Sun Jingting said thoughtfully: "In this way, if the strength is not as good as that of people, the contacts that have been well managed before will also be repeated." ”

Gan Hui said: "That's the truth. ”

Wang Jingzhong and others also walked to the side of the ship at this time, and listened very carefully to Gan Hui's briefing on the situation on the Taiwan side......

"The castle of the Dutch has been built." Gan Hui said very seriously: "It's very big, enough to accommodate thousands of people to live inside, the defense is very strong, it can be said that the army of 10,000 people can't attack it, they have two or three large warships docked at the port all year round, as well as quite a lot of medium-sized warships and armed merchant ships, recently they have begun to attack the ships on the route to Japan that harass us, and the peace certificate is no longer issued, because at least twenty ships are harassing us, and the ships that issued the peace certificate are not safe, for the sake of future reputation, we have announced the suspension of distribution." ”

An officer of the naval division sent by the Taiwan side to greet him said with a wry smile: "Actually, even if it is distributed, I am afraid that no one will receive it, our own ships have been harassed, and in the past two months we have received the peace certificate, five ships have been robbed, but fortunately there are not many kills, so let alone that people do not receive it, even if some old sea ships are willing to receive the peace certificate, we are embarrassed to distribute it ourselves." ”

Sun Jingting pinched his eyebrows and said, "When will this situation be reversed?" ”

"The marching division is planning the war." The officer of the naval division said solemnly: "Previously, we sent a negotiation mission, led by Zheng Zhilong and He Bin, we are willing to negotiate with the Dutch on the Japanese route and the content and weight of the cargo, and we are willing to concede some interests in the sea interests, once the negotiations fail, we may declare war on the Dutch." ”

"Has this matter been reported to Qingcheng?"

"Xiaguan was ordered to wait for Sun Zhengshi in the sea off Penghu, we have been rowing here for five days in a pulp boat, this news was five days ago, according to Xiaguan's estimate, Tangma may have been sent long ago."

"Oh, I see."

Sun Jingting's face was quite serious, at this time he was no longer as reserved and even disgusted with Taiwan's affairs as before, he really didn't come to experience the situation of not knowing the front, like fighting for supremacy on the sea and land are completely two different things, Hutchison's elite infantry and cavalry can not play any role, Taiwan officials have long pointed out this point, land battles that cannot win naval battles are meaningless, even if the Dutch who fight on land cannot raise their heads, and if they can't win at sea, it is still in vain, and the Dutch can go ashore again anywhere, It can attack Hutchison's ports and bases at the mouth of the river, it can block the coastline, so that Taiwan's marching division cannot obtain any supplies, it can disturb the shipping routes, so that Hutchison's ships have no way to buy and sell goods and sell.

As long as there is a real fight, if there is no determination to compete for supremacy at sea, there will be no doubt that we will lose, and if we cannot fight a naval battle, we can only endure it.

"Why haven't the Dutch officially gone to war until now?"

"They're also moving troops." The officer of the naval division said: "Since the beginning of the year, they began to have friction with us, after the spring began to restrict our shipping routes and large-scale harassment of merchant ships, to the beginning of the summer, they began to restrict us from going to the coast of Fujian to buy goods, and at the same time colluded with Fujian maritime merchants not to sell goods to us, in addition, they restricted us from passing through Penghu to replenish food and fresh water, and the noose on us was getting tighter and tighter, and they did not directly go to war with us because they had many sea areas and islands to take care of, and they had been slowly mobilizing warships, and now the pressure on us is getting tighter. It shows that their manpower and ships are almost mobilized, and even if we don't fight, they will do it at any time. ”

Now the entire coastal area of Fujian and the route to Japan are full of Dutch ships, Hutchison's trade space is almost squeezed out, and even the safety of the sea ships coming from the north can not be guaranteed...... If Sun Jingting had been sunk by the Dutch at such a critical moment when war was about to start, there would have been no way for the Taiwan side to explain to Zhang Han and the high-level military officials.

Sun Jingting originally blamed the Taiwan side for making such a fuss and making such a big fuss, but after listening to the explanation, he was a little faintly worried, he had never experienced a naval battle, and he could not swim in the water, and once he fell into the water, he was afraid that he would die, which was more frightening than fighting with the Mongolian cavalry on the grassland.

Maybe it's really afraid of something, a big ship looms above the turbulent waves, and the sailor officer who came to greet him hurriedly returns from the gangway back to his pulp boat, which is a small boat of sixteen pulp, which is generally used to tow galleons into the harbor and mooring, the eight-pulp boat is the most common, and the sixteen pulp is relatively rare, which is used to pull the largest large ship, and sometimes one is not enough.

After the officer of the naval division went down, he fired a cannon shot, and gathered the other five pulp boats together.

There were soldiers on every paddle ship, and the muskets were not loaded with bayonets, but they were loaded and guarded horizontally in their hands.

There were two guns on each ship, both of which were nine-pounder guns, and there was no way for the pulp ships to carry heavier guns.

On the shore the nine-pounder is already heavy artillery, at sea it is just ordinary small artillery.

Even so, Hutchison's paddle ship also has the firepower of more than a dozen guns, plus several squadrons of firearm soldiers are guarded, they sit cross-legged in the middle of the paddle ship, their bodies rise and fall with the waves very exaggeratedly, although the wind and waves are very strong, the hull undulates fiercely, but these soldiers are obviously often trained at sea, the body is very stable, and the ship is well fixed......

Sun Jingting couldn't understand it, but Wang Jingzhong on the side praised: "Naval warfare is completely different from land warfare, and the fact that the Fourth Regiment can train soldiers like this shows that Commander Li has really worked hard." ”

Wang Yan said solemnly: "At the beginning, the soldiers vomited when they got on the boat, and we also took a lot of effort, medicine combined with exercise and supplements, and finally passed this level." ”

Sun Jingting said with emotion: "Riding horses in the north, people in the south by boat, we still have more soldiers in the north, and it is really not easy to do this." ”

Gan Hui said: "Now we are also strengthening the recruitment of soldiers from Fujian, and we have recruited two companies. ”

"It's still too little." Sun Jingting said: "When I look back at Chang Zheng, I want to mention that since the naval battle of the northern soldiers is half the effort, it is better to focus on Fujian nationality, and you can recruit one or two more battalions, and it will be very effective in naval battles." ”

In fact, a lot of Fujianese people have also been recruited, and now most of them are sailors and low-level officers of the sailors, but Gan Hui is also a Fujianese, and the more Fujianese in the marching division, the happier he is.

Moreover, now that the Dutch enemy ships were getting closer and closer, the tall hulls and the masts that pierced into the clouds, and the soft sails that continued to flow through the waves, were only a few miles away from Hutchison's side, and they could be seen very clearly.

There were a lot of people standing on the hull, and the Dutch officer was standing at the bow of the ship, obviously looking over with binoculars......

Sailors and marines were armed with muskets, some with bayonets and some without bayonets.

The Dutch are clamoring for something, and they don't understand it here, and Hutchison has a special general service, generally in Dutch and Japanese, and some in Portuguese and Spanish, but it is still the Japanese who have the most talents, after all, Hutchison's ships are mainly running Japanese routes.

However, there must have been someone on the paddle ship who could understand, knowing that the Dutch were scolding, and under the orders of the officer, the officers and men of the sailor division also began to curse in unison.

The swearing words in the north are not as delicate as those in the south, and they are straightforward, but the soldiers of several squadrons scolded together, neatly and uniformly, and the foul language came out continuously, and the momentum first suppressed the other party, Sun Jingting and other northerners heard that these soldiers were scolding in Datong dialect or Liaodong dialect, and they actually adjusted their voices in unison, and they all immediately laughed.

Gan Hui couldn't help but smile and said: "We Fujian people are too soft to scold, so the scolding is all based on the brothers in the north." ”

Wang Jingzhong said with a smile: "Do you often scold at sea like this?" ”

"A common thing." Gan Hui said: "For several months in a row, when we meet, we scold, and sometimes we shoot at each other, but it's all about contact, either we go, or they go." ”

Wang Yan said a little depressedly: "Generally, we go." ”

Sun Jingting said with some amazement: "This ship is so big! ”

The Dutch ship on the opposite side was getting closer and closer, and sure enough, it was an oversized battleship, about twenty meters longer than the Zhenwei, and the width was several meters wider, and the mast was much larger, and there were two floors below the deck with the muzzles of black holes exposed, the front building was very large, and there were bow guns that looked very large, and the stern tower was larger, three stories high, and a large number of soldiers stood on the stern building, and there were several officers standing on the tall lookout, who were looking at this side with binoculars in their hands.

"This is the Galen ship." Gan Hui introduced to Sun Jingting: "This is the Batavia, which is a medium and large warship, our ship is a small Galen ship, we are a small ship of 160 tons, the Batavia is more than 600 tons, we are 35 meters long, the Batavia is 46 meters long, it has more than 40 guns, we only have more than 20, in terms of tonnage and firepower, our ship is only less than half of it." ”

The huge hull was like a sea monster, and it weighed heavily on Sun Jingting's heart.

Before the encounter at sea, the people in the military department, including Sun Jingting, were not too sensitive to the tonnage ratio and artillery figures, especially the Mongols on the steppe often attacked with tens of thousands of people, one said that tens of thousands of cavalry against Hutchison's more than 1,000 soldiers, but the result was a complete victory for Hutchison, and the Mongols did not have a single victory.

As a result, people are not too sensitive to Hutchison's combat power and the so-called balance of forces, and they are somewhat dismissive of Taiwan's repeated emphasis on the strength of the enemy.