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The battle was won, and the battle was over.

11

In July of the third year of Tianqi, Fujian Governor Nan Juyi ordered a coastal curfew and asked the navy to prepare for war, preparing to attack the Dutch entrenched in Penghu Island.

At this time, the vanguard of the Liaodong Expeditionary Force had already arrived in the northern part of Taiwan Province, and built a fortress in the north of the bay, arranged defenses, and prepared for the arrival of follow-up troops.

In fact, at this time, some private armed forces in the Minyue area had already occupied the north of the bay, and established villages and towns in Keelung.

Seeing that the Liaodong Expeditionary Force was strong and had muskets, those private armed forces did not take the initiative to provoke conflict.

After the vanguard of the expeditionary force gained a foothold in the north of the bay, the follow-up troops arrived one after another. The five or six thousand well-trained and well-equipped troops were not afraid of even the Ming navy, let alone those private armed forces.

At this time, the Fujian navy was at war with the Dutch colonists and did not care about the Liaodong expeditionary force.

Soon after, the Fujian navy defeated the Dutch colonists, demanded that they withdraw from Penghu Island, and turned to establish a base in the Bay Province, and agreed to trade with the Dutch colonists.

However, the six thousand Liaodong expeditionary forces at this time had been divided into two groups, occupying the north and south of the bay respectively, and initially established defensive fortifications and were building cities.

The immigrants from the coastal areas on the Bay Island were quickly subdued by the expeditionary force.

The expeditionary force did not disturb the immigrants who moved from the southeast coast and lived in peace with them.

However, many people later moved from the islands along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to reclaim land and build cities in the Bay Province.

There is no doubt that most of these people were the rebels after Xu Hongru's uprising failed.

In the autumn of the third year of Tianqi, after completing the grain harvest of the new year, Lu Cheng received war reports from the south one after another.

The expeditionary army first successfully occupied the Wan Province, and then immigrated more than 10,000 people, built cities in the south, north and middle of Wan Island, and reclaimed a large amount of land to plant some crops.

After that, the Dutch, who were abused by the Ming Navy, dismantled the city built on Penghu Island and transported various materials to Wan Island.

Unexpectedly, the Dutch fleet was attacked by the pirate group of the Liaodong Expeditionary Force as soon as it arrived at Wan Island. All the building materials, food, muskets, artillery, etc., all became the spoils of the expeditionary army.

After gaining a foothold in Wan Province, the expeditionary army immediately sent two thousand soldiers and horses to the south of the Philippines to attack Manila.

Seeing that the progress in the south was going smoothly, Lu Cheng sent another part of the army southward, and asked the intelligence department to operate in the southeastern coastal area to attract some coastal people to migrate to the Bay Province, further increase the development of the Bay Province, and make the Bay Province a springboard for entering Southeast Asia.

In the winter of the third year of Tianqi, the Liaodong Expeditionary Force easily occupied Manila and took over a large area of ​​land in the Philippines with new rifles and mortars.

After that, the expeditionary force migrated the people of the Ming Dynasty to Manila while learning from the Dutch colonists and controlling the local indigenous people to farm.

However, compared with the Dutch colonists, China is a country of etiquette after all, and will not massacre the local indigenous people at every turn. As long as they farm honestly and pay the harvested grain in proportion, they can have enough food and clothing.

The land in the Philippines is quite fertile, and the rice planted can be harvested twice a year. The locals simply cannot eat it all, and it can provide food for Lu Cheng's territory.

At the same time, the Philippines is also very suitable for growing some fruits, cotton, etc.

Of course, there are many lands like the Philippines in Southeast Asia. Instead of letting those Western colonists occupy them, it is better to leave them to Lu Cheng, so that he can build an empire in the future.

Although the Liaodong Expeditionary Force has only five or six thousand people, it is equipped with new rifles and mortars, well-trained soldiers, and flexible and diverse tactics. Even against those Western colonists, it has an overwhelming advantage.

What's more, the number of those Western colonists is usually not large. It is common for dozens or hundreds of people to occupy a city, which is not enough for the dozens of special forces of the expeditionary force to deal with.

After occupying Manila, it also means that Lu Cheng's territory is no longer limited to Liaodong, and all kinds of food and materials have a stable supply chain, and there is a real retreat.

In order to further increase the speed of overseas expansion, Lu Cheng asked the intelligence department to widely search for shipbuilding talents in the southeast coastal area, either hiring them with high salaries or taking them away directly, and sending these talents to the Taiwan Island and the Philippines to build ships as soon as possible.

More ships that can be used for ocean voyages.

At the same time, the expeditionary forces in the south began to send troops to Southeast Asia, attacking the lands occupied by Western colonists, eliminating Western colonists, seizing their ships and weapons, and gradually annexing the entire Southeast Asian region.

The third year of Tianqi was the year of the most rapid development for Lu Cheng. The invention and use of mature breech-loading rifles, smokeless gunpowder, perfect mortar production technology, expansion of troops, bumper harvests, and victories of the expeditionary forces were all harvests.

It was also from this year that Lu Cheng began his great expansion plan.

It was also at the end of the third year of Tianqi that Lu Cheng commanded the craftsmen to build the most primitive steam engine.

Although the first steam engine still had many problems, such as poor lethality, low efficiency, and too large size, etc. But it is undeniable that this was a real technological revolution.

In the spring of the fourth year of Tianqi, Lu Cheng further sent troops south to continue to expand his territory in Southeast Asia and occupy more land.

At the same time, Lu Cheng sent personnel from the Intelligence Department to contact the Tusi who were rebelling in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, and provided them with some basic gunpowder application technology and tactical guidance, which accelerated the chaos in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty.

After that, the Intelligence Department cooperated with the expeditionary force to encourage people on the southeast coast to go to sea and make a living in Southeast Asia. As long as there are people willing to go, the action personnel of the Intelligence Department will be responsible for escorting them to the seaside, and the expeditionary force will send ships to pick them up. When they arrive in the Philippines and other places, fertile land will be immediately allocated.

For those Ming immigrants, the expeditionary force gave the most preferential policies. In addition to handing over part of the harvested grain, the rest can be disposed of by themselves. In addition to keeping them for their own consumption, they can also sell them to the expeditionary force in exchange for gold and silver and buy various daily necessities.

As long as those immigrants go to Southeast Asia, they can stay away from the war and avoid the layers of exploitation by the government. They can feed their families by farming alone, and even accumulate some spare money.

After enjoying the benefits, some of the people who immigrated there will return to their hometowns to inform their relatives and friends to immigrate together.

Soon, a wave of immigrants appeared in the southeastern coastal areas.

After the Ming government discovered the situation, it ordered a strict ban on the people going out to sea, and sent the navy to attack the Wandao where the expeditionary army was stationed.

However, the strength of the expeditionary army was not something that the Ming navy could deal with. They quickly defeated the navy in Fujian and Guangdong, and directly sent troops to attack the seaports in Fujian and Guangdong, seized the warships of the government navy, and forced the Fujian and Guangdong navy back to the land.

Not only that, the special forces in the expeditionary army also led a small group of elite troops to assassinate those officials who obstructed the people from going out to sea.

The coastal government soon couldn't stand it, and could only turn a blind eye to the people who went out to sea to immigrate.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also sent an expedition team of 300 people, carrying new rifles, revolvers and other weapons, to cross the Bering Strait from the north and reach the American continent.

Historically, a few years later, the Dutch arrived in America by ship and exchanged a few glass beads for a large piece of land on Manhattan Island from the Indians.

This time, the expedition team sent by Lu Cheng not only wanted to occupy a piece of land in America, but also to find a plant from America and bring it back to plant in Southeast Asia...