Lu Ming

Chapter 119 The original owner

It was the formation of sand ships that passed by the Sloten on the afternoon of the 25th that finally prompted Peter Nuiz to make up his mind to negotiate with the crossing people.Because on the morning of the 26th, when the walking group of four came to the Sloten in a small boat, they accurately reported the amount of raw silk and porcelain unloaded from the three sand ships.

In the face of huge visible benefits, Nuiz had to forcibly endure the great discomfort caused by the host-guest conversion of Dayuan Island, and began to seriously evaluate the possibility of negotiating with crossing forces.

In fact, apart from negotiating with these strange short-haired inventors who occupy Dayuan Island, Nuiz can't make any more threatening moves.After all, the Sloten has been parked off the coast of Dazuo for three days. It neither left here to go straight to Batavia, nor tried to retake Dazuo with the help of the poor 100 sailors on board. The embarrassing situation was fully exposed— —I can’t fight again, if I leave, how will I explain when I go back?
Finally, on the morning of the 26th, Mr. Van der Hagen, who had been working so hard these two days between the port and the open sea, and who had almost transformed into a "Dutch traitor", returned to the port and announced the good news: Chief Nuyz will be here today. Come to Dayuan Port at noon and start negotiations with the cross-travelers!

This is indeed good news. After all, the time-traveling force is still very weak and needs a lot of manpower and raw materials to grow.The Dutch can collect a lot of resources in Batavia. The important thing is that they have a lot of ships, and they have a lot of empty tonnage when they go north to Daming, which is what the traversers urgently need right now.

At noon on the same day, the third/last officer of the Dayuan: Mr. Peter Nuiz, accompanied by the low-level businessman Mao Zheer, took a small boat driven by a group of four people, officially set foot on the port of Dayuan Island, returned to Where he briefly ruled.

In this era, it is very common for the two sides of the maritime trade to send hostages to each other.Both Zheng Zhilong and Dutch businessmen, including big businessmen such as Xu Xinsu, have all had the experience of being hostages; therefore, compared to the huge disaster of losing a big business house, Nuyz is not worried about his own safety, saying After all, he is just a senior employee of VOC, the kind who can be fired at any time.

When Nuiz stepped onto the pier, Cai Feiming and two assistants who were waiting on the side greeted him. The Dutchman who had been prepared for a long time shook hands with Cai Feiming briefly. The two sides greeted each other cordially in Dutch, as if old friends met look.

Despite his mental preparation, after seeing the real people, Nuyiz was still curious about these strange Ming people: the three were tall, clean-skinned, and had short hair, just like Buddhists in South Asia.They were wearing short jackets of different colors but similar styles, trousers, and strange shiny black leather boots on their feet.

"At least the sons of nobles who are well educated and have a rich dinner." Nuyizi secretly commented at this moment: neat white teeth showing when smiling, generally tall stature, inadvertently some small physical etiquette, these Ming Dynasty The noble robbers and the coolies of the Ming Dynasty on the pier are completely two kinds of people.
"Perhaps Van der Hagen's guess is correct: the guardian knights of an ancient dynasty trying to restore." Mr. Nuiz secretly made an assessment of the crossing crowd at this moment.

Cai Feiming, who was greeting the guests and walking to the shop, naturally did not expect the Dutch to have so many guesses; he was not interested in Nuiz’s attire, except for the pair of red hematoxylin shoes, which were rather flamboyant, the rest of the attire was very common.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Netherlands, the earliest capitalist country, was booming, and the whole country was thriving; as the pace of production and life accelerated, thrift and convenience became recognized virtues.

The Dutch took the lead in abandoning the wheel-like ornament "Raff" around the neck, and the stuffing in the clothes was also canceled and replaced by lightweight lace.All of this can be seen on Nuiz today: a gray tweed jacket with lace on the collar and cuffs, white stockings and the most popular boat-shaped wooden shoes in the Low Countries.

In Holland, a lowland country, there is a lot of rain and the land is wet, so the wood is carved out to make boat-shaped shoes with a thick bottom and an upturned toe.The shoes are moisture-proof and durable, and the interior is filled with grass cotton to keep out the cold.Until later generations, wooden shoes are still the most famous specialty commodity in the Netherlands, as famous as windmills.

After walking across the trestle bridge, Nuyizi quickly saw the half-pound gun erected on the northeast corner of the fort, which was unique to the bandits of the Ming Dynasty and was called by everyone: "Devil Cannon".

This small cannon has a slender barrel and a unique square barrel. Under the sunlight at noon, they reflect a blue metallic luster.From Nuiz's current angle, one can clearly see the brass-colored slender shells hanging from the gun body like a bunch of bundled mice.

In short, Nuiz, who is used to heavy armaments, can hardly imagine that such a slender cannon killed 50 soldiers in an instant-it is more like a toy than some kind of killing weapon.

On the fort were two or three bright men in short blue homespun jackets, holding a kind of black binoculars, and guarding the angles they were responsible for.In the crevices of the stacked walls, a figure in colorful clothes flashed past Nuiz's eyes, as if he was sitting on a chair, and he could not be seen the next moment.

"If all goes well, there will be a firepower demonstration before you leave, Mr. Nuiz." Cai Feiming said understandingly when he saw the Dutchman observing the heavy machine gun.

"Is this some kind of threat?" Nuiz was a little unhappy when he heard it.

"Threats only happen before negotiations." Cai Feiming still had a gentle smile on his face: "The performance after everything is over is a small price we have to pay to avoid real conflicts in the future; please believe me, this is Well-meaning. After all, lions don't make friends with sheep, don't you?"

"Well, unique oriental thinking." Nuiz shrugged and muttered a few words.

A group of people soon came to the door of the store.

When he came here, Mr. Nuiz, who had been paying attention to other places along the way, suddenly realized that the dirty bamboo sheds that were originally distributed outside the business hall were gone.Of course, the rammed earth wall of the commercial building is still there, and it looks even more dilapidated: two hastily filled gaps of different colors greatly reduce the defensive function of the wall.

Standing in front of the commercial hall, taking off the boat-shaped cap on his head, Nuyz turned around slowly, taking in the surrounding scene in his eyes.

Some Ming coolies are using a small wooden cart to transport goods. These small carts are driven by a single person and have three or four wheels.Some of the goods on the trolley were sent to the commercial hall, and more of them were red bricks. They were stacked into neat square stacks and extended towards the center of Dayuan Island.

(End of this chapter)