Chapter 375: The Battle at the Straits

Chen Buqun pointed to the direction of Palembang and smiled meaningfully: "Since the teacher said that conquest is easy, so what about the Three Buddhas? We garrisoned outside Palembang, and we saw that there was no one guarding the gate, and we could kick the door open with just one kick. If you go in, take whatever you see, why should the teacher pretend to be false to them?"

Zhao Xing clapped and smiled: "So you can only be a small businessman, and your eyes are too short-sighted. I ask you, when you see a product's valuation is far lower than its original value, and no one else finds it's a treasure. Instead, you think it's garbage, what will you do?"

Chen Buqun's eyes shining, his eyes were full of greed: "I will buy it at a low price when people are not paying attention."

"So, what would happen to you if this thing was a workshop with a valuation far lower than its original value?"

"Is there any difference?" Chen Buqun asked in confusion.

"There is a factor in the heart of people. If a workshop is far underestimated, then you buy it at a cheap price while everyone is not aware of it. Afterwards, if you discover its original value, the original owner of the thing will feel that he is at a disadvantage. He will feel resentment in his heart, and he will always think of reselling it at a higher price. In the meantime, he will do something with resentment, which is unpredictable.

But if you find that a workshop is undervalued, not only does it not buy at a price, but instead raises the price to buy at a high price, and then slowly discovers its original value. The original owner of the thing will only think that you have vision and regards the process of "value mining" as your personal means, then he will never betray you, but instead hopes to follow you and gain greater benefits.

The two types of merchants have completely different attitudes when facing an undervalued goods. The former merchant can only make small money because he digs out the undervalued value and is likely to be betrayal and betrayal, and the result is that the big money is earned by others. The latter merchant, he has made big money in his life. After digging out the value, the huge profits belong to him and no one can take them away."

Chen Buqun thought about it. After thinking for a long time, the ships were already holding lights and the officers began to serve supper. Chen Buqun was still thinking for a while. After a while, he replied with admiration: "What the teacher said is reasonable, but how can this principle be applied to Sanfoqi? I still don't understand?"

The officers stopped their actions. Looking at Chen Buqun, Chen Buqun explained Zhao Xing's problem. He said while sorting out his own ideas. After hearing what Zhao Xing said, the officers gathered to appreciate it. One officer interrupted first: "The Taiwei said it is reasonable. If I had a workshop on hand that was bought at a low price, I would be very upset when I found that the workshop was sold at a cheap price. I regretted it every day. If the price of the land sold at the beginning exceeded expectations, I would definitely be secretly grateful. Even if the workshop made a lot of money later, I would only admire the people who bought it at the beginning.

But I don’t know what this has to do with the Three Buddhas. Lord Chen said just now that the army in the Three Buddhas are all pinned to Selan Island and eastern Tianzhu. The garrisons in Palembang City must have never seen our thunder. It is not time to kill them. But Lord Chen is going to Selan Island. Is Selan Island a workshop with undervalued value?"

Zhao Xing nodded: "San Buddha Qi has been levied on Chinese merchants since the Han Dynasty. They have controlled the right to collect taxes for thousands of years. All the people of San Buddha Qi know the importance of the right to collect taxes.

I know you have some injustice. As for the matter, the near Sanfoqi and Xilan is the most rampant place for pirates. They have robbed Song Shang a lot before. We started a war with Xilan using the reason of protecting the trade routes, but we let Sanfoqi go. You must not understand, this just shows that I came with the ship this time, and I am really right.

What is the purpose of our efforts to clear out pirates? It is to open up trade routes and maintain growth in tax revenue. On the one hand, they all understand the importance of taxation rights. No matter what price we offer, they will not be satisfied. Once we use force, you will forget that this place is still the spice center of Nanyang. My Song Dynasty's silk, tea and porcelain have been dumped in the local area, and have already made huge profits. If we kill all those buyers, what will we get, obtain a hostile land, a shrinking market, and an unpreventable robbery.

The island of Selan is different. The small island faces South India, which produces gold and precious woods. The local kings like to enjoy luxury and are rich and rich. It just so happens that the island has been in war for thousands of years, and the locals are completely unaware that they happen to be on the trade route, and facing the large market in South India, starting from that island, they can quickly land at various ports in South India.

In short, it is a land with a completely undervalued value. When we interfere in the affairs of Selan Island, we can make a living there, and then rely on the favorable feeling to slowly implement colonial policies...

At the same time, if we want to work together in the Three Buddhas, it is not a good time. The Three Buddhas are fighting with the country stationed in Nian, and their national strength is not weak enough to surrender to another great country. If we sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight and make the two countries exhausted the struggle, then we will be the arbitrators, and the laws are set by us, and we can achieve the 'decision of our own' without any effort, so I don't plan to waste a shell here."

The officers who were dining in the cabin showed a sudden enlightenment. One officer said timidly: "But we have already set off a lot of cannons. When we were mooring, in order to drive away the surrounding canoes, we set off several rounds of cannons in each boat..."

This statement was directly ignored by everyone.

Actions that show off their power must be paid for some cost. If the Song army was parked outside the port and did not fire a few rounds of cannons to show their power, there would be no Uncle Wang and local merchants lined up to seek good things.

There was nothing to say that night. The next day, several merchant ships filled up the supply land sailed out of the dock. The leader of the Gangshou boarded Zhao Xingdi and shouted excitedly: "Taiwei, the merchants in Palembang began to lower prices yesterday at noon. The things here are really cheap. Pearls the size of a little finger can be exchanged for silk. I have traveled to San Buddhas several times in my life, but I have never seen such a passionate San Buddhas."

Zhao Xing remained silent, Chen Buqun rolled his eyes arrogantly and asked, "You climbed onto my command ship just to say this?"

The merchant choked for a long time. He said carefully: "Sir, General Ningyuan and General Huaiyuan summoned the Song merchants in the city, saying that the local king planned to give us a piece of land and establish a free trade territory. It is said that the king also agreed. My friends asked me to ask if this free trade territory was handled according to the old rules?"

Zhao Xing did not answer, but stood up and walked onto the deck. He looked out at the direction of Palembang with his hands behind his back.

The white seagulls flew on the shore, and some sailors threw away the leftovers and fed the seagulls, attracting more seagulls to compete for each other, and the sky was filled with rattles. Zhao Xing looked out along the bird's flying gaze. In the distance, the blue land was right in front of him, which was Paleo Port with tens of thousands of berths.

The left plaque is lined with masts. In order to prevent ship collisions from occurring under the wind and waves, the ships anchored at anchor are far apart so that the ship can only have enough reaction time. In this case, the warship closest to the flagship is about 300 feet away. Only the naked eye can see the figures of mung beans on the deck being busy.

At such a distance, the fleet of 300 warships was walking very wide, and even if they raised their telescopes, they could only see the mast shadows in the distance.

The flagship where Zhao Xing is located is the largest warship. The nearby mooring places are all such large main gunboats. On the periphery of the gunboat, there are fast sailboats of about forty mass. They do not lower their sails and anchor, but instead pull the sails to sail in a zigzag manner on the nearby sea surface to encircle the small boats that came through the gaps in the warships.

In fact, after yesterday's intimidation from the gunboat, there were not many local boats in the place where the Song army traded. Basically, they were all reckless boatmen who did not know yesterday's situation due to poor information. The Song army's patrol ships did not make things difficult for these boats. After all, the demonstration has passed, so the patrol ships are just driving them away.

Behind Zhao Xing, the businessman was explaining to Chen Buqun: "Sir, there are a lot of spices in Palembang, and now local merchants are willing to sell them at a lower price. Many friends think that they can sell their goods in Palembang... Anyway, our Song Dynasty navy has to continue moving forward, and now it is smooth sailing. When you carry a ship of spices in Palembang, you can transport another cargo if you walk fast."

Zhao Xing turned around and explained to the merchant: "The King of Sanfoqi promised to send us a guide. We are waiting for their guide. I can only leave you five or six ships to escort along the way. As for my large group of people, when the king's envoy arrives, we will immediately set up our anchor."

The merchant repeatedly said, "That's good, that's good. I'm far from expecting too many soldiers to escort them. Even if the lord is willing to leave a ship, I'm already grateful."

The people sent by the King of Sanfoqi arrived very quickly. At noon another day, a fleet of 100 people rushed to the mooring site of the Song army. Zhao Xing asked Chen Buqun to come over to negotiate. After some contact, the Song army's flagship raised smoke and raised anchors that afternoon.

Marine warfare is different from river sailing. On the sea, warships are walking very openly. At this time, they are not able to see enough. There is a sign that makes the entire fleet look up. Zhao Xing remembered the use of fireworks as a signal.

As a smoke-producing gunpowder, the Song Dynasty's technology was already very mature. Remove the arsenic and iron sand in the gunpowder formula and became a signal flare that marked the position of the flagship. The lookout on the mast bucket will ignite a smoke bomb every few minutes, pointing the direction for subsequent ships. The command ships of subsequent squadrons will respond like this, igniting their own signal flares, and let the flagship know their location.

The signal flares of the flagship were red smoke, while the signal flares of the other squadrons were black smoke.

Although this approach exposes the location of the flagship, it also increases the ability of the ships to cooperate in such a vast area on the sea. Compared with what you have obtained, exposing the flagship to the location is not a big loss. Anyway, the small canoes in this sea area cannot threaten the heavy gunboats under Congcong's escort.

Not long after the voyage, the sea in front was marked and the fleet began to enter the Malay Strait.

In the narrowest part of the Malay Strait, it is said that a fortress cannon can block the entire sea route. There was no fortress cannon in the Song Dynasty, but in such a narrow sea area, there was little room for ships to maneuver, and the complex and changeable fjords were the place where pirates were hidden. Many pirate ships hid in the fjords under the dense tropical forests. Seeing Song merchant ships passing by, they quickly rushed out to intercept merchant ships.

This phenomenon of pirate plundering cannot be completely wiped out even in modern times, even if there are aircraft and cannons searches. What's more, in the Song Dynasty, it was far from being controlled by the Three Buddhas and Qi governments.

Sure enough, the whistle ship in front reported to the rear through the banner that they were encountering pirate attacks, and the rumbling sound of cannons came with the signal.

The sound of cannons was amplified a lot, sounding like a rolling thunder pool. Chen Buqun turned his ears to tell the sound and said to himself: "This is the sound of cannons... This is the grenade! Oh, bang, pirates came for robbery. They would not set fire, so they should pretend to be weak. Let the pirate ship lean up and then teach them a lesson with grenades. Why waste cannons?!"

The Guangnan Ordnance Bureau produced three types of gunpowder, one of which is nitrifying cotton. Due to the gun barrel casting technology of this era, this powerful gunpowder caused an increase in the rate of blasting. In order to avoid this phenomenon, before conquering the gun barrel casting technology, the Song army used this gunpowder to make grenades. Because this gunpowder has great power, its sound sounds particularly straightforward and high-pitched, slightly different from the dull sound of black gunpowder. You can hear it carefully.

After Zhao Xing returned from the capital, he handed over the black gunpowder formula under the pressure of the court. However, he did not hand over the other two explosive formulas. Of course, the gunpowder formulas in different weapons were different, and only few people noticed it. Only those who knew the inside story would distinguish them from the explosions of the two.

Chen Buqun listened carefully for a while. At this time, the speed of the warship gradually accelerated, and the wind in the fjord was relatively strong, and the warship that relied on sails as power became faster and faster. Soon, the warship had sailed past the sea of ​​the floating broken sampan.

This is the battle location just now. Zhao Xing placed in front of the fleet with lighter drafts and faster speeds. Under the wind of the fjord, these warships were also very fast, and they swept past. Only a pile of broken wooden boards were left on the ocean.

It wasn't right to say that there were only broken wooden boards here, and there were a few people floating on the sea. They swam hard toward the shore. The soldiers who were very playful also picked up muskets and competed to shoot floating targets.

The terrain ahead became narrower and narrower. After Zhao Xing drove through the combat area just now, he found countless canoes that fled on the shore. These were pirates who rushed out without looking at the wind. It turned out that they wanted to take a ticket and left. Seeing that the Song army had sharp firepower, they stopped far away from the range. They planned to follow for a while to see if they could get a advantage. Unexpectedly, there were more and more warships in the Song army, and one was larger than the other. When the flagship arrived, their huge ships could no longer be fired, and they could sank the little fishes. Therefore, the pirates fled in panic. When Zhao Xing fled by, most of them had already fled ashore, and a few were still struggling on the shore.

"What a pity," a Song army on the deck shouted proudly: "I heard that the canoes in the South China Sea are made of good wood. If you take this canoe back, you will be afraid that you will be sold for a hundred or ten thousand twelves."

The canoes in this area are more than 20 meters long and are made of hardwood to prevent the water from soaking. There are about fifty or sixty rowers on each canoe, and at least more than thirty. The short trips in this narrow strait have huge advantages. Therefore, they have succeeded in robbing many times.

It is enough for small families to get a room of furniture when they canoe in this way. In modern times, such a room of solid wood furniture made of precious trees can be worth millions of dollars. No wonder Song Bing on the boat is moved.

The Song Bing just finished speaking regretfully, and another Song Bing immediately answered: "Look at your little ambition. You see the merchant who boarded the ship yesterday. This guy exchanged a pearl the size of a small fingernail for a pearl the size of a small fingernail. If you take this pearl back, it will not be a thousand yuan. I heard that pearls are everywhere on Nanyang Island. When we arrive at Selan Island, I plan to grab a package of pearls and go back."

The soldiers on the deck were chatting. At the end of the deck, Chen Buqun pointed at the scenery on both sides of the strait, nagging to the officers about his experience of following the teacher to travel to Haiti. He smacked his lips regretfully and said, "The teacher was thinking about Europe at the beginning, so we just passed by this. Later, the operations here were handed over to Pu Yi'an, which was a pity for this big fat piece."

An officer interrupted: "General, I heard that Master Pu broke up with Grand Marshal not long ago and went to Arabia by himself. Is this a matter?"

Chen Buqun chuckled and said, "To this day, I have nothing to hide from it - the official Pu was determined to let his son pass the imperial examination, but unfortunately he failed many times and later he was asked to be under the Taiwei.

The Grand Master said that the Grand Master Pu is now determined to be a Song family and also wants to become a family of officials. Since this is the case, he will do his best to help the old friend. The Grand Master Pu agreed with the Grand Master that he would go back to his hometown to contact the tribe, and the Grand Master helped his son work hard in the court. Now, the Quanzhou Maritime Shipping Bureau is under his control..."

Everyone said "Oh", and an officer added excitedly: "In this way, we are not without a place to settle down in Arabia."

An Arab wanted to become a family of officials in the Song Dynasty, which seemed incredible to other dynasties, but in the Song Dynasty, even without Zhao Xing, the Pu family did it later. What was more perverted than the Pu family was the group of Israelites, who later changed their surnames and integrated into the Chinese family.

The Song people were so confident.

When Zhao Xing's flagship arrived in the middle of the strait, there was basically nothing Zhao Xing had to do. On both sides of the strait, you could clearly see through the telescope that countless pirates who fled ashore were staring at the huge fleet passing by in a daze, vaguely. Many people kowtowed to the fleet or danced strange dances - it was a local ghost-exorcist dance.

It took about twenty hours for the entire long team to pass through the strait. The warships in front of Zhao Xing had already entered the Lion City, and the merchant ships behind were still lit at night. The natives could not tell the difference between warships and merchant ships. They could not even tell the number of ships, only knowing that the fleet of the Song Dynasty was numerous, and the number of them could not be counted.

While Zhao Xing was resting in Lion City, the entire Nantianzhu heard the news of such a huge fleet arriving. They collectively lost their voices. They held their breath and looked up at the Far East, guessing the strength of the huge Eastern Empire in their hearts.

The strength is unfathomable.

Although the naval battle between the garrison Kingdom and the Three Foqi also used a large number of warships, most of the warships were grasshopper-class canoes, unlike the Great Song Dynasty warships. Each one was huge Wu Peng. Moreover, during the battle, they were all spitting fire and smoke.

Soon, the Sanfoqi fleet, who followed the Song army's warships, rushed to Xilan. They were the assisting troops of a vassal state of Sanfoqi. These people informed the Xilan Allies about the arrival of reinforcements. The Xilan people then realized that the huge fleet was their ally. Suddenly, the morale of the whole country was high. They launched a crazy counterattack. The troops stationed in the Nian Kingdom were shocked at first, but later after hearing the news from the prisoners, they began to shrink across the line.

However, this army did not follow the command of Sanfoqi. The Sanfoqi coalition forces repeatedly urged them, but this army had no desire to set off. They just frequently sent transportation liaison ships to the country, transporting gunpowder to Lion City one by one, and hoarding arms. Soon, the rainy season came, and the army seemed to plan to spend the rainy season in Nanyang. They did nothing all day, except for practicing time and doing business with locals. Three hundred gunboats, no less than six thousand soldiers, seemed to throw out a large amount of coins and buy anything they had never seen before. Thanks to their gifts, the Song Dynasty copper coins suddenly became hard currency in Nanyang.

In the last month of the rainy season, the Kingdom of Huruna finally let go. They agreed to draw out a piece of land of about 100 square kilometers to let the fleet station. Of course, in order to cope with the invasion, the land they drew out specifically faced the northern continent. Zhao Xing, who was in the middle, finally set off reluctantly. The thirty warships that arrived earlier were anchored at the port of Selan Island and began to recruit civilians in the rain to repair the port.

The rainy season just passed, and I got the news that the country stationed in Nian finally assembled more than a thousand warships and rushed towards Selan Island, which happened to meet the subsequent fleet of the Song army at the mouth of the Baoke Strait.

A thick yellow smoke suddenly rose in front of the fleet. Between the blue water and sky, the yellow smoke seemed particularly eye-catching.

In this era, the fireworks made by the Song people were ahead of the entire world. Zhao Xing used the fireworks of the Song people as a signal for contact with ships at sea, and yellow smoke was an alarm signal.

After a while, the warning of yellow smoke rose one after another, and the end of the sky was covered by yellow smoke. Chen Buqun waved his hand to order the flagship to raise the battle flag, and then bowed to the teacher.

At the beginning of the war, Zhao Xing was not polite. He stole the command platform and ordered the ships to assemble to the flagship. With this order, in the blink of an eye, the entire fleet entered a state of combat. The supply ships and frigates at the tail of the Song army began to retreat to the waters further north with the merchant ships, while the rest of the ships marched and unfolded in the battle formation.
Chapter completed!