Be quiet, everyone! The Dutch governor Glinka shouted several times before he could calm the noisy crowd - after the commander-in-chief of the Dutch Far East Fleet, Admiral Thunder, appeared in the conference hall, the restless men and horses of all walks of life who were agitated by the annihilation of the Dutch main fleet surrounded the thundering general, and the noise was almost enough to poke a hole in the luxurious dome of the conference hall.

"Your Excellency, how did you come back? What are the requirements of the Qing Dynasty? After everyone was quiet, Glinka asked with a gloomy face.

Admiral Lei Mingdeng's face darkened, and he didn't explain much, but just shrugged his shoulders and said: "The navy has been defeated, and the Qing Dynasty has sent a letter proposing the corresponding conditions for peace talks. ”

"Oh?" Glinka's fat face suddenly tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "What about the letter?" Where is it? Where is it? General Lei Mingden didn't even bother to speak, he took out the letter handed to him by Xiao Sanlang directly from his arms, stepped forward, and handed the letter to Glinka across the long table.

Glinka took the letter in a little panic, couldn't wait to tear open the seal, and pulled out the letter, but unfortunately it was all Chinese, and Glinka couldn't understand it at all, so he had to recruit an interpreter to translate the letter. The letter is not long, that is, a thin two-page paper, except for a bunch of polite words, in fact, there are only two cores - first, the Dutch side must ensure that it remains neutral in the event of a war between the Qing Dynasty and England; Second, since the Dutch side had violated the Sino-Dutch Secret Treaty and was at war with the Qing Dynasty, the Dutch side had to compensate for the losses caused.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Qing Dynasty has set conditions, and everyone has said what to do. When the interpreter finished reading the letter, the whole hall was dumbfounded. There was no sound for a while, and Glinka waited for a long time, and had to speak first.

"Your Excellency the Governor, on behalf of the Hopman family, I regret the foolish Far Eastern policy of His Excellency the Governor, and express my extreme indignation at the incompetence of our Far East Fleet, which was provoked by His Excellency the Governor, and now the Great Qing Land Fleet has arrived at the doorstep. The amount of compensation that should be paid by the Governor's Palace, and we at the Hopman family are extremely concerned about this matter. The representative of the Hopman family in the Far East said unceremoniously.

"yes, that's right. ”

"Yes, that's how it should be. ”

"The Governor's Office is responsible for its incompetence. ”

…… A group of representatives of the shareholders of the East India Company immediately chimed in, and the hall was filled with the voices of these merchants complaining.

Listening to the merchants' complaints, the fat on Glinka's face shook vigorously a few times, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Everyone, I'm sorry. This is politics, and the Governor is only acting on orders, and you may appeal any dissenting opinions to Parliament and to His Majesty the King. Now let's discuss how to solve the problem at hand, you are all merchants, and you should know that you don't need to use guns to talk about what you can buy with money. Isn't it a matter of money for the Qing Dynasty to compensate? The Governor's Mansion wanted to give money, but the Governor's Mansion had no money, and what the East India Company was going to do, the Governor just waited. ”

"Incompetent!"

"Shame on the Netherlands!"

"Shameless!"

…… Glinka's rogue words immediately angered the East India Company merchants who filled the hall. The room was full of scolding, but no matter how they scolded, Glinka never had any expression on his face, and when the big guys were tired of scolding, Glinka shrugged his shoulders and said: "Everyone, time is running out, the Qing side is only willing to wait until half past three, if you can't calm the anger of the Qing side." The consequences ......"

Fan, vice president of the East India Company and de facto head of the East India Company in the Far East, who never spoke; Sean Regg let out a sigh of relief, glanced at Vice Admiral Van Trich, who had also never spoken, and asked in a low voice, "Your Excellency Van Trich, can you guarantee to hold the harbor and block the fleet of the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Vice Admiral Van Tterich shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, "If the Qing fleet storms the fort, it may be able to try, but the other armies dare not make a guarantee." ”

"Hmm. Sean Reg nodded thoughtfully. Didn't say much. Then he looked at the thundering general standing in the center of the hall and groaned. He opened his mouth and asked, "Your Excellency Thundering General, in your opinion, who will win the final victory in the battle between the Qing Dynasty and England?" "This is a crucial question, the businessman always wants to invest in the winner's side, and for a moment all the attention of the people in the hall is focused on the thundering general.

General Lei Mingden frowned, pondered for a long time, sighed and said: "Objectively speaking, the strength of the Qing fleet should be above England, but in terms of technology and tactics, it may be that England is slightly stronger, but the Qing Dynasty is obviously prepared, with the intention of calculating or not, coupled with the strength of the huge fleet, England should not be the opponent of the Qing Dynasty, but things on the battlefield are not easy to say, over the years, England has fought a lot of naval battles with the weak defeating the strong, If England could completely defeat the main fleet of the Qing Dynasty in the decisive battle between the two sides, everything would be different. ”

"If I heard me correctly, what Your Excellency General means is that this battle will not be decisive until the main forces of the two sides are decided, and it will not be clear who will win?" Sean Regg continued to ask, frowning.

"I think so. The thundering general nodded.

Sean Regg raised his eyebrows, and then asked, "Understood, according to the estimation of His Excellency the Admiral, when will this conference battle break out?" ”

General Lei Mingden thought about it carefully and said: "Judging from the current battle situation, since the Qing army will come to attack my Batavia, then it will definitely not let go of the possibility of capturing Malacca and cutting off the back route of England, so that the English fleet without supplies and back roads will have no second way to go except to go to sea to find a decisive battle of the Qing fleet, and this largest naval battle in the history of the Far East should be fast, maybe within a week." ”

"Your Excellency General, Malacca is behind Shan Ma Xidi, how can the Qing army bypass Shan Ma Xi to attack Malacca, and besides, San Diego Castle is not so easy to attack, right?" Lieutenant General Van Trich asked puzzled.

"I don't know, it's just a hunch on my part, maybe the Qing army has a way to do it, well. I think the Qing army will definitely come up with a way to bypass Shan Maxi, and the Qing side will never let the English fleet slip back to India, thus leaving a future trouble, I can guarantee this. General Lei Mingden replied crisply. As soon as the words of the thundering general fell, the whole room suddenly became noisy again, and the noisy and noisy non-stop, all the businessmen and officials said everything.

"A week? Well, not long. Sean Regg waved his hand. Motioning for everyone to be quiet, he said in a calm tone: "In that case, let's wait for a week, isn't the Qing side asking for compensation?" This is easy to do, first send some supplies for the labor army, and then negotiate the rest slowly, if the Qing Dynasty wins, we can pay as much as we want. At least Batavia can be saved, but if the Qing Dynasty loses, the English fleet that wants to be resupplied will inevitably march to Batavia, and there is nothing wrong with our side sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight. Your Excellency the Governor, this is the end of the matter. Could His Excellency the Governor please send negotiators to stabilize the Qing fleet first? Sean Regg's analysis was in place, and the businessmen and officials who were originally impatient all fell silent at this time, and they all looked at Governor Glinka with blank eyes. I hope Glinka can make up his mind.

Glinka's eyes turned quickly, twitching the fat on his face, and after secretly thinking about it for a while, he laughed and said: "Okay, very good, Your Excellency Vice President Sean Regg's analysis is very exciting, isn't it just a week, easy to do." The Governor's Mansion can send negotiators, and your East India Company can also send personnel to participate in the negotiations, and dragging the Qing fleet is a victory, but well, you all know that the Governor's Mansion is very poor, and this labor army can't make up too much for a while, shouldn't the East India Company also help with some money and materials? ”

Glinka's words aroused the strong indignation of the merchants of the East India Company, who rebuked the stinginess of the Doge's Palace. The two sides bargained for a while. It can be regarded as an agreement on how much labor and army materials each should contribute, and at this time it is almost the deadline given by the Qing Dynasty. A negotiating delegation composed of officials of the Governor's Office and merchants of the East India Company hurried to the port in a horse-drawn carriage and changed to a merchant ship with a white flag in the direction of the Qing fleet.

The negotiations were not smooth, and the Qing side, which had won a great battle, put forward a lot of demands, asking for land and money, especially for how much money the Dutch side should pay to redeem the captured fleet and officers and soldiers, and even offered a sky-high price - thirty taels of silver for a soldier, and the price of officers above the rank of major general reached three thousand taels; The price of each captured battleship was even more frighteningly high, and in the case of the "Dutchman", a first-class battleship, the price offered by the Qing Dynasty was 300,000 taels of silver, and it was almost possible to build a new ship of the same specification.

The Qing side asked for a sky-high price, the Dutch side repaid the money on the spot, and the two sides talked back and forth, but in the face of the threat of the top of many warships in the Qing Dynasty, the Dutch side was not very confident, but the Dutch side, which was bent on delaying time through negotiations, was always unwilling to make more concessions, of course, in order to fool the Qing fleet and make the Qing side think that the Dutch side had surrendered, the Dutch side promised very happily on the labor and army materials, and agreed to pay 50,000 taels of silver and some materials such as rice, noodles, cattle and sheep. It was also agreed that the labor and army materials would be delivered to the Qing army on time before 9 o'clock in the morning tomorrow, and the relevant negotiations would continue tomorrow.

The negotiators of both sides shook hands and said goodbye in a friendly atmosphere, and finally the Dutch delegation returned home with great satisfaction after the first day. He Haitao, chief of staff of the Second Squadron in charge of the negotiation on the Qing side, sent the guests away with a smile, and ignored the complaints of the officers who participated in the negotiation that their attitude was not tough enough, and rushed into the war room of the fleet in three steps and two steps, and said with a smile to Xiao Sanlang, who was already waiting in the war room a little impatiently: "Commander, it seems that the red-haired ghost has taken the bait, haha, this group of guys is bargaining with all their hearts, and it is really interesting to drag on time." ”

Xiao Sanlang sneered and said: "Hey, that's a matter of course, the red-haired ghost plans to delay the time just to wait for the final winner between the British and our army, and this group of speculative guys don't want to think that Lao Tzu came across the ocean just to fight the battlefield, and those bullshit diplomatic negotiations are still left to the Ministry of Rites to play, well, that stinky boy from Kodoa shouldn't miss the big thing of the general, if he really misses, Lao Tzu will cut off his dog's head!" ”

He Haitao shrugged his shoulders and said, "It shouldn't be, but it's a pity that I can't contact the people of the Shadow Land, otherwise things should go much smoother." ”

"Yes, the Holy Shadows are all amazing characters, it's not easy to survive in such a ghost place, that's it, don't talk about this, Kodoa has a detailed map provided by the Shadow in his hand, if he can't complete the task, how can he be worthy of those dead Shadow Brothers. Xiao Sanlang was not born in "Honghu", but he was Liu Shuangcheng's personal guard, and he still knew a little about "Honghu", and when he thought of the shadow man who died in order to send the intelligence of the Dutch, Xiao Sanlang was also full of emotion in his heart.

The summer sun in the South Pacific Ocean set very late, it was already more than seven o'clock, the sun still refused to set the sea level, struggling to sprinkle the last afterglow on the sea, dyeing half of the sea red, and there were four Qing ships quietly moored on the sea outside Cirebon on the island of Java On the foredeck of the ship, he glanced at the sun that was about to set at sea level, waved his hand and said: "Order: Sixty degrees, half-sail, ready to land!" ”

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