"Qian Tiandun, this guy is really fast!" When Tao Donglai got the telegram report sent back by Penghu, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. He looked up at Yan Chujie, who personally sent the message, and said, "Then is the Military Commission planning to approve his proposal and take the island of Taiwan as the next target for occupation?"

"Lao Tao, you should be very clear about how much the establishment of a colony on the island of Taiwan will play a role in our future development. Some people are now only staring at the refugees on the Jiaodong Peninsula and are thinking of opening up new bases in the northern seas as much as possible, but Penghu has only produced a lot of production? Can it supply the material needs of the new bases? Most of the consumption has to be transported from Hainan Island, which is time-consuming, laborious, and costly. In contrast, of course, it is more cost-effective to develop Taiwan first, and by the way, it will choke the main shipping route to Northeast Asia, killing two birds with one stone!" Yan Chujie spared no effort to persuade him: "In addition to iron ore, there are basically all that can be produced on Hainan Island, and as long as it takes four or five years, it will be another Hainan Island?

"I know the reason, but now the labor shortage on Hainan Island is also obvious, and you should also understand this situation. To develop Taiwan, there may not be much resistance from the outside world, and Qian Tiandun personally led the team to the island this time, probably to prove this to the executive committee. However, the amount of manpower, material and financial resources we will have to invest in the initial stage will not be small, and it is very likely that it will affect the development process of Hainan Island. Tao Donglai explained in a deep voice: "The executive committee needs to consider not only the development layout of the north, but also the local development of Hainan Island, after all, the development of Hainan is still the first priority. ”

It's been five years since the time-travelers came to this plane, and although there were a few stumbles at the beginning, they still developed relatively smoothly in general. After taking control of Hainan Island, the Haihan regime is entering a period of rapid development, and the most important bottleneck restricting the development of Haihan is the population problem that has not been completely solved.

Compared with the Western colonizers of the same era, the speed at which the Haihan introduced immigrants from neighboring countries was not unfast, but it still could not catch up with the speed at which the Haihan expanded its territory. At present, in the northeastern part of Hainan Island alone, there are millions of acres of undeveloped cultivated land waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture to turn it into plantations for various cash crops, and the plantations themselves are labor-intensive industries,.. ♂♂♂ ♂ ■os_(); Great development plan.

Even the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce, which often stand on the side of the military, have always maintained a relatively neutral attitude on the Taiwan issue, because everyone is now unsure what the trend will be in the next few years if Taiwan is developed first. It is still difficult to conclude whether the development of Taiwan will help Haihan take off, or whether it will slow down the development progress of Haihan's base camp and affect the overall development strategy of Haihan.

Qian Tiandun's telegram was sent back to Sanya, but in fact, he did not expect to receive a reply from the base camp immediately. Although he has been away all the year round, he also knows that there is still a big debate in the base camp about whether the Penghu base will expand eastward or northward in the future. Some people in the base camp are worried about the prospect of developing Taiwan, but Qian Tiandun knows that there are other forces that are even more reluctant to see Haihan set foot on the island of Taiwan.

On November 2, 1632, a Dutch merchant ship sailed into Magong Port in Penghu under the guidance of a Haihan patrol ship. After the dock was carefully registered and inspected, Dutch captain Philip finally set foot on the land of Penghu.

Philip came to the Far East ten years ago, and Penghu was a regular stop on his voyage between the South Seas and Northeast Asia. However, the current Magong Port is completely different from when he remembered that it was still the territory of the East India Company, and the Haihan people's ability in engineering construction has been fully revealed. The entire floor of the dock has been renovated and leveled, and there are tall hangers near the berths, and the dock workers load and unload the goods with great efficiency, far faster than the previous loading and unloading methods that relied solely on shoulders and hand lifts. The flat-bottomed cars transporting goods on the wharf are all running on the laid tracks, which looks very orderly.

The original wooden shed warehouse on the dock has been demolished and replaced with a more solid and reliable masonry warehouse. Philip couldn't imagine how much silver it would cost to bring in so much brick and stone from the mainland, and this seems to reflect the importance that Haihan attaches to Penghu. Of course, Philip didn't know that Haihan had already built two brick-making workshops on the island after taking Penghu, and although the production capacity was not too high, it was basically able to cope with the local infrastructure projects.

In addition, Philip also noticed that there were gray soldiers of the Haihan militia everywhere on the docks, if it weren't for the past confrontation records placed there, Philip really found it hard to believe that these thin, dark-skinned Haihan soldiers could defeat the invincible East India Company, so that Batavia acquiesced to the enclosure behavior of the Haihan people in the Fujian Strait and the Nanyang region. Philip remained convinced, however, that the East India Company would one day reverse its fortunes and regain the lost territory from the Haihans - first, of course, that the East India Company would have to recover from the devastating consequences of the war in Batavia.

Although the fighting in Batavia has been over for more than two months, its effects are far from over. The loss of this important trading hub also greatly affected the trade of the Dutch in Northeast Asia, and now 70% of the goods in the port of Dayuan have been reduced to zero stocks due to the Batavia supply cut, and the merchants have few goods that can be sold to the Ryukyus, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula.

Truly savvy maritime merchants would naturally foresee the danger that this situation would bring, as the Spaniards, Portuguese, and even the Ming would take advantage of this window to intensify their efforts to encroach on the market share that had belonged to the East India Company. But now the Dutch's only agent in Daming, Shibazhi, has become a lost dog and fled the waters of Fujian, and the Dutch have not been able to obtain commercial resources for trade from Daming, because there is nothing to sell, some maritime merchants have to change their previous strategy, and began to travel between several countries in Northeast Asia to do a pure maritime industry. There were even maritime merchants who turned their sailing ships into fishing boats for the time being.

Philip was also one of many desperate Dutch maritime merchants, he did not want to engage in the lowly and hard fishing industry, nor did he want to waste time doing the low-profit sea shipping, if he had a choice, Philip still wanted to be able to continue to engage in the East-West trade of buying low and selling high. Of course, the premise is that you have a product that you can sell.

In the current environment, Phillips thought about where to find the source of goods, and after ruling out all kinds of possibilities, he finally settled on a seemingly unlikely target.

In the perception of the Dutch, the Haihan people have a lot of commercial resources in their hands, they can not only manufacture all kinds of commodities themselves, but also control most of the sea trade resources in Annan and the southeast of the Ming Dynasty. However, it may not be easy to obtain a trade license from the Haihan, because it has only been a year since the last time the two sides fought on the battlefield, and it is not easy for either side to let go of the psychological baggage now.

However, Philip recently stumbled upon the news that his colleagues in Batavia were already quietly trading with the Haihans, and the main content of their trade was the slave population. Merchants organized supplies in the Batavian slave market, sent them in batches to the Ambuna Islands, which had been occupied by the Haihan, and then bartered them for the Haihan goods, which were popular in the Batavian market. Although the trade relationship has not been made public, it is said to have been going on for months, and the company's council has turned a deaf eye to the situation – most likely because some senior figures themselves have an interest in it.

Although the news came a little late, it still gave Philip a lot of inspiration. Since Batavia's counterparts can secretly trade with the Haihan, what do they have to scruple about? Philip was ruthless and commanded his ship to go straight to Penghu, hoping to have direct contact with the Haihan people to see if there was any opportunity to operate.

Philip was soon invited to the port center after explaining his intention to the staff at the docks, where he met the local head of commercial affairs, a man who looked extremely young. Judging from the color of his skin, his clothes, and his demeanor, Philip could almost instantly tell that this was a "real" Haihan person, and not those so-called Haihan naturalized people who originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, Annan and other countries.

"I'm Li Dou, the head of the Haihan Ministry of Commerce in Penghu, I heard that you have business and want to talk to me, Mr. Philip. After Lidou invited Philip to sit down, he took the initiative to introduce himself first.

The translator standing behind Li Dou immediately translated it into a language that Philip could understand, and Philip knew this translator too, who used to work for the East India Company in Dayuan Port, and it seemed that Haihan had dug it up at a high price.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Lidou. Unaffected by this small detail, Philip immediately picked himself up and began to introduce his intentions to Lidou. "The contemptible people have been engaged in maritime trade in the Far East for many years, and they are willing to serve the esteemed Haihan lords! If the adults can give the contemptible people a chance, the contemptible people will sell the Haihan goods to Japan and Korea, where they will definitely sell for a good price. ”

Li Dou couldn't hold back a smile and said, "Mr. Philip, you probably forgot that we only signed an armistice agreement last year, but we have not signed any form of cooperation agreement, and trade is naturally not among them. You've come to us to do business, does Hans from Dayuangang know, and does Batavia know?"

Philippe replied: "Chief Hans, though he may not openly support such an approach, will never object to it...... As for Batavia, I guess the slave trade in the South Seas is no secret, right?"

Li Dou's eyes flickered, and he understood the message contained in Philip's words: "There is no trade to be done in Dayuan Harbor lately, right? So you plan to follow the example of Batavia and sell slaves to us?"

"It is a pity that the despicable people do not have any slaves on hand to provide to you. Philip shook his head and corrected Li Dou's speculation: "For example, the black slaves you bought in the South Seas are not many in the entire Dayuan Port. ”

"And what are you going to trade with us?" asked Lidou.

"What about the Japanese and Koreans?" Philip suggested an unexpected suggestion: "Exchange them for your goods, and we can negotiate the specific price." ”

Li Dou frowned and said, "How are you going to get people from these two countries?"

"Buy!" Philip saw that Li Dou was still interested in asking, and immediately cheered up and explained to him: "Like the Ming Dynasty, many people in these two countries will be reduced to slavery every year for various crimes, and they only need to be bought with money. ”

"Can you buy it as a foreigner?" Although Li Dou did not know much about the situation in Northeast Asia, he at least knew that during this period, Japan was in a state of trade blockade against Dutch merchants, and the Dutch trading houses in Japan were all seized, and it was not easy to buy slaves from Japan.

Philip replied: "The contemptible people have well-known officials in both countries, and they can operate on their behalf, and they don't need to do it themselves. ”

"That's a way to do it. Li Dou touched his chin and groaned: "If you take the month as a unit, how many people do you think you can get by this means?"

"If the price is right, about 1,000 people per month should be able to guarantee supply. Philip had already finished his manuscript, and as soon as he finished asking, he replied.

"A thousand people? too little diǎn. "Lidou is not very happy with this number. If you need to pay a certain price to buy the slaves of these two countries, it is better to spend more money to bring in Ming immigrants, after all, the northern refugees only want a bite to eat, and Haihan does not need to pay extra money to redeem anyone. If the method mentioned by Philip is large enough to be considered, and if the amount is small, it is not a scale and a waste of money, the Executive Committee will certainly not approve it.

Philip said: "Mr. Lidou, although the quantity is not large, the quality can be guaranteed. You can choose the purchase object according to your requirements. For example, young women, craftsmen, strong laborers, literate readers, and so on. I believe that even if there is a similar transaction in other places, it is difficult to provide such a meticulous and thoughtful service. ”