Chapter 611: Opening the Arms Deal

Why is the New World called Australia? No one knows that the essence of this is that someone wants to be lazy, whether it is related to some mysterious metaphysics, then there is no way to know. Anyway, these four words are not the English words. As for Hawaii, I still have to go, and there is no reason to talk about this matter if I go early and occupy the territory early. As for the local aborigines, Chen Xie can only express regret.

When the Dutch mission arrived, the so-called two masters did not bother with anything, and the head of the mission was still Knight, and Mr. Nadim, the general manager of the "well-known banker" Xinghai Union Bank, actually turned into the deputy head of the mission. And got the title of Marquis of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, God knows how he did it.

The Doge's Mansion is still the same Doge's Palace, but the owner has changed. John, the former owner, was also fortunate enough to cross the sea to meet here. Sitting on the grass in the large courtyard within the high walls of the Governor's Palace, Knight and Chen Xie sat together enjoying the best black tea from the Ming Dynasty, while the others fought on the other side, fighting on the tip of their tongues.

The Dutch's claim for the ownership of the Kaliman Islands is, of course, unacceptable. That's why we have to negotiate, and the bottom line is not to lose our foothold in Nanyang, but to fight for a little more. Chen Xie's bottom line is to allow the Dutch to have a small foothold on Kaliman, and not to worry about other places.

On the one hand, there is the most powerful country in the European sea, which wants to carry out full-scale trade with the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, Chen Xie, who has proven itself to be stronger, but is unwilling to weaken the Netherlands too much, so as not to cheapen the British.

During this period, wars between European countries continued, the Portuguese and the Dutch were fighting fiercely in South America, and the British were already preparing to challenge the Netherlands for maritime supremacy. Europe, with its small size and many countries, was able to enter capitalism first in history, largely because of its geographical environment and the complex relationship between countries.

The weather was nice and the morning sun wasn't too sunny. Holding a teacup under the sun umbrella, Knight glanced at the other side of the spray, turned back to Chen Xie and said, "Your Excellency, I have a small request, I don't know if I can agree?" ”

Of course, Chen Xie would not agree, and replied with a smile: "Let's talk about it." ”

Knight laughed: "Given the increasingly complex situation in Europe. The Kingdom of the Netherlands has authorized me to procure a consignment of arms from your country. I am very grateful if you can get your permission. ”

Chen Xie was silent, touching his chin and trying to think about his memory. During this period, could it be said that Europe was still armed with arquebuses? The craftsmanship of the flintlock pistol is not difficult, the difficult thing is the quality of the steel. That is, the Dutch are not yet capable of solving the problem of steel. There is also the problem of artillery, Chen Xie's army is currently equipped with light three-pounder guns and six-pounder guns, which accompany the artillery of the infantry. It should be the most advanced infantry fire support weapon of this era.

What Chen Xie has in his hand is the flintlock smoothbore gun, and he doesn't worry about any enemies with this thing, Europe is so far away, when they come, Chen Xie can come out of the breech gun. A recent report from an industrial zone in eastern Liaoning shows that the technical information given by Chen Xie has been initially mastered, and nitric acid and sulfuric acid have been produced on a small scale. The ingenuity of the Ming people is not a problem at all, after telling the principles of those craftsmen. They will be able to produce it themselves. Triacids and two alkalis have now seen the hope of mass production, so is thundermercury still far away? It doesn't matter what kind of industrial production technology it is. The difficulty lies in the beginning, once the technology accumulation is completed, the rest of the things are simpler.

Considering that he would be able to build a rear-loading firing pin gun by himself in three or five years at most, Chen Xie said with a slight hesitation: "Okay, this issue can be discussed." But you should also understand that the price will not be too low. Our military-industrial production capacity is limited. The Ming Dynasty has a million troops that need to be equipped with these new rifles. When he seriously bragged about the smoothbore gun as a "new rifle", Chen Xie was really not weak at all. The flintlock smoothbore gun at this time was indeed an "advanced" rifle.

"Thank you very much, as long as you are willing to sell, everything else can be discussed." Anyway, the Dutch are really not short of money. However, their industrial capacity is limited, and due to the country's population and development direction, the Dutch army is really average. In the end of the Anglo-Dutch war, France directly entered the house.

It was with this in mind that Chen Xie decided to sell arms to the Netherlands, and let the Netherlands go to the death with Britain and other European countries. The Thirty Years' War in Europe was caused by the conflict between the old and new sects of Christianity, which developed into a protracted war. It began in 1618 and ended in 1648, so it is called the Thirty Years' War.

The war grew from small to large, starting with the Bohemian War, in which Catholicism won a great victory, which immediately caused unrest in the European countries that supported Protestantism. Europe has just come out of the shadow of medieval Christianity, and all countries are unwilling to return to the past state, so they have stepped in to support the Protestant army, one country after another is constantly involved in war, the situation is becoming more and more chaotic, and the quagmire of war is getting deeper and deeper. Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands allied themselves into the war, and the next wars were mainly divided into the following stages: the Danish War, the Swedish War, and the Franco-Habs War. In Europe today, France and Sweden are still the leading role in the Protestant army, and there are still three years before the war is really over. The Dutch rivaled Portugal and Spain, and in 1639, the Dutch navy defeated the Spanish navy, and then fought Portugal for Brazil in South America.

This is the situation in Europe right now, everyone is involved in the war, and arms is definitely the most marketable commodity. Or rather, Europe will be starved of arms for decades to come. Chen Xie has long wanted to earn such a good amount of money, he didn't do arms trading with the Portuguese before, not because he didn't want to sell, but because he wanted to sell it together, so that he could earn a little more, so that this war would last longer and more people would die.

This war in history ended the situation in which one emperor and one pope dominated Europe, and gave birth to France and Sweden, two great powers on the European continent. The Treaty of Osnabrück and the Peace of Münster, in written form, established equality between the nations of Europe, between old and new denominations, and set a precedent for the settlement of disputes by international conferences.

Of course, it's just a precedent, and then how to fight and how to fight. The status quo that has been fighting back and forth between European countries has not changed substantially. How to say it, from the beginning of the Thirty Years' War to the outbreak of World War I, Europe was like raising Gu, a group of poisonous insects in a small pot, fighting each other, and finally raising the most powerful insects.

There is a problem that must be solved, and that is that Europe is too far away, so every arms purchase and sale has a long trading period. This problem must be solved, so how to solve it?

Chen Xie quickly came up with a suggestion: "Europe is too far away, and I personally believe that the Ming should have a foothold in India, which should be discussed as part of the negotiations." If the arms are transported from Daming to India, and then you are transported to Europe, the itinerary will be greatly reduced. Time is wealth, and I think everyone's time is precious, isn't it? ”

Knight has long been fully aware of Chen Xie's shameless Cheng Dù, and he has no dissatisfaction with the conditions he proposed. It's very simple, the current Europe is not the Dutch, the Portuguese are there, the Spaniards are there, the British are there, everyone occupies some places, and no one can do anything but keep a tacit understanding. They are all here to make a fortune, and it is boring to fight and kill. Now that Chen Xie has made this request, there is not much pressure on Knight.

As a far-sighted military strategist, Knight still has deep concerns about Chen Xie's request. In the final analysis, the Netherlands is too small, the Ming Dynasty is too big, and even Spain, Portugal, and England combined, are not as big as the Ming Dynasty, and the population is incomparable. Daming went to India to insert this kind of thing, you said that you didn't worry about it, it must be a lie. Especially such a maritime power, a particularly advanced country militarily.

"Your Excellency, I believe that the article on maintaining peace throughout Southeast Asia should be included in our negotiations and treaty." Knight felt the need for insurance, so he made such a request. Chen Xie agreed very simply, as if he had no intention of developing in India, and replied: "Very good, I think this construction is very pertinent." Well, thirty years of peace, is it enough? ”

Knight felt very sincere, but in fact, Chen Xie was also weak, and the situation of Daming was not as good as outsiders thought. The internal conservative forces are still very strong. Chen Xie has a lot to do now, not only to expand externally, but also to fight against the conservative forces within the Ming Dynasty. How to fight? Of course, it is the revolutionary change of industrialization to promote the progress of the Ming Dynasty.

Now Chen Xie is not yet forty years old, and his appearance still looks similar to before. How long he can live, Chen Xie himself doesn't know. It has been seventeen years since he came to this era, and Chen Xie has worked hard to get to this point. Of course, the front is definitely harder than the back. Now in the Ming Dynasty, in the three provinces of Jiangnan, Shandong, and Liaodong, if you don't let businessmen make money, people can really kill you. Those who want to seal the sea again are against the entire coastal provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

"Very well, it seems that we can talk about price and quantity next." Knight breathed a sigh of relief, thirty years, that's enough. Chen Xie is also very satisfied, thirty years is enough for him to digest Nanyang and Australia, take root in India, and Myanmar also has time to be included in the bag. The only problem now is the population, especially the population with new education. (To be continued......)