May is the most comfortable time of the year for Macau with a warm climate and a gentle sea breeze, but the Portuguese governor Chef Svera is not in a very comfortable mood, to be precise, he is idle and panicked. He was used to making friends in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, or sleeping in the palace in the capital of Mysore, and he was really a little unaccustomed to Macau, where there was nothing.

If you are not used to it, you have to stay, there is no way, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty gave him a holy decree, asking him to be a middleman to provide a venue for the peace talks between the Ming Empire and the Netherlands, he did not dare to go against the will of His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire, so he could only stay in Macao honestly and wait for news from the Netherlands.

After waiting for half a year, news finally came from the Dutch side that Speke, the former governor of Batavia, had been sent to preside over the peace talks, and that he would arrive in Macao in mid-May.

Shi Villa jumped up happily after receiving the news, finally got through the end, as long as they finished the peace talks, they could get out of this cage and run around, he missed the indigenous palace, and missed the capital of the Ming Dynasty, he hadn't gone to drink with old friends for a long time, the wine of the Ming Dynasty was strong enough, and he must go to the capital to drink a good time when it happened in Macau!

Zheng Zhilong specially left the fast horse of the post office here in Shiweila, and the news of the Dutch reached Macao less than three days later, Zheng Zhilong knew, he smiled, took two thousand guards, Shi Shiran rushed to the base of the Nandaying Naval Division, and then asked Zheng Zhihu to lead the fifty super battleships and five hundred Fuchuan warships of the Nanyang Naval Division to block the waterway from Batavia to Macao directly, and be sure to "escort" the fleet of the Dutch escorting envoys to Nandaying.

The Dutch envoy Speke, who served as governor of Batavia from 1629 to 1632, was extremely shrewd, and after returning to the Netherlands, he directly entered the national parliament of the United Provincial Republics and became a member of the Dutch decision-making hierarchy. This time, the governor of Batavia, Bruwen, and his successor, Van Dimen, were planted in the hands of the Ming Empire, and the high-level officials of the United Provincial Republic exploded, and after several months of debate, the national parliament finally decided to send him as a special envoy to negotiate peace with the Ming Empire.

It's not that the Netherlands doesn't want to retaliate, the news from all sides that the Ming Empire has at least 100 warships and 1,000 armed merchant ships, although this strength is not as good as the Dutch Navy, but it cannot be underestimated, and the Dutch Navy must go all out to ensure that the other side wins steadily.

If it was in Europe, the Netherlands would naturally want to retaliate, but the Ming Empire was tens of thousands of miles away in the Far East, so they had to consider the cost of retaliation. If the main fleet is sent to the Far East, not to mention the loss on the way, the mainland is very likely to be occupied by Spain.

The situation in the Netherlands is not optimistic, and it can even be said that the situation of the entire Protestant League is not optimistic, and their legendary commander, King Gustav II of Sweden, was unfortunately killed at the Battle of Lützen more than two years ago, resulting in a great defeat of the Swedish army, and the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire are in full swing. Although France, the strongest of the Protestant League, was ready to enter the war, it would take at least a year for them to prepare for war, and this was the most dangerous time for the Netherlands, and Spain could send troops to pick them up at any time, how dare they transfer their main fleet to the Far East.

In the end, the provinces gave more than a dozen armed merchant ships, and reluctantly cobbled together a 'fleet' composed of more than 100 armed merchant ships, and sent the former Batavia governor Speke to the Far East to negotiate peace with the Ming Empire, no matter what, those 20,000 soldiers must be ransomed, that is nearly one-eighth of their entire country's combat strength!

Speke's heart was quite depressed, what can more than a hundred armed merchant ships do, people can have more than a hundred super battleships, and the only role of these more than 100 armed merchant ships is to load back 20,000 prisoners. In order to give himself a boost, he had to go to Batavia and take half of the forty super battleships of the East India Company with him, forming a mixed fleet of more than 100 'battleships', and then rushed to Macao.

As a result, before he arrived in Macao, he was blocked by the fleet of the Ming Empire, on the grounds that the Ming Empire stipulated that warships of any country were not allowed to sail into the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, well, they were a mixed fleet composed of more than 500 warships, and there were fifty super battleships alone, so he had to give in and go to the sailor base of the Ming Empire with others.

When he saw the familiar castle of Geranza, Speke felt a little sad, this was the castle of the Dutch, but it was robbed by the Ming Empire. When he saw that the inner sea of the Taijiang River was densely packed with small warships, his heart twitched, "Don't you want money for small warships, there are so many, I'm afraid there must be two or three thousand!"

When he saw the thousands of artillery pieces and the soldiers waiting for him on the coastal batteries, his heart twitched again, so many artillery pieces, so many people, I am afraid that a whole fleet of these batteries alone will not be able to attack them.

When he saw the Sun Moon and the Success, his eyes were about to drop, oh, buy cakes, is there such a big warship in this world? It won't be two models!

When he saw the majestic Red Castle, his heart was shocked, this was probably the largest fortress he had ever seen, and it was also the most densely populated fortress he had ever seen, should he put so many people to scare people.

When he saw the huge southern camp, he was stunned, oh, buy cakes, such a big city, at least two million people can live in it, and the whole of the Netherlands is afraid that people will not be satisfied with it!

When he saw the dense military camps in the city, his scalp was already numb, how many troops could live here!

At this time, Zheng Zhilong finally caught up, and he smiled heartily: "Your Excellency Governor Speke, I haven't seen you for a long time, are you okay?" ”

Of course he knows this guy, this is a pirate leader trained by his predecessor's subordinates, but he didn't expect that now he has become the prince of the Ming Empire, he can't help but salute, and said perfunctorily: "His Royal Highness the King of Zhennan, long time no see, thank you for your greetings, I'm fine." ”

From the beginning of the meeting, this negotiation contest has begun, Zheng Zhilong's eyes narrowed, and he pointed to the military camp in the distance and said, "How is it, Your Excellency the Governor, my military camp is quite neatly built, right?" ”

Speke also narrowed his eyes, looked carefully, and finally found a problem, most of the military camp here was empty, so he said in a slightly mocking tone: "Neat is neat, it's just that there is a shortage of personnel, is this a scenic spot specially repaired for me by His Highness?" ”

Nima, the sights! Zheng Zhilong originally just wanted to take him around Penghu and Kowloon and go directly to Macau, but now he has changed his mind, he wants to see the attractions, right, this king let you see enough, he said lightly: "Of course the personnel are sufficient, but most of them go to various castles to guard, or I will take you around." ”

When Speke heard this, he glanced at Zheng Zhilong, and thought about it in his heart: "Do you want to deceive me, do you think that I won't go to see it if I am in a hurry to negotiate, I will go and see, anyway, the negotiation is not something that can be negotiated in a day or two, let him lose his ugly first, gain the upper hand in momentum, and it is worth wasting a few days." ”

Thinking of this, he said with a smile: "It just so happens that I am more interested in the castle, since His Royal Highness is free, then I will accompany His Royal Highness to enjoy the castle built by the Ming Empire." ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he immediately politely led Speke and his party to the Sun and Moon, this is a pretending artifact lent to him by the emperor, and it can definitely suppress these red-haired ghosts.

Sure enough, when Speke followed Zheng Zhilong and waited for the ship, his heart began to beat a drum, it turned out that this was not a model, it was really a battleship, and the Ming Empire could build such a huge warship!

When he saw the huge cannons in the bow and stern, the shock in his heart was incomprehensible, like this kind of cannon over forty pounds, the Netherlands, which boasted the best casting technology, had not cast much now, and the Ming Empire was equipped with twelve guns on one battleship! And from his professional point of view, these cannons are definitely not models posed to scare people.

Since Speke and his entourage also had three or four hundred people, Zheng Zhilong only brought one thousand guards on the Sun and Moon, and he ordered another one thousand guards to board the Chenggong, and the two huge warships set off together, slowly sailing out of the Taijiang Inland Sea and heading for Penghu.

Seeing this, Spyke's heart moved, wouldn't the Ming Empire have a total of two such giant ships, and they were all put out just to scare me? He pretended to be casual and asked, "His Royal Highness the King of Zhennan, do you have two such flagships alone?" ”

Zheng Zhilong naturally knew's thoughts, Speke guessed correctly, but the emperor asked him to drive these two treasure ships over just to scare the Dutch envoy, so naturally he couldn't show his stuff, he shook his head and smiled: "No, no, no, the other one is not mine, it is a small gift from His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire to my son, my son is not yet an adult, so I am in charge for the time being." ”

When Speke heard this, he directly lost the courage to ask again, there are definitely many such giant ships in the Ming Empire, if the Ming Dynasty only has two such super giant ships, then the other one is definitely their Emperor's Majesty's, and the King of Zhennan doesn't dare to brag that it is his son's, and His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire knows that he will not cut him!

Even if it is someone else's, the people who can own this kind of giant ship are definitely the big names of the Ming Empire, and there is no need for this King of Zhennan to offend big people who are similar to him in order to brag about it. So the other ship is likely to be his son's, such a huge battleship as a small gift, can there be less such a warship in the Ming Empire!

Zheng Zhilong naturally wouldn't tell this goods, they were riding on His Majesty's flagship, and his son was a big man bigger than him, so it would be right to misunderstand this goods.

Penghu is not far from the Taijiang Inland Sea, and soon they arrived, naturally there are huge fortresses and dense forts, and in order to scare the Dutch envoys, Zheng Zhilong also specially ordered that 30,000 people should be stationed in each fortress and fort, which really scared, the castle, the forts, and the personnel were no worse than the Chiji Castle!

The second stop, Zheng Zhilong, took Speke to visit the city of Santo Domingo and the city of San Saldóba, there were a lot of personnel and batteries, but Speke knew that this castle was the old castle of the Spaniards, and it seemed that the king of Zhennan had nowhere to bring him, so he brought him here, but these two places alone were scary enough, Speke secretly remembered that if the Netherlands wanted to attack the Ming Empire in the future, they would definitely bypass Formosa and Penghu and attack directly along their coastline.

As a result, it is conceivable that when Zheng Zhilong took him to see the castles and forts in Zhangzhou, Xiamen and Kowloon, he was completely desperate, the coastline was so tightly defended, and what else was attacked, the Dutch navy couldn't attack it!

Zheng Zhilong saw his desperate expression, and couldn't help but say proudly in his heart: "Hmph, fight with this king, I can't kill you, I guess it's almost the same when I look at this cowardice, I'm ready to lose money!" ”