Xinshun 1730

Chapter 557 The intersection of fate on the eve of World War I ([-])
Duplex knew that this kind of whispering must be a matter in Dashun's country, so he didn't want to ask too much.

But Liu Yu didn't want to tell him the news of the British fleet's arrival, and asked, "What does France think about the war between Britain and the West?"

Duplex frowned.

His father was a director of the French Orient Company, and he was basically appointed as the next Governor-General in India. The competition between India and Britain made Duplex not have the slightest favor for Britain.

"The British have always had this kind of robber logic. Jenkins is a smuggler, and Britain and Spain had the Treaty of Seville back then. Jenkins was arrested in Spanish waters, of course Spanish laws must be applied."

"If British missionaries disregarded the order of your country's emperor and forcibly spread the gospel in your country, how would you treat it? Is there any difference?"

"This war was just launched by British merchants forcing Congress. It was just to seize the right to trade in the Atlantic. Britain has news control and even strict "censorship laws". The British have advanced methods of controlling public opinion. All newspapers have to pay the high [knowledge tax] uniformly and equally, but the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs controls the [newspaper subsidy]. If you don’t pay the knowledge tax with the subsidy, you can only go bankrupt; but if you want to get the subsidy, you must be obedient.”

"If it wasn't for someone's connivance, how could such inflammatory words be spread widely?"

France and the United Kingdom can be regarded as the same breed, they are all hooligans, not to mention the elder brother.

But at this time, under such circumstances, Dashun is not easy to provoke, and it also involves huge interests, of course it is "reasonable".

"It is not a wise choice for your country to open ports for the British to berth for supplies. Moreover, Spain must have a lot of opinions."

There is something to be said, this matter of Dashun is actually a bit biased. Spain does not need to berth at the port of Dashun, but the United Kingdom needs to supply supplies in Guangzhou. Dashun said that both sides can berth, which is obviously a bit of a stretch Partial meaning.

But Duplex understands.

Although Britain was used as a gun by the Dutch and robbed Chinese merchant ships, it was a matter of the previous dynasty after all.

But now Dashun bans religion, Spain is fanatical in preaching, and Spain itself engages in that kind of government-run monopoly trade and does not have direct trade with Dashun, and the Chinese in Luzon are not happy there.

Due to various reasons, they didn't tear their face apart, but only pulled sideways, which is already enough to give the other side face.

Liu Yu smiled and said: "There is a saying in China that the snipe and the clam fight each other for the fisherman's profit. Britain and the West go to war and rob each other's ships, and France stays out of it, so it can make a fortune."

"That is the benefit of the West Indies, not the interests of the East Indies. There is a problem with our French diplomatic strategy. The navy is insufficient and the military expenditure is insufficient. There must always be a clear direction. Occupy the lowlands? Or dismember Austria? Or the West Indies? Or India? Or North America?” Duplex couldn’t help complaining to Liu Yu about France’s foreign policy. In his opinion, if he can rule India and collect poll tax and land rent tax in India, it will be a fortune. Huge wealth.

Unfortunately, there is not much interest in India in France.

This idea of ​​"direct rule, collecting poll tax and land rent" to increase fiscal revenue seems to have great difficulties in France, and it is even a bit whimsical.Moreover, the French East India Company was very unsatisfactory. It had no money and could not make money.Therefore, the French court has been warning these people in India not to provoke a conflict with Britain.

Duplex has ambitions for India. Since the imperial court does not support it, he hopes to establish a good relationship with Liu Yu, and then use the power of Dashun to complete the squeeze on Britain in India.

And Dashun is going to India, and there is also Nanyang. If Dashun goes to Nanyang, it will definitely lead to a war between China and the Netherlands, and it will also make Britain worry that the Sino-French alliance will come together to oppose Britain.

In any case, temporarily cooperating with China has great benefits.Apparently, Liu Yu gave him the idea of ​​imitating the Eastern captives, and Duplex also knew that this was to make the French fight the British and the Dutch.But the purpose of the alliance is to use each other, and now both China and France have benefited from the mutual use of each other - not just the Netherlands, France has been instigating Sweden to go to war against Russia, and Dashun directly cooperates with Sweden, so that the Swedes who were still vacillating before Completely chose the line of alliance with China, alliance with France, and anti-Russia.

Although the two communicated like old friends, they kept their eyes on each other.

Of course Liu Yu wanted India too, but he didn't show it at all.Duplex knew that Liu Yu had brought him such a big benefit, so he must have selfish intentions, but he didn't expect to go so far to India.

After sighing, Liu Yu glanced at Duplex, who was about to make a fool of himself in the future, and said, "Forget it, let's not talk about these annoying idiots making decisions. Now the British are still waiting outside, I have to deal with this matter first." Let’s discuss this slowly. Mr. Duplex, as a friend, I invite you to visit the British together.”

"My honour, Lord Marquis."

He clearly knew the word "friend", but Liu Yu dragged him to show it to the British on purpose.But Duplex also hoped to be dragged by Liu Yu to show the British people at this time.

Under the common interests, one is called a friend, thinking about how to suddenly give blood transfusion first and then suddenly draw the bottom to kill France's power in India;

Each other has their own ghosts in their hearts, but on the surface they look like a pair of old friends.

The two left the French business house, and the people at the British business house had been waiting for a long time.

Fazakley, who had just received tens of thousands of taels of silver from the Chinese insurgents in Macau, and negotiated a lower price with his superiors to get nearly [-] pounds in kickbacks, saw Liu Yu arrive, and hurried over to salute.

"I have seen the Marquis of Siberia."

This weird name is the title of Liu Yu’s title on the British side, because it involves China’s abbreviation of the UK as the UK, and there is a hereditary British Duke on Dashun, so when translating, some titles that are prone to ambiguity, especially When it is an official name and official position, free translation will be adopted.

Liu Yu's title is Marquis of Whale Sea, if it is directly translated as "whalesea" Marquis of Whale Sea, it would be a bit weird.

So I asked the translator here, where is the sea of ​​whales that the Han people are talking about.Compared with the map, I found that it was clearly talking about East Siberia, so I used the free translation of "siberia".

After seeing the ceremony, Fazakle laughed and said, "Master Marquis, our fleet has arrived at Lingdingyang. I hope you will fulfill your promise and allow our fleet to be replenished here. We promise that during the replenishment period, we will abide by the rules of the Dashun Empire." law."

Liu Yu said: "This matter should be discussed with the Guangdong Jiedu envoy and the defense envoy first, right?"

"Returning to my lord, the lord Jiedushi said that the lord Marquis is here, and we still have to wait for a word from the lord Marquis."

"Okay, this is His Majesty's kindness and grace. The words of the emperor are decrees. Since the emperor agrees, just follow the rules. I heard that you also sent battleships? It's a novelty, this is the first ship to appear in the The Europa battleships around Tianchao, right? I'm going to have a look. You and the contact person, come with me."

"Yes."

Fazakle hastily summoned the liaison officers, and together they boarded the flagship of Liu Yu's visit to Europe.

At this time, on the Lingdingyang, the iconic scene of the era of sailing ships - grabbing the T prefix from each other - the Chinese and British fleets have been playing for an hour or two.

The commanders of both sides know that there will be no war, but they also know that this is an opportunity to show their naval strength and training level. Whoever grabs it will win a head, and whoever will be able to walk with his head held high after berthing for a while.As long as the other party goes ashore, they can only avoid pretending to be a grandson.

The game of cat and mouse has been played for so long, and the sailors on the British side are also tired.

On the battleship Centurion, George Anson looked at the many sailors around him who had reached the age of retirement annuity, feeling a little depressed.

I thought to myself, if I hadn't sailed for so long, if I hadn't been able to recruit a bunch of old and weak to attack the Philippines, how could I lose this cat-and-mouse game?

The British navy is okay, but this time it is too hasty to start a war against Spain.A group of people headed by William Sr. organized a "Patriot Party" to incite populist sentiment and force Prime Minister Povor to step down, in order to make Britain great again and defeat Spain.

War has been declared here, but the sailors have not been replenished there, and the logistics are in a mess. There is even the most miraculous scene in naval history: the British fleet died of scurvy in the military port of the British mainland, and dozens of soldiers died of scurvy. There is a vegetable market next to the pier.

The captain sent a report to the fleet commander saying that the supplies on the ship could not be eaten at the home port and should be purchased nearby; the fleet commander sent a report to the logistics department, hoping to pay for the purchase on the spot; The minister approved the review by the review department; the review department asked the army's military supply department to count the size of the expeditionary force; the army's military supply department required the navy to report the amount of supplies needed... The expeditionary force just looked helplessly at the vegetable market at the civilian wharf next to it, and ate for six weeks. Supplies for the long voyage, more than 60 people who ate died of scurvy at the home port, and 600 people died of illness when they departed from England to Jamaica, and 1500 Qiu Ba lost combat effectiveness due to scurvy.

This problem can also be regarded as one of the reasons for the failure to suppress North American rebels. It was not until the founding of the United States that the British side learned from the pain and established a special naval supply and logistics bureau to be able to send tens of thousands of troops to India and even China at one time. .

This time George Anson went to the Philippines, and even caught a group of old and weak people who could receive retirement annuities.

Britain believes that the strength of the Spanish fleet in the Philippines is vulnerable, old and weak are enough, and the elite are busy fighting Panama, the Caribbean, Gibraltar and other places.

These old and weak people have no advantage in this game of cat and mouse.

Looking at the large battleship in the Chinese fleet opposite, George Anson also secretly praised the French ship design level from the perspective of a captain.

China's 74-gun battleship of French origin has achieved a perfect balance in terms of firepower, protection and mobility, which was fully demonstrated in the cat-and-mouse game just now.

George Anson believed that if he had the best sailors on board, even though his beloved ship Centurion lagged behind the French in design, he might not necessarily lose.But in any case, judging from the professional eyes of the captain, the capital ship on the opposite side will not be out of date for at least 50 years.

His vision is correct, the French are really good at designing warships, at least the design of this classic 74-gun battleship will not be outdated until it is fully replaced by steam engines.

George Anson was full of envy for the battleship of Dashun. Although it was only a three-pole battleship, it was the most suitable battleship for Britain in George Anson's eyes.

The idea of ​​​​the British naval battle is to win the ocean. It is no longer the time when Spain was beaten up and just wanted to defend the English Channel.

A large first-class ship with a hundred guns is basically useless in an ocean-going decisive victory, and it is reluctant to take it to the ocean.

It's a pity that France is an enemy country, and it is impossible to share the warship design with Britain unless one is captured in a war.

However, France, which designed such a classic style, has a navy thinking of stacking first-class ships and second-class ships, and going to the goddamn ocean-going decisive victory. As long as it suppresses the English Channel and sends the army ashore, it will be the final victory.

The British couldn't get it, but Dashun got it here, and it's very comfortable to use.

At this time, Dashun's fleet had already seized the upper wind, and a cruiser rushed towards George Anson's flagship relying on its high speed.

If you don't give way, the two ships will definitely collide.

George Anson cursed, and had to order to avoid, and the formation immediately appeared empty and a little chaotic.

So far, this cat-and-mouse game at sea has been completely decided.

Soon, a large ship that was not a warship appeared on the Lingding Ocean.

The flag on the ship was raised this way, and a small boat was lowered from the big ship and slowly slid to the side of the Centurion.

The people in the boat were put down on the ladder, and George Anson knew that this was the liaison officer of the East India Company.

"Mr. Captain, according to the agreement, the flag should be lowered to pay tribute at this time. Then ask for their permission, and their pilots will send the warship to the designated port to berth for supplies. It is also not allowed to berth in Guangzhou. The company will directly communicate with the Chinese on the shore. Contact merchants to purchase supplies.”

George Anson frowned: "The battleship lowered the flag? Why?"

In fact, if reasoning is useful, this sentence is easy to answer.This is Lingdingyang, Dashun's territorial waters, and at this time there is no international law signed by Dashun, so of course Dashun's rules must be followed in its territorial waters.

However, this is not an unreasonable world.

So, the liaison officer replied like this.

"Because they have a battleship with the guns open."

"Also because their army defeated Russia, the Tatars, and Japan in a row within ten years."

"This is not Madras."

George Anson was a little unhappy. He was planning to berth in Macau for supplies this time.

But the East India Company told him very clearly that Macau did not dare to let them berth, and Dashun would not allow Macau to allow warships to berth without permission.

As a last resort, I can only go to Guangzhou or other specific ports in accordance with the requirements of the East India Company.This time, he was also planning to avenge his past.

When the French first came to Dashun for trade decades ago, the officers on the ship took the sailors to beat up the British sailors on the Guangzhou pier because the British merchant ships did not pull over to lower the flag to pay tribute.

That time, it was an official and merchant ship sent by Louis XIV. It even had contact with the court of Dashun. There were officers and soldiers on board. The British sailors were beaten for nothing because they couldn't beat them.

Thinking that he was the first captain to sail a battleship to Asia, he wanted to do the same when he was docked in Guangzhou, find fault with the French, and beat up the French sailors.

But now, not only must the flag be lowered, but even Guangzhou Port may not be able to berth.

(End of this chapter)