From Chief to Ball

On Goddess Island, Wei Yuan has other tasks.

Chen Jian gave him a lot of gold and silver, hoping to find a Dutch or British captain who is proficient in European routes as the team leader.

Money is not a problem, goods are not a problem, as long as there are people.

Europe is still in chaos now, and in some places there are frequent storms and rocks everywhere. Without a competent captain to navigate, crossing the ocean is not a big problem, but troubles will come after arriving in Europe.

Furthermore, Chen Jian made double preparations.

On the one hand, I will discuss with the smugglers, and on the other hand, I have to go to the Spanish colonies through normal channels. If I can get a letter from the governor or the governor, it will be more convenient to go to the European continent.

With the help of the contradictions between the West and the Netherlands and the West and the United Kingdom, it can also increase a lot of bargaining chips for the negotiations.

If the normal channels go well, the Spaniards may send special envoys to follow, which will definitely prevent the Dutch and the British from contacting Chen Jian.

Especially when the Spaniards thought that people like Chen Jian knew nothing about European affairs, they would definitely take various means to obstruct them, and even conspired on the road to make Chen Jian's fleet conflict with people from other countries.

Furthermore, for these smugglers, merchant ships, or privateers, they didn't want Chen Jian to master the direct route to Europe, and they didn't even want Chen Jian to reach an agreement with Spain.

This kind of thing is entirely possible. Europeans in this era are extremely concerned about the monopoly of trade routes.

This is an era of intrigue. Decades ago, the captain could be assassinated in order to hinder the global voyage; he could be deceived and intimidated in order to monopolize trade; he could lurk in the enemy's commercial company for 20 years in order to obtain charts...

Another one, according to some words written by Chen Jian, Wei Yuan will help find a group of people who can be used as translators for the fleet by some people on the island.

In the past two years, Chen Jian's Dutch language is still communicable, at least he can't understand it when he goes to Europe.But since it is sailing around the world, some additional languages ​​must be prepared.

African tribes, Malay, etc., these are all needed.

There are black slaves here, as well as Malay-speaking slaves brought over from the Spice Islands by the Spanish colonies, and you can always find them if you are willing to spend money.

As for Chinese, although he hasn't spoken it for decades, and even though he doesn't know Ming Dynasty Mandarin or Hokkien, communication should not be a problem in three to five months.

If possible, it would be best to find a few people who are proficient in South American Indian languages. When he returns, he plans to go to Chile in the south for a tour.

There are good saltpeter mines, the only nitrogen fertilizer available on a large scale at this time.

Phosphate and potash fertilizers are not a problem, and there are a lot of them, but there is a lack of large-scale natural nitrogen fertilizers.

If Dahuangcheng wants to grow tobacco for export, without nitrogen fertilizers, the soil fertility will degrade in at most three years, and if it can be occupied there, the domestic food can also be guaranteed to be stable.

It's a pity that there is sodium nitrate there. Potassium nitrate would be perfect, but no matter what, in Chen Jian's eyes, it is a more important mineral than the Spanish gold and silver mines.

These advance preparations can save a lot of trouble in the future.

It was Wei Yuan's first time to be alone, and he also knew that he was valued probably because of Chen Jian's inadvertent conversation with him last time, and the memory of that smoking and fire.

Of course, it also has something to do with him being the first batch of sea-ship interns.

Sometimes, a small thing can often change a person.

On a deeper level, this is a potential shadow buried in the Great Wilderness, the Mexican Party, and the Nanyang Company, where nepotism, dictatorship, and the like can all be relied upon.To put it bluntly, this can be regarded as a personal effort and a historical process.

Chapter 21 His Worm, My Ally

Chen Jian had been waiting for many days on the deserted island where the fleet was temporarily moored.

Since he, as the commander of the fleet, has absolute command authority as long as he leaves the scope of his homeland, no one has any opinions.

Gradually, small boats began to arrive here, and the number of people gradually increased.

With a huge fleet and muskets and cannons in hand, the pirates stayed away from this place and never dared to harass it.

Among the people who came to the island, there are many high-society people from institutions of higher learning such as Holy Friday University or San Marcos University.

Of course, these high-level figures who are proficient in Latin and theology will not come forward in person, they will send someone they can trust to negotiate with Chen Jian.

Half of this group are the so-called "state moths".

This group of people is the collaborator of the smuggling trade and the initiator of the independence of the colony in the future.

The hierarchy in the Spanish colony was strict, and the first-class citizens were officials and priests who came here from the peninsula.Indigenous purebred whites are only second-class citizens, they are called Creoles.

They owned large numbers of slaves, plantations, and even gold and silver mines.But they were still Creoles, still dissatisfied with the restrictions of monopoly trade.

They are the group of people who most hope to be independent. They are small in number but rich, thoughtful and educated.The low-level half-bloods are oppressed, and they will always take their anger out on the officials and those first-class citizens, and they are numerous.

The two combined to get rid of the original officials, and the Creoles themselves became the first class, and the most fundamental things have not changed.

Therefore, these countries that started colonial independence very early still lack a bourgeois revolution that really went deep into the bones to change the land system. Unfortunately, after the second-class people become the first-class people, the third- and fourth-class people used have no meaning.

Under the class society, many things are nothing more than economic interests.If the same kind of thing is really that useful, the native white people must think that it will damage my ethnic group when they fight for independence, but they don't think so.

Chen Jian was full of interest in these people, without these smugglers, it would not be easy to make money.

Similarly, these smugglers are easy to accept some ideas, and it is not impossible to grasp independence within 100 years.

There are all kinds of people who come to the island to meet Chen Jian, and there are conflicts among them.

Smugglers have conflicts with smugglers, merchant ships have conflicts with merchant ships, but facing Chen Jian, they can only hide it, trying to win a suitable bargaining chip for themselves.

Chen Jian is not worried about this. The attitude of these people has been expressed very clearly. They cannot be monolithic in the face of huge profits.

I wanted to prepare a grand banquet to entertain these people after all the people arrived, and by the way, make a manifesto speech full of anti-feudal, anti-heavy taxes, and anti-monopoly trade in Dutch.

By the way, let these people hang out and make them mistrust each other.

Every day, Chen Jian summoned some people individually as the Governor of the Republic.It is nothing more than some banquets, and then give some special small gifts, and discuss with them some customs, plantations and other things in their half-baked Dutch.

In order to impress these people, what Chen Jian talked about was somewhat intimidating.

Some businessmen who communicated with Chen Jian alone expressed affirmation and appreciation for Chen Jian's knowledge. From time to time, some people thought that Chen Jian was a knowledgeable young governor.

After all, it is surprising that the governor of a mysterious fleet, a mysterious country that appeared on the Sea of ​​Satan, can understand the royal family, wars, and conflicts in Europe.

However, following the exchanges, some people also discovered that Chen Jian did have some understanding of the general direction, and some of his insights even far surpassed theirs.

However, for some details, this person asked a lot.Some cunning businessmen gradually discovered that Chen Jian didn't seem to know much about the plantations, governors, inspection booths, trade winds, and trade routes that Chen Jian wanted to know.

But soon this situation was disintegrated.

It originated from when a native white man was discussing some trade goods with Chen Jian, and Chen Jian asked about carmine.

This dye is monopolized by Spain and can be regarded as a commercial secret.In order to monopolize the dye, the Spaniards advertised that the dye was derived from a red flower, but in fact it was not.

The native white man really explained to Chen Jian: "Mr. Governor, this dye is extracted from a rare flower, which can only be obtained here. Whether you are going to Amsterdam or Seville, or even Sudan's In Istanbul, you can never buy this bright red dye."

Chen Jian sneered: "Integrity is a virtue and the basis of transactions. You are deceiving a governor of the Chinese Republic."