Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 166 Detection
"With all due respect, this may not be a wise decision." Miguel was surprised when he heard Lin Hai's words and quickly advised him, "I remember you once said that the Spaniards are our business partners and the Dutch are our business partners." enemy."

Lin Hai laughed when he heard this and said: "Master Marquis, you have to be careful what you say, otherwise I may think you are speaking for your King Philip IV."

"This is nonsense. The Portuguese have never taken the King of Spain seriously, and we Haojing Portuguese don't even bother to pay attention to the deputy king of Goa." Miguel said and added, "You know , the Governor sent to Haojing by the Vice-King of Goa cannot control anything except the fort."

In fact, not only the Portuguese in Macau, but also in Portugal, they refused to accept technical assistance from Spain because they were afraid that the latter would infiltrate Portugal in this name. Because since the beginning of this century, serious rifts have appeared in the two-pronged alliance on the Iberian Peninsula.

In the final analysis, the Habsburg family only inherited the Portuguese throne. This does not mean that the two countries have merged. The Portuguese have never recognized the Spanish Habsburg royal family from beginning to end. They will launch a riot more than ten years later. Make your own king.

Of course, the situation in Asia was somewhat different. The Vice-King of Goa and the Governor of Manila were de facto allies as they faced the Dutch threat together.

But as Miguel said, the Haojing Portuguese didn't even take the deputy king of Goa seriously. They were just a group of profit-seeking businessmen. You will hang out with anyone who gives you benefits. It is commonly said that if you have breasts, you are a mother.

"As long as your butt is not crooked," Lin Hai replied with a smile. In fact, he knew that Miguel didn't have much identification with Portugal. After all, he had never been to Europe, and his past experience in Goa was not pleasant.

"Hell! If you still doubt me, I can only go and get that Galen back for you to prove my loyalty to the company."

Miguel continued: "But I still advise you not to do this. You are a smart man and should stick to the strategic direction of uniting Spain to deal with the Netherlands. Unless you no longer have the ambition of last year and are willing to become a vassal of the Dutch. "

Lin Haidao: "You know that's impossible. If that's what I planned, there would be no need to set up a company."

Miguel was surprised when he heard this: "Do you plan to be enemies of Spain and the Netherlands at the same time?"

Lin Hai shook his head and said: "Of course not, I just plan to let the Spaniards know our strength. Otherwise, what qualifications do we have to join forces with the Governor of Manila? Will they take us seriously?"

Miguel said: "You must be crazy. You want to join forces with the Spanish and at the same time want to rob other people's ships."

"Mr. Marquis, there are many ways to seize a ship, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a complete betrayal." Lin Hai added, "Given the current situation of the Spaniards, as long as we can fully demonstrate our strength, I believe they can join forces." The will will be very strong.”

Miguel pondered for a moment and then said: "Do you want to take advantage of Galen's ship anchoring in Jilong Port to rush in and occupy the ship by surprise?"

Lin Hai asked back: "Do you think it's feasible?"

"The hope of success is very small. The Spaniards now have more than a dozen ships. They must have sentry ships outside Jilong Port." Miguel continued, "As long as they are given warning time, a firefight is inevitable. I don’t think a Galen more than ten feet long will surrender to us easily.”

"But we still have a high probability of winning, right? As long as we block the waterways on both sides of Jilong Port, the Galen is just a turtle in the urn. The Spanish fort has not been repaired yet, and we can do it at any time. Go in and occupy it." "Of course, Galen is no better than a galley in the offshore, and it is just a floating fort in Jilong Harbor. But even so, we will probably have to pay a lot of casualties, and no one will I can’t say how many guns there are on that ship.”

"Okay, let's not make any guesses here. We don't even know whether the Spaniards sent a Galen. After all, the natives can't tell what the captain looked like. Maybe it was just a Nanyang transport ship. ?”

Lin Hai said and added: "I plan to send a bird boat to Keelung Port to have a look. You arrange a few sailors who recognize various ship types. They must be from the Tang Dynasty to see with your own eyes what kind of ships the Spaniards sent?"

That afternoon, a bird ship loaded with grain and other low-value goods set off from Tamsui to Keelung. They disguised themselves as Zhejiang merchants and went on a sentinel mission.

In the past few months, several ships from Fujian and Zhejiang maritime merchants have docked at Jilong Port, and without exception, they were warmly welcomed by the Spanish.

Two days later, the bird ship returned to Tamsui, and the information it brought back showed that there was now a large Galen more than fifteen feet long moored in Keelung Port, with a visual displacement of about a thousand tons and sixteen gun ports on one side.

In addition, there are two medium-sized Calais boats in the port, with a total of more than 20 rows of oars, and the visual inspection is about eleven or twenty feet long. This is a type of galley that has been popular in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, and the prototype can be traced back to ancient Greece.

The hull of the Calais ship is relatively strong, which is conducive to the mounting of side guns. However, because the oarsmen occupy the side position, the Calais ship can carry light artillery such as Fran cannons on the bulwarks. There is a theory that the centipede ship used by the Ming army to carry Folang machine artillery in the late Jiajing period was an imitation of the Calais ship.

Outside Keelung Port, the bird boat sent by Lin Hai also encountered a Balangai boat. This is a light galley native to Luzon. The ship's planks are connected using the traditional Southeast Asian method of wooden pegs and binding. Therefore, the hull is very fragile and cannot carry any artillery.

Obviously, this is the sentinel ship sent by Spain to perform patrol tasks outside the port. It also assumes the responsibility of diverting water for merchant ships.

"One large Galen, and two medium-sized Galais are included. It's not bad. It's worth causing a little discomfort for our future allies." Lin Hai said to Miguel.

He was actually a little depressed. He originally thought he could pick up three large galen with a weight of more than [-] tons for free, but now it turned out to be just one. But fortunately, the time came one year earlier than expected. This may be regarded as God's compensation for him.

"Two Galai ships can indeed strengthen our immediate combat capabilities, but I really can't understand why you want this Galai ship so much." Miguel puzzled, "We don't have enough sailors to sail it. Use it as a fixed fort?"

"Just use the sailors from that Galen ship." Lin Hai said with a smile, "Besides, if we want to train sailors who can drive Galen ships, don't we have to have a training ship first?"

This is the problem with Western-style square sailing ships. They require too many sailors, and there are really very few Chinese sailors who have experience working on Western-style sailing ships in this era. The reason is simple. There are too few Chinese sailors willing to climb the mast.

If Lin Hai wanted to have a fully sailed fleet, he would have to build his own ships on the one hand, and retrain sailors on the other.

(End of this chapter)