Su Keyi didn't expect that these two people still had this relationship, and he couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this. He just looked at Yu Xiaobao as young and easy to talk to, far less difficult to deal with than Gu Kai and Schneider, and wanted to play tricks with him to ease the atmosphere of negotiations, but he didn't think about finding himself a Haihan elder. As a negotiator of the East India Company, if he had a personal relationship with his opponent, it would be enough to get a good result in the negotiation, and if the negotiations collapsed, he would not have to let himself carry the pot alone?

"Mr. Shi really likes to joke...... Let's get down to business!" Su Keyi touched such a soft nail, so he had to dispel his thoughts and put his energy back on negotiations.

However, even if both sides were replaced, the pace of the negotiations still did not change much compared with yesterday, and the East India Company side could only continue to protest weakly, while Yu Xiaobao easily rejected the various demands put forward by the other party one by one according to yesterday's road. Even though Su Keyi's mouth was dry, the negotiations still did not make any progress. And every time he wants to play some tricks to interfere with the other party, Schneider will always make a noise out of place at an inopportune time, making him fail.

After a few rounds, Su Keyi could be regarded as understanding that the other party was a master with an apprentice for an internship and was slowly getting familiar with the business, and he was the unlucky sparring partner. If he singled out Yu Xiaobao, Su Keyi believed that he still had a way to stumble on the other party, at least he could have the upper hand, but with Schneider, an old and spicy person, watching the field, Su Keyi would be difficult to implement even if he had any ideas.

"It is not beneficial for either of us to continue such endless arguments, so why not calmly look for them and see what common interests there are, and perhaps there will be no need to use war as a means of solving problems in the future." After Su Keyi tried all kinds of methods to no avail, he could only retreat to the next best thing, trying to reach a peace agreement with Haihan first on the premise of ignoring the dispute.

"Common interests?" Hearing this word, Schneider couldn't help but take the initiative to take over the conversation: "Your common interests are vassals like Eighteen Zhi who are willing to obey orders, not opponents who can be equal to you. ”

"Mr. Shi, even if it is Eighteen Zhi, there are some common interests with the Ming government, and what you said is a little arbitrary. It is important to know that Fujian's maritime trade, Shibazhi has always occupied a certain share. Su Keyi retorted. Haihan's comparison of the East India Company to pirates was their main argument for banning Dutch ships from the disputed waters of the Natuna Islands, and Su Keyi wanted to debate this with Schneider.

"Is Eighteen Zhi a pirate?" Schneider immediately asked.

"We think that they are just a group of maritime merchants who are not tolerated by the Fujian government, and they do have private arms, but this does not mean that they are pirates, and Haihan is also a businessman with private arms, right? Su Keyi argued.

Schneider responded: "If charging high protection fees to passing ships, looting places, forcibly buying and selling, confronting the government, and armed riots are not considered pirates, then please Mr. Su sue me, what kind of behavior do you think is what a pirate should do? Is it to tattoo the word pirate on the forehead?"

"The fact that a private vessel attacks other vessels at sea cannot simply be regarded as piracy. At least in the Netherlands, the suzerainty of the East India Company, this is an act with the permission of the government!" Of course, Su Keyi could not respond to Schneider's question head-on, so he could only avoid the important and change the concept to deal with it.

But this kind of trick obviously didn't work well in front of Schneider, and he replied with a mocking smile on his face: "I know that many countries, including the Netherlands, allow shipowners to attack the ships of hostile countries at sea, but the English words 'pirate' and 'privateer' are two completely different words. The East India Company's attack on Portuguese and Spanish ships at sea could be considered official, but there was no one behind the Eighteen Chi who authorized them to do so. From the perspective of the Ming government, they are a group of pirates wanted by the government, which is undisputed, and you can see the wanted bounty notice about Zheng Zhilong and others at the city gate at any time you go to Zhangquan and other places. By the way, Zheng Zhilong's head bounty has recently dropped from the original five thousand taels to three thousand taels, and losing Nanri Island is obviously a great blow to his reputation. ”

Su Keyi couldn't think of a reasonable argument to refute Schneider for a while, so he had to change direction again: "Eighteen Zhi's actions did not come from the East India Company's instructions, it was just the personal will of Zheng Zhilong and others, and the East India Company should not be infamous for their actions." ”

"You can't wash the floor in this posture!" Schneider shook his head and sighed, "Xiaobao, you come." ”

Yu Xiaobao said with understanding: "But in fact, you have already participated in their piracy in Fujian, and you have sent armed ships to attack the warships of the Ming Mansion, which actually starts the war." In the eyes of the Ming government, the East India Company and the Eighteen Zhi were indeed a consortium with common interests, so they also issued a wanted reward for the officials of the East India Company who participated in the matter. The reward of the Grand Commander, Mr. Hans Pütmans, was 1,000 taels of silver, whether he lived or died. And the other ......"

When Yu Xiaobao said this, he looked at Vanderweigen with a smile and said, "...... Another high-ranking officer who led the team offered a reward of three hundred taels for living and one hundred taels for death. ”

At the beginning of the battle in the waters off Nanri Island, a total of six ships of the Dutch fleet participated in the battle, but only two escaped in defeat, and hundreds of prisoners were finally captured. On the evening of the delegation's arrival in Sanya, the relevant materials compiled by the Haihan Security Department had already been sent to the Executive Committee. Yu Xiaobao was also fortunate to have this information because he was assigned the task of direct contact with them, and he was also very clear about Vanderwegen's identity and deeds. It's just that Vanderwegen has not taken the initiative to mention the matter of Fujian since the beginning of the negotiations, and Haihan has not specifically talked about his previous identity.

Su Keyi almost choked on saliva when he heard this, and for the sake of Vanderwegen's face, he decided to skip this paragraph when translating. This wanted warrant was more humiliating than the Dutch's death—perhaps the Haihan instigated a bounty from the Fujian government.

Van der Wegen didn't know that the content of the conversation between the two involved him, and his understanding of Chinese was extremely limited, and the conversation between the two basically kept him in a state of emptiness the whole time.

"In view of the position of the East India Company, as an ally of the Ming Dynasty, our attitude towards this is also the same as that of the Ming government. Yu Xiaobao did not hurry to end this debate: "What is the attitude of the Ming Dynasty towards you, what is our attitude." Of course, out of diplomatic courtesy, we will give you the envoy treatment you deserve during the negotiation period and guarantee your personal safety during this period. ”

In the face of such a statement, Su Keyi simply had no way to fight back. He is not afraid of the pressure of the Haihan people at the negotiation table, if the other party does that, he can still show his own knots by guò protest, but the attitude of the Haihan people is that they do not take this negotiation seriously at all, and have even begun to blatantly take the apprentice on this occasion.

After Yu Xiaobao made this statement, Schneider next to him didn't even want to correct him, and Su Keyi's heart was cold-people didn't think about talking about any result here, no matter how hard he tried, it was just playing the piano to the cow. What's more, the initiative at the negotiating table has never fallen to the Dutch side from the very beginning.

"It's not too early, I'll end today's negotiations!" Schneider raised his hand to look at the time, and opened his mouth to end the one-sided debate. Although Yu Xiaobao's performance is really good, Schneider thinks that there is still room for improvement in the handling of some details, and he will have to be tutored individually later.

After the two Haihan people left, Su Keyi said with a tired face: "Gentlemen, what we are doing is meaningless, the Haihan people have been playing with us, do you feel it? There was no progress in the negotiations, and we were under house arrest and had no access to information. On top of that, the Haihan people don't seem to be interested in continuing to talk to us, they don't expect anything from us, they just pass the time with us!"

"We all know what you're talking about. Van Longen replied with a heavy face: "But if we don't get any results, then how can we deal with the Governor after we go back?" Mr. Su, you are nothing, it's a big deal to continue to go back to the firm to do what you should do, but Mr. Van de Wegen and I are both guilty people, if we fail to make any achievements this time, then I am afraid that the Governor and the board of directors will not give us good fruits to eat after we go back!"

"But if we continue to talk, we can't change the attitude of the Haihan people, we don't have any cards in our hands at all!" Su Keyi argued: "I think we should finish this errand as much as possible, return to Batavia, inform the board of directors of the attitude of the Haihan people, and remind them that they should prepare for war as much as possible, because the Haihan people obviously have no intention of reconciling with us at all!"

"No, no, no, if we go back like this, the result will only be reprimanded by the board of directors for incompetence, and then Mr. Van Lungen and I will be held accountable for this, removed from one of our positions in the company, and leave Batavia with shame and a few pieces of luggage to return to the Netherlands!" Van der Wegen also stood up at this time, and his opinion was the same as that of Van Longen, that is, we could not just go back empty-handed, because they could not afford the corresponding consequences.

Before leaving Batavia, Governor Cohen had made it clear to them that if no certain negotiation results were achieved in Sanya, then the previous defeats in the battles of Fujian and Natuna would have to be properly settled with them.

Even now that the negotiations have been frustrated and the prospects are bleak, Van Longen and Van der Wegen are still unwilling to give up negotiations with the Haihans. Even if the attitude of the Haihan people towards this is very obvious, they still have to persevere, because giving up negotiations is equivalent to giving up their own future.

Su Keyi sat down after listening to the statements of the two, he knew that it would be useless for him to continue to oppose, this mission was originally based on the opinions of the two Dutch, and he was only an assistant. If these two men wanted to continue to drag on this matter for their own interests, then he could only obey the arrangement, after all, neither the Haihan nor the two companions were likely to let him return to Batavia alone.

"Then I will write a letter and ask the Haihan people to find a maritime merchant to take to Batavia, and briefly explain the situation here, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings after the company does not get the news for a long time. "Su Keyi can only settle for the next best thing now.

"The Haihan people may not agree, and there is a possibility that what we write in the letter may be peeked at by them. Van der Wegen was skeptical.

Su Keyi shook his head and said, "We don't need to write anything too confidential, we just need to inform us that we have arrived in Sanya safely and are negotiating with the Haihan people, but the progress is not going well, so that's enough." Poke a fire paint mark outside, and the Haihan people should not open it on the way to see. ”

"Mr. Su's suggestion is reasonable, and we will make relevant requests to the Haihan people later. Van Longen agrees with this. Seeing that the negotiations have reached an impasse, I don't know how long it will drag on in Sanya, or it is better to write a letter and send it back to report that I am safe, otherwise the Batavia side does not even know whether the three of them are dead or alive, and it is easy to make a wrong judgment on the form. Of course, they have been under house arrest so far, with no access to the outside world at all, and there is really no confidential information to report to the company.

However, when they saw the Haihan people again, they found that even Schneider did not come forward, and Yu Xiaobao was the only one who came. When Su Keyi asked to send the letter with anxiety, Yu Xiaobao quickly agreed: "We can find someone to deliver the letter on our behalf, and you can write the letter and hand it over to the service staff here." However, we can only arrange for the ship to depart south in the near future, so I can't give you any sure sure when it will be delivered to Batavia. ”

Su Keyi was originally a little worried that Schneider was not there, which Yu Xiaobao couldn't do, so he hurriedly responded: "It's okay, I also know that the voyage from here to Batavia is long and it takes a lot of time, this letter is just sent back to report safety, nothing else." ”

Yu Xiaobao smiled and said, "It doesn't matter what you write, we won't care." By the way, from today onwards, I will be the plenipotentiary for this negotiation. ”