Although Song Xiance didn't know much about these countries on the European continent, he also had a preliminary understanding of how many countries there were on this continent under the emperor's explanation. At first glance, these countries seem to be like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in ancient China, although all countries admired the same religious culture, but now they are still fighting each other, and they have not formed a unified empire.

Song Xiance, who was inclined to the Zongheng family, suddenly became a little interested in the relationship between these countries. At this time, he was not so resistant to going to Europe as he had just been.

And Zhu Youzhen also turned around, patted him on the shoulder and said: "The reason why I chose you to go to Europe is not because of a whim, but because I look around the court, and only you can take on this important task." If you send other people, you will do bad things if you don't say it is good.

This is a war between European countries, not a war between our Ming Dynasty. Therefore, we can try to intervene in the direction of the war, but we must not take the lead and arouse the disgust of either side of the war towards the Ming Dynasty. After all, we trade with all of Europe, not just the countries of the Protestant Union. ”

Song Xiance suddenly looked at the emperor with some puzzlement, he hadn't thought about how to ask the emperor what he meant, Zhu Youzhen seemed to have seen his doubts, and couldn't help but explain: "What I mean is that in politics, we have to stand on a neutral position, and it's okay to lean a little towards the Holy See." But in reality, such as preferential terms for trade and terms for commercial loans, we have to stand firmly on the side of the Protestant Union. In fact, it would be more precise to say that we should always be in line with the UK. ”

After Song Xiance glanced at the map, he finally couldn't help but say: "But Your Majesty, judging from the location of the countries on this map, wouldn't it be better for France to have better geographical conditions if you want to prevent the Habsburgs, who have the Kingdom of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, from obtaining Germany and the Netherlands?" The strait between Britain and the European continent alone has put the British in a congenitally disadvantageous position to intervene in the war on the European continent. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at Song Xiance and said: "You are right, if you want to prevent the Catholic League formed by the Habsburgs from winning this war, it is obviously difficult to succeed without the help of the French."

However, Ming's ally can only be Britain, because we and Britain have a common fundamental interest, that is, neither side wants a unified continental country to appear on the European continent. For example, if Japan and Korea become stronger, they will not want to see a unified China on the East Asian continent, but they would like to see a China that is divided.

Every unified continental country is a source of disaster for the smaller countries around it. Therefore, Britain was more unhappy than the Ming Dynasty to see an empire that unified the European continent. At this time, as long as we stand by the side of Britain and wave the flag and shout, and give some diplomatic and economic help by the way, then the British themselves will go all out to sabotage the war of unification of the European continent.

Of course, I want you to remember one thing, that our allies are the United Kingdom, not a political group within the United Kingdom. Therefore, when you and Kuhl pestered them to arrive in England, continue the friendly policy that we left behind when we were in England, and let the British know that the Ming Dynasty is friendly to them, no matter who sits on the British throne. ”

Song Xiance finally understood at this time, he bowed to the emperor and said, "The minister understands what His Majesty means, and he will never let the British make trouble with us..."

Zhu Youzhen nodded to him and said: "Sorting out the diplomatic relations between the Ming Dynasty and European countries, and using all means to intervene in the direction of the war, and protect the friendly relations between us and the British, this is the primary task of you and Kurtang."

The next secondary task is to connect the Ming Dynasty with the European financial system. Although we now have an initial relationship with Amsterdam City Bank, it is still too shallow.

This time, Zhang Guoji of Daming Overseas Trade Bank will also accompany you to the UK. He will establish a closer relationship with the Bank of Amsterdam in the Netherlands by establishing a European branch of the Overseas Trade Bank based in London. This is not only a good opportunity for Daming banknotes to enter Europe, but also a necessary condition for expanding the scale of sales of Chinese goods in Europe.

Before the departure of the British visit to our fleet, I heard that the Dutch were hyping up a tulip ball, and the price of a tulip ball was equivalent to three years' salary of an ordinary citizen. What does this mean? ”

Song Xiance paused for a moment, and then replied in a ghostly manner: "Back to Your Majesty, this shows that the Dutch have a lot of currency in their hands and don't know where to invest, and this tulip bulb is equivalent to a reservoir used to absorb excess currency in the market." ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at him unexpectedly again, nodded slightly and praised Song Xiance, before saying: "Yes, the situation of the Dutch is the same as the financial plan we intend to implement in Houjin. However, the Netherlands is different from Houjin, they control the import and export trade of their own country, and they are the trade center of European countries, and they have a large amount of gold, silver and precious metals in their hands.

Therefore, even if the tulip bulb market collapses, it will only lose some vitality, but it will not lead to a complete collapse of the country's finances. However, the Dutch monopoly on transoceanic trade made it inevitable that we would have to come into conflict with the Dutch whenever we went abroad.

But the Ming were so far away from the Dutch that no matter how many times we beat him in Asia, the Dutch would still be able to resurrect themselves on the profits of monopolizing Europe's coastal trade. So if we want to destroy the maritime supremacy of the Dutch, we must first defeat him in Europe. Whether it is his position as a European financial center or as a European trade center.

So how to defeat the Dutch, the British across the sea from him are probably the countries most eager to inherit his maritime supremacy. All you have to do is help Zhang Guoji establish a financial center in London to compete with the Dutch, so as to provoke a war between the British and the Dutch, all after the end of the war in Europe, of course.

This is the third mission you need to carry out in Europe, to prepare for the dismantling of the Dutch hegemony at sea after the end of the war in Europe, to suppress their position as the financial center of Europe, and to prepare for our country's hegemony in the Pacific and Indian Oceans..."

Zhu Youzhen paused, suddenly opened his hands and hugged the world map on the wall, and said a little excitedly: "What a big stage this is, if you can really do one of the above items, your name will definitely be in the same class in the history books, so that future generations of people will admire." Would you like to travel to Europe? ”

Song Xiance was finally moved by the emperor's words, he was a person with a great sense of fame, otherwise he would not risk his life to go to Shenyang as a spy. Now that the emperor has drawn a big blueprint for him, he can't help but be eager to try, and after a long time of muttering, he finally bowed his head to the emperor and said: "Minister, dare not obey your orders..."

In mid-July, the Dutch merchant ships that fled back from the coast of the Ming Dynasty brought back extremely terrifying news to the Dutch in Batavia that the strongest fleet assembled by the company led by Putmans in Asia had been defeated by the Ming fleet, and even Putmans might fall into the hands of the Ming army.

Anthony van Diemen and the members of the Council could not believe the bad news that the captains had brought back, but the result of their separate and repeated cross-examinations remained the same. The crowd was skeptical, and Anthony van Diemen was the heaviest of all.

He suddenly realized that in the descriptions of these captains, the ships of the other members of the Association did not appear, and the strength of the Ming Navy alone had driven the fleet led by Putmans into a corner. Almost overnight, the Ming navy had become the most powerful maritime force on the East Asian continent.

The defeat divided the upper echelons of Batavia, with businessman-turned-legislators generally calling for an armistice and peace to preserve the company's interests in East Asia as much as possible. But those employees of the company who used to fight the main battle are now difficult to ride the tiger, they can hardly bear such a fiasco, and it is difficult to face the company's accountability after the fact, so they are clamoring for a decisive battle with the Ming Kingdom to the end, and some people even began to use the Chinese residents in the city as a punching bag.

Anthony van Diemen has suffered a great mental blow, but he has not lost his mind. He knew that attacking the unarmed Chinese residents at this time would obviously be retaliated against by their captured Dutch compatriots. Therefore, he soon ordered the gendarmes to arrest the Dutch who were wreaking havoc in the city, and summoned the Chinese Kapitan Su Minggang to pacify the Chinese residents who had been beaten by the Dutch.

Although Su Minggang agreed to his request, he also said to him with a smug face: "We Chinese in Batavia don't know why a war broke out between the company and the Ming Dynasty, but we don't want to be a victim of this war. I hope that His Excellency the Governor will open the port for the Chinese who want to leave here. ”

Although Anthony van Diemen put an end to the atrocities committed by the Dutch against the Chinese, he did not mean to let the Chinese go. After all, at the critical moment, these Chinese were also a bargaining chip with Daming, so he calmly and unceremoniously rejected Su Minggang's request.

Anthony van Diemen, although he did not know how to end the war, began to strengthen the defense of Batavia. The Dutch merchant houses scattered in the Spice Islands and other places had to withdraw to Batavia to avoid being crushed by the ASEAN fleet. As long as Batavia remained in the hands of the Dutch, they would naturally be able to reclaim the Spice Islands when the ASEAN fleet left.

Anthony van Diemen and the parliamentarians of Batavia were also praying, hoping that the emperor of the Ming Kingdom would be sensible and not send troops to fight Batavia in a desperate battle. In that case, whether or not Batavia can continue to exist, the company's previous decades of operations in Southeast Asia and East Asia will be in vain.

On 12 August, the Association sent two emissaries to Batavia to formally inform Anthony van Diemen and his colleagues of the fall of the Putmans fleet, and demanded that Batavia surrender unconditionally to the ASEAN, and put Sado Island and the Spice Islands under the supervision of the ASEAN, and then Anthony van Diemen himself went to Beijing to sign the surrender agreement and negotiate war reparations.

The two ASEAN emissaries gave Batavia 24 hours to consider, but Anthony van Diemen and the Batavian parliamentarians were lucky enough not to reach a conclusion within the deadline, which led to the breakdown of the armistice meeting.

When the two ASEAN envoys departed by boat, the inhabitants of Batavia were in a heavy mood, knowing that the pace of war was approaching the city.