1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 186 The New Cooperation Between Han and Dutch

It was already the end of July when Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Bacona and Lieutenant Andrew Florent arrived in Jianye City on an armed merchant ship.

Lieutenant Andrew Florent looked at the somewhat familiar and unfamiliar Jianye City Wharf, feeling conflicted in his heart.

At the beginning, as the liaison officer of the Dutch East India Company in the Caoxiong fleet, he lived and worked with them for more than a year.Although the sailors on Cao Xiong's fleet were extremely repulsive to him at the beginning.When guiding them to standardize their operations, they also encountered resistance from many parties and made things difficult for them.

As the communication time increased and mutual understanding deepened, he was gradually accepted by the group of honest oriental sailors.He knew that those sailors called him Xiao An, an oriental affectionate title.

But some months ago they were threatened with a Spanish invasion.I thought that the Batavia fleet would fight against the Spanish expeditionary fleet together with them, but I didn't expect that the fleet upheld the interests of the East India Company and chose to stand by and watch the Spaniards invade Hanzhou.And he was recalled to Batavia by the fleet command.

The promotion of the second lieutenant to the lieutenant is an affirmation and reward for his earnest fulfillment of the duties of a partner liaison officer, as well as his detailed drawing of the route map from Batavia to Hanzhou.

But Lieutenant Andrew Florent felt that he shamefully evaded his responsibility when Cao Xiong and the others were in danger.

When he came to Hanzhou again, he felt very ashamed, a little afraid to face Cao Xiong and those sailors.

"Lieutenant Florent, look at their pier forts!" Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Bacona pointed to the forts on both sides of the pier, "Almost all of them have thick bunkers. According to the regulations of the artillery, there should be 18-pound heavy guns. No wonder the Spaniards dropped two warships here. I suppose they must have bravely rushed near the docks. Oh, poor and conceited Spaniards!"

Wu Na looked at these Dutch officers curiously, and while talking in a low voice, he kept looking at the forts on both sides of the pier, feeling a little proud in his heart.Our Hanzhou fort easily repelled the Spanish fleet attack!

Wu Na is Naurana, the wharf tax official who once provided Cao Xiong with a treasury outside the city in Jishui Bay of the Aceh Kingdom.The name Wu Na was changed later.Because when I first came to Hanzhou, when I introduced myself to others, I was despised by some people.Said that he claimed to be a descendant of the Ming people, not only did he not look like a man, but even his name belonged to a native.For this reason, he immediately changed his name to the Han model.

When they arrived at the castle near the pier, Lieutenant Colonel Jemini Bacona and Lieutenant Andrew Florent finally saw a familiar person—Luo Daqi.

Luo Daqi, dressed in a blue and black military uniform, came to the representative of the Netherlands with a serious face.

"At the order of the Commander-in-Chief of Hanzhou, I'm here to pick you up and go to the Commander's Mansion of Jianye City!" Luo Daqi said expressionlessly.

Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Bacona nodded, and looked at the horses led by some townspeople.

Don't have a carriage?A question flashed in Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Bacona's mind, but he walked over first, stepped on the stirrup, and rode on the horse.

"Luo, are you all right?" Lieutenant Andrew Florent asked in a low voice.

"It's not good! Many of us died!" Luo Daqi's face showed a trace of sadness.

"Oh..." Lieutenant Andrew Florent understood that the Spaniards were not weak in combat effectiveness. Although Hanzhou wiped them out, they must have lost a lot.

"Ro, I'm sorry..."

"It's useless to say anything now. I'll take you into the city first." Luo Daqi didn't want to say any more.

For the arrival of the Dutch, Han Zhou had anticipated, and their purpose was also estimated.For this reason, Hanzhou is ready to seize this opportunity to re-establish a cooperation model with the Dutch.We Hanzhou, as the younger brother, naturally stick to our role as the younger brother, but you Dutch people are the big brother, you can't easily treat us as abandoned children in the future, and throw it away as soon as you say it.

"Oh, God!" When several Dutch officers came to Jianye City, they couldn't help being stunned by the huge fortress in front of them.

This fortress combines the characteristics of the West and the East, its defensive capabilities and strength, and also combines the advantages of the two models.Although the city wall is not particularly tall, there are many artillery pieces on the many protruding bastions.The outer wall is thick and hard, and the bombardment by small-caliber artillery will probably not have any effect.Unless, the use of heavy siege guns may be able to damage their walls to a certain extent.However, the other party will definitely not watch you calmly deploy heavy artillery to bombard the city wall, and will definitely respond.

Several Dutch military officers estimated that thousands or even tens of thousands of soldiers may need to be mobilized if the fortress is to be breached.Then, adding up all the mercenaries of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East, it is estimated that it may not be possible to capture this city.Han Zhou has built himself a hard tortoise shell.

If the Dutch want to deal with them, the most economical way may be to block them.Instead of sending an expeditionary fleet to attack their homeland like the stupid Spaniards.

In the Jianye City Commander's Mansion, in a large conference room on the second floor, Cao Xiong, Yu Fukun, Hu Wenjin and others were already sitting opposite a long table.

Lieutenant Colonel Jamini Bacona looked at Cao Xiong and the others, and found that they did not intend to stand up to say hello. He exchanged glances with his companions, shrugged his shoulders, and sat on the other side of the long table.

For a moment, neither side had the intention to speak first, they looked at each other, as if they were waiting for the other to speak first and propose conditions.

In this era, the Dutch are undoubtedly the overlords of the sea.They broke away from Spanish rule and established the Inter-Provincial Republic.Although so far, it has not been recognized by Spain.But the Dutch relied on their powerful sea power to defeat the Spanish fleet several times.Especially in 1626, Spain suffered a disastrous defeat in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba. More than a dozen treasure ships were defeated and captured by the Dutch, which caused the most serious economic crisis in the Kingdom of Spain.

The Dutch monopolize almost all profitable industries in Europe. The Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, Germany, and Italy. The businesses of countries in these regions are controlled by Dutch businessmen or Dutch capital. Even the offshore fishing grounds in England are controlled by the Dutch. .

And Hanzhou, who has just started, can sit with the Dutch on this table.It's not how powerful Hanzhou is, but the Dutch think that your strength has proved that you can be used by me.

"We can cooperate with you and fight the Spaniards together!" After a long silence, Cao Xiong said in a deep voice: "There is no need to talk about other things."

Hearing what Cao Xiong said, several representatives of the Dutch East India Company were not surprised at all.According to the virtues of the Spaniards, it is impossible for them to reconcile with Hanzhou. They will definitely accumulate strength and regain their position again.As for Han Zhou, naturally he would not be boring, and took the initiative to ask Spain to plead guilty.

Hanzhou may not take the initiative to tease the Spaniards in the Philippines and stick to their Hanzhou, but all kinds of production and living materials they need must be purchased in Batavia, and more importantly, their immigrants from Daming The route happened to be stuck in the middle by the Netherlands and had to cooperate with the Dutch.

"Other cooperation matters, I have not been authorized by the governor and the committee, so I don't need to discuss this time." Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Bacona said with a smile: "So, we came here this time to discuss in detail how to target Military Operations of the Spanish in the Philippines."

Cao Xiong nodded. The other party's main target should be the Spaniards in Luzon. I heard from Qi Tian that the Netherlands and Spain have been fighting in their Europe for many years, and there is some hatred. Now it seems that the war has temporarily ceased.However, there are often big fights overseas.

"In view of the current strength of the Spaniards has suffered a certain loss, our Dutch East India Company plans to launch a military operation against the Philippines in the near future." Lieutenant Colonel Jemini Bacona said: "We hope that you Hanzhou can dispatch some Navy and Army, together with our expeditionary fleet of the Dutch East India Company, attack the Philippines.”

"When do you plan to attack Spain?" Cao Xiong asked.

"October!" Lieutenant Colonel Jemini Bacona said: "In October of this year, we will start military operations, which will last until March next year."

"October?" Cao Xiong was a little surprised. Why were the Dutch so eager to attack the Spaniards in Luzon? He thought they would launch a military operation the soonest, and it would be next year.

The reason why the Dutch attacked the Philippines so urgently was mainly due to changes in the European situation.The Swedish king, Gustav II, was killed in the Battle of Lutzen in November 1632, making Sweden incapable of attacking since then.The Holy Roman Emperor took the opportunity to unite with the Spanish allies and defeated the Swedish army at the Battle of Nördlingen in September 11, forcing the Swedish army to retreat to the Baltic coast.Saxony and Brandenburg signed the Treaty of Prague with the Holy Roman Emperor in May 1634.

As a result, Spain seems to be able to free up its hands and teach the former rebellion-the Netherlands.Although France, under the leadership of Prime Minister Richelieu, directly sent troops to fight the Habsburg royal alliance.But in the early days, due to insufficient preparation, in 1636, it was attacked by Spain and the Holy Roman Empire from the north and the south, defeated the French army, and once pushed to the French capital Paris.

The Federal Republic was terrified. In addition to a large amount of funds to support France, it also ordered overseas colonies to attack Spain’s colonies in South America and Asia, cut off their gold, silver and material imports to Spain, and consume Spain’s fragile finances to the greatest extent. system.

The reason for setting a time to stop the war is that Gein, March to April every year is the time when the Spanish Pacific fleet sailing from South America to Asia arrives.At that time, the Philippines may gather more than 25 large warships, which is a great threat to the armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company with weaker forces.

"Han Chau is having trouble launching a military operation against the Philippines in October?" Lt. Col. Jemini Bacona asked.

"There are difficulties." Cao Xiong felt that at this time, he could complain, "The Spaniards came to attack Hanzhou, and the loss of personnel and materials was huge. It will take some time to recover."

"For the military operations to attack the Philippines, the Dutch East India Company can provide you with some military supplies. But in terms of personnel, we hope that Hanzhou can dispatch no less than 500 people to attack the land." Jemini Bacona The school also estimated that the Spanish attack may cause a certain degree of loss of personnel and materials in Hanzhou.

We can provide materials, but you seem to have no shortage of personnel.

(End of this chapter)