement operation, even sent two frigates of the First Fleet to escort them all the way to the port of San Vicente in Brazil.

After the Hanseatic merchants left, Gaumo and the director of the Trade Bureau, Han Da, had not even had time to breathe for a few days, when the neighboring governor of La Plata, Spain, sent his old friend from the crowd, Captain Leo, to Puerto Rocha, which had recently made a big splash in the area. Captain Leo did not come to ask for guilt - he did not have that power, but mainly because of the recent purchase of brimstone, copper, lead, horses, hardwoods, cotton, and other war materials by the East Coast, which had caused unease among the Spaniards.

Many of the merchants of La Plata had heard of this, and the governor of Torres, as the supreme ruler of the region, had heard of the news, so he immediately sent Captain Leo, whom he trusted, to Puerto Rocha to inquire and investigate. After all, the people on the east coast bought and hoarded war materials in large quantities, and the most nervous should be the Spaniards who had a holiday with them. In view of the repeated displays of force by the people on the east coast, the wrecked ships and hundreds of militia in La Plata could not be stopped for long. Therefore, it is better to clarify the situation first, in case the people on the east coast have any bad intentions, it is better to say that it is difficult to listen to yourself, and it is better to prepare to transfer in advance.

However, he soon figured out that the East Coasters' massive hoarding of supplies was not aimed at the Spaniards. The chief of trade of the East Coasters confessed to him that relations between the East Coast and the Dutch had become increasingly tense recently, and that the East Coasters had hoarded war materials in large quantities just in case. Captain Leo was thrilled to hear the news, the Dutch were the common enemy of both sides, and to this day even some remote ports such as La Plata are repeatedly threatened by Dutch pirate ships. Therefore, the attitude of the two sides towards the Dutch is actually highly consistent.

After clarifying the situation, Captain Leo forwarded to Foreign Minister Gaumo a letter from the Peruvian side. The letter was written in Spanish, and Gao Mo thought it was another cliché about asking the Republic of China on the east coast of China to crack down on the border smuggling trade, so he put it away unapprehended, and prepared to pass it on to his superiors when he returned in two days.

However, Captain Leo was a little anxious when he saw that Gaumo did not pay much attention to it, and he saw that there was no one left and right, so he reminded Gaumo in a low voice that this was a letter written by the governor of Peru on the orders of the king of Spain to His Excellency Ma Ganzu, the "ruling king" of the East Coast Republic of China. This letter was of great importance, in which the Governor invited the East Coasters and the Spaniards to join them in attacking the Brazilians in São Paulo in order to punish the traitors who had betrayed His Majesty Philip IV.

Hearing Captain Leo say such earth-shattering words with a mysterious expression, Gao Mo was also stunned for a moment. This was a major diplomatic matter, and he did not dare to make a decision on his own, so after hastily handing over the affairs of the place to Han Gang, the director of the Trade Bureau, he immediately took Captain Leo back to the port of the East on a ship. This kind of thing should be left to the executive committee for collective consideration, he doesn't dare to make the decision, and he can't make the decision. This involves an important diplomatic decision of the country, which he cannot bear alone.

On July 8, 1641, Captain Leo was introduced by Gaumo to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the East Coast Republic of China, and sat down with Ma Ganzu, the chairman of the Executive Committee, who had been informed in advance, and had a secret meeting. No one knew what the outcome of the negotiations between the two sides was, and no one saw Captain Leo's expression when he left Vostye Harbor by boat late the next night. Gao Mo, Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the Eastern Republic of China, and Ma Ganzu, chairman of the Executive Committee, who were in charge of the negotiations with him, did not reveal any tone to the outside world, but after sorting out the materials with their confidential secretaries, they sat down with the other members of the Executive Committee and began a closed-door discussion.

On 11 July, the day after the conclusion of the deliberations of the Executive Committee, on the occasion of the arrival of Blanco of the Almeida family to the east bank to load weapons, Foreign Affairs Commissioner Gaumo met with him in a private name and set the meeting in his manor villa by the reservoir outside the city. (To be continued......)