Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 78 The Portuguese Follow the Army
The situation in the attack on West Timor even exceeded Bai Mingxiu's expectations, because Kupang, run by the Dutch, only had two castles in total, with weak defenses and not many people.After a few hits from the 155mm naval rifled cannon on Bai Mingxiu's flagship, the Dutch raised the white flag.

"Originally, I wanted the Portuguese to see the power of our army, but...sigh." Bai Mingxiu sighed without much regret.

Sister Shi lightly covered her lips and smiled slightly: "This kind of work of bombarding facilities on the shore should have been left to me. Now I feel that apart from taking care of His Highness's daily life, I am really useless."

Bai Mingxiu looked at the beauty helplessly and said: "Sister Lion, your main gun is indeed powerful, but every time it fires, it makes me vomit blood. What's more, the Second Ordnance Bureau has just finished manufacturing the 155mm rifled rifle for the navy. Pao, I made four in total, of course I have to verify it, hahahaha."

Sister Lion smiled and said, "You don't need your Highness's army, just the naval guns alone will actually scare the Portuguese into nightmares."

Due to the previous mission of killing traitors, the system directly filled up all the scientific research progress of Bai Mingxiu's military technology tree. All 75mm and 105mm breech-loaded rifled field guns were successfully developed and quickly mass-produced.With the help of the same technology, the manufacturing of 155mm naval guns did not take much trouble. However, Bai Mingxiu was in a hurry to go to the Northern Expedition this time. The Second Ordnance Bureau only completed 4 guns and installed them on two third-level battleships.

Because the recoil of these two guns was too terrible, the Navy had to strengthen the gun deck and redesign the ejection system.For this reason, Bai Mingxiu specially told the Ordnance Bureau to study the tube annealing gun.

The Type 16 155mm naval gun manufactured using a series of new technologies such as standard rifling, stronger steel body, wedge-type breech block, and cylindrical shells allows this epoch-making cannon to have a range of up to 5 kilometers. Of course, this It is incomparable with the 155mm artillery of later generations that can reach forty or fifty kilometers with the upper and lower row of extended-range bombs. However, in this era, when common artillery can only fire 1000 meters, the Type 5 naval gun with a range of 16 kilometers, It's almost so terrifying that it makes people tremble.

Simon, the commander of the Portuguese army who participated in this so-called "joint operation", watched helplessly as the shells fired from the two battleships Ninghai and Pinghai accurately hit the Dutch fortress.

"Why can it hit so far? Hasn't the artillery technology of the Chinese lagged behind the West? What kind of artillery is this? Is it a weapon created by God?" Simon murmured.

"This is the Dutch at all, oh no, the army of any country in the world can't fight so far!"

The military strength of the Portuguese in the colonies was actually very weak. Simon actually had less than 100 soldiers from Europe. He recruited some locals as servants.However, when he saw the well-trained soldiers of Ming Dynasty, he subconsciously believed that it would be difficult for his troops to challenge the Chinese army.

"It's really troublesome. I thought the Ming Dynasty was about to die, but I didn't expect that they had such a strong military force. If they had such a strong army, how could they be defeated by the Tatars? Ah, the Chinese are too mysterious That’s right. The crown prince led thousands of elite soldiers across the sea on an expedition. With their cannons and all musket infantry, I’m afraid they can really defeat the Tatar army. Then Macau may really be in danger.”

Simon's mind was very confused. He still remembered that the crown prince said that Daming had a colony in the south of Timor Island. Presumably he led the troops back to the mainland, relying on the troops of the colony. Then the colony of Daming in the south is probably the largest. It is very large and has a large population.

"Why have I never heard of a Chinese colony in the southern hemisphere?" Simon was really puzzled.

The Dutch surrendered, and large numbers of Zionist and Portuguese soldiers poured into Kupang.The Portuguese were still a little trembling when facing Akito.After all, the opponent is so large and has demonstrated military strength, which is enough to crush them.

Of course, Bai Mingxiu did not give the Portuguese such a colony for free. Apart from the two fortresses, Kupang basically did not have many benefits.Bai Mingxiu didn't have time to run this place, but he still let people search for the Dutch's property. According to the agreement, these things belonged to Ming Dynasty.Although the amount is not large, it is only two thousand taels when converted, but it can still be regarded as income.As for the captured Dutch, Bai Mingxiu wanted to send them back to Batavia and continue to wait for the Dutch to pay the ransom.

After Bai Mingxiu took over the city, he didn't want to stay any longer. He directly came to Simon and said, "Okay, Mr. Simon, West Timor is already ours. I will notify Batavia to send someone." Come, establish a consulate in Kupang and maintain contact with Bacheng and another Ming colony, Australia. My time is precious, and I am ready to leave for the mainland."

Simon immediately proposed at this time: "Being able to occupy Kubang is thanks to His Highness's kindness and generosity. This time His Highness wants to take back everything that belongs to the Ming Empire, and Portugal is willing to support it. Here, I am willing to send 100 elite Portuguese soldiers to follow You go to the mainland together and join in your war.”

Bai Mingxiu smiled. The purpose of Simon's overture is of course not pure, and the meaning is actually not very big.Most of the so-called elite Portuguese troops are local Timorese.Simon wants to further make friends with this young man who may become the emperor of China in the future, and at the same time hopes to know more about this China that is undergoing great changes.

Simon originally wanted to send a few missionaries in and take Bai Mingxiu's boat to the Central Plains, but Bai Mingxiu directly refused.In the end, Bai Mingxiu only agreed to a young Jesuit missionary who knew a lot of mechanical knowledge, a Portuguese named Joao, to accompany him.

Bai Mingxiu said: "Da Ming implements the policy of religious freedom, but any missionary activities can only be carried out in religious places, and are not allowed in public places."

The missionary Joao, who was not yet 30 years old, was a little stunned: "Is there any difference between this and the prohibition of preaching? I thought His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a Catholic like me."

Bai Mingxiu laughed and made a crooked sign of the cross: "I am not your church member. I emphasize again, I have apostatized, hahaha. On the land of China, on any land within the reach of Ming Dynasty's sovereignty, People have the right to freely choose their beliefs without harming others. When I was born, a belief was imposed on me, and now I have decided that it is not what I want."

After that, he laughed and turned away, looking so wild and unruly.

The young and handsome missionary looked at his back and suddenly felt that he had heard the message from the angel: "This man will become the emperor who will make the whole world tremble. I don't need to spread the gospel of God to others in my life. All I have to do is let him receive God’s favor again! This will be the achievement of my life.”

(End of this chapter)