Soon, the three sailing warships fled back to the dock in the city of Relanja. At the point where the naval battle broke out in the distance, the smoke and other things began to dissipate, and they could already be seen clearly through the telescope.
I saw that a sail warship was sinking, and the other one seemed to have been occupied by Ming Dynasty sailors. There was a fire, but it seemed that they were putting out the fire, so it was unlikely to sink.
More Ming warships are still entering the inland sea of Taijiang River, and many Ming troops have already landed on Beixianwei Island, north of Rezhelan City.
Kui Yi held a telescope and looked at the movements of the Ming army in the distance with a gloomy look.
At this time, some of his men on the sailing warship came back to report to him and defend themselves for the reason for the defeat.
"The Ming Dynasty has iron-clad, smoking warships that cannot be sunk."
"The armored and smoking warship turned very flexibly. In addition to the Ming Dynasty's hard sails, there were two wheels on both sides of the ship to assist in turning and moving forward."
"Those two wheels are covered with iron armor. Unless they are targeted and bombarded at close range, they cannot be destroyed!"
"There are very few cannons on the armored and smoking battleship, but the range and power are actually greater than ours. They are placed at the bow of the ship and can turn 180 degrees to specifically hit us near the waterline. It is very powerful at once.
A big hole!"
"There are too many ships in the Ming Dynasty, so we will assist the armored and smoking warships in attacking. We have few ships and can't attack them!"
"..."
Kui felt a little desperate when he heard it. It seemed that the Ming Dynasty had invented a new type of warship. Although it had various shortcomings, they had many ships and coordinated operations, which could cover up the shortcomings.
In other words, in terms of naval warfare, today's Ming fleet can compete with the Dutch fleet even if the difference in numbers is not too big!
In fact, the Dutch were right in their conclusion.
Steam ironclad battleships are currently modified from the original Fuchuan. Compared with the real sailing battleships of Xiyi, there are still many shortcomings. If they are singled out, they may not be able to win.
However, the ships of the Western colonists who arrived in the Far East were not real sailing warships and were not specially built for fighting. Their ships were actually armed merchant ships that transported cargo and had artillery, but they were mainly used for
Deal with pirates.
According to later records, at its peak, the Dutch East India Company had 100,000 personnel, 10,000 soldiers, 41 warships, and thousands of merchant ships. In other words, the number of real warships was only 41
Just a ship.
Of course, 41 warships is already a lot for European countries. Later, when Napoleon and Britain competed for maritime hegemony, a very famous naval battle broke out. In this naval battle, the British naval star Nelson led 33 ships
The battleship (a total of 2,626 broadside guns and a manpower of 21,580) launched a decisive battle with 41 warships of the French and Spanish combined fleets (a total of 2,148 broadside guns and a manpower of 16,820) at Trafalgar, and it was decided that
ownership of sea power.
It can be seen from this that the Dutch East India Company has a huge strength with 41 sailing warships.
Having said that, as far as the Far East is concerned, the sailing warships of the Dutch East India Company are actually just armed merchant ships, which are much inferior to real warships.
In this way, although the Ming Dynasty's primary steam paddle-wheel battleships had various shortcomings, they could still compete with the Dutch sailing battleships.
In fact, as far as this modified steam paddle-wheel warship is concerned, its real purpose is not to compete with the Western Yi for hegemony, but to dominate the coast of the Ming Dynasty. The main enemy is the Japanese navy, and the potential deterrent "enemy" is Zheng Zhilong.
fleet.
At this time, during the battle in the Taijiang Inland Sea, the Ming Navy gained control of the sea and controlled the entire Taijiang Inland Sea, which was not close to the city of Relanja.
The navy of the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the rising tide to sail into the inland waters of the Taijiang River and anchor. The Dutch could only watch, but there was nothing they could do.
What made the Dutch East Fan Governor Kui Yi's face extremely ugly was that he discovered through his telescope that on the last island of the northern line, the Ming people were dragging heavy artillery towards the southern end. The intention was obvious, to blockade Relan
The real waterway of the Taijiang inland sea under the control of Zhecheng.
Once it was blocked by the Ming Dynasty with artillery, the city of Relanja would not be able to obtain supplies from the sea, and it would become a truly dead city.
In the original history, Kui Yi sent infantry troops and transported them by ship in an attempt to seize the Ming army's position. But this time, he didn't even need to send it because he knew he couldn't defeat it. The Ming army had too many troops and he could
How many troops should be sent there? Besides, the inland sea of Taijiang River is already controlled by the Ming Dynasty navy. If the ships leave the shore-based artillery cover of Relanja City, they will be vulnerable to attack by the Ming Dynasty warships. If the people leave by then, even if the battle is won,
There's no way he can come back.
The current battle situation also seemed very strange to Kui Yi. He had a feeling that why the Ming army came to attack Dongfan for the first time, but every step of their posture seemed to be based on his deployment.
, seems to be very familiar with this place?
Of course he didn't know that every step of Zheng Zhibao's attack was based on Zheng Chenggong's attack on the city of Relanja in history. He eliminated the steps that caused heavy casualties or were useless, and chose effective attack methods. This naturally made him
Kui Yi felt that the Ming army's tactics were very strange.
The first focus of the Ming Navy was to take advantage of the rising tide to enter the Taijiang Inland Sea from the Luermen Channel; the second step was to occupy the southern end of the tail island on the northern line, set up artillery positions, and block the real channel into the Taijiang Inland Sea.
At the same time, the ongoing war step is to capture the auxiliary protective fortress of the city of Geranje, which is the Utrecht Fort.
In the original history, the Ming army finally captured the Utrecht Fort, but the remaining Dutch inside chose to die together, detonating gunpowder and blowing up the Utrecht Fort, which finally made the people who had invaded the Fort suffer.
Fifty Ming soldiers were killed.
But this time, preparations were still being made to attack Utrecht Castle, and it was almost evening.
Zheng Zhibao was busy when suddenly, his subordinate came to report that it was an envoy from the Netherlands who wanted to see him.
Upon hearing the news, Zheng Zhibao sneered and said, "Haha, I can't beat you, so I started talking with my mouth!"
This is the consistent style of Xiyi. If they can beat them, they will beat them directly. If they can't beat them, they will pretend to be pitiful.
Even though I know this, I still have to accept the person I am hosting.
Zheng Zhibao, accompanied by Zeng Ying, received the Dutch envoy.
This was the first time Zeng Ying saw Xi Yi. He had red hair and blue eyes and looked like an evil ghost. It really opened his eyes.
This Dutchman has obviously stayed in the East for a long time and can speak Ming Dynasty Mandarin. Although he speaks it very poorly, he can still understand it if he listens carefully.
As soon as the Dutch envoy saw Zheng Zhibao, he asked: "I don't know why you came to attack us? You Zheng family are already serious officials of the Ming Dynasty, how can you be so unreasonable?"
Good guy, what he said was actually saying that Zheng Zhibao was still a pirate and had come to rob them of the Netherlands.
Zheng Zhibao felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. After all, he was not the only one here, there were also eunuchs Zeng Ying and Lu Jiude.
So, he quickly turned serious and retorted loudly: "Don't talk nonsense, I am here to attack you and other Western barbarians on the orders of the Ming Emperor!"
Upon hearing this, the Dutch envoy became a little suspicious and looked at Zheng Zhibao: It was actually sent by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty? Could it be that the Ming Dynasty already knew that the Netherlands had formed an alliance with the Qing Empire?
By the way, when I went to Liaodong at the end of last year, I happened to meet Zheng Zhilong, and it was he who informed me? But, didn’t he himself have dealings with the Qing Empire?
When he thought about it, he was a little confused.
But thinking about it again, it seems that Zheng Zhilong was very popular in the Japanese country, and the Ming government officials didn't seem to care about him!
Confused, the Dutch envoy hinted: "We are just here to do business in the Far East. Is your emperor so unreasonable that he wants to send troops to attack us?"
When Zheng Zhibao heard this, he shouted loudly: "You and other barbarians came to our country, burned, killed and robbed our people. Now you are still occupying our territory, shouldn't we attack you?"
After hearing this, the Dutch envoy immediately argued: "We have already concluded a treaty. We will withdraw from the Penghu Islands and all previous matters will be wiped out. This is the territory of our Dutch Empire. When did it take over your Ming Dynasty?"
"Haha, where is the contract? Where is the contract?" Zheng Zhibao felt a little guilty when he said this, and shouted loudly, "In my Ming Dynasty, we burned, killed and looted without paying any price, just thinking that everything would be fine, what are you doing to Xiyi?"
Such a beautiful thought? This is the territory of my Ming Dynasty. It was before and it will be even more so in the future. Whether you admit it or not, this is a fact!"
"..." The Dutch envoy was dumbfounded and felt that the Ming people were so arrogant and unreasonable that he was speechless.
The Dutch concluded two contracts with Ming Guocheng, one with Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, and the other with Zheng Zhilong's heavy losses.
These two contracts were actually privately agreed between the local government and the Dutch and did not reach the court at all. To the court, reporting them to the local government was the same as repelling the pirates.
Therefore, such a contract is naturally not legally binding.
Originally, the two parties had agreed to trade with each other, and had tacitly agreed that the Dutch would flee to Dongfan. However, to be serious, they did not admit that Dongfan was the territory of the Dutch.
As for the Dutch, when they came to Dongfan, there were only pirates, natives, Japanese pirates, etc., but there was no Ming government. Therefore, according to the usual practice of their colonists, this was a terra nullius.
What they discovered was naturally their territory.
But now, the Ming Dynasty actually announced that this is the territory of the Ming Dynasty. This made the Dutch envoy feel a great shame and humiliation: Because this kind of behavior of the Ming Dynasty people is not the same as the way they used to respect their fists?
The difference from before is that now they are not on the colonial side, but on the oppressed indigenous side!