After the meeting, Deng Ming, escorted by some officers, stood on the flagship and looked out at the fleet of the expeditionary force. The Ming fleet anchored in the northern part of the Babuyan Strait waited silently, and hundreds of sailing ships dropped their sails, forming a forest of masts over the mooring.

"When Lao Wang was here, what he wanted was to land from the other side, and then enter the waterway and go straight to the city of Macheng." It was Feng Xifan, the envoy sent by the King of Yanping County, who spoke. In the third year of Kangxi, the Qing court tried to negotiate peace with Zheng Jing on the condition of not shaving his head, not seeing him, and not paying tribute, and hinted that he could stand by Zheng Jing in the internal strife of the Zheng family, but was sternly rejected by Zheng Jing. The second generation of the king of Yanping County, who was in his early twenties, had a very poor relationship with Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan at that time, and because of the trade with Japan, and Zhang Huangyan's acceptance of Zheng Xi and Zheng Zhanxu, etc., to the point of almost starting a war, but Zheng Jing still said that he would never consider surrendering to the Qing court - Zheng Chenggong chose to fight for the nation to the end, which was also Zheng Jing's pride, and he even made it clear to the Qing court that even if Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan chose to negotiate peace with the Qing court, he would not agree.

It's just that although Zheng Jing has ambitions, he is still stubborn in dealing with the relationship with his allies, starting from the third year of Kangxi and the nineteenth year of Yongli, with the support of Liu Guoxuan, the main battle faction, there have been frictions with Zheng Chenggong's old army in Zhoushan and the Eastern Zhejiang Army many times. However, Deng Ming showed a tolerant attitude towards Zheng Jing, and within the scope of not angering the Western Sichuan Academy, he tried his best to compensate Taiwan. It is now the tenth year of Kangxi, the twenty-sixth year of Yongli, and Zheng Jingnian is nearly thirty, his fiery temper seems to have been restrained, and the long-term tolerant attitude pursued in western Sichuan has also been understood by some people in the palace of Yanping County, such as this time, Feng Xifan, who was assigned by Zheng Jing to accompany Deng Ming's expedition, is a master and faction of the Ming army in western Sichuan.

As far as Deng Ming knows, Chen Yonghua, who handles government affairs in Taiwan, is also an ally of Feng Xifan. Western Sichuan has been sharing profits with Taiwan in maritime trade, which has greatly helped the internal affairs of the Yanping County Palace, so Chen Yonghua has been trying to ease relations between Dongning and Chengdu to avoid a conflict between the two sides, which will lead to the sudden loss of Taiwan's main financial pillar. And Feng Xifan also agrees to maintain good relations with Chengdu, the main reason is because he is a firearms faction. In Deng Ming's previous life, Feng Xifan strongly advocated that Western warships should be imitated, and even suggested that Zheng Jing hire British instructors to train the Taiwanese army and fully replace firearms; Liu Guoxuan, on the other hand, was much more conservative, very obsessed with the fortune ship and the traditional tactics of deporting and arson, and repeatedly refuted Feng Xifan's proposal, saying that Feng Xifan did not understand war at all.

Liu Guoxuan's opinion is not only the mainstream opinion of the Taiwan military, but also the general view of Zheng Jun in eastern Zhejiang. Zheng Chenggong used this tactic to repeatedly defeat strong enemies, so everyone thought that Zheng Jun did not have a major need for reform. Feng Xifan's reform opinions were also not approved by Zheng Jing, and when he saw that Deng Ming was refitting Western merchant ships without being persuaded and vigorously developing firearms troops, Feng Xifan became Taiwan's Sichuan faction, and when it came to military affairs, he would definitely call it western Sichuan, which was used to make up for the shortcomings of his failure to lead troops to fight.

"The plan of the king of Yanping is to cooperate with the waterway and fight all the way?" Deng Ming knew that Zheng Chenggong had a plan to include the Philippines in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but he was not clear about the specific plan. Hearing Feng Xifan talk about Lao Wang, he asked curiously: "Although it is much safer for the sailor to get the cooperation of the army, and with the sailor, the army's march will not be too hard, but it is still too far from here to Macheng, right?" ”

Deng Ming's main question was, what if he was constantly harassed by the Spanish Navy? The Spanish fleet could even employ hit-and-run tactics and maintain pressure on the Ming army, which could lead to disaster if they accidentally showed their flaws.

"If Lao Wang commands the army, he will definitely be able to make Xiyi come and go." Feng Xifan showed a hint of pride on his face. Zheng Chenggong has experienced a hundred battles, both land and naval battles, even if the enemy has an advantage in ships or firearms, Zheng Chenggong will always try to lure him to the battlefield where he can play to his strengths and defeat him. After Zheng Chenggong's death, Feng Xifan did not agree to continue to covet the Philippines at all, nor did he oppose the continued blockade of the strait; In Deng Ming's previous life, on the eve of the end of the Ming and Zheng dynasties, Feng Xifan also opposed the desperate adventure of going to the Philippines, because he believed that without a commander like Zheng Chenggong, the Ming and Zheng groups would not be able to defeat the Western ocean-going warships and musket units with their fortune ships and hoplites.

After that fleeting pride, Feng Xifan showed a regretful expression on his face: "So I have always suggested to the king that I should build Western warships and train musketeers like the prime minister. At the beginning, although it was not a big problem to deal with Taixi with Lao Wang's martial posture, Lao Wang's opponent was not Taixi's famous general - in other words, because of the different equipment, it took effort for a hero like Lao Wang to deal with several unknown people, which is enough to show that Western ships and muskets are powerful, so we have to change it. ”

Because the rifle has shown great power, the Taiwan military now recognizes that firearms are the future development direction, and is slowly starting to reform; But Zheng Jun's obsession with Fu ships is still the same, because the Qing army has no sailors worth mentioning at all, so it is difficult to prove the value of these Western warships purchased by Deng Ming, and in the era of Zheng Chenggong, these Western warships were not Zheng Chenggong's opponents.

Deng Ming couldn't help but glance sideways at Feng Xifan, he knew that many people who opposed military reform were not only limited by inherent experience, but also had simple national emotions mixed in with them. For example, the promotion of rifles in the Sichuan army is smoother than that of Burmese firearms, as long as the price is right, there is no problem, because the rifle is in the eyes of the Sichuan army is the invention of the Han people themselves, at least improved firearms, and the Burmese firearms are barbarian things, if the firearms can replace all traditional weapons, wouldn't it be to exalt the barbarians and belittle their ancestors? And the reason why the navy is easy to do is also because the Sichuan army lacks naval traditions, and Deng Ming has authority, so he can easily make decisions. However, in the Zheng army in eastern Zhejiang, until now, they are still thinking hard about how to improve the traditional Fu ship to make it faster and bigger, or how to carry forward Zheng Chenggong's tactics all day long, so as to achieve the goal of defeating Western giant ships with small tonnage Fu ships.

"I didn't expect Feng Xifan to be a reformer." Deng Ming thought secretly in his heart. Unlike people like him who are well-versed in extraterrestrial technology, Feng Xifan can have a very good insight into reform, especially since he can also sum up a completely different experience from Zheng Chenggong's victory. Generally speaking, victory will only make people complacent and conservative, rather than realizing the need to reform and learn.

The imminent naval battle actually made Feng Xifan extremely nervous, and he was also eagerly looking forward to a glorious victory. In Deng Ming's previous life, after the rebellion of the three feudatories, Feng Xifan began to gain a certain say in the army, but the military reform was too late for Ming Zheng. In this world, Feng Xifan is also Zheng Jing's most trusted guard officer, and he can also use Deng Ming as an example to persuade the lord to agree with his military views - after learning that Deng Ming decided to go to war with Spain and the Netherlands, Feng Xifan volunteered as Zheng Jing's envoy to lead a team of Taiwanese troops into the war. These entourage were all young officers carefully selected by Feng Xifan, and they all shared his desire to carry out military reform, and if Deng Ming's navy could defeat the Spanish fleet in a dignified naval battle, Feng Xifan believed that it would bring enough shock to his lordship.

"Even if others say that Lao Wang can defeat the red-haired warship, the king may say yes verbally, but the king also understands how powerful the Western warship is." When Deng Ming quietly looked at Feng Xifan, the latter secretly clenched his fists and said to himself in his heart: "The fact that the king sent me to Luzon actually shows that the king is also moved, let me see with my own eyes the combat power of the firearms army - I heard that even the Tartars have begun to form a firearms army; The king asked this group of people to come with me, also so that everyone can see is believing, and see if the new fleet of the Baoguo Gong can fight, and those who oppose it will have nothing to say in the future. ”

Everyone knows that Zheng Chenggong's plan Deng Ming will definitely not be able to imitate it, and a decisive battle with the Spanish main fleet is imperative. At the beginning, Feng Xifan and other Taiwanese troops suggested that they try to induce the Spanish fleet to enter the port to rest, and then concentrate all the warships of the Ming army to besiege the port. Remove all the cannons and increase the speed of the ships, and convert every battleship that can be used into arson, in short, the tactics of massively and intensively using arsonists, and try to annihilate the Spanish fleet in the harbor.

But this meant a great sacrifice, and the Ming soldiers needed to brave the Spanish fire with the utmost courage to rush at full speed, and reserves were needed in all directions to prevent the Spaniards from concentrating on one direction to break through - if the enemy was allowed to run out to sea, the Ming arsonist charge would become a reckless death - so it was necessary to maintain the thickness of the formation; The collective charge of the arsonist ships also needed to keep the battle line as close as possible, and if the depth of the lineup was not close enough, it could cause the Spaniards to scatter and rush out of the open sea between the gaps in the Ming army's ship formation.

There is no need to expect Deng Ming to be able to do the complex on-the-spot command, not to mention that Deng Ming can't do it, after Zheng Chenggong died and Zheng Tai was killed, no one in the Min army dared to say that he could do it. Therefore, in order to increase the success rate, Feng Xifan and the others even suggested that Deng Ming connect some of the assault ships with iron chains - this would of course cause the charging Ming army to sail slower and move slower and pay more casualties, but if they could not stop the Spaniards, then the Ming army would die in vain.

After seeing Deng Ming's new shells, although the Min army revised the proposal, they still felt that the arson ship was indispensable: after the arsonist ship in the front row of the Ming army rushed forward with a fearless spirit, it was followed by the gunboat that also bravely assaulted -- if the fire on the enemy ship could be extinguished in time, then the battleship could be repaired, and if not, at least the Ming army's naval supremacy in the Philippine waters would be guaranteed.

"I'm going to fight at night." When he was in Sichuan, Deng Ming made some simple deductions with his subordinates, believing that even if this charge was won, the Ming army would pay a heavy price; At that time, Zheng Jun suggested that it was necessary to try to lure the Spanish fleet closer to the coast, and the Ming army's arson fleet was to be located between the open sea and the Spanish fleet, and the Zheng army estimated that it would pay the price of thousands of Ming casualties.

After meeting with Feng Xifan, Feng Weishi thought that this figure was still too optimistic, although Zheng Chenggong easily defeated the Dutch with this tactic, only paying the price of a few boats and dozens of people, but probably no one had the ability to lure the Dutch navy into the estuary all the way on the enemy's territory like Zheng Chenggong, and both the concealment in advance and the timing of the attack were perfect. Feng Xifan thought that with Deng Ming's command level, if he used an old-fashioned Fu ship, the hope of success would be only half at most, and the current faster sailing ship would increase Deng Ming's great chance of success, but he estimated that the casualties would probably exceed 2,000 people, and the loss of sea ships would probably be more than 100.

Of course, Deng Ming was unwilling to bear this loss, so the Sichuan army decided to wait for the Spaniards to anchor and sleep before launching a dignified challenge. It's just that in the eyes of Feng Xifan, the participants of the Taiwan Army and the Eastern Zhejiang Army, this is obviously a landlubber's complete lack of understanding of naval warfare.

"Prime Minister Mingjian." Like the generals of the Eastern Zhejiang Army who heard about this plan for the first time, Feng Xifan and several generals of the Taiwan Army immediately made it clear that they were against it: "It is true that the night will make it impossible for the Spaniards (after Deng Ming's constant influence, now they no longer use the name Franco) to detect us for the time being, but we also can't see the lineup of the enemy's fleet clearly." ”

Since it was not possible to see clearly the anchorage of the enemy's ships, the surprise attack of the Ming army was very fortuitous -- this was not an inland river, and even with the width of the Yangtze River, the berthing places of the ships were still quite limited, but in the sea, it was really difficult to say where the ships were anchored -- the Spanish fleet was in a state of readiness for war, and would not gather together to set fire to the Ming army.

And the arson ship is an obvious target in the dark night, when the Spanish are in the dark, the Chinese are in the light, the blind impact will definitely lead to amazing losses, and the disadvantages brought by the night are enough to offset the advantage of the Ming army being able to quietly get closer.

Feng Xifan thought that Deng Ming might be superstitious about his new cannonballs. It's a powerful shell, but it's only effective if it's built on the premise of being able to hit the enemy. When shooting indiscriminately in the dark, the Ming army's hit rate will be greatly reduced. The biggest possibility is that there are no losses on both sides after a night of scuffle, and the Spanish fleet moves to the open sea intact, and when it is dawn, the Spanish fleet, which has not suffered any losses at all, will deal a devastating blow to the Ming navy.