Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 650 Negotiations
Soon, the three galleons fled back to the docks of Zeelandia.And the point where the naval battle broke out in the distance, the gunpowder smoke began to dissipate, and it can already be seen clearly through the telescope.

I saw a sailing warship sinking, and the other one seemed to have been occupied by Ming Dynasty sailors, and there was fire, but it seemed to be fighting the fire, so the possibility of sinking was unlikely.

More warships of the Ming army are still entering the Taijiang Inner Sea, and many Ming troops have already landed on Beixianwei Island in the north of Rezheyan City.

Kui Yi held the binoculars and watched the movement of the Ming army in the distance with a gloomy face.

At this time, some of the men on the sailing warship came back to report to him, and defended himself the reason for the defeat.

"The Ming Dynasty has iron-clad smoking warships, which cannot be sunk at all."

"The iron-clad smoking battleship is very flexible in steering. In addition to the hard sails of the Ming Dynasty, there are two runners on both sides of the ship to assist in steering and advancing."

"Those two wheels are covered with iron armor, unless they are aimed at the bombard at close range, otherwise they cannot be destroyed!"

"The iron-clad smoking warship has very few cannons, but its range and power are even greater than ours. They are placed at the bow of the ship and can turn 180 degrees. They are designed to hit us near the waterline, and there is a big hole in one click. !"

"There are too many ships in the Ming Dynasty, so we will assist the iron-clad smoking warship to attack. We have too few ships, so we can't fight!"

"..."

Kui was a little desperate when he heard it. It seems that the Ming Dynasty invented a new type of warship. Although there are various shortcomings, they have many ships and cooperate to fight, but they can cover up the shortcomings.

In other words, in terms of naval warfare, the current Ming fleet can compete with the Dutch fleet even if the difference in numbers is not too large!

In fact, the Dutch are not wrong to conclude.

The steam ironclad battleships are currently rebuilt from the original Fuchuan. Compared with the real sailing warships in Xiyi, there are still many shortcomings. If they are singled out, they may not be able to win.

However, the ships of the Xiyi colonists who arrived in the Far East were not real sailing warships, and they were not specially built for war.Their ships are actually armed merchant ships, which are used to transport goods and have artillery, but they are mainly used to deal with pirates.

According to the records of later generations, the Dutch East India Company, at its peak, had 10 personnel, 1 soldiers, 41 warships, and thousands of merchant ships.In other words, there are only 41 real warships.

Of course, 41 warships are already a lot for European countries.When Napoleon and Britain competed for maritime supremacy in later generations, a very famous naval battle broke out.In this sea battle, the famous British Navy Admiral Nelson led 33 warships (with a total of 2626 side guns and 21580 people), and in Trafalgar, 41 warships with the combined French and Spanish fleets There were 2148 broadside guns and 16820 people) in a decisive battle, which determined the ownership of the sea power.

It can be seen from this that the Dutch East India Company has 41 sailing warships.

Having said that, as far as the Far East is concerned, the sailing warships of the Dutch East India Company are actually armed merchant ships, which are much weaker than real warships.

In this way, although the primary steam paddle wheel warships of the Ming Dynasty have various shortcomings, they can still compete with the Dutch sail warships.

In fact, as far as this modified steam paddle wheeled warship is concerned, its real purpose is not to compete with Xiyi for hegemony, but to rule the coast of Daming. The main enemy is the Japanese navy, and the potential deterrent "enemy" is Zheng Zhilong fleet.

At this time, during the battle in the Taijiang Inner Sea, the Ming Navy won the command of the sea and controlled the entire Taijiang Inner Sea, that is to say, it was not close to the city of Zeelandia.

On the side of the Ming Dynasty Navy, taking advantage of the opportunity of high tide, they constantly sailed into the inland sea of ​​Taijiang River to anchor.The Dutch can only watch, but there is nothing they can do.

What made Kui Yi, the governor of the Netherlands even more ugly, was that he found through the binoculars that the people of the Ming Dynasty were dragging heavy artillery towards the southern end of Weidao on the northern line.The intention is obvious, to block the real waterway in the Taijiang Inner Sea under the control of Zeelandia City.

Once blocked by the Ming people with artillery, the city of Zeelandia would not be able to obtain supplies from the sea, and it would become a real dead city.

In the original history, Kuiyi sent infantry and transported it by boat in an attempt to seize the Ming army's position.But this time, he didn't even need to send, he knew he couldn't beat it.The Ming army has too many troops, how many troops can he send there?Besides, the inland sea of ​​Taijiang River has been controlled by the navy of the Ming Dynasty. As long as the ship leaves the cover of the shore-based artillery of Zeelandia City, it will be easily attacked by the warships of the Ming Dynasty. coming.

The current battle situation also looked very strange to Kui Yi.He had a feeling, why the Ming army came to attack Dongfan for the first time, but every step of their posture seemed to be aimed at his deployment, and they seemed to be very familiar with this place?
Of course he didn't know that Zheng Zhibao's every move was based on the history of Zheng Chenggong's attack on the Zeelandia city, removing heavy casualties or useless steps, and choosing effective attack methods, which naturally made him Kui Yi felt that the tactics of the Ming army were very strange.

The first step of the Ming Navy's focus was to use the opportunity of high tide to enter the Taijiang Inland Sea from the Luermen Waterway; the second step was to occupy the southern end of Weidao on the northern line, set up artillery positions, and block the real waterway entering the Taijiang Inland Sea.

At the same time, the ongoing war step is to capture the subsidiary protective fortress of Zeelandia, that is, Utrecht Fort.

In the original history, the Ming army managed to break into Utrecht Fort with great difficulty, but the remaining Dutchmen chose to die together, detonated gunpowder, and blew up Utrecht Fort, which finally made the fortress who entered the fort Fifty Ming troops were killed.

But this time, they were still preparing to attack Utrecht Fort, and it was almost evening.

Zheng Zhibao was busy, when suddenly, his men came down to report, saying that it was a Dutch envoy asking to see him.

Upon hearing the news, Zheng Zhibao sneered and said, "Hehe, I can't beat it, so I started talking with my mouth!"

This is Xiyi's consistent style. If they can beat them, they will beat them directly. If they can't beat them, they will pretend to be pitiful.

Although I know this, but the receptionist still has to receive it.

Accompanied by Zeng Ying, Zheng Zhibao received the Dutch envoy.

This was the first time Zeng Ying saw Xi Yi, who had red hair and blue eyes, and looked like a ghost, which really opened his eyes.

This Dutchman has obviously stayed in the east for a long time, and he can speak Ming Dynasty official dialect. Although he speaks it very badly, he can still understand it if he listens carefully.

After seeing Zheng Zhibao, the Dutch envoy asked, "I don't know why you came to beat us? Your Zheng family is now a serious official of the Ming Dynasty, how can you be so unreasonable?"

My good fellow, what was said inside and outside the box was that Zheng Zhibao was still used to pirates and came to rob them of the Netherlands.

Zheng Zhibao was a little embarrassed to hear that, after all, he was not the only one here, Zeng Ying, and the eunuch Lu Jiude were also there.

So, he quickly turned serious, and retorted loudly: "Stop talking nonsense, I am following the order of the Ming Emperor to attack you and other Xiyi!"

Hearing this, the Dutch envoy became a little suspicious, and looked at Zheng Zhibao: It was actually sent by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty?Could it be that the Ming Dynasty already knew that the Netherlands had formed an alliance with the Qing Empire?

By the way, when I went to Liaodong at the end of last year, I happened to meet Zheng Zhilong. Was he the one who informed me?However, didn't he himself have contacts with the Qing Empire?
Thinking about it this way, he was a little puzzled.

But thinking about it again, it seems that Zheng Zhilong is also very popular in the Wa Kingdom, and it seems that there is not much about him in the Ming Dynasty government!
Unable to understand, the Dutch envoy hinted: "We are only here to do business in the Far East. Your emperor is so unreasonable and wants to send troops to attack us?"

When Zheng Zhibao heard this, he yelled loudly: "You barbarians, after you came to our Ming Dynasty, you burned, killed and looted our people, and now they still occupy our territory, shouldn't you attack you?"

After hearing this, the Dutch envoy immediately argued: "Our branch has already signed a contract. We have withdrawn from the Penghu Islands, and the previous affairs have been cancelled. This is the territory of our Dutch Empire. When did it occupy your Ming country?"

"Hehe, what about the contract? Where is the contract?" Zheng Zhibao was a little guilty when he said this, so he asked loudly, "In my Daming, I burned, killed and looted, and I didn't have to pay any price, so I thought it was okay. What about you Xiyi? Such a beautiful idea? This is my Da Ming’s territory, it was in the past, and it will be even more so in the future, whether you recognize it or not, it’s a fact!"

"..." The Dutch envoy was stunned when he heard this, and felt that the Ming people were too arrogant and unreasonable, so that he couldn't speak for a while.

The Dutch concluded two contracts with Ming Guocheng, one with Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, and the other with Zheng Zhilong's big loss.

These two contracts were actually privately agreed between the local government and the Dutch, and they never went to the court at all.On the court side, reporting to the local government is just like repelling pirates.

Therefore, such a contract is naturally not legally binding.

Originally, the two parties also agreed to trade each other, and also acquiesced that the Dutch would go east and west.However, if we really want to say it seriously, we didn't say that Dongfan was the territory of the Dutch.

As for the Dutch, when they came to Dongfan, there were only pirates, natives, Japanese pirates, etc., but there was no Ming government.Therefore, according to the usual practice of their colonists, this is the land of no man. It was discovered by them, and it is naturally their territory.

But now, the Ming country has declared that this is the territory of the Ming country, which made the Dutch envoy feel a great humiliation: because the Ming people's way of doing this is not the way they used to respect their fists?
The difference from before is that now they are not on the side of the colonists, but on the side of the oppressed natives!

(End of this chapter)