One morning in early April. Nature

"Sir, sir, there's a Rim ship on the dock, and there are a lot of Mahori on board!"

When Li Hongyu was discussing the progress of his schoolwork with Youlan and Liu Bihua in the private school, several children wearing the clothes of private school students ran in in a hurry, shouting loudly.

"Furry?"

Li Hongyu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then understood that the children who came over were talking about white people from Europe, who were called "Hongmaoyi" because many of them had red heads.

These children are students of a private school, and Li Hongyu adopts a weekend schedule, that is, five days of classes and two days off, after all, many children are staying in a private school to take advantage of the holiday to reunite with their families.

Today is the day of the holiday, so the children came over to tell Li Hongyu about the red hairy on the dock.

Although there have been visits to Khun Coop Harbor before, they have always come by ships of armed maritime merchants and pirates, and this is the first time that a ship has been directly driven like this.

"Let's go, let's see!"

Then, Li Hongyu's brows furrowed slightly, and he got up and said to Youlan and Liu Bihua, he didn't think that it was a good thing for those Westerners to come here now, and now Westerners were busy with overseas colonization.

Youlan keenly noticed that Li Hongyu's eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and she suddenly felt a little surprised in her heart, it seemed that Li Hongyu didn't seem to welcome those red hairy people, but in her impression, the red hairy people did not offend Li Hongyu.

The wharf of Joncoop Harbor was already crowded with people, and many people gathered to watch the excitement, pointing to a huge three-masted sailing ship moored on the wharf, and whispering.

"What a big ship!"

"What's all the fuss about, I think that when the Three Treasure Eunuchs went to the Western Ocean, the Zheng Hebao ships in the fleet were much bigger than this!"

"It's a pity that the imperial court has sealed the shipbuilding skills of Zheng He's treasure ship for the sake of the sea ban."

"I heard that the Customs Department has asked the shipyard to start building Zheng He's treasure ship, but I don't know if it's true or fake."

"Hmph, can those officials in the court be trusted! I'm afraid that the money for shipbuilding has already been divided among them. ”

"Strange thing, why did the red hairy come here? Aren't they in the South Seas! ”

……

Li Hongyu was naturally not in the mood to pay attention to everyone's discussions, but looked at the soldiers on the deck of the three-masted galleon with a serious expression, wearing military uniforms, three-cornered hats, and arquebuses on their backs, looking at the people on the dock talking in their ears.

Obviously, the three-masted galleon was a warship, but Li Hongyu did not know which European country the flag was flying on the ship.

If this was a civilian European merchant ship, Li Hongyu would not be so worried, but now what appeared in front of him was a warship, then the meaning was different, the merchant ship was used for trade, and the warship was used for invasion and expansion.

"Why do these red-haired people look a little unkind!" Youlan looked at the soldiers on the three-masted sailing boat, and couldn't help but whisper to Li Hongyu.

"This is their warship, not a trading merchant ship, and now they have sailed their warship here, obviously with impure motives." Li Hongyu frowned when he heard this, and whispered to Youlan.

"Warship?" Youlan and Liu Bihua on the side suddenly looked surprised when they heard this, it was the first time that the two of them had heard such a term.

"The ships of the Westerners' sailors are called warships, and the people on board are all soldiers."

Li Hongyu knew that he had accidentally uttered a term from later generations, so he opened his mouth to explain, "Because Western countries are small and poor, they vigorously develop maritime trade and economy, and then invade other countries. ”

"I know, I heard that there are a lot of Hongmaoyi in Nanyang and Tianzhu, and they occupied it after defeating the local government with powerful firearms, and now my father can't get around those Hongmaoyi in business with Nanyang."

At this time, Liu Bihua couldn't help but speak, and then looked at the three-masted sailing ship with a stunned expression, "Could it be that these Hongmaoyi want to occupy our Xiaoliuqiu?" ”

"Although the firearms of the Red Hairy are sharp, the number of people on this ship is too small, and the people of Jilong Harbor alone are enough for them to drink a pot."

Li Hongyu shook his head when he heard this, and then frowned and said, "Now that Xiaoliuqiu is hanging alone, once Hongmaoyi mobilizes troops to attack, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the government to take care of it, and as long as they hold the Haidao Jilong Harbor, they will have to give in to them, otherwise they will no longer be able to conduct business at sea." ”

"Sir, are you saying that these red-haired people are here to explore the way?"

Youlan finally understood what Li Hongyu meant, and asked in surprise, Xiaoliuqiu has always been a free and easy place, and even the Ming government has turned a blind eye to it, so she never thought that one day she would face those sinister Hongmaoyi in the West.

"I'm afraid that's it." Li Hongyu nodded a little helplessly, a single warship could not occupy Jilong Harbor, which had many pirates and armed maritime merchants, so he must have come to test it.

While Li Hongyu was talking to Youlan and Li Bihua, a middle-aged white man in military uniform appeared on the deck of the three-masted galleon, and walked off the deck accompanied by several officer-looking men, followed by an Asian man in civilian clothes.

"This is Colonel Joseph of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and he wants to see your master."

When he arrived at the dock, the Asian man shouted to the people around him, "Go and report to your family, don't neglect the distinguished guests from afar." ”

"It's Dutch!"

Li Hongyu couldn't help but muttered to himself when he heard this, he suddenly remembered at this time, the Dutch seemed to occupy Xiaoliuqiu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, otherwise there would not be Zheng Chenggong to subdue Xiaoliuqiu, which was renamed Taiwan.

"Henan?" Youlan and Liu Bihua suddenly looked surprised when they heard this, as if these Hongmaoyi had nothing to do with Henan.

"It's not Henan."

Li Hongyu smiled helplessly, the two names sounded really very similar, and then explained, "These Hongmaoyi come from a country called the 'Netherlands United Provincial Republic' in the West, so it is referred to as 'Netherlands', the lotus is the lotus of the lotus, and the orchid is the orchid of the orchid." ”

"The United Provincial Republic?" Youlan and Liu Bihua couldn't help but glance at each other suspiciously, although the two knew that it was "Netherlands" and not "Henan", but they were confused about the "United Provincial Republic".

"Alas!"

Seeing this, Li Hongyu couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart, now it is indeed too early to say "inter-provincial republic", not to mention the Eastern world, even Western countries are not clear, so he thought about it and said:

"Let's put it this way, the Netherlands is a country formed by the union of several vassal states, and the ruling officials are elected to be in charge of foreign affairs and defense, but the individual vassal states have the right to self-government."

"Unlike our Ming Dynasty, businessmen in their country have a pivotal role, which is equivalent to our Ming scholars, and they have a lot of rights."

As he spoke, Li Hongyu looked up at the three-masted galleon and said with a solemn expression, "Of course, the merchants have also brought great use to the country, and these benefits mainly come from invading overseas countries. ”

In Roman times, the area on the south bank of the Rhine, where the Netherlands was located, was first part of the Belgian province of Gaul and then part of the Germanic province.

During the Middle Ages, the area south of the Rhine was the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, which was divided into chaotic vassal states, until the beginning of the 16th century when they were united under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire due to complicated royal marriages.

In the mid-16th century, when the Holy Roman Emperor Karl V abdicated, he gave Spain and the northern provinces of the Netherlands to his son Philip II, and the rest of Austria and other regions and the legitimacy of the Habsburg dynasty to his brother Ferdinand I.

In this way, the Netherlands belonged to the Kingdom of Spain.

Soon after, the Northern Province rebelled against the centralization of the Spanish king and the persecution of the Protestant Calvinists, and the Northern Province broke out in a war against Spain that lasted for 80 years.

In the mid-to-late sixteenth century, seven of the Northern Provinces formed the Utrecht League to oppose Spanish rule, which is seen as the beginning of modern Netherlands.

Soon after, representatives from the rebellious cities of the Netherlands solemnly announced in The Hague that the Spanish king's rule over the Dutch provinces would be abolished, and the Union would officially declare its independence and form the Dutch Commonwealth Provinces and States.

It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that the King of Spain signed the Treaty of Münster, which recognized the United Provinces of the Netherlands

It is worth mentioning that the establishment of the United Provinces Republic of the Netherlands was an unprecedented state in the history of mankind, and it was called the first country in the world to "give the merchant class full political rights".

After gaining independence from Spain, the Netherlands became a world navigation and trading power in the 17th century, and the Netherlands was known as the "coachman of the sea" because of the number of merchant ships of all European countries combined, and established colonies and trading posts around the world.

Although the people on the docks did not know what the "United Republic of the Netherlands" was, let alone the official title of "colonel", it seemed that Joseph had quite a background, so some people immediately went to inform the leaders of the three major forces in Chicken Coop Harbor.

Joseph waited on the dock before waiting for the reply of the three collars, and when he saw some children laughing and playing nearby, he beckoned someone to bring some candy and walked up to the children with a smile to give them to them.

Seeing Joseph approaching, the children were immediately frightened and scattered, and timidly hid behind the adults to look at the middle-aged red-haired man.

"It's Dutch sweets, it's delicious." Seeing this, the Asian in civilian clothes hurriedly said to the children, and opened a candy and stuffed it into his mouth.

Joseph smiled and put the candy in his hand to the children, and said something in his mouth, Li Hongyu, who had quietly come to the neighborhood, heard it this time, Joseph spoke in Dutch, which means to invite those children to eat candy.

Dutch is very similar to English, English, German, and Dutch belong to the western branch of the Indo-European language family of Germanic languages, and are very easy to learn compared to Spanish, but not as widely applicable as Spanish.

In his later life, Li Hongyu learned a lot of languages because of consulting world literature, including Dutch, although he was not very proficient in it, he had no problem with ordinary communication.

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