The Dutch ships rushed towards the British ships, the fleet as a whole was on alert, the merchant ships, under the protection of the armed merchant ships, retreated en masse, and the ships of combat effectiveness scattered one after another, forming small fleets, ready to engage the Dutch.

At this time, Europe was in turmoil, the British royal revolution, the French liberal revolution, the Netherlands and Belgium were fighting for self-reliance, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce had their own plans, Russia was continuing to advance to the west, Romania, Mosul, Hungary, Serbia and other later generations of the territory, Russia was at war with the local Austria-Hungary, Austria and Prussia were at war, Spain also had royalists and parliamentary parties, and Portugal was at war with the independent party.

On the whole, the Dutch and the British were still fighting for island colonies in the Caribbean, and the two sides were fighting at sea, and it was really not very lucky to encounter the Dutch fleet at this time.

The fleet is huge, and there are only fifty experimental warships with combat effectiveness, as well as ten sail warships of the Spaniards, and three sail warships of the British, which seems to be a lot, but to protect hundreds of armed merchant ships that have no force, or whose force equipment is very low-level compared to any of the warships on the Dutch battleships, it is almost impossible to have no losses, and the victory is definitely a victory for this side, but the losses after the victory are not what anyone wants.

If it's just a fleet battle, then it's very easy, in the face of the old Dutch sail warships, even if the British three sail warships with a tonnage of 3,000 tons, they can easily escape, or destroy a few Dutch warships and get out of the battle, because in terms of speed and protection, the British have always been at the forefront of Europe, if you add the Spaniards' ten thousand to 2,000 tons of sail warships, there is almost a possibility of a war.

After the Spanish warships were renovated, each ship had a 600-horsepower steam engine sample, and the Spanish warships, which had already paid attention to protection, could defeat the Dutch fleet with their speed advantage, at least they would not lose too much, and if they cooperated with the British, they might inflict heavy losses on the Dutch.

What's more, there are fifty experimental steam warships of the Chinese Empire next to it, that is a crushing battle, the Dutch will not have any possibility of fighting back, but if you want the Dutch to find out that something is wrong, they will definitely rush to those merchant ships and armed merchant ships that have no power to fight back, as well as steam paddle steamer inland river transport ships, the firepower on it can bring some damage to the Dutch, but once it is pulled closer, directly besieged, attacked, these ships will lose most of them.

Two months later, the Dutch fleet appeared in the Indian Ocean, passed through the Strait of Malacca, and landed at the port of Canton under the escort of twenty steam warships of the Fourth Fleet and ten sail warships of more than 3,000 tons that had not been decommissioned.

Because of the consent of the attachés of the Chinese Empire in the fleet, the Dutch can land here and rest, but they are not allowed to leave the port, and only wait for the people representing the Dutch fleet to submit a trade application and residence application from Beijing before they can enter the territory of the Chinese Empire to do business, and the warships are not allowed to enter other sea areas, they can only go home, or seal the cannon jacket in the port of Guangzhou, when the Dutch leave, they will be allowed to lift the blockade and be escorted out of the 100-mile sea area by the coast guard. Then the local fleet sent an escort fleet out of the Strait of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean, and it didn't matter if it entered the Indian Ocean.

Because it is the British sphere of influence, it belongs to the public sphere of influence, and now there is no high seas, and the Dutch can go to places that are not covered by the British's influence, even if the British ports can go at will, but in the Strait of Malacca, as well as the Indonesian waters, the Australian waters, and the waters from Hawaii to the Chinese Empire, they are all the waters patrolled by the Chinese Empire's fleet, and they must be inspected and seized when they see armed ships and fleets.

If it's a definite enemy fleet, immediately fire and sink it, or make them surrender.

The Chinese Empire has an absolute right to speak in this sea area, as the sail warships are constantly handed over to the coast guard, the sail warships of the Chinese Empire are only 650 in service, and more than 80 are sold, and the profits generated by these warships are more than 1 billion Chinese yuan, which also includes nearly 1,000 steam paddle liner inland river/offshore transport boats, as well as patrol ships, and then more than 400 of these ships are divided into ports to develop ports, as well as nearly dozens of experimental steam warships, thousands of steam engine samples, which proves that Once again, the Chinese Empire made ships a point of growth for the profits of the Chinese Empire.

There will be more profits in the future, Zhao Hui's mission to Turkey, Russia, Sweden, and the Qing Dynasty, these countries will have greater market demand in the sea at the other end of the land, of course, in the short term, these countries will not generate too much profit for the Chinese Empire, because they still owe nearly 100 billion dollars to the Chinese Empire, if the economic momentum is not optimistic, it may be the Chinese Empire that may lose money.

However, Sweden is an economic growth point, and Sweden does not owe much to the Chinese Empire, at most one or two hundred million Chinese dollars, or because they need to cooperate with the Chinese Empire, they have purchased a lot of weapons from the Chinese Empire, fought wars with their neighbors on the island, fought wars with Russia, and fought wars with those small vassal states of Germany, and needed weapons, so they bought a lot.

But Zhang Qiang knows that Sweden is a mining country, and it can receive a lot of iron ore in the future, and it is also a fishing country, which can receive a lot of catches, and then build a port on the coast of West Siberia, where Zhao Hui will eventually go, where the fleet will eventually arrive to set up a Baltic Fleet, and will also set up a small merchant fleet, where to do business on several seas, including Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Finland on the Baltic Sea coast, and can also work with Spain, Portugal, the German vassal states, and Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire did business.

Of course, there is also Norway, a well-known iron ore factory exporter during World War II, but the Chinese Empire and them, in Zhang Qiang's impression, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, these small Nordic countries, are notoriously indifferent, rigid, and mean countries, how to say, it is impersonal, if you fall, you will not be lifted up, you will not deal with you if you live near them, and you live around them, if they are not satisfied, they can also unite to drive you away, so that the house you bought becomes public property, so that you will lose a lot, you have to find another place to buy a house, in short, if you want to live a self-life with peace of mind, it is impossible, you can't be low-key, you can't be high-profile, you have to integrate into them, in short, you have to give them benefits, give less, some people are not satisfied, they will be entangled to find you trouble through various means, their means are all conspiracy, you have no way to refuse.

Unlike China, people may not like you very much, but they will never take the initiative to trouble you, if you don't want to hurt people, others generally won't take the initiative to harm you, of course, some ruffians, and in recent years, people who have money and fever always want to pretend to be themselves, and people who show off will come to step on you, but after all, there are a few, and they won't say anything about voting, electing you out of this village, or community, just because they don't like low-key and harmless people like you.

So think about where they are the people and the law is scary, it is the kind of human beings between the countryside and the town, there is a friendly side to you, and there is a side that ignores you but doesn't care too much, you have difficulties in the Chinese countryside, everyone helps each other, there is a hatred just between you and a neighbor, and some people in the village will take the initiative to mediate, mediation can't be done, at most ignore you, let you develop freely, and the small Nordic countries can't, you have to show their justice, you have to find trouble, You can't live here.

People in Chinese cities are also indifferent, but they will not be confused, and when the door is closed, you will make a fuss opposite you, and they will not care about you, it is very clear, otherwise the public will find you trouble, and the neighbors will find you trouble, and they will annoy you.

Although Sweden has seriously interacted with the Chinese Empire many times, the Chinese Empire sees their indifference and does not want to get close to people, so it doesn't pay much attention to them, just do business, do some weapons and equipment transactions with them, and sometimes do some grain transactions, the scale of the transaction is not very large, but it has expanded slightly, plus the scale of grain, there is a trade volume of more than 300 million Chinese yuan.

Compared with the small Nordic countries, the Dutch, who had dealt with the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century, returned to Asia and the Far East forty years later, and they were real merchants.

At least in the 18th century, they did not become a dispensable small country in Western Europe like later generations, the end of the Age of Discovery, the beginning of the colonial era, their strength has not degenerated to the point of unbearable, although they were defeated by the Chinese Empire in the Far East in the Age of Discovery, and Britain, Spain, Italy, France, etc. were defeated and fled from Asia, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, and later could only colonize in the Indian Ocean and Africa.

It is inseparable from Spain, Britain, and France on the African continent, and also occupies a certain advantage in the Caribbean.

However, the specifications of the fleet they came this time were not enough, and it was a military fleet, Zhang Qiang just arranged for Ruan Tian and the governor of Guangdong Prefecture to receive them, and then where they set up their own merchant hall and started doing business, like the Spaniards, this is a fleet to explore the way, not a caravan to do big business, according to the intelligence of the Military Intelligence Department, they just came to explore the way, so Zhang Qiang didn't care about them.

But the Ministry of Commerce below still put a lot of thought into dealing with them, and sold them 200 warships and merchant ships of 200 to 3,000 tons that had been decommissioned by the Coastal Naval Division Garrison in one go, and captured 50 of them at the beginning, and they used the goods on their ships to trade some of the Chinese Empire's Chinese Yuan currency that they had exchanged from Europe this time, and when they came back from Europe again, they would buy the remaining 150 ships.

(End of chapter)