Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 319 Cohen's Alliance, VOC and Ming Pirates Alliance
"Join hands with the Red Hair?" Li Kuiqi thought Huang Mingzuo had some good plan, but was immediately disappointed when he heard this. "Back then, Zheng Zhilong wanted the Red Hair to send troops to help him deal with that Lin guy, but the Red Hair King of Bar City didn't agree. Now our relationship with the Red Hair is not as good as Zheng Zhilong's, so how can we ask him to help us?"

"It's a different time now. Donor Li may not know that the Red Hair King of Bar City has been replaced. This new barbarian chief is named Cohen, and he has already started to deal with the members of the Society. However, although the Red Hairs have strong ships and powerful guns, they are short of manpower. If they want to completely destroy the members of the Society, they must join forces with the sea heroes of our Ming Dynasty..."

The reason why Huang Mingzuo knew that VOC President Cohen had already taken steps to deal with Lin Hai was that last year Su Minggang was ordered to return to China to inquire about the news of the member company. At that time, he not only went to Xiamen to find Xu Xinsu, but also went to Zhangzhou to find Huang.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, the Red-haired invaders occupied Penghu and demanded a market. Huang Mingzuo, as the special envoy of Fujian Governor Shang Zhouzuo, went to Batavia with Captain Chen Shiying to negotiate with the VOC. At that time, he met Cohen.

When Su Minggang returned to China this time, Huang Mingzuo asked about his purpose and felt that things were not simple: Cohen was by no means such a naive person. He was probably spying on the information of Huiyou Company and intended to wipe it out!
Although he had only met Cohen once, Huang Mingzuo made a more accurate judgment than Su Minggang, because he had been in the officialdom for most of his life and had seen too many old foxes with white fur, so he could judge politicians more accurately than Su Minggang.

However, this is just a guess after all. In order to verify his idea, Huang Mingzuo pretended to ask Su Minggang to bring a batch of goods to Batavia for him, and at the same time sent his trusted servant Cheng Da on board to escort the goods.

After Cheng Da arrived in Batavia, he immediately went to see Cohen as instructed by Huang Mingzuo, and proposed that he could contact several big pirates on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty on behalf of the VOC to destroy the Huiyou Company.

At that time, Cohen had just learned from Su Minggang about the story of Lin Hai's founding of the Huiyou Company and the defeat of Zheng Zhilong in the Battle of Xiamen. He then summoned William Yangsun, who had returned from Japan, and listened to the latter's detailed account of what he saw and heard when he passed through Dayuan on his way back, including the Navy Fleet he had seen with his own eyes.

You don't know until you hear it. When you hear it, you are shocked. Cohen keenly realizes that he has underestimated Lin Hai. Although Huiyou Company is still in its infancy, it is not easy to completely wipe it out.

The reason is simple - the VOC has a serious shortage of available troops!
Although Cohen had full confidence that he could defeat Huiyou Company's fleet at sea, as long as Lin Hai lay on land and did not go into the water, VOC would be like a dog biting a hedgehog and had nowhere to bite.

The total number of VOC employees in Asia during this era was only about 5000. Excluding the indispensable civilian staff, there were probably just over 2000 sailors and soldiers, and they were scattered in Batavia, the Spice Islands, Tainan, the Indian Ocean and other places.

Of course, the VOC sent about 2000 sailors and soldiers to the East Indies every year, and the annual repatriation fleet would bring back a similar number of retired employees.

If Cohen forcibly delayed the retirement of these people and mobilized the retired sailors and soldiers settled in Batavia, his available strength could be doubled to 8 to 9000 people.

But as the maritime overlord of Asia, the VOC needed to garrison in too many places, and had to guard against attacks from Spanish and Portuguese forces or local indigenous peoples everywhere. It was impossible for it to pull all these troops to the coast of Ming Dynasty. It was already the limit for it to send more than 2000 sailors and more than 2000 soldiers.

Although the VOC could still hire some Japanese wanderers living in Batavia, or temporarily recruit some Javanese vassal troops, judging from the performance of Lin Hai's troops in the Battle of Xiamen, it would be a pipe dream for the VOC to take over Tamsui and Keelung.

In view of this, Cohen came up with the idea of ​​joining forces with the Ming pirates. Although Zheng Yi Guan was destroyed, there were still at least tens of thousands of pirates on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty.

The existence of the Huiyou Company would undoubtedly threaten the interests of these pirates. Although Cohen did not know what it meant to form alliances, he knew that the enemy of my enemy was my friend, so he thought it was quite possible to form an alliance with the Ming pirates. However, Zheng Zhilong was dead, and the VOC had no ready-made channels to contact the Ming pirates, so Cohen planned to send Su Minggang north again.

At this time, Cheng Da, who was sent by Huang Mingzuo, came to visit him. Cohen was just in time for a nap and someone sent him a pillow. He did not hesitate for a day and immediately appointed William Yangsun to contact Huang Mingzuo, and sent his translator and secretary, Li Enzuo, the son of Li Jin, to act as a Chinese interpreter for the latter.

Not long ago, William Yangsun, Cheng Da, Li Enzuo and others came to Haojing against the wind, and are now living in the Jinshengming business controlled by Huang Mingzuo. Huang Mingzuo's guess was finally confirmed - Cohen really intended to eliminate Lin Hai as soon as possible, and planned to send a powerful fleet as soon as the south wind came!

Huang Mingzuo told Li Kuiqi all this, and Li Kuiqi said excitedly, "Old man, is what you said true?"

"It is absolutely true. The red-haired envoy is staying at my place now. If Mr. Li is interested in joining forces with him, I would like to introduce him to you!" Huang Mingzuo knew that Li Kuiqi would definitely agree to Cohen's plan, and then he could use the VOC to get his only son back for him.

Of course, this is not his only purpose in doing this. If Jin Shengming wants to reproduce the glory of Huang Hexing in the past, Huiyou Company is an obstacle that must be eliminated, and this is also true for the ambitious Li Kuiqi!
"Old man, please lead the way!" Li Kuiqi immediately stood up and decided to meet the red-haired messenger first and then meet up with Li Meiyu.

That afternoon, William Yangsun, Huang Mingzuo, and Li Kuiqi formally reached an agreement to jointly destroy the Huiyou Company. At the same time, each of the three companies paid 200,000 taels of silver, and Li Kuiqi bribed Chu Cai, Cai San, Zhu Shi, Zhou San and other famous thieves along the coast of the Ming Dynasty to further strengthen the power of the anti-Lin alliance.

After the success, the VOC supported Li Kuiqi to become the leader of the Ming pirates, and Li Kuiqi led his pirates to help the VOC invade the Ming Dynasty again. In the end, Huang Mingzuo was responsible for the official operation to achieve Cohen's goal of seeking the city by force.

After the alliance was formed, Li Kuiqi took the three large ships lent to him by Huang Mingzuo to reunite with his adopted son. William Yangsun immediately set off to return to Batavia to report to Cohen, while Li Enzuo stayed at Huang Mingzuo's place as a liaison.

That night, shortly after Li Kuiqi and William Yangsun left the inner harbor of Haojing, Lin Hai also led the combined fleet to dock in Nanwan.

This is a port adjacent to the Portuguese community in Macau. Lin Hai will meet with the Macau military leaders and sell his alliance plan to the Portuguese.

What he didn't know was that a huge network of alliances against Huiyou Company had been quietly unfolding in the dark, and would launch a fatal attack one step ahead of him, Lin!

It is less than two months away from the arrival of the south wind season, and Huiyou Company will face its first life-and-death test since its establishment...

(End of this chapter)