Chapter 248

Almost most of the warships of the Zheng fleet were relieved, rushed to be the first, and hoisted the white flag with lightning speed, for fear that the Ning Navy would regret and not accept their surrender.

In fact, this can't blame them for not being brave enough, the war on the sea can rarely be changed with courage, the warships of the Ning Navy are faster than them, which means that it is not a good idea to escape, this battle can't be fought at all, and even can't escape, why continue to carry the death and let the family be slaughtered as pigs?

After receiving Cheng Shijie's order, the naval division of the Ning Navy stopped the attack, some of the warships escorted the surrendered battleships to Coconut City Port, and the other part put down the boats and began to rescue the sailors who fell into the sea, seeing that they did not intend to kill them all, Zheng Daxuan, Song Fuguo and others secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and also broke off the last trace of thought, be a prisoner honestly, this is a good thing for him and his subordinates!

The number of battleships surrendered was actually not much, only one hundred and sixty-four. In other words, in a short engagement, nearly two hundred warships were sunk by the Ning Navy, and such an efficiency makes people shudder.

At best, there will be no more than four dozen warships that have escaped with Zheng Zhilong, and it can be said that Zheng Zhilong has lost the opportunity to make a comeback.

With the launch of the Ning Navy's rescue operation to rescue the sailors who fell into the water, this sea battle that attracted national attention came to an end.

In this naval battle, Zheng Zhilong bet on most of his belongings, and none of the six hundred and four warships with the most firepower and the strongest defensive ability were left, and all of them went into battle, while the naval division of the Ning Navy was also elite, and the sixty-eight battleships that could continue to fight were all put into battle, killing flesh and blood.

This is a naval battle that seems to have a huge disparity in strength, but in fact it is even more disparity, which can be regarded as a duel between the classical navy and the modern navy in East Asia, and the results of the battle also proved that the classical navy could not compete with the modern navy even if it had a tenfold advantage, and in the fierce contest, the Ning Navy had to give up after 15 warships were severely damaged, and more than 1,600 sailors were killed or wounded, which really made Cheng Shijie heartbroken.

But compared with Zheng Zhilong, his loss is not worth mentioning, one hundred and sixty of Zheng Zhilong's six hundred and four warships surrendered to the boarding sailors in despair, and only thirty-eight of them were ordered to escape with him, that is to say, more than 320 warships were reimbursed by the Ning Navy in a battle, 15,000 sailors were killed in the belly of the fish, and more than 20,000 people became prisoners.

"What? Zheng Zhilong was defeated again? ”

In the Dutch East India Governor's Mansion in Batavia, Brewer's eyes were round, and he stared at the spies who came back to report in disbelief, he looked like he wanted to eat people!

"Yes! Zheng Zhilong disappeared after the defeat, more than 100 main warships of the Zheng fleet, and nearly 20,000 people were captured by the Ning Navy, this battle, the Ning Navy won ......"

"No!"

Brewer let out a roar of rage, and kicked over the coffee table made of rosewood, and the tea set on the coffee table was so exquisite, that even the royal family and nobles in Europe did not necessarily have this blessing to enjoy the tea set rolled to the ground and fell to pieces.

Brewer had no time to feel sorry for the terrible loss he had unintentionally caused, and his whole body burst into terrifying rage, roaring angrily, and dropping several expensive tableware in a row.

"Damn Zheng Zhilong, why did he lose so quickly?"

Brewer didn't think about it at all, he himself ordered the Dutch combined fleet to avoid fighting, relying on the Zheng fleet to fight with the Ning Navy, although the Zheng group fought several battles with the Ning Navy, but all failed, although the Zheng family has a lot of capital, but lost the confidence to order the war.

Brewer quickly calmed down after Zheng Zhilong's rout and fled, and he issued two orders to prepare to restart negotiations, with Putmans and Sidney as negotiators for the Dutch East India Company.

The second is to go down and mobilize all the Dutch in all the colonies of the East Indies, and to arm the indigenous tribes of the East Indies colonies, and prepare to break the net.

The Chinese in Batavia first felt the difference between the Ming army's rule of Batavia's West Port and the Dutch's rule of Batavia.

Under the Dutch colonial government, the port of Batavia was a busy port with many ships calling at the port of Medan every day, most of which passed through Batavia directly to the Lion City, or further afield to Medan, and some to Europe.

In fact, the trade in Batavia has little to do with the Chinese, they should be poor and poor, and the rich should be rich, at most they are the lifu who carries the bag in the port, and there are more opportunities to make money.

Originally, there were less than 2,000 Chinese men who did not have the right of residence in the West Port District of Batavia, but after the Ning Navy occupied the West Port of Batavia, in less than a month, the Port of Coconut City has increased from more than 3,000 Chinese to more than 50,000.

In addition to the increase in residents, the biggest change is that the face of the port has changed dramatically, and the port has become cleaner and tidier.

The biggest change is that the whole port has built more and more wooden houses, carved beams and painted buildings, very Ming characteristics, the expansion of the coconut city port is getting bigger and bigger, the income of residents is also increasing, the living conditions are getting better and better, most of the Chinese in the west port of Batavia used to be carrying bags for a living, a small part of them rely on fishing for a living, there is no other work to choose from, now it is different, more and more jobs, more and more opportunities.

Although Ning Haijun and the Dutch East India Company were subject to taxes, they were very different in terms of taxes. In the past, when the Chinese people in the East Indies went out to sea to fish, fishing boats had to be taxed when they entered and exited the port, they had to be taxed on the fish they caught and brought back to the port, and they had to be taxed when they brought the fish to the market for sale.

In the Coconut City Port under the management of the Ning Navy, fishermen do not need to pay taxes when they go out to sea to fish, and the tax they have to pay to sell fish in the market will not exceed 5 percent of the total price.

There are many advantages of becoming a worker, although compared with fishermen, the working hours of workers are not so free, and the work is more hard, but the danger of work is not great, compared with going out to sea to fish, it is a world of difference, and the salary paid by the Ninghai Navy Port Authority is relatively high, and there is a slight surplus to maintain the life of the family, which is simply a dream for the residents of Coconut City Port.

The Ning Navy is already very experienced in managing ports, from the port of Jinzhou, Port Arthur, Gaeju, Haizhou, Phi Dao, Jeju Island, Luzon, Zhenghe, and now because of the Coconut City Port, there are dozens of ports under the jurisdiction of the Ning Navy.

It is almost a copy of the port of Jinzhou, where the ordinary Chinese manpower who originally lived in the port, that is, the contractors, originally lived in the shantytown of the port, and of course the living environment of this shantytown was very bad. Ning Haijun took the form of replacement, demolished their shantytowns, and opened up new settlements further away from the port.

In this way, the Lifu who carries the bag is farther away from home, and it looks like it is almost ten kilometers back and forth, which is very inconvenient for the bag bearer.

Ning Haijun explained to them that the shantytowns were too close to the port, and they would definitely suffer heavy losses in the event of a war, while in the newly built residential areas, there were smooth streets, perfect sewers, and garbage storage, not only the environment was good, but these Chinese workers immediately had their own fixed assets.

The strategic purpose of the Ning Navy has always been very clear and accurate, even in Luzon, don't look at Wu Shangzhi, Li Guoqun and other Chinese tycoons who give gifts and silver to the Ning Navy, Cheng Shijie knows very well that the rich Chinese businessmen in Luzon have too much, they are only allies, and they cannot become the backbone of the force.

The backbone of the Ning Navy, that is, the basic force, comes from the common people, after regaining the nationality of the Ming Dynasty, the Batavian Chinese, the biggest change is still the poor civilian class, they were originally proletarians, and now they have become the propertied class, this asset, is their house.

The homestead distribution principle of the people of Coconut City Port is the same as that of Liaodong, and because there are fewer Chinese, the distribution standard is greater, even if it is an ordinary bachelor with only one person, the homestead allocated is two acres of land, one to five people, it is three acres of land, and five to nine people are five acres of land.

In addition to the house, whether the soil is used to grow vegetables, fruit trees, or cattle and sheep breeding, it is all voluntary by the people, and the houses built are mainly wooden.

In this way, the Chinese civilians in Batavia are naturally willing to follow Ning Haijun all the way, because only Ning Haijun can ensure that they live like individuals, and the Dutch will definitely not let them live like humans.

There are also supporting facilities in residential areas, schools and hospitals, of course, schools and hospitals are not built now, and even the roads are not fully repaired.

These Chinese people working in the port area returned to their new homes after work every day, and also took the initiative to work overtime to build roads and drainage canals as soon as possible.

In Coconut City Port, under the escort of more than a dozen Sea Shark-class warships, the Naoli Giant Shark-class "North Zhili" battleship began to slowly enter the port, and on the port, there was immediately a noise of gongs and drums, and firecrackers.

When Cheng Shijie arrived at Coconut City Port, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians came to greet him. However, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians can hardly hide that the port of Coconut City is rebuilt after the chaos.

At this time, Cheng Shijie was not wearing an official uniform, but a military uniform, wearing a bright silver armor given by Emperor Chongzhen, in fact, this is just a pair of paper armor painted with silver lacquer, which is very gorgeous and eye-catching, in fact, the defense ability is not strong. Not to mention muskets, even bows and arrows can easily shoot holes.

The main purpose of Cheng Shijie's uniform is also to inspire the martial spirit of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty does need the martial spirit, influenced by the policy of the imperial military and the system of the guard, "a good man is not a soldier, a good iron does not hit a nail" This concept has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

In fact, unless it is a private meeting, Cheng Shijie does not wear a military uniform, generally speaking, to attend solemn occasions, Cheng Shijie must wear a military uniform, he uses this way to revive the martial spirit of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there is also the policy of Liaodong, soldiers and military dependents have great preferential treatment in terms of taxes, in the past, as long as there are qualified people, they want to marry their daughters to scholars. Now in Liaodong, the first choice for marriage must be a soldier of the Ning Navy.

"Meet the Duke of Haiguo, meet the handsome!"

At this time, in the South Seas, including the East Indies, Cheng Shijie's fame can be said to be thunderous, of course, the angle of standing is different, and the views on Cheng Shijie are also different. In the eyes of the Dutch, Cheng Shijie is an out-and-out devil, but in the eyes of the Nanyang Chinese, Cheng Shijie is simply a Buddha of all families.

The Luzon incident has spread all over the South Seas, of course, there is also the Batavia incident, in these rumors, Cheng Shi and Li Weiluan are also very famous, there are all kinds of things, some people say that Cheng Shi is Cheng Shijie's adopted son, Cheng Shijie's number one general, and Li Weiluan is even more amazing......

Of course, the current Chinese in Batavia want to see what kind of person is the great savior who saves them, and there are also many young people who do not want to become militia soldiers, but want to directly join Cheng Shijie and become soldiers of the Ning Navy.

"Meet the marshal, meet the prince of Haiguo!"

The Chinese in Batavia are very enthusiastic, if it weren't for Cheng Shijie's personal guards and soldiers lining up into a wall, I was really afraid that they would rush to Cheng Shijie's side.

Cheng Shijie took the lead in coming to the location of more than 1,600 soldiers of the Coconut City Militia Group, and now the training time of the militia is too short, and the spirit is far inferior to that of the soldiers in the jumping camp.

"Welcome everyone to join the Ning Navy!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the militia soldiers and said: "You are all rare good soldiers, you are welcome to join the big family of the Ning Navy, Ben Shuai is here, the people here are here, Ben Shuai knows what they care about, we are here, we will not leave, at least until the Ning Navy officers and soldiers are not dead, we will not leave again." ”

Cheng Shijie's words also spoke to everyone's hearts. Especially the Chinese in Batavia, what they are most afraid of is being abandoned by the Ning Navy, once the Ning Navy retreats, with the character of the Dutch, even if they want to die, it will not be an easy thing.

"From now on, you are all glorious soldiers of the Ning Navy, and your real name is the Ning Navy Coconut City Garrison Regiment!"

Cheng Shijie is actually thinking about a problem now, that is, the military system adopted by the Ning Navy is somewhat chaotic, especially the naval units of the Ning Navy, such as Li Zhixiang and Shen Shikui, their rank is the general army, but the problem is that under the general army, if the commander of the strike squadron who commands the twelve warships is given the rank of staff general, and some of them have the rank of deputy chief soldier, this will cause great confusion.

Cheng Shijie has been thinking about this question since the decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong.

The military system of the Ning Navy needs to be changed. Especially like the Giant Shark-class battleships, each battleship has a full staffing of 385 people, while the Sea Shark-class has 300 people. The establishment is different, and the number of soldiers under command is also different.

Moreover, warships need to be flexibly organized, so according to the tradition of the army, it is natural that whoever has the highest rank will listen to whomever it is, but the establishment of the 100 generals, general generals, and 100 general commanders of the navy of the Ning Navy is different, and there is also serious confusion.

Cheng Shijie decided to carry out a comprehensive military reform against the Ning Navy, of course, the army units could not adopt the battalion, company, platoon, and squad levels for the time being, as in later generations, and Cheng Shijie decided to change the original garrison bureaus in various places into garrison regiments.

The Coconut City Garrison Regiment is the first local garrison unit of the Ning Navy to establish a regiment-level unit.

"I am willing to die for the handsome!"

"You don't die for Ben Shuai, you have to die for ......"

Cheng Shijie stretched out his hand and pointed to the dense Chinese people on the port and said: "When the indigenous army or the Dutch army raises a butcher's knife against us Chinese, when their shells cover the sky, you can rush forward without hesitation, for this land, for the people on this land who feed us with blood and sweat, you can die without hesitation!" ”

"For the sake of this land, for the sake of the people on this land who feed us with blood and sweat, we will die without hesitation!"

The roar was like a thunderclap, shaking the eardrums of every soldier and shaking their hearts.

Li Sixi and Lin Bufan glanced at each other, and both of them showed ecstasy.

In today's Chinese, in fact, they can't get along in the Ming Dynasty, in order to avoid taxes, in order to make a fortune, they crossed the ocean to Nanyang, in their hearts, whether it is the imperial court or the government, no one has ever cared about them. Only Cheng Shijie ordered his army to die for them.

After a short speech, Xie Jinglin took Lin Bufan, Li Sixi, Li Shiji, Guo Bingren and others to greet Cheng Shijie: "Dashuai, please allow me to introduce to you, this Lin Bufan is the deputy director of the Coconut City Executive Committee!" ”

"Luckily!"

Cheng Shijie shook hands cordially with Li Sixi, Li Shiji, Guo Bingren and other Chinese representatives.

When Xie Jinglin presided over the construction of Coconut City Port, considering that it was impossible for the Ning Navy to always station a large number of warships here, in order to avoid the disappearance of sea dominance, the port area and living area of Coconut City, including the warehouse, were more than ten kilometers away from the coastline in a straight line.

Just when Cheng Shijie went to the port area to rest temporarily, the negotiators sent by Brewer came to Coconut City Port, and Li Weiluan casually found a small warehouse in the port and put it here.

It was a small warehouse with an area of no more than 50 square meters, and it was a dilapidated warehouse, although it had been renovated, but there was a musty smell in the house.

Xie Jinglin and Cheng Shijie sat in a carriage and went to the port area, while Cheng Shijie was preparing to carry out reforms against the Ninghai Navy, and Li Zhixiang, Shen Shikui and others sat in the huge carriage.

"Zhixiang, our navy needs to be reformed!"

"I don't know how the handsome man will reform!"

"At present, we have six strike squadrons, and these six strike squadrons are unified and reorganized according to different construction times, and now they are all new ships, but the longer the time, the more problems the old ships will be exposed!"

Cheng Shijie groaned: "Ben Shuai feels that all the warships need to be disrupted and reorganized!" ”

Li Zhixiang said: "Yes, the last general has no opinion!" ”

"The formation of sixteen warships patrolling in normal times is a bit big, and the sea is too big, so we can't take care of too many places!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "With the strength of the Dutch, they will not fight with us for the time being, at least they will not have the strength for half a year, and the commander thinks that he can disrupt the battleship and redivide it." First of all, the 2,000-level Seawolf-class battleship is enough to patrol from time to time, and it is more than enough to deal with pirates. Moreover, this Seawolf-class battleship is relatively cost-effective, and the Giant Shark-class and Seashark-class battleships consume too much artillery, and the army generals have long had opinions! ”

After discussions with Li Zhixiang, Shen Shikui, Li Fang, Chen Shishi, and other generals, the reorganization plan of the Ning Navy in the future is as follows: First of all, each Seawolf-class warship has the rank of lieutenant, the Seashark-class fleet has the rank of captain, the captain of the Giant Shark-class fleet has the rank of major, and the commander of each patrol fleet is concurrently the captain of the Giant Shark-class battleship, commanding four Seawolf-class, three Seashark-class, and one Giant Shark-class warship.

Eight warships form a patrol fleet, consisting of four patrol fleets, sixteen Seawolf-class, twelve Shark-class, plus four Shark-class warships, to form a fleet of thirty-two warships.

The commander of the fleet was the rank of colonel, and the First Fleet was temporarily established to be stationed in Luzon, and the Second Fleet was stationed in the western port of Batavia, which is also known as the port of Coconut City.

The Third Fleet is stationed in the Commander, and the Fourth Fleet is stationed in Arthur.

In the event of wartime needs, the four fleets can be deployed to provide support.

In addition to the four major fleets, the main fleet of the Ning Navy has also been established, and so far, each fleet has lost Seawolf-class warships, as well as some Giant Shark-class warships, and the Seashark-class is redundant and assigned to the main fleet.

Just when the navy reorganization plan was drawn up, Xie Jinglin found Cheng Shijie and said: "Marshal, the Dutch have come to negotiate again!" Shall we negotiate with them! ”

"Let's talk!"

Cheng Shijie didn't stop the words, he couldn't stay in Coconut City for a few days, after a little rest, he had to return to the capital immediately, this is the fourth holy decree, and Cheng Shijie can't stay in Nanyang forever.

With Cheng Shijie's permission, Xie Jinglin returned to the port of Coconut City and prepared to start negotiations with Putmans.

"Mr. Xie, hello!"

As soon as Xie Jinglin arrived at the port, Putmans and Sidney hurried to meet him.

"You, Mr. Emissary!"

Xie Jinglin smiled faintly: "What's the matter with you?" Is it to send us a war book! ”

"Mr. Xie, this joke is not funny at all!"

Putmans bowed and said, "First of all, Sidney and I, on behalf of His Excellency the Dutch Governor of the East Indies, congratulate you on a very victorious ......"

"Thank you!"

Xie Jinglin looked at Putmans and Sidney in front of him, he didn't even have a teacup, and pretended to be angry and said: "Come on, serve tea, our Ming Dynasty is a country of etiquette, and the two countries have not killed the two countries, what are you doing?" ”

Soon, an attendant brought over two bowls of tea, which of course could barely be regarded as high foam.

Putmans took a small sip and his mouth was full of bitterness.

"Mr. Xie, we would like to discuss with you the question of the ownership of the West Port Area of Batavia, the West Port Area of Batavia, which belongs to the Dutch East Indies, can you give us back the Dutch ......?"

"Yes!"

Xie Jinglin smiled faintly and said: "It's not impossible to return the Batavia West Port Area to you, but there must be an explanation for the losses of the Luzon Immigration Bureau of the Ning Navy before, the cost of the Ning Navy's troops, and the expenses of the Ning Navy during this time?" Right? ”

"That's a very reasonable request!"

In Putmans' view, Xie Jinglin or Cheng Shijie is willing to negotiate, which is a very good start. Now the Dutch East Indies colonial authorities have no cards to play.

In the Netherlands itself, the war for independence from the Spanish Empire had reached a critical juncture, and the Dutch king could even issue a royal edict to mobilize the whole country.

But the problem is that the Netherlands itself has only more than 5 million people, while the Ming Empire has 20,000 people, which is more than 400 times that of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Population is the mortal wound of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The crisis at hand can now be resolved only through negotiations.

Xie Jinglin said lightly: "The coconut city port area where we are now has a total area of 25 kilometers long from east to west and about 45 kilometers wide from north to south, even if it is 16.87 million mu, according to the land price of our Ming Dynasty, each mu of land needs eight to twelve taels of silver, and we will give you a 20% discount, according to the calculation of eight taels of silver per mu, it is 135 million taels of silver!" ”

"One hundred and thirty-five million taels of silver? Oh God, are you crazy, or am I crazy! ”

"Hans, don't worry, I'm not done yet!"

Xie Jinglin said: "This is just the cost of the land in Coconut City Port, our Ning Navy has built more than 500 houses in Coconut City Port, and built two roads, as well as sorted out the waterway, which all requires money, not much, three million taels of silver, and you seized our Chengfeng, causing the Chengfeng to be in the port for two months, and the loss of the Chengfeng is calculated as one million taels of silver, and you slaughtered us Chinese, a total of four hundred and twenty-one people, one hundred thousand taels of silver per person is not too much, right?" ”

"This ......"

"And the cannonballs, we fought with the combined fleet of your Dutch East India Company, and fired more than 380 cannons, each cannonball is 1,000 taels, erase the odds, let's count 190 million taels of silver!"

"We at the Dutch East India Company will not accept this result!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't agree, we are peace-loving! We can take the second option! ”

"What's the plan?"

"We will collect taxes in Coconut City Port, when we will collect enough 190 million taels of silver, and when will we return Coconut City Port to you Dutch!"

"It can't be!"

"Then go straight to war!"

"God is merciful, thanks, this is not the attitude to solve the problem, let's each take a step back!"

"Okay, what's your plan!"

"War reparations, we can pay you gold, how about a ton of gold at a time?"

"What about you sending Hanako?"

One ton of gold sounds like a lot, according to the current exchange rate of Daming's money, it is almost the same as one to twelve, that is to say, one ton of gold is equivalent to 320,000 taels of silver.

Although 320,000 taels of silver is a lot, it obviously can't satisfy Cheng Shijie's appetite.

Xie Jinglin looked at Putmans and said, "If you don't wake up, I suggest you go to the sea to take a bath and wake up!" ”

"That's too much, and although our East India Company has a market value of more than 60 million guilders, our company's cash flow is far from that much. Even if the Dutch East India Company was sold, it would not be able to afford to lose! ”

Xie Jinglin remembered that Cheng Shijie had said that he wanted Sumatra, so he said: "Be realistic, if you can't meet our requirements, then there will only be war, Zheng Zhilong has already been defeated, and you have no chance of winning!" ”

"We can ......"

Putmans's words were not spoken, the war mobilization, and the threat of war to the Ning Navy were in the hands of the Ning Navy. Now Batavia could face the threat of dozens of third-class battleships, and once the Ning Navy launched an attack on the eastern port area of Batavia, they would not be able to hold out for long.

"We, Ninghai, burn all our wealth, and you won't get anything!"

"Yes, just please, we need land, and we need the mineral resources here, you have the ability to burn them all, who are you to scare?"

"190,000,000,000 taels of silver is too much!"

"Then take a step back, only 150 million taels of silver!"

"We still can't afford to lose!"

"My friend, you can sell Sumatra to us!"

"How is this possible? This is the territory of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands! ”

"I'm very sorry, but this negotiation seems to be inconclusive, and I suggest that we suspend the negotiations and let the war decide where Sumatra belongs?"

"How much are you willing to pay for Sumatra?"

"Sumatra is full of land that is not suitable for farming, and after our preliminary estimates, there can barely be 100 million!"

Xie Jinglin's voice was full of demagoguery: "Sell Sumatra Island to us for 100 million taels of silver, and then compensate us for 80 million taels of silver, and this matter will be over!" ”

(End of chapter)