"Smack".

Song Tao slapped the table violently, then stood up and said gloomily: "Dozens of ships of ammunition, war horses and food supplies, your company's ships have nearly twenty. After our interrogation of the shipowners, all the shipowners are employed by your company.

They are already involved in the war, so we will treat these crew members and sailors as prisoners of war.

We will not consider releasing them until we have ended our state of war with the Kingdom of Spain. The vessel and supplies will also be confiscated, if your company wants to take back the vessel, you can redeem it first, and the specific ransom amount will be subject to negotiation between the two parties. These are a few of the opinions of our Far Eastern company. ”

When Simmons heard Song Tao's words, he looked at Li Ming opposite, Li Ming shrugged his shoulders with a smile, stretched out his finger and pointed at Song Tao, the meaning was obvious.

Seeing Li Ming's movements, Simmons said with a blank face: "Gentlemen, are you serious?" ”

Song Tao smiled and said with a straight face: "Yes, we have never been so serious as we are now. Oh, by the way, I forgot to sue you, we're going to be putting some of the shipowners on trial these days. If convicted, they face hard labor for life or even the death penalty. ”

Simmons took a deep breath and said with a gloomy face: "Gentlemen, I would like to remind you that you are dealing with the Dutch East India Company, and I ask you to think carefully about the consequences of doing so. ”

Song Tao looked up to the sky and snorted, then sneered: "The Spaniards used to think the same way. ”

Simmons' face distorted, and he said angrily: "Sir, what you said, can I understand it as a threat to our Dutch East India Company?" ”

Li Ming smiled and said, "You misunderstood, we didn't mean to threaten you. I have always believed that the threat of bluffing is only a sign of the weak. Mr. Simmons, this is all for our meeting today, and you go back to your governor, and this is the answer of our Far East Company. ”

Simmons stood up abruptly and said gloomily: "Your Excellency, General, do you know what kind of consequences your reply will have, you are declaring war on our Dutch East India Company. ”

Li Ming originally stood up and turned around to leave, but when he heard Simmons's words, he turned around and looked at him coldly.

"Well, if you think so, let's declare war. I don't understand, Your Excellency the Governor of the East Indies, how could such an idiot as you be sent to negotiate. I still say the same thing, your East India Company violated the treaty between our two sides without authorization, and supported the Spanish invasion of Luzon, and the Far East Company was very angry, and the consequences were very severe. If your company does not give an explanation to our Far Eastern Company, our Far Eastern Company will unilaterally tear up the treaty, and even, as you said, the two sides will enter a state of war. ”

After he finished speaking, he turned around and left the house, Song Tao and Xiao Hanguang glanced at Simmons coldly, and also walked out of the house. Hung Simmons and Marco in the reception room.

Marco frowned and said, "Sir, I think that if we continue to talk like this, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

Simmons turned his head, glared at Marco and said angrily: "He is threatening us, a group of Tatars dare to threaten our Dutch East India Company, do they think that if they defeat Spain, they think they can dominate Luzon." ”

Marco now fully agreed with Li Ming's words in his heart, how could the governor send such a fool, and the consequences of talking like this would be disastrous. But there is nothing he can do now, and once the two sides have a second round of negotiations, it is very likely that he will really tear his face.

If it really angers the madmen in the Far East, it is very likely that they will send a fleet to the Strait of Malacca. Through Guò's contact with these people, he knew that the Far Eastern Company was absolutely capable.

The company simply has no energy to deal with the Far East Company, and the Sultan of Mataram in Java, Agung, has been eyeing the company's interests in the Spice Islands, and not long ago he attacked Batavia with a heavy army. Now the company has been trying to find a way to deal with those damn pagan Muslims, who have the energy to provoke the Far East company for some bullshit.

And it's the company's loss, and if people can talk to you, it means that they have left room to negotiate to solve it. But this idiot is so blunt. He couldn't watch this guy mess things out of his mind, and once the company and the Far East company went to war, it would be worthless whether the company won the war or not.

Simmons, who was next to him, stood up and walked out of the house angrily, and Marco left, deciding to write a letter back to Batavia, not allowing the idiot to continue his nonsense.

When Song Tao returned to Li Ming's office, he scolded angrily: "Did he deliberately provoke us, or was he born a fool*." ”

Xiao Hanguang next to him smiled: "He has no need to provoke us, I think that Simmons is just with personal prejudice." Agung, the Sultan of Matalan, besieged Batavia twice in 1628 and 1629, and even during the siege this year, Agung led an army of 100,000. Eventually, the Dutch sent troops to burn down the granary at Mataran, forcing Agung to abandon the siege due to lack of food and grass.

In September of this year, the previous governor, Kuhn, also suddenly fell ill in Batavia due to the siege of the Sultan of Madalan, and died of a cholera epidemic during the siege. So the Dutch don't have the ability to clash with us right now, unless they're all idiots like Simmons. ”

Li Ming nodded and said, "Anyway, we have to be ready." If the Dutch dare to send warships, we will sink them all, regardless of their faults. Not only that, but we will also send two sailing ships to Batavia to make trouble. There must have been a lot of people like Simmons in the Dutch East India Company who were prejudiced against us. Hurt them thoroughly, and let the Dutch know what kind of storage they are facing. ”

At this time, the special combat team members guarding the outside came to report that Liang Yujie, the general manager of the Manila branch, wanted to see Li Ming and Xiao Hanguang. Song Tao said with a smile: "Our sister flowers are quite fast to enter the working state." ”

Li Ming and Xiao Hanguang glanced at each other, and then smiled: "Let her in." ”

Liang Yujie walked into the office, she was wearing a professional outfit today, outlining a perfect figure, black stockings wrapped around a pair of slender thighs, which made people think about it. Several people in the room swallowed unconsciously.

Facing the obscene eyes of several people in the room, Liang Yujie turned a blind eye. She directly threw a stack of Wen Jiàn in front of Li Ming, then found a chair to sit down, crossed Erlang's legs, and looked at Song Tao with a cheap face, which made Song Tao's face slightly red in the end.

Liang Yujie pursed her lips and smiled disdainfully. Then he said to Li Ming: "This is the plan I have made in the past few days, you have time to read it, if you two think my plan is feasible, I will start to renovate the Manila branch." ”

Li Ming nodded, then picked up the stack of plans and flipped through them, handed them to Xiao Hanguang next to him, and said with a smile: "Old Xiao, let's take time out to study hard these days, and then have a meeting with Director Liang." ”

Liang Yujie glanced at Li Ming and said lightly: "In the past few days, I have studied Manila in this era and found that our expulsion of the Spaniards will have a certain impact on the economy of the Ming Dynasty in this era. ”

After listening to her words, everyone felt that they were in good spirits. Liang Yujie saw that everyone was interested, so she continued: "The commerce of the late Ming Dynasty was very developed, the population was constantly expanding, and the circulation of silver had become a problem, so it could only use a large amount of silver in the Americas to meet its currency needs. In the seventy-two years from the first year of Wanli to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1573-1644), the total number of silver dollars imported into the Ming Dynasty by various countries exceeded 10,000 yuan due to trade.

And where did the money come from? One of the main sources of silver was Japan, which had a lot of silver in those days. Another place is the New World of America, where the Spaniards and Portuguese discovered a large amount of silver.

The silver was brought in from three routes: from Japan to Macao, or from the southeast coast. One was shipped from the New World to Lisbon in Europe, where it traveled through Africa, then to India, and then through the South Seas, Malacca. There is also a third route, which is from Acapulco, Mexico, across the Pacific Ocean to Manila, and then to China through Guò and Chinese merchants.

With unrivalled manufacturing and exports in silk, porcelain, etc., the Daming traded with any country in surplus, and in order to do business with the Chinese, they had to pay silver to the Daming merchants, which can also be said to be a commercial tribute. Before the European Industrial Revolution, the economic center of the world was not in Europe, but in the Ming Dynasty. ”

Liang Yujie's words made the three of them dumbfounded, they didn't expect that the stormy Late Ming could be so powerful economically.

Li Ming said with a smile: "It's a wonderful point, I probably understand what you mean." We drove out the Spaniards and occupied Manila, which is equivalent to cutting off a channel for the import of Da Ming silver, which will have a certain impact on the economy of Da Ming. ”

Liang Yujie nodded and said: "Such a foreign trade form has stimulated the vigorous development of the sericulture and silk weaving industry in the Jiangnan region of China, and has entered the track of an "export-oriented" economy. This grand occasion was closely related to China's Jiangnan economy at that time, and the export of raw silk and silk mainly came from the silk industry towns in the Taihu Lake basin of China.

The demand for raw silk and silk in overseas markets was very large, which stimulated the development of silk production in the region, and greatly increased the employment opportunities and monetary income of the people. Fujian and Guangdong, which are at the forefront of foreign trade, have also engaged in the silk weaving industry using lake silk as raw material in view of the strong export momentum of lake silk and silk in the Taihu Lake Basin.

I have learned from several Chinese businessmen in the company that this year's Spanish galleon in Acapulco, Mexico, because we occupied Manila, did not come as expected. The Chinese merchants of the Ming Dynasty did not return to the Ming Dynasty with enough silver, and the impact may not be great in a year or two, and in the long run, it will inevitably have a certain impact on the Ming Dynasty, and even cause an economic crisis. ”R1152