Peternatz carefully guarded his chest and slowly descended from the merchant ship to the dock on a rope net. As the net approached the pier, he lightly jumped onto the wooden trestle.

Peternatz touched his chest again, and after feeling the presence of a hard grip on his chest, he relieved himself, raised his head and shouted to the captain of the ship: "Send my luggage to the Obish Inn on the edge of the Governor's Palace, you must carry it carefully."

The contents are very valuable, and they are a gift for the Governor, and if they are broken, the Governor will skin you. Buzz you keep an eye on them, don't let the boxes out of your sight. ”

After viciously threatening the captain, Peternats led another retinue towards the city of Batavia, south of the docks.

The city of Batavia is a castle in the style of a typical European fortress, and it was not built for long. Before 1619, Batavia was a small colonial village in the coastal marshes.

When the third governor of the Dutch East India Company, Jean Peterlsson Kun, took office, he was so ambitious that he wanted to control the entire Spice Islands, so he began to build a base in Batavia.

Batavia was originally called Sunda Galaba, a land of coconut groves. In addition to the coconut groves, there is an endless swamp with no end in sight, and tigers, wild boars, rhinoceros and other wild animals are often infested outside the city.

Unfortunately, although Batavia has a good port, it lacks the timber and stone to build the castle, as well as the labor, and it also needs to be guarded against attacks by the Banten Kingdom on the island.

The Dutch brought boulders from the quarries of the Coromandel Coast in India, cut teak from Zabala in East Java, collected coral stones from the local seashore, and plundered or recruited a large number of hard-working Chinese laborers from China to build the present city of Batavia on a swampy land.

However, although it took nine years of hard work, the castle was still only a prototype, and only the outer walls were built, and the inside of the castle still looked very empty. Except for a few stone buildings that look tall around the central square, the rest of the city is full of low-slung wooden houses.

March is the rainy season on the island of Java, and when Peternac arrived, it had just rained heavily in Batavia, and the weather after the rain was not cool, but rather muggy.

In this weather, Peternats with a cloak looks particularly weird. He and his entourage passed through the busy dock and warehouse area, and then walked through a muddy dirt road where a group of Chinese were digging a canal.

Peternac crossed the wooden bridge over the trench and entered the city of Batavia. Compared to the dirt roads outside the city, which are full of mud puddles, the cobblestone roads inside the city are obviously much drier.

Coconut trees are planted on both sides of the road, and a different number of coconuts hang on each tree. Under the coconut trees, there are local people who set up small stalls selling coconuts.

Sweating Natz, his mouth suddenly became dry, and he beckoned to the native vendor, who quickly peeled two green-skinned coconuts, inserted the severed reed pipes, and handed them to Nats' retinue.

Natz took a few sips of cool coconut water to feel as if he had come back to life, but he didn't want to take off his cloak no matter how hot it was.

He held a coconut and said to his entourage, "Let's go, maybe we can make it to lunch at the Doge's Palace." ”

The Governor's Palace in Batavia is a small two-story stone building, which has only been lightly plastered on the outside. The windows of the Doge's Palace were all very open, and there were many auxiliary shooting holes between the windows.

On either side and behind the Doge's Palace were the quarters of the East India Company staff, and opposite the Doge's Palace were the arsenals. Surrounded by two walls and a creek, the area inhabited by East India Company employees and whites became a city within a city.

While Natz and his retinue were passing through the walls and gatecards, the Archgovernor of the East Indies, Yan Peterlsson Kun, was deliberating with his confidant, Anthony van Diemen, Director-General and First Adviser to the Governor, about how the conflict between Japan and the East India Company should be resolved.

Unlike the noble-born Governor Kun, Anthony van Diemen came from a family of commoner merchants who went bankrupt due to poor management.

In order to turn over, he had to join the East India Company and come to the East in search of wealth. Compared with the mercenaries, criminals, sailors, and European tramps who didn't know a single word in Batavia, Anthony van Diemen, who had a good accounting education, was simply a learned gentleman.

When Kun first became the Archgovernor of the East Indies, he fell in love with the cultured Anthony van Diemen, appointed Dimon as his secretary, and promoted him to the rank of senior member of the company.

And Anthony van Diemen did not live up to his trust and solved many problems for him. Anthony van Diemen may not have been a good businessman, but he was certainly a very good colonist.

It was with his assistance that Governor Kunji realized his plan to monopolize the trade of the Spice Islands. However, personnel struggles within the East India Company's Committee of Seventeen forced Jean Petersson Quinn to return to Holland in 1623.

Without Kun's care, Anthony van Diemen was snubbed by the new governor. Until last year, when the spice trade in the Batavian Merchant House came to a standstill, Yan Petersson Kun returned to Batavia again.

Governor Quin, apparently not forgetting his right-hand man Anthony van Diemen, spared no effort to promote him and continued to intensify his colonization of the entire Spice Islands.

However, Governor Kun, who had returned to Batavia, had lost the energetic appearance he had had been a few years earlier, and had become a pale patient who was often in poor spirits.

Of course, this was not a good thing for the first adviser to the governor, Dimon, who gained more power.

“… Your Excellency the Doge, as we prepare to occupy the entire clove trade in the Elkka Islands, there is no need for us to create another enemy in Japan, far from Batavia.

The Banda Islands and Elkka Islands provide spices, India provides cotton cloth and rice, China provides raw silk, tea and porcelain and a wide variety of goods, and Japan provides us with gold and silver.

If the Japanese shogunate interrupts its trade activities with the company because of Mr. Peternatz's unscrupulous actions against Japan, the company's trade circulation system in Asia will be broken.

The Portuguese, Spanish, British, and Chinese will benefit, and once the company loses the gold and silver provided by Japan, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the British, and the Chinese will soon push the company out of this trade cycle.

The blows we have done to the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the British here for more than a decade will come to naught.

The Portuguese, Spaniards, and British, who stood behind the kingdoms of Ambon and Goa, would increase their support for these indigenous peoples because of the benefits they gained from Japanese trade, which would be a disaster for the company. ”

Governor Kun listened to Dimon's tirade in silence, but did not make a sound. He held a glass of blood-red wine in one hand and pressed his temple in the other, lost in thought.

Hendrik Brower pushed open the governor's office and hurried in. He didn't even look at Anthony van Diemen, who saluted him, and walked straight to the governor before stopping.

Browo said to Kun beamingly, "Your Excellency, I have good news to report to you. ”

Kun reluctantly put down the silver cup in his hand and said to the Batavian military governor Brouwer: "What is it that makes you forget to even knock on the door?" ”

Brauwer didn't seem to hear the dissatisfaction in Kun's tone, and replied loudly with a smile on his face: "Taiwan's governor, Peter Natz, brought back the trade agreement signed with Ming Guo for the company. ”

Brouwer did not hear the Governor's cheers, and he glanced at the Governor's face and noticed that Kun's face was full of stunned expressions.

"Your Excellency the Governor, Your Excellency?" Brouwer reminded in a slightly lowered voice.

Kun came back to his senses and asked, "Are you sure it's an agreement signed with Ming?" Did you see the text of the agreement? ”

Brauvaud held his sword and replied without hesitation, "Yes, Your Excellency." I saw the text, but it was written in Latin and Chinese, and I hope that Your Excellency the Governor will check it for yourself. I've brought Natz with me. ”

Kun said to the two subordinates with a solemn face, "Mr. Brower, you go and bring Natz here." As for Mr. Dimen, you go and call Jiabidan Su Minggang, I need him to interpret the Chinese text for me..."

Hendrik Brouwer and Peternac stood in a corner of their office, listening intently with Governor Kun, as Anthony van Diemen checked the contents of each article with the Chinese Kapitan Su Minggang.

The two of them checked very carefully, and the work continued until three o'clock in the afternoon, and everyone in the office seemed to have forgotten about lunch.

After checking all the contents of the text, Browo said to Governor Kun with some eagerness: "Your Excellency Governor, should the text of the agreement brought back by Natz be sent back to China for archiving as soon as possible?" It's almost May, and we should prepare our fleet as soon as possible, so that we can take advantage of the monsoon to go to Mingguo to trade..."

Kun didn't pick up Brouwer's topic, but first said to Su Minggang gently: "My friend, thank you for your help. I don't think it's getting early, so you can go back and do your own business first. Guard, bring Mr. Su two small barrels of fine wine, and the batch that has just arrived, and bring us some food and wine by the way. ”

After sending Su Minggang away, he watched the guards close the door. Governor Kun sat back in his seat, looked at the agreement for a while, and then looked up at the advisor Dimen and asked, "Do you think this agreement is a good thing?" ”