Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 188 The Dutch is Coming

  September 11, 1881

  Shangri-La Island (formerly known as Irian Island or Guinea Island)

   Jayapura

  This is an excellent deep-water harbor located at the northeast corner of Shangri-La Island. There are several tall island mountains outside the harbor, shielding all the turbulent winds and waves of the South Pacific, and also blocking the sight of prying eyes from the open sea.

  The harbor is calm and waveless, the turquoise water is set against the blue sky and white clouds, a gray-white pier and trestle extends into the bay, and two freighters from the Far East route are anchored, as well as three seagull-class frigates.

  Not far up along the pier, is a small seaside town full of Chinese architectural style, this is Jayapura Town.

This brand-new immigrant town was built in a valley. There are spacious roads paved with slabs in the town. The buildings are mostly wooden structures. The high roofs are decorated with Chinese-style cornices. Go, it's really good-looking.

The town is quite lively, with grain and oil shops, daily groceries, blacksmith shops, theater brothels, wine shops, Huitong Bank, and police stations. Pedestrians wearing light-colored clothes and wearing bamboo hats are constantly flowing on the streets. Saying hello to people who are familiar with is full of the smell of fireworks of life.

  On the side of this town is the barracks of the Coast Guard.

  The tall lookout post upstairs

Wu Mantan, the elder, carried a can of fish soup in his hand and climbed up to the post. He looked at the three soldiers on duty and said in a good mood; "Brothers, what do you think I brought you?" "

   "What, it's delicious, I already smell the scent." Soldier First sniffed hard and said.

   "Oh my God, it's fish soup again. We are already drunk with this stuff. Can we have some broth or something?" Soldier B walked over and took a look, and couldn't help but vomit.

"A bunch of stinky and shameless things." Wu Mantuan placed the fish soup pot in his hand on the ammunition box, as well as a large bag of steamed buns, and began to count the soldiers under his men; "Look at your current virtues. Can’t eat enough, even the bark was eaten up during the famine, but now it’s good, and it’s too bad to drink fish soup, a group of prodigal stuff."

   "Wu Shichang, the most popular thing in the past few months is to eat fish, braised fish, small dried fish, salted fish, fish soup, fish balls, I want to change your taste too." Soldier Yi retorted.

   "You don't know the blessing when you are in the blessing..." Wu Mantiao didn't finish a sentence, but was interrupted by Soldier A; "The report is very long, and there is a situation in the far sea watching the post."

   "What?" Wu Mandiao's face suddenly became serious, and he rushed to the side of Soldier A.

  There is a large vertical telescope here, and you can see the distant sea observation post set up on the mountain peak of the distant island.

   can be seen through a standing binoculars;

  A piece of yellow cloth was spread out at the Yuanhai Watchpost, and a soldier was standing on a high place, playing a semaphore in this direction.

   means that a Dutch three-masted galleon is approaching, about 11 nautical miles away, and is expected to arrive in 50 minutes. It is under continuous tracking and monitoring.

  The Far Sea Watch Post is set up on the peak of the islands surrounding the bay. From there, you can see the extreme distance of the open sea, which serves as an early warning.

  Yellow cloth means a serious warning. If it is covered with a red cloth, it confirms that a threat is coming.

  "You continue to monitor closely, I will report now." Wu Mandiao did not dare to neglect, but Shangfeng's three orders and five applications required strict monitoring of the open sea, and any situation must be reported promptly.

He quickly ran downstairs. There was a hand-cranked phone on the second floor of the watch post. Wu Mantuan picked up the handset and put it to his ear, then shook it quickly; "Hey, hello, the Marine Police District is on duty. Room? I was looking at the post at the pier and found a three-masted galleon..."

   less than a minute passed

   A stern sirens sounded in the entire marine police area, and the officers and soldiers who were resting in the dormitory rushed out of the room and ran towards their respective battle positions.

  Dockside

  Three seagull-class frigates successively emitted thick smoke. The ship was igniting and boosting pressure. When the steam boiler reached a certain pressure, the steam engine could be driven.

The commander of the Shangri-La squadron Li Jie suddenly stood up when he heard the sirens. He was working with the Shangri-La Marine Police District Commander Huo Xiaohu and the Deputy Commanding Envoy Zheng Dagen to study the plan of water and land cooperation. Hearing the sirens, he looked at each other and went out immediately. Turned on his horse and drove quickly toward the pier.

  The Dutch are here, which is already expected.

  Li Jie needs to return to the battleship quickly to deal with any situation that may arise.

  In the command post

  Huo Xiaohu and Zheng Dagen stood up solemnly, watched the soldiers in the Marine Police District gather through the window, and then rushed to the battle position quickly.

  Shangri-La Marine Police District Command Envoy Huo Xiaohu and Deputy Command Envoy Zheng Dagen are all outstanding officers who emerged from the "Clean-up and Public Security Operations". They were promoted to the first level after being trained by senior officers.

  Huo Xiaohu was promoted from deputy commander to commander, and he was in charge of one party's military power alone, and he was considered a big figure with a good head and face.

  Because of his outstanding combat exploits, Zheng Dagen was promoted directly by the third company commander of the Huqiwei back battalion to the deputy commander of the Marine Police District.

  He left his beloved dragoon guard and came to the Marine Police District to take up his post. From a cavalry to an infantry, he achieved a leap in his military position and ranked among the ranks of high-ranking officers.

  "A three-masted sailing ship? It seems that the news can't be kept." Huo Xiaohu stood in the room without moving, muttering to himself.

  Zheng Dagen calmly walked to the window and raised his binoculars to look; "My lord commander, your judgment is correct. Yuanhai Watchpost has been replaced with a red cloth."

   "Lord Earl said that we usually sweat more and bleed less during war. It seems that we need to conduct actual combat training to deal with the upcoming difficult situation." Huo Xiaohu said in a deep voice.

   "The commander enlightened the adults." After Zheng Dagen said this sentence, his face became more serious.

  The three-masted galleon off the coast does not need the Marine Police District to worry about it. The three seagull-class frigates of the Coast Guard Task Force go out and capture it is a sure thing.

  But then, the news can no longer be kept.

  If the Dutch come in, the officers and soldiers of the marine police district will be used at that time. They have a high chance of facing the Dutch colonial army and must be fully prepared.

  The blue sea

  A three-masted galleon is sailing through the waves to Jayapura Port. This is the "Tulip" sailing from Surabaya Port. After arriving in Luzon, it detoured to Irian Island when returning.

  Captain Marco Van Nistelrooy stood with a solemn face beside the steering wheel, carefully observing the distant coastline with a monocular, looking for any unusual clues.

Mr. Frank Sneijder wanted to walk over anxiously, but was blocked by a bear-like sailor. He could only shout loudly; "Mr. Captain, there is Jayapura Harbor in front of you, and the bay is surrounded by tall buildings. Surrounded by the island, you can’t see anything here. We can get closer. As long as 20 people carry guns on a small sampan to scout, I can figure out what the trick is..."

   "Shut up, idiot." Captain Marco van Nistelrooy was extremely upset, and Jayapura felt bad for him. This was out of keen intuition.

  60 heavily armed white colonists just disappeared. Where could it be simple?

  Marco van Nistelrooy had a foreboding that this would be a big trouble. The sailors on the ship were all armed, their knives were unsheathed, and the bullets loaded, ready to face a fierce battle at any time.

  Whether it is a Spanish pirate or a British, it is not easy to deal with.

  He would not send 20 of his men into the tiger’s mouth, thinking of this, Marco Van Nistelrooy commanded loudly; "Put up the mid-mast sail, the rear-mast sail, and head 12 degrees to the right."

   Hearing the captain’s order, the sailing lineman climbed up the tall middle mast and rear mast as flexibly as an ape, and the other sailors twisted the winch vigorously, and the huge middle and rear sails were quickly tightened.

  The sail line flexibly walks up to the tall branch, just like a clever acrobat, tying the cloth sail tightly on the up and down branch.

  The speed of the three-masted galleon suddenly slowed down, and was patrolling about eight nautical miles off Jayapura, wanting to see if anything unusual happened.

  More than two hours later

  The tulip galleon still kept the distance patiently, like a cunning fox, and immediately got out of the way and ran when the chance was not good.

  "Mr. Captain, we have 140 heavily armed boys on this boat, and Jayapura Port is in front. I don't know what you are afraid of?" Mr. Frank Sneijder's patience has long since worn away.

  After all, he is just a white farmer, in other words, a landlord’s wealth.

  Neither has a wealth of experience in fighting wind and waves at sea, nor has he faced the challenge of a powerful adversary, nor has he encountered countless life and death crises. The problem is too simple.

  But his words did affect some simple-minded sailors, who frantically brandished the swords and guns in their hands and shouted;

   "Captain, let us get closer, no matter who is there, let these **** taste the taste of swords and guns."

   "Yes, we can defeat ten times as many enemies. Let's go see what happened there? Maybe we can have fun."

   "Oh oh oh... the battle blood is boiling, and the blade is eager to kill."

   "Maybe there is nothing there, only some indigenous monkeys."

The clamor of the sailors did not affect Captain Marco Van Nistelrooy. He frowned and said in disgust; "No one in this boat dared to question my order to tie up this stupid pig. Mouth, hanging upside down on the mast, to make him sober."

   "I protest, I have the Governor's Mansion in my hand..."

Mr. Frank Sneijder hadn’t finished speaking. He was overturned by a group of strong sailors. He was **** with twine like rice dumplings, hung upside down from the mast, and he had a stuffed in his mouth. The dirty socks were changed and washed up and down with the sailing boat.

  This can't be careless.

  (End of this chapter)