August 25, 1676, night.

Xiangshui Port in midsummer is extremely hot, even at night. Hawx Clifford, who had just woken up by the stuffy weather, sighed helplessly, climbed down from the bed, intending to cool down in the yard.

He has lived here for a week, and now he can't wait to get rid of the sultry weather here, set sail and return to England, and share the wonderful life brought by wealth with his relatives. Of course, he still needs a little patience at the moment. Not only does this have the last batch of goods not being neatly purchased, but it also takes nearly two months for the damn north wind to cover the entire sea area, and he can only go home at that time.

After years of construction by the Qing government, the dock of Xiangshui Port is spacious and convenient even from the perspective of Europe. Although the modernization seems to be a little insufficient. Now, because it is still early, only 12 merchant ships from Europe are anchored in the port. Among them, except for the "Denmark Queen", "Duke of Saudi Arabia", and "Duke of Montera" from Denmark and France, the other nine merchant ships are from the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company. Even the British have one more ship than the Dutch, including the "Squid", "Roman Warrior", "Xiamen Merchant", "Caesar" and "Flying Eagle".

These ships were lined up and rushing into Hanoi with gentle water. They were guarded by the fort and the Qing army's barracks to ensure that they would not be attacked by the enemy. Speaking of which, the more than 60 long-barrel heavy artillery used by the Qing people was purchased from England, because the artillery factory in Goa could not produce such powerful heavy artillery and could not meet the needs of the Qing people.

Unfortunately, because of the lucrative profits, these more than 60 artillery were sold directly by the East India Company and were not handed over to their company agents. Otherwise, Clifford might have made a fortune long ago without risking his life and voyage to China for the second time. He could buy a farmland and manor in East Anglia and spend the rest of his life leisurely.

As the location of the Qing Dynasty's customs office, salt road office, river office, canal transportation office, Xiangshui Camp and other military and political institutions, the population has reached more than 40,000, most of which are officials, families and relatives of soldiers. Among these institutions, Xiangshui Camp, which has an organization of more than 6,000 people, is a well-equipped modern army, the so-called "new army" of the Qing court. This unit has more than 1,500 rifles and more than 30 light artillery large and small. It is also very diligent in training on weekdays, and its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated. It is the most combat-effective "field infantry team" near Xiangshui Town.

In addition, between Guanhekou City and Xiangshui Town, a Manchurian-Mongolian Eight Banners Horse Team with a scale of nearly 3,000 is stationed. The combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the ordinary Eight Banners, otherwise it would not be arranged to this important place. The above two troops are field teams, which are dedicated to dealing with the enemy troops landing at the first time, and use their skillful combat skills and powerful impact to drive the enemy into the sea. Of course, there are some city-defense troops outside the field troops, but their combat effectiveness is much worse, just like the average green camp, with a population of about 10,000, distributed in many fortresses in the wild.

An army of this size is enough to ensure the safety of this port. Even if the East Coast enemy, the largest enemy on the Qing Dynasty, sent troops to attack, could probably be pushed into the sea by the Qing people during the chaotic stage of the initial landing. Hawks Clifford did not doubt this conclusion at all, because he had personally watched the daily training of the Qing army called "Xiangshui Camp". It was not bad. Although it did not reach the level of the European army, it imitated quite well, at least much better than the militias in the Irish countryside, right?

Therefore, many foreign merchants, including Hawks Clifford, are optimistic that Xiangshui Town is not likely to be broken with such a decent army force, especially since it has more than 60 heavy sea defense guns, which is also a huge obstacle that is almost insurmountable for enemies from the sea. Therefore, the ships they moored in Hanoi should be safer.

The street along the river where Clifford is located is full of warehouses and shops, which are very dense. The Qing officials who managed it sent many patrol personnel to wander around in the day and night to ensure the safety of the warehouse. Clifford once learned that they beat the gong every half hour just like Clifford and they ring bells on the boat at 12:30, 1:00, and so on until 4:00, eight times, indicating that eight 30 minutes have passed. At 4:00, they started a new round of beating cycle, so that every 4:00, 8:00, and 12:00, 8:00.

The sound of the gongs at the twelve times had just dissipated. Clifford looked at the sky. Most of the moon was covered by dark clouds. It was not a good weather and the visibility was not high. He guessed that it would be about four o'clock in the morning outside, and there was silence around him, with only some fishing fires on the river surface. Perhaps the poor fishermen who got up early to fish at that time.

Clifford sighed softly. He was still very sympathetic to the living conditions of these people. Although they were pagans, Clifford occasionally donated some food or other things to them, and often gained the respect and gratitude of these people, which made him very useful. In fact, as long as he was not a Moorish person, he was still willing to help them. After all, he made a lot of money through trade here.

Thinking of making money, Clifford's spirit suddenly improved. He walked to the warehouse behind the yard with the dim moonlight, and then opened the warehouse door with the key in the surprised eyes of two sword-holders and walked in. The warehouse was filled with various commodities, and Clifford walked by one container after another, raw silk, satin, musk, tea, porcelain, alum, rhubarb and many other interesting small commodities and artworks, worth more than 20,000 pounds.

Clifford looked at these goods with an intoxicating look. If he shipped them back to London, deducting tariffs and other miscellaneous taxes and excluding sales expenses, the profit of one-time profit is easy, which is a profit of 20,000 pounds. According to the investment ratio and some of his privileges as the captain, a private dividend of 6,000 pounds after returning was indispensable, which was enough to make him firmly join the upper-class circle of London, although he was only a little bit behind this.

There were still some goods he had transported from other places in the warehouse, mainly spices, wool products, opium, ivory, tin, agarwood, camphor, agate, bright feathers, etc., all of which were leftover goods after the previous trades, with varying quantity and average quality. Clifford once planned to reduce the price to deal with these goods so that he could recover funds and buy some silk fabrics to transport them back to London, but his Chinese employees told him confidently that as long as he was given another month, he could sell all the goods slowly at the original price, and gave him a 10% rebate in the early stage. Clifford agreed without hesitation.

He estimated that these goods could get back about 3,000 pounds of cash. He could use this money to purchase brocade, silk, and embroidery that were famous in the Qing Dynasty (customized embroidery according to the requirements of European customers), and then pay the rent of the store and the warehouse, purchase a large amount of supplies such as grain, fruits, vegetables, and livestock for the "Squid". Finally, he hired someone to maintain the ship and could take advantage of the northeast wind to go south to return to England.

Hawks Clifford's idea was also the idea of ​​most European merchants in Xiangshui Port at this moment, and it seems that everything is going well until now. Of course, reality will soon teach them how to be a human being. In the early morning of August 25, 1676, everything changed after the first roar was suddenly released at the Qing army fort near Guanhekou!

Clifford heard the sound of cannons in his warehouse. At first there were only a few muffled sounds, and he thought it was thunder, because tonight the sky was covered with dark clouds and it was summer, so it was normal to have thunderstorms. However, when this "thunder" became more and more dense, and the dense sound of horse hooves and shouts gradually sounded in the wild, he realized that something might be wrong, so he immediately went back to the room to put on his clothes, put on his sword and pistol, and then rushed towards the "Squid" anchored on the Guanhe River under the escort of several elite sailors. At this time when the situation was not clear, Clifford subconsciously felt that only his boat was the safest place.

"What happened, Martin?" After climbing onto the deck of the Squid with a small boat, Clifford looked at the first mate Martin who had just climbed off the mast and asked anxiously: "I really want to hear the sound of cannons!"

"It's not that much, it's really the sound of artillery firing." Danish Martin pointed to the direction of the east turret and said: "I saw the fire from the sea defense cannon on the top of the mast. This is definitely not training, it should be because of an enemy. Moreover, the scale of this enemy is not small. After thinking about it, they can only be."

"East Coast people!" Clifford uttered these two words heavily, and then said in a somewhat panic tone: "What do the East Coast people want to do? Do they occupy Xiangshui Port, a major trade center? Is this unlikely? They do not have a fleet of this size in the Far East, and it is even more impossible to surpass the shore defense artillery system established by the Qing people. You must know that many of the technical officers of those turrets are from England and Germany!"

"I think the situation may not be that bad, Captain." Martin took off the boat cap on his head, then wiped his sweat invisibly, grinned at Clifford, and said, "If it were people from the East Coast, don't worry, they don't have the strength to break through the blockade of the coastal defense fort into the upper reaches of the Guanhe River. Even if they paid a major loss and forced a pass, so what? On the Guanhe River surface, which is not wide enough and has a small room for maneuver, they will face greater troubles, and will sooner or later become a living target for the Qing people, either surrender or be destroyed, and there is no third way to go."

"So, are we safe now?" Hawks Clifford relaxed a little, because he found that his deputy was right. It was impossible for the East Coast people to rush into the Guanhe River at all costs. That would really give the Qing people a big gift. Whether it was a small boat or arranging a water ghost ship, the East Coast people could die without a burial place. They should not be so stupid.

"Of course we are safe, Mr. Captain, as long as the Qing army did not suffer shameful failure." Martin nodded without hesitation and confirmed: "There is no problem at sea, and I don't think there is a big problem on land. The Qing people had three thousand elite cavalry who could rush over the moment the East Coast people landed and strangle all landing attempts on the beach."

"That's fine!" Clifford breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Now there are goods worth more than 28,000 pounds in the warehouse on the shore. If I bring them back to London for sale, I can earn 30,000 pounds. I don't want any accidents at this time, so I might go crazy. Now, let's see what will happen next. It's really interesting. The people of the East Coast should have discovered and investigated the port for a long time. .t At this time, it must be premeditated. Okay, the children, relax and return to their respective posts. They can rest for a little while, but they can't drink or leave their posts. We'd better wait until dawn and everything will be clear before talking."

The sky finally became brighter after more than an hour. At this time, more news came from the downstream Guanhekou. Clifford asked his Chinese employees to inquire hard, and finally got some vague information, but it was enough to understand what was going on: it turned out that in the early morning of yesterday, people from the east coast gathered "more than ten" warships and gathered outside Guanhekou, and tried to take advantage of the cover of night and the favorable opportunity of the rising tide at night to break into the rear of the fort, and then attacked the Qing people's coastal defense fortresses on both sides.

However, the pipe belt of the Qing Dynasty's fortress looked more alert, and the officers were also more professional. They fired guns directly in the rough direction of the warships on the east coast, and did not hesitate to ammunition. They directly covered artillery fire. This was to remind other artillery positions and also to make the army in the nearby camp be prepared.

Since the Qing army was prepared, the people on the east coast would naturally not threaten the dense artillery fire, and they should know that they were all long-barrel, large-caliber heavy artillery. When the wooden ship was hit by a fire, it would hurt a lot. Therefore, they adjusted the sail truss, retreated beyond the range of the enemy's artillery fire, and slowly began to cruise. Judging from this, it was probably because they could not steal the port, so they simply intercepted it openly on the offshore. Anyway, they wanted to block your trade and attack foreign merchant ships that dared to do business. Anyway, the people on the east coast had many "Star"-class light cruisers with quite fast speeds, so the efficiency of catching merchant ships should not be too high!
Chapter completed!