Dragon Sea Empire

"Those Chinese who are fighting on the island today must have been trained in European infantry tactics!" Dutch Admiral Wei Malang said angrily: "In East Asia, people who are likely to participate in training, except for the West Banks , who else?"

Li Jin murmured, "Could it be the Portuguese from Macau?"

At that time, the Dutch, regardless of Spaniards or Portuguese, called it "Specks" (Specks), which means "bacon slices" in Dutch, which may be a curse word.

Wei Malang felt more and more that this expedition to the coast of Fujian to fight for treaty ports was not as easy and smooth as he had imagined at first.He pointed the finger at Li Jin and questioned him: "Uncle Jin, you expected fishermen and merchants to bring us supplies, and some people to take the initiative to do business with us. Where are these people you mentioned? Why are they here? Will there be an armed caravan? Uncle Jin, for the eunuch of His Majesty the Emperor, can he give us the Penghu Islands as a gift? Are you sure?"

Li Jin sighed, he was actually very helpless, the development of the matter was completely beyond his expectation.However, he didn't want to be looked down upon by the Dutch because of this, and retorted: "Your Excellency, if your subordinates treat the coastal residents better, I think our situation will be much better now. And, if your subordinates today If we can occupy the entire island and create a fait accompli, our voice will be heard by the emperor of the Ming Empire!"

In order to obtain Chinese goods, the Dutch East India Company instructed the Dutch merchant houses in Siam, Vietnam, and Japan to do everything possible to trade with China, and at the same time to attract Chinese businessmen to come to Batavia, but from China, Banten, Jinshi, Pattani, and The quality of Chinese goods shipped by businessmen from various countries in the Maluku Islands is not satisfactory, and the long-distance transshipment also greatly increases the cost.Therefore, Wei Malang's expedition to Penghu this time is inevitable.But to deal with the Chinese government, the Dutch fleet cannot do without a middleman like Li Jin for the time being.

Wei Malang eased his tone: "Jin Bo, our interests are the same. You are the best agent and manager of the East India Company. If the Pescadorles Islands can become the second Macao, then your Business interests will definitely be guaranteed by the company. I admit that due to some of our mistakes, we have temporarily fallen into a difficult situation in Penghu. What do you think should be done next?"

Li Jin thought for a while and said: "I think our predicament all stems from this China United Company. We didn't know the details of this company beforehand, so we were so passive. I've made up my mind, and I'll go to Fuzhou for a while. Let’s go and meet the eunuch Gao Cai directly, or the governor-general. The government of the Ming Empire is always very vigilant against spontaneously formed civil groups, maybe I can persuade the government of the Ming Dynasty to jointly deal with this Chinese United Company.”

Wei Malang nodded: "Now, that's the only way to go. Damn the Eunice, God knows what happened to it! If the Eunice is also here, maybe today we have already occupied the whole island. "

Li Jin took one of the two junk ships in the Dutch fleet: the "Rotterdam", and sailed to the open sea at anchor, preparing to cross the strait to Fuzhou to negotiate with officials of the Ming Dynasty.

It was late at this time, and twilight had already enveloped the sea.The sailboat Rotterdam was almost at the mouth of Penghu Bay. Half of the sailors on board were Chinese recruited from various parts of Southeast Asia. They were not familiar with the local sea routes. Li Jin rewarded them with a large sum of money so that they dared to take the risk of sailing at night.

Li Jin was in a daze in the cabin, when suddenly his servant who had followed him for many years rushed in, his mouth was tongue-tied for a long time, his face was flushed red, he kept pointing his fingers outside, but couldn't say a word.Li Jin was very annoyed, pushed him away, and walked out of the cabin: "Useless thing! What is so flustered? What is it..."

All of a sudden, Li Jin seemed to have been acupointed, and stood dumbfounded at the cabin door.At the mouth of Penghu Bay in front of him, in the night, the dark sea surface is densely dotted with lights on ships, and the outlines of the ships cannot be seen clearly, but only from the number of star-filled fishing lights, there are hundreds There are dozens of boats moored on both sides of the mouth of the bay, and dozens of boats are patrolling back and forth in the bay.Among them, several boats seem to have spotted the lights on Li Jin's boat and are approaching here.

"This, this, where did so many ships come from?" Li Jin managed to regain his speaking function.No one could answer his question.But one thing Li Jin can be sure of is that so many ships gathered here like a starry sky are definitely not here to do business with the Dutch; obviously, these ships are moored there in a very organized and disciplined arrangement, more like is an army.Moreover, a cannon has already been fired from the opposite ship!

"Turn around! Turn around!" Li Jin shouted hastily.Fortunately, there is a crosswind blowing on the sea at the moment, and the sailboat can turn the boat around relatively quickly by using the very convenient maneuverability of the Chinese-style hard sail.

"They're chasing us!" Li Jin's servant also recovered the ability to speak, and pointed to the sea in surprise.

Li Jin looked back and saw some stars chasing after him.Tonight, the clouds are thick, the moon is gone, and the sea can be said to be invisible, but these ships still have the courage to pursue them. If the people on board are not familiar with the sea routes in Penghu Bay, they are daring.

Yin Feng was discussing tomorrow's battle with Kutley, Luo Aquan and others, when a sailor rushed in: "Report! Captain, there is a boat in the mouth of the bay that wants to sneak out to sea at night. We found out and fled back!"

Yin Feng frowned: "What ship? How many ships are there?"

"It's dark and I can't see clearly. There should be only one ship."

"Stop chasing, order Mai Dahai to send another 10 ships to seal off the sea, and no ships are allowed to enter or leave."

Yin Feng turned his head and said to Colonel Cutley: "Wait a while, you will go ashore, and you must rush to the Niangmagong camp before dawn tomorrow. Remember, your task is to defend the camp, and don't attack lightly."

After a while, Colonel Kutley led sharpshooter Luo Aquan and more than a dozen soldiers in black clothes and trousers, climbed to the rocky shore, and disappeared in the darkness. This is the special forces trained by Yin Feng and Kutley. .At the beginning of this year, he retained Colonel Coutere with twice the salary, allowing him to pass on his experience in fighting in various parts of the world to a group of selected escort soldiers.However, the war technology at this time is still very limited. Most of the so-called "special forces" are troops that have more training than ordinary troops, and pay special attention to the accuracy of marksmanship and the ability to fight hand-to-hand.At most, some assassination and lurking techniques that Coutere figured out while fighting the natives in various parts of Southeast Asia were added.

However, the training for Luo Aquan and others was very hard, and the remuneration was also very high. Generally, they had 15 taels of food and silver per month, and an annuity of 150 taels at the end of each year, which was at the same level as the general guard officer.

Ordinary members of the company's escort team, including sailors and sailors in the battle fleet, have an annuity of 80 taels at the end of each year, and an additional 10 taels of food money every month.This condition is quite superior. It must be known that the monthly salary of the six-rank and one-hundred-member officer of the Guards Army in the Ming Dynasty was only ten shi, which was equivalent to about 20-2 taels of silver at that time; while ordinary soldiers were only equivalent to about 4-[-] taels of silver per month. The salary.

Therefore, among the immigrants in Taiwan, there are quite a lot of people who request to join the escort team.Many refugees who could not survive due to natural disasters and man-made disasters on the mainland deliberately went to Taiwan by boat and asked to join the escort.If it weren't for Yin Feng's insistence on taking the route of elite soldiers and strict control over the recruitment process, the number of guards would have exceeded 1200 long ago.Of course, there are also reasons for the insufficient number of weapons and equipment.

Yin Feng returned to the cabin, summoned the commanders of the battle fleet, and continued to discuss tomorrow's sea battle plan.At this time, the weather gradually changed. After a gust of wind, the dark clouds dissipated, and the bright moonlight suddenly filled the sea.

A Dutch boat was hiding behind the rocks near the mouth of the bay. The Dutch naval officer on board, Captain Bonte, poked his head out and peeked at the mouth of the bay by the moonlight.This sight made him speechless for a moment.Just two hours ago, Li Jin's boat hurriedly fled back to the coast of Magong Port, bringing back the news that the bay had been blocked.

Admiral Wei Malang jumped up in surprise: "There are so many ships coming from there? God bless, what is going on?"

Li Jin had no choice but to spread his hands and shook his head helplessly.

The Dutch had no choice but to send a small boat and 6 sailors, clinging to the coastline, and spent two hours sneaking to the mouth of the bay.

Finally, when the weather changed, Captain Bont saw a Chinese junk boat cruising 100 meters ahead. Fortunately, the boat was hidden in the shadow of the reef and was not found.The white moonlight made a flag on the mast stand out.This is a flag with a circular pattern painted on it.Although the color of the flag was unclear because only the moonlight illuminated it at night, Captain Bunter remembered this pattern in his heart.

Two hours later, Captain Bunter drew the pattern of the flag in Admiral Wei Malang's cabin.

Wei Malang and Li Jin looked at each other and gasped at the same time.Seeing this, Captain Bunter asked cautiously, "General, what's the matter?"

Li Jin smiled bitterly, and pointed towards the coast: "The people who fought us on the island today are also fighting under this banner!"

"China United Company, why didn't they know about their situation in advance? It's as if they came out of the ground." Wei Malang walked up and down in the cabin, and said distressedly: "It seems that the other party's intentions are not good. There will be a fierce battle tomorrow!"

……

With Yin Feng, a time traveler, intervening in history, the Dutch were very depressed, feeling that they were being preempted every time they did things, and they were extremely passive.

The next morning, when the densely packed Chinese ships entered the mouth of the bay in a line, the Dutch were also ready for battle.Wei Malang believed that with the firepower of the Orange and the assistance of two junk ships, it could still compete with hundreds of sailing ships that could only fight hand-to-hand with jumping gangs.

The harsh facts once again dealt a heavy blow to the self-confidence of the Dutch.

The huge three-masted battleship Flying Dragon stands out from a group of Chinese-style sailing ships, and it is as eye-catching as standing out from the crowd; dozens of portholes on the ship's side protrude from black cannons, and a Chinese flag on a blue background is flying high.

This is not enough. A three-masted ship with a combination of Chinese and Western structures appeared at the mouth of the bay. Although the hull is a bit bloated and does not look like a professional warship, the 24-pound cannon on the bow is also very eye-catching, and the portholes on both sides are also very eye-catching. There was a muzzle.

Another huge ship with the hull of a Chinese sailing ship, with a Western-style sail structure, also a three-masted sailing ship, was at the rear of the line.

There are hundreds of sailboats on each side of the Flying Dragon, all beating and blowing conch shells, clamoring forward.The entire Penghu Bay was immediately filled with the sound of countless conch horns.

Wei Malang dropped the binoculars, grabbed Li Jin who was watching from the bow, and said angrily, "This is a battleship! A battleship! Only Europe has a warship! Why does this Chinese company have a warship?"

Li Jin tried his best to break free from Wei Malang's big hand, took several steps back, and said with a pale face, "I don't know! Is it true that only Europeans can build such warships?"

Wei Malang was at a loss for words for a while, turned his head and ordered: "Captain Bonte, order the battleship to move forward, seize the upper hand, and disrupt the opponent's formation first!" He was not convinced, but decided to continue fighting.

Li Jin was talking to himself, with all kinds of expressions on his face fluctuating: "The Chinese can imitate the boats, but can you also imitate the Dutch's courage across the sea?"

The officers are preparing to fight, but all the Dutch sailors and sailors are gasping; although the Orange with 60 guns is strong enough, how can it fight against hundreds of warships of the opponent, especially when the opponent has official warships participating in the battle? There is no way to fight this battle!

Wei Malang suddenly remembered something, and ordered loudly: "Tell the marines to launch an attack on the island immediately, and we must capture the Niangmagong camp."