From Chief to Ball

Chen Jian observed Polaris with an octant, and replied casually, "Amsterdam."

Chapter 28 Impact

Amsterdam is the liveliest city in Europe right now.

A sanctuary for Jews, heretics, reformers, and Puritans, and a paradise for bankers.

This is not the seat of the Dutch regime, but it is very convenient to come here.In addition, the war was still going on in the south, so Chen Jian had come from the northern route, so he could only choose to stop there.

After one month and seven days of sailing, Chen Jian finally saw the figure of the Dutch fishing boat on the sea.Legend has it that a knife and herring changed the fate of the Netherlands. These fishing boats have gone to the waters of northern England to fish.

Here in the north of England, the wind is high and the sea is rough, and the recruited Dutch sailors and pilots command the ship carefully.

Arriving soon, they don't want anything to go wrong so they can get paid well.

Opening up a new sea route was not easy. A ship in the fleet sank, but fortunately everyone was rescued.

The two ships were blown away from the convoy by the storm, and their whereabouts were unknown.We can only hope that the two ships do not hit the rocks.

Heading to the Netherlands, Chen Jian really wanted to meet the legendary Morris of Nassau, the legendary army reformer, and it would be best if he could take a photo with him.

……

At this time, Amsterdam is singing and dancing, and the sailboats that come and go every day are constantly passing through the port.The war in the south did not affect this place, and the soldiers who fought were still mainly mercenaries, which was not the kind of war scene that a real nation-state should have at all.

The wealth these traveling fleets brought to the Netherlands also brought the military expenses needed by the mercenaries.

For businessmen, although they care about the outcome of the war, they still care more about the business information.

In the past two years, there have been two pieces of news that have caught the businessmen's attention.

Two years ago, a fleet of the "West" India Company captured a Portuguese cargo ship carrying raw silk from Nagasaki in the waters off Macau.

Soon, the ship full of raw silk returned to the trading market in Amsterdam from as far away as Asia.Just catching up with the natural disaster in the Italian sericulture industry, these raw silks were sold at a high price of 200 million Dutch guilders.

This is good news for these investors. The previous war in Macau was defeated, and the door to trade with the Ming Dynasty could not be opened at all.

The profits from these raw silk also made the Dutch want to obtain better trading channels. For this reason, they wanted to obtain a treaty port in the Ming Dynasty by bribing officials to compete with the grape people.

another thing.

It was a Dutch ship that returned from America half a year ago, bringing a ship of goods from another mysterious country.

These exquisite goods also sold for a high price, making the captain famous overnight.

After telling his adventures in the Spanish colonial archipelago, the captain became a celebrity in Amsterdam, and the stories he told became more and more mysterious, but people liked it.

People have always thought that the northern route sailing east did not exist, or that there was a sea full of storms.

But in front of these exquisite goods and the two flintlock guns that Chen Jian gave him as a gift, all this has become a real possibility.

Some businessmen have long been very dissatisfied with the West India Company's monopoly on the route, and there has been no news from the previous several explorations.

This time, it was like a shot in the arm, and once again set off an upsurge in exploring the northern trade route eastward.

The affair had other political ramifications as well.

Since the beginning of the year, Eugenia and his wife, the female governor, have expressed their willingness for peace talks with the north. The Spanish royal family is unable to fight any more, and has given tacit approval to the secret peace talks between the couple.

Some people, headed by Great Speaker Alden Barnefeldt, hope that the peace talks can be carried out as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Morris and his younger brother insisted that Spain was running out of oil and was just using a tactic to slow down the war, and the war should continue.

On the one hand, with the British withdrawal, the Dutch side is also exhausted.

On the other hand, the seemingly stable internal power struggle has also begun.The growing prestige of the Morris brothers and their increasing support is not good news for some inter-provincial republicans.Some wanted a Netherlands with free associations of provinces, not a governor-general, a governing Netherlands.

The differences between the two sides are getting bigger and bigger, and with the discussion of this peace talk, the rift is getting deeper and deeper.

And the news of the rich captain who came back from the eastern archipelago has also become a bargaining chip in the internal peace talks.

Some people think that they should quickly negotiate peace with Spain, and focus more on sailing eastward to explore that mysterious country and start trade.

For this reason, we can agree to some conditions of Spain, instead of focusing on Spanish America, we can completely bypass Spain to start trade with this rich country and transship goods.

And after the captain got rich, he gave a flintlock gun as a gift to Morris in power, and told about the performance-like musketeer salvo he saw, which aroused Morris's deep thinking.

His tactical thinking is to maximize the power of muskets, but due to the problem of rate of fire, his tactics have to rely on a large number of spearmen.

If what the captain said is true, the war can continue to be fought, as long as enough guns can be obtained, it will be easier to change his tactical system.

After seeing the flintlock, Morris believed everything the captain told, and a fleet sailing east to explore the mysterious republic also began to prepare.

……

Chen Jian's fleet sailing around the world arrived in the Netherlands under such circumstances.

In fact, before arriving at the port, they encountered the Dutch fleet.

After some negotiations, the translated official documents were submitted, and then they were able to enter Hong Kong.

For the Dutch, the group of Chen Jian is a group of people full of exotic customs, and it is a huge team of more than a thousand people.

The same is true for Chen Jian and the people in the fleet. They can't find a trace of familiarity here. The only similarities they can find are the busy trading and ports here, as well as those jingling coins.

It has to be said that the Netherlands is the busiest port at this time, and the shipping advantage of connecting the Baltic Sea and other waterways makes the port of Min County a bit eclipsed.

The sails are like forests, the population is dense, and the boats on the canal that are used as houses show the prosperity here.

For Chen's army after fitness, the Dutch did not express much shock.This is a standard mission, and it is reasonable to have military escorts.Moreover, at this time, the Netherlands did not have the concept of a national army. Morris’s army was still dominated by mercenaries from England, Scotland, and Germany, and the real Dutch had no more than 20 companies.

The strong business atmosphere here was quickly verified, but in the morning, a large number of businessmen came to discuss the sale of goods with Chen Jian.

Chen Jian pushed these matters to some employees of Nanyang Trading Company, and asked them to discuss this issue with these people.

And then put forward the opinion of wanting to meet with the Great Speaker or the Consul. As the exchange between the two countries, this opinion should also be taken seriously.

Although Amsterdam is prosperous, it is not the seat of the parliament of the Netherlands. It should be in The Hague in the south.However, this country is not big, and the speed of news transmission should be very fast.

Chapter 29 Impact

Before getting permission, Chen Jian also restrained the soldiers and people in the fleet not to move around.

Most of the people disembarked and rested nearby, observing this exotic atmosphere.

Some soldiers stood in formation and guarded, while the rest rested behind.

It is estimated that the formal meeting will take some time, and Chen Jian is not in a hurry.