Rhodes grabbed a handful of white sand from the beach and let it slip through the cracks between his fingers. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Looking in the direction where the sand drifted, Rhodes muttered softly, "North wind." ”

Behind him, the small boats that carried the soldiers back and forth from the ships to the beach, and in the distance ten warships lined up in a line, and he could see Claire sitting on the deck with the sea breeze blowing.

Since the Battle of Qiantang, Claire has been haunted by the news of the King of Chu, so after repairing and replenishing the ammunition, they set out for Dengzhou, ready to explore the truth of this other vassal king of the Great Yu Kingdom.

It's not that Claire is sensitive, it's that they need to know the real situation of the countries surrounding this sea today.

In fact, their warships had arrived eighty years earlier and had established a colony on what is now the island of Ryukyu, but the Dutch were fighting the British for supremacy at sea, and after six major battles over the course of thirty years, they were ultimately defeated by the British.

At that time, the Dutch were at their weakest, and they were defeated by the pirates of this sea before they could gain a foothold, but they never forgot this rich land, and after more than ten years of recuperation, they returned here to retake the Ryukyu Island, and ruled for forty years.

Still, as in previous accounts, the largest country in East Asia was not worth mentioning, and he remembers that the first missions to try to establish diplomatic relations with the country described it this way:

The gifts of our governor became tribute in the Great Yu Kingdom, and they were openly appropriated in Canton by the local officials, who lied about our arrival here, tore up our letters to the Emperor of the Great Chongqing Kingdom, and finally drove us out of the country in order to cover up the misappropriation of tribute.

The Great Chongqing is a mysterious country for us, but behind the veil of mystery is a weak and depraved country.

The officials here are covered with corruption, and a class equivalent to the European aristocracy rules here, but unlike the European aristocracy, the class called the "scholar gatekeeper" here only cares about their own interests, ignoring their own behavior will bring huge Shanghai and hidden dangers to their own country.

The ignorance and arrogance of the officials here, the corruption of the people, the dissatisfaction of the common people, the cowardice and incompetence of the natives we conquered, the bravery of the Wa and the Filipinos, and the fact that the country trembles in the face of the barbarian tribes of the north, and which does not have a trace of the noble spirit of our Europeans to fight against the enemy, is enough to support my opinion.

At the same time, the emperors and officials of this country were not nationalists, and they were always incredibly generous to foreigners, while being intolerably cruel and cruel to their own people.

Great King, if you are willing to send troops, just as we did to conquer the natives of the Americas, we will surely defeat this country and turn it into our colony.

Recalling this account, Rhodes raised his eyebrows, and at least in the south, he found that there was not a trace of exaggeration in the description of the mission, even glorifying the country.

The king of Chu they came into contact with was such a king, although Chu was very rich, but the wealth was in the hands of the scholar lords, and the people were still living very poor.

However, just when they thought that the entire Great Yu Kingdom was like this, the words of the King of Chu aroused their doubts.

Because in this backward and ignorant country, there was a flintlock pistol, and after the defeat, the king of Chu even said that this king of Qi also made a hot air balloon.

This made them very surprised and frightened, although the hot air balloon has been eliminated in Europe, but they are still shocked that there will be a hot air balloon in this place.

Because it means that a civilization that is different from the rest of the Great Chongqing Kingdom is rising here.

And this is where their fear comes from, being able to create arquebuses, and with the population of this country, they can easily defeat them.

After all, it was already difficult for them to maintain a military presence in East Asia, and they simply could not support a large-scale war.

It is for this reason that they are ready to go to Dengzhou, or even Qingzhou, and once they find out the details of this King of Qi, they will decide whether to establish trade relations with the King of Qi or nip this threat in the bud.

After all, the Dutch had already lost too many colonies, and they didn't want to lose the sea again.

"Dengzhou City is twenty miles ahead."

Just as Rhodes was stunned, a Japanese man walked up to him and pointed ahead and said.

Rhodes glanced at this Wakoku man, his name was Sakai, he was the Wako of this sea, and since they established a trading post in Nagasaki, the island of Kyushu in Wakoku, they had been trading with Wakoku for more than 30 years, and they had a solid relationship in Wakoku.

These pirates may seem to outsiders to be pirates, but they know in their hearts that they are nothing more than soldiers sent by the daimyo of the Wakoku to plunder wealth.

Under their indoctrination, the Wa people mastered the production of arquebuses earlier than the Great Yu State, and over the years, as the Wa used arquebuses to arm their armies, the ambitions of the Wa Kingdom gradually expanded.

However, for the Dutch, the Wa Kingdom was still respectful, which made them less worried about the Japanese State becoming stronger.

And the expansion of the Wa Kingdom is not without benefits to them, at least they can sell more goods to the Wa State.

"Mr. Sakai, please lead the way, after all, we don't know much about this place." Rod said.

Sakai nodded, his eyes swept over the bayonet-mounted flintlock pistols of the Dutch soldiers, and then he looked at the six-pounder field gun, which was being carried ashore, mounted between two wheels, and easily transported.

Turning his head, these weapons exuding a dangerous aura hid a hint of greed in his eyes, and he said, "Well, Mr. Rhodes, as you wish, our army will go ahead. ”

With that, Sakai began to gather three thousand soldiers and set off in a neat column towards Dengshu Castle.

Each of these Japanese soldiers carried arquebuses on their backs and bags of ammunition around their waists, which were the methods given to them by the Dutch.

After the Japanese army, Rhodes commanded the Dutch soldiers ashore, a thousand infantry with guns behind the Japanese people, and behind the infantry the artillery was tethering six field guns behind the horses.

Closely following the infantry, the artillery also wanted to advance on the city of Dengzhou.

The distance of twenty miles was not very far, and two hours later, they saw the city of Dayu Kingdom, which was wrapped in the city wall.

At this time, Rhodes picked up the binoculars and looked at the soldiers on guard at the head of the city, and suddenly laughed, "Is this plate armor?" It's kind of interesting. (To be continued.) )