Chapter 246

If it was in Liaodong in October, it would definitely be a cold wind howling and turning into ice. However, in the Java Sea, even in October, it still feels very hot. If it weren't for the rainstorms that came from time to time, the howling sea breeze had already brought a hint of coolness, and Cheng Shijie didn't know how to boil it.

On the Zhili, the giant shark-class battleship of the main fleet of the Ning Navy, Cheng Shijie looked at the lunch in front of him, which was luncheon meat, canned yellow peaches, plus canned braised mutton, canned beef, pickled radish strips, and several kinds of seafood.

No matter how delicious things are, there are times when they are tired of eating, Cheng Shijie was about to eat lunch, and Li Zhixiang reported to Cheng Shijie: "The Dutch are here!" ”

"I'm afraid I'm here for negotiations!"

Li Zhixiang said with a smile: "It seems that Li Weiluan has gained a foothold in Batavia!" ”

"Who knows!"

Cheng Shijie put down his chopsticks and said: "It's really a disappointment, and it's not safe to eat!" ”

"Maybe the Dutch are here to beg for peace!"

"Probably not, what I want, the Dutch will never give it!"

"If the Dutch plan to form an alliance with us to deal with the Zheng clan together, the marshal might as well make a fool of himself first, borrow their strength, and then settle accounts with them after the Zheng clan is eliminated!"

"No! It's more than enough to clean up the Zheng clan and my Ning Navy, and I don't need their help! If they dare to interfere, I'll kill them! ”

"Boss, it's just a stopgap measure......"

"Ben Shuai doesn't care! This is my bottom line, whoever dares to step on the boundary will clean up whoever is handsome! ”

Deal with the Dutch first, and then clean up Zheng Zhilong is Cheng Shijie wants to surrender to the Zheng family, deal with Zheng Zhilong first, Ning Navy will definitely suffer a lot of losses, to avoid Zheng Zhilong's death and destruction, even if Zheng Zhilong only has a few hundred warships left, as long as he escapes, he will play maritime guerrilla warfare with Cheng Shijie at sea, or sabotage warfare.

Then the battle will be endless, and it will give the Dutch a chance. You must know that the time when the Netherlands was truly independent was 1648, which was also the second year of Yongli in the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the key battle that laid the foundation for the rise of the Netherlands was the Battle of Downs, that is, the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

Now the imperial court has repeatedly asked Cheng Shijie to return to the capital, and Cheng Shijie's time in Nanyang is too long, and he can't stay like this forever.

The real reason why Emperor Chongzhen asked Cheng Shijie to return to the capital, Cheng Shijie is also very clear, the imperial court used Chen Qiyu as the squire of the military department, and the governors of Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan Zhulu military horses, and Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Yunyang, marched by land and water, surrounded and attacked the righteous army on all sides.

At first, Chen Qiyu vigorously recounted the serious situation of famine and peasant army swarming thousands of miles from Yanzhou, Yan'an to Yansui Zhencheng (Yulin). At this time, with the silver transported by Cheng Shijie and Gao Qiqian, as well as the three million stone grain transported by Liaodong, this made Emperor Chongzhen confident, and with a wave of his hand, he issued an edict to exempt the imperial court Tianfu in Yan'an and Qingyang areas that year.

The people of Shanxi, who were almost out of breath by the heavy taxes of the imperial court, finally breathed a sigh of relief, because Emperor Chongzhen sent someone to directly read the holy decree this time, almost all the people knew the news of tax exemption, so that the Shanxi refugees fled from the peasant army very much.

The battle to encircle and suppress the peasant army was very smooth, Yu Wangjiacha beheaded Wang Chenggong's department, and the deputy commander-in-chief Lu Wenshan exterminated and killed the leaders of the rebel army, such as Jieshan Hu, Liu Thief, Jinyinpeng and others.

Soon, Chen Qiyu sent guerrilla Chang Huaide to kill Xue Rengui, the leader of the rebel army; Dai Junen, who participated in politics, slashed a dragon, diamond diamond, mountain harrier, black god, tiger among people, five Hades, and flew immediately; Du Si He Sixian beheaded Wang Denghuai; inspect Luo Shengchu and cut the red wolf and fly all over the sky; Zhang Bojing, who participated in politics, beheaded the full goose, captured Huang Shenyao, and flew across the ditch.

garrison Yan Shiheng beheaded Zhang Cong, Fan Dengke, Fan Jirong, a piece of iron, a green-backed wolf, a pangolin, an old general, a second general, a starry sky, and a mountain tiger; slash the tiger with Bai Shixiang; garrison Guo Jincheng to cut the tiger on the ground and fly in the sky; Garrison Guo Tai slashed the jumping tiger, the new general, the roll on the spot, the little yellow warbler, and the rabbit on the day; Guerrilla Luo Shixun beheaded Jia, forced to the sky, and the little red flag.

The other generals beheaded the grass flying on the grass, a tiger, a winged flying, a cloud hand, the four heavenly kings, and a one-tailed wolf, and the leaders of the peasant armies of all walks of life were basically exterminated.

Under Chen Qiyu's encirclement and suppression tactics from all sides, Chen Qiyu himself led the deputy commander-in-chief Yang Hualin and Liu Guozhen to be stationed in Yangxian County to prevent the rebel army from fleeing eastward; He also sent a letter to Lian Guoshi, Lu Xiangsheng, and Xuan Mo, asking them to guard the key areas and intercept the enemy to prevent escape.

It can be said that the peasant army will be severely damaged, if not completely annihilated. In history, it was precisely because Jiannu attacked Datong and broke through the border that Emperor Chongzhen was frightened that Chen Qiyu fell short.

It's just a pity, even if there is no Jiannu to make trouble, Chen Qiyu wants to be greedy for great merit and recruit Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others, so that he has become a famous general in the Ming Dynasty.

Well, in fact, Chen Qiyu's greed was also forced out by Cheng Shijie, because Cheng Shijie's credit was too great, the civil officials were pressed by Cheng Shijie, and the Xungui group, which had been suppressed by the civilian officials for a long time, also faintly raised its head.

Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, was given the crown prince and the prince, and led the Left Army Governor's Mansion and the Prime Minister Jingying, Chen Qiyu was pushed out by the civil official group, replacing Lu Xiangsheng, and was prepared to be packaged as a Confucian general.

As a result, the joke got bigger. When the imperial court was preparing to play the crown and celebrate the death of this peasant army, Gao Yingxiang broke through from Baoji and entered Guanzhong, Gongchang, Pingliang, Lintao, and Fengxiang Prefectures and counties, defeated He Renlong, Zhang Tianli's army, and killed Lu Menglong, the entire Guanzhong and Northwest collapsed instantly.

Emperor Chongzhen issued three holy decrees in a row to let Cheng Shijie return to the capital.

In this case, Cheng Shijie actually doesn't have much time, although it is said that Li Zhixiang can be left to continue fighting, but the problem is that it involves foreign-related diplomatic work, and Cheng Shijie has no way to fake other people in this regard, Xie Jinglin has more than enough opportunities, but he lacks a sense of the overall situation.

Forget the command, but there is nothing that can be taken out, and there is a great talent who can stand alone.

At this time, the warship on guard had already sailed over with a small boat flying the Dutch flag high, and because the bridge was too small, there was no way to build a trestle, so it could only climb the rope ladder to get on board.

As the negotiator this time, it was Sidney, the former director of the Batavia Port Authority, who came to the Beizhili with Xie Jinglin.

As soon as he boarded the ship, he was impressed by the amazing size and spacious deck of the Hoknaoli. This is not a compliment, the Netherlands is an old maritime power, the shipbuilding industry is very developed, the technology is also very advanced, and they can tell at a glance whether a warship is good or bad.

Obviously, the design of the Beizhili is very advanced, and the construction technology is very superb, and even the guys of the old maritime power are impressed by it.

"Meet the commander!"

"It's been a hard journey!"

Sidney looked at Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie was wearing a purple official robe at this time, however, this official robe was worn on Cheng Shijie, it looked a little out of place, Sidney had gone to Quanzhou with the caravan and had seen the officials of the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Shijie was not as serious as the Ming officials that Sidney had seen, and he did not have the solemnity of those Ming officials.

Cheng Shijie and Xie Jinglin chatted about family life, seemingly a little careless, in a diplomatic occasion, this is somewhat rude, several members of the Dutch diplomatic mission who came with Sidney, their faces are a little unnatural, it should not be said that it is unnatural, it should be said that their faces are also more ugly than the other.

Sidney found out that the duke's attaché team actually had dozens of people! And these people are all neat in military uniforms and with quick steps, and they turn out to be the appearance of a small army!

Unlike the Dutch army, Cheng Shijie's personal troops did not actually use firearms, but armor and cold weapons, and if there was a difference, each of them had four defensive grenades hanging from their waists, two of which were smoke grenades.

In addition to grenades, each person is armed with a shield and a revolver, although this pistol is larger compared to a regular revolver.

Sidney bowed to Cheng Shijie and said, "Duke, I'm so glad to see you!" ”

In an exaggerated tone, Sid continued: "Your Excellency, I must admit that your craftsman has built you an extremely powerful warship!" If you can have a hundred of these ships, you will become the overlord of the seas! ”

"I'm working in that direction...... So far I only have six warships of this class, and I am still ninety-four short! ”

Cheng Shijie said very politely: "You have worked so hard to come here, do you just want to see my warship?" If you have something to say, if you have a fart, I still have to go to war, and I don't have time to rub it off! ”

Sidney saw that Cheng Shijie was very unaccustomed to speaking in a straightforward manner, according to the way the Europeans talked, Cheng Shijie should follow their words and brag about his warships, by the way, talk to them about the development status and future direction of the world's shipbuilding industry, and then talk to them about today's weather, and finally drink a few cups of tea, and then enter the topic without a trace, so as to appear elegant......

Cheng Shijie is good, he went straight to the point in less than three sentences!

Sidney squeezed out a smile and said, "Your Excellency, as you expected, we have been ordered to come here and have important matters to discuss. ”

"Yes! Go ahead! ”

"We carry the sincerity of peace!"

"Where is your sincerity?"

"Zheng Zhilong's pirates have been rampant in the South China Sea for more than ten years, and the maritime merchants and coastal residents of Guangdong and Fujian who took this route have been poisoned, and even those of us who have worked so hard to come to Asia to do business cannot be plundered and killed by them, and we all hate him to the core......

"If you talk nonsense like this again, Ben Shuai will throw you into the sea and get to the point!"

Sidney said: "Don't hide it from Your Excellency the Duke, although the number of our warships is not much, but the speed is fast and the firepower is fierce, one can beat ten of the Zheng family, and one of our soldiers can beat ten of them, under our two-sided attack, even if the Zheng family has the ability to reach the sky, it will not last long!" ”

"The debts you owe have not been paid off, and it is impossible to cooperate with you!"

Xie Jinglin said in a round game: "Handsome, it is easy to solve the problem and it is not easy to settle the ......"

Cheng Shijie said lightly: "Ben Shuai is a peace-loving person, if it weren't for the fact that the Dutch slaughtered the Chinese in Nanyang and seized the Chengfeng, Ben Shuai would not have been able to send troops at all!" ”

Not only did Sidney not believe this, but in fact even Xie Jinglin and Li Zhixiang did not believe it, the Luzon incident was really not a big problem, but the five Spanish soldiers did not give money to eat and beat the hotel guys.

This matter will not cause a war in any country, at best it will only punish the parties, as the so-called forest is big, there are all kinds of birds, even if any king does not dare to guarantee that his subjects are high-level talents.

But the problem is that Cheng Shi dispatched the army, and directly sent troops in the face of a negotiated solution, although it was claimed that Cheng Shi acted recklessly, but the problem is that everyone seems to have received Cheng Shijie's direct instructions.

Now the same is true of the problem in Batavia...... It's just that Cheng Shijie's sincerity in negotiating at the beginning was insufficient, and the conditions put forward were a bit excessive in Xie Jinglin's opinion.

Of course, Cheng Shijie couldn't admit it, he smiled faintly: "I will retry again, although our Ming Dynasty has a population of 20,000, but none of our Ming Empire's subjects are superfluous, our Ming Dynasty has always loved peace, you have also seen that our Ming Empire has never taken the initiative to attack you, but the problem is that you Dutch, entrenched in the East Indies, rely on the East India to maintain a luxurious life in the country, you unscrupulously slaughter our Ming people, and suppress our ships, If the Dutch are strong, then forget it, hehe, please forgive me for my presumptuousness, the current world is the law of the jungle, and only with strength can you have a matching status! ”

Sidney didn't know how to answer Cheng Shijie's words.

Everyone understands the truth of the law of the jungle, but no one has brought it to the table for public discussion, Cheng Shijie can be regarded as tearing the veil of warmth under international law, what colonial system, what Three Emperors Alliance, all are naked interests.

In Ming really watched the Dutch occupy the East Indies indifferently?

Don't be funny, it's just that the Ming Empire has begun to go downhill since the change of Tumubao, and the domestic and external troubles have been involved in most of the energy, and there is no spare strength to deal with the Dutch.

Why did Emperor Wanli resist the Japanese and aid the dynasty?

To put it bluntly, it is also the interests of national strategic security, how can others be allowed to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?

Now the Dutch East India Company is not strong enough, in the largest Dutch East India Company, which once accounted for half of the world's trade volume, the British East India Company, once controlled the whole of India, and the Opium War was provoked by the British East India Company.

Cheng Shijie naturally cannot negotiate directly with Sidney, his identity is not equal.

When Sidney left, Xie Jinglin asked frankly in front of Cheng Shijie: "Dashuai, what is your purpose?" ”

"I don't think Sumatra, and half of Batavia's port control, and things like the Wind, can't come up again!!"

The Strait of Malacca is so important that if the East Indies lose the island of Sumatra, then the East Indies will lose control of the Strait of Malacca, which is absolutely unacceptable to the Dutch.

If in the past, Xie Jinglin really didn't know the importance of Sumatra, but now he knows, he said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid the Dutch don't agree, it's absolutely impossible for them to accept this condition!" ”

"That's okay, I know the Dutch won't accept it, but the Dutch will face reality sooner or later, but when the Ninghai Navy Division controls the entire island of Sumatra, the commander's request will no longer be limited to Sumatra."

Cheng Shijie is ambitious, a Sumatra island is definitely not enough to satisfy Cheng Shijie's greed for land, this time and space, Cheng Shijie will never allow some disgusting things to happen.

In fact, the Dutch East India Company was a company disguised as a state, and the Konin Navy was likewise a country disguised as an army.

For external expansion, Cheng Shijie will not ask the imperial court for instructions, and Cheng Shijie also has absolute control.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to have a colony stronger than its own strength, even if Britain later became an empire on which the sun never sets, but Britain has far less military strength than Britain itself among all its colonies in the world. The current empire of the sun never sets, Spain, is also stronger than the colonies, and it also adopts the traditional way of ancient China, which is strong and weak.

It was precisely because of the strong and strong branches adopted by the Spanish Empire that the Dutch East India Company was able to easily seize the large number of people from Spain, with an area of more than 35,000 square kilometers, and all the Spaniards together were less than 1,500 people, and the entire Luzon of more than 108,000 square kilometers had no more than 5,000 Spaniards.

In Batavia alone, there were more than 20,000 Dutch people, and counting the entire East India Company, the number of Dutch people exceeded 65,000, plus the Dutch East Indies colonial army of more than 100,000 people, and the entire Dutch army did not have 100,000 men.

In the face of Cheng Shijie's conditions, the Dutch East India Company naturally could not agree, but the problem is that the support that the local government can give to the Dutch East India Company is very limited, you must know that the Dutch Navy at this time can exceed 10,000 people, and all the warships combined, even if they are counted as small warships of three or four hundred tons, there are no more than 100.

As for the main warships, there were no less than fifty, and in order to cope with the pressure of the Spanish Armada, they had to transfer warships from the Dutch East India Company and return to the mainland to fight.

Brewer can only pin his hopes on Zheng Zhilong now.

Zheng Zhilong's war experience in sending troops, as soon as he opened his mouth, it was one million guilders, which was equivalent to 20 million pounds, and the sea monarch class could build more than fifty ships.

"Give it, give it to him, but we can't take out so much money for a while, we can take the way of installments and pay it in ten years!"

Brewer looked at Putmans and asked, "What else does Zheng Zhilong want?" ”

Putmans smiled bitterly and said, "Zheng Zhilong hopes that we can bring up 30,000 muskets for him!" ”

"This is impossible, we can provide fifteen thousand at most!"

"In addition, he also hopes that we can build a battleship for him, a seven-level warship!"

"Yes, the battleships of the seven provinces are very expensive! In total, we in the Netherlands do not yet have a hundred seven-provincial warships! ”

"He already knows this problem!"

Brewer thought for a moment and said, "Tell Zheng Zhilong that each of the seven provincial warships of our Kingdom of the Netherlands needs twenty-five thousand guilders!" ”

Of course, this value is multiplied by ten with the actual cost of the factory in Brewer's mind.

This means that one million guilders can build forty provincial battleships for free.

"Also, he wants a port!"

"Where?"

Although the Dutch are also very greedy for land, the problem is that under the persecution of strong enemies, they have no choice and can only accept Zheng Zhilong's blackmail.

"Subic Harbor!"

Brewer thought for a moment and said, "Isn't Subic Harbor in his hands?" ”

"Zheng Zhilong wants us to recognize his position in Luzon. Allow them to settle and do business in Luzon freely, and give them the power to collect taxes and collect strong men in Luzon, and we will be inclined to do everything we can to help us destroy Cheng Shijie! ”

Brewer didn't have a seizure, the covenant was a piece of paper, and it could be torn up at any time when the strength of both sides changed radically.

The Covenant will only be effective if the two sides are about the same strength. Just like when Maurice of Nassau led the Dutch to defeat the Spaniards, but the Dutch did not have the strength to defeat Spain in an all-round way, and Spain also signed a "Twelve-Year Truce" agreement with the Netherlands because it needed time to adjust its strategic deployment.

Zheng Zhilong's strength is not as fast as the strength of the Dutch East Indies, and they will definitely fight again in the future.

Brewer looked at Putmans and said, "I agree in principle, but a supplementary agreement must be signed!" ”

"Supplemental agreement?"

"Yes!"

"Let Zheng Zhilong help us gain a foothold in India!"

Brewer said: "You know, India is still the first thing we discovered, the damn British and French are unruly, bent on squeezing us out of India, this thing, absolutely not!" ”

"I'm afraid they won't agree!"

"He will agree, you can tell Zheng Zhilong, if we help us occupy India, we will give Tamil to him!"

Tamil Pradesh is a state in southern India, bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south, Sri Lanka across the Bay of Bengal to the east, Karnataka and Kerala to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the north. The area of Tamil is about 130,000 and 58 square kilometers, which is almost equivalent to four large people.

The problem is that the main inhabitants of Tamil Nadu are Tamils, and the people are fierce, and the Dutch have launched two attacks on Tamil, without exception, all of them have failed and returned home.

At the same time as negotiating with Zheng Zhilong, Brewer also wrote a letter to the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch king, of course, asking for help, asking the Kingdom of the Netherlands to support more warships and more sailors in the Dutch East Indies.

As for whether the King of the Netherlands and the Board of Directors of the Dutch East India Company could draw more troops and warships for him, it was not his concern.

When Shi Daxuan brought back the Dutch and agreed to his request, Zheng Zhilong was very depressed at this time.

Before Zheng Zhilong fought with Cheng Shijie, he was the king of the South Seas, with more than 3,000 warships stretching for dozens of miles, and the flag covering the sea, how majestic?

However, after three battles with the Ning Navy, there were only about 2,000 of his warships left, although it was still a huge force, however, what made Zheng Zhilong vomit blood was that the supply line of the Ning Navy was originally extended, which could attack the long supply line of the Ning Navy, thereby weakening the combat effectiveness of the Ning Navy and forcing Cheng Shijie to return to the rear supply line.

But the problem is that it is not easy to attack the supply line of the Ning Navy, and the pirates who originally obeyed Zheng Zhilong's words did not listen to his command, but instead reported to the Ning Navy.

This time he deliberately opened his mouth and put forward very excessive conditions to the Dutch, but the Dutch actually agreed, and they agreed to pay for the cost of sending troops of one million guilders.

Now Zheng Zhilong has a headache, with the defeat of the Ning Navy in three battles, the pirates under his command dare not attack the black flagship of the Ning Navy. This is already the most dangerous signal.

Zheng Zhilong is now sure that there are many people who want to use his head to ask Cheng Shijie for credit.

(End of chapter)