Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 347 Enemy Situation (Part )

In early June of the first year of Chongzhen, just the day after Lin Hai received the military report from Penghu, Su Minggang's younger brother Su Tingxuan came to Tamsui.

The Su family was originally a small landlord in Tongan County, Fujian Province. Their ancestors had lived a hard-working life. Although they were not wealthy, they could be said to be an upper-middle-class well-off family.

Such a family could afford to send their children to school so that they could achieve social class advancement through the imperial examination. Therefore, since Su Minggang and Su Tingxuan were young, their elders sent the two brothers to private schools.

Although the two brothers were born of the same mother, their personalities were very different. The eldest brother, Su Minggang, liked to chase chickens and dogs since he was a child. When he grew up, he played with guns and sticks all day long. He loved to make friends with a group of rogue fishermen. He was always stirring up trouble and causing trouble, which often made the elders of the Su family very angry.

The second son, Su Tingxuan, seemed to be a potential scholar. He was well-mannered and respectful to teachers since he was young. He was also very hardworking and studious. Even the private school teacher, who was only doing his job, praised him and gave him special lessons after class from time to time.

However, fate does not necessarily favor good children. Su Tingxuan's career path was not smooth from the beginning. After ten years of hard study, he still could not pass the provincial examination and could not even qualify as a student.

On the contrary, Su Minggang left home in anger due to an argument with his elders. At the age of twenty, he gathered more than a dozen strong men and went to Southeast Asia. In just a few years, he became a wealthy sea merchant and became brothers with Li Dan, Xu Xinsu, Huang Mingzuo and others.

So Su Tingxuan simply stopped studying for the imperial examination and started a perfume and medicine business with the help of his brother's supply and connections. Over the past twenty years, the Su family's perfume houses and perfume shops have been opened in various prefectures in Fujian, and even have several branches in Jiangnan. They can be said to be very wealthy.

Since the Su family became nouveau riche in this generation, they do not have a deep foundation in the Fujian officialdom. Once they encounter difficulties, they have to rely on Su Minggang's business partners Xu Xinsu, Huang Mingzuo and others for protection. The Xu and Su families are from Tongan, and the Li and Xu Groups and VOC trade often ask Su Minggang for help. Therefore, compared with Huang Mingzuo, the Su family has a closer relationship with the Xu family.

This time, Su Tingxuan came to Tamsui by boat sent by Xu Xinsu's cousin Xu Xinxu. The latter also worked in the Immigration Department and was currently recruiting immigrants in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. I think he should have received military intelligence from Penghu.

Lin Hai felt that the matter was not simple, and hurriedly met Su Tingxuan in Guandu City: "Boss Su, why did you come to Tamsui in person?"

Su Tingxuan didn't waste any time and went straight to the point: "The other day my brother suddenly asked someone to bring back a message from Bar City, asking me to personally pass it on to Lord Lin, saying that the red-haired barbarians in Bar City sent a fleet more than a month ago to deal with Huiyou Company."

"The red-haired fleet is heading for Huiyou Company?" Lin Hai was suddenly shocked when he heard this. The news came from Su Minggang, who was quite powerful in Batavia, which had to attract his attention.

"That's right. The Red Hairs came here for two purposes. The first is to destroy the Huiyou Company, and the second is to invade Fujian for trade..." Su Tingxuan paused here and looked at Lin Hai and said, "And the Red Hair Barbarian Chieftain specifically emphasized that he must get rid of Lord Lin at all costs."

"Oh? Is that true? I don't think I've ever offended that barbarian chieftain." Lin Hai narrowed his eyes slightly as he spoke, "Can your brother tell me why the red-haired man wanted to kill me?"

"My brother said that the new barbarian chieftain Cohen wanted to kill you on the first day he returned to Bar City, so he sent him back to Fujian last year to find out about the true situation of the Huiyou Company. The so-called use of the Huiyou to open the door to trade with the Ming Dynasty was just a cover. Cohen's original goal was to destroy the Huiyou, but he did not trust my brother, so he concealed this goal from him."

"So that's how it is..." Lin Hai took a deep breath. He seemed to feel a sharp hawk-like light looking at him from thousands of miles away. It was the gaze of Jan Peterszohn Cohen, the general manager of Batavia. Cold sweat almost broke out on his back. Lin Hai had been doing too well in the past two years. Whether it was Zheng Zhilong or the Spaniards, he could do whatever he wanted with his main opponents. As for Li Kuiqi and his ilk, they were even less worth mentioning.

This kind of good fortune will undoubtedly breed arrogance, and one will subconsciously think that he can move the chess pieces on the board at will, without realizing that there is also a chess player sitting opposite him, who may be even better ranked than himself.

Lin Hai had to admit that he had underestimated his enemy. Cohen was the world's most outstanding colonizer in the entire 17th century, and the most powerful leader in the -year history of the VOC. It was reasonable for a person of this level to make any unexpected moves.

He was not a mediocre politician like the Governor-General of the Philippines, Tavola. If what Su Minggang said was true, then this man's strategic vision and execution ability could almost be described as terrifying: in just one day, he sniffed out the greatest danger from the complicated East Indian affairs, and quickly formulated countermeasures, taking action as soon as the south wind started to blow...

"Cohen sent out nine large plywood ships, plus several auxiliary ships, with a total force of about 3,000 people, including 500 Japanese warriors. In order to deal with the members of the Society, Cohen also detained this year's returning fleet, delayed the retirement of a large number of sailors and soldiers, and used the former Yi chieftain, Peter Gebian, to lead the fleet..."

The so-called "Pedegge Bianzhi" is the Chinese businessmen's translation of the former general manager of Batavia, Peter de Carpentier. Lin Hai was not familiar with this person. He only heard about him from Li Guozhu and others after he traveled through time.

However, Cohen was able to send the former general manager to serve as the fleet commander. The standards of this personnel appointment can be said to be full, which shows how much he values ​​the Huiyou Company.

What's more, Cohen also seized the repatriation fleet, which was the VOC's annual fleet returning to Europe to transport goods and treasures, also known as the East India Treasure Fleet, which usually sailed from Batavia in February every year.

The ships used by the returning fleet are the so-called Return Ships, with a displacement of nearly one thousand tons and double hulls like battleships. They are considered the highest level of VOC ships.

In the First Anglo-Dutch War, which opened the era of the battle line more than 20 years later, the VOC's returning ships were hired in large numbers by the Dutch Navy to participate in the main naval battles. In this era, the returning ships can even be said to be the most powerful ships of the United Provinces, even better than the main battleships of the Dutch Navy.

This is because there are many shallows off the coast of the Netherlands, and the warships used by the navy are generally below 700 tons. Ships exceeding this tonnage generally need to be equipped with additional buoys to pass through shallow waters.

But just seven or eight years ago, in order to fight against Spain, the maritime hegemon of Europe, the United Provinces had set off a trend of building large ships, trying to build the ability to blockade Spanish ports.

However, after these large ships were built, the navy still felt that they were inconvenient to use, so they were eventually transferred to the VOC by the federal government.

This is also the main source of VOC returning ships in this era. As long as more cannons and personnel are added, they will be no less powerful than the main naval battleships of any Western European country!

(End of this chapter)