I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 247 This is the most dangerous signal

Chapter 246

If it is in Liaodong in October, it must be the cold wind howling and the breath turning into ice.However, in the Java Sea, even in October, it still feels very muggy.If it wasn't for the occasional torrential rain, the howling sea breeze would have brought a hint of coolness, and Cheng Shijie didn't know how to endure it.

On the Zhili of the Jusha-class battleship of the main fleet of the Ning Navy, Cheng Shijie looked at the lunch in front of him. It was luncheon meat, canned yellow peaches, plus canned braised mutton, canned beef, sticks of pickled radish, and several kinds of seafood.

No matter how delicious things are, there are times when Cheng Shijie is getting ready to eat lunch. Li Zhixiang reported to Cheng Shijie: "The Dutch are here!"

"I'm afraid it's just for negotiation!"

Li Zhixiang smiled and said: "It seems that Li Weiluan has gained a foothold in Batavia!"

"Who knows!"

Cheng Shijie put down his chopsticks and said, "It's such a disappointment, it's not safe to eat a meal!"

"Perhaps the Dutch are begging for peace!"

"Probably not, what I want, the Dutch will never give!"

"If the Dutch plan to form an alliance with us to deal with the Zheng family, the commander-in-chief might as well make a fool of himself first, rely on their strength, and settle the score with them after the Zheng family is eliminated!"

"No! I, Ning Haijun, are more than enough to clean up the Zheng family. I don't need their help! If they dare to intervene, I will kill them!"

"Marshal, this is just a stopgap measure..."

"I don't care about it! This is my bottom line, I will punish anyone who dares to step on the boundary!"

Dealing with the Dutch first, and then dealing with Zheng Zhilong is because Cheng Shijie wants to surrender to the Zheng family. Dealing with Zheng Zhilong first, the Ning Navy will definitely lose a lot, and avoid Zheng Zhilong's death. Even if Zheng Zhilong only has a few hundred warships left, as long as he escapes and follows the Cheng Shijie played guerrilla warfare at sea, or sabotage warfare.

Then this battle will be endless, but it will give the Dutch a chance.You must know that the time when the Netherlands became truly independent was 1648, which was also the second year of Yongli in Nanming. The key battle that established the rise of the Netherlands was the Downs naval battle, which was the 12th year of Chongzhen.

Now the imperial court has asked Cheng Shijie to return to the capital many times, and Cheng Shijie has been in Nanyang for too long, and it is impossible for him to stay like this forever.

Cheng Shijie also knew the real reason why Emperor Chongzhen asked Cheng Shijie to return to the capital. The imperial court appointed Chen Qiyu as the Minister of the Ministry of War, the governor of Shanshan, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, and the governor of Yunyang Lu Xiangsheng.

At the beginning, Chen Qiyu tried his best to tell the serious situation of famine and peasant army swarming thousands of miles from Yanzhou, Yan'an to Yansui town (Yulin).At this time, with the silver delivered by Cheng Shijie and Gao Qiqian, and the 300 million shi of grain delivered by Liaodong, Emperor Chongzhen was full of confidence, and with a big hand, he issued an edict to exempt the imperial court land tax in Yan'an and Qingyang areas.

The Shanxi people, who were almost out of breath by the imperial court's heavy taxation, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Since Emperor Chongzhen sent someone to directly read the imperial decree this time, almost all the people knew the news of tax exemption. .

The battle to encircle and suppress the peasant army went very smoothly. Yu Wangjiacha beheaded Wang Chenggong's department, and Lu Wenshan, the deputy commander, wiped out and beheaded the leaders of the rebel army, Jie Shanhu, Liu Robber Zhi, Jin Chipeng and others.

Before long, Chen Qiyu dispatched guerrilla Chang Huaide to behead Xue Rengui, the leader of the rebel army; Dai Junen, who participated in politics, smashed a dragon, diamond, mountain harrier, black god, tiger among men, five kings of hell, and immediately flew; Du Sixian beheaded Wang Denghuai; Beheading horses and red wolves, flying all over the sky; participating in politics, Zhang Bojing beheaded man geese, captured Huang Shenyao, and flew across the ditch.

Guard Yan Shiheng and kill Zhang Cong, Fan Dengke, Fan Jirong, Piece of Iron, Qingbei Wolf, Pangolin, Old General, Second General, Mangypsophila, and Shangshan Tiger; kill Chief Bai Shixiang and sweep the ground tiger; guard Guo Jincheng and kill the ground tiger and Kuo Tian Fly; guard Guo Tai, cut off the jumping mountain tiger, new general, roll on the spot, little yellow warbler, and Fang Ritu;

The other generals killed Caoshangfei, Yihu, Yiyifei, Yunlishou, Four Heavenly Kings, and One-tailed Wolf. The leaders of the peasant army were basically wiped out.

Under Chen Qiyu's four-sided encirclement and suppression tactics, Chen Qiyu himself led the deputy commanders Yang Hualin and Liu Guozhen to station in Yang County to prevent the rebels from fleeing east; , intercept the enemy to prevent escape.

It can be said that even if the Peasant Army is not wiped out, it will be severely damaged.In history, it was precisely because Jiannu attacked Datong and broke into it, and Emperor Chongzhen was terrified, which made Chen Qiyu fall short.

It's just a pity that even if there is no Jiannu to make trouble, Chen Qiyu wants to make great achievements and recruit Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others. Since then, he has become a famous general in Ming Dynasty.

Well, in fact, Chen Qiyu's greedy credit was also forced out by Cheng Shijie, because Cheng Shijie's credit was too great, the civil servants were overwhelmed by Cheng Shijie, and the noble group, which had been suppressed by the civil servants for a long time, also faintly raised its head.

Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, bestowed the crown prince and Taifu, and led the governor's mansion of the left army and the prime minister's Beijing camp. Chen Qiyu was pushed out by the civil official group to replace Lu Xiangsheng, and was prepared to be packaged as a Confucian general.

As a result, the joke got bigger.When the imperial court was preparing to celebrate the death of the peasant army, Gao Yingxiang broke through from Baoji and entered Guanzhong, Gongchang, Pingliang, Lintao, Fengxiang and dozens of prefectures and counties, defeated He Renlong and Zhang Tianli's army, and killed Guyuan Road Lu Menglong , The entire Guanzhong and Northwest collapsed instantly.

Emperor Chongzhen issued three imperial decrees in succession to let Cheng Shijie return to the capital.

Under such circumstances, Cheng Shijie actually doesn't have much time left. Although Li Zhixiang can be left to continue fighting, the problem is that foreign diplomatic work is involved. Cheng Shijie has no way to rely on other people for this matter. Xie Jinglin has more than enough opportunities, but Lack of big picture.

Forget about the subordinates, but there is nothing that can stand out and stand alone.

At this time, the warship on guard from the vanguard had already brought a small boat flying the Dutch flag high. Because the bridge was too small, there was no way to build a trestle bridge, so they had to climb a rope ladder to get on board.

As the negotiator this time, it was Sidney, the director of the original Batavia Port Authority, who came to the North Zhili together with Xie Jinglin.

As soon as I boarded the ship, I greatly appreciated the amazing size and spacious deck of the Beizhili.This is not a compliment. The Netherlands is a veteran maritime power with a very developed shipbuilding industry and advanced technology. They can tell whether a warship is good or bad at a glance.

Obviously, the design of the Beizhili is very advanced, and the construction technology is very superb, even the guys from the old maritime powers are impressed by it.

"Meet the commander-in-chief!"

"It's been a hard journey!"

Sidney looked at Cheng Shijie. Cheng Shijie was wearing a purple official robe at this time. However, this official robe looked a bit out of place on Cheng Shijie. Sidney had traveled to Quanzhou with a caravan and met Ming officials. Cheng Shijie Not as serious as the Ming officials Sidney had seen, let alone the solemnity of those Ming officials.

Cheng Shijie and Xie Jinglin chatted about their daily life, seemingly carelessly. In a diplomatic situation, this was somewhat impolite. Several members of the Dutch diplomatic corps who came with Sidney had unnatural expressions on their faces. It should not be said that they were unnatural. It should be said that their faces are also uglier than one.

It was only then that Sidney discovered that the Duke's entourage consisted of dozens of people!Moreover, these people are all in neat military uniforms and walk nimbly, they look like a small army!

Different from the Dutch army, Cheng Shijie's personal troops actually don't use firearms, but armor, cold weapons. If there is a difference, each of them has four defensive grenades hanging on their waists, two of which are smoke bombs .

In addition to the grenades, each man was armed with a shield, and a revolver, though larger than a normal revolver.

Sidney bowed to Cheng Shijie and said, "My lord, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

Sid continued in an exaggerated tone: "Respect Your Excellency the Duke, I must admit that your craftsmen have built you an extremely powerful warship! If you can have a hundred such warships, you will become the overlord of the ocean!"

"I'm working hard in this direction... so far I only have six warships of this level, and there are still 94 ships left!"

Cheng Shijie said very bluntly: "You have worked so hard to come here, don't you just want to see my warship? Tell me what you want to say, put your farts away, I have to go to war, I don't have time to dawdle! "

Sidney saw that Cheng Shijie was not used to the way of speaking straight to the point. According to the European way of talking, Cheng Shijie should follow their words and brag about his warship fiercely, and talk to them about the development status and future of the world's shipbuilding industry. direction, talk to them about today's weather, drink a few cups of tea at the end, and then get to the point without any trace, so that it looks elegant...

Fortunately for Cheng Shijie, he went straight to the point in less than three sentences!
Sidney squeezed out a smile and said, "Dear Your Excellency, as you expected, we were ordered to come here to discuss something important."

"Yes! Tell me!"

"We carry the sincerity of peace!"

"Where is your sincerity?"

"The pirate Zheng Zhilong has been rampant in the South China Sea for more than ten years. The maritime merchants who took this route and the coastal residents of Guangdong and Fujian have been tortured. They looted and killed, we all hated him..."

"If you talk about this kind of nonsense again, I will throw you into the sea and get to the point!"

Sidney said: "To be honest, Your Excellency, although our warships are not many, they are fast and powerful. One ship can hit ten Zheng's ships, and one of our soldiers can hit ten of them. Now, even if Mrs. Zheng has the ability to reach the sky, she won't be able to last long!"

"The debts you owe have not been paid off, and it is absolutely impossible to cooperate with you!"

Xie Jinglin smoothed things over and said: "Commander, enemies are easy to resolve but not easy to tie..."

Cheng Shijie said indifferently: "I am a peace-loving person. If it weren't for the Dutch massacring Chinese in Nanyang and detaining the Chengfeng, I would never have sent troops!"

Not only Sidney didn't believe this, even Xie Jinglin and Li Zhixiang didn't believe it. The Luzon incident was actually not a big problem, it was just that the five Spanish soldiers didn't pay for food and beat the waiter in the restaurant.

In any country, this matter would not trigger a war. At best, it would only punish the parties involved. As the saying goes, if a king grows up, he will have all kinds of birds. Even any king can't guarantee that his subjects are highly skilled talents.

But the problem is that Cheng Shi dispatched the army, and he sent troops directly when he could negotiate to solve the problem. Although it was claimed that Cheng Shi acted recklessly, the problem was that from everyone's point of view, Cheng Shi had received direct instructions from Cheng Shijie.

The same is true for Batavia's problem now... It's just that Cheng Shijie's sincerity in the negotiation was not enough at the beginning, and the conditions proposed were a bit too much in Xie Jinglin's view.

Of course, it is impossible for Cheng Shijie to admit it, he said with a faint smile: "I will review again, although our Ming Dynasty has a population of [-] million, none of the subjects of our Ming Empire is superfluous, our Ming Dynasty has always loved peace, you have also seen that , Our Ming Empire has never taken the initiative to attack you, but the problem is that you Dutch, entrenched in the East Indies, rely on squeezing the East Indies to maintain your domestic luxury life, you wantonly massacre our Ming people and suppress our ships, if the Netherlands It’s okay if people’s national strength is strong, hehe, please forgive my presumptuousness, the current world is the law of the jungle, and only those who have strength can have a matching status!”

Facing Cheng Shijie's words, Sidney didn't know how to answer.

Everyone understands the truth of the law of the jungle, but no one has brought it to the table for public discussion. Cheng Shijie can be regarded as tearing off the warm veil of international law. The colonial system and the Three Emperors Alliance are all naked interests.

Is Ming really watching the Dutch occupying the East Indies indifferently?
Don't be ridiculous, it's just that the Ming Empire has started to go downhill since the Tumubao change. Domestic and foreign troubles have involved most of its energy, and there is no spare energy to deal with the Dutch.

Why did Emperor Wanli resist Japan and aid the dynasty?
To put it bluntly, it is also an interest, the interest of national strategic security, how can others be allowed to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?

Now the Dutch East India Company is not strong enough. The largest Dutch East India Company once accounted for half of the world's trade volume. The British East India Company once controlled the entire India. The Opium War was provoked by the British East India Company.

Naturally, it was impossible for Cheng Shijie to negotiate directly with Sidney, because his status was not equal.

When Sidney left, Xie Jinglin asked Cheng Shijie frankly, "Marshal, what is your purpose?"

"I think Sumatra Island, half of Batavia's port control, and things like the Riding Wind can't happen again!!"

The Strait of Malacca is too important. If the East India loses Sumatra, the East India will lose control of the Strait of Malacca, which is absolutely unacceptable to the Dutch.

If it is said that in the past, Xie Jinglin really didn't know the importance of Sumatra Island, but the problem is that now he knows, he said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid the Dutch will disagree, they absolutely cannot accept such a condition!"

"That's okay, I know the Dutch won't accept it, but the Dutch will face reality sooner or later, but when the Ning Naval Commander controls the entire Sumatra Island, the commander's request will no longer be limited to Sumatra Island."

Cheng Shijie's ambition is huge, and one Sumatra island is definitely not enough to satisfy Cheng Shijie's greed for land. In this time and space, Cheng Shijie will never allow some disgusting things to happen again.

In fact, the Dutch East India Company is a company disguised as a country, and the Corning Navy is also a country disguised as an army.

For external expansion, Cheng Shijie will not ask the court for instructions, and Cheng Shijie also has absolute control.

The Netherlands is the first country in the world whose colonies are stronger than its own. Even though the UK later became an empire on which the sun never sets, the military strength of the UK among all the colonies in the world is far inferior to that of the UK itself.Spain, the current empire on which the sun never sets, is also stronger than its colonies, and it also adopts the traditional method of ancient China, with strong stems and weak branches.

It is precisely because the Spanish Empire adopted strong stems and strong branches that the Dutch East India Company was able to easily seize large personnel from Spain. The large personnel with an area of ​​more than 500 square kilometers, all the Spaniards added up to less than 8000 people, the entire In Luzon, which covers an area of ​​more than 5000 square kilometers, there are no more than [-] Spaniards.

In Batavia alone, there are more than 2 Dutch people, counting the entire East India Company, the number of Dutch people exceeds 5000, plus tens of thousands of Dutch East India colonial troops, the entire Dutch army Not 10 people either.

Faced with the conditions proposed by Cheng Shijie, it is naturally impossible for the Dutch East India Company to agree, but the problem is that the local support to the Dutch East India Company is very limited. You must know that the Dutch Navy at this time can exceed [-] people, and all warships combined Even if you count small warships of three or four hundred tons, there are no more than one hundred.

As for the main battleships, there are less than fifty. In order to cope with the pressure of the Spanish Armada, they had to transfer warships from the Dutch East India Company and return to the mainland to fight.

Brewer can only pin his hopes on Zheng Zhilong now.

The war experience that Zheng Zhilong wants to send troops is 100 million Dutch guilders, which is equivalent to 2000 million pounds, and more than 50 ships can be manufactured in the Sea Sovereign class.

"Give it, give it to him, but we can't afford so much money for a while, we can pay in installments, divided into ten years!"

Brewer looked at Putmans and asked, "What else does Zheng Zhilong want?"

Putmans smiled wryly and said: "Zheng Zhilong hopes that we can provide him with [-] muskets!"

"It's impossible, we can provide up to [-] sticks!"

"In addition, he also hopes that we can build him a battleship, a seven-provincial battleship!"

"Yes, the warships of the seven provinces are very expensive! We in the Netherlands don't have a hundred warships of the seven provinces!"

"He already knows about this problem!"

Brewer thought for a while and said, "Tell Zheng Zhilong that each of our seven provincial warships in the Kingdom of the Netherlands needs [-] Dutch guilders!"

Of course, this value is multiplied by ten in Brewer's mind and the actual cost of leaving the factory.

It also means that 100 million Dutch guilders can build forty seven provincial battleships for free.

"Besides, by the way, he wants a port!"

"where?"

Although the Dutch are also very greedy for land, the problem is that under the persecution of a powerful enemy, they have no choice but to accept Zheng Zhilong's blackmail.

"Subic Harbor!"

Brewer thought for a while and said, "Isn't Subic Port in his hands?"

"Zheng Zhilong wants us to recognize his status in Luzon. Allow them to settle and do business freely in Luzon, and give them the power to collect taxes and recruit young men in Luzon. We will tend to do our best to help us eliminate Cheng Shijie! "

Brewer didn't explode, the covenant is just a piece of paper, and the covenant can be torn up at any time when there is a fundamental change in the strength of the two sides.

Only when the strengths of both parties are similar, the covenant will be effective.Just like Morris in Nassau led the Dutch to defeat the Spaniards, but the Dutch did not have the strength to completely defeat Spain, and Spain also signed the "12-year truce" agreement with the Netherlands because it needed time to adjust its strategic deployment .

If Zheng Zhilong's strength does not recover as fast as the strength of the Dutch East India, they will definitely fight again in the future.

Brewer looked at Putmans and said, "I agree in principle, but a supplementary agreement must be signed!"

"Supplementary agreement?"

"Correct!"

"Let Zheng Zhilong help us gain a firm foothold in India!"

Brewer said: "You know, we were the first to discover India. The damned British and French are not following the rules and are bent on pushing us out of India. This is absolutely impossible!"

"I'm afraid they won't agree!"

"He will agree, you can tell Zheng Zhilong, if you help us occupy India, we will give him Tamil!"

Tamil State is a state in southern India, bordering the Indian Ocean to the south, Sri Lanka across the Bay of Bengal to the east, Karnataka and Kerala to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the north.The area of ​​Tamil is about 13 square kilometers, which is almost equivalent to four big officials.

The problem is that the main residents of Tamil Nadu are Tamils, and the folk customs are sturdy. The Netherlands has launched two attacks on Tamil. Without exception, all of them failed and returned home.

While negotiating with Zheng Zhilong, Breuer also wrote to the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company and the King of the Netherlands, asking for help, of course, asking the Kingdom of the Netherlands to support the Dutch East India with more warships and sailors.

As for whether the King of the Netherlands and the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company can allocate more troops and warships to him, it is not something he should care about.

When Shi Daxuan brought the Dutch back to agree to his request, Zheng Zhilong was very depressed at this time.

Before Zheng Zhilong fought against Cheng Shijie, he was the king of Nanyang, with more than 3000 warships stretching for tens of miles, with flags covering the sea, how majestic is he?

However, after three battles with the Ning Navy, his warships were only about [-] ships left. Although it was still a huge force, what made Zheng Zhilong vomit blood was that the supply line of the Ning Navy was originally stretched, and it could attack the Ning Navy for a long time. supply line, thereby weakening the combat effectiveness of Ning Haijun's navy, forcing Cheng Shijie to return to the rear supply line.

But the problem is that it is not easy to attack the supply line of the Ning Navy. The pirates who had been obedient to Zheng Zhilong stopped listening to his command and instead tipped off the Ning Navy.

This time he opened his mouth deliberately and put forward very excessive conditions to the Dutch, but the Dutch actually agreed, and they agreed to pay the cost of sending troops of 100 million Dutch guilders.

Now Zheng Zhilong has a headache instead. After losing all three battles with Ning Haijun, the pirates under his command dare not attack Ning Haijun's black flagship.This is already the most dangerous signal.

Zheng Zhilong can now be sure that many people want to use his head to claim credit for Cheng Shijie.

(End of this chapter)