As mentioned earlier, in order to replenish the goods in July, the Dutch sent more than a dozen armed merchant ships from Dongfan and Batavia respectively in September, and some people here may ask, more than a dozen ships have just disappeared in two directions, and you sent more than ten ships to deliver food to the pirates, isn't this idiot?

First of all, they did not know the existence of Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui, which means that they did not realize that their merchant ships were robbed by pirates.

Secondly, the business of the Dutch East India Company in various bases in Southeast Asia must be maintained, and it may not be too much of a problem to delay the delivery of goods for one or two months, if you rely on other people's goods for your own reasons, then this business does not need to be done, this is a business that can earn tens of millions of taels of silver a year, and it is impossible for them to give up, so the goods must be reissued.

In the end, they did not think that any pirates would dare to rob their more than ten armed merchant ships, and what was the concept of more than a dozen armed merchant ships plus more than a thousand musketeers in that era, not to mention the fact that the illiterate explorer Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire with a population of more than 8 million with less than 200 people, just talk about the first large-scale invasion of the Ming Dynasty by the Netherlands.

In the second year of the Apocalypse (1622 AD), Kuhn, the governor of Batavia, sent 16 warships and more than 1,000 soldiers to prepare to attack Macao and open the door to trade with the Ming Dynasty by force. What does this mean? The meaning is obvious, in the eyes of the Dutch, sixteen warships and more than a thousand soldiers are enough to defeat the Ming Dynasty, a feudal dynasty with a population of hundreds of millions! This is not nonsense, if they themselves think that they can't beat Daming and send these people to attack Daming, then they are really idiots, in fact, they can't be idiots, that is, in their opinion, sixteen warships and more than a thousand soldiers can defeat Daming!

In addition, the past ten years is the most rapid development period of the Netherlands, now the Dutch warships have become super battleships with hundreds of cannons, more than ten years ago the battleships are equivalent to the current armed merchant ships, that is to say, in the eyes of the Dutch East India Company, more than a dozen armed merchant ships in Southeast Asian waters can run rampant, there is no need to be afraid of pirates!

'Know your opponent and know your friends, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles. Needless to say, almost everyone knows this sentence, but this sentence is incomplete, and the latter paragraph is estimated to be less noticeable. The original text of "Sun Tzu: Seeking Attack" is like this: Knowing each other and knowing oneself, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles; Knowing oneself without knowing the other, one wins and one loses; I don't know who I am, I don't know myself, I will die in every battle.

Now the Netherlands belongs to the last kind, they don't know each other and don't know themselves, they don't know that the military technology of the Ming Dynasty has caught up in just a few years, and has surpassed them in quality, and now what is lacking is only quantity. At the same time, due to the rapid development, they have been lost in the glory of the sea overlord, completely overestimated their strength, in the Chongzhen Dynasty they were planted in the hands of the sea's upstart Britain, in the Chongzheng Dynasty, they are afraid that they will first suffer a big loss in the hands of the rising Ming.

Like this disappearance of the merchant ship, if you are more cautious, you will definitely send warships to escort it, and at the worst time, you have to ask around about the situation first to see what changes have occurred in the maritime forces.

In front of more than 300 armed pirate ships with almost the same firepower, there was not much difference between six armed merchant ships and twelve armed merchant ships, they were completely crushed, Shi Daxuan and they only took a little more effort, and the twenty-four Dutch merchant ships disappeared with people and ships.

By mid-September, the Dutch finally reacted, the merchant ships in July did not arrive, and the merchant ships in August did not arrive, and they no longer knew that they had been robbed, then they were really idiots.

At this time, Formosa and Batavia are about to be chaotic, letters urging goods from various countries are flying like snowflakes, and Batavia even has a food crisis, you must know that Batavia is the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, there are tens of thousands of employees alone, and tens of thousands of armed men, as well as more than 20,000 navies of the Dutch Eastern Fleet, and the food consumption of 70,000 or 80,000 people is not a small amount, and it is not enough to rely on the narrow island of Java, and it is necessary to replenish food from Formosa every month, and now it has been cut off for three months. The food shortage is huge.

The current Governor of the Dutch East India Company, Hedrick. Although Bruwen was not a pioneering colonial pioneer, he was still very diligent, and he had been handling the company's affairs in an orderly manner for more than two years, but he did not expect to plant such a big fight this time, and he sat alone in the office of the Governor's Palace, his face full of deep despair.

At this moment, the guard outside knocked lightly on the door and said, "Lord Governor, Fan. Admiral Dimon is coming. ”

The current commander of the Dutch Eastern Fleet, Admiral Tony Thony. Fan. Dimon was an aggressive man, and for several years he had been advocating to drive out the Spaniards and the Portuguese to dominate the East, but he had been suppressed by Bruwen and could not put it into action.

Bruvine knew that this guy had been coveting the position of the governor for a long time, and he was always looking for an opportunity to get him off the horse, and this time he was afraid that this guy would get what he wanted, so he took a deep breath and said, "Let him in." ”

Fan Dimen is not the kind of stunned young man who only knows how to do it, he knows that this time Bruwen is afraid that it will be over, he ran over just to express his concern about this matter, after all, he is the commander of the garrison, it is always bad to ignore it, he pretended to be angry and ran in, and asked urgently: "Lord Governor, who is so bold that he dares to rob our ship, I will immediately lead the fleet to destroy them." ”

Bruwen knew that this kid was just pretending, and he replied helplessly: "I'm investigating, I believe there will be a result soon, Your Excellency the Admiral, please don't be impatient." ”

Fan Dimen is in a hurry, the affairs of the East India Company are not under his control now, he just ran over to show his enthusiasm, since he hasn't found it yet, then you check it slowly, he stood up and snapped a military salute, pretending to be in a hurry and said: "Okay, if the Governor finds out, please inform me immediately, I still have some matter, so I won't bother the Governor." ”

Let's just turn around and go!

Bruwen looked at Van Dimen's back, shook his head and sighed, and then, slowly, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and waited for the judgment of fate.

After they plundered the goods of the Dutch, Shi Daxuan did not find a place to hide, but transported them to Manila by various methods, and blatantly took them out and sold them, and the prices of grain, sugar, cloth, porcelain, etc. in Manila dropped sharply, and the Dutch naturally found out quickly.

Now that the Netherlands was fighting for independence, and relations with his suzerain, Spain, were of course very poor, Bruwen had no doubt that the Spaniards would incite pirates to plunder their merchant ships, so he sent a strongly worded letter to the Spanish governor in Manila, demanding that they immediately release the East India Company's employees and return the merchant ships and cargo.

The Spaniards are lying on this gun, it is really inexplicable how inexplicable, just kidding, since the Spanish "Invincible Armada" was defeated by the British, their power at sea is not as good as before, and now there are only ten super battleships stationed in Manila, go to the sea to find trouble with the Dutch, then don't you look for death!

The Spanish governor in Manila is not a character to be messed with, he directly ignored Bruwan's vexatious troubles, they really can't do it at sea, but they are still very strong on land, he alone has 10,000 troops, and it is not a problem to hold Manila City at all, there is a kind of you to bite me!

In a remote corner of Manila, there was a low bungalow, where Prad and the six captains had been locked up for more than a month, and they were in a panic when there was a chaotic conversation outside, in Spanish, which they could vaguely understand, probably meaning that the Batavian side had found out and could get moving!

Their faces turned pale with direct fright, and this action didn't mean to drag them all out and cut them all!

After a while, the pirates outside shouted, "Prad, come out and come with us." ”

Prad's frightened feet were weak, and he moved out with difficulty, but he didn't expect that people would really let him go, that is, let him go and deliver a letter to Lord Brooken, the governor!

............

Bruvine had not received an answer from the Spanish governor for a long time, and was considering whether to inform Van Diemen to lead the Eastern Fleet to threaten the Spaniards near Manila, when an unexpected man returned.

The person turned out to be Captain Prad, who had sailed from Formosa in July, and Bruvine asked in surprise, "Why are you back, what about the others?" ”

Prad slurred, "The others are still being held in Manila, and they asked me to come back and deliver the letter." ”

Brookin asked curiously, "What about the letter?" ”

Prad hesitantly took out a letter from his bosom, Bruwen took it and opened it, it turned out to be written in Spanish, the Netherlands is still nominally a Spanish dependency, and he naturally understands Spanish, only to see that it reads:

Your Excellency the Governor, I have heard that you are anxious to recover the missing merchant ship and crew, and we will be happy to help you, as long as you pay to hire us, we promise to help you find all the merchant ships and crews, and we will not ask for a high price, 500,000 taels of silver for each merchant ship, and 10,000 taels for each crew member, and as for the goods on board, if you are willing to buy them at the original price, we will be happy to help you procure them. Allow me to conclude by expressing our sincerest gratitude to you, Your Excellency the generous Governor of Bruwan.

After reading it, Bruwen almost spurted blood with anger, shameless pirates, shameless Spaniards, shameless!