Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 926 Transportation Line Lifeline ([-])

In fact, Mo San has just arrived in Amsterdam for a few days.

The reason why he came here actually dates back to the confrontation between the British and Dutch navies that took place in the Strait of Dover last month.Tromp, a veteran general of the Dutch navy, led 42 Dutch ships, including merchant ships, back to Amsterdam from the Atlantic Ocean, but they were targeted by the British as early as in Spain. As a result, when the entire Dutch fleet sailed into Dover During the strait, the British sent two fleets totaling 34 professional naval warships to follow the Dutch closely and asked them to raise the flag of St. George in England to pay tribute. However, they were rejected by the fiery veteran Tromp. The battle between them broke out.

A total of more than 70 ships from the UK and the Netherlands fought fiercely at sea for more than two hours. The Dutch lost two warships and a merchant ship, and another merchant ship sank on the way to retreat (a heavier loss than in history), while the British were unscathed No injuries.After the end of this war, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have basically completely torn their skins and are in a de facto state of war-although there is no formal declaration of war between the two countries.

After the battle, known as the Battle of Dover, the three-level parliament in the Netherlands, which was already noisy, exploded. The United Provinces were in trouble.The Orange faction strongly demanded the restoration of the old system, appointing the governor of Friesland, William Frederick, as the governor of the republic, and acting as the commander-in-chief of the army and navy until his cousin, the young William III, came of age; William II led 1650 soldiers to march on the Dutch province in 1.2 with the intention of launching a mutiny. Divided country - so they were very reluctant to restore the UPR post, lest the country fall into the hands of a dictator, which has happened many times in history.

In this way, when the British Navy seriously endangered the interests of the Netherlands, the provincial representatives of the three-level parliament in the Netherlands were still talking nonsense and blaming each other. In a dangerous situation, they advocated the restoration of the ruling position of the Netherlands, allowing the Orange family to come back to power and integrate the Dutch armed forces.

But how could the republicans agree to such conditions?Because this is tantamount to sending the knife to the enemy!Just like when the Dutch faced the Habsburg dynasty many years ago, the first vigilance is always the internal enemy. Whenever the situation improves slightly, it will start internal strife and tear down; The commander-in-chief of the army and navy took power, and then he was kicked out by the representatives of the provinces who had survived the crisis, and so on.

The Dutch in the Lowlands were so keen on infighting that the British and the French were surprised. They generally commented: "A single or a small group of Dutchmen is undoubtedly shrewd and capable, but if a large group of Dutchmen are together If not, it will be filled with endless internal strife and fighting, and nothing can be done in the end."

People in the province of the Netherlands look down on people from other provinces, people in the wheat-eating provinces in the west look down on people in the rye-eating provinces in the east, people in the League of Seven Provinces look down on people in the Duchy of Brabant and Drenthe, Protestants look down on Catholicism Protestants (approximately 45% of Catholics in the Federal Republic), the Protestant internal dissenters look down on the anti-dissenters (eventually causing an internal political vendetta, Morris killed Alden Barnefeldt, which caused a serious conflict among the Confederate provinces), and so on.The Dutch are so keen on internal strife, that is how they die. This seems to be a common nature of the extremely selfish Lowlanders, and no one can easily change it.

About three people came to Amsterdam this time. John DeWitt, the speaker of the three-level parliament-the spokesperson of the Dutch commercial capitalists, and now the nominal supreme leader of the United Provinces Republic, is the deadly enemy of the military aristocratic Orange family.This gentleman speaks for the Dutch national capitalists and is extremely anti-British. The three-level parliament under his control resolutely rejected Cromwell's proposal for the merger of Britain and the Netherlands, insisted on independence, and faced the challenge of the United Kingdom.But on the other hand, they are also extremely vigilant against the members of the Orange family. At critical moments, they would rather sell their national interests and make peace with the British than crush the ready-to-move Orange family.

Mr. DeWitt’s task for about three times is very simple, that is, to get the East Coast Republic to participate in the operation of transporting supplies to the Netherlands, that is, the East Coast Republic of China will use its own transport ship, fly the flag of the East Coast, and sail into Amsterdam with all kinds of supplies. , Rotterdam, Vlissingen and other ports in the Netherlands to ensure that the Netherlands has sufficient supplies during the war.

Of course, the Dutch not only found the East Coast Republic family, they also sent people to Hamburg, Lübeck, Lisbon, Seville, Genoa, Venice and other places (Van Boiningen is going to the next month Sweden, expecting to persuade the Swedes to stand on the side of the Federal Republic), one by one to persuade each family to join the Netherlands; Transport ships export supplies to the Netherlands.

It was against this background that Mo San came to Amsterdam. I don’t know if it was because the speaker was too busy or he didn’t pay much attention to it. DeWitt only rushed over from The Hague on the second day of Mo San’s arrival and had two special talks with him. During the hour, Mo reviewed the situation three times, and judged that exporting materials to the Netherlands would be beneficial to the national interests of the East Coast, so he agreed in principle to the Dutch request, but he also raised some requirements, which were roughly the same as the local ones, namely: The United Provinces of the Netherlands severed ties with the Qing government, sold Cape Town, Tulare, and Formosa to the east coast; opened the Strait of Malacca, and ships on the east coast could berth freely in Malacca; transferred the Principality of Moscow, Sweden and part of the Livonian market to the east coast.

Speaker DeWitt was very surprised that the people on the east coast actually raised the conditions, or he was a little unprepared.In his view, the opening of the Amsterdam market is already a great gift to the pagans of the east coast, shouldn't they be ecstatic?Why would you ask for this and that?

However, in the face of the current difficult situation (the Dutch merchant ships were captured by the British Navy in large numbers, and the Dutch Navy was unable to escort all the ships), the speaker had to lower his posture and patiently discuss various conditions with the people on the east coast.After talking for two days, the Dutch were only willing to sell the Tulare colony to the east bank, which was a little concession; while the people on the east coast gave up the unimportant condition of opening the Strait of Malacca, both sides made a little concession , but there were still great differences in other aspects, and the negotiation broke up unhappily. The very displeased speaker went off to other affairs and left Mo San in the city.

I met Second Lieutenant McKinley on the pier today. Mo San has been here for No. 15 days. He has even planned to return if the Dutch don’t ask him for a second round of negotiations. The Ottoman Empire, go over there and watch the fire from the other side, and watch the two old bandit countries, Britain and the Netherlands, play their minds at ease.

"The fleet that the Dutch stayed in the port went to Scotland to protect fishing, and other warships were also escorting merchant ships outside. The British warship just appeared in the waters off Amsterdam two days ago, which shocked the Dutch." Mo San called everyone to go. He rested in the hotel where he stayed, and everyone walked along the street, talking while walking.

"The cost of living in this city is already very high. Even handicraft workers with an annual income of 250-300 dong (1 yuan is about 3 dong) feel that the current bread, butter, eggs, meat and fish and The price of alcohol has skyrocketed.” Mo San said with a smile—after all, it doesn’t matter whether the Dutch people live in pain or not—only to hear him continue: “From last December to now, the Dutch people have More than 12 merchant ships have been lost. As for fishing boats and inland river boats, there are quite a few. Due to the huge size of their transport ships (100 ships, including more than 1.6 ocean-going merchant ships, with a gross tonnage of 50-60 tons , more than the sum of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal), their navy can't take care of it at all, so they can only pick the most valuable merchant ships to escort them, so now almost every day ships are captured by the British, and it's a big loss! "

McKinley was secretly surprised when he heard this. He only knew how powerful the Netherlands was before, but he didn't expect that in this war that had not yet been officially declared, the Netherlands seemed to be the party that suffered the most.But when you think about it, it is actually very simple, because this is not a symmetrical war. The number of British merchant ships is very small, and the number of Dutch merchant ships and fishing boats is very large, but the naval strength of the two sides is not much different (the British were in There is still a faint advantage in the number of ships and firepower).Therefore, the most common scene in the Strait of Dover is that British warships attack Dutch merchant ships everywhere. The Dutch are exhausted in order to escort them, but in the end they don't care about their heads, and they can't prevent their own merchant ships from being sunk or captured in large numbers.

"The Dutch may not be able to sustain the continuous bloodletting operations of the British, and will be the first to lose." Lieutenant McKinley couldn't help but have this thought in his mind: "Their upper echelon's will to fight is also very problematic. No one knows whether the government is determined to continue the fight. If it is not guaranteed, some people are clamoring for peace talks with the UK. Alas, this group of loose businessmen, how many major national affairs have been ruined by them. !"

"Okay, this is the hotel where I live temporarily. Let's have a light meal together at noon. You can stay here for the next two days. After selling and purchasing supplies, leave this place of right and wrong and go to Riga and Arhan Geer to go." Mo San said to the crowd: "I plan to stay for another week or two."

(End of this chapter)