Dragon Sea Empire

In April of 1608 (the 36th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty), the Yehua fleet caught the tail of the monsoon and finally set off from Malacca.

The fleet was divided into two groups. The Flying Dragon took the main ship and carried 100 Portuguese soldiers from Malacca to Than Lien in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The other way is Xinxing and a refitted three-masted Fuchuan warship, heading south to Sumatra, and meeting with a Dutch fleet in the Sino-Dutch joint control area southwest of Kota Racha, the capital of Aceh. Originally, Xinxing would The Dutch united and marched westward through the Sunda Strait to attack the Bay of Bengal. However, the new Aceh Sultan Iskandar Muda attacked the southwestern port of Aceh twice, and the Dutch could not escape. However, the temporary captain of the Xinxing still recruited three sailors who were familiar with the route from the Dutch. Not all the Dutch in Aceh belonged to the Dutch East India Company, and some belonged to "port merchants", that is, they came to Asia sporadically The Dutch, who were doing business and challenged the East India Company's monopoly, were happy to cooperate with the Chinese to break the East India Company's monopoly on Asian trade rights.

The Flying Dragon and other ships led by Ye Hua arrived at the Castle of Santiago in Sharen after half a month.

The Chinese were taken aback by the scene in front of them: thousands of small Malay-style sailboats with triangular sails densely covered every river mouth of the delta, and thousands of dark-skinned Burmese were making rafts non-stop Raft, and then launched an attack on Shalian who was hanging alone on the delta.

The Burmese learned the firearms brought by the Portuguese, and they were considered a powerful army in Southeast Asia at that time.

The Burmese army lined up dozens of cannons on the sandbank to the north of Than Lien, and bombarded Than Lien Castle continuously, but it seemed that the effect was not great. A large number of Burmese soldiers were killed around the Than Lien Castle. The castle was almost surrounded by a circle.

The area around Shalian Castle for more than ten miles is full of rivers, water networks and plains. No matter what kind of army, attacking the tall castle with a large number of artillery and guns in this large area of ​​​​unsheltered open space, it will undoubtedly be close to death.

Flying the flag of Portugal, the Ye Hua fleet led the way with the Feilong, and the two three-masted blessing ships rushed to the castle of Shanlian. Unwilling to confront this behemoth, they gave way one after another. Ye Hua, who was unreasonable and unreasonable, ordered full artillery fire. Dozens of Malay ships were destroyed and sunk for a while. The Chinese also used the latest improved straight-rod rockets. After this kind of rocket showed its prestige in the battle of Fengguiwei on Penghu Island, it has become the standard equipment of the Chinese company's navy fleet.

Although the rockets were not very accurate after they were launched, King Anabilon’s fleet of ships was too many and too dense, and even if the rockets fell into the water and exploded, they could still burn on the water because they were filled with oil. Within a short period of time, the Burmese fleet was engulfed in a sea of ​​flames, so Ye Hua had no choice but to order the fleet to stop the attack, turn the rudder and lower the sails, and rush over after the Burmese ships in front were burnt out.

In the evening, the Chinese ships sent 100 Portuguese reinforcements to Fort Santiago in Shanlian. Anabilon’s Burmese army had run out of food, grass and ammunition under the city of Shanlian. I couldn't go on anymore, and I had to withdraw my troops back to Bago a few days later.

Ye Hua waited for a few days under the city of Shalian, but the Portuguese never fulfilled their promise. After Xinxing came to join him in Shalian, Li Dan, Zeng Shan, Bernardo and others were all impatient with the Portuguese. Yes, although Xinxing brought Dutch guide sailors from Aceh, the attitude of the Portuguese is intolerable.

That night, Ye Hua ordered the fleet to surround the Castle of Than Lien, and sent a team of sailors and musketeers ashore to raid and occupy the east gate of Than Lian. The sailors seized the city gate very smoothly.

When the Portuguese came to their senses, the Chinese had already occupied half of the castle and the entire dock area. Philippe de Brito, the Portuguese governor of Sharen, hurried out to negotiate with the Chinese in person, and apologized to Ye Hua: he explained that the breach of contract was not his fault. It means that the governor of Malacca made a small move in private. He generously provided the best guides and sailors in the fleet under his jurisdiction. This is Li Dan's proposal. He believes that the purpose Yin Feng has always advocated is never to do business at a disadvantage, so he cannot send troops to the Portuguese for nothing.

Since Li Dan mentioned Yin Feng, all the management of the Chinese fleet had no objection; so the Chinese stayed in Shalian for another ten days, and the Chinese left slowly after de Brito collected the troop expenses. Castle, De Britto, who almost recruited wolves and then met tigers, turned against the Governor of Malacca and kept collecting debts. This old mercenary was a little contented once he gained power, and he was satisfied with the immediate interests without seeking Motivated, although Philippe de Brito successfully stopped the threat from the Burmese, but for him, due to his personal ability and temper problems, things did not go smoothly, for himself and Portuguese India. Said it was unfortunate that he was not able to unite with the other Portuguese in the Irrawaddy delta and the mestizos in the Arakan and Chittagong areas, otherwise these people could support De Brito in the next Burmese siege of Thanlian .

In the fourth year after the Chinese left Than Lien and continued westward, in 1612, King Anabilon of the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma, with the aid of Muslim reinforcements from India, from the land and The water launched an attack on Shanlian; De Brito, who still had only a few hundred men, fought to the end, the fortress was captured, De Brito was tied to an iron pillar and stabbed, while many of his companions were Brought to Ava as a captive, he became a military expert bound by a hereditary king.

At that time, the Portuguese suggested that Goa immediately send a fleet of 10 light clippers to assist De Brito, but when Goa took action, it was too late, and Shalian had already fallen. , Portugal’s important strongholds in Asia became less and less, and the finances of the colonies became increasingly difficult. In order to maintain the operation of the colonial government, the Portuguese also gradually realized that they could adopt a very characteristic method used by Spain in its Americas, that is, auction public offices.

This is a later story. The first Chinese fleet to Europe has already embarked on the journey to India. Because they missed the best monsoon season, they were forced to berth at the port of Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). After nearly 2 months, they stopped in Goa for another three months. Although the firepower owned by the Chinese is not afraid of any pirate fleet, they are still unable to withstand the storms of nature. When they arrived in Goa, Ye Hua's fleet lost A two-masted blessing ship drowned or died of illness with more than 100 crew members and sailors.

While Ye Hua's fleet was stumbling all the way to Europe, Yin Feng was constantly receiving bad news from Batavia on Taiwan Island.

Since the beginning of this year, a Chinese force named "Huatian Company" has risen in the Nanyang area. They have used force to grab territory from Chinese companies, and directly confronted the Dutch, Portuguese, and British by force. Treating the local aborigines, at the same time, they sell Chinese goods to the Dutch, Portuguese, British, and French at ultra-low prices, and at the same time use high prices to buy China at high prices in Siam, Pattani, Annan and other places that Chinese companies cannot fully control goods.

Although the Huatian Company suffered losses due to high-price receipt and low-price shipment, they robbed merchant ships from various countries in various parts of Southeast Asia, and robbed all merchant ships indiscriminately, even Chinese merchant ships. They took the goods they robbed It was sold at a low price in Batavia, which severely hit the market of Chinese companies.

Yin Feng had a very headache; because the military intelligence department and the company's business intelligence department had verified the leaders of the Huatian firm: Li Huayu, Yuan Jin, and Li Zhong.

"They can gather so many people and have so much financial resources in a short period of time. This cannot be done by Li Huayu's family. They must have a bigger background," Yin Feng said in his study with Lin Xiaozheng. Secret talk: "Brother Guangguang, the Ministry of Military Intelligence reported to Ms. Li that Li Dan may be involved, so she has stopped handling Nanyang's overseas intelligence, so you will handle Nanyang's intelligence from now on,"

Lin Xiao sat across from Yin Feng's desk, opened his mouth, hesitated to speak, Yin Feng smiled bitterly: "I know what you want to say, I trust Lihua, but others may not completely trust her, let's not worry about that, Mai Xiao Sixth, the news came that Li Dan did meet with Li Huayu in Malacca, but he did not go to Batavia with them, and Brother Li himself should be in Tianzhu at this moment, so it is impossible to contact Li Huayu and the others. He wants to join forces with Li Huayu and the others to deal with the Chinese company, so he should disembark in Malacca and go with Li Huayu and the others."

Lin Xiao flipped through the documents in hand, sighed and shook his head: "Captain, I don't think you should let Li Dan go to Nanyang...You are good at everything, but your heart is too soft."

When Yin Feng heard the word "heart is too soft", he couldn't help laughing, and it took him a long time to suppress his smile: "Brother, according to your method, at least half of our company will have to be locked up. I know that in Taiwan Island In fact, there are many people on the other side of the strait who are dissatisfied with me, but it is not easy for us to get to this point, and sometimes I don’t know how to take the next step, but anyway, I still don’t like doing things that go against my conscience, "

Lin Xiao also smiled: "Yeah, that's why you became Captain Yin, it's still good, let us do the dishonorable things." Lin Xiao sneered at himself: "Anyway, my reputation is not good. Good; everyone in Yazhou is afraid of me as a rascal, but here, they all call me the ship owner's 'dog'... I'll just be evil to the end, "

Yin Feng has not been going well during this period. Although the company's business is still booming, there were frequent wars last year, and the military expenditure was too large, which affected the shareholder's income, which aroused dissatisfaction from many people. The cost and expenditure plan of the board of directors caused a lot of discussion in the board of directors. If Yin Feng hadn't used his influence to forcefully pass the appropriation regulations, the development cost might have been aborted.