It can be said that Van der Spiegel was still a little excited to hear that the Tang people intended to pull the Netherlands in the Anglo-Dutch war. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After all, the Netherlands is basically at the end of its rope now. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the British used three Anglo-Dutch wars to basically deal a heavy blow to the Dutch position as a coachman on the sea. The Dutch, who had strong trade capabilities and fleets, and were very poor in military organization and tactics, also swallowed the bitter fruit, not only losing to the British colonies in North America and other colonies, but also losing their trade monopoly in the world.

By the time of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, the Netherlands had fallen behind Britain in terms of national strength, and even the Dutch consul William V and the Grand Adviser Van der Spiegel believed that it was impossible for the Netherlands to defeat the British. Even if the British lost a lot of troops in the previous North American War of Independence and the War of the Three Great Powers, they consumed a lot. But the British were very good at picking their opponents and picked up the Dutch piece of fat to nourish.

What alarmed the Netherlands even more was that the Royal Navy would grow stronger and stronger over time. This is because the British shipyard signed a contract with the Datang side to help it transform dozens of sail warships into steam ironclad warships, and the Dutch have not had a similar warship so far, and the Dutch can be said to have no resistance in the face of the Royal Navy that optimizes its combat power.

Van der Spiegel, of course, hoped that the Don Army would be able to go out and help the Dutch resist the British. Even in Europe, Van der Spiegel has heard a lot of news about the military strength of the Tang Dynasty. It was not only the Don Army that supported the Americans in defeating the British, but also armed the French and the Spaniards with arms and severely chopped a piece of meat on the British. And the Dutch, whose trade involves Asia, naturally knows that the Tang Republic launched a war against the Qing State, a great power in the Far East, two years ago, across the Pacific Ocean. Tens of thousands of troops were sent to the Far East. It also directly attacked the capital of the Qing State. This war directly gave the Tang Dynasty a special status in the Qing State. And won great economic and trade benefits. There is no European country that is not greedy, and afterwards the British, the Dutch and even the Portuguese all wanted to obtain the same trade status as the Tang Dynasty, but before the Qing people could say anything, the Tang people jumped out and said that they were delusional. And the heads of European countries are not bad enough to dare to fight against the Tang people in the Far East, where the Tang people have an extremely powerful military presence, and the Europeans already think it is impossible to send tens of thousands of people to China to fight. The point is that you can't beat it yet.

The main battlefields of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War were at sea and in the colonies, and the part involving the land was not large. The Dutch did not have many strong garrisons in their colonies. The British almost always won easily. If the Tang people provided military assistance, then even if the sea was vast, then the British Royal Navy would become inch-proof, and even if they had steam ironclads, they would still not be able to fight against the Tang Navy, this logic is understood by everyone, because it is impossible for the Tang people to sell the best weapons to foreigners.

Chu Bai naturally would not provide armed assistance to the Netherlands on behalf of Datang, because it would not benefit Datang much. Dutch merchant ships are constantly sailing on the four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, and even if the Datang naval fleet is huge, it cannot take care of it. There was always a merchant fleet that would be targeted by the British, and it was precisely in this way that the British continued to gain profits. Thus nourishing their previous war losses. The effect of Datang sending troops to help each other will not be good, and Datang does not want to send troops in the first place. Although the Tang Dynasty is still engaged in colonial wars in Southeast Asia, the core content of the country is already immigration and development. A large number of immigrants in China are moving in and settling down, and the United China Special Economic Zone is also rapidly prospering and developing, building a country requires a lot of money and manpower, it is not easy for Datang to supply the colonial war in Southeast Asia, and naturally will not send additional troops to help the Dutch fight against British pirates around the world.

And taking advantage of the fire to rob and make a fortune by the way has always been characterized by the spirit of pragmatism and extremely pragmatic politics of the Tang Dynasty, so Chu Bai also brought his own solution.

"Although there is no way to send troops to help the Netherlands against the British, after all, we have signed a peace agreement with the British before, but we have a way to solve the Dutch plight, and at the same time minimize the losses of the Netherlands, and even make the Netherlands more benefits later." Chu Bai said.

This made Van der Spiegel very curious, and asked, "I wonder what kind of genius idea this is?" ”

Chu Bai said with a smile: "Genius doesn't dare to be, in fact, the method is very simple, this is also taking advantage of the fact that there is a peace agreement between Tang and Ying, if the Netherlands transfers all the colonies under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East India Company to my Tang Republic and makes it sovereignly the territory of the Tang Dynasty, then the British will naturally not dare to attack." ”

Van der Spiegel almost broke the delicate Datang production glass in his hand, and said in horror: "What? Let's transfer all the colonies to you, why?! ”

"First of all, not all the colonies, but all the colonies of the Dutch East India Company, that is, the colonies of Batavia, Sumatra, the Maluku Islands, and Makassar and other Southeast Asian regions. As I said, this proposal is very operable and beneficial to the Netherlands. Once these colonies are transferred to our Datang, the Datang will send men and ships to defend these areas, and the British will not dare to make a mistake to us. In the colonies, the various industries of the Netherlands will naturally be protected, and the life and property of the Dutch people will not have to worry. What we are asking for is the transfer of local sovereignty and governance by the Netherlands to us, with the protection of you. And for the sake of Sino-Dutch friendship, we can offer the Netherlands preferential terms, such as a wide range of exemptions from the trade duties of Dutch merchant ships and traders in these former Dutch colonies, and allow the Dutch to operate here. Even for the sake of friendship, we could further open up our trade with the Dutch in Borneo, Mindanao, Srivijaya and Siam for the same treatment as Batavia and Sumatra. You see, although the Netherlands nominally transferred their colonies to our Tang Republic, in reality you gained more regional trade access. Needless to say, the Dutch East India Company is now operating in a way that is known to all Europeans to be rife with corruption and inefficiency, which does not bring more wealth to the Dutch United Provinces and even drags down the Netherlands. With the management ability of our Tang people, we will be able to develop Batavia and other regions more thoroughly, expand the market and economy, the Dutch friends have saved a lot of energy, but they have more choices, and can earn greater profits, why not? ”

His words made Van der Spiegel actually have the idea of "what you said is so reasonable, I can't refute it". Van der Spiegel belonged to the Orange faction on the Dutch political spectrum, in opposition to the so-called Patriot faction, that is, to support the ruling Prince of Orange, William V. But Van der Spiegel knew that the Dutch East India Company was at the end of its rope as it grew. One of the important reasons for this is that the Tang Republic, which dominates the Asian seas, has crowded out the trade of the Dutch East India Company. Although the two sides had been doing business, Datang goods and Asian goods controlled by Datang had greatly reduced the competitiveness of the Dutch East India Company. At the same time, the corruption and mismanagement of the company itself is also a huge disaster. On the other hand, after the Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch East India Company came to an end, and was finally officially dissolved in 1799.

Even though the Dutch East India Company was the world's first mega company, with a state function of issuing currency and hiring soldiers, and it was also a private capital company, it was also controlled by the Dutch government. In fact, this kind of thing is not uncommon, and after the colonial company develops to a certain point, it will be directly picked by the relevant countries, which is their mission.

Now that the Netherlands is in the dust, the British may send troops to occupy these areas at any time, then they may lose all the East Indies colonies, the British will not even leave them Mao, the goods will be taken away, people will be killed, and the colonies will be directly occupied, and it is impossible for the Dutch to enter again in the future. And if, as Chu Bai said, the colony was transferred to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty still protected the property and business of the Dutch here, and guaranteed the trade of the Netherlands, then the loss would be limited. Datang is originally a trading country, similar to the Netherlands, and should not regret this. In addition, the Tang Dynasty also agreed to open up their trade with other colonies in Southeast Asia, which was equivalent to expanding Dutch trade in Southeast Asia in disguise, which was quite good.

This kind of thing that changes colonies in war is not without precedent. During the Seven Years' War, the French handed over Louisiana to Spain to prevent the British from seizing the region directly from France after the war. And because the French had a deep presence there, even though they were nominally Spanish, the French still enjoyed local privileges and traded with the Indians, while the Spanish colonial government had to accommodate the local French.

In the end, Chu Bai added another bargaining chip, he proposed that Datang should borrow 20 million Tang Yuan from the Netherlands at low interest, and provide low-cost Datang weapons to the Netherlands, and transform and manufacture new warships and new steam merchant ships for the Netherlands. These things may not have any obvious effect on the Netherlands in the short term, but considering that Datang's intervention itself is a deterrent to the UK, and with these new weapons and new technologies, the Netherlands will also enhance its national strength in the future, and it will be more confident in the face of the enemy, which can be regarded as a major benefit. (To be continued.) )