Originally, the Spaniards and the Portuguese were quite dissatisfied with this kind of spoils, but Zhang Yukun promised to let Spain and Portugal invest in the construction of ports in Batavia, and according to Wang Xinyu's proposal given to him in advance, open the ports of Batavia and Singapore to Spain and Portugal and other countries, and provide them with goods at preferential prices. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the long run, Spain and Portugal received the "most favored nation in trade" status granted by the Ming state, and with this treatment, they were able to earn more money.

In addition, Spain and Portugal did not send many troops or ships, and they were actually very satisfied with the spoils worth six million taels of silver. This time they came out to clean up the Dutch, and the two countries basically suffered little and also received the right to call at the port of Batavia.

Li Dingguo got fifteen million taels of silver, and he was also very satisfied, so much silver far exceeded his previous imagination. Although he knew that Zhang Yukun had secretly collected a batch of silver, he did not squeak as if he did not know, and after getting the spoils, Li Dingguo withdrew to Burma with 3,000 men and horses, leaving 2,000 men to assist the Nanyang Navy in garrisoning Batavia.

"King Jin has left here, and the next thing we have to do is to strengthen the fort and add new artillery." Zhang Yukun began to arrange the reinforcement of the Batavia battery.

After Batavia was captured by the Ming army, it was renamed Coconut City according to the custom of the Chinese. So far, the Nanyang Navy has three ports in Southeast Asia: Yanping Port, Lion City Port and Coconut City Port.

The construction of Yanping Port and Lion City Port was relatively early and the defense was strong. Yanping Port is a port that goes to sea with a river port, and mines are arranged at the mouth of the sea, and hidden batteries are arranged in the jungle, so the Dutch will not be able to capture this port, not to mention that the location of Yanping Port is hidden, and the Dutch do not know here. As for the port of the Lion City, it is very important to hold the key point of the Strait of Malacca, where the Nanyang Navy has built the strongest battery and deployed the latest heavy artillery. Therefore, whether it is Yanping Port or Lion City Port, it is impossible for the Dutch to take it.

As for the Hindu Port, where the Ming Court was located, it was not so easy for the Dutch to enter. First of all, it was the port where the Dajinsha River entered the sea, and the downstream delta river was complicated, and the Dutch could not find out the depth of the channel, so large warships did not dare to enter the estuary rashly. And when the boat came in, the forts in Hindu were not vegetarian.

Zhang Yukun is more worried about the Coconut City Fort, the original four forts built by the Dutch, although there are 64-pound cannons and 32-pounder cannons and other heavy guns, but the number of these heavy guns is not much, long-distance shooting, the accuracy of these heavy guns is not high. If the Dutch fleet were to force a breakthrough into the harbor, it would not be able to stop the Dutch fleet with a large number of battleships by relying on these four batteries alone.

In order to block the Dutch from entering the port area of Coconut City, it is necessary to rearrange the forts and the harbor mouth.

The entrance to the Coconut City Harbor is relatively open, which is not very conducive to defense, and it is difficult for the four batteries to completely seal off the port. Therefore, the first thing Zhang Yukun had to do was to arrange the channel in the port area.

Some of the channels that are relatively shallow, but can be entered and exited by large ships, send people to lay underwater hidden piles. On the main channel, a large number of mines were laid.

At the earliest, the mines used in the Wanli period were wooden shell mines, and Zheng Chenggong later created ceramic mines. Now Wang Xinyu is using an improved ceramic mine.

The ceramic shell mine is also a kind of mine that uses a steel wheel flint fuse, this kind of mine is sealed with paraffin wax to prevent water, and five holes are cut in the mine shell, and copper pipes are inserted into the holes. Iron antennae are installed inside the copper pipe, protruding from the outside of the mine. This tentacle is actually a kind of fuse used for impact. When an enemy ship hits its antennae, the tentacles are compressed, causing the steel wheel inside the mine to rotate, and the flint ignites, igniting the primer, causing the gunpowder to explode.

Each of these mines, which are specially designed to deal with large ships, weighs more than 200 kilograms, and looks like a large water tank with a small mouth, and is filled with more than 100 kilograms of black [gunpowder], and as long as a mine explodes, it can explode a large hole with a diameter of five meters in the bottom of the ship, and the power of such an explosion is enough to blow up and sink seven provincial battleships.

Mines have iron rings at the bottom, and iron chains are attached to them, which are fixed to the bottom of the sea, so that the mines can be prevented from being washed away by the seawater.

The Flying Shear Clipper Sailboat brought more than 100 new mines from the Dongfan Gun Factory, and after the mines arrived, the Ming sailors drove the mine-laying boats to lay mines on the periphery of the Coconut City Harbor.

The water depth of the main channel of Coconut City Port is relatively deep, and it can reach a depth of 15 meters at high tide. If you simply drop the mine and drop the anchor chain, the anchor chain may become unstable under the water, causing the mine to be carried away by the current. In order to ensure the reliability of mine-laying, the Ming army laid mine-laying at low tide. The mine-laying sailors, the best sailors in the water, strapped to ropes, slid down from small boats and dive down a thick log.

The people in the small boat pushed the mine into the water, because the anchor chain at the bottom of the mine was heavy, and the tank, which could have floated on the surface of the sea, was carried into the water by the anchor chain.

The Ming sailors who dived under the water had a bamboo pipe for ventilation in their mouths and dived under the water to lay wooden stakes. Then, while fixing the mine anchor chain to the bottom of the sea, an iron chain was pulled out and the anchor chain was tied to a wooden stake.

At the same time as laying out the mines, in some secondary channels where the water is relatively shallow, the Ming sailors dived under the water and laid the underwater piles.

Although mines and underwater piles could not completely stop the Dutch fleet from entering the port of Coconut City, the placement of mines and underwater piles on the channel, coupled with the blockade of the shore batteries, could completely stop the Dutch fleet. For if the Dutch wanted to clear the mines, or send men to destroy the underwater piles, their fleet would have to stop in front of the minefield, and then fall into the range of the battery's fire.

If the Dutch ships had not come in and had used small boats to clear mines, the new small cannons that had just been placed on the batteries would have been able to destroy the boats with precision.

The new small cannon is four three-pounder front-loading hexagonal rifled guns produced at the request of Wang Xinyu, and these four guns have just been completed and produced from the Dongfan Gun Factory. They were originally intended for the army, and when they were intended to attack fortified cities such as Guangzhou, they were specially used to suppress the Qing army's batteries. However, Zhang Yukun temporarily borrowed these four cannons and placed them on top of the fort to deal with the Dutch boats.

The solid shells fired by the three-pounder rifled guns were much more powerful than the three-pounder smoothbore guns, and they had a long range and very high accuracy, and they could sink a ship with a single shot against the small boats used by the Dutch to remove obstacles.

The small three-pounder front-loading hexagonal rifled gun was simply temporarily placed on the turret and did not need to be fixed separately. After these small cannons were transported to the Coconut City Fort, they were unloaded on the dock and pulled directly to the fort, and they were erected without removing the gun wheels. After it was used up, it was loaded onto a ship and sent to Fujian for use by Wang Xinyu's army.

Of course, this kind of small cannon could not sink the large warships of the Dutch, like the large hexagonal guns of the Singapore battery or the large hexagonal guns of the Ming army's fast warships, and the price was too expensive to build more. In order to strengthen the firepower of the battery, Zhang Yukun purchased eighteen sixty-four-pounder battery guns from the Portuguese and Spaniards.

The Portuguese and Spaniards loaded more than 12,000 pounds of cannons onto ships and sent them to Coconut City. These cannons were originally the cannons of the Manila Fort and the cannons of the Macau Fort, and the Portuguese and Spaniards did not need to make additional cannons, they reported the ready-made cannons, announced their scrapping, and then sold them to Wang Xinyu.

With these eighteen sixty-four-pounder cannons, plus the original sixteen sixty-four-pounder cannons on top of the battery, plus the thirty-two-pounder guns and countless small cannons, the Dutch fleet would inevitably be overwhelmed by the powerful battery cannons if it entered the harbor of Coconut City.

All the battleships of the Dutch must have had more firepower than the batteries combined, but the battery guns had a long range, and the batteries would not be sunk, and the battleships would have been sunk if they had to be shelled with an additional sixty-four-pounder cannon.

In order to prevent the Dutch from landing behind the fort and using the army to attack the fort, Zhang Yukun placed a large number of tiger squat guns and Franc machine guns that the Ming army had originally eliminated behind the fort, and built a lot of iron-core cement bunkers behind the fort, and these old-style guns were placed in the castle to deal with the Dutch infantry.

If the Dutch artillery landed and took advantage of the long range of the new artillery over the old artillery to launch an artillery bombardment of the pillbox, Zhang Yukun did not have to worry, because there was a mobile three-pounder front-loading hexagonal rifled gun on each battery, and the new gun could be moved at any time. Once the Dutch artillery is found to have landed and attempts to bombard the battery with artillery from behind, then the hexagonal rifled guns can be pulled over and shelled the Dutch artillery from a distance.

Although there were few hexagonal guns, they were so accurate that they could destroy one of the Dutch guns with a single shell. With this new type of artillery, coupled with the cooperation of a large number of old guns and pillboxes, it was difficult for the Dutch to capture the battery.

Zhang Yukun was preparing for battle in Coconut City Port, ready to meet the Dutch fleet. At the same time, the special forces of the Marine Corps of Hood were preparing to meet the enemy.

East of the Strait of Malacca, over the Indian Ocean.

Most of the time in the Indian Ocean is sunny and sunny. The sky in the Indian Ocean is very blue and as mesmerizing as a sapphire. The sea is also blue, with a hint of transparent blue. On the sea, there is not much wind and waves.

A white catamaran schointer splits the waves and gallops across the sea.

After Tang Wei's catamaran went to Batavia to report the news, it rested for a few days in Batavia, which was renamed Coconut City, and sailed out of the Strait of Malacca again into the Indian Ocean, cruising back and forth on the route from the west to the east, keeping a close eye on the route and keeping a close eye on the news of the Dutch fleet.

"Look at the time, it's almost time, and the red-haired ghost's fleet should also arrive in this sea area!" Tang Wei picked up the binoculars, looked at the sea in front of him, and muttered to himself.

In the past few days, there have been many ships on this route, but they are all merchant ships of other countries, and Tang Wei's reconnaissance ships have not yet waited for the Dutch fleet.

In the telescope, a small black dot suddenly appeared on the line between the sea and the sky to the west.

Tang Wei didn't dare to slack off, and ordered: "Sail at medium speed, sail west, and see clearly!" ”

The catamaran sailed westward, the black dots on the sea and sky line in the distance gradually increased, and a huge fleet appeared in Tang Wei's telescope.

"It's coming!" After waiting for so many days, finally seeing the Dutch fleet, Tang Wei couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart.

The catamaran approached the Dutch as if it were a provocation, circled outside the range of the Dutch's naval guns, and after a circle, the catamaran quickly turned and left.

"It's that nasty clipper again! It's as nasty as a rat! It's just a pity that we can't catch up with it at all! If you can catch up, you must take it down and take a closer look! De Knight said angrily as he looked through his binoculars at the rapidly disappearing catamaran clipper.

"It's very annoying! It was a reconnaissance ship of the Ming Kingdom, but we couldn't catch up with it. Trop shrugged his shoulders helplessly and spread his hands.

De Knight said: "But the ship can only reconnoitre, and its own firepower is very weak. It is estimated that this kind of ship is expensive to build, and there are not many people in the Ming Kingdom. Last time we ran into this boat. ”

Tang Wei's catamaran sailed quickly to Sumatra, and after entering the Strait of Malacca, the catamaran spotted several canoes coming out of the small bay on the shore in front of them, and there were people on the canoes who signaled the flag.

"It's our own people's boat, and we're on it." Tang Wei gave the order.

The catamaran approached the canoe and slowly slowed down. As the two sides approached, Hu Dedi, disguised as a local native, stood up and greeted the catamaran.

"It's you!" Tang Wei said.

Emperor Hu Dedi asked, "We were ordered to wait here, is the fleet of red-haired ghosts almost here?" ”

Tang Wei replied: "It is estimated that it will be seven days away!" We're going to the Lion City to report the news. ”

"Get over as soon as you can! Go and come back quickly! We have to wait for you to come back and give us eyes and ears. Hood Emperor said.

Men of the Marine Corps special forces disguised themselves as local natives and drove canoes, and their weapons were mines. The speed of the canoes was too slow, and they had to attack the Dutch fleet, so they had to wait for the Dutch to rest at night, and then look for an opportunity to attack. Because the canoe was slow, the Marines needed a catamaran to scout themselves and find out where the Dutch would be landing at night.

After saying goodbye to the Marines, Tang Wei's catamaran sailed to Singapore.

When the Nanyang naval fleet stationed in the Lion City heard the news of the arrival of the Dutch fleet, they immediately pulled anchor and set sail. Two fast battleships, armed with hexagonal guns, went ahead and went in search of the Dutch. These two hexagonal fast ships will continue to harass the Dutch fleet after encountering the Dutch fleet. The other warships, in fact, were decoys to attract the Dutch fleet. It was the sneak attack of the Marines that really came into play.

The Hexagonal Clipper was a clipper boat with oars and a speed of 14 knots when using only sails, which was quite fast for those days. (To be continued.) )