Dragon Sea Empire

Li Jin's secret sigh was quickly overwhelmed by doubts.

It is absolutely impossible for Yin Feng to show a degree of understanding of the Western situation that the Ming Dynasty Chinese could have at that time.Where did this person come from?Moreover, the Chinese company seized Penghu, assembled hundreds of ships in advance to deal with the Dutch, cut off the official contact between the Dutch and the mainland, etc., and almost everything was one step ahead of the Dutch. Could it be that Yin Feng knew that the Dutch would Come to Penghu, and know when to come!

Yin Feng reached out and took a piece of paper from Chen Zhongji, looked at it briefly, and said to Wei Malang: "Your Excellency, regarding the issue of trade, we can talk about it in detail after returning to Taiwan; Regarding the treatment, I can promise you clearly: 200 taels of silver for each soldier, and 500 taels of ransom for each officer, which is the lowest amount.”

Wei Malang shook his head: "No, no, such a high ransom is extortion!"

Yin Feng ignored him and continued: "As for Your Excellency, I can tell you right now that you are free. We are willing to release you for free."

Wei Malang was still shaking his head, startled suddenly, sighed for a moment, and still shook his head calmly: "Your Excellency, you are joking, but all my subordinates are detained by your army. I am free alone. It means nothing to me." Meaningless." He looked at Li Jin, and Li Jin hurriedly said: "General, you still have a lot of property on board."

Li Jin was speaking in Dutch, Yin Feng couldn't understand, but he also expected this step, and immediately said with a smile: "Your Excellency, all the property on board your Orange is now my spoils of war."

Wei Malang scolded the other party for being despicable in his heart, but he had no choice but to say, "The problem is that I can't go back to the East India Company alone. Also, you can't guarantee the status of Penghu..."

Yin Feng sneered and interrupted him: "You still don't believe in the strength of our Chinese company, and you don't understand the political system of our Ming Empire. Gao Cai, the tax envoy and eunuch, has no right to decide on land cession before he is authorized by the emperor. It is Fujian's civil service that has the right to decide to do business with you. In any case, it is impossible for you to openly do business with the Ming Empire. Therefore, your only choice is to do business with our company; Organization of sources of goods."

This is a bit big, at least the seven major families of Fujian maritime merchants will not agree, at least they and other Fujian maritime merchants have more ocean-going ships than the Chinese company's merchant ships, the difference is that they are scattered and independent Yes, the Chinese company is unanimously external.

However, except for Huang Cheng, a big businessman from Nan'an, Quanzhou, who understands Portuguese, the other businessmen present did not understand what Yin Feng was talking about, so no one came to expose him.

Wei Malang and Li Jin were dubious, but the Dutch East India Company was defeated by the Chinese United Company.

In fact, Li Jin is also a refugee at the bottom of Chinese society. He went to sea for his livelihood, and accidentally became the first group of envoys for Sino-Dutch exchanges.When he was in China, he was deeply impressed by the domineering and domineering eunuch of the mine supervisor. This time, the eunuch Gao Cai sent Pan Xiu to attract him, so he persuaded Wei Malang to go to Penghu and bribe the eunuch Gao Cai to occupy land for business, thinking that it was settled The eunuch can settle the government.As for the conflict between the civil service system and the eunuchs, and the intrigue among the upper echelons of the imperial court, ordinary people like Li Jin don't understand it very well, and it is understandable that they simply think that bribing the eunuchs can solve all problems.

In fact, at that time, the common people respected the government at a respectful distance, and the small merchants were even more afraid of the government, and the eunuchs who collected taxes unscrupulously were even more of a nightmare for the small merchants.With the backing of the Dutch, Li Jin dared to venture back to Fujian to deal with the government.If you want to say that he is a traitor, he is indeed a traitor, but he is also a traitor who is forced to do so unconsciously.

Out of deep-rooted fear of the government and the court, Li Jin had hope for the government. He pulled Lawei Malang and whispered to him: "Our current life and death are in their hands. Naturally, they don't want to Lower the ransom and trade conditions. Let’s wait for news from the Fujian government? From my experience, the Ming Empire government will not allow such forces as the Chinese Company to exist. If they are opposed by the government, they will definitely ask us for help. Then we can renegotiate and strive for better trade conditions."

Wei Malang thought for a moment, nodded, turned around and said to Yin Feng: "As for the ransom issue, I can only agree to it first, but my decision is not equal to the decision of the East India Company. After I go back, the company will still discuss our decision. The final decision on such a commercial agreement rests with the company's board of directors."

In fact, with hundreds of Dutch people in his hands, Yin Feng was not worried that they would go back on their word; according to the European tradition, it is common to redeem one's own war prisoners.As for the trade agreement, the Dutch urgently needed Chinese products; in Europe, the endless wars between the Dutch and the Spaniards, and the high cost of the war made the Dutch urgently needed high-profit Chinese products.Therefore, Yin Feng is not worried that the Dutch do not want this trade agreement.

Yin Feng nodded: "I understand this. The agreement between us will be discussed and decided by our company's major shareholders." He turned around and took another note from Chen Zhongji's hand, looked at it and said, "Now, let's talk about it." Let’s talk about your compensation for our material and property losses.”

Wei Malang's complexion just got a little better, but now he turned livid again, and asked with a sneer: "Compensation? What compensation? Is it just a few dilapidated houses here?" He pointed to the thatched huts here, and said with a sneer: "I admit , we did make the first move and damaged several of your thatched huts, hehe, how much are these?"

Yin Feng patted the table and said loudly: "Zhenquan, lead someone!"

Yan Siqi agreed, and turned around and dragged in a Dutchman from the outside. He was the helmsman of the Eunice; when the Eunice was captured, the captain and other senior officers and crew were all killed in battle. The helmsman and bosun was Eunice No. is the highest ranking Dutchman who survived.This guy has been raised on Taiwan Island for more than half a month, and now he has come in handy. He saluted Wei Malang in embarrassment.

Wei Malang stood up with a livid face, frowned and said, "What's going on! Eunice, could it be...?"

Yin Feng smiled faintly: "The Dutch battleship Eunice, suspected of piracy off the coast of Nan'ao and Dongshan Island, has been detained by our company in Taiwan Harbor."

Wei Malang sat down dejectedly; just now in private, he hoped that the Eunice could escape back to report to the East India Company by chance, or come here to rescue him, but now there is no hope.He said angrily: "Haven't you already captured the Eunice? Your goods should still be on board, so what compensation is needed?"

"Human life!"

Yin Feng said loudly: "21 crew members of the Zhonghua Company were killed in the attack on the Eunice, two of them were senior employees of our company, and three were general shareholders of our company. Our request is: the East India Company must The deceased personnel of our company will be compensated with 2000 taels of silver per person!"

Wei Malang's eyes widened, Li Jin was taken aback, and Huang Cheng, who barely understood the conversation, stood up suddenly.

Li Jin tremblingly said: "This price is 10 times higher than the Dutch ransom!"

Yin Feng's eyes were sharp, he stared at Li Jin, and said in Chinese, "What's the matter? Do you think that the life of the Chinese is cheaper than that of the red-haired barbarians?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant..." Li Jin flinched back, wiping the sweat off his face while translating what Yin Feng said to Wei Malang.

Wei Malang shook his head and said in Portuguese: "I disagree, I don't think the lives of Chinese people are worthless, but since it is compensation, you should come up with the basis for compensation."

Yin Feng had been prepared for a long time, and handed a piece of paper to Li Jin, and Li Jin was sweating profusely again: the list of the dead was written on the paper, including age, place of origin, position held during his lifetime, and family members who needed support. staff etc.Li Jin translated the content of this note to Wei Malang, and Yin Feng took the opportunity to add: "If your East India Company does not believe the information we provide, you can send someone to lead the way for field inspection. But , I can't guarantee the safety of your company's personnel at that time."

Li Jin's doubts deepened: These materials were prepared long ago. Did the Chinese company know the Dutchman's whereabouts long ago?And knowing that this battle is bound to be won?

Wei Malang didn't say much about the issue of compensation, and nodded in agreement; his psychological defense had completely collapsed when he learned that the Eunice had been captured by the opponent.The Dutch expedition was a complete and complete failure. If they could not reach a commercial agreement with the other party and redeem the crew and soldiers, after Wei Malang returned to the East India Company, the only ending would be to go to court and be tried in a tropical colony for life. Hard labor until death.

Only by opening up business routes for the company and bringing back a large number of Chinese goods can Wei Malang have a chance to erase the shame of failure, and may even become a hero of the East India Company.

There is no need to wait for news from the Fujian government.

On the second day after the battle ended, that is, the second day of negotiations between the two sides, Guo Zhen, a businessman sent by Li Jin to deliver diplomatic documents to the Dutch, did not dare to enter Fuzhou City after hearing the news that Pan Xiu had been arrested. Hastily rushed to Penghu.As a result, what he saw was that all the Dutchmen had become captives, and he himself was arrested by the Jinghai Gang brothers who were patrolling the sea, and taken to Lu Shitou and Mai Dahai.

In the end, Guo Zhen was brought to the negotiation site between Yin Feng and Wei Malang; Pan Xiu was arrested, and the news that the Fujian navy might send troops proved that the eunuch Gao Cai's promise to cede Penghu was completely empty words, and Fujian officials could not Concessions on trade.Yin Feng's so-called Dutch East India Company can only trade with him, most of it has become a fact.

After all, the Federal Republic of the Netherlands is actually the United Merchants Republic; the East India Company is a smaller version of the Federal Republic.For commercial profit, everything can be valued on the balance of money.The illusion of the Dutch monopolizing China's trade routes has not been dispelled, but the immediate interests cannot be let go.Now that Fujian officials can't count on it, it's enough to reach an agreement with a powerful company along the coast of Fujian to bring products to the company!

Negotiations since then went very smoothly. Wei Malang even sent Li Jin a warrant to let the Orange anchor at the stern of the wind cabinet and hand over all gunpowder and guns to the Feilong. If the cannon could not be moved, Wei Malang even wanted to disarm the cannon.All Dutch captives boarded several Chinese company brigs and headed for Taiwan.All the seized materials were also loaded onto merchant ships in batches and transported to the Taiwan base together with the Dutch captives.

During this period, Captain Van Layden was very cooperative. He took the initiative to help the Chinese sort out the seized materials, actively cooperated with the counting of the number of people, and so on, which attracted the attention of Lin Xiao, who was in charge of the resettlement of the prisoners.As a result, Captain Leighton was appointed as the interim head of the prisoner-of-war camp.

The Xinsheng, carrying a large number of prisoners of war and seized supplies, took the lead in sailing out of Penghu Bay.A large number of ships followed the Chinese company's merchant ships out of the bay, and some fishing boats and merchant ships sailed back to the coast of Fujian, bringing the news that the Chinese United Company, Huaxinglian, had defeated the Hongmaoyi back to the mainland.Every fisherman recruited to participate in the war was rewarded with 100 taels of silver each, enough for them to purchase or build new boats.The war dead also received pensions, and their children could join the company as merchant mariners or warship sailors.

The war fleet of the Chinese company lost more than 20 sailing ships. Together with those killed in the Feilong and Xinxing, there were more than 100 people killed in battle; more than 20 infantrymen in the escort team also died in battle.The 1000 taels of pension for each of the war dead, as well as the support plan for the family and children, were all planned by Yin Feng.

At first, Han Ping and others were worried about the source of the recruiting of the crew and pensions, but after seeing the countless gleaming silver, golden gold, and high-quality spices brought by the Spice Islands on the Orange, they smiled and did not mention it again. What is the problem of tight funds.Not to mention, after the direct trade with the Dutch East India Company began, the silver that was about to flow in.

In fact, the two sunk Chinese sailing ships also carried a lot of gold and silver goods of the Dutch, and after being salvaged, they were still worth a lot of money.It is a pity for Yin Feng that several chime bells were completely useless after being salvaged after being soaked in sea water.