Chapter 675 Deadlock
Just as Governor Cohen is worried, the identity of the Dutch often becomes an obstacle to obtaining intelligence information at this time. This has little to do with whether the intelligence department led by Genk is working hard. Due to differences in race and culture, It is impossible for the Chinese to give them complete trust, just as it is impossible for them to completely trust the Chinese. Naturally, it is difficult for these news that are spread by word of mouth in Chinese circles to reach the ears of Dutch senior officials.
As the number of Ming merchants who have been to Sanya increases year by year, Haihan's development in the past two years is no longer a secret, and it has also spread to Batavia through various channels. Su Keyi's job was to deal with Daming maritime merchants, and he naturally heard a lot of relevant information intentionally or unintentionally. As for the Dutch high-level officials of the East India Company, they usually had direct contact with the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants. Even if they met, they would only discuss trade matters, and their friendship would not reach the level of chatting about these anecdotes.
Seeing the dumbfounded look of the two people, Su Keyi didn't bother to explain the reason in detail, so he continued: "It is said that when the Haihan people arrived in Sanya in the early seventh year of Tianqi, there were only a few hundred people. They relied on constantly engulfing local and foreign people in Qiongzhou. It is said that within a hundred miles of Sanya alone, there are 60,000 to 70,000 people working for it day and night. There are coastal areas controlled by Haihan in Annan, Guangdong and other places, and the population under their jurisdiction is also large. It’s by no means a small number. And Haihan’s demand for people seems to be endless, which cannot be met by Ming Dynasty and Annan alone, so they ask the Portuguese to continuously traffic Kunlun slaves from Kunlun State.”
"You said before that there are at least 100,000 people under Haihan's rule. How many people are there on Qiongzhou Island?" Fan Longgen asked.
"There should be two hundred thousand, but the specific number is not clear. Originally, Fucheng and Danzhou to the north of Qiongzhou were the areas where the population was concentrated. After the Haihan people settled in the south, they made Sanya a In the most prosperous area of the island, there are tens of thousands of mountain people from the Li and Miao ethnic groups who have settled in the mountains and forests in the center of the island all year round," Su Keyi explained.
"That's indeed a lot!" Van Longen felt even heavier after hearing this answer. Although the East India Company also claims to have tens of thousands of employees, they are all scattered in colonies in the Far East and do not have a sphere of influence with a relatively concentrated population like Qiongzhou. The indigenous people in Southeast Asia are naturally lazy and are not as hard-working as the Chinese. Production and construction projects that require a large number of labor forces, such as farming and infrastructure construction, often progress slowly due to low labor efficiency. It is almost impossible to imagine that it would take more than four years for the Haihan people to build a prosperous port city like Sanya in Southeast Asia. According to Van Longen, Batavia has been established as a city for more than ten years, but the city and port may not be as good as Sanya.
However, the city of Batavia is much larger than the Fort Victory at the foot of the mountain. Of course, this is understandable. It is said that the pure Haihan people who came across the sea were only a few hundred, so how could they have the ability to build a large city by themselves in the early stage. Moreover, it is said that there are extremely powerful coastal defense fortifications built on the coast near Victory Port. The Haihan people do not need to build a strong city to ensure their own safety. But when it comes to maritime trade, Sanya has a geographical advantage that Batavia does not have, that is, it is very close to Annan and the Ming Dynasty. It naturally has two markets with huge potential. Moreover, the Haihan people are also of Chinese descent and trade with the Ming Dynasty. There was no obstacle, there was no need to entrust middlemen to conduct trade in the form of smuggling like the East India Company did.
To be honest, the use of force may not necessarily win the battle. Trade sanctions are not what others want, and their development potential seems to be at a disadvantage. After thinking about it one by one, Van Longen was frustrated to find that his family really had no advantage at all. Zhan, how can you negotiate terms with the other party in this negotiation? Only then did he realize that this mission was completely different from what he had imagined before setting off. Before setting off, he only thought that this mission might be dangerous, but now it seems that his personal safety is not a problem, and the content of the negotiations is completely different. An impasse was reached.
Cohen had already set an unchangeable bottom line for them before setting off, but he failed to give them any trump card that could truly threaten Haihan, which created an extremely passive situation in their negotiation process. The Haihan people obviously would not take the initiative to make concessions in this situation. Although the negotiations had only lasted for half a day, the Dutch delegation seemed to be at the end of its rope.
"If we can't come up with an exchange condition that can make the Haihan people feel nervous, then our trip will probably be in vain." Fan Longgen scratched his head and thought for a long time, but in the end he could only come up with such a helpless answer.
At the same time, Schneider and Gu Kai were happily describing today's negotiation process to several other executive committee members. The Dutch sent envoys to seek negotiations this time, which was basically expected by the executive committee. At that time, people were sent south to submit diplomatic letters to the East India Company. The Executive Committee did have the idea of provoking the other party. If the Dutch were not calm and wanted to take military action against the Ambrosia Islands or even Sanya, then Haihan could take advantage of it. Taking this opportunity to teach the Dutch a lesson, there will be more reasons to take further actions in the future. However, it seems that the Dutch have not yet recovered from the successive defeats, and did not send troops rashly again. Instead, they chose to take the civil struggle route and sent a mission to negotiate with Haihan.
However, this method is nothing new in the eyes of the Executive Committee. It is nothing more than an attempt to delay time through negotiation, and the exchange conditions they can propose during the negotiation process are even more weak. Schneider and Gu Kai had almost sprayed the Dutch envoy so hard that he couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north before even using their real skills.
"These two Dutchmen are obviously not professionals in the field of diplomacy. They probably don't even have an outline for negotiation." Schneider commented unceremoniously: "I'm not proud. Gu Kai and I were asked to talk to them today. In fact, it’s really a bit overkill.”
"We can definitely ask Xiaobao to come forward and talk to them." Gu Kai also made no secret of his attitude: "It is indeed a waste of our time to talk to such laymen."
"This is all based on our ability to defeat them. If we lose in Fujian, guess what kind of face they will have?" Yan Chujie said with a smile, "So don't give both of you credit. Take it away, and our military will also have a share!”
"It's true that we can put the matter of negotiations with the Dutch aside for a while." Tao Donglai, who had just entered the conference room, raised the document in his hand: "Qiao Zhiya sent a telegram back from Changhua. The steelmaking plant over there will be there soon." It’s about to be put into production and asked us if we would like to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony.”
Haihan started the construction project from Changhua to Shilu in June 1629, building a freight railway from Changhua Port to the inland Shilu mining area, and started building a coal-iron composite industrial base in Changhua during the same period. During the past two years, Haihan successively mobilized more than 6,000 immigrants to settle locally, and also changed the main service location of prisoners of war to Shilu. After more than 20 months of work by nearly 10,000 people, Changhua ——The freight track of Shilu was successfully opened to traffic, the Shilu iron ore was put into mining, and the last step of the steel smelting plant was finally announced to be put into operation. The metal ore transported from the deep mountains of Shilu will be combined with the coal transported from Annan Black Earth Port in Changhua to produce a large amount of steel needed to build a modern industrial system.
Of course, based on the production conditions of this century, even if Changhua is given the lofty name of "Coal-Iron Composite Industrial Base", the actual production capacity in the eyes of the time travellers is far less than the forced production before time travel. Small steel companies that were shut down and transferred. However, it is quite impressive in this era. After all the planned phases of the project are completed in a few years, the steel production in Changhua alone will exceed the combined production capacity of all the countries in the entire Far East.
And Qiao Zhiya has been working diligently ever since he started working as a construction site supervisor to build railways. In the past two years, except for big days like anniversaries, Qiao Zhiya has basically never been back to Sanya, at least two-thirds of the time in a year. The time was spent on the field construction site, and hard work really deserves to be rewarded. Of course, the treatment given to him by the executive committee has also been improved a lot compared to before. Qiao Zhiya can be said to be a genuine local emperor in the local area. He has military and political control and can directly decide on all matters big and small. His power is no better than that of Danzhou and Qiongzhou Fucheng. Chief administrative officer. Moreover, due to the special nature of the local industry, it is no longer administratively divided into the jurisdiction of any existing state capital, but is a genuine area directly under the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee. "For such a big thing, people must be involved." Gu Kai was the first to express his opinion: "Qiao Zhiya has indeed worked hard outside in the past few years. The executive committee sent a representative to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which is also an affirmation of his work. ”
"Then you go and go." Tao Donglai immediately agreed: "I just heard you outside saying that the negotiations were no longer passionate, so let's put aside what you are doing and go to Changchun. The ribbon-cutting will be held next week, and you will leave tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, which is about the same time.”
"I...I have other things on hand!" Gu Kai was reluctant to go on a business trip to Changhua. Apart from the soot that covered his face, the place seemed to have no other characteristics.
"Don't push back on the tasks assigned to you by the organization!" Tao Donglai put the telegram in front of him: "That's it. You can ask the Shipping Department to arrange the shipping date for you later. Don't miss the time."
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"Then... Okay, I'll reluctantly make this trip." Gu Kai shook his head and reluctantly accepted the errand.
So when the Dutch continued the negotiation the next day, they found that the Haihan people present had changed their lineup. Gu Kai, who had come forward the day before, was nowhere to be seen, and was replaced by Yu Xiaobao, the young man he had dealt with a few days ago.
Schneider and Yu Xiaobao have known each other for a long time, and there is still a mentor-disciple relationship between them. When the Guangdong Office was established, Yu Xiaobao followed Schneider to Guangzhou and began his official career. In two or three years, the little follower who came from a fishing village worked his way up to being in charge of his own affairs, and then was transferred back to Shengli Port to join the Youth League as a backbone. The future is bright. A few days ago, several members of the executive committee had been discussing letting him join the foreign affairs department for training. Then the Dutch mission came to visit, which gave Yu Xiaobao a chance to perform.
In the negotiations with the Dutch mission, Haihan did not think about reaching a specific result. Like the other party, they were trying to delay time, so letting Yu Xiaobao take Gu Kai's place had almost no consequences. People objected - anyway, with Schneider watching, nothing serious would happen. So Yu Xiaobao, who had just turned 20, became the youngest naturalized civilian diplomat in the history of Haihan.
Yu Xiaobao had dealt with these people a few days ago, so he couldn't say he was nervous. However, his English level was still at the level of nodding yes and shaking no, coming here and going, definitely not at the level. He couldn't communicate directly with the two Dutch people, so he could only turn to the next best thing and talk to Su Keyi, who could speak Chinese. As a result, the negotiation method turned 180 degrees from the first day, and Su Keyi replaced the two Dutchmen as the negotiator.
"Brother Baishuo, you are so polite!" Yu Xiaobao followed the traditional etiquette and bowed to Su Keyi.
Su Keyi also watched the negotiation process yesterday between two Dutch people who were incompatible with each other. Seeing that the people on the other side had changed today, he had already planned to find another way to build a relationship to avoid the situation being too tense to talk about, so he smiled and responded: "Yu Brother, you don’t need to be too outspoken. You and I are both Chinese. It’s fate that we can meet here in this way. I am a few years older than you. If you don’t mind, just call me Brother Su.”
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Before Su Keyi could get a response from Yu Xiaobao to this trick of building relationships, Schneider coughed dryly and said: "To be serious, this is a country-to-country negotiation. What we are talking about is state affairs, and it is a very serious matter. There’s no need to cultivate personal relationships like this, right?”
Su Keyi is usually a eloquent person. He would not stop here. Hearing the words, he continued: "Mr. Shi's words are wrong. Brother Yu and I hit it off right away. What's the harm in making friends? It's like being in a shopping mall and being a rival on the court. , we are friends off the field, each is the same thing.”
Schneider thought to himself that if you still want to talk around me, you are thinking too easily. He immediately smiled and said: "The relationship is unclear. If you want to make friends with Xiaobao, fine, I will sort out the relationship first. Xiaobao, what is the relationship between you and me?”
Yu Xiaobao had been following Schneider for a long time, so he naturally understood the meaning of the song after hearing it, and quickly responded respectfully: "When it comes to official matters, it should be a superior-subordinate relationship, and when it comes to private matters, it should be a master-disciple relationship."
Schneider nodded, turned to Su Keyi and said, "You can make friends with Xiaobao, but the relationship must be sorted out. I am his master. In terms of seniority, you have to call me uncle. What do you think?" br>
(End of chapter)