Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 491
"Oh? How do you say that?" Sun Chuanting wondered.

Xiao Yi smiled wryly and said: "We fought all night yesterday and this morning, and almost all the shells were empty. Later, we let the enemy enter the island to prepare for a decisive battle with the enemy. Unexpectedly, when the battle situation was most urgent, the enemy Sudden internal strife, Beizhi seized this opportunity to lead the brothers to fight back, and only then did the enemy retreat."

"Infighting among the enemy troops? Could it be that Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin turned against each other?" Sun Chuanting asked.

Xiao Yi shook his head: "I don't know, this time the invading enemy has a variety of banners, and I was worried about the war, so I didn't check it carefully, so I don't know which fleet turned against the water."

Sun Chuanting nodded slightly.

Not many people knew the news that Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin had defected to the imperial court, except for the details of the Ministry of Security contacting Li Guozhu, only Sun Meng, Liu Erleng and himself in Fujian knew about it.

As for when Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin turned against each other, even Sun Meng and Liu Erlen didn't know, how could Xiao Yi know?
However, I didn't let Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin turn against the water now. They thought that the two of them saw that Jinmen was in danger, so they decided to turn against the water temporarily.

Sun Chuanting tapped the coffee table lightly. If Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin could see the importance of the Golden Gate and seize the opportunity to break the siege of the Golden Gate at the critical moment, it meant that they still had some foresight.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting asked: "What's the final result of the enemy's infighting?"

Xiao Yi said with a smile: "It's strange to say that there have been two infightings among the enemy forces. The first time was when the enemy army was in a hurry to attack the island. A fleet suddenly turned around and launched an attack on the main fleet. The enemy main fleet was caught off guard and was immediately captured Sank three ships. However, the enemy quickly reacted and turned around to launch a counterattack against the fleet.

This fleet only has about [-] ships, far from being the opponent of the enemy's main fleet. Seeing that the situation is not good, they want to flee. A fleet attacked the main fleet, and sank three or four more of the enemy's ships.

Taking advantage of the enemy's chaos, the first fleet finally got rid of the enemy's pursuit and fled to the north, while the second fleet did not dare to fight, so it also fled to the north. Divide up and pursue the two fleets.

Due to these two internal strife, the enemy army had no time to take care of attacking the island, so they sent some ships to take the enemy army attacking the island back to the ship and then retreated. "

Sun Chuanting nodded slightly upon hearing this.

Since Xiao Yi didn't see the enemy's flag clearly, this description is a little unclear, but one thing is certain, these two fleets turned against each other when it was critical, and only Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin were willing to do so.

Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin have been pirates for so many years, so they must understand this truth.Therefore, although the two ships belonged to only fifty ships together, which was far from the enemy's main force, they resolutely fell to the official army at a critical moment.

One suddenly counterattacked when the situation on Kinmen Island was critical, intending to help Kinmen's officers and soldiers out of the siege.The other took action when the friendly army was in a critical situation, and relieved the danger of the friendly army being besieged.

The two of them clearly knew that the court's navy was short of talents, and they must have wanted to rely on these two contributions to be reused.

Thinking about this point, Sun Chuanting couldn't help but smiled wryly. So far he has led the navy to the south and has done almost nothing. Instead, the two new guards and the two defectors have made remarkable achievements.

After thinking for a while, Sun Chuanting suddenly said: "Xiao Yi, I can't let these two fleets be wiped out by Zheng Zhilong anyway, I have to go to the rescue. Therefore, I can't leave you with too many manpower here in Kinmen. But Kinmen matters It's important, it must not fall into the enemy's hands, you must be careful."

Xiao Yi stood up and cupped his fists and said, "I obey my orders."

Sun Chuanting waved his hand, motioned Xiao Yi to sit down, and then continued: "Now, the governor will leave you with five hundred soldiers, and then support you with five hundred shells, so as to solve your urgent needs first."

Xiao Yi hurriedly said: "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief."

Sun Chuanting continued: "These manpower and ammunition can only be used as a temporary emergency. If Zheng Zhilong attacks Kinmen with all his strength, this manpower will not be enough to defend Kinmen. The governor will send you a boat, and you will send people to Quanzhou immediately, please General Liu quickly sent troops to reinforce Kinmen Island."

After thinking for a while, Sun Chuanting said again: "In addition, the governor captured four warships in Penghu. These four warships need to be sent to the Shijing Shipyard to refit the guns and install our heavy artillery. The governor has no time to put the ships in Send it to the shipyard, and you order someone to arrange it."

Xiao Yi hurriedly said: "Yes!"

Sun Chuanting waved his hands and got up and said: "It's not too late, the governor will leave immediately, you should also act immediately."

Xiao Yi hurriedly got up: "Respectfully send the commander in chief."

Sun Chuanting nodded and left the garrison with his own soldiers.

……

Zeelandia City, Taiwan, the residence of the Dutch Governor-General in Taiwan.

After listening to the soldiers' report, Governor De Bourr frowned tightly.

The night before yesterday, the ships cruising in the waters around Taiwan suddenly heard the sound of shelling from the direction of Penghu. The captain was shocked and hurriedly directed the ships to the waters of Penghu.

When the Dutch fleet arrived in Penghu, it was immediately discovered that a huge fleet under the pirate flag was attacking Penghu.

Although it was night, the captain could tell at a glance that the fleet with the pirate flag was Zheng Zhilong's fleet.

The reason is very simple. In the waters between Taiwan and Ming Dynasty, no pirate force can have so many ships.Even the Dutch fleet stationed in Taiwan does not have so many ships.There is only one person who can own so many boats in this sea area, and that is Zheng Zhilong.

The Dutch captain was very surprised to find that Zheng Zhilong was attacking Penghu.

Although the captain had no connection with Daming, he had heard of Zheng Zhilong a lot.

He knew that Zheng Zhilong was the deputy general of Fujian and the second in command of the Fujian army, but because of the strength of Zheng Zhilong's fleet, the general soldiers of Fujian had to listen to him. Zheng Zhilong was actually the highest military officer in Fujian.

And Penghu is the territory of Ming Dynasty, the captain really couldn't understand why Zheng Zhilong pretended to be a pirate to attack Penghu.

To steal money?Penghu is so poor that you can't scrape much oil and water. What's the point of grabbing this broken place?
Want to occupy territory?Penghu was originally under the jurisdiction of Zheng Zhilong, so there was no need to pretend to be a pirate to occupy Penghu.

The captain was in pain from thinking about it, and he didn't understand why Zheng Zhilong wanted to attack Penghu.

What surprised the Dutch captain most was that the defenders on the island actually repelled Zheng Zhilong's fleet.

The Dutch captain has rich experience in combat. Just a rough calculation of the ships that Zheng Zhilong dispatched shows that Zheng Zhilong led at least [-] soldiers this time. The captain can't help but be surprised.

Seeing Zheng Zhilong's retreat, the captain hurried back and rushed to Zeelandia City overnight to inform Governor De Bauer of the news.

De Bauer took over as Governor of Taiwan in the ninth year of Chongzhen, relying on the former Governor Hans.The foundation laid by Putmans made the Netherlands' overseas trade with Daming flourish.

De Bauer is not as ambitious as the previous governor, Putmans. He only wants to be a governor in peace, accumulate political capital, and then return to China for promotion.

De Bauer knew that if he wanted to be a good governor, he had to make good friends with Zheng Zhilong, and then make good friends with Daming through Zheng Zhilong.

But De Bauer never expected that Zheng Zhilong would pretend to be a pirate to attack Penghu.

When he first heard the news, De Bauer really didn't know whether he drank too much last night or Zheng Zhilong drank too much.

Fortunately, De Bauer woke up quickly. He knew that there must be a reason for what happened. Zheng Zhilong would never attack Penghu for no reason, so he sent a boat and people to Daming overnight to find out the news.

The news came out quickly, and De Bauer finally knew what had happened.

Zheng Zhilong rebelled.

The reason is that Daming issued an order to lift the sea ban, and ordered Zheng Zhilong not to collect protection money privately, and at the same time not to allow Zheng Zhilong to trade with foreign countries in private.

But Zheng Zhilong refused to carry out the imperial court's order, and the imperial court wanted to punish Zheng Zhilong, so Zheng Zhilong rebelled.

De Bourr was furious when he heard the news. It has been more than a month since Daming promulgated this decree, but he didn't know it. Presumably this news was blocked by Zheng Zhilong.

De Bauer knew very well what the lifting of the sea embargo by Ming meant to the Netherlands, which meant that Dutch merchant ships could directly sail to the port of Ming to conduct direct trade with Ming.

At the same time, De Bourr also knew Zheng Zhilong's intention in doing so. Zheng Zhilong wanted to continue to monopolize Ming's foreign maritime trade and reap huge profits from it.

De Bauer has no ambitions, nor can he tolerate Zheng Zhilong doing such a thing.
As the governor of the Netherlands abroad, his duty is not only to protect the safety of his own people, but also to seek benefits for his own country and businessmen.

If he ignored Zheng Zhilong's behavior, it would be tantamount to sitting back and watching the interests of the country and its businessmen suffer, then he, the governor, would be considered the leader.

But he didn't have the guts to ask De Bauer to send troops to deal with Zheng Zhilong.

De Bauer knew how powerful Zheng Zhilong was. Since the Dutch fleet stationed in Taiwan was not Zheng Zhilong's opponent, if he declared war with Zheng Zhilong rashly, even if the entire army was not wiped out, he would suffer heavy losses. In that case, the Netherlands would not be able to stand firmly in Taiwan. .

De Bauer is very clear that the Netherlands is not the only country that wants to trade with Ming. Spain in Luzon, Portugal in Malacca, and the United Kingdom, countries with certain strength in the sea, all want to trade with Ming.

If the Netherlands loses the fleet stationed in Taiwan, then the fleets of Spain and other countries will pounce on Taiwan like hungry wolves, eating up the Dutch to nothing.

Tapping the pipe in his hand lightly, De Bauer refilled the tobacco and lit it, and smoked silently.

After Zheng Zhilong's rebellion, he successively launched attacks on Penghu, Kinmen, Dongshan, Fuzhou and other places, but they were all repelled by the army and suffered considerable losses. In addition, his subordinates Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin rebelled, and then surrendered to the army with their boats , causing Zheng Zhilong to lose nearly a hundred warships, but Zheng Zhilong still has nearly a thousand ships of all sizes and 5000 soldiers.

With such a huge fleet and military strength, no one in the southeast coast of Ming Dynasty can compete with Zheng Zhilong.As long as Zheng Zhilong's fleet blocks the sea, any country that wants to trade with Daming must obtain Zheng Zhilong's consent.

"It's like a stick in the throat!" De Bourgh sighed.

"Your Excellency, what did you say?" a captain asked.

(End of this chapter)