Skade escaped the artillery fire of the Senate, and of course, by the way, he also kept the Dutch whose quarantine had expired for ten more days. [No pop-up novel website] When he came back from Hongji, he already had a thick stack of plans in his hand about accelerating the opening of Hongji and strengthening local defense forces. When this plan was submitted to the Executive Committee and the Senate for review, he declared that he would "make all-out efforts to negotiate with the Dutch" and went into hiding again.
To reinforce Hongji and expand the scale of Hongji Station, the Ministry of Colonial Trade only had the power to propose a plan, which still required detailed discussion by the Executive Committee before it could be implemented when it came to the allocation of materials, personnel allocation and troop mobilization. Skade didn't particularly care about the bombardment from the Senate: he had enough evidence to prove that Hongji's lack of equipment was entirely due to "limitation of national strength." If we say that important targets are equipped with insufficient defense capabilities, Sanya's defense capabilities are particularly insufficient based on its importance and amount of investment. He didn't want to deal with the Standing Committee because he felt it was a waste of time.
According to his words, many people in the Standing Committee of the Senate are "too professional for professionals and too amateur for amateurs", and they are all difficult to deal with.
"Okay, we need to find a few people who understand German," Skade said to himself in the office. "Dutch is a small language." Dutch, commonly known as Low German, is not very different from German.
Therefore, the Dutch East India Company employed a large number of Germans.
Skade thought that there were quite a few elders who knew German, and most of them were affiliated with the Ministry of Colonial Trade.
The second report from Van Delantron, the junior merchant officer of the Dutch East India Company stationed on the "Magdeburg", to the Governor of Batavia, De Carpentier.
Dear Excellency: After a quarantine period of more than 20 days, we were finally allowed to go ashore. Thank God no one died while we were on board. Everyone is healthy.
Originally, we were supposed to end the quarantine at the end of February, but when it expired, the port officials informed us that we were about to receive our senior officials, who they called the "executive committee members", and they were not in Lingao at the moment, so we had another visit on the ship. Stayed an extra week.
We found that Australians use the concept of "week" self-scooping just like us. As their men boarded the ship and talked to us, they frequently mentioned "day of the week" and "next week." They also refer to "Sunday".
However, the official sent us a document giving us permission to leave the ship, which allowed the crew to go ashore and check into a hotel on shore. The sailors and soldiers were delighted to be ashore. I ordered the captain to leave one-third of the sailors and soldiers on board, and promised that they would be rotated every three days from now on.
The executive committee issued an order to the port official, in which he was ordered to provide us with all our needs without shortage. We also ordered our personnel not to leave the port area without written permission.
Port officials gave everyone who came ashore a cardboard card. The cards contain their names, ship and port of departure. And ask everyone to put their finger prints on the cardboard. You must know that this practice of pressing fingerprints is very popular among Chinese people, and it seems to be a sign of their credibility.
When we landed on Land 6, people and workers in the port area crowded on the roadside to watch us. Some people even climbed onto the crane. Too many people watching made us feel very distressed. Officials realized this and sent guards to escort us.
We left the dock and were immediately arranged to a house not far from the dock. This house was very large. It was said that it was specially designed to receive sailors. The house is a special kind of longhouse. There are many rows of such longhouses in the yard. Each longhouse is lined with double-story bungalows. A house can accommodate 40 people or even more - some longhouses. The house is double storey.
As senior crew members, we were placed alone in a courtyard with a similar double-story building. Like the longhouse, it is built of bricks and tiles. But the interior layout is more exquisite. Each room is equipped with a variety of furniture. As for whether each room sleeps one person or three people, it is up to you. They have rooms with different numbers of bunks. Can sleep up to 4 people.
Whether it is an ordinary sailor's longhouse or the small building where we live, the house is very clean and tidy. There are no beddings on the bunks, but there are straw mats and straw pillows - which are enough in the high climate. Every house is equipped with a toilet. The caretaker of the house strictly warned us that any act of public urination would result in heavy fines and other penalties. To this end I had to communicate with the ship's steward and ask him to strictly control the behavior of the sailors and soldiers - you know most of them are Germans.
There is a restaurant in the Seaman's Inn that serves cooked meals. There is also a large store here that provides a variety of goods for the sailors and fishermen who rest here.
Australians seem to be less hospitable than Chinese people. The Spanish and some other people say that every time they go to the coast of China, they can get official hospitality under the banner of "tribute", but we here in Australia, All items provided, from shelter to food, have to be paid for, but the price is acceptable.
We learned that this place is called "Bobu" - we were informed one by one that we could move freely in Bobu Town, and those who went out must return to the hotel before 9 pm. However, those listed as "restricted areas" cannot enter or leave. Generally speaking, the Australians have very few restrictions on us. In addition to allowing us to move freely in the museum, there are no other restrictions on the coins and other items we carry - they only remind us that we need to shop in advance. Convert to local currency, except weapons are prohibited.
In addition, he required sailors and soldiers to swear an oath to respect the laws of the place before going out.
Every hour a shrill flute blows in the city - the sound is so loud that the whole city can hear it. Among them, the flute sounds in the morning, noon and evening last for a long time. Australians use this time reporting system very skillfully, so that everyone can know the current time. Australians work strictly according to the hour. As long as you live with them for a day, you can roughly know what they will do the next day.
After everyone had settled down at the Mariner's Inn, the man in charge of our reception, whom they called the Minister of Trade, wanted to meet us and discuss with us the three of us who had decided to go together to talk to him.
On the morning of March 1st, we washed up early and put on our best clothes.
In addition to Messrs. Gonzalez, Leib, and Trini, we each had an entourage with us and related gifts.
We were led down the street by young officials sent from the "Ministry of Trade." A very beautiful carriage has been prepared here! Yes, the carriage, that was the thing that surprised me the most. In the whole of East Asia, I don't know where else I can see such a light and beautiful carriage. This type of vehicle cannot be found even in Macau or Batavia.
I don't think you can find a similar vehicle even in Europe. This is really a beautiful craft! No, the so-called exquisite handicraft does not mean that it is gorgeously decorated and meticulously carved. On the contrary, there is almost no decoration or painting on the carriage, and the body is also black. There's no decoration worth mentioning except for the glass inlays in the doors and a pair of nice headlights. However, the size and structure of the entire car body and the symmetrical proportions and perfect structure of every part on it all give people an extremely strong shock. Sir, please forgive me for not being able to describe this feeling in words.
The carriage passed through the town of Bobu and headed for the town they called "Bairen". It was the center of Australian rule. Bobu Town is a very prosperous town with many houses, making it a more prosperous city. We can see that there are a large number of chimneys here, the height is amazing, and each chimney is emitting black and white smoke. There is a strong pungent smell in the air. On the way we saw a majestic castle - although it was not next to the street we passed, it was completely made of red bricks, with large towers and forts. There was also white and black smoke, and there were also From time to time, there was a huge metal collision sound. I asked the accompanying official where that place was, but the other party refused to answer my question. I thought it should be an Australian smelter, munitions field or mint. If true, Australia has invested a lot of money here. The road from Bopu to Bairen was built along a large river. But the river is currently semi-dry. The Australians appear to be undertaking some kind of dredging and construction project on this river channel. There is not much water in the river and it smells bad. The road is well built and paved with black sandstone. The carriage didn't feel bumpy at all while walking on it. There was carefully cultivated land everywhere along the road. The land was carefully taken care of. There was no inch of land that was not cultivated and planted with crops. The fields, like many places in Tuscany, have perfect canals, dams and waterwheels to fully irrigate the soil. This irrigation project was so exquisite that Mr. Trini was full of praise.
The local area, like Batavia, can be farmed year-round.
Green rice seedlings have been planted in the fields, and some are vegetables. The slopes that cannot be planted with rice are planted with various crops and fruit trees that are unknown to us. Even on both sides of the road, many coconut saplings are planted.
What surprised us most was that there were some objects of unknown purpose beside us: some completely lifeless wooden piles, painted in pitch black. Wooden piles stood in rows beside the road like street trees, connected to each other by black wires. There are also bottles made of glass fixed to each wooden stake.
The three of us discussed the purpose of these stakes, but came to no conclusion at all - no one had ever seen such a thing. We asked the accompanying officials for advice and once again received a silent answer. a.
