When Lopez and his more than 1,500 Spanish sailors, escorted by Dutch and Ming troops disguised as Spanish Army troops, walked dejectedly into a large vacant yard in the commercial port of Cavite. The Dutch's Orange tricolor flag is already flying over Cavite's commercial ports, ports and forts!
According to the "Ming-Dutch Agreement" reached by Zhu Youjian and Anthony Van Diemen earlier, Cavite's port, fort, commercial port, and approximately 7 to 8 million acres of nearby land (of which about 5 million are arable land) acres), have been placed under the jurisdiction of the United East India Company.
This piece of land is not big, it is only equivalent to more than 5,300 square kilometers, not even a fraction of the total area of Luzon Island (Luzon Island has nearly 110,000 square kilometers). But it is the largest territory of the United East India Company in the East!
Just being allocated such a large piece of land was enough to make Anthony Van Diemen smile crookedly.
And this land was only a small part of the loot that the East India Company could get after the success of this "rob Spain" operation.
The real big head (the big head in the eyes of the Dutch), including gold and silver treasures, meat tickets, ships, and slaves, has not yet been distributed. Anthony Van Diemen and Zheng Zhihu have discussed it and will wait until the Spanish treasure ship is robbed before proceeding. A big share of the spoils.
As honest businessmen, Van Diemen and Zheng Zhihu are eagerly looking forward to the Spanish treasure ships to deliver their treasures these days. When they learned that a total of six 400-dwt medium-sized Galen ships had arrived this time, they were all crazy with joy.
These six Galenic ships alone are worth a lot of money - these six ships are not worth much in the Netherlands and England. But here in East Asia, things are rare and expensive!
And the six Galen ships still have at least 1,000 tons of cargo (which will not be fully loaded when sailing from America)... This is another huge amount of money!
In addition, there should be about 1,500 sailors on the six Galen ships. They were not all Spanish, and there were many white Americans of mixed race who had little loyalty to the Kingdom of Spain, Portuguese (Portugal was now ruled by Spain), Italians or Spanish Netherlands. For the Ming Dynasty, which lacked the ability to maneuver soft ships and large ships, these sailors were undoubtedly a valuable asset.
...
"Hahaha, you're getting rich! You're getting rich! Mr. Dimen, you're getting rich this time!"
Zheng Zhihu's hearty laughter rang out in the East India Company's trading station. He was a representative of the East India Company and brought a list and a thick account book.
"Everything has been counted, and we can discuss how to share it!" Zheng Zhihu said with a smile, "Of the 1,500 sailors captured this time, more than 700 are not Spanish, but only mixed-race white people hired by the Governor-General of New Spain. And foreigners... they won’t be included in the allocation, is that feasible?”
Whether it is Spanish or not depends not only on nationality and ancestry, but also on whether it is useful and how to use it.
"No problem," Anthony Van Diemen lowered his head and calculated, "That's nearly 31,000 people...more than 1,000 have died, and there are less than 30,000 left. 2,000 of them should be redeemed. How about we divide the rest equally?”
Anthony Van Diemen never thought of "wholesale" these 31,000 people to Philip IV. He asked for 1,000 pesos each, but they all got 31 million pesos! Although Philip IV was a bit stupid, it was impossible for him to pay so much money.
Besides, he didn’t either!
Anthony Van Diemen and Zheng Zhihu, two "honest businessmen", used "wholesale" to deceive people, just to coax the Spaniards in the Santiago Fortress to surrender quickly.
And what they really want to make is "retail" money...pick out those who have money and let their family members use the money to redeem them.
As for those who don’t have money, I’m sorry...just work hard as slaves!
"This cannot be divided equally," Zheng Zhihu said with a smile. "We have been allocated a lot of land, so we need more slave workers... Let's do this, you give me 25,000 people, and I will give the middleman who wants the ransom to the East India Company. Do it and give the East India Company 20% commission."
"This..." Van Diemen seemed to want to negotiate a price.
Zheng Zhihu said again: "Anthony, the Yamada Party who can control these slave workers are already ministers of the Ming Dynasty... Moreover, we will use them to develop Luzon Island better. In the future, we will import and export through Cavite." The more goods you have, the more you earn!”
"In that case..." Anthony Van Diemen smiled, "Then let's make a concession. I want 10,000 slave workers, and the rest belongs to you."
Zheng Zhihu said: "I'll give you 6,000!"
Van Diemen thought for a while and smiled: "Okay, deal!"
"One half of each of the six treasure ships," Zheng Zhihu continued, "the cargo on the ship was mainly tobacco, brass, silver, and wine... The silver and brass were divided equally, and the tobacco and wine were released in Cavite. , exchange it for silver and then divide it equally.”
"Okay." Van Diemen didn't have any objections and agreed readily.
"There are also some trophies that cannot be divided among the officers and soldiers," Zheng Zhihu said. "The main ones are artillery, muskets and horses... All the Spanish horses must belong to us."
The Spaniards have been operating in the Philippines for decades and equipped a cavalry with several hundred people. Of course, they also opened a horse farm and raised thousands of "big horses" whose ancestors came from the Americas and have some Andalusian blood.
These horses are certainly quite good for Ming Dynasty. Not to the Dutch, but nothing.
"Then let's get muskets and artillery." Fan Diemen didn't bother with Zheng Zhihu about the ownership of the horses, and directly asked for the guns, "Vice General Zheng, our cooperation this time is very pleasant, should we consider the next target?" Are you ready? Should we attack Siam, or attack Champa across the sea?"
"It's up to Mr. Long Live to make the decision," Zheng Zhihu said. "When the matter in Luzon comes to an end, I will have to go back to Nanjing... Then I will know who to fight next."
"Then can I make a suggestion?" Anthony Van Diemen seems to be addicted to it and has even thought about the next target.
"I wonder who the Governor wants to rob next?"
"How about Champa?" Anthony Van Diemen asked, "Champa is right opposite Luzon Island. The country is small and has weak soldiers, so it is easy to conquer.
Moreover, this country has always been a trade node between the Ming Dynasty and Nanyang. If it is occupied, it will be of great benefit to promote trade between the Ming Dynasty and Nanyang.
In addition, Champa has been rich in rice since ancient times, and neighboring Annan and Chenla are also rich in rice. Doesn’t Ming Dynasty need food very much? If Champa can be destroyed with the power of thunder, are we still afraid that Annan and Zhenla will not obediently send rice? "
Zheng Zhihu said with a smile: "What the Governor said is very true. Why don't you go to Nanjing with me and talk to Long Live Lord face to face?"
Anthony Van Diemen nodded, "I do have to meet with the Ming Emperor again... I don't have to rush to talk to him about the conquest of Champa. I also have to talk about diplomacy and war issues with Spain."
"War?" Zheng Zhihuming thought that Anthony Van Diemen would raise the possibility of war with Spain at today's spoils-sharing meeting.
In fact, the purpose of seizing the Philippines was not to provoke a war with Spain, but to avoid war with Spain.
"Isn't it?" Zheng Zhihu shook his head and said, "With the loss of Luzon, Spain doesn't even have a usable stronghold in the east, so why should we start a war? The Spaniards don't even have a foothold in the Western Pacific, so why should they fight? "
"Why not?" Dimen asked, "Don't forget, the King of Portugal is also Philip IV!
Theoretically, Macau is now the territory of King Philip of Spain.
And Philip was not a normal person...Normal people would not regard God's favor for Spain as a national policy. So we have to prepare for the worst! "
Being reminded by Dimen, Zheng Zhihu also felt a little troubled.
This time the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands bullied Spain terribly. Not only did they steal their territory, but they also kidnapped people and demanded ransom. It was hard to guarantee that they would not piss off Philip IV!
If not, you must have a good talk with Long Live Lord.
