Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 787 Jinan ([-])

Wei Boqiu has been rather annoying recently.The negative impact of the prolonged war on the front line on the economy has gradually emerged. The two workshops in Yangma Island and Jeju Island are working day and night, but they still cannot effectively support the consumption of the front line. Arrows, leather armor, knives, gunpowder, hollow iron The bullets flowed out, and then pulled back a pile of damaged armor, scrapped gun barrels, empty powder kegs and other materials, which made Wei Boqiu, who was in charge of the logistics supply, almost grey.

Seeing that the previous inventory was about to bottom out, and the war in Shandong showed no sign of stopping, Wei Boqiu, while recruiting manpower to step up production expansion, also tried to find a way to get some goods from Japan and North Korea.However, these two places have been at peace for a long time, and the production scale of military equipment such as swords, guns, swords, halberds, and protective gear is ten times lower than that during the war, but they can organize a large amount of materials in a short period of time.In the end, the servants on the front line had begun to use the captured Qing army's cold weapons and protective gear, and the east bank artillery also used the captured Qing army's inferior gunpowder, which more or less affected the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Letters from Shao Shude urging supplies were transferred to Wei Boqiu one after another. Wei Boqiu was forced to rush to Yantai by boat from Jeju Island, and brought with him the daily production of the largest workshop in Jeju Island. Data, ready to have a good talk with Shao Shude, let him realize how much trouble the "unrestrained" combat style of the frontline officers and soldiers has caused the military production department in the rear.However, when passing by the Changshan Islands with a naval ship, they met a group of special guests, and then decisively "invited" each other to come to Yantai Port as guests.

"Martin? Captain Gelitzson? Fries?" Wei Boqiu slowly took off his white gloves, glanced coldly at the Dutch red-haired man who was closely watched by several military policemen, and then spoke in a moderate manner. Said in Spanish: "Why did your ship appear in Liaohai this season? Did you start a new trip?"

Captain Fries looked up at Wei Boqiu, and remained silent.

Seeing this, Wei Boqiu snorted coldly, and said: "With a ship of weapons and ammunition, and dozens of experienced mercenaries, it seems that you want to join a war! Is it an ongoing war on the land of the Ming Kingdom? Are you going to get involved in this quagmire too?"

In fact, there is no need for Captain Fries to say anything, because after his ship "Castelliku" was intercepted and detained by the East Coast Navy near the Changshan Islands, Wei Boqiu's men had already turned away from the ship full of sailors and officers. They said what they wanted to know.It turned out that these Dutchmen were carrying a ship of weapons and ammunition to trade with the Qing court, and their destination was Jinzhou!

At that time, the Dutch three-masted armed merchant ship was discovered by the East Coast Navy far away. After realizing that the appearance of Western sailing ships in this sea area was extremely unusual, Wei Boqiu immediately ordered the detention of the Dutch ship.At that time, there were eight sailboats in the East Coast Navy, which were fully loaded with salted fish and bacon, food and fodder, and some Shandan supplementary soldiers brought from Heishui Port.Since these ships are not professional warships, each ship is equipped with a few 6-8 small and medium-caliber artillery, which does not seem to be very powerful.But the ants killed the elephant too much, and the eight ships together had fifty or sixty cannons, and the speed was fast, so they quickly intercepted the Dutch armed merchant ship "Casteliku" equipped with 12 cannons. There was no serious fighting - the Dutch fired a few shots, but no casualties were caused.

After the "Castelliku" was taken over by the East Coasters, the military police who boarded the ship immediately found a large number of flintlock muskets, artillery of various calibers, a large number of shells, and standard gunpowder in the cabin.This discovery made the people on the east coast very excited. The military police immediately interrogated the Dutch sailors on board and some Scottish and German mercenaries, and learned that these people were going to Jinzhou to conduct transactions with the Qing Dynasty. of!

This is a bolt from the blue for people on the east coast!You must know that a major weapon that the people on the east bank relied on to win the battle with the Qing army was the light and flexible field artillery.Whenever the two sides fought in formation, the shells that fell like raindrops often smashed the Qing army into formation, and their morale fell to the bottom.This model has been carried out many times, and the Qing army could not resist at all. Later, they basically did not even dare to fight in the field with a similar number of yellow-clothed thieves. This is the reason.

But the situation may have changed now, because the Qing army did not have light and flexible field artillery before, so it could only be beaten and could not fight back, but now it is likely to have it: it was purchased from the Dutch.Although their artillery may be far behind the "yellow cannon" in terms of maneuverability, range, caliber, accuracy and lifespan, it is still an artillery with battlefield mobility after all, and it can already threaten people on the east coast. This is a huge challenge for the people on the east coast.Especially those servants, when fighting in formation before, only the people from the east coast used artillery to shake the enemy's formation, and then they stepped forward to take advantage of it; but from now on, maybe they will also face the artillery bombardment of the Qing army Yes, the impact on morale is huge.

Thinking of this, Wei Boqiu also felt a headache, the battle in the future might not be as easy as it used to be.Because according to the information obtained from the interrogation, before Captain Fries and others, a ship had already gone to the coast of the Qing Dynasty to conduct transactions. They sold "dozens of artillery pieces" and a large number of matchlock guns and flintlock guns to the Qing Dynasty.The muskets are nothing, but those mobile and flexible field artillery are very annoying, and the Tartar court in Beijing is not stupid, they also know to ask the Dutch to send instructors to explain to them the tactical outline of the bandits in yellow marching and fighting, of course they also know Ask the Netherlands to send someone to teach them to cast light artillery - this is because the Dutch East India Company also urgently lacks such talents in the Far East.

Captain Frith came to Liaohai for the first time to conduct secret trade with the Qing Dynasty.After spending two and a half years in a stinking prison in Beijing, he and some of his followers were released in the autumn of 47.The Qing government sent people to escort them all the way to Zhejiang, and then quietly went south to Formosa, and finally returned to Batavia in the late spring of 1648.They came to Batavia together with the Qing court’s promise to open trade to the Dutch East India Company—on the premise that the Dutch agreed to sell them weapons, send officers to explain the truth and tactics of the Yellow Thieves, and at the same time guide The craftsmen of "My Qing Dynasty" cast that kind of portable field artillery.

It has to be said that at this time the Qing court was quite discerning. They understood what the Dutch wanted, and they also understood the huge deterrent and dominance of the super-mobile yellow cannon on the battlefield. Therefore, the cooperation with the Dutch was called It's a win-win situation.The Dutch were also deeply attracted by the promise of the Qing court to open up trade. As far as they know, many provinces that are still controlled by the Qing court are rich in raw silk, a commodity that sells very well in Europe, and porcelain. This kind of commodity with small sales but high profit margin is financially financially difficult for the East India Company (competing with Portugal and the British in the East Indies, Ceylon, India and other regions) which is currently spending a lot of money. However, there are also small supplements. Therefore, this is the most original motive for their trade with the Qing court, even if they do not hesitate to break the verbal agreement with the people on the east coast.After all, unwritten pacts with yellow-skinned pagans are nothing compared to cute silver coins!

"Whether you are prepared to defend yourself or not, you have broken the rules, Captain Fries." Wei Boqiu stood up, squeezed the Dutchman's jaw firmly, raised his head, and looked at his lake-blue Eyeball, said: "Whether your company knows it or not, your personal behavior has broken the agreement between our government and your company. Therefore, I announce that the three-masted sailing ship 'Castelliku' and its cargo will be confiscated. You You and your subordinates will go to work on a construction site to accept punishment. This is the final judgment and you have no right to appeal. Come, send them to Zhifu Island to quarry stones, and set off now."

After seeing off the employees of the East India Company, Wei Boqiu sat down again, took out the letter paper and began to write a letter to Shao Shude.He felt that there was no need to go to Jinan anymore, because the situation had obviously changed significantly, and it was more important for him to return to Dabo Port. The Dutch might take some revenge!

The content of the letter is mainly about the trade between the Dutch East India Company and the Manchu Qing court. In addition, there are of course some of his complaints: it is nothing more than insufficient production of materials and too much consumption on the front line, so they should save some use and so on.After writing the letter, the scouts rushed to Jinan, and then Wei Boqiu stayed in Yantai for a while, mainly to check the growth of wheat, corn and other crops in the nearby farmland.

This year is the first time that people from the east bank have farmed on a large scale in the Jiaodong area. They grow all kinds of crops, but staple foods such as wheat, corn, and sorghum still account for the majority, and soybeans and sweet potatoes are also planted on a small scale.As for potatoes, because the detoxification technology is not up to standard, the production has not been as good as before. At present, it is only grown in the colder climate of Sakhalin Island, the Heilongjiang River Basin and near Kushiro Port (the toxicity is low in cold areas). Let’s talk about supplements.

Wei Boqiu optimistically estimates that it is basically impossible for the Qing army to enter Shandong on a large scale before the autumn harvest—in fact, after the autumn harvest, the Qing army would not dare to go deep into the Dengzhou area due to the terrain of the Shandong Peninsula—so this year’s grain output compared to There will definitely be a leap forward in previous years, which will strongly support Wei Boqiu's next major development of Sakhalin Island and Ezodi.

On July 7, two days before Wei Boqiu left Yantai, Shao Shude's personal reply arrived.In his letter, he asked Wei Boqiu to negotiate with the Dutch as soon as possible.If the Dutch refused to back down, they would trick the Zheng family into occupying Taiwan, and the East Coast Navy could provide assistance.

(End of this chapter)