Chapter 2473

The war against the Spaniards soon broke out in South Asia. This time it was not led by Haihan, but Portugal and the Netherlands. Their purpose was very clear, which was to take advantage of Spain's decline in national power to attack them.

Overseas colonies carry out all-round attacks, and Asia is naturally part of this battlefield.

Although Spain's trade share in Asia has shrunk significantly at this time, and trade with the Ming Dynasty, Japan and other places has almost come to a standstill, Portugal and the Netherlands do not want to miss this opportunity to beat the lost dog. What they want is not only to cut off Spain's influence in

The Eastern trade routes must be completely driven out of Asia. In this way, they can achieve a monopoly on the East-West trade channels and obtain more substantial benefits.

At this time, Spain had completely abandoned the Philippine Islands under successive attacks by Haihan, and had shrunk its territory further south to Sulawesi Island, Maluku Islands, and New Guinea Island to ensure that the colonies operating in these areas remained.

It can continue to produce various spices. The profits from trafficking cloves, nutmeg, pepper and other spices to Europe are still considerable, so despite the huge external pressure, the Spanish still refuse to give up their operations in the East.

In order to ensure that nothing went wrong, Portugal and the Netherlands naturally sent an invitation to Haihan, hoping that Haihan could also send troops together as an ally to attack Spain's colonies in South Asia.

However, Haihan no longer has much interest in clearing out the Spanish colonies in these areas. This is because of the long distance. Even if troops are sent from Manila Bay, the nearest military base, the voyage to the target area will be more than 3,000 miles. If the battle is

If it takes a long time, then logistical supplies will become a big problem. And Spain’s local colonies are relatively scattered, so it is obviously unrealistic to want a quick victory.

Secondly, Haihan successively annexed large areas of land that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty during this period. It will take a lot of time to digest these areas before they can be fully integrated into the rule of Haihan. In order to ensure a smooth transition in these areas, Haihan will use a large number of armed forces.

Troops were deployed to these newly occupied areas, and some of the troops originally stationed overseas were even transferred back to the mainland for this purpose.

Compared with distant South Asia, the East Asian continent is naturally more important to overseas countries. As a result, Haihan has been unable to dispatch many troops to South Asia to participate in military operations led by Portugal and the Netherlands. Therefore, for Portugal

In this military operation led by the Netherlands, Haihan only symbolically sent a small fleet consisting of two warships, a troop ship and four comprehensive supply ships from the Manila area to the area to cooperate with the Portuguese and Dutch forces.

action.

When the East Asian continent entered the winter of 1648, the multinational coalition began to launch an offensive against the Spanish colonies in South Asia. Since the area where the Spanish colonies were located was tropical, there was no concept of winter. There were only two seasons of rain and drought every year, and the National Day

The dry season is from September to the middle of the following year. Portugal and the Netherlands chose this time to take action because they considered that the dry season would make it easier to carry out large-scale military operations.

The battle first started in the port of Manado at the northern tip of Sulawesi. It was just a small colonial port with a population of less than 2,000. The Spaniards living here actually accounted for less than half of the total population, and the other half of the permanent population was

It is composed of explorers, exiled criminals, unemployed sailors and local natives from the European continent.

The port town was built along both sides of a river that flows into the sea here. Due to the lack of a natural harbor, the docks here could only be built on the river banks. Therefore, there were not many trading ships traveling here. In the past, this place was just a place on the map.

A small place that cannot be found. It was not until Spain's territory in Southeast Asia shrank to a corner of South Asia in recent years that Manado Port began to become lively.

However, due to the limited scale of development here and the lack of dangerous terrain for defense, the Spaniards did not deploy organized armed forces here, only a small number of armed personnel to maintain local order. The Portuguese fleet that arrived here early had almost no decent encounters

resistance, the landing was successfully completed.

The Haihan fleet that participated in the operation arrived at Manado Port only three days later. However, by this time the Portuguese had already captured the area, and everything that needed to be killed and looted had been completed, so there was no need for the help of the Haihan army.

The Dutch were coming from the Java Sea west of Sulawesi at this time, but their target was not Sulawesi, which had been occupied by the Portuguese, but across the Florence Sea from its southern end.

, heading straight for the Maluku Islands.

The Maluku Islands are also known as the Spice Islands. The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have been fighting in this area for a long time. After the Portuguese arrived here in 1511, the Maluku Islands have never been peaceful again. But earlier

Spain has the upper hand, and Portugal and the Netherlands often lose more and win less, but now that Spain has shown signs of decline, the Dutch East India Company will naturally take advantage of this rare opportunity to defeat the lost dog and seize the territory controlled by Spain into its own hands.

inside.

Due to the geological structure, the Maluku Islands have frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes, which makes them not a livable place. Western colonial countries valued it mainly for the spice crops produced locally.

After Spain was forced to abandon the Philippine Islands, it built and expanded dozens of colonies in the Maluku Islands. Although the scale was not too large, the area of ​​​​this area was almost the same as that of the South China Sea. The Dutch wanted to colonize each area one by one.

Cleaning up the past took a lot of time.

Spain still maintains dozens of armed sailing ships in this area, but the problem is that their colonies are too scattered, and it is difficult to concentrate their armed forces to defend an island or a port without knowing the target of the opponent's attack.

Therefore, in several early battles, Spain was almost unable to put up any decent resistance, and suffered many defeats in succession.

It was not until the spring of 1649 that the Spanish fleet collided with the Dutch fleet cruising in the Banda Sea south of the Maluku Islands, and the two sides formally fought face to face with drums and gongs.

The Spanish fleet had a clear advantage in terms of the number of ships and weapons and equipment. It owned several retired warships, while the Dutch side had pro-armed merchant ships. During the battle between the two sides, the Spanish side quickly gained the upper hand. As the battle progressed,

After two days of naval battle, the Dutch paid the price of three sailing ships and had to evacuate the battlefield. After the Spanish victory, their morale was greatly boosted, and they pursued for several days, all the way to the southern tip of Sulawesi Island.

, and finally let go of the Dutch fleet, which had been retreating all the way.
Chapter completed!