"Your Majesty," Zheng Jiangong pondered, "and I think that the center of gravity of the naval confrontation between the Ming and Western countries is still the coast of Japan rather than the coast of the Philippines in the south. Therefore, whichever side Japan stands on, it will have a great advantage!

Japan will be the key to the victory or defeat of Mingxi! ”

"Can't you take the Philippines?" Zhu Cihong asked, "The Sulu State has always wanted to defect to the Celestial Empire, and with the Sulu State providing logistics, our army should be able to go to Luzon, and it is not a problem to besiege the San Diego fortress...... Beijing is much harder to fight than the San Diego fortress! ”

Playing a fortress is a math problem, and Emperor Zhu now has a reliable flowering bomb, so Fort San Diego is not a problem.

"It's hard to say whether the army can take the San Diego fort, but even if the San Diego fort is taken and the Spaniards are driven out of the Philippines, they will let us go to the New World?" Zheng Jiangong paused, shook his head and replied, "The minister thinks this is impossible!" ”

Oh, yes! The contradiction now is not the Philippines, but the New World!

Now Spain is in a lot of trouble, and it is still at war with France and Portugal on the European side, and it is difficult to solve the fight, how can it be possible to fight to the death for the Philippines and the Celestial Empire?

If the Ming Dynasty had really captured the fortress of Santiago, Spain would have probably given up.

And Zhu Cihong is not the kind of hot-headed emperor of the Celestial Empire, and he will not fight a big war with the Spanish Empire for half of the Philippines (the Kingdom of Sulu did not perish, so Spain only has half of the Philippines).

"Half of the Philippines" is not so valuable, and the decline of Spain is only a matter of time, half of the Philippines has always been there, and it will not run on long feet, Emperor Zhu is not in a hurry at all, what's wrong with letting the Spaniards develop for another thirty or forty years?

But when it came to the New World and Australia, neither Emperor Zhu nor Philip IV of Spain could back down, so the value of the Philippines in this war was very limited. Zhu Cihong would not give up the New World just because he captured the Philippines, and Philip IV would not let the Ming army enter the New World because he lost the Philippines.

"Marquis of Xiamen," asked Wei Zaode, "can't the Spaniards fortify the coast of the New World?" ”

"I can't prevent it." Zheng Jiangong shook his head, "The Spaniards' strength in the New World is also relatively limited, and it is too far from their homeland to the northwest of the New World. Moreover, judging from the nautical chart, the southern tip of the New World goes north, and once it crosses the equator, it is a headwind and countercurrent, so it is difficult to reach the northwest corner of the New World along the coastline. Perhaps it would take them longer to travel north along the west coast of the New World than to circumnavigate the Pacific. ”

In the era of sails, you have to look at the direction of the wind and the current, the wind direction and the current are smooth, you can walk ten or eight nautical miles in an hour, it is two hundred and dozens of nautical miles a day, and ten thousand nautical miles will arrive in two months at most.

But if it's against the wind and the current, it's slow...... Although sailing ships in the Age of Discovery generally had the ability to sail against the wind, sailboats could also sail against the wind by changing the angle of the sails and taking a zigzag course. But sailing against the wind is slow, two or three hundred nautical miles a day downwind, and a maximum of a few dozen nautical miles against the wind...... If there is no wind and countercurrent (sailing in the equatorial windless zone), you can only paddle with the paddle.

Therefore, after discovering the "Kuroshio" (Japanese warm current) and the Pacific warm current, the Spanish gave up the route of returning to the New World by taking the equatorial countercurrent, and instead took the coast of Japan to go around in a big circle.

From this, we can imagine the importance of Japan in the future Meixi War!

Zheng Jiangong also said: "If our ships can set off from Japan and sail eastward downwind, it will only take more than 10,000 miles to cross the Pacific Ocean, and it will be a straight route to the east, and it will be completed in as little as one month or as much as 50 days." It is said that the wind direction and ocean currents of this route are smooth, and the wind and waves are not too big, so you should be able to take a one-way trip with a large bird boat...... Now the cost of the Ten Thousand Stone Bird Ship is only 10,000 taels, and it can be operated by a crew of forty or fifty. Even if a ship takes a one-way trip, and the crew returns on a Galen ship like the Henan, the cost of transporting a stone of goods from Japan to the New World is between two or three taels, plus the cost of Shanghai to Japan, it is estimated that it will not exceed four taels.

That's a very low cost, and that's our odds! ”

Fundamentally speaking, Zheng Jiangong, the "chief of staff of the Navy", is also a profiteer, so he settled accounts before he went to war.

The key to victory or defeat in the Western Pacific War, in his opinion, is the cost of transportation! It depends on the cost of transporting troops, equipment, supplies, and immigrants to the northwest corner of North America.

If the cost of transporting a stone of goods to the northwest of the New World in the Ming Dynasty was only four or five taels of silver, then this battle would have been fought.

Even if the 1,000-ton Galen warship of the Spaniards came to the Pacific Ocean, the Ming Dynasty would have a certain success.

Because the efficiency of this kind of thousand-ton warship for breaking diplomatic relations at sea is not high, it is not fast, and the number itself is not large, it is simply impossible to cut off the sea supply line of Japan-New World, and at most it will increase the transportation cost of some Ming Dynasty.

But it is absolutely impossible to let the cost rise to the point that Daming can't afford it!

Once the Ming Dynasty gained a firm foothold in the northwest corner of the New World of North America, they built fortresses, reclaimed farms, set up capital protectorates, and discovered the American marten...... Then the Spaniards would have to go on an expedition and send their land forces to attack.

Spain is nervous, and their native population is just over 5 million! And at the same time, we have to go to war with France and Portugal!

So as long as the exchange ratio of the land war is within a reasonable range, Spain will definitely lose!

Of course, the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to seize the entire New Spain, and was able to take Vancouver, Seattle, and Vancouver Island in later generations, and have a foothold in North America, and Emperor Zhu was very satisfied.

With this foothold, it is more than 10,000 nautical miles south of Australia, and you can get there in three or four months.

Zhu Cihong said to Wei Zaode: "Marquis of Tongzhou, I will issue an edict tomorrow to make you the Duke of the United States, and then give you the name of the special envoy of Qincha, and let you lead a delegation to visit Japan." You have to try to draw the Tokugawa shogunate to our side and deal with the Spaniards together! ”

Wei Zaode thought for a moment and said; "Your Majesty, although the Tokugawa shogunate hated the Catholic religion and had a bad relationship with Spain, they did not have a good relationship with us...... I'm afraid it won't help us fight the Spaniards for no reason, right? ”

Japan has always stood on the edge of the circle of the Celestial Empire, and it may not be easy to pull it over!

Emperor Zhu said: "Marquis of Tongzhou, I know that this errand is not easy to do, so I invite you to come out, you are the first assistant of my dynasty for thirteen years, and you are famous even in Japan." If you come out, you will definitely be able to meet directly with the real power figures in Japan, and I will give you full power, there is nothing that cannot be discussed...... And I don't want the Ming Dynasty to be a brotherly state. Even if the Tokugawa shogun wanted Japan to become the emperor's country, I would have recognized it.

In addition, on the disputed issue of the Ryukyu Kingdom, I can also make concessions, so that the Ryukyu Kingdom can become an independent state under the mutual protection of Ming and Japan. And I don't need Japan to send troops, I just need Japan to open up the use of Uraga Port. ”

Zheng Jiangong interjected on the side: "Your Majesty, the minister can go to Tokugawa Guangguo to negotiate first, he is a congratulatory envoy (He Daming defeated the Qing State), and he has not left Nanjing yet." ”

"Okay." Zhu Cihong nodded, "You go talk first...... Let's just say that I want to send the Marquis of Tongzhou to Japan to congratulate their new emperor on the throne. ”

The emperor of Japan changed the year before last, and Emperor Gomizuo abdicated and became a monk, and Emperor Gosai ascended the throne. Because of the issue of the emperor's name, the Ming Dynasty did not send envoys to congratulate them, but ignored the matter.

Wei Zaode's ears were not bad, and when he heard a "sensitive" word, he hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, do you mean the new emperor?" ”

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