Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 549 Must Surrender Unconditionally

Zhelan has become an isolated city.

However, after the Ming army went smoothly at the beginning, it became difficult when facing the city of Zeelandia. Zeelandia is a bastion. Although the outer fortifications have not been completed, it is still a bastion with strong defensive performance.

It has a lot of artillery, and there are many musketeers in the castle, and there are even two warships parked outside.

Even in addition to the main bastion and Half Moon Fort in Zeelandia City, there is also a Utrecht Fort standing on the outer sand dunes to provide additional firepower.

Although there were no auxiliary fortifications such as inclined dikes, ditches, fences, and low walls, the Ming army had never fought this kind of castle, especially the imperial camp, which also belonged to a new army.

However, the Zheng's army in Fujian did not work hard, and the soldiers transferred from Guangdong and Guangxi were inexperienced. Zhu Chenggong spent a lot of time, but he had to be busy first rectifying the various troops, and even had to often urge Fujian to transport food and pay. come over.

After several storms failed to capture.

Zhu Chenggong began to use stupid methods to build a stronghold and fight a dull battle. First, he surrounded it, then dug the surrounding trenches, and then built a fort.

Confront the Dutch artillery and gradually destroy the outer wall of the Dutch castle.

And so on until August.

Governor Batavia sent a second batch of reinforcements, consisting of four warships and [-] soldiers. Fleet Commander Van der Lang was also a battle-tested commander.

The four battleships are also relatively advanced, with 36, 34, 33 and 32 cannons respectively.

In the Far East, this is very powerful.

But Van der Lang finally arrived in Taiwan, and just after unloading a little supply and fifty soldiers, a strong wind blew up on the calm sea, forcing the ship to retreat to the direction of Penghu for shelter.

It took more than 20 days to leave.

He was even forced to wander to the sea in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and wanted to return when the wind stopped, but he was attacked by the coastal navy of the Ming Dynasty. When he returned to Taiwan in embarrassment, he was intercepted by the Ming fleet commanded by Zhu Chenggong himself.

Van der Lang hoped to rely on the advantages of more ships and cannons to directly solve the siege at both ends of the sea and land, but it turned out that neither the wind speed nor the hydrology were conducive to them, and Zhu Chenggong had already seized the advantage.

Not only could the Dutch fleet fail to launch a fierce firing formation as planned, but they were squeezed into a group and could not move. Their twelve small boats were forced to rush into the Ming fleet alone, and were hit head-on, and the entire army was wiped out.

Although Zhu Chenggong is young, he has many rich Zheng's water warfare officers under his command. Under his leadership, he stormed the Dutch fleet.

The gunners on the Cochrane were flustered, and as a result, the artillery was overfilled with ammunition and exploded, and then was directly sunk by the Ming army fort on the shore because it ran aground.

Another Keldenhof was also beaten and ran aground on the beach. Although the crew and soldiers abandoned the ship and escaped, the battleship was rushed to and captured by the Ming army.

After a battle, the Dutch killed more than 300 people, injured countless people, and lost two warships.

After this battle, the Dutch company had four remaining warships in total.

After unloading the wounded soldiers and leaving some supplies and ammunition for the city of Zeelandia, Van der Lang took all four ships away from Taiwan. He let the castle continue to stand for reinforcements. He took the fleet away to avoid being surrounded by the Ming army navy. overwhelmed.

Van der Lang, who left Taiwan, sent people back to Batavia to report to the governor for help, while running to Japan.

Years ago, Zhu Chenggong got a batch of new artillery sent by the emperor, and even got the siege tactics drawn up by the emperor himself. First, he built perfect fortifications, trenches, The fort, followed by 100 heavy artillery pieces, began to fire violently from the morning, and continued to bombard for eight hours, firing more than 500 shells.

Zeelandia City could not provide much support due to the limited shooting angle, and watched the outer fortresses crumbling from being bombarded.

In the end, the Dutch had no choice but to detonate the gunpowder in the castle before the Ming army invaded, and then abandoned the castle and fled.

After losing the only support point on the periphery, Zeelandia Castle was left alone. At this time, news came that the Chicken Coop Fort in the north was also captured by another Ming army after a long siege.

The desperate Dutch did not wait for reinforcements.

Van der Lang, who was hiding in Japan, waited for the governor's reply.

The governor couldn't send him any more reinforcements, and he couldn't afford such a big loss.

So the governor asked him to go to Shandong, meet the Emperor of Ming, and ask for negotiations, hoping to restore Taiwan through negotiations, and even told him that the emperor of Ming was different from the previous emperor of Ming, and he was very open to open trade.

So maybe there is no need to use force to force Daming to trade, and you can trade directly with them.

As long as Ming is willing to open ports to direct trade with the Dutch, then the Dutch East India Company can give up Taiwan. Of course, the premise is that Ming must guarantee not to intercept the trade route from the Netherlands to Nagasaki.

Before Van der Lang came, he felt that if Holland was willing to take the initiative to make some concessions, then Daming would readily agree.

After all, they can cooperate with the Portuguese in Macau and the Spaniard in Manila. There is no reason to reject the stronger Dutch.

As for a Taiwan, give it back to them, as long as they can get the right to trade directly with Ming Dynasty, what is there to fight for a broken Taiwan.

At that time, it was also because Ming Dynasty was unwilling to trade, and even Penghu refused to give it to Taiwan, so it took over Taiwan, which is far away from the air route. After years of development, nothing has been developed.

If Daming is willing to lease an island to them in Fujian, Guangdong, or even Zhejiang, such as Wenzhou Shuangyu, Ningbo Shuangyu, etc., it doesn’t need to be big, as long as there is a port to facilitate the entry and exit of merchant ships, it doesn’t matter if it is small, absolutely Thousands of times stronger than Taiwan.

They are even willing to pay a little more rent.

But after arriving in Dengzhou, Fan der Lang realized that this was not the Ming Dynasty he remembered.

completely different.

He had a preliminary talk with several Ming Dynasty officials, and found that they not only knew the outside world very well, but also knew the details of the Dutch East India Company, and even told them clearly that Ming Dynasty had enough strength to block the East China Sea. Not only can the Dutch not gain a foothold in Taiwan, they can't even pass by the coast of Daming, and Ming can make it impossible for them to maintain the route to Japan.

Not a single boat will let them pass.

It can also be done, one or two pieces of raw silk, one piece of porcelain, and one bag of tea are not allowed to be bought by the Dutch East India Company, nor through Zheng's.

Taiwan fought for half a year, and lost four warships, sank two and captured two, and killed nearly a thousand people. This was an unbearable loss for the governor of Batavia.

If Taiwan is lost, and even the trade with Japan is lost, it will be too great a loss for the Dutch.

All of a sudden, the initiative was completely in Daming's hands.

Yesterday, a great scholar from Daming summoned him and told him directly about Daming's conditions.

The Dutch in Taiwan surrendered unconditionally, and Ming could allow them to return to Batavia, but apart from their belongings, nothing on Taiwan Island could be taken away.

Even Van der Lang's four warships cannot be taken away, but Daming is willing to buy them, using silk, porcelain, tea, etc. to buy their ships and guns.

Daming can sign a trade treaty with the Dutch, but it must be signed according to the rules set by Daming. From ports to customs duties, everything must be done according to the rules of Daming.

There are even additional conditions for friendly trade. For example, when Dutch merchant ships come to China, each ship must carry at least how much food and money each time. Even if they commit crimes in China, they must accept Ming’s laws and punishment.

In short, Daming is willing to do business with the Dutch, but there are conditions. Not only the tariffs must be at the discretion of Daming, but even the goods to be traded must have requirements. When Daming needs food, they must bring some food along. They need guns When the ship is sold, they also have to sell it.

In short, my rules are the rules, if you want to, then cooperate, if you don't want to, don't even think about appearing on the coast of Daming in the future, and sink when you come!

If the Dutch are interested, they should know that although the conditions are a bit harsh, the East India Company is still profitable, even huge, which is more beneficial than their previous trade contract with Zheng.

All the additional conditions are incidental and not difficult to accept.

Just like the first one now, Van der Lang's four warships have to be sold to Daming, which is the premise of the negotiation.

When he heard these conditions yesterday, he refused without thinking.

But after attending the court meeting today, and then attending the palace banquet, his mind inevitably changed.

He felt that the strength of the Ming Dynasty was not comparable to that of the natives in Batavia, Taiwan, Malacca and other places. Today's Ming army is completely different from the Ming army he came into contact with 20 years ago.

From the emperor to the officials below, it seems that they have completely changed.

They are more pragmatic.

I don't talk about it with you, beat around the bush, it's very straightforward, and I don't even accept his private gifts.

Looking back at the entire Taiwan War, the Dutch were completely beaten, and the warships they were proud of did not get half a point from the Ming army.

Their bastion also couldn't withstand the siege of the Ming army.

They suffered heavy losses, but the Ming army was still able to build castles and villages all over Taiwan while besieging the city. He saw that the bastions built by the Ming army in Taiwan were actually more complete than Zeelandia Castle.

Even the warships of the Ming Army Navy have been greatly improved in terms of size and artillery. Facing their warships, they have no advantage at all, and even have a completely crushing numerical advantage.

Is it really necessary to humiliately accept Daming's conditions, and then make a fortune silently?

Van der Lang hesitated because of face and the great benefits of direct trade with China.

He wants to refuse, but he knows that if these conditions are reported to Batavia, the governor of Batavia who is all about interests will definitely agree, and the top 17 members of the East India Company Council will not take into account What bullshit face, what they want is how much income they can make in a year, as long as the income is large enough, not to mention this face, even if they send troops to fight the barbarians in the north for the Ming emperor, they will be willing.

Thinking of this, looking at the delicious food in front of him, he suddenly lost his appetite.

Those people in the city of Zeelandia in Taiwan who have been besieged for more than half a year are probably still suffering from hunger, and they won't last long, right?

(End of this chapter)