"Now Colonel Li Zemin is the commander of our Second Fleet, this is a strong person, and he has a lot of background." On June 10, 1684, less than a month after the southwesterly winds of the Indian Ocean had blown, an armed merchant ship from Xinhua Port rode the wind and waves through the islands of Babasa, Mombasa, Mogadishu, and Djibouti – Mombasa and Mogadishu were under Portuguese control, while the people from the east coast were used to trade, and the islands and Djibouti were to transport supplies and rotate men - and then entered the Arabian Sea, and after a routine trip to the waters off Oman to deter them, sinking two small unlucky Arab fishing boats. The armed merchant ship, armed with eight guns, finally arrived on the island of Diu in early June.

The ship not only brought all kinds of supplies and commodities to Diou, but also a total of about 50 managerial, commercial, diplomatic, and medical personnel from various fields, including Zhou Hesheng, a deputy director-level cadre who had come to take over all civil affairs from Captain Ashto.

Zhou Hesheng was born in a financial family, his father Zhou Dahe was a professional financial talent trained earlier in the local area, he was born as a Ming immigrant and he was very intelligent, and soon completed his advanced training under the guidance of the East Coast and specially appointed Italian financial teachers, and then entered the Northwest Reclamation Bank System for experience. Later, Zhou Dahe, who had a small achievement, was transferred to Sakhalin Island in the Far East, and there were many talents from all walks of life who went with him, the most famous of which should be Bogdan, the commander of the Second Division of the Zhejiang New Army.

Zhou Hesheng was born in the Far East, the youngest son of Zhou's father, and was sent back to the local regiment fort at the age of 10 to study. After graduating, he worked for Banco de la Plata (one of the predecessors of Banco de la Plata), Crédit Unifa, and East Coast Insurance Company, where he was responsible for corporate and trade-related businesses. After these financial enterprises have been trained once, Zhou Hesheng was promoted by the nobles to enter the commercial clearing bank specializing in foreign trade settlement and currency exchange, and became familiar with the vital foreign trade affairs, which has a great positive impact on future development.

Now, as expected! Thanks to the active activities of many parties—both the care of his father's old relationship and the contribution of his wife's mother's family—Zhou Hesheng, who is now in his thirties, defeated many competitors and ascended to the throne of the head of the Diu Island Trading Station. Although the power of this station commander is not as great as imagined, and he needs to consult with Captain Eito, who is responsible for the military affairs, to be honest, he is not familiar with military affairs, and he does not think of meddling in these things, everyone is responsible for their own scope, at most they can discuss diplomacy and some places to use money.

Zhou Hesheng has already figured out all these things on the boat that came. He was the one who was talking on the docks, and the person he was talking to was Captain Ehito of the Navy, who was currently in charge of the trading post on the island of Diu - well, maybe he was still the supreme ruler of the seven thousand soldiers and civilians of all nationalities on the entire island of Diu, because the Portuguese on the island could hardly say anything at the moment, but fortunately, the people on the east coast did not trouble them, everyone was safe, and the people on the east coast took care of everything.

In fact, Zhou Hesheng's thoughts were no different from Captain Exito. Before coming, Captain Qiu Haiyang had already talked to him, to the effect that after going to Diu Island, "don't be too polite to the Portuguese", everyone has already negotiated, Diu Island is currently said to be shared between East and Portugal, in fact, whether it is the court of Lisbon or the Governor of Goa, Tavola, they have already tacitly acquiesced that this small island, but very good location, is a gift from the Kingdom of Portugal to the Republic of the East Coast of China. After Zhou Hesheng and Ai Xito worked together, they only had to be careful not to persecute the Portuguese or the Indo-Portuguese at will, and not to deprive them of their property and religious beliefs at will. No one cares too much about the rest, and the Portuguese are still waiting for the East Coasters to form a combined fleet with them.

Speaking of this so-called East and Portugal joint fleet, it was actually formed once in the past when the people on the east coast had just colonized New China Island. At that time, each side sent several warships and armed merchant ships to form a fleet (the command was jointly negotiated by the commanders of both sides) to cruise the entire area around Xinhuaxia Island and the Mozambique Strait, which not only promoted the economic and trade relations between the two countries, but also cleared the order along the coast of the southwest Indian Ocean, and created an excellent business environment: at that time, there was an endless stream of merchant ships from the east coast, Europe, India, and Arabia, bringing a large number of foreign goods and buying a large number of goods from the two countries. It even facilitated trade between the Portuguese colony of Mozambique and the eastern island of New China, which everyone benefited from.

The destruction of the Combined Fleet began with the Eastern Portuguese War in the 40s. In the war, which lasted several years and cost a lot, the Portuguese fleet was dealt a heavy blow, and the Mozambican colony was attacked by land from the east coast, causing heavy losses. At the same time, this war also meant that the relations between the two countries fell to a low ebb, and there was no effective improvement for many years after that, and naturally there was no talk of rebuilding the joint fleet along the Mozambique Channel.

And as two generations have passed since the war, past hatreds between the two countries have been diluted, bilateral relations are showing signs of warming, and trade continues to recover. In 1682, after many attempts in the previous years and a relatively positive response, the Duke of Albuquerque, a veteran Portuguese nobleman and famous navigator, led a large delegation to the east coast, starting an ice-breaking journey in the relations between the two countries.

During the visit of the Albuquerque mission to Timor-Leste, the two sides put aside their prejudices and looked to the future, held fruitful talks, and signed a series of cooperation agreements in the eastern capital. Among them, there was a package that included the invasion of the people from the east coast into India, and the establishment of the trading post on the island of Diu and the rebuilding of the combined fleet of East and Portugal were naturally the most important of them.

After the major reshuffling of the commanders of the three fleets some time ago, the first thing Colonel Li Zemin, a new officer of the Second Fleet, set out to deal with was the joint fleet of East and Portugal. He first took stock of the belongings in the hands of the Second Fleet, and at the same time referred to the type and number of warships that the Admiralty would allocate to them in the next few years, and finally decided to extend the life of a total of six ships (mostly modified ships) with miscellaneous types and older ships in the Second Fleet's establishment sequence, and then integrate them into the combined fleet to be formed.

On this occasion, the people on the east coast had agreed with the Portuguese that the commander of the combined fleet would be a senior naval officer on the east coast, but that the interests of the Kingdom of Portugal in the western half of the Indian Ocean would be best maintained. According to the estimates of the two sides, the future combined fleet should have 10-12 warships, although the models may be a little mixed, but in terms of number and tonnage, it is already a maritime force that should not be underestimated. You must know that these are all professional warships that do not participate in commercial business activities, and the cruising and training time can be guaranteed, which is still very deterrent.

Colonel Li Zemin believes that if this fleet were stationed in India, it would greatly change the balance of maritime power in the region. The Dutch East India Company's previous fleet of six or eight warships, stationed at Galle Fort, with a larger number of armed merchant ships if necessary, was bound to be greatly weakened as a deterrent to the Portuguese. Correspondingly, the company's encroachment on the Portuguese colony and its inherent commercial routes on the west coast of India will also be greatly curbed.

This alone is worth the Portuguese to give the island of Diu to the east coast! Had it not been for the fact that the East Coast Republic itself was looking to make inroads into India and lacked a reliable springboard, the Portuguese might not have been so lucky. But no matter what, now that the matter of forming a combined fleet has been agreed, then the people on the east coast will definitely carry it out! It's just that now, for various reasons, the process that should be taken was not completed in time, and the funds were not in place, so the Portuguese still had to wait, so this is the saying that the Portuguese were dumbfounded before Zhou Hesheng.

"Commander Li is indeed a strong figure, he came to serve as the commander of the Second Fleet, I am afraid that the Admiralty has other ideas." Captain Eihito took a glass of freshly squeezed juice from the Indian servant, and said as he drank it: "The Dutch East India Company has been enough for all these years, and it is simply unscrupulous to have no high-grade competitors." You see, there are fewer and fewer natives in the East Indies who can question and rebel against them, even if the English and Portuguese secretly help them. Not to mention the island of Ceylon, it directly instigated the slap of Portugal and England, and has now captured Trincomalee, the last stronghold of the two on the island, and officially owns the whole island. The rich Coromandel and Malabar coasts, hehe, were even more scattered under the impact of the Dutch East India Company, and the commercial routes that originally belonged to Portugal were wantonly seized by the Dutch, and the profits continued to be lost, so it is no wonder that the Goan side will be short of money, there is no business to do, where is the money! ”

"That's why we strongly intervened in India, which made the Dutch very unhappy." Zhou Hesheng, who had already said that his throat was a little dry before, also asked the Indian servant for a glass of juice in his hand, and then said: "Didn't the Dutch East India Company send a ship to Xinhua Port to ask Captain Qiu before?" They have long been a little uneasy about our frequent activities in India. Now, after some time, they should have figured out what we were trying to do, and it is possible that they will be prompted to change their long-standing policies. ”

The so-called "consistent policy" mentioned by Zhou Hesheng is actually very easy to understand, that is, there may have been such and such scorn between the Dutch East India Company and the East Coast people before, but if the common interests of both sides are counted, this aspect can still be maintained. However, when the East Coasters suddenly inserted themselves into India, although the commercial interests of the Coromandel Coast and the Malabar Coast, which were most valued by the Dutch, were not yet diluted, there would certainly be conflicts in the future, unless the East Coasters stopped developing and were confined to a corner of northwestern India. But how big is that likely to be? The Dutch are not fools, they themselves will assess that with the current enthusiasm of the East Coast and Portugal, it is self-evident what the combined fleet will do in the event of a dispute between the Dutch East India Company and the Portuguese in the future, right?

So, now both Zhou Hesheng and Captain Ehito were more interested in the possible reaction of the Dutch. Commander Li of the Second Fleet is a character who is not afraid of heaven and earth, and the Dutch East India Company is used to rampage in the Indian Ocean, and I don't know if their bodies are soft enough and understand the art of compromise, otherwise a conflict between Mars and the Earth is very likely to occur.

"The Dutch East India Company's stalls are too big. You see, they have recently tried to re-enter the Persian market, which has already annoyed Xinhuagang. And they also control Ceylon, the East Indies, Malacca, Taiwan and many other key nodes, and their hands are getting longer and longer in Vietnam, Japan, Siam, Burma, China and other places, which is really not true. Captain Ehito said, "How much strength do you think they have?" There are only more than 90 large merchant ships under its name, half of which travel between Europe and Asia, one-third of which travel to and from all parts of Asia, and only one-sixth of which are permanently in port. These ships, even if converted into armed merchant ships (the Dutch East India Company had the right to levy ships in port at any time), together with their two small fleets stationed in Ceylon and Batavia, were no more than thirty ships that could be used in battle. In fact, the maximum number they can draw will not exceed 25, but the area of sea that needs to be defended is extremely vast, and the number of ships that can be assigned to India is about half of the 25. It's good that the Dutch don't come, but if they do, they run into our combined fleet, and then it's a good show. Moreover, this kind of conflict, with Commander Li's character, is to find the field no matter whether he wins or loses. Wait, maybe there's a good show to watch in the future. ”

Zhou Hesheng nodded when he heard this, the Dutch East India Company had never had enough competitors before. Now that the people from the east coast have come out, it is certain that they will be uncomfortable, and they may even have a little "grievance": Didn't you say that you controlled the western Indian Ocean before, and I played in the eastern Indian Ocean? Why is it suddenly inserted into such a critical juncture as India? Isn't this a violation of the unspoken rules that everyone has set?

Of course, the people on the east coast will not care too much about this grievance of the Dutch. In modern times, the second generation has begun to become the backbone of the political arena, and the third generation has begun to experience a lot at the grassroots level. Therefore, the Dutch East India Company needed to adapt to the change of situation, knowing that in the East Coast Republic of China, a group of new people holding high the banner of their fathers were in power, and their style was naturally very different from before.