Chen Mu, who was far away in the South China Seas, didn't know that his brother-in-law was messing with wild dogs on the new Ming Cheng Day, and the Spaniards he had been waiting for were coming.

In the waters east of Luzon, the remaining battalion soldiers, who regarded the circumnavigation of the island as an ordinary thing, had submitted to Manila a report of the discovery of the enemy through telescopes and a seaside watchtower half a month earlier, and the Habsburg-flagged boats were cruising far away from them.

Lin Dayuan, who was always under Chen Lan in the north of Luzon, was the first small sentinel officer of the Chaozhou Prefecture People's League, and he was promoted to the rank of officer in Jiajingnian's fight against the local thief Liang Ning, and caught up with Chen Mu's big recruitment of local soldiers and horses in Guangdong.

The work of guarding Chen Lai Island is relaxed, there is no foreign enemy and no worries, the busiest time is nothing more than the Luzon staff general Hu Liangpeng ordered the school soldiers and horses to drill, and now the coastal police, this group of raw melons and eggs are scared enough, hurriedly arrange the defense line, send someone to report to Hu Liangpeng first, and then Hu Liangpeng to inform Chen Lan.

It stands to reason that after coming and going, Lin Dayuan informed Hu Liangpeng, Hu Liangpeng reported Chen Lan, and Chen Lan reported Chen Mu, and when Chen Mu received the news, Xiyi attacked in a big way, and the war had already burned to the northern land of Luzon to fight.

However, the Nanyang Yamen was fully organized, except for Hai Jui and others who were purely doing good deeds, everything in Luzon was prepared for war, so when war came, everything was in order.

Bai Yuanjie went to Guangdong to transfer grain ships to escort ordnance, and the military affairs on the island were temporarily handed over to Hu Liangpeng, the general of the northern staff of Luzon, to transfer two guards and horsemen to assemble in the north and station defense along the coast.

Of course, being orderly is the appearance, everyone is panicked, Chen Mu is also panicking, panicking how to fight this battle.

It was only at this moment that he finally figured out which sea route the Spaniards took from the Americas, and Chen Mu had only mastered the route of the treasure ship to the east to the Americas, but he didn't know anything about the route from the Americas to Manila, until this moment, he finally found some clues - New Spain, Hawaii, Guam, and Manila.

In this era, the sea projection power, who wants to scratch their heads, this is the reason why Luzon has enough time to gather forces.

"This also means that the enemy army is quite numerous, if there are more than a few large ships and more than a thousand soldiers and horses, they only need to kill them directly." When Chen Mu arrived at Chenlai Island, he explained his speculation with Xu Wei to Chen Luan, saying: "Only when there are many warships can they rest on Guam, and they may even be transporting armaments like us now." ”

His men sailed far away to the vicinity of Guam, but they only wrote down the location, and did not land on the island, because it was too far away from Luzon to defend it if the enemy attacked and defended it, and it was impossible to send a large army to such a distant place.

Four or five thousand miles, it takes four months to go back and forth alone, Yang Zhaolong can supply in various places, and every time he sails for only a thousand miles, he walks for a month and a half, not to mention Guam, which has nowhere to dock on the way.

Not to mention that it was pointless to send the fleet in the past.

"This is defense, Chen Shuai take a look."

Chen Lan pushed over a pair of engraved maps of Luzon, Chen Mu sent people to do this after collecting all parts of Luzon, the names of the mountains, rivers and tribes in the coastal areas are customary, all woodcuts, printing hundreds of copies, all the generals and schools have manpower, especially a general like Chen Lan has more than a dozen copies, depending on when it comes in handy.

At this time, the defense map was drawn on the outline, mainly to guard against the three rings in the northeast of Luzon, which were 200 li, 500 li, and 800 li. Four military ports within 200 miles are garrison areas, and three artillery fleets composed of large and small shark ships are stationed in permanent garrisons, and they rotate for two days; 200 to 500 li is the patrol area, and the same three fleets rotate patrols for five days.

The last 500 to 800 miles is the scout area, and there are fewer ships to be dispatched, only two fleets, each ship is scattered after 500 miles, not only large and small shark ships, but also the great fortune that accompanies the team as a grain ship, which is changed every half month.

Chen Mu looked at the defense map thoughtfully, and asked, "Thousands of miles?" ”

This is obviously Chen Luan's defensive intention, waiting for work within a thousand miles of the Luzon coast.

"It's almost the stormy season, if it weren't for the strong wind......" Chen Lan bowed his head, and his hand with a steel arm lightly slammed the table, and suddenly asked Chen Mu: "Do you think our fleet can attack five thousand miles away?" ”

Chen Mu laughed when he heard this, he was very sure that what Chen Lan originally wanted to say when he opened his mouth was 'If it weren't for the gale, I really want to attack it', but when the words came to his mouth, he felt unreliable, so he changed it to ask him.

"It's difficult if there is no strong wind, it's not difficult to send seven or eight hundred people and a dozen ships to touch it, and our people have also been there, it's just that it takes a long time to prepare enough grain ships." Chen Mu chuckled, looked at Chen Luan, and said, "Sending a fleet, even if there is no strong wind, this is too risky." ”

The past alone is not a problem, a thousand troops and a grain ship are enough for a month, there are two main problems, the long-sea voyage is too prone to accidents, once the troops are projected too much, he cannot afford to lose; The other is that it is easy to pass in the past, but even if there is enough food to prepare the ship, it is only enough to go over, and there is no way back.

"Want to go over?"

Chen Lan glanced at this Chen Mu, this question is nonsense, since Qi Jiguang was guarding the southeast, the idea of naval warfare in Fujian and Guangzhou has changed from defending the sea by land to defeating the enemy army at sea, which is to fight the Japanese invaders.

Later, when Chen Mu came back from the northern frontier, Nanyang turned to the navy, and there was no doubt that this point of view was implemented, and now that Luzon was in hand, the southernmost part of the land actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty was already the Luzon Islands, then this was land, and they still had to defeat the enemy at sea.

"Then we have to take the risk and send the fleet five thousand miles away, two small fleets, before the storm comes."

Chen Mu was very interested in Chen Lan's boldness, he raised his hand and said: "If we want to go on a large-scale crusade to the east, we have to do one thing, find out how many enemy troops will come, and guess how much grain and grass they will send to Guam. ”

"You don't have to move the army, as long as there are 2,000 people, 20 large and small warships, and 15 Dafu grain ships, Chen can go east."

Chen Mu looked at Chen Lan with a smile, since they attacked Zeng Yi together, Brother Chen has changed from the most determined fire attacker to a firepower theorist, and has become more and more determined with the increase of gunboats under his command.

He said lightly: "I estimate that Xiyi has to send 20,000." ”

"Twenty thousand?" Chen Lan waved his hand and said, "No, why did there be so many people in Xiyi, don't you still say that they are fighting with people in the west?" ”

"There are not so many Xiyi, but according to their good fighting, the local natives are driven to drive, if there are two thousand Xiyi in Guam, they must be supplemented by ten times the servants!"

"It doesn't matter how many people there are, the sea depends on ships and cannons, not people." Chen Lan waved his hand, but saw Chen Mu's eyes widen and laughed, "This is what I should say!" As far as Xiyi is concerned, they will definitely send big ships and big ships, with a lot of people on board to find a decisive battle with a jumping gang, and our big ships are all prepared for them. ”

The two looked at each other and laughed and hit it off, which decided the direction of this Mingxi naval battle.