Carrying AK into Ming Dynasty

Chapter 907 Reasons for not being able to refuse

Since the first battle between the Beiyang Navy and the Dutch Navy more than a year ago, the three brothers of the Qi family have been stepping up repairs and training at the naval base on Liugong Island in Weihai.

In addition to the training of the new heavy ironclad ship, Tianjin Treasure Shipyard delivered the fourth new heavy ironclad ship three months ago. After three months of training, the new ironclad ship can now skillfully cooperate with other warships to attack.

The Beiyang Navy is responsible for more than 180 ships of various types in the Nanyang expedition, including four new heavy-duty iron-clad ships, all of which are powered by diesel and equipped with ship-mounted howitzers and mortars. In addition to artillery, all sailors are equipped with Bolt-action rifles, hand grenades and other firearms.

The No. [-] blessing ships such as the Shanhaiguan were also refitted with diesel power and added ship-mounted howitzers. In addition, the [-] imperial guards were also carried by the Beiyang Navy.

Among the more than 180 ships of various types, except for 56 main battleships, the rest are all auxiliary, supply, and troop carriers.

After listening to Qi Yuangong's report, Liu Hongjian pondered for a while, and decided to draw [-] of the [-] Imperial Guards to stabilize the situation in Japan.

Compared with the Beiyang Navy, the Nanyang Navy led by the younger brother Zheng Sen is a bit shabby. The Nanyang Navy currently has not only one new ironclad ship, but also only four No. [-] Fuchuan and seven No. [-] Fuchuan. The rest are small and medium-sized ships such as winter boats and bird boats.

It's not that the imperial court is stingy, it's that the production capacity of Tianjin Treasure Shipyard has reached its limit, if the only four heavy warships are divided into two groups, it is not enough to form a coercive strategy.

Fortunately, the Nanyang Naval Base is newly built, and the various facilities are not complete enough to be suitable for heavy warships to berth for training. Moreover, Zheng Sen's awareness is very high, and he is not dissatisfied because the court favors one over another.

After getting the imperial court's order to attack Nanyang, in order to avenge his father Zheng Yiguan, Zheng Sen hurriedly brought all the belongings of the Nanyang Navy - more than 110 warships of various types to join.

Undoubtedly, the imperial decree dispatched all the Nanyang and Beiyang naval forces at once, which shows how much the imperial court attached great importance to the Nanyang route.

However, this created a big problem for Liu Hongjian.

In good conscience, the Tokugawa shogunate has just been defeated, and now is a great time to take advantage of the victory, stabilize the situation, and eradicate dissidents.

After all, Dongying is entirely Liu Hongjian's own territory. He wants to manage this land well and improve the Japanese breed, but the plan always fails to keep up with the changes.

Weighing the pros and cons, Liu Hongjian had no choice but to leave Zheng Lin, Du Yongan, Wen Biao and others behind and ordered them to continue to pay the Japanese who disobeyed the order.

Then Liu Hongjian wrote a memorial to the imperial court, which meant that the ammunition supplies of Dongying would also be rationed by the imperial court. After all, this piece of land also belonged to Ming Dynasty in name.

On the eighth day of August in the third year of Taishun, Liu Hongjian led the Nanyang and Beiyang naval divisions with a total of [-] ships and more than [-] sailors and troops, and set off for the distant and unknown Nanyang.

……

Batavia, Headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, August 26, [-].

In the headquarters building located in the center of the Batavia city-state, the governor of Batavia, the Marquis Cohen, has been in contact with his subordinates for a three-day meeting.

The central topic of the meeting was how the company would deal with the war and trade with Ming Dynasty, as well as the ownership of the Dongying Islands.

The latest news from Amsterdam in July was to make peace with the Ming Empire, set aside the previous disputes in Taiwan, promote the company's continued trade with Ming, and speed up the colonization process of the Eastern Islands.

But the situation in front of Cohen is like a mess. Not only did Dongpu fail to colonize successfully, Barov's Third Army was completely wiped out, and the opponent was still the ruthless man who destroyed Rakshasa.

In other words, not only is Japan gone, but there will also be great resistance to peace talks. After all, the Netherlands and Ming Dynasty are in a warring relationship. The Ming Empire has successively won Rakshasa and Japan, and its morale is strong.

What kind of conditions will Daming put forward for peace talks at this time?Cohen frowned and glanced at his colleagues in the conference room, thinking.

"Master Cohen, what are you worried about?

We have sixteen strongholds in Nanyang, each with forts and battleship handles, and the company also controls Malacca. If Ming is smart enough, he will definitely agree to peace talks. Alden, Governor of Banten, stopped his discussion with his colleagues and said to Cohen, who was frowning.

Although Alden is in charge of Banten, he considers himself more of a businessman and puts everything in the interests of the company, and he prefers to look at issues from the perspective of a businessman.

For example, the Ming Empire, the reason why the two countries were at war was nothing more than a matter of interests. In Alden's view, the Ming Empire had already made a fortune by taking away Taiwan and Dongying.

Since the order from above is peace talks, the company only needs to publicly admit that these two places belong to Daming. What reason does Daming have to continue to provoke the war?
Alden’s words are full of discrimination against Asians, or out of contempt from the superiors. The East India Company controls the world’s largest spice producing area and Melaka, the throat of Southeast Asia. throat.

As long as merchant ships from the Ming Empire come here, they must pay considerable taxes to the company. The only thing that makes Alden uncomfortable may be that the company's recent disputes with Ming ended in failure.

Banten is located in the west of Java Island and is one of the most important spice producing areas in Southeast Asia. Alden was also appointed as the governor of this place because he drove away the Portuguese colonists for the company.

Among the many colonial strongholds in the Nanyang region, Banten’s contribution to the company’s profits ranks second, which gives Alden a very high voice within the company, except for Cohen and Lancelot.

Cohen is the governor of Batavia, and he is the highest in terms of position and title. Lancelot is the commander-in-chief of the naval fleet at the headquarters. The two are not only colleagues but also very good friends. It can be said that Cohen's status in Nanyang indestructible.

"Your Excellency Alden, do you know the Ming Dynasty? Or, do you know that person?" Cohen was not angry, but asked instead.

He has also known Alden for more than ten years, and he knows that Alden just treats everything purely as a business, which is really normal for him in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands itself is an inter-provincial state created by a group of businessmen. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as a business for all people. Even later historians believe that the Netherlands is the first country in the world to grant full political rights to businessmen. This is evident. .

Everything is a business, and everything can be handled as a business. This is the belief of all Dutch people.

However, as the governor of the company's headquarters, Cohen knew the consequences of self-righteousness. For more than a year, Cohen had been closely following the development of the Ming Empire, more precisely, all the deeds of the Anguo County King.

This is an ambitious man, although Cohen did not know that Liu Hongjian's ambition was coerced by Lao Zhu and Xiao Zhu.

This is a person with a strong talent for war, and he has been invincible in many wars he has participated in in his life, although Cohen firmly believes that the naval battle more than a year ago was a draw between the two countries.

At the same time, Ming Dynasty is also a country with extremely powerful firearms. According to investigations, Ming Dynasty actually trains two navies at the same time. If this country with an unprecedentedly vast territory really wants to expand its armaments, can the East India Company really resist it? ?How will the Prince of Orange handle it?
How can a man who is ambitious, has a strong talent for war, and has a huge army and firearms negotiate peace?
"Lord Cohen, maybe we can make that person an offer that he cannot refuse." Seeing that Alden was questioned by Cohen and didn't know how to answer, Marquis Lancelot, Commander-in-Chief of the Batavia Fleet, opened his mouth.

……

"A pair of K's! Do you want the youngest Qi?" Liu Hongjian raised his eyebrows and glanced at Qi Yuanbi with a cigarette bag in his mouth.

But who knew that Qi Laosan was still hesitating holding the cards, and Kuo Duan beside him threw the two cards onto the table with a bang: "Wang Zha!"

"Zhi Nima's head! We are in the same group! You idiot!" Liu Hongjian was almost blown up by Kuo Duan. Qi Lao San was a landlord, but Kuo Duan blew the bomb on his head. Does that look like a landowner?

"Hahaha! We won, we won! The prince will give you the money!" Seeing Kuo Duan being reprimanded, Qi Lao San threw a small card. He thought that he would definitely not be able to leave this time, but Kuo Duan gave out a card. Four sent him a god assist.

This poker was naturally invented by the great inventor Liu Hongjian. The long sea journey is really boring. After the last trip to the South Seas, Liu Hongjian developed the very popular Dou Di Zhu in later generations.

The cards are made of specially made hard pulp rice paper, supplemented by painters to paint on the cards, and then fill in the numbers to become the Ming version of poker.

In fact, there were playing cards similar to poker in Ming Dynasty, and the one with exact records is the Leaf Opera of Han Dynasty, but the playing methods of playing cards are different, and Liu Hongjian prefers the poker of later generations.

There are various ways to play Landlords, Shuangsheng, Tractor, Bullfighting, etc. Some are suitable for two people, and some are suitable for three people or even more people. They are all used for entertainment during the sea journey, which relieves a lot of boredom for soldiers.

It's just that Kuo Duan and other big bosses are obviously not very good at playing. After being reprimanded by Liu Hongjian, he resolutely resigned and went to find someone to drink.

"Old Chang? Three missing one, come to play for a while?" Liu Hongjian didn't care about it, seeing Kuo Duan running away, he turned his head and said to Chang Yu who was looking at the chart in the cabin.

Liu Hongjian never thought that fighting was a brain-intensive thing. In fact, the work that required brainstorming was basically done by his subordinates, such as Qi Yuangong and Qi Yuanfu, and Zheng Sen, Zheng Lin, and Chang Yu.

As for him, he only needs to walk around, roar at critical moments to boost morale, and then shout to fire, and then go back to receive the merit, which is still the first achievement.

"My lord, you are just playing around. I am sorting out the charts on the Luzon side. If there is no accident, it should be here in three to five days." Chang Yu smiled and gave Yang Tianbao a wink, meaning to let Yang Tianbao come top bag.

It would not take so long to travel from Dongying to Luzon if it was winter. However, it is not yet Chongyang, and the wind direction on the ocean is unstable, which increases the resistance of the fleet going south.

This trip to Nanyang, Qi Yuangong and Zheng Sen are in charge of the united front, Qi Yuanfu is in charge of logistics and supplies, and Chang Yu is in charge of investigation and intelligence. As for the great King Qin, he is temporarily in charge of eating, sleeping and playing poker.

"Well, Tianbao is fine too, he's always smarter than that guy." Seeing Yang Tianbao start playing cards, Liu Hongjian praised him.

"My lord, you're the landlord this time!" Qi Laosan said meanly when he saw Liu Hongjian played the trick.

After he finished speaking, he winked at Yang Tianbao, meaning that he would cooperate sincerely to win money together.

"Your uncle, I saw it, and I need you to talk too much!" Liu Hongjian really wanted to kick Qi Laosan twice. This guy has two brothers covering him, and he only needs to be in charge of one battleship when he goes out. He doesn't need him at all. tactical heart.

woo-woo-woo-

Just at this time, the bird boat at the front of the fleet suddenly blew the alarm, Liu Hongjian hurriedly threw a bad card on the table and stood up.

"My lord, let's leave after playing cards, I can definitely win this hand!" Qi Laosan looked unhappy, but he was holding two kings and three twos in his hand.

"Third brother! We are at war now! If you say more, don't blame me for doing military law!" Qi Yuanfu couldn't stand it, but his temper was too peaceful, Qi Yuangong just curled his lips and threw a good card on the table.

A moment later, Liu Hongjian stood on the deck of the new flagship Invincible and took out the walkie-talkie.

"Old Qi, why is the whistle blowing up front?" Liu Hongjian turned on the intercom and asked Qi Yuangong who was several miles away.

The fleet of [-] warships is already so huge that the fleet stretches out for several miles. Fortunately, there are no buildings or interference signals on the sea, and the transmission distance of the walkie-talkie is quite long.

Within a few seconds, with a slight noise, Qi Yuangong's voice came out from the intercom: "My lord, these are three merchant ships, judging from the flags they hang, they should belong to the East India Company. "

The tricolor flag of the Dutch East India Company is composed of four letters V, O, C, and A. V connects O and C in series, and the A on the top is the abbreviation of Amsterdam, which is very easy to identify.

"A merchant ship from the Netherlands? It's his uncle's. It's boring to stay there. Old Qi sent a few winter ships to rob!" After Liu Hongjian finished speaking, he gave Qi Lao San a wink. battleship away.

A quarter of an hour later, three medium-sized merchant ships were surrounded. Only then did Liu Hongjian get the definite news that the Dutch had come to negotiate.

So Liu Hongjian ordered Qi Yuangong to continue to advance to Luzon, and at the same time ordered the Dutch negotiators to be transported to his flagship.

Anyway, it's boring to be idle, and he wants to see what kind of medicine is sold in the Dutchman's gourd.

The person who came was a fat man in light blue clothes, followed by a translator as thin as a monkey.

Liu Hongjian sat on the deck of the Invincible, and behind him stood Niu Zhuang and Kuo Duan, who looked like two generals. Qi Yuangong and Zheng Sen also rushed to the Invincible.

"Dear Lord Ming, I am Eustace from the Dutch East India Company, and I bring you greetings from the Marquis Cohen, Governor of Batavia!" Eustace also saw that Liu Hongjian had not prepared a seat for him. Not angry, but still smiling to Liu Hongjian.

"Oh, thank you very much, and give my regards to the governor...'s old mother." Liu Hongjian pushed aside a wild banana and didn't even look at Eustace.

The interpreter behind Eustace didn't remember it for a while, and translated Liu Hongjian's words politely as Liu Hongjian wanted to greet Cohen's mother. Eustace knew that Ming people ruled the world with courtesy, so he thought Liu Hongjian It's out of good intentions.

"The main purpose of coming to see the prince this time is to bring the gospel of peace to the prince." Eustace still laughed.

"The real girl's humor has failed!" Liu Hongjian couldn't help muttering in a low voice, as if he had punched the cotton with his fist.

"The Gospel of Peace? Are you talking about my king's warships and artillery? Well, you can say that too!" Liu Hongjian pointed to the fleet that was beyond sight behind him.

He really wanted to send the gospel to the Dutch, the gospel of heaven. He wanted to blast all the Dutchmen into the sky, so as to avenge Cui Geng who died in the last Nanyang naval battle.

"Your Highness, I want to ask you a question, and I hope you can answer it truthfully." Eustace finally understood the malicious intentions of the person in front of him, but as a negotiator, the first thing he had to overcome was the enemy's contempt, and he remained calm the way.

"If you want to ask, just ask, but it depends on my mood whether I am happy to answer you." Liu Hongjian picked up the tea bowl and blew and took a sip.

"Excuse me, my lord, why did you start the war?" Eustace looked very serious.

"What this king hates the most is to reverse right and wrong. The war was started by you, the Netherlands!"

"Even so, what is the purpose of our war?" Eustace asked encouragingly again, thinking that it was for profit, why couldn't the lord in front of such a simple answer answer?
"The ghost knows why your Dutch country is at war. I am fighting to avenge my subordinates."

"But even if a war is launched, your subordinates cannot be resurrected. My lord, the war is for profit, but we in the Netherlands don't want to lose both sides. Governor Cohen believes that peace is good for both countries."

"Hehe, you are here to be funny, you are the ones who start the war, and you are the ones who want to stop the war, you really think you are God!

Even if it is, it is useless to this king. This king does not believe in God. Not every initiator of the war has the right to end the war. The war may not revive the king’s soldiers, but it can make more Dutch people die. I will be very happy, and I believe that those who know the soldiers will also be very happy.

Lose both?Are you afraid that you think too highly of yourself? "Liu Hongjian said a lot in one breath.

After all, the sailing road was too boring, and Liu Hongjian didn't bother to pay attention to this bird man at all. Because Liu Hongjian spoke very fast, the translator behind Eustace took a long time to organize the language before he could roughly translate it.

Eustace frowned when he heard the words. He felt that he came with sincerity, but he finally realized that the person in front of him didn't have any sincerity for peace talks.

"My lord, perhaps you should listen to the sincerity of the Dutch state." Eustace felt that it must be serious.

He thought that even if the person in front of him was not sincere in the peace talks, as long as he spoke of the sincerity of Governor Cohen, he would be tempted. He also believed that this was a reason that Da Ming could not refuse.

Liu Hongjian took a brand new bolt-action rifle from his personal guard, and slowly turned the muzzle towards Eustace.

"Oh, tell me." Liu Hongjian said while aiming.

"My lord... my lord, there is...there is a saying in your country that two countries do not fight each other, you..." Eustace wanted to say, but the moment the gun was turned on him, he felt something in his mind Blank.

This is the first time someone has pointed a gun at a negotiation.

"This king didn't say he was going to kill you. Tell me quickly, or I might really shake your hands." Liu Hongjian clearly saw Eustace's Adam's apple through the scope. Out of fear, Eustace Adams' Adam's Apple was bouncing up and down, swallowing.

After the propellant of the bolt-action rifle is replaced with yellow explosive, it not only has a longer range, but also greatly improves the stability. In addition, the yellow explosive does not produce black smoke, so that the bolt-action rifle already has the standard for adding a scope.

Of course, limited by technical and hardware conditions, the scope is only equivalent to twice the scope of later generations. If veterans practice hard, they can accurately strike targets within 100 meters.

Moreover, the output of scopes is not high. At present, only Liu Hongjian's personal guard battalion and some veterans of the Imperial Guard are equipped.

"Holland... The Netherlands will not pursue the war between Taiwan and... Japan, and recognize that the interests of the two places belong to Ming Dynasty." Eustace said cautiously, staring at the muzzle of the gun.

"I'm sorry, but I don't care if your Dutch state recognizes it or not." After Liu Hongjian stroked the silver barrel twice, he pressed the bullet into the barrel with a click.

"My lord!" Eustace seemed to know what it meant to pull the bolt, and he fell to his knees with his legs limp in fright.

"If you agree to the peace talks, your country's merchant ships will have unimpeded access to Nanyang. Doesn't your court just want to open up the Nanyang route? As long as you agree, Ming's merchants will not encounter any trouble on this route.

There are also two merchant ships traveling with me, which are loaded with 30 marks of silver. If converted into your country's unit of measurement, it is 160 million taels.

This is a personal gift from Earl Cohen to you. If you agree to the peace talks, you will receive at least this amount of gift every year. "

Eustace was really frightened. He was afraid that he would go to God before he had finished speaking, so that his speech became very fast afterwards.

"Hehe, thank you for your kindness, since you like to listen to Daming's proverbs, then this king will tell you one more thing, how can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch!
You remember, Nanyang belongs to Ming Dynasty, I can stop the war, the condition is that you Dutch get out of Nanyang, I don’t want to see any Dutch in Nanyang!

If you want peace talks, this is my king's condition.

But because you sent so much money for this king, this king will not kill you, go back, tell your governor, Daming will use his strength to tell him what it means to be fearless! "

Does Liu Hongjian care about money?Of course I care!But once the money reaches a certain level, it will completely become a number, because there is no way to spend it all.

He owns 30.00% of the shares of Xishan Shanghe, and the annual dividends are as high as several million taels, but he receives the special allowance from Lao Zhu and Xiao Zhu, so he doesn't need any money at all to eat and drink.

It seems that these Dutchmen have done investigations and know that there are many officials in Ming Dynasty who are greedy for money. If ordinary officials are hit with 150 million taels of silver, they will basically not be able to stand the temptation.

After all, the conditions of the Dutch have basically reached the purpose of the imperial court, isn't it just to open up air routes for trade?
Now the Dutch have voluntarily agreed, and there is still 150 million taels of silver a year, 150 million taels, if converted into future generations, it will be nearly 1 million RMB (estimated at the price in the Wanli year).

But they happened to meet someone who was not short of money, and this person who was not short of money happened to have a very high vision.

Liu Hung-chien understood that even if the Dutch agreed to allow the Ming merchant ship to sail through the South Seas, Daming would still have his throat stuck because Malacca was not owned by Ming.

Eustace finally left in despair. Although the money was taken away and nothing was done, he was glad that he saved his life and went back.

Five days later, Liu Hongjian led the fleet to the waters off Luzon Island. At that time, Marquis Lancelot, the commander-in-chief of the Batavia Navy Fleet, had been waiting here for a long time.

If Liu Hongjian guessed correctly, the Dutch must have been ready for war long before the negotiations.

"Looking at the situation, the Dutch must have mobilized all the warships in Nanyang to this place!" Liu Hongjian said with a binoculars and glanced at the Dutch warships in the distance.

……

(End of this chapter)