The north wind was whistling, as cold as a knife, mixed with goose feathers and heavy snow swept across the sky, making people's face hurt.

A cold winter is coming.

Last year's winter was warmer, but this year's winter was extremely cold. The temperature in Shandong has dropped to at least minus ten degrees Celsius, and everyone is wrapped in thick cotton coats.

But in Nanyang, it is still very warm.

Since the departure, the First Fleet has headed south and directly to the Nanyang area. Because after the autumn, both the Dutch and Fujian merchant ships went south, it is difficult to intercept many merchant ships on the Japanese route.

In just three months, the First Fleet intercepted eleven Fujian merchant ships on its route to the Philippines, and at the same time intercepted eight Dutch merchant ships, plus three Dutch frigates on its route to Batavia (Jakarta).

Su Buheng divided the fleet into three parts, Marines stayed in Manila and established a shopping mall in Manila. The other six warships were divided into two parts, one plundered Fujian ships on the Philippine route and one plundered Dutch ships on the Jakarta route.

The Philippine Governor was not very enthusiastic about the alliance between the two sides, but his boss's order forced him to comply.

The Marines were stationed outside the Manila waterway and did not really enter Manila.

After the establishment of the mall, it immediately submitted a statement to the Philippines Governor, which declared that they had an obligation to protect the Chinese in the Philippines.

According to the Far East Cooperation Agreement, the mall stationed 300 people in Manila to protect the personal safety of local Chinese, which made it difficult for the Spanish governor to accept.

Chinese in the Philippines have always been regarded as cows by Spanish people.

Suddenly a group of people emerged and claimed that they had an obligation to protect them and had to station troops in Manila, which was unacceptable to the governor of the Philippines.

The Philippine Governor didn't even think about it and directly called the statement back and directly refused the request of the Denlai Merchant.

Wen Bangliang was in the Manila Merchant. Seeing that the Spanish disagreed with the garrison of the merchants, a plan to seize the Philippines emerged in Wen Bangliang's mind, so he immediately wrote a letter and asked the flying scissors to deliver them to Su Buheng.

Wen Bangliang suggested that the fleet could attack Manila with only 2,000 garrisons and only eight warships. With the response of the local Chinese, it could be completely attacked.

After receiving Wen Bangliang's letter, Su Buheng did not agree to attack Manila immediately. He felt that the time was ripe. First, Denglai had to face Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch, and it was not appropriate to go to war with the Spaniards again.

At the end of November, Su Buheng assembled a fleet and sailed towards Manila with a mighty fleet. The ships they hijacked reached twenty-one.

Most of them are Fujian ships, and the crew members on these ships are temporarily detained. The First Fleet is more polite to these Chinese merchant ships. As long as they do not resist, they will not do anything out of line. Many of these merchant ships are not owned by Zheng Zhilong, but they must pay high taxes to Zheng Zhilong when they go to sea.

For these merchant ships, Su Buheng recruited them as the commander of the Shandong Navy's First Fleet. As long as they could work in Denglai, their monthly wages would not be less than four taels.

Going to sea is a hard work, and it is easy to have unexpected jobs, so the wages are often higher. However, Fujian is not like Denglai, where these sailors only have two or three taels a month.

Since many of the sailors in the First Fleet are from Fujian and Guangdong, it is very easy to instigate, and the captured sailors do not feel a sense of distance.

Most of the sailors agreed to contribute to the First Fleet, and most of them also agreed to work in Shandong. Only some were unwilling to leave their hometowns. Su Buheng promised that after the mission was over, they would send them back to Fujian and give them a sum of money.

With the efforts of these sailors, the driving of those captive ships is not a problem.

After Su Buheng arrived in Manila at the end of the year, the fleet was displayed outside the port, and merchant ships sailed into Manila for trade and supply.

This approach made the Spanish feel relieved. Su Buheng did this and did not trust the Spanish very much, for fear that the fleet would be attacked by the Spanish.

Everything is possible in this world, and you have to be careful of this. Supplies can be shipped out by merchant ships and then moved to warships.

After three months of sea looting, the First Fleet had consumed all other supplies except sufficient ammunition.

The arrival of a huge trading fleet composed of nineteen merchant ships excited the Spanish Governor, who brought a large amount of Chinese goods.

Due to the plunder of the First Fleet, few merchant ships arrived in Manila within three months. A large amount of goods poured in for a while, and no difficulties were brought to Manila's funds. Every year, the Spanish had at least two sailboats loaded with silver, and set off from Central and South America to Manila.

These silver are used for trade with China. Sometimes the Spaniards transport tens of millions of taels of silver to the Far East a year, and sometimes only a few million taels a year, depending on the trade situation.

The trade lasted nearly a week before the two sides settled the payment. Among the forty-one merchant ships, all Chinese goods were sold directly in Manila, with a total value of 6.5 million taels. This was the most Chinese goods that the Spaniards bought, which was equivalent to handing over most of the Dutch part to them.

Pepper, cotton, mahogany, melaton, ivory, rhinoceros horn and other goods can be purchased from the Philippines, some are produced by the Philippines, and some are exchanged from the Indochina Peninsula and India.

It was the time when Luzon cotton was produced. In previous years, Fujian merchants had to buy a lot of cotton from here, but no one bought it this year because the merchant ships were intercepted by the First Fleet.

He wanted to have cotton, regardless of whether there were seeds or not. Wenbangliang filled the nineteen merchant ships, but he loaded all profitable goods on the ship.

Wen Bangliang is very proficient in the sea trade market. In addition, he has already prepared goods in Manila. The two sides completed the trade within seven days. The fleet purchased about two million goods in Manila, and the fleet also supplied fresh water and food.

After everything was ready, Su Buheng prepared to return to Qingdao. This time he led the fleet out to plunder. He did not go to the ports in Fujian and Taiwan to make trouble, but chose to plunder merchant ships. He did not want to be too rash and confronted Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch. Attacking the ports means a big risk and it is easy to have accidents.

And looting on the route can not only hijack merchant ships, but also warships.

But the problem arose. Su Buheng divided the fleet into two halves and squatted on the sea for three months, but only robbed three frigates, and they didn't meet a single warship. The three frigates were only more than 500 tons.

In the Nanyang area, the Dutch did not need to send warships to protect merchant ships, because there was no need to worry about being intercepted by Zheng Zhilong's power.

The First Fleet plundered at sea for three months and never failed. No one escaped all the robbed ships. Three months later, I believe the Zheng Group and the Dutch should have reacted.

Therefore, Su Buheng decided to return from the east of Taiwan Island without going to the Taiwan Strait. If you walk through the Taiwan Strait, you will easily be intercepted. If you are not afraid of it, the fleet will not be easy to take care of with thirty-two robbed ships, so it is safer to go back to Qingdao on the east coast of Taiwan.

"What should I do here in the business?" Wen Bangliang asked Su Buheng, "Franji people will not let us garrison."

"We are going to return to Qingdao before spring. Manila's business will withdraw first!" Su Buheng decided, "Since the Franchise does not abide by the agreement, we will first let the American fleet submit a protest to their king. If they do not abide by the agreement, they will give us an excuse to start a war."

"Okay!" Wen Bangliang agreed. To be honest, he didn't like to stay in Manila. First of all, he was insecure in Manila, and secondly, he had nothing to do in Manila. After all, Denlai had not yet gained a dominant position on the southeast coast, and the trade to Luzon may only be concentrated once or twice a year.

Two days later, the mall withdrew from Manila and returned to Qingdao with the fleet. This made the Philippine Governor very proud, and the Ming people were forced away by him.

Su Buheng led the fleet back from the eastern waters of Taiwan.

At this time, a war broke out in the Taiwan Strait due to his plunder.

Seeing that their merchant ships did not arrive at the location or return as scheduled, and that many of them were like this, they all targeted the suspects.

Both sides are old enemies. Last year, they just ended the war, but the Dutch fled in a panic. This year, the Dutch sent a fleet to retaliate against Zhao Yan, but they were beaten to annihilation. However, they still have naval power in Batavia, and their local governments supported them with eleven warships.

This made the Dutch ambition again, but when it comes to attacking Shandong, the Dutch did not dare to take action for a while because they could not afford to lose money and had to keep warships to guard against Zheng Zhilong.

Because several merchant ships were robbed, Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch were both angry, but it caused a misunderstanding. The two sides fought in the Taiwan Strait during the New Year.

Zheng Zhilong sent more than 100 warships, fifty of which were super warships. The Dutch sent sixteen warships and five express ships.

The Dutch looked at the huge fleet and felt a little numb. They walked around the back of the Fujian Navy and tried to set fire to the ship, but failed.

The Fujian navy rushed forward, and the Dutch fleet ran while fighting. But they did not have an advantage in speed, and their navy was very similar to the Spaniards, with the cannons very close range, so they also used the tactic of first slapped the opponent and then stepped forward to capture them.

During the pursuit, a Dutch warship was pulled by a hook rope, and two child and mother ships rushed towards the Dutch warship under artillery fire. One of them was overturned on the spot, and the other child ship successfully nailed the Dutch warship.

The fire began to spread! At this time, several more children and mother ships rushed on, and in a short while, the Dutch warship had already ignited a raging fire.

After seeing this, the Dutch fleet fled in a panic again.

The Dutch lacked the means to quickly sink the opponent, which gave Zheng Zhilong's numerical advantage a place. If the Dutch fought in close combat, they would soon be annihilated. If it was a gun battle, it would not be known when it would be fought!

The Zheng Group defeated the Dutch again and once again demonstrated its overlord strength in the southeastern waters!

However, Zheng Zhilong was in a bad mood this first month! Everything was because of Zhao Yan.

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!