In the South Seas, Batavia, in an ornately decorated mansion.

Walking out of the room facing the ice basin, Dong He immediately felt a sudden heat all over his body, as if he had entered a big steamer, which made him feel very uncomfortable when he was middle-aged.

Dong Huan waved his hand to the waiting attendants and asked, "Are all the people here?" ”

"My lord, all the people from the Nanyang side have arrived." The squire replied.

He is a jinshi who has just won the imperial examination, Dong Huan has read this person's answer sheet, and it can be said that his writing is mediocre. If the level of his strategy is in the Qing Dynasty, it is impossible for anyone to be selected. However, Chen Han's imperial examination paper was graded, and the examination content was more than one essay, and the essay only accounted for 40% of the total score.

Therefore, this unknown person in history has now entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and may be able to stand on the highest stage of Chinese politics and dance in the future. Of course, Dong Huan is not very old, he is only in his early forties, and his political life is still long, and now is the time when he is in the prime of life. Since serving Chen Han, he has come to today's position step by step, with a wealth of grassroots resume and work experience, humble and persistent, in the past few years of entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has won the favor of the top, and the position has been promoted step by step to the fourth grade, and by the time of the next term, his goal can already be put to a further level.

"Let's go, then." Dong He took the lead and walked towards the conference room not far away.

This time I led a delegation to Batavia to make the last contact with the Dutch. If the Dutch were obediently sensible, they would not only be able to evacuate all the people, but also receive a good amount of compensation from Chen Han.

So Dong He didn't come alone, he brought a complete negotiation team.

On a hot day, if it is possible, Dong He will not convene a meeting. But tomorrow will start the formal negotiations, before they have already notified the other side of some conditions, today they have to make a summary, so the matter discussed today is very important, all the important members of the negotiation team must be present.

Dong He's place of residence was a 'public house' in Batavia, and all the people who lived there before were important officials of the Dutch East India Company. However, the conference room was in a small two-story building separated by a house, which was a station for their negotiating team.

Although it was not a serious meeting with the Dutch, many of them were dressed in full official robes, sweat was dripping from their foreheads, and the closed conference room was like a big steamer, even if there were ice basins in the four corners, it was useless.

Because of this, more and more Chen Han officials changed into military civilian clothes in summer, and more and more people cut off their hair, but winter is a good season for everyone to wear this kind of Hanfu-style official robe.

Dong He won't bother with the problem of 'heat' anymore, it's autumn in the local area, Nanyang is still so hot, what can he do.

The most important thing at the moment is tomorrow's negotiations, which is what he has to think about carefully.

First, would the Dutch agree to withdraw from the East Indies?

In that case, their limited forces could be gathered in Ceylon and the most important port in Ceylon, Trincomalee.

Second, Chen Han could promise to give a sum of money as 'land money' to the Dutch, and then until the end of the war, the Dutch would teach Ceylon to China in its entirety, and China could also give them convenience and relaxed conditions in the future bilateral maritime trade.

It can be said that these two conditions mean that Chen Ming has covered up all the blood debts of the Hongxi tragedy in the past, and he is really going to carry on the old days with the big windmill.

Even if the Dutch are short of money, China can provide them with a low-interest loan of 10,000 pounds of gold.

Dong Huan had already conveyed the news to the Dutch through the Spanish guards with him on the day he arrived in Batavia, but three days had passed, and there was no feedback at all.

This made Dong Huan have a bad premonition in his heart.

"My lord, although the Dutch suffered a small loss at the hands of the British, the general trend of the North American war is on their side."

Everyone here knows that because China is going to war with the Netherlands, there are other people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who are in contact with Robert. It is hoped that they will be able to rely on this condition, as well as the inevitable war between China and the West on the North American continent, and pick a little advantage from the British.

"Will they expect the French to come to their rescue?"

The French fleet is in Ceylon, and it really doesn't take much effort to come to the South Seas.

Dong He glanced at the man, "Unless the French are crazy, they will sail their fleet into Malacca." ”

Even when the British wanted to pass through Jinghai, they greeted China in advance. Otherwise, that fleet might not really be able to get out of Malacca.

It's just a pity that the British didn't take the city of Malacca.

As for the outcome of the Dutch, it was always impossible to bypass France and England, and Dong Huan did not know where the British fleet had withdrawn, but when he left Nanjing by boat, the French had not yet moved. Their sense of smell has become much duller after a few years of deterioration.

"The Dutch have been expanding their army for several years. According to the MIA, they now have more than 30,000 people and are still building fortifications in Batavia. This is a very bad sign. ”

Another person who has no hope for negotiations.

In the negotiation team, there are many such people, because this time the members of the negotiation team are not very old. Dong He is in his early forties and is already the second big brother in the group. And those young and vigorous young people, compared to the money to buy land, are even more hateful to see Chen Han's army with strong ships and cannons, sweeping Batavia.

"If war can not break out, it should not break out." Dong Huan's attitude is like this. Once the war is fought, the relationship between China and the Netherlands will not be restored for decades. The most important thing is that the imperial court has no money, and after this battle, China will need to spend more money than the war.

"If the other party shirks the blame when we make contact tomorrow, we don't need to save them any face. Show us to be tough. Negotiations and war are completely unified. ”

"Let the Dutch make a quick decision."

"They either stay away from the war and seek a dignified peace. But the South Seas must be ours. ”

"Either go to war and use bilateral force to decide the winner."

Although my attitude is definitely 'dovish', Dong Huan's attitude towards negotiations is to insist on absolute toughness. Wen Yan is in his mouth, and he has a big stick in his hand. Definitely show your attitude!

Because now China is much, much stronger than the Dutch in Batavia.

Although the Batavian authorities have not stopped preparing for war in recent years, and they have organized an army of more than 30,000 people, this cannot be reversed at all. In the face of an elephant, does the difference between a rabbit and a pug matter?

There is no need for Nanjing to draw troops from the mainland. Just Chen Han stationed troops in the South Seas, it was enough to sweep the East Indies.

The garrison brigade stationed in Luzon, the garrison brigade stationed in Mindanao, the Singapore garrison brigade, the fleets of Penang, the Great Island of Great-Great, and the troops of Borneo were enough to tear Batavia to shreds.

It has been eight years since Chen Han established the capital.

Years of operation have allowed Chen Han to have strong combat effectiveness in Nanyang itself. And seriously, Batavia is not a good place to fight, it is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and the whole terrain cannot find the slightest danger.

The Dutch have been fortifying Batavia's city defenses for the past two years, and that is simply a show, to calm the hearts of the Dutch and the local natives around them, and to give them the feeling that the Dutch will hold on to Batavia.

In fact, Dong He felt that the two countries were really going to war, and when there were warships and transports floating on the surface of the outer seas of Batavia, the Dutch would disappear from the city as quickly as possible.

Java and no other part of Sumatra are any worse off-topography.

At this moment, everyone here does not know that on the other side of the ocean, the Chinese expeditionary force and the Spanish colonial army are already fighting each other.

The first step of Chen Ming's grand wish - to set foot in North America, will finally come to an end with the victory or defeat of this battle.

Even if Chen Han's expeditionary force defeated the Spaniards' army of 100,000 with fewer enemies, they would not have enough strength to occupy more land. If there was still any strength left, the expeditionary force should have climbed over the Rocky Mountains, or completely cleared the territory of the Indians.

And the war between China and Spain, and now that China is pointing the finger at the Dutch in the East Indies, the French are really jumping to their feet.

Even if they knew that Chen Han had really helped them on the Indian issue. Large quantities of weapons were quietly smuggled into the hands of the Maharaja of India, allowing Hyder Ali's forces to quickly regain their combat effectiveness, despite the setbacks. It's just that the navy of the Kingdom of Mysore was completely annihilated by the British West Indies Fleet, and it gave Haider a slap in the face, but on the vital land, Haider's troops still have the upper hand, and a very important reason for this is those munitions.

A little adds up to a lot, and a drop of water becomes a sea. A small order of two or three hundred, three or four hundred muskets, after saving up enough for twenty, is also a large amount.

Most importantly, the 'firearms proliferation' is not only in Mysore, but also in Matala. Although Mattala suffered a big loss in the war with the British, Mattala's basic strength is still there.

The situation of the British in India was still very dangerous.

"This is our best chance of getting Ceylon."

All of them saw Java and Sumatra as something that China had, and Ceylon was another center of gravity for the negotiating team's communication with the Dutch. That's the key to how China intervenes in India.

After solving the problem in the South Seas, Myanmar entered the countdown. When Myanmar is solved, the entire Chinese cultural radiation area will be unified in the world, either China's territory or China's younger brother.

Then it will be time for China to look westward.

As a middle-level official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a seedling who is favored by the top, Dong He knows many things that ordinary Foreign Ministry personnel say they don't know. There has long been an expansion plan in the cabinet from the hands of the emperor, first Qing Dynasty, then Nanyang, and then to Myanmar in the hope of India and Kazakhstan, that is, step by step, step by step, to step China's footsteps into the world.

Even Dong He heard about it and heard a hint of the news of 'American Closure'.

Therefore, we should not be confined to one place to look at the problem, but should look at it in a unified way. It was absolutely necessary to persecute the Dutch, because Ceylon was also in Nanking's plan, and the situation of the British in North America and India was quite miserable, and if they could not hold their breath and admit defeat, then the French would be able to turn around and shelter the Dutch.

Although this possibility is small, it is impossible for the British to lose the two 'jewels' of North America and India at once.

There will be trouble with the problems of the South Seas, and the problems of Ceylon will be even more troublesome. The French also managed to return to India, making the situation in India even more complicated and troublesome.

This is in no way in China's interest.

So speed it up. They can't afford to waste a little time with the big windmill.

It is better to go to war, and the negotiating team cannot spend a month or two in Batavia.

……

On the 20th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, it was sunny. A small town outside Tokyo City [Los Angeles], the Third Military Hospital of the North American Expeditionary Force.

As a bell rang, a soldier in a loose hospital gown raised his head in a daze, looking out through the window at the sky, the weather was so nice today. It took him a while to sit up, his eyes still foggy and unconscious. It was only two or three minutes before there was a flash of clarity in his eyes.

The soldier's head was wrapped in thick white gauze, and the confusion after he got up may have something to do with the injury on his head.

Then, as if he had suddenly remembered something, he turned around and lifted the pillow, opened a blue cloth bag hidden under the pillow, and took out the stack of banknotes and deposit slips and counted them carefully, as well as a few gold and silver coins that he had kept as souvenirs. There was no one missing, so I grinned reassuringly.

Every time I saw these 10-yuan bills and 1,000-yuan bills of exchange, they deeply stimulated the wounded soldiers.

A total of $27,700 was drawn up from the Bank of China. In fact, even if he loses this thing, as long as he holds his military ID, he can withdraw the money at the Bank of China.

Oh my God, when will we be so rich, I'm really lucky. The wounded soldier's eyes shimmered with a sparkling glow.

As a Marine Corps soldier of the Marine Division, the battlefield of this wounded soldier was not a decisive battle of the army in the interior, but a sabotage battle on the coast.

His wounds were left in a 'sweeping' battle.

His eyes were dazzled by a pile of gold, silver and jewelry, and he was attacked by a middle-aged white man hiding in the shadows, but a professional soldier is a professional soldier, and the helmet on his head also resisted part of the strength, although the wounded soldier's head immediately bled out, but he was still well-trained to put a bayonet into the white man's chest, and then shouted for help, and then fainted.

Therefore, only about 30% of the package of gold, silver and jewelry that confused him belonged to him, and the rest was to be handed over to the public, a commission and a share to the comrades who rescued him.

But even if it was only thirty percent, the wounded soldiers were changed to more than 27,000 yuan, and it can be said that he developed overnight.

The logistics department in the army is responsible for this matter, and even if the wounded soldier is killed in the next battle, the money will be sent to the family of the wounded soldier. After all, it is impossible for soldiers to continue fighting with their captures, and the purpose of the sabotage war is to make the Spaniards constantly 'bleed', which is not only human blood, but also material wealth.

The wounded soldier was just an ordinary soldier, he had fought two battles before, and he was not injured, but he didn't find the cellar or treasury, but this time he really sent it.

After smirking for a while, the wounded soldier put on a single coat for himself, then put on a pair of cloth shoes and got out of bed. There are only two beds in his ward, and the military hospital is different from the field hospital, which has to use every inch of land, and the wounded here are more to be fed.

The door was wide open, and from time to time a refreshing morning breeze blew in from outside, and another patient seemed to have gone out. The cool breeze made the wounded soldier feel excited, and he glanced at his urinal, and his comrades in the same room really didn't pour it, which was really disappointing. The wounded soldier yawned, then picked up the urinal Shi Shiran and walked to the door, went to the bathroom at the north end of the ward to pour it out, washed it again, and then leaned lazily against the door frame. I picked up a piece of roasted sweet potato that had just come from next door and ate it in small bites.

Man, you can't get used to it. said that this wounded soldier was more than ten years earlier, when he was a child, he had never eaten enough since he could remember, and he had a good meal of noodles and steamed buns for the New Year's holiday.

Sweet potato corn nest, sweet potato rice, tortillas, baked sweet potato, baked potato, steamed sweet potato, boiled corn, sweet potato corn spit sour water in the stomach just thinking about it. At that time, he would never want to eat sweet potatoes again.

But now, I'm tired of eating white flour steamed buns and white rice, and occasionally try baked sweet potatoes, which tastes really good.