Chapter 1255 Seeing is believing

Fair competition? Ricardo is not a three-year-old, so he naturally won’t believe what Roger calls “fairness”. There is only one kind of fairness in this era, and that is whoever is stronger has the final say. Everything else is nonsense.

Of course he hopes to monopolize Haihan's resources, but the Dutch obviously will not sit back and let this happen. Roger arranged this occasion for the two parties to meet, obviously to use their competitive relationship to get more for Haihan.

interests.

But even if he knew Roger's plan, Ricardo had no better way to deal with it. Now he was begging Haihan to do something. In such a passive position, he had no choice but to agree first. If he could do anything at this juncture,

If he hesitates, Roger might fall to the Dutch side.

Can't lose! Ricardo secretly held a breath in his heart. No matter what the real purpose of the Dutch coming here is, he must try his best to prevent them from succeeding. Even if Haihan did not continue to use force against Johor in the end, the Dutch could not be allowed to intervene.

Come in and disrupt the situation, especially in the areas near Johor. The Dutch must not be allowed to set foot in order to avoid affecting the security of Malacca City.

Roger was worried that he would not be able to greet him alone, so he specially called Tan Juren over the next day. Although Tan Juren's English was not as fluent as Roger, a Chinese who has lived abroad all year round, he could make do with the same English speaker.

Baba's Ricardo and Philip are basically enough.

"I know how to speak in official style, but how are you going to arrange these two families?" Tan Juren didn't quite understand Roger's plan, so he naturally wanted to get some ideas first.

Roger smiled and said: "They all want to get benefits from us. It's not that easy. Let's see what kind of conditions they can come up with first! Remember, we have the initiative now, and you don't have to say anything they say."

If you are in a hurry to express your position, just act according to the circumstances."

After hearing this, Tan Juren couldn't help but laugh and said: "You are eating up the family before you eat at the family below! The rip-off between Johor and the United Kingdom has not been nailed down yet, and you are planning to drag Portugal and the Netherlands into the water!"

Roger immediately denied: "I didn't drag them into this. They came to us by smelling the smell. Since they want to benefit from us so much, of course they have to show some sincerity first."

When Tan Juren heard this, he had a lot of thoughts in his mind. This really does not require any specific plan, just showing off the tricks is enough. The Portuguese and the Dutch are here to hug them, and it depends on them whether they can hug them.

What practical benefits are given?

The two envoys arrived at Roger's official residence almost at the same time. When they looked at each other, it seemed that faint electric sparks could be seen in the air. However, in front of officials Haihan, the two men still had to pretend and continue to act.

He plays the role of a civilized gentleman, but he secretly scolds the other person. The so-called smile on his face but MMP in his heart is roughly like this.

However, when the two people heard Roger introduce Tan Juren's identity, they immediately turned their attention to the newly appointed chief executive. They had been dealing with Roger for a long time, and they knew each other well, so it was difficult to convince him.

Officer Haihan is a determined officer, but the new chief executive may not be that understanding of the local situation and the international situation, but he can try to build relationships to gain favor, which may promote some future cooperation.

So the two of them rushed to praise Tan Juren for being young and promising, and for Xingdao's bright future. Tan Juren had lived for so long from before the time travel to after the time travel, and he had never been praised so hard by a foreigner. Even if he could only understand part of it in a vague way,

At this moment, he couldn't help but feel a little ecstasy. It was Roger who coughed lightly at the side that made him come back from his intoxication and realize that the business flattery of these two guys was not sincere.

Most of it is just to flatter myself.

Tan Juren also coughed twice and said: "Then let me introduce today's arrangements to you two. First, let's take a look at the seizures in this battle. If you have any items that you are interested in, you can bid for them. Then we will go

Take a tour of the prison camp, where you can see the two senior officers who led the invasion, one of whom is British."

After hearing these words, both of their eyes lit up. Their interest in trophies was actually average. The British-made muskets were not much better than the weapons made in their own country. If the price was more favorable, they could buy it with their eyes closed.

If you sell it back to the merchant ship captains or local natives, you can make some profit. But now there is a competitor suddenly, so you can't fall behind others. Even if you don't make any money, you have to bite the bullet and accept the goods.

Of course, what they are really interested in is seeing the prisoners of war, which is the most direct and effective way to verify the results of Haihan's battle. Others can be faked, but prisoners of war certainly cannot be faked. Especially Portugal, which has had many years of dealings with the locals.

Ricardo can recognize the appearance and dress of Johor soldiers at a glance. Even if the Haihan people want to find someone to disguise themselves, they will definitely not be able to hide it from his eyes. As for the British, it is easier to distinguish them. They can tell them from just a few casual conversations.

You can tell the authenticity of your accent.

From the number of captured prisoners of war and the rank of officers, it is not difficult to infer the scale of the joint troop dispatch between Johor and the British. From this, more information can also be judged, such as the extent to which the British and Johor are determined to occupy Sing Tao.

, as well as the current combat capabilities of the Haihan Army, etc. These first-hand intelligence materials are very important, and you may not be able to buy them even with money outside.

Soon they saw the weapons collected in the Battle of Star Island in a temporary armory converted from a cowshed, although they had already heard from Roger before that there were thousands of matchlock rifles captured this time.

There were so many rifles, but when they witnessed so many rifles stacked together, the visual impact was quite large. Several soldiers opened the covered oilcloth, revealing the layers of rifles stacked underneath.

The rifles were piled up like a hill.

"You two can take out a few and check the quality." Roger introduced confidently from the side.

Ricardo and Philip looked at each other, and each stepped forward to inspect these rifles. Although they were both merchants, merchants on the sea were also more or less equipped with weapons, and they did not know the structure and use of these matchlock guns.

It’s no secret that the condition of the rifles can be easily determined from the wear and tear on the butt, trigger, hammer and other parts. Judging from the results of random inspections, Roger is indeed not bragging. The condition of these rifles is indeed very new.

Some of them are simply new guns that have just been installed in the army and have not been used a few times. The marks of the British domestic arsenal are clearly visible on the butts. It seems that the British and Johorese have really spent a lot of money this time.

Since most of them were new guns, the two envoys were mostly relieved. They were originally worried that Haihan would buy some junk goods to make money, but it seemed that they were a little too worried. These rifles are of the same standard, including spare parts and ammunition.

They are all complete. It would be a pity to resell them. They can be kept for personal use. That is to say, the Haihan people are rich and can make more powerful weapons themselves, so they do not take these brand-new weapons seriously and just use them.

Dispose of the useless things.

In addition to rifles, there are also a lot of other spears, machetes, and metal armors, but these things are not so attractive. The two of them picked for a while, and only settled on some armors with better workmanship.

It's less than one-tenth of the total. And they don't really want to spend money to buy the remaining junk. But Roger probably doesn't care about this. If no one buys it, then at most some of better quality will be left behind.

The weapons are used to arm the militia, and the rest are basically used to make farm tools and kitchen utensils.

The two people usually select suitable weapons and equipment while estimating the number of weapons piled here. In addition to thousands of rifles, the remaining weapons are almost enough to equip an army of a thousand people. Roughly speaking, the number of weapons stacked here is estimated to be 1,000.

The coalition troops defeated by the Han Dynasty were at least about 2,000 people. For a country like Johor that did not have a strong military, it was very likely that they were already the elite of a country's army.

It is actually not difficult to estimate how long it takes to train a thousand-man musketeer force and how much money is invested. Ricardo knows the situation in Johor relatively better. He believes that based on the current situation in Johor,

With the national strength of the country, it is estimated that the establishment of such an army would require emptying the national treasury. And the facts are similar to his estimate. Not only did Johor empty the national treasury, it also owed the British a debt that needed to be repaid in installments.

Of course, this battle was so completely defeated that the newly minted musketry army was completely wiped out in the first battle. The weapon victory theory, troop superiority, and tactical advantage that the British boasted were not reflected at all. In this kind of situation,

Under such circumstances, it is not certain whether Johor is still willing to fulfill the contract and pay the remaining amount to it. After all, the two parties agreed at the beginning that after occupying Sing Island, they would use the right to use Sing Island to offset part of the debt, but now they have no goal.

If it is achieved, the payment progress will naturally stop first.

It was naturally difficult for the two envoys to deduce the details of these behind-the-scenes transactions from the seized weapons. However, the magnitude of the bargaining chips invested by Britain and Johor in this operation was already clear after looking at this temporary armory.

Next, Roger quoted a rough price, which was not outrageous. It was a bit lower than the cost of shipping weapons from China. And the situation of raising prices and competing with each other did not appear at this time, because of the quantity of weapons.

It was indeed a bit much. After they bought it back, even if it was installed in the existing troops, it would still be a lot more. Besides, raising the price would be giving money to Haihan in vain, so the two envoys had a tacit understanding and did not add drama to themselves.

According to Roger's quotation, each person shared half of the seized rifles, which were mainly rifles.

However, when they came to Xingdao this time, they never thought about spending anything, so the cash they brought with them was definitely not enough. At the moment, they could only write down an IOU and then bring the money to settle later. This kind of official

In an official transaction, Roger didn't have to worry about them not paying back the money they owed. After receiving the IOU, he asked his subordinates to arrange migrant workers to transport the weapons to the port for loading as soon as possible.

Then finally came the highlight they were looking forward to, visiting the temporary prisoner of war camp set up by Haihan on the island. The two were taken to the plain north of the immigration village, and then they saw the people surrounded by the iron fence.

Prisoner of war camp. This prisoner of war camp didn't even have a wall, and it looked really simple. However, there didn't seem to be as many prisoners of war in the camp as Roger had advertised, and it was far from the number they had previously estimated.

"Most of the prisoners of war are currently working on various construction sites. Those who stay in the camp are those responsible for cleaning and building infrastructure projects." Tan Juren explained to them the scene in front of them in a timely manner: "For example, building roads in the east

These people are all prisoners of war."

The two of them looked in the direction pointed by Tan Juren, and sure enough they saw a large group of people not far away to the east, two to three hundred people, busy building a road. The road started outside the immigrant village and led to

To the north, but there is a wasteland two miles away. I don’t know what the point of building such a road is.

Ricardo raised this question to Tan Juren and soon got the answer. During this battle, Haihan's troops moved back and forth from the north to the south of the island. Because there was no road, the march was quite difficult, so Roger planned to build a special road.

The road leads to the north of the island, and a permanent outpost is set up at the northern strait to guard against military threats from the north of the strait. Of course, this road does not only have such a function. In the future, the resettlement and agricultural development of the island will naturally also

The layout is carried out with this north-south avenue as the central axis so as to make full use of the traffic function of this road.

Originally, the construction of this road was expected to be postponed for one or two years, but so much free labor was sent at this juncture. After discussing with Tan Juren, Luo Jie decided to implement the infrastructure project in advance, while some people

When available, we can repair as much as we can.

As soon as Ricardo saw the clothes on these prisoners, he could basically determine their identities. They were indeed dressed in the Johor Army. Looking at the dejected look of these guys, it didn't look like they were pretending, and they were commanding these prisoners.

The people who worked the prisoners of war were obviously several Johor officers. It seemed that Haihan really made the best use of his resources and directly recruited them as foremen.

"Why don't you see any British people?" Philip asked with concern after looking around but not seeing the target he cared about.

"The British are all senior officers in this coalition. A total of thirteen people were captured by us. However, due to their special status, they were not locked up with these ordinary prisoners of war." Tan Juren understood what the other party meant.

The answer was immediately given: "If you want to see the British, we can go now."
Chapter completed!