Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 836 Businessman's Report ([-])

Skade escaped the gunfire of the Senate, and of course, by the way, he also left the Dutch who had expired in quarantine for an extra ten days.When he came back from Hongji, he was already holding a thick stack of plans on speeding up the development of Hongji and strengthening the local defense force.Relying on this plan to be submitted to the Executive Committee and the Senate for review, he declared that he would "do his best to negotiate with the Dutch" and then hid himself.

To reinforce Hongji and expand the scale of Hongji, the Ministry of Colonial Trade only has the right to make suggestions and propose a plan, which involves the allocation of materials, staffing, and army mobilization, which needs to be discussed by the Executive Committee before it can be implemented.Skade didn't particularly care about the bombardment from the Senate: he had enough evidence to prove that Hongji's lack of equipment was entirely due to "limited national power."If it is said that important targets are equipped with insufficient defense forces, Sanya is particularly insufficient in terms of its importance and investment.He didn't want to deal with the Standing Committee because he thought it was a waste of time.Many people in the Standing Committee of the Senate, according to his words: "Professionals are too professional, amateurs are too amateur", and they are all difficult to deal with.

"Okay, let's find some people who understand German," Skade said to himself in the office, "Dutch is a small language." Dutch is commonly known as Low German and German is not very different.Therefore, the Dutch East India Company employed a large number of Germans.Skade thinks that there are quite a few elders who understand German, and most of them are affiliated with the Ministry of Colonial Trade.

Second report from Van der Lantron, Junior Merchant of the Dutch East India Company on the Magdeburg, to the Governor of Batavia, De Carpentier.

Your Excellency:
After a 20-day quarantine period, we were finally allowed to go ashore.Thank God no one died while we were on board.All are healthy.

Originally, we were supposed to end the quarantine at the end of February, but when the period expired, the port officials informed us that a high-ranking official who was about to meet us, whom they called the "executive committee", was not in Lingao, so we were on the ship Stayed another week.

We found that Australians use the concept of "week" as much as we do.When their men came aboard to talk to us, they used to refer to "day of the week" and "next week".They also refer to "Sunday".

However, the officials sent us a document that allowed us to leave the ship, by means of which the crew could disembark and live in a community on shore.The sailors and soldiers were delighted to be ashore.I ordered the captain to keep a third of the sailors and soldiers on board, and promised them a rotation every three days thereafter.

The executive committee has an order to the port officer, in which he is ordered to give us all kinds of needs, and there will be no shortage.Also ordered our personnel not to leave the port area without written permission.

Port officials issued cardboard cards to everyone who disembarked.Their names, ships and ports of departure are written on the cards.And ask everyone to press their fingerprints on the card.Your Excellency must know that this practice of fingerprinting has been popular among Chinese people for a long time, and it seems to be a kind of credit expression for them.

When we landed on land, people and workers in the port area crowded the roadside to watch us.Some people even climbed on the crane, so many people watching made us feel very difficult.Officers discovered this and sent guards to escort us.We left the pier and were placed in a house not far from the pier
This house is very large, and it is said that it is specially used to receive sailors.The house is a special kind of longhouse. There are many rows of such longhouses in the yard, and each longhouse is equipped with double-decker beds in rows. A house can accommodate 40 or more people—some longhouses It is double layered.

As senior crew members, we were housed alone in a courtyard with a similar two-story building.Like the longhouse, it is of brick and tile structure.But the interior layout is more refined.Each room is equipped with all kinds of furniture. As for each room sleeping one person or three people, it is up to you. They have rooms with different numbers of beds.Can sleep up to 4 people.

Whether it is the longhouse of ordinary sailors or the small building where we live, the houses are very clean and tidy.There were no bedding on the beds, but straw mats and straw pillows—sufficient in the high climate.Each house is equipped with a toilet.The caretaker of the house strictly warned us that there would be heavy fines and other penalties for defecating indiscriminately.For this reason, I had to communicate with the steward on the ship, and asked him to strictly control the behavior of the sailors and soldiers-you know most of them are Germans.

There is a restaurant in the Seamen's Inn that serves cooked meals.There is also a large shop here, which supplies all kinds of goods, especially for the sailors and fishermen who stop here.

Australians seem to be less hospitable than Chinese people. Seabanks and others say that every time you go to the coast of China, you can get official hospitality as long as you go to the coast of China under the banner of "tribute", but we are here with Australians. From accommodation to food, everything has to be paid, but it is acceptable for the price.

We learned that this place is called "Bopu" - we were informed that we can move freely in Bopu Town, and those who go out must return to the hotel before 9:[-] pm.But those places included in the "restricted zone" cannot enter or leave.Generally speaking, Australians have very few restrictions on us. Apart from allowing us to move freely in the museum, there are no other restrictions on the coins and other items we carry-just remind us that we need to exchange them for local currency in advance. currency, except for the ban on carrying arms.In addition, he required sailors and soldiers to take an oath to respect the laws of the place before going out.

Every hour in the city there is a shriek of a flute--so loud it can be heard all over the city.Among them, the sound of the flute in the morning, noon and evening lasts for a long time. Australians are very proficient in using this time reporting system, so that everyone can know the current time.The work of Australians runs strictly according to the hour. As long as you live with them for one day, you can roughly know what they will do the next day.

After all the staff settled down in the Sailor Hotel, the person in charge of receiving us, who they called the Minister of Trade, wanted to meet us and discuss with us. The three of us decided to go to talk with him together.

On the morning of March 3st, we washed up early in the morning and changed into our best dresses.In addition to the two gentlemen Gonzalez and Leibtrini, each of us had an entourage with us, and related gifts.

We were led down into the street by young officials sent from the "Ministry of Trade".Here is a very beautiful carriage ready!Yes, the buggy, that was the one thing that surprised me the most.I don't know where you can find such a light and beautiful carriage in all of East Asia, not even in Macau or Batavia.I don't think you can find a similar vehicle even in Europe.This is really a beautiful handicraft!No, the so-called exquisite handicraft does not mean how gorgeously decorated and meticulously carved it is. On the contrary, there are almost no decorations and paintings on the carriage, and the body is also black.Aside from the glass insets in the doors and a pair of nice headlights, there are no trims worth mentioning.However, the size and structure of the entire body, the proportion of each part on it, and the perfect structure all give people an extremely strong shock.My lord, please forgive me for not being able to describe this feeling in words.

The carriage passed through Bopu Town and headed for a town they called "Bairen".There is the center of Australian rule.Bopu Town is a very prosperous town, with many houses in the town, it can be called a more prosperous city.We can see that there are a large number of chimneys here, with amazing heights, each chimney is emitting black and white smoke.There was a strong, pungent smell in the air.On the way we saw a majestic castle-although it was not on the street we passed, it was made entirely of red bricks, with huge towers and forts, and there were also white and black smoke coming from there. Loud metal crash.I asked the accompanying officer where it was, but the other party refused to answer my question. I thought it should be an Australian smelter, ammunition field or mint.If true, Australians have invested a lot of money here

The road from Bopu to Bairen was built along a big river.But this river is currently in a semi-dry state.The Australians seem to be doing some sort of dredging and repairing of the river.There is not much water in the river, and there is a foul smell.The road is well built and paved with a kind of black sandstone.The carriage didn't feel bumpy at all when walking on it. There were meticulously cultivated land everywhere along the road, and the land was carefully taken care of. There was not a single inch of land that had not been reclaimed and planted with crops.The fields, like many parts of Tuscany, are perfectly watered with canals, dams and waterwheels to irrigate the soil well.This irrigation project is so ingenious that Mr. Trini is full of praise.

Locally, like Batavia, it can be cultivated year-round.Green rice seedlings have been planted in the fields, and some are vegetables.The slopes where rice cannot be planted are planted with various crops and fruit trees that we don’t know. Even on both sides of the road, many coconut saplings are planted.

What surprised us the most was that there were still some unknown things beside the road: some completely lifeless wooden piles, painted black.Wooden piles stand in rows beside the road like street trees, and are connected with black wires.There are also bottles made of glass fixed to each stake.

The three of us discussed the purpose of these stakes without coming to any conclusions—no one had ever seen such a thing.We asked the accompanying officials for advice, and once again received a silent answer.

　Germans were notoriously unhygienic in Europe at the time.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)