East Factory Governor

Chapter 799 Don't Fly the Meat Up to Your Mouth (Two Chapters in One)

In the afternoon, Zheng Zhihu's vanguard fleet continued to approach the entrance of the Strait of Malacca, stopping only two miles away from the Franji fleet guarding the entrance.

The fleets of the two sides confront each other, the muzzles of the black holes are pointing at each other, and the war is imminent.

At this time, the follow-up fleet of the Ming army gradually came up, and several fan-shaped formations were set up around the entrance of the Strait of Malacca. Now ships from any country cannot pass here.

Qin Shuhuai was not in a hurry, anyway, the British had to transport their weapons to Ava, and there was no news about whether Li Dingguo's army had entered Siam. He had plenty of time to fight the Portuguese first.

In other words, he is determined to win the Strait of Malacca.Others don't need to know the importance of this strait, and he would be a fool if he doesn't.

If you can't even control the Strait of Malacca, then it's better to chop firewood for so many warships built by Ming Dynasty.

This era is originally an era where the strong are king.

Europeans can even get a royal license to be a pirate, so he now has an invincible fleet, so of course he has to grab enough territory.

In the evening, the envoy came to see Zheng Zhihu for the second time.

"Dear General, after our careful consideration, I would like to convey Governor Nelson's opinion to you. As long as your fleet is divided into several batches, and each batch does not exceed five large warships, or ten small warships, we will allow your fleet to Approved and provided with all necessary assistance. In addition, the Governor-General also said that in order to show our friendship with your country, we will open navigation to you free of charge.”

After Tong Shi translated these words, Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Cai, and a group of naval generals present all laughed.

"Hehe, these red-haired ghosts originally wanted to buy road money from us!"

"Haha, it's quite domineering."

"This place originally belonged to our Daming, when did we have to look at other people's faces when we went our own way?"

Zheng Zhihu smiled and waved to the gang of pirates who turned around, signaling them to be quiet.

Then he said to the envoy, "This envoy, your governor's opinion will have been received. In addition, I will also convey to you an opinion from our Lord. The Lord said that our fleet must pass together, and at the same time At that time, all the muzzles of your fort must be retracted to avoid accidents. Of course, in order to show sincerity, all the muzzles of our fleet will also be retracted."

The envoy pondered for a while, and asked, "Do you really want to pass together? With all due respect, this will make us very uneasy, and the governor will not agree to this condition."

After Tongshi finished translating these words, the audience was suddenly dead silent.

All the generals of the Ming army stared at the envoy with cannibalistic eyes, and the envoy felt a chill in the air, which made goose bumps all over his body.

Zheng Zhihu still had a smile on his face, but that smile was more of contempt and disdain.

After a long time, he said slowly, "Our lord also said that he has a bad temper, and if he can't reach an agreement, he will overturn the table. I beg your envoy to bring this to your governor."

When the envoy heard this, his face was ashen-colored.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "General Zheng, may I take the liberty to ask, can you let me meet Mr. An Guogong?"

Zheng Zhihu said with a sneer, "What is the identity of our Duke, is it that you, a little emissary, just met you?"

The envoy sighed, knowing that it would be useless to talk too much, so he said, "In this case, I will take my leave first. I will definitely bring the words of your Excellency the General to the governor."

Zheng Zhihu said, "I'll give you another day to think about it. If you don't get a reply within a day, I will regard you as rejecting this friendly proposal. Any unpredictable things that happen at that time will be entirely your responsibility."

The envoy was half-dead with anger, a bullshit friendly proposal!Could it be that you Ming will agree to other countries bringing a huge fleet into your inland rivers swaggeringly?

……

In the Governor's Mansion of Manaca, the generals of the Portuguese army gathered together to discuss countermeasures.

As expected, these generals were divided into the main combat faction and the main peace faction, and the two sides quarreled fiercely, which made Nelson's headache even worse.

Nelson actually prefers the main battle, because he has a very important and irrefutable reason.

That is, the Ming army is now conducting military operations in various ports in the Far East, and their ambition to dominate the Far East is already obvious.

But at this moment, they came to Manlajia with such a huge fleet, but they said that they just wanted to pass through the strait, which may not be convincing.

The Manlaga Strait is the hub of waterway transportation between the East and the West. If the Ming army wanted to dominate the Far East, how could they not let it go?
just pass?Ghosts believe them!
But the question is, if you fight against them, how can you fight to win?
The opponent has seventy super warships as large as a hill, and each ship is equipped with 1000 cannons of the same level as coastal defense guns, which add up to more than [-] cannons!

Hell, what kind of firepower is this?
And how many coastal defense guns are there in Manchuria?Probably only one-ninth of others!

As for the warships at the entrance, Nelson didn't even count on them.The largest of those warships is the Galen class, and they are currently surrounded by the Ming army. As soon as a battle starts, the entire army will be wiped out in an instant.

He now regrets using those warships to blockade the port, because he misjudged that the dozen or so large ships and thirty small boats were all the warships sent by the Ming army this time, so the two sides confronted each other. With coastal defense artillery, it will not be a disadvantage.

But I didn't expect that it was just someone else's vanguard fleet, and there were several times as many warships behind it.

In this way, once the fight starts, the opponent can destroy his fleet with a single shot.

If he had known this earlier, he would not have put the battleship at the entrance of the strait to confront the Ming army even if he was killed.

Now, those battleships are almost equivalent to being given to the Ming army.

No, you can't just kill the soldiers like this.

In any case, first withdraw the fleet there.

……

In the early morning of the next day, the emissary came to Zheng Zhi's tiger ship for the third time.

This time he said, "Honorable General, in order to demonstrate the great friendship with your country, our governor announced that he agrees with your plan."

Zheng Zhihu said suspiciously, "Hey, did you agree so readily?"

The messenger said, "Yes, this is the order of the Governor. We will withdraw all the warships at the entrance later, and all coastal defense guns will be retracted. At the same time, we also hope that all your warships will also be retracted." Raise the muzzle."

Zheng Zhihu is also an old sailor who followed Zheng Zhilong in the South and North Wars. No matter how he thinks about it, he feels that something is wrong.

All fools know that as long as the Ming army's huge fleet enters the strait, it will be easy to destroy the forts on both sides of the strait.

Is the opposing governor a fool?

It's not like, if you were a fool, you wouldn't have made so many requests before.

But the scheming Zheng Zhihu still said calmly, "If that's the case, that's the best, you guys should quickly withdraw the battleship."

After the envoy left, Zheng Zhihu immediately sent someone to inform Qin Shuhuai in a small fast boat.

Qin Shuhuai was also surprised when he received the news, wondering if the other party really wanted to "friendly" let our army pass?

At this time, Wang Wang sent a report saying that the fleet of Franbots had begun to withdraw into the strait.

Although Meng Hu didn't understand naval warfare, he still asked, "Your Majesty, did you just let them run away?"

Qin Shuhuai didn't understand naval warfare either, but he felt that it was unreasonable not to eat the fat in his mouth.

So he said, "Damn it, tell the whole army that the table can be turned over."

Lai San'er smiled and said, "Master, this time we seem to be unreasonable. Haha, it's like two gangs negotiating, and they have already agreed to our request, so we will still smash the table and kill people."

Qin Shuhuai kicked Lai San'er, "Can I have a bad temper?"

Meng Hu also kicked Lai San'er, then ran out with a smile on his face to deliver the order.

The reason why Qin Shuhuai gave the order to fire was because he felt that unless the Portuguese didn't want Malacca, they would never let such a huge Ming army fleet enter the strait easily.

On the other hand, they must be planning to allow the fleet to enter now.

Since you can't guess what the opponent is planning, why don't you solve the problem first, so as to reduce the number of opponents?
It is said that after Meng Hu conveyed Qin Shuhuai's order to the captain, the captain immediately ordered the gunner to fire.

Boom boom boom!
The eight Hongyi cannons on the battleship fired first, and eight huge shells shot out amidst the smoke.

Qin Shuhuai's flagship was about five miles away from the Portuguese warship, and the Hongyi cannon could hit it, but the accuracy was not that high.

But fortunately, the opponent's fleet was huddled at the mouth of the strait and was relatively dense. The eight shells were lucky and hit one.

Bang!
The shell hit a Galen ship, and sawdust flew across the ship, piercing a hole in one of the decks of the Galen ship.

The other warships of the Ming army saw that Lord Guo's flagship opened fire, and they did not hesitate to open fire on the spot.

Boom boom boom!
It seemed that a storm had suddenly ushered in on the calm ocean, and a huge roar sounded louder than a single sound.

The Ming army had surrounded the Portuguese fleet in a semi-fan shape before, and the sides of each ship must face the opposing warship.

So this firing uses the maximum firepower.

Seventy battleships, each with eight Hongyi cannons on the side of the ship, if fired at once, it would be 560 shells.

In addition, there are eight Galen ships, each equipped with three red cannons on the side, which can also be fired immediately.

In addition, there are more than 30 junk ships and more than 60 small and medium-sized ships. They are also relatively close to each other.

For a while, nearly a thousand shells roared away. One can imagine what kind of perverted fire coverage it was?

The Portuguese fleet suffered a sudden disaster.

Nelson's original calculation was to first pretend to agree to the passage of the Ming army, withdraw the fleet at the mouth of the strait into the strait, and then rely on coastal defense artillery to fight the Ming army.

But now his plan not only failed, but also paid a heavy price for his stupid idea.

why?
Because when his fleet confronted the Ming army before, at least they aimed at the Ming army's warships sideways. Once they started fighting, they could immediately exert their maximum firepower. Although they couldn't beat the Ming army's fleet, they could at least shake their fists a few times.

And now?

Because Nelson ordered the entire army to retreat, their warships can't drive sideways, right?Naturally, it is necessary to straighten the bow and open.

In this way, the Portuguese warships faced the Ming warships head to tail, while the Ming warships aimed their sides at them.

Any battleship has at most one gun at the front and rear, and at least three guns on the side.

Originally, their firepower was not as good as that of the Ming army, but now it is even more incomparable.

Under the bombardment of thousands of shells, almost all of the Portuguese's poor thirty warships were shot, and thick smoke billowed everywhere on the sea, and the smoke filled the air.

How dare those warships turn around and line up to fight back?By the time they aimed their sideways at the Ming fleet, they might have lost all their bones.

So they could only run back desperately, and at most used the bow or stern artillery to counterattack symbolically.

But after the Ming army made another two rounds of shelling, they couldn't even escape.

Most of their warships were hit by more than ten rounds, either caught fire or flooded, and it was like a dream to want to drive away at this time.

The crew on the Portuguese fleet were all busy jumping into the icy water like dumplings, and a few even directly hoisted the white flag to surrender.

In a blink of an eye, the entire fleet was wiped out.

However, the forts deployed on the two nearby islands also reacted, and about thirty coastal defense guns began to fire crazily at the Ming fleet.

The fleet of the Ming army was also densely lined up, and several ships were hit by bombs at one time. One fast ship was unlucky and was directly hit by the ammunition depot, causing a series of suicide explosions, and it sank in an instant.

After the battleships of the Ming army settled the local fleet, they naturally began to focus on taking care of the forts on the shore.

In terms of firepower, the firepower density of the seventy battleships is at least twenty times that of the coastal defense artillery.

After a mutual bombardment, most of the thirty coastal defense guns were dealt with, but there were still five hidden in the mountains, which were difficult to solve with naval guns alone.

So Zheng Zhihu ordered without hesitation, and the naval guns covered it, and then the army sent 1000 people to land on the island.

Rumble, boom!
Numerous shells tilted the ammunition towards the two unnamed islands, and the rubble and soil were thrown up all over the sky. I believe that the gunners of the five cannons hidden in the mountain at this time may not even be able to open their eyes, let alone strike back accurately. .

Soon, the army of one thousand was divided into two groups, and each group of five hundred landed on two small islands.

These two unnamed islands are actually two small hills on the sea, and the area is very small. The Portuguese built two forts there, and deployed a total of [-] cannons, so there is basically not much room left.

So the Portuguese only stationed 200 people each.

After the "plowing" bombing by the Ming army's naval guns, the garrison on the island was directly reduced to five or sixty people.These people can only shrink back in the fortifications, where can they show their heads to snipe the Ming army's landing?
Without any accident, the sound of artillery on these two islands stopped after the Ming army landed.

Let's say that in the Governor's Mansion, Nelson was furious when he heard the news of the Ming army's attack.

"Damn! Damn! These savage yellow-skinned people, these real devils! They don't believe what they say, I underestimate their ambition and shamelessness!"

At this time, Nelson had completely forgotten how he started as a maritime merchant, plundered a lot of wealth through cooperation with pirates, and then used money to buy the fat job of Governor of Managa.

He even forgot how he personally executed several innocent sea merchants on a pirate ship.

In his eyes, all of this is correct, because in this great era, what we believe in is the law of the jungle.

But when the law of the jungle was applied to himself, he felt that it was unfair and the other party was shameless, and he thought of the spirit of a gentleman again.

After solving the fort at the entrance, the Ming fleet only sank two small clipper ships, seriously injured a medium-sized ship, and lightly injured a dozen ships.

This loss can be said to be insignificant.

Now that the entrance to the Managa Strait has been opened, the next thing becomes very simple.

The fleet can enter directly from the center line of the strait in a straight line, because the narrowest part of the Managa Strait, that is, the narrow passage between Sister Island and Batam Island, is also about [-] miles wide, as long as the fleet is on the center line The guns on the shore are absolutely out of reach.

However, Qin Shuhuai didn't want to pass that easily, what he wanted was to control the entire strait.

There is no doubt that the Portuguese Governor's Palace in Temasek (later Singapore) must be captured.

The fleet has been slightly adjusted on the spot.

The slightly injured ship underwent emergency repairs, while the seriously injured ship anchored directly to the shore, waiting to go back and occupy the dock for repairs-in the Managa Strait, it is impossible to have a dock.

And after some small boats rescued the crew of the two sunken small fast boats, they began to rescue the Francines leisurely.

Everyone has no interest in saving these red-haired people, because the Dutch people they saved before have not been redeemed, and the food is just wasted, which is simply a loss-making business.

Afterwards, the whole army had lunch again, and after resting their energy, they drove into the strait.

(End of this chapter)