Chapter 530: Unwilling to fail

After staying in Jinan for three days, Chen Xie went east to Dengzhou to inspect the sailors, and by the way, he took the North Korean girls with him and went south by boat. The women on the Jinan side, escorted by 500 cavalry, took the canal back to Nanjing.

The Dengzhou Navy Division is declared to the outside world, and it is called the Navy in private. At first glance, the name "Sailor" feels that the pattern is too small, and the sea is the future. In this regard, Chen Xie has repeatedly emphasized that our future is above the ocean.

The foreign devil of Xilaojing seems to be a standard soldier, and his method of slapping sycophants is also very clever. The formation of five third-class warships and ten fourth-class warships headed south, the sea breeze blowing the sails, and the battleships maintained a speed of eight knots on the sea.

Slow is a little slower, but this trip is not a simple voyage, but also a drill of naval tactics and so on. The combat effectiveness of the Dengzhou Navy was tempered no small in the battle for the blockade of Batavia. Repeatedly study the teaching materials provided by Chen Xie and sum up the experience of naval operations. These things have to be accumulated over time, and the Navy does not say that there are any.

The battle flag was hoisted on Chen Xie's flagship, and the fleet under the command of Xilao Jing immediately changed into a formation of five warships, and took turns bombarding the imaginary enemy with the cannons on the side of the city. These shots are without projectiles, that is, the rate of fire is repeatedly trained, and live firing is still a little expensive. Soon all the battleships formed a column again, maximizing the power of the side guns.

White sails lit up, cannons rumbled, gunsmoke filled the air, and the quiet sea was broken by the noise created by the fierce artillery fire. Communicate the guò flag, convey instructions, and direct the orderly operation of the warship. "Do not hesitate to fight together to ensure the formation of the column." The flags on the sea gave such an order, which was abandoned after assuming a strong opponent and a damaged battleship. so as not to spoil the formation. The fleet tried hard to gain the upper hand, bombarded the enemy ships with heavy artillery fire, and finally routed the enemy fleet, and our side took advantage of the victory to pursue.

The exercise lasted for more than four hours, and Chen Xie had been observing, but in fact, he didn't understand this. But you can see it. Whether the actions of the fleet are unified or not, some of the basic elements of the sailors can be seen.

By the end of the exercise, it was already dark. The fleet continued southward to test the fleet's command ability during night voyages. Similar drills continued all the way, and when they arrived at Huating, a clipper boat appeared on the sea, driving at high speed to chop the waves. Approaching the flagship, there was a cheer from the flying clipper. The sailors lined up on one side of the ship to salute, and in a few moments they quickly headed south.

The fleet docked at the military port on Chongming Island, and during Chen Xie's time, it sailed into the Yangtze River, and after approaching the new area, it changed boats and went ashore. The officials on the shore have been waiting here for a long time, Ruan Dacheng, the prefect of Songjiang, Yang Longyou, the magistrate of Huating, Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of Nanjing, and others are all there.

After some greetings, he got into Chen Xie's carriage. All four were in the car, and look at the joy on their faces. I know that I have been doing well lately. Chen Xie asked Han Zanzhou playfully: "Father-in-law Han, the joy on your face seems to be a good thing." ”

Han Zanzhou said with a smile: "The cabinet department has a good eye, in the first month of this year, the income of the Ship Division exceeded 100,000 silver yuan, so that it can earn millions of silver yuan in the next year." 陛xià over there. I, the minion, also have an explanation. "The shipping department collects tariffs, which is to sit on the ground and enter the account, although it also has to raise some people, but it can't stand Huating Since the opening of the sea, the business has become more and more prosperous day by day. Now it has surpassed the Yuegang in Fujian. It has become the largest port for foreign trade. Speaking of which, this is still due to the Yangtze River waterway, without this golden waterway, the competitiveness may not be comparable with Fujian.

"Now that Huating has opened the sea, Liangguang is also clamoring to open the sea, and the imperial court has not yet reached a conclusion. But I see, this is the general trend, and the foreign trade interests of the Ming Dynasty are too great to resist. "It was Ruan Dacheng who spoke, he is living a very nourishing life now, relying on saving Chen Xie's thighs and becoming the prefect of Songjiang Mansion. At present, the silk in Hangzhou has to go from this side. This is the advantage of opening the sea, any ship that does not have a certificate of payment of customs duties, encountering the navy's patrol fleet at sea, will end badly. The key is that these patrol fleets are all flying clippers, and the speed is amazing, and the average Daming sea ship can't run away once it is discovered. A good life has passed, and Ruan Dacheng hopes to live longer, so he has to set Chen Xie's tone.

Because of the opening of the sea, the industrial and commercial development of Songjiang Prefecture was rapid, and the emergence of the steam engine brought a strong impetus to the development of industry and commerce. Now in the entire Songjiang Mansion, the best business is nothing else, it is the steam engine of the Dengzhou United Company. The advantages of this thing are obvious, and the disadvantages are also obvious, but it is too noisy. However, in this era, having a steam engine is already a very advanced thing, and who cares about making trouble. What Chen Xie valued most in Songjiang Mansion was not the science and technology tree, but the development of industry and commerce, the birth of the first batch of black-hearted capitalists and industrial workers. You must know that the main force of these industrial workers is not men, but women.

The development model led by the textile industry has been walked by the British in history, but Chen Xie just took this road in advance, leaving the British with no way out. Once a huge benefit is gained from industrial production, technological development in this area will be promoted. This is an inevitable development process, and the era of the so-called kitsch and lewd skills has ceased to exist under the impetus of Chen Xie, at least in Jiangnan, where there is no market for this statement.

"The matter of opening the sea, the court has its own conclusion, and it is not good for us to guess randomly." Chen Xie's words, Ruan Dacheng was honest.

Yang Longyou, who had been sitting very steadily, took over at this time and said: "Cabinet, the negotiations of the Dutch have been deadlocked, they were very anxious at the beginning, and they don't seem to be in a hurry recently. The man named Yuichi went back. When Chen Xie heard this, he frowned slightly, raised his hand to stop the carriage, opened the door and said: "Go and tell the Dutch about the Xilaojing, the attitude of the Dutch at the negotiation table has suddenly changed, and I judge that they are unwilling to fail and plan to play tricks." Let him immediately prepare for battle and strengthen patrols at sea. ”

Just as Chen Xie was ordering, a fleet from India was passing through the Strait of Malacca. There were thirty Dutch merchant ships, all the sea power that the East India Company could muster. The Dutch really refused to give up, feeling that it would be too much to negotiate like this and accept the conditions of the Ming Dynasty, so it was better to concentrate on fighting and negotiate after winning the battle. After all, it is different now than before, in the past, the big man was in the hands of the Dutch, and the initiative in foreign trade was in the hands of the Dutch. The Ming trade was mainly in the offshore seas, as well as shipping routes to Japan. And now, the Ming fleet directly travels to Batavia on a regular basis.

In the Governor's Palace of Batavia, under the parasol in the courtyard, he sat opposite Governor John, frowned, and said, "Your Excellency, the East India Company, did you not take our intelligence seriously?" The strength of the Ming Navy far exceeds the strength of our forces in India and even Java. This is a battle that must be lost, how can such a decision be made? ”

With a solemn face, John put down the letter in his hand and said, "I don't know, I think my letter to India has made it very clear. The strength of the Ming navy is very strong, and their warships are specially used for battle, there are about sixty to eighty of them, and each battleship is equipped with more than sixty guns, and the firing range is far greater than our cannons. ”

"This unsuccessful adventure must be stopped, and once the Dutch maritime power in India and the South Seas is defeated, we may well lose the whole world." Negotiation, that's the only way to solve the problem. During the Ming Dynasty, I saw at least thirty of their huge warships, each with between sixty and eighty guns. They also have light warships that are extremely fast, and it will be difficult for our warships to escape their detection. ”

"I'd love to stop it too, but you know my permission. I had to wait until the fleet arrived, and I had a good talk with Commander Knight, hoping to convince him to avoid a catastrophe. John still expressed his opinion very rationally, which made Yuyi feel a little relieved. At the same time, I was also thinking about how to convince General Knight. This General Knight is a cutting-edge general from China, and it is said that he has a good way of fighting. If it is too strong, it can have immeasurable consequences for the maritime trade of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

A week later, the fleet arrived in Batavia as scheduled, and the cheering crowd on the docks was like crazy. Only the soldiers standing on the top of the church saw a swift white shadow on the sea. "Damn, it's the clipper of the Ming people, I'm going to do my best to report."

Admiral Knight, who boarded the docks, looked in high spirits, and there was no doubt that this was a formidable fleet. There were a total of thirty warships, and in his opinion, it was enough to teach those arrogant Ming people a lesson. Governor John and Kuichi, who came to greet him, both had solemn expressions on their faces, which made Knight's heart very uncomfortable. But instead of showing his face, he stepped forward with a smile.

"Your Excellency the Governor, I think I have brought you the most anticipated reinforcements." Knight stepped forward to speak, John smiled very reluctantly, and said when shaking hands: "Your Excellency, I think you must have not read the information I sent to the Indian side, the strength of the Ming Navy is far stronger than ours." Don't say that the combined strength of the entire East Indies is inferior to theirs, and even the combined maritime strength of the entire Dutch Kingdom may not be as strong as the navy of the Ming Dynasty. ”

This is very strict, Knight was obviously stunned, and finally showed a strict expression and said, "Is it really so?" Looking at his expression, Governor John was a lot relieved, this was not a stunned young man, nodded and said, "It's true." This time it was Knight's turn to face grim, looking at the warships on the sea and said: "There is a news that you may not know, at the moment in Europe, the relationship between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the British is very tense, and there is a fear that a war between the two countries will break out in the country. In order to ensure the interests of our trade, this voyage of mine was born. ”

"I'm not willing to fail, but Your Excellency, accept the reality." Interjected, but Knight shrugged his shoulders and said, "I still have to see it with my own eyes before I am willing, which may be related to the formulation of the kingdom's maritime strategy." (To be continued......)