1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2473
The war against the Spaniards soon broke out in South Asia, but this time it was not led by Haihan, but by Portugal and the Netherlands.Their purpose is very clear, which is to take advantage of the decline of Spain's national power to carry out all-round attacks on its overseas colonies, and Asia is naturally part of this battlefield.

Although Spain's trade share in the Asian region has shrunk considerably at this time, and trade with Daming, Japan and other places has almost stagnated, Portugal and the Netherlands do not want to miss this opportunity to beat the dogs in the water. What they want is not only to cut off Spain's The commercial route in the east is to completely drive it out of Asia.In this way, they can realize the monopoly operation of the eastern and western trade channels, and thus obtain more lucrative benefits.

At this time, Spain has completely abandoned the Philippine Islands under Haihan's successive years of attack, and has shrunk its territory to the more southerly Sulawesi Islands, the Maluku Islands, and the New Guinea Islands to ensure that the colonies operating in these areas can still operate. Can continue to produce various spices.The profits from trafficking spices such as cloves, nutmeg, and pepper to Europe are still considerable. Therefore, despite the huge external pressure, the Spaniards still refused to give up their operations in the East.

In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, Portugal and the Netherlands naturally extended an invitation to Haihan, hoping that Haihan could also send troops together as an ally to attack Spain's colonies in South Asia.

But Haihan no longer has much interest in eradicating the Spanish colonies in these areas. This is because of the long distance. Even if troops are dispatched from Manila Bay, the nearest military base, it will take more than [-] miles to reach the target area. If the period is longer, logistical supplies will become a big problem.However, Spain's local colonies are relatively scattered, and it is obviously unrealistic to want a quick victory.

Secondly, Haihan successively annexed large tracts of land that originally belonged to Ming Dynasty during this period. It will take a lot of time to digest these areas before they are fully brought under Haihan's rule.In order to ensure a smooth transition in these areas, Haihan deployed a large number of armed forces to these newly occupied areas, and even transferred some of the troops originally stationed overseas to return to the mainland for this purpose.

Compared with the distant South Asia, it is natural that the East Asian continent is more important to overseas.As a result, Haihan could no longer dispatch many troops to South Asia to participate in military operations led by Portugal and the Netherlands.Therefore, for this military operation led by Portugal and the Netherlands, Haihan only sent a small fleet composed of two warships, a troop carrier and four comprehensive supply ships from the Manila area to the area to cooperate with Portugal and the Netherlands. actions of the two countries.

When the East Asian continent entered the winter of 1648, the multinational coalition forces began to attack the Spanish colonies in South Asia.Since the area where the Spanish colony is located belongs to the tropics, there is no concept of winter. There are only two seasons of rain and dryness every year, and the dry season is from November to the middle of the next year. Portugal and the Netherlands chose this time to do it because of consideration. It is easier to implement large-scale military operations in the dry season.

The battle first started at Manado Harbor on the northern tip of Sulawesi Island.This is just a small colonial port with a population of less than [-]. The Spaniards living here are actually less than half of the total population. The other half of the resident population is explorers, exiled criminals, unemployed sailors and local natives composed of people.

The port town was built along both sides of a river that entered the sea here. Due to the lack of natural harbors, the wharf here can only be built on the river bank, so there are actually not many trading ships going to and from this place.In the past, it was just a small place that could not be found on the map. It was not until Spain's territory in Southeast Asia shrank to a corner of South Asia in recent years that Manado Port began to become lively.

However, due to the limited scale of development here and the lack of natural dangerous terrain for defense, the Spaniards did not deploy an organized armed force here, only a small number of armed personnel to maintain local order.The Portuguese fleet that arrived here earlier successfully completed the landing without encountering decent resistance.

The Haihan fleet that participated in the operation did not arrive at Manado Port until three days later, but at this time the Portuguese had already captured the area, and all that needed to be killed and robbed had been done, and there was no need for the help of the Haihan Army.

At this time, the Dutch came from the direction of the Java Sea west of Sulawesi Island, but their goal was not Sulawesi Island, which had been touched by the Portuguese, but crossed the Sea of ​​Florence from its southern tip. , Straight to the Maluku Islands.

The Maluku Islands are also known as the Spice Islands. The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have been fighting in this area for a long time. After the Portuguese arrived here in 1511, the Maluku Islands have never been peaceful.However, Spain was dominant earlier, and Portugal and the Netherlands often lost more than they won, but now that Spain has shown a decline, the Dutch East India Company naturally wants to take advantage of this rare opportunity to beat the dog in the water and snatch the territory under Spanish control. into their own hands.

Due to the geological structure, the Maluku Islands have frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes, so they are actually not a livable place.Western colonial countries value this place mainly for the spice crops produced locally.

After Spain was forced to abandon the Philippine Islands, it built and expanded dozens of colonies in the Maluku Islands. Although the scale is not too large, the area of ​​​​this area is almost the same as that of the South China Sea. The Dutch want to land one by one. It took a lot of work to clear the past.

Spain still has dozens of armed sailing ships in this area, but the problem is that their colonies are too scattered, and it is difficult to concentrate their armed forces to defend a certain island or a certain port without predicting the opponent's attack target.Therefore, in the previous several battles, Spain almost failed to prevent a decent resistance, and suffered many defeats in succession.

It was not until the spring of 1649 that the Spanish fleet collided with the Dutch fleet cruising here in the Banda Sea south of the Maluku Islands, and the two sides had a formal battle face to face.

The Spanish fleet has a clear advantage in terms of the number of ships and weapons and equipment. It owns several decommissioned warships, while the Dutch side is full of armed merchant ships. When the two sides fought, the Spanish side quickly gained the upper hand.After two days of naval battle, the Dutch paid the price of three sailing ships and had to voluntarily withdraw from the battlefield.After the Spaniard's victory, his morale was boosted, and he chased for several days in one breath, until he finally let go of the retreating Dutch fleet.

(End of this chapter)