Xinshun 1730

Chapter 375
What a gift to give, what a thing to ask for.

Fazaklei wanted to take out four or five thousand pounds in one breath, equivalent to about 5000 taels of silver in bribes, and he asked for a lot of things.

After deliberation, it was decided to invite Qi Guogong to come on the grounds of inviting him to dinner.

I plan to give gifts during the dinner, so I will talk about a few things.

Fazakle believes that now that Dashun has chosen to ban religion, he must make it clear to Dashun that since the Reformation, my country has believed in Christianity but not Catholicism.It is not a country like Portugal or France.

And took the opportunity to whitewash, explaining that the empire had an unpleasant quarrel with China, mainly because of the slander and slander by Portuguese missionaries because of religious issues.

It is true that the Dutch had some cooperation with the Dutch when they harassed Taiwan, but they definitely targeted Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal.Afterwards, when the Dutch wanted to occupy Taiwan, our country was well aware that this would damage the interests of the Chinese Empire, so we firmly opposed it and gave up the "Mutual Defense Treaty in Southeast Asia" signed with the Dutch. Moreover, the Dutch perfidiously slaughtered Ambon Island. British people, we are also victims.

These two things, one reminds Dashun that France is a Catholic country; the other reminds that the Dutch are villains with no credibility, and even kill their allies.

If all goes well, these two topics can lead to France and the Netherlands, thus gaining the opportunity to spread rumors, slander and instigate.

Then he used this to lead to "Spain's missionary policy", pointing out that Spain is a fanatical Catholic, thinking about missionary all the time, Luzon is very close to the coast of Dashun - the East India Company started from the On the merchant ship from Manila to Nagasaki, the missionaries hidden on the ship were captured, which shows that Spain is a bad person for Dashun who banned religion.

In order to ensure that the people of Dashun have the freedom to believe in Confucianism and not be eroded by Catholicism, Britain is willing to fight Spain when Dashun needs it.

This led to the topic of hoping that Dashun would open up the port for the British fleet to replenish. It would be great if the Duke of Qi, who was in charge of diplomacy, could cede a piece of land for hoarding goods or supplies through bribery.

The overall plan has been completed, and what we have to wait now is to see what will happen between Dashun and the Netherlands. When the situation in the Netherlands becomes clear, the plan can be carried out.

Before that, through the good relationship between Britain and the Netherlands, you can spy on how much bribes the Dutch are going to give to the Duke of Dashun, so as to ensure that you will give more bribes than the Dutch.

…………

The British did not expect that the bribes from the Dutch would be a mirror, some glass and some decorations in the captain's cabin.

Not only the British didn't expect it, but Qi Guogong didn't expect it either.

Looking at the mirror sent by the Dutch, Qi Guogong's cheeks twitched a little, and he felt that this was really an insult to himself.

Accepting bribes is not a very honorable thing, but Qi Guogong thinks that either you just do business, or you just mean it.

The problem is that you get a gift of glass and mirrors that are now mass-produced in Weihai and have long been popularized in the capital. What is going on?

If you convert it into silver, it is less than a hundred taels.

The Duke of Qi thought that I am also a hereditary duke of Dashun, so if you take a gift of one hundred taels, is this slapping me in the face?

I'm not as good as those petty officials who received North Korea's tribute?

The more I thought about it, the more angry I became, thinking that what I had to deal with now was the life and death of tens of thousands of Chinese in Batavia.In your opinion, a few pieces of broken glass will get me out of here?
It is not unheard of in the history books to accept bribes. For example, the sentence "Although General Lian is old, he is good at food, but he sits with his ministers, and the three will be left behind in an instant", at least it is worth a hundred gold.The most people can say is that this person is blinded by profit, treason at the sight of profit, and misleading the country with self-interest.

But what about myself?If this happened, how would it be recorded in the history books?A certain man in the state of Qi got a hundred taels of silver from the Dutch, so he didn't ask about Bacheng, and even ten thousand people were slaughtered?
Qi Guogong thought that this evaluation of "destroying state affairs with selfish interests" can't be mixed up. At least it is not stupid to misuse state affairs for selfish interests.

Thinking of the business to be done, he finally suppressed his anger, put away the paperwork written by Phillips, shook his head and looked at it for a few times, really couldn't help it.

One hundred taels of silver and words like fooling a fool made Qi Guogong just want to laugh, so he could only hold back.

After holding back, I felt troubled in my heart.Apparently the Dutchman didn't understand the situation in Dashun at this time, at least he didn't know that glass and mirrors were no longer rare things in the capital a few years ago, and once he went to the capital, he had to find out.

If I protect them for this little thing, it will make the Dutch realize that it is wrong.Originally, I thought, why not charge 8 to [-] taels for such a big matter?When the time comes to collect money to do things, for the sake of money, that's justified.

He took a wave of money from the Netherlands and got the business done by the way.

I never thought that the Dutch would give away these crap, how could the Dutch believe it?
While thinking about it, he heard a voice welcoming guests from outside, shouting: "The Seventh Prince is here, and the Eagle Sobo is here!"

After the translation by the general interpreter, Phillips was startled, and his heart was broken. If there is one more person, there will be more bribes.Now there are two more people here, what should we do?
Thinking about it again, I heard that this Ying Suobo is the person in charge of the warship currently stationed in Tianjin. What is this person here for?

After seeing the ceremony, Prips quietly looked at the two people who came.

One person should look like a prince in his attire, while the other person dressed as a military general with Chinese characteristics, wearing a suit of armor, came in and yelled, "Duke Qi, what can you find out from this Dutchman?"

Duke Qi laughed and said, "It turns out there was some misunderstanding. The Dutch envoy said that those people were thieves and robbers, and they talked nonsense after being punished."

After the translation by the general translator, Prips quickly agreed.

Unexpectedly, Liu Yu kicked the table and chair next to him violently, and asked, "Duke Qi thought the news brought by my people was false? The ship to Sweden was forced to stop in Batavia, what's the face of me? The one who is driving the boat is my man, I fought against Rakshasa and the attacking army, even the Earl and Marquis of Rakshasa knew my name, and treated me politely, the Dutch didn’t give me face and stopped my boat?"

The Dutch interpreter looked very bad. After translating these words, Phillips suddenly realized.

It turned out that this person didn't care about the compatriots on Batavia Island, and he was just making use of it.This man is an earl at such a young age, a spoiled young nobleman, perhaps the kind of young man who can fight for face, which is actually more difficult than the lives of tens of thousands of Chinese.

Prips hurriedly apologized, and said repeatedly: "There are many pirates in Southeast Asia, and they often rob Chinese merchant ships. Moreover, these pirates often fake the flags of various countries. The governor of Batavia is also to protect the safety of trade. Not only did they let go of the country's ship immediately, but they also took the initiative to help replenish supplies."

"My lord, this is really an accident."

After listening to the translator's translation, Li Yan sneered in his heart.Liu Yu explained the details here very clearly, not to mention things like robbing Manila's ships and supporting Zheng Zhilong in order to force maritime merchants to trade in Batavia during the Wanli period of the previous dynasty.

Just talking about what was said today, Li Yan thought in his heart that Ying Sabo had already made it clear that you were just taking the opportunity to arrest the boat to delay time, but you said it so grandly.

Ying Sabo said long ago that you are not all good people, and you never said a single truth.How can such dirty things be said so righteously?
Liu Yu was about to follow the script that had been set before, and wait for Qi Guogong to come forward to smooth things over.Ordinarily Duke Qi should come forward at this time and say something like: "Since it's a misunderstanding, don't get to the bottom of it", but at this time Duke Qi said: "Since the Dutch state said it was a misunderstanding, you might as well ask clearly to see what he said. "

Both Liu Yu and Li Yan were taken aback, thinking that the script is wrong?Glancing at Duke Qi, seeing what Duke Qi was writing there, Liu Yu knew there might be something wrong, so he took a step forward and stood between Phillips and Duke Qi, blocking his sight, and asked Batavia to stop the Free Trade thing.

Qi Guogong picked up a pen and used Chinese characters to tell the Dutch that he gave a few pieces of broken glass as a bribe. He only said that he could not "collect money to do things", and the Dutch might be suspicious.

After Liu Yu asked a few more questions, Duke Qi came out to smooth things over and said, "Okay, okay, I think it's probably a misunderstanding. Shoutong, you see, this is the Batavia incident written by the Dutch state. It looks believable."

After speaking, he sent the piece of paper with the "accident" written by himself to Liu Yu's hand. Liu Yu glanced at it, thinking that the Dutch's "generosity" name is really well-deserved.

Thinking about it again, it makes sense.After the ban on religion, Westerners were not allowed to wander around at will, and could only live in places stipulated by the customs, and they had no chance to go deep into the capital.

The Dutch are famous for "not selling machinery, music boxes, and tricks". Since they took Nanyang, they have no intention of pioneering. Book.

But if you think about it, France has worked hard and carefully shipped glass, music boxes, clocks and other clever things, but it still has a miserable situation of an annual deficit of 50 million taels.

The Dutch don't give up their minds, lie down and eat their laurels, and they still have the smallest trade deficit with China among Western countries.So why care?Even if you try your best to be like France and England, so what?
Anyway, the spices will always be sold, so why pay attention to the changes in Dashun?

I'm afraid the Dutch don't know the situation of Dashun at all, and their minds are still stuck in a hundred years ago, and nothing has changed at all.That's just fine.

It's just that Qi Guogong didn't receive the money, so he couldn't play the script of doing things with money. After a little thought in his heart, Liu Yu turned over the old account directly.

"Dutch, I don't trust you."

"During the former dynasty, Zhoushan, Penghu, and Taiwan were occupied. I heard from the French that the Dutch didn't respect their reputation. Dogs can't change their shit!"

The translator is quite capable. He translated the essence of the sentence that dogs can’t change eating shit, and translated it with the sentence in the Bible, “Dogs will always eat their own vomit, just like stupid people make mistakes repeatedly.” .

Then Liu Yu said again: "If you want me to say, the Dutch trade will be cut off directly. Don't be afraid that no one will buy our tea and silk. The French will make up for it when the Dutch leave. Could it be that the French can't afford it?" Can't afford it?"

"With France and Sweden, there is still a common enemy, and we can help each other. I don't think there is anything to talk about with the Dutch who once invaded us, and even trade is unreasonable."

"Don't say anything, Qi Guogong, the overall situation is the most important thing, and the current war is the most important thing. What are you afraid of? The Japanese invaded my Ryukyu, then fight! The Luocha people occupy the Zhunbu pasture, then fight! If the Dutch really bully us Remnants, just fight. My empire is vast, rich in resources, with a population of tens of millions, so what can I do even if I fight against the Three Kingdoms? Now I have more than ten warships. If I really want to fight, I’m afraid he won’t succeed? I’m willing to sail to the Netherlands and capture the Netherlands king!"

(End of this chapter)