East Factory Governor

Chapter 798 Strait of Malacca

After leaving home, they joined Lai San'er, Li Jingting, Meng Wei, Meng Hu, Zhang Xiao, and Chen Jing, and they went directly to Weihaiwei.

On November [-]th, Qin Shuhuai boarded a battleship and headed south on a ship with another [-] army elites.

In the middle of the journey, I met ten fast ships of the British East India Company, and they flagged on the opposite side, saying that they were here to pick up the goods.

The so-called goods, of course, refers to the batch of weapons.

Zheng Zhilong communicated very smoothly, and the British quickly agreed to help deliver the supplies, and they sent the ten clippers.

So at sea, a large number of weapons were directly transported to the British East India Company clippers, disguised as ordinary cargo, and then flew south.

This batch of weapons is enough to arm nearly [-] people, and it is of great significance to the rebel organizations in the Ava area-the rebels with weapons are called rebels, and the rebels without weapons are at best mobs.

Qin Shuhuai's fleet was not in a hurry, it slowed down and sailed slowly to allow time for the British to deliver weapons to the Ava area.

According to the plan, the best way is for the Ming army to start fighting in the south, and the Shan people in the Awa area "revolt" at the same time, which makes Talong fall into a situation of internal and external troubles.

Once this momentum is picked up, Qin Shuhuai believes that the long-standing ethnic conflicts in Myanmar will continue to escalate, and then a single spark can start a prairie fire. At that time, the whole country of Myanmar will be in turmoil, and it will be very easy to defeat him and support the new regime.

On December [-], after more than a month of unhurried voyage, the fleet arrived in Manraga.

Malacca is the famous Malacca in later generations. Here is the Strait of Malacca, one of the most important straits in the world.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Strait of Malacca was under the control of Manga, and Manga was a loyal fan of Ming Dynasty, paying tribute to Ming Dynasty every year, and even based on the importance of this strait, the Ming army once stationed troops here.

However, in 1511, after two wars, the Franji people (Portugal) finally conquered the country of Malacca, thus controlling the Strait of Malacca.

It has to be said that this conquest may be one of the most important and cost-effective military operations of the Portuguese in the Far East, because this strait holds the key point of sea traffic between the East and the West, and the taxes collected every year are worth all of Portugal’s assets in the Far East. more than half of the profits.

Because this place is very important, Portugal stationed [-] troops here, and recruited [-] mercenaries locally, for a total of [-] soldiers and horses.

At the same time, a total of 180 large coastal defense guns were installed on both sides of the strait, each with a medium-sized fleet consisting of [-] warships.

It can be said that the Portuguese raised the Strait of Malacca to a strategic level, so with such equipment, even the strongest Dutch in the Far East did not dare to covet Malacca.

At this time, Zheng Zhihu's vanguard fleet, a total of [-] battleships and more than [-] clippers, arrived at the strait first, and the Portuguese stationed in Malacca suddenly became nervous.

Seeing so many hill-like battleships made their scalps tingle, not to mention that the Ming fleet has a "bad name". Recently, they beat the Dutch so hard that the Portuguese couldn't help but know.

Now that the Ming army fleet suddenly appeared in Manga, the Portuguese didn't think they were here to occupy this important sea route!
Soon, Nelson, the Portuguese governor in Managa, sent a fleet to block the entrance of Managa, and then sent a small boat with an envoy to visit Zheng Zhihu.

The envoy boarded Zheng Zhihu's flagship, and after seeing Zheng Zhihu, he asked straight to the point, "Dear General Zheng, on behalf of Governor Nelson, I would like to extend my high regards to you. At the same time, we would like to know the purpose of your fleet's voyage here. It is convenient for us to provide necessary assistance to your fleet, and to demonstrate the friendship between me and your country."

The officer translated the words to Zheng Zhihu, and Zheng Zhihu laughed when he heard it.

Said, "You guys are thinking too much, this fleet just wants to pass through the Managa Strait (there was no such name as a Strait in Ming Dynasty at that time, but Qin Shuhuai called it a Strait, so the people below will call it a Strait), as long as you open the waterway, the The guns on the shore are put away, and neither of us has committed any crime."

When the envoy heard this, his face was troubled.

To be honest, if the Ming army fleet just wanted to pass, they would definitely not stop it, and even provide convenience. After all, no one dares to provoke the big shark of the Ming army navy now.

But in case someone really rushes to occupy Calais, then once their fleet enters the strait and suddenly fires, wouldn't they have to be beaten passively?
After thinking for a while, he said, "Your Excellency, may I ask where your fleet will go after passing through the strait? As far as I know, your country's fleet had no need for expeditions before, and there is no port of your country outside the strait, as it is now. The huge fleet is going to pass here, and our governor is very disturbed."

After hearing this, Zheng Zhihu snorted coldly, "Hmph, why should I report to you red-haired ghosts where my Daming Navy is going? It's simply unreasonable."

Of course Zheng Zhihu would not say where the fleet was going. This was not only a matter of face, but also a requirement of confidentiality-up to now, no one in Dongwu knew that such a huge fleet was heading towards them.

The envoy became more disturbed when he heard this, and asked, "Then, Your Excellency, can you provide the number and list of warships that your fleet will pass through?"

Zheng Zhihu said, "Why are you so wordy. There are 90 battleships, 230 junk ships, [-] Galen ships, more than [-] large merchant ships, and more than [-] small and medium-sized fast ships. You can figure it out."

Tongshi translated the words to the envoy.

The messenger almost sat down on the ground after hearing this.

Cold sweat broke out on his back.

My God, what kind of fleet is this?An Asian version of Armada?No, it's stronger than the Armada!
Originally, he thought that the fleet in Zheng Zhihu's hands was going to pass, but they were already on the verge of a formidable enemy.

Unexpectedly, this is only a small part, and there are several times more battleships behind!

When did the Ming Dynasty have such a huge fleet?

Shouldn't such a fleet take at least ten years to build?

No wonder he was shocked. If such a fleet were placed in any European country, it might not be able to build it within ten years.

But don’t forget, Ming’s land is bigger than Europe’s, its GDP is higher than the whole of Europe’s, and its shipbuilding technology is ahead of Europe’s. Is the speed comparable to that of a European powerhouse?
If such a huge fleet passes through the Managa Strait, it will be no wonder that the Governor can sleep well!
The envoy didn't dare to stay for a moment, and hurriedly left in the name of reporting to the governor.

Zheng Zhihu couldn't help laughing when he saw the envoy panicked.

Manlajia was originally the domain of Ming Dynasty. This time, the Nanyang and Beiyang navy gathered so many warships, how could they not take them back?

According to Qin Shuhuai's plan, that is to trick the Francoids into opening the entrance of the strait through intimidation first, allowing the Ming army fleet to pass through.After the fleet completely entered the strait, it immediately opened fire on the coastal defense forts on both sides of the strait.

If this strategy succeeds, then the firepower of the Ming army fleet will be fully deployed in an instant, and it will be easy to kill the one or two hundred Portuguese coastal defense guns by then.

After destroying the fort, the army will conduct landing operations again.

With the artillery support of the fleet, the army's occupation of Malacca will be like a bag.

If you control Malacca, you control everything.As for honesty or something, hehe, are you talking about this to a group of royally certified pirates?
It is said that after the envoy went back to report the news to Governor Nelson, the old governor who was over fifty years old was speechless for a long time.

If you ask him, this country called "Ming" is too unreasonable. How can it build so many warships at once? This does not leave a way for other countries to survive at all!
The warships built by the "Ming Kingdom" in one or two years may not be able to defeat all the warships in Portugal!
Nelson pondered for a long time, and finally said to the emissary, "Tell them, as long as the fleet passes in batches, each batch of large warships does not exceed five and small warships do not exceed ten, and the guns are put away, we can allow it to pass. And, no Any navigation tax."

The messenger asked cautiously, "What if they refuse?"

Nelson's eyes flashed fiercely, and he shouted, "No? If you don't want them, they will just float outside the strait! This is Manga, and it's my territory! We got it from the Ming people. , it is not intended to return the ripe fruit to them after decades of development! Damn it, they will attack if they dare!"

(End of this chapter)