Chapter 1490: What a Trap

The Andaman Mountains, Zhenhaiguan Harbor.

When the first rays of morning sunlight shone from the east, Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter of the Dutch Republic, wearing a thin Indian robe and fanning himself with a Chinese-style palm-leaf fan, walked into his headquarters at Zhenhaiguan — a brick-and-wood Chinese-style yamen belonging to the Zhenhaiguan Garrison Command of the Shun Maritime Bureau.

That's right — the Andaman Mountains, that is, the Andaman Islands, were now the sacred and indivisible territory of the Great Shun Empire!

The Great Shun Empire was no running dog of the French or the Dutch; they were a fully equal ally of both France and Holland, and so could extract a great deal of practical benefit from the alliance. Taking the Andaman Mountains, which commanded the western exit of the Strait of Malacca, was one of those practical benefits.

Of course, the French and the Dutch had their own calculations in doing this — taking the Andaman Mountains was no problem. Apart from uncivilized natives, the only ones entrenched there were some pirates who followed the faith of Arabia, and they were a threat to every passing maritime merchant. But to drive them out of the Andaman Mountains, one had to garrison troops there and develop the place.

France and Holland had few people on this side of the Indian Ocean, and no energy to drive natives to build up the godforsaken Andaman Mountains.

The Great Shun Empire, having lost Sichuan, was desperate to open up new territory — and in the course of opening up that territory, the Shun had also captured quite a few prisoners who could adapt to the sweltering tropical heat. So they shipped a batch of them to the Andaman Mountains as coolies, found a rather fine natural deep-water harbor (Port Blair, now called Zhenhaiguan), and built batteries, wharves, and a fortress — and of course a trading port operated by the Dutch East India Company. The Andaman Mountains happened to sit right in the middle of the important trading posts from Malacca to Pondicherry (French), Tailwind Fort (Shun), Ceylon (Dutch), and the mouth of the Hooghly River (Timurid India), and was also a good place for passing ships to replenish fresh water and food.

By selling water and salted fish at high prices (the Andaman Mountains had little agriculture; fishing was the main source of food), the Shun's Zhenhaiguan and the Dutch East India Company had made some silver from the Andaman Mountains over the past few years.

But Zhenhaiguan's greatest value was still in sealing off the Ming navy's westward advance into India!

Zhenhaiguan's harbor was of extremely high value — a natural sheltered anchorage with a very narrow entrance (less than two li at its narrowest point), a vast and deep interior, and mountains ringing the harbor to block the sea winds. It was also an excellent harbor capable of stationing a large fleet.

As long as two batteries were built at the entrance to Zhenhaiguan harbor, mounting a dozen or so 12-pounder bronze long guns, and some capable army troops were posted to guard it, the great fleet inside the harbor could sleep soundly.

The enemy, let alone launching a surprise attack, would find it hard even to steal a glimpse — because the harbor was too deep. Its deepest point was more than twenty li from the narrow harbor exit, and it twisted and turned, so from outside the harbor there was simply no way to spy on conditions within.

And Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter — a near-legendary figure in history (historically, he had raided the Thames in the Second Anglo-Dutch War) — had, twenty-five days earlier, led a massive fleet quietly into Zhenhaiguan harbor. At the same moment his great fleet entered the harbor, the Zhenhaiguan Garrison Command had proclaimed martial law.

No passing merchant ship was permitted to leave until the third day after the great fleet in the harbor had departed; violators would be executed without exception!

"Admiral, this was sent over by His Highness the Prince!"

One of de Ruyter's adjutants, seeing his commander walk in, immediately presented an envelope — it had been sent over by Liu Zhiyong, the Shun's Garrison Commander at Zhenhaiguan. Liu Zhiyong was Liu Zongmin's son by a concubine, and had inherited no title, so the Dutch called him "His Highness the Prince."

De Ruyter took the envelope, tore it open, and pulled out the letter inside. The letter was written in Dutch, and contained only a short passage: "The peppers have all arrived at Java." It was signed "the Batavia Board of Directors."

This was a coded letter. "Peppers" meant Li Jicheng's fleet; "Java" meant Phuket Island; and "the Batavia Board of Directors" was Li Jicheng's code name!

De Ruyter drew a deep breath, and his whole bearing became charged with energy. He turned and shouted to the officers in the headquarters: "Order all captains to assemble at headquarters — we are setting out! God will bless the Dutch!"

"God bless the Netherlands!"

The staff officers and adjutants of the Dutch India Fleet in the headquarters shouted along with him, every one of them eager for action.

Now was the time to avenge the humiliation of the Battle of Malacca!

That disastrous sea battle was regarded by the entire Dutch navy — no, by every Dutch sailor — as a supreme disgrace! From that time on, every true Dutch sailor had been nursing a grudge, waiting for a chance to win back their honor.

But winning back their honor was not easy. For one thing, the Battle of Malacca had completely changed the rules of naval warfare; even Holland, the sea coachman, had to think hard about how to rebuild its navy.

For another, the Great Ming Empire could still provide the capitalists of Amsterdam with fat profits. Since there was still so much money to be made, the magnanimous Dutch had for the time being decided to be patient with the Chinese.

But Dutch patience had its limits. When news of the founding of the Batavian Republic reached the Dutch homeland, everyone knew that war between Ming and Holland was inevitable.

The only questions were how the war would be fought, when it would break out, and who would become Holland's friend.

The bell summoning the captains rang out.

To escape the sweltering heat, the captains of Holland, France, Portugal, and other nations had been living ashore (navy men were supposed to stay aboard ship, but the Andaman Mountains were simply too hot; to preserve the officers' and men's strength, de Ruyter allowed them to come ashore in shifts, though only to live in the clean barracks). Hearing the bell, they all changed into their various colored uniforms and rushed to de Ruyter's headquarters.

The tall, fat, door-plank-like Admiral de Ruyter himself had also changed into a Dutch naval uniform. He sat down smiling in a Western-furnished meeting room, looked at the questioning gazes of the crowd of captains under his command, and gestured for them to sit.

"By order of the King of France, the States General of Holland, and the Prince Regent of Portugal, from this day forward, all naval vessels and merchant ships of the Great Ming Empire and all its vassal states are lawful targets of attack for this combined fleet! But the ships of the Batavian Republic are not included."

In this age, declarations of war between nations were all "board first, buy the ticket later." This was because of the limits of communication; if they had insisted, as in later ages, on declaring war before fighting, then distant nations might take a year or two just to travel back and forth, and perhaps the war would never get fought at all.

At de Ruyter's command, a burst of cheering erupted.

"God bless Holland!"

"God bless France!"

"God bless Portugal!"

"Kill all the Ming!"

"Victory is ours!"

Everyone was excited, but Admiral de Ruyter's expression had already darkened. He said coldly: "Before the war at sea begins, I must remind you all — though the Grand Combined Fleet is large in scale, its actual strength is very limited. We have fewer than twenty new-style bombardment warships; the rest are armed merchantmen.

So our mission is not to annihilate the Ming navy's main force, but to draw it to the Malacca area. This is the grand strategy chosen after much deliberation by the King of France, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, and the Prince Regent of Portugal! It is also the only way for us to win this war — a war that will decide who leads the world for centuries to come!

What our Grand Combined Fleet has been tasked with is an extremely difficult mission, but we must complete it!

France, Holland, and Portugal expect you and all the warriors of the Grand Combined Fleet to do your duty and fight hard. May God bless us!"

So the French and the Dutch had laid a trap for the Great Ming Empire, luring the enemy south — once the Ming's great fleet in Guangzhou Bay rode the monsoon of the 26th year of Hongxing south to Malacca, it would have to remain in the Southern Seas and the Western Ocean region until the spring of the 27th year of Hongxing before it could return north. By the time it crossed the Pacific again and reached the west coast of North America, it would be somewhere around the 28th year of Hongxing.

(End of Chapter)