Today's Kingdom of the Netherlands has just completed its armament expansion plan, with more than 100 large warships and a total strength of more than 20,000 troops.

It is precisely because of this that the Kingdom of the Netherlands dared to provoke the Ming in the East, competing with the British for global interests, when they now knew that the Ming had destroyed their East India Company, taken away all their colonial trade rights and domination, and declared war on them and even sent an ocean fleet to conquer them, the Netherlands did not feel frightened, but angry, and the most famous general of its kingdom, De Knight, even directly clamored for a decisive battle between the West and the East.

However, because the Netherlands was at odds with the British Empire and Spain, the Ming Dynasty's expedition against him did not gain the support of other Western countries, so it is a bit far-fetched for the Netherlands to call it a decisive battle between the West and the East.

However, at this time, in addition to Spain choosing to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty because it hoped to obtain the military trade privileges of the Ming Dynasty, other Western countries were also concerned about this naval battle, and both the British Empire and France sent observation delegations to the Ming Ocean Fleet to observe the naval battle on the grounds of negotiating trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Li Mingrui, the governor of the Ming Ocean Fleet, did not refuse these Western countries to send an observation team to the flagship of the Ming Ocean Fleet, the Kaiping Wang, to observe the upcoming naval battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands.

After all, the current Ming Empire is not ready to make enemies with all Western countries, and the expedition to the Netherlands is a battle of greater political significance, and Li Mingrui received instructions from Zhu Youzhen to obtain greater trade ties with Western countries through this expedition, and at the same time instigate internal contradictions among Western countries to avoid the integration of Western countries.

The British Empire sent the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II of England.

The duke, who had just been defeated in the Second Anglo-Dutch War at the hands of Dutch generals Wasennaar and Aubudin, was now interested in the naval battle between the Ming Empire and the Netherlands.

The Kingdom of France sent Philip I, the brother of Louis XIV, who was also a duke.

The Holy Roman Empire, as well as Switzerland, also sent observer missions.

Spain is still responsible for contacting Daming, and it is still Moxi.

Li Mingrui is the first time to see so many Western nobles, but he has to admit that these so-called Western nobles are not as elegant as he imagined, not to mention the lack of dignity in dress, the smell is also very big, and there is a lot of hair.

However, the Western nobles were very curious about the Ming Empire, and they began to be amazed when they saw the "Kaiping King" of the Ming Dynasty.

"My God, it is worthy of the sacred empire of the East, no wonder it can completely annihilate the Dutch East India Company, this ironclad ship is enough to be worthy of the two top warships of our British Empire at a glance, if my British Empire has such a warship, why would it be defeated by the Netherlands!"

The Duke of York of the British Empire expressed his feelings as soon as he came.

The Duke of France, Philip I, was extremely interested in the food of the Ming Empire, and when he saw the dishes full of the color and fragrance of the empire, he shouted: "This is what nobles should eat!" ”

At the same time, this Philip I was also very interested in the imperial governor Li Mingrui, and always felt that Li Mingrui had a noble temperament different from theirs, and even took the initiative to express his hope that he could wait for Li Mingrui once.

Li Mingrui was not interested in this kind of Longyang, pinched his nose and said to Philip I and the Duke of York: "This time the Ming Empire came, in addition to eliminating the Netherlands, there is also the intention of expanding trade opportunities with you, and warned you that you can trade with the Ming Empire, but you must maintain respect for the Ming Empire and respect the citizens of the Ming Empire. ”

In the Ming Empire, because of the blockage of the news, the imperial rulers still equate the Kingdom of the Netherlands with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and at this time, when Li Mingrui arrived in the West, and learned from the mouth of the Spanish Mokesi, he learned that the entire Netherlands has been divided into two regions, one is the Netherlands controlled by Spain, that is, the Spanish Netherlands, and the other is the independent Kingdom of the Netherlands, and it was the Kingdom of the Netherlands that was opposed to the Ming Dynasty.

Li Mingrui had to admit that there were many benefits to the expedition, one of which was that it could get a more accurate understanding of the local political situation.

So now Li Mingrui has also changed his words and changed his name to the Netherlands as the Netherlands.

At this time, the Duke of York of the British Empire stood up and saluted Li Mingrui: "Your Excellency the Governor, I deeply regret that the Netherlands has angered your country, and I am willing to remain neutral for your country's conquest of the Netherlands, but we do not want your country to destroy the Dutch economy, and hope that the empire can inherit the equity transaction of the Netherlands." ”

Philip I and Moxie also stood up to agree, hoping that the Ming Empire would take over the global economic dominance of the Netherlands in order to save the declining stocks of the Dutch East India Company.

Before Li Mingrui came, he had already learned about the current situation in the Netherlands from Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen.

To be precise, it is more appropriate to call the Kingdom of the Netherlands the Dutch Republic at this time.

At this time, the Dutch Republic adopted a federal system, the central authority was the national parliament, the highest military representative was the general, the states were highly independent, and the provinces had commissioners in the center, the national parliament.

But because the defenders hold the military power of the country, the power of the defenders is the greatest, and they are the real rulers.

The National Parliament controlled the Dutch East India Company and the West India Company, which were the first companies in the world to trade on the stock market, and there was also the world's first stock exchange in the Netherlands, and many nobles and consortia in Western countries also bought Dutch shares.

Even the rise of the British Empire was linked to a surge in Dutch stocks.

Therefore, although the Western countries and the Netherlands were politically and militarily opposed, they were economically interdependent.

The elimination of the Dutch East India Company by the Ming Dynasty caused the Dutch stock to fall seriously, not only the Netherlands suffered heavy losses, but other Western countries also suffered losses, but they also did not want to be enemies of the Ming Empire, so they hoped that the Ming Empire would inherit the Dutch equity transaction and re-establish the Ming East India Company, so as to make the stock price recover.

Therefore, Li Mingrui agreed to the request of these Western countries, and the Ming Empire was naturally willing to accept the equity transaction of the Netherlands, and also said that as long as these Western countries were willing to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would establish a more powerful Daming Xiyi Company, and he would serve as the governor of this company and allow these Western countries to invest in the Daming Xiyi Company.

(End of chapter)