I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 219 It's Easy to Ask God

Chapter 218

Putmans came to meet Cheng Shijie, although he did not achieve the ideal strategic goal, that is to unite with Cheng Shijie to deal with Zheng Zhilong.

However, in Putmans' view, this trip has been extremely rewarding.

That is, a large number of business cooperation agreements have been reached with the Governor of Liaodong. The current big officials have not yet developed it, so what is an undeveloped land?

Not even chicken ribs!

After hearing that Cheng Shijie was willing to provide them with enough cement, Putmans laughed so hard, it was so wonderful.

Because Dayuan has a tropical rainforest climate, the bushes grow very fast. If they build roads in front, the bushes behind will grow the same as before.

Even if the hard-surfaced earth-rock road is barely built, a heavy rainstorm will return to the original point. Cement is the best infrastructure in the tropical rainforest. The member island is unimpeded, and the process of developing senior members is greatly accelerated.

If you want to come to Putmans, when we repair the port, fortress, and roads in Daguan, we will be invincible, and it will not be so easy for you to take it back!

But the problem is that it is not easy to buy cement. Cement is not a high-value item in later generations. Ordinary cement is not expensive, but in this era, the price of cement is not cheap.

It's not that Cheng Shijie opened his mouth and deliberately raised the price. First of all, it is transported by sea, and the water content is relatively high. Once the cement absorbs water vapor, it will crust and can no longer be used for construction.The bags used to make cement are not ordinary sacks, but tarpaulins mixed with kudzu cloth and rubber. The cost of this tarpaulin is not cheaper than that of ordinary cloth for clothing.

A bag that can hold [-] catties of cement is worth [-] yuan, and a ton of cement requires a packaging cost of [-] to [-] yuan, which is not counted as labor wages.

After bargaining, of course, there was a special person responsible for negotiating this matter, that is, Xie Jinglin, who was in charge of business management. After four days of intense bargaining, the price of cement was finally determined.

One hundred catties of cement is worth five centimes, which is 25 grams of silver with a purity of 90.00%. If converted into tons, one franc is needed for one ton, which is five hundred grams of silver, equivalent to [-] two silver.

Five hundred grams of silver, even according to the price of silver in later generations, five hundred grams is equivalent to more than 500 yuan, which is not cheap.However, the Dutch East India Company not only needs cement for its developers, but Batavia, the Far East headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, also needs a large amount of cement to build cities and fortresses.

The Dutch are different from the Ming people. The Ming people actually don’t like to build houses with bricks and tiles. The rich like to live in wooden houses, while the Dutch like to live in castles. A castle made of cement is comparable to a castle made of stone. Even better.If it is shipped to the Netherlands, it will definitely be liked by the Dutch nobles or wealthy people.

After all, in the Netherlands now, it shouldn’t be said that the whole of Europe is at war. The 30-year war in Europe is in the midst of a full-scale war. Twenty or thirty candidate countries and principalities participated in the war. Even France has officially come to an end, and the French army is the first The Spanish phalanx was defeated for the first time in actual combat, which dealt a serious blow to the Spanish Empire.

The Dutch are not officially independent yet, but as a vassal state of the Spanish Empire, the Dutch nobles are naturally worried about their own safety.

According to the cooperation agreement, Liaodong provided 1000 million bags of cement to the Dutch East India Company, which was worth 50 francs. For the Dutch East India Company, this payment was not a small amount.

What's more, this is a quarter, that is, a three-month supply, and the annual amount is 200 million francs. Putmans told Cheng Shijie that the Dutch East India Company can't afford the money, so can other things be used to pay for the goods? .

Xie Jinglin, Cheng Shijie's plenipotentiary representative, did not ask Cheng Shijie for instructions at all. He had already obtained Cheng Shijie's authorization. Xie Jinglin said that it was absolutely possible.

The Dutch East India Company can use iron ore, phosphate rock, sea guano, tin ore, manganese ore, copper ore, silver ore, sulfur, saltpeter, timber, and even Dutch Galen ships to compensate for the payment.

Cheng Shijie's current ocean transport fleet is not large, but his shipyard mainly manufactures warships, and cannot meet this production task for the time being, so he can only rely on the Dutch Galen for the time being.

Of course, Galen ships are not unique to the Dutch. Spain, the United Kingdom, Venice, and Portugal all have their own Galen ships. To use an inappropriate statement, the current Galen ships are like the container ships of later generations. The ships produced by each country have their own characteristics.

After the Dutch signed a series of business cooperation, the Spaniards also came. Their purpose was the same as that of the Dutch, and they also wanted to unite Cheng Shijie to fight Zheng Zhilong. Cheng Shijie also disagreed.

Directly rejecting the Spaniard's alliance request, but agreeing to their business cooperation, but the current Spanish Empire has already set, and it is far from being as rich as the Dutch East India Company.

No money to talk shit business.

Just when Xie Jinglin was about to reject the Spanish representative, Cheng Shijie said: "Tell the Spaniards, my island, more islands!"

Xie Jinglin couldn't figure it out, what kind of island did Cheng Shijie want?
In such a large area in Liaodong, there are still many places that have not been developed, but what is the use of the island?
Of course, Xie Jinglin didn't understand Cheng Shijie's emphasis on the ocean. It was too late for Ming to enter the era of great voyages. For Cheng Shijie, Ming had nearly one-fifth of the world's population, and the current Daming was actually bigger than the later generations.

Although Nurgandusi has become independent, the two capitals and thirteen provinces, plus Tibet has 123 million square kilometers, Qinghai has 72 square kilometers, Gansu has 42.5 square kilometers, Ningxia has 6.6 square kilometers, plus Northeast China has 997 million square kilometers. and parts of Inner Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty owned [-] million square kilometers of land.

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty has a population of nearly [-] million. For Cheng Shijie, no amount of territory is too much. coming.

Cheng Shijie would never allow Great Britain's colonies to spread all over the world. Daming, which has one-fifth of the world's population, should occupy the most land in the world.

Now Cheng Shijie's strength is still far from enough, especially the strength of the navy. In the case of insufficient strength, we can only adopt a cooperative approach, because Ming has the largest market in the world, and Ning's navy has this world and can beat the whole world Army strength.

Even the British lobster soldiers at their peak, in front of Ning Haijun, Cheng Shijie can beat them out of shit, if they can't beat them, they are too clean.

The current Spanish Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets in the world. They occupy a large number of islands, so they don't care about those corners, small islands with tens of square kilometers or hundreds of square kilometers, they don't care at all .

When Xie Jinglin was formally negotiating with the representatives of the Spanish Empire, a condition that even Cheng Shijie hadn't thought of was actually placed on the table.

The Spanish Empire actually used their territory in Dayuan as a negotiation condition.

In fact, Spain is not stupid, but they occupy a large number of colonies in the Americas. Spanish is considered a small language in later generations. In this era, Spanish is more popular than English. If you count the population of Spanish colonies, it is the No. 1 country in the world. , the world's largest land power belongs to Spain.

The problem for Spain is that they now face Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of France, United Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, Kingdom of Bohemia, United Provinces of the Netherlands, Electorate of Saxony, Electorate of Palatinate, Brandenburg -Combined attacks by fifteen European countries including Prussia, Brunswick-Lüneburg, England, Scotland, Transylvania, Hungarian anti-Habsburg rebels, Ottoman Empire, and Russian Tsarist state .

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Netherlands to gain independence under Spanish rule. Facing the increasingly powerful anti-Spanish alliance, the Spanish Empire could only withdraw forces from overseas colonies to help Spain. Now, the Netherlands is posing as pirates to Spain's fleet in the northern part of the country. England even directly intercepted Spanish silver ships from the Atlantic Ocean.

Introducing Cheng Shijie into a senior official and leading Cheng Shijie to fight against the Dutch is the Spaniard's plan to bring disaster to the east, and it can also be said that it has no good intentions.

Cheng Shijie was very willing to fall into the trap of the Spaniards. At the cost of exporting 300 million bags of cement and 15 jin of steel to Spain, he obtained the right to develop fresh water from the Spaniards, and at the same time he also owned the Manila wharf for maintenance. that power.

This is more interesting. Tamsui is located in the central part of Dayuan, which belongs to the junction of the Taichung area controlled by Zheng Zhilong and the Taipei area controlled by the Spaniards.

"Marshal, what do you want fresh water for?"

Xie Jinglin really couldn't figure it out, the price Cheng Shijie took fresh water from the Spaniards was not cheap, 300 million bags of cement was equivalent to 15 francs, or more than 200 million taels of silver, plus 15 catties For steel, that is equivalent to more than 300 million taels of silver.

This value is too high.

"Is there a gold mine in Tamsui?"

Xie Jinglin thought that Cheng Shijie wanted Maoshan, and found that Maoshan had a huge iron mine, and the grade was very high. Now, more than [-]% of the steel produced by Liaodong Iron and Steel Factory is the refined Maoshan iron ore. In the future, it is possible to refine Maoshan’s iron ore. .

Cheng Shijie pointed to Danshui on the map: "From here to the south, all the way to here is Zheng Zhilong's territory, and it is also Zheng Zhilong's Tuntian area. As long as we take this place, Zheng Zhilong's 20 troops will have no food to eat. Tell me, is it expensive to hold Zheng Zhilong's lifeblood with more than 300 million taels?"

What's more, Danshui Port can give Ning Navy a foothold in Danshui, which is too important.

Xiamen, Admiral's Mansion of Fujian Navy.

At this time, the Admiral's Mansion was decorated with lights and festoons, and Zheng Zhilong was in a pretty good mood.When Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong started a war, all the maritime business groups located in the south of the Yangtze River were not optimistic about Cheng Shijie. Some of them traveled thousands of miles to Xiamen to meet Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong was quite happy today. After all, the Jiangnan Maritime Business Group also has the strength to threaten Zheng Zhilong's maritime status. Their bowing their heads confirmed Zheng Zhilong's maritime dominance.

Zheng Zhilong prepared good food and wine early in the morning, and more than 400 confidantes, generals, and celebrities from Fujian, Jiangnan, and Guangdong attended the banquet happily.

However, while drinking happily, a lieutenant general Hong Xu, covered in dust, sweat and dirt, with disheveled hair, stumbled in like a stray dog, and said in a trembling voice: "Master Admiral, it's not good...it's not good!"

"What's wrong?"

"The fifth master (Zheng Zhibao) was defeated in Wusongkou and was seriously injured..."

Zheng Zhilong shook his hand, and poured half a glass of wine onto his chest. After making sure that the other party was not joking with him, his anger erupted like lava, and the roar almost shattered the glass window bought at a high price!
"how can that be?"

Before the war, although Zheng Zhilong did not do his best, he dispatched nearly one-third of Zheng's fleet, and he also received accurate information that the Ning Navy Navy had less than [-] warships, which was not as good as Zheng Zhibao's. One-tenth of the fleet under his command.

What's more, in order to deal with the new large ships of the Ning Navy, he also dispatched seven or eight hundred small fireboats and more than six thousand elite small day warriors.

Zheng Zhilong knows very well that Ning Haijun's army is not a generation of vain people. Ning Haijun, who can crush Jianshou, must be better than his army. watch.

It can be said that Zheng Zhilong's preparations were very sufficient, and he did not underestimate Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun, but this result made it difficult for Zheng Zhilong to accept.

He had already lost his younger brother Zheng Zhihu, and if he lost his fifth younger brother, he would feel sorry for his father.

Fortunately, Hong Yang told Zheng Zhilong that Zheng Zhibao's life was not in danger, but that he was disdainfully hit by the shock wave of the explosion, and now there was a big gash in half of his face, which was not a big problem, just that he would leak food when he was eating.

Fortunately, Hong Xu made it clear to Zheng Zhilong about the results of the first battle at Wusongkou. In the naval battle at Wusongkou, Zheng Zhibao lost more than 50 warships, including 27 black-tailed boats, but they were assigned to Zheng Zhibao's small day warriors and more than 200 small ships. The pirate ship was wiped out.

Although this result was unacceptable, Zheng Zhilong was a little relieved. Although the loss was not small, it was still within the acceptable range. After all, in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, small boats were all cannon fodder.

He doesn't have many other things, but he has a lot of cannon fodder. Like that kind of small ship, he has more than 2000 ships, and it doesn't hurt to lose more than 200 ships. A good dog that works well too.But the problem is, as long as he needs, he can recruit more.

The crux of the problem is that Zheng Zhilong couldn't hold back his face anymore. He was severely beaten in the face by Ning Haijun in the first fight, and the loss of more than 50 warships was next.

"How did they do that?"

Naval battles are not like land battles. You can take advantage of favorable terrain, or take advantage of the opponent's underestimation of the enemy...

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong came to his senses and grabbed Hong Xu's collar: "How did you fight this battle?"

When Hong Xu fully explained all the actions of Zheng Zhibao going north, Zheng Zhilong reacted. Although Zheng Zhibao did not underestimate the enemy, he used the wrong strategy.

For the cutting-edge naval division of the Ning Navy, it cannot be a small-scale test. The current Ning Navy is a bit similar to the Dutch at the time. They have the same cannons with a long range, the same ships are big and strong, and the same warships are too few. .

If he had used refueling tactics in the naval battle of Liuluo Bay, he must have lost, not the Dutch.There is only one way to deal with Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun's navy, and that is to swarm them regardless of 21 or [-], and take advantage of the large number of people and boats to catch them by surprise.

If Zheng Zhilong himself commanded the naval battle at Wusongkou, he would not have just laid out his formation and pressed them all up. Instead, he would have used small fireboats to block all the retreat routes of the Ning Navy's navy, and directly encircled, pushed, and compressed .

What Zheng Zhilong didn't expect was that he had just received the news of Zheng Zhibao's defeat, and these fools who came to the banquet took the opportunity to leave!

"Master Admiral, I suddenly remembered that something happened at home. Next time I sit down, I must treat Master Zheng to have a good drink!"

"Master Admiral, my concubine is about to give birth, and I am very worried, so I will leave first!"

"My lord, I feel unwell occasionally, so I'm sorry!"

"Master Admiral, my servant..."

As the first gentry to leave started to get up, in just a quarter of an hour, more than half of the people in the entire magnificent hall had left, leaving only the generals of the Zheng Group and the local gentry from Fujian or Xiamen. Zheng Zhilong's connection is too deep, and there is no way to turn back.

Zheng Zhilong thought about the film, and finally realized the reason for Zheng Zhibao's failure. He waved his hand vigorously, and the terrified celebrities and gentry resigned one after another as if they were being pardoned.

Zheng Zhilong picked up the jug and drank half of it in one breath, then smashed the jug heavily on the floor, gasping for breath, staring at the group of confidant generals, and let out an angry roar: "Come on, I haven't done it yet!" If you die, you don’t need to cry! I still have thousands of warships and hundreds of thousands of troops in my hand. So what if I lose a battle? You can get back the face you lost, isn’t it just that you lost a battle? What's the big deal!"

Zheng Zhilong's nephew, Zheng Cai, said: "Uncle, Fifth Uncle may have underestimated those gangsters and suffered a terrible loss. My nephew asked to bring [-] ships and [-] elite soldiers to join him. We must take Wusongkou. !"

Zheng Zhilong wasn't dizzy at all, sending another two hundred ships over now would be a refueling tactic, which is really unwise.

Zheng Zhilong has never suffered a fiasco since he started his career. This fiasco may even shake his prestige and change the court's attitude towards him!

Whether it's to restore his prestige or simply to vent his anger, he must win a big victory against Ning Haijun, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable!
The situation at Wusongkou is unclear, and besides the disastrous defeat just now, I am afraid that none of his subordinates has the courage to lead an army to counterattack Wusongkou. Only the final battle remained.

Zheng Zhilong decided to stud. The main battleship will lead more than 600 ships, plus more than 1000 small warships. Once Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao join forces, there will be more than 2000 warships and nearly [-] sailors. Warships shouldn't be a problem, right?

Zheng Zhilong didn't know that his loss had just begun.

Because the main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy is no longer at Wusongkou, but on the vast sea, they are now using their own way to return to the other side.

The more than 50 main battleships of the Ning Navy Navy have been divided into the South China Sea from the east line of the Dayuan Strait. When Zheng Zhilong led the main fleet to the north.

Li Zhixiang led the main fleet of the Ning Navy into the Nanyang region.

A dozen cargo ships are sailing on the sea. These dozens of ships are loaded with silk and porcelain, and these things will always be transported to Batavia

This Batavia is not the Republic of Batavia, but Batavia in Java, which is now Jakarta in Indonesia.

After being transported to Batavia, the goods on these ships were sold to the Dutch or Portuguese, the British, and the Spaniards. This is where the Dutch East India Company was very dissatisfied with Zheng Zhilong.

If the Dutch East India Company can monopolize the trade with Daming, Zheng Zhilong is willing to hand over all their goods to the Dutch East India Company. Their Dutch East India Company will regard Zheng Zhilong as a hard-core ally, but the problem is that Zheng Zhilong also knows that customers are bullying customers The reason is that he used Batavia as a distribution center for goods and sold them to European countries.

Representatives of various countries set up offices in Batavia to obtain the right to purchase these goods through competitive bidding.

The speed of the main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy is between [-] and [-] knots, which is simply fast compared with the cargo ship with a speed of [-] knots. The Ning Navy Navy warship is waiting for these merchant ships on the channel.

"Targets found, a total of seventeen ships!"

"Come up!"

Although the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, Li Zhixiang ordered: "Fire the guns, let them drop the anchor, lower the sails, and accept the inspection!"

Naturally, these merchant ships were the ships that had paid protection fees to Zheng Zhilong. When they saw the navy warships of the Ning Navy, they thought they were Zheng Zhilong's warships. After all, Zheng Zhilong also had a lot of large warships, at least hundreds of them.

There are three types of Zheng Zhilong's main warships, one is the imitation Galen ship, which is also called "junk ship" in foreign literature, and generally refers to Chinese sailing ships.These ships are well made and large in size.According to the diary of Batavia City, forty thousand-jin Frang machine artillery were deployed above.Twelve [-]-pound heavy naval guns, the firepower is quite powerful.

There are also plywood boats, which are similar in shape to those of the Ninghai Navy. This kind of plywood boat is thirty feet long and six feet wide, and it can be called a giant at sea.

Soon the seventeen sea-going ships were caught up by Ning Haijun's navy.

"My lord, we have paid our taxes!"

"Open your dog eyes and see clearly, we are Ning Haijun!"

"Officer, do me a favor and let the little ones eat!"

"Okay, follow our boat to Luzon, or throw us all into the sea to feed the fish."

It is estimated that the Spaniards have never heard a sentence, it is easier to ask God than to send God away.

It is very easy for them to invite Ning Haijun into Dayuan and Luzon, but the problem is that Ning Haijun will not leave when he comes.

The Spaniards are not stupid. They leased the pier to the Ning Navy, but the pier is located within the coverage of the Manila Fort, which means that the Spaniards can cover the pier with artillery fire at any time.

Moreover, when the warships of the Ning Navy arrived at Manila Harbor, they had to pay taxes to the Spaniards.

But the problem is, Cheng Shijie's money is not so easy to get.

(End of this chapter)