Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 328 A Display of Military Might Stirs Up Europe (Part 1)
In early September, the South China Sea was still unbearably hot, and the Dutch colonial bandits were busy robbing and looting everywhere as usual.

If history had continued as it was, these colonial plunderers would have continued to loot this place for another three hundred years!

However, the Ming Empire had already risen to power, and their days of wanton plunder were about to come to an end.

After resting in Luzon, Zheng Zhilong deployed his forces and headed south, spreading out like a giant net towards Java.

He now commands not just over two thousand warships, but also over two thousand small merchant ships from the Luzon and Brunei regions, which he has brought with him almost all of them.

In other words, he now has nearly five thousand ships of various sizes under his command. If such a large number of ships were spread out, the area would be four or five hundred miles wide. No fleet that is covered by this giant net would be able to escape.

The Dutch colonial raiders never expected that the Ming Empire would suddenly send troops to Southeast Asia. Therefore, their armed merchant ships and even warships were still running around everywhere.

As a result, on the way to Java alone, Zheng Zhilong seized three Dutch fleets, taking more than thirty armed merchant ships and six escorting warships, along with their cargo and people.

At this time, a fleet of ships, totaling more than ten armed merchant ships and five or six warships, was docked at the two port docks south of Batavia.

When the Dutch discovered the Ming Dynasty fleet, nearly five thousand ships of various sizes had already swarmed over them, completely surrounding the sea off Batavia.

Zheng Zhilong didn't waste any more words with these colonial bandits.

After he led his fleet to the waters off Batavia, he ordered his men to rest for one night. The next morning, around 7 a.m., as the sun rose, he set up his formation to prepare for the attack.

This guy has read some military books; the formation he set up was a classic rectangular formation.

The so-called rectangular formation is not a complete rectangle, but rather four square formations on the left, right, and rear, forming an open rectangle with the opening facing the direction of the enemy.

The four formations he arranged on the left and right each consisted of more than 300 medium-sized Zhenyuan warships, followed by more than 300 small Zhenyuan warships, and then two formations of more than 600 medium-sized Zhiyuan warships. Behind them, the four formations lined up in a row consisted of more than 500 small Zhiyuan merchant ships.

The Dutch colonial bandits were dumbfounded by the formation. From the port and fortress of Batavia, all that could be seen in front and to the sides were dense black dots, stretching as far as the eye could see.

What exactly was the Ming Dynasty trying to do?
They did send people to negotiate.

As a result, no one received their messengers at all.

Their commander then ordered a translator to leave them with a message: surrender or face war!
Surrender is, of course, out of the question.

They are the current maritime superpowers; how could they possibly surrender to a Far Eastern native?

At this point, they still looked down on the Ming Empire.

They even considered forcing the Ming Empire to surrender!

This is not a joke.

In the sixth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, these guys mobilized more than ten warships and rushed straight to the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, hoping to force the Ming Empire to surrender in one fell swoop!
Now that they saw the Ming Empire's ships increasing in number, they weren't arrogant enough to launch a war against the Ming Empire with just a dozen or so warships, as was the case in history.

However, it was absolutely impossible to get them to surrender to the Ming Empire.

The Ming Empire's nearly 5,000 ships this time are indeed quite frightening. However, it's not that they don't have that many ships. This is the time when they are at their most powerful. They have more than 15,000 ocean-going ships alone!
Therefore, four or five thousand ships were not invincible in their eyes, and it was impossible to frighten them into surrendering with just that number of ships.

Zheng Zhilong never intended to frighten the Dutch into surrendering.

Right now, he only had one word on his mind: do it.

Seeing that the formation was almost complete, he immediately announced loudly, "Youzhen, all warships, go up and fire two volleys at once."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youzhen issued the order without hesitation.

With a wave of command flags, the eight square formations on the left, right, and front immediately transformed into eight long dragons, heading straight for the port docks and fortress gun emplacements in the center.

Upon seeing this, Dutch commander Putmans did not hesitate to order all artillery to be loaded with ammunition and ready to fire.

These days, the sea is like a primeval jungle. Even if two ferocious beasts meet, they will fight without hesitation and there is no need to be polite.

Whoever is polite will get beaten up!
Soon, the two sides opened fire. The roar of cannons was continuous and deafening.

The Dutch actually had quite a few cannons. There were more than a hundred cannons on their forts and gun emplacements on both sides, plus cannons on more than ten armed merchant ships and several warships, which added up to nearly five hundred cannons.

That number of cannons would be more than enough to wipe out a small indigenous country.

Unfortunately, they were now facing the rising Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Empire's fleet had as many as 70,000 to 80,000 cannons!
They fired a volley, and the enemy's shells rained down like raindrops.

These guys thought the Ming Empire was like them, with less than one-tenth the number of warships.

Who would have thought that most of their four or five thousand ships were warships!
They didn't have that many warships; they never imagined that the Ming Empire would have so many warships.

They were utterly ravaged by the bombardment. The dozen or so armed merchant ships and warships were practically made of paper, riddled with holes by the shells. The crew members were so terrified that they abandoned ship and fled frantically onto the dock.

As for the fortress and gun emplacements, the shells can't destroy them, but the problem is that no one can stand outside them. Anyone who stands outside will be smashed to pieces by the rain of shells!
Before the two thousand-plus warships had even finished firing a single salvo, the port, docks, and fortresses were already in complete disarray.

To be on the safe side, Zheng Zhilong ordered all warships to fire two volleys simultaneously.

In fact, the enemy's artillery had already fallen silent after just one round.

However, he did not order a halt to the bombardment.

After two rounds, the dozen or so armed merchant ships and warships docked at the port had all been reduced to fragments and sunk to the bottom of the sea, and the fortresses and gun emplacements were almost submerged by their shells.

Zheng Zhilong carefully scanned the area through his binoculars before announcing loudly, "Order Zhihu and Zhibao to lead the musketeers ashore."

With a wave of command flags, Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao led more than two thousand small Zhiyuan merchant ships forward without hesitation.

This immediately terrified the Dutch, who raised the white flag and surrendered.

There was nothing they could do; their cannons had all fallen silent, and the enemy's fast ships had already docked at the port. Those dense black dots were swarming down like ants.

The Ming army had at least 100,000 musketeers rushing down, while they only had a little over a thousand men. How could they possibly fight them?
Batavia was taken just like that!
Zheng Zhilong was not in a hurry to go back. He actually ordered all the ships to set up a huge Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation in the waters north of Batavia, waiting for the remaining ships of the Dutch East India Company to come and deliver them!
So, would the Dutch East India Company's remaining ships still be foolish enough to come and deliver them?

This is for sure.

The sea is different from the land.

On land, the roads are interconnected in all directions; as long as you have legs, you can go anywhere.

Although the sea is also a vast and interconnected route, you need a boat to travel everywhere.

Along the way, he had spread a huge net, capturing all the Dutch ships he saw. They were also equipped with a large number of telescopes, so the Dutch ships were surrounded by his ships before they even saw them.

When he attacked Batavia, the attack was overwhelming, and the Dutch ships had no chance of escaping.

In other words, the Dutch didn't have any ships to send messages to other fleets.

Other fleets, receiving no information, will naturally come to Batavia to load and unload cargo as usual.

Therefore, he didn't need to worry at all that the remaining ships of the Dutch East India Company wouldn't come; he only needed to spread out the giant net and wait quietly.

Of course, he waited foolishly.

As soon as Batavia was captured, he ordered the swift boats to rush back to the capital to report the victory.

Whether or not to set up a trap in Batavia, or for how long to set up a trap here, that would require consulting the current emperor.

(End of this chapter)