Time entered 1679. The nearshore of China is the time when the north wind is howling, and the annual immigration transportation operation officially kicked off. But when it comes to sad news, the number of immigrants available this year has dropped to 48,000, which will significantly affect the national population data in 1681 counted by the Ministry of Local Immigration, which shows that the source of immigration is gradually exhausted.

As the number of immigrants was small, some ships were naturally empty. At the end of October and early November, these ships were loaded with various cargoes, and they went from the north to the south one after another, some heading to Chongmingsha, a dilapidated transit point under the attack of the Qing army, some heading to Dinghai County, and some heading south to Guangzhou or Relanzha Port.

There are particularly many ships heading to the Port of Rhlanzha, including a "Star"-class light cruiser under the jurisdiction of the Bank of Taiwan, which guards a total of five ordinary ships of large and small, including the "Kuril Islands" armed transport ship that the company's general manager Shao Shuguang was riding.

Speaking of development for so many years, the strength of Taiwan Bank has been obvious to all. It can afford all kinds of ships and invest everywhere. However, Shao Shuguang still has a special liking for the "Jacsa" class armed transport ships leased from the Navy. The "Kuril Islands" has been his ship for many years. He even planned to discuss with the Navy in a few years to see if he could buy the ship for use.

Of course, Shao Shuguang has this strength! Taiwan Bank, a large wealthy company with a large Kangcaien company, owns 5% of the shares. His father Shao Shude and brother Shao Yaoguang also hold 5% of the shares. It can be said that their Shaw family is the largest holding group except the local Ministry of Finance and the Three Feudalists of the Far East. They make huge profits every year. I don’t know how many people envy them.

This time he arrived at the Port of Geranzha by boat to mediate some things that happened on Taiwan Island a few days ago. It is said that after several negotiations with the Dutch East India Company, although the relationship between the East India Company is still repeated, it is much better than before. Not only has the coldness and even hostility been lifted between the two sides, but the bilateral trade has also been restored to most of the bilateral trade. Therefore, when the Fujian Zheng Group and the Dutch East India Company had a conflict over the reclaiming of Taiwan Island, the East China Sea, who had a close relationship with both sides, were naturally invited out and acted as a mediator between the two sides.

The main mediator on the East Coast is Shao Shuguang, general manager of Taiwan Bank, and the deputy mediator is Lu Fang from Ningbo. He is currently the director of the newly established Ningbo Investment and Merchants Bureau and a cadre under the leadership of Ma Wenqiang, the leader of the pioneer team. As for the original trade work, Hu Chi took over.

The East Coast people had notified the Dutch's Holmosa Governor Hugo Roll a month in advance. Therefore, after arriving at the port, the Dutch only checked the documents slightly, then placed them respectfully, and escorted the group to the merchant station located near the dock in the East Coast people.

"There are a lot of red-haired men coming to the city recently. I have inquired about three hundred people, more than half of them were mercenaries recruited in the German region, and most of them were technicians, managers and sailors. It seems that they were stimulated by Zheng Jing's people and planned to strengthen the houses in the city of Rhland. Oh, by the way, there were more than 800 Malay soldiers who arrived at the same time. These people now live outside the city, which is a wooden house with a huge 'voc' logo. I guess they should be from the East Indies. The Dutch built fortresses on dozens of islands, established colonial rule, and organized some Malays to come to Shermosa to assist the war. It should be no problem." Han Yin, as a contact person for the Taiwanese bank's Gerlandzburg, began to report as soon as he received Shao Shuguang and his group.

"No need to guess, those Malays must be from the Maluku Islands,

The Dutch were very powerful there, and the English, Portuguese and even Spanish were beaten, and they were basically covered by their hands. It was not surprising that these people came from that island. In fact, it was great that the Dutch had not transferred black soldiers from other places." Malaysia sat on a long chair with a golden sword. Shao Shuguang lit a cigarette with a match and commented: "It seems that Zheng Jing has put a lot of pressure on the Dutch. There are more than 10,000 people in Taipei Prefecture now? Be good, Taipei (i.e., Taipei) and Zhuqian (Hsinchu) counties all at once. It is impossible for the Dutch to not feel the pressure!"

In fact, the current focus of the rule of the Fujian Zheng Group is still above the mainland, and it is not very concerned about the reclamation of Taiwan Island. But it is no longer concerned. After all, it is too close to the mainland and the transportation is too convenient. Zheng Jing can launch a very popular reclamation activity on the island as long as he invests a little resources and manpower. For example, in the so-called Taipei and Zhuqian counties today, Zheng Jing sent about 20,000 people to cultivate, and there are still more than 10,000 left. It is divided into two counties, with the official and private reclamation numbers as the main business model, planting rice, sugarcane, tobacco and other crops, and cutting down large trees for shipbuilding.

To be honest, this colonial situation scared the Dutch. They were thousands of miles away from their hometowns. They had never seen such a wave of colonization! As powerful as the East India Company, all European employees in the Far East are only about 11,000. This is still the case where sailors, colonial officials, soldiers, technicians and their families are scattered everywhere. It is really hard for the Dutch to imagine the big deal like the Fujian Wang Zhengjing.

Therefore, they were like the frightened poisonous snake, raised their heads high and issued a "hiss" warning to the invaders who threatened him. However, Zheng seemed to be a little deaf about their warnings, and continued to carry out the planned settlement mission in an orderly manner, and also sent the prisoners obtained in the war with Li Chengdong to the official reclamation account in Zhuqian County to continue the great cause of reclamation.

As a result, the Dutch became furious, especially when the Zheng family began to send people to attack the Taiwanese indigenous people who had paid taxes to the Netherlands, this provocation became even more untolerable. Therefore, in the first half of last year, the Dutch sent a team of people to the Taichung area in later generations to prevent a Zheng army from plundering the indigenous people, because the residents here paid deer skin and other physical taxes to the Dutch East India Company all year round, which was one of the company's financial resources and could not be ignored.

When the Dutch did this, the Zheng family immediately responded. They transferred some troops from the mainland to the island, threatening to move southward to conquer the Relanzha Castle. At the same time, Zheng Jing also sent a lot of naval ships to move around the Taiwan Strait. Although their small boats were at a disadvantage to deal with the Dutch's large ships, they were defeated by the large number, which caused considerable trouble for the Dutch. Especially when the southeast winds in summer, the Dutch had to detour the Taiwan Strait to trade northeast (Zheng's small boats were shallow in water, and the danger was greatly increased here), which was very unprofitable. Sometimes they might encounter a few large sailing ships bought by the Zheng family from the east coast, and caused a tragedy of a merchant ship full of grain sinking into the sea.

After this incident, the Dutch East India Company finally understood how troublesome it is to fight with local snakes. After all, they are merchants, and they always take profit as the first consideration. Zheng violated their tax base and affected their income, so it was not surprising that they responded. Now they found that if they continued to fight with Zheng, their income might be affected even more, so they were shaken and began to contact the people of the East Coast and find ways to mediate.

It just so happened that the East Coast people also wanted to improve their relationship with the Dutch East India Company. A while ago, they arrested several Dutch merchant ships outside Xiangshui Port, which made everyone a little unhappy. And it was not in line with the East Coast people who really broke up with Zheng and the Netherlands. So after the meeting and discussion, they agreed to the Dutch's mediation request and entrusted Shao Shuguang, general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, to be fully responsible for the matter.

After Shao Shuguang arrived at Jelandzha Castle on January 5, Governor Hugo Roll took people to the north to check the expansion of rice fields and cane fields, so he waited in the merchant station and checked the accounts to see if there were any problems. When talking about Governor Roll's inspections north, we must mention the current Dutch East India Company's vigorous development on the island, that is, they conquer and lure natives, constantly obtain new land, and then planted them with cash crops or grains, and obtained huge profits through exports to the East Coast and other countries.

In order to ensure that their behavior can continue, the number of Dutch troops stationed on the island in recent years has also increased day by day. In 1628, there were 330 soldiers, 500 white soldiers when the Madou Society was attacked in 1658, and there were already a thousand people in 1658, and in 1661, there were 1,300 people. At the peak, there may be nearly 2,000 people, more than half of which were white soldiers, which shows how much the Dutch attached importance to this island that provided one-sixth of the company's profit.

In this time and space of the 17th century, due to trade with the East Coast and the Qing Dynasty, the importance of Taiwan Island increased day by day, and it had provided more than one-third of the profits of the Netherlands East India, which was very amazing. In order to maintain this profit, the Dutch continued to dispatch personnel and soldiers here, and at the same time built forts, docks and ship repair shops, and used them as important strongholds to operate them. As of 1678, the Dutch East India Company had dispatched more than 2,500 soldiers in the stable control area in the southern part of Taiwan Island, of which about 1,500 were mercenaries from Germany. This was not considered the sailors of some armed merchant ships and officers and soldiers sold to the forts. Its strength was quite strong.

The existence of these armies has effectively enhanced the deterrence and control of the Dutch, and also enabled them to master more indigenous people, obtain more land, and produce more materials. For example, in 1678, the Dutch forcibly purchased about 10,000 tons of grain from the indigenous people in the controlled area at a low price, and then exported it to Ningbo and Denglai, obtaining huge profits. The East Coast people once retired. With the degree of importance and investment of the Dutch East India Company now on Taiwan Island, they would probably slowly turn the island into a base for producing timber, sugarcane, rice and other commodities, and use mainland China as the main export market. If the Dutch wanted to continue this business steadily, there was no doubt that the first factor was the stability of the external environment, so it was normal to find a way to understand the Zheng family in Fujian.

On January 10, 1679, Dutch Governor Hugo Roll finally returned to Gerland Chamberg and had a long conversation with Shao Shuguang and Lu Fang. During this conversation, Roll said that they could recognize the existence of the Zheng group on Taiwan Island and no longer seek full rule over the entire Holmosa Island and the Pescaldo Islands.

Governor Rohl's statement suddenly made Shao Shuguang and Lu Fang relieved themselves, and felt that the possibility of the success of this mediation operation was greatly improved. After all, the Zheng family should not want to completely break up with the Dutch, because there are no benefits. On the contrary, there are countless troubles. So everyone sit down and talk and compromise with each other, and the matter cannot be handled.

Of course, Governor Rohl also vaguely stated in the conversation that the bottom line they can tolerate is to take the watershed in the middle of the island and the Zheng Group as the boundary. To the north, they can give up (no resources were invested anyway), and to the south, the jurisdiction of the Dutch East India Company, the two sides do not cross the boundaries, do not interfere with each other, and get along with each other in a friendly manner.

Shao Shuguang thought this condition was fair and reasonable. If the Zheng Group did not even recognize this, it would be a bit too greedy, and the East Coast people would not support their proposition. What's more, letting the entire island be ruled by any party is not in their own interests for the East Coast people. Only by letting the Zheng Group and the Dutch East India Company separate the north and south can the interests and influence of the East Coast people be maximized. Of course, he also believed that Zheng Jing, the new leader of the Zheng Group, would not be so wise that he could not even grasp the proportion well. It was indeed enough to occupy half of the Taiwan Island as their retreat.

After talking to the Dutch, Shao Shuguang did not rush to leave by boat, but stayed on the island for about ten days. During this period, Dutch Governor Hugo Roll also invited him to attend an important ceremony, namely the baptism and entry ceremony of the free citizens of Gerlandzha. These people, known as "Holmosa Dutch free citizens" are mostly children who have lived in Dutch families for a long time. When they grow up, they have been assimilated and then find an opportunity to hold a collective entry ceremony. They are considered to be the more trusted confidants of the Dutch colonists.

There are less than a hundred people in the city of Relan Cham, most of whom are young children brought back after conquering the indigenous people many years ago (for example, in history, the Big Belly King in the northern part of Taiwan Island in 1645 brought back 15 children). There are about twenty people in this group of church members. In the future, they will basically gradually enter the city's management system, starting from low-level civil servants, serving the Dutch colonists.

Shao Shuguang watched the Dutch ceremony with interest, thinking that the Dutch were indeed flexible enough, and compared with the Spanish, Portuguese, English and East Coast people, it was considered the best attitude towards the indigenous people. This is probably related to the more foreign immigrants in their country. The concept of ethnicity and race is not without these businessmen, but it is definitely not as strong as people from other countries. This may be one of the reasons why they can achieve such great success in business. Although I don’t know how long their success can last under the oppression of the powerful French Kingdom!
Chapter completed!