1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2474
Although the three countries jointly dispatched troops, the Dutch knew that Haihan's position was more inclined to the Portuguese side, so in order to avoid losses in the distribution of benefits afterwards, they wanted to grab some territory in the Maluku Islands before the Portuguese. , but I didn't expect that Spain is a centipede that is dead but not stiff, and its own armed fleet still can't beat the opponent.

At this time, the Portuguese Sea United Fleet, which was far away at the northern tip of Sulawesi Island, had not received the news of the retreat of the Dutch fleet, and still cleared the local Spanish colonial settlements in a leisurely manner according to the original plan.

After the Spaniards freed their hands, they also tried to counterattack the enemy from the north, but when they found that there were several Haihan warships in this fleet, they decisively chose to preserve their strength instead of rushing out to fight the United Fleet head-on.Compared with the well-known Portuguese, they are obviously more afraid of the Haihan Navy. The records of the past few years have fully demonstrated that there is a clear gap between the equipment level and combat capabilities of the two sides. All the capital at hand is also taken into account.

Although the battle situation is obviously in the upper hand, there is also a big problem for the Portuguese - even if they can defeat the Spaniards in this area, there is not enough immigrant population to move to this area, and it is difficult to complete the de facto long-term occupation.

Haihan's current energy is focused on the East Asian continent in the north, and he doesn't have much interest in the ownership of this area for the time being, and he doesn't plan to spend material and financial resources to immigrate to this area.

According to the plan of the executive committee, Haihan will complete the preliminary construction and development of the "South China Sea Economic Belt" before the [-]th anniversary of the crossing. Now the island chain on the east line has basically taken shape, starting from Taiwan Island all the way south, before the Philippine Islands, There are no less than ten colonial areas under development in Palawan and northern Kalimantan. Neither the Haihan Civil Affairs Department nor the military has the energy to develop new colonies overseas that are further away from the mainland.

Although there are many products in the sea area currently being contested by the three European countries in Southeast Asia, for Haihan, there is no place that must be taken as soon as possible. The purpose of participating in this operation is more to maintain the relationship with Portugal and the Netherlands. The degree of investment in China's diplomatic relations is naturally relatively limited.

After the United Fleet had been operating in this sea area for about a month, it finally received the news that the Dutch Fleet had lost.Although the Portuguese are very happy to see their competitors suffer, they also know that without the cooperation of the Dutch, it will be difficult to completely wipe out this area. The only option is to end the action.

Although Spain suffered serious losses again during this period, it managed to keep most of the industries in this area, and the armed fleet was almost undamaged.

However, after this battle, the Spaniard also confirmed once again that retreating will not let the opponent let him go, as long as there is a chance, the opponent will definitely kill him.The ownership of these places in Southeast Asia ultimately depends on strength.They can't predict when their opponent will launch an offensive next time, so for the Spaniards, every day is a countdown to prepare for the battle. They must accumulate enough armed forces before the opponent's next offensive in order to survive. Chance.

In distant Europe, a major event also took place at this time. King Charles I of England was executed, and the rule of the Stuart dynasty ended. Britain entered the republic era and established a government of defense headed by Cromwell .One of the missions of this new government is to eliminate foreign competitors and turn Britain into a world-dominant maritime power.

This change in government system and national policy will not show immediate results in a short period of time, but its impact will be very far-reaching.For Haihan, who is far in the east, this actually means that in the future there will be another opponent who will compete for sea power on a global scale.

The British have actually been spying on the commercial routes to the East for a long time, and have dealt with Haihan as early as 1635.At that time, the coalition forces of Britain and Johor attacked Sing Dao at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, but were repelled by Roger, who was stationed in the area.Later, in order to redeem the captured personnel, Britain paid a considerable price for this and was forced to give up the opportunity to enter East Asia.

However, judging from the course of history, the first opponent of the United Kingdom after changing its national policy was actually France. A large number of colonies have also been reduced to British spoils.It was not until the second half of the 18th century that the focus of British overseas colonization turned to the East again.

However, the Executive Committee believes that the collision between Haihan and the United Kingdom should not wait until a hundred years later. With the current expansion speed of Haihan, this time is likely to be ten or twenty years later.If Haihan can take some key areas in South Asia and West Asia before this, then there is a great chance to lock the British's scope of activities to the west of the Arabian Peninsula.

But to do this, the area that Haihan needs to conquer is no smaller than the current scope of activities. The area of ​​the Bay of Bengal on the west side of the Indochina Peninsula alone is not much worse than the South China Sea.Although Haihan also established a nominal South China Sea theater, there are currently not many troops deployed near the Malay Peninsula on the southwest side of the Bay of Bengal. With Xingdao as the center, there are also one under construction at the north and south ends of Sumatra Island. colonial port.

Since Haihan's main focus at this stage is on the East Asian continent, the resources invested in the South China Sea theater are relatively limited, especially in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. how many other resources.

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Therefore, the executive committee gave Roger greater authority, including the ability to recruit troops in the area, expand as needed, reduce the proportion of regional tax payments to supplement local military expenditures, and deal with decision-making power in foreign affairs, etc.By granting these special treatments, Roger has the conditions to develop himself in the region and achieve external expansion.

Roger took the initiative to choose to go to Xingdao to lead the army, so he was naturally ambitious.As Haihan's control over the two key waterways of the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait becomes more and more stable, Roger will not stop at completing the errands of defending the country's borders.

In the spring of 1649, in the Dumai area on the east coast of Sumatra Island, the oil well drilling activity jointly funded by Roger and Tan Juren, the head of the Sing Tao Management Committee, achieved results.Although the previous drilling work took a lot of trouble and the investment was astronomical, but after the successful exploitation of crude oil, this place can quickly become a new industrial base.

(End of this chapter)