Chapter 218
Putmans came to meet Cheng Shijie, although he did not achieve the ideal strategic purpose, which was to unite with Cheng Shijie to deal with Zheng Zhilong.
However, according to Putmans, this trip has been extremely rewarding.
That is, a large number of business cooperation agreements have been reached with the Governor of Liaodong. The current big officials have not yet developed it. What is the purpose of an undeveloped land?
Not even tasteless!
After hearing that Cheng Shijie was willing to provide them with enough cement, Putmans smiled so hard that he couldn't even see his eyes. It was so wonderful.
Since Dazhan has a tropical rainforest climate, the bushes grow very quickly. If they build a road in front, the bushes in the back will grow the same as before.
Even if a hard-surface earth-rock road is barely built, it will return to its original point after a heavy rainstorm. Cement is the best infrastructure in the tropical rainforest. With cement, they can build strong and flat roads, which can be used throughout the entire continent. With Yuan Island unobstructed, the process of developing Yuan Island will be greatly accelerated.
If you think about it in Putmans, when we build the port, fort, and road in Damuan, we will be in an invincible position. It will not be so easy for you to take it back!
But the problem is that it is not easy to buy cement. Cement is not a high-value thing in later generations. Ordinary cement is not expensive, but in this era, the price of cement is not cheap.
It’s not that Cheng Shijie is being aggressive and deliberately raising prices. First of all, when transported by sea, the water content is relatively high, and once the cement absorbs water vapor, it will crust and can no longer be used in construction. The bags used to make cement are not ordinary sacks, but tarpaulins made of a mixture of kebab and rubber. The cost of this kind of tarpaulin is no cheaper than ordinary cloth for making clothes.
A bag that can hold one hundred kilograms of cement is worth sixty cents. One ton of cement requires one to two cents of silver in packaging costs, not counting labor wages.
After bargaining, of course, there was a dedicated person in charge of the negotiation, namely Xie Jinglin, who was in charge of business management. After four days of intense bargaining, the price of cement was finally determined.
A bag of cement is worth five centimes per 100 kilograms, which is 25 grams of 90% pure silver. If converted into tons, one franc is needed per ton, which is 500 grams of silver, which is equivalent to Thirteen point four six taels of silver.
Five hundred grams of silver, even according to the price of silver in later generations, five hundred grams is equivalent to more than 2,500 yuan, which is not cheap. However, the Dutch East India Company not only needed cement for its developers, but Batavia, as the Far East headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, also needed a large amount of cement to build cities and fortresses.
The Dutch are different from the Ming Dynasty people. The Ming Dynasty people actually don’t like to use bricks and tiles to build houses. Rich people like to live in wooden houses, while the Dutch like to live in castles. Castles built with cement are of better quality than castles built with stone. Even better. If shipped to the Netherlands, it will definitely be loved by the Dutch nobles or wealthy people.
After all, the Netherlands is now at war, and it should not be said that the entire Europe is at war. The Thirty Years' War in Europe is currently in a period of all-out war. Twenty or thirty candidate states and principalities are participating in the war. Even France has begun to officially end, and the French Army has begun to end the war. Defeated the Spanish phalanx once in actual combat, which caused a serious impact on the Spanish Empire.
The Dutch are not yet officially independent, but as a vassal state of the Spanish Empire, the Dutch nobles are naturally worried about their own safety.
According to the cooperation agreement, Liaodong provided 10 million bags of cement to the Dutch East India Company, which was worth half a million francs. For the Dutch East India Company, this payment was not a small sum.
What's more, this is a quarter, that is, three months' supply, and the annual supply is two million francs. Putmans asked Cheng Shijie that if the Dutch East India Company could not afford the money, could it be compensated with other things? payment.
Cheng Shijie's plenipotentiary representative Xie Jinglin did not ask Cheng Shijie for instructions at all. He had already obtained Cheng Shijie's authorization. Xie Jinglin said that it was absolutely okay.
The Dutch East India Company could use iron ore, phosphate ore, guano, tin ore, manganese ore, copper ore, silver ore, sulfur, saltpeter, timber and even the Dutch Galen ships to pay for the goods.
Cheng Shijie's current ocean transport fleet is not large in scale, but his shipyard mainly manufactures warships. It is temporarily unable to achieve this production task and can only temporarily rely on the Dutch Galen ships.
Of course, galenic ships are not unique to the Dutch. Spain, the United Kingdom, Venice, and Portugal all have their own galenic ships. To use an inappropriate explanation, the current galenic ships are like later container ships. The boats produced in each country have their own characteristics.
After the Dutch signed a series of business cooperation, the Spanish also came. Their purpose was the same as the Dutch, and they also wanted to unite Cheng Shijie to fight Zheng Zhilong. Cheng Shijie also disagreed.
He directly rejected the Spanish alliance request, but agreed to their commercial cooperation. However, the Spanish Empire is now in decline and is far less wealthy than the Dutch East India Company.
No money to talk about nonsense business.
Just when Xie Jinglin was about to reject the Spanish representative, Cheng Shijie said: "Tell the Spanish, my island, more islands!"
Xie Jinglin was a little confused. What island did Cheng Shijie want?
In a land as large as Liaodong, there are still many places that have not been developed, but what is the use of islands?
Of course, Xie Jinglin did not understand Cheng Shijie's emphasis on the ocean. It was actually too late for Ming Dynasty to enter the Age of Discovery. For Cheng Shijie, Ming Dynasty had nearly one-fifth of the world's population, and the current Ming Dynasty was actually larger than that of later generations.
Although Nurgan Dusi has become independent, the two capitals and thirteen provinces, including Tibet, have 1.23 million square kilometers, Qinghai has 720,000 square kilometers, Gansu has 425,000 square kilometers, and Ningxia has 66,000 square kilometers, plus Northeast China. and parts of Inner Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty owned 9.97 million square kilometers of land.
But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty had a population of nearly 200 million. For Cheng Shijie, no amount of territory is too much. If Cheng Shijie had not traveled to the era when the great voyage had just begun, then there would be no need to talk about it. But the problem is, Cheng Shijie coming.
Cheng Shijie would never allow Great Britain's colonies to spread all over the world. Only Ming Dynasty, with one-fifth of the world's population, should occupy the most land in the world.
Now Cheng Shijie's strength is still far from enough, especially the strength of the navy. When the strength is not enough, he can only adopt a cooperative approach, because Ming Dynasty has the largest market in the world, and Ning Haijun has this world and can defeat the whole world. Army strength.
Even if the British Lobster Soldiers were at their peak, Cheng Shijie could beat the shit out of them in front of Ning Haijun. If they couldn't beat the shit out of them, they were too clean.
The current Spanish Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets. They occupy a large number of islands and do not care about the small islands covering dozens or hundreds of square kilometers. They do not care at all. .
Just when Xie Jinglin was formally negotiating with representatives of the Spanish Empire, conditions that even Cheng Shijie had not thought of were actually put on the table.
The Spanish Empire actually used their territory in Dazhan as a condition for negotiation.
In fact, Spain is not stupid, but they occupy a large number of colonies in the Americas. Spanish is considered a minor language in later generations. In this era, Spanish is more popular than English. If the population of Spanish colonies is included, it is the most populous country in the world. The world's largest land power belongs to Spain.
Spain's problem is that they now face the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of France, the United Kingdom of Denmark and Norway, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, the Electorate of Saxony, the Electorate of the Palatinate, and Brandenburg -A joint attack by a total of fifteen European countries including Prussia, Braunschweig-Lunenburg, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, the Principality of Transylvania, the Hungarian anti-Habsburg rebels, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Czarist State .
Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Netherlands to gain independence under Spanish rule. Faced with the increasingly powerful anti-Spanish alliance, the Spanish Empire could only mobilize forces from overseas colonies to return to the Spanish mainland. Now, the Netherlands is pretending to be pirates against the Spanish fleet in the Northland of Spain. In the attack, England directly intercepted the Spanish silver ship from the Atlantic Ocean.
Introducing Cheng Shijie as a high official and leading Cheng Shijie to fight with the Dutch was a Spanish plan to divert trouble from the east, and it can also be said to be ill-intentioned.
Cheng Shijie was very willing to fall into the trap of the Spanish. At the cost of exporting three million bags of cement and steel to Spain and 150,000 kilograms of steel, he obtained the right to develop fresh water from the Spanish and also owned the Manila dock. Power of repair.
This is more interesting. Tamsui is located in the middle of Danyuan, at the junction of the Taichung area controlled by Zheng Zhilong and the Taipei area controlled by the Spanish.
"Commander, what do you want from Tamsui?"
Xie Jinglin really couldn't figure out that the cost for Cheng Shijie to get fresh water from the Spanish was not cheap. The price of three million bags of cement sold to the Dutch was equivalent to 150,000 francs, which is about more than two million taels of silver. Plus One hundred and fifty thousand kilograms of steel is equivalent to more than three million taels of silver.
This value is too high.
“Is there a gold mine in Tamsui?”
Xie Jinglin thought that Cheng Shijie wanted Maoshan, and found that Maoshan has a huge iron ore, and the grade is very high. Now, more than 70% of the steel produced by Liaodong Iron and Steel Plant is refined Maoshan iron ore. In the future, it is possible that all of Maoshan's iron ore will be refined .
Cheng Shijie pointed to Tamsui on the map and said: "From here to the south, all the way to here is Zheng Zhilong's territory, and it is also Zheng Zhilong's farming area. As long as we take this place, Zheng Zhilong's 200,000 troops will have no food to eat. , tell me, more than three million taels of silver to hold Zheng Zhilong’s lifeline, is it still expensive?”
What's more, Tamsui Port allows Ning Haijun to have a foothold in Tamsui, which is of great importance.
Xiamen, Fujian Navy Admiral's Mansion.
At this time, the Admiral's Mansion was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and Zheng Zhilong was in a good mood. After Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong went to war, all the maritime business groups in Jiangnan were not optimistic about Cheng Shijie. Some of them traveled thousands of miles to Xiamen to meet Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong was quite happy today. After all, Jiangnan Maritime Group also had the strength to threaten Zheng Zhilong's maritime status. Their bowing of their heads confirmed Zheng Zhilong's maritime dominance.
Zheng Zhilong prepared fine wines and delicacies early in the morning. More than 400 close friends and celebrities from Fujian, Jiangnan and Guangdong happily attended the banquet. The splendid hall was full of guests, laughing and having fun.
However, just as he was drinking happily, a deputy general named Hong Xu, who was covered in dust, sweat and dirt, with disheveled hair and looked like a lost dog, stumbled in and said in a trembling voice: "Admiral, it's not good... it's not good!"
"What's wrong?"
"The Fifth Master (Zheng Zhibao) was defeated at Wusongkou and was seriously injured..."
Zheng Zhilong shook his hand and poured half a glass of wine onto his chest. When he was sure that the other party was not joking with him, his anger burst out like lava, and the roar almost shattered the glass window he bought at a high price!
"How can this be?"
Before the war began, although Zheng Zhilong did not try his best, he dispatched nearly one-third of the Zheng fleet, and he also received accurate information that the Ning Navy had less than 60 warships, which was not as good as Zheng Zhibao's. One-tenth of the fleet under his command.
What's more, in order to deal with Ning Haijun's newly built ships, he also sent seven or eight hundred small fireships and more than 6,000 elite little warriors.
Zheng Zhilong knew very well that Ning Haijun's army was not a person with a false reputation. Ning Haijun, who could crush Jiannu, must be stronger than his army. His army was good at fighting with the wind, but not enough to deal with tough enemies. watch.
It can be said that Zheng Zhilong was very well prepared and did not underestimate Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun. However, this result was difficult for Zheng Zhilong to accept.
He has already lost a younger brother, Zheng Zhihu, and if he loses a fifth younger brother, he will feel sorry for his father.
Fortunately, Hong Yang reported to Zheng Zhilong that Zheng Zhibao's life was not in danger. He was just disdainfully affected by the shock wave of the explosion. The face that was hit by the explosion now has a big hole on the side. It was not a big problem, but he would miss meals when he was eating.
Fortunately, Hong Xu clearly reported the results of the first battle at Wusongkou to Zheng Zhilong. In the naval battle at Wusongkou, Zheng Zhibao lost more than 50 warships, including 27 black-tailed ships, but they were assigned to Zheng Zhibao's small warriors and two More than a hundred small pirate ships were wiped out.
Although this result was difficult to accept, it made Zheng Zhilong relax a little. Although the loss was not small, it was still within the acceptable range. After all, small ships were all cannon fodder in Zheng Zhilong's eyes.
He doesn't have much else, but he has a lot of cannon fodder. He has more than 2,000 small ships like that. Losing more than 200 ships is not painful. As for the 6,000 little warriors, it is indeed a bit painful. After all, it is a little painful. Samurai is a good dog and easy to use. But the problem is, he can recruit more if needed.
The crux of the problem is that Zheng Zhilong couldn't keep it in his face. In the first fight, he was hit hard in the face by Ning Haijun, and the loss of more than fifty warships was the second best.
"How did they do that?"
Naval battles are not like land battles. You can take advantage of favorable terrain and take advantage of the opponent's carelessness...
Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong reacted and grabbed Hong Xu's collar: "How was this battle fought?"
When Hong Xu told all Zheng Zhibao's actions in going north, Zheng Zhilong realized that although Zheng Zhibao did not underestimate the enemy, he made a wrong strategy.
For a new navy like the Ning Navy, it cannot be tested on a small scale. The current Ning Navy is somewhat similar to the original Dutch. They have the same cannons with many guns and long ranges, the same large and sturdy ships, and the same few warships. .
If he had used refueling tactics in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, he would have been defeated, not the Dutch. There is only one way to deal with Cheng Shijie and Ning Haijun's navy, and that is to swarm them regardless of the situation, and take advantage of the large number of people and ships to catch them off guard.
If Zheng Zhilong himself had commanded the Wusongkou naval battle, he would not have deployed his entire battle formation to attack them all. Instead, he would have used small fireships to block all retreat routes for the Ning Haijun Navy, and directly launched a comprehensive encirclement, all-out advance, and all-out compression. .
What Zheng Zhilong didn't expect was that he had just received the news of Zheng Zhibao's defeat, and these outsiders who came to the banquet took the opportunity to leave!
"Admiral, I suddenly remembered that something happened at home. Next time I sit down, I will definitely treat Master Zheng to a drink!"
"Sir Admiral, my concubine is about to give birth. I am very worried. Please leave first!"
"Sir Admiral, I feel unwell and I will be compensated!"
"Sir Admiral, I'm..."
As the first gentry to leave began to stand up, in just a quarter of an hour, more than half of the entire magnificent hall had left, leaving only the generals of the Zheng Group and the local gentry from Fujian or Xiamen. They and The connection with Zheng Zhilong was too deep and there was no way to turn back.
Zheng Zhilong thought about the situation and finally realized the reason for Zheng Zhibao's failure. He waved his hand vigorously, and the frightened celebrities and gentry all resigned one after another as if they had received an amnesty.
Zheng Zhilong picked up the jug and drank half of it in one breath, then slammed the jug on the floor. He gasped for breath, stared at a group of trusted generals, and roared: "Cheer up, I haven't done it yet." There's no need to cry in mourning when you die! I still have thousands of warships and hundreds of thousands of men in my hands. So what if I lose the battle? I can still get back the face I lost. Isn't it just that I lost a battle? What's the big deal!"
Zheng Zhilong's nephew Zheng Cai said: "Uncle, the fifth uncle may have underestimated those gangsters and suffered a heavy loss. My nephew requested to bring 200 ships and 15,000 elite troops to join him and must capture Wusongkou." !”
Zheng Zhilong was not dizzy. Sending another two hundred ships now would become a fueling tactic, which was really unwise.
Zheng Zhilong has never suffered a disastrous defeat since he started his career. This disastrous defeat may even shake his prestige and change the court's attitude towards him!
Whether it was to restore his prestige or simply to vent his anger, he had to win a big victory over Ning Haijun, otherwise the consequences would be unpredictable!
The situation at Wusongkou is unclear. Besides the disastrous defeat there, I am afraid that none of his subordinates have the courage to lead an army to counterattack Wusongkou. After thinking about it, there is no one who can bite him hard, let out a bad breath and restore his prestige. Only the decisive battle remains.
Zheng Zhilong decided to stud, leading more than 600 main warships, plus more than a thousand small warships. Once Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao reunited, there would be more than 2,000 warships and nearly 40,000 sailors. Such a powerful force could defeat the Ning Navy for five years. Sixty battleships shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Little did Zheng Zhilong know that his losses had just begun.
Because now the main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy is no longer at Wusongkou, but on the vast sea. They are now repaying others in their own way.
The more than 50 main battleships of the Ning Navy Navy had already moved from the east line of Damuan Strait to the South China Sea. When Zheng Zhilong led the main fleet northward.
Li Zhixiang led Ning Haijun's main fleet into the Nanyang region.
A dozen cargo ships are sailing on the sea. These dozens of ships are loaded with silk and porcelain. They will always transport these things to Batavia.
This Batavia is not the Republic of Batavia, but Batavia in Java, which is today's Jakarta in Indonesia.
After being transported to Batavia, the goods on these ships were sold to the Dutch or Portuguese, the British, and the Spanish. This was where the Dutch East India Company was very dissatisfied with Zheng Zhilong.
If the Dutch East India Company can monopolize trade with the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong is willing to hand over all their goods to the Dutch East India Company for management. The Dutch East India Company will regard Zheng Zhilong as a die-hard ally. But the problem is that Zheng Zhilong also knows that the customers are being bullied. The reason is that he used Batavia as a distribution center for goods and sold them to various European countries.
Representatives from various countries set up offices in Batavia and used competitive bidding to obtain the right to purchase these goods.
The speed of the main warships of the Ning Navy is between 12 and 14 knots. Compared with the cargo ships that can travel at 89 knots, it is simply fast. The warships of the Ning Navy are waiting for these merchant ships on the waterway.
"Targets found, seventeen ships in total!"
"Follow me!"
Although the distance between the two sides was getting closer, Li Zhixiang ordered: "Fire the guns, let them drop anchor, lower the sails, and accept inspection!"
These merchant ships were naturally the ones that had paid protection fees to Zheng Zhilong. When they saw Ning Haijun's naval warships, they thought they were Zheng Zhilong's warships. After all, Zheng Zhilong had quite a few large warships, at least hundreds of them.
There are three types of Zheng Zhilong's main battleships. One is an imitation Galen ship, which is also called a "junk ship" in foreign literature and generally refers to a Chinese sailing ship. This vessel is well built and large. According to the Batavia City Diary, forty thousand-pound French artillery was deployed on it. Twelve 18-pound heavy naval guns, the firepower is quite powerful.
There are also plywood boats, which are similar in appearance to those of the Ninghai Navy. This type of plywood boat is thirty feet long and six feet wide, making it a giant on the sea.
Soon these seventeen ships were caught up by the Ning Navy Navy.
"Master, we have paid taxes!"
"Open your eyes and see clearly, we are Ning Haijun!"
"Master, please do a good job and let the little ones have something to eat!"
"Okay, follow our ship to Luzon, otherwise we will all be thrown into the sea to feed the fish."
It is estimated that the Spaniards have never heard the saying, it is easy to invite the gods but difficult to send them away.
It was very easy for them to invite Ning Haijun to join Da Yuan and Lu Song, but the problem was that once Ning Haijun came, he would not leave.
The Spaniards were not stupid. They leased the dock to Ning Haijun, and the dock was within the coverage of the Manila Fort, which meant that the Spaniards could cover the dock with artillery fire at any time.
Moreover, when the Ning navy warships arrived at Manila harbor, they had to pay taxes to the Spaniards.
But the problem is that Cheng Shijie's money is not so easy to get.
(End of chapter)
