While Zhu Cihong and Zheng Zhilong were discussing how to carry out colonial invasion through deceit and abduction, the Dutch colonial mission headed by Van Diemen and Bruce Van Diemen had already returned to the Shanghai commercial port which was under construction.
Different from the last time they passed by in a hurry, this time Brother Fan and Diemen had plenty of time and could take a closer look.
The first target of their investigation was the Wusong Fort and Baoshan Fort located north of Shanghai Commercial Port!
These are two bastion-style forts under construction, located on both sides of the Wusong River estuary - Baoshan in the Ming Dynasty was located east of the Huangpu River, in the area of the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in later generations. Across the river from Baoshan Station is Wusongjiang Station. The two places are originally coastal defense hubs and have old forts.
However, Zhu Cixi didn't like the dilapidated old forts, so he had them demolished and started over, building two truly functional bastion forts. It is not a simple bastion made of sandbags, but a masonry bastion built with Yangtze River stone and red bricks as the main materials. The scale of the two bastions is not very large, with only six protruding solid gun towers. Each bastion has three gun towers facing the Yangtze River and Wusong River, and they are all built very solidly. Each gun platform facing the river also has four gun positions reserved for placing 36-pound cannons!
If both bastion batteries were equipped, there would be twenty-four thirty-six-pound bronze cannon. It is enough to deal a fatal blow to any enemy who tries to invade Shanghai's commercial port by water.
After viewing the two forts, which were still under construction slowly and probably would not take more than a year or two to complete, the Dutch followed a bluestone road known as the "Long Street on the Bund" and entered the Shanghai Commercial Port for a visit.
Shanghai's commercial port is divided into two towns, Pudong and Puxi. Puxi Town is located at a bend of the Wusong River - this is not the most central area of Shanghai in later generations, but in the Jiangwan, Wujiaochang, and Yangshupu areas. To the east is a bay channel of the Wusong River (in this era, the lower reaches of the Huangpu River and the Suzhou River leading to Suzhou are counted together, called the Wusong River), and to the west is a straight masonry city wall 25 miles long. , which separates the commercial port of Shanghai from Jiading County, Suzhou Prefecture. The area within the city wall is not small, about fifty square kilometers. Originally, half of it was military land belonging to Wu Song, the remaining half was official land under the jurisdiction of Shanghai County, and the rest was civilian land.
Both the military land and the official land were allocated to an agency called the Shanghai Bureau of Commerce and Industry, while the civilian land was purchased by Wang Zhixin at a high price and placed under the name of a company called Huangpu Trading Company - the major shareholder of Huangpu Trading Company was, of course, Zhu Cihong himself.
Nowadays, most of Puxi Town is still farmland - about fifty square kilometers, which are all high-quality paddy fields. They can't be cultivated at once, so of course they have to continue farming.
The first batch of "prime areas" to be opened were, of course, the lands under the name of Huangpu Trading Company. This place will be a prime location in Shanghai in the future!
The planning of the first phase of the commercial port was done by Zhu Cixiang himself. He planned to build four horizontal, four vertical and eight streets and a large passenger and cargo terminal on the land of Huangpu Commercial Bank.
Of course, the large passenger and cargo terminal was built along the Wusong River. The terminal is very long, with a total of sixteen berths, and can accommodate sixteen of the largest sailing ships of this era at the same time. Because there are sixteen berths, the wharf is called "Shiliupu" wharf.
The four "side streets" all start from Shiliupu in the east and end at the four gates of the commercial port city wall in the west. In order to facilitate the entry and exit of goods, a total of 18 gates were opened on the commercial port city wall, but only four of them are currently in use. The four streets all run east-west, from north to south, and are called "Beijing Street", "Ningbo Street", "Tianjin Street" and "Nanjing Street" respectively. The four vertical streets intersect with the horizontal streets, all running north-south, from east to west, namely "The Bund Street", "Sichuan Street", "Henan Street" and "Chengdu Street".
What a good name for Eight Streets? It sounds like a prime location!
However, these eight "golden streets" are now empty. Both sides of the streets paved with bluestones are basically rice fields and vegetable gardens. Only the section of the Bund Long Street near Shiliupu Pier is somewhat marketable.
Along the west side of the Bund Long Street, many Chinese or Western-style houses have been built, and many construction sites are under construction.
Among the buildings that have been built, there is a two-story hotel with a touch of Manueline style (a Portuguese architectural style) called the Covelo Hotel. It was opened by a Western businessman who moved from Hao'ao. Because Shanghai's commercial port has not really developed yet, the hotel business is not very good. Van Diemen's mission simply booked the entire hotel as their foothold on Chinese soil.
Standing on the balcony of a large hotel room facing the Wusong River, Van Diemen and his brother Bruce noticed the shipyard and iron factory on the other side of the Wusong River.
Unlike the cold place in Puxi Town, the industrial zone in Pudong Town covers a limited area. It only encircles a little military land that originally belonged to Baoshan Institute, which is a narrow strip of land along the Wusong River. However, there are two shipyards and two iron factories that have been partially completed and are under construction. Looking from a distance, you can see the busy scene there.
Van Diemen raised his telescope and observed for a while. In the two shipyards, several slipways were already in use, huge keels were being laid, and many workers were busy.
Obviously, what is being built is a large ship that can conduct ocean voyages, and it cannot be ruled out that it is a warship!
In addition, Van Diemen also discovered that there were Europeans on two of the slipways.
It seems that the shipyards on the other side have introduced European shipbuilding technology... This is indeed a worrying issue!
The current East India Company only has less than forty warships in total - the East India Company is a commercial company after all, and it is impossible to invest too much in the military... If the Ming Dynasty starts to invest heavily in the navy, it may not be used How long will it take before we can build a fleet that can compete with the East India Company's navy in the ocean!
Thinking of this, Van Diemen's eyebrows became tangled.
"Your Majesty the Governor, the four factories you saw belong to Mr. Lopez and Mr. Shen respectively..." The owner of the Covelo Hotel, an older, pudgy Portuguese businessman, was invited to Van. In the large guest room where Dimen lived, he introduced the factory on the other side of the Wusong River to the latter in blunt French.
"Is it Alfonso Lopez from Macau?" Van Diemen asked.
Alfonso Lopez is also considered the number one figure among Westerners in the East. He is a big arms dealer who is greedy for money and dares to sell anything! Van Diemen not only knew him, but was also very familiar with him. However, the relationship between the two parties is not good, because Lopez is Portuguese, and Portugal and the Netherlands have made several moves in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia in order to compete for Eastern colonies!
"Yes." Coffolo also didn't like the governor of the Dutch East India Company in front of him, but in order to earn the sinful money in Van Diemen's pocket, he still answered the question truthfully.
"Who is Mr. Shen?" Van Diemen asked again.
"He is China's Beiyang Minister and a wealthy maritime businessman... He is the boss of the Maritime Sand Company."
"Sea Sand Company?" Van Diemen didn't understand. "Selling sand?"
His younger brother Bruce was more familiar with the situation in East Asia than he was. He said with a smile: "It's not a sand seller, but a businessman active on the routes between China and Korea... His status on the coast of North China and the coast of Korea is the same. Zheng Zhilong is quite good."
"Oh." Van Diemen nodded, and then motioned for Cover to leave his large guest room.
After the Portuguese businessman left, Van Diemen said to his brother: "Without the consent of Mr. Shen, can our people enter the North Korean port?"
"Entering North Korea?" Bruce was stunned, "This does not depend on Mr. Shen."
"Then who has the final say?"
Bruce Van Diemen said: "It depends on the king of Korea... This country, like the Ming Dynasty and Japan, pursues a closed country. Because Korea used to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, it was open to Ming Dynasty merchants."
"You used to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty? No longer?"
"No more," Bruce said. "Now the Kingdom of Korea has surrendered to the Tatars who occupy northern China."
