On the dock, the Dutch governor had prepared an open-top four-wheeled moped carriage, Chen Shouxu and Maiden pulled the car door and sat on it, and the governor's subordinates sat opposite Chen Shouxu.

The temperature in Curacao is maintained in the mid-20s all year round, and the average annual rainfall is similar to that of Baotou in Inner Mongolia.

The Dutch towns are built and planned neatly. Street trees were planted along the roadside from the port town to Nessa Castle, and it was almost late spring and the climate was pleasant. When the carriage moves, the breeze blows on your face, which is quite different from the feeling of the sea breeze blowing on a boat on the sea, which is very comfortable.

The horse's hooves pounded on the gravel pavement, and the sound was small and crisp.

Chen Shouxu was riding the carriage for the first time, and he experienced it carefully, "The carriage is close to being fully loaded, and the horse's gait is still very stable." ”

"Spanish horses are really good, and the best passenger horses in Europe today are almost always Spanish horses," Maiden said. ”

Pulling the cart were two chestnut Galliqingno horses, which, like other horse breeds on the American continent, came from Spain. Unlike the tall and robust Andalusian horse, the Galithinoma is a small, versatile horse that can be traced back to the Galician Sorea horse.

The body structure of the Galitzingnoma is lighter and the back is narrower, but the head and neck lines are graceful and the body is very strong. The horses were well suited for use in the West Indies, where the Spaniards had several large horse farms on Hispaniola and the Dutch introduced some to breed in Aruba, not far west of Curacao.

There was no nobleman who did not like horses, and Maiden was no exception, and he said in an appreciative tone, "It is not so much that the Spaniards relied on artillery, but that they conquered the New World with plate armor and war horses. The heavy cavalry of the Spaniards was invincible to the Indians. ”

Chen Shouxu nodded, and said in his heart that there were smallpox and malaria parasites.

The Neusart Fort was built on the high ground outside the port of Willemstad, and the Dutch flag and the West India Company flag fluttered in the wind on top of the fortress, asserting the sovereignty of the territory.

The hills are not high, but the relative difference between the sea surface and the hills, fortresses, and flags gives Chen Shouxu a bit like the "platform" in classical Chinese architecture, bringing a sense of seriousness and ritual.

The Neusha Castle is a medium-sized bastion with a complete structure and a total of three floors. Around the castle, a trench was dug.

The first floor has two fort gates, one front and one back, and the fort gates are protected by the Half Moon Fort. There is a convex fort at each of the four corners.

On the platform on the first floor is the second bastion, which also has four lobene forts.

Maiden has been carefully observing this castle since just now, and there are more than 50 light and heavy guns that can be counted directly from the outside, "Although it cannot be compared with the large bastions on the European continent, and there are no triangular forts or concave forts, they are impregnable in the New World." ”

"Have you ever attacked a fortress in Europe?"

"I've been a part of it, and it's a memory that I can't remember. The brigade commander Holrenne has more experience in attacking the fortress. ”

In the 17th century, the attacks on the fortress were fought in bloody battles.

"But although the fortress is not easy to fight, it is also difficult to repair. The Dutch had only been in possession of Curacao for six years, and they were able to build the castle of Nechat so quickly, and I suspect that some of their building materials would have to be shipped from Europe. ”

Chen Shouxu was a little surprised, joking, "Transporting stones from Europe?" ”

"The stones here don't necessarily need to be shipped from Europe, and I don't think there's granite on this island, and they probably came from Brazil." But it's hard to say about things like adhesives. Rather, 160 years ago, the Portuguese built the Fort of St. George Damina in the Gulf of Guinea in a matter of weeks, cutting every stone in Lisbon and pulling it to Africa in a carrak. What a miracle. ”

Alexander VI divided the world between Spain and Portugal using the papal meridian.

If Europe is considered as a ship, from the 15th century onwards, Portugal began to build fortresses from Cape St. Vincent, the bow of the European ship.

The Levant, Canary Island, Cape Verde, Guinea, Zanzibar, Aden, Cochin, Muscat, Hormuz, Diu, Calicut, Goa, Ceylon, Malacca, and until the eastern port at the end of this route, Macau!

Like the Great Wall of China, the Portuguese built a 20,000-nautical-mile bastion line. It occupies the best port on the shipping route, the best trade hub, controls the nautical landmarks, and controls the most important straits on the planet.

This is the true face behind the Great Voyage, the article at sea, done on land.

The expansion of the Age of Discovery did not rely on the "maritime thinking" of some literati, nor did it rely on a few lines drawn by some people on the map, nor did it rely on the construction of a few broken ships in Fu that they did not even know where to rudder as written in some novels.

It was a territory created by the European colonial empire that was transported brick by brick to Africa and Asia, just like the Great Wall built in the great and powerful Qin and Han dynasties of the Celestial Empire. If you don't build the Great Wall, do you rely on mouth cannons to expand? There is no castle, just like a certain dynasty, even if it wins a battle, it is a map to open the territory, it is not tenable at all, and it is pushed back by various barbarians in a short time. In order to satisfy the great joy and steal the bell, the monarch family had no choice but to use his hands and feet in the history books in the lost states and counties of the overseas Chinese rule in the interior, so that people who did not read the historical materials carefully thought that the territory was still under the control of that dynasty.

On the contrary, Portugal, which is now in its heyday, has been suppressed by the Dutch and gradually lost its trade dominance in Southeast Asia, but relying on the castles built by successive dynasties, Portugal is still able to control the coastal routes of the Indian Ocean.

Chatting with Maiden about history, Chen Shouxu remembered a lot of things, mixed tastes.

When the carriage arrived in front of Half Moon Castle, Maiden and Chen Shouxu got out of the carriage and walked into the castle. Many important places on the first floor of the castle are solid, and the rooms are mostly used to store food and ammunition, and the prison of the castle is also on this level.

Ascend the dimly lit staircase to the second floor of the castle, where soldiers live, and a 24-pounder Kofilin cannon weighing 3 tons on a gun mount. The swarthy muzzles of the guns shook the entire harbor. The area of the fortress is not large, but the amount of earth and stone is very large, and the scale of the building is not small. Maiden said that the forts of Neusat Fort can hold 2,000 people and store food for more than two years, and the ammunition is measured by the intensity of the war in the West Indies, and it is estimated that the ammunition may not run out when the food is eaten.

On the third floor, there is no castle building, and when you go up the staircase, you are greeted by the Doge's Palace, which, according to Dutch custom, is flanked on one side by the church, and on the other side is the office of the West India Company's clerks, assistant merchants, and accountants in Curacao. In front of the Governor's Palace, standing in front of the harbor, the two most eye-catching flags, the West India Company's flag, with the letters W.I.C. added to the flag.

There weren't too many guard of honor in front of the governor's palace, just one guard standing guard. Even in the entire castle, there were not many soldiers that Chen Shouxu could see along the way, some were white, and more were blacks and mixed-race. The current governor of Curacao is named Arthur. Littmanin, who administered the three islands of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, was directly under the leadership of Moritz of Nassau-Siegen, the West Indian governor of Sife.

Sunlight streams into the governor's office through the Renaissance-style windows, and a portrait of Prince Orange's first mate hangs on the wall. The overall style of the room is quite simple, and there is no carved ornamentation.

Behind his desk, Governor Litmanning stood up, of medium build, looking about the same age as Grover.

The two sides introduced each other and said a few brief greetings. Chen Shouxu was the main talker, and Maiden was translated.

Litmanning did not put on an official stand, the style of the Dutch company was still very pragmatic in this era, the sea was mixed, the strength spoke, and the West India Company was not yet a monster like the East India Company. He directly stated the reason for inviting Chen Shouxu to the Governor's Palace, "I invited you two here to discuss with you the possibility of jointly fighting against Spain at present. ”

And so it was. Chen Shouxu shirked and said, "Governor Litmanning said with a smile, I am just a pirate, my strength is weak, and I will not play a role in your company's war with the Kingdom of Spain, where can I cooperate with the powerful West India Company." ”

Lietmanning didn't seem surprised by Chen's refusal, "The captain is humble. Whether it works or not, it depends on the mode of cooperation. ”

Chen Shouxu smiled, "Governor Litmanning, I have a very beautiful dhow and seventy sailors, which is considered a good strength in the group of pirates. But I really don't see any viable cooperation options for you in a possible war with Spain. ”

Lietmanin also smiled, "The captain should know that the Governor Moritz is now fighting in Brazil, and the Portuguese are no opponent at all, and they are asking the Spaniards for help." But the captain may not have known that now on the mainland, the Portuguese were trying to gain independence from the rule of the Spanish king, and the two countries had long been at odds with each other. For the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, it was a good thing that the Portuguese had kept our main power in the New World in check. ”

Chen Shouxu made an expression of spreading his hands, "So what?" What does this have to do with us. ”

"So the captain can rest assured that His Majesty Philip IV, the Catholic King of Spain, will not allow the Spanish army in the New World to reinforce the Portuguese on a large scale as he did in the Battle of El Salvador more than a dozen years ago, and his main fleet will have to stay in Europe. I'm not asking you to help defend the port of Willemstad, I can defend it myself. ”

"And what is the Governor's desired mode of cooperation?"

"According to the latest information from the mainland, although His Majesty Catholicism only wants to end the war with our country and France in Europe as soon as possible, there is no hope of restoring the glory of our ancestors. But the Genoese bankers, who stood behind the Spanish colonial empire, wanted to make a last-ditch effort. ”

Chen Shouxu listened with great interest to Litmanning's talk about the situation in continental Europe, and this was the first time.

"Monsieur Maiden and I are both from Germany, and you may have heard the saying that the Catholic king was the master of silver, while the Genoese merchant controlled his vaults with bills of exchange and securities."

Maiden, as a German, signaled that he had heard the proverb. Only then did Chen Shouxu know that Littmanning was also German, but it was not surprising that even the Nassau family was from Germany.

Littmanning said in an inquiring tone, "I wonder if you two would be interested in hearing me talk about history?" ”

Of course, chatting Chen Shouxuan will not object.

"Eighty years ago, Genoese merchants squeezed German bankers out of the Spanish business with promissory notes, and Germany was represented by the Fugue firms. The Genoese held a Piacenza financial fair in Italy, which was held four times a year, at which bills and securities were traded. Thanks to the high level of liquidity, they have reduced the interest rate on their loans to 2.5% to 5% per annum. They actually raised money from all over Italy, including Venice and Tuscany, through the Piacenza Stock Exchange, a low-interest cost loan that no one could compete with. ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, I remember that a few years after that the United Provincial Republic declared independence from Spain, threatening the financial centre of Spain, Antwerp in Flanders. I cannot say that the independence of the United Provinces and Republics necessarily has anything to do with it, but it would be arbitrary to say that it has nothing to do with it. ”

Litmanning could only laugh at the behind-the-scenes information about the role of the North German bankers in the process of his country's independence. "The present situation in Europe is such that anyone can see that the United Provinces and Republics will achieve a complete victory over Spain. The era of Genoese merchants controlling European finance was coming to an end, and even the Piacenza trade fair had ceased to take place. But as I understand it, there are some Genoese who are not reconciled. They still control the Andalusian merchant group and, by extension, the Indian Trade Agency in Seville. Having lost on the frontal battlefield, they wanted to delay their death by other means. ”

Chen Shouxu seemed to understand something, "Financing the Atlantic route that broke the belligerent attack on the Netherlands?" ”

Littmanning's expression showed that Chen Shouxu's guess was quite close to the answer, "The captain guessed part of the truth. Since the Spanish kingdom was unable to protect their interests, the Genoese intended to do it themselves. ”

Maiden was curious, "What can a merchant do?" “

Litmanin shook his head, "The full deployment of the Genoese may only be known to them, and we only have two information. In the Viceroyalty of Peru, they first helped the younger brother of the Marquis of Navas buy the position of Governor of Grenada, which was very independent and did not fully obey the vice-governor of Peru in Lima. Now Grenada's garrison fleet is ready to move in Katanach, forcing me to shrink my fleet around the harbor. Then they hired Wallace, a Scottish pirate who occupied Belize, to disrupt Curacao's route to North and South America. ”

Chen Shouxu understood, "The Governor means to hire us to fight the Scottish pirates?" ”

"The captain reacted quickly, and my fleet really needs help dealing with the threat of Scottish pirates right now to ensure the safety of Willemstad." ”

Chen Shouxu held his chin and thought for a while, "The Scottish pirates will wait a minute, what is the other news that the governor just said?" ”

"In the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Genoese financed a Castilian nobleman to form a privateer company to fight piracy in the Bahamas in order to reduce Spain's losses in the New World. Now the privateer's small fleet should be on its way to the New World. If I'm not mistaken, Captain Orderly has a lot of connections to Bahamian pirates, right? ”

Chen Shouxu quickly exchanged glances with Maiden, which was shocking news for the pirates.