The back door of my house can last until the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 304
The ship was shaking constantly, and he placed the globe in the corner right in the middle.

He was holding a flashlight, carefully looking at where he was now.

Although there is still a chart on the table next to him, he prefers to see his position on this globe.

It was raining outside again, clanging and falling on the glass outside the cabin.

Zheng Zhilong looked out into the dark night and put down the pencil in his hand to mark the location.

Opening the window slightly, the sea breeze blows in from the outside. This cool feeling made him forget that he was sailing on the sea for a moment.

Because the lighting on the ship is all electric lights, the voltage is stable, and the current is stable, so there is no need to worry about the problem of lights going out.

This was many times better than his previous lighting method, but for safety reasons, he still went to the power cabin to check the situation.

He didn't know much about the diesel engines in the power compartment, nor how they worked, but he knew it was very important.

There are four engineers in the power cabin who are responsible for power operation. These engineers are basically trained by Sun Jie himself, and they must pass Sun Jie's assessment before they can take up their posts.

Their business capabilities may not be as good as modern ones, but they are sufficient.

As soon as he entered the cabin, a huge noise came to his ears, and at the same time, the heat generated by the engine was constantly projected outside. For a moment, Zheng Zhilong seemed to be in the noon of summer.

"Ingenious workmanship, magical fortune!"

Although he is a martial artist, exaggerated words popped out of his mouth one after another.

The few engineers didn't care about this environment at all, and kept patrolling back and forth in the cabin like nothing happened.

It is bad weather now, and it is necessary to ensure the normal operation of the diesel engine.

They stayed as close to the shoreline as possible to prevent any problems, in fact, they should have been in a port in this weather.

But since passing Ceylon, there are few suitable ports for sailing in the southwestern part of the Indian peninsula. In other words, there are almost no ports that can be called here.

Zheng Zhilong walked around the power cabin, and after seeing that there was no problem, he came to his cabin again.

The rain on the deck kept rising and falling with the turbulence of the ship, and the sailors all stuck to their posts.

Standing in the cabin, he held the handle inside with both hands, and his face felt a lot more relaxed.

Although the storm in front of him was heavy, it was nothing to this iron boat. Like his wooden boats back then, if it encountered such a situation on the sea, it would be a very dangerous thing. Cautiousness can cause unforeseen disasters.

There is no need to worry about this problem at all now, as long as the ship can sail, the problem is not big.

Storms are always short-lived. When dawn comes, the first rays of sunshine pierce the night, and all the wind and rain gradually fade away.

A dazzling sun gradually rose from the back of Zheng Zhilong's fleet, and several wooden boats suddenly appeared on the sea ahead.

Because they were too far apart, Zheng Zhilong couldn't see the type and quantity of these wooden boats clearly. Even with a telescope, he could only see a rough idea, and he could only see a few black spots coming towards this side.

This is the Arabian Sea, west of the Indian peninsula.

Zheng Zhilong has never been here before, for him, this is a strange sea.

Before he came out, Sun Jie once gave him a popular science on the human geography here and the current power distribution.

But even so, his heart was lifted.

When people are in an unfamiliar environment, they must always be careful to avoid unexpected things.

Zheng Zhilong stood on the deck, holding up his binoculars, and kept observing the ships ahead.

As the distance between the two sides became shorter and shorter, Zheng Zhilong finally gradually saw the situation ahead.

This is a fleet from nowhere, and at the forefront is a typical western-style sailing battleship.

The appearance is somewhat different from Hong Yi's, but there is not much difference in essence.

I can't tell how many of them there are, and I can only see the ships walking ahead.

Zheng Zhilong became vigilant, and he looked at the staff behind him: "Send an order to let all the ships gather around Chang'an and Fuping to prevent any accidents.

If my guess is correct, the ships ahead are Western sailing battleships. Westerners are a group of greedy people no matter what country they are in. Whenever you meet them on the sea, you should be careful.

Although our weapons are powerful, we must not act rashly. We must remember the orders His Majesty gave us, and we must be careful in everything. "

The staff officer behind hurriedly conveyed Zheng Zhilong's order, and the wooden ships gradually gathered around Chang'an and Fuping.

The fleet is like a huge triangle, and it begins to chop the waves on the sea.

Because the speed of these wooden ships had to be taken into account, the Chang'an and Fuping ships could not move forward at full speed, but kept a relatively stable speed.

The sailing battleship itself was a dangerous signal, Zheng Zhilong did not hesitate too much, let all the sailors take their positions, the main gun on the ship also aimed forward, and the shells began to be pushed into the barrel.

Once there is any accident ahead, attack the enemy as soon as possible.

Time passed by every minute and every second, and both sides could clearly see each other.

These sail battleships came from the UK, and there are about ten of them.

They formed a protective circle, which contained more than 60 merchant ships.

Britain in this era is not as powerful as the kingdoms of the Netherlands and Spain.

But in the future, they will have an armada that is invincible to the entire world. The current strength has not reached it, but it has already taken shape.

They also have quite a few colonies in the Indian Peninsula, and of course they dare not compare with them in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

India has always been Britain's back garden, where spices, jewelry, and gold are all British goods.

These colonies are also relatively wealthy, and these ships set off from the British mainland to sell goods to their colonies on the Indian Peninsula.

The reason why so many ships were dispatched at one time was mainly because of some problems on Charles I's side.

These ships belonged to Parliament and came under the jurisdiction of Cromwell.

War itself is a very expensive thing. Since Charles I and Louis XIV got mixed up, although there is no real threat, it still puts Cromwell under double pressure.

It is said that Charles I, Louis XIV and the Kingdom of the Netherlands formed a joint research team to study the cannonball transported from the East.

At first, Cromwell didn't believe it, but now it has spread throughout the Western Continent.

He also sent people to Amsterdam, but there was no way for these people to get close to the core area of ​​Amsterdam.

Today's Amsterdam has fallen into martial law. In order to prevent people from sabotaging, Hendrick even withdrew a group of his elite troops from the front line and stationed them in Amsterdam, patrolling day and night. Once suspicious personnel are found, once strangers are found, Immediate arrest, in case of resistance, can be killed on the spot.

Louis XIV also recruited a team of scholars from home, and Charles I also provided corresponding help.

The whole team, led by Descartes, is used for research.

This cannonball attracted the attention of the entire Western Continent, and many scholars even gathered towards Amsterdam after hearing about it.

They are not interested in the hatred or power gap between the West and the East, and they don't care what kind of civilization the East has. They only care about the difference in the shell brought back from the East, and what is there on it that they have never touched before. New technologies or new materials.

This is an era of lack of knowledge, and all scholars are like dry sponges.

For the Western continent, these scholars are the driving force behind their technological innovation, but for the East, they are the sharp knife in the hands of the tyrant.

But they are doomed to be disappointed. Sun Jie's crush on them is all-round. No matter how hard these scholars try, it is impossible to advance the entire Western technology for hundreds of years for no reason.

It is precisely because of the pressure Charles I and the others put on Cromwell that he desperately wanted to increase the military budget for the war to recruit more soldiers.

Standing behind him is the emerging bourgeoisie, most of whom are merchants, handicraft practitioners, or some emerging farmers.

These people are good at doing business. They are different from Charles I. They have an extreme desire for the ocean and an almost crazy paranoia about wealth.

It is precisely because of these reasons that they coincided with Cromwell and finally came together.

This huge fleet was commanded by an Earl named Charles.

Although he was an earl, he and Charles I were indeed enemies.

Many years ago, because his father offended Charles I, he was excluded by Charles I, so that his father fell ill and died in anxiety.

Later, because of doing business and trading, he gradually expanded his family fortune and became rich.

But this did not make him feel at ease. A few years ago, in order to reverse his losses in the war with Spain, Charles I collected taxes from the big merchant nobles.

Those nobles who had good relations with Charles I were naturally not included, but Charles, who was hated by Charles I, could not escape.

Charles I collected as much tax as a cow's hair. If Charles paid it, the whole family might collapse, but the king's butcher's knife was on his head. If he didn't pay it, it would be a dead end.

In order to keep the interests in his own hands, he threw himself into the arms of the parliament.

Cromwell is a smart person. He doesn't care who Charles was before, he only cares about whether Charles can bring him benefits.

Facts have shown that Cromwell has a good eye, and Charles is a man of extraordinary ability.

After so many years, Charles and Cromwell have already reached an in-depth cooperative relationship, and now it is a situation where both are prosperous and both are prosperous.

This is also the reason why Cromwell can safely and boldly hand over this fleet to him.

Charles is not very old, about 40 years old, wearing a curly wig, wearing aristocratic clothing common in this era, the whole person looks a little bloated.

Holding a monocular in his hand, standing on the deck of the sailing battleship at the forefront of the fleet, looking at the picture in the monocular, he stayed in place as if he had been shocked by an electric shock.

The monocular in his hand was also shaking constantly, and his whole body was shaking like chaff.

He stammered and said to himself: "What is this? Why is this ship so big? It looks like it's made of steel. How can steel make a ship? It's impossible, it must be fake."

As the distance got closer, other people on the ship also saw the Chang'an ahead.

Similar to Charles, they all looked terrified and panicked. This kind of thing beyond their common sense couldn't be understood by them at all.

The British flag fluttered above the sailing battleship.

Zheng Zhilong is well-informed anyway, so he naturally knows the Mi Ziqi.

On the deck, he put down the binoculars in his hand and began to give orders.

"These people are not good things. They come here with sailing battleships, and there must be no good things. Anyway, we have already cleaned up Hongyi, and there is not one more enemy.

Order the entire fleet to expand, and after entering the range, fire directly to sink all sailing battleships, then capture all merchant ships and plunder their wealth. "Zheng Zhilong's eyes were shining, green like a hungry wolf.

At this moment, the pirate temperament can be seen at a glance.

With a powerful weapon in hand, one's courage will also increase.

He was originally a pirate, and it was simply impossible to expect him to pass by Charles' fleet in a safe and sound way.

He has been in the sea for so many years, and has always pursued the policy of bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Now that a fat sheep is sent to his mouth, he is really sorry for God if he doesn't eat it up.

The staff officers and soldiers behind him didn't say anything, of course they very much agreed with Zheng Zhilong's approach.

Most of them have studied in the Naval Academy, and Sun Jie is also constantly instilling in them the concept of the strong preying on the weak and the strong supremacy.

The triangular fleet began to expand slowly, gradually forming a formation like the wings of a white crane.

The two ironclad ships Chang'an and Fuping sailed side by side in the middle, and the wooden warships were distributed slightly behind on both sides.

It's like a wall that keeps moving forward.

Charles is not an idiot, he naturally saw Zheng Zhilong's offensive formation.

Immediately panicked and at a loss, he shouted again and again: "Who are these people? What kind of hatred do we have with them? Why did they start attacking without asking anything? These people are really not a thing."

Complaints are complaints. If the situation in front of me is not resolved, I am afraid that I will really be buried in the bottom of the sea.

In order to protect himself, he could only order the ships to assume an offensive posture, ready to meet the enemy.

(End of this chapter)