I

  Chapter 610 607 [The traitor in the Navy Governor's Mansion]

  Nanjing, the imperial city, the Yamen of the Naval Governor's Mansion.

  After working in the prospecting team for several years, Abel Tasman from the Dutch East India Company was successfully promoted to the head of the Exploration Institute of the Mining and Metallurgy Division of the Ministry of Industry (Zheng Qipin).

  The Ministry of Industry in the Ming Dynasty, under the jurisdiction of the four divisions of Yingqi, Yuheng, Dushui, and Tuntian. Zhao Han changed the Tuntian Division into the Mining and Metallurgy Division. In addition to prospecting and mining mineral deposits, he was also responsible for the smelting of precious minerals such as gold, silver, and copper.

  Tasman did a good job in the Ministry of Industry, but he was suddenly ordered to be transferred to the Navy Governor's Mansion. This situation made him a little confused.

  Taking the documents from the Ministry of Officials, he went to the Naval Governor's Mansion to go through the handover procedures. The officials here did not tell him where to work, but only asked Tasman to wait in an office.

  After Tasman walked in, he found that there was actually someone inside, and it was a European. He took a closer look and exclaimed, "Mr. Hoffman, why are you here?"

  Hoffman said helplessly: "Your Excellency, the new governor, said that I embezzled the company's money, and even started to investigate the accounts. I can only flee Batavia with my wife and daughter."

   "How dare the governor?" Tasman was even more surprised.

  Under normal circumstances, although the governor and the councilors have conflicts, they will never kill each other, let alone investigate the other party’s corruption. After all, who wouldn't be greedy? Once the Governor investigates corruption, he will be the enemy of all MPs.

  But the new governor, Van der Lin, is the governor with the toughest tactics in the history of Batavia's colonialism when facing congressmen.

  Investigating corruption is just a means, but the real purpose is to make the MPs obey.

   And Hoffman happened to be the chicken who killed the chicken to make an example to the monkey.

   While the two were communicating, Gu Jianshan came in, and they immediately stood up to greet him.

"Sit down," Gu Jianshan said with a smile, "You two will be my staff from now on. Of course, the real job is the experience and affairs of the Navy Commander's Mansion. The Dutch East India Company, after all What is it? If it is a trading company, how can there be a territory and an army?"

Hoffman explained: "Your Excellency, the Netherlands is also called the United Nations of the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands... Well, it is probably translated like this. At first it was ruled by the King of Spain. The seven northern provinces and some cities in the south formed an alliance to become independent from Spain. .”

   "Then who will be the king?" Gu Jianshan asked.

  Hoffman said: "There is no king, only a parliament. A parliament is composed of businessmen, priests, and nobles. When encountering major national affairs, they discuss together and vote to decide the next policy."

  Gu Jianshan said in disbelief: "Is this country not in chaos?"

Hoffman said: "There must be contradictions, but they are not chaotic, because the parliamentarians have common enemies and interests. The Dutch East India Company is their greatest common interest, and it is also the interest of many Dutch civilians. Because the East India Company There are many shareholders, even ordinary people can buy company shares on the exchange.”

   Gu Jianshan asked what stocks and exchanges are, and Hoffman answered truthfully, which made Gu Dudu seem to be listening to the Arabian Nights.

Hoffman continued: "The leading body of the Dutch East India Company at the headquarters is a seventeen-member meeting, where seventeen directors discuss and make decisions together. The affairs in the East are decided by the governor and the review committee. The governor has one person, and the councilor Six people, a total of seven tickets."

"The jurisdiction of the East India Company is very large, and the seven members of the council are often distributed in various places, and it is difficult to gather all of them for a meeting. Therefore, in the seven-member meeting, the governor, the secretary of the committee, the chairman of the judicial council, the chief of military affairs and the chief of shipping , as long as these five people do not vote against it, the resolution can be passed even if they are absent.”

"Naturally, the councilors refused, because the governor had too much power. So, the councilors sent representatives to Batavia, and I was one of the permanent representatives. This spring, fierce conflicts broke out between the governor and the councilors. The most vicious one was targeted by the governor."

  Gu Jianshan asked: "Why did the governor conflict with the councilors?"

Hoffman introduced the situation in detail: "The governor came to Batavia last year and reached an agreement with the council. First, subdue the Matalan country, and then target the Banten country. It is bound to completely destroy the Banten country. Improve diplomacy with other countries. This plan has achieved initial success. The indigenous uprising broke out in Matalam, and the company sent troops to help counter the rebellion, in exchange for the king and the company to form an alliance."

"The next step is to jointly send troops to capture the capital of the Wandan Kingdom. King Matalan agreed verbally, but he has always used the excuse that there is no military expenditure to send troops, and the plan to destroy the Wandan Kingdom can only be temporarily shelved. At this time, the governor unexpectedly had a whimsical plan. At the same time, it went to war with Britain and Portugal. Of course, the members of parliament were firmly opposed to it, so the Governor broke his face."

   Gu Jianshan wondered: "It's understandable to go to war with Portugal, why go to war with Britain?"

  Hoffman said: "Please give me a map of the world."

  Gu Jianshan asked someone to bring the globe.

Hoffman pointed to the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula, which is the later Sultanate of Oman: "The Arabs here have a long history of navigation, and they have made a living by doing business since ancient times. The Portuguese have controlled the most prosperous port there. , for a whole hundred and fifty years. The native Arab leaders were originally a mess, and they fought each other just to grab the leftovers."

"Seventeen years ago, Nasser bin Mussad won the civil war and established the Sultanate of Oman. He transformed the long-term internal strife into a collective hatred of the Portuguese. He not only fought against Portugal, but also against Persia. Persian castles and Portuguese towns along the coast occupied more than half."

  Gu Jianshan praised: "There are endless civil wars, there are strong enemies outside, and he can unify the country and continue to recover lost land. This is also a hero."

Hoffman said: "The Portuguese were not reconciled. They drew on the eastern forces of Britain and planned to jointly send troops to retake the port. But both countries were weak in the east, so they went to Persia again, trying to persuade the king of Persia, and the three countries sent troops to Oman together. The King of Oman, Musad, found the Dutch East India Company and wanted to join the Netherlands in resisting Britain, Persia and Portugal."

   "The governor agreed?" Gu Jianshan asked.

Hoffman said: "The Dutch East India Company has always wanted to extend its hand into the Arabian Peninsula. This is a godsend opportunity for the governor. But the members of the council did not agree. Let’s talk about Dan Country after it is destroyed.”

  Gu Jianshan asked: "Which side do you think can dominate the situation?"

   "It must be the governor," Hoffman said. "Although the governor is restrained by the parliament, as long as he makes up his mind, he can force a decision. If he succeeds, he will be rewarded by the headquarters; if he fails, he will be held accountable by the headquarters."

  In another time and space, Governor of Batavia, Van der Lin, indeed forcibly sent troops to Persia, and the most intense conflict between the Dutch governor and the parliament broke out.

  In the five-nation war, there were no winners and no losers. There was a lot of thunder and rain, and it ended hastily.

  Because no actual benefits were obtained, and a large amount of military expenditure was consumed at the same time, Governor Van der Lin was dismissed from his post and returned to the Netherlands in despair.

After learning about the internal situation of the Dutch East India Company and the new world situation, Gu Jianshan asked: "If our country can build ten new large ships with a thousand materials, they will all be built with century-old oak, and the hulls will also use European keel styles. , equipped with the most powerful artillery. Can it defeat the Dutch fleet?"

"There is a strength advantage, but the victory of the sea battle depends on luck and command." Hoffman did not have any psychological burden as a traitor, and immediately helped out with ideas, "If you want to send troops, you don't have to go to Batavia, send the fleet Go straight to Malacca and cut off the most convenient sea route between the east and the west. At the same time, if the trade between China and the Netherlands is cut off for at most one year, the East India Company will not be able to sustain it, and will definitely choose to negotiate a peace due to the decline in profits."

  Gu Jianshan said: "You mean, occupy Malacca first, and Batavia leave it alone?"

"Yes," Hoffman nodded, "If you occupy Malacca, you can get huge benefits. Merchant ships from Britain, France and other countries have to pass through here, and the annual port entry tax is a lot of money. And the Dutch merchant ships can only go from Pakistan. Davia set off, bypassing Sumatra to India, the power of the Netherlands will continue to weaken. Don't be afraid to cut off trade with the Netherlands, the British, French, Portuguese, and even Arab merchants are waiting for this opportunity. Reduced trade with the Netherlands Well, other countries will take the opportunity to eat in, and Chinese businessmen won’t have much loss.”

   As expected of a representative of the Dutch East India Company, he is very clear about the specific situation and knows what the Netherlands is most afraid of.

  Gu Jianshan asked again: "Is Malacca easy to fight?"

Hoffman shook his head: "It's not easy to fight. The castle there is almost impossible to attack head-on. When the Netherlands captured Malacca, they not only sent their own troops, but also hired more than a thousand mercenaries. The siege lasted half a year. The disease rate reached 80%. If the Portuguese defenders hadn’t run out of food and opened the door to surrender, the Netherlands would not have been able to occupy Malacca.”

  Gu Jianshan carefully looked at the globe and set his sights on Vietnam.

   If you want to besiege the city for a long time, you have to send a large army to bring enough food and grass. The longer the supply line at sea, the higher the chance of encountering a storm and possibly being robbed by the Dutch fleet.

  Then, the supply line must be shortened, and the southernmost tip of Vietnam is an excellent troop dispatch point and food transshipment point.

  If you want to fight Malacca, you must first conquer Vietnam!

  I heard that Malacca is very hot. It is safer for the soldiers to familiarize themselves with the climate of Vietnam before going to fight Malacca, so as not to get sick like the Dutch soldiers.

  Gu Jianshan asked about India again.

Hoffman said: "I am a representative of a member of Parliament. The member I represent is based in Pulicat Port, India. It is not the territory of the Mughal Empire. It belongs to a small country called Jinji, with an area of ​​about two Taiwan. There are many states in the country, and the leaders of the states have the right to collect taxes, and they only need to pay a fixed amount of taxes to the king, and the rest are basically autonomous.”

"The Jinji Kingdom believes in Hinduism, and the Golkonda Kingdom in the north believes in Islam. Although the royal families of the two countries are mortal enemies, most of the civilians in the Golkonda Kingdom believe in Hinduism. The two countries are joining hands to resist the Mughal Empire. attack…"

  (end of this chapter)