Shanghai commercial port.

Sebastian Caballero did not stay in the hotel arranged for him by Grand Duke Luo, but stayed in a newly built Western-style garden house on Huaihai Long Street.

The owner of the house is a big businessman from Valencia (Spain) and the president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. His name is Perez Don Udia, so this mansion is also called Wujia Garden by Shanghainese.

This Udia was originally engaged in the silk trade in Manila and was an old friend of Justice Caballero.

When Shanghai opened as a port, Udia was fed up with the intense heat and typhoons in the Philippines, so he moved his silk office from Manila to Shanghai. He also bought a piece of land on Huaihai Long Street and built a luxurious residence.

When the Caballero delegation arrived, Udia's luxurious Western-style mansion had just been completed. And because the mansion could be used to hold dances and cocktail parties, Udia became the most influential person in the Shanghai circle.

one of the characters.

In order to welcome the arrival of Justice Caballero, the special envoy of the Spanish Empire (actually just the special envoy of the Governor of the Philippines), Mr. Udia, who is hospitable and face-loving, had to spend a lot of money to set up a banquet in the spacious and outrageous hall of his mansion.

A welcome reception.

As soon as Caballero, De Velasco and Udia entered the Western-style carriage in Wujia Garden, they were greeted by a large lawn. Unfortunately, it is already winter, the temperature in Shanghai is very low, and there are only

There are only a few dead grasses, and the eye-catching green is gone.

Caballero saw many Western carriages parked in the spacious courtyard, and it seemed that many guests had arrived.

Several dark-skinned Filipino indigenous servants wearing Western waiter clothes saw that their master's carriage had arrived. They hurried up and diligently opened the door and held up a large umbrella to protect the sun. Some people went to take down the large umbrella from the luggage rack behind the carriage.

Your Honor's luggage.

Caballero got out of the luxuriously decorated carriage, looked around, and found that the servants running around in the courtyard were all natives brought from the Philippines, and there was not a single Chinese.

"Perez, are all your servants brought from Manila?" Caballero asked casually.

"Yes," Udiya replied, "Although the Chinese are very diligent and good employees, they are not suitable to be servants. And they"

He suddenly stopped and did not say anything further. Then he shrugged, then made a gesture of invitation, and led Caballero and De Velasco to the main building of Wujia Garden.

Walking towards the three-story Spanish-style bungalow.

After walking into the lobby of the bungalow, Cavallero found that there were already many guests in the hall, including men and women, but they were all Westerners, and none of them were Chinese. Cavallero also noticed that a considerable number of the guests were blond and blue-eyed.

Or one with red hair and blue eyes, but at first glance he is not from Spain or Portugal.

The visitors noticed that Udiya came in accompanied by the Justice of Manila, and they all stood up and saluted them.

Caballero nodded like a true gentleman and greeted the guests in French.

However, Udiya did not stop in the hall, but went directly up the stairs to the second floor.

"Perez," Caballero asked in a low voice after climbing the stairs, "are there many friends from the Netherlands here?"

Udia turned back and smiled at Caballero: "Your Excellency, this is not Europe, nor is it the New World or Manila. All Europeans are guests!"

"Guests?" Caballero thought for a while, "Yes, we are indeed guests, but we are really not used to it!"

Udia said: "Yes, we Spaniards are used to being hosts. We are not used to being guests, and we are not very welcome guests. In contrast, the Dutch are very good guests, both to my family and to China."

."

His words were full of pride, but there was also a bit of complaint that although the Spanish Empire was now at its peak, the Ming Dynasty was having a hard time.

When the two of them were talking, they had already gone up to the second floor. A long corridor appeared in front of them. There were rooms on both sides of the corridor. There were only windows at the top. The lighting was very poor and could only be illuminated by a candle that exuded a faint fragrance.

Udia pointed to the two closed doors to the Filipino maids carrying the luggage, told them to move the luggage in, and then continued walking forward with Caballero and De Velasco.

"Your Excellency, we have a special guest today." Udia considered it for a moment. "He is Mr. Van Diemen, the Dutch ambassador to the Ming Dynasty. I think you should meet him."

The Republic of the Netherlands has signed an armistice treaty with Spain, and the two sides are no longer enemies. But this eighty-year war is a pain point in the hearts of every Spanish noble!

Udiya added: "This meeting was requested by Mr. Van Diemen. He has dealt with the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he is the Westerner who knows China best, no one!"

"Okay then, I'll meet him."

Caballero nodded, and Udia continued to lead the way, taking Caballero and De Velasco into a spacious and bright study.

Someone was already standing on a sofa in the study. It was Anthony Van Diemen, the former Governor of Batavia and now the Ambassador of the United Provinces of the Netherlands to the Ming Dynasty.

Anthony van Diemen now has a high reputation in the Netherlands. He is praised by Amsterdam businessmen as "the great businessman who knocked on the door of China". This is almost the highest praise for a Dutch businessman.

In addition to honor, he also received the most evil thing among businessmen: money!

That was a huge bonus! It was given to him by the East India Company as a thank you for his business success in China.

But Anthony Van Diemen is not happy at all, not because he hates money, but because he knows that he does not deserve so much money (it is impossible to refund, it is money!), because he is in China.

Success was actually given proactively by the then Chinese Crown Prince and now the Chinese Emperor.

The contract signed by both parties was said to have been drafted by the Chinese Emperor himself.

In addition, after Anthony Van Diemen learned more about the situation in China, he discovered a serious problem!

A Chinese’s original sin!

It’s just that their population is too large. It is said that there are as many as 100 million! It is more than the population of the entire Europe!

And such a large population is now crowded into a piece of land in the southeast of East Asia that is about the same size as Western Europe, and there is still a lack of food! In the past two years, two food crises have broken out in this country!

What worries Van Diemen even more is that the current emperor of China (Southern Ming) is a young and promising ruler who understands the outside world and is eager to lead the country into the maritime age!

Moreover, not long ago, he had turned his desire into a very successful colonial expansion operation.

In Van Diemen's view, unless it is stopped by another powerful empire, the Ming Empire led by Zhu Cixiang will definitely continue to expand southward and toward the Pacific.

Because only in this way can he get enough food to feed more and more people!

The only empire that could stop the expansion of the Ming Dynasty was not the Dutch East India Company. The shareholders of the Dutch East India Company would never allow the company's fleet to stop the Ming Dynasty from moving south. They would even encourage the Ming Empire to continue to move south.

Because only in this way can the East India Company get the arms orders and huge profits they want from Chenla, Siam, and Burma.

Of course, the arms orders from the Ming Empire are also what the East India Company dreams of. They don't care what a terrible monster the Ming Empire will eventually become when it goes to the sea! Even if the Ming Dynasty turns into a monster and takes away Badawi
Chapter completed!