The excited crew of the Beiyang Fleet couldn't wait to paint the giant ship moored at the south berth with a new logo. A dragon in the sea with nine heads.

The micro-notes of the original Batavia of the giant ship were all erased, and the original owner of the battleship, Van Bulon, looked helplessly at the brand-new ship on the ship.

He is now a water consultant hired by Liu Jun, and he is not willing to accept this position, but Ming Jun told him that he does not support idlers. Either accept to be hired as mercenaries or advisers to the Ming army, or stay in prisoner of war camps. And staying in a prisoner of war camp, there is nothing but two loaves of bread a day.

Many mercenaries of the Dutch East India Company, who had fought against the Ming army before, turned around and accepted the mercenaries of the Ming army and became mercenaries of the Ming army. After they joined the Ming army, the crew was still a crew, the sailors were still sailors, and the marines were still marines, but each of them got a sum of silver, good food and drink, and they all became the teachers of the Ming army, and they brought several apprentices by themselves. was treated very well by their apprentices, this is a prisoner of war, damn it, sure enough, the mercenaries have no discipline.

"Sir Van Bronn, how about giving me a good introduction to this ship?" Liu Jun smiled and said to Van Bronn's subordinates.

"This is a battleship with a displacement of three thousand five hundred tons, a deadweight of two thousand one hundred and forty-two tons, a gun deck of one hundred and eighty-six feet long, and a total length of two hundred and twenty-seven feet!" Van Bron nodded to Liu Jun while reporting the data of the ship that once belonged to him.

Paul. Duradinius said busily on the side, "Sir, how can you make the Hou Ye understand this, you have to say that the gun deck of this battleship is twenty zhang long, and the whole battleship is twenty-three zhang eight long. Paul, who was standing behind Van Bronn, immediately squeezed forward, smiling and converting feet into Ming units of measurement for Liu Jun.

"This battleship is five feet and two inches wide, and the draft is two feet and nine feet three. The sail area is 6,510 square yards, the mainmast is 21 zhang high, and the speed is 8 to 9 knots. The crew is eight hundred and fifty people. ”

"The whole ship has one hundred and four guns, of which the lower gun deck has thirty-two pounds of guns, each of which is more than 6,000 pounds. There were twenty-eight twenty-four-pounder cannons on the middle layer of artillery armor, each weighing more than 5,000 pounds. There were thirty twelve-pounder cannons on the upper deck, each of which was more than 3,500 pounds. ”

"In addition, on the aft deck there are two twelve-pounder guns and two six-eight-pounder guns."

"On the aft deck there are twelve twenty-pound short guns, each of which is more than 3,000 catties."

Van Bron glared at Paul angrily and scolded this shameless guy in his heart.

Liu Jun was very satisfied with Paul's attitude, "Thank you very much Mr. Paul for your detailed introduction, from today onwards. You are the special adviser of my Ming Beiyang Naval Division, and you will receive a salary of one hundred taels of silver per month in the future. ”

Paul. Duradinius didn't expect Liu Jun to be so big, and immediately thanked him with joy on his face. This is an Italian, not too tall, mediocre in appearance, but with a large face and a big belly. He turned out to be the general of the garrison of the Grand Officer.

Since opening the Red Castle and surrendering as a prisoner, he has become much haggard.

"Mr. Paul, we Beiyang Sailors are in need of talents like you. In the future, I would like you to teach more of our sailor warriors. As long as you are willing to teach hard and teach well, then Benhou will reward you heavily. In the future, it is possible to become one of our great officers and own his own estate here. ”

"Thank you Lord Hou for your appreciation." Paul's Chinese words are right.

For these Dutch. Liu Jun also has the attitude of using it if he can, and treats them very preferentially. Liu Jun formulated different treatment levels for the captives, among which craftsmen were the best. Shipwrights and gunsmiths, in particular, were hired by Liu Jun for high salaries to teach the craftsmen of the Nine-Headed Bird the techniques of building ships and building new European artillery.

The second is the artillerymen, the sailors. These men were also hired with high salaries and became the crew of the Hydra and the head of the artillery. Then there were the warriors, the musketeers, the spearmen, and so on, who were also recruited as foreign soldiers because of their height and bravery, and they enjoyed the same treatment as the soldiers of the Hydra. Liu Jun promised them that as long as they were brave in battle, they would be able to be promoted and rewarded after making military exploits.

On the contrary, those original officials were ranked behind, and the officials were divided into several types. Those technical officers enjoy the highest salary, followed by those who lead the troops, who can also become instructors and consultants. The worst treatment was actually those who had the highest status, such as Taiwan Governor Debaul, fleet commander Van Bulon and others, and these people Liu Jun did not worry about them, so he only hung up the title of adviser.

Ordinary merchants without skill, as well as women and children, like missionaries, were kept in custody with limited freedom.

"There are a lot of talented people among these Dutch, and they have to be discovered. This time you have also seen how powerful the giant ship cannons of those Westerners are, they are far superior to us in this regard, and since the other party is stronger than us, we must learn from it with an open mind. ”

"However, we must not let our guard down, and at the same time, we must strengthen the supervision of these people, so that they cannot escape or engage in sabotage."

The commander has already been taken, although this time he fought a few battles with the Dutch, especially in the naval battle, and lost a lot of soldiers and horses. However, Liu Jun's subordinates did not suffer many injuries in the naval battle, and the casualties were not more than 100, but the gains were great. Even if he took out seven merchant ships to invest in the new company, he still added four new four-masted warships, and two two-masted book sailing ships, plus the original few bird ships and catchers, Liu Jun now has more than 20 ships.

There were even more than 3,000 Spanish and Dutch mercenaries, more than 2,000 sailors, craftsmen, and more than 2,000 women, children, merchants, missionaries, and officials under Liu Jun's command.

In addition, the other money and booty seized from Taiwan far exceeded the cost of this troop dispatch. This time I sent troops, and I gained a lot.

Of course, the biggest gain was the battleships and the more than 1,000 new guns he obtained. This is the real surprise, with these artillery, the strength of the Hydra has been greatly improved, and now they also have the ability to attack fortifications.

He Tengjiao has already officially stationed in the city of Relan, and he plans to set up the yamen of the governor of Taiwan in the city of Relan on Dayuan Island, and even plans to build an outer city along Dayuan Island to surround the city of Relan and the town of Dayuan. He also decided to officially change the name of the city to Taiwan City, and he also asked Liu Jun to spend more time in the garrison.

He hoped to take advantage of Liu Jun's new victory, just like Liu Jun did when he was in the chicken coop, to summon all the local ethnic groups in Taiwan to come to the meeting. Not only the Pingpu people in the plains should be invited, but also those in the mountains. He even proposed to Liu Jun to take advantage of the presence of the army this time. Take a few tribes to kill chickens and monkeys, and whoever dares not come this time will send troops to suppress them.

For such a request, Liu Jun also supports it. He knew that it would not be easy to establish rule in such a primordial land. The biggest problem here is that there are too few Han people, although there are more Han people here than in chicken coops, but there are only about 20,000 people.

Liu Jun told He Tengjiao that he could recruit more landless peasants from Fujian and other places to come over to cultivate the land, and he could ask the imperial court to exempt the displaced people from paying taxes for three years.

"Four Seas Bank will come to open a branch in Taiwan in the near future, and all immigrants who come to Taiwan will come by then. You can enjoy a low-interest loan to buy cattle, seeds, farm tools, etc. Lord Ho, Taiwan is a treasure island, an undeveloped treasure island. If it can be managed well, it can solve tens of millions of landless and poor people for the imperial court, so that they can regain their land to cultivate. At the same time, it not only settled many people, but also opened new territories for the imperial court, and even provided a large amount of food and taxes every year. ”

"Ho, my lord. You are the first governor of Taiwan, do a good job as a governor, and you will leave a name in history in the future, and you will be praised for thousands of years! ”

"Xia Guan understands." He Tengjiao also knew that he could be promoted to governor. In fact, it was recommended by Liu Jun. When he first knew this, he was still a little unhappy, thinking that he had inadvertently offended Liu Jun. Otherwise, how could a good Xu Huai be transferred to Taiwan to be the governor.

Although the governor is a feudal official, the governor of Taiwan is nothing. But these days. After experiencing persuasion to surrender to Spain and subduing the Dutch, he also found out. It turns out that Taiwan is not a wild land, but a treasure land coveted by many Hongyi. Moreover, Taiwan is not a small island as he originally imagined, but a place not much smaller than Fujian Province.

Taiwan has a lot to offer, this is to open up the territory, when I think of these, He Tengjiao is extremely excited, what is the reader seeking? Isn't it the king of the upper auxiliary and the lower security of the society?

For the next few days, Liu Jun waited for the soldiers sent to Tainan and Taichung to come back, and at the same time stepped up the training of soldiers. Liu Jun mainly trained the warships of the naval division, as well as the newly established artillery regiment. Among them, the naval division is a newly established establishment, commanded by a deputy commander-in-chief, and consists of three sub-fleets, namely Anlan, Zhenhai, and Fubo, each commanded by a staff general. Each fleet is equipped with one four-masted 74-gun battleship, and a number of three-masted, two-masted and single-masted gunboats, and a certain number of troop carriers and supply ships such as sand boats and fuku.

And those three-story battleships of the Poseidon plus a few clippers were Liu Jun's flagship and escort.

This newly established Beiyang Naval Division has a mixed composition, with more than 3,000 crew gunners from the Zheng family, and more than 2,000 Western hired sailors, and then the crew gunners of the Nine-headed Bird.

Now they follow those Zheng family and Western sailors every day to learn, sail out to sea every day, and catch some fish by the way, which enriches the food of tens of thousands of horses.

And the newly formed artillery regiment, after taking the Dutch, also expanded rapidly. Originally there were six companies in a regiment, but now an artillery brigade has been formed, with three artillery regiments under its jurisdiction, each with six artillery companies. However, although the artillery has a brigade and regimental formation, it is only together in peacetime. In wartime, artillery companies are often assigned to different combat clusters as needed to assist in operations.

Each artillery company basically has four four-pounder guns, four 24-pounder siege mortars, two eight-pounder guns, one twelve-pounder gun, and nine thousand-pound Franc machines, a total of 20 guns. Each company had 300 gunners and infantry, and had a large number of wagons and horses carrying artillery.

This new unit, the new artillery, everything is new, Liu Jun desperately hopes that the artillery of the nine-headed bird can learn how to use it from those Western red-haired artillery teachers, and master these new sharp weapons in their hands.

During this time, every day the sailors went to sea every day to master navigation and combat skills at sea, and the cannon roared on the sea every day. And in the open space to the east of Chiji City, the eighteen artillery batteries of the artillery brigade were practicing every day. Every morning he went out with the artillery, firing dozens of cannons at the open space, and then came back with the artillery at night.

The two new units practiced half-dead every day, but the other units had much easier every day. Although there is still a lot of practice, the subjects are extremely proficient, and everyone is not tired of practicing for a long time.

Liu Jun attaches the most importance to this new type of artillery, and the main opponent of the nine-headed bird will be the Qing army. The Qing army did not have a strong sailor, so the nine-headed bird did not need a too strong sailor to suppress the Qing army at sea, or even sweep away the Qing army.

On the shore, it was different, the Qing army occupied Liaodong, and if they wanted to attack and harass from the sea, they needed to have a strong ability to attack fortifications. In this way, you can quickly lay down the next place, and then change places. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to fight a long-term siege under the fortified city.

"Master Hou, there is new news, Paul wants to see you, he said that the Dutch have a fleet and will soon arrive at the Commander."

Liu Jun looked up in surprise, "How is this possible?" Batavia is thousands of miles away, and now it's winter, and there is no good wind, so they can't come right away. ”

Paul was brought in, this guy has been working as a special adviser in the Beiyang Navy Division recently, and he has been living a very chic life, and his face is a lot more rosy.

"Master Hou, the East India Company still has several merchant ships in Japan, and it should be there at this time."

"How many boats?"

Paul replied, "There were about five or six ships, but I have just heard that it seems that Van Bronn sent men to Hirado, Japan, after the Battle of Penghu, to bring the company's merchant ships back to fight in the war, and it seems that they also asked them to recruit a group of mercenaries from Japan." As soon as I heard about this, I immediately rushed over to report to Master Hou. ”

"Paul, you're doing the right thing, and this news is important." Liu Jun praised Paul and gave Paul a silver ticket of one hundred taels of silver. "If there is such news in the future, remember to report it, I will still have a lot of thanks."

"Thank you, Master Hou." Paul took the reward given by Liu Jun and walked away with a smile on his face.

Wang Guoqiang looked at the back with a look of disdain and said, "Villain." ”

"Dog, you can despise him, but it's good in your heart, such a person is useful to us." Liu Jun told him. "You go and inform the water master, we have something to do."

When Zheng Zhilong heard that there were still several Dutch merchant ships coming from Japan Port, he immediately geared up and said with excitement on his face, "Haha, this is the fat sheep sent to the door, Master Hou, hand them over to me." ”

"Bring the Beiyang Fleet with you, have more ships and more certainty, and by the way, let them sharpen and sharpen themselves."

As soon as the fleet was arranged to intercept the Dutch merchant fleet, someone came to report that the people sent by He Tengjiao to the Taichung area were killed by the Potbelly King. The potbelly king not only refused to be ordered to come to the meeting, but also killed the envoy and gathered more than a dozen people from the village community to fight the Ming army.

"Admiral Zheng, the sea will be handed over to you, and the big-bellied king on the island will be handed over to Benhou." (To be continued......)