On April 3, 1676, Dongfang Port. As many ships arrived at the port one after another, the First Mixed Battalion, which had been on the expedition for nearly three years, more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the Third Mixed Battalion carried rifles and took heavy steps, and stepped onto the dock with exhaustion.

At this moment, the sky was high and the clouds were light and the breeze was chubby. However, except for a few small staff officers from the Army Department, there was no big shot to receive them. This disappointed Yang Liang and Lan Fei, who had just got off the boat. They looked at each other and smiled bitterly at the same time. This was really the treatment of a stepmother.

A total of more than 2,000 soldiers formed the formation in the dock cargo yard as fast as possible amid the officer's command. Yang Liang and Lan Fei stared at the faces, feeling deeply moved: Compared with when they set off, the faces here have almost changed to nearly half. Too many people have died in a foreign land, and now they can only bring their ashes back with the boat and handed them over to their families for comfort.

Among the more than 1,300 soldiers who died in foreign lands, only three or four hundred people died in frontal battles (including those who died of injuries). Most of the remaining 900 people died of various diseases. After all, the living environment and living conditions of soldiers are always the worst. They are too prone to infection with various epidemics when rolling in the yellow mud pond all day long. And the people on the east coast are also unlucky. Almost all the diseases such as typhoid fever and cholera that broke out in the Dutch army have caught up with, which leads to

A large number of diseases have reduced their personnel, which has affected their combat effectiveness. Of course, many people have died from various accidents, such as things that happened in front of the Gwangenport Prison, those who were killed by assassins while helping the MPs guard their houses and guarding the hospital, and those who were attacked by local Dutch soldiers and civilians (because the Dutch cut off the supplies for a while, the East Coast people had to find a way themselves, which led to the bad relationship between the local Dutch and the East Coast troops). In short, the number was varied, and the total number was close to 200.

With so many people missing from the two mixed battalions, it is naturally impossible to wait for the local people to send the supplementary troops to pass (of course, they did not receive a supplementary troops within three years), so with the local acquiescence, they all resolved the military vacancies on the spot: of course, the main supplementary targets were the Swiss, South Netherlands and German mercenaries who fought with them, especially the hard-earned Swiss people. Almost one-third of the 1,000 people were recruited by the East Coast people and became members of the First Mixed Battalion and the Third Mixed Battalion. Some of them even had excellent achievements and had become platoon leaders, which was also magical.

According to the agreement between the East Coast people and them, after arriving in the local area, these people will immediately go through all the procedures and become citizens of the East Coast Republic of China. As for whether to continue to serve in the army and eat food or return to the land in the future, they will be obeyed. The local area also agreed on the above, and the bureaucrats of the Army Department will take them to handle it later.

There was another special person who arrived at the dock at the same time, namely Major Zhou Yafu, the battalion commander of the Navy Battalion. Since he "rebels" from the army and joined the naval system, his reputation in the military circle has suddenly become a little bad. Especially in the army circle, because this person established a naval battlefield, when the navy went out to "fight the grass valley", sometimes he would not bring the army, but the land battle camp (about 1,000 posts) was responsible for landing operations, which greatly reduced the income of the army, and naturally there were more complaints.

However, Zhou Yafu, Yang Liang and Lan Fei have a good relationship. After all, they grew up in the same yard, so they are different from others. Moreover, they don’t have to worry too much about getting close to the Navy and being treated differently. After all, many people are too late to curry favor with them on weekdays, so how can they gossip?

"Old Zhou, come back from Huaiyuan Island to report your work?" Seeing Zhou Yafu standing on the side from afar, Lan Fei smiled and said hello: "I have not seen you for several years. Last time I went to the Free State to help suppress bandits, you were still fighting the indigenous people in the central mountain of Huaiyuan Island. Because of the tight time and no ships, I didn't go to find you. How about it, what have you been in the past few years? Look at your skin now, it seems that the tropical sun is really so vicious."

"I'm back to report my work." Zhou Yafu stepped forward and shook hands with Lan Fei and Yang Liang, and said, "Huaiyuan Island has been basically cleaned up now, and all the indigenous people in the mountains have been wiped out. We have also paid a huge price for this. You know, there are too many snakes, insects, mosquitoes and flies in the tropical forests, and the number of soldiers who have been in the sick is too large. It's really not easy. Oh, by the way, I'm back. Tobago Island, which has been controlled by the Dutch in recent years, has just been occupied by the French. They seem to have sent a small fleet from their homeland and brought hundreds of army soldiers. After landing, they controlled the entire island without much fierce battle. Now the golden lily citi has risen there."

"Poor Dutch." Lan Fei and Yang Liang subconsciously said in unison.

They just left Spain more than half a year ago and were very familiar with some of the situations on the European battlefield. Overall, the French have now had a complete advantage. Prince Conde on the Northern Line had just defeated the coalition forces of Prince Orange and Montecucoli. Although he suffered heavy casualties, he completely organized these people to counterattack the French mainland, and at the same time controlled the Spanish South Netherlands and won a strategic victory. Viscount Tirena on the Eastern Line even operated against the will of heaven, breaking 100,000 to defeat the three German troops one by one. The famous Frederick the Great in history was beaten to the point of being beaten and almost wiped out the entire army; the French army on the Southern Line also firmly defended the Pyrenees, but the Spanish offensive failed. However, no French army landed on his own territory, Sicily, and the Spanish army guarding the island was defeated in a row and was on the verge of surrender.

It seems that Spain is miserable, with more people killed and injured in Germans, but their losses are nothing compared to the United Provinces, which have almost become muddy. The tobacco production areas of Groningen, the indigo production areas of Zeeland, and the cannabis production areas of Gelderland were all destroyed. The only farmland used to grow grain, fruits and vegetables in China were also flooded by seawater, houses collapsed, and the decline was even more numerous. In short, the Dutch are now in a mess. Otherwise, do you think Prince William III, an extremely anti-French element, wouldn't recruit troops to fight with Prince Conde again? The situation in China is really a bit bad, and I have to ease it! Otherwise, the political advantages that have finally gained will shrink a lot due to public opinion accusations.

The Netherlands has suffered such great losses and now overseas colonies have suffered misfortunes, which is undoubtedly very uncomfortable for their economy. You must know that since the Spanish repayed the loan of more than 3 million yuan in principal and interest borrowed on the East Coast market as scheduled, the Caribbean shipping companies of the East Coast people have been unable to monopolize the foreign trade of the Western colonies. Therefore, the Dutch, British, French, Portuguese and even Italians have rushed up at any time. Although Air Canada still occupies the largest market share and controls multiple trading ports, it is inevitable that they will be divided into some markets.

Among these foreign competitors, the Dutch West India Company, which has rejuvenated due to trade with the East, is probably the most powerful one. Tobago Island is their distribution center for smuggling trade on the mainland. A large amount of goods and money flows here every year. Even Air Canada drools on weekdays. This time it suddenly falls into the hands of the French. The West India Company should have suffered a lot, and for their domestic suppliers in the United Provinces, they undoubtedly lost a big profit market, unless the Dutch immediately ordered warships and troops to retake Tobago Island.

Several people chatted on the dock for a while, and then Zhou Yafu suggested to find a high-end restaurant in the city to gather. Yang Liang was very uncomfortable recently because he had been gnawing on the bread like wood chips and maggots-like meat (no way, he had to lead the way...). He immediately agreed when he heard this, while Lan Fei had to regret to leave because he wanted to report his duties at the Joint Staff Headquarters.

At twelve o'clock noon, Lan Fei, who arrived at the Joint Staff Headquarters in the Oriental Street Car Company, met Major Jiang Yaohui, the commander of the Navy's Third Fleet who had just finished negotiations with Dutch Ambassador Van Beverninghe. Jiang Yaohui is a man of a low-class background, but he is versatile and has a broad range of friendships. Even some people in the army often talk and laugh. Now, after seeing Lan Fei, a major with a strong roots and a promising future, enter the yard, he immediately smiled and greeted him with an exaggerated smile.

Lan Fei's face was a little thrusting, but he still shook hands with him and exchanged some greetings casually. However, after learning that he had just participated in the negotiations with the Dutch on the status of Dutch South Africa, he asked a few questions with interest. Considering that this was not a secret matter, and Lan Fei's military rank was also qualified to check these information, he briefly told him.

"When Dutch Ambassador Van Bevrennehe saw that he could not get back Dutch South Africa, he asked to gain control of the Port of Cape Town, which was also rejected by us. Member Zheng's attitude was very clear. The entire Dutch South African colonies would be controlled by our government. We do not accept any discussion of their sovereignty, even if it was just one of the port cities. Van Bevrennehe was furious about this and was extremely angry. He almost left the seat, but later he was persuaded to come back and he said he would go back and think carefully. Haha, probably because he had not completed the hard task assigned by Prince Orange, and he had to go with him.

Musterdam communicated. However, in order to appease them, we also expressed that we would rent two merchant ships from the Principality of Kurland and transport some weapons and ammunition to Amsterdam for delivery. After all, the Dutch had paid a deposit for a long time, and the weapons we had misappropriated and sold to the Turks. Haha, now we will send them two ships first. There are four ships of military funds. Depending on the situation, we decided to issue them. They had cheated us on the trade agreement in the Wisconsin, but this matter would not be resolved. According to the words of Member Zheng, the relationship between the two countries cannot open a new chapter." Jiang Yaohui explained.

Lan Fei nodded slightly when he heard this. They were actually very clear about the wool trade agreement being torn. After all, they were fighting in the Netherlands at that time, and had exchanged with Li Qing, the plenipotentiary of Europe, and knew a lot of things. They also knew that the direct fuse for the East Coast people to attack the Dutch South African colonies was the order of the Qing Prince of Orange to terminate a package of trade agreements signed with the East Coast people, including the wool trade agreements with the East Coast people, including the wool trade agreements of more than 7 million yuan. After that, the East Coast people, who had long been coveting the Netherlands South Africa, immediately took out the combat plan that had been formulated from the drawer, captured the entire Netherlands South Africa in one fell swoop, drove the last foreign colonial force away from this rainbow country, and dominated this extremely critical land from this geographical location.

From this perspective, the East Coast people do not have any possibility to return the Dutch South Africa, and it is impossible for Prince Orange to sign a trade agreement with the East Coast again! The Dutch probably expected this situation, so he wanted to settle for a Cape Town port, intending to have a place to settle down. However, he did not expect that the East Coast Republic did not even agree to this condition, which made Van Beverninghe unable to come to Taiwan at once. It was really a bully!

Of course, the East Coast people are so tough on Union Province, which should have been considered comprehensively. They are sure that the Dutch are unwilling to turn against South Africa and the East Coast, because then they will face great trade risks and the government's fiscal revenue will also plummet, so they should not turn against each other until they have to. Moreover, the East Coast people are also using this method to test where the bottom line of the Dutch is, and want to see if they have the courage to sacrifice East India trade and the East Coast to turn against each other. I believe this is also a very interesting thing.

Lan Fei estimated that the Van Beverninghe would come back to negotiate with the East Coast. After the two sides finally tug-of-war and disputed, they should eventually make concessions. It is estimated that the East Coast would allow Dutch merchant ships to enter and exit the Cape Town Port freely without paying any management fees, tariffs and other fees. The goods should also have a large tax exemption amount or even completely tax-free. To put it bluntly, Cape Town is set to be only targeted at the Dutch.

In this way, the purpose of giving Dutch merchant ships and warships a foothold was achieved, and they also gave them some economic benefits, which would have more or less positive effects on easing the relationship between the two countries. As for the arms and other important materials that were owed to the Netherlands, they should also step up production and sell them, but they should be sold for this hammer.
Chapter completed!