"Life at sea is very boring. Aside from the difficulties of navigation caused by bad weather, the saddest thing for me as a scholar was that there was hardly a single person in the entire fleet with whom I could communicate. ”

"The fleet is full of dirty, stupid and savage fools and warriors, which makes me very depressed because I have always valued the exchange of ideas."

Grabbing a beautiful glass bottle and taking a sip of a delicious pale beer from China, Ludwig van der Perr, the special envoy of the United Provincial Republic for the plenipotentiary negotiations of the Chinese Empire, continued to write in his diary.

"Fleet Commander Petro, though he claimed to be from a well-educated aristocratic family, showed from his foul language and ridiculous ideas that this man was not much better than the fools in the fleet. If it were on land, such an idiot would not be qualified to communicate with me at all. ”

"However, the employees of the East India Company, who were diplomats of the United Provincial Republics, were so hostile to my views that they would not have any communication with me (although even if they did communicate with me, I would not be uncommon to those fools). In this case, I had no other person to communicate with than the vulgar Commander Pietro. ”

"Ridiculous people always say a lot of ridiculous things. Lacking the most basic scientific knowledge and the simplest logical thinking skills, Mr. Pietro believed that the diplomatic note of the Chinese Empire, which the Portuguese had brought back from the East, was a lie. He stubbornly believed that the colonies that the Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the United Provincial Republics had built up in decades or hundreds of years would not have been completely destroyed by the Chinese Empire in just three or four years. ”

"My way of pointing out to Mr. Pietro the error of his thinking is simple. I used the contrasting method that is most common in academic research. ”

"In terms of time, perhaps the Portuguese and Spaniards, who were pioneers of seafaring, contributed greatly to the opening of new routes. But in terms of the speed of our United Provincial Republic's own rise, we have easily established a complete advantage over the Portuguese and Spaniards in just over a dozen years, building on the new shipping routes that the Portuguese and Spaniards have opened up in just over a century. Therefore, it is a very wrong judgment to simply consider the question of time. ”

"After that, I pointed out to Mr. Petro from a spatial point of view the rationality of the Chinese Empire's accomplishment of the elimination of foreign colonies throughout the South China Sea region in a few years."

"After all, even a foolish Mr. Petro should know that the name South China Sea is a clear indication of the distance between the Chinese Empire and Southeast Asia than all our countries are from Southeast Asia."

"Finally, I used the Chinese Empire's comprehensive scientific and technological level to surpass ours ours to explain to Mr. Petro the rationality of the Chinese Empire's completion of the rectification of the South China Sea region in three or four years."

"You must know that the upper echelons of almost all countries have really seen how amazing and terrifying the ships of the Chinese Empire's visiting fleet are. Ships that sail autonomously without sails, terrifying unbelievably thick cannons, these magical things, Mr. Pietro, as the middle and senior naval commander of the United Provincial Republic, must have seen it with his own eyes in the port of Amsterdam. ”

"It is clear that my views have had a huge impact on Mr. Petro. Although Mr. Pietro made an excuse to end the discussion at that time, I could feel that Mr. Pietro had a great impact on my theory in what he later expressed to me that 'it was a wise decision of the Republic for His Excellency DePer to preside over the negotiations'. ”

"In addition, the disgusting men who were overhearing our discussions, who were more like the trade officers of the East India Company than the envoys of the Republic who were listening to my words, began to be cautious and courteous."

"I must admit that I am very satisfied with the feeling of conquering others with my knowledge. But I must admit that this satisfaction is greatly diminished in the environment I am in now. If I had used my theories to convince other scholars at the University of Amsterdam or Leiden, I would have been truly satisfied. But in the fleet, which is full of fools and fools, this satisfaction itself is unappealing. ”

"Although I was universally respected and admired, my sense of loneliness only intensified. So for a while, I began to have some anticipation of engaging with government officials in the Chinese Empire. ”

"Although I am very pessimistic about the need to negotiate diplomatically with the Chinese Imperial Government, I have learned from some domestic and foreign businessmen that government officials in the Chinese Empire have always been undertaken by well-educated scholars. As a scholar and a government official, can I better exchange ideas and knowledge with them? ”

"Actually, my hopes were quickly realized. Originally, I thought that I would not be able to meet the Chinese until at least the Portuguese colony of Ceylon, but in fact we met the Chinese in Goa, the Portuguese colonial center in India. ”

"The Imperial Government of China is moving a little faster than I thought."

"When the fleet arrived in Goa, we learned that not only the colonies in the South China Sea had been destroyed by the Chinese Empire. Moreover, on the grounds that "the Kingdom of Ceylon has been a vassal state of the Chinese Empire since ancient times" and that "the Chinese Empire has been responsible for the politics, economy, military and culture of the vassal states since ancient times", the Chinese Empire sent a fleet of twelve huge warships and nearly thirty large armed merchant ships, transported more than 10,000 soldiers and a large amount of supplies, and established a large base in Colombo after eliminating the Portuguese in Ceylon. ”

"Mr. Petro and the East India Company's merchant officers, who were still skeptical of the strength of the Chinese Empire, could not say a word for a long time when they saw the heavily armed, large, warship-like and beautiful Chinese Imperial trading fleet in the port of Goa, which almost filled the port."

"Although the so-called 'merchant ships' of the Chinese Empire also shocked me a lot, as a person with deep thoughts, the first thing that came to my mind was that this is why the Portuguese have become more and more active in trade in various countries in recent years."

"You know, although the Portuguese colonies in the South China Sea were destroyed by the Chinese Empire, like Spain and the Republic, even their rule on the island of Ceylon was completely lost. But because the Chinese Empire controlled all shipping routes from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, the Portuguese colonies in India had now turned from a transit point for East-West trade into a frontier region. ”

"Judging from the large fleet of the Chinese Empire in the port of Goa and the merchant ships of various countries, including the British, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the Arabs, and even the Danes and the Mediterranean, although the losses of the countries were very huge from the colonial point of view, the fact that the Chinese Empire took the initiative to participate in the trade itself greatly shortened the trade distance between the countries and the East."

"You know, because the Chinese Empire expanded its rule, the distance between East and West was shortened by as much as a third in a straight line."

"Therefore, even from the point of view of the interests of the family because of the blow suffered by the Chinese Empire because of the East India Company, and from the point of view of the interests of the United Provincial Republic, I should not be happy about the expansion of the Chinese Empire. But I can't help but think that this situation is actually very beneficial for trade, especially for those small and medium-sized traders. ”