Chapter 1564: Ma Dalan Man’s Considerations
Foreigners who came to Sanya for the first time saw the mighty coastal defense forts outside the port, the huge iron ships docked at the mouth of the Tiandu River, the fast trains on the rails, the wide and smooth landscape avenues, etc. The series' unique landscapes will make everyone marvel at these things that break through common sense. Even some people with money and leisure will make special trips from other countries to visit here.
In fact, this was not the first time for Luo Hong Langsang to come to Sanya, but he still couldn't help but sigh at the prosperity of this city. It is said that it took the Haihan people less than ten years to transform Sanya from a deserted beach to what it is today. It was really hard for him to imagine how this was done. It’s no wonder that many Haihan civilians regard the rise of Sanya as a miracle and worship the hundreds of Haihan pioneers who first came here.
However, Luo Hong’s purpose of coming to Sanya this time was not to travel. As the nephew of Sultan Rateng Langsang of the Matalan Kingdom and the third-ranking senior general of the Matalan Army, he came here to bring He is carrying out an extremely important task to discuss matters related to arms trade with Haihan senior officials.
When the Matalan Kingdom fought the most fiercely with the Dutch, the main weapons supplier was actually not Haihan, but the British who secretly sold a lot of arms to it. The purpose of the British doing this is of course very clear, which is to use the Matalan Kingdom to deal with the Dutch, weaken the Dutch control in Java and Sumatra, and destroy the East India Company's control of the Sunda Strait, a key channel into the South China Sea. .
However, the failure of the Battle of Batavia made the Matalan Kingdom realize that the weapons provided by the British could not meet its combat needs. At that time, the only country in the South China Sea that could gain an overwhelming advantage in the battle with the Dutch was Haihan, so Ma Dalan managed to find some Ming people as middlemen, and successively purchased hundreds of artillery pieces and more than 2,000 muskets from Haihan through middlemen.
The relevant departments in Haihan are naturally very clear about the flow of these weapons. If it were not for the later establishment of the South China Sea Trade Alliance and the Dutch's request for an arms ban, this kind of arms business disguised as private trade might still continue. a long time. After all, Haihan can get huge profits from it, and he can also use the power of the Malta Blue Country to contain the Dutch. There is no reason not to do this kind of good thing that kills two birds with one stone.
The helpless Matalan people could only place their hopes on the British again. However, in 1635, the Haihan army severely damaged the British and Johor coalition forces at Star Island in the Strait of Malacca, forcing the British to temporarily give up their control of the area east of Sumatra. As a result, the route for imported arms that the Malatan people had finally found was interrupted.
The Matalan people turned to the Spanish again. Before the two sides could reach a conclusion on the arms trade and military aid, the Spanish fleet was defeated in a battle with the Haihan Navy off the coast of Sanya in September of that year. The city of Manila suddenly fell into panic. People were worried that Haihan would soon take military measures to retaliate. Therefore, all arms sales plans were immediately stopped by Governor Aragones to consolidate the defense of Manila city. Naturally, the plan to purchase arms came to nothing.
The Madalan people finally realized that Haihan was a hurdle they could not get around in their arms purchase journey. If they wanted to purchase advanced weapons and equipment from other countries, they would eventually have to come to Haihan. However, how to get Haihan to give up the arms sales restriction agreement he signed with the Dutch is very difficult for the Matalan people who lack experience in international politics. In the end, Laden decided to send one of his most trusted subordinates, his own nephew Luo Hong, to quietly come to the capital of Haihan to see if he could use some more favorable conditions to get Haihan to waive the arms sales restrictions and sell a batch to the Matalan Kingdom. Warships and weapons.
This task is of course not easy. First of all, there is no military alliance agreement between Haihan and Matalan. At best, they can only be regarded as trading partners. Their relationship is not even as close as that between the Dutch East India Company and Haihan. At least the East India Company has already stationed ministers in Sanya and built a special embassy. This is a diplomatic advantage that Matalan cannot match.
When Madalan State purchased arms from Haihan, Luo Hong had come to Sanya once and was responsible for inspecting and accepting the equipment. This was one of the main reasons why he was selected to be sent to Sanya this time. Ladeng thought that Luo Hong had dealt with Haihan's senior management before and had some kind of friendship, which would make it easier to speak during negotiations. Moreover, Luo Hong's mother is Han Chinese. He has also learned Chinese characters since he was a child, and he has no problem communicating normally with Haihan people.
But after Luo Hong arrived here, he soon discovered that the barrier between him and the Haihan people was not a matter of language and writing, but a huge gap in ideology and international political methods. The Haihan people's advantages in these aspects made it impossible for him to use them. Even though he brought a large number of gold bricks to show his sincerity, the Haihan people seemed not even interested in talking about arms transactions.
On the second day after Luo Hong arrived in Sanya, he began to apply for an interview with senior official Haihan through the diplomats at the Guest House. The process went quite smoothly. On the third and fourth days, he met the Minister of ** Ning Qi and the Minister of ** Yan Chujie respectively. But when he tried to apply for arms purchase to these two people respectively, he was rejected by the other party using various diplomatic rhetoric.
According to Ning Qi, Haihan has always been very cautious on the issue of foreign arms sales, so the arms purchase requirements proposed by Matalan must be submitted to the Executive Committee for discussion by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before making relevant decisions. As for when the Executive Committee can start discussing this issue and when it can come up with the final resolution, Ning Qi did not give a clear timetable, but vaguely stated that it could be as short as ten days and a half, or as long as not. That’s easy to say. After all, the Executive Committee has to deal with the affairs of the entire country. Matalan's arms purchase requirements are not an important matter to Haihan, and the discussion agenda will definitely be pushed back.
Yan Chujie's refusal seemed more direct. He pointed out directly to Luo Hong that Haihan had signed an arms embargo agreement with the Dutch East India Company, and warships were also included in the agreement. Unless Haihan terminates this agreement with the Netherlands, it will not be possible to sell the warships they need to the Matalan country for the time being.
Luo Hong still refused to give up and asked Yan Chujie if the relevant shipbuilding technology could be transferred to the Matalan Kingdom. In this way, the Matalan Kingdom would build its own warships and it would not be regarded as Haihan's breach of contract to sell weapons and equipment.
Although Luo Hong had a good idea, he oversimplified the matter. Yan Chujie simply ordered someone to fetch the weapons ban agreement and pointed out to him face to face the relevant manufacturing of weapons and equipment on the prohibited transfer list. technology" content. Luo Hong felt chilled after confirming it. It seems that the Dutch are smart enough. They took all these issues into consideration when they signed the agreement. Now it is very difficult to find a loophole to exploit.
Luo Hong was originally a military general, and he was not good at using his brain to do tricks. Half of the team he brought were military attachés, and the other civil servants did not know Haihan as well as he did. At this juncture, I can't come up with any useful ideas. As for asking for instructions at home, it is even more impossible. The voyage from Sanya to Matalan is more than 5,000 miles, and it takes at least two months to go back and forth. Even if Luo Hong can wait, his uncle Ladeng may not have the patience.
Before Luo Hong could think this through, he heard that the Dutch had already moved out. This is thanks to Luo Hong's arrangements after arriving in Sanya, and specially arranged for people to keep an eye on the movements of Dutch Minister Su Keyi. His people were also considered diplomatic envoys. Seeing Su Keyi go to Victory Fort, they casually found an excuse to use official duties as an excuse. After registering in his name, he confirmed that Su Keyi had gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then brought the news back. At such a sensitive time, the Dutch minister went to visit Haihan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Luo Hong would not speculate whether the matter had anything to do with him. As a general leading troops in war, he was accustomed to considering the worst situation first. If the Dutch knew of their arrival and specifically went to lobby high-ranking officials in Haihan to hinder their mission, the situation would worsen the longer they waited. And he never had the habit of waiting for a fighter plane to appear on the battlefield. From the day he held the saber for the first time, Uncle Laden's words were firmly imprinted in his heart - the best fighter plane must be created by oneself. , and the waiting fighter plane is very likely to be a trap for the enemy.
"We can't sit still and wait for death. If we don't take action immediately, the Dutch will probably get ahead and let the Haihan people reject our request again!" Luo Hong immediately summoned the other seven people who followed him to stay in the guest house and announced himself Decision: "We can't let the Dutch do whatever they want this time!"
"General, this is the capital of Haihan. If we use force against the Dutch here, no matter the outcome, I don't think the Haihan people will have a good impression of us." A subordinate immediately reminded him cautiously. After all, the mission of this trip is to find the Haihan people to buy arms, not to fight the Dutch. It is even more taboo to use force under the eyes of the Haihan people. Although they didn't know much about Haihan, they also knew how strict Sanya's security control was. Foreigners like them were required to register wherever they went, so there was no way they could hide it from Haihan. monitor.
Luo Hong shook his head and said: "No, I don't mean to fight against the Dutch, but to try to get the Haihan people to agree to our request as soon as possible."
"But haven't the Haihan people rejected it twice before?"
"That's because I gave them the opportunity to refuse." Luo Hong said firmly: "So I don't plan to let them make a decision so easily this time. We have to fully demonstrate our determination."
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When it was almost noon that day, the landscape avenue of Victory Port was busy with traffic. A strange motorcade came from the direction of the port, attracting the attention of passers-by. It seems inaccurate to call it a convoy, because there are only two carriages in total. The carriages are not big, but the things carried on the carriages seem to be extremely heavy, so that the strong horses pulling the carriages are showing their muscles and seem to be very strenuous. There were several dark-skinned men walking beside the two carriages, separating pedestrians from the two carriages, obviously protecting the things carried in the carriages.
The two carriages followed the avenue to the Victory Castle and stopped in the Victory Square outside the main drawbridge. Then the men lifted up the tarpaulin covering the car.
The onlookers, including the nearby sentry, suddenly felt a dazzling golden light in front of their eyes. Looking at the car again, the pile of yellow, orange and golden things turned out to be palm-sized gold bricks! Looking at the volume stacked on the carts, each cart contained at least a hundred gold bricks, weighing at least a thousand kilograms. No wonder the horses pulling the carts were struggling.
There are indeed a lot of rich people in Sanya. A random tea-goer in a street teahouse might be a big businessman who makes a lot of money every day. There are endless stories about showing off one's wealth and competing against one's wealth, and they are often used as talking points for people after dinner. But even the well-informed people of Sanya have never seen anyone show off their wealth by pulling two carts of gold bricks outside the Victory Fort. Soon, a large number of people heard the news and crowded over to watch the excitement.
However, although there were a lot of people watching, the order was not disordered. Everyone could see that the two carts of gold were not unclaimed wealth. The guys in the caboose next to them looked like they were not a good person, and there were also people not far away. Sentinels of Fort Victory, who dares to cause trouble at the gate of Fort Victory?
The Victory Square outside the Victory Fort seems to be undefended, but when there is a situation, police in black uniforms will soon appear nearby. Before the sentry could take action, a team of policemen rushed to the scene and isolated the two carriages from the onlookers.
"What are you doing? Do you know where this place is? Who is taking the lead?" The police officer leading the team walked up to the motorcade, took a look at the gold bricks on the car, swallowed, and then started to reprimand these people with a straight face. Help the ungrateful guy. No matter how rich these people are, if they dare to mess around outside Victory Fort, they are asking for death. Therefore, although the police officer was surprised by the wealth represented by the two carts of gold bricks, he still did not forget to perform his duties.
"Here is Luo Hong, the envoy of the Matalan Kingdom. The gold bricks on this carriage represent the sincerity of our country's friendship with Haihan! At the same time, I also hope that this sincerity can be witnessed by the people of Haihan. If the Executive Committee can agree According to our country’s trade requirements, these two carts of gold bricks will soon enter the Haihan treasury and become the common wealth of the Haihan people!”
The only solution Luo Hong could think of was to fight against all odds. The target of this fight was not the Dutch, but the face-conscious Haihan people. He ordered people to unload all the gold bricks shipped this time from the ship, and then transport them by horse-drawn carriage to the Victory Fort for display. He hoped to let more people understand the wishes of the Madalan Kingdom and use public opinion to force the high-level officials of Haihan to change. idea.
(End of chapter)