1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 854
On July 1670, 7, Surakarta City (now Solo City, Java Island, Indonesia).

In a resplendent palace, Ji Changrong, You Qing of the Honglu Temple of Qi State, seemed to be a master, warmly entertaining the visiting representatives of the Dutch East India Company. The map of Java Island began to divide their respective control areas and spheres of influence.

The State of Qi agreed that the Dutch East India Company would move its control area to the south to the line of the Sara Volcano, Pangrang Ao Volcano, and Gede Volcano in the Banten Kingdom, and extend the control area in the east to the former Mataran Kingdom's Citalong River area, ending in Jatilu until the lake.

The State of Qi recognized the special interests of the East India Company in the Sultanate of Cirebon, but the territory of the country remained the status quo and was not allowed to expand into the existing territory of the former Kingdom of Mataland.

The Dutch East India Company respects Qi’s status as the protector of the Kingdom of Mataland, Yogyakarta, Madura, Brambang, and Banten. Political, military, economic and other treaties and agreements, not to mention interference in the internal affairs of the above-mentioned kingdoms.

In just half a day, the two sides have delineated their respective control areas on Java Island through a map. As for the feelings and opinions of the several kingdoms on the island, they are not within the scope of their consideration.

"Dear Ji, here's another close and successful cooperation between us!" Cooper Menas, Senior Diplomatic Commissioner of the East India Company, raised his glass and warmly toasted Ji Changrong.

"Cheers to our friendly cooperation!" With a smile on his face, Ji Changrong clinked the glass with Menas reservedly, and then drank it down.

This time the attack on the Matalan Kingdom went smoothly. It took less than four months from the mobilization of troops to the voluntary surrender of the Matalan Sultan King.The expected large-scale battle almost did not happen, which not only greatly avoided the casualties of officers and soldiers, but also saved a large amount of war expenses for the cabinet.

Next, how to deal with a series of problems in the Kingdom of Mataland, cede land, pay compensation, establish a new sultan king, change the country name, establish a puppet government...

The so-called "foreign commercial forces" naturally refer to the undefeated British East India Company, the French East India Company established in 1642, and the Danish East India Company established in 1616. They are all potential competitors of the Dutch. Opponents need to be continuously suppressed and excluded.

After Yangcheng Castle sent a sum of money and goods to the local Aceh garrison, the conflict was quickly quelled, but the relationship with the nearby indigenous tribes also became somewhat tense.They refused to provide Chengyang Fort with necessary daily necessities such as food, vegetables, melons and fruits, restricted the tribal people to serve the people of Qi, and even attacked the convoy and guards of the trading company. Although they did not cause too much loss of personnel and property, but It also made the operating environment of Nanyang Trading Company quite difficult, which made people very depressed.

The leader of the tribe learned that his son was detained by the people of Qi, and his own personnel were killed and wounded. He immediately instigated and gathered more than a thousand armed men from several surrounding tribes to find Yangcheng Castle, demanded that Nanyang Trading Company release him, and pay compensation for the dead and injured. To undertake the corresponding murderer.

"Ji, what our East India Company needs is absolute control over the source of pepper, so as to monopolize the supply to Europe." Menas shook his head and said: "Sometimes, the monopoly control over the source of certain commodities, in a certain way To a certain extent, it can exert powerful influence in politics or economy, and it can even be used as an auxiliary means of war.”

"The Kingdom of Aceh controls nearly 20% of the pepper production in the entire East Indies. Together with the Indian region, it constitutes the two major suppliers of European pepper sources." Menas said: "Dear Ji, you also know that pepper, Cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and other spice products are one of the main commodities exported to Europe by our East India Company, which has created a lot of trade profits for us. Based on the close cooperation between our two parties for more than [-] years, our East India Company was able to control the Spice Islands Most of the spices are produced in areas such as China, Ceylon, and India. However, the Kingdom of Aceh, which is an important pepper producing area, has always been outside our control.”

During this period, spices accounted for 40% of the trade volume of the entire Dutch East India (in the original historical time and space, the proportion of spices in the company’s products exported to Europe has been maintained at about 60%), and pepper is among all spices. Among the products, it accounted for nearly 30% of the share, amounting to more than 780 million Dutch guilders, which was not a "small amount" as estimated by Ji Changrong, and it was naturally worth the East India Company's fight for it.

"Oh?" Ji Changrong smiled, and looked at Menas meaningfully, "Your East India Company's news is really well-informed. It only happened three months ago in Yangcheng (now Sibuga, a coastal city in the southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia). Little friction, you guys know it so soon."

"No, no, no..." Menas froze for a moment, then shook his head vigorously, "Ji, whether it is our Interprovincial Republic or our East India Company, it will always be a strategic cooperation that you Hanzhou can trust and rely on Partners. Moreover, in the East Indies region, how could we make unfriendly actions against you Hanzhou? Our East India Company just hopes to continue to maintain our economic advantages in the European region and the monopoly position of some commodities.”

Three months ago, the son of a tribal leader and a dozen attendants captured five escaped slaves in Yang Castle.And two of the female slaves were taken in by the guards of the local Nanyang Trading Company, and they were pregnant with children.

Therefore, the two sides had a dispute over the fugitive slave, and then launched a small-scale fighting.After hearing the news, more than 30 guards of the trading company rushed to kill and wound several people with muskets, and detained the son of the tribal leader.

After more than 20 years of operation, the influence of the Qi State has gradually expanded to the north and south coastal areas of Sumatra Island. In addition to the earliest establishment of Anding Fort (now Bengkulu City, Indonesia), successively established councils by renting or purchasing land. Chuanbao (today's Padang City, Indonesia), Qingyuan Fort (today's Patang Panjang City, Indonesia), Yangcheng Castle, Lianzhou Fort (today's Dumai City, Indonesia) and more than ten strongholds. Sultanate, Jambi Sultanate, Pagarrurong Sultanate and Johor Sultanate have strong influence.

If we show weakness to the local natives this time, wouldn’t it make them even more aggressive in the future, running to our business station stronghold to get whatever they want.

And Qi State, which has huge political and commercial interests in Ming State, will definitely keep an eye on the changes in the situation there.Maybe when encountering damage or endangering the vital interests of the Qi people, they will not be able to help but intervene.

"Well... so, your East India Company wants to control Aceh's pepper trade?" Ji Changrong asked.

Therefore, the Nanyang Trading Company is planning a limited military strike, preparing to gather hundreds of armed guards to land in Yangcheng Castle to attack and deter the surrounding native tribes.

"Hehe..." Menas chuckled a few times and rubbed his nose, "Ji, don't you Hanzhou feel that the situation in Aceh is becoming more and more chaotic? Their high-level political situation has been constantly changing for more than 20 years. Various changes have taken place, so that the powerful factions in various places have gone their own way, especially in the Minangkabau region, which has formed de facto independence. This chaotic regional situation has brought more and more troubles to all our trade activities. Greater unpredictability."

Seeing this, a manager of a Nanyang trading company in charge of the affairs of Yangcheng Castle sent people out of the city to appease the local tribes who came to him, and at the same time went to find the nearby Aceh garrison, asking them to send troops to expel these tribal armed personnel.

When Menas heard this, a smile immediately appeared on his face.The other party made such a statement, which means that the Dutch East India Company will implement monopoly control over the pepper trade in the Kingdom of Aceh in the future, and at this time, the State of Qi will still devote their main energy to the development of the situation in the State of Ming.

"Including our country of Qi?" Ji Changrong looked at Menas with a half-smile.

Therefore, the Dutch East India Company wanted to pull Qi to completely control Aceh's foreign trade.We Dutch are happy to control the supply of pepper and maintain the monopoly trade position of spices. You, Qi State, sell all kinds of domestically produced industrial products to earn profits from the difference between industrial and agricultural scissors. Everyone works together to exclude those "foreign commercial forces" .

"Ji, our East India Company not only has no territorial ambitions for Sumatra, but also has no long-term intention of occupying the entire East Indies." Menas heard what the other party said, and quickly explained: "For your Hanzhou to occupy all the land in the future In the East Indies region, our company has been fully prepared psychologically. We understand and support this. But at the same time, you, Hanzhou, must also give necessary respect and maintenance to the commercial interests of our East India Company in this region. .Dear Ji, what do you think?"

I heard that several large-scale battles broke out between the Ming Dynasty and the Tatar regime in the north a few months ago.Although none of them had achieved a decisive victory, Ming, which had more population resources and material supplies, still had a clear advantage on the battlefield.Today, the capital is gradually approaching the capital occupied by the Tatar regime, and it is just around the corner to recover the former capital of the Ming Dynasty.

"Ji, I heard that you had some trouble with the Aceh people in the southwestern coastal area of ​​Sumatra?" Menas asked with a smile.

As for undertaking the murderer and making compensation to the dead and injured, don't even think about it.If you act fiercely in the territory of our trading company, if you don't kill them all, that's being polite to you.Even though I have money, it's not like you cats and dogs can touch porcelain at will.

Now, the Anglo-Dutch war is over, and those annoying British have started to sell pepper from India and the Kingdom of Aceh to Europe, Persia, and Arabia one after another. Very uncomfortable.

The Dutch East India Company presumably got the letter from it, so they raised the matter through the mouth of Menas, implying that they also had a plot to get involved in the affairs of Aceh.

In recent years, taking advantage of the unstable political situation and frequent civil wars in the Aceh Sultan Kingdom, the power of the Qi State began to extend to the territory of Aceh.Nanyang Trading Company bought a piece of land in Sibolga (Sibuga) four years ago by buying local powerful factions, and established Yang Castle, trying to penetrate the southeastern inland area of ​​the Aceh Kingdom.

"Your East India Company is going to intervene in Aceh's domestic situation?" Ji Changrong asked vigilantly.

However, through the opportunity of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch East Indies, with the help of Qi State, severely attacked the British trading bases and ships in India, which once allowed the Dutch to almost completely control all spices. Sources of supply, and took the opportunity to increase the selling price, grabbing a handful of European wool.

Although the Dutch controlled most of the sources of spices, the gritty British East India Company also passed through some sources of spices (mainly pepper from the Indian interior and the Kingdom of Aceh) that were not controlled by the Dutch. The export of large quantities of pepper to Europe prevented the Dutch from trying to monopolize all sources of the spice.

"Your East India Company can conduct in-depth communication and exchanges with our Nanyang Trading Company and Bangladesh Trading Company on the political changes in the Aceh Kingdom." Ji Changrong said: "Our Qi government has no time to participate in this kind of affairs, but we will continue to pay attention. Events and developments in the Kingdom of Aceh."

You must know that, in addition to the annual trade activities to and from Europe, the Dutch East India Company also extensively participates in trade activities between various regions in Asia and sells spices throughout Asia.Although there will be changes in different periods, among the commodities they monopolize, one-quarter of cloves, one-half of nutmeg, and one-third of pepper are not sold to Europe.But for India, Persia, and Arabia.Chinese businessmen who arrived in the Nanyang region would also buy a large amount of spices from the East India Company and resell them to the mainland, Korea, and Japan.

"..." Ji Changrong pondered for a while, and then said slowly: "As far as I know, the trade volume of pepper does not account for a large proportion of the overall trade share of your East India Company. Moreover, even if only the supply from the Indian region It can also ensure that your East India has enough pepper sources to export to Europe. ... Is it worthwhile for your East India Company to launch a war against Aceh?"

However, from Menas' personal point of view, the people of Qi seem to have made a fatal mistake.When the Ming and Qing wars broke out, they should not have stood by, let alone helped the dominant Ming to attack the Qing.

Because a unified mainland regime is definitely not something that can be controlled by a country thousands of miles away, not to mention that this country has a population of more than 5000 million.

Don't look at the current state of Qi occupying the entire Hanzhou continent, and also owns countless territories in the East Indies, but how big is their core population?I'm afraid it's less than 500 million. How can this amount maintain and support their core interests thousands of miles away?

"If there is a war between Hanzhou and the unified Ming Dynasty, how can our East India Company take advantage of this opportunity to obtain due business interests?" Menas stepped out of the palace of King Matalan Sultan, Looking at the teams of officers and soldiers of the Qi State on the street with strict military appearance, he murmured.

(End of this chapter)