Shao Tingda's notebook was full of stick figures, and now he crossed out twenty-five of them.

When the soldiers asked what it was, Mr. Shao always shook his head incomprehensibly, at this time he empathized with Chen Mu burning the notebook, he really didn't want to tell others that it was a ship.

The boat is so hard to draw!

According to Heiyunlong's summary, the number of Spanish ships north of Peru was 63 to 85, and now 25 have been cleared, and the Ming army still has 20 warships after losing four ships and two damaged, and the Westerners still have an overwhelming absolute advantage in the number of ships.

In the waters near Acapulco, the Ming fleet spread out to patrol the sea area for dozens of miles, and the captains and officers of each ship took small boats to the flagship cabin to agree on military affairs.

"No boats?"

The eyes of several commanders and vice-chancellors widened, and Shao Tingda nodded: "There is indeed no ship, the scout captain is an old officer under our command, and he has recently been forced to six miles from the port, almost within the range of shore artillery - there are no ships, large and small warships and merchant ships, empty." ”

The surprise attack had already ended before it began, and after a voyage of 3,000 miles, the officers of the former fleet panicked when they suddenly learned that no enemy ships had been found in the largest port in Mexico and even New Spain.

Shao Tingda had seen a large number of western ships sailing north through Guatemala, but these ships did not pass through the demarcation peninsula, and Ming intelligence had long believed that those ships were anchored in the port of Alpulco, and now there is nothing here.

Where are the enemy troops?

Has a siege been set up at sea, or will it suddenly appear behind them?

Nobody knows.

"Or ...... Return to the Dividing Peninsula? ”

Seeing that the situation was different from the intelligence, Heiyunlong pondered and proposed: "The intelligence is not clear, it is impossible to destroy the enemy ships at sea, and the hasty landing is afraid that the rear road will be intercepted by the enemy, so it is better to retreat to the north." ”

But he didn't expect that the first to raise objections was actually Fu Yuan, who had insisted on retreating from the army before, he said: "I said to retreat directly, you don't retreat, now you can walk a few steps to the port of the Western Army but want to retreat, what is the reason?" ”

"In my opinion, the western warships are not here, send scouts to reconnoiter the location of their shore guns, pull out the rockets, and directly seize this seaport - in case the western warships attack the demarcation peninsula, we will retreat to the house but wait for the rabbit, and we will suffer a big loss at that time!"

Syllable!

In the captain's cabin on the lower level of the flagship, Shao Tingda clapped his hands to stop the general's discussion, and said: "The matter has come to this point, it is no longer what our department does, but it depends on how the Western Army transfers the fleet, what are they thinking, what are they going to do?" ”

Shao Tingda did not believe that the Spanish fleet was heading north to attack the Boundary Peninsula.

If the ship had gone north, they had already met it on the voyage, and he thought that the Spanish fleet had sailed south, but no one knew how south it was.

Whether the Spaniards wanted to avoid the war, or to save the fleet as the last killer weapon of the war.

Are the rebels ready to fight the Ming army? Or are they going to make peace?

The so-called war, that is, the fact that 'one person dies', is repeated thousands of times, regardless of victory or defeat.

"We want to win the war, this is the mission of our generals, but we must also save the lives of soldiers, leave a man for women and a father for children, and no decision can be hasty."

As soon as General Mang said what was probably the most literary and logical words in his life, he was interrupted by a contemplative Black Cloud Dragon's speculation.

"Uncle Sixteen, will they let the boat run away?"

"Let the boat run? What do you mean? ”

Heiyunlong's face was frivolous, and he said solemnly: "I have seen the history of the war in the lecture martial arts, and since the two countries went to the South Seas in the year of Longqing, our Ming army has fought more than ten times in large and small naval battles. ”

"He is not a naval general, and he also learned the cavalry department in the martial arts, but it is precisely because he is a general of the army division that he understands the tactics of the Westerners better, and they use big ships as fortresses and ship boards as city defenses at sea, and in the final analysis, they still fight naval battles as land battles at sea."

"Now the enemy's land division is several times the strength of our army, not afraid of our army's landing, only afraid of Chen Shuai's reinforcements, its naval battle is difficult to defeat me, even if we have few soldiers, if it meets it with naval battles, even if it is optimistic, more than 20 warships of our department should destroy its warships 30, so they only have 30 ships left, where can they defeat Chen Shuai?"

"Just as we know the approximate number of ships of the Western Army, they also know the number of ships of our army, and if Hei is the commander of the Western Army...... Hold on! ”

Heiyunlong said vigorously, clasped his fists to Shao Tingda and his colleagues to confess, got up and took a pen and paper from the table that Shao Tingda used to use in the cabin, and roughly drew the coastline of New Spain with a rough stroke, and then drew two large circles and a small circle on the map.

"The northern circle is Vallarta, the south circle is Acapulco, and in the middle is the cantonment of our wounded soldiers, if the order for the ships to retreat is issued by Mexico, Acre can be ordered between day and night, and Vallarta will need at least three days by sea and four days by land."

"The westward retreat to the south a day or three days ago is one of many possibilities."

Shao Tingda thought for a while, and did not agree with this reason, it was too much of a coincidence, he reminded: "Even so, the enemy ships of Acapulco may have gone earlier, and Vallarta is very close to the Boundary Peninsula, and the warships there may not retreat south because of the shock of us." ”

Heiyun Long's hand, who was holding a charcoal pen and slightly lying on his stomach to draw a map of the situation on the table, paused, nodded in agreement, and said: "There is another possibility that is even greater, it is the entire west coast of Asia, and there are no more ships in the west. ”

As he spoke, he drew a stretch of curving coast further south.

"In order to prevent our army from waiting for Chen Shuai to come and New Spain is unable to defend, the warships that moved to New Spain some time ago were transferred south to the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the three legions over there were quickly dispatched to reinforce it."

Black Cloud Dragon said, raising his body and saying to everyone: "This is a good situation, as for the bad situation, that is, the enemy army has surrounded our troops, or has predicted that our troops will come to attack the port, and the fleet has set up an ambush in the southern bay, preparing to blockade outside. ”

"I think that it is true that we must think differently about what the enemy wants to do now, but we should not only look at the sea, but also on the land."

Casually, Heiyunlong drew several main roads and Mexico City on the map, and said: "Our army has a disadvantage in strength, and the advantage is that from the Governor of Afghanistan, we not only get the three Western Army corps garrisons and defense areas, but also a complete map of the official roads of New Spain. ”

As a mid-level military officer from the Martial Arts Hall, Hei Yunlong had as many talents as his relatives, and with a wave of his hand, he even drew a network of roads near Mexico City, and even some rough topographic maps.

"The legion station should have been dispatched at this time, and the reality is not clear, but the roads were all built in the Aztec era, and there has not been much change."

"If you want to retreat, it is recommended to retreat directly to the Zhuangyuan Bridge, if you do not retreat, it is recommended to avoid the port with shore artillery, land on the north side of the town, bypass the military town, and go straight to the station of the Herrera Legion one hundred and forty miles east of the coast, at this time their main force should be deployed on the coast, and our army can rest calmly after landing to further collect enemy intelligence." /14_14088/