Atlantic Ocean, Cape San Vicente.

This is the promontory at the southwestern tip of Portugal, where the navigator Henry established a nautical observatory and nautical school in 1420, and is also an important defense base along the Portuguese coast.

On the sea to the east, a black shadow faintly appeared, and soon, several similar black shadows appeared around the black shadow, accompanied by a high mast.

In less than a quarter of an hour, a fleet of fleets appeared on the vast sea, their masts fluttering red and yellow, bells and whistles, and they were the Spanish Armada!

But at this time, the Portuguese observatory in Cape São Vicente, Portugal, did not notice the unexpected situation under the nose, because the two Portuguese Spanish soldiers on duty were drinking tea and playing Go.

The two of them haven't figured out the rules of Go yet, but they are playing randomly, and the chessboard is already full of dense black and white chess pieces.

One of the soldiers held a small porcelain cup and gently took a sip of Tieguanyin, and suddenly felt that his identity was different, and he was faintly noble.

The other soldier did the same, and as he raised his head, he inadvertently glanced at the sea.

This glance startled him, and he stood up straight, hooking his neck and looking out with all his strength.

After a closer look, he saw dozens of warships, large and small, marching on the southeast sea, and the soldiers were frightened into a cold sweat, subconsciously rubbed their eyes, and then looked carefully.

That's right, it's a fleet!

Although the soldier did not have binoculars and could not see the flag hoisted by this fleet, he knew in his heart that it must be the Spanish fleet of the neighboring country that came from the waters of Gibraltar!

A quarter of an hour later, the entire Cape San Vicente Observatory was bustling with activity, and there was a panic in the fortifications of the battery.

In the royal palace of Lisbon, King João IV of the Bragança dynasty of Portugal stared at the report in his hand, barely believing his eyes.

The War of Religion has only been over for a few years, and Spain is about to invade Portugal again, thinking about the great cause of "unification"?

Thirteen years ago, the Portuguese aristocracy united to play independence and supported João IV, who was still a duke, as King of Portugal.

During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, Spain fought on multiple fronts and was defeated by neighboring countries, so it had no time to take care of Portugal and could only let it become independent.

After independence, Portugal was very weak, and its overseas colonies were divided by its former allies, including the colonies of Brazil in the hands of the Netherlands, and the colonies of Malacca and other colonies in Asia were even more out of reach, and were divided between Britain and the Netherlands.

João IV knew that Portugal could not do anything to its big brother, Spain.

In a panic, he immediately sent someone to summon all the major military generals to convene an emergency military meeting.

The generals of the navy came one after another, and after hearing the news, the generals and marshals also looked at each other, and invariably looked at their noses and noses, and they all became big Buddhas.

As long as anyone in their right mind knows, the quality of weapons and the quality of sailor training of invincible warships are far superior to those of the Portuguese navy.

If you really fight, you can wipe out all the navies in Lisbon in one wave!

"All talking, what should I do now?"

João IV paced frantically in his study, looking at the pendulum clock on the wall and at the map of Portugal on the table.

On the map, Cape São Vicente and the coast of the national capital, Lisbon, were marked, and he stared at the coastlines of both places, hesitating whether to order the Portuguese navy in Lisbon to come out of port to intercept them.

It is said that the soldiers are expensive and fast, but João IV did not dare to make up his mind, and now the only main force of the Portuguese Navy is only a dozen sail battleships above level 4 (not counting those in Brazil), and there are dozens of battleships in the Armada that comes today!

Admiral Medina coughed dryly and said, "Your Majesty, I don't think the Armada is coming for us. ”

"Not for us?"

João IV was thoughtful, and finally opened his mouth, King Philip IV of Spain, known as the "King of the Earth", should have rushed to the Ming fleet anchored in Lisbon to find a field!

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty swept the field of the King of the Earth in the Eastern colony of Nanyang, as the "Emperor", can he not want this face?

Joao IV vaguely guessed that the military operation of the Armada to retaliate against the Ming in the South Seas was secondary, and it was estimated that it was mainly to grab goods.

These days, Daming is selling goods in Europe, and he sells them out one by one, earning all the gold of yellow, orange and orange and silver with white flowers, which makes people very red-eyed.

As a bandit armada, there is no reason to let the treasure under your nose not be moved.

If it weren't for the fear of the dozens of warships of the Ming fleet, João IV himself wanted the Portuguese Navy to use its traditional skills and pretend to be pirates to grab a wave of .......

He stared at the information of the Invincible Armada written on the report, read it several times, and suddenly asked, "Is Mingguo's fleet still in the port of Lisbon?!" ”

"Your Majesty, here, do you want to invite the Ming Kingdom's ocean envoy Qin to enter the palace?" Admiral Chancellor Medina reminded.

"Hurry up and let him come!"

João IV couldn't wait: "Also, by the way, invite the foreign envoys of France, England and the Netherlands!" ”

In this conflict, if you can't fight as much as possible, the Portuguese Navy can't afford to toss, and the most important thing is to preserve your strength and recover the Brazilian colony!

João IV intended to use the forces of his allies to put pressure on Spain and force it to retreat.

If it really can't be done, the only way to do this is to launch the navy and form a combined fleet to fight the invincible fleet together and reduce the loss of the Portuguese navy.

In the face of the absolute superiority of the Invincible Armada, Portugal has always pursued the policy of preserving its strength, and it does not matter how they show off their might in the Atlantic, as long as the Invincible Armada does not sail into the coast of Portugal, it can tolerate it.

And Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, and God knows what the Armada is doing here!

Once Lisbon is bombarded by the Armada, even a single shell will come in and destroy a mud house, it will cause a huge shock to the already unstable people's hearts and will not be tolerated!

What João IV never expected was that the foreign envoys of France, England, and the Netherlands were belated, not only did not feel nervous at all, but also threatened to sign a series of treaties with Portugal.

Initially, the Portuguese side gave a condition that Portugal was willing to join the Bourbon bloc led by France and fight against the Habsburg bloc led by Spain.

The reason is simple, the enemy of the enemy is the friend, and as the enemy of Spain, France has no reason to refuse Portugal's request for an alliance.

However, France refused, and remained neutral as a theater watcher.