On September 15, 1695, there was already a hint of chill on the Baltic Ocean. The sailors busy on the deck all wore long robes to resist the cold wind blowing from the North Pole. But even so, when your clothes are wet with the waves, no matter how you move your body, you will still feel the biting chill.

Sailors are indeed a hard job!

Because of the high cost and serious shortage of manpower, the fact that there is not enough people to recruit. Over the years, the proportion of sailors sailing on ships in various oceans in the East Coast Republic has been declining year by year. The reason is simple, that is, the risk of sailing is too high, and it is also very hard, and the time to reunite with their families is pitifully small. Anyone who can find a job with a moderate income will basically not think about becoming a sailor. In no way, shipping companies of all sizes, led by the South Sea Transportation Company can only relax the restrictions on foreign sailors, sending those bitter foreigners attracted by high salaries on board to serve as lower-level sailors, and maintaining the normal operation of the route.

These foreign sailors have a wide range of sources, and some of them were not attracted by their salaries, but were brought by strong men, such as some Arab fishermen on Bahrain Island that have been bought by people on the east coast, such as the few Melinas captured on New China Island, and so on. Of course, the largest number is from the population of areas that are overpopular or frequent wars, such as Japan and North Korea, continental countries, etc. East African transportation companies recruited hundreds of Japanese and Korean sailors, and South China Sea transportation companies recruited thousands of sailors from France, Germany and Italy. There are many ways to recruit domestic private shipping companies, among which they even used the Mestiso people without hiding the government, highlighting the dilemma of insufficient supply of sailors.

There are more than 30 sailors in front of this sailboat affiliated to the Amsterdam Merchant Station, most of which are recruited by French Huguenots, with only more than ten people from the East Coast, including several agents from the General Administration of Intelligence (disguised as sailors). The ship travels between Amsterdam and Riga all year round, and sometimes transports some goods from the East Coast. Sometimes it serves as an agent of a large Dutch wholesaler. The business is not very profitable, but in addition to paying various expenses, it can also subsidize the business stations for activities. You must know that all East Coast stations have part-time functions as intelligence stations, and they can provide a lot of intelligence elements who are covered by business personnel, but they are very able to spend money.

The ship departed from the Port of Riga a few days ago. It was loaded with a whole ship of rye and planned to ship to Amsterdam for sale. At the same time, three or four staff members from the Riga Trading Station also set off with them. They will carry confidential documents and travel through Amsterdam to London to report important matters in the Livornia area to Cai Zhenguo, deputy envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe, and obtain his instructions before taking them back to Riga for execution.

Shipping in the Baltic Sea is actually very busy! Especially in mid-to-late September, many merchants are called the "freshwater sea" in order to rush to freeze the sea surface in winter because of the low salinity of the sea water. The frozen period is very early every year. Even the relatively warm southern coast transports a large amount of cargo in and out, and hires many ships to travel through the sea. Among such ships, the number of Dutch merchant ships is absolutely superior, followed by British merchant ships. As for Sweden, Denmark and Germany, there are also ships from countries along the coast of Sweden, Denmark and Germany, but not many, such as France, Portugal, the East Coast and other countries.

At this time, on the side of the three-masted sailboat in the east coast called "Spruce", an English merchant ship was sailing in the same direction. The people on the east coast of the ship had seen it in Riga before. It was a ship selling woolen wool to the local area, which would be loaded with locally produced masts, wooden tar and resold Russian whale products. The ship had a deep draft, and perhaps a lot of copper and lead blocks were pulled from the bottom of the ship. This was the usual practice of foreign merchant ships going to trade in the Gulf of Riga.

Standing on the front deck of the Spruce, he was the person behind the ship. He looked at the English ship far away a nautical mile and was not interested. But what he didn't know was that on the sailboat with a displacement of more than 300 tons, there was a big man wearing makeup, namely Tsar Peter of the Russian Empire. He and his entourage were carefully protected by the British in the cabin and planned to visit London all the way, during which the two sides might reach some secret cooperation agreements.

In fact, Peter had been in Riga for a while, and only the Swedish governor Dalberg, who was stationed in the local area, knew about it. Peter visited the entire city during Riga and inspected the local customs and customs. At the same time, his subordinates also secretly drew a picture of the city walls and fortresses in Riga, with great ambitions. Then, he took a boat arranged by Frederick, the Grand Duke of Courland, and secretly went to Konisburg, and stayed at the home of the Elector for a month.

In August, Peter left Konesburg and once planned to visit Berlin, Potsdam, Hannover, Lübeck and other cities by land. Later, for some reason, he gave up and returned to Riga by boat. Finally, he took the British merchant ship to London to prepare for a meeting with King William III of England.

It should be said that Peter's move was bold and courageous. In this era, although it was not uncommon for the monarchs of continental countries to travel, it was still somewhat inappropriate. What's more, the political struggles in Russia were extremely cruel. The monarch was not at home for a long time, which easily gave political enemies an opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity. Even in later generations, if a country's leaders visited abroad, there were not too many domestic political enemies taking the opportunity to coup and seize power, let alone in the 17th century.

But Tsar Peter was so willful. Perhaps it was because his uncle Duke Nareshkin and the loyal old commander Duke Romodanovsky helped him take charge of both political and military affairs. Peter was able to travel to the West with confidence. While broadening his horizons, he also recruited more talents for Russia, so that the huge empire's national strength could be rapidly improved.

Of course, Peter's purpose was not just that. In fact, diplomatic communication was also an important task for his travels. For example, Peter planned to go to Saxony when he returned from London to negotiate with Elector August. Now the whole of Europe knows that the person who is most likely to succeed the Polish throne after the death of Sobesky, who was terminally ill, was Saxony's Elector August. Therefore, if you want to conspire to deal with Sweden, you will definitely find him.

Yes, you heard it right. Tsar Peter really wanted to deal with the Swedish kingdom. After two miserable defeats in the southern expeditions during his sister Princess Sophia during the reign of the reign of the country, Tsar Peter is now cautious about going south to the Black Sea. Especially the powerful East Coast people have warned them many times not to go south, so Peter plans to try to advance west to see how the effect is.

Peter's plan was to unite Poland, Saxony, Brandenburg-Prussia to work hard to attack the Swedish kingdom and completely expel their forces from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. To this end, the Poles could obtain a stable sea outlet, Saxony and Brandenburg could divide Sweden's land in Germany, and Russia could occupy the Livornia region and gain a foothold in the eastern Baltic Sea. It can be said that everyone has benefits, and the feasibility is still good.

But fighting Sweden is not only a military issue, but also a political issue. Who is Sweden’s biggest backer now? United Province! Without the financial support from United Province, Sweden’s finances will soon fall into trouble, which will affect the military. With the large amount of funds from the Dutch, the Swedes can recruit soldiers in the relatively densely populated northern Germany, and at the same time hoard sufficient war materials to fight with the Prussians and Russians. Therefore, if you want to reduce the difficulty, then persuading the Dutch to reduce financial aid to Sweden seems to be a very important task.

But unfortunately, this seems impossible in the short term. The Dutch invested a lot in Sweden. The biggest creditor of the Swedish royal family is the Deher family of the Netherlands. The Swedish army often acts as the Dutch thugs to fight other countries. At the same time, Sweden is an important pillar for the Dutch to occupy the largest share of the Baltic trade. They will not easily let Sweden fall.

Tsar Peter may not understand this truth, but he still wants to work hard to see if he can remove foreign financial support from the Swedish Kingdom. If not, he will decide whether to send troops according to the situation. After all, there is a threat from the Turks in the south. However, Peter learned from his conversation with others that the Swedes had a very poor reputation in the German region, and the nobles of Livornia were also very dissatisfied with him. It can be said that the Swedes were sitting on the powder barrel at this time. Even if the Russians did not send troops, the Germans themselves had a strong impulse to send troops to challenge Sweden, the northern empire, and maybe a war would break out.

The East Coast people also smelled a slight sound before, but they did not think that war would break out at any time. Brandenburg-Prussia's strength was not enough to challenge Sweden. If Poland was added, there might be some hope, but Sobesky was not dead yet, and the tendency of the Saxon Elector August, who was most likely to succeed him, was unknown. They knew that the nobles of Livornia were very dissatisfied with the Governor Dalberg and had been conspiring to overthrow his rule, but their strength was too weak to accomplish anything. These nobles had found the Grand Duke of Kurland, but at the suggestion of the Eastern Coast people, the former Grand Duke refused these unrealistic conspiracies because the Eastern Coast people were worried that this might involve the Duke of Kurland in the war.

But now the Grand Duke Frederick is a little confused. This guy has always been very happy with merit and is very vain, and he cares about the flattery and praise from outsiders. Especially now that the economic strength of the Principality of Kurland has increased greatly, and he has become the leader of the Livornia region. This Grand Duke cannot find east, west, south and north. Therefore, he may still be confused at a critical moment and be involved in a conflict that should not be involved. The people of the East Coast must be careful of him, his teammate.

Overall, people on the east coast feel that the situation in the eastern half of the Baltic Sea is temporarily controllable, and the only variable is the troublesome Russia and the change of ownership of the Polish throne. Fortunately, they did not have much interest here, and the only thing they need to worry about is probably to preserve few commercial interests and maintain the independence of the Duchy of Kurland, the fulcrum. They have good relationships with Berlin and The Hague, and these two relationships are in that even if the Grand Duke Frederick is not wise, they can save it after some effort. Of course, they do not want to do this, because this requires the consumption of political resources.

On October 6, 1695, after a walk and stop, the three-masted sailboat "Sush" was anchored on the outer port of Amsterdam, Tyser Island. During the post-rye war, the food was never sold, and the price was good, although you could only sell it to the designated Dutch wholesaler. The ship bought a batch of goods from the largest commodity distribution center in Europe and set off for London across the sea. At this time, the English merchant ship carrying the Russians that had sailed side by side with them on the Baltic Sea had long disappeared.
Chapter completed!