Logically speaking, since Salian is a prosperous seaport town, it must be very lively. There should be boats coming and going on the river coastline.
Then, when the Ming Navy came all the way, they couldn't see any trace of ships at all, and they didn't even see any people on the shore.
This situation is absolutely abnormal!
"Sir, is it possible that the Dongwu rebels knew we were coming?" Someone couldn't figure it out and immediately asked Zheng Chenggong doubtfully.
When Zheng Chenggong heard this, he immediately vetoed it without even thinking about it: "How is it possible? Dongwu's rebels are not capable of pinching and calculating. Even if there are tipsters, they can't be faster than us!"
"It's really impossible!" Zhang Delu, the director of Jinyiwei, didn't care about military matters, but the truth was obvious, so he nodded in agreement with Zheng Chenggong's opinion.
Just as he was finishing speaking, he suddenly saw an outpost boat returning quickly on the river in front. Apparently he discovered something was going on ahead and returned to report it.
Zheng Chenggong looked a little strange, because the outpost ship did not send a warning, that is, there was no enemy situation.
So what's going on?
As they got closer, a night guard on the outpost ship held his fists and raised his head, loudly reporting: "Sir, Shalian is already a dead city ahead. It seems to have been looted, leaving many rotting corpses. , it seems that it happened a month ago."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Delu couldn't help but look at each other, and they were both very surprised: What is going on?
"Explore again!" After Zheng Chenggong passed the military order, the fleet continued to move forward, and he asked the guide doubtfully: "Are you familiar with the situation in the south of Dongwu? Do you know who could do it?"
The guide was also puzzled there. When he heard Zheng Chenggong's question, he scratched the back of his head and replied: "I don't know, I don't know. Logically speaking, only Siam can do this. However, I haven't heard that Siam has attacked Dongwu." Something!"
"Could it be the Dutch who did it?" At this moment, Zhang Delu suddenly heard him saying with doubt, "If it was only a month ago, the time doesn't match up. They should have done it a few months earlier. Passed by here!"
Zheng Chenggong listened and nodded. In the end, no one could figure out what kind of force might have robbed Sha Lian?
If you can't figure it out, let's stop thinking about it. Let's go first and talk about it later.
The strikers quickly occupied Shalian and the surrounding areas, sending back a message of safety.
The fleet then went straight to Shalian, and the transport ships transporting the army behind them also docked, and the Ming army officers and soldiers began to land on a large scale.
Just as the outpost ship reported, the city of Shalian can be seen as prosperous in the past, but now it has been destroyed. Someone deliberately burned it down.
There are ruins everywhere, and rotting corpses can be seen in many places. It can be roughly seen that there are men, women, old and young.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming Army began to clean up and rebuild Sha Lian, and at the same time continued to send Ye Fushou to the surrounding areas to investigate the situation.
One day later, he finally brought back the news, which made Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Delu look at each other in shock. They didn't expect this to be the case!
It turns out that Zhang Delu guessed right, all this was done by the Dutch. However, there are some twists and turns in the specific details.
When the Dutch were expelled by the Ming army, they could only leave Batavia, which they had spent great efforts to build, and left the Far East in despair.
While returning along the coastline, when passing by Dongwu, I was warmly welcomed by the Dongwu rebels. Their king, Pindali, also sent his most trusted minister to Salian to discuss with the Dutch and wanted to hire the Dutch. The price is very high.
Antony, the governor of the Netherlands, was really moved after hearing this.
It can be said that the Far East is so unlucky that even his underwear is gone. If he goes back like this, Anthony will most likely be thrown into prison. But if we can make up for some of the losses in the Far East, we can make up for the loss.
Therefore, when he heard that the Dongwu natives offered a very high price to hire them to fight, Anthony agreed without hesitation.
The amount of troops he can get ashore can squeeze out at least five thousand people. Based on the monthly salary of each person being 10 taels of silver, that is 50,000 taels per month, which is considered a basic salary. The Dongwu people also promised that the captured loot would belong to the Dutch without having to hand it over, which was a performance.
Anthony thought that with 5,000 Dutch mercenaries, it would not be easy to defeat the natives in the Far East. Winning is a piece of cake.
Therefore, the atmosphere of cooperation between the two parties is very warm and friendly.
But who knew, after the contract was negotiated and everything was ready, when Anthony asked about the target of the war, he never expected that it would be the Ming Empire.
Moreover, half of Dongwu's side was captured by the Ming army, and Dongwu's army was beaten to the point where it was unable to fight back. This is also why King Togo would hire so many foreign mercenaries at high prices.
Anthony had a very deep understanding of the strength of the Ming army. If he hadn't been forced to do anything, how could he have given up on Batavia and gone back in despair.
As a soldier, he naturally understood that there were two reasons why the Ming Dynasty's navy was so powerful, one was the warships and the other was the firearms. If we fight on land, the firearms of the Ming army will definitely be better than those of the Dutch. Moreover, the Ming army has a strong military strength. With all this, if the Dutch really became King Togo's mercenaries to fight the Ming army, they would probably all be lost here.
This means that the Dutch have no problem attacking other people, but it is absolutely impossible to attack the Ming army.
However, the contract has been stipulated, and King Pingdali of Dongwu has also assembled the remaining troops of his army and is ready to go to regain the lost territory.
At this time, if Anthony wants to break the contract, Pingdali will definitely not be willing.
In this case, Anthony simply did not stop and directly attacked Dongwu's army.
Pindalina thought that the Dutch would suddenly fall out, because all the forces on Dongwu's side have always had the habit of hiring foreign mercenaries, and there was no such example of such a sudden fallout. He was unprepared for a moment and was instantly defeated.
Of course, the Dutch knew the principle of capturing the king first before they captured the thief. When they launched a sudden attack, they targeted King Togo and his main ministers.
Originally, the Dutch wanted to capture Pindali alive, which would be more valuable. But guns and cannons have no eyes, and in the chaos of the battle, Pingdali was killed by shelling, and several of his main ministers also died.
Seeing this situation, the Dutch simply did not stop and immediately plundered Bago, the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty. In short, they burned, killed and looted everything they could rob, and burned what could not be moved.
On the way back, the Dutch naturally did not let go of Sha Lian. They looted everything here, killed them all, burned them all, robbed them all, and then left.
This turmoil happened just a month ago.
At this time, after listening to Ye Bu's report and paying half his salary, Zheng Chenggong came back to his senses and said with emotion: "This means that Dongwu's rebellion is over, and the Dutch have finished everything!"
"It's true!" Zhang Delu also said with great emotion, "I really don't know if we expelled the Dutch. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
It was agreed that the Dutch would have wiped out the Dongwu rebels, saving them the trouble of doing anything;
Let’s face it, these Dutch people killed, burned, and robbed everything here. If the Ming Dynasty wanted to restore the prosperity here and become a place independently responsible for military supplies and logistics, it would have to spend more financial and material resources!
Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Delu looked at each other and smiled helplessly.
Things have happened, and it is meaningless to talk about whether it is worthwhile to expel the Dutch.
So, Zheng Chenggong smiled and said: "In that case, let's send an army north to get in touch with Governor Sun on the Ava side and control the entire Dongwu!"
"I guess Governor Sun will also receive the news!" After hearing this, Zhang Delu nodded and said, "Let's contact him first, and then clean up other places in Dongwu, and then we can report to the court that Dongwu has been removed!"
Zheng Chenggong nodded after hearing this. Suddenly he thought of a possibility and said quickly: "When the Dutch return, I'm afraid they won't just plunder this place. They will probably plunder all the places along the coast and wherever they can!" Don’t you want to inform Portugal?”
"We can't inform you. The Dutch left here a month ago and there was no time." After hearing this, Zhang Delu thought for a while and said, "That's it. If we want to move westward, we also need to get help from the imperial court. Only the will will do!”
Zheng Chenggong could tell that the Portuguese had to rely on themselves first.
He had no problem with that either.
So, with Sha Lian as the center, they sent troops to the surrounding areas to control more places.
Not unexpectedly, Sun Chuanting also received news that King Pingdali of Dongwu died in the Dutch rebellion. He made a quick decision and immediately led his troops south.
A month later, the northern and southern armies of the Ming Dynasty met south of Meiktila.
When Sun Chuanting learned that the south had been occupied by the navy, he was overjoyed and immediately sent people back north. They had to rush to Yunnan first, and then report Dongwu's situation to the capital by phone and manpower.
As for himself, he continued to lead his troops southward and arrived at Sha Lian and Zheng Chenggong to meet them.
In the future, Shalianhui will be an important outlet for the Ming Dynasty, and a naval base will be built here.
As far as Dongwu as a whole is concerned, various places are too poor and backward, and Ming Dynasty does not have so much energy to build for the time being, so it chooses key areas to build first, and then promotes the construction of other areas.
Yangon in later generations, still called Daguang at this time, was located near Salim and was in the Irrawaddy Delta area.
This delta area covers an area of 598 square kilometers and is an area worthy of construction.
For the time being, Sun Chuanting will be the general person in charge of Dongwu's side and will be in charge of military and political power.
On the one hand, he has to command the navy and army and be responsible for occupying the entire territory of Dongwu. On the other hand, he has to restore people's livelihood and carry out the construction of key projects.
Finally, he began to plan the situation in the west, that is, the Mughal Empire, and inquired about the situation of the two gangs of thieves, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, to provide information support for the court's next move.
