Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

When Cohen returned to Batavia, the docks were already packed with people.

Dutch East India Company merchants, officers, clerks, captains, Javanese laborers, and driven native servants were all waiting at the dock.

Several cannons roared in salute.

White smoke spread along the sea surface.

"Long live the Governor!"

"Long live the East India Company!"

Long live the Netherlands!

The shouts came one after another.

Cohen stood at the bow of the ship, wearing a black coat, and a smile began to appear on his usually stern face.

The victory in the Banda Islands was glorious enough that, after monopolizing the spice trade in the entire Southeast Asia, the company's profits would at least double the following year.

Those islands were once chaotic, stubborn, and unwilling to sell nutmeg only to the Dutch. Now, the old order on the islands has been plowed by blood and fire; the remaining population has been dispersed, slaughtered, imprisoned, and relocated; land can be redistributed; spice trees can be re-registered; and all the fruit will flow to company warehouses.

This is victory.

In Cohen's view, business without swords is nothing but begging.

If swords and sabers cannot bring about a monopoly, they are merely a waste.

At the dock, a senior company representative greeted them with a broad smile.

"Your Excellency, Batavia has been waiting for you for a long time."

"If you directors were to hear the details of Banda's matter, you would surely be overjoyed."

Another officer also complimented:

"From this day forward, no one in the Spice Islands will dare to defy the company. Your Excellency will surely be promoted to the company's board of directors."

Upon hearing this, Cohen smiled. After conquering the Spice Islands, becoming a director of the East India Company was a real possibility. The thought of the enormous profits that would bring him filled even Cohen with excitement.

"Gentlemen, victory belongs to every Dutchman, but this is not the end, but only the beginning."

Everyone was taken aback.

Cohen did not stop.

He headed straight for Batavia Castle. Cohen was never one to be content with simply guarding the warehouses.

His appetite was enormous; he wanted more than just spices. In the Far East, the most valuable things were spices and Chinese silk.

……

That night, a meeting of governors was held at Batavia Castle.

The long table was filled with people on both sides.

There were high-ranking corporate clerks, fleet commanders, army officers, secretaries, and priests.

A nautical chart was spread out on the table.

Heading north from Batavia, past Banten, east of the Strait of Malacca, off the coast of Borneo, and west of Luzon, the route continues to the waters off Macau, Penghu, Taiwan, and Fujian.

A few oil lamps shone on the nautical chart, the light and shadow swaying with the wind, as if the sea itself were rising and falling on the table.

Cohen stood in front of the table and pointed to the location of Macau with his finger.

"The Portuguese occupy Macau."

His voice was calm and cold.

"They obtained silk, porcelain, and raw silk from China, and then transported them to Japan, Malacca, and Goa."

"They have weakened, yet they still hold China's trade by the throat, while Spain has now completely declined, and it's time to swallow this piece of fat meat."

A representative from a trade delegation said:

"Your Excellency, Macau has Portuguese fortifications, and the Chinese are tacitly approving of this. If we attack Macau, we may anger the Ming Dynasty."

Cohen gave him a cold look.

"If the Ming Dynasty were willing to trade fairly with us, why would we need to resort to force?"

The man immediately shut up.

No one in the meeting room called out the statement.

In the company's words, fair trade always meant giving the Dutch the ports, prices, and monopolies they wanted.

Cohen's finger then moved from Macau to Nanri Island, north of Taiwan.

"And now, the East has another problem."

"Dongning Kingdom".

When he uttered the name, many people in the conference room frowned.

Jacques Spex's eyelids twitched; at the last meeting, Cohen had tried to put pressure on Dongning, but it was his subordinate, Deakins, who managed to persuade him to back down.

The Netherlands is already making a lot of money by trading in Danshui City. He has even handed over his business in Japan to others and personally went south to take charge of trade with Dongning Kingdom.

Moreover, as he made more and more trips to Danshui City, he became increasingly less supportive of taking military action against Dongning.

"Your Excellency, this is a list of Dongning Kingdom ships that I have collected over the past period. Please take a look."

Jacques Spex handed Cohen a file that he had prepared beforehand.

"Your Excellency, the strength of the Dongning Kingdom should not be underestimated. Please consider this carefully."

Cohen took the file but didn't pay much attention to it, opening it casually. However, he was immediately stunned by its contents.

"Mr. Spex, are you kidding me? What do you mean by the other side having nearly two hundred gunboats, more than six large warships, and more than a thousand cannons weighing 12 pounds or more?"

Mr. Spex, do you know what this writing means?

Cohen almost laughed out of anger at the information in his hand. A pirate force of the Ming Dynasty, which had only been established for three years, where did it get so much wealth? Did it think it was the illegitimate son of the Ming emperor?

Seeing Cohen's expression, Spex shrugged helplessly. "Your Excellency, this is the most conservative estimate. Dongning Kingdom has captured six large sailing ships from the Spanish, and they also captured the craftsmen of the Cavite shipyard intact. Now that a year has passed, Your Excellency does not think that they have done nothing."

As for artillery, you mustn't forget that artillery originated in China. If the other side takes it seriously, they can naturally gather enough artillery craftsmen. They are from a civilized country like ours, not some monkey from Southeast Asia or the Americas.

Cohen frowned. "Even so, this number is too many. The construction period for a single cannon can easily take several months. Where did the enemy get so many manpower, resources, and time?"

"Your Excellency, this is all I know. Dongning Kingdom maintains strict secrecy regarding its artisan districts, and I have no way of knowing the details of their production. But isn't Spain's defeat the best proof of that?"

"Didn't those Spanish guys get cornered in the bay and defeated by fire ships because their commander was an idiot? And the returning fleet fell into a trap and had their ships seized?" an officer below asked, puzzled.

Upon hearing this, Spex scoffed, "That's false information they've spread. You actually believed that? Manila Bay is so vast, how many fire ships would it take to make the galleon escape? And how could fire ships possibly capture the galleon intact?"

"This... could it be that the other side really was the group of Spaniards who won in a head-on artillery duel?" The officer was stunned.

"That's the most likely explanation," Spex said, shrugging.

Cohen tapped his fingers absently on the table, and everyone waited in silence for the governor's decision.

After an unknown amount of time, Cohen looked up and scanned the crowd. "The plan to attack Macau will not be changed. Once the soldiers have rested, we will take advantage of the southwest monsoon to head north and seize Macau as soon as the truce with Spain expires next year."

As for Dongning Kingdom... Snooker, take your men to Luzon and Taiwan to thoroughly investigate Dongning Kingdom's strength. If they are just a paper tiger, then after we conquer Macau, we can easily head north and take Dongning.

"What if the opponent's strength is indeed as formidable as Mr. Spex's research suggests?" Snook, a bearded officer, asked.

"If the other party does indeed have considerable strength, we can naturally continue our business with them after we take over Macau. In short, everyone, go and prepare. Next year will be a year full of glory and gold."

"Yes, Your Excellency." The group immediately accepted the order.

-----------------

The ironworks in the north of Taipei.

The flag representing the royal family of Dongning has been stationed here since dawn.

This workshop has been established for over a year, but today marks its busiest moment.

Ignoring the heat, Lin Hao waited directly not far from the blast furnace.

Today marks the first day of steel production in Dongning Kingdom, and Lin Hao naturally had to come in person.

It was a difficult process; it took the Four Seas Gang three years to produce its first batch of molten iron.

Every year, Dongning Kingdom needs to purchase tens of thousands of taels of pig iron from the Ming Dynasty to meet its various production needs.

Lin Hao had long ago incorporated iron smelting technology into his daily routine, but even the most skilled cook cannot make a meal without ingredients.

Taiwan has plenty of gold, silver, copper, and coal, but very little iron ore.

In addition, Lin Hao has very high requirements for iron smelting technology, so for a long time the iron smelting workshop has only purchased a small amount of iron ore for experiments.

But now, with the discovery of two medium-sized iron ore mines in northern Taiwan six months ago and the laboratory achieving certain results, steelmaking has been officially put into daily operations.

Yes, it's steelmaking, not ironmaking. Although the Ming Dynasty's steelmaking method was unparalleled in the world at that time, Lin Hao thought the manual stirring decarburization method was too low-end and had to be drastically improved.

Therefore, Lin Hao directly adopted the converter steelmaking method from later generations. Although he didn't have the steam blowers of two hundred years later, he could achieve a similar effect using water-powered blowers. It was just that the requirements for factory site selection were a bit more complicated.

"Your Majesty, the molten iron has been refined." The craftsman in charge of the iron smelting workshop stepped forward to report.

The other party's name was Zhang Tie, a master craftsman from a well-known private iron workshop in Fujian, who was poached by Dongning Kingdom with a large sum of money.

Lin Hao nodded, then looked at the huge furnace in the center.

Upon receiving the order, Zhang Tie immediately gestured and shouted, "Start the molten iron!"

The switch beneath the blast furnace was turned on with a hammer, and in the next instant, dazzling white-red molten iron gushed out from the furnace mouth, flowing along the pre-laid sand trough into a huge converter.

The converter has a rounded body with iron hoops standing upright on the outside, lined with a layer of refractory clay, with the furnace opening facing upwards, the belly slightly sloping, and iron chains hanging on the side.

Several air ducts extend from the lower diagonal, with the other end connected to a hydraulic blower.

After the molten iron was poured into the converter, it quickly filled the converter.

The workers then connected the blower.

The next instant, flames began to emerge from the belly of the furnace, and the blue flames danced on the converter.

The traditional method of frying steel involves stirring the molten iron to allow oxygen in the air to react with the iron and remove carbon.

However, this method is inefficient and does not provide a sufficient response.

The principle of converter steelmaking is actually the same as that of molten iron steelmaking, both of which involve the reaction of oxygen with carbon in molten iron to produce carbon monoxide, which is then burned off.

At the same time, oxygen will also react with silicon in the molten iron to form silicon dioxide.

After silicon dioxide is generated, adding a certain amount of quicklime to the molten iron will produce calcium silicate slag that floats on the molten iron.

What's even more ingenious is that the entire process is an exothermic reaction, which can maintain the furnace temperature of the molten iron at a constant level.

The difficulty lies in the design of the converter and air ducts, as well as the timing of the reaction.

However, after numerous trials, experienced craftsmen had already found a solution to this problem.

That is to judge by observing the flame at the furnace opening.

The molten iron churns in the furnace, and air rushes in through the tuyeres, stirring the entire furnace of molten iron. Silicon and carbon are taken away by oxygen and turn into slag and air.

The furnace mouth emitted a continuous series of popping sounds, like countless small cannons exploding inside.

Zhang Tie stared intently at the flames at the furnace opening, not daring to blink for a moment.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but when the flames at the furnace opening stabilized and began to change direction, he suddenly shouted, "Stop!"

The craftsman next to him immediately cut off the air intake of the duct.

The reaction in the molten iron came to an abrupt halt.

Zhang Tie wiped his sweat and then had someone use a long ladle to scoop some molten steel from the edge of the furnace and pour it into the iron mold.

A moment later, Zhang Tie examined the sample and said loudly, "Blow it for another half a quarter of an hour."

The wind continued to blow, and the flames in the hearth reignited.

Half an hour later, Zhang Tie paused again and then took samples again. This time, he brought the samples to Lin Hao.

"Your Majesty, it's ready."

Lin Hao took the still-warm steel sheet and nodded. It was naturally made by directly pouring molten steel and cooling it, but it seemed to be better than the usual direct casting. Although further processing was still needed, it was already very good at this stage.

"Then let's continue."

Zhang Tie nodded excitedly, then turned around and shouted, "Did you all hear that? Quick! Pour out the molten steel!"

"The molten steel is being produced!"

The craftsmen cheered in unison and then began to operate the levers and rollers.

Driven by the slide rails, the huge converter slowly moved onto the pre-prepared guide trough.

Then, one person turned the axle, and as the iron chain rose, the tail of the converter was slowly lifted, and the molten iron in the converter was slowly poured into the guide channel through the designed opening.

"Phew~" Lin Hao breathed a long sigh of relief. Now, the most serious steel problem restricting Dongning Kingdom has been solved.

"Everyone in the iron smelting workshop will be given a first-level salary, and Zhang Tie will be promoted to master craftsman."

Furthermore, report on those who performed exceptionally well in this steelmaking process as soon as possible; I will award them an additional bonus.

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty," everyone said in unison.

"Work hard and increase steel production as soon as possible. There will be a reward later."

"In addition, all the sources and quality of the ore, the use of charcoal and lime, the blowing time, fire color, and purity must be recorded."

Lin Hao added, "Another reward will be set up: whoever can increase the lifespan of the furnace lining by 10% will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver."

Anyone who can increase the number of times the nozzle can be used by 10% will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver.

Anyone who makes improvements to the steelmaking process will receive a reward.

All the artisans took a deep breath. In Dongning, the rewards were real, without a trace of deception.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Zhang Tie will do his utmost to help you share the burden and produce qualified steel faster and better."

"Alright, I believe you." Lin Hao patted the other person on the shoulder. "If you really have this ability, then I will prepare a title for you."

Zhang Tie's breathing suddenly became rapid.

In Dongning Kingdom, noble titles come with land ownership, and ordinary people are limited to a maximum of 50 mu (approximately 3.3 hectares) of land.

Only titles of nobility can break this restriction, and before that, all titles of nobility came only from the military.

"Your Majesty, can we artisans also be granted titles?"

Lin Hao looked at him and shook his head: "What is a craftsman household? Only the Ming Dynasty had craftsman households. In Dongning, there are only master craftsmen. As long as you make enough contributions to Dongning, you can be granted a title regardless of your status."

Lin Hao looked up at the others and said, "Not just Zhang Tie, but if any of you have made significant contributions, I will not be stingy with bestowing titles upon you."

Meanwhile, the Taipei Ironworks successfully produced its first batch of molten steel.

Near Lukang, Taichung, an army is landing from a warship.

"Yan Siqi!" Lin Gang roared.

"Your subordinate is here!" A middle-aged man immediately stepped forward, saluted, and accepted the order.

"You shall immediately lead your Green Standard Army soldiers to clear out the indigenous people along the coast, scout out the enemy situation twenty miles ahead, and control all major transportation routes, awaiting the arrival of the main army."

"Yes!" Yan Siqi immediately bowed and accepted the order.

"Everyone remember, our target this time is the Dadu Creek Tribal Alliance. Everyone should work in companies as the basic unit and split up to wipe out the tribes along the way."

All cadets of the South Sun Academy shall collect a knife and a pistol from each of them, and then disperse to their respective regiments. Military discipline shall be strictly enforced.

"Yes, General," the boys from Nanri Academy responded in unison, then began excitedly selecting weapons.

"Zheng Yiguan, you will come with me." Lin Gang pointed to a particularly handsome young man among the boys.

The other person's name was Zheng Yiguan, and he was ranked among the top three in the academy. Lin Gang remembered that the king had specially marked this name and instructed him to pay attention to the other person's movements at all times and report the situation to him at any time. Therefore, he decided to keep him by his side personally.

"Yes, General." Zheng Yiguan excitedly accepted the order. He had no idea of ​​the other party's intentions, but felt honored to be valued so much by the General.