Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1315 The little demon in the temple is very windy ([-])

If it is said that everything in the Far East is under the control of the people on the East Bank, and the so-called small pool has no big waves, then in the distant European region, the peaceful negotiations between the East Bank and Portugal, mediated by the corrupt Doria family, Highlights an old Chinese saying, that is: the little demon in the temple has a big wind!

This negotiation, which was originally supposed to be only participated by the three countries of East, Heat, and Portugal, is now being intervened by more and more external forces, first the English who are married to Portugal, and then the Spaniards who want to benefit from it Later, even the French who were dissatisfied with certain practices on the east bank (the east bank invaded the Ottoman market for French goods, squeezed out their overseas colonies, etc.) also got involved, making the prospect of this negotiation even more confusing. .

In early June 1662, the all-steam-powered ship "Big Fish Lake" slowly entered the wharf of the Mobile Merchant Station.The navy captain Ding Zhen, who served as the captain, had a handover with the person in charge of the commercial station and the Italian naval officer Captain Echito, mainly weapons and ammunition, medicines, wine, ironware, cloth and other daily necessities, some of which were for It is used by the business station itself, and some of it is the goods for sale of the business station.

Ding Zhen and others also took the opportunity to go ashore to have a look. The Mobile Commercial Station has been established for some years. As the only stronghold of the large concern company Caribbean Shipping Company on the North American continent, this small town on the Bank of the Mobile River now has four thousand There are more residents, but most of them are undocumented black slave laborers.

These slave workers were mainly former Xinhua Island Swahili (Middle Eastern and black mixed descendants) laborers who were bought out by Air Canada, and each had a working period ranging from 3 to 5 years at that time.After the working period is up, theoretically these Swahili will be given free status, but officers from naval families like Ding Zhen dare not make such assertions.Knowing about the Caribbean Shipping Company, he believes that these Swahili slave laborers may be illegally used after the expiration date to maximize their value. After all, Air Canada is here to make money, not to open charity halls Well, anyway, this is a place where the sky is high and the emperor is far away. Air Canada can do it on the surface. As for whether it operates in strict accordance with the laws of the East Coast, not many people care about it.

The plantation currently grows only one crop, cotton, and its export market is only one east coast.Air Canada’s business in New Spain has been going smoothly over the years. With the five major opening ports in hand, it doesn’t care about other small ports (in fact, it can’t control it). Whoever wants to go, just be careful not to be unlucky Just get hit by an east coast navy ship.At present, their shipping capacity has reached several thousand tons, and they have 11 new and old ships. In addition to paying the tax to the Ministry of Finance every year, they can also save a lot of profits.It's just that under the single-handed promotion of the president Ding Yiyu, these profits were not used for dividends, but continued to be invested in production and operation activities, in order to obtain greater profits in the future.

Ding Zhen also met the Liang brothers who went to school together when they were young, that is, Liang Qiangdong, the boss of Qiangdong Trading Company, and his brothers Liang Gang and Liang Zan were also listed.They should have come from the Free State on a small offshore fishing boat, planning to come to the Mobile Merchant Station to get some goods back. After all, what the Free State can produce is limited now, and its only trading partner is the Caribbean Shipping Company.

Ding Zhen smiled and went forward to greet the three brothers of the Liang family. These three people are very good now, so don't be too contemptuous.Among them, Liang Qiangdong is the first-level agent under the Air Canada Company, Liang Zan is the prince and the commander of the horse infantry all the way granted by the Lord Mo of the Free State, and Liang Gang is the national teacher of the Free State, the highest spokesperson of Tianzun in the local area .With such a complicated and prominent identity, it is really only worth Ding Zhen to make friends with.

"Mobile Merchant Station is the only stronghold of our East Coasters on the North American continent, and it is because of this stronghold that we can better manage plantations and develop trade, and the Free State can also survive the difficult time when the country was established. " Liang Qiangdong said while holding Ding Zhen's hand.This guy is living a good life now, with his brother's glory, making a lot of profits every year with ease, not only opened a branch office in Xinjinggang, but also grandiosely transferred the female secretary who was required to wear tights every day. , Don't live too chicly.

Of course, Liang Qiangdong said that the Mobile Commercial Station is the only stronghold of the East Coast people on the North American continent, which may be somewhat inaccurate.The "North American Democratic Freedom Federation" privately organized by Gein Wei Boqiu has a population and economic scale no smaller than that of Air Canada, and even surpasses it in terms of organizational rigor.At present, this tiny country, which is still "dwelling" on Vancouver Island, has a population of 700 and some pedal machine tools and hydraulic machine tools. The productivity level is not low, and the number of talents is also large, so it is developing rapidly.A few days ago, they had established the country's second town, Xinxiang City, near the later city of Nanaimo to make full use of the local coal resources; even recently, Wei Mingxing and others have planned to establish a new one near the later city of Victoria. A town goes to the city to commemorate their great deed of crossing the ocean to the American continent and establishing the heaven on earth.

Hope City, Xinxiang City, and Dongdu City are all located in the southern half of Hope Island (Vancouver Island), and institutions such as town councils have begun to take shape. Hope City even has a Senate and a House of Representatives (reorganized from the former Federal Assembly) .The number of cadres is not very short, and now there are so-called eliminated machines obtained from the local area through secret channels, and the productivity level has become much stronger.I believe that in a few days, they will be able to advance to the northern half of the island while developing, completely digest the native Indians on it, and completely stabilize the nascent country of the North American Democratic Freedom Federation——Wei Boqiu actually has some ideas about this. Based on his ideas, he plans to plant the seeds of communist ideas among the people through uninterrupted education, and then care for them to grow continuously, eventually becoming the mainstream communists of this country.And once that time comes, the North American Democratic Freedom Federation will be relatively stable, and it is not a country that anyone can easily manipulate.

But then again, if the North American Democratic Freedom Federation wants to develop to that level, I am afraid there will be a long way to go, and Wei Boqiu may not be able to see it in his life.All he can do is probably sow the seeds, and then carefully cultivate them, and wait for them to bear fruit, which may take the joint efforts of several generations.The uncertainty in this is naturally extremely high. It is really hard to say whether the North American Democratic Freedom Federation can overcome this series of difficulties.

But the above are all things for later, Ding Zhen, the Liang brothers and the others neither knew nor cared about it.What they are interested in now is to rely on the big tree on the east bank to continue to develop, to occupy a favorable position for themselves and future generations in the country and even in the world, and to continue from generation to generation. This is what they have been pursuing. , rather than establishing an utopia, they don't have such lofty ideas.

After the "Big Fish Lake" unloaded its cargo, it didn't stay here for long, but quickly replenished with fruits, vegetables and coal, then pulled up the double anchors at the front and rear, and slowly left the Mobile River, planning to go around the After passing through the Strait of Florida, follow the North Atlantic Gyre towards the Old World Europe—because it is fully steam-powered, the "Big Fish Lake" generally looks for the ocean current to move along the water, which can save a lot of consumption, although it is on its side There was always a collier accompanying the voyage.

On July 1662, 7, after experiencing the violent winds and waves of the North Atlantic Ocean, the "Big Fish Lake" and the collier both arrived at the port of Palermo, Sicily - a place deeply loved by the Japanese. The city of influence is known as the granary of the Republic of China.In this beautiful place, Ding Zhen met Mr. Zheng Yong, the plenipotentiary diplomatic envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe, and then handed over several well-sealed top-secret diplomatic documents.These are the main points of the negotiations on the war with Portugal summed up by the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the spirit of the Executive Committee. Some of them are quite sensitive about the requirements of the negotiations and the bottom line, which can only be dismantled and read by Zheng Yong alone, so as not to affect the overall situation of the negotiations.

After delivering the letters, the "Big Fish Lake" will go to Haji Port in the Crimean Khanate, where it will pull a group of prisoners of war and livestock, and then return to the mainland on the east coast via the Cape Verde Islands.Among them, when passing through the Cape Verde Islands, they will leave hundreds of prisoners of war and a certain amount of food supplies on São Vicente Island, and then order them to mine coal on the island and build a pier for future ships on the east coast A certain amount of supplies can be provided when passing by.

After the two ships left, on July 7, the agreed second negotiation between the two parties was about to be held the next day. Special Envoy Zheng Yong took a carriage to the residence of the Communist envoy in the city, intending to make him secretly Advise the Portuguese envoy that the second negotiation on August 31st should not use any tricks.If you want to talk, talk well. Both sides show their respective requirements and bottom line. It must not be the same as the first time, because the differences were so great that the negotiation broke up after just 8 minutes.

In that negotiation, the Portuguese demanded that the East Coasters withdraw from most of the occupied Portuguese territory and immediately cease all attacks.For this reason, they are only going to pay the people on the east coast part of the land south of Paranagua Bay in exchange for a ceasefire.Of course, the proud and stupid Portuguese also think that it is a kind of great kindness not to ask the east bank to return the Portuguese merchant ships and goods they seized. The relevant money or goods, otherwise there is no need to continue the negotiation.

Zheng Yong expressed his "shock" at the Portuguese's whimsical peace talks, and seriously pointed out that this cannot correctly reflect the current battlefield situation and power balance between the two sides. The Portuguese did not have any sincerity in the peace talks. He was secretly expanding his arms and preparing for war, and wanted to continue the war, so he decided to immediately terminate this "meaningless negotiation."

The tit-for-tat attitude of the two sides also caused a headache for the mediator. Paul Doria, a rising star of the Doria family, immediately came to dissuade Zheng Yong when he learned that Zheng Yong planned to return to Amsterdam by boat. After coming down to discuss, Zheng Yong reluctantly agreed to stay for a while.

Tomorrow is the second negotiation agreed upon by the two parties. At this juncture, Zheng Yong received the highest negotiation guidelines from the mainland, and he has a rough plan for tomorrow's negotiation process in his mind.To put it simply, the members of the local executive committee asked Zheng Yong to talk about the Brazilian land south of Porto Seguro after comprehensive opinions from various parties (this is just a rough direction, and the specific demarcation is still to be done later. Busy), and the Cape Verde Islands that the Navy strongly demands (Sao Vicente Island must be discussed, and every other island that talks about the next one is a victory).

In addition, the Army requested that the Ue Seng area be included in the necessary conditions for this negotiation. For this reason, they can consider returning Mozambique and Angola to Portugal; finally, they require the Portuguese to pay war reparations, and the bottom line is no less than 200 million grams Luzardo, it can be cash, or it can be raw silk, tea, sandalwood, horses, high-quality wood, sugar, spices, etc., but the pricing of these commodities should be determined by the people of the east coast. Make conditions and bargain with the Portuguese (to be honest, after the Haizhu Island Trading Station was built, the role of this small place has been greatly reduced).

The above are the general requirements of the executive committee for peace negotiations this time. Besides, there are some minor opinions, but they don't affect the overall situation, and Zheng Yong didn't pay much attention to them.

Such a condition, to be honest, is still far from what the Portuguese can bear, especially now that they married Princess Catarina to Charles II of England, and they thought they were hugging their thighs—in fact, the British The Chinese have sent [-] experienced and elite troops to Portugal as in history to support their protracted war with the Kingdom of Spain-in addition, the French have also expressed encouragement and support to Portugal, although this is mostly It's just a form of talking, but it doesn't prevent the Portuguese from having some undue fantasies about it.

Therefore, the process of this peace negotiation held in the port of Palermo is destined to be extremely tortuous: the people on the east coast will not stop until they achieve their goals, but the Portuguese have not yet adjusted their positions. Young and energetic, with high spirits, the negotiations between the two parties are destined to go back and forth several times before they can make substantial progress.But Zheng Yong is not too worried, after all, time is on the side of the East Coast people, isn't it?

On August 1662, 8, under the coordination of the heirs of the Doria family, negotiators and entourages from the East and Portugal came to a winery of the Doria family on the outskirts of the city again, and started the second round of negotiations so far. .

(End of this chapter)