"Don't worry, general, that devil is no match for us at all." Captain Leonardo replied confidently.

For several years, China had been trying to buy warships from the Dutch and Spaniards, and it was said that many merchant ships that had been looted by British pirates were also bought by Duke Deng, which of course raised alarm in Manila. Although the Duke repeatedly declared friendship and repeatedly stated that he had purchased warships solely for the sake of competing with the Qing court for supremacy of China's coastal waters, Manila was not fooled by the smoke. The sailors of the Qing court could not even defeat ordinary merchant ships, and the Spaniards did not believe that they had to use battleships to deal with the Qing court. It is estimated that after the duke bought those merchant ships, it would be enough to arm them a little, so no matter what price the duke offered, a battleship in Manila would not be sold to him.

Perhaps because of the distance, Batavia sold two 20-gun warships to the duke, which, according to Manila's intelligence, should be the largest ocean-going warship in the duke's hands. In addition to this, he would probably have a hundred armed merchant ships. As for the imitation warships, Manila did not pay much attention to them, because in just a few years, the Duke could not build qualified large ocean-going warships at all.

Manila's fleet consisted of thirty ships, the smallest of which was about the size of the Duke's largest twenty-gun battleship, and ten ships with more than forty guns, and General Mario's flagship was a sixty-gun battleship. In Europe, it might not have been able to fit into a battleship formation, but in East Asia it was undoubtedly a giant ship, and its opponent was the Batavia counterparts rather than the Duke's poor little ships and armed merchant ships.

There is a rule in naval warfare, that is, the ship is strong, and the gun wins. Mario's flagship, if it encounters any of the Duke's ships, can tear them to shreds out of range; The Duke's small warships and armed merchant ships had neither the armor to match them, nor the guns of caliber comparable to those of the Spaniards, and the squadron did not have enough speed to make a desperate attempt at the Spanish fleet or to embark on a broadside battle.

Although worried about the consequences of the war, no one on the Manila side doubted the victory of the naval battle, and if the Chinese fleet was encountered, there would be a one-sided slaughter. The order of the Manila Governor's Palace was to annihilate the Chinese at sea, to kill and wound as many of their army soldiers as possible, and not to spare any Chinese ships except the duke's flagship.

In order to achieve this goal, the Spanish governor, after rejecting the duke's ultimatum, sent a small clipper to quietly follow the Chinese envoys. The huge Spanish fleet followed the clipper, allowing the Chinese envoys to bring the entire Spanish fleet to the duke. In order to avoid being discovered by the cunning Chinese, not only were the Spanish reconnaissance clippers disguised as merchant ships far away from the Chinese envoys leading the way, but even the main fleet was at a limit distance from their clippers, and now only the lookout at the top of the mast could see the mast of the clipper. Now the Spanish fleet was only half-sailing, and it was only when the reconnaissance clippers issued a flag that they saw a dense forest of masts of the Chinese fleet that they would attack at full speed.

Seeing that General Mario was still staring motionless at the empty sea, Captain Leonardo persuaded again: "General, go and rest for a while, we should not encounter the Chinese fleet in two days." ”

"You must capture that devil alive." Mario clenched his fists hard, he wanted to put the Duke in a cage and send him to the Madrid exhibition, but he knew that this wish would not be fulfilled.

The Kingdom of Spain was already too weak to draw troops from South America or the mainland to Asia, so the war had to rely on Manila's own strength, and the Duke was the only one who could end the war - England had declared war on the Netherlands on the pretext that a Dutch painting had insulted England, so it was necessary to destroy the Netherlands to get justice for the dignity of England - these scoundrels were as brazen as the Duke, and the war had already involved France, Spain, Denmark and other countries. In the short term, Manila will certainly focus on ensuring the security of its homeland and deterring its neighbors who are eyeing each other. In the ultimatum of the Chinese Parliament, they said that Britain was an ally of China, and today the Netherlands can insult China's allies with oil paintings, and tomorrow it can insult China with oil paintings, so it must also declare war on the Netherlands to preemptively strike - a few years ago, China declared no war on Britain, when did it form an alliance with the British hooligans again? But they are indeed allies, and these two brazen hooligans are simply poured out of the same mold.

"Don't worry, General, we will definitely find the Chinese."

While the Chinese envoy may have spotted the reconnaissance ship disguised as a merchant ship, it was impossible for the envoy not to return to the Duke for the sake of an unidentified ship. All the Spanish officers were convinced of this. Their belief was that the Chinese fleet must not be allowed to sail around Manila, and that the only chance for the Spaniards to defeat a strong enemy was at sea.

……

At the same time, the man whom the Spaniards called the devil was chatting with his generals.

By the time the ultimatum messenger was sent to Manila, the Chinese expeditionary fleet was anchored in the northern part of the Philippines, but landing here was not feasible because it was too far to reach Manila. The rugged rainforest trails on the land route would cause the expeditionary force to lose a large number of officers and soldiers, and lose most of its combat effectiveness. For Deng Ming, the best strategy was to send the 50,000 expeditionary force directly to the city of Manila and land.

"Fighting in the South Seas is different from fighting on both sides of the Yangtze River, and controlling the sea here is a thing." Deng Ming once again stressed to the imperial generals who embarked on the first expedition abroad that controlling the water surface of the Yangtze River could give the Ming army a mobile advantage, but in the Philippines this advantage was magnified more than tenfold: "If the naval battle is lost, even if our huge army can land safely, it will be nothing more than a group of savages struggling for survival; And if the Spaniards lose their fleet, then they will be scattered into separate armies, and can only watch us take their strongholds one by one. We don't even need to surround their fortresses, they will have to surrender to us because they are cut off from food and grass. ”

The disadvantage of the Imperial Navy was obvious, and in recent years, the Spaniards and the Dutch refused to sell him large warships, even though Deng Ming's good words were exhausted; In addition to these deficiencies in equipment, the training of personnel was also very problematic, and the Imperial Navy had no rivals in the coastal waters of China, but even if the equipment was the same, the fleet would probably not be an opponent if it lined up to engage the Spaniards on the sea. But if it weren't for such a large disparity in strength, the Spaniards probably wouldn't have tolerated the reclamation of the Philippines by Chinese colonies – if Manila believed that the Chinese fleet could threaten them, trade profits and food supplies alone would not have paralyzed them.

"And the only way to seize the supremacy of the sea is to fight a decisive battle with the fleet, destroy the Spanish fleet in a naval battle, and make our army the master of this sea." Deng Ming brought with him more than 400 ships, of which 220 merchant ships had been modified (both purchased and copied, and there was no ban on the sale of merchant ships to Spain and the Netherlands), with an average of 10 cannons per ship. There are also a large number of slower ships, not even equipped, just simple transport ships.

It is said that now is not a good time to start a war against Spain and the Netherlands, at least until the Chongming shipyard can produce warships against the Spanish and Dutch giants, China does not seem to be able to shake the enemy's sea supremacy. But Deng Ming could not afford to wait, the current Anglo-Dutch war had attracted the attention of the major European powers to their homeland, and Deng Ming had reached a secret agreement with the British, if he wanted to redivide the sphere of influence in Asia and cut a big piece of the cake in it, Deng Ming needed to show great strength not only to the enemy, but also to the allies. Moreover, with the rapid rise of China's maritime power, the Spaniards and Dutch also made more and more intelligence spies in Chongming and Zhoushan. In order to paralyze them, Deng Ming also allowed them to visit Chinese shipyards at will, saying that China had nothing to hide from its friends. If the Spanish and Dutch felt that China had the strength to compete with them, they would most likely change their attitude towards the Chinese colonies.

Precisely because no one believed that Deng Ming dared to challenge the Europeans for sea supremacy in Asia, now was a good time to start a war and also help the reclamation groups to gain better room for development—there were already many armed peasants, and they could not tolerate the continued domination of the seas and cities in the hands of the Spaniards.

Deng Ming also has his own killer feature, and all Chinese artillery shells are equipped with the latest delayed fuses. This alchemy fuze uses the principle of acid corrosion, and the fuse on the shell will detonate the shell in the range of thirty seconds to sixty seconds after being triggered, and this fuse technology will give the squadron's shells greater lethality. It was only because of the caliber of the guns that the Chinese warships still had to get close to a very short distance in order to accurately hit the Spanish ships; If you want to inflict great damage on the Spanish giant ship, you need to rush to within 100 meters and shoot at the porthole of the opponent's artillery, otherwise the Chinese small cannon will not be able to penetrate the hull armor of the Spanish giant ship.

"Telegram!"

A report came from outside the door.

Deng Ming took it and looked at it. The original infinite telegraph was extremely inefficient, took extremely long communication time, and demanded a high degree of weather.

At the end of the telegram, the messenger reported that a suspicious ship was following it, and Deng Ming sneered when he saw this. If there was no radio, the messenger would have to struggle between failing to complete the mission and ensuring the safety of the main force, but now the envoy's ship has no such pressure at all, and it can lead the main fleet of the Spaniards to continue circling the sea, and then lead them to the preset battlefield of the Ming army.

"The Spaniards have already rejected the ultimatum of the Imperial Diet!" Deng Ming announced to everyone that this was completely expected. In the ultimatum, the Imperial Parliament, under the pretext of going to war against the Netherlands, demanded that Manila release the right of passage in the waters; He also protested against Spain's unfair administration of justice to the Chinese and demanded that Manila grant consular jurisdiction to China; There are many demands in addition to these two items, and it would be strange if Manila could agree.

All the generals present stood up and looked at Deng Ming solemnly.

"According to the order of the Academy, the Emperor is already in a state of war with the Kingdom of Spain." A soldier handed over the official document that had been prepared long ago, and Deng Ming held it up and said loudly: "The Yuan Council ordered: Spain should be attacked by attacking allies, slaughtering our nationals, and being hostile to the imperial government. ”

"Yes!" The generals replied in unison.

"From now on, the free attack on the Spanish army, the property of the Kingdom of Spain and his supporters shall be confiscated as enemy property." Deng Ming then issued a further order as commander-in-chief: "Those who resist will be killed, and those who submit will not die." ”

"Order," the generals replied in unison again, "Prime Minister." ”

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