“… The construction of the Jinan Qinghe Bridge and the Xuzhou Bridge can not only connect Tianjin and Xuzhou into a line, but also share the transportation capacity of the northern section of the canal, so that the people of Shandong can build water conservancy without having to protect the water volume of the canal first, and then consider the drought and flood problems of local farmland, which is really a matter of killing two birds with one stone. Moreover, the railway construction from Xuzhou to the south will reach Pukou in Nanjing, and the railway construction plan that connects the two capitals into one can also be put on the agenda..."

In the Shangshu room of the Household Department in the capital, Ji Jiliang, director of the Household Grain Bureau, with the title of Household Minister, was working hard to promote the construction plan of the Beijing-Xu Railway to Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the Household Department, who was sitting there to approve the documents.

Even if Ji Jiliang said the benefits of the Beijing-Xu Railway to the sky, Guo Yunhou was still unmoved, and when he paused slightly, Guo Yunhou interjected and said: "No matter how good you say, I can't promise you." The deposit of the household has already been set for next year's use, which is not more important than the construction of the Beijing-Xu railway, how can it be possible to borrow the silver?

Besides, this railway repair is a matter of the Ministry of Communications, and Tian Yang is not in a hurry to plan these two vertical and horizontal railway trunk lines, what are you anxious about? You'd better take care of your own business and don't get yourself in trouble. ”

Ji Jiliang was suddenly a little unhappy, and he immediately replied: "How can this be asking for trouble, the Jinghan Railway and the Liangjing Railway are the main roads connecting the north and the south." Once these two railways are completed, north-south travel will no longer be dependent on a single canal.

With the addition of the Longhai Railway, which connects the east and the west, the area north of the Yangtze River has a complete set of transportation backbone network. The granaries that the household department is now building in Hankou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Lianyungang, Qingdao, Tianjin, Luoyang, Xi'an, Baoji, and Lanzhou will be able to form a network through three sets of transportation modes: railways, canals, and seas, so that they can communicate with each other as much as possible, and there is no need to temporarily allocate grain after a natural disaster..."

Guo Yunhou held his chin and thought for a few minutes, and finally said helplessly: "I can move up to 500,000 yuan for you, but you should know how much the Luanhe Bridge costs, 500,000 yuan can't even build a bridge, let alone two bridges." In my opinion, we might as well wait another year, we didn't have a railroad before, isn't this day the same, why rush for a while? ”

Ji Jiliang immediately replied: "That's because we didn't know that there was a way of transportation such as railways available, and if we could solve the problem of agricultural water for the people along the Shandong Canal in the morning, the people of Shandong would naturally not be willing to wait a day."

In fact, before this, the elders of Shandong had already sent a message to me, saying that as long as the household department could support the construction of the two bridges and let them build water conservancy with their hands and feet, then they were willing to pay for the construction of the bridges, but they only asked for the right to collect fees for the two bridges for 30 years. ”

Guo Yunhou thought for a long time before he cautiously replied: "In this way, when I go to see His Majesty later, I will discuss this matter with him." If Your Majesty has no opinion, you can ask those Shandong elders to send representatives to discuss the construction plan of these two bridges with the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Communications..."

When Guo Yunhou arrived at Xiyuan Jingshe, Zhu Youzhen was discussing the incident on Sado Island with Feng Quan and Li Hanwen. The news sent back by the pigeon book was too simplistic, so they only knew that the Dutch had detained Zhang Anping, the representative of the bank, but they did not know the details.

In front of the emperor, Feng Quan's suggestion was to wait a little longer, wait for Li Guorui to return or send someone back to explain what had happened, and then it would be more reasonable to attack the Dutch. However, Li Hanwen thought that he should strike first, and directly complained about the rude behavior of the Dutch in the ASEAN, and first gave a surprise attack to the Dutch representatives who knew nothing.

There are two advantages to this, one is to see if the Dutch representatives know about the Sado Island incident, if so, it will prove that the Dutch are indeed taking the initiative to provoke the Ming Dynasty, then it is justified to unite the representatives of the members of the ASEAN Association to fight the Dutch;

Second, no matter what the truth of the Sado Island incident is, Daming should give the representatives of the ASEAN Association a preconceived impression, even if things go back and forth later, Daming has the upper hand steadily.

After listening to the opinions of the two, Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before he spoke: "In my opinion, no matter what the truth of the Sado Island incident is, we are now at a loss. It is necessary to negotiate at the ASEAN joint meeting and question the Dutch representatives.

However, it is not enough to question the Dutch because of this matter, as long as the Dutch representatives are still in the organization of ASEAN, it is more troublesome for us to push the ASEAN Joint Conference to go to war against Batavia. Although we now have an overwhelming majority of voting rights within ASEAN, we cannot make ASEAN a hall of words for the Ming Dynasty, and in that case, who will believe that ASEAN is a fair and just international organization in the future.

Therefore, you go to some Portuguese and Spanish merchants to complain to the Association of the Atlantic, that their trade in the Spice Islands has been illegally infringed by the Dutch, demand that the Dutch East India Company compensate for the damages, and publicly promise not to interfere with the free trade of the Spice Islands.

In addition, at the appropriate time, Miss Ida was arranged to attend a joint meeting of the Association of ASEAN to file a complaint for the Ambon massacre 13 years ago, to demand compensation and apology from the Dutch East India Company for the tragedy, and to hold accountable the perpetrators of the Ambon massacre.

If the Dutch delegates were provoked to leave, it would be the best chance for the ASEAN Joint Conference to announce the punishment of Batavia. ”

Feng Quan and Li Hanwen did not speak out against the emperor's plan, and nodded their heads again and again. After Zhu Youzhen continued to talk with them for a few words, he asked Lu Qi to send them away.

William Kick, the representative of the Dutch East India Company in Beijing, has been feeling a great headache these days, and his heart is now colder than the October cold wind in Beijing outside. At the moment when he and the Chinese were arguing over the issue of free trade, the Chinese suddenly threw out the Sado Island detention incident and demanded that he explain the matter on behalf of Batavia and immediately release the detained Chinese.

The Dutch, after all, are not British, and have not yet learned the style of later generations of imperialists who reversed black and white without changing their faces. The first time he heard the Sado Island detain incident, William Kick did not immediately deny it, but hesitated for half a minute, which immediately convinced the ASEAN delegates present that the Chinese's questioning was not groundless.

Regardless of whether the British, Spaniards, and Portuguese are on the side of the Chinese, the Dutch's unwarranted detention of representatives of the Bank of China is obviously a violation of everyone's default bottom line of safety. If all countries were able to arbitrarily detain civilians from non-hostile countries in the places under their jurisdiction, then there would be little need for the ASEAN to exist, and such rule-breaking behavior would naturally be unacceptable to the British and Portuguese, who were in a vulnerable position.

The Spaniards have always been hostile to the Dutch, and if they can take advantage of this opportunity to attack the Dutch, they will naturally not let it go. Therefore, after the Chinese threw out the Sado Island detention incident, William Kick found that he had become the target of public criticism at the ASEAN Joint Conference. He had to endure the embarrassment of being questioned by everyone at the meeting every day, and waited for the whole thing to come from Japan, and then confronted the Chinese.

However, in the days that followed, Spanish and Portuguese merchants came to complain about their expulsion and looting from Batavia while trading in Southeast Asia, and demanded compensation from the Dutch East India Company. However, most of these events occurred before the formation of ASEAN, which forced William Kick to protest at the joint meeting.

However, the representatives of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, openly defended their merchants, believing that the Association had the power to claim compensation from the Dutch East India Company as long as the evidence was conclusive, and the Portuguese representatives said to him: "... Crime will not be extinguished by time, and justice may come late but it will not fear evil..."

On 20 October, William Kick's endurance finally came to an end when Ida, a British woman who claimed to be a survivor of the Ambon massacre, appeared at a joint meeting to denounce the Ambon massacre to the Dutch East India Company. He felt that it was no longer necessary for him to remain at this meeting, and it was clear that the main members of the ASEAN Association had taken the same position as the Chinese.

They were using the occasion to openly humiliate the Dutch East India Company and the first governor of Batavia, and if he continued to endure it, he would undoubtedly render the company's reputation worthless in the East, which was obviously not a responsibility he could bear.

William Kick hastily interrupted Ada's account of the Ambon massacre, picked up his hat on the table, looked at the delegates at the joint meeting, and said, "As an honorable employee of the Company, it would be a crime for me to continue to sit here and listen to this lady fabricate tragic stories to discredit the Governor of Kun and the Dutch East India Company.

On several occasions, however, the delegates rejected my request to suspend the Lady's statement, ignoring the authority of the Dutch East India Company at the Joint Meeting. Reflecting on the various personalities who have appeared at the joint meeting this week, I have reason to believe that the joint meeting has lost its fair and just position.

As a representative of the Dutch East India Company, I would like to withdraw from the Joint Conference on behalf of the Company. From this moment on, Batavia will also suspend all treaties to which we have committed ourselves to ASEAN until the members of ASEAN renounce their position against the Dutch East India Company. ”

William Kick's statement that he was going to withdraw from the joint meeting gave the members and representatives of the ASEAN a look at each other, just before they could figure out how to respond to William Kicker's statement. Li Hanwen, the representative of China, suddenly said to William Kirk: "Withdraw from the joint meeting, this is the freedom of the Dutch East India Company, and our country will not interfere with it."

But I want to remind you that quitting is easier than joining. The Dutch East India Company has wantonly tore up its promises, which only makes the Association wonder if you really have the sincerity to fulfill your promises.

In addition, before the ASEAN resolution is down, Mr. William Kirk, you can rest assured that you will walk around the capital, and the Ming Dynasty will not treacherously detain you..."

William Kirk glanced at the other delegates who were silent, and finally put on his hat and left. By this time, Putmans' messenger had finally arrived at the port of Tianjin, and it was clear that this had been done to no avail.

After watching William Kick leave the conference hall, Li Hanwen suddenly faced the representatives of the Association and said: "You have heard many businessmen's accusations against Batavia these days, and after the withdrawal of the representatives of Batavia, I think it is necessary to vote on these accusations now.

I propose that Batavia be publicly condemned in the name of ASEAN and demanded that it compensate for the unlawful harm done to the merchants of ASEAN countries over the past 30 years.

In order to ensure that the spice trade is no longer interfered with by external forces, and that the trading ships are not invaded by local pirates, I propose that the Spice Islands be placed under the protection of the ASEAN..."