Wu Yingxiong jumped onto the dock in Batavia in embarrassment and looked at the port city of Hongyi.

Batavia was not large, with only a few Dutch warships, a dozen Dutch merchant ships, and a dozen Ming galleons parked on the docks. It was still June, and the southern fashion was unstable, and the merchants from Daming were still stranded on the docks in Batavia, waiting for the day of their return in August.

Wu Yingxiong glanced at the dock and saw that many Han people were loading goods on the merchant ships of Hongyi and Daming, all of them with yellow faces and thin muscles, as if they could be blown down by a gust of wind. However, these emaciated Han slave laborers carried heavy goods on their backs, one foot deep and one foot shallow, to carry them to the ship.

The native Javanese with a leather whip in their hands were obviously of higher status, and from time to time they whipped the ground with whips to frighten the Han Chinese who carried things.

Wu Yingxiong asked the maritime merchants around him in surprise, "Uncle Liu, why do these natives whip the Han people with leather whips?" ”

The maritime merchants beside Wu Yingxiong looked at the porters, frowned and said, "Major General, those porters are all slaves captured by Hongyi from the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong. A few years ago, when Li Zhi had not yet risen, Hongyi sent a fleet to attack the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty every year, and the captured Han people were sent to Batavia to do hard labor and slavery. ”

"These Han people are not paid for their work, only two half-full meals a day, until they die of exhaustion on the dock. Every year, two to three percent of Han Chinese die of exhaustion and illness in Batavia. In recent years, Hongyi was scared by Li Zhi and did not dare to go to the southeast coast to rob slaves, Batavia's manpower was becoming more and more strained, and these still living slaves were getting harder and harder. ”

When Wu Yingxiong heard this, he was stunned for a long time and didn't react.

It took a long time before he asked stupidly, "Uncle Liu, how will Hongyi treat us?" ”

Wu Yingxiong is the son of Wu Sangui. After Wu Sangui's death, Li Zhi punished Wu Sangui's nine clans and sent Han Jinxin's people south to arrest the Wu family. But Wu Yingxiong fled quickly and fled all the way from Nanchang to Guangzhou. In Canton he found Liu Xin, the envoy sent by Wu Sangui to contact the Dutch, a maritime merchant whom he called Uncle Liu, and fled to Batavia by sea.

However, when I arrived in Batavia, the first thing I saw was the miserable situation of Han slave labor. Wu Yingxiong was frightened and began to suspect the fate of defecting to Hongyi.

Liu Xin sighed and said, "Young General, this Hongyi is the most brutal to us Han people. Originally, we got the benefits of Hongyi, so we naturally didn't care about these things. Now that you have come to Hongyi, Major General, you really have to be careful. Be humble in what you say and do, and don't anger those Hongyi officers. ”

"Li Zhi pursued and killed the nine clans of the Wu family, and now Li Zhi's forces are all over Nanyang, and now you can't accommodate the major generals in these places, so you can only defect to Hongyi. Now we can only hope that Hongyi will give us a way to live. ”

Wu Yingxiong stood on the pier, feeling full of pathos for a while, and bowed his head for a long time.

Liu Xin stood with Wu Yingxiong for a while, and saw a native Javanese approaching with a whip. Liu Xin hurriedly urged Wu Yingxiong: "Major General, this dock can't stand for a long time, let's go to the Dutchman's official hall and report." ”

Wu Yingxiong looked at the Javanese overseer who came over in a panic, didn't dare to stay on the dock any longer, and hurriedly followed Liu Xin to Hongyi's fortress.

The two walked quickly to the front of the fortress, and the documents given by Liu Xin from the Dutch passed through the three-layer guard checks and entered the Dutchman's fortress. A Hongyi clerk took the two to a clean reception room, and then left on their own.

The two of them didn't dare to sit in the reception room, so they waited for the summons of the Hongyi people.

After about half an hour, a tall, slightly fat Dutchman entered the reception room with two attendants.

Liu Xin hurriedly said to Wu Yingxiong: "This is Kuhn, the governor of Batavia. ”

Kuhn walked into the room, glanced at Wu Yingxiong, and said, "You are Wu Sangui's son?" ”

Wu Yingxiong knelt on the ground with a puff and said, "Lord Governor! I am Wu Yingxiong, the eldest son of Wu Sangui, my father attacked Li Zhi with you and died in the capital of Daming! ”

Hearing the translation of the translator next to him, Kuhn frowned, apparently Wu Yingxiong reminded him of another Dutch defeat, which made him feel very bad.

He raised his chin arrogantly and said, "So what are you doing in Batavia?" ”

Wu Ying looked at Kuhn with blank eyes and said, "I have no way out, I'm here to defect..."

However, before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Liu Xin. Liu Xin laughed and said loudly: "Your Excellency the Governor, the Major General has traveled thousands of miles to provide the Governor with the information of the great battle under the city of Beijing. “

Liu Xin knew that if Wu Yingxiong had no value to the Dutch, he would be immediately blasted out of Batavia by Kuhn. The only thing Wu Yingxiong could do now was to describe the battle in the capital to the Dutch.

Hearing this, Kuhn became interested.

"We were really interested in the details of that battle."

He decided to spend some time on Wu Yingxiong, sat down on a chair, and asked, "Why does the Jiangbei Army have such advanced weapons, but it is still no match for Li Zhi's Tiger Army?" “

Although Wu Yingxiong did not witness the battle in Beijing, he talked with several escaped lieutenants in Nanchang and knew what happened in that battle.

"Your Excellency! Li Zhi's weapons are getting more and more terrifying, and he has built a steel chariot that can walk on its own! “

Kuhn was stunned and asked, "The steel chariot?" “

"It's the steel chariot! With smoke from their tails and heavy armor, these chariots did not need to be dragged by oxen and horses to move forward on their own. Even the red-coated cannons that the Governor sold to my father have no way to take these chariots! “

Kuhn frowned, as if hearing a fantasy.

However, Li Zhi did always make something unbelievable, such as ironclads that didn't need sails.

"So how do these steel chariots fight?"

Wu Yingxiong saw that Kuhn was very concerned and began to realize his value. He quickly stood up, waved his arms and said, "Your Excellency the Governor, then Li Zhi sent soldiers to drop bombs in our trenches behind the chariots!" “

"Bombs?"

"Yes, Li Zhi's soldiers have a lot of bombs. Their infantry stood behind the chariots so that we could not storm the chariots, and the bombardiers threw bombs from behind the chariots to blow up our trenches. “

"Our trenches were blown down by these bombs one by one, and the soldiers quickly collapsed."

Wu Yingxiong began to describe the events of that battle.

Kuhn frowned and listened to Wu Yingxiong's account of the war, and finally said to the clerk beside him: "Write down the words of the Ming people, this is very important information. We must organize officers and analyze how to deal with Li Zhi's new method of warfare! “