Hans Putsmann still couldn't believe what Zhu Youjian said. That was a bastion!
In Europe, if you really want to besiege a bastion seriously, it will take less than three months to half a year. It is really difficult to break through... Even if the attacking party acts recklessly regardless of the casualties of the troops, it will be difficult to succeed. , even if you succeed, the gain outweighs the loss!
It is almost impossible to capture the Santiago Bastion on Luzon Island within half a month without suffering too many casualties... If the bastion is really so easy to fight, the Spaniards' Flanders The Sri Lankan Army has already crushed the United Provinces of the Netherlands!
"The bastion is actually not that difficult to defeat!" Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "Admiral Put, I really have a way to capture the Santiago Fortress within 15 days... You don't have to doubt this!"
If it were a different bastion, such as the Batavia Fortress, Zhu Youjian was not so sure. But the Santiago Bastion on Luzon Island was too familiar to him.
Zhu Youjian said: "Admiral Puti, based on your understanding of the East India Company...if I propose a joint plan to seize the Spanish Philippine colonies, how much concessions can the East India Company make in the trade agreement?"
Seeing Zhu Youjian's confident look, Hans Putsmann was still worried, "Your Majesty, you don't want to sacrifice the lives of Ming soldiers to seize the Santiago Bastion, do you? If you have such an idea... .I suggest you give up this idea as soon as possible. Because the loss will be too great for you to bear! In fact, as long as you agree to blockade the Spanish Philippines together with the United East India Company, the Governor's Palace in Batavia will be very satisfied. There is no need. Really go on offense.”
"No way..." Zhu Youjian shook his head, "If we don't remove the stronghold in the Philippines, the Spanish galleons will have a foothold in East Asia. They dare not go to Malacca and Java to find the Dutch. But it may harass the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty. Our southeastern coast has a long coast and cannot be guarded against... So I want to take down Santiago Castle and wipe out all the Spanish power in Luzon Island. !Either you don’t do it, or if you do it, you can’t leave any trouble!
And I can indeed capture Santiago Castle without paying too many casualties or taking too much time. "
Hans Putsmann also had to admit that what Zhu Youjian said was right. To deal with lunatics like the Spaniards, you have to be ruthless and leave no consequences, so that they have no way to fight back... even if it is God favored Spain, and it was impossible for Spain to send a large fleet from America to attack a Ming Empire allied with the Netherlands without losing its stronghold in the Philippines.
"If Your Majesty is really sure, then don't bring it up at the beginning of the negotiations." Hans Putsmann said, "Because the Dutch want to take down Santiago Fort more than Your Majesty, they even dream about it!
Because in their view, the Spaniards were the biggest obstacle to their monopoly on eastern trade. Therefore, they will definitely propose during the negotiations that the Ming Dynasty send troops and they send out ships to attack Luzon Island together. At that time, if your Majesty agrees, you can ask for possession of the Spanish Philippines after victory, and you can also ask the Dutch to provide two or three armed galenic ships to protect the route from Luzon Island to the Ming Dynasty... ..."
He is really the best negotiator! He sat down directly on Daming's side and showed Zhu Youjian all the Dutch's trump cards.
"What if we add the Dutch stronghold on Dajuan Island?" Zhu Youjian asked, "Can we allow them to move to Luzon Island?"
"This is not a problem," Hans Putsmann said, "Changing from Taiyuan Island to Luzon Island... the Dutch must be dreaming of it!"
Zhu Youjian nodded, "That's good!"
There is nothing good worth building a fortress to protect on Da Yuan Island now. It's just that the Ming Dynasty sometimes opens up and sometimes locks down the country. There is no certainty. Therefore, the Dutch needed a smuggling stronghold, so they occupied a piece of land on Damuan Island.
Now that the Ming Dynasty has opened four commercial ports, it is about to form an alliance with the Netherlands. By then, the Dutch may even be able to go to Beijing. Why are they still staying on Damuan Island? Feed mosquitoes?
As for letting the Dutch set up a stronghold on Luzon Island, that's even less of a problem... Luzon Island is the Spanish's fundamental stronghold in the East! The resources on the island are richer than those on Da Yuan Island, and there are more flat lands that are easy to develop, and the land area is much larger.
With the shrewdness of Dutch businessmen, they will definitely find a way to make a fortune.
Of course, Zhu Youjian asked the Dutch to establish a stronghold in Luzon to attract wealth for himself. In his previous life, he suffered a huge loss in Luzon Island, lost a lot of money, and lost two sons.
I can't be stupid anymore in this life. I have to let the Dutch help develop it and let them find ways to make money. If they can find a way to make money, what's the point of giving them a small commercial port? If they can't find one, they won't stay in Luzon for long... What's the point of maintaining a loss-making trading port?
Zhu Youjian was also thinking: If the Dutch can help build up Luzon Island, then the Dutch can have a hand in all the territories won by the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang and the Southern Continent... let them have a hand... One kick, and the journey south will go smoothly!
"Admiral Pu, how do you think monopolistic free trade should be carried out between the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands?" Zhu Youjian changed the topic at this time and asked about "monopolistic free trade".
He knows that the trade policy of Nizi in his previous life was only freedom, not monopoly! At first there were restrictions on commercial ports, but later they were all opened.
But Zhu Youjian doesn't plan to do anything... because he doesn't understand what free competition is, nor does he know what "deficitism" is, let alone how to gain huge profits from economic development by controlling finance.
And what his partners, the Dutch profiteers, only want is monopoly free trade. Since the Dutch want to have a monopoly, let’s think carefully about how to monopolize it better?
"Monopolistic free trade is to control the number of merchant ships engaged in ocean-going trade..." Hans Putsmann said. "The East India Company's original idea was to model the Japanese Seal Ship, which stipulated that every year the number of merchant ships would be The number of Dutch merchant ships sailing to Xiamen was reduced, and merchant ships from other countries were restricted from trading with the Ming Dynasty."
"This is a way..." Zhu Youjian nodded repeatedly, and then turned his attention to Zheng Zhilong and Li Guozhu.
The two Fujian profiteers were accompanied by Han Buan, who knew Latin, and was there to translate the conversation between Zhu Youjian and Hans Putsmann.
When Zhu Youjian and Hans Putsmann talked about how "monopoly free trade" should be carried out, these two profiteers became excited.
The biggest advantage of the "Red Seal Ship" method is that it is easier for the court to collect taxes!
The imperial court could even directly sell "zhuyinzhuang" for money. A red seal certificate sells for ten thousand taels, and two or three hundred copies a year are sold for two to three million...
"Long live my Lord," Zheng Zhilong thought quickly and said immediately, "The Zhuyin-shaped method is not good!"
"What's wrong?" Zhu You asked.
"Your Majesty," Zheng Zhilong said, "if you want to perform the red seal, you have to lock down the country, and you have to strictly prevent unmanned ships from going to sea... In this way, private maritime trade will definitely become increasingly sluggish. In the long run, like Japan, the entire country will The country gradually lost its ability to sail. Without the ability to sail, there would be no coastal defense."
"It makes sense," Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "but now that the Zhuyinzhuang system is not implemented, your mother's ships rarely go to Malacca and Batavia, right?"
Zheng Zhilong said: "Your Majesty... I will still send ships to Nanyang! But the number is limited..."
"Really?" Zhu Youjian thought for a while, "Then I'll issue a trade license to you too! Japan only has a few dozen red seal certificates... The population of Ming Dynasty is ten times that of Japan, so only 500 trade licenses are issued. , 150 are given to the Dutch, and the rest are given to merchants from other countries and our own people. Moreover, I will also request that ships holding permits can freely enter and exit Batavia Port and pass through the Strait of Malacca."
