Schneider did not expect to be able to persuade the Portuguese to obediently hand over control of the Strait of Malacca with his own mouth, although his verbal skills were indeed good, but the Portuguese have a hundred years of interests in the area, how can a few words fool him into letting go of power. The main reason why the pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info wants to bring up Thomas is to blow the wind to the Portuguese first, so that they can be psychologically prepared.

The function of Haihan's base at Sing Dao, which exits at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, is to control the sea control in the waters of Malacca and open up the shipping route from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, so as to prepare Haihan for the next step to extend its tentacles to the South Asian subcontinent and even the Middle East. This move is the top priority of Haihan's long-term development strategy, and its strategic significance is no less than Haihan's control of the Fujian Strait in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty. Regardless of whether it is the Portuguese, the Dutch or any other force that is now sitting in the Strait of Malacca, Haihan will definitely go on this move, at most because of the difference in attitude due to kinship. Whether the Portuguese agree or not will not affect the decision that Haihan has already made.

Of course, given the fact that the two sides have had a fairly tacit relationship in recent years, Schneider and not the military would raise the matter with the Portuguese representatives, at least in terms of attitude, and leave a little buffer for both sides. If the object of Thomas's hard refusal is Yan Chujie, then maybe Yan will have to lose some weighty scenes to shock Thomas. But Schneider will not be so resolute, he will express the attitude of the Haihan Executive Committee on this matter more tactfully.

"The Board of Directors attaches great importance to the ownership of the Straits of Malacca, and it is no exaggeration to say that it will affect the prospects for future cooperation between our two countries in trade and other areas. If your country rejects our proposal, then it is possible that the trade activities of your merchants along the Daming coast will also be subject to certain restrictions. ”

Although the country was not yet formally established, Schneider still used the term "two countries" to describe the relationship between the two countries, but Thomas would not care about such details, and the Portuguese had long since regarded Haihan as an ordinary civilian armed force or commercial organization. He was more concerned with the extent to which Schneider would call the "restrictions" and what impact they would have on Portuguese trade activities.

But Schneider handled it very well, and he didn't continue to say it here, which made Thomas have a faint bad premonition in his heart, and he had to emphasize to Schneider again the role of Portugal in the East-West trade system: "Mr. Schneider, if you ...... If your country is really trying to restrict the trade activities of Portuguese merchants, I think that such an unwise move would also harm your own interests. Without us shipping these goods produced by the Ming Dynasty to the West for sale, would you Haihan be able to digest all these sources by yourself?"

"Of course not. Schneider frankly admitted the problem pointed out by Thomas, but he changed his tone and said: "But Mr. Thomas probably forgot one thing, you are not the only Western country that cooperates with us now. ”

Thomas was secretly shocked in his heart, he really didn't expect Schneider to use this matter to blackmail him. Nowadays, in addition to Portugal, the Western countries that are also trading and cooperating with the Haihan people are naturally the Netherlands, and the opportunity for the normalization of relations between the two sides began with the talks on Ambuna Island just over two months ago, so that Thomas did not remember this role reversal of the Netherlands, and subconsciously regarded it as a common rival between the Haihan and his own family.

The Dutch gave up most of their rights in Northeast Asia in exchange for a maritime and trade agreement with Haihan and the opportunity to compete with Portugal in Northeast Asia. Of course, in terms of specific treatment, the Netherlands, which has just changed camps, is certainly not as good as Portugal, which has reached in-depth cooperation with Haihan, and the scope of commercial and trade activities is extremely strictly restricted, but if Haihan wants to use the resources in his hands to support the Dutch, it will not take too long to form a competitive situation with Portugal. After all, Fuguang and Zhejiang, most of the share of import and export trade is controlled by Haihan, who Haihan wants to give resources to is a matter of one sentence, and the Dutch will definitely not refuse the opportunity to fall from the sky.

Schneider's meaning is obvious, without Zhang Butcher will not eat hairy pigs, even if the Portuguese trade rights in the Ming coast are restricted, Haihan can also transfer the share to the Dutch who are also engaged in maritime trade between the East and the West, and the maritime trade route between the East and the West will not fluctuate significantly due to the restrictions imposed by the Portuguese. If the Portuguese try to negotiate with sea capacity, they could shoot themselves in the foot.

This change of situation is really delicate, and before that, during the negotiations between Haihan and the Dutch East India Company on a trade agreement, Portugal was still a very deterrent card in Haihan's hand, and the East India Company was willing to agree to Haihan's harsh conditions, in large part because of the fear that Portugal would monopolize the trade share of Northeast Asia. But time has passed, and the side that is now feared seems to have been replaced by Portugal, and the Dutch East India Company, which was once a rival to Haihan, has now become a weapon of trade war in the hands of Haihan.

Thomas's current mood can only be described as depressed, his intention was to get some benefits from Haihan's side and strive for a larger range of activities for Portuguese merchants, but he never expected that Schneider had already dug a pit and waited for him to jump in. Naturally, the control of the Strait of Malacca cannot be discarded at will, but the Haihan people used trade rights to threaten each other, and even pulled out the Netherlands as a competitor, which would also be a big trouble if it was not settled. Neither side can be lost, but looking at the current attitude of the Haihan people, it is probably impossible to catch both sides.

At present, the impasse in the negotiations does not seem to be easy to resolve, mainly because Portugal has no quid pro quo at all, while Haihan firmly holds the initiative and has a fearless attitude. If Portugal refuses to give in, then Haihan can really use a lot of back-ups, but Portugal may not be able to deal with it calmly. Thomas thought about it, but decided to use delaying tactics, which was probably the only trick that could work at the moment when the Haihan people were unwilling to make concessions.

"Mr. Schneider, I beg your pardon for my distress, for many matters cannot be decided by a businessman like me, on behalf of Portugal. Thomas tried to squeeze out an embarrassed expression on his face: "Such a big matter, I have to report it to the Macau Council and the Goa Governor's Palace." ”

Schneider smiled and said, "Of course, this is no problem, you have enough time to slowly study the countermeasures, but I want to remind you that the measures I just mentioned are not implemented until you respond." As soon as we feel that the time is right, we will take the necessary measures to ensure that we achieve our desired goals. ”

Thomas exclaimed, "How can this be...... Mr. Schneider, we are allies...... No, it should be called allies now, our relations should not be damaged for the sake of such things, and differences should be resolved through consultations, not by amplifying them. ”

"You're right, Mr. Thomas, that as allies we should seek common interests, not on petty gains. Schneider replied with something in his words: "The Portuguese who have come to the East from thousands of miles like you should all come here for the wealth here, as long as they do business well, it is certainly not a problem to get rich, why do you need to get too involved in other things?

Thomas sighed and said, "Having said that, the Strait of Malacca has been controlled by our country for a hundred years, how can we be willing to give up the place?

Schneider said: "Then I'll put it another way, if you are given two choices, one is to guard the Strait of Malacca, but you don't have the opportunity to enter the largest market in the Far East, and you have to face all the enemies who covet this strategic location." The second option is to hand over the Strait of Malacca to us, but you can do business in all areas controlled by the Haihan and get the protection that we provide, which do you think is more cost-effective?"

Thomas also hesitated a little after listening to it, if it is to make money, it is naturally the second option is more cost-effective, but if you give up Malacca, the face of the Goa Governor's Mansion will definitely not be able to pass, and lose the control of the Strait of Malacca, Portugal's navigation authority in the Far East in the future will be handed over to others, and if you don't deal with the Haihan people in the future, they will be able to block the main shipping lanes into the South China Sea immediately, and there will be no place to sell regret medicine at that time.

Schneider looked at his face and knew that he would definitely not be able to make up his mind now, but Haihan's plan was not in a hurry to be implemented at this time, so Schneider did not urge him to make a statement immediately, and asked him to go back and think about it first. Anyway, it won't be long before Haihan launches a series of investment projects and related policies in the Zhoushan area, and if the Portuguese miss this wave, they may really fall behind the Dutch. However, given the commercial sense that the Portuguese have had in the past, they will probably be decided, given that the actual benefits of controlling the Strait of Malacca are becoming more and more limited, and the huge market in Northeast Asia is not to be missed.

On 10 March, the sixth battleship of the Majestic class newly built by the Shengli Port Shipyard underwent its first sea trial, and the new ship was named the "Deterrent." Although the number of guns on board was reduced compared with the five ships in between, its firepower output capacity increased rather than decreased. The military industry department equipped this new ship with the latest design breech guns, due to the complex processing technology, the first batch of manufacturing is not much, the manufacturing cost of each breech gun is as much as five times that of the old breech guns in the past, plus the latest automatic retracting gun mount, and the expensive new flowering shell, the cost of the shipboard artillery alone has made the naval commander Wang Tom complain.

In addition to the guns, the ship's steam power system is also a new generation of products that have been improved after years of practical use, and the speed has also been improved. After the military parade in early April, the new ship will return to the dock and install protective iron armor on both sides of the ship. According to the tests of the military industry, this new type of iron armor can effectively resist the fire of guns under 12 pounds at a distance of 100 meters, and even the 24-pounder guns cannot directly penetrate the armor and ship side at this distance, so as to effectively provide protection for gunners fighting on the gun deck.

This kind of protection seems to be relatively limited, but think about it now, there are not many warships in the Far East that can rush into a distance of 100 meters to bombard the Haihan warships, and those who have the courage do not have this ability, and those who have this ability have been afraid of the Haihan lesson, so it is probably rare to encounter a real threat, and such a layer of protective armor is actually enough.

There are more than 100 technological innovations up and down the "Deterrent", and although there are no major changes in the ship's type, the seaworthiness and combat performance of the entire ship have been significantly improved compared with the previous warships of the same type. However, because of this, the Navy believes that the combat mode of the new ship also needs to make some adjustments according to the improvement of performance, so the previous training methods may not be fully applicable, and many places still have to be explored for improvement. After the ship is fully completed, it will not be immediately listed in a certain fleet for service, but will first be used as a test ship and a training ship for a period of time, so that the officers can summarize a set of effective tactics.

This improved version of the Majestic-class is likely to be deployed in the Strait of Malacca in the future, and the military believes that if it wants to take the local waters safely, it will be necessary to send the most powerful warships in its hands, so as to completely kill some restless people.

Representatives of various countries who arrived in Sanya in advance watched the ceremony of the new ship going to sea with mixed feelings under the organization of the military. Seeing the "Deterrent" slowly leaving the port under the escort of two exploration-class warships, everyone was envious, jealous and hateful, and all kinds of emotions surged into their hearts. Haihan's leading position in armaments has been beyond the reach of other countries, but new equipment is still released every year, making the gap with other countries in terms of weapons and armaments getting bigger and bigger.

But the formation of this situation is not only because Haihan has a lot of black technology in his hands, in fact, money is the main guarantee for Haihan to quickly increase its military strength, the cost of this new ship is about equivalent to the total price of ten export-oriented expedition-class warships, and the cost is so large just to build a ship, such a price is not something that every country can afford. Only a force like Haihan, which has deep pockets and a clear long-term plan for military development, would spend such a lot of effort to build a warship with a very experimental nature. (To be continued.) )