Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 548 Expedition Commander
Zhengdan night.

Palace state banquet.

It was snowing outside, and Dengzhou Port had long been frozen by solid ice.

In Penglai Palace, the interior is as warm as spring.

Guanglu Temple has been preparing for a long time, so even though it is wartime, this banquet still shows the true colors of the Great Tomorrow Dynasty, and the various dishes are exquisite.

Van der Laan, the commander of the Far East of the Dutch East India Company from Batavia, sat in this brightly lit hall, enjoying the exquisite delicacies in front of him, which made him feel that this is really an extremely magical place.

Before coming from Batavia, he once thought that this trip would not be difficult. After all, the Ming Kingdom in the Far East is a decayed and backward Han country, and it has just been invaded by the barbarians in the Northeast, and even the two capitals have been taken away. , they are already lingering in the south.

How dare you send troops to Dutch Taiwan? You are really beyond your control.

Although as early as 20 years ago, when Fan der Lang was just a musketeer on an armed merchant ship, he had come to the Far East and fought against the Ming army.

That was in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch East India Company sent seven warships and 900 soldiers to invade Penghu for the second time in order to establish a transfer station for the trade route from Batavia to Nagasaki, Japan, and even for direct trade with China. And blocked the Zhangzhou estuary.

The last time they invaded Penghu was 18 years ago in the 32nd year of Wanli. The fleet commander Wei Malang led a fleet to invade Penghu and asked for a mutual market, but was rejected by the governor of Fujian. He sent the governor Shen Yourong to Penghu to repel the Dutch.

The unwilling Dutch made a comeback 18 years later. Fujian governor Nan Juyi arrived in Kinmen in person, led [-] soldiers and [-] warships, and crossed the sea to recover Penghu.

After seven months of hard work and a military expenditure of 17 taels, the Dutch were finally repelled, forcing them to abandon Penghu, which had been occupied for two years, and retreat to Taiwan.

At that time, Van der Lang was just a young musketeer. After four months of training in the bastion of Batavia, he came to Penghu with the boat and stationed the castle on the island, because the castle was relatively simple at that time, and it was an unfinished castle. , an imperfect bastion, so facing the siege of the Ming army of 1 horses, especially after Zheng Zhilong's Zhao'an pirates were transferred, the Dutch finally retreated.

In that battle, although the young Fan der Lang also suffered two wounds, he killed more than a dozen Ming soldiers, so he looked down on the Ming soldiers from the bottom of his heart.

After withdrawing to Taiwan, he stayed there for a while, and then returned to Batavia. For the next 20 years, he basically stayed in Nanyang, fighting with the Portuguese, fighting with the natives of Nanyang, and suppressing pirates at sea. , and even fought against Zheng Shi many times.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch fought twice in Penghu, but the two sides had different ideas.

The Netherlands is a sea coachman and a country of commerce. The East India Company is a magical thing. They came to the Far East and took a fancy to a small island like Penghu. The transfer station is not only to break through the trade blockade of Portugal and the Spaniards, but also to trade directly with Daming.

It's a pity that although Daming's coastal trade is very popular, it is basically smuggling. The only official port of Yuegang is in Zhangzhou. It's a pity that Daming doesn't look down on the Dutch at all, and even directly considers them pirates.

Come and fight, come and fight again.

The Dutch occupied Taiwan, but Ming didn't care about it at all. Anyway, the deserted islands overseas didn't affect Daming.

But Penghu can’t, because Penghu is just across from Fujian, not to mention that the Dutch came to make trouble after occupying Penghu, not only blocking Zhangquan port, but also attacking merchant ships passing by.

Later, after they were repelled, Da Ming ignored them. Although they often came to ask Da Ming for trade later, who cares about you.

The new governor of the East India Company, Peter Senkun, is a very powerful man with great ambitions. In his report to the 17-member council, he directly stated that the example of China made us realize that we cannot seek trade through peaceful means. Without force, the right to trade cannot be obtained.

So he sent a fleet to Ming Dynasty, and told the fleet commander that the mission of this fleet is to establish free commercial relations with China, and at the same time destroy the trade relations between Spain and Portugal and Ming Dynasty. Trade with Japan, and then send part of the fleet to Penghu, where they built forts to intercept merchant ships sailing between Xiamen and Manila.

As long as these goals are achieved, the monopoly of Fujian's trade in the future will naturally fall into the hands of the Dutch like a ripe apple.

He not only asked the fleet to use military means to knock on the door of China's trade, but even asked to plunder the population along the coast of China to build a new colony of Batavia.

In the second year of Tianqi, 130 warships of the Dutch fleet led by Commander Lei Yeshan first raided Macau, fought for two days, lost [-] people, and finally retreated without success.

Go north to Penghu. After arriving in Penghu, they sent ships to Taiwan and began to plunder the inland coastal areas.

The Dutch called Taiwan Island Formosa Island, but later discovered that there are only a few mainland merchant ships coming here for trade every year, and then a few Japanese merchant ships come to connect. This amount of trade does not arouse the interest of the Dutch at all.

In the end, I still think that the port location and conditions of Penghu are better, so I choose to occupy Penghu and build a castle for development.

Later, at the beginning of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong's strength gradually became stronger, and he was recruited by the imperial court to control Xiamen, Jinmen and other places.

Later, Zheng Zhilong took the initiative to sign a trade agreement with the Dutch. The two parties agreed not to attack and invade each other. Commercial goods exported to Daming can only be traded with the Zheng family, not with Daming, nor with other maritime merchants.

And the Zheng family can only trade with the Dutch, and cannot directly sail to Manila controlled by Spain, Macau controlled by the Portuguese, or the farther South Sea islands to trade.

However, after the signing of this treaty, the two sides are still not satisfied, various temptations, and even attacks.

Zheng Zhilong used the agreement he reached with the Dutch to lure the men of Li Kuiqi, the largest fleet at sea at that time, to rebel, and then cooperated with the outside world to join forces with the Zheng family and the Dutch fleet to capture Li Kuiqi alive.

The Dutch also followed suit and instigated Li Kui's subordinates to rebel against Zheng Zhilong, hoping to take the opportunity to suppress the Zheng family and gain more benefits. As a result, after Zheng Zhilong came to the Ming Dynasty, with the support of the Ming Dynasty, he quickly suppressed the rebellion. Human conflicts are on the verge of breaking out.

So the Dutch later launched an attack on the Ming Dynasty during the decisive battle between Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang. A fleet attacked Nan'ao, and a fleet attacked Xiamen, Zheng Zhilong's hometown.

The Dutch severely injured the Ming Navy and Zheng Zhilong, but Zheng Zhilong held back the Dutch by slowing down his troops. Then Zheng Zhilong joined forces with the Imperial Navy, and the two sides held a sea battle in Liuluo Bay.

But it turned out that Zheng Zhilong sank two Dutch warships, captured one, and sank dozens of Liu Xiang's pirate ships, which greatly damaged the alliance between the Dutch and Liu Xiang.

Zheng Zhilong also showed his superb level. He took the initiative to write a letter to the Dutch, offering to accept the Dutch to do business along the coast, and to encourage them to trade in Taiwan. With some means, he successfully divided the Dutch from the Liuxiang Pirate Group. alliance.

Later, Liu Xiang stationed troops in Penghu, trying to form an alliance with the Dutch again, but the Dutch rejected him. Liu Xiang, who became furious, sent troops to attack the Dutch fortifications in Taiwan, but he was weak and had no idea about this kind of Western-style bastion. There was no other way, and in the end he had to return angrily.

Liu Xiang, who lost his strong support, became a bereaved dog. Zheng Zhilong took advantage of the victory to pursue, beat the dog in the water, and successfully wiped out Liu Xiang.

After that, the Dutch also realized the stubbornness of the Ming Dynasty and the strength of the Zheng family, so they completely gave up directly attacking the heart of China, and simply developed in Taiwan with peace of mind, and were forced to accept the reality of trade through the Zheng family.

After years of operation, they established the trade route of Batavia, Taiwan and Nagasaki.

The two sides have also maintained stability for more than ten years.

Van der Lang has also grown from a young man when he attacked Penghu to an old man who is almost 50 years old now, and he has achieved the position of a fleet commander step by step.

It's just that the situation he faces now is much worse than that of his fleet commander back then.

In fact, before the Ming army was going to attack Taiwan, rumors had already been received there, and this rumor was also from the Zheng family.Zheng secretly sent someone to inform the Dutch in Taiwan that the army was coming to seize Taiwan.

The Dutch quickly sent a boat back to Batavia, asking for reinforcements.

After Batavia heard about it, they were still a little nervous, and immediately sent a fleet to the north. As a result, they first encountered a storm, and then contracted a disease midway. More than 600 soldiers were infected. out of combat.

The rescue fleet wanted to return, but Taiwan's Senate voted against their return and called off another mission on their trip to seize Macau.

They asked for reinforcements and stationed in Taiwan.

But the commander of the fleet is the governor's confidant. To maintain this fleet permanently in Taiwan, the benefits and costs are not directly proportional. They belong to the East India Company, and the first thing they want to do is to return benefits.

So in the end the fleet left more than 600 sick soldiers, and then took away all the officers and two warships.

Therefore, when the Ming army crossed the sea to attack, there were only four Dutch warships left in Zeelandia at that time, the largest of which, the Hector, could only carry more than 30 guns, and the second largest, the Lagerforan, could only carry guns. More than 20 doors.

The Ming army crossed the sea to attack, and as many as 2 troops arrived one after another.

Only then did the Dutch defenders finally believe that the Ming army had really come.

They could only hastily pull all the food supplies into Zeelandia Castle, and at the same time blockade the town, not allowing the Chinese in the city to go out, and even detained some Chinese elders to avoid being informed by the insiders.

At this time the Dutch had three strongholds in Taiwan.

Among them, the Chicken Coop Castle was originally occupied by the Spaniards, and it is too far apart in northern Taiwan.

The southern sandbar where Zeelandia Fort and the town are located is very close to another fortress, Prominisc Fort, across the sea.

However, because nothing happened for many years, all the Dutch fortifications on the outskirts of the city of Zeelandia had long been abandoned and had not been completed.There is a Weibao Chikan City in Prominsi Fort.

It's just that there are very few people stationed in Taiwan.

There were no more than 800 soldiers in the Zhelanja Bastion, more than 800 gunners, and no more than [-] men, women, children and slaves.

The garrison of Fort Prominisc is even smaller, with only more than 100 soldiers and not much gunpowder.

The Dutch did not expect that the Zheng family, who had always been an ally, would come to attack again after years of peace and harmony, led by Zheng Zhilong's son.

Zheng Zhilong was the main general who attacked Taiwan, and his subordinates were mainly from the imperial camp in Fujian, but he also transferred many Fujian Zheng's troops, many of whom were familiar with Taiwan.

For example, when Zheng Zhilong signed the agreement with the Dutch, in order to win the trust of the Dutch, he sent his brothers Zhihu and Zheng Cai to stay in Zeelandia for a year as hostages and trade representatives, so they were very concerned about the situation here. very familiar.

The Luermen Channel in Dayuan Bay is relatively shallow, with twists and turns on both sides, and it is difficult for large ships to pass through. It can be regarded as a natural defense, but the Zheng family has long grasped the laws of tidal seasons, and let warships of all sizes rush in while the tide is high.

Under the overwhelming advantage of the warships of the Ming army, they successfully landed on the coast near Chikan City and Promincia Fort.

In order to rescue this stronghold, the Dutch sent more than 200 musketeers to the rescue. As a result, Zhu Chenggong personally led the Iron Man Army and covered it with naval guns.

The [-] Iron Man Army cut down the entire army of [-] musketeers with swords and shields, and cut their commanders in half.

For the purpose of fire support, the Dutch approached the warships, but they fell into Zheng Zhilong's trick to lure the enemy, and hundreds of large and small warships surrounded them like a pack of wolves.

The space on the battlefield is narrow, and it is difficult for the Dutch warships to play. Among them, the largest battleship, Hector, was hit by a shell and exploded in the gunpowder magazine. It sank with more than 100 soldiers. The other three warships wanted to run away. , As a result, the second largest Lagerforan was besieged. The Ming army jumped onto the ship and fought in close combat. They just captured this battleship with more than 20 heavy guns, and all the hundreds of soldiers on board were also captured.

More than 200 musketeers were wiped out, and two main warships were lost, making the Dutch in the castle tremble. In fact, Taiwan has not had war for too long, so the musketeers sent here are all unprofessional. Before they were sent, they should have received at least two months of training in the Batavia bastion.

But these people did not receive training according to the rules at all, and many of them were sent over as recruits.

Moreover, the salaries of these people in the East India Company are extremely low, and they usually have to spend money to buy clothes and equipment from the company, so most soldiers usually have to work part-time, or even desert to work full-time, and then hire comrades to help on duty. Or just pay the officer directly.

The result of this is that the combat effectiveness of these soldiers is very low.

As the commander, Peder had actually received the signal to retreat, but his son was killed in the previous battle, so he really wanted to kill the enemy to vent his anger. He ignored the signal to retreat and pushed forward with more than 200 musketeers. He even wanted to repel the Ming army with a few light cannons he brought.

He felt that there were only about [-] infantrymen landing on the opposite side, and they were still holding cold weapons like broadswords. Such an indigenous army, their musketeers could defeat them with a few rounds of guns.

Unexpectedly, what he met was the elite of Zhu Chenggong's battalion, the first battalion of iron men who had been promoted.

There were not many defenders, ammunition, or even food in the divided and surrounded Fort Prominia. After being surrounded by Zhu Chenggong's regiments and bombarded day and night, they quickly surrendered.

Several hundred Dutchmen from the city fled to Zeelandia.

Then Chikan City, which lost its guard, immediately fell into the hands of the Ming army.

Even the local Chinese have organized to provide assistance.

(End of this chapter)