"Those Chinese fighting on the island today must have been trained in European infantry tactics!" Dutch Admiral Wei Malang said angrily: "In East Asia, there are no people who may participate in training except Spanish people.
, who else could it be?”
Li Jin murmured: "Is it the Portuguese in Macau?"
At that time, the Dutch, regardless of Spanish or Portuguese, all called them "Specks". This term means "bacon slices" in Dutch and may be a curse word.
Regarding this expedition to the coast of Fujian to secure treaty ports, Wei Malang felt more and more that it was not as easy and smooth as he initially imagined. He pointed the finger at Li Jin and questioned him: "Uncle Jin, you expected
There will be fishermen and businessmen coming to bring us supplies, and there will be people who will take the initiative to do business with us. Where are these people you mentioned? Why is there an armed caravan here? Uncle Jin, as for the eunuch of His Majesty the Emperor
, can he give us the Penghu Islands as a gift? Are you sure?"
Li Jin sighed. He was actually helpless. The development of the matter was completely beyond his expectation. However, he did not want to be looked down upon by the Dutch because of this, so he retorted: "Your Majesty General, if your subordinates treat the coastal residents well,
One thing, I think our current situation will be much better. Moreover, if your men can occupy the entire island today and create a fait accompli, our voices can be heard by the Emperor of the Ming Empire!"
In order to obtain Chinese goods, the Dutch East India Company ordered the Dutch merchant houses in Siam, Vietnam, and Japan to do everything possible to trade with China, and at the same time attract Chinese merchants to come to Batavia, but from China, Banten, Jinshi, Pattani and
The quality of Chinese goods shipped by merchants from various countries in the Maluku Islands is not satisfactory, and long-distance transshipment also greatly increases the cost. Therefore, Wei Malang's expedition to Penghu is inevitable. And if he wants to cooperate with China
When dealing with the government, the Dutch fleet cannot do without middlemen like Li Jin for the time being.
Wei Malang softened his tone: "Uncle Jin, our interests are the same. You are the best agent and manager of the East India Company. If the Pescadores Islands can become the second Macau, then your
Business interests will definitely be protected by the company. I admit that due to some of our mistakes, we are temporarily in trouble in Penghu. What do you think we should do next?"
Li Jin thought for a while and said: "I think our difficulties all come from the China United Company. We didn't know the details of this company in advance, so we were so passive. I have thought about it, I will go to Fuzhou for a trip.
Go and meet directly with Eunuch Gao Cai or the Governor-General. The Ming Empire officials are always very wary of spontaneously formed civil groups. Maybe I can persuade the Ming Dynasty officials to jointly deal with this China United Company."
Wei Malang nodded: "Now, that's all we can do. The damn Eunice, God knows what happened to it! If the Eunice was here too, maybe we would have occupied the entire island today.
"
Li Jin took one of the two Junk ships in the Dutch fleet: the "Rotterdam", weighed anchor and sailed to the open sea, preparing to cross the strait eastward to Fuzhou to negotiate with Ming Dynasty officials.
It was getting late at this time, and twilight had already enveloped the sea. The sailing ship Rotterdam had almost arrived at the mouth of Penghu Bay. Half of the sailors on board were Chinese recruited from all over Southeast Asia and were not familiar with the local sea routes. Li Jin paid a large sum of money to let him sail.
They dared to take risks and sail at night.
Li Jin was in a daze in the cabin. Suddenly his servant who had been with him for many years rushed in. He was speechless for a long time, his face turned red, and he kept pointing outside, but could not say a word. Li Jin was very annoyed and pushed him away.
, walked towards the outside of the cabin: "Useless thing! Why are you so panicked? What..."
Suddenly, Li Jin seemed to have been stabbed in the acupuncture point. He was speechless at the cabin door. At the entrance of Penghu Bay in front of him, in the night, the dark sea was densely dotted with lights from ships, and it was difficult to see clearly the lights of ships.
The outline of the bay, but based on the number of fishing fires dotted all over the sky, it can be estimated that there are at least hundreds of boats moored on both sides of the bay, and there are dozens of boats patrolling back and forth in the bay. Among them, several boats seem to have already
I noticed the lights on Li Jin's boat and was approaching here.
"This, this, where did so many ships come from?" Li Jin finally found the ability to speak. No one could answer his question. But one thing Li Jin was sure of was that so many ships gathered like stars in the sky.
This place is definitely not here to do business with the Dutch; it is obvious that these ships are parked there in a very organized and disciplined manner, more like an army. Moreover, a cannon shot was fired from the ship opposite.
!
"Turn around! Turn around!" Li Jin shouted hurriedly. Fortunately, there was a crosswind blowing on the sea at the moment, and the sailboat took advantage of the very convenient maneuverability of the Chinese rigid sail, so it was relatively fast to turn the boat around.
"They are chasing us!" Li Jin's servant also recovered the ability to speak and pointed to the sea in surprise.
Li Jin looked back and saw that a few stars were chasing him. Tonight there were dark clouds, the moon was nowhere to be seen, and it was almost impossible to see out of sight on the sea. However, these boats still had the courage to pursue them. If the people on the boats were not familiar with the sea lanes of Penghu Bay,
, that is audacious.
Yin Feng was discussing tomorrow's battle with Kutre, Luo Aquan and others. A sailor rushed in: "Report! Captain, there is a ship in the bay that wants to sneak out to sea at night. After being discovered by us, it fled back!"
Yin Feng frowned: "What ship? How many are there?"
"It's dark and I can't see clearly. There should be only one ship."
"Stop chasing. Give an order to Mai Dahai and send 10 more ships to seal the sea tightly. No ships are allowed to enter or exit."
Yin Feng turned around and said to Colonel Cutre: "Wait a moment, you will go ashore, and you must arrive at the Empress Palace camp before dawn tomorrow. Remember, your task is to defend the camp, don't attack easily."
After a while, Colonel Kutre led sharpshooter Luo Aquan and more than a dozen soldiers in black clothes and black trousers to climb onto the rocky shore and disappeared into the darkness. This was a special force trained with painstaking efforts by Yin Feng and Kutre.
At the beginning of this year, he paid double the salary to retain Colonel Coutre, asking him to teach all his experience in fighting around the world to a group of selected escort soldiers. However, the war technology at this time was still very limited.
Most of the so-called "special forces" are just troops that have more training than ordinary troops and pay special attention to accurate marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat capabilities. At most, some assassination skills that Cutre himself figured out while fighting with indigenous people in various parts of Southeast Asia are added.
, latent skills.
However, the training for Luo Aquan and others is very hard, and the pay is also very high. They usually receive fifteen taels of silver per month and an annuity of one hundred and fifty taels at the end of each year, which is the same level as ordinary guards commander-level officers.
The general members of the company's escort team, including the sailors of the battle fleet, will receive an annuity of 80 taels at the end of each year, and an additional 10 taels of food money per month. This condition is quite advantageous. You must know that every sixth-rank officer of the Ming Dynasty's guard army had 100 households.
The monthly salary was only ten stones, which was equivalent to about 10-20 taels of silver at that time; while the average soldier only had a monthly salary of about 2-4 taels of silver.
Therefore, among the immigrants in Taiwan, there are quite a lot of people who want to join the escort. Many refugees on the mainland who cannot survive due to natural disasters and man-made disasters specially take a boat to Taiwan and ask to join the escort. If it were not for Yin Feng
Adhering to the route of elite soldiers and strictly controlling the recruitment process, the number of escorts has already exceeded 1,200. Of course, this is also due to the insufficient number of weapons and equipment.
Yin Feng returned to the cabin and summoned the commanders of the battle fleet to continue discussing tomorrow's maritime battle plan. At this time, the weather gradually changed. After a gust of wind, the dark clouds dissipated, and the bright moonlight suddenly filled the sea.
.
A Dutch boat was hiding behind the rocks near the mouth of the bay. Captain Bont, a Dutch naval officer on board, stuck out his head and peeked at the mouth of the bay through the moonlight. This sight made him speechless for a moment.
Two hours ago, Li Jin's ship hurriedly fled back to the coast of Magong Port, bringing back the news that the bay had been blocked.
Admiral Wei Malang jumped up in surprise: "There are so many ships coming from there? God bless, what on earth is going on?"
Li Jin could only spread his hands and shook his head helplessly.
The Dutch had no choice but to send a small boat and six sailors, stick to the coastline, and spend two hours secretly paddling to the mouth of the bay.
Finally, when the weather changed, Captain Bunt saw a Chinese Junk ship cruising 100 meters ahead. Fortunately, the small boat was hidden in the shadow of the rocks and was not discovered. The white moonlight made a flag on the mast of the ship appear.
It is very eye-catching. It is a flag with a circular pattern. Although the color of the flag is not clear because there is only moonlight illumination at night, Captain Bunt remembers this pattern in his heart.
Two hours later, Captain Bunt drew the pattern of the flag in Admiral Wei Malang's cabin.
Wei Malang and Li Jin looked at each other and took a breath of cold air at the same time. Upon seeing this, Captain Bunt asked cautiously: "General, what's wrong?"
Li Jin smiled bitterly and pointed in the direction of the coast: "Those who fought with us on the island today also used this banner!"
"China United Company, why didn't you know anything about their situation in advance? It's like they emerged from the ground." Wei Malang walked around the cabin and said distressedly: "It seems that the other party has bad intentions.
There will be a fierce battle tomorrow!"
…
With Yin Feng, a time traveler, intervening in history, the Dutch people are very depressed. They feel that they are being beaten first every time they do things, and they are extremely passive.
The next morning, when densely packed Chinese ships entered the bay in a horizontal line, the Dutch were also ready for battle. Wei Malang believed that with the firepower of the Orange and the assistance of the two Junk ships, it was still possible to defeat the enemy.
It can compete with hundreds of sailing ships that can only rely on hand-to-hand combat.
The harsh facts once again dealt a heavy blow to the Dutch people's self-confidence.
The huge three-masted battleship Feilong stood out from a group of Chinese-style sailing ships, standing out like a flock of chickens. Dark cannons protruded from dozens of portholes on the ship's side, and a Chinese flag with a blue background fluttered high.
If this was not enough, a three-masted ship with a combined Chinese and Western structure appeared at the mouth of the bay. Although the hull was a bit bloated and did not look like a professional warship, the 24-pound cannon on the bow was also very eye-catching, and the portholes on both sides were also very eye-catching.
A muzzle appeared.
There is another huge ship with the hull of a Chinese sailboat and a Western-style sail structure. It is also a three-masted sailboat and is at the end of the team.
There were hundreds of sailboats on each wing of the Feilong, all of them beating and blowing conch shells and making a noise to move forward. The entire Penghu Bay was suddenly filled with the sound of countless conch trumpets.
Wei Malang threw down the telescope, grabbed Li Jin who was also watching from the bow, and said angrily: "This is a battleship! A battleship! A battleship that only exists in Europe! Why does this Chinese company have a battleship?"
Li Jin tried his best to break free from Wei Malang's big hand, took several steps back, and said with a pale face: "I don't know! Is it true that only Europeans can build such warships?"
Wei Malang was speechless for a moment, turned his head and ordered: "Captain Bunt, order the warships to move forward, seize the upper hand, and disrupt the opponent's formation first!" He was not convinced, but decided to insist on fighting.
Li Jin was talking to himself on the side, with various expressions on his face changing: "The Chinese can imitate the ships, but can you also imitate the Dutch's courage in crossing the sea?"
The officers were preparing for battle, but all the Dutch sailors were gasping for air. Although the 60-gun Orange was powerful enough, how could it fight against hundreds of warships from the other side, especially when the other side also had official warships participating in the battle?
This battle is impossible to fight!
Wei Malang suddenly remembered something and loudly ordered: "Tell the Marines to launch an attack on the island immediately and be sure to capture the Empress Palace camp."