Daming Military Empire

Chapter 343 Mutual Suspicion
Zheng Zhilong put a lot of thought into preparing these evidences. Of course, these evidences were not for the Dutch, but for the British and French. He put on a serious expression, stood up slowly, and took out one of the boxes. It took out an item that looked like a ledger, held it up, raised it, and introduced it as if something happened: "This is the list of losses reported by all the robbed merchants in Daming."

After all, he put the account book in his hand on the conference table, took out a similar account book from another box, held it up, raised it, and introduced: "This is the list of stolen goods found from the Dutch merchant ship."

After speaking, he put the two books side by side, and then he poured out all the contents of the two boxes, such as iron sheets, copper sheets, paper sheets, cloth strips, etc., all kinds of things, There were so many strange things, he picked up a piece of iron, and said solemnly: "These are all found from the cargo of the Dutch merchant ship, and they are all the unique marks of our Ming merchants. According to our verification, they were found from the Dutch merchant ship. Although there is a certain gap in quantity between the stolen goods and the goods looted by the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, they are almost exactly the same in type, Your Excellency Fan Mendi, how do you explain?"

After listening to the interpreter's retelling, the British and French representatives showed puzzled expressions. It seems that the Nanyang Governor of the Ming Empire was not so unreasonable. He seemed to be only angry at Fan Mendi and did not do anything unreasonable to them. Is there really something hidden here?

Fan Mendi was so crazy right now, he didn't pay attention to the expressions of the British and French representatives at all, but contemptuously said to Zheng Zhilong: "What can these things represent? If you want to forge them, I can make a bunch of them too."

Zheng Zhilong pretended to be angry and said: "My soldiers found these from your cargo in front of your crew."

Fan Mendi quibbled: "Who knows if it's true, the cargo ship has been detained by you for more than ten days, and you have a lot of opportunities to manipulate."

Zheng Zhilong seemed to have been humiliated, with a straight face, he asked coldly: "Listening to your tone, you don't admit that you have colluded with the pirates, do you?"

Fan Mendi proudly said: "Of course, our East India Company is a legitimate company, why should we collude with pirates?"

Well, it's time for the real performance. Zheng Zhilong showed a determined expression, and said to the British and French representatives with pain on his face: "Everyone, do you know what I used to do?"

These British and French representatives have never been to Daming, or even Dongfan. How do they know what Zheng Zhilong used to do, but most of their translators know it, because Zheng Zhilong can be said to be a translator and a leader in the translation field Many people who were engaged in the translation industry at that time had heard of him, so when these translators recounted, most of them introduced: "This Nicholas used to be a translator for the Dutch, and later he became a translator for some reason. After being a pirate for a while, he finally took refuge in the Ming Empire and became the prince of the Ming Empire."

Zheng Zhilong didn't care what the translators were talking about, he put on an expression of unbearable memories of the past, and said in pain: "You may not understand why I speak Dutch so well, but I can talk to Governor Van Mendy Let me tell you, I used to be an interpreter under Sonk, the chief of the Netherlands in Formosa. Give us weapons, give us warships, and let us plunder the merchant ships of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and even the Ming Dynasty merchants. He has only one purpose in doing this, which is to prevent others from doing business. Their East India Company wants to monopolize the entire Dongying is even the market of Ming Dynasty. In the end, I helped them do it, but I was condemned by my conscience, so I finally chose to submit to the Ming court."

After saying this, Zheng Zhilong seemed to be in a state of madness, pointed at Fan Mendi and yelled: "He said that they did not collude with pirates, which is indeed true, because pirates were raised by them, and I was once a pirate raised by them."

After listening to the translator's retelling, the representatives of Britain and France changed their faces. They looked at Zheng Zhilong and Fan Mendi, and their faces showed complicated expressions. Every country has pirates. Britain even directly cooperated with pirates to resist Spain. However, like Van Mendy, he said that he has nothing to do with pirates in front of the pirate leaders they cultivated. They have never seen it before. How thick-skinned it is!
Fan Mendi didn't expect Zheng Zhilong to do this, and he was stunned for a moment, but Zheng Zhilong continued to ride the heat: "Haven't you ever suspected that the Netherlands was originally just a colony under Spain. It has sprung up in ten years, and the number of ocean-going ships is even twice that of all your countries combined, and the wealth even surpasses their suzerain country, Spain. In just a few decades, how did this money come from? Others I don’t know the place, but in Dongpu, Formosa, Batavia, and the entire Far East, I know that they started their business by raising pirates and plundering them!”

After listening to the interpreter's retelling, the British and French representatives all showed thoughtful expressions. The rise of the Netherlands is indeed too abnormal. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible at all. They looked at Van Mendy with a little fear. This kind of ally , is indeed a bit scary.

Fan Mendi didn't expect things to develop like this. He really didn't know how to refute Zheng Zhilong's accusation. In the end, he had to change the topic and said: "Nicolas, don't try to mislead our allies. The facts now It was your Ming Empire who detained our Dutch merchant ships, can you cover up this fact by making excuses for those pirates?"

Zheng Zhilong seemed to have despaired of Fan Mendi's character. He didn't even bother to look at Fan Mendi. Instead, he said to the British and French representatives: "Do you think I should return the merchant ship and the goods to them?"

Although the representatives of Britain and France despise the actions of the Netherlands, the Netherlands is an ally after all, and it is impossible for them to help the Ming Empire. Therefore, after discussing in low voices for a while, they jointly recommended Robert, a senior executive of the British East India Company, to come forward and reply: " In any case, it is wrong to seize the merchant ship, you can seize the stolen goods, as for the merchant ship and other goods, it should be returned to the Dutch East India Company."

Zheng Zhilong seemed to have gone through a lot of painful choices, and finally couldn't bear the "pressure", so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Okay, I will save face for you."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head to face Zheng Xing and roared "unwillingly": "Seeing off the guests."

Seeing the playful expression in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, Zheng Xing cooperated with pretending to be timid, and asked cautiously: "Then, those merchant ships and goods."

Zheng Zhilong seemed to have suffered humiliation, and continued to roar "unwillingly": "Didn't you hear, give it back to them, give it back to them."

Zheng Xing seemed frightened by the yelling, and quickly turned around to make a gesture of invitation to Fan Mendi and the British and French representatives.

Fan Mendi felt that he had no face to stay any longer. Seeing Zheng Xing's gesture, he immediately stood up and walked away.

The British and French representatives all showed shameful expressions, got up and shook their heads and left one by one. After they returned to Batavia, they used various excuses to bid farewell to Van Mendy. The rise of the Netherlands is too strange. It is really possible that the pirates on the website were created by the Dutch. It seems a bit too stupid to stay here to discuss cooperation with Van Mendy. Let's go back and wait for instructions from China!

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect that making them suspicious of each other not only covered up the identity of the pirates, but also destroyed Fan Mendi's plan to use the Donghu to hold Daming back. Inadvertently, he made another great contribution.

(End of this chapter)