That day, Huang Chen captured the "Houston" and returned to Tongshan. Zheng Zhilong led more than a hundred warships to chase De Wet all the way, and fiercely fought back to the Zhongzuo Sea. When the Fujian Province was established, the wind was trembling, and the vegetation was full of soldiers.
The officials, soldiers, merchants, and people were all in panic all day long.
Although Governor Zhu Yifeng was angry that Yu Zigao had taken matters into his own hands and seduced Hongyi to embarrass Zheng Zhilong, ruining his affairs, but if something happened to Zhongzuo, he, the governor, would not be able to escape the involvement. Zhu Yifeng immediately sent troops to the Quanzhou area
Hong Xianchun, the capital commander, led more than 80 warships under his command to the center and left, joined dozens of ships including Yu Zigao, Xu Xinsu, Yang Liu, Yang Qi, etc., and together with Hongyi, they defended the port. At the same time, envoys were urgently sent by boat to meet him.
Zheng Zhilong, who was informed by reason and moved by emotion, even made it clear that he had reported to the court to impeach Yu Zigao. The latter's time was running out now, and he was advised not to jeopardize his plan of recruiting peace because of his temporary anger.
Zheng Zhilong was doubtful. What promise had lured the Dutchmen to the high rank? He knew clearly that it was nothing more than trade. He did not believe that Yu Zigao, a mere commander-in-chief, could do this. He suspected that Zhu Yifeng's talks with him about recruitment were just a delaying strategy.
, with harmful intentions behind his back. However, he did not want to make the matter too serious, so he proposed to expel the Dutch and speed up the negotiation process.
Seeing that Zheng Zhilong was reining in the troops and the center-left crisis was temporarily lifted, Zhu Yifeng breathed a sigh of relief and wrote to Yu Zigao. He scolded Yu Zigao in an unprecedented harsh tone and told him to immediately
Drive the Dutch away and don't anger Zheng Zhilong again.
Zhu Yifeng's impeachment memorial against Yu Zigao was handed over just as the previous emperor passed away and the new emperor ascended the throne. Finally, everything was lost. Seeing that the situation in Fujian could no longer be delayed, he had to remove Yu Zigao, a thorn in his side. Zhu Yifeng wrote again
One letter. What he didn't expect was that Yu Zigao was not punished at all, but something happened again - forbidden sea!
In the fourth year of Tianqi (1624), due to the Red Barbarians, the Ming Dynasty implemented a sea ban for one year, and now the ban on the sea has been discussed again. The emperor Zhu Youjian, who has just ascended the throne, is only eighteen years old. Although he is wise and powerful, he has the appearance of a king.
After all, he was still young and had no understanding of the situation in the South China Sea. Most courtiers failed to realize the special nature of Zheng Zhilong and his pirate alliance, and believed that peace could be restored by banning the sea.
Zhu Yifeng objected fiercely and wrote in a memorial: "Zhangzhi has foreign taxes to pay for the province's soldiers. The wages are indispensable, so foreign taxes seem to be indispensable."
Yan Mingtai, Minister of the Ministry of War, immediately refuted Zhu Yifeng and reported to Emperor Zhu Youjian: "The foreign tax amount is 23,400 taels. Today, the number of foreign ships that go abroad is forty-three, and those that go to Zhangzhou are ten, and those that go to Quan
Ten of them, he abandoned ten in Guangdong and one in Wenzhou, and the rest were taken away by pirates. It is estimated that the pirates gained millions of goods and money." He pointed out that the ships sailing to the South Seas were all huge ships.
, fell into the hands of thieves and fought with the warships, and the warships could not resist. He believed that not banning foreign ships was really an act of "stealing food by borrowing the pirates' soldiers". He suggested: "In the first year of Chongzhen (next year), foreign merchants are prohibited. No one is allowed.
Anyone who violates the prohibition of going into the sea will be punished with a serious crime."
Yan Jizu refuted Yan Mingtai in the matter of engineering affairs. He was from Longxi, Zhangzhou, and had many connections with Yuegang maritime merchants, so he fully supported Zhu Yifeng.
Zhu Youjian, who was originally impressed by Yan Mingtai's words, hesitated again.
…………
October, Tongshan, Luying suburbs.
After William was defeated and captured, he became Huang Chen's subordinate. In exactly one month or thirty days, by teaching Huang Chen swordsmanship and Latin, the relationship between the two parties grew day by day, and he was no longer subject to strict restrictions.
He could move around at will, and occasionally one or two Chinese sentences would pop out of his mouth, which often made Huang Chen laugh. Today was another breakthrough, and he was allowed to watch the training of Lu Ying soldiers with Huang Chen.
William is very satisfied with his current life. Such treatment was something he never thought of before surrendering. Huang Chen is a cheerful, enthusiastic, sincere, generous and charming person. Of course, his mouth can sometimes be very vicious. If you don't pay attention,
Will be hurt by him, this is his only shortcoming. However, no matter how good this place is, it is still a foreign country. Late at night, William often thinks of his parents, younger brother and sister living in the Netherlands, of his home in Palatine, and of the animals he raised.
Horse.
Within a month, four of the thirty-six seriously injured people on the "Houston" returned to the arms of the Lord, including three Dutchmen and one German compatriot. William was very sad about this, but he could not blame Huang.
On Chen's head, this war was initiated by iquan (an official) and De Wet, who were just one of the many participants and executors. Huang Chen tried his best to treat the wounded afterwards, and William saw them all, so he could only say,
They were unlucky and failed to withstand the call of the Lord.
"Hey, William, did you hear me?"
Huang Chen's voice woke William up: "Sorry, I didn't hear clearly. What did you say?"
"I'm asking you, what do you think of them? Do they deserve to be called elite?" Huang Chen said while pointing in front of him, where artillery, blunderbuss, spears, and swords were stacked on top of each other. Thousands of people gathered together, full of murderous intent.
This is the old army camp that Zhao Hongyi painstakingly built, and it is the well-deserved first combat force under Huang Chen.
"kill!"
Following Zhao Hongyi's loud shout, the formation came to life, like a rotating roulette wheel, ever-changing, yet maintaining its fundamentals.
William looked at it carefully for a while and asked puzzledly: "It is very complicated and exquisite, but what is its use? - to please the commander? To intimidate the enemy?"
Huang Chen was very dissatisfied with William's comments and raised his voice slightly: "William, have you forgotten something?"
William was startled, what had he forgotten?
Huang Chen reminded him: "They are the ones who defeated you. If they can only please the commander and intimidate the enemy, wouldn't you Europeans be even worse?"
William responded calmly: "I hope you won't misunderstand me. I didn't say that they will only please the commander, I simply think that it is unnecessary. In addition, I have to remind you that most of the Houston's are sailors, and only
Twenty-five regular soldiers, they only received six months of military training in the Netherlands before rushing to Asia. According to European standards, they are still new recruits."
Huang Chen was unconvinced and said: "What does this mean? Lu Camp has only been established for half a year."
William shrugged and said, "I have no intention of arguing with you about the merits of the soldiers on both sides. I'm just telling you the facts."
Huang Chen asked curiously: "How do Europeans, or the Dutch, train soldiers? I think you graduated from Siegen Military Academy and must know something about it."
William said: "Of course. Each newly recruited soldier will receive two weeks of basic military skills training, such as walking to the beat of drums, how to use spears and muskets, and then be assigned for further skills training, and finally small units.
We will conduct mobile training with large units and be ready to go to the battlefield in 6 months."
Huang Chen said deliberately: "In my opinion, there is nothing surprising."
William said helplessly: "You know my English is very bad. There are many things that I can't express clearly in English. This is my fault. You have not seen with your own eyes how the Dutch train soldiers, so please don't jump to conclusions. Dutch soldiers are like this
The best infantryman in the world."
Huang Chen said proudly: "I won't change my mind easily. I only know that the Europeans and the Dutch lost to my army soldiers."
William couldn't help but said angrily: "If you can give me 100 people, I will prove to you in 3 months that your idea is wrong."
Huang Chen was secretly amused. After several provocations, William finally couldn't help but take the bait and said: "I still won't change my mind, but I appreciate your courage. I promise you, if one hundred people are enough, I can allocate
You have two hundred men." He currently has two land camps, old and new, with two thousand men and horses under his banner. He cannot afford to build another land camp with one thousand men, and there is no need. One or two hundred men will be fine.
William was not in a hurry to answer, and lowered his head in thought.
Following the reforms of Prince Maurice, the Netherlands reduced the company's strength from 150 to 80 men, with spearmen and musketeers accounting for half each. The battalion consisted of 6 companies, with a strength of about 500 men, and a front width of about
500 meters, with spears in the middle and musketeers on the flanks. It avoids the waste of manpower in the original Spanish infantry regiments and greatly enhances flexibility. The whole battalion of soldiers is arranged in a checkerboard shape of 3 like the ancient Roman legions.
A combat line, this is the basic combat unit of the Netherlands.
William did not think that Huang Chen would be generous enough to give him a battalion of troops, so he thought that 150 men, plus 10 Europeans, forming two companies was the most ideal result.
People were not a problem, and neither was eighty spears. But William asked for eighty muskets, which made Huang Chen scratch his head. He had only 400 muskets for his two thousand soldiers. He finally gritted his teeth and decided to take the "Houston"
(heusden)" He left four of the forty-four Western-style matchlock guns captured by the bird ship for research and imitation, and gave the remaining forty to William, who also worked on how to piece together forty bird guns.
The next day William appeared in front of one hundred and fifty pirates with great ambition. Behind him stood a short, dark, middle-aged man. He was the captain of the bird ship of the Dutch fleet captured by Ruan Jin and Zhang Xing. He himself
Although he knows some Dutch, he is not as smooth as Huang Chen and William in communicating in English, but as a military translator, he can barely give simple orders.
Looking at the short but strong subordinates in front of him, William was very satisfied with the soldiers Huang Chen selected for him. He knew that his translator's spoken language was poor and his understanding ability was also very limited. After briefly introducing himself, he stopped talking.
Talk too much.
If you want to ask who the person William fears the most, it is none other than the founder, principal and instructor of the Siegen Military Academy, von Wolhausen. He is simply a superior, cold-blooded tyrant on the training ground, using all means
It tortured the military academy cadets, and in just 6 months, countless cadets quit. Thanks to Jasper's company, William was able to survive those nightmare days.
William never thought of becoming a person like Wolhausen one day, but in order to make Huang Chen admit his prejudices, he thought he could give it a try?... (To be continued...)