Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1068: Sending Troops to Xiaoliuqiu

Xiamen, Fujian.

Hong Chengchou looked towards Xiaoliuqiu from Xiamen Island, but he couldn't see Xiaoliuqiu from where he was, as Xiaoliuqiu was nearly 700 miles away from Xiamen. The only islands he could barely see were the Kinmen Islands, and from the Kinmen Islands to the east were the Penghu Islands, and beyond the Penghu Islands was Xiaoliuqiu.

Since Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao were sent to the capital, the originally powerful Zheng Group fell apart. On the surface, Zheng Zhiguan took over Zheng Zhilong's position, but in fact, Zheng Zhiguan did not have the influence and appeal of Zheng Zhilong at all. The reason why he was able to replace Zheng Zhilong was simply because he had surrendered to Hong Chengchou in advance and betrayed Zheng Zhilong.

Moreover, even if Zheng Zhiguan had this ability, Hong Chengchou would not let him succeed. In Hong Chengchou's view, the purpose of using Zheng Zhiguan was only to stabilize those parties in the Zheng Group who had feelings for the Zheng family, and also some forces within the Zheng family.

To put it bluntly, Zheng Zhiguan was just a tool. Moreover, after Zheng Zhiguan took over Zheng Zhilong's position, Hong Chengchou sent people to secretly spread the news that Zheng Zhiguan had already defected to him. In addition, because of Zheng Zhilong's resignation, except for a small number of people in the Zheng Group, most people did not take Zheng Zhiguan seriously at all. Some even hated Zheng Zhiguan for betraying Zheng Zhilong.

This was exactly what Hong Chengchou was happy to see. At the same time, Hong Chengchou also won over many old members of the Zheng family group, including the generals who were suppressed by Zheng Zhilong. In this way, Hong Chengchou easily achieved the goal of dividing the Zheng family group and firmly grasped Zheng Zhilong's power step by step in the hands of the court.

Today is the day to send troops to Xiaoliuqiu. After solving the problem of Zheng Zhilong and reorganizing the navy and army of the Zheng Group. After stabilizing the situation in Fujian, Hong Chengchou began to prepare to take action against Xiaoliuqiu.

In order to ensure the successful capture of Xiaoliuqiu, Hong Chengchou made a series of arrangements, mobilizing hundreds of naval warships that originally belonged to the Zheng Group, 15,000 naval troops, and another 10,000 land troops, totaling 25,000 people to attack Xiaoliuqiu on a large scale.

From this point of view, Hong Chengchou can be said to be fighting a rabbit with all his might. He had long received intelligence about the Dutch entrenched in Xiaoliuqiu. Although the Dutch built two castles in the south of Xiaoliuqiu, which supported each other and were extremely strong, the Dutch did not have many troops in Xiaoliuqiu. There were less than a thousand Dutch troops in Fort Zeelandia, and slightly more in Fort Anthony. The total number of the two was only more than 2,700.

Mobilizing a powerful force of 25,000 to attack the Dutch stronghold of 2,700 people, it can be said that Hong Chengchou not only did not underestimate the Dutch, but also took them very seriously and used all his strength.

Hong Chengchou was a man of both civil and military talents, and he was always farsighted in his work. He was well aware of the importance of this battle, and what it meant to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he did not underestimate the Dutch, and even though the Dutch were much fewer in number than his side, he still fought with all his might.

As for the leading generals, after much consideration, Hong Chengchou chose Shi Daxuan, Shi Lang, Hong Xu and Gan Hui to lead the troops to attack Xiaoliuqiu. Among them, Shi Daxuan was the main general, and Shi Lang, Hong Xu and Gan Hui were deputy generals. They would set out from Xiamen and first go to the Penghu Islands. After taking the Penghu Islands, they would use them as a base to land in Xiaoliuqiu and fight.

Hong Chengchou was stationed in Xiamen, commanding Zheng Zhibao, Chen Ba, Zheng Lian, Zheng Cai and others. If the fighting on the front line was unfavorable, he could continue to send reinforcements to Xiaoliuqiu in the shortest time possible to ensure that nothing could go wrong.

However, in Hong Chengchou's view, no matter how good the Dutch were at fighting, they were still too few in number. It would not be difficult for him to capture Xiaoliuqiu with ten times the number of troops. At present, he was only considering how to solve the problem of Xiaoliuqiu as soon as possible, and to use this attack on Xiaoliuqiu to further integrate Zheng Zhilong's power and completely eliminate internal hidden dangers.

Shi Daxuan was in high spirits as the main general this time. He himself did not expect that one day he would be so powerful.

Although Shi Daxuan was an old man of the Eighteenth Zhi and one of the most capable generals under Zheng Zhilong, the problem was that Shi Daxuan had not lived a happy life in recent years. Since he was not a member of the Zheng family and he was very capable, not only in fighting but also in training, Zheng Zhilong often used him in a way that was both useful and defensive. Not only did he not give him actual military power, he also deliberately suppressed him in terms of military rank and position, which made Shi Daxuan extremely dissatisfied, but he could do nothing about it.

But no one expected that Zheng Zhilong would end in this way. After Zheng Zhilong got into trouble, Shi Daxuan realized that this matter was actually related to himself, or to his youngest son Shi Xian, who he always thought had no future.

Shi Daxuan learned about all this afterwards and figured out what Shi Xian had done behind his back. Although Shi Daxuan was a little angry about Shi Xian's actions at first, he was relieved when he thought about it carefully. After all, Zheng Zhilong had been unfair to him, and he had always resented Zheng Zhilong in his heart. It was just that he compromised because of their previous relationship and Shi Daxuan was getting older and frustrated. But this does not mean that Shi Daxuan really has no ideas. Now that Zheng Zhilong has collapsed and the Zheng Group has reshuffled, he has obtained the status and position he had always wanted because of his son Shi Xian. How could Shi Daxuan refuse?
Afterwards, Hong Chengchou did not treat Shi's father and son unfairly. He not only gave Shi Xian a good official position, but also met Shi Daxuan's long-standing needs. Now Shi Daxuan has been officially promoted from the previous Anyuan School to the General of the State, and finally stepped into the ranks of generals. Moreover, his garrison position was replaced by a higher position of Lieutenant General, which made Shi Daxuan very happy.

Finally, Shi Daxuan got what he wanted. Moreover, Hong Chengchou valued his eldest son Shi Lang very much and recommended him a garrison position, which was equivalent to Shi Daxuan's previous military position. This time when attacking Xiaoliuqiu, Hong Chengchou directly appointed Shi Daxuan as the main general, and let Shi Lang, Hong Xu and Gan Hui be his deputy generals. Shi Lang would have been fine, but the latter two had always been superior to him in terms of qualifications and military positions. However, Hong Chengchou valued him so much, how could Shi Daxuan not give his all out of gratitude? Boarding the warship, feeling the sea breeze blowing in his face and the battle flag waving vigorously on the ship, Shi Daxuan's heart surged.

As far as the eye can see, hundreds of warships cover the sea, and countless soldiers on the warships are ready to set off.

At this moment, Shi Lang walked over quickly, clasped his fists with a military salute and said to Shi Daxuan: "General, everything is ready!"

His eyes fell on his most proud son, Shi Daxuan nodded with satisfaction, waved his hand and asked him to stand aside and wait quietly.

After a moment, a cannon shot sounded in the distance. When the sound came, Shi Daxuan waved his hand and shouted, "The auspicious time has arrived. Pass on my order! Hoist the sails! Set sail!"

"Yes!"

The personal soldiers beside him responded loudly and then gave the departure signal, which was transmitted to the entire fleet through the flagship he was on in the form of a flag. As the signal was sent out, the fleet that had been waiting quietly just now suddenly became excited, and countless sailors were running busy on the ships. As the sails were raised one after another, the warships slowly sailed out of the port, and the pitch-black mass covered the sky and headed towards Penghu.

Hong Chengchou watched all this from a high point on the shore, stroking his beard and nodding his head with great satisfaction. With such a fleet and such military power, if he couldn't take Xiaoliuqiu, he would have to give up his post as governor. Behind him, Zheng Zhiwan and others were also watching this scene, and everyone was filled with emotion.

After setting off, Shi Daxuan's fleet headed straight for the Kinmen Islands, but did not stay in the Kinmen Islands. Instead, it directly passed through the waters of the Kinmen Islands and continued to move towards the Penghu Islands.

Shi Daxuan was born a pirate and had fought at sea for half his life, so he was no stranger to Xiaoliuqiu. He certainly knew that he had to take Penghu before he could take Xiaoliuqiu. Penghu was the gateway to Xiaoliuqiu, so only by taking Penghu could he solve his worries. He could use Penghu as a forward base to land in Xiaoliuqiu and launch the subsequent attack.

The Ming Dynasty and the Dutch had fought a war as early as the Tianqi period. At that time, Penghu was first occupied by the Dutch. The Dutch used Penghu as a springboard to launch a military operation to attack Xiamen and Quanzhou, and this military operation also caused heavy losses to the Ming Dynasty.

At the insistence of Emperor Tianqi, Nan Juyi, the then governor of Fujian, was ordered to fight back, and the war between Ming and the Netherlands officially broke out. At the beginning of the war, Nan Juyi was clever and intended to raid the Dutch who came to negotiate under the pretext of peace talks, in order to achieve the effect of decapitation. But he failed and the Dutch escaped. After that, Emperor Tianqi was furious and ordered Nan Juyi to reorganize the army and fight again. Nan Juyi had no choice but to bite the bullet and mobilize the army to build a navy to officially fight the Dutch. After several battles, Ming won the victory after paying a certain price, and finally expelled the Dutch from Penghu and recovered Penghu.

Now, more than 20 years have passed since the previous war. Thanks to Zheng Zhilong, the Dutch, who had been expelled from Penghu due to defeat, have returned. Not only did they come back, they also occupied Xiaoliuqiu and, despite the opposition of the Ming Dynasty, directly built a fortress on the island, intending to make this place their territory.

This time, the attack on Xiaoliuqiu would first require the capture of Penghu, for which Shi Daxuan had made all the necessary preparations. Just two days after setting out from Xiamen, the fleet arrived at the outskirts of the Penghu Islands. For safety reasons, Shi Daxuan did not immediately order an attack on Penghu, but instead sent a vanguard ship to Penghu to investigate and understand the actual situation in Penghu.

It was originally thought that it would take some effort to take over Penghu. After all, the Dutch were not ordinary pirates. The Dutch’s power at sea was not weak. Moreover, as the gateway to Little Ryukyu, Penghu was an important place. The Dutch would inevitably resist in Penghu.

But the vanguard ship soon reported that no Dutch fleet was found in the Penghu Islands, and there was no sign of Dutch alert in the entire Penghu. Upon hearing this news, Shi Daxuan was surprised and happy. On the one hand, he sent a fleet to guard around Penghu to prevent the Dutch from playing tricks, and on the other hand, he decided to immediately send a fleet to land in Penghu and take it over first.

As the order was given, the fleet was divided into two groups, one of which went directly to Penghu. In just half a day, Penghu fell into Shi Daxuan's hands, but the expected Dutch warships did not appear, which made Shi Daxuan happy but also secretly alert.

(End of this chapter)