New Shun 1730

Liu Yu often said this kind of talk about who is a friend and who is an enemy.

It would be fine if it was someone else, but Kang Budai, his most trusted confidant, tasted something different.

The Netherlands is not a whole, but Dashun is, right?

Who is the "we" that the young master is talking about?

Anyway, it's not the literati, and the literati have nothing to do with the affairs of the Netherlands.

Then Liu Yu's blurted out "we" is quite interesting.

Who is "we"?

After savoring Liu Yu's description of enemies and friends for a while, the more he savored it, the more he felt that it was a bit dry. Kang Budai had something in his mind, but it was not convenient to say it at this time.

Afraid that Liu Yu would say something he shouldn't say on a whim, he quickly changed the subject and said, "Since the Orange family has already 'El Retorno Del Rey' and the king has returned, can we leave?"

"If we stay here, it will be difficult for William of Orange to do anything. He won't be able to calm public opinion unless he makes some gesture to drive us away. If he really wants to tear up the treaty, he won't dare to do so. I think we should leave."

"I'm worried that if he really leaves no room for maneuver and forces him into a corner, and really tears up the trade agreement to appease the people, then tens of thousands of people in Ceylon will have a hard time. It's best not to make any mistakes at this time."

Liu Yu also had this intention.

"Yes. It's time to leave. But before leaving, we still have to meet our 'potential friends'. Let's establish a connection first, and maybe we will have to cooperate in the future."

"As for the Orange faction, the formalities must be followed. Since the new king has ascended the throne, according to the 'etiquette', this tributary state should send people to the Celestial Empire to ask for a title, and the emperor should send angels to confer the title."

The people around laughed when they heard this.

Everyone knows that if they go now, it will add fuel to the fire. The Orange faction, which is under the banner of defending the dignity of the motherland, will also take the opportunity to hype this matter and must make a big fuss to drive away the people sent by Liu Yu.

However, these people who want to drive Liu Yu away at this time are future enemies.

And the East India Company and Dutch financiers who made Liu Yu quite unhappy before actually have the foundation to be friends with him.

As long as Dashun can successfully take over Nanyang, this "friendship" will be more stable.

The reason is very simple.

The East India Company, which occupied Nanyang, and the Dashun, which attempted to go to Nanyang, were at war.

The Dutch East India Company, which succeeded in going to Nanyang, and Dashun Capital could cooperate.

This is called [some originally confrontational contradictions can be transformed into non-confrontational contradictions if handled properly]

The key to the transformation of confrontational contradictions and non-confrontational contradictions lies in finding the transformation node.

Capital is profit-seeking.

When Dashun did not go to Nanyang, VOC controlled the monopoly of the spice trade in Nanyang. Even if corruption was rampant, even if the governor did not listen to orders, and even if everyone knew that the governor was corrupt, it could still give shareholders a minimum annual dividend of 18%.

If Dashun went to Nanyang, Dutch capital wanted to take back Nanyang and regain the monopoly of the spice trade. Considering the losses, logistics supplies, and mortality rates around the Cape of Good Hope, it would require at least 30 battleships, 50,000 soldiers, and 300 auxiliary ships. Not to mention the 18% annual interest, the cost alone, the annual interest would be unbearable for the Netherlands.

A quick calculation shows that at least 100 million taels of silver are needed for military expenditure.

If the East India Company could come up with so much cash at once, would it still need to prepare financial statements every ten years and work hard to make false accounts?

Many years ago, there was a famous joke in Spain that said that the Ming Dynasty was so weak that 20,000 Spanish soldiers could conquer it.

This is really true. But just like the "absolutely correct nonsense" that Liu Yu often said, this is a standard absolutely correct nonsense.

Being able to transport 20,000 soldiers from Spain to the Ming Dynasty in the era of sailing ships, this ability... The Soviet Union's strategic air transport to Ethiopia that shocked the world in 1977 was barely able to reach this level. That was the peak era of the Soviet revisionists. If you ask the Soviet revisionists at their peak whether they can abandon satellites and transport aircraft and use sailing ships to deliver 20,000 people strategically, the Soviet revisionists will have a headache.

In this era when the British had a two-thirds mortality rate in the Caribbean expedition, if Spain was able to transport 20,000 soldiers to the Ming Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, it would mean that Spain's logistics and shipping capabilities would not only conquer the Ming Dynasty, but also conquer the world.

So, this kind of talk is bullshit.

Therefore, the Dutch did not realize how dangerous the confrontation between Dashun and the Netherlands was.

The ancients said that there must be a national talent in a city of 100 miles. But looking at the decisions and actions of the East India Company in recent years, Liu Yu felt that the brains of the top group of people in the Netherlands were just like that.

He made the same mistake as the literati of Dashun, not stupid, but very smart. But the methodology of understanding and looking at the world is a generation gap from those of the staff around him.

Nanyang is the key node to transform confrontational contradictions into non-confrontational contradictions.

The Netherlands' declaration of war on France is the key to the double effect of this key node.

If the Netherlands did not declare war on France, Dashun could still win, but the fanatical patriotism of the "enemy" in Liu Yu's mouth would permeate for a long time, and there was no way to break their backbone.

If the Netherlands declared war on France, Dashun would not receive any assistance from France in Southeast Asia. The difference would be that the backbone of the Dutch people would be broken, they would lose their last bit of patriotic enthusiasm and accept the fact that the Netherlands had become a small country.

Before the storm in Paris in 1993, the backbone of the Dutch people was broken. In that case, the Dutch would not think of a third way.

After despair, they can only choose to lie down and wait for death, and will no longer care about the future of the country, the direction of politics, and the fate of the Netherlands.

Because no one told those desperate people that there was another way to go.

It will only evolve into: oligarchs, regents, big businessmen, Orange faction, you can toss it as you like, anyway, it's like this, what else can you do. I have fought, struggled, shed blood for my motherland, and sweated for dignity, but what has changed in the end? I love this country of the Netherlands, but who loves me? Lie down and wait for death, anyway, it's all your playground, you can do whatever you want, sell it however you want.

Liu Yu is very sure that he can cooperate with those big businessmen, oligarchs, and major shareholders. But he can't cooperate with the Dutch people who still have patriotic enthusiasm.

The broad masses of the people are the cornerstone of the Netherlands and the biggest enemy of "us" in his mouth.

That's why he had to break the backbone of the Dutch people, leaving only a group of Dutch rulers who provided loans to Spain during the War of Independence and sold arms and smuggled food to France during the Franco-Dutch War.

He had nothing to say to the Orange faction, which was destined to step down.

But he had a lot to say to the parliamentary faction, which seemed to be full of contradictions and irreconcilable at this time, although it seemed that he had pitted the parliamentary faction out of power.

He had to go to the Orange faction to "humiliate himself", mainly to "submit a pledge of allegiance" to the parliamentary faction to prove his innocence and that he had not achieved any ulterior purpose with the Orange faction.

However, this pledge of allegiance was to submit his own head.

This is called one willing to fight and the other willing to be beaten.

…………

Two days later, before Liu Yu sent someone to ask "the consul to send someone to the Celestial Empire to ask for a title", Anthony, the former Grand Speaker, who was not skinned alive and eaten like his predecessors, took the initiative to visit Liu Yu.

This former Grand Speaker who was able to call the wind and rain has now resigned from the position of Grand Speaker.

The bizarre political system and veto power of the Netherlands meant that William IV had to become the ruler of seven provinces in the seven provinces first if he wanted to become the ruler of the Republic.

This was the opposite of Dashun.

Whatever policy Dashun wanted to implement, it needed to be approved by Tianyou Palace and the six governments and implemented from top to bottom.

Whatever policy the Netherlands wanted to implement, it needed to be agreed upon by the cities in the seven provinces in the parliaments of each province first; then the seven provinces would reach an agreement in the federal parliament. This was not the minority obeying the majority, but each city had a veto power.

Now the seven provinces had no resistance and no power to resist.

After the Orange faction secretly reached a "no reform" deal with the big businessmen, the seven provinces all recognized William IV as the lifelong ruler of the United Provinces.

In fact, this was called kingship.

Hereditary, lifelong, succession by children and wives, there was no difference from the king except that he was not called the king but the consul.

However, this was just a title. Just like William IV's predecessor William III, if he dared to reform, the stock price would collapse. Therefore, even William III, who was also the King of England, could only bow and scrape to the Province of the Netherlands. Without the consent of the Province of the Netherlands, he would not formulate any policies.

Not for anything else, but because the Province of the Netherlands took 57% of the financial expenditure of the seven provinces.

William would never dare to put the "royal palace" in Amsterdam. He would either go to Rotterdam or The Hague, and must escape from Amsterdam, the base of the parliamentary forces.

Although the parliament was still in power, it had to be acceptable on the surface.

The benefit of being right about people rather than things is here. The Speaker of the House of Representatives stepped down, and the matter was over.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives who stepped down was still the leader of the merchant class.

The resignation of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives was just to give the people an explanation, not to make a promise to the people.

At this time, the Orange family, who held high the defense of the dignity of the motherland and the state system, would definitely not come to Liu Yu. Therefore, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anthony, who had already taken a big blame, could only come forward to talk to Liu Yu.

This meeting was considered a private meeting. Anthony is no longer the Grand Speaker, so there is no need for so much red tape.

"My Lord Marquis. You have completed your revenge on the United Provinces. You have successfully dragged the United Provinces into a war. The lives of tens of thousands of Dutch people and hundreds of thousands of millions of florins are all the achievements of your revenge."

"I really want to know, is your revenge against me, the Grand Speaker who rejected your "free trade and tariff agreement"? Or is it against the entire United Provinces?"

Liu Yu laughed and used a particularly vulgar metaphor.

"If the bitch doesn't lift her tail first, the male dog won't have a chance to lie on it. But it wasn't me who lifted the bitch's tail. Do you think this is revenge?"

Anthony sighed and nodded.

"Yes. A cruel war. And, you must know what happened in the Amsterdam Stock Exchange these days. The prices of several stocks plummeted, especially the stocks of the East India Company. Many people are selling. People doubt whether the East India Company can maintain the promised minimum annual interest rate of 18% without trade with China."

Liu Yu thought to himself, 18% minimum annual interest rate? When I go to Southeast Asia, I will make sure you don't even have 1.8%. Besides, this is just the beginning, what kind of revenge is this?

"Mr. Anthony, now that you are no longer the Speaker, I hope you can send a message to the parliamentary faction and the businessmen."