The idea of a sweep of Macao and the like was of course only a whim-off on the part of Van Longen, and that an armed fleet should be sent to attack a port 1,800 nautical miles away, and even if the East India Company had such strength and full confidence in defeating the Portuguese, it would have to carefully consider the possible reaction of the Haihan to this. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info know that the armed stronghold of the Haihan people at the mouth of the Pearl River is only twenty or thirty nautical miles away from Macao, and it is unlikely that they will stand by and watch, and once they intervene, the chances of the East India Company retreating are very small.

However, Van Dimen did not think that this trade system was dominated by the Portuguese, he thought that it was impossible for the Haihan to let his defeated generals ride on their heads to command the overall situation, and the Portuguese at most played a role in contributing to it, but to say that they could instruct Haihan to do this and that, Van Dimen never believed it. Moreover, Yan Chujie deliberately talked about the information on the European battlefield during the talks, and it is obviously unlikely that it is from the Portuguese, because the Haihan people have a more detailed understanding of the war situation in Europe than the Portuguese, and they are still needed to provide reference information.

"Gentlemen, I think the focus now should be on the demands made by the Haihans, we need to evaluate the consequences of refusing or agreeing to them, and consider what is the best option for the company, rather than spilling anger on the Portuguese!" Van Dimen knocked on the table and said, signaling Van Longen not to take the topic too sideways: "We don't need to make any more useless attempts to fight Macau!"

Van Longen also knew that what he just said was not too logical, and sat back in his seat with a red face. The Dutch had attacked Macau in history, and in early 1622 Governor Cohen considered uniting with the British to attack Macau directly and occupy the region. In June of that year, 16 warships and more than 1,000 soldiers led by Konaris Rejouz launched a landing campaign in Macao. However, Commander Rejouz seriously underestimated Macao's defensive capabilities, and after two hours of fierce fighting, the landing force ran out of ammunition, at which point the Portuguese launched a counterattack, inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers. In this battle, the Dutch expeditionary force suffered a heavy defeat, with 136 killed and more than 40 captured, which was even more than the casualties of the Dutch fleet in southern Fujian and the Ming Dynasty for two years. For the East India Company, the Battle of Macao was indeed a faintly painful old scar, and no one wanted to mention this inglorious victory.

At present, Haihan gave the East India Company two options, one was to join the trade alliance, but the price that the East India Company had to pay for this was to give up the shipping and trade in the area north of Ambuna Island, and transfer all of them to Haihan to operate on its behalf. The second option is to refuse to join the alliance, but the consequences may be more serious, the East India Company will suffer a boycott from the members of the trade alliance, and there may even be old enemies such as the Mataran country to take the initiative to find trouble.

As a result, the East India Company would suffer huge losses in the short term, regardless of which option it chose, except that the former option might be compensated to a certain extent.

Of course, the prospect of joining the trade alliance was very good, and the Dutch merchants only had to place orders on the island of Ambuna or even Batavia, and the rest of the production, procurement, and transportation links would be done by the other countries in the alliance. All the East India Company needed to do was to prepare cash and deliver the goods at the time of the transaction, and then transfer the goods from the Far East back to Europe. The performance of the Haihan cargo ship can support it to travel between Sanya Port and Batavia almost without interruption throughout the year, and the total amount of cargo that can be supplied to the East India Company will greatly exceed the current level of the East India Company's own operations. If only the cost of goods is purchased, it is obviously more cost-effective for the Trade Union to organize the procurement and transportation than for the East India Company to organize its own procurement and transportation.

However, the East India Company was not a purely commercial organization, and to a certain extent, it also carried the task of expanding the territory of the Netherlands in the Far East, and many things could not be considered purely from the perspective of commercial interests. In the past few years, the East India Company has invested huge manpower, material and financial resources to build a colony in Taiwan and open up trade routes in Northeast Asia. Of course, this plan has tended to fail with the appearance of the Haihan people, and they are no longer satisfied with keeping Dayuangang in captivity, and intend to expel him from the local area completely.

"The Haihan people only agreed to keep the company's office in the local area, and all business activities had to be submitted to an application and approved by them before they could be implemented, which was equivalent to abolishing Dayuangang. Gentlemen, we cannot agree to such a demand, and without the port of Dayuan, it is equivalent to giving up Northeast Asia to the Haihan people! This means that all our efforts in the first ten years have been in vain!" Van der Wegen is also one of the oppositionists, but everyone present knows that he is like father and son with Hans, the commander of the Grand Minister, and this opposition sounds somewhat mixed with some personal emotions in it.

"If you want to protect Dayuangang, you have to keep it. The speaker was Philip, who was currently the East India Company's Commissioner for Import and Export Trade, and he had only recently been promoted to the council, and the reason for his promotion was also subtle, because his slave trade generated a lot of money for the East India Company after the war, but the slave trade was aimed at the Haihan people who came to the door this time.

"With all due respect, if the Haihan people want to solve Dayuangang by military means, it will probably be done in the first half of this year. But they did not attack the port of Dayuan, but only made a circle at the gate, and then went north to beat the Spaniards. Gentlemen, although I hate to admit it, the fact is that Dayuan Port is not something we can keep if we want to. Philip looked around at everyone and said slowly: "If we are destined to lose Dayuangang, then we might as well think about how to exchange it for more favorable conditions for the company." ”

"Mr. Philip, I think you are expressing your opinion from the standpoint of the Haihan people!" Van de Wegen said with a grim face: "The importance of Dayuan Port to the company is not something you can deny with a sentence or two! Don't forget how much effort we spent and how many people died in order to get a port in the Taiwan Strait!"

"Of course, we will not forget the soldiers who died in the Battle of Nanri Island, but it is precisely because of this that we need to take the warnings of the Haihan people more seriously. Philip immediately retorted: "Mr. Vanderwegen, I think you are the one who has the most sympathy for this. ”

"You ......" Van der Wegen's face turned from blue to red, his fists clenched tightly, and if it weren't for the presence of so many important people, he would have liked to go over and smash his fist into Philip's face to teach this arrogant slave trader a lesson.

In the Battle of Nanri Island two years earlier, the Haihan fleet had defeated the naval alliance of the Eighteenth Zhi and the Dutch, and the officer who commanded six Dutch armed galleons was Van der Wegen. The battle resulted in heavy losses for the Dayuangang garrison, with only two of the six participating ships escaping the battlefield unharmed, and the other four were wounded in the battle and captured by the Haihan along with the men of the battle, losing more men than the two battles in Macao and Penghu combined.

It was a miserable defeat for the East India Company, and control of the FJ Strait began to change hands, and it never looked up again before the Haihan. For Vanderwegen personally, this is a stain on his career that will never be erased, and anything that has anything to do with Hahan will always be listed as an example of failure - just like what Philip is doing now.

Philip ignored him at all, and continued: "Compared to two years ago, the size of the fleet of the Haihan people has almost doubled, and it is difficult to say what new secret weapons they have developed. If we want to defend Dayuan Harbor by force, I would like to ask you how many armed sailing ships need to be sent to garrison there, and what will happen to the maritime defense of Batavia after they are dispatched? I have heard that there are fifty or sixty ships of the Haihan fleet heading south this time, and the Governor must have seen some of them when he went to negotiate this time, right?"

Seeing that Philip had taken the initiative to throw the topic to himself, Fan Dimen had no choice but to answer: "According to the agreement, the Haihan people only sent one warship to pick up the negotiators, but the ship they sent was a flagship called the majestic class, and I must admit that the tonnage, firepower, and performance of this kind of warship made by Haihan are beyond the reach of our armed sailing ships in the Far East." However, fortunately, the number of such large warships is extremely limited, and there seem to be only two fleets in the southward fleet this time. ”

"I would like to add a little information. After receiving the affirmation of Van Dimen's eyes, Philippe continued: "As you know, I have been to Ambuna Island many times in the last year to come into contact with the Haihan people, so I have heard a little bit about the state of the Haihan navy. The Haihan installed a device called the 'steam engine' on their warships, which allowed their sailing boats to reach a top speed of more than ten knots and to become much less dependent on wind power and direction. If we can't break through this technical barrier, we won't be able to compete with it in the Far Eastern Seas, and all of you who know how to sail should be able to understand what this technology means. ”

In fact, it is no secret that the Haihan people installed propulsion power propulsion devices on some warships, and even many people know that this kind of propulsion devices are made of steel and are powered by burning coal. However, how it is implemented, and how it is converted into power that can propel ships on the sea, no one knows outside of Haihan.

Two years ago, when the Dutch mission went to Sanya to negotiate peace with Haihan, Su Keyi and others, as representatives, had seen the big iron ships docked in Shengli Harbor, and had also heard relevant introductions, and knew that the Haihan people had mastered the propulsion technology of ships other than sails. But this technology is 100% secret to the outside world, even the allies of the Haihan people are no exception. The existence of this black technology has greatly widened the gap between Haihan and the Dutch maritime armed forces, and now this gap has extended to the field of commerce, which means that Haihan has begun to civilize this military technology and compete for a share of maritime trade in the Far East.

Since this topic has been touched, Fan Dimen also talked about the situation he has in passing: "According to the information we have gathered, after arriving in Sanya, the Haihan people quickly went to the northern part of Annan to build a port, and we all know that they mined coal in that place and transported the coal back to Sanya in a steady stream. In the past, we thought that their need for coal was for ironmaking, but now it seems that things are not so simple, and they have probably been planning to apply their special skills to sailing ships from the very beginning. I believe that if their steel production is high enough, then the construction of iron ships will also happen sooner or later. ”

Someone asked, "Mr. Governor, may I think that you mean that we are not optimistic about our competitiveness in navigation compared to the Haihan?"

"Very unfavorable!" Van Dimen said bluntly: "Judging from all the information we have so far, the Haihan people are a big step ahead of us in navigation and shipbuilding. Mind you, gentlemen, I'm not talking about the number of ships, but about the height of technology, and it may take us ten, twenty, or even longer years to develop these technologies, but I can't imagine how high the seafaring industry of the Haihan people was at that time. After all, it has only taken them more than six years and less than seven years to develop from nothing, and this technological gap may gradually increase over time, so big that we can't catch up. ”

"You don't have to be so pessimistic, Lord Governor, I don't think it's that bad. Su Keyi continued: "The Haihan people mentioned in the negotiations that their merchant ships can ignore the direction of the monsoon and travel back and forth between Hainandao and Java Island regardless of the season, which is probably preparing to promote this technology to the people, and as long as we can afford it, it will not be difficult to buy this device, and even the craftsmen who make this device can buy it back." When the time comes, we will draw a scoop according to the gourd and imitate it. ”

Fan Dimen gave Su Keyi a bad comment in his heart, but his face was silent, and he explained to him: "You are right, as long as Haihan sells something, we always have a way to buy it, and we have bought a lot of weapons produced by Haihan to study before." However, the weapons sold by the Haihan people were not as good as their own equipment, and the performance was deliberately weakened, and even if they were imitated, they could only imitate inferior weapons, and the cost was much higher than their selling price. If you want to imitate, it is better to buy directly from them to save money and worry. (To be continued.) )