The Yangon River, which is similar to the Pearl River in Guangzhou, is one of the many estuaries in the lower reaches of the Irrawaddy Delta, and it is not the largest and most important outlet to the sea, but because the Portuguese came to develop it in the 16th century, and the British established the Burmese branch of the East India Company here in 1621, which made it a famous port.

The boat docked at the Salian Wharf, and Wang Xinyu got off the boat. Led by the British, he went to the Burma branch of the British East India Company and met with Maas, who was the governor of the Burmese branch. Sir Roy.

Maas? Roy had just known that the Ming army had defeated the Dutch, and when he heard the report from his subordinates, he was taken aback, and hurriedly walked out of the office building to greet the guests from the east.

When Wang Xinyu walked to the gate of the Burmese branch of the East India Company, he saw a tall man with a mustache, dressed in a silk and wool mixture, wearing a wide belt inlaid with precious stones, with a sword hanging from his waist, and the scabbard was also inlaid with precious stones.

"Hello! Guests from the East! I'm Maas? Sir Roy. "The British held out their hand.

Wang Xinyu stretched out his hand to shake hands with Sir Roy and replied in English: "Dear Sir Sir, my name is Wang Yu, and I am very happy to meet a distinguished English nobleman here. ”

Albert hurriedly interjected: "This is our boss, he is the admiral of the Ming Dynasty, and he is the marquis. ”

"It turns out that he is also a nobleman!" Roy smiled.

"It's been awarded, and now I don't have a knighthood, not even a baron, and I'm just a captain." Although King Yanping had submitted to Yongli the proposal to promote Wang Xinyu to the marquis, Yongli had not yet recovered, and there was such a thing as the difficulty of cursing water. At present, Wang Xinyu is only a lieutenant who is not even as good as a baron.

"Our boss, the Marquis, is an ironclad thing." Albert explained.

Walk into the Myanmar branch and sit down as the guest of honor.

"Respect General Wang, you have defeated the hated Dutch people who are rampaging through the East and controlling the Strait of Malacca, which is really admirable! This Strait of Malacca. We've wanted to get through for a long time, but we haven't had a chance! Roy exclaimed.

Wang Xinyu was not complacent because of the Englishman's sycophancy, but replied very calmly: "Dear Sir Roy, my defeat of the Dutch was just a fluke, it was purely because they were too careless!" They only thought that they were rampaging through the Strait of Malacca and invincible in the South Sea, but they were attacked by us. And we are not strong enough to annihilate all their fleets, let alone land in Batavia, so we can only sign an agreement with them. Let's go in and out of the Straits of Malacca freely. ”

In fact, Wang Xinyu returned some of the ships to the Dutch, which was also considered from a long-term perspective, because if the strength of the Dutch was weakened too much, it would only allow other Westerners to intervene in the Strait of Malacca too early, especially the powerful Britain. And returning part of the ships to the Dutch is also using the Dutch to contain the British.

Roy asked, "Honorable Oriental guest, are you here to do business with us?" If I'm not mistaken. You're our regular customer, Mr. Albert. It's your staff, who has dealt with us many times, and you have provided us with a lot of goods and bought a lot of things from us. ”

Wang Xinyu replied solemnly: "Dear Mr. Roy, I am here this time not only to do business. And to crusade against the Burmese government that is not in the right position, openly betrays the contract, and attacks the suzerain! ”

"Oh my God! How dare they attack the suzerain? This is simply an unforgivable sin! Roy exclaimed angrily.

"That's right, so we want to go in from the Irrawaddy River and swim upstream. Punish these traitors who betrayed us and save our Emperor! ”

Roy walked up to the map: "Honorable Oriental nobleman, please follow me to see this map." ”

Wang Xinyu also stood up and walked to the map.

Roy gestured to the map with a stick and said, "Look here, the Yangon River is not the main estuary of the Irrawaddy River, the real main estuary is on the western coastline. In addition, about 20 kilometers to the west, we have a relatively large estuary to the sea. ”

Wang Xinyu glanced at the map and found that the situation at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River is a bit like the Pearl River, the downstream delta is very complicated, and the widest estuary is not the main river estuary.

"Can we get in from here, swim against the current?" Wang Xinyu asked, pointing to the estuary on the west side of the Yangon River.

"Yes!" Roy nodded, "From here, you can go up into the main river." ”

Wang Xinyu looked at the location of the delta and felt that he should build a granary on the island at the mouth of the river. Building a granary on the island can prevent the opponent's sneak attack and effectively prevent the opponent from burning his own grain. It's just that there is a disadvantage on the river bank, that is, it is afraid of floods, so it is necessary to raise the embankment.

"Mr. Wang?" Seeing Wang Xinyu bow his head and ponder, Roy asked.

Wang Xinyu came back to his senses and hurriedly replied, "I'm thinking about where to build a supply base. ”

Roy smiled and said, "Just store your supplies and we are the safest here, and we only need to charge a little warehouse rent." ”

What a greedy guy! Wang Xinyu thought to himself. He then pointed to the map and said, "It is safe for you to put it here, but we have to enter the river mouth from here, and the grain is stored on your side, and it is not convenient for us to turn around." So I'm still going to put the grain on the island of Ekou. But we'll hire your guys to help, and we'll negotiate the mercenary money. ”

Anyway, there was money to be made, and Roy didn't say much. But he remembered one more thing: "By the way, there is another thing, this Burma is said to be full of gold. We'd love to help you fight against the Emperor of the Overlord! In fact, there is another sentence that Roy did not say: he also wanted to get a little benefit from it.

At that time, the main force of the British was still in Europe, and other countries were fighting. The main force in Asia is on the Indian subcontinent, and there is no time to pay attention to Myanmar. The strength of the Taungoo Dynasty in Burma was relatively strong, not only drove out the Portuguese who penetrated deep into the interior of Burma, but the British were defeated several times when they tried to penetrate into Burma. It was not until later that Burma fought Siam to the death, and as a result, both were defeated, and the British took advantage of it.

Wang Xinyu knew that the British wanted to get a little benefit from it, but he only hated that his knowledge of history was too poor. If you had a better knowledge of history, you would have known that the British and Portuguese shared the port of Salem at this time, so they would have tried to seek the support of the British a long time ago. At this point, Wang Xinyu could only say to Roy: "We have signed an agreement with the Portuguese, and it was signed by our company." If you need it, talk to the Portuguese. ”

Who knew that Roy smiled generously: "This is no problem at all!" We still have a good relationship with the Portuguese! If there is a benefit, everyone should fish together, and you can't swallow it alone like the Dutch people, Mr. Wang, you say yes! ”

Wang Xinyu responded, thinking to himself: At this time, it is a bit like the great powers in the late Qing Dynasty were carving up China, and several robbers agreed to carve up Burma! However, it is good to bring in the Portuguese, if the British want to annex Burma alone in the future, not only will they have to pass this pass, but the Portuguese will also be on their side.

The British then bargained with the Portuguese, and after some heated arguments, the Portuguese finally agreed to give up a little of their share to the British. After all, the Portuguese were weak, so they had to give some of the profits to the British.

After a brief respite in Salem and fresh water, the fleet continued westward towards the mouth of the main channel of the Irrawaddy River. This time there were more than a hundred small British boats in the fleet, the boatmen were Indians hired by the British, and two hundred more British mercenaries.

The flotilla flying the Ming flag entered the delta at the mouth of the main channel of the Irrawaddy River and docked near an island at the mouth of the river. Further up, you will enter the Irrawaddy River, the Ming army is not familiar with the upstream channel, the big ships do not dare to enter, so they have to stop at the mouth of the river.

Small boats rowed over and landed on the island.

The island is overgrown and desolate, and no one lives here, except for the countless seabirds that are its inhabitants. The island is surrounded by water, and the surrounding river is wide, and there are undercurrents surging under the water, making it difficult to get to the island without boats. It was the best food hoarding point for the Ming army, and it was not easy to be attacked by the Burmese army.

The Ming army went ashore and immediately began to eradicate weeds. A few small boats rowed upstream, shoveled sand from the river, filled it into sacks, and carried it back to the island to fill the embankment.

Many auxiliaries rocked small boats to dig up the mud and sand on the shore of the island, digging out the deep berths, and at the same time sending the dug up sediment to the island as earthwork for the construction of and earthen cities. Some Ming soldiers were busy on the island, and after cutting off the weeds, they began to fill the ground with mud, build earthen cities, and lay down wooden fences.

The seabirds that live here for many years have been driven away, the eggs have become a delicacy of the Ming army, and the sea ducks have become barbecues. Fortunately, it is summer, and most of the migratory birds spend the summer in the north, otherwise more birds will suffer.

By September 5, the river embankment and the earth city had been built, and the originally uninhabited island had become the granary of the Ming army. The grain unloaded from the big ship was sent to the island for storage. When the army sails upstream, the grain will be transported upstream in small boats.

On September 6, King Qin's army set out from the grain hoarding point and sailed upstream along the Irrawaddy River in small boats.

A total of 734 small ships, of which more than 600 were transport ships and more than 100 warships. This kind of small inland river warship is no more than eight zhang long, it is a sail and oars shared boat, the first one has a four-pounder cannon, there are a number of bowls on both sides, it carries 30 officers and men of the naval division, and there are weapons such as rockets and national bottles on board. (To be continued.) )