Daming Military Empire

Chapter 210
The climate in Macau in May is warm and the sea breeze is gentle. It is the most comfortable time of the year, but the Portuguese Governor Shivela is not in a very comfortable mood. To be precise, he is flustered with leisure.He is used to making friends in the capital city of Daming, or drunk in the palace in the capital city of Mysore, but he is not used to it in Macau where there is no such thing.

If you are not used to it, you have to wait. There is no way. His Majesty the Emperor of Ming gave him an imperial decree, asking him to be a middleman to provide a venue for the peace talks between the Ming Empire and the Netherlands. Macau is waiting for news from the Netherlands.

After waiting for half a year, news finally came from the Netherlands that the former governor of Batavia, Spike, was sent to host the peace talks, and will arrive in Macau in mid-May.

Shivira jumped up happily when he received the news. It is finally the end of the day. As long as they finish their peace talk, they can escape from this cage and run around. He misses the native palace and the capital of Ming Dynasty even more. He hasn’t seen his old friends for a long time. After drinking, Daming’s fine wine is strong enough, so I must go to the capital to have a good drink when things in Macau are over!
Zheng Zhilong specially left the fast horse of the post office here at Shivela. Zheng Zhilong knew about the news of the Dutch within three days after it reached Macau. , and then asked Zheng Zhihu to lead the [-] super battleships and [-] Fuchuan warships of the Nanyang Navy to directly block the waterway from Batavia to Macau, and must 'escort' the fleet escorted by the Dutch to Nandaying Come.

Dutch special envoy Speke served as governor of Batavia from 1629 to 1632. He was extremely shrewd. After returning to the Netherlands, he directly entered the National Assembly of the Inter-provincial Republic and became a member of the Dutch decision-making hierarchy.This time, Governor Bruwen of Batavia and his successor Van Diemen fell into the hands of the Ming Empire. He came to negotiate peace with the Ming Empire as a special envoy.

It's not that the Netherlands doesn't want to retaliate. According to information from various sources, the Ming Empire has at least hundreds of warships and thousands of armed merchant ships. Although this strength is not as good as that of the Dutch Navy, it should not be underestimated. The Dutch Navy must go all out to guarantee it. Win the other side.

If they were in Europe, the Netherlands would naturally want to take revenge, but the Ming Empire was tens of thousands of miles away in the Far East, so they had to consider the cost of revenge.If the main fleet is sent to the Far East, not to mention the loss on the road, the mainland is very likely to be occupied by Spain.

Now the situation in the Netherlands is not optimistic, and it can even be said that the situation of the entire Protestant League is not optimistic. Their legendary coach, King Gustav II of Sweden, unfortunately died in the Battle of Lützen more than two years ago, causing the Swedish army After a big defeat, the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire are in full swing.Although France, the most powerful of the Protestant League, is ready to join the war, it will take at least a year for them to prepare for the war. This year is the most dangerous time for the Netherlands. Spain may send troops to deal with them at any time. How dare they send the main fleet? transferred to the Far East.

In the end, all the provinces provided more than a dozen armed merchant ships, managed to cobble together a "fleet" consisting of more than 100 armed merchant ships, and sent the former Governor of Batavia, Spike, to the Far East for peace talks with the Ming Empire. How can I say that the [-] soldiers must be redeemed, which is nearly one-eighth of the combat power of their entire country!
Spike was quite depressed in his heart. What could more than 100 armed merchant ships do? They have more than 100 super battleships. The only function of these more than 100 armed merchant ships is to bring back 100 captives.In order to give himself a boost, he had to go to Batavia to take half of the forty super battleships of the East India Company, forming a mixed fleet of more than [-] 'battleships', and then rushed to Macau.

As a result, they were blocked by the fleet of the Ming Empire before they arrived in Macau. The reason was that the Ming Empire stipulated that warships from any country are not allowed to sail into the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty. Well, they have a mixed fleet of more than 500 warships. There were fifty battleships, he had no choice but to give in, and went with others to anchor at the naval base of the Ming Empire.

When he saw the familiar Zeelandia Castle, Spike felt a little sad. This was a Dutch castle, but it was snatched by the Ming Empire.When he saw the small warships densely parked in the inner sea of ​​the Taijiang River, he twitched in his heart. Puck, don’t the small warships cost money? There are so many, there must be two or three thousand ships!
When he saw the thousands of artillery pieces and the soldiers waiting in full force on the forts along the coast, his heart twitched again. With so many artillery pieces and so many people, these forts alone might not be able to be attacked by an entire fleet.

When he saw the Sun Moon and Success, his eyeballs almost fell out of shock, oh, what a treat, is there such a big warship in this world?It can't be two models!
When he saw the majestic red-embedded castle, he was shocked. This may be the largest bastion he has ever seen, and it is also the most densely populated bastion he has ever seen. Do you want to put so many people? Come to scare people.

When he saw the huge Southern Day Camp, he was completely stunned, oh, what a bargain, such a big city can accommodate at least 200 million people. People from the whole of the Netherlands might live in it. dissatisfied!
When he saw the densely packed military camps in the city, his scalp was already numb. How many troops can be accommodated here!

At this time, Zheng Zhilong finally came up to him, and he said with a hearty smile: "Your Excellency Governor Spike, long time no see, how are you?"

Of course he knows this guy. He is a pirate leader trained by his predecessor. He didn’t expect that he has become the prince of the Ming Empire now. Luck, a prince, and pirates can also be princes. He saluted helplessly. Perfunctory: "His Royal Highness Zhennan Wang, long time no see, thank you for your greetings, I'm fine."

From the moment we met, the battle of the negotiation had begun. Zheng Zhilong narrowed his eyes, pointed at the barracks in the distance and said, "How about it, Your Excellency Governor, is my barracks fairly neatly built?"

Spike also squinted his eyes, looked carefully, and finally found a problem, more than half of the barracks here were empty, so he said in a slightly mocking tone: "Neatness is neat, but there are not enough personnel. Is this a scenic spot specially built for me by His Highness?"

Nima, attractions!Zheng Zhilong originally only wanted to take him around Penghu and Kowloon and then go directly to Macau, but now he has changed his mind, he wants to see the sights, right? This king will let you see enough, he said lightly: "Of course there are enough people. Yes, it’s just that more than half of them have gone to various castles on duty, or I’ll take you around.”

After hearing this, Spike glanced at Zheng Zhilong, thinking in his heart: "Are you trying to deceive me, think that I am in a hurry to negotiate and won't go to see it? , Let him make a fool of himself first, gain the upper hand in momentum, it is worth wasting a few days."

Thinking of this, he said with a half smile: "It happens that I am more interested in castles. Since His Highness is free, I will accompany His Highness to appreciate the castle built by the Ming Empire."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong politely led Spike and his party to the Sun Moon. This is a pretentious weapon lent to him by the emperor, and it can definitely calm down these red-haired ghosts.

Sure enough, when Spike was waiting for the ship with Zheng Zhilong, his heart began to beat. It turned out that this was not a model, but a real battleship. The Ming Empire could build such a huge battleship!
When he saw the giant cannons at the bow and stern, his heart couldn't be more shocked. The Netherlands, which boasted the best cannon-casting technology, has not made many such cannons weighing more than [-] pounds. The Ming Empire actually has a warship Twelve doors are equipped on it!And from his professional point of view, these cannons are definitely not models to frighten people.

Since Spike and his party had 400 people including guards, Zheng Zhilong only brought [-] guards aboard the Sun Moon, and he ordered another [-] guards to board the Chenggong, and the two huge warships set off together and slowly sailed out of the Taijiang Inner Sea. , to Penghu.

Seeing this situation, Spike's heart moved, the Ming Empire wouldn't have only two such huge ships in total, would they all be displayed just to scare me?He pretended to inadvertently ask: "His Royal Highness Zhennan, do you own two such flagships?"

Zheng Zhilong naturally knew what Speke was thinking, and Speke guessed it right, but the emperor asked him to bring these two treasure ships over just to scare the Dutch envoy, so naturally he couldn't tell the truth, he shook his head and smiled: "No, no, no, The other one is not mine, it is a small gift from His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire to my son, my son is not yet an adult, so I will be in charge for the time being."

Hearing this, Spike immediately lost the courage to ask further. The Ming Empire definitely has many such giant ships. If there are only two such super giant ships in the Ming Dynasty, then the other one must belong to their Emperor, Zhennan No matter how much the king brags, he dare not brag that it belongs to his son. If His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty knows, he will be chopped off!
Even if it belongs to other people, those who can own this kind of huge ship are definitely big names in the Ming Empire. There is no need for Zhennan King to offend big shots like him just to brag.So the other ship probably really belonged to his son, such a huge warship was given as a small gift, how could there be fewer warships like this in the Ming Empire!
Zheng Zhilong naturally wouldn't tell this guy that they were riding on His Majesty's flagship, and his son was a big man older than him, so it would be right to let this guy misunderstand.

Penghu is not far from the inland sea of ​​the Taijiang River, and they arrived soon. Naturally, there are huge bastions and densely packed forts. Moreover, in order to scare the Dutch envoy, Zheng Zhilong also specially ordered 3 people to be stationed in each fort and fort. Really frightened Spike, the castle, fort, and personnel are no worse than Chixian Castle!
At the second stop, Zheng Zhilong took Spike to visit the cities of Santo Domingo and San Salvatore. There were many people and forts, but Spike knew that this castle was an old Spanish castle. It seems that this town Nanwang had no place to bring him here, so he was brought here, but these two places alone are already scary enough. Spike secretly kept in mind that if the Netherlands wanted to attack the Ming Empire in the future, they must definitely avoid it. Formosa and Penghu, attacking directly along their coastlines.

As a result, it is conceivable that when Zheng Zhilong took him to see the castles and forts in Zhangzhou, Xiamen, and Kowloon, he was completely desperate. The defense on the coastline was so tight. What else could they attack? The Dutch navy couldn’t get in. !

Seeing his desperate expression, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but proudly said in his heart: "Hey, fighting with this king, I can't beat you to death. I guess it's almost the same, you are ready to lose money!"

(End of this chapter)