Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 240 The Great Battle of Malacca (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

After completely conquering Myanmar, the Chinese Empire obtained Bago, a port on the Indian Ocean, which made the Dutch East India Company extremely panicked!

China had taken Manila so quickly that the Dutch had no time to intervene. They could only acquiesce to the fact that China occupied the Philippines.

I thought it would take a long time for the Chinese Empire to consolidate the Philippines, but I didn't expect that although the expansion of the Chinese Empire at sea had stopped, its actions on land were getting bigger and bigger.

Not only did they easily conquer Annan, but they also took over the entire Burma.

Although Myanmar is not the territory of the Dutch East India Company, it is too close to their home base, Batavia on the island of Java.

It is obvious that China has entered their sphere of influence.

The Dutch East India Company does have a huge fleet, but if China chooses to attack Batavia from land, there is almost no possibility of them holding it!

The tens of thousands of elite divisions equipped with a large number of new firecrackers and artillery cannot be stopped by one or two thousand Dutch soldiers and tens of thousands of indigenous troops.

Also alarmed was the British East India Company in India.

They have only just established a foothold in East India and have some strongholds.

If the Chinese Empire marches into India, they will not be able to resist it.

So the two sides decided to join forces to blockade Bago Port and prevent the Chinese navy from entering the Indian Ocean.

Having just recovered the Yunnan-Guizhou region and Myanmar, Li Xianzhong did not want to break up with these powers so quickly.

After all, although domestic investors have increased their investment in Myanmar to obtain jade, it will take time.

Especially when entering Myanmar from Yunnan, one has to pass through a large number of mountainous areas, making transportation extremely inconvenient.

Although the Ministry of Revenue used copper mines in Yunnan and Guizhou as collateral, it borrowed 1200 million taels of silver from Liaodong Bank to build a road from Kunming to Dongting Lake, as well as supporting cities along the way to facilitate the land reform and return.

But from Kunming to Myanmar, the Ministry of Household Affairs really couldn't get out the money.

Finally, those Huizhou merchants and Jiangnan merchants who were late to invest in Manila decided to seize this opportunity.

Li Xianzhong asked them to invest 1300 million taels to build a super-long Burma Highway from Kunming to Bago Port on the condition of selling their shares in jade mines in Myanmar.

It is said that "if you want to be rich, build roads first", but these two roads have almost caught up with the Chinese Empire's fiscal revenue for more than half a year.

Even if a large amount of money is invested, laborers of all ethnic groups in southwest China are recruited, and labor is transported from Annan, Myanmar and other places, it will be difficult to complete in less than two or three years.

But at this time, the Dutch and the British actually took the initiative to provoke. If they had not expressed their intentions, they would have taken further measures.

Fortunately, the second batch of sail battleships has also been equipped with the Chinese Navy.

Jiading Port, located in Cam Ranh Bay, Annan, has also completed its expansion.

Li Xianzhong used sailing battleships as his team and used Manila in the Philippines and Jiading in Annan as home ports to form a new Nanyang Navy.

The Nanyang Navy has 4 sailing battleships with a displacement of more than 2000 tons, more than 3 new galenic sailing ships with a displacement of more than tons, and more than other types of armed merchant ships. The navy consists of more than officers and soldiers.

This fleet includes almost all new warships in China.

On the second day of October in the second year of Qianxi, when the Nanyang Navy sailed into the Strait of Malacca, it encountered the combined fleets of the Netherlands and England off the coast of Batavia.

Following the British defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the largest naval battle in human history began.

There are a total of 38 main warships over 800 tons on the Chinese side, but the remaining armed merchant ships are mostly new galenic sailing ships with a displacement of tons and strong firepower.

Although the total number of warships is only 138, which is not particularly large, the total displacement of the fleet has reached nearly 14 tons, and the average tonnage exceeds 1000 tons.

And it is equipped with more than 1 artillery pieces, many of which are heavy artillery such as 32-pound rifled guns.

The number of the Anglo-Dutch combined fleet is obviously larger. They have 252 sailing ships of various types, which is almost double that of the Nanyang Navy.

The Dutch have four giant Galenic sailing ships of 4 tons, which exceed the Chinese sail battleships in terms of maximum tonnage.

However, their huge fleet has few professional warships and more armed merchant ships to make up the numbers.

There are 35 warships of more than tons, which is less than the Chinese fleet. In terms of total tonnage, the two sides are evenly matched.

As the commander-in-chief of this Anglo-Dutch fleet, Drake is naturally full of confidence.

In his opinion, after all, they have more than 200 ships compared to the Chinese's more than 100 ships, and the advantage lies with me.

The two sides soon started a fierce battle on the ocean east of Batavia.

Looking at the countless sails in the distance, Zheng Zhilong was also a little nervous. Although he had been traveling in the East Asian waters for many years, this was the first time he had experienced a sea battle of this scale.

Although the enemy fleet was numerous, he understood that it was actually a duel between capital ships.

As long as they can quickly sink the giant Galenic ships of the Dutch, the balance of victory and defeat will soon tip in their favor.

Catch the thief first, capture the king first, Drake thinks so too.

So several capital ships from both sides chose to appear in front of the fleet.

When he saw the Chinese sail battleship through the telescope, Drake had an ominous premonition. This Chinese battleship had five decks and obviously had more artillery than his own.

Although their own sailing ships had the advantage in terms of tonnage, they suffered greatly in terms of speed and number of guns.

But at this time, the fleets of both sides were moving closer to each other, and the war was about to break out, so he couldn't care less.

The number of his own warships is almost double that of his opponents. Even if it is a "group fight", he must sink the Chinese capital ships.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than twenty miles, and there was still some distance from the shooting range. He was nervously commanding the fleet to adjust the formation and use a more favorable position to face the opponent.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese warship opened fire first.

China's main sail battleship uses a 32-pound rifled gun with a range of up to 18 miles.

Compared with the Dutch 24-pound smoothbore gun, which has a range of 12 miles, it has a huge advantage.

Soon a 500-ton small armed merchant ship in front of Drake's flagship Amsterdam was sunk by the Chinese.

Although a large number of shells did not hit the target and caused huge waves on the water ahead; several shells still hit the armed merchant ships.

The huge explosion directly blew the small armed merchant ship into two pieces, and then quickly sank in the sea water.

This scene caused the morale of the combined fleet to plummet. They did not expect that China's 32-pound gun had such a terrifying range.

But now, they have no choice but to speed up and rush towards the Chinese fleet, otherwise the Chinese will take advantage of the artillery range to continuously defeat them.

Of course, the cost was heavy. In just a few miles, the combined fleet was damaged by the Chinese navy and more than twenty warships were damaged, seven or eight of which were sunk.

However, the United Fleet was not depressed at this time. On the contrary, Drake seemed very excited.

As a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time, he will not be able to see the situation clearly. Even if he can fire, the combined fleet will still suffer in terms of firepower.

Naturally there was another reason for his excitement.

Zheng Zhilong discovered that the speed of the large warships in the combined fleet on the opposite side gradually slowed down, and many small ships appeared at the front. It seems that these Europeans are preparing to use fire ships.

Before this battle, His Majesty had repeatedly told himself about the great naval battle between Britain and the Spanish in 1588. The British at that time used fire ships to inflict heavy damage on the Spanish "Invincible Fleet".

There are also many British people in the combined fleet today. It seems that they are preparing to repeat their old tricks today.

At this time, dozens of small boats carrying kerosene had been set alight, and they quickly sailed towards the Chinese fleet taking advantage of the favorable wind.

In such a large-scale fleet duel, it is indeed not easy for the Chinese fleet to quickly disperse and avoid these fire ships.

Even if they could turn the ship around and change its course, they would inevitably be bombarded by the combined fleet warships, resulting in heavy losses.

The British relied on this tactic to severely damage the arrogant Spaniards.

However, Zheng Zhilong did not panic at this time. Instead, he raised a flag and asked the ships to form a formation and sink these fireships calmly.

The Chinese fleet has practiced sinking fireships many times before.

The tactics of fire ships did achieve great results decades ago.

But at that time, the number of artillery in the Spanish fleet was very small, only ten or twenty at most, and there were a considerable number of auxiliary ships.

But now China's fleet mostly consists of gunboats with hundreds of cannons on several decks.

Even the new 800-ton Galen ship had 88 18-pounder rifled guns.

In addition, with the development of artillery technology, both the power and range of artillery have been greatly improved compared with those of the past.

Clearly this fireship tactic is outdated.

As the Chinese navy's ten thousand guns were named, more and more fireships were hit by artillery fire, and many ships were directly blown to pieces.

The sea was littered with burning wrecks of fireships and struggling sailors.

But no one could care about them at this time, and both sides were within range of each other.

Accompanied by the rumbling sound of artillery, warships were shot and on fire everywhere.

As the battle continued, the advantages of the Chinese warships' large number and powerful cannons became apparent.

Especially the four sail battleships, with their advantages of fast speed and powerful firepower, can quickly sink a giant ship of more than a thousand tons.

After an hour and a half of fierce fighting, the Chinese fleet lost 22 warships, including 4 large 1200-ton warships.

The combined fleet lost a total of 83 warships here, including 12 large warships of more than tons.

Although the four giant Galenic ships did not sink, they all suffered heavy damage to varying degrees.

It was obvious that the defeat of the combined fleet was a foregone conclusion.

The British ships located outside the fleet saw that the situation was not good and took the lead to leave the battlefield.

With the evacuation of more than 50 British ships, the Dutch's numerical advantage was gone.

Zheng Zhilong ignored the fleeing British and ordered the Chinese navy to continue to encircle and suppress the Dutch.

Drake knew that if the fighting continued, the Dutch East India Company would be doomed.

So he used his flagship Amsterdam to attract Chinese sailing battleships and ordered other ships to evacuate on their own.

Facing the scattered Dutch ships, Zheng Zhilong could only order to pursue the large ships first.

In the end, three of the four giant Dutch galleons were sunk, and the last one was blocked by the Chinese navy in the port of Batavia.

Although the Dutch still had bastions and many forts in Batavia at this time, they knew they could not hold on for long in the face of the Chinese 32-pound cannon.

Since we can't beat them, we can only negotiate.

This important task can only be handed over to Putmans, who had previously gone to Beijing to negotiate with China.

As a result of the tulip offering, Putmans has now become the second-in-command of the Dutch East India Company.

With this kind of alliance under the city, the Dutch would naturally bleed a lot.

Putmans, who was in danger, had no choice but to come to Bago Port in person and beg for peace with the Chinese Emperor Li Xianzhong.

The pace of China's expansion is indeed quite large, and both financial and human resources are unable to keep up.

Li Xianzhong could certainly rob Batavia himself and swallow up the entire Dutch East Indies.

But in this way, trade with Europe will inevitably be interrupted, which will have a great impact on China's finances.

After all, China's caravans have not yet started direct trade with Europe, and they still have to rely on the Dutch for transit trade.

And other European countries are likely to unite against China.

In the end, Li Xianzhong decided to let the Dutch go.

The Netherlands ceded the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, and compensated China 1000 million Dutch guilders, equivalent to 390 million taels of silver.

China freed all Dutch prisoners and allowed the Dutch to take their property to Batavia.

China continues to maintain trade relations with the Netherlands, and the previous trade agreement reached between the two parties remains unchanged.

China opened two more commercial ports in Malacca and Bago, and the Netherlands allowed Chinese merchant ships to call at places such as Batavia and Cape Town in the Netherlands.

Although the Dutch suffered heavy losses, they were not driven out of Southeast Asia and retained the right to trade with China.

Of course, Li Xianzhong would not let go of Britain, which was colluding with the Netherlands.

Chinese warships soon arrived in Calcutta and Madras on the east coast of India.

The East India Company was eventually forced to cede Calcutta and compensate China for 400 million guilders.

After acquiring Calcutta, China opened a land passage from Burma to Calcutta and added the northeastern part of India to China's territory.

After all, Li Xianzhong could not let the British monopolize the "big fat sheep" of India.

Today's inland India is still owned by the Mughal Empire, while the coastal areas are divided between Portugal, Britain and China.

Among them, Portugal controlled the west coast of India, Britain controlled the southeast coast, and China controlled the northeast.

After settling the disputes with the Dutch and the British, it was already November, and Li Xianzhong set off back to the capital.

As for Siam and Laos, the last two nails in the Indochina Peninsula, Li Xianzhong left them to Li Dingguo and Sun Chuanting.

I believe that in at most half a year, the entire Indochina Peninsula will become the territory of China.

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(End of this chapter)