Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1013 The British in Qingdao ([-])

January 1654, 1, East Coast New Year's Day.

Mr. Charles from England wandered into a tavern in the wharf area of ​​Qingdao Port, and then ordered a large glass of Snow Mountain beer that he liked recently.It is said that Snow Mountain Beer is produced in the subsidiary area of ​​the South Railway, brewed with barley, and has a unique flavor. Even when West Lake Beer took the lead in occupying most of the market, Snow Mountain Beer can still tenaciously occupy a place, which shows its specialness.

As for the location of the Southern Railway subsidiary, Charles recently found out - although not everyone on the east coast knows this, but at least it is not a big secret - it turned out that the Spaniards ceded it to the East Coast in the last war. The land on the East Coast, roughly the extent of the Southern Cone Railroad extending a league on either side, may have been where the East Coasters had grown their barley.

Of course, Mr. Charles got some wrong information, because the barley was obviously produced in Tierra del Fuego - the local climate can only grow barley, oats, rye and other short-growing grains - but it is not known. That's it.Even if he is a citizen of the East Coast Republic, as long as he has not been to the South Railway for field inspection, then he probably doesn't know how much land the gang of daring guys from the South Railway Company have enclosed.

Blanco de Sousa Almeida from San Vicente sat opposite him, holding a bottle of Madeira liqueur in his hand, he smiled at Charles and said nothing.The two of them have known each other for a while. Because of their common vigilance towards the people on the east coast, Blanco and Charles have recently become good friends, and they often discuss the situation in the New World together.

"The local Alfonso fleet has left." Blanco's words were a little out of his head, but Charles understood it all at once.Originally, the Portuguese were expected to fight with the East Coast Navy, but it seemed that they were not so stupid and knew that they should save their "useful body" to do more valuable things, such as attacking the Dutch stronghold on the west coast of Africa.

To be honest, Charles was disappointed that the Portuguese were so cowardly, but he concealed his emotions well.He raised his glass and said in English: "Then, I wish Marshal Alfonso good luck."

"Thank you." Blanco clinked glasses with Charles.

To be honest, Charles looks down on these Portuguese, because in his opinion, this small country is similar to their neighbor Spain from top to bottom, and it is a deformed country with sunsets and mountains.Because of the dividends of the Great Geographical Discovery, a huge amount of monetary wealth poured into Portugal. The people of this country with a population of only 60 million depend on sufficient currency, but ignore the improvement of their own skills, and do not work much, let alone manufacturing industry. Products, over time become lazy up.

What is even more frightening is that when such a state lasts for a long time, laziness has actually become a part of their national character, which is really amazing.You must know that the Portuguese and Spaniards are not inherently lazy. During the war to expel the Moors, the people on the Iberian Peninsula were devout, tenacious, hardworking, and resistant to war. Otherwise, they would not have relied on their own farming and warfare system. Drive out the heretics.But how long have the good days passed? For more than 100 years, people in the Iberian Peninsula have become lazy like this, and the speed of their decline is really jaw-dropping.

Charles once even insisted that Spain and Portugal, two countries in decline, are basically impossible to rise again unless they completely reform their political, social and ideological systems, but this is undoubtedly difficult-to put it in a sentence In other words, the Iberian Peninsula, which is located in the old continent, is unable to reform its backward system, and it is even more difficult for Ming Dynasty, which is far away in the east, to get out of the quagmire with its own efforts—because these two Latin countries are described by the later Japanese spy Munekata Kotaro In Chinese terms, they are not only corrupted by nobles, but also "corrupted by the whole people". Bottom-up revolution, but how difficult it is.

If the people are compared to the stomach of a country, once the stomach is weak, no matter how much food and supplements the person eats, it is just a passing process. They cannot be absorbed at all and then turned into nutrients and delivered to the body. excrete out.This is the case with these two pseudo-tyrant countries in the Iberian Peninsula. They can't produce anything at all. After a large amount of gold and silver enters their country, they can't keep it. industrial countries.

In short, industry and commerce are the only way to "digest food" (distribute wealth) and provide "nutrition" for the country.Excessive gold and silver are often harmful, if the country does not have a certain industrial scale.After all, maintaining good health depends on good digestion, not eating large amounts of food.

Portugal is a country with no decent industrial capacity at all and a population of just over 100 million, so this is why Charles concluded that they had no hope.Although the population of the Netherlands is not large, their industries are still so good, such as shipbuilding, textiles, sugar refining, fishing, wood processing, and investing in the metallurgical industry in Sweden. At the same time, their maritime transportation industry is extremely developed. , so the Netherlands has the ability to absorb a large amount of gold and silver, but Portugal does not.

"What's the situation in Recife recently?" Although he is disdainful of Portugal, as a qualified spy (on the surface his identity is a businessman), Mr. Charles has never given up any opportunity to find out information.

"It's terrible." Blanco shook his head and replied briefly: "The people from the east bank got involved in the war, and they helped gather at least [-] experienced soldiers, and at the same time brought a lot of supplies. And weapons and ammunition, the morale of the Dutch has been revived, and the situation is stalemate. Mr. Vieira believes that the opportunity has been lost. It is no longer possible to capture these areas in the short term, and once the Dutch are free, the situation will only worsen , so it is better to cease the war now. Governor Silva cautiously agreed with this, so we have a tacit understanding with the Dutch to cease the war, we retreat, the Dutch clean up the mess, and both sides are re-planning."

"So that's why your fleet went out of Africa?" Charles shook his head. He also expected the Portuguese to fight hard in Brazil. Then maybe the Dutch would have to allocate part of the fleet to help. British troops operating in the Netherlands created an opportunity.After all, the Recife area is the most important sugar producing area in the Netherlands. Without these places, the sugar mills in Amsterdam would have to close their doors!But unfortunately, people from the east coast intervened in the war, which made Portugal and even Britain extremely disappointed.Damn East Coast pagans!

"The Dutch West India Company has seized many of our country's strongholds and trading posts in West Africa, which has greatly affected our country's black slave trade. Therefore, these strongholds must be recaptured. Marshal Alfonso's fleet is powerful, not the Dutch West India Company It can be compared, so Governor Silva ordered them to take the army soldiers to recapture those strongholds." Blanco was really honest, and basically said everything that should be said and should not be said.Of course, these are not secrets, and anyone who is interested can find out. Blanco doesn't think that someone with Charles' identity will be unaware, at most, he will know about it later.

"Doesn't Governor Silva have any plans against the people on the east coast? They brazenly interfere in your country's internal affairs. Shouldn't such bad behavior be punished?" After dawdling for a long time, Charles finally got to the point. Looking at Blanco, he said in a very sincere tone: "Please don't misunderstand, I have been on the east coast for a long time. During this period of time, my biggest feeling is that the rise of this country is quite obvious. Moreover, Unfortunately, their attitude towards both your country and ours is very unfriendly. It seems that there is a kind of hostility in the bones. If it is not a big problem to say that our country is a little farther away, but I think your Brazilian colony and the East The shore is so close at hand, I’m afraid it’s not so good.”

Although Charles was provocative, he was telling the truth.Blanco glanced at him and didn't answer, but changed the subject and said, "What do the Spaniards think? I heard that you have a good relationship with the Spaniards recently, and your business exchanges are frequent, so why didn't you listen to the Spaniards' ideas? After all, they are the first to bear the brunt, and the first target of the people on the east coast will always be them."

"Unfortunately, Spain is a bunch of idiots from top to bottom." Mr. Charles criticized mercilessly, "They don't know who their real enemy is, they don't know what they really need, let alone be effective Manage their own country and wealth, they make a mess of everything. This country from the nobles to the common officials, they are digging the walls of the country, I think you know what I mean, yes, that's right, I mean It’s the recent smuggling trade in Peru. It’s not a secret on the east coast, at least there are many businessmen in Qingdao Port talking about it. Spain, it really sucks!”

Mr. Charles has reason to be so angry, because he once sent someone to contact the Baron Bravo who is resident in Eastern Port through secret channels, but this person seems to have been involved in the smuggling trade, so he did not give Charles any positive feedback. Response, which made him very disappointed.

"Don't count on the Spaniards." Charles said, "If you want to curb the ambitions of the pagans on the east coast in the New World, you still have to rely on our two countries. The Netherlands has entered the water too deep, and it is the common enemy of our two countries, so Totally unreliable. Mr. Almeida, I make no secret of our government's ambitions for a rich New World, where our merchants are very eager to find a piece of land that can grow sugar cane, and we are also very interested in South Africa - of course all of this People from the east coast cannot be avoided, because they seem to regard themselves as the natural leaders of the New World. I think that your two countries must have a lot of common topics on the matter of containing the heretics on the east coast..."

(End of this chapter)