Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1056 Chaos and Business ([-])

After settling the refugee matter with Grand Duke Jacob, Zheng Yong rushed back to Riga non-stop, and then received Mathias, the head of the De Haier family who came from Gothenburg himself.

It was already 1655 at this time-Christmas in 1654 had just passed a few days-but the old Mathias still insisted on arriving at the port of Riga by boat, and at this time he was fully in charge of the East Bank's diplomacy in Europe, Zheng Yong from commercial affairs held talks.The content of the talks is of course obvious, and naturally it is the increasingly dangerous situation in the Baltic Sea.

"The Swedes are about to go to war with Poland. I am very sure of that. Although they keep it secret, they have been speeding up the preparation of war supplies recently. It can't be hidden from anyone. Our family runs copper mines, iron mines and iron smelting workshops. A lot of production tasks have been received, and the cannon casting workshops invested by some Hamburgers have also begun to rush to work day and night. Finland, parts of North Germany and the interior of Sweden have begun to collect food, grass and soldiers. The war is imminent, and may break out within a few months. The target is undoubtedly Poland, which has been greatly weakened by Ukraine and Moscow." Mr. Matthias De Heier sent away irrelevant people as soon as he came up, and then had a private talk with Zheng Yong.

Zheng Yong, who was making tea for Mr. De Haier, was not too surprised when he heard that, he just paused for a moment, and then said indifferently: "This is inevitable. The Swedes have long wanted to occupy more land. The whole Livonia, Pomerania, and even parts of Poland are all coveted by the newly crowned King Karl X of Sweden. Besides, the cousin of the former Queen Christina must be eager to make contributions in order to secure a firm seat What about the throne. Mr. De Heil, you must not come to Livonia very often. In fact, if you have lived in Riga, the second largest city in Sweden, you will know that the Swedes have already collected taxes twice. Raising war military expenses. In fact, if the military supplies we shipped from the New World were not unloaded at Wendau Port, I doubt that these sensitive supplies shipped at a sensitive time would be forcibly bought by the Swedes.”

"Even the reasons for the Swedes to intervene in the war are readily available." Zheng Yong poured a cup of Xuedou tea for Matthias De Haer with a porcelain cup, pushed it in front of him, and said: "The idiots in Moscow, They are barbaric and rude, not only looting at will in the occupied area, but even threatening the trade in the upper reaches of the Dvina River, doesn’t this give Stockholm a ready-made excuse to intervene?”

"We are extremely opposed to any attempt to monopolize the main ports on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and this is also the attitude of the three-level parliament of the United Provinces." Mathias De Heier stated his position with a serious face, and then said: "The Swedes It is very disappointing that they have already owned half of Livonia, West Pomerania, Bremen-Velden, etc., but they are still not satisfied. To tell you the truth, although we De Heier The family and the Tripp family have invested in Sweden for many years, but the peaceful persuasion of the ambitious Karl X still failed, and they avoided talking about whether to intervene in Polish affairs, but this in itself is a kind of cryptic attitude.”

"So you chose a Brandenburger?" Zheng Yong also made himself a cup of tea, and after taking a sip with a little intoxication, he said slowly: "Elector Frederick William is lucky, He took part in the last few battles of the 30 Years War, and got East Pomerania as a reward after the war. Now he also inherited the Principality of Prussia, and he is eyeing West Pomerania under the control of Sweden. Moreover, this man was an ambitious speculator, and he actually established a standing army of [-] people, which is rare in the entire Baltic Sea. You know, the Swedes are strong in their professional standing army, Now that the people of Brandenburg are catching up, I'm afraid this place will become an eventful place again in the future. But, is Frederick really worthy of your bet?"

"The war with Britain is over, now it's time to reorganize the order." Mr. De Heier said, "The influence of the United Provinces is far beyond your imagination, Zheng, not only Brandenburg, but also Denmark and Some German states, no one wants to see Sweden continue to expand its influence in the Baltic Sea. So, someone has to stop Sweden from invading Poland."

"It's up to you, it has nothing to do with us anyway." Zheng Yong sat comfortably on the chair, took a sip of tea, and said leisurely: "We have fulfilled our promise not to sell military funds to Sweden, but the British People took advantage of the loopholes and sold a large amount of ordnance produced in Birmingham, and our loss is quite large. Is your agreement to open the Brandenburg market to Chinese merchants still valid?"

It is said that although the first Anglo-Dutch war lasted several months longer than in history, in September, the overwhelmed two countries finally reached an agreement and signed the "Westminster Peace Treaty".At this point, the war, which lasted for more than two years, finally came to an end. The Dutch lost face, and the British got some of what they wanted (reparations, land, and commercial interests), and they also relied on nearly 9 soldiers seized in the war. The first Dutch ship greatly expanded the size of its own transport fleet, allowing its domestic ocean-going transport capacity to surge by about 2000%.And because of this, although the British government has incurred a huge debt of 50 million pounds for this, but at the national level as a whole, it still seems to be profitable for the time being.

Of course, if there is gain, there must be loss. Although the Dutch failed in this war, they also had time to rebuild the commercial network that was severely impacted during the war to stop losses quickly, and some naval ships were also able to spare. Come out to serve the interests of the country in other aspects, such as going to Lisbon at the mouth of the Tejo River to show off its power, such as restoring the African trading post or colonial port that was taken away during the war, such as entering the Baltic Sea to serve the balance of power policy implemented by the Netherlands Well, there's still a lot to do anyway.

"Of course our promise is valid." Mathias De Heier stared with some dissatisfaction, as if he was angry that Zheng Yong questioned their integrity, but soon his face changed again, and he asked Zheng Yong mysteriously Asked: "I heard that you received Prince Waltermar in Riga two days ago, is this true?"

"My God, are you all dog-nosed? How can you have such a keen sense of smell?" Zheng Yong said in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Prince Waltermar is only visiting in a private capacity, and his friendship with me is in Archangel It's been established since then, and it's a normal thing to drop by old friends on a trip to Livonia, isn't it?"

Walter Marr is a Danish prince and the son-in-law of Russia's first Tsar Mikhail of the Romanov Dynasty.Of course, because the Russians forced him to convert to the Orthodox Church, he always refused to marry the Tsar's daughter Irina - when many Russian ministers came to persuade him, saying that Princess Irina "was very beautiful and never Drink strong wine, it is worth converting for such a beauty", his father also forced his son to agree to the marriage out of diplomatic considerations and a dowry of 30 rubles - but the marriage was not finalized due to religious reasons, Prince Waltermar was detained in Russia and was not allowed to leave the country until the death of Tsar Mikhail before he was allowed to leave.

However, although Walter Marr did not have a very happy time in Russia, after the death of the old tsar and his freedom, because of his special experience, he became a link between Russians and the West, and the prince himself was obviously very happy to do so. Do it, because it can bring him great benefits while enhancing his influence-you know, after the death of the old king (the old king plus illegitimate children have a total of 26 children), he has been economically Not very rich, being able to be a liaison between Russia and the West is indeed a very good thing.

And this time Walter Marr came to Riga, of course, not to visit an old friend as Zheng Yong said, but to act as the secret contact person of Tsar Alexei to contact Zheng Yong and ask Zheng Yong to deposit A part of the military assets of the Baltic Sea was handed over to the Russian army-provided that the Tsar's army could reach Livonia as desired.Zheng Yong has agreed to the Russians’ request in principle. After all, it’s not for sale to whomever these military assets are sold to. The Russians can sell them if they want (and save the shipping cost), so as to save them from being robbed by the Swedes when they get it. good.However, Zheng Yong also tentatively asked the Russians whether they could sell those Lithuanian prisoners of war, but the Russians simply rejected them—their lower limit was obviously not as low as that of the men on the grassland.

However, the Russians did not blindly reject the requests of the people on the East Bank. For example, they accepted a field tour group of about 40 officers sent by the East Bank to follow the Russian army to watch the battle. It is undoubtedly crucial to enhance the combat quality of large corps, because this is the only way for the regularization of army construction-the battle scenes between Russia and Ukraine with more than [-] troops in Lithuania are rare even in Western Europe. The officers on the east bank followed the main force of the Russian Army on the North Route and marched westward. This sincerity is indeed quite sufficient.

The relationship between the East Bank and Russia has come to such a point, which is undoubtedly the envy of the Dutch.Therefore, after hearing Zheng Yong's sarcasm, Mathias De Heier also smiled smugly, and then said: "I'm not interested in Prince Waltermar's visit, just asking casually. But I'll talk about it later , I am not optimistic that those messy Russian troops can reach Warsaw and Krakow. You must know that the main force of the Poles is not in Lithuania. Well, let’s talk about something else. Every high-end port is beginning to see English merchants, do you feel it?"

(End of this chapter)