Twenty-five years ago, Joseph was just an ordinary Jewish businessman. His business failed and he was very poor. He traveled to the Jewish community in the Mediterranean. He accidentally went to the East to participate in trade as an accountant. He settled in Penang, the empire. After fifteen years of operation, he became a famous banker. But the turning point of Joseph's fate was that his daughter accidentally met His Highness Yu and accompanied him for several months.

As a result, Joseph obtained extremely important political capital and successfully became a guest of honor for the Ottoman Sultan, thus gaining title and territory. His territory was precisely in the Port of Haifa near Jerusalem. Joseph was generous and provided convenience and protection for all Jews who went to Jerusalem to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, thus gaining respect from Jews throughout Europe. The assets of the Joseph family were also growing rapidly, especially in the shipping industry. He had the title of Ottoman privileged merchant and Chinese prince friend, and was invincible throughout Europe.

Of course, Heinsius didn't know that the reason why Joseph was valued by so many Jewish families was because he had a Zion plan.

Although I don’t know this, it does not affect Joseph’s great image in Heinsius’s eyes. Especially after China’s land expanded to the Black Sea and opened up the Suez region, more and more Dutch merchants traveled to and from the Netherlands, and Joseph also provided convenience for all the Netherlands merchants. Recently, Joseph made another big news.

After the defeat of the Battle of Beck, all the seven provinces of the Netherlands were in turmoil. The economy and survival of the United Provinces were completely dependent on the ocean. Losing control of the sea power meant chaos. When the news of the defeat of the naval battle reached Amsterdam, the entire United Provinces were in chaos. Various types of daily necessities rose on a large scale, and the society was turbulent. At this time, a large fleet rushed over and brought three thousand tons of wheat, four thousand tons of cured meat, countless cotton and wool textiles and steel. The organizer of this fleet with fourteen large flying shears and a total tonnage of more than 24,000 tons was the Jewish merchant Joseph.

The fleet came from the Xijin area of ​​the empire. The four ships belonged to Joseph. The other ten were employed by Joseph, all of which were large skimmed ships worth more than one thousand tons. The first task of this fleet was to transport ammunition, medicine and reinforcements for the Expeditionary Force. After the naval battle of Beech Point, it immediately returned to Xijin and Said Ports, purchased a large amount of life and military supplies, and went directly to the United Provinces. Along the way, passing the Barbary pirate territory and the dangerous English Channel, but neither pirates nor French privateers nor even fleets could catch up with the fleet, and could only watch them sail into Amsterdam.

Because of this, Joseph's reputation in the Union Province soared, and thanks to him was no longer limited to the Jews.

"Mr. Joseph, please come in, please come in quickly, do you know that in London I received a letter like snowflakes, and whether it is an allies or political enemies, I asked me to hold a meeting to commend you. You are such a great businessman, and the Dutch people will always have yours in their hearts..." Heinsius praised Joseph in the most stingy words, and Joseph had become accustomed to such words, and he calmed down Heinsius with just one word.

Joseph said, "To be honest, Mr. Speaker, I would like to make friends with a powerful Union Provincial politician like you, but I am sorry that today was not my private visit, but someone entrusted. His Highness, the prince of the empire, entrusted me to come to visit you."

Seeing that Heinsius's face changed drastically, Joseph said, "Please let me finish my words? I know that China has declared war on England, and the Dutch ruled is the king of England, but in His Highness Yu's opinion, this does not mean that Union Province and England are the same country. In fact, after the Battle of Beech Point, I only raised less than 2,000 tons of supplies, and even contained two ships. It was His Highness Yu who helped me. Most of the wheat and bacon stored in the warehouses in Amsterdam are military supplies of the Imperial Expeditionary Force. It was not me who helped Union Province overcome the difficulties, but His Highness Yu.

His Highness Yu did these things just to make your country understand that the Union Province does not necessarily become an enemy of the empire.”

Heinsius said: "Mr. Joseph, my son is learning Chinese recently. He said there is a saying in Chinese that if your lips rot, your teeth will feel cold."

"The lips are gone and the teeth are cold..." Joseph gave a very clear pronunciation.

"Well, I don't understand the Chinese language, but I think this word makes a lot of sense. If England is destroyed, will these seven teeth of the Netherlands survive?" Heinsius asked seriously.

Joseph looked shocked when he heard this. Heinsius smiled and said, "This is a very simple truth. Why are you so shocked? But if you can't answer this question, you can't convince me."

"No, no, no, Lord Speaker, I think you misunderstood. I was shocked not because of this problem, but because of your lack of understanding of the Sino-British war. I would like to ask, have you read the declaration of war seriously, and have you met the special envoy sent by His Highness Yu to London?" Joseph asked.

"Of course, I've seen that envoy at the king, too..."

"No, if you do these two things, how can you think that England and United Provinces have lost their lips and teeth?" Joseph still couldn't understand.

Heinsius looked unhappy: "Are you doubting my diplomatic ability or my reading and comprehension ability? You are very rude, Mr. Joseph! If necessary, I can write to you the more than one hundred words in the declaration of war, and I can also repeat to you what I said when I met the envoy with the king. Although seven days have passed, I still remember it very clearly."

"More than one hundred words... No, Lord Heinsius, I have read the letter of war. In fact, I saw with my own eyes that the letter of the Lord Yu's servants wrote. There are indeed not many words of the letter of the Declaration of War, but there is an attachment, but there is a thousand words. Have you read it? It is the rules of war formulated by His Highness Yu......" Joseph explained.

But before he finished speaking, Heinsius, who looked confused, asked, "I don't know anything about the attachment and the rules of war."

Joseph said, "I can't believe that His Highness William would have made such a mistake, or that you are not the one he trusts. He wanted to sacrifice the Union Province for England."

"What are you talking about, Mr. Joseph, you have to make it clear." Heinsius also realized the seriousness of the problem. He remembered that he saw the Chinese envoy after the king met for a long time. During this period, the king also asked the representatives of the parliament to go in first, and after he entered, he didn't say a few words to the envoy. As for the attachment, he was completely unaware of it. If the attachment exists, if the above content is important, King William conceals it to use himself.

There are two reasons for the Empire to declare war on Britain. One is the issue of the inheritance of the British king. However, Britain believes that if the Empire did not recognize William III and Mary as the British king, it should have not been recognized early in the morning. In fact, after William III ascended the throne, the Empire had not clearly supported or opposed it. Both the Ambassador to Europe in Lisbon and the Chief Executive of Xijin, who was responsible for part of Europe's diplomacy, had this attitude.

This time, the declaration of war was because the empire had contacted the deposed king James II and believed that there was nothing wrong with it. On the contrary, William III took the position of father-in-law with his son-in-law, which was really difficult to accept.

The second reason for declaring war was even more unacceptable to the British, that is, the "Qi Bi incident". The iron-clad fleet led by Su Jing sank the Kui Bi privateer sent to the Indian Ocean by Britain, and obtained a lot of evidence. The empire determined that Britain tore up the agreement, deliberately undermined the empire's order in the East, challenged the empire's authority, and therefore declared war.

The agreement mentioned in the declaration of war was signed by the "Penang Agreement" in Penang during the 18th year of the empire, China, Portugal and the East India Company of Britain, the Netherlands, Danish, France, Switzerland and other countries, and the Oriental Company in Penang. The agreement stipulates that the above-mentioned forces must coexist peacefully and shall not launch wars or confrontations at will. The "Penang Agreement" actually deprives the power of East India Company of various countries to colonize and expand along the Indian Ocean coast and the western Pacific coast east of Cape Town.

Because the empire has established its own diplomatic system in this area, countries and forces have actually become vassal states of the empire, allies or diplomatic states. Any party colonized these countries and declared war on the empire, and stipulated that wars and privateers should not be initiated at sea, otherwise they would be treated as pirates. This directly transformed the East India companies of various countries from colonial companies to trading companies, and there was no enemy except to fight pirates.

The essence of the Penang Agreement is that countries recognize the empire's dominance in the waters east of Cape Town. The reason why it can be recognized by various countries is that the strength gap between the two sides is on the one hand and on the other hand is political means.

All countries signed agreements in the name of East India Company. Anyway, the interests of each country to the west of Cape Town are monopolized by East India companies of each country, so it would be fine if the East India Company agreed. But the problem is that the two East India companies, the Netherlands and the UK, are different.

These two East India companies are companies that have national functions such as declaration of war, peace, armed forces, currency. On the issue of signing in the name of East India companies, because of this declaration of war, the two sides had different understandings. The British insisted that it was the East India company that recognized the Penang Agreement, but the Empire believed that the British East India company was a company that had national functions and signed on behalf of the UK. The UK also sent privateers to the Indian Ocean, which was a violation of the agreement.

In fact, Li Junwei didn't care about these political games. He just seized the opportunity to declare war on Britain and asked his staff to think of two reasons. Even if he was a little rude, it would be enough to have a reason.

The key to the declaration of war is not why the declaration of war is, but the war rules proposed by King Yu at the attachment. Li Junwei formulated many clauses, including the protection of civilians, good treatment of prisoners of war, exchange principles, etc., but most importantly, one that Li Junwei proposed to abide by is to use the Canary Islands as the intersection point. Starting from November 20, 27, the Empire will not launch military operations against the belligerent countries in the area north to the east, north and south of it in exchange for the same guarantees from Britain.

The Canary Islands are located on the west coast of Africa. They draw a cross to set three intervals as demilitarized zones, which is actually to tell the British that the empire was trying to seize its colonies in the Americas, rather than threatening its homeland. In fact, the empire not only did not want to threaten its homeland, but also worried that because of fighting with Britain, it consumed too much of its military power, weakened the military strength of the Grand Alliance, and led to France as the dominant European power.

Of course, demarcating the war zone was also to ensure the power of the imperial merchants to trade peacefully in the demilitarized zone. To some extent, this was also a revenge on the French King Louis XIV.

This is an intention that children can see. Not to mention the Great Speaker Heinsius, he immediately understood why William III concealed this attachment. I believe that any member of the third-level parliament of the Netherlands who knows these terms will not support declaring war on China. Oh, no, there may be someone to support it. It is the two poor provinces of the Netherlands, which is the king's basic foundation.

Heinsius recognized the principle that the lips were lost and the teeth were cold, but what was the matter with my nose hair being pulled out?

"Mark, what do you think?" Heinsius did not immediately express his opinion, but asked his political allies.

Mark Rutt said bluntly: "If I were a decision maker, would I take the initiative to send an envoy to find the Chinese prince to find a possibility of cooperation?"

"What is the possibility of cooperation?" Heinsius was puzzled.

Mark Rutt said: "Since China likes England's colonies in the New World so much, why not just give the colonies to them in exchange for China to join the Grand Alliance and jointly deal with France?"

"Dear Mark, you are still so funny." Heinsius regarded Mark Rutt's suggestion as a joke, but this suggestion was not undiscussed from the perspective of Union Province. In fact, King William would not care too much about the colonies. What he really cared about was the merchants and new nobles in Britain. Thinking deeper, Heinsius felt that it seemed that Britain's loss of North American colonies would be beneficial to the Netherlands.

Heinsius looked at Joseph and said, "Mr. Joseph, if His Highness of the Chinese Prince is really willing to fight against Britain according to this rule of war, then there is no need for the Netherlands to join the war. What I want to ask is, what will happen to our colonies in the New World, and how can the Chinese Prince ensure that he abides by his own rules? When I was in London, I met the poor Earl of Stockton, and the Earl dedicated all his enthusiasm to the Prince, but what was exchanged for was betrayal!

No, that is no longer a betrayal, it is a complete fool. If the Count had not had a strong revenge, he would have committed suicide due to shame and anger."

Joseph shook his head slightly: "His Speaker, Your Highness, Your Highness, will not provide any guarantee, nor can you come up with any guarantee. You can only believe in his sincerity. You must know that Your Highness, representing the greatest empire in the world."
Chapter completed!