Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

Back on Hong Kong Island, I had a happy Lunar New Year as always.

Happiness is actually quite simple.

A full stomach and a happy family reunion are true happiness.

To be able to survive in this chaotic world is a blessing.

Being able to get closer to what you want is also a form of happiness.

This sense of happiness isn't just about the Spring Festival, but also about the money that's about to be delivered to your hands.

In the blink of an eye, it was March. After receiving the money from Chen Qian, Chi Honghai arrived at the sea area where he had arranged to meet the Englishmen and waited for them early in the morning.

When it comes to collecting money door-to-door, how can one not be proactive?

Looking left and right on the deck, they finally saw the English ships.

The two boats met, sailed to a calm stretch of water, and stopped side by side. They dropped anchor and began to deliver goods to Chi Honghai's boat, using wide wooden planks as supports.

This also became an opportunity for Chi Honghai to inquire about the situation of the English.

He went to the English deck, accompanied by a translator, and asked the person he was in contact with about the situation on the Spanish side.

"You're too kind, but I have another question for you."

"Sir, we are friends, so please feel free to ask me what you need."

"Alright, since we're friends, I'll get straight to the point. You're in charge of transportation to the Chicken Coop area. Have you received any intelligence about Chicken Coop lately?"

The captain looked at the translator, stroked his beard, and thought for a while.

"What's the situation in Keelung lately? When I went there before, I saw that some areas looked like they'd been burned down. Does that count?"

"Yes, of course it counts, but I reckon the Dutch are probably causing them trouble. Whatever, these places will be ours eventually anyway."

The English captain chuckled contentedly, "That's right, that's right."

"Oh right, how many Spaniards are there over there at the chicken coop? Are you aware of that?"

"Hiss, that's a good question, sir. But although the Spanish are friends with us on the surface, they won't tell us about their military strength in detail, so it's really hard for me to answer."

Looking at the Englishmen's appearance, Chi Honghai glanced at the boxes that were still being moved.

"While we don't know the details, can we speculate?"

"Guess?"

"You're responsible for transporting some of the supplies they need, and that will definitely include a lot of food. You can roughly estimate how many people they have in the chicken coop by the amount of supplies you transport, right?"

"Hahaha, sir, you are truly brilliant." The Englishman gave Chi Honghai a thumbs up. "If that's the case, there should be at least a thousand soldiers in Chicken Cage City, and as for the various craftsmen they brought with them, there are even more."

After listening to the intelligence provided by the English, which largely matched what Liu Qingjiang had said, it was clear that the strength of the Spanish and Dutch on the island was not significantly different.

Moreover, after I stirred things up twice, the strength of these two families is not as good as before.

This judgment is both simple and clear.

After two battles, both sides suffered casualties, and their military strength was certainly weakened, which goes without saying.

More importantly, it's about the island's production capacity.

Previously, both companies had their own locally developed industries on the island. Now, with both sides burning down their properties, their businesses have inevitably been weakened, and this weakening cannot be made up for in a short period of time.

You see, burning houses and workshops only takes half a day, but rebuilding takes time, especially the more you burn, the slower the recovery.

Another point is that when they first came to Taiwan, although the number of indigenous people and migrants was certainly not as large as that on the mainland, there were at least some.

In other words, when they first arrived there, they could still enslave these people to work for them.

But now, the island's inhabitants are either dead or have fled. Aside from fear, they feel nothing but resentment towards the two. Unless they are mentally sound, they will not harbor any illusions about cooperating with them.

Because cooperation is tantamount to enslavement.

If we can't find that many free laborers who can be endlessly exploited, then we can only use our own people.

However, not only are there not that many of our own people, but we also have to take care of their food, drink, accommodation, and other aspects, and make sure they get a good rest. We can't mistreat them. As a result, the time cost is rising sharply.

This was a very good thing for Chi Honghai, who was looking forward to the two families continuing their struggle.

Winter is over, spring has arrived, and it's the perfect season to get things done.

After handing over the goods to the English, Chi Honghai sailed back to Hong Kong Island.

To make his performance convincing, he sailed towards Guangzhou before returning to Hong Kong Island, only turning back towards Hong Kong Island after completely disappearing from the English sight.

Upon returning to Hong Kong Island and seeing the ever-increasing number of people on the island, his ambition to acquire Taiwan was greatly boosted.

An ever-increasing population, an ever-increasing number of soldiers, and ever-increasing arable land.

However, there is one thing that cannot be increased—ships.

A few days ago, only one new ship was launched, a caravel sailing ship, which was named Sui'an.

Looking at the shipyard bustling with activity, Chi Honghai sighed at how slow the pace was, but there was really nothing he could do about it.

Building Western warships would be slow, both in terms of materials and processes, not to mention that there were only so many people and so little space available for them to work on.

If we want to expand further, we are currently not strong enough – we don’t have enough professional personnel, whether it’s building a shipyard or building ships, we can’t support its continued expansion.

But here's the problem: when it comes to attacking Taiwan, you can't exactly fly people over there, can you?

You still need to take a boat.

With seven available warships, plus the Tianquan, even fully loaded, they could only transport a little over two thousand people at a time.

A transport capacity of 2,000 people at once may seem like a lot, but in reality, it's not that much.

In ancient times, if a battle was of a slightly larger scale, the number of people lost in a single battle would be more than this.

Moreover, Fort Zeelandia is a fortress, extremely difficult to attack, and I also need to send men to take Chikan City, and even Keelung City.

Two thousand men went up, splitting up here and there, directly breaking into smaller groups. That's not an offensive, that's guerrilla warfare, and it can't form a decisive fighting force.

But if we continue transporting them back and forth, the time it takes to go back plus the time it takes to come up means that by the time the second batch of troops arrives, if the situation on the island is bad, the first batch will have already been surrounded for a while.

Or perhaps the other side has already made thorough preparations, leaving you in a dilemma where you can neither retreat nor fight, putting yourself in a bind and pleasing neither side.

Therefore, the most urgent task now is to solve the transportation capacity problem.

But how can this be resolved?