When Methwold returned to his lodging premises, his mood had not yet fully calmed down, but the first thing he did when he returned to his lodgings was to gather several East India Company officers in Beijing, as well as Andre, who had opened the door to Chinese trade.

After summoning them to his room, Methwold gave a brief account of the Chinese Emperor's offer to buy rubber to compensate for the Sino-British trade deficit, which he withheld, and His Majesty the Emperor had asked him to charter ships to transport rubber.

“… That was the suggestion of His Majesty the Emperor, and I now hope that you will be able to give your own opinion on it. First, should we suggest that the company accept His Majesty's request? Second, do you know anything about the use of rubber? ”

After Methwald finished speaking, he asked the senior employees of the company in the audience, hoping that he would learn some valuable information from this group of well-informed businessmen.

However, after a long discussion among the British businessmen present, no one had heard of the special use of rubber. Obviously, even if the Chinese discovered new uses for rubber, it was not technology obtained from the Europeans.

After a moment of silence in the room, Thomas Cook, who had been appointed by Methwold as the director of the Beijing Commercial Pavilion, got up and bowed to Methwold and said, "Your Excellency, I think the company should accept the suggestion of the Chinese Emperor.

Whatever uses rubber doesn't know about, it's now just an interesting novelty on the American continent and in Europe.

In other words, the special use of rubber can only be brought into play in the hands of the Chinese. If rubber, which is useless to us, can be exchanged for precious goods produced in China, then why don't we do it? ”

The businessmen in the room nodded in agreement, and another businessman also got up and added: "No matter what the Chinese want to do with rubber, once we ship a large amount of rubber to China, then sooner or later we will all know what the Chinese will do with rubber."

If this use proves to be in demand in Europe, then we can control the amount of rubber shipped and make a high profit. Therefore, I suggest that the company can meet the requirements of the Chinese and transport the rubber for them, but should not buy rubber seeds and seedlings for the Chinese. ”

Andrei frowned and said, "Everyone, rubber trees are very widely distributed and can be found in the forests of the entire South American continent, and this is not a crop that we can blockade.

If we don't buy seeds and saplings for the Chinese, won't the Chinese entrust the Portuguese to buy them? I think that at this time, it is more important to win the favor of the Chinese and let the East India Company gain the trust of the Chinese.

If the company can get the support of the Chinese, then we can rely on Chinese ports as the company's home port, and then carry out further trade development and utilization in Southeast Asia and India.

Think about it, if the company had access to the almost unlimited human support of China, whether it was the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese or the natives of all over Asia, they would all bow to the company's flag..."

After listening to everyone's opinions, Methwald finally made his final decision: "I have understood what you mean. There is no objection to the emperor's request to transport rubber for him, and I will make a formal proposal to the shareholders of the company when I return to China.

As for the second point, whether to help the Chinese obtain rubber seeds and saplings, I think what you just said makes sense.

If we don't help Chinese get rubber seeds and saplings, I'm afraid we will lose China's trust in the company. But after helping the Chinese obtain rubber seeds and saplings, we have to worry that after the Chinese have cultivated rubber plantations on their own soil, they will stop buying rubber from the company.

So, I think we should provide some of the seeds and seedlings, but not too much. We should try to extend the time for the Chinese to cultivate their rubber plantations so that the shipping route from Brazil to China can be maintained.

Also, Mr. Thomas Cook, after I returned to China, you were the company's top official at the Beijing Commercial Pavilion. I sincerely hope that you can effectively integrate into Chinese society and build good relations with those Chinese, especially the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

I hope you can hear from them what rubber is really used for, and how it is used completely. If you can complete this task, the company will definitely reward you..."

After reaching a cooperation agreement with Meswald, Zhu Youzhen, who returned to the palace, began to deal with some of the documents that had been backlogged in the morning.

He had just processed three documents when Lu Qi hurriedly walked in through the door. Zhu Youzhen looked up, and said to him: "If there is any news coming, you can read it directly." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu Qi agreed, then looked at the summary in his hand and read: "Xu Yingyuan said in his book that after the king of Shu arrived in Jinling, he felt unwell, so he stayed outside Jinling City and refused to continue north.

In addition, the king of Shu also said that after he recovered from his illness, he must personally worship the filial piety tomb before he was willing to continue north. ”

Zhu Youzhen frowned and said, "The King of Shu is sick again?" How many times has he been sick along the way? Forget it, and let him go.

Reply to Xu Yingyuan, since the King of Shu is sick, let him go to the city to recuperate, find more doctors to see his condition, and don't let him run around. As for worshipping the filial piety tomb, let Xu Yingyuan accompany the prince of Shu to worship the prince, and the king of Shu has not recovered from his illness, so he doesn't have to work hard. ”

Lu Qi agreed, and then continued to read, "According to the news transferred by the Shanghai Branch of the Maritime Association, all the goods to be carried on this visit to Europe have arrived at the warehouse of Shanghai Port, and they can be loaded when the visiting fleet arrives in Shanghai.

The Shanghai branch also prepared a merchant ship and asked to follow the visiting fleet to Europe to see it.

In addition, at the invitation of the Mataram Sultanate, an officer and soldier of the training artillery team sent to Java Island to train the Mataram Sultan have withdrawn from Java because of the failure of the Mataram Sultanate's attack on Batavia.

When Shen Pei withdrew these artillery officers and soldiers to the country of Boni and was about to return to China from here, Su Yue, who was then the ambassador of Siam, stopped them when he heard the news.

Su Yue sent back a compromise report that Thailand's monarch, King Song, died of illness last year, because he did not make a clear will, which led to a palace coup between several princes.

Although the eldest son of the king won the victory in the end, because of the presence of the Japanese, Portuguese and British in this coup d'état, a great battle was fought in the capital of Ayutthaya, which burned down a small part of the city, and the king's vitality was greatly damaged.

During the reign of the previous King of Siam, the Japanese were deeply trusted, and not only did they establish a large Japanese town in the southeastern part of Ayutthaya, but the Japanese leaders were also canonized by the King of Siam.

But in this palace coup, the Japanese sided with the younger brother of the current King of Siam and almost arrested the current King of Siam.

King Baseton, who escaped and ascended to the throne, his first order after ascending the throne was to expel all Japanese and demolish the Japanese town.

As for the British and the Portuguese, King Bassetton drove away the weaker British, and for the Portuguese only a few merchants who had participated in the rebellion.

The newly enthroned King Bassetton was not having a good time, with the feuding Burmese kingdom to the west and north of the kingdom of Siam, and the southern part of the kingdom of Pattani*, which always wanted independence from Siam.

To the east is the Lancang Kingdom, which has recently gained independence from the Kingdom of Burma, and can be regarded as an ally of the Kingdom of Siam against the Kingdom of Burma. To the southeast, Cambodia is in decline, encroached upon by Siam and Vietnam.

On land, the Kingdom of Siam can still protect itself, but at sea, the Kingdom of Siam is completely incapable of protecting itself. Ayutthaya, on the other hand, is located in the lower reaches of the Chao Phraya River and is particularly difficult to defend itself at sea.

Therefore, after King Basetun ascended the throne, he vigorously supported the Chinese in the country, not only gave them a lot of privileges, but also completely handed over the overseas trade of the Kingdom of Siam to the Chinese. In this way, King Baseton hoped to force merchants from countries such as Japan and Europe to be afraid and not cut off the overseas trade routes of the Kingdom of Siam.

Originally, after King Basetun ascended the throne, he had already begun to prepare a tribute to the Ming Dynasty to announce the change of King Siam to the Great Son. It was also a proclamation to the people of the country that King Bassetton was the right person to rule.

The arrival of Su Yue, as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, made King Basethong overjoyed, and he quickly settled the turmoil caused by the coup d'état in China with the help of Su Yue's identity as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty.

Later, he also agreed to the plan brought by the Soviet Union and Vietnam to establish a Siam-China rice trade route. However, he also made a request, hoping to buy cannons from the Ming to protect against the threat of Europeans from the sea.

So Su Yue intercepted the officers and asked the emperor to transport some cannons to Siam, and allowed them to train a group of gunners for King Basethorn. ”

Zhu Youzhen only thought for a moment, and then said to Lu Qi: "Transfer it to the ordnance supervisor and let them arrange the production of artillery." In addition, several new instructors were sent from the Army Military Academy to replace half of the staff.

Their experience of assisting the Sultan of Mataram in attacking Batavia was likewise subject to a summary report, which was to be reported within the Army and the school. Also, How did the Dutch win? Is it mentioned in the report? ”

Lu Qi glanced down before replying: "The detailed combat experience, they are still summing up, and it will probably be brought back by the ship that returns to China next time."

However, here they only said two points, the artillery we brought with us did not have quality problems on the battlefield, but the terrain of Java was not suitable for bulky cannons, and it seems that the lighter * guns were much more suitable.

With the help of these artillery, the army of the Sultan of Mataram uprooted several Dutch strongholds leading to Batavia and reached the city of Batavia.

However, the marshes near Batavia could not be placed for artillery positions, and the generals of the Mataram Sultanate, wanting to take the credit for the capture of Batavia alone, refused to send someone to help build the artillery positions.

After three days of siege, the Mata Blue Army suffered successive setbacks before they began to hurriedly build a passage for the artillery to pass through the swamp. However, the Dutch had already picked up this information and ambushed the artillery convoy on the way.

In order not to allow these artillery to finance the enemy, the artillery officers and men hurriedly evacuated after blocking the fire doors of the cannons ...