Indeed, when the British offered to divide the coastal interests of India equally, they took into account the throat of Malacca, even if the whole of India was ceded to the Ming Dynasty, and the more than a dozen fortresses left by the Dutch in Malacca, the interests of the Indian coast could only be seen, and they could not eat at all. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the current strength of the Ming army, as long as the regular naval fleet is dispatched (Zheng Zhilong can only be regarded as a private army, and the performance of the weapons in his hands can only be compared to the second-line troops of the Wehrmacht), it is not difficult to take Malacca, but this time and again, it will take too long, maybe by then, the British will have completely pocketed India.

Therefore, the Strait of Malacca can only be obtained from the Dutch through negotiations..........

"I can't say exactly how to talk about it, but you have to understand two things: first, the Dutch are now too busy to take care of themselves, and with the only army they have, they cannot fully control all the colonies from the coast of India to Malacca, compared to the South Seas that have been completely controlled by Zheng Zhilong, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean are their focus. Second, I, the Great Ming Naval Division, are capable of using force to seize the Strait of Malacca! Li Hongfei said.

Now that the Age of Discovery has just begun, the European colonizers cared more about their own interests than trying their best to curb China's participation in the maritime hegemony.

Yes, the fortress built by the Dutch in the Strait of Malacca was indeed to block China's access to the Indian Ocean region, but it was also in their own interests, fearing that the Ming would drive them out of the Far East sphere of influence.

Compared with the threat from the European mainland, Zheng Zhilong's fleet can only be regarded as a small move in the South Seas.

Secondly, the Dutch have fought with the Daming Sailor many times in recent years, and naturally know that in the absence of domestic reinforcements, with their current strength, they will not be able to resist the Daming Sailor at all.

At least the Daming Naval Division has the advantage of "local warfare".

"I understand, we can quietly disclose the request of the British to the Dutch, and with a little pressure at that time, we will definitely make the Dutch obediently submit." Liu Kongzhao quickly understood the negotiation skills.

The Ming only needs one Malacca, while the British want the entire coastal area of India, and I believe that the Dutch will eventually make the right choice.

"In addition, Zheng Zhilong's sailor, after all, can't represent our Daming sailor, it's time for Zheng Chenggong's Nanyang sailor to enter the Sultanate of Aceh and promote the national prestige!" Li Dingguo added.

Since it is a threat to the Dutch, I simply show the other party first, the true strength of the Daming sailors, so that the Dutch understand that it is just the "pirates" of the Daming who drove them away in Semarang, and the regular army has not officially shown its sword yet!

"That's a good note, how many ironclad ships have been built now?" Li Hongfei asked.

Due to the emergence of a new steam engine that can drive trains, steam warships can finally be put on the ironclad project.

The main reason for the construction of ironclad ships is that with the continuous development of Daming artillery technology, wooden warships have been unable to resist the bombardment of shells, and only by studying ironclad ships covered with hard iron or steel armor can they meet the needs of future naval warfare.

After all, after the appearance of steam warships, because the bomb load has been greatly increased, medium and long-range artillery battles have become the mainstream, and string warfare will gradually become a thing of the past.

However, the steam battleship is not invincible, except for the navy that is engaged with it for the first time, it is not suitable for the tactics of the steam battleship and is easy to suffer a big loss, once it adapts to this new tactic, the advantage of the steam battleship will be greatly reduced.

For example, in the initial battle with the Dutch Navy, from the initial battle loss ratio of 20 to 1, to the later 10 to 1, or even 8 to 1, the Dutch have gradually adapted to the tactics of steam warships.

Because of the medium and long-distance artillery battle, it mainly depends on the rate of artillery fire and luck, and the artillery rate of fire is available to the Ming army, but there is no need to bet on that illusory luck.

The Dutch don't play alone with you, often a dozen battleships are lined up, and all the guns are aimed at a steam battleship..........

You have a rate of fire, people have enough artillery, and they can kill you with a pile of shells.

You have luck, but luck doesn't always favor you, and a wooden battleship hit by enemy artillery is also in danger of sinking.

Although the steam battleship still has the upper hand in naval battles, this crushing advantage is no longer so obvious.

And the appearance of ironclad ships is an important bargaining chip to expand this advantage infinitely, if you beat me, it will not hurt, and labor and management will sink you to the bottom of the sea with a single shot, which is absolutely crushing.

The first ironclad ship of the Daming Naval Division also used a steam sail hybrid, and it can basically be said that nothing has changed much except for the addition of 70-100 mm thick steel plates around the side and turret.

Of course, in order to prevent the center of gravity of the ship from rising after the addition of ironclad on the broadside, the ironclad ship had to remove most of the guns on the upper deck and replace them with window guns in the original building situation.

The result was an ironclad ship with a length of 86.7 meters, a width of 14.8 meters, a displacement of 5,600 tons, and 26 6-inch (200 mm) rear-loading heavy guns, as well as two eight-inch (260 mm) front-loading smoothbore guns on the upper deck.

A behemoth nearly 100 meters long and with 30 guns was born from the Baoshan Shipyard and became the largest warship in the Ming Dynasty and even in the world today, with the largest firepower and the strongest defensive power.

But don't think that such a behemoth, the speed will be affected, the new steam power system, so that this ironclad ship, the speed of an astonishing 12.5 knots (23.15 kilometers per hour), coupled with the use of European "soft sail" technology, the maximum speed can even exceed 16 knots (nearly 30 kilometers per hour).

There is a big difference between Chinese sails and European sails, and the key lies in the fact that the warships of the Chinese people basically use "hard sails", while the Europeans use "soft sails".

A hard sail of the same size requires much more sailors than a soft sail, but in the event of a storm it is possible to cut the cable and drop the sail urgently, and in this respect the soft sail is indeed less efficient than the hard sail.

However, because of the light weight, the soft sail can be made of a larger area, although the operation is cumbersome, but the number of people required for the same area is less than that of the hard sail, easy to damage but also easy to repair, and the spare sail is also easy to store, which is the best choice for ocean sails.

"Things are good things, but it's a pity that a full year and a half have passed, and only one ironclad ship has been built, and two more have laid keels on the dock, and it is estimated that it will take half a year before it is launched." Li Dingguo sighed.

The first ironclad ship, from laying the keel to launching, took a full year, of course, by the shipyard to understand the construction process, it may be cut in half.

But even if one ship is launched in half a year, plus surface outfitting, and sea trial adjustments, and finally delivered to the troops, it will take a year to say the least (launching does not mean completion, but only the completion of preliminary work to free up space for the dock to build new ships).

The launching speed of a large and medium-sized wooden steam warship does not exceed three months, and an ordinary wooden sail warship can do it once a month.

Ironclad ships are not only slow to build, but also extremely expensive to build.

An ironclad ship, counting the cost of artillery and other expenses, will not be less than 800,000 taels of silver, while a steam battleship of the same specification will not cost more than 100,000 taels of silver, and an ordinary wooden battleship will only need about 40,000 or 50,000

In other words, the construction time of one ironclad ship, and the money spent, are enough to build eight wooden steam warships and twenty sail warships.

After all, the technology of wooden warships is mature, and even if all the docks start at the same time, there will be no shortage of manpower, and the ironclad ships are too technical, and even the Baoshan Shipyard is a little stretched to the limit when it starts construction of two ships at the same time.

"It's a good thing, as long as you can build an ironclad ship, even if you build one in three years, it's worth it to form a fleet in ten years." Li Hongfei said.

Ten years of sharpening a sword, and it is a sword to dominate the ocean, Li Hongfei feels that it is worth it.

"Deliver the first ironclad ship to the Nanyang Naval Division, and order Zheng Chenggong to lead the ironclad ship, as well as thirty improved steam warships, to station in Semarang on the grounds of protecting the Nanyang Chinese, do not be afraid of any provocation, and when necessary, you can show my great tomorrow might!" Li Hongfei said again.

Although there is only one ironclad ship, in the face of the current navies of various countries, this ironclad ship is an unsinkable fortress of war at sea.

Li Hongfei believes that Zheng Chenggong will definitely understand his intentions, besides, isn't there an old fox Zheng Zhilong in Nanyang.

"My lord, there is one more thing, didn't you say that the number of ironclad ships will not be too much, so you need to name each ironclad ship, and now the first ironclad ship is about to be delivered to the Nanyang Naval Division, but this name has not been taken yet!" Li Dingguo said.

In the past, there were too many naval warships, and they would not be specifically named at all, and the generals of the naval divisions all used a certain type as the general name of the warships.

Now that Li Hongfei wants to do something new, Li Dingguo has to let Li Hongfei give the name to the first ironclad ship.

In fact, it's really not a gimmick by Li Hongfei to name the battleship, this is a kind of identity marking, the previous Daming Navy Division only operated in inland rivers and coastal waters, and it doesn't matter whether the navies of other countries can remember it.

But now it is different, the Daming Navy Division will once again regain its former glory and sail away again, Li Hongfei wants the navies of all countries in the world to remember the Daming Navy Division, remember the exploits of every warship, and let them leave pen and ink in the annals of history and pass them down through the ages.

"This time in the South Seas, the focus is on declaring the great tomorrow's prestige, let's call it General Xuanwei!" Li Hongfei thought about it for a while, and then said.

Although Zheng Zhilong's fleet has proved the powerful existence of the Ming Naval Division, in a real sense, it is not the official fleet of the Ming Dynasty, and only the Nanyang Naval Division officially stationed in Semarang can it be announced that the Ming Dynasty has officially returned to the sea.

...........

Rear Admiral Joseph Holaff of the British Royal Navy has been in a very depressed mood lately.

As the deputy commander of the Far East Fleet, he had more than 100 of the latest warships of the British Empire, but he was held back by only 20 steam warships, resulting in a great defeat of the main fleet, and finally had to withdraw to Colombo to rest.

The miracle of the steam warship has been spread in European countries as early as before, and Joseph Horaf, who did not believe in evil at first, now has to accept the fact, that is, in the face of the steam warship, the fleet of the British Empire, there is no resistance at all.

Thinking of the Dutch monkeys, with the protection of the steam warships, the entire Far East Fleet was in a haze, and even many sailors thought that it might be difficult for them to return to Britain, because the speed of the steam warships was not at all out of their reach.

Fortunately, God is on the side of the British, and the British learned through various channels that the "Oriental Dragon" only likes gold, and before it beat the Dutch monkey to cry and call his mother, and then the Dutch monkey took out a lot of gold, so he said that the "Oriental Dragon" helped.

In other words, they are not hardcore allies, they just need to satisfy the appetite of the "dragon of the East", and the end of the Dutch monkeys has come.

Therefore, after Joseph Horaf sent people back to China to explain the situation, he personally took a group of retinues and mixed with the merchant ships bound for the East (the warships did not dare to sail into the Bay of Bengal), and after more than two months, they finally reached Hong Kong, the territory of the "evil dragon".

When Joseph Horaff finally contacted local officials and submitted a request to meet His Majesty the Ming Emperor, they were placed in Hong Kong for another month........

Fortunately, this place in Hong Kong is so prosperous that Joseph Horaff and his party did not feel the passage of time at all.

As long as you have money here, there is nothing you can't buy, and the fine porcelain used for ornamentation in England is just an ordinary rice bowl here, and there are all kinds of delicacies that make people almost swallow their tongues, and all kinds of dazzling jewelry, and even ordinary glass products, all of which are more beautiful than the treasures of European royalty...........

In just one month, they brought a large number of gold coins, all of which were patterned.

That's right, Joseph Horaf and his entourage, unknowingly, squandered the gold coins that were originally used to buy officials in various departments, and if His Majesty the Ming Emperor did not summon them again, these people would not even have the money for the return ticket.

This group of British envoys can be said to be the poorest envoys in history.

However, after a month of waiting, I was finally told that His Majesty the Ming Emperor would not receive them at all, and at most would only arrange for officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assess their national strength, and then consider whether to allow Britain to join Fanfang.

Well, it turns out that the British, until now, are not qualified to join the Daming Fanfang.

Although I can't see the Ming Emperor, it is also good news to be in contact with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as long as I can talk to those officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their conversation will definitely reach the ears of the Ming Emperor in the end.

It's just that Joseph Horaff didn't know that their hole cards had been found out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and learned by Li Hongfei as early as the time they stayed in Hong Kong.

So this group of people, by boat again, began the long journey north, and with them, in addition to the Portuguese and Spaniards, there were also the opponents of their war, the Spaniards.

Rivals were on the same boat, and it was no wonder that Joseph Horaf was in a good mood.

Don't think about it, these Dutch monkeys must have come to deliver gold to the "Far Eastern Dragons.........