Chapter Seventy-One: The Nusa Tenggara Islands

"My Lord, I don't think it's a good idea for us to provoke an enemy of unknown strength!" said Brutner, commander of the Portuguese fleet in East Timor, solemnly.

Yesterday, the advanced rifle that appeared on the immigration ship was fast and extremely fast, and it really made his heart uneasy! He has never seen such a good rifle in the army for more than ten years, hundreds of meters away, it can blow a soldier's head with a single shot, and those weapons that can even shè have brought him hundreds of soldiers dead and wounded, but it is a pity that after those Orientals ran out of bullets, they destroyed all the guns and threw them into the sea, so that he who wanted to seize a few to see if he could copy them, and finally failed his wish! This is the most frightening thing, which means that the Chinese, who have fought against the Dutch and have occupied most of the East Indies, have trained a large number of soldiers with these jīng good weapons and equipment!

"A dozen men can kill nearly two hundred heroic Portuguese troops! These Chinese who don't know where they came from are really terrible!" Brutner thought uneasily.

"Hehe, general, you think too much! Although the loss of the lives of hundreds of imperial soldiers is sad! But the Dutchman's generous remuneration is also difficult for people to refuse! 10 million guilders! East Timor can only have so much tax revenue in three years! How can we let go of such a huge income!" Steve raised the red wine in his hand, drank it in one sip, and said with a happy face.

"But, Lord Governor, our army in the East Timorese colony is only a thousand, and even with our navy here there is less than fifteen hundred, and if we lose a hundred men in one operation, it will be difficult for us to maintain Portuguese rule here!" said Brutner anxiously.

"Alright, General, your task is to organize soldiers and fleets to guard our colony, and I'll take care of the rest, understand?" said Steve, a little impatiently.

――――――

"Judging by the happy look of the Portuguese governor, my lord's plan must have succeeded!" said Pete, holding up his glass, smiling to his superior, Mondrian, the Dutch Governor of the East Indies.

"Yes, although 10 million guilders is a lot, as long as we can figure out the strength and details of those damn yellow-skinned monkeys, and let them be punished! These efforts are worth it, we can't run into them by ourselves without even knowing the strength of the enemy like last time! Not only have we lost so many soldiers and warships, but we have also been unable to raise our heads at home, and even the kingdom has become a laughing stock in Europe!" Mondrian remembered the reprimand telegram sent by the queen herself, and said with some anger.

"But Lord Governor, are you sure that the Orientals have come back to attack the Portuguese colonies here?" asked Pete, with some concern.

"Don't worry, General! A country that doesn't think about its own people can't become a great power! Although I don't know what the military strength of the Orientals is, it seems from their constant migration to the South Seas that they will not be indifferent to the actions of the Portuguese!" said Mondrian confidently.

"Your Excellency, you say, could those who occupied our colonies be Qing Dynasty people? After all, they are the only ones in the entire East who have the strength to defeat the kingdom!"

"Probably not, you know, although those people are also yellow-skinned and black-eyed, they don't have that ridiculous braid behind their heads! Besides, judging from their language, it can't be Rì himself! Their power has not yet extended to Nanyang!" Mondrian was also a little confused about which country these tough guys were from!

"All right, General! Whatever country they are, they are enemies of the Kingdom of Holland! Now your task is to observe and find out how many troops they have?

"Yes, Lord Governor!"

"Something is wrong, Lord Governor!" At this moment, Herman, the chief of the guard, rushed in in in a panic, pushed through the crowd in the hall, and handed him the telegram in his hand!

"Your Excellency Governor, we have just received information that Bali has been attacked, and that our garrison there is completely finished!

"What ......!"

Mondri was so shocked that he couldn't help but get up from the sofa suddenly, and the glass of jīng fell from his hand, the scattered wine wet the floor, and the precious red wine stained his handmade high-end suits and leather shoes! If Mondrian, who usually pays great attention to his personal appearance, would definitely change out of this clothes that made him lose face at the first time, but he has been flustered by the shocking news from the mouth of the head of the guard, and now he is completely in no such mood!

Looking at the Dutchman who had left in a hurry, the uneasiness in Brutner's heart grew stronger and stronger!

――――――

"Haha......! I've endured these Dutch people for so long, and this time I finally don't have to suffer from their birds! Old Xiang, have all the results been counted?" Sitting in the Dutch office building in the Bali colony, Liu Lianfang asked his old partner Xiang Tao, the political commissar of the 42nd Division, with a happy face.

After all, the Dutch here only received Dili by telegraph line, and the other islands had to rely on us to send ships out to contact us, and it might take a few days to get all the statistics clear!" Xiang Tao said with a smile.

After smashing his mouth, Liu Lianfang was somewhat dissatisfied in his heart, "This is really too slow! We should ask the Ministry of Communications to lay submarine cables to each island as soon as possible! That way it will be much more convenient for us!"

"I thought about it, but then you have to go to the young master and the prime minister!

"Why is it useless, you see that we have now completely occupied the Nusa Tenggara Islands, and in a few days Timor Island will also be defeated by us! At that time, the Government Council will definitely set up a new provincial-level administrative unit, and according to the rules of the young master, you will be the best candidate for the governor at that time! When the time comes, you can completely say that it is to promote the economic development of the islands and further strengthen the defense of the islands, and ask for the laying of submarine cables! I think the young master will definitely not refuse at that time!"

Hearing his words, Xiang Tao glanced at him strangely!

"What? Am I not right?" asked Liu Lianfang, who was hairy in his heart by the strange eyes of his old partner, with a little nervous on his face.

"Lao Liu, how did I find out that you were so cunning before?" Xiang Tao asked with a smile as he looked at his old comrade-in-arms who was born as a farmer.

"Hehe, this is the peasant-style cunning that the young master often says!"

――――――

The fiery red sunset slanted all over the beautiful military port, and Lu Han, who was dressed in the uniform of a white lieutenant, was a little hard to believe that the Admiralty had chosen to become its first captain of the first 'famous general' class destroyer 'Wang Qian'!

Whenever he thought of its excellent xìng ability and speed of up to 21 knots, Lu Han couldn't help but feel a surging heart, just like the young master said, all warships under 3,000 tons are not its opponents! Even those large-tonnage warships can take the 'Wang Qian' that is like the wind!

"It's a pity, there is only one such a good warship now!" Lu Han couldn't help but think with some regret in his heart, but then the huge five-year naval expansion plan came to his mind, which made Lu Han, who had always been known for his calmness, couldn't help but get excited!

"Soon we will also have our own large fleet! At that time, 'sea power' will no longer be just a character in the Chinese dictionary, but a real right that needs to be obtained and guaranteed!"

"Report, Captain! Just now there was a telegram from the Sanma Naval Base that Haixun No. 1 and Haixun No. 2 will arrive at the Ambon base this evening, and the General Staff has asked us to be ready to cooperate with the Fifth Marine Division to land on Timor Island! In addition, Minister Huo Feng called and said that although the Portuguese warships were broken, they were still very good as naval training ships and frigates, and he hoped that we would be able to capture all those warships! Lin Zhang, the second lieutenant of the navy who served on the destroyer Wang Jian', handed over the telegram in his hand to Lu Han after finishing speaking!

"It's really the style of a minister!" Lu Han thought secretly in his heart after reading the telegram.

With the second batch of 4,000 students from the Naval Academy, there are no more than a few naval training ships! I originally wanted to go to the young master to build a few! However, the slipway of the shipyard has already been filled with the destroyers of the 'Famous General' class and the various freighters of the Huo family's fleet! In addition, the newly purchased equipment from the two shipyards is still being debugged, and the new slipway is also being built! As for the 200,000-ton shipbuilding equipment that Huo Shan bought later, it has just begun to be loaded into Europe and transported to the Far East, and the shadow of the shipyard has not yet been seen!

There is no way, Huo Feng, who is already anxious, has his eyes on the Portuguese in East Timor, one large, four small, five warships!