,.
Chapter 60 Businessman’s Report 3
Skade escaped the artillery fire of the Senate, and of course, by the way, he also kept the Dutch who had expired in quarantine for more than ten days. When he came back from Hongji, he already had a thick stack of plans in his hand on accelerating the development 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 Senate Standing Committee 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.
Second report from Vanderland Tron, junior merchant officer of the Dutch East India Company aboard the Magdeburg, to Deccarpentier, governor of Batavia.
Your Excellency:
After a quarantine period of more than twenty days, we were finally allowed to go ashore. Thank God no one died while we were on board. All are healthy.
Originally we were supposed to end the quarantine at the end of February, but when it expired, the port officials informed us that one of the senior officials who was going to meet us, who they called the "Executive Committee", was not in Lingao at the moment, so we were on the ship Stayed for another week.
We discovered that Australians use the concept of "week" just like we do. 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 fingerprinting is very popular among the Chinese, and it seems to be a sign of their credibility.
When we landed on land, 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 noticed this and sent guards to escort us. We left the pier and were immediately arranged to a house not far from the pier.
This house is very large, and it is said that it was specially used to receive sailors. A house is a special kind of longhouse. There are many rows of such longhouses in the yard. Each longhouse is lined with double-decker beds. A house can accommodate 40 people or more - some longhouses. It is double layered.
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. It is up to you whether each room sleeps one person or three people. They have rooms with different numbers of beds. Can sleep up to 4 people.
Whether it is an ordinary sailor's longhouse or a small building where we live, the houses are very clean and tidy. There are no beddings on the bed, 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 inappropriate behavior would result in heavy fines and other penalties. For this reason, I had to communicate with the chief steward on the ship 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.
The Australians seem to be less hospitable than the Chinese. The Spanish and some other people say that every time they go to the coast of China, they can get official hospitality as long as they go to the coast of China under the banner of "tribute". However, we here in Australia, all the supplies, Everything from accommodation to food has to be paid for, but the price is acceptable.
We learned that this place is called "Bobu" - we were informed that we can move freely in Bobu Town, and those who go 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 just remind us that we need to exchange them for local currency before shopping. currency, except that weapons are prohibited. In addition, he required sailors and soldiers to swear an oath to respect the laws of the place before going out.
A shrill flute is played every hour 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. González and Lebutrini, we each had with us an entourage 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, a carriage. This is 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 handicraft. No, the so-called beautiful 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, as well as 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 could see a large number of chimneys of astonishing height, each 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 built of red bricks, with large towers and forts. There were also white and black smoke coming from there, and from time to time there was smoke. A huge metallic clang. 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, Australians have 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 a kind of 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 on the roadside with no known purpose: some completely lifeless wooden piles painted in pitch black. Wooden piles stand 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 wooden piles, but we 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. ,.
