Chapter 243 Zheng Zhilong was betrayed

Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 243 Zheng Zhilong was betrayed

Chapter 242

Subic Strait.

Seeing the main battleships of the Ning Navy retreating, the morale of the Zheng fleet, which was still a little uneasy at first, was boosted. Hundreds of thousands of conch horns sounded at the same time, and the sound of the conch horns resounded across the sea and sky.

Hundreds of warships from Zheng's fleet formed a huge waning moon phalanx. The same six routes were advancing at the same time, but the number was ten times greater than that of the Ning Navy fleet, and the momentum was naturally ten times more terrifying!

Pirates are not soldiers in the true sense. Although they are fierce, they are better at fighting against the wind. Watching Ning Haijun's naval fleet retreat, they have forgotten the scars of being beaten by Ning Haijun. The scars have really healed and they have forgotten the pain.

"Continue to retreat!"

Li Zhixiang actually does not want to fight such a battle with the Zheng fleet in Subic Bay. The main problem is that the Subic Strait is too narrow. Compared with the huge scale of the Ning Navy and the Zheng fleet, this strait is too narrow.

.

There was no wide enough sea area for the Ning Navy's warships to take advantage of their speed. The main force of the Ning Navy retreated, as if they were afraid of the Zheng fleet.

Of course, the Dutch Combined Fleet located in Subic Port avoided the fate of being wiped out, and a total of six scarred warships and armed merchant ships survived.

Zheng Zhilong watched Ning Haijun retreat and knew that Ning Haijun wanted to distance himself and take advantage of Ning Haijun's naval gun advantage: "Catch up!"

In order to pursue Ning Haijun's warships, densely packed centipede boats appeared on the sea. The centipede boats had long and slender captains, and coupled with the manpower rowing, they were very fast in a short period of time.

These small centipede ships did indeed close the distance with the Ning Navy warships. They began to fire cannonballs at the Ning Navy warships. It was just a pity that the guns of these small warships were too small. Although the cannons roared and the shells flew everywhere, the problem was,

These shells that were lucky enough to hit had limited damage to the main battleships of the Ning Navy.

But everything has its surprises. An artillery piece lifted up by the waves hit the battleship Gaoyang of the Ning Navy's Sixth Squadron. The shell hit the mast. Although it did not break the mast, it did break the rope of the sail.

It was broken, and under the influence of huge gravity, the main sail of the ship fell off.

The speed inevitably slowed down, and more and more small warships rushed up. Most of the shells were fired into the sea. First, a puff of white smoke rose up, and then a column of water rose up.

But some of them still hit the battleship Gaoyang. The hit part made a heart-wrenching crackling sound, and flames started to rise. The temperature of the red-hot lead ball was too high, and it smashed into the wooden hull, so there was no fire.

ghost!

However, compared with Ning Haijun's sulfur shells, the effect of this thing is a bit too poor, and the forward-loading smoothbore cannon's rate of fire is too miserable, so Ning Haijun's navy has enough time to put out the flames.

But the problem is that the Gaoyang is too slow and is surrounded by dozens of warships.

Chen sometimes wanted to send his warships to rescue the Gaoyang.

However, Li Zhixiang ordered him to abandon the Gaoyang and retreat.

"Why?"

Li Zhixiang cursed angrily: "Compassion doesn't control soldiers, but you are still an old navy soldier, look at it!"

Chen occasionally took a closer look and discovered that a fleet of about 150 warships from the Zheng fleet on the right wing were rapidly surrounding them.

If they were surrounded by the right wing of Zheng's fleet, they might not be defeated, but they would inevitably have to fight a close battle, which they were not good at.

The Zheng fleet, which had obtained the British large-caliber naval guns, had significantly stronger firepower than before, and the large-caliber naval guns also posed a great threat to the Ning Navy warships.

Once they are entangled by Zheng's fleet, their losses will be even heavier.

"Gaoyang, the main fleet is retreating. You are responsible for the rear. If we are defeated, we are allowed to surrender to the Zheng fleet!"

On the battleship Gaoyang, the fire was actually already burning, and the fierce artillery fire and the enemy ships rushing up one after another made it impossible for the sailors to take action to put out the fire. The most terrible thing was that the cannonballs that had no time to fire were burned and exploded.

An earth-shaking explosion occurred. This terrifying explosion made the morale of the Zheng fleet even higher.

Zheng Zhilong looked calm on the surface, but in fact, the hands hidden in his sleeves were clenched into fists, and the veins were exposed. Seeing that the battleship was shattered by the explosion, he let out a long sigh of relief and said with a smile: "We won

!”

All the generals around him were equally relieved. Shi Daxuan even felt sorry for the bombed-to-shattered battleship: "What a pity for such a good battleship and the cannons on the battleship..."

"It's okay. Once we win this battle, the battleships and cannons of those northern barbarians will be ours!"

Zheng Zhilong was not happy for long, because as the weather got later and later, the war was inevitably forced to stop.

Early the next morning, the two sides fought again on the South China Sea. The Ning Navy used cavalry to fly kites and continued to bleed the Zheng fleet. Regardless of this one or that ship, as long as they were added up, the losses of the Zheng fleet would be successful.

Straight up.

As the warships of the Ning Navy moved farther and farther away, the huge fireships and small warships of the Zheng fleet began to lose touch with their main warships due to speed issues.

Zheng Zhilong unknowingly discovered that they were being led by Ning Haijun's warships, heading further and further north.

Shi Daxuan judged: "Admiral, Ning Haijun seems to be preparing to attack Xiamen or Quanzhou!"

"Chase!"

Zheng Zhilong has no better way. He is currently riding a tiger and cannot get off.

"Attack it and save it!"

This is the big gift Li Zhixiang is preparing to give to Zheng Zhilong.

At the same time, news of the Dutch East India Company's massacre of Chinese in Batavia also reached Liaodong. As soon as the news came back, it was not included in the "Liaodong Times", "Liaodong Weekly", "Liaodong Business News" and other newspapers.

The exceptions are all front-page headlines: "We want to pay with blood."

Children are the hope for the future, and everyone in Liaodong knows this.

For a long time, immigrants in Liaodong have been mainly young people, with a particularly high proportion of teenagers and children. In addition to those families who came to Liaodong with their families, refugees in Liaodong will also take the initiative to find and send uncared children through various means.

To Liaodong.

Because when you arrive in Liaodong with your children, whether you are looking for a job or settling in, you will receive preferential treatment than ordinary young men. The children will receive better care and receive a good education in Liaodong. When they grow up, they will naturally have a deep appreciation for Liaodong and Cheng Shijie.

There is higher recognition and more loyalty.

Among the various newspapers in Liaodong, "Liaodong Times" is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Liaodong, with a daily circulation of 35,000 copies. As the official mouthpiece of Liaodong, many policies and notices of the Liaodong Management Committee will be published in "Liaodong Times"

"It was announced above that "Liaodong Times" also has great influence in Liaodong.

Therefore, the newspaper's report of "The Dutch massacred the Chinese in Batavia" immediately aroused a strong response. Countless people took to the streets to petition the Liaodong Management Committee, demanding that the Management Committee immediately launch a war against the Dutch East India Company and let the Liaodong Management Committee immediately launch a war against the Dutch East India Company.

The Dutch pay with blood.

When Bishop Robben arrived in Liaodong, he had an important mission, because Cheng Shijie's Ning Navy had a legion training group composed mainly of Portuguese people. Although these officer training groups no longer need to train Ning Navy soldiers, their so-called

Ninety percent of the instructors are here to promote the teachings.

The Portuguese are a country with freedom of religious belief, but more than 97% of the people believe in Catholicism. Because the Portuguese officer mercenaries hired by Sun Yuanhua initially played a positive role in the Ning Navy's occupation of Liaodong, Cheng Shijie did not burn bridges and allowed

They live in Liaodong.

As Liaodong developed better and better, Portuguese priests such as Lu Ruohan (Portuguese), Ban Ande, and Gongsha Silao, who had a close relationship with Sun Yuanhua, proposed to spread Catholicism in Liaodong.

At that time, Cheng Shijie hoped to obtain more Western cultural and scientific knowledge. In fact, he could obtain these things from later generations without any effort. However, the problem was that he had to give Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua the face. In this way, Cheng Shijie agreed to establish a business in Liaodong.

However, the prerequisite for the Catholic Church is to build a church, and the church must send him at least a hundred outstanding craftsmen.

But the problem is that after this agreement was reached, with the help of Godfather Mason, Portugal sent more than 300 outstanding talents to Liaodong, including the famous mathematician Descartes, who is now 41 years old.

Descartes now serves as a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Liaodong University. This professorship is different from the professorial title of later generations. In Liaodong, it was similar to that in medieval Europe. Professor was equivalent to the position of dean.

As Portugal sent famous and talented people in Europe who were persecuted by Protestants to Liaodong, it not only gained the favor of Catholics, but also avoided direct conflict with Protestants.

In this way, four Catholic churches were established in Jinzhou, Xinghai, Zhenhai and Gaizhou, Liaodong. The funds for these churches were not provided by Cheng Shijie, but were raised by the churches themselves. Even Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua donated 30,000 yuan each.

Two and ten thousand taels of silver.

As the influence of Catholicism in Liaodong grows, Bishop Robben, as a Protestant, becomes uneasy. If Liaodong is just a barbaric land, they have no interest in spreading the gospel of the Lord in Liaodong.

But the problem is that the population of Liaodong has exceeded five million, which is almost the same as that of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Robben also learned from Lu Ruohan's method and brought more than a hundred craftsmen from the Netherlands to establish a Protestant church covering an area of ​​15 acres.

Church, but he can only use candies, towels, fruits, dried fruits and other things to attract people to come to the church.

Before Bishop Robben opened the situation, he heard the news that the Dutch massacred the Chinese in Batavia.

"Those nobles are really stupid. They don't even know how powerful Liaodong is!"

Robben looked at Father Sean angrily and said: "Even if they really don't know, they should find out from us or the Portuguese what is the situation now?"

"What else can we do? The public sentiment is aroused, not only in Jinzhou, but also in the entire Liaodong. There are many articles in the newspapers, demanding that Marshal Cheng not be soft and pay with blood. People spontaneously took to the streets to demonstrate, demanding that the management committee expel us as soon as possible.

Ning Haijun’s army has already started to take action, maybe the elite troops of Ning Haijun will appear in Batavia tomorrow.”

"It's terrible. All our followers ran away in an instant!"

Robben said angrily: "I once asked a devout believer why he quit religion. I told him that we are a religion, not a secular country. We cannot be affected by national affairs. He told me that there is no home without a country..."

"That's it. Now no one from the Ming Dynasty is willing to sell us vegetables, and no one sells us eggs or milk. Now we even have to drink water ourselves. However, along the way, those Ming people seem to want to eat us.

, I told them that I am Portuguese and I don’t dare to reveal my identity as Dutch at all!”

"God, I wish I could leave here tomorrow!"

Robben stood up and said: "No, I want to write a letter to the Pope and ask the Pope to intervene. The great situation was suddenly ruined by these damn bastards!"

"I'm afraid it's too late to write a letter?"

"It's better to be late than to do nothing!"
To be continued...