Xinshun 1730

Chapter 275
The captain has unlimited and unfettered powers during the voyage.

This is the common sense of the navies of various countries at this time. As the captain, Mantou is also qualified to decide whether to meet with some people.

I am somewhat interested in this person who asked to meet, and more importantly, Liu Yu once said that Westerners in Nanyang are like having an iron chain with a lock, and Batavia is the lock of this iron chain.

A person who has experience in picking locks by sliding doors knows very well that the easiest part to break an iron chain with lock ends is not the iron chains, but the lock ends.

Once the lock is broken, the rest of the chain is meaningless.

Mantou knew Liu Yu's thoughts about Nanyang, and he knew from the beginning to the end. Taking this opportunity, he wanted to see what Batavia, who kept Liu Yu awake at night and restless at night, looked like. .

Considering the words of this person who called himself Lian Huaiguan, Mantou took off his woolen navy uniform and changed into an official uniform of a fifth-rank military officer.

Several adjutants dutifully collected the weapons on Lian Huaiguan's body and kept a short gun for safekeeping.

A sailor who knew Hokkien came forward to act as an interpreter. Both parties spoke dialects rather than foreign languages, but without an interpreter, they really couldn't understand.

Lian Huaiguan did not express much emotion about the merchant ship itself. There are some Chinese in Batavia who are also sailors, and they travel around with the merchant ship, and some have been to Europe. up.

He was born in Batavia and had never visited his ancestors' homeland, so he was very unfamiliar with some etiquette and etiquette, and he did not kowtow to salute like ordinary people on land.

But when I saw the official uniforms that are common in dramas, I still felt a little indescribable feeling, not awe or intimacy, but an emotion that is difficult to articulate.

Mantou doesn't care about these things, he has changed from a slave to a man, and he doesn't care much about this kind of etiquette.Asking someone to make tea and bring it over, he put on a very friendly smile.

"Even this surname is rare in the capital. I have also read some books, and I know that there is an allusion of 'during the melon and melon' in the Spring and Autumn Period. This seems to be a doctor who is said to be Qi State, and the navy of the Celestial Dynasty is in Weihai. Qidi. From this point of view, we are half fellow villagers."

Although the two "don't understand the dialect", an allusion after 2000 years has brought their relationship closer.Even the capital where Mantou was born is thousands of miles away from Batavia.

Back then Duke Xiang of Qi sent a doctor, Lian Cheng, to guard the border. The border conditions were poor, and he agreed to go there when the melons were ripe, and to send someone to replace them next year when the melons were ripe.Lian said that he was stationed for a year, and Qi Xianggong did not send someone to replace the melon ripening season, so he and Gongsun Wuzhi killed Qi Xianggong, leaving an allusion of "coming with the melon and replacing it".Lian Cheng may not be very famous, but Qi Xianggong is still quite famous. There are many orthopedic poems about him and his younger sister Wen Jiang in the Book of Songs...

This allusion may be unfamiliar to people whose surname is not Lian, but to those whose surname is Lian, it can be regarded as the story of their ancestors, and they have heard it since they were young.

Although even Huai Guan has never been to the land of Qilu in his life, Mantou's allusion sounds very familiar to him, as if the Qi country that traveled through 2000 years is not far from the Batavia where he lives.

For all Chinese people, whoever has a name and surname, for thousands of years, whose ancestors have not left one or two allusions?

"What your lord said is that Dr. Mi, who has been around for a long time, is the ancestor of my surname. But you don't know your name?"

"Oh, my surname is Mi, my first name is Gao, and my style name is Ziming."

"Oh! Sir, the character is actually the same as Lu Meng, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms."

Lian Huaiguan didn't read much, but the stories of the Three Kingdoms were as popular in Batavia as they were in Shandong and Beijing.For someone like him who is always thinking about making a big deal, he is also very familiar with the stories of the Three Kingdoms.

Mantou thought about why Liu Yu named him this word, smiled slightly and said, "Scholars will treat each other with admiration for three days. It's a pity that I am rather blunt and have failed my husband's expectations. By the way, what do you want from me?"

Lian Huaiguan thought to himself who is this man's husband?This person is already an official at a young age, and this gentleman is probably in a high position now.

In just a few words, even Huaiguan could hear Mantou's respect for his gentleman.Facing the question of steamed buns, Lian Huaiguan hurriedly said: "Master Mi, if you say something is wrong, it's actually fine. It's just that I've been in Batavia for a long time, and I haven't seen any officials from the Celestial Dynasty. I'm curious today, so I asked abruptly."

Mantou has also learned a lot in these years, he laughed and thought to himself, who would come here just to see each other?If the husband is okay, he has a good reputation, and it is normal for someone who wants to meet him.Now who knows who I am, Mi Ziming?
Seeing that Lian Huai Guan didn't say anything, he was not in a hurry to ask, and said with a smile: "Now that I've seen you, could it be that you want to go to Sweden with me to see the world?"

Lian Huaiguan saw that Mantou didn't have too much official airs, so he laughed and said, "My lord, I'm joking. Although I have never been to Sweden, some of my brothers have also been sailors for the Dutch, and I have been to Amsterdam. I have also heard of the name of the country of Sweden, and it is not too far away, I really have no interest in going to see it."

"It's just that there is one thing I don't know."

Mantou heard from Liu Yu that some Chinese sailors actually went to Europe in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not uncommon for them to go to the Caribbean to become pirates.

Hearing that Lian Huaiguan had no interest in going to Sweden, Mantou didn't think it was strange. Although the death rate of sailors has dropped a lot these days, the risk at sea is still very high.

"Oh? I wonder what you want to ask?"

Lian Huaiguan asked without any hesitation: "The country of Sweden is tens of thousands of miles away from the Celestial Dynasty, and the Celestial Dynasty has yet to send envoys there. Batavia is only ten days away from Fujian, but the Celestial Dynasty has no consolation Once. I was born in Batavia, and I can be regarded as a foreigner, but I am still a citizen of the Celestial Dynasty. I don’t know why the Celestial Dynasty wants to make friends with Sweden, which is tens of thousands of miles away, but I don’t know why I came to Badawi, which is only a stone’s throw away. Ya?"

He is very courageous, but if he was born in the capital and other places, he would not say such outrageous words in front of officials anyway.

Batavia puts it nicely as freedom, and puts it badly as the Dutch have no grass-roots control here. It is quite a bit like the state of the Yuan Dynasty Mongols ruling the Central Plains: a tax system and nothing. To put it bluntly, it is incompetent. A small Han official in Fan Mengduan of Xingzhongshu Province in Henan Province killed all the high-ranking Mongolian officials in the province and closed the water transportation of the Yellow River. The Yuan Dynasty did not find out...

Batavia was almost the same, Lian Huaiguan was born and raised here, and he was not born with the atmosphere of kneeling before seeing an official, and he was even more unscrupulous when he said these words.

Mantou was delighted when he heard this, and Xindao was a bit interested, and asked, "What do you want Tianchao to do? I heard from my husband that this place is not semi-autonomous for the Chinese? There are Jiabidan and Lei Zhenlan leaders Then, there is also a Chinese Dharma hall."

Speaking of these Jiapitan and Lei Zhenlan, Lian Huaiguan couldn't help feeling a little disdainful, and said with a snort, "It's just for the Dutch to be the magistrate."

"Come on! Facing the Dutch, you will be obedient, and when you see me, you will put on Kapitan's official authority, so you don't need to mention it."

When it comes to rising, the export is dirty, and there is really too much dissatisfaction accumulated in my heart.

Almost all of his understanding of Tianchao comes from stories, story books, novels and dramas. The Tianchao in dramas and novels is as beautiful as a dream, and beauty is created by distance. Come forward and return a set of bright and bright things.

Thinking of those loan lenders, taxpayers, Jiapitan, and Lei Zhenlan in Batavia City, Lian Huaiguan couldn't help but want to curse people.

I thought to myself that such treacherous villains, if they were in the heavenly dynasty, would have been killed long ago, how could they be so arrogant?
Most of these Wushan Party members were forced to have no food and clothing. Many of them used to be employees of sugar factories, but the owners of the sugar factories squeezed them too hard, and some troublemakers fled.

The Dutch are very secretive about this.

Obviously it was the Dutch who lowered the sugar price too low, which led to all kinds of bankruptcy, but many people couldn't see through the deeper things.

Human feelings are very subjective, and the more intuitive the appearance, the easier it is to understand.Even if it's just a layer of twists and turns, it will make many people not think clearly.

Although Lian Huaiguan didn't think about these deep-seated reasons at this time, his identity made him quite dissatisfied with the Dutch.

Unlike those employees who can only contact the owner of the sugar factory, he is a businessman, at the level of being directly squeezed by the Dutch, and lacks middlemen to attract hatred, so his dissatisfaction with the Dutch is a memory from childhood.

Especially when the previous governor took office, in order to make up for Batavia's deficit, he simply treated the local Chinese as milking cows.

Of course, it is stronger than the current governor who wants to directly kill the Chinese and eat the meat, but no one has a front and back view, and they don't know the "grand plan" of the new governor.

But what his predecessor did was enough to fill Lian Huaiguan with hatred.

He is a man in the market, and his calculations basically come from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". At this time, thinking of the story of the first master's wisdom to provoke Huang Zhong, he first came up with a radical method against the steamed bun.

Now that the Chinese Empire can send ships to Sweden, why doesn't it care about the closer Batavia?
Mantou doesn't understand Hokkien, but the phrase "dry pick up" is still easy to understand as dry niang. What Mr. Xindao said is indeed correct. The people who are reliable in this Nanyang matter are slaves and servants like me. People, not those rich and powerful guys who are Kapitan and Lei Zhenlan.

Now seeing a furious Lian Huai Guan, Mantou didn't immediately trust him.

Thinking about Liu Yu's obsession with Nanyang, and not being sure that it wasn't a deceitful message sent by the Dutch, he restrained his expression and said seriously: "The Chinese sent to Sweden, there is something important. In your eyes, Sweden is separated from There are tens of thousands of miles of sea and land, but they don't know that Sweden is only separated from the Celestial Dynasty by a Raksha country."

Worried that Lian Huai Guan was sent by the Dutch to find out the news, Mantou kept his mouth shut.But considering that Lian Huaiguan might really be an angry ranger, he didn't say too much.

If the Dutch sent them to investigate, it would be regarded as Liu Yu's strategic deception to convince the Dutch that the French came to sign a joint offensive and defensive alliance with Russia with Dashun.

If it wasn't for the Dutch who came to explore the bottom, it can be regarded as leaving some leeway, only saying that there is a reason for it.

The Luocha people are still very famous in the north of the Songhua River, Mongolia and the Western Regions.But when it comes to Batavia, it’s far away. Even Huai Guan doesn’t know where this Rakshasa is. Batavia may have a world map, but even if Lian Huai has watched it, he doesn’t know what this Rakshasa is. , certainly a transliteration of the Dutch translation.

Sure enough, Lianhuai Guanting was confused, especially after the interpreter translated the transliterated Luocha into Hokkien, it was even more difficult to understand.

After pondering for a while, even Huaiguan roughly understood that it might be a big country in the north, sandwiched between Sweden and Dashun.

Thinking about it this way, Lian Huaiguan didn't know what to say for a moment, he could only ask: "Master Mi, does Master Mi know the history of Bacheng?"

Mantou nodded, thinking that I probably know more than you.In the words of Mr., what you know is only what you see and hear, but what I learned is to look back from a farther place, how can you not know?

"I know a thing or two about the history of this city of Ba."

"For maritime merchants, when the previous dynasty closed its doors and did not trade with the Netherlands, every time a ship went to Batavia, the local governor had to give gold and silver wool as a gift, in order to return next time. Now that the trade has been opened, it has changed its face. Maritime merchants in the Celestial Dynasty are often harsh, and they are frequently taxed and seized."

"For craftsmen, when Batavia was first built, Javanese could not work, but Fujianese were good at building cities, burning bricks, planting sugar cane, and making sugar, so they recruited more at that time. There was no poll tax, and we eagerly hoped that the Chinese would come. Now that the city has been built, the poll tax is widely collected, and a decree is issued to reduce the number of residence permits, and it is forbidden to carry 50 people on Chinese sea boats."

"With regard to sucrose, in the previous dynasty, Japan had not locked down the country, and European countries had not yet planted sugar in the Caribbean. Sugar was the ballast stone, and the profits were huge. At this time, Japan locked down the country, Taiwan, Fujian, and Guangdong had more sugar, and the European countries were producing sugar in the Caribbean. , sugar is used as ballast stone and it still loses money.”

These are the contents learned in Liugong Island. Liu Yu will use his knowledge of the world to explain the hidden truths through the information of some Fujian maritime merchants.

Mantou and others have long been accustomed to this kind of three views on everything. Over time, they have subconsciously agreed with this way of cognition of the world, and even think that this is a natural way and the only correct way.

What he was accustomed to, even listening to Lian Huai Guan, was like enlightenment, and a turbulent sea arose in his heart.

He originally thought that the imperial court was indifferent to Batavia's affairs, but after hearing what the person in front of him said, how could he be indifferent?I simply know that I can't go into more detail.

In just a few short sentences, it clearly explained the changes in the status of the Chinese in Batavia over the past century, and even more clearly explained why there was such a change.

And there are many "whys" that even Huai Guan has never thought about.

Lian Huaiguan's mind was a little confused, he was horrified, he had already forgotten what he was going to say next, he was at a loss for a long time, and then asked tentatively: "According to what my lord sees, will this sugar business be even more difficult?"

More than half of the Chinese in Batavia live around the sugar business. In addition to the direct relationship, the indirect ones, such as lending, clothing, groceries, and smuggling, also revolve around sugar.

Lian Huaiguan himself owned a sugar factory, but this sugar factory was just a cover for him to meet up with his brothers.Many former sugar factory employees in the Wushan Party, and some brothers are still working in the sugar factory. Lian Huaiguan forgot what he was going to say. Hearing what Mantou said was so reasonable, he subconsciously asked about the prospects of the sugar industry.

These things, Liu Yu has told Mantou and others more than once, about the relationship between supply and demand, trade, etc., are all compulsory courses for Jinghai Palace officials, and it is also a means to shape or quietly change their way of understanding the world.

Of course, Mantou knew about these things, and didn't think it was a secret, so he said lightly: "The business of sugar will become more and more difficult in the future. Although there are many people in China, there may be few who can afford sugar; Lock the country, and there is competition between Fujian sugar and Taiwan sugar. Don’t think about the north.”

"To the east is India. Not to mention that India produces sugar, Ceylon and other places are also suitable for growing sugar. Further east, the countries of Europe and America can't eat up all the sugar in the Americas. Maybe they will give up cheap for expensive, so come to buy it. Dutchman's Javanese?"

"The Dutch want to make money, so they can only continue to lower the price of sugar. I think this sugar business is going to end."

"Anyway, if I were the governor of Batavia, I would have to think about relocating all the people in the sugar factory and sugarcane garden to Ceylon. I would plant sugar nearby and sell it nearby."

"If you have a sugar factory business, or have relatives and friends, I also advise you to get out as soon as possible."

"How many people from the Celestial Dynasty are there in this sugar factory in Batavia?"

Mantou asked knowingly.

It is still unknown what kind of character this Lian Huaiguan is, and Mantou can only try to fan the flames.He has been a servant in the Duke's mansion since he was a child, and he has never eaten pork and seen pigs run away, so he calmly provocatively wanted to see what Lian Huai Guan meant.

Lian Huaiguan's face changed drastically when he heard such words.

After all, his vision is a bit low, which can be regarded as the limitation of the times, and it can also be regarded as the limitation of the level. Although he said that his brother has been to Amsterdam and knows that the earth is round, the world in his eyes is just a small bada Via.

Regardless of the education I received since I was a child, or the news I received, I have never viewed issues from such a height.

These words are easy to understand, but they contain some irrefutable truths.Lian Huaiguan naturally could tell whether this was talking nonsense, why was he not in a hurry?
It's not that the Chinese moved back to their native land, but those of them who ventured into Nanyang know one thing: trespassing Nanyang is close to death.

If you really go to places like Ceylon, not to mention how many people will die on the way, even if you go to that wild place compared to Batavia, how many people will die from fever, malaria, etc.?
If you really do this, how can you survive?Although he does not work in a sugar factory, he still has a "legal" residence permit, and he is even a person in Batavia who has contacts with Kapitan Lei Zhenlan and others.But many of his brothers worked in sugar factories, and many of them didn't have any residence permits at all.

In the past, I just lamented that the sucrose business has become more and more difficult in the past few years. Now I heard Mantou say this, how can it be so difficult to do business so simple?It was clear that there was a dead end in front of everyone's eyes, but they didn't know it yet.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Lian Huaiguan knew very well what kind of bird people the governors of the Netherlands were, and felt that what Master Mi said was very reasonable.

This matter is a matter of life and death.

(End of this chapter)