Munda's fleet sailed into the mouth of the Barito River, revealing a bleak picture. Columns of pitch-black smoke were clearly visible in the distance, and the broken planks of the boat were washed into the sea by the current of the Barito River, and the broken corpses were caught in them. Sharks and bony carnivores gather at the estuary for an unexpected feast.

The Southern Cross Bird Banner waives in the wind, announcing to everyone who is the unquestioned master of the battlefield. Chen Shouxu received Meng Da and his party on the Nanhai, and only then did he understand what Meng Da meant when he said that it was not easy to dismiss.

The four shipowners, who were not like good people in terms of appearance, stood with Meng Da, and someone hugged Chen Shouxu's fist, "Your Excellency has invited you, Lord Meng has invited us, except for money, many things have not been clarified." A certain family wants to ask the lord of the country, what are we transporting on this trip, and where are we going? ”

Chen Shouxu looked at Munda and saw him speak, "This shipowner's surname is Lu, and he often takes some work from the Dutch. ”

From the tone and expression of Meng Da's speech, Chen Shouxu could probably understand what "live" meant. Zheng Zhilong's more than 20 ships are inseparable from Batavia, he was selected by the Dutch as a translator, and the Dutch sent ships to Zheng Zhilong to help him blockade the Taiwan Strait, thus beginning the road to making a fortune. These people in front of me are also engaged in similar work.

"Let's go to Taiwan." Chen Shouxu's fingers tapped lightly on the hilt of the sword, "As for the things to be transported, Sultan Machen will send them over soon." ”

……

Soon after the battle, Ma Chen's Chinese advisers in charge of negotiations came to the Nanhai again, and this time the sincerity of the negotiations between the two sides was relatively sufficient. Ma Chen paid 5,000 pesos and 400 tons of rice in compensation. After getting the money, Chen Shouxuan did not delay too much time, and Chen Shouxu did not take a fancy to the several boats seized on the river, and returned the boats after seizing the supplies.

The fleet then sailed out of the mouth of the Barito River and turned left into the Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi, heading for the northern Sulu Islands.

The Sultanate of Makassar, located in the southern part of Sulawesi, had a small but strong army. In order to obtain spices without the control of the Dutch, both the Portuguese and the British supported Makassar. The army of Makassar has a lot of Western cannons and instructors, mercenaries from various countries. It has a complete range of European-style fortresses and bastions in the country, and it is an opponent that needs to be taken seriously.

The orderly fleet sailed from Jincheng and from Suqadana all the way to the shores of Borneo, accumulating a large amount of hydrographic data. At a summary meeting in the Makassar Strait, Chen Shouxu asked the four captains to carefully sort out their logbooks and combine the experience of several battles to produce a textbook for the Naval Academy on Borneo.

At the battle summary meeting, in the envious eyes of the officers, Chen Shouxu personally gave the greatest contributor to the Battle of the Bayou, the acting captain of the Raphael. Morality. A bar was added to the cuffs of Medina's uniform, and the word "deputy" was removed from his head.

"Lieutenant Commander Medina, you are the captain of the Raphael from today onwards. The Ministry of National Defense will give you the official documents when you return to Japan, so please keep up the good work. ”

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir, I will definitely live up to the trust of my chief and take the Raphael with me. ”

Chen Shouxu beckoned everyone to sit down again, "You are all the commanders of the troops, and the battle has been over for several days. In this battle for Borneo, we have achieved a dazzling success. But to say that there is no improvement at all is not objective. The final topic of today's meeting is to ask the commanders to share their thoughts on the course of the battle, preferably with some suggestions for the fleet command and the Ministry of Defence. ”

Chen Shouxu lit his pipe as he spoke. Seeing that the leaders began to smoke, several captains, army battalion commanders, and marine commanders also took out their pipes one after another, and the officer cabin of the Nanhai was filled with smoke.

Chen Shouxu's expression was more relaxed, "Please speak freely, the more suggestions you make, the better." ”

Ludwig. Filhoff, who was the only Army representative in the conference room, spoke first, "Admiral, we didn't fight the Suqadana landing battle well......

Chen Shouxu waved his hand, "As I said, the responsibility for that time lies with me." ”

"Yes, Admiral. What I want to say is that the army has to face a lot of battlefield environments, there are jungle warfare, flat ground battles and mountain warfare, and landing operations are just part of our training. We also lack special equipment for landing, so in the future, should we ask the Marine Corps to be in charge of landing operations? ”

If Jincheng is a powerful country, what Filhoff said makes sense. The Marine Corps has been trained to specialize in landing, and the Army has focused more on ground operations. But now the whole country is so big, and there are only a few thousand soldiers, and the division of labor between them cannot be so detailed.

To encourage the first speaker, Chen Shouxu rejected Filhoff's suggestion in a gentle tone as much as possible.

Filhoff was prepared for Chen Shouxu's rejection of his suggestion. If the opponent is prepared for defense, the landing operation is not an easy job, and the army cannot be thrown all over to the marines. His main goal was the second recommendation.

"Admiral, in Karimata, I briefly went into the jungle to fight. The Mon people played an important role in the jungle, and I observed their equipment, and all of them had a balem knife, in addition to some light arquebuses. Judging from the experience of this ground operation, our field battalion is over-equipped and does not appear to be flexible enough locally. I had been harassed by enemy archers on several occasions along the way, and I felt the need to add light arquebuses to the field camp. ”

What Filhoff said this time made a lot of sense, and Chen Shouxu nodded as he listened. Hearing the increase in strength, he raised his head, "What do you mean, to increase the chaser company in the field camp?" ”

"Yes, Admiral. Our field battalion now has 2 melee, 2 battle infantry and 1 grenadier company, and 5 of the 6 companies are heavy companies, which is more suitable for large-scale battles in Europe. In Asia, I feel like going into the jungle like in Karimata, where hoplites are not very well suited to fighting. ”

Chen Shouxu nodded frequently, "Good suggestion, I'll take note of it first." You go back and write a report on what you just said and submit it to the Ministry of Defense, and we will continue to study this matter. ”

"Yes, sir."

After Filhoff finished speaking, Chen Shouxu glanced at several captains, "What about the navy?" The Navy is not proposed. ”

The captains didn't speak, and Chief Staff Officer Harris spoke first, "Admiral, the battle of the Machen Barito River, I thought about what you said for a long time later. Since we will often face the situation of entering inland river operations in the future, can the navy consider increasing the number of galleys and sails? ”

Chen Shouxu said: "I have considered this question. We captured several galleons at the Battle of Jincheng, and there was some controversy in the fleet at that time about whether or not to include galleys in the regular establishment. We don't have oarsmen, so we might as well be assigned to cruisers or land forces with limited manpower. ”

Harris. Acton: "Sir, I understand what you're asking, but we can't ignore the superiority of galleys in river warfare. If there is a shortage of oarsmen, then I suggest that only two of the ships be unsealed, and that no permanent oarsmen be left to the cadets of the Naval Academy or sailors who do not have training tasks, in order to do some research and discussion on the tactics of the galleys. ”

What Harris said made sense, and Chen Shouxu nodded. This is the reason why he loves meetings now, and it is better for several people to exchange ideas with each other than for him to think alone.

……

The fleet sailed north along the Makassar Strait, and because Chen wanted to do as much survey work as possible on the coastline of Borneo, the fleet did not sail fast, and sometimes even went back a section to compare the terrain. After a stop-and-go voyage of 800 nautical miles, the fleet arrived in the Sulu Islands in early June.

The Sultan of Bensu gave Chen Shouxu a warm hug, "My friend, welcome to Sulu again." ”

"Dear Sultan, your complexion is much better than last year, just like this Hele City, every corner is full of new vitality and vitality."

When Chen Shouxu left Sulu last year, Hele City had just begun the arduous reconstruction work, and after more than a year, the Sulu people did a very good job. The Sultan was in a good mood, "Haha, the loot that Alimoud brought back from the Golden City, as well as the volcanic ash business with you, have helped us a lot, and I want to thank you, friend." ”

The Sultan of Bensu invited Chen Shouxu into the palace, and it was clear that it was a newly built palace with a wooden structure.

"My friend, I wonder what your needs are for coming to me in person?"

Chen Shouxu said, "Sultan, the Mindanao Highlanders you gave me last time were very useful, I hope to recruit some more, and in addition, I need some volcanic ash." ”

Bensu Sultan: "My friend, I don't have many highlanders in Mindanao. As you can see, the reconstruction of Horaku Island requires a lot of manpower, and it is difficult for me to meet your needs here. ”

Chen Shouxu knew that the bargain was coming. Friendship is friendship, business is business, two different things.

"Sultan, how can I get those people?"

Bensu: "Friend, the Sultan of Maguinda in the Rahu region is my good brother, and he has a lot of highlanders on his hands. I can buy it from him if you really need it, but it's ...... price."

Chen Shouxu personally ran this trip, and he didn't want to pay too much cash, "Sultan, I didn't bring much cash with me this time. I can exchange it with you with raw silk, cotton, and rice. "Chen Shouxu said that these are all materials seized in Machen,

Ben Su blinked, he didn't expect that it would be Chen Shouxu's turn to run out of money now, he wanted to refuse to exchange some of the materials, but then he thought about it, without Chen Shouxu, there would be no second buyer for this volcanic ash.

Bensu reluctantly said, "Okay, my lord, given the relationship between our two families, I agree that you will use half of it in cash and half in supplies. ”

The two continued to bargain for a while, and finally reached an agreement that Chen Shouxu would buy 2 ships of volcanic ash and 800 highlanders. The six ships that Munda had brought were all filled up at this time. Ma Chen did not capture many supplies, and Chen Shouxuan hired Munda to transport ships, mainly for this supply in Sulu. It is now mid-June, and Chen Shouxu no longer conducts geographical surveys and is heading for Taiwan at full speed.