The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 900 Southeast Asia

Originally, Zheng Zhilong didn't have the extravagant hope that the Longwu Navy would dispatch the main force to help the Zheng family gain a foothold.

Unexpectedly, not only Huang Yong, the captain of the Longwu Navy, led the army in person, but also dispatched 27 warships.

Zheng Zhilong also saw the fierce marines on the warship, and after inquiring, he found out that there were two battalions of 7000 people here.

Zheng Zhilong, who originally thought that the Zheng family would pay a huge price for the new territory, suddenly felt overjoyed.

After all the calculations, the Longwu Marine Division dispatched nearly 8000 people, and even brought a field hospital. It is obvious that the "King of the Han River" has no intention of weakening the Zheng family.

Originally, Zheng Zhilong always believed that the Longwu Navy would let the Zheng family fight with pirates or Xiyi, and finally reap the benefits of the fisherman.

Unexpectedly, looking at this posture, people have long been prepared to fight big battles, fight bad battles, and fight tough battles. It seems that I have been a villain in vain.

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, swords were everywhere, and Daming was extremely weak. Even so, a thin camel was bigger than a horse. The huge empire of Daming was not easily shaken by any small Xiyi country.

In this era, the ten countries in Southeast Asia may have dozens of large and small Sudanese kingdoms. Except for two or three kingdoms that are quite powerful, many small countries have little soldiers, generals and widows, and they are all like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Fortunately, European countries have a shortcoming of a pitifully small population, otherwise the entire Southeast Asia would be occupied by Europeans, and even develop into the inherent territory of Western Yi.

The production of cotton cloth, glassware, white wine, porcelain, and luxury accessories of the "Red Banner Army" system exploded, and a larger market needs to be expanded.

The Ayutthaya Kingdom and Taungoo Kingdom have larger populations and better economic levels than Quang Nam and Dai Viet, with huge market potential.

The Kingdom of Ayutthaya cannot be regarded as the later Thailand, and its territory is much larger.

Because they destroyed the once extremely powerful Angkor dynasty 200 years ago, Angkor Wat disappeared from the world for 500 years, and it was not until the middle of the [-]th century that it was seen again.

The Taungoo Kingdom is roughly equal to the Burmese of the later generations. At this time, it is in the best period. The country extends to the Malay Peninsula. Under the rule of King Thalong, the country is rich and the people are strong.

When it comes time to compete for the markets of these two relatively large countries in Southeast Asia, the Longwu Navy will of course bombard the gates of the Southeast Asian countries with strong ships and cannons, forcing them to come to trade and plunder the resources here.

Don't be afraid that these countries don't have too many commodities to trade. If it doesn't work, just buying their rice is better than nothing.

As for whether it caused food shortages and starvation in these countries, Huang Han didn't care.

Huang Han only cared about the food and clothing problems of hundreds of millions of Han people, and what urgently needed to be solved was the food crisis in Ming Dynasty.

The big cake in Southeast Asia has also attracted the salivation of European countries. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries have long started trade and plunder, and it is not uncommon to compete with each other for colonies.

The Ming market is the focus of the Western Yi competition. Historically, Spain even fought the Netherlands for Taiwan. In the end, Spain, which was already in decline, lost the war.

Nowadays, due to the Longwu navy's dominance in the South China Sea, the Western Yi kingdoms have retreated despite difficulties. The direct consequence is that the Western Yi kingdoms have greatly increased their troops to fight for Southeast Asia.

Competitors are not vegetarians, and if they don’t have a good set of teeth, if they want to come to Siam Bay to do things, they will be killed in all likelihood.

The entire English fleet led by Weddell was wiped out, and the English royal family did not understand why the fleet that went to the Far East for trade did not return.

Ever since, another fleet from England sailed to the Far East. They came not only for trade and colonization, but also for a mission to understand the mystery of the disappearance of Weddell's fleet.

The Singapore of the later generations is now a barren land with no dog shit. There is a group of pirates entrenched on this island with a radius of less than [-] miles. Counting their families, the number of them does not exceed [-]. There are basically no warships in the true sense. There are more than a dozen armed merchant ships.

Such an enemy is vulnerable, and being shot down in one blow is equivalent to providing some supplies for the Zheng family, and two or three thousand laborers.

Zheng Zhilong was extremely excited when he reached the ground and stood firm. Huang Yong followed Huang Han's instructions and named the island "Xingdao", and the bastion being built on the island was called "Sea City".

Some of the young officers in the Marine Corps graduated from the foreign language academy. They interrogated the captured pirates and captured the sailors on merchant ships and warships, and quickly mastered several nearby pirate colonies.

Fighting pirates can not only seize gold, silver, treasures and materials, but also get free labor. Of course, the "Red Banner Army" and Zheng's private soldiers never tire of it.

Facing the Longwu navy with advanced warships and the power of the country, mere pirates are hard to stand up to.

Within a month, the pirate lairs within [-] nautical miles of Xingdao were swept away. Huang Yong and Zheng Zhilong seized a large amount of gold, silver, treasures and supplies, and rescued many Han Chinese who were enslaved.

When the loot was distributed, most of the civilian and military supplies were given to Zheng Zhilong, which immediately relieved the urgent need of "Xingdao"'s shortage of supplies, otherwise the pots and pans would have to find a place to buy or go back to their hometown to carry them.

Of the dozens of armed merchant ships seized, Huang Yong didn't pay attention to a few of them, leaving more than half of them to the Zheng family.

Zheng Zhilong reciprocated and refused to share the seized gold and silver treasures. Of course Huang Yong accepted it with a smile. After negotiating with Zheng Zhilong, he planned to return to the voyage.

Before "Haicheng" had a defensive function, Zheng Zhilong's warships had to stay at "Xingdao" to prevent accidents. The [-] armed merchant ships that had completed unloading followed the Longwu Navy back to Fujian to continue to transfer immigrants and supplies.

Because there are still many family members of the Zheng Group that need to be transported, and many belongings that need to be transported, a city with [-] to [-] soldiers and civilians was born from scratch, and so many daily necessities are needed.

I don't know if Huang Yong and Zheng Zhilong are lucky, or the English are doomed to be unlucky.

A formation of eleven English warships with a displacement of [-] to [-] tons looted along the way.

When sailing to the east of the Strait of Malacca and preparing to head north to Siam, there were already three more warships and seven armed merchant ships. These ten ships were all of the Galen type, with a displacement of no less than [-] tons.

The warships of the Longwu Navy all carry sentry ships. Knowing that the route through the Strait of Malacca is very busy, dozens of sentry ships are patrolling the east mouth of the strait, and have successfully discovered seven or eight Xiyi armed merchant ships and privateers.

Now these merchant ships and pirate ships have naturally become the spoils of the Longwu Navy.

Seeing the Mi Ziqi again, this very recognizable flag is familiar to everyone in the Longwu Navy.

As a result, unfortunately, England lost eleven more warships and lost more than 21 crew members. Zheng Zhilong had [-] more matchlock guns made by the English, and [-] long-barreled cannons of different sizes and calibers. The division had [-] more merchant ships.

(End of this chapter)