Chapter 106: Portugal Refuses Peace Sino-Portuguese Naval Showdown

Seeing that Ruo Ao IV was angry, Zheng Zhilong laughed instead, "Hehe, Your Majesty, there are naturally winners and losers in the war, your ship was sunk by us, you are distressed, our ship was sunk by you, and we are also distressed." There's no way around it. As for your colonies, is there anything wrong with us taking back our land, or our subjects, and taking back what was our own? ”

"You, can your ship be compared to our noble Portuguese ship?" Ruo Ao IV was really angered by Zheng Zhilong's words, and under this anger, the words were not so appropriate.

Zheng Zhilong put away his smile and asked, "Why can't our ship be compared to your ship?" ”

"You barbarians, can you compare with us Portuguese?" Before Joao IV could speak, one of the ministers roared.

"Humph! Barbarians, who are the barbarians? Zheng Zhilong glared and asked, "I met you Portuguese in Macau, and in addition to business, your merchant ships also make a living as pirates, don't you know?" In addition to normal trade, they also loot and sell people everywhere, and do everything in order to earn silver, is this barbaric? What barbarism are you embarrassed to talk to me about? ”

Zheng Zhilong said these things, Joao IV and the ministers knew that they were indeed doing everything to get the money.

After a moment of speechlessness, a minister asked, "General Yihong!" Is there any evidence for what you say? You see, it is a grave sin to slander our brave navigators here! ”

"Don't pretend here, I'm the proof, I've seen you do these things in Macau, and I've seen too many evil things you did when I was doing things for you on the boat! But you generally do these things in God's name! ”

"You, how dare you blaspheme God?"

"Damn Oriental pigs! You don't want to live anymore? ”

“”

The adults who can't make sense have begun to threaten Zheng Zhilong!

Looking at everyone in a hurry, Zheng Zhilong smiled and asked Ruo IV: "Your Majesty! Is this a place where war can start? If we wish, let's play at sea! ”

"Daring, how dare you threaten our great King of Portugal?"

"Kill him!"

“”

João IV held back his anger and asked: "Did your fleet come to Lisbon to go to war?" ”

"Your Majesty, we don't have a few ships in total, we just want to do business, if we want to go to war, our warship suddenly approaches, and a burst of artillery fire can knock Lisbon flat, why bother to talk to you about this?" Zheng Zhilong's words are soft and rigid.

Zheng Zhilong's words made the entire hall dumb all at once. Zheng Zhilong's words are light, but they are like dropping a **. They all knew that the warships of various countries were defeated in front of the Ming Dynasty naval army, and they captured Luzon, Batavia, and Sumatra. Although there are defense systems that have been built for many years, there is no place that can stop the Ming Dynasty people from attacking and breaking through on the same day. But this is Portugal, their hometown, and they can't stand being forced to threaten them.

One of the ministers was really angry, gritted his teeth and said, "You are threatening us!" I will tell you this arrogant fellow, when the Arabs attacked here, they once cut off more than 40,000 of our heads for war booty, but we did not give in, and in the end we cut off more than 170,000 of their heads at a time to take revenge. No one can beat us in the end! ”

The atmosphere was tense as if it was about to explode, but Zheng Zhilong still said calmly: "War is a tragedy for either side. In such a small part of the Liberian peninsula, it is a disaster to have so many people killed and injured in a single war. Let's not talk about the previous wars of our Ming Dynasty, let's just say that the war of Heyue and the Persians that has just been fought is a big battle with hundreds of thousands of people, by the way, we heard on the road that the Ottoman Empire had a misunderstanding with us, and we wiped out more than 300,000 of them at once! What a disaster! However, we Zhang are always a kind-hearted person, and his request to our front-line soldiers is to solve the battle with as few casualties as possible, and never allow innocent civilians to be injured! ”

"Humph!" Ruo Ao IV glared at Zheng Zhilong and said, "It seems that you really want to go to war with us?" ”

"No, we just want to do trade!" Zheng Zhilong said, "I also know that Your Majesty, your enemy is the Spaniards, not us. If you can agree to our request, we will turn Lisbon into a trading hub for the whole of Europe. With us doing business here, the Spaniards don't dare to come and make trouble! ”

In fact, Zheng Zhilong's last sentence moved Joao IV very much, but before he could speak, another minister couldn't help it:

"Shut up! Our great Portugal is invincible, the Spaniards have long been defeated by us, and we don't need you to trade to protect us. ”

"What you need to think about now is, how do you compensate us for the loss of merchant ships?"

"Yes, if you don't compensate us, we will bury your ship in the sea!"

"Your Majesty, don't talk nonsense with him anymore, teach these Oriental pigs a lesson!"

“”

At this time, Joao IV could only comply with everyone's wishes. It was not that King João IV was not assertive, but that the special situation of Portugal dictated that he had to do so. In fact, he knew that many of these ministers had one or another connection with Spain, and many of them had relatives in Spain. Zheng Zhilong mentioned that Spain will not come to make trouble, and some people do not want to hear it. And if Joao IV were to clearly oppose them, and if he might lose the support of many members of Parliament, it would be a threat to his throne.

"That's it!" Ruo Ao IV waved his hand to stop everyone and asked Zheng Zhilong, "What do you want to do?" One is to compensate us for our losses, and we will let you go, or perhaps we will buy the goods you brought; The second is that we will sink all your ships into the sea and feed you fish! ”

Zheng Zhilong had long seen that it would not work if he didn't fight, which was not unexpected by him, but Zheng Zhilong was an old Jianghu and knew that it was time to get out, "Your Majesty, I am here to meet you on behalf of our Ming Dynasty fleet to express our sincerity in conducting trade peacefully, if you can't allow it, I will bring Your Majesty's opinion back to our commander-in-chief." I have no right to accede to His Majesty's request, and I will elaborate on it when I return. However, as a Christian, I beg Your Majesty to allow our two countries to put aside their old grievances and trade peacefully. It's definitely good for both of us. ”

"Our patience is limited, and we ask you to give us a satisfactory answer before dawn tomorrow!" João IV gave an ultimatum.

"Oh well! Since Your Majesty has made such a decision, I will bring back your opinion. We will give Your Majesty a satisfactory answer as soon as possible! I'll take my leave! After speaking, Zheng Zhilong left with a few people.

After Zheng Zhilong left, Joao IV ordered both the navy and the army to be ready for war. Although Ruo IV felt that the nearly 1,000 boats he had at home would not be able to defeat such a few boats in the Ming Dynasty. But for this battle, I still feel that my heart is really unsteady. What is the power of the Ming Dynasty warship, and what it really is, I really don't know.

Even João IV regretted saying too much.

Zhang Zhimu and the others rowed a small boat on the way back to their big ship, and saw that there were Portuguese boats everywhere on the sea, and their goal was to run towards their fleet.

Zheng Zhilong returned to the 25,000-ton Taishan, Mu Yi reached out and pulled Zheng Zhilong, who had climbed the gangway, up, and asked with a smile, "How are you talking?" ”

"Humph! What else? Zheng Zhilong said, "Damn, it's not okay not to give them some power." Those Portuguese adults are simply crazy, and I have been smiling with my face. Get ready to fight! They set a limit, asking us to promise to compensate them for the losses of their sunken merchant ships and colonies, and if they could agree, they might reclaim and sell the goods they had brought, and if they did not answer, they would sink our ships, and they ordered us to give them an answer by dawn to-morrow. ”

"The situation is expected," Mu Yi said, "and as you can see, there are now hundreds of their warships and armed merchant ships around us." They still want to get some advantage from us, or these guys would have fired a long time ago. They must think that they can defeat us with their numerical superiority. I took a look, and there were at least a few hundred ships around, and I couldn't see the edge. ”

Zheng Zhilong picked up the teacup and drank a few cups of tea and said: "Damn, Lao Tzu has been theorizing with them for a long time, and he didn't even give Lao Tzu a cup of tea, he didn't understand any etiquette, and said that we were barbarians!" Hum! I think we waited for it to get darker when our whole fleet suddenly started and broke out of the encirclement. We have to take advantage of our ship's artillery fire and strong mobility to fight them, and we can't be surrounded by them and let them fight! ”

"When you go to negotiate, we studied it," Mu Yi said, "we are ready to rush out before dawn, the Portuguese warships will also pursue us, we keep a distance from them, use our artillery advantage to hit them, they retreat and we chase, they rush over, we will retreat." ”

"Good! We're just going to kill them! Zheng Zhilong nodded and said.

As soon as it was dark, all the ships of the kiln were lit up, and searchlights began to shoot in all directions.

The anchorage of the Yaogang fleet was surrounded by Portuguese ships of all sizes, and their guns were all aimed at the Yaogang warships. They had never seen the searchlight of the kiln gang people, and such a bright pillar of light shone on the ship close to the kiln gang ship, and the crew lowered their heads in fright, their eyes could not stand such light at all. Before the battle was fought, the crews of the Portuguese ships were already defeated in their hearts. Although there were many ships from the Portuguese, most of them were small ships of several hundred tons, and ships of more than 1,000 tons were big ships, and they were all wooden ships. It was impossible for João IV and the adults on the shore to know that the sailors on their ships had long since been frightened.

There has been no movement on the Yaogang ship, and the Portuguese around them also felt that there would be nothing to do tonight, leaving those who were necessary to be on duty to fall asleep.

But at the darkest hour before dawn, all the searchlights on the kiln ship, and all the lights, suddenly went out, and the sea, where the lights had been flickering, suddenly became pitch black. Only the Portuguese ship still had a few lights that flashed like nothing.

The Yaogang fleet left three 5,000-ton cargo ships on the road, one 25,000-ton warship, three 1,800-ton warships, four 1,500-ton warships, one 25,000-ton cargo ship, one 5,000-ton cargo ship, six 1,500-ton cargo ships, and four 150-ton frigates. After the lights went out, the 25,000-ton man took the lead, and the other warships were on the wings, sandwiching the cargo ship in the middle.

All the Portuguese ships were alarmed by the sudden sound of the "boom" of the steamship starting and accelerating at sea. The Portuguese judged that the fleet of the Ming Dynasty was about to escape, and some ships fired "dong dong" in the general direction to intercept it.

The escape of the ship of the Ming Dynasty greatly encouraged the crew of the Portuguese ship, and the original fear was also swept away. They also anchored Yang Fan and chased in the direction of the escape of the Ming Dynasty fleet.

Seeing that the Portuguese opened fire, the Yaogang warship was not polite, at such a close distance, their 130-caliber cannons, as well as the 65-millimeter cannons on the frigate, opened fire against the Portuguese ships. The Portuguese ships were constantly being blown to pieces at sea, and some of the wooden ships that stood in the way of the Yaogang fleet were even more miserable, and they could withstand the ramming of the big ships like steel beasts. Needless to say, those ships of several hundred tons, that is, wooden ships of more than 1,000 tons, fell apart as soon as a giant ship like the Taishan docked.

But there was an advantage in the confusion, that is, the Portuguese did not know the magnitude of their losses, and the ships that were not hit and hit were excited to pursue the fleeing Yaogang warships. This is hundreds or even thousands of ships fighting against the Ming Dynasty naval warships, and each ship feels that such a cheap thing cannot but be taken advantage of. This is also how bold people are, not to mention that the opponent has fled in fear. They all knew that the king had given them a deadline before dawn, and these cowardly Orientals began to flee before dawn!

At dawn, the Portuguese fleet was also dispersed, and at this time, the Ming Dynasty fleet had fled to the open sea, but their fleet formation was not dispersed.

The sailors on the Portuguese warship chasing the front surface found that the Ming Dynasty ships that had fled in front suddenly stopped, and turned around and crossed the river, and these Portuguese understood that the Ming Dynasty warships were about to open fire, and when they came over, they could use the guns on the front and rear decks and on the side of the ship. However, many people began to laugh at the Ming Dynasty naval army like their counterparts in the East, because they were too far away, so far away they put up a shelf, which was a fighting posture.

But before they could finish laughing, the warships lined up at the kiln gang opened fire, and the accurate cannonballs continued to blow up the chasing warships. Right! It is a wooden ship of hundreds or thousands of tons, and when it is hit by a 130-caliber shell, it will immediately turn into flying fragments, and then become floating objects on the sea.

The Yaogang sailors were accustomed to such a battlefield situation, but the Portuguese had never seen such a way of fighting. At such a distance, the cannon sound of the kiln is not dense, but why is it so accurate? They can't imagine it. However, although they still did not understand, they knew that the ship was destroyed and it was over, and the rest of the ship began to pull the sails and turn the rudder and flee backwards. The Portuguese ships in the vicinity were lost, and the Yaogang fleet began to pursue, this time in pursuit.

The Portuguese ships, which had no power to fight back, were clever enough to flee in all directions. The Yaogang warships also began to separate pursuits. On this day, the Yaogang fleet sank more than 100 Portuguese ships, large and small. The sea was littered with floating wooden ship debris and many crew members who had fallen overboard.

The cargo ship in Yaogang began to rescue the crew members who had fallen into the water, and more than 100 people were fished out.

In the afternoon, Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong discussed, and used the radio to notify all the warships to come back and assemble at the anchorage where the ships stopped yesterday. The Yaogang fleet has anchored here again. Then, they found a few small boats on the sea, and among the people who fell into the water were two captains, and Zheng Zhilong asked them to go ashore on a boat, and asked them to tell the king that we still want to settle disputes peacefully, and do not like war, but if you are willing to fight, we will accompany you to the end. Better if you write back to us tomorrow before dawn, or we'll be shooting at Lisbon!

King João IV came with him this morning, and he received a report that the Ming Dynasty navy took advantage of the night and suddenly fled by boat!

"Escaped!" Joao IV's heart suddenly relaxed, "If they knew they were afraid of us, they shouldn't have come to make those unreasonable demands!" We have so many warships, have we caught a few of them? ”

"This," replied the visitor, "is such a majesty, they suddenly ran away in the middle of the night, and our ship has already chased it out, and there should be some results after dawn!" ”

"Yes! Let's wait for the good news of our invincible water army! However, it is more important for us to inform the instructors of our nautical school that they are ready to study how the warships of the Ming Dynasty navy can be powered by steam! ”

"Yes! Wise Majesty, I will go and inform them! ”

To Joao IV's disappointment, however, there was no news that pleased him, but news continued to come that many ships had been sunk.

A minister was relieved and said: "Your Majesty, those warships of the Ming Dynasty are very powerful, and it is inevitable that we will pay some price in the process of defeating them, but this can show the bravery of our naval army!" ”

By noon, many of the ships had fled, and as soon as the ships landed, the crews ran to the dock and fled. More ships brought back the news that the Portuguese warships were being chased by Ming warships at sea, and the data that came back was even more outrageous, with hundreds of warships sunk. Its ships scattered and fled for their lives. They simply had no way to return fire on the Ming Dynasty warships.

Hearing such news, Joao IV's head "Weng" sounded, and he almost fainted. But he was strong, and he just stopped, and some of the adults who wanted to fight again and again slipped away.

João IV knew that his king might well have come to an end.

Joao IV sat there dumbfounded, motionless, until the afternoon, when there were two captured captains who fell into the water outside, and they were released by the Ming Dynasty and brought him a message!

João IV came to his senses and said, "Bring them up!" ”