Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 625: Another Attack on Batavia

In fact, Ralph had always wanted to contact the Qianlong emperor directly, because the East India Company had tasted the sweetness of directly contacting the Mughal emperor.

Directly contacting the emperor of the empire means that the East India Company no longer needs to deal with those bureaucrats. At least during necessary contacts, those bureaucrats will take the emperor's orders into consideration.

For Ralph, if the Emperor of the Qian Dynasty could agree to give the East India Company a base in Dayuan or a port near the capital, Ralph was willing to pay one million taels of silver.

Although the money was huge, Ralph believed that as long as the East India Company could maintain long-term contact with the Qian Dynasty, they could collect intelligence and even imitate the Qian Dynasty's technology for producing porcelain, tea and silk.

Ralph and the shareholders of the East India Company dreamed of obtaining the technology of porcelain firing, tea planting, and silk weaving. If they could obtain these technologies, then Ralph and the East India Company would be willing to pay any price.

In order to obtain these technologies, the East India Company had previously sent missionaries to preach while trying to steal these technologies. However, with the Qian Dynasty's wars against the Netherlands and Spain, these missionaries were restricted to the capital city and were not allowed to move freely in the Qian Dynasty.

After Ralph made the decision, after several days of meetings with the company's shareholders, all shareholders agreed that Ralph's idea was very good. So after discussion, the company decided to send a small delegation of six people.

Two of the members of the delegation were knowledgeable missionaries who were well versed in astronomy and mathematics. The other two, one was proficient in medicine and the other was proficient in painting, musical instruments, etc. The remaining two were girls with Western faces carefully selected by Ralph.

Ralph felt that his method of arranging people was very clever. No matter what the Emperor Qian liked, he had arranged it. If he wanted money, he could give a large sum of money. If he wanted beauties, he could also arrange them. He also had astronomy, mathematics, medicine, art and musical instruments. There was always one thing that the Emperor Qian liked.

After arranging everything, Ralph happily sent two galleons and five merchant ships to Songjiang to do business and negotiate at the same time.

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Brunei Kingdom, Baga Bay.

Zheng Chenggong had been a little depressed since his fleet was destroyed by a storm last time, especially after receiving accusations from his son Zheng Jing's teacher that Zheng Jing did not study hard and often hung out in brothels.

As for the remaining sons, few of them were worry-free for him. Each of them behaved like a dandy boy. The local officials in Fujian had written to Zheng Chenggong several times, saying that a good father will have a good son and that the young man was full of heroic spirit and had many chivalrous friends on the street.

All of these words implicitly express that your son is not doing his job all day long, wandering around the streets and harassing people.

Family affairs and national affairs were squeezed together, which really gave Zheng Chenggong a headache. Especially during this period, the weather in Brunei was still very hot. Zheng Chenggong was busy reorganizing the fleet and handling military affairs, and his face was almost tanned like charcoal.

What made Zheng Chenggong depressed was that the whole court was praising Crown Prince Meng Cheng for his intelligence and love of learning, and his cleverness since childhood. Even Zheng Chenggong in Brunei had heard the rumors about him. The comparison between the two really made him depressed.

Fortunately, with the passage of time, the somewhat depressed morale was gradually restored, the damaged warships were repaired, and all kinds of supplies were still being transported from Jiangnan to Brunei, which gave Zheng Chenggong a little comfort.

Meng Jun naturally received the news that the fleet encountered a storm. However, facing this kind of natural disaster, even though he was the emperor, Meng Jun had no choice but to order the shipyard to pay more attention and develop troop transport ships that could better withstand storms.

Nothing in this world can go as planned. When Meng Jun led his troops at sea, he was worried about storms. Just like Zheng He encountered storms many times during his voyages to the West, how could Meng Jun be an exception?

As for Zheng Chenggong's letter of apology, Meng Jun also wrote a letter to comfort him, saying that he did not blame Haibo for his misbehavior. At the end of the letter, Meng Jun asked Zheng Chenggong to boost his morale and regroup, saying that God will not let down those who work hard, and that they will eventually conquer Batavia and then control Malacca.

On October 22, the seventh year of Zhaowu, Zheng Chenggong swore an oath to go to war again in Baga Bay. The scale of this expedition was not larger than the previous one, but rather smaller.

Zheng Chenggong believed that the fleet of the barbarians in Batavia had suffered heavy losses, so the focus of this battle would be on land warfare. The barbarians were good at defending bastions, so a large amount of gunpowder would be required for underground sieges.

Therefore, this time, Zheng Chenggong mobilized more than 60 large and small warships, various troop transport ships, supply ships, merchant ships, etc., totaling more than 300 ships, and more than 16,000 infantrymen on board.

When they were about to set off, Zheng Chenggong led all his soldiers to kneel on the ground and pray devoutly to Mazu, praying for calm weather and a smooth expedition.

On that day, the sea breeze was howling, and the warships were lined up in the harbor, with great momentum. Zheng Chenggong was dressed in military uniform, with a solemn look on his face. In his heart, he silently prayed: "Believers Zheng Sen led his troops to the battle, shouldering a heavy responsibility. I pray to Mazu for protection, and hope that the storm will calm down, and the voyage will be smooth, as if walking on flat ground."

After the silent recitation, Zheng Chenggong gave the order: "Weigh anchor and set sail!" In an instant, the entire harbor became lively, a large number of ships began to set sail, shouts rose one after another, and the scene was magnificent.

The sailors moved at the sound, the thick ropes were twisted up with all their might, the heavy anchor broke through the water, and the sails were hoisted high with the help of the sea breeze, and the huge canvas fluttered.

Perhaps the prayers really worked, or perhaps Mazu was protecting the fleet, and this time, the fleet did not encounter any big waves along the way.

Upon seeing this, Zheng Chenggong secretly thought to himself that if the battle went well, he would build temples for Mazu and make golden statues in Brunei, Luzon and Tainan to thank Mazu for her protection.

As Zheng Chenggong sent troops again, the Governor of Batavia, Ru Hansuige, was struck by lightning. Although the last storm saved his life and he had a premonition in his heart, the news of Qian Dynasty's attack again still made him feel depressed.

The storm could save him once, but he could not always rely on praying to God to resolve the crisis. It was just that the mainland was so far away from Batavia, and perhaps the result of the naval battle in Batavia had just been delivered to the king at this time.

It was unknown when the reinforcements would arrive, but the enemy was already close at hand. Ru Hansui had a premonition that once the Qian army landed, Batavia, the last stronghold of the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, would eventually fall.

The fall of Batavia also marked the bankruptcy of the Dutch East India Company, and the bankruptcy of the East India Company would also accelerate the decline of the Netherlands, the sea coachman.