1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 325 Unexpected Encounter
May 1639, 5, Timor Island, New Township.

After nearly two months, the "Yangbo" once again docked at the pier of Xinxiangbao.Seeing this, the two wharf managers immediately yelled for more than 30 natives to come forward to unload the cargo.

When the ship docked safely, Qi Tian couldn't wait to get off the ship.There are more than 60 wild buffaloes belonging to Nima. During the five or six days of sailing, the smell of cows has been tormenting everyone on board.Although, the sailors brought buckets of seawater from the sea every day to wash them down.But you can't stop the constant excrement of these buffaloes, and the smell of poop, and the smell of buffaloes makes it hard for everyone to eat and sleep.

On the pier, taking a deep breath of fresh air, Qi Tian felt as if he was alive again.Looking at the city wall of Xinxiang Castle in the distance, his face collapsed again.It took another five or six days to return to Jianye City from Xinxiangbao. I really wanted to leave all the wild buffalo in Xinxiangbao, and everyone returned refreshed.

But as the general manager of the Hanzhou People's Government, he can't be arrogant.There are still hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land in Hanzhou, and a large number of cattle are needed to plow the land. In the future, Hanzhou meat products also need to expand the beef cattle population.

This kind of wild buffalo can be domesticated after a few months of breeding, and can also be crossed with other breeds of cattle to improve and expand the cattle herd in Hanzhou.That being the case, the wild buffalo on Niu Island must continue to expand the number of capture and transshipment, and must not be allowed to turn into a pile of manure on Niu Island.

Stayed in Xinxiangbao for two days, dropped a dozen wild buffaloes and Chen Dalang who were not in good condition, and then "Yangbo" loaded with more than [-] natives captured by the Xinxiangbao soldiers in the early stage, set sail, and slowly sailed out Cangxi estuary, and then went straight to Jianye Port.

Everyone on the "Yangbo" was excitedly manipulating the ship, looking forward to returning home earlier, about 30 kilometers northeast of it, a Dutch fleet composed of four armed merchant ships, All of them opened their huge sails and sailed towards Jianye City at a distance of more than ten kilometers.

Major Curtis Bellman felt a little disapproving of the Batavia fleet commander, Colonel Duckman Barek, who ordered him to take the advance fleet to visit Jianye Port of Hanzhou and their new township on the south side of Timor Island. .

You must know how difficult it is to try to find and capture one or two Hanzhou ships on the sea.Even if they are found, can they be captured or sunk with only four armed merchant ships?Unless you are lucky and encounter an old broken ship that cannot drive fast, or a transport ship full of cargo.

However, as the new commander of the fleet, the orders issued by Colonel Dakman Barek must be strictly implemented, patrolling the coast of Hanzhou, and it is estimated that the biggest role may be to deter and intimidate Hanzhou, so as to attack the Hanzhou people's determination to resist .

For this reason, Major Curtis Behrman did not line up four armed merchant ships in a tight cruise lineup, but divided them into two squadrons on the left and right.They are about ten kilometers apart from each other, and they are heading towards Jianye Port quickly.

By the way, it must not exist. The advance fleet of Major Curtis Bellman went to the coast of Hanzhou, then turned back to Timor Island, and finally went to Dili Port. It took more than ten days and detoured thousands of miles. In the past, it was a serious waste of maritime capacity.

But today's Dutch East India Company has suddenly become rich in shipping capacity.Ambon in the Gain Spice Islands was destroyed by the Hanzhou people, and then there was a native riot, so that the acquisition of cloves was temporarily impossible.In addition, two strongholds in Formosa were attacked by Zheng Zhilong of the Ming Dynasty, and the results were not very optimistic. In order to ensure the safety of trading ships, exchanges to Japan and North Korea were also suspended.

Thinking about it carefully, the current situation facing the Dutch East India Company is still very critical. It seems that the enemies of the entire Far East are targeting their Dutch.The natives on Java Island, the Hanzhou people in the south, the Spaniards in the Philippines, Zheng Zhilong in the Ming Dynasty, and their old rivals in India, Ceylon and Malacca - the Portuguese, attacked the East India Company almost at the same time.

And their allies seem to have none.As for the Sultanate of Johor, which has cooperated, it is because they have a common enemy - the existence of Portugal, that they appear to be relatively close.If they were to shed blood for the Dutch and defend the interests of the East India Company, those fanatical Johoreans would definitely stay away.

As the situation gradually deteriorated, Governor Batavia also began to adjust a series of Far East policies.I heard that the Governor-General will once again send negotiators to the Philippines to reaffirm their peaceful truce with them and try to keep the Spaniards from falling into trouble.In addition, the Governor-General also intends to support the Prince Savadin of the Kingdom of Aceh, so that he can win the position of the Sultan of Aceh among many competitions, so as to ease the relationship with Aceh, and then jointly deal with the Portuguese.

As for Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the Dutch hoped that Rajsingh II, the Kingdom of Kandy, would organize an army to attack Colombo in the west of the island in order to weaken the Portuguese. For this reason, they sent some muskets and gunpowder, as well as some swords Spear to the Kingdom of Kandy.

In the original time and space, the Dutch took advantage of the contract with the Kingdom of Kandy to enter the eastern region of Ceylon in May 1639, and successively occupied important cities and fortresses such as Trincomalee, Migbowa, and Galle.But now, the Dutch have not been able to successfully land in Ceylon because of the news of the landing site leaked in advance by the Hanzhou Black Guards.

Regarding Hanzhou in the south, Governor Daiman's will is also very clear. Within this year, he must intensify the attack on the maritime transportation of Hanzhou to force it to surrender and be included in the colonial system of the East India Company.

However, for Hanzhou, the entire Batavia fleet seemed to have nowhere to go. All the strongholds were built like turtle shells. Their ships knew that they were invincible, but they were all hiding near overseas islands that no one knew. No face-to-face with the Dutch fleet.But when the Dutchman is not paying attention, he will suddenly jump out and bite you hard.

If you really want to force the Hanzhou people to submit, then you can only mobilize the greatest resources of the Dutch, use countless armed forces, directly attack their homeland, and land in their Jianye City.But the Dutch did not dare to bear the consequences of failure. It is said that there are 3 to 8000 people in Hanzhou, so there are at least [-] to [-] armed forces that can be used for resistance. Moreover, they can also produce artillery and guns by themselves.It may be difficult to capture Jianye City with the force controlled by Batavia.

The Dutch armed merchant ships "Gray Stag" and "Warrior" left the coast of Timor Island and sailed towards Hanzhou for four days. It is estimated that there are still two days at most before they can see the coastline of Hanzhou.When he got there, Major Curtis Behrman decided to take a turn around Jianye Port in order to meet the Hanzhou ships that might pass by, and then went to a nearby large island (Bathurst Island) where the Dutch once established The temporary camp was repaired and joined with two other armed merchant ships here.

"I found a big ship in the southeast!" The watchman on the ship suddenly shouted: "It seems to be... a Portuguese merchant ship!"

Major Curtis Behrman heard the shout and immediately raised his spotting binoculars to look southeast.Sure enough, a Portuguese-style merchant ship was sailing towards Hanzhou with full sail.The other party also seemed to have spotted their two warships. Many people on the deck were running, trying to adjust the sails and get rid of them with the help of the wind.

"Signal to the Gray Hart, let's catch up together!" Major Curtis Behrman ordered.

"Sir, the opposite is obviously an armed merchant ship of the Dutch. For safety reasons, I suggest throwing all the wild buffaloes on board into the sea to reduce the weight of the ship." Major Conrad Costa, a former Portuguese naval officer, grimaced. Qi Tian said: "Otherwise, we may not be able to get rid of them."

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Qi Tian was also looking at the two Dutch armed merchant ships that were outflanking behind him. There were still about two kilometers away. run away.The fifty or so wild buffaloes on board had finally been transported here from Niu Island, and they were about to arrive at Jianye Port. It would be too wasteful to throw them into the sea like this.If you want to throw things into the sea, it is better to throw those more than 100 natives!
"Go and command the ships to retreat, Major Costa, I believe that with your professional ability, you will be able to drag it until night." Qi Tian encouraged.

Major Conrad Costa was quite helpless. Of course, his professional ability was beyond doubt, but the abilities of the sailors on board were uneven. Many of them were just fishermen on fishing boats a few months ago.But seeing Qi Tian's encouraging eyes, he had no choice but to return to the command platform and manipulate the former Portuguese merchant ship to flee desperately to Hanzhou.

Qi Tian stood on the poop, keeping an eye on the two Dutch armed merchant ships behind him, and looked at the sky from time to time, hoping that the bright sun would go down soon, or that there would be a heavy rain, so, "Yangbo" " can hide his whereabouts and escape into the depths of the sea.

I don't know if Murphy's Law has been brought up at this time, but the reality is that the two Dutch armed merchant ships coming behind are getting closer and closer to the "Yanbo", and you can see the ship on board with the naked eye. The hideous face of the Dutch sailor.

"Push the wild buffalo into the sea!" Qi Tiantian ordered desperately.The Dutch are indeed worthy of being sea coachmen. Their skilled sailing skills enable their ships to take better advantage of the wind, and their speed can be surpassed by their opponents.

More than a dozen local soldiers and sailors, driving and coordinating with the natives on the ship, dragged out the wild buffalo in the bilge with great effort, and then pushed them into the sea.

"Oh, God, what is that ship throwing?" The sailors on the Dutch armed merchant ship "Warrior" who chased to the front couldn't help exclaiming: "They seem to be throwing cows into the sea!"

"Are the Portuguese transporting cattle to Hanzhou?"

"You idiot, don't you see that there are many sailors with bright faces on board?" A Dutch officer said excitedly: "That ship belongs to Hanzhou!"

"Rush over and stop them!" The officers and sailors on the Dutch armed merchant ship suddenly became excited.

In the half a year since the war with Hanzhou, they have not captured a single Hanzhou ship or a single Hanzhou soldier.On the contrary, many of them were captured by the Hanzhou people. Dili City, Ambon, and merchant ships were intercepted. It is conservatively estimated that more than 1000 Dutch people were captured by the Hanzhou people. Even if those natives, company employees, and mercenaries are excluded , sailors and civilians also numbered 800.

Now, if a Hanzhou merchant ship can be captured, the governor and other high-level personnel of the company will definitely be very excited.

(End of this chapter)