"Commissioner He, I'm late. Excuse me! Excuse me! On January 19, 1688, in the office of the commissioner of the Hue District Administration, the young Xu Zhilong said to He Yuan with an apologetic face: "It was originally the work of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I didn't expect you to do a lot for us, I am really ashamed." ”

The grandson of Xu Xin, the veteran of East Coast diplomacy of Xu Zhilong, has been working in the diplomatic system from the beginning, including the foreign trade department, but to be honest, his career is not very smooth. To this day, the bureaucracy of the East Coast has swelled rapidly and has become more and more staffed, and a large number of them are filled with civil servants of ordinary origins who have graduated from school. Three generations like Xu Zhilong, who was born with a golden spoon, although there are many who mix well, but there are also a lot of unsatisfactory ones. Because of their special status, they are often resisted by the civil service system when they are evaluated and promoted, and if you don't understand the art of officialdom, you can't manage interpersonal relationships, and you don't have any solid achievements that people have nothing to say, then it is not so easy to climb up.

Taking Xu Zhilong as an example, he is 36 years old this year, but he has been working hard for seven or eight years at the senior level, and he has never been able to take that crucial step and enter the ranks of department-level cadres. He sometimes thought sadly that maybe he had to stay up for another three years of seniority, and then he could barely be promoted to a deputy director-level cadre in the shadow of his grandfather, who had been dead for several years. This may already be a very good position for ordinary people, but for Xu Zhilong, who has an extraordinary background, it is a bit unsatisfactory, and it may even be unacceptable.

Today, Xu Zhilong came to Hue Port as a special commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the purpose of making contact with Dirk Conelis of the Dutch West India Company, to find out what people are talking about, and to see if they can establish close ties with the big businessmen of Zeeland Province through the West India Company.

Some might say that the East Coasters are nosy. Van Boiningen's gang was originally the spokesman of the bourgeoisie, and there would certainly be no shortage of contacts with the merchants of the provinces on weekdays. This can be said to be true or wrong, and it is true because the republicans are rooted in the merchant and burgher classes, and it is mainly these people who support them on weekdays. It's not right, because the support of these people is not immutable, it will sway with the situation, it will waver, and it will even betray.

Just like during the Franco-Dutch War, when the DeWitt brothers were shipwrecked, the whole republican faction was suppressed, where did the wholesalers in Amsterdam go at that time? It's ridiculous to say that he actually ran back and forth with the Prince of Orange, wagging his tail and begging for mercy, how could there be a little shadow of instigating the Republican legislators to embarrass their family in the Estates-General?

Therefore, the United Provinces are not England, and their bourgeoisie, although rich, has no soldiers and no power, and its control over the country is really not high enough. The army of the United Provinces, on the whole, was firmly in the hands of the Orange family most of the time, and after the failure of William II's plot to mutiny and his death from smallpox, it was fiercely suppressed by the DeWitt brothers for a period of time, and the army was also pulled away a lot, and it seemed inevitable to decline.

Unfortunately, the Orange family was lucky, the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch war saved them from crumbling, and William III was ordered to reorganize the army in the midst of the gloom of the country, and finally expelled the French ** team and recovered the whole country. Such a great achievement not only allowed their family to control the army again, but also greatly infiltrated the government, many important official positions were taken by people attached to their family, and the republicans have not been able to fully control the government, let alone control the army, even if they have tried their best to do so.

Therefore, the capitalists of the Netherlands are far from being comparable to those of the British, they are economically rich, but they are politically and militarily a complete shorty, so the support they can give to the republicans is very limited, and they can only give them some chance of winning in the parliamentary struggle, but once the Prince of Orange does not save face and directly acts rudely, these guys who can only talk in parliament will not be able to do anything.

Not to mention, there are still a considerable number of capitalists who have been co-opted by the Orange family and tied up their interests, which is even more difficult to do, so the East Coast talents are in a hurry to come forward, wanting to use their influence to help the republicans win more support from capitalists, and then find a way to weaken the strength of the Orange family step by step Don't think it's impossible, William III was originally in the Netherlands, but once you want to be the king of England, it will inevitably attract a lot of criticism, Even a large number of officials and troops who had been loyal to him would be shaken, and this was the opportunity.

According to the plan of the East Bank Foreign Office, they now needed to ease relations with the East India Company, and it happened that there was an urgent need for this, so it was not a big problem, and at the same time, through the West India Company, they were to encircle as many Dutch capitalists as possible, so that they would all fully support the republicans. When the situation changes greatly in the future, they can cooperate with the republicans to seize power in an all-round way, and pull together a part of the army to weaken William III's control over the Netherlands.

At this time, the people on the east coast could also make more efforts to help the republicans recruit some mercenaries to strengthen their strength, so that they would be emboldened to confront the Prince of Orange and defend the interests of the United Provinces, and finally force William III to relinquish his position as governor of the United Provinces. Even if you want to be the king of England, no one can stop you, and the British have already welcomed you, and we can't stop it, but if you want to be the king of England and the ruler of the United Provinces, it is obviously impossible, and it is destined to not get the support of the majority of the Dutch, and we will go to war with you for this, and you can do it yourself.

In order to achieve such a goal, the East Coasters had actually made secret contacts with the West India Company before, and the East India Company was also steadily in contact with Van Boiningen, and the situation was generally good. This time, Xu Zhilong came to Hue to meet with Dirk Conelis, in fact, there are only some details left to discuss, and there is no objection between the two families on the big framework. After all, Dutch merchants were also afraid that William III's ascension to the English king would greatly harm the interests of Dutch merchants, just as Portugal's overseas trade fell into a terrible recession during the period of the Spanish and Portuguese unions.

Just yesterday, Xu Zhilong had a frank conversation with Dirk Cornelis, and finally learned that Ho Yuan, the commissioner of the Hue Regional Administration, had strengthened ties with the West India Company by increasing investment, so he had the joke of helping them to do the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Where, Commissioner Xu is serious." He Yuan smiled when he heard this, and said, "Actually, I didn't bother to think about it. The Dutch themselves have an urgent investment**, which may be to expand the scale of the industry and make more money, but I think it also means to strengthen ties with our country and show goodwill. I am not a professional diplomat, I am not sure about many things in it, and I may not understand some of the signals released by others, but I only want to say one sentence, this Dutch West India Company has no ill will towards us, and its attitude is relatively positive and sincere, and you professional diplomats should see more. Hurry up, Commissioner Xu, I see that the situation in the Netherlands is also very tight now, and the time is still very important when the negotiations are completed as soon as possible. ”

Xu Zhilong nodded again and again after hearing this. Of course, he did not explain to He Yuan that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already held two secret consultations through the commercial representatives of the Dutch West India Company in the capital, and this time he came to Hue Port to meet Dirk Cornelis in order to unify the opinions of the two representatives of the West India Company. Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current situation, and then issue a diplomatic guideline, which will be sent to Europe by a fast liaison ship, and will be operated by the special envoy plenipotentiary to Europe, Gao Wengang.

"The ministry was still very interested in strengthening its ties with the Dutch bourgeoisie, which had previously been mostly commercial and had been interrupted for a while. Now that we have to restore commercial ties only if the other side has the will, but also extend these to politics, this is a crucial step, and we will proceed with caution. Xu Zhilong said a few perfunctory words to He Yuan, and then changed the topic: "Commissioner He, how is the West India Company's investment in the Hue area?" On the scale? ”

"It's not bad, the scale is not small, and I estimate that the total amount will be more than five million dong, which is a huge investment for our region, and I am very satisfied." He Yuan said with a smile: "Of course, this is also related to the unique natural conditions of the Hue area. Without the sycamore branch, how could it attract the golden phoenix? The Dutch are very good at business, and they themselves are really interested in our Hue area, and the old plantations in the past can now provide them with a stable profit of more than 500,000 dong a year, and a fool knows how to expand the scale of investment. ”

"But they haven't done it before." Xu Zhilong said in his heart, but he did have a smile on his face, and nodded again and again in agreement with He Yuan's words. Of course, he did admit that the conditions in Hue are good, and there is the potential to develop into a tropical agricultural center, and their only shortcoming now is probably the population, most of the central immigration quota is smashed on the Pampa plain, and the north is supplemented with a pitiful amount, often the minimum base, so the labor force population is indeed a problem.

Fortunately, the Dutch are now willing to help Hue solve this problem. As long as the plantations were profitable and safe, and it was so important that most of the Caribbean islands could not be safe, they would not mind spending a little more money to recruit bitter countrymen from the German region, where the population had recovered terribly, to work on the east coast. There is no doubt that the people of the East Coast prefer this model, because it is equivalent to the Dutch paying for the money and the Germans helping the East Coast to open up wasteland, like the Italians on the New China Island, which is the favorite investment model of the East Coast.

"Alright, Xiao Xu, you can accompany Mr. Cornelis more in the next few days. I won't accompany it, and I have to come to coordinate the irrigation canal project with the Bac Ninh area. Alas, a bunch of things to do, busy. He Yuan finally said.