Chapter 752: England, Come Quickly!

When Van Diemen heard Ji Kun's proposal, his face darkened.

What did he mean, four parties jointly safeguarding stability and free trade in the Southern Ocean region?

Where were there four parties? There were plainly only three: Holland, Portugal, and Spain!

Your Great Ming may have taken the two tributary states of Annam and Siam, and Chenla has likely not escaped either. But strictly speaking, that is not the Southern Ocean; there is no ocean there — it is the mainland. Although the Ming came by sea, they merely sailed along the coastline and have hardly any ships capable of deep-ocean voyages.

At present, only the Zhengs of Dongning can send a small number of sailing ships on long voyages to Batavia and Malacca, but around Malacca, the East Indies, and the Philippine Islands they have virtually no real strength.

As for England — that is Holland's greatest worry. And you still want to let them into the Southern Ocean? What are you trying to do?

Furthermore, what about Spain? Where has Spain gone? Just excluded like that? Although Holland and Spain fought for eighty years, they have now made peace, and Holland also recognizes Spain's interests in the Philippine Islands. You cannot simply exclude them!

"Mr. Diemen," Ji Kun said with a smile, "Spain's trade routes do not pass through Malacca. Apart from serving as a transit point for Pacific trade, the Philippine Islands hold no other interest. So it is acceptable to leave Spain out of the four Southern Ocean parties. As for England, she is a great sea power! In the past, because of her own internal troubles, she was hardly active in the Southern Ocean.

Now that her troubles are over, it is only a matter of time before she comes through the Southern Ocean to trade with our Middle Kingdom. In fact, there are already some English ships active along the Ming coast! Should we not bring England in and properly discuss how to safeguard the peace of the Southern Ocean region?"

Ji Kun's move to draw England into the game was actually his own initiative; Zhu Cilang's maritime policy was "pro-Dutch, anti-English."

But in this age there was no telegraph and no network, so Ji Kun, as "minister plenipotentiary," truly held great power in his hands — Zhu Cilang also knew that this was an era when diplomats could give full play to their abilities, so he would not box in the mission to Europe, but instead granted them sufficiently broad authority.

And Ji Kun, for his part, felt that the waters of the Southern Ocean should be stirred up, that England should be drawn in, that the English and Dutch should be set to fight each other like dogs, and that Great Ming could then sow discord between them — perhaps then both Batavia and Malacca could be scooped into their hands. Once Malacca and Batavia were taken, Great Ming's position in the Southern Ocean would be complete.

That place was once the territory of the old Pacification Commission of Jiugang. Such a vital place — a spot where one could build a few forts, mount a few cannon, and station a few warships to block the route and collect tolls — how was it ever lost?

The Commonwealth of England, City of London, the Council of State building.

The Commonwealth of England did not yet have a Lord Protector or a Lord High Protector, although many people privately addressed Oliver Cromwell by such titles. But his current official post was President of the Council of State — Chairman Cromwell, no less!

However, he was not satisfied with this job and was still actively seeking advancement — a man who had become President of the Council of State yet still strove so hard to rise higher was truly moving and inspiring!

And the people blocking this President's advancement were, in fact, the same group who had opposed King Charles I of England ten years earlier. Those people must all now be missing that fatuous ruler Charles I, because Chairman Cromwell was far more ruthless than any fatuous king.

Before becoming President of the Council of State, Cromwell had already "purged" Parliament three times. The first time, he expelled the leaders of the Presbyterian faction in Parliament who had tried to reconcile with the king.

The second time, Cromwell's trusted man Thomas Pride led troops to surround Parliament and screen the members of the House of Commons. Out of a total of 489 members, 71 good men were identified, and another 83 returned to the ranks of the members after correcting their errors. The House of Commons, left with only 154 members, was therefore called the "Rump Parliament."

The third time came after the execution of Charles I, when the House of Commons, controlled by Cromwell, declared itself the representative of the people and the source of supreme power in England. The House of Commons then declared the abolition of the House of Lords and the abolition of the monarchy, establishing the Commonwealth of England.

But Cromwell was still extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the members of the Rump Parliament!

These damned members were simply too reactionary, too obstinate. The king had been dead for over a year, and they still could not forget the House of Stuart!

To this day, no member had ever jointly petitioned him, the President of the Council of State, to ascend the throne and become King of England!

What were these people waiting for? Did they not wish to replace a reactionary Stuart dynasty with a progressive Cromwell dynasty?

As he sat alone in his office sulking, his secretary's voice came from outside the door: "Mr. President, it is I."

"Come in."

A handsome, tall young man pushed open the door and bowed to Cromwell: "Mr. President, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grey, requests an audience."

"What is it?" Cromwell asked in a rather commanding voice.

"The Chinese ambassador wishes to meet with Lord Grey."

Cromwell was taken aback: "What? A porcelain ambassador? One who sells porcelain?"

"Not porcelain — the ambassador of that great Eastern empire which produces porcelain wishes to see Lord Grey."

"What?" Cromwell was startled. "The Chinese ambassador? Quickly, ask Lord Grey to come in."

"Yes, sir." The young man bowed and turned to leave the room.

A moment later, a distinguished elderly nobleman walked into Cromwell's office and likewise bowed respectfully to the President of the Commonwealth of England.

"Sit down, Mr. Grey," Cromwell said with a smile.

Lord Grey seated himself in a chair opposite Cromwell, then took out two letters rolled into long strips and laid them on the desk.

Cromwell unfolded one of them. It was covered with a mass of square ink characters, not one of which he could read.

"Mr. President, this is the translation," Lord Grey said, handing the other letter to Cromwell.

"This is... French?" Cromwell examined it closely. "What kind of pen was this written with? It looks very strange."

It was a letter in French written with a Huizhou wolf-hair brush, the strokes thin and hard, the brushwork exposed, employing the technique of the Slender Gold style.

Slender Gold style French — Cromwell was, of course, seeing it for the first time. To be honest, he could not quite read it.

Cromwell did know French, but this Slender Gold French was written all topsy-turvy, with no regard whatsoever for grammar. Although Cromwell recognized most of the words, put together he truly could not make much sense of them.

"What does it mean?" Cromwell had no choice but to admit his learning was insufficient and that he could not read the French.

"Mr. President," Lord Grey said, "this is a letter in the Chinese ambassador Mr. Ji's own hand. He wishes to invite you to send representatives to Amsterdam in Holland to jointly discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and England, as well as the joint maintenance by China, Holland, Portugal, and England of security and free trade in the Malacca and East Indies region."

Cromwell had not expected Lord Grey to be so learned. "My lord, can you truly read it?"

"I cannot," Lord Grey replied. "I asked the Dutch diplomat who delivered the letter and only then learned what it was about."

"Then should we send someone?" Cromwell harbored misgivings about dealings with Holland.

On the one hand, Holland was England's fierce rival at sea; on the other, Mary Henrietta, the daughter of Charles I — whose head Cromwell had cut off — was in Holland, and she was the mother of William III, head of the House of Orange, and thus regent of the House of Orange-Nassau.

Although the House of Orange-Nassau was suppressed by the Dutch parliament, they still had real strength, with a host of old friends and hereditary retainers — one could say they were the greatest worry of the "Cromwell dynasty"!

"We should send someone," Lord Grey said. "Trade with the East would greatly benefit the revival of the English economy. In recent years China has ended its closed-door policy and begun actively trading with foreign countries; we should seize this opportunity.

Moreover, we can take this chance to discuss with the De Witt family how to strike at the House of Orange."

(End of Chapter)