Chapter 149 to control theft

So Zhu Yifeng informed Yu Zhigao and asked Yu Zhigao to send Xu Xinsu to talk to the red-haired man and ask the red-haired man to help Fujian officers and soldiers.

After hearing this, Xu Xinsu did not agree to do this kind of thing, because he has also recently established a cooperative relationship with the sea wolf. The sea wolf often sends some ships to escort his ships to the major trade to avoid his merchant ship being robbed by Zheng Yiguan. At present, this cooperation is still relatively pleasant and indeed true. It brought him benefits, and he even bought more than a dozen cannons from the sea wolf and installed them on his merchant ship to enhance his merchant ship's self-defense ability.

The two sides are currently an allied relationship, so Xu Xinsu disagreed with the fact that Yu Zhigao ordered him to find the red-haired man and ask the red-haired man to help the government deal with the sea wolf.

But before Xu Xinsu refused, Yu Zhigao threatened him and told him that if he did not do so, he would not continue his business in the future, and Fujian would have no place for him.

Xu Xinsu has no choice, because as a sea merchant, he is still based in the land of Zhangquan. If he does not follow the requirements of the government, then Fujian officials want to destroy him as easily as pinching an ant, as long as they cut off his source of goods, confiscate his ship, and seal up his cargo number. Then he finished everything.

So Xu Xinsu had to agree that it was unreasonable to talk to these officials. As long as he still wanted to do sea trade business, he must be subject to these officials, so he could only agree to go to the officials and negotiate with the red-haired men in person.

After Reyoz, the commander of the Dutch, learned about this, he did not immediately agree.

Because this matter is very involved, he does not dare to make a decision without authorization. He must obtain the consent of Peter Jun, the Governor-General of Batavia, the Netherlands.

In fact, Yu Xiaotian and the sea wolf have long become the focus of attention of the Dutch. Not long after they occupied the majority, they learned the reputation of Yu Xiaotian and the sea wolf. Through some businessmen, they know that there is a relatively unique pirate group along the coast of Fujian.

This group of seawolves controlled a large sea surface and a considerable route in Fujian, which is a threat to them, but this group of seawolves have not had any conflict with them. Later, he learned that this group of seawolves had established two large-scale strongholds in the north of Taiwan Island and made a large number of them from the land. Immigrated and farmed in northern Taiwan.

This has attracted more attention. In fact, the Dutch have a greater appetite for Taiwan Island. They are not satisfied with occupying a place only in the south of Taiwan Yuan Island, establishing a trade port and doing business with Daming.

After occupying the members, they discovered the value of Taiwan Island. Although Taiwan Island is a wild land, there are many indigenous people living here. In addition, Taiwan Island is rich in deer skin, camphor and other things, as well as precious cloud leopard skin, which is extremely popular. If you return to Europe, you can earn a lot of profits. Run.

Now there is such a force that has also begun to explore the island of Taiwan, which has obviously become their potential enemy. Therefore, during this period, the Dutch were also very concerned about the situation of sea wolves and sent spies to freshwater and chicken cages many times to inquire about the situation there.

Now they have evaluated the sea wolf. They believe that the sea wolf is very strong and has a large armed force. In the coastal area of Fujian, no one can challenge it in a short time, and they have developed rapidly and attach great importance to the construction of defense facilities.

The sea wolf has made it clear that it will continue to operate on Taiwan Island for a long time. Whether it is in Jilong Bay or in the area of the Tamsui River, it has built perfect fortifications, which even exceeds the defense facilities they have built by the officials, and the performance of the sea wolf is also strange. Many of their buildings, especially fortifications. , all of them are similar to European bastions, which are very different from the Chinese-style fortress structure.

And they also confirmed that the sea wolf has the ability to cast cannons and the ability to build ships, which surprised them even more. Moreover, although the cannons cast by the sea wolves have never received physical objects, they can basically be sure that the artillery they cast is not the old Chinese artillery, but The complete Western-style gun is said to be of quite good quality, powerful, long range and fast firing speed.

In this way, the power of the sea wolf will be continuously enhanced, and they can be self-sufficient and gradually build a strong maritime force.

This is not good news for the Dutch, because once the strength of the sea wolf develops to a certain extent, they will definitely not be satisfied with only operating in northern Taiwan. They will definitely extend their tentacles to the south and extend to southern Taiwan. The reason is very simple, that is, there are many hills and few plains in northern Taiwan. , is not very suitable for farming, but the plains in southern Taiwan have fertile land, which is more suitable for farming and feed more immigrants.

Once that time comes, the sea wolves may threaten their existence as big members, and may even squeeze them into * Bay Island. For so many years, they have finally found such a place along the coast of China. As a port for their commerce with Daming, if they are driven away by sea wolves, they will completely If the bridgehead is lost along the coast of China, everything will return to the starting point, which may even affect their trade with the Japanese. Seawolves can easily cut off their routes to Japan, and then they will be in big trouble.

So the Dutch's evaluation of the sea wolf is that the sea wolf is the biggest potential enemy they are currently operating in Taiwan and must find a way to control it.

The last thing the Dutch want to see is an absolute control force in the Chinese sea, because once someone controls the Chinese sea, it will seriously affect their interests. This force may control all trade with them, causing them to lose their pricing power and greatly increase their trade costs.

At present, this sea wolf is most likely to do this, so the Dutch are more afraid of the sea wolf. They really hope that someone will give the sea wolf a heavy blow, preferably to seriously weaken their strength.

But at the end of April, they got the news that their old rival, the Spaniard, actually fell in love with Taiwan Island, but the Spaniards did not dare to come to trouble their Dutch and planned to run to the north of Taiwan Island to follow their example and establish a trade port.

But the Spaniards did not expect that they met a strong opponent, the sea wolf, in northern Taiwan. There was a large-scale sea and land conflict between them in the area of Chicken Cage Bay. What surprised the Dutch people was that those Westbanks in this battle were actually The sea wolf suffered a big defeat and almost destroyed the whole army in Chickenlong wan.

There was only one Westbank gunboat, which finally fled the battlefield and fled back to Manila with its tail, which shocked the Dutch even more.

They are very clear about the strength of the West Bank's fleet. Although the West Bank's invincible fleet was destroyed by the British, which was not as strong as before and gave up the status of sea hegemon to the Dutch, after all, the Westbanks are starving camels bigger than horses and still have considerable strength in Manila. They have a small fleet that can be used all year round, with some gunboats and armed merchant ships.

This fleet is not easy for them to deal with even compared with their fleet of the East India Company stationed in Bacheng, so for a long time, they can only watch the Spaniards control Luzon, occupy Manila, trade with Daming merchants and gain a lot of wealth.

But what they didn't think of was that such a light fleet would be defeated by the sea wolf. Even if they assessed the combat effectiveness of the sea wolf's fleet and thought that the sea wolf's combat effectiveness was quite strong, they did not think that they could easily defeat the Seabank fleet, but the result surprised them. Those proud The slow Westbanks were actually beaten by sea wolves and almost destroyed the whole army in Chicken Cage Bay.

This time, the Dutch are more afraid of the sea wolf and regard the sea wolf as their biggest potential opponent at present.

While they felt helpless about this matter, the Fujian government of China extended an olive branch to them and asked them for help to deal with sea wolves together.

If they were allowed to deal with the sea wolves by themselves before, the Dutch were not sure, especially after the Westbanks were defeated in Chicken Cage Bay, they did not dare to attack the sea wolves easily.

But suddenly, now the Ming government has to concentrate on suppressing the sea wolves, so this time they feel that it may become a rare opportunity for them.

And the attitude of the Daming government is also crucial for them to stand firm. If they do not agree with the request of the Daming government, then the Daming government can prohibit Chinese businessmen from trading with them. Even if it cannot be completely banned, it will at least have a great impact.

The purpose of the staff is to trade with Daming. If Fujian prohibits trade with them, Guangdong will probably follow the trend. At that time, they will not be able to obtain enough goods, and then the staff will lose the value of existence.

So after talking with Xu Xinsu, Reyoz thought that they could agree to Daming's conditions. He took this opportunity to hit the sea wolf heavily, greatly weakened their strength, and eliminated the threat at the initial stage, but he could not make the decision at present.

Although he has the authorization of the East India Company and has the power to act cheaply in Taiwan, the biggest problem at present is that he is not strong enough.

At present, he has only four ships stationed on Taiwan Yuan Island, of which only one is a gunboat belonging to more than 400 tons, and the other three are single mast light armed gunboats with a displacement of only more than 100 tons.

If he wants to help the government eliminate the sea wolf with this power alone, it is unlikely that he will be defeated, and the end of the Westbanks will be right in front of his eyes.

So even if he is willing, he must obtain the consent of Peter, the governor of Bacheng, and send reinforcements to him to participate in the battle. Otherwise, he cannot do this with his current strength.

So he told Xu Xinsu that he agreed to help the Ming government in this matter in principle, but he had to prepare for him for as little as three months, because he had to ask their master to dispatch a warship from Bacheng to help the battle, otherwise he could not do what the government required.

Xu Xinsu had to return to Quanzhou and report the results of his negotiations with the Dutch to Yu Zhigao, who had to report the matter to Zhu Yifeng.

Zhu Yifeng thought about it and found that three months was acceptable, because he had to organize such a large-scale military operation this time, first preparing silver, grain, warships, artillery and mobilizing troops. After he was completely prepared, the time was almost time.

The mobilization and assembly speed of officers and soldiers in this era is very slow. No matter how much he, the governor, supervises, it will take at least two or three months to complete the preparation for the war. Therefore, the Dutch said that it is acceptable to wait for them for three months.

So this matter was settled, and the Fujian government began to make preparations under the order of Zhu Yifeng, and the material personnel began to move.