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Chapter 978 Establishing Prestige 2
The expeditionary fleet did not enter the Strait of Malacca and head straight for Banda Aceh, the capital of the Sultanate of Aceh, but headed south to the northern coastline of Borneo. There were two countries or forces here: the Kingdom of Sulu occupied the northeast corner of Borneo, and the Kingdom of Brunei occupied the north, which was roughly the later Brunei Kingdom.

Led by the Nanyang Fleet's communications ship, the Qin-class warships and Guangzhou-class armed cargo ships in the fleet were organized into a team and sailed on the side closer to the coast, while the remaining ships with larger displacement were a little further away.

Whenever a ship was found on the sea, the expeditionary fleet would send out a corresponding warship to inspect it, depending on its size. If it was a merchant ship from another country, it would be allowed to pass, but if it belonged to the Kingdom of Sulu, it would be seized and all the people on board would be arrested.

According to the markings on the nautical chart, the expeditionary fleet also landed and destroyed three cities and dozens of villages of the Sulu Kingdom along the way, capturing nearly 3000 people in four days, and only called off the troops after entering Brunei.

Although Sulu and Brunei were neighbors and both believed in Islam, their attitudes towards the Ming Empire were completely different. The former was firmly opposed, while the latter was determined to cling to the Ming Empire.

In fact, it did not start from the Ming Dynasty. Brunei has always been more tolerant towards Han people, and there are many Chinese living here for a long time. It is said that a few decades ago, a Zhangzhou sea merchant named Zhang was canonized as Nadu Sri, which is a title and official position.

The current King of Brunei is a woman. She led her ministers to the dock to greet the Emperor, and personally boarded the ship to meet the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. She was extremely respectful and her attitude was quite submissive.

After learning that the Ming navy had attacked Sulu's port cities along the way, he was filled with gratitude and even cried in front of his ministers, listing dozens of crimes that Sulu had committed against Brunei.

Judging from what she said, it would be better if the Ming Empire directly destroyed Brunei. This shows what kind of relationship these two countries have on a normal day. Faith has no value at all at this time.

As per the usual practice, Hong Tao did not disembark. He only entertained the Brunei Queen with a dinner on the flagship, said some ambiguous nonsense, had some wild fantasies, and then set sail overnight.

First, we visited two major ports in Johor, and then headed south along the island of Sumatra, passing through a bunch of small countries like Jambi and Palembang. Every time we arrived at a place, we waited on the boat for the local Sultan to come and meet us, showing off our status as the Celestial Empire.

But this pattern was not random. No country that passed by dared to neglect them, and no one dared not to board the ship to meet the emperor in person. Even the Portuguese commander stationed in the port of Malacca made the same choice.

He certainly understood the power of this huge fleet better than the sultan and ministers of the small country. When he learned that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was just passing by, he hurriedly presented a pair of gold-plated pistols as a gift in the name of the Governor-General of Portuguese India. He didn't even dare to eat lunch and slipped away in a cold sweat.

After sailing around the South China Sea for twenty days, passing through ports and countries that should and should not be passed through, the expedition fleet finally arrived at the last port of call, Batavia.

"Compared with more than ten years ago, this fortress seems to be more than one circle larger!" This was not the first time that Hong Tao came to the port of Batavia. He had passed by here on the way back when he led the fleet to the Cape of Good Hope.

"They are just for show. Their artillery batteries don't have enough range. If they encounter the Imperial Navy, they will only get beaten. No matter how big the fortress is, it will be in vain."

At this time, the naval officer standing on the other side of the helm thought the emperor was asking a question. He turned around and looked at the senior officers around him and saw that no one responded. He thought they didn't hear it clearly, so he volunteered to answer the question.

Whenever Hong Tao got on board, he would habitually stand at the C position, which was the right side of the steering platform. Normally, this was the captain's position, but in order to show respect to the emperor who personally created the navy, there was an unwritten rule in the navy that the captain stood on the left side of the steering platform instead, and the right side was always empty, and no one except the emperor was allowed to stand there.

"Aren't you being too arrogant?" The officer who answered was standing on the left side of the rudder. He was about 30 years old, sturdy, with a beard. He didn't look familiar at all. Judging from his rank, with blue shoulder straps and four silver stars, he was only a fifth-rank military general. Obviously, he was not one of the first few batches to join the navy, so he was even less familiar with him.

"The General Staff has done a sand table simulation. If we only send two thousand Marines ashore, the Dutch can have fewer casualties if they surrender within a day. If they insist on holding out until the next day, there won't be many left."

Seeing that the emperor had replied, the officer's original awkwardness disappeared, and he spoke shamelessly about the reason for his arrogance. As he spoke, he gestured in the air with his hands, as if there was a battle map in front of him.

"So do you think the Dutch will fight to the death or surrender?"

Regardless of whether the sand table simulation results conducted by the Navy General Staff were reliable, Hong Tao found it very special that the emperor could still talk and laugh freely when he knew that he was the emperor and was face to face with him, so he deliberately continued the topic.

"Most of them are mercenaries who travel across the ocean just to make money. Few of them would choose to fight to the death. In fact, the Land Guards don't have to rush to attack. As long as they sink the Dutch ships to cut off their hope of escape, and then bombard them with artillery fire a few times, they will realize that the situation is unfavorable and they will most likely choose to negotiate surrender.

In their hometown, it is not a shame to surrender if you cannot win. If an officer forces soldiers to die fearlessly even though he knows that there is no hope of winning, he will be judged instead. "The officer was a little proud to be able to speak freely in front of the emperor.

"It seems that you know the Dutch very well. Did the General Staff teach you this?"

This answer made Hong Tao look at him with new eyes. With the development of maritime trade, some people in the Ming Empire had gradually gone abroad, gained a substantial understanding of the world, and began to understand foreign countries and foreigners.

However, the majority of the people are still lacking opportunities in this field and are still in a confused stage. If the Navy Staff has already started to systematically train officers in this field, it will be ahead of itself and is worthy of praise and promotion.

"I was stationed in Colombo Harbor, where there were many Portuguese and German mercenaries. I was also often ordered to escort merchant ships from Batavia to Enniao Harbor, and I met many Dutch captains and sailors.

I like chatting with them, and they like chatting as long as they have wine to drink. The Dutch, Portuguese, and Germans are all similar, more than half of them are civilians in their respective countries, and they run out to make money.

If they encounter natives with little fighting ability, they will have no problem using both deception and fighting to seize a port as a base, but if they encounter tough guys who fight to the death, they will be afraid. If they don't have enough manpower, they will simply move to another place and rarely fight to the death.

In fact, they are bullying the natives because they don’t have muskets and cannons. If the merchants of the Ming Dynasty can obtain the will of His Majesty and be allowed to buy muskets and cannons, they will not rob less than them if they go out for a walk. Maybe the small countries in Southeast Asia will let them…”

As a result, Hong Tao guessed wrong. The officer's understanding of Europeans was not intentionally trained by the Navy Staff, but was summarized by him through his daily work. Not to mention, he inquired quite comprehensively, even asking about how European countries expanded their overseas colonies, and made his own evaluation.

(End of this chapter)