"What? Eight-Nation United Fleet?"
As expected, Zheng Kezang, the chief staff officer of the Nanyang Fleet, was... confused by the name of the "Eight-Nation United Armada"!
He is not the eldest son of Prince Yanping now - he is just the eldest son of Prince Zheng Jing of Yanping, and strictly speaking, he was born evil because his mother Chen Zhaoniang was Zheng Jing's wet nurse and gave birth to Zheng Jing after having an affair with him. Defeat Zang. Although Zheng Jing had always doted on his eldest son, under the patriarchal system of the Ming Dynasty, it was a bit too much to make an unborn son the crown prince when there was a legitimate son.
Therefore, although Zhu Heji understands Zheng Jingduo's wet nurse Chen Zhaoniang's love - wet nurse, that thing must be big! But Emperor Zhu Da could not agree to Zheng Jing's request to establish Zheng Kezang, otherwise others would suspect that he wanted to establish Zhu Yimei... and this matter indeed violated the "Ming Dynasty Succession Law" promulgated by Zhu Heji himself. However, Zhu Heji still agreed to take care of his eldest son Ke Zang, Zheng Jing, who had the same hobbies as him.
Therefore, Zheng Kezang arrived in Guangzhou shortly before Zhu Heqi's northern expedition to the south of the Yangtze River. He studied at Guangfu No. 3 Academy and later at the Naval Academy. Now he has grown into a naval officer at the rank of general and serves as the chief staff officer of the Nanyang Fleet.
This time he was sent as an envoy by Admiral Qiu Rong of the Nanyang Fleet and Chief of Staff Zheng Cong (brother of Zheng Jing) to the Britannia, the flagship of the four-nation combined fleet anchored on the shore of Damasi Island.
In the officer's cabin of the Britannia, Zheng Kezang was a little strange when he heard Campos boasting that he had an "eight-nation fleet." He asked Campos in Chinese, "Mr. Governor, you said your fleet is an eight-nation fleet." United Fleet, but I only saw the British St. George flag, the Dutch red, white and blue tricolor flag, the French fleur-de-lis flag, the Swedish cross flag, and the Portuguese shield flag... and the three countries. Who is it? Why don’t we see their flag?”
As a professional naval officer, Zheng Kezang received systematic training from Western instructors led by Battelle (the commander of the East India Company fleet who fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty) and Figo when he was in the Naval Academy. He not only had a good understanding of Western Naval tactics and various flags and various ship types, and also understanding the rules of engagement of Western navies...if they are prepared to abide by the rules!
small book booth
"There are also the Mongolian Navy, the Papal State Navy, and the Spanish Navy." Campos replied in Latin. "Although the warships of Mongolia, His Majesty the Pope, and the Kingdom of Spain have not arrived at the Strait of Malacca, they stand with us. Let’s jointly oppose the so-called sanctions adopted by the Ming Empire that violate the basic rules of free trade! The maritime forces of our eight countries will jointly defend the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Malacca!”
Zheng Kezang could understand Campos' Latin without the need for a translator. He nodded, "Understood! The eight-nation combined fleet has actually arrived in the five nations."
He glanced at the representatives of England, France, Portugal and Sweden present, and then said in Latin that everyone could understand: "What the Ming Empire sanctioned was only the Dutch East India Company. Because Dutch domestic laws stipulated that all people entering the Indian Ocean and Domestic ships in the Pacific must accept the jurisdiction of the East India Company, so all Dutch merchant ships and warships will be regarded as owned by the East India Company!
Ships from other countries can freely pass through the Strait of Malacca without violating sanctions! If other countries except the Netherlands are willing to use force to defend the Netherlands's free navigation rights, then the Ming Navy will have 100% freedom to fire!
If you want to make money, then the Ming Empire welcomes you to trade.
If you want to see God, the Ming Navy will send you to see God. Our Ming Navy is very good at this! "
After finishing speaking in Latin, Zheng Jing's precious son again put on a serious face and said something in Chinese: "Don't say you didn't predict what you said!"
After showing that the Ming Navy was very good at sending people to see God, Zheng Kezang handed over a pre-prepared ultimatum written in Chinese and Latin to Governor Campos, the commander of the allied fleet. Then he left the Britannia with his entourage, boarded a gunboat and sailed towards Badan Island. After discovering that the Western combined fleet anchored near Danmasi Island, Qiu Rong He immediately led his fleet into a bay in the north of Badan Island, and then sent Zheng Kezang as an envoy to the enemy camp.
...
"Admiral, join the army. The Western Fleet currently anchored between the west coast of Damasi Island and the coast of Johor is composed of five countries including the Netherlands, Britain, France, Sweden, and Portugal. However, it claims that there are also Mongolia, the Papal State, and Spain’s participation is an eight-nation combined fleet.”
In the admiral cabin of the Chaozhou, Zheng Kezang, who had just boarded the ship, was reporting his findings to Qiu Rong and Zheng Cong. He used a pencil to outline the Eight-Nation United Fleet on a fairly accurate chart. approximate location.
Then he reported to Qiu Rong and Zheng Cong: "According to my observation, the Eight-Nation United Fleet has a total of ten third-level battleships and forty speedboats, a total of fifty warships, including three third-level battleships and ten The two speedboats belong to the Dutch... They are both deployed at the entrance of the strait. The flagship of the fleet is the British Britannia, which is located in the strait between the west side of Damasik Island and Johor. Among them, it is about three nautical miles from the western entrance of the strait."
Qiu Rong looked at Zheng Cong again. Zheng Jing's brother was actually a classmate of Zheng Kezang at the Naval Academy. After graduating from the Naval Academy, he joined the Nanyang Trading Company as the fleet manager. Before the Battle of the Philippines began, he was transferred to the Nanyang Fleet together with some of the warships of the Nanyang Trading Company and served as the chief of staff.
Although Zheng Cong has been commanding warships in the trading company, the Nanyang Trading Company has conducted more combat missions in recent years than the entire Ming Navy combined, so Zheng Cong's naval combat experience is still quite rich.
"Admiral, they are probably waiting for the wind to rise on the sea." Zheng Cong said, "As long as the northwest wind, west wind or north wind blows on the sea, the ships of the Eight-Nation Fleet can use the wind to rush through the Strait of Malacca. As long as they rush out of the strait, they will It's hard to catch...and this can be regarded as them breaking our Chinese sanctions! If the southeast wind, east wind or south wind blows from the sea, they may turn to the northwest and retreat, and then use the main force to attract our pursuit , covering the Dutch warships that sailed around Kiribun Island and then passed through the waterway near Sumatra and rushed out of the Strait of Malacca."
Qiu Rong frowned, "That means they can run away as long as the wind blows... So what should we do?"
Zheng Cong said: "Admiral, we can use galleys to raid their anchorage!"
"Use galleys?" Qiu Rong thought for a while, "But we don't have many galleys. There are only forty-eight in total...and we have to leave a few to guard the battleships."
"Admiral," Zheng Cong said with a smile, "you can recruit civilian ships from Bintan Island and Batan Island to join the war. The civilian ships belonging to our own people in this area are all armed."
Bintan Island and Batan Island are actually "pirate islands". Because the Strait of Malacca is in a "windless zone" and there is a series of "blocking gates" of large and small islands at the southeastern entrance of the strait, the only channels left for entry and exit are narrow waterways on the north and south sides of the sea near the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra Island. Due to the low wind in the strait, large sailing ships that can only pass at low speed are easily attacked by pirates based on islands such as Bintan Island and Batan Island.
And the pirates in Nanyang...most of them are Chinese! Well, most of the maritime merchants are Chinese, and of course most of the pirates are Chinese. Of course, the native place of these Chinese pirates is Chaozhou or Southern Fujian, that is, the own people of the New Ming Dynasty.
Before the rise of the Nanyang Trading Company, these pirates had contacts with the three "big pirates" Qiu Hui, Zheng Jing, and Chen Shangchuan. After the Nanyang Trading Company was established, many of the biggest pirates in Nanyang became partners of the company. Even if they did not join the Nanyang Trading Company, this group of people still had close contacts with the company.
Zheng Cong smiled and said: "Let's send some more sailors and naval infantry with rocket launchers on board, and we can turn these pirate ships into rocket ships!"
"Okay!" Qiu Rong said, "Just what to do... I have sent an order to recruit pirates from Bintan Island and Badan Island... No, they are volunteers from the sea merchants to help in the war! Anyone who participates in the war , there will always be great rewards!”
...
As night falls, lights are reflected on the sea near the western entrance of the narrow Johor Strait between Tamasi Island and Johor. In the strait, there are all large and small Western-style sailboats and galleys. The wind has started to blow in the Strait of Malacca tonight, but it is not strong and the wind direction is constantly changing. Even if the large sailing ships of the Eight-Nation Fleet could sail out of the Strait of Malacca by taking advantage of this weak and changeable wind direction, they would still be easily ambushed and surrounded. To be on the safe side, Campos decided to hide in the Strait of Johor.
However, he also thought about the possibility of being attacked by opponents - sneak attacks on anchorages and ports are what the Dutch Navy is best at! They gave the Spanish Armada (Spain had many armadas) a devastating blow at the Battle of the Downs in 1639!
On June 19, 1667, the daring Dutch fleet even took advantage of the high tide to sail up the Thames River, sneak attack on the Sheerness Fort, and then rush into the city of London in one fell swoop, giving London a meal. Cannonballs! After defeating London, they were not satisfied. After exiting the Thames, they turned into the Medway River next door and once again attacked Medway Port on the Medway River, burning five warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons in the port. He also robbed the "Royal Charlie"!
The Dutch East India Company was also good at sneak attacks. They had conducted a very successful sneak attack before the failed Battle of Liaoluo Bay - burning the thirty new warships that Zheng Zhilong had stationed in Xiamen!
Of course, the Dutchman Campos, who was good at sneak attacks, would carefully set up defenses outside his anchorage. After he met Zheng Kezang on the Britannia, he immediately sent a speedboat to nearby fishing villages to recruit many indigenous fishermen's boats, and used these fishing villages to form two floating channels at the western exit of the Johor Strait. blockade. Behind the two blockades, six Dutch speedboats were deployed on each side, some artillery and officers and soldiers were unloaded from those third-class battleships, and two artillery positions were deployed on Damasi Island and on land in Johor.
At this time, it started to rain lightly, and mist rose in the Johor Strait. In such weather, even the sentries on the fishing boat blockade became a little lazy. They just walked back and forth casually along the wooden rafts laid on the fishing boats. I hurried back to the tent on the shore to take shelter from the rain. But even if the sentry stared at the water with his eyes rounded and meticulously, how far could he see in this rainy and foggy time?
Besides, everyone knows that sweet gunpowder is particularly afraid of tides. Days like this when it rains in the sky and fogs on the sea are the most unfavorable for the Ming army, which cannot fight without sweet gunpowder...
In the Strait of Malacca outside the Strait of Johor, a group of light boats was leaving the water and approaching quietly.
This fleet of light boats is composed of twelve Malayan clippers. This type of Malayan clipper has pointed ends and a long and narrow hull. It can carry one or two longitudinal sails. Its seaworthiness is very poor and it cannot operate in strong winds and waves. It sails in the sea, but it is very suitable for moving quickly by relying on paddles in the calm waters around Malacca. So this kind of ship has become the favorite of Malacca pirates!
These twelve Malayan Clipper ships were equipped as lightly as possible. Even the sails and masts were removed, and there were no protective gears on the decks. Even the bow and stern cannons were removed. There were only eighteen shirtless men with bulging muscles left on the deck, swaying the oars in unison to the low whistle. Apart from the eighteen men rocking the oar, there were only the helmsman at the stern and two unarmed warriors squatting at the bow.
Standing on the bow of a Malayan clipper fleet was a short and stocky man, who was about the size of an oak barrel. His name was Hu Huiqian, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong. When Guangdong was restored, he was still a young scholar. Later, he was admitted to the No. 3 Academy of Guangfu. After graduating from the academy, he entered the Naval Academy. He was actually about the same age as Zheng Kezang and had similar information, but his official career was incomparable. He is now a staff general, and he is still a chief commander of the naval infantry... Not to mention compared to King Yanping's son, compared to other classmates at the same time, he is doing worse.
Today's night attack is his chance to make a counterattack!
According to the task assigned to him by his superiors, the twelve Malayan Clippers he led will be the first battle tonight... As long as they can break through the defense line of the Eight-Nation Fleet at the entrance of the strait, they will prepare for the subsequent The galley team and the Malayan Clippers open the attack channel, then the mission is completed!
And at this time, he had already discovered the fishing boat defense line blocking the entrance of the strait and the Western speedboat (actually a small gunboat) behind the fishing boat defense line... Those fishing boats that were tied together by ropes were all The torch soaked in butter burned in the rain and fog, giving off a dim yellow light. No one could be seen on these fishing boats, but there was a Western-style paddle boat swimming slowly on the sea behind them!
