****
Outside the city hall, Deputy Marine Commander Liao Shangzhi came running back. Hai Rufeng saw that he looked strange and thought that something big had happened.
Unexpectedly, Liao Shangzhi shouted as soon as he entered the room: "Admiral Hai, Wang Guichen is so mean. He led his troops to the capital of Brunei. Admiral Hai, this guy secretly went to pick peaches. We can't just stand by and watch."
"Wang Guichen wants to attack Brunei? When did he go?"
"I also heard from the merchant ships that just entered the port that this guy and his men appeared on the west side of Borneo. Admiral Hai, what else can this guy do in Borneo except attacking Brunei? The merchant ships in the port are now discussing, and most of them are preparing to sail to Borneo."
The merchants of the Qin Army have now developed a habit of following the army wherever it goes to seize business opportunities. If Wang Guichen really appears in the waters west of Borneo, it will not be surprising if merchant ships flock there.
Ke Chenshu couldn't help but sigh: "General Wang is really a bit unkind. He took advantage of the rebellion in Jinghai Province to go and pick peaches for himself."
"That's right." Liao Shangzhi immediately agreed, "The Brunei Kingdom is now like an ant, and can be manipulated however it wants. If they attack us at this time, it's clear that they intend to leave us alone and go it alone."
Hai Rufeng said helplessly: "If we go now, I'm afraid we won't get much leftovers. Let's put down the rebellion in Sishui first."
What Hai Rufeng said was true. The capital of Brunei was built on the bank of the Brunei River, and warships could go straight to the city. With Wang Guichen's firepower, it was likely that a salvo of several warships would be enough to bring down the capital of Brunei.
As for the reason for the war, Brunei had already offered it with both hands. Last time, Brunei also participated in the joint fleet led by the Dutch to invade the southeast coast of Daqin. The destruction of Brunei was only a matter of time.
Liao Shangzhi was somewhat unwilling to accept this. After all, this was the achievement of destroying a country, which was completely different from suppressing a rebellion.
He said: "Admiral, the Marines are enough to deal with the rebellion in Surabaya. We have so many warships in the ocean-going fleet that are just sitting there..."
Hai Rufeng laughed and said, "There is more than just Brunei in the South Seas. Why bother getting angry with Wang Guichen?"
Liao Shangzhi was delighted when he heard this and asked quickly, "Admiral Hai means that we should also attack the Malay Peninsula now?"
Obviously, the rebellion in Sishui needed to look quite powerful. But Liao Shangzhi and his people didn't take these monkeys seriously at all, and they still wanted to continue to expand.
It can be said that the navy is really like a group of undisciplined wolves. Once they leave the Qin Dynasty, they are basically not supervised by the imperial censors in the court about what they want to do. The emperor gives them a very relaxed environment and a great deal of autonomy.
The pace of naval expansion now seems a bit slow, mainly because of its policy towards Southeast Asia. The Qin Dynasty is different from the Western colonizers, who used force to oppress the local indigenous people and enslave them.
The Qin Dynasty wanted to eliminate the local indigenous people, or at least reduce the population of the indigenous people by a large margin, so that the Han people would become the absolute majority in these places in the future.
Western colonizers could not do this because their countries were too small and their population was even smaller than that of a province in the Qin Dynasty. They did not have such conditions.
Only the Qin Dynasty has such conditions, but doing so will take more time and effort, so the pace of expansion will be temporarily slow.
Hai Rufeng smiled and said, "As for the Malay Peninsula, let's wait until the port in Temasek is repaired."
"We still have to wait. Forget it. I will take people to Sishui first and catch that monkey Basha and castrate him first."
"General Liao, I just discussed with General Ke, and we decided to leave Basha in Surabaya for a while, and wait for him to attract the natives on Java Island. Your current mission of the Marine Corps is to strike as hard as possible at the natives on the periphery and force them to Surabaya."
“Yes!”
After Hai Rufeng officially gave the order, Liao Shangzhi did not dare to have any objection and immediately agreed.
Now, Ren Zhong, the deputy commander of the ocean-going fleet, is supervising the construction of a seaport in Temasek (Singapore). Firstly, it is to better control the Strait of Malacca, secondly, it serves as an important stronghold for the navy to go out to the Indian Ocean in the future, and thirdly, it serves as an outpost for attacking the Malay Peninsula.
"Malacca" is the transliteration of Malacca. On the Malay Peninsula, there have been the Malay Kingdom and the Malacca Kingdom.
One hundred years after the founding of Malacca, it was invaded by Portugal in 1511 AD and became a Portuguese colony.
There are still a small number of Portuguese troops there, and the Qin Dynasty has no time to deal with these remnants, and even allows merchants to trade with them.
The policy of the Qin Dynasty was very special. No matter who the military fought against or what the outcome of the fight was, it never prevented merchants from trading with the other side.
Of course, strategic materials are excluded.
Other commodities such as silk, cotton, porcelain, spices, etc. will not be restricted even if the army has just finished a war and merchant ships immediately go to trade with the enemy, provided that you can afford the risks.
Starting from Temasek (Singapore), you can reach Malacca City by sailing along the Strait of Malacca for one or two days. The reason why the Qin Navy did not attack Malacca City was actually to preserve this East-West trade channel.
Although Daqin's merchant ships have now sailed far out to the Indian Ocean and established trade channels with the British East India Company in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), it is not in Daqin's interest to allow Britain to exclusively monopolize the East-West trade, so the Portuguese in Manchijia are allowed to stay for the time being.
After Liao Shangzhi left, Ke Chenshu also said: "Then I will also go to organize the vassal army."
"Okay." Hai Rufeng responded, and then he ordered to strengthen the security of Baiqi City and the port. Basha could do whatever he wanted in Sishui, but the warships in Baiqi City, especially the port, must not have any problems.
***
The capital of Brunei, Brunei City, is located on the bank of the Brunei River in the northwest of Borneo. One hundred years ago, when the fifth Sultan Bolkiah was in power, Brunei was once very prosperous. In addition to most of Borneo, some islands in southern Luzon also belonged to Brunei. This period was the "golden age" in the history of Brunei. The population of Brunei City once exceeded 50,000.
But now, due to the infighting among the princes, the Brunei Kingdom has declined.
In Wang Guichen's eyes, taking over Brunei City was actually not a difficult task.
Because of his contribution in conquering the Sulu Kingdom, he had been promoted to deputy admiral of the South China Sea Fleet. He led ten gunboats and forty small and medium-sized warships of the South China Sea Fleet and approached the mouth of the Brunei River in a mighty manner.
The small sampans of Brunei were very smart and retreated back into the Brunei River, attempting to use the relatively narrow river channel to make a final desperate resistance.
Li Sangui, the deputy general, looked through the telescope at the densely packed small sampans on the river and said with a laugh, "Boss, it looks like there's still a lot of meat."
Wang Guichen raised his eyebrows and replied, "Don't be careless. Once we enter the river, it will be difficult for our huge ship to turn. We must be careful of the enemy's fire attack."
Mo Liang, who had been promoted to captain, replied: "Boss, there is nothing to worry about. We just need to prepare more thunder bombs. If the enemy drops fire ships downstream, we can blow them into pieces as soon as they get close. It's not a big threat."
Wang Guichen warned: "In short, don't be careless. Be careful not to fall into trouble. Once we take over Brunei City, you can do whatever you want."
"Yes, Admiral."
As the flag signals for preparation for war were raised, the rumbling of war drums sounded, and fifty large and small warships began to sail into the Brunei River.
There are many houses built of bamboo and wood in the tall coconut groves on both sides of the river. Because there are many small rivers and swamps around, many houses are even built on the riverside swamps. This kind of house is very special. It floats on the water when completed. If you want to move, you can just use a boat to drag the whole house away.
The sudden arrival of the Qin army caused many people to be so frightened that they desperately dragged their houses into remote river channels. Women could be seen occasionally leaning out of their houses to look around, with expressions of panic.
The sight of using a boat to drag a house to escape was very interesting, and the Qin soldiers couldn't help laughing when they saw it.
Wang Guichen was too lazy to waste artillery shells on these dilapidated houses and let them take them away. Two miles after entering the river, he saw a water fort upstream. More than a hundred enemy warships gathered on the river, and the war was about to break out!
**********************
ps: Please recommend and subscribe, brothers and sisters, the New Year is coming soon. If you have the conditions to subscribe, please subscribe to the genuine version, at least give me a little money for the New Year... ... ... .(To be continued...)
...