1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 381 The Battle of Hanzhou
On August 1640, 8, in the sea area more than 25 kilometers southeast of the Kingdom of Cambodia, seven Hanzhou ships were stationed far away in the southeast of an island (now Con Son Island, Vietnam), and more than a dozen small boats were constantly transferring back and forth from the island with supplies and personnel.

Ten days ago, the seven ships of Hanzhou united with the Champa again to raid the coastal towns in the southeastern part of Guangnan, smashed two small counties and towns, and killed three waves of Guangnan troops. There are countless gold and silver materials, and more than four thousand young women.

Just when the Hanzhou Fleet and the Champa Navy returned from plundering, they suddenly encountered two armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company near the waters of Champa.Seeing this, the seven warships of Hanzhou immediately dropped the many small boats in Champa and rushed towards them.

The two Dutch armed merchant ships retreated to the southeast when they saw that the other party had a large number of people, and they fought and fled.When passing through a broken island, a small sailboat sailed out from one of the larger islands, and the flag of the "VOC" East India Company was flying on the mast.When the Hanzhou ships saw it, they naturally wouldn't let it go, so they separated a warship and rushed over.

In the evening, six Hanzhou warships sank a Dutch merchant ship and escaped one. When they returned to the island again, they saw their own warship guarding the southeast of the island, parked on the sea far away from the shore. .

Qi Dajiang inquired and learned that the Dutch East India Company had established a stronghold on the island at some point. The small sailboat hid in the shallow water on the shore, and the personnel disembarked and fled to the island.

In the early morning of the next day, the Hanzhou Fleet put down seven or eight small boats and rushed to the island carrying soldiers from the Marine Corps.After some searching, a Dutch stronghold was found a kilometer away from the shore.A row of wooden fences formed a simple camp. There was only one masonry building, and the rest were wooden houses. There was no artillery defense. Only thirty or forty Dutchmen were holding muskets and swords, and were watching vigilantly. Outside.

Xu Hongxiang, the company commander of the [-]th Marine Corps who led the team, was immediately overjoyed when he saw it. This kind of ruined stockade didn't need to move artillery.

At the moment, the Hanzhou Marine Corps did not send anyone to persuade them to surrender. They rushed to the 100-meter range of the camp, and then fired guns in turn. Throw it in.

With the sound of several explosions, regardless of the situation inside, the marine soldiers of the rear team raised their guns and fired another round of salvo towards the camp filled with gunpowder smoke.The grenadier lay on the ground, crawled forward for more than ten meters, lit the bomb, and threw it into the camp again.

Xu Hongxiang ordered the soldiers to stop shooting, and waited quietly for the smoke in front of the camp to clear up. These rounds of blows should have knocked down many Dutchmen.When our side fired at the camp just now, four people were shot, and one of them was hit in the abdomen. Seeing that they were dying.If the Dutch in the camp continue to resist and rush in later, they must execute the killing order.

However, the Dutch in the camp were more sensible. A white flag was hung on a wooden pole and kept shaking.

The Hanzhou Marine Corps rushed to the gate of the camp with muskets in hand, smashed open the gate several times, and escorted the Dutch people out one by one.Afterwards, Xu Hongxiang ordered people to check the property in the camp, and at the same time sent people back to the shore to inform the fleet commander Qi Dajiang.

After the Dutch’s commercial station in the Kingdom of Cambodia was destroyed by the opponent, last year, the Dutch East India Company sent several small sailboats into the river (Mekong River) against the current, sailed to the vicinity of the Royal City of Cambodia, and fought fiercely with the shore fort for half a day. Both sides suffered mutual damage.However, the Dutch tried to threaten the other party to allow them to reopen the trading station, but it was not realized.I can only return to the mouth of the river in dismay for another picture.

Later, the Dutch East India Company set up this island as a temporary trading post to carry out trade with Annan, Siam and other regions.Because Batavia didn't pay much attention to this temporary trading station, the construction of the entire camp was done so-so. Apart from being able to prevent some native attacks, it was impossible to resist to the end against a firearms force like Hanzhou.

The Hanzhou Marine Corps moved all the fur, pearls, tin, lead and other materials from the Dutch trading station back to the ship. When they finally left, they burned the place to a white ground.

Counting the days, there are still two months before the transshipment of immigrants. Qi Dajiang sent three large ships to transport all kinds of property captured from Xinsheng Island and young women from Annan back to Hanxing Island one after another.He led the other four warships and headed straight for several Dutch strongholds in Borneo.

On September 9, the Hanzhou Fleet collided with a Dutch merchant ship in the waters near Abuna Island (Natuna Island). After chasing it for a day, before the evening of the same day, it fired more than ten godfire crows and burned the ship. Fan finally stopped him and captured him smoothly.

On September 9, the Hanzhou Fleet encountered another Dutch merchant ship in the sea off the west side of Borneo, but it was approaching evening, and after several hours of pursuit, it was only wounded, and the opponent fled without a trace in the dark.

In the early morning of September 9, the Hanzhou Fleet arrived at the waters near the Dutch colonial stronghold on the southwestern side of Borneo—the sea area near Machen, and went up the Barito River. The soldiers of the team rushed to the stronghold, and after paying the price of eight casualties, they broke through the wooden fence around it and broke into the camp.In this battle, more than 10 Dutch mercenaries and native servants were killed, and the remaining 130 were captured.

After the fleet stayed here for two days, they carried all the materials and personnel onto the ship, and then set off a fire to burn down the Ma Chen stronghold.After this battle, the Hanzhou Fleet left Borneo, sailed northwest, and returned to Xinsheng Island for a short rest.

On September 9, three professional warships from Hanzhou, the "Yangming", "Qiming" and "Weiming" (newly built warships in August) suddenly rushed to the vicinity of the Sunda Strait and bombarded the Dutch who set up a small ship in the middle of the strait. The observation base on the island (now Sangiang Island, Indonesia), destroyed two liaison boats on the shore, escaped the Sunda Strait, and returned to Dog Island (now Christmas Island, Australia) before the Dutch dispatched a fleet to pursue them.

On October 10, five immigration ships led by Luo Rucheng encountered two Dutch merchant ships in the waters off northern Taiwan.The Hanzhou ships did not hesitate, and when they were loaded with a large number of immigrants, the five ships immediately rushed towards the Dutch merchant ship.After four hours of fierce fighting, the Dutch merchant ship was injured and retreated, and the Hanzhou was also damaged by two immigrant ships, and had to temporarily dock at the Jilong (now Keelung City, Taiwan) stronghold controlled by Zheng Zhilong in northern Taiwan.Unload the two ships of migrants, put them here temporarily, and then head west to Quanzhou to do basic repairs on the damaged ships.

On October 10, three professional warships from Hanzhou attacked a Dutch merchant ship near the Dutch colonial stronghold of Kupang on Timor Island, and successfully intercepted it before it escaped to Oecussi Port.However, the "Flying Fish No. 20" that was in charge of the reconnaissance mission quickly reported that four Dutch armed merchant ships were coming.In desperation, the officers and soldiers of the Hanzhou Navy transferred all the Dutch to their own ship, and burned the Dutch merchant ship together with its cargo, and it was lost in the sea.

"Crack!" Batavia Governor Anthony Van Dyman slammed a stack of documents on the table, and then stared angrily at Batavia Navy Commander Colonel Duckman Barek.

"Since this year, Hanzhou has breached our Kupang on Timor Island, Machen on Borneo, and temporary trading stations on islands near the Kingdom of Cambodia. Moreover, their armed ships have frequently attacked our merchant ships. This is Everything has caused serious losses to our East India Company!" Daiman took a deep breath and said bitterly: "Their ships haunted Borneo, the waters of Cambodia, the waters of Formosa, and even It also patronized the Sunda Strait that we control. How should your navy feel about this?"

"Your Excellency, all this shows that Hanzhou has already reached the Ming Kingdom and even the vicinity of the Kingdom of Cambodia through other routes. They no longer need to pass through the Java Island line under our control." Colonel Dakman Barek's expression changed. Said solemnly.

"Colonel Barek, the Hanzhou people have attacked our strongholds and merchant ships in the waters of Formosa, Cambodia, and Borneo. It is very obvious that they have bypassed the waters of Java Island that we control. You don’t need to specify again.” Governor Daiman said dissatisfiedly to Colonel Barek: “I hope your navy can come up with a practical solution to prevent our merchant ships from being frequently attacked by Hanzhou people in the future. Of course, there are also We have trading posts all over the East Indies, and I don't want them to break through again."

"Your Excellency, it is a little difficult for us to absolutely prevent our merchant ships from being attacked by Hanzhou people." Colonel Barek said awkwardly: "We have too much trade in the East Indies, and there are too many commercial interests. Unless, we implement armed escort."

"Do we have so many ships for sea escort?" Governor Daiman couldn't help being a little disappointed with Colonel Barek's suggestion. You must know that in the entire East Indies, the cargo volume of various Dutch trading post strongholds cannot meet five or six. The centralized transportation of several ships, is it necessary to let many armed merchant ships in the Netherlands go back and forth between various trading strongholds with empty cabins?It would be better to send seven or eight armed merchant ships to block Han Zhou's door and block their ships from leaving the port.

But the problem is that the port of the Hanzhou people is obviously more than Jianye Port. As for where the other ports are, the Dutch East India Company has no idea.There are too many small islands in the East Indies that are suitable as temporary supply ports, and it is impossible for the Dutch to find them in a short time.

"Or, we can make up our minds, pay some price, and build a permanent stronghold not far from Hanzhou Jianye Port to curb the entry and exit of Hanzhou Jianye Port." Colonel Barek gritted his teeth and said: "We know Now, Hanzhou's most important industrial products and shipyards are located in Jianye City. As long as this port is blocked, neither Hanzhou's follow-up combat capabilities nor their ship maintenance can continue."

Governor Daiman stared fixedly at Colonel Barek, and did not speak for a while, which immediately made Colonel Barek feel a little uneasy.

"Major Tasman has been exploring Hanzhou for five months, and it is estimated that he will return to Batavia in the near future. At that time, we can choose a suitable landing place based on his exploration results and quickly build a logistics supply base. In order to blockade and contain the frequent activities of the Hanzhou Fleet."

"This is one of the strategies to block Hanzhou for a long time in the future, but what I need now is a solution to the problems we are currently facing."

"The short-term solution can only be...the merchant ships go out together, and there are at least four ships in formation." Colonel Barek gritted his teeth and said: "Hanzhou may have professional warships, and their speed is also very fast. Their Combat skills have also been greatly improved compared with a year ago."

Governor Daiman stared at Colonel Barek angrily. What he needed was the most effective and economical solution, but he proposed several times to sail merchant ships to and from the East Indies in formation, which was a waste of capacity. and time.

Han Zhou, is it really hard to suppress?
(End of this chapter)