"Teacher He, I'm late. .Excuse me!Excuse me!" On January 19, 1688, in the Hue Regional Administrative Office, the young Xu Zhilong said to He Yuan with an apology: "It was originally the job of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I didn't expect that Commissioner He, you have helped us a lot. I'm really ashamed."

The grandson of Xu Xin, the East Coast diplomatic veteran of Xu Zhilong, worked in the diplomatic system (including the foreign trade department), but to be honest, the career path was not very smooth. To this day, the East Coast has developed rapidly, and there are more and more people, and a large number of civil servants from ordinary origins who graduated from school. Three generations like Xu Zhilong, who have a golden spoon, have many good fortunes, but there are also many unsatisfactory ones. Because of their special identities, they are often resisted by the civil service system during assessment and promotion. At this time, if you do not understand the skills of official power and interpersonal relationships, and there are no solid achievements that make people say, it is not so easy to climb up.

Take Xu Zhilong as an example. He is 36 years old this year, but he has been in the department level for seven or eight years, but has never taken that critical step and entered the ranks of department-level cadres. Sometimes he thinks sadly that he may have another three years of experience before he can barely be promoted to a deputy department-level cadre under his grandfather Yu Yin, who has been dead for several years. This may be a very good position for ordinary people, but for Xu Zhilong, who has an extraordinary background, it is a bit unsatisfactory and may even be unacceptable.

Today, Xu Zhilong came to Hue Port as a special commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The purpose was to contact Dirk Conelis of the Dutch West India Company, to find out the people's tone and see if they could establish close ties with the big businessmen in Zelan Province through the West India Company. In the past, the two sides had only business contacts, so there was no deeper and let them merge with the political forces of Van Boyningen and others, laying a solid foundation for future concerts.

Some people may say that the East Coast people are meddling in other people's business. The people of Van Boyningen were originally spokespersons of the bourgeoisie and would definitely have little contact with merchants from various provinces on weekdays. As for asking the East Coast people to come out to help match them? This can be said to be true or not. It is because the Republicans are rooted in the merchants and the citizens, and they are mainly supported by these people on weekdays. If they are said to be false, it is because the support of these people is not constant, and will shake with the situation, shake, or even betray.

Just like during the French-David War, when the Devet brothers were in trouble, the entire republican was suppressed. Where did the wholesalers in Amsterdam go? It was ridiculous that they were following Prince Orange, looking like they were waving their tails and begging for mercy. How could there be any trace of the instigation of Republican parliament in the third-level parliament to make things difficult for their family?

Therefore, the United Provinces are not Britain. Although their bourgeoisie is rich, they have no soldiers and no power, and their control over the country is not high enough. Overall, the army of the United Provinces is firmly in the hands of the Orange family. Just after William II's plot failed and died of smallpox, they were severely suppressed by the Dewit brothers for a period of time, and the army was pulled away, which seemed to inevitably decline.

Unfortunately, the Orange family was lucky. The outbreak of the French-Holland War saved them who were shaky. William III was ordered to reorganize the army in the face of darkness in the country, and eventually expelled the French team and recovered all the land. Such great achievements not only allowed their family to control the army again, but also greatly infiltrated the government. Many important official positions were taken down by those who depended on their family. Even though the Republicans fought hard to connect, they still failed to fully control the government, let alone control the army.

Therefore, Dutch capitalists are far from comparable to those of Britain. They are economically rich and powerful, but they are very short-lived in politics and military terms. Therefore, they can provide support to the republicans very limited, which can only give them some chance of winning in the parliamentary struggle. But once Prince Orange doesn't care about face and acts directly, they are powerless to do anything, those who can only speak in parliamentary affairs.

Not to mention, there are still quite a few capitalists who have been swept by the Orange family and tied up their interests with them, which is even more difficult to deal with. Therefore, the East Coast talents are eager to come forward, wanting to use their influence to help the Republicans win more capitalists' support, and then find ways to gradually weaken the strength of the Orange family. Don't think that this is impossible. William III was originally a mighty man in the Netherlands, but once you want to be the king of England, it will inevitably attract criticism from many people, and even a large number of officials and troops who were originally loyal to him will be shaken. This is an opportunity.

According to the plan of the East Coast Foreign Ministry, they now need to ease relations with the East India Company, just as they have urgent needs in this regard. Therefore, there is little problem. At the same time, they must win over as many Dutch capitalists as possible through the West India Company, so that they can fully support the Republicans. When the situation changes in the future, they can cooperate with the Republicans to seize power in an all-round way, win over some of the troops, and weaken William III's control over the Netherlands.

At this time, the East Coast people can also work harder to help the Republicans recruit some mercenaries to strengthen their strength so that they can more courageously compete with Prince Orange and defend the interests of the United Provinces, and ultimately force William III to give up the position of governing the United Provinces. That is, if you want to be the king of England, no one can stop you, the British have already welcomed you, and we cannot stop it, but if you want to be the king of England and rule two prominent positions in the United Provinces, it is obviously impossible, and it is destined not to receive the support of most Dutch people. We will go to war with you for this, and you can do it yourself.

In order to achieve such a goal, the East Coast people had already had secret contacts with the West India Company before. The East India Company also made steady contacts under the matchmaking of Van Boyningen. The situation was generally good. This time, Xu Zhilong came to Hue to meet with Dirk Conelis, and there were only some details left to discuss. Both companies had no objection to the big framework. After all, Dutch merchants were also afraid that William III would greatly damage the interests of Dutch merchants as the King of England, just like the overseas trade in Portugal during the Western-Portugal merger that time, Portugal suddenly fell into a terrible recession.

Just yesterday, Xu Zhilong had a frank conversation with Dirk Conelis, and finally learned that He Yuan, the Commissioner of the Hue Regional Administrative Office, had strengthened contact with the West India Company by increasing investment, so he had the joke that helped them do their work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just now.

"Where, Special Commissioner Xu is so serious." He Yuan laughed and said, "Actually, I didn't have much effort. The Dutch himself had an urgent investment. This may be to expand the scale of the industry and make more money, but I think it also means strengthening contact with our country and showing goodwill. I am not a professional diplomat, and I can't understand many of the things that people send. I may not understand some of the signals that people send. I only want to say one thing. This Dutch West India Company has no malicious intentions towards us, and is more positive and sincere. You professional diplomats should see more. Hurry up, Special Commissioner Xu, I think the situation in the Netherlands is also very close now. If the negotiation is completed earlier, the layout will be earlier. This time is still very important."

After hearing this, Xu Zhilong nodded repeatedly. Of course, he did not explain to He Yuan that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had conducted two secret consultations through the Dutch West India Company's business representative in the capital. This time, he came to Hue Port to meet Dirk Conelis to unify the opinions of the two representatives of the West India Company. Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current situation, and then issue a diplomatic guideline and handed it over to Europe by a quick contact ship, which will be carried out by Gao Wengang, the exclusive envoy to Europe.

"The ministry is still very concerned about strengthening the ties with the Dutch bourgeoisie. In the past, we had mostly had business ties and had been interrupted for a while. Now we not only need to restore business ties (provided that the other party is willing), but also extend these to politics. This is a crucial step and we will act cautiously." Xu Zhilong gave He Yuan a few words perfunctory words, and then changed the topic: "Teacher He, how is the investment of West India Company in Hue? Is it going to scale?"

"It's not bad, the scale is not small. I guess the total amount will be more than 5 million ruts. It's already a huge investment for our region, and I'm very satisfied." He Yuan said with a smile: "Of course this is related to the unique natural conditions in the Hue region. Without the paulownia branches, how could it attract the golden phoenix? The Dutch people are very interested in our Hue region. The old plantations in the past can now provide them with a profit of more than 500,000 ruts per year. Fools also know how to expand the investment scale."

"But they didn't do this before." Xu Zhilong murmured in his heart, but he was really smiling and nodded repeatedly to agree with He Yuan's words. Of course, he also admitted that the conditions in Hue area are good and the potential to develop into a tropical agricultural center. Their only shortcomings now are probably the population. Most of the central immigration quotas have hit the Pampa Plain. There are very few supplements to the north, and they are often the lowest base, so the labor force population is indeed a problem.

Fortunately, the Dutch are willing to help Hue region solve this problem. As long as the plantation can ensure profitability and safety can be guaranteed (this is very important. It can be said that most of the Caribbean islands cannot guarantee safety), then they don’t mind spending more money and recruit hard-earned rural people from the German region, where the population has been recovered very terrible, and transport them to the East Coast to work and work. There is no doubt that the East Coast people prefer this model, because it means that the Dutch pays the money, and the Germans take the initiative to help open up wastelands on the East Coast. Like the Italians on New China Island, it is the favorite investment model on the East Coast.
Chapter completed!