The Dutch's retreat in East Asia is inevitable, but how to gain more benefits from the Dutch in East Asia is the issue Wen Bangliang needs to consider next.

Wen Bangliang held a meeting, at which the team staff and officers from each ship participated.

The result of the meeting was to use the captives in hand to exchange for the Dutch colonies in Taiwan and Indonesian archipelago. The captives of this war reached more than 7,000 Dutch people.

In addition to the Dutch captured in previous naval battles, there have been tens of thousands of prisoners.

Even if the Netherlands is a maritime power, it cannot tolerate the losses of tens of thousands of people. These people are experienced sailors and valuable resources.

As a country that relies on the sea to make a living, it is absolutely impossible to tolerate the losses of these tens of thousands of sailors in East Asia. If they can be redeemed, they will definitely be at all costs.

Shandong had also offered redemption conditions to the Dutch, but the conditions were too high that Batavia Company could not bear.

Batavia is a private company and does not represent the Netherlands. However, the shareholders of this company are very powerful in the Netherlands, so Batavia can easily get support from the Dutch Navy.

The warships of Batavia were all composed of the Dutch Navy, but they were not the Dutch Navy in name, but the private maritime power of Batavia.

Because once as the Dutch navy, it cannot attack Spain and Portuguese colonies everywhere in East Asia. This is an agreement agreed by European maritime powers.

The Batavia company did not feel sorry for losing some sailors before, and the Dutch Navy did not feel sorry for it, after all, the number did not reach that large number.

And the redemption price is so high, who can afford it?

But after this battle, the Shandong Navy captured more than 10,000 Dutch taxes, which is definitely a number that makes people want to vomit blood.

These people were all sent by the Dutch Navy to East Asia to assist the Batavia Company in resisting the entire force of the Shandong Navy, and they were gone if they were gone.

This is definitely an extremely huge blow to the Dutch Navy.

As for a maritime power, excellent warships and experienced sailors are essential. Unless like the Shandong Navy, having too many artillery skills, can the sailors be compensated for.

The biggest problem facing the Shandong Navy is that there is too little experienced sailors, and it takes a certain amount of time to train themselves.

The ready-made ones can only be recruited from Fujian and Guangdong.

Fujian and Guangdong are two provinces with few large-scale sea navigation activities in the Ming Dynasty. Except for these two provinces, almost no groups in other provinces are engaged in large-scale sea navigation trade activities.

At this point, the Dutch had no choice. It was their only choice to use the Batavian colony and the ransom to exchange for their sailors.

If you don’t agree, Shandong will not let people go and mine. At worst, it’s just that it will take more energy to attack Taiwan and Indonesian archipelago in a few years.

However, for the Nanyang team, the most important thing at present is to get back the spoils of the past six months. How to negotiate with the Dutch is also the military affairs.

The fleet, which was originally about to set off in early October, was dragged until mid-October to set sail.

The fleet is very large, consisting of seven warships, plus more than 170 large and small merchant ships, including 73 merchant ships with a displacement of 800 tons, and 106 below 800 tons.

In addition, there were also eleven disabled warships, eight of which were captured, and the other three were salvaged, and they had to be towed back to Shandong before they could be repaired.

The other ten warships that are easier to repair will be kept in Palembang for installation.

With such a large fleet, most of the sailors were Dutch, and the Nanyang team did not have enough people to drive such a large fleet back.

In addition to the more than 7,000 Dutch soldiers captured, nearly 5,000 Dutch people were also captured, and these Dutch people were sailors on merchant ships.

A small part of these sailors belonged to Batavia, and most of them were ships organized by other Dutch merchants, and they also participated in East Asian trade.

The plunder of the Shandong Navy is different from that of ordinary pirates. Ordinary pirates don’t want people, while the Shandong Navy wants money and people.

Hijacking these people is first used to drive a schooner back to Shandong, and secondly, it can be used to take them to mine. There are many benefits.

When the Dutch drove the ship, the Marines kept checking on people and always let the ship follow the pilot ship. The warships were guarding the surroundings, so naturally no problems arise.

The Dutch's maritime power in East Asia was completely lost, and the Spaniards and Portuguese were also half-dead, and were not afraid to emerge everywhere by the Dutch.

The maritime power of the Zheng Group is in a state of not having large-scale oceans. Although the pirate ships have sent a lot of them outside, their combat power is weaker, and there will be no danger if they encounter them.

So Wen Bangliang went north this time and passed through the Taiwan Strait in a swagger. Along the way, the Portuguese and the Spanish all took a breath when they saw such a large fleet.

So many merchant ships are robbed at first glance, all of which are Dutch merchant ship styles.

What made them even more stunned were the eleven Dutch warships dragged behind them, all of which were warships! The Spaniards only had more than twenty warships in East Asia, and the Portuguese were almost the same.

Zheng Zhilong naturally received the news, after all, the fleet was dragging eleven Dutch warships and did not move very quickly.

General Gan Hui, who was under his command, came to report what he saw, which scared Zheng Zhilong. He once thought that Gan Hui lied to report military information.

"There are really so many merchant ships?" Zheng Zhilong asked several times and received Gan Hui's very affirmative answer. Zheng Zhilong had to believe this fact.

"The Shandong Navy has a bigger appetite than the Dutch when he came to the southeast!" Zheng Zhilong said in a panic. As a little pirate who cooperated with the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong also participated in the robbery of the Ming merchant ships.

That time, the Dutch swallowed more than 200 Ming merchant ships, and Zheng Zhilong made a fortune in it. Later, Li Dan suddenly died. Zheng Zhilong took over Taiwan's industry and became the leader in the Southeast.

The reason why Zheng Zhilong became the overlord of the Southeast was because of Zheng Zhilong's rebellion in Fujian that the Ming Dynasty could not suppress him for a while. After recruiting him, Zheng Zhilong was given the supply of manpower and material resources from the Ming Dynasty, and then he rose to become the overlord of the Southeast.

After Zheng Zhilong became the overlord of the Southeast, the Dutch constrained the robbery of the Ming merchant ships, because several naval battles ended with the Dutch retreating.

"Brother, why don't we snatch them? I've seen it clearly. There are only seven large Western ships, and the others are merchant ships, which can't run fast." Gan Hui suggested with his eyes shining, "The things on the ship are worth at least 20 million taels."

"Not that much. Most of the Dutch goods were from the Ming Dynasty and from South China and Japan. Many of them were worthless things." Zheng Zhilong said coldly, "Do you think these ships are so easy to grab? Although they only have seven large Western ships, if we don't dispatch one or two hundred warships, we don't want to eat this batch of goods. When our ship is transferred, they will have left long ago."

"In addition, if we steal their ships, the Shandong army will not be able to fight to Fujian within a few months. At that time, no matter how much money we have, there is no place to spend." Zheng Zhilong scolded: "You better take care of your little bastards and don't provoke Shandong ships. You can't give the Shandong army any excuses to send troops."

Gan Hui couldn't help but smile awkwardly as he heard the scolding.

For Zheng Zhilong, the things that the Nanyang team grabbed this time were indeed not very valuable. The goods in the Dutch merchant ships were mostly from the Ming Dynasty. The goods from the Ming Dynasty were expensive to sell, and they would be cheaper when they were snatched back. At the same time, the goods of the Dutch were mostly spices, deer skin, vines, rice and other things produced in the colonies, and there was no market in the Ming Dynasty.

As for swallowing these ships, Zheng Zhilong dared not do it.

Not only are he afraid of the powerful army that Zhao Yan has, but his navy also has problems. Zheng Zhilong's navy has always used group fighting tactics in naval battles, and the ships are generally small and not fast.

Although it is known as one hundred thousand navy masters, does it take no time to mobilize these hundred thousand navy masters?

After the mobilization was completed, the others had already walked away. The boat was missing and it was almost the same for death. Zheng Zhilong still understood this very clearly.

Before those Western ships are built, there should be no conflict with the Shandong Navy. At the same time, Zheng Zhilong is still actively contacting Chongzhen and striving to be a shield by land.

But Zheng Zhilong did not place all his hopes on Chongzhen. The facts proved that Chongzhen was not a big deal in Zhao Yan's eyes. To make clear the king, he would clear the king's side, and to return the power to the people directly, which was equivalent to abdicating in disguise.

Zheng Zhilong cannot accurately predict how it will develop in the future, but Zhao Yan's unjust intention has been revealed. According to Zheng Zhilong's speculation, the reason why Zhao Yan did not replace him was entirely because his troops were too tight.

Before the Qing dynasty, Zhao Yan sent troops to fight against Jianlu and attacked Japan. He even personally fought against the bandits in the west, and no longer had enough troops and energy to carry out the transformation of the tripod.

Zheng Zhilong’s speculation is indeed very correct.

Before Zhao Yan eliminated the Qing Dynasty, he was unwilling to fall into the quagmire of civil war. Civil war was not so easy to fight. There were too many issues to worry about in fighting civil war. After the territory was expanded, it required more energy to manage it, but the management staff was not that sufficient.

The random expansion of personnel will only allow [***] to grow in the collective.

Zhao Yan has always been very cautious about the expansion of officials.

...Wenbangliang passed Fujian in a swagger all the way. After more than a month of sailing, he finally returned to Qingdao, Shandong in late November.

Zhao Yan received a report from the fly-scissors when Wen Bangliang was halfway.

When Zhao Yan opened the report, he was stunned for a long time.

The warships of the Dutch East India Company actually lost forty-two more ships? In addition to the ten Dutch warships that were annihilated in Japan, the number of warships of the East India Company lost fifty-two. The previous fifteen warships were lost, and the total number of warships lost by the Dutch East India Company answered 67!

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!