[It's a busy mess today, update a chapter, and make up tomorrow if you have time]

In the blue Atlantic Ocean, the sea breeze rolls up a thousand waves, one wave after another, scrambling to roll into the distance.

The European caravan of the Pacific Trading Company was driving mightily on the sea, next to the two battleships of Dingzhen, which had been on guard, plus twenty frigates.

There are two routes to return home from Europe: after entering the Atlantic Ocean, heading east along Africa around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean to South America to the west, bypassing the southernmost tip of South America, and then heading into the South Pacific to return home, the two routes are essentially the same distance.

However, at this moment, from the moment he left Europe, Yang Chen did not think about the safety of the fleet for a moment.

Similarly, Li De couldn't sleep because he was more worried about the safety of the caravan. After all, it was loaded with gold and silver bricks worth more than 200 million silver dollars, as well as a large number of jewelry goods.

At present, the empire is at odds with Spain and the Netherlands, with their navies spread all over the world, and the sea route from Europe back to Asia is fraught with danger.

"What are you going to do?"

Li Dexian couldn't help but worry, and ran to the Dingyuan battleship to find Yang Chen.

"On your battleship, I feel safe"

Yang Chen smiled and did not refute Li De, after all, it was quite difficult to sink a first-class battleship like Dingzhen. According to the current doctrine of naval operations, only a battleship of the 1st rank could sink a battleship of the 1st rank. Of course, the premise is that the two sides fight a regular war, and if there is a group fight, it is a different matter.

"Then you can live up here, it's a big place anyway"

Li De suddenly said: "It's better to load all the treasures on your battleship."

Yang Chen was stunned for a moment, and then said with a wry smile: "How can there be so many places to put so many treasures on my battleship?"

Li De said: "Your battleship has so many supplies on it, just free up some space."

"Come on, you" Yang Chen directly vetoed Li De's construction, shook his head and said: "It's nothing to vacate the place for supplies, but in this way, how can my warship still fight?" How to protect your caravan? ”

Li De had his own countermeasures and said: "Two battleships, share equally, so that there is still some space left to load ammunition"

Yang Chen smiled bitterly: "Then what do our soldiers eat?" Drink the Northwest Wind? ”

"I've already calculated, after filling up the treasure, your supplies will only be enough for a few days" Li De smiled: "I'll replenish you with two clippers to load supplies so that you don't have to starve"

"So you've already calculated it"

Yang Chen rolled his eyes, and then remembered Li De, a profiteer, who was full of calculations.

Helplessly, Yang Chen's other task was to protect this batch of gold and silver, so he had to obey Li De's wishes. In addition to the endurance has been reduced from a year to a few days, but it has not affected the combat effectiveness.

With Li De moving more than 200 million silver dollars worth of gold and silver bricks to the two battleships in Dingzhen, he could finally sleep peacefully for a while. However, Li De slept soundly, but Yang Chen's worries did not decrease, but he was worried because many unknown ships always secretly followed the fleet.

After Mexico declared war on China, the Mexican fleet never left the Gulf of Mexico, which made Yang Chen very uneasy.

The Mexican fleet is the second largest fleet of Spain after the Spanish home fleet, and its powerful energy makes Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries in the Caribbean Sea dare not act rashly.

It was based on this that Yang Chen's fleet going to the Atlantic Ocean made him very worried, worried that he didn't know when the Mexican fleet would run out to rob.

Although the secrecy of the company's merchant fleet has been well done, no outsiders have been informed of any sailing routes and times. But the recent frequency of tracking ships suggests that the fleet has been targeted, many of them pirate groups in the North Sea and off the coast of Africa, but Yang worries that the Spaniards may be on the lookouts.

"What? Are you going to change routes? ”

Hearing that Yang Chen was going to change the route, Li De immediately came to the door.

"Yes," Yang Chen replied to him in the affirmative.

"It's easy to run into the Spanish navy and the Mexican fleet of the Spaniards in South America, and Central and South America are all controlled by the Spaniards, and it's too dangerous to take that route."

"But when we came, we took that route, and we didn't go back to Africa, besides, there were more pirates in Africa and the Indian Ocean," he said.

"It's better to be robbed by pirates than by the navy"

Li De was stunned for a moment, and then asked worriedly: "You mean that the Spaniards will send troops to rob us?" ”

"Wake up"

Yang Chen said: "The empire occupied the Spanish colony of the Philippines, causing them heavy losses, and now our trip to Europe has caused a sensation throughout Europe, but anyone who knows some trade knows that we have made a huge amount of money. The Spaniards will not rest on their laurels, and will surely lay down a lot of murderous plans on our way home. ”

Li De nodded, expressing his understanding of Yang Chen's judgment.

"Then let's go to Africa"

Yang Chen thought for a while and said, "Now that the money is placed in the battleship, it is considered safe, but the personnel we escort must be separated from the trade fleet."

"What?"

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Thehke, leading the Dutch army, hurried through fire, and in the early hours of the morning... Arrive outside Hishu.

At this time, the 32nd Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division of the Papua Dispatch Army of the Chinese Empire had already rested in Xixiu the night earlier. Guo Shouchen, the commander of the 32nd Regiment, had already received an intelligence notice from the headquarters of the dispatch army and knew that the Dutch army had rushed towards Xixiu.

Guo Shouchen then set up a suspicious formation in Xixiu, and set up an ambush on the east side of Xixiu, waiting for the Dutch to attack.

"Report that the explosives have been planted"

Guo Shouchen nodded, looked at a high ground southeast of Xixiu, and smiled coldly.

There is the only high ground in Xixiu, and controlling zhì there is equivalent to controlling zhì Xixiu. Guo Shouchen concluded that the Dutch would occupy the high ground first, and then bombard Xixiu with artillery condescendingly.

And there was a large amount of explosives planted by Guo Shouchen.

All preparations were made in the first half of the night, and from the second half of the night, the 32nd Regiment withdrew from Xixiu and laid an ambush east of Xixiu.

Of course, in order to do something like this, Guo Shouchen arranged some dummies wearing military uniforms to guard Xixiu, and prepared a batch of wooden artillery, painted with black paint and arranged into fake artillery positions. At the same time, explosives were planted under the dummy artillery, and as soon as the Dutch artillery opened fire, it would be immediately detonated, giving the enemy the illusion that the artillery positions were destroyed.

After the arrival of the vanguard of the Dutch army, the Dutch, in order not to alarm the Chinese imperialist troops in the town, so the sentries only observed from a distance, and as a result, the sky was dark, and those dummies and cannons were regarded as the main force of the 32nd Regiment.

Thehke mounted twenty cannons on the only high ground in Hixiu, and aimed the muzzles of the guns at the artillery positions of the Chinese Imperial army in the town of Hixiu. At the same time, the infantry was ordered to surround the town of Hishu.

At dawn, the Dutch had completed their deployment, and Tihek could not wait to give the order to attack.

There was a cannon bang, and the Dutch artillery on the high ground opened fire.

Suddenly, the explosion shook the sky, and the smoke covered the air. The Russians and other artillery guns opened fire one after another, like ten thousand thunders, the mountains shook far away, and the smoke and flames filled dozens of miles, and there was no distinction between them.

At this time, the pre-arranged explosives of the 32nd Regiment were detonated, and they exploded in an instant, and the entire Shishu was suddenly in flames.

The shelling lasted for half an hour, and Tihek did not expect the shelling to have such a great effect, only that the shells had detonated the ammunition boxes of the Chinese imperial army.

Taking advantage of the thick smoke, Thehek ordered the infantry to attack, and then attacked Hishu under the cover of the smoke.

I saw the Dutch infantry lining up in a long phalanx, stepping on the drum and advancing towards Hixiu.

Looking at the Dutchman who was fighting, Guo Shouchen snorted coldly and nodded to the signal soldier next to him.

The counterattack was immediately launched.

With a loud bang, a huge mushroom cloud rose from the high ground opposite, lighting up the entire sky in an instant. Then there was another series of explosions, and the artillery positions of the Dutch were suddenly in flames, and twenty cannons were blown to pieces.

When Tihek saw this, he was shocked, and just as he was stunned, the sound of cannon from the flank rang out.

Knock knock

With the thunderous sound of artillery, the artillery battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment opened fire. Fifty field guns were arranged in three rows, forming echelon fire, and fired at the advancing Dutch infantry phalanx.

Dense shells roared, and the Dutch army phalanx was suddenly disrupted. The shells stirred up a cloud of sand and dust, ploughing deep ravines in the enemy's phalanx, and the Dutch soldiers were killed and wounded heavily.

At this moment, the west wind rose and swept up into the sky with thick smoke. The fire and wind are fierce, and the red flames are in the sky.

The Dutch army fell into disarray, and due to the artillery fire of the Chinese and imperial troops from the flanks, the drum band of the Dutch army was the first to be defeated, so that the Dutch army only heard the roar of cannons, but could not hear the sound of drums, and could no longer keep the queue intact.

"It's so shameless"

Tehke was so angry that his beard grew high, and secretly scolded the Chinese imperial army for being too unsophisticated, and even attacked his drum band. This is regarded as the most outrageous act in Europe, but it is not said in the East.

At this time, the Dutch artillery positions were destroyed, the infantry phalanx was destroyed, and it was no longer possible to attack the town of Hixiu.

Thehke knew that he had been ambushed by the other party and needed to retreat to form up and fight again.

At this time, the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Army of the Chinese Imperialists lined up in a large phalanx, holding muskets, shouting slogans to kill from the shadow of the gunsmoke, and was encountering the retreating Dutch army.

Bang bang bang

The Chinese imperialist troops were the first to fire, and rows of muskets opened fire in turn. After the first row of musketeers finished firing the projectiles, they did not retreat, but installed gunpowder and projectiles in place. The musketeers of the second platoon stepped forward with two big strides and continued to shoot. The seven musketeers in the rear repeated the previous movements, forming echelon fire, and approaching the Dutch army step by step.

The Dutch soldiers who retreated in the confusion were suddenly hit by the Chinese imperial musketeers, and they were shot one after another, killing and wounding countless people.

The two sides were seventy or eighty meters apart, and the Dutch soldiers returned fire in a panic, and the gunfire appeared to be chaotic, out of order, and with limited lethality.

Soon, after the 32nd Infantry Regiment had finished a full round of guns, the two sides were already very close to each other, so they started a hand-to-hand hand-to-hand battle.

The Dutch commander Thehke hoped for white-knuckle combat the most, because he knew that there were only musketeers in the Chinese imperial army, and there were no spearmen to cover the musketeers' combat, so he thought that in white-knuckle warfare, the Dutch army with spearmen would destroy the opponent lightly.

However, at this time, after the two sides started a white-knuckle battle, Thehke was dumbfounded. The muskets of his current Chinese Imperial soldiers could be used as spears. Upon closer inspection, he realized the mystery of the fact, it turned out that there was a long knife on the opponent's musket, which pierced the body of the Dutch soldier as lightly as a spike.

The Dutch army had only fifteen hundred spearmen, and the rest were musketeers, who used muskets that were defenseless in close combat. After the attack just now, there were less than 1,000 pikemen left in the Dutch army, and they suffered a great loss against the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the Chinese Emperor.

Soon, the Dutch musketeers were the first to be defeated, fleeing in a hurry, and the formation of the spearmen was crushed.

Seeing that the defeat was assured, Thehke had no choice but to order a retreat.

The defeat was like a mountain, the Dutch army ran frantically in front, and the Chinese imperialist army desperately chased behind. It was originally a battle that was stubbornly waiting for reinforcements, but because of the overestimation of the Dutch, the Dutch army was defeated, and Guo Shouchen had to change his tactics and chase the enemy instead.

"I don't know if the Marines are ready to stop it"

Guo Shouchen pursued the Dutch army while wondering if the Marines were ready. After all, the battlefield situation is changing rapidly, and he can't help it.

However, Guo Shouchen's worries are unnecessary.

When the 32nd Regiment pursued Everje, it heard the sound of the Marine platoon of gunfire, and the more than 2,000 people who fled for their lives were steadily stopped by 1,000 Marine soldiers.

From afar, after Guo Shouchen quietly listened to the sound of gunfire for a while, he immediately judged that the formation of the Marine Division was still strong, and he was immediately relieved.

Originally, the 1,000 marines brought by Chen Xiang did not dare to block the Dutch army head-on, but when Chen Xiang was now defeated by the Dutch army, he immediately and decisively ordered his troops to block the front.

A thousand marines divided into three platoons and stuck to the official road, blocking the retreat of the Dutch army. Rows of muskets fired projectiles in an orderly manner, and the Dutch troops, who were fifty or sixty meters away, could not rush through.

The five field guns in the rear of the flanks fired at the rear of the Dutch army from time to time, disrupting the shape of the Dutch army and blocking the reinforcements of the Dutch army's rear troops.

When Thehke returned, he had two thousand soldiers in his hands. However, the Dutch soldiers, who had been bent on fleeing, had no intention of fighting after being blocked by the marines, and they suffered a large number of casualties, and now they had less than 1,000 men in their hands.

Soon, the 32nd Regiment rushed to pursue and outflank the Marine Division, but Tihek wanted to break through but was beaten back.

Gradually, the Dutch suffered more and more casualties, and finally Thehke had no hope of breaking through and had to surrender.

By the time the other regiments arrived, the 32nd Regiment and the Marines had already finished cleaning the battlefield.

Having learned of the full situation, the Dispatch Corps Command reassessed the combat effectiveness of the Dutch Army and optimized the tactics of the Imperial Army in response to the weaknesses exposed by the Dutch Army in this battle.

On the 28th, the 8th and 9th Infantry Divisions completed the siege of Moresby Fortress, and the next day, the headquarters of the Royal Papuan Dispatch Corps of the Imperial Army moved to Kahet, a small town southeast of Moresby.

Since the Marines provided a map of the firepower of Moresby's fortress, the dispatch army could attack the weak points of the Dutch defense, greatly reducing the difficulty of the siege.

However, for the first time to attack the star fortress of the Westerners, the dispatch army command was still very cautious. Even with a map of the distribution of fire points, the command of the dispatch corps decided to use artillery and small units of infantry to conduct fire reconnaissance of the fortress and further determine the location of enemy fire.

However, when the dispatch army attacked a day later, it became clear that the star-shaped fortress of the Westerners was far more powerful than expected. After a day of storming, it failed to open the gap in the castle. Instead, during the night, the Dutch army repaired the damaged walls again.

The reason for this situation is mainly because the artillery used by the dispatch army is small-caliber field guns, which can be used to attack the domestic city walls, but the Dutch star fortress is very strong, and the small-caliber field guns cannot cause fatal damage to it, and the layout of the star fortress makes it difficult for the city wall to collapse in a large area.

In this way, even if there is a small collapse, the hot climate of Papua makes it easy for the other party to repair the castle at night, and it is repaired the next day.

Star castle fortresses can support each other and horn each other. The area of engagement is concentrated on the slope set by the opponent, unlike the Eastern Castle, which can be faced with a wall and carry out a full-scale siege of the city by a large army. In front of the star-shaped fortress, you can only use a small army to charge, which is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket in the era when firearms are not yet available.

The Dispatch Command quickly realized the severity of the problem, and after two regiments had suffered heavy losses, it quickly put an end to this method of warfare. Subsequently, psychological warfare began.

Of course, the Dispatch Corps Command sent a notice to the Moresby Fortress, asking the Governor of Papua to give up resistance and surrender the city, otherwise there would be a bloodbath in Moresby.

Inside the Moresby Fortress, the Dutch were terrified. The notice of the Chinese imperial army was suppressed by the governor of Papua, Akeli, and no one else in the city was notified, only the upper echelons knew about it.

However, the Dispatch Command had already thought of this, knowing that the Dutch were afraid that they would block the news. In order to put enough pressure on the Dutch and force the Dutch merchants and other merchants in the city to put pressure on the governor of Papua, the army headquarters was sent to find the captured Dutch soldiers, who shouted under the city every day, telling everyone in the city to wash the fortress in blood if they did not surrender.

In the days that followed, the city was in turmoil, and the Dutch merchants, as well as merchants from all over the world, were frightened and pressured the Governor of Dutch Papua to find a solution.

Acrylic's head is dozens of laps bigger, and if he succumbs to the merchants, he will lose Papua and cannot explain to the Dutch government. However, if the merchants are refused, the merchants will rebel.

The sound of artillery outside the city became more and more fierce day by day, and the soldiers and civilians inside the city became more and more afraid day by day, and the Chinese imperialist army blocked the water source in the city, and set fire to the people in the city outside the city every day with thick smoke.

A month later, the merchants who could not bear it anymore chose to give up their dignity and coerce the governor of Papua, Akeli, to accept the terms of the Chinese imperialist army outside the city.

After another half a month, several radical merchants shot and killed Akeli, and then the Dutch defenders announced their surrender to the Chinese Imperial Army. C