On December 11, 1679, the northern ocean was filled with wind and waves.

A merchant ship from Amsterdam was looming in the storm of wind and waves. The canvas on its mast had been removed from many sides. The sailors on the deck ran around carefully, and from time to time, rushing to somewhere with the pipes of the pump, pumping out the sea water poured into the cabin.

Gao Wengang sat in the captain's room with a pale face, holding the handrail tightly with both hands, and secretly prayed in his heart that the old merchant ship must survive and send him to London smoothly. At the same time, he also deeply felt how dangerous the North Sea was in winter. No wonder the generals of both sides tried to avoid confrontation at this time of the three British-Dutch naval battles. It was really impossible to fight - imagine that the ship was swaying on the surging sea surface, and at this time, they were afraid that even the artillery could not be fixed, so don't mention the accuracy of the shooting, that was purely a luxury.

While passing by the sea near the estuary of the Thames, we encountered four merchant ships affiliated with the Dutch East India Company. They may have encountered French privateers at sea, so we hurriedly fled to London for a while. Gao Wengang believed that the former was more likely because the current sea conditions were not suitable for fighting.

Of course, these four ships are not all the ships of the East India Company. According to the experience of the previous three British-Dutch naval battles, in order to avoid attacks from hostile ships, the Dutch East India Company generally bypassed the northern end of Scotland, and then stationed in the port of Bergen, Norway, inquired about the wind direction and repaired the ships, so as to rush through the last hundreds of nautical miles to reach Amsterdam. In this French-Dutch war, although the United Provincial Fleet won consecutive victories at the beginning, suppressing the French from leaving the port, the French Fleet had greatly enhanced its strength after several years of emergency replenishment, so it began to break into pieces and attack, launching a destruction battle against the United Provincial, and also won some small-scale naval battles, such as the battle off the coast of Catalonia (the battle injured Druittel, the spiritual leader of the Dutch naval, was retired), the Martinique naval battle, etc.

Under such circumstances, the Dutch East India Company, on the safe side, began to implement the strategy of the British-Dutch War that year, that is, to formulate plans to ensure that it leaves or returns in the winter and spring seasons of the turbulent northern ocean surface, so as to avoid possible attacks from the enemy's privateer fleet and allow precious Asian goods to arrive in Amsterdam safely.

Today, several ships with the "VOC" logo sails that Gao Wengang encountered looked quite unlucky. They encountered harsh sea conditions. The ship may have suffered some damage to a certain extent before and urgently needed repairs. Therefore, they went to London to be berth and then found a way to return to United Province.

The ship that Gowengang took on - the old ship from the former Amsterdam Merchant Station was previously forced to requisition by the Dutch. It had just been retrieved for half a year and was in poor condition - it kept at a suitable distance from these Dutch merchant ships, and then slowly sailed into the Thames River one after another, and finally, under the command of the water diversion officer, anchored at a dock by the port.

Soon, Cai Zhenguo, the ambassador of the East Coast to the UK, personally brought people to the dock to welcome Gao Wengang, and carefully asked about his purpose - although everyone is the second generation, Gao Wengang, who is eight years older than him, is now his immediate boss, and his identity is different from the past, so he must be treated with caution.

"By the way, I haven't been to England for a long time. I have been working in the Eastern Mediterranean before, and I have been to the Western Mediterranean for less, let alone the North Sea. Moreover, England is a country of special and strong. After taking office for so long, I can't argue if I come and take a look." After getting on the carriage to the railway mansion, Gao Wengang explained softly.

Cai Zhenguo nodded after hearing this and said in an echoing tone: "This country has a unique charm for us East Coast people. I couldn't figure it out at first, but later I carefully savored it. It turned out that it was their persistent investment in industrial production. This is very much for our East Coast people's appetite, and this is the beauty of industry."

"Just last month, the ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company had just sent a batch of coal mining machinery and equipment to the Bristol Bay area and handed them over to the local coal mine owners. In recent years, the coal mining industry in England has developed very quickly, which surprised me." Cai Zhenguo also said: "The wool textile industry in England has developed greatly. A large amount of arable land in China has been occupied as pastures, and forests have gradually been developed, and trees have been reduced in large quantities. In addition, the development of iron smelting and shipbuilding industries has caused forests to be consumed even more severely. Therefore, there is still a shortage of timber in England now.

Not only does the people’s living need not enough wood, but also in industry, which has led to the great development of coal, a wood substitute. In the Heixiang Iron Industrial Zone and the mining areas of Wales, coal is widely used, not only in industry, but also in the daily cooking fuel. Therefore, the English imported a large amount of coal mining equipment from our country to increase the coal production in their country. Oh, by the way, the coal and iron reserves in the Kingdom of England are really rich, the quality is amazing, and the price is not expensive at all, so it is very convenient to promote."

"This reminds me of the East Coast prairie." Gao Wengang immediately said after hearing this: "It is also a lack of trees and has to use coal as fuel. Of course, our coal is mostly inferior coal, which is far inferior to that of England. Well, the British bought our coal mining equipment. Can it be used? Or, can they use it well? If what I expected, all kinds of equipment used in our country's mines, including pickaxes, hoists, pumps, and elevators, are powered by steam engines, right?"

Cai Zhenguo understood what Gao Wengang meant as soon as he heard it, so he explained: "The British have steam engines themselves and have used steam engines for a long time. Although the quality is poor and the performance is not good, they can also be used. The machinery they bought can be processed by themselves, connected with steam power, and carried out coal mining operations. Of course, the effect is definitely not as good as ours, because we can already miniaturize the steam engine to a certain level, but the British cannot. However, even this kind of work efficiency that seems a bit disappointing for us has made a lot of progress for the British. This is why they purchase our industrial equipment. First, it is easy to use, and second, they can also learn from our designs so that they can make money by themselves in the future."

Gao Wengang nodded after hearing this. He now remembered that when Li Qing and Li's special envoy had not returned to work, the British proposed an alliance with the East Coast. Of course, the alliance means that the relationship between the two countries is closer, and some industrial products with restricted exports will also be open to the British. At that time, Gao Wengang and Cai Zhenguo were still supportive, because they needed an important fulcrum that influenced the European continent. It was more appropriate to look at England at that time.

Gao Wengang stayed in England until mid-January 1679. During this period, in addition to office work (discussing trade policies with Britain and Russia), he also visited the British business community, the government and the royal family, and talked about some topics that both sides were very concerned about, but there were no substantial results. In particular, he focused on the position of the British government in the French-Dutch war. He learned that the British royal family now wants to participate in the war, but the parliament is still a little hesitant, and it seems that it will not be able to participate in the war in the short term. However, the British's hesitant attitude must have been seen by the French, and this will put some pressure on them to prevent them from delaying the peace talks too long.

On January 18, the northern ocean was rarely welcoming a good weather. Gao Wengang and his entourage seized the opportunity and left the Thames by boat. They took a few days to reach the port of Le Havre, France, opposite the strait. Here, they showed French customs officials an identity document. After communicating back and forth, they were successfully released. Then they took a small boat and finally arrived at Paris, the capital of the Kingdom of France.

At the Louvre in Paris, Gauvengun submitted a new letter of state to King Louis XIV of France, clarifying his identity as a new plenipotentiary. At the same time, he also negotiated with the French about some of the commercial issues left over from the last time. Until now, the French fought, the country's precious metals were severely outflowed, and the agricultural industry had failed for several consecutive years. There were signs of instability in the country. It was indeed a bit troublesome to do business with them. Last time, Louis XIV gave some East Coast goods to normal, it was already a care-based nature. This time, Gauvengun wanted to continue to talk about the trade of other commodities, so why not talk about it!

You should know that the French have made some concessions to the Dutch until now, promising to give them a preferential tariff rate to induce the Dutch to withdraw from the war as soon as possible, so that France can swallow Francheconte, Lorraine and the occupied South Netherlands areas and digest them. In addition, they did not make concessions to merchants in any country. The Minister of Finance, Coleber, who was deeply troubled by the impression of mercantilist ideas and the outflow of precious metals, has asked to purchase various commodities within their country to keep as much as possible in France.

How can people on the East Coast come to discuss business at this time? Unless you also import goods of similar amounts in France, it is basically impossible at present. Therefore, if you want to continue to expand the share of the French market on the existing basis, the French should slow down the flow of precious metals. The outflow of precious metals is not so fierce and even start to flow back.

It was not that Gao Wengang didn't understand this truth, but he wanted to work hard for the last time. Now that he saw the failure of his efforts, he didn't say much, and soon left Paris and returned to the port of Le Havre. His next stop, and the most important stop, the Kingdom of Spain, where he will focus on talking to King Carlos about the Pampa Plain.
Chapter completed!