Daming pirates

So Zhu Yifeng informed Yu Zigao, and ordered Yu Zigao to send Xu Xinsu to talk to the red-haired people and ask them to help the Fujian army.

After Xu Xinsu heard about it, he originally did not agree to do such a thing, because he had recently established a cooperative relationship with Sea Wolf. Sea Wolf would often send some ships to escort his ships going to Da Yuan trade to prevent his merchant ships from being

Zheng Yiguan was robbed. At present, this cooperation is quite pleasant and has indeed brought benefits to him. He even bought more than a dozen cannons from Sea Wolf and installed them on his merchant ships to enhance the

The self-defense capability of its merchant ships.

The two sides are currently in an alliance, so when Xu Xinsu heard that Yu Zigao ordered him to find the red-haired people and ask the red-haired people to help the government deal with the sea wolf, Xu Xinsu disagreed with this from the bottom of her heart.

But before Xu Xinsu refused, Yu Zigao threatened him and told Xu Xinsu that if he didn't do this, he would no longer be able to continue his business in the future, and there would be no place for him to establish himself in Fujian.

Xu Xinsu had no choice at this time, because as a maritime merchant, his foundation was still in Zhangquan. If he didn't follow the government's requirements, then the Fujian officials would kill him and kill an ant.

It's usually easy, as long as he cuts off his supply of goods, confiscates his ships, and seals up his cargo numbers, then everything is over for him.

So Xu Xinsu had to agree. There was no reason to argue with these officials. As long as he wanted to do maritime trade, he would have to be controlled by these officials. So he could only agree and go to the officials and officials in person.

The red-haired man negotiates.

However, after the Dutch commander Reyoz learned about this matter, they did not immediately agree.

Because this matter involved a lot, he did not dare to make a decision on his own. He had to obtain the consent of Peter Jun, the governor of Batavia in the Netherlands.

In fact, Yu Xiaotian and Hailang had already become the focus of the Dutch. Not long after they occupied the top positions, they learned about the names of Yu Xiaotian and Hailang. Through some businessmen, they learned that they were on the coast of Fujian.

There is a relatively unique pirate group.

This group of sea wolves controlled a large area of ​​​​the sea and a long shipping route in Fujian, which was a threat to them. However, this group of sea wolves had never had any conflict with them. Later, he had to

It is known that this group of sea wolves has established two large-scale strongholds in the northern part of Taiwan Island, immigrated in large numbers from the land, and cultivated in northern Taiwan.

This attracted their attention even more. The Dutch actually had a greater appetite for Taiwan Island. They were not just satisfied with occupying Da Yuan in the south of Taiwan Yuan Island and establishing a trading port to do business with the Ming Dynasty.

So simple.

After they occupied Danguan, they discovered the value of Taiwan Island. Although Taiwan Island was a barbaric land in this era, there were a huge number of indigenous people living here. In addition, Taiwan Island was rich in deerskin, camphor and other valuables.

The clouded leopard skin is extremely popular, and you can earn a lot of profits by shipping it back to Europe.

Nowadays, such a force has begun to conduct operations on Taiwan Island, and it has obviously become their potential enemy. Therefore, during this period, the Dutch were also very concerned about the situation of the sea wolves, and sent spies to Tamsui and Chicken Coops many times.

, to inquire about the situation over there.

Now they have made an assessment of the Sea Wolf. They believe that the Sea Wolf is very strong and has a relatively large armed force. No one can challenge it in a short period of time along the coast of Fujian. Moreover, they are developing very fast, and they also have a large armed force.

Attach great importance to the construction of defense facilities.

Sea Wolf has made it clear that it will continue to operate on Taiwan Island for a long time. Whether it is in Jilong Bay or in the Tamsui River area, it has built complete defense fortifications. This aspect even far exceeds the defense facilities they built in Dayuan.

Moreover, the Sea Wolf's behavior is also very strange. Many of their buildings, especially fortifications, are similar to European bastions, which are very different from Chinese-style fortress structures.

Moreover, they also confirmed that Seawolf has the ability to cast its own cannons and build ships, which surprised them even more. Moreover, although they have never obtained the actual cannons that Seawolf cast themselves, they are still basically certain.

The artillery they forged was not an old-style Chinese artillery piece, but a completely Western-style artillery piece. It was said that the quality was quite good, it was powerful, had a long range, and had a very fast rate of fire.

In this way, the strength of the Sea Wolves will be continuously enhanced, and they will be completely self-sufficient and gradually build a powerful maritime force.

This is not good news for the Dutch, because once the Sea Wolf's strength develops to a certain extent, they will no longer be satisfied with just operating in northern Taiwan. They will definitely extend their tentacles southward to Taiwan.

In the south, the reason is very simple, that is, northern Taiwan has many hills and few plains, which is not very suitable for farming, while southern Taiwan has many plains and fertile land, which is more suitable for farming and feeding more immigrants.

Once that time comes, the sea wolves may threaten their existence in Danyuan, and may even push them out of Taiwan Island. They have spent so many years on the coast of China, and they have finally found such a place as a place between them and Ming Dynasty.

If the trading port is driven away by the Sea Wolf, they will completely lose the bridgehead along the coast of China, and everything will return to the starting point. It may even affect their trade with the Japanese. The Sea Wolf can easily cut off their trade with Japan.

route, they will be in big trouble by then.

Therefore, the Dutch's assessment of Sea Wolf is that Sea Wolf is their biggest potential enemy currently operating in Da Yuan and Taiwan Island, and they must find ways to control it.

The last thing the Dutch want to see is the emergence of an absolute controlling force on the China Sea, because once someone controls the China Sea, it will seriously affect their interests. This force may control all trade with them, making

They lose pricing power and greatly increase their trade costs.

At present, this sea wolf is most likely to do this, so the Dutch are even more wary of the sea wolf. They really hope that someone can deal a heavy blow to the sea wolf, and it is best to seriously weaken their power.

But at the end of April, they got news that their old rivals, the Spaniards, had also set their sights on Taiwan Island. However, the Spaniards did not dare to come to trouble the Dutch and planned to follow suit in the northern part of Taiwan Island.

They also established a trading port.

But the Spaniards did not expect that they would encounter a strong opponent, Sea Wolf, in northern Taiwan. The two sides had a large-scale conflict at sea and land in the Jilong Bay area. What surprised the Dutch was

, in this battle, the Spanish troops were severely defeated by the Sea Wolf, and were almost wiped out in Jilong Bay.

Only one Spanish gunboat finally fled the battlefield and fled back to Manila with its tail between its legs, which shocked the Dutch even more.

They are very clear about the strength of the Spanish fleet. Although the Spanish Armada was destroyed by the British, its strength was not as strong as before, and the position of maritime supremacy was given to the Dutch. However, the Spanish

After all, a starved camel is bigger than a horse, but they are still quite powerful. They have a small fleet available all year round in Manila, with some gunboats and armed merchant ships.

Even compared with the fleet of the East India Company stationed in Bacheng, this fleet was not easy for them to deal with. Therefore, for a long time, they could only watch the Spanish control Luzon Island and occupy the city of Manila.

, trade with Ming merchants and gain a lot of wealth.

But what they didn't think about was that such a light fleet would actually lose to Sea Wolf. Even though they evaluated the combat effectiveness of Sea Wolf's fleet and thought that Sea Wolf's combat effectiveness was quite strong, they didn't think they could easily do so.

They defeated the Sibank fleet, but the result was unexpected. Those arrogant Sibanks were beaten to the point of peeing by the sea wolves, and their entire army was almost annihilated in Jilong Bay.

This time, the Dutch are even more wary of the Sea Wolves, and regard the Sea Wolves as their biggest potential opponent.

Just when they were at their wits' end about this matter, the Chinese Fujian government extended an olive branch to them and wanted to ask them for help in dealing with the sea wolf.

If they had been allowed to deal with the sea wolves by themselves before, the Dutch would not have had any confidence. Especially after the Spanish defeat at Jilong Bay, they did not dare to attack the sea wolves easily.

But suddenly, now the Ming government wants to concentrate the efforts of a province to suppress the sea wolves, so they feel that this time it may be a rare opportunity for them.

Moreover, the attitude of the Ming government is also crucial for them to gain a foothold in Da Yuan. If they do not agree to the request of the Ming government, then the Ming government can prohibit Chinese businessmen from going to Da Yuan to trade with them, even if it is not completely possible.

Banning it will at least have a big impact.

The purpose of Da Yuan's existence is to trade with the Ming Dynasty. If Fujian bans trade with them, Guangdong will probably follow suit. By then, they will not be able to obtain enough goods in Da Yuan, and Da Yuan will not be able to obtain enough goods.

Lost the value of existence.

Therefore, after talking to Xu Xinsu, Reyoz thought that they could agree to Ming's conditions and take this opportunity to hit the sea wolves hard, greatly weakening their strength and eliminating the threat in the initial stage. But now this

He can't make the decision yet.

Although he has the authorization from the East India Company and can have the power to act expeditiously in Taiwan, the biggest problem at the moment is that he is not strong enough.

Currently, he only has four ships permanently stationed on Taiyuan Island, only one of which is a gunboat of over 400 tons, and the remaining three are single-masted, lightly armed gunboats with a displacement of only over 100 tons.

If he wanted to help the government to exterminate the sea wolves with just this strength, it would be impossible. Otherwise, he would suffer a disastrous defeat, and the fate of the Spanish bankers would be right in front of his eyes.

Therefore, even if he is willing, he must obtain the consent of Lord Peter, the Governor of Bacheng, and send him reinforcements before he can participate in the battle. Otherwise, with his current strength, he will not be able to do this.

So he told Xu Xinsu that he agreed in principle to help the Ming Dynasty government in this matter, but he had to give him at least three months to prepare, because he had to ask their master to dispatch warships from Bacheng to help in the battle, otherwise

He was unable to do what the government asked him to do.

Xu Xinsu then had no choice but to return to Quanzhou and report the results of his negotiations with the Dutch to Yu Zigao, and Yu Zigao had no choice but to report the matter to Zhu Yifeng.

Zhu Yifeng thought about it and decided that three months was still acceptable, because he wanted to organize such a large-scale military operation this time and needed to prepare money, food, warships, artillery, and mobilize troops and horses, etc.

After he was thoroughly prepared, time was almost up.

In this era, the speed of mobilizing and assembling officers and soldiers was very slow. No matter how much he, the governor, urged, it would take at least two or three months to complete war preparations. Therefore, the Dutch said that they would wait for three months, which was fine.

accepted.

So the matter was settled. The Fujian government, under the order of Zhu Yifeng, began to make preparations, and the supplies and personnel began to move.