Chapter 218

Putmans came to meet Cheng Shijie, although he did not achieve the ideal strategic goal, that is, to unite Cheng Shijie and deal with Zheng Zhilong together.

However, in Putmans' view, the trip was a great reward.

That is, a large number of commercial cooperation agreements have been reached with the governor of Liaodong, and the current Dayuan has not yet been developed, so what is the value of an undeveloped piece of land?

Not even chicken ribs!

After hearing that Cheng Shijie was willing to provide them with enough cement, Putmans smiled so much that he couldn't see his teeth, which was really wonderful.

Due to the tropical rainforest climate, the bushes grow very fast, and when they build roads in front, the bushes in the back will grow the same as before.

Even if the hard-faced dirt and stone road is barely built, a heavy rain will return to the original point, and cement is the best infrastructure in the tropical rainforest, with cement they can build a strong and flat road, which can be unimpeded throughout Dayuan Island, and the process of developing Dayuan will be greatly accelerated.

In Puttmans, when we have repaired the port, the fortress, and the road, we will be invincible, and it will not be so easy for you to take it back!

But the problem is that it is not easy to buy cement, cement is not a high-value thing in later generations, ordinary cement is not expensive, but in this era, the price of cement is not cheap.

It's not that Cheng Shijie opened his mouth wide and deliberately raised the price, first of all, the water content is relatively large for sea transportation, and once the cement absorbs water vapor, it will form crusts and can no longer be used in construction. The bag used to make cement is not an ordinary sack, but a tarpaulin made of kudzu cloth mixed with rubber, and the cost of this tarpaulin is not cheaper than that of ordinary cloth for making clothes.

A bag that can hold 100 catties of cement is worth 60 yuan, and a ton of cement requires 1 or 2 percent of the packaging cost, which is not considered a labor wage.

After bargaining, of course, there was a special person in charge of negotiating this matter, that is, Xie Jinglin, who was in charge of business management, and after four days of fierce bargaining, the price of cement was finally determined.

A bag of cement is worth 100 catties for five raw dings, that is, 25 grams of 90 percent pure silver, if converted into tons, that is, one ton requires one franc, that is, 500 grams of silver, which is equivalent to 13.46 taels of silver.

Five hundred grams of silver, even according to the price of silver in later generations, five hundred grams is equivalent to more than two thousand five hundred yuan, which is not cheap. However, the Dutch East India Company not only needed cement for its developers, but Batavia, the Far East headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, also needed to build a large amount of cement for cities and fortresses.

The Dutch are different from the Ming people, the Ming people actually do not like to build houses with bricks, the rich people like to live in wooden houses, while the Dutch like to live in castles, and the castles built of cement are of better quality than castles built of stone. If it is shipped to the Netherlands, it will definitely be liked by the Dutch aristocracy or the wealthy.

After all, the current Netherlands, it should not be said that the whole of Europa is at war, the Thirty Years' War of Europa is in a period of all-out war, twenty or thirty candidate states and principalities are involved in the war, even France has begun to officially end, and the French Army defeated the Spanish phalanx in actual combat for the first time, which has caused a serious impact on the Spanish Empire.

The Dutch were not officially independent now, but as subjects of the Spanish Empire, the Dutch nobility was naturally concerned about their own security.

According to the cooperation agreement, Liaodong provided 10 million bags of cement to the Dutch East India Company, which was a cargo worth 500,000 francs, which was not a small amount for the Dutch East India Company.

What's more, this is a quarter, that is, three months' supply, and a full year of two million francs, and Putmans told Cheng Shijie that the Dutch East India Company could not come up with the money, and could use other things to offset the payment.

Cheng Shijie's plenipotentiary Xie Jinglin did not ask Cheng Shijie at all, he had already obtained Cheng Shijie's authorization, Xie Jinglin said that it was completely possible.

The Dutch East India Company could use iron ore, phosphate ore, sea bird droppings, tin ore, manganese ore, copper ore, silver ore, sulphur, saltpeter, timber and even the Dutch Galen ships to settle the payment.

Cheng Shijie's current ocean transport fleet is not large, but his shipyard is mainly engaged in the manufacture of warships, and he cannot achieve this production task for the time being, so he can only rely on the Dutch Galen ships for the time being.

Of course, the Galen ship is not unique to the Dutch, like Spain, Britain, including Venice, Portugal have their own Galen ship, with a sentence that is not very appropriate, the current Galen ship is like a container ship in later generations, and the ships produced by each country have their own characteristics.

After the Dutch signed a series of business cooperation, the Spaniards also came, and their purpose was the same as that of the Dutch, they also wanted to unite Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong to fight, but Cheng Shijie also disagreed.

Directly rejected the Spaniards' demands for an alliance, but agreed to their commercial cooperation, but now the Spanish Empire has sunset, and it is far less rich than the Dutch East India Company.

There's no money to talk about a business.

Just when Xie Jinglin was about to reject the Spanish representative, Cheng Shijie said: "Tell the Spaniards, my island, more islands!" ”

Xie Jinglin was a little puzzled, what island did Cheng Shijie want?

With such a large territory in Liaodong, there are still many places that have not been developed, but what is the use of the island?

Of course, Xie Jinglin does not understand Cheng Shijie's attention to the ocean, the Ming Dynasty has now entered the Age of Discovery, in fact, it is too late, for Cheng Shijie, the Ming Dynasty has nearly one-fifth of the world's population, and the current Ming Dynasty is actually bigger than later generations.

Although it is said that Nurgandus has become independent, the two capitals and thirteen provinces, plus Tibet has 1.23 million square kilometers, Qinghai has 720,000 square kilometers, Gansu has 425,000 square kilometers, Ningxia has 66,000 square kilometers, plus parts of Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty has 9.97 million square kilometers of land.

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty has a population of nearly 200 million, and for Cheng Shijie, no amount of territory is too much, if Cheng Shijie has not traveled to this era when the great voyage has just begun, then don't say it, but the problem is that Cheng Shijie is here.

Cheng Shijie will never allow Great Britain's colonies to spread all over the world, and the Ming Dynasty, which has one-fifth of the world's population, should occupy the most land in the world.

Now Cheng Shijie's strength is still far from enough, especially the strength of the navy, in the case of insufficient strength, can only take the way of cooperation, because the Ming Dynasty has the largest market in the world, and the Ning Navy has the strength of the world to beat the world's armies.

Even if the British lobster soldiers at their peak, in front of the Ning Navy, Cheng Shijie can beat them out of the, if they can't beat them, they are too clean.

The current Spanish Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets in the world, and they occupy a large number of islands, so they don't care about those corners, small islands of tens of square kilometers or hundreds of square kilometers, they don't care at all.

Just when Xie Jinglin was formally negotiating with the representatives of the Spanish Empire, conditions that even Cheng Shijie did not expect were actually put on the table.

The Spanish Empire actually made their negotiations conditional on their territory in the Great Force.

In fact, Spain is not stupid, but they occupy a large number of colonies in the Americas, Spanish is a small language in later generations, in this era, Spanish is more popular than English, if you count the population of the Spanish colonies, the world's most populous country, the world's first territorial power, it belongs to Spain.

The problem for Spain was that they were now facing a combined attack by fifteen European countries, including the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of France, the United Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the United Republic of the Netherlands, the Electorate of Saxony, the Electorate of Palatinate, Brandenburg-Prussia, Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, the Duchy of Transylvania, the Hungarian anti-Habsburg rebels, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Tsardom.

Otherwise, the Netherlands would not have been able to gain independence under Spanish rule, and the Spanish Empire, faced with a growing anti-Spanish alliance, had to draw forces from overseas colonies to help Spain proper, and now the Dutch attacked the Spanish fleet in the Great Northland by posing as pirates, and England intercepted Spanish silver ships directly from the Atlantic.

Introducing Cheng Shijie into the big staff and leading Cheng Shijie to fight with the Dutch is a plan of the Spaniards to lead the way to the east, and it can also be said that it is not good-hearted.

Cheng Shijie was very willing to fall into the trap of the Spaniards, and he obtained the right to develop fresh water from the Spaniards at the cost of exporting 3 million bags of cement and steel to Spain, as well as 150,000 catties of steel, and also had the right to dock and repair the Manila wharf.

This is more interesting, Tamsui is located in the middle of Dayuan, at the junction of the Taichung area controlled by Zheng Zhilong and the Taipei area controlled by the Spaniards.

"What do you want Tamsui to do?"

Xie Jinglin really couldn't figure it out, Cheng Shijie's price of taking fresh water from the Spaniards was not cheap, three million bags of cement were equivalent to 150,000 francs according to the price sold to the Dutch, about more than 2 million taels of silver, plus 150,000 catties of steel, it was equivalent to more than 3 million taels of silver.

The value is too high.

"Is there a gold mine in Tamsui water?"

Xie Jinglin thought that Cheng Shijie asked for Maoshan, and found that Maoshan has a huge iron mine, and the grade is very high, and now more than seventy percent of the steel produced by Liaodong Iron and Steel Plant is refined Maoshan iron ore, and it is possible to refine all Maoshan iron ore in the future.

Cheng Shijie pointed to the tamsui on the map: "From here to the south, all the way to here, it is Zheng Zhilong's territory, and it is also Zheng Zhilong's Tuntian District, as long as we take it here, Zheng Zhilong's 200,000 troops will have no food to eat, you can talk about it, more than three million taels of silver to hold Zheng Zhilong's lifeline, is it still expensive?" ”

What's more, the Tamsui port can allow the Ning Navy to have a foothold in Tamsui, which is too important.

Xiamen, Fujian Admiral's Mansion.

At this time, the Admiral's Mansion was full of lights, and Zheng Zhilong was in a pretty good mood. After Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong went to war, all the maritime groups located in Jiangnan were not optimistic about Cheng Shijie, and some of them came to Xiamen thousands of miles to meet Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong was quite happy today, after all, the Jiangnan Maritime Group also had the strength to threaten Zheng Zhilong's maritime status, and their bowing of their heads confirmed Zheng Zhilong's maritime supremacy.

Zheng Zhilong prepared delicious wine and food early in the morning, and more than 400 people from his henchmen and generals, Fujian, Jiangnan, and Guangdong gentry and celebrities happily attended the banquet.

However, while he was drinking happily, a lieutenant general Hong Xu, who was covered in dust and sweat, his hair was scattered, and he stumbled in and said in a trembling voice: "Lord Admiral, it's not good...... Oh no! ”

"What's wrong?"

"The fifth master (Zheng Zhibao) was defeated in Wusongkou and was seriously injured......"

Zheng Zhilong's hand shook, half a glass of wine spilled on his chest, and when he was sure that the other party was not joking with him, his anger erupted like magma, and the roar almost shattered the glass window that he had bought at a high price!

"How is this possible?"

Before the start of the war, although Zheng Zhilong did not do his best, he dispatched nearly one-third of the strength of the Zheng fleet, and he also received accurate information that the Ning Navy Navy had less than sixty warships, less than one-tenth of the fleet under Zheng Zhibao's command.

What's more, in order to deal with the newly built big ships of the Ning Navy, he also sent seven or eight hundred small fireships, as well as more than six thousand elite Xiaori warriors.

Zheng Zhilong knows very well that the army of the Ning Navy is not a wasted person, and the Ning Navy, which can crush Jiannu, is definitely stronger than the army under his command.

It can be said that Zheng Zhilong's preparation was very sufficient, and he did not despise Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun, but this result was difficult for Zheng Zhilong to accept.

He has already lost a younger brother Zheng Zhihu, and then lost a fifth brother, and he is sorry for his father.

Fortunately, Hong Yang told Zheng Zhilong that Zheng Zhibao was not in danger of life, but was disdainful of being hit by the blast wave of the explosion, and now a big mouth is open on half of the side, and the problem is not big, just eating will leak food.

Fortunately, Hong Xu made the results of the initial battle of Wusongkou clear to Zheng Zhilong, and in the Battle of Wusongkou, Zheng Zhibao lost more than 50 warships, including 27 blacktail ships, but the Xiaori warriors and more than 200 small pirate ships assigned to Zheng Zhibao were all wiped out.

Although this result was unacceptable, it made Zheng Zhilong breathe a sigh of relief, although the loss was not small, it was still within the acceptable range, after all, small ships were cannon fodder in Zheng Zhilong's eyes.

He doesn't have much else, it's a lot of cannon fodder, like that kind of small ship, he has more than 2,000 ships, and the loss of more than 200 is not painful, as for the 6,000 small day samurai, it is indeed a bit painful, after all, the small day samurai is a good dog, and it is easy to use. But the problem is that he can recruit more if he needs to.

The crux of the matter is that Zheng Zhilong's face can't hold it, and in the first fight, he was hit in the face by the Ning Navy, and the loss of more than 50 warships is secondary.

"How did they do it?"

Unlike land warfare, naval warfare can take advantage of favorable terrain or the carelessness of the opponent......

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong reacted, and he grabbed Hong Xu's collar: "How did this battle go?" ”

When Hong Xu 1510 told all the actions of Zheng Zhibao going north, Zheng Zhilong reacted, although Zheng Zhibao did not underestimate the enemy, but made the wrong strategy.

For the Ninghai Navy Naval Division, this kind of cutting-edge naval division, it cannot be a small-scale temptation, the current Ninghai Navy is a bit similar to the original Dutch, they have the same cannon more, the firing range is long, the same ship is big and strong, and the same warship is too few.

If he had used refueling tactics in the Battle of Liuluo Bay, he would have lost himself, not the Dutch. There is only one way to deal with Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun's sailors, that is, regardless of 3721, they directly rush up, take advantage of the large number of people and boats, and catch them off guard.

If Zheng Zhilong himself commanded the Battle of Wusongkou, he would not have directly set up a position to press all of them, but would use small fireships to block all the retreats of the Ning Navy Division, and directly come to a comprehensive encirclement, all-round attack, and all-round compression.

What Zheng Zhilong didn't expect was that he had just received the news of Zheng Zhibao's defeat, and these wall grasses who came to the banquet took the opportunity to retire!

"Lord Admiral, I suddenly remembered that there was something temporary at home, and the next time I sat in the east, I must invite Lord Zheng to have a good drink!"

"Lord Admiral, the concubine is about to give birth, and I am very worried, so I will retire first!"

"Lord Admiral, I feel unwell in the next occasion, and I have lost my compensation!"

"Lord Admiral, down ......"

As the first gentry to leave began to get up, in just a quarter of an hour, most of the people in the entire palatial hall had already left, leaving only the generals of the Zheng group and the local gentry in Fujian or Xiamen, who were too deeply connected with Zheng Zhilong, and there was no way to turn back.

Zheng Zhilong thought about the film, and finally realized the reason for Zheng Zhibao's failure, he waved his hand vigorously, and the celebrity gentry who were scared enough to choke on it were like amnesty, and they retired one after another.

Zheng Zhilong picked up the wine jug and poured half of the jug in one go, then slammed the flask on the floor, gasped fiercely, stared at the henchmen and generals, and let out an angry roar: "Cheer up, Lao Tzu is not dead yet, there is no need to cry and mourn!" Lao Tzu still has thousands of warships in his hands and hundreds of thousands of troops, so what if he loses the battle? You can still get back the lost face, isn't it just a lost battle, what's the big deal! ”

Zheng Zhilong's nephew Zheng Cai said: "Uncle, the fifth uncle may have underestimated those black skins and suffered a loss, and my nephew asked to bring two hundred ships and fifteen thousand elite soldiers to meet him, and he must take Wusongkou!" ”

Zheng Zhilong didn't get dizzy, and now sending another two hundred ships over would become a refueling tactic, which is really unwise.

Zheng Zhilong has not suffered a fiasco since he started his family, and this fiasco may even shake his prestige and change the attitude of the imperial court towards him!

Whether it is to save his prestige or simply to breathe a bad breath, he must achieve a big victory over the Ning Navy, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable!

The situation on Wusongkou's side is unknown, and besides, he has just been defeated there, I'm afraid that no one under his command still has the courage to lead a large army to counterattack Wusongkou.

Zheng Zhilong decided to stud, the main battleship led more than 600 ships, plus more than 1,000 small warships, once Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao meet, it will be more than 2,000 warships, nearly 40,000 sailors, such a powerful force, it should not be a problem to have fifty or sixty warships in the Daning Navy, right?

Zheng Zhilong didn't know that his loss had just begun.

Because the current main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy Division is no longer in Wusongkou, but on the vast sea, they are now using their own way to repay the other.

The more than 50 main warships of the Ning Navy Naval Division were divided into more than 50 warships that had already circled from the eastern line of the Dayuan Strait to the South China Sea, when Zheng Zhilong led the main fleet to the north.

Li Zhixiang led the main fleet of the Ning Navy into the Nanyang region.

A dozen cargo ships were sailing on the sea, loaded with silk and porcelain, which were going to be shipped to Batavia

This Batavia is not the Republic of Batavia, but Batavia, located in Java, which is now Jakarta, Indonesia.

After being transported to Batavia, the goods on these ships were sold to the Dutch, Portuguese, British, and Spaniards, and this is where the Dutch East India Company was very dissatisfied with Zheng Zhilong.

If the Dutch East India Company can monopolize the trade with the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong is willing to hand over all their goods to the Dutch East India Company to operate, and their Dutch East India Company will treat Zheng Zhilong as a hardcore ally, but the problem is that Zheng Zhilong also knows the truth of the big deception, he is using Batavia as a cargo distribution center and selling it to European countries.

Representatives set up an office in Batavia and obtained the right to purchase the goods by competitive bidding.

The speed of the main warships of the Ningbo Navy is between twelve and fourteen knots, which is simply fast compared to the cargo ships with a speed of eight or nine knots, and the warships of the Ning Navy are waiting for these merchant ships on the fairway.

"Discover the target, seventeen ships in total!"

"Catch up!"

Although the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, Li Zhixiang ordered: "Open the cannon, let them drop anchor, drop the sails, and be inspected!" ”

These merchant ships are naturally ships that have paid protection money to Zheng Zhilong, and when they saw the naval warships of the Ning Navy, they thought they were Zheng Zhilong's warships, after all, there were not a few large warships in Zheng Zhilong's hands, at least hundreds.

Zheng Zhilong's main battleship has three models, one is the imitation Galen ship, which is also known as the "junk ship" in foreign literature, which refers to Chinese sailing ships. These ships are well-built and massive. According to the diary of the city of Batavia, forty thousand pound franc machine guns were deployed on it. Twelve eighteen-pounder heavy naval guns, the firepower is quite strong.

There is also a plywood boat, the shape is similar to that of the Ninghai Division, this kind of plywood ship is 30 zhang long and about 6 zhang wide, which can be called a giant on the sea.

Soon, these seventeen ships were caught up by the Ning Navy sailors.

"Official, we've paid our taxes!"

"Open your dog's eyes wide and see clearly, we are Ning Haijun!"

"Official, it's good, let the little ones eat!"

"Okay, follow our boat to Luzon, or throw them all into the sea to feed the fish."

It is estimated that the Spaniards have never heard a sentence that it is easy to ask God and it is difficult to send God.

It was very easy for them to invite Ning Haijun into Dashi and Luzon, but the problem was that Ning Haijun came, so he would not leave.

The Spaniards were not stupid, they leased the dock to the Ning Navy, and the dock was within the coverage of the Manila Battery, which meant that the Spaniards could cover the dock with artillery fire at any time.

Moreover, the battleships of the Ning Navy arrived at the port of Manila and had to pay taxes to the Spaniards.

But the problem is that Cheng Shijie's money is not so easy to get.

(End of chapter)