On the morning of August 16, the 14th year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen finished arranging the defense affairs for Hirado Island, and then led the main force of the fleet to set off south, arriving at Fujiang Island around noon that afternoon.

However, after arriving at Fujiang Island, Yang Zhencai learned from Qiu Guangyi that the Dutch fleet did not stop at Fujiang Island to wait for rendezvous after leaving Yingzhou Island.

"Didn't come? Then where did they go? Are they still on Yingzhou Island?"

Facing Qiu Guangyi who came to greet him, when Yang Zhen heard that the Dutch had not come to Fujiang Island, he was immediately surprised and asked.

"Not on Yingzhou Island. After I led my troops here, I saw no trace of the Dutch fleet for several days. I was afraid that they would not know the route and wander around, so I specially sent someone back to Yingzhou Island to pilot it for them.

"But after the humble man returned to Yingzhou Island, Shen Yongzhong said that the Dutch fleet had already left the port, and they all left the port the next day after receiving the letter!"

Qiu Guangyi had been thinking about this question a lot in the past few days, so when Yang Zhen asked, he immediately answered with what he knew.

But after saying this, Qiu Guangyi frowned and said: "The men sent by Beizhong to Yingzhou Island told Beizhong after they came back. I heard Shen Yongzhong said that He Tingbin, the general secretary of the Dutch fleet, told him that the Dutch fleet's

The commander doesn’t want to waste time waiting and may have to act alone!”

"Alone? Where are the Dutch going to fight?"

"I don't know about this humble position. I originally thought that the red-haired ghosts might be going to attack Nagasaki, but I also sent a ship to investigate in the direction of Nagasaki, and there was no trace of the red-haired ghosts there!"

After listening to Qiu Guangyi's report, Yang Zhen was a little confused for a moment. This situation was beyond his expectation.

But thinking about it carefully, Yang Zhen could more or less understand what was going on.

The Dutch East India Company's fleet is different from its own fleet. They are more accustomed to calculating costs and benefits in everything they do.

Perhaps for them, the daily cost of eating, drinking and eating on the large warships that were mobilized with great effort has to be included in the cost accounting. They just spend it like this, waiting for them for ten and a half months in Seogwipo or Fukue Island.

Yes, it's definitely a huge waste.

When he thought of this, Yang Zhen suddenly understood what they meant by acting alone.

After all, once Shen Yongzhong told the Dutch that the Wudao Islands were already the territory of the Ming Dynasty, what would the Dutch think?

Maybe they will also make up their mind to find a home port for their fleet that can avoid the storms at sea before launching a war against the Wonu Kingdom.

They are not attacking Nagasaki Port right now, perhaps because they don't want to alert others, but this does not mean that they will not attack elsewhere.

After all, there are many islands of various sizes in the sea southeast of Nagasaki Port, and those islands, almost like the Goto Islands, are sparsely populated and unprepared, and the risk of attacking them is almost zero.

In the past, the Dutch's armed merchant ships always took the shipping route from Japan to Nagasaki. It is impossible that they did not know about the Osumi Islands, Tokara Islands and Amami Islands that belonged to the Satsuma Domain near the shipping route.

In the past, perhaps because they were unsure of how to defeat the Japanese slaves with their own strength and did not want to go to war, they did not occupy these places.

But now that we have decided to break up with each other, there is no need to be polite. Wouldn't those islands that are on the route from Daeguang to Japan become perfect targets?

After Yang Zhen probably understood what the red-haired devils were thinking, he simply stopped worrying.

The day after he arrived at Fujiang Island, he ordered Qiu Guangyi to lead his fleet to Hirado Island, and he was responsible for transferring the large amount of supplies stored on Hirado Island to Yingzhou Island as soon as possible.

At the same time, Yang Zhen also ordered Qiu Guangyi to use the Japanese iron cannons and large barrels, that is, matchlock guns and heavy matchlock guns, captured from the Battle of Hirado, as well as more than one hundred Japanese slave ships assigned to Qiu Guangyi's command,

Take an early boat and expand your camp as soon as possible.

Yang Zhen ordered him to expand the navy with one battalion and five sentries based on the original one battalion of infantry and five sentries of Yingzhou Island and the one battalion and five sentries of navy.

On the morning of August 17, Qiu Guangyi happily led his team to leave, while Yang Zhen stayed on Fujiang Island and settled in the Fujiang City that Qiu Guangyi had just built.

This so-called Fujiang Castle is not actually an upper city. To put it bluntly, it is just a stone enclosure built by Qiu Guangyi around the original Goto Clan's large village house or array house.

So in the next few days, while sending people to take over and continue to build the stone wall of Fujiang City, they also sent several ships to the southeast to search for traces of the Dutch fleet.

On the evening of August 24, the 14th year of Chongzhen, a patrol boat sent out for many days finally returned with a giant plywood boat.

The captain of this plywood boat was none other than Thomas Peddle, whom Yang Zhen had met in Port Arthur.

Of course, what made Yang Zhen most overjoyed was that it was not the appearance of Thomas Peder and his Provencha number, but the appearance of He Tingbin, the general manager of the Dutch fleet, who came to Fujiang Island with the ship to meet Yang Zhen.

However, in front of Thomas Peder, Yang Zhen showed excessive enthusiasm for He Tingbin's arrival.

But that night, when Yang Zhen led Li Lu, Zhang Guogan, Yan Shengsan, Zhang Tianbao and others, they used the sweet potatoes that came with the ship to burn the Provencha captain Thomas and his first mate, second mate, guns and guns.

After the captain and bosun were all drunk, Yang Zhen, who always remained sober, called He Tingbin out alone to talk.

"Captain, I'm really sorry, Commander, everything is inconvenient after I return to the senior position. Even if I want to ask someone to bring a letter, I can't get it!"

As soon as he got out of the sight of Thomas and other Dutch red-haired ghosts, He Tingbin quickly met Yang Zhen again, and then explained the reason why there had been no news recently.

"If it hadn't been for the fact that Lemaia, the new fleet commander who came from Batavia this time, doesn't know a little Chinese and needs to serve as a translator from the Chinese-speaking Japanese slave country, I'm afraid I won't be able to accompany him this time!"

"Lemaia?"

"Yes, the new fleet commander is named Maximilian Lemaia. He is a ruthless character."

"A ruthless character?"

"That's right. I had only heard before that this man was a murderer in Java, Banda, Malacca and other places. He was a notorious murderer in the Dutch Governor's Mansion in Batavia. But this time I saw it with my own eyes.

See."

"Where did this Le Mai Atu go?"

"Have the Governor ever heard of the Japanese Satsuma clan?"

"Heard something."

"The Japanese islands off the coast south of Satsuma Domain, Yakushima, and the entire nearby Osumi Islands, all the Japanese on the islands, regardless of gender, old or young, were killed. There weren't many people on the islands there, but the red-haired ghosts used them in every possible way.

Extremely, the killing method is too cruel."

In the night, the sky was full of stars, and several of Yang Zhen's soldiers followed him nearby with lanterns in their hands.

Through the dim light, Yang Zhen saw He Tingbin, who was already dressed in Japanese attire. His brows were furrowed and his expression was dark, obviously remembering the scene at that time.

"So, Mr. He, does this mean that the Dutch East India Company has made up its mind to start a full-scale war with the Tokugawa Shogunate?"

Yang Zhen knew that mercenaries of the Dutch East India Company had committed countless crimes against humanity in many small countries in Southeast Asia, including many demonic murderers who did not regard indigenous peoples as human beings.

Yang Zhen was not surprised by this.

What surprised Yang Zhen was that the Dutch East India Company's Batavia Governor's Mansion sent a figure who was ready to annihilate the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia to go on a killing spree. Does this mean that they were preparing to fight against the Japanese?

The slave country is at full-scale war!

"It's hard to say, but as far as I know, the reason why Batavia agreed to your joint battle plan was to take the opportunity to open up the entire Japanese slave country's trade.

"Moreover, the Japanese slave country is different from those uncivilized small indigenous countries in the Southeast Asia. If the Dutch East India Company really wanted to destroy the Japanese slave country, it would not be able to send only five large ships and a dozen small ships."

When he said this, He Tingbin seemed to be suddenly alert. He stared at Yang Zhen and asked: "Does it mean that the governor has plans to start a full-scale war with the Japanese slave country?!"

"No, not yet."

Yang Zhen's answer to He Tingbin's question was very decisive.

He has already thought clearly about sending troops this time. Although the Japanese slave country will be a serious concern for China in the future, he still has enough strength to start a full-scale war with the Japanese slave kingdom.

Seeing He Tingbin looking at him with bright eyes, obviously wondering whether what he said was true, Yang Zhen thought about it and finally said to him:

"Mr. He, to be honest, before the arrival of the Dutch this time, I had already led my troops to occupy the Goto Islands, Hirado Island, Iki Island, and Tsushima Island. My next goal is to cause the Tokugawa Shogunate to hemorrhage again.

Other than that, I want the shogunate to accept this accomplished fact!"

"So, the governor has no plans to destroy the Tokugawa shogunate?"

"No, at least not yet!"

"That would be much easier to handle. Although the Dutch sent this Lemaia leader, based on my humble observation, what the Dutch East India Company is most interested in is the trade with the Japanese slave country. And as far as I know, their youngest

The goal is to ask the Tokugawa Shogunate to cede Nagasaki Port and the Osumi Islands where Tanegashima is located, and the biggest goal is to ask the Tokugawa Shogunate to open Osaka, Edo and other famous coastal cities to direct trade."

…

On Fujiang Island at the end of August, the sweltering heat had dissipated and the night breeze had become slightly cooler. Yang Zhen and He Tingbin walked around and around the newly built small wall of Fujiang City, talking all night long.

With He Tingbin as an insider, Yang Zhen could almost see all the trump cards of the Dutch East India Company Council.

Moreover, from He Tingbin, Yang Zhen also learned the reason why Maximilian Lemaier, the new fleet commander sent by the Dutch East India Company, had not come to join them.

Although Lemaia only had five armed plywood ships and some small boats used for landing and communication, he was very confident in the strength of his fleet and was not very willing to join forces with Yang Zhen's fleet and then divide the proceeds 50-50.

In other words, he is not very opposed to the alliance between the two sides, but he is very dissatisfied with the scoring of combat gains.

This time, after Le Maia completed the occupation of Tanegashima and other Osumi Islands, he knew that Yang Zhen must have arrived at Fukue Island as promised, but he did not come to meet him. Instead, he sent Thomas and He Tingbin. In fact,

There was a very important change.

The Council of Senior Members of the Dutch East India Company authorized Maximilian Lemaia to take full command of the Dutch fleet's operations against Japan, and authorized him to take full charge of post-war negotiations with Japan and various matters of cooperation with Yang Zhen's troops.

.

This not only includes the power to declare war, negotiate peace, and conclude trade treaties with the various vassals of the Japanese slave country, but also includes the power to determine the proportion of combat command authority and post-war results distribution with the Ming Dynasty General Yang Zhenzhong.

Lemaia first led his team to Seogwipo, where he wanted to renegotiate with Yang Zhen and reset the terms of cooperation. He did not want Yang Zhenhu to fake his power and take advantage of the Dutch East India Company.

But Yang Zhen was not here, and he had no chance to reset the terms of cooperation between the two parties.

After the overwhelming victory in the battle against Satsuma Domain's Osumi Islands, Lemaia, whose self-confidence was further boosted, simply didn't want to talk anymore and directly wrote a arrogant letter to Yang Zhen.

At noon the next day after Yang Zhen and He Tingbin talked all night long, Thomas Pedel, who had sobered up, officially handed over Le Maia's letter to Yang Zhen under the witness of He Tingbin and others.

The content of the letter was similar to what He Tingbin relayed the night before.
Chapter completed!