There are local natives of Daming who inquire for news and trade materials for the Dutch, even if Lai Jiechen and them are stationed in the Hongcheng Fortress on Magong Island, they still know the situation outside, especially the situation in Hongtang of Jilong Port.

In the past three months, the news of Hongtang's recruitment of sailors and expansion of strength has been continuously transmitted to Lai's ears, and the people who delivered the news naturally hoped that the Dutch could take advantage of Hongtang's strength to replenish their strength, start another battle, and completely defeat Hongtang in Jilonggang.

But in Lai's heart, the more he came into contact with the more news about Hong Tang, the more unwilling he was to provoke this local snake entrenched in the South China Sea.

In just three months, Ren Hongtang had already replenished the strength that had been exterminated by the Dutch before, and the number of warships had also increased by more than thirty; On the other hand, the Dutch, up to now, have not even replenished the ammunition reserves that have been consumed since the beginning of the war, let alone the Dutch sailors who have already died.

Since the Dutch expeditionary fleet wanted to capture a place and seek to open the door to trade of the Ming Dynasty, they naturally carried all kinds of craftsmen and masters in daily life, otherwise they would not be able to build the Hongcheng Fortress in more than half a year, nor could they have a steady stream of shells and gunpowder!

But after fighting with the Ming and Portuguese, it was naturally more difficult for the Dutch to purchase sulfur, pig iron and other materials, and no matter how generous they were, they would not trade with a bully who ran to their door to kill people and set fires!

However, in the past few months, just to appease the Dutch sailors who have been adrift at sea for a long time and have lost a lot of soldiers, Lai Jiechen has already tried his best, where is there still leisure to go to the Daming coast to fight the autumn wind!

Without the source of raw materials, the Dutch craftsmen have no craft but no platform to display it, so the reserves of the Dutch fleet will naturally be unable to replenish!

It wasn't until the Ming pirates took the initiative to come to the door that Lai Jichen's situation improved well.

Of course, correspondingly, Bengang, which is closer to the fortress of Magong Island in Penghu than Jilong Port, also reached the ears of the Dutch through this group of traitors and pirates who betrayed their compatriots.

If this news was just in time for the Dutch fleet to attack Chicken Coop Harbor, the Dutch would have been even more excited, and would definitely have gone up and grabbed it directly. But after the unsuccessful attack on the chicken coop, the Dutch commander Lai Jichen was a little hesitant.

Compared with finding a piece of land that has never been developed as a foothold, the time and energy spent on building and cultivating by oneself is naturally much more troublesome than snatching the next stronghold that already has a foundation for life from others.

However, Hong Tang's strong combat style made Lai Jichen have to think in his heart whether it was worth the price to attack the territory to which Hong Tang belonged again.

In the end, after thinking about it again, he discussed it with a few groups of Daming pirates who took the initiative to catch up, and after getting their promise to contain the chicken coop Hongtang warship, Lai Jichen was still unwilling to get some profit back from Hongtang!

Of course, a war can no longer be as reckless and contemptuous as the last time. With the help of so many warm-hearted Ming natives, the Dutch didn't have to know anything about Hong Tang in the dark, just the information collected by a few groups of pirates gave Lai Jiechen a lot of understanding of Hong Tang Bengang.

The reason why they want to change their goals and give up Chicken Coop Harbor is because now that the surrounding area of Chicken Coop Harbor has just experienced a war, most of the strength of the three forces of Hongtang is still gathered and wandering around Chicken Coop Harbor, for fear that they Dutch will kill back the horse pistol.

In addition, several groups of pirates agreed to send troops to contain Hongtang's forces when the Dutch sent troops, but the premise was that they could not be too far away from their old nest Ryukyu Sea, otherwise, they were also worried that Hongtang's people would turn their guns and pick up their guys who took advantage of the fire to rob them in anger.

The leaders of their several pirates are still self-aware, and they can't defeat the strength of the three divisions of Hongtang after the convergence of the three divisions in a head-on battle, so they can only fight guerrillas, beat side drums, and use their own familiar environment in the Ryukyu waters to give limited support to the Dutch.

Before the battle, the Dutch reconnaissance warship, following the information given by the pirates, was not very difficult, and found the entrance and exit of Hongtang Bengang Creek. The Dutch never thought that only twenty or thirty miles away from the Penghu Islands, a piece of Hongtang's wealth and land would be hidden under their noses!

They also understood why this Hongtang always had twenty or thirty warships, cruising near Magong Island, it turned out that they were not only monitoring the movements of their Dutch, but also a line of defense to protect Bengang!

It was only after finding the location of Bengang Creek that the Dutch began to worry, that is, should they get off the boat and send a few teams of soldiers to reconnoiter on foot, or should they just swagger and drive the warship up Bengang Creek?

The location of this Hongtang person is really tricky enough, it stands to reason that this is closer to the sea, so the natural transportation is much more convenient. However, the people of Hongtang insisted on building the port five or six miles inland from the sea, although there was also a Bengang Creek as an entry and exit channel, connecting the waterway between the sea and Bengang, but for the Dutch reconnaissance, it brought them a lot of trouble.

The Bengang Creek is seven or eight feet wide, enough for a warship to sail out, but in terms of secrecy and security, the Dutch can't help but scold their mother!

Secrecy doesn't matter, although this reconnaissance quickly got rid of the sea ships arranged by Hongtang to monitor around Magong Island by virtue of the performance advantage of the warships, but the unique structure of the Dutch warships made it possible for the Hongtang people to track down their whereabouts sooner or later.

The most important thing is security, the Dutch reconnaissance warship came out, and there were many soldiers on board, nearly 100 people. If you send troops to investigate on foot, I don't know if it will arouse the vigilance of the stupid Hong Kong people, and if there is a less, I am worried that it will be killed by the stupid Hong Kong people; If the Hongtang people use the method of scuttling fishing boats to block the way before and after the river, then the Dutch warships will be sent to the door as soon as they enter the estuary, which is equivalent to sending them to the door to let the fish and meat!

In the end, after a long struggle, the captain of the reconnaissance ship decided to send a team of 50 people to drive a small boat up the Bengang Creek to investigate the specific situation in Bengang!

(End of chapter)