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Wang Guichen and his men successfully landed on South China Island, a continent that the Spaniards and the Dutch had already visited. However, at present, there were only some indigenous people living a primitive life. Wang Guichen and his men had strong ships and powerful guns, so they naturally would not encounter any obstacles when landing on South China Island.
If we sail in a straight line for about 5,800 nautical miles from the landing point of Wang Guichen and his team in the eleven o'clock direction, we will reach Ceylon.
What does 5,800 nautical miles mean? If calculated based on the clipper's maximum speed of 14 knots, it would take about 10 days to sail.
Of course, God can't always give you smooth sailing. In reality, even if there is no storm, it will take at least a month to sail 5,800 nautical miles. This is something that only a clipper can do.
From this point of view, the Qin Dynasty's clipper ships greatly shortened the distance of the ocean.
5,800 nautical miles away from the landing point of Wang Guichen and his men, the deputy admiral of the ocean-going fleet, Ke Chenshu, led three huge treasure ships and thirty-four slender and graceful clippers and arrived at Ceylon in three days.
Ceylon is a teardrop in the Indian Ocean.
This time, someone was bound to shed tears. At least that's what many Qin soldiers thought.
In the port of Golanbu, the Dutch Governor-General of India, Kruzenard, and the military commander, Vernado, were having a heated argument.
"No, Your Excellency the Governor, I must remind you again that your decision is foolish. Now is definitely not the time to fight a decisive battle with the Qin fleet. This will only lead to a crushing defeat like the last Far East War."
"Vernado, are you planning to give up Gaolangbu Port?"
"This is not giving up, it's just a temporary transfer. Your Excellency the Governor, you must understand that the forts at the port are useless to the Qin army unless you can erect the cannons and shoot down the birds in the sky.
Facing the Qin warships, our only way is to maneuver, using our familiarity with the sea conditions and climate to find the best opportunity to win the war. "
Perhaps what Vernado said makes sense, but the Port of Columbus is too important. Although the Dutch Governor-General's Office in India was previously located in the Port of Cochin, the geographical location of the Port of Cochin is far less advantageous than that of the Port of Columbus, not to mention its strategic position.
As the British established good relations with the Mughal Empire and seized a large share of the trade, the status of Cochin Port, which was the most important port for Dutch trade with India, was now declining.
The Port of Golanbu is located at the crossroads of the shipping routes between India's eastern and western oceans, and its strategic position is becoming increasingly prominent.
Even he, the governor, has been working in Gaolangbu Port. How could such a strategically important port be abandoned just like that
Governor Cruznar had more things to consider, while military commander Vernado mainly considered it from a military perspective, so the two sides had huge differences on this matter.
"Your Excellency the Governor, what we have gathered here in Gaolangbu Port is only half of our strength in the Indian Ocean. The fleet led by Nasser is already too late. We can only go north to join them, gather all our strength, and then look for the right opportunity to win the war. How can we use half of our warships to fight a decisive battle with the Qin army now?"
"But if we give up Gaolangbu Port and let the Qin occupy it, it means that they will control the strategic fortresses of the East and West Oceans of India. It will become more difficult for us to defeat them, and we may lose our dominance in the Indian Ocean forever."
No fleet can stay on the sea forever. Therefore, some strategic strongholds on the vast ocean have become the lifeline of controlling the ocean. Whoever controls these strategic strongholds will have the initiative.
From this point of view, Governor Kruznar's idea is not wrong.
But the problem now is that the Qin army's weapons are too advanced. No matter how solid the fortress is, it is useless in front of the Qin army. They can fly over your head and bombard you, but you have no way to deal with it.
The pattern of warfare has changed, and guarding a fortress is tantamount to guarding a grave.
But the war mode has only changed for the Qin army, and they still need to rely on these fortresses, otherwise they will be more passive. This is the contradiction.
"Governor, if you are unwilling to give up Gaolangbu Port temporarily, in order to preserve our strength, I can only leave with my fleet."
"You can't do that!"
"Then, Governor General, please tell me, what should I do? Let all the warships stay in Gaolangbu Port and let the Qin army capture them one by one?"
This time, Cruznar and Vernado originally wanted to gather all their strength to Gaolangbu Port and then fight a decisive battle with the Qin army, but the Qin army reacted very quickly, and the speed of their warships was amazing;
As a result, the fleet led by Nasser, which had just fought against the Ottoman Empire, had not yet arrived at Gaolanbu Port, but the Qin fleet arrived first, which put Cruznar and Vernado in a very passive position.
Kruznar thought for a moment and said, "Send some warships to stop them first. It will be enough to hold back the Qin fleet for a few days. By then, Nasser's fleet will have arrived."
"Governor, this is stupid. We can't do this, you know? Let's not talk about the Qin army's flying wings. Just talking about their warships, their speed is almost twice as fast as ours when the wind is favorable. We send some warships to intercept them. Once they appear in the Qin army's field of vision, they can't escape. Governor, you are sending them to their deaths."
The two highest officers had different opinions and argued very fiercely, which frightened the Dutch soldiers outside. They whispered to each other.
Finally, it was Governor Cruznar who compromised. He agreed to let Vernado take the warships and armed merchant ships in the port of Colombo out to sea, meet up with Nasser who was heading south, and then look for an opportunity to fight.
But he did not flee with them. He bravely insisted on staying behind and using 400 soldiers to guard Gaolangbu Port.
Vernado tried to persuade Cruznar for a while, but seeing that he could not change his mind, he had to pay him the highest respects, and then hurriedly left Gaolangbu Port with his fleet.
Currently, Vernado has only nine warships under his command, and the other eighteen are armed merchant ships. Not to mention the combat effectiveness, in terms of quantity and tonnage alone, they are far behind Ke Chenshu's fleet.
The fleet led by Nasser that went south was actually the main force of the Dutch in India. After the defeat on Java Island, the Netherlands urgently transferred a fleet from its homeland to India, including 20 large warships. It was these 20 warships that defeated the Ottoman Navy led by Carter, the Governor of Yemen of the Ottoman Empire, in the waters of the Persian Gulf.
Nasser also integrated a total of 24 armed merchant ships from various ports on the west coast as he traveled south. So, that was the main force of the Netherlands in India.
What Vernado feared most was the Qin army's hang gliders, and he had done serious research on this.
Because there was no physical reference, and only based on the descriptions of people who had seen hang gliders flying in the sky, Vernado had people try to make one many times, but every time they failed; the hang gliders they made simply could not fly.
Although it was not copied, Vernado insisted that if the Qin army encountered bad weather, the glider would not be able to take off.
Without this unpredictable threat from the sky, Vernado felt that the Qin army was not so scary.
The opportunity he was looking for was to fight a decisive battle with the Qin army in complex sea conditions and bad weather.
Only then will he have a chance to win.
Westerners are experienced in naval warfare and are not stupid. Vernado's idea can be said to be very correct. If the Qin army fought a decisive battle when the hang glider could not take off, it would be difficult to predict who would win in the end.
Just as Vernado was leading the fleet of Gaolangbu Port northward, the ocean-going fleet led by Ke Chenshu was heading south along the east coast of Ceylon Island and heading straight for Gaolangbu Port.
Ke Chenshu knew very well that it was difficult to find the Dutch fleet in the ocean. It would depend purely on luck, so all they could do was capture the most important strategic strongholds.
Then, using these strategic strongholds as bases, they controlled the fleet lines in the Indian Ocean. Even if they could not find the Dutch fleet for the time being, they would at least prevent them from crossing Ceylon and plundering the Qin merchant ships coming to India for trade.
At dusk on the second day after Vernado left, Ke Chenshu's fleet appeared outside Gaolangbu Harbor like a devil. All the hulls and sails were black, mysterious and cold...
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.(To be continued..)
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