Flanders and Hansa also have a little to do with Hong Tao. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Info About fifteen years ago, he came to the Mediterranean with Karl, Jiang Zhuyi, silk, sugar, tea, porcelain, clothing, cosmetics, and rum, and surprised the Europeans. And then they relied on these unique commodities to dig out the pockets of Europeans, and after so many years, Europeans, even if they were pig brains, should figure out how to do business, which is the cause of Flanders and Hansea.

Flanders and Hansa are to be pronounced separately, Flanders is a place name and Hanseatic is an organizational form. This place generally refers to the northwestern part of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the southern part of the Netherlands, which is close to the coastline, and roughly belongs to the territories of the Earl of Nassau and the Duke of Brabant, the Kingdom of France to the south, and the Kingdom of Germany to the north.

It faces the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the Kingdom of England, the North Sea, and the inland Rhine River system and the Scheldt River system to communicate the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of France, and the transportation conditions are very superior. It is an important commercial region in Northwest Europe, especially with the Nordic region, where maritime trade is more frequent.

The Flemish people first bought wool from England, and with the help of watermills, spun wool yarn from spinning wheels, and then woven wool products such as felts and blankets. These woolen fabrics were used to exchange leather, wood, and metal for the Nordic countries, which were scarce in Western and Southern Europe.

Originally, their business was not too big, and it was limited to the northwest European region. However, after Jiang Zhuyi waved the banknote in his hand and tossed around the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea for several years, he made a lot of money, but it also brought abundant development funds to eastern France and the northern part of the Italian peninsula. In addition to capital, Europeans also found out for the first time that sea trade was so profitable.

However, Jiang Zhuyi and Carl's sea trade materials only knew that they were transported from the far east, and they didn't know where they were, and even if they were, there was no big ship like Hong Tao's to go. So the Flanders and the Nordics, who were already good at navigation, began to wonder if they could build their own ships, and they also went to grab this piece of fat with Jiang Zhuyi.

Jiang Zhuyi used various commodities to plunder the wealth of European aristocrats, and at the same time brought over a lot of technologies that were not clear to Europe. Unless the technology is tightly covered, no one should show it, otherwise as long as it is taken out and used, there is no possibility that it will be able to hide from others forever. Karl and Jiang Zhu intended to sail in and out of their galleons in the Mediterranean, and they also used Karl Fort as a social place, who can guarantee that there will not be a guy who is good at sailing or shipbuilding among the people who come here? Who can guarantee that there are not a few craftsmen skilled in smelting, forging and casting among these people?

I don't know when the Flemish people were secretly copying Karl's battleship. They basically do not appear in the Mediterranean, and the sphere of influence of Carl and Jiang Zhuyi cannot reach the English Channel and the seas further north, so everyone does not know who is doing what.

Many years passed like this, until one day five years ago, Karl and Jiang Zhuyi suddenly discovered that from time to time from outside the Strait of Gibraltar, galleons resembling their own warships entered the Mediterranean. Upon closer inquiry, I found out that it was a merchant organization called the Flemish Hanseatic Army, and they were selling whale oil from the North Sea to the Venetians and Greeks.

Whale oil! Carl was in a hurry at that time, this is his unique product, although it is not as fast as Jiang Zhuyi's loan shark, but it is not a small amount. Hand crossbows made of whale baleen and whalebone alone can be sold a lot every year, whale meat and whale skin are good things in the Mediterranean market, and whale oil is more profitable, so why is there suddenly another competitor who deals in whale products?

Is there any way to stop someone else from whaling? No, the whale is not surnamed Friedrich, whoever wants to kill whomever he wants, the Pope has no right to interfere. But Karl had a way to keep the ships carrying whale oil out of the Mediterranean, and he sent ships to block the Strait of Gibraltar and forbid the passage of ships that looked like his own warships.

At that time, Karl was still very restrained and did not fire directly at these ships. Because he had inquired privately about the origin of this Flemish Hansea, he was a little frightened by the information he received.

At this time, the Flemish Hanseatic was no longer just a Flemish merchant guild, it was a large alliance of North German nobles, Danish nobles, French nobles, English nobles, and even Scandinavian nobles and Baltic nobles. As long as there is a city and region with full sovereignty, you can apply to join this alliance, and then everyone has the money to contribute, the technology to produce the technology, the materials to produce the materials, and everyone collects firewood and flames, and partners together to do monopoly business. Its routes have covered the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and the farthest is said to have reached the port of Riga.

It would be better to shoot at the ships of this alliance for no reason, if they caught up with the ships of England and France, it would be better to say something, anyway, Friedrich II had always been not very good with these two countries, and if he fought, he would fight, and if he was not satisfied, he would send ships to the Mediterranean to compete and compete. But if you hit the ships of other countries, especially the North German princes, it would be a bit of a problem. Anyway, Friedrich II is also the emperor who has been crowned by the pope, and the Kingdom of Germany also belongs to the empire, although the nobles over there don't listen to the emperor very much, but you can't beat people, it's not to make trouble for yourself.

Fortunately, the ships carrying the flemish Hanseatic flag did not conflict with Karl, and promised not to transport whale oil to the Mediterranean in the future. It is estimated that they are also trying to enter the Mediterranean Sea to see the effect. When encountering such a tough master as Carl, and occupying Karl Fort with such a superior geographical location, it is impossible to take advantage of the fight.

Carl and Jiang Zhuyi didn't take this matter to heart, thinking it was just a small episode, and no one thought that it would be a big trouble. This can't be blamed on the two of them for being careless, they don't have Hong Tao's memory of future generations, they have no concept of Beihai and Northern Europe at all, they all think that it is a cold, poor, backward, and barbarian region full of mountains.

As for the kind of ship that looked a little like his own battleship, Karl went up to look at it, and then he didn't take it to heart. That kind of ship is a bit similar in appearance, with only one deck inside, no guns, only two masts, and is essentially no different from a hot \ Na \ sub sailing ship. It's nothing more than an outer keel at the bottom of the ship, which is more suitable for ocean sailing.

In the past few years, Carl and Jiang Zhuyi have been busy pouring their own private goods to North America, and the other has been busy building their own castles, and no one has thought about this matter anymore, nor has they thought of mentioning it to Hong Tao, and it is estimated that they have forgotten about this matter themselves.

But since the beginning of this year, the situation has suddenly changed dramatically. The Flemish Hanseatic galleons began to transport whale oil into the Mediterranean again, and there was a large fleet of more than a dozen ships, including several three-masted galleons, and Karl's Shark-class battleships were carved out of a mold, with a larger displacement.

Carl was not in Fort Carl at the time, Jiang Zhuyi didn't know much about naval warfare, and sent two of his own warships to try to intercept them, but the other party fired first, so scared that Jiang Zhuyi quickly summoned his battleship back, for fear that he would be beaten more and less dumplings.

Afterwards, the other party also sent a ship to deliver a letter, which was very strongly worded, which probably meant that Karl had no right to prevent their ship from entering the Mediterranean, and they could not care what Karl sold. In addition, they unilaterally assigned a whaling area to Karl, and Karl was not allowed to go whaling in the waters north of the Strait of Gibraltar. If they don't heed the advice, they will sink one and their ship won't go into the waters south of the Strait of Gibraltar.

After that, the whaling ship of Fort Karl encountered the whaling ship of the other side twice at sea, and without saying a word, the whaling ship of Fort Karl won by virtue of its more experience in naval warfare, fast firing speed of naval guns, and long firing distance. This is the third time that Hong Tao has encountered, and if he hadn't happened to pass by with the fleet, it would be good to estimate that two of the three whaling ships would have returned.

"Why didn't Carl tell me? I haven't talked about him for more than half a year, and you find someone to go to Tripoli and call him back. "It's been more than half a year since the incident happened, but Hong Tao hasn't received any news, which can't help but make him a little annoyed.

"He had been on his way from Tripoli to Cape Town with a convoy of oil tankers at the beginning of the year, and he must have arrived in Sun City by now. In the past two years, he has rarely returned to Karburg, and even when he does, he runs to the port of Tripoli after a few glances. Mia and Philip both live there, so it doesn't make sense for him to come back on his own. Jiang Zhuyi was not too confident when he said this, and he glanced at Hong Tao quickly from the corner of his eye.

"If you replace me with him, I won't be happy to get together with you, a top-notch woman everywhere, you are about to occupy other people's nests, and people still have nothing to do with you, so you can't afford to hide if you can't be provoked. I said can you stop tossing and turning, especially not tossing Carl. He's one of the few friends I've had, and if you mess with him one day, I can't guarantee that I'll be against you. Hong Tao understood, Carl couldn't afford to hide, think about it, he would definitely not be able to calculate Jiang Zhuyi's intentions if he used his brain, whether he could move or not, and he had to take care of his own face.

"You are really ruthless, you can say such hurtful words to me, it has been in vain for me to guard these belongings for you day and night for so many years. It's not for you! Didn't you say that this is very important, his brain is not good, I just help him manage it, and in the end it is not human. Jiang Zhuyi didn't take Hong Tao's words as a joke, and immediately made a very wronged look.

(To be continued.) )