The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

The midday sun shone on the sea, revealing all traces of last night's battle. Xu Chuang stood at the bow of the ship, his binoculars never falling out of his hand.

The fleet departed from Manila and was supposed to reach Nantianmen five days ago, but it encountered a strange storm halfway there, causing it to be delayed for three days on a deserted island near the Java Sea.

By the time the storm had subsided and we set off again, we were already a whole day late. Little did we know that this lateness would cause us to miss such a major battle.

The sea was littered with charred shipwrecks, and several Allied warships that had not yet sunk were half-submerged in the water, their masts burned to charcoal and their hulls bearing the marks of fire.

"My God." Yin Huasheng crawled out of the cabin, stood next to Xu Chuang, and squinted at the wrecked sea. "Is this... over?"

Xu Chuang didn't speak. He pointed his telescope towards the South Heavenly Gate, which was the key.

The iron chains are still there, but at least a dozen of the Fujian ships are newly replaced, and the paint is not yet fully dry. The remaining old ships are also damaged, with railings sheared off by cannonballs and temporary wooden plank patches, which are shocking to see.

At the dock, soldiers and militiamen worked together to bring the last batch of Allied prisoners ashore. They were stripped of their uniforms and left wearing only their undergarments, with their hands tied behind their backs.

Xu Chuang put down his binoculars and took a deep breath.

"Thankfully, nothing serious happened. It seems we won. If we had lost, we would both be sinners!"

"Dock!"

Zhang Huai'an was counting the number of prisoners at the dock. His left eye was still bandaged. He held a new account book in his hand and used a brush to mark the names one by one while muttering to himself.

"British soldiers, 127... Dutch soldiers, 93... Total 220, three fewer than this morning, presumably from serious wounds..."

"Zhang Huai'an!"

Xu Chuang strode down from the plank, his boots slapping loudly on the wooden board. Zhang Huai'an looked up, quickly closed the ledger, and bowed.

"Lord Xu! Lord Yin!"

Xu Chuang walked up to him and looked him up and down.

"How badly are you injured?"

"It's just a superficial wound, nothing serious." Zhang Huai'an grinned, then hissed as he pulled at the wound at the corner of his mouth. "It's just that my left eye is badly swollen, and my vision is a bit blurry. The army doctor said it will heal in ten days to two weeks."

Yin Huasheng walked to the edge of the dock and squatted down to look at the charred remains of an Allied warship. He reached out and touched the black charred marks on the hull, picked off a piece of carbonized wood with his finger, and smelled it.

"Fire Oil." He stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned to Zhang Huai'an. "Governor Metsuiko, did you use the Poison Dragon Flame-Breathing Firearm?"

Zhang Huai'an's eyes lit up: "Lord Yin knows about that thing?"

Yin Huasheng nodded. He and Xu Chuang were both from the capital. They had seen the secret report in the Ministry of War about the Ordnance Bureau developing the Fire Raven Sprayer. They never expected that this thing would be so terrifyingly powerful in actual combat.

"Eighty large ships." Yin Huasheng looked at the wreckage on the sea, his voice carrying an indescribable meaning. "The entire army was wiped out overnight."

"More than eighty ships," Zhang Huai'an corrected. "Thirty main warships, fifty large and medium-sized armed merchant ships, a total of eighty large ships, and another eighty small merchant ships loaded with gunpowder were all blown up, totaling one hundred and sixty ships. The allied forces mobilized about eight thousand people, and less than three thousand survived."

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Xu Chuang and Yin Huasheng exchanged a glance.

Eight thousand people and one hundred and sixty ships were gone overnight. If this news were to reach Europe, Charles II and the Dutch Provincial Council would certainly have very interesting expressions.

"Where is Governor Metsuiko?" Xu Chuang asked.

"The Governor-General is at the General Headquarters in Nantianmen." Zhang Huai'an pointed to the blue brick building built on the rocks on the shore behind him. "He is interrogating prisoners. You two can go up there first. The Governor-General instructed that you two be invited up immediately upon arrival."

Xu Chuang nodded, patted Zhang Huai'an on the shoulder, and walked towards the blue brick building, which was built on the top of the largest island in Nantianmen.

Its style is similar to that of the mountain fortresses in North Korea, and it was mainly used to store military supplies and house regular troops.

The city has only one gate, a vermilion gate with a plaque bearing the large characters "South Heavenly Gate General Office." The inscription is in the handwriting of Liu Mu.

The door was still open.

Metsuiko was sitting in the grand chair in the center of the hall, with a nautical chart spread out on the table in front of him and a thick stack of prisoners' confessions next to him. Hearing footsteps, he looked up.

The eighty-year-old man had a full head of white hair and deep wrinkles on his face, but his eyes were bright. He seemed to be getting younger and younger, almost as if he had reversed his aging process.

"Lord Xu, Lord Yin." Metsuike put down his teacup, stood up, and bowed slightly. "You two are late and have missed a good show."

In terms of official rank, Metsuiko is now considered to be ahead of the other two, but he is of Dutch origin and always speaks very modestly.

Metsuiko waved his hand, gesturing for them to sit down, then sat back down in his armchair, picked up a nautical chart, and handed it to Xu Chuang.

The nautical chart shows the entire Strait of Malacca, from the first point of the Strait of Malacca to Malacca City, and then to Penang further northwest. All the islands, reefs, and shipping lanes are densely marked with vermilion pen.

Xu Chuang looked at the nautical chart and suddenly realized something. "Governor, this chart..."

"I've been drawing this for two years," Metsuiko said calmly, as if he were talking about something insignificant. "I started drawing it the day I was appointed as the Malacca scribe. Every route the Allied forces took last night, every place they stopped, is on this map."

etc.

"I knew they would attack from here, so I deployed all the Poison Dragon Flamethrower muskets on the islands on both sides of this direction!"

Yin Huasheng remained silent for a long time before asking, "Why is Your Excellency so certain they will come?"

Metsuiko picked up her teacup and took a sip.

"Because I was once one of them."

He put down his teacup, looked past Xu Chuang and Yin Huasheng's shoulders, and gazed at the sea outside the lobby door, which was shining brightly in the sunlight.

"I've been with the Dutch East India Company for decades. I know them too well. They won't accept the fact that Batavia was taken by my great Han."

"Because spices from Southeast Asia are the most important commodity for the Netherlands, and they have a monopoly on them. If they lose this region, with their tiny territory but such a large army, they will soon go bankrupt!"

Follow the pen of Fat Fish Who Is Not Afraid of Fire and embark on an adventure in "The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in on Beijing at the Start".