Rather than clashing with the Haihans, the East India Company did not want to see the Spanish intervene in the matter. "Ding" and "Xiao" said that although the Haihan people acted arrogantly, at least there was still the possibility of sitting down and negotiating, even if both sides knew that the purpose of such negotiations was to delay time, at least there was still the possibility of reaching peace. However, there was little room for negotiation between the Netherlands and Spain, and the Netherlands had only two paths, either they succeeded in becoming independent or they were destroyed by Spain, and the nature of the war was much stricter.

At this time, the battlefields of the two countries are almost all over the world, but Spain does not have a clear upper hand in the Far East, and the two sides still have the strength to fight. But the emergence of Haihan seems to have upset the delicate balance, allowing a third powerful armed force to appear on the sea surface in the Far East.

After Fan Longgen urged Su Keyi to translate Yu Xiaobao's statement, he couldn't hold back his feelings: "If you make such a ridiculous decision, then this is not just a conflict with the East India Company, but a direct declaration of war against our country!"

"Is there a difference?" Yu Xiaobao's expression was still very relaxed: "Isn't the interests of the East India Company and the Netherlands one and the same? Even if the Netherlands declares war on us, the armed ships and personnel that can participate in the war are still from the East India Company, right?"

Van Longen was also stunned by such a reply, and the other party knew the details of the East India Company too well, so that it was difficult for him to use the means of "national declaration of war" to put pressure on the other side.

"This must be the damned Portuguese doing something out of this!, these all-pervasive Mediterranean bandits!" Van Longen secretly made his own judgment on the situation.

To say that the most direct enemy of the East India Company in the East was not the Spaniards on Luzon Island, which was based on the other side of the South China Sea, nor the Haihan people who were entrenched on Qiongzhou Island, but the Portuguese, whose sphere of influence was intertwined with that of the East India Company, and who had hardly stopped clashing in the past ten years. The number of armed clashes between the East India Company and the other two parties was extremely limited, but fighting the Portuguese was a routine almost every month.

After more than a decade of fighting, the East India Company had gained a clear upper hand in the vast expanse east of the Strait of Malacca and north of the Sunda Strait, and the Portuguese had only a small colony along the coast of central Annam and southern Daming. After the civil strife in Annam was pacified and the Haihan suddenly rose, in fact, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the Portuguese could no longer become a big climate in the South China Sea, and the strength of all players in this region was on it.

Although the Haihan people are very similar in appearance to the Ming people, and their language and culture are roughly the same, those who have come into contact with them know that this group of people is very different from the Ming people, and they are not from the same country at all. The local government of the Ming Dynasty may also see them as an example of overseas Chinese returning to the Central Dynasty, but in the eyes of outsiders, what the Haihan did on Qiongzhou Island was to temporarily use the protection of the Ming Dynasty to use the resources, market and labor of the Ming Dynasty to develop their own power, and finally a play in the Magpie's Nest.

The Haihan had only been settled on Qiongzhou Island for only four or five years, and although the rise was extremely fast, their sphere of influence had not even reached Batavia, so Van Longen believed that they could not have such a detailed grasp of the international situation and the state of warfare on the European continent, and that the only people who could provide information to the Haihan people in this regard were the hateful Portuguese.

"No, the Portuguese and the Spaniards are also mortal enemies, how can they sit idly by and watch the Haihan and the Spaniards join forces! This kid must be intimidating me!" Van Longen was also quick to react, and immediately thought of a deeper level.

From the standpoint, the present situation of the Netherlands and Portugal is similar, and both are trying to free themselves from the rule of the Kingdom of Spain. Although Portugal had not yet declared its independence on its own, as the Dutch did, Van Longen knew that the Portuguese had never considered themselves part of Spain, and that their colonies in the Far East were clearly separate from Spain. For example, in Haojing Ao, which was rented by the Portuguese from the Guangdong government, there are basically no Spaniards in the local area.

With the reputation of the Haihan people, it is unlikely that they would betray their allies, and when Van Longen realized this, he immediately retorted: "If you really make such an irrational choice, I think that it will not only be us who will oppose this, but also your allies, the Portuguese. ”

"The red-haired ghost reacted quite quickly...... Yu Xiaobao sighed in his heart, but said quietly on his face: "I think you have misunderstood, we don't plan to form an alliance with the Spaniards, but just seek strategic cooperation, just like our relationship with Daming and Annan." After all, your company is likely to be our common goal, and both the Spaniards and the Portuguese can think of it, and if we can push you into the water, it will be good for everyone. ”

Regarding the possible reaction of the other party, Schneider has already taught Yu Xiaobao how to deal with it, and Van Longen's expression is also among them, so he has not been able to stump Yu Xiaobao.

Van Longen wanted to refute it, but suddenly found that Yu Xiaobao's words revealed an extremely terrible truth: Haihan, Daming, Annan, Portuguese, and even Spaniards, so many forces can actually find common interests in the position of the Netherlands. Moreover, the Spaniards have not yet clashed with the Haihans, and there is indeed a possibility of a cooperative relationship. The two sides did not even need to agree on a joint military mission, as long as they were clear about their common hatred of the Dutch, it was enough to make the East India Company defenseless.

At this time, looking at the expression on Yu Xiaobao's face that seemed to be smiling, Fan Longgen couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart - the Haihan people either refused to give up an inch of land to the key issues during the negotiation process, or simply avoided talking about them, but they never said that they wanted to end the negotiations, and there was no doubt that they were consciously delaying time. Prior to this, Van Longen thought that the Haihan might want to take advantage of this time to launch an attack on the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea, and the East India Company also needed time to reprepare the battle plan to recapture the local area, so Van Longen and others also tacitly acted together to delay time during the negotiation process. However, the topic that Yu Xiaobao pointed out today made Van Longen think of another terrible situation, that is, the reason why the Haihan people are delaying time, could it be that they are already beginning to contact all parties and are ready to join forces against the Netherlands?

As soon as Van Longen opened up this idea, he couldn't stop. Needless to say, the relationship between Haihan and the Ming Dynasty was not to mention, after all, they had already proved it with military operations in Fujian before that. It is said that the military top brass has a close relationship with Haihan, and is closer than that of Fujian, so they will not refuse Haihan's request. And the attitude of Portugal and Spain is very likely to be as Yu Xiaobao said, even if they don't like each other, but in the matter of dealing with the Netherlands, there will definitely be no big difference in the attitude of the two sides, if the Han mediates in Canada, it is indeed possible to reach an alliance against the Netherlands in the Far East.

Although Van Longen was still confident in his own strength, he also knew that the strength of the East India Company could not deal with so many enemies at the same time. If the Haihan people had done this, the East India Company would have been in danger by now!

Van Longen yawned and said, "Why don't we interrupt for a while and have a cup of tea and rest?"

"It's fine. Yu Xiaobao stood up unhurriedly and said, "Seeing that the time is almost noon, let's just wait for the afternoon to continue talking." ”

As soon as Yu Xiaobao left on his front foot, Fan Longen's face sank. Before van de Wegen realized what was happening, and was about to look through the menu to check off the lunch, Van Longen had already gotten up and closed the door, and said to the two, "We have to get out of here as much as possible." ”

"Why?" Vanderwegen asked, looking surprised. Just last night, he also discussed with Fan Longgen whether to continue to consume with the Haihan people, anyway, eat well here, live well, and have someone to serve everything, such a leisurely life is indeed difficult to enjoy.

"The Haihan people have dragged us here with bad intentions!" Van Longen immediately told the two of them what he had just thought.

After hearing this, Su Keyi couldn't help but change color on his face and said, "The Haihan people are so insidious!"

"Maybe one of the houses here is now inhabited by the emissaries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Van Longen looked out through the glass window and said quietly: "Where are the two high-ranking Haihan officials who first negotiated with us? I suspect that they may be engaged in several negotiations at the same time, and that the one with us is the easiest to deal with, without the need for their senior diplomats to be physically involved. ”

"So they locked us up in this place, and then sent a young boy to perfunctory us for so many days!" Van der Wegen also felt that Van Longen's reasoning was highly probable, since they had been in the State Guest House, the Haihan people had confined them down, and they were not allowed to leave the courtyard of this small building. All you can see here is Victory Harbor in the distance, and as for the courtyards next to it, all of them are separated by dense trees and a one-person-high white wooden fence, so it is not clear who lives there. If the Haihan did this in order to prevent them from meeting certain people of special status who lived nearby, then Van Longen's inference made perfect sense.

"Although we may not be able to confirm this speculation for the time being, we must send this information back to Batavia as much as possible, so that the company can be prepared sooner. Van Longen raised his hand and drew a cross on his chest: "If these forces really join forces, then we can only pray for God's blessing!"

"If we suddenly ask to terminate the negotiations and leave, it should arouse the suspicion of the Haihan people, right? Vanderwegen said hesitantly: "That would not serve as a warning." ”

"There are only three of us, can we still leave in batches?" Fan Longen shook his head and said: "If we leave in batches, we can only leave one, you and I must leave one person here, and Su Keyi must also stay, otherwise the negotiations will not be able to continue." ”

"Only one person to go...... It's hard to find an excuse!" Vanderwegen frowned, "Pretending to be sick?"

"The feasibility of pretending to be sick is not very good, don't forget the medical skills of the Haihan people. Su Keyi immediately reminded.

The reputation of the Haihan people for their medical skills was spread to Batavia by word of mouth through Chinese immigrants and maritime merchants in the past two years, and the most famous example is that two Chinese doctors who had worked under the Haihan doctors treated the almost terminally ill Governor Cohen after emigrating to Batavia. Cohen can still preside over the day-to-day affairs of the East India Company, and it can be said that at least half of the credit belongs to the medical skills of those two Chinese doctors, but they claim that the Haihan people have far more medical skills than them, even if it is a surgical operation such as caesarean section to save people, it is as easy as probing for a bag, and there are countless sick people in the refugee camp who have been treated and saved by Dr. Haihan.

This is naturally a bit strange to the Dutch who still use bloodletting as the main means of healing, and many people think that this should also be a type of legendary Haihan witchcraft, rather than an orthodox medical technique - just kidding, how can a disease be cured without bloodletting?

Although most of the clinical medicine of Haihan was mainly diagnosed and treated by Western medicine in later generations, Western medicine in this era was still in a rather ignorant period, and it would continue for more than a century after that. In 1799, the day before the death of the first president of the United States, George Washington, several doctors joined forces to release nearly 2,500 milliliters of blood for him, which accounted for almost half of his body's blood volume, and directly led him to die of hemorrhagic shock. It was not until the 20s of the 19th century, after long-term clinical observation by doctors, that it was determined that phlebotomy was actually very harmful to the patient's body, so that this unscientific "medical technique" began to be gradually abandoned.

But when Governor Cohen began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye, all doubts about Haihan's medical skills disappeared. Someone in Batavia even offered a very high salary to invite doctors who had been trained by Haihan in the Ming Dynasty to emigrate. Sanya is the nest of the Haihan people, and there is no need to guess how many doctors are proficient in medical skills here, if you pretend to be sick, you are likely to be directly recognized by the Haihan people, but it is easy to make extraneous branches.

As soon as Su Keyi reminded him, the two of them naturally remembered, and at the same time shook their heads and vetoed the plan.