Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 599: The Battle of Batavia (Part )

As the saying goes, those who are in the game don't know as much as those who are outside. After the fall of the Zheng family in Annan, Mo Jingyu, the leader of the Mo family, was overjoyed and thought that the revival of the Mo dynasty was just around the corner.

Just when Mo Jingyu was ambitious and wanted to revive the country, Li Chengdong dealt him a heavy blow. Mo Jingyu took advantage of the chaos in Annan and sent troops south to occupy Beigan. At one point, his troops headed straight for Taiyuan (Taiyuan City in Annan, not in Shanxi).

It was not until Li Chengdong defeated the Nguyen clan and returned to quell the rebellion that Mo Jingyu realized that his clan was not strong enough, so he retreated to Bac Kan. However, Li Chengdong did not tolerate him and sent troops to expel Mo.

Afterwards, he sent troops to attack the Mo family, but was defeated in the end. Mo Jingyu thought that his great cause of revival would fail, but then he received great news: Li Chengdong was dead.

After that, Yan Keyi and Yang Dafu took turns to come to power, which made Mo Jingyu laugh even more. So Mo Jingyu reorganized the army and prepared to march south at any time to revive the Mo Dynasty, while sending people to pray for the support of the Qian Dynasty for his expedition.

But before the Mo family's envoy arrived in the capital, the Qian Dynasty sent troops. In a blink of an eye, Annan was pacified by the Qian Dynasty. Mo Jingyu was dazzled by this.

But Mo Jingyu still had a glimmer of hope in his heart that the Qian Dynasty might change Annan into a vassal state like the previous Ming Xuanzong. Then, he would be able to revive the Mo Dynasty without any effort.

However, with the Qian Dynasty issuing an edict to change Annan into Guangnan Province, this news came like a bolt from the blue to Mo Jingyu. Mo Jingyu was still fantasizing that the great cause of restoring his ancestors was just around the corner, but the next moment this hope burst like a bubble. In great joy and sorrow, Mo Jingyu became seriously ill and could not get up.

As soon as Han Xiong's envoy entered Gaoping, he saw that the whole city was in mourning. After asking around, he learned that the head of the Mo family, Mo Jingyu, had "passed away".

Hearing this, the envoy frowned. It seemed that what Luo Chengyao said was not false. The Mo family was usurping the throne and still following the emperor's funeral rites.

After Mo Jingyu died, his son Mo Yuanqing ascended the throne and became king. Mo Yuanqing gave his father the temple name Mingzong, so he was Mo Mingzong.

As the saying goes, the dead are the greatest. The man's father had just died, and now he was asked to surrender. The envoy felt a little guilty, so he sent someone to report to Han Xiong, saying: "Their lord's father had just passed away. From a human perspective, it is a time of mourning. If we ask them to surrender, I am afraid they will find it difficult to bear it, and it will also make us look unreasonable.

Therefore, I have specially reported this to the Duke. I hope the Duke will consider whether to delay the execution for a while, wait until his grief has subsided, and then send someone to explain the pros and cons and persuade him to surrender. This may be more appropriate and also show our court's gentle and generous intentions. "

While the Annan incident had not yet been completely settled, Zheng Chenggong in Luzon was not idle either.

On the sea, a large number of ships set sail. These ships were transported from the Central Plains to Luzon, and then used Luzon as a transit station to be shipped to the Brunei Kingdom.

The Zheng family controlled maritime trade for many years and accumulated a large amount of wealth. After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the family business was ruined. However, after Zheng Chenggong's savings over the years, the Zheng family now had more warships and money than in Zheng Zhilong's era.

But there are also shortcomings. During the time of Zheng Zhilong, the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to maritime trade. Therefore, during Zheng Zhilong's period, all ships needed to pay tolls to the Zheng family. But now it is different. Zheng Chenggong cannot ask for tolls from the ships of the Qian Dynasty no matter what. Instead, he sometimes has to escort the court's merchant ships free of charge, for fear that something will happen. By then, he would be covered in mud and it would be shit.

During this period, the Brunei Kingdom saw a large number of ships arriving at the Brunei port. The Brunei Sultan Bolkiah Maham went from being happy and joyful at first to worry and panic later.

A large amount of supplies, a huge fleet, and an army that stretches as far as the eye can see. They are not here to help quell the rebellion. They are more than enough to destroy us.

However, Zheng Chenggong simply ignored the envoy sent by Mahan and refused to meet him. If Zhang Shun had not come forward and comforted Mahan's envoy with a few words, the envoy would have almost cried.

…………

Brunei, outside the port of Bagawan,

The warships of the Zheng family and the imperial court were lined up on the sea one after another. The Zheng family had three large three-masted gunboats, four galleons, and more than seventy other warships. The imperial court dispatched thirty-two new-style sea vessels. The scene was extremely spectacular.

On the shore, the total number of infantry of the Zheng family and the imperial court exceeded 30,000, and both sides were flying the Qian flag. This time, Zheng Chenggong, as the Prince of Nan'an, served as the commander-in-chief and personally led the expedition to Batavia.

In recent days, the intelligence from the preliminary investigation has been returned one after another. The Dutch in Batavia have been wary of the imperial court's plan to use troops in Brunei. The port's defense has been significantly strengthened, and the inspection of merchant ships has become more thorough.

At the same time, there was intelligence that proved that the Dutch were worried that the Qian Dynasty had coveted Batavia, so the Governor of Batavia, Ruhansuige, used a large sum of money to recruit a large number of South China Sea pirates.

It has to be said that this strategy was very effective. In a short period of time, more than one hundred pirate ships accepted Ruhansui's recruitment order. For Ruhansui, some financial losses were better than threats to Batavia.

At this time, Zheng Chenggong could no longer hold his temper. He did not want to wait any longer. It was useless to wait any longer. Since the Western barbarians did not take the initiative to attack, he would lead his huge fleet to attack Batavia directly.

No matter how sophisticated the Western barbarians' ships were, there were only seventeen of them. As for those pirate ships in the South China Sea, Zheng Chenggong didn't take them seriously at all. The court's ships for this expedition were newly built. He himself had three three-masted gunboats that were larger than the Western barbarians, and four galleons of the same size as the Western barbarians. However, the number of his own ships far exceeded that of the Western barbarians.

Therefore, after observing the weather at sea for several days, Zheng Chenggong believed that the time was ripe, so with Zheng Chenggong's order, the army set sail.

In this battle, naval warfare will take place first. Only after defeating the Western Yi fleet will the infantry land in Batavia. A large number of infantry temporarily stayed in Baga Bay.

Zheng Chenggong boarded the flagship and looked out at the sea through a telescope. He saw countless sails, majestic and majestic, with flags fluttering in the wind. The ones in the front row were all reconnaissance ships with faster speeds, while the warships in the back were tall, with densely packed gun holes on both sides of the ship's hull.

Zheng Chenggong put down the telescope and ordered his guards to put it away. Originally, these telescopes were bought from merchants in Macau, but in recent years, the Qian Dynasty has been able to survive on its own. Not only are the manufacturing methods more sophisticated, but the prices are also cheaper than those of merchants in Macau.

This telescope is extremely useful in naval battles. Therefore, all the captains of the court's ships were issued one. Zheng Chenggong also received a batch from the court's treasury, but the number was still not enough. Therefore, only the capital ships of the Zheng family were equipped with telescopes.