After the birthday, the peace with the Dutch mission was officially put on the agenda, and under the instruction of Su Yan, Si Yu, the secretary of Honglu Temple, was responsible for the peace with the Dutch mission.

Under Si Yu's arguments, and the reason why the Dutch were unwilling to continue the state of war, the two sides finally finalized a peace agreement after several days of negotiations.

In this peace agreement, known as the Sino-Dutch Treaty of Jiangning in 1667, the Dutch admitted defeat and withdrew from their sphere of influence in the South Seas, Dutch warships were not allowed to pass through Malacca under any pretext, and the Xia army allowed the defenders of Batavia Castle to return to Sri Lanka safely after laying down their arms, and the two sides maintained normal trade after the war.

Later, Si Yu and the Dutch ambassador signed their names and stamped their seals on the treaty in Chinese and Dutch, and then shook hands with a smile on their faces, indicating the end of the war.

When the news reached Batavia Castle, Governor John Matsokol, who had been trapped for months, and the soldiers and civilians in the castle laid down their arms with a sense of relief, embracing each other, filled with joy that they and those around them had survived this terrible war.

Governor John Matsokol then ordered all his soldiers to lay down their arms, open the castle gates, and surrender to the Xia army, which was ready to surrender outside.

After the surrender of the defenders in Batavia Castle and the fall of the last Dutch territory in East Asia, Governor Matsokol boarded a merchant ship bound for India with his soldiers and Europeans who were reluctant to stay.

The Governor of the East India Company fell to his knees before leaving, kissed the land of the port of Batavia, and finally looked deeply at the land he once ruled, stepped onto the deck, and slowly sailed away from the port with the merchant ships.

……

With the end of the war with the Dutch, the Xia Dynasty finally entered a rare period of peace, from the distant Mengchi Protectorate, to the Zhongzibu political envoy who constantly had refugees crossing the border and fleeing to the Xia Dynasty side for refuge, there was no war in the vast territory of the Xia Dynasty for the time being.

The imperial court also seized the moment and began to digest the territory occupied in recent years.

In Japan, the imperial court ordered the first and fourth towns to be transferred back to China from Japan, leaving only the seventh town to garrison Japanese territory, while the Beiyang Naval Division continued to be stationed in Yokohama, and allocated funds for the Beiyang Naval Division to hire locals, buy raw materials, and establish a stronger naval base in Yokohama.

At the same time, in the name of recruiting laborers, he also recruited laborers in the Tsukushibu and Nakatsubu Envoys, and sent the Japanese who volunteered to sign up on crowded merchant ships and sent them to Nanyang and Simberia to contribute to the development of wasteland by the imperial court.

In the northeast, Su Yan also ordered the Longquan political envoy to send troops and horses to Sakhalin Island, officially included Sakhalin Island in the territory of the Xia Dynasty, and included it in the jurisdiction of the Longquan political envoy.

Not only that, Su Yan did not forget to continue to explore eastward, and with his instructions, the imperial court allocated funds to the political envoy of Heilongjiang, and ordered Wang Yi to form an expedition team from among the locals to continue to explore eastward, hoping to find a direct road to Alaska in North America.

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In Nanyang, Su Yan decided to give full play to the spirit of Fujian and Guangdong's courage to go to sea, and issued an edict to encourage the coastal residents of Fujian and Guangdong to form a fleet to explore the vast sea beyond the South Seas.

In order to let the people have the courage to go to sea and not fall behind in the competition with the Western colonizers after going to sea, he even ordered the opening of coastal shipyards, allowing the private sector to buy fifth-class ships, sixth-class ships, brig cruisers and brigs.

In the eyes of the ministers, allowing the people to explore at will is likely to shake the country's foundation - they also gave an example, just imagine, how can you be an honest farmer who sees that the people around him have been knighted and owned a fief because he found a piece of borderless land, how can he still have the heart to continue to stay in the farmland and cultivate.

If everyone goes to sea to explore, no one grows food, no one does business, no one weaves cloth, then it will be a mess?

In Su Yan's opinion, this remark is nonsense, how can ordinary farmers buy a ship that can sail on the ocean, this is for those rich businessmen who have a little spare money and want to invest, or several families who pool money to buy a boat and gamble, where to get those farmers who are buried in farming.

Therefore, Su Yan directly criticized those officials, expressed his firm determination to the officials, and immediately suppressed the opposition of the DPRK and China.

The reason why he made this decision was to emulate the Europeans of the Age of Discovery, who were able to discover the New World and establish colonies around the world with a desire for exploration and wealth.

You know, on the spirit of exploration, the Fujian, Guangdong and Han people are not inferior to the Europeans, the Fujian people are with the belief that they will win by love to leave their hometown, go to the unfamiliar Nanyang, and the Guangdong Han people in the Nanyang with their hands to fight a world, since they can break out of the Nanyang under poor conditions, then why can't they compete with the Europeans for overseas land in the case of good equipment?

With the adventurous spirit of the Han people in Fujian and Guangdong, coupled with the encouragement of the belief of the Han people in their bones, Su Yan can already anticipate the grand occasion of the Han people's pace all over the world.

……

With the fermentation after the edict was issued, many people living in Fujian and Guangdong began to move, tearing the soil and sealing the marquis, this word has a natural irresistible attraction to the Han people, as the first person stood up as a crab eater, bought a two-masted shore defense ship from the government, and recruited sailors in the port, some people who were already eager to take action followed, they gritted their teeth and sold their ancestral business, replaced it with a sturdy ship, recruited some like-minded people, and embarked on an expedition.

Lai Zhihao is one of them, he failed in the township examination, he wanted to continue to gain fame, but he heard about the emperor's edict, after reading the edict, he was keenly aware that this may be a good opportunity to be able to ascend to the sky in one step.

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Therefore, he began to convince his father and brothers, and after several days of persuasion and the constant stimulation of people preparing to sell the sea, his father finally gritted his teeth and agreed, and decided to take a big gamble.

Subsequently, the Lai family pulled in several good friends of the same clan, sold the old house handed down from their ancestors and some family businesses together, exchanged them for fluttering silver tickets, and took the family's luggage to the port of Quanzhou Prefecture, and asked the warden who was assigned here about the price of the ship.

It seems that he has seen too many speculators like the Lai family who want to gamble, and the warden in charge pointed to the price notice posted on the wall with some impatience, Lai Zhihao leaned in and looked at it, and the ship model and the corresponding price were clearly written in black and white:

Tier 5 ships - 1,500 taels of silver

Sixth-tier ship - 1,000 taels of silver

Brig cruiser - 800 taels of silver

Brig shore defense ship - 600 taels of silver

The Lai family looked around, checked the silver taels on their bodies, and immediately felt a little deflated, because the money they saved from selling their ancestral business was just enough to buy the cheapest brig shore defense ship, but they had to send it when they were ready to send it, and they could only express to the warden that they wanted to buy the cheapest brig shore defense ship.

The warden listened to the words of the Lai family, raised his eyes and glanced at them, and said lazily: "You have just arrived, there is only one last shore defense ship left in the port, if this shore defense ship is bought, you will have to wait at least a little more than a month to buy it." ”

When Lai Zhihao heard this, he hurriedly took the silver ticket from his father's hand and said, "My lord, there are just six hundred taels of silver tickets here, and we want that boat." ”

"Hao, is this a little too hasty?" His father, Lai Yourong, asked with some hesitation.

"Do we have a choice now?" Lai Zhihao looked at his father and asked rhetorically.

Lai Yourong was choked by his rhetorical question, and he didn't know how to answer for a while, seeing that his father was no longer talking, Lai Zhihao directly slapped the silver ticket on the table in front of the warden and said, "We want it." ”

The warden didn't talk nonsense, picked up the silver ticket, checked the authenticity, put it away, waved his hand behind him, called someone over, and said, "You take them to the port to see the ship." ”

The man answered, and was about to leave with the Lai family, but the warden stopped the Lai family again and said, "Once the boat is sure to be bought, you can't go back, you still have a chance now, you think clearly." ”

Although Lai Yourong was still a little hesitant, looking at his son's determined face, he still nodded and agreed, and the warden didn't say anything anymore and asked the man to take them away.

When they arrived at the port, they finally saw the ships quietly moored in the harbor, and the man who led the way pointed to one of the smaller ships, and said, "This is your ship, equipped with 14 Hongyi cannons (12-pounder guns), and it needs at least 40 sailors...... How many of you are there? Speaking of the back, he remembered something and asked.

Lai Yourong looked at the clansmen behind him and said, "If you don't count the old and weak women and children, we have eighteen men. ”

The man glanced at the group of fellow clans behind the Lai family, the corners of his mouth twitched, but he still didn't say anything, and took them to the shore defense ship for a visit.

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【Total War】 【】

With a smooth upper deck and a theoretically larger crew, the shore defense ship has a shallow draft and is agile, capable of navigating unrestricted waters in extremely shallow waters or dangerous reef areas.

Historically, cruisers with a similar configuration to the brig shore defense ship have been used to explore the Pacific Ocean, which shows that both the brig and the brig are capable of carrying out exploration missions at sea, rather than cruising in the coastal waters.

After the visit, Lai's family was taken to sign the purchase paperwork, and they named the ship "Grass Carp", and after signing the paperwork, the brig coastal defense ship named "Grass Carp" became a legal ship owned by Lai's family.

Subsequently, the official in charge of preparing the documents for them instructed the Lai family: "Relying on the virtue of the Son of Heaven, the government will provide you with 48 solid cannonballs and the corresponding black powder free of charge, as well as an experienced old sailor to train you for two months, during which your meals will be contracted by the government." ”

After listening to the official's words, the Lai family couldn't believe their ears, their eyes widened, and seeing that the official was not deceiving themselves, they quickly knelt on the ground and thanked the Son of Heaven for his holy virtue.

After they got up, the official continued: "Your manpower is still too small, in these two months of training, you should go and recruit some people, it is better to recruit 40 people, the sea is very dangerous, there are many people and there is great strength." ”

"I'll get it."

Lai's family responded in unison.

Over the next two months, not only his family, but also other people who wanted to go to sea to explore and gain wealth and titles were also trained in various places, and they were trained by the government-appointed sailors to learn how to steer ships, retract and release sails, load and fire artillery, and so on.

While receiving training, they also began to recruit people who were interested in going to sea to explore, but at this time there was a problem in front of them - they did not have enough silver to pay the wages of the sailors they recruited, and several families sold their ancestral business for less than 700 taels, and now that they bought a ship, there were only 50 taels of silver left.

And these fifty taels also have to buy the necessary daily necessities and some weapons on the ship, after leaving the South Seas, piracy is prevalent, only artillery can not deal with rampant pirates, they should also buy some swords, axes or firearms and other weapons to defend themselves.

Two months later, a few days before the end of the training day, several elders of Lai's family gathered and began to discuss where to go after leaving the sea.

The Lai family has been farming for generations, but some of the people who came with them made a living from fishing, and the fishermen offered to drive boats out to fish and sell the fish they caught in coastal ports to earn a small income to make ends meet.

In addition to fishing, some of them also proposed that they could make a cameo appearance on a merchant ship to transport goods from the mainland to overseas territories, but the cabin space of the "Grass Carp" was not very large, and it was probably a little difficult for a cameo merchant ship, so this proposal could only be dismissed.

While the Lai family was arguing, someone suddenly took the initiative to find them, it was the person who was training with them by the government, and they took the initiative to invite the Lai family to join their fleet, saying that it was very dangerous for a single ship to go to sea, and only by helping each other could they achieve their goals.

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【Total War】 【】

According to them, they have a sixth-rank ship and have also persuaded two brigs to join, and now it is hoped that it will be possible to increase the size of the fleet and increase the probability of success in future operations to the sea.

The Lai family also had several exchanges with this group, and their impression of them was not bad, and after thinking about it, they decided to accept each other's invitation and join each other's fleet.