The bombed-out transport ship collapsed on the beach, surrounded by three floors inside and three layers outside. Fan Wencheng, who has a money rat tail, is particularly eye-catching. He pulled the interpreter and was following behind several high-nosed and deep-eyed Westerners, smiling and flattering.

"Mr. Roy, you don't need to stay here. We have a port nearby, and we have prepared all the supplies we need, and you can load your ship and head north. ”

"Mr. Roy, this ship has been blown up, and it's not worth your time. There are so many of these ships in the north that if you want, you just have to take down the ports of the 'revolutionary army'. ”

"Mr. Roy, Mr. Roy ....... Translator, did you relay my words to this ghost? Why didn't he ignore me? ”

Fan Wencheng trotted behind a few foreign devils, sweating on his forehead. He was followed by many officials and businessmen of the Jiangnan Puppet Ming Dynasty, but they were not as eager as him, so they were more reserved.

Through Liu Fucheng's matchmaking, the Jiannu forces in the hinterland of Liaodong got in touch with the small imperial court in the south of the Yangtze River. With the help of merchants in Jiangnan, Nurhachi received help from the Dutch in Japan. This time, several sail giants arrived off the coast of Songjiang Prefecture for roughly the same reason as Zhou Qingfeng guessed, and it was rare for the Portuguese in Macao and the Dutch in Japan to join forces.

The headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia received information from Japan last year that Thomas Murphy, who was in charge of East Asian affairs, had received information from Japan. Sir Roy was very interested in this. But just as he was about to plan to expand the trade routes more extensively, a bad news came from Goa - the Portuguese were out of luck!

No one knew exactly how the Orientals managed to occupy Goa, and the news from thousands of miles away was always unpredictable. But the merchants' sense of smell was acute, and when Goa could provide a variety of high-quality and cheap goods, commerce in the Far East immediately became sluggish.

The Dutch East India Company was immediately divided into two factions, one that decided to cooperate with the Chinese who occupied Goa, and the other that the company's interests could not be violated. Obviously, Thomas. Sir Roy's interests were violated. The price of the goods he bought in the Far East was too high to fight the 'revolutionary army' with low logistics costs, and he was going bankrupt.

Sensing that power would disappear with the passage of money, Sir Roy did not hesitate to decide to defend it by force. He reacted quickly, and joined forces with the Portuguese, who had also suffered the same interests, and both sides sent a total of seven warships and armed merchant ships, with the 'Amsterdam' as the flagship, to Songjiang Province under the guidance of Jiangnan merchants.

"It's this kind of ship." The pirate merchant Li Dan followed behind Sir Roy and marveled at the bombed-out transport ship in front of him, "When I saw this kind of ship, I couldn't believe it could sail on the sea. But it can really run, and it can run very fast, without the help of the wind at all. ”

Li Dan came from Nagasaki, Japan, with almost fifty of his main fleet. Although his ships are not as big as the sail giants of the Dutch, there are also many large ships of more than 100 tons, which is already a force that cannot be underestimated on the current coast of China. The gentry and maritime merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, the barbarian traitors in Liaodong, and the ocean-going colonists in the west were thus integrated.

When Sir Roy's fleet arrived at Matsue Mansion, he suddenly encountered a small steamer on the surface of the sea that was supplying the southern guerrillas. This smoky ship that could sail at will shocked all Western captains, and the priest on board even had to hold a cross high to calm the sailors' emotions. Because this boat can run six knots regardless of whether it is downwind or against the wind.

The Roy fleet was very restrained at first, just wanting to get closer and say hello to the other side. But the sudden escape of the transport ship changed their minds, and these bullies immediately decided to round up the magical ship. The ship, which was tasked with transporting, eventually washed into the beach, and when it was discovered and surrounded by the Ming army, the people on board set fire to the powder magazine.

"There's a lot of coal on this ship." Naturally, Sir Roy, who was in uniform, refused to let the ship go, and he landed in a dinghy to inspect the wreckage of the transport ship with several other fleet captains. The first thing they saw was coal everywhere that had been blasted by the blast in the explosion.

"The ship seems to be coal-burning." Fan Wencheng understood Sir Roy's doubts with the help of an interpreter, and showed what he knew.

"Burning coal? How to burn? Sir Roy took the lead, and several other Western captains turned their heads to look at Fan Wencheng.

After the interpreter passed on this question, Fan Wencheng immediately stopped talking. He also knew some news through the detailed work installed in the port of Tianjin, how did he know how the steamship burned coal to drive?

"This needs to ask the craftsmen who build ships, and this kind of craftsmen are available in Tianjin. As long as you go to Tianjin and knock down the port, you will naturally know. Fan Wencheng had to say a few perfunctory words. He was very forward, trying to express himself. But these Tessipani ghosts sail all year round, and it is impossible to take a bath, it is impossible to take a bath in this life, and the sour smell on the body is really going to smoke the person.

Unable to get an answer, Sir Roy was clearly not going to give up easily, and he continued to probe the wreckage of the transport ship in front of him, discovering that the explosion came from the rear of the hull. At least one or two hundred kilograms of black powder completely blew up the entire stern, and a large amount of coal was thrown from here, so that the internal structure of the hull could be seen at a glance.

"The ship is rather poorly built." Sir Roy had been dealing with ships for many years, and he could tell at a glance that the ship's construction technology seemed to be very low. The other captains beside him broke off a few broken planks with their hands, and found that the hull turned out to be ordinary fir and pine. Such inferior shipbuilding timber is rare.

Westerners prefer to use oak wood for shipbuilding, which is left to dry for many years after being fell. In this way, the wood is tough, thick, waterproof and corrosion-resistant. A well-maintained ship can last for decades or hundreds of years. Even if you don't have oak, teak, or catalpa. What's this with pine? Can't you throw it away in a year or two?

Not to mention, Uncle Zhou's ship really didn't plan to last long? The technological progress of the 'revolutionary army' is like a leap forward, and shipbuilding is like buying a mobile phone, and several new models can be produced every year. Whoever tells him that a ship will last decades, he will definitely glare back with a slanted eye - the poor ghost uses decades. Decades later, it was a problem for Lao Tzu to build ships without wood!

The ship is actually a barge structure, and the interior is quite simple, and although the materials are inferior, the design is quite perfect. This is a thing built by Zhao Ze in batches, and the emphasis is on less man-hours, low cost, and simple maintenance. The most valuable thing about this ship was not the hull, but the hundred-horsepower steam engine in the stern.

Sir Roy dug up the fragments of the blown steam engine from the coal pile, and the iron boiler, cylinder, crankshaft and other parts were completely distorted and deformed, and the original appearance could not be seen. A bunch of Westerners still meticulously collected the rags from the hull of the ship, trying to piece it together for what it was. Of these, only the propeller and propeller shaft are largely intact.

"This part seems to have been placed under the stern waterline." Sir Roy consulted with several captains, who had observed the ship with a telescope during the pursuit, "and the water kept splashing at its stern, and it seemed to be this part stirring." ”

Boats that can run on their own by burning coal have shattered these Westerners' perception of the power of ships. They collected everything but still couldn't restore the secrets of the transport ship, and their minds were already a mess, and in the end they could only put down the difficult questions in frustration and turn to the things they could understand.

The stern of the entire transport ship was blown up, but the front of the hull remained intact. A lot of supplies are stored in the warehouse. Due to the tight time, Ouyang Jun and Luo Lie took away weapons, medicines and funds first, leaving behind a lot of food that could be raised on the spot.

Sir Roy opened several of the encapsulated chests and found them filled with straw to keep them out of shock. The jar was sealed, and when opened, it was filled with pickled meat and vegetables. He tasted these foods with the audacity, and even exclaimed as if opening a new world: "Delicious! ”

Fan Wencheng was also worried about whether the food of these Zhou thieves would be poisonous, so he specially reminded the interpreter. Sir Roy rolled his eyes and said, "I don't know what this ship is doing, but I don't think that the owner of this ship is risking the sea to carry some poisonous food." If you want to say it's poisonous, the ones I usually eat are poisonous. ”

Sir Roy's words made the captains laugh at the entourage, and a group of people reached out to take some of the 'Revolutionary Army' standard pickled food from the open clay pot. Especially those pickled vegetables make them whet their appetite and delight. One captain exclaimed: "If I could feed my sailors with such food, they would be happy to float on the sea every day." ”

Although this is an exaggeration, several captains agree that the food on the sea voyage in these years is simply not as good as pig food. So they divided these field foods on the spot, making Fan Wencheng and the others stunned - seeing those huge sail warships, they almost thought that these Taixi ghosts were all immortals and didn't need to eat.

Among the remaining goods were arquebuses and medicines. For arquebuses, Sir Roy and others are no strangers. For medicines, they can't read the text on it, and they don't know what it's for. And some of the grenades that were supplied to the guerrillas were very new to them.

The casing of the grenade is cast iron, with prefabricated grooves and steel balls. This thing is lit with a fuse, and when it explodes, it is quite powerful. After the experiment, a vote of Westerners avoided Fan Wencheng and others to discuss privately, trying to find more information from behind this transport ship.

"It is said that this ship belongs to the 'revolutionary army', and it is necessary for us to reassess this force."

"To defeat the Governor of Kodino in Goa, the strength of this 'revolutionary army' will not be too small. However, judging from this coal-burning ship, their shipbuilding technology is not strong. ”

"yes, they actually built ships out of pine. Even the natives of Batavia knew that such inferior wood could not be used. ”

"The most strange thing for me is that this ship is not small, it is not armed, it is completely a simple transport ship. This is too strange for a sea vessel. ”

After discussing it for a long time, Sir Roy and the others did not get a certain result. But they became more interested in the 'revolutionary army', and finally decided to go to the north to have a look. For colonists, there are two meanings of 'look' - if the opponent is strong enough, that is, really look; If the opponent is not strong, then it is embarrassing.

For Westerners, who have been rampant in East Asia for 100 years and regard Orientals as ignorant indigenous, there is no way to understand whether their opponents are strong or not without fighting a war.