At this time, Sun Chuanting and Zheng Zhilong were making every effort to prepare to capture the Dutch stronghold in Tainan, and the sudden appearance of several Dutch warships in Keelung Port really caught them off guard.

However, there is a fort on the island north of Keelung Harbor, and it is equipped with a large number of 12-pounder Hongyi cannons, forming a network of crossfire with the batteries on both sides of the harbor.

These Dutch Galen ships were no more than 500 tons, and the number of guns on board was limited, making it difficult to deal an effective blow to the bastions and concrete-poured batteries.

The Dutch did not dare to go deep into the harbor, so the Keelung shipyard did not suffer, and the Dutch only sank a few small fishing boats near the port.

But this also really scared Zheng Zhilong.

Because there are 2 docks in the Keelung Shipyard that are building 1,200-ton light ships, and 2 docks are building merchant ships.

It would be a big loss to let the Dutch destroy it.

In the end, Zheng Zhilong decided to lead the fleet to retreat to Keelung first.

After all, after two naval battles with the Dutch and the Spaniards, there were still a few battleships that needed to be repaired.

In addition, the Spaniards' 1,200-ton Santiago is indeed not easy to deal with.

He didn't expect the Dutch to ask for help from their sworn enemy, the Spaniards, and now things became troublesome.

Because the Dutch were not without warships of more than 1,000 tons, on the contrary, they probably had more armed merchant ships than the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and their own Eastern Ryukyu fleet combined.

It's just that their main ships are all in Batavia in the South Sea, and in Penghu and Taiwan is only one of their detachments.

Zheng Zhilong did not deal with these Westerners less, and knew that the Dutch would not give up the city of Geranza easily.

It won't be long before more powerful Dutch ships sail here.

If you lose both sides with the Spaniards, you will be in the way of the Dutch.

In the end, Sun Chuanting decided to rescue Li Xianzhong and asked the capital ship of the Liaodong Naval Division to go south.

At this time, the Spaniards, who had driven out the Eastern Ryukyu fleet, were waiting for the Dutch to fulfill their promise to transfer the city of Geranza to Spain.

Dutch merchants were known for their cunning, and Governor Songk had no intention of handing it over to the Spaniards.

He instigated the Spaniards to fight the East Ryukyu Company, killing two birds with one stone.

It's better to let them fight to lose both, so that Taiwan can be saved, and maybe there is a possibility of taking Manila.

Manila is home to the gold mines that the Dutch East India Company has long dreamed of.

Song Ke said, "Dear Colonel Gonzalez, we agreed to leave this place to you when we are safely evacuated. Now I have sent a letter to Batavia to send a fleet to meet us, and I ask you to protect us for a little longer. ”

"Of course, we can pay you a gratuity of 1,000 guilders (about 280 taels of silver) a day during this period."

It is clear that this money can go into the pockets of the Spanish commander Gonzalez himself.

So he gladly accepted.

Then Song Ke said: "I heard that this East Ryukyu company has built two ports in northern Taiwan, Keelung and Tamsui, and they have hoarded a lot of wealth and grain there. ”

"If you take over this place, sooner or later you will have a dispute with them, so it is better to take advantage of the fact that their strength is not strong at the moment and directly take the north, so that the Taiwan issue can be resolved once and for all."

To be honest, Song Ke's proposal was still very tempting.

It's a pity that only the Santiago has some advantages in the current Spanish fleet, and the other ships are inferior to the enemy's ships.

Moreover, in the previous naval battle, the Santiago also suffered a lot of shells and was damaged.

Moreover, the Manila side had only 200 Spanish soldiers and 600 local Luzon soldiers on its side.

This was only enough to accept the city of Geranza, and in the end, Gonzalez was still not hot-headed.

Originally, Li Xianzhong didn't have much affection for these Europeans.

The Spaniards and the Dutch were robbers, and they had a lot of Chinese blood on their hands.

The weaker Portuguese were slightly better, and although they also took advantage of the opportunity to entrench themselves in Macau, they still paid taxes and traded.

It's a relatively reliable trading partner.

At present, the shipyards and arsenals in Liaodong, and even the Liaodong Naval Division, there are many Portuguese hired to serve them.

Now warships of more than 1,000 tons in Europe are generally armed with 18-pounder Hongyi cannons.

Looks like I'm going to have to hurry up and change my outfit.

At present, there are only two 1,200-ton light Galen galleons that have just been launched, and they are equipped with 18-pound Hongyi cannons.

The other ships were all 12-pounder guns.

However, at present, the war in Taiwan is tense, and in the end, Li Xianzhong decided to send all the warships of more than 800 tons of the Liaodong Naval Division to Taiwan.

Shipbuilding not only consumes money, but also consumes time, although it currently has five shipyards in Yingkou, Lushun, Incheon, Ryukyu and Keelung.

However, the Liaodong Navy Division currently has only 2 1,200-ton plus 4 800-ton light Galen sailing ships.

Although the maximum tonnage of ships under construction has reached 1,680 tons, the construction period of 16 months is too long.

However, there is no way to do it, although the Spanish Armada had more than 130 warships of various types, but there were only more than 20 Spanish galleons with strong combat effectiveness, and the rest were made up of armed merchant ships, round ships and other warships.

It only took Li Xianzhong three or four years to build two fleets, the "Liaodong Naval Division" and the "East Ryukyu Company Fleet," which was already the result of constantly throwing money and investing countless manpower.

Despite the small calculations of the Dutch, the distance between Batavia and Taiwan is much farther than that of Liaodong.

Just over ten days later, the six capital ships of the Liaodong Navy Division led by Deng Gang arrived at Keelung Port.

The soldiers and civilians of Keelung were even more cheerful when they saw their main fleet.

Zheng Zhilong not only led two 800-ton capital warships to join Deng Gang.

Sun Chuanting even prepared a long-range army of 1,500 people to rush to Tainan and take the city of Relanza in one fell swoop.

However, in order to take out the Spaniard's Santiago, Deng Gang finally decided to split the fleet in two.

He led 1 1200-ton and 4 800-ton warships to attack the city of Geranza.

Zheng Zhilong, on the other hand, led the remaining three main warships to ambush in the Bass Strait between Taiwan Island and Luzon Island, preparing to ambush the USS Santiago, which might escape.

When the 1,200-ton Liaoyang appeared off the coast of Tainan, the Dutch and the Spaniards were dumbfounded.

They don't know why this suddenly popped up East Ryukyus company has so many Galen galleons?

In particular, their England light Galen sailing yachts are far superior in performance to the older Spanish Galen sailing boats.

Originally, they also had the advantage of artillery, and the range of the 18-pounder gun was much longer than that of the 12-pounder.

But when the enemy ship opened fire on him from 5 miles away, Gonzalez realized that he was no match at all.

In fact, in terms of firepower alone, his Santiago had no advantage even against the 800-ton light Galen ship, and he had only relied on his range advantage to suppress his opponents.

Do you still have a yarn?

Gonzalez hurriedly ordered a retreat in the direction of Manila.

It's a pity that his speed is not on the Liaoyang.

The Santiago escaped all the way and was shot all the way, but fortunately, the hull was still relatively strong, and although the fire on the ship was once ignited, it was finally extinguished.

They sailed out of Taiwan and into the Bass Strait.

Soon the Spanish sailors on board cheered, because in the direction of Manila they found the silhouette of 3 sailing ships.

The ships heading north from the south could only be a support fleet sent by Manila.

It wasn't long before Gonzalez noticed that something was wrong, because it wasn't the Spanish Galen ship that had arrived.

And these ships are directly across their own routes, clearly blocking themselves.

Soon after, heavy shells rained down on the Santiago.

As the distance between the two sides got closer and closer, he was surprised to find that it was actually another 1,200-ton warship.

And he also saw a familiar face through the clairvoyant mirror in his hand - Zheng Zhilong!

At this time, the old Santiago was flanked by two 1,200-ton giant ships, the Liaoyang and the Shenyang, and soon hit several cannons, and finally a shell directly passed through the hull and hit the ammunition compartment, causing a large explosion.

Faced with the sinking warships, Spanish sailors jumped into the sea to survive.

At this time, Deng Gang said: "The Liao State has an order that these Spaniards have slaughtered the Ming exiles in Manila several times, and they are not allowed to rescue them, and they are directly shot. ”

After defeating the Spaniards, all the ships came to the city of Geranza.

The batteries around the city had been destroyed by the time of the last attack.

When he saw the two 1,200-ton ships, the Dutch governor in Taiwan, Song K, knew that it was over.

According to the time calculation, it would take at least ten days for the Batavian fleet to arrive.

I'm afraid that even Kuhn, the governor who smashed Batavia, would not have imagined that such a formidable opponent would appear in East Asia.

This unfinished fortress could not withstand the terrible naval artillery of the Ming army at all.

Finally, after a volley of the Ming army, Sick decisively raised the white flag.

Originally, he thought that he would get preferential treatment if he surrendered voluntarily.

Unexpectedly, this group of barbaric East Ryukyu Company directly executed 571 Dutch soldiers who withdrew from Penghu in front of everyone.

The reason is that the Dutch enslaved the people of the Ming Dynasty in Penghu before, which directly caused 571 deaths.

Although Sick did not know where the figure of 571 came from, he still wrote to Batavia honestly, asking the Dutch East India Company to come and ransom them.

A month later, the Dutch exchanged 3,000 Ming people in the Nanyang region plus an indemnity of 200,000 taels of silver for more than 400 captives including Sik!

The Dutch East India Company and the East Ryukyu Company reached a cease-fire agreement, and the merchant ships of the two sides no longer attacked each other, and they were free to do business.

The Dutch can run to Japan, and Zheng Zhilong can also run to the South Seas.

At the same time, the Netherlands had to ensure that they would not wantonly kill the Ming people in the South Seas.

There weren't many Dutch in the South Seas of the East India Company, and Zheng Zhilong's killing of 571 people at once really hurt them.

Therefore, they also had to make a promise not to slaughter the Ming people indiscriminately.

As for whether the promise is useful or not, it still depends on the strength of both sides.

For now, the failure of this attack on Penghu Taiwan is really a huge loss for the Dutch!

The East Ryukyus Company finally made concessions to the Dutch by virtue of its strong force.

Of course, for the time being, it is difficult for Zheng Zhilong to make a big difference in the South Seas, just as the Dutch's trade routes in Japan have been greatly narrowed!

However, he did admire the foresight of Liao Guogong, and the 3,000 people who were returned in exchange could not only help to develop Taiwan, but they were also familiar with everything in Nanyang, and if the East Ryukyu Company expanded its sphere of influence to the Nanyang region in the future, these people would be valuable assets.

The Dutch were also realistic, although they suffered heavy losses, but Manila, having lost the Santiago, was weaker.

Instead of going to Taiwan to fight the powerful Eastern Ryukyu Company, it would be easier to plot against the Spaniards in Manila!

After that, Sun Chuanting led the army to invade the Potbelly Kingdom and captured the Potbelly Domain.

He chose to control this pot-bellied vassal king in his own hands and turned into a puppet, taking the opportunity to annex the Taichung area.

These tribes were also divided into two parts, and some of them followed the king of the potbelly domain and accepted the rule of Sun Chuanting.

There are still some who are unwilling to give in, and finally choose to retreat to the Alishan area, where the conditions are more difficult, and continue to resist!

Now that a large area of land in Taichung and Tainan has been recovered, Sun Chuanting is busy organizing the people to open up wasteland and build a constructive port, so naturally he has no time to completely clear these natives.

Tainan has significantly more plains, and the land conditions are more fertile than in the northern region.

Li Xianzhong ordered Zheng Zhilong to allocate 500,000 taels of silver from the East Ryukyu Company to Sun Chuanting, and ordered the Intelligence Department to assist Zheng Zhilong in continuing to immigrate to Taiwan from Fujian.

I believe that in another 1-2 years, Taiwan will have millions of acres of fertile land, and Li Xianzhong will finally not have to worry about food.

Considering that the East Ryukyu Company needed giant ships even more, Deng Gang left the 1,200-ton Shenyang to Zheng Zhilong, and then led other Liaodong sailors to return.

Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, was rewarded by the Emperor of the Apocalypse after recovering Penghu.

However, although the Ming army was lucky to drive away the Dutch and recover Penghu, the Ming army lacked large warships, which also made Nan Juyi see the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty.

So Nanju Yizuo asked the imperial court to set up a new shipyard in Fujian and build new warships to defend against threats from the sea.

Although Da Ming was repeatedly harassed by the Japanese before, Da Ming did not suffer losses on the warship.

This time, the Dutch actually blockaded Zhangzhou, and once landed and burned the village, which gave Daming a wake-up call.

Whether it is the Emperor of the Apocalypse or several cabinet scholars, they all think that Nan Juyi's suggestion is still very reasonable.

The Ming must guard against threats from the sea.

But now that the imperial court has no money, even if this shipyard is repaired, it will not be able to build warships.

So they retreated and ordered Nan Juyi to use the captured Dutch artillery to build forts in Penghu and Zhangzhou to defend against the threat from the sea.

I have to say that the imitation ability of Daming craftsmen is still very strong, and the Hongyi cannon delivered to the capital last year has been successfully imitated.

In addition, Liaodong has continued to send copper ore to the imperial court over the years, and now 30 12-pound Hongyi cannons have been produced.

In the end, the military department gritted its teeth and sent 18 Hongyi cannons to Fujian to help Nanjuyi build a fort.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao did carpenter work every day, and he didn't care about silver.

Although he knew that the imperial court was short of silver, it was only an abstract concept.

But since he ordered the formation of the Yulin Battalion, he has really experienced the difficulty of lacking silver.

The 30,000 Yulin battalion was quickly recruited.

But apart from the monthly salary and the salary, what kind of horses, equipment, and firearms do not need silver? His Majesty's army is aimed at the Liaodong Army of the Duke of Liao, not the Beijing camp composed of a group of rabble.

Although the resources and equipment of the military department and the household department were given to this unit.

But it's not enough.

According to Zhu Youxiao's plan, the 30,000 Yulin battalion was composed of 10,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 10,000 firearms soldiers.

However, the current financial resources of the imperial court simply cannot equip so many cavalry.

And His Majesty the Firearms Battalion asked to equip the Liaodong Army's Lu Mi Gun, which can produce 500 of them in a month.

In the end, under Sun Chengzong's replanning, it became 20,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 5,000 firearms.

But that's what you can't do for a while.

In the end, Zhu Youxiao had to allocate 500,000 taels of silver from his own internal money, and asked the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the Military Bureau to purchase war horses, firearms, artillery and armor for his Yulin battalion.

Now after nearly half a year of training, these Yu Linwei can be regarded as a small success.

On the school field of the Beijing camp, I saw a group of young soldiers wearing green armor waving the wooden sticks in their hands, beating the opposite Beijing camp with blue noses and swollen eyes.

With only half the number of opponents, the Yulin Battalion only took half a pillar of incense to defeat the British Duke Zhang Weixian's Fifth Army Battalion.

Chengguo Gong Zhu Chunchen's Shenji Battalion was also completely destroyed by them in terms of target rate and firing speed.

To be honest, since the establishment of this Yulin camp, the worst thing is the Beijing camp of these two.

Not only did the equipment stop replenishing, but the monthly salary was only half paid, and the most unbearable thing was that he was called by the Yulin Battalion to be a sparring partner in three days.

Zhu Youxiao said: "The Duke of England and the Duke of Chengguo, both of you have followed the Duke of Liao to the south to exterminate the White Lotus Sect, how is this Yulin Battalion of mine compared to the Liaodong Army?" ”

Zhang Weixian and Zhu Chunchen glanced at each other, thinking that you, the recruits, are bullying the old and weak in Lao Tzu's hands, and when you meet the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, you will be "chopping melons and vegetables".

But they don't dare to say this, Your Majesty is on the rise, if this basin of cold water is poured down, it will be difficult to lose this hereditary prince of their own.

Zhu Chunchen laughed and said: "Your Majesty's Yulin Camp is really a newborn calf that is not afraid of tigers and is full of momentum. I think that the current situation is completely out of the Liaodong Army, and if it takes time, it will definitely be better! ”

Although he knew that this was a compliment, Zhu Youxiao was still very happy.

said to Sun Chengzong: "Sun Ge Lao has a good way of leading the troops, I just built a set of furniture, and I will reward Sun Ge Lao!" ”

Sun Chengzong knew very well in his heart that these recruits who had never seen blood were only slightly improving now, and they could not be the elite opponents of the group of elites under the Duke of Liao.

But at this time, how could he bear to sweep away His Majesty's interest.

Finally, he said: "The old minister has thanked His Majesty for his kindness!"

At this time, Zhu Youxiao picked up a Lu Mi gun with great interest and said: "I heard that when the Liao State Gong was able to break the Tartar and fight the range of this Lu Mi gun, who shot farther than the Lu Mi Gong of the Yulin Battalion and the Liaodong Army?" ”

As soon as Zhu Youxiao asked, the three of them were silent.

Because they have all seen the strength of the Liaodong Army, and its power is much greater than that of the military battle.

Sun Chengzong said: "The Lumi gun of the Liaodong Army was fired, and the Yulin Battalion was made of arquebus, and the range should be about the same." ”

Speaking of the Sui Rifle, Zhu Youxiao remembered that the captured Dutch gun presented by Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, was the Sui Rifle.

Soon after, he conducted a test firing with great interest, and found that although the Dutch fire gun had a slightly closer range than the Rumi gun, it was only about 90 paces.

But both the power and the speed of fire are even better.

Zhu Youxiao sighed: "If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." If only the Feather Forest Battalion could be equipped with these rifles! ”

Sun Chengzong said: "Recently, the cabinet received a report from Fujian, that after these Dutch were defeated by our Ming Dynasty, they begged the Ming Dynasty to let them trade. ”

"The imperial court can get them to provide drawings for the flintlock pistol, so that we can not only quickly equip the flintlock pistol. It can also increase the income of the imperial court through trade, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. ”

Sun Chengzong's words made Zhu Youxiao's eyes light up, and he said: "It's not enough to have this flintlock pistol, I also need the drawings of Western sailing ships." Let the cabinet authorize the governor of Fujian, Nan Juyi, to negotiate trade with the Dutch, as long as the Dutch are willing to transfer the drawings and technology of these two things, I will set the Moon Port in Zhangzhou, Fujian as a port for the Dutch to trade alone, and agree that they will trade with the Ming here! ”

Although the imperial court temporarily shelved the plan to build a new type of warship because of the lack of silver, Zhu Youxiao still took him to heart!

Sun Chengzong said: "Your Majesty Shengming, I believe that soon, the imperial court will have its own warships and flintlock pistols!" ”

The Ming court was willing to turn Moon Harbor into their own separate trading port, and the Dutch were ecstatic.

Anyway, they are not ready to rely on force to deal with Da Ming for the time being, and the flintlock pistol doesn't matter at all!

As for the Galen sailboat, in fact, there is still a big difference between ships of different tonnages, and it doesn't matter if you give Daming a medium-sized Galen sailboat drawing of about 500 tons.

Soon the Dutch gave the Ming drawings of flintlock pistols and medium-sized galleons, and sent several technical directors to assist the Ming in manufacturing.

Emperor Tianqi decreed that Yuegang in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province should be established as a trading point for the Dutch and trade with the Netherlands would be resumed. Led by the Fujian Governor Yamen, the Ministry of Household Affairs sent people to supervise the establishment of a special trade department responsible for purchasing the Daming specialties needed by the Dutch to make a profit.

The Dutch were allowed to start trading houses in Yuegang to sell their products, but only in a limited number of shops, and could not directly rent large tracts of land like the Portuguese in Macau.

A shipyard was built in Fujian to prepare for the construction of a Western galleon.

Now that Zhu Youxiao's soldiers, ships, guns, and artillery problems have been basically solved, his self-confidence has begun to swell.

He felt that it was time to make adjustments to the territory of Liaodong Town.

However, this plan can't be said by him, otherwise the taste will change, and he will have to take into account Li Xianzhong's feelings.

After that, Sun Chengzong officially proposed to the cabinet the idea of establishing "Liaoxi Town".

This was like a thunderbolt, and soon the news spread to Liaodong.

Thank you for your monthly passes, recommended tickets, and follow-up support!

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(End of chapter)