Shortly after leaving Macao, Li Hongyu had the young Dutch prisoner, who had been beaten in the street by Portuguese soldiers, brought to him in the cabin to see him, so as to find out the details of the prisoner and see if there were any surprises among the captives.

When the young Dutch captive arrived, a sumptuous Portuguese feast had already been placed in the cabin, which Li Hongyu had specially asked for from the Portuguese cook in Macao when he left, presumably the young Dutch captive had not eaten well during this time, and was probably already hungry.

When he saw the scene in the cabin, the young Dutch captive could not help but be slightly surprised.

"You may be seated." Li Hongyu smiled slightly, and stretched out his hand to signal the young Dutch captive to sit down at the table.

After hesitating for a moment, the young Dutch captive got up and walked over and sat down opposite Li Hongyu, a look of doubt in his eyes.

He knew that these Dutch captives were sold to Daming by Mascolu, and their current status was slaves, so he didn't know why Li Hongyu held a banquet.

"What's your name? Where are the people? After Yang Li'er poured wine for the two, Li Hongyu smiled and asked the nervous young Dutch captive in Dutch.

"Mark? Fan? Dessa, a native of Amsterdamming. ”

The young Dutch captive suddenly looked surprised when he heard this, but he didn't expect the young Ming official in front of him to speak fluent Dutch with an Amsterdam accent, and then replied.

"Van der Sar?" Li Hongyu smiled slightly when he heard this, he couldn't help but think of a certain football star in later generations, and he had to have a very simple Dutch name, and he didn't have a surname for a long time.

It is worth mentioning that the Dutch people with "fan" are basically nobles and have noble blood, which translates to "where they come from".

Therefore, the young Dutchman's name should be "Mark", but Li Hongyu calls him "Van der Sar" out of habit.

"Amsterdam is a great place to visit, with a thriving business and economy, and its port is one of the best in Europe."

Afterwards, Li Hongyu asked Mark with a smile, "How is the canal being built now?" ”

"Most of the canal in the northwest has been excavated, and it should be completed in three or four years."

Hearing this, the look on Mark's face was even more surprised, he never thought that Li Hongyu would know about the canal, and he replied after being stunned for a moment.

At the beginning of the 17th century, when migration in Amsterdam reached its peak, a comprehensive plan was put into place to excavate four major concentric semi-circular canals, all terminating at IJ Bay, known as the Canal Belt.

The banks of the three canals, the Gentlemen's Canal, the Kaiser's Canal and the Prinsen's Canal, are mainly residential areas, while the outer fourth canal, the Sjeerhäld, later known as Stadhalt, was used for defence and water treatment.

The plan also designed radial canals to connect the main canals, and it was planned that the first canal would be excavated in the northwest of Amsterdam in the 41st year of the Wanli calendar, and the southern and eastern canals would be excavated when it was completed.

Li Hongyu visited Amstadt in his later life and visited the canals in Amsdadt, so he knew this past, and now it is better to use it to get close to the mark.

Sure enough, after Li Hongyu said about the canal, Mark's nervousness eased a lot, and he felt that Li Hongyu had been to Amsterdam, otherwise he would not have such a pure accent, and he also knew about the canal.

"What crime did you commit?" Seeing that Mark's expression was much more relaxed, Li Hongyu changed his voice and asked quietly.

"Kill." Mark was stunned when he heard this, and then his expression darkened, and two words came out of his mouth.

Hearing this, Yang Li'er, who was standing on the side pouring wine, suddenly showed a surprised look, Dutch is the simplest of the Western languages she has come into contact with, so she can understand the word "killing", I didn't expect Mark to commit such a big crime at a young age.

"I don't see that you are not the kind of person who is extremely vicious, and you must have a last resort." Li Hongyu saw that Mark's expression darkened, and knew that he must have an indescribable past, so he said with a slight bow.

"Come, let's get to know each other today, I'll toast you." Then, Li Hongyu smiled and picked up the wine glass in front of him and said to Mark, "Tell me about Amsterdam." ”

Hearing this, Mark perked up, picked up his wine glass and touched Li Hongyu's void, and then drank it all.

"Ahem!"

The next moment, Mark coughed violently, his face flushed, and he picked up the tea on the side and poured it into his mouth.

Although the wine glasses used by Li Hongyu and Mark are not large, the liquor in them is not small, which is not a pleasant thing for Mark, who is used to drinking wine and beer.

Li Hongyu couldn't help laughing when he saw this, the Western countries were poor in materials at this time, how could they be willing to use good grain to make liquor?

At the end of the feast, a drunken Mark was carried out by two sailors and placed to sleep in a cabin.

Li Hongyu sat leisurely on the chair and sipped tea, drunk Mark, a rookie in the field of liquor, he was effortless, he was completely handy, and now he didn't even feel a little drunk.

From Mark, Li Hongyu obtained information about this group of Dutch captives, most of whom were experienced professional soldiers, and the rest were logisticians, including doctors, cooks, and repairmen.

After all, the Dutch fleet needed perfect logistics, and it was necessary to bring those logistics personnel, and some of the logistics personnel became prisoners during the battle with the Portuguese, and these personnel were exactly what Li Hongyu needed.

"Brother Sheng, how do you know that this Mark has committed a crime?" Yang Li'er closed the door and asked Li Hongyu curiously, which was a doubt that had been pressing on her heart.

"Mark is his name, Desa is barely his surname, and the 'Feng' in the middle is usually the symbol of the nobility, similar to the nobles of our Ming Dynasty."

Li Hongyu smiled slightly when he heard this, put down the teacup in his hand and said to Yang Li'er with a smile, "Western countries generally have few small people, so their country has adopted a similar approach to our Da Ming Liu, and those who have committed crimes are confiscated into the army and let them open up overseas territories. ”

"I see!"

Yang Li'er was smart and clever, so after hearing this, she immediately understood, with Mark's aristocratic status, there was a chance that she would not risk coming to Daming, so Li Hongyu guessed that he might have committed a crime, but it turned out to be true, and it was impossible to see that Mark had killed someone.

"Brother Sheng, where are you going to place these people?" Then, Yang Li'er remembered something, so she asked with a smile, who would have thought that this trip to Macao would bring back a bunch of Dutch prisoners.

"Send them to Shanghai!"

Li Hongyu smiled slightly, and replied in an orderly manner, he had already thought about how to settle those prisoners, and the city of Shanghai, which was under construction, had been set aside for foreigners to live, and these Dutch prisoners would be honored to be the first batch of residents.

As it turned out, Li Hongyu's decision to buy back those Dutch prisoners of war from the Portuguese was extremely wise, and although these people were worthless in the eyes of Mascolu, they were treasures to the Ming Dynasty.

These Dutch captives later joined the Ming Dynasty's sailors, and it was of great benefit to the sailors to understand and learn Western military and technology, after all, now the Ming Dynasty is far behind the Western countries in navigation and natural technology, but these Dutch captives brought valuable information in this regard, opening a window for the Ming to understand the Western world.

Those experienced sailors, soldiers, doctors and mechanics brought valuable experience to the sailors, which made the tactical literacy of the Daming sailors a whole level.

It is worth mentioning that this time, Hongyu brought more than ten experienced Dutch prisoners with him to understand the situation in Nanyang and the situation of the navies of Western countries, especially doctors and mechanics were the key figures among the captives brought by Li Hongyu.

On the third day after Li Hongyu and his entourage returned to Guangzhou, cargo ships from Fuzhou and Shanghai for overseas trade arrived at the port under the escort of Shanghai and Fuzhou sailors, which made the port more lively and crowded, attracting a large number of people to come and see the excitement.

In this overseas trade, cargo ships in Shanghai were the mainstay, accounting for 60 percent of the cargo, Fuzhou cargo ships accounted for 25 percent of the cargo, and Guangzhou cargo ships accounted for 15 percent of the cargo.

Among the cargo ships in Shanghai, three mountain-like behemoths have become the focus of onlookers on the shore, and these huge ships are the famous Zheng He treasure ships.

With the help of Li Hongyu, the people on the Longjiang boat found the only remaining information on Zheng He's treasure ships from an old warehouse of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, and then worked day and night, and finally built three Zheng He treasure ships before the first overseas trade.

At the same time as the construction of Zheng He's treasure ship, the Customs Department recruited many young men from the coastal fishermen to serve as sailors, and they had been training for a year and a half.

The appearance of Zheng He's treasure ship in the coastal city caused a sensation, people have never seen a huge ship like a small mountain, from his size and shape many people have guessed that he is Zheng He's treasure ship in the West two hundred years ago, for which they cheered and excited.

Counting the cargo ships that transport goods and the ships of the sailors, there are more than 30 ships of all kinds participating in overseas trade this time, although it is not as large as the scale when Zheng He went to the West, but this has done Li Hongyu's greatest strength, after all, everything is difficult at the beginning, as long as the first time can succeed, then the rest of the things are not a problem.

In fact, few people know how much effort and energy Li Hongyu put into this overseas trade, and he and Zhao Xin have already invested all the belongings of the Li family and the Zhao family, and all the belongings have been quietly mortgaged to others to raise the funds that Li Hongyu needs.

In other words, all the properties under the names of the two families have now been held by others, and the two families are only empty shelves with a shiny appearance.

Li Hongyu bet all his bets on overseas trade, so he can only succeed and not fail, otherwise it will not be as simple as failure, and the two will go bankrupt and have nothing.

The Chu Wangfu and the Cao Gang also paid a considerable price for this, and took out almost all the funds on hand to support Li Hongyu.

Zhao Xin is Li Hongyu's future wife, so the old man Zhao naturally wants to fully support Li Hongyu, the grandson-in-law, although the risk is very high, but the reward is also extremely rich, in his lifetime, the old man Zhao decided to do it for Zhao Jiabo.

As for the Chu Wangfu and the Cao Gang, because of the relationship between Zhu Wanting and Yang Li'er, they naturally have to help, even if it is to give Zhu Wanting and Yang Li'er a dowry in advance.

It is with these help that Li Hongyu has supported the field of the Customs Department and the sailor, otherwise he will have to worry a lot about money, and without the support of sufficient financial resources, things will never go as smoothly as now.

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