Chapter 206: The Dutch Decisive Battle (I)
Since the fifth year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty has been staggering in the war and ice disasters in the heart of the Central Plains. When the news came that several cities in Shaanxi, Henan, and Nanzhili were captured by bandits, it was the sixth year of Chongzhen.
Unfortunately, there is no meaning of six sixes of good luck now. The Ming Dynasty is still in turmoil, and it is even getting worse.
"Now the Dutch have taken my Yilan without a word. Isn't this going to kill me!"
This house is located in Jian'an North, Xiamen Town, Fujian. The original Zheng family mansion was burned down by a fire in Keelung Army, so Zheng Zhilong spent another three months to build a new Zheng family mansion.
Compared with the previous one, the new mansion covers an area of 50 acres, with gardens, streams, and rockery, majestic and elegant.
As Zheng Zhilong's military stronghold and maritime trade base in Fujian, this place can be said to be a golden city and iron pool. Apart from other things, the cargo ships and gunboats under his command could directly enter the house. This alone was enough to make people amazed!
In the Zhiyuan Garden, which was surrounded by walls, sparsely dotted with hills, pavilions, fine houses, ponds, small bridges, winding paths, and full of fine trees, exotic flowers and plants, Zheng Zhilong, who was still angry, pointed at Yilan garrison commander Chai Guiying who was kneeling on the water-ground square brick floor and cursed.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Dutch in Yilan, led by the Dutch commander-in-chief Joseph, marched overnight and sailed hundreds of miles to Chai Guiying's Yunlin Port, and captured the base and command center that Zheng Zhilong had started to operate and cultivate Yilan in the era of Li Dan and Yan Siqi. Tens of thousands of Zhangzhou settlers and their fields and wealth became the spoils of the Dutch East India Company.
In the end, Chai Guiying fled back to Xiamen by boat overnight and brought back the news.
"Why don't you just die? I gave you Yilan, so many Zhangzhou and Quanzhou fellows, and those ironwares, but you lost them all overnight! I spent hundreds of thousands of silver and humbly gave them to others to get them! You just lost them like that!" Zheng Zhilong couldn't contain his anger when he thought of losing Yilan for the second time.
Qin Hao conquered Yilan, at least the people of Yilan would not be in any danger; but if the Dutch got it, what would they do? It's hard to say.
"Brother, there are also the raw silk we hoarded in Yilan, 85,000 bundles, worth more than 300,000 taels of silver, which are all cheap for the Dutch!" Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Zhihu's words were like pouring a bucket of hot oil on Zheng Zhilong's anger, making Lao Zheng's anger even more uncontrollable!
"Tell me quickly! How did those Dutch guys come here!?" Zheng Zhilong kicked Chai Guiying to the ground.
Without wiping the blood off his face, Chai Guiying knelt on the ground, "Marshal, that day was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and I wanted to reward my brothers with wine and meat, but I didn't know that my brothers were drunk. When the brothers on duty found out, the Dutch devils had already pounced on them. They didn't have time to fire their cannons, and they were chased down by these Dutch devils!"
"You are a useless thing! Trash!" Zheng Zhilong drew the sword from his waist and was about to kill Chai Guiying, but was held tightly by Zheng Zhifeng.
"Brother! Calm down! Now is not the time to pursue responsibility. Now is the time to use people. For the time being, spare his life. If he doesn't have great military achievements in the future, it won't be too late to kill him!"
"Second brother, what do you think is going to happen next?" Zheng Zhilong forced himself to calm down, and carefully thought about how to deal with the war in Yilan.
"We should find a way to gather troops and recapture Yilan! Yilan is too important to us right now. If we can't take it back, it will be difficult to raise military rations this year!"
According to the immigration agreement with Qin Hao that day, half of the rent of Yilan's grain harvest belongs to the Zheng family as military rations for the Zheng family's army, and the remaining half belongs to Keelung.
Keelung uses this half of the grain to exchange for two-thirds of the Zheng family's immigrants, and at the same time subsidizes some land in the Tenth State.
But now that the Dutch ghost has messed up everything, Zheng Zhilong is having a headache. I'm afraid it will cost a lot to take it back this time!
"Waste, get out! When all the brothers are gathered, you still have to tell them how to capture Yilan!"
However, the Zheng army in Xiamen is scattered everywhere, and it is the Spring Festival. The officers and soldiers took the two months of grace and one month of festival gifts issued by Zheng Zhilong, and went home happily for the New Year with these white and round silver dollars. If you want to find the troops again, you have to wait until at least the 20th day of the first lunar month.
Even if the troops were gathered, there were still things to do, such as preparing ships, raising gunpowder and shells, which might not be completed even in February. Even if they were completed, it would depend on the wind direction and tides at sea.
Zheng Zhilong was so anxious that he was like an ant on a hot pot, cursing in his mansion every day. When he was in a bad mood, the maids and servants would inevitably be beaten.
The same bad news also reached Qin Hao, who was inspecting Qiongzhou Prefecture, on the 16th day of the first lunar month, across the vast waves of the South China Sea.
As a newly opened naval base of the Keelung Navy, Qin Hao naturally had to come to observe for a while and get to know some new naval trainees.
Of course, he had several other things to deal with.
First, I came to the Beibu Gulf of Qiongzhou Prefecture to see the construction of the military port here. In fact, it is not just a military port. The port here also bears the heavy responsibility of transporting personnel and materials to various places. Not only gunboats are parked at the port berths, but also many merchant ships and cargo ships are parked here in a big way to replenish fresh water and fresh ingredients.
Since the navy opened the new northern port, Keelung merchants have been sending resources continuously like sharks smelling blood. In order to maintain such an effect, Qin Hao set the office location in Qiongzhou after the new year, intending to use this period of rapid time to rapidly develop this second largest island.
The second thing is about the cultivation of a powerful tool for the future entry into the Central Plains, that's right, it is food cultivation.
As the largest tropical island in my country, the rain and heat here are synchronized, the sunlight is sufficient, and it can complete two cultivation plans of three crops a year. The only bad thing is that it grows too fast, and the taste of rice is not good.
However, compared with the current environment, this place is a place with unique advantages, especially after the adoption of Keelung's rice planting technology and fertilizers, it has developed rapidly.
The last thing is that the fleet responsible for exiling the five major families of Jinping County to the Tenth State will pass through here and return to Keelung. It can be regarded as Qin Hao going out to sea to welcome these sea prides returning from a long voyage, and to give them the deserved praise for crossing the waves.
Qin Hao believes that the rookies in the Naval Academy, no matter how green they are, will be green to the basket. As long as they have experienced this trip to the South Pacific and come back, they will become old birds who are not afraid of huge waves.
Coupled with the unremitting training of the Keelung Navy, it is no less than the sea coachman and the English pirates!
Therefore, Qin Hao specially brought a group of civil and military officials to Qiongzhou, and even his precious daughter Xiao Ling'er came with the fleet.
However, he heard such a bad news in the northern port!