1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 164 Misreading
"A Spanish warship passed by Batavia?" Batavia Governor Anthony Van Daiman raised his eyebrows when he heard the report from the fleet commander, Colonel Aryan Van Dijk, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor." Colonel Aryan Van Dijk replied, "At least two merchant ships under the company's banner saw the Spanish warship near Java Island. Although the other party did not fly a flag to show its identity, we Sailors can still recognize at a glance that the battleship belongs to the Spaniards!"

"What is the purpose of their coming? Does your navy have any conclusions?" Governor Anthony Van Daiman's expression could not help but become serious.

"We speculate that Spain must have received news from a certain channel that we were planning to launch a military deployment against the Philippines. Therefore, Manila sent a warship to try to carry out an armed reconnaissance." Colonel Ayan Van Dijk said.

"Will the Spaniards come to attack one of our colonies?"

"I think it's possible. After all, the Spaniards have been running the Philippines for more than 60 years, and they have plenty of tamed natives to drive around."

Governor Anthony Van Daiman pondered for a while, assessing the possibility and consequences of a conflict with Spain.

"Then, if the Spaniards want to attack us, the colonies in Borneo are the most likely to be attacked by them. Right?"

"Yes, Your Excellency Governor. Your judgment is very correct. Those colonial points in Borneo were acquired only in recent years. Whether it is personnel, materials, or castle construction, they are lacking, and the defense is very weak." Ayan Fan said Colonel Dick.

"Then we have to start to do the following tasks now." Governor Anthony Van Daiman said decisively: "First, immediately deploy ships to replenish the personnel and supplies of several colonial points in Borneo. Second, arrange our warships to cruise The waters around Borneo, if necessary, can explore the Spanish islands. Finally, arrange business personnel to enter Manila to collect all relevant information about the Spaniards. In particular, information on foreign military deployments.”

"Of order, Your Excellency the Governor!" Colonel Aryan Van Dijk promised loudly.

"The Portuguese attacked our Jianye City?" Cao Xiong received the message from Batavia on Xinsheng Island (Fuguo Island) at the end of December.

In the past two months, they have been traveling between Daming Island and Xinsheng Island, and Zheng Zhilong's ships "helped" to transport more than 8000 hungry people from Shandong, Hebei, and Huaibei.

Half of them are actually refugees from Hebei who fled to Shandong.The reason is that the Houjin Tartars entered the customs for the third time.

Later Jin's entry this time is related to North Korea.Huang Taiji is preparing to conquer North Korea himself. In order to prevent the Ming Dynasty from taking advantage of the situation and sending troops, it is necessary to attack the Ming Dynasty in order to deter and show off its might.

In May of the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636), Huang Taiji sent Azig and other 56 troops to fight, broke through Juyong Pass and entered the Great Wall, and went straight to Hebei. They fought against the Ming army 10,000 times and captured twelve cities. , captured more than [-] people and animals, and captured the general Chao Pichang alive, and then returned to the north of the Great Wall through Lengkou.

Later Jin slaughtered and plundered half of Hebei, which greatly shocked and weakened the Ming army in Hebei.A few months later, Huang Taiji personally conquered North Korea, and two months later he conquered North Korea and became a teacher.Because North Korea could not count on Da Ming's rescue, it completely surrendered to Hou Jin.

After the war, countless Hebei people became homeless refugees.However, officials at all levels in the Ming Dynasty were unable to help them, causing a large number of Hebei refugees to go to Shandong to beg for food, starving to death everywhere.

Today, the entire Xinsheng Island is a huge refugee shelter. In addition to the many hungry people gathered in the Xinsheng Fort, there are also thousands of immigrants living on the ground outside the city.

While Cao Xiong and others let many hungry people recuperate and wait for their transfer to Batavia, they organized immigrants who were still in good health to build another fort in the bend of the river more than ten miles north of Xinshengbao——Zhaomingbao, probably in later generations Duong Dong Township on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam.

"Just a ship from the Portuguese? Did they attack Chateau Neue Castel?"

"I heard that a ship came and was driven away by the fort at the pier. The strange thing is that Xinxiang Castle was not attacked." Luo Daqi said.

Cao Xiong stroked his chin and thought about it carefully.Xinxiang Castle is on Timor Island, didn't the Portuguese find it?Why did they instead run to the mainland of Hanzhou and attack Jianye City?Although no losses were caused, it also meant that the Portuguese were at war.

So, should we also attack the Portuguese territory.However, we just brought back some barbarian craftsmen from Haojing (Macau), and if we beat it, we will not be able to come here in the future.Moreover, there are a lot of forts at the Haojing Wharf, and our ships will definitely have a bad nose when they pass by.

Now that there is a conflict with the Portuguese, will they be attacked by the Portuguese in Haojing when they travel to and from Guangzhou in the future?
Otherwise, during this period of time, let Zheng Zhilong's boat help us transport people from Hanzhou to Xinsheng Island, and our own boats will concentrate on transporting immigrants back to Hanzhou.

"Rucheng, you send someone to Guangzhou to find Tuesday Gui. Ask him to contact Zheng Zhilong's people. In the next period of time, their ship will deliver the money to Xinsheng Island." Cao Xiong turned to Luo Rucheng and said: " From now on, we have to speed up the transport of immigrants back to Hanzhou.... Damn it, don't be blocked halfway by others!"

"General Manager, can the houses to be built later be built outside the city?" Pan Qifeng found Qi Tian, ​​cupped his hands and said, "The cultivated farmland is getting farther and farther away from Jianye City and Heishan City, and it is really time-consuming for farmers to come and go. "

With the increase of immigrants, the area of ​​farmland reclamation in Hanzhou is also increasing.From the vicinity of the town at the beginning, it has been more than ten miles away from the town.At that time, for safety reasons, almost all farmers' residences were mostly in cities.Therefore, it is indeed time-consuming for farmers to rush to the farmland more than ten miles away to cultivate.

"Yes, now arrange all the construction teams to build settlements within five kilometers from the town." Qi Tian nodded and said, "I heard from Batavia that thousands of hungry people have gathered on Xinsheng Island. It is estimated that Now, some immigrants have already been transported to Batavia. We have to hurry up and build a house again."

In order to cope with the imminent arrival of thousands of immigrants, non-essential construction projects across Hanzhou had to be stopped, and a large number of houses began to be built instead.

At present, five large-scale brick kilns and several cement kilns have been built in Jianye City, Heishan City, and New Huai'an City, providing a steady stream of building materials for various infrastructure constructions in Hanzhou.

What's even more rare is that Hanzhou built the first cement road, the Heihuai Highway (from Heishan City to New Huai'an).Although it is only five kilometers away, all-weather transportation between the two places can be realized, which greatly facilitates the exchange of people and materials between the two places.

However, the cement road from Jianye City to Heishan City has only been paved for less than two kilometers, and it may be delayed until next year's dry season before it is actually completed.

As for the defensive walls of the three towns, they are far from being completed.Last month, a large Western ship suspected of being Portuguese attacked the Jianye City Wharf.As a result, Jianye City rushed to build a bastion wall, which could stand up the walls around the city, but most of them were less than half a person tall.

Now, in order to cope with the arrival of a large number of immigrants, the construction of the city wall had to stop, and more materials and personnel were concentrated on the construction of houses.

Because, Qi Tian judged, even if the Portuguese really wanted to send warships and landing troops to attack Hanzhou, then they would definitely not have many people and ships coming.During this period, the Portuguese had limited mobilization of armed forces in the Far East.Moreover, they also came to make a fortune, not for the sake of enthusiasm, regardless of the risk, and rashly attacked the mainland of Hanzhou.

The most important Portuguese strongholds are Dili in Timor Island, Yehaojing in Ming Dynasty, Malacca in the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, and Goa in India.As for Hanzhou, on the one hand, they look down on it, and on the other hand, they may not have enough hands.

That being the case, there is no need for the mainland of Hanzhou to make a fuss and waste a lot of manpower and material resources to build the city wall.

If, Qi Tian knew, the ship belonged to the Spaniards, and they were preparing to mobilize to raid Hanzhou.Well, his reaction might be the exact opposite.Spaniards, sometimes it is not for the benefit, it will do everything in its power to wave its "shameful iron fist" at you to maintain the supreme honor and dignity of the Kingdom of Spain.

At this time, Spain had entered a state of war with France. Relying on good financial support and a powerful army that had experienced battles, they defeated the obviously out-of-state French army several times on the German battlefield, which greatly promoted the authority of the Kingdom of Spain.

A small gang of Hanzhou pirates dared to challenge the mighty Kingdom of Spain, and they would inevitably face their strong revenge.

As for the painstaking efforts to attack the distant Hanzhou, the Spaniards don't care. Even if there is no benefit to take, it is reasonable to pay for the honor of the Kingdom of Spain.

Moreover, in the eyes of the Spaniards, the Hanzhou where the pirates were hiding was no different from the tribal natives on many islands in the Philippines.It's nothing more than a little farther away.

(End of this chapter)