On September 20, 1686, a storm raged over the South Pacific.

The two "Star" class light cruisers moved forward one after the other, struggling to move forward in bad weather. Lu Xiaozhong, who had been promoted to major, put down his binoculars, wrapped his raincoat tightly, and returned to the captain's room with difficulty.

"Commander, it's hard for us to get the direction right now. The wind was so strong, it was too dark, and the hands on the compass turned like spinning tops, and we couldn't even grasp the orientation of a few of the points. The navigator wiped the rain from his face and said with a bitter face, "Perhaps you should now order the lights of the High Sky Hunting to keep them along, or by the time this storm has passed, perhaps we will already be on the island of Timor, and they will drift to Batavia." ”

"I'll do it." Lu Xiaozhong made a gesture to let a herald go to the order, and then tried to find a cooler seat to sit down, but he failed, so he could only continue to stand in the captain's room, holding the handle on one side, while fighting the power of the waves, while complaining: "Look at this cabin, there is not even a dry place, it is all water." ”

"Commander, one of the four pumps is out of order, two were blown into the sea while working, and now only one is working. There is no way to do it, it's not that the brothers of the damage management team don't work hard, it's just that the weather is too bad. The navigator went to a corner, crouched down, carefully took out a chart, and covered with a raincoat the rain or sea water that might have poured in, and the window had been beaten to pieces by some great wave, and studied the "mysterious" question of where they were now.

Another gust of wind blew, accompanied by a raindrop the size of soybeans. This gust of wind blew straight down from above, with great force, directly pressing the entire ship down, Lu Xiaozhong staggered, grabbed the handrail next to him, and cursed even more in his mouth, not caring at all about his identity as a commander The man at sea, who was already so rude, there was nothing strange about it.

There was a burst of exclamation from the sailors who were busy on deck. The ship was already loaded with a lot of cargo, and the draft was not shallow, but it was violently pressed by the straight wind, and the waterline suddenly reached a place very close to the deck, and the iron anchors hanging on the bow of the ship were already in the water, making people think that the ship was sinking.

"The mainmast has been blown off," someone shouted.

When Lu Xiaozhong heard this, he didn't care about the collision, so he suddenly stood up and rushed to the damaged glass window, and watched the broken mast being directly dragged down on the deck by the strong wind, and was suddenly a little stunned. The mast rolled around the deck a few times, knocking a sailor straight into the sea before falling into the bilge, where it was half-floating because of the large amount of water in the bilge. Seeing this, several sailors immediately stepped forward and used their strength to feed the mast in the bilge with ropes.

"Attention, the boat is going to float, everyone hold on to all fixed objects." An officer whistled a brass whistle hanging from his neck and reminded. In fact, when the wind is strong, the waves will not be too big, because they will also be suppressed by the wind, and the sea surface is relatively gentle; And when the wind weakens, the sea rises sharply and the waves get bigger. At this time, the hull will rotate violently until it enters the next cycle of downward pressure, floating, and rocking.

A large plank on the side of the "boom" that seemed to have been repaired was swept by the wind and fell into the sea, and a large wave hit the deck directly from this gap, and then flowed into the bilge, where it gathered together. The mast that had just been tied up was half-floating on the surface of the stagnant water, and had already broken free from a rope or two, and then frequently hit the bilge wall with the movement of the waves, making a "thump" sound.

"Throw this damn mast out there. If we continue like this, my ship will be wrecked sooner or later. The guns in the bilge are all well fixed for me, and they can't have problems. Lu Xiaozhong poked his head out and ordered loudly towards the deck.

The boatswain complied with difficulty, then lowered the pump in his hand and instructed his men to begin lifting the mast. The wind was so strong that the sailors standing on the deck were pulling hard one moment, and the next moment they were blown upside down by the strong wind.

Lu Xiaozhong then ran to the other side and carefully observed his wingman with a telescope, that is, the "Gao Tian Yi Hunting" looming in the wind and waves. He hoped that the wingmen would not be seriously damaged, otherwise it would be a question of whether they would be able to sail to Timor Island on time, knowing that they had come on an important mission.

The task was proposed by Liu Houfei, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Brigade, and assigned by Liao Degong, the leader of the Denglai Pioneer Brigade, after approval, and it was specified that Major Lu Xiaozhong of the Third Fleet of the Navy would lead the team to Dili Harbor to transport a large amount of weapons and equipment to the Portuguese, and at the same time discuss some affairs of the Combined Fleet.

There is no doubt that this operation really hit the Dutch in the waist, and if it did, the Dutch East India Company would be very uncomfortable. For no other reason, if you look at the map, you can see that the island of Timor is less than 2,000 nautical miles away from Batavia, the center of the Dutch East India Company's domination in Asia, and it will be there in about ten days, which is really not too far for the navy.

In the case of the low-key and cowardly Portuguese in normal times, the Dutch East India Company was too lazy to take care of them in the eastern half of the island of Timor, because the Dutch had too many things to deal with, and it seemed that as long as the Portuguese did not get along, it seemed that they could continue to be safe and sound.

But now things have changed! The people on the east coast not only sent two new warships to Timor Island, but also planned to help the Portuguese reorganize several towns on the island, repair forts, dredge ports, train soldiers, and develop commerce, in short, so that they could make money from blood and also have considerable self-protection ability.

In addition, the people of the East Coast also wanted to develop the port of Dili into one of the cruising and docking ports of the Combined Fleet. In this case, the deterrent effect on the Dutch East India Company would also be greater, after all, while the East Coasters were shouting unhappily in Macao, the governor of Batavia would only worry about whether something would go wrong on the island of Taiwan. But if they were close to the East Indies, the core, the Dutch would have to worry about their Asian roots being dug up. Therefore, once the east coast army entered the island, it was likely that by the next day they would encounter a fleet and land force organized by the Dutch to attack them, so they would first need to strengthen the Portuguese on the island.

More than 30 guns were placed in the bilges of the two light cruisers, the "Beiluo Shimen" and the "Gaotian Yi Hunting," which were interest-free loans provided by the Bank of Taiwan for the purpose of increasing the strength of the Portuguese defenders. Of course, the people on the east coast also transferred some additional civilian machinery and equipment, and planned to build several small production lines for munitions on the island, as if they were doing a big job.

There is no doubt that the Portuguese are pie in the sky and have hit a big luck! Under normal circumstances, they want to obtain this special loan to purchase the above-mentioned machinery and equipment, but they don't know how much they will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey and how much they will pay. But now the Dutch directly sent the assist, and the trade war they launched on the east coast made the east coast people react quickly, directly throwing money and technology, intending to turn the nearby island of Timor into a base against the Dutch East India Company.

Of course, from another point of view, the Portuguese may also be wronged. Because they had been sitting at home and had nothing to do, suddenly the "social brother" came to the east coast and asked them to provide a house near the lair of the "rich and handsome" Dutch East India Company, and hide some weapons and daily necessities in it as a base for monitoring and attacking the rich and handsome.

This is really a fight between immortals, and mortals are suffering! Although the people on the east coast provided some money to repay, it was tantamount to forcibly lending them to help them rectify and build the island of Timor, but so what? How much is the benefit compared to the loss they may suffer in business? If they really want to provoke the Dutch, they dare to send troops to take a few Portuguese strongholds on the Indian coast, and even a few trading posts in the Bay of Bengal belong to the Pinto family, and the losses will be lost, even if the people on the east coast introduce them to Macao a little more business, they will not be able to make up for it.

But now the Kingdom of Portugal has no choice, or rather, they have already made a choice! When Albuquerque arrived on the East Coast with a large mission, it meant that Lisbon had surrendered to the East Coast and completely joined the colonial trade system dominated by the East Coasters, and became a member of the same system as Courland, the Free States, Genoa, Tuscany and other countries. Therefore, they already have a label on them and have already stood in line, so they are doomed to be unable to go away on this kind of major issue of right and wrong, and can only follow the people of the East Coast.

Therefore, when the people on the east coast proposed to deploy a fleet on the island of Timor, it was equivalent to the deployment of missiles by the Soviet Union in Cuba in the later generations, ...... the Portuguese could only agree with tears, otherwise life would be even more difficult. As long as the Portuguese merchants in Macao were not allowed to continue to obtain tea, raw silk, silk, porcelain and other goods, and did not help them to consolidate their rule in India and squeeze the economy of Portuguese Brazil, then the Portuguese would not be able to stand it and could only obey.

On 21 September, after a night of struggling with wind and waves, the "Beiluoshimen" and "Gaotian Yi Hunting" and "Star" class light cruisers converged in the waters north of Timor Island. The two ships exchanged transport boats to board their respective ships, to see the extent of the damage caused by the storm, and after a little repair of the boats, they raised the somewhat broken sails again, and sailed southwest, without steam power, and arrived two days later at Port Dili, the capital of the Portuguese island of Timor, a port city dominated by agriculture and trade.

The Portuguese were surprised by the visit of the warships on the east coast because they had not been informed. Fortunately, however, there were some Portuguese businessmen on the island who had been shipping between Macao and Timor for a long time, and they knew that the person who came was Major Lu Xiaozhong of the Third Fleet on the east coast, a rising star in the naval system. As a result, the Portuguese in the port of Dili were generally more welcoming, and even if a few were a little dissatisfied with the unannounced arrival of armed ships on the east coast, they did not dare to show it openly.

As soon as Major Lu Xiaozhong came ashore, he ordered all the Portuguese shipwrights on the island to gather and do their best to repair the two badly damaged warships on the east coast, and of course they would pay the right fee. In addition, the ship's supplies and equipment were also required to be sorted out as soon as possible, and then stored in a Portuguese-run warehouse near the docks, guarded by sailors on the east coast.

After doing this, Major Lu Xiaozhong, accompanied by his subordinate officers, went to the city to meet the supreme commander of the Portuguese garrison here, the head of Santos from Porto. This regiment commander is now in his fifties, and there is an infantry regiment composed of gentlemen and whites, Malays, Malays and Portuguese mixed descendants and Malays, with a total strength of about 1,000 people, which is the last military force of the Portuguese on the island of Timor at present, and it is also a large collection of remnants of the defeated generals after their defeat in the Banda Islands and other islands.

Captain Santos was a man of understanding and hated the Dutch. His grandfather died in 1614 during the Dutch East India Company's attack on the island of Storley, his father was sunk by a Dutch warship in 1640 along with the armed merchant ship "San Cristor de Burgos", and his uncle was captured and killed by the Dutch while on his way to the island of Wey to buy cloves. Therefore, their family's hatred for the Dutch is really deep, and the hatred is outraging, and the head of Santos himself is very enthusiastic about anything that can block the Dutch, so he welcomes the arrival of the people on the east coast, especially when Major Lu Xiaozhong clearly told him that the diplomatic representatives on the east bank have gone to Goa by clipper to communicate, of course the head of Santos understands what kind of state the governor of Goa is in today, and it is almost the echo of the people on the east coast. If the people on the east coast wanted to use the island of Timor as a weapon against the Dutch, then the Goan side would not dare to say anything about refusal, because the consequences would be very serious.

Major Lu Xiaozhong talked with the head of the regiment Santos for an afternoon, and then put forward three suggestions to them: 1. Immediately inspect the artillery of the Dili Port Battery, and immediately dismantle and scrap the unsuitable ones, and replace them with the coastal defense heavy artillery brought by the people on the east coast; 2. Dredging the port, expanding the berths at the wharf, and adding two new trestle bridges to facilitate the docking and replenishment of ships of the combined fleets of the Eastern, Portuguese, and Western regions that will take shape in the future; Third, the army units should be comprehensively rectified, those who are in trouble should be dismissed immediately, and those who are willing to stay behind should be strengthened in the frequency of training, and military salaries and various items should be paid in full, so as to enhance the status of military personnel, and no longer engage in the trick of recruiting in the dry season and disbanding in the rainy season; that would be too unprofessional and would also lead to an incomparably poor combat effectiveness of the troops.

Commander Santos agreed in principle with Major Lu Xiaozhong's three suggestions, but asked the east coast to bear the large additional expenses that would be incurred in this process, which Lu did not agree, only said that he would pay the Portuguese 10,000 yuan in cash in advance for free aid, as for the follow-up source of funds, it will be "renegotiated", but he also put forward an idea, that is, to develop the tropical cultivation industry on Timor Island, through the export of rice, coconuts, spices, fruits, seafood and other special commodities to the east coast control area to obtain income, Due to the special geographical location, Timor Island can not only export special goods to the four feudatories in the Far East, but also export to New China, Australia, Tahiti and other places, and the prospects are still quite good, provided that it is really well managed, such as the introduction of a large number of people from the East Coast and so on.

From this, it can be seen that the people of the east coast actually treat Timor as if it were another Diu island. The two islands had one thing in common: they were ideally located to trade with them and to use them as a base against the Dutch East India Company. Especially the former, not far from Batavia, once armed, would the Dutch East India Company dare to be as "capricious" as this time and arbitrarily raise the tariff rates on all kinds of goods exported to the East Coast?