Chapter 243

The details of the negotiations between Ning Haijun and the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, Zheng Zhilong will definitely not know, of course, even if Zheng Zhilong knows, it will not make any sense, neither Ning Haijun nor the Dutch will care about Zheng Zhilong's attitude.

While Xie Jinglin and Brewer were negotiating, three large armed merchant ships flying the golden lion flag slowly sailed into the port of Batavia.

The city of Venice is now a small Europa powerhouse, as they are at war with the Ottoman Navy, an ally of the Spanish Empire, and fundamentally an ally of the Dutch.

What's more, the Venetians were not interested in colonies outside the Mediterranean, first of all, Venice was too small in population and had no way to participate in colonization, and in the face of the Ottoman Empire's crazy attack, Venice barely supported it.

The Dutch East India Company punched Spain, kicked Portugal, and dominated the East, but gave the green light to the Venetian fleet.

Seeing that these three weapon merchant ships were wearing gun suits, they had no attitude to fight.

The Dutch warships patrolling the bay of Batavia were allowed to go without even checking the mountaineering vessels. These three armed merchant ships of more than 1,200 tons entered the port without any problems.

Sidney Streich, the Dutch head of the port, a tax officer of the Dutch East India Company, came to the dock with several retinues and more than a dozen tax officials.

At the berth, the trestle has just been erected. Paul, the commander of the Venetian fleet, was the first to step off the ship, but just behind Paul, a group of steel helmets and hideous steel masks appeared on their faces, revealing only two eye sockets, shoulders, chest, arms, and legs...... Are covered tightly with a large solitary steel plate, the cuirass is simply a whole solitary steel plate, due to the increasing maturity of hydraulic stamping machine tools, can process larger components, the original kind of six steel plate connected to form the cuirass has been eliminated.

These hoplites were covered from head to toe under thick steel plates, and every step they took made a terrifying clanging sound, which, combined with the heavy and sharp Mo's knives in their hands, was truly chilling.

Sidney realized that something was wrong, and hurriedly stretched out his hand and said, "My friend, can you tell me who these are?" ”

Paul raised his hands and smiled bitterly at Sidney: "I'm very sorry, my friend, it's none of our business, we were kidnapped by them, and as their prisoners, we had to obey their orders...... We are forced! ”

By the time the Dutch East India Company's troops discovered the uninvited guests, more than 2,600 hoplites from the Jumping Battalion of the Naval Wing had already occupied the port.

Sidney looked at the hoplites in front of him and was dumbfounded: "What are they doing here?" ”

Paul shrugged: "Who knows, why don't you go and ask......"

"Oh God, this joke isn't funny at all!"

Sidney yelled, "Damn it, stop them......"

More than 100 Dutch East Indies colonial policemen were then ordered, armed with batons, shields, and muskets, and rushed towards the hoplites of the Ning Navy.

"Stop, stop, stop, if we don't stop, we're going to shoot!"

Li Weiluan, who led the team on the expedition, said lightly: "I don't understand what bird language to say, or I speak Chinese, I need to find a translator!" ”

"Don't get me wrong, we don't mean it badly!"

Sidney watched more and more soldiers from the Ning Navy Jumping Battalion disembark from the armed merchant ships, and he was a little anxious: "Sorry, we have no ill intentions!" ”

Sidney actually knows Chinese, and is biased towards southern dialects, such as Hokkien or Cantonese, of course, he will also say that Sidney is a talent, proficient in Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English, if you count the three dialects, he is a talent who is proficient in eight languages.

Sidney raised his hands and raised them to show that he was unarmed, "I just wanted to ask, what do you want to do?" "Who are you?" We don't need your approval for what we do. ”

Li Weiluan said unceremoniously: "I am Li Weiluan, the general of the jumping battalion of the advance team of the Ning Navy, and I now officially inform you that this general is officially taking over this place on the order of the Duke of Haiguo until he receives the order to leave." Now please leave our harbor with your men, and of course, you can choose to defeat us. We will take military action in an hour, and in an hour you will be attacked if you are still here. ”

"No, you can't do this, Batavia is our Dutch territory, you are launching a military attack on a sovereign state, you must stop your actions......"

Sidney was not intimidated, and was finally able to argue with reason.

"Sir, please make it clear, I'm not talking to you, I'm informing you that you only have two choices now, fight or leave!"

In the Dutch Governor's Palace, Brewer, who was negotiating with Xie Jinglin, soon received a sneak attack by the Ning Navy soldiers and landed directly in Batavia.

Brewer's face changed drastically, he slapped the table and said, "Mr. Xie, you ...... You guys are so shameless! ”

"Shameless?"

Xie Jinglin smiled faintly: "Compared to you Dutch, we are still far behind, you Dutch take despicable and shameless methods, wantonly slaughter unarmed Chinese, including those babies under the age of one, calling you beasts, it is an insult to beasts!" ”

"I have to declare that the negotiations are broken!"

Brewer now has no way back, and if he compromises, the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company will remove him, and even initiate impeachment proceedings against him, and he may be sent to court-martial.

If it was an attack on the Commanders, or Medan, including Malacca, then the Dutch would have no choice, but the problem was that Batavia was the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and it was also the place where the largest number of troops were garrisoned, with more than 6,000 elite Dutch soldiers, including 2,000 cavalry, which was a decisive force.

To say that the Ning Navy has a numerical advantage in terms of warships, but the army, the Dutch are really not afraid of the Ning Navy, after all, the vanguard of the Ning Navy adopted a sneak attack and only came to more than 4,000 people.

The Dutch had not only 6,000 Dutch soldiers in Batavia, but also more than 40,000 indigenous armed men, and these indigenous armies were organized into 26 regiments. More crucially, the Batavian Dutch had absolute superiority in naval power, with six third-class warships and more than thirty-five armed merchant ships.

"In my capacity as Governor of the Dutch East Indies, I order that all personnel in Batavia, including civilians, be issued muskets and ready for battle! Using the materials at hand to strengthen the fortifications as much as possible, we must give the Ming soldiers a head-on blow and let them recognize the reality! ”

As a result, Debaul led a combined fleet of forty-one warships and armed merchant ships to leave the port first and disperse to find traces of the warships of the Ning Navy.

In Debaul's view, if only more than 4,000 army soldiers had no chance of occupying the whole of Batavia without sea dominance, the Ning navy used the Venetian merchant ships to attack Batavia, and the greatest possibility was that while they were dealing with this death squad with all their might, they would suddenly appear and block all the Dutch warships in the harbor.

Losing the advantage of maneuverability at sea, the battleship hiding in the harbor is just a live target, which is simply fatal for the Navy.

With the order of the governor Breuer, the Dutch of Batavia. Soldiers, merchants, farmers, slave owners and workers, religious and even prostitutes, as long as they could afford to carry guns, were all equipped with muskets, and they drove away the people and strengthened the fortifications.

In all fairness, the jumping battalion, as the main landing personnel, was not equipped with heavy equipment, and the number of artillery was very small, at least much less than that of the Dutch.

Ning Haijun's style is the same as Cheng Shijie's character, a vigorous and resolute style, once he is ready, he will attack with a thunderous momentum, and go straight to the enemy's base camp, without looking at how the enemy responds.

This time it was the same, when the Dutch were hurriedly deploying troops, the fleet led by Cheng Shijie had already passed through the Jakarta Islands in the Hama Java Sea, and there was only one step away from Kuava Island.

The port of Batavia is a natural harbor in the world, and when the Dutch dominated the South Seas, they made great efforts to operate the port of Batavia, built many port facilities here, and settled in immigrants from the country, and stationed some troops.

Even at the most critical moment of the decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong, Cheng Shijie decided to put the Netherlands first and then Zheng Zhilong because of the massacre of the Batavian Chinese.

Zheng Zhilong in the eyes of Cheng Shijie, is rotten meat in the pot, at most by December of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the main warships of the Ning Navy can exceed 100, of course, counting the sunken loss of warships, the main warships of the Ning Navy can also exceed 97, if it is April of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the Ning Navy will have eight strike fleets.

It can be said that the more time passes, the greater the advantage of the Ning Navy, and the terrifying production capacity of the Ning Navy is feared even by the Dutch, let alone Zheng Zhilong?

In the final analysis, war is still fought by the economy, and it is fought by national strength.

With the strength of the naval division of the Ning Navy, the combined fleet of the Dutch East India Company has sufficient strength, which is the problem of Europa that Cheng Shijie fully considers.

With the fall of the Spanish Empire, the Dutch will succeed in rising, but Spain lost too quickly, which is not in the interests of Cheng Shijie, who is now trying to weaken the strength of the Dutch as much as possible, and can be regarded as indirectly helping the Spaniards.

If the Spaniards are smart enough, they will really negotiate peace with Cheng Shijie and divide Luzon Island equally, Cheng Shijie is actually willing, after all, even if Luzon is given to Cheng Shijie now, Cheng Shijie does not have enough manpower to occupy it, as long as the strength is enough, he can occupy as many landlords as he wants.

The Ning Navy obviously attracted the Zheng fleet to Fujian, and then when it passed through the waters of Penghu, it immediately turned south, bypassed Taiping Island, and went straight to Batavia, which can be said to be Cheng Shijie's blitzkrieg.

This kind of lightning offensive is relatively rare in the history of European warfare, and it was played by Alexander and Caesar, and by Stirrico, the last famous general of Western Rome. Stirrico had led an army of 10,000 men to travel 500 kilometers in eight days through the Gallic mountains, and the Gallic barbarians had just raised their anti-flag before he was already in the city.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the European war model was basically to make an appointment with the time and place after everyone appeared on the battlefield together, the whole team, the knights were heads-up, the peasants and soldiers were in a melee, and they went back to their homes after the fight, and each found their mother.

The Mongol invasion taught the Europeans the power of blitzkrieg, and the Mongol cavalry swept through the continent like a whirlwind, so much so that the Europeans fearfully called these Mongol knights "Yellow Devils". It was not until more than a hundred years later, when a short man of a little more than one meter and a half was born, that Europeans had a master of strategy who could play blitzkrieg for the first time after the end of the classical era.

Cheng Shijie once carefully checked the Thirty Years War in Europa, if this war was to let him stand in the position of Spain and command, the Thirty Years War would not need to be fought for 30 years at all, just like World War II and World War I, the winner and the loser would be determined in just a few years.

The crux of the matter is that the Spanish Empire had strong allies, and it was not necessary at all, and it was against more than twenty countries alone, although these countries were small, and ants could gnaw at elephants to death.

In fact, among the anti-Spanish alliances, Sweden contributed the most, followed by the Netherlands, and the Spanish Empire should first kill the Netherlands, and then clean up Sweden, as for France and Prussia, they don't care about it at all, and when they come up with internal quarrels, I'm afraid the war will be over.

Cheng Shijie decided to teach the Dutch a lesson first, and just six hours after Debaul's fleet went to sea, the battleships of the Ning Navy appeared in front of them.

Relying on the speed advantage of the main battleship of the Ning Navy, behind him is the combined fleet of the Netherlands and Zheng Zhilong, but if Zheng Zhilong wants to reach Batavia, it will take at least three days, and three days is enough for Cheng Shijie to finish the Dutch combined fleet.

Seeing the Ning Navy's fleet pressing over like a dense dark cloud, Debaul looked sluggish: "Didn't you say that the Ning Navy's fleet fought Zheng Zhilong in the South China Sea?" They defeated Zheng Zhilong so quickly? Zheng Zhilong is too wasteful, right? ”

Now Debaul almost wanted to cry, if it wasn't for the stupid pig-like governor who ordered to give Ning Haijun a color, how could there be such a catastrophe?

Now what?

Even if you want to fight a decisive battle with the Ning Navy, then you must first gather the Dutch East India Fleet scattered around the world, right? But the problem is that now two-thirds of the fleet of the Dutch East India Company is in the field, and it cannot be assembled at all.

How will this battle be fought?

Although it is said that in the era of sail warships, there is not much difference between warships and armed merchant ships, in fact, the difference is quite large, first of all, the speed, the purpose of warships is to fight, speed and maneuverability are the primary goals, while armed merchant ships pursue greater cargo capacity, and the speed is more economical, so the speed of warships will definitely be faster than that of armed merchant ships.

They now only have six third-class warships, but they have thirty-five armed merchant ships, how can this battle be fought?

You must know that their armed merchant ships are barely making do when fighting pirates, and there is no way to really fight a naval battle.

Although it is said that Debaul can only fight hard, in fact, it will take at least two or three hours to find it from the sight and then approach the Ning Navy, after all, the distance within ten kilometers is only two knots of speed difference, and it will take three or four hours to catch up.

The first battle was fought in the West Port area of the port of Batavia.

"It's time!"

Li Weiluan said loudly: "Attack, target battery!" ”

If the Ning Navy attacked the port batteries in Batavia, it would take more than half a day, and even the losses of several or a dozen warships would have to be fought together, but the problem was that it would be much easier for the army to attack the batteries.

After all, the artillery of the battery was aimed at the sea, and if it wanted to turn around and attack, the dock would not be able to complete this job in a short time.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Brewer was having dinner when a violent explosion came from the battery.

"What's going on?"

"There was an explosion in the battery......"

Before the officer could finish speaking, Brewer's complexion changed greatly, he threw off his napkin and rushed out of the governor's palace, looking in the direction of the fort, and sure enough, he saw two black pillars of smoke wrapped in flames rushing high, and there were continuous explosions under the pillars of smoke, and the expanding flames pushed the two columns of smoke higher, making them look even more spectacular.

He didn't need to send anyone to check on him, and he knew that the two forts, which had placed sixteen powerful large-caliber cannons to block the waterways of the Batavia Chirion estuary, had been blown up into the sky, and that they had worked so hard to build the forts of the Dutch East India Company!

Most of these steel bars and cement were purchased from Liaodong.

Brewer roared angrily: "Are all the guys in the fort deaf and blind? Nothing happens? I'm going to hang those bastards! ”

Brewer really wronged the defenders of the battery, and they were always on the lookout. The problem was that the elite infantry of the Jumping Battalion had been acting as bait to attract the attention of the Dutch defenders, but the problem was that the Jumping Battalion was just on the docks, using sandbags to set up the defensive line, and seemed to be ready to hold on.

And the soldiers of the Ning Navy who were responsible for attacking the fort were actually the reconnaissance detachment of the Ning Navy, and they arrived in Batavia earlier than the jumping battalion, but had come to Batavia three days earlier.

After Batavia, they contacted the Li family in Batavia, although it was said that the Li family was slaughtered more than 300 people, but such a big family, in fact, is not so easy to be uprooted, as the so-called emaciated camel is bigger than a horse, living under the nose of the Dutch, how can these Chinese not guard against being exterminated?

There were actually only forty-eight of these scouts, and they were disguised as labor, and were responsible for cleaning the Dutch garbage and cleaning the barracks, and because of their diligence, thirteen of them were left to work in the fort and also to maintain the artillery.

Of course, it is not that the Dutch are too vigilant, but that the Chinese in Batavia have always been very cowardly, usually very good bullies, in the eyes of the Dutch, they are little sheep, and tigers have never been afraid of little sheep.

In this way, before they attacked, after receiving Li Weiluan's signal, they ignited the gunpowder of the Dutch on the fort, and with two booms, they detonated a large number of black powder and flowering shells stored in the Dutch, which exploded earth-shattering.

Brewer stared in the direction of the fort, only to see the flames rising into the sky, and he let out a depressed roar.

Now he was certain that he had been the victim of a well-planned, coordinated attack, and that Ning Haijun had unbelievably destroyed the fort without alarming anyone.

Without the defense of the battery, and the fleet is not in the port, the fate can be imagined.

"Damn the Ming people, they're so cunning! You know that sneak attacks, no chivalry at all! ”

Brewer angrily accused Ning's attack of lacking chivalry, but he seemed to forget that the behavior of white immigrants in the Americas, Africa, and Asia when they colonized had nothing to do with the word "chivalric demeanor", but was somewhat similar to the devil!

Of course, as a gentleman, it is understandable to selectively forget something, and besides, a good memory is useful, can you repel the menacing Ning Haijun?

"Order the army to dispatch and immediately retake the West Harbor and recapture the battery!"

In fact, Brewer's idea was too naïve, attacking the port defended by more than 4,000 Ning naval officers to see if they had enough lives to fill it.

The Dutch also realized that if they did not recapture the batteries and drive the landed Ning Navy and Army out into the sea, they would be doomed.

(End of chapter)