1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 640 The situation deteriorates

"The Dutch are more aggressive than we expected earlier, or they value this route and the supply points on the route more than we expected." Wang Tom explained: "In terms of naval warfare, we have a short period of time. There is no way to invest too much troops in the South China Sea, so we can only try to strengthen the defense and self-sustainability of Ambuna Island. We need to build warehouses, arsenals, fortifications on the island, and maybe even develop agriculture on the island , so that this stronghold can continue to exist in the South China Sea. This kind of comprehensive project requires not only the efforts of the military, but also the coordination and cooperation of other departments."

"But this is indeed not in line with our original intention. Our purpose of sending troops to occupy Abuna Island was just to have an outpost, not to turn it into a war zone against the Dutch." Tao Donglai He frowned and said, "The things you just mentioned need to complete a large number of infrastructure projects in the local area, but now the technical personnel and construction materials in this area are in short supply, and corresponding arrangements have been made for a long time. Give it to Ambuna Island, and it will definitely affect other places."

"We can slow down the construction progress of the four southern ports in Annan. Now that Da Nang has begun to take shape, it can temporarily meet our business needs. We will first allocate part of Annan's engineering forces and materials to Ambuna Island. In three to five months if it is fast, or about half a year if it is slow, we will be able to build a solid military stronghold on the island, and even if the Dutch attack aggressively, we don’t have to worry about losing this place easily.” Tom Wang immediately threw out It is a small calculation that the military has already made in advance.

"So you want to replicate Fort Victory on Ambuna Island?" Gu Kai had already understood what he meant, but he still had doubts about it: "With such a large amount of engineering, the island is not like ours." There were still some construction machinery available when we first landed, can the construction period you mentioned be completed on time? And how much construction materials will need to be transported from Sanya, have you calculated it carefully?"

"There are now more than 3000 people on the island, and young and middle-aged people account for almost half of them. The human resources situation is much better than when we first arrived here." Wang Tom patiently explained: "And we don't have to completely copy In the past. The local area has already had a certain construction foundation, which is much better than when we came here in poverty. All we have to do is to strengthen and transform the existing foundation, and the amount of work is not as exaggerated as the original construction of Fort Victory.”

"Where does the cost of the reconstruction project come from?" Schneider, who had been silent all this time, finally said, "Is it necessary to ask the financial department to set up a special additional fund to subsidize military expenditure? This is not a good habit."

Wang Tom replied: "The military has captured several Dutch merchant ships before this, and with this capture, it is basically enough to complete the project I just mentioned, but this requires the special approval of the Executive Committee. This part of the income must be assigned to the military. Of course, the corresponding accounts will be provided to the audit department for inspection and filing, so as to prevent embezzlement of public funds and false expenses in the process.”

"If the military can solve the expenses by itself, then I have nothing to say." Schneider expressed his attitude very readily on behalf of the financial department-in fact, this is already a disguised support for the military.

There has never been a lack of precedents in the development history of the Haihan militia in the form of fighting to raise war. Most of the spoils captured by the militia during the Annan battle in the previous two years were discounted and included in the military in the name of military expenses. In the treasury, this has almost become a fixed mode for the militia to raise their own military expenses.Although the military has never made it clear, the purpose of choosing Abina Island as a supply point and trapping Dutch merchant ships here is probably not just to block the news that the ownership of the island has changed hands, but also to seize the spoils from the Dutch. Subsidizing military expenses is probably also part of the consideration.

Schneider has always had a good relationship with the military. His objection is not to stop the military's actions, but to raise the issue first, so as to avoid letting others make a fuss about military expenses.Tom Wang obviously understood his intentions very well, and their questions and answers cooperated quite tacitly.

One of the reasons why the military's various proposals are most likely to be blocked is the issue of military expenditure. As long as this issue can be properly resolved, other factors will become less important.Wang Tom's proposal was also passed with a majority vote in the next vote, and the executive committee will coordinate resources to assist the military to complete the engineering transformation task on Ambuna Island as soon as possible.

Compared with the well-organized Haihan Executive Committee, the Dutch who lost the battle on Ambuna Island were not so relaxed.Fearing that the opponent still had ships intercepting them at sea, the fleet did not rush north or south after sailing out of Anbuna Port. Instead, it sailed eastward for dozens of nautical miles before confirming that no pursuers came out.

For Van Longen, it was extremely lucky to be able to escape from the island, but thinking about the loss of two ships and a large number of valuable goods, he couldn't feel at ease.Moreover, Brower, one of the three commanders of the fleet, died in battle. This is not only a major loss of personnel, but also has a certain negative impact on the reputation of the East India Company. One of the heir candidates died so quietly at the hands of a group of unidentified pirates. Governor Korn would probably be very angry when he heard the news.

"Mr. Spikes, what should we do now?" Van Longen felt at a loss about the way forward, so he could only ask Spikes for advice first.

Spikes was in no better condition than him. He looked up at him, shook his head and said, "We probably won't be able to call back."

Fan Longen said in his heart that in this situation, he still wants to fight back. You really think your life is too long, don't you?If I hadn't applied to board the ship in advance to prepare for the evacuation, this group of people might have been blocked at the port and couldn't escape.

"Go back to Batavia, this matter must be reported to the company in detail as soon as possible." Although Spikes' heart is heavy, he can still distinguish the priorities.Compared with other things, the most important thing is to let the company's senior management know what happened now, and then they can further consider the countermeasures and even the corresponding retaliatory measures.

"But what about these ships?" Van Longen immediately objected: "There are still a lot of goods on these ships that need to be sold to Japan, North Korea, and Ming Dynasty. Are we wasting these days for nothing? We should go north! "

"Is the current situation suitable to care about these things?" Spikes raised his voice a lot: "If such a big thing happened, the company's interests should be the most important thing!"

How could Van Longen admit defeat at this point? He immediately thought of another path: "Even if we don't consider the cargo on our ship, we must also consider that the ships in Dayuan Port will continue to send ships south without knowing the truth, and they are likely to They will also throw themselves into the trap here on Abunna Island! We must inform Dayuan Port to let the local organize a fleet to avoid this sea area in the route arrangement."

The reasons of the two are actually very good, and no one can convince the other. Finally, it is decided that the fleet will be divided into two. Spikes will take the two ships to the south and report the battle situation to the company's board of directors.And Van Longen will lead the other three ships to continue northward to Dayuan Port - so that at least part of the capital can be recovered, so that the loss will not be lost.

Van Longen's fleet was trembling along the way, and it was already 20 days after they arrived at Dayuan Port.And the first news he got after landing here was that Shibazhi suffered a disastrous defeat on Nanri Island last month, and had lost the last stronghold near the coast of Fujian.It was not the old rival Fujian Navy that defeated them, but a Haihan armed force that went to Fujian from Qiongzhou Island.

This news surprised Van Longen too.The Dutch have never wanted the Fujian sea area to be monopolized by the Ming government or one of the Eighteen Zhi, because that would make them, "outsiders", face higher thresholds for local trade.Although the Dutch did not directly intervene in the protracted war between the two sides along the coast of Fujian, they still gave Shibazhi a certain amount of support in private so that they could maintain pressure on the Fujian government.

It is no secret that the Haihan people support Xu Xinsu in the military field, but the Dutch never thought that the Haihan armed forces in Qiongzhou Island could enter Fujian so soon and use force to attack Shibazhi with the cooperation of the government.In recent years, after Xu Xinsu got the support of the Haihan people, his trade with the Dutch has become less and less, and now the two sides have come together openly and attacked Shibazhi, who exists as a Dutch middleman, which made Van Longen feel bad. It is a hunch that the Dutch are likely to be squeezed out of the Ming trade circle.

During this time, Zheng Zhilong was gearing up, planning to take Nanri Island back from his opponents, and sent envoys to Dayuan Port, hoping to buy some powerful artillery from the Dutch.But his request was destined to be rejected. Originally, Van Longen's fleet had shipped several cannons this time and planned to resell them to Shibazhi or the Ryukyu further north in Dayuan Port, but they all failed when they were on Abunna Island. Destroyed by enemy fire on the battlefield.Zheng Zhilong now wants to buy cannons, unless the Dutch are willing to dismantle the cannons on the city wall of Zeelandia and sell them to him as commodities, but this is obviously unlikely.

After Van Longen heard the news on the pier, he immediately went to the local East India Company office to see the person in charge.Since the East India Company established an administrative agency in Taiwan in 1624, it has appointed a Governor to be responsible for the administrative affairs of the entire island.The currently incumbent Chief of Staff is the fourth in this position, named Hans Putmans (Hans Putmans).

Hans joined the East India Company as a businessman in 1624. In 1626, he was promoted to be the chief businessman and a court judge. He also served as the manager of Chinese affairs in Batavia. Izzy (Pieter Nuyts) took over the position, which can be described as a rocket-like promotion speed.It is said that Hans' family background is quite deep, which allowed him to become a high-ranking local official only five years after joining the East India Company.Behind his rocket-like promotion, there is also a large group of colleagues who were stepped on as stepping stones.

However, Hans' predecessor did not resign from this position because he wanted to make room for him, but there were deeds worth mentioning.Peter Ruiz became the chief minister in 1627. In July of the same year, he went to Japan to hold peace talks with the shogunate on trade issues between the two sides, but failed under the obstruction of Hamada Yahei.Peter therefore held a grudge against Hamada, and when Hamada came to Taiwan the next year, he was arrested as a show of revenge.Although he was released soon, Hamada also took violent measures to retaliate against this. He took Peter and his son as hostages, and later they were taken directly to Japan to be imprisoned, and the Dutch business house in Hirado, Japan was closed.

In order to quell the anger of the Japanese shogunate, the East India Company sent Hans to Taiwan to take over Peter's position. After the unlucky Peter returned to Taiwan, he was extradited to Japan and imprisoned for four years. He was not released until 1636. repatriated to the Netherlands.

Hans is much more powerful than his predecessor. In the original history, during his tenure, this guy crusaded most of the aboriginal tribes on Taiwan Island and won the allegiance of some tribal leaders.The Dutch colonial stronghold Zeelandia, which was built near Dayuan Port in 1624, was also completed during his tenure—of course, in this time and space, he probably has no chance to complete his original tenure.

"Mr. Hans, first of all I have to tell you some bad news." After a few words with Hans, Van Longen hastened to get to the point, and informed Hans of the battle that took place on the island of Abunna in the future.

After hearing this, Hans also had a look of astonishment: "Then this means that none of the five merchant ships that set out from here to the south in the past two months arrived in Batavia, and all of them had accidents on Natuna Island? "

"It seems to be like this at the moment. We found three destroyed company merchant ships in the local port, but unfortunately we did not find our crew." Van Longen paused and said: "Maybe they have all been killed. cruelty!"

"May God bless them!" Hans raised his hand and made a sign of the cross on his chest, and then continued: "Then this means that we lost another reliable supply point on the voyage to the south. Doesn't the company have nothing to do with this?" Is there a better way to handle it?"

Van Longen replied: "I personally think it is very difficult. The pirates on that island are not ordinary goods. They are even better armed than Shibazhi. It is very likely that they have received assistance from the Portuguese, and they may even have bought them from the Haihan people. arms."

(End of this chapter)