Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 274 The Unbreakable Fortress (please vote for monthly reading)

There is another important reason why the Europeans are so eager to attack the Eastern Ryukyu Company.

That's because China already has ports in Europe. If they don't take action at this time, I'm afraid more Chinese sail battleships will flock to Europe within a few months.

By then, even if they want to use force, they may not be able to do so.

As for the commercial credit advocated by the Dutch, they had long been forgotten at this time.

These so-called businessmen are originally pirates and robbers. If China were not powerful enough, they would not tell you any business rules at all.

Now that all the rules are controlled by the Chinese, they can only return to the most primitive way of robbery.

Of course, the British also had their own considerations in this matter and chose to take action in Amsterdam. Even if China came in to retaliate, they would vent their anger on the Dutch.

After all, we are separated from the European continent by the English Channel, and the Chinese army will not be able to threaten us for a while.

The British have already thought about it. Once China sends troops to threaten the Netherlands, he will suggest that the Netherlands transfer all shipyards and workers to the UK, so that the UK can fully take over the Dutch shipbuilding industry.

More sailing battleships could ensure the maritime supremacy of the British Empire.

Even if the Chinese army can wreak havoc in Europe and cannot cross the English Channel, they still have nothing to do with themselves.

On the one hand, Spain, Portugal and France wanted to vent their anger because their overseas colonies and strongholds in Asia were occupied by China.

It was more because they were interested in the Eastern Ryukyu Company's wealth in Europe and wanted to get a share of the pie.

On October 1638, the seventh year of the Qianxi reign (), the East Ryukyu Company Chambers of Commerce in Amsterdam, London, Lisbon, Seville, Marseille and other places were all closed down by European countries.

They seized Chinese merchant ships and business buildings, and robbed the goods and gold and silver from the East Ryukyu Company's warehouses. They also detained a large number of company employees, including many local Europeans.

Although the news was received in advance, the East Ryukyu Company's assets were too numerous to be transferred in time.

Fortunately, the important personnel of the company and the main warships were evacuated in time.

As for the property, just keep it with them temporarily and ask them to spit it out sooner or later.

In the waters of the Madeira Islands, 640 kilometers off the coast of Morocco, the Chinese Atlantic Fleet led by Deng Gang is besieging the city of Madeira.

Located southwest of Lisbon, Madeira Islands, known as the "Pearl of the Atlantic", is a Portuguese territory and the gateway to Europe.

At this time, the East India Company's armed merchant ships that had retreated from the Mediterranean and the coast of France and Spain had also arrived here to join Deng Gang.

The Atlantic Fleet led by Deng Gang should be the largest fleet in human history.

There are as many as 38 sailing battleships alone, among which the newly launched "Moscow" and "Kiev" sailing battleships have a full load displacement of up to 5200 tons.

The limit of the sailing battleship has almost been reached.

The ship is equipped with 168 40-pound naval guns, and there are as many as 1200 sailors and combatants on board.

In addition to sailing battleships, it also includes a large number of thousand-ton destroyers, frigates and a large number of transport ships.

The entire fleet has more than 230 ships and more than 6 personnel.

The transport ship also included a landing force of 20,000 people.

The outer wall of Madeira Castle collapsed instantly under the bombardment of Chinese naval guns, and soon the Chinese soldiers who landed rushed to the city through the beach.

It didn’t take long before the white flag was raised over the city of Madeira.

After occupying this place, China finally obtained an important supply station.

Of course, as the commercial center of Europe and the headquarters of East Ryukyu Company in Europe, the Netherlands is the core of this storm.

At this time, tens of thousands of coalition forces composed of the Dutch, British, and French were storming the East Ryukyu Company headquarters located on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

This was originally a famous castle called Merton Castle.

It was built in 1280 by the fifth Earl of Fleury.

After Zheng Zhilong bought this ancient castle, he carried out extensive expansion, built two sub-forts around it, expanded a large number of moats, and added hundreds of artillery pieces.

At the same time, there are 2000 Chinese regular troops and armed personnel of the East Ryukyu Company stationed here.

A large amount of food and arms are stored in the cellar of the castle.

There were 2 people in the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces. They knew that this kind of bastion would be difficult to conquer in a short time, so they planned to use artillery to destroy the sub-forts outside the bastion and the surrounding moats.

To this end, they also concentrated hundreds of 24-pound heavy artillery pieces and bombarded Mayton Castle indiscriminately.

Although the moat in front of the castle was blown up and sand flew everywhere, the main body of the castle did not suffer much damage.

The Chinese soldiers on the observation deck were anxiously using optical rangefinders to mark the location of the enemy's artillery positions.

After a while, the Chinese artillery had also been adjusted, and there was a fierce bombardment against the coalition's artillery position.

Even without a telescope, the Chinese soldiers in the castle could see that several enemy artillery pieces were blown up into the sky.

After all, the Chinese artillery in the castle was protected by the castle and was basically intact, but the same could not be said for the coalition artillery outside the city. They only had simple bunkers for protection. After a whole day of artillery battle, half of the hundreds of artillery were directly destroyed.

Although there are a large number of naval guns on the warships outside the harbor, Zheng Zhilong had already considered this when selecting the site. The distance between Mayton Castle and the coastline far exceeds the range of the naval guns.

But how can we carry out a siege without enough artillery? In the end, the British Duke of Hesse, the commander of the coalition forces, was heartbroken and said: "Since the warships can't reach here, then simply dismantle the naval guns and transport them here to attack the Chinese bastions."

Although this plan was once rejected by Navy Commander Wilson, it was finally implemented under the strong insistence of the Duke of Hesse.

Hundreds of naval guns were removed from the battleships of the Combined Fleet and sent to the front line.

At first, they were just naval guns on some auxiliary battleships.

However, the Chinese people's firepower is fierce, and these less powerful 18-pound cannons have limited range and have completely become a target for the Chinese people.

In the end, they had to remove the 24-pound guns from the main battleships and use them to attack the city.

However, naval guns are not professional land warfare artillery after all. Although they have large caliber and long range, the shelling effect is not good due to the limitation of elevation angle.

It's not as good as China's howitzer, which can explode a large area.

The two sides fought continuously for more than ten days, and the coalition forces were still unable to suppress the Chinese artillery fire.

Li Xingzu said: "Uncle Liuqiu, this cannot continue. These foreign devils have more and more naval guns, and our artillery has begun to be blown up."

"Although we repair the city wall with cement every night, this is not the solution."

"It's better to invite you to the urn and let them send out infantry to attack the city. They will only stop if they kill a large number of these foreign devils!"

In the subsequent battles, China's artillery counterattacks gradually decreased, giving the coalition the illusion that they had very few artillery pieces left. The Duke of Hesse breathed a long sigh of relief and said: "The artillery of these Chinese people has finally turned off. Now it is time for our European warriors to completely eliminate them!"

Everyone knows that almost all the wealth that the East Ryukyu Company collected from Europe is here.

They were naturally very enthusiastic about conquering Merton Castle.

After all, this is the land of the Netherlands, so the Dutch themselves must be obliged to do so.

Soon, 3,000 fully armed Dutch soldiers, covered by 2,000 French soldiers, launched a charge towards Mayton Castle.

Zheng Zhilong knew that if he fired at this time, he would severely damage the enemy.

However, in order to play the long game and catch the big fish, the Chinese artillerymen finally resisted the temptation.

Only when the coalition soldiers entered within 500 meters did they use the Crouching Tiger Cannon to harvest a wave of heads.

After entering 200 meters, Huaxia's rifle began to show its power.

The Chinese army here is equipped with the "Qianxi 1638" rifle that was just improved this year. Its shooting is more stable and its service life is longer, and it can adapt to the needs of continuous high-frequency shooting.

Neither the Dutch nor the British had ever fought against the Chinese army equipped with new rifles, so their tactics still relied on their previous understanding of muskets.

Most of the charging Dutch were wiped out before they could reach the moat in front, especially the Chinese snipers, who specifically targeted coalition officers for sniping.

Soon the frontline command system collapsed.

Without the soldiers under their command, the siege became even more disorganized, and they just kept falling in front of the bastion.

However, the Europeans were also very proficient in muskets after all, and soon they changed their tactics to trench warfare.

They continued to use trenches to advance towards the bastion, which really reduced their casualties a lot.

Seeing that the enemy was about to dig under the bastion, the Chinese army had to use a large number of "blasting thunder".

Once these thunderbolts are thrown into the enemy's tunnel, they will inevitably explode into a large area.

The battle was extremely cruel. In just a few days, the coalition forces killed more than 3,000 people. They did not even touch the walls of the bastion.

The Duke of Hesse looked extremely ugly, because according to the latest intelligence, after the Chinese learned that the Eastern Ryukyu Company had been attacked, they assembled heavy troops near the border between the former Poland and the Kingdom of Brandenburg.

Moreover, the Chinese people made harsh words, saying that they would destroy anyone who dared to stop the Chinese army from advancing towards Amsterdam!

The Netherlands and China are now separated by the Holy Roman Empire, which is neither close nor far.

The coalition forces must quickly defeat the enemies here before they can send troops to help the Holy Roman Empire stop the Chinese invasion.

So the Duke of Hesse decided to invest more troops on the frontal battlefield.

I saw countless coalition soldiers quickly arriving under Mayton Castle through the trenches.

Although the Chinese troops on the city continued to shoot, the coalition forces still used their numerical advantage to attack.

They were like groundhogs, desperately rushing towards the slope of the bastion.

Seeing that he was about to board the second floor of the bastion, the Duke of Hesse also showed a long-lost smile on his face.

The coalition forces had already paid a price of five to six thousand men, and now they could finally make up for their losses.

Seeing more and more European soldiers rushing up the slope, Zheng Zhilong decided to use a secret weapon - the "Li Yaozu Machine Gun".

This machine gun was designed and manufactured by Li Yaozu, the fourth prince of China.

Li Yaozu referred to Zhao Shizhen's "Artifact Spectrum" and designed a manual multi-barrel rotating machine gun.

The Li Yaozu machine gun uses six 6 mm caliber barrels to form a circle, equipped with metal cartridge cases. The shooter cranks the crank to rotate the barrels, loads the bullets into the gun, and launches it. Its maximum rate of fire can exceed 14.7 rounds per minute.

Moreover, this machine gun has been tested in actual combat. A few months ago in southern India, the Chinese army blocked a valley using only two "Li Yaozu machine guns" and shot thousands of people who tried to attack them within ten minutes. of Indian natives.

"Sudden, sudden, sudden"

Following Zheng Zhilong's order, the Chinese machine gunner began to pull the trigger, and then the "Li Yaozu Machine Gun" rotated rapidly, and countless bullets were instantly fired from the barrel.

In just two minutes, all the coalition forces charging forward were knocked down.

The machine gunner rotated the machine gun excitedly, while the gunner on the side nervously loaded bullets into the machine gun.

After they finished shooting, they discovered that all the enemies in front had fallen. Except for a few injured people who fell to the ground and howled in pain, no one could stand up.

In just a few minutes, thousands of coalition troops were killed.

And with this kind of machine gun blocked passage, absolutely no one can break through the blockade.

Before the Duke of Hesse gave the order, the surviving soldiers on the battlefield receded like a tide.

Isn't this a fight? It's obviously a death wish.

Just when the coalition forces were helpless against Merton Castle, a Chinese fleet sailed into the English Channel.

They went all the way north from Madeira and bombarded Seville, Lisbon, Valencia, Bordeaux, Calais and other Spanish, Portuguese and French ports.

Everywhere they went, almost all European docks were bombed into rubble.

The old Galenic sailing ships of the Spanish and Portuguese were no match for the Chinese sailing battleships, and were sunk almost as soon as they fought.

Now they arrived at Portsmouth, the most important military port in southwest England.

Not only is a squadron of more than 40 British Royal Navy battleships stationed here, including two 2800-ton sailing battleships.

But when they saw China's Atlantic fleet, they were stunned on the spot. There were hundreds of battleships and more than thirty sail battleships.

The British Royal Navy, always known for its bravery, also began to hesitate.

Their two sail battleships sailed out of the harbor without hesitation, trying to break through the Chinese blockade.

But the result can be imagined. After just one salvo, they sank to the bottom of the sea.

Other ships anchored in the harbor and the entire Portsmouth Harbor were reduced to a sea of ​​flames.

Afterwards, the Atlantic Fleet divided its routes to sweep British ports, and Liverpool, Dublin, and Dover were all attacked.

However, they did not choose to continue attacking London, but headed towards Amsterdam in the Netherlands!

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(End of this chapter)